This thread will put more focus on the Berserker morph and also more focus towards PvP
To start of this topic I´ll begin by quoting @jediodyn_ESO who did a nice summary of his/her view of the changes made to werewolf on the Scalebreaker PTS:
Hircine´s Fortitude:
I personally think it´s the right call to reduce the effectiveness of this skill since it was overperforming in PvP. No other heal in the game comes remotely close to such a potent heal. What I don´t agree with is how the nerf is done. Reducing the healing or increasing the cost would´ve been a good move, but both at the same time is way overkill. My suggestion is to lower the potency of the heal, but leave the cost as it is.
Increased cost of werewolf skills (not including Hircine´s Fortitude):
Not as big of a deal if you ask me, people will survive and adapt.
Pack-Leader morph
This morph is utterly useless at this point. The morph offers 0 damage output and in terms of utility, the snare and minor maim from the direwolves are not good enough as a compensation.
Werewolf damage output
This section is what´s going to make up the majority of this post, since it´s the most concerning one. Ever since Summerset launched, werewolfs has lost more and more damage each new patch.
In Summerset, werewolfs never got the buffs to light-& heavy attacks (new system where your max resource contributed more to your LA/HA damage) as everyone else got. Adding some bugs that occurred at the same time, this ended up with a 15-20% damage loss to werewolfs light-& heavy attacks (while everyone else that wasn´t a werewolf saw a buff of 15-20 % to their light-& heavy attacks)
In Wolfhunter, werewolfs lost the unique weapon damage modifier from Hircine´s Rage, resulting in even less damage output. As compensation, werewolf received increased survivability through the new Hircine´s Fortitude and it scaling from max HP.
We all remember Murkmire with the bugged enchants and werewolf bleeds proccing them. I´ll leave them out of this context however, since I don´t believe in balancing something after how something that is considered a bug performs.
In Elsweyr, werewolfs lost their ability to refresh the light attack (LA) bleed upon each new light attack. On top of this, the bleed duration was reduced to 4 seconds, down from 8. The damage tooltip remained unchanged however. From a PvP perspective, this was a small buff to the berserker morph since the pressure was a lot more frontloaded than before, and more experienced werewolf players would make good use of this (aka lowering the floor, raising the ceiling). From a PvE/Pack-Leader perspective, it was a noticeable damage nerf, since the bleed damage on the Pack-Leader morph was nerfed at the same time.
As you can see, werewolf has lost damage over quite sometime. And now ZOS decides to reduce damage even more. Which in my opinion is a death-sentence for them in PvP. With bleeds not ignoring resistance anymore, the berserker bleed has taken up to a 60% damage nerf in PvP. On top of that you further reduce the damage on most of our skills and light attacks. Werewolf has always been a tool to deal with very tanky and durable targets and has the last 2-3 patches been a soft counter to the "tank-meta" that people despise so much. Why would I pick a 255-300 (depending on what class you play) cost ultimate that doesn´t give me any edge over my opponent?
Werewolf should be focused around high damage output, and I don´t see it as a problem with them having "a bit over the top" damage output, as long as their tankiness/survivability ain´t too overkill. As it stands with the current PTS notes, werewolf doesn´t have any of these things. They don´t have the damage output to apply high single target pressure (especially with vigor being overbuffed) and they don´t have enough survivability to withstand longer fights due to the changes to Hircine´s Fortitude. I´m fine with making a choice between damage and survivability, but at the moment I can´t choose neither one of them.
My proposals:
* The werewolf bleed continues to ignore physical resistance as a unique mechanic (it´s an ultimate after all), but remove the extra 25% damage bonus to the berserker bleed that was added with Scalebreaker PTS.
* Hircine´s Fortitude gets reduced in potency, but doesn´t get any cost increase.
* Remove the direwolves from the pack-leader morph (so no snare or maim from this morph anymore). The Pack-Leader morph is now a utility morph that boosts the performance of other werewolfs in the group. For each werewolf in the group (pack-leader included) the cost of werewolf skills are reduced by 3% (up to a maximum of 12%) and damage done increased by 2% for each werewolf in the group (up to a maximum of 8%). These %-numbers are just examples and can be tweaked. This way, the pack-leader morph becomes a utility morph that focuses around group play.
* Undo the damage nerf to Howl of Agony and Light-& Heavy attack damage. If not, reduce the damage nerf so werewolf doesn´t hit like a wet noodle in PvP.
@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_BrianWheeler
@ZOS_Gilliam
@Masel @Alcast (tagging some of the class-reps just in case ^^)
To start of this topic I´ll begin by quoting @jediodyn_ESO who did a nice summary of his/her view of the changes made to werewolf on the Scalebreaker PTS:
New patch nerfs the crud out of BOTH morphs.
Berserker gets a TON less damage.
Here let me break it down:
Resistances apply to all bleeds = dmg nerf
17% dmg reduction to light & heavy attacks
Cost increase (big) + damage reduction (small) on claws - damage change would be ok if not for the increased cost.
17% damage reduction on howl of agony with a (lol) %3 increase to a feared target
Fear nerfed and now has a shorter range than light attacks. (ridiculous)
Huge cost increases means needing more sustain so.. less defense and/or offense.
Also:
Slap in the face 1% cost reduction to pounce
Healing ridiculously gutted - huge cost increase and less healing
+25% bleed damage doesn’t compensate for all that lost damage and increased cost. Also, all other bleeds also had a face damage increase but take an overall damage decrease due to resistance... so overall less damage.
Make no mistake, both morphs are getting neutered. WW fall 2019- roleplayers only.
Hircine´s Fortitude:
I personally think it´s the right call to reduce the effectiveness of this skill since it was overperforming in PvP. No other heal in the game comes remotely close to such a potent heal. What I don´t agree with is how the nerf is done. Reducing the healing or increasing the cost would´ve been a good move, but both at the same time is way overkill. My suggestion is to lower the potency of the heal, but leave the cost as it is.
Increased cost of werewolf skills (not including Hircine´s Fortitude):
Not as big of a deal if you ask me, people will survive and adapt.
Pack-Leader morph
This morph is utterly useless at this point. The morph offers 0 damage output and in terms of utility, the snare and minor maim from the direwolves are not good enough as a compensation.
Werewolf damage output
This section is what´s going to make up the majority of this post, since it´s the most concerning one. Ever since Summerset launched, werewolfs has lost more and more damage each new patch.
In Summerset, werewolfs never got the buffs to light-& heavy attacks (new system where your max resource contributed more to your LA/HA damage) as everyone else got. Adding some bugs that occurred at the same time, this ended up with a 15-20% damage loss to werewolfs light-& heavy attacks (while everyone else that wasn´t a werewolf saw a buff of 15-20 % to their light-& heavy attacks)
In Wolfhunter, werewolfs lost the unique weapon damage modifier from Hircine´s Rage, resulting in even less damage output. As compensation, werewolf received increased survivability through the new Hircine´s Fortitude and it scaling from max HP.
We all remember Murkmire with the bugged enchants and werewolf bleeds proccing them. I´ll leave them out of this context however, since I don´t believe in balancing something after how something that is considered a bug performs.
In Elsweyr, werewolfs lost their ability to refresh the light attack (LA) bleed upon each new light attack. On top of this, the bleed duration was reduced to 4 seconds, down from 8. The damage tooltip remained unchanged however. From a PvP perspective, this was a small buff to the berserker morph since the pressure was a lot more frontloaded than before, and more experienced werewolf players would make good use of this (aka lowering the floor, raising the ceiling). From a PvE/Pack-Leader perspective, it was a noticeable damage nerf, since the bleed damage on the Pack-Leader morph was nerfed at the same time.
As you can see, werewolf has lost damage over quite sometime. And now ZOS decides to reduce damage even more. Which in my opinion is a death-sentence for them in PvP. With bleeds not ignoring resistance anymore, the berserker bleed has taken up to a 60% damage nerf in PvP. On top of that you further reduce the damage on most of our skills and light attacks. Werewolf has always been a tool to deal with very tanky and durable targets and has the last 2-3 patches been a soft counter to the "tank-meta" that people despise so much. Why would I pick a 255-300 (depending on what class you play) cost ultimate that doesn´t give me any edge over my opponent?
Werewolf should be focused around high damage output, and I don´t see it as a problem with them having "a bit over the top" damage output, as long as their tankiness/survivability ain´t too overkill. As it stands with the current PTS notes, werewolf doesn´t have any of these things. They don´t have the damage output to apply high single target pressure (especially with vigor being overbuffed) and they don´t have enough survivability to withstand longer fights due to the changes to Hircine´s Fortitude. I´m fine with making a choice between damage and survivability, but at the moment I can´t choose neither one of them.
My proposals:
* The werewolf bleed continues to ignore physical resistance as a unique mechanic (it´s an ultimate after all), but remove the extra 25% damage bonus to the berserker bleed that was added with Scalebreaker PTS.
* Hircine´s Fortitude gets reduced in potency, but doesn´t get any cost increase.
* Remove the direwolves from the pack-leader morph (so no snare or maim from this morph anymore). The Pack-Leader morph is now a utility morph that boosts the performance of other werewolfs in the group. For each werewolf in the group (pack-leader included) the cost of werewolf skills are reduced by 3% (up to a maximum of 12%) and damage done increased by 2% for each werewolf in the group (up to a maximum of 8%). These %-numbers are just examples and can be tweaked. This way, the pack-leader morph becomes a utility morph that focuses around group play.
* Undo the damage nerf to Howl of Agony and Light-& Heavy attack damage. If not, reduce the damage nerf so werewolf doesn´t hit like a wet noodle in PvP.
@ZOS_GinaBruno
@ZOS_BrianWheeler
@ZOS_Gilliam
@Masel @Alcast (tagging some of the class-reps just in case ^^)
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