An Interesting Way to Alter Combat/Carnage?

[waterboytkd]

First, I would like to start off saying this is purely a creative exercise. I'm not actually calling for these changes, though I do think they would "iron out" some of the design wrinkles the current Combat/Carnage discipline has.

 

I originally posted the following in this thread about general changes to Sent/Mara utilities.

 

 

Again, this is getting specific to Combat/Carnage. Also, I really love tweeking with class mechanics in PnP RPGs, and that's where the following is coming from--not from a "this needs to happen" position, but more of a "this is fun to design" position. That said, there is an intent in the following design to also address some of the issues facing the discipline.

 

I'm intrigued by the idea of changing Slash/Vicious Slash and Blade Rush/Massacre up. Making Slash/VT gain the auto-Ataru proc is interesting, and basically turns those abilities into Blade Rush/Massacre. It could occur on Ataru Savvy, making the ability this:

 

Ataru Savvy: While Ataru is active, Slash/Vicious Slash and Cyclone Slash/Sweeping Slash trigger an Ataru Form strike on each enemy target it damages, bypassing Ataru Form's rate limit. In addition, for 6 seconds after using one of those abilities, your Ataru Form has an extra 30% chance to be triggered.

 

Then Blade Rush/Massacre could be turned into something else. I like the idea of an acrobatic attack. What that made me think about was the dive roll Ops and Scoundrels get. So what if it was a 10m roll that also did a minimal damage attack to anyone in the path, like an Ataru Form strike? Basically, it becomes a good gap closer/sprint move that also helps trigger the good stuff.

 

Blade Rush/Massacre: Cooldown: 10 seconds; Roll 10m forward, and trigger an Ataru Form strike against any enemies along the roll's path, bypassing Ataru Form's rate limit.

 

This becomes a decent way to proc Opportune Attack/Execute from a distance, while only dealing minimal damage, as well as a way to close the gap on kiters.

 

A few other abilities would need to be changed to work with this. Efficient Strikes would be Slash/Vicious Slash an Cyclone Slash/Sweeping Slash. Saber Storm/Sever would affect Slash/Vicious Slash, Blade Storm/Force Scream, and Clashing Blast/Devastating Blast

 

This way, even if Clashing Blast/Devastating Blast still shared a cooldown with Blade Storm/Force Scream, you have at least 1 more move, and it would be thematic.

 

I still think that you could give CB/DB its own cooldown, though, without breaking the spec (assuming the rumors that its damage is low are true). They would consume Opportune Attack/Execute just like Blade Storm/Force Sceam, so you would have to reproc Opportune Attack/Execute between CB and Blade Storm/DB and Force Scream, which would also help the discipline feel less "spammy", which really happens a lot between Precision/Gore windows.

 

 

Then, while I was cleaning out the cat box today, I was thinking more about this, especially the Blade Rush/Massacre idea. Part of the problem, from an implementation viewpoint, is that it would require a new attack-type (path-based AoE--I can't think of anything in the game that does that except maybe Lethality dive roll?).

 

My solution also knocked Ataru Savvy down a peg, which is probably good as the +30% buff might be a bit good for level 12. So, I came up with this:

 

Ataru Savvy: While Ataru is active, Slash/Vicious Slash and Cyclone Slash/Sweeping Slash trigger an Ataru Form strike on each enemy target it damages, bypassing Ataru Form's rate limit.

 

and

 

Blade Rush/Massacre: Cooldown: 10 seconds; Roll 10m forward, and for 15 seconds, your Ataru Form has an extra 30% chance to be triggered.

 

Note that the duration on that effect is longer than the buff normally granted by Blade Rush/Massacre. That's because Blade Rush/Massacre is normally a spammable ability, but this version has a 10 second cooldown. As the buff duration is longer than the cooldown on this ability, it would be possible to keep it up constantly still, though you might lose out "tactically" doing so.

 

Since all those effects currently exist in game, it would (I'm assuming) be much easier to implement.

 

On the topic of CB/DB sharing a cooldown with BS/FS, I still think it could be done where they don't. Some damage values may have to be tweaked, but I don't think it'd be possible to fit in both in a Precision/Gore window alongside Dispatch/Vicious Throw, since you would need to reproc Opportune Attack/Execute. The lower damage on BS/FS makes it a nice secondary ability, maybe reserved to break up the spamming while Precision/Gore is on cooldown.

 

Part of the reason I like giving CB/DB its own cooldown is because, as others have pointed out, look at how many actual additions to the rotation Combat/Carnage get. Their first ability is a stance. Next, they get a replacement for Slash/VS. Then they get Precision/Gore. Then they get a replacement for BS/FS. So they get 1 additional ability.

 

Compare that to Watchman/Annihilation or Concentration/Fury, which both add 4 abilities from the discipline, and in Concentration/Fury, for an extra bursty opener, can even make use of a fifth ability not normally part of a rotation (Force Sweep/Smash).

 

I like the above changes because I think they're thematic for the discipline, and they would help expand the rotation a bit, while also giving the spec an additional anti-kiting or anti-knockback tool. Combine these with the general Sentinel/Marauder changes detailed in the other thread (changing Leg Slash/Crippling Slash into Crippling Throw/Deadly Throw, fixing Guarded by the Force/Undying Rage so it's actually useful again, tweaking Transcendence/Predation so more than 1 out of 3 disciplines could make use of it), and I think a lot of the disappointment around Sentinels and Marauders, and especially around Combat/Carnage, would be remedied.