Aoe damage

[Treznet]

<p>After a month of beating this dead horse in beta boards I am still not giving up on this issue. Ive ran quiet a few zones in tso and they have massive group encounter content, This is great. Aoe classes were overlooked for a long time and had to deal with most things being single target encounters. My problem is not our lack of aoe dps, because we are supposedly designed to be a single target damage/debuff class. My problem is the the balance of our aoe damage does not match up with other supposed single target damage ability. Also some swash can match or surpass brig single target damage. Assassin and wizard are both single target focused damage classes, Niether of them have only ONE aoe ability. Why is this? I think brigs have to lowest amount of aoe ability to my knowedge. Running a few instances with a guildie swash I saw that he usually doubled my damage on group fights and we were about even on single target fights. Now this is not with any of the tso aa lines into play yet but, I think that is only going to make matters worse. Im not sure how we fix this, I definatly dont think brigs should get anywhere near the aoe abilities of a swash. But, I dont think our single target damage can be increased without making us overpowered. I really think Brigs need another aoe imo. Im sure there will be the arguement that we can double up our aoe but, that screws up all your cast timers. Brig rely on double up for single target dps , if we are using it on groups it will totally screw everything up in a group setting. Give us 2 aoe abilites that cant be doubled up might even be better than where we are now. Whatever it is I think brigs need to do some serious feedback because I think we are seriously lacking in the new group instance runs. Maybe Im alone in this but thats just my point of view.</p>

[Backpayne]

<p>I would agree that we are seriously lacking in AoE damage compared to other classes.  However, I think that we need another CA to fix it.  Increasing the damage from our AoE and reducing both the cast time and reuse time would help quite a bit in fixing the issue.  Adding another AoE CA to our arsenal, and allowing it to be doubled up, would also help.  Maybe a minor one, 500-900 damage maybe with a DoT component, would be enough to do the trick.</p>

[lazlo1]

<p>I agree brigs are in dire need of another AOE. Even withe AA upgrades a single blue AOE is still lacking. The one I would like to see is an AOE with around 1K damage and a small dispatch effect.</p>

[Anfauglith]

<p>I'd say one of our CAs that could be upgraded to ae effect without it beeing overpowered would be Blood Rake. It wouldn't greatly increase our ae dps but at least increase our ae usefulness...not that I'd mind it beeing enfeeblement or dispatched...but that may be concidered overpowered.</p><p>Another way would be like Iazlo said, make a lesser version of dispatched and make it ae.</p>

[Rivel]

<p>id rather get another single target dmg ca rather then an aoe, the trick to parsing on ae fights is finding the strongest mob in the encounter and just smacking that, if they want to improve our aoe dps improve the ae we have, make it act like flurry or something (hits multiple times)</p>

[Vaelaen]

<p>I think another fast casting aoe so that we will be able to double up both of our aoes in those types of fights will do the trick. as it is now, doubling up our current aoe with another single target attack is our only option to get any type of aoe dmg.</p><p>i too think that a fast casting all mitigation debuff with about the same dmg as our current aoe would be right up our ally.</p>

[Blaidd]

<p>I agree brigands need some AOE loving of some sort.</p><p>Currently we have too many AA enhancements towards mitigation or defensive abilities as if we are being pushed into a tanking role. Why not use these to give us soem aoe utility be it dps or debuffs. I know as I go into a group encounter my dps is going to plummet as our 1 attack just doesnt do enough.</p><p>With so many TSO instances having groups encounters I am seeing more and more requests for aoe dps and brigs are being left ungrouped (not much left after tank, healer, mezzer, aoe dps).</p>

[Darkor]

<p>TSO is a slap into the face for the Brigand class. So much AoE encounter and absolutaly nothing we can do. Thanks Sony.</p>

[TheSpin]

<p><cite>Rivel wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>id rather get another single target dmg ca rather then an aoe, the trick to parsing on ae fights is finding the strongest mob in the encounter and just smacking that, if they want to improve our aoe dps improve the ae we have, make it act like flurry or something (hits multiple times)</p></blockquote><p>I do the same, and I have a little more to add. </p><p>(The following is great advice, so don't waste it.  This is the difference between any old dps and a brigand.)</p><p>I often end up "stun tanking" the mob that I choose, and it greatly reduces the damage done to the tank.  Being able to off-tank using stuns is another way our class can remain viable with all of the aoe encounters.  I generally burn down a double up mob myself while the group works on the rest of the encounter.  If I choose a triple up I drop my hate position on it after I run out of stuns and switch to another target so I don't get aggro back.</p><p>The only other way I've found to increase your usefulness in an aoe encounter is to use double up with Barroom Negotiation.   Notice that I said usefulness and not dps.  It's not ALL about dps (just most of it).</p>

[Meirril]

<p>How about something a bit more unique? How about a new version of double up that turns the last performed CA into a green AE but stuns or stiffles us for 4 seconds in return? Say with a 5 min recast. This way we'd have a lot more flexability in what we're trying to accomplish.</p><p>Or make it an AE that causes a mittigation decrease without a damage component. While its not nearly as sexxy as a group dispatch, it raises our group usefulness without infringing on other classes that are AE based.</p><p>Another possibility would be an AA line that gives a percentage based chance to reapply debuffs that expired due to death in the last second if we switch targets. This way we don't feel like we're 100% wasting dispatch on single up mobs.</p>

[SinIsLaw]

<p>Imho, SoE should do a similar thing to the Thuggs like they did to the SK pet line ... remove it and replace it with an AE ...</p><p>Thuggs is after Shenanignas the worst spell we have in our books, it's utterly useless ... doesn't scale right/ way to underpowered for the current tier.</p><p>I can't even recall the last time my Thuggs timer actually ran out, becuase every mob seemingly has a DS or mini Ae nowadays ...</p><p>Since Aeralik would need to give the green light for any change to our CA to get more AE dmg, this is all a lost cause!</p>

[Dalwhinnie]

<p>Would like to add I think the changes to the swash epic to give them more aoe dmg because their hate transfer is changing seems balanced.  Perhaps we could lose the 10% to our professional debuffs and get the same proc.</p>

[Anfauglith]

<p><cite>Dalwhinnie wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Would like to add I think the changes to the swash epic to give them more aoe dmg because their hate transfer is changing seems balanced.  Perhaps we could lose the 10% to our professional debuffs and get the same proc.</p></blockquote><p>Yes it's balanced...but no we shouldn't get the same...it's their job to do ae dps not ours...and having chances to hit multiple targets with auto attack is the most powerfull way to get some.</p><p>I think what we'd really need is having dispatched tso aa changed into a CA on same timer as dispatched and doing some ae debuff.</p>

[allegacy]

<p>Take out Thieves Guild, replace it with a new ability similair to swash inspiration, except that it is a chance to proc aoe dmg, but hit it with a reuse thats not to terrible but also keeps the ability in check.</p><p>EDIT: thats just a idea to get started with and build on</p>