So there’s been a lot of complaints from elf players lately due to all the nerfs the waystalker class received since the betas.
Complaint No 1: She isn’t viable anymore on champion and above: That is absolutely false. She is still very powerful on champion and above. She is an all rounded hero who is able to able to taken on most situations the game throws at you. She can kill specials from further ranges than any other hero because she has no ranged drop of damage. She also has access to the most powerful melee weapon in the game - the spear which lets her solo hordes on her own as long as there’s enough room to manoeuvre. In an open field ambush, she has no equal. She isnt weak at all.
Complaint No 2: Her spear nerf. During beta there were many complaints from other players that the spear was over powered. Why though? Well, to put it simply, it could do too much. It could increase your mobility by 15% propelling you further due to animation cancelling, push more enemies than other 2h weapons due to such a high push/block angle, and just face roll hordes of enemies due to its crazy over the top attack speed. It could kill so much quicker than any other melee weapon in the game. The developers always knew it was over top - https://clips.twitch.tv/CogentRelatedMochaGOWSkull - Community feedback only confirmed that.
Complaint No 3: Her hp regen nerf. This just had to be balanced. During the beta I found that I could be incredibly reckless when playing as the waystalker. It really didn’t matter if I took too many hits because I could simply rely on my hp regen, stacked with the regen ticket, to bring me back to full health. It only promoted reckless gameplay.
Complaint No 4: She doesn’t have enough ammo now. Again, that is false. She had access to way too much ammo during the beta. 50% of your ammo back on ability use meant that you could nearly have infinite ammo. There was hardly any down time on being able to use her bow, especially the swift bow. It also meant that a high level elf player could kill enemies before melee heroes could even get into melee even on champion. There was no penalty at all in constantly using ammo. Now elf players have to actually think carefully when they should actually use their ranged attacks. Not just mindlessly spam.
The video below shows that I have no issue with ammo at all. That’s because I’m not constantly spamming at hordes of enemies as if I had a machine gun. Most maps have about 2-3 ammo boxes throughout the map which is plenty. In fact I think it’s still too much. Then there’s the rangers’ ability that produces ammo on special kills. The new ammo change makes this skill actually feel useful now. This isn’t an FPS. It’s an action game which focus mainly on melee with ranged support.
And to add to this, in the video below I don’t even have access to her 20% ammo back on talent and still had no issues with ammo.
The reality is that now she is more in line with other heroes. The waysalker was simply too overpowered before. Fatshark made the right decision by tuning her spear and her traits. Of course, elf mains are going to be upset about their favorite hero being weaker than before. It’s totally understandable but she desperately needed balancing. However, im still finding her other two classes to be way too weak when compared to the waystalker. There are also elf weapons that I still find to be under powered such as the 2h sword or the 1h sword. Even the dual daggers, and dual swords feel really weak.
The video below is a completed run on champion with four bots who I would equate to being below average skilled players. The video just confirms that she is still a very strong hero on champion. I’m using 4 pieces of white gear, at 5 power and the necklace is an orange 207 health regen trinket, as show during the first few seconds. I consider regen to still be strong on champion as it stacks with the waystalker’s regen.
In total I had 275 power which is only 53 points of power above the recommended 222 champion power level.
I rate myself as a fairly average skilled player. So, a highly skilled elf player could do a much better job at show casing just how strong she can be on champion and above.
Screenshot of the end results: https://i.imgur.com/6M1XzRA.jpg
Screenshot of the end results on same map and same difficulty with four bots but with orange gear: https://i.imgur.com/gwMfYXk.jpg
Notice the boss damage value. The second run was with two bosses.
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU2_T28LWgI
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHBBHMqlHbU
TLDR: The elf is still very strong and needed those nerfs to bring her in line with other heroes.