1.3.6 patch chatty posty post

Right then, as I posted yesterday the 1.3.6 notes are out and I’m guessing most everyone has had a good look. As ever this means its time for me to have a little rambling chat about the potential impact of the patch.
 
Lets get the character stuff out of the way first… 1.3.6 has a fair bit of character balancing, so in that respect it’s going to be controversial patch for those with characters that get hit in a negative fashion, though I have to say that in general it looks pretty solid to me.  I’m not going to go into every career’s changes, just a few I feel like commenting on.
 
The biggest changes are to Zealots and Runepriests, changes that I think maybe fairly positive. Prior to the patch I had a steadily increasing sense of doubt about them, I was worried about being toggled for damage gimping the self-presevation abilities of DPS Zealots, but I’m intrigued by the potential of the new transference tactic. With every single damaging spell healing you (or your defensive target) for 50% of the damage done, this might work out ok. However, whilst I have a level 40 Zealot, I’m not that experienced with him for DPS, so I can’t say with total certainty. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
 
The change to close quarters will do nothing to prevent the dominance of mass stacking PBAoE. A 25% damage reduction is of no relevance when you regularly face such large numbers of Bright Wizards or Sorcerers, it will still be instant death stacked AoE. As such while I think it’s a step in the right direction, unfortunately on it’s own it’s a pointless change and will achieve nothing. PBAoE should not hit harder than most people’s primary single target attacks, end of story. Though I do think examining the potency of both team heals and the guard abilities should be included in any real solution to AOEhammer.
 
Magus changes are interesting and pretty good, but I’m not sure they are enough. The class needs more damage or something to give them more influence on the battlefield, without becoming rift-bots. And what on earth is the point of buffing Strengthen Thrall??? Unless the Daemonic Fire debuff is truly monumental, Magus pets will still be used primarily as land mines. In particular I’m disappointed to see the Havoc tree not getting buffed, but at least Mythic are making some headway into sorting out the Magus.
 
Stealth fixed? At present more often than not stealth is utterly useless, so making it harder to spot stealthers is good, but have they also addressed stealth breaking for a vast range of stupid reasons like being buffed, having guard put on, etc, etc. It’s not mentioned in the patch notes, but I’m hoping for a stealth fix to uhm stealth… Other than this there’s nothing for Witch Elves or Witch Hunters… Which is odd when I’m told that Witch Elves have a tactic that only works if you are SOUTH of your target, I’ve forgotten the name and can’t log in to check right now, I think its called baneful touch or something?. Whatever, that’s just LOL. Fix it please ;)
 
 
Shadow Warriors… I’m really pleased they’ve been buffed. Of everything in the game I think they needed it most. The changes look great. I’m not complaining about the knock on effect to Squig Herders either!
 
Marauder. Ok seriously? The brutality tree is still ignored and completely useless. I do not understand why this is not being addressed.
 
Moving on from characters…
 
The new armour appearance system rocks. I tried it on the PTS and it’s spot on, I’m very pleased with this. Though I’m told that the graphic updates for armour that we were meant to also be getting have not been included. Which would mean for my Chosen that actually I don’t have much to choose from, since many of our armour sets use the same graphics… Still, a fairly minor gripe, it’s a great system and exactly what I had hoped for.
 
Sovereign armour changes. Good move, nuff said.
 
ORvR changes. Against all Odds, no more mailbox guarding and no more prior tier or PvE contribution to the campaign. Love it, great stuff and a big step in the right direction. I’m not going in to great detail about these now, but these changes are potentially the biggest changes in the entire patch and these alone make 1.3.6 a good patch for WAR.
 
I fully support the changes for Land of the Dead access. While summoning being turned off will make it a bit more awkward when sorting out Vulture Lord groups, on the other hand not having to piss about with the Public Quest will save time. And regardless, the overall benefit for Tier 2 and 3 when combined with the new increased XP/renown from the Skaven stuff in the RvR lakes, more than makes up for a little inconvenience for my occasional dungeon runs. If it results in busier T2-3 then it is good for the game in general.
 
There are loads of other things in the patch, but I’ll be writing all day if I cover them all. There’s one interesting little thing though… “The /assist command is no longer accessible by 3rd party add-ons.” Wow, a big nerf for people relying on auto focus and other such mods. Great move! People will use macros instead of course, but at least it removes some of the brainless gameplay.