Guild Wars 2

Sarrs.4831:

Swagg.9236:

Yes, but then that’s you just accepting a clumsy mechanic. Why just take it when there is a clear solution to the problem?

Is it really that clumsy?

If I have someone targeted, that means I want to attack them. The game will send my leap skills at them.

If I don’t have someone targeted, that means I want to leap forward. The game will send my leap skills forward.

Not hard. I just need to get used to it. I’d have more trouble telling the game to do what I want with instant-CD chain abilities because of accidental double taps.

Selecting a target amidst AI clutter is clumsy. Juggling targets in mid-combat is clumsy. Detargeting an enemy just to use a skill as a movement ability and then being forced to quickly retarget should to want to reengage is clumsy.

I’m not making a debate on whether or not using the current system is difficult or not (which is what you are trying to turn it into). Rather, I’m saying that combat in general would feel more responsive, rewarding and would rely more on player skill if movement-based attack skills were simply redesigned to allow the user to make precise attacks without the targeting system. Then, I made the proposal on exactly which current mechanics to utilize in order to make this possible.

Sarrs.4831:

Swagg.9236:

Just imagine if you could skip that step and just use [Swoop] because you knew where you wanted to go.

I could alternatively just learn to detarget when I leave an engagement. That way swoop’s adjustments mid-attack will still happen.

Yes, but then that’s you just accepting a clumsy mechanic. Why just take it when there is a clear solution to the problem?

Sarrs.4831:

you can already turn off autotargeting

Are you implying that I don’t already have that off?
Are you implying that turning off auto-targeting, deselecting targets and then using almost any ranged skill (movement skill or otherwise) freely means that the player has any real control over whether or not that skill will hit a target reliably?

Sarrs.4831:

i need to get used to swoop tho, i keep targeting random people and forgetting to detarget them and i jump off a million miles into the past

Just imagine if you could skip that step and just use [Swoop] because you knew where you wanted to go.

Sarrs.4831:

@9:00 “I am actually playing the game! It’s not playing itself for me!” calm down dude it’s just a leap skill

That one isn’t even a leap skill. It’s a cleaving melee attack that targets foes within its conical reticle. It doesn’t rely on the game’s targeting system so the player can freely determine where the player wants to move at all times simply based on their perspective rather than having to click a target and then rely on the computer to properly guide the attack for the player.

Sarrs.4831:

also gj on the sneaky heartseeker nerf

I took the updated damage and effects from my Thief thread. I’ve had plenty of discussion already about why that class doesn’t really even deserve to exist in GW2, but since it’s there and people would cry if it were removed, I’ve made the best of the situation with those changes.

The game was never well-balanced to begin with despite adopting a very easy, basic, brain-dead skill model for the sake of balance.

This most recent patch actually managed to make some aspects of the pre-patch meta even more broken, while bringing back unbalanced game mechanics that used to exist long ago in the game’s history.

Just play something else. It’s not going to get any better.

vinceftw.5086:

Burning Speed is already a skillshot

There’s nothing skillful about a 240-radius, high-damage, single-pulse AoE attack, ESPECIALLY now that it grants the player evasion frames while activating it. Furthermore, as rhodoc said, [Burning Speed] doesn’t give the player any real freedom of movement when activating it. It just forces the player to dash directly forward.

vinceftw.5086:

as you have to manually aim where you go, it doesn’t automatically go to your enemy, just like Fire Grab (x/D Fire 5).

[Fire Grab] could also benefit from this skill design. Just as what I demonstrated in the video, [Fire Grab] could be exactly that attack animation: aim the reticle, release the reticle, lunge in the target direction and damage those foes.

digiowl.9620:

Reminds me that grasping dead was meant to be a line of skeletal hands early on.

I was actually going to touch on that in the video, but I didn’t want it to get too long. The video that I had made that did include the commentary on the old [Grasping Dead] ended up being somewhere near 40 minutes long. I’d be all for bringing back the alpha [Grasping Dead], but I’d be more for giving that mechanic to a lot of ground-based projectile skills that already exist in the game but attempt to track targets with sticky-targeting instead: [Tremor] and [Shockwave] come to mind.

digiowl.9620:

But supposedly ANet went with the GTAOE because people had trouble hitting thanks to lag.

And with the current camera system skill shots become a crap shot, imo.

I’ve discussed this sort of thing at length with another person and I’m still not sure that sacrificing rewarding game-play because “lag” or—even worse—“it’s hard to aim,” is worth it for the health of the game as a whole. One way to compensate would be to simply make the projectile hitboxes somewhat larger and then add more defined animation cues to the associated skills.

Jzaku.9765:

All that ranting was hilarious to watch.

One concern I have is that your changes involve making all gap closers AoEs. AoE Eviscerate or Heartseeker would be pretty kitten strong, would the increased skill required to land those skills justify that?

The radii for the AoE Heartseeker, Eviscerate, etc, etc would be 120 or 100. Those two numbers would be the ones to test. Start at 100. If everyone cries that it’s impossible to aim, increase to 120, but no more than that. Anything like 150 or—heaven forbid—180 radius on such a thing would be absolutely insane.

Jzaku.9765:

Speaking of that, don’t forget Earthshaker, it has the exact same stop-in-mid-air-problem even if the targeting on that skill is miles better. The chain skill after the leap would simply not require Adrenaline to use and change in effectiveness depending on the rank of Adrenaline used for the leap.

Yeah, it would be nice to fix that somehow, but, as I’ve said, I think the key to making that work is making it a chain skill with the second chain some kind of form that just rides the player into the ground beneath him/her. I dunno. Could be interesting.

Reserved for future skill updates:
[Fiery Rush]
[Swoop]

Additional mechanic explanations.

Reserved for future skill updates:

[Fiery Rush]
[Swoop]

Elementalist dagger main-hand (fire)
[Burning Speed] (3-1)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Quickly slide in a target direction, leaving behind a line of fire that burns foes.
• Line damage: 34 (0.1)
• Line duration: 4 seconds
• Combo Field: Fire
• Range: 600
  • This skill now uses a ground-targeted directional reticle ala Warrior [Whirlwind Strike].
  • This skill now chains into another skill upon cast-completion: [Star Burst]

[Star Burst] (3-2)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Blast the area around you with a powerful explosion.
• Damage: 672 (2.0)
• Damage radius: 180
• Burning: 1 second

Important notes about [Star Burst]:
Due to the fact that [Burning Speed] does not make the user airborne, there’s no real need to worry about coding [Star Burst] to function as an instant-cast form. The only caveat with that, though, is that using [Burning Speed] off of a cliff or any elevation will probably prevent the player from using the chain skill given that the player will be in mid-air for that duration and the chain skill will only be available for a very short time.

[Star Burst] does not root the player during its cast-time, but it’s PBAoE will only affect the area at which the skill was first activated.

Warrior sword off-hand
[Savage Charge] (4-1)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Dash in a target direction.
• Range: 600
  • This skill now uses a ground-targeted directional reticle ala Warrior [Whirlwind Strike].
  • While dashing, the Warrior is posed in the final animation frame of the Warrior [Final Thrust] attack.
  • This skill now chains into another skill upon cast-completion: [Impale].

[Impale] (4-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Thrust your sword in the target direction. If you strike a foe, you and that foe are immobilized. This attack bleeds vulnerable foes. This attack strips up to 2 boons from foes.
• Damage: 179 (0.55)
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Self-immobilize: 1 second
• Bleeding vs vulnerable foes (5): 10 seconds
• Range: 130
  • This skill uses the Charradis Estate Bug Catching Jar reticle to aim its attack.
  • This skill cleaves.

Physical skills
[Bull’s Rush]

Thief dagger main-hand
[Heartseeker] (2-1)

• Cast-time: 0
• Initiative cost: 3
• Leap in a target direction.
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 450
  • This skill now uses a ground-targeted directional reticle ala Warrior [Whirlwind Strike].
  • This skill now chains into another skill upon completion: [Heart Striker].

[Heart Striker] (2-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Initiative cost: 1
• Crash down onto the ground beneath you, striking adjacent foes. This attack is more powerful against foes with less health.
• vs foes with 100% – 50% hp: Damage: 252 (0.75); Vulnerability (3): 5 seconds
• vs foes with 50% – 25% hp: Damage: 402 (1.1); Vulnerability (5): 5 seconds
• vs foes with 25% – 0% hp: Damage: 618 (1.5); Vulnerability (10): 5 seconds
• Damage radius: 120
  • This skill strikes up to 3 foes.
  • This chain skill remains active for up to 1 second.

Warrior sword main-hand
[Savage Leap] (2-1)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Leap in a target direction.
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 600
  • This skill now uses a ground-targeted directional reticle ala Warrior [Whirlwind Strike].
  • This skill now chains into another skill upon completion: [Savage Strike].

[Savage Strike] (2-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Crash down onto the ground beneath you and cripple adjacent foes.
• Damage: 252 (0.75)
• Damage radius: 120
• Crippled: 3 seconds
  • This skill strikes up to 3 foes.
  • This chain skill remains active for up to 1.5 seconds.

Warrior axe main-hand
[Executioner’s Leap] (F1-1)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Leap in a target direction.
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 300

[Eviscerate] (F1-2)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Crash down into the ground, slashing adjacent foes with a devastating attack.
• Level 1 damage: 672 (2.0)
• Level 2 damage: 840 (2.5)
• Level 3 damage: 1008 (3.0)
• Damage radius: 120
  • This skill strikes up to 3 foes.
  • This chain skill remains active for up to 1 second.

Guardian greatsword
[Leap of Faith] (3-1)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Leap in a target direction.
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 600
  • This skill now uses a ground-targeted directional reticle ala Warrior [Whirlwind Strike].
  • This skill now chains into another skill upon completion: [Stonesoul Strike].

Important notes about [Leap of Faith]:
The lack of a channel time imposed on the actual movement animation allows that animation to be interrupted by skill use because the leaping animation is no longer actually a skill. This sets the player up to use this skill’s subsequent chain skill while still in mid-movement.

[Stonesoul Strike] (3-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Crash down onto the ground beneath you, blinding and damaging adjacent foes.
• Damage: 406 (1.0)
• Damage radius: 180
• Blind: 3 seconds
  • This chain skill remains active for up to 1.5 seconds.

Important notes about [Stonesoul Strike]
Due to the fact that [Leap of Faith] technically takes the Guardian into the air, we must circumvent the issue of skills not being able to be activated in mid-air. There are a few skills available to players that can be activated while in mid-air. Among them are Elementalist attunements as well as [Ride the Lightning]. [Ride the Lightning] perhaps contains the best “solution code” for solving the issue of implementing [Stonesoul Strike].

[Ride the Lightning] is technically classified as a “Form” in addition to not having a cast-time. It disables all skills until the skill runs its course. My theory is that those two principles are the fundamental code that allow [Ride the Lightning] to be used in mid-air unlike most other skills.

Therefore, one way to implement such a chain skill like what we see with [Leap of Faith] into [Soulstone Strike] is to give [Leap of Faith] a very short activation animation that leads into a non-channeled movement animation. Then, [Stonesoul Strike] is classified as a form. This form technically has an instant activation time; the ½-second “cast-time” in the tool-tip describes roughly how long the attack animation takes to resolve once in the [Stonesoul Strike] form. After that attack animation resolves, the Guardian then travels directly down until it strikes the ground. Upon landing, [Stonesoul Strike] then applies its effects to the area.

The [Stonesoul Strike] form lasts for up to 2 seconds, and while in this form, the Guardian moves at a speed of 600 range/second (in the same manner as [Ride the Lightning]). This duration and movement speed increase is to not only allow the Guardian to travel to the ground quickly after the attack animation so as to minimize the lag-time between attack animation and [Stonesoul Strike]’s effects, but it also exists to allow the Guardian to perhaps leap off of a high elevation and potential strike foes that are some distance below instead of letting [Stonesoul Strike] simply peter out some distance above a valid target that is far below the Guardian as what often happens now with [Leap of Faith].

The above video hopes to shed some light on potential mechanical improvements for GW2 in general.

This topic is about the potential of making movement skills into “skill-shots.” A skill-shot is typically defined by the idea that the effort of successfully striking a given target is put primarily in the hands of the player as opposed to relying on a sticky-targeting system. With respect to the video, here is a remade [Leap of Faith] that no longer requires a target to hit reliably and puts the act of striking a target in the hands of the player:

DeWolfe.2174:

Burning Speed: This skill now evades attacks. <—- even when the dev’s first announced this on twitch I said, “wth are you thinking?” Must revert this as it’s way to high of damage attack and a gap closer to have an evade. There has to be a cost to using it.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Witness one of the few people on this forum that actually managed to have a good thought.

Gardavil.1762:

Feedback:

Anet nerfed my characters into the dirt today by taking away almost all Traits my characters had earned. I am not a good enough Player to reach level 80. That’s right, I am not good enough at this game… but I love parts of GW2 enough that I had kept the game installed so I could return one day.
Well today I log in and my highest character, lvl 51 ELE has four traits out of the over 15 he used to have. FOUR. I was having a hard enough time as it is.

Anet doesn’t want People like me playing their MMO. Anet must want the Players that can breeze through leveling content to 80, which I admit I have had a hard time doing. Without those traits, and the benefits I each of my characters got from them, the game is now beyond my abilities.

These changes were great for the gazillion lvl 80s, but not good for Players that have a hard time with this game. Anet decided whom their preferred customers are and I am not on the list.

I am not rage quitting, I just realize I don’t belong here and there is no sense in holding out hope I might play GW2 again.

Feedback Given. Resigned from Guild. All Characters deleted. Game Uninstalled.

It began with a separation between PvP and PvE armor stats. The game was destined to be a profound pile of garbage at that point. The game laid belly-down at the start of a slope that sluiced into a pile of gear grind.

Then came ascended rings. The game was diagnosed with a terminal cancer: November 2012.

Now we have time-gated crafting and events for amulets, rings, back-pieces, earrings, weapons and armor—gear grind that amounts to over a month’s time of waiting and hundreds of gold. Now we’re getting grind for traits. We’re getting more dead levels which grant players nothing proving that fact that GW2 has 50 too many levels and that “80 levels” was probably little more than an arbitrary number drummed up by some developer as a means to attract the WoW crowd.

Meanwhile, gold is now harder to find in overworld PvE to the point that leveling to 80 will probably not provide the player with nearly enough to acquire end-game gear.

There is only grind now.
There is only cancerous PvP.
There is only zerging.
There is only a game that plays itself.
There is only a sword.

Oh, hey, I swung it again.

daros.3407:

Is this allowed?

Thieves? I guess. It is a shame, though.

Dadnir.5038:

“[Signet of Spite]

Gain 5% LF for disabling a foe. Only good while in DS. Can be activated while outside of DS. Long cool-down. Self-sustain."

Should I say that you got no utility skill while in DS? Meaning that signet passive doesn’t work while in DS.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t CC foes outside of DS. What I meant by “only good in DS” is that you’re gaining Life Force with that proc. You can’t use that proc’s bonus in any place other than in DS. Given DS’s nature as a second hp-bar, it is classified as self-sustain.

Dadnir.5038:

Overall, I’m still feeling that you overcharge Locust. Necro have already tons of direct heals for support. Do you really feel signets need an option to do that to?

Necromancer party-based healing is very limited to the Transfusion or Deathly Invigoration traits. The addition of an actual skill that can contribute to this could provide the Necromancer with a clutch response to pressure. Moreover, it’s a short AoE CC skill that allows the party to make snap repositioning maneuvers in the middle of a fight.

Dadnir.5038:

You shouldn’t buff ele active effect because there will be forever the wonderfull “writen in stone” trait to support signet. There are already builds that use perfectly this trait with signet and even if they are not part of this meta you hate so much, they are viable. Your changes on ele signet would totally overbuff these build. Not that i won’t be happy to see this coming but this would be imbalanced.

First of all, you mean passive effect. In any case, I’ve kept that trait in mind. It would be best to just throw it out. It’s not something that promotes skillful play (traits really don’t do a good job at promoting skillful play in the first place). Getting along without it is better off for signets in general. I’m also aware that there are other signet-based traits that would need changes/removal in order to support the new, more active signets.

Dadnir.5038:

Guards, Signet of wrath and Warrs, Signet of Might : How can you even think of overpowered active effect like theses?

Giving Guardians a taunt skill?

• This is something for PvE and for teamfights in PvP. It adds a short burst of a dangerous mechanic to which enemy players must react in PvP. In PvE, it provides the Guardian a means to draw attention away from allies in emergency situations.

Giving Warriors a fire field outside of longbow?

• This is to promote more build diversity. I’ve made sure to adjust the damage so that it’s not too terribly strong. It’s 180 radius also ensures that it isn’t blanketing an entire area in damage.
  
  [quote=3878751;Dadnir.5038:]
  Signet on Ranger are meant to buff your pet. [/quote]
  Says who? The guys that are working on this game? Their track record is awful, man. We can’t trust them to make it any better. The Signet of the Beastmaster trait is on the same level as the Grenadier trait. Traits shouldn’t exist to “complete” a play-style. They should work to amplify it or change how it works, but selling a player a play-style that is only fully functional when equipped with certain traits is just bad design.

Updates

• All Ranger signets
• Warrior Signet of Might (passive)

Ether Renewal is a model for what healing skills should be. Use a skill in conjunction with it if you’re worried about it being interrupted. Break off from combat if you can if you’re going to use it. Overly forgiving healing skills is one of this game’s many cancers. Stop encouraging more.

The majority of this game’s damage doesn’t necessarily need nerfs. The majority of this game’s damage simply needs to be better cued. Post-cast delays, longer cast-times, less emphasis on auto-attack damage, longer auto-attack intervals, the addition of projectiles to single-target skills that don’t have them, more red circles, AoEs pulsing at the end of every second instead of the beginning and—in some cases—smaller AoEs can clear up this issue much more effectively for everyone than would a simple nerf to the damage.

ThiBash.5634:

My aim is to make staff slightly better at 1v1 duelling without adding anything that’ll make them more powerful in general. I’m fully aware of how the staff ele works, in fact I count myself among the biggest supporters.

Then get better at it. It’s a viable 1v1 spec in many situations if the pilot is actually thinking ahead. Remember that battles start at a distance of 3000 range.

ThiBash.5634:

Staff doesn’t need huge changes or overhauls, just some tweaks. Any dot field already has the ‘move out of it’ balance option. What I’m asking for is to make the necro’s instant field damage apply to Lava Font too. And if you’d have read my post, you’d have seen I already ‘removed’ the suggestion anyway.

You want to remove the idea of tracking a target or setting up a strike for damage. This is a simple skill that any ordinary human should be able to handle. Please don’t attempt to remove one of the few bastions of this skill that remains in the game.

ThiBash.5634:

If you solution to a skill not working is “don’t use it” then you’ve effectively admitted that it’s in need of a change. So thanks for supporting my argument even if your intent was to talk me down.

A non-reliance on an auto-attack is healthy of the game. Active, cool-down-balanced skill use that delivers well-cued attacks creates more legible combat for defenders and rewarding combat for attackers.

In the end, here’s your problem: the majority of GW2 is broken/overpowered, so—instead of attempting to tone things down (the more difficult way because such efforts would need to incorporate the entire game)—you just want to buff the things that are actually well-balanced. Stop that.

ThiBash.5634:

Lava Font

Problem
Lava Font starts to deal damage at the ‘end of the second’ rather than at the start. This makes dodging it even easier. Maybe this used to be an issue during the beta, but given the current state of the game, it’s a leftover relic.

It’s a leftover relic of a time where we had more charge-up skills and more ground-based projectile skills that required a fan-shaped ground-targeted aiming reticle. If anything, they were a better time.

ThiBash.5634:

Solution
Make it deal its damaging pulses at the start of the second.

Pros
-It’ll make it easier for eles to hit without really adding much to their overall dps.
-Other skills work like this too. Only Lava Font doesn’t.

This fact doesn’t make a difference in PvE.

If you’re playing in PvP, lead your targets or place it in an area that you don’t want a target to go. It does extremely high damage per pulse when the player is built for power damage, and sometimes controlling an enemy’s movement is more effective than raw damage, especially in team fights.

ThiBash.5634:

Cons
-There was a reason for this implementation that’s currently lost on me. Feel free to enlighten me.

You’re further encouraging the development of spammy gameplay that is void of aiming, timing, positioning or thinking. Giving players the opportunity to dodge something is what is supposed to balance this game. By removing that opportunity, you’re asking that GW2 become more like Runescape (as if it really already isn’t close in resemblance). Stop that.

Build your combos and don’t auto-attack in water unless you’re fighting Mai Trin with max stacks. Stop being bad.

Sarrs.4831:

Basing suggestions on suggestions is, to put it gently, a little silly.

Hardly. If we’re talking about solutions in-game issues, it’s best to take everything holistically.

Sarrs.4831:

There is nothing inherently wrong with a passive effect. This is an RPG; you have stats which have passive effects, but that doesn’t mean that there are no decisions going into those passive effects. When you take a signet- even if you’re planning on leaving it completely unused- you are making a conscious decision.

Yes, but signets are a conscious decision before combat. Once combat starts, nobody can do anything about a player’s signet and sometimes not even the player will do anything with that signet. It’s boring. It’s a -1 to the net skill total

Sarrs.4831:

Signets already have decisions going into them with their use. Sure, some are less impactful than others (180 power on Signet of Spite- Who cares?)

You’re making a joke if you think that a flat +180 power is nothing.

Sarrs.4831:

but when you activate a signet, you are losing out on something.

And in your last sentence you just asked “Who cares?” with regards to a specific signet’s passive. There’s clearly an issue here.

Sarrs.4831:

If you leave your signets unused just to keep their passive effects, you’re losing out on something.

Common knowledge dictates that (with regards to PvP) the only signet active that a player should never use is [Healing Signet]—and maybe [Signet of Restoration] (especially because that’s going to be buffed now—how awful). Most other signets that players take have active abilities that far outweigh whatever the passive could bring to a battle (even if that passive might be incredibly powerful on its own).

The end of all this is that the decision to not use a signet active or to use a signet active for any given signet is made the second that the player slots it in. It’s an already-made decision. It’s not skillful or even conscious game-play. That’s what I’m trying to change.

Sarrs.4831:

Again, you’re approaching the problem in the wrong way. You’ve got an unclear goal from the outset, your solution to this unclear problem is creating very real problems, and those very real problems are causing you to bend over backwards to try to fix them. Go back to the start and accurately identify the problem with signets as it stands.

The problem has always been very clear: passive game-play is not fun nor fair. “Bend over backwards” is a funny way of saying that I need to nerf a few things. I’ve gone back and removed/reduced quite a few aspects of the more overpowered signet passives. I completely changed [Signet of the Locust], but only back to what I had in mind for its original change.

“Bend over backwards” might be a way to describe what I’m doing here with the changes on the whole, but even then the goal is very clear (replace flat passive bonuses with bonuses triggered by active skill use/situational conditions). Moreover, not only do the suggested changes use nothing but already-implemented core game mechanics, but the changes require nothing more than a little creativity. This isn’t difficult and its goal is to make GW2’s combat more legible and rewarding.

Sarrs.4831:

Few points here;
1. It’s kitten point spend. 10 in Spite, 15 in Curses, 30 in Soul Reaping.
2. It’s not really a “single weapon set” that benefits from it. You can use pretty much every weapon combination with it. Every necro has Death Shroud, every necro can use the boons that the trait spread gives, and every necro can use the boons that the signets would give.

While it’s true that every Necromancer gets DS, it is effectively a weapon-swap.

Sarrs.4831:

3. That’s not quite the decision making process that you’d make. From the outset of the build, you’d be saying “do I want to murder people in the face with Life Blast” or “do I want to get a bunch of effects for turning on DS”.

Fair enough. That’s why I nerfed a few of the suggestions. Even so, given that you already admitted to the fact that already committing to a 10-15-0-0-30 trait spread is a bad idea, we’re walking on thin ice with the argument that it’s going to be a broken set-up. Furthermore a reduction to Furious Demise (Curses – 15 point minor) from 5 seconds to 3 seconds of fury would also help reduce the window of powerful bonuses for “turning on DS.”

In any case, let’s take a look at some of the effects that we get for turning on DS:
[Signet of Vampirism]

• Party members siphon life with their next attack. Low damage. Emphasis on healing. Critical damage of (37 (0.1)) x 5 won’t hit for much more than 1000 damage even if all party members are at +3k power with 47% critical damage. Primarily party support.

[Plague Signet]

• Pulls up to 1 condition from nearby allies to you. Party support.
• Cure 1 condition when leaving DS. Self sustain.

[Signet of Spite]

• Gain 5% LF for disabling a foe. Only good while in DS. Can be activated while outside of DS. Long cool-down. Self-sustain.

[Signet of the Locust]

• Perma/nearly perma-swiftness. Mobility/Self-sustain.

[Signet of Undeath]

• Gain 5% LF when entering DS. Only good while in DS. Self-sustain.

In the end, when we’re looking at these bonuses, most of them amount to nothing more than party support or self-sustain. There’s no damage boosters here. The game-changing effects come from the actives rather than the passives in this case. Besides, we can probably agree that the Necromancer needs more party-support/self-sustain options. I might add a cool-down to [Signet of Undeath]’s passive, though.

Updates

• Most Warrior signets
• Most Necromancer signets
• Guardian [Signet of Wrath] (passive)
• Elementalist [Signet of Earth] (passive)

I’ll be working on Ranger signets next.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I’m just going to say that I’m done debating you. At the end of the day almost all your suggestions are the definition of impractical. As it has been said by others you’ve pretty much redesigned the ENTIRE combat system and every change is very complex.

Every mechanic that I utilize is already implemented in the game in some way. Heaven forbid that there exist levels of conscious decision-making in GW2 combat—because there really aren’t right now.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I offer a lot of suggestions but most of the time it’s just cool down or damage changes or transferring already present mechanics onto something else.

Tweaking cool-downs/damage/durations on skills that are “Press button; receive boon” in many cases isn’t going to change anything in the long run, no matter how many times you do it.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Small suggestions are almost always the ones that get implemented. Almost every Warrior buff came from some sort of thread from CI, Zerker Stance, being able to move during Staggering Blow, whatever.

I won’t say that small QoL changes to certain skills aren’t out of the question, but there are a lot of skills in this game that are either overpowered or underpowered by virtue of their simplicity and passive nature. It’s possible to fix this and make GW2 combat much more legible and engaging for everyone.

Nike.2631:

I’m guessing the Superior Runes of Resistance would jump in price about 4-5 fold if any of this happened.

Could be cool. The 6/6 cool-down could maybe use an increase (maybe 45 or 60 seconds), but aside from that, it’d be interesting to see players use something else other than Lyssa, Divinity, Strength (what with the new changes) or condition-based runes.

Sarrs.4831:

problem: signets is boring ey
solution: lets tie them into class mechanics
collateral damage: none cos my changes is sick, innit

Onto actual feedback:
Generally speaking, I don’t think this is a good idea.

Signets being deactivated when they’re on cooldown is meaningless when the skill they’re tied to is on cooldown as well. Right off the bat, Signet of Resolve- It doesn’t matter if it gets deactivated because your Resolve cooldown is longer than your Signet cooldown.

Secondarily, this system would let you double up on the effects of your traits. Consider a necromancer who flips Death Shroud to get boons; at the moment, he can get Retaliation, Fury and Stability if he’s specced fully in that direction. After the change, he’ll get this monster list of effects for pressing a single button:

Retaliation: 3s
Fury: 5s
Stability: 3s
Swiftness: 10s
8% Life Force
Pull 3 Conditions
8% Life Force on DS->Fear
(Minus one of these effects, because he only has 3 signet slots)

And when he leaves:
10s 2xMight
Drain HP on next attack
Cure a condition

All on a 7 second cooldown.

And I don’t even know what problem you’re trying to fix by making these changes. You’ve gone on in your previous threads about how everything should be counterable blah blah blah, when overhauling signets like this completely contradicts that idea by making the use of signets a very easy decision.

I can see that as a problem. It’s difficult to come up with solutions, though, seeing that Necromancer has only 1 F-button. Even so, that’s a lot of DS-related traits and skills. Taking full signets (with these changes) and DS-related traits has the potential to make DS very powerful, but it consumes all utility slots as well as things like weapon-skill cool-down traits. It is a shame, though, that Necromancer has only 1 F-skill. It’s the same issue with Thief and Warrior. The Thief F1, for instance, is incredibly overpowered, but mostly because it’s an instant-cast direct-to-target teleport.

To speak more on the topics of the traits themselves, taking Foot in the Grave (Soul Reaping — XI) removes the possibility of taking Deathly Perception (Soul Reaping — XII), which is a very DS power-build-defining trait. Furthermore, to achieve the bonuses that you talked about in your post, you’d need to spend 50 trait points. Spending 50 trait points for a single weapon set is a risk in itself--especially when you have to make the decision between “Do I want to wreck everyone with [Life Blast] and run the risk of being CC’ed all the time or do I want to have some stability in order to get a few skills off while in DS?” Moreover, I already proposed a nerf to [Doom] that would add a 0.5 post-cast delay to its effect as a means to give the enemy player a way of seeing the fear coming. To that effect, CC’ing someone with [Doom] isn’t necessarily a near freebee anymore.

Despite all that, I get what you mean. I myself though that I was tying a few too many signet bonuses to DS activation, but I went with it anyway because that’s the point of this thread: the discussion. I’ll look into nerfing a few of the current necro signet passives/changing the means in which bonuses proc.

Sarrs.4831:

You really should open your threads with what the problem is, rather than what you’re trying to do so it ends up being like.

I just dislike repeating myself. I’ve already said a lot in regards to passives being bad and how this game uses a lot of active mechanics that are simply neutered by stacking passives and spamming skills. I guess I could force myself to put something else in the OP.

It still just boggles my mind that people think that loads of passives per player in a game without a dedicated healer is just… fine. Nobody thinks about these things.

BurrTheKing.8571:

The addition of Protection would require reworking the ENTIRE class, which ANet would never do. Also, my point still stands that Protection is the Guardian thing, regen

Guardian has a built-in class mechanic that grants regeneration. The passive regeneration provided by [Healing Signet] is overpowered. Moreover, hen an entire class is defined by a single skill because of the uncounterable passive bonus that it provides, there is a problem.

BurrTheKing.8571:

and health is the Warrior thing.

All that health does very little to stop Warriors from dying if they don’t run overpowered skills such as [Endure Pain], [Berserker Stance] and [Healing Signet]. Warriors need their godmode. The goal to fix that is to remove the invulnerabilities, remove the excessive passive regeneration and introduce clutch, active damage mitigation.

BurrTheKing.8571:

It isn’t “work” to gain adrenaline, you do it naturally by fighting. Some of those changes you make also screw you over for using your class mechanic, not good. It’s the same reason why Healing Surge isn’t good. If you don’t have adrenaline,

If you don’t have adrenaline, you don’t use [Healing Surge]. It’s a good way to manage a strong healing mechanic. This isn’t an “it’s underpowered” issue, it’s a “learn to play issue around the balancing mechanics” issue.

BurrTheKing.8571:

the thing youre supposed to be using just like a Necro is supposed to use DS, it doesn’t heal for jack considering the CD. If you only have those bonuses while at full adren, you probably won’t have them very often at all. Even with the signets that give you boons at certain adrenaline levels, you don’t always have DIRECT control over when you get them. With Stances at least you control when those activate. You see a power spike coming, Endure Pain, Condis? Zerker Stance. If you wanted to save the Protection for when you actually WANT it that would require not hitting anything.

Invulnerabilities are overpowered. They have no proper counter-play. For the sake of promoting consistent, two-way active play between a player and an opponent, invulnerabilities should be culled/removed and replaced with more active, single-use forms of damage mitigation.

BurrTheKing.8571:

All this does is take more control from the player. It’s not random per-say but it’s not easily controllable either. I don’t want Protection while a guy is playing defensively but I also don’t want to let up the pressure. So again, I would never want these changes.

The point of the protection on [Dolyak Signet] is to provide the Warrior with some damage mitigation at the opening of an encounter.

In any case, [Dolyak Signet]’s passive granting protection was sort of an off-handed thought that attempts to mimic the current passive. I suppose a lot of things could be granted from movement skills.

However, in the end, this is all ANet’s fault for making Protection absolute garbage. It would be a much better boon if it stacked in charges rather than intensity or duration. Each stack of protection would simply grant 1% damage reduction in the way that vulnerability stacks increased damage. If this were the case, we wouldn’t necessarily have to worry about the boon itself being overpowered in the hands of some classes. ANet’s fault.

LastDay.3524:

Why on earth would you remove passives?
That makes no sense at all.

Based off of its core elements, GW2 tends toward active play. However, these elements are choked by passive effects and spam-centric game-play. Over time we have seen active components of GW2 such as dodging, positioning and timed blocks become less and less effective as spam-centric specs propelled by passive effects have come to dominate the game. By culling/removing/remaking such effects, we can have a game that’s based more on active/reactive game-play than what we have now: face-tank enemy passive-infused spam; retaliate with passive-infused spam; pray you aren’t wrecked by something off-screen/invisible procs.

LastDay.3524:

Not entirely true.
You could opt to use a condi transfer or Consume Conditions, try to save the condi removal for later to keep the speed and have the stunbreak for… well, a stun.
Alternatively use the signet, hope to save the transfer for something else.

Once more, that’s not an interesting choice: that’s a rotation. You start with the skill that you’re least worried about using as an emergency button and move up from there based on the situation. Rotations aren’t choices; they’re schema.

The goal here is to make skills that break up schema. A long channel skill focused on party-healing would be a means to do that. If the player or a fellow party member is dying, it might be worth it to interrupt the current rotation in order to prevent anyone from going down.

LastDay.3524:

Toss elixir R is 1/4s cast and yeah it’s pretty nice.

[Toss Elixir R] needs a 1-second cast-time at least.

LastDay.3524:

Signet of Undeath is an instant res, yes, but 3 sec is too long.
People usually die before it finishes casting.

Not if you keep an eye on player hp bars. The best way to use a rez skill is to anticipate the down (almost plan it; say “Yeah, go down, I’ve got you. Just don’t move.”) and preemptively begin casting the skill at a predetermined location. Because it doesn’t require a target (the best part about those skills), it allows for clutch plays based on timing and planning. Lowering the cast-time just cheapens that aspect of the skill.

LastDay.3524:

Signet of Undeath gives 1% Life Force every 3 seconds.
That’s 3% Life Force total in 9 seconds.

Alright, you’re talking about the current functionality. Yes. That’s a passive. I told you that I’m changing those.

LastDay.3524:

In my opinion it just needs a more visible cast animation and longer cast time to make it more about risk/reward.

When a skill has a reward like “win the encounter,” cast-times aren’t going to be enough to balance it properly. Projectiles typically rely on the sticky-target system which is another thing from which I’m moving away with these suggestions. It’s much more intuitive for both players and opponents to have ground-targeted skills (circles or lines) with either delays, travel-time or—with regards to lines—hit-boxes that prevent effects from immediately affecting a target just because the line was placed over top of it.

LastDay.3524:

To me your suggestion sounds like a new skill rather than a rework.
Something like “Spectral: Wall of Spite”
Also I wanna point out that (unless it has been changed) NPCs only have around 5% chance to crit.
The said skill would thus only really be useful against players, and only work well on builds that use lots of Precision.
(Heh, I do miss GW1’s Spiteful Spirit. Fun times!)

No new skills. Fix the old ones before adding new ones.

LastDay.3524:

Signet of the Locust has a nice passive.

But it’s a passive. That’s what I’m working to remove.

LastDay.3524:

I don’t use it because the Active sucks.
The Active needs to Stunbreak (like you suggested).
Also make it remove Immob and Cripple.
Would help with Necro’s crippling (ha) weakness to CC.
Activating it would mean you lose 25% move speed for 60s but get rid of Immob and Cripple right away.
An interesting choice to make, I bet!

It’s not an interesting choice; it’s a no-brainer. Immobilize kills people. Of course you would press the button. The active’s cool-down, however, is far too long for what it does.

In any case, I’d rather see a signet active that promotes active play rather than something that you press after you got hit by something.

LastDay.3524:

Signet of Undeath’s Active used to be OP in sPvP.
It had a 2s cast time instead of the current 3s.
It was situational in PvE. Now pretty bad.

Getting players up with rez signets is very possible in PvP much less PvE. You simply have to be aware of what’s happening and sometimes trust in your teammates to make good decisions if someone goes down. Three seconds should be the base-line for all non-percentage-based revive skills (i.e. Toss Elixir R).

LastDay.3524:

The Passive… well that part just sucks.
The Passive is too slow for an effect that only works in combat.
Just make it work both in and out of combat!
It’s still painfully slow, but would help saving up some Life Force during off-time.

“I want a free 8% life force gain every 10 seconds for doing absolutely nothing.”
Your jokes aren’t funny. You should take notes from that Big Tower guy.

LastDay.3524:

Signet of Spite…
It works well with Feast of Corruption.
Meant for Hybrid builds, I think, but good in pure Condi builds, too.
I dunno if it’s Active really needs to be changed much.
Longer cast time or shorter range in sPvP, maybe?
In PvE I rarely use it, but it can be neat with Epidemic.
The Passive will eventually be good if the numbers keep getting pushed upwards!

Signet of Esports is cancerous because it is a game-ending ability with an average cast-time, no projectile and 1200 range on a 60-second base recharge. Moreover, it relies on sticky-targeting, which is awful. The new version forces the Necromancer to use timing and aim to get the most out of [Signet of Spite]. Moreover, it becomes a well-cued attrition tool rather than a “Press button to win game” skill.

coglin.1867:

Question 1),…..Why do you assume gadgets are congruent to signets?

Given that Gadgets (aside from Elixirs) are the only Engineer utility sub-set that doesn’t provide chain skills or additional weapon skills, they’re the most like signet skills. What’s more is that, unlike Elixirs, Gadgets don’t have a strong trait base. Therefore, they’re the best candidate for signet-like passives granted by a trait.

coglin.1867:

Question 2),……If you knew someone would bring up the left out profession, why did you leave it out?

Because Gadgets are not signets. This is a signet thread.

coglin.1867:

Let me ask you this swagg. Your proposing changes to 7/8 professions with signets right? This would then change the level of balance in those 7 compared to the eighth. What positive changes are you proposing for that 8th profession?

“I want Engineer to have passives too. More passives.”

This is awful. That said, because I knew that someone would bring it up, the Gadgeteer trait could be reworked into providing similar bonuses to Gadget skills instead of “PRESS BUTTON, RECEIVE BOON.”

Dragonic Elemental.2674:

Ok, so first of all, I mostly love your Ele ideas, BUT there are some problems with the Elementalist signets this way, mostly with aura’s;
Signet of Fire’s passive Precision increase and Signet of Earth’s Toughness increase stack with Protection and fury to give you a better effect when you already have those boons. Changing this is a problem, because of Fire’s Embrace (Fire Shield on Signet use). With that trait, you have almost permanent Fire shield uptime, and with Zephyr’s Boon and Elemental Shielding, you consequently also have permanent fury and protection uptime. This would make Fire’s Embrace useless (think about it).

I don’t know if it would make Fire’s Embrace useless, but it would be vastly overpowered. I’ll try to think something up for this.

Dragonic Elemental.2674:

I do not like the signet of Air passive change, it would be better if it was 2 seconds on attunement swap, and even better unchanged.

I don’t want to leave it unchanged simply because it’s a permanent passive. I might lower the swiftness granted to 7 seconds, though. Seven seconds of +33% movement speed is only about 6% less than 10 seconds of +25% movement speed. At least that way, the total distance covered of the new proc would be roughly equivalent to the old passive within a given 10-second time-frame.

Dragonic Elemental.2674:

I also don’t like that you want every skill easily dodgeable (delays; NO).

The point of delays is to make combat more legible and fair while restoring importance to active damage mitigation (dodge, single blocks, positioning) and increasing skillful play (players now have to lead/predict their targets and aim/time their attacks).

Simon.3794:

how about you say the reasons reasons why you do these changes instead of just make a list, and like hey i do this, because yolo

“Guys, I need someone to tell me that permanent, passive stat buffs are bad.”

I’m not going to justify myself any further for someone who can’t type properly and includes “yolo” in their post. Think it out for yourself within the context of GW2 and its hidden emphasis on active play.

Arkantos.7460:

+++1

this would made creative gameplay and push build diversity into next lv
without pushing into x/x/30/x/15 to get alive infights

One step at a time here. Thief is still an incredibly broken, overly forgiving and one-dimensional class. Changing some signets won’t do much.

Atherakhia.4086:

You made Ranger signets, which are already the laughing stock of GW2, worse. I applaud you sir.

It’s a great accomplishment.

But honestly, do you have anything to contribute? For real. What have you got? Or am I the only one trying to actually improve the game with concrete suggestions instead of just complaining about things or discussing ANet’s general behavior?

Dadnir.5038:

“[Signet of the Locust] (active)

Recharge reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
Damage adjusted from 158 (?) to 101 (0.3).
Healing reduced from 932 (0.24) to 808 (0.2).
Healing now also affects up to 10 allies.
Effect radius increased from 480 to 600.
Now also grants 8% Life Force if the Necromancer strikes a non-ambient-creature foe with damage.
Now also breaks stun."

I’m lazy today so I will just quote this one : Don’t you think you overbuffed it?

Hint : CD reduced, healing allies (up to 10!!! whoo best healing skill of the game),

The healing of 808 (0.2) hp every 30 seconds base (24 seconds with trait) is still a mere half of the Elementalist [Geyser] even without its cool-down trait (disregarding effective radius).

I wanted to find a way to make this skill into something more party supportive because its current functionality is boring and unimaginative as all hell. Unfortunately an instant AoE spike heal isn’t necessarily the most balanced thing (nothing that is instant-activation is necessarily balanced anyway).

The original idea was a stun-breaker version of [Life Transfer] that was mainly a means of supporting the party with healing (low damage, low Life Force gain, high AoE healing). However, the more that I thought about it, the more that I felt that I couldn’t really lower the recharge below 30 seconds for the sake of balance (and I would maybe have to sacrifice the stun break as well). In the end, I scrapped it and simply buffed the current functionality, but kept some of the ideas from the original idea. The result is, yes, a probably overbuffed, instant-activation ability. I’ll probably go back to the original idea at some point.

Big Tower.5423:

---

THIEF
[Assassin’s signet](Passive)
15 % critical damage.

[Assassin’s signet] (Active) (Toned down version of the old one)
Next attack deals 100 % more damage

(this will probiliary overbuff the skill slightly, but it will open so much build diversity and allow you to nerf thieves in other areas to quell those stealth QQ’s
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
[Shadow signet] (Active) (Cooldown 45 seconds from now 30)
Become closer to the shadow making you run (Super speed) faster for 5 seconds.

Shadowsignet (Passive)
Shadowsteps gain increased range by 200

(if you combine this with long reach on steal you’l have a super awesome gapcloser)
___________________________________________________________________
ELEMENTALIST
[Water signet] (Active)
Cure 3 conditions, convert 2 conditions into boons (alltogether 5). and gain 10 seconds of regeneration)

[Water signet] (Passive)
Heal the next three incoming damaging conditions if you loose a certain amount of damage pr second. (35 seconds to renew)
——————————————————————————————————-
[Signet of fire] (passive)
Burning deals 35 % more damage.

[Signet of fire] (Active) (1second smokefield) (cooldown 25 seconds)
Apply burning, torment and cripple (all 10 seconds) in a AOE on targeted area.
____________________________
WARRIOR
[Signet of might] (Active)
Every second attack you inflict seconds dazes and cripples your target. (7 charges)

[Signet of might](Passive)
Every 5th of your attacks deal 15 % more damage. (you gain a buff on your bar indicating when)
———————————————————————————-
[Signet of fury] (passive)
Deal 7 % more damage and take 7 % less damage while under the effect of fury.

[Signet of fury] (Active)
Gain 500 more power for 3 seconds, trow a rock onto your foe stunning them for 1,5 seconds

10/10
I laughed.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Those Warrior signet changes would be terrible.

As a Warrior I do not want protection, ever.

Before you say that, you must ask yourself: how does a Warrior survive without godmode? Warriors often live through combat by means of popping invulnerabilities. Since I’m working to fix that, they can have tiny bursts of timed protection in place of those invulnerabilities. I am planning on increasing Healing Signet’s recharge, though. I’ll have to rework the healing output as well in order to balance the change properly.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I also don’t like tying the signets in with Adrenaline level,

All I’m hearing is “I don’t like working for powerful bonuses,” and “I want my huge, passive stat buff all the time.” Too bad. Learn to work for your bonuses and deal with limited windows of opportunity.

Renny.6571:

Combo breaker!

Very good. Enjoy your assured +1s. We can’t be creative enough to imagine anything other than the horrific status quo ANet has created for GW2 which is sustained by complacent, spoiled players. Might as well just make silly posts when confronted by scary ideas.

NECROMANCER SIGNETS
[Signet of Vampirism] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Whenever you exit from Death Shroud, you and allies in the area steal life with their next attack.
• Life steal damage: 37 (0.1)
• Life steal healing: 608 (0.04)
• Radius: 600
• Maximum number of allies affected: 5
  • When the Necromancer leaves Death Shroud, the Necromancer and any affected allies gain one stack of a unique buff called Vampiric Leech.

[Signet of Vampirism] (active)

• Cool-down reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.

[Plague Signet] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Whenever you enter into Death Shroud, you pull 1 condition from up to 3 nearby allies to yourself. Whenever you exit from Death Shroud, you cure up to 1 condition.
• Pull radius: 600
  • This procs only trigger while in combat.

[Plague Signet] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Transfer up to 3 of your conditions to foes at the target area.
• Delay: 1 second
• Radius: 180
• Breaks stun
• Range: 900
  • There is a 1-second post-cast delay period during which a black cloud hovers above the target location. After 1 second, the cloud crashes into the ground ala the Necromancer [Enfeebling Blood] animation and inflicts its effects. This skill produces a red circle.
  • The Necromancer immediately loses up to 5 conditions on skill activation despite the actual transfer being a delayed effect.

[Signet of Spite] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You gain Life Force when you disable a foe.
• Life Force gained: 5%
• Cool-down: 30 seconds

[Signet of Spite] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 75 seconds
• Create a line of necrotic energy at the target location. Foes that cross this line are afflicted with a spiteful spirit that deals damage to them when they inflict critical damage. Allies that cross this line gain protection.
• Protection: 5 seconds
• Spiteful Spirit (25): 5 seconds
• Damage when inflicting critical damage: 302 (0.01)
• Line duration: 3 seconds
• Combo Field: Ethereal
• Range: 1200
  • The damage inflicted by this skill’s effect cannot critically hit.
  • When a foe crosses the [Signet of Spite] line, that foe gains 25 stacks of a unique debuff called Spiteful Spirit. This debuff lasts for 5 seconds. Each time that a foe under the effects of Spiteful Spirit strikes for critical damage, that foe takes damage and loses 1 stack of Spiteful Spirit. There is no internal cool-down for this effect.
  • This line has a 5-second internal cool-down for applying its effects (to allies and/or foes).
  • This line uses the Elementalist [Unsteady Ground] hit detection. This line will not hit if it is cast directly on top of a foe, rather a foe must wander into the line in order to be affected by its debuff effect.

[Signet of the Locust] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you exit from Death Shroud, you gain swiftness.
• Swiftness: 8 seconds

[Signet of the Locust] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 3½ seconds
• Recharge: 35 seconds
• Channel a large area spell that cripples and damages foes while healing and granting swiftness to allies.
• Damage (3x): 180 (0.6)
• Crippled (3): 1 second
• Maximum number of foes affected: 5
• Healing (3x): 1620 (0.6)
• Swiftness: (3): 3 seconds
• Maximum number of allies affected: 5
• Radius: 600
• Breaks stun
  • This skill uses the Necromancer [Life Transfer] attack animation. For each valid target, the green bubble projectiles are replaced with the projectile used in the Necromancer [Deathly Swarm]. [Signet of the Locust] uses a different sound cue than [Life Transfer].
  • This skill pulses its effects once every second at the end of each second.
  • This skill’s signet image appears immediately over top of the Necromancer upon skill activation.

[Signet of Undeath] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You gain Life Force when you enter into Death Shroud.
• Life Force gained: 5%
  • This proc only triggers while in combat.

MESMER SIGNETS
[Signet of Domination] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Interrupting a foe grants you might.
• Might (3): 5 seconds
• Cool-down: 10 seconds

[Signet of Domination] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Strike foes at the target location with damage. If you strike a foe that is using a skill, you stun that foe. This skill is unblockable if it strikes a confused foe.
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Stun vs foes using a skill: ½ second
• Unblockable vs confused foes
• Radius: 120
• Range: 900

[Signet of Illusions] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you use a healing skill, you create 2 clones at your location. This ability disables (imposes a cool-down) Mind Wrack and Cry of Frustration for 1 second if they aren’t already on cool-down respectively.
• Cool-down: 60 seconds

[Signet of Illusions] (active)

• Recharge reduced from 90 seconds to 75 seconds.

[Signet of Midnight] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Blind nearby foes whenever you successfully evade an attack.
• Blind: 5 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Cool-down: 20 seconds

[Signet of Midnight] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Gain stealth for each blind foe in the area.
• Stealth per blind foe: 1 second
• Radius: 360
• Breaks stun.
  • This skill strikes up to 3 targets.

ELEMENTALIST SIGNETS
Healing skills
[Signet of Restoration] (passive)

• Heal yourself whenever you swap attunements.
• Healing on attunement swap: 608 (0.04)
  • Healing/second assuming 10.4 second attunement recharge (20 into arcane) = 233.8756 h/s

[Signet of Restoration] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• This signet now behaves like a glyph in that its functionality changes based on the Elementalist’s current attunement.
  • New active healing/second at 0 Healing Power (base recharge): 163 h/s
  • New active healing/second at 0 Healing Power (with cool-down trait): 203.75 h/s

[Fiery Signet of Restoration]

• Cast-time: 1¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Heal yourself and blast the nearby area with damage.
• Healing: 4075 (0.5)
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Damage radius: 180
• Combo Finisher: Blast

[Soothing Signet of Restoration]

• Cast-time: 1¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Heal yourself and cure up to 2 conditions.
• Healing: 4075 (0.5)

[Swift Signet of Restoration]

• Cast-time: 1¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Heal yourself and gain haste.
• Healing: 4075 (0.5)
• Haste: 2 seconds

[Heavy Signet of Restoration]

• Cast-time: 1¼ seconds
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Heal yourself and weaken nearby foes.
• Healing: 4075 (0.5)
• Weakness: 5 seconds
• Radius: 240

[Signet of Air] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Gain swiftness when you attune to air.
• Swiftness: 7 seconds

[Signet of Air] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Blind and damage foes at target area with a lighting strike.
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Blind: 5 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Breaks stun
• Range: 1200

[Signet of Fire] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you blast a fire field, you burn adjacent foes. You gain might for each foe that you burn.
• Burning: 3 seconds
• Burning radius: 180
• Might (1) per burning foe: 5 seconds
• Cool-down: 10 seconds
  • Each blast hits up to 5 foes.

[Signet of Fire] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Conjure a fire at target location that burns foes.
• Delay: 1 second
• Damage (4x): 976 (0.75)
• Burning (4): 1 second
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Combo Field: Fire
• Radius: 180
• Range: 1200
  • [Signet of Fire] shares the same pulse schedule as [Lava Font].
  • Now produces a red circle.

[Signet of Earth] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You reflect projectiles with a magnetic aura when you dodge.
• Reflection: 1½ seconds
• Cool-down: 10 seconds
  • The reflection granted by this proc is not actually the [Magnetic Aura] effect. The reflection granted by this proc is classified as something else entirely so as not to constantly proc any aura-related traits every 10 seconds.

[Signet of Earth] (active)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Create a ring of stones that bleeds and immobilizes foes crossing it.
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Bleeding (3): 5 seconds
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Ring duration: 3 seconds
• Ring radius: 150
• Range: 1200
  • As a visual effect, a shrunken ring of stones similar to the Sigil of Geomancy proc surrounds the target area for the skill’s duration.
  • This skill uses the same hit detection for its effects as [Static Field].
  • This skill now produces a red circle.

[Signet of Water] (passive)

• Cure 1 condition when you dodge, and chill foes at the end of your dodge roll with a delayed blast of frost.
• Delay: 1 second
• Chill: 2 seconds
• Chill radius: 150
• Cool-down: 10 seconds
  • At the end of the player’s dodge roll, a small frozen ground AoE appears marked with a red circle. After 1 second, a [Frozen Burst] animation plays that inflicts the chill in the description.
  • This proc only produces its chill effect and enters into cool-down if it removed a condition.

[Signet of Water] (active)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Conjure a font of chilling water at target location that heals allies and chills foes.
• Healing (3x): 1110 (0.5)
• Chilled (3): 1 second
• Duration: 3 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Combo Field: Water
• Range: 1200
  • The [Signet of Water] field is a light-blue colored [Geyser].
  • Now produces a red circle.

THIEF SIGNETS
[Assassin’s Signet] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You gain might whenever you successfully evade an attack.
• Might (5): 3 seconds
• Cool-down: 10 seconds

[Assassin’s Signet] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• The next time target foe blocks an attack, you bleed and deal damage to that foe.
• Assassin’s Signet (1): 5 seconds
• Damage: 302 (0.9)
• Bleeding (3): 5 seconds
• Unblockable
• Range: 900
  • This skill now applies 5 seconds of 1 stack of a unique debuff called Assassin’s Signet to the target enemy. Whenever that target would successfully block an attack while under the effects of Assassin’s Signet, this unique debuff decreases in stack by 1 and that foe takes the damage detailed in this skill’s description. The application of this debuff is unblockable.

[Infiltrator’s Signet] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Using a shadowstep or movement skill grants you initiative.
• Initiative gain: 1
• Cool-down: 10 seconds

[Infiltrator’s Signet] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 35 seconds
• Shadowstep to the target area.
• Breaks stun
• Range: 900

[Signet of Agility] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You gain fury and cure 1 condition whenever you successfully evade an attack.
• Fury: 3 seconds
• Cool-down: 10 seconds

[Signet of Agility] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 45 seconds
• Break stun, gain endurance and cure conditions. This affect also applies to allies in the area.
• Endurance gained: 25
• Conditions cured: 3
• Breaks stun.
• Radius: 360

RANGER SIGNETS
[Signet of Renewal] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Using a healing skill cures conditions on you, your pet and allies in the area.
• Conditions cured: 3
• Radius: 600
• Maximum number of allies affected: 10
• Cool-down: 20 seconds

[Signet of Renewal] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• You and your pet each cure conditions.
• Ranger conditions cured: 3
• Pet conditions cured: 3
• Breaks stun.

[Signet of Stone] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You damage and weaken foes with a blast at the end of your dodge roll.
• Damage: 85 (0.2)
• Damage radius: 180
• Weakness: 4 seconds
• Cool-down: 20 seconds
  • This proc only triggers while in combat.

[Signet of Stone] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 35 seconds
• You gain protection and, for a short time, whenever a foe lands a glancing blow on you, they are dazed.
• Protection: 3 seconds
• Signet of Stone: 3 seconds
• Daze vs glancing blows: 1 second
  • Upon skill activation, the Ranger gains 25 stacks of a unique buff called Signet of Stone. Whenever a foe lands a glancing blow on a player under the effects of Signet of Stone, that foe is dazed. This daze effect has a 5-second internal cool-down per attacker.

[Signet of the Hunt] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• You gain an Attack of Opportunity when you successfully evade an attack.
• Attack of Opportunity (16m): +150% damage on next attack
• Cool-down: 15 seconds

[Signet of the Hunt] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• The next time that you successfully strike a foe with an Attack of Opportunity, you stun and immobilize that foe and grant all allies in the area might.
• Signet of the Hunt (1): 5 seconds
• Stun: ½ second
• Immobilize: 1 second
• Might to allies (3): 10 seconds
• Might radius: 600
• Maximum number of allies affected: 5
• Breaks stun.
  • The Signet of the Hunt bonus is a single stack of a unique buff that the Ranger gains when this skill is activated. Signet of the Hunt lasts 5 seconds. This buff decreases in stack by 1 each time that the Ranger strikes a foe while under the effects of Attack of Opportunity.
  • The might in this skill’s description is granted in a 600 range radius around the ranger

[Signet of the Wild] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you swap pets, you gain swiftness and a burst of haste.
• Haste: 1½ seconds
• Swiftness: 10 seconds
• Cool-down: 20 seconds

[Signet of the Wild] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• The next time that you dodge, you knock down foes at the end of your dodge roll. If you knocked down a target with this attack, you and your pet gain might.
• Signet of the Wild (1): 20 seconds
• Knock-down: 2 seconds
• Knock-down radius: 180
• Might on knock-down (10): 5 seconds
  • This skill hits up to 5 foes.

WARRIOR SIGNETS
[Healing Signet] (passive)

• Healing reduced from 392 (?) to 252 (0.01)

[Healing Signet] (active)

• Recharge increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Healing increased from 3275 (0.5) to 5090 (0.75)
• Now grants protection and regeneration based on adrenaline level.
• Level 1 adrenaline: Regeneration (2 seconds)
• Level 2 adrenaline: Protection (1 second); Regeneration (4 seconds)
• Level 3 adrenaline: Protection (2 seconds); Regeneration (6 seconds)
  • Level 0 adrenaline grants no additional boons.

[Dolyak Signet] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Gain aegis when you use a movement skill.
• Aegis: 2 seconds
• Cool-down: 30 seconds
  • This proc only triggers while in combat.

[Dolyak Signet] (active)

• Recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Stability duration reduced from 8 seconds to 3 seconds.

[Signet of Fury] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you gain fury, you cure up to 2 conditions. If you cured a condition, you gain a burst of haste.
• Haste: 1½ seconds
• Cool-down: 20 seconds
  • This proc only goes into cool-down if it removes a condition.

[Signet of Fury] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Gain adrenaline for each foe in the area.
• Radius: 600
• Adrenaline gain per foe: 5
  • This skill hits up to 10 foes.

[Signet of Might] (passive)

• FUNCTIONAITY CHANGED
• When you swap weapons, your next attack cannot be blocked.
• Cool-down: 9 seconds
  • This proc only triggers while in combat.

[Signet of Might] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• Leap into the air and create a raging fire where you land.
• Damage (4x): 976 (0.75)
• Burning (4): 1 second
• Radius: 180
• Duration: 4 seconds
• Combo Field: Fire
• Combo Finisher: Blast
• Range: 600
  • This skill’s leap uses the same animation as Warrior [Seismic Leap].
  • This skill shares the same pulse schedule as Elementalist [Lava Font].
  • This skill combos with itself. The fire field is applied before the blast finisher goes into effect.

[Signet of Stamina] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Gain vigor whenever you successfully evade an attack.
• Vigor: 5 seconds
• Cool-down: 20 seconds

[Signet of Stamina] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Gain endurance and cure conditions.
• Endurance gained: 50
• Conditions cured: 5
• Breaks stun.

[Signet of Rage] (active)

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

GUARDIAN SIGNETS
[Signet of Resolve] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Activating your Virtue of Resolve now breaks stun.

[Signet of Resolve] (active)

• Cast-time increased from 1 second to 1¼ seconds.
• Recharge reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Healing reduced from 8150 (1.25) to 6115 (1.25)

[Bane Signet] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you interrupt a foe, you gain might, aegis and endurance.
• Might (3): 10 seconds
• Aegis: 5 seconds
• Endurance: 25
• Cool-down: 30 seconds

[Bane Signet] (active)

• FUCNTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 35 seconds
• Cast out a cone of energy that knocks back foes. If you strike a burning foe, this attack strips up to 3 boons and launches that foe instead.
• Knock-back: 400
• Launch vs burning foes: 400
• Range: 300
  • This attack uses the Engineer [Air Blast] cone for its hit detection.
  • The Guardian uses the Elementalist [Flamestrike] animation when activating this skill.
  • The boon stripping occurs before the launch is inflicted.

[Signet of Judgement] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Whenever you block an attack, you cure blindness and gain immunity to blindness.
• Immunity to blindness: 3 seconds
• Cool-down: 15 seconds
  • This passive proc only grants the blind immunity and goes into cool-down if the Guardian cures blindness.

[Signet of Judgement] (active)

• Now also grants protection to caster and allies for 2 seconds.

[Signet of Mercy] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Each time that you gain aegis, you heal and cure 1 condition on allies in the area.
• Healing: 740 (0.15)
• Radius: 360
• Cool-down: 10 seconds
  • This proc only triggers once when it activates. This proc will not heal for any more than 740 (0.15) health within its radius even if the Guardian grants multiple allies aegis with a single skill.

[Signet of Mercy] (active)

• Cast-time reduced from 3¾ seconds to 3 seconds.

[Signet of Wrath] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• When you strike a burning foe, you grant might to yourself and all nearby allies.
• Might (2): 8 seconds
• Cool-down: 10 seconds

[Signet of Wrath] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Enrage foes at the target area. Enraged foes take damage when they deal direct damage to targets that are not you.
• Enraged (25): 6 seconds
• Radius: 240
• Maximum number of affected foes: 10
• Signet of Wrath (25): 6 seconds
• Enraged damage: 302 (0.05)
• Enemy healing when striking you: 302 (0.0)
• Range: 900
  • The [Signet of Wrath] icon will appear above affected foes briefly before fading.
  • When this skill is activated, it inflicts 25 stacks of a debuff called Enraged to up to 10 foes at the target location. Each time that a foe under the effects of Enraged deals direct damage, it takes damage and the Enraged stack decreases by 1.
  • When this skill is activated, it simultaneously inflicts the user with 25 stacks of a debuff called Signet of Wrath. Foes that strike the Guardian under the effects of Signet of Wrath gain health. Whenever the Guardian is struck for damage by a foe, the Signet of Wrath debuff stack decreases by 1. The Guardian affected by the Signet of Wrath debuff will have a broken shield icon above his/her head for the debuff’s entire duration.
  • NPCs that are enraged will interrupt their current skill queue and attempt to attack the user.
  • Condition damage is not counted as direct damage.

Turn signet passives into pseudo-traits triggered by active skill use and/or unique actions/circumstances.

Be creative and improve current signet functionalities (buff the underpowered; nerf the overpowered; functionally changed the outright broken/boring).

Suddenly you have a load of new, mechanics and skills that can be dumped into the meta.

Not every signet is listed here because I didn’t have changes/solutions for some of them and I didn’t care enough to come up with those changes.

Arcing Arrow damage is fine. Just reduce the radius to 150 and give it a minimum range of 50. Now you have to aim it.