My name is Max Vol'ga, I'm a Russian player and I'm sorry about my poor English but here I wanna discuss two almost fully mirrored classes. It's not about complaining how Slayer/Choppa can deal with other classes in this game but it's all about comparing both of them (Slayer and Choppa) to each other.
I know that the game is all about command play but I'm gonna take 3 different builds for Slayer/Choppa and show you why Choppa crucially loses to Slayer in all 3 ways of characters mastering. Of course you can disagree with me but I've played a lot with both chars at the official game server, I play now at this server with Choppa named Romoz and this topic is exactly for finding the way to make RoR better
1). First build is designed for dueling against melee chars. It's more defensive build and main idea is in stacking up parry and using Riposte tactic. Let's think we have two equal 40lvl/45RR chars, one of them Slayer and another one is Choppa. No pots, no talismans. Both of them have equal stats and can stack up 40% of pure parry without counting on Weapon Skill stat.
For this build we need 'Ruin Gloves' (+2 parry), 4 pieces of Annihilator set excluding gloves (+5 parry), Ravack's Rappin (+2 parry), 'Brutal Ring of the Horned Rat' (+3 parry), 'Hapless Ha'penny' (+2 parry), 'Strife' (+2 parry), 'Torment' (+2 parry) and 'Precursor Cutta' (+2 parry)x2. It's already +22 parry from items. Another 18 parry point we can get from RR (Reflexes IV).
Usual mastery training fro that build: Slayer and Choppa
So we have two almost equal chars and placing them against each other you can tell that chances to win are equal too... No! Because of 2 things:
a) Comparing Annihilator set stats you can see that both of them have identical stats except Resistance. Slayer's gear has Corporeal resistance bonus while Choppa's has Elemental which means that Choppa receives more melee damage (from Riposte too) than Slayer;
b) Slayer's ability 'Rampage' gives him 10 sec (20 if he's Furious) to make his attacks be undefendable.
Choppa's corresponding ability is 'Keep on Choppin' that dealing a damage and restoring 100 AP.For the next 10 seconds, your attacks can't be Blocked or Parried. If you are Furious, increase duration to 20 seconds
You know in such duel Choppa will be dead before he run out of AP!You chop deeply into your enemy, dealing 191 damage. Your love of battle fills you with energy, restoring 100 Action Points. If you are Furious, gains a 75% damage bonus instead of the 25% bonus.
2). Another build I wanna compare consists in stacking up Melee Critical chance. Slayer/Choppa can get 14% Melee Crit chance from RR, 6% more from weapons (T4 lair boss in MB), 5% more as bonus from 4 pieces of Mercenary set, 1% more from Influence reward belt in T3 and even more with Jewelry but let's just thin that both chars have 25% of Melee Crit chance.
Usual mastery training fro that build: Slayer and Choppa
At first sight seems like Choppa wins that round because of his core Tactic 'Stab You Gooder' that gives him 25% more bonus critical damage but Slayer's tactic 'Fierce Might' from 'Path of The Trollslayer' makes all the difference.
Every character loses his HP in battle even in party with healer but not everyone has such great benefits from this. And again place such Slayer against equal Choppa and Slayer win especially considering the fact that Choppa has an Elemental resistance bonus from armor but Slayer has a Corporeal one.As you get closer to death and redemption, your rage fills you with power. Your critical bonus damage is increased by 10% for every 10% of hit points that you have lost.
3). Last build I wanna compare for both chars is AoE build. Slayer has very good ability at the middle of the 'Path of The Skavenslayer'. 'Shatter Limbs' deal damage and increase enemies cooldowns by 5 seconds for 10 seconds. But 'Inevitable Doom' at the end of the mastery tree is ultimative cause its insta-cast, 45AP, damage and 8 seconds DoT with 5 seconds of cooldown
On the other hand Choppa has an AoE buff 'Chop Fasta!' that decreases groupmates cooldowns by 5 seconds. Bad luck he can cast that ability each 2 minutes while Slayer can use his 'Shatter Limbs' every 20 seconds. But most ridiculous is Choppa's 'Git To Da Choppa' final ability from the 'Path of Da' Wrecka' because of:
a) It can be interrupted
b) It costs 60AP in sum
c) It pulls 1 random enemy toward you so... You know I always wanted to see that KotBS in front of me Choppa: "Hello, I'm an AoE Choppa! What can I do for you, sir?" =)
Also I wanna pay attention to the difference between two corresponding abilities. Slayer's DoT 'Cleft In Twain' deals 360 damage over 5 seconds. Choppa's 'Bleed Em Out' deals 500 damage over 10 seconds. No need in advanced calculations to understand which one is better.
However Choppa has 'I'm Da Biggest' tactic which gives him 160 Wounds. Corresponding Slayer's tactic is 'Ancestral Inheritance' which gives 660 Armor points to him. But keeping in mind that Choppa has Elemental resistance from armor sets (and 252 Spirit resistance from 'Don't Bother Me None' tactic) it's not enough for Choppa to have more HP to survive that duel especially when Slayer has 'Stubbornness' tactic to get additional 252 Corporeal resistance. By the way Slayer's 'Stoutness of Stone' tactic (50% faster recovery from KD) seems much better than corresponding Choppa's 'I'm Still Here' tactic which increases the duration of 'Come An' Git It' and 'Try An' Hurt Me' abilities by 5 seconds but both of them still worthless to be in tactic slot IMO.
Summing up I don't wanna say 'Nerf Slayer'. I would say both chars need some buffs but Choppa needs them most AFAICS.
At this moment it's all I wanted to say. Thank you for reading, I would like to see your opinion and developers thoughts too. Please keep in mind that RR abilities like 'Resolute Defense' and pots/talismans are universal for each class that's why I don't count on them while talking about core differences between Slayer and Choppa.
