Guild Wars 2

In an effort to ensure that good discussion and ideas don’t get lost, I’m going to start a thread for the proposed changes I have issue with. Hopefully, these will be congregating threads that the devs will see that stand out as opposed to ideas getting things lost in the sea of other profession stuff. It would be ideal to use the same standards/rules in this thread established in the main December patch proposal. (e.g., concise, constructive, etc…)

On to the first one: Zeal V – The proposal is that this will do damage instead of burning. The greatest impact will be when in a team situation against AOE damage, much like it would currently, but the damage would be a burst effect instead of a prolonged, removable burning condition.

This will compete with existing traits in the Adept and Master levels that are widely applicable (Fiery Wrath) or more situational but with significant effect (almost anything in Master). I assume the damage will be in the range of the existing effect damage (656 burning) or at most, a good crit (2K?).

I feel the proposed trait will still be undesirable because 1) it’s infrequent and 2) it’s reactive. In a PVE situation, it’s unlikely it will be considered over the currently popular traits because it won’t lend itself superior to Fiery Wrath, regardless of the build.

It may see some use in WvW bunker/roaming builds (not my specialty, so I won’t comment further).

My suggestion to improve the proposal:

I don’t feel that a buffed damage effect will compete with Fiery Wrath on it’s own. I understand the concept of the trait so tTo keep inline with the reactive aspect but make up for it, I would suggest that a stun be added to the proposed damage effect.

If the damage is high enough it could be a concideration for meditation burst builds, especially if it has low/no cool down. Otherwise, it has way too much competition with fiery wrath.