It’s not about the skills though. It’s about the percentage of the mission that’s spent transitioning, getting into position, and watching the bounty flee, which is objectively higher than it was before. Therefore it is not possible to reach the same level of effectiveness (50% damage) as prior to this change.
I understand about the context, but the tone of your posts in the threads discussing this topic definitely suggest that you’re of the opinion that players can be equally effective as before. Yes we are all handicapped together, but that’s not the point. We are all still handicapped and it’s a frustrating fact that has taken the enjoyment out of the event for many.
I posted this in another thread but it sums up my thoughts on the bounty changes:
Overall, I like the reduced timer. If you are a high level player with loads of heroes that have been beefed up to respectable power levels, Bounty Weekend can be a real grind. Having to spend 50% less time to blow through all my charges has been a boon for those of us who don’t want to spend the majority of their weekend glued to their phones.
I DO understand some of the complaints though. The lack of upfront communication regarding the change was frustrating. Not having enough time for slower charging skills felt like it put some heroes at a serious disadvantage and made them tedious to play. Too much of the 45 seconds being devoted to “down-time” made actual play-time feel scarce and staggers/stuns unusually punitive.
60% skill charge off the bat effectively took care of the skills use issue for me but I understand that YMMV. The only other change that I’d love to see that has been brought up previously is to do away with transitions entirely. Just give us 45 seconds on one stage and it will do so much for the game play. No more lost time. No more worrying about the AI chucking an area-of-effect skill with 1 second left before the stage transition. No more having to get re-oriented when the game bugs out and starts you facing backwards to start the new stage. I really think it would go a long way towards catering to those of us who want less grind and those that feel that bounties aren’t meaty enough anymore.
You can be as effective in skill usage as before, that does not mean that you do the same damage. Like I said before, 40% is realistic. If it all works out perfectly you can get up to 50% once in a while, but the 30% or less that many talk about is just a lack of skill/hero knowledge and has nothing to do with the shortend time.
In the old system, you lost 18/90=20% of the mission to transition times. In the new system, you lose 13/45=28.9% of the mission. There is a nearly 50% increase in useless time per mission.
It is therefore objectively factual that you cannot physically output more than 44.4% of the damage you could before the change.
This is false and impossible.
I agree with what you’re saying here, although I think a lot of the arguments you’re referring to have bled over from before the 60% skill charge was implemented, in which case they were tremendously valid complaints.
I’d like to also add that this neglects the difference in DoT skills. The time to utilize a DoT skill has been reduced from 25 seconds (the maximum usable zone time - note that this neglects cast time) down to 17 seconds. Considering cast time and the fact that some skills (ie. Phoenix) “ramp up” over time, you’re now losing the most effective part of some skills.
I get where you’re coming from on a lot of what you’re saying, but when you can’t back it up with actual data, it’s useless, especially when it’s objectively incorrect. I want this discussion to hear all differing opinions, but to preserve its integrity, those opinions must stay accurate and be supported by facts.