How useful is the Sand Portal for group play?

[EremiteAngel.9765]

Apart from it's own usefulness for the Scourge himself, was wondering if anyone found the portal particularly useful in any game mode for group play? If no, what is holding it back from fulfilling its potential? How can it be improved?

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I only play in limited game modes, but in the overworld and in fractals it has no use. What makes mesmer portal so useful is the long range, and the delayed casting of the second portal. Sand Portal is an instant-cast skill, so most of the time I don't even see where it is, and then all it does is move me a short hop.

[kKagari.6804]

This is how I'd change sand portal:

Skill has ammo, say 3. When cast 'consume' an existing shade and teleport to its location, like flesh wurm. Does the boring punishment stuff.

All in all, much more fun.

[Sephylon.4938]

I use it, nobody else does, and it times out too quickly. The barrier it applies is negligible, its range is short, the only thing it has going for it is that it has slight verticality. Maybe if it healed allies that used it, or applied regen or something.

[Swagg.9236]

@kKagari.6804 said:This is how I'd change sand portal:

Skill has ammo, say 3.

That's it. That's all it needs. Lower cast-time to 0.25s and just give it 3 ammo (3 might even be too strong; 2 is probably more balanced). Bam. Maximum fun skill that is useful.

[Meetshield.1756]

So Imagine 30 people standing on a TAG in WvW, we are 1600 range from Enemy. If we move to 1200 range 10 Rev's drop Hammer 2 for 5-10k Each onto our group, and we lose 3-4 players that we can't Res because it has no cooldown and is completely over powered needing a a complete rework thanks for that previous dev team...

So the problem with the Necro Portal is we can't place the Starting Point. We can't say Here in front of tag and then There by the wall. We just walk forward and press the portal and hope that our "Team" sees where it went before they get 1 shot by 10 Rev Noobs with trigger fingers shaking over their 2 button.

Its biggest use has been as a Shadow Step up ledges, allowing lots of people behind us to also use it, but I get very frustrated making great portals for people and they walk past them. It is not easy to see, and looks like just a patch of sand it doesn't glow or make a noise so noone notices.

[kKagari.6804]

@Swagg.9236 said:

@kKagari.6804 said:This is how I'd change sand portal:

Skill has ammo, say 3.

That's it. That's all it needs. Lower cast-time to 0.25s and just give it 3 ammo (3 might even be too strong; 2 is probably more balanced). Bam. Maximum fun skill that is useful.

Hey man, at least give me a thumbs up

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

I can't say if it's useful or not, but so few people even realize that it's there. Even at Claw of Jormag when I portal out after a burn phase, absolutely nobody takes it, even though they all need to evacuate.

[Renita.7824]

The biggest problem with this skill is that the short range combined with the long cast time + travel time makes it so it's not even that useful as a blink because most of the time you get only a tiny bit further than you could have walked in the same amount of time unless you are crippled. It needs to either be instant or have a further range. It would also be nice if the verticality of it made more sense. Sometimes I can portal up a hill and others I can't with seemingly no apparent rules for why.

[Zero Solstice.9754]

I use it with my roaming group, the skill is fantastic for me and good for them. Only real complaint/issue is that sometimes the portal is literally not visible for allies, although they can still use it if they happen to know where it's supposed to be.

[Lahmia.2193]

@Zero Solstice.9754 said:I use it with my roaming group, the skill is fantastic for me and good for them. Only real complaint/issue is that sometimes the portal is literally not visible for allies, although they can still use it if they happen to know where it's supposed to be.

I really hope they add some sort of anti culling thing to it, like they did with warrior bubble.

[Anchoku.8142]

I had been trying to use it as a mobility skill allowing me to jump behind mobs in PvE but it does not last long for that and has a long ICD.

As an escape or true portal, its effectiveness is limited so I was using it for combat positioning and defense.

[Avigrus.2871]

They should just make it a self-blink and be done with it....

[Gustaff.6581]

Unles it is an organized group, no one will notice that i put a portal here.

[Weo weo.6378]

The range is so short/ limited uptime. It's like the poor neglected child of the portal family.

Outperformed by even shadowtrap in pvp.

For solo play, It's arguably useful as a duking tool in pve and duels. PVP wise it's again like a strange form of short ranged shadowstep that has a very interruptable casting time.

It's like a movement tool trying to be a jack of all trades which excels at nothing.

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

Once you try sand portal it's hard to understand all the fuss that was made earlier about necro stealing mesmer's things. The sand portal is not even a poor country cousin of the mes portal. I greatly enjoy scourge's shade mechanic but some of the utilities - especially the portal - leave me shaking my head in wonder.

[Aktium.9506]

Just realized it said Group play. I suppose it's not very useful for others. The duration is just too short for that. But it's has replaced Spectral Armor for me in PvP. It's flat out just better survivability.

[Atzros.8715]

Ah Sand Swell, the unwanted child of Portal, and Blink! The limited range, inability to pass through walls, inability to control when an exit is created, and minimum vertical leverage causes it to fail as an alternative to portal, while the long cast time, no stun break and short range causes it to fail as an answer to mobility that Necromancers have been asking for, for so long.

The only situation I could see it being useful is in PVP where you could use it to repeatedly re-position yourself to confuse the opponent while applying a minor amount of barrier to yourself, but that doesn't make usage of the group-based design of the skill. It's intended to be used by multiple people, but why would they? A necromancer isn't going to be at the front of the group due to their garbage mobility, and nobody is going to wait 3/4 seconds for a necro to cast Sand Swell to engage the enemy when they can just use their leaps, blinks, and other skills to get right into the fight. You're not going to use it to engage, and with that 3/4 cast time paired with poor range you're CERTAINLY not going to use it to DISengage. When will you use it?

The only time I have found it useful is escaping scenery when I get stuck in it. In my opinion? The "group" aspect of this skill is a complete facade. Needs a rework.

[Zoltreez.6435]

Trash tier....... the only thing i use it for is to get to gate enterances when getting chased in WvW... outside of that its useless...... the small range vs the mobility of other classes makes the ability nonexistent.....

[Rym.1469]

It's not a mesmer portal, but it's situationally useful if your allies are aware of it. Swell's only downside is the long cast time for an escape tool, really. The less flat the map is, the more useful it becomes.

Scourge has a ton of something I'd call an "accidental support". It's far from a fully-fledged support specialization, but from time to time your barrier heal, stack of stability, random barrier/cleanse from f2/f3 and portal can help someone out. Most of the time you're not even trying, because all of the mentioned skills serve as self-defensive tools or source of your damage and none is strictly outgoing support skill when traited that you would save up, but still.

[Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046]

Why there is a second delay on cast is beyond me.When running and blinking ahead you get a 300 u/s gain total. what's the use? it's not an escape of other professions using a blink to set up (CC) their attacks either.

[Zoltreez.6435]

Necros almost never get anything what other classes get..... but when we do its the most shit version of it...

[Ara.4569]

Is it part of the heavy support package ?Can I get more DPS if I don't take it ? :grin:

1. Remove it.
2. Remove Flesh Wurm.
3. Give us Blink as an Elite skill.
4. Profit!

[Lunarlife.5128]

Prefer portals from mesmers.

[Lily.1935]

This isn't really a fair question since the answer to it is more nuanced than the black and white answer. It IS useful, but it has major issues holding it back. Mainly its pathing which is extremely fickle. The barrier as well should probably be on walking across it or when cast on both sides not just entering since most people I've played with don't seem to realize its there.