Mesmer Portal Fix
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It is not hyperbole to suggest to completely remove the skill. Constantly nerfing a single skill until it is so awkward as to only be viable for ferrying lazy people up jumping puzzles and pulling off large coordinated portal bombs that require a certain amount of people to roll a Mesmer rather than the class they wish to play, is NOT how the game should be balanced. Remove the kitten skill if it is that much of a problem. Not hyperbole, I am a Mesmer that loves the skill, but I honestly believe the skill should be scrapped before turning it into an annoying, clunky, bug infested monstrosity that demands certain class compositions to make the most of it in WvW.
As for the excuse that these are band aids until the real issues can be fixed. Spending all this time changing many skills in the game to account for other bugs that will be fixed, is not helping. Put those resources into fixing the initial problems. Also, changing how skills work is just going to introduce MORE bugs and imbalances.
As for the AoE cap, there is another thread on that so I’ll just be brief: if people are bad enough that they can’t figure out that they should spread out to combat AoE, then they deserve the repair bill. The 5 target cap turns turtling (a boring and completely unrealistic strategy that defies common sense) the dominant strategy. A much better solution would simply put in diminishing returns to AoE damage after it hits x amount of targets (ie: first 5 get 100% damage, next 5 get 50% damage, next 5 [etc]).
[blah]
It is not hyperbole to suggest to completely remove the skill. Constantly nerfing a single skill until it is so awkward as to only be viable for ferrying lazy people up jumping puzzles and pulling off large coordinated portal bombs that require a certain amount of people to roll a Mesmer rather than the class they wish to play, is NOT how the game should be balanced. Remove the kitten skill if it is that much of a problem. Not hyperbole, I am a Mesmer that loves the skill, but I honestly believe the skill should be scrapped before turning it into an annoying, clunky, bug infested monstrosity that demands certain class compositions to make the most of it in WvW.
Fair enough, personally I wouldn’t remove it but I can understand why people would want it removed given its history.
As for the excuse that these are band aids until the real issues can be fixed. Spending all this time changing many skills in the game to account for other bugs that will be fixed, is not helping. Put those resources into fixing the initial problems. Also, changing how skills work is just going to introduce MORE bugs and imbalances.
If Anet takes baby steps with the band-aids it won’t create more imbalances.
The time this takes to implement in comparison to the actual problem being fixed is like comparing a minute to a day. Programming is detailed but altering some basic numbers of already existing programming usually isn’t.
As for the AoE cap, there is another thread on that so I’ll just be brief: if people are bad enough that they can’t figure out that they should spread out to combat AoE, then they deserve the repair bill. The 5 target cap turns turtling (a boring and completely unrealistic strategy that defies common sense) the dominant strategy. A much better solution would simply put in diminishing returns to AoE damage after it hits x amount of targets (ie: first 5 get 100% damage, next 5 get 50% damage, next 5 [etc]).
You’d have a point here except for areas such as gates and other places where players must funnel through in order to achieve the objective which is the reason why there’s an AoE cap.
And thusly because those areas exist we’d have to resort to massing catapults before the enemy does to breach a castle/keep/tower. If the enemy with the advantage in points massed them first then the game would boil down to use the catapults to deny other catapults so your catapults don’t get destroyed.
May as well rename WvWvW to CatapultvCatapultvCatapult.
They should probably either limit the number of players it can effect just like every other offensive/defensive/utility skill in the game or they should remove the limit on other skills.
Not all skills have a player cap. Look at the skills that give people swiftness, for example. One person can supply swiftness to an infinite number of players.
Good point. It should be the same as well. Again, I lean towards all skills having the limit removed. Why did they limit it in the first place?
You’d have a point here except for areas such as gates and other places where players must funnel through in order to achieve the objective which is the reason why there’s an AoE cap.
There are numerous methods to get through chokes like this. Every class has one way or another to do it. Teleportation, invulnerability, shields vs. ranged attacks.
I don’t understand why it’s not already required to use methods like this to get through chokes. Being able to just charge through AoE, generally without taking any damage if your party is big enough, is just silly.
Judas – Kaineng
[CO] Cryptic Omen
[CO] Cryptic Omen
(edited by Judas.5432)
Why did they limit it in the first place?
2 words: choke points.
They should probably either limit the number of players it can effect just like every other offensive/defensive/utility skill in the game or they should remove the limit on other skills.
Not all skills have a player cap. Look at the skills that give people swiftness, for example. One person can supply swiftness to an infinite number of players.
Good point. It should be the same as well. Again, I lean towards all skills having the limit removed. Why did they limit it in the first place?
I’m in complete agreement with you. If 30 people are stupid enough to stand in one spot then one Elementalist should be able to wipe them out. Portal bombing would become suicide.
I woleheartedly agree – haven’t been turtling lately so I do not know how viable turtles still are but we had two inbound portal bombs yesterday close to our siege weapons (20+ enemies in each) and we wiped them before they could even scratch the siege weapons. It’s wrong to blame portals when you have (a) no clue as to how to beat a turtle (assuming people are pre-stacking boons before using the portal) and (b) are not scouting properly for the telltale ring.
PMI – Dzagonur Rallybot :)
Which in turn makes the portal bomb a highly organized, tactical event. I don’t see the problem with requiring 10 Mesmers to portal bomb with 50 players.
I take it you also wouldn’t have a problem with putting a 5 person cap on swiftness buff skills as well?
Most of them already have it. Thief has no Group Swiftness, Warrior Warhorn only affects 5 People, Ranger Call of the Wild thingy only affects 5 People, Guardian Shout only affects 5 People(The Staff affects every ally that walks through it but is stationary and so short as to be nearly negligible even with Buff Duration increase.) The Mesmer’s hits everyone that walks through it, not sure about other Swiftness gains off-hand.
However, I think Portal is much better being compared to Shadow Refuge, which IS limited to 5 people. While it does pulse several times giving a chance for more than 5 people to get stealth, Refuge is only good when the Stealth Duration stacks, otherwise it’s way too short.