Leo G.4501

Would be kind of cool if SB utilities became upkeep skills. The resource? Entities losing boons around you adds to a 'latent magic' bar. So allies, yourself or foes losing boons fills it. The utilities themselves act the same as now, clicking them gives you the effects they currently provide, but on top, they can provide an additional persisting added effect depending on if you keep them active or you run out of latent magic in the bar. And it kind of sounds more "meditate"y than what meditations currently are. Stuff like Natural Healing could remove your boons and condis from the user then heal you and that would fuel the latent magic bar insuring you can use it's upkeep effect that will continue to remove conditions from you and heal nearby allies for each condi you remove from yourself. Break Enchantment could apply the PBAoE damage/boon rip but the upkeep skill could charge your next Full Counter to use both adrenaline and all of your latent magic to super charge its effects. Winds of Disenchantment would stop you from gaining latent magic for its duration and constantly drain your latent magic while standing inside it. While not standing inside it, it has a muted effect. It still has a max duration for its upkeep but the upkeep part would basically be getting the max duration but muted effect by standing away from it but getting the strongest effect but shortest duration while standing in it. How would you balance it that way? Dunno...maybe divide the effects so the muted version just does damage and removes 1 boon once you step inside but applies 100% boon duration debuff and the full powered version applies the boon rip per interval + missile deflection.

Such a generous benefit of the doubt lol 🙃 I answered your questions. I clarified my points. I pointed to your specific statement that you asked. Overall, it never was a big deal, you just made it a big deal. Like I said, you've become tiresome to discuss with because you keep asking for things you don't want and then complaining when you get them. You wanted to know why I made the statements that I gave. I did and then you wanted specific direction for why I would make said statements so I gave them and now you deny I did any of that and still miss the context. I don't feel bad for you, I feel bad for people who would waste their time with this discussion at this point, specifically discussing it with you. You confuse accusations with criticism. 🤷‍♂️💁‍♂️🤷‍♀️ Like I said before: I gave you some feedback, you got confused, I said it wasn't that serious, you demanded clarification, I clarified, you complain. That's the loop here. So you can keep your attention span limit met, the tl;dr: just mind your manners with telling people they don't know stuff or they did the bare minimum like reading posts. Nobody owes you anything, people can report your posts for even the hint of being rude and if you want to avoid frustration, try to consider how someone else will interpret your posts. 🤷‍♂️ But do what you want. I don't care. Smell ya later 🙃

I didn't just "jump in" nor "call out" your reply "out of the blue". I've been reading the replies ever since I posted in the thread (page 2 btw). I'd sooner accept criticism for trying to act as a "Great Value" brand referee than pushed off as someone who didn't bother reading the posts or making accusations without context. It was a YouTube meme first, not Tiktok, but I'll forgive you for that. Like I said before, I have read the thread. I mostly read threads I reply to when I have an opinion on something I want to share. I typically read the subsequent replies to see if someone will change my opinion. I hope you have some other advice for me than that. So far, everything you've written doesn't convince me I heavily misrepresented anything. Even in my clarification, you seem to be dramatically responding to it despite conspicuously asking for it. I didn't want to have to spend the time to write that out (or this either) but I did to be polite because you asked with the assumption that you wanted criticism. Is that not what you wanted? I feel bad wasting the thread space on quibbling about nothing when the overall vibe I was trying to get across is to just chill out and come about the subject with a relative perspective that we're likely arguing personal taste of builds that are in constant flux. It's called a *clarification*. Do I need to define that for you too? I was *clarifying* that I wasn't saying you've crossed a threshold of harshness that has created some violation but rather it's just a perceived tone from an unbiased reader of being unnecessarily harsh. I even went on to describe busting someone's chops isn't outside of the realm of necessity. But being the Great Value brand ref, I just think you're pushing too hard and if there's one thing most people are backhandedly annoyed by it's try-hards...at least I am. As for what was rather harsh? Everything I quoted. What was pretty tactless? This: "I know how it plays and what it can do, you rather clearly don't (or, currenty, didn't?)." and this: "The question is: why did you even attempt discussing this without understanding what exactly you're talking about (and then try claiming I'm the one doing it "not in a good faith")?" As something I've learned from various bouts of moderation, you could have posted with these 2 sentences deleted and it'd have come off as a tiny bit less harsh and would come off moreso as stern and info based vs debate bro provocation. And as for the part about asking for you to do tests, I'll write that off as a miscommunication but better to clarify with the person you're talking with if that's what they're asking for rather than just assume they want you to go out of your way, spend your effect pulling up builds and gear and you go through rounds and rounds of rotations.

Confusing. I thought I wrote one other post before this. Anyway, *sigh* 🙃 Gotta start by putting up context, then point out why I acknowledged the point with criticism and then the criticism itself. 1. "It's easier to do that when you're not telling them to stop having opinions tho." The full quote says "At the end of the day, people are always going to ask for change. You won't get them to stop by telling them, you have to convince them that there are reasons not to change everything." This was directly mostly at the following: Do you deny that people are going to ask for change? I'm going to just assume that you know and understand that part and say no, people WILL ask to have things changed so there's no debate there. Resolutions to problems will always have multiple solutions which I'm not going to really debate about because some solutions are better than others but that aside, I don't disagree that different classes and builds play differently. My main criticism is the last part: "Stop trying to make everything the same". And as @draxynnic.3719can likely attest, I too don't like making everything the same...it's not about what you're advocating for that I disagree with, just how you're doing it. That's why the advice I gave (take it or leave it) was you have to try and convince people instead...because change WILL happen, even changes you don't like or perceptually *wrong* changes that shouldn't happen will happen. 2. "Reading the other comments, it seems rather harsh to criticize someone who decided to do some independent testing" You replied to that quote saying "I'm not sure what you're talking about here, maybe you could be more specific. Which criticism was so harsh here?" First of all, I said 'rather harsh'. Nitpicking, sure, but 'so harsh' sounds like more of a threshold of harshness was reached/passed where as 'rather harsh' mostly means 'can come off as harsh'. Secondly, this: Comes off as pretty tactless. And sure, no one says you have to have any tact when responding here but since you're asking me to pick apart your attitude like a dotting parent, here I am. I mean, this thread isn't just about Scrapper, it just so happens to relate to a specific build but could technically translate to any build that requires 'forced movement' in its rotation for a desired effect. Furthermore, your insistence on specific replies and rebuttals is tiresome and you should probably be more lenient went discussing things online. Not saying you can't break some noob's chops so they learn something but it's a form of communication when dealing with other adults that helps bring consensus rather than aiming for confrontational back and forths. The key is just knowing when to dial it back. 3. "By all means, explain what exactly you're talking about here, because it doesn't look like you're commenting on what I wrote in my posts. " I read your posts. I quoted your posts. I clarified my replies. The point of going through this exercise isn't to belittle anyone or endlessly argue back and forth. For whatever reason, you didn't even try to understand someone you're directly replying to but rather jumped to accusations they had no idea what they were talking about OR didn't read your posts OR that what you posted couldn't be perceived as negative which should be pretty telling of how you interacted in the thread. The crazy thing is, I'm not even disagreeing with your points. So dismiss the above as you see fit.

It's all on this last page (my settings have this thread on page 6 which has the last 23 posts made). It's not a deep dive, just read. My post was moreso a call to be chill than anything but if you need someone to pick apart posts, just ask. I try to avoid doing that when the voices in my head say I'm being pedantic. As the saying goes, nitpicking begets more nitpicking. And if that's not a saying then I'm taking credit for it.

Calm down Jamal. Don't pull out the 9. 😆 At the end of the day, people are always going to ask for change. You won't get them to stop by telling them, you have to convince them that there are reasons not to change everything. It's easier to do that when you're not telling them to stop having opinions tho. For example, I'm pretty sure OP is done with the discussion and probably has come to the conclusion that if they improve action cam a bit so they can finagle a resolution to their "launching themselves randomly in a direction" problem, no other change to the professions is really necessary. Reading the other comments, it seems rather harsh to criticize someone who decided to do some independent testing when, ultimately, they're trying to add more to the conversation. Sure, criticize the data but no need to go after someone who just wants to share info. All being said, and with all the criticism I throw at Anet and the direction GW2 is taking, the system still is pretty flexible and leaves a lot to explore for those willing to stray off the snowy path amidst the echoes of crows telling you where you should go.

Then what would traits be changed to do? I see traits as coming in several flavors: ones that tack on skills to other skills or situations like adding a minor-version of a utility when you activate an elite skill or activating a minor-version of a utility when you get 3 conditions. ones that augment stats or effects directly; so stuff that just ups your ferocity or adds extra stats when you get boons or increase the duration of consecrations. ones that augment skills such as adding extra charges to shatters or makes your dragon slash have fewer max charges. ones that give you extra skills like Berserker getting the extra skill that cancels Berserk mode. ones that add additional boons/conditions to skills/effects/scenarios. (this is the one you are talking about). Probably some I missed but...if they did less of the latter, they have to replace them with something as some traits literally only grant boons/conditions for certain actions.

Something I always wished they'd do is alter this skill is more shifts to make it better at defense. A new mechanic that would be fun to try is making it an upkeep skill. Taking your idea, changing the main click to something like "Dulled Blow" that blocks attacks and drains your adrenaline while it's used (max duration would be however long you can keep your endurance up but extreme cases would probably be 6 seconds) and apply 1sec of weakness to anyone in range. The flipover skill would also be Counterblow but Counterblow will recover some endurance for each attack you blocked during Dulled Blow (meaning you want to cancel the skill, not wait out it's duration) and do increased damage to weakened foes. Thinking more on the idea, that pretty much makes main-hand mace stronger at blocking than shield lol

You know what terrestrial weapon that has NEVER been proliferated? Focus. Sincerely, Someone who crafted focus as their 2nd legendary weapon and is actively working on Harpoon gun.

Do I have to pull out the full English interpretation of each sentence now? Jeeze. Firstly, putting quotation marks around a phrase typically means the writer isn't saying the words but rather is quoting someone or something else. Secondly, the first part of the sentence says "closest thing to your accusation" which I'll just clarify to you, is me making a steelman of your accusation to direct it closer to a reasonable argument rather than a flagrant attack. Thirdly, the quoted phrase should be taken at face value. Do you want the profession to be power crept because you don't like how conjures work? If you answer yes, then that highlights our divide on the subject. If you say no, then there is common ground. If English isn't your first language then the above is me explaining to you what that meant and I'll further clarify if necessary. If not, well.. As far as the comment about having clear use cases vs novelty, the entire point of me commenting is to create BOTH. Novelty AND use case. Because the game is, first and foremost, a game. And like I've repeated over and over, throwing away fun stuff just because it's not useful now in exchange for power is a faustian deal; it makes something much more useful now but it's merely overshadowed later by something stronger, more useful, more efficient. Skills becoming more similar to other skills making them easier to compare and replace. And this doesn't go just for skills/utilities but entire games...balance everything to be similar in function as any other standard tab targeted mmo and it becomes just as easily replaced with the next game taking up all the mentions on social media. Sure, you now have more balance and useful utilities, but the result is there's less flavor and no style. Do it enough to enough skills across enough profession and that becomes your reality.

But couldn't they have just, ya know, helped Sword by giving those abilities instead?

What would I do? Throwing random kitten at the wall on a test server for players to mess with probably. When some stuff works out, consider putting it into main testing for potential updates. I think a lot of discourse comes when they seemingly just change stuff just because. Just having stuff for players to mess around with on test might sate a lot of desire to mix stuff up. Since a lot of discussion is around boons, how about mixing those up? Might: instead of 30 power/condi per stack, might grants 800 power/condi and stack caps at 10. Might grants increased damage to your next offensive attack and reduces your stacks by 1 per hit. Application stacks from skills/traits/gear will have to be adjusted (with small might application dropping to 1 might, moderate might application being 2-3 and the most might applied at a time being capped to 4). This would be to rebalance might to still be great but needing upkeep not by just duration but application itself to keep the damage flowing. Alacrity: Would become intensity stacking up to 5 and would decrease cooldowns by 50% instead of 25% but only on the next skill with a cooldown is used and decrease stacks by 1. If the tech is there, making this the first user-based activation boon could be cool...like, if instead of just the next skill used, if you have a skill that is currently recharging while having Alacrity on you, you could click that skill that is recharging to apply the reduction to it. If it works somewhat well, you could try making it a full user-based activation boon, giving players the ability to strategically use skills and these boons to capitalize on a strong effect. Quickness: Shift the dynamic of this to increase skill activation from 50% to 100%...but only for basic attacks (the #1) and heal skills (#6). All other skills get a *stacking* 20% activation speed up. This means, you can then shift some of the boon to traits so if you want more activation speed up, you have to stack traits/gear/boons to get it but I'd look to keep this relegated by filtering what can and can't stack with quickness. Swiftness: Just a random idea; Add an effect that decreases the degradation of boons' durations by 33% while out of combat. I think of all the boons that is slept on primarily for its abundance is swiftness. I just want to emphasize that people should desire this boon. This, I'd imagine, would make this just as pivotal a boon when setting up prior to a push in WvW scenarios and organized PvE.

And even when they fix things that need fixing, they manage to still do odd stuff. Mirage Cloak definitely shouldn't be a stunbreak equivalent BUT it certainly should allow you to dodge while immobilized (that's the whole schtick of Mirage Cloak...dodge while standing still)...but they managed to screw that up and bundle MC's nerf with both CC and immob. Considering Full Counter not only requires adrenaline on top of a specified cooldown for the skill, many say these multiple penalties for War's profession mechanic is oppressive for utility and skill plays. That adrenaline drains near instantly upon exiting combat is another hinderance. Necro doesn't lose life force out of combat and Mesmer can still use their shatters without clones...

Oh no, you're doing it again. I'm pretty sure I did NOT say that. In fact, I'm sure I made a post in this thread about what I think they could do with conjures. I'm coming from the perspective that they don't need to make it a whole avenue of gameplay that revolutionizes the profession but rather, a niche tool that ultimately can lend itself to temp gains just like any other attunement works now.

No I'm not. You have somehow interpreted it as that though. Closest thing to your accusation I'd be making is "the profession shouldn't be stupidly power crept because you don't like how conjures work". Wow, you must have dug WAAAY deep into my post history because I did indeed complain about all of those reworks and still hold a grudge about them to this day. But I wasn't against those changes because I preferred the old version, I was against them because they simply removed the option...primarily for lame reasons that ended up neutering other aspects of the game. Instead of using their trait system to diversify how these skills work (the phantasm change was likely specifically done to make room for Mirage), they simplified and genericized. Yes, and it's called "being lazy and not thinking outside the box" as well as "not caring about your original vision". I mean, the whole horizontal progression system is mostly impractical for a game that needs to retain as many players as possible. Replacing it for a vertical progress system would have kept the game going for longer with less content. As lame as you think elementalist is currently, changing conjures to fill whatever niche hole you feel it has is only going to follow with a swath of skill changes and nerfs to other skills that you likely won't like. All for the sake of a utility skill you don't even like and will probably only use for a month after it's changed to replace it with the next thing that gets buffed (and there's spirit weapons peeking in at the finish). Yay. *golf claps*