nat3s wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 6:16 am
Ok full disclosure, I main a def WE (
https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... 704/armory) I've been lobbying strongly to maintain the status quo, that they are not op when you specifically build against them. 857 solo kills, 86 solo deaths, however much of those deaths were lower rr and prior to switching to full def. I only really lose a 1v1 now if I missplay.
I've been playing other 80s recently and I can't really keep the facade up anymore, def WE is way overtuned. It sucks, if they are nerfed, all the effort gearing up, the 1k+ gold spent on armour talis, it's going to hurt. However, at this point, I'm in full agreement. Change is needed.
Offensive WE is still fine imo, they die like a fart in the wind and easily countered by a ton of builds, but def WE can almost roam unimpeded. I take 1v2s and 1v3s regularly now for a challenge as I can pretty much guarantee on winning a 1v1. It's not right, we are all conditioned to think we win because of skill rather than balance I suspect.
However, how do you tone them down without destroying the build and all the gold and time players have pumped into it. I think that needs a lot of consideration as much as people just want to see them gutted. It would hurt too many.
Reminds me a bit of when dps AM / Sham were left to reign supreme as the solo meta champs. That lasted years and caused a lot of harm. I think the solo and small scale meta has shrunk because such outliers haven't been corrected over time and I'd love us to get back to the small man era of 2016-2020.
Well, that's an unexpected twist and well needed. I think people who play overtuned characters need to recognise that it's not just their mad skills, but more often the class that carries them, and that said class imbalances have a negative impact on the health of a server. It's why I stopped solo roaming on the DPS AM as it's just stupidly easy and swapped to aSW solo roaming, as at least it provides a challenge.
Still, when I fight WEs it just makes you realise how broken the class is. Yesterday, I fought an deftard WE in Reikland, and even after doing 19k damage he was still at 35% health. Then I checked the logs, and of their damage 36.9% was Witchbrew, 15,8% auto attach, and 11.4% enfeebling strikes. That's 64.1% of passive damage, whilst running high defences and just regenerating. All the while, I hae 9.6k health, 3.8k armour, 18% parry, and 5% chance to be crit - I'm far from glass cannon. I messed up a fair amount in that fight, but the stats are just nuts.
Still, I do disagree with you that the problem lies solely with deftard WEs. They're definitely the worst offenders and need to be toned down, or at least forced to make trade-offs in stats like all other classes. Offensive DPS WEs also need looking at - as currently there's no downside to engaging a target. If they mess up their opener out of stealth, they just double pounce, or disengage. The risk/reward is out of kilter for DPS.
I'm also tired of the arguments that we shouldn't balance for 1v1. Man, just look at the population stats. The average the last weeks has been about 250 in T2+. I compared with what was actually in the lake at various times, and less than half of is actively engaged in the lakes. Therefore, half the time, there's less than 50 people per realm active in the lakes. There's a reason during those times the lakes are swarming with stealth classes and DPS healers.
It's a low pop server most of the time. 1v1 balancing should matter.
