Khauruk's attempt to fix beastlords

[AbyssalMage]

I am not sure what we really need at the raid level but by no means should our cold nukes be linked into one line. Having 4 x .5 sec nukes isn't bad and I macro them all together if I really need/want the added DPS. Now combining our Poison DoT's and linking them I would be more friendly to because spamming a instant cast DoT is a little pointless. I still don't use the Desease DoT so if they combined that one and linked it, I wouldn't care either. But please don't link our nukes, we finally got 4 x .5 sec nukes.

...Although lowering the innate agro that our new poison/ice nuke does in future expansions wouldn't hurt, just give it the standard 30 sec delay.

[Khauruk]

Do you enjoy having more buttons to press than any other class now to do mediocre dps, and needing another button press to do 0.25% of a mob's HPs?  I sure don't.  I find it pretty disgusting, and it reduces my flexibility by taking up another spell gem.

And please please please please no 30 sec delay on Frozen Venom!  Frozen Venom is the only way I can dump mana now w/o spamming DoTs for mana reiterate procs.

30 second recast timers on our DoTs in trade for larger DoTs is a trade I'd likely make as well.

[Mordeb42]

As far as button clicks go, it would be nice to get an AA that would autofire the Rake line/ Feral Swipe and kick during combat.  Would prefer a 1 tick delay after auto-attack myself before these would fire.

The pet lurch concept is interesting.  Right now I would prefer more attention on our utility and dps vs. our CC ability.

I like the ideas for improving Verve and Focus lines.

I am a supporter of getting a group fero line.  I would like for it to have some over cap dps increasing abilities.  Would be nice for it to be highly desired in raid setting.  The recast restriction would keep it from being cast on entire raid, except maybe MGB during a burn fight.

I would like to see a stam regen component either added to the paragon line or the fero line. 

Dots.  I would support linking the poison lines and linking the disease lines, if we got a higher damage dot.  These can get a bump in mana cost.  I am less concerned on dot efficiency these days as I am casting time.

I would like to see 2 new melee disc.
1) A new defensive disc.  Same timer as old one, but last longer
2) A new offensive disc.  Can affect both bst and pet, but it should not change targets.

[Khauruk]

The pet lurch concept is interesting.  Right now I would prefer more attention on our utility and dps vs. our CC ability.

CC != utility?

[Mordeb42]

CC is part of utility.  I just break it out as it's own category based on my experience. 

Background: I box bst/druid/Chanter in mostly group settings, and raid with 1 toon only once and a while.  So I hardly ever view CC as part of my bst activities except to off-tank non-mezable mobs.  So this viewpoint is just part of my experience.

I like the pet Lurch idea, it is very creative.   Combined with pet relocate increases it could be very interesting. 

I just place my emphasis on attributed DPS type utilities along with personal/pet dps and personal survivability. I wouldn't frown on debuff increases either.

[Blarp]

http://ev

I would like to see 2 new melee disc.
1) A new defensive disc.  Same timer as old one, but last longer
2) A new offensive disc.  Can affect both bst and pet, but it should not change targets.

EPic fail if they change it it wil get most likey a 7-10 min reuse

[Khauruk]

I don't want our defensive looked at either! :P  While it's direct power may not be as strong as other classes', it's amazingly short reuse time makes it one of the best discs in game imo.  Another would be nice, but I doubt we'll get it, and I'm not sure we deserve it.  I would like to see Protection of the Warder upgraded to useful though!

Offensive disc - from everything we can tell, this is incoming already.  We of course don't know what form it will take, but it will be made.

CC - this is an ability we had through much of the game, and have lost due to pet stagnation.  I don't think our pet can be upgraded enough to do a good job at CC (well...not can, but "will"), so I think this is a good method in which we can regain that utility.  It just needs to be made so that it's not OP for raid mobs/etc.

[Mordeb42]

You guys are on the money about defensive.  I use it so often and had it so long, I thought it might be a good candidate for upgrade.  But changing the recast time would be terrible, and any upgrade would probably take that route. 


If anyone gets in beta, perhaps they could push for "Protection of the Warder" to either be changed for the better or at minimum stack with cleric vie line.

[Blarp]

stacking with cleric via is mor of a pain in the ass for dev's then  making it a % upgrade with more ranks

[Camikazi]

stacking with cleric via is mor of a pain in the ass for dev's then  making it a % upgrade with more ranks

Change Slot 1 to Slot 2 on PotW and instant cleric Vie stacking. They already put all other class AA Vies on slot 2 no clue why they put ours in slot 1 where it conflicts.

[Umlat]

A few notes :

Leave Focus line the way it is -- just HP. Upgrade Infusion of Spirit to include str/sta/dex Overcaps. Why? There are/have been situations where just HP buff landed but not Unity type spells, because of the spell bonuses. Also, by separating out the stat buffs, some classes have the option of using their class self buff + stats instead of being forced to go with Unity.

SV line --  SV 85/96/103 Atk, 501/592/637 HP, BLW 0/0/0 Atk, 737/831/938 HP, SotT 123/140/150 Atk, 227/328/353 HP. Overall, our buff is pretty good being about 2/3 the HP of BLW and 2/3 the Atk of SotT, but DPS always going to go for max Atk, casters max HP and lack of interference with other spells. Adding something new to this spell probably not the best way to go, since the 3 buffs are balanced off each other. We'd be better off with whatever added ability/abilities being part of a different spell that is available broadly rather than forcing a choice.

Ferocity - Everyone seems to want things like group versions, aura version, get rid of sta buff, add 3x attk, add flurry %, etc. IMO, go with an UPGRADED fero line, with improved duration, lower recast times, resist overcaps, heroic STA if possible or a stackable STA overcap if not, keep the ATK portion and add a bit. Something like -

5 : Increase Heroic Stamina by (A), (Increase STA cap by (A) if heroic not possible)
7 : Increase Attack by (B)
8 : Increase All Resist Caps by (C)
X : Skill Damage Amount (x) [increase damage for all types of melee attacks, regular/skill/AA/disc/etc.)
Y : Skill Damage taken (-y) [reduce damage taken by y per attack]

Get it up to a 10 min base duration, 30 sec recast timer. Go with single target for now, look at a group version (v1, IMO) for the second half of the 86 to 90 expansions.

If you want things like double and triple attack bonuses, etc., then get a NEW spell line and kill Fero. Don't try to change it so its only Fero in name. All that does is add baggage.


All pet buffs really should acquire a self or group recourse. In fact, it would be nice if they could make them YELLOW bordered spells that hit us and recourse the main section to pet.

PotW just needs its % bumped to 10% and its good really. More duration higher total, maybe.

Our Animal attacks, like gorilla and raven, just need a boost really. Much faster reuse on those 2 compared to asp. Add bear maul to allow us to reposition mobs to counter our class's push issues. Personally, I don't use raven or gorilla because the effect doesn't last until reuse for raven and stun was pretty useless when i tried it. Add the faster reuse AAs so that asp can be used followed up with raven or gorilla in between asp reuse and they'll get used more.

Part of our problem is we always seem to be asking for bst versions of this or that that other classes have. Good on resource allocation for programming, but we're always going to get at best an equal version compared to the other class. We need our own things. MOD2 buffs maybe?

Spirit frenzy -- Upgrade it to +100% v1 haste, +25% v3 haste, hundred hands effect, for us AND warder. This would be the SPEED part of our burn. Bump to 75 or 90 sec duration. Given current reuse timers, a lesser secondary burn is possible this way as well.


Empathic Fury -- Upgrades to minimum and maximum damage modifiers. Get rid of the retarget to pet by building from scratch. Increase duration to 75 or 90 sec. Possible crit rate increase as well? perhaps set twinproc to 100% and increase proc rate %? This should be the DAMAGE part of our burn.

Bestial Frenzy AA for 3x attack. Same system as our 2x attack AA. Add burst of speed AA for 3 to 5 ranks of Burst of Power AA but for Double attack. Gets our 2x attack skill ahead of 3x attack and keeps our increased 3x attack abilities in a raw +% rather than skill form. We need flurry AAs as well.

IMO, beyond improvements to existing things or tweaks to existing things, there are 2 areas we should be looking at for where to find new stuff. Instinct/Awareness and Beastlord Animism.

Instinct/Awareness. - Not necessarily the acme of raw power AAs, sure, but there ARE abilities we can and should extrapolate. From being able to act on an instinctive level vs a conscious level, being able to boost our senses to levels found in animals, to expanding our ability to attune to the environment to more than just paragon. Some of these could be :

Sensory - If we're sensitive enough to our environment that we can tap its energies to provide health and mana, we should be able to sense disturbances in that energy - AKA permanent see SoS. By using this sense in combat, we should be able to dodge, block and riposte in a full 360 degree circle around us and limit all backstabs to the frontal version. Effectively, we should have no flank or back to attack. By using a combination of scent and hearing (and possibly touch, ie able to detect minute air pressure changes), we should be able to be effectively immune to blindness.

Heightened senses of sight, hearing and smell should allow us to track. If you give yourself the sense of smell of a wolf, the hearing of say a bat and the long distance sight of a raptor, combined with the ability to see things with much higher resolution and therefore catch small visual cues, you'd have to be able to track at least as well as someone relying on human senses and training.

Instinct - We should be able to function on a completely instinctive level in combat. Basically, we should be able to acquire immunity to melee silence (that ability some mobs have to freeze out special attacks and discs, should also apply to those same abilities in regular silence -- asp isn't a spell, it shouldn't be limited like one).

Nothing in this category is powerful in a pure dps sense, but being the class best able to function in circumstances that are otherwise crippling can be a very big plus. The defensive bonuses arent anything to sneeze at either.

Beastlord Animism - Where to start? Quite simply, being able to call on the full range of abilities, both offensive and defensive, available in the animal kingdom provides a huge range of abilities to choose from. Protective coloration, to warn off attackers, contact and spray poisons and irritants, runspeed of a horse or cheetah, leaping abilities, the sensory abilities listed above, things like electric eel shocks, porcupine/hedgehog spines, digging, preternatural reflexes and speed, defensive shells, etc. Here is where our utility comes into play and our ability to boost our combat abilities. By calling on the totem spirits of various animals, we should be able to give ourselves and/or our warders and/or others the ability to use these abilities when necessary.