gerdian
The Celestial Meta - It hurts.
Yet I have pvped a lot in the 7 years of gw 1 and enough in GW 2 already. The pvp we have here is not really much different than say, alliance battles or JQ and FA.
A totally new player is going to fare worse with a cookie cutter build than say a player that has experience in two gw games spanning 10+years total using one and further more will fare worse than a player that doesn’t use said builds and learns to counter them with his own made up ones.
I am aiming to be the last of these three, the one that makes their own builds to beat all others.
Yumiko Emi Ishida 80 Ele, Hikari Kyoko Ishida 80 Guard TC-NA. Active RPer of NA megaserver.
Part 1 of buffs/adjustments:
Alrighty, going to continue on with Adjustments/buffs for professions in area’s I think they need it. It’s going to take forever to discuss runes/sigils/amulets so unfortunately, i’ll leave them as they are aside from the nerfs I suggested earlier. Here goes:
Warrior-
Whirling Axe: Now Blocks or Reflects projectiles
Ranger
Predator’s Onslaught: Expand this to include more conditions(bleeding at least).
Beastmaster’s Might: Increase might-stacks from 3-5 stacks.
Strider’s Defense: Change to reflecting a projectile every 10 seconds while wielding a melee weapon
Honed Axes: Give a 5% dmg bonus as well as the ferocity bonus.
Carnivorous appetite: Expand this to the ranger but put it on a 5 second ICD.
Companion’s Might: Increase might duration from 5-7 seconds.
Nature’s Voice: Add Fury as well as Regen/Swiftness, Increase range to 600.
Nature’s Protection: Add Swiftness as well for 5 seconds.
Two-handed training: Change it from 50% chance on crit to 100%.
Invigorating Bond: Increase range to 600, reduce ICD to 10 seconds.
Vigorous Training: Increase Vigor from 5 to 7 seconds.
Necromancer
Parasitic Contagion: Increase from 5% to 8%.
Spiteful Marks: Increase dmg % from 10 to 15%.
Spiteful Spirit: Increase duration of Retal from 3 to 5 seconds.
Siphoned Power: Change to activate at 50% and add 3 stacks for 10 seconds.
Death into Life: Increase Healing power gained from 7 to 10%
Focused Rituals: Increase skill range to 1200 and reduce the cd on wells by 20%.
Weakened Shroud: Increase Weakness duration from 2 to 4 seconds.
Target the weak: Change to be a 10% dmg increase but it doesn’t scale with the # of conditions on your opponent.(flat increase).
Unholy Sanctuary: Increase healing to 250, reduce ICD to 10 seconds.
Shrouded Removal: Change to 2 conditions removed when entering DS
Ritual Protection: Increase from 3 to 5 second protection access.
Vampiric Rituals: Increase healing from 50 to 300 per pulse. Extends to group-members.
Ritual Mastery: Roll that into focused Rituals.
Vampiric precision: Increase healing to 100 per crit.
Renewing Blast: Increase healing to 500(also, make change life-blast to have a bit of a cone affect, reduce the dmg appropriately)
Soul Marks: Increase to 5% ds generated upon hit.
Well of Darkness: Reduce cd to 35 seconds.
Well of Power: Reduce cd to 40 seconds.
Signet of the Locust: Reduce cd to 40 seconds, Increase healing to 1500.
Blood is Power: Increase might duration to 15 seconds.
Corrosive poison cloud: Reduce cd to 20 seconds, Increase weakness and poison duration to 5 seconds.
Thief
Body Shot: Increase Immobilization duration to 2, increase initiative needed to 5.
Cloak and Dagger: Reduce initiative to 4.
Sundering Strikes: Change chance to apply from 50 to 100%.
Venomous Strength: Increase stacks to 4
Corrosive traps: Increase duration to 10 seconds.
Opportunist: Change chance to trigger from 50 to 100%
Invigorating precision: Increase from 8 to 12% for healing gained.
Signets of Power: Increase duration to 15 seconds.
Power shots: Increase dmg to 10%
Assassin’s Equilibrium: Increase stability duration to 2.5 seconds.
Assassin’s Reward: Increase healing to 100.
(edited by Arken.3725)
Part 2 of adjustments/buffs:
Mesmer
Empowering Mantras: Increase to 7% dmg bonus.
Greatsword Training: Change to 5% dmg bonus
Wastrel’s Punishment: Increase to 10%
Dazzling: Increase duration to 10 seconds.
Blade Training: Change to 100 precision
Bountiful Disillusionment: Increase might-stack to 5, retal and regen duration to 10 seconds. Applies to allies in an AoE at a range of 240.
Cleansing Inscriptions: Removes 3 conditions upon activation
Disruptor’s Sustainment: Aside from the HP bonus, heal nearby allies for a base of 500(not including the extra HP from this trait or others/amulets/ect.) Range of 600. Scales with HP
Restorative Illusions: Increase tiers to 1000/1250/1500 respectively as well as expanding to allies. Range 600
Mender purity: Increase to 3 conditions removed.(This is before the actual heal triggers)
Dazzling Glamors: Increase duration to 5 seconds.
Blinding Befuddlement: Increase duration to 5 seconds.
Shattered Strength: Increase duration to 15, this now also applies to allies within a 240 radius.
Guardian
Wrathful strike: Either increase duration to 10 seconds or remove it and increase the scaling slightly.
Whirling Wrath: Remove the projectiles, increase the base dmg/scaling.
Symbol of Protection(hammer 3): Reduce the cast time to either 3/4 or 1 second.
Zealots embrace: Change it so the chains track its target.
Banish: Reduce the cd to 15 seconds and cast-time to 1/2.
Faithful Strike: Reduce the cast time to 3/4 second, allow for cleaving and increase the healing slightly.
Protectors Strike: Change to apply protection IF you get hit and retaliate.
Orb of Wrath: Increase the speed to match up with trick shot, increase the cast-time to 1/2 second.
Chains of Light: Reduce cd to 15 seconds.
Sword wave: Change from a projectile/poke to a regular swing.
Zealot’s Defense: Allow blades to track your opponent and reflect projectiles.
Ray of Judgement: Increase velocity slightly.
Shield of Judgement: Reduce cd to 25 seconds, revert protection back to the 5 second duration.
Shield of Absorption: Allow for the Guardian to forfeit the heal, remain inside the bubble to maintain protection while performing actions.
Cleansing Flame: Increase cd to 20 seconds, allow it to cleanse conditions on the Guardian as well.
Merciful intervention: Allow this to shadow-step anywhere.
Sanctuary: Increase radius to 180.
Renewed Focus: Reduce cd to 75 seconds.
Kindled Zeal: Change from Condition dmg to toughness and increase to 15%
Zealous Blade: Remove dmg bonus, increase healing gained to 200 but remove the ability for it to trigger on more than 1 foe.
Focus Mastery: Increase the blocks to 5 as well as the cd reduction.
Shattered Aegis: Revert this back to burning application.
Perfect Inscriptions: Increase to 40%.
Inscribed Removal: increase to 2 conditions removed.
Searing Flames: Increase icd to 20 seconds but steals one boon instead of removing it.
Inner Fire: Increase fury duration to 5 seconds.
Glacial Hammer: Add a 5% dmg bonus
Focused Mind: Remove the group application, Increase duration to 7 seconds.
Valorous Defense: Change to apply protection to the guardian when receiving a critical hit on a 15 second cd that lasts 2-3 seconds.
Force of Will: Change to increase toughness as well as vitality.
Battle Presence: Allow for Virtue of Resolve to keep its passive upon activation as well as apply it to party-members.
Empowering Might: Increase duration to 7 seconds.
Merge Protective Reviver and Resolute healer:
Wrathful Spirit: Increase to 5 seconds.
Purity of Body: Increase to 25%
Shielded mind to merge with indomitable courage.
Permeating Wrath: Change to apply the aoe burning to your opponent, not you.
Retaliatory subconsciousness: Reduce ICD to 15 seconds and change it to apply Regeneration.
Absolute Resolution: Increase the passive heal to 200.
Quick note
Merge all downed/revived traits with existing traits. Symbols need to be more effective in what they do(maybe remove conditions/boons if traited?)
I’m sure I missed a few but I think I covered quite a few, let me know what you guys think. Also, as someone who mains Guardian, I tried to be as unbiased as I could so let me know if you spot anything over-the-top that is mentioned in any section.
(edited by Arken.3725)
Overcharged Shot: Again, instant-cced skills need to go. Give this a 1/2-3/4 cast time.
Warhorn: Increase the cd’s to 20 and 25 respectively. The amount of condition-removal on-top of it’s low cd makes this off-hand a tiny bit too strong in that department.(As well as 1 being a blast finisher)
Neither of these are good suggestions….
1) As engineer you have to buff check before using the skill. It is not a brainless skill. Besides Rangers basically have the same instant knockback without CC’ing themselves. You can argue the .5s timer on it. But still there’s no penalty for using it like OS.
2) Reducing condi removal on classes is the step in the wrong direction.Sorry bro, i’m not budging one the 1st on because you believe it not to be mindless. It has a very short cd, is instant and does exactly what you want it to do for any ranged spec…push you back. It needs a cast-time. I’m not saying it’s completely brainless but by no means is it balanced. Oh also, your argument leads to no credibility since the ranger skill HAS a tell and cast-time.
Edit: On the 2nd, the Warrior now has more consistent condition-removal than a Guardian. Granted you don’t see the dmg output of Elementalist’s and Engineer’s, they still have the insane amount of sustain/condition removal/burst healing/mobility and Might-stacking.
On OS… It may be instant cast, but you refuse to look at the fact that what comes after the OS is not instant because you’re on your back briefly. If I’m within 400 range of you there’s only two rifle skills I’m looking to really use on you, Blunderbuss and OS. If there weren’t a limited range on OS like the Ranger’s knockback I might agree with you.
The problem isn’t condi removal with warrior. Condi removal should be left alone on classes that have it, because condi metas just are in general two steps lower than the current meta. Look at WvW for instance.
The real problem with Warrior is the LB. It CC’s, blinds, removes condis whether you hit or not, has fire fields, etc. They should fix Cleansing Ire and LB working together without hitting enemies.
If I were to touch on something probably too powerful on warrior it is that you can have 5 stun breaks a minute if you want to, and 4 with the shout warrior build with Shake It Off being 20s stun break, and Balanced Stance every 40s.
(edited by SobeSoul.6910)
That is fair and as I stated above, cleansing Ire with LB need to be adjusted. The fix I mentioned earlier would certainly help but do nothing for the might-stacking.
The real problem with Warrior is the LB. It CC’s, blinds, removes condis whether you hit or not, has fire fields, etc. They should fix Cleansing Ire and LB working together without hitting enemies.
for the last time!
the warrior long bow combustive shot is fine.
adrenaline was already butchered and you guys are asking for more unreasonable nerfs? please be fair okay?
like i said earlier, if you want to deny long bow combustive shot, activate your blocks and stand in the epic center where combustive shot lands exactly. the fire field will NEVER be activated at all.
combustive shot activating cleansing ire most of the time is working as intended, GET OVER IT already!
If I were to touch on something probably two powerful on warrior it is that you can have 5 stun breaks a minute if you want to, and 4 with the shout warrior build with Shake It Off being 20s stun break, and Balanced Stance every 40s.
sure, after all those stun breaks, the warrior will be dead anyway.
That is fair and as I stated above, cleansing Ire with LB need to be adjusted. The fix I mentioned earlier would certainly help but do nothing for the might-stacking.
NO! the changes you mentioned are NOT FAIR at all!
cleansing ire and combustive shot are completely fine.
the counter for it exist, just that people in general are not bothered to use it.
warrior’s adrenaline has already been butchered.
this the last straw.
if any professions needs adjustments, that would be engineers or elementalists.
The real problem with Warrior is the LB. It CC’s, blinds, removes condis whether you hit or not, has fire fields, etc. They should fix Cleansing Ire and LB working together without hitting enemies.
for the last time!
the warrior long bow combustive shot is fine.adrenaline was already butchered and you guys are asking for more unreasonable nerfs? please be fair okay?
like i said earlier, if you want to deny long bow combustive shot, activate your blocks and stand in the epic center where combustive shot lands exactly. the fire field will NEVER be activated at all.
combustive shot activating cleansing ire most of the time is working as intended, GET OVER IT already!
If I were to touch on something probably two powerful on warrior it is that you can have 5 stun breaks a minute if you want to, and 4 with the shout warrior build with Shake It Off being 20s stun break, and Balanced Stance every 40s.
sure, after all those stun breaks, the warrior will be dead anyway.
LB needs to be changed where you have to land CS to clear condis just like hammer or any other weapon set.
That is fair and as I stated above, cleansing Ire with LB need to be adjusted. The fix I mentioned earlier would certainly help but do nothing for the might-stacking.
Oh, I also think that Guardians probably need some love over other classes needing to be nerfed.
The real problem with Warrior is the LB. It CC’s, blinds, removes condis whether you hit or not, has fire fields, etc. They should fix Cleansing Ire and LB working together without hitting enemies.
for the last time!
the warrior long bow combustive shot is fine.adrenaline was already butchered and you guys are asking for more unreasonable nerfs? please be fair okay?
like i said earlier, if you want to deny long bow combustive shot, activate your blocks and stand in the epic center where combustive shot lands exactly. the fire field will NEVER be activated at all.
combustive shot activating cleansing ire most of the time is working as intended, GET OVER IT already!
If I were to touch on something probably two powerful on warrior it is that you can have 5 stun breaks a minute if you want to, and 4 with the shout warrior build with Shake It Off being 20s stun break, and Balanced Stance every 40s.
sure, after all those stun breaks, the warrior will be dead anyway.
LB needs to be changed where you have to land CS to clear condis just like hammer or any other weapon set.
i’ll say it again.
combustive shot is FINE and does NOT needs to be changed, ever.
the damage has already been unreasonably adjusted lower than the original figure, no more adjustment is needed.
and for your information, combustive shot creates a fire field, starting at the epic center, and that COUNTS as LANDING combustive shot, thus trigger cleansing ire.
if you BLOCK combustive shot right at the center, the fire field will NEVER be activated.
just get good and block the combustive shot.
and for your quick reference:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combustive_Shot
“Ignite target area, burning nearby foes. Effect increases with adrenaline level.”
can you read?
IGNITE target area.
combustive shot is working as intended.
please, stop asking for ridiculous nerfs already.
oh, if you still want to argue, look at cleansing ire.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Ire
“Gain adrenaline when hit. Remove a condition for every bar of adrenaline spent when you hit with a burst skill.”
ignite target area = hit with a burst skill
if you wanna stop cleansing ire from combustive shot, BLOCK the combustive shot
now quit complaining already.
I mained a warrior for a long time. I do not need to look at that. That weapon and skill is not consistent with the change.
“Remove a condition for every bar of adrenaline spent when you hit with a burst skill.”
If you hit the floor with CS and there’s no one around you still remove condis. It’s not working as intended.
read “Ignite target area" so yes i hit the floor with a burst skill.
it is working as intended, so just drop it already.
Guard stuff!
I agree with a lot of those changes. Most are just small QoL things, and would help greatly. However, there are a few that I believe would cause overperformance issues:
Reducing the CD on RF isn’t really needed, also this would also put med build at a 60 second CD.
Merging Resolute Healer and Protective Reviver is a bit much. PR is a very strong trait, it’s base 10 seconds of aegis, protection, and regen (with no CD). The only reason you don’t see it that much is, the knockback from RH is generally a safer play. If they were to get merged, they would definitely need to reduce the boon duration on it.
Merging Indomitable Courage and Shielded Mind could cause issues. That’s essentially another SYG, but it would have a group stunbreak instead. That would definitely have to be a grandmaster trait if they merged them.
Guardian WvW Guide!
Heavens Rage
Heavens Rage
Whirling Axe is actually stupidly strong ATM. There’s a real simple trick around off-hand axe in general too.
Also off-hand Axe deals with blind spam AND it baits out dodges very well. Not to mention it cleaves 5 people.
I would say no because I don’t want DPS Warrior to be as braindead as Mesmer or Ranger in general and be x10 stronger. That Whirling Axe buff that Arken suggested could make it stupidly strong.
(edited by Amir.1570)
I can only agree that if GW2 wants to achieve something in the competitive scene, it needs to be exciting to watch. – GW2 is simply not right now.
“Well. I love watching it. It’s just personal preference, how can you say that it’s not exciting?”
Very simple. I just look at the views on twitch to see how many people are interested. And the number is decreasing.
However, the problem is not only the celestial meta. I don’t like this meta either, since imo it does not promote teamfights/team-interaction but rather a lot of small duels around the map. Scattering all the fights like this is also very difficult to track as a shoutcaster, hence getting bad footage for viewers.
That said; We also gotta realize that GW2 has never been exciting to watch.
This is despite the fact, that the game is one of the mechanically smoothest games out. It has decent graphics and a reasonable price. So what is wrong?
Every single meta we’ve had has lacked “big plays”. The closest I can think of are Lord Rushes and some “Mass Invisibility” bursts back in the Team Paradigm days.
Simply changing the meta won’t help the game. People will stop whining for a few days, and then the circle will continue.
A lot of skills needs reworking to be active/interaction based rather than instacasts with no visible effect like “Shouts”, “Stances” etc.
A good place would be to start with Elite Skills, and then move on to utilities.
When you introduced the new healing skills, it was a step in the right direction.
Defiant Stance and Litany of Wrath are much more exciting than “Healing Signet” and “Shelter” which are skills with no counter-play. They are simply ALWAYS working.
But since the new healing skills were not used because they were inferior to the “always working” passive skills, you strayed from that path, which imo is a bad decision.
Shifting the game, rather than the meta takes time, you gotta believe it and stick with it.
TLDR; Problem with GW2’s success is not the meta alone. Changing it won’t help the game achieve a place in the competitive scene.
Lysis Kawahara – D/D Elementalist
Zaphiel Faires – DPS Guardian
Zaphiel Faires – DPS Guardian
(edited by KrisHQ.4719)
Would it better if the meta was zerk?..where fights would end in 2 seconds?.. where thief and mesmer pops out of nowhere and 2 shots someone off screen that the shoutcasters can’t even place their camera on them before the fight ends?..
It doesn’t matter what meta in this game, its gonna be ridiculously boring to watch either way, there is already lack of big plays even between the so called “high skillcapped specs” like d/p thief or whatevers, alot of the issue has to do with the way the skill system is setup and how visual unappealing and how the tells are so miniscule unless you were staring at your screen with your eye balls touching, you can’t see kitten.