(edited by Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582)
HoT traits - 15 changes to perfect.
Got to say, I like a lot of these suggestions, especially the ones that make use of skills GW1 and updating it to fit the Ranger now.
PET PRECISION & DPS TESTS -OUTDATED-
Will update once Path of Fire releases.
Will update once Path of Fire releases.
Things I liked:
5, 9, 10…
- Making the Fall Trait plant a Spike Trap instead of Muddy Terrain and removing Trapper’s Defense in favor of something new (anything new, really). Just a straight-up good idea.
- Fortifying Bond copying Stability is a reasonable buff.
- Adding Retaliation to Instinctual Bond seems fair, and it makes the ‘do I hit the pet’ choice for the opponent less of a no-brainer.
Things I’d totally change:
6, 7….
We ultimately do need a revive skill somewhere, while I think Nature’s Bounty is good add because it has alot of synergy elsewhere – I think they were right to cut Circle of Life as it’s more about easing bad play than making play overall more entertaining. Attack speed in skirmishing seems like a natural fit given quickdraw, but I think some tweaking can expand the build possibilities and feel a bit less passive.
- Healer’s Celerity:
Increases revive speed 10%.
Regen you apply has a 25% duration increase.
Regen you or your Pets apply affect Downed Players.
- Carnivorous Appetite:
While under the effect of Swiftness, your attacks are faster and your attacks heal you. While they are under the effect of Swiftness, your pet’s attacks are faster and heal them.
Things I’m not a fan of:
4, 12…
I think when you start getting into anti-anti-movement-impairment, the passive soft counters have officially gotten out-of-hand.
The whole idea of a soft counter is that it gives you something to do during combat as a response to your opponent’s action that mollifies it’s impact. It’s supposed to be a space for skill to swing the outcome in spite of your respective build choices, not to be yet another build choice. On the whole, I think the ilk of Dogged March are really ill-conceived, and I can’t support escalating the concept.
(edited by Vox Hollow.2736)
The reason I think that Predator’s Onslaught needs that +25% buff is because it is useless in PvP/WvW because of the reduction in those conditions, all of them are already short duration and -33% to those makes them very very short, let alone -66% from Reaper or -40% food or holbrak/melandru etc. +25% of 2s is only 0.5s
The Ranger traits coming with HoT are pretty nice and most are in a good place, but with Empathic Bond and Wilderness Knowledge in the same tier with Poison Master, it makes PM basically never available for use in PvP or WvW and Wilderness Survival (WS) mandatory as well.
As the author of the other thread on this very topic, I also care a lot about making every trait line roughly equally appealling. Having just 1 trait line with condi removal makes it absolutely mandatory in every PVP/WVW build, as the non-trait condi removal options for ranger are just crap.
Also I want to be able to run poison master & still be able to remove condis half-decently.
1. Change EB to remove 5 conditions on pet swap. That is only slightly better than currently and is counterable by killing the pet.
Dislike, mainly because even traited, this is only usable once every 16sec (20sec when untraited).
I think a better version would be:
“Remove 2 conditions on swapping pets or using a pet’s F2 ability”.
This gives a bit more flexibility to the how & when of the condi removal, and adds some nice build flavour to using different pets based on the length of their F2 CD. There’s also a nice bit of risk:reward friction between using the F2 for the sake of the F2’s effect versus the condi removal.
Everything else in the preview is mostly good to me, though I think Honed Axesis still kinda weak for a GM.
downed state is bad for PVP
(edited by scerevisiae.1972)
Zephyr’s Speed is very very good.
2 conditions on F2 and pet swap is not very much condition removal, I would honestly prefer it as is than that, just move it to Master slot in BM. If your pet is dead then you are looking at kitten (if it was in BM) at best before you can remove 2 conditions again with the swap and due to pets having wildly varying F2 CD times, you can’t really do it with that, else everyone will just run birds and it will be OP and then nerfed.
If you put EB into BM, then it is automatically traited for swap CD.
Take notes arenanet! I really like your suggestions.
What I was thinking about is giving some of the new resistance boom to ranger with traits. Maybe a adept trait could read: gain 3 seconds of resistance when you evade.
EB needs a change. The interval mechanic is horrible so either decrease the interval (like transfer 1 condition every 4 sec instead of 3 every 10) or bind it to pet swap like suggested. Also completely agree that it should be in beastmastery or atleast definitely not in the same line as wilderness knowledge!
I am fine with all these changes. They’d go a long way to improving build diversity. I’ve long wanted Fortifying Bond to be in the Beastmaster line. It’s a little frustrating that the best BM trait is in Nature Magic.
Zephyr’s Speed is very very good.
2 conditions on F2 and pet swap is not very much condition removal, I would honestly prefer it as is than that, just move it to Master slot in BM. If your pet is dead then you are looking at kitten (if it was in BM) at best before you can remove 2 conditions again with the swap and due to pets having wildly varying F2 CD times, you can’t really do it with that, else everyone will just run birds and it will be OP and then nerfed.
If you put EB into BM, then it is automatically traited for swap CD.
IDK, removing condis only once every 16sec is pretty useless IMO.
2 condis every pet swap and F2 is plenty of condi removal. swap pet, use F2 = 4 condis removed. that’s pretty kitten strong.
that the condi removal requires the pet to be kept alive is a key part of the risk:reward part of the trait.
even running birds, the max condi removal is 2condis/16sec + 2condis/9sec == max condi clearance rate of 1condi / 3sec (0.34condi clear/sec), which is about right IMO.
the difference from this version of EB to current EB is that this impl requires more skill to maximise & comes with more interesting build implications.
downed state is bad for PVP
(edited by scerevisiae.1972)
IDK, removing condis only once every 16sec is pretty useless IMO.
Curing conditions every 16 seconds on pet swap is fine as long as you bring Healing Spring for a second source of cleansing. Healing Spring alone is a very strong condition clearing skill. Between Healing Spring and the described Empathic Bond I don’t see condition users being an especially large threat.
Or, if you’re going for a shout build, you’d be able to cure one condition each time you use a shout to cover you during those 16 second intervals. Then spirit rangers have the Spirit of Nature’s cleanse for emergencies and are probably running Healing Spring too for the AoE regen. Trap rangers will definitely be using Healing Spring after it’s made into a trap. Since Empathic Bond is meant to be our condition clear for non-Survival builds it’d work fine with the builds that don’t use survival.
And it’s not like a single trait should make us 100% immune to conditions anyway. Survival of the Fittest is only effective if you bring a bunch of survival skills. Likewise Empathic Bond is meant to give us some breathing room against conditions baseline so that we only need one other strong source of condi cleanse to survive, which it does with this change.
Besides, I really don’t want to be using my pet’s F2 to cure conditions. Those have to be timed very well in order to maximize their effectiveness, and if I’m blowing them to get conditions off me I’m not using them to the best of their ability.
even running birds, the max condi removal is 2condis/16sec + 2condis/9sec == max condi clearance rate of 1condi / 3sec (0.34condi clear/sec), which is about right IMO.
Hawk and eagle is 6s on F2 and that would be very OP.
Hawk and eagle is 6s on F2 and that would be very OP.
easy, put a 10sec CD on the condi clear from the F2.
downed state is bad for PVP
Besides, I really don’t want to be using my pet’s F2 to cure conditions. Those have to be timed very well in order to maximize their effectiveness, and if I’m blowing them to get conditions off me I’m not using them to the best of their ability.
IMO that’s what would make it a good GM – it requires a unique strategy to maximise its effectiveness, IMO the hallmark of what makes a good GM trait.
also, it’s not altogether different to SotF – sometime one needs to blow a Survival CD in order to clear those 10 confusion/bleed stacks, rather than using the Survival skill for the skill effect per se.
In any case, losing condis passively every 10 or 16sec IMO is not a good GM trait. it’s maybe ok for master (albeit a little boring), but not for GM.
downed state is bad for PVP
IMO that’s what would make it a good GM – it requires a unique strategy to maximize its effectiveness, IMO the hallmark of what makes a good GM trait.
also, it’s not altogether different to SotF – sometime one needs to blow a Survival CD in order to clear those 10 confusion/bleed stacks, rather than using the Survival skill for the skill effect per se.
In any case, losing condis passively every 10 or 16sec IMO is not a good GM trait. it’s maybe ok for master (albeit a little boring), but not for GM.
I can appreciate being forced to make strategic choices, but not like that. One of the reasons elementalists didn’t like Glyph of Elemental Power becoming a stunbreaker is because it was counter-intuitive to use it as a stunbreaker. It’s an offensive skill that was given a vital defensive mechanic.
Similarly not all F2 skills are meant to be defensive. Say I have my river drake out. Should I blow my 30 second cooldown offensive blast when my enemy isn’t properly lined up? Even with the defensive pets I wouldn’t want to blow my 45 second cooldown AoE fear that is VITAL for my survival because I need to clear two conditions.
Then you have the problem with cooldowns in general. Making the F2 clear conditions would make this trait highly sub-optimal to anyone not running dual birds, thus making Empathic Bond a bad trait to bring for any build that doesn’t call for two pets with extremely short cooldowns.
Meanwhile pet swapping is something you can usually afford to do fairly regularly, and there’s a ton of synergy with other traits to encourage you to swap pets often.
Though I agree that Empathic Bond as just a passive removal of conditions every 10 seconds isn’t very good. I want my condition removal on command, but I also want it attached to something that I would benefit from using when I need to lose conditions. The survival skills aren’t nearly as situational as pet F2 skills. That’s why I’m in favor of it clearing conditions on pet swap, but not on activation of the pet F2. Pet Swap is already a utility/survival move.
I agree with Ehecatl. What happens when your pet is dead and cannot use the F2? Or when you do not want it to attack, or waste the F2, but you need the condi cleanse?
There are already several on-swap traits that would work well with one that removed conditions, which is why I suggested EB remove on swap. You would then still be able to take WK in the WS line, or HS/SoR for interval removals, but you have a condi burst removal on swap, being able to trait for might, swiftness, fury, quickness, poison at the same time – on swap.
There is already a lackluster GM that activates on pet F2. Invigorating Bond. It, on the other hand, could have 2 conditions added to it’s effect and it would be better. That would then serve the right purpose.
EB should either be made 1 condition per 3s or 5 conditions on swap. Imo.
They did a lot of merging and got rid of a lot of useless traits, but I’m surprised they decided to keep Predator’s Instinct. Imo it should just be merged with Predator’s Onslaught, because it’s not even worth an adept, even if you reduce it’s cooldown.
Ranger
More surprised they didn’t merge and kept Trapper’s Defense.
PET PRECISION & DPS TESTS -OUTDATED-
Will update once Path of Fire releases.
Will update once Path of Fire releases.
They did a lot of merging and got rid of a lot of useless traits, but I’m surprised they decided to keep Predator’s Instinct. Imo it should just be merged with Predator’s Onslaught, because it’s not even worth an adept, even if you reduce it’s cooldown.
That is a fantastic idea. I’ll add that to the OP.
One of the reasons elementalists didn’t like Glyph of Elemental Power becoming a stunbreaker is because it was counter-intuitive to use it as a stunbreaker. It’s an offensive skill that was given a vital defensive mechanic.
Not really, the reason GoEP shouldn’t be a stunbreak is that it’s a skill that sets up a passive proc, which means it must be used before combat to have any effect.
Similarly not all F2 skills are meant to be defensive. Say I have my river drake out. Should I blow my 30 second cooldown offensive blast when my enemy isn’t properly lined up? Even with the defensive pets I wouldn’t want to blow my 45 second cooldown AoE fear that is VITAL for my survival because I need to clear two conditions.
what you just described is opportunity cost: do i blow my offensive CD to clear condis or do i wear the condis to use my offensive skill at a more opportune time? this is a good thing from a game design POV.
this is no different than for e.g. running SotF with 3 survival utilities and deciding to use QZ to clear condis vs using it during an optimal burst window.
Making the F2 clear conditions would make this trait highly sub-optimal to anyone not running dual birds, thus making Empathic Bond a bad trait to bring for any build that doesn’t call for two pets with extremely short cooldowns.
“highly sub-optimal” might be overbaking it a little ;-) 2x 30sec F2s would still give a lot of condi removal on demand.
but there could also for e.g. be an offensive component to the F2 trigger, e.g. it could be:
“Remove 2 conditions on swapping pets. When your pet uses its F2, you transfer 2 of your conditions to your target and your pet steals a boon”
That way, the F2 could also be used effectively offensively as well.
Meanwhile pet swapping is something you can usually afford to do fairly regularly, and there’s a ton of synergy with other traits to encourage you to swap pets often.
That’s why I’m in favor of it clearing conditions on pet swap, but not on activation of the pet F2. Pet Swap is already a utility/survival move.
Pet swap can also be offensive too, e.g. the quickness GM.
I too like the basic idea of EB being less passive, and pet swap as the trigger makes a fair amount of sense. It just needs something extra, cause a GM condi clear trait that only clears condis every 16sec is not something i would ever choose.
downed state is bad for PVP
…I too like the basic idea of EB being less passive, and pet swap as the trigger makes a fair amount of sense. It just needs something extra, cause a GM condi clear trait that only clears condis every 16sec is not something i would ever choose.
The idea was that it should take the Master spot in BM, replacing Wilting Strike, which would be merged with Beastly Warden. So you could still have WK or Poison Master as well as Zephyr’s Speed for an on-swap build. If I were making the on-swap build like that, I would totally take Beastmasters Bond, Beastmaster’s Might, Poison Master, EB, Zephy’s Speed with Signet of Renewal, that would be great, the active of SoR plays well with the swap traits.
(edited by Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582)