1.3.6 Final Patchnotes

The servers are down, the patch is being updated. It doesn't seem like they have listened to the massive amounts of negative feedback about the new mechanic. I think many people who don't play a Runepriest, or even Runepriests that haven't tried out the new changes will be suprised how disappointing the new mechanic is. You can read the full patchnotes here. Nothing seems to have changed from the previous versions. At least the sovereign sets are something to work towards!

Runepriest

Balance Changes:

Due to the nature of the changes in this update, all Runepriests have had their Mastery and Renown training refunded. Please visit a trainer to relearn these abilities. 

* Efficient Runecarving: This Tactic will now heal your defensive target for 50% of all direct damage dealt. On PTS this only worked when under Rune of Breaking (see below).

* Immolating Grasp: Fixed an issue in which this Tactic did not always function correctly in conjunction with the Tactic "Potent Runes".

* Master Rune of Adamant: Increased the Action Point cost of this ability and removed the build time.

* Master Rune of Fury: Increased the Action Point cost of this ability and removed the build time.

* Master Rune of Speed: Increased the Action Point cost of this ability and removed the build time. 

Master Runes increased by 10AP to 35AP/cast.

* Rune of Breaking: This new toggled ability is available at Rank 1. While toggled off, this ability converts several damage-oriented stats on items (Intelligence, Magic Power, and Magic Crit Chance) into their healing-oriented counterparts (Willpower, Healing Power, and Healing Crit Chance) at 50% of the original values. When toggled on, it will do the opposite, and convert the same healing-oriented stats on gear into their damage-oriented counterparts at 50% of the original values.

Bug Fixes:

* Grimnir's Shield: Fixed an issue in which this ability did not correctly reduce all incoming damage types.

Other

* Hierophant's Grace: This proc buff will now hasten casting speed by 25%.

You can see screenshots of the new sovereign sets in my previous post.

My take? 

Whoever suggested these changes, didn't stick to Mythic's idea of the Runepriest, nor did they please any Runepriests. Zealots are positively fuming about these changes!

Lets have a look at NateL's understanding of our class:

One of our long-time concerns regarding the Runepriest and Zealot careers is that they ultimately become more limited than other Healer-archetype careers. This is because the other healing careers have their Mastery paths sorted by role - people who play those careers make a decision about the role they want to play, then specialize in the corresponding Mastery path and gear up appropriately. Runepriests and Zealot, however, have their Mastery paths sorted by delivery vehicle ("direct", "over time", and "area", essentially) and then have both offensive and defensive abilities together in each Mastery.  Since there's obviously no such thing as "gearing for direct", though, Runepriests and Zealots then have to decide again whether they want to be offensive or defensive and then gear appropriately - the net result being that even within their chosen Mastery, half of their abilities are ineffective.

 Now compare this to the patchnotes:

Efficient Runecarving gives our direct damage spells a lifetap component. IT IS IN OUR DOT/HOT TREE! Sorry for shouting, but the ignorance of this change is mindblowing.

Rune of balancing/breaking. This mechanic renders half of our abilities truly ineffective by negating all of our Int or Willpower. A Runepriest in the new full DPS sovereign gear is still behind par in DPS terms. Now HALF that power and we still wouldn't push out effective DPS. Go back and read Nate's last sentance. I don't believe this change has addressed this issue at all.

Now when we are geared for healing, we do less damage if we throw out a DOT than we did before. We also get a higher chance for our silence and stagger to be disrupted.

There are a few occasions when this new mechanic will allow you to push out more DPS without changing your armour set, but nearly all will be situations when there are no enemy players around. I can do more damage on TOVL Boss 5 urn. I can throw out more DPS on undefended keep doors or on objective guards. I can do more DPS to the NPCs in the city sieges. If there is a sole enemy player running away and not threating my group I can help kill him slightly faster with my inadequate damage, but only once every 30s.We don't even get to twist in and out of DPS stance using HOTs and DOTs because the value is calculated from our current stats every tick.

As they have made the change, it is unlikely we will ever get a more interesting mechanic. I have seen so many interesting ideas around our Runes that will never come to light. The best we can probably hope for are changes to this mechanic:

1) There is no need for a 30s cooldown. We are so far from being effective in both areas that we don't need to be restricted in this way. If the values were increased, as discussed below, some restriction of the sort may be applicable
2) Our stats shouldn't be negated.You are taking stats away from us and replacing them with 50% of their value. Isn't that just called a nerf?
3) The 50% conversion isn't enough. It needs to be upwards of 70% for our spells to come close to being effective. Even at 100% we wouldn't have true parity because of the next point.
4) We need the right tactics to be effective in either mode, and these can't currently be changed in combat. Many of our tactics are bugged or worthless. No tactics are balanced around the delivery methods of direct, over time or area - they don't improve both our heals and our damage at the same time. Dual faced tactics that perform differently under each rune could go a long way to addressing some of our issues.

5) The glowing hands of doom. Does it really need to be made so obvious to the enemy that we are unable to self heal or the role we are performing in our groups?

More detail on 1.3.6 DPS changes for the Runepriest

Runepriests & Zealots:
One of our long-time concerns regarding the Runepriest and Zealot careers is that they ultimately become more limited than other Healer-archetype careers. This is because the other healing careers have their Mastery paths sorted by role - people who play those careers make a decision about the role they want to play, then specialize in the corresponding Mastery path and gear up appropriately. Runepriests and Zealot, however, have their Mastery paths sorted by delivery vehicle ("direct", "over time", and "area", essentially) and then have both offensive and defensive abilities together in each Mastery.  Since there's obviously no such thing as "gearing for direct", though, Runepriests and Zealots then have to decide again whether they want to be offensive or defensive and then gear appropriately - the net result being that even within their chosen Mastery, half of their abilities are ineffective.

We want to maintain the general setup of the Runepriest and Zealot Mastery paths, but we also want to address this issue.  In order to do both of these, we will be adding a new ability to the Runepriest, and changing the functionality of Harbinger of Doom for the Zealot.  All Runepriests will now start with an ability named Rune of Breaking, which can be toggled on and off:

• While toggled off, the Runepriest is affected by the Rune of Balance.  This causes all Intelligence, Magic Power, and Magic Crit stats on items to be negated, and instead converted into Willpower, Healing Power, and Healing Crit bonuses.  We're currently planning on these stats converting at a 2:1 ratio - in other words, a total of +100 Intelligence from gear would instead be turned into +50 Willpower while this ability is toggled off.

• While toggled on, the Runepriest is affected by the Rune of Breaking.  This works the same way but in the opposite direction:  Willpower, Healing Power, and Healing Crit stats on gear are negated and instead converted into Intelligence, Magic Power, and Magic Crit, also at a 2:1 ratio.

• Rune of Breaking may be toggled on and then back off at any time; doing so is instant and costs no Action Points.  However, once it is toggled off, there is a 30 second cooldown before it may be toggled back on again.

For Zealots, Harbinger of Doom will be changed to provide this same functionality.  It will become a starting abilities, and can be toggled on or off.  While toggled off, the Zealot is the Harbinger of Change (and has the same offensive gear stats converted into the same healing stats), and while toggled on, the Zealot is the Harbinger of Doom (and likewise, has healing gear stats converted into offensive stats).  Additionally, all of the Zealot's tactics which currently affect Harbinger of Doom will be redesigned to be appropriate for this new system, and the Runepriest will also gain some tactics which affect Rune of Breaking as well. 

Nate Levy
Lead Designer
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

WarhammerOnline Forums.

"The new effect will probably just be called 'Rune of Anger' and give a character glow effect... Hope they at least remember to flip heal crit to magic crit as well!"

Not a huge suprise in functionality of the ability, you can see my original estimate wasn't too far off the mark.

One suprising development is the improvements to our healing that it will bring. Any int, magic crit, magic power will convert into the heal equivalent. We all have some base int, and most sets also add a certain amount of int so it should be a boost to our willpower. It should be a lot easier to hit the willpower cap with the changes and be able to spend points in more survivability, some old items may need to be re-evaluated in light of this change. Conqueror and Invader have magic crit and int set bonuses making them slightly more viable,

I'm not sure that the ratio will stay at 2:1, I think I would prefer magic/heal crit to be a 1:1 ratio as that doesn't develop naturally with our character. Intelligence could then be slightly lower preventing everyone from having capping willpower too easily.

I have a number of concerns with these changes though:

• In healing mode, we will be able to contribute little or no damage due to negating our base int, and vice-versa for DPS mode and healing. I don't think it should negate (all) willpower/int. For example one could convert willpower to intelligence in the ratio of 2:1. Then half effectiveness of willpower in Rune of Breaking mode.
• DOT/HOTs are calculated each tick, so if you DOT/HOT someone and then change stance the damage/healing will drop. This really reduces effectivenesss of stance dancing, something that could be a fun and advanced way to play the class.
• Can't change tactics in combat to meet your DPS/Healing needs.
• Still have broken/worthless tactics. 
• Could trigger the Global Cooldown.
• Still don't have a mechanism to reduce enemy resists to our damage.
• Balance issues if weapon DPS does affect our magic/heal power and comes in on the same patch. Could we really become flavour of the month?! 

One way to overcome 2-3 of these issues is to have tactics with 2 features - a balance and a breaking side. e.g. Blessing of Grungni - Under Rune of Breaking critical hits will reduce resistance to elemental damage by 150. Under Rune of Balance critical heals increase incoming healing by 25%. Another way would to be able to choose a tactic set to go with each Rune.

Interesting anyway and should give us more options. Time will tell...