Leave murader alone buff other melee classes

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FeelsBadMan...

I'd be fine with these changes as long as Ruthless Aggressor now had a 66% chance to backfire and blind you for 3 minutes while inflicting a continuous DoT based on your MH primary damage due to you accidentally slicing yourself since you can't see anything.

The >only< reason sniper is strong in group ranked is uptime, not raw dps. Marksman sniper in particular has some of the lowest dps in the game, but it shines in pvp because of two reasons:

1.) You can target switch to the unguarded target instantly, with no delay (read: efficiency)
2.) Entrench allows to avoid most stuns for large periods at a time, maximizing uptime and covering sniper's defensive weaknesses out of cover

Out of cover, sniper is about even with powertechs/sins in terms of survivability. They have no passive mitigation (cloak of pain, for example) no escape while stunned, no stealth out, and no defensive cooldowns that can be popped while stunned. That is why when another 4s team runs a sniper into us, they are already on the back foot. We have consistently taken out the opposing team's sniper with diversion + 2 hard stuns + mez on the tank/heals in a total of 4-5 seconds counltess times this season. If entrench lasted 10 seconds, you wouldn't take a sniper in group ranked.

Believe it or not, the utility change to the ballistic shield's 3% heal + DR was indeed a significant nerf to snipers. I don't even take it anymore. That utility was grossly OP, playing sniper to 3.5k rating in solos last season was trivial because I was pretty much unkillable. I didn't complain at all when Bioware nerfed that utility, it was needed.

Let me be clear: I'm not saying snipers need a defensive buff, but no other class is tied to a singular ability in the way that sniper is to entrench. Tampering with it would have consequences far greater than adjusting RA/force cloak combined

The nerf to mercs defensives was less severe since people still take them, but mercs are so awful in 4s that I don't really want to see any nerfs to them. The fact that you believe mercs need further nerfs is indicative of the level at which you experience the game.

The value trees for Pressure and Hardswap DPS are as follows, for people's future reference:

Hard Swap

Carnage Mara & Marksman Sniper > Deception Sin >>> AP PT >>>>>>>> (non-competitive) Rage, Arsenal, Concealment, Lightning

Pressure:

Annihlation Mara & Smash Mara >> Engineering Sniper > AP PT > Vengeance Jug > Hatred Sin >>>>>> (non competitive) Lethality, IO, Maddness, Virulence

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No other class hard counters its own class like sniper does, it's an interesting mechanic and very illustrative of just how weak the class is out of cover. And I don't want 4s stealth every 20 seconds, I think you missed the point of the post but that's okay.

If you completely homogenize all the dps classes to be their own tank and/or healer and don't want to consider tanks/healers in your match into your equation, you are theoretically creating an even worse problem than you started with. You understand that right? No one would ever die, ever; it would be worst then having five 4.0 sorc healers on your team. You have to consider trinity when designing class balance because it's the core foundation of pvp in this game.

If you care so much about this then fight for match making in regs. If not, go play solo ranked where there IS actual match making or play team ranked where players play trinity. This is where you find the most balance in the game.

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This is absolutely a false statement. Marauders, Sorcs and Mercs for example, can use dcds while in stuns. So no, not all classes are equal in this regard.

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Classes with a direct counter to stun & double stun:

Sorc: Barrier & Phasewalk
Merc: Reflective shield
PT: Kolto (stronger in 4.0 era when it healed more)
Jug: Endure Pain, reflect if popped before stunned (most DCDs like evasion, sin refelct and saber ward are useless when stunned since defense chance goes to 0, this ability still works and works well)
Mara: RA (if used before stunned), cloak of pain

I'm not going to continue this exchange, you've used enough of my time. I would say we've gone off-topic, but as has been mentioned this thread is a regurgitation of bad ideas so you're right at home here.