.Anyways, here is my proposal:
Right now with Blackguards there is little synergy to be had with using a shield, there are only two abilities besides hold the line that even make use of shields - which are the knockdown and none shall pass. Given that their knockdown requires them to block in order to use it - the only reliable way to do this is to use none shall pass because blackguards have no tactics or abilities passively improve their block rating. This in my opinion is a problem because none shall pass is arguably worse than hold the line which is a base skill that every tank has.
The reason why I say that hold the line is better than none shall pass is because of the number of applicable use cases that they both have and the amount of times that hold the line out performs none shall pass in those use cases. The only advantage on paper that none shall pass offers that hold the line does not is the ability to also block 50% of melee attacks as well as 5% more ranged attacks during use. This is in fact negligible because black guards mitigate enough damage from melee opponents with just toughness and armor that you wont often need to use none shall pass when in melee combat. In addition you are not able to damage or debuff anyone while using none shall pass, and someone could easily step behind you and hit you anyways. From ranged hold the line outperforms none shall pass completely while helping your allies or just yourself initiate on an opponent because it grants you +45% dodge/disrupt and +15% dodge/ disrupt to your allies which will also help you proc endless pursuit for 30% more run speed and 40 ap. On top of this None shall pass has a 30s cooldown while hold the line has none. The career builder says that the cd is 10s but in game it is actually 30s.
The problem with s/b on Blackguards is that your main utility with a shield is gained from using an inefficient channeled ability just to be able to proc the use of your knockdown. In order to remedy this I propose the following changes:
1. Change the tactic Anger Drives Me to grant 2.5% block for every 10 hate instead of +3% parry for every 10 hate
2. Remove the cooldown from None Shall pass and lower its block bonus to grant +25% instead of +50%
3. Change the duration of spiteful slam to scale with hate for a duration of 2-4s (this just because if the knockdown becomes more reliable it is unfair for it to last 5s)
Blackguards are also the only tank that have just 1 dot/proc effect, I understand we are supposed to stay away from drawing comparisons to other classes when discussing balance and that black guards have a lot of debuffs but I think this is important to mention. If you consider that in any fight where you or your group mates take more than 5-10 seconds to kill a target, dots become a huge factor in whether or not you will eventually be able to out damage their sustain or if they will out sustain you. This is because dots give a higher amount of damage per gcd than do instant damage abilities if they are able to last the full duration. The counter argument to this being that burst is what kills people, this is true - but coming from someone who plays a dps marauder, it makes a big difference to have a tank that can contribute some form of dps when running an assist train. It is simply more effective to kill people than to just debuff and ignore them, which places blackguards at somewhat of a disadvantage in comparison to other tanks when using a s/b because outside of debuffing s/b blackguards don't contribute much in terms of damage. Im not saying blackguards should become the penultimate s/b wrecking ball that murders everything in their path, i just think they need some more options in terms of dealing damage that other tanks have access to.
With that being said I propose that the tactic Monstrous Ruin should be changed from its current state to instead grant 365 damage over 5 seconds to pitiless strike.
This would allow blackguards to have some means of damage other than enraged beating - at the cost of 20 hate every 5 seconds if they want to make efficient use of the tactic.
In addition to this I would also propose that Horrific Wound no longer scale on Hate. Blackguards Hate mechanic is intended to be designed for them to spend hate in order to deal damage and build hate to gain defense. Having the blackguard armor debuff scale with hatred is a bit counter intuitive and clunky.
I propose that Horrific Wound no longer scale with hate, and instead cost 30(25?) hate and apply an 800(scaling with left tree) armor debuff.
Please note that the values I have suggested are simply that - just suggestions. I am in no way saying that these should be the definitive values that are used, but I think they are a good starting point for discussion about what is fair.
