Great here comes the nerf bat again

[mayhem111]

<div>Great they are reducing the hate gain and duration of devious blade line.  On test center for update 20 upgrading the spell will not up the hate gain and duration is now only 5 secs instead of 10. </div>

[Myster]

I'm so glad I <i>just</i> got the Adept III of Devious Blade made the other day so that I could use it to help the tank keep aggro... Another worthless upgrade. *sigh*<div></div>

[Syrano]

<div>Not sure this is a nerf.  I know the description of Devious Blade implies that the next person the mob hits gets "blame" cast on them, but this has been hard to prove.  Given that all previous descriptions of the spell in this line imply that the next person who hits the mob gets the blame I get even more curious.</div><div> </div><div>My own testing has revealed no positive results one way or the other.  No one ever receives a "buff" icon for the "blame" spell.  The mob doesn't, the tank doesn't, I don't.  Even when solo'ing.  So it's very hard to prove the ability is working or how its working.  In actual practice recently, every time I've used Devious Blade in a raid, the mob suddenly turns around and kicks my butt.  Using it at the start, using it in the middle of the fight or the end, the mob seems to suddenly aggro me when I use Devious Blade, which seems to go against its current description</div><div> </div><div>As such, I've stopped using it on raids. I'm still expirimenting in single groups, but without an icon for "blame" popping up on anyone involved, its almost impossible to test.</div><div>If the ability still works like it used to be described prior to Devious Blade, then this change is actually beneficial, not a nerf.  Even if it *is* a "nerf" the changes aren't horrid.  5 seconds of increased aggro gain on the tank is still a *good thing* (tm).</div>

[Luk]

<div></div><p>from test</p><p></p><hr><p> False Blade's  hate gain no longer increases as it is upgraded, and its duration has been lowered to 5 seconds</p><p></p><hr><p>the thing that "concerns" me here is that upgrades are no longer going to give higher percentages of hate gain.</p>

[Keldo]

They are nerfing EVERYTHING that allows the tank to have the rock-solid, no risk aggro that is possible now.Troubador hate decreaser, ranger self buff hate decreaser, both ranger and our hate gainers, hate leeches aren't going up in value, amends nerf.. etc.  So it isn't just us, this is targetted at the aggro, not our class.  Since aggro in general will be harder to keep, I think Devious Blade will have the same overall effect, as it was fairly hit or miss before anyway.<div></div>

[Success]

Yep, they are slowly removing the main reason to have a good solid tank. I mean it's their job to hold agro, yet they nerf hate reducers and make taunts resistable.

[Keldo]

With AAs coming and detaunt for all DPS classes being a choice, hate increase being a choice for most fighters, this is necessary in order to make aggro management a skill and not an assumption.<div></div>

[Carna]

<div></div>In other words, they'll nerf and you'll pay to get back what you previously had.

[Dretho]

<div></div><p>I thought the same thing about the class being nerfed.  Though I am only 18, Ilost the skills that I became used to in combat.  I found street smarts buff renamed and was still mad that we lost backstab.  Discovered for myself tonight that if your sneak up and rout, you still have time to inviscerate before the mob spins.  Does more damage than the old backstab and actually can keep you on the mobs back for a few more strikes if you get your stun off at the last second.  Then you can rinse and repeat without ever getting hit.</p><p> </p><p>Drethoor</p><p>Swahbuckler of 18 Voyages</p>

[Iseabeil]

<div>This change might make sense with AA's... As long as they dun imp it on live before KoS comes out.</div><div>Keeping solid agro on a bright orange x4 is hard as it is, this change would be very bad before they give us tools around it.</div><div> </div><div> </div>

[Carna]

<div></div>One has to be wary also and the solution to that nerf lying in an expansion that you have to buy. At best it's a cynical ploy.

[overfloat]

<div></div><p>Reducing it to a 5-sec duration on a 1-minute recast, seems a little OTT, especially considering the way it works. It's not like you could announce the cast in a macro -- to allow the tank to fire hits taunts at the right time -- because you never know when the mob is next going to hit the tank and proc the hate gain buff on him.</p><p>At least with the random 10-sec duration there was a <em>vague</em> chance that the tank might randomly use a taunt or other hate-increasing CA during that period, but a random <em>5-sec</em> duration? Once per minute? The odds seems somewhat against us for a rather power-costly CA.</p>

[Luk]

<div></div><div></div><p>Guys, have any of you read the skill description since LU13, its not the next person to hit the mob, its the next person the mob hits gets the added hate gain.</p><p> </p><p>Screenie borrowed from <a target="_blank" href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/view_profile?user.id=91862"><span>Dresden00</span></a></p><p> </p><p><img src="http://www.galaxybay.com/images/Lukia/swashmasters.jpg"></p><p> </p><p>notice "the next person it attacks" not "the next person attacking it"</p><p>*Edit: Added Screenie*</p><p>Message Edited by Licit on <span class="date_text">02-11-2006</span><span class="time_text">09:45 AM</span></p><p>Message Edited by Licit on <span class="date_text">02-11-2006</span><span class="time_text">09:45 AM</span></p>

[overfloat]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Licit wrote:<div></div><div></div><p>Guys, have any of you read the skill description since LU13, its not the next person to hit the mob, its the next person the mob hits gets the added hate gain.</p><hr></blockquote>Yep, it's been that way for months... hence the "random" reference above. You can choose when to launch the CA, but you have no control over when the actual proc on the mob fires (i.e. when the mob next hits the tank). You <em>could </em>watch for when the Devious Blade debuff disappears from the mob (which will mean the tank has Blame on them) and macro a<em> "Tank has 80% more hate, taunt taunt taunt!!"</em> hotkey, but the short duration would make that absurd for most groups, let alone raids. Reducing that random proc to a 5 sec duration would make it impossible, while further reducing the chance that the tank will launch any significant hate-inducer during Blame.

[overfloat]

<div></div><div><blockquote><p></p><hr>overfloater wrote:<p></p><p>Yep, it's been that way for months... hence the "random" reference above. You can choose when to launch the CA, but you have no control over when the actual proc on the mob fires (i.e. when the mob next hits the tank). You <em>could </em>watch for when the Devious Blade debuff disappears from the mob (which will mean the tank has Blame on them) and macro a<em> "Tank has 80% more hate, taunt taunt taunt!!"</em> hotkey, but the short duration would make that absurd for most groups, let alone raids. Reducing that random proc to a 5 sec duration would make it impossible, while further reducing the chance that the tank will launch any significant hate-inducer during Blame.</p><hr><p></p></blockquote><p>Edit: waaaaiiiit.... caught myself on this. When the OP said "duration reduced to 5 sec", did he mean the duration of Devious Blade or the duration of Blame?</p><p>I was assuming the latter. Either would suck, but 5 sec duration on Devious Blade would suck far less.</p></div>

[Duhulk]

<div></div><p>I haven't seen the level of the nerf, but it might be approriate.</p><p>I always though the line scaled up a little too quickly.</p>

[overfloat]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Duhulk wrote:<div></div><p>I always though the line scaled up a little too quickly.</p><hr></blockquote>Actually that's been exactly my worry about certain other lines, which shall go unmentioned so as to avoid becoming nerf-bait. I see them capping out way before the proposed final 100-level limit.