Anyone notice the Firebrand nerf in 2.0?

[Torm51]

Its not a huge deal but definitely makes it less powerful.  It now targets deflection instead of Reflex.  Thoughts?

[AndreaColombo]

You must have the most boring job ever

[Torm51]

I do.  I'm a compliance officer for a restaurant chain.  So I sit at my computer and do the same report every day.  Its horrible but it pays well.  Oh and everyone hates it when I walk into work. hah

Edited September 18, 2015 by Torm51

[Ymarsakar]

That's because you're functionally similar to the IRS, Torm. As welcome as a SWAT team is generally. The way to motivate people in that situation is to generally keep telling them that the more they cooperate, the sooner you will disappear.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[hilfazer]

Obs wants wizards to be the strongest class (just look at the number of lvl 7 spells) so they nerf competition.

[Ymarsakar]

Lore wise a big flaming sword would hit against reflex due to burn damage in physics, but given the number of reflection debuffs in this game plus carnage, I'd rather they change the defense it hits rather than change the actual items or abilities involved.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Teioh_White]

I am sad they nerfed it, used to be one of my Barbarians stand-bys, to let him attack 3 different defenses. It is sort of funny how all the quircks of Carnage that made Barbarian's one othe strong classes at launch have been nerfed, firmly taking them out of the power range. Not that it's a bad thing, just curious they zoomed in on it so much.

[Ymarsakar]

They also zoomed in on ciphers. Paladins and rangers and wizards probably got the most benefit from the rebalance passes.

[hilfazer]

What's sad about Firebrand is no accuracy bonus. Wizards can buff themselves like a pig and yet their summoned weapons give accuracy bonus.

Druids can't.

 

Reflex may be second highest save but is by far easiest to debuff. IMHO this change was unnecessary from balance perspective.

[Ymarsakar]

For the druid, firebrand isn't that good a spell for them to use for damage. Their claws and the sunbeam spell is much better for that, since instead of upping your accuracy, the druid debuffs the enemy so his damage spells do even more damage. Less misses and grazes, which is a big deal for spells that do 50 pts of damage or are raw damage duration dots.

 

Firebrand is much better for rogues, ciphers, and paladins using flame acc buff. Since they have the natural base damage and/or accuracy to compensate for the firebrand issue mentioned.

Edited September 26, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Gs11]

How does Firebrand worked with Barb's Carnage before 2.02?Carnage  normally targets  deflection, so main attack hit from Firebrand targeted  reflex and aoe from Carnage targeted deflection before 2.02? 

 

And now both carnage and firebrand targets deflection?

[Boeroer]

Yes - or fortitude if you have Brute Force.