Oh boy, this is gonna take a while... I will start with BO.
Strengths:
- Possibly the best tank for assisting a pDPS group. Can buff his group's WS up to 128 (and 256 on his friendly target) with NCM tactic. Imho the right tree is pretty much mandatory just for this tactic.
- Has a ST CD increaser which makes his group Unstoppable for 4 secs. The thing i like about NidF is that it is an Ailment and therefore can't be clenased by WPs. Put it on a bad one (who likes to spalm group heals) and he will suffer. Useful against any class that likes to spam one skill.
- Can have a lot of burst thanks to THC, GS and SYG. That's the reason so many people like DPS BOs.
- Spammable AoE snare thanks to BB tactic. Combined with the AoE KB and a Root, it can be really useful.
- Core tactic that increases morale everytime you block. Many BO's never use this tactic, not realizing how fast you can get to M4 with it.
If you want to play to the BO strengths, this would be the spec:
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=bo; ... 2:;0:0:0:0:
You can swap GwS and YSMBD for SYG and GS if you want more damage.
Weaknesses:
- 2 out of 3 bellows are useless. BOs don't need a self-wounds buff (being tanks they can already achieve insane amounts of wounds). The armor/resist buff is nice but it only procs when the BO is hit. Since tanks are usually the last targets, and they can block a lot of damage anyway, this bello seldom procs. Da Biggest! is fine as it is.
- KD. Their only KD requires a Best Plan! so it is very common to have it available one second later than you wanted it. Also, it requires, 14 points in the middle tree. As i mentioned before, that tree is not recommended if you want to play to the BO's strengths. If you get the KD it means you either forego NiDF or THC.
- ST punt. BOs don't have a way to separate enemy tanks from their guarded allies. This is one of the reasons most premades will go with Chosen/BG.
- Middle tree is, overall, pretty bad and useful only for PvE.
My suggestions:
- Bellows: Almost the same as 1.4.9:
Da Greenest - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to reduce all of your target's resists by VALUE0. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen resist.
I removed the armor steal as to make We'z bigger still useful; it would just need a little buff. As for the armor debuff, BO's already have one.
Da Toughest! - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to reduce your target's wounds by VALUE0 for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen wounds. You and your groupmates will be healed by the amount increased.
- KD: Swap it with CHM.
- ST punt: Currently they have a tactic (Mor'Hardcore) that gives them a short ST punt on 2 skills (RidJ and YMM). Change the tactic so it increases the range of the punt but only give it to one skill (probly YYM). Give it a long CD since BOs already have an AoE KB. I think anything between 40 secs and 1 minute is ok.
- Middle tree: With the proposed changeds to DYG and MH it would be almost good. Now we need to make CHM viable in PvP: let BO's move while channeling it (currently they have to stand still which is a terrible idea in PvP since most players will just attack you from behind negating any block bonus CHM gives you).
With all these fixes, a defensive pounce won't be necessary. Middle tree will be viable and, on top of the spec i mentioned before, you would have these new 2:
Utility: ST punt, AoE KB and ST KD.
Damage: Good with THC and GS.
Utility: ST punt, AoE KB, ST KD, AoE snare and AoE WS buff.
Damage: No THC or GS.
Basically you get either a DPS spec with a little utility, or a full utility spec with no burst damage. Sounds balanced to me.
