Runescape Combat Beta Huge changes

[Sugax]

http://services.runescape.com/m=forum/forums.ws?360,361,663,65346821

There is huge buffs and nerfs across the boards. I believe the level 90 wands are going to crash hard, shields are going to be really good and dual-wield melee got stronger.

[spoiler]I would like to remind everyone that these are changes that are currently being tested on the Beta server, thus what you see may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers! Manage your expectations accordingly.

Magic:

Wrack: A powerful spell that deals up to 125% active spell damage. Inflicts 157% damage against stunned opponents.

New:  Wrack has had its damage reduced to 94% weapon damage and 125% weapon damage vs stunned targets.
Note:  This ability overall got weaker

Impact: Blast your target with a burst of magical energy, stunning and binding them for a short time. Targets immune to stun instead suffer 188% of your active spell's damage.

New:   Impact now does 188% damage vs stun immune targets – otherwise, it binds the target.
Note:  This ability no longer deals damage upon casting unless if the target is stun immune

Combust: Applies a damage-over-time effect to the target, dealing 100-125% of the active spell's damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Combust now does 100-188% weapon damage over time, doubled if the target moves.
Note:   This ability based damage got nerfed slightly from 125% to 100% however they've also buffed the damage up to 188%. Another thing to note is the damage is now doubled if the target moves, overall good buff.

Sonic Wave: A focused blast of magic that pummels your target, damaging and knocking them off balance. Deals 120% of your active spell's damage. Your next attack has a 10% bonus to accuracy against the affected target.

New:   Sonic Wave now does 157% weapon damage.
Note:   They have buffed Sonic wave's damage by 37% to make 2h magic more appealing to use.

Concentrated Blast: Blast your target with three beams of concentrated energy. Each beam increases the critical hit chance of the next beam in the sequence by 5% and deals 100% of your active spell's damage. Combo attack.

New:   Concentrated Blast now does 70% weapon damage per hit. Crit chance is unchanged.
Note:   Now this is where magic got hit the hardest. They've lowered the blast damage by 30% which is pretty detrimental overall this ability got really weak. Because of the buff to Sonic wave as well as the rumored annoucement of level 90 2h Weapons this is most likely going to drive the prices of the level 90 wand down. (This is just my theory however)

Detonate: No-one uses this at all so I won't cover this ability

Dragon Breath: Breathe a mighty cloud of fire in a frontal cone, hitting all targets for damage up to 188% of active spell damage.

New:   Dragon Breath now fires in a tighter arc, but has a longer range. It also deactivates protection prayers.
Note:   I'm am unsure exactly what they mean by this but I assume they made the accuracy a bit better in terms of hitting large monsters diagonally* as well as increasing its range from 1 to maybe 2 squares.
*Currently if you cast Dragon Breath on a large creature standing directly diagonal of it, your Dragon Breath will always miss.



Range:

Piercing Shot: Shoot your target with a shot dealing 125% weapon damage, or 157% weapon damage if they're stunned.

New:   Piercing Shot now does 94% weapon damage and 125% weapon damage vs stunned targets.
Note:   Nerfed, nothing else to say

Binding Shot: Fire a shot which stuns your target for 3 seconds and binds them in place for up to 20 seconds, or players for up to 9.6 seconds. Targets immune to stun instead suffer 188% weapon damage.

New:   Binding Shot no longer damages non stunned target
Note:   This is a pretty hard nerf similar to impact. Interestingly enough I expected a nerf to this ability a long time ago, because this ability would always hit 188% of the weapon damage, regardless of the target being stunned immune except if it was a player. You can still test this out and see that this is one the strongest basic range ability

Snipe: Take aim at your target, dealing 125%-166% weapon damage after 1.8 seconds. Combo Attack

New:   Snipe now has an upper damage limit of 219% weapon damage. It also deactivates the target's protection prayers.
Note:   Now Snipe has a based damage of 125%-219% which is pretty strong, deactivating protection prayers is meh.

Fragmentation Shot: Fires a shot which fragments on impact, causing your target to suffer damage equal to 100-188% weapon damage over 6 seconds. If the target moves location, they suffer 3x damage.

New:   Fragmentation Shot now does double damage, rather than triple.
Note:   This used to be pretty strong in terms of a basic ability being able to deal up to 1800 damage per 2 seconds, this was because "If the target moves location, they suffer 3x damage", now the damage is only doubled, however still a good ability.

Dazing Shot: Shoot an arrow that detonates on contact with the target, dazing them. Deals 120% weapon damage. Target suffers a 10% decrease to accuracy on their next attack.

New:   Dazing shot now does 157% weapon damage.
Note:   Again they've buffed 2h damage output

Needle Strike: Launch painful needles at your target that reduce their resistance to critical hits. Target takes 120% weapon damage. Your next attack against the target has a flat 10% increase to critical hit chance.

New:   Needle Strike now does 157% weapon damage.
Note: Buffed from 120% to 157%, still retains it's 10% flat critical chance increase. Overall Dual-wield range got stronger

Deadshot: Boom! Fire a deadly shot at your target with deals 188% weapon damage instantly, and a further 157% weapon damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Deadshot now does 188% weapon damage instantly, then another 188% weapon damage over 6 seconds.
Note:   They've buffed the damage over time from 157% to 188%, increasing its overall damage by 33%.




Melee:

Slice: Slice your target for up to 125% weapon damage. In addition, has a 10% greater chance of being a critical hit.

New:   Slice now does 94% weapon damage, and its cooldown is linked to Punish.
Note:   This ability is weaker overall, nerfing its damage by 31% and also linking its cooldown to Punish

Sever: Sever a tendon, dealing up to 188% weapon damage and reducing any damage they deal by 10% for 10 seconds.

New:   Sever's cooldown has been halved, as has the duration of its debuff.
Note:   The cooldown has been reduced from 30 to 15, as the duration from 10 to 5. Damage is retain so this is more of a buff rather than a nerf

Havoc: Instantly attack with both weapons for 100% of both weapons' damage.

New:   Havoc now does 157% weapon damage, and its cooldown has been shortened.
Note:   The damage of this ability got buffed pretty well up 57% .The cooldown in the live server around 10 seconds, unsure what the exact cooldown has been lowered to on the Beta.

Hurricane: Spin on the spot, dealing up to 188% weapon damage to all adjacent targets.

New:   Hurricane now does 219% weapon damage.
Note:   Buffed this ability's damage by 31%, its now a lot stronger especially if you can hit more than 1 target.

Dismember: Dismember your target, dealing 125% weapon damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Dismember now does 100-188% weapon damage over a shorter time, and has a shorter cooldown.
Note:   This ability used to deal exactly 125% every time, however it has its based damage changed to 100%-188% which is a good buff. The cooldown in the live game is currently 30 seconds, unsure what its new cooldown is.

Punish: Punish your target's mistakes, dealing 100% weapon damage, or 135% weapon damage if they're stunned.

New:   Punish's cooldown has been shortened, and linked to that of Slice.
Note: Cooldown is most likely around 3 seconds. A thing to note since its shares its cooldown with Slice. Punish deals 100% damage vs Slice 94%, Punish damage gets increased to 135% if the target is stunned. Slice has a 94% damage but in addition slice has a base critical chance of 10%. Overall I recommend switching out slice for punish from now on.   

Fury: Unleash your fury, dealing damage equal to 150% of 6 seconds' auto-attack damage to your target over 6 seconds. Combo attack.

New: Fury now works as a melee version of the Magic ability Concentrated Blast.
Note: They've nerfed its damage from dealing 150% damage over 6 seconds, to 70% damage per hit for 3 hits equal to 210% damage. Also with each hit the next hit in sequence has an increase hit chance of 5% (eg. 0% - 5% - 10%). This ability got buffed pretty well.

Decimate: Decimate your target's defences, dealing 100% of both weapons' damage, or 157% of both weapons' damage if they are bearing a shield.

New:   Decimate now does up to 188% weapon damage, and its cooldown has been lowered. In PvP, it does 244% weapon damage if the target is using a shield.
Note:   Decimate and Havoc shares the same cooldown, however Decimate deals 33% more damage than Havoc. The pvp bonus is meh

Cleave: Cleave through your foes, dealing 125% weapon damage to all targets in a frontal cone.

New:   Cleave now does 188% weapon damage.
Note:   This ability's damage got buffed by 63% so it is very strong right now. However a thing to note is this ability has the same problem as Dragon Breath, meaning depending on what monster your fighting and where you stand, this ability may not hit at all.


Massacre: Rend your target, dealing up to 157% of both weapons' damage instantly and causing an additional 157% of both weapons' damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Massacre now does 188% weapon damage instantly, then another 188% weapon damage over 6 seconds.
Note:   This ability's damage got buffed by 124%, a very strong ultimate ability making it a likely contender to the Berserk ability.




Defence:

Bash: Bash your target with your shield, stunning them for 3 seconds. Targets immune to stun instead suffer 188% weapon damage.

New:   Bash now deals damage based on the level of the wielded shield.
Note:   I'm am unsure exactly how this works, as well as how to determine its damage. Does it do 100% of the weapon (Shields) damage? Would it deal 1102 damage = to Drygore Longsword/Rapier or will it deal 1350 = to of the Malevolent kiteshield Lifepoint boost?

Revenge: Enact revenge upon your foes, causing any attacks you receive to increase your damage dealt by 10%, stacking up to 100%. Lasts 20 seconds.

New:   Revenge misses will now increase the stack effect by 10%.
Note:   Before if you were 'Revenged' and the target missed their attacks on you your damage output would've not increased. This buff allows tanks to deal slightly higher dps.

Debilitate: Debilitate your target for up to 100% weapon damage, also reducing any damage they deal to you by 50% for 10 seconds.

New:   Debilitate's now lasts longer, based on the level of the wielded shield.
Note: The current duraton is 10 seconds, it may scale maybe to 15-20 seconds.

Reflect: Raise your shield, reflecting 50% of any damage you receive back at the attacker. Lasts 10 seconds.

New:   Reflect's cooldown has been increased to 30 seconds.
Note:   Current live game cooldown is 20 seconds. Nerfed[/spoiler]

[Leffe]

Why do people think wands will crash? I think I'm missing something

[Sugax]

Why do people think wands will crash? I think I'm missing something

Concentrated blast got nerfed really hard, same goes for Wrack and Impact

[Patty]

Me reading these numbers...

[Al]

Decent. Wildy toggle removed.

[Mojo]

Lots of updates. Hopefully they improve things when they reach main game.

[Sugax]

I guess I'll elaborate on these changes to help you guys better understand these changes, I'll be focusing on the abilities changes.

I would like to remind everyone that these are changes that are currently being tested on the Beta server, thus what you see may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers! Manage your expectations accordingly.

Magic:

Wrack: A powerful spell that deals up to 125% active spell damage. Inflicts 157% damage against stunned opponents.

New:  Wrack has had its damage reduced to 94% weapon damage and 125% weapon damage vs stunned targets.
Note:  This ability overall got weaker

Impact: Blast your target with a burst of magical energy, stunning and binding them for a short time. Targets immune to stun instead suffer 188% of your active spell's damage.

New:   Impact now does 188% damage vs stun immune targets – otherwise, it binds the target.
Note:  This ability no longer deals damage upon casting unless if the target is stun immune

Combust: Applies a damage-over-time effect to the target, dealing 100-125% of the active spell's damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Combust now does 100-188% weapon damage over time, doubled if the target moves.
Note:   This ability based damage got nerfed slightly from 125% to 100% however they've also buffed the damage up to 188%. Another thing to note is the damage is now doubled if the target moves, overall good buff.

Sonic Wave: A focused blast of magic that pummels your target, damaging and knocking them off balance. Deals 120% of your active spell's damage. Your next attack has a 10% bonus to accuracy against the affected target.

New:   Sonic Wave now does 157% weapon damage.
Note:   They have buffed Sonic wave's damage by 37% to make 2h magic more appealing to use.

Concentrated Blast: Blast your target with three beams of concentrated energy. Each beam increases the critical hit chance of the next beam in the sequence by 5% and deals 100% of your active spell's damage. Combo attack.

New:   Concentrated Blast now does 70% weapon damage per hit. Crit chance is unchanged.
Note:   Now this is where magic got hit the hardest. They've lowered the blast damage by 30% which is pretty detrimental overall this ability got really weak. Because of the buff to Sonic wave as well as the rumored annoucement of level 90 2h Weapons this is most likely going to drive the prices of the level 90 wand down. (This is just my theory however)

Detonate: No-one uses this at all so I won't cover this ability

Dragon Breath: Breathe a mighty cloud of fire in a frontal cone, hitting all targets for damage up to 188% of active spell damage.

New:   Dragon Breath now fires in a tighter arc, but has a longer range. It also deactivates protection prayers.
Note:   I'm am unsure exactly what they mean by this but I assume they made the accuracy a bit better in terms of hitting large monsters diagonally* as well as increasing its range from 1 to maybe 2 squares.
*Currently if you cast Dragon Breath on a large creature standing directly diagonal of it, your Dragon Breath will always miss.



Range:

Piercing Shot: Shoot your target with a shot dealing 125% weapon damage, or 157% weapon damage if they're stunned.

New:   Piercing Shot now does 94% weapon damage and 125% weapon damage vs stunned targets.
Note:   Nerfed, nothing else to say

Binding Shot: Fire a shot which stuns your target for 3 seconds and binds them in place for up to 20 seconds, or players for up to 9.6 seconds. Targets immune to stun instead suffer 188% weapon damage.

New:   Binding Shot no longer damages non stunned target
Note:   This is a pretty hard nerf similar to impact. Interestingly enough I expected a nerf to this ability a long time ago, because this ability would always hit 188% of the weapon damage, regardless of the target being stunned immune except if it was a player. You can still test this out and see that this is one the strongest basic range ability

Snipe: Take aim at your target, dealing 125%-166% weapon damage after 1.8 seconds. Combo Attack

New:   Snipe now has an upper damage limit of 219% weapon damage. It also deactivates the target's protection prayers.
Note:   Now Snipe has a based damage of 125%-219% which is pretty strong, deactivating protection prayers is meh.

Fragmentation Shot: Fires a shot which fragments on impact, causing your target to suffer damage equal to 100-188% weapon damage over 6 seconds. If the target moves location, they suffer 3x damage.

New:   Fragmentation Shot now does double damage, rather than triple.
Note:   This used to be pretty strong in terms of a basic ability being able to deal up to 1800 damage per 2 seconds, this was because "If the target moves location, they suffer 3x damage", now the damage is only doubled, however still a good ability.

Dazing Shot: Shoot an arrow that detonates on contact with the target, dazing them. Deals 120% weapon damage. Target suffers a 10% decrease to accuracy on their next attack.

New:   Dazing shot now does 157% weapon damage.
Note:   Again they've buffed 2h damage output

Needle Strike: Launch painful needles at your target that reduce their resistance to critical hits. Target takes 120% weapon damage. Your next attack against the target has a flat 10% increase to critical hit chance.

New:   Needle Strike now does 157% weapon damage.
Note: Buffed from 120% to 157%, still retains it's 10% flat critical chance increase. Overall Dual-wield range got stronger

Deadshot: Boom! Fire a deadly shot at your target with deals 188% weapon damage instantly, and a further 157% weapon damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Deadshot now does 188% weapon damage instantly, then another 188% weapon damage over 6 seconds.
Note:   They've buffed the damage over time from 157% to 188%, increasing its overall damage by 33%.


Melee:

Slice: Slice your target for up to 125% weapon damage. In addition, has a 10% greater chance of being a critical hit.

New:   Slice now does 94% weapon damage, and its cooldown is linked to Punish.
Note:   This ability is weaker overall, nerfing its damage by 31% and also linking its cooldown to Punish

Sever: Sever a tendon, dealing up to 188% weapon damage and reducing any damage they deal by 10% for 10 seconds.

New:   Sever's cooldown has been halved, as has the duration of its debuff.
Note:   The cooldown has been reduced from 30 to 15, as the duration from 10 to 5. Damage is retain so this is more of a buff rather than a nerf

Havoc: Instantly attack with both weapons for 100% of both weapons' damage.

New:   Havoc now does 157% weapon damage, and its cooldown has been shortened.
Note:   The damage of this ability got buffed pretty well up 57% .The cooldown in the live server around 10 seconds, unsure what the exact cooldown has been lowered to on the Beta.

Hurricane: Spin on the spot, dealing up to 188% weapon damage to all adjacent targets.

New:   Hurricane now does 219% weapon damage.
Note:   Buffed this ability's damage by 31%, its now a lot stronger especially if you can hit more than 1 target.

Dismember: Dismember your target, dealing 125% weapon damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Dismember now does 100-188% weapon damage over a shorter time, and has a shorter cooldown.
Note:   This ability used to deal exactly 125% every time, however it has its based damage changed to 100%-188% which is a good buff. The cooldown in the live game is currently 30 seconds, unsure what its new cooldown is.

Punish: Punish your target's mistakes, dealing 100% weapon damage, or 135% weapon damage if they're stunned.

New:   Punish's cooldown has been shortened, and linked to that of Slice.
Note: Cooldown is most likely around 3 seconds. A thing to note since its shares its cooldown with Slice. Punish deals 100% damage vs Slice 94%, Punish damage gets increased to 135% if the target is stunned. Slice has a 94% damage but in addition slice has a base critical chance of 10%. Overall I recommend switching out slice for punish from now on.   

Fury: Unleash your fury, dealing damage equal to 150% of 6 seconds' auto-attack damage to your target over 6 seconds. Combo attack.

New: Fury now works as a melee version of the Magic ability Concentrated Blast.
Note: They've nerfed its damage from dealing 150% damage over 6 seconds, to 70% damage per hit for 3 hits equal to 210% damage. Also with each hit the next hit in sequence has an increase hit chance of 5% (eg. 0% - 5% - 10%). This ability got buffed pretty well.

Decimate: Decimate your target's defences, dealing 100% of both weapons' damage, or 157% of both weapons' damage if they are bearing a shield.

New:   Decimate now does up to 188% weapon damage, and its cooldown has been lowered. In PvP, it does 244% weapon damage if the target is using a shield.
Note:   Decimate and Havoc shares the same cooldown, however Decimate deals 33% more damage than Havoc. The pvp bonus is meh

Cleave: Cleave through your foes, dealing 125% weapon damage to all targets in a frontal cone.

New:   Cleave now does 188% weapon damage.
Note:   This ability's damage got buffed by 63% so it is very strong right now. However a thing to note is this ability has the same problem as Dragon Breath, meaning depending on what monster your fighting and where you stand, this ability may not hit at all.


Massacre: Rend your target, dealing up to 157% of both weapons' damage instantly and causing an additional 157% of both weapons' damage over 6 seconds.

New:   Massacre now does 188% weapon damage instantly, then another 188% weapon damage over 6 seconds.
Note:   This ability's damage got buffed by 124%, a very strong ultimate ability making it a likely contender to the Berserk ability.

Defence:

Bash: Bash your target with your shield, stunning them for 3 seconds. Targets immune to stun instead suffer 188% weapon damage.

New:   Bash now deals damage based on the level of the wielded shield.
Note:   I'm am unsure exactly how this works, as well as how to determine its damage. Does it do 100% of the weapon (Shields) damage? Would it deal 1102 damage = to Drygore Longsword/Rapier or will it deal 1350 = to of the Malevolent kiteshield Lifepoint boost?

Revenge: Enact revenge upon your foes, causing any attacks you receive to increase your damage dealt by 10%, stacking up to 100%. Lasts 20 seconds.

New:   Revenge misses will now increase the stack effect by 10%.
Note:   Before if you were 'Revenged' and the target missed their attacks on you your damage output would've not increased. This buff allows tanks to deal slightly higher dps.

Debilitate: Debilitate your target for up to 100% weapon damage, also reducing any damage they deal to you by 50% for 10 seconds.

New:   Debilitate's now lasts longer, based on the level of the wielded shield.
Note: The current duraton is 10 seconds, it may scale maybe to 15-20 seconds.

Reflect: Raise your shield, reflecting 50% of any damage you receive back at the attacker. Lasts 10 seconds.

New:   Reflect's cooldown has been increased to 30 seconds.
Note:   Current live game cooldown is 20 seconds. Nerfed

[Josheh]

Good post, thanks for the info.

[Freezee]

Not bad, not bad at all.