Guild Wars 2

You know… Ranger’s Invigorating bond is a trait that is worst than tempest’s elemental bastion so a trait that is worst than that of another profession is nothing new.

So, with the announcement of the next xpac, came the annoucement of a new balance update for this next tuesday. I’ve seen a few people guessing that this will introduce the barrier mechanism on a few core profession.

If this is true :

- We could probably expect the elementalist to gain 1% of it’s health point as a barrier when it by a condition (1s ICD) as a change for Diamond skin.

- Warrior could be hitten hard with a change to endure pain which would grant a 20% of max health point barrier. Along with adrenal health becoming adrenal barrier and granting up to 1% max health point barrier (each stack granting 0.33%) instead of health, every seconds.

- Ranger’s signet of stone would grant him and his pet a 5% heath point barrier every second for 6 seconds. Bear’s defy pain granting a 20% health point barrier.

- And lastly (but not least), necromancer’s vampiric presence becoming blood aura and granting a 0.2% of the necromancer’s health point as a barrier on hit to player affected by the aura.

All of this would make the whole barrier concept a lot more viable and put the scourge into a really good place as a potential “healer”, allowing the barriers to constantly refresh themselve up to the cap and the necromancer to stand it’s groud as a damage dealer that also provide “healing”.

PS.: I guess rangers would cry tears of blood and die a little more inside due to the loss of their signet of stone.

Mirage is, basically, a blurr spec. It’s only strength is that it will capitalize on survivability.

What do you think will the new pve meta be?

A build without toughness will be meta…

In my opinion legend like that should replace racial skills nothing more nothing less. And then they could come up with really interesting e-spec that are not so… plain…

Sigmoid.7082:

Zero.3871:

i am watching to thee other elite specs again and again and cannot understand why anet dont see by themself, that scourge is trash.

Why?

Well, scourge is at least more entertaining than renegade. I’d be really infuriated if I had high hope for a revenant e-spec and it ended up with, litterally, a Charr e-spec. Can’t use charr skills while being a revenant? guess what? Here it is the e-spec!!! Next is the wonderfull Greatsword turreter sylvarii e-spec!!!! Followed by an unexpected asura golem suit e-spec… Feel the tears… Feel them!!! Not all are filled with joy, most have regret, rage, and disappointment in them.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Dadnir.5038:

Justine.6351:

60 stacks of bleed? Did you even play with sharpened edges? ever?

Falls in the category “revenant hammer does 20k CoR every 2sec”…

tics, he said tics not stacks. Which is related to the condition duration.

So he count 11 poison stack ticking over 6 seconds = 66 tics. It’s a lot more impressive than saying that the soul beast will be able to stack 11 poison stack thanks to the stance. In group setting, if everything work perfectly it could be something like :
self : 11
+ 4 × 5 stacks (20)
so 31 stacks for 186 tics of poison (awesome don’t you think?)

I don’t think it’s awesome tbh. Spider Venom will give 180 poison ticks with the same cooldown but you have 24s to make 6 attacks, meaning you can pre-cast it in preparation, it is not truncated into making 12 attacks in 6 seconds or 6 attacks in 3 seconds for allies to take full advantage of it. Not only that, but it does not require a GM trait to function. The might applied by Vulture Stance is pretty useless in a group setting.

If it were me, I’d remove the Might generation, the 50% health condition and make the Vulture Stance a unique buff that increases base condition durations for the duration by say 33% or more, as well as applying the poison.

that was Irony heimdall… irony!!! The Higher the number the more awesome it feel at first glance.

Justine.6351:

60 stacks of bleed? Did you even play with sharpened edges? ever?

Falls in the category “revenant hammer does 20k CoR every 2sec”…

tics, he said tics not stacks. Which is related to the condition duration.

So he count 11 poison stack ticking over 6 seconds = 66 tics. It’s a lot more impressive than saying that the soul beast will be able to stack 11 poison stack thanks to the stance. In group setting, if everything work perfectly it could be something like :
self : 11
+ 4 × 5 stacks (20)
so 31 stacks for 186 tics of poison (awesome don’t you think?)

Ravezaar.4951:

The lack of Finishers and Fields in the Scourge is my biggest concern atm.

lol I’d sum this by saying that Anet is still thorought at not giving the necromancer what the player base asked for years

Ele will be top dog together with Warrior in my opinion in the xpac..
Guardian, Ranger & Engi seem to be in a very good place as well..
Not sure about Mesmer, hate that class, can’t give a kitten about it…
Necro & Rev look the worst to be honest… But let’s wait and see…
We’re all jumping to early conclusions…

Oh I’ve got a slightly different opinion on this!

- I think the ranger’s spec is the top dog. The rangers will gain a real new breath with this, alongside huge build diversity since they will finally benefit from the pets they will chose.
- Following that, obviously, the warrior look pretty op in it’s mage killer spec.
- I’d say that guardian and engi take the 3rd and 4th place. (ex eaquo)
- Thief put himself on 5th place because of the crowd pleasing spec.
- Elementalist and mesmer take the 6th and 7th place due to the fact that while looking good the spec do not address any of the professions main issue. Elementalist will still be tightly tied to earth magic and water magic traitlines while the mesmer will still hit like a wet noddle. (ex aequo).
- 8th… That would be the necromancer. The spec seem not good per se and full on thing that call to nerf as soon as it will be abused in PvP.
- Dead Last is revenant. How could they come up with something so plain and boring? If they wanted to give the revenant the charr racials skills they could have done it in a differnet manner, dont you think? What’s next? An elite spec that summon plant turret on f2/f3/f4 and wield a greatsword? An elite spec that summon a golem suit on f2 and have radiation fields on it’s legend? C’mon that’s so… ridiculously cheap…

-Mechanic damage output chained to Static Shades (that may grant a lot of damage in a static fight like a PvE boss but a really low damage in a common PvP fight. But for shure will be good in WvW zergs as a long range build using Shades and Punishment while in shorter range)

What you say about PvE would be true if the shade were constantly pulsing their damage and condition. That is not the case. In PvE the shades will have minimal impact in how much damage is done especially on static fights. On the other hand the on demand torment pulse linked to the shades could make the shades a pretty bothersome area denial tool in PvP, That is if the scourge had proper defensive mechanisms.

Well, from the look of it sarrs, it will be excruatingly difficult to apply barriers every 2 seconds on scourge (which lead to a constant decay of the “healing” component of the spec). Yes don’t forget that there are cool down on skills.

As for might duration, again, the scourge will be good at bursting might stack but not at maintaining them. If you invest to maintain them, you will lose tremendous dps.

Let’s be honest, 2-3 scourges won’t replace the druid/PS/chrono trinity and it’s highly unlikely that the scourge will even be able to replace one of those 3. To make the barrier valuable, anet will at least need to make it so that there is no decay while in combat. As for the might stacks, it will require a lot of effort to maintain them (it’s obvious) while maintaining them is easy as breathing for PS warriors. Finally, chrono is to usefull in many way for him to lose it’s place.

I want to add something, In gw1 I used to play monk protect. My job was to make sure that the tank survive long enough for the healing monk to have the time to heal him. I was looked at as some kind of filth in my party, yet when I wasn’t there it was a lot harder for the party to get through the content. I could also tank bosses all day by myself but they didn’t entrust this kind of task to me. I know how much one can be discriminated due to it’s profession and build.

In the current state of things, the scourge won’t be able to tank nor will he be asked to. Preventing damage will be possible but will also be extremly limited and most players will want the comfort of something more… “reactive” (because they are used to it via Druid). This leave only one possibility for the scourge which is to be a DPS that bring some might (not as a primary provider) and some barriers (not as a primary healer). So let’s hope that the spec will at least bring competitive dps in raids (ironically that’s the same hope that we had for reaper thought we expected him to be competitive in power).

starlinvf.1358:

Here the problem I see with all this discussion…….. how much of it is only considering the mechanics of existing raids? Why has so many ruled out the fact that new raid wings will very likely be designed around the new Especs, in order to take advantage of gameplay mechanics?

Why are we so sure the Druid is irreplaceable when it only does 1-2 thing? And is only relevant because the Raids are specifically designed around them being there.

You make the common mistake that druid’s worth in raids come from there ability to heal. It’s not, if it was the case elementalists or revenants would easily replace them. Like brujeria point just above is right, the worth of the druid come from it’s offensive support. This profession grant uniques buff that the scourge can’t even begin to rival with.

With druid over there to heal with some unique support, there is no room for a wanabe healer that focus on preventing allies from taking damage (not to mention that an aegis or a party blurr are better than all barrier possible in PvE).

I doubt that scourge have what’s needed to replace a druid or a PS warrior.

Scourge is mainly cut for condi removal and boon removal which is not what make mobs shine otherwise the necromancer would already be a top contender in raids.

As for the amount of damage that this elite spec will deal, I expect that it will be a “balanced” amount (which mean that there won’t be any great improvement in the necromancer’s damage output)

This e-spec will undeniably shine in WvW. As for PvP and PvE, there is high probability that it will struggle. In PvP it will be due to a lack of survivability and in PvE to a lack of offensive support.

As for a profession that might be of value for raids/pve, I think that the one with the greatest potential is the ranger. Soulbeast probably won’t make a huge difference for power build but I believe that it will strengthen even further the ability of this profession to dish out a lot of condition damage. Most of all, the stowed pet will bring a lot more flexibility to the ranger with an access to a great variety of skills that will benefit the ranger.

Sigmoid.7082:

Dadnir.5038:

If we really get an desired amulet like condition dmg, healing power, vitality and expertise i can see it work in pvp to be honest

I’m pretty sure this stat set used to exist and have been removed. Thought it still exist in PvE, named “shaman”.

I’m sure there was but it had toughness instead of but or both and because they had a sweep and removed pretty much everything with toughness and healing power, rip clerics, it got..got..

Toughness has to be the settler’s one.

If we really get an desired amulet like condition dmg, healing power, vitality and expertise i can see it work in pvp to be honest

I’m pretty sure this stat set used to exist and have been removed. Thought it still exist in PvE, named “shaman”.

Probably the elite spec that give the most possibilities and open the most builds out there. I almost feel sad to see how much benefit the soulbeast gain from giving up the pets.

A question remain that maybe some testers could answer : Will traits that affect F2 skill on core ranger proc on F2 skills on soulbeast or on F3 (beast) skill?

I think the real worry should be about the survivability of the weaver instead.
From the look of it the majority of the weaver will still be bound to earth and water.

I like the optimism shown by people when talking about the barrier… However, there is an issue : the decay of this barrier.

Games that successfully use barrier mechanism for healers don’t have this very bothersome decay. It will ask for an awfull lot of reactivty from the necromancer. There is also the lack of real heal alongside those barriers. which mean that whatever happen, a group will need a heal (most likely a druid since it provide so much dps support).

I’m also amazed at seeing that some player are content with skills that provide 50% uptime might… Let’s be serious, group do not take elementalist for their ability to stack might and they are far from being stuck at a mere 50% might uptime. Group take PS warrior because PS warrior don’t need to think about their might output, they just naturally fart this boon without a single thought. You can’t compare a PS warrior to a profession were you have to properly achieve the best possible skill rotation if you don’t want to leave glaring holes in the might output.

The scourge in it’s state won’t replace a druid or a PS warrior in a party. There is no doubt that It will be a fun spec to play but not a competitive spec to play. Remove the decay of the barriers and boost the might duration so that we aren’t oppressed by the skills cool down and it may compete with a PS warrior while allowing some breather to a Druid but that the axiu it will do.

Which probably mean that desert shroud is also a skill that can be interrupt… I the end this can’t even count as a defense skill, that’s sad.

As for the torment, once per pulse mean once per pulse watever the number of shade. But the main issue isn’t the number of torment stack. The issue is the fact that those stack are short lasting. Which mean that they can only be used as a “burst” of condition, making them a valuable asset in Player versus Player environment and a poor asset in PvE.

All of this mean that :

- In the first weeks there will be a mess in PvP and small scale WvW where the trait demonic lore will be dominant. This will logically lead to some vicious nerf to the torment stacks numbers (1 instead of 2 for most of the skills)

- Next, players will find that freed from corruption is an op trait. This trait will probably bloom just after the torment nerf and will suffer with anet generously granting it a 1 second ICD (because necromancers filled to the brim with tons of boons… that’s scary!)

- Meanwhile, the scourge will find himself in a sorry state in PvE because, while it’s where it’s survivability won’t really be an issue, he won’t have the tools to build himself a reliable place anywhere. (Barrier is certainly a good idea but the decay of this barrier isn’t. Condi clear is sweet as well but it fit more PvP environment than PvE. And it’s dps will not be fit for large health pool monsters. There is no room for such support in the encounters that they design in PvE.)

It’s ironic but Anet keep designing the necromancer toward a PvP dps/support with tools that don’t work well in PvE. The result of this e-spec will be very similar to the results of the reaper. It will dominate PvP at first like a vicious cancer while staying in the shade in PvE then it will be nerfed for PvP sake and become even weaker for PvE.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel that this e-spec have the tools to be enjoyable to play but it won’t patch the glaring issues of the necromancer. Anet will never be able to patch these issues by avoiding them. When players ask for more support on the necromancer, it does not mean that the necromancer as no mean of support it just mean that their mean of support are inadapted to most of the situations. By giving the necromancer even more inadapted support this won’t make the necromancer good at support this will just make him even more useless where he need to be good.

21 stacks of Torment(+Burn) are the combination of 3 shades that tick 7 times the Desert Shroud. Every tick make you and your shades inflict Torment and if that’s calculated as a hit for the Dhuumfire you will also spam 21 stacks of Burn. Still to see what ANet will do about that.
Conditions will be nerfed, then that combo will be weaker that will be right now.

My opinion is that scourge fill a condi burst niche with a coat of support that won’t be very interesting in PvE.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Desert_Shroud

Tell me what that second line of text says.

“Target affected by this ability can only be affected once per pulse” (Oh gokittenhis also apply to the “fear skill”… I thought that terror would make a come back but seem like it won’t.)

All of this mean that it will be a waste to invest in torment/burn.

What interest me more is whether the barrier is refreshed once per pulse. If that’s the case, it make this “desert shroud” no so bad.

And what irk me the most is that I just can’t understand why Anet don’t seem to want to give us proper might duration. Why can’t they just give us the ability to maintain the few might stack that we will be able to grant?

Freed from corruption is undeniably the top trait of this spec. It look so op that I’d take this spec just for this trait alone.

Change for reaper?

I’d like anet to forget about their whole gravedigger fail thingy. I’d like them to simply rework the skill so that it dooooeeeeessss noooooooot feeeeeeeeeeeeeel sooooooooo slooooooooooow and that they give a proper greatsword trait to the line.

And to be honest I’m fine with the fact that the spec work both for power and condi. I feel like this kind of design is better when it come to e-spec.

Naah, It’s good they gave themself more work for any pets that will come after this expansion and they probably will forget that they will have to add new thing to this e-spec each for each.

It will be fun you’ll see! I’m already laughing thinking how their heart will die a little more for each new pet, thinking : “Oh god no! we have to add another new skill and buff to the Soulbeast! When will we be freed from this d*** spec!!!!”

Nekres.1038:

The desolation is full of sulfur and that is really devoid of life. Only demons and Junundus could pass it. And did they made Scourge use sulfur? Nah, they better use their life force to awaken god kitten sand. Sand are basically rocks. So last to do that was, wait.. elementalist? I am really not fine with this design choice.

I’m not sure but instead of “sand”, shards look more like totems filled with corrupted energy. The effect does not look like sand so it’s ok right?

felincyriac.5981:

maybe, the build can do a lot of torment and a fair bit of burn damage, esp with the trait that increases torment damage by 33%, however condi food/utility is getting a heavy nerf so every condi class will suffer.

Well… torment… From the look of it, the main source of torment of the spec are the shard which are caped at 3 with a 15 second cd between each other and, yes, static. Those shard passively apply 2 second torment (probably every 1.5 second like plague form use to). Theoretically against a static target you can maintain 6-8 torments stack and burst it to a lot more by burning all your cool down. It’s undeniably good for pvp area denial, the utilities are usefull for wvw zerg support but for PvE… Let’s be honest, for pve you’d rather not take the 33% torment damage trait. That would be a waste. I think that keeping with the bleeds as main condition and only relying on torment and burn as secondary damage conditions will be the PvE path of damage and most likely the trait that will be taken is the one that only allow 1 shard but on a shorter cool down and with a greater efficiency.

The mobility issue has always been an issue of the lack of instant movement toward a chosen area. Swiftness could already be caped from deathly swarm and Spectral walk.

In short, the new swiftness add nothing new and the portal thing only add group utility to an effect that is already existent on spectral walk. There will be no noticeable change regarding the necromancer’s movement ablity in this spec.

As for stability, I think one of the gm trait of the scourge seem really promising giving us the boons that we remove or corrupt. But yeah this spec is still weak toward hard crowd control skills.

From the look of it, it would probably be “viable” if they were to double all might duration of the espec so that the necromancer can at least maintain a few might stack as well as doing it’s job.

The spec is doomed to be frail at melee range but might be usefull as a backliner. The traitlines seem promising. The torch have a good taste of an offensive aoe range off hand (which is satisfying). Torment is another irony on this spec for the necromancer but, well it’s “okay”.

No really, I guess the only thing that this spec really need is a huge increase in the might duration of it’s skills and traits. Everything else, the necromancer can do with it but if we want to support we at least need to be a barely passable might provider and for this we will need to be able to maintain the few might stack that we will provide without having to invest everything we can into might duration.

Should you bother with necro/reaper in PvE?

Open world PvE : Altogether the necromancer shine in this area since there is not much that limit a necromancer in this game mode and reaper is very rewarding to play against mobs waves.

Dungeons : That is the “lost” mode of the game that the dev prefer to forsake. In this game mode the necromancer can contend for a suboptimal dps spot. Groups won’t favor you but you can still hold our own. You may even solo a few paths.

Fractals : Good grief, this gamemode have been designed for necromancers with mobs that produce boons so that you can finally find boons to corrupt. The necromancer innae survivability also make wonder here.

Raids : Sadly the necromancer is a little lacking for this gamemode. The supports tools that the necromancer have are not really in demand and the gimicks that could still grant him a spot tend to be “balanced” as soon as they start to shine.

Storyline : the necromancer’s innate survivability tend to ease your game experience. Still, one hit KO mechanisms make sure that you still have to learn how to dodge.

Some traits and skills will probably be nerfed for every profession in order to “balance” the incoming elite specs.

That’s exactly the issue Bigpapasmurf. You waste valuable utility and put yourself in danger for little to no benefit.

Why not give use a special buff when we harm ourself?
Why not give us some health/life force when we harm ourself?
Why not give us a boon when we harm ourself?
Why not heal in an area around us when we harm ourself?

Why do we have to waste an utility for using something that should give us an edge in a battle? I understand that sending back a few more condi seem interesting but wasting a precious skill that is supposed to prevent us from dying because we’ve been hurting ourself is really wasting ressources.

There is plenty of options that could actually make the act of hurting ourself valuable but honnestly having to send back the condition is not what I call valuable. It’s just an unnecessary stress. Look, we litterally bleed ourselve to produce 10 might stack that we can barely maintain if we invest in might duration where other profession can just fart might without risk and reach 20 to 25 might stack with ease. We hurt ourselve for less efficacity and to bring that full power of the skill we even have to spend a 2nd skill that could otherwise save our butt if need arise. Excuse me to say it but the necromancer is on the losing end.

Durzlla.6295:

My pets never ignore their other two skills, god do I wish birds would stop trying to give me swiftness though, I pray every day my bird pets will have a stroke and forget how to cast quickening screech so that they can be my go to damage pet…

And drakes are bugged again? I need to check that out…

Birds would be the best melee pet in game if they didn’t have this skill that gut them.

Well, that’s nothing new but I still think that there is not enough trait that actually help us with this self damage bargain. From my point of view we gain nothing from harming ourself, all we gain is the necessity to waste some of our precious condi cleanse skills (which can be hurt us more than anything). Self harm need to be rewarding and it’s not the case at the moment. Let’s hope this will be adressed into a futur e-spec.

If only it was true… sadly, birds still use quickening screech, devourer still flee under earth and knock back their foe for no reason, bear still waste their invuln skill… etc.

That’s what I meant, between 35 and 40 hp per hit there is not enough gain for us to call it a benefit. However, in percentage, it improve the heal by a wooping 10+%

narcx.3570:

I don’t know the exact numbers, but I know that Healing Power scales so laughably awful with Life Siphoning skills that it might as well just do nothing.

Well, if you look at it in percentage it give a pretty good increase. But if you look at the actual number it is indeed very low. A 5 health point on hit difference don’t really change anything on the long run.

Brokensunday.4098:

Dadnir.5038:

Well In fact the necromancer is focused because this is the profession that is the easiest to restrain not because it’s the profession that die the fastest. It’s more a problem of proper mobility than a matter of invulnerability. And that’s why KrHome simply suggest some QoL on one of our few “escape” skill, which would help a lot more the necromancer survivability on the long run than a change on SA, which is, again, already a great skill.

Not true necro is target first because of lack of defence 0 life force at the start of the game making necro practically defenceless and on top of that lack of mobility

Take 2 hit while under SA and you can enter shroud and even stay in it for the whole duration of SA.
Use warhorn swarm and the ennemies that focus you are a free source of life force.
Trait for spectral skill and you’ll see that building life force is just a matter of using spectral skills.
Building 10% life force is easy as day.

The problem is not life force or defence, the problem is instant mobility.

Dragon.4782:

I like the stances! However the spear is land-based since it is one of the most popular requests for a new weapon.

Well that was just thoughtless example. This was just meant to show you that an e-spec idea need a bit of “flesh” behind it. On must remember that the core is the traitline not the weapon and the utility skill.

The traitline provide a special mechanism and support it. The weapon and the utility skill only add flavor to the spec. In the example, I chose an “I’m ready” “flavor” and supported it by the weapon and utility. Traitline and mechanism work well with this flavor but can also work well with everything else that the core ranger can put on the table (and that’s what’s important).

Well In fact the necromancer is focused because this is the profession that is the easiest to restrain not because it’s the profession that die the fastest. It’s more a problem of proper mobility than a matter of invulnerability. And that’s why KrHome simply suggest some QoL on one of our few “escape” skill, which would help a lot more the necromancer survivability on the long run than a change on SA, which is, again, already a great skill.

Well, you see it.

With the event trend and especially all the “new” maps, events are more and more oriented toward killing fast instead of letting you take your time and leisurely kill things.
- World boss are all timed.
- “New” maps with day/night cycle are an incentive to kill things fast.
- Wave style event also need you to kill fast before mobs destroy all defenses.
- Escort type event quickly become difficult if you lack the ability to get rid of the ennemy.
- …etc.

I know that a lot of players would like to enjoy the game by relying on defensive stat gear. But in all honesty, the impact of defensive stats in the game in abysmal. On the same situation in open PvE, at the same skill level, a player with offensive stats will always have an easier time than a player with defensive stats. Tens of players have experienced this fact again an again since the release of the game.

The only bright note is that the necromancer have a bit of an advantage when it come to gear since a necromancer can basically diregard the precision’s stats thanks to their traits. But power and or/ condition damage are still a necessity to be able to achieve the minimum dps that the game need you to do in order to pleasingly fool around in open PvE.

My main disagreement is still that it is to costly, or wastefull if you prefer, to create a Nomad gear for such use. I don’t get why someone would waste so much ressources for less effiency and no more survivability than a simple soldier gear.

I have no issue with someone wasting is own money but why publicizing it on the forum? This is why I list the cons on your thread because, de facto, the survivability that you gain throught using nomad gear, you’d have the same with any other gear and at the same time you would have more damage and more build option. Lots of players still find it hard to gather a decent gear, misleading this kind of players to think that Nomad gear is a good thing to have would be criminal because that’s not the case.

If anything, Nomad gear is usefull for zerging in WvW, nothing more nothing less. In open PvE if you’re gonna tank hits, having soldier/cleric or nomad won’t do any difference except for the time you’ll waste killing foes and most of the time wasting to much time killing foes is a bad move that can lead you to frustratingly fail events. And events are the mains things that you do in PvE.

So, again, don’t waste your time and money crafting nomad gear, by doing so the only thing that you do is giving you less chance to enjoy the game. You even open the door to frustration.

To sum it up :
- Rangers already use spears (underwater)
- New fonction : why not? Still feel useless thought
- That’s not how stances work.
- A skill (being elite or utility) should not define the elite spec.

What you need to do about this concept is to flesh it out a lot. When someone take an e-spec he is forced to use the traitline and the “new mechanism” that come along. Utility skills and weapon are mainly accessory even if anet make them strong enough to break any kind of balance with other weapon/skills.

You obviously want to have more pet with you, change the new fonction into :
F5 skill : summon 2 weaker pets to support your current pet for x seconds. CD Y seconds.

Describe shrotly each traitline in your E-spec tree :
- Up : Defensive traitline, capitalise on the shield and on the boon protection.
- Middle : Middle and minor trait capitalize on the pack effect, making the ranger stronger the more pet he got with him.
- Down : Traitline that focus on restraining foes with cripple effect, chill or whatever.

Here I put the shield in the traitline example so I’ll focus on the design of a shield.
- #4 : Create a wave with your shield that surround you giving prot to allies and inflicting a crippling effect to surrounding foes.
- #5 : Block all incoming melee attack and reflect projectile for 3 seconds. Animation show a turtle shell surrounding the ranger

As for the utilities :
Stance :
heal : Water turtle stance : channel the skill for 2-3 second destroying projectiles. for each projectile destroy gain X health. Gain Y health at the end of the channeling.
Utility : Warhound stance : For X seconds your mouvements skills will daze the foe that you hit.
Hellbear stance : For x second reduce incoming direct damage by 50%. Gain 3 might each time you are hit (1 second ICD)
Felin stance : enter stealth, bleed your foe on hit if you hit it while stealthed.

Elite stance : Oakheart stance : For X second, each time you hit a foe you lose a condition. For each condition lost you and your pet(s) gain a small amount of health.

What I think? I think it’s kinda dumb to waste both time and money for a result that is bound to be disappointing. (Especially in PvE)

- The minions don’t do damages worth relying on them only thus you lose survivability due to the fact that it take you longer to kill something.
- All the healing you’ll get from this won’t help you more than not having any extra healing (again you’ll basically be a punching ball that continously need to heal himself again and again because mobs don’t die around you)
- Minions are already super tanky in open PvE but fret not because with all the toughness you’ll have mobs will only focus on you.

My thoughts : don’t waste you time with 0 offensive stats gear on the necromancer, this kind of gear will just make you struggle longer for the same result. I don’t even get the point for using healing stat in open PvE. Take a soldier gear which is basically free in the game and you’ll have the exact same survivability and you’ll kill things faster.

So 9 seconds of invulnerability, with a break stun on use, on a 32 second cool down seem fair for you?

Lord velar, for a very short amount of time, spectral armor was granting 4% life force on hit witout ICD. Just 4 little percent. The necromancer was basically unkillable. Even worse, spectral walk who was granting 2 little percent without ICD was enough for the necromancer to stay in shroud for the whole duration of the spectral walk buff.

This change might not be able to refil full life force but it’s more than enough to keep the necromancer unscath for 9 whole second without being hindered in any way. This would obviously end into a balance issue.

The strength of this skill does not lie in it’s ability to egate damage but in the length of the buff it give. This allow for a very long time of virtual invulnerability to damages.

Players that are against this change know the value of this skill. And that’s why they disagree.

As for the suggested change in PvP, it would be insanely OP unless the skill was nerfed in some other way to compensate for the buff.

That!

Players are so addicted to vital persistence that they tend to forget that Spectral Armor traited last 9 seconds give 5% LF on use and have the potential to refil up to 75% of your life force over it’s duration. Add to that that it become a stun breaker on 32 second cool down that also grant protection.

This skill is already plenty strong enough. If anet were to do the listed change, we would probably end up with a depressive 2 second duration skill that wouldn’t help us at all since it would make thing really tricky to use it then rush to enter shroud and it would just end in no time.

I’m perfectly fine with player asking for buff to skills that aren’t that good like well of darkness, summon bone minion, spectral grasp or signet of undeath but seriously, leave strong skills as they are.

Seriously, look at signet of undeath, in it’s state we wouldn’t take it even if it granted 1% life force every second (which would already a scary huge buff in the devs view point).

Honnestly, I really hate this whole double dagger idea. Especially since it feel like the main hand dagger is another melee weapon. Another main hand melee weapon doesn’t feel necessary since axe, mace and sword already cover anything that can be done by a mainhand melee weapon.

An off hand dagger would pass and maybe bring something on the table but a main hand? that will be redundant.

My only issue with the warrior’s sword is the flow of the auto attack that I just can’t enjoy. The way skills flow just feel awkward for me and that’s the main reason that I don’t use this weapon.

Otherwise, It’s an ok weapon for both condi and power, while the gap closer stay an invaluable tool. Off hand sword have a block and a pretty nasty mid range skill, there is nothing to throw away in this weapon.

So yeah… instead of numbers buff, I’d gladly prefer new animations on sword AA.

Well… that’s the shroud for you…

It took us 3 years to have the positive effect of our blood magic traits work while in shroud, maybe the combo effects will be available in 2 more years.

On another note, the limitations specific to the shroud are good material for elite spec traits. Like :

Darkness themed e-spec :
Dark force : combos in a dark field grant you life force.

Regeneration themed e-spec :
Living dead : regeneration heal you through shroud.

All purpose e-spec :
Corrupted life : Incoming heal while in shroud grant you a small amount of life force instead.

Easy traits, without that much of an impact ingame like that, are most likely a godsend for devs that don’t want to crumble the wole balance of the game. Even I as a player would want to see this kind of traits in game. For example, corrupted life would be awesome if it were te replace vital persistence. Heck! Just them replacing the degen decrease by the effect of corrupted life would satisfy me.

Agree with the “other topic”. I’d be satisfied with some AoE prot effect on WH skill use.

Correct me if I’m wrong but in essence what’s said in this thread is that the OP have a blast with ranger since launch (or almost), tried other profession to find that all of them have their pro and cons and find it difficult to accept that the ranger is the same : limited by pro and cons.

I have a feeling that it mean that the profession is somehow balanced when I read this.

NB.: I have the feeling that the issue is still always the same : Pet skills need a serious balance patch because their cast time and cool down is a real mess for the pitiful effect granted in the end.

Wel, SA and in a smaller scale SW are far from being bad skills. if you couple them with the shroud it’s easily the ban of the mesmer because their illusion will keep on doing very little physical damage on you every second and thus activating the life force gain.

When I was active in wvw, I always used a build that take adavantage of this. SA/SW + locust swarm + shroud combination is a good way to enter an enemy zerg, unleash a few deadly skills and escape safely. The only downside is that it doesn’t prevent you from being heavily CCed. However, if you trait spectral skills and War horn you got it easy in wvw group fight.

Against a single target (except mesmers that providentially spawn stupid summons to auto attack you) you will however find the fights a bit more troublesome.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Pretty sure Spectral Armor (and Walk) don’t give life force on condi ticks.

Pretty sure as well.

However, it’s right to say that using spectral armor right before entering in shroud allow one to soak a lot of damage. Thought that’s nothing new, you just need to take physical damage every second.