Concept? Eh… its uninspired, but not bad.
Core buff is ok.
Modifiers are definitely bad.
I am actually using this right now with my revolver build and quite like it (I specced no modifiers, so only the keystone itself). The general view of how this should be used is dead wrong by most people imo. I took it because I always tag things. This turns that tagging into a minimum +4% damage bonus, but potential 20% damage bonus. Its something I do anyways, so why not add more value to it? Saving your tags to try and max stacks is the wrong way to utilize this. Just play like normal, and its a free damage buff for you and your teammates.
They should probably change the modifier that increases max stacks to instead decrease max stacks to ~3, but each stack is now worth 10% instead of 4% (would probably need to change values for other modifiers as well).
I like this. Could also just double it from 4% per stack to 8% with 4 stacks so it reduces the charge time from 10 to 8s (or w/e) and gives the same buff it does now.
I also really like the tag because the yellow is more visible than the red, and it’s fantastic for nuking high value targets. It’s hard to pass up +32% damage. Against your average mook it’s w/e. Nice but not always necessary. Against a boss it’s fantastic. And then a 12% buff for all allies after? Icing.
Plus, I personally don’t like the weakspot kill tree (and the keystone looks actually bad,) and the ‘melee and ranged and melee and ranged…’ build is an interesting choice, but not how I want to play Veteran.
Uninspired or not, the WHC “Nuke this target,” tag is a valued and welcome addition to the vet support playstyle.
The difference is that you’re not swapping weapons because you need them here, you’re swapping them to maintain a buff. That’s why it feels unnatural.
As with many of these cases in DT, the solution to this problem is to ignore the buffs entirely and just use your weapons as normal, with the added bonus of partial buffs gained through normal gameplay. However in this case, that’s a bad idea because doing things like swapping to your gun to reload between fights wipes out your buffs.
No argument that it’s strong and the ways to get the most out of it at fairly clear, but that doesn’t make it feel good to use.
I am serious.
It is very easy to maintain.
I think as soon as you use it for a few matches, it won‘t be a problem at all for you.
Ok then use a different keystone.
This one is great. You just do not personally like it. And that is fine.
Psykers swap weapons or perform certain actions in order to maintain peril and toughness, all the time.
That includes weapon swaps and force sword special activations when they are not necessarily the optimal attack to use (when not considering certain talents that only get triggered because you did it).
This problem is solved by one of the keystone nodes that auto reloads your gun.
+12% almost permanent damage buff to all fireteam members
+40% toughness replenishement to all fireteam members on 16 sec cooldown
+4% - 32% damage increase tagged target
An all you have to do is just tag
I don’t understand how you can complain here.
The middle veteran shout branch is the strongest support class in the game.
I’m not going to argue about it, I’m just going to say it that what’s required to manage the buffs from Weapon Specialist feels awkward and clunky. I’ve been running it for the past 4 missions and it’s not feeling any less so.
Perhaps it would if I ran it for the next 10 runs, but honestly I’m not enthused to try that with how it feels. I’d much rather just ignore it and benefit from the less-than-peak effects while I play as normal.
If we’re going with the keystone as it is, then it must absolutely have something AoE built into it.
Because the relevance of single enemies pretty much fully stops at T3, any further tiers will always have multiples. Auric will have multiples all the way down to monstrosities.
For now this feels like a keystone that PG wielders will take to quickly boost their damage before shooting something big. In a completely non-teamwork way, I must add.
Pretty much this, it should have the tag cap raised to three and have a modifier node that let’s stacks move from one target to another if the original target dies.
You always have the ability to tag , if you dont have one stack it will do a normal tag.
the core function is retained
there is a six second gap between the last buff falling off and hitting 8 stacks , the buff can only fall off if there is nothing that is taggable to fight for 10 seconds.
i wouldn’t claim to have maxxed its potential but what i was doing was pretty simple. i would tag a crusher or reaper and one shot them with the plasma to get it running and knock off a big boy. if there wasn’t a single high health target id just drop it anything thats going to die fast even used it on jumping pox bursters.
then at the first trigger everyone gets 40% of their sta and tough back and a 12% damage buff.
from that point on im generating a stack every 2 so the team is generating 2.5% sta and tough per second on average and so long as i can tag at least 1 elite/special each 10 seconds. which is not a difficult task.
then when you fight a boss it gives the team a long duration 32% damage buff
if you keep in mind the buffs are team wide those numbers add up pretty big imo.
Not really. It has AoE coherency buff, working in exactly the same manner as your damage aura (should you pick it), somewhat more powerful but conditional. The condition itself is still “kill tagged target”, and in no way related to anything AoE.
In fact, this part doesn’t even synergize with the main part (tag for increased damage) - if you want your teamwide buff running, you’d probably focus on tagging enemies that are easier to kill or about to die anyway. Unless, as I said above, you’re wielding PG and using keystone entirely to get a quick damage boost. In that case you probably can (no guarantees given the size of vet tree) pay 1 more point to also have a teamwide buff along with you killing big targets. But that’s pretty much entirely only for big gun wielders.
Thanks for the explanation, but I remain unconvinced. If you’re already deep into that middle path for other nodes you might as well take it, since you’re not getting any other keystone with the points you’ll have left, but the ability isn’t worth chasing specifically. I ran this for a few T5 runs tonight and none of the buffs had any noticeable impact unless I was at 8 stacks, and even then it was disjointed because tagging the priority enemy and buffing the team aren’t things that need to happen at the same time.
Nobody needs 40% toughness or stamina at the moment a fight breaks out and 2.5-5%% makes no meaningful difference while the fight is in progress. The 12% damage increase at the start of the fight is arguably useful, but that doesn’t make a difference to anyone unless it lets them hit breakpoints, which I suspect it’ll fail to do in the majority of cases.
there is a choice in when to trigger it , way i looked at it was true odds are no ones going to need the tough, but the sta is often well received a lot of people sprint around the map and it gets the 12% buff running
not sure it was clear but the 12% buff lasts untill 10 seconds go by without any refresh. if you tag one stack and kill the current buff is updated and refreshed , ie if the new buff is higher it takes over but if its lower it just refreshes back to the full duration.
i have found in general you dont have to be too high up the difficulty before the game is throwing at least one taggable enemy in every 10 seconds. and heck if it doesnt you dont need the buff.
it is very easy in general to keep the 12% on for the duration of the fight
and the tough regen and sta regen on top , sure its not huge but it all helps , and it applied to everyone
and of course we are ignoring the 32% group wide damage buff to boss’s , thats got to be worth a talent point?
You pay five Talent points for that. Also, the 40% toughness is not a set value. You get 5% if you use mark like usual, or to upkeep those 12% damage buff.
Those 12% potentially permanent, or 4% from the unstacked tag, will probably not help with breakpoints so they are null and void in most cases. Being able to tag one enemy every 16 seconds has equal problems. There are so many targets on the screen at one time in Auric. What deserves the emperors wrath? One of the six Crushers? One of the ten Ragers? One of the three Flamers? Maybe the lone Trapper running behind the Elites? Will any of them, especially the low hp specials, die faster with your four to five Talent point heavy tag, than to a normal one?
The usual life expectancy of a marked special is slim to zero, with or without Focus Target.
Calling “Focus Target” the strongest support class is kind of silly. Any heavy attack Ogryn build with a Club beats it in terms of team support. As a “Focus Target” Vet you are able to shut down one something every 16 seconds for the low cost of four additional Talent points. As an Ogryn you just bully/shut down as many Targets as you want with the press of the special attack button. Oh. Of course, we also got the spark head who can lock down a full room for as long as they want, while giving immunity to range and specials. In both cases you can mark stuff you dont wanna deal with right now cost free.
Focus Target is way too pricey for what it does, and not even worth the two points you need to unlock it.
To be honest, new tree size is part of the problem with keystones (all of them).
They’d probably feel considerably better if they didn’t require you to spend 90% of your skillpoints just to reach them.