Patch Notes 23/03/2019

[bloodi]

I dont know I think having something other than 2x2h 2xmdps meta would make it more fun for everyone.

And for that, you need to ruin the small scale balance?

Tying nore things to snb wasnt an option for exactly what reason? Thats the real puzzling question here.

[Eathisword]

Thank you for these changes, they are exactly what the game needed. I was a little surprised that it took so long (they debated this change on live but never implemented it) but I can't complain.

To all the people complaining you will just need to learn to adapt. Cloth healers have been forced to do that for the better part of a decade (counting live). 6 mans will still work, the only thing being nerfed is the 2x 2h tank and 2x mdps setup, there are plenty of other compositions out there that are viable and will be even more so now

Yeah... see... one of the problems with that is that there were SnB tanks that used to be good for 6 man... like BO and knight. Those were completely crushed through mastery ''balance'' changes so, you know, 2H was gonna be the design for 6 man.

Other tanks, like IB, chosen or BG, have such a shitty mastery line for SnB spec that no one really likes to play it.

In some form... making sure there are actual fun spec to play in SnB for 6 man before making this change woulda help to make people accept it and want to ''test'' it. But over the years, all the propositions to make SnB mastery for said classes interesting for 6 man, were declined, over and over and over again... so, this shitstorm is kinda not surprising.

[peterthepan3]

The only thing you'll achieve is 2h tanks wont bother playing, cuz frankly snb is boring as hell in smallscale, and then you'll have ppl crying WHY NO GUARD?!?!? Except Telen ofc..

I dont know I think having something other than 2x2h 2xmdps meta would make it more fun for everyone.

From a 6v6 pov: class diversity in the scene is already very high, and at a much better place than it has ever been.

Making 2h less appealing/no longer a thing will not increase variety at all, and making tanks have to go SNB is not the same as offering multiple choices. My 2c.

[Unstoppable1776]

The only thing you'll achieve is 2h tanks wont bother playing, cuz frankly snb is boring as hell in smallscale, and then you'll have ppl crying WHY NO GUARD?!?!? Except Telen ofc..

I dont know I think having something other than 2x2h 2xmdps meta would make it more fun for everyone.

From a 6v6 pov: class diversity in the scene is already very high, and at a much better place than it has ever been.

Making 2h less appealing/no longer a thing will not increase variety at all, and making tanks have to go SNB is not the same as offering multiple choices. My 2c.

tanks are not forced, SW and SH a tank can still probably get away with 2H tanks. people are just getting too emotional over this. Mara is fine to with 25%, and i'm sure there are other dps classes that don't need the 50% guard.

[Unstoppable1776]

The only thing you'll achieve is 2h tanks wont bother playing, cuz frankly snb is boring as hell in smallscale, and then you'll have ppl crying WHY NO GUARD?!?!? Except Telen ofc..

I dont know I think having something other than 2x2h 2xmdps meta would make it more fun for everyone.

From a 6v6 pov: class diversity in the scene is already very high, and at a much better place than it has ever been.

Making 2h less appealing/no longer a thing will not increase variety at all, and making tanks have to go SNB is not the same as offering multiple choices. My 2c.

but i'm not going to divulge anymore of ICONIC classified information from ICONIC HQ.

[peterthepan3]

I dont know I think having something other than 2x2h 2xmdps meta would make it more fun for everyone.

From a 6v6 pov: class diversity in the scene is already very high, and at a much better place than it has ever been.

Making 2h less appealing/no longer a thing will not increase variety at all, and making tanks have to go SNB is not the same as offering multiple choices. My 2c.

tanks are not forced, SW and SH a tank can still probably get away with 2H tanks. people are just getting too emotional over this. Mara is fine to with 25%, and i'm sure there are other dps classes that don't need the 50% guard.

I don't agree, dude. If you want to actually win your opponents, then good luck doing that when your teammate will be forced to pop his detaunt 24/7 - while being guarded - to make up for that 25% loss.

Good luck surviving double MDPS comps who tunnel you hard. If you thought TTK was low before, then try double slayer vs a WE, DPS DOK or Choppa with a 25% guard: you can already kill people WITH 50% guard, so this will be even easier to accomplish if you bring a 2h tank. Solution? Bring SNB tank.

[Charon]

Thank you for these changes, they are exactly what the game needed. I was a little surprised that it took so long (they debated this change on live but never implemented it) but I can't complain.

To all the people complaining you will just need to learn to adapt. Cloth healers have been forced to do that for the better part of a decade (counting live). 6 mans will still work, the only thing being nerfed is the 2x 2h tank and 2x mdps setup, there are plenty of other compositions out there that are viable and will be even more so now

Yeeee castration half (in some cases more) of archetype is good ....realy good. Just that for fun bc diversity is bad thing.
I wonder how much exp do you have with 6 man pt. I will predict changes for you. 2h spec will be remove completly and pre mades will consist 2 snb, 2 melee, 2 heal or 1 snb 1 melee 2 range 2 heal.

Overall there will be less tanks especialy for pug play and sc - not all ppl want to play snb especialy when oppresor is for 2h spec

And for my SM it does not matter much. It easiest tank to adapt - i play snb already

[Hugatsaga]

I felt like balance between snb and 2h was pretty good BEFORE this patch.

Large scale fights shield was always better, mostly because hold the line is pretty damn good ability and block works against ranged damage as well as melee.

On the other hand smaller scale 2h tanks were better.

I see no issue in that. Someone from dev team saw but I hardly doubt that issue justifies pretty much removing 6 specs from the game by making them unviable in most situations.

[Skullgrin]

Haven't had a chance to test the changes to guard yet, however here are my initial thoughts on it.

First off, I mainly solo roam in ORvR so it won't affect me at all there.

The main place that I use guard is in Scenarios. With the recent rise of hybrid DPS healers I have been seeing a distinct lack of healing there which has led me to often stop guarding in them. Hell, I usually even announce it in the scenario chat, "No Heals, Dropping Guard". Oddly, with this change I'm actually more inclined to use guard without being healed as I'll be taking less damage from doing so. True, this also means that any guarded target will be taking more damage, but me mitigating some of their damage is better than mitigating none of it at all.

Looking at how this will affect groups, I think that it will change combat somewhat.

A 6 man with 2H tanks will do the same damage and have less mitigation - pressuring healers and making them focus heals more on guarded players, while still having to heal their tanks.

A 6 man with SnB tanks will do less damage and have the same mitigation - basically being the type of combat we have now, with healers healing both the tank as well as his guarded DPS.

So (and this is kind of simplifying things a bit), the following should be true -

2H group vs. 2H group - more damage happening, less mitigation, healers going insane trying to heal. This playstyle discourages healers from being hybrid DPS as their healing is needed more than the damage they do.

SnB group vs. SnB group - less damage and more mitigation on both sides. Relieves some pressure on healers and allows more hybrid healing builds.

2H group vs. SnB group - 2H does more damage, less mitigation. SnB does less damage, more mitigation. Depending on the amount of damage the 2H group does, this may just cancel out (or it may lead to 2H needing to be buffed to bring their damage into line compared to the mitigation being done). SnB group may do more damage overall due to the likelyhood of there being more DPS healers in that group.

That all gets a lot more complex when you scale it up to Warband size, but I think in the long run this may lead to 2H tanks needing to have their damage buffed due to the increased damage advantage that a SnB group has.

The one thing that I do like is how this has completely shaken up the group play meta. It will force 6 mans and Warbands to have to rethink group compositions and cause lots of chaos for the next few weeks.

And that always tend to make the game much more fun.

[SmackdownNinja]

With the changes to guard regarding 2h, BG is even less wanted in a wb. SnB BG is useless for wb because they bring nothing to the wb. The only utility they brought to the wb is crimson death and wounds debuff and it’s only for 2h. BG had one spec for WBs and it’s now been nerfed even worse. As if losing HTL and being squishier wasn’t enough already LOL. It is truly disheartening to see the spot BG is in now.