Guild Wars 2

I’ll start off by saying staff is a great weapon and I have no problem with any of the skills in practice.

This thread is purely subjective, in that staff #4 is quite bland to take up one whole skill on a weapon, given it’s readily accessible through combo fields. To me that is quite unimaginitive.

I would prefer it to be replaced with something like:
2s channeled block (similar to icounter/iriposte) using the Mimic visual effect.
On blocking an attack blasts out for AoE damage in the forward cone – max 3 targets, ~90 degree spread?

Just throwing that out there, I’m sure there could be better skills thought of.

I know there will be a lot of people who swear by it and that’s perfectly fine – like I said, there’s nothing wrong with it’s effectiveness, only it’s uniqueness.

Maybe when/if we get alternate #1 to #5 weapons skills we could swap it out? I would almost certainly swap it in a heartbeat if we get other skills to choose from.

Even if it is bland to you, it is very useful to the mesmer.

I will agree that staff 4 is a little boring and it honestly does need a rework of some type since it got nerfed very heavily (known as a “bug fix”). I do like your second idea of the block, then some sort of aoe. Who knows, Anet could maybe select us as the profession that needs help and we could get reworked (unlikely because eles and rangers need it more honestly, followed by mesmers/engis).

runeblade.7514:

Even if it is bland to you, it is very useful to the mesmer.

I know, that’s what I said.

Whenever I use chaos storm, i automatically press chaos armor aswell, so 45 instead of just 5 :/.

Maybe it could be some sort of block that lasts a few seconds, but doesnt have a cast time (so you can do other stuff during it). When you block an attack, you make a blast finisher at your location, and grant retaliation and confusion.

Btw, we should make a thread that is a list of all our good skill/trait ideas and changes, so its easier to mention them when if we get dev attention. Even if we dont, it will still be fun, kinda :o

Alissah.9281:

Whenever I use chaos storm, i automatically press chaos armor aswell, so 45 instead of just 5 :/.

Maybe it could be some sort of block that lasts a few seconds, but doesnt have a cast time (so you can do other stuff during it). When you block an attack, you make a blast finisher at your location, and grant retaliation and confusion.

Btw, we should make a thread that is a list of all our good skill/trait ideas and changes, so its easier to mention them when if we get dev attention. Even if we dont, it will still be fun, kinda :o

Hmm, I’m not sure blast finisher – that could be too powerful with #5.

Could be without a channel – but I’ll be honest, I love the visual effect of Mimic which is what I’m basing it on – the channel is part of the charm.

I’ll be sure to bring this up if/when we get some thread for suggesting changes/additions.

I would definitely vote to swap it out or buff it. It’s soooo easy to use staff 2 to get a similar effect (same effect?) that it seems redundant with a passive.

Anything more would help it out… share it with friends, have it automatically give you some boons, rip some boons from nearby enemies, make a fun farty noise.

Have it apply random boons to nearby allies each second and random conditions to nearby enemies each second. 5 second duration with 1 second pulses.

This would turn it into a very useful ability for both PvE, PvP and most certainly WvW.

Ah but who am I kidding, ANet hates fun.

yeah well its a shame that chaosarmor got nerfed……..it was good before that, now its not worth my time actually…

After the patch that nerfed #4 to oblivion, it is rather pointless yes. When it gave protection it was bloody brilliant. Meant that builds other than PU had a chance to pre-emptivly counter things like thief backstab by using an active damage reduction skill that’s not completely random.

But no, it was nerfed because Anet clearly thought that PU was weak as hell (since its been buffed) and needed to be used more as stealth is far better than actual counter-play.

Just make it similar to sw#4. Activating it blocks/reflects (possibly add it to the focus or staff trait) and when hit activates chaos armor. Activating it again while blocking does the cone aoe or whatever other functionality would be balanced. Either way, retain current functionality while making it more interesting.

Alissah.9281:

Maybe it could be some sort of block that lasts a few seconds, but doesnt have a cast time (so you can do other stuff during it). When you block an attack, you make a blast finisher at your location, and grant retaliation and confusion.

I’d really like a blast finisher on Chaos Armor. Unfortunately, some totally bulletproof math in the balance forum showed that Mind Blast is the only reasonable skill for adding a Blast Finisher.

Curunen.8729:

Hmm, I’m not sure blast finisher – that could be too powerful with #5.

Would it? From a solo perspective nothing really changes. However, you could now blast your Chaos Storm to grant your party some Chaos Armor, too. Or just blast other fields. Assuming a similar cooldown to its current state it should not be too powerful.

Azathoth.2098:

• Chaos-Armor:
  Chaos-Armor grants you swiftness.
  As long as Chaos Armor lasts, 50% of the incoming damage is reflected back to the attacker.
  In addition to that, every second you regain 5% of your total health.
  As long as Chaos Armor lasts near enemies will be pushed back.

For more ideas check out this link:

New Weapons

Nice thread with those new weapon ideas.

I like anything for staff #4 that is some sort of timed block, or reflect with potential AoE damage and/or boon/condition sharing – rewards you for using it at the right time.

Xaylin.1860:

<snip>

Hmm, I’m not sure blast finisher – that could be too powerful with #5.

Would it? From a solo perspective nothing really changes. However, you could now blast your Chaos Storm to grant your party some Chaos Armor, too. Or just blast other fields. Assuming a similar cooldown to its current state it should not be too powerful.

Only because you have then two ways of getting it through combo fields, plus the skill itself giving you chaos armour – maybe it could work but personally I feel it is too much.

Curunen.8729:

Only because you have then two ways of getting it through combo fields, plus the skill itself giving you chaos armour – maybe it could work but personally I feel it is too much.

It might improve the defense of a Mesmer but I doubt that it would be too powerful. I play a Glamour heavy build in PvP and I got 4 ways to trigger Chaos Armor (2 leaps, 1 Phantasm, the skill itself) and 3 ethereal fields. While Chaos Armor is very nice in 1vs1 it is far from being overpowered even when chained frequently because of the internal cooldown.

If Staff#4 was changed into a block I’d rather see something like Shield of Wrath (Guardian Focus). We already got two ‘regular’ blocks and what I really dislike about them is the fact that they lock you into the block animation. There should be a #4.2, though, so you can trigger the Blast at anytime. Otherwise, Mesmers will yet again be stuck with a weird Blast Finisher mechanic like it already is the case with Prestige.

Hmm, good point with all those ethereal fields, maybe it could be ok.

Would be good to.make the blast active, or on the “mimic” bubble taking a set amount of damage.

I do prestige into chaos storm quite a lot and find it an easy enough combo to set off.

A basic cloak skill would offer some nice synergy with PU but PU builds are also somewhat overplayed. I’d rather have something more interesting like a pull or maybe a short melee stun or daze. I think the staff could really benefit from some sort of melee CC skill for when things get too close.

I would love to see it turned into that swap skill they displayed on the mesmer Staff skill video where you trade places with your foe.

Curunen.8729:

I do prestige into chaos storm quite a lot and find it an easy enough combo to set off.

It does work but it makes the stealth proportion of the skill useless because of Chaos Storm. If you just do it for the Blast/Blind/Burn, then yes. Otherwise the combination of Stealth and the delayed Blast is pretty bad.

calavel.6249:

A basic cloak skill would offer some nice synergy with PU but PU builds are also somewhat overplayed. I’d rather have something more interesting like a pull or maybe a short melee stun or daze. I think the staff could really benefit from some sort of melee CC skill for when things get too close.

Oh please, no more stealth skills.
Would be bad on Staff anyway (Bounces and Chaos Storm).

A point blanket area Daze/Stun would be awesome. But that would be pretty similar to Chaos Storm which we already have. And single target CC would be boring.

Xaylin.1860:

Oh please, no more stealth skills.
Would be bad on Staff anyway (Bounces and Chaos Storm).

A point blanket area Daze/Stun would be awesome. But that would be pretty similar to Chaos Storm which we already have. And single target CC would be boring.

Not sure how stealth on the staff would be “bad”, since PU and staff traits are in the same tree, but it would probably be boring. But honestly, I’ll take just about anything over Chaos Armor, which is more or less built into staff #2 already if you’re doing things right.

I would LOVE a knockback, don’t even care if it’s single-target. I have enough skills for running away and dodging, I need more skills for messing with other people’s movement.

How about if staff #4 would ‘morph’ the main attack? For example, in addition to putting on chaos armour, you use the excess chaotic power to make the #1 skill a cone attack, or perhaps increase the attack rate dramatically while it is active, or increase the number of bounces. Something like that. Make it a choice between offense or defense (with the chance of helping both at once situationally).

I think it’d suit staff a lot, since it is so poor outside utility – to have a button that dramatically improves damage without sacrificing the utility so that when you really need it, the cons of the weapon is not as drastic there, but you have to use your head about it.

edit: meep, should have read more carefully. I see now a cone was suggested! But still, something offensive/defensive in nature

Add a Block to replace staff 4 is just too OP on a mesmer. Staff already provides tons of sustain with a 6 second teleport alone.

Staff 4 is useful to me and doesn’t need change.

calavel.6249:

Not sure how stealth on the staff would be “bad”, since PU and staff traits are in the same tree, but it would probably be boring. But honestly, I’ll take just about anything over Chaos Armor, which is more or less built into staff #2 already if you’re doing things right.

I would LOVE a knockback, don’t even care if it’s single-target. I have enough skills for running away and dodging, I need more skills for messing with other people’s movement.

For example, your Staff#1 can easily reveal you because of the bounce. It is very hard to controll due to the slow projectile speed. While it is not impossible to time it might result in a clunky gameplay with the Staff.

More hard CC on Mesmers would be nice but I’m not sure if it fits the class design. I would be extremly surprised if they introduced new skills like that.

runeblade.7514:

Add a Block to replace staff 4 is just too OP on a mesmer. Staff already provides tons of sustain with a 6 second teleport alone.

I never heard about Blocks on Mesmers being an issue.

Some blocks have the issue of only blocking one damage ping. They aren’t very effective against any multi-hit attacks.

The channeled blocks deal very significant damage – they’re not purely defensive skills. As far as multi-hit attacks go, you have Blurred Frenzy, Distortion or not standing in them – which when you’re wielding a staff is pretty easy to manage.

It might be reasonable to put a 2-3s Distortion on staff 4, but it would come at the expense of possibly giving it any other utility. Given that Phase Retreat is already a very handy way of getting out of trouble, I’d rather see a condition cleanse, stability, or something to address areas the mesmer currently is very poor at.

runeblade.7514:

Add a Block to replace staff 4 is just too OP on a mesmer. Staff already provides tons of sustain with a 6 second teleport alone.

Staff 4 is useful to me and doesn’t need change.

It it NOT a 6 second CD teleport, it is 10s untraited and only 6s with very specific trait combos that are not common. Most staff users will have 8 or 10s CD on Staff #2.

OK, so staff #4 is useful to you? How? When? As I said, I only see Chaos Armor (in general, not just the skill) making a difference if you are hit with super-quick low-damage auto attack and the other person don’t really know what they’re doing. And even then, the conditions it applies are too random.

• How: Chaos Armor grants Protection, regen and swiftness. Is protection and regen not useful for sustain or swiftness being useful for fleeing? The added bonus of applying conditions to enemies are useful too.
• When: I use it when I am attacked. Chaos Armor is instant. So I can apply it anytime without having to take up precious time for some other skill. If it had a 3/4 cast time, it would be a bad skill.
• If you hate randomness, you are playing the wrong class.

Chaos armor has an internal cooldown of 1 second. So it doesn’t matter about super-quick attacks.

runeblade.7514:

…

I think everyone got your opinion that the skill is fine since you said it 3 times.

You are missing the point of the discussion, though. It is not about the Chaos Armor itself. It is about the redundancy of Staff#4 when considering that the #5+#2 is probably the most used combo on the Mesmer which grants you the same effect. In the past at least the Protection was guaranteed with #4 but that got nerfed.

I really like this thread, and I’d like to see more usage of chaos armor. Not only the skill, also the blast finisher. However I’m mainly talking about the skill now, since it’s really useless with that long CD… (PvE). So many good and easy and minor changes, even one of them would already be enough!

• Aegis on activation
• Blast finisher
• Pushes enemies back
• Reflection
• Grants all the buffs like standing in a chaos storm
• same for debuffs (melee aura)
• 1 sec distortion
• inc damage goes to clones>phants>yourself
• . . . .

Xyonon.3987:

So many good and easy and minor changes

Easy? Ha! No, everything is too easy for Anet. That’s why nothing ever happen.

Just imagine the time it would take to add a secondary push to shield which make it detonate just like the torch prestige blast and apply 4s of protection on 5 peeps at 600 range (just grabbing something out of the blue, it could be apply torment too or something). 5 minutes? 10? Maybe even 20?!?!

Nope, too easy.

Anet will probably remake it to summon an Elder Phantasm dragon that has bugged AI and take 6 months to animate because they have to find a dragon to motion capture first (current dragons wont do, they’re only fixed pieces).

I’d be happy with just getting the guaranteed Protection back.

Lots of interesting ideas coming out.
I like the knockback suggestions on some sort of AoE counter.

So many ways this could go, I think the situation is clear and one I hope Anet does something about in the next year or two – add alternative, swappable #1 to #5 skills for all weapons.

runeblade.7514:

Add a Block to replace staff 4 is just too OP on a mesmer. Staff already provides tons of sustain with a 6 second teleport alone.

Staff 4 is useful to me and doesn’t need change.

Depends what kind of block – blocking a single hit within a 2s window would not be overpowered, compared to mimic tanking everything for 4 seconds.

Dawdler.8521:

Xyonon.3987:

So many good and easy and minor changes

Easy? Ha! No, everything is too easy for Anet. That’s why nothing ever happen.

Just imagine the time it would take to add a secondary push to shield which make it detonate just like the torch prestige blast and apply 4s of protection on 5 peeps at 600 range (just grabbing something out of the blue, it could be apply torment too or something). 5 minutes? 10? Maybe even 20?!?!

Nope, too easy.

Anet will probably remake it to summon an Elder Phantasm dragon that has bugged AI and take 6 months to animate because they have to find a dragon to motion capture first (current dragons wont do, they’re only fixed pieces).

:D Made my day.