Wyrmic still needs a rework.

[fateriddle]

Wyrmic is quit unique, it is the only class that can take fungus without antimagic, it is the only class that has multiply AOE weapon damage% talents. But currently the most popular build is a caster Wyrmic, which I'd argue the most boring caster ever: put everything in Strength and then breath, breath, breath.

One main reason restricts the potential of non-pure-caster Wyrimic builds:

The Weapon choice problem.

1. Consider the talent tree, 2h or 1h + shield will be your options;
2. Shield 100% STR, 2H 120% STR, so you have to build a strength focused character;
3. Then look at the Wyrmic tree, between will-scale skills and strength-scale breaths, the choice obvious;
4. But breaths use mind critical, one precious source will be mindstars. See, already awkward, there's more:
5. If you are going physical, you are looking for skills like ice claw which scales with weapon damage, 2h has better synergy than 1h in this regard(main hand damage), but shield offense is considered better than 2h talent tree, dilemma.
6. In fact, dual-wield has the best synergy with Wyrmic tree, Dissolve will hit 8 times, and Wing Buffet hit and pushback 2 times, Ice claw attempts to freeze twice. But dual wield don't even have a talent tree!
7. It would have still been fine to try dual wield for optimal synergy, if Wyrmic tree talents had low CD.
8. Sum up, just play pure caster breath build.

TL;DR. suggestions:
1. give Wyrmic a special designed dual-wield tree; or
2. reduce CD of WeaponDamage% talents, at least at high level.

P.S. Why not a single skill(especially Devouring Flame) can hurt yourself, when Wyrmic being the only class who has free access to Elemental Harmony?

Edit: And having so much pushback skills does make Wyrmic more of a mage, Wing Buffet/Quake are both great skill, rogues want them so badly they usually spend a prodigy point for it. Perfect talents, except that they push enemies back...

[Strongpoint]

Can you explain why having a class that can use three different weapon sets is bad?

[stinkstink]

Melee Wyrmics are completely viable for Nightmare at minimum (as are pure WIL/CUN mindpower caster Wyrmics, although ignoring STR definitely feels sub-optimal even when using psiblades) although I can't compare them to breathspam because I've never had enough interest in that build to run it. Melee builds hit very, very hard with Legacy of the Naloren, which is a must-have for them IMO, and can pick up the trident immediately upon reaching the East.

As for them not having a dual-wielding specific tree, I honestly don't feel like they need one. They have enough attractive point sinks and weapon-agnostic melee talents that even on 2h builds I rarely put more than 1/1/0/0 into Two-handed Assault.

If you're having trouble with melee cooldowns, try using Ice Wall or Nature's Balance more aggressively. Ice Wall is incredible at stalling for turns and is probably one of the best talents in the game. Almost all of their talents can trigger Mnemonic's cooldown refresh, which make it a great choice if you find it. Mindpower Wyrmics have a much bigger problem with cooldowns, due to all the MP-scaling attacks except Acidic Spray having a 15/20 turn cd.

[Dracos]

Counter-argument: Breathes are cool and class unique. Many are likely choosing wyrmic to try that play mode out specifically. I did twice (One two handed axe, one psi-blades). Wyrmics builds pretty much always give a variety of options for both distance control and for good attacks at short, medium and long ranges.

Wyrmics got reworked in 1.3.0 after a long addon trial period somebody did (sorry names). I don't think sufficient time has passed to really have them come up again for significant rework.

[Atarlost]

Melee builds hit very, very hard with Legacy of the Naloren, which is a must-have for them IMO...

That in itself is a problem. No class should be absolutely reliant on a specific prodigy for an obviously intended build and it leaves shield builds high and dry.

In my experience, shield wyrmics are fine right up until the Sorcerer fight at which point they're suddenly not. This is odd since most classes I can get anywhere with have more difficulty with High Peak stair bosses than the sorcerers.

If Antimagic is the solution that's also a problem. Antimagic shouldn't be mandatory for any class that doesn't start the game with it.

[Dracos]

I did an ogre wyrmic with Gaping Maw.

The top ten most recent wyrmic winners show no consistency in weapon choice, even among two handers. There's Gaping Maw, Legacy of Naloren, Blighted Maul. There were two sword and board ones in the top ten most recent. Some psiblades, some two weaponers. No consistency.

I don't think that 'wyrmic needs this specific equipment/prodigy to be successful in this type of build' is much backed back the current state of the game.

[Zeyphor]

I think wyrmic needs the following changes:
remove the passive buffs from swallow wing buffet lightning speed ice claw acidic spray and prismatic slash
remove the healing from devouring flame
remove breath cooldown reduction from wyrmic guile, or at least lower it to 1/1/1/2/2 turns
lower the damage on quake and wing buffet by alot, but it'd still be % weapon damage; they'd be used more as utilities than as damage-dealers
extend tornado's range to 10

and then another change needs to be made, for melee classes that use 2h weapons in general
getting legacy of the naloren does not enable you to have more than 5 raw points in exotic weapon mastery, nor in spit poison

i did sludgenest 500 on normal rl with a mindstar-using breath-spamming wyrmic in 1.2.5 and i think they're really an okay class and I think they didn't really need buffs

[Planetus]

I think how, or even whether, wyrmics need to be fixed is entirely on what you think wyrmics should be. From the name, I get the idea that wyrmics are draconic warriors, giving you the closest opportunity to playing a dragon without actually playing a dragon. To me, then, a dragon should use breaths to sweep the field of lesser foes/soften up greater foes, and then close in with a nightmare of fang and claw on more powerful foes.

With that in mind, I think the problem for me is that wyrmics currently have powerful breath attacks that deal debilitating status effects (which frequently become useless against bosses just because the bosses are immune to the status effect), but don't get the 'nightmare of fang and claw'. Not with any build. They can be decent. They can make it. But their melee options are, well, not up to draconic levels. Not by a long shot.

Oh, and the dragon, and thus dragon warrior, should be nigh invulnerable against anything less than the most powerful attacks against it. This game doesn't really support that in mechanics, between resists, armor, armor affinity (or whatever it's called, been a little while), armor penetration, and defense. There are too many defensive mechanisms and counters for anything to just be a flat tank. Instead, the wyrmic gets good HP and massive regen from Fungus. That works.

So, really, the only problem I see is that the breath attacks are too much of a necessary go-to and the melee options just aren't there. Take away breaths and the wyrmic isn't as good as the warrior, or the bulwark, or a number of much more melee-focused builds.

Now, sure, the dragon in ideology is inherently OP. The wyrmic shouldn't be. I'm not saying they should be able to trash the fields with breath and then slice any boss to pieces with melee. I'm saying there should be more of a balance, where breaths are a great way to handle swarms and minions, but against a boss, you probably want to go melee. And in that respect, I think the wyrmic should be able to set themselves up with both, without too much difficulty. Caster or melee pure builds should be viable, but the blended build should feel natural.