GNB QoL and Balance Suggestions:

[Ixon]

I feel like since they were going for the "jack of all trades" approach they felt that the stances should be relatively weaker due to the fact you can swap somewhat frequently. The reality is that you just have three mediocre stances and a job with no real place, and the ability to change stances isn't a real gain. For starters, you are encouraged to hit DnJ on cooldown for the Powder Barrel for more DPS/Utility, so the freeform stance swapping means nothing. If anything, they should remove the Powder Barrel effect so you can really have it on standby for an emergency swap if needed. Not to say the stances are necessarily a bad thing, they have their place, it just needs to be buffed and tweaked. There were a few times in my over 500 matches where I would say be in DPS stance(the only really viable one at the moment), and would intentionally swap to Tank stance when I needed to stall or hold the point. So the playstyle can be there, it just needs to have more of an impact and perform less janky.

[Tobias_Azuryon]

So the playstyle can be there, it just needs to have more of an impact and perform less janky.

Personally I've not been in one match where a GNB is a problem nor have I been helpful in many matches as GNB unless I played like....not a tank. If I played more opportunistically like a regular dps I could get some damage in there but by virtue of just having a tank symbol you're a target, and because you're a target you're normally dead before you can do anything meaningful in my experience. I usually go for GNB first if I see them because it's an easy target to delete because they have nothing really to counter with. Unless they have an entire team backing them they're pretty much a non-entity in pvp to me (which sucks as someone who would love to play GNB in pvp)

[Ixon]

Yeah, the best thing you can do as GNB is just go DPS stance and play "guerilla style warfare" with Rough Divide > Double Down > Blasting Zone, then running away if that doesn't kill and waiting to go again. No sustain in DPS stance means you can't stay in the fight long. Tank stance is "ok", but not as sustainable as WAR or even PLD. Healer stance is unironically not that bad on Lava map if you have a majority melee group, as the small corridors force your team to group up, so the AoE heal you belt out hits more of your team, but your sustain and damage are worse than Tank stance. You know it's bad when I pray for the wind map so I can get the black chocobo feather buff so people don't simply run out of my LB.

[Tobias_Azuryon]

It's okay everyone, we got...

-checks notes-
2k potency to doubledown and a speed buff. So we're good now.....right? lol

[Ixon]

Jokes aside, there is some silver lining to the buffs. Only had time for a casual and two ranked(Diamond/Crystal) matches, but from my small play time:

-Rough Divide speed increase is actually nice. The speed increase is the same as DRG's speed buff after Elusive, which is in between in-combat running speed and sprint speed. With this you can almost have 100% uptime on the speed buff, which not only makes chasing down targets easier, but makes it so your Double Down is less likely to miss; something that seemed to happen frequently due to characters sprinting at the time of attacking. It also affects our speed during GNB LB, to what I think cancels out to about regular movement speed? Either way it means that they cannot simply walk out of it. Though it is still subject to anything that stops or slows your movement which is still a pain.

-GNB LB got more damage and higher vuln up per stack, with a total of a 20% Vuln up at 5(max) stacks. This means that a Rough Divide > GNB LB(for as long as you want) > Double Down, is a lot of AoE damage plus the 3sec stun. Still seems to go off regardless of CC, but you are still super vulnerable to damage and CC that halts or slows your movement, being locked into your LB and unable to Purify. With the extra time on Nebula, just apply it to yourself before the Rough Divide > GNB LB so you have SOME protections while trying to Beyblade people down.

-Double Down damage buff just means that your Rough Divide > Double Down > Blasting Zone hits for closer to 25k rather than the previous 22k. So cool I guess lol.

-Extra time on Nebula is ok. Means you will have 50% uptime on 20% mitigation + retaliation damage, though having ONLY 20% mitigation compared to like Holy Shelltron's 20% mitigation + 12k Shield means you are still squishier than PLD or WAR(or possibly DRK) even with Bloodwhetting nerfs.

-Extra potency on Aurora is irrelevant in my opinion. If they wanted Heal Junction to be better they could have just simply increase the heal pulse radius to 15yalms instead of 10yalms. Though I guess the 2k extra potency helps with self sustainability when you cannot go Tank Junction?

-The Draw and Junction change to not lose your stance upon death is an ok QoL. Allows you to immediately get back into the action without having to find the right enemy to DnJ. Though I still would have wanted to target self or party members with DnJ. Maybe in the future cause I assume they would have to recode how it works or make it a completely new ability assuming the current DnJ is based off old DnJ.

TL;DR You can actually feel the extra damage. DPS GNB still probably the best Junction at the moment with the almost 25k snapshot damage every 20sec. Movement speed is a nice QoL. I think they are still wanting GNB to be the "pure DPS" tank, with emphasis on it's higher damage more so than high sustainability or frequent CC. I don't think this will move GNB up the tier lists though, as the more sustainable PLD or the more disruptive WAR will still retain their higher value. Though I guess GNB is "less" of a throw pick as long as you focus on your DPS. Will know more later.

[Ixon]

Update: Speed boost from Rough Divide is SUPER nice, and I undervalued Tank Junction a lot in the beginning. The 50% uptime on 20% mitigation + 3k retaliation damage goes a long way when pressuring an enemy team. Still think there should be an small amount of sustain regardless of stance, like 50% life steal on Double Down or something similar. And I think the AoE heal pulse from healer junction should be increased from 10yalms to 15yalms to make it more viable on non-Lava maps. Plus I would still like to DnJ myself, or an ally to have more control over my stances. Though for the first time since CC came out, I actually feel like I am contributing to the fight. I still don't think it outshines WAR or PLD, but it's a lot better than it was before. Probably won't see another balance update till after this season ends, but we will just have to wait and see.

[Tobias_Azuryon]

I still don't think it outshines WAR or PLD, but it's a lot better than it was before.

It's just not viable to me at this point.

If I have to play a tank like a dps when the other tanks (I know I know everyone keeps saying roles are gone but they're not) can actually hold a point it's annoying.

Even when I have the most damage and healing in the match I'm still not able to secure proper kills/help the team get a win (aka carry). It feels like GNB has only one option, wait for them to be killable. Whereas other classes have cc and debuffs they can use to make them "more killable."

No Mercy still feels way too short because you're having to basically use your gap closer inbetween a gnashing fang combo to be able to use it properly unless I'm only supposed to use it on Double down?

The LB still feels worthless unless proper stun happens as I watched a Bard just dance around my LB the entire time.

It would make more sense to put no mercy on DnJ so that you're using that and then bursting and/or using that and then using the actions that No Mercy buffs (i.e. healing for example)

In terms of griefing like WAR can it CAN work when I burst and then run into their own base or whatever opposite direction the crystal is moving so it gives the team a chance to move it but even so that relies on the team actually moving the crystal.

The changes are good but a less smelly poo is still a poo.

[Ixon]

It's just not viable to me at this point.

If I really had to think about it, I would still say it's viable in solo queue. Mind you a lot of the decent players have been gone doing Ultimate, so there is a decent chunk of the player base I haven't had to go against, but I have been actually climbing the Crystal ladder. I think people still underestimate how much damage it can put out, even or especially in tank stance. 3k(3.3k with No Mercy) on anybody who hits you with a 50% uptime can easily get a team down to 3/4 of their HP because they aren't looking for it. Couple that with Double Down and you have now dropped those hit to almost half HP by yourself by just existing. Even in in nothing but Junction Tank stance I have still had matches where I was top damage just by existing.

I agree that GNB isn't as good a point holder, but for me, I never really try to sit on point. Usually what has been working for me is to get into their backline, have the focus turn on me, and just be as much of a menace as possible. If I am lucky, I'll have 2 or 3 of the enemy on me, which is easily managed with new Nebula, so hopefully my team can push and win the 4v2 I have left behind. You CAN hold the point ok, though of course this is restricted to being able to Junciton Tank at all, as you are a wet piece of paper in Junction DPS, and Junction healer is just not as sustainable.

As far as securing kills, it can be hard on GNB agreed. Best way I can get kills is by just latching on to an enemy, using the speed boost to stay on top of them at all times, till they eventually die or a teammate finishes them.

I think the No Mercy is fine as it is imo. It's a 2 charge, 7sec duration on a 15sec cooldown. Which means you should have an almost 100% uptime on it. Because of the almost 100% uptime, the only thing you really need to be tracking is trying to not using like your Double Down during the 1sec gap when it's not up. So normally I think I like: (Nebula if you have it)Rough Divide > Double Down(Blasting Zone if you have it) > Burst Strike(Hypervelocity) > Gnashing Fang(Jugular Rip) > Rough Divide > rest of the combo, rinse and repeat roughly.

The LB 100% needs the Rough Divide speed boost, so people don't just walk out. And it helps if you can Nebula before hand for the mitigation. Of course CC can easily make them walk out, but usually people aren't looking for it, and it comes up so fast you get a lot of them per match.

I personally would not want more on DnJ as it is already really clunky to use as is, unless they eventually add the option to DnJ yourself or an ally.

I think the overall buffs were great, it just needs a tiny bit more. My biggest two cent are to add some sort of sustain regardless of stance, like life steal or mitigation or whatever to like Double Down without sacrificing it's damage. And the other would be to increase the healing pulse from Junction healer from 10 to 15yalms so it doesn't feel like a useless stance.

[Tobias_Azuryon]

I think people still underestimate how much damage it can put out

I think this will change as time goes on but I'd like to be more optimistic.

I feel right now GNB has the same issue RPR and BLM has wehre everyone is trained to not give them the time of day and that's why they can sweep if left unchecked because before the changes they were far less of a threat. I'll watch people not target the reaper who don't understand what they can do now, and for some reason people still don't burst BLM despite it being left unchecked resulting in a lot of damage. As soon as people catch on to GNB being more of a threat I feel it will be targeted down again and then go back to how it was but I'd be happy to be wrong.

I'll have 2 or 3 of the enemy on me, which is easily managed with new Nebula, so hopefully my team can push and win the 4v2 I have left behind. You CAN hold the point ok, though of course this is restricted to being able to Junciton Tank at all, as you are a wet piece of paper in Junction DPS, and Junction healer is just not as sustainable.

Yeah this is the part that drives me crazy. HAving to have a tank on the opposing party to play as a tank is terrible design, and the other two options basically meaning your party of 4 dps and you is basically just a 5 dps party isn't really great either.

I think the No Mercy is fine as it is imo. It's a 2 charge, 7sec duration on a 15sec cooldown. Which means you should have an almost 100% uptime on it.

But this comes at the cost of mobility which is way worse imo. Especially since unlike Monk's Dash or Icarus you can't select party members to utilize to get out of a situation. You're literally spamming gap closers to keep a personal dps up and god help you if they cc you at any point lol. Maybe I'm just having weird matchups or playing wrong though. (That's not meant to be snarky that's genuinely me thinking maybe I need to reassess how I play the class in pvp).

Nebula if you have it)Rough Divide > Double Down(Blasting Zone if you have it) > Burst Strike(Hypervelocity) > Gnashing Fang(Jugular Rip) > Rough Divide

How are you proc'ing pocketing Powder barrel for the burst? Using DNJ prior or doing a combo on a target before and then going into burst?

All in all I'll give it another shot but I just was not happy when I was getting rejected by a BRD of all things in 1v1, maybe I stacked things wrong. I'll try it again!

[Wisteriafield]

If they insist on making Junction a continued feature, just relegate it to passives and get rid of Cast Junction, the stuff i want out of GNB in PvP is like...
I'd rather not stoop to the level of having a CC every 15s like WAR esp when it comes to homogenizing design which they specifically want to avoid with this rework, but I feel that if I don't have access to CC as readily as every other job then I should like to be immune to it more easily. I'm of the opinion that having CC so readily available on jobs in pvp is a mistake in general (one that frontline greatly suffers for)

-They need more damage overall and their gnashing fang combo should just be their default one tbh
-Nebula as the Tank Junction should just be a constant passive -20% damage taken and CC immunity
-Aurora as the Healer Junction should be a passive 10k HoT (3s tick)
-No Mercy as the DPS Junction that just makes its duration infinite (also increase its damage boost to 20% instead of 10%), you should still be able to access No Mercy without DPS junction but it has the same timer that Rough Divide gives it atm
-Put the reflect feature on Heart of Corundum and also give it a -20% taken and 15k heal net at 50% HP,
-Put the 2s stun at the beginning of Relentless Rush
-While its been shown that CC doesn't stop Relentless Rush from finishing, any hinderances to mobility cripple its effectiveness severely, so actual CC immunity during it would be greatly appreciated
-Get rid of Continuation and just combine the features from the Continuation button into their respective combos
-the 15s ability should be Burst Strike and Hypervelocity for extra burst dmg (Blasting Zone's function)
-Every attack except for Double Down should be a 1.5s gcd to compensate for continuation buttons being merged into their combos
-Reduce Draw cd to 5s

In doing this, we merge the functions of the Junction abilities without giving GNB twice as many buttons to assign as any other job in pvp, they have a defensive button readily available with two passives to supplement it, and each passive offers some way of GNB to living up to its name as the Relentless Revolver