Reverse Melee Nerfs

[R0cksteady]

Over the past year or so, we've seen plenty of melee nerfs, as well as caster buffs. We can all see the problem of FvS being top DPS, while other casters are just a bit behind, and Melee all being down the list. People ask for either a huge Melee buff, or a caster nerf. But why not just reverse some of the melee nerfs?

Keep the new offhand proc mechanic, but put TWF classes back to what they were. Give fighters back their 10% speed boost from the capstone instead of doublestrike only on the mainhand. Give Rangers back their extra attacks. Give all TWF with all TWF feats back to what they were hitting for.

Give glancing blows back when moving. Twitch fighting was a great way to boost DPS, and there was no real need to nerf it. What's wrong with using a bit of skill to increase DPS a bit at the cost of to-hit?

Put combat feats back to a useful state. There's no reason to lose offhand procs on trips and stuns, there's no reason to lose the ranger, and the ability to use these skills without losing DPS in your attack chain.

And of course, instead of adding fort to bosses, add HP. Add resists and elemental absorption. I understand the need to make enemies more difficult, but raising for only hurts melees, while FvS and Sorcs are just hitting what they already are. So why nerf Melees when they're already in the toilet? Why break rogues?

[Xenostrata]

Couple issues.

The twf nerf wasn't to nerf melees, it was to fix lag. I for one would rather see melees buffed than have them unnerfed and lagging the whole server.

The thf twitch nerf was, in my opinion, totally justified. Even in a game like this, the idea of stepping side to side to increase damage is ridiculous. A better idea would be to return glancing blows to moving hits and then equalize the attack speeds in the chain, preferably upwards.

Besides that, I'm pretty much with you.

[R0cksteady]

The change in the machanics for TWF was what was meant to decrease lag, and did a bad job of it. The nerf was actually tacked on. Piggybacking offhand attacks was to lower lag by reducing rolls, 1 for mainhand and using the same roll for offhand. The nerf was a side issue, where they reduced offhand attacks. For instance, before fighters got 100% offhand attack procs and 10% speed boost. It was lowered to 80% offhand procs and 110% mainhand attacks. So we had the same mainhand procs and 30% less offhand procs/ The real difference there is instead of tacking on an offhand attack for each mainhand attack, there's a roll to see if there will even be an offhand proc.

It's a seperate issue as lag, and killed tempest ranger DPS and lowered all TWF DPS for no reason other than to nerf, with a machanic change that was meant to lower lag. My solution would keep the lag reducing machanic.

Also, yeah, I guess it doesn't make sense to allow twitch fighting, but I figured if I want the TWF nerf to be reversed I should ask for the THF nerf to be taken out as well. Another solution could be to fix the attack chain so twitch fighting isn't beneficial for DPS, return moving glancing blows, and speed up the attack chain a slight bit to make up for the lack of twitch fighting.

[Matuse]

The change in the machanics for TWF was what was meant to decrease lag, and did a bad job of it.

I went from horrible, gut-churning lag in all raids to no lag at all. U5 was a godsend for me.

And FvS with "top" DPS? You're crazy.

[The_Brave2]

And FvS with "top" DPS? You're crazy.

FVS THF eSoS with Divine punishment is going to out DPS 99% of meles

[R0cksteady]

I went from horrible, gut-churning lag in all raids to no lag at all. U5 was a godsend for me.

And FvS with "top" DPS? You're crazy.

Divine punishment, if specced for it, is as high as DPS really goes. It works against basically everything, hits hard, and you can add to it by meleeing as well if you build your FvS with some strength and power attack. Add in the extra damage it does if you put your guard on whoever has aggro, or keep it on yourself and get beat on a bit.

They are top DPS. With sorcs right next to them.

[dkyle]

I went from horrible, gut-churning lag in all raids to no lag at all. U5 was a godsend for me.

TWF could be restored to its full pre-U5 DPS without any significant increase in lag. They took the lag fix as an opportunity to also nerf TWF, but it wasn't a necessary part of the lag fix.

[R0cksteady]

TWF could be restored to its full pre-U5 DPS without any significant increase in lag. They took the lag fix as an opportunity to also nerf TWF, but it wasn't a necessary part of the lag fix.

Exactly.

I'm not suggesting an easy button here. I like that the devs are increasing the difficulty in raids. But increasing fortification is hurting melees while leaving sorcs and FvS at their current overpowered state. Increase the difficulty in different ways that effect all classes, like a straight HP buff, maybe some fortification increase with some elemental absorbsion, and reverse some of the recent melee nerfs.

I have a third life fighter sitting at level 6. I stopped bothering when the release notes for update 11 were posted and I saw melees were getting ANOTHER nerf, when they're barely necessary in raids already. A toon is sitting at level 6 of his third life, with a TR bank full of epic items that took several months of work to collect, because there's just no reason to use it when I have capped casters, a cleric and a FvS that can match any melee DPS anyway while adding tons of other things like CC and healing and buffs to groups.