Introduction The risk:reward curve for beastlords is heavily skewed in Tears of Veeshan. Whereas pre-ToV a high innate critical bonus from Feral Rampage/Spirituality (as well as many AA options, e.g. Advantageous Advance, Critical Wounds, Rapid Decimation, etc.) compensated for lower base ability values, this is no longer true with ToV itemization. Additionally, spiritual stance which boosts stats linearly now provides trivial enhancement compared to other classes. The suggestions in this thread are separated into two sections: Quality of Life (QoL) and fundamental changes (FC). QoL changes should not impact EncDPS or 'parse' values in a significant way in a raid setting, rather make the class more enjoyable to play. FC changes are aimed at fixing core issues that have been introduced with the stat shift. Effort has been given to maintain, what I consider, to be key elements of the beastlord class (e.g. savagery, advantages, primals, feral rampage/spirituality stacks, etc.) that provide a unique playstyle. I'd like to keep the identity of 'high risk:high reward' while lowering the barrier to entry in some cases, and increasing the returns for apt play in others. Additionally, I strive to preserve mechanics that entice players to plan minutes in advance and adapt that in real time to achieve optimal results - something which makes the beastlord the most mechanically and mathematically demanding class in the game. Quality of Life Unchained Ferocity On termination now applies six stacks of Feral Rampage or Spirituality depending on the beastlord's stance Applies six stacks of Feral RampageIf in Feral StanceApplies six stacks of SpiritualityIf in Spiritual Stance This skill is great at what it does: allows a beastlord to quickly 'ramp up' into a primal burst or continuous chain, which is imperative at the start of an encounter or after a 'reset' (e.g. joust, death, status, whatever). However, as previously shown Feral Rampage/Spirituality values have a significant effect on ability effectiveness. Changing this skill to provide 6 stacks upon termination would provide a boon primarily in heroic or other short duration encounters. It also allows a beastlord to quickly burst targets from a stand still (e.g. 10 advantages into feral pain w/ 6 stacks into 6 primals), which is how I expect most players to utilize the skill. This change is aimed towards the more casual audience, who either don't fully understand the mechanics of the class or find the micromanagement too worrisome. With this change, the class will function identical to their playstyle and will minimize micromanagement outside long duration encounters (raids). Master of Beasts No longer provides AE blockerBeastlord warders are immune to all damage, all threat generated by the warder is attributed to the beastlordCannot attack targets that are not hostile towards the beastlord This seems like a powerful change when it really isn't (ideally this is a nerf). A warder provides 2~5% of a beastlord's EncDPS in a solo setting, and as little as < 1~2% in raid. However, if a warder should die (which a beastlord frequently cannot do anything about), it is at a detriment of 35% or more of the beastlord's damage output. Examples of warder OHKOs are non-blockable AE damage (Klandicar) or curses that are applied to all encounter participants (penultimate named in Dominion). This is aimed to make a beastlord warder function more similarly to a channeler pet (an enabler, or an object that adds functionality to the class rather than a damage source directly). The damage provided by the pet is small enough that providing it perm-immunity won't break the game, and reallocating threat prevents exploits. Additionally, this change has the added benefit of encouraging warder diversity. Call of the Wild Now grants critical bonus based off the beastlord's haste 1:25No longer punishes beastlords from swapping between stances. Adrenal Flow Now stops savagery loss from Spirituality and Feral Rampage when out of combatChillbarrier Can now criticalBug Fixes Fundamental Changes Feral Primals Significantly increase the savagery and feral rampage scaling modifiers (roughly double) This is a potent change, and can increase beastlord EncDPS by approximately 30%. Beastlords were introduced as a high risk/high reward class which requires extensive support, planning, and mechanical ability to produce optimal yields - and this change is aimed to allow for that. Currently, beastlord EncDPS is below other scouts which offer significantly more utility (e.g. threat transfer, debuffs, buffs, range, etc.). As such, there is no desire to utilize a beastlord as multiple other classes provide higher damage, support, and are easier to use (require less support, more consistent). This change is aimed at reintroducing reward to compensate for the risk. Spiritual Primals Kaldrahir's Leadership now grants bonus potency based off the beastlord's potency (8 - 20%) for 10 sSoulbreath now grants bonus critical bonus based off the beastlord's critical bonus (3 - 15%) for 10 sFerocious Roar now increases group Auto Attack Multiplier by 0.10 - 0.22 instead of WDB 10% - 22% for 10 s These, as well, are also potent changes. The premise is to place spiritual stance beastlords in a comparable position to illusionists. Spiritual stance is more scout focused, and may fill a void for scout-dps groups in raid scenarios where previously scouts were only sought after when paired with fighters. While stacking the potency / critical bonus buffs offers a comparable multiplier to time warp, it is much more difficult to coordinate with other players. Ferocious Roar is a functionality change addressed to the ease of obtaining WDB with reference to AA multiplier. Ralissk's Perception Restore to old functionality This was a great groupwide proc that was changed to a mediocre green ability with power/health restore. I'm not sure why this was changed.
Nice.. I would also add under 'bug'' section to fix 'primal Assault' so that aoe primals ( Luclin, dragon breath and sonic shriek) trigger it.
It isn't a bug though. ='( I'm not sure how they would trigger it either. They are PBAEs without a target, thus there isn't a 'target' for the damage. I suppose you could amend the skills to do an "if" check (e.g. if primal assault = true, do XXX damage AE) but that seems kind of silly. The skill does exactly what it says it does.
Beastlord DPS is not the an issue, nor is it why top end guilds don't run them. We can do top notch dps already. The Problem lies in the fact that in end raid encounters a Beastlord cannot get in and stay in long enough to post the numbers they are capable of. The only thing wrong with spiritual is that is did not scale with the changes to HP. currently I have very few issues raiding on my BL, but I have only killed the 5th name in Temple raid, so I'm guessing that the problems everyone is speaking of is coming from mobs further in. I do not have nor have I ever had problems with my pet dyeing contently, so again, I am just going to guess that this is coming from mobs further in Temple. That being said, the only issues with the class is changes that would make them desirable to end raid content guilds.
You are correct, most of these changes are directed at ToV end game content. The pet survivability stem from later encounters, many of which have unavoidable damaging spells (e.g. Klanidcar, Zlandicar). You are correct in that a beastlord needs to 'stay in' to put up meaningful numbers, and the Unchained Ferocity change is addressed partially to this issue. I think you overestimate the beastlord's relative EncDPS values. Because of the way encounters are structured, every spiritual advantage/primal could heal the group to full and the class would not replace or supplement a priest in a meaningful fashion. Therefore, it is necessary to define the class in a different supportive role (e.g. tank/scout centric illusionist). They have many abilities that suggest this, %DR, minor power abilities, %mit, aspd/dps buffs, and CB/Potency buffs that were significant until the ToV itemization shift. The proposed changes simply account for this shift.
All changes pretty irrelevant for a top end raid situation unless you give BL's a decent HP debuff. Making them able to do 10% more dps then a ranger/assassin, means nothing when Rangers debuff mobs max HP by 5%, and Assassins by 6-8%. Sadly thats the way with scouts atm.
You're absolutely right. The numbers have to be very high, and the 2x modifier on primal scaling is conservative.
I'd consider playing again if Beastlords got some Class re-working. Koko, your proposed changes are pretty awesome, actually. Let's make some noise. Dreadtalon, a Freetard of Freeport
I'd really like this class to be playable, if not viable. The recent ninja-nerf to savagery drain (roughly +80%) is not helping, but there are other fundamental problems that need to be addressed. Mainly ability scaling (base damage vs. other T1 DPS) the risk vs. reward aspect of the class (no utility, lower damage, & high complexity vs. high utility, higher damage, & low complexity).
Yeah, I am know I am necroing. And I do apologize for that. But being new to the game and spending the last week or so seeking a main. I think I may have landed on BeastLord. The mechanics suit me probably more than any other class I have tried. BUT, my concern is, that on these forums and in game there seems to be a lot of concern about BL's within high level raids and encounters, and I while I like the class I don't have an abundance of time to level up multiple classes in case I chose poorly. So to get to my question. And this is probably more directed at SOE. Are there positive changes in store for BL's in the future, or at least discussions in that regard? Thanks!
A dev recently posted All that said, we are looking into beastlords specifically for the expansion. Xelgad, Aug 8, 2014 #2Last edited by Xelgad, Aug 8, 2014 I raid on my beastlord, so curious to see what they come up with
