Valarion wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:05 am
I've just got done discussing these changes with 3 of the best marauders I know. These are very likely 3 of a small group of high RR marauders responsible for these changes.
After testing, they estimate the patches are around a 7-10% dps nerf overall depending on MP which is far lower than the 20-30% everyone is upset about. Its still significant and so I do understand some of the frustration here. Full disclaimer: I dont play a mara, I just let them beat on me.
These marauders did mention the nerfs actually place them back to a level equivalent to the WL damage coefficients. However, I was quick to point out that the ST (particularly the burst ST) of the WL is still significantly out of sorts. They mentioned the entire Savagery tree "needs help". Full disclaimer: I do play a WL.
So if the AoE coefficients of WL/Mara are equalized, then it only makes sense that the ST coefficients and/or the ST burst of the WL/Mara should be closely matched as well.
The thing about Mara/WL burst damage differences is that it's much less about the raw damage of the abilities, and more about the abilities themselves. Mara ST abilities have good coefficients and already do good damage.
The WL has better burst for a few reasons (assuming not Loner spec).
1. The pet damage is additional and helps the burst cycle (and some pet abilities don't trigger player GCD, like silence, so they can be frontloaded).
2. There are specific abilities that just do high levels of burst damage in the right situation (Coordinated Strike)
3. Pounce allows you to quickly and rapidly apply ones burst, and frontload it during the pounce animation.
4. Fetch being disjointed from the White Lion but being attached to the Lion itself allows the WL to use it as an additional CC tool in the burst cycle.
5. 2h autos are burstier than 1 autos (although somewhat mitigated by Brut proc).
But all in all, Mara ST damage is pretty good and comparable to a WL's. The real issue in doing a ST comparison is that the WL can just easily decide to burst a target down from 65ft away and immediately do that, whereas the Marauder has to telegraph their movements and run up to the target, which usually takes 1-4 seconds of time (assuming you don't get CCed), which is why it won't do the burst of the WL, unless it was given a dash.
TLDR: Single target is mostly already matched. The WL just has some design choices that give it better tools to frontload damage and the mobility to apply it on demand.
That being said, the Marauder's ST problem currently isn't it's burst damage. It's that the Marauders "debuff" mastery path (something not even mirrored to the WL, thanks Mythic for this awful 4 way mirror), is bad. It's bad because it's been systematically nerfed since 2008 into a point of complete irrelevancy, and no longer provides the level or strength of the debuffs needed to be a viable class. Unlike a tank class who debuffs, or other MDPS that debuff, a Marauder in Savagery spec only has one purpose, and that's to do "ok ST damage and debuff targets". They don't have all the normal tank utility such as guard, challenges, bellows, etc... They also don't do good (ST) damage for a damage class, so unlike other DPS who debuffs, if this stance doesn't function then it has no purpose. No other MDPS (or any DPS class) has a "debuff" mastery path, most classes are built in a way that their debuffs are scattered throughout the rest of their mastery paths.
The WL/Mara aren't 100% direct mirrors, and they don't need to be. They had very similar AoE abilities, so those definitely should be normalized. However, what the Mara needs is a functional savagery path, which isn't something you can look to the WL or reference the WL for, to balance (as the WL doesn't even have comparable abilities).
Let's put it this way. The Mara "Wounds debuff" is a 13 point ability in the mastery path that has been nerfed so hard its worthless. It's worse then what a BG can do, and barely higher value than the AoE wounds debuff on a chosen, debuffs on two tank classes that bring a helluva lot more utility. Aka, it's a worthless 13 point ability that there is no reason to bring to almost any situation besides 1v1 (and it's not even great there). The Mara is also the only DPS class (not tank/support) that has to use a tactic slot to get a 50% heal debuff. The Mara AP drains don't do much and are mostly ineffective as they are either nerfed (40 over 3 seconds isn't much with all the pumps around), or just designed poorly (-50% ap regen on a single target basically does almost nothing, again too many pumps around). So you basically have a mastery path which you spec for the same armor debuff the WL gets, and then a bunch of junk you don't want besides being forced to pick up a tactic to be able to ST heal debuff.