Lazze.9870

First of all, the trait line hasn't gone from condi to power. It has gone from being underwhelming on power builds and good for condis to pretty being decent at both. The biggest mistake they did with the new WS changes was adding an ICD to the Carnivore trait. It makes zero sense that disabling 5 people with a well timed Thump only gives you life steal from one enemy (reducing the affect per target per skill is a better solutiuon). The trait doesn't have any meaningful impact at the moment, and I can think of a dozen better ideas for a power/sustain GM trait in WS. Mace being affected by Ambidexterity is irrelevant. It gives you 125 extra condi power while also wielding a mace, it doesn't affect the cooldowns like it does with dagger and torch. So there is no "competition" with the strike damage trait because there aren't really any builds where you'd absolutely want both (with the exception of wanting reduced incoming strike damage on a condi build, but that's no different from wanting more condi stats vs having an extra source of stab with the old traits - offensive or defensive). You can make the argument that it is weird that they tacked mace to Ambi (which is it, even though I get why they did it), and that it would fit better with the sword or the GS trait mechanically (so would the hammer for the latter), but it doesn't create any "competition" at all. It's just there, and arguably better than having no direct trait interaction at all. As for the maces, they didn't need to touch the damage. Nerfing the modifiers from going big was enough. But eh, it didn't affect anything outside of PvE, so I don't really care.

Could we maybe get a more streamlined and effective boon removal tool on untamed instead of latching it on to a pet? It's bad enough that one out of two boon removals on untamed is tied to the pet being alive and within a small 180 radius of the enemy. Like, perhaps a small rework or buff to the knockdown or cage cantrips. At the moment you'd probably be more effective at stripping boons simply by spamming the dagger burst on berserker, which wasn't even designed to be a boon remover, than what untamed is currently capable of. Then maybe we can we talk about adding something to a pet as well.

There hasn't been a single "meta build" using Shared Anguish as a staple trait choice EVER since it got introduced. Just because you find it useful, doesn't mean people that don't are low gold tier (or worse) pvp players. The regular power builds haven't even touched WS in ages. It has been an optional trait on condi builds at best. I haven't depended on it in plat. Other good players I see rarely run it. Good roamers in WvW rarely run it. Stop hyberboling kitten. Core ranger has horrid stab availability, with or without Shared Anguish.

Shared Anguish in its current state would be an absolute HORRID GM trait. It's already meh. A minor bit of stab on pet swap is overrated. What about introducing core ranger stab options that aren't awful to begin with? Strength of the pack is a glorified 60s CD stab skill. To think they thought leaving it on 75 was fair back when they removed CD reduction from the command trait is laughable.

Scourge should NEVER have been buffed like it was, and reaper is still a very functional dps+boon ripper. No one enjoys playing against barrier/transfusion scourers, and I can't imagine anyone actually enjoying playing it either. Most boring support build to ever grace the game mode.

The Wilderness Survival changes look good. You're removing too much condi cleanse from druid in WvW. Removing Alac means druid basically provide heals, cleanses and a handful of common boons. Stripping away so many cleanses puts it too close to other builds that can heal + cleanse while also providing meaningful boons or barrier. Meaning you're essentially downgrading it to a second grade support. Since you're looking at hammer; there is definitely more room to improve hammer for competitive modes. It feels a bit underwhelming especialliy without the ambush skill (non-untamed builds, basically). A little bit more range and damage could make up for the almost complete lack of defensive utilities. I also feel like untamed should have better boon rip access. It feels a bit half baked. A couple of the cantrips could perhaps provide some.

WvW Spellbreaker has a pretty disgusting CC/immob/boon rip build at the moment, it doesn't need buffs. Edit: I forgot I ented the forums where 90 % of the people got zero clue. I'll give you a hint: Leg Specialist in tactics immobs on cripple, ICD is only per target, and spellbreaker runs hammer with an aoe ranged cripple and sword/x with a cripple on the leap and immob on f1. The build kittening slaps. With celestial stats you're pumping out some decent quickness as well. Or are people confused because they think boon rip is dead? It's not. They are literally killing off alac in WvW, they are massively reducing Res and Stab on rev, and people get mad because Null field is gonna take litte bit more thought to use. Eugh.

There are plenty of specs/builds more broken that kittening soulbeast.

Dolyak Stance is a better instant source of shared stab than anything druid has, with the added benefit of the stance effect. It also has earth spirit for aegis and prot, it has resistance from frost + spiritual reprive. All vital boons, and there goes your utility bar. This is a concept. Soulbeast obviously isn't meta for anything supportive in PvP (or WvW). But the foundation is there and in comparison to druid it is much more boon oriented and generally more sturdy. It is slightly closer to a core guardian. I mean, now we're just moving the goal post anyway...

Irrelevant. Rev has massive access to resistance (and stability + great dwarf damage reduction on dwarf/ventari) if played correctly. Rev is the class you stack because of the boons, druid is the class you add a certain amount of to your group for pure healing and cleanses, since healing and cleanses overlap between parties. Tripple blasting shouldn't be a thing anyway. They are adding self-might to the skill to make up for the three blasts' intended purpose: self might from the number 2 skill.

Yeah, he asks about healing, but I give him a useful answer. Calling it a druid without celestial avatar doesn't add anything to the conversation, it's just an obvious statement. It doesn't matter what staff is best at. Soulbeast with access to staff and mace is a boon support primarly with access to some heals, some of them again are bursts. It doesn't have quickness or alac, so it's irrelevant in PvE. It's useable in PvP, but still worse than core guard. If he wants to meme around as a healer in open world, then yes, it will be able to do that.

I mean, obviously, but that's not the way to look at it. Support soulbeast is a niche that people tried out when it got access to staff. Stance sharing, the updated spirits and reworked nature magic traits allow soulbeast to be a bit more of a direct boon support compared to druid in PvP (and by extension small scale WvW). Mace might be good for it. Or it might be worse because you're losing sword mobility and leaps. In PvE it has only meme value because it can't provide quickness or alac.

Boon stripping could for sure be improved as well. It feels a little bit tacked on atm, not sure if that was Anet's intention or if it was supposed to be a more integral part of the spec at some point. Rending Vines isn't exactly a prime wvw skill with how it is tied to the pet + its small radius. You're very dependent on the GS ambush right now. Exploding Spores is a good candidate to add some boon strip. Sword/Axe is also an alternative to hammer, but Relentless Whirl probably just about make the hammer worth it. Depends on how well you can land axe 5s. Soulbeast with Untamed Ambush skills would have been juicy. Sad thing is, that's about the level it needs to be at to compete with the dps meta builds.

Not the solution. Throw Scourge in the garbage bin (seriously, hard nerf that kitten, necro has other zerg options for wvw anyway) and make skills that share barrier have abysmal scaling in wvw. Barrier should only be complimentary to healing, but right now coordinated groups often have more damage absorbed by scourge barrier than the healing they get from vindi/druid. Buff damage for builds that currently can't compete with Beserker and holo if you want dps variety. If they're gonna remove a stat set, it should be celestial. That garbage is ruining what little there is left of roaming.

Pets dying is almost irrelevant. Yeah, you lose a bit of your kit, but it's not necessary to make Untamed work in a zerg, The easiest way to make Untamed good in a zerg meta is if they bump up the damage numbers on unleashed hammer skills and maybe bump GS back up slightly as well (+ a little frost trap buff). You stay unleashed 100 % of the time and use Let Loose to refresh the ambush skills on every weapon swap. Frost trap, Signet of Hunt and Wild and entangle or the elite cantrip on your bar. Protect me if you need a stunbreak. Bonus if skills like Nature's Binding were a little less crap, but it's not needed. Wether you're on Untamed or Soulbeast, the most damage potential you have in a coordinated group is a full melee build. Other specs do that better atm, which is why some buffs are warranted (especially on hammer, that weapon has near zero utility anyway). For clouding outside of groups, untamed is already a potential monster on quickdraw double longbow because it adds multishot to the mix.