So I was looking at the upcoming changes to critical damage bonus stacking and Ferocity and I thought to myself: "I like crit damage, I like the sound and the idea of Ferocity… but what if there was a way for any profession invested in any trait line to gain a sizaable, flat bonus to Critical Damage that would NOT stack and would likely require a moderate ICD to prevent it from being spammed.
The idea stems from the basic concept of Elementalist’s Arcane Lightning skill. Effectively, it is a pseudo-class mechanic that lets you trigger a brief bonus to Critical Damage output by utilizing skills relevant to that trait-line.
How does this translate to other classes and trait lines? It’s simple! Every trait line could have an either 15 or 20 point investment that grants you a trait-based benefit known as an ‘Opportunity’: Opportunities are dependent on skills that typically have synergy with your chosen trait line and will grant a temporary, but meaningful bonus to critical damage. Say… 20% BONUS for 20 seconds. Again, this nifty little “opportunity” won’t stack, and probably has a 50s ICD that incurs upon gaining an Opportunity (so you can effectively gain an Opportunity every 30s). I feel that this would be a good way to add in damage to certain trait and gear setups that may not have much access to critical damage (Cleric’s, Soldier’s, even condition-based builds), but it also won’t punish Berserker setups nor leave them OP.
OPTION A: 15-point Automatic/Passive Trait Benefit
Take guardians as an example: investing 15 points into the Valor line of traits could grant the Guardian a passive buff known as ‘Valorous Opportunity’ alongside its normal buff (essentially keeping Courageous Return but also modifying it to be even more beneficial). [Valorous] Opportunity triggers off of any skill that maintains synergy with the Valor trait line; for example, a Meditation, sort of like how Consecrations would proc Virtuous Opportunities if the player invests enough focus into the Virtues tree.
OPTION B: 20-point Manually-Selected Trait ‘Proc’
Perhaps Master traits could be modified. Again taking guardians as an example, there could be Honorable Opportunity and Virtuous Opportunity for their respective trait lines (as there is for Valor, Radiance and Zeal). For Virtues, the devs could modify the consecration cooldown/duration improvement, bump it up to Master-tier (or keep it where it is?) and
Chances are you’ve invested at least 15-20 points into two or three of your five trait lines, so if you’re 20 in Zeal but don’t like the idea of proccing Opportunity of spirit weapons, you can invest into another line that maintains synergy within your build to proc it (Valorous Opportunity, Radiant Opportunity) without having to dip specifically into a trait line you may not care for JUST for DPS benefits. Opportunities could work with your build, not against it.