Split shot damage reduced by 45%, what does the future hold for us?

heiltdo1

Hello,
For details about the future HR path and skill balances go to:
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?635631-Curse-of-Icewind-Dale-Preview-Patch-Notes-NW-15-20140314a-5

Reading into our skill balances i found this:
"Split Shot damage has been reduced by about 45%"

Expected in my opinion, a bit severe tho...

Often i complained because split shot was so extremely powerful, that made it impossible for me to take it out of my At will bar. But after trying out other powers like, "electric shot" i did realize, they are way underpowered at the moment.

The new path seems like a fun supportish semi dps build that would probably be super awesome with nature, but in a game where you don't need anything more than arcane singularity and DPS, it's kinda pointless.

I'm probably making conclusions too early, i hope the power rework somehow makes others At wills better, and somehow shifts us from this CW, DPS meta.

kaixavier

This is why CoX died. Changes should never be made to a class unless you are actually playing that class on a regular bases like it is your job. Period. Splitshot is indeed what put the HR close to the dps amount of a GWF and CW. There is nothing of worth mentioned that keeps HR competitive for dps to make up for -45% damage from an at-will.

Looks either like class favoritism/neglect; or some one is making poorly informed decisions.

I actually play every current class in game and this killed any interest in playing a HR for me.

quitegonejin

this is some BS. Also pretty cowardly to not give legit reasons for wanting to destroy the classes viability. Is the HR that OP in their eyes? GWF getting more buffs to. WTF is going on?

goldheart

I am not agree with this.
This that they will make less useful one skill and will add new to other is just around to rework the class in way better for the same game.
We will see what will happen. We I mean this that will stay in game after the patch

quitegonejin

goldheart wrote: »

I am not agree with this.
This that they will make less useful one skill and will add new to other is just around to rework the class in way better for the same game.
We will see what will happen. We I mean this that will stay in game after the patch

Thank you, you make many valid counter points in your argument, and convey them with much tact, and intelligible, easy to understand, simplistic terms.

trueredemption

Hunter Ranger
Fox Shift: This power now correctly makes you immune to damage and control effects while you are jumping from target to target.
Fox Shift: This power now correctly only hits each target one time during its activation. Additionally, the power was erroneously ticking an additional time at the start of its activation and this has been fixed. To compensate for this change and the fact that the power now cannot strike a target more than once, damage has been increased by 33%.
Thorn Strike: This power has been reworked slightly. This power now has a 5' cylinder (up from 3'), a 13' reach (up from 11'), and has had the damage bonus reworked. This power now gains increased damage as enemy health diminishes. Additionally this bonus has been increased to a maximum of 30% (up from 15%).
A number of power tooltips have been updated to be more accurate.
Feat: Forest Walk: The movement speed effect no longer stacks with other movement speed buffs."
Forest Ghost: The movement speed effect no longer stacks with other movement speed buffs.
Oakskin heal can no longer be dodged.
Split Shot damage has been reduced by about 45%.

spacejew

Yup, it's over for HR's. Pathfinder looks interesting but I already know how that's going to end up. It doesn't pair well with anything but Nature and Nature is garbage. So that's a nonstarter, with both DPS tree's getting gutted through power nerfs. Melee will be the only DPS option, with Archery/Nature being different shades of trash.

Sadly, GWF are being gutted even worse so I hope you all have a fall back CW. The only class that withstands nerf cycles; the CW. Go figure.

adernath

I dont understand that rather large nerf either. Ok split shot was mostly used as the main dps ability, but only because the other aoe abilities just didnt made enough damage. And the damage HR did was not any higher than other classes. Maybe they want to turn the HR into a ranged single dps class (counterpart to TR), but currently I dont see any buffs for single dps either...

spacejew wrote: »

Sadly, GWF are being gutted even worse <snip>

For PvE? I dont think so.

ghoulz66

We gotta now tell the AI to stand still while we use rain of arrows and thorn ward on them just to put out enough damage.

Guess I'm going to be a full on melee spec now. Oh, it's okay for a CW to control and obliterate and entire mob and already have encounters nearly charged to repeat the process, but I can't soften them up anymore before I'm surrounded?

quitegonejin

ghoulz66 wrote: »

We gotta now tell the AI to stand still while we use rain of arrows and thorn ward on them just to put out enough damage.

Guess I'm going to be a full on melee spec now. Oh, it's okay for a CW to control and obliterate and entire mob and already have encounters nearly charged to repeat the process, but I can't soften them up anymore before I'm surrounded?

I wouldnt bother with melee spec either, ti's also being nerfed quite hard.

ghoulz66

quitegonejin wrote: »

I wouldnt bother with melee spec either, ti's also being nerfed quite hard.

Serious? I hardly even see anyone going melee to begin with!

heiltdo1

I'm running a nature build, is really fun if you unbind the x button.

Btw that pain give score screen is killing this game.

trith1128

I did a run last night. With a GWF Guildmate. Now my HR is pretty geared. Just about 15k GS, with Ion Stone + Normal Vorp. Maxxed boons too. Normally I can hold my own with the best of the best CW's. But last night, this GWF was literally dominating dmg. I have no idea how, but I never saw another class pull so far ahead.

Lucky for me. I have a 60 GWF sitting around collecting dust. Not that I want to play him, AT ALL. But its something to fall back on when my HR is useless and squishy. Split shot was the ONE move that made the class competitive. Every other encounter.. even with decent gear and a VORP only crits for 5 - 6k even HAWKSHOT only crits for around 11 - 12k.

Its pretty pathetic. Especially when you have a class like GWF's that can roll their FACES on the keyboard and do MASSIVE dmg.

ricorosebud

Just started playing Neverwinter, made a HR and a CW, LOVING the ranger so far. Please don't nerf my chosen toon into uselessness Cryptic, I want to enjoy this.

quitegonejin

ricorosebud wrote: »

Just started playing Neverwinter, made a HR and a CW, LOVING the ranger so far. Please don't nerf my chosen toon into uselessness Cryptic, I want to enjoy this.

Overbalancing into oblivion and ignoring peoples cries to fix the class for months is kinda how cryptic does things. Just ask a DC/GF.... TR's are lucky that their kit is so good that there's always something they can do because they were balanced into obscurity too. The HR is next on the chopping block.

ricorosebud

quitegonejin wrote: »

Overbalancing into oblivion and ignoring peoples cries to fix the class for months is kinda how cryptic does things. Just ask a DC/GF.... TR's are lucky that their kit is so good that there's always something they can do because they were balanced into obscurity too. The HR is next on the chopping block.

Vet of both Champions Online and Star Trek, I am more than familiar with Cryptics sometimes questionable decisions.


But I like the character and I won't abandon her, just play and hope for the great wheel to come 'round I suppose!

oicidraz

iamaudelus wrote: »

we'll i guess that's what free to play mmorpg's do... we can't complain cuz the games is free

we can't demand, but we can complain, i spent time and money on my HR, not gona w8 quiet until they turn my effort into trash.

quitegonejin

Aye, it is a business that they make a lot of money off of, not a charity. We can complain about poor service.

lymphan

After gwf nerf hr would be imba without nerfs too, so deal with it. They just need to fix stealth and it will be ok.

oicidraz

I dont know how they can do these thing, while GWF is so OP and HR always was in the charity slot:

Hunter Ranger

+ Fox Shift: This power now correctly makes you immune to damage and control effects while you are jumping from target to target.
- Fox Shift: This power now correctly only hits each target one time during its activation. Additionally, the power was erroneously ticking an additional time at the start of its activation and this has been fixed. To compensate for this change and the fact that the power now cannot strike a target more than once, damage has been increased by 33%.
+ Thorn Strike: This power has been reworked slightly. This power now has a 5' cylinder (up from 3'), a 13' reach (up from 11'), and has had the damage bonus reworked. This power now gains increased damage as enemy health diminishes. Additionally this bonus has been increased to a maximum of 30% (up from 15%).
A number of power tooltips have been updated to be more accurate.
- Feat: Forest Walk: The movement speed effect no longer stacks with other movement speed buffs."
- Forest Ghost: The movement speed effect no longer stacks with other movement speed buffs.
+ Oakskin heal can no longer be dodged.
- Split Shot damage has been reduced by about 45%.

Note that all the ones that i marked with (+) are "improvements", but they are all uselles trash, except maybe CC inmune while FS, but who will use it with the FS nerf?. And then we have 4 nerf, and the SS and FS nerf completely destroys the class for me.

Instead of that look at the changes in GWF, lol.

Great Weapon Fighter

Great Weapon Fighter Feats have been adjusted to move more damage deep into the Destroyer tree to make it more viable for a pure DPS build while reducing the damage that Sentinels can do so easily from early in on feat trees.
Steely Defense: This feat now correctly grants 4/8/12/16/20%.
Battle Awareness: Savage advance now grants shorter cooldowns for 15 seconds (up from 5).
Deep Gash: This feat can no longer crit. This feat now applies a bleed that ticks for 4/8/12/16/20% of your Power (up from 3/6/9/12/15%).
Deep Gash: This feat no longer gains additional damage from the power that applies it.
Deep Gash: This power no longer ticks immediately upon application. New applications will not reset the tick timer. Additionally this DoT now lasts 6 seconds (up from 5). It still ticks 6 times total.
+ Destroyer's Purpose: This feat now grants an additional effect. When you deal damage while Unstoppable, you gain a stack of Destroyer's Purpose (max 20). Each stack of Destroyer's Purpose increases your damage by 1%. Destroyer's Purpose lasts 20 seconds."
+ Executioner's Strike: Indomitable Battle Strike now deals a bonus 6/12/18/24/30% bonus damage as the target's health diminishes (up from 2/3/6/8/10%).
+ Focused Destroyer: This feat now grants an additional .5/1/1.5/2/2.5% bonus damage per stack of Destroyer.
+ Relentless Battle Fury: This feat now grants an additional effect. Activating Roar, Takedown, or Battle Fury now grants you Relentless. Relentless causes you to ignore an additional 1/2/3/4/5% of the target's resistance. Relentless lasts 5 seconds.
+ Student of the Sword: This feat has been redesigned. Your Critical Strikes now lower your target's Damage Resistance to your attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%. This effect cannot stack.

Do you see the difference?

qthephysicist

ricorosebud wrote: »

Just started playing Neverwinter, made a HR and a CW, LOVING the ranger so far. Please don't nerf my chosen toon into uselessness Cryptic, I want to enjoy this.

this! I just started getting into ranger (my first character is a GW, go figure) and now it looks like they are totally going to kill the fun for rangers. I mean, i already had a hard time learning how to be even marginally effective in pvp and now all the skills i use will be totally nerfed. this so bites! why would they do this?

pappabare1

What up with the Nerf? Since when are we over powdered?

skalt112

the news from the test server is not good....at all.

reiromani

Sometimes I compare Cryptic to a crack dealer. They'll give you the buzz for free for a while but when you need a fix they'll screw you. Was hard enough playing a ranger with the way threat is dealt with, One good aimed shot and the whole battlefield is on me but with out the AC to deal with it. They've gimped the HR's dodge to near useless, lowered the immunity window, and now cut the HR's saving grace at-will skill in half. Mean while have CW's even been touched? During the CTA I watched CWs clear entire fights with out threat so much as flickering to them, just singularity and what ever that ice attack is every where. I knew I, as a ranger player, was screwed when I saw the final scores at the end of a CTA showing the two CWs having taken 0(zero, nil, nadda, none) damage while leading the damage dealt department over a GWF, a HR, and a TR. I honestly have no idea why anyone plays anything but CW. Seems like that's what Cryptic wants considering I don't think CWs have even seen the nerf bat much less felt it.

bigbullyboy

Fox shift is the ONLY encounter that does any damage in pvp (it doesn't hit any harder than lashing blade, IBS or icy rays). Everything else hits for about 1-3k. Lol, how will i hurt someone? Its going to take a lot of 1-3k attacks to wear someone down. At least I enjoy my CW.

I dont pve often, but from a pve perspective, how can Cryptic improve GWF pve and make HR pvp worse?!

izidius

reiromani wrote: »

Sometimes I compare Cryptic to a crack dealer. They'll give you the buzz for free for a while but when you need a fix they'll screw you. Was hard enough playing a ranger with the way threat is dealt with, One good aimed shot and the whole battlefield is on me but with out the AC to deal with it. They've gimped the HR's dodge to near useless, lowered the immunity window, and now cut the HR's saving grace at-will skill in half. Mean while have CW's even been touched? During the CTA I watched CWs clear entire fights with out threat so much as flickering to them, just singularity and what ever that ice attack is every where. I knew I, as a ranger player, was screwed when I saw the final scores at the end of a CTA showing the two CWs having taken 0(zero, nil, nadda, none) damage while leading the damage dealt department over a GWF, a HR, and a TR. I honestly have no idea why anyone plays anything but CW. Seems like that's what Cryptic wants considering I don't think CWs have even seen the nerf bat much less felt it.

Wizards are fine...you should focus on saving your class from the nerf bat

reiromani

izidius wrote: »

Wizards are fine...you should focus on saving your class from the nerf bat

That IS my point. Wizards ARE fine... Untouched even. Saving the Hunter Ranger as a class shouldn't be a focus, It shouldn't even be a concern. But since you are SO wise in the ways of Cryptic's efforts, How do we save an obviously sinking ship?

izidius

reiromani wrote: »

That IS my point. Wizards ARE fine... Untouched even. Saving the Hunter Ranger as a class shouldn't be a focus, It shouldn't even be a concern. But since you are SO wise in the ways of Cryptic's efforts, How do we save an obviously sinking ship?

The rogues are the one's always getting hit...nerf after nerf after nerf, now POB will get nerfed...what other powers will they have left? So don't act like the Rangers are being singled out.

reiromani

izidius wrote: »

The rogues are the one's always getting hit...nerf after nerf after nerf, now POB will get nerfed...what other powers will they have left? So don't act like the Rangers are being singled out.

I, in no way, made any indication of rangers being singled out. If anything, my statement was that Wizards are being singled out. As wizards are seemingly the favorite. I know Rogues have gotten the short end of the stick, same with Guardian Fighters and Devoted Clerics. Seems like every class has gotten a game breaking nerf except one; The Control Wizard.

silence1x

I play an HR as my main and a GF as my alt. I know that CW's got a nerf back when mod 2 came out (or around that time) but it seems like every other class has been hit with nerfs in each release. While I realize that Cryptic is trying to balance things, I'd like to know who they're getting suggestions from. Apparently, they either only listen to CWs ("The HRs are killing us in PvP. Make 'em stop") OR they only play CWs with any regularity.

Fix the powers that we have, stop nerfing power after power (and don't forget the feats too). This game is great but between this and the constant grinding of dailys, it may lose its appeal for many.

badeacelrau

I am glad people finally realise how favouritism works in this game towards the CW. Yes, probably everyone playing the game knows CWs are the absolute masters of PVE, but it's not only that. What frustrates people is the fact that CW always dodges big nerfs and major reworks. We keep hoping for the day when "need CW" spam stops and other classes get a chance to show up but every time it's just empty promises. I remember how things were before module 2, everyone thought CWs are getting a nerf, what happened is they lost some control but gained damage buffs, so people started stacking even more CWs to be able to hold the CC longer.

Guess what is happening this time? They are making an excuse that too many things need to be adjusted on the CW and they don't have time for that, but it will be addressed in the future. Can you see the pattern? Another empty promise! They never got time to adjust the CW but they sure can throw a -30% or maybe even bigger DPS nerf on HR(making an educated guesstimate here, havent charted my damage on HR recently but someone probably can confirm) .... and HR wasn't even competitive.

Last, we all know 90% of things from Preview go to Live, which shows how much these guys care for playtesting. I guess the Preview is only for smart traders to prepare for market changes, because the devs never acknowledge their failure so far and completely remove major changes that worked poorly. Yeah... I lost all hope.