Guild Wars 2

CONQUEST RULE CHANGES

• Competitive match time-limit reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.
• Points per kill vs players off of a point increased from 5 to 8.
• Points per kill vs players on a point increased from 5 to 15.
  • Capture nodes in GW2 Conquest now pulse a hidden, passive debuff to foes within their AoE. This debuff does not show up on a player’s status bar. This debuff pulses once each second and lasts for 1 second. Killing a player under the effects of this debuff earns your team 15 points.

GW2 CONQUEST: THE SKILL-LESS SPAM CHAMBER
Typically, the effect that player skill has on a battle’s outcome is directly proportional to the players’ ability to move while in combat. The more movement available to combatants, the more opportunities available to the players to avoid incoming damage with light of sight, dodging or repositioning. When we reduce player in-combat movement to 0, we have Runescape. Capture point nodes push GW2 combat in this direction by naturally limiting the ability for players to move if they wish to contribute to their team’s score. This situation is exacerbated by the presence of AoE skills (many of which are able to affect an entire point or even more). Now, while it’s true that many AoE skills in general require some toning down or re-working, but for now we’ll focus on the issue that capture nodes innately decrease the effect that player skill has on a battle’s outcome with or without the presence of AoE.

To be frank, the simplest solution to resolve the issue of GW2 conquest mode passively decreasing the importance of player skill as fights approach points is to make the points themselves larger. Larger points means more room for defenders to move while also helping to deny the ability for an attacker to mindlessly dump attacks onto a point without worrying about anything not hitting a point-defender.

Furthermore, with more room on which to defend a point, point bunkers might not necessarily need to invest so heavily into defensive abilities provided that they can maintain good positioning while defending. Making point-defending more accessible to more classes in cases of emergency not only adds more dynamics to the conquest mode (a DPS roamer might be able to hold a larger node for a considerable amount of time provided that he/she has ample in-combat mobility or possibly CC), but it might also encourage more overall balanced team-specs (teams might not necessarily want to devote themselves to a few full bunkers with high DPS roamers, but rather might attempt to make a team composed of members that can rotate and take over point holding on the fly).

In any case, the nodes need to be larger. Larger nodes means more room to move. More room to move makes repositioning easier. Easier repositioning means that aiming and timing will become bigger factors in point-taking instead of simply how many AoE buttons one can spam. Aiming and timing supplanting spam as a means to kill players on a point means a more skill-based conquest game-mode overall for GW2.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Signet of Fire – Interesting Passive, remove the blast requirement and make it when you burn foes and it could be great. Say 3 second Fury with a 1second ICD. The active i don’t really like i like the current active myself.

That would make the passive better than a Grandmaster trait. No. The active is more area denial, damage, burning and also an additional fire field.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Signet of Earth – Terrible Passive, protection duration is way to low to make it any use and the active is just as bad.

A twenty percent base up-time on protection is very strong. Given that it triggers on evasion, it would be possible to dodge into combat as an Elementalist and then eat a lot of ambient damage without necessarily dying due to the brief respite from protection.

A [Static Field]-style skill that immobilizes foes is incredibly strong movement control.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Signet of Water – Passive is meh. You are going from having a condition removed every 10 seconds to adding a requirement to remove it.

Yes, that’s the point.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Terrible idea.

More opinions. Making skills actively triggered only puts more emphasis on a player’s timing, positioning, and resource management skills. It promotes a more skillful GW2 overall.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

The active is meh as well, make it so that the active converts ALL conditions into Boons for there duration (affected by boon duration) – 90second cool down, instant cast. Boon now a great Signet.

While [Contemplation of Purity] is a strong skill, it’s also very one-dimensional and also innately selfish. The new chill-inflicting water-field that heals allies is much more versatile and helpful to the party overall.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Glyph of Renewal – Terrible glyph, a .25second cast time reduction will not fix all the issues that crappy skill has.

[Glyph of Renewal], as all resurrection skills, is incredibly powerful. Calling a skill that is able to turn around entire encounters with the press of a button “crappy” is a clear misunderstanding of the opportunities that this skill can create. A 3-second base-line for rez skills is a pretty fair base-line that allows players to secure ranged rezzes without denying opponents the opportunity to counter it.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Glyph of storms – again terrible skill a cool down reduction is not enough to make people want to use it.

Maybe not, but it deserves it. Do you have any ideas?

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Glyph of Elemental Power – Personally i liked the way the skill was. The Auras would need to have a MUCH longer duration to make it worth while. The condition application needs to stay 25% chance to trigger the condition with a nice duration as well is MUCH better than your idea. Make each of the Auras last 10seconds, seeing as they have the ICD anyway, increase the cool down back to 45 seconds and keep the current condition application and it would be fine.

I was actually planning on just removing this suggestion. It’s a strong skill on its own with its own niche applications. While it does indeed not really function well as a stun-breaker given its effects, it shouldn’t really be changed just because of that.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Terrible idea for the Signet of Restoration Passive. Keep the passive the way it is now just tweak it so that its not terrible.

First off, let’s just get this out of the way: “just tweak it so that its not terrible,” is not really a valid suggestion, idea or point in any way. Moreover, reading through the rest of your post, it’s littered with comments like this. Saying things like that is not going to get anything done whatsoever. You’re simply speaking your opinion and then not backing it up with anything. It’s hot air.

If you’re going to respond, think about what you want to say, identify the central point behind a person’s argument or contribution and then make a statement based on that. Don’t just voice your opinion because it’s never enough.

Having to swap attunements to get a little heal is rather weak. You swap attunements for the skills not because you need to be healed. [/quote]

I did enough work to make sure that the healing per second of the new [Signet of Restoration] passive is on par with the current [Signet of Restoration] average healing per second of Scepter/Dagger in PvE. I was thinking of making the healing even higher than it is now, but the original level that I was debating would have outpaced my current re-work of [Healing Signet]’s passive healing per second, so I decided against it.

In any case, tying the passive to attunement swap is an effort to make [Signet of Restoration] into a more active-use ability that revolves around attunement management. It’s more thought-provoking and engaging than simply pressing weapon skill buttons.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

The active sounds interesting. Personally i would change them a bit though.

Fire – Make it so that it is critical damage and that it inflicts burning.

The blast finish is enough for support and utility. It isn’t meant to do damage. Giving [Signet of Restoration] access to a blast finisher is already a threat in and of itself to the viability of [Arcane Brilliance]. Any more and it wouldn’t be fair to the other skill.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Water – Make it grant Regeneration and is a Water field for allies as well

I don’t want to make this skill a clear-cut better choice over [Glyph of Elemental Harmony].

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Air – Seems okay. Maybe have it proc 2seconds of Fury as well(?)

Same as above.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Earth – Make it grant Stability and Protection rather than Weakness

Same as above.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

As for the Arcane skills…you want to make them WORSE…
Arcane Blast, Arcane Wave and Arcane Shield changes are all TERRIBLE.

Having to time and/or aim one’s attacks really is something that most GW2 players seem to not enjoy. It’s a shame given this game’s dynamic fundamentals that contribute to how players can move and personally mitigate incoming damage with clutch skill use.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

You are trying to ruin the class with SO many of your change ideas. I suggest playing the class before trying to think of change ideas because if you did play the class then you would be able to tell why so many of your changes are pretty awful.

Again, that’s your opinion without any back-up. These changes are meant to force players to aim and time their skills instead of simply getting by on instant-cast crutches; it’s about making skill, timing and positioning bigger factors in GW2 combat.

Took a break from the Mesmer Suggestion thread. This whole thing has been in my head for a while now, but I figured that it would be best to just get it out. This is hardly as fleshed out as my Ritualist profession outline (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/The-Ritualist-profession-outline/first), but the profession mechanic is the most defining aspect of the class and I figured that it was refined enough to put it into a thread. I may or may not continue to add individual Dervish F-skills in the future. Honestly, even if I do, I’ll probably just add them to a document elsewhere and then just make a new thread with all of them.

DERVISH PROFESSION MECHANIC SKILLS (names subject to change):
[Mystic Bolt] (F1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Cast a bolt of energy at your foe.
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile

[Conviction] (F2)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Leap to target location and damage foes where you land.
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Damage radius: 150
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 600
  • This skill uses the Engineer [Jump Shot] animation.

[Whirling Step] (F3)

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Whirl in place, striking adjacent foes.
• Damage (5x): 504 (1.5)
• Damage radius: 180
• Combo Finisher: Whirl
  • This skill uses the Warrior [Whirlwind attack] animation.
  • The player can move while using this skill.

[Staggering Force] (F4)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Leap and crash down at the target location, damaging foes.
• Damage: 101 (0.3)
• Damage radius: 150
• Combo Finisher: Blast
• Range: 600
  • This skill uses the Warrior [Earthshaker] animation.

DERVISH PROFESSION MECHANIC BEHAVIOUR:
Dervish F-skills chain in response to successful combos with a Combo Field. While many Dervish weapon and utility skills concern themselves with control and support application in order to set up attacks, the Dervish F-skills provide the player with damage abilities as well as additional support applications.

F-skill usage and recharges:

• In the case of F1, using [Mystic Bolt] with a Fire Field would yield a unique skill in the F1 slot. This chain skill remains active for up to 30 seconds and does not interfere with the cool-down of [Mystic Bolt]. However, the chain skills have their own individual recharges. This means that if the player were to use the Fire Field [Mystic Bolt] and then immediately combo [Mystic Bolt] again with another Fire Field, the odds are that the Fire Field [Mystic Bolt] skill would still be on cool-down despite being available and also taking up the F1 slot. However, if the player used the Fire Field [Mystic Bolt] and then used [Mystic Bolt] with a Water Field, the player would earn another skill in the F1 slot that would be operating on a separate recharge, and therefore most likely available for use.

INTRODUCTION
Originally a sect of human eremites that lived in Elona, the Dervish has undergone a drastic transformation over the past 250 years since the reawakening of the undead overlord Palawa Joko. With the sunspears fragmented and no organized force to defend Elona, the Order of Whispers took on the task of saving as many lives as possible. Refugees and information were smuggled between Elona and Tyria via the Crystal Desert. In the meantime, the Order took to gathering as much military strength as possible in order to defend itself and its supply lines. Ascalonians, Kyrtans and even Canthans heeded the call—at least until Emperor Usoku closed the Dragon Empire’s borders—to assist the Order of Whispers in its task of evacuating the continent of Elona.

Naturally, Dervishes from the ragged sunspear remnants also joined the Order of Whisper’s ranks. Yet even so, faced with the destruction of their home, the silence of their gods and the deaths of their comrades, many Dervishes dropped their craft and fell into despair. It took the effort of a few powerful Dervishes to preserve the craft for future generations.

With volunteers from all continents, a few select Dervish acolytes began training soldiers in their unique combat style. They melded magic with muscle to produce new spells and attacks that didn’t require such fanatic devotion to the traditional Dervish’s spiritual ways. As the decades passed, so did the acolytes with them, thus ending the age of human god avatars. Yet, those acolytes left in their place an army of powerful warrior mystics with spells, tricks and techniques that turned the tide against Palawa Joko’s unprepared army for a time and helped to secure the supply lines between Elona and Tyria.

However, with the awakening of Kralkatorrik, the Crystal Desert routes that Whispers agents had used for centuries were erased in a matter of days. The Order of Whispers in Elona were aware of the Elder Dragon threat, but were never in a place to contribute or capitalize on the situation. Now, with the recent developments of Tyrian interracial relations, the Elonian-based Order of Whispers saw an influx of volunteers from the north: humans, norn, asura and even charr. Each race has been a powerful ally in the struggle against both Palawa Joko and Kralkatorrik; and each race contributed volunteers that were not beneath training in the preserved war arts of old human eremites.

After the death of Zhaitan, Tyrians everywhere look to the remaining Elder Dragons and the threat that still looms over the continent. In the meantime, the Elonian Order of Whispers’ Dervish corps continues to grow in number and skill, hardened by their constant combat against undead and dragon minions. It is only a matter of time before the Dervish’s techniques are embraced by a continent that seeks to push into the Crystal Desert in order to secure its livelihood from Kralkatorrik once and for all.

The Guild Wars 2 Dervish:

Updates to mainly [Burning Speed] and [Signet of Restoration] with some additional number tweaking.

There’s a lot of numbers behind the [Signet of Restoration] suggestion, but the main principle is that even though it may be “underpowered,” it’s still a skill that encourages the player to never use the active. It is an unfortunately common design that should really be addressed. In any case, the suggestion gives more options to [Signet of Restoration] by making it more like a glyph which work to make the active more appealing than just relying on the passive ability.

ArenaNet is just a clusterbag of groupthinkers. Telling a round-table of groupthinkers that “HEY, you’re compromising yourselves by just being all ‘Huggy, feely, no problems, guys,’” is not going to get them to stop. As that Glass Door review mentions, ANet needs leadership; they need someone to tell them what to do because they’re not going to do it themselves and they’re too stuck in their own ways to deviate from their current path. No one there has any initiative or backbone because there’s no need for it given the way that their work groups seem to be structured.

Those patch notes were true—at least some of them. However, we already have a blanket statement coming out from the author of this thread herself that they were entirely fake. I’ll just keep the evidence for now for when the actual update comes along and we find out that plenty of those changes were real.

It’s never good to lie. It’s also never good to lock out the player-base when making balance decisions.

Bran.7425:

Maybe this game just isn’t for you. Next you’ll want steady weapons only, and precision and soon to be ferocity removed from the game.

I don’t want that at all. You seem to be upset about the idea of losing offensive, passive, RNG, instant-activation procs, though.

calavel.6249:

..
And what makes a passive damage proc so much worse than a flat damage boost? Why no hate for Sup Sigils of Force? Don’t they do exactly the same thing, just in a different way?

A player can “dodge” a passive damage boost by avoiding an enemy player’s damage. Even though Sigil of Force is also a brainless passive, the user is still required to actually consistently hit an enemy in order to get the most out of it.

An opponent doesn’t get the opportunity for counter-play when playing against Sigils of Air or Fire, which is why those sigils are unfair/broken.

Moreover, Sigils of Air and Fire contribute VASTLY more DPS than Sigil of Force in a PvP environment. Even in a PvE environment, Sigils of Fire/Air are a good competitor or still remain better than Sigil of Force simply because Sigil of Force requires enormous base DPS and a very high number of consistent attacks behind it in order to edge over Sigils of Fire/Air. That’s why most players that use Sigils of Force to their maximum output are players like staff Elementalists that can effectively gain a second auto-attack with [Lava Font] and get even more attacks in when [Meteor Shower] is active; or Thieves that just spam [Pistol Whip].

OK, I did some trait updates as well as shifted some things around. I caved when I suggested a buff to Guardian Greatsword skills. Nothing really needs a buff. However, for the sake of the traits section, I’ll open this up to the thread:

“BAD TRAITS”

• State up to 3 “bad” Guardian traits.
• For each trait, state why you think that that trait is bad.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Making the grenade kit auto attack and most other grenade skills channeling skills is a really bad idea.

We’ve had this discussion and I’ve reverting the changes.

EVEN SO, one of the biggest issues with [Grenade Kit] in general is how all of the skills are just barely, barely skill shots. With the ability to throw them at one’s feet combined with their generous radius and the fact that there are 3 grenades makes aiming them a very minor issue in most fights. Another point is their lack of red circles, making it worse for opponent’s when in close range to an Engineer.

The entire kit invites players to use every skill and doesn’t necessarily punish the player for doing so given the fact that every skill has a short cast-time and all of the skills have short recharges considering that the Engineer can have multiple weapon sets at a time.

These are the issues that I am trying to address.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Grenade kit lacks burst besides the toolbelt skill, barrage.

How do you even define burst?

How does [Grenade Kit] lack burst when throwing the entire [Grenade Kit] onto a target (a rather easily accomplished feat) in a team-fight forces that target to either pop defensive cool-downs or die. It would force players on the defense even in a 1v1.

Deniara Devious.3948:

It offers no utility

How is chill not utility? How is poison not utility? How is blind not utility? How do you even define utility??

Deniara Devious.3948:

and no blast finishers.

Now you’re just being spoiled.

Deniara Devious.3948:

And even their dps output pales compared to elementalist’s lightning hammer (correct if I am wrong, but I think elementalist has right now the highest DPS in the game?).

Everything pales in comparison to Elementalist [Lightning Hammer] because the Elementalist is committing a controlled form of suicide for using that skill (as is the case with any conjure weapon). We can’t just have every skill deal absurd amounts of damage otherwise this game would be even more insane than it is now.

Moreover, you’re clearly talking PvE here if you’re mentioning [Lightning Hammer]. Nobody uses [Lightning Hammer] in PvP and that’s where balance should be focused; rather than making balances from a PvE perspective—especially in a game like GW2.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Bomb kit having no real auto attack and making it ranged doesn’t make sense.

I’m going to do some work on [Bomb Kit], but in all honesty, it is a real shame that [Bomb Kit] too is a kit that invites the player to just press every button and never really punishes the player for doing so. This isn’t a matter of “Ohhh, but only bad Engineers spam buttons,” it’s that the game allows the player to do so and will never perform less effectively than if the player had thoughtfully used those same skills in a certain order.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Engineer is already a bit like elementalist.

Engineer doesn’t have kit cool-downs. This makes kits infinitely more forgiving than Elementalist attunements.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Just ask any player, engis feel lackluster, compared to let’s say warrior in the first 1-60 levels. I think all professions should have some easy access to DPS and currently bomb kit sits in a very good position, having a very high damage multiplier (1.25x) on its auto attack.

YOU CANNOT BALANCE based around the leveling experience.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Now let’s compare engi rifle #4 with ranger’s longbow #4, point blank shot. Many complain that ranger’s LB is a weak weapon, but after Swagg’s proposal rifle #4 would be in most cases clearly weaker.

Please, launch is vastly more powerful than knock-back. The fact that [Overcharge Shot] even provides that option makes it on the same level or even more powerful than [Point Blank Shot]. [Overcharged Shot] also does more base damage.

Deniara Devious.3948:

You sacrifice survivability if you equip the rifle.

That is hiiiighly debatable. You get a 20% up-time on IMMOBILIZE without traits, a no-cue LAUNCH on a base 15-second cool-down and a leap (which can be used to also combine with a water field).

I’m sorry, but I really have to address this.

Agony.3542:

First off, thats the point of playing D/D, don’t be seen.

You’re being facetious. There are very few D/D thieves in competitive PvP which makes talking about their impact on the meta difficult.

Agony.3542:

And to be even quicker about it: What you are asking for is making thief completely unviable.

A complete lie. If it isn’t a lie, then there’s something wrong with the Thief profession as a whole for needing to circumvent basic balance principles in order to deal damage with a certain attack.

Agony.3542:

No iniative cost/no cooldown on stealth openers? Well last time I checked every skill that stealths you either costs a lot of initiative or has a cd of about 40 seconds. Your argument is invalid.

Please. The skill’s themselves have no initiative cost or cool-down. Discussing any number of skills used before Skill A has no bearing on the actual of nature of Skill A.

Nike.2631:

Not particularly. Actually I think the Healing Signet adjustment will be a lot more effective than people give it credit for -

As I’ve said before, one of the interesting conversations that I’ve had with some guild-mates was “How will warrior do damage without god-mode?” Passive regeneration can be a thing, so long as it doesn’t encompass the

I’ve been playing various forms of regeneration-based heroes in MMOs for around 8 years,

That is none of my concern.

Nike.2631:

and Regen is delicate. The difference between Godmode and inescapable death spiral can be a lot less than 8%.

Nike.2631:

“Surgical” as in keep the number of change per profession in the single digits – hit fulcrum issues.

I am hitting the fulcrum issues: Warrior has a thoughtless play-style with several effectively wasted skill slots; there’s no synergy among skills despite the multitude of skills available to the Warrior; Warriors rely on passive, uncounterable buffs to survive.

Nike.2631:

Then rather than dinking with both the pulse time and the effect duration, just adjust the effect duration. Then write the whole thing as a single note that applies to all banners. And briefly explain the purpose in the note.

You’re really splitting hairs here, but I can see that as a valid solution to the issue.

Nike.2631:

Serious as a heart-attack: Then your project is DEAD. You’re literally 2+ years too late for a do over.

It’s never too late to try to save the game, especially when there are actual, concrete solutions on the board and not airy “I think X should be like Y,” discussions.

Nike.2631:

Like it or not, the class functions at a serviceable level. Could it be better? Of course, but for people managing a working enterprise that’s not the point. This boat will not be rocked to the point of possibly capsizing.

There’s no point to taking a boat to see that already has a gaping hole in the hull. Patching it up takes time and effort, but it can be done. It’s better to do what must be done to fix the class rather that let it set sail for fail. The Warrior serves to promote the paradigm of thoughtless play and minimal consequences; that’s something that needs to be addressed. The best way to go confront the issue head-on is by activated skill changes simply because traits and gear all encompass passive add-ons that the player can’t activate on-command.

Nike.2631:

Like I said, I like your vantage point, but your approach lacks elegance, and for the magnitude of changes you’re looking to induce nothing less than elegance is going to sell it. Maybe you’ll see the need to polish it in that fashion to create a convincing case, maybe you won’t. But at least you’ve heard it mentioned .

There’s no time left for elegance. My case is a polished case; I’ve already detailed the folly of the Warrior at its very core, and if we can’t fix that then the class is doomed to continue to weigh down this game as the pack leader ahead of other thoughtless specs.

kyubi.3620:

As someone said above increasing pet range would help increase its value in pvp content but what of pve?

Pet does plenty of damage in PvP since the only thing that Ranger’s use are the dogs and occasionally the cats which have plenty of ways of getting in damage (which is often high).

PvE is a mess that requires something outside of the realm of basic buffs in order to fix. PvE is fundamentally different than PvP yet it is balanced on a PvP level with respect to players. It honestly makes no sense. The way to make Ranger effective in PvE would be to fix the issues with big game enemies in PvE (things like defiant, hp pools, damage, etc).

Fext.3614:

OP, are you saying you were owned by a ranger in PVP?

You’re getting off-topic.

In any case, a Ranger is pretty worthless when I kill all of its spirits and CC its pet. I’m trying to give the Ranger more combat options by introducing skill synergy and CC across weapon sets and by changing passive, RNG procs into abilities that the Ranger can actively trigger.

That said, update to Shortbow skills and Longbow is getting an update soon too.

Minto.9201:

Swagg.9236:

Tetsuyja.7805:

or simply reread my comment in your second thread concerning this problem?! really?!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Global-Functionality-Balance-1-1/first#post3611579

I’ll repeat my post too:

Why should stealth-openers get a reprieve that the average skill in GW2 does not have? Cool-downs are there to reward opponent’s for good counter-play; and clutch counter-play is the name of the game in GW2 because we have no dedicated healer/damage-mitigation class. Stealth should be treated on the same level as any other skill in the game. It only makes sense.

My post brings up points to argue. Your post simply says “No, I don’t like it.” “No, I don’t like it,” is not an argument.

I’ll answer you. ALL #1 abilities in this game have no cooldown. There you go, have a cookie.

Auto-attacks don’t normally daze/stun, immobilize, or inflict high damage. There is a clear difference between a Thief stealth-attack 1 skill and a regular auto-attack; not realizing that or defending the contrary is folly.

Harper.4173:

That’s what we’re discussing here. His attitude.

That’s not at all what we’re discussing. You’ve gone far off topic. Please refrain from that.

Nike.2631:

If you can’t make progress with some nuanced, surgical strikes

Nuanced, surgical strikes, just like what we see with the [Healing Signet], Dhuumfire, Torment update, right?

Nike.2631:

For example, the entire post about banners is NOISE. Its an exercise in fiddling with bookkeeping that just takes up space.

The banner post is about turning Warrior Banners from passive stat buffs that stack in duration into stat buffs that require players to remain within the effective radius of the banners at all times in order to more consistently receive their effects; also the goal was to remove any permanent boons granted from banners.

Nike.2631:

The game isn’t on a whiteboard. Its running on live servers before a large paying audience. Work with and respect what’s there rather than throwing every lever and twisting every knob in sight.

The warrior was crippled from birth. It needs a whiteboard treatment for a lot of its very boring and/or lack-luster abilities. Moreover, we can apply the Agent Spire techniques to ANet better than myself seeing that most of ANet’s updates are often relegated to numbers going up and down rather than proper skill functionality changes. We look at hambow and what do we see: a bunch of abilities that require no real thought for active use; the entire set simply encourages skill spam in any particular order and pushes the paradigm that pressing buttons while you have a selected target can prove effective even though the player isn’t necessarily thinking hard or following an optimal attack pattern while at the control panel. Adjusting damage numbers and even increasing cast-times on some skills is not going to change that.

I show my respect for the player-base by pushing designs that trust that the average player can be aware of him/herself and use skills in a clever or optimal manner.

I trust that the player can set up well-cued skill chains to devastate enemies and recover effectively even if an opponent undermines these chains through proper counter-play.

There are so many builds and skills that just take the thought out of playing GW2 for the player. It’s like the player isn’t trusted enough to do the thinking for him/herself. I believe in the player, which is why I re-design and nerf a lot of skills. For the level of mobility in this game, the presence of blocks, the fact that dodge grants invulnerability frames, it deserves something greater than things like Spirit Ranger, Engineer [Bomb Kit] and [Grenade Kit], Hambow, [Healing Signet], Condition Necromancer, [Signet of Spite], Condition Mesmer, Thief in general and any other specs that aren’t coming to mind at the moment. GW2 deserves thought; deserves synergy; deserves skill counter-play; and GW2 definitely deserves professions that aren’t literally designed to be the “easiest class to play.”

I believe in a GW2 that is far more skill-centric that what we see today; and that’s only because I believe in the player-base and that it has enough ability to master basic ability effect synergy, situational awareness, the importance of good positioning and target-tracking for aimed abilities.

Tetsuyja.7805:

nevertheless i remind u on an old patch – there the behavior of sneak attack was fixed/patched/buffed whatever u want to describe it – the fact is anet changed sneak attack : the thief gets revealed after hitting the first time his foe (or something else) and the thief doesn’t get revealed if he misses.

That’s just how stealth currently works; that isn’t a property unique to any specific skill that is used while in stealth.

Tetsuyja.7805:

back to us now: anet will not change their opinion and neither they will not revoke the “sneak attack” patch and they won’t do this in relation to backstab or tactical strike.

I’ll continue my fight anyway. All offensive skills in this game should be put on an even playing field (inside and outside of stealth) for the sake of balance. You can defend ANet if you wish, but ANet clearly designed an imbalanced mechanic and it should be fixed.

Tetsuyja.7805:

or simply reread my comment in your second thread concerning this problem?! really?!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Global-Functionality-Balance-1-1/first#post3611579

I’ll repeat my post too:

Why should stealth-openers get a reprieve that the average skill in GW2 does not have? Cool-downs are there to reward opponent’s for good counter-play; and clutch counter-play is the name of the game in GW2 because we have no dedicated healer/damage-mitigation class. Stealth should be treated on the same level as any other skill in the game. It only makes sense.

My post brings up points to argue. Your post simply says “No, I don’t like it.” “No, I don’t like it,” is not an argument.

Maugetarr.6823:

Swagg.9236:

Despite that issue, it’s difficult to argue that instant-activation, passively-activated, ranged, RNG offensive damage procs should exist in a game without a dedicated healer/damage-mitigation class; and this game is replete with these sorts of attacks. And that’s just one issue, really.

I’m just going to suggest the crazy idea that this game is better suited to all the things you mentioned above specifically because there is no dedicated healer. If all the instant cast skills existed and players had no way to manage their own health, the healer would quickly be overwhelmed with all of the spike damage and passive procs…and forget about a team using a bunch of instant cast abilities from a couple of coordinated players spiking the healer down faster than they could react. The fact that healing/support is spread out and not the sole focus of a single character is what allows these mechanics to exist.

Spreading out a party’s healing capacity or making every player responsible for his/her own health pool doesn’t at all affect anyone’s ability to burst a player down very quickly with little or no cue.

Moreover, healing skills typically don’t help anyone but one’s self. This game’s design doesn’t allow for very effective healers. Of the “healers” that do exist, most of their healing is primarily meant to sustain themselves and is often not effective either as long-range support (or even as mid-range support in many cases) nor as something to sustain a roamer/glass-cannon DPS class vs incoming burst seeing that no real proper party-centric damage-mitigation in this game exists outside of limited AoE protection and the single block granted from aegis (and even those only come from skills that are limited in their radius/scope). To this effect, there really is no proper healer/damage-mitigation class in GW2.

Without someone to take that role on, invisible damage proccing from traits, sigils and runes shouldn’t be a thing in this game. It simply makes sense. If a player’s hp is in that player’s hands, incoming damage should be made clear so that the player can take full advantage of his/her profession’s abilities in order to mitigate that damage.

In any case, this game is very DPS centric. The Mesmer (control spec) mostly died with GW1; and DPS dominates the “DPS-control-support” pseudo-trinity that was “planned” for this game. Seeing that this game is dominated by DPS, it makes sense to make all DPS as fair as possible otherwise the entire game is thrown further out of whack.

Instant-activation, passively-activated, ranged, RNG offensive damage procs simply shouldn’t exist in GW2.

Rubies for people who don’t know how to dodge/play a simple video game.
Scholars for people who do know how to dodge/play a simple video game.

Tetsuyja.7805:

sry, but every time i look into this thread i read nonsense.

“Give Thief 1-slot stealth attacks 5-second cool-downs.”

u have no knowledge of thief mechanics. backstabs can hit every 4.5 sec if u have an insane timing – average u hit every 5 sec and more, much more. a 5sec cd is nothing “new” and finally nonsense.

A 5-second cool-down is entirely new because it would prevent the Thief from spamming a 1-slot stealth attack skill until it hits in spite of the opponent employing counter-play.

UPDATES

• Pistol [Unload], [Incendiary Slug] and [Body Shot].
• Traps

There’s another thread in which plenty of people were upset about stealth changes that would treat offensive skills used while in stealth in the same manner as offensive skills when used outside of stealth. I still don’t see the argument there, but there’s a debate to be had:

WHICH IS BETTER?

• “Nerf” stealth to make it apply reveal to players that flub up offensive skills from stealth by “missing” due to block, blind, striking an invulnerable target, getting LoS’ed or using a skill when it is out of range?
• Give Thief 1-slot stealth attacks 5-second cool-downs.

We can’t go on just giving Thief 1-slot stealth attacks special treatment that overrides every balance mechanic in the game.

UPDATES

• Dagger main-hand [Life Siphon].
• Dagger off-hand [Deathly Swarm].
• Axe main-hand [Ghastly Claws] and [Rending Claws].
• Scepter (most of it)
• Staff (most of it)
• [Spectral Grasp]
• [Spectral Walk]

I’m going to be working on traits next to first come into line with the suggestions and then on those that are underpowered.

UPDATES

• Damage updates to several skills across the board: a lot of nerfs are undone, [Hamstring] gets a small damage buff.
• Threw out the Stance Shaker idea despite the fact that stability is still overpowered.
• Increased the range on [Crushing Blow].

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

From your perspective it’s a square peg. For me, it’s a rather fun game to play, which needs polish but no overhaul. You are fleshing out a whole new game based on your opinion that this game is unbalanced from scratch while I do think this game is basically in a good state.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I do think

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

think

Then we’re down to opinions.

I at least exclude the word “think” from my statements and have fundamental rules written out regarding how GW2 combat is optimized. The only reason I don’t have any “credibility” is because ANet developers tend to ignore the player-base so I have no way to argue my points directly with them.

Despite that issue, it’s difficult to argue that instant-activation, passively-activated, ranged, RNG offensive damage procs should exist in a game without a dedicated healer/damage-mitigation class; and this game is replete with these sorts of attacks. And that’s just one issue, really.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

You are not fleshing out GW2. Guild Wars 2 is already fleshed out since 1 year and a half. While not everything is perfect, it works (somehow).

“Somehow working” isn’t exactly stellar. That’s why I’m here.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

You on the other hand want to change the whole gameplay. You are fleshing out your own game

GW2 is the square peg that ANet is trying to fit into the circle slot. GW2 is a strange, unique game that doesn’t necessarily play like a traditional MMO. Despite this, ANet has chosen to introduce mechanics into GW2 that clearly belong in a more traditional MMO with things like dedicated healers; or just ignore some obvious boundary rules when it comes to designing combat without a dedicated healer/damage-mitigation class present.

I’m here to help shave the edges off of the square peg.

Dadnir.5038:

I’m not targeting warrior, I’m targeting the way the op think .

He is damaging so many build without any touch on the PvE meta zerk that it’s pitifull. He want to bring down dps while nerfing conditions build and base damage. He want to limit survivals skills while nerfing base damage hurting the non-meta so much it’s painfull to see.

A game without diversity is a game that will rot, and the only thing that this guy does in all his killing diversity. He don’t address anything about things that are being ignored because uninterresting while he bring down everywhere thing that are very popular. It’s a poor way to think.

PvE is already a rotting cesspool because of its enemy design. HP sponges running around everywhere turns combat into nothing more than a maypole dance around a target while slapping it with damage. Moreover, defiant exists in PvE which undermines a core element of GW2 game-play.

So long as HP sponges run rampant and Defiant exists in its current form, there’s no point to really concern one’s self with PvE’s “balance.” I’ve got fixes for Defiant and ideas to supplant HP sponges, but ANet probably isn’t up to the challenge to commit to the paradigm shift and the average player already accustomed to dancing around enemies while spanking it with damage would probably just stand in my way anyway. It’s not worth it.

In any case, as I’ve said before, it’s best to balance everything from a PvP perspective. Balancing from a PvP perspective means that you’re going to attempt to recreate PvP encounters (players fighting players with a lot of offensive skills, CC, counters and maneuvers in the mix) in every other aspect of the game. Clearly this paradigm fell through when ANet started creating a lot of PvE content such as dungeons (instances loaded with HP sponges, Defiant and then Defiant being made 90% resistant to blindness during the second open beta weekend).

It’s a lot of backward thought that hearkens back to more traditional MMOs despite the fact that GW2 is clearly not a traditional MMO. However, since it’s so ingrained into GW2 as it is, the effort that it would take to fix it would be enormous. I’d be willing to work with ANet to do so, but—as I’ve said—I’m not sure that they’re willing to go the extra miles to really set this game up right.

In any case, look at it this way:

• Balance all skills around PvP
• Make all skills very interesting to use in PvP; skills in PvP have a strong impact
• PvP-balanced skills lose effectiveness in PvE because of rampant HP sponges and Defiant
• Players complain that their PvP-balanced skills are losing effectiveness in PvE
• ANet has no choice but to slowly design encounters that are more friendly/responsive to PvP-balanced skills
• Everyone wins

Eudaemons.1596:

Uh, I’m quite sure there will have to be a bit of reworking on the female tops….

Just because your skin is blue when you wear it doesn’t make it any less lewd. The armor sets are fine.

Keep the current Dr. Manhattan sets. A lot of people seem to like them and we shouldn’t just steal that away from them.

However, seeing that the armor is already made, make 3 additional armor sets that use the same Zodiac Armor pieces except over top of the player’s actual model so that we can have both Zodiac Blue-Skin sets and Zodiac regular player skin sets.

Throw the three new sets into the gem store for sale at the same price as the Blue Man Group ones.

ANET. PLEASE.
JUST RE-RELEASE THE ZODIAC ARMOR.
BUT REMOVE THE BLUE SKIN MODEL.

You can even keep the Dr. Manhattan sets. Just release another version of the respective zodiac armor sets which use the player’s regular model.

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you can’t write a good story. Blow something up. Spectacularly.

The ANet school of balance:

If you can’t balance a skill, blow it up. Spectacularly.
RIP Smiter’s Boon. Never forget.

Xenon.4537:

I think defiant-stacking-style stability might be a good idea but needs to be fleshed out more.

STABILITY FUNCTIONALITY CHANGE

• Now stacks in intensity and not in duration. Each stack of stability negates one instance of a control effect. Stability can stack up to a maximum of 5 times.
• Using an Elite Skill that provides stability ([Tornado], [Rampage as One], [Dagger Storm], etc.) now grants 3 stacks of Stability for its duration.

In addition to that, I had a list of all of the stability-granting skills and traits in the game and how they would be reworked for this sort of an update, but I never posted them because I was sure everyone would just shout at me about it and I’ve got enough on my plate just maintaining the profession balance threads. Just as a note, though, current stability durations were never lengthed (and in some cases shortened), and stacks never went higher than 3.

Xenon.4537:

On stances, I didn’t consider some of those issues you brought up, but I still think it would be possible for anet to adjust the code such that:

(pseudocode)

if (control effect = knockdown) {
end stance
}
else if (control effect = anything else) {
do not end stance
}

Semantics though, you might still be right.

I have a feeling that each stance would need its own individual coding to deal with its effects. Something like:

[Berserker’s Stance]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Stance. Gain adrenaline for a short time. When you enter this stance, you cure up to 3 conditions and gain a burst of super speed for each condition that you cured. While in this stance, incoming conditions on you have reduced durations.
• Super speed per condition cured: 1 second
• Adrenaline gain per second: 6
• Condition duration reduction: 50%
• Duration: 5 seconds
  • On activation, in addition to its cast-effect of curing conditions and potentially granting super speed, the player gains 2 unique buffs: Berserker’s Vitality and Berserker’s Rage that last 5 seconds respectively. Berserker’s Vitality grants a 50% reduction to durations on incoming conditions. Berserker’s Rage grants the Warrior 6 strikes of Adrenaline every second.

with a “psuedo-code” related to it being cancelled by CC:

if (control effect = knockdown) {
remove Berserker’s Rage
remove Berserker’s Vitality
}
if (control effect = knockback) {
remove Berserker’s Rage
remove Berserker’s Vitality
}
if (control effect = launch) {
remove Berserker’s Rage
remove Berserker’s Vitality
}
if (control effect = pull) {
remove Berserker’s Rage
remove Berserker’s Vitality
}
if (control effect = float) {
remove Berserker’s Rage
remove Berserker’s Vitality
}
if (control effect = sink) {
remove Berserker’s Rage
remove Berserker’s Vitality
}

which would leave out daze, stun, fear and petrified as viable options of removing a stance. But as it shows, doing something like this would be a lot of coding for even just a single stance. Moreover, every stance would probably need to become skills that grant unique buffs which could be removed with ease via unique coding instead of boons that would be otherwise weird to remove. I’m not sure if ANet is even willing to put in the work for something like that or—again—if it’s even possible.

That also still doesn’t cover the issue of [Balanced Stance] already granting stability, thus effectively making its activation its own counter-play vs CC. I suppose one way to work around that would be to make Stances skills that do not stack, but rather overwrite each other upon activated should a Warrior in a Stance attempt to activate another Stance.

Semantics, I may be right, as you say, but I sort of hope that I’m wrong because giving Stances some counter-play would be nice.

Xenon.4537:

As for the banners, in their current state they are basically invincible engineer healing turrets that also provide significant other stat bonuses. Maybe if they reduced the regen duration to something like 3 sec with 6 sec ICD so that it’s not permanently ticking. Or better yet just put a 20 sec regen as soon as the banner lands and no reticking. I wish they hadn’t nerfed poison recently. I feel like it was the best tool against heal tanks.

I’d prefer the 33% uptime on regeneration while active instead of “press button; receive 20 seconds of regeneration.” A sudden twenty seconds of regeneration is something that would put the counter-play advantage squarely in the corner of boon-stripping classes instead of simply allowing all classes to equally counter a Warrior that is occasionally regenerating some hp by means of DPS or condition pressure.

FUNCTIONAL REDESIGN OF PVP GEAR STAT DISTRIBUTION
As it stands, there is very little wiggle room for stat customization in sPVP. It’s nice that the armor does not have any gear stats because that keeps things simple, but bottle-necking the entirety of PvP stats into 2 items leaves very little stat expansion beyond full bunker or full glass (unless you’re running conditions in which case you get defensive stats for free because “balance”). Moreover, the two components that grant to gear stats in PvP aren’t even well balanced in how they individually contribute their stats. The amulet contributes roughly 87.56% of a player’s total gear stat in PvP while the jewel contributes roughly 12.44% of a player’s total gear stat respectively. This sort of set-up doesn’t allow for a lot of middle ground when it comes to player stats beyond traits in PvP.

PVP AMULET REDESIGN

• Superior amulet stats reduced from 798 to 265.
• Major amulet stats reduced from 569 to 190.
• Minor amulet stats reduced from 284 to 95.

PVP JEWEL REDESIGN

• Superior jewel stats reduced from 125 to 45.
• Major jewel stats reduced from 75 to 25.
• Minor jewel stats reduced from 45 to 15.

PVP GEAR ADDITIONS

• Players can now equip up to 2 rings in the empty ring slots in PvP.
• These rings share the same stats as the made-over amulets; each ring has an open upgrade slot for a jewel.

By expanding a player’s available gear stat contributors in PvP without really changing the total amount of gear stats granted, players will gain the ability to craft more balanced, middle-ground stat combinations without losing the ability to go full into glass or bunker. The additional slots will give players the ability to buffer glass cannon builds or increase critical chance and/or attack power of originally bunker-heavy builds. The meta-game would benefit from seeing new stat combinations contributing to originally one-dimensional builds.

Chrispy.5641:

In every thread before this, people accused Swagg of being a warrior lover. Now reading this thread, people are finally realizing its not the case. Its kind of funny….

It’s just that everyone reads their own profession’s changes and ignores the rest of them. The whole game needs changes, and most people cry and wail without even grasping the full context of the baseline rules that go into fleshing out a game like Guild Wars 2.

Xenon.4537:

Sorry I didn’t read the entire list of proposed changes, but I just wanted to mention I don’t think the “stance shaker” idea is good at all. It’s too simple with little or no counterplay. All it does is punish people for using Stability, which is counter to the idea of using a boon in the first place. Stability can be stripped by several abilities, which is fine. Defiant is another topic all together that has nothing to do with warrior class balance.

Boon stripping is not at all well spread out across all classes, so it’s not really fair to use the “But you can strip it,” argument with any boon in all honesty.

Moreover, stability is too simple with little or no counter-play as evidenced by the lack of universal boon-stripping. If Stability stacked in charges like Defiant instead of just in duration, then it wouldn’t be such a big issue and something like “Stance Shaker” would never even cross my mind.

Xenon.4537:

If you want to target warrior stances, I suggest maybe going back to the GW1 model where (iirc) the stance would end prematurely if you were knocked down or if you used another stance. Warriors would have to consider covering their stances with stability, or have the awareness to block/dodge control effects that might end their stance. They would also have to chose one stance over another. These things might also allow for a slight buff to stances to compensate.

The reason that I’m not sure that that would work is because GW2 stances are fundamentally different compared to GW1 stances. GW2 stances would have to be re-worked in a lot of ways in order to return them to GW1-level status. For instance, [Balanced Stance] is nothing more than 2 boons, one of them being stability. It seems a little too silly to make a GW1-style stance that protects itself from its own counter. As defeatist as it sounds, I think that Warrior stances are OK in how they can stack.

Moreover, given that Knock-down falls into the category of “disabled” and I’m not sure that there’s a way for the game to nit-pick between just Knock-down and any of the other disabled Control Effects, I’m not sure how effective or even possible doing something like that would be. Even if we did make stances remove themselves on “disabled,” this game is so replete with throwaway/poorly-cued dazes and stuns that stances would probably be all but removed from the game.

Xenon.4537:

Also, I’m not sure if anyone suggested it before, but what if Anet made banners destroyable? If this were possible, it would seem to me the perfect form of counterplay to these infinite regen passive healing warriors.

It’s definitely an idea, but I still just dislike the idea of the permanent regeneration for hanging around a banner (even if it can be destroyed); and even at that point it’s still Spirit Ranger level (I get free passive buffs for having a utility on the field). Still, it’s certainly an option. I’d rather have both nerfs to be honest, though.

Sykper.6583:

- Why did you suggest giving Warriors access to Protection? This is actually my biggest issue, and because even with your proposed changes to healing signet, after your changes the profession would be even easier to win with, Protection is likely the best boon in game and I see a rather impressive access to it that Guardians would love to have. Why not take protection away and simply make the healing sustain or burst side of warriors 10-20% higher across the board?

The protection additions came from a simple question posed by one of my guild-mates: “How are Warriors going to do damage without god-mode?”

It seemed silly, but I really thought about it and it sort of makes sense. At its heart, the Warrior is one of the classes that is most susceptible to CC in the entire game given that the majority of its highest damage comes from melee strikes. To this effect, Warriors were given god-mode and excessive stability with which to land attacks that would probably otherwise just be negated via CC or even just raw damage put down by the other classes as the Warrior approached its target.

The only trouble with this is that Warrior god-mode/stability typically carries an offensive Warrior through an entire combo and more; it became over-powered, especially when paired with [Healing Signet]. So Warrior god-mode and [Healing Signet] are nerfed. But where does that leave the Warrior?

I introduced several “mini-combos” into the Warrior’s repertoire as a means to repeatedly swing the fight in the Warrior’s favor instead of simply deciding a fight with a single skill or a stun-lock combo. Because of the potential impact of these mini-combos combined with their availability across weapon-sets, the Warrior suddenly has several more options outside of single burst skills with which to kill an opponent. To that effect, the window for inflicting serious damage on an opponent as a Warrior has been changed from an often rather long time window into several shorter, individual windows.

God-mode is unnecessary for these smaller windows—in fact, it’s outright overpowered considering that the mini-combos don’t require a lot of set-up, especially if the Warrior’s team is helping to set-up the combos by applying key conditions at the proper times. So now, short bursts of protection is going to be the MO for Warriors attempting to get off these mini-combos and key skills.

It’s a paradigm shift from relying on extensive god-mode abilities to do damage and more to a style of clutch use of protection to buy a little bit of time for a few powerful skills.

Also, the protection in [Endure Pain] is to better simulate damage invulnerability without it actually being damage invulnerability, because invulnerability to anything is a pretty cheesy mechanic.

Sykper.6583:

- Stability nerfs, fair enough but did you come up with 5 seconds on your own or did you want to nerf the uptime by a certain degree? I think it might be a touch too much, since warriors do not have too much access to ranged skills outside of their ranged weapons and have to deal with the variety of Wardings or Fields that can stop them in their tracks in some manner.

The stability nerfs are, again, in the line of “use this skill to buy a little bit of time for a few important skills” instead of “press button and run around with impunity for 8 or even more seconds.”

Shorter stability durations give skills a sense of urgency and also provide a queue for opponent’s to know that something big might be coming up.

[Balanced Stance] was based off of Guardian [“Stand Your Ground!”]. The only reason that it’s 4 seconds of stability and a 35 second recharge is because “SYG!” doesn’t have the Sure-Footed trait. If that trait were re-worked, I’d feel safer lowering [Balanced Stance] to a 30-second recharge with a 5 second stability duration. As for [Dolyak Signet], I can up with that number myself. Although, thinking back on it, I feel that a 40-second recharge might be a tad too long.

I’m just afraid of 10-seconds of stability on a 30-second cool-down is all.

insanemaniac.2456:

i looked at hambow, you gave it a buff (a free cc)

A 1-second cast-time and unique projectile model prevents it from being a complete freebee. It’s long recharge also prevents spamming.

insanemaniac.2456:

and copied the nerfs.

[Arcing Arrow] is getting a nerf to make aiming it more of a forward attack rather than someone that one casts on top of one’s self for minimum projectile air-time.

I’ve never yet heard of a nerf to [Combustive Shot] even though it needs one.

insanemaniac.2456:

why buff it?

[Backbreaker] is getting a nerf to make it more of a wind-up ability instead of something that you just use directly after [Earthshaker].

[Earthshaker] becomes more of a skill shot than it is not.

insanemaniac.2456:

i looked at my cancerous s/s ham perplex build… and you gutted it once again, as if perplex and leg specialist icds werent enough to put that disease ridden filth to permanent rest. why gut sword condi builds?

Doing the same thing to sword as what happened to axe is hardly a gut. It gives opponent’s a clearer dodge target when facing a sword warrior; and even if someone dodges a [Hamstring], it’s an auto-attack which allows multiple attempts. Warrior has a wide access to CC, so the meta may change a bit, but it’s for the health of the game to make combat better telegraphed.

Riposte is getting a buff not only in its ability to apply bleeds (cool-down reduction overshadows the bleed reduction), but also by gaining a CC option with its chain skill. This can help set-up attacks for sword auto-attack or even the F1.

[Impale] is not any less effective as it was before. It’s better telegraphed, yes, but that’s for the health of the game.

A 1-second immobilize provides a lot of opportunity for any player and/or often forces an opponent to panic/pop defensive cool-downs. Increasing the cool-down to 10 seconds will not break this trait.

Chuck Nizzle.6283:

Nerf nerf nerf nerf nerfedy nerf nerf nerf?

Sorry, I don’t speak nerf.

IMO these aren’t the best ideas, just saying. Warrior’s better off now than what YOU’RE planning on doing with it.

Of course Warrior is better off than it is now—because it’s overpowered in many respects. We have to tone it down and then give it other options for inflicting damage or getting an edge over opponents aside from popping god-mode and using [Healing Signet] as a crutch.

Tactics traits
Leg Specialist (Tactics – I)

• Cool-down increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

Inspiring Battle Standard (Tactics — XI)

• Interval increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Defense traits
Dogged March (Defense – II)

• Regeneration proc cool-down increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.

Cleansing Ire (Defense – IX)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Gain adrenaline when hit. When you use a burst skill, you cure conditions.
• Conditions cured at 0 adrenaline: 0
• Conditions cured at level 1 adrenaline: 1
• Conditions cured at level 2 adrenaline: 1
• Conditions cured at level 3 adrenaline: 2

Spiked Armor (Defense – XII)

• Recharge increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

Signet skills
[Dolyak Signet] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Using a movement skill grants protection.
• Protection: 2 seconds
• Cool-down: 15 seconds

[Dolyak Signet] (active)

• Recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Stability duration reduced from 8 seconds to 5 seconds.

[Signet of Fury] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Gain bonus precision for each adrenaline level that you have. You gain fury when you spend adrenaline.
• Level 0 adrenaline bonus precision: 0
• Level 1 adrenaline bonus precision: 0.5*(10 + level)
• Level 2 adrenaline bonus precision: 1*(10 + level)
• Level 3 adrenaline bonus precision: 2*(10 + level)
• Fury per adrenaline bar spent: 2 seconds

[Signet of Fury] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Gain adrenaline for each foe in the area.
• Radius: 360
• Adrenaline gain per foe: 5
  • This skill hits up to 10 foes.

[Signet of Might] (passive)

• FUNCTIONAITY CHANGED
• Gain bonus power for each adrenaline level that you have. You gain might when you spend adrenaline.
• Level 0 adrenaline bonus power: 0
• Level 1 adrenaline bonus power: 0.5*(10 + level)
• Level 2 adrenaline bonus power: 1*(10 + level)
• Level 3 adrenaline bonus power: 2*(10 + level)
• Might per adrenaline bar spent (2): 5 seconds

[Signet of Might] (active)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• The next time that a foe blocks one of your attacks, you gain might and damage foes in the area.
• Signet of Might (1): 5 seconds
• Damage: 336 (1.0)
• Damage radius: 180
• Might (3): 10 seconds
• Unblockable
  • Upon skill use, the player gains 1 stack of a unique buff to the warrior called Signet of Might which lasts for 5 seconds. When a player under the effect of Signet of Might has an attack blocked by a foe, the buff enacts its effects and decreases in stack by 1.

[Signet of Stamina] (passive)

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Gain vigor whenever you successfully evade an attack.
• Vigor: 5 seconds
• Cool-down: 15 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.

Stance skills
[Endure Pain]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Stance. You gain protection and increased vitality.
• Protection: 3 seconds
• Vitality (+1500): 4 seconds
• Breaks stun.

[Berserker’s Stance]

• FUNCTIONALITY CHANGED
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 50 seconds
• Stance. Gain adrenaline for a short time. When you enter this stance, you cure up to 3 conditions and gain a burst of super speed for each condition that you cured. While in this stance, incoming conditions on you have reduced durations.
• Super speed per condition cured: 1 second
• Adrenaline gain per second: 6
• Condition duration reduction: 50%
• Duration: 5 seconds

[Balanced Stance]

• Recharge decreased from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Stability duration decreased from 8 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Swiftness duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.

Physical skills
[Throw Bolas]

• Immobilized duration reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
• This skill now also stuns (½ second) foes when striking from behind or the side.

Shout skills
[“Fear Me!”]

• Recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 50 seconds.
• 400-600 range now inflicts fear for ½ second.
• 200-400 range now inflicts fear for 1 second; vulnerability (5) for 5 seconds.
• 0-200 range now inflicts fear for 1½ seconds; vulnerability (5) for 5 seconds; weakness for 3 seconds.

Elite skills
[Battle Standard]

• Cast-time increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Revive radius reduced to 180.