During the past few weeks myself and a few others have noticed and followed up many imbalances throughout pvp and attributes. We have kept any biased opinions away from the changes that we've seen the best for the following talents, abilities and attributes.
Any posts in this thread are advised to be constructive and justified, we're trying to suggest the best possible fixes that will balance pvp fairly. This thread is not based on level, this is purely based on class, attributes and talents.
What will be addressed in this thread?
- Class balance (melee is not a viable choice for pvp)
- Talent balances
- Ability balances
- Attribute balances to make some attributes a more viable choice (for both pvp and pve situations)
Class balance
As of now melee is not a viable choice in a pvp game. Despite the only class we've had time to asses, which is assassin this also applies to warriors and templars when looking at their talent trees.
This screenshot shows a team that includes Jack (40 mage), Blue (40 Ranger) and Elaes (40 Ranger) against myself (40 assassin), Dan (40 assassin) and Popa (40 Hybrid build, assassin tree)
There is no way for melee to approach a ranged class without getting 1-2 shot or perma silenced (which I will go into).
Class balance in pvp fix
Add a -30% global damage reduction while in the pvp battlegrounds and trappers atoll (if possible make this a pvp only debuff, meaning if you want to attack creatures on trappers this doesn't effect the pve side of combat). This damage reduction should allow melee classes to reach their targets without being 1-2 shot in the process.
Talent balance
Jolt
Jolt, this ability is the only ranged ability melee classes have whilst being a global ability with talents for each melee class.
Warrior -
Assassin -
Templar -
As you can see with all 3 screenshots the warriors talent is hugely buffed up compared to the assassin and templar, not only does it require 1 point but the assassin which requires 2 points even lacks an extra second and the extra damage that the warrior has.
Jolt is a very useful and required ability for any melee class in pvp, this is either used for silencing the target when despair isn't available or used as a kill finisher for any class that tries to make a runner.
Jolt balances (fix)
There are a few different approaches that could be taken here, the ones we/I thought up are either:
- Change the assassin and Templar trees to match the warriors talent, so basically have this as a "shared talent". However if this is chosen a player must only be allowed to have 1 jolt talent, otherwise this would be very OP if a player decided to play a hybrid build with 1 point in each jolt.
The more versatile and "better" suggestion.
- Remove the extra silence duration for assassin and add 50% damage and snares for 1 second (1 point). 100% extra damage and snares for 2 seconds (2 points).
Change the templar talent to 5% damage reduction for 5 seconds (1 point) and 10% damage reduction for 10 seconds (2 points), while keeping the current max ranged on it.
Change the warrior talent so there is no silence duration increase. Instead add 15% armor reduction for 5 seconds, keep the current extra damage that is applied when the talent is taken.
Soulfire (End-tree talent)
Soulfire's lifesteal would be slightly more useful for an assassin rather than just an "ability" reset if the life steal healed of bleed damage.
Right now in a pve situation an assassin will heal maybe near 1k hp tops when going full out dps with damage modifiers. In a pvp situation you'll pop this ability and get maybe a 100-300hp heal.
Rangers and mages have their distance and heals, warriors and templar have their defense and modifiers, allow assassin their lifesteal.
Bleeds take up so much of the assassins damage and assassins rely allot on bleeds to get the Job done, while this would be a little change it would be noticeable.
This wouldn't make a significant difference in pve situations. It's not like healing 10% life off a bleeds doing 25-45 damage per second for a limited amount of time will make assassin invisible.
Soulfire fix
Allow lifesteal to heal off bleed damage.
Ability balance
Despair (AOE Silence)
This ability is an "all-class" 100 gold level 25 ability that will be affordable, easily obtained and used by every class.
As of now I'd say this is the most overpowered ability with all of the advantages that come with it to different classes and builds.
Jack (40 mage) is able to perma silence players with his current build, his mix of haste, the abilities cooldown and limited restrictions makes this possible.
This ability needs to be tuned down.
Despair (Silence) fix
To fix silence and the abuse of despair which can also be used in tandem with jolt the following should be added/changed:
- Add a global "silence immunity" much like stun immunity, infact copy stun immunity here. This is a top priority add (in our opinion).
Ignite (Single target burst)
Ignite is currently the most powerful ability in the game.
With the current 2 talents added this ability has a huge instant 300% spell dps on the target, with a 15 second base cooldown this is extremely OP. Mages will already have high haste, and with the assassin buff they could decide to (but it may not be the most effective method) hit this ability, kite for a few seconds repeat.
Comparing this to an assassin talent which can be used roughly around the same level of this ability with the talents "Lobotomize". Lobotomize has a base damage of 150% and with 6 blood-stacks is raised to 270% weapon damage, the stacks are not easy to raise in pvp. Especially on moving targets.
Ignite fix
To balance ignite I suggest lowering the base Damage to 150%, that was the mage will still have a 200% burst with 2 talent points.
Increasing the cooldown to 30 seconds would also be good.
Cauterize
There is no doubt that cauterize is a must have ability for any mage/prophet, even other classes may take this as it can heal a nice small chunk of health.
The ability is basically like having an extra huge HP pot for mages/prophets in pvp.
There is no need for such an overpowered ability in pvp/pve.
Cauterize fix
Make cauterize a PvE only ability (best option if possible).
or
Nerf Cauterize to a global 300% spell healing
Envenom
This was bought to my attention by "Blue" (level 40 ranger who has done more pvp than any of us during release).
This bleed is almost tripled in damage compared to any other target bleed in the game.
With the talent Envenom is raised to 84% damage and 5 seconds, leaving a 5 second gap (not factoring in haste) when Envenom will be down on a target.
Because ranger can easily evade targets, popping an Envenom and running off can take some targets to 50% hp.
Enveom fix
Nerf Enveom to a base 40% damage per second, without the talent this will still be a 120% damage bleed with a short cooldown.
Edited by Neon, 06 January 2014 - 19:44.