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GWF Role (Reredux)
rkv13
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 217 Bounty Hunter
This thread has been posted several times, I know, but seeing as how the issue still has not been addressed I feel we as a community must continue to discuss it until we are noticed.
Is the GWF a Striker or a Defender?
It seems like the devs want them to be a hybrid, but as everyone knows hybrids are absolute HAMSTER. Being mediocre at 2 roles instead of strong in one makes for a very weak class. So they need to decide which role this one should take.
In my opinion, the GWF should be a Defender. In 4th Edition all Fighters are Defenders, meaning Guardian Fighters, Great Weapon Fighters, Battlerager Fighters, Two-Weapon Fighters, etc etc etc are ALL Defenders. They have different "secondary roles" of Striker/Leader/Controller, but still the Defender role remains primary.
I would give the GWF more threat generation and survivability, specifically in the way of damage reduction (defense, deflect) and self-healing/life steal to make up for the lack of a truly effective Defensive Ability (Dash). At present their damage is sub-par, so you could probably leave it untouched and still have a balanced class. Unstoppable and Dash allow the GWF to stay in melee range very effectively, and they seem to have a good bit of CC that allows them to really cripple their chosen victim; give them a few more options like that and you've got yourself a fine tank/disruptor/Defender.
If the devs want to make the GWF a Striker instead, then they should call it a Barbarian (an actual two-handed weapon wielding Striker from 4E) and bump them down to Hide armor.
Is the GWF a Striker or a Defender?
It seems like the devs want them to be a hybrid, but as everyone knows hybrids are absolute HAMSTER. Being mediocre at 2 roles instead of strong in one makes for a very weak class. So they need to decide which role this one should take.
In my opinion, the GWF should be a Defender. In 4th Edition all Fighters are Defenders, meaning Guardian Fighters, Great Weapon Fighters, Battlerager Fighters, Two-Weapon Fighters, etc etc etc are ALL Defenders. They have different "secondary roles" of Striker/Leader/Controller, but still the Defender role remains primary.
I would give the GWF more threat generation and survivability, specifically in the way of damage reduction (defense, deflect) and self-healing/life steal to make up for the lack of a truly effective Defensive Ability (Dash). At present their damage is sub-par, so you could probably leave it untouched and still have a balanced class. Unstoppable and Dash allow the GWF to stay in melee range very effectively, and they seem to have a good bit of CC that allows them to really cripple their chosen victim; give them a few more options like that and you've got yourself a fine tank/disruptor/Defender.
If the devs want to make the GWF a Striker instead, then they should call it a Barbarian (an actual two-handed weapon wielding Striker from 4E) and bump them down to Hide armor.
Post edited by rkv13 on
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I wish that were the case but (in my experience) Neverwinter has been designed with a "Holy Trinity" system -- after a fashion. Cryptic is trying to be as true to 4th Edition rules as they can for authenticity's sake, meaning they're built around the Four Archetypes of Controller/Defender/Leader/Striker. That means any class that does not fit the system will be impossible to balance, either swaying too strong or too weak because their power scales in a way the system cannot support.
That's exactly the problem; they deviated from the established system. All the other classes fit a defined archetype: Guardian Fighters are Defenders, Trickster Rogues are Strikers, Devoted Clerics are Leaders, and Control Wizards are Controllers (it's even in the name!). Great Weapon Fighters are the only class that doesn't follow the system, and they are suffering for it.
The devs had the best intentions in trying to incorporate a hybrid class. I would love to see the GWF so customizable that a DPS spec would make it a Striker and a tanking spec would make it a Defender, but I just don't see it happening. There are limits to what a developing studio can accomplish with funding/manpower/competency of staff/etc.
That's only a problem if one considers it a problem. I don't find my GWF to be suffering at all. They can't be a Striker of Defender because they are designed to be hybrid. However, one can make them lean more to the 'striky' side or more to the 'defendy' side, as preference dictates. Yeah, it's not 'by the book', but more that fit the pigeon holes are no doubt on the way.
Every family needs one red-headed stepchild.
With that in mind though it seems that a pure DPS focsed GF will out damage a DPS and out tank a Dps specced GWF, because the conversion for the the GF's at wills do more damage than a GWF at wills with a lower damage weapon. This really needs to be addressed. A Damage dealing GWF needs to out damage a damage dealing GF and still have some sort of tank viability (IE both threat and survivability). While a Defense built GF needs to out threat a GWF that just focuses on Defense.
GWF needs to be a smash tank, let the GF be the I block and still hold threat tank
lol! xD
I agree we can expect more hybrid classes to be on the way and we'll see in time if they work out. It's still Open Beta so tweaks are coming and maybe they'll fix the issues I and many others on the forums have been seeing with the GWF. I have my reservations.
Now if a GWF is going to be a hybrid then a different decision must be made: should a GWF be able to be both a Striker and Defender at the same time (as you suggest as compared to GFs), or must they build toward one or the other as they choose (as knightfalz and I have mentioned)?
Let the player decide what his GWF is to be.