Guild Wars 2

I guess there are countless options how to tweak or adapt the firebrand as it was introduced during the PoF preview weekend and from what you can read in this forum, there is anything but a consensus about it. Only that there needs to be some change appears to be agreed upon. So let’s see what Anet is making out of all of this

Here is my own account of my experiences with the firebrand.

What I like:
- More condi based
- quickness
- axe

What I don’t like:
- as already pointed out: mantra cones, tome casting time and huge tome cd
- although intended by Anet, tome mechanic a bit too much into the direction of a supporter for my own taste (although tome cd kills off much of fb’s supportive power)
- if really meant to be a supporter, offensive support skills too little in my view (although that might be intended to allow for more versatile team compositions that do not only require fb as one supporter, but also make ps or renegade (?), etc. on the offensive side more useful)

My personal idea and preference how to implement tomes would be not in a 3×5 set of skills that together with two weapon sets and utility skills adds up to 30 skills. For me, that’s somehow a skill overkill, dunno…

I would much prefer to see the tomes by default as a situational off-hand skill replacement, i.e. skill slots 4 and 5 only. Of course, selection of skills, page numbers and cds would need to be reworked significantly. This adaptation would take away some of the supportive power of the fb, but on the other hand 3×2 skills divided into three categories (offensive, heal/condi removal, defensive) and reduced tome cd would be still pretty strong and make the fb a supporter that is more actively involved. It would also allow players to use fb less supportive and more for solo pvp situations.
For those who want to focus more on the supportive skills, the trait line could include a trait that adds a third skill slot to the tomes.

Why I also like this option more is, because now the Firebrand feels too much like an off-spin of already existing mechanics of other professions. The tomes are a combination of Druid’s avatar with Ele’s elements now labelled tomes, and the mantras’ mechanics we know well from Mesmer.
Of course, it is impossible to introduce always completely new mechanics, but this off-hand style that keeps the basic weapon skills would be an additional twist that makes the Fb more unique and a more aggressive type of supporter.

Just my thoughts that came up while trying fb which I am actually really looking forward to as a cool profession (that needs some adaptation to become more competitive). Any oppinions, critique, etc. most welcome

Cheers

PS: this was mostly said from a pvp perspective. In pve, especially raids, I guess that the fb works out pretty well and can add a lot of power, since many of the current downsides don’t surface so strongly. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the fb was designed with high-end pve content in mind, not as a complete substitute for mesmers/druids, but as a strong complement that allows a bigger variety of builds and lets mesmers/durids focus more on dps. But I think especially a complementary supportive role could be equally achieved with the proposed off-hand/3 slot skill variant for tomes.

-Armor as such looks great and is great enough to be legendary in my view (nothing will ever be perfect), although this is of course mostly a matter of personal opinion. I am simply a fan of big heavy armors…

- Also like the transformation mechanics, great idea and I would keep it up, since it is a really good way to give legendary armors a certain uniqueness, which they should have (I therefore disagree with those, who would prefer more aura, etc. effects, coz there are already a couple of that, since it would make legendary armor much less unique).
As for the precise transformation of the heavy armor, I find it a bit too much and too thorny. For example, love the first part of the helmet transformation (visor closes), makes the helmet look much cooler, but the bat ears are then too much. Same for the first part of the shoulders transformation, then it gets a bit too thorny.
How about bigger thighs for the heavy armor though

- I do not see issues like everybody will run around with the same armor (also not in raids). Of course there will be always those, who just get it to show off with the entire set, as well as those, who simply like to wear the entire set, but I am pretty sure that ppl will come up with a whole lot of combinations where they just use one or a few parts of the sets. Although info is missing on that point, I am pretty sure you can wear only single parts without any clipping issues or loss of transformation mechanics. I think that the creation of new combinations of legendary with non-legendary pieces is a major thing Anet is counting on.
Other than that, it is simply unavaidable that players will try to get the armor and you will see (parts of) it more often. This will happen with any kind of legendary armor, no matter how it looks like.

- I do understand the critique that the armor will be raid-gaited. This restricts it to one game mode, and as everybody knows, a game mode you have to put a lot of effort into, not only because it is part of the high-end game, but also because the raid community is often – let’s say – very peculiar and not very forgiveable… As someone who likes raids (although I have to think about a new way of how to make my rev useful after the patch), I personally do not have that issue, I even prefer it that way, since I do not need to play much other stuff then. However, I understand other players’ critique.
A more mixed approach that requires achievements in several play modes might be worth a consideration, since it might attract a broader community.
Yet, I guess Anet has more detailed infos about the distribution of players throughout the different play modes and therefore knows more, how to reach the most ppl.

- I also agree with the point, that the utility of legendary armor will be only very limited, if it won’t be accompanied with any kind of useful mechanic to swap runes. If that point is not targeted, legendary armor will become more a matter of prestige and fashion, whereas the change of stats will not be used very much. Players will need to get additional armor sets with the respective stats and runes in order to avoid the constant buying of new runes… Of course, legendary weapons work the same, but you only have to change one or two sigils, the need to change sigils is much less and the loss if you don’t change also much less compared to runes.
This is simply a question of where Anet ultimately sees the main value of legendary armors (utility vs. fashion).

Only a small thought on this topic that is probably of interest for many players:

Would it be easier doable for (one of/all) those armor pieces of which the visibility can be toggled (head, shoulders, gloves)?
That would probably already add a lot of interesting skin variations, while the main items would remain in accordance with the respective character class to allow the identification of profession types (light, medium, heavy) based on armor class.

I guess Anet could even make this type of transmutation across armor-weights quite profitable for them through the requirement of special transmutation stones that can be only purchased in gem store for quite some gems…