Great idea but we have one already.

[impp]

Sorry for all the posts it's quiet in the war zone.

So the new death sentence is a "good" support idea but we already have it, it's called sudden strike.

Just been doing a little testing comparing the two. I compared level 5 death sentence with level 1 sudden strike. Both have 1 sec casting time, lvl5 DS lasts 30 secs, lvl1 SS 20 secs, lvl5 DS uses 170 mana, lvl1 SS, 80 and finally lvl5 DS does +20% melee while lvl1 SS reduces protection -50%.

The results with stunning fist and ensnaring arrow from close range are that on average lvl1 SS outperforms lvl5 DS - the damage dealt is close but SS gives just a bit more and has the advantage that it can benefit melee and range allies.

On this evidence alone therefore I was just as good at "supporting" my allies before the update with Sudden Strike level 1.

Sorry but I can't help but think, that not much thought or analysis went into the new balance update.

[doppelapfel]

Sorry for all the posts it's quiet in the war zone.

So the new death sentence is a "good" support idea but we already have it, it's called sudden strike.

Just been doing a little testing comparing the two. I compared level 5 death sentence with level 1 sudden strike. Both have 1 sec casting time, lvl5 DS lasts 30 secs, lvl1 SS 20 secs, lvl5 DS uses 170 mana, lvl1 SS, 80 and finally lvl5 DS does +20% melee while lvl1 SS reduces protection -50%.

The results with stunning fist and ensnaring arrow from close range are that on average lvl1 SS outperforms lvl5 DS - the damage dealt is close but SS gives just a bit more and has the advantage that it can benefit melee and range allies.

On this evidence alone therefore I was just as good at "supporting" my allies before the update with Sudden Strike level 1.

Sorry but I can't help but think, that not much thought or analysis went into the new balance update.
Do you have any idea how those two different types of dmg increase work? test this with a full buffed barb and you will notice a huge dmg difference.

[impp]

Obviously not, why don't you post the results of the tests you must have done?

[Arafails]

+20% melee damage = barb hits for 1000 goes to 1200 ; subtract armour of, eg, 200, goes from 800 to 1000.
-50% protect = barb hits for 1000 ; subtract armour of 100 instead of 200 goes to 900 instead of 800

:D

[doppelapfel]

Armor points reduce the dmg by a fixed number, ranged- and meelereceived number in-/decrease it by %. Lets say your armor reduces dmg by 150 in total and a barb hits 1k weapondmg (the dmg he does, your resists/armor points are not in yet!), a hunter 250 with a fast bow. Now take away the dmg your armor absorbs, the barb hits 850 on you, the hunter 100 .
If someone casts sudden strike on you you lose 50% of your armor points, so they only reduce dmg by 75, the barb hits 925 on you now, the hunter 175.
The barb's dmg has been increased by ~9%, the hunters' by 75% of what he has done without suddenstrike. As you see sudden strike is great for players with fast, low damaging attacks like archers but doesnt help high hitting players like barbs much.
+20% meele dmg increases the dmg for both by 20%, helps them in the same way. +20% meele dmg is more helpful than sudden strike for the barb but less for the hunter.

[Kaixo]

A great support for people that don't need that support. A barbarian has Off with their Heads and Onslaught, and people never called the barbarian a supportive class. This actual "supporting" focus of the hunters is a joke.
The only purpose of death sentence is to balance a bit the damage lost with bestial wrath.

[El_Naso]

DS/SS help the most in tight situations. They won't help when you are winning, of course. It's of most help when warriors of both armies clash, it gives your warriors a better chance to come out alive. It's also a pretty visible mark on a target; a warrior is sure to notice it just like marks used to notice ds being cast on anyone back in the day.

Also, -and a little off topic- a chain of Onslaughts is of massive help when your side is outnumbered and you need to coordinate a quick powerful all-out attack to revive the fallen and keep the door's hp up or when you need to quicly ram it down. People should seriously save it for consecutive damage boosting prupposes.

[Arafails]

A quick demo of the difference between +%damage and -%protection for high hitters, btw.

31365

You'll notice that the only other buffs I cast were Caution and Frenzy, to save myself the trouble of losing lots of HP.
Fulminating (2) only lasts for 2 hits in the given example. You'll notice that those two hits, at +20% damage, average roughly the same as the 5 hits under Disabling (5) which is -60% protection.

[Mikan]

To be fair, Sudden strike is a little OP, since you can have it on level 1 and reduce 50% of the enemy's defense. For comparison, level 5 Caution and Force armor (which are difficult to have in comparison) only give +30% protection, and level 5 Evasive tactics gives +55%.

Also, armor debuffs work relative to the current amount, so if a person has 300 armor, Sudden strike will only remove 150, but if they have been buffed by Defensive stance, Heroic presence, and Caution, and have 1,080, Sudden strike will remove 540, an increase of 360%(!).

Do you see where I am going with this, and why it is a problem for it to be so strong on any level?

To make it worse warrior protection debuffs start at 40% or lower, and have no range, may have cast time, and one of them is located at level 17 in a tree that isn't absolutely essential to have at that level. Archers have it easy with this spell for a single power point, located low in the tree.

To summarize - the problem isn't in the power of DS, but Sudden strike.

Kind regards.