Idea of the day: Warrior Banners might like an update.

Idea of the day!I tend to get a lot brimming in my head that would be interesting to see in Guildwars 2, mostly to do with changing core specializations, or to do with other core-game mechanics or designs. Perhaps treat these ideas as going around to the creative end of Arenanet whilst banging a flint and steel together hoping for a spontaneous spark. Guildwas 2 is by far my favorite mmo, but that's why I tend to think about it quite a bit.

Banners are certainly useful in a lot of PvE situations, they're run almost all the time in fractals for example. But as an actual skill I think they ooze with 2012 design, and feel quite outdated. As a kit, banners are entirely useless. They might even be better without the pick-up mechanic because they can sometimes get in the way of grabbing other items, or resurrecting teammates, if it weren't the fact that moving the area of effect is sometimes useful. So why are they even items in the environment anymore? I would propose that having the skill follow the warrior who cast them would be much smoother and potentially more fun.

I would propose that the banner be placed on the warrior's back when they summoned them, perhaps waving above the warrior's head with the shaft attached to their back. Each banner might be summoned at a different angle so you could potentially have a 'support' warrior with a bunch of banners waving on their back like a herald of battle; the effects always being centered on the warrior. This would give the warriors an option to make a second-cast with the ability while the banner is up, but before it goes on cooldown like so:

Banner of Defense: Active: Summon a small field to grant protection to all nearby allies, and block projectiles for a short time.Banner of Strength: Active: Lead by example, smacking your foe with your fist and knocking them down.Banner of Discipline: Active: Inspire nearby allies, granting them all fury.Banner of Tactics: Active: Call your allies to arms, removing all movement impairing effects and breaking stun.Battle Standard: Active: Roar, setting all nearby enemies of fire and granting a small amount of healing to all nearby allies, and granting stability.

My main point is that nobody likes banners as an environmental weapon, and unless they are trying to move the banner, it is always an annoying accident. Doing something more fun with these otherwise useful skills would be fantastic, and perhaps let them see more use outside of specific PvE bosses.

If like to see the elite banner like the engineer mortar kit, crossed with a turret if you plant it. I think they could make the perfect support build as far as a set of utilities go.