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Virtuality.8351

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  1. Great suggestion! I've updated my proposal as below: All's Well That Ends Well (Trait) You grant Barrier to allies around you with each pulse of Wells. The last pulse grants a greater amount of Barrier. Barrier per pulse: 1,000 (0.4) Barrier at the final pulse: 2000 (0.8) Healing: 1,310 (0.8) Number of Allied Targets: 5 Radius: 240 (Move the trait to the top row.)
  2. Well that actually surprised me. I guess I lost faith a bit too early. Though I still feel that my alternative solution kind of half-baked, I have updated my original post with it (with some minor tweaks) This is very much how I envision Mesmer's combat style too. Though I still wish the developers would do something so that players are not disincentivized to use Shatter skills. For me, distraction is what Mesmer Clones primarily about, and therefore the decision to shatter (or not to) should really depend on whether the player wish to keep the clones to aggro and nothing else. I'd even argue that Shattering should not be presented as something with a significant trade-off for Mirage (i.e., active Clones as source of damage and boons). This is why I came up with the idea that Mirage could use a unique set of Shatter skills, which create a clone near their target if three clones are successfully Shattered. I think this is a very good idea. Although I'd tweak it a bit: Mirage Shatter skills redirect their clones to the target selected by the player. Mirage Shatter skills generate a clone at their target if three clones are shattered (successfully or not). So basically, you still shatter your clones with all your Shatter skills. Meanwhile, by getting one Clone back, you still in effect 'redirect' one active clone to a new target. Yes! That's pretty much the standard rotation and it works pretty well in a more controlled encounters. However, there are also some less controlled encounters, where players have difficulty to maintain 3 active clones, let alone shattering them, even with already abundant clone generation with Staff/Staff...which leads to Infusion's suggestion: Personally, I would even take it one step further to make the cooldown reduction unconditional. A baseline 10 s cooldown (8 s traited and 6.4 s traited with Alacrity, which should be self-sufficient) in PvE really would not break anything and could make a significant QoL difference. I actually think this is the correct way to go. Personally, I never like the idea of double slotting the same type of weapon (Staff/Staff) and even less so when such setup becomes optimal under the current design. This will open up more active gameplay and less stale rotation for Mirage players. This together with my original proposal could work. It would be the player character who does the scaled-up Ambush while the clones doing just 1 point direct damage and nothing else while performing the same animation as the player character. I've updated my proposal and it now reads as following: Change how Infinite Horizon works. The trait now instead applies the following effect: Whenever Mirage generates a Clone, they gain one stack of Infiinite Horizon (special effect) for 10 seconds. (Max. 3 stacks) Boons, Conditions & Crowd Control of all Ambush skills now scale with how many stacks of Infiinite Horizon (special effect) Mirage has. To make sure that Mirage Clones still serve as good distraction/decoy to their opponent: Mirage Clones perform the ambush skill action when Mirage gain Mirage Cloak but only do 1 point direct damage without additional effect. (Baseline, with or with out Infinite Horizon) - Thank you all for your feedback! I did my best to incorporate everyone's idea and hope the developers see our discussion here!
  3. Nothing really significant for Chronomancer in the May 2 balance patch preview note...fingers crossed for the June 27 one.
  4. Still does not appear in May 2 balance patch preview note. Don't give up the hope though!
  5. Yeah, I felt the same frustration. I understand that the developers intended to get rid of all special effects that grant allies bonus attributes...but doing so disregarding the fact that it would render a Grandmaster tier trait useless, while not coming up with anything to make up for it for nearly a year...is just too hard to take. For the support part, in my opinion, vulnerability debuff on foes is sort of a group support itself for it aids allies to bring down a target collectively. Alternatives obviously include AoE Might, Fury and/or Quickness sharing (say, 240 radius of player character), which are also worth exploring.
  6. Actually, I am highly interested in your idea on how clones could function better and potential means to manage them. Would you like to share it here? Together, maybe we could come up with something that actually works.
  7. Good point. According to the developers, Phantasms back then promoted way too passive gameplay (with which I concur). On the other hand, Infinite Horizon promoted (and now still does) micro-management. They both, however, disincentivized players to use Shatter skills, the core mechanism for Mesmer. So basically there are two problems: Ill designed clone mechanics and lack of means to properly manage. Shatter skills are presented as a loss for Mirage traited with Infinite Horizon. To address the first problem, I actually came up with an alternative solution before starting this thread: First of all, Mirage Clones need better survivability: Mirage Clones gain increased health. (Introduced via Adept tier minor trait.) This change, though, still would not help Clones survive one-shot mechanics or boss phasing. Therefore: The following mechanic is added to Infinite Horizon: When a Clone is destroyed or despawn, recharge your clone generating skills. Then we need to stop punishing Mirage players for successfully defeating their enemies: When target of a Mirage Clone is defeated, it is then immediately and automatically redirected to the target the player selects. If no target is selected the moment a Clone loses its previous target, it is then redirected to the closest foe to the player character within 240 radius. If no available target is within 240 radius of player character for 5 seconds, a Clone may despawn. Introduced via Adept tier minor trait. Then we still need to fix the targeting issue: Clones are redirected to your current target when you cast an Ambush skill. (Introduced via Adept tier minor trait.) ...at which point I could not help but to ask myself: "Do people really want something as complex as such?" And I quickly lost faith. I could not come up with anything less complex while retaining Clone's current function. Eventually I scrapped everything and started over with the proposal now you see in the original post. As for the second problem, I just came up with an idea: To further incentivize players to use their core mechanics (i.e. Shatter) more often, Mirage could also use a unique set of Shatter skills that create a clone near their target if three clones are successfully Shattered. This way... Mirage players traited with Infinite Horizon will gain one stack of special effect proposed above, which still incentivize a rotation that quickly creates and then immediately Shatters 3 clones. Mirage players not traited with Infinite Horizon will still be a bit safer after Shattering all 3 clones, knowing that a new clone would be created and could aggro or catch your foes' attention.
  8. Well, I agree that simplification is not always the solution, but I am not so sure about this one. Interestingly, illusion management has long stopped being a thing for Mesmer class since Feb. 6, 2018. It was that day when Phantasms stopped persisting indefinitely after spawned, and instead became something you could just fire once and forget. For more info, check out this official post. I would say that Phantasm management has been proven to be bad gameplay design 5 years ago. The developers simply forgot that Clones shared the same problem. Now it is a good time to do something about it.
  9. Glad you like it! Though I am a bit worry that consuming all 3 stacks would force Mirage players to take Deceptive Evasion to keep up with the need of clone generation. If a balancing factor is really required here, I'd suggest that 1 stack (instead of all 3) is consumed every time Mirage casts an Ambush skill. But then that would also complicate the rotation by demanding Mirage players to create a clone before their next dodge. As @Passerbye.6291 stated, a regular Staff/Staff Mirage dodges every 3 to 3.5 s, I'd worry no clone generation could keep up with such dodge rate.
  10. April 27 update: an alternative solution has been added to the proposal along with various tweaks to the original one, base on feedback the community provides. Thank you all for participating in the discussion! I hope the developers see this and make some meaningful updates! - NO OTHER CLASS in this game is as dependent as Mirage on micro-managing their companion. The need for micro-managing Clones (with all its impracticality and the frustration it brings) comes from one single Mirage trait: Infinite Horizon. The trait demands player to maintain 3 active Clones to reach its full effect, which is obviously problematic when... Your enemies are low-health trash mobs, and your Clones repeatedly despawn after mobs are defeated. Your foes or mechanics destroy your Clones easily. Your target phases, causing your Clones to despawn for lack of target...etc. Now, here is the solution...(original proposal) Change how Infinite Horizon works. The trait now instead applies the following effect (Apr. 27 update): Whenever Mirage generates a Clone, they gain one stack of Infiinite Horizon (special effect) for 10 seconds. (Max. 3 stacks) Boons, Conditions & Crowd Control of all Ambush skills now scale with how many stacks of Infiinite Horizon (special effect) Mirage has. To make sure that Mirage Clones still serve as good distraction/decoy to their opponent (this one is more about sPvP/WvW): Mirage Clones perform the ambush skill action when Mirage gain Mirage Cloak but only do 1 point direct damage without additional effect. (Baseline, with or with out Infinite Horizon) To further incentivize players to use their core mechanics (i.e. Shatter) more often: Mirage Shatter skills redirect their Clones to the target selected by the player. Mirage Shatter skills generate a Clone at their target if three Clones are shattered (successfully or not). This way... Players are redirected toward Clone generation instead of impractical Clone management. Clones return to their intended function: decoy for enemies and ammo for Shatter skills, instead of source of DPS/Boon/Condition that one has to micromanage to maintain. Players are now no longer discouraged to shatter their Clones except some extremely specific timing. Players are now no longer required to monitor whether their Clones have finished casting Ambush skill (so that they can dodge again to proc next round of Ambush). An alternative solution would be...(Apr. 27 update) First of all, Mesmer Clones need better survivability: Clones gain increased health. (PvE only; baseline for core Mesmer.) This change, though, still would not help Clones survive one-shot mechanics or boss phasing. Therefore: When a Clone de-spawns, your Clone generating skills are recharged. (Baseline for core Mesmer.) Then we need to stop punishing Mesmer players for successfully defeating their enemies: When a Clone loses its target (be it defeated or de-spawn), it is immediately and automatically redirected to the target the player selects at the moment. If a Clone loses its previous target when no other target is select by the player , it is then redirected to the closest foe to the player character within 240 radius. If no available target is within 240 radius of player character for 5 seconds, a Clone may despawn. Baseline for core Mesmer; alternatively, introduced via Mirage Adept tier minor trait. Then we still need to fix the targeting issue: Clones are redirected to your current target when you cast an Ambush skill. (Introduced via Adept tier minor trait.) To further incentivize players to use their core mechanics (i.e. Shatter) more often: Mirage Shatter skills redirect their Clones to the target selected by the player. Mirage Shatter skills generate a Clone at their target if three clones are shattered (successfully or not). Finally, allow staff Mirage to generate Clones at a faster rate: Reduce cooldown for Phantasmal Warlock to 10 s baseline (8 s traited and 6.4 s traited with Alacrity). Although this one is obviously more complex, a good portion of player do want Clones to remain a more active and contributing component in combat instead of just distraction or shatter fodders based on various feedbacks (see the posts below). - P.S. Off the topic but I'd like to second Infusion's idea for Alacrity Mirage here: I actually think this is the correct way to go. Personally, I never like the idea of double slotting the same type of weapon (Staff/Staff) and even less so when such setup becomes optimal under the current design. This will open up more active gameplay and less stale rotation for Mirage players. P.S. For those who have played GW2 for more than 5 years, you probably remember that, before Feb. 6, 2018, Phantasms could persist indefinitely as long as their target, just like how Clones have always been. It was then completely overhauled for several reasons, but they all come down to one question: "To Shatter, or not to Shatter?" Since Phantasms could persist indefinitely, they discourage players to use Shatter skills. The tension has been well elaborated in a follow-up post by Gaile Gray: [W]e've discovered...that providing this tension usually ends up removing the incentive to use the profession's core mechanic and leads to more passive gameplay. This can be seen in a lot of "optimized" builds for mesmers involving summoning three phantasms and then auto-attacking for extended periods of time in order to avoid destroying the phantasms by using another illusion skill. The thing developers back then did not realize was that, it was all very similar for Infinite Horizon Mirage. Yes, Phantasms back then promoted way too passive gameplay for Mesmer, while Infinite Horizon promoted (and now still does) micro-management. They both, however, disincentivized players to use Shatter skills, the core mechanism for Mesmer. I would argue that distraction is what Mesmer Clones primarily about, and therefore the decision to shatter (or not to) should really depend on whether the player wish to keep the Clones to aggro and nothing else. Therefore I proposed new Shatter mechanics to mitigate such disincentivization above.
  11. EDIT: Refined my idea and started a new thread here. For me this entire fiasco boils down to two things: If Staff Mirage is problematic in certain raid encounters, fix those freaking encounters. Mirage needs its own unique clone mechanism. For Mirage, you get punished for defeating your enemy. This is complete wrong. Yes, there are means for you to redirect your clones before their target is defeated, but those means are limited either with cooldown and specific choice of weapon or slot skill. The micromanagement involved to do so is also a huge no right in the face to whoever wishes to try out Mirage. Here I will propose a radical solution... Change how Infinite Horizon works. The trait now instead applies the following effect. Whenever Mirage generates a clone, they gain one stack of Infiinite Horizon (special effect) for 10 seconds. Boons, conditions and crowd control of all ambush skills scale with how many stacks of Infiinite Horizon (special effect) Mirage has. This way... Players are redirected toward better clone generation instead of tedious and frustrating clone management. Players are more encouraged to shatter their clones instead of only shattering at some extremely specific timing. Clones go back to their intended function: distraction for enemies and ammo for Shatter skills, instead of source of DPS/Boon/Condition that one has to micromanage to mantain. Players now risk revealing to their enemies (in PvP/WvW) that they are not a clone when they cast an Ambush skill. (This disadvantage should then be offset by giving us the god damned second dodge back.)
  12. I am aware of that. In my proposal I too acknowledged such function, and proposed to merge it with the Master tier trait Wrath of Justice: Remove Perfect Inscriptions. The retainment of passive effect while recharging is now merged Wrath of Justice. Wrath of Justice (Master tier) Striking an enemy with the damaging effect from Virtue skill 1 casts Lesser Signet of Wrath. Is such function strong in itself? Yes, certainly. As you have pointed out, being able to retain a frequent passive cleansing function of Signet of Resolve is pretty handy. Does it completely mitigate the need for active cleansing and save you a free Utility Skill slot? Not really. If the environment frequently applies multiple types of conditions, including Poison or Weakness, I probably would still bring something on-demand (such as Purging Flames) to make sure that my healing skill would heal for its full effect or that my DPS would not drop during my burst rotation. On the other hand, if the environment applies little to none condition pressure, I might not need its passive effect at all and opt for another healing skill instead. For me, the problem with the Signets and Perfect Inscriptions combination is that together they still do not resolve any situation adequately. They are something really nice to have, yet when the circumstances demand, they come out lacking. And on top of that, they just can not compete. Take the other example you brought up: the Bane Signet. Being able to maintain 216 bonus Power after knocking down your enemy with its active effect is strong in itself, sure, but does it compete with Retribution (equal to ~350+ Power or Ferocity) or Righteous Instincts (equal to 525 Precision)? Numbers suggest otherwise. In fact one would fare even better not picking Perfect Inscriptions but something else instead should they choose to activate the Bane Signet or not. And this comes back to the final thing you brought up: "guardian signets happen to be little weak". The trait simply offers too little bonus to skills that are too situational, impractical or replaceable, and I do not think my proposal would make things anywhere near being overpowered.
  13. Two and a half years and counting. Please let's have Elementals compatible with mounts!
  14. Well hello there o/ I think we had some discussion on Tempest and Soothing Mist in WvW about a couple years ago, if you still recall? (By the say, glad Tempest is back to meta in WvW now!) I agree with you. The complexity induced by the endless combination of parameters make balancing a truly daunting task. This is also why most balancing are more often than not ad hoc—something adds up to unusually high DPS over time or burst potential, or something provides way too much damage mitigation, etc. And most of the time one just could not foresee these things. And by moving to the new paradigm, we are actually adding further more parameters into the equation, making balancing even more complex. I can relate if the developers might not be willing to do this for how limited the resources they have are. However, I still believe that mathematics could still shed much light on balancing. Take this thread I just made for example. The idea of Attribute Point Equivalent provides a platform for traits to be compared with one another, and to calculate opportunity cost since the maximum possible attribute point count is finite. It is not rigorous as different attribute types do different things hardly comparable or even quantifiable. Nevertheless, it still somewhat serves the purpose.
  15. Mate I actually like the Barrier idea a lot! Together with Xaylin's suggestion, here's is my new proposal: All's Well That Ends Well (Trait) You grant Barrier to allies around you when Wells end. Barrier: 3,000 (0.8) Healing: 1,310 (0.8) Number of Allied Targets: 5 Radius: 240 (Move the trait to the top row.) And to improve the Well healing skill: Well of Eternity (Healing Skill) Well. Create a well that rewinds time, removing conditions from allies and heal allies overtime. When it expires, the well heals all allies in the area. Initial Self Heal: 3,230 (0.3) First pulse healing: 2,000 (2.0) Second pulse healing: 1,500 (1.5) Third pulse healing: 1,000 (1.0) Conditions Removed: 1 Number of Targets: 5 Pulses: 3 Duration: 3 seconds Radius: 240 Combo Field: Light Range: 900 Personally, my position is closer to Infusion here, so that a Mesmer player has the option to sustain a bit better in Open World PvE with this trait while equipped for DPS, regardless of Elite Specialization: Illusionary Inspiration Summon an illusion heals and grant Regeneration to allies around you. Regeneration you grant heals for more. Regeneration (4 s) Increased Regenerative Healing: 20% Meanwhile, we'll let Improved Alacrity provide better outgoing healing. Improved Alacrity Alacrity applied to you is stronger but has a reduced duration. Your outgoing healing is increased when you have alacrity. Gain increased critical-strike damage when you have alacrity. Recharge Speed: 50% Duration Decreased: 33% Outgoing healing increase: 15% Critical Damage Increase: 10% (Move the trait to the top row.) Glad you like it! Although I do feel that it would be a bit overpowered to further add critical damage to Danger Time, as 15% critical damage is already 315 attribute point equivalent, provided the bonus could be maintained throughout engagement. This is also the reason I do not agree with part of Infusion's assessment: First of all, yes, you would have to trade 10% Shattering damage, but you also get to reallocate 315 points from Precision to Ferocity, which translates to 21% Critical Damage. That is a quite sizable bonus. Regarding different ways to inflict Slow, I think Shatter skill, as you recommended, does make much more sense. Here I have changed my proposal. Delayed Reactions Shattering a clone slows foes around you. Foes with no boon are slowed further. Disabling a foe slows them. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear. This trait can only affect the same enemy with once per interval. Slow (2s): Skills and actions are slower. Slow without boon (3 s): Skills and actions are slower. Radius: 240 (The changes above only applies in PvE; mechanics remain unchanged in PvP/WvW to reward successful CC) (Move the trait to the bottom row.) This alone should make Chronomancer self-sufficient in maintaining permanent Slow on their target. - All changes above have been updated to the original post. Again, I appreciate all your feedbacks! If you like these changes, or feel like something could've been done better, don't hesitate to write back.
  16. Let's talk about Perfect Inscriptions in Radiance trait line. This trait simply does complete with the other two Grandmaster tier traits, Amplified Wrath and Righteous Instincts. While the other two provide huge cDPS/pDPS boost (at least 300+ and 525 attribute point equivalent or APQ, respectively) , Perfect Inscriptions just does not bring anything sizable to the table—some underwhelming 36 attribute points bonus to what untraited Signet of Wrath or Bane Signet already provides. And regarding bonus to other Signets the trait offers: Signet of Judgment, the defensive option, gain 2% more damage reduction, equal to ~58 Toughness for a character with 1000 base Toughness. Signet of Mercy, The support option, gets merely 30 more points. Signet of Courage, the healing option, also the elite skill, allows you to heal a meager addition of ~29 hitpoints per second with 1500 healing power, and let's face the music: no serious support player would ever pick Radiance over Virtue (in PvE/WvW) or Valor (in PvP). Not to mention the skill has to compete with "Feel My Wrath!" due to role compression in PvE, Renewed Focus in PvP for personal defense, and Mantra of Liberation for group Stability in WvW to begin with. Likewise, in Master tier, Wrath of Justice is completely outshined by Radiant Fire (300 APQ with its passive bonus alone) and Retribution (~350+ APQ). So what can we do under the situation? A possible solution would be to replace Perfect Inscriptions with something PvP oriented—something that does not provide just plain DPS bonus (as the other two Grandmaster traits already do) but instead opens up a short attack window and synergize with Wrath of Justice. Here I will provide an example: Remove Perfect Inscriptions. The retainment of passive effect while recharging is now merged Wrath of Justice. Wrath of Justice (Master tier) Striking an enemy with the damaging effect from Virtue skill 1 casts Lesser Signet of Wrath. Signets continue to grant their passive bonuses while recharging. Meanwhile, reduce the base recharge time fo all Signets to compensate for removing Perfect Inscriptions. Signet of Resolve (25 s CD) Bane Signe (25 s CD) Signet of Judgment (20 s CD; Burning increased to 3 stacks) Signet of Mercy (40 s CD in PvE) Signet of Wraith (20 s CD) Signet of Courage (50 s CD) Add a new Grandmaster Trait. [New Trait Name Placeholder] (Grandmaster tier) Foes you immobilize or blind become vulnerable. Vulnerability (8 stacks for 5 s) Together with Wrath of Justice, that would add up to 16% damage bonus for a short duration every time Guardian hit their foes with Virtue F1. The new trait will also synergize well with the following weapons : Hammer, for Zealot's Embrace. One-handed Sword, for Symbol of Blades & Advancing Strike. Two-handed Greatsword, for Leap of Faith. Meanwhile, the loss of critical chance by picking this new trait over Righteous Instincts could easily be made up with Sigil of Intelligence (PvP). This way, I believe the new trait should provides enough burst potential for players to choose this new Grandmaster trait over the other two. Again, all feedbacks are welcome! Let me know what do you think about this proposal!
  17. Sorry for necromancing the thread, but I have been reflecting on this for a while. I think the problem with this rune design paradigm—to provide additional functions otherwise inaccessible—is that it is fundamentally difficult to balance. Runes that simply offer attribute points or boons are easier to bring in line with their peers by adjusting the numbers for they are comparable. Runes that provide additional functions, however, are more tricky. You are no longer comparing numbers, but instead comparing how each function perform in open world, instanced PvE contents, WvW and PvP, with other runes providing some complete different functions in the same varied scenarios. That is not to say balance is impossible. There are still a few means available. Take Trapper's Rune for example, you can just add a 5 s internal cooldown to prevent players from stacking Superspeed in PvP. As for in PvE, I am not sure if one would consider Trapper's Rune unbalanced as being overpowered. In fact I would even argue that it is underpowered in general PvE settings, instanced or open world. This leave us to the most difficult part: WvW. Currently WvW inherits everything in PvE except skills. The lack of competitive split between PvE and WvW gears make it highly problematic to make proper balance decision. And hence my unpopular yet crucial proposal to implement something similar to PvP Build system but separated in WvW. That is the only way to truly make balance possible.
  18. Nice catch! I totally missed that! Since now the developers embrace the possibility to split PvE skills from PvP/WvW completely—not just changes in numbers such as duration and power coefficient, but also the way skill functions, I think it would be a good thing to bring the knockdown feature back to PvE. I have also added this to my proposal in another post.
  19. The point to design around control effect is to retain its current usefulness in PvP setting, and to provide a solution that is relatively easy for the developers to implement instead of a complete overhaul—which might just be to costly for the studio. It is a compromise that I do feel ambivalent about though. Yes, one can bypass control effects with Stability, Stun Break and or even Teleport (as I mentioned—the mobility-creep), but then at the same time one can only have so much of those that control skills remain an indispensable tool to peel for allies for Staff Support Tempest in sPvP. When it comes to WvW, while Firebrand and Herald provide an abundance of Stability, you also face boon corruption by Scourge. Coordinated with Shades, you could still find some lockdown potential with Static Field or Unsteady Ground. The biggest problem is the defiant foes in PvE—there's just no way around that. I earlier proposed to treat defiant foes the same as controlled foes, just like how Untamed does. At least the damage bonus would be applicable. Still, a defiant foe can not be locked down with control skills, making Elementalist much more vulnerable. To actually make control effect a practical mean to actively defend yourself, the best approach I can think of is to grant boons upon successfully chaining skills. For example: Eruption (earth #2) grants you Protection boon upon hitting a controlled, movement-impaired or defiant foe. Hence several changes I previously added to my post: Shortened delay of #2 skills. Bonus damage against movement-impaired foes as well as controlled or defiant ones. Allow these skills to consistently control stationary targets if placed right on top of them. And maybe we could also reduce the recharge of control/movement-impairing skills of Staff in PvE only, and add more source of control/movement-impairment. Meteor Shower knocks down enemies for 1 s in PvE only, as it used to during beta. Reduce the recharge time of the following skills to 12s to 16 s in PvE only: Gust (air #3), Static Field (air #5), Unsteady Ground (earth #4), Shock Wave (earth #5) and Frozen Ground (water #4). Overall, still not better than what a complete rework could be, but still, I think we are making some progress? Anyway, thank you for the feedback—always great food for thought!
  20. Glad you like the idea! I am a bit concerned bout 5 target cap in WvW though, but since I've long stopped playing in this game mode, I could very well be wrong here. Definitely agree that projectile speed of all #1 skills could use a buff. I have updated the post. Yeah, actually that's the point. Staff desperately needs to be able to burst well, just in order to exploit all the control skills pack in itself. I am not so sure about the 'casting while moving' part. Some reduction in the cast time would most likely suffice. And I agree that the skill should hit single target more consistently, hence the increase of impact radius of individual meteors and reduction in overall skill radius, with the latter limiting impact spread, as proposed in the original post. I agree with you on this one! Staff skills really need to be reworked to reflect the environment we are now in, and a power damage buff, as I proposed here, would only serve as a temporary fix at best. Still, a temporary fix is still better than nothing. I have also added a new condition to the 1.5 damage bonus in the post. Now the proposal reads as the following: All #2 skills (Lava Font, Lightning Surge, Eruption, Ice Spike) deals 1.5x damage against controlled, movement-impaired or defiant targets. Regarding the air auto skills, I would suggest the developer remove the bouncing part and instead implement something similar to Mirage's Split Surge to better mirror the lightening arc. I've also updated this part to the post: Enhance all #1 skills Projectile speed of all #1 skills are increased. Change Chain Lightning (air) to how Mirage's Split Surge functions to better mirror the lightening arc and to deal better damage against multiple foes, and increase its power coefficient to do better against single target.
  21. Edit: Thank you for all the feedbacks! Many changes has been added accordingly and will continue to be over time! Staff has an interesting identity for Elementalist. The weapon is densely packed with control skills, such as Gust (air #3), Static Field (air #5), Unsteady Ground (earth #4), Shock Wave (earth #5) and Frozen Ground (water #4), providing excellent area denial potential. On top of that, it also provides means to disengage with Burning Retreat (fire #4) and Windborne Speed (air #4). And at last, you have a ton of ground-targeted AoE skills. One could therefore easily imagine how the weapon is suppose to work: Maintain a safe distance from your foes. Control your foes. Burst down your foes with AoE while they are controlled and unable to move. Repeat. The problem is that, there's just not much burst potential at all. We have only one burst damage skill (#2) for each attunement. And non of them are significantly better than auto-lobbing Fireballs in Fire, which has a 1.4 power coefficient. Meteor Shower is unimpactful. While supposed to be the most destructive skill for this weapon, in practice, the 180-radius impact areas spread across a 360 radius ring means unbearably inconsistent damage output against foes with small hitboxes. And then you have defiant foes and all the mobility creeps introduced with each expansion, both heavily restrict the usefulness of your control skills. The design of the weapon is thus largely obsolete nowadays. So, here I'd like to propose some changes that could be easily implemented to address the issue, at least partially. Enhance damage against controlled, movement-impaired or defiant foes. All #2 skills (Lava Font, Lightning Surge, Eruption, Ice Spike) deals 1.5x damage against controlled, movement-impaired or defiant targets. Reduce cast time of the last 3 above, so that they can consistently exploit on controlled foes. Reduce the delay of Eruption to 1.5 s. Movement-impairment includes crippling, chill and immobilization. Reduce the recharge time of the following skills to 12s to 16 s in PvE only: Gust (air #3), Static Field (air #5), Unsteady Ground (earth #4), Shock Wave (earth #5) and Frozen Ground (water #4). Enhance survivability against defiant foes. Eruption (earth #2) grants you Protection/Barrier upon hitting a controlled, movement-impaired or defiant foe. Enhance all #1 skills Projectile speed of all #1 skills are increased. Change Chain Lightning (air) to how Mirage's Split Surge functions to better mirror the lightening arc and to deal better damage against multiple foes, and increase its power coefficient to do better against single target. Enhance Unsteady Ground and Static Field Allow these skills to consistently control stationary targets if placed right on top of them. Make Meteor Shower more consistent against small hitbox foes/single target and burst better. Meteor Shower knocks down enemies for 1 s in PvE only, as it used to during beta. Reduce the number of impacts from 24 to 18. Reduce the duration from 9 s to 6 s. Increase power coefficient from 1.6 to 2.1. Increase the number of target from 3 to 5 in PvE only. Increase the impact radius from 180 to 240 and bring back the good old big meteor drop animation. Reduce skill radius from 360 to 300. This way you can actually exploit on all the control skills effectively during their time frame, and on top of that, rewards switching between attunements instead of camping fire to lob fireballs. This will also make pDPS much more effective on staff. (Currently only cDPS variation works.)
  22. I mean, just look these gorgeous animation 10 years ago! Meteor Shower Phoenix And compared with what we have...Meteor Shower drops burning debris from the sky instead of actual meteors, and Phoenix is just a bird accidentally caught on fire. Both feel so unimpactful right now. Shouldn't the visual effect, at least to some extent, reflect how powerful a skill effect is? Also, if you are interested in improving Staff performance, join our discussion in anther thread here!
  23. This is exactly what I have been advocating over and over again! We need better intra-set skill synergy for our weapons, particularly the long obsolete Hammer for Guardian.
  24. APRIL15th EDIT: I have made some significant changes to my proposal based on everyone's feedback! If you'd like to know the reasons behind the changes, please refer to the summary of discussion in this comment. =============================================== With the Feb 24. balance patch bringing back the old Mantra mechanics, Boon Support Healer has become a thing for Chronomancer. (You can see an example here by Vallun at GuildJen.) However, I do feel there's still some problem with Chronomancer taking up the Healer role. While the build provides a steady stream of small healing packages through clone generation with Scepter auto chain and Illusionary Inspiration, the burst healing options all suffer from a significant delay: Mantras takes 2.25 s (base) to channel in order to proc Restorative Mantras. The span can be further reduced to 1.5 s with Quickness, but such boon might not be as easy to come by when the group is in a dire situation and you are running the Alacrity variation build. Wells take 3 s to heal allies with All's Well That Ends Well. Your biggest heal package—Well of Eternity—literally feels like taking an eternity to realize itself. And when stuffs hit the fan, no one is going to stand still in your Wells for 3 seconds, rendering it completely useless and extremely frustrating for the Chronomancer player. Regeneration is basically non-existent. To address these issues, I'd like to propose the following changes (in Italic) to the Well healing skill: Well of Eternity (Healing Skill) Well. Create a well that rewinds time, removing conditions from allies and heal allies overtime. When it expires, the well heals all allies in the area. Initial Self Heal: 3,230 (0.3) First pulse healing: 2,000 (2.0) Second pulse healing: 1,500 (1.5) Third pulse healing: 1,000 (1.0) Ending Heal: 3,870 (1.2)? Conditions Removed: 1 Number of Targets: 5 Pulses: 3 Duration: 3 seconds Radius: 240 Combo Field: Light Range: 900 And update the Chronomancer trait line: All's Well That Ends Well (Trait) You grant Barrier to allies around you with each pulse of Wells. The last pulse grants a greater amount of Barrier. Barrier per pulse: 1,000 (0.4) Barrier at the final pulse: 2000 (0.8) Healing: 1,310 (0.8) Number of Allied Targets: 5 Radius: 240 (Move the trait to the top row.) Improved Alacrity Alacrity applied to you is stronger but has a reduced duration. Your outgoing healing is increased when you have alacrity. Gain increased critical-strike damage when you have alacrity. Recharge Speed: 50% Duration Decreased: 33% Outgoing healing increase: 15% Critical Damage Increase: 10% (Move the trait to the top row.) Stretched Time Remove the internal cooldown to prevent interference with Continuum Split. To further enhance Mesmer's self-sustainability and group healing, and to make up for lack of group Regeneration, we will also improve the Grandmaster trait in Inspiration line: Illusionary Inspiration Summon an illusion heals and grant Regeneration to allies around you. Regeneration you grant heals for more. Regeneration (4 s) Increased Regenerative Healing: 20% Meanwhile, Improved Alacrity has been a must pick for DPS players for its Critical Damage increase. To make up for the removal of the damage bonus, the following changes are proposed. Delayed Reactions Shattering a clone slows foes around you. Foes with no boon are slowed further. Disabling a foe slows them. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear. This trait can only affect the same enemy with once per interval. Slow (2s): Skills and actions are slower. Slow without boon (3 s): Skills and actions are slower. Number of target: 5 Radius: 240 (The changes above only applies in PvE; mechanics remain unchanged in PvP/WvW to reward successful CC) (Move the trait to the bottom row.) Danger Time Gain additional critical-hit chance against slowed enemies. This bonus also applies to your illusions. Slow: Skills and actions are slower. Critical Chance Increase: 15% (Move the trait to the bottom row.) The change proposed above will allow Chronomancer to maintain Slow on their target(s), and make Danger Time an actually practical pick for DPS builds. It will also significantly reduce the difficulty for Chronomancer to Crit-Cap, and to alleviate the extreme need for Precision gears, as shown in the suggested setup by Snow Crows. You will able to reach 100% critical chance with just a full set of Assassin's weapons and armor, allowing you to run Power based Runes, such as Scholar, as shown in this build. We will then have a very well organized and synergized trait line, with... Top row: Healing and Alacrity. Middle row: Shattering and Quickness. Bottom row: Slow and DPS. And that's it! Let me know what do you think about this proposal. Also, if you like this proposal and want to see it implemented, why not help share this post on Reddit to make more people see it? Maybe we'll even get the developers' attention!
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