I do agree that troubs and dirges need to be looked at more closely. Sony needs to stop lumping us in a general group called scout, because we are FAR from what the other scouts are. The apparent desire to pummle the troubs and dirges into the dirt, is working. I pulled the patch message off the test server, so lets take a close look here.
- The damage bonus given by extremely high amounts of strength has been reduced. For example, having a strength of 400 previously gave a 200% damage bonus; after this change, the damage bonus is 155%. There is no change to the damage bonus at a STR of 100, and only a slight reduction at 200 STR.
Alright. Now we once again have a character wide nerf. We knew this one was coming when the warriors were attributing to 40% or more damage towards the encounter. What does this do to other classes? I seriously question the justification the dev gave to nerf the entire player base.
- Heavy armor now mitigates 11% more damage. Light armor now mitigates 35% more damage.
What? It is apparent medium armor was completely looked over on this one. Where is the mitigation for medium armor?
- Having stamina greater than 200 will now increase the character's maximum health pool.
Something I like to see. That is something the group will actually benefit from, to an extent. Thought this was in place already though? Was I mistaken? I may be of some use yet, to a group anyhow.
- Maximum power will increase when the stats used to determine it (strength, agility, intelligence, or wisdom) go above 200.
Once again, hasn't this always been the case? Was it capped at 200?
- Melee combat arts will decrease in effectiveness when equipping a weapon that is green to the character. They will decrease even further if a grey weapon is equipped.
If you are still using your citizenship weapon at level 40, you should be punished. I only fear that this will be implemented to armor and other equipment slots.
- If an epic opponent can only be hit by a certain quality of weapon, that weapon's level must be within 75% or 5 levels of the target's level.
Dont see an issue here. Can the weapon be of higher level? Will that epic mob that is grey to me be immune to my super fancy weapon because the weapon is 5 levels too good for it?
I understand that these changes are only on test right now, but track record confirms, they all will be live soon. I am currently trying to make the best hypothesis on all of these changes while trying to keep a level head about the next round of Troubadour and Dirge nerfs. Although it seems they are not directed at the 2 subclasses, they do impact us the hardest. I am not keeping my hopes up in light of the proposed changes. I am however, looking forward to the day that there is a message that states that the bard class will be in-line with all other classes in the game, and not lumped in as a scout.