Guild Wars 2

At the moment, Blindness in GW2 is like an extra active dodge—except it’s worse because you don’t actually move anywhere and doesn’t really allow you to evade several attacks at once. “Next outgoing attack misses.” This sounds like a description of temporary Blindness from a turn-based RPG, not a face-paced, active-dodging, attack spamming MMORPG based on latency and loaded with channeled attacks that pump out several pips of damage with a single skill. Aside from that, the visual effect of Blindness on the screen screams something more dire than “Oh-ho! Lummie shoot mah arrows/swing mah sword ’n get rid of this black gunk in my eyes!”

It’s asking for a buff. However, I want to avoid the “90% chance to miss all attacks throughout the duration” Blindness that saw action in Guild Wars 1. Instead, I think that GW2 Blindness should be reworked into:

Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; 50% of Non Critical hits are glancing blows (50% damage).

This new, non-stacking, weakness-inspired version would prevent huge durations of Blindness from being thrown onto a player, pulling their DPS into the depths for 10 or more seconds. However, it would retain the “free dodge” aspect of Blindness that really is quite clutch in many situations and serves many a great purpose in active combat. Most importantly, however, it would allow a lone someone to target an opponent, inflict Blindness, and have it honestly press an influence on a battle aside from removing one single hit out of the equation. For the most part, the current respective durations of Blindness are already rather short compared to the recharges of the skills that inflict them, and this change could probably sleeve rather easily into the game. However, there are a few that would need some duration adjustments: for starters namely Dust Devil, Blinding Flash and maybe three ranged Thief skills since they use Initiative and lend themselves to be spammed.

The point is, a rather simple change like this could really update this backward-feeling condition and bring it into meaningful play.

Interesting mechanic. How about ‘attacks within x amount of time have a 50% chance to miss’ (stacks duration), or alternatively ‘next attack and following attacks within 3 seconds will miss’.

Zero Angel.9715:

Interesting mechanic. How about ‘attacks within x amount of time have a 50% chance to miss’ (stacks duration), or alternatively ‘next attack and following attacks within 3 seconds will miss’.

As for your first suggestion, like I said, I really do think that that first guaranteed miss really serves important purposes (avoiding huge attacks with cues without having to use active dodge, saving an ally from an enemy flag stomp attempt, ect), so I really think that it should stay. Regarding your second suggestion, three seconds is a lot of time in a game like GW2. I also wanted to avoid the sort of Blindness that one saw in Guild Wars 1 which was effectively just that. I think that having one guaranteed miss with a trail of happenstance half-misses not only best reflects the actual condition of being temporarily blind, but would have a stronger, longer-lasting impact on combat without being overpowered.

I’d be perfectly happy with GW1 blindness. Flat 75% chance to miss for X duration. Of course duration of current GW2 blindness will need to be significantly reduced. This way it would be a reliable anti-burst tool, as opposed to yet another spammable condition.

I still think that a straight up damage denial (complete miss) beyond the initial strike is sort of cheating people out of a lot of damage and combos. That’s why I like the weakness functionality so much. I was thinking of how it could be Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; 75% of Non Critical hits are glancing blows (50% damage), though. That way it wouldn’t just feel exactly like weakness except for the decreased endurance regeneration. Also -50% damage is pretty effective burst damage control.

Or better yet, Blindness could be 50% of all hits are glancing blows meaning that its glancing blow effect would widen to encompass even critical hits. That would really be better for curbing spikes, but it would still let people eek some damage, conditions and combos through (No more “Ah, you have Blindness? Time out. Go sit in that corner until it’s over.”).

How about if a player gets afflicted with Blind, the actual screen goes black, with your vision becoming more clear as it wears off?

For PvE mobs though, I got nothing.

Swagg.9236:

I still think that a straight up damage denial (complete miss) beyond the initial strike is sort of cheating people out of a lot of damage and combos.

I know right! Imagine if everyone had to bring some condition removal and watch their bars before blowing cooldowns… That would be horrible!

TheDaiBish.9735:

How about if a player gets afflicted with Blind, the actual screen goes black, with your vision becoming more clear as it wears off?

For PvE mobs though, I got nothing.

Even that probably wouldn’t work given that there are many auto-targeted attacks. Also, that kind of effect would probably cheapen the impact of a Blindness duration if we knew that regardless of the duration it would blacken out a screen instantly. Furthermore, things like 1-second duration blinds would be aesthetically jarring to see your screen flash from black and then almost instantly back to normal. I think the visual effect is fine as it is. The condition itself just needs some reworking.

My suggestion would also make Blindness more effective on PvE mobs in that it could curb the assaults of fast-attacking NPCs since it would have a duration with an effect similar to granting Protection to yourself or other allies under attack by the NPC afflicted with Blindness.

Trollhammer.7439:

Swagg.9236:

I still think that a straight up damage denial (complete miss) beyond the initial strike is sort of cheating people out of a lot of damage and combos.

I know right! Imagine if everyone had to bring some condition removal and watch their bars before blowing cooldowns… That would be horrible!

We already have Daze and Stun. Those do what you’re asking (shutting down burst damage—in addition to many other things). Blindness doesn’t need to be that powerful, but it also shouldn’t be as weak as it is right now (it’s currently the worst interrupt in the game instead of a proper condition). I think that giving it an initial total miss (an interrupt) and following that up with a 50% chance for a 50% damage reduction in proceeding attacks (including critical hits; or maybe even a complete nullification of critical hits since, well, you’re blind—enjoy trying to find and hit my weak spot) is balanced step between where it is now and the game-bending effects of Daze and Stun.

Swagg.9236:

Trollhammer.7439:

Swagg.9236:

I still think that a straight up damage denial (complete miss) beyond the initial strike is sort of cheating people out of a lot of damage and combos.

I know right! Imagine if everyone had to bring some condition removal and watch their bars before blowing cooldowns… That would be horrible!

We already have Daze and Stun. Those do what you’re asking (shutting down burst damage—in addition to many other things). Blindness doesn’t need to be that powerful, but it also shouldn’t be as weak as it is right now (it’s currently the worst interrupt in the game instead of a proper condition). I think that giving it an initial total miss (an interrupt) and following that up with a 50% chance for a 50% damage reduction in proceeding attacks (including critical hits; or maybe even a complete nullification of critical hits since, well, you’re blind—enjoy trying to find and hit my weak spot) is balanced step between where it is now and the game-bending effects of Daze and Stun.

Quite evidently they are used in exactly opposite way – to shut down target while bursting them. How many skills applying it are used defensively? I would say somewhere close to none.

i would prefer an increased chance to miss for a duration, which would actually encourage people to care about party/self condition on a deeper level.

[/quote]Quite evidently they are used in exactly opposite way – to shut down target while bursting them. How many skills applying it are used defensively? I would say somewhere close to none.

[/quote]
Well, as a Mesmer, I often pop Diversion on myself with the Illsionary Persona trait to stop Greatsword/Snare Warriors or Thieves from insta-killing me with spam on the spot, but I see what you’re saying. I still stand with what I’ve said. A 50% chance to halve all out-going damage across the board (critical hits included) is satisfactory damage control for a condition with the availability that Blindness has in GW2.
I’ve also been enjoying our thread of discussion.

Blindness should not create a total miss.
What blindness should do is to make critical hits impossible for the duration.
I would also very carefully look over the classes and tweak blindness duration so no one could keep it up on someone for any serious length of time (15 seconds max for any class assuming they blow every blindness ability they got one after the other).

On that train of thought, would it then be better to make normal hits miss for blindness duration while crits hit for normal damage and do not trigger any ‘on crit’ effects?

if they change blindness they have to change aegis as well, what would you have them do convert all incomming damage like your blindness buff? or 75% chance to block? blind work the way it should. you dont seem to realize that not all classes have good condition removal so having a lingering blindness that reduces chance to hit or damage would cripple them. unless you want to give some of their skills condition removal buffs. but that would take away from what you seem to want from blindness. it to be oped.

poe lyfe.5879:

if they change blindness they have to change aegis as well, what would you have them do convert all incomming damage like your blindness buff? or 75% chance to block? blind work the way it should. you dont seem to realize that not all classes have good condition removal so having a lingering blindness that reduces chance to hit or damage would cripple them. unless you want to give some of their skills condition removal buffs. but that would take away from what you seem to want from blindness. it to be oped.

Blindness is supposed to be crippling. It’s to be used defensively in a manner that reduces an opponent’s ability to deal out damage. However, the vast majority of Blindness durations in game at the moment don’t extend past 3 seconds saving a few that would have to be adjusted. Those three seconds combined with relatively long cooldowns would bring enough to the game that could provide Blindness an active and game-influencing use in GW2 while not completely breaking the game.

But, that’s a good point about Aegis. I’ve also thought about it as an underpowered Boon. However, the only reason it’s probably more difficult to balance is because of the Guardian’s ability to permanently have it up on themselves. The very low amount of skills and traits that actually grant Aegis seems to suggest that it too could go for a buff. Something like:

Aegis: Block the next incoming attack, then gain or 10-25% (debatable amount) damage reduction OR then gain Regeneration OR then gain Protection and Regeneration

Again, the only problem would be how ANet would readjust the durations of Aegis and how they would restruction the function of the Virtue of Courage regarding how it dispenses Aegis regularly.

So after all the discussion:

Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; 33% of all hits are glancing blows (50% damage); cannot achieve Critical Hit; does not stack duration

Aegis: Block the next incoming attack, then gain 15% damage reduction for 2 seconds; does not stack duration

Some existing durations of Blindness and Aegis granted from skills, traits and upgrades, but I trust ANet enough to goof around with numbers. Regardless, Blindness and Aegis are a condition and a boon respectively and therefore should carry with them passive, over-time effects rather than just being a poor man’s interrupts.

As someone who has to fight against guardians and doesn’t play as one I would be pretty kitten if Aegis granted a block AND regeneration OR protection. Thumbs up for the Everquest reference with blind turning your screen black. Blind is crazy OP in Pve, I hardly use it in WvW ever but it’s easy to cheese NPCs with blind.

I agree with the original poster, Blindness is currently useless and needs this kind of buff. Also I wanted to comment that let’s say that I was 50 feet away from you (out of melee weapon range) and I just chose to swing my weapon once, that gets rid of blind in the case that I would have missed anyway which pretty much makes blind useless unless you’re fighting NPCs. Even in PvE blind could use a buff.. All around it is a good suggestion and it should be impemented into the game. Thank you for your suggestion and you have my full support.

CUrrently the duration of the blindness is irrelevant

Alright, so here’s a new idea. Instead of making everything about Blindness and Aegis have fixed durations and effects, how about we maintain their durations as they are in-game and then tie a secondary, activated duration to the passive effects that begin after Blindness and Aegis are activated respectively (activation being something that happens on hit)? Then the durations or effectiveness of those secondary, passive effects would be tied to actual Attributes like normal conditions and boons?

For example:
Dust Devil: Blind your foe with a blast of sand – Damage: 134; Blindness: 10 seconds; Range: 900
The target is inflicted with Blindness for 10 seconds, waits 5 seconds before attacking, triggers the initial miss, and then suffers an additional x seconds of Blindness’ secondary, passive effect. Whether that combination of waiting 5 seconds before triggering Blindness’ secondary effect totals 10 seconds or not is irrelevant because once you trigger the initial effect, the variable timer starts on Blindness’ active duration which is based on one’s Condition Damage.

The only thing is that the fixed numericals in the equation that determines Blindness’ and Aegis’ respective secondary effect durations would have to be REALLY small in order to off-set the variables (Condition Damage for Blindness and maybe Healing Power for Aegis) which would be probably in the middle 1000s if not higher. There could even just be a flat cap on durations (maybe 3.5 seconds for Blindness and 2.5 for Aegis or something) so that people could eventually max out the duration of, in case we’ll say Blindness, and we wouldn’t have to worry about builds with huge Condition Damage inflicting 5 seconds of secondary Blindness over and over again on people off of stray combos or something.

Maybe that’s just too convoluted, though.

I have found this to be a problem to, It should give a half second or 1 second of misses when activated. So If I put blindness on a warrior when he then swings he misses for a second. Meaning it will stop a single 1 attack, But would also stop 100blades (partially).
This would make it far more useful as currently it is terrible at multi hit based attacks

OK, so final revision time:

Blindness and Aegis have two types of durations: a passive duration and an activated duration.
The passive duration occurs when a target first gains Aegis or Blindness as well as the icon that says, “Oh, hey, look that’s on you,” but the two statuses don’t actually have an impact on play.
The active duration (otherwise interpreted as the actual description of either status; i.e. what I’m about to write below this paragraph) occurs when someone with Blindness attacks or Aegis is hit respectively, which then cancels the passive duration and activates the secondary “upon trigger” effects of Blindness or Aegis which last for a very brief period of time before fading completely.

Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; upon trigger, outgoing attacks for the next 0.5 seconds are glancing blows (50% damage); for 2 seconds, it is more difficult to achieve Critical Hits; does not stack duration
– “Upon trigger” refers to when the target with Blindness misses that initial attack. After that miss, the activated effects after “upon trigger” then kick in.
– The total duration is 2 seconds. It’s not a case of 0.5 seconds of glancing blows and then 2 seconds of “You can hit now, just with reduced critical chance.”
– By “it is more difficult to achieve Critical Hits,” I mean that according to the Condition Damage of the source that inflicted Blindness, his or her target’s total Precision would be reduced (the reduction would be capped at 800). This means that while the target could still achieve a Critical Hit by chance, it would still—most likely—reduce burst damage output drastically overall.

Aegis: Block the next incoming attack; upon trigger gain damage reduction for 2 seconds; does not stack duration
– “Upon trigger” refers to when Aegis is “consumed” in order to block an attack.
– The damage reduction would be based on the source’s Healing Power and would be capped at 15%.

These changes would have to be looked over to see how overpowered they might end up being (such as in the case with Thieves who can spam skills that repeatedly inflict Blindness) with regards to not just skills but also passive effects like traits and gear upgrades.

If i worked for anet i would make blind shut your monitor for the duration and goo luck hitting anything, brah.

So this topic is really old, but I had a new idea recently. What if there were two types of Blindness: the version that sees play right now (that will be called just “Blindness”) and the version with the duration that I’m trying to describe and flesh out in this forum post (it could be called something different like “Deep Blindness” or I don’t know).

Whatever it’s called, having two kinds of Blindness would make it easier to buff several skills that use the current, whimpy Blindness as their main gimmick. If those underpowered skills (Ray of Judgement, Signet of Air, Signet of Midnight, ect) inflicted a Blindness that had a meaningful impact on combat, they could be more worthwhile to bring along. At the same time, it would spare ANet from having to work on balancing Thieves who have a crazy ability to spam Blindness already with Initiative-based skills.

i really like the ideas here!
though i have a different personal preference: i think blind should stack in intensity and the passive effect (whatever is decided upon: no crits for duration, glancing blows, etc) should be achievable via traits

so you can hit someone with 3 stacks of blind
they attack and miss and reduce the stack to two
enough time passes that the stack loses another intensity, dropping to a stack of 1
they attack and miss one more time and the blind stack is down to 0
if you have the trait, the duration remaining on the 0 stack blind is a debuff (something like “no crits until blind wears off or is removed”)

also this would probably require that the stack that gets removed due to an attack is the stack that was most recently applied or the stack that has the most duration to it (like how bleed stacks have different durations)

keep applications of blind with low durations and you’ll have something similar to a defensive confusion

this would also make it more interesting for “unshakable” bosses
“Gains defiant when targeted by crowd control skills. Blind is 10% effective. Weakness and vulnerability last 50% less time.”

instead of making blind effective on chance, change it to an all or nothing.
i.e. if there are 5 stacks of blind on an unshakable creature, that creature’s next attack misses and removes all stacks (or just the 5?)
(or would 10 be better?)

perhaps aegis could be reworked in a similar way
or maybe we should just bring about new conditions altogether
and rework this into something more logical (in terms of something with stacks converts into something with stacks)
http://forums.intothemists.com/index.php?/topic/126-conversion-of-boons-conditions/
blind (stacks intensity) => fury (stacks duration)
weakness (stacks duration) => might (stacks intensity)
…or maybe weakness should be reworked to stack in intensity also?

TL;DR: keep blind the same except let it stack intensity like confusion
give traits so that blind includes a debuff for it’s remaining duration as a stack of zero intensity

I fear to many skills would have to be readjusted for these changes. A class like Necro can dish out Blinds like mad. I understand that having 1 blind on a 20 something CD seems a bit weak. But when you combine it with blocks from a Guardans and a Necro thats perma blinding 2 areas. It really mitigrates kittenloads of damage.

When it comes to aegis tho, i think they should revamp this to a intensity stacking boon.