Guild Wars 2

I love using Banners, they give amazing buffs and have some cool uses such as being blast finishers and providing a source of swiftness and other boons, depending on the banner.

There are a few things about them that I think could be much improved upon though.

1: [Powerful Banners] does not work with [Plant Standard]. I believe this trait is awful as it does mediocre damage and only works once every 90 seconds, assuming [Inspiring Banners], per banner you run. Making [Plant Standard] do damage if you are running this trait would make it at least marginally more desirable.

2: [Inspiring Banners] is an excellent trait, but it bothers me that it increases the radius of the banner, but does not increase the range at which you can summon the banner. Summoning your banners at a 900 range, if you are traited, would be really helpful when you are running in at the start of a fight, and also leads to my next suggestion..

3: [Plant Standard] should be ground targeted. If you can summon your banner at range, you should be able to re-plant it at range too. The range should be the same as normal summoning, 600 or 900 if you are traited into [Inspiring Banners].

Moral of the story is..
If I trait into both [Powerful Banners] and [Inspiring Banners] I should be able to pick my banners up and use them like a javelin that causes a blast finisher.

I agree with all of it except making plant standard a ground target. I would rather have banners able to be picked up and planted on the go like the wvw ability to pick up supplies without stopping.

If the powerful banners trait made the banner do some decent damage or some bonus effect it would be neat, but a small spike every 90 seconds is meh. For example, it could deal 50% of the targets max hp against downed enemies along with the small spike damage on summon. A ranged finisher on a long cooldown, could add a long ICD so this isn’t repeatable like 90 seconds.

Plant Standard, and placing your banner down should trigger Powerful Banners but instead of just minor damage, maybe add a blowout.