Do we even need potency bumps with expansion abilities?

[ForteNightshade]

Depending on where they increase those potencies it creates other issues as well.

Take Fell Cleave for example, when it was introduced in Heavensward it had a potency of 500 which was huge at the time and, together with it's VFX, made the skill feel incredibly powerful.

Fast forward to 6.0 and they reduced Fell Cleave from 590 down to 460 potency only to slowly buff it back up to 490, but it still feels like a wet noodle. Storm's Path has a potency of 430 at this point, pretty much THE signature warrior skill is now only 60 potency higher than one of your basic spam fillers.

To be fair, it isn't just Fell Cleave being power crept but their insistence from 4.2 onward to make it something you mindlessly spam that turned Fell Cleave from this incredibly powerful feeling ability into a meme. On the whole, I really wish they would move away from that entirely. It's such a lazy gameplay design. At least Gunbreaker and Paladin have different animations despite pressing the same button. Well, Paladin sort of cheats since you spam Holy Spirit four times but still.

Nevertheless, no they really don't need to increase potencies. A big part of the balancing issues they've had stem from decided to add massive potencies skills. While they feel good for more casual players who like "big numba" it has created huge volatility, especially with how out of control Critical Hit has become. Not to mention, Direct Hit just being an awful stat. I'd much prefer they go back to the HW/SB potency numbers. Having almost half of Gunbreaker's damage come from two abilities is a little silly imo.

[Absurdity]

To be fair, it isn't just Fell Cleave being power crept but their insistence from 4.2 onward to make it something you mindlessly spam that turned Fell Cleave from this incredibly powerful feeling ability into a meme. On the whole, I really wish they would move away from that entirely. It's such a lazy gameplay design. At least Gunbreaker and Paladin have different animations despite pressing the same button. Well, Paladin sort of cheats since you spam Holy Spirit four times but still.

I completely agree, but I didn't want to start another rant about warrior's design.

I consider it absolutely unrewarding to play because Inner Release just gives you damage for free at this point, you could do nothing for 60 seconds and you would still get your welfare Fell Cleaves and Primal Rend, making those abilities feel completely underwhelming to use.


4.2 started this whole debacle but even back then you could still fail at utilizing IR correctly, you have to really try to achieve that now. But I guess this is the ultimate conclusion of that original rework, you mindlessly spam buttons and get rewarded with mindlessly spamming buttons some more.

[Melethron123]

I completely agree, but I didn't want to start another rant about warrior's design.

I consider it absolutely unrewarding to play because Inner Release just gives you damage for free at this point, you could do nothing for 60 seconds and you would still get your welfare Fell Cleaves and Primal Rend, making those abilities feel completely underwhelming to use.


4.2 started this whole debacle but even back then you could still fail at utilizing IR correctly, you have to really try to achieve that now. But I guess this is the ultimate conclusion of that original rework, you mindlessly spam buttons and get rewarded with mindlessly spamming buttons some more.

lets not pretend that ARR and HW warrior gameplay was any more complex, cycling through 3 combos (instead of 2) and doing a fell cleave when the button started glowing

[ForteNightshade]

lets not pretend that ARR and HW warrior gameplay was any more complex, cycling through 3 combos (instead of 2) and doing a fell cleave when the button started glowing

Ehhh. That's a very simplified version of how Heavensward Warrior played.

The whole Wraith/Defiant stack system required you sacrifice defenses to feed into Fell Cleave. In other words, you actively needed to make a choice on using your defensive kit for offensive power with the inherent risk being whether that left you lacking CDs for potential busters. Early Stormblood Warrior dropped this in favor of a gauge system where IR simply cut the cost of your abilities in half. This meant it functioned similar to how Berserk does now. If you just activated IR without thinking, you could lose Fell Cleaves as you lacked enough gauge. Both are widely more complex in execution than present day Warrior. There were risk factors with huge drawbacks if you messed up. Compare that to now where the only consideration you give IR is whether you have Storm's Eye up.

[Melethron123]

Ehhh. That's a very simplified version of how Heavensward Warrior played.

The whole Wraith/Defiant stack system required you sacrifice defenses to feed into Fell Cleave. In other words, you actively needed to make a choice on using your defensive kit for offensive power with the inherent risk being whether that left you lacking CDs for potential busters. Early Stormblood Warrior dropped this in favor of a gauge system where IR simply cut the cost of your abilities in half. This meant it functioned similar to how Berserk does now. If you just activated IR without thinking, you could lose Fell Cleaves as you lacked enough gauge. Both are widely more complex in execution than present day Warrior. There were risk factors with huge drawbacks if you messed up. Compare that to now where the only consideration you give IR is whether you have Storm's Eye up.

except the cause of most wipes was not meeting DPS checks, so you'd pretty much always use fell cleave as soon as it was ready