Guild Wars 2

Am I the only one that thinks Spectral Attunement either needs to be moved to the 10 point trait skill, or to another line entirely? It seems to out of place there and makes it so very hard to work into builds unless you’re going glass cannon. If it were in the 10 slot it could very easily work perfectly with a DS based or spectral based build, but at 20 it’s far too limiting, in my opinion anyway. Anyone else feel the same? I love the trait, just think it needs to be moved to be more streamline.

I use it in my DS build and I enjoy it, but I only use it because I happened to be going 15 in that line anyway, and the 5 points were best spent there than anywhere else. I’m not sure its worth 20 points any other time though.

Bhawb.7408:

I use it in my DS build and I enjoy it, but I only use it because I happened to be going 15 in that line anyway, and the 5 points were best spent there than anywhere else. I’m not sure its worth 20 points any other time though.

Yeah I can see if you’re going a full on DS or spectral build, but if you want any flexibility at all-and let’s not kid ourselves, there’s many places a full DS or spectral build just don’t work well- you have no room to change it around because it kind of boxes you in to one or two viable builds. Maybe I’m missing something here, but so far it seems more a snag to my builds than a help.

Oh I agree, my DS build is specifically for tPvP side point bunkering in small fights. It is a very specific thing in an area that doesn’t need much flexibility at all. I would agree that it being 20 just isn’t really worth it unless you are using 2-3 spectrals, or spectral armor (where it takes like 18 seconds off).

Spectral atunement doesnt deacrease the CD. what it doesn is increase the duration of spectral effects and gives 5% LF when u use a spectral skill.

Spectral armor 6s —> 8s
Spectral walk 8s —> 12s
s. wall 9s --→ 16s
s. grasp 4s —→ 6s (i think its 6)

IMO its only worth taking when ur glassy, but using s. wall for survivability. From 9 to 16s protection + 10% more dmg is great. It is harder against ranged enemys though.

All other skills dont benefit much from the attunement, in 6s the DS bar fills up almost always fully. Take it if like above, u went for curses 15 and got 5pts left, but u can always take the warhorn trait, a 2s PbAoE is VERY good.

It’s 2 seconds without the trait, with banshee’s wail it’s 3 seconds. Throw in runes of the mesmer and it’s 4 seconds. Happy days.
Although the tooltip never updates, but that’s Anet for you.

Flumek.9043:

All other skills dont benefit much from the attunement, in 6s the DS bar fills up almost always fully. Take it if like above, u went for curses 15 and got 5pts left, but u can always take the warhorn trait, a 2s PbAoE is VERY good.

To be fair, warhorn is not a PBAOE. It’s a frontal cone. A PBAOE would be Axe 3. If it was PBAOE I gurantee you more people would love it and run it.

I think ur wrong. It does everything youd expect from a pbaoe, like DS#4 or any of the
10 skills eles have. The only difference is that they have ful 360° around in a
range 240-600. This one is just a cone-shapped (probably frontal 90°) in a range of 600.

Example:
-u dont need a target. just press the button and it hits anything in its “range”. U CAN interrupt stealth stomp/revive with it, therefore it is a pbaoe.

We can argue if we call it PBAOE, semi-PBAOE, or frontal cone AOE ( FCPBAOE xD ),
but we probalbly agree on the good uses of the skill

I’ve taken it a few times but the effects are so minimal its a waste of spot. I dont use spectral wall however. Should really increase the non-spectral effects to make it worth it, like:

grasp – beam instead of projectile,
walk – swiftness 36sec
armor – protection 12 sec
wall – probably ok already

I’ve used it on a perma-chill build I ran for a while. The extra 2 (4 when combined with 100% chill duration) seconds of chill made it very easy to lock down a target.

I also picked it up in a heavy DS build (Due to the extra LF when using the skills) to decrease time outside of DS.

But it doesn’t make much sense in the spot it is at the moment (20 points into the condition line?) though I can’t think of a better place to put it (It seems like Soul Reaping would suit it well, but that line is already overcrowded with traits that are worth taking in a DS build)

Flumek.9043:

I think ur wrong. It does everything youd expect from a pbaoe, like DS#4 or any of the
10 skills eles have. The only difference is that they have ful 360° around in a
range 240-600. This one is just a cone-shapped (probably frontal 90°) in a range of 600.

Example:
-u dont need a target. just press the button and it hits anything in its “range”. U CAN interrupt stealth stomp/revive with it, therefore it is a pbaoe.

We can argue if we call it PBAOE, semi-PBAOE, or frontal cone AOE ( FCPBAOE xD ),
but we probalbly agree on the good uses of the skill

I was just pointing out that a “point-blank area of effect” is a 360 degree outward from a central point skill. If warhorn DID work like that it would be MUCH more powerful, as it would not require facing to work. So if you get juked, and you cast warhorn, it would still daze, as opposed to “missing”.

Frontal Cone AOE is a much better description, but I can live with FCPBAOE.

Spectral skills are special-purpose utilities. I know there are some who enjoy a spectral build in minion support pve, wvw, or spvp but a true spectral build, with full set of utilities and traiting is not quite effective enough in general play to make it a standard build. A tune-up in terms of further incoming damage reduction is needed. Then, a spectral build could be as viable as MM or Conditionmancer. The Necrospector could be a low-damage tank (punching bag) but needs work, first. I see the Necrospector as being traited 10/0/30/30/0, or something along that line where damage is an afterthought compared to holding, and surviving, aggro. The problem is PvE boss damage and the way Necromancer defense and heal insufficiently scales.

Until a major spectral buff, the utilities will remain more ad hoc where players use the ones they want depending upon the situation rather than designing the character around a particular theme for general play.

I wouldnt mind it being moved, but it isnt necessary. Fits into my build just fine… moving it would just increase dps a bit.