The Sanctum 33: VETS REJOICE - Gamebreaker.tv

You are discussing 1.4 and 1.5 mechanics in the same post, which makes for an apples-to-oranges comparison. Let’s look at this from the perspective of what is on 1.5 PTS, which is the context discussed in the Show.

Also before I make my points below, please understand that I believe that Rogues need buffs in 1.5, but not to the extent of what is being implemented in 1.5 PTS.

1. “Warriors have plate”

Armor is this game is pretty meaningless in RIFT, given that all of the damage from spell casters and some of the damage from Rogues and Warriors is spell-based, and armor doesn’t mitigated spell damage.

IMO the Warrior archetype in RIFT is squishier compared to any game I’ve played previously (Allods, Aion, LOTRO, WAR, WoW, etc).

2. “insane burst..Full heal (if specced)”

The Warriors that have insane burst are the ones that spec 2H, which means by definition they won’t have points in Paladin, which means no full heal.

You can’t have it both ways.

3. “LW”

In 1.5, Rogues are getting Fell Blades at 16 points in the tree, so Rogues will effectively have access to a -50% healing received debuff as Warriors have with LW.

The kicker is that Fell Blades steals some of the healing on the target too.

Granted FB is dispellable whereas LW is not, but consider the mechanics: a healer will need to blow a GCD to cleanse FB, but FB is a passive proc, i.e. you get it just by using your normal rotations. So even if a healer cleanses it, FB will likely proc with a handful of GCDs anyway.

IMO Trion should reduce the effectiveness of both healing and healing debuffs, because that leads to better gameplay.

Look at WoW for example. After 4.5 years of Arena, Blizzard finally realized that Mortal Strike being -50% healing debuff forced compositions in Arena and specs for Warriors. PVP in Cataclysm, once the healing debuffs and healing were finally correctly balanced (i.e. reduced), was much more fun. I saw a lot of Fury-spec’d Warriors in Arena and Battlegrounds, whereas before most Warriors felt compelled to go 2H as Arms spec.

4. “Rogues have good burst but lacking due to energy issues so poor sustained”

I agree 100%, this was my #1 annoyance as a Rogue.

Trion is boosting Rogue energy regeneration by 10% on 1.5 PTS:
* Rogue Energy regeneration rate has been increased to 22 Energy per second, up from 20.

5. “fear as well”

Rogues are not lacking the CC department IMO. Rogues have AOE CC (e.g. Poison Gas), and good single target CC capability.

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I think everyone would agree on the following for the Rogue archetype:
A. good damage
B. good control (CC)
C. stealth

I believe that Rogues need buffs, and IMO the 1.5 damage and energy regeneration buffs sound appropriate and good for balance.

The issue is that Trion is giving Rogues the ability to stay in sustained melee combat, which is what typically the Warrior archetype does not the Rogue.

Look at these changes related to healing in 1.5 and  consider the cumulative effect:

* Enduring Brew: Ability changed – now instantly heals the Assassin for a large amount of health, with a 1 minute cooldown.
* Fell Blades: Available after spending 16 points in Nightblade. Now causes weapon attacks to have a 20% chance to deal Death damage and curse the enemy, reducing healing on the target by 50%. The Nightblade
receives 20% of any healing on the cursed target.
* Leeching Poison: The healing granted has been increased. Now unlocked after spending 14 points in Assassin, with an additional rank added at level 5

If I were a Rogue in 1.5, I’d use AOE to get FB on as many targets as possible, and steal healing from all the FB-debuffed targets while being able blowing them away with my buffed damage. The incoming healing from all those targets would add up to me being able to DPS targets sustainably while generating a lot of self-healing.

The self-healing component is going to create huge issues – especially the more concentrated the fighting.

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Keep in mind my #1 concern is the health of RIFT, especially given that some huge titles will be launching in Q4 or Q1.

I know some folks will dismiss what’s on the PTS as being not-live, but what is going on there is influencing the gearing/leveling/subscribing decisions of players. I already know player who are desubbing because of what they are seeing on 1.5.

If Trion goes forward with the 1.5 proposed changes to Rogue, here is what will happen:
1. Rogues will enjoy a period of time of being a very OP class, and players of other classes will be frustrated
2. Trion will nerf Rogues
3. Rogues will be frustrated

None of this is good for the game. Trion needs to think at this point, given that the game is 6 months post-Launch, of implementing incremental balance changes, not swinging the pendulum so strongly.

As I wrote on my blog, Trion hit the ground running with RIFT’s launch:
http://taugrim.com/2011/03/18/trion-launch-of-rift-a-model-for-the-mmo-market/

That being said, 6 months later, it’s looking like Trion is stumbling while trying to balance the game.