About Glacial Heart/Glacial Blow

I really like most of what you did here, but increasing Hammer #2's CD from 4 to 6 seconds WITH a trait slotted isn't helpful imho. I get it's only a second longer than previous Hammer #2, but it's the blast finisher on the bar and 2 seconds per blast extra is a lot. It's part of what makes Hammer Guard work. Just saying.

If you only want the blast finish, then don't use the trait it and the cooldown will be 4 seconds. All of hammer's cooldowns were decreased as well. Traiting Glacial Heart now is just for that extra damage and chill on interrupt and a mightier Mighty Blow.

Thing is; Mighty Blow is NOT worth it if all you care for is damage. Its cast time and after cast pretty much nullify the "big hit", even more so if you heavily rely on symbol related traits (not auto-attacking will be a loss in DPS). Mighty Blow also underperforms as a gap closer due to its clunky execution. Its own use was and is being a blast finisher. Glacial Blow, though, has a damage value that - even using every symbol trait available - makes it a DPS increase. And lastly; without quickness/alacrity a 6 second cool down fits the flow perfectly since you can Glacial Blow every other AA chain.

I'm liking glacial blow in WvW. Average of about 7k dmg on a short cooldown is very nice. Also, golfing reds over a cliff never gets old :D.

@"Legion.9617" said:Thing is; Mighty Blow is NOT worth it if all you care for is damage. Its cast time and after cast pretty much nullify the "big hit", even more so if you heavily rely on symbol related traits (not auto-attacking will be a loss in DPS). Mighty Blow also underperforms as a gap closer due to its clunky execution. Its own use was and is being a blast finisher. Glacial Blow, though, has a damage value that - even using every symbol trait available - makes it a DPS increase. And lastly; without quickness/alacrity a 6 second cool down fits the flow perfectly since you can Glacial Blow every other AA chain.

in PvE hammer stinks for DPS anyway. It's clearly geared towards competitive modes where it's relied upon as big hit that's quite reliable and the chill from the trait becomes very relevant. If the trait didn't increase the CD it would be too powerful.

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Legion.9617" said:Thing is; Mighty Blow is NOT worth it if all you care for is damage. Its cast time and after cast pretty much nullify the "big hit", even more so if you heavily rely on symbol related traits (not auto-attacking will be a loss in DPS). Mighty Blow also underperforms as a gap closer due to its clunky execution. Its own use was and is being a blast finisher. Glacial Blow, though, has a damage value that - even using every symbol trait available - makes it a DPS increase. And lastly; without quickness/alacrity a 6 second cool down fits the flow perfectly since you can Glacial Blow every other AA chain.

Agreed, but from 4-->6 is arguably too much. I think 5s is fine.

@Arcaedus.7290 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Legion.9617" said:Thing is; Mighty Blow is NOT worth it if all you care for is damage. Its cast time and after cast pretty much nullify the "big hit", even more so if you heavily rely on symbol related traits (not auto-attacking will be a loss in DPS). Mighty Blow also underperforms as a gap closer due to its clunky execution. Its own use was and is being a blast finisher. Glacial Blow, though, has a damage value that - even using every symbol trait available - makes it a DPS increase. And lastly; without quickness/alacrity a 6 second cool down fits the flow perfectly since you can Glacial Blow every other AA chain.

They'd have to nerf the chill duration. If anything the trait is too strong as is.It's already quite debilitating between the two sources of chill from the one trait as is; Just Glacial Blow's current 2.5 seconds of chill every 6 seconds potentially keeps the opponent chilled 40% of the time, making it incredibly competitive compared to other skills that chill currently on the market. The spammability of the shorter chill with a shorter cooldown compared literally every other chill that's slightly longer but on a longer cooldown means it's more annoying to cleanse and likely to stick as well.

@zencow.3651 said:

@Arcaedus.7290 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Legion.9617" said:Thing is; Mighty Blow is NOT worth it if all you care for is damage. Its cast time and after cast pretty much nullify the "big hit", even more so if you heavily rely on symbol related traits (not auto-attacking will be a loss in DPS). Mighty Blow also underperforms as a gap closer due to its clunky execution. Its own use was and is being a blast finisher. Glacial Blow, though, has a damage value that - even using every symbol trait available - makes it a DPS increase. And lastly; without quickness/alacrity a 6 second cool down fits the flow perfectly since you can Glacial Blow every other AA chain.

I think in practice it would be quite different than on paper. Base guard really only has 1 CC that it can very reliably land and that's shield 5. Hammer 2 is very easy to consistently avoid, even on a 4s cd and less burst but more chill duration is exactly what a hammer guard needs to be able to stay on top of its target.

@Arcaedus.7290 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@Arcaedus.7290 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@"Legion.9617" said:Thing is; Mighty Blow is NOT worth it if all you care for is damage. Its cast time and after cast pretty much nullify the "big hit", even more so if you heavily rely on symbol related traits (not auto-attacking will be a loss in DPS). Mighty Blow also underperforms as a gap closer due to its clunky execution. Its own use was and is being a blast finisher. Glacial Blow, though, has a damage value that - even using every symbol trait available - makes it a DPS increase. And lastly; without quickness/alacrity a 6 second cool down fits the flow perfectly since you can Glacial Blow every other AA chain.

Golf attack can be JI'ed to land easier and is a good skill to do so with since JI doesn't work with the blows. Edit: Incorrectly thought one of the changes removed the damage when displaced.From experience, how medi-hammer plays out in practice in sPvP when contesting a point boils down to this:(old)

• Spam Mighty Blow every 4 seconds, it will eventually hit because the opponent can't dodge every one.
• Glacial Heart wrecking havoc on people's cooldowns and movement randomly even when it was a 10-second ICD.

(new)

• Glacial Blow that can be meaningfully dodged at 6 seconds.
• Higher chill uptime rewarded if you land them.

I think it's obvious which one is a better showcase of good game design.

@zencow.3651 said:

Golf attack can be JI'ed to land easier and is a good skill to do so with since JI doesn't work with the blows.From experience, how medi-hammer plays out in practice in sPvP when contesting a point boils down to this:(old)

• Spam Mighty Blow every 4 seconds, it will eventually hit because the opponent can't dodge every one.
• Glacial Heart wrecking havoc on people's cooldowns and movement randomly even when it was a 10-second ICD.

(new)

• Glacial Blow that can be meaningfully dodged at 6 seconds.
• Higher chill uptime rewarded if you land them.

I think it's obvious which one is a better showcase of good game design.

You can JI in the middle of mighty/glacial blow. For some time we used to not be able to, but then they converted MB to a non-leap by removing it's vertical movement.

Also I'm not arguing with you that the old design was worse, I like the new design better since it accomplished the two things that I was hoping would be done to nerf core guard:

1. Decrease damage of glacial heart proc
2. Place more emphasis on chill uptime rather than burst

This change did exactly that, and I'm happy it did, but unfortunately, increasing the CD of MB to 6s hurts its potential as a blast finisher. You're right though, that if it retained a 4s cd, then 2.5s chill would be very oppressive. I think a 5s cd with 2s chill (about 1-2% less chill uptime than right now) would be fair.