Foomy44 wrote:Klesko wrote:... hasn't at all made me feel less melancholy about having to wave goodbye to my healers who get KD'd WE roflstomped when I used to be able to swap stances and do something about it if I was quick enough and had a keen eye..
Assault stance still has a disarm that works just fine in that situation, if not better (1 second longer duration according to career builder) maybe just have to stick a little closer to your healers than you used to.
Fundamental problem with that is the same problem of stripping Scout (and scout alone) of the CC. Scout is an immobile archer, long cast times, long distance abilities that rely, perhaps more so than even skirmish, on positioning in a battle. Skirmish can run and shoot, while that's not a hallmark of the Scout SW. The last thing a Scout spec'd SW wants to do is to run up within 5ft of a fight to hit an enemy with a partial CC. Heaven forbid there should be a second destro player in the fight (cause that'll never happen, am I right!?) that turns and pops you with any plethora of snares or CC of their own ><
Opportunistic Strike (the assault ability you reference) has a 30s CD as opposed to 20, requires you be in melee, allows the effected enemy to re-position (perhaps onto you!), does not lower your enemy's initiative, and has a much longer time to apply than Eye Shot (SW's do not exactly pounce to targets to apply melee effects). Opportunistic Strike is certainly not better for a Scout SW that wants to maintain healthy distances, lest the SW has to completely retool their gear and tactics to be a close fighter... at which point you might as well switch to an assault or
skirmisher SW instead, nor will it likely be applied in the same timely manner than Eye Shot could be.
The loss of that part of a tool kit for a Scout player creates a deviation in the actual play of the class, a fundamental loss of something that is not made up with a bit of tweaking on Fell the Weak or No Quarter, sadly. (To reiterate a notable sidenote: SH's saw the same treatment of said skills on destro side) I'm not sure if any of the devs or anyone who had a hand in making the change actually plays a Scout SW, I would venture a guess no. The "balancing" that was made on the core skill really only denied Scout SW's a fundamental CC tool that would otherwise be available if they picked any other mastery path ><. I feel like I've said my peace on the matter, giving a direct perspective of someone actually effected by the targeted change. Maybe Scout was too strong? The other forum threads I've participated seem to have adamantly maintained the opposite.