Return of Reckoning

Hello,

With the rumored RDPS patch pending and being worked on, after the MPDS patch.
I just wanted to share some thoughts and some feedback about the overall direction balancing has taken lately

First of all, when I look at what the balancing team did with the class mechanics on Shammy/AM changing it from Dmg/Heal to Instant/Casted. I kinda like that more and think it was a good idea! Same for the changes to RP/Zealot with the granted ability effects, with the ritual overhaul.
And latest with the Slayer/Choppa changes to middletree or Yellow or Red builds. I like the overall approach to give classmechanics that could be rushed from zero to hundred more engaging. Which naturally fits perfect into BW/Sorc and maybe even Engineer/Magus for that matter.

For the Brightwizard,
I think Scorched Earth in AoE build is close to what might match what slayer and the previously mentioned classes above have in terms of a more active classmechanic spending gameplay loop. It is almost there, but I think if SE was made to be able to trigger combustion and allow for Explosive Force and procs like Funnel Power / Flames of Rhuin to proc. Then it would naturally fit into an aoe filler role of Flamebreath into Scorched Earth. Where as right now, SE is barely worth using instead of pressing Flamebreath twice. That would be nice to see a small improvement to that gameplay.

In terms of what still makes Brightwizard feel rewarding, engaging and FUN to play. It pretty much ties down to target selection for Aoeing. Picking the right target to cleave with FireballBarrage, picking a healerstack and aoe silencing. Tracking and using Flashfire proc with either a Fireball to finish a lowtarget, or cleaving a Fieryblast on a MPDS and not a shield tank both for the area of effect location, but also disrupt chance create a skillceiling that the build needs. And its the only thing personally making me continiously logging on, to practise and use Flashfires.

As for unused tactics, morales, abilities what I am hoping to see would be changes to make Flame Shield more of a worthwhile buff. If you check any pve lostvale kills or any skirmish kills and track how much damage Flameshield does, its absurd how low impact it is. Turning Flameshield into something better would be a big hope for me to see changing to the class. A strikethrough buff for the group? A resist debuff buff? Setback reduction buff? There are options I feel.
Heart of Fire M3 seem severely undertuned. 485 HoT over 15seconds, on a morale 3. Old outdated stuff like this would be cool if it got looked at and made into viable options. Same for Closequaters not only being a PvE dungeon tactic, but instead somehow fitted into the aoe righttree. It could be with %dmg when nearby but penalty when outside of 45ft like on Live now that damage is way turned down compared to live TTK. It could add mobility to Annihilate channel and bonus dmg to Scorched earth, abit like how Slayer Accuracy difined their channel and aoe build.
Also abilities like Backdraft seem like they are counter intuative for the right tree, having an aoe punt with a strong dot when the rest of the build you wanna stay close range.

For singletarget timestamping, I wish you best of luck honestly. The timestamping gotta be the hardest to narrow down without making it a nothing-burger or a pugstomping monster. I kinda hope the RDPS patch will give an alternative to Timestamping and maybe having more of a Channeling Ramping mechanic where each time of Withering heat/ Hand of Rhuin Ramps up in damage, giving counterplay of standing still unloading but easy to pushing or taunt to prevent.
Maybe a tactic could also make it so hardcasting Fireballs/Doombolts are actually more viable for consistant ranged pressure and not only about timestamping.

Some of the changes the balancing team did to the Mage archtype M4 and removed the aoe punt and made it a better morale drop + utility showed you guys understand the class, its weakness, its advantage and I have faith in you guys dont destroy the class but keep it relevant. Brightwizard is a class with low mobility, some utility (spec dependant) but more than anything is a fragile damagedealer. I hope this stays true to its nature and concept. And we see more engaging player choice like with the current Flashfire and Scored earth. Build uppon that, and dont remove the player choice please!

I hope it will be a balanced class, but honestly with the direction introducing Movementspeed on other classes in plenty, Anticrit for the whole group on healers, I am fearful of what might become of the fireclown and his class mechanic and concept.

On live, and the first 6 months or so Scorched Earth, and Surging Pain, actually built combustion, and Dark magic, then they changed it to use combustion, and dark magic instead. Just like close quarters didn`t make you have reduced cast time, it increased the damage by 50% instead, of reducing cast times.

Backdraft can be useful, as a punt to get breathing room, or use it in conjunction with fire cage , I`d like to see Wildfire tactic actually perform like on live, the damage is far to low here.


I had a 97 BW on live as well as a 90 Sorc, My BW here has been 80 + since 2020, but rarely even play him anymore, with all the changes. Hopefully the dps ranged patch will make him fun to play again. I actually speced into Spreading Flames, and use it in conjuction with Detonate to try fish for more Flash fire procs. D

Fishing for disrupt into flashfire with detonate is pretty fun. More fun than playing a DaoC caster. At least you can cast instead of kiting %60 of the time.

The timestamp dominance comes from how this game rewards critical damage. If you have a high default rng crit modifier then crit is king. Especially when you add +modifiers from there. I always wanted to see a mechanic where your damage ramps up for every spell you cast that doesn't crit, up to a set value. Something akin to the turret dps buff that exists for Engi/Magus.

The fundamental issue, at least for aoe, is the fact that melee aoe stacks to the chaos moon, and magic doesn't stack beyond a single ability. Someone pointed this out in a different thread. I plotzed. It's so obvious, and I didn't even see it.

Aoe healdebuff from RP/Zealot got taken away because it was too strong. (or back I guess? %35/7sec heal debuff is kinda ass, probably fine for WB play) Infernal Wave can't go down to 0 CD because it's too strong. AOE morale drops nerfed because it's too strong. Well, now we're hard stuck in melee blob for what, five years? You don't see wb's full or sorcs and bws in lotd. It's all melee Bob Dole.

It just boggles the mind. Aoe magic damage needs some serious attention. Always appreciate your posts Bombling.

Perfect post, but mixed up Infernal Wave with Disasterous Cascade. Had to edit, disaster.

I heavily disagree with the stacking of ground target AoEs and or the change to close quarters. Both of these changes just drag us back to the launch of AoR where the only dps class worth playing was BW or Sorc. with the close quarters changes we would end up with BW / Sorc doing 1500 damage per tick of their AoE channel of choice with 2k finishers from flashfire/wave which no other dps class could compete with. On the other hand, if you allow ranged AoE stacking then every funnel location in the game suddenly becomes impassable. Good luck trying to take a keep when there is 15 rain of fire / pit of shades / tzeench firestorm / phosphorous shells on the doorway that you are forced to walk through. Honestly the only thing the BW and Sorc really need at this time is a way for them to pen disrupt so that they can threaten healers better and better self sustain to allow them to play the game without spamming pots or requiring a healer to be stapled to them.

Yeah agreed. We cant go back to stacking ground-target aoes.

I mentioned changes to closequaters tactic, because those that remember will know it was a standard tactic for AoR closerange build but was nerfed on the same patch that made Scorched Earth a Spending and not a Builder ability.

The game is different now than back then, Combustion has been nerfed. Players are not in Annihilate gear any more. Theres been buffs to Hold the Line. Full party can benefit from Anticrit. Trivial Blows has been added, pocket item with less critdmgtaken. Aoe resist debuff on knight aura reduced in value etc.

Closequaters is the obvious tactic to use, if the aoe mastery tree was to get any utility to make the build more well rounded. Right now theres too much penalty in walking up to targets in pvp to hardcast with CQ risking getting setback from damage, disrupts from anchor target leading to zero criticalmass per second, targets moving out of range of 20ft to use the benefit from CQ, aoe interrupt flying around like crazy. The tactic went from being The main aoebuild tactic to now being a PvE only tactic.

I suspect the RPDS patch will look at maybe some of the outdated abilities and tactics, thats why i mentioned CQ. As for the overall "wish" then yeah some way of being able to pressure healers for ST build would be much welcome. Maybe an alternative build option outside of Crit, and timestamping. Maybe harcasting ,maybe channeling.
For aoe, some change to Backdraft and maybe CQ tactic.

A. Looking at the long cds of sorc / bw in a high disrupt environment (ie lower them bc of more disrupts)
B. Reworking end of cast range checks for longer casts (almost as bad as disrupts)
C. Reduce combustion cost of Surging pain / S earth would go along way (20 > 10)
D. Add some utility back (even moreso for sorc) as the "glass cannon" is a fake label after all nerfs and buffs (ranged snares and jumps are handed out like candy)
E. Flashfire is mandatory in all BW specs this should be mirrored or tweaked (BW is almost functional bc of tthis one tactic)
F. Tinker a bitt so there are a bit less clunky in regards to rotations no other class is as ability starved and lacks fillers (C/E might fix this but honestly even ST rotations are clunky as f* and many interrupts has been added)

I feel BW is in a really good spot and i'm fearful of a nerf when the RDPS patch kicks in.
My sorc though feels lacking in comparison and needs a bit more utility, maybe make Shroud of Darkness and Obsessive Focus worthy of a gcd

This ideas xDDDDDDDD

Just seeing what they did with choppa /Slayer on last patch i just can ask one thing.

Dont touch bw plz, if wanna give something to do more disrupt strike,ok but dont do your "balances" plz