Hatred's Leeching Strike Needs a buff

[dylanfailbh]

Hatred clearly is lacking in the Defensives utility department when it comes to PVP. It is one of the squishiest classes there is, but it doesn't have to be, it can be made to emulate its sister spec like Madness. I think Leeching Strike can be buffed in a way that makes the class that much more on par with the others in terms of survivability with its ability Leeching strike. I firmly believe this cane be done by a few things:

1.) Leeching Strike has its root added back into it, where it can root an enemy.

2.) Leeching strike's critical hit damage can be increased by 15% whenever recklessness is active and can use a charge of recklessness. I think this is needed because so far its an ability that is only buffed by the dots and when it does hit is pitiful when compared to Force Leech. Its self healing is not up to scratch, or damage high enough in comparison to other specs dishing out and taking damage.

3.) Using Leeching strike should feel rewarding, at times it feels like the ability though a unique one to hatred/serenity is there, is not at all effective as much in your rotation, I think if it gave either Damage reduction for a certain amount of time sort of like unnatural preservation in the Sorcerer Tree, then it would feel much more justified, that and a damage boost to this ability would really turn the class into something that is up to scratch in comparison with Deception, which has a lot of Damage Reduction compared to Hatred.

 

What I don't think makes sense: The fact that Deception can self-heal per critical force strike for 1% of base HP with is up to 4k, while Hatred struggles to live on its self-heals at all. They feel pitiful and not even there, Overload Saber is not worth using at all, its just not when Hungering Force or Maliciousness are there. Hungering Force is a slight buff, but it might've been alright in the last patch, its still too weak in terms of self-healing to consider it a buff to Hatred's survivability in PVP. I believe increasing Leeching Strike's Critical Hit Damage under Recklessness, and making it an autocrit from Recklessness while giving you some DR temporarily will revive this spec's survivability in PVP. 

 

Edit: I also wanted to add, that with these buffs I also thought ahead with balance. I don't think leeching strike if all these changes go through should be reset under Maliciousness as well. 

Edited November 21, 2022 by dylanfailbh

[Crazykidddd]

So ive actually written a post about this before they "buffed" hatred last patch, and I completely agree its still below par both on damage and survivability but the devs don't seem to understand anything. 
Leeching strike being weak af is the biggest issue and the best fix for the spec. 
I suggested firstly making Leeching Strike not able to miss, the reason for this is because it misses too often and for an ability that is so integral to Hatred's miserable survivability, it shouldn't be rendered useless by all the tanks running around in pvp. 
So making Leeching Strike never miss and increasing it's damage by 30% when the target is affected by discharge (just like force leech works) would seriously help the class no longer feel like youre a sheet of paper that hits like an insect. This wouldn't be an end all fix for the spec as its dmg is still miserable for single target (relatively speaking of course) but it would be a great start. 

And yes, making leeching strike root the target again would be a great addition as well.
Tbh in order to help fix the spec they need to bring back the old death knell 30% melee damage bonus for hatred. Giving it to decep would make the class too op but having it on hatred would be a very fair way of buffing its absolutely pathetic damage and give it less of a ramp up time.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Crazykidddd

[dylanfailbh]

16 hours ago, Crazykidddd said:

So ive actually written a post about this before they "buffed" hatred last patch, and I completely agree its still below par both on damage and survivability but the devs don't seem to understand anything. 
Leeching strike being weak af is the biggest issue and the best fix for the spec. 
I suggested firstly making Leeching Strike not able to miss, the reason for this is because it misses too often and for an ability that is so integral to Hatred's miserable survivability, it shouldn't be rendered useless by all the tanks running around in pvp. 
So making Leeching Strike never miss and increasing it's damage by 30% when the target is affected by discharge (just like force leech works) would seriously help the class no longer feel like youre a sheet of paper that hits like an insect. This wouldn't be an end all fix for the spec as its dmg is still miserable for single target (relatively speaking of course) but it would be a great start. 

And yes, making leeching strike root the target again would be a great addition as well.
Tbh in order to help fix the spec they need to bring back the old death knell 30% melee damage bonus for hatred. Giving it to decep would make the class too op but having it on hatred would be a very fair way of buffing its absolutely pathetic damage and give it less of a ramp up time.

Absolutely. I think Leeching strike being unmissable and have higher damage will literally fix the class on top of some passive DR from crit damage, sort of Madness' Corrupted defense. 

 

[SentinalMasterWW]

Serenity/Hatred's biggest problems I think are two things, One is the pitiful self heals and the second is meh defensives. I do agree with the OP in that serenity strike needs some improvements. I have thought about how to fix this spec for PVP, I thought about changing the AOE mod For Squelch, and replacing it with a passive that grants Squelch life steal for the Damage it does, Also replacing the Armor penetration mod for FIB/Death field with Death brand/Shifted Balance would help with Single Target damage, I've used the Armor penetration's and its okay, but I would rather take a single target increase in heal and damage. 

When it comes to defensives they could try and make reflect heal you for a certain amount of the damage taken. This would be a passive locked to Serenity/Hatred as Deception/Infiltration is already broken as it is. 

[dylanfailbh]

On 11/24/2022 at 7:56 AM, SentinalMasterWW said:

Serenity/Hatred's biggest problems I think are two things, One is the pitiful self heals and the second is meh defensives. I do agree with the OP in that serenity strike needs some improvements. I have thought about how to fix this spec for PVP, I thought about changing the AOE mod For Squelch, and replacing it with a passive that grants Squelch life steal for the Damage it does, Also replacing the Armor penetration mod for FIB/Death field with Death brand/Shifted Balance would help with Single Target damage, I've used the Armor penetration's and its okay, but I would rather take a single target increase in heal and damage. 

When it comes to defensives they could try and make reflect heal you for a certain amount of the damage taken. This would be a passive locked to Serenity/Hatred as Deception/Infiltration is already broken as it is. 

You would think Hatred would recieve the same amount of love as Madness. at this point fighting a madness sorc on Hatred is almost suicide if both cloaks aren't up. Its ridiculous the amount of back from the dead abilities, DR and self heals Madness can perform while hatred is the complete opposite though the exact same concept. Devs really need to look into how they can passively bring Hatred up to par with its sister spec. Death Brand is a good idea as well. 

[Monterone]

Both Madness and Hatred also need their dots not to tick on Whirlwinded targets.

What good is that Whirlwind if all your targets are always dotted up if you're playing it right?

[Crazykidddd]

On 12/6/2022 at 2:44 PM, Monterone said:

Both Madness and Hatred also need their dots not to tick on Whirlwinded targets.

What good is that Whirlwind if all your targets are always dotted up if you're playing it right?

This ^