In the latest blog post, ArenaNet talks about adding new traits and skills as a form of progression later in the year rather than new gear tiers.
What I’d love to see is a redesign of the tank/support role for Warriors in PvE. As a heavy armor class that can use Hammer, Mace and Shield, the Warrior’s capabilities in the “tank” role are really lacking.
For one thing, Warriors do not have access to Protection or Aegis without going for gimmicky rune setups. And even using runes that provide one of these boons (such as using Rune of the Monk to give you and nearby allies Aegis when using an Elite skill, or Rune of Dwayna to give the group Regeneration when you use a healing skill), it forces you into not using your skills in a normal and effective way. Essentially, you short-change your group whether you use your skills for their intended purpose or for healing.
For example, using a Vigorous Shouts build, you will typically wait until your group members need a heal before using your shouts rather than using them when they are actually useful. This is a huge problem, because along with your own poor damage using Cleric/Apothecary gear combined with a build like 0/0/25/30/15 (or similar), you aren’t providing the group with the boons they expect from a Warrior.
Timewarp is up? You should use For Great Justice! and On My Mark! to help maximize everybody’s damage – but if you do that and people take damage, you have failed in your role as the group’s support/tank because you have to wait for your shouts to come off cooldown before providing more heals. But if you don’t, you are also failing in supporting the group, by holding back on providing the Might/Fury and 10 stacks of Vulnerability. Similarly, using Shake it Off! to heal people means you might not get to use it when they need some conditions removing.
Then you have the weapon swap cooldown being triggered by picking up a banner (to use skill #2 on Banner of Tactics). This would be okay if there was more than one useful skill on each banner, but its once again forcing you to use things in a completely unnatural way. You don’t pick up the banner and use skill #2 to heal at the perfect moment to use it, because you know it will trigger your weapon swap cooldown and you need to switch weapons to use x/y/z skill too.
A few ideas of how the Warrior tanking role could be improved through traits:
- A Grandmaster trait that turns each shout into a chain ability, where #1 is the original shout, and #2 is a unique secondary shout. For example: For Great Justice! might have a follow-up shout that heals nearby allies, whereas Shake it Off! has a follow-up shout that puts Weakness onto all nearby mobs.
- Picking up a banner not trigger the weapon swap cooldown.
- Endure Pain shares its effect with nearby allies.
- Using Hammer/Mace burst skill gives Protection to allies.
Weapon skill changes:
- Make Shield Block a chain attack, where you can end it early to give allies Aegis.
(edited by ozma.3498)