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Please fix the obvious mistakes in the Wizard nerfs

lukejones77lukejones77 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 282 Arc User
Devs, you earlier made a clear assessment that the Arcanist was over-performing by a significant amount, but that the Thaum was under-performing by a significant amount.

Then you made the following changes:
Arcanist:
  • Chaos Magic: now has a 5% chance to trigger [down from 10%]
  • A Step Above Mastery: now grants 0.5% damage per stack instead of 1%
  • Arcane Presence: no longer grants 5% recharge speed
  • Chilling Presence: now grants 0.5% damage per stack [down from 1%]
  • Storm Spell: now has a 20% chance to trigger [down from 30%]
Thaumaturge:
  • Icy Rays - magnitude increased to 300-450 [from 275-400, 12% increase]
  • Chill Strike - magnitude increased to 450 [from 400, 12% increase]
  • Shatterstrike - now does 150 magnitude to control immune targets
  • Frigid Winds - now does 1.25% extra damage per chill stack on the target
The really bad mistake here is that whoever did this forgot that Thaus rely on Chilling Presence, and forgot to list the nerf against the Thau's set of changes. They actually nerfed the Thau, instead of buffing it.

The Thau hasn't had anywhere near the buff it needs, and has gone backwards:
- Going backwards by 3% on all damage, given 6 chill stacks
- The increase to Frigid winds doesn't even make up for the nerf to Chilling Presence. Gone backwards overall by 0.25%, and can't access ShatterStrike, as it's the feat partner.
- The Icy rays and Chill Strike are therefore only 9%, and don't count that much for Thau dmg in real play.

The Arcanist isn't over-powered with AOE. Everyone knows the issue (which I agree with), was single target damage with big bursts when Step Above Mastery combines with the daily Arcane Empowerment.
The single target powers, during the daily, made the difference.

But, this isn't what you addressed. Instead, you've done an across the board nerf that hits AOE as well as the single targets, and wrecked Arcanist.

I tested the variations on live and preview (no demon lord set, same guild boons), and they perform as badly as expected.

Now, we have a poorly performing Arcanist, and still a poorly performing Thau.
As far as class relevance is concerned, it's a double hit with all the buffing you're doing to other classes.

Amazed that all this got past the beta testers, I checked in with them. Turns out you applied these changes afterwards, and it looks very much as if these changes were done with a finger in the air, complete with abvious mistakes, and lacking any appropriate testing.

Please don't do this to Wizards again. We spent years in the wilderness from mod 6, peaking at ToNG, until mod 16. Don't alienate another set of players with ill-advised nerfs.

PS: Nicely done with the demon lord set nerf. That over-powered set was long past it's time.

Comments

  • kalina311kalina311 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,082 Arc User
    edited December 2019
    You can add the nerf/ buggy implementations of the mod 18 CW shield on and off tab/mastery to the list
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