Guild Wars 2

I have been thinking that this mechanic is quite good, but since it only affects one attack, also quite limited. What if it was an intelligence sigil type effect, where 2 or 3 attacks were affected?

The only problem is that it requires Remorseless to reset. It should be the Grandmaster Minor that does it. The Adept and Master traits could easily be merged as well.

Opening Strike (Adapt Minor)
You and your pet cause vulnerability with you first strike when entering combat

Precise Strike (Master Minor)
Opening Strike always critical hits (100%).

Furious Strike (Grandmaster Minor)
Regain Opening Strike whenever you gain Fury

Remorseless (Grandmaster Major)
Opening Strike deals more damage (25%)

Opening strike in it’s self is ok, but with the rest of the traits that support it is really good. It does not need to apply like sigil of intel, it would be really broken if it did. You should be only looking to use it on our large scaling attacks, which is maul, path of scars, swoop, and rapid fire.

Opening strike its self gets a 0.25 multiplier, remorseless the grand master trait allows you to refreshes opening strike and adds an additional 0.25 multiplier to the attack when ever you gain furry.

There is plenty of ways to get furry; be it from: party members, red moa f2, strength of the pack, on wep swap with furious grip, on pet swap with clarion bond or any of the survival skills when traited into Wilderness knowledge.

If your struggling to get the numbers you want, you should try stacking multipliers which is where remorseless builds shine. Multipliers work multiplicatively, meaning before crit % damage you could easily get a x2.5 multiplier

If you compare it to other classes, it is quite lacking since it affects only the 1st attack, whereas other classes get a time based buff. That is what I am saying. So, no, it would not be broken at all if it affected 2 or 3 attacks. What is 25% on two or three attacks compared to 20% more damage for 8s every 8s or 20% more damage when your target is under 50% health? Or perma Fury and +16% damage? Those are better by far on a per hit basis, not only that, but they only require one trait whereas OS requires 4 traits.

Holland.9351:

The only problem is that it requires Remorseless to reset. It should be the Grandmaster Minor that does it. The Adept and Master traits could easily be merged as well…

I do like your ideas mate, I would do it slightly different though, ie

Opening Strike (Adept Minor)
You and your pet cause vulnerability when hitting with an Opening Strike.

Precise Strike (Master Minor)
Opening Strike always critical hits (100%).

Furious Strike (Grandmaster Minor)
Opening Strike affects two (3?) attacks.

Remorseless (Grandmaster Major)
Opening Strike deals more damage (25%)
You and your pet regain Opening Strike whenever you gain Fury.

That is a decent reward for taking up 4 traits.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I do like your ideas mate, I would do it slightly different though

I do like your idea, but I would make a slight change:

Opening Strike (Adept Minor)
You and your pet cause vulnerability when hitting with an Opening Strike.

Precise Strike (Master Minor)
Opening Strike always critical hits (100%).

Furious Strike (Grandmaster Minor)
You and your pet regain Opening Strike whenever you gain Fury.

Remorseless (Grandmaster Major)
Opening Strike deals more damage (25%)
Opening Strike affects two (3?) attacks.

Not sure about Opening Strikes applying more than once. Sigil of Intelligence applies to the next 3 hits but it’s tied solely to weapon/bundle swaps and comes with no damage boost. At least with Remorseless we could refresh it with Fury which can vary depending on build and utilities taken.

I’d rather see the proposed merge of Opening Strike & Alpha Training and Precise Strike dropped down to a Master Minor aforementioned above and see Steady Focus promoted as a Grandmaster Minor.

From there, another Master Major trait can be created. Maybe bring back the trait that refreshed Opening Strikes when activating a Signet and tie another functionality onto it such as, “Activating a Signet grants Opening Strikes to you and nearby allies. 240 radius.” Though, I would leave out any bonuses from Precise Strike or Remorseless with that.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If you compare it to other classes, it is quite lacking since it affects only the 1st attack, whereas other classes get a time based buff. That is what I am saying. So, no, it would not be broken at all if it affected 2 or 3 attacks. What is 25% on two or three attacks compared to 20% more damage for 8s every 8s or 20% more damage when your target is under 50% health? Or perma Fury and +16% damage? Those are better by far on a per hit basis, not only that, but they only require one trait whereas OS requires 4 traits.

I think your missing the point I’m trying to get across in my last post. Opening strike isn’t just 25% damage increase, its 5 stacks of vulnerability, and another 25% more damage on top of that when we proc remorseless. Those all stack multiplicatively not additive.

1.25(opening strke) * 1.25(remourseless) * [1+5(stacks of vulnerability)/100] = 1.64 or 64% damage increase.

No other class get a flat x1.64(or 64%) damage increase from a buff from a trait that has no icd, and tones of tools to refresh it. Applying that across 3 hits would be insane, as you could maul swoop maul off a weapon swap and obliterate just about anything in wvw.

To put what I mean in perspective own ranger would be somewhere in the ball park of 20k damage on someone who has 4k armor and 41k on a glass build off the combo mentioned above(maul, swoop, maul) in wvw, which would be broken as hell.

My guess is you want to get mileage out of opening strike without having to spec into remorseless, which I completely understand, however the idea having it apply across 3 hits would break the remorseless build and only end up with the class having nerfs in other areas that are either enjoyable or already lacking.

Holland.9351:

The only problem is that it requires Remorseless to reset. It should be the Grandmaster Minor that does it. The Adept and Master traits could easily be merged as well.

Opening Strike (Adapt Minor)
You and your pet cause vulnerability with you first strike when entering combat

Precise Strike (Master Minor)
Opening Strike always critical hits (100%).

Furious Strike (Grandmaster Minor)
Regain Opening Strike whenever you gain Fury

Remorseless (Grandmaster Major)
Opening Strike deals more damage (25%)

This is a good idea and opens up all builds to use opening strikes. +1

With the new 6/6/6 traits the opening strike minor traits has become meaningless, because before you could pick only half of a tree so it did make sense back then.
Not anymore if you pick marsmanship you automatically get all 3 so having the effect split into different traits is just arkward no downright stupid.
If you don’t take remorseless they all become wasted and we know that lead the wind is far superior to remorseless because of the 10% passive dmg boost and the piercing arrow adding a maximum 500% dmg boost by positionning in line with multiple target, knockback several targets with point blanck shot or rapid fire etc allowing us to pressure a res or simply shooting through mesmer clones for example

IMO remorseless along with all other minor traits should be combined into one.
And use the free spots to add something new.

For maul I prefer moment of clarity that adds 50% dmg on the next attack when interrupting anyway.

Opening strike needs to automatically refresh in combat without needing a grandmaster trait. Much like necromancer on death traits, which are also terrible, the ranger opening strike minors are really garbage from a sustained combat perspective.

Traits that only function once per encounter are notoriously bad. Especially on bosses.

Eval.2371:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If you compare it to other classes, it is quite lacking since it affects only the 1st attack, whereas other classes get a time based buff. That is what I am saying. So, no, it would not be broken at all if it affected 2 or 3 attacks. What is 25% on two or three attacks compared to 20% more damage for 8s every 8s or 20% more damage when your target is under 50% health? Or perma Fury and +16% damage? Those are better by far on a per hit basis, not only that, but they only require one trait whereas OS requires 4 traits.

I think your missing the point I’m trying to get across in my last post. Opening strike isn’t just 25% damage increase, its 5 stacks of vulnerability, and another 25% more damage on top of that when we proc remorseless. Those all stack multiplicatively not additive.

1.25(opening strke) * 1.25(remourseless) * [1+5(stacks of vulnerability)/100] = 1.64 or 64% damage increase.

No other class get a flat x1.64(or 64%) damage increase from a buff from a trait that has no icd, and tones of tools to refresh it. Applying that across 3 hits would be insane, as you could maul swoop maul off a weapon swap and obliterate just about anything in wvw….
…My guess is you want to get mileage out of opening strike without having to spec into remorseless, which I completely understand, however the idea having it apply across 3 hits would break the remorseless build and only end up with the class having nerfs in other areas that are either enjoyable or already lacking.

I think your math is wrong. Opening Strike does not to +25% damage without Remorseless.

Yeah, I want more mileage out of OS, because I need to take 4 traits for it to work properly and it only affects one hit. Then I also need to take a bunch of fury sources to proc it again, which is fine, but it still only affects one hit and takes an entire build built around Remorseless.

I say again, when other classes get a flat damage increase over a period of time, we get that only on one single hit and need to continually proc fury to get it again. Which even in a dedicated team, still does less damage than a flat +10% increase from PO.

Perhaps if we had a trait such as No Quarter or Flanking Strikes (without the quickness for a shorter CD) or Opportunist, or Berserkers Fury, Elemental Contingency, Master Fencer (omg that would be amazing), No Scope etc. Then you would have enough fury sources to make it as good as a time based buff, not a single hit.

Or maybe just have Remorseless refresh Opening Strikes when you gain Fury and every time you gain Fury, it grants a temporary 3% damage buff that stacks up to 5 times on top of a 15% damage buff to Opening Strikes.

Edit: Changed values a bit. Old ones seemed too flat to keep that burst damage.

If the opening strike refresh on fury was made a minor combined with all current minor,
Remorseless (the +25% dmg on opening strike) could still be a viable GM trait for melee ranger and Lead the Wind would be for Longbow.
I think predator onslaught could totally be replaced by something more fun like “when you hit a foe with 25 stacks of vulnerability, inflict fear on this foe”
Since piercing arrows requires perfect positioning in pvp and we ranger don’t have blink nor the greatest mobility of all classes I suggest as new minor trait “Cheetah Sprint” grants you and your pet 2 seconds of superspeed on succesfully dodging an attack.
And also “Dreadful Strikes” As long as a foe you hit has a vulnerability active applied by you, he will apply vulnerability every second to his nearby allies (vulnerability applied by this trait arent considered applied by you)

Fear on vulnerability… Not a fan of that, especially for melee.

I would like to see enhanced vulnerability effect, like Vulnerability does 1.5% damage per stack instead of 1%. Mesmer has that as a GM Minor trait.

The problem i have with opening strike is your forced into taking remorseless to make any use of it. I like everyones idea’s of moving the fury part of remorseless to one of the minor traits.
I think on top of that however it should be: Regain opening strike every x seconds while under the effect of fury. Cause as of right now i’ve noticed that remorseless cant get it to proc all the time when u pop fury to much. Plus making opening strike proc off of x duration under fury buff would also allow players to manage their fury buffs better and make better use of prolonged fury buffs.

I think remorseless is fine…its Maul and PoS that suck…

And the lack of any other burst skills.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I think your math is wrong. Opening Strike does not to +25% damage without Remorseless.

You can think my math wrong all you want. The multiplier is there and its written on the first minor too.Unspec out of marksmanship… Attack, respec into it attack.

There is a definite discrepancy. Also, before you say that 25% is base for both remorseless and opening strike… its clearly written as more damage and math proves it be.

Edit I totally went and tested this and I am wrong. for what ever reason opening strike the minor trait does not increase our damage at all. Only if we have remorseless. However the additional more damage does factor in when procing it with furry.

avg maul on crit on golems without marksman: 3.2k
avg maul on crit on golems with marksman: 3.2k
avg maul on crit on golems /w remorseless: 3.9k
avg maul on crit on golems refreshing opening: 4.8k

was done on the large pile of golems in the training area.

The grand master Remorseless should read: Opening strike does 25% an additional damage. Furry refreashes opening strike. When opening strike is refreashed by furry damage increases by 25%.

Which means our first minor does nothing other than apply 5 stacks of vaun.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I say again, when other classes get a flat damage increase over a period of time, we get that only on one single hit and need to continually proc fury to get it again. Which even in a dedicated team, still does less damage than a flat +10% increase from PO.

I agree to disagree. PO is better for longer sustained fights. remorseless is better for trash/quick fights. With damage being how it is right now, everything goes down fast. As long as your playing zerk/valk meta, remorseless is better.

Again if you don’t believe me go do 30 sec dps rotations of both optimal builds. The difference will be roughly 8% damage difference(147k vs 158k), however remorseless will do over 1/2 of its damage in the first 8 seconds.

I don’t like having all 3 minor trait linked to remorseless only, if I take lead the wind I remove all synergy, this need to be adressed