Balancing Melee Channel Abilities

[handority]

First time poster, and I wanted to share some musings on WAR I've always had.


Melee Channel abilities, they tend to be 3seconds long and never used once the classes with them hit a certain level. Generally, using a 3 second melee channel actually results in a loss of DPS because AA does not proc. (In the case of the WL pet, it would root the pet in place on Live while the channel performed). Now I understand WP/DOK can use their 3 sec channel for a nice chunk of healing if specced for it, but outside of that the ability doesn't make an appearance on most peoples Bars after hitting t3.

I would love to see this fixed, but Im not sure how it should be done. The only suggestion I can think of is to reduce the channel to 2 seconds with a roughly 18% reduction in damage.

[Jaycub]

I think they should each get treatment with some kind of flavor specific to their class.

The BG sort of has the right idea I think, in that it gives you extra hatred on crit, something they are starving for when in that spec. The problem is the value is pretty low and just lets it down.

[TenTonHammer]

I would like to point out that your statement is wrong in the sense that Melee channels are indeed used a lot but only on certian classes slayers and choppa use rune of absorption and furious choppin quite a bit, espically the latter and black orcs and SM's use tree hit combo/ ether dance as well

And as you said the reason other classes dont use there channels like mara's convulsive slashing and other melee channeling abilites is that when you channel you cannot get AA in and furthermore they have a significant AP cost and can be dealt with easily like all channeled abilities in the game

Lowering the AP cost per second would make these abilites more desirable

[magter3001]

It's mainly because other abilities are better than the channeled ones... except for a few exceptions.

Remember than even though you use a channeled ability, you will lose out on the AA damage but are capable of procing other damage modifiers, such as Choppa's Hurtin' Time or BW's Flames of Rhuin.

[handority]

Good points Tenton, I forgot about the Choppa/Slayer channel. Its low AP use and has a really damn good return on its investment.

However, there are a ton of other classes who dont touch theres.

Namely:
Witch Elf / Witch hunter
Marauder / White Lion (The pet)
Shadow Warrior (Id love to see more Melee/Hybrid melee SW)

Theres just no reason to use the above listed classes melee channels. You lose out on damage and have better abilities to use in the meantime in most cases. 2 abilities + AA is generally harder hitting for less AP as well