Control Wizards have been in a problematic place for a while, so we wanted to take a good hard look at what they could do, what they brought to the party, and make some fairly big changes to them. These changes are slated for Module 4, Tyranny of Dragons.
Overview
Control Wizards do a lot of things really well, and their strength coupled with the amount of utility they bring to a party made them just overbearing, so we are tuning them way back with a large series of changes to their base powers and feats to bring them much more in line with where we want everyone to be.
Those presumably being:
i) Fix known bugs
ii) Tone down CWs in PvE in general
iii) Reduce the effectiveness of stacking CWs in PvE groups
iv) Provide three balanced yet distinctive playstyles through the feat trees
What changes did you like and think were on track?
Which changes fell short or were unnecessary? Of these, what would you do to improve them?
2) How can the three feat paths be further improved upon?
Oppressor
Thaumaturge
Renegade
What playstyle do you want to use or see in each?
Are there any feats you would change? How so?
3) If you could have one constructive change to CWs what would it be? (feel free to post more than one)
How would this change affect PvE and PvP?
Why is this change at the top of your list?
4) Are there any powers (at-will, encounter, passive, daily) that you would change? How?
5) Do you think the Spellstorm and Master of Flame paragons are balanced?
6) Do you have any other comments on CWs? (aesthetics, animations, etc.)
As always, please be constructive, respectful, and refrain from inflammatory comments in your answers.
I posted this basic idea back in mod3 when I first heard that the devs were gonna nerf CWs.
People should remember that in D&D, CWs are both Controllers and Strikers. And furthermore control does not mean just prones and stuns and moving mobs around, but also control via dealing AOE damage.
Thus the three feat paths should follow this basic formula:
Oppressor should offer excellent control via positioning and freezing, but unable to deal very much damage. This feat path should more clearly emphasize the Controller role of CW. The feats should be based on reducing cooldowns, extending durations of freezes and stuns, and increasing target caps of abilities.
Thaumaturge should offer buffs/debuffs and DoTs, much like how buff/debuff DCs work now except weighted more heavily towards DoTs than buff/debuffs. THIS is the feat path that should be the "party support" path, not Renegade. The feats should be based on different ways to apply the buffs/debuffs/DoTs. Frozen Power Transfer is an excellent example of this.
Renegades should offer excellent AOE damage, and the feats should be based on different ways to apply damage (higher crit chance, higher crit severity, higher combat advantage damage, etc.) This feat path should more clearly emphasize the Striker role of CW. IMO, the Transcended Master feat should be in the Renegade tree, not Thaumaturge. The tradeoff is that Renegades should suffer lower target caps and longer cooldowns for their abilities.
Comments
And no I don't know the drama behind that exploit. Sounds like it would be an interesting story, most likely featuring prominent PVPers.
New focus -- let's all be friends and talk about changes that affect CWs in both PvE and PvP positively
Some questions to provide more feedback going forward: (quote and throw in your responses)
1) Do you think the Devs succeeded in their goals for CWs in M4?
ii) Tone down CWs in PvE in general
iii) Reduce the effectiveness of stacking CWs in PvE groups
iv) Provide three balanced yet distinctive playstyles through the feat trees
What changes did you like and think were on track?
Which changes fell short or were unnecessary? Of these, what would you do to improve them?
2) How can the three feat paths be further improved upon?
Thaumaturge
Renegade
What playstyle do you want to use or see in each?
Are there any feats you would change? How so?
3) If you could have one constructive change to CWs what would it be? (feel free to post more than one)
Why is this change at the top of your list?
4) Are there any powers (at-will, encounter, passive, daily) that you would change? How?
5) Do you think the Spellstorm and Master of Flame paragons are balanced?
6) Do you have any other comments on CWs? (aesthetics, animations, etc.)
As always, please be constructive, respectful, and refrain from inflammatory comments in your answers.
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Then please only say "Spellstorm Thaumaturge needs to be toned down some", before they hit us SS Renegades even harder.
People should remember that in D&D, CWs are both Controllers and Strikers. And furthermore control does not mean just prones and stuns and moving mobs around, but also control via dealing AOE damage.
Thus the three feat paths should follow this basic formula:
Oppressor should offer excellent control via positioning and freezing, but unable to deal very much damage. This feat path should more clearly emphasize the Controller role of CW. The feats should be based on reducing cooldowns, extending durations of freezes and stuns, and increasing target caps of abilities.
Thaumaturge should offer buffs/debuffs and DoTs, much like how buff/debuff DCs work now except weighted more heavily towards DoTs than buff/debuffs. THIS is the feat path that should be the "party support" path, not Renegade. The feats should be based on different ways to apply the buffs/debuffs/DoTs. Frozen Power Transfer is an excellent example of this.
Renegades should offer excellent AOE damage, and the feats should be based on different ways to apply damage (higher crit chance, higher crit severity, higher combat advantage damage, etc.) This feat path should more clearly emphasize the Striker role of CW. IMO, the Transcended Master feat should be in the Renegade tree, not Thaumaturge. The tradeoff is that Renegades should suffer lower target caps and longer cooldowns for their abilities.