Infusion.7149

@Batalix If a druid is getting 13K DPS benchmark it surely is not getting that in actual openworld. Why? You do not have quickness , might is reliant on Grace of the Land (you would take Ancient Seeds), and generally flanking is not possible unless it is a boss that other people are hitting. There is nothing wrong with a druid in full on DPS gearing getting 25 or even 30K DPS as a benchmark number in the long-term. The survivability of a druid without healing power and minimal access to celestial avatar (due to CA not allowing for many DPS skills) is going to be less than untamed with restorative strikes and plentiful CC or a merged soulbeast with predators cunning and poison applications. Your idea of scourge being a heal spec falls flat on its face so long as there is no alacrity application. There also is minimal might and fury output let alone other key boons such as protection and vigor. It also does not have a massive amount of healing: it is mostly barrier and ressing. Herald is not even a heal spec, it has never been used as such in WvW and in PvE you are more likely to see a renegade with soulcleave as a healer than just ventari herald. Catalyst is not designed as a heal spec, it is designed as a boon DPS, hence hammer does not even heal other players.

draxynnic makes a good point that I was hinting at earlier which is that druid will and should not be a top DPS but if someone is devoting all their other traitlines and gear to DPS it should be able to do at least mediocre DPS on par with boon supports (25K+) and roughly 20K if healing minor stat gear is used (seraph/plaguedoctor). If someone is completely clueless and decides to run power gear on druid (GS+longbow druid is a common sight when this happens) , Celestial Avatar only heals for ~230 on auto , ~2K from Rejuvenating Tides , ~1.6K from Lunar Impact. I have played a variety of support builds in openworld or solo such as cele/seraph firebrand, diviner/cele/ritualist renegade (diviner was before the Soulcleave change), StM chrono before firebrand was a thing (pre diviner gear), ritualist specter, plaguedoctor scourge, cele (alac) tempest, quickness scrapper, alac mechanist with a mace, warrior variants with tactics, etc. What is a key difference between firebrand and other specs is the compounding effectiveness against large groups of enemies (Virtue of Justice triggers). Of course, for druid in particular the best way for Arenanet to spin it into a DPS is condition hybrid builds (seraph, plaguedoctor) due to the way gearing works. To avoid breaking it in competitive modes the major condi DPS improvements could be reserved for PvE. Condi alac untamed is unlikely to be a thing after the fervent force changes , especially since hammer is a power damage aligned weapon and the reliance on projectile path of scars (offhand axe) means it is unwieldy when not near the target. Arenanet has stated that recharge traits are slowly being removed and Primal Echoes is a prime example of a trait that would be nearly useless if the recharge is removed. Also with the advent of ally target on Solar Beam (staff auto) there really is no reason that Arenanet cannot double the damage (by adding bleeding or just increasing damage) when you do not heal people (the heal is mediocre anyway when you compare to say guardian mace or revenant staff auto). If you need the full heal strength you could always just ally target. However, staff is a player choice while Celestial Avatar is a forced choice so being able to do any sustained damage at all in Celestial Avatar (even if PvE only) while traited with Ancient Seeds (beyond the daze triggering Ancient Seeds) would be a positive change. In keeping with theme it could be similar to Rot Wallow venom on specter, but that would add a bit of additional UI and code bloat (if Seed of Life does not cleanse a condition it could buff one ally to apply poison on next attack for example). Another alternative is Ancient Seeds swaps Seed of Life for another skill that removes the mediocre heal (about on par with the Cosmic Ray CA auto) and blindness (which is terrible against defiant enemies) in exchange for a bleeding or poison application. I blueprinted something using Seraph gear (35% BD, 1500+ Condi damage, 98% bleeding) and I was not really impressed by the outcome compared to viper (~1560 Condi damage, 100% bleeding but with about double the power), I really think you need alacrity (spirits) at a minimum to warrant druid. Most likely you would run ~50% BD via Nature Magic with ~1.5K condi damage and 93% bleeding, forgo Refined Toxins poison output and the poison damage of Poison Master, and run sun spirit (which has burning to offset the damage loss of alacrity output) with Storm spirit to trigger ancient seeds. Essentially you trade Exploding Spores for Glyph of Alignment if Glyphs get added bleeding. Otherwise you would probably still use Sharpening Stone for any prolonged fight over Glyph of Alignment. Lastly, if Ancient Seeds provided bleeding on immob (in PvE) it would make Stone Spirit a much stronger option for DPS druid as well as Vine Surge on druid staff and Muddy Terrain if people decide to run that. I do not think Signet of Wild is likely to be used since power druid really is not supported by the traits: Grace of the Land would need a (personal) damage bonus for that to remotely happen.

That sounds like a potential balance issue if it reduced Photon Forge by 3s per dodge.

What gameplay? Moving banners to get the effects they once had innately while requiring a trait , a relatively unused weapon, and an elite skill? Call it reposition as you want, but if the supposed repositioning requires a 25 second elite skill that is a straight up nerf across the board. If the suggestion had been to make the banners able to be picked up again by activating the skill while it is on cooldown that would have been more reasonable. That is not gameplay. That is making warrior players run around in circles to do things other specs do with one button. Additional busywork for the sake of change. The warrior meta in WVW is mainly predicated on spellbreaker CC, you moved the daze off of banners but banner of strength is very rarely run. You use break enchantments and winds of disenchantment along with hammer CC to trigger boon rips. Support (not DPS spellbreaker) usually runs banner of tactics and under your idea it would need to be used very awkwardly as the boons do not come from the banner , not to mention the removal of superspeed/resistance. Prior to banner rework spellbreaker was still run, but mainly Winds carried it over chrono or scourge boon rip. Being in melee for boon rip is generally a liability. The DPS berserker meta in WVW was mainly reliant on Arc Divider and Scorched Earth (which has line of sight limitations). Arc Divider damage is in a large AoE but the damage was cut so even if you would not get the full 3 hits unless in melee range it has less damage now. Battle Standard was used for finishing and reviving to make it a viable alternative to other DPS only options such as DPS scrapper or weaver. If you remove all the superspeed and stability off banner of tactics it means you would only be able to use battle standard and in your proposal you suggested that it no longer revives people fully. For a long time banner of defense was pretty terrible up until the barrier was added yet that is the very thing you are removing. There has been no mention of addition of party-wide protection or whatnot in compensation. That is quite something. Even if you look at the suggestion in its totality it does not make any sense to me. A conditional aegis is probably the worst thing possible for that skill. The skill without a warhorn would read something along the lines of applying regen only. Lastly, bladesworn would still be usable with your trait change just weaker since you lose pistol damage and the damage mod from Leg Specialist. Berserker and spellbreaker would not be so lucky since spellbreaker does not even have a quickness build currently and berserker relies partly on the banner damage. Therefore I do not think you understand the ramifications of your changes in all the modes banners are currently run. --- For people unclear on what this suggestion means if you do not run Battle Standard as your elite: Banner of Strength = 0 Damage, 50 cooldown, only applies might (why run it over F.G.J.) , daze if you use warhorn --- so it is only a quickness activator Banner of Discipline = 0 Damage , 50 cooldown, only applies fury (why run it over F.G.J.) , immob if you use warhorn --- so it is only a quickness activator Banner of Tactics = 0 Damage, only quickness probably, 50 cooldown, applies stability with warhorn when traited with roaring reveille --- loses superspeed/resistance meaning it is no longer usable in WvW without a warhorn but in PvE people will use it since it is the main quickness source Banner of defense = 0 damage, regen only, applies aegis when traited with roaring reveille --- loses the barrier , most people do not use it in PvE since heal warrior is meme I do not think anyone would support this if the title read I want all banners to lose a key effect unless you run a traited warhorn and unless you run Battle Standard your cooldowns are 50s

While I do not agree with the thread there is a way to prevent additional accounts in WvW being played at the same time. It is not in Arenanet's interest to stop people from buying accounts. If Arenanet only allowed one account per one hardware ID (device) at a time to connect to a given WVW matchup it would solve that so-called issue.

You still did not answer the fact that a warrior must run warhorn to apply key boons such as aegis or stability under your proposal along with Roaring Reveille (as opposed to leg specialist). That means people would only be able to run bladesworn if wanting to quick DPS and that does not even account for warhorn no longer providing a damage modifier (which is why current meta uses pistol offhand). Running banners on condi Berserker would be gutted in your proposal and the same goes for any possible quick spellbreaker where whirling axe makes a significant portion of DPS. It makes zero sense to remove bleeding completely and then try to put immob onto traited warhorn (a support weapon) as far as banner of discipline. It also makes more sense to have the daze on banner of strength as a flip skill than to make it on cast as damage is almost always applicable but daze is not. Then the idea of removing damage completely from Banner of Strength also baffles me. In order to remotely recoup your damage you would need the reworked martial cadence which shoehorns people into taking that. Banner of Defense I already stated above needs its barrier because without the barrier and without protection output you have very little damage mitigation while not using spellbreaker let alone for other players. I see no evidence of any change to banner of tactics that is meaningful for WvW since an elite skill with 25s cooldown to relocate 50s cooldown banners is basically unusable. Meanwhile you removed the (WVW) main draw to it which is superspeed and resistance (which allows you to deal with immob and chill while pushing). I do not know how you plan to execute a usage of banner of tactics while moving and also using the warhorn Call of Valor traited with roaring reveille. Call of Valor is normally used for cleanse so having your 5 stacks of WvW stability linked to your cleanse makes for a very unwieldy usage. Your whole idea would make it a mess of using battle standard to relocate the banner of tactics and also using roaring reveille, meaning three skills and one trait instead of one skill. With such a change it means DPS berserker in WVW is more or less gutted even more after the recent arc divider nerf. It normally runs Battle Standard because Headbutt is quite bad in WvW. Signet of Rage is the other option. Your entire premise comes down to wanting the same gameplay as spirits without the destructibility. That is a horrible premise especially for WvW which is the one place banners are run commonly outside of PvE. (PvP banner of defense was nerfed.) Not a single druid runs spirits in WvW unless they are PvE players new to WvW. All in all it is a straight up nerf disguised as a rework. I remember you wanting to nerf martial cadence and this is a cleverly disguised nerf to it (among other things) despite numerous nerfs that already hit the trait.

I did read your post and I already stated the reason it would not be workable. You are relying on the idea people would run warhorn and battle standard. Not a single person uses warhorn unless they are bladesworn in PVE. Using warhorn is a massive damage loss in PVE for core, spellbreaker, and berserker. Battle standard would need to replace Winds of Disenchantment/Headbutt/Tactical Reload. On top of that you really did not address what Jzaku was stating earlier, which is how you account for people running banners but not using doubled standards , Battle Standard, or warhorn. The power level of the skills drops dramatically when you look at the changes without using warhorn.

I prefer spellbreaker since it is less linear in gameplay compared to power berserker (and rips boons). If playing berserker then I opt for condi since it can have a ranged weapon. However, I have seen people do 36K or something on axe-only benchmark these days.

I do not understand the logic of the proposal. You are making it so that people need to run warhorn to fully utilize banners. Meanwhile in WvW and PvP people are slamming Banner of Tactics and Battle Standard into the ground with some opting for Banner of Defense for tankiness. If you are not even putting protection onto Banner of Defense while also taking away its barrier it becomes a very weak skill since regen requires a massive investment in healing power to be quite useful and currently heal warrior is kind of meme. In addition, if you make it a 50s cooldown in PVE rather than 30s it becomes massively worse than other aegis sources even when not including Advance on guardian. In WvW spellbreakers are likely to run Winds of Disenchantment as their elite, so predicating banners on use of Battle Standard is a roundabout way to achieve a different banner playstyle. The same goes for Banner of Strength, it is not a particularly strong skill on its own already since you only get CC and quickness comes from the Doubled Standards trait. If you remove the damage from it then it would probably be unusable in PvE instead of F.G.J. Banner of Discipline would have a similar issue. If you take the bleeding away it becomes a massive damage loss to run it, it already is only used in PvE and the fury boon is not particularly amazing. Removing superspeed and resistance from banner of tactics is massive nerf in the WvW context, even when you do not count the massive cooldown increase to 50s you propose. One stack of stability is hardly anything amazing in PvE, keep in mind it has 5 stacks of stability in WvW. Instead of all of this it would probably be 100% better in the PvE context if all the banners had their non-boon effects also appear on flip skills (CC/damage/bleed/barrier/etc).

More likely it loses distortion.

I like Advance over SYG if attacks ignore stability (see Sirens Reef). It is also a better choice for W4 Deimos since stability does not work for the slams but aegis does. On a heal firebrand or any sort of hybrid (cele/plaguedoctor/seraph or otherwise running the honor traitline) the aegis also triggers more healing.

It is fine if druid has a semi decent DPS option, it would probably be no different than say a cele firebrand/tempest/renegade. Of course having a spec designed for support does not mean you should not ever be able to do damage (see specter with ritualist gear or carrion gear , scourge before the barrier nerfs). You would trade some damage for better healing without resorting to a full on heal build. In the past the DPS druid variants were stated to be 13K DPS or something which is far too low. Really it should be around 20-30K or so in line with alacrity or quickness supports since it always has celestial avatar no matter how you make your build. Due to the player pressures I think a (PvE) DPS druid would probably still be an alacrity and/or boon source due to the way gearing works. For example if glyphs applied bleeding when traited with Verdant Etching , Grace of the Land applied bleeding on Natural Convergence in PvE, or Ancient Seeds having additional bleeding stacks in PvE that would be the sort of thing we would be seeing. Else, we could possibly see more of the Celestial Avatar skills do things other than healing when you do not use Lingering Light or higher damage coefficients overall on the druid staff and glyphs. Think of the following sorts of possibilities: Glyph of Equality (non-celestial) damage coefficient increased from 1.5 to 2.0 or something with bleeding stacks added Glyph of Tides (non-celestial) now has bleeding stacks Primal Echoes now increases staff damage coefficients or adds bleeding or whatnot Live Vicariously has some sort of conditional damage bonus or other such damage mod that is thematic (i.e. +5% bleeding damage vs crippled/immobed targets) In addition to this, there have been existing builds using druid as a DPS even if not in instanced content: https://guildjen.com/druid-open-world-build/ https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Alacrity_Support_Condi_DPS

1. That is not the definition of an alt, an alt account is another account you play whether it is on the same WvW server or on another one. 2. What do you expect people with 10K WVW rank and every WvW title to do besides play an alt? (or go PvE/PvP) 3. Arenanet needs to disconnect people constantly running into a wall for hours because those players are probably not getting pips anyway unless they do something every 10-15 minutes or so. I think you mean afkers not alts. 4. Whether a queue exists impacts how much those afk players affect the matchup. If there is no queue there is negligible effect. 5. A player with accounts on both sides of a matchup and logged into the matchup on multiple accounts from the same device should probably be flagged for match manipulation. There is a rule of one button press per action or something along those lines. Someone multi-boxing probably breaks those rules unless they outright afk on one logged in account.

There is a bit of misinformation here. Firstly, T0 keeps do have gold event participation (do not confuse event participation with the skirmish track participation). Secondly, it is apparent that player kills and standing in the circle at least counts partly for the captures. I have gotten gold event participation even when not standing in the ring sometimes but it usually means I had credit for quite a few kills (15+). Others have speculated wall and gate siege damage contribution but it probably counts for far less. I am of the opinion Arenenet should really reward grandmaster mark shards (not necessarily tickets) for silver tier T2/T1 keep captures since the likellihood of those being ktrained is lower. To my knowledge and within my testing only gold event participation allows for a grandmaster mark shard as far as caps unless it is a T3 structure.

Meanwhile mechanist is auto attacking ...

So your idea is basically half baked elite specs as an expansion feature? So instead of elite spec with weapon + traits+ skills, just traits? It still seems unlikely.

Chrono wells are bad enough , soulbeast trap(s), and so are the catalyst jade spheres and glyph of storms. Anything with 3 or 5s duration fields would be unusable. If you really want a challenge go play PvP or WvW, leave the super AI powered mobs out of PvE. There is already randomization of attack patterns present in PvE.

The point was swords are not a good indicator of player count unless it is orange.

Well the wiki is not maintained by Arenanet , many players do not know this and think it is official information. As far as swords go, even one player tagging a guard or tapping a gate will cause white swords. You need 25+ in combat for orange swords.

Regarding the underlined: The wiki does not state anything because it is meant as a reliable source of information. Anything regarding outnumbered is nearly impossible to gauge properly unless you have the entire map accounted for. Plus given the utter lack of maintenance of the minor parts of the WvW section (I single-handedly updated grandmaster shards page after the objective scaling update with over 6K pips at that patch) do not expect this sort of information. The majority of the playerbase and therefore by inference the wiki userbase also has a small subset of WvW players. Most of those WvW players will not spend the effort to document these things. The speculation is that outnumbered may not appear if you are not the lowest player count on the map and the effect only happens after one tick passed.

Zero chance due to no ROI in terms of dev time.

Reduction of alac duration from clones is a PvE nerf to staxe and it is clearly stated in the patchnote. If Arenanet was nerfing it for PvP (because rarely do people use staff in WvW due to being a projectile condi weapon) in terms of condition output then they would have done so already. That has nothing to do with one dodge in competitive modes.

Spellbreaker hammer could be nerfed at any time with a further defense retuning, whereas scrapper hammer will almost always be relevant due to being an elite spec weapon (and scrapper using quickness) so therefore it is inherently more flexible. There has not been a power quickness spellbreaker meaning any time a power spec with heavy CC and boon rip enters the realm of meta it could possibly be displaced (think power virtuoso, power reaper, power holo with mines). I enjoy spellbreaker more than any other warrior spec but up until defense rework it was not even remotely used in PvE short of fractals when the alacrity source and teammates have no boon rip. Your power options for quickness currently are: Quickness scrapper (hammer) which is probably the easiest quickness to maintain short of firebrand before the mantra revert , just use your gyros Quickness catalyst (hammer) which is harder to play properly due to the quickness only output from air attunement jade sphere Quickness StM chrono (sword, greatsword) which is not too bad so long as you make clones and shatter F1 for quickness Quickness herald (swords) which is essentially spam all facets Quickness berserker (no hammer) with banners Quickness Bladesworn (no hammer) with banners Some future deadeye build per Arenanet Playing any sort of pDPS means you are relegated to not being a key role (quick,alac,heal) and therefore considered expendable by most groups. Moreover the meta spellbreaker has zero range capability whereas quickness scrapper has grenades which are 900 range and ranged mortar (which can be swapped for the Supply crate for CC or sneak gyro for stealth skips).

In the future you might want to link claims of anything 40K+ DPS... Quick (31k)

If the barrier (Unshakable mountain) on bladesworn was shared it could be a mediocre PvE healer or maybe if Immortal Dragon shared its heal. Across the board the biggest improvement would be shared barrier on mainhand mace in PvE along with a halving of Soldiers Comfort/Marching Orders cooldowns. Spellbreaker was not really relevant outside of fractals and Q1 raid , maybe Vale Guardian or Xera as well. It does not have the tools to become a PvE support outside of might application and maybe any future sharing of the protection on Guard Counter. It is quite clear Berserker is meant to be predominantly a condi spec, with the meager improvements to power damage recently put in.