Guild Wars 2

As you can probably tell by the title this is about the new Dragonhunter longbow skill “Symbol of Energy”

It appears to do nice damage, thats good.
It burns on every pulse, Most of us wish all symbols did this.

It grants 1 second of vigor on each pulse.

The last part is where it stops making sense.

Giving vigor to allies is great, but if they have to stand still for 4 seconds (6 with traits) to get the most use out of it then doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose ?

It would be much better off if it gave something like retaliation or protection.

Then make something else for the guardian to give allies vigor with, something that doesn’t require they stand in place.

You can dodge in traited marks also you don’t have to dodge if you have a low amount of endurance, just recharge.

Its the same issue with all symbols, they should give the full amount of boons when placed instead on pulses.

This would solve a lot of issues like:
Staff and the need/ability to stack swiftness when stationary but loose swiftness when just moving thru the symbol.

It would increase support capabilities for both mace and hammer while reducing the effect from AH which can be silly if you know what you are doing.

I agree with OP, thi should be fixed but not only for SoE but also for te rest of the symbols.

First damage pulse (not when placed) should give all the boons.

And all symbols should deal burning damage., not just SoE.

I don’t think Symbol of Energy burns with each pulse, I believe it just burns once on the initial start of the skill. Although the Grandmaster minor trait in Zeal does give all symbols a chance to burn enemies per pulse.

As for needing to stand still to get Vigor…. I don’t see a problem with it personally. Its only AFTER you dodge that you need Vigor in the first place. So you dodge once or twice, then throw down the symbol and replenish your energy in preparation for the next dodge you need. Or dodge into the Symbol if someone else puts it down.

There are already symbols that give Retal (Greatsword) and Protection (Hammer), and at least at this point it seems they want to avoid doubling up on any symbol. I mean, eventually they’re going to have to double up if they keep adding weapons with symbols, or at least start doing offensive boons instead of just defensive ones, but right now they still have enough to keep it 1 type of boon per symbol, and even in the future they’ve got Stability and now Resistance that they could potentially use for defensive Symbols, so that’s a ways off.

1-time application is a massive suggested buff to symbols.

The tradeoff of symbols has always been (on both sides) that you need to stay in them to get the benefit.