Lost City of Omu Class Balance Changes and Implications
Although Neverwinter’s “Lost City of Omu” is not a balancing heavy update, it features some changes to classes that are worth talking about. As the devs said multiple times by now, they don’t prefer sweeping changes to balancing at this point anyway. Instead, they try to introduce small tweaks gradually, see how they perform, and go from there. So let’s go through the classes one by one and see what Module 13 has in store for them.
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Control Wizard
Control Wizards will receive a fair share of buffs, nerf and changes across the board. Nothing really changed for Renegade / Master of Flame buffers, but unfortunately overall damage could go down for your DPS loadouts. While Storm Spell can critically strike now, its damage has been reduced by 30% to counter some of the effect. Additionally, Wizards are hit by the nerf to Weapon Enchantments the most.
[su_quote]Various powers, across many classes, have been adjusted to trigger one weapon enchantment proc per target, per activation.[/su_quote]
DPS CWs were using the Lightning Enchantment to utilize those multi-procs. Since that’s no longer the case, a good chunk of DPS is gone, and replacement enchantments (Dread or Fey) are not as strong. For AoE damage, the Storm Spell / Thaumaturge builds you were running should remain the best option. For single target it might make sense to look into Oppressor though, because its capstone has been changed. More information on that can be found here and Sharpedge has already updated his mechanics guide for Mod 13 as well.
Devoted Cleric
The devs took a first swing at the two DC meta and players talk the impact controversially. Next to bugfixes, the important buff powers from Clerics no longer stack, and some stuff like the Hallowed Ground daily was nerfed as well. The overall sentiment we get however is that two DCs will remain the best option. At worst Divine Oracles have to fear that other buffing types might become a little more viable in their place.
Guardian Fighter
It’s going to be a quiet module for Guardian Fighters on the balancing front, and that’s a good thing. Both buff builds and DPS are highly requested in endgame content and a strong part of the meta. This shouldn’t change.
Great Weapon Fighter
The best news for GWFs this module is that they are largely unaffected by the Weapon Enchantment nerf. It’s probably the only class that can still rock the Lightning Enchantment, so it’s a buff by nerfing others. You should also look at Slam for your daily rotation since it can now critically strike. In case you’re interested, WickedDuck has written a full guide for Mod 13 PVE GWFs. You are probably covered just reading through that.
Hunter Ranger & Oathbound Paladin
Both these classes get little to no changes with true impact. Especially the OP will remain the same and retain its spot in the endgame meta as pure tank or Devo (Banedin) buffer. Hunter Rangers are viable DPS as well, but people that hoped for an update to the Archery tree will have to wait a little longer.
Scourge Warlock
The Scourge Warlock is the only class that’s getting a true full balancing pass in Module 13. Both DPS and support roles were buffed, but players doubt that it will truly lift the class to new heights in PVE. And in PVP Scourges seem to stay in the doghouse as well. For the amount of changes it’s actually very little improvement, but as stated the devs currently take a careful approach and might follow up with more tweaks later.
One bright spot could be the Temptation support tree as players have reported good performances from preview. But based on the feedback the devs seem to struggle to really help the Warlock on the DPS front. So it might be another tough module for all you Scourge lovers out there.
Trickster Rogue
Talking about having it tough, in comes the Trickster Rogue! Just like Scourges, there’s not a ton of help coming to improve their situation in PVE. A nice lineup of minor changes and bugfixes might enhance AoE damage by a bit and help TRs utilize stealth more. The latter could also be interesting for PVP as some players already say that perma-stealth builds could become more of a thing again.
Additionally we already know that the little stabbers are next in line in terms of balancing. So even if you hoped for more changes this module, there’s at least something to look forward to. Plus an excellent TR bible was released recently that already contains all relevant information about Module 13.
Have you looked into the class balance changes of Module 13? Do you like them or have the devs done too little to tackle the current issues? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!
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“they try to introduce small tweaks gradually, see how they perform”
Why? They should KNOW how they will perform, because they should have databases, simulators and spread sheets telling them what differences any changes will make, as well as active play-testing.
It’s just mathematics. In fact, it’s really just arithmetic.
The problem is, they do not really know what the code does in almost all cases.
October, 2014, there was a post on the Official Form:
*”You can only balance the classes correctly by understanding what they all do, how they work and what synergies there are in their Feats and powers. Then, you have to get them balanced after copious, PRODIGIOUS amounts of play-testing with a team of identically geared volunteers.
And then release them all at the same time, in the same patch.
But this constant cycle of:
buff – nerf – buff – nerf – tweak – tinker – buff – nerf – nerf – nerf – nerf – tweak – ignore – ignore – ignore – nerf – nerf – ignore – ignore – ignore – “complete-and-utter-total-radical-redesign-and-overhaul-no-one-ever-asked-for”
is simply a detriment to the game, the players and ultimately the designers, developers and the company; as much fun as PvE is.
There are a lot of people here who have played AD&D for 30 or 40 years, many of whom were DMs and understand about things like class and party balance. But if their input is simply going to be ignored, there is not much point in having a forum, feedback or play-testing at all.”*
More recently, people have been calling for all the Tool Tips to be corrected by inspecting the code and re-writing the Tool Tips so they say what actually happens. Then, they can compare the Live Tool Tips with their corrected, in-house versions, and fix the code so they do what they are meant to do. Then they can have a stab at balancing things more accurately, because they will actually know what is going on.
Personally, I would much prefer a Bug-Fixing Three Months with no updates beyond normal maintenance and see them do this.
Stopping Lightning from multi-proccing for a CW, but not stopping it proc for a GWF non-Damaging power like Daring Shout, is just retarded. And I play two of both classes.
Not really sure why people assume Divine Oracle is the paragon that is at risk. It takes a near BIS AC running with a near BIS party to match Terrifying Insight after the bonding nerf. AC is far better at mitigation but ultimately people want their buffs.
1 becouse paralyse is a cancer
2 becouse power means movespeed means faster dungeon
Give a TR more AOE damage and more stealth. Just what they need in PVP. A GF dps build can 2 shot just about all other players in dom and take hits better than anyone…but make sure to leave them alone. The problem they have is pvp play vs pve play. They can’t make changes to one without it affecting the other. But yet they try and it doesn’t work so they try messing with another class or enchantment to mitigate. But hey, it’ll keep new toons and enchantments being built.