On the January 26 update, the following changes were made to the game.
“Finish Them” Finishers: The stomping effect will no longer be time-scaled through effects like quickness and slow.
Reviving: Reviving characters will no longer be affected by time-scaled effects like quickness and slow.
I believe that these changes were done for 2 reasons.
1. Direct response to the famous chronobunker stacking that occurred in S1.
2. a visual bug would occurred between the char and the stomping animation, a
“desync”.
Let’s discuss #2 first.
Stomping takes about 3 seconds. I have several older youtube videos of using time warp to stomp 2 players within TW’s 10 second period and there never is any desyncing.
The desync’g bug occurs when the quickness duration is less than the 3 seconds stomp cast. Or when “slow” gets applied in the middle of the stomping cast.
For example, Chronomancer have a GM trait that grants them quickness when they shatter based on how many illusions. So it was very common for Chrono’s to “start the stomp” and then shatter getting 1-2 seconds of quickness. This would result in the “desync”. Also, Well of Action applies quickness and could be cast a teammate mid stomp/rez which would then “desync”.
On the other side, was Revenants down state abilities. Essence Sap applies 1 second slow. So the stomper would receive 1 sec slows in the middle of cast.
What is interesting is that Time Warp has enabled quickness stomping/rez’g since the beginning and there never was any issue of desync’g. Only when “slow” was added as a new condition as part of June 2016 patch and the addtion of HOT new traits and skills did the “desync’g” make an appearance.
Now, let’s discuss reason #1.
We all know season 1 was very embarrassing to say the least. In October, HOT was released bringing new Elite’s and a new profession. Lots of additional skills, traits and abilities were added. 6 weeks later, season 1 started and NO BALANCE PATCH. It was a recipe for disaster.
Yes, Chronobunker was very strong bunker. There were other stronger bunkers (and still are) in the game. The reason Chronobunker was chosen over all other bunkers was the quickness rez/stomp. The combination of a strong bunker AND quick rez/stomping is just too good a fit for conquest game mode.
Please remember, Chronobunker was not the ONLY class that was getting stacked. Revenant also shared the limelight. Chronobunker was strong, but it couldn’t kill anything. So Chronobunker was there to hold a point and keep the Revenant up.
Since then Chrono and Rev’s have seen the majority of nerfs. Chrono took some huge hits and Mesmer along with it. Chrono is not even close to the bunker it once was.
ESL has also implement rules to limit class stacking in its tournament.
Thus, the changes to quickness/slow affecting stomp/rez’g should be reverted.
Really it comes down to this. How can ANet single out a specific boon/condition when it comes down to the downstate? How is that justified?
Ranger can use a pet to speed his rez or finish a down player while he’s on the other side of the map. Not too mention, Search and Rescue, can teleport a down player (no LOS) and speed up rez.
Stealth allows players to go invisible to down/stomp a player. Other professions have easy access to “Stabilty” to rez/stomp a player. While others have mulitple CC, chill, fear, etc. Other profession have high damaging traps, wells, and AOE’s to finish a player or prevent a stomp.
Why single out a specific condition/boon/ability, but not all the others? Either balance around ALL abilities, or remove the downed state from sPvP.
