Josif.2015

It's not that I don't want spear to be useable. In my opinion, I think that some of thief's spear skills have little initiative cost and can be spammed a lot and the amount of conditions applied could be problematic for PvP and WvW. Hence why I suggested toning down the number of condition stacks applied and increasing the initiative cost for some of the skills at least for those 2 game modes.

I'm fine and it's just my opinion. I tried to test every profession as much as I could during the beta and I see if a certain skill needs to be changed or not.

Mighty Throw: no changes needed. Maiming Speak: the tooltip says it applies conditions, but it only applies cripple. Maybe add bleed as an additional condition. Spear Swipe: no changes needed. Disrupting Throw: reduce the daze duration from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds. Spearmarshal's Support: no changes needed. Harrier's Toss: remove the evasion.

Barbed Spear: the tooltip doesn't say from what distance Thief can throw the spear. Add the throw range of 900 in the tooltip. Ashen Assault: reduce the number of bleed and poison stacks from 4 to 2 or 1. Mantis Sting: remove the cripple and give it to Entangling Asp. Entangling Asp: increase the initiative cost from 2 to 3 and replace the immobilize with cripple. Falling Spider: increase the initiative cost from 1 to 2. Unsuspecting Strike: reduce the leap range from 480 to 400. Vampiric Slash: increase the initiative cost from 1 to 2 and write in the tooltip that it also applies weakness. Shattering Assault: increase the initiative cost from 1 to 2 and remove the unblockable effect. Distracting Throw: no changes needed. Shadow Veil: either increase the initiative cost from 3 to 6 or remove the healing.

Abyssal Strike: reduce the Abyssal Raze cooldown reduction from 1.5 to 1 second. Abyssal Force: reduce the Abyssal Raze cooldown reduction from 10 to 5 seconds. Abyssal Blitz: increase the Abyssal Raze cooldown reduction from 3 to 5 seconds when you evade an attack. Abyssal Blot: no changes needed. Abyssal Raze: no changes needed.

Drake's Swipe, Bee's Sting, Wyvern's Lash, Cheetah's Strike: no changes needed. Mongoose's Frenzy: no changes needed. Wolf's Onslaught (spear 2 stealth attack): no changes needed. Falcon's Stoop: no changes needed. Owl's Flight (spear 3 stealth attack): remove the unblockable effect. Warclaw's Engage: remove the evasion. Predator's Ambush (spear 4 stealth attack): remove the evasion. Panther's Prowl: increase the count recharge from 10 to 15 seconds. Spider's Web (spear 5 stealth attack): reduce the web duration from 4 to 3 seconds.

Dark Slash, Deadly Slice, Sinister Stab: reduce the cast time on Dark Slash from 0.75 to 0.50 seconds. Perforate: no changes needed. Addle: reduce the Life Force you gain when an enemy is using a skill from 20% to 15% and reduce the daze duration when you interrupt an enemy from 1.5 to 1 seconds. Isolate: remove the unblockable effect. Distress: reduce the number of additional shards from 3 to 2. Extirpate: no changes needed.

Psycut, Psystrike, Mind Pierce: no changes needed. Mind the Gap: make it so you gain Clarity regardless if you hit enemies with the outer edge. Imaginary Inversion: reduce or remove the healing after you evade an attack. This skill is the same Blurred Frenzy (sword 2), but better. You have a shorter cast time, but still a 1 second evasion, you can hit 5 enemies instead of 3, you heal if you evade an attack and you remove 2 conditions if you have Clarity. Phantasmal Lancer: no changes needed. Mental Collapse: reduce the stun duration if you have Clarity from 3 to 2 seconds.

Daybreaking Dash: no changes needed. Helio Rush: the tooltip says that allies get more boons if a target is illuminated, but the only boon allies get is resolution. Maybe add regeneration and vigor or some other supportive boon. Gleaming Disc: remove the short delay for the shock wave of light. Solar Storm: make the next attack illuminated regardless if you use this skill within range of the shards. Symbol of Luminance: no changes needed.

Puncturing Jab, Rending Strike, Amplifying Strike: no changes needed. Conduit Surge: reduce the focus duration from 10 to 6 seconds. Lightning Rod: no changes needed. Roiling Skies: remove the knockdown because this skill already has two crowd control abilities. One launches focused enemies and the other stuns unfocused enemies. Devastator: increase the radius from 240 to 300.

1. Fire Flame Spear: no changes needed. Blazing Barrage: no changes needed. Seethe: no changes needed. Meteor: reduce the damage increase from 25% to 20%, it may deal too much damage when combined with Seethe's 20% damage increase. Etching Volcano: make it last longer. 2. Water Restorative Spear: it's the same as the staff's auto attack, only it heals the elementalist instead of allies. Either make it so it heals allies like staff's auto attack or increase the healing to the elementalist. Ice Beam: no changes needed. Ripple: reduce the range from 600 to 500 or 400 so it synergizes with Etching Jokulhlaup. Undertow: no changes needed. Etching Jokulhlaup: make it last longer. 3. Air Lightning Javelin: it's the same as the staff's auto attack, only it hits one target. Either make it so it hits multiple enemies like staff's auto attack or slightly increase the damage. Fulgor: no changes needed. Energize: no changes needed. Twister: reduce the float duration from 3 to 2 seconds. Etching Derecho: make it last longer. 4. Earth Stone Strike: no changes needed. Earthen Spear: no changes needed. Harden: the tooltip says it's an instant cast skill, but it isn't. Either make it an instant cast skill or add the cast time in the tooltip. Fissure: no changes needed. Etching Haboob: make it last longer.

Warrior using a staff is a solid choice, especially for support builds. Here are my thoughts on the weapon: Balanced Strike, Reverse Strike, Inspiring Whirl (staff 1): reduce the cast time of Inspiring Whirl from 0.75 to 0.5 seconds and increase the regeneration duration from 3.25 to 5 seconds. Valiant Leap (staff 2): make it a blast finisher. Line Breaker (staff 3): reduce the weakness and cripple duration from 5.25 seconds to 3 seconds and remove the unblockable boon on ally target, the heal, protection, aegis and stun breaker are more than enough. Snap Pull (staff 4): reduce the number of targets from 5 to 3 and reduce the pull range from 600 to 300. Defiant Roar (staff 5): reduce the resistance duration from 6.25 seconds to 5 seconds.

Revenant using a scepter is a solid choice, however there are some skills that need to be nerfed. Here are my thoughts on the weapon: Serene Slash, Acerbic Cut, Motivating Whirl (scepter 1): reduce the cast time on Serene Slash and Acerbic Cut from 0.5 to 0.25 seconds and change the animation so it properly matches the attack range. Blossoming Aura (scepter 2): reduce the weakness duration from 4 to 2 seconds in PvP/WvW and reduce the range from 900 to 300 because this skill becomes stronger only from autoattacks at 300 range. Otherwordly Attraction (scepter 3): the upkeep cost is too low and you can just keep scepter 3 active on an enemy, use scepter 2 with autoattacks and the enemy is permanently weakened, crippled and slowed. Increase the upkeep cost and reduce the duration on crippled from 2.75 seconds to 1.5 seconds and slowed from 1.25 to 0.50 seconds.

Thief using an axe isn't a bad choice, however it was somewhat too strong in the beta. Here are my thoughts on the weapon: Spinning Axe (axe 1): reduce the duration on spinning axes from 10 to 5 seconds. Venomous Valley (axe 2): reduce the number of axes from 3 to 2. Harrowing Storm (axe 3): reduce the number of torment stacks from 2 to 1, remove the immobilize and increase the initiative cost from 4 to 6.

Ranger using maces isn't a bad weapon choice, however the main-hand mace could be better. Here are my thoughts on the weapons: Germinate, Burgeon, Cultivate (mace 1): no changes needed. Flourish (mace 2): either reduce the healing and regeneration duration or increase the cooldown on this skill from 6 to 8. Oaken Cudgel (mace 3): replace the stun with a daze. Thistleguard (mace 4): reduce the number of conditions removed from 2 to 1. Wild Strikes (mace 5): no changes needed.