Showing Posts For Ouragon.3421:
Elementalist
This one is super easy since there are only three weapon related traits! Since elementalist is more attunement-based, it is a different beast and can’t really be compared to the other classes. I have no complaints about the traits as they are.
Thief
Another oddball since thieves use initiative, they have no need for cooldown reductions which are pretty key to the other class’s traitlines.
Suggestions: Dagger mastery needs to be increased to a 10% damage bump, and either dropped to adept or have some additional functionality added. Ankle shots could readily be added to pistol mastery. Finally, Ricochet is in the trickery traitline, which is a no no, and thematically fits shortbow much better than pistols (single target damage vs bouncing AoE). I’d simply combine Ricochet and Power Shots, bumping the damage up to 10% on power shots.
Engineer
Disclaimer, this is my other level 80 class. I really want to like my engineer, but kitten is the weapon trait distribution bad. I am treating each weapon kit as its own weapon, so we have Flamethrower, Elixir Gun, Med Kit, Grenade Kit, Bomb Kit, and Tool Kit, in addition to pistols, rifle, and shield. Any trait that references explosives impacts grenade and bomb kit. Consider the sheer number of traits we have (19) that optimize engineer weapon efficiency. The only other class remotely close is warrior (13), which uses nearly every freaking weapon in the game! This madness needs to be condensed. My ideal setup would be to have 3 major traits in every traitline related to weapons, similar to how warrior is arranged.
Suggestions:
Explosives – We want a grenade kit themed trait, a bomb trait, and a generic explosives trait that helps both. Further, in the current state of the game grenades are more condition focused while bombs are more raw damage. To reach maximum efficiency, 30 points in the traitline is still required, but this will give greater flexibility than is currently found. Each of these traits is designed to be master level. The new grenadier trait is basically the old grenadier trait plus the old shrapnel trait. The new generic trait would combine steel packed explosives and short fuse. The new bomb kit themed trait is the old explosive powder and forceful explosives traits combined.
Firearms – Since engineers can’t switch their primary weapon in combat, the fact that many of these traits give bonuses to pistol and rifle is kind of useless for our purposes. Again, we will shoot for three master’s traits in this line. This traitline will be refocused around only rifle, pistol, and harpoon gun. Elixir gun and flamethrower will be moved to other lines. For the rifle themed trait, combine the old Go For the Eyes and Rifle Mod, so we emphasize rifle’s use as a close quarters, damaging weapon. The pistol themed trait will take Coated Bullets, with the added functionality “You inflict 3 seconds of bleeding if your attack strikes more than one enemy.” Finally the generic gun trait will combine the old Hair Trigger and Rifled Barrels.
Inventions – This traitline will focus on the shield, the toolkit, and the bomb kit. Each of these weapons will be in people’s faces, justifying their place in the toughness and healing power traitline. I don’t like having bombs need two traitlines to be fully optimized, but Elixir-Infused Bombs is nearly worth making a whole build around on its own. Other than dropping it down to a master trait, that’s the only thing I’d change. The current shield trait is fine, if dull. The third trait should be the current Armor Mods trait.
Alchemy – We are going to have elixir gun and flamethrower represented here. Juggernaught is perfect here as a master trait, since it no longer gives stability. We can also make a trait that gives both flamethrower and elixir gun a range buff and 20% skill cooldown. The final elixir gun themed trait could heal allies whenever they are affected by your elixir gun, increasing its usefulness as a support weapon.
Tools – And finally, leg mods and packaged stimulants can stay as tools masters traits, because lol tools.
I think that some classes are currently well done, but certain classes have drastic room for improvements. If people have better ideas how to make the traits interesting, share them! /Endwallotext
Ranger
Ranger weapon traits are at a similar place to necromancer. Fairly well balanced, but could use some polishing. There are too many skills relating to the bows, while not enough love is given to the other weapons, namely axe since it competes with the bows as a range weapon.
Suggestions: Piercing arrows is a useful trait, but it is not good enough to be a master trait on its own. Unless an additional ability is added, drop it to adept. Eagle eye should give a 10% damage increase. Honed axes could be renamed honed blades and include swords and axes. It could afford to give a 10% damage increase as well as a 10% crit damage increase, since it is a master trait. Add axes skills into martial mastery so they have some way to give a cooldown. This was probably done so off-hand mastery wouldn’t stack with it, but if you’re dropping 40 trait points to buff your off hand axe cooldowns, they should be pretty kitten good. Two-handed training should give a 10% damage increase.
Warrior
One of the classes I’ve played to 80. All things considered, warrior is pretty well balanced. Save for a single trait, the weapon traits are all master level and offer two bonuses, in line with what we’ve liked to see. Longbow, mace, and hammer all need some love.
Suggestions: Sharpened axes and axe mastery could readily be combined into a single master level trait in the same spot sharpened axes already occupies since each trait is a tad weak on its own.
Sundering mace should not have a conditional damage requirement, but adding that to the same perk that already reduces cooldowns might be a bit much. To emphasize the tankier nature of a mace warrior, I would change it to “Enemies suffering from weakness deal 10% less damage to you,” along with the cooldown reduction. Not as powerful as a flat damage bump, but still useful.
Similar problem with merciless hammer, the 25% damage bonus will occur only with earthshaker and backbreaker activated. Coupled with hammer’s slow attack, it is underwhelming as a trait. Since hammer is a heavily control focused weapon, something like “The knock down and stun length of your skills is increase by 1 second while wielding a hammer,” in addition to the skill cooldowns, similar to stonefist insignia from GW1.
Lastly, longbow. Toss stronger bowstrings and give the bow that range by default. Burning arrows is a conditional damage buff, which stinks, even more so as a master trait. Change it to a flat 10% damage increase, as well as “While wielding a longbow, your attacks have a 20% chance to cause 2 seconds of burning.” That fits the trait better thematically.
Guardian
I played a guardian to 80, and for pretty much the entire time I used some combination of greatsword/hammer/staff. Not because I enjoyed these weapons, but they were simply better than the alternatives. Couple that with only needing a single trait to optimize all their cooldowns, and you get this thread. The added benefit of improving these weapon traits is that people might be inclined to run something other than 0/10/30/30/0 or 0/0/30/30/10.
Suggestions: Oh dear, these traits are awful. Combine greatsword power and zealous blade into a single master level trait, and bump the damage bonus up to 10%. Focus mastery gains “Ray of Judgement bounces an additional time and Shield of Wrath blocks an additional attack.” Scepter power damage is bumped to 10%. Scepter power gains “Attacks while wielding a scepter have a 20% chance to cause vulnerability for 8 seconds.”
Radiant fire gives a 20% cooldown reduction instead of 15%. Radiant fire gains “While wielding a torch, all burning you inflict causes twice the damage.” Powerful Blades should have the damage increased to 10% instead of 5%, and gains the functionality “ You deal an additional 10% damage to enemies suffering from blindness.” Right-Hand Strength should be dropped to a master trait and moved to the valor traitline.
Mace of Justice and Glacial Heart are awful but combined, they can make a half decent skill! Combine mace and hammer and change the trait to the following: Increase to 10% damage instead of 5% for both hammer and mace , and change the chill to a 100% trigger every X weapon attacks, like an ice counterpart to virtue of justice.
First order of business, this link is to a google doc in which I compiled every weapon trait in a single excel file. Open it up in a tab and come on back!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwuVaTS4Lzv1WFMzZDFyRGNRdjA/edit?usp=sharing
Having played my third character to level 80 (engineer, guardian, and warrior), one of the more glaring disparities in the trait system is just how bad certain traits for weapons are. This is often visible in the weapons people are seen toting around. Part of it has to do with intrinsic weapon skills, but some weapon traits simply compound this problem. For example, two-handed mastery in the guardian honor trait-line reduces the cooldowns on the greatsword, hammer, and staff 20%, all for a 20 point dip! Then consider the guardian zeal trait focused mastery. That same 20 point investment gets you a 20% cooldown, but only on the focus. This was simply one of the examples I encountered, so below I will go through each class’s traits, and suggest ways to improve them and make them more desirable. Thieves, elementalists, and engineers are special cases, so they will be covered last.
Overall balance guidelines
1. The majority of weapon traits should be at master level. In order to be an adapt tier trait, this necessitates the trait do a single thing, which generally makes for weak or uninteresting weapon traits. This in turn discourages people from using that weapon. Master level traits should do at least two things to justify their placement in that tier. A grandmaster trait better be freaking spectacular to justify a 30 point investment in a traitline just to make that weapon better. A single skill giving both a damage and recharge bonus is powerful enough to be considered grandmaster.
Good examples of current traits:
Masters – Warrior – Lung Capacity – Warhorn skills recharge 20% faster. Warhorn skills convert 1 condition into a boon.
Grandmasters – Necromancer – Axe Training – Axe damage is increased by 15% and axe skills recharge 20% faster.
2. Damage increases and cooldowns should be standardized. Picking the damage increasing trait should give a flat 10% damage boost, if only to give the illusion that classes are properly balanced. Cooldown reductions should also be a flat 20%. In the same vein, the damage increase should never be conditional. It should not be necessary for an enemy to be suffering from a condition in order to get the bonus damage, for example.
3. For the majority of classes, traits should not be tied to the traitline that governs the class-specific skill. Elementalist is an exception. This prevents weapon skills from having to compete with the traits that interact with the class mechanics.
4. Each individual weapon should have a limit to how many traits improve it. The more traits impact a particular weapon, the worse the intrinsic weapon skills need to be to compensate. Two traits seems to be the maximum before trait balance and skill balance start interacting negatively.
If I do not explicitly cover a trait below, I feel thakitten is balanced as is.
Mesmer
Mesmer is a good starting point because it shows what a properly balanced set of weapon traits looks like. With the exception of blade training, each trait is master level and does 2 things.
Suggestions: Blade training is too strong for an adept tier trait; it should definitely be bumped up to master. The traits that give a flat +50 stat bump could be made a bit more interesting, or perhaps give a percentage increase so the bonus is less obsolete at higher levels.
Necromancer
Necromancer is relatively balanced. Its weapon traits tend towards the lower side of the power scale.
Suggestions: Spiteful talisman is good enough to be bumped to a master trait. Staff mastery is currently fine as an adapt trait. It could be combined with greater marks and bumped up to a master trait. Dagger mastery and quickening thirst should be combined into a single master level skill, with a 20% faster recharge on dagger skills instead of 15%.