A will likely be changed in the next few weeks (or maybe these nerfs will be enough). B is true for some players but not others.
There are some specs that have terrible representation any time they’re not FOTM. Aug might turn out to be one of them, or it might not. The fact that there are 20+ ways to play selfish DPS and only one way to support could balance out the psychological factors that make some people avoid supports.
I’m totally fine with the idea of putting more DPS back on Aug. However, counter that with all group DPS and heals from team adding a small fraction of time back into how long the buffs hold each pull. Otherwise the problem is going to become we either babysit buffs or we babysit damage output. Our damaging casts adding a couple of seconds of time per initial target hit, so we can try to keep the buff engaged as long as possible. Yet we still have to play an upkeep minigame with every pack of monsters once the 12 seconds expires. So even with adjusting our numbers, our DPS and contribution will yo-yo while we re-establish the group benefit casts. The end result will be frustration from those who want you to do either more efficient buffing or more damage.
It got to be a tired problem with healing when everyone wanted healers cranking out damage, but then got upset when we were oom or had no GCD available at critical heal moments. No combination of effort could make party members happy. You weren’t healing enough or damaging enough. Same is about to happen to Aug. You’re not efficient enough at buff game, or you’re not putting out enough damage.
" moderate" means they are just going to completely gut any usefulness or benifet and it will join the 30 other unplayed specs.
I feel like there should never be true support classes.
The way that the game is and has been since creation just doesn’t make sense with support classes.
Yeah, it’s unhealthy to have a playstyle that checks twitter every 10-20 seconds and not pay attention to the screen.
Literally get over it, press buttons, keep the buff up. Doing tank damage in exchange for a slightly smaller but still significant dps buff isn’t going to hurt anyone.
You’re being pedantic.
Maybe they should do it as a talent choice to make Augvokers buff defensives only, but do good personal damage.
Or do mediocre personal damage but Amplify the parties and be not so great at group defensives.
I do love Augvokers it’s nice to since the buff is shared around, unlike Priest Pi’s that only go to one.
Please give Aspect of the Fox back to Hunters.
This was always going to be super difficult for them to get right. I remember back in EQ 1 they had the concept of support classes but even they had issues with balancing them so they would bring value to a group without being felt as required.
But if their damage is increased how will people who rely on Details and other meters know to tell them they are bad??? /s
what needs to actually happen (for 5man) is there needs to be a new meta base role.
2 dps 1 support 1 heals 1 tank (que content, players can 5 DPS a +2 if they want to try that for fun)
and to justify having a slot going to a support role other existing classes need a NEW spec ADDED to the CLASS. a 5th spec for Druids. and 4th Spec for most others.
Mages got mass Barrier???
maybe there are some interesting things a mage could be doing that isnt damage. i could see a world where mage can pull off some solid support role fantasy.
It’s not hypocritical to love something and still think it’s weakest or worst element of it should be removed.
Case and point: WoW and it’s borrowed power systems.
Wow brain at its finest.
as it is, its hard to quantify the value and power that a support role adds, especially where there is only 1 kind in exitance. it makes it virtually mandatory.
groups with a support also have other issues in terms of pinning down personal performance.
maybe if details etc could simply highlight the Evoker empowerment buffs players can get some idea as to where it was coming from vs not seeing anything. the exact numbers dont matter as much when you can see the windows.
like in logs you can see the Lust/hero/warp/etc timings, why not do that for Evoker Ebon Might etc?
Edit:
like live logging dps, just have the bars glowing or something when getting buffed by a support. then players can see participation on the meter without needing to see all the numbers going to the evoker.
I’m ok with not having a support spec tbh.
Extremely cheesey imo
I did a normal assault as aug after literally not even touching it… parsed a 95.
Specs stupid easy to play
Give us more difficult specs.
It’s obviously going to be easy when their is only 1 support class at the moment, it’s to make it easily accessible, In The future when support is more fleshed out and their are a few other specs/classes as support you’ll have your options.
I understand where ur coming from.
Truly, I do.
Playing support classes is one of my favorite things to do in mmo’s and why I was excited for augvoker. I played yellow line minstrel and yellow LM for my kin’s raids in LOTRO.
But the problem is that support classes are either completely underpowered to where u might as well just bring another dps or absolutely mandatory to have but u can only have 1 or 2 people play them across the whole group.
That’s how it will always be and the balance will be so difficult to achieve because of that fine line.
It’s why yellow minny got reworked into the other 2 trait lines: there was no point in playing a class that could do a tiny amount of damage and ur buffs lasted 5 minutes to where people were going into raids as yellow, using all buffs, then swapping to dps or heal right before pull.
I fear that that’s a possibility that could happen to augvoker unless something got changed, but I feel like giving aug more damage from its own buffs compared to everyone else is a step in the right direction.
Mind boggling that people are equating moving the damage support ratio from 20/80 to 30/70 to an attack on their gameplay.
Aug is still the most buff heavy support DPS spec in any mmo by miles.
In an interview with Graham he explicitly states that they didn’t want to change the dynamic of the game, i.e 1 tank, 1 healer 3 DPS. If Augmentation was to be placed into an entirely different role then they would be forced for the sake of keeping things simple gameplay wise to add a “+1 support role” and they didn’t want to ruin the dynamic of the game that has existed since it first came out.
So more or less the roles as we have them now, healers and priests and such, they don’t provide as much as an Augvoker can in the way of buffing your team and they fit nicely into that dynamic trio. We however kind of break out of that cycle and it looks like Blizzard is going to be reducing us to be more of a DPS++ rather than conforming to a new role that they cannot add to the game without breaking a balance that has worked for nearly 2 decades.
While I lament the idea of throwing out nearly everything we were supposed to be, I can agree it would be a huge balancing strain on the employees to figure out this strange new thing they’ve never tried before. I wouldn’t blame them for trying to shoehorn us back into the more ‘strictly’ DPS role… but perhaps more thought could have been put out about it to begin with. My understanding is we were an experiment from the start… poor Dracthyr… experiments in lore and in-game.
The interview:
Not really, no. The DPS benefit from having an Aug should be offset by the Aug’s lack of personal power. So a team of 3 DPS brings as much to the table as an Aug and 2 DPS.
That’s where we’re going to disagree.
If there’s no bonus to bringing a support, then why the hell would you?
I think it’s about time to add a sixth man to small groups and make more support classes. That way when they do become mandatory(which I have no problems with, even though I don’t play one) then there’s space.
I played Everquest 2 for many years.
Bards and enchanters(there’s two of each) were pretty much mandatory in groups. You wanted a dirge in the tank group for hate. You wanted a coercer in the tank group. In fact, my raid’s tank group was two tanks, a dirge, a coercer, a defiler(healer) and an inquisitor(healer). We wanted a dirge in with the melee, we wanted a troubadour and/or illusionist with the casters and healers.
There is nothing wrong with making support roles “mandatory”. You just need to make room for them in the groups.
Supposedly because people “enjoy playing a support class” even though it brings the same net benefit as bringing a DPS, instead.
Except that’s a bunch of hogwash, because only a microscopic number of people have any interest in playing a support class.
(Unless it’s just overpowered.)