I’ve been looking at my banners recently, and started thinking “man, what’s the point of having 4 of these, it’s a waste of potential utility skills. I could just have one and pick it up to change which buff it provides”.
Which got me thinking: banners are really boring, not hugely useful, and clunky to handle.
So how could they be changed?
Well for starters get rid of the ability to pick banners up. It’s in the way.
I know, it’s neat, but when do you really want to have to do this? The skills on the banners generally suck, our banner trait actually discourages us from using multiple banners, and most importantly it’s clunky to handle them.
The entire need to pick them up is created by their long cooldown/duration in the first place. Change that, and we open the playing field to new ideas.
The idea
So what can we do with a banner we can’t pick up? Interact with it.
Instead of picking it up on interact, interacting with the banner actives a banner specific effect.
These are relatively powerful effects meant to be used tactically 1 or 2, maybe 3, times in the banner’s duration. We don’t want to make these into something you have to camp next to to refresh a buff every 10 seconds. Instead, they should be something you (or an ally) can run up to it at key moments to cause a unique effect that impacts the battle field.
New banners: 80 second cooldown. 60 second duration. The up-time remains the same, but you now place them more often, relinquishing the need to re-position them by picking them up. They still provide their passive effects.
*Remember that these effects are ultimately gated behind the banner’s 80 second cooldown.
Banner of Strength: Activate to cause a tremor that pulses outwards from the banner, damaging and knocking back enemies.
Think something similar to Tequatl’s shockwave (except you can’t jump over it).
30 second cooldown. Usable 2 times in the banner’s duration.
Banner of Defense: Activate to create a defensive perimeter around the banner for 5 seconds. Allies within the perimeter block all attacks.
I was originally thinking something along the lines of Guardian’s Sanctuary, but wanted something unique, and with more of a warrior flare. Interesting potential synergy with different profession’s blocking traits. Also doesn’t have the same area denial effect of Sanctuary.
60 second cooldown. Usable once in the banner’s duration.
Banner of Discipline: Activate to create a zone around the banner for 5 seconds. Allies within the zone will always critically hit.
Not sure about this one. Crit banner with an activate that provide more crit isn’t that interesting. And having to stay within the zone could really hamper your ability to do anything with those crits. That said, would be a good damage steroid, and has some potential for interesting play.
25 second cooldown. Usable 3 times in the banner’s duration
Banner of Tactics: Activate to create a zone around the banner which increase the duration of boons by 1 second. Pulses once every second for 4 seconds.
In essence, the banner lets you maintain important boons for a tiny bit longer, provided you stay near it while the effect is active.
20 second cooldown. Usable 3 times in the banner’s duration.
These are of course just my suggestions for what the banners could do, examples of interesting mechanics they could potential bring to the battle field upon activation, and numbers I think would be roughly appropriate in terms of balance (mostly there to provide example numbers though, probably overturned if anything).
I few things to keep in mind:
Though these effects can be activated 2 or 3 times in the banner’s 60 second duration, there’s ultimately an 80 second total cooldown on the banner, creating a 20second downtime where the banner isn’t up or usable (there aren’t any banner cd or duration traits anymore).
Also think about how these are used. They do carry with them the benefit that an ally can activate the effect, however they are essentially hugely telegraphed attacks. You have to go up to the banner to activate it, something an enemy can clearly see you doing and potentially use area denial to keep you away.
Most importantly here is the idea that they cause interesting effects around the banner, rather then just adding more passive bonuses. The banners already passively benefit your stats, so an idea like “gives 10 seconds of fury” would be fairly boring in my opinion. It’s also important that the effects are localized within a small area around the banner, and not something the banner gives you upon being activated that you can run off with (once again, such as a boon).
It should be something that changes the section of the battlefield occupied by the banner. It should also generally keep to the banner’s theme of benefiting allies.
What do you think? comments, criticisms, suggestions, ideas?
(edited by Arewn.2368)