Christmas in May

[Llynethil]

One great thing I learned about new chainsaw is it works on nodes so get many mch in new shatter and you secure tons of points for your team, just bh2 I did 34k with chainsaw.

[Sinstrel]

DRG was buffed for newbies but nerfed for skilled players.

As a newbie, you can now have a decently effective point blank Wyrmwynd thrust.

As a skilled player, being able to land your LB on the entire party is less rewarding now.

[Mistress_Irika]

I'm starting to notice that with these recent patches that fall damage is becoming less of a thing now.

If Astragalos and Secure gets reworked someday I wouldn't be surprised if the overall map height was massively reduced to match what current maps we already have to play with.

[DioK]

The limiting on BRD silence range is huge for everyone. No more max range interaction with no potential rebuttal.
All in all some good changes and more of them than the questionable ones.

Except they left RDM silence alone, except for universal reduction to 2 secs. Their silence is still 25 yalms, hits everyone along the line of that 25 yalms for 8000 potency and silencing them. And it has the same 20 sec cooldown as BRD silence. Whereas BRD silence, prior to the patch, only hit a single target for 2000 potency; now, it does 0 damage. RDM has more defensive measures than BRD, so they can survive better getting in close, whereas BRD just instantly melts for getting within 15 yalms. Further, BRD wants to be outside 15 yalms when attacking a target because we do less substantially damage, otherwise. Yet, now, if we aren’t closer, putting us in mortal danger, we can’t use the silence, which triggered a significant burst skill, Pitch Perfect. We can still trigger it off Warden's Paean, but we only get the single use instead of the double use, and Warden's Paean has a longer cooldown. So, basically, bard is now put between a rock and hard place with no ability to survive either. It's a major nerf to a class that really did not need to be nerfed. So, we lost damage for having to get closer because our main spam (Powerful Shot, loses 2000 potency in close range) has an inherent damage reduction based on being close, lost damage for staying back because we lose a trigger for our burst (can only do Pitch Perfect half as often, which is 8000 potency, if you are more than 15 yalms away, and reduces to 4000 as you get closer), lost damage because Silent Nocturne now inherently does 0 damage. Bard is reduced to just a song totem standing in the back.

They did at least boost Apex Arrow to 8000 potency, up from 6000, before. So, maybe that’s the balance. Regardless, the class, in PvP, is specifically designed to fight from a distance. Yet, SE added this limiting shackle that asks the class to play close, in direct contradiction to the rest of the class's design. Just does not seem well thought out to me.

[Llynethil]

Bard is still good, but silence being 15y but also having reduced dmg the closer you are is pretty dumb design for sure now.

[Elfidan]

Well with RDM you are really most deadly in melee range, and you will generally launch yourself in where other melee can respond to your actions. The major issue with BRD is the support role it takes. With all it's attacks except for repelling shot being ranged you can really synchronize on a target without much fear of being counter focused. Now you would need to get closer which is fair, but you could always repelling shot back out afterwards to preserve dps. I think people really put a lot more fear into RDM at the beginning of the rework because we didn't fully grasp all the interactions.

I have mixed feelings about fall damage/environmental kills. It's often touted as a show of skill but if you analyze situations it's more often a case of misfortune. I would love to see Astragalos return as I never got to play it and it's modeled in one of my favorite zones of all time. I have had enough secure for an entire lifetime though.

[DioK]

Well with RDM you are really most deadly in melee range, and you will generally launch yourself in where other melee can respond to your actions. The major issue with BRD is the support role it takes. With all it's attacks except for repelling shot being ranged you can really synchronize on a target without much fear of being counter focused. Now you would need to get closer which is fair, but you could always repelling shot back out afterwards to preserve dps. I think people really put a lot more fear into RDM at the beginning of the rework because we didn't fully grasp all the interactions.

I have mixed feelings about fall damage/environmental kills. It's often touted as a show of skill but if you analyze situations it's more often a case of misfortune. I would love to see Astragalos return as I never got to play it and it's modeled in one of my favorite zones of all time. I have had enough secure for an entire lifetime though.

Repelling Shot is a 10 yalm range. So, using that requires you to get even closer, and it only jumps you back 10 yalms. So, the best you could do with it is 20 yalms, which is still in range of melee's gap closers and melee's ranged attacks. A bard at 15 yalms or less simply dies, because he is a known easy kill target lacking any real defense.

[Elfidan]

Maybe that's just bad luck because 0 -> Crystal twice on BRD I never just got melted and frequently entered melee for various reasons. But time will tell.

[Towa-Musa]

So many things I and others have been asking for have been added. And so many things we complain about saw some adjustments. Merry Christmas everyone!

we finally have everybody able to murder each other!! everybody is squishy again!!

[Elfidan]

Kind of...
It's some steps in the right direction at least. xD