Victos wrote: ↑Thu 7 Mar 2019 1:11 PM
I think the reapplication is simply the result of a consistent implementation of the dot mechanic throughout the whole game, as far as I know all casted dots do also tick at application (can't test it right now though). So either this was simply intended consistent design or an oversight, I don't know.
I liked switching by hand and did so for years, in my opinion this set the good assassins apart from the bad ones. To me saying people who understand and use a mechanic "not knowing how to play their class" is completely nonsense. A good assassin knew how to switch weapons by hand in conjuction with everything else an assassin has to worry about in a fight. Try to turn your char with right clicked mouse all while you're switching weapons.
Calling people like these "bad players" especially when I see people here praising videos of people - clicking skills - in 2019 is absolutely hilarious.
BUT and that's quite a big BUT:
No one, no matter how good, is able to consistently switch two weapons at 1.5s swingspeed by hand while concentrating on the ongoing fight and making the right decisions. /switch made that possible and highly exploitable though.
Using 1.5s swingspeed in both scenarios means over a time of 21 seconds we're looking at:
6 ticks in 21 seconds (first tick + 1 tick every 4 seconds)
VS
(Time/SwingSpeed+InitialHit)*HitsPerSwing
(21/1.5+1)*2 = 30 applications for a SB
So it's 6vs30 (which means 4/5 or 80% reduction when going from 30 to 6) given a - perfect - scenario.
Now as offhand can miss/blocked/evaded/parried/fumble and dots can be resisted, the difference in practice isn't actually 80% as the following ticks of 1 dot don't have to go through any of those mechanics again after being applied.
I think changing /switch and adjusting poison damage if needed would've been a better solution though as I see switching by hand as a combat mechanic, another skill to master if you will.
Removing the reapplication mechanic as it is closes the gap between good and bad players, reapplication is now hitting a single button instead of in-combat inventory management.
Now as said before, removing the first tick on reapplication is a solution nontheless and poison damage can be adjusted if needed. So the end result - when it comes to damage - is the same, it will be in balance at some point.
The only difference here is players who didn't switch before the change don't even realize there will be one. Players who abused /switch while never switching before that will suddenly find that they're actually not the "good" players they thought they were, they simply got carried by an abusable macro.
And the players who actually switched by hand, players who enjoyed the "Ciliviel" (not that he was the only one, just quite a popular player) playstyle if you will, will find that their playstyle has changed from high interactive to hitting 3 buttons. (With /switch still in place, 2 extra button presses allow the reapplication of 4 poisons after purge given the rules of 3rd party software)
TL;DR:
Casuals (the majority of players I would guess) will be fine and abusers will be put in their place. The only group of players that gets really hit by the nerf consists of players (like myself) who were "masochistic" enough to enjoy the manual playstyle.
I myself (and some people I know who liked it) just quit assassins as it will not be what we enjoy about the classes.
As I would guess the group that includes myself is quite a small one I'm still agreeing to the nerf as the devs have to consider the whole player base and not only a small fraction of it. Something has/had to be done to the ridiculous "roll your fingers and dump a full stack of envenom onto your opponent"-playstyle.
