[Choppa/Slayer] WS bonuses

[MiauMio]

This proposal is regarding the Redeye set for Slayer/Choppa and weaponskill bonuses on gear in general (since that is the bonus that got changed on the Redeye gear most recently).
First let me clarify that I can only make a point about Choppas since I am a Choppa but for the sake of fairness and completeness I'll include Slayers as im assuming they tend to have a similar relationship to WS.

Observation: Choppas have many drawbacks in regards to their squishy nature that lead the experienced player to develop a very burst oriented playstyle. This is necessary because you can't just stand there and take backline aggro for a longer duration, even with guard and heal. Due to the classmechanic Choppas tend to lack the reliability of other MDPS since they can be pressured and shoved around so easily. This I think is perfectly fine and how it should be. For this reason though it is the most important goal for a Choppa to make the burst more reliable, because the timing windows are very small and you'll need to plan ahead to have a good chance to also get out alive. This need for reliability is best resolved with weaponskill in my opinion since it flattenes out the damage-curve, so you won't take quite as long to kill high armor targets and take a little longer (since you trade in other offensive stats like meleebonus and crit) to kill low armor targets.
Sorry if this feels bloated but I first needed to establish why WS is of such big importance for the viability of Choppas.
Weaponskill is furthermore quite a rare stat so that you'll have to wear gear that in total value is below Dominator/Conquerer/Genesis standard so you can trade in overall value and maximization of damage for reliability.
And this brings us to the (old) Redeye set. Before the 14.04.18 change of the Redeye set it provided a WS bonus on four pieces.
This I thought was a really good way of balancing Choppas since they are in such desperate need of WS and given that it was on a sub Conq/Dom set it really was not too powerfull either since you again trade in a flattened damage curve for maximized damage and value. So it was just one more viable choice to consider in my opinion.

Proposal: Giving Choppa/Slayer more choices regarding their set-splits by giving them any sort of WS bonuses (so that they can choose to give up maximized damage for more reliable damage. This might even be implemented on the higher set bonuses or in smaller ammounts than the usual ~60stats since im not proposing to just give Choppas/Slayers stats for free but rather to make it possible to make a conscient decision(as otherwise you'd just stack 2 piece strengh bonuses and thats basically it). In this regard like stated above I think the Redeye was in a good spot but also I dont want to limit my proposal to "GiEf BaCk ReDeYe" since it is a much broader topic that needs to be treated as such. The implementation of WS accessories in Gunbad for example was a very smart and subtle way of giving Choppas/Slayers a choice and just in general improving their toolbox.
Most notable contenders for WS bonuses are in my opinion:

Dominator: Since it has no WS on the set pieces itself and is for it's lack of offensive stats a highly underutilized set. Granted, if it is ment to remain a fully defensive gearset then that would not fit the theme but it an underutilized set anyway and for good reason, especially in regards to the higher set bonuses.

Rare Fortune: For how hard it is to obtain I think it lacks exiting split options and does play second fiddle to other (also easier obtainable) sets in every regard aside from init bonus.

Redeye: Similar to Rare fortune it kind of lacks the exciting splits since the attack speed bonus which could be an interesting split choice is hampered by the quality of the lower set bonuses since you give up alot of stats for subpar bonuses like 3% crit reduction and 400 armor.

Conquerer: Since Choppas are heavily stat-starved it is a questionable decision to even wear any full set. Even though Conquerer is the hottest contender to wear as 6 piece I'd still argue more stats would be way better than any of the utility it offers or even the 5% crit. So I think it would not be unreasonable to even think about giving the 6 piece WS instead of crit. This ofcourse applies for all of the 6 piece sets as i think they are way subpar to stat-splits but it would be a "fair" trade of offensive stats on Conq so thats why this should serve as an anchor point for evaluation.

Yet again I am not proposing to give Choppas/Slayers stats "for free" just to increase the ammount of viable sets and splits. This being rather subtle changes I think would be most fitting to get Choppas some freedom of choice since they are notoriously lacking those choices, especially in regards to set splits. So please dont take it as a biased Choppa whine-thread but rather as a proposal to make both Choppas and Slayers more exciting due to more viable gear/mastery combinations which do not necessarily need to make them stronger overall.

I'm happy to read any and all criticism regarding this observations and proposals and would be thrilled to discuss this topic in public. Thank you for your time attention.

[dansari]

I hear your frustration, but the balance forum is not the place for gear changes. Feel free to post in the Suggestions and Feedback forum instead.