Harbinger of Doom and Rune of Breaking

[Valfaros]

The Issue with the Harbinger of Doom (introduced 1.3.6)

Pretty long text therefore I highlight the most important parts in orange.

Currently the zealot or RP strongly lacks dmg or utility to be a viable option in team fights (SC's or smaller Zerks). While he works in Zerks (usually one per warband) as a heal debuff bot he lacks dmg for focused fights. The DMG he can deal with the single Dps-tree can be used as a assist dd (for focus SC setups) but is often minor to any other dps class.
Earlier in the game (pre 1.3.6) the zealot offered a extremely strong corporeal resistance debuff. Spect into intelligence he could deal a reasonable amount of dmg and together with a timed "Doombolt" could annihilate an enemy. Now why was it changed:

Let's start by clarifying the main issue and the proposed change. Currently, the other healing careers (Archmage, Shaman, Warrior Priest and Disciple of Khaine) have their mastery paths organized by the role which they might play (i.e. damage focus, healing focus, etc.); whereas, the Zealot and Runepriest don't. Their mastery paths are organized by the delivery method of their healing (i.e. over time, direct, or area). The problem is, after deciding whether to specialize offensively or defensively and gearing to that role (a freedom of choice that they should be given), the Zealot and Runepriest are left with only one-half of an effective skill-set -- the other half of their skills being rendered ineffective by role choice and gear itemization. To bring these careers in line with their archetypical cousins, a new mechanism is proposed which gives Zealots and Runepriests a chance to retain some effectiveness in skills that are outside their chosen role.[1]

The idea didn't took into account that a dmg zealot is going to use divine fury which makes him nearly useless for healing even when changing his intelligence into willpower. For healers it was the same issue. In a game where tactics are a main part of a class specification you won't change your role by just changing your stats.
To be honest I think one of the hidden reasons for this change was that they forgot to implement intelligence sets for later RR which they tried to fix like this.


So what did they change exactly? While the correct values for the corporeal resistance debuff are somewhere lost in the internet this is what they proposed and finally did:

First, the existing Zealot skill "Harbinger of Doom" (which currently debuffs a target's corporeal resistance) would be reworked to become this stance toggle and renamed to "Harbinger of Change" when in healing stance, or "Harbinger of Doom" when in damage stance. Second, Runepriests would have a new skill added to mirror the re-written Zealot skill, called "Rune of Breaking" (for damage) or "Rune of Balance" (for healing) -- depending on the stance state. Essentially, the Zealot loses something old and familiar (along with the corporeal resistance debuff) and the Runepriest gains something fresh and new.[1]

This was the general impression of said change at that time in their forums:

Zealot players are generally against the proposal (with the loss of their current Harbinger and corporeal debuff), and Runepriests are taking the change in stride, generally looking forward to it.[1]

No wonder when one class gets something new and one class get something changed^^

Solution

I propose an additional resistance ignore while the Harbinger of Doom/Rune of Breaking is active. While I think it would be nice to offer additional utility by an resistance debuff I think it should only effect the zealot itself. This will cause less change for other classes and won't push any class unintentionally.

Further I propose a certain percent resistance ignore instead of a normal resitance value reduction. This solves later equipment changes (with more resistance). Therefore it won't overperform against lower RR equipments or resistance lacking classes.

You will maybe saying "Hey wait the zealot already has a corporeal resistance debuff." This is true and while this is a viable option for close range AoE heal debuff bots it lacks usability for smaller scales because you don't really want to get close range with your range dd even with a guard/heal behind you.

Benefit

It will solve some of the problems the dps Zealot/RP currently has (especially with all the KoTBs and Chosen running around) and will build a base for further balance changes of specific abilities in the future.

Further reading

[1] https://www.engadget.com/2010/06/19/wag ... ps-healer/ (16.11.2016)
[2] http://warhammeronline.wikia.com/wiki/Harbinger_of_Doom (16.11.2016)

Edit.: Some corrections and one phrase addition in order to prevent misunderstandings.

Edit: Penril's comment
I'm sorry I don't want to be rude but did you just proposed a grp setup which would have an 2h off tank (with a very meh build) + a dps zealot. I fail to see how this is going to work besides wasn't the goal to make the classes viable with different setups. You propose a case in which you have to stick to a strangely skilled BO in order to be usefull. You would be better off by just taking a chosen or for RP a KotBS. How would this requirement be any different to the dok/wp requirement we have now and trying to desperatly change?

I think I made a clear point with the issue they introduced by removing the corporal resistance debuff from the zealot (only). I find it kinda strange that you ask me for a elemental debuff proposal only for the RP with no option for zealot because you found one rarely used corporeal debuff on a different class. Since I'm kind, here are some things you can do with your dmg RP:
Use a KotBS or a swordmaster with Heavens Blade. Is RP now usefull to assist a BW (or any other range dd)? Hmm no he still lacks massivly dmg or utility in order to be viable. Hmm okay let's discuss something to push his dmg without enforcing BW more over the other range dd's? What about something that only works on him and only effects the lackluster build? I know something, a % resistance ignore while Rune of breaking is active. How clever because it's %, setups which already reduce elemental (or corp for zealot) won't be too strong because they get weaker if the target has less resistance.

If we start to argue about a viabilty of classes based on other classes then okay but dps zealot and rp are both not really viable as already stated before. If waaaagh + dps zealot would be actually worth anything you would have saw one grp running it no? The only setup I can imagin would be with an other dd which lacks a good heal debuff. You can't just adjust your BO to run with WAAAGH! there is no tank build which would run it.
The dmg of both rp and zealot are for singletargets so low that it is in all cases always more usefull to just run a second dd even without having a heal debuff. Yes you could just push the class by flat numbers but I can tell you against classes without much resi you already do strong dmg I've played my zealot enough to tell you that. He only performs very weak against high resi players and with KotBS and choosen running around this problem occurs often and it won't get better if better equip is available.

In all seriousness now about your "propose something for RP". The problem with giving RP a elemental debuff which works for everyone would be BW and you most certainly don't want to buff BW because he is already one of the strongest if not the strongest range dd. Therefore the option to introduce a "class only" resi ignor is kinda handy and will only buff where it is required.

This will only be the first step to move RP and zealot in the right way. They shouldn't never do as much dmg as a "real range dd" but therefore they should add utility to the grp (atleast that's how I see them). The next step would be looking at some of the abilitys and tactics eg RoF, RoF, ER, ES to add more utility, Since you are occuping a place for a dd you can have as much utility as you want you still need reasonable dmg to compete and therefore my proposal. Since the low dmg on high resi targets was a generall problem I wanted to propose this problem first and then move on to other problems the classes currently have with some lackluster abilitys and tactics.

[Penril]

Balance should be discussed based on group play, and in this case Zealot's don't need to bypass resistances since they can always run with a Black Orc (who has possibly the strongest Corporeal debuff in the game, WAAAGH!).

You can edit this proposal (maybe with a suggestion for a good Elemental debuff on Order).

edit: I gave you the chance to edit your proposal. You could have tackled a number of issues that DPS Zealots have (Corp resist is not one of them; you could have mentioned AP starving which is the BIGGEST problem they have) as well as focusing on RP having a harder time applying their heal debuff as AoE (that's the Zealot's biggest utility). Instead, you decided to act like a smartass (btw, WAAAGH does not require a 2H... learn the classes before talking about them).

Declining.