So I've been testing things for a while... crunching numbers, theorycrafting, the works. I spend more time in and out of the arena than any sane person probably should, and I've started to notice a bit of a trend. Sooo... here's my question. Is there anything in the works to help normalize warrior combat in any way?

Monks, from the looks of it (and the practice of it), seem to get high-end warrior afflictions just by walking into the room, hugging you four times and then laying down a combo. Now, I'm not one of those people screaming "Monks OP! Nerf plox!", I'm just trying to figure out why a mangle on a jab, or a slit throat on a jab (Just two examples) would be considered 'overpowered' when monks can do these on their opening combo, and then reliably afflict with them (RNG's be damned) throughout the course of the fight.

I fully admit that I do not understand every intricacy of combat in Lusternia, but I'm trying everything I can to learn more. With my current understanding, it seems like Monks are a sort of Warrior2.0, with many of the same afflictions (even the whole wound system), but a lot less random to it.

Warriors are getting a pretty substantial buff in the special report (check the Ideas section), so give it a couple months.

In theory, a monk's ability to deliver the most potent (regeneration) afflictions is moderated by momentum. Delivering these afflictions costs momentum which requires time to rebuild. Monks may be able to deliver these afflictions sooner, but their ability to repeatedly deliver them one after another is inhibited.

Warriors take longer to get someone in the position where they can deliver these sorts of afflictions. Landing them means the warrior is more likely to continue delivering strong afflictions, either on the same limb, or by stopping stance/parry and allowing similar affs to be given to other limbs.

In 1v1, this typically favours monks who are able to overcome their opponent's active hindering, parrying and stancing sooner. There are rare 1v1 scenarios where the warrior is favoured, typically when the opponent has very strong passive or usable-while-prone hindering (psymet monks have pheremones to deal with this, nerf pheremones!). In (large) group combat warriors are favoured as they do not sufffer a penalty for switching targets and can build on each others' wounds.

I'd rather see how the warrior buffs play through before we nerf anything. And if you wanna nerf somethin' in psymet, buff something else for us too. :( Did you know acro-monks have just as much dmp and more utility than us? Nerf phermones and I'm gonna be rollin' acro. >_>

Edenwe:

I'd rather see how the warrior buffs play through before we nerf anything. And if you wanna nerf somethin' in psymet, buff something else for us too. :( Did you know acro-monks have just as much dmp and more utility than us? Nerf phermones and I'm gonna be rollin' acro. >_>

Yup. I have a report in the works to bring Psymet DMP up to Acro DMP (yup, you heard that right). It's a lower priority and needs a fair amount of refinement. Something on my radar for sure!

DMP isn't really the big draw to psymet, imo.

Enyalida:

DMP isn't really the big draw to psymet, imo.

It gives a lot of it.

foolofsound:

It give a lot of it.

In over-concentrated areas. What I would call a DMP glut. You already get elemental DMP from cloaks/coats, potions, and tattoos. Double the resistance tattoo (whether acro or psymet) if you are a monk tattooist.

Once you get to that point, consider acros get a straight 20 DMP across all damage types on melee attacks from warriors & monks. Psymets can grab a ton more elemental DMP, but only accumulate a slight percentage over due to DMP weighting.

The game is now all about breadth and not the depth of DMP... especially in those hard to defend damage types like asphyx, where acros get an additional 10 DMP over psymet.

I'm certainly not adverse to seeing Psymet become more useful to monks, nor spreading the DMP around a bit, especially if Pheremones goes away.

Placeus also pretty much got it right regarding the op's questions. If the warrior combat style can be described as "snowballing", then comparatively, monks move backwards on succesfully delivering high end afflictions. The current momentum mechanics regulates the number of regen afflictions a monk can give within a period of time. The monk envoys have been submitting reports to add momentum costs to regen afflictions that didn't have them for quite some time now. Secondly, the only way for a monk to build the momentum in the first place is to go through the same routines a warrior has to face (with the exception of the hugging, which is being addressed in the monk special report) and in some guilds, the low-wound warrior afflictions (assuming rng favours them) may be superior to those that the monk have access to.

P.S.

Psymet has its uses over acro (free waterwalk, free aethersight, free love potion, convert hp to power, effectively halving wounds on arms/legs, weaker trueheal clone etc), but generally speaking, acrobatics is more useful for combat for dmp reasons that jan stated above, and also faster writhe, faster tumble, halved balance, passive dodge etc etc.

With time and effort planning out tattoos, dmp is more or less equal across both specs - you can simply make up for what one lacks with the huge amount of dmp tattoos give monks (assuming you sacrifice all other tattoo types, of course). The preconception that psymet is the dmp skillset is one that is outdated with the current mechanics, until suitable envoy reports manage to tweak the balance back again, of course.

foolofsound:

I'm certainly not adverse to seeing Psymet become more useful to monks, nor spreading the DMP around a bit, especially if Pheremones goes away.

Report 655 (submitted by a psymet monk nonetheless) .

Furies' Decision:
Rejected. We do not like the solutions and disagree that pheromones is overpowered.

Pheromones is here to stay.

Lerad:

convert hp to power, effectively halving wounds on arms/legs, weaker trueheal clone etc).

We don't use those. :( The amount of channels we can lock are limited. Also... halving wounds on arms/legs have been used against monks by clever warriors (double tendoning by pureblades like Ixion). Forced Symmetry is not a benefit I'd recommend monks to use against warriors who really know what they're doin'.

That's not a case of a warrior really knowing some smart trick... it's the case of a warrior outputting double the wounds of another warrior. They didn't use clever tricks to get you, they just hit you so hard that they could get a tendon on you even as your wounds were getting halved! He could have alternately just hit your other leg half the time with his uber-wounding and done the same thing! Against most warriors forcedsymmetry means they're going to be spending time using their disruption scroll a lot to make sure it stays down.

In my opinion, momentum fails to do its job very well. It's not as limiting as most monks would have us believe. Deep wounds are rather easily avoided and cured, not to mention something the target can monitor with relative accuracy. Momentum, on the other hand, is entirely on the attacker, and it is gained more easily than it is lost. (There are several other factors that could be mentioned here, but this is the most fundamental difference I see between the two.)

Zarquan:

In my opinion, momentum fails to do its job very well. It's not as limiting as most monks would have us believe. Deep wounds are rather easily avoided and cured, not to mention something the target can monitor with relative accuracy. Momentum, on the other hand, is entirely on the attacker, and it is gained more easily than it is lost. (There are several other factors that could be mentioned here, but this is the most fundamental difference I see between the two.)

Have you ever played a monk?

For about a day. I hate the kata/momentum mechanics from both perspectives.

Zarquan:

For about a day. I hate the kata/momentum mechanics from both perspectives.

How recent was that?

Five or six months ago. Relevance?

Enyalida:

That's not a case of a warrior really knowing some smart trick... it's the case of a warrior outputting double the wounds of another warrior.

I doubt it. Chances are, it's a massive curing issue (which most people have), or terrible robes. You'd have to be an outlier, basically. I don't know anyone who can build on, say, Xena.

From my perspective, deepwounds aren't very easy to cure and avoid, at least against competent warriors, and I still stand by my original statement that building momentum can be difficult against people who know how to hinder correctly.

Also, it's not that hard to track momentum mentally. You just have to know the skills in the guild. It's especially easy for Ninjakari: +1 for every hit, unless it's a regen aff/constrict, which will be -1mo.

You could even code that into your system based on lines.

Rivius:

I doubt it. Chances are, it's a massive curing issue (which most people have), or terrible robes. You'd have to be an outlier, basically. I don't know anyone who can build on, say, Xena.

A lot of warriors can't build on me, and there are a few who can. It's a knowledge thing.