Except it isn't a nerf post. It's a balance post. And it's really long walk of text so I didn't finish reading.

So you reply to his post, but not mine? I see how it is! :p

The replies I have posted may not be presented in the order I wrote them. Please note that the Warlock reply is the first of the series.

The Titan changes I am proposing are fairly focused, because the recent Titan buffs did a good job of addressing the class’ shortcomings. However, both the Striker and Defender have one or two things that I think still deserve to be looked at. In the case of the Striker: [quote] >Damage resistance gained while activating Fist of Havok now remains for a period of three seconds after impact. [b]trust me that's not needed. They already buffed FoH Unstoppable damage resistance and made Unstoppable +2 armour.[/b] >The Transfusion talent now also applies to kills with Fist of Havoc. [b]disagree. It procs to storm fists and shoulder charges. That's enough. Plus that talent tree is very balanced IMO [/b] >The base damage of Shoulder Charge has been slightly increased. Enemies struck by Shoulder Charge will be knocked backward. [b]disagree. Shoulder charge is in a good place especially with the Peregrine making a return back [/b] [/quote] The first two changes are of the same aim. In the same way that Nova Bomb is the only super that can harm its caster Fist of Havoc is the only super that will very likely result in death for its caster if any of its intended targets survive. It takes roughly two seconds after impact for the Striker to stand and the perspective to return to first person. Three seconds gives the Striker enough time to attempt a retreat, but not enough to guarantee success. Likewise, the Transfusion change offers the Striker respite in a moment of vulnerability. This won’t alter the damage potential of the Fist, but it can make up for the damage incurred during its deployment, and offer some relief while the Striker is exposed afterward. Shoulder Charge is in a good place only so long as you never use it against any enemy who might survive. If you do, the return to first person puts your view awkwardly close to an angry adversary. The knock back is intended to place enough distance between Striker and target to make it easier to aim follow-up attacks or to be able to disengage if necessary. The damage boost is included because there seem to be certain enemies that can only just survive the charge, but it should not change the existing balance in PvP. For Defenders: [quote] >Enemies caught within the radius of the Ward of Dawn at the moment it is deployed will now be pushed out of the Ward and staggered. They will not receive damage. [b]disagree. I use this sometimes as a tactic. I'll throw my WoD over a Sunsinger and have a rumble in the bubble with him and I'll usually win since Armour of light[/b] >In addition to its current effect Armor of Light now grants significant bonus recovery while the buff is applied. [b]trust me not needed. Out of everything defender, AoL is in an EXCELLENT place. And all you need to do to retrigger AoL is run in and out of the bubble, instant regen.[/b] >In addition to its current effect the Iron Harvest talent will grant a small amount of heavy ammo upon activation of Ward of Dawn. [b]actually really like that idea. Love it. Only PvP that's kinda a problem lol[/b] [/quote] The debate over what to do about Ward of Dawn in PvP is one I find amusing. This is speculation on my part, but it seems that those who favor Armor of Light want the Ward to require the full measure of an opponent’s super to extinguish. The problem with this is that a player may spend the entirety of their super breaking the Ward only to be faced with a Defender still buffed by Blessing or Weapons of Light. This renders the Ward uncounterable by most other super abilities. However, those who accept this assessment seem to view Armor of Light as an inferior talent. Being, myself, of the latter camp, I favor leaving the resilience of the Ward as is and buffing Armor. I could probably create another long post on just this topic, so I’ll leave well enough alone here. Your trick with Armor of Light can work against you as easily as it works for you. Attempting to deploy in a clutch situation only to have the enemy penetrate the Ward, cancel your health regeneration, and kill you is a frustrating thing. Bungie described the Ward as a ready-for-anything instant base, and in keeping with that philosophy I would like to see the Ward able to serve as a sort of reset that can turn around a losing encounter. In order to do that, it must provide that critical moment of safety upon deployment to ensure that health regenerates successfully, hence the knockback. The Iron Harvest talent is, at least in part, geared toward PvP. Part of the problem with Defenders is that they aren’t getting the super kills that other classes are, and this is where they’re falling short on average KD. The same might be said of Sunsingers, but Sunsingers have a few really good neutral game options, whereas Defenders are lacking in that regard as well. A free rocket or two, or half a belt of machinegun ammo, aren’t quite on par with Golden Gun or Stormtrance, but they might help the Defender pick up an extra kill or two when using the Ward, offsetting the disadvantage. Lastly, we had one disagreement about a general change: [quote] >Agility now produces a more profound effect on base movement speed. This will be particularly noticeable with high agility stat profile. [b]disagree. Agility is in a good place[/b] [/quote] Previously I cited an interview with some Bungie guys as a means of backing up my proposals. You’ll be happy to know in this case, they agree with you. That doesn’t change the fact that this has been on my list for some time, and that at least one of interviewers felt the same as I do. There is an established trend of stacking armor in PvP, followed by recovery. I think that trend deserves to be addressed. The Bungie guys can’t be right about everything. After all, they keep nerfing fusion rifles. That got asked in the interview too, actually. It’s a good interview.

Let us now move on to a defense of my Hunter changes. Some of these you noted to be the same or similar to changes you posted, and I realized that when I posted this. This list is a compilation of numerous discussions I have participated in, and I left those items in place to demonstrate that I had seen support for those ideas in previous topics. Concerning the Gunslinger: [quote] >The cooldown reduction provided by Gunfighter has been increased. This will be most noticeable when killing minions of the Darkness. In addition, this talent now causes Golden Gun to ready instantly. [b]agree to shorter cooldown, disagree to shorter animation time. That's just something every class has to deal with[/b] >The Circle of Life talent has been altered. Kills with Throwing Knife while Golden Gun is active reset the duration of Golden Gun and provide bonus damage for subsequent shots. [b]OP, but I stated something similar to this above. A less OP version[/b] >The cooldown reduction provided by Scavenger has been increased. [b]not needed. Disagree[/b] [/quote] The Gunfighter change is the result of an interesting evolution. The talent doesn’t effectively compete with Combustion, but the super is so dominant in PvP that players focused on those game modes protested the idea of having even more Golden Guns to deal with. The compromise was to tie the added cooldown reduction to minion kills, but that doesn’t bring Gunfighter on par with Combustion. The instant readying is an interesting and unique little benefit that helps to make this talent more competitive without ignoring the concerns of the PvP crowd. The Circle of Life change is a similar circumstance. Many seem to protest any change to the talent that increases the number of shots ultimately available, so I would argue based on my previous interactions that your suggestion is the OP version. The fact is, there is no reason to use the knife while Golden Gun is active. It’s very high risk with virtually no reward in PvP and there seldom is a lack of viable targets in PvE. What I have proposed is intended predominately to address the concern that the Gun doesn’t do enough damage to be really useful in PvE. In PvP finding an opposing Guardian weak enough to risk the knife is rare, and the payoff would have to be substantial to justify not just blasting them. You are officially the first person I have ever conversed with who challenged the notion that Scavenger does not go far enough in the way of cooldown reduction. This talent is only ever used in cases where the alternatives have minimal value, and even then it seems that way too many Gunslingers choose one of the alternatives on the off chance a specific circumstance might arise in which it will be of benefit rather than rely on the generally lackluster effect of this talent. It needs a fix of some type. If not this than something else, but it definitely needs one. The Bladedancer changes I suggested are very important to addressing the weaknesses inherent to this class. This is important because, though I know this will be controversial in some circles, there is a definitive, fact-based argument to be made that Bladedancer is currently the worst subclass in the game. Of all the classes and subclasses currently available, Bladedancer is unique in the way that the previously released usage statistics show it is the least used subclass within its class across both PvE and PvP. This makes it a strong contender for the least used of any subclass in game at present. Moreover, in the previously referenced interview with Sage and Newsk it was revealed that among the top tier players that Bungie interacts with there is a mounting consensus that the subclass is weak and in need of some fixes. To begin, I’m going to address the Arc Blade changes I have proposed. Arc Blade is a nearly useless super, to the point that in most cases it would be more accurately named “Suicide.” It lacks the attack power to deal with more powerful enemies effectively, and lacks the defensive options to survive against the collected fire of the weaker mobs that usually appear in groups. All of the changes I am proposing are geared toward one objective: increasing survivability to the point that the super can become viable. If you’ll forgive a bit more bluntness, your change to the super’s damage resistance is silly. It’s not enough to increase the number of shots most adversaries need to kill a Bladedancer, and even if it was, a single extra shredder shot isn’t going to make a difference. [quote] >The base damage of Arc Blade has been increased. Striking an enemy with Arc Blade now has a very high chance of staggering the target. [b]disagree to staggering. Agree to bring up the base damage slighty with arc blade[/b] >Pressing the aiming trigger while Arc Blade is active will now guard against incoming damage. Unlike with the swords, this guard functions independent of elemental damage types. [b]disagree, not needed at all. Agility and quickness are traits of Arc Blade, not a whole blocking guard that negates damage like a sword. I did however agree to increase Arc Blade damage resistance slightly [/b] >Targets damaged by the Showstopper attack will be rendered temporarily blind. [b]disagree. Not a Hunter trait. Let's keel things that belong to certain classes stay their. Hunters and Titans can suppress, titans and warlocks can blind, etc[/b] [/quote] I’m surprised you would disagree with the staggering effect. Staggering translates to PvP as flinching. In any case where flinch would affect the outcome of an encounter an Arc Blade slash would kill the target outright. The only reason to oppose this is if you think Arc Blade is overpowered in PvE. Please don’t tell me you think that. You say that the guard mechanic I proposed for Arc Blade is “not needed at all,” but the fact of the matter is that some type of survivability buff related to the super is desperately needed because of the level of exposure the super requires from its user. The guard mechanic, I think, is a clever way to address this since the mechanic already exists in the game and since it prevents the Bladedancer from becoming a nigh-unkillable, high-speed murder machine. Resilience is gained only by forgoing movement. There is no reason at all to claim that blinding enemies is not a Hunter trait, particularly since it is traditionally associated with classes that fit the mold in which the Bladedancer was formed. Suppression and blindness were both Titan-only traits until they weren’t. It seems to me that blindness is an Arc trait, and the Bladedancer is the only Arc subclass yet to make use of it. Showstopper is another talent that doesn’t see much play compared to the alternatives and needs a boost, and since the main failure of Arc Blade is survivability it only makes sense that the boost in question would address that weakness. As for the remaining Bladedancer changes: [quote] >Blink Strike will now, within the confines of the lunge distance of the attack, attempt to position the caster behind the target. [b]what would be the point of backstabber? Disagree[/b] >In addition to its current effects the Fleetfooted talent now removes any cooldown for sprinting. This talent will now provide two additional points of agility instead of one. [b]this is something that nobody should have. I think the sprint cooldown is stupid in general. Disagree to make that a Bladedancer talent[/b] [/quote] The Blink Strike change was meant to be associated with the Backstab talent. That detail apparently got lost between revisions of the list. Oops. I agree that the sprint cooldown is dumb, but it exists and they are apparently sticking with it. Meanwhile, the Fleetfooted talent doesn’t seem to compete with its alternatives. If others are as annoyed by the sprint cooldown as you and I, this would hopefully make it more attractive.

[quote]Thank you for your time in this subject. I will go through all your ideas and give my opinion. I don't mean to sound harsh if I do, it's just the number one thing I don't want to so is buff stuff just cause, You know?[/quote] No worries. That’s how ideas are refined and improved. Plus, I like to argue. I can assure you that nothing on this list is “just cause.” My overall goal is to address those talents that do not provide viable alternatives to the rest of their column, and those that I feel are too situational. The list that I posted is the result of many debates just like this one, but it does not convey the history behind each change. Because of that, I will attempt to address each of the circumstances in which we are in disagreement. This will be a huge undertaking, so I will break it into three replies. This first reply will deal with Warlocks, the second Hunters, and the third will address Titans and general changes. Without further ado, I wanted to start with this. [quote][b]Thank you so much for your time and feedback. Real quick, I just wanted to address the Sunsinger debate. To be completely honesty they are definitely the best choice for PvP at the time. The difference is they aren't "flashy" like Sunbreaker or Stormcaller or Bladedancer is/was. They definitely have the best neutral gameplay and best grenades, best melee, good abilites, etc.[/b] Thanks again[/quote] I don’t have a more tactful way to respond to this except to bluntly say that you are definitely wrong. In an interview Sage (at least I think it was Sage; it could have been Newsk as they were both participating) explicitly stated that “Sunsingers need to come up.” It’s not a matter of opinion. That is what the hard data Bungie has collected indicates. Since we are on the topic of Warlocks, let me say that the biggest failure of the Warlock class as currently implemented is the lack of raid utility. Your list is fundamentally incomplete if you fail to address this shortfall. I will aggregate the changes I proposed to address this below and defend them en masse. [quote] >In addition to its current effect Angry Magic now causes targets struck directly by Nova Bomb to receive 50% additional damage from all sources for a short duration. [b]I feel this uneeded and angry magic should stick to what it does, but improving it's effectiveness. Sounds a little too much like a tether effect or melting point. Not needed[/b] >The Song of Flame talent will now affect allied players within a 50m radius, increased from 10m. [b]compromise, 20m, 50 is overkill[/b] >In addition to its current effect the Song of Flame talent will now cause the melee ability and grenade kills of the Sunsinger and all allies to immediately begin health regeneration. This effect has a three second cooldown for each team member. [b]I don't really agree, song of Flame is already meant to be based on ability recharges, not a health regen perk[/b] >The Sunburst talent now applies to grenade kills as well as those of the Scorch melee. [b]bit overkill, disagree[/b] [/quote] The last time I participated in a thread debating the Voidwalker subclass I took an informal survey by inspecting the Warlocks of other players and noting what talents they were using in the instances where the Voidwalker subclass was visible. If I recall, I saw around ten Voidwalkers, of which eight or so were using Annihilate and only two were using Angry Magic. No one was using The Hunger. Angry Magic is conceptually flawed because Nova Bomb is at its heart an AoE attack. There is no reason to be trying to hit one specific target with it. Making Angry Magic viable requires the talent to justify why the caster would be attempting to do that, and in answering that question I looked to the aforementioned lack of raid utility. It may be true that the change is not needed generally because other classes already have similar abilities, but it is needed for the Warlock because the Warlock has nothing of comparable utility. The health regeneration addition to Song of Flame is likewise an effort to justify why the effect of the talent would be desirable, since there are no extant strategies that revolve around players using lots of grenades, even in game modes like Trials. Once again, I picked an effect intended to be useful to a raid team. The range extension I feel is absolutely necessary to make the talent viable. For comparison, I believe the drop range of heavy ammo crates is 20m. Song of Flame should have at least double that range. Melee attacks are pretty weak by the time the endgame rears its head, and the Scorch melee has the same base damage as an uncharged melee attack. It takes a special effort to deliberately kill an enemy with Scorch, and even then the reward is only the chance to generate orbs. Applying this talent to grenade kills as well is necessary to make it a workable support talent. Keep in mind that this is the same column in which the Viking Funeral talent is found, so the effect must be competitive with that. Regarding the other Voidwalker changes: [quote] >The Nova Bomb casting animation will be less prone to drifting when the Lance talent is active. [b]seems kinda usless considering the warlock glide is based on your momentum in the air[/b][/quote] >To alleviate confusion, the buff provided by the Energy Drain melee ability has been renamed Syphon. The cooldown reduction provided by this buff has been increased. [b]do you mean the onscreen buff of energy drain?[/b] >Super energy gained from the Soul Rip talent has been increased to be on par with the new value for the Striker's Amplify talent. [b]disagree. Strikers had some of the worse melee abilities in the game along with the shortest melee range. Warlocks have a superior base melee and already decent melee talent tree [/b] >The agility bonus previously provided by Annihilate is now provided by Vortex Mastery. [b]doesn't really make a difference. I don't want to mess up something that isn't really a problem[/b] [/quote] The Lance change is a suggestion I adopted from others on a previous topic of this nature. Lance is by far the least popular super talent available to the Voidwalker. Its usage is generally on par with Angry Magic. Since the purpose of Lance seems to be increasing the accuracy of Nova Bomb, it was felt that making the Voidwalker more stationary during deployment would help players to hit their target. I’m not sure this actually fixes the talent, but it is clear that the talent needs fixing somehow. There are two things in the game called “Energy Drain.” One is the Voidwalker’s melee ability, like the Defender’s Disintegrate. The other is the buff that is applied by causing damage with the melee ability, and by causing damage with a grenade or Nova Bomb while the Embrace the Void talent is selected. This is like the Defender’s Force Barrier. The fact that you don’t understand which of those two things I am referring to is proof that one of them needs to be renamed for the sake of clarity, so I am proposing to rename the buff Syphon. The cooldown reduction provided by this buff is weak, as evidenced by the fact that no one bothers with The Hunger talent, which effectively doubles the cooldown reduction, and few people use Embrace the Void. Therefore, “Syphon” deserves a buff. This will in turn fix the related talents I mentioned. In every version of the game up until now, the bonus super energy gained from Amplify and Soul Rip have been tied together and there is no reason for that to change, particularly if you feel the Soul Rip talent has better competition in its column. The range of the Warlock’s base melee is occasionally annoying in PvP, but it’s far from “superior.” Strikers have previously had range problems with their melee, but they’ve also always had the most damaging melee ability in the game, and their range issues have been addressed. As you noted yourself, the Annihilate talent dominates its column. It does not need a stat boost associated with it, and the fact that it has it places both of the Voidwalker’s stat boosts in the same column. It is the only subclass with that disadvantage. That is the problem here, and it deserves to be addressed. Regarding the other Sunsinger changes: [quote] >In addition to its current effect the Solar Wind talent now extends the range of the Scorch melee. Enemies pushed by Solar Wind will be staggered. [b]Definitely disagree, warlocks don't need any more range increases to their melee. Overkill[/b] >In addition to its current effect the Angel of Light talent now increases movement speed while using Glide. [b]disagree, I already listed some changes to AoL, speed is not something need. Things that directly benefit the perk are need. Like Increase accuracy and unflinching[/b] [/quote] The Stormcaller has a pretty good neutral game and an excellent super, and yet has more range on the Thunderstrike melee than the Sunsinger. This sets a precedent that the Sunsinger, with its somewhat less impressive super, deserves to benefit from. Keep in mind that this talent is in direct competition with Flame Shield, and must offer something of comparable value. I have seen a few gameplay videos of players making some crazy plays using Angel of Light or Empyrean Bellicose. If you start buffing the accuracy or flinch resistance of this talent it will become overpowered fast. But comparing Angel to the Bellicose, the thing that stands out to me is the superiority of the Titan’s Lift over the Warlock’s Glide. The Sunsinger can neither Blink nor skate, so the increased Glide speed addresses a specific weakness that currently afflicts the subclass.