My take on RA changes

[Jenkz]

From a RR5L7 cleric POV the new RA changes seem to do nothing but hurt

- I get a free stun-reactive at RR5 which lasts 3 sec, not going to have much effect against an assist train if im not bodyguarded.
- My 9point MCL2 which gives back around ~80% power is nerfed in how much it gives back but is boosted to 3min reuse
- My 10 point RP 100% power heal is made an expensive in-combat MCL
- MoC duration is doubled but have to spend 30 points to be able to heal at 75% effectiveness (might not be too bad with capped ToA heal I guess)
- BoF changes are understandable and I can probably live without it

To me, the changes seem to have been made so you cannot get a strong RA template at RR5-6 - you're going to need 60-90 RA points to spend. I have 47 with 5l7.

Again to me, this seems like mythics attempt to get people to RvR more just to get abilities - once upon a time the reason to RvR was to be one of the best of your class on your server, now for the most part and for the everyday player - it all seems to be about farmaging of RPs to purchase RAs you once had and now dont anymore.

Can I be bothered to RvR up to RR9? I've been playing since 1.36 and only have 840k RP on my main and 250k on my alt. I dont really like the idea of having to get into the multi-milion RP figures just to compete, at least before a 4L9 cleric a 6L3 caster could be very effective.

From a realm balance POV these changes seem quite good, det has been reduced and made more expensive, the 'overpowering' realm RAs have been made obsurdly expensive or removed (PR, BoF expensive, GP removed). The homogenising of the RA systems across the three realms made sense... BUT THEN....

Mythic go add a load more NEW "class unique" RAs - which shock, horror, probably end up being rebalanced and revamped again in 12 months time.

Going to reserve judgement on post-ToA RvR combined with frontiers but these really seem to be MASSIVE changes and i'm not sure how many people actually like this much change all in one go ...

 

[old.windforce]

nice observation

cleric is now worst healing class due to lack of viable second line

enhance is teh boring and grey con pets keeps enhance specced clerics (2nd line) from healing long enough for people to die and battle to loose

only good point i see the loss of group purge which is overpowered

 

[Sycho]

Alb is dead when those ra changes come xE

Cleric is already the worst primary healer and they make it even worse now :/

 

[Bubble]

anyone wanna try and RvR team with 4 RR5 Friars 2 clerics a sorc and a minstrel?

 

[Ivan]

How about 7 paladins and 1 mincer ?

PS: the review they posted is suggested ie not the actual change yet, they are waiting on feedback to re-configure afaik.

 

[Oro]

Hmm I think clerics are pretty much in same boat as druids to be honest. Only healers have a 3rd line that has any great desireability in it for a combat medic. The Druid Nature Affinity line is pretty weak in my opinion.

Clerics and druids have access to a wider range of better buffs than healers for the most part, but the trade-off (in my mind) is that they are less combatitive. Healer is not Mid's primary buffer though, so its fair enough, whereas Cleric and Druid are their realms' respective primary buffers as well as healing class.

At a glance the cleric proc RA doesn't look too bad, it says it has a high chance to stun anyone that attacks him. This might mean it breaks up an assist train at least enough to buy time for the rest of the group to fight the train. The 3 sec stun isn't affected by resists either. If you think about it, even the well specced stuns tend not to last much beyond this because of resists and determination etc.

Thing is though, we are all guessing. Not played cleric to 50 (yet) but have done with druid and healer but at a glance this RA is not too shabby.

If a cleric goes for high Rejuv, its practically the same char to play as Mend Healer or Regrowth Druid going by the spell lines. Don't know why people would say its the worst healing class. I think I need an experienced cleric to explain this to me.

Alb isn't dead with Frontiers in my opinion, but the players will have to change the way they work together probably.

 

[Sycho]

How about:

3 healers 1 shaman 2 savages 1 warrior 1 skald:

3x PR
3x BOF
Free pf(disease)
1xsos
1xFury OF The gods(30 dps damage add on triple/quad hits=stupid)
2x savages using as much shouts as they like for 30s without losing hps.
1xsoldier barricade.
1x FH

If this goes live it's a joke, i mean look at what armsman special ra is lol, what the fuck do they take armsmen for?some kind of vietnam commandos?

They really shouldn't of nerfed MCL even more but i like the tank changes(determination mainly) but that's about the only good thing...

It's sad to see you need many rps on a character in alb to compete like you said jenkz, they also fucked my class over by demoving dualist reflexes which boosts our damage output very well with the artifacts :/

Time to move to lineage 2...

 

[CstasY]

I spec DR over Pain for a reason, 4.1 speed offhand means that it outhit crits 99 times out of 100, and as i attack with such a huge delay i cant afford to not land offhand hits.. Oh and whats this ? No more DR ? GG.

 

[old.windforce]

Hmm I think clerics are pretty much in same boat as druids to be honest. Only healers have a 3rd line that has any great desireability in it for a combat medic. The Druid Nature Affinity line is pretty weak in my opinion.

Clerics and druids have access to a wider range of better buffs than healers for the most part, but the trade-off (in my mind) is that they are less combatitive. Healer is not Mid's primary buffer though, so its fair enough, whereas Cleric and Druid are their realms' respective primary buffers as well as healing class.

At a glance the cleric proc RA doesn't look too bad, it says it has a high chance to stun anyone that attacks him. This might mean it breaks up an assist train at least enough to buy time for the rest of the group to fight the train. The 3 sec stun isn't affected by resists either. If you think about it, even the well specced stuns tend not to last much beyond this because of resists and determination etc.

Thing is though, we are all guessing. Not played cleric to 50 (yet) but have done with druid and healer but at a glance this RA is not too shabby.

If a cleric goes for high Rejuv, its practically the same char to play as Mend Healer or Regrowth Druid going by the spell lines. Don't know why people would say its the worst healing class. I think I need an experienced cleric to explain this to me.

Alb isn't dead with Frontiers in my opinion, but the players will have to change the way they work together probably.

as sycho says:

Mid tank group with alb RAs is unbeatable

Druids are SO much better then Clerics its a laugh. They get a free interupting pet AND a viable 3d line which has aoe root (insta even)

Clerics get ZIP. Healers get 11 second stun in the base line. Clerics 9 second

Smite line is utter wank, the only good thing, the pbae mez (~30 seconds before resists / det) is on a FREAKING 5 minute timer. The level 35 spec DD does about same damage as baseline (less variance but ok, still wank damage)

Only good thing clerics had over healers and druids is BoF which is indeed to good to be true. But so is group purge, and to be honest i would trade BoF for grouppurge any day of the week.

Healers are primairy CC of their realm and wear chain, have 2 insta heals and perfect recovery which means that you have to kill 6 healers in 1 fight if they all use there RA. PR is pretty good since its instant which means you can ress while annoying pets are whooping you

well, time to get my mincer to higher RR i guess, he heals as good as my cleric with new RAs

 

[Garok]

Mid Tank group Pifffffffffffffffff DD

try 8 x RR5 Banelord Bonedancers................

24 x Identical Skellies running towards you with 90% CC imunity damage type debufs 4 sec Lifetaps + cast speed phobe debuf so clerics stand no chance of keeping anyone alive

Joy Joy

 

[Oro]

Ok druid with interupting pet, fair enough. Having played one though, the Nature line is not generally wanted by groups: they usually want decent heals and buffs. Its only the Group Purge that lifted Druids much above, and that is going away

When playing druid or healer I found that I was interupted a lot as well from enemy pet classes - it was just different classes doing the interupting.

Rejuv Cleric will have the same group functionality as Mend Healer and as Regrowth Druid, especially after the new RAs are implemented. Mend Healer does NOT have good CC abilities, I think thats a common misconception. Same with Regrowth Druid - it doesn't have the insta root though fair enough its got the interupting pet.

I thought we were discussing cleric as a healing class, not as someone who does other things for the group because if you do that, then we get the sorceror into the discussion and then we start to go on about chain vs cloth vs utility and we end up in that spiral that has been debated endlessly since the game was released and the problem of comparing classes directly against each other which is wrong. A Pac healer is not really a healer, but more like a sorc in chain with shorter range, instas and zero damage output. An important thing to realise about the Healer class is that depending on the spec line you take as primary, you get a wildly different type of char, with very different jobs in a group. Can't say if this is a good or bad thing.

I don't think the cleric is any worse or better at healing than druids or healers. BUT I accept that their group utility is less than healers. I'm undecided about their group utility compared to druid, they seem to me to be much closer together. Cleric buffs are better than Healer buffs, that much is certain. I don't know how much difference in game terms that actually makes when the class is played actively rather than used as a bot.

Still learning Alb, but its an interesting discussion. I will get things wrong and don't mind when peeps point it out. (Made a goof the other night thinking clerics could cure mez. Duh. Sorc/Minstrel/Bard/Mentalist/SM/Healer).

But I'm not willing to accept that an entire realm is about to get owned based on the RA review. No offence chaps, but Alb has had it good with RAs for a very long time now compared to the other two realms. This is guaranteed to be a little painful in places for as that particular edge is taken away.

Thing is, you still have BoF and SoS etc, plus access to Perfect Recovery now as well. Albs that used to argue that PR was as good as BoF will get the chance to find out if it really is the case

Anyone that thought Mid wasn't going to gain out of the RA review was living with their head in the clouds. Its hard for me to say where Hib lies in the benefit stakes - bit of give and take there I probably.

No matter how its explained though or even if its justified, there's nothing worse than feeling you are getting nerfed. I've been on the receiving end many times so I can empathise.

 

[cHodAX]

Runemaster getting 90% evade chance on a timer made me chuckle.

 

[Oro]

Its Animists you have to feel sorry for.

They can turn into a mushroom for 1 minute.

I would LOVE to have seen the Animist TL's face when he read that one

 

[Sycho]

Cleric smite line needs a boost really compared to druid and healers cc lines.As for alb's only chance of winning when frontiers comes is to use debuff ranged caster groups really...for example 1 spirit caba, 1 body caba, 1 air theurg, 1 mind sorc, 1 pala, 2 clerics, 1mins.

 

[Smurflord]

Overall I'm happy with the changes, and look forward to their implementation.

I only have two major quibbles, and unsprigingly the're about assassins.

1) The % evade chances they were quoting in their justification for removing dodger you will only ever get with a 50 enhance bot. You will never evade to that degree unbuffed or even with low buffs that you might expect with a rejuv cleric. So does this mean they are now basing class and RA balance on the assuption that people are using buffbots? If so this is a very very worrying development.

2) The assassin abilities are nice BUT they force people to go back to CS spec. All well and good as that is what the assassin classes are all about, they were never meant to be light tanks. But if they are focing the issue then FOR GOD's SAKE fix the CS line to make it worth a damn again!

 

[CstasY]

Future of Albion RvR is with ranged Debuff Caster groups. Otherwise you have no chance. Time to reroll FOTM Body Cab.

 

[Oro]

<------- knows nothing about CS Line.

What needs fixing?