A lazy hotfix would be going in and adjusting the cooldowns and casting times for a lot of the abilities and nothing more. Which would actually be an improvement to what they are doing.
Lets look at some details:
Fire Shield, the weakest aura in the game. Yet, on a 40 second cooldown.
Ride the lightning has a 40 second recharge if it doesn’t hit a target. Yet, Ancestral Grace is a 15 second cooldown, a blast finisher, heals, evades attacks AND has a bigger radius, same distance.
Life Transfer has a 40 second cooldown and damages foes. Soul Spiral has a 30 second cooldown, deals more damage, applies many stacks of poison and is a whirl combo finisher.
Tainted Shackles has a 40 second cooldown and applies ~2 seconds of immobilize and 3 stacks of torment. Executioner’s Scythe is a ~2 second stun, leaves a field of ice, applies 8 seconds of chill, deals significantly more damage and deals even more damage the lower the health the foe has.
Glue Shot, immobilizes for 1 second, cripples and is unblockable, 30 second cooldown. Thunderclap, 24 second cooldown, deals lots of damage, stuns, inflicts vulnerability, leaves a lightning field, lasts longer and has longer range.
Poison Dart Volley, a 10 second cooldown pistol shot applies poison over 5 shots. Searing Fissure is a mace AoE that burns up to 4 times, leaves behind a burning field and lasts for 3 seconds with a 4 second recharge.
Virtue of Justice, when activated it grants you allies next attack to burn. Spear of Justice has a lower cooldown, deals more damage, has better range and can pull the target to you.
Virtue of Resolve, when activated it heals allies roughly 1,500 health on a 50 second cooldown. Wings of Resolve only takes 30 seconds to recharge, heals quadruple the amount and is a leap finisher.
Virtue of Courage, when activated it grants nearby allies aegis, blocking 1 attack. Shield of Courage blocks ALL attacks from the front and sides for 5 seconds.
Illusionary Wave knocks foes back in a cone, 30 second cooldown. Tides of Time applies quickness to ALL affected allies, stuns ALL affected foes for 1 second, has bigger range, destroys projectiles and if you catch it on the return it has the same recharge as Illusionary Wave.
Phantasmal Mage burns foes with it’s attacks and gives retaliation to it’s allies. Echo of Memory is a ~2 second block, summons a phantasm, the phantasm applies slow with it’s attacks and alacity to it’s allies, plus if you block any attack you can use Deja Vu, which is the exact same skill AGAIN. Same cooldown.
Whoa, I can go on and on.
Anyone else noticing a pattern? IIIIIIIIITS POWER CREEP! Maybe the more powerful stuff should have a longer casting time and recharges :O
More than half of these changes were made from a different pvp dev team (gw1 devs) before they (left/quit) handed the reigns to a new team, the new pvp dev team introduced HoT afaik. Will old skills get a facelift? Doubtful, they almost don’t exist.