The life of a Bludgeon user

How are they "fixed"?

[edit] I'm just picturing them chain stunning me while the archers and mages join in and pound me like a porn star.

 

I disagree with this. Blades should be pretty useless against skeletons, and Bludgeon best weapon against them. No tensons to cut, no muscle to stab, nothing to puncture.

DPS should be based on enemy type IMHO.

 

Yea i didn't metion undeads, was just talking in general. BTW puncture dots works on undead but not rend atm.

 

So just came across this thread, and have been a solo bludgeon user since persistence like a few others. Adventurer level is only 64.

A quick rant, I LIKE HAMMERS AND EARTH MAGIC. IN KNOW BLUDGEON IS A DIFFICULT TREE. I also hate pvp and dont build for pvp. So pvp is not included in this observation.

The bludgeon tree as it stands, is near impossible to use, even to complete half the story line. Not with out excessive time input into the game for experience and levels. Excessive would be in essence over a year of game play for an average user/ gamer (Its all relative so take this as you will). Its not very fun and sure I could pick something else or do something else in game to fix this issue such as just fishing or cutting trees or using a different weapon but I shouldn't HAVE TO. We may not have classes but what game do you know of make a special set of skills that in essence make the character useless or less powerful at higher levels than others?

This does not bode well since we are not even talking about trying to reach endgame. Just completing the initial (Phase 1) story quests. This would be fine and dandy if you didn't have to supplement damage from other skills and trees or had something to really work for near the end of the tree. But with nothing to really amp up dps in the tree itself, (Aside from master work or some crazy high str). It is hardly worth the effort for us stubborn bastards. I would be fine with either 2 things. A buff too resistance and armor against archers, or AT THE VERY LEAST an exponential bonus to damage (probably with a new algorithm) for the time and effort put into this blasted tree. The first would be nice because we wouldn't have to worry about soloing in most areas at level or slightly above. We could just chunk through it slowly but at least wed survive. The second, well that is on the end of hard hard work. Of course there should be some kind of reward as there should be with any tree.

I only have 502 Levels in the Bludgeoning Tree. The Damage output, is laughable. The only time I have found Bludgeon to be useful (Mind you I supplement with magic for additional damage) is when up against multiple fighters AND NOTHING ELSE. Alone with my health around 550 and some adequate equipment I can take on six or seven fighters of 400ish health simultaneously with no worry. Two skeleton archers at 500 health, forget it. Throw in one skeleton warrior and you have no chance of survival. Basically the problem can be summed up as the damage curve is to small in general. In fact for bludgeon, without supplementing its pretty much linear. Whereas for other trees, it feels like they are built with a steeper curve or steeper grade.

Alas this is only playful thinking in the end. Maybe the true solution is just to increase the range on two handed hammers or weapons specific to bludgeon and let them hit 4 or even 5 enemies at a time.

 

Dont hold your breath on this, I waited 3 years and complained endlessly about bludge here, didnt help.

 

I will say something fair here, I have been the Bludgeon users since my first day playing on this game, it made me realize something, its a bad Tree for Solo, but a great Tree for party, I do find myself more efficient with a party rather than to stand alone in a fight, or maybe its just me and my play style, the only issue I see here is the Desync on the CC made, and getting the right knowledge on how to efficiently use the Bludgeon tree in different kind of situation (Talking about PVE). My first step is to understand the current "challenges" that i need to face in the game is the Desync, the second is the slow attacking speed & reach, But i manage to counter them with other type of play style and managing quite pretty well, it is a fun tree to learn, and yet it may frustrate the users at times. I learn to accept the tree is weak on its own, thats why i beefed up other skill trees (Earth,Tactic, subterfuge, sun, heavy armor, etc..etc) to "support this weak tree to make it happen to me. I understand that i will not survive well in PVP 1 v 1, but when it comes in teaming up, I do felt the "extra" strength that grows into me when doing runs and PVP. It is not easy to say this to all the bludgeon users, "It's a bad tree to train on, that's why it needs all the support from else where to make it work" same goes for the play style. If you believe what you pick is the best for you, leave it that way, put the faith in it, I am actually putting blind faith in it. However, Its an MMO, get into party for real fun time, don't lay your "eggs" at the Upper Tears. I am not sure what i am say here is valuable or not, I leave everything to @Chris to decide what is needed to be done. Cheer up @Badassery, you are not alone

 

Rend doesn't work on undead and there are undead in nearly every scene.

But for some unknown reason puncture does work on undead...

 

Well puncture causes a healing regen debuff. Is that the effect taking place on undead, or do you actually see bleed damage? I've never paid close attention. If they are taking bleed damage, pretty sure it's an unreported bug.

 

ahh come on, that initial pass on bludgeon was SWEET... I was challenging everyone in PVP... could be the reason they scaled it back again :/ bunch of whiners.

 

I really think that a slow effect on crushing blow and ignoring armor with bludgeon skills could really be the peculiarities that can save this weapon tree giving it something unique.
Taking into account the low damage output of the tree bludgeon and the lack of movement cc onthe tree I do not think that ignoring armor and slow would bring a great imbalance, on the contrary, it would give meaning to this combat school.

 

Ignoring armor is pretty busted, and makes break armor bad at least solo.

 

The first time I soloed chillbanes I was bludgeon, the ground pound was sweet in the lich room, but ya its needs some more lovin.

 

Things changed a lot when they removed the weapon str damage % and put flat str on "Breaker", before that bludgeons were powerful.

I didn't say how to make it happens, for example they could change "Break Armor" to debuff 100% of armor for a little amount of time, but i think this would give too much advantages to others in party with the bludgeon users, if so, it should work only for those who apply it.

 

@Chris Glad to hear you are looking at bludgeoning! As a long time bludgeon user I think these are a few key problems with the the skill tree
1) It is the only melee weapon tree that doesn't have a healing debuff. This is probably the single most important debuff in the game and bludgeons don't have it. (It's really hard to kill boss mobs without healing debuffs. They just regen too quick. This is a large part of why it takes so long to kill boss monsters with bludgeoning. They are regening a significant portion of your damage.)

1b) One work around to this weakness would be festering poison, but all bludgeon weapons (except axes) are less effective with poison.... (Even without this set back bludgeon users are still worse vs fast healers than every other melee weapon type because the other weapon types have skills with healing debuffs AND they can use festering poison...)​

2) Ground pound is awesome in this tree but is has an INSANELY LONG delay after you use it before you can use another skill. Ground pounds is one of the best things about this tree but it is burdened with this mind numbing delay. The good skills in other trees dont have insane delays. Why does the good skill in bludgeoning?

3) Beserk has an INSANELY LONG delay after you use it before you can use another skill. It already comes with a significant penalty to avoidance. Why do I have to wait 3 secs before I can do anything else? Since it only lasts 30secs this means I literally have to spend 10% of my time just using this skill instead of attacking things. (Do we really have to have this time sink on top of the avoidance penalty?)

 

You can charge berserk and it lasts 2:15 @ 80 spec, it's still pretty unweildy compared to the passives from other melee trees, and your avoidance debuff also gets higher. Would be cool if stuff like this was just a toggle that stayed on as long as it was on your active bar until you hit it again. Like stances could also be this way.

 

Specialization does make berserk better since it increases the duration, but you shouldn't have to be specialized for the casting time vs duration to be worthwhile. Even if you are specialized its going to take you 8 seconds to 6 stack and cast it for the 135s buff. Thats 6% of your time spent applying this buff...

 

What about Berserker as passive instead of active skill? This would make sense imho especially compared to Bec de faucon, Eagle eye and Vital points.

 

Im not sure people would want to take the -50 avoidance penalty as a passive... If you removed the avoidance penalty then sure but that might be overpowered?

 

They could balance it reducing a bit weapon damage and removing the avoidance penalty, then make it a passive.