Buff ultimates of older classes! OP ultis are fun.

lassitershawn · June 2019

So with the necromancer's flesh colossus being crazy CRAZY strong for group PvE (like literally its broken OP) I got the idea that other classes should get a revamp of their damage ultimates to give some of the "ultimates are OP" feel back that many ultimates had earlier in the game and that necromancer has now, as well as close the gap a bit (it is REALLY hard for other classes to compete when stam necromancer provides so much to the group in addition to being naturally strong). I tried to balance this for PvE, I tried to make changes that I don't think would impact PvP TOO much but in any event all the classes are getting buffed by this and all I hear from PvPers is how all they see is DBoS spam so :shrug:. If there are PvP complaints feel free to elaborate. For most of the changes I made them strongly group oriented to make them on-par with how much necromancer's ulti buffs your group. All we get is constant nerfs, how about some dope BUFFS for once. In any event the main point of the post is the general idea, not specific suggestions (though I think mine are decent), just trying to get across the idea that other classes could also have really strong feeling ultis.

NIGHTBLADE:

NIGHTBLADE:
Veil of Blades - Skills are 12% cheaper for all allies in the area and allies in the area gain minor heroism. Damage of skill is 40% higher. NO MAJOR PROTECTION.
Bolstering Darkness - Gives minor protection to allies in the area as well.
*Synergy for both morphs restores 12k mag and stam to all nearby allies on use.

So nightblade already has a strong DPS ultimate in Incap/Harvest for applying major slayer and giving a damage boost but this is being made less important with the addition of lokkestiiz. Veil is only used on rare occasion for some mitigation and for these purposes I think bolstering is fine anyways even though it does no damage. Hence significant buffs to the veil itself (with protection removed for balance) to make it an interesting ultimate. It is long lasting so I think if you had two of these in group you might be able to offset a significant amount of sustain pressure and maybe allow healers to try dropping sets like worm/hircine? Interesting option for currently underused NB supports as well.

For PvP, I can't see anyone ever running veil so no issues there.

DRAGONKNIGHT:

DRAGONKNIGHT:
Standard of Might - Damage bonus increased to 25%, allies in the standard gain 5% more damage.
*Both morphs do 10% more damage as base.

DK's aren't too hot right now and don't provide a lot for the group. One synergy attached to an ult, can't do slayer, engulfing easily covered by tank. Making standard help out everyone a bit and just making DK stronger in general would be a step in the right direction.

For PvP, I don't really see a lot of issues, it's a stationary ult with limited range.

WARDEN:

WARDEN:
Northern Storm - Adds 4s duration, 20% damage, AND makes all frost damage from all players 50% stronger for the duration.
*Both morphs give 8% mag while slotted.

So like... magdens suck. And magdens just slot this for the mag if they do at all and use destros. Probably could use even stronger buffs than this but I didn't want to make it too offensive because it also gives major protection. The significantly increased frost damage for the (now 12s) duration makes sucky frost spells more appealing and also helps out magnecros (bad spec) as a side effect since they have some nice frost damage (an ice flesh atro during this ult would be pretty dope for example).

Pretty sure PvPers like the other morph for the stun, maybe this would make frost mages too annoying (I hear they are annoying).

SORCERER:

SORCERER:
Storm Atronach (both morphs) - Two allies can synergize the atronach, and major berserk is applied to the caster rather than just the atronach on synergy activation.

This makes storm atro kind of like pseudo-slayer and is balanced against slayer sets by being much more expensive on a class with slower ult gen, as well as a shorter duration. With the new ult, 3 people get 25% more damage which is still far below necro's staggering 30% more damage for all 8 DDs in a raid but might help close the gap a bit. Also builds on sorcerer DD's identity of providing a lot of synergies (all the more important with lokke now).

For PvP I don't see huge issues with this it seems like it would be a challenge to coordinate having people synergize a small stationary target and then take advantage of such a small timeframe while it is super obvious to the enemy what they are doing. Maybe I'm wrong...?

TEMPLAR:

TEMPLAR:
Solar Prison - Synergy deals more damage and restores resources like shards. DoT stays on targets for 5 seconds after the effect ends/they leave the AoE. NO MAJOR MAIM.
Solar Disturbance - Also gives major protection to allies in the area.
* Both morphs gain 20% damage increase on DoT and deal fire damage, a superior damage type because of engulfing flames and burning.

Nova used to be commonplace as a safety ultimate for groups and is still RARELY used for this purpose. I propose keeping this defensive utility on disturbance and buffing it a bit (no DPS are going to use this morph and it is a significant sacrifice to waste a horn and instead have 8s of relative safety) but also changing PRISON into a powerhouse DPS ultimate that can compete with destro ulti (which like, its a fragment of the SUN, not some mundane flames) and has a nuke of a synergy attached. I was originally going to suggest buffing the synergy more because I like OP synergies and group coordination but apparently people use this in PvP with harmony or something to instakill groups.

While I did buff the damage on the morph that people use in PvP I think it is okay because I took away the major maim.

dcam86b14_ESO · June 2019

I like this idea, maybe a visual update on them as well.

Cortimi · June 2019

They. Will. Never. Update. Original. Classes.

I don't know why it needs to brought up, all day, every day. The current devs are NOT the original devs. So the original classes are NOT their creation. They are NOT their vision. Therefore, they do NOT want to deal with them, because they wouldn't even know how. Further, no dev, ever, anywhere, at any time, has been able to put aside their ego and actually implement a class change (much less a set of sweeping changes) suggested by some random fellow from the internet. No offense, it just isn't going to happen.

They have said as much in AmA sessions.

lassitershawn · June 2019

Cortimi wrote: »

They. Will. Never. Update. Original. Classes.

I don't know why it needs to brought up, all day, every day. The current devs are NOT the original devs. So the original classes are NOT their creation. They are NOT their vision. Therefore, they do NOT want to deal with them, because they wouldn't even know how. Further, no dev, ever, anywhere, at any time, has been able to put aside their ego and actually implement a class change (much less a set of sweeping changes) suggested by some random fellow from the internet. No offense, it just isn't going to happen.

They have said as much in AmA sessions.

This just isn't true. In the past year alone they've made significant changes to old class ultis. Overload had a complete overhaul and just this patch they added a silence to incap (and to think they wanted it to go thru without the break option so really quite a huge change).

I don't expect them to implement all or any of my changes I'm just trying to suggest buffs to the more lackluster class ultis (compared to the beast that is flesh atro) so that I can maybe generate some discussion or interest in getting us more fun ultis in a more constructive way than just saying "this is bad nerf" or "this sucks buff."

LiquidPony · June 2019

Love the overarching idea here, but specifically for the Warden I would try to add some group utility to the bear ulti.

I'm not sure what that would be. Maybe an armor debuff?

Or, how about a new buff that acts like Daedric Prey but for the whole group? So activating the Bear ulti procs some effect, let's call it "Primal Rage", which buffs the damage of all pets in your group by 20% for 5 seconds, or something like that. Or perhaps flip it so that the bear's target is debuffed and takes more damage from pets, which would probably be more balanced for PvP.

Since we've got pets on Necros, Wardens, Sorcs, and NBs now (plus Spiders), it could be a really strong group buff.

Stx · June 2019

Well they just nerfed the only templar ultimate i sometimes used so they are going in the opposite direction.

ZonasArch · June 2019

Cortimi wrote: »

They. Will. Never. Update. Original. Classes.

I don't know why it needs to brought up, all day, every day. The current devs are NOT the original devs. So the original classes are NOT their creation. They are NOT their vision. Therefore, they do NOT want to deal with them, because they wouldn't even know how. Further, no dev, ever, anywhere, at any time, has been able to put aside their ego and actually implement a class change (much less a set of sweeping changes) suggested by some random fellow from the internet. No offense, it just isn't going to happen.

They have said as much in AmA sessions.

You should read the patch notes a bit more carefully...