Guild Wars 2

Instead of applying a venom on the first ‘X’ amount of attacks what if they where to change it so that venom skill last 30seconds with a 7%or 10% chance apply a venom effect on hit not on critical strike, because the two tree that have venom traits are not in the critical strike tree. of course you would need to update the venom effects.

Basalisk Venom: 15% chance to apply 1second stun to the target on hit. 15second Cool Down. 50seconds recharge. Lasts 30seconds.

Spider Venom: 7% chance to apply 5 seconds poison to the target on hit. Cool Down 10seconds. 45 seconds recharge lasts 30seconds.

Skale Venom: 7% chance to apply 3 Stacks stacks of vulnerability for 10seconds and 3 stacks of torment for 5 seconds on hit. 10second cool down. 45second recharge. lasts 30seconds.

Devourer Venom: 7% chance to apply 3seconds of immobilize on hit. 15 second Cool Down. 45second recharge. lasts 30seconds.

Ice Drake Venom: 7% chance to apply chill for 4 seconds on hit. 15second Cool Down. 45second recharge. lasts 30seconds.

Since the way i envision venom skills working more like extra sigils instead of number of strikes. the traits would have to be changed to reflect that.

Deadly arts:

Venomous Strength: gain 1 stack of might (15seconds) for you and your allies (max targets 5) each time a different venom is applied.

Quick Venoms: No change

Residual Venom changed too Potent Venom: Chance to apply venom increased by 5%

Shadow arts:

Leaching Venoms: Each time a venom activates its effect you gain some health [something equal to sigil of blood or mace attack 3 on guardian] can only occur once every 5 seconds.

Venom Sharing: Venom skills now affect enemies around the target. max targets affected by venom skills 3 [this includes the the primary target.]

I am bad at maths I’m not sure if the values i have chosen are too high or to low for these skills, however i do believe that making our venom skills more like sigils would help us far more then the current incarnation of these promising yet underwhelming abilities.

I don’t like having more rng..
I like Basilisk venom and I know how to use it properly at the right time, I don’t like if it procs random at times when I don’t expect it to proc.
Some of our venoms maybe need some love and rework but adding an rng factor is not the way to fix it

Hmm interesting, but I also am not a fan of RNG.
How about having venoms similar to a Mesmer’s Mantra, but with a small AOE?
This way there just needs to be a mechanic change but the strength/duration of the conditions, and the number of charges wouldn’t have to be changed.

For example :
Spider Venom, when you apply it, it has a small cast time, then it flips to a new icon and indicates it has 5 charges on it. Whenever you activate the venom (each charge is instant cast), all enemies (up to the cap) around the thief get hit with the poison condition. The cooldown for venom resets once all the charges are used up.

This allows you to have more direct control over your venom applications and preserves your normal weapon dps, while at the same time minimizing changes to the traitlines.

Examples:
Venemous Aura (Venom Share): can keep the current mechanic of allies having the number of charges for conditions on weapon strike, but increase the area range of venom share to at least hearseeker distance (about 450) while the thief has more control of his venoms.
Residual Venom: Add an extra charge to the venoms etc…

Also I wouldn’t mind if they reverted Skale Venom back to Weakness from Torment and place Torment on Pistol #2.

to the OP, interesting suggestion, but it goes against the precise/bursty feel of the thief and makes them into more of a paper warrior with venoms. As others have mentioned, we want the venoms to proc when we need them, not randomly.

Virgil, I like your suggestion, sort of like mesmer mantras. I also like the idea of a thief hiding in shadows and reapplying poisons since they have cast times. It’s the perfect time for that, and it gives some great counterplay if the casting can be interrupted.

Then again, some of the appeal of venoms is the instant cast. Maybe though, they could be rebalanced so that each application is a single use, but recharges are better. So for example, a venom with a 30 second recharge and 2 applications could just be changed to a 15 second recharge single application. This of course messes with certain traits, like the one giving might on venom application. This could easily be rebalanced to give a single stack of might per application, which might give marginally more might in a venom focused build, and less might in a build with a splash of venom. But the venoms should be the main attraction anyway, right? With the might being a bonus, not the other way around. It would also affect the skill that gives an extra application of a poison, which would probably have to be redesigned altogether (since it wouldn’t work at all in this system). Maybe switch it to a trait that gives a single stack of torment per venom attack – seems worthy of a grandmaster venom trait.

The problem with this and virgil’s suggestions are that they both would require a lot of clicking. and may lead to a playstyle that feels downright spamtastic.

Virgil.3869:

Also I wouldn’t mind if they reverted Skale Venom back to Weakness from Torment and place Torment on Pistol #2.

both great suggestions. If torment is going to stay on a venom, it needs to be better than it is (i.e. more stacks, more charges, etc.) as it is, it is never worth taking, even in a venom condition build, as any utility is better and there are already 3 other better (in all situations) venom options for utilities.

torment on pistol 2 would be great, especially since p/p haas such issues with any sort of movement control. Of course p/d has the newly decent dancing dagger, but the added option of torment would make for some interesting choices in battles. Thieves may have to choose between using CnD – sneak attack for bleeds, or use body shot (maybe rename it to ankle shot) to restrict movement. It also opens up the strategy of alternating between 3 and 2 to kite/kill meleers

Oh you could also make it like that engie shotgun skill, with more /less torment depending on range. Again, giving more strategy elements to that sort of build (wait for approach, hit 2, and quickly hit 3 and start autoattacking. If they start kiting away, they’re good, and the thief has to find a way to get in close. For P/P it punishes people getting close, but still leaves unload for range.

What if the poisons lasted the duration of the skill but applied their effects on the first move out of Stealth?

Marlafox.8715:

What if the poisons lasted the duration of the skill but applied their effects on the first move out of Stealth?

Right now one of the biggest issues with thieves as a whole (in regards to build variety) is that Thieves are almost overly dependent on stealth for everything, i.e. burst, condi clear, healing, escape….making an entire utility set like venoms rely on stealth as well would do little more than further restrict build variety while nerfing venoms even more of their usability.