Guild Wars 2

I really really really love the risk/reward nature of Corruptions and want to see that amplified. The theme of dark caster sacrificing their own well being for greater and greater power with the ability of weaving corruption into their favor is so enticing.

So here is my proposed remake. (Disclaimer, there is potential of OPness in this sure, but I just want a discussion in this direction of Corruptions. These were just on the fly ideas.)

Master of Corruption and Weakening Shroud swapped places.

Master of Corruption is now a Grandmaster Trait.

Consume Conditions no longer applies vulnerability to self. 30 second cooldown.

Blood is Power now grants 5x aoe might (30s) and self buff (Empowered Corruption) that increases Condition Damage by 5% per stack (30s). Also applies 2x Bleed (30s) to self. 10 second cooldown. 1/4 s Cast Time

Corrupt Boons now corrupts 3 boons on target (unblockable) and 1 boon on self, also applies weakness (6s) to self. 15 second cooldown. 1/4 s Cast Time

Corrosive Poison Cloud now lasts 6 seconds and applies x3 Poison (2s) + weakness (2s) per second, also applies x2 Poison (30s) to self. 6 Pulses. 15 second Cooldown. 1/4 Cast time.

Epidemic now applies 2x Torment (20s) to self. 15 second Cooldown 1/2 s Cast Time.

Master of Corruption now reduces all Corruption cooldowns by 50%, and amplifies their self inflicting conditions.

- Consume Conditions heals for 50% less.
- Blood is Power now inflicts 4x Bleed(30s) on self.
- Corrupt Boons now corrupts 3 boons on self.
- Corrosive Poison Cloud now inflicts 4x Poison (30s) on self.
- Epidemic now applies 4x Torment (20s) to self.

The conditions on self can be an increase in power with condition transferring, especially with the Grandmaster Trait. However since you are limited in how often you can transfer conditions, the massively lowered cooldowns prevent you from abusing it for overpoweredness.

Case in point :

Whenever you have a condition transfer available, blowing a Corruption skill would be temporarily very strong considering it does a strong effect AND applies a decent amount of conditions to a foe, with a very low cooldown. However when you don’t have any more transfers available, spamming corruptions continuously will stack a lot of damage on yourself fast, which the corruption heal can help you manage more often (at the cost of potent transfer bombing).

Alternatively, you can try to stack conditions on yourself to condi bomb with a transfer, but that comes at the cost of a lot of self damage (high risk/reward), which also lets you utilize death shroud as a way to hold the damage. (Using Life Force to gain power).

There’s definitely some room for brokeness with these numbers, but playing with scenarios in my head it feels well rounded in terms of risk vs reward. The only problematic variable would be things like Sigil of Generosity being really strong, as well as Corrupt Boons being too good in PvP, but the disparity between PvP and PvE in regards to boon strip relevancy is pretty messed up too, which is another issue altogether.

Thoughts?

Ehm, when you say Feast on Corruptions I think you mean Consume Conditions There is no Feast on Corruptions, only Feast OF Corruption, but that is a Scepter skill.

That aside, overall I really like your ideas! The only thing I would definitely do differently is Blood is power. Make the might only apply to yourself and instead make the condition damage buff the AoE effect, that would give us a bit more of the party support we need so desperately.

About potential OPness, idk, for sure not in PvE if you ask me. I only play PvP casually, so I can’t really make a substantial comment about that area of the game.

Skoigoth.9238:

Ehm, when you say Feast on Corruptions I think you mean Consume Conditions There is no Feast on Corruptions, only Feast OF Corruption, but that is a Scepter skill.

That aside, overall I really like your ideas! The only thing I would definitely do differently is Blood is power. Make the might only apply to yourself and instead make the condition damage buff the AoE effect, that would give us a bit more of the party support we need so desperately.

About potential OPness, idk, for sure not in PvE if you ask me. I only play PvP casually, so I can’t really make a substantial comment about that area of the game.

Yeah I meant Consume Conditions woops. The name just sounded so right lol.

And yeah, making the unique Condi Dmg buff aoe would give some unique utility to us.

The few buffs would never happen (Epidemic/CPC), they’d be way too strong. Corrupt Boon gets nerfed with this change, and Blood is Power is still bad. Consume Conditions is really the one good change from the base skills.

The change to Master of Corruption is interesting, and at the very least I like the idea behind it: Corruptions are supposed to be high risk/reward, so make the trait increase both sides.

I think the Blind application from traited Consume Conditions is so destructive. Having to waste an ability just to break out of blind after healing feels awful.

It’s funny. Corruptions are powerful un-traited as is, yet they become weaker when traited. I don’t understand the logic behind that.

Bhawb.7408:

The change to Master of Corruption is interesting, and at the very least I like the idea behind it: Corruptions are supposed to be high risk/reward, so make the trait increase both sides.

The problem with this is that aa general cooldown reduction already increases both sides, giving it a negative effect on top just skews the trait towards more risk.

zone.1073:

It’s funny. Corruptions are powerful un-traited as is, yet they become weaker when traited. I don’t understand the logic behind that.

The trait just boosts the negative effect twice and the positive effect only once.

Tim.6450:

Bhawb.7408:

The change to Master of Corruption is interesting, and at the very least I like the idea behind it: Corruptions are supposed to be high risk/reward, so make the trait increase both sides.

The problem with this is that aa general cooldown reduction already increases both sides, giving it a negative effect on top just skews the trait towards more risk.

Well the what I was trying to go for was this :

Corruptions would be potent utilities on really short cooldowns but at the cost of a lot of potential self damage. Use it once or twice and with a transfer and it’s fine, but if you want to abuse the cooldown by spamming you pay the price. Essentially. Like, it DOES increase the penalty twice in a sense because of the lowered cooldowns, but that’s the price of having the utility of super short cooldowns on powerful corruption skills.

And I was trying to aim for super short cooldowns for spammability along with long duration but low stacks of self conditions so that it’s harder to just nullify the self harm completely with transfers. For example : 30s cooldown skill that applies 6x bleed on self, it would be too easy to deal with and maybe too strong because it would almost always just be an instant transfer. As opposed to : 5s cooldown skill that applies 1x bleed on self, it would take some time and self damage to ramp up for an efficient condi transfer.

It’s pretty hard to have the trait straight up affect all of them equally though.

I was thinking of something else like making the trait just increase their effects substantially somehow, but then it just feels like a must have trait.

Like for instance :

“Epidemic now echoes its effect 3 seconds later.”

or

“Corrupt Boons now twice corrupts each boon. (double the conditions from conversion)

Bhawb.7408:

The few buffs would never happen (Epidemic/CPC), they’d be way too strong. Corrupt Boon gets nerfed with this change, and Blood is Power is still bad. Consume Conditions is really the one good change from the base skills.

The change to Master of Corruption is interesting, and at the very least I like the idea behind it: Corruptions are supposed to be high risk/reward, so make the trait increase both sides.

Now that I think about it, it might be better if instead, the corruptions just have really low cooldowns to begin with (8-20s), with mild/moderate effect and self harm, and then have the trait really amp up both the effect and self harm. It would be easier to balance than slapping a flat CDR to all of them.

Knote.2904:

Now that I think about it, it might be better if instead, the corruptions just have really low cooldowns to begin with (8-20s), with mild/moderate effect and self harm, and then have the trait really amp up both the effect and self harm. It would be easier to balance than slapping a flat CDR to all of them.

I think if Corruptions were ever reworked the best thing for them is to be something similar to Blood is Power from GW1. Huge effects that are strong enough to make builds around, but also a significant enough downside that you have to really think about it each time you cast. And generally short CDs, but with downsides significant enough that you can’t just spam them on CD.

For example, BiP could be a large health (20% max HP or something) sacrifice for potent group buff, on a shortish CD. If you tried to maintain the group buffs, you’d end up killing yourself in realistic combat. CPC could be kept up as long as you paid a continual price for it. Things like that, which actually have risk/reward. Anything shy of that is a waste of the entire theme.

They need to make the “sacrifice” part not a condition. Because they assume you will transfer it, so they balance the strength around this assumption. I’d rather have a unavoidable sacrifice (straight LF or HP loss) and then a powerful effect on top. This way, the balance is easier.

Silverkey.2078:

They need to make the “sacrifice” part not a condition. Because they assume you will transfer it, so they balance the strength around this assumption. I’d rather have a unavoidable sacrifice (straight LF or HP loss) and then a powerful effect on top. This way, the balance is easier.

I am definitely behind this idea.

Silverkey.2078:

They need to make the “sacrifice” part not a condition. Because they assume you will transfer it, so they balance the strength around this assumption. I’d rather have a unavoidable sacrifice (straight LF or HP loss) and then a powerful effect on top. This way, the balance is easier.

I think conditions could have a place, but it shouldn’t be the only thing. Blood is Power for example should go to being %max HP, and then something really strong like quickness, to mirror GW1. Conditions make more sense on something like Corrupt Boon, where you get more conditions inflicted on yourself depending on how many boons you corrupt, for example.

I keep on getting beat to posting topics. I also posted a thread on Corruptions.

Knote.2904:

Tim.6450:

Bhawb.7408:

The change to Master of Corruption is interesting, and at the very least I like the idea behind it: Corruptions are supposed to be high risk/reward, so make the trait increase both sides.

The problem with this is that aa general cooldown reduction already increases both sides, giving it a negative effect on top just skews the trait towards more risk.

Well the what I was trying to go for was this :

Corruptions would be potent utilities on really short cooldowns but at the cost of a lot of potential self damage. Use it once or twice and with a transfer and it’s fine, but if you want to abuse the cooldown by spamming you pay the price. Essentially. Like, it DOES increase the penalty twice in a sense because of the lowered cooldowns, but that’s the price of having the utility of super short cooldowns on powerful corruption skills.

And I was trying to aim for super short cooldowns for spammability along with long duration but low stacks of self conditions so that it’s harder to just nullify the self harm completely with transfers. For example : 30s cooldown skill that applies 6x bleed on self, it would be too easy to deal with and maybe too strong because it would almost always just be an instant transfer. As opposed to : 5s cooldown skill that applies 1x bleed on self, it would take some time and self damage to ramp up for an efficient condi transfer.

It’s pretty hard to have the trait straight up affect all of them equally though.

I was thinking of something else like making the trait just increase their effects substantially somehow, but then it just feels like a must have trait.

Well I understand the low cooldown thing but that does not mean it has to come from a trait. Especially when you lose more then you gain, people just won’t slot it then . Also for a trait boost both effects why not somethig like this:

Using a corruption skill gives you a stack of “Empowered Corruption”. Corruption skills have a 20% cooldown reduction.

In the end it is a positive effect but you will risk killing yourself very quickly if you do not monitor your corruption skil usage.