Information Halloween 2020 Balance Changes [Explained]

Is this the buff we need to do high damage? Probably not. Is this the buff we deserve because we don't know how to control our characters and require perma stance and dexbucc avoid? Apparently.

For what it's worth, in HT specifically, you should not be falling off the left side transformed. If you need to leave the platform to rebuff, corkscrew can let you climb either side to the top without even touching the rope.

 

Still salty about the ropes?

 

Cooooooool! Is this with SI?

 

*claps*
point proven : RIP, it is now perma stance discussion guys. (From adding more charges to perma stance idk how dont ask)
point proven : I have pepe hands and do now know how to cork screw blow until lvl 183, wings down you be cord screwing air.
point proven : Not only drk/hero/pally have clowns, apparently bucc have too, while shitting down on own class.
point proven : Stay left side, good point until the whole party comes to you for SI buff. Go down and rebuff and its HTJQ all over. Wing down ? good luck，you just reach zakum jump quest level 2.


Disclaimer: I am sorry, i got pepehands, i use 4 hour to finish zakum jump quest. Did you just suggest i stop playing Buccaneer ?

 

I'm probably the last person to say the class needs buffs. It's definitely not the *class* that I'm "shitting down" .

Real talk though, if its not perma-stance, what is it that we need to climb rope? And how are archers able to climb it with similar (if not higher w/o gear optimization) levels of avoid?

 

Legend has it, we use a secret portal to get back up.

 

If you realise. Incase you didnt, they are ranged. Their positioning is way better and do not require to STICK THEIR HEAD TO THE HT PARTS YOU ARE KILLING.

Dont know how you missed this but, dont bring demolition into this, their range is still far better and have no blind spot.

 

Ranged isnt some magic ability that lets you do damage anywhere, anytime. They have to reposition much more than we do, especially if they want to hit the midhead. Where do you usually stand that makes you fall off?

 

This has been my exact point while discussing "bucc buffs", it all comes down to character control(timing, precision and repositioning). I'm not the best at any of those and certainly require more practice. Not tryna complaining, but I certainly dislike the QoL(Stance) buff to buccs this time round.

The key point in this is buccs should not be falling off the left side transformed. Only time you should ever be off of top left platform in transformation is when both HT heads are cancelled or when you're rebuffing after a dispel.

1) Longer bubble up time(more stance duration) in itself is a bad decision IMO. More charges on the other hand is always welcomed, therefore, let's give the 50% additional charge rate a test run before asking for more charges. All in all, adding both in the same update? Sure, but no thanks to more stance.

2) You can still CSB to assaulter platform on either side when the arm stretches out. Also, timing a hit from HT for iframes or just getting hit by a rock works too. Not the best counter-argument, I know.

3) Neither iPippy or I am shitting on our own class, in this case, Buccs. For me, it's just that these buffs can be put onto some other aspects of the class rather than a QoL change. More importantly, the fact that a balance team member has spoken to Bucc mains and still settle on these buffs is a testament to how our opinions STILL don't matter.

4) I personally go over to the right to SI my party members(if necessary) when transformation is on cooldown. With SI 14, I'm at a comfortable spot with rebuffing and going back to top left before my transformation is off cooldown. However, when someone get's "SI bug" or "my SI ran out", they can go fuck themselves, just don't rebuff idiots.

 

SI14 squad assemble. I wouldnt call stance buff an unwelcome change, but it definitely aims at improving consistency/ease of use for the class. Our "good run" output probably wont go up too much, but the "average run" will likely go better. I've got plenty of stuff to test out to know for sure though.

 

No reason to hate on the Shad buff... It benefits everyone in the party. Shads have crappy DPS, a little buff to their party utility can't hurt.

 

6-man shad parties can now have 4.5min of smoke and 30 second downtime woohoo

 

Welp, i dont wanna put up a map. people like you are a really tiring "thing" to deal with. If there isnt a problem on stance at start, why would people be requesting it.

#use your big brains to think c:
#ask the first bucc that gets to 200 why she said we get knocked more often than usual c:
#talk whatever you want, if there really isnt an issue why balance team thought of it and BUFFED it.
#yeah right, all other buccs are pepega except you, you so smart to use tricks to prevent yourself from felling. *claps*

HAPPY FOR YOU. YOU TOO SMART !

shck

*If its not the best counter-argument, dont even mention, its not helping.
*Its not that your opinions dont matter, there is kinda only 2 of you guys that has the power to mitigate the issue and call it normal* Majority > Minority.

 

Just my $0.69 first thoughts

I feel like this is an improvement to pallies dpm (in general) but nearly all bosses aren't weak to holy unfortunately and some are strong/resistant to some bosses such as cwkpq Margana. Its alright to be used against bosses like HT/Zak that have no weakness to any element.
In NT, Targa/Scar, other bosses of cwkpq, your still better off using flame/blizzard/lightning charge as they are weak to those said elements in which elemental weakness give more multiplier than just a straight up 0.1x multiplier from holy charge.
But at least its finally now worth dumping skill points on rather than just leaving it ignored cough cough Ninja Ambush

For bossing, Heaven's Hammer probably will still go unused mainly if pallies are more funded.
Don't forget HH now does 50k damage against bosses, its only good if you aren't heavily funded but if you hit higher numbers or even 6 digit numbers on blasts or acb than HH is still going to be a hindrance.
For farming/grinding HH is now more convenient and effective now.

I honestly feel like this is probably one of the great buffs after assasinate buff for shadowers. But yes smokescreen with 10 min cd was just too situational. With the long cooldown, there are some situations where smokescreen needs to be cast at the right time. Some scenarios that smoke has to be used
* Mass Sed, if all hope is lost, other party members hero's will are on cd and bishop fails to holy shield properly.
* Ressing a squishy player that could just die 1 hit after a ress
* Waiting for cancel magic attack (99.9% of the time)
* For bosses with multiple bodies like Pre Head HT, Verga, Nibergen, Zak, and etc.
* Mass dispel from HT (mainly for bishops so they don't die to dispel)

Now a 5 min cooldown, it is indeed comparing to old smokescreen, you have 90 seconds of taking no damage which in longer boss runs, attackers can save more hp pots within the time frame but also it now makes smokescreen much more usable when off cd. This makes it that shadowers will use even fewer pots in boss fights for instance a shadower could prob use 30-40 hp pots instead of 50-60 hp pots in one horntail run.
For instance, shadowers smokescreens, when someone dies outside of smokescreen, you can essentially wait 5 minutes and have the bishop guarantee a smokescreen + ress to ensure their squishy attacker gets succesfully ressed and given hb or magic guard on time without hindrance.
Also it can make solving some of those scenarios much easier given shadowers can smoke once per 5 minutes.

I don't have much insight about buccs but +5% increased weapon mastery on an active skill is a surprised change. I honestly didn't expect an active skill can be coded to contain passive effect cause limitations. I thought it would be +5% more mastery on knuckle mastery LUL.
But don't forget, buccs get to keep their bonus attack for 10 extra secs from energy charge so a bit more damage.

I feel like Buccaneers now have lower downtime for energy charge for bosses which means easier access for stance. Definitely a QoL change for bossing buccs.
But then again, these changes are a right step in the direction. It may have a small significance for bosses that don't multiple platform but bosses like HT it helps a bit more.

 

Me agrada pero esperaba que energy orb si afecte a varias partes del cuerpo de ht como pasa en los brazos de zk, no estoy 100% convencido pero no lo sabre hasta ver los cambios en marcha

 

se que no soy el mejor jugador de buccs ni que estoy con un financiamiento divino pero ni bien se restablezca el juego tratare de medir un epm 45 en ht para romper mitos de damage y dudas sobre postura usando la distribución estándar que vi de ir a la cabeza izquierda después de la cola y otra atacando alas y brazo derecho con mi propio macro que tengo
PD: ¡Yo creo mis propias opciones! >:v

 

Bucc buffs were probably the most difficult ones to decide on overall. I know that at the very least it probably had the most discussion going for it. Honestly, I heard a lot of different things from a lot of different people. Many people were happy with where buccaneers were but others weren't, and getting to the bottom of that in terms of balancing becomes difficult, as it's a complicated class that can have wildly different outcomes depending on personal skill and what you're killing. Personally I'm anticipating that the bubble buffs will help people just starting out at HT, where they can't rely on avoid or experience to save them, along with providing slightly more damage with more ideal combos for everyone. It's still important to know what to do outside of bubble, but at the very least those periods have been shortened to get on with the meat of the fight. I do believe that some classes begin to scale much better late game than they ought to compared to mid-game, and bucc is one of them, along with sair and the bowmen, as their DPM growth in bosses seems to be less linear than others, with more factors involved as they master their class.

Damage is always a difficult part of balancing. It's hard to say who belongs where on the DPM charts, or even what level of gear/buffs should be included in the DPM charts, but overall with the mastery buff this should put buccaneers on the same level as Heroes for single target. There were a lot of places that could've been hit, individual skills and whatnot, but personally I enjoy the metas that involve chaining different skills together. Royals did buccaneers a disservice in making them demo mules, so instead I believed that buccs can thrive under a small dpm buff to every skill. It's difficult to make changes without breaking the identity, so what was brought to the table were a couple small changes that accentuate the class without fully nullifying any of the weaknesses, but as usual I'll be on the lookout for what else can be done in the future to improve every class, and I quite enjoy small buffs everywhere in a slow process over patches, that's how I'll try to personally approach for buffs or nerfs for everyone in the future. ^^