Guild Wars 2

Spirit post nerf just arent good no matter how somebody try to shake it.

I believe I understand the concept that was trying to make. Basically a boon version of Turrets from Engineer.

Problem is similar to turrets though. They die too fast. Their boons and effects simply are too weak to make up for the disadvantages.

I can work around making them non-mobile, as bad as that may be,

but if thats going to be the case we are going to have to meet in the middle somewhere on this.

1) First, increase their cast time to instant. No point having 1 second long cast time while trying to run for cover only for the things to get eliminated in seconds.

2) Make them Ground Target summons. This way in thew heat of battle, we can safely place immobile Spirits in a safe location within radius away from primary targets (Self and Pet). This way we reduce the chance of the Spirits getting eliminated in seconds of spawn when you dont have time to prep the placement.

3) Give Spirits some kind of Defy Pain like effect that slow down the speed that they get burst down.

4) Spirits themselves need buffs on the passives as well as the actives if we going to meet in the middle to have them stay attackable and immobile. Here are some suggestions below, to buff their effects to add more group utility for these risky skills.

A) Water Spirit- Along side current effect, make the Water Spirit heal nearby allies every 3 seconds as a sort of constant field regen. Also have this regen small amount of Endurance and Energy for Revenants every 6 seconds.
a-2)Aqua Surge- have this skill lay down a Water field on sacrifice, that cleanse a condition and regens some Endurance and Energy. this would make great group utility for the risky sacrifice.

B) Frost Spirit – Along side current effect, make Frost spirit increase condition damage reduction.
b-2)Cold Snap along side the chill should also apply Slow to add some more needed defense.

C) Stone Spirit – Along side current effect this also removes boons from enemies on attack.
c-2)Quicksand, changed into Earthshake, which knocks down enemies, and stun breaks for allies while still applying Cripple.

D) Storm Spirit – along side current effect, the proc also has a chance to spawn a whirl finisher at your location.
d-2)Call Lightning is replaced by Vortex, on land similar to what some NPC use on land. AoE damage pulse, and pulls enemies to center. Also Whirl finisher.

E) Sun Spirit – along side current effect, increase Power and Healing Power passively.
e-2)Solar Flare pulses blindness and burning at the location while also granting regeneration.

F) Spirit of Nature – along side current effect, this Oak need to do a ground slam knock back attack.
f-2)Nature’s Renewal need a large AoE heal at location.

Not all changes need to be made. But something need to be done. Current Spirits are useless outside of PvE. Not even sure they good there either.

I would propose:

1) Healing/cleansing received by the player also heals/cleanses spirits
Anet doesn’t want to make spirits indestructible like warrior banners since they are sentient beings so let us sustain them through heals/cleanses. Spirits being healed/cleansed whenever you are healed would work nicely to sustain them in PVE since they generally take damage at the same time you do through AOEs. Also, since you are not healing spirits directly, they would not count towards the 5 man AOE heal cap. Would not be overpowered in PVP since players can still target your spirits to destroy them without having to worry about you healing your spirits directly. (Not that anyone would actually waste a heal/cleanse on a spirit but this is more for when Druids come out.)

2) Spirits get protection on dodge
Pets already have it so it makes sense to give it to spirits too; would help with burst/spike damage. Would be helpful if spirits also shared your defensive stats, particularly toughness.

3) Ground target with 1/2 second cast time
As OP stated, would help a lot in keeping spirits alive since you can place them in optimal areas without having to run all over the place and lose valuable time. 4 seconds to cast your spirits on a full spirit build at the start of a fight is too long currently; 2 seconds would be much better/fluid.

4) Start CD on cast instead of on spirit death or activation
This would encourage you to use the active ability after 20 seconds since you can resummon spirits immediately. Also, will help to make sure that you have spirits available at the start of each fight; ie., it makes the spirits more mobile without actually having them move around with you. Cooldown would probably need to increase though to compensate for this buff.

All of these changes are more quality of life changes, rather than direct buffs to spirits, and to help ensure that you are more consistently getting the benefits your spirits are designed to provide.