Thursday 22 July 2010

Another look at the 8 piece sovereign bonuses

NateL of Bioware Mythic posted the revised 8 piece set bonuses they are looking at

(clicky)

And for the stuff I'm interested in, lets look at the tank bonuses:

Tank archetype

  • Defensive: Your group becomes immune to Stagger, Knockdown, Root, and Knockback effects for 5 seconds.
  • Offensive: Nearby allies have their movement speed increased by 60% for 10 seconds.

Meh... Well compared to the other archetypes it's just a big... Meh. I mean, lets be honest about it, we get the same buff (for four seconds) on a 20 second cooldown in our third plan, that's not an endgame bonus on a 2 minute cooldown no matter what they think, all other bonuses are on 10 seconds. Just because you think CC immunity is hugely powerful doesn't actually make it so when it is reliant on timing and lasts 5 seconds. Extend it to 10 seconds maybe and then we're talking.

The offensive one I still think it's Meh as well... It just doesn't strike me as 'tanky' even for offensive tanks. I guess it's meant to show the tanks leading a charge in, but lets be honest, it will only affect you, maybe the other tank in the group and a melee dps (assuming a two tank, one mdps, one rdps and two healer group). I just don't rate it as using up an item slot when there's better abilities out there for offensive tanks, in particular the LotD cloak for DPS. Hmm, 100 melee power and 25 strength.. Or I can run fast for 10 seconds on a two minute cooldown. I know what I'll pick.

No they've said they dont want 'click = more damage' bonuses so we should avoid dreaming of them, and subsequently I don't think they want 'click = absorb damage', they're looking for bonuses which change the shape of the battlefield.

So how would I do this?

For Defensive I'd change the timer to 10 seconds, if that's deemed too powerful then how about?

Your group takes 20% less incoming damage for the next 10 seconds

I'd say it looks decent enough, can be vital if timed right, or a waste if not.

And for offensive bonus? Hmmm, a bit more difficult. It needs to be aggressive and beneficial to your group, or a hindrance to your enemies, not a simple self buff or single target debuff. It's very difficult to think of the bonus since by nature tanks are defensive but yet we need an offensive bonus which does not mirror the MDPS morale. I'm honestly at a loss for what could be better but I still can't see myself using it in any shape if I'm DPS spec (which I generally am these days).

So are the bonuses great or not? A guild mate suggested you make it a simple +1 tactic slot which I think is great in theory, but sadly would become essential rather than a choice even beyond the inevitable rank increase.