Guild Wars 2

New Warrior here. I finally bought my first two banners. I am not sure I understand the mechanics behind them.

Banner of Tactics. Does it AOE heal when you plant it or do you have to keep carrying it and press 2 every 10 seconds. If the latter, then you don’t actually fight ?

Can you use more than 1 banner or are they useless unless you carry them ?

Thanks for the clarification.

Banner of Tactics: The AoE heal is a specific move of Banner #2. Basically you’d pick up the banner object, hit #2, then hit your Weapon Switch key to instantly drop the banner and go back to fighting. Wash, rinse, and repeat as needed (when you can cast the #2 again).

Multiple Banners: You could theoretically carry multiple banners. Right now, their +stats from the banners are horribly low and not very viable. After ArenaNet doubles their +stat values (which was covered in the most recent State of the Game), banner buffs will be more attractive. As things currently stand, people tend to only carry a single banner skill (if at all). My own banner Warrior uses it as a soloing melee weapon (when it amuses me) and I carry it out for the AoE Swiftness buff that helps me zoom across the countryside.

Hrmm, seems a little cumbersome to get the most out of it.

Yeah cumbersome is the word. Normally just use banners for their passive bonuses because they are awkward. Pop them in the ground and just keep fighting.

The ONLY time I ever bothered with the low and almost non noticable stat boosts from banners was after I specced into banner AoE regen, which as a warrior is very good outside of tPvP. On top of that using more then one banner is a waste of a utility slot cause you can only pick one banner up and take it with you.

So if I were you until you got to 80 and specced into banner regen I’d just use shouts for stat boosts, they recharge A LOT faster and you don’t need to stop fighting in order to use them. Or even just use one banner then the other ones should be shouts or something else you want. Cause the swiftness boost from carrying that one banner is quite nice when running around lvling.

But I mean if you’re just leveling still and you’re below lvl 60 then just use signets, you don;t have to worry about them and before lvl 60 their passive stat boosts are actually pretty decent, at least as good as those of a banner :P

I also find them useful for giving yaks a speed boost in WvW

Plus the banner #2 heal is like 1k max. rather just use the regen.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

Plus the banner #2 heal is like 1k max. rather just use the regen.

Well that’s what I was asking. So planted in the ground it does actually heal ? (regen).

Forzani.2584:

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

Plus the banner #2 heal is like 1k max. rather just use the regen.

Well that’s what I was asking. So planted in the ground it does actually heal ? (regen).

Yes and No the regen he is talking about is from a grandmaster trait that makes banners give regeneration. The heal you are talking about only happens if someone picks up the banner and uses the number 2 skill.

Wish banners were like toolkits that engineers have. Extra F1 skills that do things with them, or you can plop them down like how it is normally.

Does Inspiring Battle Standard provide regeneration for the full duration of the banner (regardless if it is carried or planted)? 95s according to wiki? + boon duration?

Furious Rally grants group fury for 8s every 10s usable for 95s. With 30 Tactics = +30% boon duration that is +95s group fury.

Maybe party members should take turns in activating #2 banner skill.

I’m new to warrior but that sounds nice.

A major improvement to viability of banners would be to remove the Grandmaster Banner Regen trait and add it as an F1 option when a banner is held by a Warrior.

If a Grandmaster banner trait is even needed afterwards, the trait should be condition removal (like a 1 condition removal passive per 10s pulse, adding viability to having multiple banners out) just to have comparability to Shouts Grandmaster trait. Condition removal is the primary reason why banners are inferior in almost all respects to Shout instant utilities/heals.

Artaz.3819:

A major improvement to viability of banners would be to remove the Grandmaster Banner Regen trait and add it as an F1 option when a banner is held by a Warrior.

If a Grandmaster banner trait is even needed afterwards, the trait should be condition removal (like a 1 condition removal passive per 10s pulse, adding viability to having multiple banners out) just to have comparability to Shouts Grandmaster trait. Condition removal is the primary reason why banners are inferior in almost all respects to Shout instant utilities/heals.

Requiring a button press (F1), for a passive effect for the whole life time of the banner is weird.

If I understand the mechanic correctly, then the regeneration from two banners would stack (which may actually allow permanent regeneration). Why is that not viable?

@TheBluel

You would gain the Regeneration boon on the F1 adrenaline use ability.

The passive condition removal effect is just a suggestion on what the new GM trait would do. 10s pulse (similar to Guardian’s self-contained Adept-level Purity trait) is not out of the realm of code logic and feasibility for balance reasons (comparing to a Grandmaster trait after all).

Just in evaluating the suggestion, you could have two banners but the Regeneration boon already stacks in duration and is limited by your Adrenaline pool gain. Allowing Regeneration Boon sources to stack in numerical value by having multiple banners would be fairly unbalanced.

I’m not sure I understand your question, Perma-Regeneration is feasible under the current and proposed situations simply by having enough Boon duration, or in proposed, Adrenaline gain (Banner of Tactics which adds +10% boon duration makes it even easier to get to Perma).

The advantage of having multiple banners would be to have several sources of condition removal (much better than having several sources of Regeneration Boon) in addition to the stat gains / secondary abilities available (if you want to use that element).

Artaz.3819:

You would gain the Regeneration boon on the F1 adrenaline use ability.

The regeneration from the grandmaster trait is an immediate passive effect that improves banner-skills. I dont’ like the idea of having to activate it manually. Besides all F1 skills do damage. Regen would not fit as a burst.

A burst skill for banners (maybe even for specific banners) would be nice. But it should not be Inspiring Battle Standard. I think it would also be an improvement to have more different skills on different banners. Condition removal could be a specific skill on Banner of Tactics or Defense.

TheBlueI.3486:

The regeneration from the grandmaster trait is an immediate passive effect that improves banner-skills. I dont’ like the idea of having to activate it manually. Besides all F1 skills do damage. Regen would not fit as a burst.

Do you consider Longbow’s F1 (Combustive Shot) burst? I sure wouldn’t – last time I checked, it is not even affected by Burst Damage trait line bonus (Discipline). There is no hard rule that F1s needs to be damage-based only. Back in the day (heh, a year almost now), player/developer discussions were happening to add defensive/escape utility options to Warriors using Adrenaline…fight or flight after all.

TheBlueI.3486:

…Condition removal could be a specific skill on Banner of Tactics or Defense.

Not a bad idea but the the banners without condition removal would be inferior if it is not a general trait improvement or an ability tied to all banners (like Inspire or Sprint). Vastly inferior.

Tangent – I do dislike a 600 range “sprint” on a 1-1/4 second activation that you can attain basically with Swiftness boon/dodge roll forward already. But that’s for another thread.

Second tangent – Discipline Burst needs to be retooled to a % gain to all adrenaline strikes (1%-2% gain per point) and not a damage modifier.