[PTS] Patch Notes 28/02/2025

[Farrul]

Absolutely correct remark. I'm afraid that if the developers do not reconsider some aspects before introducing the patch, then dps wp/dok will only be playable in wb as aoe spam

After testing the wrath WP on the ptr, my conclusion is that the spec will not be viable for roaming anymore, it will need to be babysitted by a guard bot at all times or implode vs ranged dps. Basically a mdps with zero defences vs ranged classe which is just sad from a balance point of view.

What i would suggest to the dev team, at least give the wrath WP repent back, remove the book/shield restriction. Makes no sense that Grace WP has it which is more tankier and the more vulnerable Wrath WP has literally zero defences against ranged dps now. How can that be balance in the view of the dev team

P.S. And for all that is sacred, put a 20% snare back on judgement. Spec is melee with zero gap-closers. It can't even use Flee+ AP pot to catch something since it drains all the righteouss fury, unlike all the mdps classes that have both a charge + flee+ ap pots available.

No mele dps has a range detaunt. Why should mele/wp have one?
Every mele dps must have guard/heal.
I don't understand what the problem is.

Because as already explained in the text above. unlike other melee dps WP do not have a gap- closer.

Try to play a mdps without Charge, not even Flee for offensive use since it drains the AP + Righteous fury. I assure you it wont feel good playing it.

Hence the problem.

P.S. Why create new unnecessary balance problems when none are needed? The only thing needed on the WP wrath was to add the 20% snare component back to Judgement. Now it is the definition of a sitting duck vs any ranged kiter, no defences whatsoever.

[Magusar]

dps WP/Dok test, my impressions:
Dok is playable and strong, ill share it first:
Good points for Dok:
- Considering Fist of Khaine rollback and Covenant of Celerity combo + new things like SE's snare 60% from rear and none conditions for 3s snare from flay, excessive problems with catching of backline's members shouldn't be. Mb it can be even too good.
- Big windows between good dps solved fully. You can have a good dps with Drowning in Blood, u can have a good ratio sustain/dps with Devour Essence, u can save your self and mates around you (merit of wp/dok and its one of the main difference from pure dps).
- Its much easier to be usefull in wb(more or less) and in zergblob.
Controversial points for Dok:
-Can't off Drowning in Blood - it can be to much punishment for mistake. You can't regen when DiB is active and you can stay without everything just to press button once. Its important button, u need to press it if you want to do dps and you need to do it often(close to constantly), and the probability of such an "unfortunate" error increases to indecent levels- this is a pvp game, where u cant predict everything. Suggestions - remake DiB to a toggle ability or let generate essence, while DiB is active, but halfed generation.
- Personally, I don't like it when one of the most important and basics abilities for any dps more than 1 vs 1 depend on career's resources, which you spend very quickly. Im talking about incoming HD. Current state of dps wp/dok on test server, may lead to a situation where you are forced to choose - use HD or save/dps, which is not good. Incoming HD need to be seamlessly woven into dps, like it can do others, and wp/dok can right now on production server. For dok this problem will not be very often(but its stay not good), for wp in current state on test, spoiler, its cancer.
- As i say in a good points - Fist of Khaine rollback and Covenant of Celerity combo + new possibilities can be too strong. Main part of this is "Fist of Khaine rollback and Covenant of Celerity combo", FoK is spammable now so it can be to OP with CoC snare procs. Suggestion - inner cd to proc for FoK like once in 7s.
Total for Dok: its strong, variable. Excessive problems solved, not without controversial things. Its feels a little more complicated, but in current test context its 100% up.

WP it's just a weirdo who does one thing and nothing else. Otherwise, you won't do anything properly if u will try to mix it(dpsing, saving). The main reason is "why abilitys with this lvl of impact cost so much?". The gap closer problem is still on the place, but worser, because there is no range detaunt for you, charge/range snare/pounce(kek) u still not have, new Guilty Soul assumes a long stay on target. The problem with dps windows, is semisold, because after dealing damage(not so long deling damage by the way) u are doing nothing. Ok, not nothing - u will trying to regen wrath. One of the main advantages of dps wp/dok - u can dps and saving at the same time is out. Too expensive. Esp new Hammer of Sigmar and HD, its something like nonsense. The only way is a new "Charged Fury" tactic or have near enemies for smite. With tactic we get "4 madnatory tactics and and there is no step to the side + charged fury its proc- it can be/can't be - its random". There may be no enemies nearby, sry. Plus the damage is much less stable than DOk have.
I told about incoming HD in Dok context "it can be situation when u need to choose between to do something and HD" replace "it can be" on "it will be" and you will have a situation which wp will have constantly.
My suggestions -leave the old version of Guilty Soul or every stack of it will reduce cost of Hammer of Sigmar and Divine Impact for 5? Reworking new ability "Divine Impact" to 0 ap cost, 40 resour, 65 range, 350 spitit damage, 1.5s cast time cant be set back, 10 sec cd, and snare the target for 3-4sec 40% would be good in my opinion too. HD regen resource or ap cost good also. The numbers can be corrected depending on the tests.

[Jeliel80]

6) Adding injury to insult, Zealots/Rune Priests will have add more willpower to maintain their current level of healing output, meaning they will have to give up some defenses.

Imo, this isn't a bad thing for the overall health of the game. One thing I've said in the past and hoping for was more focus on making Willpower an important stat for healers instead of the current "get Willpower from set bonuses/pieces then stack armor/toughness talis and defensive jewels and still heal a ton". I think this will hopefully force healers to either run super defensive and not heal as well or go more Willpower and heal well at the cost of defense. Makes team play more important imo.

Disagree.
After the ability rework the damage is higher than ever on RoR, while healing didn't scale at all.
In the meantime 3 defining defensive racials have been demolished (SoS, RunAway, Whazat); previously armor tali have been heavily nerfed from 180 armor.

There's a good reason in this game willpower did scale poorly, so that healers could stack defenses and not be super fragile; this change pretty much already forces healers to use Discipline to heal similar amounts as before patch.

Apart from that, yes it is indeed a huge hit on zealot/runie as said before, 3 ticks every 5 sec on 30 sec cd, this means less absorb procs, less triumph procs (or any weapon/armor pcos), less sustain healing in general.
I'd say that wp/dok/am/shammie will outclass them as when city siege released first.
Just my 2c.

[yoluigi]

IMO i would put hammer of sigmar/guilty soul the way it was before. Make divine impact the new ability that use fury and use the sigmar radiance animation for it.

[Kyphus]

I appreciate the thoughtful updates that introduce new playstyles while maintaining the distinct flavors of the two mirrors. I look forward to trying them all out when they go live.

The new design approach shifts away from hybridization towards clearly defining specs as either primary healers or DPS. The emphasis on Willpower scaling for direct healing and forcing the DPS DoK/WP to choose between using their resource for either damage or healing, effectively makes DPS builds trade increased damage for sustain. They look more like dedicated DPS now, but we will see if the trade off ultimately proves effective in practice. I can also see this having secondary impacts, like reducing the overall amount of “off healing” in scenarios, encouraging the wider use of heal debuffs (effects lifetaps now), and possibly making some of the anti-caster tank specs more attractive alternatives.

Runepriests/Zealots

Master Ruins/Rituals – love the new design. Now they are all viable with healing as a default but have interesting secondary effects that add new utility and build options. Good job.

Changer’s Echo / Rune of Fulmination – Love more direct damage options to interact with Transference/Efficient Ruencarving. Some folks have reported that Changer’s Echo is not procing Transference which I am hoping is a bug. If not, it absolutely should given its tree and mastery point investment.

Witchcraft/Valaya Trees – Still feel somewhat unfocused thematically and more like a dumping ground for extra mastery points. Given the loss of its channel ability and the existence of a lifetap DoT and tactic, maybe move Boon of Tzeentch/Rune of Fortune over here to give it a lifetap theme like the Shaman Path of the Green? I don’t think the left tree would miss it (they can still reach it) and it would make leveling up in this tree much smoother.

New Tactics – love the options and the build diversity they open up. Some cool new potential combos here.

Warrior Priest / Disciple of Khaine

Prayers/Covenants – love the changes and new tactics. Great job.

Benediction/Khaine’s Encouragement – Jury is out here. Shielding Grace & Sacrifice were underutilized but at least they gave me tools to close range and distance heal in a warband setting. Not sure a melee ability with 5ft range to effectively use my casted ranged heals addresses the need. Could be a missed opportunity here to make both specs viable alternatives in all game modes.

Divine Impact. LOVE the damage but the cast time feels …weird. Very telegraphed animation that just screams CC me! It might be necessary for overall balance so I am open to giving it a go.

Hammer of Sigmar – Spammable?? Thank Go…well SIGMAR! With a full RF battery, you can dump 3 in a row on an unsuspecting heretic. Looking forward to it.

Drowning in Blood – Thanks for not simply mirroring the two classes and creating a new interesting interaction between the buff and various tree abilities. Cool stuff.

Pillage Essence – feels a bit niche and weak given how hard it is to interrupt anything in the chaos and UI overload of group PVP. Also kills the AP drain playstyle that was available by comboing with Horrifying Offering. Maybe consider some other form of debuff? (cast time, cool down, blessing removal etc.)

Judgment/Fist of Khaine – Ranged RF generation? Please and thank you.

The one concern that still lingers with the community is the lack of an ability to deal with kiters. I think there are likely a number of things that could be done that could address this in a balanced way. I leave it to the team to devise but my humble offering would be to consider giving Weight of Guilt a longer range similar to Soulfire with the tactic then turning it AOE. The cooldown and duration could be adjusted to provide appropriate windows for counter play.

Shaman / Archmage
Mine are still babies but always loved the damage – heal interaction idea. That and the melee healer hybrid were attractive options for those of us who never gravitated to the “stand back and heal” playstyle. The new approach of “weaving within your role” you have taken looks interesting and looking forward to seeing how it plays out in practice.

Thank you for the time and attention you clearly have put into these changes. Much appreciated!

[Valdem]

Oh man! So excited for the AM changes! I am interested to see how this will affect the current AM BiS talis/gear tho. Rn it looks like AMs prefer full sov w/ mostly armor talis. But with these changes, specifically the consistent decrease in base healing and consistent increase in HB, it looks like more willpower will be much needed. Very interested to see how this new mechanic adjusts the meta gear!

If you use some math you will see that with 200 heal power your healing is almost the same so the change is not so big. The strange thing is hp scaling nerf of we/dok st 5 sec cd heal, only at that you got nerf but still not so noticable

Thank you for that clarification! So in that case, would it just be best for AMs to get HB to 200 w/ willpower, then stack wounds and armor w/ full sov?

[Mandodlenn]

Currently Divine Strike is AoE heal of front line, usefull in wb and with Grace of Sigmar adding 2 targets, quite effective as AoE Heal for Shield spec.

On PTS Shield WP gets much better heals for his own group, but only ST Heal outside group.

Out-of-group, so-called cross heal, was trademark of WP, I find it dull to remove it for Shield WP. Divine Strike vs Sigmar Radiance was interesting choice in front line play. No more on PTS.

[Hiiq]

nah, i wrote something but I wont bother... nothing will be adjusted due to my input anyway. SO since i dont know how to delete the post I simply type it over with this

[zulnam]

Am I missing something?

If you login on the PTS you start off at level 1.

Spoiler:

[Rydiak]

Am I missing something?

If you login on the PTS you start off at level 1.

Spoiler:

When you create a toon, under the Template section select RR80 Sovereign.