Farrul wrote: Sun Aug 02, 2026 9:25 am
Without adequate defences, ASW will stay irrelevant for most part in its niche smalls scale role, you don't do any DPS when dead. An inferior version of WL with a little ''ranged'' utility (which after skirmish tree nerfs is quite weak indeed).
I predict RSW players will quit the class ''en masse'' since who wants to be a ''shadow''( no pun ) of their previous self. Some nerfs pure exaggerations against the class ( such as singletarget skirmish DPS who got gutted alongside the AOE nerfs).
I never subscribe to the “Sky is falling mentality”. It’s understandable if someone’s class gets a nerf, but this game is about adapting, and some players will make it work.
It’s like you see a lot of familiar WE names now playing rSH or Magus. Meta players are gonna play meta classes, as they need to be carried.
AOE skirmish may be less favourable on a WB, and order may be stacking WL + BW again. Hard to say. Most skirmish players will go Scout, I suspect, rather than nerd rage quit and reroll.
aSW will always be a niche, as it’s purely single target so has no reason to be in a WB. That’s fine with me. I solo roamed aSW for the last year, with only a handful of other regulars like Boop and Contract. Some of us will just make it work.
aSW worked anyways for solo roaming. Was it optimal? No. Was it frustrating? Yes. Was it doable? Yes. Likewise, the buffs to it are justified.
And aSW was always perfectly viable in a 6-men, or 12-men, especially when paired with a WL. It just needs to be part of a good assist train, like other mDPS.
What holds aSW back with the masses more than anything is that it got a much higher skill ceiling than, say, a ST WL. In the hands of an average player, a WL is much easier as you mash a handful of buttons.
However, in the hand of a good player aSW performs well already, and I’m sure will continue to do so.
I don't think anybody will argue against the AoE nerf being justified, it's that literally everything, including ST damage got nerfed on the ranged builds without much (or any) compensation at all. Would also guess that the vast majority of the people who picked the class isn't interested in playing some meele glasscanon class, at least I have no interested in that (would play a WE or WH if I would), even if it turns out to be very good (which I personally doubt as squishy meele classes don't have a good track record of performing well in MMOs). If the only options will turn out to either be a discount WE/WH (for meele) or discount SH (for ranged) then you'll just end up having a much better time playing a hunter in WoW lol (who actually get a cool rework in 2 weeks which is overwhelmingly well received)...
