I posted this in the thread about constructive necromancer feedback, but someone mentioned that it would be more appropriate to make a new thread about this, so here it goes. This is where you can post what you believe ArenaNet most needs to adjust before the qualifiers for the big PAX tournament. I’ll start off with my own suggestion.
Necromancer
- Dhuumfire: Renamed to “Cruel Punishment”, which reads, “100% chance to cause 2 stacks of Torment for 5 seconds on critical hit. (Cooldown: 10 seconds)” Currently, the addition of Burning damage on top of the other conditions a Necromancer can pump out, plus the long duration fears backed by Terror damage from the meta 30/20/0/0/20 spec mean that targets have little ability to avoid being “condi spiked”. This new access to Burning on top of the new condition Torment means that it has become very easy for Necromancers to overload a team’s condi cleanses in a teamfight due to the amount of condition diversity they have access to, especially when backed up by a second Necromancer or a condi Engineer/Ranger.
- Terror: Moved to Grandmaster tier. “Withering Precision” has been moved to Master tier. Let’s face it: even after the latest patch, Terror is still the strongest trait in the Curses line, and deserves to be at Grandmaster tier. Furthermore, the moving of this trait into Grandmaster makes it impossible to have Dhuumfire, Terror, and Master of Terror in the same build, and gives the Necromancer some very important decisions to make when building for condis. As it stands, it’s just too easy to put all the best condition traits together in the same build and achieve excellent DPS and long CCs with great sustainability — a very deadly combination.
Engineer
- Elixir R: Increased the cooldown to 45 seconds. It is now an instant stun breaker. “Toss Elixir R” now revives 15% per pulse, down from 20%. Eliminating Elixir R as a stun breaker restricted Engineer builds to a severe degree, when all that was really needed was a reduction on its revive power so that (for instance) an Engineer can be finished in a 1v1 without having a very good chance to self-revive. Adjusting its revival power would keep its utility as a team res assist without making Engis as hard to finish in 1v1 and 2v2 situations.
Ranger
- Spirits: All spirit passive abilities now have an internal cooldown of 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds. It’s no secret that Spirit Rangers are on the rise, and it’s largely because of the high amounts of Protection and Burning procs caused while being able to hold their own in most 1v1 situations, making for an optimal home point defender. I don’t believe this build is vastly overpowered, and certain builds (ones with good AoE cleave) can do very well against it. However, the large number of procs generated in a team fight situation is just too high at the moment and could use a small adjustment downward in power level.
Thief
- Shadow Trap: The maximum duration has been decreased to 75 seconds in sPvP, down from 120 seconds. Thieves still have good damage, but their current ubiquity in high level play mostly stems from their extremely high mobility. A well-played thief can feel like it’s everywhere at once, putting pressure on the enemy team’s home point while still being present elsewhere on the map, thanks to the recently-buffed Shadow Trap. While I can appreciate ArenaNet’s desire to make underused utilities more PvP-viable, this one was pushed a little too far. Reducing Shadow Trap’s duration would leave it still viable (similar to how the Mesmer Portal is still useful) while reducing the thief’s mobility to more reasonable levels.
- Infiltrator’s Strike: “Shadow Return” now cannot be used while feared or under a control effect. S/D Thieves are certainly strong (esp. in 1v1 and 2v2), but the most difficult part of dealing with them is that when you do land a well-timed CC while they aren’t evading, they are almost always able to teleport away, wait for the CC to end, and then teleport back. By removing their ability to Shadow Return away while CCed, you are able to punish the Thief at the ends of their evades more easily and thus land some damage on them at opportune moments.
(edited by cymerdown.4103)