Group buffs.

[footpatrol2]

So group buffs used to last if you were not part of the group.

Was this how it was in live?

What was the justification of this change? Was there some type of abuse happening? I'm just curious.

[magter3001]

Yeah, there were a number of people who would log their bw or sorc to buff their characters or their groups to do a lil more dps. Became less popular in t3 than it was in t2, mainly because tanks would just shatter those enchantments but still a good change i think.

[katroulitsa]

Yeah, there were a number of people who would log their bw or sorc to buff their characters or their groups to do a lil more dps. Became less popular in t3 than it was in t2, mainly because tanks would just shatter those enchantments but still a good change i think.

Wondering who were those ppl

[footpatrol2]

So... I kinda see that as a direct nerf to unpopular builds.

Like zealots and rune priests. If you get out of the 6 man meta and go 12 and beyond those unpopular spec's bring a little more.

A heavy spec'd witchcraft zealot or heavy Valaya spec'd Runepriest have access to a willpower/initiative buff. In a 6 man setting these spec's don't fit in the current meta. But in a larger setting such as city sieges or tier 4 campaign were premade warbands will be more prominent those spec's actually have room to exist. The viability of those spec's which were unpopular to begin with got even worse with the group buff change.

You could have those Zealots/RP jump in each group to give the max buff. Also this is the same with heavy spec'd Sorc Agony for frozen touch and Incineration BW for flames of ruin.

In my opinion the more variability and diverse warband compositions are, that are viable, the better. With that group buff change it makes it so those zealot/RP spec's are even more un-viable. I could have seen 1 or 2 people in a warband setting take those spec's purely for those buff's and supporting dps they can provide. Now not so much, if at all.

I'm hesitant to say that this was an overall good change. Especially since these buffs can get stripped in tier 3 and beyond, the change seems somewhat meaningless and only hurts and doesn't benefit players.

[magter3001]

You could have those Zealots/RP jump in each group to give the max buff. Also this is the same with heavy spec'd Sorc Agony for frozen touch and Incineration BW for flames of ruin.

That isn't very good game design though, to have to force these classes into buffing all those people in those parties. Reminds me of Vanilla WoW and how Warlocks had to grind their asses off to get soul shards to make healthstones for everyone in the raid and then for themselves to use their abilities...

Yea it's fairly easy to remove those buffs for tanks as they are the first buffs on the target (first applied buffs are first removed) but it encourages some cheesy play by guilds or players.

[footpatrol2]

That isn't very good game design though, to have to force these classes into buffing all those people in those parties. Reminds me of Vanilla WoW and how Warlocks had to grind their asses off to get soul shards to make healthstones for everyone in the raid and then for themselves to use their abilities...

Opinion
I think buffing like that isn't horrible, and doesn't make it bad game design. If you don't like the mechanic don't play the class. I 100% disagree with you. I'd hate to see something get dumbed down for ease of play. I really really hate this dumbing down stuff in the gaming community. Look at WoW now. Its a trainwreck of a game because it holds your hand for you.

Sidenote: So I actually extremely enjoyed the fact in Wow that soulshards needed to be collected, and I felt the change to warlocks was a dumbing down of the class and was Pisst that they changed it. It gave the class uniqueness and wasn't so streamlined as it is today.

It sounds like this group buff stuff was a twinking problem. The only thing that really matters is endgame. Your never going to stop everything that can happen with players trying to twink their characters. I understand at the moment the issue since the game isn't at endgame at the moment. I see this as a un-needed nerf to spec lines that were already unpopular to begin with, when those spec lines need more of a buff then a nerf.