WE/WH Balance Proposals (looking for feedback before submission)
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:49 pm
Indroduction:
WE/WH currently are considered an underperforming class and are often overlooked for group/warband play. I believe they are viable in general, but could use a few tweaks make their abilities more consistent with that of other MDPS.
Armor and Survivability:
Create five tiers of armor: Cloth, Leather, Studded, Chain, Plate. WE/WH (and a few other classes) get bumped up to Leather which is between current Light and Medium Armo). This will increase survivability in melee slightly but not to equal the other two MDPS.
Builders/Finishers:
Reduce the AP costs of all builders by 5. They tend to be much more expensive than those found on other classes. Back in the day, the mechanic compensated for this, but most classes' mechanics have been buffed over time (Turrets, Auras, Stances, Pets) and a new, strong one added (Rage/Fury). Likewise, as more +STR/Melee power was included in the game, the high tooltip value of Finishers and procs cause the mechanic to pale, comparatively, to others.
Sever Limb/Confess!: have these build 1 accusation, for the sake of consistency.
Stealth Openers: have these deal slightly more damage. They used to scale insanely off of your stats, but have been nerfed about 40-80%. A minor increase in damage (15-25%) would be situationally helpful.
WH Specific:
Pistol: Add 30ft ranged autoattack with the pistol only
Seeker's Blade: changed to Seeker's Bullet, 30 foot range and procs Bullet. Currently, WE has a major advantage on Kiss Procs in terms of effect uptime and DPS. This would add one bullet proc to certain WH rotations as well as provide a ranged builder for minor combo chains. The WE would still have a big advantage in uptime/DPS, especially since they were handed several autoattack speed increasers (on sets, from BOs, tactics, improved SS).|
Silence the Heretic: changed to a ranged pistol shot, 30 foot range and procs Bullet. See above.
Dragon Gun: increase the contribution and tooltip values to be closer to what they were prior to the blanket AOE nerf (Mythic). Before, it was slightly more damaging than Absolution. Would make this finisher a powerful AOE burst, but by my understanding it would do about as much damage with a full charge as a Slayer/Choppa AOE Furious x13s. I also favor de-mirroring this ability from OYK, removing the KD but having the morale build/drain at 115/130/145/160/175. Radius would have to be tightened to compensate for increased damage.
Swap Seeker's Blade/Confess! and their relevant tactics, better fitting the Confession (close quarters) and Inquisition (debuffs/dots) trees.
Exoneration: Increase the duration to 15s. Morale is extremely weak and not justifiable for use vs. Confusing Movements or Sever Nerve. Two additional ticks (2000 healed/270 AP over 15 seconds) would make it useful in some situations.
Protection from Heresy: increase the value of the shield by 3x (to equal a cheap, low level absorb pot), and also make it affect allies within 30 feet, lasting 30 seconds. This is a really bad tactic, especially for x11, considering its max potential uptime without the relic is once per 32 seconds including the cast time on stealth. To compare, Tapping the Dark for example spams 300-350 absorbs all over the group, but is a fairly balanced low level tactic. This proposal is for a burst shield that's helpful to allies but on a long timer.
Blood, Faith and Fire: combine with Last Rites; groupmates all receive 75 AP and heal over time. From what I've seen of scen stats, I estimate WH will be getting around 2-5 kills per minute long engagement, which would put this tactic very roughly on par with a DoK/WP Motivation/Refreshment tactics. Less AP replenished considering optimal heal rotation for the WP/DoK, but a very small healing kick included.
Last Rites: changed tactic; whenever a groupmate dies within 100 feet of you, any morale they had before they died is split between surviving groupmates. Frankly, Order needs a few more morale builders and imo the original Bioware/Mythic ones are kind of exploitable and uninspired. This one would fit the class and namesake well.
WE Specific:
Dance of Doom: I think this is one of the worst M1s out there. I'd recommend extending its range to 10 feet and having it grant the WE +25% move, dodge, and parry while it channels as would fit a frenzied dance.
Frenzies: range bonuses on these should be removed. It was a bad move by Mythic to mirror ranges as that was part of the Bullets/Kisses trade-off.
On Your Knees!: morale drain/boost should be demirrored if we are going to do a morale overhaul. It was fine as a point-blank AOE KD with two hits and good damage.
Pierce Armor: it would be fine to have this reduce armor again rather than providing weaponskill, imo. A lot of this line was caught in blanket nerfs 10+ years ago when WE stealth openers were ticking for 600-800 every .5 seconds. An armor debuff feels more appropriate.
Sharpened Edge: not very useful atm. Proposal, every time you parry or your target blocks or parries your attacks, your armor penetration is increased by 3% for 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
Enveloping Shadows: very bad tactic, as with WH equivalent. A strong point blank (30 foot) damage over time would be situationally useful for a Suffering build.
WE/WH currently are considered an underperforming class and are often overlooked for group/warband play. I believe they are viable in general, but could use a few tweaks make their abilities more consistent with that of other MDPS.
Armor and Survivability:
Create five tiers of armor: Cloth, Leather, Studded, Chain, Plate. WE/WH (and a few other classes) get bumped up to Leather which is between current Light and Medium Armo). This will increase survivability in melee slightly but not to equal the other two MDPS.
Builders/Finishers:
Reduce the AP costs of all builders by 5. They tend to be much more expensive than those found on other classes. Back in the day, the mechanic compensated for this, but most classes' mechanics have been buffed over time (Turrets, Auras, Stances, Pets) and a new, strong one added (Rage/Fury). Likewise, as more +STR/Melee power was included in the game, the high tooltip value of Finishers and procs cause the mechanic to pale, comparatively, to others.
Sever Limb/Confess!: have these build 1 accusation, for the sake of consistency.
Stealth Openers: have these deal slightly more damage. They used to scale insanely off of your stats, but have been nerfed about 40-80%. A minor increase in damage (15-25%) would be situationally helpful.
WH Specific:
Pistol: Add 30ft ranged autoattack with the pistol only
Seeker's Blade: changed to Seeker's Bullet, 30 foot range and procs Bullet. Currently, WE has a major advantage on Kiss Procs in terms of effect uptime and DPS. This would add one bullet proc to certain WH rotations as well as provide a ranged builder for minor combo chains. The WE would still have a big advantage in uptime/DPS, especially since they were handed several autoattack speed increasers (on sets, from BOs, tactics, improved SS).|
Silence the Heretic: changed to a ranged pistol shot, 30 foot range and procs Bullet. See above.
Dragon Gun: increase the contribution and tooltip values to be closer to what they were prior to the blanket AOE nerf (Mythic). Before, it was slightly more damaging than Absolution. Would make this finisher a powerful AOE burst, but by my understanding it would do about as much damage with a full charge as a Slayer/Choppa AOE Furious x13s. I also favor de-mirroring this ability from OYK, removing the KD but having the morale build/drain at 115/130/145/160/175. Radius would have to be tightened to compensate for increased damage.
Swap Seeker's Blade/Confess! and their relevant tactics, better fitting the Confession (close quarters) and Inquisition (debuffs/dots) trees.
Exoneration: Increase the duration to 15s. Morale is extremely weak and not justifiable for use vs. Confusing Movements or Sever Nerve. Two additional ticks (2000 healed/270 AP over 15 seconds) would make it useful in some situations.
Protection from Heresy: increase the value of the shield by 3x (to equal a cheap, low level absorb pot), and also make it affect allies within 30 feet, lasting 30 seconds. This is a really bad tactic, especially for x11, considering its max potential uptime without the relic is once per 32 seconds including the cast time on stealth. To compare, Tapping the Dark for example spams 300-350 absorbs all over the group, but is a fairly balanced low level tactic. This proposal is for a burst shield that's helpful to allies but on a long timer.
Blood, Faith and Fire: combine with Last Rites; groupmates all receive 75 AP and heal over time. From what I've seen of scen stats, I estimate WH will be getting around 2-5 kills per minute long engagement, which would put this tactic very roughly on par with a DoK/WP Motivation/Refreshment tactics. Less AP replenished considering optimal heal rotation for the WP/DoK, but a very small healing kick included.
Last Rites: changed tactic; whenever a groupmate dies within 100 feet of you, any morale they had before they died is split between surviving groupmates. Frankly, Order needs a few more morale builders and imo the original Bioware/Mythic ones are kind of exploitable and uninspired. This one would fit the class and namesake well.
WE Specific:
Dance of Doom: I think this is one of the worst M1s out there. I'd recommend extending its range to 10 feet and having it grant the WE +25% move, dodge, and parry while it channels as would fit a frenzied dance.
Frenzies: range bonuses on these should be removed. It was a bad move by Mythic to mirror ranges as that was part of the Bullets/Kisses trade-off.
On Your Knees!: morale drain/boost should be demirrored if we are going to do a morale overhaul. It was fine as a point-blank AOE KD with two hits and good damage.
Pierce Armor: it would be fine to have this reduce armor again rather than providing weaponskill, imo. A lot of this line was caught in blanket nerfs 10+ years ago when WE stealth openers were ticking for 600-800 every .5 seconds. An armor debuff feels more appropriate.
Sharpened Edge: not very useful atm. Proposal, every time you parry or your target blocks or parries your attacks, your armor penetration is increased by 3% for 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
Enveloping Shadows: very bad tactic, as with WH equivalent. A strong point blank (30 foot) damage over time would be situationally useful for a Suffering build.