slayer balance and ideas ( for future patch )

[aqualice]

Hi guys ,

Konrik here ,

so i'am opening this post because the next patch will cover some changes for the slayer .

the goal of this post is to bring my personnal ideas and experience about the current state of the slayer on ROR , note that its only my opinion anyone is welcome to disagree and comment in a constructive way.

1 - current situation

Slayer current state is a bit one sided , the skaven slayer spec is going to thrive in almost any group situation from 6V6 to 24 vs 24.

why ? because : shatter limbs ; most of the time if you manage to rush the back line and unleash a shatter limbs on healers , you have a very high chance to win the fight , its even worth dying to apply it .

the problem it brings , is that skaven slayer is going to be the best for almost any situation which it should be designed to take down cluster of enemies , making the other spec and possibilities quite pale in comparision.

2 - slayer weakness

the main weakness if the slayers is its overall squishyness and lack of mobility , making it dangerous to actually rush for back lines , so for the moment the slayer is a " high risk , but high reward " type of class , you are going to die a lot no matter what but if you manage to position well and get few aoes in the backlines you are going to turn the tide quite heavily.

the fact that you need to be carried by a group to actually reach your full potential , actually there is noway for a slayer to self sustain or count on himself alone for his survival or possibilty to deal dammage , you need a heal and a guard to become a real threat, until then you are just a free RP bag.

the second problem is that the giant slayer or troll slayer upper tree is totaly not worth it when you compare it to ID / shatter limbs because the goal for giant slayer is to unleash a LOT of exhausting attacks , to do that you need power trough , its realy strong , but you loose all your tanking that is already miserable so in 1V1 its OP in group play you will just eat the floor 24/7 ( tested )

3 - useless stuff

as we said , the main problem is that there is only one spec that is going to be over any other in group situation ( skavenslayer is still very bad for 1V1 or solo play , so the only situation where its bad )

one solution would be to diversify the kit of the slayer , making more spec viable for specific roles :

what are the USELESS slayer abilities : because there is SO MUCH BETTER aside.

tactic : honor restored : " 25% chance to heal for 225 hp after an exhaustive blow is unleashed . USELESS

tactic : the bigger they are : reduce the AP cost of deathblow and spine crusher by 25% . USELESS ( currently )

tactic : stuborness : 252 coropreal resistance ... it would be usefull if it was spiritual . USELESS

tactic : takin' chances : heal yourself for 152 each second while furious and 230 while berserk , heal way too low , USELESS

tactic : runic blessings : 25% chance to ressurect upon death at 20% health and unleashing a wave of power that deals 250 dmg in aoe ( the problem with this tactic is that you have a res debuff when you self res and makes you bassicly useless for a minute so not worth sloting , making it so it actually prevent death for 5 to 10 seconds would allow the slayer to go balls deep without a guard and actually deal some dps whatever happends , but meaning that the slayer will die ANYWAY after this time ) the RR ability is currently bugged.

tactic : breaking point : 15% crit on giantslayer abilites but increase crit chance against you by 10% , if it were 15% flat crit it would be good or reduce the debuff part to make it worth going up the tree to go for it ( too bad to pick atm , compare to brute force or wild gambit ) some potential with minor changes

tactic ; determination : if an exhaustive blow is defend refund the AP cost ..... i mean what ? who would pick that EVER since you have rampage preventing blocks and parry , this tactic shouldnt even be there considering its absurd uselessness.

ability : relentless strike : 30 ap for a 264 dot on 3 second ? who would ever waist AP on that ... completely useless

ability : retribution , just bugged .

morale : untrouchable : you defend all attacks for the next 5 seconds , ahem nope it dosn't , its totaly bugged making it worthless and causing the slayer to be even more squishy.

4 - OP stuff

ability : shatter limbs , well go in and shatter limbs healers , game over .. making it mandatory for ANY situation. as i see it only increasing its cooldown would be a decent nerf from 20 sec to 30 or 40 sec , so the enemy healers have some time between to stabilize .

ability : rampage , prevent your attacks to be blocked and parried for 20 sec if furious 10 sec if berserk , this ability alone give almost all its power to the slayer , because it implies that all of your attacks are going to land no matter what , but nerfing this too hard would mean the end of the slayer , its THE skill that makes the slayer what it is.

ability : inevitable doom , put a dot on the targets that is AOE based , this is amazing for only one reason it give the possibility for the slayer to actullay hit and run and deal dmg while backing to his team , so going in going back and still do lots of dmg for low risk

5 - possible solutions

as we saw above , there is much more useless stuff than usefull in the slayer pannel , making the skaven slayer the only realy optimal spec for group play no matter the group size ;

how to counter that :

well seems simple to say but buffing the other trees while nerfing a little but not to the ground the skaven slayer spec would be a way to go :

nerfing shatter limbs CD more that its mechanic
making rune of absortion ( troll slayer ) deal 15 to 20% more damage
making violent impacts ( giant slayer )chances to refund rage from 50% to 75%
cleft in twain ( giant slayer ) increase this dot damage , because ID deals more dmg and its AOE , whereas this is a single target dot
buffing hidden 2 hander buff , like the 10% parry for DW making it like 10% increased armor pen or such would help instead of crap block reduction since you have rampage

also giving the slayer the option to choose between FULL damage or durability , atm even with 500 toughness you die all the same which is kinda retarded

buffing self heals like taking chances , honor restored , or even runic blessings as mentionned above would give more choice in the kit to choose between , like being more of a support or a single target dps or a ZERG buster , instead of just going for shatter limbs no matter what

hope this is helping ! have fun everyone.

Konrik

[Kali14]

viewtopic.php?f=74&t=18220

Hi, im Kalgran, this is good post but discussion is going is this topic. Just copy this post there, I am agree with you in most this things. xD

[Reesh]

Good sum-up, I always wanted to do something similar and post it straight into balance forum section, but you missed few also useless things:

- precarious assault - I mean... seriously, same tooltip as another base skill with a drawback
- tactic violent impacts - as discussed in the link provided by kali14, it's bad
- fierce might - also, as discussed, bad.

Overall the discussion in that other thread here viewtopic.php?f=74&t=18220 strictly is adressing Giantslayer tree, which is a pinnacle of problem slayer has, a good reliable second single target tree. And also as discussed, if changes would be applied, the choppa would recieve similar buffs, as they're pretty much mirrored.

[Kali14]

Problem is because slayer to everything need tactic and have only 4 slots, exatly 3 free because Wild Gambit is a must. I don't think a skaven spec is OP, comparing to this what can do DOK dps, sorcerers and how tough can be some tanks. Skaven spec is just normal. In giant spec Power Through tactic is a must to make few exhaustive blows 1 after second. And here start this problem what choose when we are in berserk? Serious we can take only Fierce Might and Push for More. We have good dps and with Rune of Absorption even good self heal. But this optimal build is now still too bad for kill dok dps. We loose 50% all resistances and each sorc hit us hits from big distance for 1700-2500 damages and we can't do nothing because our 5 sec detaunt with 30 sec CD really suck. There is not even time to run away. What we can take Takin Cheance tactic to regain 225 heals each 4 seconds when in this time sorc deal us 8 000 damages? LOL, and DOK dps which always critically hit us when we are under 50% hp this an nonsens and heal himself for 150% damages dealt or some like this. Well everybody see cheance in Enervating Blow but this is 30 sec CD and work only 10 seconds. This one and Distracting Roar should have reduced CDs and should work longer if we have to be any serious class because now we are on "1 hit".