Warfare Devblog | Archetype Changes
Warfare Skill Tree
Active Spells
Brutal Strike
As Warfare is a DPS oriented Archetype, we've redesigned Brutal Strike to increase the base damage of the skill. And as we listen to the community and take player feedback into consideration, we've removed the bonus healing based on Aether from Brutal Strike to avoid confusion, but doubled the amount healed from the skill instead. Now, it is more fitting to the bloodthirsty barbarian fantasy, and the players will be able to last more in combat.
Ability will not have bonus healing per 10 Aether accumulated anymore.
Base health restoration increased from 2% Weapon Power to 20% Weapon Power.
Base damage increased from 80% Weapon Power to 100% Weapon Power.
(New) Brutal Strike: Deals (100% Weapon Power) weapon damage to the target and heals the user (20% Weapon Power).
Shieldbreak
Shieldbreak redesign is essential for three main reasons: damage, duration and range. We've increased the damage of the skill so it won't feel you are giving up DPS if you choose to use the Global Cooldown on Shieldbreak instead of Brutal Strike. In addition to that, we've also increased its duration so you can take more advantage from the debuff it applies. Lastly, we knew that Warfare needed an useful ranged option, so we've created a fun mechanic where this skill will adapt to the weapon you are wielding.
Debuff’s duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds.
Ability range will adapt to the weapon you are wielding. If you are using a one-handed sword, it will behave as a melee skill, if you are using a bow, you can use it at range, for example.
Base damage increased from 80% Weapon Power to 100% Weapon Power.
(New) Shieldbreak: Deals (100% Weapon Power) weapon damage and reduces target's (Weapon Defense) by (5% Weapon Power) and (5% Weapon Power) more per 10 Aether consumed for 8 seconds. This ability’s range adapts to the weapon you are currently wielding.
Pummel
Despite the simple changes in Pummel, we are sure that it will add more fun to the gameplay. We've added an extra reward to players that successfully interrupt skills using Pummel not only from players, but creatures too.
Pummel will set an ability that it interrupts to 5 seconds.
(New) Pummel: Interrupts the target's spellcast and deals (90% Weapon Power) weapon damage. The interrupted ability will have its cooldown set to 5s.
Bladestorm
Listening to community feedback, we noticed that using Bladestorm used to be somewhat punitive and not rewarding enough.
Pressing the “Bladestorm” button used to be more punitive than rewarding for players, 3 seconds used to be way too long for the extra damage that the spell does, and by the time the 3 seconds have passed, depending on the amount of creatures on top of you, you would have taken way too much damage for the extra heal to be worth it. We are decreasing the spell charge time, so it’s now worth it to go for the extra damage and heal (even though we are reducing the damage so it makes sense for the 2 seconds charge).
Time to charge the ability for its full damage and health restoration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
Base health restoration increased from 10% Weapon Power to 15% Weapon Power for each target hit.
Additional health restoration increased from 5% Weapon Power to 7% Weapon Power per 10 Aether consumed.
(New) Bladestorm: Charges for up to 2s and deals up to (160% Weapon Power) weapon damage in a small area. Restores (15% Weapon Power) health for each target hit. Deals (20% Weapon Power) more damage and restores (7% Weapon Power) more health per 10 Aether consumed. Moving when charging is possible at 50% reduced speed.
Bullrush
Bullrush used to be an obvious choice on the Warfare Archetype, with mobility, utility and low cooldown. To make it a less obvious choice, we've removed the stun from the skill, and this kind of utility will now take place elsewhere.
Bullrush doesn’t stun targets hit by it anymore.
(New) Bullrush: Charges 6 squares forward, any targets within 3 square width in front receive (50% Weapon Power) weapon damage. Passed enemies are pushed back.
Earthquake
To encourage players going deep on Warfare Skill Tree and getting more damage skills, we've decided to redesign Earthquake as a AoE skill that deals damage around you with a bigger area than before. As the cooldown will be bigger, we've also increased the slow duration that the skill applies, making it so players can stay on top of their targets after a huge commitment of engage.
Earthquake’s area increased by 1 tile to all sides.
Base damage increased from 50% Weapon Power to 100% Weapon Power.
Now the ability will deal 20% Weapon Power additional damage per 10 Aether consumed.
Slow duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds.
Slow strength reduced from 50% to 30%.
Cooldown increased from 30 to 50 seconds.
(New) Earthquake: Deals (100% Weapon Power) weapon damage in a medium area and slows the targets by 30% for 6s. Increase damage by (20% Weapon Power) per 10 Aether consumed.
Spiked Chains
The Warfare Archetype definitely needed more utility, and we've completely redesigned Spiked Chains to serve this purpose. With a new and truly fun mechanic, the skill will now help melee builds to stick to their targets, offering possibilities to play around it.
Ability will generate 20 Aethers instead of consuming.
Ability doesn’t deal damage anymore.
Ability will be casted in a cone in front of the user.
Ability will Snare every target hit by it for 250ms.
Ability will pull every target hit by it towards the user if there’s enough room.
(New) Spiked Chains: Throws chains in a cone area in front of you. Every target hit by it will be snared for 0.25s then it will try to pull any affected creature to your direction if there is enough room. After trying to pull, a slow will be applied for 3s.
Casting: Instant | Aether: Generates 20 Aether | Cooldown: 30 Seconds
Passive Spells
Ravenous –> Savagery
Ravenous was one of the passives that enhanced Warfare’s own skills. As you know, we've redesigned all passives to be useful for every Archetype, and because of that, Ravenous needed to change. With that, Savagery will replace Ravenous, but we wanted to keep the "bloodthirsty savage" feeling, so the skill has a bleed that heals you, like you are feasting on the blood of your opponents. Savagery will be a damage/sustain option for every critical strike focused build in the game.
New passive: Savagery. Savagery will be replacing Ravenous.
(New) Savagery: Your critical strikes apply Deep Wounds to the target. Deep Wounds will deal 5% AP to the target every 3 seconds for 12 seconds and heal you for the same amount. You can have up to 3 deep wound stacks on a target, new deep wounds refreshes it.
Bloodlust
Trying to follow the fantasy of a warrior that gets stronger the closer he’s to his death, the new Bloodlust passive will provide you with several buffs to deal more damage. In most of the scenarios, damage is sustained for Warfare, and this skill opens up some interesting scenarios for your gameplay.
(New) Bloodlust: Whenever you get below 30% health, Bloodlust will increase your Weapon Power by 10%, critical chance (multiplier) by 20% and attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds. This effect can occur once every 2 minutes.
Hatred
The old Hatred passive started off really good, but it didn't scale with your level and gear, so it was just a matter of time for the buff it provided to become irrelevant. Now, with the redesign, as long as you are in battle and taking damage, you’ll be ramping your damage up depending on your stats.
(New) Hatred: Whenever you deal damage, gain one stack of Hatred, whenever you take damage, gain two stacks of Hatred for 6 seconds. Each stack of Hatred increases your (AP) by 1.5% and reduces your (DP) by 1.5%. This effect can occur once every 2 seconds, stacks up to 10 times.
Bloodseeker
Bloodseeker received a simple buff, since 5% could not even be noticeable at some times. With the new passives design in mind,, we tripled the amount healed by the skill.
(New) Bloodseeker: 15% Lifesteal on weapon attacks.
Siegebreaker → Concentrated Impact
We decided to remove Siegebreaker from the Warfare Archetype Skill Tree since it’s simply not a fun passive for other players than the Warfare itself. We can see the world where Warfare is this unstoppable juggernaut beast, but we prefer to imagine Warfares overwhelming their opponents with really strong strikes and bloodthirsty. That’s exactly where Concentrated Impact jumps in: a tool to boost your damage even more for every critical strike you deal to the target, shattering their defenses until they cannot resist anymore.
New passive: Concentrated Impact. Concentrated Impact will be replacing Siegebreaker.
(New) Concentrated Impact: Whenever you deal a critical strike, apply a Sunder stack to the target creature reducing the target's (Spell Defense) and (Weapon Defense) by (3% Weapon Power). This effect can stack up to 5 times. Every subsequente stack will refresh the duration of this effect. Sunder lasts for 8 seconds.
Warmonger → Bloodbath
Since Warfare has a lot of mobility on its skills, we decided to remove Warmonger from the Archetype passive options and create Bloodbath to replace it. Bloodbath will help you to stay in battle: the longer you fight, the stronger you get ー until you enter a state of Frenzy, which will make Warfare a really reliable duelist option for builds.
(New) Bloodbath: Whenever you deal damage, gain one stack of Bloodbath, melee attacks will give double of the amount to the user. Bloodbath stacks will give the player 0.10% AP and 0.10% Lifesteal per stack, this effect can stack up to 20 times, Bloodbath lasts for 5 seconds. Upon reaching 20 stacks of Bloodbath, users will be affected by Frenzy. Frenzy will remove all stacks of Bloodbath from the player and restore (10% Max Health) Health instantly and receive 10% increased AP and 10% Lifesteal for 10 seconds. This then goes on a 20 second cooldown.
We hope you enjoy the changes coming to Warfare. We still have 2 more Archetype Dev Blogs to be released before the Closed Beta!
The Ravendawn Team