Issues with Harbinger and some solutions to fix them

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3 hours ago, Kronos.2560 said:

I agree with them removing the old heal based on vitality mechanic but they still need a way to still heal but regulated. I think it's a great idea to do it like war where every third it heals more. Could even make it a master trait you can pick instead of the power one. (As power is and should be garbage on Har)

 

I would also like to see shroud 3 have stability and fear like reaper. If they can't do that or make skills accessible during shroud you will always be at major death risk when any stun happens (even in PvE). With reaper you get a pulsing stabil and a fear + healthbar. With Har you just die with no stunbreak, extra health bar, healing, or mobility (as that was nerfed to reaper levels)

 

Finally for GM traits keep the quickess for some boon sharing potential but scrap the other 2. A ranged glass (or not) spec should never have a 180 melee pulse dmg. That's as funny as forcing a longbow ranger to have all his skills be melee.

 

Finally on shroud 3-4 I don't care if they keep the more dos for higher blight but they shouldn't remove blight. That's counterintuitive to more dps (from other traits).

 

My 2 cents.

they should also redo the elite skill as well, getting all boons instantly is like how thief daredevil does the same with plasma. The healing idea was geared towards how siphon works from a revs battle scars standpoint, but it be based on a certain number of blight stacks. So instead of the -10% health from blight, harb would be getting health back from blight and the user wouldnt have to stand in the elixir to get blight but would get it from activation on the enemy target. 

 

[Lily.1935]

On 12/1/2021 at 8:00 PM, Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:

Now that I have read out your thoughts in more detail, I agree with everything you say here.  Like you, I don't think pistol really needs any big changes (though in PvP, it could do with a longer poison duration than 1 second which is covered by a stun anyway in order to make it a great tool for disrupting rezzes).

 

The one thing I would say is that perhaps there should be one way to remove Blight.  I think that Elixir of Promise having that ability would be fitting as it turns the skill into an option that you take in case things go sideways.  Yes, you reduce your power, but you gain survivability and hopefully avoid the much larger effectiveness drop of downed state.  Blight thresholds overall are good, but I agree that Shroud skills removing it is not.

So I just wanted to ping you on this because I had a rather unique idea about what you said in the second paragraph. You know How I mentioned that I think the top line of traits should be damage and sustain?

 

Well I had an idea for a grandmaster that could be quite interesting. Removing blight on the elixir of promise I don't agree with but a grandmaster could be interesting. Let me know what you think of this.

 

Drink from corruption: Blight no longer Decays over time. When you enter or exist shroud consume X  stacks of blight and convert it into a burst of life steal. Could be something like 10 stacks of blight and up to 5 targets and the more blight you consume the higher the life steal you strike them for.

 

Maybe something like that could be interesting? I'm always interested in enter and exit builds

Edited December 4, 2021 by Lily.1935

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

I feel like that would, at least in PvE, lead to the exact opposite of your desired gameplay.  That would lead to players avoiding Shroud all together, but would start every fight with maximum Blight.

I do think that blight removal should be tied to specific skills so it can be done precisely when needed and not as a part of the normal gameplay loop.  This is part of why I suggested Elixir of Promise for that role.  As a healing skill that only heals yourself, it's not going to be a part of the typical offense gameplay loop, or even part of the support loop.  It will get used when survivability is an immediate concern, which is the time players would actually want to lose blight anyway.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Drarnor Kunoram.5180

[Lily.1935]

On 12/4/2021 at 4:41 PM, Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:

I feel like that would, at least in PvE, lead to the exact opposite of your desired gameplay.  That would lead to players avoiding Shroud all together, but would start every fight with maximum Blight.

I do think that blight removal should be tied to specific skills so it can be done precisely when needed and not as a part of the normal gameplay loop.  This is part of why I suggested Elixir of Promise for that role.  As a healing skill that only heals yourself, it's not going to be a part of the typical offense gameplay loop, or even part of the support loop.  It will get used when survivability is an immediate concern, which is the time players would actually want to lose blight anyway.

If you can't remove blight as it says and blight doesn't go down than it would work just fine with the other ideas I put in. But I understand. I was considering a grandmaster that fits with the idea that I was pushing for in the other top traits in my post. Perhaps Boons based on blight could be appropriate.

 

Either way I do want the 3 grandmasters to be a bit more build defining than the minors. I feel it would be appropriate if you wanted to take one of the three on other builds aside from one very specific build. Like I run the quickness Grandmaster in open world with my condi build. It doesn't cover itself, but having that extra speed, even for a little bit is nice. The other 2 certainly don't have that cross pollination.

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

Oh absolutely.  Harbinger traits right now are all just way too linear in addition to being poorly designed.  There needs to be a reason to mix, match, and specialize.