Good for PvP. In PvE Wail of Doom leaves much to be desired as it does no damage and you generally don’t need the daze. When you do need the daze the boss is immune to it.
I’m fine with the cooldown, but it needs something else, preferably damage, so it doesn’t sit idle on your bar for PvE.
Not a bad overall idea, but I would disagree with points in Curses. You can get more damage out of Soul Reaping or more survivability out of Blood.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcVMcm9coGMxMoGMxoG0Gx0coMmMRb
I just recently came back to the game and bought a bunch of rare “soldier” gear for my Necro. I have everything pretty well ironed out aside from runes/sigils. Currently I just have Soldier crests slotted and “Bloodlust”/“Forceful” on D/WH with “Battle” on the staff. I was just looking for recommendations on which route to take.
I’m tempted to do 2x Strength, 2x Hoelbrak, 2x Pirate and drop another Battle sigil on my dagger and really focus on Might from weapon swaps and Life Blast. I’d lose a good bit of Vitality/Toughness from the crests in the process of doing that, diminishing the tanky power role I’m working for…
Or should I just keep the Soldier crests and swap Reaper’s Might out for Spiteful Spirit and just play tankier with Retaliation? Keeping DS just as an “oh ****” button and to proc retal… I wish there were better Toughness runes…
(edited by Draehl.2681)
I came back to the game shortly before the patch and just did AC spider path Thursday night. I was the last one standing on our 3 wipes prior to killing her. All “soldier” itemized rares. 20/0/20/30/0 well build with Plague elite. Dagger/Warhorn + Staff. I probably could have done even better vs Spider if I did D/D on that fight.
Staff is mostly fine. I would make only two tweaks…
1) Projectile speed needs to be faster on auto.
2) Reaper’s Mark needs to do more damage as to have a purpose against fear immune champions.
Other than that its aces.
Traits are absolutely a problem, but my major beef as of late has to be the offhands. None of them jump out to me as skills I want to use, are effective, or at all fun. I end up running Warhorn on my Power Necro just for the swiftness…
While I would possibly tweak the following two skills functionality, I feel that on a fundamental level they need to be swapped if only for the role and purpose of the weapons…
Unholy Feast belongs on the Dagger. Dagger is the up close, tankier weapon. Point-blank AOE + retaliation makes so much sense on this “in the fray” weapon I don’t see why this hasn’t already occurred.
Likewise…
Dark Pact screams “Axe” as it’s a ranged skill, targets only a single enemy, and contributes to the axes “focus down a single enemy” mid-range role. Being able to drop Vulnerability, Immobilize, and a high damage channel attack on a single enemy would flesh this weapon out rather well.
Optional: Remove the Cripple on Unholy Feast and increase the cooldown to 20s. Add the effect to cause nearby enemies to be feared towards the Necromancer.
Optional: In addition to the Immobilize have Dark Pact deal added damage to enemies that are already Stunned/Dazed/Feared/Knocked down. Rename to “Deathly Gaze”?
(edited by Draehl.2681)
Well if they do do a rebalance, I hope they tweek up the percieved weaker class, rather than tweeking down the percieved stronger class.
I’ve spent alot of time and energy on my 3 main toons. Don’t make me mad by weakening them.
I can live with the so called weaker classes being made better, but don’t dumb me down to them.
Heck, if you make the weaker better, I may make one of them my toon as well, and be happy about it.
Its less to do with strength and more to do with lacking interesting mechanics, terrible traits, boring weapon skills. Fix these first then worry about power levels.
1) Diessa Plateau. I can’t say what I love about it other than I definitely appreciate all the areas along the wall in particular. Good consistent events too. Giant is fun. Jumping puzzle is great.
2) Queensdale. Everyone is here. Visually appealing zone. Events are always called out. The most polished zone by far.
3) Fireheart Rise. Nothing like fighting masses of Flame Legion. Takes me back to GW1. I like the effigy event quite a bit too, one of my favorites for some reason.
Honorable mention: Timberline Falls. I just like the visuals. The events and hearts are pretty meh, but I just like to wander around this zone for the scenery.
Dislike: Cursed Shore, Straits, Malchor’s. I was sick of reef zombies before I even hit level cap.
This has been suggested a few times before and I do like the idea. 4 skills would be more than enough. No more DS form, but the aspects of it are kept via four skills.
1) Life Blast: Nuke that heals for 30% of damage done. 10 LF.
2) Dark Path: Same as current, no bleed but faster projectile. 30 LF.
3) Doom: Fear (1s) and Bleed (2×5s)your target and nearby enemies. 30 LF.
4) Will of Undeath: Remove crowd control effects and gain a damage absorbtion shield. 50 LF.
I like the one in Diessa on the wall. Forget the name, but I just liked it for its simplicity.
His opinion doesn’t mean so much as the presentation of said opinion. I personally don’t like the idea of adding traditional quests, yet I feel like many in this thread are saying his opinion simply doesn’t matter. Who’s opinion DOES matter then? We have to give credence to something besides the developers who are not infallible and have a different perspective than any given player. While maybe not this idea, good ideas are to be supported. The phrasing by some of you make it like no idea should ever be rallied behind and we should all chaotically post our own ideas that can individually never get any recognition.
TLDR. World feels empty, but traditional quests are not the answer.
Bump for great justice!
Everyone saying “just switch weapons” is missing the point. Maybe Sword on Warrior isn’t the best choice, so you may have a point there. But Dagger on Necro is absolutely the best solo weapon. It does great damage and paired with the staff you really have your bases covered. It’s not an issue of the weapon being appropriate or not, its an issue of weapons not being interesting enough or the combat being too easy. Which of the two it is comes down to deciding whether or not 1) easy content should be interesting or 2) easy content shouldn’t be so easy.
As a warrior, I can say my 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 rotation worked perfectly well in dungeons and fractals, except I had to fit some dodges in sometimes. But I would say 1-dodge-1-1-1-1-1-1-dodge-1-1-1-1 is still not exactly a fun way to play (though very effective).
…Not using your adrenaline move at all? That’s a bit weird.
While I can’t speak for max level Warriors, my level 30 Warriors Rifle adrenaline skill (Kill Shot) does less damage than the two autoattacks you can fit into the same timeframe. It may be a low level scaling issue, but this is a problem…
I feel a lot of skills past the first one weren’t really thought out, Many people like Engineer and say they are thought out, but i totally disagree, the rifle skills for me consist of
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Occasionally i’ll hit a 3 or 4 on my bar, but mostly i find 2-5 on most skills (of all classes) too be kinda useless 99%, either their cool downs are too long or the skill isn’t worth bothering with..
Isn’t that just playing lazy though? And ineffective? Hip Shot does meager damage so why are you relying on it? You are squishy so why aren’t you kiting? And if you are kiting, why aren’t you using Net Shot and Overcharge for separation? Why aren’t you using Blunderbuss, your heavy hitter skill which gives you the greatest raw damage output for your weapon, plus it stacks bleed? Even Jump Shot is useful when used as a finisher, so long as it won’t leave you stranded in the middle of a furball. And where are your kit skills?
The point is, when you CHOOSE not to use the options you’ve been given, it’s your own fault for finding the game play lackluster. And you might get away with that on your own, but any group I’ve played with would kick you the moment they realized they were a man short because the Engi can’t be bothered to do anything but auto-attack.
The problem is the most effective way of playing is the most dull. This should not be the case. He’s not kiting because he doesn’t need to. Just doing damage and killing the enemy is the most effective tactic so this is the one that is used.
Effectiveness and fun should not be mutually exclusive. This is the inherent design flaw.
@ OP: If they make skills the way you say way it will only create rotations and make the game less of an action RPG an more of a whack-o-mole game, me personally I hate having rotations, I like to look at my screen and what going on around me, not my skill bar waiting on cooldowns.
I addressed this already. If it were a marginal enough a damage increase the primary purpose of the skill would far outweigh using it prematurely just for damage. If the skill has no use now or in the near future you use it for a slight damage bump over autoattack. I fail to see how that would create whackamole.
Just make the game harder.
You’re saying that these skills only become useful when you’re in difficult scenarios like dungeons and sPvP right? Then the problem isn’t the skills, its that the game is too easy.
Probably the fairest assessment in this thread. Skills are boring because content is so easy facetanking mobs with a rifle creates a better outcome than crippling and kiting. Vulnerability in solo situations is still a problem in that the time you spend applying vulnerability isn’t worth losing autoatttack… but generally I think you’re very much correct in that combat should just be tougher to begin with.
So you want utility skills (like crippling shot) to do more damage in addition to providing that utility?
Since in so many situations said utility is of no use, yes. No matter how easy the encounter its no fun to just stare at your character autoattack with minimal input. GW2 is wonderfully designed in situations where you face the risk of death. With dodging and all the different boons and conditions you can apply it is rather well designed.
The problem is you aren’t always in SPVP, a dungeon, or the most difficult of events. The act of doing damage in ordinary scenarios should be more than simply activating autoattack and the occasional skill that is actually worth using.
In trying to make SPVP balanced and an esport, our skill bars are small, dull and boring. The sad thing is that there’s like 12 people playing SPVP.
If SPVP is the limiting factor here then Anet needs to take their own advice and split more skills. I feel like its largely being balanced with these sort of small PvP encounters in mind and not so much for WvW or events.
I wouldn’t even go that far. Simply tweaking damage balance slightly down on autoattack and moderately up on other skills would alone do wonders. Savage Leap doing more damage and Hamstring applying 2 stacks of bleeding would alone be enough to fix sword in this regard. Offhands aren’t quite so much a priority as they have longer cooldowns for stronger effect anyway. If skills 1-3 on all weapons in the game were balanced in this regard everything would be so much more interesting.
Let me elaborate on the title.
Too often I find myself watching my character autoattack, no, its not because I used up all my skill refreshes or am saving a skill for a “just in case” situation. No, too many skills are flat out useless if a particular situation doesn’t present itself. Let me lend you two examples of characters I’ve been playing the most lately. Necromancer & Warrior.
Necromancer dagger is absolutely my favorite weapon thematically, and works wonders in dungeons and any other sort of difficult content. But when I go out event hunting on my lonesome it’s pretty well a dead skill bar. Life Siphon’s damage is clearly worse than autoattack and Dark Pact’s is rather laughable it doesn’t compare to either. When I’m just out killing neither of these are of particular use. Lets talk offhands. I run Focus. The meager damage of Reaper’s Touch, even taking the Vulnerability into account isn’t worth using over autoattack. In a group? Sure. I use it all the time for supporting group damage. Dead skill when I’m alone. Chillblains is in the same boat as Dark Pact- great control in hairy situations, but a dead skill when you’re facerolling. The other offhands don’t offer much in this regard either, save Dagger’s Enfeebling Blood which pays its due in the Bleeding damage.
Warrior is another great example. I run Rifle + Sword/Warhorn. Crippling Shot… just cripples. The damage is less than Bleeding Shot not taking bleeding into account. Volley is good stuff. Brutal Shot, like the Necro example above, is great for groups, but isn’t worth its cast time to use when alone. I could go on, but the same problem exists for Sword as well as the burst skills for both weapons.
I will get flamed by some because players don’t want a slippery slope of damage rotations, but in reality it creates more depth to the game. There can be a middle point where using other skills can be better than autoattack, but you aren’t just spamming them in rotation. If Savage Leap did 2x the damage of autoattack good play would still dictate you save it for closing distances rather than use it for a mild damage increase while already in melee range. But when you are just sitting there slashing at an an object in some event it would make the game ever so much better to be able to sprinkle these other skills into the mix when they aren’t needed for their primary uses. Skill would come from recognizing situations where certain skill are/not needed and adjusting your play from there.
Thanks for reading.
- It forces use of minions in any build that wants to trait for increased toughness, boon duration, improved staff skills, protection from wells, etc. Note that Necros are not a pet class by definition. Minions are an option, but not part of the class mechanic, like Mesmers or Rangers. I believe this was ANet’s justification for no control over minions during pre-release.
This. Death Magic could be attractive to any number of builds that have no desire for minions. I hate minions/pets and as the poster above said, Necros are not inherently a pet class. I play Necro for the durability/lifesteal/death shroud/conditions/etc. which Death Magic could be appealing towards. IMO either move this trait deeper in the line or make it a major so we can opt out.
I very much agree that Necro needs more depth. In particular, as you state, the weapon skills mostly feel stale and uninspired. It’s not an issue of effectiveness, but rather it lacks interaction and often comes down to watching yourself autoattack. Death Shroud is great for survivability, but also suffers from the boring factor.
I haven’t been playing Necro not because the number of builds or the effectiveness of the profession. It’s simply too straightforward. Combat doesn’t feel engaging. Dagger autoattack is pretty much the best thing to do 90% of the time. Death Shroud offers little depth or customization. I love Necromancers thematically and play their equivilant in every MMO or RPG, but for a long time gamer there just isn’t enough depth.
To be fair this is largely a problem with GW2 in general. Necro just suffers from it more than most…
A completely selfish suggestion, but I’d like to see these two swapped so Spite is more focused towards damage and Soul Reaping more focused towards utility/control. When creating a direct damage build one doesn’t necessarily desire more condition duration. Likewise when you’re going into Soul Reaping condition duration duration synergizes so much better with the chill/fear in death shroud and the general theme of this line.
Good idea/bad idea?
Forum-posters do not accurately represent the views of all players. They do, however, give a good indication as to what may be wrong with the game as the forums tend to attract those unhappy with something rather than those who are content to play the game as-is. So we do a good job at representing what might need fixed, but not so much what Anet is doing well with.
For a game that was trying to break the standard MMO mold for many aspects I’m surprised they stuck with the lame old pay for respec system.
This is one old feature I actually don’t get the hate about. Too much flexibility and your character ceases to be a character and turns into a mass of stats and metagaming decisions that have no permanence in regard to how you’d like to play. I personally like the choice between being generally good at everything vs specialized in certain areas. It creates a certain identity of playstyle, and while I’m not a roleplayer I still like to think of my character as a character and not having everything being about the metagame.
1) Power coefficients on most skills need to go up. So many skills do less damage than dagger autoattack it creates a situation where you don’t want to use skills except for defensive purposes.
2) Tweaks to major and minor traits. An overhaul to the Death Magic line minors to not force minions on us.
3) Slight changes/buffs to Axe.
4) Lifesteal buffs.
5) Minion AI fixes.
Some posters here have deeper concerns, but I do have two things that bother me.
1) Many of the weapon and combinations don’t stack up when trying to accomplish a certain playstyle. For example Mainhand Pistol has a nice stacking bleed for condition builds, but skill #2 is vulnerability, which doesn’t do much for condition builds and the dual skill offers nothing in this regard either. There is also not really a very good offhand that support a condition build. Sure, Shortbow is clearly the most condition heavy weapon, but its really meant for aoe use overall.
2) Steal makes no sense playing as a ranged thief. The functionality needs to differ based on your mainhand.
-Dagger = shadowstep behind, backstab and steal.
-Pistol = steal if close range, shadowstep away and fire a barrage of bleeding shots.
-Sword = shadowstep to enemy stealing and dazing while gaining a riposte, blocking
next attack.
-Shortbow = steal if close range, shadowstep backwards while immobilizing up to 3 enemies for 2s.
I’m waiting on Anet to do more polishing on the professions. They all feel unfinished. Traits are not nearly potent or game changing as they should be. Many weapons are near useless when compared to alternatives. Autotattack is often better than actually using skills. Most profession mechanics need work.
I can play a game with limited content, but unless the core vehicle of how you experience the game (your character) is setup properly I lose interest.
Overall I very much like the conceptual setup of this profession, but the implementation, builds diversity, viability of much of the profession is lacking. I like that you can play it as a traditional light armor damage class or build beefier into more of a death knight style. I like the idea behind lifesteal. I like the access to Fear, Chill, etc. With all of the above the implementation needs a great deal of work.
Bumping for further discussion.
It would be interesting to see rending claws get a passive increase to crit chance. Lets say 20% extra, on top of whatever crit you normally had. This way you could use it rather extensively with crit focused builds for procs or just more damage, depending on how you build.
@JunkyardWolf
Well said. AI improvements would certainly have this effect, but that’s probably not likely very soon, if at all. My solution would be to either make auto-attack interesting and engaging as to require a certain degree of movement, positioning, etc as to make it interesting in that regard. Or to implement a psuedo-rotation scenario like in the OP so at least doing damage, even against a target dummy, is entertaining on some base level.
The trick would be getting the numbers right so you want to use other skills rather than autoattack in the “target dummy scenario”, while not hurting the integrity of the original skill design when engaged in difficult fights. I certainly prefer GW2’s implementation over that of WoW and would certainly err towards it, but if done correctly you can have the best of both worlds without the downsides of either. Rotations when the skill effects dont matter in trivial content. Using skills as originally intended when engaged in difficult content.
…run-of-the-mill basic combat it seems to devolve pretty quickly into watching your character autoattack and I dont find that enjoyable either.
I dare say, you’re “doing it wrong”. There’s more to GW2 combat than just rotations. Movement is vital, and I don’t mean just dodging. I find even in “mundane” fights that if I circle an opponent (even in melee) and keep ‘em turning, I’m far more likely to avoid “gotcha” attacks and to generally avoid damage at all.
Planting your feet in one spot and going toe-to-toe with an enemy is, in my opinion, just dumb (and unbelievably dull). With few exceptions (bursts, etc.), you can attack on the move — make use of it! Time your stand-still attacks between the enemy’s knockback/knockdown attacks. If melee, dodge those knocks and gap-close back in for the burst. If ranged (caster, bow, rifle), kite the enemy, don’t just let them run up to you and get hits on you while you continue to use ranged attacks in melee (again, dumb). While kiting, be situationally aware and don’t agro more than you can handle. When you do agro, it should be intentional; time it based on the CDs you’ll need to handle it, be aware of what you’ll have available when the previous mob dies.
And again, like everyone else, you’re describing a scenario where you’re worried about dying and have a need to avoid damage and position yourself. The game is just fine in those scenarios. What about the rest of the time when you’re just fighting a mob and there is no need in taking action to not die? That’s the entire point I’m trying to make. This game is so perfectly set up when you’re seconds away from taking a dirt nap. So perfectly, that Anet didn’t bother to make the game at all interesting when you’re not in that type of situation.
EDIT: And I do actively seek to put myself into those dangerous situations. The problem being that players are better rewarded for killing large numbers of harmless enemies than they are soloing champions, etc. where the game’s strengths truly show. An adjustment is needed to reward these high difficulty scenarios, but also to make the low difficulty scenarios slightly more interesting.
(edited by Draehl.2681)
Sorry no, GW2 gameplay is better than Simon Says with a keyboard, I much prefer the dodging, improvised supporting and “use the right skill at the right time” gameplay than what we had with previous MMOs.
WoW turned into barely more than a rotation game with proc-watching in PVE – and yes, I include hardcore raiding which had just move out of fire when DBM says so, and do X when DBM says, X being:
- Switch tanks for debuffs
- Move to specific position/formation, run when timer says
- Use a colour/switch/mechanic/ability that is the cornerstone of the encounter when the timer saysIf you want to play Simon Says with a DBM/bigwigs “synchronised dancing” game, just play that, I’m sure there’s a browser game of it around somewhere.
So you’re telling me that my example of fighting the ettin is acceptable? Because situations like this make GW2 one of the most non-interactive games one could play. When the majority of the skills on you bar are useless there is a problem. Even if it’s just fighting a single enemy or two combat should be more engaging than watching autoattack while dodging every few seconds. Please, re-read the OP and try to hold down your anti-wow rage while doing it this time.
I actually like the auto attacking. They keep it that way so you pay more attention to the fight itself then staring at hotbars. I play some other games where I have like 4-5 12 key hotbars on my screen filled with skills and I hardly pay attention to the fights but just stare at the bars waiting for whatever skills to cooldown. I think it`s more fun with less skills and using autoattack since the autoattack is pretty quick. I would like to see more skills that I can swap out for different ones to customize my hotbar though.
Agree. But again, the situations where you need to pay attention nothing will change. The intent behind this thread is for making the dull situations more interesting.
This has been discussed in passing in other threads before, but I thought I’d bring this topic up for discussion again.
Has anyone come across a situation where you’re doing some non-challenging content and half of your skill bar is useless? Maybe 1-2 skills on your bar actually offer a damage increase over autoattack. It’s pretty boring to be honest. The same can be said if you’re fighting an enemy that is immune to a particular condition you have. Lets say an enemy is immune to bleeding. In most cases a given skill that applies bleeding, if the condition damage is taken away, will do considerably less damage than whatever you autoattack is. This is, for at least the immediate future, a dead skill on your bar.
“But, Draehl, skills are supposed to be used for certain situations and used skillfully rather than simply as a part of a damage rotation.” And to that I would say I agree. I don’t want to see this become another “stare at the boss and spam 12131114” type of game. At the same time, this is an RPG. Players want to use skills and be pressing buttons. Combat is this game can get incredibly dull at times. Certainly not when you’re fighting for your life, but in run-of-the-mill basic combat it seems to devolve pretty quickly into watching your character autoattack and I dont find that enjoyable either.
“Well, what do you propose Anet should do?”
Simply make sure that every weapon skill does a little more damage than autoattack would in a given timeframe. Not so much that you want to use the skill just for damage, forgetting about the primary purpose of the skill, but enough that you still want to use it in situations where the primary effect isn’t needed. Let’s take Necromancer dagger as an example, as it’s one of the worst offenders.
Lets say I’m fighting an Ettin with Dagger/Dagger. I open with Enfeebling Blood for the bleed. I could also jump into Death Shroud for a Dark Path for more bleeding. After this point it’s autoattack all the way. The big hits I can dodge. The little hits I outheal passively via blood magic traits. At this point skills #2, #3, and #4 are all useless to me. Life Siphon does less damage than auto and I don’t need the healing. Dark Pact does laughable damage and I don’t need to immobilize the ettin for any reason. Deathly Swarm… I really don’t need the blind or condition transfer.
“Switch to another weapon” you say. What weapon? Staff? It has the same exact problem as dagger. Axe? A laughable. Scepter? A nice weapon, but not for a power build.
I think you get the point. Necro, admittedly, exaggerates this more than most other professions, but I see it as a problem for every profession. Would increasing the damage of 2-5 skills be that bad of a proposal? If the relative damage gain was minor then in challenging content you use the skills exactly as you would now as the conditions/boons/etc would certainly outweigh the minor damage increase. The only difference being that in easy content or content where a certain skill isn’t needed you would have the ability to do something aside from watching your character autoattack and be slightly more engaged in the game. And for anyone who likes the current implementation, well, you can keep on just autoattacking it at only a very minor hit in effectiveness.
Obviously this concern isn’t as pressing as getting all the professions working properly and is a second tier concern, but I would greatly appreciate Anet looking into this after the pressing balance/design concerns have been addressed.
1) Power ratios on many skills. They’re too low in many instances and I often find that autoattacking does better damage than actually using a skill. Marks are definitely too weak. Life Siphon and Dark Pact are a couple of other good examples. Often enough I don’t need to steal health or immobilize an enemy. Having these at least do a small amount of damage better than autoattack would great much more engaging combat.
2) Lifesteal is laughable. Everyone else seems to agree on this one. I don’t think much else needs to be said on this.
3) Death Shroud is dull. It has so much potential, but doesn’t really engage you very much as far as adding gameplay options. It’s great for keeping me alive, but the problem is the design more so than the effectiveness.
I generally like Death Shroud, but I can’t say I like traiting for it in most cases. The problem, and this extends to most traits, is they simply give passive bonuses and don’t really change how skills function. More powerful traits for DS, Necro, and every profession is needed.
For example: I like the control/tank aspect of Necro. I’d love to see traits that catered to this very specifically.
Dark Path is instant cast, the refresh is reduced by 5 seconds, the chill has a wider area of affect.
Anet will take their overall endgame plans where they will, but I have two specifics I’d like.
1) Proper rewards and reasons to do low level areas. I’m sick and tired of Orr. The undead beach theme just doesn’t do it for me.
2) Appropriate rewards for fighting veteran/champion NPCs.
It makes me sad to see no real balance changes outside of Spectral Grasp and Plague Blast… I was hoping for power coefficients to go up on several skills, lifesteal, and general trait tweaking… no such luck. I understand they want to knock the bugs out first before fully analyzing balance, but giving some minor buffs to clearly inferior skills wouldn’t kill em :/
I was wondering if anyone else thinks its odd that we get so much communication regarding new content, the state of the economy, bugs, etc. but in the area many of the game that is lacking the most- profession-centric topics such as weapon balancing, trait design, unique-class mechanic tweaks, etc. we hear very little about.
For example: We vaguely know that they feel Ranger utility skills are lacking and other minor tidbits but what about the many sub-par weapons, boring or weak traits, or class mechanics that leave a great deal to be desired? And I say that with love. This game had an incredible launch and I understand the developers are busy spending most of their time actually developing rather than making forum posts, but if any topic could use some customer forum coddling I think this would be the one.
My problem is it lacks a good bit of depth. I want to like the Ranger, I’ve got a mean concept of a Ranger I’d like to play, but the weapon skills and utilities are so bland and straightforward. It could be buffed out the wazzoo but that wouldn’t change the underlying design.
Because I work in a call center all day and don’t want to have to communicate with anyone on any level in my spare time- when/if I do I’ll be on vent with my guild.
Traits as a concept are actually very well done when compared to other MMO customization systems. The problem at hand is simply the traits themselves. Anet clearly erred on the side of caution with weak/boring traits as to avoid a balancing nightmare close to launch. I estimate they will over the next few months begin doing revamps to make traits more interesting, powerful, and game changing.
I would definitely like to see some added depth to Plague. As great as chain blinding is- it does create a dull experience. Also, better power scaling would be nice- the poison scales well with Condition damage, the pulsing damage should scale somewhat better with power.
I think this trait will be great and need no further changes once they get it working with condition damage. As for now, it is definitely not as useful as it could be for our class, but I’m confident that will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
Yeah, I’m not saying it’s a bad trait. Just a boring one that doesn’t really alter playstyle much. I like trait that impact how you play, not just how effectively you play. But that’s just me =D