GameStreet - Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures News - Update 2.1 Still on TestLive, Guardian Revamp Coming...

Posted from Test Live:
"GUARDIAN CLASS CHANGES

When we first started to look at the Guardian we went through feedback from the community and compiled lists of what the players did and did not like. We decided to do it a bit differently this time around by not introducing any big changes to the Guardian's playstyle.

One thing we saw from the feedback gathered was that the Juggernaut feat tree was clearly inferior to that of the Tempest in the eyes of the community. While these trees still are centered on different weapons, we wanted the Juggernaut tree to be a more viable choice for Guardians. The tree should be able to have a similar threat potential in groups as a Tempest, and it should also offer a viable build for PvP.

A few examples of the things we have changed :

Stratagems, Tactics and Maneuvers have undergone a change. We decided to reduce the amount of these abilities, while making the remaining abilities more interesting.

* Stratagems have been removed from the game.
* Tactics are still a lasting choice, but keep the positive effects from the old maneuvers.
* Maneuvers are now short term abilities that grant a bigger bonus.

While using these maneuvers the guardian will now also gain the Recently Used Maneuver effect that can be enhanced by two new feats.

Bloody Vengeance

Bloody Vengeance has been changed into an innate combo. Since the combo was designed for both types of weapons we chose to move it out from the feat trees. It will now gain a smaller buff from the Vengeance counter, and will also consume the entire counter when used.

Juggernaut

New Feats :
* Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Mastery. Shield Mastery grants the player two new combos, Shield Strike and Shield Slam, while the Improved Shield Mastery improves these. Shield Strike is a stun combo. This is improved by lowering the cooldown of the combo. Shield Slam is a combo that does low damage, while generating a high amount of threat. This is improved by further increasing the threat produced.
* Brutal Opening - This feat gives The Overreach, Dulling Blow, Guard Destroyer, and Counterstrike combos a higher change of a critical hit on the starter move.
* Savage Strikes - This feat grants the Guardian Combat Rating while the Recently Used Maneuver spell is active.
* Ability - Maneuver: Wall of Steel - This maneuver gives the guardian increased evade chance for a short time.
* Call to Arms – Grants the guardian a higher amount of hate generated when active, while the team gains a boost to their damage.
* Ability - Powerhouse - This ability increases the guardian's Weapon Damage and Critical Rating. While this effect is active the guardian's critical hits will also increase his Critical Bonus Damage for a short time.

Feat Changes :
* Savage Counterstrike - Increase to the retaliatory damage of Counterstrike has been changed to 5/10/15/20/25 %. Up from 2/4/6/8/10.
* Battle Cry and Ardent Battle - The stamina regain effect from this ability will now tick 4 times. Up from 3.
* Morale Boost - Increased the team effect of stamina drained by Plexus Strike.
* Cry of Havoc - Cry of Havoc has been moved further into the tree. This ability now gives a lot more threat when additional ranks are feated.
* Brutal Overreach – This feat grants an ability that gives your next Overreach higher damage, and a higher chance of hitting critically.
* Brutal Blows - The Critical Chance has been increased to 5%. Up from 2.5%. Now also includes the Dulling Blow and Overreach combo lines.
* Stand Your Ground - The Stand Your Ground ability now allows guardians to knock back full plate targets, while also making them immune to such knock backs for a short period of time. The snare component has been removed.
* Improved Dulling Blow - The duration of the Evade Chance effect has been increased to match the debuff effect of the Dulling Blow combo.
* Titanic Smash - Titanic Smash has been changed to be a high damage combo. It also has an increased chance to perform critical hits.
* Juggernaut - Juggernaut is now a purely defensive ability. While active it grants the user CC resistances, Armor, Protection, and a small amount of health.

Feats Removed :
- Bloody Vengeance - Bloody Vengeance has been changed to an innate combo. This is granted at level 50. (See below for more details on this).
- Forced March
- Drive them Back
- Sacrifice
- Bleeding Counterstrike
- Bleeding Dulling Blow

Tempest

New Feats :
* Ability - Intimidating Shout. This ability places a bleed effect on the guardian's target.
* Mental Guard. This feat gives the Guard combo line bonus protection in addition to the armor it already gives.
* Precise Attacks - This feat grants the guardian Armor Penetration while the Recently Used Maneuver spell is active.
* Ability - Maneuver: Enduring Regeneration - This new Maneuver is available at level 40, and gives the guardian back some stamina for the duration.
* Fatal Strikes - This feat gives 1% Critical Bonus Damage per rank.

Feat Changes :
* Disarming Aggression - Damage gained increased to 4/8/12%. Up from 3/6/9%. Hate Reduction increased to 10/20/30%. Up from 10/18/25%.
* Skewer - Further ranks of this feat will now increase the duration of the Skewered effect by 1.5 and 3 seconds.
* Defiance - Defiance will now do 2 ticks for 5% of the Guardian's health. Up from 4 ticks of 2%.
* Vengeance is Mine - Vengeance is Mine will now also have a 10% chance per rank of triggering the Vengeance effect when the guardian does a critical hit.
* Lightning Reflexes - This feat will now give 5% Evade Chance increase passively. Up from 2.5%. The ability will now also include Overwhelming Shout in the list of cooldowns it resets.
* Sweep the Field - Feat changed to be 2 points. Down from 3. This combo now increases the distance the Stagger combo line knocks back a target.

Feats Removed :
- Eye for an Eye
- Bleeding Revenge
- Redoubt
- Combat Mastery Stratagem

Combo Changes

* Storm Strike - Storm Strike has had it's cooldown lowered, and now also has an increased chance of critically hitting the target.
* Riposte - When the guardian has the combo Riposte trained he will now see a particle effect played when he evades.
* Overreach - Two new ranks of Overreach are now given out at levels 44 and 68.
* Bloody Vengeance - Bloody Vengeance is now innate at level 50, and still usable by both classes. The animations have changed so that pole arm and sword and shield will be closer to each other in damage. Bloody Vengeance will now consume the guardian's Vengeance Stack. Gains from the Vengeance stack have been reduced.
* Counterstrike - The retaliatory damage done by Counterstrike has been increased. Additionally any targets that were not hit by the original combo will still be hit by a lower amount of retaliatory damage when hitting the guardian.
* Guard - The amount of Armor gained while the Guarded effect is active has been slightly lowered when using lower ranks of this combo.
* Disable - Disable will now in addition increase the guardians Fatality Chance for a short time after being used.
* Dulling Blow - Dulling Blow now decreases the targets Hit Rating instead of Combat Rating.
* Strike and Guard - Removed the Stun from this combo. The stun is now utilized by the combo Shield Strike. Increased the Damage Deflection gained when the effect from this combo is active.
* Plexus Strike - Increased the stamina drained.

Ability Changes

* Stratagems - The Stratagems have been removed from the Game
* Maneuvers - Old Maneuvers have been renamed to Tactics, and the negative effects have been removed. These now give +mitigation/+hate/+damage

Tactics
* Old Tactics have been renamed to Maneuvers
* These are now short term clickables, also with no negative effects.
* Maneuver: Elusive Daring and Maneuver: Mental Barrier are innate and granted at level 40
* Maneuver: Wall of Steel can be feated in the Juggernaut Tree at level 40.
* Maneuver: Enduring Regeneration can be feated in the Tempest Tree at level 40.
* While any Maneuver is active the guardian also receives the Recently Used Maneuver spell. This can be further increased by Hurting Strikes in the Juggernaut Tree, and Precise Attacks in the Tempest Tree.

Reckoning
* Reckoning is now an ability that affects the outcome of the guardian's next pole arm combo.
* This ability can be activated at any time, and will only go on cooldown when used by a combo. (1 second cooldown on activating to prevent double clicking.)
* Combos gain the following effects :
- Flashing Arc: Increased damage
- Disable: Disable will now give the guardian back an amount of the stamina sapped from the target.
- Guard: Big amount of Armor removed after one hit.
- Storm Strike: Increased damage, and increased radius of hit.
- Stagger: Allows Stagger to knock back heavier targets.
- Riposte: Increases the guardians Evade Chance for a short amount of time.
- Skewer: Decreases the cooldown of skewer"

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