Guild Wars 2

With this preview, seeing the change to venomous aura and having it being talk about again reminded me of when they add Skelk Venom.
One of the devs (karl i think) said on a stream back then that “Venom’s were almost there”.
I would to say they are not almost there, they have no idea where they are going, they are just as lost as the day they started.
They are being driven around in a thing called venomous aura. They wish they had their own vehicle but they can’t afford it, and it’s better than walking.
Skelk venom didn’t change anything when he joined, it has no idea either. A bit slow in the head, but at least he brought drinks and snacks.

They have Basilisk Venom driving, who is a fast driver, and that has gotten him ticketed a few times.
Last time they got pulled over his hot girlfriend Lyssa got arrested, so now he is kittened.

These updates are basically pit stop for gas, which allows them to let people know they still exist. When they ask where they are, no one really talks to them.
When someone does give them any direction, they get long lengthy instructions which they soon forget as they get back into the car.

Venoms are very underrated in my opinion. The only thing I wish for is an increase to the radius of which the aura are applied.

The new buff that it is the thiefs condition damage that has the damage can be pretty strong in a condition venom share build. In WvW you can effectively spread your conditions even harder, faster an longer than ever before with this trait. I can’t wait to test it out with my guild in snake scale roaming.

If my group and another collides I can effectively poison, torment, chill and stun 6 people with ease. This is huge if I am the only one running conditions to boost the party’s dps.

I think venoms are in an ok place, but there is always room for improvement.

Geiir.7603:

Venoms are very underrated in my opinion. The only thing I wish for is an increase to the radius of which the aura are applied.

The new buff that it is the thiefs condition damage that has the damage can be pretty strong in a condition venom share build. In WvW you can effectively spread your conditions even harder, faster an longer than ever before with this trait. I can’t wait to test it out with my guild in snake scale roaming.

If my group and another collides I can effectively poison, torment, chill and stun 6 people with ease. This is huge if I am the only one running conditions to boost the party’s dps.

I think venoms are in an ok place, but there is always room for improvement.

Venoms are not underrated, they’re kitten by Venomous Aura.

How could you possibly design a venom good enough to be taken on its own merit without it being ridiculously OP if spread to 5 targets? In GW2’s current system, you can’t.

The obvious solution is to redesign venomous aura the way it should have been designed from the start – separate the effect that spreads from the venom itself. Ex: Instead of having VA give friendlies an exact copy of Spider venom, having it give “Whatever Venom”, that does something similar. You could still have all the venom traits buff this effect, but it would allow Anet to design venoms that were actually useful.

After that, we could tackle how a spec that needs to sink 4-5 major traits into a single utility line is kind of silly when that line doesn’t include stunbreakers.

That would be a nice start yes.

I do also use some venoms both in condition and power builds. They have their uses, it is just very limited….

Venomous aura should be moved down to adept tier so it doesn’t hold people’s trait points hostage. That way venom thieves wouldn’t end up with one useless stealth related trait they will never use because all of their skills are venoms. Also, venoms with venom share currently do not work with the trait that recharges all skills of one type when you steal. If they would just fix that bug and make the Shadow Arts trait line more reasonable, venoms would easily be in a better place. Though, that doesn’t mean they will be in a good place yet.

Also, something I would really like to see at some point is a condi removal/stun breaker venom if they ever add new utility skills because right now venoms lack so much basic defensive utility it’s ridiculous.Venoms have potential to be decent ally support, something that thief desperately needs, I hope it doesn’t get ignored.

I am certainly curious to see how this new venomous aura will play out.

I am thinking it would apply equally to ones own thieves from the thieves guild or that parrot one can summon with privateer or a rock dog.

That would be a significant boost for a solo adventurer that uses allies.

Yes venomous aura is the problem not the solution. As every thief knows -

1) Make all venoms worth a slot on the utility bar without considering traits
2) Create venom traits for interesting benefits while keeping balance

If you look at the warrior class, the class that is ‘in a good place’, almost all the utilities are fit for purpose on their own merit.

“How could you possibly design a venom good enough to be taken on its own merit without it being ridiculously OP if spread to 5 targets?”

In fact for Basilisk venom it is x10 when you include residual aura. Leeching venoms are caught up in this ridiculous scaling as well.

Yeah, the reason venoms are so bad is because Anet balanced it around the trait and not the skill which is something they said they don’t want to do, but allowed this to happen regardless because logic failed at that specific time I guess. I was hoping to see a change to them this balance patch but oh well.

IDK, I’ve tried to play with Venoms but, I’m losing movement speed, blinds, stealth, and regen. I just cant imagine leeching Venom’s being able to give much sustain in large scale fights in WvW.

Now having them using MY stats’s, that’s going to be huge. So, I’ll certainly be testing them again.

It is the same with Ranger Trap, Spirit and Survival skills. They are rubbish untraited, and usable with traits. Wilderness and Trap skills need 2 traits each, and in both cases one is GM. Spirits need 3 traits to function properly, but one could argue that the GM is not 100% needed, even though it increases the threat of spirits considerably.

DeWolfe.2174:

IDK, I’ve tried to play with Venoms but, I’m losing movement speed, blinds, stealth, and regen. I just cant imagine leeching Venom’s being able to give much sustain in large scale fights in WvW.

Now having them using MY stats’s, that’s going to be huge. So, I’ll certainly be testing them again.

The only time I’m using a venom or two are with my d/p build.

Other than that I only use venoms while running a full support build with guildies. Full venom can be very strong with all its traits, if I manage to say alive. The incoming changes will boost that build even further

maybe we will see more group calling for 1 venom share thief in wvw and even pve and pvp arena

BobbyT.7192:

With this preview, seeing the change to venomous aura and having it being talk about again reminded me of when they add Skelk Venom.
One of the devs (karl i think) said on a stream back then that “Venom’s were almost there”.
I would to say they are not almost there, they have no idea where they are going, they are just as lost as the day they started.
They are being driven around in a thing called venomous aura. They wish they had their own vehicle but they can’t afford it, and it’s better than walking.
Skelk venom didn’t change anything when he joined, it has no idea either. A bit slow in the head, but at least he brought drinks and snacks.

They have Basilisk Venom driving, who is a fast driver, and that has gotten him ticketed a few times.
Last time they got pulled over his hot girlfriend Lyssa got arrested, so now he is kittened.

These updates are basically pit stop for gas, which allows them to let people know they still exist. When they ask where they are, no one really talks to them.
When someone does give them any direction, they get long lengthy instructions which they soon forget as they get back into the car.

I agree that venoms are in a bad place…

but your attempt at metaphor makes my head hurt.

shameless advertising ho!!!

i posted on the profession balance forums some suggestions on how to rework venoms in a way that makes taking them untraited an effective option, while not making venomous aura incredibly OP (and also look at other venom traits).

venom rework thread

Venoms themselves are ok at best, However once ya start adding traits to them..They just become silly

Terravos.4059:

Venoms themselves are ok at best, However once ya start adding traits to them..They just become silly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBj4pEnMzNA

correction: when you add venomous aura to them and bring thieves’ guild or a party. try any venom spec without them and they’re crap.

Dahkeus.8243:

BobbyT.7192:

With this preview, seeing the change to venomous aura and having it being talk about again reminded me of when they add Skelk Venom.
One of the devs (karl i think) said on a stream back then that “Venom’s were almost there”.
I would to say they are not almost there, they have no idea where they are going, they are just as lost as the day they started.
They are being driven around in a thing called venomous aura. They wish they had their own vehicle but they can’t afford it, and it’s better than walking.
Skelk venom didn’t change anything when he joined, it has no idea either. A bit slow in the head, but at least he brought drinks and snacks.

They have Basilisk Venom driving, who is a fast driver, and that has gotten him ticketed a few times.
Last time they got pulled over his hot girlfriend Lyssa got arrested, so now he is kittened.

These updates are basically pit stop for gas, which allows them to let people know they still exist. When they ask where they are, no one really talks to them.
When someone does give them any direction, they get long lengthy instructions which they soon forget as they get back into the car.

I agree that venoms are in a bad place…

but your attempt at metaphor makes my head hurt.

oh good, and here i though i made an analogy, thanks for clearing it up