Which underused Weapon Skills, Traits, Utilities, Elite Skills do you want to see get some buff/tweaks in the upcoming update?

[Bunny.9834]

Quote

 

Profession Updates

Balance and maintenance of Guild Wars 2‘s extensive combat system, including the latest elite specializations released with End of Dragons, is important for keeping gameplay engaging and varied across PvE, WvW, and PvP. Moving forward, we’ll be making professions and elite specialization updates a higher priority.

Our plan includes quarterly profession updates, with smaller releases in between as we monitor and respond to how the meta in each game mode takes shape. In addition to the number tweaks that you’re used to seeing, the team will be revisiting some underpowered and underused weapon skills, traits, or utilities for each profession in each profession update to help expand your arsenal. We will continue to make game-mode-specific balance adjustments as needed.

We’ll be releasing some PvP and WvW balance changes in the March 29 update, and our first major profession update will drop on June 28. 

 

I really hope these changes are substantial to breathe some new life in the game especially competitive modes.  
 

[coro.3176]

I pointed out the contrast between the newly designed Harbinger pistol and the old Engineer pistol here:

Many older weapon skills are like this. The game has changed a lot since 2012, and lots of old skills were never updated.

Edited March 22, 2022 by coro.3176

[Telgum.6071]

Herald's shield, Ventari, Ancient Echo, Pain Absorption, Energy Meld, Alliance Tactics, Salvation trait line, Glaring Resolve, Agressive Agility, Brutality, Elevated Compassion.

[jpsssss.7530]

- Condi mesmer needs love outside of PvE.

- more stat combos.

- improving builds and playstyles across ALL professions to increase build diversity outside of PvE.

- Gimme back my kitten Necro well trait (I miss my well reaper).

- Give core thief a support spec.

- Make harbinger have better synergy with core necro stuff. 

- make torment do more than 75% of the damage that bleeding does (for context, everybody moves in PvP and WvW, so it usually only does 75% of the damage of bleeding) outside of PvE

- make elementalist not peepeepoopoo

[gooddrakkarboi.4870]

Elementalist as a whole...

[Bleikopf.2491]

Elementalist Staff or Scepter is the first thing that comes to my mind. Making the core weapons less.. 2012 opens up new playstyle for core + all 3 elite specs. 

Pretty much don't play other classes so no opinion there. 

[Infusion.7149]

Omitting EOD elite spec weapons:

• Warrior offhand sword and rifle (especially auto)
• Herald shield
• Necro dagger when used on DPS builds , maybe make it cDPS melee weapon
• elementalist staff autos in PVE for air /earth
• necro staff autos in PVE , it could have some condi on it
• staff on virtuoso
• Weaver sword auto  in water attunement on PVE builds
• core engi elite toolbelt skills
• tablet movement on Ventari (core rev)

 

• Druid Staff (Druid astral force generation outside PVE)
• Addition of stow pet to all core/untamed (in unleash ranger)/druid ranger builds in WVW mode while in combat
• increase the 200 base heal on mantra of solace in competitive modes

Every 300s cooldown in PVP/WVW

 

[Shiyo.3578]

Elementalist. All of it. Yes, the entire class. 

[Nightgunner.2896]

1 minute ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Elementalist. All of it. Yes, the entire class. 

"elementalist increased by 50%. from now on, when you play elementalist, you will also be playing an additional half-elementalist. which half will be determined by a new grandmaster trait."

[Dadnir.5038]

Elementalist: If I had to chose I'd say cantrips as they've been long forgotten. I'd like an option in the water traitline to trade some healing from the water attunment skills for sheer damage.

Engineer: Gadgets, seriously, who use gadgets?

Guardian: Mace AA chain need to be faster.

Mesmer: Time warp need love (It should at least have it's CD reduced to 60 or 90s.

Necromancer: It might be controversial, but can we remove the teleport from transfusion? Also, bone fiend's rigor mortis need a change even if it mean losing the immob, the skill is just bad. Chill of death is boring and weak as a trait, can we have it changed to something like "remove a boon when you disable" a foe?

Ranger: Most core pet F2 skills need a shave on their CD.

Revenant: Could we have a pulse of regeneration (the boon) on protective solace?

Thief: Deadly aim... Can we update this trait please?

Warrior: Main hand mace need love. Berserker stance need love. Adrenaline rush from counterblow and riposte could really afford to be a more interesting skill to use (a mere 3 point of adrenaline for this skill is really a waste, at least make it give fury or might).

General: Please update the invuln traits, they don't have any reason d'être in PvE and are overnerfed in competitive modes.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Dadnir.5038

[Diovid.9506]

Engineer

• Turrets, do I need to add anything?

Ranger

• I wish pet archetypes were a more fundamental aspect of the class, instead of only applying to Soulbeast. Speaking of archetypes, why is there no Supportive Moa? There are of course more holes in the archetype x family roster but Moa's stand out to me. 

Thief

• Bring back Ricochet. 

Guardian

• The Radiance trait Wrath of Justice is simply worthless. 

Warrior

• On the one hand I applaud Anet for removing the unique bonuses from Banners. On the other hand I hope Warriors will still be interesting enough to be a part of groups in organized PvE. 

Revenant

• The main challenge with Rev I think is giving people a reason to take non-elite spec legends that aren't Shiro. But I don't play Rev that much so I might be entirely wrong there.

Necromancer

• I think another rework of Death Magic is in order. 

Elementalist & Mesmer

• I'll leave these to other people. 

General

• Give us runes for the new elite specs. 

[Mik.3401]

- Hammer needs to be reworked everywhee apart from scrapper. At the moment it is borderline useless

- staff and scepter on ele need some buffs/reworks, some of the skills are just too slow in comparison to e.g. revenants which can slice you to dices in mere seconds

-  Mesmer scepter needs some love, virtuoso needs to be reworked as a whole. Also core trait lines need to be buffed across the board

These are the most alarming ones I think

Edited March 23, 2022 by Mik.3401

[Dadnir.5038]

1 hour ago, Diovid.9506 said:

why is there no Supportive Moa?

That's because the devs are afraid soulbeast would be a better healer than druid (which is a ridiculous reason but the idea is funny enough to be true)

.

[Stx.4857]

Engineer...   Gadgets need to be brought into the 20's.  Turrets too.  Mortar kit could use a new skin.

 

Thief...  acrobatics could use some offensive power somewhere to let it compete with trickery.  Power Thief needs a new source of reliable sustain now that invigorating precision is removed from the game (yes, it is).

[jaif.3518]

turrets.  The devs need to look at wells, gyros, and pets, and then decide what place they want turrets to have.  This is especially true in WvW.

[Jski.6180]

Every thing ele has. And some how even the skill missing form ele is missing like missing elites and missing healing skills.

[Ptolomy.6984]

Everything about ele

[Tails.9372]

Some things could use buffs / tweeks some other things would require some actual reworks / extensions to address the underlying issues. But just for thief:

The dual wielding class mechanic:

Turn the AA of weapon sets where the weapon type of main and off hand is identical into dual skills.

For the Scepter / Pistol weapon set: 

Remove the forced shadow step on Measured Shot and replace it with something like swiftness.

For main hand pistol:

Bola Shot:

In addition to what it currently does using this skill should also have a 600 range disengage in form of a shadow step.

For the pistol / pistol weapon set in specific:

Make weapon skill 1 into a dual skill and for that move unload from 3 to one. This would remove redundancies in the weapon set and alleviate the burden offensive skills put on the utility options while also keeping the core gameplay intact.

As for weapon skill 3: add an engage (similar to Lotus Training) that also doubles as a small scale AoE.

^ from a pure gameplay point of view this would solve all issues the weapons set is currently suffering from, the rest is just adjusting numbers which, in terms of damage output in PvE, could also use an increase as it's currently way to low.

For critical strikes:

Assassin's Fury:

The ICD should be removed and in addition to that the trait should also increase the power gained from might at the cost of reduced condition damage.

Signets of Power:

Change the activation condition for the additional effects from "on kill" to "on crit", to accommodate for that also reduce the might gain from the additional Assassin's Signet passive down to one stack, the healing from the additional Signet of Malice passive down to 10% and the endurance gain from the additional Signet of Agility passive to 20% of what it currently is.

Sundering Shade:

Remove it and bring back Sundering Strikes. Also, increase the proc chance to 100%.

Deadly Aim:

As others have stated: just remove it and bring back Ricochet.

Invigorating Precision:

After the recent changes this trait is now severely underperforming, at the very least the numbers should be doubled but the changes should preferably be reversed entirely.

[AzuritaBlues.3206]

For elementalist:

- Earth traitline and the 300s cd traits

-Staff & Scepter (ESPECIALLY SCEPTER EARTH SKILLS) 

-Conjure Weapons

-Glyph of Elementals 

-Arcane Utilities

-Cleansing Fire, Armor of Earth and Lightning Flash cantrips could use some minor tweaks as well

Edited March 23, 2022 by talesbfftt.4596

[Tseison.4659]

Off the top of my head.

Mesmer

• (Staff) Phantasmal Warlock: inflict some form of damaging condition, like perhaps a bunch of them during the attack.
• (Staff) Chaos Armor: would love to see the “Transmute” effect like what Elementalist have, placed on this skill.
• Glamour: some form of trait that enhances glamour utilities.
• Mantras: would love for them to have a final/more powerful charge since we don’t have to prep them anymore.
• Time Warp: Reduce cooldown or increase duration
• New Clone Elite Utility: that resembles what the White Mantle Mesmers get “Break Illusion to defeat/reveal the real Mesmer.”

Chronomancer

• New F1-F3 Shatters
• Time Catches Up: make baseline for clones.
• More Boon/Healing/Support-like traits
• Wells: have all wells except Gravity Well, go off at the Mesmers location. This helps prevent allies from missing out/walking out of boons and healing.

Mirage

• New F1-F3 Shatters
• Riddle of Sands: Remove the refresh on Shatter and have it go off every time you gain ambush.
• Mirage Mantle: Remove and change into something else, or give this trait something more than just 1.5s of protection.
• Dune Cloak: Remove and make into something else.
• Mirage Mirrors: Remove the unnecessary mini game of picking them up and just have their effects go off on the Mesmer after a brief moment.
• Sand Through Glass: Increase evade distance or create a new mobility-like skill.
• Mirage Advance and Illusionary Ambush: Combine.

Virtuoso (please see Final Virtuoso Changes Thread for more in depth feedback)

• Bladesongs F1-F3 should get an extra ammo charge since blade generation is high.
• Bladeturn Requiem: Moved to the utility slot with 2 charges. High cooldown.
• Dagger skills 1, 2 & 3: need improvement.
• (Dagger) Bladecall: improve. If keeping the concept, atleast have the blades daze or cripple when returning.
• (Dagger) Unstable Bladestorm: improve. Perhaps make it ground targeted, expanding and destroys projectiles.
• Twin Blade Restoration: No longer an attack and just acts as a heal, giving boons mentioned in the tooltip, plus a stock of a blade.
• Psychic Force: increase knockback distance depending on how close the enemy is.
• Thousands Cuts, Sword of Decimation and Rain of Swords: Combine
• Blade Renewal: moved to F4
• Thousand Cuts: Removed and changed into something else.

Traits

• Sharper Images: affect blades as well to prevent overlap. Merge with Jagged Mind.
• Less traits that grant phantasms boons and more that affect the Mesmer itself.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Tseison.4659

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

 

9 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Engineer: Gadgets, seriously, who use gadgets?

I do. Engineer main for 9 years so far. Gadgets are not capable of carrying the meta, but I refuse to claim they are useless in their current state. 

What I would like to see taken care of (Engineer):
- Sanguine Array
- AMR
- Shrapnel
- Sharpshooter
- Turrets
- Rocket Kick and Fragmentation Shot considered as Explosions
- Heat tiers for Rifle, Pistols, Harpoongun and Shield

Warrior:
- Discipline traitline as a whole.
- Signet of Rage

Necromaner
- Daggers (both)
- Staff

Guardian
- "Save Yourselves!" - Someone actually uses this skill to pull conditions from allies? If so, please react with a cry-emoji to this post. 

Thief
- Preparations. Except for Shadow Portal, I would like to have the old traps back.

Elementalist
- A less annoying option to play summoner, without re-casting the gylph like a maniac. (cannot even use auto-attack with this)

Special Action Key

Edited March 23, 2022 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Mourningstar.7309]

Oof, where to start.  I'll limit myself to core stuff.  

 

• When looking at weapons;

1. -Warrior Off-hand sword (never used), warrior rifle (make it not a 1-trick). there's arguments to be made against mace and hammer too. plus warhorn is hard to justify using, like, ever
2. revenant off-hand sword (bring the block back), hammer (another ranged 1-trick),
3. Guardian mace and hammer (too slow) 
4. Engineer rifle and pistol (with so few core weapons, at least make the options not terrible)
5. Ranger is...actually ok IMO
6. Thief mainhand pistol (why the heck does ricochet lower your damage)
7. Elementalist everything.  My thoughts on ele require way more than what a simple weapon update could do.  At the very least, make the autos suck less
8. Mesmer off-hands across the board are kinda weak.  
9. Necro dagger and staff are both awful.

 

There's a ton of underutilized and weak utility skills -- too many to list individually.  Particularly awful categories include engineer turrets and gadgets, synergy between Mallyx and its traitline (mostly due to the resistance change), elementalist conjured weapons.  

Edited March 23, 2022 by StAllerdyce.3941

[Bleikopf.2491]

6 minutes ago, StAllerdyce.3941 said:

Elementalist everything.  My thoughts on ele require way more than what a simple weapon update could do.  At the very least, make the autos suck less

This. Yeah, we got more things to cast. But cast time doesn't work differently for Ele and the cooldown to effect ratio being as bad as it is, there's no reason for our autos to be so sucky.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Bleikopf.2491

[Diovid.9506]

On 3/23/2022 at 10:49 AM, Dadnir.5038 said:

That's because the devs are afraid soulbeast would be a better healer than druid (which is a ridiculous reason but the idea is funny enough to be true)

.

Yeah, that's just... 🤨

[Antycypator.9874]

Guardian:

* AA chain for scepter [it's time to change that noisy spam for something better].

* Hammer rework.

* Protector's Strike: Block incoming attack and grant protection/aegis or perform your own attack and grant resolution/might. [I like this skill but I think it would be great to choose between ofensive and defensive usage].

Engineer:

* Rework for Engineer's rifle [mid-ranged shotgun with AoE AA, not just rifle].

* Turrets rework.

Elementalist:

* Aquatic Stance (heal skill): decrease strike heal cooldown from 1s to 0,5s [lets make it worth using as a heal skill]

* Lightning Flash: increase range from 900 to 1200 [all teleports are on 1200 range].

* Serrated Stones (Earth): Change "Damage to bleeding foes +5%" to "Bleeding you inflict is more dangerous: +10% damage".

* Singeing Strike (Hammer): This projectile could also deal damage to nearby foes [because this skill is weak]

* Shattering Ice: Buff the effect.

Revenant:

* Empowering Misery (Demon stance): Copy your conditions to nearby foes (conditions copied: 3)

Necromancer:

* Corrupt Boon: Poison yourself. Steal 3 boons from your foe (instead of just transforming them into negative conditions). [we have punishment skill for this kind of job]

* Reaper's Onslaught: Decrease ferocity gain from this trait: 300 -> 120. [This trait is overpowered. Quickness is already enough]

Warrior:

* Whirling Axe: Increase Cooldown from 15s to 25s, remove Movement Speed Increase and root character in place. [so many powerful skills roots you in place, so let's bring warrior to the line with others]

* Rush: Decrease range from 1200 to 600.

* Brave Stride (Strenght): Increase cooldown from 1s to 7s.

* Combat Stimulant (heal skill): Decrease number of counts from 2 to 1 [it's 20k total heal with 2 charges]