WH/WE Warband utillity
Posted: Thu May 28, 2020 6:52 pm
The issue:
These two classes have for most of the game's existence been a complete mess to balance for all stages of the game. The nature of single target burst damage doesn't translate very well over to large scale group combat, where environmental factors like bottlenecks and sieges completely blocks the classes to to infiltrate, which is their intended use. Combine it with the fact that you have to demount to get into stealth in the first place, which is gonna lag you behind in any kind of surprise attack. Lets face it, the mounts, that everyone have access to, are better surprise tools then stealth are for large scale combat. WL/SW/SH leaps/teleport just have much better functionality for getting into the enemy back line due to no setbacks, no travel time and no risk of getting detected. The other problem these two classes have is the lack of having a functional AoE spec that follows the flow of large scale combat, which revolves around PBAoE fighting strategies. The classes also suffers from low armor classes compared to the other melee dps. Under perfect conditions warbands would clash in the open terrain and WH/WE could support the main vanguard by infiltrating into the enemy back lines and put pressure on the healers, but these kinda situations is few and far between. Lets face it, large scale is about front vs front, massive wipes from behind, or slow pushes trough barracks. WE/WH arn't very useful under said circumstances.
So what you're left with is a dps class that got a archetype mechanic that isn't very functional, that got low damage mitigation and in reference to other classes poor in execution AoE dps builds.
The suggestion:
I haven't really thought trough every single possible situation were this could go wrong, (could possible be OP in 6v6, if the classes see any play there?) but I think the Relics/Elixirs, as they currently functions could be group wide buffs and would provide excellent group utility to a point were you could utilize them as full on game tactics. Imagine having Slayers with 50% more pen, a group suddenly have 100% disrupt when being flanked by a warband of Sorcs or giving a Magus or Engineer stealth and then 50% run speed increase to charge up and pull.
I'm not saying this would completely fix the classes. I still think the AoE builds needs to have the same feel and flow as Mara/Slayer have tbh, and not just two skill spam and then M2.
These two classes have for most of the game's existence been a complete mess to balance for all stages of the game. The nature of single target burst damage doesn't translate very well over to large scale group combat, where environmental factors like bottlenecks and sieges completely blocks the classes to to infiltrate, which is their intended use. Combine it with the fact that you have to demount to get into stealth in the first place, which is gonna lag you behind in any kind of surprise attack. Lets face it, the mounts, that everyone have access to, are better surprise tools then stealth are for large scale combat. WL/SW/SH leaps/teleport just have much better functionality for getting into the enemy back line due to no setbacks, no travel time and no risk of getting detected. The other problem these two classes have is the lack of having a functional AoE spec that follows the flow of large scale combat, which revolves around PBAoE fighting strategies. The classes also suffers from low armor classes compared to the other melee dps. Under perfect conditions warbands would clash in the open terrain and WH/WE could support the main vanguard by infiltrating into the enemy back lines and put pressure on the healers, but these kinda situations is few and far between. Lets face it, large scale is about front vs front, massive wipes from behind, or slow pushes trough barracks. WE/WH arn't very useful under said circumstances.
So what you're left with is a dps class that got a archetype mechanic that isn't very functional, that got low damage mitigation and in reference to other classes poor in execution AoE dps builds.
The suggestion:
I haven't really thought trough every single possible situation were this could go wrong, (could possible be OP in 6v6, if the classes see any play there?) but I think the Relics/Elixirs, as they currently functions could be group wide buffs and would provide excellent group utility to a point were you could utilize them as full on game tactics. Imagine having Slayers with 50% more pen, a group suddenly have 100% disrupt when being flanked by a warband of Sorcs or giving a Magus or Engineer stealth and then 50% run speed increase to charge up and pull.
I'm not saying this would completely fix the classes. I still think the AoE builds needs to have the same feel and flow as Mara/Slayer have tbh, and not just two skill spam and then M2.