Guild Wars 2

Sebrent.3625:

Let’s make something clear … I (and others) don’t give two craps how much time anyone claims to have anywhere in the game. Do you know how many people I’ve interviewed for actual jobs at my workplace that have claimed years of experience with something and either didn’t have knowledge that reflected that or were completely BSing?

Saying you have X time with something means nothing.

To make the point even clearer … do you know how many hours my kids (9 & 5) have on Minecraft? Tons. They’ve even made their own minecraft videos for their friends. Does that make them experts? Heck no.

This isn’t just directed at you mistsim … plenty of people doing this every day.

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Now that that is out of the way …

Whether or not Path of Scars is “too slow” is debatable. Even with it hitting once per usage, it has some of the highest Ranger weapon DPS. If it double-taps, it’s head and shoulders above other skills. Would I like it to be faster? Sure. Does it need it? That’s debatable … It either needs to be faster or we (the players) need to work with the current speed.

Whirling Defense. Is it horrible DPS? Yes. It’s worse than all auto-attacks except for MH Axe when it isn’t double-tapping the target.

Does being immobile for so long make us an easy target for any non-projectiles? Yes

Do these two facts largely see the glory of Path of Scars overshadowed by Whirling Defense? My opinion is yes and I believe I’ve seen several other opinions that match my own on this one … though some of them thinking allowing movement during it would be sufficient while I think we’d need to look at an OH weapon skill with a huge cooldown doing less than auto-attacks … as that throws a red flag in my mind.

I do like your suggestion for us to be allowed to do other things during it … functionally that would be nice. From an actual look and feel though, I’m not sold. How would I be keeping up a whirling defense with my axes while my hands are doing other things or I’m rolling on the ground?

Tbh not all skills are used for dps purposes, and it shouldn’t be either. Many skills do lower damage than auto-attack, but some of them still have sufficient usages because of secondary effects. Whirlwind Defense may have horrible dps yes, but if we’re allowed to move while using it, the lower dps is somewhat justified because now we have a mobile reflection that can help yourself and the whole party while not being completely vulnerable. Though a little dps inhancement is very welcomed, I think allowing mobile is the utmost priority for Whirlwind Defense to be remotely useful in more situations.

To be frank…
…
I kinda got used to WD being immobile. But I’d definitely welcome an added stability or toughness into it. A quality of life improvements are always welcome.

I doubt we’ll get it mobile.

Isn’t Rev getting a skill like that? But it’s hammers that fly around?

stability on WD would actually make it a great skill.
Right now, it’s “merely” a good skill. Flinging 4k damage projectiles back at a lich is so much fun.
WD has one problem and that problem isn’t the inability to move or the low damage. It’s part of a tool kit, no damage machine. I love ranger for not having those damage rotations of other classes and I’d like to keep it that way. The problem of WD is that it’s one of the few long lasting, static anti-projectile skills, that can be broken up by a stun.
Pulling out whirling axes is a great way to defend your team from an enemy lich. However, all the lich needs to do to break your defense is use chilling wind, then he can happily start slapping around deathly claws again.
Rangers are already heavily taxed in the stability department and using signet of the wild to pull off a full whirling defense isn’t the way to go.
Giving the skill itself stability is interesting. Not only could you keep the reflect up through heavy attacks, you could also cancel the skill early to make use of the stability. I’d happily trade the vulnerability on hit for stability on cast.

About PoS, which is not a PoS at all: It’s a great, yet unreliable skill. In a hasty melee engagement, it’s not that good, unless chained with cc, but as soon as the opponent tries to break contact, you can nail them.
I’ve pulled so many escaping opponents back into melee range, I lost count.
It’s an interrupt, a spike skill, great AoE and a pull all rolled into a single package. Seriously, if it was any stronger or any more reliable on its own, I’d be the first one to demand a nerf.

Trait into BM. You get 15s CD on swap and also on PoS. Take Dogs. You get a KD on pet swap. Swap pets. Use PoS. Profit.

Don’t know if it has been brought up already, but the proposed change has a flaw: If the proposed PoS with the knockback hits an opponent on the way outwards, just on the edge of its range, he will be pushed out of the range and won’t be pulled back to the player.

Perfect video showing how powerful PoS is in the right hands.