What about firebrand and scourge duo?

People complain of mirage, soulbeast, holosmith now it's scrapper time.

But what about firebrand and scourge duo?

They are in meta since PoF release and they are still the best duo to occupy 2 slots, always present in every single mAT as well and in high level plays.

I would definitely like to see some freshness and see some tempests rising or another dps specs other than scourge.

All the sidenoders and duelists, bunkers bruisers are kinda changing once in a while, but why this braindead duo is still alive since PoF realease?

@whoknocks.4935 said:(...)They are in meta since PoF release and they are still the best duo to occupy 2 slots, always present in every single mAT as well and in high level plays.(...)

Except last summer, there were some games where 2 mesmers were used by a specific team to counter that combo. :lol:

I agree though, not only do we need more supports (nerf firebrand or give other classes more support), we also need more AoE damage/support classes like scourge (plees giev staff ele lulz with CC instead of corrupts or something like that).

At this point, I think Firebrand tomes need a re-balancing. Less charges, more prominent effects. As individual skills they're approaching uselessness.

Tempest needs about +15% more flat healing. Been playing Staff Tempest lately and the best healing numbers I've been getting for the total after each match is about 300 - 400k. On a Firebrand I would be getting about 500 - 650k. It doesn't quite need to catch up to that due to having other perks but they should be closer.Now, Tempest is more flexible, has better damage and CC, and it deals better vs power classes but it can't really res/stomp people. Also when you are dealing with power focus, it gets shut down by needing to swap into Earth attunement and can't heal as well.What I think it needs is more +Outgoing Healing somewhere and Elemental Bastion needs a decent buff to either its base healing or it's scaling. Or alternatively, Shouts need a baseline condi cleanse so you can finally get out of Soldier runes, and into some actual support runes.

I can't speak for other support specs at this time.

The thing is, this combo is indeed really good but, it's hard to balance it without making the classes useless on its own. Their mechanics just work really well together and that must be accepted. Sometimes things aren't broken but just work well together because of the way the class works or is designed. Doesn't mean it needs adjustments though.

However tempest really needs some big buffs team support wise. I'd like tempest to become a viable option as a support aswel

I think scourge is okay. FB is not. It needs heal scaling nerf. Once that happens, FB should be okay.

I think there was a time where Firebrand/Scourge was way out of line, like in PoF's first months where it was assumed you needed a Scourge + Firebrand to win a game. That assumption is gone mostly because of all the nerfs to Firebrand and Scourge since.

Now it's just decent if you ask me. Something to pull out for midfights, or to combo with scrapper. It's a bit more broken in the hands of a DuoQ, but that goes for everything. Nothing more fun than fighting a pair of people who won't die, or who dive you and chain CC into unblockable bursts that instantly put you into downstate.

The issue is that firebrand and scourge enable each others relevance. You can only survive the node-pressure of a scourge when you have a firebrand, while scourge needs firebrand support to be effective. But yet we've seen that comps with FB but without scourge can be really effective too. Especially the rez signet is dumb, at least leave that specialty to for example engi and ranger. I still think theres a lot of potential for comps without Fb/scourge tho.

And no, we dont need more AoE.

We kinda need several teamfight duos like we have many options for roaming, bunkering and dueling. We might have something to contest FB Scourge, but i'm not really sure that ye olde tempest/reaper has the juice to push em or something like DH/Ventari Renegade, Staff ele/ Ventari Herald, but FB/Scourge synergies really well by covering each other weaknesses. I think people are on to something with Scrapper/ Holo combo but that might be cause both are little bit overtuned .