New PTS patch notes, a closer look.

It looks like another batch of notes got thrown up on the Herald recently, there are some bangers in there, so lets take another look. Selected notes of interest are reposted below, I'm not going to cover everything, as I can only comment on things within my own experience.

Black Orc

* Balance Changes

* Da Toughest!: Wound buff increased from previously reduced value.

Good news! I'm stoked to see that Mythic has somewhat reversed their decision to nerf Da Toughest bellow. I always loved Da Toughest, and hearing that it got nerfed was a bummer. Now I can't tell you precisely how much they un-nerfed it, but any improvement is good. Black Orcs' main attribute is their survivability, and taking away from that is a mistake in my opinion. Hopefully we will see them continue to be unkillable hunks of green anger.

* Da Biggest!: This ability will now grant a stat buff to nearby group members.

* Da Bestest!: This ability has been renamed to “Guud at Big Choppin!” and will now increase damage and Parry rate while using a great weapon.

These two notes are major for BO's, with the change from An' Bestest to Gud at Big Choppin!. The new tactic is now similar to the Greataxe Mastery tactic that Ironbreakers have, which currently gives them an additional 5% Parry and 10% Damage when a greatweapon is equipped. This helps define the Da Brawla tree as a 2-handed dps Mastery path. Previously the Brawla tree had a slight lack of focus on greatweapons, with many BO's sticking to the sword and board. Now with the new tactic, using a greatweapon will be a more viable choice as compared to the survivability of a shield. 

Also, having Da Biggest now include the stat buff from An' Bestest is a cool buff to the group utility of a Black Orc, if they choose to forego Da 'Toughest. More utility is always welcome.

* Skull Thumper: The additional damage caused by this ability's debuff has been increased, is now mitigated as Corporeal damage, and no longer gains an increase from stats. Additionally, the damage from this effect will show up on its own line in the combat log.".

* Loudmouth: The damage of this ability has been increased and changed to Corporeal. However, this damage will not critically hit or receive benefit from stats.

Nice to see more damage from Skull Thumper, but also of note is the shift towards certain damage types for each career. In this case, BO's now putting out Corporeal damage as a supplemental damage type. I'm pretty excited about this because it will introduce a rock/paper/scissors variable to the game. Combined with the upcoming hardcap and diminishing returns on resists, players will have better resists against certain careers while being more vulnerable to others. You could stack Corp and Spirit resists to help against sorcerers, but be weaker against Elemental damage. I like the direction Mythic is going with this, as this will make RvR encounters a bit more strategic.

I'm not going to comment on the Choppa/Slayer notes, as they are fairly short and are mostly minor tweaks and bugfixes.

Chosen and Knobs get a HUGE buff with these latest notes, as auras/commands no longer cost AP, and their tactic that previously made them free is now converted to a 5AP/sec buff for each aura they have running. This helps the AP issues these careers were having, as well as encouraging them to twist auras to fully benefit from the new tactic. Almost enough to make me go back to either my Knob or Chosen. Almost.

Witch Hunters get another big buff in my opinion, as now all their pistol finishers scale based on Strength, instead of Ballistic Skill. This was a huge issue for them since WH's had to split their stat allocation at endgame between STR and Ballistics, compared to Witch Elves only having to stack STR. Witch Hunters had a naturally high base Ballistics value to compensate, but the issue persisted. Once the itemization is rebalanced to reflect the change, I think we will see the number of "buff WH plz" in the forums drop dramatically. Also, Witch Hunters are being adjusted to do Spiritual damage as their supplemental damage type, in keeping with the shift I mentioned earlier.

All in all, some great news for some classes. I'm sorry if I didn't address your career or notes, but I'll be keeping an eye out for more developments a they occur.

Why I'm not currently testing the Slayer.

This is weird. Very weird. It's just that I'm not on the PTS, playing the crap outta the new careers. Why? Well, its a bit complicated. First off I have a strange desire not to "spoil" anything for myself. I want my first login on the Slayer to be a completely new and fresh experience. But in the back of my head I have a little voice telling me I need to get on the PTS, for multiple reasons. For one thing, I can finalize my Slayer design, as I'll have access to all the needed tattoo art and other details I need to finish my character's design for the comic. Also, I can give useful feedback, as I pride myself on being really good about bug reporting, class feedback etc. None of this "OMG Slayers nedd a buff now our Deeps is teh suck!!" I can only imagine what the PTS forums are looking like about now, Although from my brief sojourn on the official forums I can see that Mythic is not playing around when it comes to deleting/locking flames and stupid trolling posts. Kudos to them. The WoW forums were such a cesspool because of this lack of efficient moderation.

Strangely, I'm not in a hurry to try out the Choppa either. I'm still keeping up with all the game news, browsing multiple forums and websites to soak up information as it is released. I'm still committed to playing the game, although a recent change in my work schedule has limited my evening playtime. I expect to get back on track once my body fully acclimatizes to waking up early or when the Bitter Rivals event begins, whichever comes first.

In a way, I'm glad we have tons of people on the PTS testing away. Mainly because a lot of these players are interested primarily in trying something new, but aren't really going to be making the Slayer or Choppa their main. Of course, I'm sure we will see the same pattern of activity that immediately followed the release of the Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun. Namely, we'll see tons of Slayers and Choppa in Tier 1, and early Tier 2, with numbers dropping into Tiers 3 and 4. At least, the PTS lets people get it out of their system, or decide whether or not they want to stick with the new classes.

With any luck, the event will go live sooner rather than later, and when it does I'll be hopping on and getting that influence. I want my Slayer on day one baby. Thank god the weekend is coming up, that ouughta give me a good amount of playtime, I need to get back in the groove.