Improving SpellBreaker Part III: The Heal

[oscuro.9720]

Hi again! This is part 3 of me making suggestions to improve SpellBreaker. As I’ve said in the other threads, my focus is less on reintroducing damage or sustain, and rather maximizing its utility through uniquely-SpellBreaker functions. This installment will focus on the heal; Natural Healing

The Problem:

The problem is quite simple; Natural Healing is meh. It’s not bad per se, but it doesn’t do anything different from other warrior heals while having a self-punishment tacked on. Since most warrior heals are a large chunk of health plus a secondary effect, we are usually just taking the best one at the moment. Presently, that is Mending. 
My hope is to rework Natural Healing to give SpellBreaker a uniquely functioning heal that can compliment it, giving a diversity of choice rather than just a “which does more” choice.

The Solution:

Current Natural Healing focuses on removing one’s own boons and conditions with a set chunk of health. Instead, I think focusing on boon strip, SpellBreaker’s forte, and cleansing conditions would give it a better play. Also, instead of a lump effect, giving it an overtime effect will give its own unique niche. Add in a small area radius, and you also work in a touch of support, giving SpellBreaker a unique heal. It looks something like;

Natural Healing:

Heal yourself for 1000 and remove 1 condition from allies, 1 boon from foes per pulse.

Radius: 300

Pulses: 10

Cooldown: 30s

Cast time: 1s

The increased cool down gives Natural Healing an effective 20s CD, an overtime window of condition clear and boon strip, and an overtime heal that warrior has been sorely lacking since Healing Signet was rendered irrelevant. It gives warrior a little more utility in groups, providing area clear and boon strip.

Summary/Conclusion: 
When combined with previous suggested changes, like Disenchantment on over-boon rip, it begins to play more synergistically. The 10k heal is not ridiculously high compared to other warrior heals, and is amortized out over time, justifying the higher base. Overall, I think changing the heal to something akin to what I recommended here would go a long ways towards helping spell breaker.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope everyone is having a great day 🙂 

Edited December 16, 2021 by oscuro.9720
Mobile formatting pain

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Speaking for myself, the only reason I don't take Natural Healing is because the cast time is too long, especially considering that it strips my own boons. If it were a 1s or 3/4s cast time, I'd take it. The only boons I care about generally and Might and Stability. The stability will last until the cast completes, and thus does it's job, and I can pump out might upon might If I want to so the boon stripping just fuels Attacker's Insight.

I suggest just reducing the cast time and see how it plays before further buffs. It is a large self heal, and it is a massive condi clear.

[Infusion.7149]

Why would you run natural healing over mending, which triggers Peak Performance , is on shorter cooldown, and doesn't strip your own boons? IIt's the difference of 2 condis.

I think it should just rip boons from people if you rework it.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

11 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Why would you run natural healing over mending, which triggers Peak Performance , is on shorter cooldown, and doesn't strip your own boons? IIt's the difference of 2 condis.

I think it should just rip boons from people if you rework it.

I don't? The CD and cast times are too long relative to Mending which they buffed too much. The boons I would have I can replace easily as a warrior and would just fuel AI.

But like I said, tweak the cast time and possibly the CD and go from there. What Spellbreaker needs is a Meditation trait that reduces the CDs and gives an extra benefit when using a Meditation. Not sure what the benefit would be mind you, but NH is one of those things that I don't think actually needs much to make it better, just more accessibility.

[Infusion.7149]

8 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I don't? The CD and cast times are too long relative to Mending which they buffed too much. The boons I would have I can replace easily as a warrior and would just fuel AI.

But like I said, tweak the cast time and possibly the CD and go from there. What Spellbreaker needs is a Meditation trait that reduces the CDs and gives an extra benefit when using a Meditation. Not sure what the benefit would be mind you, but NH is one of those things that I don't think actually needs much to make it better, just more accessibility.

It's dead on arrival in PVE and WVW if it rips your own boons.
Ripping your own stability is basically ridiculous. That's why I think it should rip boons off other people, which is both damage output reduction on them and also buffs the offensive value of the skill.
P.S. was a rhetorical question

Edited December 16, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

26 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

It's dead on arrival in PVE and WVW if it rips your own boons.
Ripping your own stability is basically ridiculous. That's why I think it should rip boons off other people, which is both damage output reduction on them and also buffs the offensive value of the skill.
P.S. was a rhetorical question

If I was using it with stab up it would be because stab is covering the cast time at which point it did it's job. PvE it would never see use due to peak performance, but also because you'd be running Berserker instead so it's a moot point.

 

What would be more interesting is if it gave you might per boon ripped, stacks included.

[Infusion.7149]

1 minute ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

If I was using it with stab up it would be because stab is covering the cast time at which point it did it's job. PvE it would never see use due to peak performance, but also because you'd be running Berserker instead so it's a moot point.

 

What would be more interesting is if it gave you might per boon ripped, stacks included.

Spellbreaker is common on Qadim the Peerless (W7 raid end boss) and some niche had kite build on Deimos (W4 raid).

Some solo players use it as well as it is more flexible than berserker.

[Mungrul.9358]

How about just making it strip boons from enemies around you and heal you for each boon stripped?

Sure, little to no use in open world PvE, but otherwise very in-line with the spirit of the the specialisation.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

8 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Spellbreaker is common on Qadim the Peerless (W7 raid end boss) and some niche had kite build on Deimos (W4 raid).

Some solo players use it as well as it is more flexible than berserker.

So very limited usage eh?

Even if someone is using Spellbreaker in OW (as I am currently) you'd still take mending over it. And as I've said, I choose mending over it due to the cast time more so than the boon removal. Out in OW the boons that I would be removing I can reapply with ease, so it's no skin of my back if they fuel Attacker's Insight, so it is more of a win win at that point. It just boils down to the cast time and healing per CD.

[Zekent.3652]

This is basically an (even) more busted troll unguent

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

1 minute ago, Zizekent.2398 said:

This is basically an (even) more busted troll unguent

Which is part of why I am cautioning that any change should start with the CD and cast times.

[The Boz.2038]

10 hours ago, oscuro.9720 said:

It’s not bad per say 

*per se

And it is bad. It is just not good. The heal value is okay, but the huge cost of losing all boons is too high, and while losing conditions is good, the casting time is hilariously too long. 

[Lucentfir.7430]

There's too much of a similarity between Mending and Natural Mending in both design flavor and function, it should function differently. Removing your own boons with your Natural Healing does have some merit to it like gaining stacks of Attacker's insight, but that is still a big negative(mainly because you could be already capped on it), rather than a positive, and it impacts your survival, because you'll be stripping things like prot, resistance,resolution, vigor, aegis, stability, and even regen from yourself. If it's going to do that there has to be good payout for doing so to make it feel worth losing essential boons. 

One route you can go is make a unique effect called "Healing" which stacks up to 14 times(7 conditions/7 Boons), and using Natural Healing heals you for 2k and gives you 1 stack per condition and boon removed from yourself for 6s, I'm sitting on the fence for 225 healing per stack.

The other route boring but safe route would be to keep it as is but it's basically Consume Condition on Necromancer, only you're eating your own boons too instead of gaining 5 vulnerability, and here you could probably shave off a bit of the cast time to make it feel better.  

Edited December 16, 2021 by Lucentfir.7430

[oscuro.9720]

6 hours ago, The Boz.2038 said:

*per se

And it is bad. It is just not good. The heal value is okay, but the huge cost of losing all boons is too high, and while losing conditions is good, the casting time is hilariously too long. 

Thanks. I go on the forum on mobile and it seems to like to replace se with say or de. 
I try not to be too extreme in my assertions, but I’m not going to disagree with someone else calling it utter trash 😉

[oscuro.9720]

10 hours ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

How about just making it strip boons from enemies around you and heal you for each boon stripped?

Sure, little to no use in open world PvE, but otherwise very in-line with the spirit of the the specialisation.

That works too, the only additional change I made was spreading it out over time, so the concept is pretty much the same. I just think Warrior would benefit from a heal over time style heal, which is why I structured it like that.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

Random off the wall idea for the sake of conversation:

 

Natural Healing (active):

4500 heal

1s cast time, 25s CD

Removes all boons and conditions

Refreshes Full Counter

 

Natural Healing (passive--i.e. when it is off CD but has not been used):

Gain regeneration for 3s for each boon you remove

Removing your own boons when activating the skill also grants regeneration.

 

The idea here is to give a source of healing-over-time without completely sacrificing the ability to get a decent bolus of healing and condi cleanse.

 

This would admittedly only be useful in competitive modes.

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by CalmTheStorm.2364

[oscuro.9720]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:58 AM, Lucentfir.7430 said:

One route you can go is make a unique effect called "Healing" which stacks up to 14 times(7 conditions/7 Boons), and using Natural Healing heals you for 2k and gives you 1 stack per condition and boon removed from yourself for 6s, I'm sitting on the fence for 225 healing per stack. 

This is interesting. It’s definitely more intensive than what I suggested, but has a very unique flavor. Some questions;

Would stripping other people’s booms give “healing”? Would removing conditions in other way give “healing”? Or is it just tied to boons and conditions removed via heal?

[oscuro.9720]

On 12/16/2021 at 5:01 PM, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

Random off the wall idea for the sake of conversation:

 

Natural Healing (active):

4500 heal

1s cast time, 25s CD

Removes all boons and conditions

Refreshes Full Counter

 

Natural Healing (passive--i.e. when it is off CD but has not been used):

Gain regeneration for 3s for each boon you remove

Removing your own boons when activating the skill also grants regeneration.

 

The idea here is to give a source of healing-over-time without completely sacrificing the ability to get a decent bolus of healing and condi cleanse.

 

This would admittedly only be useful in competitive modes.

 

While not a bad idea, this seems much more like an idea for a signet than a meditation. As far as I’m aware, there’s no meditations with passive effects? 

[Infusion.7149]

Yeh there's no passive on a meditation, although you can have a lingering effect such as Litany of Wrath on guardian or Sight Beyond Sight on warrior.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

53 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

While not a bad idea, this seems much more like an idea for a signet than a meditation. As far as I’m aware, there’s no meditations with passive effects? 

There's no passive on a meditation.....

Yet. 😎

[Lucentfir.7430]

3 hours ago, oscuro.9720 said:

This is interesting. It’s definitely more intensive than what I suggested, but has a very unique flavor. Some questions;

Would stripping other people’s booms give “healing”? Would removing conditions in other way give “healing”? Or is it just tied to boons and conditions removed via heal?

Considering it'll be tied to the actual Healing skill itself (Natural Healing) it's pretty much isolated to the heal's self condition and boon removal.  

-edit- if you wanted to have the unique healing effect from removing boons it would have to be done through traits. I do remember tossing ideas for it in this thread.  

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Lucentfir.7430