Black Orcs 2 weeks after "N" day

[Duukar]

Now the dust has settled, and I have played the BO extensively in Orvr and lots of SCs.

Im a rank 82 Blork from a good guild in a strong alliance.. I regularly top City, SC, and Orvr, score boards. No Ranked. I am a Tank main and I have few alts that dont see much play, because there is a lot of demand for me to tank even with the nerfed Blork.

I've only done 1 city and sadly it was a pug stomp so no info was gained. I was Champ and top tank dmg. Again no info.

I've tested the single target KBs (the undefendable and Right in the Jibblies) and Wez Bigger.

I'm ready to render a decision..

BO is now a C tier tank. We have poor utility left now that CDR is gone. There is no unique "feel" to Blork other than the clunky stance mechanic that requires Plan B to even be playable. I think it's very sad that the Blork kit was reduced to CDR being the main reason to bring one outside of standard tanking duties.. This was a terrible mistake, but taking CDR away just highlighted the weakness behind. This whole thing may be a blessing in disguise if the dev team can address the issues I will bring up here..

Ill break it down.

Tankiness -
Blorks are still VERY tanky.. BUT, Slayers/BW bombs will still literally pop you like a tick regardless of how tanky you are.. It's amazing how fast you can die guarding even a Monstro Mara now. Slayers dont respect Block or Parry. Its simply out of control. We now have reduced access to CDR which was HUGE nerf to shaman healing and healing in general. FYI thats how you deal with slayer bombs.. Big healing burst and obviously positioning. Save your L2P comments, its absurd and I dont have time to address your foolishness.

Utility -
1.Aoe Root. Aoe punt.. These are bad tools.. In organized play these are simply free immunity for tanks who need to be punted by..... SOMEONE ELSE.. AOE punt can be used as a save button for a healer in a desperate spot. I would easily trade AOE punt to have a reasonable punt to punt a single DPS away from the embattled healer. Really really bad tools..

2. War Bellows. These are not as impactful as you would like them to be. The best is likely the stat steal. as SnB its 75.. its ok but honestly you almost dont even feel them at all. The heal one is a dust magnet.. the defensive one is made redundant by Chosen. Really lackluster mechanic. It does shine when paired with stop hitting the runts as a SELF AP pump and thus not utility. If you swap these out based on the circumstance you get some play, but mostly its just another thing to manage that has nearly zero impact.

3. Group abs shield.. with Wez Bigger spec this blocks 520(580 in WAhhhgg spec) dmg every 10 seconds. Its ok.. Dont take it away.. If i forget its on my bar maybe ill get #2 prot for once.. My SMs blocks over 800 in conq with self CDR available..

4. Wez Bigger... Wow, just wow.. This thing came in handy literally twice that I could actually see. The 3 second window is SOOO small and its hidden behind Da Best Plan... This 100% needs to be an on demand buff button and have its duration increased to 5 seconds and CD increased to 30 seconds.. Complete and utter trash skill at 13 points up.. I cannot recommend anyone to spec this and use this. It was VERY frustrating to try to use and failed almost 95% of the time to do anything impactful..

5. More Hardcore tactic.. Takes a tactic slot.. Two punts.. SUPER short distance and height About the same as the AOE punt.. One is defendable and in the middle "plan".. The other requires a block and then can be used anytime.. SUPER frustrating to try and use. ya missed me was the more useful of the two on a 20 second CD. The punt itself is just a huge letdown and sadly again just gives free immunity for the most part with maybe a 1 second window to kill DPS given.. not worth it by any means or in any situation.. Again a lot of frustration..

6. Standard tank utility. BO is still a tank.. KD.. Armor debuff.. Challenge.. Taunt.. Shatter.. Guard.. All great tools.. All tanks get em.

7. WS buff.. Doesnt stack with pots.. Doesnt stack with Vanq WS buff as far as I know ( please correct me) .. 114 in WAHHG spec and 102 in Wez Bigger.. Good thing to have I guess.. I would NEVER spec to the tactic to make this effect the group.. that would be SUCH a waste sadly.. Please dont tactic this ability.. I cant recommend anyone to spec up to this tactic at all even i Wahhgg spec.. Find something else.

8. Can't Hit Me.. This is a great ability that is shared with the BG.. It will save you in many situations.. it will NOT stop a Rampaging Slayer and gives a 50% snare.. Situational, but effective tool.

Playability -

1. Ranked play - Stay Away 2/10 I'd rather be a BG.

2. ORvR play - Blorks are super tanky and bring all the standard tank tools. The Chosen are better to bring and I feel confident saying that. You still have a spot guarding DPS and doing tank work. None of your utility will have an impact other than AOE punt moving through doors... You can spread stat steal quite a bit if you spam AOE, but I feel the impact just isnt there. BG is on par with Blork here I feel, but bring a MASSIVE single punt to remove a tank or healer from the fight for quite a while. You can actually USE aoe punt to push keeps and forts. 6.5/10 I'd rather play a Chosen

3. SC play - Really just a meaty tank. This post isn't about 2H, but I ran a bunch of SCs as 2H anyway as well as SnB.. In this arena it is quite obvious how much better other tanks are than Blork. You can still do your job as a tank, but I felt really frustrated with being KDed and punted away to the moon on cooldown of my immunity. Its a powerless feeling and there is almost no counter play as a Blork because we lack a useable single punt. You just try to guard and wait to be punted away. The tactic reduces the cool to 10 seconds so they can do this to multiple players in a short period of time.. Does CDR effect this as well? Wez bigger does not offer counter play at all with the CD at 20 seconds and the window SOO small and the ability hidden behind Da Best Plan.. Perhaps if it was 5 seconds and an on demand buff??? Best to do this in 2H and try to have fun. 5/10 I'd rather be a BG.

4. City Play - Tanky tank.. Usually not enough slayers to vaporize you.. Stat steal does have some mild impact.. usually top prot and top tank damage.. damage on a tank, okie dokie! Wez bigger not useful.. WAhhg mild dmg with AA dmg buff 25% is better, but really lack lustre for a 13 point skill. Cant hit me does work.. group abs is Ok.. I don't really feel great about brining a Blork over a Chosen. I think maybe 1 or 2 Blorks will work to guard Choppahs maybe.. Honestly feel very luke warm about Blork in city play.. 5.5/10 would rather be a Chosen or 2H BG..

5. Feel and Fun - Blork has a good look. lots of shouting and screaming and big Axes and shield pounding.. I didnt like being the CDR WAAAHHHGG bot so its a bit better having more build flex and tactic flex.. Too bad there is nothing that feels good to use instead.. Im using Rugged now............ For me impact is a big part of the fun as a tank. Really helping the group.. without some buffs and changes to the kits (im looking at you mostly single target punt) the impact isnt really there. The Blork is clunky. The utility is poor. Important skills and buffs are hidden behind stance swapping. the lack of a ST punt..

Sadly I rate playing the Blork 3/10..it just doesnt feel good anymore and i guess it mostly never did now that ive had a really good look at what I do when i play all sectors of the game.. WAHHHGG gave a false sense of purpose.. and the mega morale pump lended to the impact of my play.. Yes, together those two things were OP, but the rest of the kit just doesnt carry the class..


Suggestions for a fix -

1.EVERY TANK IN THE GAME NEEDS A LONG DISTANCE SINGLE TARGET PUNT on demand, not hidden behind a block or a stance...... NO ONE Should have it on less than a 20-30 second cool down.. that lends to skillful play and not KB spam which we have now. If it must be on a tactic so be it.. This is probably the biggest problem with the Blork and SM..

2. Increase the durationg of Wez Bigger to 5 seconds and increase the cooldown to 30 seconds.. it MUST be on demand.. not hidden behind a stance..

3. Change the 11 point tactic under WAAAHHHHGGG to make it have a 20 second CD with a 800 AOE armor debuff (or group armor buff that STACKS with pots), or a 15% armor penetration reduction for 5 seconds. Fit whatever IMPACTFUL group utility you want on here.. Preferably something that can counter a slayer ball to some extent..

4. Return Big Brawlin tactic to 40% snare.

I know some of you will say this is sour grapes.. This guy went from the strongest tank in the game to bottom 1 or 2 tanks.. Yes, some of it is that. These are my personal observations playing Blork as a main quite a bit.. Without the mega morale pump and the CDR to prop it up the Blork Kit really doesnt feel fun or impactful anymore...

The stuff ive written in this post really isnt meant to open the door to a bunch of trash talk or BS about how Blork is fine. Its my opinion and i simply don't enjoy my Blork nearly as much anymore.

I would 100% trade my Rank 82.5 BiS 2H and BiS SnB Blork for a 2H BG in Invader atm.....




TLDR - Give Blorks a darn long distance single target punt on demand...

[doky]

Black orcs shouldn't get long range punt. Black orcs should pick up the opponent and throw them away very long range!

[Vri]

Black orcs shouldn't get long range punt. Black orcs should pick up the opponent and throw them away very long range!

I wish we could throw Gobbos.

[doky]

Imagine your healer is focused in chch and you pick him up and throw
Make Black Orcs great again!

[Vri]

Imagine your healer is focused in chch and you pick him up and throw
Make Black Orcs great again!

I just want to throw a SH at a Order WB.

[Duukar]

Imagine your healer is focused in chch and you pick him up and throw
Make Black Orcs great again!

I just want to throw a SH at a Order WB.

Ability would be called “Oi! Back of da line ya git!” And gain a range boost when used vs. Gobbos..........

Plz stop RPing in my very serious thread. Lol

[Asderas27]

Lmao. Enough said

[Duukar]

Lmao. Enough said

This right here ladies and gentlemen is why tanks constantly get nerfed and shafted without reason.

This is all the effort another fellow tank main puts in to this discussion.

What does this even mean???

[ufthakk]

add thc to snb!

[mrmarmota]

My thoughts as 81 BO:
I think BO has the best overall defensive buffs on destro side. In sov2 i have maxed boss tree and nidf with 2 points left for tactics. This gives me max toughness, armor and resist buffs. Only shammy can buff more toughness than you but you only want one and they won't be able to cover everyone. The advantage chosen has is that they also debuff those stats, but if you're buffing defensives chosen has 2 very good options to replace those buffs in their heal debuff aura and disorient aura.

About No Choppin Me', like i said it would be very good for buffing your entire group with max toughness, but that's definitely not enough to replace the utility we lost, because buffing group weaponskill is irrelevant, you only need it on 2 people and it's not hard to keep up. HOWEVER, IF it were to stack with other weapon skill buffs such as the choppa one, that would be a decent alternative to CDR.

As far as bellows go, i never use Da Biggest as snb, and like i said, i believe Da Greenest to be good and I also believe Da Toughest to be good, coupled with You Got Nuffin' group heal tactic. Together you can heal about 10-20% of what a healer does.

Rock Ard, the absorb, should be buffed to match the lost uptime.

BO, should definitely have a ST punt, it never made sense that he doesn't and punt usage is a fundamental part of being a good tank.

CDR removal on BO is a HUGE BUFF to slayer, because before you could pop it when a slayer was going crazy and Shatter his brains out. It's already hard enough to shatter because of low tank strikethrough and with everything going on in a fight it is not reasonable to expect tanks to be behind a slayer and remove one random enchantment every 5 seconds. I think all tanks should get parry strikethrough on their gear, enough that they never miss because you also need to buff people with on hit abilities, which again reduces tank effectiveness which are already not tanky enough. Playing a sov tank feels incredibly bad when none of your abilities are hitting because you have no strength/strikethrough.
On the opposite side, Slayer needs **** all positioning to be succesfull, they are infamous for decimating destro frontlines.