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Esoteric + Velothi Mythic changes and suggestions
merpins
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With the current PTS, we ca see some nice buffs to Arcanist, which needed some buffs to actually be a competent DPS.
But we also see some nerfs, pre-release, to the two new mythics. The change to Esoteric was primarily for PVP. It might still see some use there, but it seemed to me like a mythic designed for PVE, and now it won't be used in PVE. I'm not much of a tank, and it's obviously a good change for PVP as the tank meta has been pretty prevalent on that side, but there could have been a more balanced solution for this. Probably just making it PVE only, or slapping the "against monsters" onto the item when it comes to damage mitigation on its first line would have fixed the major PVP issue without making it useless in PVE. But it probably could have been a more nuanced approach that someone else might have more insight into, someone that tanks more than I do at least.
Velothi, with its 5k pen and 15% crit damage and monster damage was a great idea. It would help out low-end groups without touching the high end since it was strictly a damage decrease for anyone that can light attack weave properly, unless you're an AOE dot machine in which case it was maybe comparable damage, but not a damage increase by any means, so it wasn't really a useful slot. It was a DPS increase for a beam Arcanist build, but not by much, and a decrease for basically all other builds. It probably didn't even need a nerf at this point. The only suggestion I might have for balance would be Major Force instead of minor and increasing the pen back up to at least 3k, but it having its own unique buff was what made it at all useful. One of the best dots in the game, Trap, which is a staple on every DPS build, already gives Minor Force, making it less like replacing the buff and more like making it so you get 99% reduction of LA damage, but only get 1500 pen and a 15% damage increase in return, since you'll probably slot Trap anyway. If it's like that, it should be a 50% LA damage reduction rather than 99%, but that defeats the purpose of the mythic. So I'd say just revert it to its previous version. Not that it'll happen, but that's my suggestion anyway since it's the only one that really makes sense if ZoS actually wants to release an item that's useable in some content.
But we also see some nerfs, pre-release, to the two new mythics. The change to Esoteric was primarily for PVP. It might still see some use there, but it seemed to me like a mythic designed for PVE, and now it won't be used in PVE. I'm not much of a tank, and it's obviously a good change for PVP as the tank meta has been pretty prevalent on that side, but there could have been a more balanced solution for this. Probably just making it PVE only, or slapping the "against monsters" onto the item when it comes to damage mitigation on its first line would have fixed the major PVP issue without making it useless in PVE. But it probably could have been a more nuanced approach that someone else might have more insight into, someone that tanks more than I do at least.
Velothi, with its 5k pen and 15% crit damage and monster damage was a great idea. It would help out low-end groups without touching the high end since it was strictly a damage decrease for anyone that can light attack weave properly, unless you're an AOE dot machine in which case it was maybe comparable damage, but not a damage increase by any means, so it wasn't really a useful slot. It was a DPS increase for a beam Arcanist build, but not by much, and a decrease for basically all other builds. It probably didn't even need a nerf at this point. The only suggestion I might have for balance would be Major Force instead of minor and increasing the pen back up to at least 3k, but it having its own unique buff was what made it at all useful. One of the best dots in the game, Trap, which is a staple on every DPS build, already gives Minor Force, making it less like replacing the buff and more like making it so you get 99% reduction of LA damage, but only get 1500 pen and a 15% damage increase in return, since you'll probably slot Trap anyway. If it's like that, it should be a 50% LA damage reduction rather than 99%, but that defeats the purpose of the mythic. So I'd say just revert it to its previous version. Not that it'll happen, but that's my suggestion anyway since it's the only one that really makes sense if ZoS actually wants to release an item that's useable in some content.
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Treeshka✭✭✭✭✭
✭About that penetration giving mythic in raid groups.
There are some fights in the game where there are multiple bosses throughout the encounter and your light attacks only hit one target if you are not using two hander. Cloudrest hard mode and Reef Guardian comes to my mind quickly. In these encounters your light attack damage will find itself in lower places compared to single target encounters amongst other damage sources. Basically if target count increases your light attack damage becomes more negligible which can make you neglect the downside of this mythic.
In its previous state this mythic was granting 4968 penetration bonus. Lets assume everyone in a raid group using this and using medium armor along with two light armor pieces. Major and Minor Breach will be total of 8,922 penetration, two light armor will grant 1878 penetration bonus and 700 from Piercing passive in Warfare tree in Champion Point system. In the end without crusher enchant, everyone in the group will have 16468 penetration, assuming no other penetration comes from class bonuses. If Infused Crusher enchant accounted final value will reach beyond needed 18200 penetration.
Without this mythic tanks are running Crimson Oath's Rive set with Tremorscale or a damage dealer running Alkosh. If everyone uses this mythic there is no need for a penetration set in the group. You can just make all damage dealers run it and make tanks use buff sets instead of penetration sets, further increasing the group damage in multi target encounters.
Since we assumed every damage dealer is using this mythic they have now %15 more critical damage. Currently in raid groups Elemental Catalyst is used to get %15 critical damage taken on target with near full uptime. Some raid groups were already thinking to drop this set and make that damage dealer use another buff set or just a damage set which results increased group damage.
In the end this mythic item was creating a lot of shifts, such as rendering some sets useless, and power surge in certain encounters. I and many others was suspecting that it will get nerfed. Unique critical damage is now Minor Force which every damage dealer has via barbed trap which is a very strong dot and status effect applying skill. Penetration is lowered to 1650 which still requires some penetration sets for medium armor groups if they choose to run this mythic.
In my opinion you can still use this mythic in trash fights without losing much. Since unique damage done and small penetration will help in these encounters. I did not have a chance to test it out on boss encounters though. Maybe it is still better in multi target encounters compared to already on hand mythic items, but now it is more in line with them in my opinion.2