[Design Blog] On Balance - Adjusting items not working as intended

[Zeus]

From a different perspective what we're saying is that we've identified an issue with Aimed Shot that needed to be addressed for us to better make balance adjustments moving forward. There may be a noticeable difference for players and there might not depending on the use of this combination, if there IS a notable difference than we can re-add that damage in another area of Aim Shot, or the Rogue's overall kit in order to make up that difference and bring them where they should be. Currently this number was putting a lot of noise in the damage output of the Rogue in some cases and needed to be stabilized before we can make further adjustments.

Think of this as a precursor to potential Rogue improvements and enhancements, and not as a nerf because a nerf implies that we do not intend to bring it back up. Depending on the circumstances we will bring up the Rogue again where necessary. It certainly doesn't guarantee that we will, but it is a possibility

All existing balances were made while keeping in mind how hard rogue hits. Are you saying that developers are going to move the damage in another area of Aimed Shot so it hits just as hard as it did previously? We really cannot afford any more reductions in performance to this class. It has already been well established that rogues are no longer needed in PvP. Heck, we have warriors admitting it right here. I do realize the developer team has statistical data but they need to test what happens to a rogue against a warrior and mage team. Provided the warrior and mages know what they are doing, the rogues get simply annihilated. There's no strategy one can play to combat it.

[VROOMIGoRealFast]

All existing balances were made while keeping in mind how hard rogue hits. Are you saying that developers are going to move the damage in another area of Aimed Shot so it hits just as hard as it did previously? We really cannot afford any more reductions in performance to this class. It has already been well established that rogues are no longer needed in PvP. Heck, we have warriors admitting it right here. I do realize the developer team has statistical data but they need to test what happens to a rogue against a warrior and mage team. Provided the warrior and mages know what they are doing, the rogues get simply annihilated. There's no strategy one can play to combat it.

Consistency is the big factor here. Right now with Aimed Shot, you're punished by a large margin of damage for not taking a specific set of upgrades, and none of those upgrades says "Deal 2x more damage".

Some examples of the way this could be reworked, once the issue with Aimed Shot has been corrected (these are just things that could be done):
- All damage of Aimed Shot increases, no matter what upgrades you have, to balance out the old potential Maximum
- That large spike of maximum damage in Aimed Shot is moved to other abilities so that Rogue's aren't so reliant on only Aimed Shot
- Rogues become less glass cannon because they don't have the huge spike in damage
- Mastery for Aimed Shot is adjusted to also allow a damage increase

There's a lot that can be done, but is reliant on the ability being consistent and working as intended

To clarify, we are not saying "Rogues deal too much damage and need to be nerfed". We are saying "Aimed Shot is broken and this is affecting Rogues. We need to correct Aimed Shot and figure out how to adjust Rogues after the fact."

[CouchPass]

Consistency is the big factor here. Right now with Aimed Shot, you're punished by a large margin of damage for not taking a specific set of upgrades, and none of those upgrades says "Deal 2x more damage".

Some examples of the way this could be reworked, once the issue with Aimed Shot has been corrected (these are just things that could be done):
- All damage of Aimed Shot increases, no matter what upgrades you have, to balance out the old potential Maximum
- That large spike of maximum damage in Aimed Shot is moved to other abilities so that Rogue's aren't so reliant on only Aimed Shot
- Rogues become less glass cannon because they don't have the huge spike in damage
- Mastery for Aimed Shot is adjusted to also allow a damage increase

There's a lot that can be done, but is reliant on the ability being consistent and working as intended

To clarify, we are not saying "Rogues deal too much damage and need to be nerfed". We are saying "Aimed Shot is broken and this is affecting Rogues. We need to correct Aimed Shot and figure out how to adjust Rogues after the fact."

No Vroom, we're still a glass cannon, just more glass, and less cannon.

[Bameely]

To clarify, we are not saying "Rogues deal too much damage and need to be nerfed". We are saying "Aimed Shot is broken and this is affecting Rogues. We need to correct Aimed Shot and figure out how to adjust Rogues after the fact."

Sorry but everything that is being done reads to me that : "We are going to break Aimed Shot and this will be affecting rogues".

[ilhanna]

Consistency is the big factor here. Right now with Aimed Shot, you're punished by a large margin of damage for not taking a specific set of upgrades, and none of those upgrades says "Deal 2x more damage".

But most if not all rogues take all of the upgrades, so in what way are we punished again?

Some examples of the way this could be reworked, once the issue with Aimed Shot has been corrected (these are just things that could be done):
- All damage of Aimed Shot increases, no matter what upgrades you have, to balance out the old potential Maximum
- That large spike of maximum damage in Aimed Shot is moved to other abilities so that Rogue's aren't so reliant on only Aimed Shot Other skills have their function but they can't fully substitute aimed shot for the specific function it's used for: single target damage.
- Rogues become less glass cannon because they don't have the huge spike in damage Why is it wrong to be a glass cannon when that's exactly the role rogues play?
- Mastery for Aimed Shot is adjusted to also allow a damage increase Mastery can only be accessed by players level 20 and above. End game rogues already have to spend half of their skills points on passives, we make do without some support skills like veil and trap to make it possible for us to put mastery points to maximize nox bolt and shadow storm shot, I'm already switching builds with different skills sets for different maps, I shudder to think of what lower level rogues and those without a ton of respec scrolls for switching builds will say about making mastery a necessity to maximize aimed shot.

To clarify, we are not saying "Rogues deal too much damage and need to be nerfed". We are saying "Aimed Shot is broken and this is affecting Rogues. We need to correct Aimed Shot and figure out how to adjust Rogues after the fact."

I still can't understand why it's broken from your perspective because from mine it's not. It's doing its job.

My comments in bold.