Guild Wars 2

So with the last balance patch we got a pretty serious buff to Warrior Banners. However, I generally feel like Tactics and Defense banners have no current use in the game. This is in stark contrast to most warrior utilities, as I never see a need for these utilities to be on my bar.

Tactics currently give 10% Boon duration, and some healing power. This Boon duration is fine and maybe some groups will find a use for it, But with the way healing power scales this buff is irrelevant. Can you consider changing this to 10% Condition duration instead?

Defense should keep the vitality increasing buffs, however maybe add a percentage based healing modifier to the group, instead of toughness. It doesn’t have to be 10%, but more on the order of 5% or so.

Just some thoughts, I’m primarily a PvE player to be honest. However, I rarely ever seen banners in PvP and can’t say I did in WvW either. So the changes proposed here are definitely PvE focused.

Revs do what our banners do while being mobile aswell.The stationary aspect of our banners ( Picking it up,no more acces to your own skillset anymore ect ) is what makes them so little used aswell,besides pve perhaps.If they make them into pulsing boons or making them mobile in general it would be used more often i reckon.

When it comes to pvp,every other utility we got is just much more useful for warr to be using than instead of giving a minor buff to your allies while youre dying in the meanwhile.

If they change Tactics banner it shouldnt be cond duration, its not a DPS banner as strenght and discipline.
The 180 healing power should be changed to 10% outgoing heal, so its more in line with the other healing buffs of the game and maybe will find its use.
Defense could go in the same line with flat 5 or 7% damage reduction + -10% condition duration, instead of toughness and vitality.

OnizukaBR.8537:

If they change Tactics banner it shouldnt be cond duration, its not a DPS banner as strenght and discipline.
The 180 healing power should be changed to 10% outgoing heal, so its more in line with the other healing buffs of the game and maybe will find its use.
Defense could go in the same line with flat 5 or 7% damage reduction + -10% condition duration, instead of toughness and vitality.

That would make Anet increase the damage output even more… in some other place, wich would be a bad thing at the end.
Game is not about balance, it is about leech what works the best, i doubt they do stuff like that as much i would like it still what will happen is that damage output will get higher first… and then they will try to cover it up.

I am a user of banner of tactics. I like it as is. Does anyone need to explain the benefit of +% boon duration after herald had theirs nerfed?

As for the 170 healing power to heal others 10%, why? Shouts and regeneration would only improve by +1% assuming base 2k healing power and 42.5% heal to others. It wouldn’t be a horrible change but hardly necessary.

If I were to change banner of tactics it would probably be a 60/60 duration/recharge.

Meh, banners are still horribly clunky for anything but party-based (dungeon, fractal) or raid PvE. They need to be toggle on (near insta cast) / toggle off (with a cooldown) like engineer turrets (and just remove the banner abilities – could leave the blast finisher when summoned).

EDIT: If ANet actually wants people to use the banner abilities, the autoattack needs to be sped up by 33% and probably another additional 150 range because banners don’t have a means to keep targets in melee range. And since there is no block, it needs that the Sprint 4 ability to add Evasion frames during since it doesn’t even do damage and activates/moves faster (instead of removing chill/cripple, give it superspeed during use). Or just combine 4 and 3 Swiftness abilities together and just make Inspire 3 a bunch of different boons including 10s Aegis and 10s Vigor.

Cast times and after casts are just so slow that no one uses. They need to be quicker so they get used. If worried that everyone can use in quick sucession, just tie it to the master Inspiring Battle Standard trait (activation times are 33% faster while wielding a banner).

This is a pipedream though.

Many people asked for a long time to just turn banners into kits, then give the banners F1-F5 ability, and the warrior can wear them on their backs. Like a engineer hobo sack.
Chances are it will never happen except for an expansion.