Trogusaurus Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 (edited) Hey all! After playing through the new content I got to thinking about the current state of our class, and would like to suggest a few changes (possibly to the developers...? ) in future content. According to Torparse and this site's own pvp leaderboard, it's woefully apparent our beloved glowstick monkeys need some help. (For reference, the current highest recorded Mara/Sent dummy parse on Torparse takes 30th place, trailing behind 1+ specs from every other class, bar Scoundrels/Operatives and Guardians/Juggernauts. So much for a "pure DPS class".) Sents and Maras gained quite a few new toys in 3.0. Targetless Smash/Sweep, AoE combo chains and movement-friendly Utilities are quite welcome. However, I do believe each discipline could benefit from a little fine tuning to ease some of the issues Sents and Maras face. Watchman/Annihilation Rework Cauterize/Rupture. As it stands, clipping said DoT early at even 3 GCDs is arguably better than Slash/VS, even without Zen/Berserk. Prior to 3.0 there was *never* any reason to clip the DoT, but now it's almost easier to just replace Slash with Rup/Caut altogether. Please, either buff Slash to encourage reapplying the DoT on final tick, or severely drop the DoT tick time and treat Rup/Caut as a Slash upgrade like BR/Massacre. Give Zen/Berserk a proc highlight for DS/OS. Balancing Cent/Fury atop of Focus/Rage management for DS/OS stacks has always been a hallmark of the spec, and adding an additional Force DoT to the mix further convolutes the proc timing. I would love to see the devs remove proc highlights on the other two Fury/Cent consuming powers and instead only highlight Zen/Berserk after 2 of the 3 OS/DS charges have been consumed for optimal DPS. If the above is not possible for programming purposes, consider treating OS/DS charge like a stacking buff the ability's outgoing damage, and the make the 3rd stack highlight Zen/Berserk (functionally similar to PoM/Wrath mechanic for Sage/Sorc). Applying each charge to several targets would also tack on more multi-target DPS. Carnage/Combat Buff Precision and Gore. I know, the devs just nerfed it. Instead, if the cooldown was further reduced to sync with its primary big hitters, the player would have more opportunities to set up greater DPS spikes without causing any significant changes to the discipline. Bring back Cauterize/Rupture, or add a small DoT to Clashing/Devastating Blast similar to that of Vig/Veng's BS/FS mini DoT. This is mostly for pvp purposes. As it stands, this discipline is one of the most vulnerable to stealthers in 1 on 1 combat. Not only do the burst disciplines for Scound/Ops and Sin/Shadow trump our scantily armored class in burst, they can simultaneously shut down our Gore/Prec window and any defensive pops *while* burning half their rotations uncontested just with one mez. Returning any sort of DoT to the Combat/Carnage rotation will provides some defense while stunned atop of complicating the stealthers' combat exits. Bring back Cauterize and Rupture..please? It provides variety in an otherwise simple playstyle, but never truly threatens the core rotation. Even if it was incredibly limited in use, the move still had a place in,all 3 disciplines pre-3.0. After all, it's not like the other specs still retain useless moves *cough Watchman Blade Storm* *cough Conc TwinSaber*. C'mon devs! My quickbar tiles need more friends here! Concentration/Fury Smooth out Focus/Rage management. Right now it feels more like a Guardian/Jugg playstyle since it champions the only 5-focus ability for any sent/mara class, and Zen/Berserk is a glorified Combat Focus/Enrage. It does not resemble the incremental energy movement the other two disciplines feature. Imo the best way to separate Conc/Fury from its Jugg/Guard counterpart is by reducing the energy consumed and granted by the aforementioned moves for a zero-sum energy gain. This frees up the player to greater use of focus-consuming fillers and reduces the pain of having to burn excess energy to make way for Zen/Berserk. Add more variety to the existing abilities, anything will do. Why? Nearly every move in the discipline plays a part in one massive proc chain, restricting the player to the same predictable cycle. What if MS/Ravage didn't always proc additional energy, or if Exhaustion and Crush had a chance to immediately proc all 3 stacking buffsf at once? This discipline is allegedly the burstiest of the 3, there is no harm adding a little RNG! Bring back Cauterize/Rupture. See a pattern here? All Grant the charge abilities some sort of immunity to AoE or indirect damage during and shortly after leaping. How many classes out there can't even use their openers (or in Watchman's case, core rotation ability) without dying instantly? I'm looking at *you* Revanite walker and Revan burn phase. Buff Saber Ward's CD. Seems a bit odd that the classic force wielder's defense can't be used at every opportunity as it is. Now that Guarded and Undying received a slight buff, Saber Ward just seems like a red-headed stepchild rather than a staple defense. If the cooldown is non-negotiable, at least add another utility to combat the awkwardness and give Sents/Maras a bit more survivability in pvp. Add a Utility that turns Awe into a solid stun instead of breaking on damage. We're already one of the only classes w/o a push/pull, at least throw us a bone in the CC department. If you made it this far into this big wall of text, I tip my hat to you. In any case, I enjoy the game and would like to see my favorite class earn a few much-needed buffs in the face of the nightmare endgame is for us now. If the devs insist on amping the difficulty for melee, I would certainly hope they would find ways to better define rotations and provide some protection from all the meleephobic mechanics post-2.x. Thanks for reading, and I would implore the devs to consider a few of these should they ever see this. Edited February 19, 2015 by Trogusaurus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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