[Shadow Warrior] (Scout) Proposals
Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 2:28 am
Shadow Warrior (Scout) Overhaul
Preamble: Scout stance offers fair to solid damage in a capable player’s hands, but is utterly lacking in survival tools to give it a fighting chance in most battles. Looking to address some of the survivability issues and bring about some parity between not only the stances within the Shadow Warrior career, but against the Shadow Warrior’s ranged contemporaries, friend and foe alike. Focus here is mainly on addressing the Scout tree. Now for the proposals:
Flame Arrow (Scout ability) proposal:
Reduce to 90% damage any abilities used against you from anyone suffering from your Flame Arrow. This damage reduction benefit is lost if you switch stances.
Smoldering Arrows tactic
Flame Arrow’s damage over time is increased to X damage.
Smoldering Arrows tactic proposal:
Flame Arrow’s damage over time is increased to X damage.
Reduce to 85% damage any ranged abilities used against you, 70% damage any melee abilities used against you from anyone suffering from your Flame Arrow. The damage reduction benefit of this tactic is lost if you switch stances. (This modifies the proposed baseline change to Flame Arrow, not in addition to)
Flame Arrow/Smoldering Arrows discourse: Small bit of survivability. Smoldering Arrows tactic is a prime candidate for beefing up. Offers up counterplay via cleansing. Offensive alternative to Distracting Rebounds (with less defensive bonuses) without giving up what meager AoE the SW has.
Point-Blank (Morale 1) removed
Replace with Glass Arrow (Morale 1)
Glass Arrow: 150ft range. Deals 900 damage to your target. Reduces the range of target’s abilities to 75% for 15 seconds. Additionally, their critical hit rate is reduced by 5%. 60 second CD.
Glass Arrow (Scout rank 5 ability) removed
Replace with Point Blank Shot (Scout rank 5 ability)
Point Blank Shot: 100ft range. Instant cast. Same AP cost and damage/scaling as current iteration of Glass Arrow ability. Knocks the targeted player away; knocks monsters down. 20 second CD. Scout stance only.
Point-Blank/Glass Arrow discourse: Point blank being available from immediate start of combat would do wonders to survival rate of a SW (bear in mind Scout spec, and Scout spec alone was stripped of any knockdowns at its disposal. Both Skirmish and Assault get access to one… Yet immobile, squishy Scout needs the CC just as bad if not worse). This one change here is a no-brainer, given the adamant refusal to return to us our baseline knockdown that gave us one of so very few abilities to survive harassment or free up a teammate from inevitable doom.
Whirling Pin update: CD refreshes at double rate for each second that you’re under a movement impairing effect. Must be in Scout stance to gain this benefit.
Whirling Pin update #2: Can not be countered/parried or cancelled.
Whirling Pin Discourse: So often I see it fire off and go on CD, and yet my character doesn’t move at all, instead it is parried or I suffer a knockdown while it’s springing me back, cancelling the animation and putting me at the feet and mercy of my enemy. We have this and Flee… We don’t get juggernaut. We don’t get sprints. We’re already heavily disadvantaged in the movement department: We really need this ability to actually fire.
Rain of Steel (Morale 4, Scout 15) replaced with Mantle of Shadow ability (Scout 15)
Mantle of Shadow (toggled on/off, 10s CD): Disrupt and Dodge is increased by 15%, but all healing used on you is reduced by 10%. Auto attacks deal 10% less damage to you. Reduce by 50% all damage received while disarmed or knocked down and for three seconds after the CC has expired.
Mantle of Shadow discourse: Magus can gain 32% dodge/disrupt OR 25% extra range (not to mention the damage bonuses) via their horrors. Engineers similarly gain boons from their turrets. SW is far outclassed and outmatched in either case. Sorcs can rotation burst us in nearly a blink. This proposal gives Scout archers a puncher’s chance. (Note that 10s channeled morale 4 is horrible design and needs replaced!!)
Squig herders, Magus, and Sorc (all three of the ranged foes) can disarm a SW. SW counterplay is that they can silence two of those three but only after 1s cast time, which often is toeing the line of death against a Sorc. Lest we forget, Scout doesn’t get knockdown counterplay – not the first or last time I’ll make mention of that here.
If we’re playing a long casting turret style, we need something to help us live through it, but perhaps more specifically something of a rattlesnake to put the incentive for adversaries to focus elsewhere with their CC where it would be more potent.
As an aside (and the greatest fuel to this particular proposal), the ability of WE’s and Squigherders to leap/pounce from the shadows and kill us all the while we remain helpless to do a single thing in return offers up some of the worst/most frustrating/unfun gameplay imaginable (at least for one side). It’s such a major turn off to playing the class. I get it, we’re not mobile and we’re squishy. We should be able live to stand up and get an ability or two off though. (It’s not like we can knock them down in return anyways… because, you know, Eye Shot got put on the top shelf). Hundreds of hours played and a 100% death rate against a properly leveled bouncing meatball or WE that gets a stun off … before one can even stand … yeah, that’s not healthy or interactive gameplay. We don’t get the double armor that assault does, and I’m not sure that the bonus initiative from Scout stance actually does anything for detecting stealthers…
Oh yeah, and leaping/bouncing meatball range is same as our broadhead arrow / shadow sting range (to be addressed further down).
Current state of stances…
Assault provides an additional 8.6% armor pen (WS increase), an additional 14.6% parry (flat 10+WS increase), doubled worn armor value, 65% increased auto attack damage, chance to proc 33% increased auto attack speed, increased main damage stat by 120
In contrast, Scout provides 80 (40 less) to main damage stat, (no armor pen), an additional 7.1% reduction in being crit, and anywhere from an additional 7 to 10 ft range on abilities.
The range increase is paltry, and worse still is much shorter than any magus w/ sniper demon.
I’ve seen no discernible benefits to detecting stealthers with the initiative increase. Has anyone ever spotted one that wasn’t directly on top of you??
The 8.6% armor pen alone is worthy of staying in assault stance for Eagle Eye spamming because you do far more damage against the heavy armor meta. Oh yeah, and you’ll have double armor, way more auto attack damage and parry when you inevitably get leaped on, charged upon, rooted and chased.
Scout stance proposal:
Gain 10% disrupt, matching assault’s 10% parry.
Gain 20% additional armor pen when channeling rapid shot. (This would affect active Draw Blood, Broadhead Arrow and Shadow Sting ticks, just as an aside)
Initiative & Ballistics bonuses are fine, albeit significantly short of Assault’s stat bonuses /boggle
Broadhead Arrow, Shadow Sting and Flame Arrow would be increased to 90ft while in Scout stance (short of Eagle Eye/Fester/Acid Arrow/etc, yet not within leaping/charge range of squigs and other melee which makes each use of our bread and butter dots an invitation for death).
Gain a buff while in Scout stance (Must be Rank 40) that can not be dispelled, called Cornered Prey. An enemy who kills a SW that’s in Scout stance is afflicted with a 9s Festering Wound that deals the damage total of a Festering Arrow, commensurate in damage with the number of ranks that player is trained up in the Scout path (regardless of whether the Shadow Warrior has actually trained Festering Arrow).
Proposals not specific to Scout:
Steady Aim replaced with Ability: Bullseye
Bullseye (toggled on/off, 10s CD): Whenever you critically hit an enemy, you gain Bullseye: Chance to critically hit is increased by 20% for the next 5 seconds, but your chance to be critically hit is increased by 10%
(Steady Aim is literally the worst ability in the game, reducing your damage output potential while making you suuuper immobile. This also gives SW a mechanic to hang their hat on akin to turrets/demons/combustion to stay competitive with other ranged dps (who largely get to ignore the high armor meta & therefore don’t need to invest in double offensive stats))
Bullseye removed from tactic list, replaced with Nagarythe’s Champion tactic
Nagarythe’s Champion: Reduces CD of Vengeance of Nagarythe by 2 seconds each time you get the killing blow on an enemy that gives renown. Modifies Vengeance of Nagarythe ability for its duration, depending on what stance you’re in:
Scout: Each attack against you has a 25% chance to drain 30 action points from the attacker and snare them by 40% for 5 seconds.
Assault: You gain 300 willpower and Swift Strikes heals you for the damage it deals (modified by your new willpower).
Skirmish: Lileath’s Arrow’s build up time is reduced by .5 seconds and will originate and launch from your defensive target’s location so long as you remain within 65ft of them, otherwise it originates from your own location, in which case it ignores half of the toughness of all targets.
Preamble: Scout stance offers fair to solid damage in a capable player’s hands, but is utterly lacking in survival tools to give it a fighting chance in most battles. Looking to address some of the survivability issues and bring about some parity between not only the stances within the Shadow Warrior career, but against the Shadow Warrior’s ranged contemporaries, friend and foe alike. Focus here is mainly on addressing the Scout tree. Now for the proposals:
Flame Arrow (Scout ability) proposal:
Reduce to 90% damage any abilities used against you from anyone suffering from your Flame Arrow. This damage reduction benefit is lost if you switch stances.
Smoldering Arrows tactic
Flame Arrow’s damage over time is increased to X damage.
Smoldering Arrows tactic proposal:
Flame Arrow’s damage over time is increased to X damage.
Reduce to 85% damage any ranged abilities used against you, 70% damage any melee abilities used against you from anyone suffering from your Flame Arrow. The damage reduction benefit of this tactic is lost if you switch stances. (This modifies the proposed baseline change to Flame Arrow, not in addition to)
Flame Arrow/Smoldering Arrows discourse: Small bit of survivability. Smoldering Arrows tactic is a prime candidate for beefing up. Offers up counterplay via cleansing. Offensive alternative to Distracting Rebounds (with less defensive bonuses) without giving up what meager AoE the SW has.
Point-Blank (Morale 1) removed
Replace with Glass Arrow (Morale 1)
Glass Arrow: 150ft range. Deals 900 damage to your target. Reduces the range of target’s abilities to 75% for 15 seconds. Additionally, their critical hit rate is reduced by 5%. 60 second CD.
Glass Arrow (Scout rank 5 ability) removed
Replace with Point Blank Shot (Scout rank 5 ability)
Point Blank Shot: 100ft range. Instant cast. Same AP cost and damage/scaling as current iteration of Glass Arrow ability. Knocks the targeted player away; knocks monsters down. 20 second CD. Scout stance only.
Point-Blank/Glass Arrow discourse: Point blank being available from immediate start of combat would do wonders to survival rate of a SW (bear in mind Scout spec, and Scout spec alone was stripped of any knockdowns at its disposal. Both Skirmish and Assault get access to one… Yet immobile, squishy Scout needs the CC just as bad if not worse). This one change here is a no-brainer, given the adamant refusal to return to us our baseline knockdown that gave us one of so very few abilities to survive harassment or free up a teammate from inevitable doom.
Whirling Pin update: CD refreshes at double rate for each second that you’re under a movement impairing effect. Must be in Scout stance to gain this benefit.
Whirling Pin update #2: Can not be countered/parried or cancelled.
Whirling Pin Discourse: So often I see it fire off and go on CD, and yet my character doesn’t move at all, instead it is parried or I suffer a knockdown while it’s springing me back, cancelling the animation and putting me at the feet and mercy of my enemy. We have this and Flee… We don’t get juggernaut. We don’t get sprints. We’re already heavily disadvantaged in the movement department: We really need this ability to actually fire.
Rain of Steel (Morale 4, Scout 15) replaced with Mantle of Shadow ability (Scout 15)
Mantle of Shadow (toggled on/off, 10s CD): Disrupt and Dodge is increased by 15%, but all healing used on you is reduced by 10%. Auto attacks deal 10% less damage to you. Reduce by 50% all damage received while disarmed or knocked down and for three seconds after the CC has expired.
Mantle of Shadow discourse: Magus can gain 32% dodge/disrupt OR 25% extra range (not to mention the damage bonuses) via their horrors. Engineers similarly gain boons from their turrets. SW is far outclassed and outmatched in either case. Sorcs can rotation burst us in nearly a blink. This proposal gives Scout archers a puncher’s chance. (Note that 10s channeled morale 4 is horrible design and needs replaced!!)
Squig herders, Magus, and Sorc (all three of the ranged foes) can disarm a SW. SW counterplay is that they can silence two of those three but only after 1s cast time, which often is toeing the line of death against a Sorc. Lest we forget, Scout doesn’t get knockdown counterplay – not the first or last time I’ll make mention of that here.
If we’re playing a long casting turret style, we need something to help us live through it, but perhaps more specifically something of a rattlesnake to put the incentive for adversaries to focus elsewhere with their CC where it would be more potent.
As an aside (and the greatest fuel to this particular proposal), the ability of WE’s and Squigherders to leap/pounce from the shadows and kill us all the while we remain helpless to do a single thing in return offers up some of the worst/most frustrating/unfun gameplay imaginable (at least for one side). It’s such a major turn off to playing the class. I get it, we’re not mobile and we’re squishy. We should be able live to stand up and get an ability or two off though. (It’s not like we can knock them down in return anyways… because, you know, Eye Shot got put on the top shelf). Hundreds of hours played and a 100% death rate against a properly leveled bouncing meatball or WE that gets a stun off … before one can even stand … yeah, that’s not healthy or interactive gameplay. We don’t get the double armor that assault does, and I’m not sure that the bonus initiative from Scout stance actually does anything for detecting stealthers…
Oh yeah, and leaping/bouncing meatball range is same as our broadhead arrow / shadow sting range (to be addressed further down).
Current state of stances…
Assault provides an additional 8.6% armor pen (WS increase), an additional 14.6% parry (flat 10+WS increase), doubled worn armor value, 65% increased auto attack damage, chance to proc 33% increased auto attack speed, increased main damage stat by 120
In contrast, Scout provides 80 (40 less) to main damage stat, (no armor pen), an additional 7.1% reduction in being crit, and anywhere from an additional 7 to 10 ft range on abilities.
The range increase is paltry, and worse still is much shorter than any magus w/ sniper demon.
I’ve seen no discernible benefits to detecting stealthers with the initiative increase. Has anyone ever spotted one that wasn’t directly on top of you??
The 8.6% armor pen alone is worthy of staying in assault stance for Eagle Eye spamming because you do far more damage against the heavy armor meta. Oh yeah, and you’ll have double armor, way more auto attack damage and parry when you inevitably get leaped on, charged upon, rooted and chased.
Scout stance proposal:
Gain 10% disrupt, matching assault’s 10% parry.
Gain 20% additional armor pen when channeling rapid shot. (This would affect active Draw Blood, Broadhead Arrow and Shadow Sting ticks, just as an aside)
Initiative & Ballistics bonuses are fine, albeit significantly short of Assault’s stat bonuses /boggle
Broadhead Arrow, Shadow Sting and Flame Arrow would be increased to 90ft while in Scout stance (short of Eagle Eye/Fester/Acid Arrow/etc, yet not within leaping/charge range of squigs and other melee which makes each use of our bread and butter dots an invitation for death).
Gain a buff while in Scout stance (Must be Rank 40) that can not be dispelled, called Cornered Prey. An enemy who kills a SW that’s in Scout stance is afflicted with a 9s Festering Wound that deals the damage total of a Festering Arrow, commensurate in damage with the number of ranks that player is trained up in the Scout path (regardless of whether the Shadow Warrior has actually trained Festering Arrow).
Proposals not specific to Scout:
Steady Aim replaced with Ability: Bullseye
Bullseye (toggled on/off, 10s CD): Whenever you critically hit an enemy, you gain Bullseye: Chance to critically hit is increased by 20% for the next 5 seconds, but your chance to be critically hit is increased by 10%
(Steady Aim is literally the worst ability in the game, reducing your damage output potential while making you suuuper immobile. This also gives SW a mechanic to hang their hat on akin to turrets/demons/combustion to stay competitive with other ranged dps (who largely get to ignore the high armor meta & therefore don’t need to invest in double offensive stats))
Bullseye removed from tactic list, replaced with Nagarythe’s Champion tactic
Nagarythe’s Champion: Reduces CD of Vengeance of Nagarythe by 2 seconds each time you get the killing blow on an enemy that gives renown. Modifies Vengeance of Nagarythe ability for its duration, depending on what stance you’re in:
Scout: Each attack against you has a 25% chance to drain 30 action points from the attacker and snare them by 40% for 5 seconds.
Assault: You gain 300 willpower and Swift Strikes heals you for the damage it deals (modified by your new willpower).
Skirmish: Lileath’s Arrow’s build up time is reduced by .5 seconds and will originate and launch from your defensive target’s location so long as you remain within 65ft of them, otherwise it originates from your own location, in which case it ignores half of the toughness of all targets.