As I feared, they didn’t make too many good changes from the last reveal. in fact, quite a few of our traits were nerfed, some deservedly so. Half of our GM’s will not be competitive with the others, so quite a few opportunities missed here.
Traps look very strong. I don’t care that you can’t throw them any longer. they’re basically like necro marks and serve as area denial. imagine dancing in and out of your traps with the shortbow/sword/x build while enemies get knocked down, chilled, burned, etc. looks interesting to say the least.
Predator’s Onslaught – remains confined to PVE only due to how strong Remorseless and LTW are; pretty disappointing.
Strider’s Defense is in a better place (Master), could be competitive as the cd reduction is good
QZ buffed to not take a healing penalty, gives superspeed. yes please.
LOYF was not moved from GM which basically ensures this trait will never get used. very disappointed about this one as I was looking forward to some SB play. in addition, condi dmg and duration decreased to only +5%. sadly, it looks like we’ll only be seeing Quickdraw from this line.
MDG is worthy of a master probably in current form. staying below 50% health for longer than a few seconds is basically impossible, as any thief or shatter Mesmer will explode you into downed state. not sure if these guys play their own game.
Barkskin nerfed quite a bit, but maybe for the better. -33% is still ok for reducing the spike damage. mechanic clarified, looks useful to take the edge off thief or mesmer openers
Refined toxins – obvious choice for builds that don’t use torch + dagger; if SB is viable, this is the trait to go with
Empathic Bond – seeing how strong WK and survival skills are, this GM will only be used by those who wish to not use survival utilities. so maybe trapper rangers will use this.
Poison Master nerfed – not sure how strong poison stacking is going to be. but regardless we likely wont be seeing this one as WK is way too strong.
Rejuvenation minor nerfed – triggers on 50% health now instead of 75%. likely done to make Oakheart Salve less strong.
Instinctive reaction – some quickness below 50% HP, not bad for adept
Allies aid – wow, awesome. very interesting =)
Protective Ward – remains pretty cool, lower prot duration but will be pretty much mandatory if going down this line
Invigorating Bond – remains unchanged and therefore useless, again very disappointed. 2k heal with 1200 HP every 20s is very underwhelming
Loud Whistle minor – buffed to also allow pets to do extra damage while ranger pet is above 90% – very nice for bunkers who wont have problems maintaining this requisite
Pet’s Prowess minor – nerfed to only 300 ferocity from 450; could be for good reason as birds will hit very hard
Pack Alpha minor – added some more stats to pets and reduced skills recharge; nice for minor
twitch asploded here so I will add impressions regarding other BM traits if they changed.
what do you guys think of spirits? they seemed very underwhelming to me. not sure what their boons are going to be, they seemed different. im reserved about em right now, maybe I missed something important.
(edited by mistsim.2748)