Guild Wars 2

Defiant Stance
Healing: 1,853 (0.4)
Defiant Stance(3s): All incoming attacks heal you.
Activation: 1/4s
Cooldown: 35s

This skill invokes good play and counterplay right now, but one of the worst parts of it and the thing that really keeps it from seeing more play (besides Healing Signet being so incredible) is that it activates after you cast it by that 1/4 second. It sounds like it shouldn’t make a difference, but because it’s not an instant cast, there are a few problems with it:
- You cannot use it while CC’d
- You cannot activate it without interrupting another action

These limit the value of the skill immensely in all formats. I also don’t think this skill sees a lot of use right now due to how strong Healing Signet is (nerf is well-deserved), and also how powerful Healing Surge is as a direct heal. In order to encourage this skill’s use, the proposed bonus to its base heal in the new patch is a start, but it also needs to have its activation time removed.

Removing its activation helps it by making it:

- More reactive
- Able to be used while CC’d, giving it serious value in countering bursts
- Instant, meaning you won’t be messed up by having to activate it
- It won’t interrupt other actions
- It will be consistent with every other stance skill on the Warrior

Please consider it, balance team. Cheers.

Defiant Stance is already borderline OP. Making it insta cast would make it impossible to interrupt and would start another wave of OMG OP WARRIOR threads. No thank you. Just leave it the way it is.

Yesssss yesssssssssss buff warriors! They’re so UP atm man.

Let them be the one and only class with an instant healing ability!

Julie Yann.5379:

Defiant Stance is already borderline OP. Making it insta cast would make it impossible to interrupt and would start another wave of OMG OP WARRIOR threads. No thank you. Just leave it the way it is.

I disagree with this. It’s currently only used in very specific cases because Healing Signet is significantly better in basically every context. With the upcoming nerf to Healing Signet, we’ll be hopefully seeing more play of the other heal skills, but Healing Surge is more reliable, reloads quicker, requires far less successful play, and is more on-demand life than Defiant Stance. Outside of a WvW middle-of-a-zerg context, I can’t see situations where “borderline OP” even comes close to describing this skill.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Julie Yann.5379:

Defiant Stance is already borderline OP. Making it insta cast would make it impossible to interrupt and would start another wave of OMG OP WARRIOR threads. No thank you. Just leave it the way it is.

I disagree with this. It’s currently only used in very specific cases because Healing Signet is significantly better in basically every context. With the upcoming nerf to Healing Signet, we’ll be hopefully seeing more play of the other heal skills, but Healing Surge is more reliable, reloads quicker, requires far less successful play, and is more on-demand life than Defiant Stance. Outside of a WvW middle-of-a-zerg context, I can’t see situations where “borderline OP” even comes close to describing this skill.

It’s not worth slotting if you are roaming, or dueling or most areas of PvE. It’s a situational skill and it is almost OP in those situations. I am fine with that, why should every heal be useful in every situation? It can heal for 20k if you time it right and you can trait it to give 6 secs of vigor on top of that. 20k+ every 35 secs, that 1ike 1.75k HPS, and people cry about the signet healing 400hps, lol. It’s takes a certain degree of skill to use it effectively but it is an amazing heal despite being situational.

It is an amazing heal, I agree. But that’s the thing: Using it correctly and in perfect situations requires you hold your heal for those moments, which may not be exactly when you need HP. There is a lot of play and counterplay in that regard, and if the enemy is wise to your having the skill, they can hold up their burst and deny you hard. It’s very good, but very, very situational. My proposed change to the skill is minor, but has value in giving the skill more play to balance the immense counterplay. This change doesn’t make it amazing in all situations, it simply makes it more apt for the situations (and by consequence builds) that do use it in a way that would be fair.

Your change is inconsistent with the game. No heal ability has 0 cast time.

That, and warriors absolutely don’t need any more buffs, not even in a million years.

Razor.6392:

Your change is inconsistent with the game. No heal ability has 0 cast time.

That, and warriors absolutely don’t need any more buffs, not even in a million years.

I agree but on the flip side, no stance has a cast time except this one.

Julie Yann.5379:

Razor.6392:

Your change is inconsistent with the game. No heal ability has 0 cast time.

That, and warriors absolutely don’t need any more buffs, not even in a million years.

I agree but on the flip side, no stance has a cast time except this one.

The fact that it’s a heal overrides whatever type of skill it might be.

Glyph of elemental power doesn’t have a cast time anymore, but it’s a glyph, just like one of ele’s heals.

Thieves’ signets don’t have a cast time, but their heal (signet of malice) does.

I’m sure there are more examples like those.

Healing skills need to have cast times so that there is an opportunity for the opponent to interrupt or prevent it. Even over elites, healing skills have the largest impact on the game. Having a healing skill with 0 cast time would negate any counterplay opportunity.

Yes, Defiant Stance has some opportunity after activation, but not as much as you would think. It’s especially effective against condition damage builds as they cannot prevent themselves from healing you. Even so, it still gives okay healing without a dumb opponent. Removing the activation time would also remove the opportunity cost associated with other heals (which is part of why healing signet is too strong right now).

It already has the shortest activation time of any healing skill by at least .5 seconds. Deal with it.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Healing skills need to have cast times so that there is an opportunity for the opponent to interrupt or prevent it.

They have a cast time so there is play and counterplay. Long cast times mean that they can be interrupted, and that is the counterplay. Defiant Stance is different, however, because it’s counterplay is in how much damage you take during the activation duration. Thus, it could viably (and fairly) have no cast time and create just as expert a play/counterplay interaction between two or more players.

This guy doesn’t get it.

Razor.6392:

This guy doesn’t get it.

Au contraire, I just disagree with you and the reasoning you’ve used thus far is unconvincing. I’m willing to discuss it further, of course.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Healing skills need to have cast times so that there is an opportunity for the opponent to interrupt or prevent it.

They have a cast time so there is play and counterplay. Long cast times mean that they can be interrupted, and that is the counterplay. Defiant Stance is different, however, because it’s counterplay is in how much damage you take during the activation duration. Thus, it could viably (and fairly) have no cast time and create just as expert a play/counterplay interaction between two or more players.

It needs to keep the cast time so people can prevent you from using it. It does some decent healing right up front, so even if it doesn’t get interrupted (and with a 1/4 second cast, interrupts are the result of luck, not skill), an instant cast would make it far stronger because it can’t even be prevented via CC. As it is, it is still a 3 second base invincibility with some up front healing. Counterplay after activation is limited, since you are still guaranteed no damage taken during that time.

If Defiant Stance were instant cast, opponents have no real counterplay. They can’t CC you to prevent the heal from going off. Oh, but they can stop hitting you for 3 seconds! That’s…not actual counterplay. It gives you free reign for that time. Instant cast would also mean you could do it in response to a big hit (like Eviscerate) without stopping whatever it is you were doing.

So no, the skill needs to keep its cast time for balance purposes. Making it instant would break the skill horribly.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Razor.6392:

This guy doesn’t get it.

Au contraire, I just disagree with you and the reasoning you’ve used thus far is unconvincing. I’m willing to discuss it further, of course.

You are pretty much going against a design standard in gw2’s skills. I don’t think there’s much left to discuss.

Inconsistency in design is terrible, just like bandaid fixes. It’s like having only 1 of thieves’ abilities grant a reduced “revealed” debuff after you attack someone, or having only 1 signet in any class (say, mesmers) that gets to keep its passive after using the active (without traits or anything), just because that class needed a buff.

Never go against your design principles. Every single heal ability in the game has a cast time and that’s it.