So.. I want to start out by saying that I am a Warrior main, so that is where the majority of my experience lies. Suggestions will lean that way because I don't want to speak too heavily on characters and builds I do not know that well. That being said, a couple of the changes I suggest would affect Mages and Bounty Hunters as well.
The goal of these suggestions is to help open up diversification of abilities, passives and builds, both in end game and in leveling.
First... ditch Fleet Footed. Movement speed is great, but using a passive slot on just that is not powerful enough. Bounty Hunters have Nimble Fighter and Pathfinder. Both of those abilities are much, much better than Fleet Footed. Granted, that may be part of the Bounty Hunter mystique, but still...
The first leads to the second suggestion: add movement speed to Celerity. Celerity means swiftness of movement, so it is not like I'm just trying to randomly tack on an ability. It makes sense. I am not sure if we would just add 10% movement speed to it, or decrease the haste by 50 or 100 and then add 20% movement speed. Considering that most Mages currently employ Celerity and then have movement speed on both boots and pants, it may make sense to decrease the haste amount to give the movement speed bonus. The trade off could free up one of those attribute spots to put haste (or something else) in its place. That is a debate that I don't want to get into because I don't play mage much (or well) and don't want to rock their boat, but it has to be considered if that passive would be changed in all three classes.
Third suggestion: we need to improve Intense Training. Ability Rating is not what it used to be. 150 with nothing else is just kind of a waste right now. Not that ability rating is not good, but trading a passive ability for 10 more Ability Rating that you can get a piece of 77 gear is not worth it. One idea is to change it to match other passives like Endurance and Tough as Nails, Your Hero's Ability Rating is increased by 20%. This could work, but may still not make it a viable passive in the current environment. Another idea is to add the following: "Increase your damage by 2% per ability on cooldown." You could potentially keep up a 6% increase in overall damage, depending on the build and boss. This would be an interesting choice to either pair with or use instead of Power Infusion. It would be less overall damage than Power Infusion, but it is paired with the Ability Rating increase. The Ability Rating also works against the damage bonus. You have to "earn" the extra damage, so I think pairing it with the Ability Rating is fair, but I am very curious on how others feel about this.
The above suggestions affect all classes (except for ditching Fleet Footed). The next two as Warrior specific.
Lightning Reflexes. Currently, Warriors use it for the Parry rating. The whole paragraph after is practically irrelevant to current builds. The Flurry ability on the passive is too specific and limits the use of the passive. I would like to see all passives and abilities have more widespread relevance. What logically follows a parry? How about this? "Each Parry has a chance to guaranty that your Hero's next basic attack is a critical strike with an extra 400% critical damage." At some point your opponent unprotects a tender spot when thrusting and you get in a strong counterstrike. It makes sense, and the second part of the passive is usable in any warrior build. That chance would not have to be high and could be capped at a number of times per minute. This change could help the current Warrior builds catch up to other classes in Trials (at writing of this post, the highest Mage is 166, the highest Bounty Hunter is 173, and the highest Warrior is 158).
Duelist. Much like the Lightning Reflexes, the Flurry paragraph following the 150 Critical Rating is long and specific. If we are getting rid of Flurry with Lightning Reflexes, why not ditch it here as well? It would be easy to just put a passive 100% Critical Damage. That is effective, but not really interesting. It also is not currently available to other classes. I would suggest changing it to the following: "Each critical strike has a chance for your Hero to perform Devastate." I just picture a boxer finally landing a good hit and following it up with a flurry (see what I did there) of punches to try to end the fight. This would still work with any build, and it opens up an interesting synergy with the 6-piece set bonus on the Juggernaut set. It doesn't necessarily make a Juggernaut build viable in the current environment, but it has future possibilities.
OK... so if Fleet Footed is ditched, what do we put in its place? Warriors could lose a passive and still get to 180 Synergy. Mages would need something though. As I stated above, I don't play mage very much, so I am not going to try to come up with something to fill that hole. I am sure a lot of you have pitched ability and passive ideas. I leave that to you.
Thoughts?
The goal of these suggestions is to help open up diversification of abilities, passives and builds, both in end game and in leveling.
First... ditch Fleet Footed. Movement speed is great, but using a passive slot on just that is not powerful enough. Bounty Hunters have Nimble Fighter and Pathfinder. Both of those abilities are much, much better than Fleet Footed. Granted, that may be part of the Bounty Hunter mystique, but still...
The first leads to the second suggestion: add movement speed to Celerity. Celerity means swiftness of movement, so it is not like I'm just trying to randomly tack on an ability. It makes sense. I am not sure if we would just add 10% movement speed to it, or decrease the haste by 50 or 100 and then add 20% movement speed. Considering that most Mages currently employ Celerity and then have movement speed on both boots and pants, it may make sense to decrease the haste amount to give the movement speed bonus. The trade off could free up one of those attribute spots to put haste (or something else) in its place. That is a debate that I don't want to get into because I don't play mage much (or well) and don't want to rock their boat, but it has to be considered if that passive would be changed in all three classes.
Third suggestion: we need to improve Intense Training. Ability Rating is not what it used to be. 150 with nothing else is just kind of a waste right now. Not that ability rating is not good, but trading a passive ability for 10 more Ability Rating that you can get a piece of 77 gear is not worth it. One idea is to change it to match other passives like Endurance and Tough as Nails, Your Hero's Ability Rating is increased by 20%. This could work, but may still not make it a viable passive in the current environment. Another idea is to add the following: "Increase your damage by 2% per ability on cooldown." You could potentially keep up a 6% increase in overall damage, depending on the build and boss. This would be an interesting choice to either pair with or use instead of Power Infusion. It would be less overall damage than Power Infusion, but it is paired with the Ability Rating increase. The Ability Rating also works against the damage bonus. You have to "earn" the extra damage, so I think pairing it with the Ability Rating is fair, but I am very curious on how others feel about this.
The above suggestions affect all classes (except for ditching Fleet Footed). The next two as Warrior specific.
Lightning Reflexes. Currently, Warriors use it for the Parry rating. The whole paragraph after is practically irrelevant to current builds. The Flurry ability on the passive is too specific and limits the use of the passive. I would like to see all passives and abilities have more widespread relevance. What logically follows a parry? How about this? "Each Parry has a chance to guaranty that your Hero's next basic attack is a critical strike with an extra 400% critical damage." At some point your opponent unprotects a tender spot when thrusting and you get in a strong counterstrike. It makes sense, and the second part of the passive is usable in any warrior build. That chance would not have to be high and could be capped at a number of times per minute. This change could help the current Warrior builds catch up to other classes in Trials (at writing of this post, the highest Mage is 166, the highest Bounty Hunter is 173, and the highest Warrior is 158).
Duelist. Much like the Lightning Reflexes, the Flurry paragraph following the 150 Critical Rating is long and specific. If we are getting rid of Flurry with Lightning Reflexes, why not ditch it here as well? It would be easy to just put a passive 100% Critical Damage. That is effective, but not really interesting. It also is not currently available to other classes. I would suggest changing it to the following: "Each critical strike has a chance for your Hero to perform Devastate." I just picture a boxer finally landing a good hit and following it up with a flurry (see what I did there) of punches to try to end the fight. This would still work with any build, and it opens up an interesting synergy with the 6-piece set bonus on the Juggernaut set. It doesn't necessarily make a Juggernaut build viable in the current environment, but it has future possibilities.
OK... so if Fleet Footed is ditched, what do we put in its place? Warriors could lose a passive and still get to 180 Synergy. Mages would need something though. As I stated above, I don't play mage very much, so I am not going to try to come up with something to fill that hole. I am sure a lot of you have pitched ability and passive ideas. I leave that to you.
Thoughts?
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