Why Smash Should Not be Nerfed

The only thing that makes this spec overpowered is class/spec stacking.

Dear friend,

Please don't play loose-goosie with your numbers. You forgot to factor in 30% AOE reduction. Also you need to have 3 stacks of singularity. Also, you need to find a target that is not bubbled and not kiting you. Also, you need to be able to reach a target that has slowed/rooted you while running around dancing to kumbaya, while you're healer is screaming for you to come back to peel for him.

Thank you.

lmao....^ winning

Currently 80% are already worthless. So only the top 20% of the current 20%, or 4% of all current Smashers, would be viable? Excellent my friend.

Dear friend,

Please try to understand nuance and context. Whereas a fully stacked smash against your entire team can be avoided by careful kiting and positioning, one of the strengths of a smash spec is the specter of such a smash, which has a great "goat-herding" effect which is tactically important in getting healers out of positioning, etc.

But it's overpowered. So it should be nerfed.

I would be totally fine with the smash hitting a total of 2 targets max, and the primary target for the full amount and the second for like half the amount. But then you would need corresponding balance changes throughout the game.

Heh. I'd have to say the most funniest thing in this game by far is troll killing as a healer.

Sorcerers have access to what I call a "THE troll" spec. It is a hybrid Madness/ Corruption which is insanely tanky, good healing capacity and does pretty reasonable damage. It has one weakness.. absolutely horrendous force management. I call it the troll spec for good reason. 1v1, No DPS is going to kill you unless your utterly crap and don't have a clue what your doing. The spec can easily self heal through single target damage and do enough off damage to kill any DPS or tank in a respectable amount of time. 2v1, it gets more interesting as a significant amount of kiting is involved. Generally speaking, your going to survive until the point you run out of force. If you haven't killed them both by then, IMO they deserved the kill.

Mercenaries can do similar but it's much harder to play. You certainly can't troll like the sorc can. Also unlike the sorc, a solo competent DPS will be able to kill you if try to off DPS at disadvantageous times. You have to be very careful about your health pool and when you choose to damage or self heal. The beauty about the mercenary is that you can actually troll as a pure healer. Electronet is one of the best troll abilities in the game.

Ironically, the weakest of the"off dps" healing specs is the operative scoundrel. They don't have access to any spec that is consistently capable of troll killing anyone. Sure, you're still going to be able to kill garbage players but it takes forever and it's just not satisfying. The class just doesn't have very good off damage potential. All it can really do is heal, and heal stupidly well. I generally don't play healing operative for this reason alone. Pure healing to me is absolutely boring. There is nothing entertaining about staring at health bars all game long. The only fun I have is when some DPS comes to solo me and I ***** slap his *** into the ground.

Generally speaking, the balance between healers and DPS isn't acceptable to me. While a source of great amusement, I shouldn't be able to troll kill anyone as a healer. My philosophy is that healers should be able to do a really great job of keeping themselves, and ONLY themselves up. They need to do a mediocre job of keeping everyone else up. Currently, healers are basically worth 2 people. It takes far too much coordinated effort to shut them down in proportion to the effort required to heal. Throw in cross healing bonuses that all healers get and it gets absurd.

People need to die in PvP in order to advance objectives and they need to die at a decent pace. That's the reality of it.

Such as? I don't think we would have to change anything else if we did exactly what you suggested (and that is what should happen)

Either:

1) Nerf scoundrel healer, making all healing overall weaker so TTK is less than it is on PTS Arenas
or
2) Don't nerf healing in general, just bring other healers in line with scoundrel either through buffs to Commando and Sage healer or nerf to scoundrel, and buff other DPS classes, e.g., DOT specs or scoundrel DPS etc., so that the balance of overall DPS to HPS is shifted further in favor of DPS.

This is based on my overall belief that healing in general is overpowered and a guarded healer is too hard to kill in Arenas.

Last thing we want to see in Arenas is Smash simply being replaced by DPS Jugg/Guardian or 3 Vanguard/PT stacked teams. If all we do is nerf Smash, this will do nothing to address the unplayability of certain other DPS classes, and will make the game even more frustrating with less pressure on healers being strong as it is.