The sky is falling the sky is falling

Have a quick run over the forums, everyone is crying about nerfs. The Black Orc forums seem to be following the same pattern.

So were we nerfed, lets take a close look.

Shield Wall: The block bonus from this ability will no longer stack with other block buff bonuses

Must be a nerf but I don’t really understand it TBH.

All Disorient effects cast by players will no longer stack. Only the most powerful Disorient will affect the target.

This seems a huge buff to us.

Armor breaking/ignoring abilities got severely nerfed in their effectiveness (which helps high armored targets the most)

All absorb shield buffs have increased in effectiveness, and will now absorb roughly 50% more damage in most cases.

We have an underpowered shield now it may be viable.

Rock 'Ard: This ability no longer claims to lead to Gud Plan, or highlights while you have a Gud Plan.

Does this means it can be used every 10 seconds? If so that will be very useful.

Challenge: This ability no longer requires an enemy target.

A small but effective buff.

Wot armor?: This ability has had its stacking % armor debuff replaced with a fixed-value armor debuff. Additionally, it will now apply its maximum debuff value in a single hit.

A nerf especially against high armour targets but we benefit overall from the nerf to armour pen on all classes.

Da Toughest: This ability will now grant less Wounds and health to the Black Orc when it triggers.

A nerf, We will need to see how much it is reduced by.

Da Big Un': This ability will now deal more damage, and affect a larger area.

Buff

Savin' Me Hide: This abilty will now deal more damage, and will also reduce the magical damage taken by you and your group.

This could be very good, it isn’t raising resists, its stopping damage. This could be very powerful. I look forward to testing it. Very useful in pvp and situation ally useful in PVE. It is not as if we will miss the toughness bonus.

Shut Yer Face: This ability will now deal more damage and cost no AP to activate.

Simple buff

Down Ya Go: This ability will now deal more damage, knock the target down for 3 seconds, and cost no AP to activate.

Buff

T'ree Hit Combo: This ability will now deal more damage but will receive less damage contribution from stats.

Perhaps nerf

Not in da Face!: This ability will now deal more damage and also make you and your group briefly immune to disabling effects.

Interesting, we will be less susceptible to disabling effects any way but buffing our healers and ranged dps gives us greater utility.

WAAAAAAAGH!: This ability will now deal more damage.

Buff

Can't Hit Me!: This ability will now deal Corporeal Damage.

Nerf but consistent with all other classes

Big Brawlin': This ability will now disorient targets by 25%.

Don’t know

Dat Was Great!: This Tactic has been changed to match the changes to Wot armor?. The Tactic will now increase the duration of Wot armor?, and reduce the victim's Toughness.

Nerf but not that important

Rock 'Ard: This ability will now absorb more damage.

Buff, ok for PVE and great for PVP

Can't Touch Us: This ability will now absorb more damage.

Buff


I am pleased with these changes in so far as I can be until I test them. Brawler Orcs have some nice buffs, Tanking Blorcs may have to change their builds but with the change to a fixed Da Greeniest, new builds may appear and they may even be superior.

Build

New improved self shield, a reduction to magic damage, a fixed greeniest below a lot of group buffs, Increased damage and reduced AP cost on our attacks. At worst we sacrifice a little bit of survivability for greater utility and damage. It’s a group based game so I am happy enough with that.

It has a lot of potential. A few questions come to mind. If Da Toughest is reduced by 25% and our shield goes up by 50%, have we lost out on survivability?

I have never been one for stacking resists. I have tested it in the past but have gone for other options. How strong does the new Savin' Me Hide have to be to make up for the soft cap in resists?

As I see it worst case scenario we have dropped a little survivability for more Damage, utility and more efficient AP. We may even have been buffed in survivability relative to other classes.