Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I recently wrote a post about some Necro problems that exist for no reason on the Necro forums and decided I’d write a similar post about stomping and transformations in GW2 and some of their inconsistences.

As you all know, transformations (Rampage, Plague, Elixir S, “Deathshroud”) in GW2 are a little weird. As far as I can recall, you used to be unable to stomp or res while you were transformed. For example, Elixir S didn’t work (if I recall correctly), Rampage didn’t work, Deathshroud didn’t work, etc… but slowly Anet started enabling certain transformations to be able to stomp or res.

For example:
-You can now stomp/res someone while you’re using Rampage – pretty good. Gives you stability, damage reduction, extra health… and it’s on a pretty long cooldown – makes sense.
-You can stomp/res someone while using Elixir S. Fairly high cooldown on the utility and you’re immune to almost everything – makes sense.
-But… you CAN’T stomp someone while you’re in Plague form, Lich form or Tornado form. All long cooldown elite skills which are in a way the same thing as Rampage and yet you can’t stomp or res in them. Sure, there’s tricks to start the res and then use Plague, but that’s super situational… and you still can’t just walk up to a downed ally and start ressing them in those 3 transforms. Meanwhile you can do exactly that as Elixir S or Rampage. What is the reason for this inconsistency? Is it because it would be overpowered to res or stomp someone as those transforms? Hardly.

Also, another really inconsistent thing with Necro transforms is this: when you activate Spectral Walk or Spectral Armour and become a Lich, your spectral effect stays there – you gain lifeforce when you get hit – all good. You can even exit Lich form and port back to where you used spectral walk. But… when you do spectral walk or spectral armour and become Plague… suddenly your spectral effect ends – why? You don’t get any lifeforce when you get hit and you also can’t port back with Spectral Walk anymore. What’s with this inconsistency? Would it be OP to somehow keep the spectral effect as plague? Hardly…
You can even keep spectral walking/armouring while you become MOA! So why does one of our own transforms nullify two of our utility skills? If you’re using Spectral Walk or Armour with Plague… you get a really nice chunk of lifeforce (much more than you normally would). Your vitality shoots up when you become Plague, so the % lifeforce you get becomes much higher each time you get hit so when you exit Plague you’d have full lifeforce. “No that’s exactly why it’s OP!” Well… Lich gives you the same vitality boost, and the same lifeforce boost if you combine it with Spectral Walk/Armour… so there’s literally no reason for this inconsistency.

I know some people might say “Yeah but it’s more important to work on balance then fixing bugs” but I disagree. It has been 4 years. I know certain things have come a long way (stomping in Rampage/Elixir S, Necro minions not dying when you become Lich or Plague), but there’s quite a few things that still need to be polished.

I’m pretty sure you can res while MOAed as well.

Ubik.8315:

I’m pretty sure you can res while MOAed as well.

If you start the cast before, like plague

Tornado cc’s downed bodies, it would be hard to stomp with it (if you could stomp with it). Also the duration of stability after you let the transformation run out is inconsistant (not a reliable source for stability for stomping (not that its a good idea to stay so long in that transformation anyway)).

Moaing already ressing/stomping enemies wont stop them, moa just prevents people from starting to res or stomp (unless anet changed it).

santenal.1054:

Tornado cc’s downed bodies, it would be hard to stomp with it (if you could stomp with it). Also the duration of stability after you let the transformation run out is inconsistant (not a reliable source for stability for stomping (not that its a good idea to stay so long in that transformation anyway)).

Moaing already ressing/stomping enemies wont stop them, moa just prevents people from starting to res or stomp (unless anet changed it).

True, I agree that stomping would be a little funny with tornado.. unless the target is against a wall. If stomping did work in that transformation, technically you could keep pushing their downed body into a wall, and then stomp. In terms of ressing in tornado, you could keep pushing enemies off while ressing.

What do you mean by stability after leaving transformations? Some transforms let you keep stab while others don’t?

Yeah moa doesn’t stop you from ressing/stomping if that’s what you’ve already been doing when you were transformed by the Mesmer, but you still can’t walk up to a person and start ressing/stomping as a Moa – same with Plague and Lich (meanwhile, Elixir S and Rampage can easily walk up to someone and start ressing/stomping no problem…). I cri… i cri.

MethaneGas.8357:

What do you mean by stability after leaving transformations? Some transforms let you keep stab while others don’t?

It’s not that relevant to this topic but when i was trying to find a way to use tornado’s stability to stomp, my idea was to just w8 untill the transformation would end after 18s (traited elixir x) but for some strange reason the remaining stability duration is random (sometimes 3 sec other times about 1 sec). With some practice it might be possible to manually end the transformation in such a way that you end up with +2 sec stability possibly enough time to pull of a stomp (haven’t tested it yet and would probably take some practice).