500 kills in - My PvP feedback

This is not a bug thread, this is simply my experience with testing each of the skills.

I've been pvp'ing all night long in each of the three zones and have amassed at least if not well over 500 1v1 kills. I've tried all the skills and a few different playstyles and here's what I feel are the balance issues we currently face.

Ranged Bow - Deals far too much damage without the support skills being implemented. Will need to reevaluate once the support skills are in.

Blades - Each skill seems to do what it says. Double Strike and Whirling Blades deal the most damage to single target and aoe respectively. Blade Speed and Vital Points bonuses are negligible and a waste of points. If we can only put 5 into each of these skills, then these two passives need a huge buff.

Bludgeon - My personal favorite in combination with the Lich Axe. The skills themselves deal decent damage, but what makes them overpowered is the procc coefficient on the stun on both attacks is far too high. You can nearly stunlock an opponent with good card draws by simply spamming these skills.

Heavy Armor - Absorb Impact does not work this release. It is grey. Presumably because we can't lose durability. Inner Strength and defensive stance are fantastic self buffs and worth the points. The passives are also pretty decent. Out of combat hp regen shows with healthy at 5 pts. Knights Grace has about 1 second cooldown and completely negates stuns from bludgeoning/lightning. It does NOT stop root.

Light Armor - I couldnt get dodge to light up so it may be bugged. Tumble appears to be completely terrible.

Medium Armor - I was not able to get these to work as I don't have a set of medium armor

Polearms - OK damage, but not as fleshed as swords or imbalanced as blunt.

Shields - Deflect is a powerful damage mitigator. Very good. Shield bash is alright I suppose. Didnt see stun procs from it like with bludgeoning.

Air - Gust doesn't push someone far enough, only a prerequisite for lightning. Lightning has good damage and high chance to stun. It's worth it for a caster as you can cast while moving. Discharge doesn't deal enough damage to be worth the long cast time.

Death - Corpse explosion is useless when its hard enough to kill one monster. The two leeches are both under powered and fizzle often. Not enough heal to use a gcd on.

Earth - Not sure if stone fist is worth it, but root is incredibly powerful. It can't be knights graced and only if you get lucky enough to make jump break it, you're going to eat three fireballs at least. I also haven't seen it fizzle even when I have full plate on.

Fire - Flame fist is weak. Fire arrow is pretty strong and homes in on the enemy. Fireball does good aoe damage and great damage if you hit the target. Summon elemental is overpowered a bit in pvp if it doesn't get killed. The reason being.... fireproof is terrible and I noticed NO difference in damage taken when testing this skill with a pyro caster.

Focus is straightforward and all seems to work

Life - functions as normal. Healing is decent unless it fizzles, then you're out of luck.

Sun - Light doesn't seem to give much of a dmg bonus. Searing Ray costs very little focus and is a good filler with it's instant cast and movement capability.

Water - Douse doesn't always remove fire dots and the water fist, while having a great slow, is pretty poor.


So in summary. Fire casters using root and melee chain/plate wearers using two handed sword or two handed axe are decent. Sword and Board using the shield defense skill and rend are crazy hard to kill!

Some of the destruction

 

Nice summary.

 

Yeah that shirtless mofo with the Lich axe is still giving me nightmares, holly crap he was killing fast lol it was so funny lol...

 

I have a youtube montage uploading shortly, look for yourself!!!

 

Good feedback. I agree with most of the points but have a different take on a few. As more skills/spells are added and updated, things will start to balance out better.

Exodus, when u r online send me a msg. I am curious on your summary and want to test a few points.

 

I'm on now, name in game is Exodus Slum without any underscore

 

Logging now. C ya in a bit.

 

Good feedback. I know I was more than a few of those kills last night as I was testing out different combinations too.

I hope the developers don't intend to balance PVP by tweaking damage as a solution to every problem. I've written fairly extensively as to why the PVP system is unbalanced at it's core, and this has nothing to do with damage modifiers.

 

I think I have to agree with Exodus' review. We fought together for about an hour and each other a time or two. The lich axe was devastating. No other combination could lock me down as quickly. Half my clicks were knight's grace just to be able to move. Don't misunderstand me, Exodus is a talented PvPer as well, but the weapon/skill combo is out of balance atm - as we knew some would be.

I'd agree on the other comments as well. Root is great. Fire has power, as it is the only fleshed out magic skill. I look forward to what bludgeoning will be like when that gets fully implemented.

Also, while I loved the deck combat, I found with my slower system and connection Dallas Mode (all locked) was the way to go for me. (Thanks Flip for the recommendation.)

 

I just got wrecked in a pvp tourney by a sword and board wielder using rend and the shield defense cooldown. was like hitting a wall

 

Good duels Exodus. Now you know that s/s is sick. See you later. Good testing to you too Trady Blix and Yippie for a little bit there. We should meet at the arena next time for fps aid. I will be online again in 3 hrs or so.

 

I may not be back until Sunday, then the rest of the time Monday,great duels man