Dawn of Light

First off; I want to thank Tola for all of the work you have done so far on balancing the classes. I figured that I would create this thread so we can (as a community) attempt to determine what classes are finished and performing well; or are overpowered / under-performing and in need of some change. I will start to populate this list with my assessment of each class; but feel free to add your own and/or propose edits for the ones I include myself. Please include a brief description about why the class fits each category. I will update this list as it becomes more complete (& as update are added). Issues with asterisks are problems with a type of ability not unique to a particular class; and are explained in detail below.

Overpowered:
1. Mauler: "Reason being they can pretty much 1-2 shot everything around them in a huge radius. Nerfing of Mauler Mastery could possibly fix this, also giving the not so good zeal instead of the uber zeal that they do get." -Gerk

Performing Well:
1. Cabalist: Fairly Solid Caster Class - Has powerful DOTs (which are fine post-nerf); decent nukes (Life-Drains); and pets; none of which seem over-powering or under-performing. Issues: Life-Drains*; Single-Target Debuffs*
2. Cleric: Essentially a Well-Rounded Caster - Has powerful nukes, good buffs, decent heals (which I've discussed improving), and decent melee. Issues: The Instant Damage and Instant Mez/Snare abilities need shorter recast timers (Maybe 1 second for the damage and 10seconds for the mez); Single-Target Stun*
3. Friar: Well-Rounded Tank; perhaps a little boring on this server; very strong in single-target damage and fighting bosses - weak in AOE damage. Issues: Twister*

Under-Performing:
1.

Issues discovered through this list:
1. Life-Drains: Life-Drains trade off damage for a health regaining component, but spell echo doesn't pass on secondary effects, maybe all Life-Drains should be given a small 200 radius so the number of drained targets could be increased marginally.
2. Single-Target Debuff: All Debuffs should be aoe; or else they are not worth using (350 radius is typical for aoe debuffs; but 700 radius might be more appropriate for this server). They should also be instant cast and given a 1 second recast timer (debuffs don't stack with themselves).
3. Single-Target Stun: Doesn't work on bosses - kind of pointless for a mass zerg of mobs - needs to be made AOE with a 350-700 radius)
4. Twister: Something seems off about this ability it does not seem to kill off mobs efficiently at all; I find myself having to finish off each mob; whereas Zeal and Shock & Awe seem to more effectively clear groups of mobs.

Classes Still Needing Assessment:
1. Armsman
5. Heretic
6. Infiltrator
8. Mercenary
9. Minstrel
10. Paladin
11. Reaver
12. Scout
13. Sorcerer
14. Theurgist
15. Wizard
16. Animist
17. Bainshee
18. Bard
19. Blademaster
20. Champion
21. Druid
22. Eldritch
23. Champion
24. Hero
25. Mentalist
26. Nightshade
27. Ranger
28. Valewalker
29. Vampiir
30. Warden
31. Beserker
32. Bonedancer
33. Healer
34. Hunter
35. Runemaster
36. Savage
37. Shadowblade
38. Shaman
39. Skald
40. Spiritmaster
41. Thane
42. Valkyrie
43. Warlock
44. Warrior

Zeal attacks all mobs within a radius of the fighter.

Twister attacks a set number of random mobs within a radius of the caster.

Twister is not supposed to be as good as Zeal but maybe this needs to be re-visited. The idea was to provide some kind of melee AOE to hybrid classes who had other ways to damage mobs.

Mauler should be in the overpowered section imo. Reason being they can pretty much 1-2 shot everything around them in a huge radius. Nerfing of Mauler Mastery could possibly fix this, also giving the not so good zeal instead of the uber zeal that they do get.

Twister: Yeah; I don't want to see this ability be identical to zeal, but I think it needs to be looked at; as it seems fairly inefficient for killing multiple mobs. It doesn't seem to hit a random mob more than once either, which I think is part of why it always seems like I am finishing off each mob.

Maybe for twister we aught to have the quantity of random targets changed to roughly 5-8 (which I think is less) but add another component to it called Erosion (Damage-over-time); which repeats the damage every second for the next 10 seconds (but doesn't stack). So basically with each swing of the weapon; more mobs will be brought into the Twister and suffering Erosion each second. The Twister animation could go off each time a pulse of the Erosion went off.

the mauler now is what a savage should be capable to do.

Is not the mauler that needs a nerf, are all the other melee classes (especially the DPS light tanks) that needs to be tweaked (upwards) for the D2 mod.

UPDATE - Stealthers situation:

I took the shadowblade for a test after a long time. Punk Mastery used to give a extra hit with 200% of the unstyled weapon damage (for instance, 100 unstyled damage, extra hit for 400).
Looks like tolakram toned it down to 50% (for instance, 100 unstyled damage, extra hit for 50).

Now, stealthers don't have any baseline buffs (AF/STR/CON/DEX) and no spec line resists or damage adds (like tanks and light tanks)
stealthers don't even have any ABS buff like maulers or pure tank custom melee ABS...

since it is no longer a glass cannon, (lowest HP table, no abs, no resists, no base buffs, best DPS with punk mastery) and there are WAY better melee DPS classes (mauler, valewalker, light tanks, pure tanks) with ABS buffs, baseline buffs, better HP/weaponskill tables, i see no reason anymore to finish a clearly underperforming class.

To be on par of the other classes, punk mastery extra hit should be toned up AT LEAST to 100% unstyled damage (was 200%, now it's 50%)

I have not touched ANYTHING.

This is one of the issues with testing and making assumptions in D2, there are so many variables.

Same Equipment?

Same mode (since NM, Hell, and Realm nerfs overall damage)

Etc.

Again, no changes made for months.


and to add to this.

I ALWAYS POST CHANGES IN PATCH NOTES. I am not one to nerf and hope no one notices.

ok if there aren't any ninja nerfs maybe is because the shadowzerk i have is actually in hell mode.

the gear is the same (the capped jewelry set i use on all my chars) and i use 2 diablo 50% bonus axes with 8.0 speed and +255 dps.

maybe is just that in hell even the custom skill "Punk Mastery" gets the damage penalty.

Everything gets a damage penalty in hell, NM and realm as well. Normal has no damage penalties.