nthmetal.9652

That's not true. A stomp acts like a channelled attack and usually, when you move, this interrupts this kind of channel. You can easily test this, by starting stomp and moving a little. A teleport should count as movement in this context and interrupt the channel. Executing an attack while stealthed usually reveals you. I understand that with normal attacks, the reveal happens on hit (or miss), so the solution here is kind of consistent, however as a stomp doesn't just damage someone, or even down someone, but it outright kills someone, the rules here should be altered due to the severity of the consequences. The reveal should happen when the attack starts, stealthing should interrupt the channel. I have no problem with stability working just as normal and invulnerability working just as normal. I guess if someone is willing in invest in becoming invulnerable and having stab to stomp someone, that's a pretty steep cost for a pretty steep consequence. Seems fair.

agreed. 🙂 And the side effects on PvE we see are just that. Side effects. However, PvP and WvW are in this game. And especially WvW is monetized and continues to be. We also can assume that the income from this gamemode is relevant, because otherwise it could long have been removed. Which in turn would allow us to replace the current transfer and WvW population and linkup-mechanism with one, that would be a lot more fair. But as things stand we have to assume the income generated from WvW transfers are relevant. I am also confident, that collaboration between the PvP / WVW team and PvE team and resources allocated to skill design can solve the current issues. There must be ways to design skills and traits so that they break PvP modes less than they do currently, while at the same time not hurting PvE. And it's not as if all was well in PvE land either. Look at the meta group composition for raids. Look at the build variety for raids and fractals. We have plenty of specs that are not overly welcome in group content, we have whole traitlines, that are mostly irrelevant in high-tier PvE mode AND in PvP. So there is a lot of work to be done.

It is actually very easily avoided. It doesn't even take any skill. The only action you need to take is .... wait! 🧠

I wonder, what is confusing people ... but then again, if it confuses people to wait a few seconds, before they burst on a downed player, this reaction is understandable ...

That is maybe a root cause, but not an excuse. If a design is used in PvP and PvE context, and the primary development team for skills is PvE focused, then the solution should obviously include a better interaction of the PvP and PvE teams. And even I agree that many of the problematic aspects were changed, because especially in the PvP or WvW context they actually do cause actual problems. However, treatment of said problems is not done consistently, and, again, the solutions are incomplete. Why is it not done consistently? If this were done consistently, we would have a treatment for stealthing and restealthing, which leads to single persons keeping a whole zerg busy when trying to free a keep of thieves hiding inside. That by itself would maybe not even be problematic, but someone had the bright idea to also give that thief a portal. Or we would have a closer look at how layering AoE effects, which are often not reflectable, are stacked in a mass PvP context and thus lead to devastating effects. If this game was not monetized, I would maybe agree with you more. But it is. It's not as if anet is not taking money from players who want to transfer from one server to another. And as they take money, it's not only about being "nice", it's kind of mandatory. And some of these changes do not only affect WvW, they affect PvP, and possibly even PvE. Generally a better interaction between PvE, and the PvP team should help with such incomplete solutions. Teamwork is almost always key and in the end every player will have a better game experience.

That's a whole lot of nonsense. People who get into downstate do get punished and not rewarded for it. Yes, there's a few seconds of invulnerability, but before we even start to tackle things like that, things that allow stuff like powers designed to help rez downed allies to work, stuff that allows for downed players to actually trigger their downed skills, we should take a look at way more important things. Like how a single deadeye can keep a whole zerg busy, when trying to catch them inside a keep to prevent them from porting their allies in again. Like how people can come out of stealth and down the less HP-heavy professions in one or two seconds. The invuln at downstate is not really an issue. Also, if we ever get a redesign of how downstate works, please also rework several things connected to downstate or stomping downed players: - no stomping from stealth - no start stomping, teleport away, teleport back and finish stomp - skills that affect downed players should be more effective, when rezzing downed players if invuln is removed - OR said skills should be removed and replaced with something actually useful - traits that affect downstate, or rezzing downstate should be reworked or removed

There is a design pattern in recent fixes, balance patches and even event application, that worries me somewhat: Instead of delivering a wholesome solution design, that takes impacts of a change into account, changes are introduced, that leave dependent designs hanging useless in the air. The design changes themselves generally can be seen as good or bad, often a matter of taste. I mean, if you really like mantras for example, of course the recent change of mantra skills is not going to have you cheering. If you like CC, the lack of damage in PvP scenarios is bothersome, but IMO a good change. That by itself is not a problem. The problem is, when these changes leave skills aspects and traits hanging in the air and utterly useless. Either because they have been nerfed with ridiculously high cooldowns, or by attaching to aspects of skills, that no longer exist or no longer exist in a way meaningful to the trait. This latter part is probably the most problematic! Look at the no downstate event in WvW: While this is an interesting and fun event, it completely removes use for any skills and traits relating to downstates. Maybe, however, this is the most easily forgiveable instance of this design pattern, as it is only for a defined, limited time. Ideally, however, useless skills should be replaced during that time instead of making them useless. We also see it in class changes though, and here the changes are a lot more permanent. Mantras do not need preparation anymore, and they lose their special effect on the last charge (or on preparation). Without any compensation, making some mantras useless, or removing important sources for defense or offense. But maybe this can also simply be seen as a balance change, and thus is just a matter of taste. I don't like it, but that doesn't mean anything other than my taste in how things are designed, and what should be taken and given differs from what developers thing. Okay. CC skills in PvP scenarios: Traits that raise damage on CC skills are suddenly utterly useless, especially when they do raise the damage on a multiplicative princible.. And even now, a year later, they are left hanging in the air, instead of being redesigned, so they are useful again. Some skills, like head-butt have aspects like "deal more damage to foes without boons", which is useless in PvP scenarios. 5 instead of 2 damage? Really? The general change is probably a good idea, removing damage from the CC skills, however all aspects connected to this change should then also be propery redesigned. Giving any percentage damage increase on a skills, that deals 100 damage or less - often WAY less - is simply useless and should be replaced with something, that is actually worth a choice. The easiest fix would be to attach a flat damage bonus for example, more complex fixes could mean replacing traits altogether, changing the way trait interact with CC itself (increase the time, increase targets), or offer different aspects altogether. Maybe gain boons (and no, Might and Fury are probably not what should be used here, as these once more increase the damage on a multiplicative scale), or do something different that I can't think of at the moment. In the warrior defense traitline, we have traits with 300s cooldowns in PvP scenarios, making them utterly useless. Instead of this, we should see proper redesigns, removing aspects that are seen as overly powerful and replacing them with new aspects that work better and are actually usable. The whole Mirage profession core mechanic is apparently seen as highly problematic, so that it now has to live with one dodge only. Apparently because counterplay was too hard, and the combination of defense (through dodging) and offense (through ambush attacks) at the same time, was not well thought out - something I might even agree with. However: The problem still exists, the mechanic has just been made nearly unusable in certain game modes. What we should get instead is a proper redesign that takes care of the root cause.

I cannot confirm, that elementalist os no fun during no downstate. I just recently switched to Tempest and I find it huge fun. Yes, there are some burst-damage builds that come from stealth and kill you in less than 2 seconds, sometimes even instantly, even though I'm far from glass-cannon build, but that's not a problem of no downstate. I think this mode exposes design problems, though: What I wrote above simply should not be possible. Yes, of course you can make attacks from stealth, but combining features and attacks in such a short time when coming from stealth for this drastic effect should not be possible. Never. IMO not even without stealth, but especially not when coming from stealth. Why? Because effectively this means there is no counterplay possible. Generally no downstate nicely exposes one-shot builds. So if anything, this mode should be used to analyze the builds used and address problems.

while we're at it, also remove berserker and viper. Ah, ah, already got derailed. What I actually wanted to point out: Nice try, rolling two things into one wish. But no, these are clearly two wishes already.

due to privary reasons: No. But I can provide more images. no problem. As I said, the image is quite representative, but maybe it is an issue on my server. Feel free to provide contacts, which provide different information. I'd be highly interested on how things go elsewhere. And I do not doubt your point that Spellbreakers are support, and thus should do no damage. But by that logic, scourge should fall into the same category, but somehow there is a huge difference.

irrelevant, because we have a status, quo how things are now. It does not matter what was before. And luckily, we have ArcDPS to prove our point ... https://imgur.com/a/ToLnhRV In the top 10 damage, there are no spellbreakers, but there are already 3 scourges. In the top 20 there are still no spellbreakers, but even more scourges In the strips, yes, spellbreakers can sometimes keep up, but not outstrip. There's a considerable gap between a good scourge and even a good spellbreaker. Exceptions might be, when you manage to constantly meleepush your enemies. And don't worry, I can back this up with tons more logs. The exact details will shift, the ratios will not. And while I have to anonymize the data, so you'll have to trust me on that, I can tell you that the scourges, who do the damage and the scourges who do the strips are not separate entities. They are the very same players and scourges. Maybe the best-stripping scourge does not also do the highest damage, but they are up there. and yes. The damage is considerable! And it's not only scourge, who has been nerfed. Warriors have also been nerfed hard, but this is not the topic. The topic are boons, boon-remobal, boon-application, boon-corruption, and condi-conversion.

agreed. But we can't have it any other way. As long as conditions get basically blasted out constantly, your groups will need constant cleanse as counterplay, otherwise conditions would just be easy win. If that is to change, the whole construct of applying conditions and cleansing them needs to be reworked, so that on both ends of the game, skillful play is rewarded. Conditions would need to be a lot more powerful and lasting, in turn application would need to be much rarer. Then cleanses could also be a lot rarer.

Also compare these facts: On Scourge you do AoE damage, and considerable damage. While providing top strips. And good soft CC. With area denial. While at range, so in "relative" safety, only being subjected to enemy ranged attacks most of the time. On warrior, you deal next to AoE damage, and if so, it's PbAoE, not ranged AoE. If you provide CC you lose tons of damage. If you do damage, you do nothing else. You might strip, but once more, if you do so, you lose damage and you still can't keep up with scourged. You provide NO area denial except maybe with the bubble. And you do all of that in melee, so you are subjected to all the attacks and their consequences, ranged and melee. Yep, seems perfectly balanced. And it shows, as any look at ArcDPS will tell you.

You know that there will be an additional red cirlce beside that? I mean if you go by that kind of thinking I could also say: You know that you don't have to apply conditions, so that scrappers have nothing to convert ...

and yet - AND YET, if you play WvW: Scourges easily outstrip everyone else. AND they corrupt when they strip. And when they corrupt, their corrupt is not in an ICD. AND they deal considerable damage. Which cannot be reflected, due to being AoE. And since the AoEs pulse, and thus are persistent, they provide area denial. And they make chill and fear, so provide soft CC. And they do most of that at range. I am not even thinking about the application of barrier, which they also can bring, when discussing scourge balance. They might have nerfed it. But not nearly enough to call this anywhere near balanced.

So. It is okay to nerf purity of purpose - condi-conversion uncapped is not okay. But boon corruption uncapped is? Anet logic at work.

I doubt that this is the case here. Why would the way rifle work now make warrior into an engineer? The slow attacks on rifle also don't help its situation, by the way. Playing with it feels sluggish. Now if it would make up for that (and the fact that it gets reflected A LOT) by having great damage, that would be fine. But we don't have that kind of rifle. We have a warrior rifle with lackluster damage, with a slow attack pattern, with a high chance to be completely reflected. All these things lead to rifle being not impressive at all in reality. Even in PvE, warrior clearly still has better weapon choices than rifle.

I am actually arguing from a warrior point of view, where the situation is already far from ideal, though we are still in a state, where I'd say the game is playable in all game modes. It's just not ideal. Ideal is probably when you play a firebrand, maybe with a bit of damage, but still focusing on your support - and yes in WvW that works mostly very fine - or a scourge. Personally, I think the retaliation change is perfectly fine, yet we badly, badly need to find some other way to compensate for the fact that range caster can cast without being endangered by melee attacks. Retaliation was a bad solution in the past as anyone who tried to use whirling axe can attest to. Reflects and blocks likewise don't really work well here; reflects because they don't affect AoEs, blocks once more because they don't really punish the attacker, and for the most part they don't discriminate between range or melee. So at the moment, also thanks to the lack of retaliation (which, I repeat, was NOT the solution to the problem), ranged AoE attacks are the best way to deal with mass group content without endangering yourself, and thus pose a kind of ideal solution. And there should not be an "ideal solution" for WvW / mass group content.

regarding the explosive shell: In WvW, as long as this remains a projectile, it's not gonna hit anything anyway like 70% of the time. As long as we don't re-think physical projectiles and reflects, and the impact on WvW groups, it is going to stay irrelevant. The arms traitline would be a nice workaround, if it would offer anything beyond making skills that are utterly unusable, borderline usable. I imagine in PvE the new rifle skills might be somewhat more fun, albeit not necessary. Mass tagging is still done better with the bow, thus making the rifle struggle in terms of being competitive here, too.

Teapot made a nice video, detailing, what makes a good and a bad design approach for a spec. His examples in the beginning focus on weaver (doing only damage, and basically having to make every choice towards that goal), vs scourge or firebrand (which do damage AND a lot of additional stuff).

in PvE. true. In PvP / WvW: untrue. If you go for damage as a warrior, you basically have to give all of that up. And the one unique buff (banners) hardly play a role in either of these scenarios, because battles move around too much. Especially if you bring CC, you're giving up a lot of damage.

As this is already the case, I think you may bury this fear. All these already outshine the warrior in damage AND utility and versatility, all mostly countered by banners providing a unique buff. GG.

Then you have not been paying much attention to WSR over the last year. Maybe he is referring to a specific K/D on a specific skirmish on a specific borderland. Generally at this moment it's 1.1 and as you can see, we are unable to keep up with the linked servers. I think Arenanet should implement a rule, where in a 2 month (!) linkup period, servers that are full and without link, have to be opened up (at least for a limited time) during the linkup. As we can clearly see the system isn't about ensuring any form of balance, it should at least ensure the people who want to play together, can actually do that.

Imagine playing on Deso, taking top spot the almost the whole linkup period (with WSR no doubt), being full (now) and getting a link. Imagine being on Gandara, having to struggle your way up, when you're finally there seeing that you have no chance whatsoever, and not getting a link. Well, whatever. We'll all manage one way or another.

In PvE warrior can keep up, but for group content, many people value bannerslaves. I wonder if PvE warriors would still be as much valued, if the banners would no longer raise stats, but instead only gave out boons. Pulsing Might, Fury, protection, what you want. Here's an interesting test for you, anet. If that change would lead to warriors no longer being valued as much (as there might be other DPS professions, that can also bring CC), you have your answer as to what you need to redesign to make banners less relevant, and thus the discipline traitline also be more of a fair choice compared to tactics, strength, and defense. Edit: Yes I realized I didn't mention arms here. I am sure everyone can figure out why.