Thief – initiative regen reduced to 0.8/second; build diversity requires a 1.1khp base increase at level 80
Initiative changes seem fine to me so far. Pretty early to be calling for changes, at the very least. Don’t give Thief more HP, they’re fine as they are now (16k HP on zerker with no points in vitality tree, with Practiced Tolerance and Divinity runes).
Skills
Cluster Bomb – damage reduced by 12.5%
Probably too big of a nerf, honestly. I think a slight nerf is in order, but cutting it by 1/8 is kinda harsh. I’d start smaller, it’s not like it’s destroying the game or anything.
Shelk Venom – recharge reduced to 40 seconds
Maybe, but honestly, I’m not sure venom share is the spec we should be trying the hardest to balance right now. It’s very easy for it + pet builds to become absurd. Let’s fix less risky things first.
Traits
Improvisation – changed description from bundle to possessing a stolen skill
Ok, w/e.
Sleight of Hand – Internal cool down of 30 seconds
Same opinion as Chaith, it’s fine as is.
Elementalist – base health increased by 2k at level 80 to increase build diversity
Nah, just fix their sustain. Their health is low, but they’re a caster class. If they can heal themselves up adequately, keep range on their ranged weapons, and give themselves boon support, it should be alright.
Skills
Ice Bow – Ice Storm – reduced damage by 8.5%
Meteor Shower – reduced area by 10%;
Meh, when people start actually using these things to good effect in high level PvP, I’ll worry about it. Leave for now.
Churning Earth – is now a chargeable skill – instant cast will yield 2 bleed stacks at 2.5 second duration, 1 cripple application at 1 second, and base damage of 650; max charge will yield 8 bleed stacks at duration of 8 seconds, 4 cripple applications at a duration of 1 second, and base damage of 1,050; total charge time for max charge is 3.25 seconds
Could be cool if the numbers are done right.
Traits
Lightning Strike – ICD increased to 5 seconds
Definitely, instant cast burst spam is bad for the game.
Diamond Skin – reduced condition reduction to 95%, down from immunity
Nah, I would change the trait to be something else. How about, “Incoming condition duration is reduced by 100% for 2 seconds when you switch to Earth attunement.”? And give it the same treatment as zerk stance and AR as above.
Ranger
Skills
Spirits – all non-elite spirit passive effect radii are decreased to 650; actives are decreased to 240 radii
Spirit of Nature – recharge increased to 200 seconds; passive heal tick reduced to 300hps
Sounds good, but you can leave the recharge on Spirit of Nature. Also, the condi wipe on SoN should go down to 3 condis, or something.
Sword – decrease of evasion frame durations during auto-attack by 25%
Not sure this change is needed.
Traits
Bark Skin – damage reduction reduced to 45%
I dunno why they buffed this trait; not as though Ranger can afford to lose the condi removal from EB, anyway.
Empathetic Bond – is now activated on pet swap; 3 conditions transferred to pet; recharge time of 12 seconds
Hmm, interesting idea. Keep in mind that part of the strength of Empathic Bond is the ability to swap right after the trait procs, reducing the damage done to the pet by a lot. Maybe you just lose the 3 condis when swapping pets (it isn’t transferred)? Otherwise, your new pet could die pretty fast and then the Ranger gets put in a pretty bad position. Overall, this is a pretty huge nerf to Ranger, and will accentuate their fairly bad condi removal options without other changes. I’d be really careful with this.
Nature’s Vengeance – spirit activated radii decreased to 100
Nah, leave it.
Runes
Lyssa – ICD of 60 seconds
I think going up to 90s would be fine; people would still use them.
(edited by cymerdown.4103)
