Kasuaner Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Hello everyone! As you know from my previous post, I am investing my time extensively into the PTS to get as deep and detailed a feeling as I can on all the changes they are doing, and the one thing I didn't give my feedback on is on the balancing for the classes and their disciplines. Since it would take me way too much time to seek out every single combat style specific thread and comment there in full detail, I opted to instead summarize my thoughts on all disciplines in one, single post for everyone to see. Disclaimer, of course, that this is all just my anecdotal experience and could potentially not align with what other people think, this is just my 2 cents on every discipline and what I think of it. I also very grossly summarized my thoughts on this, so it is very likely that one or the other thing for each discipline was neglected in its mention, don't Lynch me for it please. Let me know of your own thoughts about any of this and whether you agree or disagree with what I said. I will comment on all 8 classes from the Imp-side so for Rep-side reference, use the class mirror references (Like sentinel for marauder, gunslinger for sniper etc) JUGGERNAUT: Immortal Feels more damage oriented, which fuels its passive threat generation and relies less on taunts. Makes it a good tank choice for content where you can't taunt PvE bosses like most Rancors. Rage Feels a bit less similar to Fury Marauder now due to the new Enrage ability and how the discipline is balanced around it. Deals slightly less damage on its ST rotation, but with the Enrage Ability, its more heavily focused on AoE Vengeance Lost half of the defensive viability that made it such a favorite, but compensated for it with a more centered focus on its DoT damage and procs. Similar to Rage, it has a new Bloodrage Ability that consumes and detonates all DoTs, giving it a very potent AoE presence. MARAUDER Fury Has stayed more or less the same, just the problem about which type of damage you want to deal is somewhat addressed as you can either focus on your weapons damage or on your force damage. Has the Ability to rely much less on active ressource generation which makes its rotations much smoother. Carnage Really feels like you're on a rampage. Its innate damage is a bit lower, but it has some absurd tankiness for a DPS class and with many stacking movement speed buffs, you're running left and right faster than a Sorc/Assassin with Force Speed. It is very fun, but not as effective as it used to be. It definetly got toned down as the Solo-content discipline meant to have you racing around for many elite enemies rather than 1 beefy boss. But it is a lot more fun to play now. Annihilation Might become the new highest DoT parsing spec. Its damage was re-balanced to peak extensively during your Berserk duration, and when you do activate Berserk, things just escalate horrendously. Ideally, you're going to go for the beneficial choices of DoT crits and fury generation for Berserk, which means Rupture, your main DoT, deals quadruple damage during Berserk, Force Rend and DoT crits every 2 seconds generate Fury even during Berserk, where you usually cannot generate it, so Berserk is available a lot more often and in the most ideal scenario you can even infinite-loop up to 3 Berserk casts in a row without a single GCD going off without Berserk being active. It's still a very difficult DoT class to play, but mastering it feels a lot more worth the while now. SORCERER Corruption I personally like the re-balancing they have done and Corruption has received further emphasis on being the entry-level healing class. Each of its casting synergies has remained without much changes, just some abilities received more of a focus than others, like Dark Infusion now being a lot stronger and more important. The one thing I don't like is that, if you took the choice for Dark Infusion to heal 2 targets, the 2nd target is random. If it had some kind of priority for reliability, like healing the lowest health ally within X meters of your target, it would be a lot more solid. Lightning Has remained more or less the same. The only noteworthy changes are that you can now choose if you want to be a lot more AoE focused or more ST Focused, which allows for higher peak DPS numbers on each respective scenario rather than riding this admittedly awkward greyline inbetween. Madness Less damage, a lot more survivability. Madness has received a new Identity as the be-all-end-all solo content discipline with stronger healing, more emphasis on its DoT procs and more damage reductions than all Tank classes. This might be the go-to class for beginners in ranged DoT combat as it has become extremely safe to play for PvE. Of course, its safety trades a lot of utility like movement-impairment cleanses, so its a lot more sub-par for PvP by comparison. ASSASSIN Deception Has become a lot more centered around PvP viability with 2 stuns without needing to make a crippling choice and its strongest ST-Ability, Reaping Strike, has multiple ways of resetting its cooldown, making back-to-back casts possible and allowing to deal ridiculous damage in short windows of opportunity. One of the only disciplines that genuinely benefits from the Ability Pruning, thought this will not be a widely shared opinion IMO. Recklessness has also become a lot more useful as one ability tree choice makes all other melee abilities benefit from its bonuses as well, and the discipline gains 3 stacks instead of 2, so dealing crits when necessary feels more smooth. Darkness Might become a lot more popular as a tank class as it has received improved tools of reducing or resetting taunt cooldowns, making it a LOT easier to either perma-taunt bosses, taunt swap or permanently cripple PvP damage against enemies. Other than that, it plays pretty much the same as it does now. Hatred The polar opposite to Madness Sorcerer, it feels a lot more AoE focused as a DoT class, particularily with Recklessness spam since its CD is reduced by 2 seconds whenever any of your DoTs deal a crit, and by choice, by additional 5 seconds for each enemy unit your Death field hits. But it also feels a little more balanced around the spammable Recklessness usage, as its direct force damage feels a lot more meh if it does not crit. POWERTECH Shield Tech Definetly suffered quite a bit from the new stat rebalancing as it feels a lot more dependant on its shield absorption, which has taken a decent hit as well. Still a reliable passive tanking class thought with extremely high defensive stats, but its no longer as braindead as it used to be. However, it has received some self-sustain as compensation, which adds somewhat of a learning curve to the discipline, which to me feels like a healthy addition. Pyrotech Has a lot more emphasis on either being pure DoT or pure Burst and it is fun to experiment around with both. The raw burst damage it can press is amazing, but has some high heat costs in return. The DoT focus feels more rewarding for successfully pulling off your full rotation without just making your damage too high. Overall nice re-distribution of its strengths without losing out on any of them. Advanced Prototype Has become a lot easier to play and is ridiculously bursty against non-boss enemies, but suffers a lot more from proper ressource management in return. Above all else, thought, it needs new tacticals, since both of its Single Target tacticals were integrated into its Abilities, it has only a choice between the AoE tactical, ranged rocket punch or the underwhelming as hell Overwhelming Offense general tactical. MERCENARY Bodyguard Took some painful hits to its survivability, but remains the MVP of single-target burst healing. There were no noteworthy changes done to it, the rotation still feels exactly the same as before. Arsenal Lost its high-alacrity build, but can compensate for it, if you choose it, by making your main filler, Tracer Missile, a lot more spammable with flat reduced cast time and heat cost. But, overall, the raw burst of this discipline took some painful hits. Its damage relies a lot more on the tactical proc now and to me that's not exactly a healthy design. Innovative Ordnance Is dead unless it receives buffs to its ressource management. With TSO being integrated into Vent Heat, controlling heat has become impossibly challenging. If it weren't for its ressource management issues, it would be a lot more interesting, as it has received some power-shifting towards either its passive burn it applies or the strong filler rockets as one skill tree choice makes its proc ignore the 30% health cap. But none of its changes matter if the discipline is borderline unplayable. SNIPER Marksman Got hit by far the worst in its defensive trade-offs from the later skill tree choices. It is very much evident that its nerfs were aimed at its PvP performance, but it has damaged its PvE non-offensive capabilities to a degree where all of its previously desired utilities are now more risk than reward no matter the situation. Marksman Snipers are in a pretty bad place with how things look right now as they either have none of its defensive cooldowns or none of its team-wide utilities. Engineer Feels a lot less like a sniper-type discipline as it has lost its innate reliance on being in Cover, allowing it to deal its damage and execute full rotations while being constantly on the move. Might become the new favorite sniper discpline because of how little its mobility affects its rotation compared to the other two disciplines, which makes the defensive skill tree choices not nearly as impactful as intended. Virulence Has not changed at all. Its still a very long-duration on-demand burst type DoT spec that relies heavily on its filler spams, but it has the same issues of defense vs utilities as Marksman does. OPERATIVE Medicine Received a lot more emphasis on being the hardest to learn but most rewarding healing discipline. Its shift towards being more AoE heal heavy makes it more difficult to properly play but those who invest into learning Medicine Operative will probably be the most reliable healers for scenarios where a whole 8 man party needs rapid, on-demand treatment. It also feels a lot more bursty towards ST heals, but its not yet quite there at the same level as Bodyguard, but it comes close enough for the difference to be entirely negligeble and a choice of pure, individual taste. Lethality Plays a little more like Virulence Sniper, but it suffers from none of its weaknesses. Its fillers feel more rewarding to use and no longer cause as much of a dps drop if you mis-manage your ressources. Concealment No noteworthy changes here. Feels mostly still the same with a slight focus on the strength difference between opening your attack from stealth and unstealthed. Has definetly become a bit more PvP oriented thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts