Guild Wars 2

So…right now when you pick up a banner, all of your weapon skills are replaced with banner skills. All of the skills except the 2-slot skill are common across all banners. The 2-slot skill is unique for each banner, and performs some action associated with the banner type.

What if the 2-slot skill was replaced with a “Stow Banner” skill…This would attach the banner to the player’s back instead of carrying it. This would make the banner mobile, but not interfere with weapon skills. The player could only carry one banner at a time like this.

If the Warrior that planted the banner picks up their own banner and stows it, the utility slot used to summon the banner swaps to a new ability, which would be the old 2-slot ability.

I really think their should be a way to keep the banners mobile (at least one) without screwing with the warrior’s weapons. This seems like a decent approach.

Every sugestion are welcome
- Worse than it is, can’t will be
Banner are the worst summon in this game, just a waste of slot (in my opinion).

- Banners are so bad, that Anet safe that guy (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_Chief_Otyugh) of needs come back to banner position to pick up his banner His banner comes magically to his hand with slap of finger.

I just think to carry that thing in my back can disturb future back skins (wings, lights, or other things for example), and leave my char with shark appearance

I still think 3 things:
- Teleport to banner location (this skill replaces summon banner, and have 10s CD).
- Increase range (1200 – 1500) and efficiency.
- Rework skills.

I guess that’s not a bad idea.

Though, my suggestion is that banners are made a little smaller and, when picked up, replace the main hand slot of the secondary weapon set. For example, banner + war horn. Weapon skill slot #1 would be the general default attack, 2 would be the default banner-specific skill, and 3 is the plant standard skill. When 3 is used, the banner would be planted on the ground and the warrior would revert to using whatever main hand he/she had before picking up the banner, then vice versa upon picking it up again.

Other suggestion(s):
- Other players can pick up the banners, but they return to the summoner’s side after 600 units of distance has been placed in between.

Personally, I want banners that are wearable on my back, and can be brought to/removed from my hands by pressing the banners utility button.

Do they infringe on engi kits a little? Probably. Meh.

I would like Banner #2 skill be available in the utility bar.

After summoning the banner, the banner #2 skill will replace the summon banner skill.

This way, you get some extra utilities if you go for a banner build. For example, if you summon banner of defense, you can use Staggering Banner even if you are 1200 range away from your banner.

JETWING.2759:

Every sugestion are welcome
- Worse than it is, can’t will be
Banner are the worst summon in this game, just a waste of slot (in my opinion).

- Banners are so bad, that Anet safe that guy (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_Chief_Otyugh) of needs come back to banner position to pick up his banner His banner comes magically to his hand with slap of finger.

I just think to carry that thing in my back can disturb future back skins (wings, lights, or other things for example), and leave my char with shark appearance

I still think 3 things:
- Teleport to banner location (this skill replaces summon banner, and have 10s CD).
- Increase range (1200 – 1500) and efficiency.
- Rework skills.

if you’re talking about PvP or WvW, sure i guess Banners are bad (i don’t play either mode).

but in PvE, Banners (of Strength and Discipline) are the best utilities are Warrior can bring to a group. ginormous DPS buffs that everyone will get because bosses rarely move.

theamato.8756:

JETWING.2759:

Every sugestion are welcome
- Worse than it is, can’t will be
Banner are the worst summon in this game, just a waste of slot (in my opinion).

- Banners are so bad, that Anet safe that guy (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_Chief_Otyugh) of needs come back to banner position to pick up his banner His banner comes magically to his hand with slap of finger.

I just think to carry that thing in my back can disturb future back skins (wings, lights, or other things for example), and leave my char with shark appearance

I still think 3 things:
- Teleport to banner location (this skill replaces summon banner, and have 10s CD).
- Increase range (1200 – 1500) and efficiency.
- Rework skills.

if you’re talking about PvP or WvW, sure i guess Banners are bad (i don’t play either mode).

but in PvE, Banners (of Strength and Discipline) are the best utilities are Warrior can bring to a group. ginormous DPS buffs that everyone will get because bosses rarely move.

In PvE everything still good.
But bring PvE to PvP and WvW is unfair to warriors, because banners become waste of utility slot (we have 4 useless skills that could be replaced for 4 usefull, and needed, skills).

Banner need be good in every mode, like anothers summons.
And more!
Banners need be best than mobile summons for serevals obvious reasons.
- Banners don’t move.
- Banners don’t attack.
- Banners don’t disable.
- Banners don’t inflict conditions.
- Banners don’t block attacks, conditions and cc.
- Banners don’t grants combo field.
- Banners don’t disturb the foe. Just the opposite, disturb allies when they pickup then for acident.
- Banners are uselles!

The only good thing in banner are animation, i like it.
I disagree to carry in back.

Small detail: something like a 170 precision (8% crit chance) and 15% crit damage boost to all party members within 600 range in not useless. Banners are, in fact, one of the best tools for dungeon speedcearing, because they provide huge buffs that can stack with boons (except for Battle Standard of course, which is on a completely different scale of awesomeness).

Not to mention that they have 75% uptime (100% when traited) and can give perma-regen if traited.

Banners are not designed as engineer kits, CC utilities, stunbreaks etc. They’re a way of providing long-lasting, irremovable buffs for your team. And that’s awesome.

Only thing I’d like to see for Banners is after they’re casted, on the utility bar they get replaced with some instant cast skills.

Banner of Strength: Inspire Strength. Give up to 5 allies in range of your Banner 2 stacks of Might for 5 seconds (20 second cool down)

Banner of Discipline: Inspire Precision. Give up to 5 allies in range of your Banner 5 seconds of Fury (20 second cool down)

Banner of Defense: Inspire Resistance. Give up to 5 allies in range of your Banner 5 seconds of Protection. 35 second cool down

Banner of Tactics: Inspire Survival. Give up to 5 allies in range of your Banner 5 seconds of Regeneration, and cure 1 condition. 25 second cool down

Battle Standard: Inspire Victory. Give allies in range of your Banner all boons for 5 seconds. 60 second cool down (might be too much. Could give Retaliation and Stability or something instead with a shorter cool down)

I keep telling people.

Banners would be great, if they all had unique skills and effects when picked up.

Currently they all have the same skills, even the elite banner has the same skills. only difference is the 2nd key.

Also when picked up, giving Banners their own unique Burst skills for Warriors would have been a sweet deal for using them.

they were poorly designed. Banners passive effects should be stronger. Not just some random boon or something. but actually some meaningful effect on allies. making them a threat to enemy.

I fear that banners that you can stow would require a lot of revamping in other areas.

• The passive bonus of Banner of Discipline/Strength is strictly superior to the passive of Signet of Fury/Might. That would mean that stowable banners would have to come with a revamp to those signet passives.
• A banner regen build with stowable banners might end up being ridiculously powerful in terms of the passives that you get.
• They would lose part of their uniqueness.

banners should be picked up without delay, like supply with the wvw abilities, no animation, no standing still.. the dropping is fine already with weapon switch instead of #5, but picking up still way too slow.

I am amused by the idea of the affixable banner—similar to the sashimono flags worn by samurai. However, one of the mechanics of the flag currently is that it does essentially replace someone’s weapons when they become a “moving buff.”

If anything, I like my banner summon: it provides a nice solid area buff that I can use for supporting my team and not worry about it. And, if we’re on the move, I or someone else can grab it and speed us along our way. These are mechanics I’ve gotten used to, though, and changing them may be a noticeable reformat.

Bean Muncher.5197:

Small detail: something like a 170 precision (8% crit chance) and 15% crit damage boost to all party members within 600 range in not useless. Banners are, in fact, one of the best tools for dungeon speedcearing, because they provide huge buffs that can stack with boons (except for Battle Standard of course, which is on a completely different scale of awesomeness).

Not to mention that they have 75% uptime (100% when traited) and can give perma-regen if traited.

Banners are not designed as engineer kits, CC utilities, stunbreaks etc. They’re a way of providing long-lasting, irremovable buffs for your team. And that’s awesome……

…..in PvE.

In WvW, your banner gets left behind or stolen. Or you carry it everywhere and you’re a glorified buffbot. In PvP, it’s even worse.

Shouts are overall better due to their mobility. All I’d like to see is banners brought up to the same level of usefulness as other utility skills we already have available.

Amerist.6504:

These are mechanics I’ve gotten used to, though, and changing them may be a noticeable reformat.

My suggestion is leave the current banners as is, and create a second copy of each banner skill when they come out with all the new skills and traits. The old versions would remain for those who like them, droppable, pickups, etc… and the new versions would be 1-active-at-a-time, worn on the back.

Hell, you could even mix and match, drop 2, wear 1.

The old banners remain, so the people who like them as is are happy. New wearable banners are available for the people who hate them.

Tell me, where’s the downside?

!!!!! IMPORTANT CHANGES TO BANNERS !!!!!

1. Players who summon the banner must have priority in holding the banner.
   Much like occupying siege weapons in WvW, the person who creates the banner should be able to knock off who’s currently holding the banner and take it back.
2. The #5 skill on banners should not be a 2 second self-stun. That is just asinine.
3. Picking up the banner should be very similar to swapping engineer kits; there should be no delay that self-stuns the player for 1.5 seconds when picking up banners.
4. The Powerful Banners trait should do more than 200 damage upon summoning banners. This trait = the definition of awful.

Everything else about banners is relatively fine. The #2 skills are weak on every banner. The #2 on the Battle Standard elite self-stuns the player for 2 seconds before casting stability for 3 seconds. That is not good, to put it lightly.

Banners will never be able to stow on your back for many reasons that I believe even Anet agrees with.

First off, it’s a invulnerable stat increase that no one but ironically your allies can mess with (by running away and going lololol with it). If you are able to stow it on your back every Warrior would roll banners, as they would have no downside for something that gives a lot of stats with no downtime traited.

Even Karl has said back in the SOTG before banners got buffed that they vision banners as totems where a Warrior would place one and say “here is where I will fight”.

It’s a good concept, but suffers from flaws such as people stealing your banner. The reason they are clunky is because the time to pick up and move with the banner. If the animation was faster and less clunky it would make banners a lot better. Not only that, but the range is pitiful. It needs to be at least 1200 range traited, because many range classes with 1200 range attacks would be out of the banners 900 radius.

Maybe just have the different banners create each their own
combo field, which are active until a banner is picked up or
runs out of time. A banner which is picked up occupies off-hand
and 4 skill slot becomes the current 2 skill from banner,
5 skill slot becomes ‘Plant banner’ (or what it’s called currently).

Maybe add this function as well:
Allied player picks up banner, receives a boon apropriate
to the type of banner picked up, until it’s timed out or
planted in the ground again.

I’ll repeat my long-standing trio of banner change suggestions here;

1: No pause to pick up a banner, the same as upgraded supply mastery. That’s half the problems with ease-of-use solved right there.

2: Banner #5 is no longer a blast finisher. Now, banner #5 provides a buff to the banner itself that increases its range of effect until it is picked up again. Why no blast? Because with change 1 it would be too easily abused for stack-buffing. Now it serves as a distinction between discarding the banner and placing it more deliberately.

3: When holding a banner, Warriors have access to a banner burst skill. There is no reason for a warrior-unique utility to block a warrior’s access to their profession skill, same goes for Rampage. Warriors can activate this burst skill to hurl their banner (lengthy, obvious animation, but near-instant projectile speed) as a ground target (900 range & 160 radius, IMO) blast finisher, to replace the removal of blasts from suggestion 2. What should this ground target do? I don’t know, what do you think it should do? Damage? Buff allies? Apply conditions to foes?

These three changes retain the character of banners, something that back-mounting them does not do. With these changes banners are now more mobile, less self-disruptive and have three ways of getting into a useful position; dropping, placing with #5 or being hurled via burst skill. Their utility in PvE is unaffected, while the problems they face in SPvP and WvW (the mobile nature of the fights) are largely salved without making banners automatic perma-buffs.

Banners are amazing as is, but you should need to put effort into keeping them near to you. The solution is to make that management less painful, not to remove it, that just makes banners overpowered. With these three changes, you can manage your banners without self-stunning yourself every time you need to shift them.

I know I (An avid WvW player) would use a banner in every build if these changes were made, as it stands now I can’t afford to spare the seconds it takes to shift the kitten things around. Remove that roadblock, and we’ll see more of these amazing utilities.