Break Enchantments Needs....Something

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

I'm not bringing this up merely as a "please buff this thing I like" thread. With the recent buffs to spellbreaker and to Defense, Spellbreaker is seeing more play in PvP, although it is still a subpar duelist and teamfighter compared to many other options.  A place where it has a chance to distinguish itself, though, is as a counter to the boon-spamming supports of guardian and tempest.  I think that would be a very healthy check on the power of support and could help carve out a niche for at least one warrior spec.  A functional Break Enchantments could be the key to making that happen.

 

Of note, BE removes 4 boons in PvP but only 2 in WvW.  That's incredibly dumb. It should remove 4-5 boons in both game modes.

 

Unfortunately, beyond the boon rip discrepancy in WvW, BE is just...lacking.  It needs something added to it to make it worth the precious utility slot---giving up something like Endure Pain, Shake it off, or bulls charge is a pretty high opportunity cost for warrior, and BE needs to pull its weight.

 

There are lots of ways this could happen.  Here are a few that came to mind (note: these are NOT mutually exclusive):

 

1) Make BE do more damage. 

Spinal Shivers is a ranged boon-rip that can hit for 8k+.  Obviously, an unblockable AOE boon-rip shouldn't be hitting for that much, but you could definitely hit for more than BE currently does.  I'd think a 0.20 coefficient per boon removed would be reasonable (4 boons max removed = 4 x 0.20 = 0.8 power coefficient).

 

2) Make BE give you something when you strip boons.

You're usually giving up a sustain-oriented utility slot to take BE, so maybe BE would be more viable if it provided something like "gain 1 stack of might (5s) and 5 endurance per boon removed" or "gain 1s protection for each boon removed," etc.  This would be interesting because it would scale with the size of the fight; i.e., you'll hit more targets and rip more boons in bigger fights, leading to bigger benefits.  There might need to be a cap to how much benefit you could get (e.g., 20s of protection would be pretty busted).

 

3) Apply a "Disenchant" mechanic.

Struck foes lose boons on hit and gain the "disenchant" debuff for 3s.  Disenchant= lose one boon every second.  I'd really like disenchant to be "strips all incoming boons for 3s," but they nerfed that function from Winds in WvW, so I doubt they would go that route.

 

4) Reduce CD to 15s and give it 2 charges.

Probably not the ideal fix, but being able to repeatedly remove large chunks of boons would be valuable, for sure.  The potentially nice aspect of this, from a balance perspective, is that the boon removal does little by itself; it needs to be combo'd with something to make a difference.  E.g., It'd be much easier for me to strip your stability with this change, but I'd still have to actually land a CC on you for it to matter.  Similarly, stripping your protection or aegis doesn't matter if I don't follow-up by landing an attack.  

 

Any other thoughts or ways to make BE better?

 

 

 

[Potato Slayer.3107]

37 minutes ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

3) Apply a "Disenchant" mechanic.

Struck foes lose boons on hit and gain the "disenchant" debuff for 3s.  Disenchant= lose one boon every second.  I'd really like disenchant to be "strips all incoming boons for 3s," but they nerfed that function from Winds in WvW, so I doubt they would go that route.

I would rather see it apply the 5 seconds of 100% boon duration decrease from winds of disenchantment on hit.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

3 minutes ago, Potato Slayer.3107 said:

I would rather see it apply the 5 seconds of 100% boon duration decrease from winds of disenchantment on hit.

Agreed, but, like I said, they explicitly went away from that when they nerfed WoD. We can still hope, but I don't think it's gonna happen. 

[Lucentfir.7430]

The thing with BE in WvW is it does some damage and has a 15s cd compared to its spvp version which does no damage 4 boons, and 25s cd.  BE is sorta decent in wvw, the only thing maybe it needs is a small damage bump or a buff to Loss Aversion to make it more valuable to use. 

 Enchantment Collapse/Disenchantment- TBH I think these should be reworked a bit and also a reason why WoD and Loss Aversion got nuked for the GvG scene in the first place,  As it stands in a big zerg setting boon reduction of a 33% does absolutely jack anything with so much boon vomit and pulsing boons going out. Disenchantment should be reworked into a debuff that removes 1 boon per second instead of just reducing incoming boon duration.  Then with Enchantment Collapse reform it from "Removing a boon from a foe causes all nearby foes to lose additional boons" to apply Disenchantment for 2s on foes you remove boons(Boon removal from disenchantment will not stack with itself). Disenchantment also effects nearby foes. Keep the Disenchantment  capped at 3s max so if there are a ton of spbs it keeps things pretty in check and you won't have durations where you'll over over 15s of Disenchantment because someone got hit by a bunch of EC Spbs. Then this will make it easier to consider buffing Loss Aversion again. 

  
Tbh other meditation skills and things need to be changed or tweaked more since they have no use in any of the game modes. 

Featherfoot's Grace - add resolution, and it'll be a perfectly good  competative option for a defensive stunbreak and it'll have some synergy with defense traitline. 
 
Imminent Threat - Shave the cast time and cut the cooldown to 20s. Expand the range, and give it protection. The taunt doesn't even proc Dispelling Force.  Otherwise rework it, since this doesn't see use in any game mode. 

Sight Beyond Sight - Buff it to your next 3 attacks become critical strikes, and The unique buff should either make those next 3 attack ignore blind, or prevent blindness condition for as long as it's active. Having it just remove blind just makes it so you'll get blinded again right after.  

Natural Healing - make it a large heal in competitive (10k), remove the condition cleanse and self boon removal,  change it to gain 3 stacks of attacker's insight, if you have max stacks refresh your stacks of attacker's insight gain 8s of regeneration and remove poisoned, burning ,bleeding, and crippled. 

[Potato Slayer.3107]

I like the new debuff idea