wicked hatch
The proposed changes to the aspects for shadestepper are in my opinion set to heavily miss their mark when they go live next patch.
The purpose of the changes as explained to me was to reduce shade’s reliance on aspects to be a powerful class, and while a number reallocation to base does somewhat help it out, the way that aspects are having their power removed leaves a lot to be desired.
Currently shade’s knives are each an 8% stacking damage bonus, at 5 knives (the default cap) nightcloak knives provides a 40% damage bonus, and with the aspect increasing the cap up to 8 a possible damage bonus of 64% with the proposed changes, a shade player with the basic 5 knives will now have 45% damage at 5 stacked knives (36% at 4) however using the maxed aspect for more knives, they will only gain a bonus of 28% at 4 stacks, and a maximum cap of 52% at 8 knives.
The largest application of this change is in boss fights such as TNA, TCC, Anni, and LI where minions are either sparse or not present at all at times, given these conditions the maximum amount of knives capable of being stacked in one harvest is 4, meaning a player with the shade aspect will need to choose between tanking a near 10% damage penalty for equipping an aspect that took hours to grind, or, spend double the amount of downtime setting up their marks by performing a second stacking cycle, which will take a minimum of 10 seconds in the beginning of a fight.
Marks start at 6, and go to 9 with the max aspect, in the new patch 6 marks will give a 42% damage boost, with the max aspect capping out at 49.5% meaning that the mark aspect will require an extra 1.5 seconds to stack up for a 7.5% extra damage bonus, meaning more marks is at best a nominal damage increase from base, and at worst a dps loss for equipping a maxed aspect, assuming you attacked any time before stacking up to 8 marks.
These numbers are problematic for two reasons, firstly this is a substantial nerf to shade at high levels, it doesn't only reduce the need for aspects it also makes shades overall power budget much lower which is an odd decision for a class that is not at all problematic in the meta.
Second, this change means that there are very common thresholds where the knife and mark aspects are actively a detriment to have on, aspects have been marketed as an “Incremental increase” to player power which is a design philosophy these changes entirely betray, taking these aspects will mean needing to commit heavily to fully stacking buffs to get any reward, or being punished for your hard earned upgrades if you fail to execute.
I agree with some aspects not just being a default to put on, however due to their intended nature as incremental increases, The choice should not have to come from possible downsides to the aspects, it should come from the opportunity cost of many competing strong aspects, given the fact that high level aspects are a result of an absolutely ludicrous amount of grinding, diversity should not be enforced with a stick approach.
In conclusion the upcoming shade aspect changes serve to undermine the design philosophy of aspects and greatly reduce the achievement, power, and versatility afforded by having these maxed aspects, further adjustment will definitely be necessary.
Thank you to GDP Aurmeowra pnoot autosmord and Wintel for giving thoughts to help make the post btw
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