There’s a few seperate specific things I’ve noticed, so I’ve decided to try to fit all of them in one Frankenstein’s thread. These opinions are based on Cata gameplay.
Talents:
The temp HP Talent for multiple enemies hit e.g. Dryad’s Thirst, on Waystalker, is possibly the weakest THP generator, with the exception of 2H Swords/Exe Sword etc. It only really fits those very specific very high cleave weapons, and feels almost useless on a lot of other weapons. The lack of consistancy between THP generation across all weapons can sometimes be a little frustrating.
The 20% AoE shared heal Talent, e.g. Ariel’s Boon, on Waystalker, only ever feels useful on Ranger Veteran with the chance not to use healing Trait on neck. And even then THP generation is preferable. This is because there’s so much unavoidable damage in the game. You’re left without a buffer, unless you’re playing with Merc and Unchained, both running THP Ults.
Kerillian:
WS:
Level 25, line 5. Asrai Focus (20% Ult cooldown reduction), just feels way too strong compared to the other Talents on that row. The only other Talent worth taking in very specific situations would be Fervent Huntress (15% Move Speed on Special kill). Asrai Focus can still arguably offer more survivability than FH can anyway.
Kernous’ Reward (Ammo on Special kills), is also the only worthwhile choice on the last row because of how strong it is.
HM:
Level 10, line 2. Focused Spirit (10% increased power, resets on damage taken) is a great Talent, but can be taken away by friendly fire. This can be a huge issue when playing with Sienna, as her playstyle makes at least some friendly fire inevitable.
Level 25, line 5. Heart of Oak (15% HP increase). This Talent is just a no brainer. It takes any choice out of this row.
Sienna:
Unchained: Level 5, Line 1. Reckless Rampage (multi hit THP generation) Sienna doesn’t really have any weapons which make this Talent worthwile, because of the THP generation and low amount of cleave. On Kill THP may even be preferable.
Level 20, Line 4. Numb to Pain (5-15% stacking damage reduction on burning Overcharge). As Unchained gains so much Overcharge from damage taken on higher difficulties, the other two Talents are always preferable. *
Bardin:
RV:
This is more about his Talents effecting his playstyle in general. Taking the chance of Pots/Bombs dropping is great, and his chance not to use most items makes him a really good support. The problem is that for him to work optimally it requires other people to be paying attention to items, and to understand why he needs to be given them when possible. Sometimes (especially in QP), you will be ignored for the majority of the match, and be pretty much useless, as depending on your build, you rely on playing supportively for him to even be worth playing.
Other than using chat to ask, and playing him with people who know what you need, it’s sometimes frustrating to play, especially when people don’t trade for whatever reason. I’m not sure of an easy fix for this, but it can interfere with other’s gameplay too much if not on VOIP.
After playing him more, he really does feel weak on Cata, as only certain builds can make him even slightly viable, and they’re not always fun. He takes way too much damage, mainly because most of the melee weapons are so slow, and also have very little impact. Beastmen especially are so aggresive that he just can’t deal with them.
ADDED A DETAILED THREAD ON RV TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST
Kruber:
Merc:
Level 25, row 5. Black Market Supplies (30% more Ammo). This may be down to preference, but I find the other two Talents on this row for Dodge range and damage reduction to be much better over all. And even if you play as a Special killer, Repeater Handgun is his best option and has enough ammo anyway.
Seems like this one is just preference.
However, running Barkskin, 40% dmg reduction Ult and the damage reduction on Paced Strikes can make him near invincible sometimes. Even being able to Trade with Minotaurs.
Weapons:
While more weapons are viable than ever, there are still some that feel like they could do with some touching up.
1H Axes:
All of the 1H Axes feel like they need lots of stats and Talents to make them work, meaning they consume too much of your build to make worthwile.
Zealot, Slayer, and HM can make the best use of them, and even they have better and more versatile options.
The most useful build I’ve found for a 1H Axe is Slayer with Dual Maces/1H Axe, to quick switch and push-attack Elites inside Hordes. It works surprisingly well, but even then, it’s hard to maintain Trophy Hunter stacks, and the Dual Maces make up for it’s lack of Cleave.
It’s hard to say how best to improve the 1H Axe because the biggest downside is cleave, which leaves Saltspyre, and Elf (without hag) to get a little overwhelmed in big Hordes.
The mobility slowdown while attacking being changed could be a good start. Increasing Crit Power, Crit Chance or headshot damage to make it stronger vs Chaos Warriors or Bosses could be another good change. Another suggestion would be to buff the Push-Attack damage in some way, so that it’s even better at dealing with Elites in Hordes like my Slayer example.
At the minute it feels like and Elite Killer, but most of the Careers have better options for that.
Mining Pick:
This weapon is just too slow for IB, and takes up too much of your build on RV to make it work. Slayer also has better options, but it can be a good choice for Boss/Chaos Warrior killing. It also seems to get stuck against too many Elites, Shield users and dense Hordes with Elites in.
My suggestion would be to make the push-attacks deal damage do Shielded enemies, not only does it make sense with the Pick’s shape, but would make it a little less useless in those situations.
Saltspyre’s Flail:
Requires too heavy of a build into it, and doesn’t have the same versatility as other weapons. I feel like it’s most similar to the 1H Maces, but doesn’t have the same Elite killing power without eating up all of your Talents and item stats. It also lacks the mobility of 1H Maces. I’d like to see it get some Elite Cleaving and cleaving in general, so it can act as more of a defensive/frontline weapon, as Saltspyre doesn’t really have any others. This could help it synergize with Flense.
Fire Sword:
This is one of my favourite weapons right now, because of the Unchained Talents. While being extremely good with mobility and survival however, it seems lacking in Chaos Warrior and Boss killing damage. On Legend this wasn’t so noticeable, but since Cata and the higher Elite density/health pools, it’s extremely noticable, and sometimes leaves you feeling useless. Especially if Patrols are pulled, or you’re left as a lone survivor vs Bosses/Elites.
One suggestion would be to make the L3 poke chain from 2 charged > light, and increasing the damage/headshot damage/crit slightly, similarly to Krubers 1H Sword.
Another would be to somehow increase the Boss damage to keep it as an anti unarmoured.
Dagger:
Other than mobility, this weapon doesn’t really offer anything other weapons can’t do 100x better. The Elite damage is annoying, because you have to do C1 before every bit of damage. This leaves on kill THP generation Talents a little useless because of the gap in which others can score the kill. This is a problem because fast Elite killing is so necessary in higher difficulties.
My suggestion is to make the Push-attack chain into C2, so that you can spam wombo-combo Elites/Bosses.
Sienna’s 1H Sword:
Unlike Kruber, she only gains certain bonuses to her melee through a lot more Talents and Stats. This means that unlike him, she struggles against Elites.
1H Sword Merc is one of my favourite builds, and it’s only really viable because you can Shotgun/Shoot Elites when it’s really needed. Even though he has lots more Melee stats, he still needs that extra bit of help vs Elites. This is where Sienna’s 1H Sword suffers (against bosses too).
I’m unsure of any suggestions as it’s the same profile as Kruber’s Sword, but I will point out that it doesn’t offer any fire effects like her other weapons. An even bigger buff to the L3 on hers alone could possibly help.
Kerillian’s 2H Sword:
It just doesn’t offer the same Cleave as the other 2H Swords, and the Charged attacks feel too slow with little pay off. Another issue is that the light attacks are all upwards attacks, so you can’t passively benefit from headshots as almost every other weapon can.
Handgun:
While still able to reach 1 hit Breakpoints on most Elites/Specials, the slowness of the reload makes it far less viable, mainly because of high Elite/Special density. Faster reload/Fire rate weapons are much more viable. It’s also very unforgiving if you miss.
No idea how to fix this, as making it have any faster reloading/fire rate would make it broken. Maybe a faster reload on misses could help, or another buff to Boss damage (on Bardin’s at least). Another suggestion would be to give it higher Ultimate generation, as stealth gives you the space you need to get shots off.
Falchion:
It just feels slightly lacklustre in general, and could do with some help against Chaos Warriors/Armoured.
General observations:
- Unchained’s Overcharge can still see some really spooky spikes on Cataclysm. *
- Shade feels extremely overtuned and overly Versatile with Dual Wield weapons, even being able to solo the majority of enemies in Fortunes of War (cata)
- Axe and Falc still feels slightly too strong
- Handmaiden’s Ultimate for Crit and Bleed (not sure if that one is working yet) both put her in difficult positions and enemies she Ults into will instantly attack at her- also using Ult and then blocking in front of a Horde does not give you any Crit chance at all, so those two Ults can feel kind of weak when compared to some of the other careers
- Enemies still seem to aggro to the host more, so any small mobs that get stuck behind you will usually always stab the host in the back. This can be incredibly frustrating and annoying
- Attacks meant for other people should do less damage to others who are hit imo, Mauler swipes and sprint attacks meant for others don’t give wooshes if they get led into you, so it seems unfair that other people can cause your death
- Enemies hitting from inside Elites is still an annoying issue, especially if Elites stack. Dying to a Black Rat overheading from behind a Chaos Warrior is not uncommon
- Auto Aim Ults (WS/Pyro) are still not going for locked-on targets
- Boss aggro + Specials + Elites + Horde at the same time is extremely hard to deal with. Sometimes you pull the Boss out of the way, only to get waterfalled or Special bombed with no chance of surviving
- As host you seem to get tracked more, and enemies feel more likely to sprint attack when you’re dodge dancing. Noticed this when my friend finally bought a new PC so he wouldn’t crash and started hosting
- Beastmen climbing animation into attack animation is really short, not sure if this is intentional
Hunstman clunkiness thread:
He’s viable, but awkward.
Reward System:
Ranger Veteran:
