2013-09-12 Content Update (129730)

[FluffNStuff]

That was never the intended role of the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer is supposed to be AOE Damage with some control. We don't want a dedicated support character. These are steps in that direction. Crit is just becoming the Sorcerers 'thing'. Rogues will be looked at as well and have something different. Not going to just do the same update on the Rogues as I do on the Sorcerer, then their powercurve moves up equally, just leaving the warrior behind.

Were good, we got our thing, but buffing the other classes makes sense, it is only fair. I understand the PvP crowd has it's grass is greener issues but the Elite Farmers appreciate what you are doing. We like to play as a team, and when our team mates start to lag behind, we don't get envious when they are adjusted to let them catch up. It can only benefit the team as a whole. THANKS!!!!

[Swede]

To further iterate on class balance. Yes, we will never reach a state where we say, all three classes are perfectly balanced. It's all but impossible. When was the last time you saw patch notes in World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 or any other MMORPG say: -No more class changes are needed, all our classes are perfectly balanced.

And it's not a matter of us "picking the sorcerer" to make the strongest this month. It's simply a matter of limited resources. We're not a huge team. Even though we have balance plans for Warriors and Rogues as well, we chose to look at certain Sorcerer updates this patch. It wouldn't be ideal to release balance changes to all three classes at the same time anyway, as feedback would be much harder to sort out and react to.

A lot of the posts I see here are purely overreaction as well. For example, the damage buff to the Warrior was so small that I doubt anyone would have noticed for days, if it hadn't been included in the patch notes, yet the comments on here seem to suggest that the Warrior is now outdamaging rogues. Take some time to play, then give some thoughtful feedback, and I promise to consider it carefully and react accordingly to the best of my ability.

[JaytB]

I could almost run WT4 as fast with my rogue as with my sorcerer before the update... Solo. Both with top gear (Mythics) and top pet (Samael).

Although I would love to see my rogue getting even stronger, sorcerers should absolutely destroy rogues in therms of mob killing, because they suck for boss kills. PvE specced rogues could almost kill mobs as fast as PvE specced sorcerers, but rogues where monsters at boss kills too.

So yeah, personally there are changes I absolutely don't like but the added AoE dmg for sorcerers isn't one of them.

[Zeus]

That was never the intended role of the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer is supposed to be AOE Damage with some control. We don't want a dedicated support character. These are steps in that direction. Crit is just becoming the Sorcerers 'thing'. Rogues will be looked at as well and have something different. Not going to just do the same update on the Rogues as I do on the Sorcerer, then their powercurve moves up equally, just leaving the warrior behind.

Okay, then what's in store for us, because right now you just made sorcerers much more powerful & rogues are left behind.

[Uzii]

Okay, then what's in store for us, because right now you just made sorcerers much more powerful & rogues are left behind.

whers ur love for the challenge? (i cant say agree with ur statement though)

[Zeus]

I could almost run WT4 as fast with my rogue as with my sorcerer before the update... Solo. Both with top gear (Mythics) and top pet (Samael).

Although I would love to see my rogue getting even stronger, sorcerers should absolutely destroy rogues in therms of mob killing, because they suck for boss kills. PvE specced rogues could almost kill mobs as fast as PvE specced sorcerers, but rogues where monsters at boss kills too.

So yeah, personally there are changes I absolutely don't like but the added AoE dmg for sorcerers isn't one of them.

Are you including the bosses when you complete the run? If so, that's the issue, because that's where the rogue speeds up & the sorcerer slows down.

Secondly, I run WT4 myself solo, and even then, the fastest runs I can do are roughly 6 minutes (not including boss). I'm sure other sorcerers can do MUCH faster than that.

[Derezzzed]

Okay, then what's in store for us, because right now you just made sorcerers much more powerful & rogues are left behind.

^this

If I can dip a suggestion, remove shadow storm shot (I really don't think any rouges use it and it isn't a good skill at all) & replace it with a brand new skill

~Just My 2 Cents

[Derezzzed]

Are you including the bosses when you complete the run? If so, that's the issue, because that's where the rogue speeds up & the sorcerer slows down.

Secondly, I run WT4 myself solo, and even then, the fastest runs I can do are roughly 6 minutes (not including boss). I'm sure other sorcerers can do MUCH faster than that.

^again this, Sorcerors (especially now) are gonna be able to run tombs faster than rouges ya I agree we kill bosses faster but Sorcerors kill mobs faster and when it comes to tombs what takes longer to kill? The boss or the mobs? I think we all know the answer to that

[JaytB]

Are you including the bosses when you complete the run? If so, that's the issue, because that's where the rogue speeds up & the sorcerer slows down.

Secondly, I run WT4 myself solo, and even then, the fastest runs I can do are roughly 6 minutes (not including boss). I'm sure other sorcerers can do MUCH faster than that.

Not including bosses. On my mage a ran them in about 4min, on my rogue a bit over 4m30sec. I have to get a bit lucky with my traps but I can consistently run WT4 in under 5 minutes easily on my rogue.

If you want, and I have the time, I'll try and make a video of it this weekend. So you can see for yourself. Maybe it's those outdated hooks you're using that make it so slow (sry, just had to )

[Zeus]

Not including bosses. On my mage a ran them in about 4min, on my rogue a bit over 4m30sec. I have to get a bit lucky with my traps but I can consistently run WT4 in under 5 minutes easily on my rogue.

If you want, and I have the time, I'll try and make a video of it this weekend. So you can see for yourself. Maybe it's those outdated hooks you're using that make it so slow (sry, just had to )

I use bow now.

[JaytB]

I use bow now.

That's too funny, I used quils for those fast runs mostly. Just did one of 4m 30sec again without even get that lucky with traps.

[gundamsone]

^this

If I can dip a suggestion, remove shadow storm shot (I really don't think any rouges use it and it isn't a good skill at all) & replace it with a brand new skill

~Just My 2 Cents

Replace it with that skill Cpt Rutgers has the cloning one

[Zeus]

That's too funny, I used quils for those fast runs mostly. Just did one of 4m 30sec again without even get that lucky with traps.

I sold them to get Samael, lol. ._.

[cynnr]

What's happened to the whirlwind - I liked it for the speed boost it gives, and it was usable as a aoe/knockback/damage skill, but this dash forward thing is pathetic. Flying all over the screen, especially around ice is incredibly annoying... instead of adding a dash forward you should be taking out the stupid dash back that happens when not charged. Give a bigger armor boost or wind-shield or something that's useful while I decide how far I want to run backwards or forwards.

[Energizeric]

I'll just say that the reason I chose to be a sorcerer was that when I used to play PL (I'm a warrior bear there), I always used to do farming with my buddy who is a mage, and I was always impressed how he could just kill massive amounts of mobs in a short period of time and was able to inflict way more damage than my bear could. So I decided I wanted to be the damage dealer in AL, and that's why I chose to be a sorcerer. I did not want to be a "support class".

Also, in PL mages could be a support class as they were the only ones with heal and revive abilities (until they added the rhino class). But in AL mages don't even have the best heal skill, warriors do. So I don't even know how someone could consider mages a support class when they don't have the best support skills.

In most RPGs the class that is the most squishy is also the one that deals the most damage. That is the tradeoff. But in AL that was never the case. Mages were the most squishy, but did not deal the most damage. Now maybe with this crit upgrade they will. I don't see a problem with that. Rogues still hit the hardest at a single target. I did not see anywhere in the update notes that mage skills will now stack the critical damage like they do for rogue skills.

[katish]

To further iterate on class balance. Yes, we will never reach a state where we say, all three classes are perfectly balanced. It's all but impossible. When was the last time you saw patch notes in World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 or any other MMORPG say: -No more class changes are needed, all our classes are perfectly balanced.

And it's not a matter of us "picking the sorcerer" to make the strongest this month. It's simply a matter of limited resources. We're not a huge team. Even though we have balance plans for Warriors and Rogues as well, we chose to look at certain Sorcerer updates this patch. It wouldn't be ideal to release balance changes to all three classes at the same time anyway, as feedback would be much harder to sort out and react to.

A lot of the posts I see here are purely overreaction as well. For example, the damage buff to the Warrior was so small that I doubt anyone would have noticed for days, if it hadn't been included in the patch notes, yet the comments on here seem to suggest that the Warrior is now outdamaging rogues. Take some time to play, then give some thoughtful feedback, and I promise to consider it carefully and react accordingly to the best of my ability.

Thank you swede! For being clear minded with the comments made here and realizing it's a premature rant from many...

However I can see how charged gale for the aoe upgrade and the dash skill might not work together.. but then again it was never my choice of skill for elite maps, and specially not with the AOE upgrade.. I love the dash for PVP tho, thank you for this!

BTW, my rogue just owned 1v1 against warriors in PVP every match.. I just didn't try maul warriors yet, and I'm not a very good rogue. I'm sure rogues can kill warriors no problem just like before -.-

[Jenvy]

Crit is just becoming the Sorcerers 'thing'. Rogues will be looked at as well and have something different.

That sounds incredibly ominous. Are you saying crit will stop being the rogue's thing? Because, in the following order, our most important stats are damage, crit, dodge.

[FluffNStuff]

I am just gonna toss this out. I am all for buffing all classes, but not at the expense of the integrity of the game. With that in mind, damage should should EITHER Crit OR ByPass armor, but not both. Any damage that does both will be over powered on any class and will require serious nerfing since it will rapidly grow out of control.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Very nice update, but you destroy all my joy, with this Gale thing. Seriosly guys, it is NEGATIVE effect. Now it is really, really bad, I know that i can now quickly escape from something (like bosses red circles), but only if I aimed well. If not, I'm pushed to the wall/boss minions/anything, and I am NOT ABLE TO CONTROL IT! This is the worst thing you could do - it's like stun, but you can throw a fireball before dying. There was few sorcs in my guild, that used to have Gale. Now, all of them (including me) give it up. It was amazing skill to do area damage and organise mobs on map. Now it is annoying.

My proposition: instead of dash, which generally works like stun, add bigger speed bonus. For example: uncharged - +25% speed for 5 seconds, charged - +100% for 1,5 second and +25% for 3,5 second. It will still work as a dash, but at least we will be able to control it.

[JaytB]

Very nice update, but you destroy all my joy, with this Gale thing. Seriosly guys, it is NEGATIVE effect. Now it is really, really bad, I know that i can now quickly escape from something (like bosses red circles), but only if I aimed well. If not, I'm pushed to the wall/boss minions/anything, and I am NOT ABLE TO CONTROL IT! This is the worst thing you could do - it's like stun, but you can throw a fireball before dying. There was few sorcs in my guild, that used to have Gale. Now, all of them (including me) give it up. It was amazing skill to do area damage and organise mobs on map. Now it is annoying.

My proposition: instead of dash, which generally works like stun, add bigger speed bonus. For example: uncharged - +25% speed for 5 seconds, charged - +100% for 1,5 second and +25% for 3,5 second. It will still work as a dash, but at least we will be able to control it.

I partly agree and made other suggestions in my previous comments about Gale.