Guild Wars 2

Been a year since Scepter was finally cemented as a (intuitive) condi weapon… Staff seems overdue.

Just needs some condition damage scaling on #3 so that it’s a fun button for all builds. Examples:

• short torment, burn, or bleed stack per existing condition
• existing conditions have their duration increased by 1 second
• Chaotic Dampening trait makes Warlock damage instead scale off of condition damage stat

Thoughts?

ttyl.6021:

• Chaotic Dampening trait makes Warlock damage instead scale off of condition damage stat

Yes please! I would even be ok if the took out the protection on chaos armor and kept the crappy CD recharge with this change! Assuming they MUST slap this to a trait instead of making it baseline like it should be imo.

Condition duration increase for existing conditions on the target would definitely be my choice for buffing Warlock. It’d be unique and effective without taking the skill in a completely different direction (like the 3rd change would do).

1 second seems pretty lacking, though. Granted, you can stack multiple Warlocks for a more substancial increase, but even then, a 3 second increase every 6 seconds seems pretty lacking, especially since if you do that you’re losing your ability to stack the normal Staff illusions to apply more conditions in the first place (and hindering your ability to shatter).

Zintrothen.1056:

ttyl.6021:

• Chaotic Dampening trait makes Warlock damage instead scale off of condition damage stat

Yes please! I would even be ok if the took out the protection on chaos armor and kept the crappy CD recharge with this change! Assuming they MUST slap this to a trait instead of making it baseline like it should be imo.

The protection on chaos armor is an excellent tool in many builds.

Staff is not “only” a condi weapon, it is more of a utility/support/defensive weapon, like for example the staff on necromancer. Many power builds use it (e.g. double ranged shatter), most defensive builds use it.

• When cast iWarlock summons iMiniwarlock

• When summoned iMiniwarlock summons iMiniminiwarlock

• When summoned iMiniminiwarlock summons iMiniminiminiwarlock

and so on and so forth.

That is all.

iWarlock attack doubles the duration of all conditions currently on target. Self-synergy

It’s like necro scepter #3 and most of the ranger weapons. Awful hybrid weapons that don’t take advantage of either power or condition damage to their fullest because one of the skills won’t be benefiting much depending on your gear selection.

Zenith.7301:

It’s like necro scepter #3 and most of the ranger weapons. Awful hybrid weapons that don’t take advantage of either power or condition damage to their fullest because one of the skills won’t be benefiting much depending on your gear selection.

Err, this simplistic view of mes staff is to undervalue it in so many other ways.

Especially within the framework of the mesmer class as a whole.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Zenith.7301:

It’s like necro scepter #3 and most of the ranger weapons. Awful hybrid weapons that don’t take advantage of either power or condition damage to their fullest because one of the skills won’t be benefiting much depending on your gear selection.

Err, this simplistic view of mes staff is to undervalue it in so many other ways.

Especially within the framework of the mesmer class as a whole.

I’m aware how good staff is in PvP. iWarlock is not the reason for it.

I mean, condi necromancers also use the scepter. It’s all they’ve got, much how like condi mesmers aren’t actually overflowing with options.

If i were to complain about something on staff it’d be the chaos armor on #4. 35 second recast for some lolChaos armor? It really should be more like 20 secs… which would also help balance out the recharge Chaotic Dampening provides after its massive nerf.

I wish staff 4 chaos armour was replaced with the old mimic bubble shield. Would have been so much fun.

And I’d like to see staff 3 get an aoe attack – for example the projectile it fires instead is a ground targeted aoe that impacts the ground at the target enemy’s position at the moment of casting and does an aoe explosion on impact which affects up to 3 enemies in the radius – could do the usual scaling with power and number of conditions, but also could apply conditions in the aoe, say a couple of torment stacks or something.

At the moment in a condition build the iwarlock is just shatter fodder like the image in a power build, which is a shame.

Chaos Armor has a vestigial 35 second cd because people in beta complained that it was garbage, so they gave it 4 seconds of guaranteed protection upon activation.

Then came the PvP human sewage with the usual PU whine, and the protection was removed from chaos armor activation.

Ta-da, a skill returned to crap state for all other builds just because a niche 1v1 dueling build was strong with it.

Welcome to PvP balance, where builds are not balanced on team fights but on the whims of sore losers who whine at the latest 1v1 loss they experience.

Zenith.7301:

Chaos Armor has a vestigial 35 second cd because people in beta complained that it was garbage, so they gave it 4 seconds of guaranteed protection upon activation.

Then came the PvP human sewage with the usual PU whine, and the protection was removed from chaos armor activation.

Ta-da, a skill returned to crap state for all other builds just because a niche 1v1 dueling build was strong with it.

Welcome to PvP balance, where builds are not balanced on team fights but on the whims of sore losers who whine at the latest 1v1 loss they experience.

But it’s fine because we have chaotic dampening which significantly reduces its cooldown!

hum.. wait, what?

Zenith.7301:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Zenith.7301:

It’s like necro scepter #3 and most of the ranger weapons. Awful hybrid weapons that don’t take advantage of either power or condition damage to their fullest because one of the skills won’t be benefiting much depending on your gear selection.

Err, this simplistic view of mes staff is to undervalue it in so many other ways.

Especially within the framework of the mesmer class as a whole.

I’m aware how good staff is in PvP. iWarlock is not the reason for it.

Err, in an appropriate build, iWarlock is a death machine.

Sure we have to overlook the one blaring issue of buggy projectiles, but if we put those instances aside iWarlock is nothing to stick your nose up at.

Hint: he’s not going to shine in a double ranged shatter build -_-u /cough/

No, it is fine how it is. stop thinking about pvp only, and it is balanced.

Feast of Corruption: Now applies 2 stacks of torment for 4 seconds on hit, plus 1 additional stack per condition on the target. No longer deals bonus damage per condition. Bonuses cap at 5 conditions.

Mesmers next please? :(

This could change:

Phantasmal Warlock

Summon an illusion that applies 2 stacks of torment for 4 seconds on hit, plus 1 additional stack per condition on the target.

Damage: 438
x2 Torment (4s)
Extra Torment: x5 (4s)
Range: 1200

Phantasmal Warlock is one of our better phantasms, it doesn’t need to be messed with.

tobascodagama.2961:

Phantasmal Warlock is one of our better phantasms, it doesn’t need to be messed with.

I’d like it to be messed with.

Unfortunately you need to combine it with something like the phantasmal disenchanter.
With its new speedy attacks, the combination is actually killer. But needs some more tweaking on its own for sure.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

tobascodagama.2961:

Phantasmal Warlock is one of our better phantasms, it doesn’t need to be messed with.

I’d like it to be messed with.

I think we’ve already established that anything condition-based on Mesmer will be nerfed into oblivion. So I it’s fine how it is. Fix the projectile to be more reliable, maybe, but for the love of Lyssa don’t rework it into a condi Phantasm.

tobascodagama.2961:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

tobascodagama.2961:

Phantasmal Warlock is one of our better phantasms, it doesn’t need to be messed with.

I’d like it to be messed with.

I think we’ve already established that anything condition-based on Mesmer will be nerfed into oblivion. So I it’s fine how it is. Fix the projectile to be more reliable, maybe, but for the love of Lyssa don’t rework it into a condi Phantasm.

I don’t consider “they’ll never give condi a chance” to be a valid basis for advocacy.
Power’s got plenty of great phantasms, warlock is out of place where it is, it can do with a change.

Living in denial of the fact that condi Mesmer will never, ever be allowed to be good isn’t particularly solid ground for advocacy either.

tobascodagama.2961:

Living in denial of the fact that condi Mesmer will never, ever be allowed to be good isn’t particularly solid ground for advocacy either.

Since my advocacy is “give condi a kittening chance”, I certainly think it is.

You just make it harder for those of us who like something different than you.

It’s not about what I like, it’s about ANet’s vision for the Mesmer class. Which does not, and never will, include pure-condition builds.

Phantasmal Warlock is currently a perfectly good Phantasm to use in hybrid or power builds. Turning it into a condition Phantasm would — because pure condition builds are not allowed to be a thing on Mesmer — result in its effectiveness being drastically reduced. Therefore, arguing for Phantasmal Warlock to be turned into a condition phantasm is effectively the same thing as arguing for it to get nerfed.

tobascodagama.2961:

It’s not about what I like, it’s about ANet’s vision for the Mesmer class. Which does not, and never will, include pure-condition builds.

Phantasmal Warlock is currently a perfectly good Phantasm to use in hybrid or power builds. Turning it into a condition Phantasm would — because pure condition builds are not allowed to be a thing on Mesmer — result in its effectiveness being drastically reduced. Therefore, arguing for Phantasmal Warlock to be turned into a condition phantasm is effectively the same thing as arguing for it to get nerfed.

Seems you do not want to phantasmal warlock make damage condition, but yes on damage berserker, the staff is a weapon of 100% damage condition, and his phantasmal ago berserker damage, has no sense, the same thing happened with the scepter skill 3 of necromancer, and now it has good condi effect. why not do the same with phantasmal warlock?

“Not wait, we do not want conditions, we fled the damage condition, we use two-handed sword with the staff, sword/torch with staff, we prefer more damage berserker, build hybrid, but not 100% condition damage, the same story, stat berserker always, everywhere " (is super boring)

The Phantasmal Warlock, doing damage torment instead of damage berserker, would give more damage condition that the bored dps berserker

Staff isn’t a condi weapon, but hybrid/utility, though. That’s why it stacks might and vulnerability (even before the latter one affected condi dmg) and its phantasm scales with power.

Also, condi mesmer feels much more boring than zerker, but that might just be me.

Iavra.8510:

Staff isn’t a condi weapon, but hybrid/utility, though. That’s why it stacks might and vulnerability (even before the latter one affected condi dmg) and its phantasm scales with power.

^^^^^

Mesmer doesn’t have any condition weapons at all, just hybrids. Even Scepter is really a hybrid weapon; Confusing Images has a really good Power ratio, and clone generation on AA is as useful for Mind Wrack as Cry of Frustration. Only Torch can make a claim to being a pure condition weapon, but even that I would argue is more of a defensive weapon. And, truthfully, the pMage scales equally badly with either Power or Condi stats.

Staff Phantasm is fine and has good synergy with power builds (especially those that utilize non-damaging conditions, such as slow, vulnerability, and so on). The Phantasm hits like a truck with a proper setup, and the utility of the other skills is superb for power/hybrid builds (well except for untraited Chaos Armor; that could use protection on use as a baseline again IMO). I think that turning it into a devoted condition only weapon would be a big nerf to an otherwise solid power/hybrid/utility based weapon (again, my opinion: I am biased though in that I play a Double Range Shatter/Power Block Build).

tobascodagama.2961:

Even Scepter is really a hybrid weapon; Confusing Images has a really good Power ratio

How does that co-exist in your world of “pure condi results in a nerf”?

Because it’s not “pure”? Cool loophole. If only this thread was about hybridizing the phantasm…

I wouldn’t mind if the +% damage bonus was changed into something like +x s of active conditions on the target. But please don’t make iWarlock a pure ranged condition Phantasm. We already got iMage for that and Duelists is quite condition heavy as well.

I also still feel like the iWarlock deserves a small area effect on impact.

It seems initially the design of the staff is:

• if you want power damage, use the phantasm
• if you want condi damage, use the clones

Now condi damage at this time was a slow attrition playstyle while we have now moved to bursty condition builds (burst confusion for mesmer, burst burning for guardian etc…). So in the current standards, the staff clones are weak (no boost when burning became intensity stacking).

I believe the old design could work if the conditions on staff AA were boosted (and if damaging conditions were added to chaos storm).