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I hate the filler spam fest Watchman/Anni has become with 6.X


Ardarell_Solo

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Title kinda says it all, and everyone who played the spec in 6.X knows what I'm talking about.

 

I can't believe to this day how they turned the most versatile, mid-long-dot, engaging and fun to play spec that was built around Cauterize and its reset mechanic (it used to have a CD) into a bland long dot spec with Force Melt as the most boring ability ever and a playstyle that's lost everything that was special about it.

 

6.0 made things the worst of all, since we now basically have a Slash spam fest. All other abilities theoretically have an optimal sequence as listed in guides, but in real fights it really doesn't make that much of a difference, since all abilities are very close to another when you look at damage per activation. It's become absolutely mindless, Zen on CD adds to this.

 

The most hilarious thing is that turning away from Merciless Slash having a 6 sec CD with 4 Merciless stacks and the Cauterize proc mechanic was the crammed rotation we got as more abilities were added. But back then the main perpetrator was Master Strike with its 3.0 channel. With that being a simple one GCD ability these days you could easily make the most elegant version of Watchman/Anni now:

 

Merciless on 6secs CD, having a 50% chance to reset Cauterize (12 sec CD, 6 secs dot length).

Slash, Dispatch, DST, Force Melt have a 33% chance to reset Cauterize.

Add a stack mechanic that gives you 1 stack of automatic Cauterize reset with every ability that resets Cauterize automatically with the 4th stack (Merciless applying two stacks).

<- That works as RNG protection since that had been the main argument why they moved away from Watchman's core mechanic: resetting Cauterize.

 

The central ability of the specc we now hit exactly once per a fight and from that on spam Slash, Slash, Slash, Slash and some more, you guessed it, Slash.

 

You could even let Force Melt still be a longer dot in that version, but I'd rather have it become a decent direct damage filler. That would also improve our target switching capabilities that have become absolutely ridicolous with the current dot lengths of Cauterize and Force Melt.

 

And that in a spec that has Overload Saber, the most intelligent dot ability I've ever seen in any MMO: The dot itself ticks for only 6 secs on the target, but the full potential on a single target takes way longer to work with the stack mechanic. That is just brilliant, cause it gives you a decreased effectiveness when you switch targets, but it still does something for you and you're still good using it on Cooldown. In single target situations it really shines. That's exactly how a dot spec should play. I suspect few people really understand how brilliant this ability is, otherwise, if they HAD to give us another dot, they would have designed it similarly and not like old Vital Shot / Weaken Mind.

 

I find the current version of Watchman so boring and disappointing to play that I moved to Infiltration. And they'd really have to come up with something very good in 7.X to make me return. This specc is just too mindless and clunky to play and it's been getting worse with pretty much every expansion since 3.0.

Edited by Ardarell_Solo
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  • 1 month later...

I dunno, maybe it's that you have played the spec for much longer than I have but I am really enjoying Watchman in Onslaught. It might be my favorite Melee to play right now with Infiltration coming in hot right behind it.

There's a really nice flow to Watchman where everything except Force Melt is applied through the melee attacks and it all looks so smooth and there isn't really a break in the animations. Whenever I strike with Merciless Slash I feel like I am cleaving a huge chunk of flesh off the enemy and it usually provides a really big number to boost that feeling. Having Twin Saber Throw as part of the rotation is also amazing as it's definitely the selling point of a Sentinel in my opinion. :D

 

Now all of these aspects existed in the Spec before 6.0 so I will mention what I started to enjoy even more with the 6.0 stuff: Spiteful Saber, this Tactical is really well designed and feels almost too strong. I usually compare it to Serenity's Two Time Trouble and it really makes me appreciate it even more. It resulting in spamming "Slash" doesn't really hurt my enjoyment that much, though I admit whenever I engage in that phase in the rotation I feel like I should be doing something more powerful right now. But it passes away soon enough when I have so much centering thanks to it to pop Zen and use my other abilities and the fun can continue.

I don't mind refreshing Cauterize that much, but it feels much nicer to have it streamlined via Spiteful Saber. Though I cannot stand the animation it has on Marauder as it's way too floaty and awkward.

Malmourral Mask also has a really cool animation, I enjoy using it tremendously as it augments my favorite Watchman ability and makes it feel even stronger.

I really wish one of these would be built into the Discipline Path so I could have both up in every encounter.

 

Another nice QoL thing I got to mention from 6.0 : Hidden Power - I love this thing! Be it Flashpoints or Operations, it gives me something to do when readying up for a Boss encounter. Usually I am the first at the Boss anyways in Flashpoints so I have time to pop it on without issues and Operations usually have the ready check which allows for a window of opportunity. Just such a lovely treat and I am feeling the love Devs have given to Sentinels in this expansion. :)

 

Now regarding Overload Saber - I agree! It is a great example of a successful implementation of a DoT for a melee character. In other settings I could totally see it as a charge based enchantment or an envenomed weapon type ability that could bring lots of cool interactions to the table and it's awesome that BW is in a sense "pioneering" this style of ability execution, as I do not recall that many abilities from other games being done that way.

 

Overall, I am satisfied playing Watchman in 6.X so far. I sometimes switch things up by playing Shadow/Assassin but Watchman is pretty much my tried and true Main for this expansion and I am yet to regret it. :cool:

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Thank you for describing how you feel about it, that's really interesting to read for a long time player. And you got me thinking. You're probably right about this:

 

I dunno, maybe it's that you have played the spec for much longer than I have

 

Yeah, because in my opinion Watchman used to be even better, say...

 

Whenever I strike with Merciless Slash I feel like I am cleaving a huge chunk of flesh off the enemy and it usually provides a really big number to boost that feeling.

 

Absolutely!! It's simply the best thing Watchman has. Now imagine you could do it every six seconds. That's the way it used to be until 3.0. Our big fat signature ability every 4th GCD. Boy did that feel mighty!

 

Having Twin Saber Throw as part of the rotation is also amazing as it's definitely the selling point of a Sentinel in my opinion. :D

 

Yeah that was the first "new" ability we got and it's a great one and it fitted smoothly into the 4 GCD rotation we used to have. Best filler ever!

 

Spiteful Saber, this Tactical is really well designed and feels almost too strong.

 

It sure is a good one but there's two downsides to me for it: First the whole point about a melee dot spec in my opinions it to get the flow of it in applying dots at the right times and get e feel for where all the different fillers go. I simply miss Cauterize in our rotation. And its dot used to be six seconds only with higher part of the overall damage of the spec. It really hurt!

 

It resulting in spamming "Slash" doesn't really hurt my enjoyment that much, though I admit whenever I engage in that phase in the rotation I feel like I should be doing something more powerful right now.

 

Second: Yeah that exactly. To me Slash is just the blandest ability the Knight base class has and devs had stated multiple times that no cooldown fillers are not supposed to be a central part of a specc's rotation, because, guess what, that'd be boring. To me we traded high frequency Merciless Slash against Slash. That's a really bad deal imo.

 

But it passes away soon enough when I have so much centering thanks to it to pop Zen and use my other abilities and the fun can continue.

 

Zen on Cooldown is another point where the specc has become even more mindless. There used to be a best spot in the rotation to pop it and part of being engaged in the specc was tracking that. Now you just pop it whenever it lights up. Doh.

 

 

What's really boring to me is also that it doesn't make any difference how you play it. Whether you're doing well or not mostly depends on good or bad luck in passive resource generation so you can do even more generic filler attacks which makes it feel even worse when you're doing good dps. I don't want to sound elitist, but in a way the spec is mindnumbingly easy now with Spiteful Saber. The better things go, the less fun to play it is. Should be the other way around.

 

But as you said, it all probably depends on what you expect in the first place and I'm known to be pretty critical of the specc. The reason is, that I loved it soooo much when I played it in the early days. When my guildies got critical of the game in general in late 1.x and 2.x I always said that I didn't care whatever went wrong with the game, because I loved Watchman so much, that I'd be doing everything the game offers, even daylies, even as the last person on the server, because playing Watchman is such great fun. I couldn't believe it, when 3.0 came, the Cauterize proc was eliminated, our Signature Merciless Slash became much less frequent and as a new ability we got Watchman Vital Shot aka Force Melt. Boy!!

Edited by Ardarell_Solo
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For clarification, I used to play Watchman for a couple months in late 2016 but I fell in love with Combat later so it got kind of sidelined. However I've not even touched Combat in this expansion.

 

I simply miss Cauterize in our rotation. And its dot used to be six seconds only with higher part of the overall damage of the spec. It really hurt!

I do recall this being a core part of the gameplay back then and technically it still is without Spiteful Saber. However I do not feel like it is that integral for my enjoyment. The animation for Marauder's on Rupture is downright clunky and would be a definite dealbreaker for me with the Spec if the Watchman alternative wasn't smoother feeling.

 

Zen on Cooldown is another point where the specc has become even more mindless. There used to be a best spot in the rotation to pop it and part of being engaged in the specc was tracking that. Now you just pop it whenever it lights up.

 

Now this I can get behind more so. I instinctively tried to time my Zen in early 6.0 to align with the old timing from the past and I do think it'd be nicer if it was still like that. But this one also doesn't hurt my enjoyment because the gameplay loop is so smooth and enjoyable. It creates an illusion of choice with its RNG dishing out which big filler to use or if there even is a big filler.

 

Generally other DoT classes like Serenity and Balance feel clunky when reapplying their DoTs because they are "cast" and do not really have any impactful animation to front them, which most of Watchman's abilities have. I enjoy Vigilance because it never breaks its saber swinging and the DoTs just occur on the side.

Force Melt and Force Exhaustion & Focused Burst for Watchman and Concentration respectively break this flow a little but their other abilities make up for it just fine.

Watchman is like a river flowing (like how Combat used to feel in the past) through the enemy as it slowly erodes all in its path and that makes it beautiful. :D Whereas Concentration has this jagged, rough around the edges feel that has its own appeal as well.

Hope I made at least a lick of sense.

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You're totally making sense, I enjoy reading your thoughts :-)

 

I guess, case in point is, Watchman pre 3.0 was not your typical dot class. Dots duration was 6 secs short and there were only two of them, with one of them kinda happening automatically as well with OS/DS being off GCD. I'm sure had amplifiers existed back then, you would have gone weapon expertise instead of periodic intensity like now.

 

Vigilance is a very good example: Two of the dots are attached to hard hitting direct damage abilities, even the strongest longest dot has a decent direct damage component. So it's not your classic dot spec, you don't use periodic intensity on Vigilance as a result but force sensitivity/weapon expertise.

 

So they basically changed Watchman's identity as a short dot, long buildup but good direct damage and infight burst capability to your bland three long dot, wet noodle direct damage abilities class, with the only strong one being infrequent. Then they introduce a tactical that turns the dots into direct damage but this by using the most boring ability the whole base class has, rendering the spec much less elegant than it used to be.

 

I do agree with you it's more fun to play than serenity or balance, since I'm just not into long dot specs. That's why I'm so dissatisfied with how a very unique jack of all trades master of none spec got turned into one of those. I'd gladly do lower dps and trade that for playstyle as engaging and fun as it used to be. You're right about Vigilance now: It's the best alternative in 6.0...

 

I guess one reason why it happened is that 3.0 devs couldn't get a grip on the identities of all three watchman specs. Before you had Watchman as a long buildup, short dot, infight burst class, Combat as the hardest hitting burst spec of the whole game and Focus as the AoE spec. After 3.0 every specc was supposed to be Aoe capable, so the old system didn't work anymore. For some reason they turned Focus/Concentration into the burstiest spec, made Combat sth that to this day noone understands and Watchman was turned into Sentinel Serenity.

 

If you ask me: Make Watchman the class it was designed to be, give Combat its burst back and give Focus the good on demand infight burst it had but lower its sustained damage and you're all fine.

Edited by Ardarell_Solo
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  • 1 month later...

My bias is going to show up quickly, so I'll lay it out there: 2.X Annihilation is probably the best version of the spec.

I was thinking about this last night and my initial thought that one way to start fixing the mess was maybe to have Annihilation replace rupture completely, but I am not sure that may help in any way. I am personally leaning toward the idea is that there are "too many" abilities to use in the spec and the cooldowns are not meshing together.

 

Merciless on 6secs CD, having a 50% chance to reset Cauterize (12 sec CD, 6 secs dot length).

Slash, Dispatch, DST, Force Melt have a 33% chance to reset Cauterize.

Add a stack mechanic that gives you 1 stack of automatic Cauterize reset with every ability that resets Cauterize automatically with the 4th stack (Merciless applying two stacks).

 

I don't necessarily think that a 4 GCDs Annihilate is the only solution (but I'd love it). But there should be some consistency with the rotation via the CDs. Annihilate should share CD with one of the other main damage abilities, especially Force Rend.

 

For example:

 

Annihilate | Filler | Force Rend | Filler | Filler | Filler

Annihilate | Filler | Force Rend | Filler | Filler | Filler

 

That's 8 filler abilities, (2X)Ravage, DST, and Battering assault leaves us with 4 actual filler spots. Rupture might take one or two spots here (depending on reset), leaving us with 2 or 3 spots for actual fillers. Under 30% that would be 1 or 2 actual fillers since Vicious throw can be used consistently. Deadly saber would just float around since it is off the GCD.

 

 

The rage generation needs to be tight, but I'd think that would work.

Edited by znihilist
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  • 4 weeks later...
My bias is going to show up quickly, so I'll lay it out there: 2.X Annihilation is probably the best version of the spec.

That's 8 filler abilities, (2X)Ravage, DST, and Battering assault leaves us with 4 actual filler spots. Rupture might take one or two spots here (depending on reset), leaving us with 2 or 3 spots for actual fillers. Under 30% that would be 1 or 2 actual fillers since Vicious throw can be used consistently. Deadly saber would just float around since it is off the GCD.

I like the 2.x-3.x version of Anni the most and have the most experience with the 3.x incarnation. Current BiS tactical turning the rotation into a carnage-like filler fest kills a lot of fun in the spec, and 4.0 force leap changes removed the very interesting interaction between range and rage generation (although I get where the notion of separating mobility and dps comes from... Then again, Gathering Storm exists.

I'd just keep playing the SoR Anni, in all honesty, with just these 4x6 blocks of anni-filler-rupture-filler x3 and force rend coming every 2nd block. Having force choke for rage building at range was a good thing, too. Now the rupture resets and lots of extra rage result in even battering assault being used far from on cooldown. At this point I find myself drifting to Pyro instead but I hate with passion PT's base kit and I really love maras' one.

 

The current state of anni rotation is just disgraceful. I'd rather have the tactical increase the range on rupture for the times you're forced to disengage and possibly reduce cost than to have it refresh on the most boring condition ever.

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