A lot of good changes for the game, very likely.
I would like to discuss only the gyro change only in this post.
Seeing the number of posts asking to revert the change, I wanted to think a different approach as we know that, once Anet has set their mind about a change, there's hardly a chance of them backing up.
So I tried to weigh the pros and cons and think about how to improve the cons.
Basically, the impact of the changes :
- "fix" scrapper in WvW : we'll see how it goes, but let's assume so
- + : it improves superspeed/quickness providing through the boon now applied on use instead of at the end of the well
- + : it also allows to provide these boons from range
- + : it allows to use gyros on a target even if we have to move away from it due to mechanics, AOE ...
- - : identity loss, I will let that aside since it's kinda subjective
- - : it is now easy to move out of gyro range. It affects both pvp/wvw and pve. In pvp/wvw, players who are not idiots will gtfo fast and the scrapper will actually be able to do way less damage/cc than before even if the scrapper can stick to melee, except if he can root/stun the enemy.
In PvE, we have some bosses that like to move around, be it in raid or in strikes. Strikes in particular seem to want us to have to move and boss will move from time to time
So basically, outside of boon providing in WvW, it would be a win in a lot of situations, but a loss for using the damage/cc on moving targets.
Blast Gyro is on a 3 sec delay before CC and shredder is for 6 seconds.
A solution would be to improve gyros accordingly to these changes to offset the minus.
In this case, we could use gyros functioning faster : maybe blast could go in only 2 sec pulse before the CC, making it a bit harder to evade but still having time to do so. In PvE, it would make it pretty unlikely that boss can move out of it in time except if scrapper screwed up in the timing.
As for shredder gyro, it could use "compressed" damage : instead of doing the dmg within 6 seconds, it would be reduced to 4 seconds, or even 3 seconds and improve the damage on each "pulse" accordingly.
Again, it makes it fair to evade out of it but still short enough to be able to land most of the damage if scrapper has a good timing. A boss is less likely to negate most of a 3/4 sec pulse than of a 6 sec (pretty huge) and, even if it does, the impact is less due to improved damage on each pulse.
TL;DR : if changes go live in any case (very likely), it would bring some good aspects please consider improving gyros to adjust, namely compress duration/damage for blast gyro and shredder gyro especially (probably others but I think mostly about them).
Regarding scrapper changes, as I posted on the Reddit post. Overall, I really dislike it. On the plus side : no need to bring/use all gyros on CD --> more flexibility on utility skills more dps/optimised that's it ! On the negative side : basically binds to hammer while rifle was a very good option and will probably lock out of future shortbow as well unable to prestack a lot of quick before a phase or before a split phase unable to build a long time of quick --> there will be gaps in quickess when people split (way more han before) having to spam hammer 3 can bring you to danger, or even death (Xera, KO CM, Sabetha) it feels absolutely dumb to spam throw mine off CD just for quickness while it's super valuable for CC or boon rip more spammy/tight to upkeep quick, therefore disruptive and not fun gameplay
