Burglar Class LI changes and Class Balance with U30.3
So the new LI update has screwed up the Balance of the classes quite a bit, some classes more than others. Hunter, Beorning and Champion (2hand) DPS went through the roof while others haven't really seen an equally meaningful increase.
There have already been Blue Posts that are saying they'll balance the classes, so here are my thoughts on the Burglar class in specific:
What has changed?
Many class legendary attributes have been nerfed, buffed or completely removed, while others are new. For Burglar, it looks like this:
Nerfs on LIs:
52,2% Positional Damage --> 22% Positional Damage
87% Critical Chain Skills Multiplier --> 27,5% Critical Chain Skills Multiplier
69,6% Cunning Attack Bleed Damage --> 55% Cunning Attack Bleed Damage
139,2% Harmful Gamble Damage --> 38,5% Harmful Gamble Dmg
87% Coup de Grace Damage --> 55% Coup de Grace Damage
87% Subtle Stab Critical Multiplier --> 55% Subtle Stab Critical Multiplier
87% Feint Attack Damage --> 55% Feint Attack Damage
69,6% Surprise Strike Damage --> 55% Surprise Strike Damage
87% Positional Damage Surprise Strike from Stealth --> 55% Positional Damage Surprise Strike
87% Snag Skills Damage --> 55% Snag Skills Damage
87% Lucky/Gambler's Strike Damage --> 55% Lucky/Gambler's Strike Damage
Nerfs in general:
25% Positional Damage in Skill Tree --> 15 % Positional Damage in Skill Tree
10% Feint Attack Positional Damage Buff on Crit --> 5% Feint Attack Positional Damage Buff on Crit
Removed Attributes:
52,2% Skills Critical Multiplier --> removed entirely (<-- This is quite a huge nerf)
52,2% Burglar Skills Bleed Damage --> removed entirely (<-- This is quite a huge nerf, for blue line in specific)
12,6% Provoke Damage Legacy --> removed entirely
30 Seconds Specialization Buffs --> removed entirely
No meaningful changes:
Subtle Stab Base Damage (went from 34,8% --> 38,5%)
Critical Response Damage (went from 34,8% --> 38,5%)
All In Damage Attribute (went from 69,6% --> 44%, but All In itself has been buffed by 30% (went from 50% --> 80%)
Reveal Weakness Attribute (went from 3,75% --> 4,4%)
Addle Tactical Damage Debuff (went from 5,1% --> 5,5%)
Mischievous Glee Initial Healing (went from +9,7% --> 8,25%)
Tricks Duration (went from 15 to 16,5 seconds)
New Attributes:
Critical Chain Skills Critical Rating --> 5,5% Critical Chain Skills Critical Chance (existed as a % value earlier but only on non-imbued LIs)
Coup de Grace Critical Rating --> 11% Coup de Grace Critical Chance + Duration
Surprise Strike Critical Rating --> 5,5% Surprise Strike Critical Chance
Lucky Strike Critical Rating --> 11% Lucky Strike Critical Chance
The Critical Rating attributes existed earlier but didn't do anything/didn't work at all.
Universal Buffs/Changes on LIs:
3 AoE Targets on Flashing Baldes and Double Edged Strike --> 7 AoE Targets on Flashing Baldes and Double Edged Strike (this one is really good!)
0% ST Critical Magnitude/Crit Chance --> 22% ST Critical Magnitude + 5,5% ST Crit Chance
0% AoE Critical Magnitude/Crit Chance --> 33% AoE Critical Magnitude + 5,5% AoE Crit Chance
0% ST Damage --> 22% ST Damage
0% AoE Damage --> 27,5% AoE Damage
Weapon Base Damage (DPS) Increase
Conclusion:
So all in all, Burglar has seen rather many nerfs and no meaningful buffs (except the universal ones that every class got). The biggest nerf is probably the complete removal of the +52,2% Skills Critical Multiplier attribute on the LIs. On top of that, Burg is one of the few classes that has actually received nerfs in the Skill tree itself (Positional Damage) while not getting any compensation for this nerf. This seems really odd considering that Burglar wasn't really a Top DPS class for the past updates (= Amdan Dammul Raid and Balrog Raid).
On the other hand, the extra AoE Targets on Flashing Blades and Double Edged Strike is a really impactful and welcome change.
I'd really like to see some changes to the Critical Magnitude Attributes because what this update has mainly done is increasing the Base (non-Critical) Damage of skills while lowering the Critical Damage. However, some classes benefit more from Critical Hits than others. Beorning for example didn't really have any Critical Magnitude attributes, therefore didn't really receive a nerf in these but got a huge buff on non-Critical Damage which was his main damage anyway. Champion, on the other hand got a huge nerf on Critical Damage (previous attribute was +174% Damage --> removed) which is why he at least got a +30% Base Damage increase with U30.3. For some reason Hunters didn't really suffer any Critical Magnitude Nerfs the same way Burglar and Champion did which is why Hunter damage is so good right now.
Thoughts?
