Help the poor Defiler class

Monstuhr · 11-12-2016, 12:30 AM

With the new expac it's time to address one of the most maligned classes out there, the Defiler...

J/K, J/K. Defilers are obviously in a great spot right now.

That said, there are always some abilities that should be looked at and tweaked. Due to the growth of the game and inflation of stats various abilities got left behind. Now there are a lot of abilities like defiler debuffs that are essentially worthless. I want to skip over those and focus on four abilities that I find pretty cool that could be useful with fairly minor tweaks.

1. Soul Cannibalize. This is a great flavorful ability for a defiler. However, it scales horribly. It needs the damage increased, the power drain component increased and the self power restore significantly increased. This is a really cool ability and really fits into the feel of the defiler. Unfortunately, it is garbage and there is no reason to ever cast it in its current state.

2. Spiritual Circle. It is okay. The ward should be bigger and maybe it could ward and have a heal over time component. I think the best change would be to provide some group utility to the defiler. Allow the spiritual circle to provide a small fervor buff (like 10) to the raid while it is up. It has a fairly short duration and a longish recast so it would be easy to balance.

3. Ritual of Alacrity. This applies to both defilers and their sister class mystics. RoA used to be amazing. Now, it is useless. Everyone has 100 cast speed and Reuse. Mystics can at least gain some value from this ability by speccing a damage proc through prestige lines. With that in mind, I think RoA should have an additional buff tied to it, either (a) a percent potency increase (a la the new deity potency change); or (b) a 25 point fervor boost (I know I know not the most original). Either of these will give us a reason to go back down the RoA line.

4. Empowered Dominion (Defiler Right Side Prestige spec). This is probably the ability that needs to be changed most of all. This is especially true given the penalty we get for dual conversion. Right now it provides minimal crit bonus to the group - even with the extra points. An extra 10 or 15 cb to the group is nothing. Plus it requires us to forego casting single target wards. So we give up some of our healing to get...a de minimis benefit. This really needs to be changed to a percent potency increase (again like the new deity potency line). I would say a percent crit bonus boost...but as long as it remains a 4k cap we will all be hitting that fairly easily.

Along with the base function of Empowered Dominion - Spirit Armor needs a huge boost. IIRC its 300 per increment of ED or approximately 3,600 if you can keep it at rank 12. With 250+k resists even before KA gear, this is quite underwhelming. Lets boost this up so that at rank 12 it gives 10-15k resists to the group. Again, in order to keep this up you are foregoing single target wards so we should be gaining some actual benefit out of it.

In reality, I know the expac is close and it is unrealistic to expect class changes with only a few days left. But I believe these are four relatively simple changes that really make sense (both in flavor and functionality). Even if we can't get them implemented right with the expansion, they seem like things that can be tweaked in shortly after (once the hangover from what I expect to be a giant release party wears off...)

11-12-2016, 12:30 AM	#1
Monstuhr Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	With the new expac it's time to address one of the most maligned classes out there, the Defiler... J/K, J/K. Defilers are obviously in a great spot right now. That said, there are always some abilities that should be looked at and tweaked. Due to the growth of the game and inflation of stats various abilities got left behind. Now there are a lot of abilities like defiler debuffs that are essentially worthless. I want to skip over those and focus on four abilities that I find pretty cool that could be useful with fairly minor tweaks. 1. Soul Cannibalize. This is a great flavorful ability for a defiler. However, it scales horribly. It needs the damage increased, the power drain component increased and the self power restore significantly increased. This is a really cool ability and really fits into the feel of the defiler. Unfortunately, it is garbage and there is no reason to ever cast it in its current state. 2. Spiritual Circle. It is okay. The ward should be bigger and maybe it could ward and have a heal over time component. I think the best change would be to provide some group utility to the defiler. Allow the spiritual circle to provide a small fervor buff (like 10) to the raid while it is up. It has a fairly short duration and a longish recast so it would be easy to balance. 3. Ritual of Alacrity. This applies to both defilers and their sister class mystics. RoA used to be amazing. Now, it is useless. Everyone has 100 cast speed and Reuse. Mystics can at least gain some value from this ability by speccing a damage proc through prestige lines. With that in mind, I think RoA should have an additional buff tied to it, either (a) a percent potency increase (a la the new deity potency change); or (b) a 25 point fervor boost (I know I know not the most original). Either of these will give us a reason to go back down the RoA line. 4. Empowered Dominion (Defiler Right Side Prestige spec). This is probably the ability that needs to be changed most of all. This is especially true given the penalty we get for dual conversion. Right now it provides minimal crit bonus to the group - even with the extra points. An extra 10 or 15 cb to the group is nothing. Plus it requires us to forego casting single target wards. So we give up some of our healing to get...a de minimis benefit. This really needs to be changed to a percent potency increase (again like the new deity potency line). I would say a percent crit bonus boost...but as long as it remains a 4k cap we will all be hitting that fairly easily. Along with the base function of Empowered Dominion - Spirit Armor needs a huge boost. IIRC its 300 per increment of ED or approximately 3,600 if you can keep it at rank 12. With 250+k resists even before KA gear, this is quite underwhelming. Lets boost this up so that at rank 12 it gives 10-15k resists to the group. Again, in order to keep this up you are foregoing single target wards so we should be gaining some actual benefit out of it. In reality, I know the expac is close and it is unrealistic to expect class changes with only a few days left. But I believe these are four relatively simple changes that really make sense (both in flavor and functionality). Even if we can't get them implemented right with the expansion, they seem like things that can be tweaked in shortly after (once the hangover from what I expect to be a giant release party wears off...)