Spellbreaker needs some boon duration.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

In his recent post Joko the Caring has expressed his concern for lack of place for spellbreaker in the pve endgame meta.
After reviewing old records, interro... discussing certain things with sunspear pri..guests.. as well as few healthy test runs in gladiatorial pits for amusement of  royal subjects, Joko the Insightful has come to understand the crux of the issue.

...LET GO OF MY LEG!! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE SLAY THIS DRAGON??
Apologies, it's hard to find good guards these days, not to mention dragon slayers who spend days tauting their deeds, yet can't handle a pig sized lizard...

But where was Joko...

Ah yes. Spellbreaker.
Issue lies in it's predisposition to becoming offensive support. Ironically it's superior ability to support keeps it out of meta.
For Bladesworn and Berserker case is simple - damage first, party quickness slapped onto that and off you go.
Both of these work due to their damage. Bladesworn can lose quarter of it for sake of party quickness and still is a killing machine.
Berserker can bypass a lot of hurdles by going condition and using Rune of the Firebrand, filling a lot of missing boon duration that otherwise would have to be provided at expense of damage.

Spellbreaker however is different. With it's vastly superior ability to support he cannot just flat out ignore it for more damage.
At the end of the day that'd be just being a worse quickness Bladesworn or Berserker.

He needs to embrace it, but to embrace he needs massive amounts of concentration. And that comes at a massive cost to dps.
Dagger autos seem a great way to support (stacking party might while you auto) but they are short. Short might is not good for support.
If you want/must do anything else, such as switching to hammer for breakbar phase, your team is at risk of rapidly losing might stacks during the most important burst phase!

Want consistent might application without insane boon duration? Go tactics with Phalanx strength.
Want consistent quickness application without issane boon duration? Go Discipline for Doubled Standards and drop some banners.
Want competitive damage? Don't go both Discipline and Tactics leaving out Strength.

Do you see the catch 22 here Commander?
Spellbreakers cannot reach their true supportive potential in PvE without massive boon duration.
And that is an issue becuase of Herald. A full support spellbreaker can near Herald's levels of utility but not it's damage.
While full damage quickness spellbreaker will lose out to Bladesworn and Berserker, unless boon hate is specifically needed for the encounter.
Which btw herald too can provide without sacrificing it's damage. Power Herald has Shiro's F2 consume for that, condi Mallyx's banish enchantment.

And what does Herald have? Short lasting boons like spellbreaker, but backed by two mechanics latter lacks.
One is concentration/boon duration bonuses (240 free concentration in traits) and 20% boon duration with F2 profession mechanic.
Other is boon application becoming somewhat independant from swapping with grandmaster trait (Draconic Echoes).

Now there's no need to grab a Herald and rip the dragon off it to attach it to spellbreakers (speaking of which one dragon definitely needs to be ripped to shreds),
but spellbreaker exclusive boon duration would let them at least get closer to Herald levels of utility..



 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Aurene, go for the head next time.

[draxynnic.3719]

Joko might have received more sympathy from dragon slayers if Joko had not been preparing to kill the dragon slayer and invade the dragon slayer's homeland with the aid of a biological weapon when the dragon attacked. Just saying.

Glaze Joko! A bit of honey to offset the bitter aftertaste. Palawa Scrumptious Snacko, the best treat on the market for a young dragon!

Seriously, though, it is an interesting analysis. Being able to go all in on support would help give spellbreaker a place, as long as it can do so and still be competitive with other supports. Personally, I tend to think that instead of attaching quickness to banners, they should have added quickness or alacrity to spellbreaker. Let the berserker be mobile DPS, bladesworn low-mobility power DPS, and spellbreaker offensive support.

Putting quickness on core, though, places any spellbreaker support build in direct competition with what are basically DPS specs with quickness attached. Druid has a similar problem, but it has the advantage of also being a good healer while also being indispensable for certain mechanics.

Working with what we have rather than might-have-beens, though, having some means of extended boon duration is an interesting idea to offset this. The trick is finding a way to do it that fits the theme. One possible approach could be that whenever the spellbreaker uses a boon removal skill or a hard CC, the spellbreaker gains a buff that gives increased boon duration for a period of time. This could be explained as the spellbreaker harvesting magic from the enemy in order to reinforce their own effects.

Edited September 30, 2022 by draxynnic.3719