Guild Wars 2

This very interesting. Apparently there new thing called barrier that is tied to vitality and healing. It appears to be a sort of added health bar.

Indeed, like Necro shroud or most of the barrier/ward mechanics in other games (like Bioware’s in recent memory).

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Barrier_

Given how much we all enjoyed the bunker meta, this frightens me.

Could be a necessary evil if the new specializations lead to more power creep.

I don’t want to buy cancer drugs from the doc that gave me cancer.

From what I understand, it’s an additional health bar that’ll eat damage (condi or direct) but it has a really fast decay rate ! Seemingly, you’ll have to raise barrier just before the nuke for full effectiveness. You can’t just stack it at spawn.

I think it’s biggest use will be against typical PvE mobs with an endless amount of HP, and a huge insta-kill attack with a nice readable animation so that players know they have to use their barrier. I don’t think it’ll be that useful against a thief burst, for example.

ThomasC.1056:

From what I understand, it’s an additional health bar that’ll eat damage (condi or direct) but it has a really fast decay rate ! Seemingly, you’ll have to raise barrier just before the nuke for full effectiveness. You can’t just stack it at spawn.

I think it’s biggest use will be against typical PvE mobs with an endless amount of HP, and a huge insta-kill attack with a nice readable animation so that players know they have to use their barrier. I don’t think it’ll be that useful against a thief burst, for example.

Yes, it was hard to get a read as to how it would work from the video but with thief as example, you MIGHT be able to throw it up after you see a thief stealth to setup a backstab. Hard to say but as per the video it going into at least some core traitlines.

I think it’s biggest use will be against typical PvE mobs

Will also see a lot of use in trains. Pushing with an extra 5~10k+ HP (max of +50% HP) is going to be fairly useful.

Notice how in the video he says it’s for some specs? Ie it’s an OP mechanic made only for PoF elites to make them considerably stronger than HoT elites, in order to make people buy the exp pack. Wouldnt surprise me either if these elites can support other PoF elites by adding it via AoE.

Yes, it’s probably as simple as that.

Imagine fighting a berserker warrior with an eqvivalent of 35K hp or so and adrenal health + healing signet.

Also I’m guessing this “over-health” cant be added to via normal heals (ie GW2/HoT build skills) or it would make some classes hugely OP. Imagine a full vitality ele healbot. What could we reach? 30k hp? 40k?!

Dawdler.8521:

Notice how in the video he says it’s for some specs? Ie it’s an OP mechanic made only for PoF elites to make them considerably stronger than HoT elites, in order to make people buy the exp pack. Wouldnt surprise me either if these elites can support other PoF elites by adding it via AoE.
Yes, it’s probably as simple as that.
Imagine fighting a berserker warrior with an eqvivalent of 35K hp or so and adrenal health + healing signet.
Also I’m guessing this “over-health” cant be added to via normal heals (ie GW2/HoT build skills) or it would make some classes hugely OP. Imagine a full vitality ele healbot, the kind that can already go 0-100 hp in 3 seconds. What could we reach? 30k hp? 40k?!.

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

Dawdler.8521:

Notice how in the video he says it’s for some specs? Ie it’s an OP mechanic made only for PoF elites to make them considerably stronger than HoT elites, in order to make people buy the exp pack. Wouldnt surprise me either if these elites can support other PoF elites by adding it via AoE.

Yes, it’s probably as simple as that.

Imagine fighting a berserker warrior with an eqvivalent of 35K hp or so and adrenal health + healing signet.

No . he mentioned it was going into at least some core traits. In other words POF not needed.

Sigmoid.7082:

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

… then what about supported by 25 of them, which is the most likely scenario in WvW?

The biggest figure I saw on video was around 6500 HP and it began decaying (really fast pace) after 1 or 2 seconds. And it was a single skill. You’ll need quite a bunch of barrier-giving zerglings with a nice team coordination to keep things up. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it won’t be that easy.

Honestly, I have no clue how that’ll eventually work, what the figures will be, decay rate etc. But I’m trying to be a bit optimistic… Maybe I’m wrong though.

If I remember right, EQ2 has/had this mechanic, where a shield would increase in size over your health bar, and some skills would temporarily add to the shield bar and overhealing would also add another base amount to that shield. It was another way of making mobs and characters stronger so that lower level/geared characters couldn’t fight the same mobs as easily as an appropriately leveled and geared character could. It enticed people to work on beefing up their armor and core stats, spending ingame and real money in the process in order to combat the power creep.

Dawdler.8521:

Sigmoid.7082:

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

… then what about supported by 25 of them, which is the most likely scenario in WvW?

then 5 targets per cast mechanics screws you over as it does with any boons that are not spammable by pretty much everyone in yer comp in large numbers…..

In dungeons and dragons its called temporary HP, or ‘temps’ for short. =p
I think its a fine form of defense so long as its appropriately balanced. Its sort of like what necromancers have right now, just another way to go about it.

~ Kovu

Lord Trejgon.2809:

Dawdler.8521:

Sigmoid.7082:

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

… then what about supported by 25 of them, which is the most likely scenario in WvW?

then 5 targets per cast mechanics screws you over as it does with any boons that are not spammable by pretty much everyone in yer comp in large numbers…..

I believe scourge has a trait or something where they get to summon a bigger soul thingy that affects upto 10 players so can extend the barrier coverage to 10.

Theres a lot of things changing in PoF like stances and mantras are getting a shake up which is likely to extend to core abilities too. From what I hear ele gets barrier soon on earth.

apharma.3741:

Lord Trejgon.2809:

Dawdler.8521:

Sigmoid.7082:

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

… then what about supported by 25 of them, which is the most likely scenario in WvW?

then 5 targets per cast mechanics screws you over as it does with any boons that are not spammable by pretty much everyone in yer comp in large numbers…..

I believe scourge has a trait or something where they get to summon a bigger soul thingy that affects upto 10 players so can extend the barrier coverage to 10.

Theres a lot of things changing in PoF like stances and mantras are getting a shake up which is likely to extend to core abilities too. From what I hear ele gets barrier soon on earth.

well 10 targets affected per cast only push out the issue into a problem of greater player numbers in the zerg – for as long as pretty much every player in you zerg can efficiently spam barriers I just can’t see it being anyhow gamebreaking for this aspect of the game.

on the other hand the smaller scale engagements can actually see a benefit from it where the number of combatants is small enought for a such supporting scourge or whoever with barriers to be abel to keep track of the movements of enemies to the point of being able to predict the spikes – in such case it could be actually used to nullify a decent portion of enemy spike damage which on teh othe hand could actually turn the tide

but in zergs? the best I can see they could try would be attempt of elevate as much barriers as possible when going into enemy zerg or when enemy zerg is going into you – and then unless meta shifted extremely from the last point I have participied in organised zergs it would not be really a tideshifting tool at all

Lord Trejgon.2809:

apharma.3741:

Lord Trejgon.2809:

Dawdler.8521:

Sigmoid.7082:

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

… then what about supported by 25 of them, which is the most likely scenario in WvW?

then 5 targets per cast mechanics screws you over as it does with any boons that are not spammable by pretty much everyone in yer comp in large numbers…..

I believe scourge has a trait or something where they get to summon a bigger soul thingy that affects upto 10 players so can extend the barrier coverage to 10.

Theres a lot of things changing in PoF like stances and mantras are getting a shake up which is likely to extend to core abilities too. From what I hear ele gets barrier soon on earth.

well 10 targets affected per cast only push out the issue into a problem of greater player numbers in the zerg – for as long as pretty much every player in you zerg can efficiently spam barriers I just can’t see it being anyhow gamebreaking for this aspect of the game.

on the other hand the smaller scale engagements can actually see a benefit from it where the number of combatants is small enought for a such supporting scourge or whoever with barriers to be abel to keep track of the movements of enemies to the point of being able to predict the spikes – in such case it could be actually used to nullify a decent portion of enemy spike damage which on teh othe hand could actually turn the tide

but in zergs? the best I can see they could try would be attempt of elevate as much barriers as possible when going into enemy zerg or when enemy zerg is going into you – and then unless meta shifted extremely from the last point I have participied in organised zergs it would not be really a tideshifting tool at all

I dunno how it’ll play out, we will have to wait and see to be honest, could make zergs tankier or it might be unworkable because the summon gets killed too easily. It might cost too much damage or utility to run, there’s a lot of speculation to be had. It may even provide little real benefit over current comps so many won’t run it because they don’t want to regear.

apharma.3741:

Lord Trejgon.2809:

apharma.3741:

Lord Trejgon.2809:

Dawdler.8521:

Sigmoid.7082:

The only elite spec that provides a meaningful amount of barrier is scourge. Your examples are likely impossible unless you’re being supported by one.

… then what about supported by 25 of them, which is the most likely scenario in WvW?

then 5 targets per cast mechanics screws you over as it does with any boons that are not spammable by pretty much everyone in yer comp in large numbers…..

I believe scourge has a trait or something where they get to summon a bigger soul thingy that affects upto 10 players so can extend the barrier coverage to 10.

Theres a lot of things changing in PoF like stances and mantras are getting a shake up which is likely to extend to core abilities too. From what I hear ele gets barrier soon on earth.

well 10 targets affected per cast only push out the issue into a problem of greater player numbers in the zerg – for as long as pretty much every player in you zerg can efficiently spam barriers I just can’t see it being anyhow gamebreaking for this aspect of the game.

on the other hand the smaller scale engagements can actually see a benefit from it where the number of combatants is small enought for a such supporting scourge or whoever with barriers to be abel to keep track of the movements of enemies to the point of being able to predict the spikes – in such case it could be actually used to nullify a decent portion of enemy spike damage which on teh othe hand could actually turn the tide

but in zergs? the best I can see they could try would be attempt of elevate as much barriers as possible when going into enemy zerg or when enemy zerg is going into you – and then unless meta shifted extremely from the last point I have participied in organised zergs it would not be really a tideshifting tool at all

I dunno how it’ll play out, we will have to wait and see to be honest, could make zergs tankier or it might be unworkable because the summon gets killed too easily. It might cost too much damage or utility to run, there’s a lot of speculation to be had. It may even provide little real benefit over current comps so many won’t run it because they don’t want to regear.

indeed

What’s embarrassing is that on day of reveal I asked in team chat if anyone knew if it scaled with a Stat and I got “nobody knows” type answers and people saying no. When I asked if anyone knew for certain I got called bad names and hate whispers lol.

Barrier:

1. Has a max value of 50% of your maximum health. Absolutely zero chance of seeing a 30k barrier on anyone.

2. Scales with the supplier’s Healing Power. Exact amount unknown, but it varies with each skill/trait.

3. Starts to decay rapidly after 2 seconds. Applying more Barrier will reset this timer.

Also, Scourge’s Sand Shades can’t be killed. They are immobile, though, and do not have an attack of their own.

we all protoss now

Hmm. I only watched the initial ~8 mins of the vid but looks like it’s a very preemptive, as WP put it generally, thing that I can see guilds using on engaging the enemy.

In terms of PvP… I genuinely hope we’re not going back to bunker meta..

TF2 has overhealing and Overwatch has Lucio ult that provides additional health that decays.

Me gusto.

Sovereign.1093:

we all protoss now

LOLOLOLOL. I was saying that to my guildies.

So excess healing has some use eh.

Protoss tech is the best way to fight zergs.

~ Kovu