[PTS] Patch Notes 07/09/2025

[leftayparxoun]

• Could you perhaps clarify what happens to other damage reducing buffs such as the ones from Vaul's Tempering, We'z Bigger and Oppression?
  Do they belong to the "Ability" category and will also stack with Guard/Detaunt but are overwritten by Challenge, Ya Missed Me and Dragon's Talon (due to having less mitigation% value) ?

The abilities you mentioned are still in the Ability stacking group. This means they now stack with Guard/Detaunt, as Guard/Detaunt now form their own stacking group.

Coming back to this for a couple reasons.

While it wasn't expressly stated, I imagine that since "Vaul's Tempering", "We'z Bigger" and "Oppression" damage reduction buffs are also considered abilities, they will not stack if the attacker has "Challenge" applied to them.
And since "Challenge" is no longer removable by damaging, I believe that with a proper rotation most enemy dps will be under constant "Challenge" in orvr. How does this bode for those abilities then?

• "We'z Bigger" & "Vaul Tempering" will basically only provide the Immunities buff to group mates within 30 ft (and the movement speed for "We'z Bigger" with the "Linecracka!" tactic)

• "Oppression" will basically only provide 594 armor to the Chosen himself. The newly added Duration increase conditional effect for it will also do nothing for the skill because the armor buff already has 100% uptime and as mentioned before the damage reduction buffs do not stack with "Challenge".

All three are 13 points abilities but, in the context of orvr, having party immunities for 6 seconds seems a lot more valuable than a 594 armor buff to the tank itself. Even compared to Blackguard's middle tree 13p ability "Oppression" now seem to bring less to the table.

Are those abilities meant to be a counter against ranged dps that are too far away to be Challenged? If so, both "We'z Bigger" and "Vaul Tempering" make thematic sense since they can be activated without a target, however "Oppression" still requires both a Block and an offensive target within 5 ft to activate.

Alternatively:

Is "Oppression" now intended to be a smaller scale tool since there you both won't have a perfect "Challenge" rotation uptime and the damage reduction part will help with reducing Tank damage (since they are exempt from their own "Challenge" damage reduction)?

[abezverkhiy]

At least WHs still have their hats.

Why can't we have a non-physical damage spec like WE's? Asking since devs read this thread.

[Endari]

- Consume Strength - Strength buff and debuff increased from 80 to 100. If the target is Cursed, buff and debuff value is increased to 150.
currently on the PTS CS rarely works(no buff at all) even if the ability hits.

[hordak774]

what will be at 13pt instead of Chop fasta

[freemik]

- Bane Shield - New conditional effect added: If you are empowered by a Chaotic Aura of Corruption, all group members within 50ft will also gain a barrier, absorbing 937 damage over 10 seconds.


see only 625 in full tree then i use it

[Nekkma]

what will be at 13pt as BO

I assume is is the reintroduced you woot.

[Plen]

So AM/Sham have now lost their large ST insta heal at 5 resource, because you don't want people sitting on 5 resource..? Would it not make sense to incentivize the use of 5 resource abilites more frequently with better 5 resource spenders instead of replacing one of the few only good ones?

Your post also points out the main flaw with heal spec at the moment, the flow.. Would it not make sense correcting the flow instead of nerfing the end result of the flow you've forced onto us?

The DPS spec allows you to build up to 5 stacks while actively damaging/debuffing/dotting the target(s) so when you hit 5 resource you're amplifying the ground work done during the flow to 5 resources.

DPS abilites that are meaningful and let you build towards; LoC, TF, RG, STW, LoA, DM. Along with lambent aura / shield of saphery to let you pre-pool.

The healer spec has two healing buttons and a single absorb button that lets you build towards meaningful 5 resource abilities. As it stands the flow requires you to spam your single target hot, dot, LoA, rain lord and keep your ap drain(which you'd want to ideally keep for prio targets) and lastly your 20 second shield to get up to 5 resource, oh and Phoenix rejuv(lol).

The difference in flow between dps and heal spec to get to meaningful 5 resource abilities is the problem, so you should address that before stripping it's large instant cast heal away. The pseudo skull thumper is a nice touch in addition to the existing kit, but not at the loss of the former. Have it replace healing energy's 5stack bonus as opposed to boon?

[Farrul]

Why has the engineer/magus group wide resistance buffs been excluded from these universal rules? Or was in not listed in the notes.

Looking at Burn salve/Demonic resistance. So they're still at full power of 370 whilst everyone else got nerfed?

Huge buff for Chosen/KOTBS lol because they lose minimal stats to the auras xD you can't imagine:P
Everyone else, stop whining. Buff or nerf, you've only lost or gained a few stat points.
Everyone's so oversensitive here.
Oh, I'm already looking forward to the thread about the dps patch.

New mechanic looks interesting. But all magic tanks should do less DPS than previously, especially Chosen got the resistance aura debuff halved in effectiveness.

[Bozzax]

Very sceptical about the punt changes, they mean that BG currently has the worst possible form of single target punt since it still needs to ramp up with Hate. At least remove the hate requirement on the punt as you did for the stance requirement on SM.

….

You do realise BG punt is the most influential punt in the game and yes it isn’t mindless spam as a counter weight (requiring hate)

[abezverkhiy]

Would also be nice to see antiheal spec addressed. Correct me if I am wrong but right now antiheal abilities only affect spells categorized as Healing but Blessings, Enchantments and lifetaps remain unaffected. All healers have 3 healing spells and 5-7 spells that restore life but not categorized as Healing. Thus antiheal spec is useless.