These are merely my thoughts of what would be appropriate changes to bring the two handed tree up to a some what competitive level while retaining its current style.
Actives
Cleave: Remove the bleed portion of this ability and instead add 50% of the removed bleed damage to the instant damage. Decrease cost by 10%
-I propose this one because frankly no one uses it for its bleed damage, and its current damage is much too low. This change would make it more viable in settings that require aoe *as it is meant to be used* but does not increase it too dramatically in small scale *1 vs 1*
Brawler: Same changes as to Cleave, but damage shield boosted by 15% or so per target *so if each target hit gave 100 before, this would make it each target hit gives 115* Additionally boost damage shield by 10% of damage you take within 2 second of activation. *Will help get the shield out without instantly being destroyed*
-This would allow Brawler to come closer to accomplishing what it was intended to do which was to grant a bit more survivability while still dealing AoE damage to enemies. If it was raw health like a heal it would definitely be imbalanced like this, but since damage shields do not take into account defenses and act as raw health, I feel that makes up for this change.
Carve: Same changes as to Cleave, but damage is halved, but to make up for this ultimate generated per target hit is drastically increased.
-Carve was never meant to be the damage dealing morph or the sustainability more, it was intended to build ultimate relatively fast when facing multiple enemies. Currently the extra ultimate gain is hardly noticable and could use a buff. TO compensate for such a buff which causes increased Ult use, the damage being cut was required.
Critical Charge: Overall good as is, perhaps a slight cost reduction.
-Sometimes it actually doesn't crit, but that is a bug so it shouldn't effect the balance. Other than that, since it is only usable at the beginning of a fight or at the very end, a slight cost reduction should allow a bit more flexibility.
Stampede: Add a Disarm for the duration of the root.
-At times it seems as if the root doesn't work, but overall I feel that a Disarm will help this ability differentiate itself from other similar abilities such as Shield charge without becoming too similar.
Critical Rush: Good as is. Perhaps slightly more damage scaling? Or Perhaps added damage if going down hill to simulate gravity giving the charger momentum.
- Overall this morph is working as intended and works wonderfully, mostly just QoL changes to it, though it would be fine if nothing changed to it.
Uppercut: Decrease cast time to .5 from 1.0. Increase damage by 30%. Increase cost by 20%. If enemy is unaffected by the knock back *immune, already knocked down, ect* Damage is instead increased by 20%.
-Its function is great, but 1 second channel time is simply too long for such a close combat skill. The damage increase is mostly due to the fact that the 2handed tree does not really have a hard hitting ability, but this one comes the closest. The change to already cc'd targets is to allow for it to be effective against bosses, world bosses, and to be a viable stamina dump when DPS is needed since its knock back would be unusable.
Dizzying Swing: Same changes as Standard, make the weakened state only count down for when it is not cc'd. *so it starts after they get back up, if they get knocked back down the timer essentially pauses, if it is another dizzying swing, it refreshes* Weakness applies whether it cc's the enemy or not, so that it can still be used against elite enemies. Though, its effect on elites is severely diminished *say, down to 10% from its usual 20%*
-As it stands of the 7.5 duration, only 4 or so of it is actually used since for 3.5 of it the enemy is on the ground and unable to act. The pausing when the enemy is cc'd is theory due to them not having time to steady themselves, and on none boss enemies to keep the weakness constant.
Wrecking Blow: Same changes as Standard, increase the damage dramatically of the follow up strike.
- As it stands, the current damage boost for the next hit is barely even noticeable, and due to this it falls behind Dizzying Swing, but if the damage of the follow up is increased it will be able to stand by itself.
Reverse Slash: Up potential damage bonus from 300% to 400%. Change the damage scaling so it does not start at 50% but at 100% so that it is a very gradual gain, reaching the 400% at around 20% enemy health. So for every 1% of enemy health lost this ability would gain 5% of its bonus damage. Change stamina cost to scale with damage done. Reduce cost to 100. So if it is used when the enemy is at 100% health it cost 100 stamina, nearly free. If used at around enemy 50% health however, it would cost approximately 250 stamina since it would be at 250% bonus damage. Essentially meaning that the increase in cost is the same as the increase in bonus damage increased by enemy health lost.
-Right now Reverse Slash is good for executing an enemy, but it just isn't all that helpful since most none elite enemies that get into the execution range will be killed with a power attack for free or just a few regular hits anyways. With this change it would be functional at any time but true to its intention increasingly deadly at execution range.
Executioner: Same changes as to Standard, gradual increase of 2 handed abilities and melee attacks instead of instant when in execution range. For every 4% of enemy health lost, you would gain 1% damage with 2 handed melee attacks and abilities, capping at 20% at 20% enemy health.
-Overall this would make this an almost essential pick for any stamina dependent 2 handed build, but since it limtis its effect to only 2 handed abilities, it can be controlled, allowing 2 handed to essentially get stronger as the fight goes on.
Reverse Slice: Same changes as to Standard, cut bonus damage down to 200% but cause the additional 2 targets to take full damage instead of only 20%.
-It helps 2 handed spread its damage a bit while still retaining some of its teeth, and still manages to not encroach too much on dual wieldings AoE executioner, Whirlwind. Even at the full 200% damage that is not terribly great damage, but it is also rare to have all 3 targets in execution range at the same time.
Momentum: Increase duration from 23 seconds to 45 seconds. Increase cost by 50%. Allow it to ignore the weapon damage cap.
- As it is the ability is great, but runs into the cap much too often. Add to that the fact that it often expires mid combat and this change would make it last through most battles. It should be noted how,ever that with this change would be a massive buff since it gains 2% damage every 2 seconds, as well as an initial 10%. Before right before it ended it would be at 34% damage. With this change right before it expires it would grant 54% damage. This is the reason for such a massive cost increase, which should help equal out the damage boost as well as help limit the ability to spam abilities after activation.
Forward Momentum: Same changes as to Standard, change breaking 4 snares at activation to adding 4 snares and slows to be broken during the duration. Stuns, roots, and other incapacitating effects are changed to 80% movement reduction. All of these will consume one of the 4 counters.
- This would allow momentum to shine in pvp and help 2 handed users to actually get in range and help fight against kiting a bit more. Stuns and incapacitating effects will no longer stop them in their tracks, but instead inflict a massive snare that will allow them to escape the one using momentum. Considering that this lasts for 45 seconds and only has 4 counters, this should be fairly balanced since after the 4th stuns, roots, slows, and other incapacitating effects will fully work then.
Rally: Same changes as to Standard, change the heal to over time and based off of maximum health. Regen 1% of maximum health per second for a total of 45% by the end.
- 45% might sound like quite a lot for an ability that is essentially a toggle, but considering that most hits take about 5-20% of your health in VR zones, this would be more of a supplement to whatever other healing you are using. It also would help dps deal with stray AoE's that hit them without missing a beat.
Passives
Forceful: Current - Light and Heavy attacks deal 25% damage to 1 adjacent enemy.
Proposed - Same, except effect abilities as well. *Aoe abilities can only effect ones not hit by the ability*
Heavy Weapons: Current - Sword (5% dmg increase), Maul (static armor decrease), Axe (bleed)
Proposed - Sword is fine, but change Maul to a % of armor decreased *built up to, not instant after a single hit.* Make the Axe bleeds smaller, but able to stack.
Balanced Blade: Current - 20% cost reduction for 2 handed abilities.
Proposed - Keep as is.
Arcane Fighter: Current - 100% chance increase to activate status effects.
Proposed - Same but add a reduction to the cool down of the effects.
Battle Rush: Current - 30% stamina regeneration boost after killing an enemy.
Proposed - Change to take effect after a critical hit.
Overall these changes would allow 2 handed to have quite the damage boost and a bit more usability in difficult content while allowing them the ability to have vastly different morphs. The numbers might need tweaking, but over all I tried to keep it some what reasonable. Feedback is welcome.
Edited by Gravis on June 25, 2014 9:53PM