Fixing boon supports

[Kuma.1503]

In this post I'll go over improvements that can be made to make the Boonshare role more enjoyable and more flexible for more classes. 

Part of what makes firebrand so dominant is its ability to slot quickness into its build with relatively little trade-off. It does not need to devote its entire utility bar to the task, and it does not need to hit every button on cooldown to perform the role. While Firebrand is an arguable canditate for overperformance, this aspect is something that should be both kept and spread to other classes. The ability time situational utility adds to the skill and complexity of combat, and more classes should be allowed to do it. 

For the sake of clairity I will split boonshare supports into two catagories:

Spammers and Non-Spammers. 

Spammers include Qscrapper, QHerald, Alac Specter, and Alac Druid. 

These consist of boons supports which must both: 

A. Devote all or a large portion of their utility bar to the boon support role

and 

B. Must press these skills on cooldown or close to on cooldown to provide boons. 

 

Non-Spammers  include Firebrand, Mechanist, Catalyst, Tempest, Harbinger, and Willbender

 

I will be giving examples of changes that help Spammers give their boons in a more enjoyable and interactive way. For the sake of post legnth I will not to into hyper-specifics and instead list off core gameplay patterns for each class to follow. A structure that can be fleshed out later. Starting with...

 

SPECTER

There are three core gameplay patterns that I would like to add to specter. 

Pattern 1: Dealing Damage in Shadow Shroud gives barrier to the linked ally

Pattern 2: For every amount of barrier given over a set threshold (Example: every 750 barrier granted) pulse alacrity around the linked ally

Pattern 3: Well of Bounty pulses Alacrity as its first boon. 

 

Goals here are to disconect Specter's alacrity from well spam and encourage interaction with the shadow shroud link mechanic. The more damage you deal, the more barrier you grant. The more barrier you grant, the move alacrity you give. To fill in the gap before the Specter has built up the necesssary shroud, and to add a small utility trade-off as well, Well of Bounty takes on the role of smoothing out Alac uptime. 

This pairs the single target gameplay of specter with the AoE boonshare role that is expected of an Alacrity support. 

 

DRUID & SPIRITS

Anet set an interesting president with Mechanist. The willingness to add explicit interactions between elite spec mechancis and core mechanics. I would like to extend that to druid. 

Pattern 1: Spirits are no longer permenant. Spirit skills now summon a temporary companion which follow the ranger, buff the ranger, and allow the ranger to pulse boons around themselves to allies. The spirits themselves are purely consmetic and can neither attack or be attacked. 

Buffs and Boons are as follows:

Water: Heals the Ranger for its duration. The ranger pulses Regen

Sun: The Ranger's attack apply burning with a small ICD.  Pulses Alacrity

Storm: The ranger moves 66% faster. Pulses Fury

Frost: The ranger's attacks apply chill with a small ICD. Pulses Might. 

Pattern 2: Celestial Avatar now interacts with Spirits. Natural Convergence will cause the ranger to give boons to nearby allies based on spirits active. Enemies struck by Natural Convergence will be inflicted with conditions based on spirits active. 

Water: Regen and Slow

Sun: Burning and Alacrity

Storm: Fury and Vuln

Frost: Chill and Might

Pattern 3: While spirits are Active, the ranger may activate the skill again once during their duration for an additional effect based on active spirit. These can either bet the current spirit active skills or entirely new skills. 

SCRAPPER

Scrapper also suffers from spammy gameplay. They must use their gyros on cooldowns with no regards for the situational utility of each. To better solidify Scrapper as the supportive/hybrid spec, AND to give Scrapper a proper Trade-of from core... changes will be made to toolbelts and Gyros. Impact Savant is also buffed to 10% from 5% in PvE. 

 

Gyros now replace toolbelt skills. Old Gyro toolbelt skills replace utility skills. Blast Gyro is now a Pull instead of a Knockback. Med Gyro remains a utility skill. 

 

Pattern 1:  Function Gyro's functionality has been changed. The cooldown has been removed. Instead it builds up charge as you gain barrier. When cast, it pulses that stored barrier to allies. 

Pattern 2: Casting Function Gyro while another Gyro is active will cause that Gyro to grant a boon.

Med Gyro: Regen

Bulwark Gyro: Protection

Purge Gyro: Resolution

Blast Gyro: Might

Shredder Gyro: Quickness

 

Kenetic Accelerators is changed to double the amount of boons granted from Gyros and grant them lower cooldowns. (You are accelerating your Gyros)

 

HERALD

Giving boons on Draconic Echo was a good idea, but the current implementation encourages camping Glint and spamming consume skills, which isn't fun and discourages the player from actively timing the use of these abilities.

Instead, Draconic Echo will cause the Herald to pulse quickness as they consume energy. 

For every  X energy consumed, pulse quickness. This encourages the Herald to consume energy and stance swap instead of camping Glint. 

 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Kuma.1503