Perma Quickness + Alacrity = feels weird

[DanSH.6143]

As a mostly pvp player, I stepped into instanced pve content lately (fractals, strikes). There was something that felt really off and it would probably sound weird to you - having quickness and alacrity up all the time. It caused the gameplay to be too button-mashy for my taste.  

I play a guardian, and in open world using "Feel My Wrath" for a bit of quickness feels nice, but if I have it all the time it kind of loses its point. If bosses are balanced around it then what's the point? 

[Infusion.7149]

You can have perma quickness on firebrand or scrapper while solo too, what is your point?

[Linken.6345]

Bosses aint balanced around it hence why people use it to beat them easier.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

It's the same thing on my end.  I spend most of my time in game modes without permanent alacrity and quickness.  When it comes to play my favorite toons in raids, the combat is far more frenetic and punishing.  I have to re-learn the timing of all of my skills.  Maybe that's why I like mesmer in raids so much: my diviner open world build has permanent quickness, so it isn't much of change between modes.

Controversial opinion here, but I hate how quickness became a boon that could be maintained permanently.  When there is such powerful DPS modifying boons in the game, the game gets balanced around the assumption that they're present.  This means that for high end content, you aren't rewarding for having quickness insomuch as you are punished for not having it.  On top of that, it makes damage rotations much harder to perform.  

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

8 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

You can have perma quickness on firebrand or scrapper while solo too, what is your point?

The difference is, in pvp, people will strip or corrupt your boons.  Having boons when there's a mesmer, necromancer, thief or revenant on the enemy team is a liability as you may just end up giving them boons.

[Asum.4960]

It's just what you are used to. 

For me it's the other way around, I'm so used to perma Quickness, that as soon as it drops I start cancel casting all my skills until I realise because I play purely by muscle memory and suddenly all the timings are off. 

 

Playing without Quickness feels like wading through mud or watching the game in slow-motion in turn for me. 

 

All a matter of habit. 

 

That said, a lack of these boons and a consistent gameflow would probably be better for the game at large, but oh well.

[Infusion.7149]

10 hours ago, Sir Alymer.3406 said:

The difference is, in pvp, people will strip or corrupt your boons.  Having boons when there's a mesmer, necromancer, thief or revenant on the enemy team is a liability as you may just end up giving them boons.

They're talking about instanced PVE. Regardless in WVW scrappers have quite high quickness uptime, whereas firebrands don't due to skill splits. Firebrands also have been overnerfed in PVP indirectly since the mantra change.

[Atomnium.1532]

I think the main culprit is Quickness. While having shorter CD desyncs the brain in terms of when to press buttons, the delta between the pacing with and without quickness is so huge that it's very much like playing a different class.

I'd argue that the main problem to adress would be the difference between with and without. If there was a global 25% animation speed buff all around and a nerf to quickness to 25%, it would probably make the lack of quickness more bearable and the presence of it less daunting.

Problem is that touching this thing would drastically alter the feel of the game and its pacing and really, if Anet doesn't consider the quickness being viewed as a mandatory and a transformative alteration of gameplay in group play as a problem it will probably remain a very weird sensation for a lot of new players and people who enter the party play scene where all of their habit and experiences of the game are unrecognizable.

In any case, even having played for years, I think it's a valid concern that there is such a disconnect between having those buffs and not having them, to an extent that I believe is actually unhealthy and I thank you for your post because I've rarely heard about this view while we hear all the time about their "necessity and OPness" of those 2 specific buffs leading to the meta being narrow and restrictive (Edit : In PvE), the actual gameplay sensation alteration is never talked about !

Edited September 30, 2021 by Atomnium.1532