Guild Wars 2

Updates to the guardian tome suggestions as well as some tooling and additions to the Elementalist suggestions.

HOW TO FIX GEAR STATS IN GW2
Step 1

• Remove all stats from weapons and armor.

Step 2

• Reduce trinket options to 4 slots (amulet, ring, ring, backpiece).
• Normalize trinket option slots between PvE and PvP (they both have the same number and type of slot options now.
• Normalize stats between PvE and PvP (all stats granted by trinkets are now consistent with current PvP-level stats).
• Adjust current legendary, elite and veteran hp throughout PvE to compensate for the overall player stat-reduction in PvE.

Step 3

• Add bonuses for each stat set akin to rune set bonuses.
• Tie these set bonuses to specific, non-spammable activation-bound abilities (i.e. specific skill activation such as a healing, elite or utility skill, combo finishers, swapping weapons, interrupting an opponent, successfully evading or blocking attacks, etc.).
• As a hypothetical example off the top of my head:
  • Berserker (1/4): Swapping weapons grants you might (1 stack; 15 seconds; 30-second cool-down).
  • Berserker (2/4): Whenever you combo with a fire field, you gain fury (5 seconds; 30-second cool-down).
  • Berserker (3/4): Whenever an opponent blocks one of your attacks, you gain might (3 stacks; 15 seconds; 30 second cool-down).
  • Berserker (4/4): If you strike a foe with stability, you destroy up to 3 boons on that foe (90-second cool-down).

GUARDIAN CHANGES CONTINUED
Tome of Courage

• Cast-time reduced from 1 to 0 seconds (instant).
• Recharge reduced from 180 to 10 seconds. This skill goes into cool-down when the tome is stowed.
• No longer has a duration limit.
• No longer grants stat bonuses or boons upon activation.

[Heal Area]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Create a spring of spiritual water at target location that heals allies.
• Healing (3x): 440 (0.5)
• Duration: 3 seconds
• Combo Field: Water
• Radius: 240
• Range: 1200

[Purifying Ribbon]

• Cast-time reduced from ¾ second to ½ second.
• Conditions cured on ally increased from 1 to 2.
• Blind duration increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Number of bounces adjusted from (current?) to 5.
• Recharge increased from 3 seconds to 30 seconds.

[Protective Spirit]

• FUCNTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 90 seconds
• Cast a protective spirit over target location that weakens foes while granting protection to allies. Protective Spirit heals allies whenever they are struck for critical damage.
• Weakness: 3 seconds
• Protection: 5 seconds
• Protective Spirit (3): 10 seconds
• Protective Spirit healing: 540 (1.0)
• Maximum number of allies affected: 10
• Maximum number of foes affected: 10
• Radius: 240
• Range: 1200
  • Allies affected by this skill gain 3 stacks of a unique buff called Protective Spirit. Each time an ally with the Protective Spirit buff is struck for critical damage, the buff reduces by 1 stack and heals the player for the described amount.

[Pacifism]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2 seconds
• Recharge: 90 seconds
• Pacify foes at the target area, dazing them.
• Daze: 2 seconds
• Maximum number of foes affected: 10
• Radius: 300
• Range: 1200

[Light of Deliverance]

• Recharge increased from 30 seconds to 180 seconds.

Tome of Wrath

• Cast-time reduced from 1 to 0 seconds (instant).
• Recharge reduced from 180 to 10 seconds. This skill goes into cool-down when the tome is stowed.
• No longer has a duration limit.
• No longer grants stat bonuses or boons upon activation.

[Conflagrate]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Burn foes at the target area.
• Delay: 2 seconds
• Damage: 386 (1.0)
• Burning: 4 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Range: 1200
  • A tongue of fire lingers above the target location before crashing down to inflict the damage and burning in the same manner as Elementalist [Ice Spike].

[Affliction]

• Damage adjusted from 409 (current damage modifier?) to 244 (0.75)
• Weakness duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
• Crippled duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
• Recharge increased from 3 seconds to 20 seconds.

[Smiter’s Boon]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2½ seconds
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Channel a cone of empowering energy that damages foes while granting might and swiftness to allies.
• Damage (4x): 672 (2.0)
• Might (1 stack per pulse; 4 pulses total): 10 seconds
• Swiftness (4): 3 seconds
• Range: 600
  • [Healing Breeze] cone.
  • The Guardian also receives the boons listed in the skill’s description.

[Zealot’s Fervor]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 5½ seconds
• Recharge: 180 seconds
• Channel a spell that grants fury and quickness to all allies in the area.
• Fury (5): 2 seconds
• Quickness (5): 1 second
• Duration: 5 seconds
• Maximum number of affected allies: 10
• Radius: 1200
  • This skill pulses its boons once each second.
  • Movement interrupts channeling.
  • This skill uses the Guardian as the focal point for the radius.
  • Upon activating this skill, the Guardian gains a debuff that makes him/her immune to gaining boons. This boon immunity debuff lasts 5 seconds and cannot be cleansed by condition removal skills.

[Judgment]

• Recharge increased from 30 to 180 seconds.

Traits
Elite Focus (Virtues – VII)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Increased the duration of Renewed Focus and reduces the recharge on tome skills.
  • Renewed Focus duration increase: 50%
  • Tome skill recharge reduction: 20%

Runes
Runes of the Monk

• 6/6 ability now has a 60 second cool-down.

Runes of Lyssa

• 6/6 ability now has a 60-second cool-down.
• 6/6 ability no longer grants stability or aegis.

Small update to the Healing Skills section.

Mbelch.9028:

As it is, all or most of ele skills are far too broadcasted with motion.

Many of your changes include increasing the cast times.

Longer cast-times are one thing, but adding post-cast delay periods or pulses are a completely different affair. The goal of my Elementalist suggestions are to provide currently unfair mechanics fair alternatives to sustained DPS.

Mbelch.9028:

This will break the profession. 2 second cast time on updraft? That’s ridiculous. Ele has two CC skills with D/D, and one is already hard to use.

The [Updraft] change was actually meant to give dagger off-hand more mobility with a longer dodge, shorter cast-time, and additional CC with the AoE cripple on use. Without a charge, the new [Updraft] would provide a lot of breathing room for the Elementalist because the base activation time would remain 0. However, to balance the lower recharge and new functionality of the skill, the ability to instantly launch someone has been removed and more risk has been introduced to that aspect of the skill. However, I actually have been thinking about reducing the full channel from 2 to 1 1/2 seconds.

Mbelch.9028:

I don’t say this to be mean or not constructive, but you really shouldn’t give tips on how to balance the game for classes which you haven’t played to an extremely large extent.

Those are some heavy accusations, friend.

Mbelch.9028:

I say this because your changes for ele would break weapon sets, and they’re just changing skills you personally feel are ‘OP’. This isn’t the case for many of them.

The only thing truly broken about Elementalist right now is scepter burst, arcane burst and other select skills which I’ve targeted for nerfs or function changes. Those have got to go for the sake of balance (as do a lot of other similar skills). Furthermore, I don’t target skills that I “feel” need nerfs because of a whim. I’ve very clearly laid out my reasons behind my balance suggestions at the beginning of the thread.

I can’t help but wonder how things would be if [Bomb] (Bomb Kit 1) were a ground-targeted single-pulse AoE explosion that had to be manually triggered by the Engineer. To that effect, it would have its own brief cool-down. I feel that by changing [Bomb] so drastically, there would be an opportunity to really give the skill a unique, even multi-purpose role in combat. Maybe something like:

[Bomb]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 6 seconds
• Throw a remote charge to target location that you can later detonate. This bomb deals out effects based on the condition of the foes that it strikes.
• Damage: 418 (1.3)
• If you strike a burning foe: Area explosion on foe: Damage: 85 (0.3); Radius: 180
• If you strike a confused foe: Daze: 1 second; Remove up to 2 boons.
• If you strike an immobilized foe: Knock-down: 1 second
• Radius: 120
• Range: 900
  • This projectile uses the bundle [Bomb] appearance.
  • This projectile travels in a low arc and has an average speed.
  • This skill chains into another skill upon cast completion: [Detonate Bomb].

[Detonate Bomb]

• Cast-time: 0
• Detonate your bomb.
• Delay: 1 second
  • When this skill chains, it automatically goes into a 1-second cool-down in order to prevent double-tap spamming the skill.
  • The delay in the description describes how [Bomb] will actually delay for 1 second before exploding after [Detonate Bomb] is activated. During this delay period, the bomb model on the ground will flash twice before exploding.

The point is to give bomb kit more of a supportive role outside of face-rolling the keyboard while on a point. The changes to grenade kit actually solidify it as a ranged-only support option.

Ah, right, I think the auto-attack would need a functional makeover as well. I had thought of making it into a skill that had a cool-down (no spammable auto-attack), but I dunno. It would have to be different than the charge up skills, I think.

A change to Engineer [Bomb Kit]. I remember discussing this idea with a few players in the Engineer forum a long time ago when I was making posts there. Not only is [Bomb Kit] currently very spam-prone, but it’s melee-limitations often force it onto points (conquest being the only PvP mode) where it truly becomes a skill-set that one often uses by just pressing all of the buttons as fast as possible. By giving [Bomb Kit] skills a charge-up paradigm that functions similarly to how trebuchets determine the distance of their fired projectiles, this kit can be redefined as a balanced, ranged support weapon while not taking away from its capabilities in melee range.

ENGINEER CHANGES CONTINUED
[Fire Bomb]

• FUNCTIONAITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2 seconds
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Lob a timed charge in target direction that explodes, burning foes. This bomb travels further based on how long you channel it.
• Damage (4x): 444 (0.3)
• Burning (4): 2 seconds
• Duration: 3 seconds
• Radius: 120
• Combo Field: Fire
• ½ second channel: 0 range
• Full channel: 900 range
  • This skill uses a ground-targeted directional reticle—the same kind that [Grasping Dead] used in the alpha—in order to guide the throw.
  • This skill’s projectile moves at 150% the speed of Engineer [Grenade Kit] projectiles.
  • This bomb’s projectile is a bright red.

[Concussion Bomb]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2 seconds
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Lob a timed charge in target direction that explodes, confusing foes. This bomb travels further based on how long you channel it.
• Damage: 165 (0.5)
• Confusion (5): 5 seconds
• Radius: 180
• ½ second channel: 0 range
• Full channel: 900 range
  • This skill uses a ground-targeted directional reticle—the same kind that [Grasping Dead] used in the alpha—in order to guide the throw.
  • This skill’s projectile moves at 150% the speed of Engineer [Grenade Kit] projectiles.
  • This bomb’s projectile is a pure white.

[Smoke Bomb]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2 seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Lob a timed charge in target direction that explodes, confusing foes. This bomb travels further based on how long you channel it.
• Blind (4): 3 seconds
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Radius: 180
• Combo Field: Smoke
• ½ second channel: 0 range
• Full channel: 900 range
  • This skill uses a ground-targeted directional reticle—the same kind that [Grasping Dead] used in the alpha—in order to guide the throw.
  • This skill’s projectile moves at 150% the speed of Engineer [Grenade Kit] projectiles.
  • This bomb’s projectile is a dark black.

[Glue Bomb]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2 seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Lob a timed charge in target direction that explodes, confusing foes. This bomb travels further based on how long you channel it.
• Immobilized: 1 second
• Crippled: 1 second
• Radius: 240
• Puddle of glue duration: 3 seconds
• ½ second channel: 0 range
• Full channel: 900 range
  • This skill uses a ground-targeted directional reticle—the same kind that [Grasping Dead] used in the alpha—in order to guide the throw.
  • This skill’s projectile moves at 150% the speed of Engineer [Grenade Kit] projectiles.
  • This bomb’s projectile is a bright green.

I made some updates to Necromancer and Mesmer skill changes. The changes were focused on giving Necromancer some more boon-hate to contribute to a fight as well as continuing to make more readable, but powerful attack options available to the profession. The Mesmer changes were mainly balance-related, but the big change to [Chaos Storm] was to give staff mesmer more battlefield staying power by giving the weapon set an overall DPS buff as well as some additional control with the short cripple and predictable daze. The daze change to [Chaos Storm] was also a balance change to address the bug/issue posed by the Confounding Suggestions (Domination – XII) trait when paired with the current version of [Chaos Storm].

MonMalthias, you’re a pretty a cool guy. You’ve managed to touch on so many specifics skills/builds/traits/trends in a very neat and concise (two posts is pretty darn good for everything that’s wrong) manner.

Personally, it’s often difficult to deal with managing a thread like this as it develops because of another big issue: when players look at a patch notes and then just focus in on their class and their class only. Trying to constantly zoom in and out from point to point instead of addressing the bigger picture strains the overall vision. This thread as well as its precursor have been full of people who shout back and forth over only one profession. The game requires a vast re-balance across all professions and it takes a wide view to see that.

The journey from passive proc, spam-centric game-play to well-cued, risk-reward game-play is literally a game-changing process. I’m sad to see that GW2 has fallen so far away from its original fundamentals, but like I said before, even though the head is hanging off the curb with the car coming—that car’s still down the street. We can pull this game back if we manage a real effort.

Here are a few questions for the thread:

• 1) Functionally, what would GW2 be without Thieves?
• 2) What does a game say about itself when a shoutcasted match must rely on post-action dialogue or general terms of expression in order to make sense of what has happened/is happening on screen. Furthermore, what does a game say about itself when a shoutcaster can be confused or find himself at a loss for words when attempting to describe the action on screen.

The answers tomorrow.

Here’s Engineer sword. It would probably fit better as a mace, and the only thing that would need changes would be the text that mentions “sword” or "blade.

Also, this would need some targeted damage nerfs.

Tom.8029:

So then I guess you’re asking for selfish readers then.

The exact opposite.

To the OP, I liked your spirit suggestions. I had my own spirit replacements for the Ranger, but yours are pretty neat. I especially like how they don’t stack so we avoid relying on multiple AI units on the field at all times.

It’ll probably be ignored. You can look at my thread as evidence.

Tom.8029:

I would read it if it was on a topic that:
-Involves my playstyle.
-I am interested about.

This is another reason why it would be ignored.

SoulSin.5682:

The more i read, more i think you have no idea of what you are writing.

Lets start with you last post. Shortbows were greatly nerfed as far as vertical movement goes because of how thiefs could abuse it. In PvP

I do understand that due to something like a super jump, some aspects of a few maps would require some updates (for instance: the small sepulchers that ring the middle cap point of Legacy of the Foefire would probably be best if they were taller), but for the most part, it would simply add an interesting new dimension to PvP for thieves without allowing them to be completely broken. With regards to any terrain and structure adjustments, the in-house GW2 terrain editor is very capable of such a task.

SoulSin.5682:

and WvW.

WvW is beyond balance. The numbers and inflated stats create the zergs. The zergs are nothing but stacking stability and running into each other. It’s an unintelligible mess that cannot be balanced simply due to sheer numbers. Even if the numbers were limited, the stats would still break the combat. Discussing “balance” and “WvW” at the same time is moot.

SoulSin.5682:

In fact, WvW is the reason your super jump idea is bad. We don’t want thief skipping siege walls AGAIN.

The jump height combined with the parapets along tower walls should prevent that. If nothing else, the landscape around some of the more susceptible towers could be adjusted. Again, the in-house GW2 terrain editor is very capable of this.

SoulSin.5682:

Also, it looks like you wanna make GW2 some kinda of fighting game of sorts.
Most of the suggestions here are impractical both in gameplay and server limitations.

The suggestions that I’ve put forth are all based on in-game mechanics. Moreover, the game was originally designed with the intention of combat being based on reading your opponent’s moves. Then we suddenly get [Grenade Kit], [Crossfire], Spirit Ranger, [Healing Signet], Thief in general, Necromancer in general and a whole slew of other professions and set-ups that just kick the whole original intention out onto the curb. That intention’s head is now hanging out into the street and there’s a car coming. We can pull it back yet, but it’s going to take a big effort.

SoulSin.5682:

GW2 isn’t another C9. We are talking about two completely different MMo genres here.
That’s why the game looks to go in the opposite direction of you suggestion.

If this game goes in the opposite of what I’m trying to do, it will continue to promote super-spam, low-recharge, short cast-time, throwaway, poorly-cued abilities that will burn down enemies in the blink of an eye. Without a “holy trinity” (and I’m not suggestion that GW2 should have that) to deal with the badly designed skills that always scrape out free damage at a very constant rate, nobody will survive based on skill and the victor will always emerge as the one who pressed the most buttons the fastest.

Skill caps will cease to exist, and nobody will be able to tell themselves apart from anyone else because every class will take no skill to play. Like I said, the head is hanging out in the street and a car is coming.

Now, here’s the thing about the suggestion above this post:

Once more, I’m looking to fix the mechanics that break the rules governing ranged combat balance in GW2. Those are changes that would balance [Steal] according to how ranged combat should appear.

As for [Vault], there really should be more vertical movement in Guild Wars 2—FOR ALL CLASSES. It is a real shame that it’s only prevalent on the thief because they can spam teleports to targets on higher planes. However, once more, because instantaneous movement goes in contrary to balanced ranged combat around which an opponent can plan and counter-play, the only fair way to give a player vertical movement would be with either tall leaps or with an ability that allowed the player to scale walls or all surfaces in general for a short period of time.

In any case, since we already have the jump bumpers in Skyhammer, I figured that using a super high jump would be the fastest way to reintroduce vertical movement in a balanced manner.

THIEF CHANGES CONTINUED
NEW F1 SKILL: [Open Pockets]

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 5 seconds
• Home in on your target, making them susceptible to stealing.
• Open Pockets duration: 10 seconds
• Unblockable
• Range: 1200

[Steal]

• NOW AN F2 SKILL
• FUNCTIONAITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Pass through potential targets in front of you. You steal an object from anyone that you strike that has open pockets.
• Evasion: ¾ second
• Range: 600
  • Uses the [Whirlwind Attack] animation and hit detection. Does not deal damage.
  • Upon striking a target marked with [Open Pockets], this skill chains into an appropriate stolen item depending on the type of target struck.

NEW F3 SKILL: [Steal]

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Pass through potential targets in front of you. You steal an object from anyone that you strike that has open pockets.
• Evasion: ¾ second
• Range: 600
  • Uses the [Whirlwind Attack] animation and hit detection. Does not deal damage.
  • Upon striking a target marked with [Open Pockets], this skill chains into an appropriate stolen item depending on the type of target struck.

NEW F4 SKILL: [Vault]

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Leap high into the air.
• Evasion: ¾ second
  • This skill grants the same jump height as the jump bumpers in the Skyhammer (Cannon) PvP map.

Ah, right, I did an update to Elementalist Signets at the bottom of the first page. Any more skill updates from here on out will be messy because I couldn’t reserve posts when making this thread.

Holy cow, that was a fun post to read, MonMalthias. Just a few things that I wanted to touch on:

GW2 SHOUTCASTING
Yeah, this one is huge. In every competitive-tier shoutcasted match in GW2, I’ve almost never heard a shoutcaster mention individual skills in the midst of combat or attempt to break-down why a certain skill or play really swing the tide of a fight. The entire shoutcast is just a general overview because GW2 combat is really such a mess and happens so quickly that nobody can really ever discern concrete and be able to verbalize it quickly enough before its long over or covered up by some other effect or myriad of skills. This sort of messy combat needs to be better defined by reworking many skills into the more readable paradigm of—as you mentioned—fun to play and fun to play against.

THIEF COMPLAINTS
As I’ve said before, I really do wonder about the thief’s hp pool. One of the reasons why Thief is so broken is that it’s almost practically an Elementalist trying to fight in melee. However, because that would obviously turn out poorly for the Thief, ANet—instead of rethinking how the Thief could contribute to battle—simply just gave the class evasion frames everywhere, blind-spam and stealth. It was the worst possible decision.

After I had finished all of my fixes to Thief thus far (and there are still more to be done), I really took a look at it and debated with myself whether or not the thief could use a base hp buff after the fact. I honestly do believe that if the thief were made more fair to play against, it would deserve a small base hp buff.

Not sure how anyone else would feel about that, though.

dukevonart.2691:

Other Discussion Points
Healing and recovery is a side of GW2 that has for the most part been left off intentionally despite still existing within the game. It would provide some of the better mitigation to light condition pressure and bring emphasis on spiking someone down. This is at risk of making heavy heal bunkers too strong if over done though.

Yeah, it really is a shame that healing has been really cut back in a lot of the wrong ways over the course of GW2’s life. I can still see the powerful potential of healing whenever I support a bunker on point with water field blasts, but it really isn’t a super effective healing style unless you have a low base hp pool. It’s often enough to negate 1 powerful attack. That much is sure. However, it’s often just breaking even when it deals with conditions. Furthermore, such combos also typically have a long cool-down.

dukevonart.2691:

Cleansing is an interesting topic that I haven’t seen discussed much. In their current state cleanses are mostly a wipe of a certain number of conditions. Depending on the ratio between cleanses and sources of conditions are in use there are two scenarios that stand on either side of fine line. The first is what we see mostly right now in that you cannot possibly cleanse off all the conditions that are being applied to yourself. The second scenario is obviously that you can easily cleanse all the conditions off of yourself. The specific balance point between these two scenarios is going to be very difficult to achieve.

The best way to a more balanced game would be to first adjust the way that condition skills function in the game (removing the spam and replacing it with hard-hitting, well-cued attacks skills) and then addressing how condition-clears work after the fact. While it is neat to see certain skills already clear certain conditions (most of these are mainly skills that remove slow conditions), I don’t think that this should be a common skill paradigm. When a skill clears a condition, it should just clear any available condition in the FIFO condition ranking system currently in operation in GW2.

dukevonart.2691:

TLDR
The differences between PvE/PvP metas demonstrate that the balance between condition damage and power damage are fairly dependent on the context that they are used in and should be a factor considered when trying to balance the two. In general try and keep on open mind to other factors that may be influencing how effective something is.

I’ve actually discussed this before. I’ll remain stout on the fact that the only way that PvE will ever be properly engaging and all around balanced with respect to how players deal damage is if high-level enemies present in dungeons simply behave more like players.

The high-end PvE scene needs enemies like Svanir, the Chieftain, the Keep Lord and his entourage, as well as the dueling profession NPCs present in the Heart of the Mists. If we see more of those types of threatening enemies (because seriously, try aggroing 3 or more of those dueling profession NPCs at once and fight them alone), we will see something more interesting in GW2 PvE other than stacking in a corner and killing enemies.

Also defiant would need to be reworked.

dukevonart.2691:

Food for thought perhaps. Thanks for the read.

I have to thank you. You’re honestly the first person in this thread who seemed to express some differences in view, make those differences known in a calm manner, and not instantly start shouting angrily about how I’m a terrible person and the like. It was very refreshing.

dukevonart.2691:

Thoughts on Condition Damage and Power
I don’t think that power or condition damage should hold dominance over the other as simply a damage source. Power based damage should be burst while condition based damage should be DoTs.

That’s fine, so long as the skills that apply conditions obey the same sort of rules that govern the balance of powerful power-based skills. Skills like [Earthshaker] are mostly balanced because of their obvious attack animations. Condition-based skills should be under the same scrutiny. The problem with condition-based builds in the current GW2 meta is that there are entire weapon sets composed entirely of spam-centric, low-recharge throwaway skills that inflict conditions. These skills combine to form a unending beam attack of conditions that nobody can ever deal with like one could deal with a power-based build. Timed dodges, CC and blocks mean nothing to the condition build because of the nature of its skills. That’s what needs to change.

Conditions can stay, but the skills that inflict them need to be drastically reworked.

dukevonart.2691:

Condition damage is based around maintaining a level of constant damage that exceeds an opponent’s ability to heal or recover for an extended period of time.

I see this sentence and can’t help but think that that’s exactly how all damage functions. You do more damage than your opponent can heal back with your opponent’s healing governed either by cool-downs, a mana system or both. The only difference between power and condition damage is that condition damage can’t be dodged. Condition damage is almost effectively an aura around most players. The nature of condition skills gives conditions out for free to players just in the general vicinity of the condition player. Power players have to actually land their skills on specified targets or in specified areas.

Once again, this isn’t necessarily an issue with condition damage itself, but rather in the condition-inflicting skill design.

dukevonart.2691:

(conditions caps may be a limiter on condition burst specs/teams?)

In PvP? No. The problem with conditions is that one single player is often all you need per point so there’s never a shared-cap issue.

dukevonart.2691:

Power damage is something I typically view as burst

That is dangerous thought.

If all power were burst in this game, every power-based build would just be a s/p thief build or a scepter elementalist arcane build—both of which are imbalanced due to the reasons I’ve stated in my first post. Staff elementalist is a good example of what a power build should be: it’s mostly well telegraphed spike damage or strong, constant DPS with one powerful DPS skill that can change the course of an encounter (but it also requires a long time-investment to activate properly that puts the player at risk of dying if he/she is out of position or without defense).

Power should be well-telegraphed physical DoT generated by clearly defined AoEs or by well-telegraphed melee attacks. In the end, it’s all DoT, Conditions Damage just might tick more consistently than Power attacks. The goal is to simply make all weapon skills in this game into ones that provide the opponent a form of counterplay and provide a sense of risk to the player for using them.

Posting to see if this fixes the thread. All I’m seeing is a blank page and I think it skipped to the second page without rendering the first one.

edit: Yeah, that fixed it.

Arganthium.5638:

Your post on stealth skills

Look man, you’re not even arguing my points anymore for the Stealth Skill changes. When I say “Stealth Skills are imbalanced because a, b and c,” a proper rebuttal is not “But you get conditions while you’re in stealth.” Nor is a proper rebuttal “Stealth Skills are predictable” when I’ve already said that the real issue with Stealth Skills is their ability to be spammed until they hit so long as the player remains in stealth (which would be as long as the stealth holds out since a miss doesn’t deal damage to break the stealth). You are literally saying that an auto-attack is predictable. Just because it’s predictable doesn’t mean that the player doesn’t get to use the skill until it hits you.

You’re not winning any argument here.

Arganthium.5638:

Your post on how difficult it is to hit with crippling strike

Are you also not moving while using the skill? You can move while using that attack chain and keep pace with a target, especially if you manage to cripple it with [Crippling Strike]. However, if the player that you are attacking has swiftness or manages to get away, then that is their victory. You were outplayed.

Arganthium.5638:

Your changes are only an attempt to make this game even less skillful than it already is, which defeats the purpose of experience.

My changes are to make combat more defined and make skill-usage more of a high risk-high reward paradigm that requires timing, positioning and aim. Since when do abilities like make game-play less skillful?

Arganthium.5638:

Your post on [Infiltrator’s Strike] and super jumping

I’m not going to keep arguing about why [Infiltrator’s Strike] (or a ranged gap-closer in general) is imbalanced when it clearly breaks several balance-governing rules that I’ve defined in my very first post. Those are truths related to how this game was designed. This skill is breaking those rules. That’s a sign of imbalance.

As for super jumping, super jumping is something that would not only enable a thief to reach places and make vertical positioning plays, but it would also be something that an opponent could see happening and to which that opponent could devise counter-play.

If the thief had a profession mechanic that allowed him to scale walls and skills that granted super jumping, that would make the thief a lot more fair than just giving him free spammable teleports between vertical levels on a plane. It would give the thief vertical mobility while also allowing opponents to react to it (or, you know, if the thief climbed the right walls and jumped over the right places, he could just sneak up on people anyway; the thief also has stealth).

ELEMENTALIST CHANGES CONTINUED
Utility skills
[Signet of Air] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Strike target area with a blinding lightning bolt.
• Damage: 179 (0.5)
• Blind: 5 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Breaks stun
• Range: 1200

[Signet of Fire] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Conjure a fire at target location that burns foes. The final burst of flame inflicts a longer duration of burning.
• Delay: 1 second
• Damage (3x): 687 (0.9)
• Burning (3): 1 seconds
• Final flame burst damage: 314 (1.0)
• Final flame burst burning: 4 seconds
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Combo Field: Fire
• Radius: 180
• Range: 1200
  • This skill works in the same manner as [Lava Font]. The first damage/effect pulse happens 1 second after the field creation and continues to pulse until its duration ends.
  • The signet’s image appears on the ground duration the delay time.

[Signet of Earth] (active)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Trap foes in earthen binds at target location.
• Delay: 1 second
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Radius: 120
• Range: 1200
  • Foes struck by this skill have a rock jutting into them from the ground similar to how [Unsteady Ground] displays its rocks when triggered.
  • The signet’s image appears on the ground duration the delay time.

[Signet of Water] (active)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Chill foes at target location with a burst of cold frost.
• Delay: 1 second
• Damage: 179 (0.5)
• Chilled: 3 seconds
• Radius: 180
• Range: 1200
  • Uses a shrunken [Frozen Burst] animation to display the damage and the effect.
  • The signet’s image appears on the ground duration the delay time.

ensoriki.5789:

I can’t see the rationale behind quite a few ele changes, and as for others they seem overdone.

For instance playing primarily thief I’ve dodged many arcane blasts.

That is none of my concern.

ensoriki.5789:

That skill isn’t particularly troublesome being positioning widens the reaction time. The projectile itself has a slower velocity than say an arrow or bullet so you can react. It becomes really instant in melee range.

The trouble is exactly that it becomes almost instantaneous when used within melee range. That’s the fix.

ensoriki.5789:

Arcane wave however with that instant ground target gives you jack flipping squat to react to in any circumstance whatsoever.

That’s why I added the post-cast delay period.

Don’t get me wrong it’s alright for some skills not to be very telegraphed and even alright for a few to have none [/quote]
Not in GW2, it’s not. That’s one of my main points that govern this thread.

ensoriki.5789:

but Wave isn’t one of them and so I agree on giving it a delay, but it’s not really looking on something like a 1s.

No player is going to run out of a 360-range radius in 1/2 or 1/4 second. They won’t even make it out in time if the post-cast delay is 1 second long. The goal of the animation cue tied to the post-cast delay is to give an opponent time to dodge or use a block. It’s dodge bait. Dodge bait is very strong. It’s also a blast finisher anyway so it has multiple uses.

ensoriki.5789:

Even a 1/4 or 1/2s cast makes it no problem given aftercast takes care of the rest.

Except that [Arcane Wave] has no after-cast. Furthermore, giving [Arcane Wave] a cast-time or after-cast would take away the ability to actively layer skills on top of a battlefield. That’s one of the key interesting aspects of the Elementalist.

ensoriki.5789:

Also don’t see why you’d think making Dragon’s tooth ground targetted would warrant a damage reduction. The reality is it’s going to drop the successful hitrate on a general level even further giving the same delay and radius. That’s just reality.

No it’s not. It’s not reality at all. If [Dragon’s Tooth] were a ground-targeted skill, you could lead targets with it in order to compensate for its average radius. Even better, you could work with allies to maneuver a player into a [Dragon’s Tooth] AoE.

On the topic of the damage reduction, it was sort of a second-hand thought because of how [Dragon’s Tooth] would just be much easier to aim after the change so I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just constantly wrecking people for 4-5k damage. However, because the radius is average and it has a 2-second delay, I might reconsider the damage reduction.

ensoriki.5789:

I also don’t see why scepter 3 would need any sort of change, or a chain skill to make its use clunky at what it wants to do which is immediately stop an attack.

If you’re talking about [Lightning Orb], the goal is to give the Elementalist more viable DPS options across the board for scepter that can supplant the poorly cued, near instant spike style that it currently runs. It’s current skills go entirely contrary to how GW2 combat is meant to function and so I’m fixing it with fair skills that deal high DPS in order to balance out the sources of damage.

ensoriki.5789:

Focus is a more defensive/supportive weapon set so the freezing gust change really doesn’t compute and comes off as an anomaly.

It is an anomaly. The goal of the anomalous [Freezing Gust] is to give off-hand Elementalist focus a powerful card to play when the player finds him/herself in the proper positioning with the proper amount of time to commit to such a powerful control skill. This is more on how I’m attempting to better define individual skills. The current [Freezing Gust] is a throwaway skill that someone just uses because it’s there and there’s no risk to using it when its off cool-down and because chill is a powerful condition. By giving [Freezing Gust] a makeover to something into a game-changing skill that requires a lot of time-investment as well as good positioning and maybe some supplement defensive skills to pull off, it really shapes the skill into its own and gives the off-hand Elementalist focus a powerful tool to shape the battlefield.

ensoriki.5789:

To increase the damage of the focus? High cast time skills/channels seem counter productive to that.

As I’ve said before, I’m defining individual skills by giving them risk-reward paradigms based on cast-times and powerful pay-outs upon cast completion. The focus is above all a control skill and so remaking a lot of skills into better control-style skills was my main goal.

As a general response to the posts above before I do any sort of specific replies:

CURRENT STATE OF GW2

• Spam-centric game-play
  • Individual skill definition is at an all-time low (many weapon sets are more or less just a long-channel skill of spammed abilities—a beam-attack of sorts—instead of being 5 individual skills that have unique and powerful effects on the battlefield)

• Conditions are king
  • Conditions are an unfair way of doing DPS compared to power-based builds since you don’t really have to keep hitting an opponent. Front-loading spam-centric throwaway skills that require minimal aim, thought, timing and hold no risk to the user for their activation completely outclasses how power-based builds work and turns combat into a face-roll.
  • The way to fix this is to make condition-based builds more like power builds in how they apply conditions. Tie conditions to well-cued, long-recharge skills that actually have a strong impact when they land on an opponent instead of making conditions just something you get for free by pressing buttons willy-nilly while you have a target selected.

• Read my first post about what is balanced ranged combat, energy and attrition game-play in GW2.

These are the things that I am out to fix. They require a vast reworking of how GW2 currently plays and overall will create a healthier pvp scene by better defining where a profession or certain weapon sets belong on a battlefield. Furthermore, this reworking will return clutch use of powerful skills that require timing, aim and positioning to the forefront of winning a match up. In return, timing active dodges and other damage mitigation skills will become more of a staple in GW2 combat instead of just eating spam and then healing it off as is the current manner of doing things.

If you want to argue me on any points, argue me on what I have said here. These points are the fundamental reasons behind my skill changes. Saying “I don’t like x because I like the way it is now” is not a valid argument. Just try to give me a reason why GW2 pvp is even remotely healthy or even mentally engaging based on what I’ve said here.

Arkantos.7460:

Swagg* your definitely balancing more around your ingi and hows the best way to balancing classes around ingi

I really don’t know what this sentence is trying to say. Also what do you mean by “ingi”?

Arkantos.7460:

Cluster bomb has its reason why the Player can detonate by clicking again
also simple decreasing dmg with no effort, thiefs already had a bunch of dmg-nerfs
you want making shortbow more useless with theese changes and also other skills and mechanics of the thief

Again, not… entirely sure what you’re trying to say, but I will say what I’ve said before: a 240-radius, high-damage PBAoE that can be spammed and has a 1/2-second activation time is not a properly balanced melee attack.

Making adjustments like adding minimum ranges to powerful ranged abilities will help better define battlefield positions in this game. As it stands now, positioning doesn’t mean a lot to most GW2 players in a fight. People just spam skills because they hit. That is an issue.
[/quote]

jmatb.6307:

Don’t worry Swagg, this is good stuff. Smart, comprehensive suggestions go way over the average forum troll’s head

I really appreciate it.

thefantasticg.3984:

According to a certain Dev that posted the sticky we aren’t going to get more control over the pet than we already have because it’ll scare away new players

I choose to ignore that post. The only way that Ranger is going to be a class that isn’t Superspam Warrior with AI slogging behind it is if the Ranger actually gains better control of the pet. It would make the class a much more intuition and timing based profession by providing it more options with which to queue its companion’s time on the field.

thefantasticg.3984:

but I like the idea of traiting pets… Didn’t they do something like that in GW1?

Not really, no. Pet hp or damage was never influenced by attribute points. You had to raise your pet a certain way for it to get certain hp pools or DPS levels. Pet-related attack and defense skills were influenced by putting attribute points into the Beast Mastery attribute line. It was a more active way to influence how a pet contributed to battle since you the player were actually activating all of the skills manually. Traits are always passive, which is dangerous for balance.

BETTER PET CONTROL

• Remove the 2 pet skills from the pet’s attack queue that aren’t the auto-attack or the F2 skill.
• Introduce [Pet Whistle] utility skills.
  • Function identically as Engineer [Weapon Kit]s in how they activate and how they change a player’s weapon skills.
  • The first 2 skills are always changing with the pet. This is to where the 2 non-triggered pet skills have moved. The other 3 skills vary depending on the selected [Pet Whistle] kit.
  • [Pet Whistle] kits remove the Ranger’s ability to attack directly but allow him/her to quickly queue up a chain of abilities for his pet to perform while he/she then swaps back to a weapon and continues attacking. [Pet Whistle] 3-5 skills are always associated with pet positioning, maneuvers and/or a combo attack chain skill that involves both the pet and the Ranger.

CUSTOMIZING A PET’S CONTRIBUTION TO BATTLE

• Pet’s now get their own traits (pic sort of related, I guess there should be 5 trait trees, but the picture is old and I’m not going to make another one).
• Pet get 35 total trait points to spend on traits (if there are 5 trait trees; if only 4, the total points would need to be lowered). Only the “grandmaster” tier is the slot that provides multiple trait options. These traits are meant to increase a pet’s survivability, DPS or CC contribution to a battle.

TO COMPENSATE

• Pet hp is now lowered back to original, pre-March 2013 levels.

Update to Elementlist scepter and dagger off-hand skills.
The goal is to give scepter more reliable and fair DPS options instead of just throwing everything into a poorly cued spike rotation. Updraft’s change is to give the dagger off-hand more mobility as while still maintaining its possible use as a clutch control skill.

Arganthium.5638:

• Pistol Whip- your “redistribution” of damage seems more like nerfs across all decent-damage attacks… A chain skill can be evaded and is far more predictable by its very nature, making PW much harder to hit with your changes.

You are upset by there being risks in skill-usage is a sign that this game has deep flaws. As I’ve said before, once thief is properly balanced, it might need an hp buff.

Arganthium.5638:

Furthermore, the 2-second time window between the first two hits is significantly less than the time window between auto attacks, which is a huge problem unless your opponent just wants to take a bunch of attacks to the face without moving or evading.

The first two hits were lowered in cast-time to 1/2 second and would come with a short after-cast. It would be much less than 2 seconds total before reaching [Malicious Strike].

Arganthium.5638:

• Cluster Bomb- what? Melee-range weapons should be “high damage, very large AoE spike skills with very short cast-times”. That’s the reward of melee- you fight on your opponents’ terms with much less area to attack from, so you should, naturally, get something to compensate- otherwise, melee damage is absolutely pointless and ranged weapons should always be used.

Spamming 3.5-4k damage in a 240 radius around you every 1/2 second is not a balanced melee attack.

Arganthium.5638:

And you clearly don’t know how hard it is to land a CB on anyone more than, say, 500 range away…

No, I’m aware. That’s why the minimum range is only 180.

Arganthium.5638:

• Disabling Shot- research cast times. They’re not “invulnerability frames”, and DS will often position you to some place that you don’t want to be anyways because of its basic linear movement. Not to mention- it has an incredibly obvious animation and does trash for damage.

It’s not a damage skill. It’s a spam to run away for free skill. That’s why it could use an adjustment as well as a chain skill with some utility to at least diversify its usage and give the skill a little more character.

Arganthium.5638:

• Choking Gas- the initiative cost is too high for the reward it gives to simply just point-click-spam the skill.

Once again, your worry about risking a skill’s usage is a sign that this game is in bad shape.

Arganthium.5638:

• Infi Signet- it allows us to SS stomp, stunbreak, instantly teleport, cast while using the signet, and use the z-axis. 2s stability and 2s protection and the RTL abilities are not enough to make up for this nerf.

I’m going to address this with an update.

Arganthium.5638:

• SA VI- the vast, vast majority of stealths, in practice, come from attacks. Time your auto right and you’ll at least be able to hit one of your attacks to remove blind due to aftercast on HS and CnD. It’s really not that difficult.

It’s still very much a free hit given that it negates an auto-attack. Furthermore, this game’s ranged auto-attacks are at an extreme disadvantage to this trait because they do not cleave and often (or at least should) have longer cast-times.

Arganthium.5638:

• Stealth skills- so you plan on amplifying our damage by severely nerfing our stealth skills?

You’re not even considering the idea that they aren’t incredibly imbalanced. That’s the real issue here. I’m making stealth skills as fair as any other skill in the game. More importantly, my ideas are yet complete since I just decided to move this thread into the proper forum and the forum mods aren’t letting me reserve any posts. For now, what you see is a half-step through a full motion of changes for the thief.

Arganthium.5638:

• Crippling Strike- a) (see point c about casts) b) I mean that the rest of the chain has no alternate effects.

It’s an auto-attack chain. I don’t have to justify why a skill-chain like that should be weak/underpowered in the first place. Regardless, it still does a very high amount of damage.

Arganthium.5638:

have you ever actually used the skill chain before?

Yes, I took my thief into the Heart of the Mists and took to attacking golems repeatedly as you did. While I don’t have the ability to capture video like you do, it was easy to almost permanently maintain the cripple and weakness (durations were 2 1/4 seconds respectively) on a golem just by auto-attacking it. To this effect, I inferred that the entire auto-attack chain must take about 2.5 seconds. Given that the cast-times for each skill in the auto-attack chain were 1/2 seconds respectively, that left an extra 1-second of after-cast littering the chain. Seeing that [Crippling Strike] had the longest amount by far, I estimated it again. [Crippling Strike]’s after-cast seems closer to 1/2 second with the others being closer to 1/4 second, making the total time consumed using [Crippling Strike] probably around 1 second.

The issue here is that apparently 1-second is too long of a time to tolerate for a single skill activation for thief. That’s a legitimate issue. Making combat lightning fast with teleports everywhere isn’t a good idea in a game that is supposed to revolve around seeing your opponent doing things. Things need to be slowed down and damage needs to be reduced.

The more I think about it, once thief is properly fixed, it could probably use a little hp buff.

Arganthium.5638:

• Infi Strike- you’re completely nerfing vertical mobility

Spammable teleports go contrary to GW2’s combat fundamentals about being able to read opponents and taking advantage of good positioning.

Vertical mobility should just be attained by super jumping ala the Skyhammer jump-bumpers. On that thought, I have ideas for some additional skills now.

Arganthium.5638:

Also, the retreating leap makes it infinitely more difficult to move along the z-axis as well, and the fact that it doesn’t “anchor” you to a specific spot makes its effects not only much less predictable (this randomness reduces skill required) but prevents you from trying to be “in two places at once”, which is one of the main attractions to any sword build.

A retreating roll with evasion frames is a very powerful juking maneuver, especially if the length of the retreating roll is 600 range or more. It’s very easy to throw an opponent off by letting him catch up to you and then rolling backwards through him. It’s also possible to use the about-face button and then roll immediately afterwards in order to put distance between you and an opponent if you are running away.

piffdaddy.8014:

Too much to read. Devs will feel the same (as the sticky asks nicely not to make huge posts).

I know what the sticky says, but this game needs more than just a fluffy two-line idea with “because” sitting in the middle of a sentence.

piffdaddy.8014:

I skimmed the ele changes and it seems all you want to do is nerf them and barely compensate. This will not go over well with the pvp community because ele is already the least represented class in ranked pvp. I don’t think an ice field on scepter 2 water is worth further gutting the elementalist class.

You’re doing just what everybody else is. You looked at one class and then not at anything else.

More importantly, you probably didn’t read the first post. Elementalist is loaded with many skills that are unfair ranged abilities. Furthermore, I redistributed a lot of elementalist scepter damage along with adding more utility and damage to focus off-hand all while keeping the first post governing rules in mind.

nicknamenick.2437:

That minimum range is just stupid, longbow is a weapon good in close combat due its slow Arrows from AA and arcing arrow, most of the time you have to use pin down to even land a arcing arrow.. but giving it a minimum range is just a HARD counter to this weapon.. do you give every ranged weapon a minimum range also?? rifles? pistols? shortbows/longbows scepters? even axe or something that does range damage??
All you have to do is stick on them and they cant do anything… right good suggestion!

High damage, very large AoE spike skills with very short cast-times shouldn’t be melee range weapons. They should be ranged abilities that either support an on-going battle or a skill that requires clutch timing and aim in order to land on an opponent.

nicknamenick.2437:

1sec casttime + can interrupts on movement and kneel down.. you call this balance? why not remove the skill and just leave it blanco??
also 1500 range? there issnt a single skill on longbow that also have 1500 range, cool… you just did a 1500 immob but you cant hit him with arcing arrow because it would never make it that far.. even if could make it the immob would already be gone due to the slow arrow

Immobilize is a powerful support tool. More importantly, the [Pin Down] —> [Arcing Arrow] combination is extraordinarily easy to land while in melee range and does a very high amount of damage. There is an enormous discrepancy between the risk in using the combination and the reward you get for landing it (the risk being effectively non-existent while the reward being able to turn an encounter around). This is a sign of imbalance. It needs to be fixed.

nicknamenick.2437:

Hammer skills

Why? 3/4 issnt long enough? you have connection latency maby?

1,25sec.. + some delay ofc making it 1,5sec casttime… cool now i will never get hit by hammer warriors :-)

By better defining individual skills with hefty cast-times, more skills will emerge as unique activations that can turn the tide of battle individually instead of hammer being 1 long channel skill that just perma stuns somebody. Warriors have the 5-second weapon swap so better defining hammer skills would be akin to how an elementalist might have to swap around attunements in order to find the right skill for a given situation.

nicknamenick.2437:

Shield skills
[Shield Stance]

• Duration lowered from 3 to 2 seconds.

WHAT?? a 30sec cooldown skill that gives only 3 sec block.. and you want it a 2sec block? even sword can block longer with 15sec cooldown.. you even play warrior??

Blocks need to be generally cut back from this game.

nicknamenick.2437:

[Shield Slam]
its just a 1sec stun that helps allot for a interrupt or doing a burst after.. and you make it a blind.. why? because you hate stuns?? because you don’t run with stability? your necro? Why chance this skill when its already a very balanced.. a 1sec stun on 25sec cooldown.. i don’t see ANY problem with this..

You completely misread my post then. This is a new chain skill for [Shield Stance] not a replacement for [Shield Bash].

nicknamenick.2437:

Utility skills
[Endure Pain]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Stance. While in this stance, you gain 1500 vitality.
• Duration: 5 seconds
• Breaks stun.

WHY?? endure pain is in a good spot.. why do we need 1500 vitality? this doesn’t make any sense..

Effective invulnerability needs to be culled back from this game. Giving a player 1500 vitality is often enough to double that player’s current hitpoints. Double a player’kittenpoints allows that player to soak up twice as much damage. This provides a way for [Endure Pain] to soak up damage while not resorting to it just being damage invulnerability. It also helps deal with conditions because it gives the warrior more health.

Arganthium.5638:

• Pistol whip: one of the worst ideas I’ve ever seen. You basically have to hit a skill two times in a row within a 2 second time span and then you have to cross your fingers and hope that your skill with an incredibly obvious animation hits your opponent for less damage than Final Thrust at <50%. The counters for this would seem pretty obvious, but apparently not to you…

This is more along the lines of redistribution of thief damage. Also, hitting a player 2 times in a row in order to hit them with a more powerful skill is literally an auto-attack. You are complaining about having to go through the process of an auto-attack to deal damage.

Arganthium.5638:

• Cluster Bomb: I’ve told you this before… The problem that any player has to accept who wants to fight from melee is that he/she gets to play by his/her opponent’s rules. This nerf to Cluster Bomb is a severe nerf to this tradeoff. Not to mention- it already has a painfully slow cast time.

High damage, very large AoE spike skills with very short cast-times shouldn’t be melee range weapons. They should be ranged abilities that either support an on-going battle or a skill that requires clutch timing and aim in order to land on an opponent. This is currently the same issue with Warrior [Arcing Arrow].

Arganthium.5638:

• Disabling Shot: an already incredibly weak skill with a terribly obvious animation and vulnerability, needing a nerf? You certainly can’t control a point with this skill, and it’s only good for one, maybe two situations anyways. But hey, leap on the bandwagon…

It’s currently too easy to spam it for invulnerability frames. I have another idea of how to give it a chain skill in order to solve this issue, though.

Arganthium.5638:

• Choking Gas: this has no side effects outside of poison, the poison lasts a relatively short period of time (5s is much shorter than most people tend to imply that it is), and it has a fairly predictable pulse. Not sure what the logic is with this.

No quick-activating AoE skill needs to be 240 radius. It completely takes the risk out of actually aiming the thing.

Arganthium.5638:

• Infi Signet: so what’s your problem with mobility, anyways? Everybody likes this skill how it is currently, this is just a terrible change.

A 2-second stability, 2-second protection; 1-second super speed [Ride the Lightning] is not poor mobility.

Arganthium.5638:

• SA VI: if nothing else, this skill is pretty easy to counter just by swinging your sword once.

If you dodge properly, then swinging your sword has worked for months now. Where have you been? Moreover, it really hurts classes that don’t readily have skills that cleave.

Arganthium.5638:

Now, as a more specific reply to parts of your post:

Stealth Skills: care to elaborate?

As I’ve said before, if thief had more viable options to dealing damage in a fair manner, we wouldn’t need a [Backstab] to do 8k. Thieves simply don’t have good DPS. Their damage is typically all bundled up into skills without post-cast delays that they spam as much as possible. Thieves just need more DPS. Adding more chain skills to theif weapon skills that dealt some damage and/or provided battlefield utility would be a way to correct this situation.

Furthermore, being able to spam a skill until it hits should not be how anything works in this game. That is the true flaw of stealth skills. So long as you’re in stealth, you get to spam a stealth skill until it hits because it has no recharge and it costs no initiative. That’s unfair and it should be addressed.

Arganthium.5638:

Crippling Strike: As I’ve said before, this skill is a) the third in a chain

A normal attack chain. We’re not talking about a legitimate time investment here.

Arganthium.5638:

that b) has no side effects already (such as condis)

Except that it inflicts weakness and cripple.

Arganthium.5638:

and c) includes skills with insanely large aftercasts anyways. Furthermore, Crippling Strike has a fair amount of windup for the amount of damage it does.

A quarter-second after-cast is almost nothing. Moreover, a one-half-second cast-time is an outrageously short wind-up for more damage than a meteor strike from [Meteor Shower] that also inflicts cripple and weakness. Again, this whole effort with regards to the thief is to make the class something that actually fits in GW2 properly. This require a lot of additional weapon skills to the current sets as well as damage redistribution.

Arganthium.5638:

Infi Strike completely destroying thieves’ mobility.

A super-speed, 600-range sprint attack is not poor mobility.

Arganthium.5638:

The usage of this skill, as always, is extremely predictable

It has no cast-time or casting animation.

Arganthium.5638:

another nerf to thief mobility, which was supposed to be one of the thief’s main attractions anyways.

A 600-range retreating leap is not poor mobility, especially if it comes off of a 600-range super-speed sprint attack.

Arganthium.5638:

The marking ability only makes the skill even weaker (even more predictable), and the mobility nerf to the skill…

A 900-range direct-to-target leap is not poor mobility. I’ve already discussed why animations are important in order to keep this game’s combat balanced.

Arganthium.5638:

Again, there’s no context within which you can justify this.

You can read my first post: the very first paragraph. A lot of individual thief skills break many of those rules that govern the balance of a ranged ability in GW2. This is one of them. You cannot argue that.

Arganthium.5638:

As a general response to your post:

garethh.3518:

@Swagg.9236

You’ve been touching on the big issue with the thief class, I don’t now if you ever outright said it since I didn’t bother to read through all the 100~ posts but I’ll type it out here anyways.

The class is time starved, in its very design it needs to make each action net the thief allot of value or the thief fails (low health, med armor, typically low healing). Since there are only 5 attacks and Anet wanted lots of mobility/blind/stealth to make up for the classes squishy nature, the attacks ended up being super attacks (teleport+blind+dmg, leap+dmg+stealth, unblockable high dmg, blind+combo field, exc, exc.) or else the thief can’t work, or else the thief can’t net enough value with each action to work.

The thing is, with no CDs that means the class is made up of extremely strong spammable attacks…

The class desperately needed some secondary mechanic on top of initiative, like if all of its attacks where in the form of infiltrator’s strike, they had a chained second ability. The first ability would typically cost little if any initiative and then pop up the second ability for 7-20~ seconds and that ability would cost a fair deal of initiative.
It’d be a psuedo CD system.

You could buy an ability off CD or specific perc (the second ability in the chain) by spending the 3-5~ initiative, or you can wait the CD (7-20 seconds for the chain to reset) and spend little if any initiative. It’d make initiative regen traits a playstyle choice instead of necessity. It’d give TONS of room for depth, and numerous ways to build/play a thief, without requiring cheesy spam.

I’m planning on re-working/adding onto my current suggestions based on the brief exchange that I had with the above poster. It’s true, though, that the Thief is currently the black sheep of GW2. It breaks all of the rules by which GW2 combat was supposed to operate and ends up either being a class where you get all the free damage and walk away with a kill or you just die like a wounded dog. It’s a fundamentally bad design from a GW2-combat perspective in which combat is supposed to change flow based on how one reads his opponent’s cues and movements.

A way to balance out the time-starved Thief is to give the thief more ways to contribute to a fight, redistribute its damage/utility out across new weapon skills and prevent spamming the same skills over and over again via new chain skills with functionalities that will accomplish the former two goals.

REVISING THE DPS META IN PVE

• Rework veteran/elite/champion enemies into enemies based around the Heart of the Mists NPCs and the pvp map NPCs such as Svanir or the Keep Lord and his henchmen (no downed state)
• Defiant now has a stacking cap of 15.
• Defiant now passively sheds stacks at a rate of 1 stack every 1 second.
• A single instance of CC now removes up to 3 stacks of defiant.
• When an unshakable enemy with defiant stacks loses all of its defiant stacks, that enemy is Flatfooted for 4 seconds.
• Flatfooted enemies cannot gain stability or defiant stacks.

tl;dr
ANet won’t do it because it’s too much work. We’re in too deep now.

Ravious.4269:

I don’t see how this could be helpful. Devs don’t have tim to read all this and figure out why you want this to be changed.

I would suggest you focus on the main things you dislike and make liberal use of “because”.

“Rending Claws need XXX because.”

I guarantee much better effect than this.

The main things are in the first post. Concrete examples are needed in order to illustrate how to properly carry out the main ideas from the first post.

“‘X’ because ‘y’” is not enough at this point. The game has fundamental problems that need to be worked out with concrete examples. I’m doing just that.

HEALING SKILLS
Guardian healing skills
[Shelter]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2¼ seconds
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Gain a shield that blocks up to 3 attacks while you channel a spell to heal yourself.
• Healing (5x): 5000 (0.7)
• Channel duration: 2 seconds
• Shield duration: 2 seconds

[Healing Breeze]

• Recharge lowered from 40 to 25 seconds.
• Self-healing lowered from 6525 (1.0) to 4850 (1.0)
• The final channel pulse now removes up to 2 conditions from the Guardian and allies inside the cone.

[Signet of Resolve]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1¼ seconds.
• Recharge lowered from 40 to 30 seconds.
• Healing lowered from 8,150 (1.25) to 6,050 (1.25)

Warrior healing skills
[Healing Signet]

• Recharge reduced from 20 to 15 seconds.
• Passive healing reduced from 392 to 250 (same healing modifier).
• Now, when this skill activates, you gain protection and regeneration based on your adrenaline levels.
  • Protection per adrenaline bar: 1 second
  • Regeneration per adrenaline bar: 3 seconds

[Healing Surge]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1½ seconds.

[Mending]

• FUNCTIONAILTY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 3 seconds
• Recharge: 20 seconds
  *Heal yourself and remove a condition with each pulse.
• Healing (4x): 6400 (1.0)
• Duration: 2½ seconds
  • Healing and condition removal pulses once every ¾ seconds.

Engineer healing skills
[Elixir H]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1¼ seconds.

[Healing Turret]

• Cast-time increased from ½ second to 1 second.

Ranger healing skills
[Healing Spring]

• Cast-time increased from ½ second to 1 second.

Thief healing skills
[Hide in Shadows]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1¼ seconds.

Necromancer healing skills
[Consume Conditions]

• Cast-time increased from 1¼ seconds to 1½ seconds.

[Well of Blood]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1¼ seconds.
• Recharge lowered from 40 to 35 seconds.
• Duration lowed from 10 to 5 seconds.
• Field is now a water field instead of light field.
• Healing per second generated by the field increased from 152 (0.4) to 252 (0.5).
• Now converts up to 2 conditions into boons upon use.
  • Well of Blood uses the [Well of Power] condition-into-boon conversion table.

Sword skills
[Hornet Sting]

• Recharge increased from 8 to 10 seconds.

Axe main-hand skills
[Ricochet]

• Skill removed; replaced with another skill chain: [Hack]; [Slash]; [Cleave the Wind].

[Hack]

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Hack your foe with your axe.
• Damage: 202 (0.5)
• Range: 130
  • This skill cleaves.

[Slash]

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Slash your foe with your axe.
• Damage: 202 (0.5)
• Range: 130
• This skill cleaves.

[Cleave the Wind]

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Slash with your axe, unleashing a cone of wind that damages foes.
• Damage: 252 (0.75)
• Vulnerability (2): 5 seconds
• Range: 450
  • This skill hits up to 5 foes.

[Splitblade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Lob an axe to target location. At the target location your axe ricochets off of winds, appearing to multiply while it bleeds and damages foes in the area.
• Damage (4x): 1000 (0.9)
• Pulse: 1 second
• Bleeding (1) per pulse: 3 seconds
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Radius: 180
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 900
  • The axe uses an low arc path and moves quickly. The AoE shares the same pulse schedule as Elementalist [Lava Font].
  • AoE is a red-circled collection of axes bouncing from side to side in a circle.

[Winter’s Bite]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Leap to target location and slash foes when you land, inflicting chill. Your pet’s next attack inflicts weakness. If you strike a foe suffering from vulnerability, you also inflict bleeding.
• Damage: 252 (0.9)
• Damage radius: 180
• Chill: 3 seconds
• Weakness: 6 seconds
• Bleeding (4): 6 seconds
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 600
  • Uses the Warrior [Earthshaker] attack animation.

Axe off-hand skills
[Path of Scars]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Throw an axe that ricochets between foes.
• Damage: 204 (0.5)
• Maximum targets: 3
• Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile (20% chance)
• Range: 900
  • Aftercast adjusted to 0.30 seconds.
  • Functional ranged auto-attack.

[Whirling Defense]

• Cast-time decreased from 5¼ seconds to 3¼ seconds.
• Duration lowered from 5 to 3 seconds.
• Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Now grants 1 second of protection upon activation.
  • Damage and number of hits do not change. Attack animation and hit procs are sped up to fit into the new 3¼-second long channel time.

RANGER CHANGES
Shortbow skills
[Crossfire]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Fire an arrow. Bleed your target if you hit them from behind or from the side.
• Damage: 211 (0.5)
• Bleeding (1): 3 seconds
• Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile (20% chance)
• Range: 900
  • After-cast adjusted to 0.25 second.

[Poison Volley (first volley)]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 12 seconds
• Fire an arcing arrow that explodes at target location, leaving behind a cloud that poisons foes.
• Explosion damage: 252 (0.75)
• Explosion radius: 180
• Cloud poison (2): 2 seconds
• Cloud duration: 2 seconds
• Cloud pulse: 1 second
• Cloud radius: 180
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 1000
  • The poison pulses 2 times.
  • This skill chains into another skill upon completion: [Poison Volley (second volley)]

[Poison Volley (second volley)]

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Fire an arcing arrow that explodes at target location, leaving behind a cloud that poisons foes.
• Explosion damage: 252 (0.75)
• Explosion radius: 180
• Cloud poison (2): 2 seconds
• Cloud duration: 2 seconds
• Cloud pulse: 1 second
• Cloud radius: 180
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 1000
  • The poison pulses 2 times.
  • This skill chains into another skill upon completion: [Poison Volley (third volley)]

[Poison Volley (third volley)]

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Fire an arcing arrow that explodes at target location, leaving behind a cloud that poisons foes.
• Explosion damage: 252 (0.75)
• Explosion radius: 180
• Cloud poison (2): 2 seconds
• Cloud duration: 2 seconds
• Cloud pulse: 1 second
• Cloud radius: 180
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 1000
  • The poison pulses 2 times.
  • This use of this skill sends the skill chain into full recharge.
  • This final chain skill has no minimum range.

[Quick Shot]

• Recharge increased from 9 to 12 seconds.
• Swiftness increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
• Retreating leap distance increased from (current?) to 450 range.

[Crippling Shot]

• FUNTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Charge up a piercing shot that cripples foes. The longer you charge this shot, the more powerful it becomes.
• ½ second channel: Damage: 111 (0.3); Crippled: 2 seconds
• 1 second channel: Damage: 229 (0.5); Crippled: 3 seconds
• Full channel: Damage: 279 (0.75); Crippled: 5 seconds; Your pet’s next three attacks inflict bleeding (5 seconds).
• Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
• Range: 900
  • The player can move while activating this skill.

THIEF CHANGES
Stealth skills
[Surprise Shot]

• Recharge increased from 0 to 10 seconds.

[Tactical Strike]

• Recharge increased from 0 to 10 seconds.

[Backstab]

• Recharge increased from 0 to 10 seconds.

[Sneak Attack]

• Recharge increased from 0 to 5 seconds.

Sword main-hand skills
[Crippling Strike]

• Damage reduced from 437 (1.3) to 314 (1.0)

[Infiltrator’s Strike]

• Initiative Cost: 3
• Cast-time: 1¼ second
• Dash at your foe to deliver an immobilizing strike. You gain Super Speed if you are in combat when you use this skill.
• Damage: 252 (0.75)
• Immobilize: 1 second
• Super speed: 1 second
• Range: 600
  • Uses the Warrior banner [Sprint] attack animation.
  • If you strike a foe with this skill, it chains into another skill upon use: [Infiltrator’s Return]

[Infiltrator’s Return]

• Initiative Cost: 1
• Cast-time: 0
• Evade backwards and lose 1 condition.
• Evasion: ¾ second
• Evasion distance: 600
  • Condition removal occurs before the backwards evasion roll.
  • This chain skill remains active for 20 seconds.

Dagger/Pistol combo skill
[Shadow Shot]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Initiative cost: 4
• Fire a shot that marks your target if it hits.
• Damage: 314 (0.3)
• Mark duration: 3 seconds
• Range: 900
  • This skill is no longer unblockable.
  • Now chains into another skill: [Shadow Stab]
  • A small [Shadow Shot] skill icon appears over top of a target marked by [Shadow Shot].

[Shadow Leap]

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Initiative cost: 1
• Leap to your marked target and stab your foe, inflicting blindness.
• Damage: 92 (0.25)
• Blind: 5 seconds
• Range: 900
  • Uses the Elementalist [Magnetic Leap] attack animation.
  • This chain skill remains active for 2.5 seconds.

Sword/Pistol combo skill
[Pistol Whip]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Initiative cost: 2
• Pistol-whip your target, staggering the foe. If you strike a staggered foe you inflict daze and this skill chains into another skill.
• Damage: 111 (0.3)
• Staggered: 2 seconds
• Daze: ½ second
• Range: 130
  • If this skill strikes a staggered foe, it chains into another skill: [Malicious Assault]

[Malicious Assault]

• Cast-time: 1¼ second
• Initiative cost: 3
• Dash at your foe, leaping and delivering a devastating strike with your sword.
• Damage: 718 (2.5)
• Super Speed: 1 second
• Range: 900
  • This skill uses the Elementalist [Fiery Rush] attack animation.
  • This chain skill remains active for 20 seconds.

Shortbow skills
[Cluster Bomb]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Fire a cluster bomb at target area that deals more damage based on its distance from you.
• Damage inside of 180 range: 179 (0.5)
• Damage outside of 180 range: 487 (1.45)
• Bleeding (1): 4 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Combo Finisher: Blast
• Range: 900
  • The damage is determined upon skill activation rather than when it actually lands.
  • Range indicator changes color based on its distance from the player: yellow when inside of 180 range; green when outside of 180 range.

[Detonate Cluster]

• This chain skill now has an automatic ¾-second cool-down before it can be activated.

[Disabling Shot]

• Initiative cost increased from 4 to 5.

[Choking Gas]

• Radius reduced from 240 to 180.

Utility skills
[Infiltrator’s Signet]

• Active ability FUNCTIONALTY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Gain stability and dash to your foe from within a cloud of smoke.
• Protection: 2 seconds
• Stability: 2 seconds
• Super Speed: 1 second
• Infiltrator’s Signet duration: 2 seconds
• Range: 1200
  • This skill functions like Elementalist [Ride the Lightning] in how it moves the Thief except that it does not strike its target for damage.
  • Thief becomes a cloud of smoke while this skill is active similar to how the Elementalist turns into a ball of lightning.

Traits
Cloaked in Shadow (Shadow Arts – VI)

• Now has a 10-second internal cool-down.

Utility skills continued
[Gear Shield]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Block attacks with a gear shield. If you block three attacks, your gear shield shatters, crippling and bleeding adjacent foes with metal shrapnel.
• Duration: 2 seconds
• Bleeding (3): 5 seconds
• Crippled: 2 seconds
• Radius: 150

[Elixir S]

• Recharged reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
• Duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
  • Now chains into another skill upon use: [Shoelace Tangle].

[Shoelace Tangle]

• Recharge: 5 seconds
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Tangle up your foe’s feet with wire, knocking your target down.
• Knockdown: 2 seconds
• Range: 100
  • This skill is only active while [Elixir S] is in effect.

[Fumigate]

• Recharge increased from 12 to 15 seconds.
• Poison duration per damage tick increased from 1 to 2 seconds.
• Now removes up to one condition from the Engineer upon use.
• Now behaves as does Cone of Cold or Drake’s Breath. Does not attempt to follow a target when a target is selected. Engineer must actively track a target within the cone in order to inflict damage.

[Acid Bomb]

• Now grants a ¾ second of evasion upon use.

[Flame Jet]

• Now behaves as does Cone of Cold or Drake’s Breath. Does not attempt to follow a target when a target is selected. Engineer must actively track a target within the cone in order to inflict damage.

[Air Blast]

• Now also counts as a Blast Finisher.

[Napalm]

• Recharge reduced from 30 to 20 seconds.
• Napalm wall duration reduced from 10 to 7 seconds.

[Smoke Vent]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Vent smoke from your flamethrower, blinding adjacent foes with the smoke cloud.
• Blind (2): 3 seconds
• Cloud duration: 2 seconds
• Cloud pulse: 1 second
• Cloud radius: 180
• Combo Field: Smoke

NEW SKILL: [Smoldering Round] (replaces Incendiary Ammo)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Fire a round from your belt that burns your target.
• Damage: 65 (0.2)
• Burning: 4 seconds
• Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
• Range: 1,000

[Regenerating Mist]

• Now also removes up to 1 condition from allies in its radius.

Elite skills
[Mortar]

• Base range on skills increased to 2,000.
• Range on skills when traited increased to 2,400.

[Launch Elixir]

• Recharge reduced from 15 to 12 seconds.

[Launch Ice Mortar]

• Recharge reduced from 20 to 15 seconds.
• Ice field duration reduced from 10 to 7 seconds.
• The mortar projectile’s initial hit now stuns enemies for ½ second.

[Launch Concussion Barrage]

• Recharge reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.

Traits
Shrapnel (Explosives – II)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Blunderbuss, Shrapnel Grenade, and Concussion Bomb inflict additional bleeding when they hit.
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Bleeding (3): 8 seconds
  • This is a global/shared cool-down among the skills.

Precise Sights (Firearms – V)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Blunderbuss, Static Shot, Shrapnel Grenade, Concussion Bomb, Elixir F, and Flame Jet inflict additional vulnerability when they hit.
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Vulnerability (5): 8 seconds
• This is a global/shared cool-down among the skills
• Only the final damage tick of [Flame Jet] inflicts the vulnerability described in this trait.

Incendiary Power (Explosives – IX)

• Recharge increased from 10 to 15 seconds.
• Now, when this trait activates, it summons an invulnerable flame turret near the side of the Engineer (possibly using the same summon detection as [Phantasmal Warlock]). The turret arrives on the field using a miniature [Supply Drop] animation. This flame turret then attacks the Engineers current target with a [Fireball] projectile. The projectile deals no damage, but does inflict the burning described in the trait. The turret explodes after shooting the projectile.

Utility skills
[Grenade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Throw a grenade that explodes.
• Damage: 314 (1.0)
• Explosion radius: 120
• Range: 1200
  • This skill is now a functional auto-attack. This skill uses the Elementalist [Fireball] projectile arc and speed for its grenade.
  • Unaffected by the Grenadier trait (Explosives – XI).

[Shrapnel Grenade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second (channel)
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Place shrapnel grenades in your hand to throw later. The longer you charge this skill, the more grenades that you throw upon release.
• ½-second channel: 1 grenade
• Full channel: 2 grenades
• Damage per grenade: 179 (0.5)
• Bleeding per grenade (2): 5 seconds
• Explosion radius: 180
• Range: 1200
• Minimum range: 180
  • Equipping the Grenadier trait changes the skill into a 1¼-second channel skill with a third channel tier that throws 3 grenades.

[Flash Grenade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Throw a grenade that explodes in a blinding flash.
• Damage: 33 (0.1)
• Blind: 5 seconds
• Explosion radius: 150
• Range: 1200
  • Equipping the Grenadier trait adds a second grenade to the attack.

[Freeze Grenade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second (channel)
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Place freeze grenades in your hand to throw. The longer you charge this skill, the more grenades that you throw upon release.
• ½-second channel: 1 grenade
• Full channel: 2 grenades
• Damage per grenade: 179 (0.5)
• Chill per grenade: 2 seconds
• Explosion radius: 240
• Range: 1200
• Minimum range: 180
  • Equipping the Grenadier trait changes the skill into a 1¼-second channel skill with a third channel tier that throws 3 grenades.

[Poison Grenade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second (channel)
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Place poison grenades in your hand to throw later. These grenades leave a poisonous cloud behind when they explode.. The longer you charge this skill, the more grenades that you throw upon release.
• ½-second channel: 1 grenade
• Full channel: 2 grenades
• Damage per grenade: 65 (0.2)
• Poison per grenade: 4 seconds
• Poison cloud duration: 4 seconds
• Poison cloud radius: 150
• Combo field: Poison
• Range: 1200
• Minimum range: 180
  • Equipping the Grenadier trait changes the skill into a 1¼-second channel skill with a third channel tier that throws 3 grenades.

[Grenade Barrage (first volley)]

• FUNCTIONALTY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Throw four grenades at once.
• Damage (4x): 488 (0.5)
• Explosion radius: 150
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 1200
  • Now chains into another skill upon completion: [Grenade Barrage (second volley)]
  • Unaffected by the Grenadier trait.

[Grenade Barrage (second volley)]

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Throw four grenades at once.
• Damage (4x): 488 (0.5)
• Explosion radius: 150
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 1200
  • This chain skill remains active for 2.5 seconds.
  • Unaffected by the Grenadier trait.

ENGINEER CHANGES
Pistol main-hand skills
[Explosive Shot]

• Damage increased from 118 (0.35) to 169 (0.4).
• Cast-time increased from ½ second to ¾ second.
• After-cast adjusted from (current?) to 0.20 second.

[Poison Dart Volley]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Fire an arcing dart bomb from your pistol that explodes at target area, leaving a cloud that poisons foes.
• Explosion damage: 418 (1.3)
• Explosion poison: 3 seconds
• Explosion radius: 180
• Cloud duration: 3 seconds
• Cloud poison (3): 2 seconds
• Combo Field: Poison
• Minimum range: 180
• Range: 1200
  • This projectile arcs through the air. Projectile speed is 50% faster than that of the Warrior’s [Arcing Arrow].
  • This skill chains into another skill upon completion: [Detonate Poison Bomb].

[Detonate Poison Dart Bomb]

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Detonate your poison dart bomb in midair, raining down poisonous shrapnel onto the area below it.
• Small explosion: 165 (0.5)
• Poison: 3 seconds
• Number of impacts: 3
• Radius: 240
  • Uses the same mechanics as the Thief [Detonate Cluster] skill.
  • This skill has an automatic ¾-second long cool-down imposed upon it upon chaining to prevent immediate spam of this skill.

Pistol off-hand skills
[Blowtorch]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 2¼ seconds
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Channel a cone of flames from your pistol. The final burst of flame from this attack deals more damage the closer you are to your targets.
• First 3 hits damage (3x): 495 (0.5)
• Final burst at 200-600 range: Damage: 165 (0.5); Burning: 2 seconds
• Final burst at 0-200 range: Damage: 510 (0.9); Burning: 5 seconds
• Range: 600
  • Hits up to 5 foes.

Rifle skills
[Blunderbuss]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Fire a cloud of shrapnel that causes more damage the closer you are to foes.
• 600 – 400 range: Damage: 211 (0.5); Bleeding (1): 5 seconds
• 400 – 200 range: Damage: 386 (1.0); Bleeding (3): 5 seconds
• 200 – 0 range: Damage: 618 (1.6); Bleeding (5): 5 seconds
• Range: 600

[Overcharged Shot]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1¼ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Fire a blast so strong that it knocks back both you and your target. You also cure immobilized, crippled and chilled. This blast’s effect is stronger based on how long you channel it.
• Damage: 386 (1.0)
• Self knock-back distance: 300
• ¼-second channel: Foe knock-back distance: 450
• Full channel: Foe launch distance: 450
• Range: 400

WARRIOR CHANGES
Longbow skills
[Arcing Arrow]

• Recharge increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
• Added a minimum range: 180

[Pin Down]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Fire a piercing arrow that bleeds and immobilizes your target.
• Damage: 141 (0.4)
• Bleeding (6): 12 seconds
• Immobilized: 3 seconds
• Range: 1500
  • Movement interrupts cast-time; uses the same activation animation as [Kill Shot].

Hammer skills
[Fierce Blow]

• Cast-time increased from ¾ second to 1 second.

[Backbreaker]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1¼ second.
• Added a unique visual cue to help further distinguish this skill from [Crushing Blow].

Shield skills
[Shield Stance]

• Duration lowered from 3 to 2 seconds.
  • Now chains into another skill upon activation: [Shield Slam].

[Shield Slam]

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Slam the ground with your shield and blind adjacent foes with the resulting dust cloud.
• Damage: 134 (0.5)
• Blind: 5 seconds
• Radius: 180
• Combo Finisher: Blast
  • Using this skill preemptively ends the [Shield Stance] block channel.

Utility skills
[Endure Pain]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Stance. While in this stance, you gain 1500 vitality.
• Duration: 5 seconds
• Breaks stun.

[Berserker’s Stance]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Stance. While in this stance, incoming conditions on you have reduced durations. Each time you would be affected by a condition, you gain might and fury.
• Duration: 6 seconds
• Condition duration reduction: 50%
• Fury: 1 second
• Might (1): 3 seconds
  • Upon using this skill, the Warrior gains two buffs: 1 stack of Berserker’s vitality and 5 stacks of Berserker’s rage. Berserker’s vitality reduces incoming condition duration by 50% for the next 6 seconds. Berserker’s rage grants the warrior fury and might (as described in the skill description) each time that the warrior would come under the effects of a condition. Each time the warrior would be affected by a condition, the stack of Berserker’s rage decreases by 1. If a warrior were to be effected by a condition, but the condition pops up as “immune” due to its duration being reduced beyond the point of being registered, the stack of Berserker’s rage would still decrease by 1 and the warrior would gain the fury and might.

[Banner of Tactics]

• Buff duration increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Buff tick interval increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Regeneration duration passively granted by the banner reduced from (current?) to 2 seconds.

[Compassionate Banner]

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1½ seconds.

Dogged March (Defense – II)

• Regeneration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
• The regeneration proc now has a 15-second cool-down.

GUARDIAN CHANGES
Sword skills
[Flashing Blade]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Leap to target area and slash foes where you land, blinding them.
• Damage: 159 (0.5)
• Damage radius: 180
• Blind: 3 seconds
• Range: 600
• Uses the Warrior [Earthshaker] attack animation.

Utility skills
[Merciful Intervention]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Teleport to target location. If there was another ally at that location, you create a healing field.
• Healing: 1960
• Radius: 180
• Range: 900

MESMER CHANGES
Greatsword skills
[Mirror Blade]

• Recharge increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
• This skill is no longer unblockable.

[Mind Stab]

• Recharge increased from 12 to 15 seconds.
• Now removes up to 2 boons.

Staff skills
[Phase Retreat]

• Cast-time increased from 0 to ¼ second.

[Phantasmal Warlock]

• Recharge increased from 18 to 20 seconds.

[Chaos Storm]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Create a magical storm at target location that builds boons on allies and conditions on foes. The final pulse dazes and removes up to 1 boon from weakened foes.
• Damage (4x): 1008 (0.8)
• Boon to ally: Swiftness: 6 seconds
• Boon to ally with swiftness: Regeneration: 3 seconds
• Boon to ally with regeneration: Fury: 1 second
• Condition to foe: Cripple: 2 seconds
• Condition to crippled foe: Poison: 5 seconds
• Condition to poisoned foe: Weakness: 1 second
• Daze: 1 second
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Radius: 180
• Combo Field: Light
• Range: 1200
  • [Chaos Storm] uses the same pulse schedule as [Lava Font].
  • This skill always checks the conditions/boons present on a given target, then chooses which boon/condition to apply.

Utility skills
[Feedback]

• This skill is now ground-targeted.

[Mirror Images]

• Upon activation, this skill puts [Mind Wrack] and [Cry of Frustration] into a 2-second cool-down if either of them are off cool-down respectively.

[Mimic]

• Recharge lowered from 25 to 20 seconds.
• Duration reduced from 4½ to 2½ seconds.
• Now grants 2 seconds of protection upon activation.

Traits
Prismatic Understanding (Chaos – XII)

• Now grants vigor (2 seconds) instead of aegis.
• Now grants swiftness (4 seconds) instead of protection.
• Regeneration granted reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.