Warclaw Chain Pull skill balancing

Issue: the skill is not useful in its current state. The damage to gates is so low for the supply it requires that using it is not worthwhile.

I spent a lot of time this week in squads, tearing down many gates at towers, keeps and the castle. I rarely saw anyone using the Warclaw chain to help, and there were always a lot of people with rank >1500, more than enough points to have all skills maxed (and yes, people had mounts, it has become practically a requirement for squads). Why? Because it's not worth the supply. Every pull uses up one supply and deals 2k damage. Also, only 3 Warclaws can pull at the same time. It's much more useful to use the supply to build rams.

Now, I understand that this skill needs to be balanced accordingly, it shouldn't replace rams. I just see that it is not used, and therefore, balancing does not work successfully. I only used it to get the achievements, and I'll reset my skills to use the points on other things that I have not completed yet.

So what could be the right fit? I'm not playing extensively enough to give numbers, so maybe other people could suggest modifiers, the the Anet team can look at the actual data. More damage per pull? More mounts simultanously per gate? Faster pulling? Right now, the difference between rams and mounts is huge, nobody wastes his supply with the skill. Maybe 10 mounts should be able to tear down a simple tower gate within 5 minutes. Still more time and more supply spent than with rams, but it would be more competitive.

The advantage of mounts is that they cannot be disabled with tricks, they are mobile and require no initial building. In response to those advantages, they should be less effective than rams. Right now, I can just see that there is a feature that nobody uses, no matter the occasion, which is probably not what the devs had in mind. There should at least be a niche for the skill.

What are your thoughts?

edit: please only helpful replies, if you don't approve the mount or the skill at all, this is not the right thread for you.

Warclaw shouldn't have any skills to begin with.

What if they kept the 3 chain limit and made it cost 10 supply to attach the rope, but removed the cost per pull?

I thought it would be interesting if they applied a debuff to the gate that makes rams more effective. Shouldn't be anything crazy, but then they'd complement the rams instead of replacing them? Just a thought

I think damage for smaller groups is fine as is now that all the hype is starting to wear down. Smart players will know if they have supply on hand and their rams are being destroyed by some doofus on an AC that they should horde that supply so they can still damage the gate after the rams go down, a WC could even open the gate alone in those instances.

Still, I'd like to see the range increased a bit so you basically don't have to stand right on the gate for the chain to attach, more damage per supply cost isn't too much to ask either and I'd like a quicker de-chain strategy if you spot a zerg Inc, as right now you're toast if you're in mid pull/pull cd.

It'd also be nice if the chain pull and/or upcoming dismount pull could pull unmounted defenders from the wall or do damage to canons, mortars and Acs within a reasonable line of sight (at a supply cost of course).

A zerker rev or warrior will do almost as much dps to the gate as a pull, in other words the pull is useless. I sometimes have to request that players not use it as it is a waste supply.

If they want to make the pull be useful while not being overly impactful then it should not cost supply to use. I would also be fine with the skill not existing at all.

The damage to gates is fine. It is on-par with the auto attack on the charr car, which is limited to a tiered camp.

Just remove the supply cost.

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:Just remove the supply cost.

If you ignore the core mechanic of WvW, you're paving the way to a broken mode. I think someone above has a good compromise, an initial cost.

@Svarty.8019 said:

@"ProverbsofHell.2307" said:Just remove the supply cost.

Nah, I really don't think that would "break the mode" considering nobody is even using the skill right now.

yes i would like the skill to be more powerful.. sieging is incredibly boring and unrewarding in terms of gameplay. They will have to make radical changes to wvw to make it popular again. Personally the less time you stand infront of a gate the better. It would be a step in the right direction.

@steki.1478 said:Warclaw shouldn't have any skills to begin with.

Yes, it should have just been an achievement mount and they should have left it at that.

@Faaris.8013 said:Issue: the skill is not useful in its current state. The damage to gates is so low for the supply it requires that using it is not worthwhile.

2k dmg per supply used, 25x2k= 50k dmg.

The skill isn't supposed to replace rams, its supposed to give someone something to do when someone is on the ram.

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:Just remove the supply cost.

I agree. 3 warclaws on a door do less damage than a basic ram with 0 masteries. The supply cost don't make a sense gameplay wise, the pull skill is more a cosmetic skill with a cool animation.

@Svarty.8019 said:

@ProverbsofHell.2307 said:Just remove the supply cost.

WvW without doors would have been a much more lively mode in the first place.