FalsePromises.6398

I think one of the issues with harbinger isn't the damage modifiers but rather the coefficients in harbinger shroud. The kit is okay for power (at least when you're using greatsword), the problem boils down to harbinger shroud's power not being competitive against other parts of its own kit, namely greatsword. Without a "second healthbar" as people like to call shroud health, you REALLY need to go all-in on making harbinger shroud the pinnacle of damage. Meanwhile, I go to the testing area and can deal higher DPS with greatsword autos and gravedigger after each chain than I can with harbinger shroud autos (both with 25 blight, soul barbs, no signet of spite), and maybe that's where the problem is. Just for PvE, buffing the power coefficients of harbinger shroud would be a start to making power harbinger feel good and unique instead of just a damage-inflated, lukewarm playstyle. Side note: buffing power coefficients would also do more for validating power quick harbinger whereas buffing traits that clash with quickness options doesn't help it.

Worst come to worst you can double the burning duration on Zealot's Flame to compensate, simple as. It'd be better than the existing iteration that desyncs over time and strangles out other offhanders. Even if you don't get a compensatory buff on Zealot's Flame, the ability to use another offhander like focus or maybe sword (not even considering pistols yet) on your second set probably winds up a total dps increase anyway, since you can perfectly get two activations of Zealot's Flame (four Zealot's Fire casts) per 10 second weapon swap loop, so it's basically an entire second offhand weapon set vs one stack of Zealot's Flame.

I missed this the first read, and I actually really like this change. That skill was poorly aged and it's great to see it usable as a reliable support effect that won't get you killed in the wrong situation.

I'm 90% sure they intend to make the THROWN fire (Zealot's Fire) into two ammo every time you activate the self flame (Zealot's Flame), not make the self flame (Zealot's Flame) into two ammo. I think they just mistyped in the post, because I see them say Zealot's Flame. It WOULD be a 50% dps loss to change Zealot's Flame (the self flame) to two ammo since you still have the same cooldown, but if you get two ammo of Zealot's Fire (the thrown fire) per cast of Zealot's Flame (the self flame), it's effectively the same with torch, and actually a 4% damage increase since Zealot's Fire with the trait and alacrity is 9.6 second cooldown compared to 10 second cooldown on the trait. It's way more sensible that they'd change the thrown fire into two ammo rather than the self flame.

Sure, it shaves off a small damage increase if you're NEVER using torch as a burnguard, but if you wanted to forgo an optimal condi damage weapon on a condi build, you've picked your battle already, to say the least. Anyway, it's a great quality of life rework that cleans up an otherwise disruptive passive effect in dps rotations for the majority of burnguards who DO use torch, and greatly benefits those who want to use other weapon sets alongside torch. It cleans up using other weapons alongside torch, and that's what matters.

A great addition to the list of highly practical traits that fix key issues for certain flawed support builds... but can't be used because they conflict with quickness/alacrity traits. If you're going to take advice from players about mechanical issues regarding support builds, what's the point if you bar the solutions from those builds by making it conflict with quickness/alacrity?

The intent is to fix the lost damage from getting zealot's flame from the passive while not wielding torch actively but still having it in your weapon sets. For instance, previously if you swapped off of sword/torch to pistol/pistol and critically hit, you'd have a chance to get zealot's flame when you weren't able to throw it for more damage. With this change, you'd have that passive packaged properly into an active torch skill, making it easier to rotate and optimize multiple weapon sets as a burn guardian. It's meant to allow you to use another offhander alongside torch without disrupting your zealot's flame procs, not to make your torch weaker.

Necromancer swords are a bit painful. Damage was way too low, animations are buggy, health costs are awkward and large, and cast times are way too long. The damage was on par with necromancer axe, the laughing stock of the class's arsenal that has an entirely different niche for burst and isn't meant for sustained damage. Literally, I tested axe/sword camping vs sword/sword camping and hit the same DPS, which is rather sad because necro doesn't need a second mainhand axe. All this and both were beaten by greatsword autoattack DPS alone. One reason was just bad power scaling and coefficients, but that's been a common theme. The sword skills themselves had long cast times and disruptive aftercasts: this was most prevalent on skill 2 and 4, but also on autoattacks. The autoattacks could not progress until the previous projectile either dissipated or hit, meaning you lost up to 35% total DPS (yes, I tested it) between melee range and max range. Going further, the sword skills' casts were too long and the effects too delayed for a practical ranged set. Sword 2 initial cast was fine, but the second cast was way too long for an effect that honestly could be ingrained into the initial skill, plus it seemed to cause an aftercast that may have been intended to force you to wait till the projectile finished moving till you casted the flip, but just resulted in disruptive, wasted time. Same was for the 4 skill, except the 4 skill had a long initial cast too. The five skill's flip effect was so useless that it felt like it could be thrown into the base skill as well, if it's literally just a fear. Lastly... not sure what was thematically supposed to be going on with sword 3. Sword 3 doesn't really fit anything: just a tad too short range for a solid mobility skill, doesn't do enough damage for a dive skill, and above all is a melee gap closer on a ranged set. I just don't think it fits, and all the goobers that pester devs for mobility on necromancer frankly just don't get that they're supposed to be pulling and debilitating enemies instead of chasing them. Swords left a LOT to be desired, but they weren't wholly bad: there was a nice concept of cast and forget damage as well as a good kite weapon. However, if this was the aim of the weapons, they should have their cast times adjusted and their flip skills merged into the initial attacks after a delay, and then have the damage scaled up. If burst becomes a problem, convert it into ticking damage like the fifth skill.

Guardian pistols seem to have drastically lower power scaling than other guardian weapons, even other condition damage weapons like axe and torch. The biggest thing I was hoping guardian pistols would do is provide a more practical alternate power offhand weapon for open world use, since focus is rather passive and unengaging. It didn't even need to be a good power offhander, just one that was usable... but guardian pistol offhand is laughably low damage for power. The condition damage on pistols, especially the burst, is great, but the poor power scaling and low duration symbol leaves no room for anything other than condition damage willbender. Also, it would be nice if the 2 skill had a bit wider of a hitbox, so it would be a more bread and butter cleave option instead of a thin linear one.

I think thief axes could be improved in two ways. 1. Reduce the cast time of 2 down to half second cast. It's way too clunky without quickness, especially for a skill that you need to cast multiple times to build up your 3 skill's damage. The 3 skill could also stand to have an initiative cost reduction or refund with certain axe hit count, since it's useless without any axe stacks and functions off of other resources too. Axe 3 isn't a standalone skill, so don't make it cost as much initiative as one, yeah? 2. The axe ammo is a cool idea but a problematic iteration. Making them linger in the actual world just opens the weapon up to a horrific slew of positioning, range, and mobility problems. Most prominently, going in close to get all three hits of your axe 2 to land makes them all linger super far away, creating problems for your 3 skill's responsiveness and ability to hit. I think a better way of going about this axe ammo mechanic is to take a page from the mesmer book: make the axes float around YOU instead, akin to virtuoso, and when you cast your 3 skill, summon them around your target to strike inwards after a slight delay, akin to mirage axe ambush skill. This would go MILES in making the weapon more practical and consistent. I like the thief axe in concept, it's very interesting. If there was any other thing I'd change, I'd probably give the axes a wider hitbox, to give the weapon a slight cleave identity like other axe iterations in the game (e.g. ranger axes, firebrand axe, mirage axe).

my bad I thought this was a general beta weapon section, google searched for it and it led me here

I think thief axes could be improved in two ways. 1. Reduce the cast time of 2 down to half second cast. It's way too clunky without quickness, especially for a skill that you need to cast multiple times to build up your 3 skill's damage. The 3 skill could also stand to have an initiative cost reduction or refund with certain axe hit count, since it's useless without any axe stacks and functions off of other resources too. Axe 3 isn't a standalone skill, so don't make it cost as much initiative as one, yeah? 2. The axe ammo is a cool idea but a problematic iteration. Making them linger in the actual world just opens the weapon up to a horrific slew of positioning, range, and mobility problems. Most prominently, going in close to get all three hits of your axe 2 to land makes them all linger super far away, creating problems for your 3 skill's responsiveness and ability to hit. I think a better way of going about this axe ammo mechanic is to take a page from the mesmer book: make the axes float around YOU instead, akin to virtuoso, and when you cast your 3 skill, summon them around your target to strike inwards after a slight delay, akin to mirage axe ambush skill. This would go MILES in making the weapon more practical and consistent. I like the thief axe in concept, it's very interesting. If there was any other thing I'd change, I'd probably give the axes a wider hitbox, to give the weapon a slight cleave identity like other axe iterations in the game (e.g. ranger axes, firebrand axe, mirage axe).

When you have four elemental bullets your autoattack flips to an elemental bullet salvo skill. Dunno how strong it is in the greater scheme of things though, especially since it's way more practical to be generating and expending one bullet per attunement instead of generating an extra bullet.

I've been more interested in the DPS options presented by new weapons, trying out necromancer swords, guardian pistols, elementalist pistol, etc. Guardian pistols seem to have drastically lower power scaling than other guardian weapons, even other condition damage weapons like axe and torch. The biggest thing I was hoping guardian pistols would do is provide a more practical alternate power offhand weapon for open world use, since focus is rather passive and unengaging. It didn't even need to be a good power offhander, just one that was usable... but guardian pistol offhand is laughably low damage for power. The condition damage on pistols, especially the burst, is great, but the poor power scaling and low duration symbol leaves no room for anything other than condition damage willbender. Elementalist pistol was nice, it has some interesting skill synergies and had a fun bullet mechanic, but the biggest problem was that it was almost purely condition damage again. I used pistol mainhand with both focus offhand and warhorn offhand and even though I felt like I dealt a lot of damage, I also felt like something was missing. Then I tried dagger offhand and realized it was missing power damage: my dagger skills felt way better at actually killing enemies because even on viper stats they could deal a chunk of damage with their initial hits. Elementalist pistol skills spent too long ramping with not enough punch. Necromancer swords though... as a pure power set, bad through and through. Damage was way too low, animations are buggy, health costs are awkward and large, and cast times are way too long. The damage was on par with necromancer axe, the laughing stock of the class's arsenal. Literally, I tested axe/sword camping vs sword/sword camping and hit the same DPS, which is rather sad because necro doesn't need a second mainhand axe. All this and both were beaten by greatsword autoattack DPS alone. One reason was just bad power scaling and coefficients, but that's been a common theme. The sword skills themselves had long cast times and disruptive aftercasts: this was most prevalent on skill 2 and 4, but also on autoattacks. The autoattacks could not progress until the previous projectile either dissipated or hit, meaning you lost up to 35% total DPS (yes, I tested it) between melee range and max range. Going further, the sword skills' casts were too long and the effects too delayed for a practical ranged set. Sword 2 initial cast was fine, but the second cast was way too long for an effect that honestly could be ingrained into the initial skill, plus it seemed to cause an aftercast that may have been intended to force you to wait till the projectile finished moving till you casted the flip, but just resulted in disruptive, wasted time. Same was for the 4 skill, except the 4 skill had a long initial cast too. The five skill's flip effect was so useless that it felt like it could be thrown into the base skill as well, if it's literally just a fear. Lastly... not sure what was thematically supposed to be going on with sword 3. Sword 3 doesn't really fit anything: just a tad too short range for a solid mobility skill, doesn't do enough damage for a dive skill, and above all is a melee gap closer on a ranged set. I just don't think it fits, and all the goobers that pester devs for mobility on necromancer frankly just don't get that they're supposed to be pulling and debilitating enemies instead of chasing them. Swords left a LOT to be desired, but they weren't wholly bad: there was a nice concept of cast and forget damage as well as a good kite weapon. However, if this was the aim of the weapons, they should have their cast times adjusted and their flip skills merged into the initial attacks after a delay, and then have the damage scaled up. If burst becomes a problem, convert it into ticking damage like the fifth skill. tl;dr elementalist pistols need more power damage, guardian pistols need more power damage, necromancer swords need to drop the health gimmicks, increase power damage, merge flip skills into the initial skills as delayed effects, and do something else with that 3 skill

I like what's going on with scrapper, but some of it just sits with me wrong. 1. As much as I love the idea of adding a new passive barrier source for nearby allies onto scrapper, to help pad up healscrapper, I don't think making it compete with Gyroscopic Acceleration will make anyone want or use it. It's a shame because it's a really good idea too, it just won't go far if it's conflicting with Gyroscopic Acceleration. That's practically a must-have for any scrapper build. 2. Please stop bloating Function Gyro. It's lowkey a mess of a skill already. You want to use it off cooldown for traited purposes (superspeed, boons, etc.), but you also want to save it for revives, but using it for revives gives you a punishing cooldown, which then affects your ability to use your traited benefits... it's a skill that would be fine if it stood alone, but making more and more hinge on it is questionable. Honestly, turning it into a single revive target but have 3 skill ammo might be better than making it a single cast that scales up cooldown the more targets it revives. Gives you better ability to control how you use it. 3. While these buffs are nice for healscrapper, there's still the major issues of no easy access fury and no aegis. Fury only comes from either dropping a whole traitline to get it or dropping Soothing Detonation, a strong passive heal, for Experimental Turrets and then dropping a whole utility slot for Rifle Turret solely for fury upkeep. Fury is a long-standing pain point for healscrapper, and no access to aegis also weighs against it. If you want to healscrapper to get a glow-up in PvE, add fury somewhere that doesn't require a tradeoff, akin to what most supports already have. Honestly you could just replace the protection on Expert Examination with fury instead, since Invention line's Reconstruction Enclosure is practically the same thing if you're using Medkit, or toss it on Blast Gyro like Scourge's Desiccate. Also I ain't been keeping up on dps scrapper, but I'd be careful with that Applied Force buff.

Wonder how Relic of Vass will work for skills that are both heal skills and elixirs, if there's no longer gonna be an ICD on it for elixir archetypes. Would be pretty cool if it double-counted for elixir heal skills. I really just want any excuse to drop fractal relic on harbinger and use something that seems more meaningfully tailored to it instead of the latest one size fits all damage buff relic.

It's a shame that the OG scourge flavor was kinda lost when they nerfed shade durations to counteract alacrity on barrier: the 180 radius shades were legit and practical when you could have three out consistently, but now it feels like throwing kindling onto the battlefield since they fizzle out after a meager 8 seconds. I'm not a fan of having a huge chunk of stats and the entire ranged functionality of my class mechanic need to be refreshed every 8 seconds while also having an 8 second cooldown. Inverting the mechanics of Sand Savant, making the larger shade baseline, and returning original shade durations would easily give that robust shade presence and peace of mind back to scourge. It even makes sense for WvW in my opinion, since using the larger shade is a direct offensive nerf for them due to losing half their total enemy target count (competitive split balance things lol). As for Sandstorm Shroud... yeah, targets affected should def be shared with shades for better positioning freedom, and the visual indicator is horrifically overdue for some changes. I have no idea how many times I've had to guess "is that an incoming enemy mechanic/attack or my own shroud?"... Making an important skill you use off cooldown also create an orange-yellow indicator around you similar to enemy indicators is no good. They could at least add some kind of scourge logo(s) inside of it and use a different color like white, teal, or green. Allies can't see the indicator, it's purely to help the scourge see when/where their effects land (even if they're inaccurate due to a model-scaling bug), so it's not like it'll confuse others when it comes to content where they use those colors. They could also stand to add some kind of actual visual effect to sandstorm shroud, since it's basically invisible to allies until it detonates. Y'know, something to tell allies "hey I'm doin cool stuff here, you should stand near me" like scrapper gyros do with ground VFX and combo fields.

I know I'm way late to respond to this, but I'm of the camp that 240 is too small for a boon build. I've been using alacrity scourge a LOT lately (been trying to stick to one class more so I stop spending so much gearing flavor of the month builds) and in full honesty the 300 radius on sandstorm shroud is barely up to par when you have silly pugs or social awkwardness fractal instability. There's a reason everyone tried to push anet to upgrade so many existing 240 radius boon specs to 360 radius, or at least complained about 240 radius boon specs being painful. I still think it should just be the Sand Savant shade size (300 radius) baseline, so at least all of the shade skills can hit decently reliably instead of some at 300, some at 240, and some at 180 being a chore to land. I do think making a target cap of 5 allies (possibly split from a larger enemy target cap too) is the best route, I just assumed that if anet could do that, they would have already, since it's the most sensible approach. I would be wary of changing sandstorm shroud into just adding alacrity/barrier on each pulse of desert shroud though, since that's a pure upgrade. Desert shroud deals more base power damage, more power scaling, more torment stacks, and has more pulses. It may cost more life force, but you'd wind up turning 4 pulses over 3.5 seconds into 7 pulses over 6 seconds, almost twice as effective for 50% more life force cost and the exact same cooldown. It might become ridiculous with abrasive grit's cleanse to have a 7 condition cleanse as an F skill (8 condition cleanse on yourself), and last thing I want is anet to get an excuse to bomb ANOTHER one of support scourge's iconic capabilities.

Scourge right now feels a bit off because it's relying on a single shade long-term, and in general shades feel weaker because of changes made to counteract three shade abuse for ten man alacrity. I think what could dodge a lot of problems would be to invert the Sand Savant trait: make the larger shade your base shade option, but reduce its target cap to 3, and make Sand Savant grant you the ability to summon three smaller shades. Then, return the original shade durations for quality of life, because there's no longer a possibility of 10 man alacrity when your target cap increase conflicts with alacrity generation. This would help give some area coverage back to dps and support scourges in PvE, which is especially more important for healer scourges who struggle with ally coverage due to relying on smaller radii shades for supportive effects. Meanwhile, it gives a unique option for a grandmaster that increases your target cap, versatility, and area coverage, while also preventing you from abusing alacrity with it. Thoughts on a change like this? I understand it may negatively impact WvW scourges who rely on three shades, but I think it's better for the whole of the game, and losing spare alacrity or condition damage on a zerg-cleaving scourge build (which if I understand correctly are mostly power anyway) won't be the end of the world.

Idk about that, last I checked a lot of thief power styles ran critical strikes and deadly arts without trickery… unless you’re talking PvP or WvW. Trickery is essential if you’re expending tons of initiative for utility purposes (or to proc on-dual-attack benefits), but power leans away from that in PvE. Honestly a more oppressive trait line monopoly upon a class is necromancer’s soul reaping, granted it’s more because it’s absurdly packed with goodies while a lot of other necromancer lines are mediocre.

I more hoped to see a realistic application of the supportive and versatile merges outside of cheeky competitive picks (if they're even still used as such). Fern Hound and Pink Moa could become great picks for a healer Soulbeast with their access to control effects and healing on demand. Could also open the gate towards making some of the selfish healing merge skills (like bite, chomp, or photosynthesize) have reason to become less selfish. Either way, with access to stances, new spirit commands, and druid staff, Soulbeast could definitely make it as a quick healer and a highly versatile quick dps.

And if you're about to say... "Untamed is a very impractical dps build and is best not compared to Soulbeast" or "I wouldn't wish a June 27th style rework on my most hated spec, let alone my favorite Soulbeast" I get it.

I find it odd that the oddball high damage specialization with little to no unique utility, boon, or support features was the pick for a utility boon role, and not the specialization with powerful supportive stances and built-in infrastructure around quickness and boons already. If anything, Untamed subtracts from your support options by obstructing pet skills that could heal for unleashed skills, while Soulbeast can optionally pick tons of supportive and teamplay oriented skills via different merges, species, and archetypes. Soulbeast is just all around a better practical and conceptual pick for adding quickness, especially when its sole role of damage is already being eclipsed by Untamed and now Druid too. Anyone got thoughts to share on the topic? I've been distancing myself from the game since the changes, and never got much into Untamed to begin with, let alone played the new quickness role. Just vexes me that we've lost a possible heal-quick option with high versatility and robustness from stances for another dead end quickdps.

Sounds interersting, but I don't know about a constant health draining debuff. That would make it less usable with something like Harbinger, where you already have health penalties (or just less usable in general since necromancer heals kinda suck). Something that might be really interesting is if it were more like, for every stack of bleed you apply on yourself, gain a static bonus of some sort that stacks up to 5 times for a lengthy duration so it's consistent, maybe like 25-30 seconds. Something like +5% bleeding damage per stack, or +5% outgoing healing per stack, or maybe +15% damage dealt from siphon attacks, etc. That way you can tie buffs to bleeding stacks without needing to avoid cleanses. Lowkey I wish they did something similar with harbinger blight, like instead of tying the damage buffs and regen from the first column and minor traits to blight directly (which makes your damage mods inconsistent and your regeneration random when blight fluctuates in rotations), they grant a 25 second buff that wraps up all the traited positive effects of blight and isn't removed when you lose blight, so your benefits are more consistent. Not like they're huge nowadays anyway, Septic Corruption is only like 6.25% condition damage max, but the regen might be nice to have more consistently I guess?

I was wanting to expand on Blood Magic with extra siphon buff effects, but I kinda lean against it because it would encounter the same issues as Ashes of the Just, or I'm pretty sure there was another issue where unique debuffs against world bosses would start to break... am I thinking OG Deathly Chill? It just seems like in the history of the game, unique damage-oriented buffs applied to allies or on enemies never seem to end well and tend to clash in large scale content. I want to cater to the emaciated power necro infrastructure as much as the next guy (probably more) but I just don't know if siphons are the way to go about it. I could definitely see Blood Bond reworked to add extra procs on dagger auto chain third strikes though. It would still work as-is given dagger would have access to Lesser Marks of Blood for enough bleeding stacks to trigger the trait, but it would be interesting to see that third dagger strike maybe apply four stacks (that the strike itself won't consume) so allies can get a little sip of your siphons, or so you really want to encourage ally-aid when fighting. I still want to build around teamplay with dagger and Blood Magic. Maybe an enhancement to Signet of Vamprism itself into something more useful to enhance damage and siphons would work better? Like, turning the passive into 100-200% increase in siphon damage when running that signet? Would do good to bolster a support scourge's arsenal, so they could pick Well of Blood when they need revives, Sand Flare when they need high on-demand barrier, and Signet of Vampirism for slight damage enhancement. Could also aid the damage of those jank siphoning offhand skills like Locust Swarm and Soul Grasp.