Hey everyone,

 

We wanted to take a moment to reach out to the community to collect ideas on set bonuses. We are looking for opinions on current and previous set bonuses as well as concepts for future. This thread will cover Marauders/Sentinels.

 

Note: Our intent is to have set bonuses not increase DPS by more than 5%. Please keep this in mind when posting your suggestions.

 

Current Level 60 Set Bonuses (for reference)

• 2-Piece: Battering Assault or Zealous Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  
• 4-Piece: Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy or Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Berserk or Zen increases all damage dealt by 3% for 10 seconds.
  
• 6-Piece: Activating Ravage, Master Strike, Dual Saber Throw, or Twin Saber Throw will grant Weaponmaster's/Challenger's Critical Bonus making your next Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash critically hit. This effect can't occur more than once every minute.
  

Cheers, all!

The SWTOR Combat Team

My ideas regarding the set bonus' is this. Do not change them. At level 65 additional attributes are than added to those already existing.

At the 6 piece level the addition could be unique to each spec (much like it is now regarding the different attacks the autocrit can be achieved with) or all encompassing. Personally I'd prefer to see it unique to each spec to give it an added flavor and thus coloring some of the differences between the specs.

Regarding the DPS 5% bonus from set pieces -

I'm not sure if I understood the comment regarding the DPS bonus from set piece

"Note: Our intent is to have set bonuses not increase DPS by more than 5%. Please keep this in mind when posting your suggestions."

Does this mean as it already provides a 5% DPS bonus as is (so no further increase), or if it cannot be increased by 5% in addition to the preexisting 5% DPS bonus.

Given that is almost universally considered necessary for Marauder to receive a DPS increase for competitive DPS viability I suggest

At the 2 and 4 piece level increase the damage percent bonus so as to achieve an additional 5% damage increase.

So at level 65 the 2 piece set bonus damage increases from 2% to 5%.

At level 65 the 4 piece set bonus damage increases from 3% to 5%.

Another idea would be to increase the duration of the damage increase i.e.

•2-Piece: Battering Assault or Zealous Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 30 seconds (Up from 15). Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.

•4-Piece: Reduces the cool down of Frenzy or Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Berserk or Zen increases all damage dealt by 3% for 20 seconds (Up from 10).

---------------------------------------------------------

Regarding the level 6 piece bonus (I'll only address Carnage as there are others that know the other 2 specs better than me and would be better able to make proper suggestions regarding those specs)

These ideas are not presented as being all inclusive, merely a list of things that could be considered individually. Additionally some of these ideas are base line suggestions (brain-storming) that would need to be fleshed out with regard to the specifics by better minds than my own =]

•6-Piece: Activating Ravage, Master Strike, Dual Saber Throw, or Twin Saber Throw will grant Weaponmaster's/Challenger's Critical Bonus making your next Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash critically hit. This effect can't occur more than once every minute. **** In addition at level 65 (add one of the following ideas) *****

* Gore window duration increases to 4.5 seconds (up from 3 seconds) (or a flat 5 a half of a second is barely perceptible)

* Gore window ceases to be on a timer, and in it's place flat charges are given on a charge for charge basis.(Given the melee unfriendly mechanics found in the many of the operations that force melee to move we lose so much potential. The gore window is the bread and butter of the spec, without it we are nothing. Give us our do. If the operation mechanic forces us to move there is nothing we can do about it. This is vastly unfair to Carnage and has an innate hamstringing effect. This is like saying God gave us 10 fingers but half the time he only lets us use 6 of them.

* Ravage can be used while moving/ damage buff to it (Nuff said).

* A surge bonus that applies to the autocrit

*A cool down decrease to berserk or gore is applied after the the autocrit.

* Gore now does damage (Like it use to be before 3.0)

* A self-heal effect based on some ratio to the damage inflicted by the autocrit. (A "vampire" effect, if you will)

The Marauder is in dire need of improvement in various areas( QoL, mobility, lack of cc ability and too limited amount of cc breakers, competitive DPS, self-heals, etc. ) I do not think, in most of these areas, they should be addressed within the confines of set bonus' (Except for DPS and self-heals), but rather in the class itself. (Disciplines, utilities, skills, passives, etc.)

Please forgive any spelling and grammatical errors. I suck that way sometimes. =]

~ Grim

"The Darkside is more powerful. I don't care what Yoda says."

Well, I wish this thread was a little less toxic. The combat team has asked a question, it is up to you if you want to answer it, but blaming Bioware and saying "Just fix Watchman already" and "You're gonna ignore us" is counterproductive. Anyways.... my thoughts...

.

^^^ Totally agree and disappointed in some of the responses people are giving here. Lets be constructive... otherwise just go create another "Sentinels/Marauders Suck" "The Class is Dead" post that populate the Sentinel/Marauder forums

Ok on to more positive dialogue...

My thoughts:

So far we have a 4.17% dps gain from set bonus which is below your stated goal. Changing the new four piece to be more similar to the old 4-piece will give us closer to the 5% dps goal you stated while also tilting the scales in favor of new set bonus compared to the old. Other than that, set bonuses for sentinel are good.

Dón-Quijote makes a valid point here. If that is your intended goal, no more than 5%, then that would be a good way to bring it up a bit. With that said, personally, I would love to see more emphasis around a specs primary focus. For example Precision/Gore for Combat/Carnage, Cauterize/Rupture for Watchman/Annihilation, and Focused Burst/Raging Burst for Concentration/Fury. I do understand there are limitations as to what can be done within the system itself due to different hardware/software constraints. If splitting up a set bonus to include all those different components is not possible then how about making Master Strike/Ravage usable while mobile? I know this has been suggested by quite a few people as Master Strike/Ravage is used (or at least attempted, Sorry Watchman/Annihilation) readily in all three specs. This would aid in up-time and quite possibly grant a small DPS increase to each spec across the board.

One of the things I have not yet read here (unless I missed it) regarding the Set Bonuses is this. It's been stated that we will be increasing to level 65 and will be gaining additional abilities. If this is indeed the case will these new abilities be something looked at for potential Set Bonus inclusions? As we do not know anything about the new abilities or if they will indeed be incorporated into the Set Bonuses I personally would love to see a bit of a standoff capability from our specs. At the current other melee classes (namely Vanguards/Powertechs and Scoundrels/Operatives) can operate outside the 4 meter range with entire DPS rotations in line with their optimal 4 meter range DPS and lose very little. I would love to see a capability like this introduced into the Sentinel/Marauder lineup. Sentinels and Marauders are both force users after all and the force is not bound to 4 meters right? Seriously though it would be great to see these new abilities usable beyond 4 meters to better help Sentinels/Marauders with standoff as many mechanics we face at the current place us into this very situation quite often. All in all though I appreciate you asking for our input and am excited to see what comes out of this and Knights of the Fallen Empire. Thanks!

say make 2 peice increase dps by 5% from berserk would put on par with the hold set.

Other wise i seen nothing wrong with set, marauders problems a sololy due to screwup utility tree we have that has to many things in there that are mandatory like brazen and hole cripple slash bs you threw at us, we already had 10m ranged slow attack it was called, deadly throw and WAS BASELINE and carnage could spec that into root.

Brooding as basline would be nice along with brazen would free utility up so we can both mobility for range slow/root or cleanse either way fix our god damn utilty tree, Brazen need to be made BASELINE AT MINIMUM

If anything you should left DT there and add the root carnage had to utility.

^^^ Totally agree and disappointed in some of the responses people are giving here. Lets be constructive... otherwise just go create another "Sentinels/Marauders Suck" "The Class is Dead" post that populate the Sentinel/Marauder forums

Marauders/Sentinels were constructive for 80+ pages in the two different threads they made for the two patches they were being updated in and bioware took all that and insulted the entire player base. Can you really play the players for being bitter?

I dont understand 1 thing: why do you need our feedback to ignore us? Cant you just ignore us without us writing pages about what our class needs, or is it more funny that we write so much yet you still just go with your useless ideas and fixes? Have you not noticed that WE DONT LIKE WHAT YOU DID TO OUR CLASS! Noone likes the new playstyles, what do we need to do to use a time machine and revert us back to 2.X???

I WANT TIME MACHINE! Back to the Future like, Give us 2.10 before we bloody die over it

2-pieces

Watchman/Annihilation - Overload Saber/Deadly Saber grants immunity to all controlling effects for 5 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

Combat/Carnage - Precision/Gore grants immunity to all controlling effects for 5 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

Concentration/Fury - Force Sweep/Smash is no longer useless and deals 80% of the damage that Focused Burst/Raging Burst would deal.

4-pieces

Getting stunned, slept, knocked down or trolled heals you for 20% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

6-pieces

Keep the current bonus

2-pieces

 

Watchman/Annihilation - Overload Saber/Deadly Saber grants immunity to all controlling effects for 5 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

 

Combat/Carnage - Precision/Gore grants immunity to all controlling effects for 5 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

 

Concentration/Fury - Force Sweep/Smash is no longer useless and deals 80% of the damage that Focused Burst/Raging Burst would deal.

 

4-pieces

 

Getting stunned, slept, knocked down or trolled heals you for 20% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

 

6-pieces

 

Keep the current bonus

Only problem is that these are pvp oriented. Set bonus will and should be about dps increase since it benefits both pve and pvp

Current Level 60 Set Bonuses (for reference)

• 2-Piece: Battering Assault or Zealous Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  
• 4-Piece: Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy or Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Berserk or Zen increases all damage dealt by 3% for 10 seconds.
  
• 6-Piece: Activating Ravage, Master Strike, Dual Saber Throw, or Twin Saber Throw will grant Weaponmaster's/Challenger's Critical Bonus making your next Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash critically hit. This effect can't occur more than once every minute.
  

Cheers, all!

The SWTOR Combat Team

[/color]

I would like one of the original setbonuses that had the damage buff tied to activating force charge...

I think all 3 specs should be given a flat damage bonus. Anni is no more deserving of it than any of the other specs. Anni already does more than the other 2 overall, if anything it should be Carnage and Fury that get it (Which isn't to say Anni shouldn't get it. Merely that no spec has some sort of divine right to have greater damage than any other one.)

 

~ Grim

 

"The Darkside is more powerful. I don't care what Yoda says."

Sorry, but you are greatly mistaken. Sustained dps always must have higher dps than burst dps, thats one of the most important balancing rules, like it or not

Btw for topic: change 4-piece to the old 4-piece to achieve the 5% bonus intended, also 6-piece is garbage for watchman right now (and afaik from combat friends, not so great there either). Maybe if you werent only focusing on homogenizing classes, you could actually make useful set bonuses for all. But then again, watchman would still be in 2.10 version then.

Our set bonuses are fine, if a bit boring. If you (the devs) wanted to spice them up, I would say leave the auto-crit in there (it's a nice damage boost and is pretty clutch for PvP, where burst can be critical), and maybe consolidate the damage bonuses into one bonus at the 2 piece set.

Then, for the 4 piece set, maybe some kind of self-heal? It's useful for both PvE and PvP. Make it some % of Master Strike/Ravage?

 

Current Level 60 Set Bonuses (for reference)

• 2-Piece: Battering Assault or Zealous Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  
• 4-Piece: Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy or Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Berserk or Zen increases all damage dealt by 3% for 10 seconds.
  
• 6-Piece: Activating Ravage, Master Strike, Dual Saber Throw, or Twin Saber Throw will grant Weaponmaster's/Challenger's Critical Bonus making your next Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash critically hit. This effect can't occur more than once every minute.
  

 

Thanks for the opportunity, Eric & all.

I'd like 4pc increased a bit:

4-Piece: Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy or Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Berserk or Zen increases all damage dealt by 4% (up from 3) for 10 seconds.

I find 6pc philosophy to be a bit problematic across the classes, as it makes you prioritize illogical weak abilities at times to improve your opener/burst, cause you want/need the autocrit in it (e.g. Double Strike for Serenity Shadow, Sundering Strike for Guardians. For Sents this is only an issue in Concentration, the other two do use Zealous Strike in their opener anyway. I'd still slightly change that set bonus to just make the autocrit independent of a trigger ability in general and tie the ability to the spec used, if that's possible:

6-Piece: Your Vicious Throw when using Carnage, Furious Strike when using Fury and Annihilate when using Annihilation or Dispatch when using Combat, Concentrated Slice when using Concentration and Merciless Slash when using Watchman will critically hit once every minute.

I agree though that set bonuses are a minor issue - then again, maybe not. Since in PvP stun/mezz chains are a much bigger problem than for other ACs, so as some suggested here, PvP set bonuses should adress that. But with the philosophy of having the same bonuses in both PvE and PvP it does not make sense, as such an immunity is pretty useless in PvE.

I was wondering, though, if you'd reconsider the same set bonus strategy, given the very low cost for PvP gear as of Patch 3.3.? In that case I'd tie immunity to Leap on 6 pc, I think. But PvP pros may come up with sth better, perhaps.

(I'd actually increase Concentration's AoE dsp in PvP, too, not sure if that should be done via set bonus.)

Just for the record:

Watchman/Annihilation is in fact too distracting from difficult fight mechanics, you overdid the "difficult to play" thing a bit here, I think. Probably not much sense repeating what the community has been saying for half a year in detail here...

Combat should get the charge-system for Precision rather than the time based system it has now.

Concentration is pretty much fine, tune up Smash a bit and it's good.

Feedback from the marauder/sentinel community ??

Really or is this the usually fake request that will go on the auto ignore pile?

Sorry the vast majority of this community as lost all faith and trust in the dev team.

The shocking mess of changes to Annihilation/Watchman and pages and pages of people feedback completely ignored is still a bitter taste in the mouth.

Forget that the spec is useless in Operations and PVP , its now depressing and sad to run in doing dailies.

My marauder is now collecting dust on guild ship..saddest thing ever.

Do I want to provide feedback for set bonus changes ermmm no no I don't..

It will be pointless and in the end most likely screw up the spec further.

Just in the desperate hope that a DEV does actually scan through these pages >>>>>>>>

PUT ANNIHILATION AND WATCHMAN BACK TO PRE 3.0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sabers crossed.

Change the CD on the 6 piece set bonus to 15 sec. This gives Carnage a much needed DPS boost, while still giving the other disciplines the ability to use it as well.

For the 4 Piece, change it to 2% for 5 seconds, but make it stack for each charge used. Giving us all a slight DPS boost, while benefiting Carnage more. Or make it a Damage reduction Stack. Or make it so that popping Berzerk/Zen increases Cloak of Carnage's Damage reduction more.

Scrap the 2 piece, thats stupid. I dont have rage issues anymore so i rarely find i have to use Battering assault with Cloak up, and 2% is nothing, why not just buff all our abilities by 1% instead since it can have 50% uptime anyway. Change the 2 piece to increase Gores window by 1 second, Deadly Sabers can do its damage in 5 sec in stead of 2, and same for force crush 3 sec, to 2.

*snip*

Current Level 60 Set Bonuses (for reference)

• 2-Piece: Battering Assault or Zealous Strike increases damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 of seconds.
  

In theory, this set bonus results in a sustained 1% DPS gain due to its 50% uptime. However in practice, it doesn't and its benefit varies based on which discipline you are in due to the 30s lockout time. Carnage | Combat probably comes closest to this 1% while Fury | Concentration is probably farthest. It would be great if this could be uniformly beneficial.

• 4-Piece: Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy or Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Berserk or Zen increases all damage dealt by 3% for 10 seconds.
  

Ignoring the stat difference the 2.X 4-piece is better due to its 4% increase for 15s. It would be great to see this again.

• 6-Piece: Activating Ravage, Master Strike, Dual Saber Throw, or Twin Saber Throw will grant Weaponmaster's/Challenger's Critical Bonus making your next Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash critically hit. This effect can't occur more than once every minute.
  

As others have said, these crit-a-heavy-hitting-ability-once-every-60s bonuses are meh. It provides a randomness to damage dealing that is not ideal for PvP or PvE. As with the 2-piece, the lockout time results in different benefit given the frequency of use for each heavy hitting ability. I'd rather have the 8% damage boost to Ravage | Master Strike then some semi-random crit of any ability.

Actual, I Say 4 peice should give berserk 5% boost instead of 2% and you should put as part of 4peice of the 6peice ravage bonus back in but make 5% so as jug spec cant abuse especial the vengeance spec.

Still say our set bonus isnt a problem though

I think the 2 piece and 4 piece bonus damage boosts can go and be replaced with increased damage to smash by 10%.

Also Obviously Annihilation and Carnage spec need the same cc immunity as Fury spec so perhaps tie the cc immunity to the set bonus so all 3 specs get it. For example 6 secs of cc immunity after using crush/gore/annihilate.

Even if this post is ignored, strongly suggest reverting the (4) set bonus piece to the old version of sentinels to pre-3.0. where damage was at 4% for 15s, rather than 3% for 10s when zen is popped. I dont see this being OP, as sentinels are still lacking in alot of areas. change (6) from 1 min CD of auto-crit on Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash to 45s, this move although can be lethal, hardly keeps numbers up consistently enough in ops. Anybody can be a superstar on a dummy, but when it comes to ops, doesnt matter how good you are, sentinels/marauders have it rough in current ops. period. the patches in 3.1.1 were helpful, but still not justifiable to the debuff's to certain moves in 3.0

I feel sentinel/marauders still have potential for excellent dps numbers, but again, going back to ops. MDPS are pooped on and will continue to be, as mobility is an issue when trying to keep up with dps numbers. I believe there are people out there that can overcome this handicap with this class, but there are necessary changes that need to be made. Bringing back some old set bonus numbers is a start.

For the combat/carnage spec of a sentinel/marauder, which has received very little attention, even after 3.1.1, which is sometimes the case with classes. I feel the combat/carnage move Precision/Gore needs some heavy editing. The 3 second window is rediculous, previously being 4.5s with added damage was fine, dont know why the change. If they should re-visit this, we need Precision/Gore to last 4-4.5s at least, i dont care if there isnt added damage, and put less pressure on timing Master strike/Ravage + Clashing Blast/Devestating Blast during Zen/Berserk Window.

Also for the the utilities. My #1 change if i could make one thing a passive ability and gone from the utility choices is contemplation/Brooding. This is stupid being a utility, We rely on zen/berserk for our dps up time, making this a option, rather than a passive ability takes away from giving us much of any choice to provide us with better viability. A change to the contemplation/Brooding utility point (as much as this should be passive also) under heroic section could be [ Precision/Gore is extended by 1 second and gives an additional alacrity buff of 1% when precision/Gore is activated for duration ]. A name for it could be "Laceration" for Imp spec and "Incision" for Pub spec.

Thoughts?

6 piece - keep the same as it already is

4 piece - Reduces the cooldown of Frenzy/Valorous Call by 15 seconds. Additionally, activating Zen/Berserk increases all damage dealt by 6% for 10 seconds

2 piece - insert a defensive cooldown reduction or a self heal on an ability activation

Even if this post is ignored, strongly suggest reverting the (4) set bonus piece to the old version of sentinels to pre-3.0. where damage was at 4% for 15s, rather than 3% for 10s when zen is popped. I dont see this being OP, as sentinels are still lacking in alot of areas. change (6) from 1 min CD of auto-crit on Vicious Throw, Furious Strike and Annihilate or Dispatch, Concentrated Slice and Merciless Slash to 45s, this move although can be lethal, hardly keeps numbers up consistently enough in ops. Anybody can be a superstar on a dummy, but when it comes to ops, doesnt matter how good you are, sentinels/marauders have it rough in current ops. period. the patches in 3.1.1 were helpful, but still not justifiable to the debuff's to certain moves in 3.0

 

I feel sentinel/marauders still have potential for excellent dps numbers, but again, going back to ops. MDPS are pooped on and will continue to be, as mobility is an issue when trying to keep up with dps numbers. I believe there are people out there that can overcome this handicap with this class, but there are necessary changes that need to be made. Bringing back some old set bonus numbers is a start.

 

For the combat/carnage spec of a sentinel/marauder, which has received very little attention, even after 3.1.1, which is sometimes the case with classes. I feel the combat/carnage move Precision/Gore needs some heavy editing. The 3 second window is rediculous, previously being 4.5s with added damage was fine, dont know why the change. If they should re-visit this, we need Precision/Gore to last 4-4.5s at least, i dont care if there isnt added damage, and put less pressure on timing Master strike/Ravage + Clashing Blast/Devestating Blast during Zen/Berserk Window.

 

Also for the the utilities. My #1 change if i could make one thing a passive ability and gone from the utility choices is contemplation/Brooding. This is stupid being a utility, We rely on zen/berserk for our dps up time, making this a option, rather than a passive ability takes away from giving us much of any choice to provide us with better viability. A change to the contemplation/Brooding utility point (as much as this should be passive also) under heroic section could be [ Precision/Gore is extended by 1 second and gives an additional alacrity buff of 1% when precision/Gore is activated for duration ]. A name for it could be "Laceration" for Imp spec and "Incision" for Pub spec.

 

Thoughts?

Lacetation and Incision is garbage for 2 disciplines, if you make a suggestion, make something that's good for the entire AC. Also utility tree isnt for increasing dps directly.

I see that many ppl fail to understand that right now there are no different PVE and PVP set bonuses. Therefore pls dont make suggestions that benefit PVP only. In opses, we dont need CC immunity, we dont need extra dmg reduction or other PVP survivability things. Ofc it is kinda stupid PVP and PVE share the same bonus, but devs dont seem to change that. So pls give ideas that benefit our dps in both scenes. (This is not a sent/mara issue ofc, i see ppl get carried away in other spec forums too)

In pvp, you can't enjoy any damage increase because you are stunned all the time (less in Concentration/Fury) or die too fast without a pocket healer, but you are right, the set bonuses are shared and changing it to improve pvp viability could not be the way.

Anyway, the devs don't want to make drastic changes to the set bonuses, so all these posts are going to the auto ignore pile, like someone said.

Lacetation and Incision is garbage for 2 disciplines, if you make a suggestion, make something that's good for the entire AC. Also utility tree isnt for increasing dps directly.

Your absolutely correct, I forgot to include all 3 disciplines under the utility system, I meant to say for combat/carnage sents and marauders to make precision/gore 1 second longer, but for all AC's to make contemplation/brooding a completely passive ability and gone from utilities as a choice by replacing with something else that isn't advantageous over other classes. Contemplation/brooding to be honest isnt very advantageous if made completely passive, due to the fact sents/marauders build their zen/berserk throughout all fights to keep numbers up. This goes for all 3 disciplines.

Sorry, but you are greatly mistaken. Sustained dps always must have higher dps than burst dps, thats one of the most important balancing rules, like it or not

Btw for topic: change 4-piece to the old 4-piece to achieve the 5% bonus intended, also 6-piece is garbage for watchman right now (and afaik from combat friends, not so great there either). Maybe if you werent only focusing on homogenizing classes, you could actually make useful set bonuses for all. But then again, watchman would still be in 2.10 version then.

I think perhaps you mistook my meaning, or more likely my wording was poorly chosen.

My meaning was with regard to a damage bonus, no that a burst spec should do more damage over all than a sustained damage spec. A damage bonus let's say of 5%, even were it given to only Carnage and Fury (which I don't think would be fair, damage bonus should be applied to all or none), it still would not overtake Anni for sustained damage. Burst specs do more damage than sustained specs in the short term, sustained specs do more damage than burst specs in the long term. It can be no other way.

This sort of leaves carnage in a weird spot, because it is no longer a burst spec in the traditional sense, nor a sustained spec, it is equally both.

I'm for any improvements to be for the Marauder class. All the specs have individual needs, to be sure, but to any specific spec a change can only be applied through their respective discipline abilities. A set bonus, nor utilities is the place to affect specs, its a place to affect the Marauder class.

I also agree with you on your thoughts on the "homogenizing of classes". This also extends to the pvp crap. They should not be addressing one bloody thing that regards pvp in overall class amendments or set bonus'. PVP has its own gear and vendors. Give them their own damn set bonus pieces the same way they get their pvp gear. Not a big stretch.

~ Grim