Posts by Serenadae

Since I've recently complained about the lack of changes to chain classes, I decided to give extensive feedback (and my recommendations) on all (physical) Champion classes.

First off, a general recommendation.

Change Feedback Defense (ID: 498568) to be usable in Disassembly Mode as well, since Warden dps can support the group with Protection of Nature too. This would add a little bit of utility.

Champion/Warden:

This combination underperforms currently both compared to most Champions and other classes in general, especially when it comes to single target dps. Moreover, the class lacks cohesion, since some elite skills are tanking related - though Ch/Wd can't wear plate and takes 15% more damage.

I suggest the following changes.

• Add 2 seconds cast time to Thorny Strike (ID: 1490565). Currently this skill is seldomly used, although it is a payoff that requires a certain debuff. This change would help with single target dps.
• Change Decapitation (ID: 1492486) to be a permanent buff. Since Shock Overload hits much harder Decapitation being a conventional, non-front-AoE is justified. The skill shouldn't have a cooldown. If it proves to be too powerful, a decrement can always be added.
• Change Protection of the Oak (ID: 1490560) to increase the pdef increment of Runecraft - Fortify (ID: 498563) from 32% to 60%. This change would help to counteract the 15% increased damage taken from Warden's Weapon Guard that is quite dangerous in combination with the -25% hp from Organic Deconstruction.
• Change Reinforced Amulet (ID: 1490564) to additionally modify Imprisonment Pulse to deal earth damage. This serves as a nice damage buff, via the Explosion Wave buff and capitalizes on Ch/Wd's AoE potential.
• Reduce Explosion Wave (ID: 1490567) from 15 to 8 seconds. The buff provided by the skill is integral to the playstyle of the class. This change would make sure the buff can be more easy maintained while also contributing to AoE damage in a reasonable manner (keep in mind, the skill already got a considerable decrement).

Champion/Scout:

One of the strongest Champions. The class doesn't need any changes in terms of damage, however two things come to mind.

• Remove Focused Conversion (ID: 1490542) gcd, since it feels quite clunky to use right now, especially since it is often combined with Runic Charge, adding another click.
• Remove Wrist Attack (ID: 1490697) gcd. This is a nice support skill, however since you already have to use Vampire Shot to buff up, wasting another gcd is often not feasible - especially in fast groups.

Champion/Mage:

Another member of the triad of strongest Champions. Only a single little change comes to mind.

• Change Rapid Spread (ID: 498690) spelltype from magical to physical.

Champion/Rogue:

The last S-tier Champion, so to speak. Although I personally dislike the class (and don't play it), since it is boring to me, I've seen it many times in action. It doesn't seem to need any changes either.

Champion/Warlock:

A mid-tier Champion, that still is quite good in slower groups. In faster groups however it falls off, since you get significantly less Forge stacks. This translate to less % pdmg and less Rune Siphons. Hence I suggest the following.

• Modify Heart Collection Rune (ID: 498651) to additionally grant the maximum amount of Forge Stacks.

Champion/Druid:

A remnant of a time where leecher classes were a acceptable choice - at least for random groups. Currently this class is not viable for endcontent, since it doesn't deal meaningful damage and its support doesn't make up for it. It's quite saddening to see such cool class design wasted. Hence I suggest the following changes in order to make Ch/D a viable support dps.

• Mother Nature's Defense (ID: 1490572): This skill is currently useless, since it requires Shield Form to work, but the class can't tank properly. Rename it to Mother Nature's Offense: Increases Disassembly Mode's stamina to strength conversion from 20% to 25%.
• Elven Bash (ID: 1490576): Change Heavy Bash cost to mp, since since the class doesn't have another skill that doesn't require Rage or a proc. Let it deal damage in a fan shaped area in front of the player, so the class can at least perform in AoE situations.
• Recovery Blast (ID: 1490577): Same problem here. Only usable in Shield Form and generally only useful for the 4 seconds immune. Rename it to Pulsing Path: Modifies Earth Pulse to deal 550% + 0.3 x strength mainhand weapon earth damage in a fan shaped area (radius 100) in front of you. Reduces cd to 6 seconds.
• Mother's Blessing (ID: 1490578): Change it to increase pdmg instead of hp (same 10,4%).

Champion/Priest:

I get that the class is primarily meant to be a tank, but I don't see the harm in fully embracing the dual nature Champions and improve its support dps potential. Generally, the dps side of the class has been heavily hit by the 2 seconds cd on Light Pulse. I suggest the following to make it viable in that regard.

• Runecraft - Devotion (ID: 498712): Add 20% increased light damage.
• Way of Frenzy (ID: 498720): Add Divine Vengeance to be reset by Chain Drive (ID: 498535) proc. This would provide a significant increase for the terrible single target damage this class currently has.
• Crusade (ID: 498722): Increase pdmg increment from 15% to 20%.
• Holy Attack (ID: 498723): Remove gcd.
• Righteous Explosion (ID: 499836): Reduce CD from 15 to 8 seconds.

Champion/Warrior:

This class already has some potential to be a dps and I think Blaxx already made good recommendations how to make it viable. For completions sake I'll list his changes here too, with some adjustments on my side.

• Change Slash (ID: 498583) to 642.4% + 2 x STR main-hand weapon damage while in Disassembly Mode.
• Add 30% increased attack speed to Rune Aggregation (ID: 498580).
• Change Eye for an Eye (ID: 498585) to deal 300% mainhand weapon damage whenever a offensive skill is used and to restore 5 Rage. Since Slash together with Runecraft - Charge already deals a good amount of AoE damage, I think only the first target affected should be hit by Eye for an Eye. This way single target damage would be somewhat viable, wheras AoE isn't boosted to an unreasonable level (as was the case with pre nerf Ch/M).
• Change Determination Rune (ID: 497723) to increase physical damage by 10%, if used while in Disassembly Mode.

Since I've recently complained about the lack of changes to chain classes, I decided to give extensive feedback (and my recommendations) on all (physical) Warrior classes.

First off, some general recommendations.

Slash bleed:
All Warriors that use Slash bleed as a main source of their AoE damage currently only tab -> use Slash and repeat in big pulls. That's pretty boring, since you seldomly use your other skills. Hence I suggest removing the 8 target cap from Slash (with Spear equipped) and reduce its dot damage by 25%, if 8 or more targets are affected.

Devastating Blow:
As Blaxx already wrote, this skill is next to useless in it's current state. It's only used on W/Ch, maybe once or twice a run. I recommend reducing the channel time to 0.5 seconds to make it worthwhile using.

Now my opinions on the different class combinations.

Warrior/Champion:

Currently one of strongest Warriors if you only have two weapons and the uncontested number one if you have all three (atkspeed, pdmg, patk). In terms of damage nothing needs to change, but I'd appreciate it if you'd remove the condition to use Bloody Battle (ID: 498817) to make it less clunky to use. Overall very fun design.

Warrior/Warden:

Another strong class that can compete with most other strong combinations. Fun rotation (except the Slash-issue I've already mentioned). That being said, the class is not strong enough to justify taking 30% more damage at all times as a melee dps, via Wild Berserk (ID: 499495). I suggest lowering the damage taken increment to 10%.

Warrior/Rogue:

Still a decent class after the nerf. Not that interesting to me, since it's a very simple class design without much buffs, but the ideal beginner Warrior for newer players.

Warrior/Druid:

Quite the strong class after the recent buff, IF mobs survive long enough. To make it more consistent in its damage output, I suggest removing the gcd from Stifle (ID: 499499) and Earthly Strike (ID: 494376). Moreover, please make them unable to miss/resist, since the buffs they provide are so integral to the class. That being said, W/D still struggles a lot with Rage sustain, especially in fast runs, where you can't whitehit that much. Please consider moving the Rage cost reduction from Whirlwind, provided by Rage of Calmness (ID: 494377) to Rose Vine (ID: 494034). This would make playing the class a much smoother experience.

Warrior/Warlock:

One of the weaker Warriors. It especially lacks single target damage. While I like the overall class design and the flashy animations, I can't imagine playing it without magical cookies to reduce my character size (which in turns reduces the animation's size). This is because Spirit Blade Storm (ID: 498742) takes up much of the screen and hinders visability considerably. Please reduce its size or make it much more transparent. To increase the single target damage of W/Wl to a acceptable level, I recommend changing the dot provided by Spirit-Cracking Blow (ID: 498740) to be unique and not be overwritten by Spirit Blade Storm's dot. Moreover, the physical damage increment of Excellent Combat Training (ID: 499806) should be increased from 20% to 25%, for an overall damage boost. Lastly, the class struggles too much with sustaining it's ressources. This is mainly because of Spirit Blades Storm's Focus drain. I suggest increasing the ressource restoration of Divine Battle Spirit (ID: 498734) from 5 to 10.

Warrior/Bard:

The second weakest Warrior. It got overnerfed way too much and suffers from various issues. First off, the dot provided by Rapacious Poison (ID: 1491212) is too weak. It barely does any damage in Orkham nowadays, let alone in Grafu and future content. I suggest increasing it's value from 642 damage to 900 damage. Another issue is Thunder and Fatal Measures (ID: 1491210) both need (and consume) the Weakened state. I suggest changing the latter to instead requiring (but not consuming) the Rapacious Poison debuff (ID: 1502061). That way the rotation would be more fluent and interesting. Another problem W/B suffers from is it's reliance on Fed by the Malice (ID: 1491217) stacks for single target damage. Unless the group is very fast and jumps from thrash to boss, you simply lack the damage provided by the buff. I suggest changing Berserk to provide all three stacks additionally. Lastly, the class has notorious ressource sustain issues. Please consider to change Focused Madness (ID: 1491209) to just restore 5 Focus every second, without draining your Rage. Running out of ressources is no fun.

Warrior/Scout:

This class is all over the place. You need a Spear for AoE bleeds, a Katana to use The Last Duel and a 2h-Sword to use Perforation - a skill that is ignored, since Katana is much better for single target. Personally I'd like to see another 2h-Sword using Warrior, hence I suggest the following:

• Add 15% 2h-Sword attackspeed to Waiting game (ID: 492959) so it can reach the 0.5 speed cap.
• Change Perforation (ID: 492615) to not trigger a gcd and to increase pdmg by 5% stacking x3, instead of 1% stacking x8.

This way 2h-Sword would be viable for single target.

Warrior/Priest.

The unwanted and forgotten stepchild among the Warriors. The class suffers from various issues: overcapping attackspeed, a boring rotation and a general lack of damage. I am aware that the class is meant to be a support dps, but since the debuff provided by Barbarian Battlecry is not unique anymore and the fact that a pure leecher class is not viable in endcontent, I suggest the following changes:

• Change Blood Fury Battle Cry (ID: 499490) to increase attack speed AND physical damage by 12,2% instead of ONLY attackspeed by 24,4%. This way the class wouldn't overcap so easily in burst.
• Change Magic Barrier Perfection (ID: 491471) to additionally remove the gcd of Feint (ID: 490089). This way the class would get a substantial damage boost in single target and the rotation would become more interesting.
• Add 20% increased dot-damage to Combat Expertise (ID: 499488). Currently the bleed hits like a wet noodle, due to the nerfed dot multiplicator of Katana. This buff would counteract that nerf a bit.

The aforementioned changes would make W/P a viable dps, that is still weaker compared to the other Warriors - which is fine, since it has supportive capabilities.

Quote from Ikaria

Quote from sulusdacor

atlas/events/bosses were a great way to get some equip and currency as a newer player and at least try to bridge the gigantic gap that older players have. sadly after the changes this is no longer possible. (this includes worldbosses, where some like sismond/Kolanda/zalkyris have longer not been killed by the community)

i do get that you want to evolve the game, but in the process took one of the few ways for newer players to catch up (not everyone has maxed out gear). it is already insanely hard to get anywhere near doing some dmg on the endgame things like wb/atlas mobs if you are starting out from zero (without putting tons of IRL money into the game). the game still is very grindy if you are new, these activities were a nice change and gave a good return on your time investmend. anyway, thx for working on the game and all your time and effort. keep the new players and smaller guilds in mind if you do things

Hello

New players was quite a important reason this change was introduced. Previously Boss Event/Atlas Defense was being done by high end players in very small groups (often even solo, quite often duo). Leaving smaller players struggling to make progress due to being weaker and not invited often unless inside a guild who took people along. Now players have the chance to contribute by making the event weaker for stronger players, a much more meaningful contribution than just standing there pulling the lever, as well as having easier time if trying to go further with weaker parties.

Also alongside this, the randomness of boss event was removed, previously bosses were having random effects which reduced dmg by over 50%, more offensive dmg by 50%, or simply having larger amounts of HP. Now this difficulty is mostly static, allowing new players to not be penalised by randomness, and still having easier time, and bosses are substantially weaker without HP buffs.

About Atlas Defense, it may need some finer tuning for substantially weaker parties based on feedback from some weaker players who have tried this so far, and it will be implemented before next weekend, however from looking at data from higher end groups, so far the results behind this change seem as expected in regards to run times (10-20 mins).

To the other posts(Too many to quote):

The original data of 40-45min runs was due to 1 change which was missed when updating server with recent patch and was updated on Saturday around 16:00 (Removing insanely high crit resistance), however some groups had already attempted it prior to this. This change alone allows a larger class diversity, as well as making the event significantly faster, which is clear from looking at event times made since the patch, so if you were in this group and wrote off the event as being not worth your time after the change, it would be worth retrying it before dismissing it fully.

Greetings

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I think the reasoning you mentioned behind those changes is understandable. It is a good thing that you keep new players in mind. However, I hope you keep a close eye on data, since I'm afraid mid to high end players will just stop doing boss event altogether, instead of inviting new players to their group - because it is simply not worth it anymore.

I for one see no point in spending an unreasonable amount of time for mediocre, mostly outdated loot.

Druid/Rogue and Priest/Warrior are both strong classes, although I would not recommend the latter, since it requires a lot of physical attack to perform well.
As for Warriors, Warrior/Champion is the strongest right now, although it requires multiple weapons and good gear to get there. The same is true for other Warriors, since your main source of damage is Slash bleed, which massively scales with physical attack. If you decide to play Warrior, I recommend Warrior/Rogue - easy to get started with and still a solid strong class.

When it comes to Scouts, I only play Scout/Warrior myself - a class that I would not recommend. The top choices right now to my knowledge are Scout/Rogue, Scout/Warden and Scout/Druid for pdps, idk about magical Scouts though.

Lastly, since Thursday's patch most Rogues seem to perform quite well. That being said, almost all Rogues play around the Perfect Slice mechanic: you use a skill and then after a random interval, you get notified with a sound and an exclamation mark and you have to use said skill again. If your timing is on point, you get rewarded with a buff and a strong, stacking dot. Takes some practice. I don't have enough experience playing those classes to give you clear recommendations, but Rogue/Warden and Rogue/Druid seem quite strong.

Welcome back!
What mainclass(es) are you interested in?

The changes to Rogue are quite interesting. Thank you for listening to the playerbase.
If only we could get chain balancing changes too

Regarding rogue in general.
The new version of Wound Attack does only consume Shadowstab Bleed but not Grievous Wound from Low Blow. Hence it only deals damage twice, instead of three times.

Edit:

Shadow Slash seems to deal no elemental damage (or isn't increased by elemental damage buffs - tested on R/D).

My impression from the last patches:

On a serious note though, what is going on with physical class balancing? Magical classes get a lot of balancing changes and interesting mechanical reworks and we get neither.
Instead we get breadcrumbs and nerfs, without any explanation regarding the reasoning behind the decision, like this one:

Druid/Warrior

• Reverted Heart of the Wild damage gain to 60% back from 75%.

In what world does Druid/Warrior compete with Champions and most Warriors?

Meanwhile, there are several (chain) classes that have been overperforming for ages. Conversely, classes like Champion/Druid, Warrior/Priest etc. have been long lacking. It can't be due to the lack of feedback. I and many others have asked many times for changes and we have made concrete suggestions. Still, Bard/Warrior has major sustain issues, Warrior/Priest overcaps attack speed way too easily etc. The list goes on.

And that's not even touching the issue of incohesiveness and lack of creativity. Just one example, Champion/Mage got a skill that requires you to target the farthest enemy, whereas all champions want to target the nearest enemy at all times, to maximize Shock Overload damage. Another example is Warrior/Scout, that uses spear for AoE and katana for single target, but has a skill that requires a 2h sword - which is never used.

Then there are classes like Bard/Warden and Warden/Mage, that basically only spam two skills for the most time. There are of course classes that got nice mechanics going for them, I'm not saying the entire physical balancing was bad.

All this is ofc only from the perspective of chain player, but from what I've heard and seen, leather classes face the same issues. Looking at you Scout/Bard.

Is the physical balancing team vacant atm? Do the responsible individuals think physical classes are balanced well in their current state? Is there a big physical balancing patch planned? Please give us some information and don't leave us in the dark.

Are there any plans to add some kind of repeatable content to the prestige pass?
Currently it seems very hard to progress past level 15, especially if you already upgraded the cards from certain zones.

Since seasons last for 4 months now, please adjust the boost duration to 120 days.

Regarding Warrior/Druid.

After today's patch Slash and Whirlwind change their positions in the spellbook when under the influence of Earthly Strike. I guess that's the case with all buffs that modify skill IDs.

Regarding Warden/Warlock.

Unfortunately this class is currently underperforming greatly - even with weapon swapping (attackspeed 2h axe for AoE, patk 2h sword for single target).

First off, it's not worth to use Phantom Cleave (ID: 1490534) and Noxious Slash (ID: 1490533) at all. You are better off just using Poisoned Chop for single target (ID: 1490529), since it causes your pet to use Shadow Chop. Conversly for AoE, wasting a gcd is not feasible. Hence I suggest the following:

1. Remove Poisoned Chop gcd
2. Change Phantom Cleave to proc Shadow Chop too

Moreover, please consider raising the physical damage increment of Phantom Contract (ID: 1490536) from 20% to 30%.

Regarding Druid/Warrior.
This class currently struggles greatly with sustaining Rage. I suggest either increasing the Rage provided by Heart Piercing (ID: 494216) from 15 to 30, or adding a 40% Rage buildup bonus to Urgent Aid (ID: 494017).

Moreover, sustaining Nature's Power in single target situations is impossible nowadays. Please consider to increase the duration of Focus of Mother Nature (ID: 493548) back to 30 seconds - at least for the portion of the buff that reduces Nature's Power consumption to zero.

Apart from ressource issues, this class also isn't able to compete with stronger classes. Hence some form of damage increase would be very welcome as well. Personally, I'd like to see a dot (about 650) attached to Natural Attack (ID: 494016).

Quote from Rake

Greetings,

Quote from Serenadae

Currently it is way too expensive to change your cards from strength only to leather (str-dex-stam-patk) via a second cardset - without losing the maxed out stats. Same thing if you want to switch from defense to hp. I'm talking about 400k diamonds for 2k cards.
Are there any plans to implement an item that replaces one stat on all your cards with another? Or something similar? I don't mind if it is expensive, but the price should reflect the fact that you are only changing a single stat and don't get access to a second set.

Currently, we don't have plans to implement such changes. However, we may revisit this matter in the future and potentially introduce your suggestion or an alternative solution.

Thank for answering.
Some adjustment that adresses this issue would be much appreciated. It feels quite bad to be more or less stuck with a stat you don't want anymore on your cards.

Currently it is way too expensive to change your cards from strength only to leather (str-dex-stam-patk) via a second cardset - without losing the maxed out stats. Same thing if you want to switch from defense to hp. I'm talking about 400k diamonds for 2k cards.
Are there any plans to implement an item that replaces one stat on all your cards with another? Or something similar? I don't mind if it is expensive, but the price should reflect the fact that you are only changing a single stat and don't get access to a second set.

Regarding Champion in general.
I suggest changing Feedback Defense to be usable without Shield Form active, since Wardens Protection of Nature can be used by a dps too.
This way both classes can provide utility to their groups, if there is no tank of the same class present.

First and foremost, I hope this is the correct thread for this, since the item in question stems from the WB loot.

Regarding Kidd's Runic Sword.

Is it intended that the AoE provided by the item is an unscalable value (579 dmg)?

Regarding Warden/Warrior.

The class has way to many buffs to be played comfortably. This observation mainly comes from a dps point of view, however I've been told by our tank that they face the same issue.

I suggest modifying Berserk via one of the elite skills to be a toglle skill without duration. The rage cost should be removed too, so tanks can easily toggle it whenever they want.

Regarding Distance artefact rune.

Since this rune isn't used in any capacity at the moment (at least to my knowledge, please correct me if I'm wrong), I suggest the following:

Change the item to reduce ranged weapon distance by 30 instead. This way it would be a useful rune for Scout single target damage to maximize Distant Friend damage bonus in instances.

This issue occurs with all dynamic cooldown skills, such as Joint Blow, Shade of the Ocean etc. To my knowledge it was already reported by Cruvor in the past, but an update on this matter would be nice.
As you said, once you reach hight attackspeed it gets especially annoying.

A fix would be highly appreciated.

Regarding Warrior/Priest.

This class always had problems with overcapping attackspeed in burst since it has a 24% attackspeed buff and Opportunity (lvl 35 elite) forces you to use a Katana, which is a very fast weapon. With the latest changes to Frenzy Warrior/Priest substantially lacks burst damage. You can't even mitigate the overcapping issue by switching to a 2h sword, because of the aforementioned weapon requirement.

I suggest the following approach:

Modify Frenzy to increase attackspeed by 10% and weapon damage by 20% via elite skill.

Quote from LegendarykeF

Quote from xLutinex

Hi tank community,

what does other tanks think about this change?

• Reduced Protection of Nature HP share to 4% from 8%.

Compared to Knights threaten + new Grace of Life, it seems that the 4% is too low.

We tested yesterday in orkham and a dps closely survived the electrocute hit from mobs. With a knight tank, they also survive a hit. Now with the nerf to 4%, you literally die again with warden tank (yes, you can interrupt, but it is for testing purpose).

I know it is hard to balance and 8% + threaten from knight dps would be insane. Hence my suggestion:

• Increase ratio back to 8% and change it to be only share if spirit of the oak is summoned
• Change knight threaten for dps knight classes, that it does not reduce attack power of enemies
• Change w/p debuff that it does not apply any debuff on enemies, if you have a warden or champ tank (with Warrior, warlock and rogue tank it is still usefull)

Greetings

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Then just interrupt electrocute hit. Warden is not equal knight class, why do you think, that dps must be survive after cast with warden tank in party? Warden have overpowered stuns, use it and all will be okay. 4% its okay now, i think. Developers said me: "Warden is designed to be stun tank". Let it stay that way.

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A pure "stun tank" is not viable in endcontent. There simply are too many damage sources for the group that cannot be avoided by interrupting. Tanks need to bring reliable damage mitigation in some form to the table.
The only way of providing "preventative defense", as Brontes put it, via stuns would be some form of permastun. I'm very glad they stay away from such boring design choices.

Quote from Laisha

I have a suggestion regarding cards, which have been maxed with diamonds.

I suggest that if you have maxed the values of a card with diamonds once, the value stays maxed even if you reroll the attribute.

This would benefit players, that e.g. switch classes while not having maxed out one deck. Or if a player finds out that HP is for new content better than def and he has to reroll it.

Greetings.

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Could we get an official response to this suggestion?
Today's patch made my str/patk/stam/defense cards much worse compared to /hp, since new Grace of Life brings % hp boost to the table and Warden hp buff forces you to use life instead of def food.

This means I'm now stuck with an unoptimized card deck, since paying 1k for each card in a second deck is not feasible at all.
Please consider said suggestion or provide an alternate way to change a single attribute only without needing to maximize values again.

Regarding Freakshow Sidekick card.

Since the door event in front of b1 in Grafu Awakened has been changed to include a timer (and a delay for klicking), it's nigh impossible to spawn the mob.

Please consider adding the card to the event reward chest.

Quote from Xanadú

Quote from Laisha

I have a suggestion regarding cards, which have been maxed with diamonds.

I suggest that if you have maxed the values of a card with diamonds once, the value stays maxed even if you reroll the attribute.

This would benefit players, that e.g. switch classes while not having maxed out one deck. Or if a player finds out that HP is for new content better than def and he has to reroll it.

Greetings.

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I think this is the reason for the additional "decks", so you can set up different preferred attributes, dependng on the class you want to play, so you can swith between these settings, without always rerolling the attributes on certain cards.

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Well, if you just want to change one stat, having to do an entire second deck is quite annyoing. I too wish there was another option for that.