Guild Wars 2

5 seconds seems too short for a abilities on such an extensive cooldown (even when traited). Maybe if they lasted 10 seconds and spread out the “pulses” accordingly…or am I way off base here?

Once upon a time wells ticked once per second and lasted 10(I think) seconds.
Anet however disapproved and made it tick every 2nd second. Necro’s were upset.
Anet then made it 5 seconds, but tick every second, and everyone was happy again.

I don’t think they should have longer durations as they’re rather good, but I don’t think well of power deserves the 60s CD, when comparing to well of corruption and suffering on their shorter CD’s.

I do agree. I’m not a balance expert or anything, but I feel a 15% reduction in their base CDs wouldn’t break anything..
45s → 38.25s (30.6s traited)
60s → 51s (40.8s traited)

Its a problem with SPVP, where the wells cover the entire cap point. The wells feel weak in WvW and PVE because how little they can do over the course of a fight, or how easy they are to avoid. In Spvp, they can’t be avoided if you want to contest the point, and therefore will never get buffed anymore than they are right now, which is arguably a very good place.

10 Seconds would be a nerf in PvP where you want a high spike damage setting (you aren’t keeping enemies in a well for 10 seconds), and a buff in PvE where being able to sit in dark/light fields every fight is really nice.

For pvp purposes it’s always about doing as much damage in the shortest possible time with the least amount of risk. Traiting for targeted wells decreases the risks involved by giving you range. Traiting for shorter cool downs on wells increasing the amount of damage you do by increasing the frequency of well usage. For me, wells are used to stave off groups of people briefly or to quickly kill one person. I will not use wells in a 1v1 unless I have dagger immobilize and golem charge off cool down. Locking someone down in wells is in my experience almost a guaranteed kill.

Point being if they increase the duration of wells but spread the pulses out, the targets stuck in wells will take less damage as it gives them more opportunities to move. I can keep someone stuck in a well for 5 seconds to get the most damage out of it. I can’t keep them there for 10 seconds. It would essentially reduce wells effective damage by half.

Thanks for your input all, I forget sometimes that balance is based around pvp.

While I now understand why a 10 second duration would be unwanted, I still would like to see a reduction in CD. Not a huge one, just minor like Nickczh suggested.