Re: [Ironbreaker] Mechanic tweak
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 3:24 pm
You are touching on the fundamental design flaw of the IB and the BG...
I have played Knight/Chosen/SM/BG extensively (still yet to play BO, and have a mid tier IB) but the fundamental flaw in both classes is the current grudge/hate mechanic.
With the SM/BO for instance, you can cycle through your stances in just a few GCDs and for the most part, dont have restrictions on what to do, when.
The Knight/Chosen have a similar design (even if you go back to the aura twisting days) there wasnt a huge "build up" time required for the classes to utilize abilities.
For the BG specifically, and maybe the IB is this way too, you have a few GCDs of just trying to build hate/grudges to THEN utilize your abilities. I wrote extensively on this in the BG "feedback" thread only to have it subsequently locked. You can go there to find the details.
The SOLUTION is rather to re-evaluate the mechanic in and of itself and my suggestion was to make them BOTH more dynamic. Right now, you are gaining 5 hate, or 3-10 grudge when someone attacks your DP/OF, or gaining small amounts of grudge/hate when you attack...
Your abilities are broken into basically 3 categories, 2 of which are largely "competitors" to eachother.
Mechanic Builders
Mechanic Scalers
Mechanic Spenders
The problem is, the scalers and spenders are largely "competitors" where you wont be using a scaler or a spender until your "high mechanic" to get the full benefit of them, so you end up spending half your time spamming the "builders" and then are forced to follow a set "rotation" using scalers then spenders without much choice and if you find yourself having spent your mechanic, and yet the situation calls for a spender and you dont have any... or maybe you need a high scaler and dont have it, your SOL where other tanks can get what is needed in 2ish GCDs max...
Ideally what a "rotation" would look like is:
1) builder
2) Scaler
3) Spender
Rinse/repeat.
instead its:
1) buidler
2) builder
3) builder
4) builder
5) Scaler
6) Spender
Rinse/repeat.
(FYI for the BG its basically just "EB for 3 seconds" every time its off CD just to keep mechanic up. So atleast about 40% of your GCD time is just spend channeling EB...
Where most other tanks dont have to waste as much time "building" a mechanic.
This is what makes IB/BG ultimately fail in comparison, especially with short TTK in RVR you dont have any time to "build" things like this.
So the best solution as I see it, would likely be to change the way you build the mechanic overall. There are many ideas you can use... But in the end, you need the ability to use your scalers and spenders within a few short GCDs of combat... The mechanic should be more "akin" to stances. Start with 0, 2 GCDs into the fight have 50-75 mechanic, and can use "scalers" between 25-75 mechanic to ALSO use as "builders" which you would then use some spenders, etc.
So likely something LIKE: "gain 25 mechanic" each "builder". Maybe removing the OF/DP mechanic building, and then adjusting the tiers of "scalers" to:
0: 50% effectiveness
25: 75% effectiveness
50+: Max effectiveness
Something akin to this.
Anyways, I dont know if this is what you intended to get into, but its the ultimate "core" problem of the class and the BG.... spending too much time "building" in combat, which restricts the class too much, and even if the class was more group-centric with its buffs/debuffs it still would fall short due to the wonky mechanic build up.
This is IMO.
I have played Knight/Chosen/SM/BG extensively (still yet to play BO, and have a mid tier IB) but the fundamental flaw in both classes is the current grudge/hate mechanic.
With the SM/BO for instance, you can cycle through your stances in just a few GCDs and for the most part, dont have restrictions on what to do, when.
The Knight/Chosen have a similar design (even if you go back to the aura twisting days) there wasnt a huge "build up" time required for the classes to utilize abilities.
For the BG specifically, and maybe the IB is this way too, you have a few GCDs of just trying to build hate/grudges to THEN utilize your abilities. I wrote extensively on this in the BG "feedback" thread only to have it subsequently locked. You can go there to find the details.
The SOLUTION is rather to re-evaluate the mechanic in and of itself and my suggestion was to make them BOTH more dynamic. Right now, you are gaining 5 hate, or 3-10 grudge when someone attacks your DP/OF, or gaining small amounts of grudge/hate when you attack...
Your abilities are broken into basically 3 categories, 2 of which are largely "competitors" to eachother.
Mechanic Builders
Mechanic Scalers
Mechanic Spenders
The problem is, the scalers and spenders are largely "competitors" where you wont be using a scaler or a spender until your "high mechanic" to get the full benefit of them, so you end up spending half your time spamming the "builders" and then are forced to follow a set "rotation" using scalers then spenders without much choice and if you find yourself having spent your mechanic, and yet the situation calls for a spender and you dont have any... or maybe you need a high scaler and dont have it, your SOL where other tanks can get what is needed in 2ish GCDs max...
Ideally what a "rotation" would look like is:
1) builder
2) Scaler
3) Spender
Rinse/repeat.
instead its:
1) buidler
2) builder
3) builder
4) builder
5) Scaler
6) Spender
Rinse/repeat.
(FYI for the BG its basically just "EB for 3 seconds" every time its off CD just to keep mechanic up. So atleast about 40% of your GCD time is just spend channeling EB...
Where most other tanks dont have to waste as much time "building" a mechanic.
This is what makes IB/BG ultimately fail in comparison, especially with short TTK in RVR you dont have any time to "build" things like this.
So the best solution as I see it, would likely be to change the way you build the mechanic overall. There are many ideas you can use... But in the end, you need the ability to use your scalers and spenders within a few short GCDs of combat... The mechanic should be more "akin" to stances. Start with 0, 2 GCDs into the fight have 50-75 mechanic, and can use "scalers" between 25-75 mechanic to ALSO use as "builders" which you would then use some spenders, etc.
So likely something LIKE: "gain 25 mechanic" each "builder". Maybe removing the OF/DP mechanic building, and then adjusting the tiers of "scalers" to:
0: 50% effectiveness
25: 75% effectiveness
50+: Max effectiveness
Something akin to this.
Anyways, I dont know if this is what you intended to get into, but its the ultimate "core" problem of the class and the BG.... spending too much time "building" in combat, which restricts the class too much, and even if the class was more group-centric with its buffs/debuffs it still would fall short due to the wonky mechanic build up.
This is IMO.