Infusion.7149

(I) Was amazed at Arc Divider nerf for WvW, there is a huge disconnect with PvE since the damage is going up in PVE and down in WVW. I am unsure what the end goal is, do they want everyone to play spellbreaker in every mode? The only way it would make sense is if Martial Cadence cooldown was halved, then it means Berserker becomes a far more potent quickness source if using tactics.

Specter needs massive amounts of UI improvement to work as a boon support (such as locking an ally). Deadeye quickness seems to be on the table, but realistically I do not see it catching on.

Honestly I would rather the alacrity be outright removed from staff and then relocated onto a trait (think Dune Cloak which is mutually exclusive with Infinite Horizon or Mirage Mantle which is mutually exclusive with Mirrored Axes). Having to use staff in PvE forces you to be relevant in maybe two or three encounters (most notably SH and TL) while being subpar everywhere else and useless underwater.

If mirage is to be a solid alacrity provider outside of raids/strikes then you really need the clone reliance to be removed and for other weapons to work besides staff. Respawning clones would not do anything, the biggest change that would improve dealing with trash mobs without a full overhaul would be dropping phantasmal warlock cooldown significantly if the target dies. Axe has a lower cooldown of 6.4 to 8 seconds and Lingering Thoughts (clone generation) is an ammo skill. Since clone alacrity generation is what is being nerfed in the May 2 update preview, I would venture a guess that the direction we are headed is the player provides the boons. I would rather Arenanet go the direction of Sand Shards on Dune Cloak trait providing alacrity and removing alacrity off mirage clone chaos vortex completely. Then again maybe Arenanet actually considers well chronomancer to be the alacrity provider for mesmer (which it could be outside of condition fights but generally is not) due to the changes slated for May 2. I highly doubt that Arenanet will allow for clone persistence inline with minions/spirits/elementals/sand shades/pets/jade mech despite the utter lack of power damage coming from them.

More waiting I guess.

You didn't specify game mode so I assume you are complaining about PvE? You didn't answer the question, since in WvW heal vindicator is pretty common. In PvE you would not run it because it doesn't provide quickness or alacrity. There is very little demand for a non quick/alac heal due to the way stats work and role compression.

There hasn't been a reason to run full leadership runes let alone full celestial for an alac renegade ever since boon duration required dropped from ~78%. Plus if you are using dwarf + shiro you aren't even using the right combination of legends for a condition build and you give up one of the main advantages of running renegade in PVE (600CC on darkrazor). It just so happens that using shortbow is well balanced for power and conditions, but if you did similar testing with a low power coefficient weapon (i.e. mace mainhand) it would skew far more towards the viper/ritualist gear. Snowcrows tries to optimize for raiding and instanced content where toughness tanking is a thing, so you would not run celestial gear to the extent of 1600+ toughness. At best you could run ~1150 (to match soulbeast) or ~1200 (to match a DPS catalyst) : anything more means you really need to communicate very well with your tank. In fractals you also get extra boon duration from mist potions so the extra boon duration is not of much help. Their (SC) site also runs minimum boon duration for StM chrono for example.

If it is about PvE most people will not run support vindicator. It is more or less relegated to WvW. If you really want it to be a strong support then the heal scaling needs to increase, 0.22 is kind of lame especially when it comes at the cost of you not able to heal yourself.

Are you running Righteous Rebel? That is the main thing limiting you besides boon duration. The only other thing I can think of is you are delaying the cast due to not having energy.

I think I addressed this in a prior thread laying out all the ways that Arenanet could possibly implement alacrity sharing. If the alacrity were applied at the start it still would not be broken. There is an ICD (internal cooldown) for attaining singularity of ~6s and that is upheld even if you have Fresh Air traited. EDIT: also if you don't complete your channel then you lose the lingering field which accounts for half the ticks on air and fire overload on any stationary target along with the might associated with the field.

Okay, thanks for being much more specific. The topic creator was stating they are having problems with sustain so I guess if they play your variant they would range with greatsword while the phantasms are on cooldown or something like that. A golem scenario is always going to be better than reality especially if the signet of ether is saved. The metabattle videos for a similar build have roughly 1 min kills for this sort of build on champions https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Phantasmal_Duelist

I think it is important to keep perspective here. Resolution, other than from firebrand, would be lacking on any other quickness and heal mech / druid as well. Even on paper if quickness catalyst can output resolution you aren't going to be doing that since firstly heal catalyst is far weaker healing and requires staff or dagger mainhand (as opposed to hammer) and energy gates jade sphere such that you want your energy to be used on air jade sphere for quickness. The only ones providing stability on demand are chrono mesmer (not really a healer) through mantra of concentration, mechanist (which if you aren't playing mace you need to use Crisis Zone off cooldown), revenant via Inspiring Reinforcement (gated by legends and energy), tempest with Eye of the Storm (which is weak otherwise and only 1 stack of stab) in PvE only unless you play staff with Transmute Earth (gated by attunements), scrapper only if you run Defense Field toolbelt (Bulwark Gyro), druid only if you slot the elite Glyph of Equality. Well of Bounty on specter has the same issue essentially (wells provide alac), with 100% boon duration you would have about 60% uptime and a quickness harbinger (again not a healer) would be hard pressed to use Elixir of Ambition elite skill for stability (the meta build doesn't even run it and uses Plaguelands). "On my Mark" is an ammo skill however, so if the above mentioned changes I put in above (mace barrier share in PvE, martial cadence cooldowns, regen on soldier's comfort in PvE, etc) are implemented you would still have one ammo remaining in case banner of tactics isn't enough. "Shake it off" is also a stunbreak so I don't see why it is such an issue that stability is 40% uptime really. Harbinger doesn't even have appreciable shared stability (Elixir of Ambition is the only source) and neither does quickness catalyst (you would need staff with Transmute earth). Quickness scrapper has low access to stability , you would need to run Bulwark gyro and use the toolbelt Defense Field ; heal druid requires Celestial Avatar for Glyph of Equality so your only stability would be from Glyph of the Stars which is mutually exclusive with Nature's Renewal or Entangle, any non healing mechanist more or less needs to use Crisis Zone off cooldown unless running a mace mainhand. Really though if stability is such a problem it could be added to Battle Standard, in all modes given its massive cooldown and mediocre kinds of boon output. I actually was surprised at Banner of Tactics being given stability as when banners were held items Battle Standard was the one with a stability skill. Warrior was never designed as a support, necro was designed for debuff/condi which is the opposite of a support which is why it has historically had issues once unshakable and defiance bars were put in, thief was never designed as a support, mesmer was never intended as a support (which is why chrono was made), even ranger wasn't designed as a support (which is why druid wasd made). The only two main supports in the core game were guardian (see empower in WvW) and elementalist (see water blast , blasting water fields in WvW). Engineer technically had med kit but until 2018 when bandage blast was remade it was not remotely competitive (and that was followed up with the 2019 gyro rework). What we have had is a decade of power creep. I really don't think it is Arenanet's plan to redesign warrior yet again (Defense , banners, Tactics all were "recently" changed), so any kind of feedback should really pinpoint the real issues instead of posting yet another 50 page treatise. ---- In the PvE context the thread is about, not really. Mantra of Lore doesn't heal other than from regen. Mantra of Solace no longer provides aegis whatsoever; meta builds do not run heal on aegis (Pure of Heart). Aegis is not a heal by itself whatsover it is damage mitigation ; the only skill on F3 that provides aegis is Unbroken Lines as I mentioned above.

If you run illusions, where is your fury coming from unless you drop domination? It is going to be a far less crit chance without dueling. In that case you are just suggesting dueling+illusions instead of domination +dueling? That part is unclear. If it is really openworld there are quite a few bosses with phase shift meaning running a fully melee build is quite a hassle and you are under the assumption you are the only person around. If it is an openworld area and there are any other people around having AoE quickness is going to be more beneficial and that is why even fast farming EU has had quickness chrono on their pages for ages. I'd be really curious to see a graph of said build with dueling+illusions however.

The 5 stacks of stability is over 40% uptime if you have 100% boon duration and have alacrity. If that still isn't good enough then Arenanet would need to add an additional source on a PvE version of a skill you don't spam off cooldown that has a limited use, such as "On My Mark". I don't see any other way for quickness unless additional quickness is locked onto bursts with Martial Cadence once more which is mutually exclusive with healing from shouts. If you rely on warhorn exclusively other than banners then it would need to be split for bladesworn. If you look at scrapper and herald they don't really have the luxury of putting out stability without tanking damage; chrono has issues with healing and so does harbinger and catalyst (not much stability either until staff aura change). The primary shortcoming right now is the lack of protection.

The only difference would be holy strike with 8s base cooldown then if you are talking about cele axe+torch with staff as opposed to axe+shield with staff for full harrier. A mace+warhorn warrior with the above mentioned changes would be roughly on par with a firebrand mainly relying on symbols and bow of truth. Mantras don't heal at all, especially with the change to prot+resolution on mantra of solace. F3 tome skills don't heal at all.

There are PvE splits and you can see firebrand, herald, and scrapper in particular. In addition, there is no clear indication there will more more elite specs: I would rather have something that makes warrior able to boon support in PvE better without having to resort to waiting for an uncertain eventuality. Honor on guardian is a core traitline, Water Magic on elementalist is a core traitline, Inventions are core traitline of engineers, Salvation on revenant, Nature Magic on ranger, Blood Magic on necromancer (although not really a heal spec), Inspiration on mesmer, Shadow Arts on thief (although heal scaling is poor). Having a support focused traitline is not really an issue but you will note the worse healers tend to not have a heal weapon whether it is thief (which gets scepter on specter that has awful heal scaling), mesmer (you can make scepter a semi-heal weapon if you use Illusionary Inspiration), and necro. I remember CmC stating that (PvP) spellbreaker was a support in the past along with tempest and that the goal was to bring back other supports other than core guard around EoD launch.

If it's PvE only Arenanet could just share the barrier on mace. That would make it a tank/support weapon and give an additional barrier source. Soldier's Comfort is technically a heal as well if you don't run Vigorous Shouts, but the cooldown is too long considering the amount of group heals warrriors have access to. It could be remade into a lower base heal with lower cooldown (4-6s) to make it more for topping off scholar uptime. It could probably also output regen for PvE purposes. Banner of defense has regen on it, so I would not say warrior does not have group regen ; if Arenanet wants it to be as broken as Unbroken Lines (prot/aegis/stab), Crisis Zone (prot/aegis/stab) or "Aftershock" (prot, aegis, reflect) in terms of one skill doing multiple things they could add prot for PVE. In general banners were reworked for PvE to have boon output, the only other real boon output is from "For Great Justice" and warhorn offhand. Likewise if Arenanet wants to shift spellbreaker into more of a support role they could have Guard Counter do AoE prot in PvE since it competes with a DPS trait; if PVE bladesworn support is to be a thing then Immortal Dragon could have AoE prot (it competes with a DPS trait) and/or Unshakable mountain could have AoE barrier in PvE. It seems spellbreaker was intended to be the support since dagger mainhand has AoE might in PVE. Key boons and effects: Quickness - Banner of Tactics, Banner of Defense/Strength when traited, Charge on warhorn , Martial Cadence is generally not going to be run on a healer Might - not really an issue but if Marching Orders had half the cooldown it would be nice Fury - Banner of Discipline generally is not run if healing, "For Great Justice" if slotted , Charge on warhorn if traited , Battle Standard Stability - Banner of Tactics Swiftness - Charge on warhorn , Battle Standard Vigor - Call of Valor on warhorn Aegis - Banner of Defense Cleanse - warhorn's Call of Valor, "Shake it Off" if slotted Regen - Banner of Defense Resistance - Banner of Tactics , Call of Valor if traited Barrier - Call of Valor on Warhorn, Banner of Defense Prot - ? Resolution - ? In summary you are really looking at a mainhand weapon paired with warhorn, "To the Limit", "For Great Justice"/"Shake it Off" (ammo skills), Banner of Tactics, Banner of Defense, Battle Standard as the elite skill. Discipline is required for quickness on banners ; tactics for the heal and added might generation.

It is at the trader https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Super_Adventure_Box_Trader#vendor11

You know if it were anything PvE it would be at least 2g per achievement (except maybe for 5 ruins but then again 2g in one week is barely anything) or 26g+ for all the weeklies... see raids and strikes. It is far less of a problem now that objective scaling was added though but it is important to note kills, camps, dolyaks, and ruins are not part of objective scaling. SMC, keep, and tower cap all are affected by objective scaling as are keep and tower defense. One thing to note is tower defense is extremely finnicky and for some reason memories of battle aren't distributed instead of resonating slivers.

They added a whole set of Generation One weapons as well as a Black Lion "Collapsing Star" set. It is not much different to other events in that they slowly put out the vendor/lootbox ones. Last year we had Hardlight weapons.

Seems like a nightmare to balance, particularly the barrier and cleansing added on. Mechanist already has Shift Signet. Instead of all that they could have mechanist traits do something when the mech is away (see J-Drive), for example if Barrier Engine had stronger barriers on mace while the mech is away. Mechanist already has ranged combat options, whether you run mainhand pistol, grenades, mortar kit, or rifle. On top of that, adding a rudimentary underwater mech would go a long way.

"While having the trait Improved Alacrity equipped, alacrity gives 50% skill recharge rate (recharge is around 66.67% of the original time). So for every second under the effect of alacrity, skills recharge 1.5 seconds." https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Alacrity

It is not OP but the older version was harder to maintain scholar uptime.

The weekly is inconsequential for the most part. 8g is less than half hour of fractals or anything openworld and if you are after skirmish tickets you are better off just capping things with gold tier event participation. Most caps now give grandmaster mark shards these days, including T3 defenses as well. T2 defense also gives a ticket.

I'd rather they put in additional memories of battle instead of resonating slivers honestly. With the change to objective scaling it really doesn't make sense to put in so much effort for the weekly, as almost every capture has a ticket except for if you only have bronze level event participation and the same goes for T3 defenses. The main problem with having it repeatable as it is now is if it rewards tickets then capping SMC is disproportionate to everything else. Repeats would need to reward memories of battle or something.