Today I would like to discuss the “good” old Soldier skill - War Cry. Why good in quotes? Because it does not do its work efficiently. What do I mean?
Let us look at it.
For what purpose do players usually use it?
Reduction to Enemy’s Health - works only against trash mobs that die fast in most cases, bosses and elites are almost immune to it.
Taunt - monsters run to you anyway, maybe useful in multiplayer, I guess?
So, Damage Reduction option remains. It is quite powerful defensive mechanism IF uptimed constantly - GD reality requires it, you are under constant damage barrage from many sources. And here War Cry fails miserably. A spell with 7.5 sec cooldown provides its foremost mechanic only for 5 sec. Leaving you quite vulnerable for 2.5 sec - more than enough to burst your character down. Unless you use Warborn helmet that makes War Cry uptimeable, it is better to ignore the skill at all and use other means for DR. Even its flat RR bonuses are 5 sec duration, again, no uptime. Terrify transmuter is almost never taken (I use it in one of my builds, not a pleasant experience running down mobs and flat RR is not that big to make it worthy ).
In comparison to another similar mastery skill War Cry just looks bleak and redundant. I am talking about Horn of Gandarr.
Less AoE (still decent), %WD to deal damage/lifesteal/proc things like %RR, 5% less DR with same duration but only 4.5 sec cooldown. The skill makes its foremost job - DR - pretty well with only one downside (confuse part but it does not matter against tough targets, they are immune to it).
Every other DR skill in this game is updatable, duration and cooldown are at least equal or duration is longer than cooldown. Why War Cry is so different? It provides almost nothing useful or unique to justify Skill Points spent on it (again, unless you use Warborn helmet, an occupied slot in most cases).
My proposal is to reduce its base cooldown to 5 sec and nerf its DR value scaling to match other similar skills - or increase its flat RR and DR effects to 7.5 sec without value nerf (I would vote for first). Let it be a DR+flat RR skill with bigger radius than Horn of Gandarr. Even with item bonuses War Cry is just supplementary in terms of damage, I do not think it would be an issue to one-yelling enemies . Make it useful not only for one damage type.
Reduce Cooldown to 5 sec, reduce %DR scaling with rank
Increase effects duration, such as flat RR, DR to 7.5 sec
Leave War Cry as it is
0voters
If you have other ideas or want to leave War Cry as it is - please, feel free to voice your opinion.
If going with the Scales and Lights of Empyrion devotion route, it’s already the same as 10/12 War Cry and 6/12 Break Morale, but physical build that use War Cry will rarely or never pick less than 12/12 Break Morale. I’m in with reducing the cd to 5 or 5.5, but reducing the %DR scaling will further reduce the value of War Cry compared to the Empy devotion.
So I think a good change will be to make War Cry cd and area scaling better.
At 6/12 it will have 6.5s cd and 8m area,
At 12/12 it will have 5.5s cd and 11m area,
At 17/12 it will have 5s cd and 12m area, and
At 22/12 it will have 4.5s cd and 13m area.
Then Warborn set -cd bonus be replaced with +5m area.
Not every build can allow Scales + Empyrion combination, especially with no conversion or ranged/kiting caster ones. I suggested reducing %DR scaling as a compensation for buffs (since nothing comes for free in this game ).
Your scaling changes make sence. I would prefer at softcap rank have 5sec CD/effect duration and 12m area though. But scaling should be implemented for sure. If devs agree to do this, of course .
No nerfs to %DR please. Lv.12/22 War Cry with Fleshwarped Casque is the most important skill for Soldiers pushing SR, and for some Battlemages guarantte their survival ability.
Or, as an alternative, reduce %DR by 5%, reduce cd to 4.5s and put an +5%DR to warborn helmet and +5-10%DR to Fleshwarped Casque.(Maybe even bigger, like 10%, 10% and 10-15%). Just keep what’s with Warborn helmet untouched and what’s with Fleshwarped Casque untouched or a little buffed.(because Fleshwarped Casque’s pick rate is a little low now)
Anyway, if something is gonna happen to CD or duration of War Cry to make it updatable, the CD should be a little shorter than duration because War Cry has a little spell time.
There is also Fleshwarped Casque and that one MI fleshwarped shield. Though I kinda agree with most of your points but I believe it is an intended nerf. Soldier is one of the BiS classes for physical builds and War cry fits like a glove with its dmg reduction (highest of all skills I believe since it scales better with +skills than other DR skills) and high flat RR. For anything non phys, War cry is kinda meh imo and deserves a buff.
Without %CDR it is not possible to uptime War Cry with those items, only with specific combinations of two or Warborn Visor. I do not want War Cry nerfed to oblivion, but I doubt devs would give it buffs without taking something away. ~5% less DR is okay to sacrifice, in my opinion.
if anything it just shows you wouldn’t need to reduce DR on war cry to buff uptime
legit was confused about the gandar buff, same DR now as war cry, same duration, except here it’s 100% uptime, and gandar actually does dmg on top
reducing war cry DR makes no sense now, and instead it should just have it’s uptime/duration “fixed”
break morale currently being 5secs i can actually live with, but the DR not matching kinda stung for non warborn builds that was willing to spend that many points for DR
So make the DR duration 8secs by default, keep break morale at 5secs, and leave the current cooldown and CDR item mods be the same, at least then it will make kinda sense compared with gandar/other DR skills…
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. Make it useful not only for one damage type.
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. War Cry can lose ~5% DR for utility purpose, those numbers I kept in mind.
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