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[BO] Mor' Hardcore tactic proposal

Structured balance proposals should be posted here. Posts in this section will be taken into account during class balance reviews.
Cardiff
Posts: 19

[BO] Mor' Hardcore tactic proposal

Post#1 » Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:04 pm

Hi

I would like to submit a balance proposal for the Black Orc tactic 'Mor' Hardcore' to increase the distance from a medium knockback to a distance comparable to Iron Breaker and Chosen/Knight (with tactic) while limiting the use of tactic to Shield only.

Background
From my experience the Black Orc plays like an assist dps with guard duties. The utility of a single target knockback is sacrificed for additional damage potential. The classic build is taking the Knockdown from Da' Boss tree and then You Wot, channel ability, great weapon mastery and crit tactic from Da' Brawler tree. Combined with crit gear and racial crit modifier this gives the highest dps tank potential on destro. I've been running a different build in Ranked Solo S3, Warlord+2 for KD + Waaaaaagh from Da' Boss tree and You Wot, channel ability, great weapon mastery tactic from Da' Brawler tree. Switching from crit+crit damage to strength+weapon skill gear. This build allows the use of wounds racial tactic for improved survivability and overall the build has worked well, less top end damage and burst but scaling damage through use of Bring 'Em On tactic to always be in best stance where ability damage is generally higher.

Current problem
As solo ranked get more organised and competitive, the increase in dps translating into pressure and kill potential provided by Black Orc diminishes. Increasingly, the meaningful damage contribution is done during co-ordinated cc on tanks+healers while utilising dps morales. This leaves your own team severely disadvantaged by having a Black Orc in it, since you cannot double punt. This has been very noticeable in the current season where 1 melee + 1 rdps matchups are more common. The melee dps has double guard effectively the whole match where a double punt is needed. This puts incredible strain on your dps and punt tank, to the point where you are effectively are being carried the whole match and have little to no contribution outside basic tanking duties.

As the skill and quality of matches increases, Black Orc need an option to provide a viable single target punt.

Proposed Solution
The proposed solution is to utilise the existing tactic 'Mor' Hardcore' which has been designed to give the Black Orc a single target knockback, but increase the range of the knockback to be inline with other effective single target punts. The current tactic seems to be an acknowledgment of the need for a single target punt to some extent, but the tactic currently fails to deliver what a single target punt is needed/utilised for:

- Removing a guard from a target to generate a burst window for your dps
- Removing an enemy dps to relieve pressure from your team

As the current knockback provided by Mor' Hardcore is so small, when trying to remove a guard from a target, the punted tank isn't removed from guard range for any meaningful time, providing no opportunity for dps to burst. Similarly, when trying to reduce incoming damage on your team, punting a dps provides no meaningful reduction in their damage output, since the time they are out of range of their target is so small.

There are balance concerns with giving a tank that has such high dps potential access to a single target punt which I will outline below.

Why limit to shield only?
If the tactic is not limited it opens possibility of 2 handed Black Orks having a viable single target knockback while keeping the damage, tactics and abilities from Brawler tree (although the trade-off would be losing the knockdown). While this is very interesting and something I would like to see happen in the medium/long term, it creates wider, immediate balancing issues if Black Orc can keep damage from 2 hander while gaining a viable single target punt. To avoid greater complexity around balancing, making the updated tactic shield only would effectively force a choice between keeping damage or having the utility. Depending on the results from Black Orc having a single target punt with shield only, balancing can potentially be discussed around 2 hander gaining access to a single target punt at a later date.

How S+B Black Orc would compare with current tanks if proposal is accepted:

In terms of the wider restrictions on punts:
Knight/Chosen require tactic
Ironbreaker (no tactic) requires and spends 25 Grudge
Blackguard (no tactic) requires 90 Hate
[Proposed] Black Orc require tactic, shield and correct stance


Comparison of tank benefits in standard specs:

Chosen: Auras, +25% self parry, +15% crit tactic, +strength+toughness tactic, wounds debuff, -10% chance to be crit for team

Blackguard: Armour debuff, wounds debuff, parry debuff, crit debuff, crit buff for team, aoe snare, upto +30% self parry (depending on hate), +15% crit tactic

Knight: Auras, +15% inc heals for team, wounds debuff, crit buff, Aoe snare (upto 3 targets per 5 secs)

Ironbreaker: +10%dmg+5%parry tactic, 15% crit tactic, +10% crit buff, +25% parry buff, aoe snare, armour debuff, crit debuff, weaponskill buff

S+B Black Orc: (Potential Build: Da' Toughest - Mor' Hardcore tactic, Not in da face!, Can't Hit Me! Da' Boss - Waaaaaagh! + Knockdown)
Benefits: Stat steal bellow (reduced with no investment into Da' Brawler), armour debuff (reduced with no investment into Da' Brawler), weaponskill buff, corporeal debuff, auto attack damage buff for team, strength debuff, 5 second cooldown increaser, weaponskill debuff (tied to punt), +10% block tactic


Conclusions

If the proposal is accepted it will give an option for single target punt to Black Orc but at the cost of heavily restricting damage potential. It avoids having to go into complex balancing around 2 handed offensive spec with punt. The changes would not elevate S+B Black Orc over 2 handed chosen or black guard, where they currently sit in a good position of solid damage with very good utility, buffs and debuffs. Taking a S+B tank into solo ranked may not even be viable, but at least there would be an option of double punt which with certain compositions are almost mandatory, assuming comparable skill, experience and gear of players on both sides.

Thank you for taking the time to review this proposal and thanks as always for your hard work keeping this amazing game going!

Karmac

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