Guild Wars 2

Rym.1469:

ronpierce.2760:

• Swearing Fissure – I find this to be a decent move.

Skill that BMs opponents for you? That’s awesome!

Yes, but it just needs to be a tiny bit louder to be a bit more reflective of my true feelings.

Edit: Also, thanks for the feedback, Rym. :P

Shiro: Shiro is strong and, generally, in a good place. Riposting Shadows and Phase Traversal needs consideration to reducing mobility. Surely, no one wants to hear that, but it definitely can get out of hand as it stands, and something has to give. I’m not sure how to handle it without going back to the previous version, which clearly wasn’t a better alternative (required range).

Glint: Glint seems to be in a great spot. It’s amazing at what it does. I’m not actually sure if it’s too good, or just perceived as too good due to the nature of Revenant as a whole, being new to players. So far, coupled with Jalis or Ventari it seems okay, Mallyx it seems strong but not too overly strong, but might be a bit too good with Shiro/Power builds. The heal is strong, but feels necessary at times to not get completely melted by conditions.

• Facet of Chaos – Leaving the rest alone, because I’m unsure, I feel Facet of Chaos (Chaotic Release) could be a bit better. It’s a bit slow for what it does, and the super speed doesn’t really seem necessary. The cooldown is long as well. The pips are high, so I rarely ever “sit” with it, the 3 seconds of protection are really not worth the 15 energy worth of opportunity costs. It is one of those, however, where it could easily be out of hand, so I think its fine. Chaotic Release could be better though. Bug: For some Chaotic Release causes huge lag spikes.

Note: Traits are starting to take shape. There are several that still feel too weak, especially several Grand Master traits.

Corruption: If anything could be done to make Demonic defiance more global in use, it would be amazing, and switched with Opportune Extraction. Resistance is everything about this line, but only Mallyx can enjoy it. Any way to make it more universal without shredding it would be great for the line and the class. If that isn’t possible without destroying it, though, just leave it alone.

• Venom Enhancement – Cooldown seems to be a bit much with such limited Poison access. 10 seconds would be fine. (Reduce base to 4 seconds.) This would make it a better anti-healing utility if a non-mallyx build takes this line (not real likely, since Demonic Defiance sort of has a monopoly, and the line is too focused on torment).

• Frigid Precision – Seems like a weaker version of the reaper’s Adept trait, which even that isn’t very powerful, of course without the prior chill requirement, but RNG instead. Perhaps just make it AOE so it’s on the same level as the Reaper adept, or add a decent spike damage to it, similar to Glacial Heart.

• Diabolic Inferno – Could see maybe an increase in duration or one more stack. It’s basically a weak Ring of Fire proc at the moment, but overall the trait is pretty cool. If it was a bit stronger, and if EtD was instant, I could really see it get get some use. (Suggestions: 2 stacks for 5 seconds, or 3 stacks for 3 seconds).

Retribution: This line has needed some work but is coming together. The Grand Masters need some serious love though. I’ll skip hammers, since he’s already changing it, but really, the GMs need to be looked at quickly before launch. I’m going to get a bit “pretend designer” here and suggest some more drastic changes to make the overall feel of the line a bit better.

• Planar Protection – Take the Protection from Eye for an Eye, and move it here. Change the skill to: “When taking fall damage or you are inflicted with a CC effect, gain 3 seconds of protection and create a field of mist, pulsing weakness. 4 second duration field (down from 8 seconds). 10 second cooldown” Bam, suddenly you have a fall trait and a good anti-CC trait. (Note: Similar to the Engineer trait, but adds a field in place of twice the cooldown, just so you know where my numbers came from.)

• Eye for an Eye – Merge the effects of Improved Aggression to here. Reduce the duration increase to 50%, but allow it to work on players. Reduce the base taunt to 2 seconds, so that it remains 3 seconds, but works with Forced Engagement. Add a new Adept.

• Empowering Vengeance – Merge retaliatory Evasion into this trait. Create a new Major trait.

• Steadfast Rejuvenation – Everything about this is terrible for a GM. To put in perspective, Engineer often has perma swiftness and heals for more with the new Master trait. It is increased in the gap with Super Speed. Backpack Regenerator is even more useful. Level 2 “Adrenal Health”, a minor Master is barely weaker, but likely just as good due to the proc chance and the nature of ICDs never being right on time, and level 3 completely outshines it. Rough suggestion: Increase healing by 10%, remove the pointless proc chance (the trait should be based around simply being aggressive in combat), and add “Remove 1 condition.” End result would be something like 430 and 1 condition removed when hit, 4 sec icd. This would be about 2.2 conditions removed per 10 seconds, which is still much weaker than most condition removal traits (Empathetic Bond, Cleansing Ire, Cleansing Water) but still made up for with some healing (equating to about 100 hps), putting this trait closer in line with things like Rapid Regeneration in terms of usefulness.

Salvation: I’m opting out of this for similar reasons to Ventari. I need to see a bigger picture/goal to make proper feedback.

Devastation: I don’t have any major complains with Devastation. It seems to be a popular line, and has its uses. Some minor tuning issues could be picked on, but nothing too striking, overall.

Glint: The minors are great. There are some tuning issues and bugs to be worked out but the specialization is in a solid spot.

• Radiant Revival – Cooldown is too long and the effect is too short to be useful. Increasing it to 3 seconds on a 30 or 40 second cooldown and increasing revival speed by 10% would be a good way to make it more impactful.

• Bolster Fortifications – It just doesn’t seem very good. It seems quite clear it’s “balanced” around Ventari’s unique low-cooldown heal. I’m not sure how I feel about that. This may be a case where a cooldown is necessary to make it more useful all around.

• Soothing Bastion – This trait is super buggy right now. When this procs, using the shield 5 skill will still play its animation, root you, and go on cooldown, but does not block or heal, which is a HUGE problem. I’ve heard the boon duration extension also doesn’t work. I did not personally test this, though.

Thanks for reading, and I welcome all feedback! I’m sure not everyone read every last bit, but thanks for letting me get it all out, and hopefully there is something here as a base for discussion, and getting some creative juices flowing. Sorry it’s so long. :P

Edit: I tried to make it easier to read and keep place, it just took me a minute.

Off-Hands
Axe: Axe feels pretty good, overall. Temporal Rift has some ground issues that need to be worked out to increase reliability, but design wise, I have no real issues.

Sword: Sword is fine. Pull issues exist still sometimes. Again, this isn’t a problem with the weapon. The flip cost of the block, “Shackling Wave” could possibly be reduced, as I feel the 20 (total) cost is a bit steep to utilize the block-counter.

Shield: I love shield. If anyone doesn’t like shield they’re wrong! No but really, it has good sustain, but while being strong, it has a big draw-back of a decent energy cost (as far as weapon skills go) and a self-root. The risk/reward seems nice, it’s strong and impactful, but with consideration. I enjoy it.

Jalis: I feel Jalis got hit pretty hard with the stability nerf, and still doesn’t quite do enough to justify its uses.

• Inspiring Reinforcement – Got hit too hard. At least the stability could last 2 seconds per pulse. I think that would help make it a bit more useful.

• Forced Engagement – Unfortunately, it isn’t safe to have a CC too spammable. That said, it’s still pretty easy to botch, meaning you really lose out. Too much risk for not enough reward would sum this skill up. “Unblockable” might give it a niche use, knowing it will land, and using it to fish out people in defensive modes.

• Vengeful Hammers – I’m still not real sure about. Cost might be kind of high to justify using too much, as it doesn’t feel quite there yet. If I’m not mistaken, hammers themselves still have issues. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)

• Rite of the Great Dwarf – Super high cost, long cast for basically a glorified protection… I’d really, for the sake of the stun break and clutch plays, like to see this moved toward being near instant cast. I’d venture to say some people would even accept a nerf from 5 to 4 seconds if it were more useful on the fly. Again, feel free to discuss, because I’m just not sure it’s in a good spot, and long cast time stun breaks just feel awful to me.

Mallyx: Mallyx is in an okay spot. It suffers from a lack of stun break and energy wasted on interrupted skills.

• Pain Absorption – I personally feel like, as a defensive, non-target skill, this would be the prime area for a stun break, even with the cast time.

• Unyielding Anguish – It feels okay, it’s certainly better than it was in terms of being a practical skill. Though you gain some distance, I’m not sure I completely agree with losing all of the energy spent if interrupted, since the skill doesn’t go real far, the cost should honestly be incurred only if it lands and places a field. Losing 30 energy when getting interrupted just feels too harsh. (I’m sure it’s not the only skill that suffers from this, but it’s the most immediately noticeable.) Bug: This skill sometimes take a LONG time to even start leaping when under the effects of slow, to the point sometimes I wonder if it has even registered.

• Embrace the Darkness – The cost still seems high. Anything with negative pips signify huge opportunity costs, and overall, I feel like it ends up making Mallyx feel a bit clunky. I tend to avoid it when I can. The effect isn’t terrible. If it was instant cast (like all other toggles?), and maybe just one less Pip since it has a front-cost, maybe. Or keep the cost and add a pulsing 1 second cripple pulse so I can keep up on people with mace!

Ventari: I’m skipping Ventari. It’s not that I don’t love or care about Ventari, but I feel like any help I could give it would be pretend-developer thinking. Drastic changes are needed to make it more useful and less clunky to play with. There are a thousand ways this could go, and I’d rather wait and See what Roy has in consideration before going crazy in dream-land.

Hey everyone. I’m Sikari, known for long posts in the PvP and Necromancer section with not enough TL;DRs. I’ve come to take a liking of Revenant recently and wanted to weigh in some opinions, suggestions and things of that nature. To cut down on space and fluff, I’m just going to jump in and go down the lists hitting weapons, utilities and traits. I’ll try to generalize each point, I’ll separate more in-depth/specific notes I wish to make. Feel free to discuss, criticize or add to the discussion in any way you see fit. Keep it civil and constructive, please!

Two-Handed
Hammer: Hammer overall is in a good spot, and still fills a strong slow but hard-hitting niche.

• Hammer bolt – I actually mostly wanted to point out, I dislike the animation. Throwing a Hammer seems a lot less epic than it could have been, but that’s just me. More importantly, though this is not revenant specific, bolts do hit far past their distance cap, a projectile issue within the game.

• Coalescence of Ruin – I believe this damage could be shifted to be a ‘little’ less hindered in close combat. Currently it looks like the weapon has coefficients of 1, 1.5 and 2. Something closer to 1.20, 1.60, 2 would be a bit better, as a 40% damage reduction is still significant. Being that a strong portion of hammer’s damage is in this ability, it’d be nice if it was a bit more impactful in close range. Also, the damage area does not completely match up with the animation, leading to moments where you would think you hit your target, but actually have not (Especially at high range).

• Drop the Hammer – Drop the hammer is an interesting beast. In chaotic situations, it isn’t bad. However in more realistic scenarios and smaller scale fights, the 1.75 cast time, on top of being ground-targeted makes for a really hard to land skill. That said, it being a low cooldown aoe CC, it makes it risky to make too powerful. I suggest either a 1.25 cast time, or an even shorter cast time (3/4), and having it work similarly to Dragon’s Tooth, where it’s still delayed significantly, in this case 1 second after the cast (to keep it about the same, but less time spent casting), so that it can be more easily comboed with, and locks your character for less time on a skill that is very easily dodgeable. Either route taken, the cooldown could go up to 20 seconds. Personally, I feel a more reliable ability is better than a short cooldown ability that is less reliable and less impactful. I understand this might be controversial though.

Staff: Overall, I actually think staff is fine, so I won’t add huge text walls. I think the Weakness on #2 is a bit too short, though. 4 second and I’d just settle with that. Surge of the Mists might be a touch too strong.

One-Handed
Mace: Mace isn’t bad, but I do find it sometimes hard to be reliable. Torment would be better given the suggested trait enhancement of Torment, that Roy suggested, which is boosting the base damage of Torment for still targets. I think that would go a long way, alone. Wish it had a soft cc (cripple), but it’s not a big concern. Lastly, something I had mentioned before, the power damage could go up a bit to support hybrid builds (Sinister/Rampager/Celestial). I think this is important due to a lack of a ranged condition weapon.

• Searing Fissure – I find this to be a decent move. It’s one of the few burn skills I don’t hate because it appropriately only stacks a single burn per tick. I do feel, however, it is maybe a LITTLE too easily side-stepped. A minor width boost would go a long way for me to make this weapon more beneficial. Wouldn’t mind hearing opinions on this.

Sword: Sword is strong, but I’m still having a hard time accepting the projectile on auto. Perhaps increasing the width of the projectile could reduce some issues, but I think without a projectile at all would be a better, though, less interesting, solution.

Greek.4396:

Crystal Hibernation is fine. If people QQ that its too strong bring a Necro with unblockable fear or Warrior with Signet of Might.

If your dieing to Condis in Crystal Hibernation you can pre-cast Mallyx ultitlies for resistance so it doesn’t effect your healing before it activates, or activate Glint Heal as last resort if your going to go down to condis at 25% health.

This is important to note. I actually think it’s important to have new skills like this that indirectly buff the necessity of certain traits and skills, such as unblockable (Nothing Can Save You, Signet of Might, etc).

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Hammerguard.9834:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

If you want to focus on being the top offense then you probably shouldn’t be selecting the Druid specialization.

Alot of people aren’t going to like this but honestly, I love it. These specializations shouldn’t be capable of being the best at every role.

You can’t be best at every role, but you can allow different roles though the exact same traits, reshuffled, for less focus on healing through the minors.

See this one change below I would make that would improve diversity immensely.

Currently the Druid allows only for healing as a role due to its minor traits, a reshuffle would allow for CC to be a main build and conditions also.

That’s a solid change. Scary, but solid.

That is a cool story.

Yeah, personally, id just settle for 4 utilities per legend. That’d be my main wish in those regards.

I know this isn’t quite what you might consider a ‘full bunker’, but i ran this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJASmn3geNSuQvJRboHlsP0kS4I6SJ4EtrklTlRNjQOJNgEewe93rH-TpBHwAAeAACOEABOCADuAAl2fAZZAA

It’s a celestial build, and you can run either Hammer or Staff with the mace/shield. I’ve bunked 2-4 people at once at times depending on who they were and stalled for a very long time, and if I played my cards right I’ve won several out-numbered matches. The shield bug was really holding me back from my full potential. It’s a good mid-point, but is a pretty good well-rounded build. Some of the traits I ran were ‘ideals’, I still think the Retribution GMs need buffed, they’re kinda bad atm.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’m sorry, but how is managing to stay alive while standing in the Legendary Wyvern’s fire as a Reaper for about ten times longer than any other profession/elite spec anything but overpowered?

You said that elite specs are balanced to non-elite specs. I can’t speak for all nine, but for some this isn’t true at all.

There’s more to it than just different approaches.

First off, I don’t think you were actually in the wyvern’s fire. A bunch of Rangers are using the new fire wyvern pet, especially at that fight, so you were probably standing in friendly fire.

How do I know this? Because unless you’re getting a ton of focused healing being spammed on you, you will still drop in about 8 seconds or less of standing in that fire as a Reaper. And that’s assuming you had full life force and health.

You can melee the wyvern as a Reaper with ease, yes, but only from the sides or back.

You realize that’s 5 different legends right? Shiro has a soft CC removal, that isn’t “condition protection”. Jalis can remove 3 every 30 seconds on their heal. Every 30 seconds Herald can soak some healing from them, but that’s it.

Ventari is clunky and the cost of removal is really high, and Mallyx is probably your only legend good against conditions, though still weak against boon rip/corruption.

It’s a case where you might have to play Revenant to realize you can try to dig and justify it, but unless you play it, you just won’t really get it.

That said, Herald/Mallyx can handle conditions at least decently well. But that’s pretty much the only combination that feels real safe with conditions.

Kolly.9872:

WuGzaGenius.5684:

stability and protection should do the trick.

Interesting how thief lacks both of this

Your kit doesn’t involve Protection, Stability or Burn. You are the weakest link. :P

It’s not so easy when the first shot has quickness and isn’t always avoidable given x circumstances. Regardless, yeah, just a bug, nbd. I was wondering yesterday how I was taking so much of my total HP on my Reaper when I only saw it do something like 6-8k. :P

I would definitely put scrapper over herald. Like I said before, herald is pretty good for boon support, but I mean, that’s pretty much what it does. Other than that it’s not super fantastic and it can drain Energy like it’s nothing. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but maybe a little over-valued, and I think the general power of Revenant gets smushed into “herald”. To be expected since the whole class is new.

Scrapper is cray cray, but so is Chrono/Reaper. Reaper at least fills a niche of slow close-quarters and can’t escape, so the counter play is definitely there, but they’re still pretty much beasts at what they’re intended for.

This is why no one takes WvW serious. You guys love your buffs and stuff, but it’s impossible to balance. I’d be furious if anything got nerfed over WvW, frankly…

punahou.3986:

why does everything have to be a nerf?

why not bring other classes to the same level

Power creep is never a good thing. It’s already creating a mess. Once they bring someone else up, they over shoot, suddenly chronomancers/mesmers feel bad and want buffs. Even if at that point it’s justified, it causes HUGE problems with the game’s overall balance. Nerfing is an unfortunate but very necessary beast that you sometimes have to deal with.

And just so you know I’m not picking on you, I play Necro/Reaper. I suspect some changes will come our way.

Alekt.5803:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

As someone has previously said somewhere in these forums and potentially in this thread as well (I didn’t read all the comments); Reaper is the opposite of a Necromancer. Necromancer cannot take being focus fired because they do not have scaling defenses like immunity, invulnerability, blocks, etc. A Reaper however has very good scaling defenses because the more people attack it/get close to it the stronger it gets. People are just angry they can’t insta-gib Necro’s anymore because with Reaper LOL TRYNA GANK ME?! NOPE!

Don’t dogpile them and they’re much easier to kill. It’s similar to zerging a Warrior who has an active Defiant Stance. The more you attack said Warrior the more health you give them.

tldr; stop zerging the Reaper and they’ll stop loling when you fail.

But if you leave a necromancer alone, isn’t what they want in the first place? Isn’t why we focus the necros first? So that they don’t wreck you?

Well, no actually, the reason Necros of all types get focused isn’t because of their dps or anything. They have moderately high damage at best. The main reason they get focused is because they are the easiest to CC and have a very slim chance to escape. Why that is important is, that means they are less likely to sustain and come back with full health. They are good sponges, but that isn’t the same thing as sustain in team fights. So that’s why they tend to get focused, even if they have more HP and can soak, they will go down fairly easily.

Yeah, I tweeted Roy about it. It blows. I got myself killed so many times.

style.6173:

GragorR.9768:

Spicyhash.7605:

Revenant has way too much mobility

Please excuse me while i rofl.

You might want to try the permaswiftness if you don’t understand how to give Rev mobility. In the time it took you to make this post, you could have learned about the class!

Since when is perma-swiftness a feat of ridiculous mobility?

That said, Shiro has crazy mobility IF there is a target ahead to dash to. Otherwise, yeah, its kind of a silly thing to say.

Don’t wroy guys, I’ll fix the forum bug. I want to read what people are saying. :}

Jekkt.6045:

Muchacho.2390:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Really? Just run Reaper. The entire elite spec hard counters Elementalists. I just love a perma slow on my weapon swapping and it’s even more crippling as you have to wait to overcharge.

Can we please have it so Elementalists is not the ONLY class were our weapon swapping can be slowed?

So yeah, kitten Reapers.

Unless its a d/d ele. Phantaram streamed some 1v1 tempest against reaper (i think the reaper was nos). The duels came down to the fact if phantaram could keep up the 90% health tresholds for diamant skin (so i guess the chill argument is plausable) but then at the end he switched to d/d ele and simply outsustained the reaper. It took him a while but he won. And it didnt seem even close.

guess what, phantaram has more experience on d/d ele than nos on reaper lol.

That’s a two way argument. He also has less experience fighting Reapers. It’s easier to learn to play something (especially if it’s just a variation of what you’re already used to) than to remember every counter to each enemy.

I would say something like:
Top:
Chronomancer
Reaper (Condi seems worse than power, but will have to see in more organized fights to be sure.)
Scrapper

High:
Herald (a bit overrated due to people correlating it to everything that is Revenant, still strong.)
Druid

Average:
Berserker
Tempest
Daredevil

Kind of Meh/ too niche
Dragonhunter. Can do some nice burst, but really niche and not all that great from what I’ve seen.

That’s my thoughts on rankings.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Really? Just run Reaper. The entire elite spec hard counters Elementalists. I just love a perma slow on my weapon swapping and it’s even more crippling as you have to wait to overcharge.

Can we please have it so Elementalists is not the ONLY class were our weapon swapping can be slowed?

So yeah, kitten Reapers.

I feel like you didn’t read the post at all. This isn’t actually about Ele… It’s about Scrapper (engi)

Just get used to it. A new player says the same thing about any base class. Once you’re used to them (I am already), they actually provide you better detail about what your enemy can do.

Toolbox.9375:

It might be something computer-specific. I tend to run at 40-45 FPS in “relaxed” situations, and around 25-30 FPS in combat. The skill doesn’t hit my FPS at all. I’m definitely not in the super-high-end-computer crowd, so I don’t think it’s a simple matter of how good one’s video card is. X)

It’s definitely not. I can stay 50+ fps in combat even with grenade engies around, but this skill alone drops me to about 5-10 ever single time.

I can confirm this skill causes FPS drops. I run 60 fps, and it alone (the only skill, consistently) drops FPS. I don’t think its the graphic entirely, I’ve had much worse going on. Something about it causes fps drops though.

Ventari is really bad compared to Druid… I hate to say it. Herald makes up for it a TINY bit, but Ventari is just bad… the energy consumption, the general lack of impactful healing and difficult to use, its just not worth it…

Agilitas.2537:

DaShi.1368:

Some of us don’t want a berserker meta.

i rather have meta where fights last about 1 min or less, than over that.

That’s kind of the ‘high active defense, marauder’ type. Unfortunately, the game is at a cross roads right now because the amount of active defenses has pretty much shredded multiple roles in this game.

I could take it or leave it either way, right now my favorite build is my Curses shout Marauder reaper, and it does just that. But at the same time, I don’t like pushing out roles because everyone likes to do DAMAGE DAMAGE DAMAGE and have all the active defenses they could ever want…

bluesnacks.2301:

A class having a counter to minion spam isn’t really a bad thing

It’s not really ‘a class’ or ‘a counter’. Almost no pet build in the game is usable because pets are essentially useless in team fights due to the excessive (by design) cleave. 1v1 that might have merit, but this isn’t a 1v1 game and you can’t take any pet build into a team fight.

Except maybe if your whole intention is to death nova to victory.

That isn’t to say there aren’t other measures they could take to make minions less potent in 1v1 but more useful to utilize in team fights too, I’d be okay with that. But as it stands, AOE isn’t just a count, just about everyone does it, it’s just another hole in the design of companions.

Even in WoW where AOE was less prominent, pets had huge AOE defenses, because it was just about the only way they could justify a spec based around having a pet. Same thing here.

flow.6043:

ronpierce.2760:

I disagree. It’s 95%. VP still needs to be baselined for diversity reasons, and Chilling Darkness needs to be merged into Shivers of dread. Thennn it’ll be perfect. <3

By VP I assume you just mean the 2% degeneration? I’d only consider baselining it if they removed the dmg reduction bug.
As for Chilling Darkness + Shivers of Dread, don’t you think a minor trait that inflicts chill on both fear and blindness would be too strong? I could maybe see it as a major trait, for example if it switched places with Deathly Chills.

Blinding darkness has a 5 sec ICD, I figured it’d keep that. As it stands, for the reaper itself unless you run a condition build, it’s a minor that adds a chill to a single small area fear. It’s just not a good global trait. However due to the low cooldown and overall theme of the reaper, blind fits better for the chill. Just have them both do it but share a 4 second ICD.

As for VP, reaper basically has to run VP for its build to be overall competitive in spvp. Making it baseline increases global diversity and makes the class handle better as a whole (less self interrupted skills due to 8-12% degeneration during the cast). Unfortunately, it would require other balance measures, yes, it’s not a simple change, but I do feel like it’s a necessary one.

Ruderasta.7809:

How are you guys sticking to anyone in pvp? I can prepare a thanksgiving meal in between the second and third sword swings, and thats the one that applies our most reliable slow as this spec?

I run staff+d/d

I disagree. It’s 95%. VP still needs to be baselined for diversity reasons, and Chilling Darkness needs to be merged into Shivers of dread. Thennn it’ll be perfect. <3

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The underlying system of combat is built around area attacks. This is why the majority of base weapon attacks strike multiple targets in the affected area, unlike other games which strike one target – the one you have selected. Our system makes things like positioning and facing far more important and engaging; this also means that the concept of ‘AoE’ is not as easy to distinguish and thus handle in different ways.

That said, we are currently looking at systemic ways to help with player pet and minion survivability.

Figured it might be worth bringing over here for our MM lovers. He specifically noted ‘minions’, so I’m assuming he’s generalizing non-ranger pets, but that should include us. Hype?

You should start streaming on your Necro. I could use some tips.

zapv.8051:

ronpierce.2760:

I used it a bit. It has a specific value in having some form of frequent chill in shroud, which otherwise relies on a long AOE cooldown one with RS5.

I think the sigil deserves to have a bit of damage attached to it due to the long cooldown it has. Sigil of Hydromancy is better than it in every way possible, though I understand them not wanting to increase the chill uptime it provides, I do think it should have some impact to it. And maybe even just lower the ICD to 9 seconds to match Hydromancy’s.

Yeah, the real problem is that your pretty much always better off running hydro. Since it is single target I could see the CD getting lowered to 5 seconds. That or they could make it an aoe effect similar to chilling nova. 2 second 240 radius chill on hit would be worth it for ranged builds.

That’d be great except the odds of that actually happening are terrible… Which sucks because I’d love to use Ice over Hydromancy if it was on par with it, simply because the reason I’d want to use it at all is to have a stream of chill in Shroud rather than just a frontloaded chill.

Maybe Gee will see this and pass it off as an idea, but I think we’re out of luck in those regards.

I used it a bit. It has a specific value in having some form of frequent chill in shroud, which otherwise relies on a long AOE cooldown one with RS5.

I think the sigil deserves to have a bit of damage attached to it due to the long cooldown it has. Sigil of Hydromancy is better than it in every way possible, though I understand them not wanting to increase the chill uptime it provides, I do think it should have some impact to it. And maybe even just lower the ICD to 9 seconds to match Hydromancy’s.

Since you posted this in the Thief section, it seems like you wanted a specific answer…

Uninstalling because someone you beat called your class OP is… Well… That’s honestly kind of weird…

HaxTester.9816:

Maybe instead of flat out destroying minions, it will deal some damage instead? Then afterwards, we spam the kitten out of staff 2 to try to heal our minions lol. ^^;;

I’d rather them all turn into tiny baby moas for the duration and just not attack.

But then, that’s have to go for all pet classes, right now, MM are the only pet class that gets screwed over by this transformation decision. Most likely because they last until killed, so it affects their PvE stuff more.

It wouldn’t make me so angry though if we weren’t the only ones that get hit by this, in terms of PvP, where it really makes a difference.

You’re a necro?

Friend, no, we love this! Always have a putrid mark or plague signer on hand, let the enemy deal with long immobs! :}

Except, standard D/D ele is just fine. o.O

Can someone tell me the base durations of the change? I can’t get on atm.

Hexalot.8194:

Pelopidas.2140:

Yeah it did against vulnerable foes. Now that axe got a 10% buff, life blast with axe+unholy fervor should be doing more damage than life blast with staff. Haven’t tested it though, so.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t one-handed weapons do only 50% of the damage of a two-handed one when equipped in DS ?

I’m going by the fact that one-handed weapons only have half the stats of a two-handed one, of course.

It’s not a matter of stats on the 1h. The 1h+oh stats are the same as a two hand’s total stats. Not to mentioned you completely factored out all the stats on armor, hehe.

The thing that makes LB hit less with 1h versus 2h is that 2h weapons have a higher weapon strength, which is the base for damage coefficients. A coefficient goes further with a higher base damage weapon.

For instance, a Exotic dagger has a weapon strength of 924-981 while a 2h has a strength of 985-1,111. So the difference is there, but its not as big as you’d think. The numerical gap increases with damage multipliers too.

Yeah, it was fun. Hopefully they don’t over-do it so I can still use it with my Druid build. The boon build that popped up was almost exactly what I had in mind for Druid, minus the Natures magic which would have been less boon-crazy, but w better well rounded build.

Sucks because I’m pretty sure the biggest part of what made this build broke. Was the Natures Magic in terms of boon stacking.

Will probably just end up settling for survival Druid instead.

No need to worry.
Roy confirmed Nerf:
https://twitter.com/roycronacher/status/649267788121411585

It’s still really weak to AOE area denial/conditions especially and boon removal/corruption.

As it stands, so far, I’d say it’s an unfortunate addition to the power creep just to fit in, and still has a defined weakness.

Personally, I find it sad that this can legitimately be justified, but it can. Just kind of goes to show how much of a mess things can be, lol.

There’s only so much they can do. If they buff it too much, it takes away from Mesmer, as High-Damage Shatters will no longer be a unique profession mechanic. We need no more homogenization. Maybe if they changed the name to Crumble Rock, we can start seeing some unique functionality.

Good luck!

Nike.2631:

Wow, a nearly perfect map of perceived power.

I wouldn’t say that. Chronomancer and Herald would be higher up if that were the case, I’d say…

style.6173:

Garrisyl.7402:

Pretty much like people expected. You still can’t kill them but you have a better chance at stalling them since they don’t deal as much damage.

No. The buff to ring of fire is huge. Before it had counterplay if you didn’t cross the line. Now you get burned being in the middle. It is horrible design if anet wanted a game mode around holding points or something.

It still has counter play, at least as much as any other PBAOE, you can still dodge it.

It doesn’t tick that 2 burn, its 2 burn on the initial hit and 1 on cross over. So even being hit with it and crossing the ring one is still, in total, less damage than crossing over it once before.

I kind of hope it doesn’t get nerfed just yet. I planned on running basically exactly this, almost to the dot, except, changing WS for Druid and trying to make use of Ancient Seeds for more condition pressure and control and better condition removal.

I still want to try it out once BWE3 hits.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

so we still can’t kill them but can those annoying kittens still kill us easily as before?

More like you still can’t kill them but at least they kill a tiny bit slower than before. And by tiny I mean it’s pretty small, RoF is more useful as a direct attack, though crossing it doesn’t hurt as bad. That said, that means you also can’t have Necros dance in it for huge burn spike plague signets.

Overall, I’d say this patch had a lot of text for not a lot of change.

Warriors should be pretty happy though. While it may not totally shape their meta builds, some of the changes they got were decent. Last stand buff is huge, if you can escape the need for Cleaninng Ire (admittedly not easy to do).

Quick note, not sure if it’s a bug or intended, but Spiteful Spirit received no cooldown reduction with the Axe 3 change.

Preferably, just remove it. It’s no where near the other two traits. Still needs more, but regardless, at least lower the CD to match the new Unholy feast.