AST's nerf goes too far.

[TheWaywardWind]

I know, I know, wait until the nerf is actually implemented to see how it works, but still.


I think we could all argue that something could have been done about Aspected Benefic in Nocturnal Sect. It made ASTs utterly annoying to deal with, sure, but they could still be countered and kill.

They were not infallible, nor were they unkillable. Merely a nuisance that required more co-ordination to down, same as all healers.

So, the shield nerf doesn't surprise me. What does is the potency. Cutting it by half. On all accounts, that's ridiculously harsh, especially since PvP was the only place where you could use Nocturnal Sect with it actually being better than Diurnal.

We could argue all day over whether Astro deserved the nerf, but we can all probably agree on is the fact that the nerf is HARSH. Too harsh.

[VirusChris]

Not harsh I would say

[Renault]

You know how aspected benefic currently gives 130% shield? Why could they have not just started by reducing it to 100%?

[Koltik]

You know how aspected benefic currently gives 130% shield? Why could they have not just started by reducing it to 100%?

Because then every Astro in the game would still just 1 button PvP. This is necessary, and I suspect the adjustment will be rough for most who have not PvP'd without it. Most DC's have friday night den - queue up and start relying less on the 1-button-wonder now so that you are prepared when the patch hits. It'll be more productive than this.

[Renault]

Because then every Astro in the game would still just 1 button PvP. This is necessary, and I suspect the adjustment will be rough for most who have not PvP'd without it. Most DC's have friday night den - queue up and start relying less on the 1-button-wonder now so that you are prepared when the patch hits. It'll be more productive than this.

It is not "1 button PVP" at all. I have 44 hotkeys that I use for AST pvp, not including food, pots, mount and target macros. I also use nearly all of those in any given match, except those over level 50. Come The Feast, I guarantee I will be using all of them.

[Pence]

It is not "1 button PVP" at all. I have 44 hotkeys that I use for AST pvp, not including food, pots, mount and target macros. I also use nearly all of those in any given match, except those over level 50. Come The Feast, I guarantee I will be using all of them.

44? How even. I just counted...I have 36. Am I miss something useful, macro wise :O?

[Renault]

44? How even. I just counted...I have 36. Am I miss something useful, macro wise :O?

Card Cancellation macros (for when you get useless shit like spire, sometimes spear), Attunement cancellation macro, focus target disable. theres a few more for targetting but wasnt counting those. Not sure what you might be missing

[Nalien]

especially since PvP was the only place where you could use Nocturnal Sect with it actually being better than Diurnal.

Honestly, I don't think Nocturnal should ever have been an Adloquium clone in the first place, it made more sense to me for it to be closer to Phalanx in XI; An effect which reduces damage taken by a value (rather than a percentage, which is what we have with tank skills). A shield simply never correlated well with abilities like Time Dilation and I've always discredited Nocturnal on that fact alone. Diurnal gives Regen, and extending the duration of Regen is extra HP restored. Were Nocturnal closer to Phalanx, I'm not sure how it would balance compared to Regen, but it would at least benefit from increasing the duration, not to mention stack nicely with Stoneskin/Adloquium.

Lets say, on average (in PvE), you'd take 10 hits in 30 seconds while taking (pulling that out my rear for simplicities sake). Currently a ~2,000HP Aspected Benefic will shield ~2,600HP. Lets instead make it like Phalanx, and it now mitigates ~260HP per hit over its 30 second duration. Since you're taking 10 hits over that time, it mitigates 2,600HP, but now Time Dilation can extend its duration. If someone is going to take more than 10 hits in those 30 seconds (which seems fairly relevant to PvP), it is technically doing more for you. They can even make Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios stack for Nocturnal Sect in that regard.

It wouldn't be particularly hard to balance, and it would be far more interesting than effectively cloning Scholars thing. As far as PvP goes, it wouldn't be stupidly overpowered as is currently the case, instead it could potentially be a fairly useful status effect to have. Sort of like another form of Testudo, but not percentage based. Every hit you take it would be mitigating some damage, when people are running into a group that would be fairly nice. Only issue I can perhaps think of is auto-attack damage perhaps being entirely mitigated by a Phalanx style effect, though even that isn't too hard to balance out.

[Mimilu]

And now they've made Nocturnal Sect useless in PVP, the one place it shined. I'll say it's good for balancing PVP but now Noct has been knocked down another peg... >w>()

[Blitzace]

And now they've made Nocturnal Sect useless in PVP, the one place it shined. I'll say it's good for balancing PVP but now Noct has been knocked down another peg... >w>()

^ And this is what happens when dev's listen to little whiny kids. AST was never OP in PVP. you could kill a AST With one or two people if you would actually use your brain & work together as a team *GASP* is that even possible for most?
Don't LB a AST @100% Without getting him down alittle bit and stun him or what ever.

Just bad melee's who expect a free kill with LB. Welp. guess SE cave'd in again. Congrats whiny kids.