Test Discussion GU106: Nature Balance Changes

Nature will soon be seeing the following changes going to PC Test:

Basic Abilities
Poisons/Pheromones

• Poisons and Pheromones are no longer shared.
• Harvest and Roar will not benefit from other player’s poison/pheromone applications.

Supercharges
Wolf Form Changes

• Cooldown increased to 30 seconds (up from 12 seconds)
• Supercharge cost increased to 5000 (up from 2500)
• Temporary buff duration increased to 15 seconds (up from 13 seconds)
• Healers will no longer get 10% damage increase for DPS role while in wolf form
• Fixed issue where DPS was getting an additional 10% DPS role buff while in wolf form.

Gorilla Form Changes

• Healers will no longer get 10% damage increase for DPS role while in gorilla form
• Fixed issue where DPS was getting an additional 10% DPS role buff while in gorilla form.
• Reduced temporary buff duration while in gorilla form to 15 seconds (down from 20 seconds)
• Reduced temporary damage buff from gorilla form to 30% (down from 35%)
• Fixed issue where countering an enemy was doing excessive damage.

Insectoid Form Changes

• Cooldown increased to 30 seconds (up from 12 seconds)
• Supercharge cost increased to 5000 (up from 2500)
• Temporary buff duration increased to 15 seconds (up from 13 seconds)
• **NEW** Tactical Mod for Insectoid Form that returns Supercharge back.

Developer Note: For some time now, Nature has been over performing in both of its roles due to some critical bugs associated with the powerset, as well as the low-cost, low-risk, and high-reward gameplay granted by its form changes. The community raised this issue regularly when other game, content, and balance topics have been discussed, so we carefully reviewed the powerset and these changes are the result.


We look forward to your feedback on PC Test and will continue to make any adjustments needed based on testing data.

***We will unlock this thread for feedback once the changes are on PC Test***

-Batuba

Tangentially related: Does counter against Zeus' skull in Wolf form register now?
Don't know about the other forms but when I lunge I don't get the push back that indicates the interrupt is done.

Neither does Rifle's lunge register...

Bug form changes were a necessary change because of the super spam that Nature is capable of currently, making it a crutch because of how good it is.

If you leave Dog Form the same, it is still very easy to spam super as Nature in comparison to other powers. It should have the same cooldown as the other forms. Nature healers can be healers again, and not supercharge batteries.

Is it possible you guys can add a Eight man shield to the SC Regeneration ? .

Insect form shouldn't be changed, it's an essential part of a healing rotation. Going into gives access to base abilities. Limited access causes the loss of multiple powers. Also giving super charge isn't a bad thing especially since nature lacks burst heals. Electric for example always out heals nature, it specializes in burst. Nature specializes in super charge. That seems like a fair trade. It's like nature is supporting the group in ways other than healing, how is that any different from a buff troll? We pass on big heals for green circles, that's the only good thing about nature healing.

There was obviously some elements, Pheromone sharing, Gemini spamming etc that needed addressing, but I dont understand why you have had to increase the SC cost to 5000. By extending the cool-downs you have countered the issue of Gemini spamming, so why increase the power cost? You have with one swoop killed any reason for using wolf. Nature is now only Gorilla as Canine form is so weak its not worth mentioning. I always felt that all powers had their strength and their weaknesses, and with nature you had the reduced power cost for transforming with your buffs as a strength, and things such as no burst damage/heal power, no 8 man shield were the price you had to pay. Now we are left with only the negatives. At least put nature at a level playing field and make swarm shield 8 man, and for god sake fix the critical wolf head mod, its been on the forums as a confirmed bug for months and nothing has been done about it. As for healing, natures weakness is its all HoT and its also range restricted, these were the weaknesses you .lived with, but you had the buff from Insectoid form as a strength to counteract that. Now that is gone.

Personally I feel like you have rightfully found some issues that needed to be addressed but have taken a sledgehammer to it and potentially killed a really fun power to play.

Think again please.

Can’t you still just spam dog form for EOG spam?

Why would you do that? If you are dpsing then when you are in dog form the damage is so low the buff from Gemini will not matter. If you are healing you cant use dog form as the load-out is fixed so you cant add healing powers. So the answer is no you just wouldn't do that.

I think raising the sc cost to half was not smart. The low cost was for if you die you can get back into the form. To much of this game is spent catering to the dps cry babies. Seriously, what is the point of even switching forms now? 50% cost for a 12 second buff. You say nature was overly performing in both roles yet, i have leaguemate who feels the healing side has been nerfed for quite sometime. My healer even out heals him and he has more skill points and higher artifacts. Stopping nerfing things.

Still seeing a permanent damage increase in Gorilla Form. At ~50k might, a single poison does 970-1125 non-crit damage. Changing to gorilla form, I see a large increase to 1400-1680 for 15ish seconds, but then it only drops to ticks of 1090-1230.

It's always been this way; I've always assumed it was intentional. Natures non-form change supercharges always did 10% less damage than comparable supers from other power sets unless you used them from gorilla form.

I also saw that you can still switch to gorilla form as a healer and wind up getting really good damage. The above tests were actually done in healer stance.

Wolf Form is now a 5000 cost super, but is showing the same general pattern, where the buff never goes away.

EDIT (again) - The permanent damage buff seems to be only in healer stance. In DPS stance poisons do 1100-1270 per tick, then get buffed by the form change (was seeing 1470-1690 in gorilla form), but then seem to go back to the same 1100-1270 range.

I was going to suggest the same thing. Currently, nature is the ONLY healing power without one. Also, if you could adjust the uselessness of Roar. Limiting heals applied to allies within the narrow cone of Roar's range makes it unusable. We have so many mechanics in the game that demands spreading out in a fight; it is literally useless. It should be made Omni-directional as before.

Yeah the damage will be terrible but the group will still have back to back gem spams lol or just use the speed drain/ pherm any of the 25% movement supers

As far as wolf form all I can really say is nature still has it better than ice clunky 5000 supercharge ice elemental form with poor damage moves.

It’s still also better than mentals 5000 supercharge mass hysteria which has a whopping 60 second cool down wait to even activate again

Funny you should say that cos my alt is Ice and I agree its a mess of a power since revamp. To be honest I would rather have Wolf and Gorilla as 60 second cool down than the increase in power cost. That would definitely stop any Gemini spamming.

Yes Please it really does need an 8 man shield way over do!!

So Im gonna just chime in and ask : ARE WE NOT FIXING DOG FORM? AND THE SPAM FEST IT'S USED FOR IN PVP? OK sure let's not fix the whole powerset just the pve aspects of it.

Will look into this.

It would be an interesting option for Nature... but it would probably mean that Regeneration becomes a 10,000 cost super like the other healer shields, and I'm not sure how popular that would be.

Yeah Roar's heals ought to hit the whole group or at least all allies in a very large area. You're sacrificing all your pheromones when you use it. Might be out of scope for this set of changes though.

Much needed bug fixes aside, Nature is in a rough spot.

1. First and foremost, it now has 8 supercharges taking up valuable slots in the power tree. Almost a full third of the allotted 25 powers are supercharges, including multiples that are just slight variations on others. How many 5000SC cost DPS buff supercharge powers could it possibly need? This eliminates any possibility of alternative gameplay or loadouts.

2. Even with all those SCs it still lacks of an 8 man SC shield, as noted by others.

3. Roar's crappy directional heals, again as noted by others.

4. Natures SC generator is broken. IT DEALS 0 DAMAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is poison DOT applied but that is the power interaction damage, and is separate from Serpent Call itself which only ever stuns. "Call forth a knot of serpents to attach your target and nearby enemies, stunning and damaging them over time, and generating Supercharge".

I suggest that, change the SC regeneration to a 100% SC cost and make a 8 man shield with the Thorn burst animation ( like electric)
The problem that is the SC spam of Gemini, instead to up the cost of the supercharge to 50% up the coodown of the supercharge for 30 sec or 45 sec and to stop the the spam Gemini make the buff of the insectoid permanently, like before the revamp
Reduce the buff to not to be so op , like:
10% critical healing instead of 15%
5% healing bonus instead of 10%
25% healing magnitude instead of 30 %

That will make people to stay insectoid instead of keep spam Gemini, and if the player need the 100% SC shield to use it ..

The same way is the dps wolf form make the supercharge 25% but the coodown higher, the problem that if the dots disappear, and they are not shared anymore , is needed to get out of the wolf refresh it , so , make the buff permanently but a low buff comparing to now.

Ty anyway.