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HoT: Please un-link Traits/Stats, Revamp

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

As an alternate solution to my first one, ANet could just split the Stats/Traits into their own lines.

One for traits, and one for stats.

I would suggest dropping the stat bonuses from the game entirely, but that might hurt certain builds which rely on unique stats, like Boon+, and throw things a bit out of whack.

Longbow has no boons?

You sure about that m8?

If im wrong, by all means, correct me!

HoT: Please un-link Traits/Stats, Revamp

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

(This is a lot of copypasta from a previous post of mine)

I, for one, am heavily in favor of UNLINKING the Traits with Stat lines.

Many of the traits and stats are a huge mess, and dont really fit together very well at the moment, limiting the “play your way” style pushed by the devs, and helping to push the meta, instead of helping people break away from it.

Here are some examples. All of them are from a Warrior perspective, since it is the class I know best. I know all the various classes have this to some degree.

-Want those Longbow traits? Take the tactics tree, and enjoy your +boon duration. What? Longbow has no boons? Tough.

Lets try a shout-healing build! Wait, healing+ isnt in that stat line at all. Banner healing build? Nope. That’s up in defense.

Greatsword power build? Well the Greatsword trait is in arms, so enjoy your +200 condition damage on a weapon with literally 0 damaging conditions.

Better still… want to make a shout Warrior who wields a longbow? Well unfortunately thats 4 traits that happen to exist in the same tree, even though they’re completely unrelated.

However, I understand that TOTALLY unlinking them may encourage min-max so here is what I consider a perfect solution:

Solution
You can pick any 6 traits you want from your class. Each has a stat bonus attached for slotting it, in addition to its current standard effect.

Examples:
Forceful Greatsword: 50 prec/5% boon, plus the current functionality
Shield Master: 50 tough/50 vit, plus the current functionality

And for the minor traits? You get them based on what your stat bonus from traits work out to be.

Example:
If you have +50 prec and +50 condi, you get the Precise Strikes minor trait.
If you have +150 tough and +150 healing, you get Adrenal health minor trait.

sPvP:Entire team simultaneously crashed

in PvP

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

We were dominating a round, something like 200-50, when suddenly our ENTIRE TEAM got a crash message at the exact same time.

We all log back in, but by then, the game is basically over, they 3 capped and killed lord while we were offline.

This has got to be a hack or exploit of some kind.

BANS for this sort of behavior NEED to be handed out.

Have warriors died?

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

I would like to just point out that MOST of the Warrior posts are CONSTRUCTIVE threads to try and improve the class. There will always be a few drama queens who cry buff/nerf!

The warrior class is NOT unplayable, in any game mode. It is viable at all tiers in all modes.

However, the vast majority of the constructive “buff warrior!” threads are complaining that in order to be viable, VARIETY is sacrificed.

In other words:

Externally, compared to other classes, Warrior is balanced and viable.

Internally, War skill/trait/weapon A -vs- War skill/trait/weapon B, Warrior balance is terrible and badly in need of adjustments.

The constructive members of War forum are pushing the devs to get the class closer to a state where Variety and Viability are NOT mutually exclusive. They are NOT crying “underpowered” and trying to turn the class into an unstoppable wrecking ball.

(edited by Dand.8231)

Hammer Stunfreaking

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

My Tank warrior does twice the dmg than my ~zerker power ranger, and it really works at least same efficent while I’m watching a movie and drinking coffee at the same time. Except in WvW, there it got conditioned badly.

What.
No, really….. WHAT?!

Assuming equal skill levels, there is no way, mechanically, that a Tank warrior can x2 out DPS a zerker power ranger.

However, if you involve a skill level disparity, anything is possible. Therein lies your problem, I suspect.

Additionally..

Except in WvW, there it got conditioned badly.

What the heck sort of Tank warrior are you even playing?! Are you running cleansingire + shout(SIO/FGJ) + trooper + doggedmarch + lemongrass? Throw on some soldiers gear, maybe bring a zerk trinket or two, and frontline your way through the thick of things like a friggan boss. The warrior class has its shortcomings, but this is NOT one of them.

Ok, ya know what? Enough abstracts.
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/
Show us your power ranger, and tank warrior build.

Banners and Specialization

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

It looks likes the specializations will be tied to the new weapon that each class gets.

True, but it doesn’t HAVE to be that way. It’s entirely possible to think a Warlord type spec would continue to use the same base weapon set.

pulses when active.

Banner of defense – Clear 2 conditions when placed to the warrior and alies within its radius and every 10 seconds clear 1 condition.

Banner of Discipline – Gain 5 sec fury when placed to the warrior and alies within its radius and every 10 seconds gives 2 sec fury.

More PvP oriented:

Banner of Strength – Gain 5 sec stability when placed to the warrior and alies within its radius and every 10 seconds gives 2 sec stability.

Banner of Tactics: Finish downed players within its radius (only the first time) and every 15 seconds cause 3 sec revealed.

Cool ideas, but super OP!
The idea behind the specialization I suggested is that they’re balanced around current numbers, and would already be pulsing the banners individual bonus (+170 to two stats) in a radius around the Warrior/Warlord, which is a pretty solid bonus as is.
The upside is the +170/170 bonus is ever present, the downside is relative to utility 6-9 banners which can be stacked, you can only provide 1 at a time.

I see one major issue. Banner are utility skills and you can have more than 1 banner on your utility skills. Which mean that you can end up with a lot of F2 F3 F4.

Well, I guess I should have been clearer, but the original Warlord idea is F4 switches your banner, in the same way that a Ranger switches between pets. The banners would not be available as 6-9 skills in this Warlord specialization, only as a mechanic.

Second though. We saw in an early demo that dual wielding warrior may have access to a F2 skill while this didn’t show up while the warrior was playing with a 2 handed weapon. (Note that this was an early and since specialization, even now, aren’t set to stone, it may be an irelevant argument)

We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out, but there’s a good chance the F2 will be linked to the specialization, and other future specializations will possess their own F buttons.

That all said, I love the feedback!

Odd Mouse Issue

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

@Incul: I googled it a number of different ways prior to my post in here. Sadly, no luck

@Chase: Nope, regular monitor

Banners and Specialization

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Anyone else got input on this? Feel free to suggest and think up your own specializations!

Hammer Stunfreaking

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

there is no chance at all to win a proper 1v1.
TBH, what else can be done with this issue

Why didn’t you DODGE?

Have warriors died?

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Warriors are a solid class, and fun to play.

There ARE serious issues and complaints with the class however, and for good reason:

*Buggy and unreliable skills (Bulls, GS#5Rush, etc)
*A few good utility skills (shouts/stances), with lots of clunky and/or meh skills mixed in (physical/banners; yes banners are good in pve but clunky to use)
*Painful, unfun, and punishing rate of Adrenaline Decay
*Slow and highly telegraphed moves
*A lack of variety and options for top-tier-competitive builds, due to Cleansing Ire-Longbow, Fast Hands, etc

Adrenaline degen speed is to high !

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

snip

EXACTLY this.

All the time I suddenly lose adrenaline while:

On the outer edge of a huge fight, having just executed an opponent yet still surrounded by dozens of foes and heated battle

Furiously chasing after a fleeing opponent to cleave him in half!

During WvW sieges, as fire rains from the sky all around me, after dodging backwards to avoid being crushed beneath the weight of a gigantic boulder or impaled by a volley arrows!

ANet: ADD BACK IN A GRACE PERIOD BEFORE ADRENALINE DECAYS

Adrenaline degen speed is to high !

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

My thoughts on Adrenaline: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Communicating-with-you/page/33#post4426463

TL;DR: It needs an overhaul. Bandaid fix would be to slow the decay rate to about 1/3rd of the current rate.

Odd Mouse Issue

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Can anyone offer some suggestions?

Thief stealth mechanics are getting old

in Thief

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Stealth is an extremely unfun mechanic to play against, in WvW.

In SPVP, being stealthed is an opportunity cost; you’re trading time capping/contesting/etc for evasion. This is fine.

In WvW however, there really isn’t such a cost associated with it. A thief can basically harass another solo non-thief with impunity. If they start to lose, they immediately retreat, stealth, recover, and return at full health in short order.

Their high mobility, means that it’s difficult for their opponent to disengage if the thief doesn’t want to let them.

I have seen many instances of a SINGLE thief evading 2-3 players with ease. I’ve had plenty of times where a lone thief caught up in a 1v1 gets rolled upon by a zerg, and while they do generally die (sometimes they still get away!) it takes MULTIPLE players flailing around in an area to finally bring them down with lucky hits against the invisible foe.

It should not take 5+ people to counter a single thief using stealth.

Do you think Anet is hiding something big

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

While big reveals can be awesome, it’s better to lay things out on the table and “fail fast” so you have more time and resources to recover, and try again.

In short: No, I don’t believe they are

Specialization won't Duplicate weapons ?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

I REALLY hope War gets either a super-quick Dagger MH+OH, or a wide-sweeping Melee staff!

I Submit.

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Zirken and BlackTruth:
Whats with the smear campaign here? If you disagree, state your reasons, break down your opponents points, and explain why you feel their reasoning flawed. Then present a logical counter-argument.

All I see is lots of “lololol l2p!” and “vague anecdotal story that i can do X and anyone who disagrees is bad!” making you appear to be little more than common internet trolls. This is not a ‘jab’ at you, this is simply how the situation looks from my perspective.

Leave golems disabled for 2 weeks

in WvW

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

While it’s good that they disabled golems temporarily to prevent abuse, I hope they can fix it ASAP.

There are many easy strats for wiping golems. Several nights ago in EB, my medium sized zerg gutted a larger zerg AND 8 omegas headed for our keep.

This was thanks to some scouting, strategic placement of ACs on a cliff. We caught the bigger zerg and omegas, and then rained arrowy death on them. Soon it was our zerg vs a handful of battered omegas, which we cornered and dismantled through persistence.

All in all, I actually sort of think that golems (all types) need a way to -slowly- recover health, out of combat. Perhaps when not engaged in combat, they gain a weak regen buff?

Banners and Specialization

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Since specializations are in the works for HoT, that can add new skills and alter class mechanics, how about down the road, we get one that revamps the use of banners?

Many times has the subject arise, of Warriors wearing banners on their backs. Some Warriors like the current mechanics of plunking down a banner, but the majority appear to find the lack of mobility and loss the the banner to be an issue.

Warrior: Warlord Specialization
Warriors wear a banner on their backs, gaining new class abilities (F2-F4), and providing a non-stackable area effect for all nearby allies.
F2: Banner Specific (current banner #2 skill)
F3: Inspire (current banner #3 skill)
F4: Switch Banner

Banner of Strength
Bonus: +Pwr/Condi (unchanged)
F2 Skill: Brutal Rally: Grant might3 10s to all nearby allies, CD10

Banner of Tactics:
Bonus: +Heal/Boon (unchanged)
F2 Skill: Compassionate Banner (unchanged)

Banner of Discipline
Bonus: +Prec/Fer (unchanged)
F2 Skill: Furious Rally (unchanged)

Banner of Defense
Bonus: +Tgh/Vit (unchanged)
F2 Skill: Unbreakable Rally: Grant protection 4s to nearby allies, CD 20

A man can dream, cant he?

I Submit.

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

I hate to say it, but I sort of agree. Every time I think of a decent non-lb build, and try it out, I realize that while it’s semi-viable, one of the other classes can fill that exact niche, and either have superior dps, mobility, sustain, etc.

It’s not that Warriors are BAD, it’s just that for all the major sPvP roles, someone else can do the job better.

Of course, for WvW zerging, there’s nothing quite like a soldier war carrying a hammer.

Warriors getting a Staff? more info

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

I actually would love to get a MH/OH dagger option. One of the largest issues we have as a class is our slow, telegraphed attacks. A dagger would mostly likely be a fast, highly responsive weapon.

I don’t have anything against pistol, but I really just don’t see it being useful for War. We’ve already got ranged options, the ubiquitous longbow, and a rifle that’s badly in need of tweaking.

I would also LOVE a landspear (basically what all wars want badly), or melee staff.

Why Bladetrail has such a long cast time?

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Dand.8231

i never had it disappear just from air itself as per non leveled ground and stairs well, it flies in a straight line in front of you, if that line crosses terrain or other features it disappears.

you may not like it but it’s a predictable behaviour it doesn’t just work sometimes and other times doesn’t on a whim.

First, the behavior is not entirely predictable. There are TONS of instances of even perfectly flat ground obstructing all sorts of attacks of multiple classes. This is a well known issue.

Secondly, the world at large is not a big flat plain. There are terrain variations everywhere, from small lumps, bumps, hills, debris, rubble, stairs, walls, rocks, etc… this makes the world very interesting; a big flat level be boring. However this often causes problems for projectiles of all sorts.

So, even assuming that your projectile does work consistently, AND you begin the cast time with the rare clear path behind your enemy, by the time the projectile goes off, they may have moved to the side slightly, causing it to go off into a wall.

This is assuming they don’t simply dodge it. With a big telegraph, long cast, and slow projectile movement speed, the ability does not fare well against savvy players.

Finally, with the slow projectile movement speed, it will often miss enemies that are running away from you, simply by running out of range. I’ve encountered many instances where a fleeing foe with swiftness is simply not catchable by the projectile unless they’re ALREADY basically in melee range.

It is for these reasons I feel the projectile needs a slight range buff, a large projectile speed buff, and should always return, even when impacting a wall, object, etc.

Why Bladetrail has such a long cast time?

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

75% of the time = when it hits a wall, or falls off a cliff, or a tiny rock, or a slightly angled slope, any kind of stairs, ALL non-level ground, or occasionally just the air itself.

Fixed that for you

Why Bladetrail has such a long cast time?

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

But AN goal is to keep warrior as realistic as possible so here we are..a slow and well telegraphed soldiers without any gimmick tricks like other classes and its will stay this way.

Yup, it’s pretty realistic the greatsword can fly back to us like boomerang.

Irk. Its also looks stupid as f, just like rush in current form and hamstring. But what we can do? REROLL. Axe throw has the same problem as it magically returns back to us.

I actually like the way bladetrail looks. I kinda wish it would fly farther and faster.

I actually like the look, and the theme of the ability! It just SUCKS mechanically. The bladetrail projectile needs to simply move much faster, a bit further, and ALWAYS return; 75% of the time it just vanishes and never comes back.

Why Bladetrail has such a long cast time?

in Warrior

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

But AN goal is to keep warrior as realistic as possible so here we are..a slow and well telegraphed soldiers without any gimmick tricks like other classes and its will stay this way.

Yup, it’s pretty realistic the greatsword can fly back to us like boomerang.

Attachments:

Why Bladetrail has such a long cast time?

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Dand.8231

Because you’re hurling a Greatsword as if it were a boomerang (but in a straight line) without the aid of magic.

From a balance perspective, this is a terrible reply. A slow move thats easy to dodge should have a high impact when it lands, which is not the case. It’s basically auto-attack damage, and a short cripple.

From a lore perspective….. this is still a terrible reply. I would argue that Warriors (and engineers/thieves) DO actually use magic, just not in such an obvious way as the others. It’s for fueling their supreme feats of strength and endurance. How else do you explain outright regeneration from injuries, or launching an arrow that explodes into a giant field of fire?

Odd Mouse Issue

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

So after my recent return to GW2, I’ve been noticing an odd mouse issue that has been driving me crazy.

As certain times, the cursor just becomes unresponsive for a few moments, or goes nuts for a split second, either swiveling my camera 90-180 degrees abruptly (right-click look mode) or sending the cursor flying off to the top/bottom/side (free cursor mode).

It does not happen often, and I cannot reliably reproduce it, but it does continue to happen periodically, perhaps between 1 and 4 times per hour.

This does NOT happen in Windows, or in any other PC games, only in GW2. I recently got a new mouse, but the issue still happens exactly the same as before.

Can anyone offer some suggestions?

Greatsword wish list!

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Dand.8231

Then by all means play with other weapons. There are plenty to choose from.

I think you’re missing the point.

The point is, Warriors want more viable options.

Ever notice how nearly the entire Warrior meta involves Cleansing Ire, Fast Hands, and a Longbow??

My Laundry List of Warrior Issues

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Dand.8231

Attachments:

Greatsword wish list!

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Dand.8231

Actually no, most of the time i play WvW and sPvP. I use greatsword all the time.
As i have said in my previous post, you must have some skill to be able to land your 100blades effectively. I roll with gs / hammer combination and win 80% – 90% of my fights (wvw and pvp).

You must understand that setting up a situation to utilize greatsword’s #2 and #3 for example requires skill and usually knockdowns/control /immobilize/ cc utility.
That is pretty much all it takes to be effective, skill and a suitable build that supplements and sets up your gs for maximum effectiveness.

With that being said, yes, greatsword is balanced and if you cant properly use it (that meaning setting up with stun/knockdown/immobilize type thingy) do not assume that its underpowered and rather invest some time learning how to set it up with synergy of build, rotation, utility, and last but not least, skill.

Warrior Greatsword (much like War Rifle) is a noob crusher.

By that, I mean that low skill opponents will often be destroyed by simple moves such as CC-100b. Earthshaker, Skullcrack, Bullrush, PinDown, etc, into 100b will easily crush inexperienced players, who do not run suitable cleanses, and stability, and/or have poor reactions.

By contrast, high skilled players will almost NEVER take more than the 1st swing from 100b. Even assuming they’re on the defensive, trying to exhaust their resources and set them up for a 100b is nearly impossible.

Assuming you and the opponent have equal skill, for every 100b set-up you bring, the opponent should have a reasonable counter. Bullsrush, Earthshaker, Skullcrack, and PinDown telegraph greatly, and are all dodged. Stability and stunbreaks will handle the odd stun that actually lands, and a cleanse, teleport, invul (mist/shrink), or even block, will handle immob-100b from a stray PinDown that actually lands.

Worse STILL, an equally skilled player will NOT be playing defensively against you. They will be throwing everything and the kitchen sink BACK your way. If your main gimmick is cc-100b, and they manage to counter it, you’re basically up kittencreek without a paddle, and now they have the upper hand.

So, Hegediz, im sure your noob crusher build does in fact win 80-90% of your fights vs low skilled players.

But hey, if you still think Earthshaker-100b is viable vs skilled players, by all means, go hop into Ranked SPVP and post your success videos here.

My Laundry List of Warrior Issues

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Dand.8231

Burr, it’s always sad for me to return to the forum literally a year later, and see almost an identical post to some of the ones others posted a year ago. Looks like the War class hasn’t gotten a lot of love.

Self rooting MELEE skills need to go.

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

In regards to Flurry (War Sword), it’s actually fine as a self-root due to the immob.

However
Warriors Greatsword 2, 100b, need to be changed to work like Guardian Greatsword 2, Whirling Wrath. Whirling Wrath allows you to continue to move, at a reduced speed.

100b SHOULD allow you to move, at a reduced speed as well.

Rifle wish list!

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Dand.8231

1 Autoattack: Simply put, this should do the same damage as the Longbows Autoattack (which is a doublehit), and always generate +1 adrenaline, not just vs vulnerable targets.

All the rest of the skills are actually alright, IMHO, but the main thing holding back rifle is Killshot.

Oh, the casttime was reduced, and the damage is high, but it’s such a niche use. Here’s why:

Rifle is primarily a 1v1 weapon, as all of its abilities are single target. However, killshot is easily blocked/dodged in 1v1, even with a slightly sped up cast timer.

Killshot is moderately useful in group fights, but the rest of the abilities are largely useless then.

Our other ranged option, Longbow, however, is useful 1v1, AND useful in group fights. The auto attack is better flat out: It deals more damage, generates more adrenaline, and double-hits which grants more chances to proc, crit, eats aegis, etc. And I really dont think I need to mention how great (read:mandatory) Combustive shot +cleansing ire is.

So, what to do? Killshot either needs to be made better in 1v1, or the rest of Rifle needs to be better in group fights. Till that happens, the Rifle has no real place, and is inferior to longbow in every way that matters.

Greatsword wish list!

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Dand.8231

My wishlist is very similar to OPs:

Auto attack: Small damage, or a small speed increase (which would result in a small damage increase)

2 100b: Small damage increase, -OR- let Warriors walk/turn while channeling, much like the Guardian Greatsword 2 skill -OR- make it reflect projectiles while channeling

3 Whirlwind: Yup, fine as is!

4 Bladetrail: Increase its projectile speed by 50%, AND make it so it always returns. Currently it vanishes when it hits walls, rocks, and even sometimes thin air

5 Rush: There’s still that weird pause/delay at the beginning and end of the skill. Can we PLEASE smooth that out? It’s been there since launch.

F1 Arcing Slice: Increase base damage by 25% (and then reduce the “execute” damage bonus to compensate for the base increase)

How Mesmers Feel About Warriors

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Dand.8231

I’m still learning the warrior, what’s wrong with Bull’s Charge?

Long cooldown
Slow obvious telegraph; painfully easy to dodge outside point-blank range
Buggy: Gets stuck on slopes, tiny rocks, even thin-air

Are warriors as bad as other classes say?

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Dand.8231

The problems run very deep but here are a few of the more obvious, and easily fixed ones:

Problem: In PvP, it’s a condi heavy meta. Bow + Cleansing Ire is crucial

Fix: Cleansing Ire could remove conditions per bar of adrenaline gained, or remove per bar of adrenaline spent regardless of if the burst hits.

Problem: Warrior moves often have weird delays, pauses, slow animations, and even long telegaphs to supposedly allow dodge-counterplay.

However, basilisk poison strikes from thief stealth has no dodge-counterplay. Mes shatters have no dodge-counterplay. A close range elementalist ride-the-lightning has no dodge-counterplay.

Even some of the regular moves have odd delays and pauses. Sword 2 is a leap, which has a half-second pause at the start and finish, GS 3 and 5 both have the same thing. It doesn’t make much sense.

Fix: Animation cleanup and speedup for the Warrior.

Problem: Warriors Active defenses are lacking. This has been improved somewhat, but certainly not to the point it needs to be. Basically, Warriors cannot make an effective sustain-bunker build. Guardians, Engineers, Thieves (stealth/heal spam), Elementalists, and Mes (stealth/port/evade spam) all can make extremely difficult to kill, bunker builds. Warriors cannot.

Fix: Options for warrior defensive abilities need to be brought up, and expanded upon.

Will HoT let us salvage extra ascended gear?

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Dand.8231

+1, we definitely need to be able to Salvage, and Mystic Toilet, all those useless ascended rings.

WARRIORS, lets FINALLY fix useless traits

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Dand.8231

So apparently my post was moved by a mod to the HoT subform.

This was meant to be a Warrior thread, really, which is why I posted in the *WARRIOR *subforum.

Could the mod who moved it, please return it to its rightful location??

WARRIORS, lets FINALLY fix useless traits

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Dand.8231

EDIT: My post was originally posted in the WARRIOR forum, and moved into HoT by a mod. Could a mod please move it BACK to where it belongs? This was a discussion about useless WARRIOR traits, not all classes.

Related thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/The-Design-of-Revenant-Traits

In light of some of the trait previews, I must say I am incredibly jealous of the new Rev class already. Most of the traits seem highly appealing even on their own, but with some synergy, they look truly useful.

For example: Gain stability or retaliation (2 different traits) after dodging, and gain bonus endurance when struck with a fairly short cd. Seems like you could keep a fairly high uptime on two powerful boons that are typically in short supply and have very little counterplay, meanwhile dodging far more often.

REV: Cruel Repercussion (Adept): 50% more damage on your next hit, after an opponent negates your attack?! I assume negate means block or interrupt, but it could even mean dodge.

Either way, compare that to:

WAR: Short temper (Adept): Gain 1 might and 1 adrenaline when blocked.

I’m not saying ALL Warrior traits are bad, we’ve actually got a handful of decent ones, but they’re mixed in with unplayable ones, and often played in trees that make no sense whatsoever.

Here is my list of Useless Warrior Traits below.
Reckless Dodge: Damage is insignificant, tiny radius, worthless all around. How about something cool like gaining Regen, or Might, like how the Rev class gains Stability or Retal?

Powerful Banners: Damage is insignificant, tiny radius, banner builds typically have low power anyway, and who summons banners into a crowd of enemies?!

Berserkers Might: Gaining 2 adrenaline every 3 seconds, as a Grandmaster trait?! That’s insanely weak and even more useless with the recent adrenaline change.

Thick Skin: Gain 100 toughness when over 90% health. This just plain irks me. In general, extra toughness is not the same as damage reduction, because of the way it scales, becoming increasingly unhelpful the more of it you have. In other words, the more into the defense tree you go, the more useless this already crappy trait becomes.

Shieldmaster and Missile Deflection need to be combined. Nuff said.

Vigorous Return: A trait that only helps you slightly after you get knocked down, and then get back up again. Given that War downed state may be the 2nd worst out there, once a Warrior goes down, odd’s are he isn’t getting back up.

Rousing Resilience: +1000 toughness after breaking a stun? Again, largely useless for the fact that it uses toughness, and not a flat damage reduction, or a boon like protection. This could easily be fixed, by changing it to Protection.

Determined Revival: +400 toughness while reviving. Again, useless for the fact that it uses toughness, and not a flat damage reduction, or a boon like protection. This could easily be fixed, by changing it to Protection.

Revivers Might: Seems just a bit weak. I know it’s a minor, but its so easy to spam AOE might, this is just unhelpful.

Stronger Bowstrings: This just needs to be baseline for the longbow. The autoattack is already 1200 (yeah, it still says 1000 in the tooltip after 2 years)

Burning Arrows: What does this have to do with the tactics tree, which is all about shouting, buffing, reviving, banners, and boons? This belongs in the Arms tree, or basically anywhere else.

Thrill of the Kill: Most times, if you just killed someone, you’re about to lose all your adrenaline over the next 5 seconds anyway. Mildly useful in WvW zergs, but in such a target rich environment, there’s no shortage of ways to build up adrenaline.

Sweet Revenge: This trait REALLY needs to be baseline. If you kill someone while in vengeance, you totally deserve your free rally. See, the problem is warriors almost NEVER even get to use their vengeance state due to how bad warriors are when downed, MUCH LESS actually KILL anyone in it (outside of PvE, but why are you downed in PvE to begin with?!?). When I’m fighting against an enemy war, if I dont have stability up AND im far away or I get CC’d just when they go down, every so often, they’ll actually manage to use vengeance. This occurs maybe 1/10 times, in an already highly unlikely scenario. But then to actually KILL another player after all that? It’s almost impossible. And certainly not worth a trait.

(edited by Dand.8231)

Shouting about losing adrenaline

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

It’s been like that since launch. Probably should post this in the bug forum, so it can be ignored like the other 500 posts about it.

Then again, it is purely cosmetic so not a big deal if it stays broken, compared to how gutted the adrenaline mechanic got when they massively upped decay.

new warrior build that will always win

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Given the title, I expected a hardcore troll post, but this was amazing

I lol’d

+1

Traits & Stats...

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

^You misunderstand something. The reason there’s 2 stats per trait line is because each trait line has multiple builds within it.

This means some builds will naturally just have higher stats and be more viable, than others.

Again, going back to Warrior Longbow, you get Vitality+ and Boon+.

Neither of these stats help out a longbow build. Well, yeah, ok, vitality helps everyone, but it has nothing to do with longbow performance.

Traits & Stats...

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

I, for one, am heavily in favor of UNLINKING the Traits with Stat lines.

As a Warrior player, some of the traits and stats are a huge mess, and dont really fit together very well at the moment. Here are some examples, all of them from a Warrior perspective, since it is the class I know best:

Want those Longbow traits? Enjoy your +boon duration. What? Longbow has no boons? Nonsense.

Lets try a shout-healing build! Wait, healing+ isnt in that stat line at all. Banner healing build? Nope.

Greatsword power build? Well the Greatsword trait is in arms, so enjoy your +200 condition damage on a weapon with literally 0 damaging conditions.

Better still… want to make a shout Warrior who wields a longbow? Well unfortunately thats 4 traits that happen to exist in the same tree, even though they’re completely unrelated.

However, I understand that TOTALLY unlinking them may encourage min-max so here is what I consider a perfect solution:

You can pick any 6 traits you want from your class. Each has a stat bonus attached for slotting it, in addition to its current standard effect.
Examples:
Forceful Greatsword: 50 prec/5% boon
Shield Master: 50 tough/50 vit

And for the minor traits? You get them based on what your stat bonus from traits work out to be.

Example:
If you have +50 prec and +50 condi, you get the Precise Strikes minor trait.
If you have +150 tough and +150 healing, you get Adrenal health minor trait.

Communicating with you

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Follow this simple logic path…

1. Condi-builds are common, and deal devastating damage.
2. The counter to condi-builds is reliable condi-removal.
3. Warrior condi-removal is primarily Cleansing Ire.
4. Cleansing Ire only procs on a hit.
5. All burst skills have a chance to hit, except Longbow, which is a 100% hit.
6. Warriors complain they feel married to longbow to stay competitive.

By nerfing Adrenaline to lose all on a miss, you did NOT actually reduce the Warriors condition removal ability. All you did, was force a shift in trends, to using the Longbow for that removal, even more than it already is.

In other words, build diversity went down, even more.

Jon, from the dev side, you can probably pull up PVP Build data on how many Warrior builds use Cleansing Ire. Now see what % of them also have a longbow equipped. I’d wager you’ll see a staggering correlation.

If you can pull up the data pre-adrenaline nerf, I’d also wager you’ll see a high correlation, but not as high as post-adrenaline nerf.

Still with me? I hope so. Here’s a TL;DR short summary thus far.
A Condi heavy meta, forces all classes (including Wars) to use reliable condi-removal, and the Warrior condi-removal is Cleansing Ire + Longbow burst.

Now, how to go about fixing this? Well, here are my thoughts.

Rework Cleansing Ire so 1 condition is removed per bar of adrenaline gained, not spent. 3 second cooldown.

In addition, nerf and rework all forms of adrenaline gain while slightly buffing baseline adrenaline gain. The thief was over-reliant on Initiative boosting traits and skills, and got a similar treatment.

Baseline Adrenaline: 15 strikes per bar (for a total of 45 strikes). Gain 2 per strikes per hit dealt (regardless of the number of targets hit.)

Compared to 1 strike per hit, and 30 strikes total, this proposal means more reliable, and slightly faster build up of adrenaline. Best of all, the other means of adrenaline gain (Cleansing Ires 1 strike/hit taken, Furious +1 strike per crit, etc) are automatically nerfed as a result of this, and need not be changed, since going to 45 strikes from 30, reduces their relative effectiveness.

Some especially slow hits (Hammer chain 3, Mace chain 3) can even grant 1 bonus adrenaline, to help even out their generation as compared to Axe. Rifle just underwent such a change, to help it’s adrenaline building compete with Longbows double-hit.

And, the end result is, suddenly, the loss of all adrenaline on a miss, is not such a massive unbalanced Risk vs Reward equation anymore. The burst skill itself hitting, or missing, is enough. The Longbow will not suddenly become weaker, but no longer will it become required either.

I’ve still got a LOT more to say (namely how to next adjust passive traits, like adrenal health to compensate and promote synergy: Hint, gain regen every time you fill a bar, etc) but I think I’ve rambled enough for one day, so I’ll cut to my final point.

The adrenaline decay change is NOT really related to the Cleansing Ire, and adrenaline loss on a miss change.
I don’t personally consider it more than a minor mechanical nerf.

However, what it is, is simply a HUGE QoL (quality of life) nerf. It flat out feels awful, unfun, and a serious burden. The decay time and rate should be far more modular and adaptive.

For example:
Decay Delay 10s
Decay rate: Current adrenaline * 0.1 (10%, minimum 1 strike) per second

Anyway, thanks for reading my long post!
-Dan

(edited by Dand.8231)

Communicating with you

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Hey what’s up man.

Before this change, it was the case that the Warrior Dogged/Cleansing specs were able to pretty much just spam their burst skills and remove condies. We had a lot of players (on forums and in person, talking to them at Gamescom) talking about how they wanted to have more play/skill to this, and they also wanted (if they were players who played AGAINST this type of Warrior) to have more counter-play.

This change means that Warriors need to be thinking ahead to their condition cleanse, as they will no longer be able to get them without risk. It also means that missing a burst skill can hurt the Warrior more than it did before, so even if you’re not running Cleansing, an opponent making you miss your burst skill can be a really big, really impactful moment in a fight.

This change means that some Warrior specs will need to shift/adjust, and you’ll need to do more “setting up” of your burst skill (to give it a higher chance to land) if you’re relying on Cleansing for condie clears.

Hey Jon,
First off, thanks for the communication. I know the devs are always busy but a little discussion goes a long way!

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I think the issue can actually be traced back to the core of the GW2 mechanics, reaching far beyond JUST the Warrior class. Allow me to rant and hopefully elaborate a bit.

As you obviously know…
Direct damage builds operate on a trio of stats: Power, Precision, Ferocity. This is mitigated by Toughness, Armor, Protection.

Condis operate on a single stat: Condition damage. Condition duration is available due to trait lines, but not as a stat on gear, so it’s a non-issue. This condi amage is mitigated only by actively removing conditions.
(Yes, there is condi +/- food in WvW, but not in PvP)

Condis require direct intervention to counter, using up skill slots and talent selections, and due to how powerful conditions are relative to direct damage, conditions are currently extremely popular. Many classes can make a Bunker+Condi damage build, which has impressive survival AND damage, with little sacrifice.

Meanwhile, a berserker build (Pow/Prec/Fer) sacrifices all survival to achieve it’s high damage.

As a result, the general Condi meta, is quite prevalent. Now lets look at how this specifically filters down to Warriors.

Warriors means of countering conditions, Pre-Cleansing Ire, was terrible. This was widely known, and eventually Berserk Stance (immunity 8s) and Cleansing Ire (1 condi per spent bar) was introduced. Great!

Many Warriors felt a little bit bound to the longbow, by this change. Why? Because combustive shot was a 100% activation of Cleansing Ire. In a condi-dominant environment, CI was absolutely crucial, and failure to remove those condis could easily spell death.

See, the other bursts were a bit of a crpshoot. Assuming equal skill between a Warrior and his opponent, as this equal skill level increases, the chance of successfully landing a Burst DECREASES.

Now, if they’re both equally skilled, one would assume the hit chance remains the same, only varying when there is a skill gap, but that’s not the case. The nature of the burst skills, their obvious telegraphs, and high cast time, is a limiting factor that applies, regardless of the Warriors skill, but that the defender can take advantage of.

Even if you stun or setup a highly skilled opponent to burst, there is a high chance they can break the stun and evade/block your followup burst skill, or counterplay it in some fashion. I’m not saying it’s impossible by any means, but the chances definitely becomes skewed.

There is a big argument I see arise here, that removing an opponents means to avoid the burst entirely is important, but consider that against equally skilled players, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to force EVERY defense he has, because he himself is equally skilled, and is playing to the fact that you will TRY to stress his defenses and set him up to be bursted.

It becomes Land Burst and Win, or Miss Burst and lose. BOTH sides know this to be the case.

In short, the Risk vs Reward for a Burst Skill, was NOT a balanced equation. Removing the conditions was NOT reliable enough for competitive play.

And since CI is linked to burst hitting, you end up with warriors feeling married to the Longbow, due to how RELIABLE it is.

And all of that was Pre-Adrenaline change.
Now, that same issue has become even MORE pronounced. Missing costs ALL adrenaline, which means the Risk vs Reward equation is even MORE unbalanced.
(Continued in next post)

(edited by Dand.8231)

Communicating with you

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Chap might reply to this. I play a warrior (PVT Shout Heal) and to be honest and quite happy with the changes. He knows more than I about balance however so i will bring it up with him tomorrow morning.
Chris

So did anything come of this discussion?

See, Chris… PVT Shout build is probably near the top of LEAST impacted Warrior builds, as a result of this adrenaline nerf.

Running around spamming Shouts and swinging a hammer, as you hurl yourself into Zergs, is still fine after this adrenal change. And as a PVT shout heal warrior, I’d tend to suspect you’re zerging it up quite a bit in WvW, because… well honestly, that’s all they’re really good at. PvP it’s a fairly meh build, Guards/Eles/Engies bunker better.

You’ll never “miss” with your earthshakers in a crowd of 15 people. And Soldier runes wipe condi’s fast as anything. You can even trait to gain almost a bar of adrenaline per shout.

So, try a roaming build or competitive PvP build.

See how the adrenaline loss-on-miss feels versus an experienced player who can reliably avoid your bursts 75% of the time.

See how that 75% miss ruins your condi-clearing from Cleansing Ire, leaving you up to your ears in condis. You’ll quickly understand why warriors feel LOCKED into Longbows combustive shot.

Adrenaline loss on a miss....

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

Your rebuttle in summary were basically that all burst were not haymakers. I did not go into detail with all the weapons you listed but commented on. However, regarding hammer burst specifically, which appears to be more inclined with the discussion in this thread. I merely pointed out that although it deals lesser damage than eviscerate, it has a pretty nasty stun effect associated with the skill. This can be used in combination solo, or in team fights to be equally as deadly.

Point:
You do not need a stun to land a hammer burst. You just need to monitor their dodges or time the skill appropriately.

Your reply does not seem address the main points that I brought up, or the ones Choppy did.

To land ANY crucial skill, you need to spend a time and effort (timing/forcing dodges) and/or setup skill use (CC cooldowns) to ensure your skill lands. The risk is that your skill may miss, and you use up it’s cooldown.

This is risk vs reward.

Spamming 1 has low risk low reward, as it should. There’s no major risk to missing aside from the casting time, you can just hit it again. Hitting does meh damage/effects.

For Eviscerate, the damage is impressive; High reward. The risk is the high telegraph, the cooldown, the loss of adrenaline no matter what.

That’s an EXTREME risk. You’re not just losing the cooldown, you’re losing ALL strikes of adrenaline and all the passive associated abilities with it, and you’re not proccing a crucial Cleansing Ire in PvP. That’s EXTREME risk.

High Reward vs Extreme Risk. That’s not properly balanced.

Now, granted, before this change, it was High Reward vs Medium Risk, because the only drawback was the cooldown.

But most other bursts, however, were ALREADY balanced risk reward scenarios before.

Earth Shaker
Reward+Cost: Medium; Stun, Damage, Cleaning Ire
Risk: Extreme; No Damage, Cooldown, Lose ALL adrenaline, no Cleansing Ire

Flurry
Reward: Medium; Immob, Damage/Condi, Cleaning Ire
Risk: Extreme; No Damage, Cooldown, Lose ALL adrenaline, no Cleansing Ire

Arcing Slice
Reward: Medium; fury and ‘meh’ damage, Cleaning Ire
Risk: Extreme; No Damage, Cooldown, Lose ALL adrenaline, no Cleansing Ire

And now lets look briefly into why Warriors feel forced into Longbow…

Reward: High; Fire field, Damage/Condi, Cleaning Ire
Risk: Medium; Still get Fire field, No Damage, Cooldown, Lose all adrenaline

Notice how Longbow is missing Cleansing Ire from the RISK section? And you always get the fire field to combo off of?

The issue here is that the Burst Skills are NOT balanced properly. To nerf ONE burst skill (Evis) that was only SLIGHTLY ahead of the curve, ANet turned around and Kittened up the entire class mechanic.

Warrior "nerf" way overexaggerated

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

The 100b nerf is over-exaggerated.

The adrenaline changes combined with surprisingly underwhelming Arcing Slice change are not being over-exaggerated.

^

Adrenaline loss on a miss....

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

With the current setup of the other professions it is a bad move.

I think that’s sorta the point.

If EVERYONE had gotten hit somewhere like this, it’d still be a nerf, but the relative class balance would remain.

But Wars get slammed for missing now, adrenaline decays super fast, but no other classes gets the same treatment. hieves can spam attack in stealth till they target runs out of dodge/aegis/block, and their big hit lands with no penalty. Warriors miss a single strike and it’s back to the drawing board, IF you even live through the condi-spam long enough to gain more adrenaline and CD to come up, that is.

My main is warrior. I welcome the change.

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Posted by: Dand.8231

Dand.8231

@Atticus
I agree. Putting aside the obvious mechanical nerfs, the adrenaline decay is a massive QoL (quality of life) nerf.

I can hardly even use my adrenal skills now, in regular PvE mob fights. By the time I loot and run to the next mob, I’ve lost most, if not all, of my adrenaline. Since it’s just open world PvE, it’s not like burst skills are required by any means, but it feels REALLY crappy, hence why I label it a QoL nerf.

It doesn’t make warriors FUN.

And of course, in WvW, decay is a HUGE nerf, geez.

Having mes and thief disengage and flee, waiting for their cooldowns to come back up and health to recharge, meanwhile im losing all my saved up adrenaline while DESPERATELY trying to catch up to them as fast as I can?! What the hell!!