Kuya.6495

The thing that always astounds me about ele mains the most is how they whine the most yet understand their class the least. "Ele is bad at pvp! It goes down in one hit" "I don't care that the end game meta is stacking at melee! I want to roleplay as ranged dps!" Truly, one of my least favorite genders.

The main reason to buy the expansion if you like pvp is the elites, which is a good enough reason. And I think bladesworn, spectre and vindicator are currently good in pvp, at least as they currently were in the last betas. I really wouldn't be too worried. Just buy the expansion whenever you feel there are enough elite specs to get you interested. Maybe none interest you now, but that doesn't mean that won't change in the future. You're not obligated to buy the expansion as soon as it gets out. How many iterations of dragonhunter and firebrand did we see in pvp? At launch DH could only be a full trap meme build and then we got a symbol build and medi dh team fighter later on after balance adjustments, two builds which are still used today. And firebrand... well it goes to show you sometimes elites are viable in pvp and then they get nerfed out viability too. 🤷‍♀️ Anyway I'm buying the expansion cause I really liked bladesworn, mechanist, spectre and harbinger. I'm really hoping they make willbender viable though.

So what i liked: 1. I think you hit the theme out of the park with this one. The name, animations and effects fit the theme you were going for. 2. Single target healing isn't revolutionary for most other mmorpgs but for in gw2 it is different and unique so I like that. 3. You managed to make scepter on thf fun to use and that surprised me. I also liked the mechanic of sacrificing shroud for support. What problems I could see: 1. Scepter: The shadowstep on scepter 3 for the beam seems a bit clunky? Sometimes you want to support a teammate but you don't want to port to them. Why not just change the skill so the first button is the channel and the switch over skill cancels the tether/beam and actually does the port? It gives you more control over when you should port or not. 2. Alacrity: it's able to give 5 people alacrity well enough but with mirage and renegade giving 10 man alacrity, spectre seems like a poor replacement for that specific role. Spectre is better off than mechanist as at least it has an easier time doing damage, giving barrier, healing and even giving quickness to 3 people. Still though if what you want is alacrity for 10 people, then spectre isn't it. I also don't like that even with lots of concentration, it feels like you need to take at least 3 wells to keep a semblance of stability on upkeep of alacrity. 3. Siphon felt not very interesting to use on enemies. In pve, siphon on allies was great though. It lets you insta rez an ally at range but on enemies it feels like it's not as interesting. Suggestions: 1. Change scepter 3 so endless night fires first without the shadowstep and make the flip over skill measured shot instead. Seems underwhelming since what you really want is endless night but that's the point. 2. As for the alacrity target cap. I dunno, raise it to 10 people instead? Unless you plan to reduce alacrity to 5 target cap on mirage and renegade too. Also, could you spread the alacrity around a bit on the spec? Perhaps put some in shadowshroud or in one of the scepter skills? It might help with actually letting you save some wells for when you really need them rather than spamming them all for alacrity. 3. Maybe make the trait that makes siphon give more shadowshroud from enemies have additional effects? Maybe alacrity around allies near you? Something to make it something a little more interesting. That's it! Thank you so much for creating this spec! It was really fun to play and the theorycrafting around using it has been really entertaining. I really hope you use specter and mechanist as good examples for how you can make the other elites more interesting .

What i liked: 1. Out if all the elite specs, I felt this one was the most realized as far as a theme and functionality was concerned. 2. I appreciate that you gave engi access to alacrity. 3. It was really easy to upkeep perma alacrity. You don't even need concentration if you go mace and use the middle trait lines. Maybe you need to bring the barrier signet. What I had issues with: 1. Mace: In pve, I tried to test ways to do decent dps using the mace since it had a lot of condi. Unfortunately I felt that using skill 2 and 3 was a dps loss and you did more dps just auto attacking. Using mace Unfortunately also conflicts with pistol 2 which means if you wana go condi, you're still better off using pistol over mace. Now the problem i see is that you probably don't want mace to do too much. It does barrier, condi and cc, so I presume you toned the condi down to offset. Unfortunately it just feels like mace suffers from this? If you want to go condi, you can just use pistols and if you want to give alacrity you could always relegate it to your mecha and still go pistol. I honestly feel like you should just get rid of the condi on the mace and just add more barrier application, cc or even better, condi removal. In pvp I had issues with condi bombs if you don't take kits for light fields. 2. Signets: I actually really liked the signets, they look good and they even work if your mecha is gone. You also fortunately added a trait that enhances signets, so thank you. Now the problem isn't really mechanist's fault. The problem is kits are just so good that it makes it hard to justify going signets for anything other than barrier and elite signet. It's hard to compete with what is essentially a firebrand tome with no charges and no cds on re-entering. 3. Condi removal in pvp: i enjoyed playing sidenoder or bunker in pvp. Even if the mecha goes down a lot. My problem was that the mechanist essentially had no condi clear on its own. I'm not 100% sure the trait that lets your mecha condi cleanse also applies to you. I think it didn't. Why not? Also why not give signets a condi removals? Or mace? The teleportation signet seemed like the least useful in pvp since the cast time is long and the range isn't very far. If you gave it 2-3 removal of condis it might be worth considering. 4. I like how the mecha looks and the animations are great. But in pvp it either stomps newbies because it's auto attack does a lot of damage, particularly the ranged one, or it gets absolutely destroyed and it's basically on respawn all match. It's a conundrum because you don't want a pet build that is so good it plays itself but you don't want the engi to feel like half a class because the mecha is always down. One option is to make it so the engi is self sufficient enough that it doesn't need the mecha except for clutch plays but you run the risk of making it so in pve not using the mecha at all is optimal. Perhaps you should do something similar with the other two grandmaster traits like you did with J-drive: an effect that occurs when the mecha is gone. You just gotta make it so the off cooldown effect is something that would only be useful in pvp and not pve. 5. Alacrity: so this isn't really a problem with mechanist itself. It's more so that it does 5 target alacrity but renegade and mirage can do 10 man alacrity. I dont see why you would take mechanist to sub in for the role of mirage and renegade as alacrity suppliers unless you plan to raise mechanist alacrity application to 10 man or plan to nerf mirage/renegade down to 5. Suggestions: 1. Add more sustain on mace in the form of condi removals and maybe more active defenses that also benefit allies similar to what guardian mace 3 does. Feel free to remove the condi on mace to balance out the enhanced defensive elements. 2. Give the teleportation signet condi cleanse. Can't really suggest much else since kits are just too good and somehow making signets match that to compensate for the loss of tool kits is impossible short of making signets overpowered. I guess you could make it so the signet passive also modified the mech's f abilities in a way reminiscent of the tool belt kit? 3. Do something similar to the other two grandmaster traits like you did for j-drive that adds some complexity to not having the mecha around. Also while you're at it, make the orbital strikes leave a damaging field that is an electric combo field. For middle grand Master maybe maybe make it so engi auto cleanses conditions on a set interval when the mecha is gone and/or make it drop water fields on top of your current location on set intervals)? For top grand master maybe make it so when the mecha dies, instead of flying away, it explodes like a bomb launching nearby enemies and makes it so the engi strips boons around himself on a set interval. Maybe make it so a fire/poison field triggers on interval at the engi' location when the mecha is gone to keep the theme bottom/electric, middle/water and upper/fire or poisonin but I think the Boon strip/launch is more important as it keeps what I'm aiming for in making it so the mecha dying can be useful on pvp but not in pve. Also, lower the damage on the golem in pvp to compensate for these changes. 4. Raise alacrity target cap to 10? I dunno you haven't said if you intend to reduce mirage and renegade target cap to 5 or not. Thank you for this spec btw! This, spectre and bladesworn have been the funnest to date!

Set your status to offline and turn off chat when playing pvp matches if the comments bother you. It's not like you were missing much by ignoring team/map/whisper chat in pvp. It will make pvp more enjoyable for you. And if you want to play better, there are guides and pvp streamers online you can look at, rather than taking advice from an angry rando.

There are so many factors that can make a match one sided in unranked or low skill rating ranked, that it's almost not worth considering. A better use of your time would be to focus on getting better at the game, and finding the professions and specs you most excel at than worrying about balance that isn't even really relevant until you're at gold 3 skill rating and above. You will get closer matches are you rise in skill rating, which is not determined by your pvp rank (dolyak, dragon, etc). When you began the conversation by saying your rank is dolyak, it pretty much told everyone everything they needed to know about how little experience you have with the game mode.

Like felix mentioned, the condi spike is more scattered unlike the high burn stacks a guard can dish out. The problem is the weaver bot moves through it's rotation so quickly, it's hard to react to it. The only saving grace is once you know what rotation it's using, you know it will always do the same thing. Additionally they never attempt stomps or rezes. So never bother trying to rez a teammate yourself otherwise you will get caught in the downcleave. Just freecast at the weaver bot from a distance and hope it has taken enough damage once it is done killing your teammate that you can solo it. You can also confirm it's a bot by doing this: get their the enemy teammate who isn't a bot to let you down them. Then you and your teammate run to the other side of the map. The bot will chase you two and completely ignore the non bot teammate on the other side of the map they could safely rez. It's hilarious

It's annoying but all revive from downstait skills have long cast times so it's not hard to counterplay but I can understand why it's annoying. Instead I will instead say traited necro f4 and invul ressez are the real problem balance wise.

Haven't met the pack of weaver bots in 2v2 queue right now, have you?

I voted for liking to fight guardians, warriors and engis. I main guardian so fighting these classes feels like very exciting duels to see who knows their profession better. Obvious tells on most skills, and exploitable weaknesses (guardian weakness to strike damage spikes, warrior and engi weakness to condi spikes). The exception to this would be trap DH with rune of the trapper which i hate. I voted for hating to fight: necros, eles, and rangers I hate any build that can knock off more than half of my health in an instant and i hate classes with lots of npcs. I hate almost every necro spec. scourge won't let anything die, reaper does way too much burst damage with so much defensive utility and i HATE minion mancer. Eles are memes, but i am irritated that people keep saying ele is bad until a weaver who wont die rolls up who also instantly wipes half of your health away (this is probably a concern for low hp professions though). And rngs for pretty much the same reasons, i hate the pet and i hate the burst spikes from invisible. The invisible trap rng user is also infuriating on top of that stupid plant pet. Just very frustrating gameplay experience. While mesmer and thf are also bursty professions that have npcs and can attack from stealth, i find that they're are glassy enough that you can easily retaliate. Mesmer clones die fast, and sometimes you accidentally kill a thf you didn't even notice was there, so i don't feel frustrated fighting them nor do i enjoy fighting them either.

Why in the world would you nerf support guard when the only reason it's used is because every other healer was nerfed into oblivion? You can't carry your team with support guard if your team is bad. I will however say that fighting a support guard and a scourge at the same time is irritating. But I'm not sure the problem is support guard there. Barriers cover the guard's weakness of having low hp pool while guard gives the scourge stunbreaks and stab. If anything what you want is a nerf to scourge rez (which is really core necro rez) and barrier applications. What we need is more healer alternatives that aren't guard. Please bring back support tempest, druid and ventari (not the bunker though)! One thing anet should do for pvp supports is to more clearly make a distinction between support healers that provide defense against burst damage vs support healers who cleanse condis. A healer in pvp should not be good at both at the same time to leave space for counterplay.

Why do we need to implement forced ranked team queue if we already have automated tournaments (in which you must be in a party of 5)?

So i tried to make this spec work in pvp and pve, so i'll give feedback on both. PVP I think i'm not too sure what role this spec plays in pvp. It feels like an upgraded version of core ele, but i suppose that makes it a burst spec? I tried to play it more as a bruiser but the sustain was not there, particularly on hammer. And why would i want to make catalyst into bruiser when we already have weaver? Support is already covered by tempest so i suppose dps it is. Anyway i gave up cause i couldn't make a good build that used hammer with this spec that didn't die instantly. I did see that the pros were using this build with lightning hammer for bursty builds though. I honestly don't have any suggestions here since i don't know what else to do to make it better in pvp. PVE Wells are stationary: I tried to play it as a quickness support spec and i found you can maintain perma quickness, but unfortunately in a real world environment it was actually very hard to keep up in fractals. I think the biggest problem i had with the sphere was that it was stationary and in fractals you frequently move so there was just no way to consistently keep quickness up and the lightning well is your only source. If the idea was to make ele a viable quickness provider, i think it would be a good idea to make the wells follow your character so you can consistently provide quickness to your allies even during movement. Hammer doesn't have enough reason to use it: A lot of the build seems to be made around using auras to raise your own stats and combo finishers give auras, but despite this fact the hammer has relatively few combo finishers. Was this a balance choice? I feel like using the hammer as the go to weapon for this spec would be a lot more viable if it were the weapon with the most combo finishers. I would recommend adding more finishers to the hammer so it can actually synergize better with your traits. Otherwise, people will just choose a different weapon. Energy management is a chore: I found it easy to max out quickness so much that i felt i didn't need to keep up my lightning field for the full duration, but when i decided to shut it down so i can change my attunements and do a damage rotation, i get punished by having my energy reset. Why? This build's wells seems like a very wonderful mechanic considering you have access to 4 different fields, but you barely have a chance to use them appropriately because if you turn them off, you lose all energy. I did find you can get back a lot of energy if you switch quickly between attunements, which is fine, but i feel there should be other alternatives to gaining energy beyond just jumping rapidly between one attunement to another. Perhaps modify a trait so producing combo finishers on hammers gives energy? It would synergize well with my suggestion to add more combo finishers on hammer and make it more likely catalysts will want to use hammers. Another suggestion would be to remove energy reset when you turn off the sphere well. It doesn't seem fair that you lose all your energy because you have high enough concentration to max out quickness quickly. If anything, for maxing out quickness quickly, you should be allowed to save your energy for another field. Summary for recommendations: make sphere wells move with the player so fast content like fractals is more viable. Make hammer have more combo finishers to make it synergize with traits better. Make energy not reset when you shut off your wells, and make hammer combo finishers provide additional energy to incentivize hammer use and combo field use. Miscellaneous suggestions: Utilities were pretty boring, including the elite. Maybe make them more interesting by having more active effects? Perhaps make it so the utilities trigger combo finishers when used in wells or make it so a trait allows this in case you don't want to run hammer (for whom i hope you will add more combo finishers). Maybe make the elite trigger all combo finishers in sequence if you're on a combo field (blast then 3 seconds later, trigger leap, projectile and then whirl). I don't really care too much for the complaining about ele not having good ranged builds, but perhaps it wouldn't be too much trouble if you increased the range of fire/air to 900 to at least satisfy this demand. It would certainly be helpful in pvp. Maybe if you decide to raise the range on fire/air skills, you can keep sphere wells as targeted, but just lower the CD so you can quickly readjust your fields if you or your team have to move (and also remove energy reset).

I only played vindicator in pvp, so this is feedback related only to that game mode. What i liked: I liked that the GM trait vastly changes how the dodge is used and how it works. It works pretty well in pvp as a bunker using ventari but it was a bit meme. Hopefully something more viable at high end pvp can come out of it. It might have been a bit broken with just spamming dodge using the vigor you get from the ventari orbs. What i'm skeptical about: The dodge evade frames. I mostly just used the defensive barrier dodge, but frequently it felt like i could get cc'd mid animation for the dodge. Is this intentional? I guess that can be considered counterplay but i would prefer that the dodge frames last the duration of the animation, as getting cc'd while you're in outerspace is extremely disorienting. The way you change between the red and blue utility skills. I never tried this, but i noticed some people simply did not take the legendary alliance utilities and just took the traits. I should have done the same because using these utilities in pvp is a nightmare. You use say, your blue heal skill to provide team support, but then you need it again so you use f2, but then it switches your other utilities to the red ones when you didn't want that. It mostly promotes spamming all your utilities before using f2 which does not feel interesting, strategic or fun. I think a simple solution is just making it so f2 changes all your utility skills to either red or blue and they no longer swap on use. Meaning, if i tap my blue heal skill, only my blue heal skill will come back up when it's off cd and the only way i can change to red is by clicking f2.

Sometimes, when I go to unranked for some reason, I find teammates who are so so bad, that I think they are bots but they just end up being pve players. Also, I almost never hear anyone complain that the enemy is a bot. It's always how your teammates are bots. I find that curious.

You don't even have to go full trapper if you don't want to. Just test of faith is enough to give a d/p thief trouble when they port in and out, damaging themselves. Take the stunbreak trait on dh so their initial steal will trigger your stab trap so they can't do a follow up cc. Whatever you do, don't let them drag out the fight or they will run out your CDs (even though if a thf has to invest that much time that they have to wait for you to run out of CDs, they are throwing). So be very aggressive. Do be aware that a p/p thf build, while a meme, can wreck even a DH if you're not used to dealing with them. Save your shield 5 and f3 for these occasions and counter attack with lb.

No

The duality of man: Complaining that the new elite specs have too much counterplay, whilst every other thread in the forum is complaining about scourges being unkillable, and warriors, rangers and revs bursting people into oblivion in seconds flat. 🤷‍♂️ I for one think they just need to nerf the PoF and HoT specs to be in line with the newer elites (some specs, like willbender and catalyst, still need some adjustments).

My experience with the spec has been only in PvP, but first what I liked: 1. Out of all 6 new elites so far, this one is my favorite. Both in terms of style but also design. 2. I like how you made the ammo system use a core mechanic of this elite and how it works with other ammo based utilities in the core war kit (shouts and physical skills). 3. After finding out about how low the damage is on the dragon trigger, I switched to a bruiser build using tactical reload with shouts. It worked very good for side nodding and pretty good support in a team fight. I used unyielding dragon for massive CCs during team fights and I found that worked well when cleaving the downed. Now for criticisms/suggestions: 1a. The problem: The damage on dragon trigger is extremely low given how long you sit on the trigger for a full 10 charge. Even if you spec for full glass, it still feels like gunsaber 2 does more damage. I imagine that you were afraid of people using unyielding dragon and with a max charged dragon slash absolutely wrecking the enemy team with 5 second stuns and instantly downing low HP enemies. 1b. Solution: there's a lot you can do. You can raise coefficients in pvp so the damage is highly dependent on using full glass to get very high damage out of dragon trigger. Or, if your main concern is the stun, put a trait in the other two GMs that raises dragon trigger damage (you would have to balance this with pve since the spec already does like 50k dps) so if people want their high damage dragon trigger, they can't have the unblockable stuns as well. 2a. Problem: When you enter dragon trigger and use it, the cooldown is also applied to your weapon swap as well. This makes sense in pvp since it makes for good counterplay to pressure a bladesworn after he uses dragon trigger but it's completely unnecessary in pve and spoils damage rotations. 2b. Solution: you should remove the cooldown for swapping out of gunsaber after dragon trigger in pve. It doesn't make sense there. Now for pvp, I still think it's a good idea to keep it so the bladesworn can't immediately change to mace/shield and turtle you. Now if you are forced to stay on gunsaber, there needs to be more defensive play on the weapon so you're not completely helpless while you wait for weapon swap. Consider adding evade frames on gunsaber 5 and consider extending the duration of missle block for gunsaber 4. Again, good job on the elite. It's really fun to use and it's a real blast watching several bladesworn dash around the arena trying to see who can anime who first. I love watching bladesworn vs bladesworn duels!

Not really. 4 just knocks them away from you (when you want them close) and 5 just locks them in but they can still retaliate or block. Heaven's Palm on the other hand is a knock down with a decent duration so you can use the opportunity to spike the enemy unimpeded (it lasts so long you can even use sword 4!). The issue is that the windup is massive and there is practically no damage on the elite to boot. The very least they could do is give it might stacks or vuln stacks (or both!)

I find it always lands if you cast JI at the last second before heaven's palm hits. Practically guarantees a hit unless the player is watching you cast it and knows you have JI. But you're right. It's not particularly powerful for something that requires you blow an elite plus a utility to make good. Maybe it needs way higher damage. I still like combining this too because most people are perplexed when you hit them with this combo. Edit: double post. Please delete

I find it always lands if you cast JI at the last second before heaven's palm hits. Practically guarantees a hit unless the player is watching you cast it and knows you have JI. But you're right. It's not particularly powerful for something that requires you blow an elite plus a utility to make good. Maybe it needs way higher damage. I still like combining this too because most people are perplexed when you hit them with this combo.

So I wanted to make a more organized feedback post than my first one after playing even more with the spec, mostly in pvp. The virtues: 1a. Problem: F1 when used without a target stops suddenly at the end, hindering movement. Additionally when used on a target the delay before the attack is actually used is so long, most people just walk out of the way, not to mention people rarely stand in the willbender flames it leaves behind anyway. 1b. Solution: Consider perhaps speeding up the part of f1 that actually damages opponents. It doesn't seem like the damage it does it really worth such long wind up. Also is it possible to remove the wind up when no target is selected so as not to hinder mobility? Another thing about the f1, which i think is the worst one, can we consider adding an immobilize on it? It is way too easy to avoid the flames from this attack and adding a cc might make it synergize better with the rest of the kit and the traits (lethal tempo and holy reckoning). 2a. Problem: The other virtues are mostly fine. My only issue is range. It feels like you decided to really limit the range because you felt guardian has fundamentally more survivability than thief, but the ability of thief to disengage with stealth is really important and with willbender you don't have access to this plus you have no passives. I found myself frequently getting chased down and killed by necros, eles and rangers and I kept asking myself how is this a mobility spec if I keep getting caught up to by other classes that aren't even revs or thiefs? Part of the problem is that the virtues just have too little range. And also when you use the virtues offensively, you might catch up to a target but your ability to lock them down so they can't get away from your dps or flames is severely limited. They just keep running and you are just left spamming all your dashes just to keep up. 2b. Solution: please increase the range on the virtues so it's actually viable to escape when chased. I think 600 on f1 and 900 on f2 and f3 is fair. I already suggested immobilize on f1 (maybe if you touch its flames rather than on the uppercut) so you can actually follow up after chasing down a target but I think cripple on the flames from f2 would also help make flames more punishing if you cross them (because right now nobody stands in them and nobody really cares about touching them. Right now they just look pretty) and helps the spec actually follow through on a chase. The sword: 1a. Problem: with sword 4, when I actually combine JI and heaven's palm (I love this combo btw) I usually follow up with sword 4. The target loses a nice chunk, about 25% of its hp. When a thief does this however, they usually take down up to 50% of a target's health and then they disengage in stealth and do it all over again. 1b. Solution: consider raising the the damage on the second hit of sword 4. For all the wind up, the damage is very underwhelming and since damage seems to be the point of sword off hand, it makes it a very poor choice in pvp. It does way less damage than true shot for example. 2a. Problem: sword 5 is good for mobility when no target is selected. When used for actually engaging an enemy, it almost always misses. The enemy gets away from you when they see the rush and consequently are out of range from the shadowstep. 2b. Solution: make sword 5 on willbender like rev sword 5 (deathstrike). As in, instead of a rush then a shadowstep, just make it a shadowstep. The traits: 1a. Problem: people don't even want to use the adept traits because they take too much and give too little. Although I like the concept of plus/minus on traits for balance I think they could use some additional benefits. 1b: solution: I: Boon pact: I don't have much experience using this one. Doesn't seem like a pvp trait. Looks like it synergizes with Phoenix Protocol. Given that this is a selfish spec, why not give it quickness on virtues activation? It might also help buff the damage on this spec for pve which apparently isn't very good. II: Power for Power: i use this one right now. Pretty straight forward. If you feel iffy about putting immobilize on f1 active or flames, why not put it here as an modification? As in you take Power for Power and f1 now immobilize when an enemy touches the flames on the ground. Another option is to stick a damage bonus for sword here or cooldown reduction for physical skills here. III: Conceited Curate: I tried to make a bruiser build with this but the sustain just wasn't there. Maybe raise the healing power on this. Also, can we put some up front healing on f2 here? Maybe similar to meditation healing? 2k? If you have to choose between raising healing power or giving a 2k heal to f2, i would honestly prefer the latter. 2a. Problem: Restorative Virtues is the one I use right now in pvp and it's fine. I hear Holy Reckoning is good in pve and wvw with lots of enemies but in pvp particularly if you're running a bruiser build it doesn't work. Especially because getting people to stand in the willbender flames is incredibly difficult. I have no opinion on Vanguard Tactics since I haven't used it. 2b. Solution: there's lots of things you could do with Holy Reckoning if you want to make a bruiser build viable. You could make it so your flames pulse protection on you when you stand in them. Or you could make it so your flames and activating your virtues heal you. Another interesting mechanic might to make it so you heal when you dash or shadowstep. Or even better, do all 3! Have healing on flames, virtues and dashes and shadowsteps. That way you still get consistent sustain and healing but are further rewarded for keeping your enemies in your flames. This might also replace the lost passive healing from f2. 3a. Problem: i have no opinion on Tyrants Momentum and Phoenix Protocol (although they both seem like dps traits and are both in direct competition with eachother) since they seem more like PVE traits. As for Deathless Courage, it has a lot of potential to really reward kills in pvp. Only situation i found with this trait is that the buff lasts 4 seconds and the time it takes to stomp is 3.5 seconds. You literally have to port with f3 and you have less than a second to start the stomp before you lose the buff and you go down. 3b: solution: I think I'm going to have the courage to suggest that increasing the buff to 5 seconds from 4 would not be game breaking and it would accommodate rewarding good play. There is counterplay to this trait since your stability can be corrupted or stripped. Also if Tyrant's momentum is meant to be the dps trait and Phoenix Protocol is meant to be the "mobility" trait cause it lets you use your mobility skills more often, then it might be a good idea to stick something that puts further emphasis that this is a mobility trait, such as superspeed on virtues use or something.

Mobility is pretty good in pvp. The healing power traits in exchange for outgoing healing didn't seem to help much in making a bruiser and the trait that let's willbender flames heal you also didn't seem to do much if you're running a bruiser in pvp. I dropped these soon after playing. The ability to surprise spike someone using JI and the heaven's palm is great but the follow up with sword 4 seems to be lacking. It takes off quite a chunk of hp but not enough that it feels like it compensates for how easily you'll get spiked back once your cool downs are finished. I think sword 4 could use more damage on its second hit. Edit: just to add to what others have said: f1 when used without a target does a sudden stop that ruins mobility. It also feels really easy to avoid for how little damage it does in the first place. The range makes you feel like you're better off walking. Sword 5 also is super clunky. You use it and by the time you reach your target they're already our of range of the shadowstep. This skill would be infinitely more useful if it were simply a shadowed rather than a rush. So far f1 and sword 5 are the most frustrating parts of the kit. With sword 4 being a close second with how little damage it does considering how long it takes to land it. Edit: 2 Is the heal skill supposed t to allow you to get hit multiple times before it procs? It feels like i activate it and keep getting hit and then die before the triggered heal actually reacts. Edit 3: can we generally just increase the range on all the virtues? It feels like you severely limited the range on them cause you thought guard would be too tanks to merit a range to match the with their shadowsteps but it really just feels like you're spamming useful combat skills just to move the same distance as JI and that just feels wrong.

This spec is gonna be so good for pvp. Duelest/roamer blue class op Can't wait!