Guild Wars 2

Celestial Avatar -

Skill 1 – Cosmic Ray – Larger area of effect would be nice. It’s not fun to try using it on anyone that is moving, which is most often the case with the person you want to heal.
Also didn’t enjoy the spammy feeling of using this skill.

Skill 2 – Seed of Life – Make it 3 second duration, pulses condition removal 1per second, 3 total, bursts/heals at the end + applies regen/heals for more if condis were removed.
The current delay in condi removal, however short, makes it much less effective than instant, on demand condi removal, which is usually much more desirable and enjoyable to have.
Larger radius perhaps. Maybe 6s cool down, feels too similar to Cosmic Ray in terms of spamminess and effect.

Skill 3 – Lunar Impact – Feels good as it is. Blast finisher needs to work (it doesn’t at present). Maybe heal for slightly more.

Skill 4 – Tidal Surge – Feels okay, the heal is alright, could tick/pulse higher, water field okay, not much use when everyone is stacked/competing with other fields though, so the secondary intent of the skill is partially negated. Not sure what else would make this skill more interesting, or whether it needs something else to make it more fun to use.

Skill 5 – Natural Convergence – Pulse stability/protection for self and allies within the area. Could make this ability more interesting and useful in more situations and more fun to use.
I think adding the stability pulse to this skill would really work to round off the Celestial Avatar form and make it feel more full and complete.
Also it could make it more fun to use offensively, since the enemy will have no choice but to run away or eat the root. Instead of being able to simply flick the ranger away with a cc or knock back etc.

I haven’t found many opportunities on these forums to say this but I actually like your suggestions. .

Cosmic Ray – I agree with you regarding Cosmic Ray. The current iteration of the skill is the exact reason why I don’t like Grenade Kit on Engineer even though it’s such a powerful option; my wrists absolutely loathe me after a few minutes of skill use and make sure I am aware of their unbridled distaste for everything me. Pair that with the fact that hitting a target that’s actively trying to survive and it actually doesn’t tend to heal for much unless the Druid gets lucky

Seed of Life – I don’t mind this one too much but, personally, feel that it’s effect animation is very underwhelming. Half the time I can’t actually tell if the skill actually cast without looking at my skillbar and, likewise, if the seed has burst to apply its effect.

Lunar Impact – I wasn’t even aware that this was supposed to be a blast finisher. Aside from that I think this skill is one of the better ones we get in CA.

Tidal Surge – Honestly, this skill feels just right at the moment as a short duration, high impact, mobile water field. I found it was a large chunk of my healing output when stacking or grouped up.

Natural Convergence – I would love this change. We don’t get much access to stability and, as a result, this skill is pathetically easy to interrupt especially since it’s a channeled ability that roots us in place.

Thanks for your feedback Llethander

I agree on the subject of grenade engineer and similar types, where you need to constantly focus an area with ground targeted spells. Using your mouse to steer your character, control the camera and also to aim GT spells feels kind of sticky/messy, but I can’t see any solution at the moment, other than avoiding adding those types of mechanics, which is probably another reason that I don’t like Cosmic Ray

Agree very much with your point on Seed of Life regarding its appearance, and personally had thought to mention my distaste in the way it looks in my earlier post. I had some number of comments made to me by others, which I found to be congenial with my own opinion, that the thing looks rather ugly. For an object of healing, it appears to be nothing of the sort, rather more of a discoloured, disease riddled globule of pus to be avoided at any cost..

But that’s also beside the point. Perhaps if it were easier to identify/see on the ground, it might make it more effective to use. But I still can’t like the fact that it is like a second slot 1 skill that is boringly similar to Cosmic Ray.

Finally, Natural Convergence, given stability pulse would add good decision making to the Avatar, when you could say, do I need to heal my friends? or do they need this other kind of support right now? Could be more fun?

Some damage component to 1-3 and some effects

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Some damage component to 1-3 and some effects

Thanks ProtoMarcus. I like the idea of vigor for skill four, blind at the end of skill 5 makes sense to me as well.

Damage on some of the other skills also makes sense to me, since you are throwing out beams of what appear to be large amounts of energy, so making them also harm enemies could work well to make CA more effective the entire time it is up.

But that brings me to a point that I was considering, which is, what is the main intended purpose of celesial avatar?

To me Avatar feels like it doesn’t yet know what it wants/needs to be. Since you can sustain its use for 95% of the time and remain in it almost always, is it a stance? Should it be more of a power up with less access time and greater unlock/build up time for powerful healing? Is staff made redundant by it? Should staff need to compete with it, or can they be made to work well with each other?

My feeling is that CA should be a stance which allows for greater healing/support, while staff will be for the damage and other utility such as mobility. CA should drain slower and replenish itself by healing in that form, meaning it never has to be left, if desired.

Leaving CA would still fully deplete the resource, but getting back into CA should take longer/not be almost instant through the use of staff skills.. This would mean choosing between better damage or better healing. It would also add some interest in deciding to leave CA for the utility/movement skill of staff and then not being able to immediately return to CA, having a risk of reduced healing capability for a short while as you recharge your CA power might be fun/exciting?