Guild Wars 2

Anet needs to keep a eye on the amount of boons in the game coming in HoTs.

With each class getting three full spec lines and bunch of new skills coming out,
there is a danger that boon usage will become (in many cases it already is) uptime use instead of tactical timing use.

Many traits are being merged together means extra boons that we didn’t have before. And when boons starts to get capped (perma) during fighting it removes skilled timeing and removes value from boons skill because you already have the boon. Everything becoming more powerful is in a way fine, but boons have a cap (perma) so it doesn’t work the same.
If you think about “uptime” rather than “timeing” it is bad for the game. It essentially removes things from the game, ‘regeneration, fury, swiftness, vigor are now all baseline’.

This happens already in 5v5 settings, not just larger.

They can for example
- Not make new skills and traits that give easy solutions for boons, like guardian energy symbol should be 10% energy per tick, not vigor. It is a skill shot after all.
- Flat out nerf all boon skills slightly, to help the situation a bit
- Make boon skills abit more positional
- im sure there is alot of things…

I just rushed this out because it was in my mind, in any case hopefully Anet is keeping track of the amount of boons and how easy they are to get in HoTs. If we think about Uptime instead of Timeing, it is not good!

Sab

Agreed, they should lower the base duration on a lot of boons.

However, we also lose the boon duration trait line.

I think the solution should be the opposite. Boons are much too spammy right now. I can’t even tell you how many times i’ve stripepd off a whole line of boons from an enemy just to have them instantly reapply them.

What we need is longer boons with MUCH longer CD’s. If you can spam apply boons for 2s every 6s then just get rid of boon strips and boon counterplay because it is worthless. Applying a boon should give you a significant advantage for a short time, and stripping it from an opponent should put them at a disadvantage for an equal amount of time.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think the solution should be the opposite. Boons are much too spammy right now. I can’t even tell you how many times i’ve stripepd off a whole line of boons from an enemy just to have them instantly reapply them.

What we need is longer boons with MUCH longer CD’s. If you can spam apply boons for 2s every 6s then just get rid of boon strips and boon counterplay because it is worthless. Applying a boon should give you a significant advantage for a short time, and stripping it from an opponent should put them at a disadvantage for an equal amount of time.

No this is wrong as well, all builds shouldn’t have to run boon removal to counter something. The actual counterplay to this for the majority of builds would be waiting till their boons run out and ganking them when it did. Boon application needs to be long enough to have an impact and be removable, short enough to not make a class unkillable or op for 30 seconds, and frequent enough to give you adequate survival over the course of a long fight. Long duration long cooldown is boring, and skilless and would turn the game into a waiting game.

The OP discussed permanent boons being bad. To some extent I agree, I don’t want to see groups running around with perma protection, perma fury, perma regen, and perma might. Having said that, some classes need a lot of boons to be even remotely tanky (ele, mes, thief(vigor)), so those classes need that. I don’t think Anet has changed enough stuff to suddenly see perma-protection in groups. The only thing that needs toning down is the stupid high aoe vigor uptime warriors are giving by simply running warhorn.

No.

I really don’t know how else to put it into words right now… other then to say I disagree with this completely.

Outside of theory crafting, no one outside of Anet and there close buddies have any idea how the Trait Changes and Specs will affect combat, let alone how Buff/Debuff gameplay will be affected.

When you start bringing in outside sources of Boons and you play well and cooperate with others, Yes, of course the group as a whole is going to empower you greatly, that kinda the point behind group-play.

Is the new system going to play well with the current “meta” of how things are done? No, not at all. You could argue that everything about HoT is designed to break the meta apart.

Using a narrow situation to validate a nerf a major aspect of the entire game that affects everyone everywhere regardless of the situation is just bad balancing.

zapv.8051:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think the solution should be the opposite. Boons are much too spammy right now. I can’t even tell you how many times i’ve stripepd off a whole line of boons from an enemy just to have them instantly reapply them.

What we need is longer boons with MUCH longer CD’s. If you can spam apply boons for 2s every 6s then just get rid of boon strips and boon counterplay because it is worthless. Applying a boon should give you a significant advantage for a short time, and stripping it from an opponent should put them at a disadvantage for an equal amount of time.

No this is wrong as well, all builds shouldn’t have to run boon removal to counter something. The actual counterplay to this for the majority of builds would be waiting till their boons run out and ganking them when it did. Boon application needs to be long enough to have an impact and be removable, short enough to not make a class unkillable or op for 30 seconds, and frequent enough to give you adequate survival over the course of a long fight. Long duration long cooldown is boring, and skilless and would turn the game into a waiting game.

The OP discussed permanent boons being bad. To some extent I agree, I don’t want to see groups running around with perma protection, perma fury, perma regen, and perma might. Having said that, some classes need a lot of boons to be even remotely tanky (ele, mes, thief(vigor)), so those classes need that. I don’t think Anet has changed enough stuff to suddenly see perma-protection in groups. The only thing that needs toning down is the stupid high aoe vigor uptime warriors are giving by simply running warhorn.

But that’s exactly the problem the current meta you never “run out of boons” because by the time one set ends the next set is off-CD. That’s why boons needs longer duration and even logner CD’s.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

But that’s exactly the problem the current meta you never “run out of boons” because by the time one set ends the next set is off-CD. That’s why boons needs longer duration and even logner CD’s.

Except that isn’t what happens for most classes, and most builds. That’s what happens for warriors warhorn, and eles. Eles need a ton of protection, and regen to stay alive as a tank, and warriors warhorn is arguably op. Outside of that who has perma anything? Again, longer boons and longer cooldowns would make the meta super stale, people would have to wait out your buffs which is boring.

An off the wall thought: what if boons’ durations half-way tied to the target’s ‘Energy Level’ i.e. how much endurance they have? Like, base-wise, you apply 3 stacks of might for 10sec and your +might duration is around 50% so that makes the might last 15sec. So…

• The target that used all his endurance and is building up to 50% (0 dodge) might have a 25% chance for the might to ‘exhaust’ at half the duration (after 7sec) that rolls every second.
• The target that has at least half his endurance and is building up to 100% (1 dodges) might have a chance for the might to ‘exhaust’ at 2/3 the duration (after 10sec) that rolls every second.
• The target who has full endurance (2 dodges) will keep his might the full duration and have a 25% chance to retain his might past its duration (after 15sec) that rolls every second. They will instantly lose any boons past their duration upon dodging.

The revenant will be getting some options for this.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banish_Enchantment

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Opportune_Extraction (Kind of not worth it, it’s like searing flames for guardian.)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spontanous_Destruction <- Big one, as this doesn’t seem to have a cooldown unless it’s tied to the cooldown of Banish Enchantment.

There’s also the new necromancer traitlines which we need to see.

Boons are fine.

A lot of boon traits are leaving or merging with HoT. Most skills that give boons have low boon duration on longer cool downs.

Ceeps.3185:

The revenant will be getting some options for this.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banish_Enchantment

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Opportune_Extraction (Kind of not worth it, it’s like searing flames for guardian.)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spontanous_Destruction <- Big one, as this doesn’t seem to have a cooldown unless it’s tied to the cooldown of Banish Enchantment.

There’s also the new necromancer traitlines which we need to see.

Banish Enchantment doesn’t have a cooldown.