Guild Wars 2

Looking at this trait I thought “kitten thats cool,” on second look it was more of “but why would I take it?” I like it, trust me, but its not better than the other two, being Close to Death and Signets of Suffering. I think this trait needs some love.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Unity

Druid got the real spiteful spirit.

Spoj, I don’t think retaliation has a target cap like that glyph. I doubt that the damage the glyph does can come from any source. It’s probably limited to the damage from the 5 tethered enemies.

Looks like retaliation minus retal and a group tether. Looks useful but I don’t see anyone taking it unless you want to be “that guy”

spoj.9672:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Unity

Druid got the real spiteful spirit.

That looks like a weaker version of retaliation.
And our Spiteful Spirit not only comes with a longer duration of retal if it hits several targets but it also does initial damage, rips boons, applies cripple, the cooldown is lower and the radius is double.

On topic, Spiteful Spirit has some niche use for those who don’t play a power build and aren’t using signets. Could it be better? Sure, the cooldown is unnecessary because it’s already gated by the cd of Shroud. And perhaps we’ll see a buff to Unholy Feast (most ppl want a blast finisher) since Master Gee is looking into improving the axe in the foreseeable future anyway.

Glyph of Unity isn’t a weaker retaliation. Any time you take damage, you deal damage to everyone tethered to you. So if 5 people are attacking you and those 5 are tethered, each one of them actually gets hit with 5x the retal damage they’d normally take.

On the note of Spiteful Spirit, it just doesn’t do much as a trait. Cripple is negligible, the damage won’t really add up compared to Close to Death, and the boon corruption is worse than a single Signet with the signet trait. The only thing this brings that is special is retaliation, and getting some retaliation on a trait that is otherwise entirely mediocre just doesn’t fit a GM tier trait.

Glyph of Unity also looked like fairly decent damage as well. And it scales and can crit. Retal is weak and only has minor power scaling. And as Bhawb said retal doesnt do the AoE spike like spiteful spirit in gw1 did. But the glyph does it (sort of) due to the tether.

I would love anet to take this idea for a future necro spec (Hexer?). Bring back the classic hexes of gw1. Spiteful spirit, insidious parasite, reckless haste, price of failure, mark of pain, soul barbs etc etc. Could open up the possibility of a dps class that deals damage by making enemies try to hit you. Which would work well on necro due to its high base durability and the fact that those skills are classic gw1 necro skills. Could also be a unique take on semi tanking (if aggro management was more easily controlled).

The duid trait is much stronger then retaliation. If 1 of these 5 targets hit you, all tethered targets will get the damage. That means if a rapidfire hits you every tethered enemy gets 8x the listed damage with no internal cooldown + the 4 other guys will most likely hit you to, this skill will be devastating in teamfights and scenarios where there are much hits, much aoe fields. Wvw for example, when you get spiked you could potentially kill the 5 tethered guys as well.

Im still hoping for a trait that combines the necromancers retaliation with a healing aspect. Like 50% of retaliation heals you. I feel a strong synergy between weakness, protection and retaliation is the aspect the death magic line is missing due to the 3 traitslots reserved for minions.

Spiteful Spirit needs a buff for sure. It could get a second effect “Steal life / deal damage when you remove a boon, 350 damage per boon removed” This would give a flat damage boost for boonhate , creating a niche for power builds that use axe / focus, plus adding an option for condi builds to deal with things like diamond skin and providing some offensive sustain.

Brujeria.7536:

Spiteful Spirit needs a buff for sure. It could get a second effect “Steal life / deal damage when you remove a boon, 350 damage per boon removed” This would give a flat damage boost for boonhate , creating a niche for power builds that use axe / focus, plus adding an option for condi builds to deal with things like diamond skin and providing some offensive sustain.

Oooh I like this idea. Give a boon ripping power build.

Bhawb.7408:

Glyph of Unity isn’t a weaker retaliation. Any time you take damage, you deal damage to everyone tethered to you. So if 5 people are attacking you and those 5 are tethered, each one of them actually gets hit with 5x the retal damage they’d normally take.

On the note of Spiteful Spirit, it just doesn’t do much as a trait. Cripple is negligible, the damage won’t really add up compared to Close to Death, and the boon corruption is worse than a single Signet with the signet trait. The only thing this brings that is special is retaliation, and getting some retaliation on a trait that is otherwise entirely mediocre just doesn’t fit a GM tier trait.

Axe 3 is just really underwhelming since the cripple nerfs.

I know that the same patch with the cripple nerfs also changed a boon rip into a boon corruption. It wasn’t enough.

All 3 axe skills are bad