Years of us asking for meaningful SK DoT boosts, nerfed instead. lol

Discussion in 'Tanks' started by Gorehammer, Dec 6, 2022.

  1. Gorehammer Lorekeeper

    I must have missed the memo where flabbergasted raiders secretly revolted against SK's apparently winning most parses or something. I had no idea SK DoTs were a dps problem..

    TL;DR: Whether us being "half necro" was being considered or not, I and others have been politely asking for DoT *improvements* for double-digit years, only to pay $33 to have them nerfed instead? :eek: Say it ain't so.. :(

    Things started looking up when they consolidated DoT lines stacking, and increased mob debuff slots was good for raiding guilds, but mostly a non-factor for SK's who rarely get to dot in raids anyway due to must-mem tank spells (another long-running failure of consolidation, IMO). Most group encounters also limit the SK to 1-2 DoTs as well, though I and other SK's I know actually consider our Bond line (lifetap over time) a tanking spell and not really a DoT. Maybe I'd consider it a DoT if it hit closer to Blood's dmg while of course reducing the heal recourse % accordingly? idk. But yeah, the DoT improvements stopped there, and now a head-scratching step backwards for SKs.

    A single BST DoT is like an SK casting 3-4 DoTs (and who knows what that ratio is for necro:SK), so I strongly felt we were NOT in danger of stepping on true DPS classes' toes, but I guess I was completely wrong; so much so that it required devs to step in to prevent game-breaking power imbalance. Who knew?

    We know Wars should out-tank knights, Pallies should out-heal other tanks, and logically SK's should be the highest DPS of the tanks, right? Best utility tank at least? If the devs have a different idea of what an SK should be, I'd like to hear it. A developer's vision of what a class represents can and does change, certainly so over 24 years, and that can even be a healthy thing, but sometimes it is not.

    On that note, sorry, but I wouldn't put the entirely circumstantial 'AE hate' as the unique defining trait of SK's, especially since it's not uniquely ours to begin with. Either way, no thank you. In fact, I'd have zero problem with Pally's getting some AE hate, the Knight Life be hard. Nowadays, popping AE hate on raids will get your average SK killed often enough, thus bringing more chaos to the raid attempt, plus single-pulling mobs for XP is the most typical situation in the group and solo game, no AE hate needed. Slay Undead allows Pallies to be the DPS tank in a lot of content literally every expansion, so SK's don't even get to claim that title consistently (it's also alarming how much dps SU is for hitting zero buttons, compared to how much work an SK has to do to pump up their own numbers). And let's not forget that the utility of SK's FD was weakened when other classes were gifted with fade abilities. I'm not against that change, but just understand that it cut into the decades-old class strength argument of "well SK's get FD and other tanks don't, so you don't need anything else" [spongebobmocking.jpg].

    I ask the devs then: what does being an SK in 2023 mean to you? Does our necro heritage mean *anything* for class abilities and potency, or is it just lore-for-show? What traits should make the SK unique and enjoyable across all content, if not adequately exhibiting the skills from our parent classes? Where should SK DPS be among all the classes in most content? Near the middle? At the very bottom? Would there be any tanking/utility compensation for being placed so low in this regard? I would certainly hope so for ANY class that places near the bottom of the game's DPS chart.

    I know this may be a non-issue for some of you SK's and non-SK's alike, but I believe that in video game life and in real life, you have to fight for what you want/need, and you especially have to fight for what little you do have, because through complacency you could lose those things too. And so here we are, the excitement of a new expansion alongside the cold, wet slap of a nerf to a class not known for their DPS output anyway. Plus it's the principle of the matter; years of us asking for some DoT love, trying to work with devs to reasonably help round-out our class, only to be shoved back down the garbage chute. It's backwards, backwards I tell you! lol. But I hope through communication and the occasional long-winded rant that we may undo this SK Enhanced Decay/Ruin AA nerf, and/or make DoT improvements elsewhere, maybe even, dare I say, for a net gain. - I for one would like to see a couple DoT lines beefed up and moved to our AA's, for example, as well as another spell slot or two.
  2. Szilent Augur

    I'm not seeing that? here's a couple of my guildmates' dot damage over a long raid night:
    Bst
    [IMG]
    [IMG]

    Shd
    [IMG]
    [IMG]
    [IMG]

    is what you're observing very different than these? Bst dots are a bit higher on average, but boosted by the twin rate they got from grouping with rangers.
  3. Fintank Augur

    BL willl not receive a charge usable on spells from Scarlet. SK's however do. Seeing as how both classes are incapable of twincasting outside of other class intervention or their Bifold clicks, I'd bet on SK's doing more. SK's possess the ability through AA burns to actually boost their DoT damage, whereas Beastlords do not. Throughout the course of an entire fight of "proper" upkeep and burning, the SK dots in the same group will likely outperform.
  4. Zunar Augur

    Yeah the enhanced ruin AA that adds damage to DoT spells (which got nerfed slightly) is something beastlords don't even have in the first place.
    Sks don't only have this passive AA to boost all their DoT spells.
    They can also use spire and specter buff to boost DoTs even further.
    Add ranger scarlet to twincast them too and they'll go far ahead of bst DoT capability.
    Also SKs have twice more of them to load up when able to.
  5. Roxas MM Augur

    lol Zun, dont you sleep ?
  6. FranktheBank Augur

    Neither of these are true... SKs are frequently tanking multiple trash mobs in raids. And single mob killing is incredibly slow vs ae pulls...
  7. Maedhros High King

    This is a head scratcher.
    You play the most powerful class in the game, but seemingly not even scratching the surface of what it can do, but then complain about, *blink* dot damage?
    Its like owning a Lamborghini and never driving it over the speed limit but then complaining it doesnt get as much MPG as some other car.
    Bro you are missing the entire point.
    Annastasya, Praxeomatic and Wayylon like this.
  8. Raptorjesus5 Augur

    Sometimes I get frustrated with my SKs lack of dps, but any increase in our dps should come at a direct reduction of our self healing. We can't have it both ways.

    (And also SKs get some very solid burn dps anyways as it stands)
  9. Ozon Augur

    Sorry Gore, I have to say I think you are a out on a limb in this case. Effectively we loose 1 tick of dmg, a loss yes but not a big deal. We are still in a great spot tank wise, our aggro is off the charts, personal utility is really top 3 among all classes. Yes our raid utility is towards the bottom among classes, but that has never been our selling point.

    At worst our DoTs are now only better vs vastly better than they were before the DoT revamp. No one was ever taking a SK for raids or groups thinking "if we only had an SK, their DoTs would make this a win".
    Treiln and Maedhros like this.