Guild Wars 2

Ok, so with a simple change, I think this can be a really decent trait. It is fairly decent in dual melee builds, but it has no real synergy with any other traits and sword skills don’t really need a CD reduction as they are pretty short as it is, that is still nice to have, though. It also cannot compete with Spotter for PvE, nor Hidden Barbs for condition builds, so it has a bit of a niche with melee builds, just no real synergy.

My suggestion is to change the destroy projectiles effect to an evade projectiles effect, thus giving it synergy with Primal Reflexes.

That would be a great change then imo and make the pair of these traits more attractive to take.

Imo, LoYF should also be changed to an on-evade condition (with 5s ICD) and not an on-dodge condition, giving all three synergy together, but that is a topic for another thread.

Thoughts?

Interesting idea, I love the synergy with a lower tier trait, makes sense. Though I run a duel melee build in wvw and I still can’t agree it will be elevated into a decent trait. I basically run it only because I need the cooldown reduction on sword skills (which is nice) but the projectile destruction cannot even be considered a bonus knowing how utterly worthless it is. I dueled a power necro earlier today spamming life blast and of course lich form, and it did not proc once in the entire fight. It is pathetic and I am surprised anet did not rework it this patch.

I do not want a chance to avoid projectiles, I want to know exactly when it activates so I can use it intelligently to my advantage.

I can think up so many alternatives to the current rng crap we got.

- Destroy every fourth projectile instead of 25% chance
- Destroy/block/evade the next three projectiles when swapping to a melee weapon
- Gain Protection for 3 seconds when you evade an attack while wielding a melee weapon – 15 seconds icd
- Deflect 1 projectile to a nearby enemy upon sucessful evasion or block
- Reflect 1 projectile after dodging – 9 seconds icd
- Projectiles do 33% less damage for 3 seconds after you gain swiftness
- Destroy projectiles while casting Leap Finishers

etc etc…

Some nice ideas there, I like quite a few of them.
I really like prot on evade!

Strider’s Defense; “You gain Protection for 2 seconds when you evade an attack while wielding a melee weapon. Your sword skills recharge 20% faster. This trait has an 8s ICD." Primal Reflexes AND some Companion’s Defense synergy.

That would be golden, imo.

Auto attacks deflect projectiles. Can only activate 3 times every 10 seconds.

(for the entire duration of the auto attack animation , all projectiles are deflected).

This wouldn’t prefer sword though. It would actually create more imbalance with greatsword I suppose. Although it would be nice

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Some nice ideas there, I like quite a few of them.
I really like prot on evade!

Strider’s Defense; “You gain Protection for 2 seconds when you evade an attack while wielding a melee weapon. Your sword skills recharge 20% faster. This trait has an 8s ICD." Primal Reflexes AND some Companion’s Defense synergy.

That would be golden, imo.

“striders defence 50% Destoryed projectiles while evading” when a projectile is destroyed in this way you and your pet gain 2secs of protection and or 1 second of Retailiation. No ICD s depends on the amount of arrows hitting you during the evades could stack more Boons.

you could purposefuly stand infront of a lot of projectiles build up protection and retailitation to a point where you have enough retailiation to get the opposing player to shot shooting at you , where as then you will have a good amount of protection.

you’ll have 50% chance while using a evade skill to trigger destory the projectile which in turn grants protections and retailiation.

this way you can control its uptime by adding or evades or dodges.

imo, that suggestion would be too OP for my liking.

Keep the concept of projectile defense, that’s where the name comes from, and it’s something the ranger lack which a pure melee build can benefit alot from. Whirling Defense doesn’t always cut it..

But make it reliable so you can actually use it as a defense without having to swing autoattack in pure frustration waiting for a random deflect that might not even happen. If possible, create some synergy with Primal Reflexes.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Some nice ideas there, I like quite a few of them.
I really like prot on evade!

Strider’s Defense; “You gain Protection for 2 seconds when you evade an attack while wielding a melee weapon. Your sword skills recharge 20% faster. This trait has an 8s ICD." Primal Reflexes AND some Companion’s Defense synergy.

That would be golden, imo.

I really like this idea, I’d also like to see a trait that increases our sword damage similar to the GS. sword already provides might, vigor might be nice in addition to protection on evade. 2s of a boon isn’t going to break the game or give an unfair advantage.

I don’t see the excitement about prot on dodge. Good? Sure, but kinda dull.

Reflect on successfull evades /reflect X number of projectile(s) after a successfull evade (with a short ICD) while wielding a melee weapon is more interesting and true the concept of the trait and the concept of skirmishing for that matter, while still having syngery with Primal Reflexes.

LoYF should change to successfull evades aswell at the same time.

Lazze.9870:

I don’t see the excitement about prot on dodge. Good? Sure, but kinda dull.

Reflect on successfull evades /reflect X number of projectile(s) after a successfull evade (with a short ICD) while wielding a melee weapon is more interesting and true the concept of the trait and the concept of skirmishing for that matter, while still having syngery with Primal Reflexes.

LoYF should change to successfull evades aswell at the same time.

I thought about reflect on evade, Mesmer has that and it is good, but short lived and only works with projectiles. LoYF with evades, and stack, would be perfect imo.

Maybe something like +300 toughness while wielding a melee weapon. +30% chance to block projectiles while wielding a melee weapon w/ a 20% chance to proc toughness on projectile hit for 4-5 seconds with a 15 sec ICD or something. It’s passive, but I’m finding a hard time rewarding active game play with this skill without reworking it completely from scratch.

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

My name is Tragic Positive and I approve this idea.

really nice idea /15char

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

Yes, very nice.

Still, evade or block would be better for synergy with other things.

There’s enough evades on Sword to have synergy with other things by default.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

Yes, very nice.

Still, evade or block would be better for synergy with other things.

No love for GS tho?

StickerHappy.8052:

No love for GS tho?

Oh, all right.

Strider’s Defense:
“Sword, Greatsword, and Spear skills now destroy projectiles.”
(does not include auto attacks)

StickerHappy.8052:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

Yes, very nice.

Still, evade or block would be better for synergy with other things.

No love for GS tho?

I’m not sure if GS needs this. It already has Counter-Attack that does it on a quite long time period.

Monarch’s Leap, and Swoop now evade projectiles.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Monarch’s Leap, and Swoop now evade projectiles.

Nah. Projectile blocks are fine. You know how annoying and broken that would be to ML or Swoop point blank at people swinging at you melee and you evade EVERYTHING? I know you want synergy and all with evades, but really, Ranger has enough vigor and evades to go around.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

but short lived and only works with projectiles.

I don’t see how that’s a problem, the trait was probably inspired by this scene in the first place: https://youtu.be/FJf8puSIXTg?t=36s

I like the concept. Just remove the randomness from it. Making it apply to skill 2-3/5 on GS and sword like someone above mentioned is a great idea.

+1, the trait does suck, and just isn’t a reliable method for any sort of strategy.
" Destroy projectiles while casting Leap Finishers" would be a perfect way to change it, adding more thought into the way people melee, when they want to use their leaps, etc.

Would giving Hornet’s Sting the ability to destroy projectiles be much a benefit, since you spend nearly all of it evading anyway?

Overall, I do like the idea of specific skills destroying projectiles, and I do agree with the sentiment GreatSword should to be included too. But I think that sort of functionality on Swoop is a bit overpowered.

What about improving existing coverage on the GreatSword instead of adding more?:
“Monarch’s Leap and Serpent’s Strike now destroys projectiles. Counter-attack now reflects projectiles”?

How about we tack on “while using this trait, you are able to move while using whirling defense”? Seems to go with the concept and would be a biggie to bringing back the axe imo.

Lazze.9870:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

but short lived and only works with projectiles.

I don’t see how that’s a problem, the trait was probably inspired by this scene in the first place: https://youtu.be/FJf8puSIXTg?t=36s

I was talking about Mesmer reflects.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Monarch’s Leap, and Swoop now evade projectiles.

Nah. Projectile blocks are fine. You know how annoying and broken that would be to ML or Swoop point blank at people swinging at you melee and you evade EVERYTHING? I know you want synergy and all with evades, but really, Ranger has enough vigor and evades to go around.

There is really no difference between blocking/evading/destroying, at the end of the day, you still did not take that damage. How would it be less annoying and broken if you could just swoop and block everything?

You can’t really just have it apply to all projectiles at a certain time, with the other evades it would be too OP, imo. better to keep the RNG and make the mechanic evade 25% of projectiles or change it to a short Prot on evade, that would be the best option as it covers all bases. To quote myself from earlier…

Strider’s Defense; “You gain Protection for 2 seconds when you evade an attack while wielding a melee weapon. Your sword skills recharge 20% faster. This trait has an 8s ICD."

As it is now, imo, it should be evade or block and not destroy, because, they are essentially all the same and it would give actual synergy between traits.

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

Since they already evade I say make it a reflect. That is a worthy trait.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Lazze.9870:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

but short lived and only works with projectiles.

I don’t see how that’s a problem, the trait was probably inspired by this scene in the first place: https://youtu.be/FJf8puSIXTg?t=36s

I was talking about Mesmer reflects.

I know…?

The way you worded yourself made it sound like “copying” the effect would be a problem.

its RNG so it will always suck. If it was say * you and your pet take 25% less damage from ranged attacks* then it would be good and reliable.

Dude, since the inception of strider’s defence I’ve been calling for a change to it. No one is going to touch that trait and it still boggles my mind that they left it in there after the revamp. What encounter do they think it would be useful in?

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

There is really no difference between blocking/evading/destroying, at the end of the day, you still did not take that damage. How would it be less annoying and broken if you could just swoop and block everything?

You can’t really just have it apply to all projectiles at a certain time, with the other evades it would be too OP, imo. better to keep the RNG and make the mechanic evade 25% of projectiles or change it to a short Prot on evade, that would be the best option as it covers all bases. To quote myself from earlier…

Yes, there is a difference. I’m referring to destroying only projectiles, you said to have those entire skills evade. Big difference between only working against one form of attack vs evading all forms (both melee and range).

Also, no thanks to RNG or an ICD. As stated before, the cooldown on these skills, specifically sword, is enough cooldown. And yes, you can have it apply to all projectiles at a certain time. It’s on demand and does away with that RNG garbage while the windows are short enough to not be OP minus Monarch’s Leap, but even then, you will be susceptible to melee and AOE damage.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

There is really no difference between blocking/evading/destroying, at the end of the day, you still did not take that damage. How would it be less annoying and broken if you could just swoop and block everything?

You can’t really just have it apply to all projectiles at a certain time, with the other evades it would be too OP, imo. better to keep the RNG and make the mechanic evade 25% of projectiles or change it to a short Prot on evade, that would be the best option as it covers all bases. To quote myself from earlier…

Yes, there is a difference. I’m referring to destroying only projectiles, you said to have those entire skills evade. Big difference between only working against one form of attack vs evading all forms (both melee and range).

Also, no thanks to RNG or an ICD. As stated before, the cooldown on these skills, specifically sword, is enough cooldown. And yes, you can have it apply to all projectiles at a certain time. It’s on demand and does away with that RNG garbage while the windows are short enough to not be OP minus Monarch’s Leap, but even then, you will be susceptible to melee and AOE damage.

Nope, was just calling for projectiles, not everything. People even quoted me on that, yourself included.

With regards to an ICD, it was specifically for the getting Protection on evade suggestion which you need an ICD for, at 8s it would be perfect with Primal Reflexes. If it didn’t have an ICD, you could get perma Protection from GS AA.

Ah, my bad on that mix up. I did quote you on that and misread it. As for the ICD and protection, I would still rather not have that since it’s so similar to Companion’s Defense. Seems like another copy/paste of a trait reworked to just affect the Ranger now.

If there were to synergy with primal reflexes, while still retaining the concept of SD, would rather have it be something along the lines of, “Your next attack destroys projectiles when you gain Vigor.”

At least then it works like Remorseless and an icon would indicate when the next attack procs vs RNG and works with PR. Dodge, gain Vigor, next attack deflects a shot.

Edit: Would also make projectile destruction work with all weapons, melee or range. Seems fitting for a Ranger to knock an incoming arrow with an axe or another arrow just as with a sword/gs.

Well, it is possible to shoot an incoming arrow away with your own… So could be with bows too.

RE: Protection on evade with SD…

The concept of SD is more defense while using melee weapons, so (imo) for it to have synergy with Primal Reflexes, it would need an 8s ICD and give additional defences after a successful evade.

Companion’s Defense gives protection on dodge, not successful evade, but it would have synergy as well, because you would get protection on the dodge and also if you actually evaded.

That is also the reason I want LoYF to work after a successful evade, so all three work together, synergy, rewarding good evasion. Vigor, Protection and additional damage and condition duration on evade. I would just make all three have an 8s ICD, with the effect on LoYF lasting four seconds.