Guild Wars 2

Made this post a LONG time ago, but people didn’t(and still don’t) understand just how BORING the rifle is because they’re too busy going on about how big of numbers they can get with killshot…

I made this post before the quickness nerfs, and the stun meta, so some of the ideas would need to be tweaked, but I still think the rifle would still be improved.

Rifles. They’re boring. Some might say underpowered, some say very situational. I say they could use a heavy dose of fun.

Why are rifle’s boring? Well you sit there and you peck away from a distance, and every so often you get a big painful peck that often never connects.

My idea is to make the rifle much more aggressive.

Volley - The closer you are, the more damage it does. I think about 18th century battles and how inaccurate the muskets were, a volley was held off until opposing forces were relatively close to maximize damage. The skill could also track enemies moving around you instead of the skill ending early.

Crack Shot - Change piercing to ricochet(up to 3 targets). I think this mechanic is a bit more fun and makes hitting more than one target a bit easier to set up. Taking time to line your targets up doesn’t seem like a warrior type thing to do. Charging in firing wildly is more like it.

Now for the fun stuff

Rifle Butt - Changed to the adrenaline skill. Now stuns instead of knocking back(remember volley doing more damage up close?)

Prepared Shot (Replaces Rifle Butt on the #5 slot). – Prepare a powerful Rifle Shot. Prepared shot Does different things depending on how well prepared it is. Skill changes for every second it is charged.

-Less than 1 second – ill Prepared Shot – Fire an ill prepared shot that knocks back the enemy(so a double tap of the skill maintains the same function as Rifle Butt)
-After 1 second – Hastily Prepared Shot – Fire a Hastily Prepared shot that stuns your foe
-At 2 seconds(full cast) – Well Prepared Shot – Fire a powerful Shot that immobilizes your foe

Bayonette - Replaces Brutal Shot – Rush forward and impale your foe with with a bayonette making them vulnerable.

I think it would be a lot of fun charging in with a rifle like this. More utility(prepared shot/rifle butt), more damage(volley/crack shot), more aggressive, more fun. Yeah it gets rid of Kill Shot, but I never liked that skill anyways. I think it would be hard to make an accurate Kill Shot when pumped up on adrenaline anyways.

Edit: Some additional thoughts. Though the idea of these changes were to make rifle more aggressive, but they also allow for more defensive play as well. Bayonette could used to run away as well as charge in. Prepared shot can keep people away or hold them still and if they do get close, rifle butt is there to stop them.

This approach makes the rifle more involved, versatile, and usable.

jmatb.6307:

Shout Warrior will be pretty interesting and much more effective at support than the Banner regen stuff we see right now. Spreading Fury to your teammates is a lot more helpful, and getting a free Shake it Off actually ends up being more efficient for condi removal than Guardians with 3 shouts. I’d run that instead of a guardian if my teammates want to do burst and help immob stack.

Staff Ele is gonna be good as a mid support as well with that revamped Earth spell that knocks people back, and buffed heals. I can see a 0/0/20/30/20 build working with Rock Solid and Blasting Staff.

I don’t think anyone has ever tried a Mesmer mid support but with the mantra AoE stuff it’s at least worth a shot. That’s way out of people’s comfort zone though.

I was super exicted to see shout warrior being buffed. Though I think they should have probably left the self heal numbers alone and made healing power scale really well for healing allies. So if you stack healing power you actually become much more supportive but don’t gain too much more for yourself.

I love the idea of real support roles.

I think the reason this hasn’t come to real possibility is because too many skills/traits/abilities are too selfish or affect the caster as well.

I think there should be more skills/traits that are only for:

-supporting others
-have a much greater benefit for others
-Give YOU more benefit the more allies you help

I think the dev team should look at the Paragon from GW1 for inspiration

While it created a lot of imbalance in GW1, the way the paragon worked is much more conducive to the playstyle(and direction) of GW2.

If they gave each class some “Paragon Style” traits. You would be able to center a build around them and make a dedicated support role.

Something that’s not necessarily centered around Offense or Defense, but rather aiding those that need help, making them stronger by a large margin, or making yourself powerful because you’re around team mates.

Dee Jay.2460:

Oh god please yes!

This was suggested countless times prior….no idea why this time it was recognized.

Maybe because the post was shorter than…say this one: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Reasonable-changes-to-downed-state/first#post2864247

Anyway, anything that limits the impact of downed-state is a welcome change in my book.

Ooh ooh I know!!!!

Because it had the word ‘reasonable’ in the thread title!

Hilarious that I made basically the same post!

I’ve been a proponent of slowing combat down and making it more about support and coordination for a long time. I’m not sure why I waited till now to post this

The crazy Idea I had was to make it so only STOMPS give a rally. So DPSing someone out only gets rid of them and does not grant a rally at all.

This would make stomping much more important and would add more gravity to the decisions of stomping vs DPSing. It might also reduce AoE spam on downed opponents(as you might want to rally a team mate)

This would even out the temperament of group fights even further by rewarding smart and coordinated play and discouraging spam.

The reason I suggested this in sPvP only is because it would be a much simpler fix and wouldn’t cause too many problems due to there only being two(opposing) teams.

In WvW you have multiple alliances so rally priority gets kinda squirly. It would be really annoying to kill someone in WvW and stomp them only to find out some idiot who ran in and got downed first got rallied instead of one of your allies. So maybe just add a range to rallying in WvW.

In PvE it’s not a huge problem.

As for the rally buff idea. It sounds interesting, but I think it adds a minor amount of complication to something that I don’t think should be complicated.

Just thinking about Hotjoin I can see all the frustration people would encounter because their teammates wont rally each other.

I thought of a new effect for OMM that would make it actually worth bringing.

On My Mark – Maintains Current functionality. Now Causes your and affected allies’ next attack to be a critical and unblockable.

This allows for improved coordinated strikes and is congruent with the skill’s name,

To me the problem seems pretty evident anymore that warriors (in PvP) have a fairly difficult time bringing some of the lesser used utilities. Not necessarily because they are bad, but because there is something much more important that needs to be brought. I came up with an idea to address just that.

The Idea:
-The 25 point minor Grandmaster trait for every tree grants the warrior a tree specific “burst stance”

-This “burst stance” consumes all adrenaline and it’s duration is determined by how much adrenaline is consumed.

-They do not replace the burst skill, but are treated like additional “Burst Skills” that the warrior has the option to use.

-The Grandmaster-Minor trait breakdown would look like this
Strength – Rampage(yes, rampage)
Arms – Frenzy
Defense – Endure Pain
Tactics – Balanced Stance
Discipline – Berzerker Stance

This allows a warrior some huge flexibility with the utility slots, so all of those less used utility skills might actually see some combat since there will be much less competition for those slots(physical utilities yay!)

Since the warrior MUST sink 25 points in order to acquire these “burst stances” you cannot have more than a total of 2.

I think the best way to address this(initially anyways) is to have them share cooldown with the actual skills(to avoid cheese). A more refined version would actually remove the stances(and rampage) from the skills list, with the utility list re-fleshed-out to fill the gaps.

This would also bring more gravity and flavor to the trees the warrior invests in.

Side note:
I understand this might not seem balanced in the current state of the game, but I think with some tweaking, this will give the warrior an enormous variety to the builds it could create as well as being balanced. It also has huge potential for other ideas expanded from this.

I think the real reason physical utilities are bad is because warriors lack a lot of utility in our weapon sets.

We have to bring 2-3 survival utilities at all times as we have very little access to things like blind and protection. Our elites offer little to no help as well. Signet of Rage gets some if we use Lyssa runes. Battle Standard is a banner and banners are lame.

Most other classes have a profession mechanic that gives them more utility without their utility slots

Guardians – Virtues
Engineeers – Kits(I know thats a utility slot) + tool belt
Necro – DeathShroud
Mesmer – Shatters
Thief – Initiative(they can use the same skill multiple times)
Elementalist – Essentially 4 weapon sets
Ranger – Pets and Weapon utility(probably the closest to the warrior in terms of utility)

Warrior has to trait to get any utility out of burst(Cleansing Ire) and our weapon sets have very little utility except for shield and warhorn and warhorn is not the most attractive weapon to use.

Double Endure Pain + (Melandru runes + Dogged March + Food) or berzerker stance + (Sword + Greatsword + Mobile Strikes) + balanced stance + last stand

=

A very hard to kill warrior in any circumstance. There is little you can do to stop them from running away(and getting away) besides stripping their stability and non-immobilize CCing them until their Endure Pains run out.

It does not mean they are immortal or OP, they’re just built for getting away.

I actually like the mending idea, I don’t know about the numbers, but I like the fact that it becomes a HoT so its atleast slightly similar to the GW1 skill/

The condi removal per second would be interesting, though I’m not sure if its a buff or a nerf. It might act as a deterrant to dump condis on you for it’s duration, but also doesn’t act as an on demand condi cleanse

I like healing surge the way it is. It has utility(full adrenaline) and a big heal. I don’t think it needs anything else or different.

It will trigger if you are hit while under 25% hp regardless of whether you are under endure pain or not. So you could potentially use one and immediately use the other and thus waste one of them.

That being said, the double endure pain is worth it if you are looking to escape from being heavily focused. You can pop Endure pain when you have a high HP threshold (before the damage comes in) and use Defy Pain as a cushion. Or let Defy Pain catch you before you go down and use endure pain to buy some time.

So just be aware of your circumstances and whether or not it can trigger.

Shield Wall – When ever you use a block skill, adjacent allies also block. Every ally(not you!) that you protect from an attack receives 5 seconds of retaliation. Any resulting counterattack(that is triggered by protecting an ally) does +100% damage and strikes all adjacent foes.

HOLY ANTI-CLEAVE BATMAN IT’S AN UNSELFISH TRAIT!!!

This game needs more SUPPORT. Since there’s so kitten much movement in this game and rolling at every opportunity is the best “strategy” a trait like this is only powerful when used around and with teammates, particularly when you can communicate.

Regardless of whether this trait would be OP or UP it’s really about bringing something different to the table and adding a little bit of depth to this game.

Well if you think about it this way, shouts do not give stability, so if you’re running a shout build, things like “fear me” need to be reliable for when you need to get people off of you.

Since blind is quite prevalent it actually happens quite often that you just flat out miss this shout.

I don’t think it would make the skill that much more attractive to bring. It’s still a shout and to reduce the cooldown you need to spec into tactics.

To make it immune to blind would just make it more reliable.

The oddest thing is that shouts are unblockable. Yet still affected by blind.

I came up with an idea to address some of the problems.

New Master-Major Trait – Steadfast Commander – For each other ally affected by your shout, you gain 1 second of stability(5 second cooldown)

This gives shout builds access to a small amount of stability, but keeps a limit on it with a cooldown and a requirement of being near allies so it doesn’t eliminate dedicated stability skills.

It also would require a trait investment of 20 points into tactics so for the most part only support builds would take advantage of it.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Angriff’s build would be pretty good if he replaced Cleasing Ire with Last Stand. Basically it’s good ol’ Skullcracker with shouts. Less DPS but better team support. I’d go one step further and add in a Warhorn.

Here’s one I’m working on…

This would probably be pretty good in PvE/WvW as well. Your crit chance would still be pretty good because of 100% Fury, 49% with a sword and with the minor Critical Burst Trait even Combustive Shot will crit fairly frequently as well. Force them to stand in the flames and if they don’t you’ll regen and heal. You can also combo with Savage Leap and Call to Arms so squeeze out some more might and bonus DPS from burning.

You’ll also be frequently reducing their damage with Weakness in addition to having many dodges with both Sigils of Energy and Vigor. I really enjoy making builds that find ways to make up for the weaknesses of the gear. I also feel like it’s got a very commander like feeling to it which is always cool.

I was thinking about the warhorn seeing that Lung Capacity is moving to adept, and becoming a super support buff machine.

I opted the way I did because I’m using it for soloq so I make my builds a little more self centered and sufficient. I feel strange taking out the shield though as it buys so much time and it provides a gap closer for the mace. If I had a team I might opt for the WH.

I’ll probably try something similar to your bow build next, shouts are fun

sinzer.4018:

I’d suggest dropping cleansing ire in favour of last stand. Your condition removal will fall loads though but i personally couldn’t run without stability.

Well the first problem I found with that is you get destroyed by necros and engis. The condi removal is good, but just not enough.

The second problem is that you can’t control last stand. It can get used when you don’t need it and with a 90s cooldown it is just not enough uptime to make it feel like its worth it.

On the other hand Cleansing Ire has as low of a cooldown as your burst skills, and lets you outlast most engis and necros(and anything else that thinks it can lay down conditions) which seem to be very plentiful.

Most of the time when I die to CC its when against 2+ opponents. So I try to keep it to 1v1 or stick with a group that I can support.

Like I said it would probably be better to give up unsuspecting foe for last stand(or fast hands) than giving up anything else.

Funny(backwards) weapon setups.

Mainhand Shield or Warhorn with offensive offhands

There would have to be some skills created to fill the gaps, but it would allow you to use the offhand weapon abilities with the defensive weapons.

Though it would be hilarious(and awesome) I don’t think we need dual shield or warhorns

Part of the reasoning is that you can be asleep for the first 10 seconds of a fight and come back just fine because of auto-trigger traits.

Making some of them active also brings an element of timing and thoughtful usage of the traits.

This system already exists in other games and I find it to work very well. They’ll have a “stun break” skill that activates when you are stunned or knocked down and you just press a button to use it.

It wouldn’t be broken or overpowered, the traits already have cooldowns(well most of them anyways). All that would need to happen is add the trait activation indicator and map a button to it.

It seems odd that a shout should be able to miss at all, but why do they miss when blinded? It seems like bad logic even for a videogame.

Character yells “I can’t see” then proceeds to “miss” a shout. Right…

I think it would be interesting to have some of the traits that automatically activate be changed to give the player more control over when they activate.

It could be as simple as an indicator showing up that the trait has triggered and using the interact key to activate it. This would work especially well on traits that activate when disabled.

The traits would be much more reliable and allow for better build flexibility.

Some of the other traits that activate a at % health or damage thresholds could work, but might actually make some of them less effective. Which could be a good or bad thing.

Seeing the possibility of improved shouts, I decided to give them a try again.

I’ve been running with this.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sBxg;1NKkN0_47L-60;9;59JT9;13;008-07B3;0CR-4;2ZF18ZF183NQ

It’s got an enormous amount of healing and condition removal built into it, but as others have noted with such a build, it is susceptible to chain cc.

Outside of that though, you can heal your team mates for 2k per shout, keep people locked down, and provide powerful res support (fear me+ high healing power).\

In 1v1 you can use Skull Crack + 100B to do respectable damage(bloodlust really helps). Even if you’re not killing them, they’re most likely not killing you either.

It ain’t perfect. No fast hands really sucks. No stability really sucks. To get one of those you have to give up unsuspecting foe(and most of your damage), which if all you’re after is support, then its not a big deal.

I wish it could work a little better, but it’s still fun.

I think they need to change 2 things with axes

Main-Hand Axe – Increase Eviscerate range to 450 and shorten the aftercast delay

Off-Hand Axe – Fix the whirl finisher on Whirling Axe

I really miss the CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP of the old #1 before they changed it, because I felt like a mad butcher on a rampage in the slaughterhouse. It’s just not as fun anymore. It could possibly be reverted as quickness is not as effective as it was before(Axe#1 was like a mobile 100b before)

I think that giving a daze or even damage to shouts would be totally asinine.

There’s already enough instant cast, un-telegraphed crap in this game and the warrior doesn’t need that.

This idea is basically a “hey wouldn’t it be cool,” but it wouldn’t be.

Imagine a warrior that heals around 1100 hp per second AND interrupts you when it heals AND its also nearly immune to conditions AND it hits like a truck.

It would just be plain bad for the game.

If shouts had a cast time it would make much more sense, but they don’t.

That’s why a trait like this would be much better suited to the warhorn skills. Not only can they see that you’re carrying a warhorn, but you also would have to cast the skills.

Even if the warhorn got something like that, it might be over-the-top.

And with that I’m done here!

I think its a fine place to give warriors protection. Remember its only a 5 point minor trait. You’re not supposed to move mountains with a 5 point investment.

You said it yourself, that warriors deserve protection. I for one would like to get protection when I go to revive people, because most of the time you get a bunch of damage dumped on you.

Where in that description does it say that we yell so loudly that out voice causes physical harm?

Oh and by the way we already have a shout that makes enemies run away

I think you need some sleep Daecollo, you’ve been up for too many days posting on these forums, and I think its starting to get to you

I think you got your 5 and 25 mixed up, that 5 pointer would be way too good

I’ve got some ideas of my own
I think you’ll like some of these Daecollo, they’re right up your ally

(from my post a couple of days ago(again))

Angriff.1935:

-Minor Traits – changed to:

-Adept – Determined Revival – Gain protection when reviving an ally
This makes more sense than the way it currently works and would make tactics feel more like a support tree

-Master – New Trait – Tenacious Healing – Increases healing for every condition affecting you
I think that there should be some incentive to invest in tactics over defense, and this helps make up for the lack of condition removal in the traits.

-Grandmaster – Empowered – moved from Adept-Major
Again helps incentivize damage oriented builds to invest in tactics.

Why would a shout do damage?

I also don’t think that warriors need to do untelegraphed dazes and damage that also can heal and give boons and remove conditions.

See where I’m going with this?

The warhorn just simply isn’t a very attractive weapon to use as it has very little offense and the defense is entirely reliant on condi clearing and vigor. With a trait to provide dazes you could use it to stop rezing or to trip up your opponent a little bit.

I want to see a balanced warrior that can use any weapon he chooses and have it be viable. We need more reasons to choose lesser used weapon sets.

I came up with an idea for a trait to add a 1/4 sec stun to warhorn skills. Like 2 days ago.

I think it would make warhorn more attractive and is actually telegraphed(unlike shouts) and therefore much more balanced.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Angriff-1935/showposts

I was going to make a long post yesterday, but it got lost when I hit submit. So here’s version #2

I would like to see the tactics tree revamped for several aspects:

-Build synergy + Accessibility/Flexibility

The longbow traits feel very misplaced in tactics and stronger bowstrings almost feels worthless. Most longbow builds will get more out of investing in other trees. Shout builds and warhorn traits don’t mix well. Some traits just need to be moved around.

-Better support capabilities

Things like healing shouts are really cool, but they often feel like a sub-par choice. I think that the self healing on these are fine, but I think that the group support and synergy could be greatly improved. There also seems to just be a lack of incentive to run a tactics support build.

-Those minor traits have to GO

All of the minor traits are worthless and need to be changed.

-

Some of my ideas:

-Leg specialist – added effect – 5% more damage to immobilized foes
This makes tactics more attractive for an offensive build and also synergizes well with the longbow

-Stronger Bowstrings – either needs to have an added effect(increase arrow velocity), or be combined with burning arrows.

-Quick Breathing – Moved to Adept-Major
Gives more flexibility to support builds

-New Master-Major Trait – Powerful Lungs – Warhorn skills briefly stun nearby foes.
this adds a little bit of offense and defense to the warhorn, making it more attractive vs shield

-Inspiring Battle Standard – added effect – banners heal nearby allies when summoned.
A band-aid for how clunky banners are. Their long cooldown makes this just a small heal that improves group support

-Vigorous Shouts – added effect – for each affected other ally you gain 1 second of vigor(cooldown 10 seconds)
this adds a personal benefit to using your healing shouts to their maximum potential

-Minor Traits – changed to:

-Adept – Determined Revival – Gain protection when reviving an ally
This makes more sense than the way it currently works and would make tactics feel more like a support tree

-Master – New Trait – Tenacious Healing – Increases healing for every condition affecting you
I think that there should be some incentive to invest in tactics over defense, and this helps make up for the lack of condition removal in the traits.

-Grandmaster – Empowered – moved from Adept-Major
Again helps incentivize damage oriented builds to invest in tactics.

-

The last change I would make that would make tactics a better tree

-Fast Hands – Moved to Adept-Minor
This would lighten the stress on the warrior trait tree as a whole, but tactics would be much more accessible if you only had to invest 5 points to have access to fast hands.

Well here it goes again another semi-long winded post from yours truly with more ideas for making guild wars more fun and an attempt to balance it while doing so.

When Anet first started putting out videos and articles about GW2, alot of it went on about engaging and visceral combat. While the game may have contained that at one point, it changed as the game needed to be balanced.

I think that the prime example was the Warrior. You can still see evidence of what the warrior once was. Relatively sluggish feel to the attacks, big exaggerated animations, and satisfying impacts. Then when it came to PvP the warrior suffered greatly. The very things that made the warrior feel good also proved to be a thorn in their side.

I think it would be cool to see some of that come back.

Some basic ideas:

-Turn more existing skills into skill shots(actually requiring aiming).
This would be especially cool for ranged weapon sets and would allow for more skillful use of abilites whilst being able to increase the petential of skill AND also leaving PvE relatively unharmed

example: Kill Shot could have its range massively increased to allow for an actual sniper role, and since you would have to manually aim it, increasing the range will make the skill potentially very powerful, but require skill to use. This change would also be fun for PvE and WvW, being able to engage unsuspecting foes from long distances

-Allow for deeper control of Pets/AI

example 1: Mesmers could have ground targetable illusions/clones that could be essentially flagged across longer distances(like heroes in GW1). This could be used to actually use a mesmer for deception. Like sending a clone to a point while you go in the opposite direction

example 2: Rangers could command their pet to follow and aid other team mates, or be flagged in a set location(again much like GW1 heroes)

-Grandmaster traits change the way a class is played

Example: Actually it already exists in the game, the warriors “Vigorous Shouts” is a really cool trait that while being in a terrible tree and also being rather useless, it completely changes the way skills are used in a neat and “useful” way.

Paired with runes of the soldier this makes for something that I think is really cool in concept and this game needs much more of

-More Atruistic skills/traits- it really blows my mind that this hasn’t been explored more. I think that there needs to be more capabilities for aiding and assisting teammates unselfishly. So taking such a trait or skill does not bear much benefit to the user, but to his teammates.

example 1: some do exist in this game such as the res skills (“Signet of Undeath”, “Glyph of Renewal”, etc…) or empowered(warrior trait)

example 2: Maybe a guardian could take a trait(or utility) to double their healing output for allies but halves healing they receive

-

I think that these concepts if properly applied could give combat in Guild Wars 2 a lot of depth, not just in PvP, but in every area of the game. It would improve PvP’s pacing, increase build variety, and at the same time bring that visceral feel back to the combat.

TLDR? just read the bold stuff

-Side note: too sleepy continue listing ideas..

I think most people missed the part where they said they wont be adding anything to WvW during the whole season. That means they’re probably focusing on other things(maybe PvP).

Now, that doesn’t mean they’ll be focusing on PvP, but at least there’s a glimmer of hope.

Wolf.5816:

What if you went into Rampage when activating Vengeance?

Better yet what if they replaced throw hammer with rampage(you get up and go into a short duration rampage in which continues on your downed state life force and decay)

THEN you can activate vengeance! Hooray! I would enjoy downed state finally.

Seriously though I think rampage needs to be more accessible and consistently usable. It just doesn’t do enough and takes too much away and only for a short duration on a long cooldown.

If atleast we could use it more often it might see some serious use. I don’t really think that it should even be considered a ‘transform’ skill. You don’t really do anything a warrior doesn’t already do besides throw a boulder(you could go pick up a cannonball)

I think making it a toggle(cooldown on toggle off) with an adrenaline per second cost might be cool, or as I said earlier an alternate F1. That way we are essentially trading a resource(and/or a burst ability) for a much shorter cooldown, but making it much more usable.

What if…..they removed rampage as an elite.

BUT they added a grandmaster trait in strength that changes your F1(for all weapon sets) into rampage.

Your adrenaline bars reflect how long it lasts(5-10-15 seconds) and you can’t gain adrenaline while in “Rampage” and it goes on cooldown when rampage ends so you cant chain it. Maybe give it a 30-40 second recharge(which is then affected by discipline)

Not only would this be hella fun, it would be a really cool trait. It would also synergize well with cleansing ire…..mmmmmm

Side note: Yes I realize rampage is an elite and yes I know it’s powerful, but it does disable your heals AND utilities.

People seem to forget about games like TF2 where you can literally one shot people.
Just because some classes are better at dealing damage, doesn’t mean that people will only pick those classes.

Also, look at Call of Duty and how there’s no healer in those games and the TTK is near instant alot of times.

People seem to think that these other formats wont work because of the way the game is designed and balanced, but I think that one way or another people will find the most efficient means of dealing with the different situations.

It’s not just Skills and Traits that need to be balances, but maps and game parameters as well. Think the matches will be over too soon? What about increasing the score limit or creating points of interest or conflict in a map? What about adaptive spawn points(again CoD) instead of static? There’s plenty of ideas that other games use that could work well.

I think people are trying too hard to give Anet credit for limiting the PvP to ONE mode. Anet needs to abandon this whole “no holy trinity” stance that causes them to adamantly squash support roles.

I think that this game could use more coordination/support roles and some new freaking game modes.

I believe defy pain does something similar, it will proc even if you are already under endure pain as long as you are under 25% and get hit.

Even if you disagree with anything he says, he does care about the game and about making it better.

+1 for making this game more about fun than esports

I would like to see NPCs geared towards different approaches like the Isle of the nameless in GW1. There have been some additional golem dummies to the mists, but the NPCs are left alone.

Some that just bunker or try to stay alive, some that are geared for berserker style damage, some that focus on condition damage, and some that deal AoE and area denial style play(maybe like a bomb engie)

None of the npcs in the mists seem to do any of the above…well the best I’ve found is the Chieftain and Svanir, but they’re just glorified punching bags that hit back

I remember Anet saying a while ago about training new players to adapt to PvP, yet this section of the game has been untouched since launch.

Now I’m not a new player, but it would be helpful for testing things in a simple manner without needing two people , and I still feel that this should be addressed, because these npcs are lame.

roamzero.9486:

The counter-attack on Riposte should be like the thieves deathblossom attack, with a build in evade.

I actually really like that idea, it would certainly make OH Sword pretty neat.

And now that I think about it all of the thieves weapon skills are instant recharge(including the evades).

Would a defensive skill that requires a hit to recharge really be that unbalanced?

Olba.5376:

I honestly don’t think that recharging instantly would be a good idea.

But maybe, like, reduce the cooldown?

Yeah I was thinking about that. Maybe a short cooldown(maybe 1 second) so you cant just spam it. I still like the idea of being able to actually punish people for not avoiding or dealing with counterblow/riposte cause right now they’re not great for defense or offense.

Other classes have similar abilities that either have secondary doubletap functions(magnetic shield) or defensive utility(protector’s strike). Warriors just get adrenaline gain -_-

I have always disliked Counterblow(mace #2) and riposte(OH Sword #5). It feels like these skills have relatively low reward for using them effectively, considering they take up a whole skill slot.

While they can provide a small amount of defense and decent damage, I feel that the defense is not enough and the offensive output is lackluster. So I came up with a change that addresses both areas that these skills lack.

The Improvement:
Counterblow and Riposte recharge instantly if the attack is successfully landed.

If this were implemented, using these skills true to their nature would give an increase in survivability while ‘clinched’ with an enemy, while making it harder for them to stay in that range. Very much true to the way I believe the warrior is meant to be played. If the skill is whiffed or if it is used in an entirely defensive manner, it maintains its current function.

Another additional improvement:
Utilizing the ‘Missile Deflection’ trait would essentially allow the warrior to bat projectiles back at people and recharge the skill if that reflected projectile landed successfully.

The warrior currently exists as a relatively risk free engagement from a distance, and this would be a small discouragement to engage the warrior at range. Not to mention it would also be very fun.

I think that these changes would make for interesting builds and interesting plays, while making otherwise lackluster skills into a welcome addition to a warriors arsenal. It also relieves some pressure from the utility slots for defensive utilities.

But the thing is that almost every single PvP warrior build that has ever been played with any real seriousness has had atleast 15 in discipline.

At this point it’s not adding “point pressure” to warrior builds, it’s just become an accepted part of every build.

And a lot of people agree that it should be part of the warrior by default.

Imagine if necros had to spec 15 points into soul reaping just to get death shroud. You bet your kitten that every necro build would have 15 points into soul reaping. Not necessarily because you would be required to take it, but because it adds so much to the profession.

And that’s what Fast Hands is to a warrior. It brings something to the class that feels like it belongs.

I would prefer to see it become a baseline ability of warriors, but moving it to adept would certainly be a good start that’s easy for them to implement.

Stormbringer.5867:

No, it needs to be right where it is.

Please elaborate. I would like to know why warriors have to sink 15 points into a trait line to have something that almost should be a class mechanic.

Most warrior builds have fast hands in them already. It’s not like people are screaming that warriors are the plague of PvP because they can switch their weapons more often.

Allowing for more ease of access to this trait wouldn’t suddenly make warriors OP. You might see some new builds come out, but it wouldn’t really open any huge build changes that aren’t possible now.

The builds that this would open up are just a little kitten because they don’t have access to Fast Hands.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

Personally, I like having versatile rage in the adept line, as I like the extra adrenaline to help with cleansing ire or adrenaline healing (and I like using my bursts frequently). While I sympathize with your point of view (and do like build versatility), if you think Fast Hands is a lot better than versatile rage, then shouldn’t it be at master level instead? I’ve never bothered using fast hands, but I’ve rarely had nothing to do while waiting for weapon swap to finish it’s cd.

I do understand where you come from.
I assume you mostly play PvE content, where weapon switching is less critical. So something like versatile rage would certainly make more sense in some situations.
In any form of PvP however, 5 extra seconds is a very long time.

My line of thinking was in line with the move of the "Shield Master " trait to adept tier. While it is a good trait and it is called “Shield Master”, they needed to move it to give more flexibility to not only defensive builds, but offensive builds that needed more defense.

Moving Fast hands to Adept just allows a little more flexibility. While versatile rage may be more useful to some people, I feel that warriors as a whole would see more build diversity.

Maybe they could combine Fast Hands with Versatile Rage

Just look as what they did with Cleansing Ire.

If there was one change that would instantly breath some like into new build potential, I think that the simplest would definitely be moving fast hands to the 5 point minor trait.

For such a defining warrior trait, it comes at a relatively steep cost, and I feel as if I am married to the discipline tree because of that 15 point cost.

Moving Fast Hands to adept would make more 30-30 builds much more attractive and viable. Particularly builds which prioritize defense, which is one of the areas that warriors still need a little bit of love.

I think that that little bit of love would be to move Fast Hands to 5 points in discipline.

Since the early months of playing this game I’ve felt that the warrior, while distinct in feel, has an unfortunate flow to the way a lot of skills and abilities operate.

I thought I’d make a list of the things that feel clunky and I think could be refined and improved to make the warrior more fun to play.

Please note that this is not about balance. It is about the way the skills feel and flow

MH Axe
Eviscerate – Has a hugely exaggerated animation with a short range and a long aftercast. This skill feels so unsatisfying because it’s been so obviously cut down from what it once was. It would hugely benefit from a range increase and a reduction in the aftercast

Greatsword
Hundred Blades – While this skill was once considered the bread and butter for warrior in PvP(maybe still is in PvE), it remains a rather awkward skill to use mostly due to its rooting effect

Hammer
Fierce Blow + Backbreaker – Their activation times feel slightly longer than they should be
Staggering Blow – The rooting effect disrupts combat flow.
Earthshaker – Feels unreliable, maybe due to ease of avoidance. Just a little too slow.

Mace
Pulverize(#1 third swing) – Unusually slow activation
Counterblow – Feels as though something is missing. Maybe an early activation(double tap) effect. The effect for the skills full duration is rather weak as well

Rifle
Aimed Shot + Brutal Shot – Not necessarily clunky, but they are severely underwhelming
Kill Shot – long activation and root effect dont feel justified

MH Sword
Final Thrust – feels very slow. Maybe a slight increase in range or a small forward movement like kick has(with less startup and aftercast) would make this skill feel a little more powerful and justify the activation time

Flurry – The self rooting effect makes this skill almost painful to use the entirety of it. Though many use movement to cancel the skill and to utilize the immobilize, so this skill may be fine.
Though an alternate firm of this skill may be useful as well: remove the self root and change the immobilize from a single long immobilize to a short pulsed one like binding roots. This would make the skill more useful as a group utility cc skill but less useful as a self utility cc skill

OH Sword
Rip->Impale – Slow activation on both skills. The projectile speed on impale is also a bit slow, so it is very easy to avoid. Rip’s range in addition to it’s slow activation make it awkward to use. If it were long ranged, the activation time may be justified.

Riposte – Suffers from the same thing as Counterblow. Boring skill, boring effects, not really fun to use.

Utilities
Banners, nuff said

These are just the skills that I just don’t like using. I could almost write a book if I went into feel+functionality+balance.

There’s probably more I missed

I had a post a while ago about how boring the rifle was…

It lacks a warrior feel and has very uninteresting mechanics

anyways, the ideas weren’t perfect, and it came before the quickness nerf

Angriff.1935:

Well it’s time again. This time it’s…

Rifles. They’re boring. Some might say underpowered, some say very situational. I say they could use a heavy dose of fun.

Why are rifle’s boring? Well you sit there and you peck away from a distance, and every so often you get a big painful peck that often never connects.

My idea is to make the rifle much more aggressive.

Volley - The closer you are, the more damage it does. I think about 18th century battles and how inaccurate the muskets were, a volley was held off until opposing forces were relatively close to maximize damage. The skill could also track enemies moving around you instead of the skill ending early.

Crack Shot - Change piercing to ricochet(up to 3 targets). I think this mechanic is a bit more fun and makes hitting more than one target a bit easier to set up. Taking time to line your targets up doesn’t seem like a warrior type thing to do. Charging in firing wildly is more like it.

Now for the fun stuff

Rifle Butt - Changed to the adrenaline skill. Now stuns instead of knocking back(remember volley doing more damage up close?)

Prepared Shot (Replaces Rifle Butt on the #5 slot). – Prepare a powerful Rifle Shot. Prepared shot Does different things depending on how well prepared it is. Skill changes for every second it is charged.

-Less than 1 second – ill Prepared Shot – Fire an ill prepared shot that knocks back the enemy(so a double tap of the skill maintains the same function as Rifle Butt)
-After 1 second – Hastily Prepared Shot – Fire a Hastily Prepared shot that stuns your foe
-At 2 seconds(full cast) – Well Prepared Shot – Fire a powerful Shot that immobilizes your foe

Bayonette - Replaces Brutal Shot – Rush forward and impale your foe with with a bayonette making them vulnerable.

I think it would be a lot of fun charging in with a rifle like this. More utility(prepared shot/rifle butt), more damage(volley/crack shot), more aggressive, more fun. Yeah it gets rid of Kill Shot, but I never liked that skill anyways. I think it would be hard to make an accurate Kill Shot when pumped up on adrenaline anyways.

Edit: Some additional thoughts. Though the idea of these changes were to make rifle more aggressive, but they also allow for more defensive play as well. Bayonette could used to run away as well as charge in. Prepared shot can keep people away or hold them still and if they do get close, rifle butt is there to stop them.

This approach makes the rifle more involved, versatile, and usable.

from..
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/A-New-Approach-to-a-Balanced-Warrior/first#post623961

JETWING.2759:

About Arcid Slice, i think this skill need have his animation ajusted to a true upercut, and as aditional effect Launch foes, and grants fury according adrenaline bars.

LOL GS with a launch

I actually really like the idea.

It gives defensive utility to GS without really improving the other aspects of GS that actually work well(strictly in terms of balance). A launch means you are hitting them away from you so HB can’t take (full)advantage of it.

It also opens up interesting build potential(launch lock warrior anyone?)

Though the idea of a launch on such short cooldown is frightening though, so it might need a longer CD than other burst skills.