Black Orc balance change feedback (updated for patch release 12/09/2025)

[Culexus]

No SnB BO is a shadow of what it used to be so even with speed buff it is 3d pick for any real 6man content.

2h is a disaster lets just leave it there

Solo not impressive there either

It is a dead end simple as that

The BO of old is gone and isn't coming back. That has to be accepted so we can work with what we have now and provide feedback on how it can be improved.

I think the state of the BO comes from different design philosophies between WAR and RoR. BO in WAR was designed to be a bruiser dps support tank, but RoR's design philosophy is that tanks shouldn't be able to deal much damage. So what we have now is class that's had it's role either nerfed into the ground or removed entirely without any new role put in its place to replace it. Where as a player can look at the IB, KotBS, BG and see exactly what their roles are, BO is kinda just...there. Still classed as the damage support tank but without any of the abilities required to carry out that role. Somehow SM has managed to not be as affected by this and still kept it's damage, but I only vaguely recall the class from live so don't know how much it's been changed.

We also seem to suffer from that any buffs to the class are seemingly considered to be 'too much'. Imagine if we asked for a 10sec 20% party wide crit damage reduction on a 30sec cooldown, 5% party wide crit buff on block, +15% always on party wide healing buff, and +15ap a second party wide buff from 4 tactics? The dev team wouldn't take us seriously at all and probably laugh themselves stupid at such a ridiculous wishlist, yet that's just a standard build for Knights. Meanwhile having da Greenest work on defense, ya missed work on parry, or just a single defensive ability, is considered too much for the BO. There is a reason that SM got the new sapping strike while we got Chop Fasta.

The only thing we can do is to give the best feedback we can and hope that it is listened to. We're good as SnB in RvR warband play so the class is still playable and isn't a total right-off. Honestly though, I think for the rest of the changes we need they're not going to happen unless a dev decides to pick and a BO and play it to BiS so they can experience first hand that what we're all saying in this thread is true, and that we're not just a bunch of forum moaners who want their main to be OP.

[Zxul]

Vanq SnB Chosen just looks better as I'm not crazy fond of 2-hand tanker.

Depends on 2h.



Though the chosen has a problem that t3 and on most of the stuff looks way too cartoonish. Half or so of my bank is t1-t2 appearance items.

[Bozzax]

No SnB BO is a shadow of what it used to be so even with speed buff it is 3d pick for any real 6man content.

2h is a disaster lets just leave it there

Solo not impressive there either

It is a dead end simple as that

The BO of old is gone and isn't coming back. That has to be accepted so we can work with what we have now and provide feedback on how it can be improved.

I think the state of the BO comes from different design philosophies between WAR and RoR. BO in WAR was designed to be a bruiser dps support tank, but RoR's design philosophy is that tanks shouldn't be able to deal much damage. So what we have now is class that's had it's role either nerfed into the ground or removed entirely without any new role put in its place to replace it. Where as a player can look at the IB, KotBS, BG and see exactly what their roles are, BO is kinda just...there. Still classed as the damage support tank but without any of the abilities required to carry out that role. Somehow SM has managed to not be as affected by this and still kept it's damage, but I only vaguely recall the class from live so don't know how much it's been changed.

We also seem to suffer from that any buffs to the class are seemingly considered to be 'too much'. Imagine if we asked for a 10sec 20% party wide crit damage reduction on a 30sec cooldown, 5% party wide crit buff on block, +15% always on party wide healing buff, and +15ap a second party wide buff from 4 tactics? The dev team wouldn't take us seriously at all and probably laugh themselves stupid at such a ridiculous wishlist, yet that's just a standard build for Knights. Meanwhile having da Greenest work on defense, ya missed work on parry, or just a single defensive ability, is considered too much for the BO. There is a reason that SM got the new sapping strike while we got Chop Fasta.

The only thing we can do is to give the best feedback we can and hope that it is listened to. We're good as SnB in RvR warband play so the class is still playable and isn't a total right-off. Honestly though, I think for the rest of the changes we need they're not going to happen unless a dev decides to pick and a BO and play it to BiS so they can experience first hand that what we're all saying in this thread is true, and that we're not just a bunch of forum moaners who want their main to be OP.

Here is some band aid suggestions

1. Quit Yer Squabblin Made no plan ability 10s cd 5s duration and swap places with arm breaka (new M1) drains 150 ap over 5s
2. Nidif made core again (swap with git out and remove the tactic. Kb range scales with plan , no plan short, gud medium, best long)
3. Big swing rework, with tactic snare 20% for 2s no cd. Disorient removed
4. Grenest on defence instead of on hit
5. Tuffer 'n Nails Interrupt and the disorient from big swing added
6. Ya Missed Me No or / 10s cd
7. Chop fasta gains waagh “Groupmates within 100 feet of you will have their auto attack speed increased by 25% for 10 seconds” and thisis removed from boss tree
8. Waaagh loses
Groupmates within 100 feet of you will have their auto attack damage increased by 25% for 10 seconds.

[Farrul]

give us and SM the old undefendable shield punt, this standardization is miserable. every tank is so dull and plays exactly the same now. whoopee, aa haste, defensive abilities with up times so bad you can't even build around them and homogenized cc for everyone. a group would have to pay me by the hour to tank for them these days

The BO (SM) punts are in fact the worst tank punts in the game, the attempt to homogenize did not consider the annoyance of binding them to a perfect stance with all the drawbacks that comes with it and furthermore requires a tactic. So unfortunately not a successful attempt when it comes to balance.

I made a suggestion for it here:
viewtopic.php?p=556708#p556708

However i do kinda agree, i would rather not see everyone play the same, but if they must do it then at least don't make them poor in comparison.

[Culexus]

Patch Update 23/10/2024

ate 23/10/2024Before I start on the feedback on the latest balance changes, I want to give a quick update on my thoughts on my previous feedback regarding Chop Fasta. So with a huge slice of humble pie, I’d like to say….I’ve grown to quite like Chop Fasta. Although in testing we concluded that it only gives 1 additional auto attack every 10 seconds, in a real-world scenario it doesn’t work quite the same, and can provide additional auto-attacks that otherwise wouldn’t have triggered. This can result in more than 1 hit getting through that otherwise wouldn’t have, giving a good increase in damage pressure. However, the opposite is also true with no additional attacks triggering and the ability doing nothing beyond its base damage.

For other feedback on Chop Fasta, I don’t notice the ‘phantom swing’ attack animation anymore, although that doesn’t make it good design. Even though the ‘crit from behind’ part of the ability goes against the archetype of a tank (in terms of role rather than gameplay), it is fun to use.

Is Chop Fasta a 13pt ability? No, not really. It can add some decent damage pressure, but equally has the chance of doing nothing depending on the fight.

Is it the equal of Sapping Strike? Not even close. That ability is useful in every situation and can put out crazy damage.

Is it a good addition to our toolkit? Yes, I’m glad we’ve got it and would miss it if it were removed. I’m happy to say my opinion has changed since my initial feedback. Even though it still has its problems, it is a very strong ability in certain circumstances.

Chop Fasta feels like it should be a 5pt ability rather than 13pt, so either needs to be moved to 5pt, or given a buff to remain at 13pt. The problem with it at 13pts is that the 2h BO does so little, that the few things it does need to be exceptional to make up for losing so much of our toolkit going 2h over SnB. Otherwise going SnB is always the best choice in all content outside of PvE and solo.

Balance Changes

- Tuffer N Nails - Moved to Path of Da Boss and reworked to: Blessing. 30AP. 5 ft range. Instant. 10s CD. Needs da’ Gud Plan!. Leads to da’ Best Plan!! (No longer requires shield). - You slam into your enemy, dealing 150+1.5 * DB+1.5 * WD (unchanged) damage and increasing your defensive targets parry by 10% for 20s.

- No Choppin Me - No longer affects Savin Me Hide. Now makes Tuffer N Nails additionally affect all group members within 30 ft of your defensive target.

- Savin Me Hide - Moved to Path of Da Toughest. Now requires shield. Best Plan. No AP cost. Deals 75+0.86 * DB+1.5 * WD damage to all targets within 25 ft and increases your Toughness by 120 for 20 seconds. Group members within 100 feet will take only 80% incoming magic damage for the next 5 seconds.

The rework of Tuffer ‘n Nails gives Destruction access to a 10% parry buff, increasing the parry capabilities of MDPS who lost a significant amount of parry with the changes to Weapon Skill and Initiative. Savin Me Hide is changed to become easier to use reactivity in situations against ranged DPS with no longer requiring a nearby target to provide the buff to your group. A shield requirement is added, as we feel like Shield tanks should be the counter versus ranged damage.

Savin Me Hide

I really like this change. We require an ability that doesn’t require a target in each stage of the plan system to be able to navigate it without getting stuck in a particular plan. This meant that Waaagh! was almost mandatory for most builds, but was only really available when getting sov for the +2 mastery bonus. The change to this ability allows us to have a core ability in da best plan that requires no target. This gives us more build variety and makes pre-sov BOs more viable. The change to requiring no target allows us to more easily keep up the toughness buff, which is a nice boost to our survivability, and makes the 4sec 20% magic damage reduction spammable, making it far more useful as a core part of the ability rather than an afterthought.

Of course, as always, the 2h BO suffers from this change. Losing yet another tool and our only spammable single target best plan ability besides Skullthumpa. Yet another nail in the coffin of the 2h BO with even more of our toolkit tied to SnB, even less survivability, so even less reason to ever bring a 2h. At this point though 2h does so little compared to SnB that losing one more ability isn’t going to make a huge difference. He’s already dead.

No Choppin Me

Better than it was for sure, but still not great and suffers from the same problem as the last version with it only being worth taking with a very particular group setup, that being BO+BG, x2 phys melee dps (that don’t have ws buff from ability/gear proc), 1 or 2 SnB DoKs. It also suffers from the fact that the BO has no control over who gets the ability buffs, as it affects group mates within 30ft of the defensive target, not the player, so the only time it would be useful is in a melee ball where everyone is focussing a single target, as that’s the only situation where most of the group will be around the defensive target to gain a benefit from the buffs.

I know you want to try and keep this as a buff to Follow ‘me Lead to be closer to live, but this tactic would be better reworked to provide a buff to Waaagh!. Waaagh! is iconic to Orcs and Warhammer in general and an ability with that name should bring be something special, and at the moment it’s a bit lackluster. Personally, I’d like to see Waaagh! reworked to lose the damage+corp debuff and make the AA damage boost 20sec with 10sec cooldown to fit better with the mechanic. The corp resist debuff would be given to IB to give BoG a boost over Waaagh! to balance it requiring a class resource. With that in place a new tactic that works with Waaagh! would work well together and provide more build options for the BO.

Tuffer N Nails

Amazing change but not quite where it needs to be. The ability was not used at all before this change which has turned it into a great, unique buff. It’s so close to being where it needs to be, but has unfortunately just missed the mark.

As I’ve said in previous feedback, 2h BO was in real need of a parry buff as an ability rather than only with a tactic. Sadly, the ability only works on the defensive target so if we want our own parry ability to provide us a parry buff, we have to switch between us and our defensive target every 10 sec. This is doable, but not really feasible as we have other abilities in Da Gud plan to use and it prevents us using the parry on other members of the party. This isn’t an issue for SnB as we don’t need the additional parry, but once again, is a big hit to the 2h BO with yet another reason not to run it over SnB as with SnB we can use it on both dps rather than one.

I propose that this ability be changed to affect both the BO and the defensive target. When looking at the other tank parry abilities and Sigmar’s Vision, we can see why this would work and would be balanced with them.

Chosen: 20% parry on self for 20sec. 10sec cooldown. Core ability.
SM: 20% parry on self for 10sec. No cooldown (other than the mechanic).Core ability.
IB: 20% parry and 120 ini for IB+DT for 20sec. 10sec cooldown. 5pt mastery ability that requires class resource.

Now lets look at its Order mirror, Sigmar’s Vision on the WP:-
10% parry to defensive target and 10% block on self (with shield) for 15 sec. 5sec cooldown. Builds class resource on hit.

Now lets look at BO:-
10% parry to defensive target for 20sec. 10sec cooldown. Core ability.

As you can see from the other tank abilities , all of them provide 20% parry, or 10% parry+10% block with Sigmar’s Vision. CH and SM have double the parry, but it only applies to themselves, whilst IB provides it to itself and its defensive target (plus ini), but requires mastery points and class resource to use it, so the enhanced utility comes at a price, which is balanced. The BO on the other hand has half the parry of all these abilities, making it the worst ability for providing parry, and has a 10sec cooldown, making it share the downside of both the CH and IB ability, despite it being weaker than both. Sigmar’s Vision mirrors Tuffer N Nails with its 10% parry on defensive target, but has half the cooldown at 5sec, builds class resource, and additionally applies 10% block if the WP has a shield. Granted, the BO ability is easier to apply unless the WP is shield/dps spec and has a longer duration, but with the lower cooldown and extra bonuses Sigmar’s Vision is clearly a superior ability to its mirror.

I feel having the ability work on both the BO and defensive target would be balanced against the other parry abilities in that the 20% parry that all the other abilities provide is, in the case of the BO, split between him and the defensive target. Rather than 20% going to just him, it’s split so BO gets 10%, and the defensive target gets 10%. This also mirrors Sigmar’s Vision, with the BO gaining parry rather than block. Not only would this be balanced (I’d argue that it’s unbalanced against the other parry abilities in it’s current state), but would give a much-needed boost to 2h BO, making the parry tactic less of a must-take, opening up build options, and helping with its new-found squishiness. As mentioned earlier, if the ability is kept as it is, it’s just another reason that taking SnB is a far better choice than 2h. And let’s face it, we’ve got enough of those already.

As the balance team don’t discuss their reasoning for doing or not doing things, It’s not possible to have a dialogue about these changes so we have no idea what their reasons are for not including feedback and can’t offer any counter-points. With that in mind, I’ll include what I think maybe the team’s reasoning below and provide a quick rebuttal. I’m not trying to put words into anyone’s mouths and this is purely guesswork on my part. I mean no offense if I’m way off with what the team are thinking.

“The parry buff only works on the defensive target as BO already has a parry buff with the tactic. Having two stacking parry buffs would be too strong”

If the parry ability were 20% I'd agree, but as the parry buff would be 10%, it synergises with the parry tactic and makes it worth taking. Whereas it's currently a feelsbad having to spend mastery points and a tactic slot on such a lame yet mandatory tactic.

The parry tactic only matches the other classes' parry abilities of 20% when in da best plan, so we have to pay mastery points and a tactic slot (our most powerful and scarce resource) to get the same parry as other classes do as core abilities, but we only get it for a single GCD rather than 10/20sec. With the ability combined with the tactic, we get a reliable 20% parry at the cost of a tactic, plus the extra 5/10% when in Gud/Best plan. This gives us an actual bonus for having to navigate the plan system, (something that is sorely missed for both BO and SM) and isn’t overpowered as the additional parry only lasts for a single GCD whilst we’re in the plan. Considering how much of a power boost IB/BG abilities are given for being part of their mechanic, even more so if they have to spend mastery points, I don’t think it’s too much for us to get the option of having one for ours. I’ve run this combo whilst solo-roaming and it feels just right as it’s really nice to get a bonus for the plan system on something. More abilities/tactics for the BO should work together like this as it makes the mechanic more than just a chore, providing a nice little buff for choosing to pay the cost of mastery points and a tactic. The parry tactic alone emphasizes the downsides of the mechanic and isn’t worth the price paid to get it.

“The BO can already get the parry buff not only on himself, but also for the rest of the group with the No Choppin me tactic”

A level 6 core ability can’t be purposefully neutered to make an 11pt mastery ability worth taking. I’ve already explained the reasons that No Coppin Me is only useful in a very specific circumstance so won’t repeat myself here. It should be pretty obvious why having a level 6 ability dependent on an 11pt mastery isn’t good design.

Overall thoughts

Overall, I’d say these changes have been a positive and it’s nice to see that balance changes are back on track. All the changes are good upgrades to the abilities/tactic from their previous iterations. As with the other patches, 2h BO has gotten worse with the loss of Savin Me Hide, and Tuffer N Nails not providing a self-buff, but at this point it’s so bad compared to SnB that making it worse isn’t going to change anything. Some quick wins have been mentioned in previous posts for the 2h BO, I’m not sure why they haven’t been implemented as they would alleviate a lot of the problems. My only guess is that you’re focusing on SnB at the moment and will look at 2h at a later date. If not, please let Tree Hit Combo no longer require a 2h. I’d prefer 2h be sorted, but if there are no plans to do that at least we’d have a reason to spec into Brawler tree with SnB and it’d open up more build options for us beyond pure defensive tanking. Tanks will always be tanks first and foremost, but it's still fun to spec into damage for smaller-scale fights, and having Tree Hit Combo would allow us to do that without losing most of our primary abilities. Fixing 2h would be better though as krumpin’ gitz with a massive 2h axe is too much fun for it not to be viable.

[rady]

For me, the year 2024 felt like a year of nerfs for 2H BO. All we needed was a single-target punt with good range, but instead, we lost a class-defining ability: You Wot!?!!. THC damage was reduced, the parry buff doesn't stacks with Boon proc (probably the best weapon for 2H BO), and we lost the toughness buff.

SnB is in a decent spot if someone enjoys it, but I wanted to play as a bruiser tank and that's what a BO was but is not anymore.

At this moment I lost interest in this class and play it occasionally.

[Culexus]

For me, the year 2024 felt like a year of nerfs for 2H BO. All we needed was a single-target punt with good range, but instead, we lost a class-defining ability: You Wot!?!!. THC damage was reduced, the parry buff doesn't stacks with Boon proc (probably the best weapon for 2H BO), and we lost the toughness buff.

SnB is in a decent spot if someone enjoys it, but I wanted to play as a bruiser tank and that's what a BO was but is not anymore.

At this moment I lost interest in this class and play it occasionally.

My hope (or desperate copium) is that 2h BO will fall under the 'iconic specs' part of the rework and that all the nerfs it's been receiving are because they are focussing on SnB tanks for now, so aren't giving 2h much consideration. The removal of U Wot!?! (which was created as 2h BO was so squishy and does so little, so everything was piled into a single ability) and the lazy copy/paste of the CH/KotBS punt really hurt the spec. U Wot!?! was always a crutch for us though, and was only there to save having to address the underlying problems with 2h after they locked THC to 2h and everyone pointed out how bad 2h was. Now without it, all those same unaddressed problems have resurfaced, but even more so with this wave of balance changes.

[Culexus]

Patch update 12/09/2025

Very late with this one. The complete agreement within the community that this was a solid patch, and that a lot of the changes have been covered by previous feedback posts, meant there wasn't much to say beyond "great job". However, with the first DPS patch just being released, I thought it may be a good time to revisit this thread and reflect on not just this patch, but all the changes overall.

...we added a quality of life feature where tank classes no longer need a tactic slot for their single target knockbacks to be valuable. These tactics still bring value by lowering the cooldowns of the knockbacks, but they no longer feel as mandatory.

This change has been such an amazing quality of life boost to all tanks. It was always ridiculous to have to pay a tactic slot to make have a working punt. There's been a noticeable uptake on PUG tanks using punts since this update, allowing them to practice the use of their full tanking toolkit, whereas the barrier of the tactic requirement stopped them learning how to use effective punts previously. Yeah, many are using it to punt targets away from danger, but some of them are learning to use them properly, which is an opportunity they wouldn't have had before as they weren't willing to give up the tactic slot for it.

Balance Changes

- Arm Breaka - Removed

- Chop Fasta! - Moved to 5 pt in Path of Da’ Brawler. Auto Attack speed increase reduced from 50% to 25%.

- You Wot!?!!! - Reintroduced as: Debuff. 20 AP. 65 ft range. Instant. 30s CD. - You heard someone say sumfin about the size of your weapon! You will teach em an’ lesson! For 15 seconds, you will deal 15% more damage to them and you receive 15% less damage from all other targets. Whenever the target dies, the cooldown of You Wot!?!!! is reset.

- Git Out! - Now has a long knockback distance without Git Out Fer Gud. Will now knockback slightly further. No longer requires Da’ Best Plan! (No longer interacts with the stances).

- Git Out Fer Gud - Reworked to: Reduces the cooldown of Git Out! and Fly Gits by 10 seconds. When wielding a Great Weapon, Git Out! will now also snare the target by 40% for 5 seconds.

- Tuffer ‘n Nails - Will also affect yourself in addition to your friendly target.

Arm Breaka

It would've been nice for this to be moved to a core ability as we only really have two abilities that don't require a plan when two handed unless we spec in Rock 'Ard. Honestly though, despite it having a niche use in solo-roam against certain matchups, this ability was always pretty useless, and hasn't been missed

Chop Fasta!

Finally feels like the ability it always should have been. It feels perfect at 5pts in the tree. The nerf to auto attack speed is reflects its new placement in the tree, and as other classes have to pay a tactic slot for 50% auto attack boosts, feels balanced. Now that it's 5pts rather than 13pts, the ability can be used as it always should have been, as big hitting damage spike that also procs an auto attack speed boost that runs passively in the background doing its thing. A great ability that integrates as part of a toolkit, rather than being the star of the show.

You Wot!?!!!

I freaking LOVE the new U Wot! Hats off to whoever in the team came up with it. Although not as strong, I personally much prefer it to the last version.

With the return of U Wot, 2h BO finally has a solid 13pts ability. The ability feels strong, but without being a crutch to the class like the previous version. The 15% damage reduction to all other targets provides some much needed damage reduction to the otherwise very squishy 2h BO. The 15% damage boost gives us our identity as a brawler tank back again, and paired with freeing up of tactic slots with the change to punt, we can put out some pretty crazy burst damage for a tank. U Wot>Taunt>KD>CF>THC with GaBC+SYG tactics and a string of crits is a hell of a drug.

My favourite part of the new ability is the cooldown rest when your target dies. It really makes the ability stand out as its own thing, making it more thematic and fun to use rather than just a flat % buff. When the melee train gets rolling and the ability is constantly resetting itself, it makes us feel like an absolute wrecking ball, just like a 2h BO should feel. But when against tough opposition, we've really got to predict when the best time to drop it will be, as if they survive the burst, we have to pay the price with the 15sec cooldown, putting a substantial hit on our assist damage. Abilities that make you think and reward you for it are always more fun and engaging to use, and this ability is a great example of how a class feels is just as important as how strong it is. This ability nails it. Great work.

Git Out!

Covered in when discussing the change to all tanks so not much more to say. I would have been happy to see the punt get the boost but still be tied to the mechanic, but this works as well as it's universal. It's certainly a lot easier to get timed punts without all the setup of the plan system that's for sure.

Git Out Fer Gud

No longer mandatory which is great. The freeing up of a tactic slot opens up much more build variety for 2h BO, allowing us to properly spec into brawler again without giving up all of our defensive/mitigation tactics. It's still probably mandatory for higher level play, but a least now there is an option. The 5sec snare is nice, but kind of pointless as the duration is too short, and any tank worth their salt is going to snare before a punt anyway. Still, a nice little addition that indirectly teaches newbies that snares and punts should go together.

Oddly, the big winner of this change is SnB BO. Not only does SnB now have access to a 10sec punt, but most importantly, now has a 10sec cooldown on the aoe punt. Group with a BG for the 5sec cooldown reduction and BO can spam aoe punts with a 5sec cooldown!!!!! Hopefully one day we can reduce the cooldown of the aoe punt to zero so we can truly live the BO dream.

Tuffer ‘n Nails

Went over why this is a great change in the last feedback post and the long 2h suggestion thread so won't bring them up again here. Once again, a great change that makes the ability feel like it always should have and potentially frees up a tactic slot for us, increasing our build variety. The parry tactic now feels like a great addition that works with this ability and the mechanic to provide us with great defence, but at the appropriate cost of a mastery point and tactic slot.

Overall Thoughts

With this patch 2h BO went from being borderline unplayable, with no clear purpose or identity, to finally getting back to being as great a 2h brawler tank as its mirror the SM. The brawler tree now feels like a fully fleshed out tree with a clear direction and playstyle, and the change to abilities allows us more freedom with our tactics, providing more build diversity for both 2h and SnB. This was a great patch not just for BOs, but with the changes to punt and other tanking abilities, for tanks overall.

There are still improvements that could be made of course, but pretty much all of them come down to the mechanic. The mechanic still has very little upside for its substantial downside, with only THC really gaining a significant boost for being part of it. We still suffer from ability over stack into Gud Plan, leaving No plan and Best Plan a bit bare, leading to the same few abilities used repeatedly. However, I'm not the least bit concerned about this, as the balance team has shown with the AM/Sham changes and changes to the CH/KotBS in this patch that you are willing and capable of making changes to mechanics, and I've no doubt that you're well aware of the problems with the SM/BO mechanic and have ideas for changes. I'd personally like to see the plan system be similar to the AM/Sham mechanic, with abilities not being tied to any plan, but rather gaining a bonus for being used when a particular plan is up. This would solve the issue of plan over stacking, while keeping the plan system as an active mechanic. It would also allow players to build their own combos depending on the situation, rather than always being forced into using abilities in a set order.

Whatever a potential change to the SM/BO mechanic ends up being though, at this point, I have faith in the balance team to deliver. Before the balance rework started BO was universally considered to be the worst tank in the game, with the removal of the -5sec cd reduction being the last nail in the coffin. We offered nothing to a group a second Chosen couldn't do infinitely better. We were nothing but a guard bot as SnB, and leant entirely on the old U Wot as 2h. Since the changes started however, and with this most recent patch, we've gone from the worst tank in the game to one of the best. We have a spot in every party in a WB, and now with the changes to 2h, have a place in a 6man again. Those of us that love the class would have stuck with it regardless, but it's great to feel like a properly contributing member of a group again. A very belated thank you for these changes.

The main takeaway from these changes is that it's been a journey to get to where we are now. There's been slips on the away, but the balance team has shown not only their creativity and ingenuity for coming up with new ideas, but also a willingness to take feedback from the community and makes changes when appropriate, even if it takes a while to get there. As the DPS patches start to roll out, which I'm sure will be the most controversial changes due to the amount of players that play DPS and people generally not liking change, I hope people in the community will remember that this process is a journey, the balance team has shown they know what they're doing, and that each patch isn't some final say on RoR forever. Although I hardly play at all at the moment beyond a bit of solo roaming, I look forward to seeing what the new changes have in store and what new direction the team has for DPS classes.