Guild Wars 2

Dan.4398:

So if you want to bring it back in line can we assume that the disabled foe requirement would be removed to become an always active 10%?

With or without the requirement, 10% would bring it back into line with all other weapon traits in the game. Where is the reason for one specific weapon to suddenly put out 20% more damage with its respective trait (even if it has a prerequisite) than any other weapon and their respective traits?

Aza.2105:

I’m not saying it shouldn’t be nerfed or that it shouldn’t be left as it is. But consider this, while it is a 20% increase its has requirements to be met. No character is stunned 100% of the time, but only a very tiny portion. So while it appears the 20% increase is a lot, I don’t feel it is vs 10% dmg increase that is consistently available to the user.

Yes you are right, a whole slew of damage mitigation and denial does stop that 20% and a whole lot more. Merciless Hammer is still twice as good as the other prerequisite weapon traits (which incidentally belong to the warrior) that suffer their 10% damage loss to the same mitigations/denials. This trait allows hammers to hit hard without actually investing some points into their Power line, if any.

Merciless Hammer
“Hammer damage is increased when a foe is disabled. Reduces recharge on hammer skills.

Damage increase: 20%
Recharge: 20%"

This trait’s damage buff is rather unique in that it delivers a flat out 20% damage increase under specific circumstance. It is the only weapon trait that allows a 20% increase.

Bring it back in line with all other weapon traits and have Merciless Hammer with either a 10% or 5% increase or maybe even a +Attribute instead. Just recharge reduction alone is good enough on a weapon that has stunlock potential built into it (1/2 of its skills).

It’s little things like this that promote power creep and the like. And yes, I would like to read arguments for/against this trait.

TLDR: another warrior gripe thread

I can see it now… warriors just flying across the map and swooping down on their prey!

Been toying around with Stone Heart in pve, WvW, and pvp with different weapon sets and build variations. Not impressed with the GM.

In pve I can’t even tell you if I’m getting crit (or even if the mobs can crit) because I’m more concerned with not getting hit to begin with or bursting something down as quickly as possible.

My experience in WvW with this trait is nothing worthwhile. In zergs it doesn’t matter if everything or nothing is critting. The sheer amount of people hitting an Ele is enough to just forget this GM.
On the flip side with roaming/1v1 situations, my experience has been more about cycling my attunements/roatations normally and avoid getting hit than staying in earth and utilizing Stone Heart.

Pvp is probably the only place I’ve actually found Stone Heart semi useful.
-Against all the condition builds, Diamond Skin would be the better choice.
-Against bunkers, nothing worthwhile comes from the trait.
-Against crit builds, it is nice to be able to negate a significant portion of dps from the occasional zerker spec burst, pure crit thieves, pure crit rifle warriors, and Hammer warrior lockdowns by switching to Earth.
-Power build rangers, warriors, and guardians just ate me alive.
Another fun benefit was negating all those on-crit sigils.

Yet this GM trait is just lackluster by only the fact an Ele must be attuned to earth to benefit from it.

I propose Stone Heart be able to negate crits in all attunements. I feel it would help give the Ele a little more variety and niche in pvp, helping it in the long run.

Wait, what part of spvp are we paying for again?

Maybe switching the mesmer hp pool and toughness with the ele’s could bring about a fresh change.

Mesmer has enough break targets, interrupts, conditions, invisibility that they don’t really have a problem with avoiding damage. Top that with the clones/phants, traits, and weapon sets a good mesmer can prolong a 2v1 or even a 3v1 for some time.

Staff and Sword/X is a good example of how a mesmer can appear to be tanky without having to invest into their Chaos and Inspiration lines.

I really don’t want to make it sound like a mesmer hate post but sometimes their hp pool/toughness seems a little too much for all they can pull off.

*Superior Rune Of Spirits:
(1) +25 Vitality
(2) +20% Spirit Duration
(3) +50 Vitality
(4) 5% chance to summon a spirit when hit. (Cooldown: 60s)
(5) +90 Vitality
(6) +5% damage while you have a spirit.
That summoned spirit should grant a 30% chance to cause 3 seconds of Confusion on crit. When it dies, it knockbacks nearby foes. Spirit duration 15 seconds.

*Superior Sigil of Spirit Summoning:
Gain a summoning charge whenever you kill a foe. At 26 charges, you summon a spirit. (You lose all charges on down)
This summoned spirit should grant a 30% chance to cause 2 seconds of Weakness on crit. When it dies, it inflicts 3 stacks of Torment to nearby foes. Just like the fleshreaver sigil, spirit duration is 60 seconds.

Rune of Lich/Sigil of Demon Summoning variants. There needs to be more wars between Spirit Rangers and MM Necros.

I disagree with the thief initiative changes as I feel they are a tad too much altogether and all at once. Introducing them in pairs or one at a time could flesh out intended/desired results without turning thieves into a mandatory friend that follows someone around.

As for their sword #2 change, why not make it the reverse effect? Have it teleport the attacked target in a random direction 900~1200 away from the thief or have it transfer 2-3 conditions to the target. Infiltrator’s Strike shadow return probably should have never even existed simply because thieves have access to Blinding Powder, Shadow Refuge, Shadowstep, Hide in Shadows, Withdraw and Roll for Initiative. Even worse is when those skills are used in conjunction with Infiltrator’s. Put bluntly, if the thief wants to get away from their target for whatever reason they need to burn a utility skill, not sword skill #2 and its forgiving initiative cost.

Next I feel pistol should be rethought. Pistol skill 1 is somewhat painful to use as an auto attack. Maybe speed it up a little? Also maybe it should shoot twice while using a pistol offhand too (thief has two pistols after all…) and get two bleeds on the target. Headshot needs at least a second and a half daze or something new entirely. For its initiative cost, it is just useless (even as an interrupt). Finally I think Black Powder needs a change. Instead of the little aoe blind that only bads, nubs, berserker stanced warriors stand in, maybe make it like the mesmer trick shot in that it bounces up to 5 targets and delivers 6 second blinds.

Now for the ranger. I like the proposed changes. Anything to get this class up to par really. But there are a few things that irk me the most, specifically the pet and sword auto attack.

The pet is… there. It is encumbersome in that it attacks slowly, its F2 skills are on seemingly the pet’s terms (unresponsive/very delayed/long animations), most of those F2 skills and normal pet skills are on long CDs, the AI for them is bothersome to say the least (it likes to take the most illogical path to the target only to backtrack that said path and opt for a new one), and much more often than not a ranger loses precious traits spec’ing into their pet. Quite often I go entire games with the pet dead and don’t have a qualm about as I consider its dps a “bonus” while alive. Really the only reason I just don’t hide the pet is for that off chance someone mistargets the creature instead of me and wastes CDs on it.

Sword auto attack. The way it dictates and controls the ranger is absurd. It is aoe bait. Please make those animations stop. Make them instantly breakable or redesign them to be more like the other classes. I don’t want to fight against the jumps and roundhouse kungkittenwhen I already have others pounding away on me. I need to dodge on demand not when the sword grants me permission… after I’ve face tanked the very thing I wanted to avoid.

Ranger signets. Only four and there are only two that I will take: Signet of Renewal and Signet of the Hunt. Even with Signet of the Beastmaster, Signet Mastery, and Beastmaster’s Might they just aren’t that great (having to go 30 points into marksmaship just so the player can benefit from them isn’t that rewarding) . As it stands, the passive effects are the highlights of these skills. With the pet being an obese sidekick all of the active effects are a waste with the exception of Renewal. Screw the pet. Perhaps changing all active effects to include the player naturally to reap more benefit and changing Signet of the Beastmaster to allow the ranger to grant allies the passive/active effects within a small radius?