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2019.07 Balance Wishlist (Rev 08/06)


TheBravery.9615

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Traits

Strength
IssueSuggestion
Reckless Dodge: For a Minor adept trait, this is disproportionately overpowered in comparison to their traits in the same tier. Unblockable, grants might, and capable of hitting over 8K damage by glass builds.Make blockable, reduce damage.
Brave Stride: Design of this trait only benefits the warrior once when entering combat and provides no benefit in sustained combat state. Goes against the design philosophy of the warrior remaining in combat and gaining adrenaline.Rework this. Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on your first strike entering combat. Landing burst attacks grant 1 stack of 4 second stability. (8s ICD)
Peak Performance: Death from above has no target cap, possible oversight or bug.Implement a 5 player target cap on death from above.
Body Blow: Competes directly in line with Forceful greatsword, which has benefits even on warriors running without greatsword / spear. Condi damage based trait in a power based traitline, zero use case scenarios to take this over great fortitude or forceful greatsword, even on condi builds.Rework this. Critical hits grant 1 second of might and grant bonus adrenaline.
Forceful Greatsword: Disproportionately stronger compared to it's cousin traits, Blademaster and Heat the Soul. (Basically an increase in trait with the added benefit of gaining might)Remove might gain (Move to Body Blow)
Merciless Hammer: A niche trait that mainly benefits hammer (for those that don't use hammer, the adrenaline is not worth taking. Control windows are far too short to take any benefit of the damage increase on controlled foes), competes with berserker's power and might makes right which are superior choices to take, yet not in any means overpowered.Rework this. Hammer skills gain reduced recharge. Backbreaker becomes Merciless Hammer. (Basically the same skill, except it's an 180 radius aoe blast finisher that removes barrier off foes). Inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability when you disable, additional 10 stacks on interrupts.
Arms
IssueSuggestion
Wounding Precision: Unusual combination and lazy by design. Precision benefits critical strikes, which is power based. This expect players to have high precision before condi based stats to maximize benefit, but would typically be the other way around. (max condi damage, precision would be an afterthought)Rework this. Gain 180 expertise for 5 seconds when landing a burst attack.
Signet Mastery: Inaccurate tooltip, grants mightUpdate tooltip to reflect the might gained.
Opportunist: Warrior only have 5 skills in their entire arsenal that inflict immobilize. 1 of which is from an aquatic weapon, another 1 from a utility, and another from a burst attack- meaning only 2 weapons skills inflict immobilize For a trait that benefits when you inflict immobilize, this is extremely lacking. Need to turn it around and have it inflict immobilize under special conditions. Would be great if was in tactics with leg specialist.Rework this. Swap with Burning Arrows in Tactics. Critical strikes against foes under 25% health will immobilize them for 1 second (15s cd). Gain 5s fury when striking foes under 25%. (15s cd)
Unsuspecting Foe: Window of opportunity is too low to make use of this trait as is. CC effects usually last under 3 seconds at a time, stun breaks and stability abundance makes this useless. Adding more opportunities may make this worth taking.Rework this. Increase critical chance against foes when striking from the side, from behind, or when disabled. Reduce crit chance from +50% to +20%.
Furious: Similar issue with Wounding precision and the arms trait line in general, how it mixes critical hits with condition damage. The grandmaster traits all seem to lack any traits to offer to pure condi builds without requiring precision.Rework this. Burst attacks inflict multiple conditions based on boons on you and as long as you have fury. (based on boon-condition conversion table; e.g. if you have aegis, your burst will also inflict burning). (maximum 6 conditions inflicted per foe per burst, 8s icd)
Dual Wielding: Too much of a niche and the benefit is minimal even when wielding dual weapons. The speed increase conflicts with the speed cap that comes with quickness.Scrap this, replace with Concussive Blows. Critical strikes against a foe with 25 stacks of vulnerability will inflict a concussion. [Concussion: 1/4 second daze. If target was interrupted, stuns for 1/2 second instead. inflicts 4s weakness and 2 stacks of 6s confusion, and deals some damage. Loses all stacks of vulnerability, 8 second icd]
Defense
IssueSuggestion
Thick Skin: Design of this trait is ill-suited for warrior. Better to base it off range constraints instead of health.Reduce damage from foes by 10% within range threshold (300 range)
Defy Pain: Despite it's history of nerfs it remains a prime choice in the defense trait line, but mostly because of the fact it competes with the likes of sundering mace and armored attack. It's likely in the best interest of the balance of this game to just move it to swap it with Rousing Resilience in Major Grandmaster, so the Major Grandmaster traits offer the choice between physical damage mitigation (defy pain), condition damage mitigation (Cleansing Ire), or control mitigation (Last Stand). Needs an active component to reduce passive traits.Swap places with Rousing Resilience in Major Grandmaster. Revert PvP splits. Add an activation requirement: Must land a burst attack to activate trait for 60 seconds
Sundering Mace: Too much of a niche and current benefit is minimal.Rework this. Change it so stun/daze/knockdown effects last longer based on +0.5% per vulnerability stack regardless of weapon wielded. (25 stacks of vulnerability = 12.5% longer). Effect is doubled when wielding a mace (25 stacks of vulnerability = 25% longer). Mace skills have reduced recharge.
Last Stand: Tooltip is inaccurate. Trait will proc when warrior has stability and isn't disabled. Also a passive trait that needs active components.Either update tooltip so it clarifies so this will proc when struck by an attack with a disable effect or account for when the warriors have stability. Add in a activation requirement: Must break a stun in order to activate trait for 60 seconds. Revert PvP splits.
Cleansing Ire: Fell out of favor due to rampant condi re-application. In need of a minor tune up. Conflicts with spellbreaker's "Revenge Counter", removes condition before they're transferred.Update this so you remove 3 conditions regardless of amount of adrenaline spent. Rework it so transfer effects occur before the conditions are removed. Removes Blind before burst.
Rousing Resilience: See notes on Defy pain.Swap with Defy pain in Major Master.
Tactics
IssueSuggestion
Leg Specialist: Almost the same issue as opportunist, but also partly empowered is superior and there's hardly any use case scenarios for this.Rework this. Cripples and immobilizes you apply have longer duration. Inflict cripple when you immobilize a foe. (No ICD)
Quick Breathing: Benefits only warhorn, continue reworking weapon only traits to have a wider benefit.Make warhorn target 10 allies baseline. Gain vitality, gain bonus vitality when wielding a warhorn. Reduce cooldown on warhorn skills.
Shrug it Off: Weak due to it's nerf of being a passive trait, redundant shout trait, and only removes one condition on a high cooldown.Scrap this trait. Replace it with a new trait: Removing conditions replaces the condition with regeneration. Regeneration you grant also gives 150 bonus vitality and toughness.
Burning Arrows: Similar issue with Sundering mace, too much of a niche. This is often sought by condi builds but it's out of place in tactics..Rework this. Make the burning baseline. Swap places with the new "opportunist" trait in Arms. Increase precision. Double effects when wielding a longbow. reduce cooldown on longbow.
Powerful Synergy: This is great and all, but I can't help but wonder why all combo finishers inflict only condis and offer no real benefit to power builds.Allow combo finishers to inflict power damage as well in addition to its current effects. (Might be a deeper issue at hand with combo finishers in general). In addition to it's current effects, grant the combo imitator regeneration and endurance.
Phalanx Strength: Fell out of favor with the nerf and made it no longer a viable option.In addition to it's current effects, increase personal might cap from 25 to 30.
Discipline
IssueSuggestion
Crack Shot: See notes on rifle rework. Weapon is ineffective by design and needs more than this trait to make it workable. Also suffers from the nice issue with Sundering Mace and Burning Arrows.Rework this. Deal 0.5% more damage per stack of vulnerability on foes. Effect doubles when wielding harpoon gun or rifle.
Warrior's Sprint: Trait offers plenty of utility by itself, the damage increase is power creep.Remove the damage increase. Replace it with: Removing immobilize grants 3s of swiftness.
Vengeful Return: Too much of a niche with limited benefit. Requires you to actually go into downed state to make this beneficial and must wait for vengeance to become available.Scrap this and rework it. When your health falls below 50%, gain 10 strikes adrenaline and recharge your burst attack. Outgoing power/condition damage is increased by 20% for 10 seconds when your health is low (60s cd).
Fast Hands: This has long been an issue of controversy for warriors. Being the profession with the least amount of skills available at a given time, a large percentage of skills are locked behind the weapon swap cooldown. This is the reason why warriors are so dependent on this trait. Not totally in favor of making weapon swapping 5 seconds, but willing to compromise.Make warrior baseline weapon swapping reduced down to 8 seconds. Keep trait at 5 seconds.
Axe Mastery: Have an issue with how the 3 major grandmaster traits in discipline all compete for power damage. Axes have decent combo-chains, so adrenaline is hardly an issue.Rework this. Burst attacks deal 10% more damage regardless of weapon wielded. Gain 200 ferocity while wielding axes, reduce axe skill cooldown.
Heightened Focus: Have an issue with how the 3 major grandmaster traits in discipline all compete for power damage. Heightened focus is the only option that gives condi builds some place, yet it's slightly weaker than burst mastery.Also restore a portion of Adrenaline spent in addition to current effects.
Burst Mastery: Have an issue with how the 3 major grandmaster traits in discipline all compete for power damage. Heightened focus is the only option that gives condi builds some place, yet it's slightly weaker than burst mastery.Scrap this trait. Move the adrenaline recovery to heightened focus, move the burst damage increase to axe mastery. Create a new trait in it's place that specifically benefits condition builds. Swapping weapons will knock back foes within a 130 range PBAOE radius (8s icd). If this attack hits, your next 5 attacks will inflict 2 stacks of 8 second poison.
Berserker
IssueSuggestion
Smash Brawler: My issue with this is that it's pve minded only and is not a viable option for PvP and WvW due to the uncontrollable nature of berserk and when it's needed most.In addition to current effect, Rage skills are now able to reduce the cooldown of berserk mode outside berserk mode.
Last Blaze: Panders to condi builds, but requires usage of rage skills. Only condi rage skill available is shattering blow. Berserker being a condi oriented spec should have an option for their primal bursts inflict more condi as a trait. No such option exists, this would address that issue.In addition to its current effects, primal burst attacks inflict burning. Can only occur once per interval per target for multi hit burst skills.
Savage Instinct: Seeing how long berserk mode is now, this trait is only useful when you enter berserk mode. Incredibly useless trait due to it's' limited use scenario. Warriors enter berserk mode to deal damage and this punishes warriors from entering berserk mode unless it's used defensively. Granting primal bursts stun breaks will provide more situations to use this trait. Damage reduction in berserk kind of goes against berserk design philosophy.Remove the damage reduction. Add stun breaks to primal bursts.
Dead or Alive: Benefit scenario of the fatal damage healing is too limited and specific. Competes yet is outperformed by bloodreaction and heat the soul.Scrap everything, replace it with: landing primal bursts grant barrier.
King of Fires: Really have no idea why they added power damage to this.Remove the power damage.
Eternal Champion: Bloody roar and king of fires outright outperform this. Requires you to be controlled in order for this to take effect, even then the benefit is limited.Rework this. Prevent berserkers from gaining stability and protection while in berserk mode. While in berserk, your attacks are uninterruptible and any incoming stability or protection you gain is immediately converted to vigor, fury, retaliation, regeneration, and resistance. Evade for half a second when you break stuns. Getting interrupted outside of berserk mode will grant adrenaline.
Spellbreaker
IssueSuggestion
Sun and Moon Style: While Loss aversion and Slow counter aren't overpowered traits, Sun And Moon Style is specific to dagger and even as a niche falls short in comparison.Change it so 3% of outgoing damage heals you regardless of weapon wielded. Effect is doubled when wielding daggers.
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Skills

Mechanic
issueSuggestion
Full Counter: For a profession mechanic this has become a very weak attack in competitive modes. Overnerfed. Initial issues came from it's behavior, activating from ranged attacks and punishing allies near the spellbreaker if hit accidentally.Change it's behavior so it's similar to Riposte, blocking ranged attacks and only activating when struck by a melee attack by an opponent within range. Increase damage in competitive modes to 50% of PvE damage.Make this skill have animation priority over other skills instead of queuing behind so this can be used reactively instead of predictively. Inflict disenchantment for 5 seconds on enemies you strike (unable to apply boons). Reduce block duration to 1 second.
Hammer
issueSuggestion
Rupturing Smash: Part of the reason why berserker warriors don't run with hammer, there's little reason to take it over other weapons because it's burst is weak and awkward to use with it's unusual hitbox.Change AOE to full circle. Return the cascading attack effect. Reduce daze duration to half second, Remove immobilize.
Longbow
issueSuggestion
Scorched Earth: Minor bug or oversight, your are able to proc adrenaline traits even if you don't hit anyone with this if you just fire this and it lands on the ground.Fix bug
Combustive Shot: Same issue as scorched earth.Fix bug
Auto Attack: Would be nice to have the burning here without taking the trait, it has a decent condi set but the auto attack lacks it.Add Burning effect to auto attack.
Rifle
issueSuggestion
Gun Flame: Probably the only reason why berserkers take rifle in the first place, gunflame is a formidable attack that's capable of dealing sudden high damage up towards 30k+ on certain builds. I admit this may need a tune-down.Slightly reduce damage
Kill Shot: Severely outdated cheesy attack. Needs a usability updateRemove the kneel animation to cast. Allow movement. Add visual indicator.
Auto Attack: Rifle is full of usability issues. The biggest issue with it is it's dependency on single striking attacks and low adrenaline gain. Having bonus adrenaline contingent on vulnerability is a patch but does not resolve the issue.Divide damage across a 3 round burst, gain bonus adrenaline if all 3 rounds hit your target.
Aimed Shot: Continuing with fixing rifle, it lacks multi target hitting attacks.Rework this, make this shoot an explosive bullet that inflicts vulnerability and cripple around your target. (2 charges)
Brutal Shot: The animation of the dodge and how it's positioned after the attack casting animation makes the reaction predictive instead of reactive. Reducing cast time could help.Reduce cast time to quarter second, give animation priority instead of queuing behind current active skills.
Mace
issueSuggestion
Skull Grinder: No one uses Mace on berserker anymore. The splits are no longer necessaryUndo splits, revert to PVE specs.
Auto Attack: The final attack has a longer windup than necessaryReduce Pulverize cast time to half second to align with rest of mace auto attack.
Counter Blow: Having access to a blocking ability on a mainhand weapon is valuable, but this requires a usability update as it's difficult to make use of.Allow control over the counter attack, continue blocking until struck. If struck, replace adrenaline rush with Counterattack. Make this skill have animation priority over other skills instead of queuing behind so this can be used reactively instead of predictively.
Pommel Bash: This is a low damage skill and used primarily to interrupt. Would be nice to make more use of it.Give 2 charges, increase cooldown to 20 seconds, reduce daze to 1/2 second.
Tremor: It does decent damage, but it's awkward to use at range mainly due to it's slow projectile speed in which enemies can simply sidestep it. Also looks weird, like you're unleashing a gopher.Make ground targeted, make it an ranged AOE attack instead of projectile.
Sword
issueSuggestion
Flurry: This is a pretty awful attack to spend adrenaline on. Long cast time, self rooting, poor damage. Final Thrust is more worthy of being a burst attack..Just swap places with Final Thrust
Final Thrust: This is a good attack, worthy of being a burst. More so than flurry..Just swap places with Flurry
Riposte: In need of a usability updateSame recommendation as Counter Blow on Mace.
Harpoon Gun
issueSuggestion
Puncture Shot: Inaccurate tooltip, low damageAppears to do more damage than tooltip suggests. Update tooltip. May also want to increase damage, autoattack does more damage.
Split Shot: Inaccurate tooltip, low damage.Update tooltip so it shows that 5 shots are fired in a fan. Update tooltip damage so it shows (5). May also want to increase damage.
Knot Shot: Low damage (183)Increase damage
Spear
issueSuggestion
Wild Whirl: Leaves much to be desired. Whirling strike is superior in damage and control. Not worthy of a berserk skill.Give this the arc divider treatment underwater. Remove burning.
Parry: Usability UpdateSame recommendation as Counter Blow on Mace.
Healing
issueSuggestion
Natural Healing: Zero reason to take this when it removes your boons.Add the benefit of refreshing your full counter ability as well.
Utility
issueSuggestion
Outrage: What I dislike about the changes to the rage skills and h ow they tie with berserker duration is the fact that they don't benefit the warrior outside of berserker. It could be given a Glyph / physical treatment which would give it more usesWhile in berserk mode, this increases berserk duration (more if breaking a stun). Outside of berserk mode, you gain adrenaline. Gain 2 additional charges, increase cooldown to 20 seconds.
Shattering Blow: Same issue as outrage.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline.
Sundering Leap: Same issue as outrage, doesn't have a use scenario or niche to use.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline. Reduce cast time to half second, change from vulnerability and cripple to burning, bleeding, and torment.
Wild Blow: Same issue as outrage, nice use.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline.
Sight Beyond Sight: That recent 2 second revealed increase did not change the underlying flaws with this ability and how stealth works in game.Increase radius to 600. Grants self the ability to see stealthed players within range for 10s. Add visual indicator.
Featherfoot Grace: No longer used in competitive settingsNormalize to PVE cooldown of 30 seconds in competitive modes.
Imminent Threat: High cooldown with low benefit. The retaliation and adrenaline feels more of an afterthought than anything.Reduce cooldown to 25 seconds, reduce taunt to one second. Remove the retaliation and adrenaline gain. Inflict Exhaustion on foes for 5 seconds on taunted enemies.
Fear Me: Cooldown too high for low benefit.This is a gimmick so I guess embrace the gimmick? If the 5 target cap limit is lifted and this is able to fear 15 enemies, this would be worth taking in such a scenario even with a 60 second cooldown.
Frenzy: Reason why this isn't taken is because this is only a damage modifier skill and there are better options out there for warrior. If this offered more utility in the form of something else, this would be considered.Rework this. No longer breaks stuns. For 10 seconds, burst attacks use reduced adrenaline. Pulse quickness and alacrity. 40s cd.
Banners: Banner of Defense and Tactics will never see use in any game mode. Banner of Strength and Discipline see good use in PvE. Unequal weight of banners, favoring strength and discipline.Make the banners single stat @ 170 points. (Power / Ferocity / Condition Damage / Expertise)
Elite
issueSuggestion
Battle Standard: Tooltip doesn't specify how many downed enemies will it finish. The might/swiftness/fury does not benefit from compassionate banner trait, benefit is heavily loaded into the initial cast and the lasting effect of the banner is underwhelming.Remove the might/fury/swiftness. Replace it with a +100 gain in power, toughness, Concentration, and precision. Update tooltip so it specifies how many downed foes it can finish.
Signet of Rage: Totally obsolete skill that's been forgotten.Rework this. While passive: Adrenaline decay outside of combat is slowed down by 75%. While active: your cleave cap is increased by 5 additional targets for 20 seconds. Killing enemies during this time will fill your adrenaline and refresh your burst cooldown.
Headbutt: Same issue as outrage.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, reduces the berserk mode cooldown. Increase CD to 30s.
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Body blow has uses with a CC oriented build with the weakness it applies. The bleed is just a cover condi.

The entire purpose of Forceful Greatsword is the might gain. It is meant to be paired with Might Makes Right for OW sustain, or Phalanx Strength for Party Might generation sans a Druid.

I'd be cool with that Merciless hammer change.

Opportunist is supposed to be paired with Leg Specialist, but sans that you have Longbow, Rifle, sword, and harpoon gun that can immobilize a target. Throw Bolas works for any weapon. This also pairs with No Escape from Spell Breaker.

I like the proposed Unsuspecting Foe change ^^

Arms was the Precision and Condi Damage line prior to when they removed stats from the traits. Furious is more than a stacking condi damage buff though, it also triples your adrenalin gain rate if you crit. Most builds have high crit chance to maximize DPS. Furious is fine as is.

Savage Instinct + Headbutt gets you into Berserk mode with a stunned target and you unstunned. If they break stun then you still have damage mitigation while doing your burst to down them. More of a WvW thing, but in PvE Smash brawler is better.

King of Flames KEEP the power damage, why would you want less damage?

Eternal Champion + Savage Instinct + Rousing Resilience can make a bruiser with high toughness during BMode, granted most people go Berserker for big deeps, but for someone wanting more sustain this is a valid option.

Gunflame: leave my noobslaying F1 alone. I'd be open to a dmg decrease only after the rest of rifle is updated.

Pommel Bash mmmmm ammo sill with daze. Would be OP in PvP maybe...

Wild Blow is not a niche use. It is one of the BEST CC skills on a Berserker's bar, and fully buffed can hit for very high numbers.

In general, I agree that the rage skills need to provide adrenaline. Rifle would probably be in a okay spot if the AA was a three round burst that did at least 50% more damage than it currently does. A projectile increase on all the rifle skills is needed as well, in no way should my bullets feel slower than a Ranger's arrows... Flurry needs its self root removed, bleeds and power damage increased by 50% to make it worth using over the AA chain.

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You point out that Condi builds need the longbow trait, but then move it to discipline.

Longbow needs to move to arms, and there needs to be a trait that increases burning duration in arms for core, maybe 20%.

Flurry needs to be unrooted. Swapping places with final blow does not make sense since it wouldn't be used until under 50%.

Mostly I agree with your ideas.

I'd like to see more live to Condi builds for warrior....bleed only is so bad in 2019. More burning for core please!

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Why "buffing disci spec, increasing passive adrenaline gain and resetting berk stance on headbutt" is a bad idea -because it'll be way too strong and in the end will bring more nerfs than improvements. I'm not commenting on everything, because I'm too lazy to make another wall of text, so I'll just stop at what I think is obviously too strong of a buff.

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@"TheBravery.9615" said:
Brave Stride: Design of this trait only benefits the warrior once when entering combat and provides no benefit in sustained combat state. Goes against the design philosophy of the warrior remaining in combat and gaining adrenaline.Rework this. Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on your first strike entering combat. Landing burst attacks grant 1 stack of 6 second stability.

Counter-suggestion: Reduce duration of stability to 4 seconds, with 8 second internal cooldown.

Reason: It could have allowed for egregious amounts of stability stacking with Discipline traits or skills like Decapitate, which would be excessive for an adept trait. Still might be a bit too strong, comparable to Crystal Configuration: Eclipse on Holosmith.

Opportunist: Warrior only have 5 skills in their entire arsenal that inflict immobilize. 1 of which is from an aquatic weapon, another 1 from a utility, and another from a burst attack- meaning only 2 weapons skills inflict immobilize For a trait that benefits when you inflict immobilize, this is extremely lacking. Need to turn it around and have it inflict immobilize under special conditions.Rework this. Critical strikes against foes under 25% health will immobilize them for 1 second (15s cd). Gain 5s fury when striking foes under 25%. (15s cd)

Counter-suggestion: Replace this trait with your version of Burning Arrows.

Reason: Since Arms is meant to be the condition damage line, the longbow trait seems more suitable here than in Discipline.

Dual Wielding: Too much of a niche and the benefit is minimal even when wielding dual weapons. The speed increase conflicts with the speed cap that comes with quickness.Rework this. Critical strikes gain bonus adrenaline, with effect doubled when wielding a mainhand weapon on offhand. Gain 5 seconds of alacrity when you gain max adrenaline (15s cd)

Counter-suggestion: Instead of alacrity, your next strike after reaching max adrenaline inflicts 10 stacks of bleeding, same cooldown.

Reason: As far as I know, ANet wants to limit the availability of certain boons such as alacrity to specific classes. Additionally, it seems odd for a damage-oriented condition line like Arms to grant a supportive boon like alacrity.

Defy Pain: Despite it's history of nerfs it remains a prime choice in the defense trait line, but mostly because of the fact it competes with the likes of sundering mace and armored attack. It's likely in the best interest of the balance of this game to just move it to swap it with Rousing Resilience in Major Grandmaster, so the Major Grandmaster traits offer the choice between physical damage mitigation (defy pain), condition damage mitigation (Cleansing Ire), or control mitigation (Last Stand)Swap places with Rousing Resilience in Major Grandmaster. Increase PvP stance time to 3 seconds from 2 seconds.

Counter-suggestion: Leave Defy Pain in its current slot. Change the trait to stunbreak and grant 8 seconds of protection when struck below 50% health, 60 second cooldown.

Reason: I think it's healthier for the game if the devs continue to rework these passive invulnerability traits, like they did with passive Elixir S on Engineer. Reducing the power of this trait would also make it less of an automatic pick in its slot.

Last Stand: Tooltip is inaccurate. Trait will proc when warrior has stability and isn't disabledEither update tooltip so it clarifies so this will proc when struck by an attack with a disable effect or account for when the warriors have stability.

Counter-suggestion: Remove the auto-stunbreak on this trait. It now grants 2 stacks of stability for 6 seconds upon activating a stance, in addition to its current effects.

Reason: As with Defy Pain, I believe it's better to have fewer passive traits in the game.

Cleansing Ire: Fell out of favor due to rampant condi re-application. In need of a minor tune up. Conflicts with spellbreaker's "Revenge Counter", removes condition before they're transferred.Update this so you remove 3 conditions regardless of amount of adrenaline spent. Rework it so transfer effects occur before the conditions are removed.

Counter-suggestion: Retain the current scaling of conditions removed with adrenaline spent. In addition to its current effects, this trait now removes blind upon casting a burst skill.

Reason: I suspect the main reason this trait has become unpopular is due to its reliance on actually landing burst skills to proc cleanse. Clearing blind at the start of the cast would make it more reliable.

Phalanx Strength: Fell out of favor with the nerf and made it no longer a viable option.In addition to it's current effects, nearby allies will also have their might cap increased from 25 to 30.

Counter-suggestion: Leave the might cap. Increase the base duration of might granted to 5 seconds.

Reason: Increasing the might cap would make this trait a must-pick in PvE modes, which contradicts the reason for nerfing it in the first place (i.e. to make room for other sources of might stacking). Your proposed change to Body Blow also makes it stronger, with axe skills granting guaranteed might on all crits instead of half.

Smash Brawler: My issue with this is that it's pve minded only and is not a viable option for PvP and WvW due to the uncontrollable nature of berserk and when it's needed most.In addition to current effect, unlock the F2 function to end berserk mode early and put on full cooldown. (Deals PBAOE damage, dazes self and inflicts damage on self)

Counter-suggestion: Rage skills now decrease the cooldown of Berserk by 3 seconds when used outside of Berserk Mode.

Reason: While it would be interesting to have an actual functionality/UI shift, that might be too much to ask for an adept trait. This change would accomplish the same goal of granting more control over Berserk uptime/downtime.

Sun and Moon Style: While Loss aversion and Slow counter aren't overpowered traits, Sun And Moon Style is specific to dagger and even as a niche falls short in comparison.Change it so critical hits with dagger strips boons.

Counter-suggestion: Remove the main-hand and off-hand limitations of this trait, i.e. while wielding a dagger in any hand, heal for a percent of outgoing critical damage and interrupts grant quickness.

Reason: Adding passive boon strip to a trait in this slot would have negative synergy with Loss Aversion while also being notable powercreep. In my opinion, it's better for boon strip to remain tied to specific skills.

Full Counter: For a profession mechanic this has become a very weak attack in competitive modes. Overnerfed. Initial issues came from it's behavior, activating from ranged attacks and punishing allies near the spellbreaker if hit accidentally.Change it's behavior so it's similar to Riposte, blocking ranged attacks and only activating when struck by a melee attack by an opponent within range. Increase damage in competitive modes to 50% of PvE damage.Make this skill have animation priority over other skills instead of queuing behind so this can be used reactively instead of predictively. Inflict disenchantment for 5 seconds on enemies you strike (unable to apply boons)

Counter-suggestion: Full Counter is no longer considered a burst skill. Normalize its cooldown and damage at 10 seconds and 75% of its PvE value respectively. It's now a single-target attack that exclusively targets the entity that triggered it, inflicting disenchantment. If it fails to strike a target, refund the adrenaline spent.

Reason: With your suggested changes to traits like Brave Stride, Body Blow, Cleansing Ire, and Burst Mastery, Full Counter has the potential to be an excessively overloaded skill. Removing its burst status would solve this problem while also making it easier to balance in general. Additionally, though your proposal would remove the possibility of ranged attackers triggering Full Counter on their allies in melee distance, it wouldn't necessarily address the issues of clones/pets, pulsing AoEs, or secondary melee attackers. Making it a single-target attack on the enemy that activated it would ensure that it only punished that individual while also matching Spellbreaker's design as a duelist specialization. However, I do like the idea of disenchantment as a means of mitigating boon reapplication in the current boon-heavy meta.

Scorched Earth: Minor bug or oversight, your are able to proc adrenaline traits even if you don't hit anyone with this if you just fire this and it lands on the ground.Fix bug
Combustive Shot: Same issue as scorched earth.Fix bug

Counter-suggestion: Leave as is.

Reason: Since this is currently the only reason to take longbow in competitive modes, I don't think it needs to be changed for the time being.

Kill Shot: Severely outdated cheesy attack. Needs a usability updateRemove the kneel animation to cast. Allow movement

Counter-suggestion: Add a visual indicator to the skill's warm-up animation.

Reason: While it would be great if this skill became unrooted, it would then need additional telegraphing to distinguish it from generic rifle skills.

Flurry: This is a pretty awful attack to spend adrenaline on. Long cast time, self rooting, poor damage. Final Thrust is more worthy of being a burst attack..Just swap places with Final Thrust
Final Thrust: This is a good attack, worthy of being a burst. More so than flurry..Just swap places with Flurry

Counter-suggestion: Keep Flurry as the burst skill, but it now reflects projectiles. Either significantly reduce its cast time or increase its damage/bleed stacks.

Reason: Moving a bad skill from the burst to the weapon won't make it any less of a bad skill, better to just update it.

Outrage: What I dislike about the changes to the rage skills and h ow they tie with berserker duration is the fact that they don't benefit the warrior outside of berserker. It could be given a Glyph / physical treatment which would give it more usesWhile in berserk mode, this increases berserk duration (more if breaking a stun). Outside of berserk mode, you gain adrenaline. Gain 2 additional charges, increase cooldown to 20 seconds.
Shattering Blow: Same issue as outrage.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline.
Sundering Leap: Same issue as outrage, doesn't have a use scenario or niche to use.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline. Reduce cast time to half second, change from vulnerability and cripple to burning, bleeding, and torment.
Wild Blow: Same issue as outrage, nice use.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline. Greatly increase damage dealt and launch distance.
Headbutt: Same issue as outrage.While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, refreshes the berserk mode cooldown.

Counter-suggestion: Leave as is, rework Smash Brawler or make Berserk cd reduction baseline.

Reason: In terms of improved functionality, I think it's better for Rage skills to incrementally reduce the cooldown of Berserk Mode when used outside of it, per my Smash Brawler suggestion. Building adrenaline outside of Berserk isn't an issue, it's sitting at full adrenaline when Berserk Mode is still on a long cooldown.

Sight Beyond Sight: That recent 2 second revealed increase did not change the underlying flaws with this ability and how stealth works in game.Increase radius to 600. Grants self the ability to see stealthed players within range.

Counter-suggestion: This skill now makes all attacks critical hits for 5 seconds and applies revealed to foes struck. Also grants immunity to blindness for its duration.

Reason: While your idea for countering stealth would be cool, it would make it difficult for stealthed players to know when they're still visible. Furthermore, I think it's best if there aren't multiple anti-stealth mechanics in the game. Maybe they can implement your suggestion in a future overhaul to how stealth and reveal work.

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Fear Me: Cooldown too high for low benefit.This is a gimmick so I guess embrace the gimmick? If the 5 target cap limit is lifted and this is able to fear 15 enemies, this would be worth taking in such a scenario even with a 60 second cooldown.

Counter-suggestion: Reduce cooldown to 40 seconds, increase maximum range to 900.

Reason: In the only game mode where fearing 15 enemies would be useful, it's likely that those targets would have stability and/or resistance. Lowering the cooldown seems like a better way of improving this skill in general.

Frenzy: Reason why this isn't taken is because this is only a damage modifier skill and there are better options out there for warrior. If this offered more utility in the form of something else, this would be considered.Rework this. No longer breaks stuns. For 10 seconds, burst attacks use reduced adrenaline and burst recharge is halved while this stance is active. Pulse quickness and alacrity. 40s cd.

Counter-suggestion: Leave as is.

Reason: This skill is actually pretty good now with the addition of might stacks in conjunction with the Might Makes Right trait. I think there's a good trade-off between using it as a damage boost or as a stunbreak, with the ideal scenario being to stunbreak into a counter-burst. It's a viable pick for the meta Spellbreaker build.

I either agree or am ok with everything else. Great list as always, OP

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@Torqiseknite.1380 said:SnipThank you for your input.

Brave Stride: Counter-suggestion: Reduce duration of stability to 4 seconds, with 8 second internal cooldown.Reason: It could have allowed for egregious amounts of stability stacking with Discipline traits or skills like Decapitate, which would be excessive for an adept trait. Still might be a bit too strong, comparable to Crystal Configuration: Eclipse on Holosmith.

You bring up a good point, I did not factor in decapitate's zero cooldown quirk when I thought of this. However, I'm not sure if just having this trait periodically and passively pulse stability while in combat would be the answer either because that's also moving towards passive gameplay. I think there should be some sort of player interaction instead of just entering combat, so bursts was the closest I could think of. To remediate this, we could throw in a 5 second cooldown and reduce the stability duration to 4 seconds so it won't be as overpowered.

Opportunist: Counter-suggestion: Replace this trait with your version of Burning Arrows.Reason: Since Arms is meant to be the condition damage line, the longbow trait seems more suitable here than in Discipline.

This is an excellent idea, could leave banners in discipline, burning arrows in arms, and opportunist in tactics. Especially like seeing opportunist and leg specialist all in one traitline. Arms would keep an option between condi damage (wounding precision), utility (signet mastery), and flat precision (burning arrows). Might need to rename burning arrows. Adopting this idea.

Dual Wielding: Counter-suggestion: Instead of alacrity, your next strike after reaching max adrenaline inflicts 10 stacks of bleeding, same cooldown.Reason: As far as I know, ANet wants to limit the availability of certain boons such as alacrity to specific classes. Additionally, it seems odd for a damage-oriented condition line like Arms to grant a supportive boon like alacrity.

Reason why I went with alacrity is because I was looking for a utility function in order to differentiate from furious (now a condi spec) and burst precision (crit / power spec).

Defy Pain: Counter-suggestion: Leave Defy Pain in its current slot. Change the trait to stunbreak and grant 8 seconds of protection when struck below 50% health, 60 second cooldown.Reason: I think it's healthier for the game if the devs continue to rework these passive invulnerability traits, like they did with passive Elixir S on Engineer. Reducing the power of this trait would also make it less of an automatic pick in its slot.Last Stand: Counter-suggestion: Remove the auto-stunbreak on this trait. It now grants 2 stacks of stability for 6 seconds upon activating a stance, in addition to its current effects.Reason: As with Defy Pain, I believe it's better to have fewer passive traits in the game.

Defy pain and last stand are almost necessary when zerging in wvw. Rousing resilience is a close contender to defy pain as another sustain option, but is overshadowed by last stand, so I believe that swaping them would be optimal.I do agree that passive traits are bad. Could probably throw in some requirements for these traits to activate. Example activation requirements for defy pain: must also kill something, trait will be active for 120s and will activate if you go below 50% health. Example activation requirement for last stand: must break a stun in order to activate trait for 60 seconds. In that 60 seconds, will automatically break stuns and activate last stand.

Cleansing Ire: Counter-suggestion: Retain the current scaling of conditions removed with adrenaline spent. In addition to its current effects, this trait now removes blind upon casting a burst skill.Reason: I suspect the main reason this trait has become unpopular is due to its reliance on actually landing burst skills to proc cleanse. Clearing blind at the start of the cast would make it more reliable.

I agree with the blind, (block and evade also issues, but outside scope), but this really needs to remove more conditions or at least have a better scaling to compete with last stand.

Phalanx Strength: Counter-suggestion: Leave the might cap. Increase the base duration of might granted to 5 seconds.Reason: Increasing the might cap would make this trait a must-pick in PvE modes, which contradicts the reason for nerfing it in the first place (i.e. to make room for other sources of might stacking). Your proposed change to Body Blow also makes it stronger, with axe skills granting guaranteed might on all crits instead of half.

Another good point. Sharing and allowing an additional 5 stacks of might might be a bit much. Unsure if increasing duration would help either as everyone just pumps might all day. Can probably just isolate the additional 5 stack might benefit to the warrior.

Smash Brawler Counter-suggestion: Rage skills now decrease the cooldown of Berserk by 3 seconds when used outside of Berserk Mode.Reason: While it would be interesting to have an actual functionality/UI shift, that might be too much to ask for an adept trait. This change would accomplish the same goal of granting more control over Berserk uptime/downtime.Rage Skills: Counter-suggestion: Leave as is, rework Smash Brawler or make Berserk cd reduction baseline.Reason: In terms of improved functionality, I think it's better for Rage skills to incrementally reduce the cooldown of Berserk Mode when used outside of it, per my Smash Brawler suggestion. Building adrenaline outside of Berserk isn't an issue, it's sitting at full adrenaline when Berserk Mode is still on a long cooldown.

Adopted, great idea. Facilitates the requirement of rage skills simultaneously as a way to manage berserk mode, love it.

Sun and Moon Style: Counter-suggestion: Remove the main-hand and off-hand limitations of this trait, i.e. while wielding a dagger in any hand, heal for a percent of outgoing critical damage and interrupts grant quicknessReason: Adding passive boon strip to a trait in this slot would have negative synergy with Loss Aversion while also being notable powercreep. In my opinion, it's better for boon strip to remain tied to specific skills.

Adopted, another great idea and good point at preventing power creep in my original idea.

Full Counter Counter-suggestion: Full Counter is no longer considered a burst skill. Normalize its cooldown and damage at 10 seconds and 75% of its PvE value respectively. It's now a single-target attack that exclusively targets the entity that triggered it, inflicting disenchantment. If it fails to strike a target, refund the adrenaline spent.Reason: With your suggested changes to traits like Brave Stride, Body Blow, Cleansing Ire, and Burst Mastery, Full Counter has the potential to be an excessively overloaded skill. Removing its burst status would solve this problem while also making it easier to balance in general. Additionally, though your proposal would remove the possibility of ranged attackers triggering Full Counter on their allies in melee distance, it wouldn't necessarily address the issues of clones/pets, pulsing AoEs, or secondary melee attackers. Making it a single-target attack on the enemy that activated it would ensure that it only punished that individual while also matching Spellbreaker's design as a duelist specialization. However, I do like the idea of disenchantment as a means of mitigating boon reapplication in the current boon-heavy meta.

Unsure about this but I get your point of the attack being overloaded (unfortunately its the curse of the warriors having only one profession mechanic). My issue is that it requires adrenaline so thus must be considered some sort of burst. I think 50% of PvE damage is a sweet spot to have as it's neither too strong or too weak. What we could do is also reduce the duration of the block from 1.5 second to 1 second.

Scorched Earth / Combustive Shot: Counter-suggestion: Leave as is.Reason: Since this is currently the only reason to take longbow in competitive modes, I don't think it needs to be changed for the time being.

I don't think having a bug on an attack should be the it factor to make a weapon viable in competitive mode. If that's the case, then the weapon likely has some sort of inherent flaws if unable to be viable by itself. Can make the projectile faster and last longer if needed, but hesitant because I'm aware of it's PvE potential. A PvE split will likely be necessary.

Kill Shot: Counter-suggestion: Add a visual indicator to the skill's warm-up animation.Reason: While it would be great if this skill became unrooted, it would then need additional telegraphing to distinguish it from generic rifle skills.

Adopted, agreed. Rifle has too many generic attacks, but the rework proposed should help a bit with it.

Flurry / Final Thrust: Counter-suggestion: Keep Flurry as the burst skill, but it now reflects projectiles. Either significantly reduce its cast time or increase its damage/bleed stacks.Reason: Moving a bad skill from the burst to the weapon won't make it any less of a bad skill, better to just update it.

Don't think just having it reflect projectiles will be enough to make this burst any better than final thrust. Flaming Flurry in comparison destroys projectiles, but it's not taken for projectile mitigation. I agree swapping places would be lazy but at the same time, I don't want power creep either. Final thrust is really good, it does eviscerate level damage on 3 enemies in cleave + Bleeds.

Sight Beyond Sights: Counter-suggestion: This skill now makes all attacks critical hits for 5 seconds and applies revealed to foes struck. Also grants immunity to blindness for its duration.Reason: While your idea for countering stealth would be cool, it would make it difficult for stealthed players to know when they're still visible. Furthermore, I think it's best if there aren't multiple anti-stealth mechanics in the game. Maybe they can implement your suggestion in a future overhaul to how stealth and reveal work.

Can have a visual indicator on the warrior like some eyes or something and if you're stealthed within range it turns red?

Fear Me: Counter-suggestion: Reduce cooldown to 40 seconds, increase maximum range to 900.Reason: In the only game mode where fearing 15 enemies would be useful, it's likely that those targets would have stability and/or resistance. Lowering the cooldown seems like a better way of improving this skill in general.

I was roaming desert borderland and a zerg was on catas at the NE bridge by the center shrine by air keep. I warclawed pounced on them, and managed to fear 5 enemies to their deaths and glided away safely. I wouldn't expect anyone to use this in a zerg v zerg clash, but while roaming it can cause some pretty hilarious shenanigans.

Frenzy: Counter-suggestion: Leave as is.Reason: This skill is actually pretty good now with the addition of might stacks in conjunction with the Might Makes Right trait. I think there's a good trade-off between using it as a damage boost or as a stunbreak, with the ideal scenario being to stunbreak into a counter-burst. It's a viable pick for the meta Spellbreaker build.

I really think this needs a pick me up. For great justice offers more might and more uses on a smaller cooldown.

I either agree or am ok with everything else. Great list as always, OPThank you for your critical review. I doubt ANET will read this thread but they could maybe take some pointers in our conversations. Feel free to rebuke if I disagreed anywhere btw.

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@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:Thank you for your input as well, I haven't forgotten.

Body blow has uses with a CC oriented build with the weakness it applies. The bleed is just a cover condi.

The entire purpose of Forceful Greatsword is the might gain. It is meant to be paired with Might Makes Right for OW sustain, or Phalanx Strength for Party Might generation sans a Druid.

Opportunist is supposed to be paired with Leg Specialist, but sans that you have Longbow, Rifle, sword, and harpoon gun that can immobilize a target. Throw Bolas works for any weapon. This also pairs with No Escape from Spell Breaker.

Would prefer to traits to be self sufficient instead of relying on other traits to make them good. Even paired, body blow and opportunist/leg specialist aren't effective choices. Greatsword's trait just unevenly gives the trait an unfair advantage so I'd rather reduce power creep.

Arms was the Precision and Condi Damage line prior to when they removed stats from the traits. Furious is more than a stacking condi damage buff though, it also triples your adrenalin gain rate if you crit. Most builds have high crit chance to maximize DPS. Furious is fine as is.

In a PvE setting, but not in competitive settings (or at least I'm not aware of any)

King of Flames KEEP the power damage, why would you want less damage?

Didn't feel like the buff was necessary because it was a distinctive trait in the berserker trait line for condi builds. It was outright power creep.

Gunflame: leave my noobslaying F1 alone. I'd be open to a dmg decrease only after the rest of rifle is updated.

I'll be sad too if they nerf this but I've been playing for years and I've seen up towards 35k damage from this thing. It's 1500 range, instant kill and reloadable with blood reckoning. A bit too much.

Pommel Bash mmmmm ammo sill with daze. Would be OP in PvP maybe...

Increasing cooldown from my original 14 to 20s. Good point.

Wild Blow is not a niche use. It is one of the BEST CC skills on a Berserker's bar, and fully buffed can hit for very high numbers.

Probably split it for PvP/WvW to have more damage.

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@TheBravery.9615 said:-snip-Thank you for your critical review. I doubt ANET will read this thread but they could maybe take some pointers in our conversations. Feel free to rebuke if I disagreed anywhere btw.Glad I could contribute. I think several of the areas we disagreed in are likely due to gameplay differences between WvW and sPvP, so it'd be up to the devs to work out trait/skill designs that would be effective in both modes. Hopefully this discussion provides some useful feedback for them.

Also, in my suggestion for Brave Stride, I meant 4 seconds of stability on landing a burst with an 8 second cooldown, not 4 seconds of passive stability every 8 seconds. Sorry for the unclear phrasing there.

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Made some additional changes recently

Merciless Hammer: Instead of removing stability/protection, changed it to remove barrier off foes. Felt like spellbreaker has enough boon strip capabilities yet barrier is a mechanic without a countermechanic currently in game. This would introduce a viable and sought after countermechanic for WvW.

Unsuspecting foe: Wanted to increase the opportunities of using this trait by adding 'from the side or behind' for the crit chance increase, but 50% might be abit too much if this was implemented.. Reducing it down to 20%

Vengeful Return: Instead of gaining 30 strikes adrenaline, reduced it to 10 strikes. Implied by @Sobx.1758 to reduce power creep in suggestion. 10 strikes of adrenaline is enough for at least one burst, 30 admittedly was too much.

Dead or ALive: Completely removed the fatal blow mitigation and just scrapped it entirely just to add barrier to primal bursts. Didn't feel like the existing traits would be useful as the window of opportunity is too low to make use of so might as well get rid of it.

Frenzy: Modified wording so it just reduces adrenaline usage and burst recharge while active, added reduce weapon swap recharge as well. Felt like discipline is often sought after for the utility it brings but offering a similar benefit in the form of a utility skill might make this more useful.

Signet of Rage: Removed passive adrenaline gain, implied by @Sobx.1758

Headbutt: Added bleeding to compliment condi builds, changed wording from refresh cooldown to just reduce, increase CD to 30s. Admittedly was a bit too strong if it allowed to refresh Berserk mode outside berserk mode, would allow for 100% uptime of berserk mode. Giving it a baseline reduction + the option to trait more reduction with Smash Brawler should be fine.

Criticism or thoughts on other skills/traits that need work welcome.

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@TheBravery.9615 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:Thank you for your input as well, I haven't forgotten.

Body blow has uses with a CC oriented build with the weakness it applies. The bleed is just a cover condi.

The entire purpose of Forceful Greatsword is the might gain. It is meant to be paired with Might Makes Right for OW sustain, or Phalanx Strength for Party Might generation sans a Druid.

Opportunist is supposed to be paired with Leg Specialist, but sans that you have Longbow, Rifle, sword, and harpoon gun that can immobilize a target. Throw Bolas works for any weapon. This also pairs with No Escape from Spell Breaker.

Would prefer to traits to be self sufficient instead of relying on other traits to make them good. Even paired, body blow and opportunist/leg specialist aren't effective choices. Greatsword's trait just unevenly gives the trait an unfair advantage so I'd rather reduce power creep.Well Anet wants combos so... I can see taking the might gain on crit and moving it to a minor trait or taking it onto Might Makes Right though.Opportunist pairs well with No Escape from Spell Breaker, Leg Specialist just makes sure you have an immob on every weapon set (except mace/mace or dagger/dagger unless you have no escape). As far as power creep, the might gain from forceful greatsword and Might Makes Right have been there since 2012.

Arms was the Precision and Condi Damage line prior to when they removed stats from the traits. Furious is more than a stacking condi damage buff though, it also triples your adrenalin gain rate if you crit. Most builds have high crit chance to maximize DPS. Furious is fine as is.

In a PvE setting, but not in competitive settings (or at least I'm not aware of any)

Not every traitline, trait, weapon, elite, or utility are meant to see use in every game mode.

King of Flames KEEP the power damage, why would you want less damage?

Didn't feel like the buff was necessary because it was a distinctive trait in the berserker trait line for condi builds. It was outright power creep.

The power damage is minimal though, it gives an alternative to Bloody roar for power builds to take (not much of one granted).

Gunflame: leave my noobslaying F1 alone. I'd be open to a dmg decrease only after the rest of rifle is updated.

I'll be sad too if they nerf this but I've been playing for years and I've seen up towards 35k damage from this thing. It's 1500 range, instant kill and reloadable with blood reckoning. A bit too much.I too have seen those numbers, but the rest of rifle sans volley are just too mediocre to justify nerfing Gunflame.

Pommel Bash mmmmm ammo sill with daze. Would be OP in PvP maybe...

Increasing cooldown from my original 14 to 20s. Good point.

Wild Blow is not a niche use. It is one of the BEST CC skills on a Berserker's bar, and fully buffed can hit for very high numbers.

Probably split it for PvP/WvW to have more damage.

More damage? Didn't you mention power creep earlier :tongue: it is still a great CC. Knock them back swap rifle, Gunflame, battle standard, collect bag.

@TheBravery.9615 said:Made some additional changes recently

Merciless Hammer:
Instead of removing stability/protection, changed it to remove barrier off foes. Felt like spellbreaker has enough boon strip capabilities yet barrier is a mechanic without a countermechanic currently in game. This would introduce a viable and sought after countermechanic for WvW.

I'm cool with this.

Unsuspecting foe: Wanted to increase the opportunities of using this trait by adding 'from the side or behind' for the crit chance increase, but 50% might be abit too much if this was implemented.. Reducing it down to 20%

This would probably make the Arms tree actually useful outside of PvE.

Vengeful Return: Instead of gaining 30 strikes adrenaline, reduced it to 10 strikes. Implied by @Sobx.1758 to reduce power creep in suggestion. 10 strikes of adrenaline is enough for at least one burst, 30 admittedly was too much.

Vengeful Return would be more useful if it caused your downstate attacks to do more damage like the Necro trait does. I am fully aware of the repercussions of this statement.

Dead or ALive: Completely removed the fatal blow mitigation and just scrapped it entirely just to add barrier to primal bursts. Didn't feel like the existing traits would be useful as the window of opportunity is too low to make use of so might as well get rid of it.

This might be too powerful. Primal Bursts can be fired off quickly. The barrier amount would have be on the smaller side, or have an internal cd.

Frenzy: Modified wording so it just reduces adrenaline usage and burst recharge while active, added reduce weapon swap recharge as well. Felt like discipline is often sought after for the utility it brings but offering a similar benefit in the form of a utility skill might make this more useful.Reduced weapon swap should be baseline. Also be careful about overloading such a skill. No other profession has a utility skill that reduces the recharge of their profession mechanic. The only instance I can think of is a Guardian elite on a 90 CD just to clue you in on how powerful this would be.

Signet of Rage: Removed passive adrenaline gain, implied by @Sobx.1758

Headbutt: Added bleeding to compliment condi builds, changed wording from refresh cooldown to just reduce, increase CD to 30s. Admittedly was a bit too strong if it allowed to refresh Berserk mode outside berserk mode, would allow for 100% uptime of berserk mode. Giving it a baseline reduction + the option to trait more reduction with Smash Brawler should be fine.Condi builds get burn on Headbutt with rage skills traited, no need for bleed.

Criticism or thoughts on other skills/traits that need work welcome.

I'd love Brave Stride to do more. Gain stab and protection on might gain for 5s (icd 15s)?

Crack Shot: rifle and harpoon gun skills have 100% velocity increase and do 1.5% more damage against foes per vulnerability stack (weapon dependent here). This would fix rifle imho.

Powerful Synergy: Scrap this, it stinks replace it with something else related to finishers. Strike foes around you when you execute a finisher (icd 1s on whirling and projectile finishers) cannot crit, unblockable, something on the order of 1k-2k based on power.

Burning Arrows: Make burning on AA baseline. Increase burn damage while wielding a Longbow instead.

Swapping Burning arrows with opportunist is good. Highly approve of that. I has bugged me since 2012...

EDIT: Hmmm No Escape might be better if it were flipped around. No Espcape: stun (1/4s) foes that you immobilize. That would make Leg Specialist much better of an option to take. It would also turn MH sword into a cc monster.

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@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:Thank you for your input as well, I haven't forgotten.

Body blow has uses with a CC oriented build with the weakness it applies. The bleed is just a cover condi.

The entire purpose of Forceful Greatsword is the might gain. It is meant to be paired with Might Makes Right for OW sustain, or Phalanx Strength for Party Might generation sans a Druid.

Opportunist is supposed to be paired with Leg Specialist, but sans that you have Longbow, Rifle, sword, and harpoon gun that can immobilize a target. Throw Bolas works for any weapon. This also pairs with No Escape from Spell Breaker.

Would prefer to traits to be self sufficient instead of relying on other traits to make them good. Even paired, body blow and opportunist/leg specialist aren't effective choices. Greatsword's trait just unevenly gives the trait an unfair advantage so I'd rather reduce power creep.Well Anet wants combos so... I can see taking the might gain on crit and moving it to a minor trait or taking it onto Might Makes Right though.Opportunist pairs well with No Escape from Spell Breaker, Leg Specialist just makes sure you have an immob on every weapon set (except mace/mace or dagger/dagger unless you have no escape). As far as power creep, the might gain from forceful greatsword and Might Makes Right have been there since 2012.

Arms was the Precision and Condi Damage line prior to when they removed stats from the traits. Furious is more than a stacking condi damage buff though, it also triples your adrenalin gain rate if you crit. Most builds have high crit chance to maximize DPS. Furious is fine as is.

In a PvE setting, but not in competitive settings (or at least I'm not aware of any)

Not every traitline, trait, weapon, elite, or utility are meant to see use in every game mode.

King of Flames KEEP the power damage, why would you want less damage?

Didn't feel like the buff was necessary because it was a distinctive trait in the berserker trait line for condi builds. It was outright power creep.

The power damage is minimal though, it gives an alternative to Bloody roar for power builds to take (not much of one granted).

Gunflame: leave my noobslaying F1 alone. I'd be open to a dmg decrease only after the rest of rifle is updated.

I'll be sad too if they nerf this but I've been playing for years and I've seen up towards 35k damage from this thing. It's 1500 range, instant kill and reloadable with blood reckoning. A bit too much.I too have seen those numbers, but the rest of rifle sans volley are just too mediocre to justify nerfing Gunflame.

Pommel Bash mmmmm ammo sill with daze. Would be OP in PvP maybe...

Increasing cooldown from my original 14 to 20s. Good point.

Wild Blow is not a niche use. It is one of the BEST CC skills on a Berserker's bar, and fully buffed can hit for very high numbers.

Probably split it for PvP/WvW to have more damage.

More damage? Didn't you mention power creep earlier :tongue: it is still a great CC. Knock them back swap rifle, Gunflame, battle standard, collect bag.

@TheBravery.9615 said:Made some additional changes recently

Merciless Hammer:
Instead of removing stability/protection, changed it to remove barrier off foes. Felt like spellbreaker has enough boon strip capabilities yet barrier is a mechanic without a countermechanic currently in game. This would introduce a viable and sought after countermechanic for WvW.

I'm cool with this.

Unsuspecting foe:
Wanted to increase the opportunities of using this trait by adding 'from the side or behind' for the crit chance increase, but 50% might be abit too much if this was implemented.. Reducing it down to 20%

This would probably make the Arms tree actually useful outside of PvE.

Vengeful Return:
Instead of gaining 30 strikes adrenaline, reduced it to 10 strikes. Implied by @Sobx.1758 to reduce power creep in suggestion. 10 strikes of adrenaline is enough for at least one burst, 30 admittedly was too much.

Vengeful Return would be more useful if it caused your downstate attacks to do more damage like the Necro trait does. I am fully aware of the repercussions of this statement.

Dead or ALive:
Completely removed the fatal blow mitigation and just scrapped it entirely just to add barrier to primal bursts. Didn't feel like the existing traits would be useful as the window of opportunity is too low to make use of so might as well get rid of it.

This might be too powerful. Primal Bursts can be fired off quickly. The barrier amount would have be on the smaller side, or have an internal cd.

Frenzy:
Modified wording so it just reduces adrenaline usage and burst recharge while active, added reduce weapon swap recharge as well. Felt like discipline is often sought after for the utility it brings but offering a similar benefit in the form of a utility skill might make this more useful.Reduced weapon swap should be baseline. Also be careful about overloading such a skill. No other profession has a utility skill that reduces the recharge of their profession mechanic. The only instance I can think of is a Guardian elite on a 90 CD just to clue you in on how powerful this would be.

Signet of Rage
: Removed passive adrenaline gain, implied by @Sobx.1758

Headbutt:
Added bleeding to compliment condi builds, changed wording from refresh cooldown to just reduce, increase CD to 30s. Admittedly was a bit too strong if it allowed to refresh Berserk mode outside berserk mode, would allow for 100% uptime of berserk mode. Giving it a baseline reduction + the option to trait more reduction with Smash Brawler should be fine.Condi builds get burn on Headbutt with rage skills traited, no need for bleed.

Criticism or thoughts on other skills/traits that need work welcome.

I'd love Brave Stride to do more. Gain stab and protection on might gain for 5s (icd 15s)?

Crack Shot: rifle and harpoon gun skills have 100% velocity increase and do 1.5% more damage against foes per vulnerability stack (weapon dependent here). This would fix rifle imho.

Powerful Synergy: Scrap this, it stinks replace it with something else related to finishers. Strike foes around you when you execute a finisher (icd 1s on whirling and projectile finishers) cannot crit, unblockable, something on the order of 1k-2k based on power.

Burning Arrows: Make burning on AA baseline. Increase burn damage while wielding a Longbow instead.

Swapping Burning arrows with opportunist is good. Highly approve of that. I has bugged me since 2012...

The AA burning on Longbow is critical. We need some default, good Condi damage on core weapons.

Here is the problem with the trait though:If you swap places, it means you have to pick 2 weapon traits to get a good Condi build.

On top of that, if you put bow in tier 1, it means that you are competing with the expertise trait, which benefits all Condi damage. Which means almost no one will ever pick it.

You could roll it into the sword trait, but then it can become to much and be mandatory.

I think the best solution is to have a trait minor that improves weapon burning and bleeds by 20% and leave it at that. This would also mean getting rid of the bleed duration trait/rolling it together.

We need core Condi weapons that don't have to be made choices to be effective. All other classes Condi weapons work well without traits. Warrior sword and longbow as they stand now do not do enough without traits for them to be effective as baseline weapons.

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@Opopanax.1803 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:Thank you for your input as well, I haven't forgotten.

Body blow has uses with a CC oriented build with the weakness it applies. The bleed is just a cover condi.

The entire purpose of Forceful Greatsword is the might gain. It is meant to be paired with Might Makes Right for OW sustain, or Phalanx Strength for Party Might generation sans a Druid.

Opportunist is supposed to be paired with Leg Specialist, but sans that you have Longbow, Rifle, sword, and harpoon gun that can immobilize a target. Throw Bolas works for any weapon. This also pairs with No Escape from Spell Breaker.

Would prefer to traits to be self sufficient instead of relying on other traits to make them good. Even paired, body blow and opportunist/leg specialist aren't effective choices. Greatsword's trait just unevenly gives the trait an unfair advantage so I'd rather reduce power creep.Well Anet wants combos so... I can see taking the might gain on crit and moving it to a minor trait or taking it onto Might Makes Right though.Opportunist pairs well with No Escape from Spell Breaker, Leg Specialist just makes sure you have an immob on every weapon set (except mace/mace or dagger/dagger unless you have no escape). As far as power creep, the might gain from forceful greatsword and Might Makes Right have been there since 2012.

Arms was the Precision and Condi Damage line prior to when they removed stats from the traits. Furious is more than a stacking condi damage buff though, it also triples your adrenalin gain rate if you crit. Most builds have high crit chance to maximize DPS. Furious is fine as is.

In a PvE setting, but not in competitive settings (or at least I'm not aware of any)

Not every traitline, trait, weapon, elite, or utility are meant to see use in every game mode.

King of Flames KEEP the power damage, why would you want less damage?

Didn't feel like the buff was necessary because it was a distinctive trait in the berserker trait line for condi builds. It was outright power creep.

The power damage is minimal though, it gives an alternative to Bloody roar for power builds to take (not much of one granted).

Gunflame: leave my noobslaying F1 alone. I'd be open to a dmg decrease only after the rest of rifle is updated.

I'll be sad too if they nerf this but I've been playing for years and I've seen up towards 35k damage from this thing. It's 1500 range, instant kill and reloadable with blood reckoning. A bit too much.I too have seen those numbers, but the rest of rifle sans volley are just too mediocre to justify nerfing Gunflame.

Pommel Bash mmmmm ammo sill with daze. Would be OP in PvP maybe...

Increasing cooldown from my original 14 to 20s. Good point.

Wild Blow is not a niche use. It is one of the BEST CC skills on a Berserker's bar, and fully buffed can hit for very high numbers.

Probably split it for PvP/WvW to have more damage.

More damage? Didn't you mention power creep earlier :tongue: it is still a great CC. Knock them back swap rifle, Gunflame, battle standard, collect bag.

@TheBravery.9615 said:Made some additional changes recently

Merciless Hammer:
Instead of removing stability/protection, changed it to remove barrier off foes. Felt like spellbreaker has enough boon strip capabilities yet barrier is a mechanic without a countermechanic currently in game. This would introduce a viable and sought after countermechanic for WvW.

I'm cool with this.

Unsuspecting foe:
Wanted to increase the opportunities of using this trait by adding 'from the side or behind' for the crit chance increase, but 50% might be abit too much if this was implemented.. Reducing it down to 20%

This would probably make the Arms tree actually useful outside of PvE.

Vengeful Return:
Instead of gaining 30 strikes adrenaline, reduced it to 10 strikes. Implied by @Sobx.1758 to reduce power creep in suggestion. 10 strikes of adrenaline is enough for at least one burst, 30 admittedly was too much.

Vengeful Return would be more useful if it caused your downstate attacks to do more damage like the Necro trait does. I am fully aware of the repercussions of this statement.

Dead or ALive:
Completely removed the fatal blow mitigation and just scrapped it entirely just to add barrier to primal bursts. Didn't feel like the existing traits would be useful as the window of opportunity is too low to make use of so might as well get rid of it.

This might be too powerful. Primal Bursts can be fired off quickly. The barrier amount would have be on the smaller side, or have an internal cd.

Frenzy:
Modified wording so it just reduces adrenaline usage and burst recharge while active, added reduce weapon swap recharge as well. Felt like discipline is often sought after for the utility it brings but offering a similar benefit in the form of a utility skill might make this more useful.Reduced weapon swap should be baseline. Also be careful about overloading such a skill. No other profession has a utility skill that reduces the recharge of their profession mechanic. The only instance I can think of is a Guardian elite on a 90 CD just to clue you in on how powerful this would be.

Signet of Rage
: Removed passive adrenaline gain, implied by @Sobx.1758

Headbutt:
Added bleeding to compliment condi builds, changed wording from refresh cooldown to just reduce, increase CD to 30s. Admittedly was a bit too strong if it allowed to refresh Berserk mode outside berserk mode, would allow for 100% uptime of berserk mode. Giving it a baseline reduction + the option to trait more reduction with Smash Brawler should be fine.Condi builds get burn on Headbutt with rage skills traited, no need for bleed.

Criticism or thoughts on other skills/traits that need work welcome.

I'd love Brave Stride to do more. Gain stab and protection on might gain for 5s (icd 15s)?

Crack Shot: rifle and harpoon gun skills have 100% velocity increase and do 1.5% more damage against foes per vulnerability stack (weapon dependent here). This would fix rifle imho.

Powerful Synergy: Scrap this, it stinks replace it with something else related to finishers. Strike foes around you when you execute a finisher (icd 1s on whirling and projectile finishers) cannot crit, unblockable, something on the order of 1k-2k based on power.

Burning Arrows: Make burning on AA baseline. Increase burn damage while wielding a Longbow instead.

Swapping Burning arrows with opportunist is good. Highly approve of that. I has bugged me since 2012...

The AA burning on Longbow is critical. We need some default, good Condi damage on core weapons.

Here is the problem with the trait though:If you swap places, it means you have to pick 2 weapon traits to get a good Condi build.

On top of that, if you put bow in tier 1, it means that you are competing with the expertise trait, which benefits all Condi damage. Which means almost no one will ever pick it.

You could roll it into the sword trait, but then it can become to much and be mandatory.

I think the best solution is to have a trait minor that improves weapon burning and bleeds by 20% and leave it at that. This would also mean getting rid of the bleed duration trait/rolling it together.

We need core Condi weapons that don't have to be made choices to be effective. All other classes Condi weapons work well without traits. Warrior sword and longbow as they stand now do not do enough without traits for them to be effective as baseline weapons.

Agreed. AA burning default on LB. You could turn BA into something generically burn related.

Gunpowder Edges: your critical hits have 33% chance to burn (2s) no icd.

Think Shishio Makoto from Rurouni Kenshin.

Interesting side not is that this would make Whirling Axe in a fire field a really good burn applicator for Core Condi builds ( I know Core Condi isn't really a thing, but it could be with this sort of trait).

That makes it weapon agnostic. I would say that wounding precision isn't that mandatory. You can get high condi duration without it, particularly if you only care about bleed and burning, so I do not think it would compete in slot with wounding precision. Sword trait is mandatory, Furious is mandatory.

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