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Please buff Witchdoctors

AuthorMessage
Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
54
Okay before I start with this topic, I just want to say that this is my opinion and i'm 100% open to criticism regarding said opinion, but here we go.

Witchdoctors are currently one of the lacking classes in the PVP scene, and many people agree along with myself that witches have a bunch of problems:
  • Lack of viable Witchdoctor companions. (Aside from Old Scratch)
  • Very few different strategies they can utilize.
  • Witch Hunter.
  • How easy it is to pressure them.

1. Lack of viable Witchdoctor companions:

Part of the reason why people don't use Witchdoctor companions (Save Old Scratch and maybe Mormo) is the fact their stats are..... lackluster especially in comparison to other classes. Witchdoctors have the lowest base health, armor, dodge and accuracy, and Witchdoctor companions have very poor range. (Mormo has 3 range) It's super risky to use more than one witch companion because of what I said above and they hardly bring anything to the table. Not to mention they all lack Super hit powers, which doesn't really matter since their accuracy is horrid.

What would fix this issue is to:
  • Increase their range to 5-6 to keep them on par with most Musketeer companions and to actually give them a "keep away" game.
  • Giving them more powers to use in battle such as Ghostwail and Super Strikes.
  • Increase their base accuracy, because there's no reason why it has to be so low since companions don't even have that many powers to begin with and buffing this won't break them since they're still squishy.

2. Very few different strategies they can utilize:

Witchdoctor captains cannot afford to sacrifice their range aside from the Scorpion Staff + Beast banner trick and the Orb of Nerfarious Death + Shooty weapon talents since as I said before, their defenses are a joke. Witches are not meant for CQC, which makes melee witch an unviable option and the only thing they can really do is spam minions and use scratch's mojo buffs. If Witchdoctors are not the ones in control of the battle they will almost ALWAYS LOSE.

3. Witch Hunter:
I'm not going to full detail about this since there's multiple threads on why it's unfair and imo, it should be banned from PVP altogether.

4. How easy it is to pressure them.
Despite having powers such as Widow's Touch and minions to provide as a distraction, there really isn't anything they can do when you get close to them.

Let's say, you're fighting a Buccaneer and they use Highland Charge. The enemy team rushes over to your side, and you want to kill them before they kill you? Nope, Readied Spell misses, want to avoid Witch Hunter? Nope, you miss and the captain still gets the 50% protection and you already take -1000 damage from that alone. And the worst part about Witch Hunter is that you can still chain hits on them, which means you can lose a match from this one talent alone.

tl;dr. Witchdoctors have too many glaring flaws and their issues still have not been fixed. Please address and fix these problems in the future to make them more balanced.
Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
AllToonedUp on Oct 20, 2017 wrote:
Okay before I start with this topic, I just want to say that this is my opinion and i'm 100% open to criticism regarding said opinion, but here we go.

Witchdoctors are currently one of the lacking classes in the PVP scene, and many people agree along with myself that witches have a bunch of problems:
  • Lack of viable Witchdoctor companions. (Aside from Old Scratch)
  • Very few different strategies they can utilize.
  • Witch Hunter.
  • How easy it is to pressure them.

1. Lack of viable Witchdoctor companions:

Part of the reason why people don't use Witchdoctor companions (Save Old Scratch and maybe Mormo) is the fact their stats are..... lackluster especially in comparison to other classes. Witchdoctors have the lowest base health, armor, dodge and accuracy, and Witchdoctor companions have very poor range. (Mormo has 3 range) It's super risky to use more than one witch companion because of what I said above and they hardly bring anything to the table. Not to mention they all lack Super hit powers, which doesn't really matter since their accuracy is horrid.

What would fix this issue is to:
  • Increase their range to 5-6 to keep them on par with most Musketeer companions and to actually give them a "keep away" game.
  • Giving them more powers to use in battle such as Ghostwail and Super Strikes.
  • Increase their base accuracy, because there's no reason why it has to be so low since companions don't even have that many powers to begin with and buffing this won't break them since they're still squishy.

2. Very few different strategies they can utilize:

Witchdoctor captains cannot afford to sacrifice their range aside from the Scorpion Staff + Beast banner trick and the Orb of Nerfarious Death + Shooty weapon talents since as I said before, their defenses are a joke. Witches are not meant for CQC, which makes melee witch an unviable option and the only thing they can really do is spam minions and use scratch's mojo buffs. If Witchdoctors are not the ones in control of the battle they will almost ALWAYS LOSE.

3. Witch Hunter:
I'm not going to full detail about this since there's multiple threads on why it's unfair and imo, it should be banned from PVP altogether.

4. How easy it is to pressure them.
Despite having powers such as Widow's Touch and minions to provide as a distraction, there really isn't anything they can do when you get close to them.

Let's say, you're fighting a Buccaneer and they use Highland Charge. The enemy team rushes over to your side, and you want to kill them before they kill you? Nope, Readied Spell misses, want to avoid Witch Hunter? Nope, you miss and the captain still gets the 50% protection and you already take -1000 damage from that alone. And the worst part about Witch Hunter is that you can still chain hits on them, which means you can lose a match from this one talent alone.

tl;dr. Witchdoctors have too many glaring flaws and their issues still have not been fixed. Please address and fix these problems in the future to make them more balanced.
This is one of the best analysis I've read about WD in PVP.
I'm glad that you advocate banning Witchhunter from PVP, instead of an across class removal of this power ( as it has been suggested in another post ).
Ensign
Mar 16, 2013
28
Yes and no, to me i think some classes are strictly for PvE and/or PvP. I think witchdoctor falls under the PvE category.

Yes witchdoctors need to be buffed for them to have any hope for PvP. Although there are so many topics about WD struggles. I just wonder is KI truly listening?

Aside from that i feel like wotch hunter should be one of the talents where you have to have a staffy weapon. For example burst fire only works with a gun etc.

As for the companions I do think WD lacks in good companions. Although you do have 2-5 solid ones which is enough for a regular pvp match.
Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
jordan06203915 on Oct 23, 2017 wrote:
Yes and no, to me i think some classes are strictly for PvE and/or PvP. I think witchdoctor falls under the PvE category.

Yes witchdoctors need to be buffed for them to have any hope for PvP. Although there are so many topics about WD struggles. I just wonder is KI truly listening?

Aside from that i feel like wotch hunter should be one of the talents where you have to have a staffy weapon. For example burst fire only works with a gun etc.

As for the companions I do think WD lacks in good companions. Although you do have 2-5 solid ones which is enough for a regular pvp match.
But why make a class that can't compete in PVP? That's poor game mechanics as well as poor business policy. All classes should have a fair shot in PVP.
I believe that every post is being read and passed on to the ones it concerns most. Just because we're not getting any response doesn't mean we're being ignored; remember that KI people are very busy working on this game.
I gave you the "yar" because I agree that WH should be used with a staffy weapon or staffy combo. Most WD companions need an over-haul ( poor Carcarius! )
Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
54
jordan06203915 on Oct 23, 2017 wrote:
Yes and no, to me i think some classes are strictly for PvE and/or PvP. I think witchdoctor falls under the PvE category.

Yes witchdoctors need to be buffed for them to have any hope for PvP. Although there are so many topics about WD struggles. I just wonder is KI truly listening?

Aside from that i feel like wotch hunter should be one of the talents where you have to have a staffy weapon. For example burst fire only works with a gun etc.

As for the companions I do think WD lacks in good companions. Although you do have 2-5 solid ones which is enough for a regular pvp match.
There's no reason why a whole class has to be "PVE only" when Kingsisle could simply attempt to balance them. Not only is that poor game design but it's unfair for those that like to play as the Witchdoctor class. "Oh we have a class that has tons of exploitable weakness..... Let's not buff them and make them PVE only" that's not how you balance a game, that's just laziness. Witches have potential to be an amazing "get away from me" class, but they fall flat due to the circumstances that I talked about before.

Making Witch Hunter Staffy weapon only is a good idea, I can agree with that.

Also I explained before that Witchdoctors are way too risky to use in a team. Yes, Old Scratch, Mormo, etc. are good in PVE, but their accuracy, health, and dodge are way too low to even think about using in PVP. They don't even get that many powers which kinda eliminates the point of the class, if they can't use powerful spells, then what's the point of using them? That's like picking Witchdoctor as your class and only using wand hits. Chantal gets two sniper shots AND a super hit, so why not let the Witchdoctor companions have that many to begin with? And Carcarius doesn't count in that regard because he still has the same problems as the others have, not only can he not get Jobu's Ruse, but Purge Magic isn't useful because Witchdoctors rely heavily on Valor's Armor/Fortress since they're practically tissue.
First Mate
Dec 29, 2012
479
jordan06203915 on Oct 23, 2017 wrote:
Yes and no, to me i think some classes are strictly for PvE and/or PvP. I think witchdoctor falls under the PvE category.

Yes witchdoctors need to be buffed for them to have any hope for PvP. Although there are so many topics about WD struggles. I just wonder is KI truly listening?

Aside from that i feel like wotch hunter should be one of the talents where you have to have a staffy weapon. For example burst fire only works with a gun etc.

As for the companions I do think WD lacks in good companions. Although you do have 2-5 solid ones which is enough for a regular pvp match.
While some classes are better at PvP at certain times in the meta than others, no game company designs classes intentionally to be better than others in PvP. (since if that was true...there would only be one or two classes considered "PvP classes" competing)

Designed to solo better than other classes...sure, to PvP....no.