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So when is the bubble stun nerf coming?


Mindwreck

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Its comming when scrappers cant stunlock a person to ~20% health out of stealth

 

In a sense, pretty much this.

 

Its been Stun Wars since day one. Why not go ahead and also call it - Stun Wars: The Bubble Strikes Back - while we're at it.

 

Dont count on EAware to fix anything, they've only proven to be quite efficient at compounding pvp related problems.

Edited by Variden
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In a sense, pretty much this.

 

Its been Stun Wars since day one. Why not go ahead and also call it - Stun Wars: The Bubble Strikes Back - while we're at it.

 

Dont count on EAware to fix anything, they've only proven to be quite efficient at compounding pvp related problems.

 

Stun Wars: The Old Rebubblelic

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Look I'm a Scrapper/Scoundrel, I think you already know by reading the title how this is going to turn out. I would reallyl like to use a bunch of bad, bad four letter words I'm so frustrated. When I see a team coming out of the gate all buffed up with static barriers, heres what I do, /warzonequit. I wouldnt care if you let the Sorc keep the ability to just self cast, they are really squishy without it. But how in the hell do you justify this being able to be spammed on everybody. My shoot first opener is actually a curse as I am basically stunning myself by using it. Make this nerf quick people. Im losing my patience.

 

Look the whole idea of this problem comes from the overwealming damage other classes have and the lackluster survivability and damage a sorcerer.

 

Heres a tip to fight it, kill us, we go down pretty fast. We die and no more spamming. So ask yourself should I go for that target with quick burst and high survivability mechanic or the sickly sorcerer in the back who is so weak you can tear him up like paper.

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Look the whole idea of this problem comes from the overwealming damage other classes have and the lackluster survivability and damage a sorcerer.

 

Heres a tip to fight it, kill us, we go down pretty fast. We die and no more spamming. So ask yourself should I go for that target with quick burst and high survivability mechanic or the sickly sorcerer in the back who is so weak you can tear him up like paper.

 

So your tip for countering bubble sages is to....kill them? And by the way sages are not that easily shut down. They have good escape and kiting capabilities. You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Anyone defending bubbles or smash either has no clue how to play the game or are in denial, and I'm saying this as a sentinel in focus spec.

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Annoying as hell spec.

 

The only way I found to counter this tonight was playing a Focus Guardian, try and get as many grouped as possible, Sweep Bomb them, and redic stun yourself. You will die. Hopefully your team is smart enough to kill the marked bubbler so that they can then go on to win the fight.

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Look the whole idea of this problem comes from the overwealming damage other classes have and the lackluster survivability and damage a sorcerer.

 

Heres a tip to fight it, kill us, we go down pretty fast. We die and no more spamming. So ask yourself should I go for that target with quick burst and high survivability mechanic or the sickly sorcerer in the back who is so weak you can tear him up like paper.

Well this a good point, and when I do see one all my attention is focused on killing him. Which brings me to a point I didnt mention. These guys most of the time now are being guarded by 1-2 smashmonkeys. This is very smart teamwork. This combination of teamwork is unbeleivably overpowered. Picture this, i open up out of stealth with shoot 1st and immediately bubble stunned. No big deal. Over comes smashmonkey to help his buddy out. Oh crap I fight back and am bubble stunned again. Ok ill try my cc breaker this time. I fight some more, oh crap the bubble was reapplied. Im bubble stunned again. I have just stunlocked myself to death. Oh wait it wasnt just me there were teammates in the vicinity we were all stunlocked and someone opened the door to the zoo and let all the smashmonkeys out. End of story.

Seriously though the smashmonkey thing is for another thread. Bubble stun is the key here. Make this dam thing a self cast. Quickly.

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Yes, such a shame you couldn't win a 1v2 or 1v3 fight. If you hadn't been stunned when you hit the smasher, the sorc would have DoT'd you, and healed them. End result is the same.

 

But for the record, we all know it is going to see a nerf in the next balancing patch. They need to do it in such a way that A: Sages/Sorcs can still apply bubbles to teammates without causing harm, i.e, do not revert it to a CC on pop, and B: It doesn't harm their ability to escape/kite.

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Yes, such a shame you couldn't win a 1v2 or 1v3 fight. If you hadn't been stunned when you hit the smasher, the sorc would have DoT'd you, and healed them. End result is the same.

 

But for the record, we all know it is going to see a nerf in the next balancing patch. They need to do it in such a way that A: Sages/Sorcs can still apply bubbles to teammates without causing harm, i.e, do not revert it to a CC on pop, and B: It doesn't harm their ability to escape/kite.

Did you notice in my post how I mentioned there were teammates nearby? Who were also severely effected by the bubble stun chain reaction. Yeah i dont ever expect to win a 1v2 even though i have. Im all for the bubble on teammates without the stun. Keep the stun version just like it is, but self cast only.

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You must not play warzones much buddy. Me waiting around 20 seconds for a buff to wear off, wow. And I think your saying someting about teamwork in the same paragraph. Just think about it a little.

After giving you some tips on how to deal with bubblespammers, after letting you know you have 7 other people in your pvp group, this is your reply? Do a search of my threads started/posts here on the forums. I don't pve. I'm here to PvP. I laugh at the stealthers who do nothing to me because they can't play their class and I FEAR the stealthers who know how to kill people properly. Maybe you should try and Duel a friend who plays bubblepopspec?

 

I don't think you understand where he is coming from.. Why open on somebody with a bubble on them? First the entire team can have the bubble. You can't count on your team to burst the bubble, and it can just be reapplied...

I suppose he's just supposed to lurk in the shadows for most of the time just waiting for some bubble to hopefully pop and not be reapplied.

 

As a dps stealth class, Operatives and Assassins, the opener is crucial to their rotation. And Bubble stun on everyone has pretty much eliminated their opener. How could you consider a stealth dps viable in PvP if their rotation is pretty much countered by every enemy player. This is just poor mechanics that needs to be fixed.

 

I understand where he's coming from, he comes from the perspective of a solo queueing lone-wolfer who's used to be able to kill sages/sorcs with impunity when and where he chooses.

 

HE IS STEALTH! It is his JOB to wait in the shadows until the opportune moment, THEN strike. I'm telling him that there are opportune moments where he can hit people, without getting stunned due to the bubble

(Pro tip, the bubble has a 17 sec CD where you CAN'T REAPPLY IT! so if he has trouble killing someone in that timeframe, then the issue might be with something else.)

 

yeah wait for it to wear off, so now its an invincible bubble, since you wont be attacked until it wears off, lol, that is hilarious. I agree with the personal use of it, there is no way you can justify it for use on others...none.

 

Self-cast only is fine if you make it reachable for fullspec healers. (meaning tier 2 and not tier 4 in middlespec OR a switch to tier 4 in healer tree. I can live without the useless 2 point talent that gives 20% snare on a DoT)

A Sage (no matter the spec) will want 7 points in middle spec before contemplating going up their chosen tree (balance or heals) since those 7 points give 100 force, 9% cheaper casts and 20% bigger bubble (can't crit a bubble so it's already gimped from that compared to any DPS ability in the game)

I spec deeper into the middle tree, not because I want to DPS, but because I want to heal. It gives so much utility and survivability that I actually end up feeling like I'm a viable choice in a ranked match over a scoundrel healer (next to no successful teams ran with sage heals pre 1.4 and if they did, they had to babysit the **** out of him compared to the scoundrel. Oh and usually the sage wasn't fullspec, but bubbleblind cuz in ranked, ppl play smart and don't break mezzes.)

 

So in short self-cast bubblestun is fine if the talent is reachable by fullspec healers

 

so let me get this straight , we now have to create an entire strategy, in the middle of a WZ, in a PUG, to deal with Bubble stunners? Thats a problem. Oh, and yes, some of our teams would have bubble stunners as well, i dont care get rid of them all, for non personal use. For a self buff, sure why not, add it to the already immense pile of control abilities this game already has.

 

Also, I play a rolflolsmash, and yes its OP, I agree, the problem is, if it gets nerfed, then we have 2 pretty ****** specs to roll with, annhilation/watchman, dispellable dots...nuff said...Carnage/combat is ok but lacks gap closers.

Yeah, you are expected to play strategically, figure out the best way to counter the enemy team, even as a pug. What game are you playing man? UltimateSoloDeathmatchFacerollGameOfIDon'TWantToThink?

Ah, you play smash spec. So you play the same game as me, you're just playing one of a couple of very easy specs you can play in this game. At least the OP plays a difficult class... His skill ceiling is higher, so I understand his frustration..

 

Are you saying the other two mara/sent specs are mediocre/bad?

Troll or serious?

 

So your tip for countering bubble sages is to....kill them? And by the way sages are not that easily shut down. They have good escape and kiting capabilities. You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Anyone defending bubbles or smash either has no clue how to play the game or are in denial, and I'm saying this as a sentinel in focus spec.

Killing the bubblespammer is a very good tactic. it works and it works well.

Knowing WHEN you can kill a bubblespam EASILY is the trick.

I go down faster than the Titanic if people catch me with the right timing.

Bubblespec sages bring a catch 22 to the WZ. If you stupidly run around tunnelvisioning the sage, then you probably loose. If you completely ignore the sage, then you probably loose. So devote the right amount of time to shut down the sage and you win. (You don't burn your highest hitting skills on a sentinel with GbtF up right?) timing, teamwork and situational awareness... It works.)

 

TL;DR:

 

You can counter bubblespam as a team.

You can't stack bubblespammers FTW (17 sec lockout on bubble recasts)

You can nerf it to self-cast only IF you make it reachable for full-spec healers

You could balance it by making it impossible to manually break it (by rightclicking it on your buff/debuff bar)

The hard counter to bubblespam: pop it outside melee range or get unremitting/any other spec that can be CC immune

 

To the DPS ops/scoundrels: This might be a case of "nerf paper, scissors is fine -regards rock"

(range counters bubble, bubble counters stealth, stealth counters range)

Do bear in mind, I get gibbed by good stealthers who know when to open up on me.

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Well this a good point, and when I do see one all my attention is focused on killing him. Which brings me to a point I didnt mention. These guys most of the time now are being guarded by 1-2 smashmonkeys. This is very smart teamwork. This combination of teamwork is unbeleivably overpowered. Picture this, i open up out of stealth with shoot 1st and immediately bubble stunned. No big deal. Over comes smashmonkey to help his buddy out. Oh crap I fight back and am bubble stunned again. Ok ill try my cc breaker this time. I fight some more, oh crap the bubble was reapplied. Im bubble stunned again. I have just stunlocked myself to death. Oh wait it wasnt just me there were teammates in the vicinity we were all stunlocked and someone opened the door to the zoo and let all the smashmonkeys out. End of story.

Seriously though the smashmonkey thing is for another thread. Bubble stun is the key here. Make this dam thing a self cast. Quickly.

 

Your gunslinger mate throws his 30m AoE mez, targets the sage and pops bubble while you are outside the stun range, THEN you open from stealth and rips out 10k health in a few GCDs (while sage is flapping on the floor)

If smashmonkeys try to interfere, you AoE mez and use that timewindow to finish sage (Gunslinger can root sage to make sure he can't escape) (If sage gets the chance to reapply bubble, then you still got your friendly neighbourhood sniper to pop it while you kite out of range and use dps fillers 'till it breaks (you already blew your opener/in-combat stealth to reapply opener))

 

This is very smart teamwork. This combination of teamwork is unbelieveably overpowered.

 

(mezzes might be redundant, You can pull this off in less than 10 secs.)

Looks like your issue isn't bubbles, it's lack of experience in coordinated PvP groups. My advice, find a group of people you like teaming up with and start queueing as a premade.

Edited by DaedalusV
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After giving you some tips on how to deal with bubblespammers, after letting you know you have 7 other people in your pvp group, this is your reply? Do a search of my threads started/posts here on the forums. I don't pve. I'm here to PvP. I laugh at the stealthers who do nothing to me because they can't play their class and I FEAR the stealthers who know how to kill people properly. Maybe you should try and Duel a friend who plays bubblepopspec?

 

 

 

I understand where he's coming from, he comes from the perspective of a solo queueing lone-wolfer who's used to be able to kill sages/sorcs with impunity when and where he chooses.

 

HE IS STEALTH! It is his JOB to wait in the shadows until the opportune moment, THEN strike. I'm telling him that there are opportune moments where he can hit people, without getting stunned due to the bubble

(Pro tip, the bubble has a 17 sec CD where you CAN'T REAPPLY IT! so if he has trouble killing someone in that timeframe, then the issue might be with something else.)

 

 

Killing the bubblespammer is a very good tactic. it works and it works well.

Knowing WHEN you can kill a bubblespam EASILY is the trick.

I go down faster than the Titanic if people catch me with the right timing.

Bubblespec sages bring a catch 22 to the WZ. If you stupidly run around tunnelvisioning the sage, then you probably loose. If you completely ignore the sage, then you probably loose. So devote the right amount of time to shut down the ;sage and you win. (You don't burn your highest hitting skills on a sentinel with GbtF up right?) timing, teamwork and situational awareness... It works.)

 

TL;DR:

 

You can counter bubblespam as a team.

You can't stack bubblespammers FTW (17 sec lockout on bubble recasts)

You can nerf it to self-cast only IF you make it reachable for full-spec healers

You could balance it by making it impossible to manually break it (by rightclicking it on your buff/debuff bar)

The hard counter to bubblespam: pop it outside melee range or get unremitting/any other spec that can be CC immune

 

To the DPS ops/scoundrels: This might be a case of "nerf paper, scissors is fine -regards rock"

(range counters bubble, bubble counters stealth, stealth counters range)

Do bear in mind, I get gibbed by good stealthers who know when to open up on me.

Stop, stop, stop. Just ignore this thread please. Whats this crap about dueling a bubble spec sorc. This thread is about bubble stun being spammed on everybody, is what i dont like. And yeah, I am in a guild and do some teamwork. Were average, nothing great or elite. This game shouldnt require extremely precise tactics to enjoy yourself. If so take out randoms and just make it all ranked WZ. Good for you if you've found an elite 8 man, with good coordination. You represent less the 1% of the player base.

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This game shouldnt require extremely precise tactics to enjoy yourself. .

 

Yet as a sage that is exactly what we have had to do because of all the melee zerging us for 7 months. Bubble stun is silly, but sage dps is sub par, and smash monkeys are silly to.

 

Unless all those issues are addressed I wont support a bubble stun nerf, not without addressing the obvious class imbalance issues plaguing this game.

Edited by PloGreen
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The pvp devs in this game have very little IQ honestly.

The only way for them to create FOTM class is to make one ability overpowered.

It is the same way when they want to improve a class also. All they do is buff one ability and that is it.

 

They have no idea how to create a unique class by balancing or improving multiple abilities.

Look at the Juggernaut. It is supposed to be a tank or a dps hybrid. So if a player says juggernaut, you will think it is a class that can tank or dps hybrid that can somewhat survive. It is neither right now. It is just a class that can smash.

Edited by xxdragonragexx
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Stop, stop, stop. Just ignore this thread please. Whats this crap about dueling a bubble spec sorc. This thread is about bubble stun being spammed on everybody, is what i dont like. And yeah, I am in a guild and do some teamwork. Were average, nothing great or elite. This game shouldnt require extremely precise tactics to enjoy yourself. If so take out randoms and just make it all ranked WZ. Good for you if you've found an elite 8 man, with good coordination. You represent less the 1% of the player base.

 

Duelling a bubblespec sorc/sage (or ideally, rolling one and play it in pvp) will give you greater understanding of what you are up against (know thy enemy) (since I rolled my sentinel alt, I've learned ALOT about how you counter each of their viable pvp specs, got lots of lowbies I play when some AC becomes an issue for me to be up against, but it's really in the 50 bracket you get the understanding you need tbh)

 

You don't like the bubble-spam on team-members. Understandable since your chosen AC has difficulties against it. Doesn't make bubbles OP. (I already advocate a nerf/tweak for the bubble, I KNOW that the current implementation of the bubble is an issue that needs adressing)

 

It's good you've got a guild you play with and PvP with a group, it makes things much more enjoyable than soloqueueing. When you guys queue in normals, have some kind of answer to the bubbles you know you are going to be up against, talk with your mates and come up with a way to get past the stun before you go in to kill the devious little bugger.

 

I thank you for your assumption that I am a top player who plays ranked all the time, but in reality, I am not. I have limited ranked experience (PvE server in a PvE guild cuz I know some very cool people there who both PvE and PvP.) In actuality I'm one of a few pure pvp players in my guild, I yearn for more ranked play, in the mean time I theorycraft, I play normals with whomever else is online and wanting to pvp, I group with a plethora of ACs in normals and we have quite a good win rate, but it counts for nothing really as long as it isn't ranked. It's besides the point though. I've been trying to give you examples of how to counter/work around the bubble, I agree it needs a nerf. I just don't find the bubblestun as big of an issue as some other people on this forum.

 

You brought the lolsmashers into this thread, there's a big issue right there.

Lack of diversity in viable healing ACs for rankeds is another (overnerfing the bubble wil make this issue more pronounced)

commando/sage DPS not being viable enough is another.

Amount of stuns is arugably a big issue as well (I would rather they looked at the stunbreaker CD/speccable stunbreaker additions instead of removal of CC)

 

DPS

CC

Healing

all is needed in fun mmorpg pvp (without CC or healing it becomes less rpg and more first-person shooter)

Edited by DaedalusV
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Having played against a lot of bubble stun, I really don't see any problem with the mechanic itself. Light armored Sorcs/Sages are super squishy and need some additional survivability. As a melee-range Scrapper/Op, I know how to counter it; After using 2 abilities to blast through the shield, I back up and throw in a Thermal Grenade to pop it from range.

 

THAT SAID, there are two current problems with bubble stun. Both need to be fixed.

  1. Bubble Stun can be voluntarily popped by right clicking the debuff. This was clearly not how it was intended to be designed and needs to be fixed.
  2. Bubble Stun does not correctly fill up the resolve bar for a 3 second blind. This allows players to chain too many stuns together.

 

If these two specific problems were fixed, bubbles would be fine. I don't see anything mechanically wrong with the ability otherwise.

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The funny thing is, I can handle a Smasher who isnt being buffed anb rebuffed with the bubble stun.

 

Hehe, so you can handle smashers, is a hard counter to snipers/slingers, very good as off node defenders/harassers, can unload your burst with impunity on any fullspec healer as soon as their KB is on CD (not counting your own AC here though, the best pvp healer choice)

 

Enter bubble blind (do bear in mind this spec has been here since release)

Suddenly you get in trouble.

Seems like rock wants paper nerfed ;)

find a sniper in your guild who pvps alot and grroup with him, see what you can do with a ranged teammate. You could even group with a 10m class like the assault spec vanguard ;) He's got a pull, if sage tries to run, yank him back and destroy the guy.

Added bonus of assault spec vanguard team mate: Bubble is gone after initial rotation (@30 m = basic attack 'till DoT proc -> HiB, If no proc @10m, autoproc ->HiB)

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Having played against a lot of bubble stun, I really don't see any problem with the mechanic itself. Light armored Sorcs/Sages are super squishy and need some additional survivability. As a melee-range Scrapper/Op, I know how to counter it; After using 2 abilities to blast through the shield, I back up and throw in a Thermal Grenade to pop it from range.

 

THAT SAID, there are two current problems with bubble stun. Both need to be fixed.

  1. Bubble Stun can be voluntarily popped by right clicking the debuff. This was clearly not how it was intended to be designed and needs to be fixed.
    Agreed
  2. Bubble Stun does not correctly fill up the resolve bar for a 3 second blind. This allows players to chain too many stuns together.
    If #1 is fixed then bubble becomes the only stun in the game where the enemy decides when it goes off. In my opinion that warrants a lower amount of resolve gained.

 

If these two specific problems were fixed, bubbles would be fine. I don't see anything mechanically wrong with the ability otherwise.

 

Start with the first nerf, if that doesn't take care of the issue, consider the 2nd nerf.

No need to hit sages too hard with the nerfbat.

(I'm biased, but that's pretty obvious by now.)

I want to see a nerf on smash as well, but I'd rather they did it in small gradual steps than with a knee-jerk reaction (1.2 anyone?)

Any and all class related changes should be done with careful consideration.

 

The people who say sorcs could use the survivability the stunbubble gives are 100% correct

They want it self-cast only which is fine by me

If all sorcs/sages get access to it (by placing it in tier 2)

Because, like you say. sorcs/sages could use the survivability boost and it doesn't seem like people really have trouble killing the sorc/sage anyways... Just the lolsmashers and the other high-threat/priority targets.

 

So by making it self-cast only

And placing it in tier 2

You get a void for sages again.. They loose viability in ranked play

So you still need to buff the sorc/sage specs.

Edited by DaedalusV
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The irony is this thread is written by mostly non-smashers.

I had expected this thread to be more like " nerf paper because scissors doesn't like being bit back"

I hope they do not swing the nerf bat at sages at all. Even though I do not roll with sage alt ,I feel they have the short end of the stick. The class is really only exceptional as a healer and that is sad. The DPS spec is horrirable. I do believe a Lightning Sorcerer does way more deep than a the comprable sage. So the sage has a exploitable defense tactic besides insta-lift and run like hell, so what.

While there are several threads on this subject, I don't feel it is game breaking. Anoying yes, but so is stun locked and derpsmash. The point is you should be willing to have them nerf smugglers stunning and the smashing also. The consular classes both have been nerfed to hell already. The Dev's in their finite wisdom have hit pretty hard with the nerf bat on too many occasions. While I will not point to all the exact instances the only reference that it has transpired. But to call for a class that has been nerfed once for a second time , come on.There are other classes that have never seen the nerf bat swung at them. Lets share the wealth.

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Look I'm a Scrapper/Scoundrel, I think you already know by reading the title how this is going to turn out. I would reallyl like to use a bunch of bad, bad four letter words I'm so frustrated. When I see a team coming out of the gate all buffed up with static barriers, heres what I do, /warzonequit. I wouldnt care if you let the Sorc keep the ability to just self cast, they are really squishy without it. But how in the hell do you justify this being able to be spammed on everybody. My shoot first opener is actually a curse as I am basically stunning myself by using it. Make this nerf quick people. Im losing my patience.

 

While they are at it nerfing our Sorcerers again (Overload because of the QQers), let the developers go ahead and nerf the Stealther's ability to reenter stealth when their health is down to less than 10%. Go ahead and nerf the smuggler's punching ability to do a quarter of the damage they do now, making their use of the shotgun a cast ability instead of instant cast. Make the Trooper/BH's 360 degree knockback the same as the Sage/Sorcerer's. Oh, remove the ability of the Guardian/Jugg's after the jump to be invulnerable to any knockback, stun, or anything else that inhibits their ability to do damage. Lastly, make any and all CC's, roots, and anything else that inhibits a player's ability to move affect the broken resolve bar system. Let's not just do one class, nail them all. It's only fair. You want it balanced right?

 

The Sorcerer/Sage is the weakest class in terms of staying power. They are a support unit for the group. You remove even one aspect of their ability like you want, you further diminish their usefulness. So what if they can click off on their Static Barrier/Force Shield and have it detonate. It's part of the game. So you are blinded for 3 seconds. That allows the sorcerer/sage to get away or anyone else who has it to pop a heal or clear an area. It's a defensive power. When you start screaming for "removing" certain abilities, it has consequences. Like how they have nerfed Annihilation spec for Marauders for their healing abilities. Now Marauders and Sentinels healing ability of their respective trees cannot heal the group or themselves effectively. This further diminished both classes in my opinion. This is why I haven't played my Marauder in PvP since before 1.4 and won't. I've sold off all my PvP gear because these classes have glass jaws and no legs without a healer keeping them alive and cleansed.

 

The more people complain about this, that, or the other, the more BW screws up the entire game system in PvP. They may get tired of all of it in the next patch and give everyone fully augmented Elite War Hero gear and tell us to have at it. I'm sure that would enthrall everyone!

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