Alright so many of us have read the craglorn patch notes.
And overall they are buffing DKs moderately, nerfing templars, and not really changing sorcerers or nightblades (minor bug fixes only).
I read that and was like ??????????
Anyone who has played this game at endgame PvE or PvP VERY clearly understands the class balance:
Dragonkights:
INSANELY far ahead of every other class. To the point it's not even funny. They are by far the best at:
- Single target dps: 1000+ sustained single target is not too difficult for a VR10 DK to attain. It's 100% plain impossible for every other class. Sorcs and Templars can only dream of hitting 800+ sustained.
- AOE DPS . 6000+ Burst aoe is not uncommon (even seen a screenshot of over 9000 due to the fact some of their abilities have no target limits), 3000+ sustained against reasoanble numbers of targets is no problem, and where as templar and sorcerer can only DREAM of 2k burst aoe dps. And thats only if they use a flame destro staff to PRETEND to be a dragonknight. 1 DK can litterally do by himself - easily, what 2 other players of any class will STRUGGLE to do. It's insanely unbalanced. Primarily due to the synergy of DK passives/fire line with Destro flame staff.
- CC. Any PvPer knows this insanely: Burning talons wins this game. The same thing applies in PvE. It's insanely better then any other non-ultimate cc in the game.
- Tanking: Green dragonblood is the best health recovery utlity ability in the game for a tank. Add that along with there high block mitigation and INSANE ultimate that caps damage taken at 3% and forget it. Templars a close second ignoring ultimates, but they just don't have the same insane ultimates that break the game.
- - Healing. Great. Motlen weapon to buff your resto staff damage and thus heals. Drop the standard, +20% healing, -20% damage reduction for self? Snare enemies? Lower enemies incoming healing? Low cost? Insanely powerful. Templars are arguebly better sure, but not by much.
- Killing you in pvp. DKs need only to hold block, spam burning talons and you die. You can't move. You cant interupt to break out. You can roll dodge - but youll just get caught in the next one and be out of stamina. Forget it. Unless you outnumber them badly, your dead.
- They can block while activating ALL of their abilities, and have some of the best stamina recovery with green dragon blood. They are so insanely better it's not even funny. You need only to look around the pvp battlefields at what class is dominating to see this.
Sorcerers are also very good at pvp (They lead the leaderboards in most cases), but not purely because of their class power - but because range is simply better for getting points in massive scale pvp (Front line fighters are always the first to die, and the dead dont gain much points - so while its very difficult to kill a highly skilled, well geared melee DK, they will still usually die before a sorcerer).
Nightblades:
INSANELY far behind every other class, not even funny. Complete oposite spectrum of DKs.
- DPS: They are meant to maybe be the best single target? They are the worst. It's not even funny how bad they are. Post craglorn they can now about tie Templars, still insanely far behind DKs and Sorcs, which is just plain not right given NBs other utility is limited.
- AOE DPS: They don't have any worth mentioning. They can destro staff impulse spam as badly as a templar and thats it.
- CC: Next to none. Least they get a fear ability which can stop some DKs, but other then that.. Very poor. Utterly worthless for pve, and only mildly amusing when they fear a dk in pvp, not like thats gonna kill one.
- Tanking: Heh. They bring nothing notable to the table. Sure they can do it, but so can anyclass since the main skill line required isn't lock to a class.
- Healing: Poor except for trials: In trials there defensive ultimate (Veil of Blades) is arguably the strongest defensive ultimate in the game, and for many groups, key to completion.
-- Their actual heals that effect other players are extremely weak. No abilities that boost heals like DKs get either.
- PvP: Poor. Look at the leaderboards: Sorcerers and DKs lead it, thats it. And people LOVE the sneaky type roguish class for pvping since they dominate in other class, so you KNOW some top skilled players are trying there hearts out, yet they just cant as the class is just bad. Their one saving grace is the fact they get a fear, but so do sorcerers. (And fear is the only real effective way to counter a tankish DK spamming talons on you while blocking.)
Sorcerer:
-DPS: Ok. They do fine, they have long ranged and some of their hardest hitting skills also cc, so they don't need the top single target. Nightblade should have that (at melee) range.. Yet they are ahead of NB, and but far behind DK, which they should not be.
- AOE DPS: 2nd best, but still no where near dk. They can destro staff impulse spam a bit better then others due to 1 class skill synergy.
- CC: Non ultimates: Good, but Inferior to DK, which should not be the case for this style of class. Ultimates: Negate magic is argueably the best ultimate CC, so they are quite good as long as they can build it fast.
- Tanking: Meh. Should not be a great tank class. and imo is not. Fine. Certainly are the most survivable when running away tho in pvp, gota give them that.
- Healing: Very good at lower levels, arguably the best due to dark exchange. Mana management is the HARDEST by far challenge of low lvl healing. However by endgame, as people learn to use equilibrium, this advantage is lost.. So DKs and Templars espcially pull ahead... Given they don't really have any synergy to up healing like those 2 classes do, just better mana recovery ability.
- PvP: They lead the leaderboards, yet 1v1 against a DK... They lose. The reason is due to range being superior in this style of pvp (Large scale massive battles). Plus they can run away so well, that they suffer much less down time from death.
- Running away class: By far #1. Gods of running away.
Templar:
-DPS: Mediocre. With only a SINGLE decent dps class ability (Biting Jabs) in their ENTIRE repretoire, they are extremely limited in where they can apply it. Close range melee only. When spamming this one ability though, they can deal SOME dps though, just not anything that super useful at endgame, about 600-700.
- AOE DPS: Poor. Biting jabs is aoe, however it only does half damage to non primary targets, making it vastly inferior to what DKs can deliver. Even with 0 synergy at all, spamming impulse tends to do better as it covers more area, activates faster and allows block while it's in use (Instant vs 1.1 seconds channel).
- CC: Extremely poor. Aside from the minor stagger the stab induces, there is essentially ZERO cc abilities available to templars outside of 1 ultimate: Solar prison - the synergy on this is a fairly effective CC tool.. But being a synergy is a huge weakness in this game, due to poor synergy design (overlaping synergys can't be selected).
- Healing: At endgame, pretty much the best. Their class heals are not nearly as efficient as resto staff, and there passives have ZERO effect on resto staff abilities.. But despite that, access to a fairly strong instant burst heal (Breath of life) can be critical in many situations. At lower levels, Sorcerers easily outshine them, as do DKs.
- PvP: Very poor. As a melee-only class for dps, they are the first to die as they lack the insane CC/Ultimates DKs can use to survive. However given you can get a ton of points as a healer in pvp means they can still do well, just not on the killing front.
Reply with your thoughts.
99% of players I've asked ingame agree with these assessments, and I lead a very effective guild of skilled pve players that have beaten the trials and vr dungeons dozens of times and saw time and time again how much better DKs are so I can't see how many could disagree though.
ZO: Please, make some attempt at balancing the game.
I don't want DKs nerfed. For some of their abilities, especially certain passives, there may be no other choice.. Something has to be done, preferably buffing the other classes and difficulty of group content to compensate.
I mainly want the other 3 classes buffed in the correct aspects as noted.
(edit: Slight update for the current state of the game post craglorn. Not much has changed.)
Edited by Axer on 14 June 2014 09:51 Axer. Main tank and Leader of Crush it! (NA-EP highly skilled trials guild)