Skyroar.2974

Glacial Heart will still replace Hammer's #2 to its chill version. That means all non-AA hammer skill will self-heal the user with this trait.

In PvE, this trait will only be good for solo OW builds, which is fine, if you're willing to balance for it. Make sure the numbers are high enough to justify taking it against strong bosses, and not very reliant on healing power (hammer is a power weapon and therefore its user will want power stats). Also, Guardian's hammer in PvE needs a few QoL updates and balance changes. Skill #2 is a DPS loss compared to just AAing, and skill #5 doesn't work on stationary bosses, if I'm not wrong, and it's just not that good in that game mode anyways. Perhaps #5 should deal damage whenever a foe gets CC'd by it in PvE. That would be really cool and fun. Until hammer gets good QoL/balance updates in PvE, a firebrand with traited axe spamming 2 CCs with their DPS rotation will always be a much better Glacial Heart user. Similarly to Glacial Heart's change, this trait will only be useful in PvE for solo content, so make sure the numbers are decent enough and we're not getting PvP balance for PvE here. Because the competition is strong for grandmaster WB traits and courage has such a short window under a long cooldown, you'll either need to add an additional effect for PvE, or make the numbers really high.

Why? You wanted it to stay useless?

I don't think they should change existing weapons, but simply to continue experimentibg with new ones. I like that Scepter is getting an upkeep skill, and I would also love to see a new DPS legend in the future without it (or have it tied to a niche skill instead of a DPS skill). I guess Alliance's legend already kind of does that if you stay in Luxon, but I hate the legend-swap-inside-legend-swap concept.

I think this change is a bit misguided. Revenant, as an energy-driven, low-cooldown class, doesn't needs a full, 5-weapon skill DPS rotation. The entire point of the class's main mechanic, similar to Thief's initiative, is about rewarding decision making, not about spamming everything you have. Otherwise, what's the point of energy? Why not just remove it entirely, or at least why not just remove energy costs from weapon skills, if you want every single skill to be used in rotations? I do think the slow effect didn't have much purpose in it neither (it's a mobility skill, not a defensive skill), and maybe torment will be slightly better, but Anet should actually worry about improving this skills' primary purpose first, before turning it into generic DPS skill number 5. As it is now, Frigid Blitz is kind of clumsy as a mobility skill. It's slow, it puts the player in a weird position (behind the target' back) and has some additional animation after the shadowstep is over. It feels bad to use it. Make it faster; improve its range slightly too; and it'll feel much better to use. Perhaps give it an additional effect, like a leap finisher, to give us an aura. Something that stands out, that leads to decision-making. "Should I spend energy for this skill, or for another one?" is the essence of Revenant's gameplay. Even with additional damage, I don't think the clumsiness of the skill will make it enjoyable to use in instance PvE, as it forces players to teleport behind target's backs.

Guardian's torch changes are very welcome, but there's still something in that offhand that Anet didn't touch yet, and they should: the usefulness of torch #5. It's the coolest skill of the two, but also the worst. The new Radiant Fire trait should have improved it, instead of improving the already good #4. Or, perhaps, #5 should have had some QoL changes, like better (and stronger) burning distribution across its duration, lower casting time, etc. Condi Guardians are stuck with torch, and they will continue to be after the patch. For this reason, torch #5 should be an enjoyable skill to use that is part of the rotation, instead of a dead skill.

Yeah, I just got kicked out of the game because of a crash, but I shouldn't have closed the window. What a wonderful thing. A crash that is not actually a crash until you manually click it. Wasted 20 minutes, which I was having fun chatting with people while battling bosses. The game gave me no way to get back to the instance. I was playing with a friend, and there was never an option to rejoin their instance. Nothing. Just a "kitten you, you're out" feeling that I got from it.

This weapon needs a lot of polish. It's slow > a few improved cast or aftercast times would help. Too focused on single target, making it really underwhelming in OW > needs more piercing or AoE skills. Not enough condi-damage application outside of fire/earth > all water skills should apply bleeding regardless of bullets (AA included; make it ice-themed instead of water-themed); air skills should have some synergy with condi damage beyond vulnerability. Water's bullet chains should be standardized so that skill number 2 has enhanced DPS instead of number 3. Water's and air's #3 skills are the most enjoyable and creative, so they should be further capitalized: give water #3 a lower cooldown and air #3 ammunitions. Skill effects are a bit bland, some of them are barely distinguishable from AAs > Anet should add a few more bullet flurry effects, I think, and perhaps fit a "aoe bullet barrage" somewhere in there. Perhaps a "laser" effect like Virtuoso's elite, for example? As it is now, there is too little mechanical variation.

I think the best solution is somewhere inbetween. I agree that it's best to have 2 main DPS attunements, but I disagree that the remaining 2 should be dreadful at DPS. Having water and air being "decent but not great" at condi dps would be a good compromise. You wouldn't want to use them if you don't need the extra utility, but, if you do, your DPS loss wouldn't be too big. Currently, however, "condi-damage" Pistol has 0 condi-damage in air.

Pistol is meant to be, by Anet's own words, a condi-damage weapon, not a jack-of-all-trades weapon as if we were still stuck in 2012 ele design. If we look at all post-expansion weapons: Warhorn is a good support weapon regardless of attunement. Hammer is a good DPS/bruiser weapon regardless of attunement. Sword is a good evade-and-damage weapon regardless of attunement (on Weaver, at least). Reworked Scepter became focused on DPSing regardless of attunement (EXCEPT for condi damage builds). MH Pistol, so far, is mostly a slight variation of Scepter. Modern ele weapon design revolves around all attunements having a single, shared purpose, and then differing, secondary goals, which is probably the best way to do it. Anet's problem with pistol, however, is that they don't know what kind of damaging conditions they should put in air, which in turn forces their new condi-damage weapon (and condi scepter, as well) to be stuck in old 2012 design in that regard.

Pretty good QoL surprise. Those skills were unpredictably hard to hit at times.

I'm fine with no poison, it doesn't fits thematically. Bleeding, however, is a generic enough condition that you can put it in every class. Condi elementalists usually deal most of their damage through burning; so, if pistol had 3 attunements with consistent bleeding application, it would, at the very least, make pistol a bit more unique in this aspect. Instead, it seems like fire/earth are still the only worth using, just like scepter, with fire specifically being the best out of the two, just like scepter. Also a very heavy focus on single-target skills (just like non-fire scepter, although scepter as a whole used to be a lot more focused on single-target than it is now, after its rework). At the moment, pistol is scepter v2.0. They already occupy the same design space (ranged condi damage), and even rely on the same two attunements to do so (fire/earth).

After watching the stream, I have 2 main issues with Pistol. 1. Not enough condition application outside of fire/earth. Anet devs were too conservative at adding additional condi-damage/bleeding sources to air/water attunements. There was one or two skills in water that did it, but still too few. It's Scepter v2.0 so far. 2. Not enough AoE/piercing damage. In contrast with Guardian's pistols, that felt more like grenade-launchers in contrast, Ele's pistol being mostly single target makes it underwhelming and unfavourable to the wider casual audience (open-world players). Anything else, I won't comment until I get to try it.

Low shaders seems to be my problem as well. I just entered the instance with medium shaders, used my skills and nothing happened. Changed to low, and got an instant crash.

Same. Nearly every skill I use crashes the game.