Mr. GMC, what about conqueror specs? All i keep seeing is tank this, tank that , tank here, tank there. For example, i am not going to play my GF as a tank. Can we address it's damage output and stat passives a little further? There's already plenty of suggestions on this thread about how to accomplish that.
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Do your internal testing against a perma stealth TR, a dodge crazy HR, a sprinting GWF, please. If our block depeletes just by holding our shield up... what's going to happen? Considered these classes have ways to literally get immune from damage for more than 5 seconds or just are able to run away. Especially with the 80% mitigation, what is going to happen, if a TR attacks us from stealth? We will be left with 50% power, an already damaged health pool and then certain classes can just finish us off, with ease.
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Thanks for reading.
BOOM! Well said.
Ill repost here suggestion:
CON = 4% HP and 1% ARP
DEX = 1% DEFLECT and .5% CRIT
Just boosted tankiness for GFs AND damage from crit now being on stats (the ONLY class without crit stat buff)
Also PLEASE re-work the Capstone Conqueror Feat if doing this change to block. Two ideas off the top of my head:
1) Increased damage based on missing HP of the GF - "reckless attacker"
2) gain stacks while attacking - almost like GWFs Destroyer - but stacks disappear if/once you block. So again "reckless attacker"
I mean even the official DnD rules "Reckless Attacker" grants you an "extra attack" on a crit. So shoot, give GFs crit on Dexterity, enable crit builds this way, and change this feat to grant like a damage bonus for 6 seconds after a crit or something....
Saw the income changes and seemed to be going in the right direction Mr. Crush...
Though you should improve the Swordsman Paragon a tiny bit more. Even though you increased the damage for Weaponmaster's Strike and Flourish, the problem is that Weaponmaster's Strike damage drops after attacking the first mob, them damage decreases for everyone mob after. The increase in damage would be still a little weak. As Flourish, this ability would be good if it was AOE attack, but at the moment the Flourish attack is rather limited to one target unless you are lucky that another mob is virtually on top of each other.
Weaponmaster's Strike - should be a single/multi target attack with a stacking debuff or some sort DoT damage. Current debuff to short
Flourish - this attack should be either a cone that effect three or four targets or increase the size of the cyclinder to 5 feet instead of the current 3 feet which is too narrow.
These suggestion hopefully not overpowered but also give a bit more reason for a player to use, atm, I have not seen any GF use either power. Also, hope you do work Griffon's Wrath, as it's current form is rather useless or pointless to have slotted in power bar at the moment. Just ask any GF player if they would use if Griffon's Wrath is given some power such as bleed effect or knockback/down effect instead of stun with a slightly longer range to hit like 7 or 8 feet?
Anyhow. how you devs do seriously look over all the powers of the GF in both Paragons because in the end, those powers make the GF, but who want to use them if they are useless without any reason to use them.
As for the reasoning as to why we changed block the way we did I have to explain how old block worked and why it was problematic. Old block functioned as a secondary HP bar that was calculated based on your maximum HP and feats, and could not be drained more than 20% in any single hit. While this sounds good on paper in practice it actually means that when you manage to pull aggro on enough targets you end up getting the whole meter drained out rapidly (sometimes in only 5 hits depending on how strong the foes were). This then left the Guardian with no tools left in his kit. It also provided complete damage protection which meant that healers had to be ready for large spikes of incoming burst damage, and the only way to respond to that in time was to have a lot of heal over time effects rolling so that when those spikes of damage came in there were heals already coming in.
Given those problems we wanted to give the Guardian more control over his survivability as well as increase the symbiotic relationship between healers and tanks so healers can have more options added to their toolkit beyond "put down astral shield". To do this we decided that block shouldn't eat ALL incoming damage and should also get stronger as your damage resistance does. To facilitate this we have changed block to be an 80% multiplicative buff (this means that the damage you would have taken gets multiplied by .2 while block is active). This means that your armor still matters a lot, and defensive improvements always help you. It also means that healers face far less spikes of large damage and see much more consistent incoming damage on tanks, which makes it much easier to deal with changes on the battlefield, and when we get a chance to look at Clerics means we can give them more styles of healing that make sense in more situations. Given these new changes we also wanted to make taunting and mob control more potent so Guardians can better fill the role of grabbing foes and gathering them up so your allies can destroy them with impunity.
We would like to see testing performed in dungeons and in PVP matches to see how the changes have adjusted that gameplay. We are also well aware that Guardians can no longer preemptively just hold up their shield indefinitely. We want Guardians to have to choose their timing more carefully but be rewarded for doing so, and the new block system provided much more of that feeling during our internal testing.
Thank you all for your continued feedback.
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Thanks for taking the time to clarify some things
I wanted to know, did you thought that perhaps instead of changing the mechanics of the shield we could have improved the previous one?, for example to slightly improve the regen and HP pool of the shield, rise it faster and maybe, make it impossible to drain more than 15% in a single hit and to avoid these spikes of incoming burst damage you could make that a tiny % of the damage passes through the shield (just like in preview) but you could make that a % of our incoming heals go to our shield too, so if we have a DC we could have our shield up for much longer..., I liked the old system and I thought it just needed a little rework, I don't like this system .
I wanted to know, did you thought that perhaps instead of changing the mechanics of the shield we could have improved the previous one?, for example to slightly improve the regen and HP pool of the shield, rise it faster and maybe to avoid these spikes of incoming burst damage you could make that a % of our incoming heals go to our shield, so if we have a DC we could have our shield up for much longer... I don't care if a tiny % of the damage passes through the shield, but I liked the old system and I thought it just needed a little rework, I don't like this system.
We actually looked at various systems that would allow block and healing to interact, but at the end of the day all of them were incredibly complicated and changed the basic interactions between GFs and healing rather than letting healing work the same on everyone. It made them all much more confusing. So as a compromise we decided to give GFs what amounts to a faucet where they can turn up and down the rate at which they take damage, allowing them to work alongside a healer to make sure they are ready for any situation. This also paves the way to improving Clerics down the road and letting them fill much more diverse roles in a party. The former system also suffered from being very binary. You either could handle all incoming damage and it was great, or your shield shattered and you had no good options left beyond trying to kite. This system smooths that out quite a bit.
Hopefully that helps clear up why we went with the system we did.
We actually looked at various systems that would allow block and healing to interact, but at the end of the day all of them were incredibly complicated and changed the basic interactions between GFs and healing rather than letting healing work the same on everyone. It made them all much more confusing. So as a compromise we decided to give GFs what amounts to a faucet where they can turn up and down the rate at which they take damage, allowing them to work alongside a healer to make sure they are ready for any situation. This also paves the way to improving Clerics down the road and letting them fill much more diverse roles in a party. The former system also suffered from being very binary. You either could handle all incoming damage and it was great, or your shield shattered and you had no good options left beyond trying to kite. This system smooths that out quite a bit.
Hopefully that helps clear up why we went with the system we did.
I can appreciate the change to block once we have the increased base duration to test around with I will give my supplemental suggestion to that. I will test both iron vanguard and swordmaster and with the changes to swordmaster may actually use it once it goes live.
Ok I tried the Guard I didn't like it! I know Chris said he will increase its duration substantially ... But I am not understanding taking damage when i block an attack? I did some PVE and PVP, against mobs I really liked the movement speed but its was to much... YES to much while guarded 50% MAXIMUM I could run around in guard like I was Flash Gordon!
The guard we shall see right now it lasts 4 seconds without being attacked? I fought a TR and they hit me with a duelist fury I raised block and they were still in duelist fury and my guard was broken and I was jumping away useless?
So in conclusion Guarded speed was nice but to much 50% GF speed in guard, Guard needs 30%-50% more time, Regen time on guard seemed to be really long? 4 seconds down took maybe 15 seconds to refill?
The old guard was better if you could add a higher HP point?
Shieldbash60 GF ~ Iron Vanguard19.0k Overpowered60 CW~ Thaumaturge14.5k ==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
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brynicstormbornMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 41
No - thank you for taking the time to drop by and give an explanation.
I understand wanting to give healers a more consistent health drain on GFs. Maybe the increased stamina meter and the cc immunity will make up for it. Have you guys considered any changes to GFs passive resistance like the changes I suggested for defense/deflection? If the GF had more passive resistance (even as a protector build I barely pull 51% DR and 27% deflect) that would make the 80% block less of an issue. I particularly think the GF needs a lot of help in the deflection department, but I also think that an increase to defense scaling is needed as well. At 15k gear score on a defense oriented build, I'd like to see my DR around 60% and my deflect around 35-40%.
Since GF is supposedly the main tank class, make GFs naturally the tankiest than all other classes regardless of Paragon Path (i.e. more HP bonus, higher Damage Resistance Bonus, and greater DPS debuff effects on enemies) by improving Heroic Feats' effects like the following: Toughness 10%/15%/20%, Distracting Shield 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%, Armor Specialization 10%/15%/20%, etc.
More or less, it would help equalize the playing field of the GF against a DPS class in PvP without increasing GF DPS since it isn't a DPS class (e.g. debuffing GWF's DPS); and it would also make GF a better meat shield in PvE.
Additionally, I think its also good to make Tide of Iron have the ability to remove enemy buffs - that would make it more handy; and please DO NOT change the existing Threatening Rush charge up unless if you increase GF's run speed SIGNIFICANTLY!
We actually looked at various systems that would allow block and healing to interact, but at the end of the day all of them were incredibly complicated and changed the basic interactions between GFs and healing rather than letting healing work the same on everyone. It made them all much more confusing. So as a compromise we decided to give GFs what amounts to a faucet where they can turn up and down the rate at which they take damage, allowing them to work alongside a healer to make sure they are ready for any situation. This also paves the way to improving Clerics down the road and letting them fill much more diverse roles in a party. The former system also suffered from being very binary. You either could handle all incoming damage and it was great, or your shield shattered and you had no good options left beyond trying to kite. This system smooths that out quite a bit.
Hopefully that helps clear up why we went with the system we did.
Mmmm, thanks for the response , you made me think and one way to completely remove this binary behavior would be to have an unlimited Shield which could block something like the 65% of all the incoming damage, we could be good Tanks with a very good and consistent defense and it would give more flexibility to the class (because we could always have the shield available for use, but we could still die anyway), it would almost remove the burst damage (except if we make fatal mistakes), and it wouldn't be OP because we would be getting 35% of the damage we would normally receive no matter what and in PvP is not very complicated to hit a GF from the side or from behind, even for another GF which is the slowest Class in the game... at least we could test it and see how it works...
EDIT: Another thing I wanted to say is that our weapons have a very low damage, very very low, I don't care if we still have one of the worst weapon damage, but I think we have even worse numbers than the weapons of the DC Class (we are guardias and a support class, but we have the word "fighters" in our class also ) and compared to the other classes we are behind by a lot, I think our weapons need slightly more damage...
We actually looked at various systems that would allow block and healing to interact, but at the end of the day all of them were incredibly complicated and changed the basic interactions between GFs and healing rather than letting healing work the same on everyone. It made them all much more confusing. So as a compromise we decided to give GFs what amounts to a faucet where they can turn up and down the rate at which they take damage, allowing them to work alongside a healer to make sure they are ready for any situation. This also paves the way to improving Clerics down the road and letting them fill much more diverse roles in a party. The former system also suffered from being very binary. You either could handle all incoming damage and it was great, or your shield shattered and you had no good options left beyond trying to kite. This system smooths that out quite a bit.
Hopefully that helps clear up why we went with the system we did.
Dear Mr. Meyer
This whole balancing, rebalancing, nerfing and buffing will NEVER work unless you get 2 different systems -> one for PvE and the other for PvP
I only play PvP. I do not have to aggro 20 mobs, i need to preemptive raise my shield because no matter how good my reflexes are, i can't react to a stealth lashing blade from a TR.
While i can dig the changes for purely PvE play, why do my class needs to get punished for enjoying only PvP? I can't have a healer by my side in PvP every time.
If this new guard mechanic goes live, the GF is just a sitting duck, waiting to get slayed. Every opponent will wait out the stamina drain or just attack if the GF is hesitant to raise his shield.
Please Chris, we PvP GFs really need the old guard mechanic back! You don't even have to buff it, leave it as it is but i need to raise my shield without "penalty" and once i block, no damage should go thru, unless the meter is broken -> aka the shield is destroyed.
Feedback: Block. - Okay, so I tested how effective this current Block mechanic is by soloing Heroic Karrundax up until Pyraphenia. The test lasted a good 1 hour, with a Tactician Swordmaster build that aims to absorb damage and heal as much as possible by passive heals like Life Steal and Regen. I have 10% in each stat and 50% DR, and a decent amount of HP thanks to the new changes. What I'd do is I would run from the start of an area up until the point where I can't run anymore, amassing as much mobs as I could. And surprisingly, this new Block mechanic is absurdly good.
One of the most notable things I saw is that the new Block system truly lived up to how the devs said it would. I tried my best to break it to its breaking point and I'm impressed, I was able to tank more than 40 mobs (but of course, with a build optimized for tanking), with Reflect being my main source of damage (Blacksmith, Renegade Evoker, Fey Thistle, and Supremacy of Steel from time to time). The revamped Block mechanic allowed me to endure the barrage of more than 40 mobs. I would not have been able to do this if I were using the previous Block Mechanic. I can say for sure that the Enforced Threat changes complement this new Block Mechanic, as it effectively allows us tanks to take an absurd amount of blows that we otherwise would not be able to survive with the previous mechanic. 20 mobs is insta-suicide? I don't think so, at least not anymore after I tested it. Although I admit that I did have suspicions that it may be the case, but after I saw what I saw, I wholeheartedly know that 20 mobs is no problem for a GF spec-ed as a tank since I went beyond 20 from my tests. If guard is down, we kite. If guard is up, we tank.
One of the gripe I have with the new mechanic however is that the duration feels so short, like what everyone else has been saying. But I just saw the recent post made by Gentlemencrush about prolonging the duration of the Guard Mechanic, and I personally want that. Another is that there are no sounds for blocking attacks anymore. Third, the area I am able to cover with Block feels limited. I wish I had something to improve my guard area significantly.
Feedback: Tab Mechanic and its interactions with our Encounter Powers. - Right now, there are zero interactions with our Tab Mechanic and our Encounter Powers. Class Mechanic interactions usually make playing a class fun. The TRs get a bonus effect to their encounters when used from Stealth, CWs get a bonus to their encounters when placed in the Tab Slot, DCs get extra effects when used in Divinity Mode, and HRs get 6 encounters in total with their Tab Mechanic. Why not make it so that GF skills gain certain bonuses when used on targets that are Marked or have the Supreme Mark on them? Just a little feedback on the GFs currently bland Tab Mechanic.
Feedback: Guard for PVP.
- I believe that the Block cooldown should be reduced to 0 (zero), just to maximize its responsiveness to player commands. This will effectively make Block competitive in PVP as well, because we will no longer have to worry about not being able to block in time when we clearly sensed the need to do so in the middle of a battle.
feedback in pvp the new block meter is really bad in comparison to the old one. The fact that we don't block 100% of the damage gets me killed alot and it doesnt show of as "block" makes it hard to find a perma stealth. This was crucial when dealing with rogues. Please the old guard meter did not need this change, the fact that i cannot kill people like some trs and gwf that i beat on live easily because of how easily my guard depletes on the test shard screams something. If this was meant to be a nerf you guys have surely succeeded otherwise leave the guard meter as it is now thank you.
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brynicstormbornMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 41
edited June 2014
I've been doing more testing on the new block - specifically on the block at-wills. The block meter lasts so short of a period of time, and the at-wills make so little difference (shield slam seems to make no difference in the length of my guard, and I don't notice the increased threat from stab -- especially with enforced threat), that they do not seem to really have a purpose any longer. I don't really see that increasing the stamina meter size (or decreasing drain rate - I'm not sure how it's actually happening from a programming point of view) will help that.
I'd like to see a change to the Balanced Shield Fighter feat. Right now the feat is basically wasting space in a tree that isn't focused on damage anyway, and will be even worse once the stamina based guard goes into effect.
Keeping with the idea of balance (adding DPS to a mitigation tree) I'd like to see a feat that improves Guarded Assault, but I'd be okay with just about any change.
- B
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lvl99looterMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 682Arc User
We actually looked at various systems that would allow block and healing to interact, but at the end of the day all of them were incredibly complicated and changed the basic interactions between GFs and healing rather than letting healing work the same on everyone.
Brah there's a MUCH easier solution... It's called Enduring Warrior, and all you have to do is buff it lol...
Btw, keep up the decent communication. This is the first time I've seen a Dev somewhat active in the Forums.
What if I want to just use my stabbing at-will...well at will ? I'm beating down on an inanimate object in PVE, no enemies to hit me yet my block meter depletes as I use my at will. That is not how at wills should be imo.
Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
Since GF is supposedly the main tank class, make GFs naturally the tankiest than all other classes regardless of Paragon Path (i.e. more HP bonus, higher Damage Resistance Bonus, and greater DPS debuff effects on enemies) by improving Heroic Feats' effects like the following: Toughness 10%/15%/20%, Distracting Shield 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%, Armor Specialization 10%/15%/20%, etc.
More or less, it would help equalize the playing field of the GF against a DPS class in PvP without increasing GF DPS since it isn't a DPS class (e.g. debuffing GWF's DPS); and it would also make GF a better meat shield in PvE.
Additionally, I think its also good to make Tide of Iron have the ability to remove enemy buffs - that would make it more handy; and please DO NOT change the existing Threatening Rush charge up unless if you increase GF's run speed SIGNIFICANTLY!
I totally agree. Recently I saw a GWF with a deflection value of 54%. I don't think a GF is able to come close to that value. How can this be? The assumed tank class cannot have the highest defense in the game?
I feel the GF needs to be able to get the highest HP, DR %, and deflect % in the game through gear, feats, and powers. Otherwise he cannot rightfully be called "tank".
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l3g10nna1reMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 372Arc User
Can i ask if its possible to have a look at a class feature: Reactive block with all the recent changes to block perhaps we can make this more useful and more used?
Any way we can better change/utilise this for the Protector/Tanking role
Option 1: Add a % chance to knockback Rank 1 5% /Rank 2 10% Rank 3 15%
Option 2: Add a 5/10/15% chance to do an AOE Damage Return mechanic
Option 3: Add a reactive damage increase to the block ablity, Longer you block the more the damage builds?
Feedback: Tab Mechanic and its interactions with our Encounter Powers. - Right now, there are zero interactions with our Tab Mechanic and our Encounter Powers. Class Mechanic interactions usually make playing a class fun. The TRs get a bonus effect to their encounters when used from Stealth, CWs get a bonus to their encounters when placed in the Tab Slot, DCs get extra effects when used in Divinity Mode, and HRs get 6 encounters in total with their Tab Mechanic. Why not make it so that GF skills gain certain bonuses when used on targets that are Marked or have the Supreme Mark on them? Just a little feedback on the GFs currently bland Tab Mechanic.
Maybe a simple change for starters would be that marked targets (with tab mark) attacks are 100% shielded instead of 80%, so we still can survive to the hard-hitting bosses...
This is correct, Guard has NO reaction to incoming damage now. It is purely a time function.
This is quite interesting as it might work in synergy with powers like Knight's Valor (before, we would simply die if the party took too much damage, or if we didn't have some particular passive/feat combo, now we will be able to possibly keep the shield up for the whole duration of the power if properly specced)
This makes me wonder, how are all the powers, feats and other things planned to work with the new block, i.e.
- Items, passives and feats that add +X% Guard Meter (now Stamina)
- Feats and powers that refill the Guard Meter by a set amount (typically, Shield Slam and Tide of Iron, 5% and 10% per hit)
- Powers that, as a secondary effect, recover the Guard Meter (Enforced Threat, Into The Fray, Iron Warrior)
- Iron Warrior ("your Guard meter can temporarily sustain more damage before breaking" - is that a flat +% effect or some kind of "mitigation" that will translate in less stamina drained per second?)
As I understand, current reports from Preview are that most of them just don't work at all or have negligible effects, perhaps they still need to be adapted to the new block system.
Feedback: Block. - Okay, so I tested how effective this current Block mechanic is by soloing Heroic Karrundax up until Pyraphenia. The test lasted a good 1 hour, with a Tactician Swordmaster build that aims to absorb damage and heal as much as possible by passive heals like Life Steal and Regen. I have 10% in each stat and 50% DR, and a decent amount of HP thanks to the new changes. What I'd do is I would run from the start of an area up until the point where I can't run anymore, amassing as much mobs as I could. And surprisingly, this new Block mechanic is absurdly good.
One of the most notable things I saw is that the new Block system truly lived up to how the devs said it would. I tried my best to break it to its breaking point and I'm impressed, I was able to tank more than 40 mobs (but of course, with a build optimized for tanking), with Reflect being my main source of damage (Blacksmith, Renegade Evoker, Fey Thistle, and Supremacy of Steel from time to time). The revamped Block mechanic allowed me to endure the barrage of more than 40 mobs. I would not have been able to do this if I were using the previous Block Mechanic. I can say for sure that the Enforced Threat changes complement this new Block Mechanic, as it effectively allows us tanks to take an absurd amount of blows that we otherwise would not be able to survive with the previous mechanic. 20 mobs is insta-suicide? I don't think so, at least not anymore after I tested it. Although I admit that I did have suspicions that it may be the case, but after I saw what I saw, I wholeheartedly know that 20 mobs is no problem for a GF spec-ed as a tank since I went beyond 20 from my tests. If guard is down, we kite. If guard is up, we tank.
One of the gripe I have with the new mechanic however is that the duration feels so short, like what everyone else has been saying. But I just saw the recent post made by Gentlemencrush about prolonging the duration of the Guard Mechanic, and I personally want that. Another is that there are no sounds for blocking attacks anymore. Third, the area I am able to cover with Block feels limited. I wish I had something to improve my guard area significantly.
Feedback: Tab Mechanic and its interactions with our Encounter Powers. - Right now, there are zero interactions with our Tab Mechanic and our Encounter Powers. Class Mechanic interactions usually make playing a class fun. The TRs get a bonus effect to their encounters when used from Stealth, CWs get a bonus to their encounters when placed in the Tab Slot, DCs get extra effects when used in Divinity Mode, and HRs get 6 encounters in total with their Tab Mechanic. Why not make it so that GF skills gain certain bonuses when used on targets that are Marked or have the Supreme Mark on them? Just a little feedback on the GFs currently bland Tab Mechanic.
Feedback: Guard for PVP.
- I believe that the Block cooldown should be reduced to 0 (zero), just to maximize its responsiveness to player commands. This will effectively make Block competitive in PVP as well, because we will no longer have to worry about not being able to block in time when we clearly sensed the need to do so in the middle of a battle.
I think it would be a good idea to change the way guarding/blocking works at the preview server back to the old way, just increase its recovery speed and/or increase the amount we can block. Let's find out how that would work.
I am realy opposed to this new guard/block mechanics, and I don't want it to be improved or tweaked, I'd like to see it scrapped entirely. I favor to keep the way it currently is live (just buff it somewhat), mainly because that way is simply more fun. In this thread http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?693861-Making-Block-Useful more than two times the players are in favor of keeping the old guard (just increase its recovery speed and/or increase the amount we can block) compared to the amount of players who want to keep (and buff) the stamina guard.
From your comments on changes to the GWF / GF patch lowering GWF damage in IV and raising GF damage in SM, it appears you want IV to be a Tank path and SM to be a DPS path.
"
May I suggest if that is the case you tweak some of the GF SM feats to allow DPS, as right now the IV feats and the SM feats are "identical" not really changing at all albeit a couple encounter names change...
I would suggest the SM feat "Powerful Attack" Increase At will damage by 5%-10-15-20-25% up from 2%-4-5-8-10%
Also to assist the GF in DPS "Weapon Mastery" changed to 4%-8-12% Crit up from 1%-2-3% as we GF lack an alarming amount of crit
Feat "Strength Focus" Changed to 8%-16-24% up from 5%-10-15%
I understand this would make us more squishy less then the IV path as the GWF must also choose Survivability or DPS now.
Please consider such changes would give the GF some diversity in role play within the game.
Shieldbash60 GF ~ Iron Vanguard19.0k Overpowered60 CW~ Thaumaturge14.5k ==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
Feedback: Guard, suggestion for change of the old system
the new Guard system, will never allow you to guard an infinite time, with a small amount of mobs, since it would mean that you can guard any amount of mobs and strength, so you will be force to use it like a dodge or short times like astral shield down or while Knight's Valor is up, which is a major loss for the full defensive guard tank, furthermore in pvp you cant guard before the enemy attacks since he would simple stop attacking and wait for you to lower your guard.
in the old Guard system, the problem was that you cant depend on your guard with larger mob grps, since you would lose it sometimes that fast that you couldn't even block a CC or get the shield up to late (fixed when you leave the change that it only takes 0.25s and speed this up when you come out of cc while holding guard button).
i would suggest a change based on the old Guard System where(all values are only examples):
while guarding the incoming dmg gets dmg debuffs and Resistance applied,
than the dmg is put in one of the following 5 categories, could be split up more.
(max hp should be the maximum of either max hp or currenthp + temp hp)
0. insignificant hit: below 2%max hp, dont cost any guard charges
1. minor hit: 2-5% max hp, 1/5 guard charges
2. normal hit: 5-20% max hp, 1 guard charge
3. major hit: 20-65% max hp, 5 guard charges
4. serious hit: 65-100+% max hp, 15 guard charges, the dmg cant be blocked completely(dmg*0.2 goes through the guard)
you have 100 guard charges and recover 10 per second(without any buffs)
when a hit breaks your guard(uses up all guard charges), you can still keep the guard up for 5s but all dmg goes trough and you dont recover any guard charges, addtionaly you take more dmg from flank hits.
with this system you would lose the mayor flaw of losing you guard to fast with large pulls of small minions,
since most of the would only take none or 1/500 of you guard per hit
and you can block for long durations in pvp/pve when you fight single targets/small grps, which is the worst point of the new Time based Guard System
furthermore the effect of all talents/skills/ buffs would be easy to explain:
Tide of Iron: recovers 10% of your guard charges.
Shield Slam: recovers 5% of your guard charges.
Shield Talent: increase guard charges by 15%. so you get 115 charges.
Enforced Threat, Into The Fray and Iron Warrior: recharges 50% of your guard charges over 5s.
Iron Warrior: decrease guard consumption by half
Shieldmaster: How much your Guard meter is consumed is reduced by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Some additional changes to better change the divide between Iron Vanguard as a Tank/Control option and Swordmaster as a raw damage dealing option
Guardian Fighter: Weaponmaster's Strike: This power now deals ~48% more damage.
Guardian Fighter: Flourish: This power now deals ~55% more damage and stuns for 3 seconds (2 seconds on players).
These changes will bring the damage in line with what a GWF is capable of using the same powers. Great Weapon Fighters will be getting the reverse treatment on Iron Vangaurd powers (so they will deal the same damage a Guardian Fighter would with the same power).
really nice changes SM path on GF lacked the dmg, but there is also one more thing that is Crescendo daily i would suggest you to buff it dmg by 50-60% for GFs
If you are seeing this. I have been thinking and chewing on the GF guard change for a while now and Id really really encourage you to look at block on even a 15 second uptime with about a 5 second recharge.
Before people jump saying that will be OP, think about the fact that you cant do anything while blocking on a GF. You can walk - slowly, and do a stab and shield bash, but other then that, if a GF wants to do any damage, or use any encounter, your really limited on what you can do inside of block.
I would rather test THIS on live, and then if its OP scale it back, then do what we are looking at now with a low shield meter and HIGH recharge duration... It should honestly be swapped around.
Heck id even take a stationary block if you could hold it for REALLY long periods of time. That may be the fair tradeoff.
If you are seeing this. I have been thinking and chewing on the GF guard change for a while now and Id really really encourage you to look at block on even a 15 second uptime with about a 5 second recharge.
Before people jump saying that will be OP, think about the fact that you cant do anything while blocking on a GF. You can walk - slowly, and do a stab and shield bash, but other then that, if a GF wants to do any damage, or use any encounter, your really limited on what you can do inside of block.
I would rather test THIS on live, and then if its OP scale it back, then do what we are looking at now with a low shield meter and HIGH recharge duration... It should honestly be swapped around.
Heck id even take a stationary block if you could hold it for REALLY long periods of time. That may be the fair tradeoff.
That could be feasible but the guard run speed would need reverting because I was running around mobs with my guard up like speed racer it was hilarious.... Don't want GFs running across the map with a guard up lol
Shieldbash60 GF ~ Iron Vanguard19.0k Overpowered60 CW~ Thaumaturge14.5k ==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
Fresh feedback from a 15.2 GF Swordmaster in IWD PVE:
1) Blocking - simply unreliable. I tested a Totem HE in the Pass on my GWF fisrt. He ate it for breakfast. Then I logged my GF, went for the same Totem and met a 14.5 DC along the way who also wanted to test his toon. So I watched as the DC soloed the Totem, he was slow( by the time he finished the second wave, the original mob respawned ) but he did it all by himlsef, his HP nvr dropped below half.
My turn as a GF. I ended the first spawn and started slowly hacking away at the totems HP. The second wave arrived. Now, I'm a Conq with 40K HP, 49% DR, 25% deflect, 22% crit, ~30% armor ignore, Plague Fire and ~8K Power, 10% regen on Preview. So second wave is on me. First thing I notice is my guard is almost always red soon after I try to block sth( Devs already said they will increase it so lets see ). Dps is average despite my DPS focus since my only real aoe is ET and my single target attacks rarely crit. Still I manage to kill the second wave after a long and humiliating dance around them ( the whole tankiness is nowhere to be found as my GWF with his nerfed unstoppable was far more tanky on the same Totem HE ). Time for the 3rd wave with those female staff wielding undead. Immediately I start losing HP like crazy due to high damage ranged attacks who dont give a **** for my nearly 50% DR and 25% deflect. Verdict is reckless attakcer or not I gotta block if I hope to survive. So I start using more block and it feels like a hindrance rather than advantage as I lose 3 things now: my HP, my Stamina and my Power leaving me useless vs a mob that a DC had no trouble with solo! Keep in my mind my block is buffed with my armor set +30% and Im also invulnerable for 5 seconds after a Daily. After a longer humiliating dance the original mob respawns and now I have 10+ critters on me who aside from everything else also freeze me. And there I fell not able to complete a HE which my nerfed GWF ate like cake and a DC with below my GS soloed just before my attempt.
Care to retort dear developers ?
Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
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nwnghostMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited June 2014
Swordmaster GF still needs an adjustment to Steel Blitz and Crescendo currently, after the other 2 Paragon Powers (WMS and Flourish) were adjusted
Steel Blitz in particular (with the armor penetration component hopefully fixed) should make a difference in multi-mob scenarios
Comments
BOOM! Well said.
Ill repost here suggestion:
CON = 4% HP and 1% ARP
DEX = 1% DEFLECT and .5% CRIT
Just boosted tankiness for GFs AND damage from crit now being on stats (the ONLY class without crit stat buff)
Also PLEASE re-work the Capstone Conqueror Feat if doing this change to block. Two ideas off the top of my head:
1) Increased damage based on missing HP of the GF - "reckless attacker"
2) gain stacks while attacking - almost like GWFs Destroyer - but stacks disappear if/once you block. So again "reckless attacker"
I mean even the official DnD rules "Reckless Attacker" grants you an "extra attack" on a crit. So shoot, give GFs crit on Dexterity, enable crit builds this way, and change this feat to grant like a damage bonus for 6 seconds after a crit or something....
ALOT of ways to swing this.
Though you should improve the Swordsman Paragon a tiny bit more. Even though you increased the damage for Weaponmaster's Strike and Flourish, the problem is that Weaponmaster's Strike damage drops after attacking the first mob, them damage decreases for everyone mob after. The increase in damage would be still a little weak. As Flourish, this ability would be good if it was AOE attack, but at the moment the Flourish attack is rather limited to one target unless you are lucky that another mob is virtually on top of each other.
Weaponmaster's Strike - should be a single/multi target attack with a stacking debuff or some sort DoT damage. Current debuff to short
Flourish - this attack should be either a cone that effect three or four targets or increase the size of the cyclinder to 5 feet instead of the current 3 feet which is too narrow.
These suggestion hopefully not overpowered but also give a bit more reason for a player to use, atm, I have not seen any GF use either power. Also, hope you do work Griffon's Wrath, as it's current form is rather useless or pointless to have slotted in power bar at the moment. Just ask any GF player if they would use if Griffon's Wrath is given some power such as bleed effect or knockback/down effect instead of stun with a slightly longer range to hit like 7 or 8 feet?
Anyhow. how you devs do seriously look over all the powers of the GF in both Paragons because in the end, those powers make the GF, but who want to use them if they are useless without any reason to use them.
Thanks for taking the time to clarify some things
I wanted to know, did you thought that perhaps instead of changing the mechanics of the shield we could have improved the previous one?, for example to slightly improve the regen and HP pool of the shield, rise it faster and maybe, make it impossible to drain more than 15% in a single hit and to avoid these spikes of incoming burst damage you could make that a tiny % of the damage passes through the shield (just like in preview) but you could make that a % of our incoming heals go to our shield too, so if we have a DC we could have our shield up for much longer..., I liked the old system and I thought it just needed a little rework, I don't like this system
We actually looked at various systems that would allow block and healing to interact, but at the end of the day all of them were incredibly complicated and changed the basic interactions between GFs and healing rather than letting healing work the same on everyone. It made them all much more confusing. So as a compromise we decided to give GFs what amounts to a faucet where they can turn up and down the rate at which they take damage, allowing them to work alongside a healer to make sure they are ready for any situation. This also paves the way to improving Clerics down the road and letting them fill much more diverse roles in a party. The former system also suffered from being very binary. You either could handle all incoming damage and it was great, or your shield shattered and you had no good options left beyond trying to kite. This system smooths that out quite a bit.
Hopefully that helps clear up why we went with the system we did.
I can appreciate the change to block once we have the increased base duration to test around with I will give my supplemental suggestion to that. I will test both iron vanguard and swordmaster and with the changes to swordmaster may actually use it once it goes live.
The guard we shall see right now it lasts 4 seconds without being attacked? I fought a TR and they hit me with a duelist fury I raised block and they were still in duelist fury and my guard was broken and I was jumping away useless?
So in conclusion Guarded speed was nice but to much 50% GF speed in guard, Guard needs 30%-50% more time, Regen time on guard seemed to be really long? 4 seconds down took maybe 15 seconds to refill?
The old guard was better if you could add a higher HP point?
Overpowered 60 CW ~ Thaumaturge 14.5k
==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
No - thank you for taking the time to drop by and give an explanation.
I understand wanting to give healers a more consistent health drain on GFs. Maybe the increased stamina meter and the cc immunity will make up for it. Have you guys considered any changes to GFs passive resistance like the changes I suggested for defense/deflection? If the GF had more passive resistance (even as a protector build I barely pull 51% DR and 27% deflect) that would make the 80% block less of an issue. I particularly think the GF needs a lot of help in the deflection department, but I also think that an increase to defense scaling is needed as well. At 15k gear score on a defense oriented build, I'd like to see my DR around 60% and my deflect around 35-40%.
Thanks again for listening to our feedback.
- B
Since GF is supposedly the main tank class, make GFs naturally the tankiest than all other classes regardless of Paragon Path (i.e. more HP bonus, higher Damage Resistance Bonus, and greater DPS debuff effects on enemies) by improving Heroic Feats' effects like the following: Toughness 10%/15%/20%, Distracting Shield 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%, Armor Specialization 10%/15%/20%, etc.
More or less, it would help equalize the playing field of the GF against a DPS class in PvP without increasing GF DPS since it isn't a DPS class (e.g. debuffing GWF's DPS); and it would also make GF a better meat shield in PvE.
Additionally, I think its also good to make Tide of Iron have the ability to remove enemy buffs - that would make it more handy; and please DO NOT change the existing Threatening Rush charge up unless if you increase GF's run speed SIGNIFICANTLY!
Mmmm, thanks for the response , you made me think and one way to completely remove this binary behavior would be to have an unlimited Shield which could block something like the 65% of all the incoming damage, we could be good Tanks with a very good and consistent defense and it would give more flexibility to the class (because we could always have the shield available for use, but we could still die anyway), it would almost remove the burst damage (except if we make fatal mistakes), and it wouldn't be OP because we would be getting 35% of the damage we would normally receive no matter what and in PvP is not very complicated to hit a GF from the side or from behind, even for another GF which is the slowest Class in the game... at least we could test it and see how it works...
EDIT: Another thing I wanted to say is that our weapons have a very low damage, very very low, I don't care if we still have one of the worst weapon damage, but I think we have even worse numbers than the weapons of the DC Class (we are guardias and a support class, but we have the word "fighters" in our class also ) and compared to the other classes we are behind by a lot, I think our weapons need slightly more damage...
Dear Mr. Meyer
This whole balancing, rebalancing, nerfing and buffing will NEVER work unless you get 2 different systems -> one for PvE and the other for PvP
I only play PvP. I do not have to aggro 20 mobs, i need to preemptive raise my shield because no matter how good my reflexes are, i can't react to a stealth lashing blade from a TR.
While i can dig the changes for purely PvE play, why do my class needs to get punished for enjoying only PvP? I can't have a healer by my side in PvP every time.
If this new guard mechanic goes live, the GF is just a sitting duck, waiting to get slayed. Every opponent will wait out the stamina drain or just attack if the GF is hesitant to raise his shield.
Please Chris, we PvP GFs really need the old guard mechanic back! You don't even have to buff it, leave it as it is but i need to raise my shield without "penalty" and once i block, no damage should go thru, unless the meter is broken -> aka the shield is destroyed.
A GF PvP enthusiast
- Okay, so I tested how effective this current Block mechanic is by soloing Heroic Karrundax up until Pyraphenia. The test lasted a good 1 hour, with a Tactician Swordmaster build that aims to absorb damage and heal as much as possible by passive heals like Life Steal and Regen. I have 10% in each stat and 50% DR, and a decent amount of HP thanks to the new changes. What I'd do is I would run from the start of an area up until the point where I can't run anymore, amassing as much mobs as I could. And surprisingly, this new Block mechanic is absurdly good.
One of the most notable things I saw is that the new Block system truly lived up to how the devs said it would. I tried my best to break it to its breaking point and I'm impressed, I was able to tank more than 40 mobs (but of course, with a build optimized for tanking), with Reflect being my main source of damage (Blacksmith, Renegade Evoker, Fey Thistle, and Supremacy of Steel from time to time). The revamped Block mechanic allowed me to endure the barrage of more than 40 mobs. I would not have been able to do this if I were using the previous Block Mechanic. I can say for sure that the Enforced Threat changes complement this new Block Mechanic, as it effectively allows us tanks to take an absurd amount of blows that we otherwise would not be able to survive with the previous mechanic. 20 mobs is insta-suicide? I don't think so, at least not anymore after I tested it. Although I admit that I did have suspicions that it may be the case, but after I saw what I saw, I wholeheartedly know that 20 mobs is no problem for a GF spec-ed as a tank since I went beyond 20 from my tests. If guard is down, we kite. If guard is up, we tank.
One of the gripe I have with the new mechanic however is that the duration feels so short, like what everyone else has been saying. But I just saw the recent post made by Gentlemencrush about prolonging the duration of the Guard Mechanic, and I personally want that. Another is that there are no sounds for blocking attacks anymore. Third, the area I am able to cover with Block feels limited. I wish I had something to improve my guard area significantly.
Feedback: Tab Mechanic and its interactions with our Encounter Powers.
- Right now, there are zero interactions with our Tab Mechanic and our Encounter Powers. Class Mechanic interactions usually make playing a class fun. The TRs get a bonus effect to their encounters when used from Stealth, CWs get a bonus to their encounters when placed in the Tab Slot, DCs get extra effects when used in Divinity Mode, and HRs get 6 encounters in total with their Tab Mechanic. Why not make it so that GF skills gain certain bonuses when used on targets that are Marked or have the Supreme Mark on them? Just a little feedback on the GFs currently bland Tab Mechanic.
Feedback: Guard for PVP.
- I believe that the Block cooldown should be reduced to 0 (zero), just to maximize its responsiveness to player commands. This will effectively make Block competitive in PVP as well, because we will no longer have to worry about not being able to block in time when we clearly sensed the need to do so in the middle of a battle.
in pvp the new block meter is really bad in comparison to the old one. The fact that we don't block 100% of the damage gets me killed alot and it doesnt show of as "block" makes it hard to find a perma stealth. This was crucial when dealing with rogues. Please the old guard meter did not need this change, the fact that i cannot kill people like some trs and gwf that i beat on live easily because of how easily my guard depletes on the test shard screams something. If this was meant to be a nerf you guys have surely succeeded otherwise leave the guard meter as it is now thank you.
I'd like to see a change to the Balanced Shield Fighter feat. Right now the feat is basically wasting space in a tree that isn't focused on damage anyway, and will be even worse once the stamina based guard goes into effect.
Keeping with the idea of balance (adding DPS to a mitigation tree) I'd like to see a feat that improves Guarded Assault, but I'd be okay with just about any change.
- B
Brah there's a MUCH easier solution... It's called Enduring Warrior, and all you have to do is buff it lol...
Btw, keep up the decent communication. This is the first time I've seen a Dev somewhat active in the Forums.
What if I want to just use my stabbing at-will...well at will ? I'm beating down on an inanimate object in PVE, no enemies to hit me yet my block meter depletes as I use my at will. That is not how at wills should be imo.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
I totally agree. Recently I saw a GWF with a deflection value of 54%. I don't think a GF is able to come close to that value. How can this be? The assumed tank class cannot have the highest defense in the game?
I feel the GF needs to be able to get the highest HP, DR %, and deflect % in the game through gear, feats, and powers. Otherwise he cannot rightfully be called "tank".
@Gentleman Crush
Can i ask if its possible to have a look at a class feature: Reactive block with all the recent changes to block perhaps we can make this more useful and more used?
Currently:
Rank 1 Returns 1%: Damage
Rank 2 Returns 2%: Damage
Rank 3 Returns 3%: Damage
Any way we can better change/utilise this for the Protector/Tanking role
Option 1: Add a % chance to knockback Rank 1 5% /Rank 2 10% Rank 3 15%
Option 2: Add a 5/10/15% chance to do an AOE Damage Return mechanic
Option 3: Add a reactive damage increase to the block ablity, Longer you block the more the damage builds?
Maybe a simple change for starters would be that marked targets (with tab mark) attacks are 100% shielded instead of 80%, so we still can survive to the hard-hitting bosses...
This is quite interesting as it might work in synergy with powers like Knight's Valor (before, we would simply die if the party took too much damage, or if we didn't have some particular passive/feat combo, now we will be able to possibly keep the shield up for the whole duration of the power if properly specced)
This makes me wonder, how are all the powers, feats and other things planned to work with the new block, i.e.
- Items, passives and feats that add +X% Guard Meter (now Stamina)
- Feats and powers that refill the Guard Meter by a set amount (typically, Shield Slam and Tide of Iron, 5% and 10% per hit)
- Powers that, as a secondary effect, recover the Guard Meter (Enforced Threat, Into The Fray, Iron Warrior)
- Iron Warrior ("your Guard meter can temporarily sustain more damage before breaking" - is that a flat +% effect or some kind of "mitigation" that will translate in less stamina drained per second?)
As I understand, current reports from Preview are that most of them just don't work at all or have negligible effects, perhaps they still need to be adapted to the new block system.
I like ur idea for Tab mechanic. +
I am realy opposed to this new guard/block mechanics, and I don't want it to be improved or tweaked, I'd like to see it scrapped entirely. I favor to keep the way it currently is live (just buff it somewhat), mainly because that way is simply more fun. In this thread http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?693861-Making-Block-Useful more than two times the players are in favor of keeping the old guard (just increase its recovery speed and/or increase the amount we can block) compared to the amount of players who want to keep (and buff) the stamina guard.
Gentlemancrush
From your comments on changes to the GWF / GF patch lowering GWF damage in IV and raising GF damage in SM, it appears you want IV to be a Tank path and SM to be a DPS path.
"
May I suggest if that is the case you tweak some of the GF SM feats to allow DPS, as right now the IV feats and the SM feats are "identical" not really changing at all albeit a couple encounter names change...
I would suggest the SM feat "Powerful Attack" Increase At will damage by 5%-10-15-20-25% up from 2%-4-5-8-10%
Also to assist the GF in DPS "Weapon Mastery" changed to 4%-8-12% Crit up from 1%-2-3% as we GF lack an alarming amount of crit
Feat "Strength Focus" Changed to 8%-16-24% up from 5%-10-15%
I understand this would make us more squishy less then the IV path as the GWF must also choose Survivability or DPS now.
Please consider such changes would give the GF some diversity in role play within the game.
Overpowered 60 CW ~ Thaumaturge 14.5k
==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
the new Guard system, will never allow you to guard an infinite time, with a small amount of mobs, since it would mean that you can guard any amount of mobs and strength, so you will be force to use it like a dodge or short times like astral shield down or while Knight's Valor is up, which is a major loss for the full defensive guard tank, furthermore in pvp you cant guard before the enemy attacks since he would simple stop attacking and wait for you to lower your guard.
in the old Guard system, the problem was that you cant depend on your guard with larger mob grps, since you would lose it sometimes that fast that you couldn't even block a CC or get the shield up to late (fixed when you leave the change that it only takes 0.25s and speed this up when you come out of cc while holding guard button).
i would suggest a change based on the old Guard System where(all values are only examples):
while guarding the incoming dmg gets dmg debuffs and Resistance applied,
than the dmg is put in one of the following 5 categories, could be split up more.
(max hp should be the maximum of either max hp or currenthp + temp hp)
0. insignificant hit: below 2%max hp, dont cost any guard charges
1. minor hit: 2-5% max hp, 1/5 guard charges
2. normal hit: 5-20% max hp, 1 guard charge
3. major hit: 20-65% max hp, 5 guard charges
4. serious hit: 65-100+% max hp, 15 guard charges, the dmg cant be blocked completely(dmg*0.2 goes through the guard)
you have 100 guard charges and recover 10 per second(without any buffs)
when a hit breaks your guard(uses up all guard charges), you can still keep the guard up for 5s but all dmg goes trough and you dont recover any guard charges, addtionaly you take more dmg from flank hits.
with this system you would lose the mayor flaw of losing you guard to fast with large pulls of small minions,
since most of the would only take none or 1/500 of you guard per hit
and you can block for long durations in pvp/pve when you fight single targets/small grps, which is the worst point of the new Time based Guard System
furthermore the effect of all talents/skills/ buffs would be easy to explain:
Tide of Iron: recovers 10% of your guard charges.
Shield Slam: recovers 5% of your guard charges.
Shield Talent: increase guard charges by 15%. so you get 115 charges.
Enforced Threat, Into The Fray and Iron Warrior: recharges 50% of your guard charges over 5s.
Iron Warrior: decrease guard consumption by half
Shieldmaster: How much your Guard meter is consumed is reduced by 2/4/6/8/10%.
really nice changes SM path on GF lacked the dmg, but there is also one more thing that is Crescendo daily i would suggest you to buff it dmg by 50-60% for GFs
If you are seeing this. I have been thinking and chewing on the GF guard change for a while now and Id really really encourage you to look at block on even a 15 second uptime with about a 5 second recharge.
Before people jump saying that will be OP, think about the fact that you cant do anything while blocking on a GF. You can walk - slowly, and do a stab and shield bash, but other then that, if a GF wants to do any damage, or use any encounter, your really limited on what you can do inside of block.
I would rather test THIS on live, and then if its OP scale it back, then do what we are looking at now with a low shield meter and HIGH recharge duration... It should honestly be swapped around.
Heck id even take a stationary block if you could hold it for REALLY long periods of time. That may be the fair tradeoff.
That could be feasible but the guard run speed would need reverting because I was running around mobs with my guard up like speed racer it was hilarious....
Overpowered 60 CW ~ Thaumaturge 14.5k
==========================================
~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!
1) Blocking - simply unreliable. I tested a Totem HE in the Pass on my GWF fisrt. He ate it for breakfast. Then I logged my GF, went for the same Totem and met a 14.5 DC along the way who also wanted to test his toon. So I watched as the DC soloed the Totem, he was slow( by the time he finished the second wave, the original mob respawned ) but he did it all by himlsef, his HP nvr dropped below half.
My turn as a GF. I ended the first spawn and started slowly hacking away at the totems HP. The second wave arrived. Now, I'm a Conq with 40K HP, 49% DR, 25% deflect, 22% crit, ~30% armor ignore, Plague Fire and ~8K Power, 10% regen on Preview. So second wave is on me. First thing I notice is my guard is almost always red soon after I try to block sth( Devs already said they will increase it so lets see ). Dps is average despite my DPS focus since my only real aoe is ET and my single target attacks rarely crit. Still I manage to kill the second wave after a long and humiliating dance around them ( the whole tankiness is nowhere to be found as my GWF with his nerfed unstoppable was far more tanky on the same Totem HE ). Time for the 3rd wave with those female staff wielding undead. Immediately I start losing HP like crazy due to high damage ranged attacks who dont give a **** for my nearly 50% DR and 25% deflect. Verdict is reckless attakcer or not I gotta block if I hope to survive. So I start using more block and it feels like a hindrance rather than advantage as I lose 3 things now: my HP, my Stamina and my Power leaving me useless vs a mob that a DC had no trouble with solo! Keep in my mind my block is buffed with my armor set +30% and Im also invulnerable for 5 seconds after a Daily. After a longer humiliating dance the original mob respawns and now I have 10+ critters on me who aside from everything else also freeze me. And there I fell not able to complete a HE which my nerfed GWF ate like cake and a DC with below my GS soloed just before my attempt.
Care to retort dear developers ?
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
Steel Blitz in particular (with the armor penetration component hopefully fixed) should make a difference in multi-mob scenarios