240 réponses à ce sujet

[Samahl na Revas]

Couple things, based off of what I'm reading:

 

1. The Hunter is not weak; his problem is that he is handcuffed to the Griffon Bow. Without it, he most certainly is a poor man's Archer. With it, however, he is equally effective close up as he is from afar. 3 Critical Hits per normal shot do amazing things in regards to Stamina Regeneration and Stealth cooldown, not to mention it is enough to drop just about any normal enemy. Stealth'd Explosive Shot or Leaping Shot are both very heavy hitters. Even just walking up and firing a normal stealth'd shot into their back is huge damage too, thanks to Knife in the Shadows, First Blood, Stealth damage boost, and Razor's Edge, while Easy to Miss makes such a tactic safe. But like I said, without the Griffon Bow, he cannot Stealth constantly, and his Stamina regeneration takes a large hit, which is no bueno for a squishy rogue. An Archer will always kill more from afar, so Hunter needs that melee niche in order to compete. When new weapons release, please PLEASE make another bow similar to the Griffon Bow, or better yet, give the 3 arrow spread to one of Hunter's passives. This is all the Hunter needs, outside of buffs to his useless abilities that no one uses anyhow.

 

2. The Alchemist, in my opinion, suffers the most from the 4-slot restriction. There is a good mix of CC and just enough damage skills to make her deadly. Problem is, you have to pick and choose between those if you want to do either decently. For example, FoFr, FoFi+Knockout Bomb/Toxic Cloud are all great CC options. However, that right there is already 4 skills, which means no stealth, AKA suicide. Elementalist has one skill that takes a dump on all of those combined: Firestorm. Its safer, stronger, easier to do, and is much longer lasting. On the flipside, Ambush and Twin Fangs makes her a powerful hitter for problem enemies, but she doesn't compete against an Assassin, who has Hidden Blades to throw into 

 

 

 

 

While I agree with what you said about the Alchemist I don't agree with what you said about the Hunter. The hunter doesn't have any skills that reduce cooldown. However, I noticed that the all classes with stealth have a cooldown reducing effect that applies it self only to stealth. For example if I use mines on Alchemist my stealth starts triggering faster cooldowns and likewise with leaping shot on the Hunter.

 

I don't use Griffon anymore do to my cunning and I realized that each shot on the Griffon bow has it's own crit chance. However, I can't lie, I miss it, walking up to the back of a boss and laying it into them. I use PBM so I can artificially get closer to 75%+ crit chance.

 

Instead of a bow similar to Griffon I would much rather a faster moving and faster shot Hunter.

 

With a 1/10 akin Flash point.

 

On a sidenote: Guard it's self needs a buff or inherent Trust the Steel. 

[Apl_Juice]

While I agree with what you said about the Alchemist I don't agree with what you said about the Hunter. The hunter doesn't have any skills that reduce cooldown. However, I noticed that the all classes with stealth have a cooldown reducing effect that applies it self only to stealth. For example if I use mines on Alchemist my stealth starts triggering faster cooldowns and likewise with leaping shot on the Hunter.

 

I don't use Griffon anymore do to my cunning and I realized that each shot on the Griffon bow has it's own crit chance. However, I can't lie, I miss it and walking up the back of a boss and laying it into them is something I miss. I use PBM so I can artificially get closer to 75%+ crit chance.

 

Instead of a bow similar to I would much rather a faster moving and faster shot Hunter.

 

Rogue (or maybe all classes? Its been too long since I played)  critical hits reduce cooldowns for all their abilities. Hunters can have quite a few Stealth uses because of that, thanks to the Griffon, Explosive, and Leaping Shot. Even Mines will trigger it effectively.

[FRZN]

Rogue (or maybe all classes? Its been too long since I played)  critical hits reduce cooldowns for all their abilities. Hunters can have quite a few Stealth uses because of that, thanks to the Griffon, Explosive, and Leaping Shot. Even Mines will trigger it effectively.

That is specific to stealth, it's not a general ability of the archtype.  Stealth's description:

You step into the shadows, all but invisible to your enemies. Attacking from stealth gives you a damage bonus and brings you back to the enemy's attention. Dealing damage to enemies reduces the ability's cooldown time.

[Apl_Juice]

That is specific to stealth, it's not a general ability of the archtype.  Stealth's description:

Ah, you're right. Its been a few months, forgive me

 

But regardless, 3 shots from a Griffon reduces Stealth's cooldown 3 times as quickly, and they can afford being that close to enemies thanks to abilities like Hook and Tackle and Easy to Miss. Hell, its preferable thanks to Razor's Edge.

[Its Waffle Time]

My personal favourite class really is the Reaver...

 

However it feels like I'm literally being punished living on the Dark Side.

 

Reavers' trade lower HP values, no guard generation, no barrier generation (because not a mage!) for increased damage (and for some reason have no increased damage resistance!).

 

Rampage doesn't generate lifesteal when used in conjunction with Dragon Rage (bug or intended? If intended, needs to be changed.)

 

Ring of Pain stamina drain is TOO heavy. I'd consider 5 stamina/sec more then enough penalty, considering its soul purpose is to buff Dragon Rage + Devour.

 

I'd love -HP%, +Dmg% passives to be given +DmgRes% to promote the living on the edge feeling.

[TheThirdRace]

Deep Analysis and Suggestion for Balance

Introduction

I firmly believe balance shouldn't be about characters but about individual skills and passives. That's why I'll talk about each and every class, their skills and passives and what mechanics could be improved or toned down to make the characters more balanced.

Always keep in mind that this analysis is about Perilous. No matter the changes, Routine is easy to solo with a level 1 as long as you have the gear and for Threatening, everything is already viable. So that leaves Perilous, but that doesn't mean improvements made for Perilous won't trickle down to the lower difficulties either. Some suggestions will give more diversity or less frustrations.

General ideas

These are ideas that should be kept in mind before making any changes. They really apply to the whole concept and not to a lone character or skill.

• Fixing the bugged skills and passives would go a long way toward achieving more build diversity and in turn a better balance overall. It's hard to talk balance when a lot of things simply don't work correctly. By fixing the bugs, the balance will shift as new possibilities are now viable.

• 1 thing ME3MP had over DAMP is how the skills were accessible from the get go. In ME3MP, you could chose any skill at level 1 (making it your choice) and have access to all your skills by level 3. The way skill trees are laid out in DAMP makes some build require up to level 16 before getting to the same stage. So my idea would be to change the skill trees layout to give easier access to some abilities.

Warriors

Katari

Classification: Fine

Pommel Strike: It desperately needs better tracking. Sometimes I'm just on top of a stationary enemy and it misses up to 4 times in a row -> Once I had a Katari, and then it died...

Block and Slash: Remove the cost of 5 stamina per second. The ability already slows you down considerably DPS wise, no need to make it an option to avoid at all cost. Also, the lag makes this ability difficult to justify as you can't easily time it right so either make the "block" window longer or reduce the time it takes to perform.

Flawless Defense: Guard amount should be a bit better (20%) since guard goes down quickly and this ability is too slow to generate enough guard by itself. It could also use a small %damage increase too, maybe to 75% or 100% to make it worthwhile compared to simply using basic attacks and "cancelling".

Give them the boot: The effect from the kick should be always applied no matter if it connects or not. Currently, it misses a lot more than it should and if it misses, there's no reason to take that upgrade...

Resilience: It needs at least 15% chance to stun and the 5% chance it way too low. Imagine, 2 hits will probably kill you and you're giving a 1 in 20 chance of evading it? It's useless! At 15%, you at least get 1 in 6.7 chance of evading, that would be much more reasonable.

Guard Smasher: Enemies using guard are in very low numbers, making this ability a bit useless, especially for only 100% damage. I would suggest adding 5% Armor Reduction for 6 seconds to the mix.

Biggest Threat: Most characters with this passive aren't equip to deal with the consequences under all circumstances. Granted, the recent changes made the Katari much more survivable, but I suggest to give this passive an additional 25% maximum Guard. This would mitigate the unwanted aggro when needed while at the same time also buff the other Warriors which is a good thing as they clearly don't have enough Guard to begin with.

Challenge: Since it single target and you get a low amount of guard (10%), I would suggest lowering the cooldown to 10 seconds, making it at least more useful in the thick of the action.

Legionnaire

Classification: Very Strong (but very low DPS)

Chevalier's Step: The 30% Armor Bonus is useless to other characters and Shield Wall in general is a bad option for the Legionnaire altogether. Since Shield Wall stops Stamina from regenerating and cost you Stamina to block incoming damage, Chevalier's Step should either allow the Legionnaire to regenerate Stamina at a reduce rate (50% less) or reduce the cost of blocking damage at 0 Stamina. If you don't do something to encourage using Shield Wall, it's the first skill to get out of your arsenal as a serious Legionnaire...

Challenge: Same as with the Katari.

Resilience: Same as with the Katari.

Biggest Threat: Contrary to most character, you want the Legionnaire to take on as much threat as possible. The 25% maximum Guard suggested for the Katari wouldn't unbalance the Legionnaire as he does very low damage and it's already possible to be almost "invincible" the way things currently are. So all in all, I think the change should still apply here.

Unbowed: Gives less guard per enemy than Warcry and has a longer cooldown... Reduce the cooldown to 20 seconds.

Ring the Bell: The lunge forward is awesome, maybe just add 10% Armor Reduction on hit because the bonus vs guard is useless in the greater scheme of things.

Guard Smasher: Same as with the Katari.

Blood Frenzy: Pretty useless for the Legionnaire, I would completely remove it. Also, removing it would make getting to Counterstrike much easier as it takes 5 passives to unlock it currently, which is a bit excessive for getting such a core skill.

Reaver

Classification: Strong (high DPS, low defense)

Devour: Make it a detonator. The force and stun already makes it a prime candidate, it would be logical to go that way. Also, it can't really be abused as the cooldown is longer than most detonator.

Consume: More and more people are replacing Devour with other skills. The problem is that the skill cost too much to keep the frenzy going on for the Reaver. What I suggest is to reduce the cost of Devour by 15 Stamina to make it cost 50 Stamina if upgraded with Consume.

Challenge: Same as with the Katari.

Biggest Threat: Same as with the Katari.

Relentless Attack: 1% Critical Chance is useless. Either the enemy dies before it triggers or you'd get a critical hit whether you had this passive or not. Make it 3% to 5% instead, might as well make it count if you're spending a skill point on it.

Block and Slash: Same as with the Katari.

Flawless Defense: Same as with the Katari.

Resilience: Same as with the Katari.

Pommel Strike: Same as with the Katari.

Guard Smasher: Same as with the Katari.

Templar

Classification: Fine

Blessed Blades: Nothing wrong with the ability, but it slows you down by forcing you to stay in a specific spot. I'd suggest lowering the duration to 8 or 10 seconds but now the "circle" moves with you like an aura. This would allow you to keep the pace with your teammates while giving you relatively the same bonus as before.

Ring the Bell: Same as with the Legionnaire.

Guard Smasher: Same as with the Katari.

The Last Sacrifice: This passive can be of use up to 3 times in the entire match... how useless can this be? This looks good on paper but it doesn't benefit the Templar one bit. If there was some kind of Simulacrum effect where the Templar aura still fights for 10 seconds, this would go a long way in making this passive useful, especially if you need to get it to get to Wrath of Heaven.

Chevalier's Step: Same as with Legionnaire.

Challenge: Same as with the Katari.

Resilience: Same as with the Katari.

Unbowed: Same as with the Legionnaire.

Biggest Threat: Same as with the Legionnaire.

Line in the Sand: Talk about a useless ability... It slows the pace to a crawl, it's in the way of your allies and it doesn't help a lot against enemies. What is it supposed to do? I suggest teammates should be able to freely pass thru the illusions without dispelling them and maybe add a 1 second stun to melee enemies trying to pass thru them.

And No Further: Making useless a bigger useless... I suggest adding 50% weapon damage to enemies trying to pass thru the illusions. Maybe a small 5 meters taunt that last for 5 seconds to sweeten the deal.

Rogues

Alchemist

Classification: Weak (but not by much)

Elemental Mines: The skill is fine as it is, it just need easier targeting. Instead of throwing the mines in a 120 degree arc, it would be much better to throw them in a 2 meters line. Right now, even if there was 80 mines it's impossible to block a doorway efficiently because about 2 mines will be placed correctly and the 78 others will be scattered everywhere where it's not needed. Throwing mines in a line from your feet to maybe 3 meters away would make a great rectangle easy to use in the tick of the action, making the mines actually worth a damn.

Flask of Frost: Walking Fortress is 10 times better and last longer... It would be nice if this skill would last 10 seconds to balance it out a little.

Bitter Chill: Give it a 15% Damage Resistance for 5 seconds. It would basically make the Alchemist invulnerable for 5 seconds and then have 5 more seconds at 85% Damage Resistance. Walking Fortress is still leagues better, but Flask of Frost is getting closer. Do not forget the last thing a Rogue wants is taunting enemies so giving them a counterbalance with Damage Resist isn't such a bad idea.

Poison Weapons: The problem with this skill is Poison damage doesn't stack and the DOT is too low to matter. Everything is dead before this skill would even remotely be useful. I suggest you increase the DOT to 75% weapon damage and increase the cost to 50 Stamina to counter balance it.

Alchemy Mastery: 25% seems a big number, but 25% of 5 to 8 seconds is flat out useless. Make it 25% damage instead of 25% duration. DOT is often a badly implemented mechanic, it gives cool numbers when it ends, but the fact is you only really benefit from it about 2 to 5 seconds, after that the enemy is dead and the DOT is wasted.

Fighting Dirty: As I said before, 25% isn't enough since the duration is too low. Make it 40% to 50% to at least make us feel like we're not being ripped off on the way to the other skills.

Toxic Cloud: This skill has the same problem as Poison Weapons, the Poison damage doesn't stack and the DOT is too low to matter. I suggest making the cloud 4 meters instead of 3, increasing the damage to 50% Weapon Damage per second and reducing the cooldown to 24 seconds. The poison might not kill a lot of enemies, but at least you're gonna be able to use the skill more than once or twice in a stage...

Contact Poison: Simply increase the Cooldown Reduction to 8 seconds. This would put Toxic Cloud cooldown at the 16 seconds mark. This is to increase the opportunities to actually use the skill because right now, it's not enticing at all...

Flask of Fire: Increase the duration to 8 seconds and increase the cost to 35 Stamina. The problem with this skill is that in itself it does nothing, you need another skill to make it worthwhile. Not only that, but the skill you use after Flask of Fire takes time to execute so you basically get 2 or 3 real attack and then it's gone for what feels like forever.

Unquenchable Flames: Reduce Flask of Fire cooldown to 24 seconds in addition to its original effect. Flask of Fire could be great for the Alchemist, the problem is you can't use it enough to make it matter. This would help solving this problem.

Ride the Storm: Again, the flasks don't last long so 3 seconds is on the weak side. I think 5 seconds would be a more appropriate value.

Stealth: The skill in itself is perfectly fine, but there are mechanics that makes it frustrating. First, Stealth shouldn't dispel unless you take an aggressive action toward an enemy. There's nothing more frustrating than losing Stealth because you tried to help your teammates by opening a Rogue door or by breaking a gold pot. God dammit! Can I actually not act like a selfish brat while I'm in Stealth please?!?! Second, the freaking dogs and their "Perception" skill... Let me say this straight, MELEE ROGUES ARE THE HARDEST CHARACTER TO PLAY, NO NEED TO MAKE THEM EVEN HARDER. Sorry for the caps, but someone had to tell you. Rogues needs such great timing and positioning, they get killed by 1 hit and they're very vulnerable, the last thing we need is to lose their only defense because the level has 40 animals in it... Are we clear on that? (This is my pet peeve since the Destruction DLC is out, sorry for lashing)

Parry: What sounds better, wait 3 seconds to land a 125 damage hit or use basic attacks to deal upward 1000 damage in the same amount of time? That's the problem with Parry, it's taking so long and deal so low damage, why would anyone in his right mind use it? I suggest making it 400% weapon damage to make up for the long animation and the timing required. Increase the cost to 20 Stamina in the process.

Hidden Step: In theory this upgrade is pretty great. In practice, it rarely works, especially off-host. I suggest making the damage "hitbox" at least 2 meters so you can actually hit something even off-host.

Unforgiving Chain: Rogues already benefits from great Critical Hit Chance, 1% is not enough to be worthwhile since you'll reset the chain too quickly for it to matter. I suggest increasing the Critical Hit Chance to 3%, especially since it's a mandatory passive for other skills.

Evasion: Remember what I said with Resilience? It's even worst for a Rogue. Any Rogue will die from 1 hit, so 1 chance in 20 to evade it is ridiculously useless. 15% seems more appropriate in this case, maybe Rogues could benefit from a 20% instead since they don't have Guard or armor like Warriors do.

Twin Fangs: The tracking sucks balls. Sorry, but that's the truth. It could benefit from a longer range if you're not moving when activating the skill so you don't end up jumping around trying to hit your mark.

Shadow Strike: The tracking sucks balls, it's worst than Twin Fangs. It would benefit from a bigger "hitbox" and maybe a farther range so you don't have to be literally under the enemy to use it as being too close is usually deadly for the melee Rogue.

I Was Never Here: The passive is perfect... when it triggers. You really need to fix the triggering when killing an enemy, especially with Shadow Strike and there are other skills that don't register too (can't remember which one but they're documented on the forum and surely someone can point you in the right direction). Stealth is such a core concept of melee Rogues, when it's not working you're usually dead in the water and it's frustrating to be helpless when it's not your own damn fault.

Archer

Classification: Very Strong (High DPS, low survivability)

Mark of Death: The skill itself is perfectly fine, but it could benefit from cancelling bow animation. The problem with the Archer and the Hunter is that most of their "non-bow" skills require too much time to finish the bow animation then start the skill animation. By the time you actually execute a "non-bow" skill, the need for it usually has passed. Hence, it should cancel the bow animation almost immediately otherwise it's too frustrating to deviate from the cookie cutter build.

Full Draw: The animation is taking to long. By the time you launch the arrow, someone else has killed your target. If you did hit your target, suddenly everything on the map is targeting your Hunter, which is not a good thing. Lowering the animation duration would help to actually use the ability in combat where it would be of real use.

Stunning Shot: Instead of giving a sleep effect to a dead enemy, because 1600% Weapon Damage should outright kill almost anything, it should have a 1 or 2 meters stun effect (1 second) so it affects other enemies (like the sound of the impact would stun surrounding enemies). It's not enough to make a big impact on the Archer's "single-target" role, but just enough to give something useful for the skill point spent.

Caltrops: It's ME3MP Tech Armor for DAMP. You made the rounds with the Tech Armor jokes in the Citadel DLC and it was hilarious, Caltrops are about just as useful. My take on it would be to stun the opponent for 1 second, giving you time to move a bit.

Thread Lightly: Increase the Speed Reduction Bonus to 60% for a total of 85%. This would finally give Caltrops a niche the Archer needs, some way to evade the melee damage coming his way. It could also be used in choke points to great effectiveness. I see it like a Disruption Field without the arrow stopping ability.

Hidden Step: Same as with the Alchemist

Knockout Bomb: Same problem as with Mark of Death. The skill is amazing, but you can't use it properly because by the time the bow animation is over and you'd be ready to execute the needed bomb toss, it's too late to matter, you've been cleaved in 2 and you're lying dead in a pool of your own blood.

Bait and Switch: I'm not gonna argue bringing back an enemy with you is pretty bad for the Archer (because it is), but 5 extra seconds is just not worthwhile. 15 extra seconds on the other hand would work wonders. At least it would give you some much needed leeway.

Evasion: Same as with the Alchemist.

Assassin

Classification: Very Strong (but very hard to play)

Twin Fangs: Same as with the Alchemist.

Shadow Strike: Same as with the Alchemist.

Spinning Blades: It deals less damage than about any other option and puts you in harms way more than any other option... On top of that, you don't even kill 1 shot most enemy on Perilous with it... Not easy to say something good about this skill. Obviously, the damage needs to be enough to actually kill 1 shot an enemy on Perilous, otherwise it's simply the least desirable option for an Assassin. Maybe 125% Weapon Damage would be sufficient to that end.

Stealth: Same as with the Alchemist.

Hook and Tackle: It should be said in the description that it actually deals damage to your enemy when you reach him. The skill is great, it could benefit from a 25% increase in damage though, especially since it puts you in harms way and you can't control it as much as you'd like.

Hidden Step: Same as with the Alchemist.

Evasion: Same as with the Alchemist.

Dance of Death: Great passive, but a bit too much inconsistent with some skills (like the second hit of Deathblow not giving you Stamina back) and sometimes with lag while off-host. Fix this inconsistency and it helps a lot giving back power to all Rogues.

Poisoned Weapons: Same as with the Alchemist.

I Was Never Here: Same as with the Alchemist.

Bait and Switch: Same as with the Archer.

Fighting Dirty: Same as with the Alchemist.

Hunter

Classification: Weak (not enough synergies)

Elemental Mines: Same as with the Alchemist.

Sadism: I really don't see the usefulness of this passive. You take a hit or two and you die, what good does it do if you get a 10% boost to Stamina in the 0.5 seconds before you die anyway? Why not change the skill to play on the Razor's Edge passive and get 10% boost to Stamina when you in a 10 meter range?

Throwing Blades: I suggest an increase of 25% damage for each blade (125% Weapon Damage total) because right now it's not that good, but it's not missing much either. It could also benefit from bow animation cancelling, it's getting hard to slip that ability when you need to stop everything for a second before you get any responsiveness from your character.

Precision Targeting: Maybe add a Stun 1 second effect to every blade, stacking for every blade hitting the same target.

Fighting Dirty: Same as with the Alchemist.

Toxic Cloud: Same as with the Alchemist.

Contact Poison: Same as with the Alchemist.

Bait and Switch: Same as with the Archer.

Hidden Step: Same as with the Alchemist.

Stealth: Same as with the Alchemist.

Hook and Tackle: Same as with the Assassin.

Evasion: Same as with the Alchemist.

Full Draw: Same as with the Archer.

Stunning Shot: Same as with the Archer.

I Was Never Here: It should be added as a passive to the Hunter because Stealth without it is very underwhelming. It's also one of the leading cause why the Hunter is so weak compared to most other character.

Mages

Arcane-Warrior

Classification: Very Strong (a bit too much, on the other hand it's a great entry option for noobs)

Fade Shield: I've already stated in an earlier post that I think the best way to balance this ability would be to cap the Arcane's Warrior Barrier to a lower value like 750 points. I'm gonna go a bit crazy here and launch an idea in the air: Why not scrap Barrier altogether and use Guard? It would achieve exactly what we want from the Arcane Warrior: Generates it's own defense, doesn't have 10000HP with ridiculous Barrier sustaining power, its Guard would be usually up before closing the gap with enemies so no need to have a complicated decay/sustain system almost impossible to balance, the armor perks would now make sense and the maximum Guard would be 25% of his max HP. On top of that, the Arcane-Warrior is a Warrior right? It's in his name, why not go all the way? Otherwise, stick with my original idea for the Barrier cap, but my guess is this will be less effective than using Guard.

Psychic Backlash: 5% is too low. Considering a much better defense than normal, I think we should limit it to 1 in 10 chance (10%) instead of going all the way to 1 in 15 chance like the other passive we've seen previously.

Fortifying Blast: This upgrade is pretty great, but it stops working after you died once. Fix it and it becomes a lot more useful for every mage using it. As to specifically for the Arcane-Warrior, some people might think having Barrier and Guard (taking into account my new suggestion for Fade Shield) would be too overpowered, I'd say good luck trying to keep your Barrier up without Fade Shield. It would be no more efficient than the Necromancer using Mind Blast to get more Barrier while having Death Syphon. I've done it, it's ok at best, it's pretty far from being great.

Dispel: Used it once, never used it again after that. I don't see the point, there are much better options to go against Barrier so I don't know what to make of it.

Phasing: Same as Psychic Backlash, 1 in 20 chance is too low, but given a better defense 1 in 10 chance seem more reasonable.

Strength of Spirits: If we don't go with Guard on Fade Shield, then do nothing. If you go ahead with Guard, then it could be replaced with Bulwark (25% maximum Guard)

Peaceful Aura: This passive is just wrong for the Arcane Warrior. Replace it with Biggest Threat (+25% Threat, +25% maximum Guard from my earlier suggestion). Yes, this mean that with Fade Shield, Bulwark and Biggest Threat you would have 75% of your HP as maximum Guard which is 5x less than the current Barrier...

Flash Fire: Reduce the cost to 50 Mana and reduce cooldown to 8 seconds. There's nothing justifying such a high cost currently.

Blistering Pain: Duration on an effect that does no damage while the enemy will be dead before this upgrade can ever kick in? Why? I suggest a new upgrade entirely, a lower version of Virulence -> killing an enemy affected by fear will spread that fear to another enemy for 5 seconds. You could daisy chain the fear effect indefinitely if you're killing fast enough. Also makes for a good synergy with Blinding Terror.

Rejuvenating Barrier: If you go ahead with Fade Shield's changes, then instead of checking if you have active Barrier, it would check for active Guard. Use "Active protection (Barrier or Guard) if you don't know how to say it in the description.

Veil Strike: The cooldown is too long to be a core skill. I suggest 16 seconds instead of 24. Let's not forget it doesn't last over X seconds like Pull of the Abyss so being able to cast it more often would make much more sense.

Pull of the Abyss: Just fix the "teleporting" enemies when the effect ends. It only occurs when you're not host and you cast it. When you're the host, there's no problem. You have no idea on many times this "bug" was the culprit of a spectacular party wiping...

Elementalist

Classification: Very Strong (no real weakness, but he's slower to kill enemies than the other very strong characters)

Flash Fire: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Blistering Pain: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Control of the Elements: Could use a 5% bump to 20% Duration.

Flash Point: Fix the trigger for the whole party. I hate playing with another Elementalist, I get Flash Point and the other guy uses it and vice versa! It's painful to see your hard earned passive getting stolen right under your nose, not to mention it can seriously mess your next couple actions when you were expecting a "no cooldown".

Lightning Bolt: Reduce cost to 50 Mana and cooldown to 16 seconds. I've never seen anyone use it, that shows everybody knows it's simply a bad investment in its current state.

Exploding Bolt: Add a Reduce Cooldown 4 seconds. Lightning Bolt would be usable every 12 seconds to target 1 enemy, which isn't bad considering the other effects.

Keeper

Classification: Very Strong (high defense, but always looking for more Mana)

Cycle of Life: It's the same problem as The Last Sacrifice passive for the Templar, meaning it will apply at most 3 times in an entire match. Instead of going for a 10 seconds Simulacrum effect, I think 5 seconds should be sufficient. Let's say it's the Elven Gods giving our Keeper a small chance to say their goodbyes.

Fortifying Blast: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Dispel: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Veil Strike: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Lightning Bolt: Same as with the Elementalist.

Encircling Veil: Why the need to increase duration of status effects on weakened enemies when you can only ever apply shock? The Keeper is starving for Mana, her 2 most used ability (Barrier and Static Cage) requires 110 Mana to keep up, there's hardly anything left for other skills. Replace the passive with another passive to boost Mana regeneration (like 15% to 20%) and you'll see much more diversity from this character than it currently has.

Necromancer

Classification: Strong and Weak at the same time (she dies way too easily)

Despair: Increase spirit damage to 75% Weapon Damage and the area to 4 meters. The skill is great, but hard to use because of the long animation. These changes would give just the small nudge to make it a great skill.

Flash Fire: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Blistering Pain: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Fortifying Blast: Same as with the Arcane-Warrior.

Simulacrum: Great skill, frustrating as hell, but great skill. Can we lock potions or allow self revive when we're in that state please? The Necromancer is the least survivable Mage, she drops like a fly even with Death Syphon going on like crazy. Allowing a self revive by Heal on Kill or taking a Health potion would go a long way in making this character at least survive a bit more. Of course, that self revive need to not count toward the 3 deaths, otherwise it's useless. To further my point, the Elementalist has great options to stay alive with Barrier, Fire Storm and Stone Fist to keep enemies from getting to him. The Necromancer has nothing of value, Mind Blast effect doesn't last long enough, Winter's Grasp cost 65 Mana so good luck trying to cast in a jiffy and Ice Mine requires 3 seconds to activate. Really, I believe Simulacrum is the key for the Necromancer, now make it worth every penny.

Spirit Mark: Make the thrall follow you closely whenever it has nothing to attack. Right now, we're playing Pokemon with it, we've got to collect them all... I get the taxidermist appeal, but it would be more useful if our puppet would actually attack things...

Blizzard: This skill is great, the problem is you activate it and the whole map gets to you in less than 5 seconds and you drop dead. If you don't want to make it Freeze everything faster then you should give chilled enemies at least 50% speed reduction. It's all about survivability.

Edit: I've changed my mind about Warrior's Resolve, Drasca had good points and I know he plays a lot more with those character than I do so I've decided to just remove the suggestion I made.

[DrakeHasNoFlow]

A few suggestions:


legionnare is fine, straight tankiness for mediocre dps, it's a price to pay for true invincibility. Generates very low xp output for his role tho and this should be looked at or adjusted.

Katari, is actually good now thanks to efforts of bioware. Well done, he actually feels on par with other classes and ranged attacks still
make him weak so the player still has to use his brain particularly in perilous.

Reaver, I honestly feel she could use a health buff due to how weak she is to range. Due to her high risk/high reward playstyle if she can't keep her health up than she can't dps like the class was meant to do. Outside of combat roll, she has no efficient means of closing distance/evading without taking a costly gamble. Ring of pain just takes up way too much stamina.

Consideration should be given to future two handed warrior weapons/schematics to be added to include heal on kill, this would give the class improved survivability because other classes either have the ability to craft it or its in a weapon. I'm boggled that mages have access to this through crafting, and even rogues have it but for two handers they do not. Remember not everyone has the luxury of hok gear particularly the superb version.

Templar, I think she is great against demons not so good against Templars tho or bosses. The divine tree outshines sentinel by far.
Don't know how you can adjust her without removing and adding different abilities to her.

Mages:

Arcane warrior: This class is far too versatile and when the majority of players are picking him over the legionnare than it renders the the other tank class somewhat obsolete. No character should be able to tank and provide arguably the best cc/aoe ability in the game. We have a class that is too durable and also too high in dps for such survivability. Spell sword dmg should be adjust to it being single hit rather than double, and it SHOULD not grant the player support xp. It should also cost more cooldown/ mana because atm most of its very spammable without much thought. If spell sword is blocked than there should be some repercussions. Why does the reaver lose health when dragon fangs is blocked while AW continues the use it without any risks?

Fade cloak does 1000x weapon dmg with a 10.2 cool down, add in combat clarity passive with superb cool down amulet and it makes this ability coupled with his other ones very criminal. Dmg values and cool down should be seriously looked at. With a high end staff, the AW can fc for about 2-4k aoe dmg. It is one of the main ways that AW generates full barrier. I know you guys have your data to show which characters are the most played in perilous, and it should be no surprise Cillian is. He does too much too well without much risks. All other classes are weak in something, either dps or survivability, but AW isn't. Enough said.

[BiggyDX]

Warrior Class: Most tend to fit their role just fine. However, I find that as you move up in difficulty, Guard becomes more and more redundant. I'm also not sure what would be the best option to fix this particular issue, as there are plenty viable means to do: Maximum Guard Passives counts towards the total health % Guard takes (rather than going towards armor), passively increasing damage resistance for Guard as the difficulty increases, reduce range damage penalities, give us armor with higher ratings and better upgrades, etc. I think most would argue this is the biggest flaw with the class overall when advancing through difficulties.

 

Legionniare: Best tank in the game, even though damage output is very low. Viable on all difficulties, though I might increase the counterattack duration on Counterstrike just a little bit.

 

Templar: While she provides good buffs for the team and does moderate levels of damage, she tends to have the second hardest time generating Guard given she only has Shield Wall, Challenge, and Unbowed. While this isn't a problem on Routine or Threatening, it certainly can be on Perilous. I also find her Line in the Sand ability to be pretty mediocre.

 

Katari: I always had a soft spot for this character, and with the recent buff I feel he fits the balanced 2H warrior very well. There's not much I'd would do to change him (though I wish Templar Soldiers and Venatori Fanatics couldn't block my Whirlwind so easily >_<).

 

Reaver: Very nice DPS bonuses and self healing abilities. I will say though that she becomes more of a liability the higher the difficulty given her lack of Guard generating abilities. Maybe helping her defensive passives would help? 

 

Rogue Class: Probably the most polarizing class among players. Though the concept behind the Hunter and Alchemist are well made, they tend to get the short end of the stick in some ways. With respect to DW Rogues, a good number of the dagger skills have an issue with enemy tracking. Though I know some recommend starting with a single attack animation, then following it up with the skill, I don't think this should be the case.

 

Alchemist: I think one way to help the Alchemist is to boost her Poison Damage abilities, in addition to increasing the detonation/proximity radius of Elemental Mines. I also don't think it's very wise to make the "Easy to Miss" passive come later in her skill set given how important stealth is for a Rogue character. This might also be a good time for you guys to work on hit tracking for certain Rogue abilites; especially Twin Fang and Shadow Strike. Flasks could also have the duration decreased some, or their duration lengthened. Overall, she falls behind many of the characters, and is forced to pick up the scraps. This also gives casual (and even moderately skilled) players a noticeably hard time with her on Threatening and Perilous.

 

Hunter: His skills lack the Synergy needed to make them all effective, in addition to lacking the "Easy to Miss" passive; which should work hand in hand with Stealth. If the class is designed to work up close, then I would consider increasing the damage of his trap abilities, or giving them new effects (like stun or paralyze). And as someone mentioned earlier, this class - IMO - should have had Mark of Death. The Archer does just fine when it comes to damage output. This class and the Alchemist need the most amount of work.

 

Assassin: Very good burst DPS (especially with Crit Damage Bonuses), but takes a significant amount of ability point investment before she hits that point. Still viable across most difficulties so long as you have a group thats good at aggro-ing enemies.

 

Archer: Solid bow user with high-averaging damage. Needs the least amount of help in terms of buff. And as I stated before, he probably shouldn't have Mark of Death. Caltrops could use a slight buff to the Slow status ailment though.

 

Mage Class: Generally well made, though some abilities for certain classes might need some tweaking.

 

Arcane Warrior: Might be a bit too OP when it comes to tanking. I don't think the damage % for fade shield should be lowered, but the maximum barrier should. I'd also give him increased threat gain, rather than threat reduction (he needs as many enemies around him as possible). Overall, his abilities synergize very well and he's the most powerful in performance when used correctly.

 

Necromancer: I find that her main issues lie in some of her abilities, rather than the class itself. With Simulacrum, I think if you recover your total health back from Death Siphon, you should come back from the dead. Spirit Mark still has moments where its AI bugs out, leaving them just standing still for several seconds on end. I would give these charmed enemies increased movement speed bonuses just so they can get into the fray quickly enough. That said, she's still a well done character, and I find that she still is viable across all difficulties.

 

Keeper: Best support character in the game. There's still a bug with Stone Fist not doing shatter damage, and Lightning Bolt could use some tweaking (maybe a damage bonus or increase in the number of paralyzed enemies). She's got some good CC abilities and get away skills (ie. Fade Cloak/Step), and is a welcome asset to any group on all difficulties.

 

Elementalist: Most versatile in terms of build variety, and fits the "Jack of Trades" mage role. He can be a solid CC character, chokepoint master, or support member. As stated with the Keeper, his Lightning Bolt and Stone Fist ability needs work.

[Drasca]

We will have to agree to disagree on the whole purge/WoH combo thing. I'm of the opinion that that combo should not be all that the templar is about, where as you seem happy just to melt faces.

 

Kill ARE supporting the team. However the primary problem is the templar does not have useful alternatives. Nerfing W/P does not solve this issue. This game is not about straight defense, but control, killing and occasionally buffs/debuffs. Templar does very little of either, and very little of the buffing. . . which leaves killing (W/P) and occasional off-tanking.

[nibyl]

Pls replace spirit mark with summon skeletons. I would be forever grateful.

 

Or better yet, give us a blood mage class. Belinda would hate him/her.

[akots1]

IMO, Cillian has to be nerfed. I don't know how it would be better to do this without ruining the class. One thing that comes to mind is Spirit Blade having some cool down per swing, like 3 seconds. Or costing more mana like 10-fold more. The conjured weapon spells are supposed to be expensive usually. Or every swing might cost him some health like reaver. I have nothing against Drasca's SB-less build. It is powerful but also quite fair IMO and team-oriented. If only Stone fist worked like description says and actual combo detonations would do their damage, preferably scaled with difficulty like in ME3... Of course, barrier and fade cloak are both overpowered but mages are expected to be powerful and it is lore-friendly.

 

Rogues are the weakest classes IMO in terms of survivability and alchemist also has low damage output. I don't mean to pick on people who have 100+ willpower who might object to that statement. She does not have a single good damaging ability of her own compared to other classes. Her cool downs are terrible, especially poison has ridiculous cool down and extremely low damage output and tiny AOE, and there is no normal way to lower these cool downs. Her stealth boosting skills are at the end of the tree. Most of the time you have to just run around waiting for stamina to regenerate and for cool downs to run off. This means she gets hit and as it is a OHK in perilous, it is quite hard to stay alive.

 

All rogues in general are very squishy and die instantly. They don't have dodge and move very slowly as slow as other characters and cannot take cover faster than Cillian. Actually, they are slower as he has fade step. Some teleportation abilities are there  but these are heavily glitched and don't work normally even on host. Also, stealth cool down mitigation abilities don't work normally and stealth itself is glitching heavily off host and sometimes on host. While targeting with bows is more or less reasonable, targeting with 2H weapons is horrible and in most cases just does not work even with minimal lag.

 

tldr: nerf AW, buff rogue survivability, buff alchemist damage.

 

Also, please, screen shake during fire storm....

[Jkregers]

Pls replace spirit mark with summon skeletons. I would be forever grateful.

 

Or better yet, give us a blood mage class. Belinda would hate him/her.

 

This would compensate for lack of barrier. Your survival depends on your pets and them taking your aggro. 

[Drasca]

Warrior's Resolve: If you're losing health on a regular basis with the Legionnaire, you're an big fat idiot, which means this passive does nothing... Instead of 10% Stamina for every 10% Health lost, why not use 5% Stamina for every 10% Guard lost.

 

Warrior's Resolve: The changes suggested for the Legionnaire aren't really beneficial for the Reaver, but it's only because the Reaver doesn't have any way to generate Guard. I will address this below, but for the moment let's just say that lowering a tiny bit the Stamina regeneration of the Reaver wouldn't be a problem because she doesn't really need a lot of Stamina in the first place.

 

 

This part is completely wrong, given WR is a cross class 'warrior' skill. Legionaires don't use it as much, but making it on guard lost is complete trash. The passive is absolutely awesome as-is, and Reavers absolutely need that stamina. It is central to Reaver stamina upkeep, and fantastic on Katari as well. Templar doesn't have it, but I wish it did, because she needs it while the Lego does not.

 

 

 

Dance of Death: Great passive, but a bit too much inconsistent with some skills like the second hit of Deathblow not giving you Stamina back. Fix the passive for those skills and it helps a lot giving back power to all Rogues.

 

DoD works, its just that DB uses stamina on both hits. DB's second hit needs to be stamina free unless it is a major balance issue.

 

 

Parry: What sounds better, wait 3 seconds to land a 125 damage hit or use basic attacks to deal upward 1000 damage in the same amount of time? That's the problem with Parry, it's taking so long and deal so low damage, why would anyone in his right mind use it? I suggest making it 400% weapon damage to make up for the long animation and the timing required. Increase the cost to 20 Stamina in the process.

 

Parry needs some love, but increased stamina cost is not it (especially since it is meant to return stamina upon successful parry). I'd rather have a guaranteed critical on next attack or a special effect like stun, knockdown or panic.

 

 

Biggest Threat: If there's something you don't want on the Katari, it's being then center of attention.

 

No, I'm fine with this. Sometimes you want to be the biggest badass around, and then kite around the map picking them off with the Katari Pain Train.

 

 

Pommel Strike: It desperately needs better tracking. Sometimes I'm just on top of a stationary enemy and it misses up to 4 times in a row -> Once I had a Katari, and then it died...

 

A small AoE (1 meter or less) with PS would go a long way to fixing the tracking issue.

[ChinookLoki]

Oh I know Templar needs help, but the only way I can help players directly right now is through training (as I have no control over development, and only very minor influence communicating to the devs). I love that BWE Luke has started here, but the way development works is we won't likely see changes for some time in the live version, and there'll be quite a bit of lag between our communication, and their ideas, whiteboards, meetings, working and testing, repeat (let alone releasing to the public). In the meantime, you have the opportunity to learn Templar and have a lot of fun owning the game.

 

Those calling for Wrath / Purge nerf isn't helping. That's the only thing keeping her powerful at all right now. She's technically viable without, but not very fun. For Templar you can be less geared, but you won't be carrying Perilous solo. The HoV nerf made it more unnecessarily difficult. I also need to clarify you need to choose high base weapon damage (swords, usually) as opposed to high dps (axes, maces) if you have multiple 1H equipment, and some appears to have higher dps than others, but the other has higher base weapon damage. For example, a sword with 100 damage, but lower 120 dps, but an axe with 150 dps, but lower base weapon damage of 80.

 

If you're lesser geared, you'll likely just be carrying threatening and below solo, or play in an actual team on perilous, which would be true for all cases with lesser gear.

 

SW isn't good on the Lego because Lego has 3x direct invincibility abilties, and lots of indirect ones.

 

SW is fantastic on Templar, but it is a L2P issue. You don't use it for 'guard'. Guard is trash at the moment. You use it for blocking high alpha burst damage situationally. Demon Commander is one of them. Occasional arrows, but you never stay shield wall up for long. Stamina management is an issue and the amulet (that I don't have btw), and Deep Reserves passive for Stamina are both mandatory, as well as SWAC for additional stamina return.

 

If you learn it can be amazing.

 

BWE Luke is listening and working on stuff, which is awesome, but no one knows how long that'll take. In the meantime, consider actually learning the current successful playstyles of Templar, and its roles in a team.

 

Well said and while I can agree with everything you're saying here (and could put into effect with Caliban and the Stamina Amulet, but lacking a BIS shield), trying to learn a timing skill when I can be hosed by situations out of my control such as lag means that learning how to play the Templar at that level will quite literally be one of the last things I do, if I ever get around to it.

 

In it's current state the Templar will continue to be one of the classes I simply don't bother with unless I have a Challenge Completist reason to do so.

[Drasca]

Also, please, screen shake during fire storm....

 

Oh god this. Please let us turn off screen-shake. Please!

[Gya]

Oh god this. Please let us turn off screen-shake. Please!

Had a triple elementalist pug once. I think I had a seizure, or missed an earthquake. 8/10 would vibrate again.

[SpaceV3gan]

 

 Necromacer is another that is close to needing help, some people might disagree but if the reviving exploit was fixed then they would realize just how much they down. Legionnaire can't hit hard enough to save it's life and his guard break too easily whereas the Arcane warrior is swimming in a sea of barrier. Templar is stronger than Legionnaire and barely has guard.

Reviving exploit? Is it reviving via HoK? If so, how is that an exploit, you get health from killing things, that is all.
Besides the Necro is a glass canon par excellence. While many people go down using the Necro, they would go down using several other glass canon kits the same way. Having promoted the Necro 60 times, I actually feel safer using her than I do using most characters. Smart use of HoK, Fade Cloak and Fade Step makes a lot of difference.
Now if Bioware decides to give the Necro extra survivability, I would not complain. I just don't see that as being necessary.

The Lego is virtually immortal with Walking Fortress, To The Death and Counterstrike, and he can get tons of guard. While I think he seriously need a XP generation buff, his survivability is just fine - some have called it broken.

[TheThirdRace]

Also, please, screen shake during fire storm....

It reminds me the good old ME3MP days where it promoted the 4 players to play as a group instead of 4 lone wolf...</sarcasm>

Nothing explains "teamwork" better than...

• Using Shockwave at the side of a Sniper
• Using Disruptive rounds around any biotic class trying desperately to pull of a biotic explosion
• Bringing enemies to the side we're not protecting and cutting off our retreat route
• Messing the spawn points like a real champion so it takes twice as much time to clear the wave

I'm really glad they kept the screen shake, it wouldn't be a Bioware game without some trolling

[Samahl na Revas]

Reviving exploit? Is it reviving via HoK? If so, how is that an exploit, you get health from killing things, that is all.
Besides the Necro is a glass canon par excellence. While many people go down using the Necro, they would go down using several other glass canon kits the same way. Having promoted the Necro 60 times, I actually feel safer using her than I do using most characters. Smart use of HoK, Fade Cloak and Fade Step makes a lot of difference.
Now if Bioware decides to give the Necro extra survivability, I would not complain. I just don't see that as being necessary.

The Lego is virtually immortal with Walking Fortress, To The Death and Counterstrike, and he can get tons of guard. While I think he seriously need a XP generation buff, his survivability is just fine - some have called it broken.

I said the same thing about the vorcha...

 

 

As for the Lego, I didn't say there was anything wrong with his ability to survive it's just that despite hitting mostly crits he takes forever to kill anything with his slow swings that also miss. Speaking of which there was this one time a lego on my team was the last person alive, I wanted the xp, it felt like an hour had gone by.

[Texasmotiv]

Oh god this. Please let us turn off screen-shake. Please!

I always feel embarrassed when I firestorm because i feel like I'm annoying my party.

[nibyl]

I always feel embarrassed when I firestorm because i feel like I'm annoying my party.

Always spam firestorm, except when spamming wall of fire. Those pansies can go find another lobby.

 

Oh and I don't think hunter needs the I was never here passive. It's easy enough to get stealth back with explosive or leaping shot or just auto-attacks. He could sure use a buff in some aspect but resetting stealth on kill would make him more powerful than the archer. Full draw/leaping shot autocrits all day every day.

[Drasca]

He could sure use a buff in some aspect but resetting stealth on kill would make him more powerful than the archer. Full draw/leaping shot autocrits all day every day.

 

I'd like that, but he'd still be weaker than archer given Hunter still suffers CD but Archer does not. Archer just spams Leaping Shot until the enemy is dead if they're close by. AL spam all the other times.

[nibyl]

I'd like that, but he'd still be weaker than archer given Hunter still suffers CD but Archer does not. Archer just spams Leaping Shot until the enemy is dead if they're close by. AL spam all the other times.

True, but if I had that passive I could see myself building hunter with stealth, explosive, leaping and full draw and just going to town. Why use traps anymore?

[Minuos]

True, but if I had that passive I could see myself building hunter with stealth, explosive, leaping and full draw and just going to town. Why use traps anymore?

 

Because Full Draw still wouldn't be worth the casting time.

 

It'd take a lot to bring the Hunter up to the Archer's level of ridiculousness. He's my most promoted class and requires very little effort beyond positioning. Add a Long Shot ring to the mix and it's even worse.

 

The Leaping Shot ring doesn't even work, so that's yet another disadvantage for Hunters, since they tend to swear by this skill.

[KalGerion_Beast]

It'd take a lot to bring the Hunter up to the Archer's level of ridiculousness. 

Probably wouldnt take much more than giving his Full draw the ability to pierce multiple enemies, like archers full draw longshot.