As a Bruiser main, that has spent ~2 million coin on pvp gear, and another ~200k on Axes and Hammers for PvE… this patch hurts. Most of the changes, I can get behind. Grit being on Con makes more sense, it just does. I hate it, but I get it.
There ARE however a few things that I think should be reverted, that make no sense.
1: Nerfing ALL “CC” skills means Hammer (which has 5/6 skills that apply CC) is effectively neutered. In PvP it was at best a CC tool anyways, so the changes shouldn’t affect it’s utility in PvP too much, but I feel it bears mentioning, that Warhammer is really the only relevant source of Strike damage in PvP. Removing the threat of strike from the equation, means players can focus exclusively on Slash and Thrust physical mitigation, and probably have much higher absorb values for each. It makes some things less interesting… not more. Just saying.
Additionally the changes MASSIVELY impacts Warhammer viability as a PvE weapon. It was already in the lower middle of the pack in terms of damage, but people still used it for the CC it brought to runs. Now though… if you show up to any PUG expedition with a Warhammer you’ll be laughed out of the run. Additionally, perks such as Prevailing Spirit are damage dependent, so the survivability of Warhammer game play will go WAY down. Considering that Warhammer is a staple weapon for most tanks, and that the threat they generate is directly related to damage output, I think it’s pretty safe to say that ALL PvE players that value the tank having agro should be concerned.
2: The nerfs to Greataxe make almost 0 sense. The conceit is that the nerfs were to skills that “attacks intended for crowd control” were going to have their damage reduced “for ballance”. But they reduced the initial melee swing by nearly 75%, when it almost never hit anyone in the first place, and did NOT apply a CC effect. The Gravity Well primary explosion was experienced a 20% nerf, which… at least it has a CC effect, so sure. But the Insatiable explosion, from the perk got kneecapped and cut in HALF, and that did NOT apply ANY CC effect, AND the already middling heal you got from a %of the damage is now, like the damage, effectively nonexistent.
But wait there’s more… Maelstrom was NOT nerfed at all, even though it has an excellent grouping function, and IF paired with the Gravity passive has 2 forms of CC. A pull followed by a root. PSA: Maelstrom is as much a part of the Bruiser nova rotation as Gravity Well is. Reap was nerfed from 70% to 60% weapon damage for having LESS impactful CC effects. But wait… If you heavy attack with Great Axe, you can pull and root as well with the passives in the tree! WhY wAs GrEaTaXe HeAvY AtAcK nOt NeRfEd??? Why not give Greataxe the SAME treatment you gave hammer? Obviously I don’t like being nerfed. But if you’re going to make up a bogus rule at least apply it consistently. (Yea… I’m a bit salty and snarky, but hopefully you can see why)
3: Refreshing Move cooldown. WHY? This can’t be a legitimate PvP nerf, cuz most people using it in pvp are ALREADY primarily hitting 1 target to cooldown the weapon. And even if they weren’t, being in proximity to multiple enemies and ONLY light attacking is A: Dangerous, and B: terrible form. So I can only conclude that the nerf was targeted at PvE players, and it should be noted that Refreshing Move, while also used by Greataxe DPS, was primarily a tank perk. I do NOT understand the rational behind this nerf, it feels targeted at Greataxe players and tanks, and makes no sense. The reason it is required on Greataxe is because the damn tree has NO built in cooldown recovery! Greatsword gets 10% CDR / target hit / heavy attack from their Onsalught capstone… but Greataxe can’t even get a measly 2.9% (at 625)/ target/ light attack? Greataxe has less reach than Greatsword, and less DPS than Greatsword. This perk JUST helped close that gap a little bit. Make it make sense AGS…
4: Trenchant Recovery. This is an EXCELENT PvE perk for players interested in solo play, or Tanking. I personally prefer to tank most expedition content with a Trenchant Recovery Warhammer, and a Greataxe to more easily control the mobs, only switching too a sword for specific boss encounters. I will note that ORIGINALLY Trenchant Recovery healed for 28% of the weapon damage, and worked FINE at that threshold for MONTHS, and was then arbitrarily BUFFED to the current 41%, only to be nerfed back down to 20%. WHY? Is AGS threatened by players soloing “group” content? It’s not hurting anyone… I fail to see why this perk needs a nerf at all, and especially a nerf this extreme.
5: As a note for PvP game ballance, after some rudimentary testing, a heavy armor wearing player can expect to receive just under 5% damage mitigation, for 20% fortify. This means EVERYONE will be taking a lot more damage in general, which would otherwise be fine. But the problem is that the Invigorated Punishment ring perk (which is meta, and almost everyone uses)… grants 2% additional damage PER BUFF on a player. And since most players will be stacking multiple fortify buffs, there’s a pretty high chance that they will actually receive MORE incoming damage after being buffed with fortify, than before. This is especially the case with fortify values below a certain threshold. and lighter armor loads will have to be even more careful to not fall prey to this. This will lead to many/most/all sources of fortify being discarded in PvP, as they will ultimately just get players killed.
Possible solutions: (in order of preference)
1> Revert to fortify being absorb pool, and capping at 50%, until a better solution is reached.
2> Raise % values of all existing fortify buffs, such that the resulting mitigation is at least greater than the bonus damage from Invigorated Punishment.
3> Remove fortify as a “buff” that is detected by Invigorated Punishment for the purposes of increasing damage. Problem with this is, then what “buffs” even count, and would this perk do anything?
4> Remove Invigorated Punishment Perk.
6: I understand that Fire Staff needed a glow up. But simultaneously nerfing almost everything else around it, just creates another imbalance in the system. Fire staff is going to dominate the meta if the proposed changes go through as is. I’m fairly confident in my ability to optimize a build too counter/cope with it, but I don’t find any meta dominated by 1 weapon to be fun. I was under the impression that the armor changes were in an effort to end the hegemony of light armor, but as far as I can tell all mage weapons and BB got buffs and fixes, while pretty much everything else got “balanced” into oblivion. So all the light armor mages will just win harder. Just my take.
