Guild Wars 2

“Currently, we have skills that provide a similar effect, such as the warrior’s Berserker Stance (condition immunity with no counterplay). " – Revenant deep dive announcement.

So from this line we can assume that our current Berserker Stance will change into the new Resistance boon (Much like Balance Stance, it’s a stance that applies a boon: stability). Meaning conditions can still be applied to us during Berserker Stance except they simply won’t have any effect on us for as long as the Resistance boon lasts.

What do you guys think of this? I for one am not sure yet how satisfied I should be about this. I like how Berserker Stance is used to anticipate condi bombs and then apply pressure by being able to ignore all of the condies. Changing it into a boon would change the way it is used because of the ability that other classes (usually condi builds) have of stripping/converting our boons into conditions. So our own ‘anti-condi’ boon could be converted into conditions on us. For list of skills/traits/sigils that effect boonstripping see here

I am aware that they mean to create counterplay for Berserker Stance, but unless they keep the cooldowns and durations in mind I am not sure how useful it will be after the change. This will indeed create counter play, but the counter play is easily accessible to classes that a boon like ‘Resistance’ will have to counter. IF it will be on a 60 second cooldown and for a short duration of 8 seconds then I don’t see the real use of it since condi builds have access to boon strip/conversion on a more regular basis (mesmer has a strip boon on their auto attack 3rd chain, not saying that it always hits but its there). What about medi guardians that keeps applying burning and blindness, no way to cancel out their blindness application because our boon would get stripped immediately.
I am curious how they’ll change Berserker Stance and hopefully in a good way.

What are your thoughts on this and have you guys picked up any “new tech” ideas that will be applicable for us Warriors apart from the new boons/condies (pretty sure either Warrior or the Warrior specialization will get Taunt… a tanky warrior specialization focused on being the target and retaliation maybe)?

If BS changes into puts condi’s on hold, rather then immunity to condi’s, warrior will need some serious anti-condi buffs.

Just changing it to a boon would give it counterplay (boon-removal), and just that would be a substantial nerf.

Edit:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

pdavis.8031:

As far as resistance I read it as you’ll be immune to any condis during the duration, and if there was any remaining, they would continue as normal. Which would mean that they could still be applied during the time resistance was up, but have no effect until resistance ran out. But I could be wrong.

You are correct.

This taken from another topic. If BS indeed gets changed into this boon, the nerfbat hits us in the kitten.

From the news article though, I can’t be sure if BS will actually get changed into this. They just talk about the new boon and enlighten on it by compairing it to BS.

There is no reason for BS to be changed into the resistance boon. Just because a skill acts similar to a boon, doesn’t mean the skill should become the boon. BS is still better than the boon and BS would become pretty crappy if changed to Resistance. Thiefs and Necros eat boons for breakfast, and even worse, their skills can even transfer the boon to them. So rather than having an 8 second condition immunity applied to us, we have an 8 second “immunity” that is likely to be used against us.

Kagamiku.9731:

There is no reason for BS to be changed into the resistance boon. Just because a skill acts similar to a boon, doesn’t mean the skill should become the boon. BS is still better than the boon and BS would become pretty crappy if changed to Resistance. Thiefs and Necros eat boons for breakfast, and even worse, their skills can even transfer the boon to them. So rather than having an 8 second condition immunity applied to us, we have an 8 second “immunity” that is likely to be used against us.

Actually it seems they want to add counterplay to immunities. Today Zerk stance, tomorrow endure pain. RIP

They have counterplay. It’s called physical damage and condition damage. Depending on the skill. So many skills have no counterplay in this game, BS and EP are not one of the worst offenders.

Kagamiku.9731:

They have counterplay. It’s called physical damage and condition damage. Depending on the skill. So many skills have no counterplay in this game, BS and EP are not one of the worst offenders.

BS was just a example. Same goes for Diamond Skin etc. It seems like they reworking that stuff to grant stripable boon instead. Right now you cannot be touched by conditions and it fact it gives you 8sec of facerolling the keyboard while your opponent cant do anything other than running away. In current state its a bad desing. You may agree or disagree but noone gives a kitten about opinions here.

Also while it looks like a nerf, it also a buff at some point.

They can do kitten! If they’re not a straight up faceroll cond class, BS is considerably less useful as their main source of damage will be power damage. BS is really good against condition necro and blind/poison spamming thiefs. And they can both strip resistance and apply it to themselves no problem.

Also Diamond Skin no counterplay? Lol. Again, it’s a problem with full braindead cond builds. ANY class can drop an ele by 10% for them to lose Diamond Skins affect.

Also, where is the buff? BS is better than resistance in every way.

You know what has no counterplay? Steal because you can only avoid it by guessing when to dodge. Same goes for Engineers Overcharged shot.

Incediary powder because no amount of cleanses will save you from the ridiculous burn uptime of that skill. And you can’t avoid being crited for the skill to proc.

Certain fear skills with no tell. Sure, stability can save you, but you need to use a stab on something you can’t even avoid. Certainly if power damage isn’t a counterplay to BS or Diamond Skin, then stability isn’t a counterplay to Fear or knockdowns with no tell on low cooldowns. Some classes barely even have access to stability. And if they do, it’s of a small supply.

Kagamiku.9731:

They can do kitten! If they’re not a straight up faceroll cond class, BS is considerably less useful as their main source of damage will be power damage. BS is really good against condition necro and blind/poison spamming thiefs. And they can both strip resistance and apply it to themselves no problem.

Also Diamond Skin no counterplay? Lol. Again, it’s a problem with full braindead cond builds. ANY class can drop an ele by 10% for them to lose Diamond Skins affect.

Also, where is the buff? BS is better than resistance in every way.

Olny in cele, sinister. Rabin/dire on the other hand has literally has 0 power. I dont like braindead spec either but that how it is anyway. Now you wont be able to use it middlessy at any given time but you will have to use it strategically.

As for the buff?

-Zerk stance will be affected by boon duration. Pair that with sure footed and you have nice uptime there (also not everyone can strip boons still).

-If you mess up you can use bs to prevent conditions from ticking up. Against fear you gain indirectly another stunbreaker. Not sure on taunt as its most likely wont be a condition itself.

Ppl will either adapt or quit. I still rebember that qq about thief stealing our SoR boons. See any qq now? I dont. People have adapted to that one.

And everythere else you mentioned there are class issues as well. Sooner or later they get fixed like skullcrack, pindown, dhuumfire.

Also funny thing that i been complaining about rifle engi skills back in 2013 and..hehe

What about Soldier or berserker, or pretty much any other stats that doesn’t rely entirely on condition damage? Dire gear is already OP because you can stack two forms of defensive bonuses while still dealing insane pressure damage.

Ok, I’ll consider that a “tiny” buff. But when you realize that resistance doesn’t actually negate conditions from being applied and when the resistance boon runs dry and you have a million conditions ticking on you…That tiny buff becomes garbage.
Plus any good necro will save a boonstrip for that skill and it will never be useful against them.

SoR doesn’t have anything crucial to a warriors survival. Some damage and swiftness. Losing fury kind of sucks, but it’s not a huge loss. Honestly, having an 8+ second resistance stripped from you and applied to them is a huge deal. Even if you save the skill, it doesn’t mean a necro can’t save their boonstrip for that skill.

People that say that BS allows you to faceroll your keyboard for the duration are not getting what the skill is for.

Also, an engineer or thief that can not kite/block/stealth/othwerise defend against you for 8 seconds is as terribad as the build they are playing.

Condi engineer has such a plethora of defensive abilities, blocks, protection, CC, EVERYTHING, that if you die to a warrior in 8 seconds, well, insert words here.

Kagamiku.9731:

What about Soldier or berserker, or pretty much any other stats that doesn’t rely entirely on condition damage? Dire gear is already OP because you can stack two forms of defensive bonuses while still dealing insane pressure damage.

I think im not getting that point about soldier/zerk. They dont rely on conditions outside of soft cc as cripple, immo, chill. Slow cant comment yet as we have to see it ingame. Not much changes here imo.

Dire gear while its look op on paper in practice ppl goes for rabin instead cause a lot of condi builds rely on crit procs. I dont think i have seen any dire engi ever for example. You may meet some necros but the damage is definitely lower than from rabid ones.

Kagamiku.9731:

Ok, I’ll consider that a “tiny” buff. But when you realize that resistance doesn’t actually negate conditions from being applied and when the resistance boon runs dry and you have a million conditions ticking on you…That tiny buff becomes garbage.
Plus any good necro will save a boonstrip for that skill and it will never be useful against them.

I dont think you be able to place conditions on the target if that boon is up. At least that how i understand it. Its up again to see ingame how it work out. At worse state BS wont be as useful as it is right now, but its still have it place. As for boonstrip the same goes for transformations skill but i dont see anyone complaining about it?

Cygnus.6903:

People that say that BS allows you to faceroll your keyboard for the duration are not getting what the skill is for.

Also, an engineer or thief that can not kite/block/stealth/othwerise defend against you for 8 seconds is as terribad as the build they are playing.

Condi engineer has such a plethora of defensive abilities, blocks, protection, CC, EVERYTHING, that if you die to a warrior in 8 seconds, well, insert words here.

Idk about others, but in my case i use zerk stance as offensive tool considering the build im playing (played actually, i no longer pvp as war).

As for the second part youre right but keep in mind that necro doesnt have any blocks, invul, mobility. It seems like they designed it to actually buff em in some way.

Time will tell if the desing change was a good choice. Probably not but i could care less about it either way. It has + and – as i said above

Scoobaniec.9561:

I think im not getting that point about soldier/zerk. They dont rely on conditions outside of soft cc as cripple, immo, chill. Slow cant comment yet as we have to see it ingame. Not much changes here imo.

The point is that soldier and zerk gear is completely unaffected by BS. As well as many other stat combinations. Only stat combos with zero power are countered by BS. Which means Rabid is the only stat combination countered by BS…For a whole 8 seconds. Yes, there is settler stats too, but no one uses it.

Dire gear while its look op on paper in practice ppl goes for rabin instead cause a lot of condi builds rely on crit procs. I dont think i have seen any dire engi ever for example. You may meet some necros but the damage is definitely lower than from rabid ones.

Dire is better. It just doesn’t exist in PvP. An engi wouldn’t go Dire because IP is OP as kitten but a lot of the other classes don’t have OP crit procs. A warrior for instance, can only bleed on crit…And Dire is the much preferred choice over rabid. Critting with 0 power stat is still terrible damage, so for rabid to be worth it, you need to have a very good crit proc skill.

I dont think you be able to place conditions on the target if that boon is up. At least that how i understand it. Its up again to see ingame how it work out. At worse state BS wont be as useful as it is right now, but its still have it place. As for boonstrip the same goes for transformations skill but i dont see anyone complaining about it?

Resistance:
“Conditions currently on you have no effect; stacks duration.”

Berserker’s Stance:
“Conditions cannot be applied to you.”

The wording is very different and Resistance doesn’t say anything about conditions not being applied to you like BS does. Unless they completely botched the wording, what resistance does is very obvious. It stops conditions from affecting you for its duration…But those already applied and the ones applied while it’s active will still be on you when the boon expires.

Transformation skills can be stripped of their stab, yes. But warriors aren’t hitting you for 4-6k auto attacks in lich form, either. And warriors have strippable stab as well. It’s not that boon stripping is OP, it’s the fact a good unstrippable skill would beneutered to the point where it becomes strippable and isn’t even a true condition immunity anymore.

Now to the main point. BS is vital to every not shout-bow build. And shoutbow is already what 95% of warriors run. Give warriors more reason to all run the same build. Sounds amazing. Resistance is not a terrible boon, it’s decent. It’s just terrible compared to BS…And the last thing warriors need is yet another nerf to every other semi-viable build.

Many classes utilize on crit sigils actually along with traits otherwise everyone would run in dire but nvm that one. Its better to calm down and w8 to see what will happen once expansion hit.

I didn’t take the post to mean that BS was changing, rather that other classes (and maybe the warrior spec) are getting the new boon to counter the heavy condi play in pvp & wvw (which I already see slowly dropping thanks to power rangers and litch necros).

Honestly I like how BS works now. It does take a bit of skill to know when to use it vs. each class/weapon combo. If you mess up you need to spend the first couple of seconds of it cleansing or get prepared for a condi burst soon as it wears off.

A lot of it comes down to player skill. Plenty of players don’t notice when you have BS up (or EP or even stability – how many ham wars blindly spam rotations despite you having stability up – etc for other classes). And on top of player skill you have the strengths/weaknesses of each build; unless you are a terrible turret engi (and I feel bad when I fight them) you will most likely kill my condi warrior because I can’t do enough damage to kill your turrets while you kite, so I either need to run or contest the point.

The only way I would be “happy” about BS changing to grant resistance is if it countered boon rippers/stealers by pulsing. Either 4, 2s pulses or 8, 1s pulses wouldn’t make me too mad, besides the big difference between being immune to applied conditions and immune to current conditions. If BS did become resistance, besides having to worry about stealers/rippers (which any class can do with a sigil) we’d always need to check if we need to spend the last 1-2s cleansing. Not something I look forward to.