Rabid Aura

[Raith]

So I remember the poll about whip heals and all the whippers yelling pl0x dun nerf me! and a lot of the other people saying pl0x nerf them! and such. Then the Rabid auras appeared. So I don't understand...... as the gems get higher and higher level, the damage bonus that comes at the expense of heals gets higher. This would lead me to believe that them gem was intended to be a damage buff to pets...... umm... huh? Am I missing something? Why did whips need a damage buff?

If the idea was to hinder whips OP heals (which is what I thought was happening), shouldn't the damage bonus get lower as the gem level gets higher? Also, isn't this essentially a gigantic nerf against heal pets everywhere? If I don't use whips - even at F&I skill of 100 - but use a heal pet, I get a 50% damage bonus and only hit 50% of the time. And if I use heal pets under level 40 where I can't use F&I at all, I'm screwed because yay my pets will hit for 50% more all the time I'm at full hp. Boy, can we run a "should we nerf what Raith uses?" poll and end up buffing me? Did I miss something, or did the new gem just accidentally fail to due what was intended (which happens)?

[Relic]

What brought whips at or above other weapons power is the fact that they could heal, while other weapons could not. Yet the DPS on whips+pets is quite a bit lower than slash/crush/etc.. this gem did as exactly as it was intended. It was a nerf to PvP (hugely) and a buff to PvE, which now that they don't heal, they now have decent DPS. It's perfectly balanced.

This was a genius idea from Glitchless, and it is working perfectly. It's ALWAYS better to balance something correctly than to just out right NERF.

[Nemesiss]

Originally Posted by Relic

What brought whips at or above other weapons power is the fact that they could heal, while other weapons could not. Yet the DPS on whips+pets is quite a bit lower than slash/crush/etc.. this gem did as exactly as it was intended. It was a nerf to PvP (hugely) and a buff to PvE, which now that they don't heal, they now have decent DPS. It's perfectly balanced.

This was a genius idea from Glitchless, and it is working perfectly. It's ALWAYS better to balance something correctly than to just out right NERF.

after having actually tested the gem ( r4 & r1 ) i agree with most of this. whip damage is rather low added with thier delay and the gem (when in play) cancels out the healing and makes up for the lack of damage.. the only things that i think are still a prob is that there is no way to stop a growl or any way to help prevent it, and its not based on a any stats so it happens more than often added with parry/dual parry, which would be easily solved with making the skill strike through work for growl. also the fact that they rack up a lot of bleed damage with stuns on top of it, kinda the best of both worlds from crushers/slashers. an anti bleed aura would be a great edition as there are already anti stuns.

[Raith]

Allright, I can go with you guys about the effect of whips. Haven't done a single test myself vs. them. So if the effect on heal pets for non-whippers - especially those under 40 when there is no F&I - and the essential funeral of the archer-BM hybrid an unfortunate byproduct then?
I totally agree that balance >>>>>>>>>> nerfs, and I'm happy that we aren't seeing a flood of BMs complaining about it. I'm more curious to get info from those who have tested it.

[Darkanimus]

still i dont get it. how would the Rabid Aura considered a buff and a debuff?
i mean, how would rendering non-whipers healing pets (that was meant to heal only and cant benefit from the extra attack bounces from whip-only skills) useless will balance whipers pets advantage over other classes?
PvE was not why the gem was put in place, so buffing it is not the point here.
unless i got it all wrong. the Rabid Aura will make all pets (both healing and attacking) stop healing and increase damage from attacking, right?