Quote:
Originally Posted by Owik Gall
When John Stumme was explaining the reasons behind the Asuran Scan/By Ural's Hammer nerfs I start to think that it might not be long until my fav PvE skill Save Yourselves! will be next. It's a staple for most warrior and other melee builds that generates adrenaline that's seen the same pug behavior effect as Asuran Scan did. I'm going to brace myself for this.
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I'm not sure whether or not the reasoning applies the same to the nightfall/factions skills, as these are limited by class, and their original functionality was quite different.
EotN skills, as said, were basically just supposed to be cool utility, to allow your class to do things they couldn't do. They weren't intended to ratchet up your raw power and define builds. It's basically analagous to how GW2 racial skills should work.
The factions/nightfall skills are different. Over half of them are un-nerfed versions of class skills nerfed for PvE reasons; Rampage as One to Never Rampage Alone, Discord (when it was 2s) to Necrosis, Cry of Pain to Spiritual Pain, and Save Yourselves! addressing not just Watch Yourself!, but the whole removal of armor stacking. These were designed long before Anet committed to the idea of splitting pvp skills, and were a stopgap attempt to prevent things from coming to that. Unlike the eotn things, they are flat out supposed to be more powerful versions of your class skills. Unlike EotN, they are also extremely accessible to lvl 20 characters, and not in some far-off quest chain you can only access after some story progress.
Another important point is that these are class skills, and some of them were designed to let classes do things in PvE that are fundamental weaknesses of the class in PvP. Critical Agility is the strongest example, granting IAS to a class with only one elite option, and giving them the armor that lacking got them into alot of trouble in the earlier days of the game and pugging. Summon spirits negated the fundamental design weakness of a spirit ritualists in the early days, static tethering to a territory, which allowed them to tow their spirit army around missions. These skills change the entire order of how the class is played, and was done so consciously and intentionally to make them more appealing in PvE; the price is that they have to become staples on your bar.
Finally, we can look at AoHM. While the new version is far weaker, it's no less of a staple on many strong dervish bars, and rewards you with straight up damage for using the class's fundamental mechanic. The pious renewal build practically depends on it. As a recent example of a class PvE skill adjustment, it's a better indication of where things are headed.
So while I don't think a nerf of SY! is ruled out, particularly since it's become a staple on so many non-warrior builds, it will not be done along the same lines of reasoning as the EotN adjustments. The aim is likely to let the skill continue to be a warrior staple, allowing them to circumvent the fundamental aggro limitations of the game and play "tank" by protting the rest of the party. Even if it is weakened some, or made less dependent on crazy adrenaline engines, I don't think their intent is to remove it from most warrior bars.
