Treetoptrickster.4205

That's a fair assessment. I understand the direction you're coming from. A weapon that is middle of the road between damage and support can mean it struggles to fully and adequately fill either role in a party. Personally, I prefer playstyles that can deal with whatever's thrown at them in reasonable time, but can still be self sufficient, and useful in groups in a pinch. Fortunately, Guild Wars is a game where you can choose based on your gear sets! Even if the rifle was designed as a dps/healing weapon, you wouldn't have to settle for middle of the road, provided the scalings were appropriate. You could theoretically build to either extreme of dps or healing, and it could serve that role well, or you could balance your attributes and be versatile. It's just important that base numbers for either path aren't overly high, so as to allow full speccing into one extreme while encroaching onto the turf of players who've built their whole character to do what you can do "for free."

Chiming in again because I thought of something for the phantasm, so i thought I might as well redo the whole thing. Skill 1- Friendly Fire: Fire a piercing shot at your ally or enemy target. Enemies struck along the way take damage, and allies the shot passes through are healed. The direct target recieves double the effect. (projectile finisher 20% chance) Skill 2 - Firing Squad: Summon two illusions at either side of you to cast friendly fire on your target. All three of you gain quickness (4s) and blur (1s) Skill 3 - Magnifying Lense: Create an energy barrier at the target location for 5s that blocks enemy projectiles. Friendly fire, when shot through the lense, has an increased effect on its primary target. (light combo field) Ally - Your friendly fire shots become supporting fire. Their healing is increased against the primary target, and they grant them might (×1 for 5s) and fury (2s). Enemy - Your friendly fire shots become suppressive fire. Their damage is increased against the primary target, and they inflict cripple and slow (1.5s) against them. Skill 4 - Phantasmal Sniper: Summon a phantasm that locks on to your ally or enemy target for a few seconds. Enemy Target - If the target attempts to use a skill while the phanstasm is locked on to them, it phantasm fires immediately, stunning them (2s) if the shot hits, otherwise dazing them (1.25s) at the end of its charge time. Ally Target - If the target is downed while the phantasm is locked on to them, it fires immediately, reviving the target, otherwise healing them at the end of its charge time. Skill 5 - Assisting Aperture: Shoot a bullet to the target location that opens a portal both at your feet, and at the target location. Yourself and one other ally may use either portal to teleport to its twin, gaining aegis and swiftness (3s).

Mesmer is a spoiled profession. Most all of the class's skill vfx are absolutely gorgeous. Chrono wells? Feedback? Portal? Get out of here! Clones turning into shiny flat shards and butterflies when you shatter them? Bonkers. Now Virtuoso is creating mandala reminiscent gates to spew knives out of. Then there's poor null field... cool, but visually very bland. It still has a bit of the purple shard border, but not as much as I remember strangely. I understand the need to avoid overloading the game with flashy visuals, but this skill could use an appropriately glamourous glow up.

Skill 1: Friendly Fire Line up a shot on your target, which ignores all other targets. The shot applies a baseline effect, but can be charged for up to 1.25s to increase the effect. A fully charged shot applies an additional effect. Enemy target - Deal damage to your target based on charge time. Fully charged shots apply slow. Ally target - Heal your target based on charge time. Fully charged shots cleanse a condition. Skill 2: Booster Shot Shoot an illusory bullet at the target ally, healing them and granting might, protection, quickness, and resolution. Summon a clone that casts friendly fire on them. When you shatter, clones targeting allies will rush your most recent enemy target. Skill 3: Magnifying Lense Create a barrier at the target location that blocks enemy projectiles. Ally projectiles shot through the barrier deal increased damage or healing. Light combo field. Skill 4: Phantasmal Firing Squad Summon two phantasms on either side of you. All of you line up a shot on your ally or enemy target. Enemy target - shots deal damage and apply vulnerability, or finish downed enemies. Ally target - shots grant barrier, or partially revive downed allies. Skill 5: Assisting Aperture Shoot a bullet to the target location, blinking to the location and gaining aegis, while leaving behind a oneway portal that allows an ally to follow you and also gain aegis. While a portal is active, you can reactivate this skill to collapse it, damaging nearby enemies and pulling them in.

For elementalist skills that previously only granted an aura, they added flipover skills to detonate the aura that also became available when they recieved the aura from another source. Some time ago they made the Chaos Armor skill apply blindess and confusion to nearby enemies on activation, but what if they made it function similarly to aura skills on ele instead of the on activation effect? My proposition is "Shatter Sanity" 10s recharge Shatter your chaos armor, striking nearby enemies and applying a random damaging condition, debilatating condition, and a hindering condition. Convert 2 of your conditions into boons. Damaging Conditions: either burning ×1 3s, confusion ×2 5s, poison ×2 5s, or torment ×3 5s. Debilitating Conditions: either blindness 5s, slow 3s, vulnerability ×5 5s, or weakness 3s. Hindering Conditions: either chill 2s, cripple 5s, fear 1s, or immobilize 2s Just for fun, I'm sort of changing up some of the chaos traits to make more sense of the recent attempt to grant synergy with chaos aura via the illusionary membrane and chaotic persistence traits. Chaos adept minor becomes - Illusionary Membrane casting your heal skill grants you chaos aura for 4s. Chaos master adept becomes - Method to Madness Chaos aura applied to you, or that you apply, grants regeneration for 5s. Deal 10% increased condition damage while under the effects of chaos aura. Chaos grandmaster adept becomes... the same as it already is. Method of Madness becomes - Chaos Theory When you gain chaos aura, nearby allies gain it as well. Auspicious Anguish becomes - same name, different effect. (This trait isn't great imo due to it being a defensive trait that doesn't necessarily actually protect you.). When you remove a boon from an enemy, convert it to a condition instead. Chaotic Transferrence keeps its name too, but the effect changes to - When chaos aura or distortion you apply expires, it converts 2 conditions into boons.

I might have a bias towards this, because I've always really wanted axe to work for my otherwise condi focused scourge, but now's the time to make my case. Now that swords pretty much stole the ranged power damage mainhand weapon role from axe, I wanted to rehash an idea I had long ago about making axe a semi melee, sort of hybrid weapon. A melee condi weapon is one of the things necro currently lacks. Scepter and pistol are ranged condi, dagger I guess takes the role of melee power damage, so why not make axe a mid ranged hybrid weapon? When I say mid ranged, I mean pretty much the same as the new revenant scepter, maybe like 600. Anywho here's my attempt that totally isn't geared towards scourge. Skill 1: Rending Claws - Swipe at foes in a cone in front of you with ghastly claws, inflicting torment (x1 4s). 3 targets. Sundering Claws - Swipe at foes again, inflicting torment (x1 4s). 3 targets. Harrowing Claws - Swipe at foes in a cone in front of you twice, applying vulnerability (x2 10s), and ripping a boon from foes. Applies torment (x1 10s) to enemies that lose a boon, or are below the health threshold. 3 targets. Skill 2: Haunting Frenzy - Rapidly swipe at foes in a cone in front of you (6 times), applying torment (3s) and gaining lifeforce each hit. Boonless enemies, or those below the health threshold, take more damage and bleed (3s). 3 targets per swipe. Skill 3: Unholy Feast - Strike nearby enemies, crippling (3s) and weakening them (3s), and gaining barrier per foe struck. Boonless enemies, or those below the health threshold, are immobilized (2s), and are tormented (x3 4s). 5 targets.

This isn't a post complaining about rifle. Although it doesn't quite fulfill my fantasy of what a supportive portal gun would look like, if it works out being a viable and fun option then I won't mind. My version wouldn't likely be as balanced, and is more for aesthetic and fantasy fulfillment. This is just my attempt at making, largely for myself, an alternate reality version that I would have more fun with. I wanted to take the largely ground targeted aoe nature of the rifle, and shift it to be more in line with the linear projectile fantasy that I find fits the rifle better as a weapon. Numbers are largely missing because this is just a design thing as opposed to an attempt at a fully realized, balanced product. I hope, even if you prefer the real life rifle, that this little project tickles your fancy and generates some fun brainstorming around how to polish all our new toys. Skill 1 - Friendly Fire: Hold down to aim a shot at your target while on the move. Applies a baseline effect, but builds up over the 1s charge time to increase effectiveness, gaining a bonus at maximum charge. Enemy target - deals damage based on time charged, cripples when fully charged. Ally target - heals based on time charged, cleanses a condition when fully charged. Skill 2 - Line of Fire: Kneel and aim down your sights for up to 1.25 seconds, while remaining able to change the trajectory. When you release, blink backwards away from the direction you're currently aiming in, summoning a clone that fires a piercing shot in the direction you were aiming. The bullet strikes and interrupts enemies, dealing damage and applying stacks of vulnerability based on charge time. Allies gain regeneration and are healed and granted might based on charge time. Projectile finisher. Summons a clone that casts fully charged friendly fires on the first enemy hit, or your current target if this skill hits them. Clones targeting allies will focus your current enemy target when you shatter them, or the target of the ally they're focused on if an enemy target is not selected. Skill 3 - Warp Wall: Create a portal barrier at the target location that blocks enemy projectiles. Allies that touch the wall gain aegis, and can use it to teleport to your side. Aegis and teleport are only granted once per player. Ethereal combo field. Skill 4 - Phantasmal Marksman: Summon a phantasm that aims down its sights before firing a powerful shot at the target. Enemy target - deals significant damage, immobilizing and weakening. Projectile finisher. Ally target - heals significantly and applies chaos armor and resistance. Projectile finisher. The phantasm dissipates into a clone that casts friendly fire at its target. Skill 5 - Singularity Shot: Shoot a bullet to the target location that expands into a reality rift. The rift pulses damage, cripple, and slow in an area that grows over a few seconds, before collapsing to deal significant damage and pull enemies in. The collapse is a blast finisher.

This is essential work. Trust me. The community will be better if we reach consensus on this subject. I'm assigning every profession and every elite specialization 4 pokemon types instead 2, because most professions are a bit too broad to be narrowed to just 2. Warrior: Fighting (obviously), Steel (tanky), Normal (cuz they're basic), Rock (?). Berserkers lose steel for fire, because they're less tanky and get torch. Spellbreakers lose normal and rock for psychic (meditations), and ground (desert). Bladesworn lose normal for dragon (naturally). Guardian: Steel (tanky), Fighting (martial), Fairy (the "light" type), Fire (JUSTICE). Dragonhunters lose steel and fire for dragon (naturally) and flying (they get wings :3). Firebrands lose fighting to gain psychic (mantras are involved in meditation). Willbenders lose steel and fairy for ice (glass cannon) and electric (because they're so fast). Revenant: Steel (heavy armor), Fighting (martial class), Ghost (summoning dead people), Ice (they have a lot of chill). Heralds lose ghost and ice for rock (crystals), and dragon (naturally). Renegades lose ice and ghost for dark and fire (steel = iron legion, fighting = blood legion, dark = ash legion, fire = scorchrazor). Vindicators lose ice and ghost for fairy (healing), and flying (they drop from the sky like they're using fly). Ranger: Grass (nature), normal (animals), ground (favorite terrain), fighting (skirmishers). Druids lose ground and fighting for fairy (healing) and psychic (default type for space themed pokemon). Soulbeasts lose normal (where'd the pet go?) for poison. Untamed: Ground becomes rock (tanky), and normal gets swapped for dark (because their nature magic becomes a little sinister what with poisonous haze and corrupting vines). Thief: Ghost (invisible), poison (known for venoms), dark (edge), and fighting (stabby stabby). Daredevils lose poison and ghost for normal (they're just fighters) and ground (pocket sand). Deadeyes lose fighting for water... (best I got is an inteleon reference). Specters lose fighting for fairy (seems totally the opposity, but they're supports so it just has to be). Engineer: Steel (machinery and stuff), poison (chemicals and alchemy), electric (powering machinery), and fire (gunpowder and explosions). Scrappers lose poison and fire for fighting and fairy (wells are largely supportive). Holosmiths lose poison and ELECTRIC for fighting and fairy (the light type). Mechanists lose poison and fire for rock (jade) and psychic (they confuse a lot). ELEMENTALIST ELITE SPECS ACTUALLY GAIN A 5TH TYPING, BECAUSE YOU CAN'T REALLY CHANGE THE FIRST 4. Elementalist: Fire, water, rock, electric. Tempest gains water since their supportive traits are water aligned (latent stamina, invigorating torrents, frost aura from elemental bastion). Weavers gain fighting. Catalysts gain steel (supposed to be chonkier). Necromancer: Dark (not much to say), ghost (ditto), poison (plagues and stuff), bug (locusts and creepy crawley pets). Reapers lose poison and bug for fighting and ice. Scourges lose poison and bug for ground (sand) and fire. Harbingers lose bug for grass actually (they probably use plants in their elixirs). Mesmer: Psychic (straightforward enough), fairy (pretty pink butterflies), dark (sadistic mindgames and illusions), and fighting (duelists). Chronomancers lose dark and fighting for ice ("freezing time") and water ("flow of time"). Mirages lose fairy and dark for ghost (elusive) and ground (SAND). Virtuosos lose dark (no more illusions) for steel (at least that's what they imagine their blades to be made of).

I kind of always wished the druid's staff had a little more oomph to it. It's meant to be a healing weapon, and does alright but could be cooler as a healing weapon imo. It's got ancestral grace and that's a large part of what carries it. I wanted to see if it could be made into something that's skills feels good and impactful across the board as a weapon designed primarily for healing. Solar Beam - Channel a continuous, ramping beam of sunlight on your target. Breaking the beam resets the ramp. introducing something new here in a skill with no maximum duration (Allied Target) Your target and allies in the path of the beam are continuously healed. The healing your primary target recieves ramps up over a couple seconds. (Enemy Target) Your target and enemies in the path of the beam take continuous damage. Then damage your primary target recieves ramps up over a couple seconds Astral Wisp - Send a wisp to attach to your target and circle them, healing nearby allies. Solar Beam ramps up instantly against this target, and partially prolongs the effect's duration. Ancestral Grace - Evade attacks while traversing to the target location, healing neadby allies upon arrival and interrupting nearby enemies. (Blast Finisher) Vine Surge - Create a cascading line of vines that immobilize and cripple foes. Aurora Veil - Raise a large semicircular energy barrier that blocks enemy projectiles. Solar Beam's effectiveness is increased when channeled on targets within or on the other side of the barrier. Allies that cross the barrier lose conditions, and foes that cross it are blinded. (Water Field)

Hi! I occasionally like to take elite specializations that didn't quite hit the mark for me, and spiffy them up a bit for fun. Please don't look at this as an objective suggestion for how the class should be, or how it should be balanced. I just wanted to make it more appealing to me, and hopefully some other people. Setting Sights on the Dragonhunter I feel that this class is the game's take on demon/monster hunters or the like from other media. They pursue terrible and dangerous targets, and bring them down tactically to protect the world from looming threats. In my take on the dragonhunter, I'm attempting to enforce the feeling of being built for big encounters. While more than capable of disposing of any quarry, I wanted to make dragonhunters feel like they shine in long fights with tough adversaries that require coordination with a team. They can be found dropping massive strikes when the moment is right, chipping away at behemoths, laying down covering and suppressive fire, and supplying some relief to their allies to keep the hunting party going in tough situations. Why tackle the drsgonhunter at all? I find that their class mechanic of 'focused active virtues' is good in theory, but are kind of lacking a thematic. My philosophy of elite specializations are that they are not a seperate class unto themselves. Like normal specializations, they're designed as a way to opt into a niche and goal, allowing a few ways for accomplishing said goal. The difference is that elite specializations can modify an existing profession to an extent where they can occupy a niche that they weren't previously able to fill very well. With this in mind, I tend to want to weed out skill and trait designs that don't really lend themselves to fhe fantasy in mind. Since my personal take on the dragonhunter is that of a holy marksman or sniper - a ranged dps - I wanted their virtue skills to reflect that. The dragonhunter's longbow I only touched a bit, but their traps got changed more. I changed the traits up substantially. While some current ideas have been carried forward in some way, I replaced the ones that just didn't quite fit the brief. Since the focus of this project is not balance, numbers are left out. Let's get started! FOCUSED VIRTUES The tools of the trade. Piercing Judgement - Burn foes every few attacks. Activate to begin to charge up a powerful piercing shot. Upon release, fire in the target direction. Foes struck take significant damage, and are knocked back. The knockback distance scales with time charged. If enemies are knocked back into terrain or impassible barriers, they are stunned and take additional damage. Projectile finisher. Wings of Conviction - Regenerate health over time. Activate to fly up into the air and hover for a moment, retaining ability to attack and dodge while avoiding ground based threats and melee attacks. After the duration, or upon reactivation, crash down to heal allies in the area. Moral Boundary - Gain aegis at set intervals. Activate to raise a longlasting stationary barrier that blocks enemy projectiles and movement. Light field. LONGBOW Bring it down. 1. Puncture Shot - Fire a piercing shot. If the arrow only strikes a single target, they suffer a second strike that briefly cripples. Projectile finisher (20% chance). 2. True Shot - Hold still momentarily, then fire a piercing shot that deals heavy damage and inflicts vulnerability. Projectile finisher. 3. Deflecting Shot - Fire an arrow in the target direction that pierces enemies, knocking them back and deflecting projectiles. Projectile finisher. 4. Hunter's Respite - Shoot a flare into the ground, creating a pulsing area that heals allies and blinds foes. 5. Symbol of Stoicism - Barrage the target area with arrows, creating a large symbol that cripples foes and grants stability to allies. The last strike of the symbol deals more damage and immobilizes foes. Light field. TRAPS Watch your step. Heal - Purifying Refuge Heal yourself and lay a trap. Injured allies trigger the trap, creating a pulsing area that cleanses conditions, healing for each condition removed. 1. Rain Fury Lay a trap that causes a pulsing barrage of arrows when triggered, crippling, bleeding, and weakening with each strike. 2. Hidepiercer Lay a trap that causes spikes of light to erupt from the ground when triggered, dealing heavy damage and applying heavy vulnerability. 3. Incarceration Lay a trap that creates a pulsing area when triggered, revealing, slowing, and immobilzing foes within each strike 4. Saving Grace Lay a trap that can be manually triggered when you are disabled to break stuns and teleport you to it, creating an area that pulses aegis to allies. Elite - Dragon's Maw Lay a trap that pulls in nearby enemies when triggered, trapping them within a warded circle while striking and dazing them repeatedly. TRAITS Sharpen your instincts. Adepts (Minor) Honed Virtues - Virtue actives become precise skills. Gain access to traps. Foresight - Traps gain reduced recharge. When a trap is triggered, refresh Moral Boundary's passive. Easy Shot - Deal increased strike damage to movement impaired foes. Piercing Judgement's passive effect cripples. Thrill of the Hunt - Heal for a portion of critical damage you deal. Wing's of Conviction's passive effect increases movement speed. Masters (Minor) Weak Spot - Disabling or immobilizing a foe cripples them Big Game Hunter - Strikes against defiant foes, or foes with barrier, protection, resolution, or stability deal more damage and apply vulnerability. Suppressive Fire - Longbow skills have reduced recharges. 100% projectile finisher skills slow enemies hit. Steady Aim - Gain aegis when you dodge. While you have aegis, your critical strike chance is maxed out. Gransmasters (Minor) Pure of Sight - The further away you are from your target, the more damage you do. The maximum value is always applied to defiant foes. Final Verdict - When fully charged, piercing judgement always crits, and stuns enemies even if they aren't pinned, as well as applying bonus damage to break bars. On Swift Wings - Dodging while hovering using Wings of Conviction causes you to rush in the direction of the dodge, and extends the duration of the hover. You Shall not Pass - Moral Boundary is larger, reflects projectiles instead, and enhances ally projectiles shot through it with a follow up strike.

Currently, dark combo fields pulse aoe blindness when you blast them, which I guess makes sense, but smoke fields are usually the fields themed around blinding. I think maybe changing it for aoe dark aura could be a good way to introduce more of that effect, which I think is fairly uncommon. The only way I know of to gain dark aura is leaping in a dark field. I can't think of any skills or traits that apply it, which is a shame. It's a useful effect that I'm sure would be appreciated by classes that have the most access to the fields. Thieves have low health to deal with condis, and with the addition of specter and their set of dark field wells, the ability to blast for a group condi damage reduction buff would be pretty nice. Necromancers of course benefit from the condi application as well as thieves, and could also enjoy the synergy enabling them to shake off some of the backlash from corruption skills. Scourges would especially enjoy it for the same supportive and condi reason as specters, and harbingers with their blighted health pools would value some condi resist too I'm sure. I feel that if this were the case, it could open up some cool supportive playstyles and combos as opposed to dark fields just stealing smoke fields' thing.