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Damage May Be Down, but Your Class is NOT Nerfed


Mapex

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Combat ratings have changed drastically with this patch, most noticeably Expertise. If you feel your class is nerfed (i.e. EVERYONE feels their class is nerfed), take a step back and analyze the situations in which your damage seems to be significantly lower than normal.

 

For instance, before this patch I was critting my Flame Bursts (Ion Pulse for Vanguards) for 1.7k to 2.2k consistently against targets (the lower end vs BM, the higher end vs non-PvP-geared). Last night I saw a Flame Burst crit for as high as 2.4k and as low as 1.1k! Flame Burst wasn't even touched in this patch! But I observed the warzones and a few key takeaways justified this damage variance:

 

1) Many players have come back from the dead for patch 1.2, some in full BM gear since February and others severely undergeared. My Flame Burst hasn't changed but the pool of gear against which it is hitting has drastically done so.

 

2) For PvP purposes, Expertise has had its mathematical formula fundamentally changed in which it is now the supreme PvP stat (don't be wearing PvE gear to PvP unless you severely outgear everyone). Against lower Expertise targets you will hit even harder than before but against higher Expertise foes your attacks will hit like wet noodles. If this weren't the case, there would be no point to PvP gear progression.

 

3) Now that PvP has so many objective-based medals, players I have noticed are trying to play more like a team. As a result of healing being significantly nerfed in PvP (it was out of control pre-1.2), healers need to rely on tanks to Guard them, who in turn need to rely on those same healers to stay alive (tanks are still squishy if two guys are beating on them after all). Your damage against a Guarded target AND when you yourself are Taunted is going to be miniscule. Your abilities are untouched; it's the teamplay that is annihilating you, teamplay that has seemingly improved over night for some weird reason.

 

4) Many abilities and talents were changed so there may be some bugs, but overall these changes serve some sort of purpose and you will find you can still be as effective if you vary up your rotations.

 

For instance, some AOEs such as Death from Above and Mortar Volley tick more frequently for less damage. The overall damage is exactly the same; please watch your ticks as opposed to only the numbers that pop up above people's heads. Please factor in all the aspects of an ability or tree skill before you say it is buffed or nerfed.

 

Now I am calling out Commandos/Mercenaries and PyroTech Powertechs/Assault Specialist Vanguards here but I am sure other classes are in the same boat. Yes, Tracer Missile/Grav Round is weaker. Yes, Rail Shot/High Impact Bolt will only refresh once every 6 seconds. THIS IS INTENDED.

 

The goal is to vary up your rotations so you can't just own with one button whenever it is off cooldown. The three mentioned specs should be using Unload more frequently. Arsenal/Gunnery should be using Heatseeker/Commando equivalent and PyroTech should be using Incendiary Missile/Thermal Detonator (and Assault Specialist equivalents) as part of your normal rotations!

 

Generally speaking if the talents in your skill tree mention a certain ability by name you should probably be using that ability. If you are not using it, there's a very good chance the lower tier skills will be modified (i.e. Prototype Particle Accelerator and Tracer Missile) so that you are using those other abilities. Each tree has a certain design and if players are able to bypass that design then the talents will be modified so as to conform those playstyles to the intended ones as the latter are easier to balance around.

 

5) Finally, some classes/synergies did get straight up nerfed. Yes, Madness Sorcs can't instant-cast Chain Lightning anymore. Scoundrels/Operatives I hope still can't stunlock you to death, even if it means using adrenal + relic. However, any unbiased observer would tell you that these were broken synergies that were not fun to fight against (or even remotely close to balanced) and this is why they were nerfed. In some cases you get nothing in return because you really didn't need it; you were powerful enough. In other cases there is something that mitigates the blows by improving an aspect at which you may have been underperforming (i.e. Scrapper/Concealment damage should be more sustainable than before).

 

 

In the long run the changes to the classes and the gear in this patch are good for the game. There may be some hiccups and some crazy issues that pop up by the end of the next week, but overall healing and damage have been reined in as they were scaling to levels that would be very difficult to manage in the coming months.

 

So my advice to everyone is just to sit tight and adapt to the new game. Get geared out and play the game "by the rules" (i.e. no more DMing in warzones, go get those objective-based medals; play your spec like it was intended) and I assure you that you will reap the rewards of better gameplay without feeling the sting of "nerfs."

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I'm not too familiar with the other classes you mentioned, but I have to agree the Tracer Missile "nerf" was hardly a nerf at all. Arsenal Mercs are doing much more damage than prior to 1.2 since our heavy hitters were Unload and Heatseeker Missiles anyway which both received substantial buffs. Not to mention you are much less noticeable in a crowd due to the animation change.
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Actually, I feel like the opposite happened - damage didn't go down, armor and healing did. Because Expertise now provides more of a DPS boost than it does a resist boost, as well as a much smaller heal boost, it is MUCH, MUCH easier to kill people in PVP than before if you have lots of Expertise. It is also much, much easier to die when focused (as it should be).

 

I think it's a positive change. Expertise made stalemates way too common when the entire server was BM+, and it gives tanks a much, much bigger role to play now that Heavy Armor Heals/DPS are not as tank-like as a real tank anymore.

 

I have about a 16/14% swing (DPS/Armor), two pieces of BM. My overall damage is considerably less than it was before the patch - I'm topping out at 180k and being middle of the list when I used to break 300k all the time and be the top of the list - but I also found it easier to get kills, and much easier to be killed. Before, I was virtually indestructible with Full Champ + BM Chest, but now I will be instagibbed if more than 2 people are attacking me at once.

 

It does seem like the top DPS aren't as overly dominant compared to the middle DPS, however. Since it's much easier to kill people, top DPS tend to not even break 200k anymore (since they need to do less damage before getting a kill), so the difference between the top of the list and the middle will be at most 30k.

Edited by Vid-szhite
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No its not fine.

 

The OP fails to mention, that sorcs/sages are 100% useless at healing in PVP, i would go as far to say the class is now pretty much pointless in PVP.

 

Balance is not even close, infact its even further with is sents/maras at the top of the food chain.

 

You want to know why the warzones were canned ?

 

Because they cant balance anything.

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