Stats Revamp 1.5: Earth

Where do I go upload my parse?

I think that is preserve the theme of the powerset as the crushed powers don't reallly mix well with thee aftershock ones. The would have to rework cooldowns on the seismic tree.

However I think Sandblast should take advantage of both PI's.

Its important that petless dps loadout do competitive damage. Not all of us want to be Crystal's sidekick.

Some of us use Earth as the closest alternative to super strenght powerset (that we lack).
Jackhammer its and amazing and fun power and cant wait to test it, because thats the way I want to crush enemies.

Please can we have a different VFX for Reinforce? Something less intrusive than the huge punching gloves made of stone?
That effect doesnt really make sense as a weapon buff. Something glowie around the hands like the rings of Gemstone shield would look amazing.

There is something about stone skin . It appears we have defense increase of 50 percent instead of absorption.

It seems like a crystal less loadout is doable.

Finally Earth! Will be jumping onto Test soon and playing around with the power. Just to let you guys know, Summoning Brick has been mentioned twice in the notes.

You are reading it wrong. The point you spent did not raise your Dom by 494, it raised it from 494 to 504, +10 points. That is intended.

Bug: Stone Skin doesn't appear to be working or is at least not showing as activated within UI. I do not see the shield symbol appear and after I do Jack Hammer I see nothing in the effects tab. WHile this is on test, could we have some visual indicator that our mechanic is working?

Also, why remove absorption ? That was our unique mechanic. I feel like an ice tank without the shields. Some clarification on the intent would be highly appreciated.

So we aint getting any tank buffs?
Seeing as atomic and ice both got theirs I find it odd how there's nothing mentioned about earths.

Just want to report that when Brick is summoned, the noise of him summoning is constantly looped and it seems like it doesn't ever end. Makes it rather annoying to try test him out when he's more focused on making you deaf than anything else

Oh, and just to clarify, it's a Brick thing. It does not happen with Crystal.

i think all finishers should work with every other PI in every power

You are getting buffs just log unto test server and check out the description. While in tank role, 100% of your dominance increases your defense by that amount (while not blocking). While using Jackhammer or Upheaval, you receive a buff called Stone Skin which your increases your defense by 50% (while not blocking). While using Brick, you transfer damage to him, by how much and how....no clue, I don't see any numbers posted. That's really it. And you got Gemstone Shield as your shield.

I'm not sure if it's actually bugged or if it was designed that way. It definitely didn't feel as smooth as other AOE pulls but maybe that's the design of it.

Using similar rotations from other powers in the past, I'm feeling great as earth. My crystal and non-crystal rotations are getting around the same damage with a slight advantage to my non-crystal since it's consistent for long engagements but I guess supercharges for refills on crystal could even that out a little maybe idk. But either way, one thing that I did notice however is that I was doing higher damage using Upheaval than Jackhammer. I don't know if it's because I can clip Upheaval early to go through my rotations faster while I can't clip another 3 jackhammer pounds or what but I want it to get buffed slightly to make it feel more like melee damage than barely competing with a midrange move. Currently with 2 trolls on LH targets:
3 targets:
30s (max damage) - 40-42k
30s (slightly more power sensitive) - 38-40k
1 target:
30s - 19-20k

Which puts it with Atomic dps wise without crystal but with meh, slightly less power issues. Happy I just switched to Earth on live. Gonna test weapon combo buff for rotations similar to live tomorrow. About to hop back on Wildlands for the rest of tonight.

P.S. - Still hate the idea of Pets nerfing our power regen while in combat. I'd rather have the ability that gives our pets power scale with vit to change our mods or sp instead of making me unable to run non-pet rotations period.

Earth Tanking First Impressions

Okay where do I start. Let's say there's good deal of small improvements but there's also seems to be a large mechanical issue at hand.

The Good

• The multi-target pull with Earthern Grip. Not much to be said on that. Will speak on a possible issue on this later on in the post.
• Reducing cool down, increasing strength, and increasing duration on Gemstone Shield. Gemstone seems to work just like on Live where you can adjust the shield absorption amount from 50%, 63%, 83%, and 100% which is useful depending on the situation. No longer breaks in three hits on the 50% cast.
• Jackhammer and Upheaval seem to be exactly the same as Live which is terrific. You can adjust the duration on Jackhammer just like on Live. Jackhammer has a slightly shorter cooldown compared to Live.
• Envelop healing is much better improved and extremely useful for those rough no healer situations.

The Bad

• Earthern Grip seems to have a really narrow cone for pulling enemies. Any way to adjust this? And the cooldown on it has a slight delay that doesn't make it as quick as other pulls....I'm assuming this is due to the crowd control effect Earthern Grip does?
• Stone has a 300 power cost for a single target taunt? Why? Doesn't seem consistent compared to similar abilities from other powersets.
• Jackhammer's duration is not being stated properly as compared to Live's version. The effects window doesn't really show what duration amount you have and it still states it as Absorption. I do happen to see the innate Earth tank buff in the effects menu so that's solid.
• Envelop DROPS aggro just like on Live! Fix this, Ice's Hiberantion was fixed for this, please do the same for Envelop! The horror of seeing my teammate porked was terrifying lol.
• Brick doesn't seem to be showing any signs of transferring damage to himself. I don't see the damage transference FX, I don't see numbers on the log regarding transference as it does on Live, I don't see any changes to Defense (if there's supposed to be). I do see one number and it's Brick's Jackhammer absorbing damage for him.

The Ugly

For this section, I need to write a paragraph. To simply state how it felt tanking for the very first time.....it felt extremely weak at times (like an Ice tank without shields) and other times it felt super powerful to say in layman's terms. And it all seems to stem from how the actual statistical mechanic is actually working. A blocking Earth tank without blue immunity, is a DEAD tank hands down seeing as how the buffs only work while not blocking. That seems extremely unrewarding and unfair. I can see where a defense buff can help with having you being able to attack and feel as powerful as blocking (how Atomic is on Live)...that's rewarding....but when you can't even block due to the loss of buffs seems so weird to me. You should have the freedom of attacking or blocking and feeling just as strong with both (aside from the counters in the whole scenario).

I felt weak in three main areas; adds, blocking, lack of healing (though this is a personnel based issue). I'm definitely more reliant on healers with Earth compared to other powers on Test server and even compared to Live....the healers properly work harder on me than other powers that's for sure. Adds were rough to get by......BUT with exceptions. Adds felt manageable and easy only when I spammed Jackhammer, other forms of crowd control, and then rotated in Gemstone Shield every opportunity I got. There were moments where strong attacks would literally cripple me and I would have needed to cry for heals at times. Compared to Live, I feel strong while blocking and my absorption up and there were rarely any moments where I needed to cry for help. I do need healing to keep me topped off but there are very few moments where I'm on the brink of death unless I don't block and if I'm running heavy content.

I think the Stone Skin buff should be relooked at. Firstly it needs to work with and without blocking that way you get equal mitigation depending on the counter situation...currently during countering melee attacks with blocking....leads you to a disadvantage. I honestly think the buff should not be defense but reverted back to 50% absorption....and if it needs further work....I'm honestly am going to recommend 65-70% absorption. Yeah that might seem a bit high but face it, Earth has no self healing....no multiple shields to rotate....it requires healing-in from Healers to stay top off.

The playstyle I'm envisioning in my head is similar to how it's playing on Live while blocking. Except make it just as strong without blocking. On Live there's 80% defense while blocking, there's blue immunity shielding, and the 50% absorption running in the background....making you into a damage absorbing sponge where you can take bit hits that are laughable for an Earth tank but you still need heals to keep you topped off. Right now.....big hits are dropping you to almost 60% to 50% health while not blocking and 30% while blocking. That just doesn't feel right to me. I do understand that I was able to beat the content in the video below but I did have two healers, constant shielding, constant crowd control, and two controllers. In SM for example, most of this isn't possible. Will look over the DPS stuff now and continue ongoing testing of the tanking in various content. Here's footage of Live and of Stats Revamp for constructive review. Thanks for your time and hard work.

Stats Revamp Footage:



Live Server Footage:

You want to say that it's okay if earth's ranged aoe pull it's by 3 seconds slower than other powersets' ranged aoe pulls?
They say the want balance, so let's help them and tell them how , by making some powers work exactly the same way just having different animations.

Please devs, that sound is KILLING ME, my ears at least, animation is awful (ok, we need something to know Brick's alive) but you gotta get rid of that sound

There is omething odd with the absorbtion... Sometimes it gets weak for no reason... Also: though i like the multi pull with earthen grip, the cooldown is not going off untill some time after the animation ended... Also also: the animation of stone is ODD...

maybe gauss granate / paralizing dart could fit earths stone animation?
or it could share quantums tachion blast animation?
or maybe just center the shot from the middle of your character...

They took away absorption?! Wow, so much for the "Not much has changed in regards to function!". Yeah I can defiantly see this as an issue that theyre going to have to tweak.
Anyhow keep this type of feedback up for those of us who are unable to run test server. Helps us put in our own input.