Blackguard Suggestions

Ok... so now the newness has worn off and it's, yeap, suggestion time for the Blackguard!

PvE - even though I really don't care, nothing thusfar is wrong with this class... in fact, for AE Farming, it might be a little OP'd. Me and Carlton were taking between 11-13 lvl17's last night (lvl16 BG, lvl14 DoK) and usually ending the fight with 75%+ HP's... that'll be even easier tonight with 15-Hate cost CAE AE damage.   DPS, for sustained fights (Champs+) is a little bit low... and I noticed last night that I looks like the Knockdown's duration, increased by hate, doesn't work on mobs.. I'll test this later tho. 

RvR - Different Story: the BG has a place, but the survivability of other tanks really isn't there... and I can't really figure out why. Keep in mind, I've got pretty aweful gear atm. I've got 61% Mitigation from Armor atm, 197 Toughness (with no Chosen around)... and marginal Magic resist (23% Elemental, 19% Corp, 21% Spirit) unbuffed. 

 

Keep in Mind too; I'm the almight lvl17... I'm missing a good 55%+ of the skills I'll have end game.  Still, you can start to see glimpses into problems the class is going to face later on. 

Survivability - Very low for a Tank, and all the gear that I have has stacked wounds (at lvl17 I've got about 4K Hps... which is close to my 22 Chosen)... so I know it's not that. I think it's the lack of self buffs, like the Chosen or the BO, that effect survivabilty. While those classes get the buffs baseline... BG's have to spec into their defensive tree for them, and it burns a tactic slot. Armor doesn't appear to be an issue (61% Mit), but I think we lack a defense (like the chosen) to remove Armor Piercing benefits.

DPS - Single Target DPS is... marginal. The DPS experienced at lvl11 in T1 isn't the same as now, and healers have more tools to keep themselves up. Pitiless Strikes kind of feels like a regular-damage wise - hit... Monsterous Rending is nice for boosting your Damage in scenarios, but really it does little to bring someone down single-target wise. The 25% armor penetration is marginal at best, especially at 40AP per use. 

So now we actually lay into the Suggestions (!!) Phase =)

• Make Hateful Strike baseline (no tactic) apply a toughness buff at 15% / 30% / 50% based on hate. Move "Unstopable Fury" (anti-dispel) to the Tactic's place in the defensive tree
• Remove the 5sec Cooldown on Feeding the Weak. If the heal seems too much, make the augmentation a 'Remove Armor Penetration' self buff based on Hate (30h-25%, 60h-50%, 90h-75%) to increase survivabilty. 
• Change Murderous Wrath (25% armor ignore) to a Hate based Mechanic (30h-25%, 60h-50%, 90h-75%)... this could be made a Tactic for balance purposes (testing) http://wardb.com/spell.aspx?id=9323
• Change Elite Traning (Anguish / Anti-Magic tree) to:  For 10 seconds, your elite training allows you to weather the magical onslaught of your foes, increasing your magic resistances base on your hate:  30h-10%, 60h-20%, 90h-30%, Then make that duration effected by Pitiless Feeding (+10sec Duration)
• (*Bug Fix*) Make Monsterous Rending effect targets up to 15ft away (instead of no range, as it is now)
• Change Blade of Rhuin - Remove block Pre-Req: You slice into your enemy, hitting for 100 damage and cripple them based on hate:   30h -200dmg / 5 sec, 60h - 575/ 5sec. (no 90Hate... 15 hate cost)
• Mind Killer - Increase the amount of the debuff by 100%, increase the AP cost to 40AP. 

I'd really like to see the Anguish tree get some nice Magic-mitigation based off of hate... it's the Anti-magic tree.. it should give casters and healers and "Oh crap" feeling whenever they see a Blackguard running at them; kind of the way it gives tanks the "Oh crap" feeling whenever they get a Armor-Removing MDPS on them.