Trasak
06-29-2013, 07:42 AM
I am going to compile a list of monk enhancement balance and bug issues the player base has found as an additional way for the developers to track the issues that were in the previous alpha phase and were untouched for this release.
Bugs:
Henshin Mystic
1: Core ability Incinerating Wave.
Incinerating Wave is duplicating the effect of Ki Bolt with the exception that it reapplies the damage every 2 seconds. The description and confirmation from Varg is that Incinerating Wave is a force and Fire Wall of Fire but is not working currently.
Balance:
Shinto
1: Tier 1 Ability Defensive Strikes.
Defensive Strikes is the core ability of this tree but has a very harsh penalty for duel wielders, -40% chance to strike offhanded, in a tree made for unarmed combat. This heavily encourages 2 handed melee tanks to splash one or two levels of monk to grab Defensive strikes and Iron Skin without a penalty to their attack. Just as the sword and board tanks must have both equipped to be in their stance Defensive Strikes should either required one to be unarmed or add a penalty for two hand weapon fighting.
2: Tier 2-Tier 5 Ability Smite Tainted Creature.
Smite Tainted Creature itself is a fine tier 2 enhancement the issue is that the line is 4 additional buttons on a tree that has 9 total ki activated abilities and 6 stances on a class already having 9 activated abilities and 4 stances. I would like to see the Smite Tainted Creature tree become improvements to Smite Tainted Creature rather than individual abilities. An example for this is - Jade Strike adds the Vulnerability, Fort reduction. Tomb of Jade adds on a chance to proc the Jade prison effect in addition to critical hits always triggering it. Kudan-Do is a harder fit I would almost say swap it with Dismissing strikes and add the Dismissing strikes Effect to Smite Tainted Creature. This would condense down a bloated number of activated abilities and give Shinto monks a go to ki dump which they wont have without ToD or Void.
3: Tier 5 Meditation of War
Meditation of War is a tier 5 ability with a net negative effect. The penalties are significantly worse than the benefits gained which comes across as a way to validate a terrible capstone. Add onto that Meditations of War and Defensive Strikes are mutually exclusive so Meditations will almost never be up. This ability needs two things to improve it. First drop the negative effects, they are bonuses to monk stances meaning that only mostly pure monks will have it. Two, allow it to function at the same time as Defensive strikes or just make it an always on ability.
4: Core Ability Shinto Capstone
To Seek Perfection is a very weak ability after the Meditation of War effect is removed due to the above i.e. it is just +2 Wis and +2 deflection bonus vs tainted creatures(does the deflection even stack with Prot items? if it doesn't then its only +2 wisdom). Instead of a basically useless capstone lets give shinto a real capstone. How about +1 crit multiplier and threat with unarmed combat and negate the penalty for Defensive strikes, thats a real capstone.
Henshin Mystic
1: Core Ability Henshin Mystic Capstone
Serenity does nothing for the melee staff combat, only focuses on Ki gen and is just a cut and paste of the old ability. I would suggest tacking on 15% competence bonus to attack speed with quarter staff to make up for not taking a level of rogue to get lots of skills and the attack speed from the first tier of acrobat. I would also put forth that Henshin should also include using wisdom to attack and damage with quarter staffs spread through the core abilities, say wisdom to hit at Riddle of Fire and damage with Sounding Staff.
Please feel free to add your findings below and I will add it to the list.
Bugs:
Henshin Mystic
1: Core ability Incinerating Wave.
Incinerating Wave is duplicating the effect of Ki Bolt with the exception that it reapplies the damage every 2 seconds. The description and confirmation from Varg is that Incinerating Wave is a force and Fire Wall of Fire but is not working currently.
Balance:
Shinto
1: Tier 1 Ability Defensive Strikes.
Defensive Strikes is the core ability of this tree but has a very harsh penalty for duel wielders, -40% chance to strike offhanded, in a tree made for unarmed combat. This heavily encourages 2 handed melee tanks to splash one or two levels of monk to grab Defensive strikes and Iron Skin without a penalty to their attack. Just as the sword and board tanks must have both equipped to be in their stance Defensive Strikes should either required one to be unarmed or add a penalty for two hand weapon fighting.
2: Tier 2-Tier 5 Ability Smite Tainted Creature.
Smite Tainted Creature itself is a fine tier 2 enhancement the issue is that the line is 4 additional buttons on a tree that has 9 total ki activated abilities and 6 stances on a class already having 9 activated abilities and 4 stances. I would like to see the Smite Tainted Creature tree become improvements to Smite Tainted Creature rather than individual abilities. An example for this is - Jade Strike adds the Vulnerability, Fort reduction. Tomb of Jade adds on a chance to proc the Jade prison effect in addition to critical hits always triggering it. Kudan-Do is a harder fit I would almost say swap it with Dismissing strikes and add the Dismissing strikes Effect to Smite Tainted Creature. This would condense down a bloated number of activated abilities and give Shinto monks a go to ki dump which they wont have without ToD or Void.
3: Tier 5 Meditation of War
Meditation of War is a tier 5 ability with a net negative effect. The penalties are significantly worse than the benefits gained which comes across as a way to validate a terrible capstone. Add onto that Meditations of War and Defensive Strikes are mutually exclusive so Meditations will almost never be up. This ability needs two things to improve it. First drop the negative effects, they are bonuses to monk stances meaning that only mostly pure monks will have it. Two, allow it to function at the same time as Defensive strikes or just make it an always on ability.
4: Core Ability Shinto Capstone
To Seek Perfection is a very weak ability after the Meditation of War effect is removed due to the above i.e. it is just +2 Wis and +2 deflection bonus vs tainted creatures(does the deflection even stack with Prot items? if it doesn't then its only +2 wisdom). Instead of a basically useless capstone lets give shinto a real capstone. How about +1 crit multiplier and threat with unarmed combat and negate the penalty for Defensive strikes, thats a real capstone.
Henshin Mystic
1: Core Ability Henshin Mystic Capstone
Serenity does nothing for the melee staff combat, only focuses on Ki gen and is just a cut and paste of the old ability. I would suggest tacking on 15% competence bonus to attack speed with quarter staff to make up for not taking a level of rogue to get lots of skills and the attack speed from the first tier of acrobat. I would also put forth that Henshin should also include using wisdom to attack and damage with quarter staffs spread through the core abilities, say wisdom to hit at Riddle of Fire and damage with Sounding Staff.
Please feel free to add your findings below and I will add it to the list.