Suggested Tactics buff.

[MasonMc]

I'm sorry if this has been thought of already, but I've never seen anyone have the idea before. A lot of people think Tactics cannot be buffed because it already has great AoE. And if you were to buff Tactics, it'd make Tactics AoE better. But, Tactics single target DPS is pretty bad at the moment. Yes, it has great burst. But it has quite a ramp up time, and you never see ANY Tactics Vanguards in the parse leader boards.

 

So here is my idea, buff the skill Triumph. Currently it increases the damage you deal to BLEEDING targets by 3%. So, if you increase the damage to lets say... 6%? I'm not sure what the exact amount should be. And change it from bleeding targets to damage from your gut. So, it should just increase your DPS to single targets, and that's it. Because if you use gut twice on two different targets, you'll burn out very quickly. I think it'd be a great idea, hopefully it hasn't been discussed before. But let me know what you guys think, thanks!

Edited May 27, 2014 by MasonMc

[TACeMossie]

I'm sorry if this has been thought of already, but I've never seen anyone have the idea before. A lot of people think Tactics cannot be buffed because it already has great AoE. And if you were to buff Tactics, it'd make Tactics AoE better. But, Tactics single target DPS is pretty bad at the moment. Yes, it has great burst. But it has quite a ramp up time, and you never see ANY Tactics Vanguards in the parse leader boards.

 

So here is my idea, buff the skill Triumph. Currently it increases the damage you deal to BLEEDING targets by 3%. So, if you increase the damage to lets say... 6%? I'm not sure what the exact amount should be. And change it from bleeding targets to damage from your gut. So, it should just increase your DPS to single targets, and that's it. Because if you use gut twice on two different targets, you'll burn out very quickly. I think it'd be a great idea, hopefully it hasn't been discussed before. But let me know what you guys think, thanks!

 

For now, tactics is the worst single target spec in exchange for being the Best AoE spec, so I dont think we'll see single target buffs without AoE nerfs.

 

I came up with a series of changes that improves the DPS, without removing pulse cannon from the rotation, but still tones down its AoE:

 

1. THE NERF

 

Similar to the Orbital nerf, the nerf to Pulse Generator is one that will cause a little rage, but will result in a smoother rotation.

The damage boost is removed. Instead, the energy cost reduction per stack is changed from 2 to 8, making Pulse Cannon free @ max stacks, removing hammer shots from the rotation

 

2. THE INITIAL BUFF

Stockstrike has its cooldown reduced to 7.5 seconds with Combat Tactics, on top of its current effects

 

This improves stockstrikes overall contribution to the fight. At this point the rotation is set:

 

Gut > Fire Pulse > Stockstrike > High Impact Bolt > Ion Pulse > Ion Pulse > Ion Pulse > Stockstrike > Pulse Cannon

 

3. REVERTING THE ANTI-HYBRID GUT NERF

Patch 2.4 dropped Gut's damage significantly and put it into Fire Pulse to try and devalue the hybrid (which didnt work), so simply reverting the nerf brings a nice DPS boost to Tactics

 

4. DPS IS SAME AS LIVE NOW, HOW DO WE BRING IT UP?

 

This is where we get fance:

Blaster Augs for HEC - 1% boost increased to a 3% boost

Charged Loaders - Each point reduces the cooldown on Shoulder Cannon by 15 seconds

 

And there we go. Tactics gets a ~250 DPS increase, and without breaking PvE, and still using AoE in the rotation. Though it does hurt the AoE potential to an extent, so I dont know how people would take it.

[MasonMc]

Your idea is great, but I don't want to lose the great AoE we currently have. As it stands now, we are not usually the best AoE class. Focus and Rage Sentinels/Maras are the best. And they still have pretty good single target DPS. With my suggestion. It won't negatively effect our AoE. But it'll help out sustained damage. And it isn't a complicated buff at all, very simple.

 

Edit: I just read your idea more, and by completely removing the damage stack/proc to pulse cannon. It would kill Tactics. It would make Assault have the same exact AoE potential as we do. AoE defines Tactics. I'm just saying we need a buff to our sustained DPS, just a little buff. We really don't need a nerf to our AoE. With my suggested buff, it really wouldn't change our AoE at all, which is why it'd be perfect. As it stands, we have good AoE. But compared to Focus/Rage, they have great AoE too. And, they can parse higher on dummies than we currently can.

 

And yes, we would still use Pulse Cannon in our rotation. But it's damage would be pretty terrible. It's like Assault using Pulse Cannon, it doesn't do enough damage for Assault to even use it, yes it would be free. But it just wouldn't do nearly enough damage. A 60% DPS loss would be huge. I don't think it even needs a nerf at all.

Edited May 27, 2014 by MasonMc

[TACeMossie]

I see the problem - you saw the 6/4/36 parses. Those parses were made by abusing the double relic proc glitch, which is removed in 2 weeks.

 

Without it, focus is a 3.4k dps peak in dread forged, vs the 3.5k dps peak of tactics. On top of that, tactics has better DPS in raids because it generates ammo when it gets AoEd, and on a dummy has resource limitations (unlike focus). And in an AoE fight, Tactics, when played properly, gets +1.2k dps per target till there are 5 of them, and then +1k dps for the rest of them.

Focus on the other hand, is +1.1k dps per target till 5, and after that its ~+150dps for the rest of them.

 

Oh and until 2.8 comes out, tactics can also abuse the double relic proc in a raid because of its passive's self heal.

 

THAT is why tactics can't be buffed for single target without losing its AoE potential somewhat (e.g. my terrible redesign that still gets ~665 dps in the rotation out of pulse cannon instead of ~1020 dps - its a 34.88% dps reduction from pulse cannon, not a 60% one - making it still superior to assault for AoE fights because AoE in Assault hurts its proc system, and if it didnt then pulse cannon would be used in the rotation... and mortar volley too. That and tactics gets 12% more natural elemental damage, a 30% surge on pulse cannon, and 3 seconds less on pulse cannon's cooldown)

Edited May 27, 2014 by TACeMossie

[MasonMc]

You idea suggested that pulse cannon loses the damage buff, which is 60% increase if we stack pulse generator. The idea that I'm suggesting is very small, a 3% to 6% damage boost to a single target. It's just a simple buff to bring us slightly closer to Assault because as it stands, Assault is going to deal much more damage than Tactics can.

[Mastershroom]

I certainly wouldn't object to giving Triumph more than 3%. But I had another idea for improving Tactics' single-target sustained damage without affecting its AoE capability: make Pulse Generator affect Full Auto as well, so you have to choose between using your 3 stacks on Pulse Cannon or Full Auto.

 

Consider that Pulse Cannon and Full Auto are both 3-second channeled abilities with 15 second cooldowns, so FA can easily take the place of Pulse Cannon in the rotation. I propose that Full Auto with 3 stacks of Pulse Generator should do more damage than Pulse Cannon, which would mean much more competitive single-target damage without either overpowering the AoE capability or nerfing it into the ground. We can probably do away with the ammo cost reduction for FA since it already only costs 16 (PC is 24 base, 18 with 3 stacks of PG). Hell, do away with the slowdown for all I care. And I think Full Auto should be added to the abilities affected by Havoc Training (30% crit bonus damage on Stockstrike, Gut, Pulse Cannon and Fire Pulse).

 

I haven't done any actual number crunching, but just as a ballpark figure, let's say Pulse Generator increases Full Auto's damage by 25% per stack, that would be 75% extra damage on FA compared to 60% for Pulse Cannon. Not overpowered, I think, but significant enough to make it worth using Full Auto instead of Pulse Cannon for a single-target scenario.

 

So, for example, the tooltip for Pulse Generator would read:

 

"While High Energy Cell is active, Ion Pulse, Explosive Surge and Fire Pulse have a 100% chance to grant Pulse Generator, increasing the damage dealt by your next Pulse Cannon by 20% or your next Full Auto by 25%, reducing Pulse Cannon's energy cell cost by 2, causing it to slow affected targets by 30%, and making it immune to interrupts. This effect can stack up to 3 times."

 

Any thoughts on that? Like I say, I haven't gone so far as to calculate how that might affect the DPS of an actual parse with those exact numbers, just kinda throwing something out there. I just thought this might be a decent solution to Tactics' single-target DPS issues without adversely affecting its AoE potential, or changing the basic rotation or mechanics of the tree.

[ShawnyBoi]

Personally I'm a fan of a suggested +DMG to full auto buff. Full auto looks amazing and its easily interruptable in pvp so this wouldn't be OP. Plus its a thousand times cooler than pulse cannon and the ranged component would be amazing in some progression.

[LordMatthewS]

For now, tactics is the worst single target spec in exchange for being the Best AoE spec, so I dont think we'll see single target buffs without AoE nerfs.

 

I came up with a series of changes that improves the DPS, without removing pulse cannon from the rotation, but still tones down its AoE:

 

1. THE NERF

 

Similar to the Orbital nerf, the nerf to Pulse Generator is one that will cause a little rage, but will result in a smoother rotation.

The damage boost is removed. Instead, the energy cost reduction per stack is changed from 2 to 8, making Pulse Cannon free @ max stacks, removing hammer shots from the rotation

 

2. THE INITIAL BUFF

Stockstrike has its cooldown reduced to 7.5 seconds with Combat Tactics, on top of its current effects

 

This improves stockstrikes overall contribution to the fight. At this point the rotation is set:

 

Gut > Fire Pulse > Stockstrike > High Impact Bolt > Ion Pulse > Ion Pulse > Ion Pulse > Stockstrike > Pulse Cannon

 

3. REVERTING THE ANTI-HYBRID GUT NERF

Patch 2.4 dropped Gut's damage significantly and put it into Fire Pulse to try and devalue the hybrid (which didnt work), so simply reverting the nerf brings a nice DPS boost to Tactics

 

4. DPS IS SAME AS LIVE NOW, HOW DO WE BRING IT UP?

 

This is where we get fance:

Blaster Augs for HEC - 1% boost increased to a 3% boost

Charged Loaders - Each point reduces the cooldown on Shoulder Cannon by 15 seconds

 

And there we go. Tactics gets a ~250 DPS increase, and without breaking PvE, and still using AoE in the rotation. Though it does hurt the AoE potential to an extent, so I dont know how people would take it.

 

I completely agree.