The following is part of a series of proposals for SW changes. Here is a balance change with the intent to fix the various inner problems of the SW. The first post is about "Scout" stance.
Core issues:
- The synergies of skills are the main cause of the sub effectiveness state of the SW (damage wise and necessity of the role in Group/RVR)
- The SW lacks survival mechanisms
- Range, which is the main differentiator of the SW in RVR, is to be improved.
Approach for change proposals:
- the purpose of the proposals is to increase the effectiveness of the character by working on the synergies of skills, of stances, and VoN mechanism.
- No drastic impact on the global balance, and with the intent the improve the clarity of the SW (with respect to other characters) in the realm war.
- No high rework from a Dev point of view
- Damage, I don't expect to review the damage until the proper changes and utilities are implemented and experienced on different scales of battles
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Scout Tree changes proposal
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- Festering Arrow: decrease cast to 2s. Rationale: 3s without (without No Quarter) is a hindrance to survival. Without Enchanted Arrow, it does not worth the investment, it is more efficient to invest in other tactics. The skill has already a 5s cooldown, which makes it non-spammable, but useful enough to have a 2nd cycle of rotation has part of the burst phase if the AP permits it. To make it worth the investment you must have Festering Arrow + No Quarter + Enchanted Arrow = 3 skill points in Scout for 1 skill. This is overpriced.
- Acid Arrow: Make it castable on the move to synergize both in Skirmish and Assault.
- Eagle Eye: reduce the AP cost from 55 to 45. It does not make sense to have this such high cost, considering the base cast is 2s + cannot fire on the move + armor based damage. This is supposed to be our "bread and butter" skill in scout.
- Glass Arrow: I did enjoy the increase of damage, but the AP increase now just make it unplayable. The point is you make +15 AP cost for an SW that play Scout. Design-wise, this is not a good "damage for AP" trade-off. The suggestion is the following:
- decrease AP cost to +5AP/tick, Move it to the Scout Tree, switch it with Fell The Weak. See Fell The Weak proposal for motivating this change
- Or revert back to the previous version with the reduction of the line of sight. This was a better utility and completely fit the role of the SW in-game.
- Enchanted Arrow: The change on Flame Arrow is useless now that it is part of the Skirmish tree. And to be honest it was also very ineffective (without M2) before due to the low damage value of Flame Arrow since the Age of Reckoning. Propose change is the following: Festering Arrow bypass all enemy resistance.
Rationale: it gives more options for a scout only having a Festering Arrow build or an Eagle Eye build + It gives more reasons to try to seek for this tactic in Skirmish/Scout and Assault/Scout based build - Fell the Weak: Remove the "Scout" stance restriction. and move it to Core skill. Rationale: this is a skill that synergizes with all stances, and works as a finisher and fit perfectly to the SW. And also this synergy has to at least match the usage of SH's "Finish Em Off" in SW's rotation. In my humble opinion, this ought to be the level 40 Skill as the replacement of Lileath Arrow.
- Rain of Steel (M4): as you know is useless as it is currently. Change it to a skill (like you did for Shadows Step). This is would channeled ability to pin down enemy, either offensively or defensively. The purpose is not to do a lot of damage but to make the progression harder. Suggested: duration 6s, range 100ft, 30ft radius, 260 damage per second (mitigable and disruptable), for each successful hit, the enemy is snared for 4s by for 25% speed (not stackable)
Let's discuss.
Swizz
