OK, look, balance is hard. We get it.

[Mini.4806]

But, like, you've got meta data, right? Y'all know what classes are most heavily used, what fully optimized builds are capable of, what the average person can eke out of average gear against bosses, etc.. You can see what kills most players in PvE, what tools are available to the players to prevent said deaths; you know which traits are taken and which are underpowered. 10 minutes and an intern could mock up a few graphs and show you what is and isn't "working as intended."

So why, oh why in the fuck do glaring issues never get addressed? Like, s/d being rarer than a sober Welshman (they're my people, I can make that joke) because it's utter trash; daggers being so underwhelming that with perfect stealth strikes they're still not really competitive; entire lines of utility skills that never get used because they're so poorly designed (preparations, I'm looking at you, or, rather would if anyone actually used them); an entire trait line -- Trickery -- that provides extra initiative, yet instead of making it feel powerful and unique, simply makes it the only trait line that makes gameplay feel smooth and not clunky; and overall a feeling that the class has simply been nerfed into a boring pigeonhole of stealth spam.

Which, y'know, sucks, as it's my favourite class with my favourite elite spec, and in a vacuum it's perfectly adequate, but simply underwhelms when stacked against almost every other profession.

(Also for the love of all that is good and holy revert the range nerf on Swipe. It takes a special kind of rocket surgeon to think an elite spec should make the profession's main mechanic suck.)

[Tails.9372]

@Mini.4806 said:So why, oh why in the kitten do glaring issues never get addressed?Because many problems which are obvious to anyone who actually plays the game are not reflected in the data. If something is, for whatever reason, even mildly popular in spite of their performance based issues (and vice versa) then HF waiting until the end of time for some fix that actually solves the issue (in one way or another).