CalmTheStorm.2364

I like your thinking. My concern (even with what I originally proposed with it being immob + cripple) is balance in competitive modes. That much immob would quickly become toxic, especially on something like Spellbreaker that has so many bursts. Imagine FC (with No escape traited) + 2s of immob from this trait...that's 3s of immob potentially every 8.75s. And that's just from one burst. Hell, that'd make even Druids jealous (not that I'd mind...stupid tree huggers). I think, for balance reasons, they would need to treat any sort of trait like this as they did with Cull the Weak and impose a CD per target. I do like where you're going with Slow, though. We have no access to that condition outside of Slow Counter and Aura Slicer, so there's definitely room to add that to Warrior's arsenal more broadly. Maybe a compromise solution might look something like this: Snaring Blades: Burst skills inflict immobilize (1s) and Slow (3s). 8s CD per target. That'd be so strong combined with CtW...A single warrior could seriously hamper an enemy team's ability to fight with all the hard and soft CC and cover condi. Imagine an Arms/Defense hammer warrior in a teamfight.... You're not wrong. Could certainly make a lot of sense with Discipline in particular. On the other hand, I'd love to see some of the "key functions" of Discipline (esp adrenaline gain, movement speed, immob removal/management) be duplicated in other trait lines in some form or other so that Discipline can maybe, just maybe, stop being so mandatory. That was part of my idea behind the minor trait in the OP that gives 5 adrenaline when you gain fury; could help make up for losing Discipline's adrenaline on weapon swap. Similarly, gaining resistance on burst skill use could provide an alternative to the immob removal on Warrior's Sprint, and a trait granting swiftness when you gain Fury could replace the movement speed part of Warrior's Sprint as well. I'm not married to these particular ideas, btw; just illustrating a general design philosophy that I'd love to see them implement.

Thanks for the feedback! I was mostly just trying to put the +180 condition damage that Deep Strikes gives back into Arms somewhere, since my proposed rework replaced deep strikes with sundering burst. Im not married to the idea, though. As you and Lan point out, maybe improving condition duration would be a better way to go, especially since it could synergize with some of the soft CC/cover condi that warrior applies, even on a power build.

Lots of good ideas. Not sold on Snaring Burst as it stands; only getting cripple on a t1 burst (which is, usually, the most you're able get off reliably in a competitive environment, and the ONLY burst available on SpB) seems pretty weak. How about this: Burst skills Inflict immobilize (1s per tier of burst) and cripple (5s). That would be valuable at any level, and, as you pointed out, synergizes with Opportunist as well as torment application from sword 4/sigils/etc. Alternatively, I think @DanAlcedo.3281's idea to create something that gives enhanced swiftness would be amazing and fill a void in warrior's repertoire.

Glad you're enjoying it! Try the Strength Defense variant with pistol and take Fierce as Fire. You will absolutely wreck people. It's so much fun! Those 7-8k DS and AS crits get the dopamine flowing. (I even got a 12k DS force yesterday, although that's clearly an outlier). Your biggest threat is immobilize. Probably best to run WH in those cases vs a druid or something similar. Alternatively, you can run something like Rune of the Revenant to get some on-demand resistance sources from your heal skills, although your DPS will certainly suffer since you're giving up rune of the eagle.

This. TDM favors bunkery things with massive AOE presence or stealth gank/one-shot gimmicks. Neither are fun to play against (for me at least) and it severely limits what builds and even what professions are viable. Conquest or SH, by virtue of being larger maps with multiple objectives, allow for greater variety of playstyles, roles, and builds, which I very much enjoy.

MH sword would be so much better (in competitive, at least) if flurry and final thrust had 240 range. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of other things that would be nice too (like flurry being unrooted; the immobilize being applied whenever a target is hit, not only on the first hit; and having a reduced cast time). But the range increase alone would be a massive step forward.

If every crit inflicted torment, a single Flurry would inflict 8 bleeds and 8 torment. That's a massive upgrade to flurry's normal output. Heck you could even use whirling axe (with MH sword) to dump a ton of torment on multiple targets. The proposed trait could open up a lot of powerful possibilities.

Oh that's good. Great idea!

Signet mastery is already a power trait on that tier, though. Plus, Blademaster is potentially crazy powerful for condi builds...imagine the torment on crit combined with burst precision (or being crit-capped). Flurry/flaming flurry could be a massive damage spike with that set up. If Blademaster was +120 expertise instead of condition damage, you could have +240 expertise when wielding a sword and another +120 from Bloodlust. Although I do think the condi dmg would be fine as well...you can get quite a bit of expertise/condi duration from gear/runes/consumables/sigils.

Having an F2 be basically a free slot for an additional utility skill (not healing or elite, of course) was what I had been thinking, too. Failing that, make it a "lesser endure pain" that stunbreaks and grants physical damage immunity for 2s. That gives core war a little bit more utility flexibility since it already has a stunbreak built into it.

That's a fair point. Any suggestions for how it could be better?

@Cal Cohen.2358 I know you and the balance team are hard at work on the June 27 patch, and I, for one, am very much looking forward to it! If you have the opportunity, I'd love to see a rework to the Arms traitline. I hope that the following suggestions may provide some food for thought. Minor Traits: Furious Burst: Same as it is now. Please allow Fury to continue to grant +30% crit chance in competitive modes. Sundering Burst: Same as it is now, just moved to the minor slot. The vuln applied is beneficial for both power and condi builds, unlike the current Deep Strikes. Furious Resolve: Gain adrenaline (5) and Regeneration (4s) whenever you gain Fury provides a thematic source of adrenaline gain and adds a small source of sustain. Adept Traits: Opportunist: Gain Fury (5s) when you apply a movement-impairing condition on an enemy (5s CD). Gain +180 condition damage when you have Fury. Unsuspecting Foe: Gain Fury (5s) when you disable a foe (5s CD). Gain +180 power when you have Fury. Fencer's Defense: Gain Fury (5s) when you block an attack (5s CD). Gain +180 toughness when you have Fury. Master Traits: Signet Mastery: Same as it is now (minus the CD reduction, presumably). Poisoned Blades: Burst attacks inflict poison (6s). Apply 1 stack of poison plus an additional stack for each bar of adrenaline spent (e.g., a tier 2 burst would inflict 1+2 = 3 stacks of poison). Blademaster: Gain +120 condition damage; critical hits have a 50% chance to inflict torment (3s). Double these values if wielding a sword. Basically the "Forceful Greatsword" of the Arms line. Grandmaster Traits: Burst Precision: Burst skills gain +100% critical chance. Gain Resistance when using a burst skill (1s + 1s for each bar of adrenaline spent). Provides an alternative source of resistance other than resilient roll. Bloodlust: Gain +120 Expertise. Gain a stacking condition damage bonus each time you apply a condition to an enemy. Divorces the condi stacking from the critical hit requirement, which is awkward/unhelpful for many condi builds Furious Strength: Gain 5 stacks of might (5s) whenever you gain Fury. Damage increased by +5% when you have Might. Might benefits both power and condi builds; synergies with Might Makes Right and Mending Might for sustain options. More beneficial for PvE builds which will already be crit-capped and don't need Burst Precision. Thanks for considering it!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Matchmaking_Algorithm

I definitely think the the matchmaking is suboptimal. However, FWIW, the matchmaker does in fact take into account how many games you have played (among a bunch of other things): https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Matchmaking_Algorithm

Counterplay for when you actually get Moa'd. Because avoiding it isn't always possible. As Hellz and his duo demonstrate THREE STRAIGHT TIMES in the video. Not just a noob stomper; works on elite players too. And one dodge doesn't cut it in a team game. Next.

No, I don't think anyone deserves to be hit by a 6s unbreakable CC in a team game with such dynamic combat and potential for high burst damage as GW2. No, I don't think it's reasonable to expect one player to peel 2 other players off his teammate (who is quite literally a sitting duck Moa) and then blame him when it doesn't work. To paraphrase a wise and highly skilled Mesmer player: It's broken. There's insufficient counterplay. It's anti-fun.

My favorite part was when Shorts himself goes, "[Moa] is so broken! I mean, what can you do? It's so anti-fun!"

Did anything change? I don't see anything in any of the patch notes, and the wiki still says Leap of Faith is still using the PvE power coefficient...

Couldn't agree more. Fixing these things alone would probably make the spec 30% more viable, all the other jank notwithstanding.

Yeah, there is still plenty of "jank"that holds the spec back. However, I think you'll have more success if you try to use very fast Dragon Slash attacks. You are much more likely to get interrupted the longer you charge, and the attacks themselves are pretty telegraphed, so it's pretty easy to dodge if you give your opponent the opportunity to register "oh he's charging DT; get ready to dodge." Just use quick, 1-3 charge DS attacks with DS Boost or DS reach for the most part. It still usually hits for 2-3k, interrupts, inflicts weakness and vulnerability, triggers all of your burst related traits, etc. Save your big charge attempts for when you aren't being focused and you have the chance to blindside someone.

I'll have to try this out. I've thought about using discipline a lot, as getting to use axe pistol more consistently would be great, and the ability to cleanse immobilize is huge, too. I just find that giving up Defense is such a big loss... How does it fare against Necro or Chrono or anything else that spams weakness, blind, chill, etc?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABcqdrllysYhsKmLW0OrRVA-zZILjMTg8LAbHAA Having a lot of fun with this build in conquest/SH (not very good in the current 2v2 miniseason, however). More of a high-risk-high-reward gameplay style, but still has pretty good sustain and survivability. And it hits like a truck. Enjoy!

No, I was using warhorn on that build. Yeah pistol 5 is kinda hard to land. I feel like a 1/4s cast would be appropriate since the explosions roll out over ~3/4s anyway. But it's ok for area denial and for cleaving downed/CC'd foes. Pistol 4 is the real winner on that set.

Turning people into chickens is fun roleplay and all, but what is essentially an unbreakable CC for 6s is just not suited for PvP/competitive environments. And don't give me that crap about having a dodge/evade as being fair compensation. That MIGHT be a good argument if this were just 1v1s, but PvP is a team game. One evade plus a dodge or two isn't going to keep you alive when being focused by multiple players, meaning that being Moa'd is usually a death sentence in high-level play. Being able to potentially use it twice on Chrono (from stealth, no less) makes it even more egregious. I've proposed this elsewhere, but I think a healthier version of SoH would be to make it an unblockable 2s stun that strips all boons from the target. Something like a 30s CD would be reasonable. This would help it bypass defenses and create kill windows on boon-heavy targets, esp supports. Lower CD improves usability and lowers the penalty for missing. At the same time, the target has the opportunity to stunbreak, so there is more counterplay.

All of the above notwithstanding, BS is still a pretty powerful pick for ranked play. Recently I had a match on my Defense/Tactics/BS where I pulled 426k dmg, 350k healing, anchored teamfights, outbunkered the enemy bunkers, outdueled most of their team at some point or another, held 2v1s....the build has serious carry potential. It's even better when you can be paired with a strong DPS like a willbender who can capitalize on your healing, boons, and CC.