Guild Wars 2

After the change to have stun breakers also affect Launch effects, I thought it would be interesting to see a side by side comparison of the CD rate for utilities available by class.

Guardian :
60s – “Save Yourselves!”
30s – “Stand Your Ground!”
60s – Contemplation of Purity
kitten – Judge’s Intervention
——-
48.75s Average

Warrior :
25s – “Shake It Off!”
40s – Balanced Stance
60s – Endure Pain
60s – Frenzy
kitten – Stomp
——-
46s Average

Engineer :
60s – Elixir S
50s – Elixir U
40s – Utility Goggles
40s – Healing Mist
kitten – Rumble
kitten – Super Speed
——-
46.7s Average

Ranger :
40s – Lightning Reflexes
60s – “Protect Me”
60s – Quickening Zephyr
60s – Signet of Renewal
——-
55s Average

Thief :
60s – Haste
30s – Infiltrator’s Signet
60s – Roll for Initiative
50s – Shadowstep
——-
50s Average

Elementalist :
75s – Arcane Shield
90s – Armor of Earth
75s – Mist Form
kitten – Glyph of Elemental Power
30s – Signet of Air
——-
63s Average

Mesmer :
30s – Blink
40s – Decoy
kitten – Mirror Images
25s – Mantra of Concentration + Power Break
30s – Signet of Midnight
——-
34s Average

Necromancer :
40s – Summon Flesh Wurm + Necrotic Traversal
60s – Plague Signet
60s – Spectral Armor
60s – Spectral Walk
50s – Well of Power
——-
54s Average

Any reason the class with the lowest health and lowest armor has the highest cooldown rates for the life-saving stun breakers? It seems like a class whose survival is dependent on not being cc’d and caught flat-footed would have the shortest stun breaker CD rate.

Fun Fact: the Ele’s average CD for a stun breaker is higher than any other class’s longest CD.

Edit: kitten = forty-five seconds

Stability is also pretty silly on the Ele. Only non-Elite that grants it is Armour of Earth, and that’s on an oh so short 90s cooldown. Meanwhile Guardians and Warriors get Stand Your Ground and Balanced Stance, which you can see above are 30s and 40s, respectively. Frankly, there’s no logical reason that an Ele should be required to have such hefty cooldowns on the vast majority of their abilities, especially ones like stun-breakers and stability granting skills.

makes me miss pre-nerf thief:

3s – Shadow Return
trolololol
good times

anyway, yeah, ele is pretty awful at stunbreaks on demand. but we do have a stunbreak trait, which is nice (least I think it breaks stuns. I haven’t used the thing since 2012). arcane shield is the only stunbreaker I can bear to use on ele. vs thief’s AMAZING infiltrator’s signet

edit: @ above. also have a pretty nice stability trait. but traits aren’t nearly as flexible as utility skills. having to take 20 in earth isn’t viable for most builds

If you include pseudo-stunbreaks, you really start to see the discrepancy.:
Phase retreat(Mesmer): 10s, 8s traited (often is)
Shadow-return(sword-mainhand theif): no CD, used whenever necessary

I wouldn’t complain too much about stab though, b/c Rock solid is an amazing trait.

Ele stun-breaks are also either bugged (mistform, armor of earth in some cases) or pretty bad as a stun-break (glyph, even though I like the skill as an instant-cast, the stun-break does’t make much sense).

It’s because Elementalists are smarter and more skilled. They have to give other classes some advantage for the game to be balanced.

Elementalist stunbreak cooldowns are longer to make up for the Elementalists high damage compared to other classes like warrior or guardian…oh wait…

Another theory that has to be confirmed by my NSA sources is that it’s because of the “cantrip ele is too strong” whiners that could not faceroll eles with their skilled 2-2-2-1-1-1-2-2-1-1-1-2-2-1 attack chain and feared having to learn about counter mechanics. Then they came to the forum and cried a river, because it can’t be possible that you would have to use utilies or even skills beside 1 and 2 (Dodge rolling between the 1 and 2 spam was already hard enough!). Especially thieves were almost tasked way beyond their abilities when sword skill 3 was buffed to autowin vs ele. Now they had to learn the position of another key (!) because they had already forgotten that there might be skills beyond 1 and 2. It took them days and nights of ridiculus training schedule to train themselves to use 3-3-3-3-1-1-1-3-1-1-3-1-3-3-3-1 now.

Or maybe its just because ele needs to be nerfed (regardless of its current state).

A needless nerf for sure, as stuns have become even more prevalent.

I’ve fought daze warriors who late into a fight (yes they go a long time if dueling) they can straight up stun lock me and down me while I sit there and do nothing.

This to the class which is most reliant on movement, most susceptible to daze/immob.

Cheers.

Columbo.5924:

Elementalist stunbreak cooldowns are longer to make up for the Elementalists high damage compared to other classes like warrior or guardian…oh wait…

Yeah… I’m having trouble finding balance in any shape or form regarding the mechanics of the elementalist vs other classes, which is unfortunate since I’ve mained one since launch for 2K+ hours, and spent over $1,000 on gem purchases for equipment/miscellaneous support items.

You would think that after having 2 major tournaments with absolutely no elementalists participating that it would be a sign, but we are handed a “balance” patch that does nothing to revert nerfs that were uncalled for (and even further nerfs the d/d spec that I run with EA).

Needless to say, I will be suspending all gem purchases until the elementalist is given the attention it deserves.

Actually, in comparison the necro stun breaks are worse and guardian is best or warrior. 2 of the necro stun breaks have cast time so its not instant. I have retired my necro in favor of the else not just for that reason. I do agree that eles have long CD but the are useful. I think the devs do need to balance this across the board. Several classes need some help with this. If you’re like me, coming from another class that isn’t as burst and noble you can understand the frustration. Oh and as for stability church the necro. there isnt really any in utilities only elites or if you trait 30 into soul reaping. just thought I’d throw that out. I do understand where you all are coming from but its not as bad as you think.

Necros have high HP and death shroud to make up for their lack of stunbreaks and stability. The devs clearly stated they wanted to have it that that way so that necro is stronger because he is “committed” to a fight (no real way to escape once stuff goes wrong)

yes it does to some degree however if your cc’d than all it can do is eat up the damage. believe me. I have well over 1000 hours on both of my necros. that’s not just in pve. you can only tank for so long. I’d say 2 of the best classes at escaping are thief and mesmer. tbr play style of a necro is all or nothing. It wasn’t until recently that. necros had the sustain to not get stomped immediately. regardless people think having that second life pool makes up and in reality it doesn’t. you can still be cc’d while in DS and it acts like any other skill. besides I’ve seen equally tanky eles before and after patch. its all about working with what you have.

BUT GUYS WE HAVE 20 WEAPON SKILLS SO IT’S OK.

oh and tons of vigor. I had over a 1minute of vigor without trying. can we say dodge much. so its ok

SonOfKrypton.4357:

soulartistrb.7509:

you can still be cc’d while in DS

Whenever I CC a necro all they have to do it press F1 and hit #3 And my stun is useless

i coulda swore that there was a stun timer on it. but yeah the number 3 skill is insta cast and i know i’ve used it when i’ve been in DS. I’ll have to check into that because I might be wrong :o haha and i might have forgot about that.