Torq.4926

I agree with normalizing the damage on path to victory/rampart splitter, since staff isn't really meant to be a damage weapon. However, I don't know about nerfing full counter when other spellbreaker builds are generally balanced or underperforming. If staff needs further adjustments, I think it would be better to reduce the base healing on its skills while increasing the scaling with healing power, that way it remains viable on support but becomes less of a self-sustain stick for power builds.

I'm used to offhand sword, so I don't really press other skills or double press the block. Disabling auto attack seemed to mostly fix it though

Not sure if staff 5 is still bugged but I've had it randomly cancel the block a few times, will test with auto attack disabled

Tested staff mainly in pvp/wvw teamfights and duels, here's some feedback for competitive modes: -Slow auto chain, hard to generate adrenaline using this. Had to disable auto attack for bugged skill 5 so it also felt worse due to being unable to interrupt autos with other skills. -Skill 2 is good, solid mobility/healing/boons. Would make sense as a leap or blast finisher. -Skill 3 looks strong on paper, annoying to use in actual fights because ally targeting is clunky. If you're focused on peeling for someone it works, but mostly ended up saving it for movement. Unblockable seems out of place with otherwise defensive support effects. Enemy target version isn't reliable enough to justify the long animation lock. -Skill 4 is great, you can about face cast to cover the animation in duels. Useful for interrupting revives and setting up weapon swap combos. -Skill 5 not bad, 2s block is kind of short for 25s cd but it comes with healing and resolution. Boon duration while blocking seems pointless most of the time. Currently bugged and will often cancel the block if you have auto attack enabled. -Burst skill is strong, only staff skill that did decent damage on power stats. Had to get used to the range since it uses hammer 3 animation but is 450 instead of 600. Tooltip says this counts as a movement skill for warrior's sprint, probably a bug. -Primal burst feels nice for an offense oriented version of regular burst. Downside is that it's worse support which might mean coping on something like staff power berserker, limited use case. Overall I think staff is one of the stronger weapons in the beta, not sure I like how much mobility/sustain this has, maybe a bit too easy to survive on. The lack of damage on most skills should limit its potential as a dueling/sidenode option though. I agree with the general consensus of reworking skill 3 and bugfixing skill 5.

At this point I'd support changing brave stride to something like movement skills remove blind/weakness when used, similar to wild blow. I still think mending could be unnerfed with a buff to restorative strength, either adding regeneration or increasing the might stacks but reducing the duration as they did for signet of rage. We've seen that splitting traits for elite specs is possible (e.g. dhuumfire), so they can make the buff not apply if you have bladesworn equipped.

The copy happens first, for example if you have 3 conditions and land full counter, it'll copy all 3 to the enemy while cleansing 2 from yourself.

It's been a few months and these traits still need help. Defense spellbreaker's damage feels quite mediocre, especially in wvw now that breaching strike finally got fixed again. I'd like to at least be able to take strength for power matchups without having a dead trait slot.

It's because signet of rage has an aftercast, if you use an auto attack (or any non-instant skill) immediately after pressing it you can cancel the aftercast to get lesser endure pain proc faster.

Now that peak performance is no longer an auto-pick for most strength builds and we've lost the option of low cd mending, it seems like a good time to buff the other 2 adepts so there's more reason to take this trait line in competitive modes. Brave stride should at least get a buff icon to track the effect, as it's often difficult to tell when the icd is up. Alternatively, in the current state of balance I don't think it would be too overpowered if the cooldown was decreased to 2 seconds in pvp/wvw. I also suggest adding regeneration to restorative strength to solidify its role as a sustain option. Assuming you took might makes right, 8s regeneration + 5 might on heal puts the hp/s of mending back around its previous traited value without buffing the likes of defense spellbreaker and berserker. This could maybe get an icd to prevent regen stacking with combat stimulant, though bladesworn would probably use brave stride anyways. With peak performance being the damage choice in pve, this should make all 3 adept traits useful and hopefully keep strength builds other than bladesworn viable in competitive.

With vigorous shouts no longer reducing shout cooldowns, there doesn't appear to be any mention of this trait in the balance preview, meaning that it'll presumably go from 48 to 60 seconds cooldown in pvp. This is a seemingly arbitrary nerf to tactics builds using soldier runes for cleanse, and is a further nerf to strength/tactics core warrior which is already losing cleanse from the increased mending cooldown. Meanwhile engineer's lesser elixir b and lesser elixir c are getting their traited cooldown reductions baseline, so this seems like an oversight.

If anyone wants to see it in action, this bug makes it impossible to hit some champion wurms (e.g. the champion ice wurm under durmand priory) with the ranged projectiles from explosive thrust, blooming fire, or artillery slash.

I was going to suggest adding regeneration to restorative strength for the same purpose, but yeah anything to make up for the loss of sustain would be nice, otherwise strength spellbreaker is probably dead. The only problem I can see with this idea is that it'd also increase bladesworn's healing, so they might need to shave combat stimulant a bit to offset that.

This seems like an unfortunate nerf to strength spellbreaker and core strength/tactics when those builds were already on life support. I guess they didn't want every build to have lower cd mending, but it'd be nice if they at least buffed restorative strength or something to compensate.

In open world you can use something like this until you've unlocked berserker, after that just change strength to berserker 1-2-2, take torch instead of offhand sword, and change the signets to rage skills. Cele damage will be low by pve standards but it should be fine for killing mobs/story bosses.

I agree with @oscuro.9720, traits like cleansing ire and adrenal health would be very strong if they were completely on use, such that I wouldn't be surprised if the effects got nerfed to compensate. However, this would penalize players who are able to land bursts consistently with the current iteration. The skill cap for core warrior originally involved counting dodges, baiting defensive skills, swapping weapons if eviscerate was going to miss, etc. since it had highly telegraphed attacks that were easy to dodge. However, that was compensated by high damage and sustain if you landed bursts, with stacked adrenal health and healing signet. I prefer the design of being rewarded for landing key skills over passive sustain, even if that drawback is unique to warrior. It's also worth noting that core warrior's sustain is actually higher than it used to be, with traited mending and might makes right giving better cleanse and dodges. Resilient roll makes it so that axe is no longer hardcountered by thief blind spam. It just lacks damage on certain skills like eviscerate and hundred blades, aside from that it's in a decent spot compared to other core builds.

I think devs should fix worse weapons like mace/rifle/offhand sword before greatsword which is already mandatory on power builds. The only gs skill that's really useless is hundred blades, which badly needs cast time reduction to be viable in competitive. I'd prefer to keep the self root and deal more dmg than become mobile and lose dmg though, our power coefficients are nerfed enough already.

Rifle is another weapon with poorly balanced skills. For example, rifle 3 is basically the weaker version of rifle 4: both inflict vulnerability and a movement impairing condition, but 4 has stronger condis and built in mobility/evade frames. The only advantage rifle 3 has is that it hits multiple targets, which is usually irrelevant because rifle isn't an aoe weapon. In the case of rifle 4, the skill does so many things that the devs probably aren't comfortable buffing it further. In my opinion there's a simple fix: move the immob to rifle 3, increase the vuln stacks, and have it pierce instead of aoe. They could then remove the attack from rifle 4 and turn it into a normal rollback like burning retreat/withdraw/lightning reflexes/etc. Right now the 4 often cancels itself because it tries to make you face your target, and I doubt the devs will create a new animation just to fix that. Even if they did, having one skill do too much isn't good design. Removing the attack on 4 improves purity of purpose and lowers rifle's vuln application to justify buffing damage on other skills. Though not fixing it completely, I think these changes would make rifle less clunky to play, since you could now use just the 3 to set up damage instead of both 3 and 4, and save 4 as a reliable evade instead of wasting it offensively.

The devs didn't say they were removing all tradeoffs, just the "bad" ones that didn't feel natural or fluid. They gave examples of druid, scrapper, and mirage as having problematic tradeoffs, e.g. arbitrary stat reductions or losing a dodge. Their examples of "good" tradeoffs were necro and guardian specs, e.g. trading core shroud for reaper shroud or core virtues for willbender virtues. (discussion is ~15 mins in the vod if anyone wants to look it up) I think trading a weapon set for gunsaber is pretty reasonable, comparable to necro trading one shroud for another. There are a couple reasons that it feels clunky imo: 1) Gunsaber isn't well designed for pvp. Most of its power budget went into the 3 and 4 skills, 1 and 2 are rarely worth your time. 5 is ok but has a weird range, and fury on a movement skill is sort of random. This leads to gunsaber not feeling like a proper weapon because you just press 3/4 then dance around waiting to f2 or swap sets. 2) Bladesworn doesn't have room for discipline. Right now strength/tactics gives too much sustain to pass up, and after the patch I think strength/defense will be the next pick if shouts fall off. Even though discipline has good traits, it doesn't offer enough raw damage or sustain to carry bladesworn in competitive modes. As a result, you don't have fast hands on bladesworn and get stuck on gunsaber after pressing 3/4. If they address either or both of these issues per your suggestions (baseline fast hands/reworked gunsaber) it will feel more like a "good" tradeoff For spellbreaker, I doubt it'll get level 3 bursts since that would just be core warrior with extra features, but could maybe see giving it level 2 to make weapons like rifle or mace more viable, as their bursts scale strongly with adrenaline level. Otherwise I think spellbreaker's tradeoff is fine, it just has a lot of dead traits/skills that need to be looked at

If a player using the Warrior trait Empower Allies is put in combat while on a mount (e.g. from getting hit by an enemy), the trait will not grant might per interval upon dismounting. This state persists until the end of combat. Additionally, when entering combat using the mount engage skills of the raptor, springer, skimmer, jackal, roller beetle, and griffon, Empower Allies also will not grant might per interval.

Seems to be properly fixed as of the latest patch, had given up hope after 4 years tbh very unexpected

If by endgame pve you mean raids and fractals, berserker is good there, it has a satisfying rotation. I wouldn't consider it really difficult to play. Power bladesworn had very high dps benchmarks in the first beta (~50k), but some traits have since been reworked, so it's hard to tell how it will perform on release. If you don't mind the stationary gameplay, it will probably be at least decent in pve. In pvp/wvw, bladesworn left a bench mark from being permanently benched in favor of better specs.

My favorite version of warrior was the gs axe/shield build back when it still ran defense and stances. It felt fair to duel against because all of the heavy damage skills were clearly telegraphed yet strong enough to feel rewarding when they connected. Adrenal health gave a lot of regen, but it was tied to hitting bursts so there was a measure of skill involved in upkeep. A good warrior had to know how to set up damage and bait dodges, the skill cap was surprisingly high. Basically, warrior had big damage in the form of melee skills which took well timed cc to land. Its sustain was high but possible to counterplay by dodging bursts or applying poison. You could nullify condi or power damage with stances, but they had long cooldowns so you had to press them at the right moment. After feb 2020 nerfs, skills like eviscerate and hundred blades no longer do enough damage to justify their cast times, and berserker stance isn't even worth a utility slot. Adrenal health and heal signet have been replaced by might makes right and mending, the old school axe/shield playstyle is pretty much dead.

After some testing, i've found that the description for the hoelbrak runes' 6th effect is incorrect. It says that they provide -10% incoming condi damage, when in fact the effect is -10% incoming condi duration. Either the description should be updated for accuracy or the rune effect should be changed to match the description. Here are the tests i used if anyone wants to reproduce: 1a. Went to the spikes in the middle of edge of the mists, walked over them without hoelbrak runes equipped and took 4400 damage from bleeding. The bleed ticked for a constant 220 damage, therefore the duration of the condition was 4400/220=20 seconds. 1b. Equipped a set of hoelbrak runes without changing anything else (build, gear, etc) and walked over the spikes again, taking 3520 damage from bleeding. The bleed ticks were still 220 damage, therefore the duration of the condition was 3520/220=16 seconds. Conclusion: The result is inconsistent with the current description of hoelbrak runes (-10% condi duration -10% condi damage means it should tick for 198 damage over 18 seconds for 3564 damage), but it does fit the old effect of -20% condi duration, which would reduce the bleeding duration from 20 to 16 seconds without affecting condi damage. 2a. Went to the instability trainer in mistlock observatory, activated an idle golem and the we bleed fire instability. Without hoelbrak runes equipped, hit the golem to proc we bleed fire, taking 1750 damage from the projectile and 3666 damage from burning. The burning ticked for a constant 1222 damage, therefore it lasted 3 seconds. 2b. Equipped a set of hoelbrak runes without changing anything else and hit the golem again to proc we bleed fire, taking 1750 damage from the projectile and 2933 damage from burning. The first two burning ticks were for 1222 damage, and the last one was 489 damage. Conclusion: The result is inconsistent with the current description of hoelbrak runes. We bleed fire provides -20% incoming condi damage, therefore the base damage of the burning from the first test would be 1222/.8=1528 damage per tick. Since damage reduction tends to stack multiplicatively, hoelbrak runes should have made it tick for 1528*.8*.9=1100 damage over 2.7 seconds for a total of 2970 damage. Instead, it appears that it ticked for 1222 damage over 2.4 seconds for a total of 2933 damage, which again matches the old effect of -20% condi duration. Edit: After further testing with curry mussel soup, it looks like condi damage reduction might stack additively, which would make the theoretical burn ticks 1070 instead of 1100 damage in 2b.

Hardened armor doesn't need a buff, passive 33% uptime on resolution is already good for a minor trait assuming they add other sources. Agree on defy pain and last stand, for berserker stance they should just revert it to pre-2016 version (-100% incoming condi duration, less adrenaline gain). Restorative strength needs overall rework, no one will ever use it when you can trait mending and take fighter rune for better effect. Also featherfoot grace should get reduced cd or resolution. Warrior didn't lose much this patch because most updated skills/traits were already off-meta, but it's a shame to see those options go in the dumpster.

sure, let's run some numbers to see how it's possibledisclaimer: i will be assuming a glass 1shot build with low survivability, most thieves don't hit this hard in spvp direct damage formula is: (weapon strength power skill coefficient)/(target armor)pvp weapon strength is equivalent to level 78 exotic weapon, which for a rifle is 955-1167 (avg 1061) for power we'll assume he used berserker amulet with scholar rune for max damage, so 1375now since he's running a 1shot build we can factor in assassin signet which is +540because he has mug we know he's using deadly arts, revealed training gives another +200most thieves run trickery so we can assume 3 might from thrill of the crime for +90finally if he's using maleficent seven in deadeye, that's 10 more might for +3001375 + 540 + 200 + 90 + 300 = 2505 power skill coefficient for death's judgment in pvp is 1.11 you didn't mention your build at the time so i will assume you had the minimum light armor of 1888 therefore the direct damage comes out to (1061 2505 1.11)/1888 = 1562 damagehis critical damage is 225% from berserker amulet + scholar rune so 1562 * 2.25 = 3514 damage with crit now let's move on to the damage modifiers which mostly stack multiplicatively, but i think sigils are additive with each otherdeath's judgment deals +15% damage per stack of malice, with maleficent seven that's +105%exposed weakness in deadly arts gives +2% damage per condition, minor traits apply poison/weakness and binding shadow has immob/vuln for +8%the 15 vuln from binding shadow is another +15%lead attacks in trickery gives up to +15%iron sight in deadeye gives +10%and let's assume he has sigil of separation and opportunity for +10%finally scholar rune bonus for +5% 3514 2.05 1.08 1.15 1.15 1.10 1.10 * 1.05 = 13072 damage so as you can see, 11k+ death's judgment is very possible under good conditions with a glass build, even if we adjust your armor up to 2167 (heavy instead of light) that would still be 11389 damage, hope this helps