Devastation is kind of boring nowadays.

[Fwog.9387]

Not much that really needs to be explained honestly. There isn't much variety in this tree, if you aren't pvping there is little to no variance in what perks you pick. You pick damage. 

The way its designed you will do more so long as the enemy isn't between 50 and 80% hp. This is really boring. I kinda liked the idea of devastation when the life steal was initially added as not only was it a form of damage, but it had the added benefit of a secondary use in that it increased sustainability as well. When End of Dragons came about they reduced the damage making it a much less attractive form of damage, and it was already inferior to just taking the pure damage alternatives. So now, unless you are soloing, and probably even if you are soloing (cantha enemies are giant health pools and deal very little damage to you so there is no major advantage to healing), you just take the damage instead. 

I wish they came up with a creative way to increase your damage instead of just a flat increase during certain phases of the fight. When we used to have the one handed trait where in we would have stacking damage, that was technically just a damage increase but it had mechanics associated with it. It wasn't boring.

TL;DR - Low effort, very easily balanced design. No creativity. 

[Curennos.9307]

Some sort of overarching mechanic similar to necromancer's Death Magic carapace stacks, except damage oriented, would be nice. A few stacking, short duration damage buffs would be mildly more interesting - building towards having three different lines of options in the tree. One for the stacking buff that rewards sticking to the opponent with short duration damage buffs, one for boring flat damage buffs that I suppose we have to have somewhere, and one that builds on battle scars. Good initial concept, but could use some tuning - change it so that it doesn't immediately spend per hit, and instead has to stack up to 5, then 10, 15, 20, etc before it spends 5 stacks for a bigger burst of leech damage and healing. Similar to how necro can get pulsing protection over 25(?) stacks of carapace. 

 

I had the thought of somehow allowing the rev to build up as many stacks as they wanted before spending them so that there could be tiers - build up 5 stacks and you get a 500 dmg, 500 healing on next hit to consume, build up to 10 stacks and it's higher, 20 stack even higher, etc, so the rev can choose to have more consistent healing or save up to a burst, but I'm not sure how to go about enforcing that since stacks are spent just by hitting something and generated through applying vuln.

[Fwog.9387]

I just simply like the idea that there be a mechanic associated with some of the dps increases. It would be easy for every tree in the game to have an entire row that is just increase damage by 3% / 7% / 10%

That is essentially what a 20% under 50% damage increase is in most fight. It will average out to 10% damage. It doesn't require you to do anything. Where as previously they had the skill that stacked if you attacked with one handed weapons. If that still existed, it could encourage you to swap to swords, get some stacks, maybe swap to greatsword in the case of vindicator if the buff lasts long enough and then swap back to maintain it provided the buff lasts long enough. 

Battle scars are slightly more interesting in that its not just damage. It can ignore armor. But its damage is really low now, so unless you are out in the world with no source of incoming might, why would you run it? The ferocity is probably fine since it requires you to weigh whether or not to benefit the group or you. 

[Thornwolf.9721]

On 5/10/2022 at 9:13 AM, Jaricko.6143 said:

Not much that really needs to be explained honestly. There isn't much variety in this tree, if you aren't pvping there is little to no variance in what perks you pick. You pick damage. 

The way its designed you will do more so long as the enemy isn't between 50 and 80% hp. This is really boring. I kinda liked the idea of devastation when the life steal was initially added as not only was it a form of damage, but it had the added benefit of a secondary use in that it increased sustainability as well. When End of Dragons came about they reduced the damage making it a much less attractive form of damage, and it was already inferior to just taking the pure damage alternatives. So now, unless you are soloing, and probably even if you are soloing (cantha enemies are giant health pools and deal very little damage to you so there is no major advantage to healing), you just take the damage instead. 

I wish they came up with a creative way to increase your damage instead of just a flat increase during certain phases of the fight. When we used to have the one handed trait where in we would have stacking damage, that was technically just a damage increase but it had mechanics associated with it. It wasn't boring.

TL;DR - Low effort, very easily balanced design. No creativity. 

 

On 5/14/2022 at 11:25 AM, Jaricko.6143 said:

I just simply like the idea that there be a mechanic associated with some of the dps increases. It would be easy for every tree in the game to have an entire row that is just increase damage by 3% / 7% / 10%

That is essentially what a 20% under 50% damage increase is in most fight. It will average out to 10% damage. It doesn't require you to do anything. Where as previously they had the skill that stacked if you attacked with one handed weapons. If that still existed, it could encourage you to swap to swords, get some stacks, maybe swap to greatsword in the case of vindicator if the buff lasts long enough and then swap back to maintain it provided the buff lasts long enough. 

Battle scars are slightly more interesting in that its not just damage. It can ignore armor. But its damage is really low now, so unless you are out in the world with no source of incoming might, why would you run it? The ferocity is probably fine since it requires you to weigh whether or not to benefit the group or you. 

To be honest both the traitline and shiro as a legend feel this way right now; The whole kit and utility package could use some love. Be that a rework or what have you it doesn't really matter... it does not feel as good to use when compared to other classes/builds that fulfill its role. (looking at you willbender)

[Manpag.6421]

What if instead of Battle Scars being used for every hit, each skill had a set amount of Battle Scars it would consume on hit?

 

If ANet is nerfing passive sustain and damage, it would solve that problem by making it a bankable resource for a burst damage/heal. And upkeep skills like Impossible Odds could consume 1 stack/hit as they currently do.

[The Boz.2038]

The problem with scars, as with other vamp effects in the game, for the umpteenth time, is that they are at the same time sustain and damage that scales off two stats. ANet really doesn't want to standardize vampiric effects to "X% Base + Y*Healing Power of Power damage dealt" or something, and it consistently creates issues.

Edited June 6, 2022 by The Boz.2038

[Shao.7236]

I find it rather fun to work with, it compliments Shiro the most as it should. It's more of a PvE problem by the looks of it since you hardly ever have to go for sustain and traitlines can only do so much before you end up having straight upgrades over the other.

 

Devastation is still the go to for Power while Retribution sits in between power/condi along with Invocation while Corruption has nothing Power could benefit from.

[Jobber.6348]

If you ask me, Devastation needs to refocus strictly onto power damage first and foremost. This means things like Vuln, Damage %, Might etc. We should move Siphoning back to where it originally was, and that's as Minor traits. 
 

I have been saying this since Devastation got reworked: I find it utterly disgusting that we have 3 Major traits allocated to Battle Scars, two of which are pretty weak for taking a Major node. This indirectly already suffocates options for Adept Major and Master Major. 

 

If it were up to me, I'll make it as such: 

 

Thrill of Combat : Moved to Adept Minor

 

Expose Defenses : Moved to Adept Major 3, reworked to refresh itself on Legend Swap 

 

Battle Scarred : Reworked to Siphon health in an AoE instead of granting stacks of Battle Scars. Moved to Master Major 3. 

360 Radius, 5 Targets, 500 (0.3) damage, 300 (0.1) heal 

 

What this does is give the player better options for Adept Major, if they wish to have Vuln application or more Initial burst, and an alternative option for Master Major for sustain and unblockable burst damage through Siphoning instead of the other two damage options. 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by Yasai.3549