DuckDuckBOOM.4097

September 28, 2019

@Lazze.9870 said:
@"DuckDuckBOOM.4097" said:than bandits defense taking up a utility slot. Bandit's defense also doesn't have an evade on that kick so it can be interrupted.

But it is a 20 sec cd stun break.

Can't sum up the bad without the good.

Oh absolutely that's a great aspect of it. I was mostly focused on the offensive aspect due to the claim "no one gets hit by it anyways."

September 27, 2019

@"shadowpass.4236" said:
The 10x damage difference was in regards to PvE.
There's ZERO RNG on Power Stab's evade. It's literally the same sequence of attacks every single time.
I'm straight up telling you right now that the new GS4 change isn't nearly as good as you think it will be. It's like Bandit's Defense. No one gets hit by that kitten anyways. Huge, huge nerfs to this weapon.
We're losing so much utility and depth with these nerfs.

Sure that 10x damage was PvE but it still tells the bigger story of a huge player skill gap which is definitely there in PvP.

I know you can double cast the gs evade if you cancel it at the right time. I know you can jump with GS 4 and other counter attacks to keep channeling blocks. I also usually screw those up and/or don't always bother with it. I also doubt that the vast majority of players even know you can do those things because of that "10x" skill gap. I 100% understand why top ranger players would be pissed and I feel bad for you but I'm not upset.

That 15 endurance helps me with my next dodge and I can time that dodge when I want to. That's also a bit more healing/prot uptime because of an active dodge instead of evade frames. Making GS4 a full channeled block is a buff to my defenses that isn't randomly wasted on a clone etc when I mess up a jump.

You lose an evade and damage on GS auto but you gain an evade and damage on GS4.2. I don't like the argument that no one gets hit by bandit's defense. I can say that about any skill to try to trivialize anyone's argument. I'll do it now. GS auto is only an evade and not pressure since no one ever gets hit by GS auto. /s. 3 second channel block followed by a 5 second window to evade & CC on a 12 second CD is a lot better than bandits defense taking up a utility slot. Bandit's defense also doesn't have an evade on that kick so it can be interrupted.

Again, I understand your loss but it's 100% a gain for me.

September 20, 2019

@"Stand The Wall.6987"I don't think you should propose a bunch of seemingly random AoE buffs which as you mentioned are lazy but also won't fix the problem. I think it's better to first think about at baseline, what is the closest ranger currently has to a meta build, why it doesn't work and then propose the minimum number of buffs that would push it into at least being viable in zergs without breaking other game modes.

What builds do we have that are closest to viable?1) Druid as a healer.2) Group stability front line SB3) Back line DPS with longbow

What is lacking/how to buff them in WvW without breaking PvP?1.1) Rather than have Druid try to beat FB or scrapper at their own game, I think Druid needs its own niche which could be a CC healer as Druid does have decent amount of CC on glyphs, CA and the staff trait. Aside from generic boon removal/corruption, there is currently only 1 anti-stability trait in the game: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Brutality What if you could move while casting CA5 and it stripped 1-2 stack of stability per pulse? Druid doesn't completely steal scourge or spell breakers spot for boon removal but it fills an anti-stability niche which would allow it to utilize a lot of the CC built into Druid. It also enables your zerg to time CC spikes in specific areas.

1.2) Explosive seeds (Ancient seeds rework): (Lesser) seeds of life now instantly detonates. + When you interrupt a foe, immobilize them and drop a lesser seed of life (no ICD). Nobody has time to wait for a seed to blossom in mobile zerg fights after already waiting for a glyph cast time. It removes the ability to blast light fields via CA 2/3. Interrupts with glyph tides/equality, CA3 or primal echo, give bonus heals.

1.3) Changing staff 1 to heal independent of a target would help a lot on the heal side in zergs when not in CA.

2.1) Group stab is extremely rare for not guardians. Shared Dolyak stance is actually really good. Only 1 change is "required." Rework unflinching fortitude to group stability instead of personal damage reduction. Having two abilities that share stability and also make your allies immune to cripple, chill and immob is a niche that SB could fill. Alternatively, if that's too scary for the balance team to change unflinching fortitude, add a new pet family to the game. Have a merged F2 skill from that new pet give AoE stability.

@"Substance E.4852" said:We already failed twice in that regard with Druid heals and SB stance share and aren't unseating Firebrand or healbot scrappers with their anti projectile skills

Fail sure, but I don't think Druid and SB are not salvageable for zerg support. Salvaging would be easier than a new 3rd elite spec for sure. See above.

the class needs AoE damage to be zerg material, not supportThe only other hope for the class is Anet to roll out a 3rd espec where we just fart out easy massive damage AoE's like the necro which is almost certainly never going to happen.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMNlRw2YasHmJOyLWPxSWwcA-zVJYiRF/h0kCoCRQMTBbNLTssB-wMM/Skrim/SB quick draw Double longbow with jacaranda. This is an idea I've had in the back of my head after the longbow 5 buff that I haven't tested yet. I think it's the closest to a viable back line DPS build that avoids projectile hate.

Longbow is a coeff of 6 on a 9 second CD in this build at 1500 range. Merged jacaranda F1 is a coeff of 2.5 on a 15 second CD at 1200 range. Neither of these is stopped by projectile hate. For comparison, well of suffering is a coeff of 6 on a 30 second CD at 900 range. Well of corruption is a coeff of 3 on a 40 second CD at 900 range. I would say that SB has that easy massive damage AoEs like necro. In fact, SB have better damage, cool downs and range than power scourge.

Is there a reason why scourge is meta? Yeah! Barrier and boon corruption on top of those wells. Barrage procs retal 60 times instead of 30 times per cast. If needed Necros also have life steal to negate retal.

How to fix this:3.1 Make barrage a 1.0 x 6 instead of 0.5 x 12 coeff. Both yield a final coeff of 6. One might actually be viable in zergs!3.2 Make vulture stance apply AoE poison. This+predators cunning could negate a lot of the damage retal would do. It's an ideal oh shit button. Cast barrage. Realize retal is too much. Activate vulture stance.

September 14, 2019

@KeyOrion.9506 said:
@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:
@KeyOrion.9506 said:A ranger that can't pick off his targets. A Necromancer well can be launched at the longest range of a Ranger now. And the wells are doing 15k-20k dmg per second PULSES...how is this even closely fair for the class that was SUPPOSED to be the long range class of the game? We try to keep combat ranged, and the necro's try to get up in your face. Seriously WHY would we want to close with a CONDI WELL OUTPUTTING 15k-20k DAMAGE PER GOD kitten SECOND ANET!

What are you talking about? Well of suffering has a coeff of 3 over 6 hits. That is only 0.5 coeff per pulse. Meanwhile longbow auto is 0.7-0.9. Power soul beast has way more modifiers than necro. How the heck would necro hit 15k-20k per pulse without sic'em? Also wells are 900 range. So are shades. Longbow is "1500" but actually is closer to 1800 range. That's almost double the range of necro wells/shades.

A MAX dps power reaper vs a golem is only doing maybe 10k per tick with the power well and the power well does twice as much damage as the condi well. There is no way a necro hits you for 15k with well of suffering unless you are naked.

Anyhow, if they want to give ranger a spot in WvW Zergs, I think the best shot is to buff SB group stability to be a contender in replacing FB in some subgroups. The only other group stability right now aside from guardian is either mantra of concentration mesmer (not long enough duration) or dwarven road on rev (which just sucks at 1 stack). Shared Dolyak stance is actually good and almost comparable to stand your ground (especially after it gets nerfed next patch). 6 second base stability, 5-6 stacks each. Stand your ground is 10 targets but will be nerfed to 3 stacks soon. So SB has the only real contender for group stab for WvW.

SB just needs 1 more source of group stability.

I would do this by basically copy-pasting shared Dolyak stance onto Unflinching Fortitude. Remove the 100% dmg reduction and make it aoe stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize. So only SB (not core ranger which makes it easier to balance), only when merged with a stout pet (easy to balance again) has two sources of group stability. Furthermore, the stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize give SB an "unstoppable movement" niche. I could see this version of SB being useful to WvW zerg subgroups that melee push. So it wouldn't even completely replace FB in all subgroups but just a melee groups.

Giving a second class group stability that competes with FB would significantly shake up the WvW meta and give ranger a spot in zergs.

Traits. I've been hit by necro wells at the same distance that i'm firing my longbow. If i'm being hit by a kitten necro well at the max distance at as my Longbow, I really don't know what to tell yah, other than some kitten would seriously be messed up. Then again, i'm not the fool programmer trying to hide things behind my boss' back in the programmers office.

There is no trait that does that.

September 14, 2019

@blambidy.3216 said:However if you tech want to go to how the comp was 2 chrono, Druid. Dps. Is still a great comp. which is more then enough dps to speed clear.
The thing is you said Druid isn’t 10 man heals. But water spirit is 10 man. So idk what your talking about.
Look I agree with a lot of your statement. However all I’m saying is the reason Druid is number 1 is because of the utility and skills + might are more easier to do then say a firebrand + ren comp within “raids”. As for fractals. Fibrigade comp is superior. But going through speedclears your going to be using a comp with 1 Druid.

The comp being good is different than the Druid being good. That's the point I'm trying to make. Druid isn't number 1. It's Chrono that is number 1 (at least in some fights)! Druid is just tacked on there because of spirits.

Staff 2, as I mentioned also heals 10 targets and is far more valuable at ~700 x 10 target heal every 2 seconds. Water spirit itself is bad. 863 healing every 10 seconds is nothing (not affected by Druid healing power/outgoing healing). Water spirit is just for the 50% up time on 10 target regen to the other 5 ppl not in your subgroup since you already have perma regen from WH on the 5 in your subgroup. If you have 2 healers, water spirit is useless as the other healer with bring their own regen. I'm not saying it's impossible for Druid to heal 10 ppl but the majority of the healing is only towards 3-5 at a time and most groups I've healed need a second healer.

I disagree on it being easier. I've played both. It's a lot easier keeping ppl alive with FB than Druid. The general boons/might is also easier on FB as long as your teammates group up near you.

September 12, 2019

@anduriell.6280 said:So lets say you all are very wrong and when a ranger defeat you you should feel very grateful of the honor of consuming the oxigen from more valuable ppl like the player whom just killed you. And the nerf is only a pandering move for the likes of dudes whom plays pve and comes to the forums to make noise about competitive modes.

1) I never said I was for or against that nerf. I was pointing out the absurd lie that @KeyOrion.9506 told when they claimed necro wells do 15k-20k per pulse at the same range as ranger. That is objectively false on both the range and the damage. If you cant get those numbers in optimal max PvE buff scenarios, you won't get those numbers in WvW unless you are hitting a naked.2) If you think someone killing me in WvW means I have the honor breathing because that makes me less than them, you need help. It's a game. Nothing you accomplish in this game gives you honor.

September 11, 2019

@"KeyOrion.9506" said:A ranger that can't pick off his targets. A Necromancer well can be launched at the longest range of a Ranger now. And the wells are doing 15k-20k dmg per second PULSES...how is this even closely fair for the class that was SUPPOSED to be the long range class of the game? We try to keep combat ranged, and the necro's try to get up in your face. Seriously WHY would we want to close with a CONDI WELL OUTPUTTING 15k-20k DAMAGE PER GOD kitten SECOND ANET!

What are you talking about? Well of suffering has a coeff of 3 over 6 hits. That is only 0.5 coeff per pulse. Meanwhile longbow auto is 0.7-0.9. Power soul beast has way more modifiers than necro. How the heck would necro hit 15k-20k per pulse without sic'em? Also wells are 900 range. So are shades. Longbow is "1500" but actually is closer to 1800 range. That's almost double the range of necro wells/shades.

A MAX dps power reaper vs a golem is only doing maybe 10k per tick with the power well and the power well does twice as much damage as the condi well. There is no way a necro hits you for 15k with well of suffering unless you are naked.

Anyhow, if they want to give ranger a spot in WvW Zergs, I think the best shot is to buff SB group stability to be a contender in replacing FB in some subgroups. The only other group stability right now aside from guardian is either mantra of concentration mesmer (not long enough duration) or dwarven road on rev (which just sucks at 1 stack). Shared Dolyak stance is actually good and almost comparable to stand your ground (especially after it gets nerfed next patch). 6 second base stability, 5-6 stacks each. Stand your ground is 10 targets but will be nerfed to 3 stacks soon. So SB has the only real contender for group stab for WvW. SB just needs 1 more source of group stability.

I would do this by basically copy-pasting shared Dolyak stance onto Unflinching Fortitude. Remove the 100% dmg reduction and make it aoe stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize. So only SB (not core ranger which makes it easier to balance), only when merged with a stout pet (easy to balance again) has two sources of group stability. Furthermore, the stability + immunity to chill, cripple and immobilize give SB an "unstoppable movement" niche. I could see this version of SB being useful to WvW zerg subgroups that melee push. So it wouldn't even completely replace FB in all subgroups but just a melee groups.

Giving a second class group stability that competes with FB would significantly shake up the WvW meta and give ranger a spot in zergs.

September 11, 2019

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:
@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:As someone that has played both healers in raids and fotm, I'll toss in my 2 cents.
@wefal.8426 said:Druid is basically spirit slave.1) Unreliable spirits that can die and need to constantly move around the map.2) Unreliable healing. Staff 1? Make sure you're behind your teammates.Staff 2? Slow heal. IF it passes through allies.With all honesty I dont understand why Druid is so revered compared to other just as good if not better heal/support specs.

1) The spirit change made spirits extra reliable (actual up time in the DPS meters were higher) if you position them well2) If you want to complain about staff 1... those FB mantras are even worst for supplying your important boons. While they have a small radius around you, the cone is what you hit most ppl with. When you have allies that orbit, your boon up time on them suffers a lot.3) The one thing about playing Druid that I actually miss is staff 1 and 2 for the consistent heals (1&2) and the 10 target heals (just 2). Aside from that, I agree that FB healing is much better than druid.

Overall our group has been much happier and have had higher group DPS with 2x FB+ 1 ren. I haven't personally seen anyone praise druid in a while. So I'm not sure what the OP is talking about here. In fact, I've never been cheered at or seen other ppl cheer a druid in raids ever.

@"blambidy.3216" said:You say that firebrand can do every boon? Technically it can barely pull 25 stacks of might to 5 people, also the quickness for firebrand is only 5 man. Also firebrand doesn't have any offensive buffs. The thing is firebrand won't be alone in support like a druid can. Druid does 25 might + spirits + spotter. Then you can have 1 power/condi quickbrand. 1 divine ren, 1 chrono, bs, dps. As far as main heal, it will be impossible for firebrand to be solo heal unless might can be 10 man, or you have an unusual comp but the comp people won't use or people will not be prepared for it...There are other things to note that druid does that you did not note. Pushing in sh, pushing in sam, green 2 kite on dhuum, pushing red seekers. Entangling red seekers, spirit res. which is far easier to do with druid than firebrand, that's if firebrand can do some of these things. Firebrand can push on sam and push couple seekers here and there. But pushing on sh? green kite 2 on dhuum? You will have a hard time with those on firebrand....Which is great. Firebrand carries people in fractals because of the blocks and aegis it provides. But as far as "speedruns" Druid makes the raids, fractals faster "if" people do not facetank.

Just because might is applied to 10 players with gotl, doesn't mean druid solo heals/supports 10 ppl. The comp you list requires 4 support spots. Calling Druid solo heal/alone support isn't fair when you have 4 support (I'm not counting BS). 2x FB (tank/off-heal) + 1 ren requires 3 support. It's the comp my groups been using for a while. Even without spirits, our group DPS went up because that extra DPS slot > spirits. Double DPS spirit is also over rated. Comps tend to go full power or full condi. 5% power buff to 7 condi dps is nothing compared to a full extra DPS. Sun spirit is only worth 2k DPS total (not per person but total group) to 10 power DPS if it's 100% up time. Sun spirit is worth it for druid since it has nothing else to bring. 2k DPS doesn't make it worth it to bring a Druid especially since a power or condi SB can easily slot in 1 spirit.

Despite having 2 druid mains, we quickly adapted to 2 x FB for VG. It's better than Druid. We use shield 5 to push orbs or staff 5 to prevent orbs from hitting the group. No entangle or nature spirit required. Healing is good enough that we usually don't get downed by green. Ppl go down maybe 1-3 times max in an entire fight and that isn't always due to greens but ppl missing blues. Samarag, use axe 3, shield 5 and F1 (3). SH, add a 4th support which is druid. We haven't done dhuum in a while due to time constraints but same as SH, just add a 4th support. So there are only two fights were druid is "better" than FB from my personal experience but it's used as a 4th slot not a replacement for FB.

Also, I don't get how you can claim that "speedruns" are better with Druid and ppl not face tanking. Actual speed runs have your DPS go full DPS and not dodge because of aegis/stab (or the old mesmer distortion share). Dodging, especially to cancel a big DPS skill is a DPS loss. Aegis is the biggest utility FB brings.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:Druid is just plain out bad right now. It's not even overrated it's just outdated and needs a decent rework.

Agreed. I think what bothers me is that when you look at group comps in general, it's either Chrono/Druid or FB/Ren or 1 of each. However, it's never that you want the Druid. It's just that if you bring chrono, druid just vestigially fits in their.

I agree that in your comp, druid is bad. That beeing said some encounters are better with minimum 1 chrono and that means druid is required.

Oh absolutely. That's why I wrote the last two sentences in my post. When you need chrono, druid is there to fill in the gaps that chrono lacks. It's not that druid is great.

September 11, 2019

As someone that has played both healers in raids and fotm, I'll toss in my 2 cents.

@wefal.8426 said:Druid is basically spirit slave.1) Unreliable spirits that can die and need to constantly move around the map.2) Unreliable healing. Staff 1? Make sure you're behind your teammates.Staff 2? Slow heal. IF it passes through allies.With all honesty I dont understand why Druid is so revered compared to other just as good if not better heal/support specs.

1) The spirit change made spirits extra reliable (actual up time in the DPS meters were higher) if you position them well2) If you want to complain about staff 1... those FB mantras are even worst for supplying your important boons. While they have a small radius around you, the cone is what you hit most ppl with. When you have allies that orbit, your boon up time on them suffers a lot.3) The one thing about playing Druid that I actually miss is staff 1 and 2 for the consistent heals (1&2) and the 10 target heals (just 2). Aside from that, I agree that FB healing is much better than druid.

Overall our group has been much happier and have had higher group DPS with 2x FB+ 1 ren. I haven't personally seen anyone praise druid in a while. So I'm not sure what the OP is talking about here. In fact, I've never been cheered at or seen other ppl cheer a druid in raids ever.

@"blambidy.3216" said:You say that firebrand can do every boon? Technically it can barely pull 25 stacks of might to 5 people, also the quickness for firebrand is only 5 man. Also firebrand doesn't have any offensive buffs. The thing is firebrand won't be alone in support like a druid can. Druid does 25 might + spirits + spotter. Then you can have 1 power/condi quickbrand. 1 divine ren, 1 chrono, bs, dps. As far as main heal, it will be impossible for firebrand to be solo heal unless might can be 10 man, or you have an unusual comp but the comp people won't use or people will not be prepared for it...There are other things to note that druid does that you did not note. Pushing in sh, pushing in sam, green 2 kite on dhuum, pushing red seekers. Entangling red seekers, spirit res. which is far easier to do with druid than firebrand, that's if firebrand can do some of these things. Firebrand can push on sam and push couple seekers here and there. But pushing on sh? green kite 2 on dhuum? You will have a hard time with those on firebrand....Which is great. Firebrand carries people in fractals because of the blocks and aegis it provides. But as far as "speedruns" Druid makes the raids, fractals faster "if" people do not facetank.

Just because might is applied to 10 players with gotl, doesn't mean druid solo heals/supports 10 ppl. The comp you list requires 4 support spots. Calling Druid solo heal/alone support isn't fair when you have 4 support (I'm not counting BS). 2x FB (tank/off-heal) + 1 ren requires 3 support. It's the comp my groups been using for a while. Even without spirits, our group DPS went up because that extra DPS slot > spirits. Double DPS spirit is also over rated. Comps tend to go full power or full condi. 5% power buff to 7 condi dps is nothing compared to a full extra DPS. Sun spirit is only worth 2k DPS total (not per person but total group) to 10 power DPS if it's 100% up time. Sun spirit is worth it for druid since it has nothing else to bring. 2k DPS doesn't make it worth it to bring a Druid especially since a power or condi SB can easily slot in 1 spirit.

Despite having 2 druid mains, we quickly adapted to 2 x FB for VG. It's better than Druid. We use shield 5 to push orbs or staff 5 to prevent orbs from hitting the group. No entangle or nature spirit required. Healing is good enough that we usually don't get downed by green. Ppl go down maybe 1-3 times max in an entire fight and that isn't always due to greens but ppl missing blues. Samarag, use axe 3, shield 5 and F1 (3). SH, add a 4th support which is druid. We haven't done dhuum in a while due to time constraints but same as SH, just add a 4th support. So there are only two fights were druid is "better" than FB from my personal experience but it's used as a 4th slot not a replacement for FB.

Also, I don't get how you can claim that "speedruns" are better with Druid and ppl not face tanking. Actual speed runs have your DPS go full DPS and not dodge because of aegis/stab (or the old mesmer distortion share). Dodging, especially to cancel a big DPS skill is a DPS loss. Aegis is the biggest utility FB brings.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:Druid is just plain out bad right now. It's not even overrated it's just outdated and needs a decent rework.

Agreed. I think what bothers me is that when you look at group comps in general, it's either Chrono/Druid or FB/Ren or 1 of each. However, it's never that you want the Druid. It's just that if you bring chrono, druid just vestigially fits in their.

September 8, 2019

@viquing.8254 said:
@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:[...]Hmm I don't know if 2 times more static retaliation with sword 2 is a good thing. I mean practise will probably highligh some differents use case than paper.You seems to over-estimate the sword1 ambush potential.

No I'm not overestimating the ambush. I just talked about the ambush+blurred frenzy with a reductionist approach in the first section. I then later mention that you can use an off-hand like pistol. Bring a utility like MoD. You still have F3 too. The Sw/P mirage is obviously going to be a small scale PvP setup where retal isn't as big a problem. The low CD evade is potent though. Or don't spam blurred frenzy. Just use pistol 5, 4, MoD and F3. With DD+CI, you can spam those two pistol skills. To clarify, I don't mean mindlessly spam. Thoughtfully use your interrupts but almost consider pistol 4-5 also really low CD abilities instead of 20-25 second CDs.

Same for shield 5 and torch 5 who are more than telegraphied.And I maintain that mesmer weapon skills aren't that good considering gameplay is around shatter and bests skills are in utility bar.In Zerg, reality is that most player are under stability and illusions instantly die so sword ambush and shield 5 (not even talking about the melee range of this skill.) are near to never proc CI.

Is an entire zerg trying to dodge Tides? No. Can you even use Tides with sword ambush? No. Is shield 5 an illusion or melee range? No. The shield 5 stuff is obviously about WvW zerging.

Mesmer illusions are already a non factor in WvW. The new CI lets you ignore your illusion skills and double down on the skills that don't require illusions (like shield 5). I have never been in a zerg where I have actually had permanent stability on my necro (of whatever variety). I'm also able to land corrupts and fear plenty of times. WoD is also a thing. The proposed changes also have guardian stability going from 5 to 3 stacks of aoe stab. The nerf to anti-toxin runes means cover boons are going to be harder to come by from scrapper boon conversion. You also don't need to interrupt 20+ ppl when you hit 20+ ppl. You only need to interrupt 6 to have an instant recast of shield 5. If you interrupt 5 ppl, you still have improved alacrity to bring ToT down to a 3 second CD. ToT is also applying quickness and alacrity to your zerg too. You also have MoD and gravity well and chaos storm on heal for more interrupts to recharge ToT.

So I disagree: mesmer weapon skills can be good considering game play in WvW already has illusions being a non-factor. The main problem was CD and CI negates that problem.

@viquing.8254 said:Yeah it's the theory it seems beautifull etc.Reality is that with sword ambush and IH, unlike you are farming bronze potatoes :
Ennemy don't cast so they don't rupt.And even with theory : can you theorycraft a duel versus thief/holo/sb/condiweaver/rev with this build ? The time you cast an ambush they did 2 actions.

Wut? Is the enemy not casting so you don't interrupt or are they doing two action while you ambush? Only 1 of these happens at a time. Either way it's good for this build. Either you free cast or your interrupt. Also how did you proc CI before it was disabled? Could you never land an interrupt? Then CI was already useless for you. You still have MoD and F3 to instant interrupt people too. Your heal with be an AoE interrupt with the new staff 5 on heal.

If clones die to aoe and IH is useless, why does the meta build take IH and DE? Basically take the old meta builds with CI+MoD and keep playing it. Now you have to skillfully land interrupts instead of RNG staff 5 procs. CI won't hold ppl down anymore but your enemies will burn through their defenses slower than your skills with come on CD now. So by your second burst they are "softly" held down. At least it gives your enemies time to realize they are screwed and have a chance of running instead of feeling powerless with a CC+Immob combo from RNG.

Or take Dune cloak Sw/P and try to go ham with an interrupt build that strips stability with Dune Cloak in PvP. Or go to WvW and just spam shield 5 and interrupts. I'm not saying this will be actually OP but for once I'm looking forward to a mesmer patch and I'm going to try to have fun with this trait and I think it'll be really strong in a good way.

September 8, 2019

@"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:I can understand the Mantra and Chaos Storm changes, but why nerf Illusion of Life? I haven't seen that skill used in ages. Also, the new chaotic interruption seems... utterly random. I mean, I don't PVP with Mesmers that often, but last I checked they don't really spam their weapon skills that much. They're more tactical. At most, you have a 3/5 chance of reducing one skill, and a 2/5 chance of doing nothing.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/86662/future-potential-wvw-centric-balance-changes-september-6th-2019/p1"Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities that is already on cooldown by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe."

So you don't have to worry about the 3 of 4 skills (auto attacks don't have CD so it's not out of 5) randomly recharging. If you spam 1 skill and only 1 skill + interrupts, you can start to get insane spam on it. Consider Sword mirage. Use blurred frenzy. Then ambush to interrupt. This brings sword 2 CD down to (8-5) = 3 seconds. 1 of those 3 seconds is spent ambushing anyways. Don't use any other weapon skill. You can now spam evades and blurred frenzy like crazy. That's tactical spam. Then consider the next part...

@"NICENIKESHOE.7128" said:hmm there's likely going to be a low CD to chaotic interruption to avoid multiple target procs in one skill, but it is interesting. Could be hilarious if you're lucky with Domi/Chaos/Chrono (2x2 berserkers every 7 seconds)

I don't think it will have an ICD and berserkers will likely be the least interesting combo.https://giphy.com/gifs/Vhv8cB0LDs5BPeCdcfDuelist discipline doesn't have an ICD and has a similar function but only for pistol skills. Gif shows me interrupting 2 targets at the same time with MoD to reduce pistol 5 CD by 12 seconds (25 second CD -50% CD from 2 x 25% CD reduction of DD). Assuming DD stays as is, DD and CI will likely stack. So interrupting 1 target with DD+CI = 11 second CDR on pistol skills.

So now try to combine sword+pistol mirage with DD and CI. Don't bother using sword 3 at all, it'll get in the way of CI. Just sword 2, pistol 4 and 5. There is some insane spam potential of those 3 skills if you keep landing your interrupts. The versatility of CI is kind of akin to quick draw on ranger: pick 1 skill that you need and use it more than balance intended it to be used.

Shield 5 and torch 5 are going to be the aoe interrupts that are able to recharge themselves since the interrupts happen after the skill goes on CD. Torch 5 won't work well in zerg fights but shield 5 will be a decent source of aoe blind, confusion, slow. Just a quick test on golems in PvP and shield 5 can hit 20+ times in 1 cast. That is a lot of potential interrupts. If you do nothing but spam shield 5, there is a pretty good chance it will instantly recharge itself. MoD and gravity well are just icing on the cake to help keep your shield 5 spam going. You can also swap to Dom, Chaos, Chrono instead of Duel, chaos, chrono for power interrupts instead of condi. ToT, Lost time and power block can do 60 pockets of damage. That's a lot of retal procs! However, sigil of draining (~1k life steal) has no ICD. Sigil of absorption also steals 3 boons with no ICD. It cant steal stab but constantly keeping enemies low on boons from stealing them will make it easier for your allies corrupts/boon removal to get rid of stab. What else does shield 5 spam do? Give your entire zerg quickness and alacrity. Who needs illusions now?

If they give CI an ICD, it'll be not nearly as good in WvW but will still have major potential for sword mirage. Then again, if you look at all the mesmer interrupt traits, only 1/7 has an ICD in PvP/WvW. We'll see.

August 31, 2019

Overall the changes look promising. The new CI has me really exited to play mesmer again but I have major balance concerns.

1) Would CI work similarly to improvisation (recharge 1 random skill 2-5 regardless of whether or not it is actually on CD?) or would it only attempt to recharge skills already on CD.1b) If I unequipped my main hand weapon (or offhand). Will it only recharge skill 4/5 (or 2/3)?2) Would there be an ICD on it?3) Do successful AoE interrupts proc it multiple times?4) Would a skill be able to recharge itself with CI procs? Staff 5, GS5, shield 5, torch 5 and pistol 5 come to mind. Pistol 5 cannot. I "know" this because duelist discipline doesn't let pistol 5 recharge itself: skill interrupts before it technically goes on CD. I suspect GS5 and the new staff 5 would be similar. Torch 5 should be able to recharge itself potentially 2-10 times with chronophantasma and aoe. Unlike every other skill here, it's a phantasm which makes it less problematic in WvW but I still see a potential "toxic" build interaction for PvP with CP, CS and SotE. Shield 5 would be able to recharge itself: it starts the CD before the CC happens.

Would it change the way I play? Yes. I would try to make a full dire rune of perplexity chrono on day 1 of that patch. Run off-hand shield (and maybe no sword/scepter) full on captain america shield tossing. Dueling/Chaos/Chrono. Spam that shield 5 for interrupts and blind, slow, confusion procs and shield 4 blocks with a very low CD.Would it actually be good? Really depends on how you answer those questions.

August 24, 2019

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:
@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:
@Shao.7236 said:
@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Smoke_Assault_(soulbeast
)
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Unrelenting_Assault

You forgot to mention

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_Smokescale

Smoke assault on the pet came out at the same time rev did. I could just as easily and uselessly claim that rev copied a ranger pet.

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:Why can chrono use rune of the firebrand? That is the same question :D

This!

Why can firebrand use minstrel stats? Why can any pof spec use rune of durability or leadership? Why can pof specs use viper or trailblazer gear?

All the best heal builds are elite specs but rune of the monk is a core dungeon rune. I demand that only core pve healers are allowed to use those runes. /s

There has been 7 years of power creep, partially through gear but also skill and trait balance and new elite specs. Most of those don't buff pets enough to keep up with that power creep. I vaguely recall a dev mentioning that updating core pets is extremely difficult due to the fact that they are also open world mobs which causes problems when they try to change pet animations. Expansion pets are how they upgrade a core mechanic to keep up with power creep without actually buffing core pets.

And yet Lynx is still go to pet for some versions of condition soulbeast. Not all of those pets are useless

Lynx or warthog are meta. True, but I'd argue that proves my point. They are only meta for their merged abilities and not the core pet itself. You're never supposed to unmerge. In contrast, the pof iboga is also meta for condi sb and you intentionally unmerge with the iboga during your rotation for a dps increase.

August 18, 2019

@Shao.7236 said:
@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Smoke_Assault_(soulbeast
)
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Unrelenting_Assault

You forgot to mentionhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_SmokescaleSmoke assault on the pet came out at the same time rev did. I could just as easily and uselessly claim that rev copied a ranger pet.

@ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:Why can chrono use rune of the firebrand? That is the same question :D

This!

Why can firebrand use minstrel stats? Why can any pof spec use rune of durability or leadership? Why can pof specs use viper or trailblazer gear?

All the best heal builds are elite specs but rune of the monk is a core dungeon rune. I demand that only core pve healers are allowed to use those runes. /s

There has been 7 years of power creep, partially through gear but also skill and trait balance and new elite specs. Most of those don't buff pets enough to keep up with that power creep. I vaguely recall a dev mentioning that updating core pets is extremely difficult due to the fact that they are also open world mobs which causes problems when they try to change pet animations. Expansion pets are how they upgrade a core mechanic to keep up with power creep without actually buffing core pets.

August 11, 2019

@Swagger.1459 said:
@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:
@Swagger.1459 said:
@Eurantien.4632 said:
@Swagger.1459 said:
@Eurantien.4632 said:
@Swagger.1459 said:
@Eurantien.4632 said:Moment of clarity used to be a skirmishing grandmaster trait. I used it for a power ranger build in the world tournament series with skirmishing and marksmanship. The move to marksmanship has actually been a big boon for us. As it stands, moment of clarity synergizes wonderfully with two handed training in beast mastery and remorseless on marksmanship, allowing for some huge dps following interrupts. Moving that to skirmishing would be be a step backwards in a way.
Honestly, without moment of clarity in marksmanship, not sure id run Marksmanship, even though I think clarion bond is one of the best reasons to run it for PvP.

Sure, I can understand and accept synergy, but lb/gs builds are already very effective and pretty common. Condi based builds need more help outside of pve, and so does the Shortbow. Even if the traits aren’t swapped, the daze and stun buff would be more useful in skirmishing for any type of shortbow builds.

Unfortunately it still wouldn't make it viable. Buff shortbow up 3s daze/stun and it still wouldn't be viable because shortbow has no follow up for damage. You'd just swap weapons for more dmg...

And gs doesn’t need it considering the potential damage output. But the daze and stun buff doesn’t need to be in the longbow line.

Maybe not, but the damage buff on interrupt is definitely good with longbow, and the fact GS is easily paired with LB, makes the damage buff on interrupt pair very well with GS and so does the stun and daze duration for GS...

In a way it's like because you're using longbow and invested in marskmanship, you should use GS too. Which is kind of cool from a synergy point for view. Because your have marksmanship traits essentially just for longbow with that other master trait that gives 5% to 10% more damage and lead the wind.... but you also have the option to run these trait lines of moment of Claire and remorseless that not only help longbow but also GS because you will have to go into melee range and thats cool...

Now skirmishing does have some of the coolest traits in this game. Quickness on dodge. Quick draw is the coolest trait there is... yet there are to date no builds (for PvP) that can make use of skirmishing.

Personally, I don't think moment of clarity should be move but instead, skirmishing should get some kind of trait for Condi clear on swiftness or quickness gain or something so that we can be freed from the shackles of wilderness survival, hopefully grab the Shortbow trait too. And then maybe we can actually have a skirmishing shortbow build, or at least, hope for skirmishing.

Point is this, and I’m not trying to be rude in any way, a trait function that buffs stun and daze doesn’t belong, or make sense, in a trait line devoted to a weapon devoid of any stun or daze period. Shortbow builds are far behind in any wvw or pvp play, unlike the common, and highly effective, lb/gs “me too” builds you see. Lb and gs aren’t underperforming weapons compared to some others, and those others need some extra help where they can get it.

Look at the link you posted.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Moment_of_Clarity

50% stun/daze duration was added later in the game. It's main purpose is NOT to extend the duration of CCs like you claim. It's main purpose was and still is increasing your and your pets next hit after interrupt by 50%. This trait is exactly where it belongs: the power/burst trait line. MM is not just a LB traitline.

The extra stun/daze duration is a nice bonus to GS but also Druid Dazes, SB Gazelle F2 and any daze/stun on a future elite spec that, fingers crossed, might be announced soon. Short bow and skrim need some love but stun/daze duration MoC is not it.

Pets don’t get the buff.

You mean this one?https://imgur.com/a/v722TckWhere my Tiger F2 does 50% more dmg when I actually land an interrupt?Also at @Eurantien.4632If you are talking about my Gazelle comment, I was referring to the merged soul beast F2 being a daze not the pet F2.

“Marksmanship - focuses on long range damage and opening strikes. Enhances longbow, harpoon gun, and signet skills.”

So you are going by the wiki description? Really? Those don't even come from in game. They are just what someone decided to write. I can go an edit that wiki to include enhances CC too. MM is not only about longbow. No single trait line should be dedicated to a single weapon. That is bad design because every build needs at least 3 trait lines.

50% stun/daze duration fits along with the main purpose of the trait, bonus power damage after interrupts. The slightly longer CC helps land the following bonus hit. Also, since I do occasionally run power Druid (PvE), the stun/daze duration would be missed. That's 50% less on break bars in PvE on glyph of equality, storm spirit active, CA3, GS5 and primal echoes.

Listen, condi builds suck outside of pve. Sb is junky and needs work, but this thread is about that 1 trait buff to stun and daze.

Listen, 50% stun/daze duration isn't helping condi builds outside of PvE. Best case scenario, the 50% bonus to short bow 5, only if you get a flanking stun, gives you 2 more auto attacks into someones back. Ranger condi builds have easy access to immobilize and condition duration. Since immob also prevents rotating your character, buffing immob or giving shortbow better capacity to flank is a much better buff than 50% stun/daze duration.

Basically replace short bow 3 withhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Earthen_Rushand you probably have a much better chance of condi ranger working in PvP/WvW because it can get into position and hold an enemy down for a flanking shot. You would still be able to about face to run away with it too.

Give sword 3/dagger 4 bonus conditions if you hit an enemies flank (bonus immob/more poison stacks). Change 10% crit while flanking to 2 stacks of poison when you hit an enemy flank (~3 second ICD).

August 11, 2019

@Swagger.1459 said:
@Eurantien.4632 said:
@Swagger.1459 said:
@Eurantien.4632 said:
@Swagger.1459 said:
@Eurantien.4632 said:Moment of clarity used to be a skirmishing grandmaster trait. I used it for a power ranger build in the world tournament series with skirmishing and marksmanship. The move to marksmanship has actually been a big boon for us. As it stands, moment of clarity synergizes wonderfully with two handed training in beast mastery and remorseless on marksmanship, allowing for some huge dps following interrupts. Moving that to skirmishing would be be a step backwards in a way.
Honestly, without moment of clarity in marksmanship, not sure id run Marksmanship, even though I think clarion bond is one of the best reasons to run it for PvP.