Buff core warrior by front-loading adrenaline

[jaif.3518]

My thought/suggestion for improving core warrior in competitive play without major overhauls; add 3 strikes of adrenaline every second when out of combat.  In WvW, this will mean having your burst available from the start of the fight, nothing more.  The longer the fight, the less of an advantage.

 

In PvE, this will obviously make basic open-mode wandering easier, but more fun as you're using your cool burst skill more often.  Again, in longer encounters the advantage dissipates, so it's not going to do much when battling champions and the like.

 

I can't speak to fractals/raids, but I don't see this as a huge buff in those.

[oscuro.9720]

You could add an F2 that is a 1/2s channel that grants adrenaline so that core Warrior can ramp up its adrenaline quicker, since the primary advantage it has is the T3 bursts. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Change Counterblow and Riposte to be full blocks that access the attack as a flipover once a block happens. Remove Adrenaline Rush from them.

New F2: Adrenaline Rush. 8s CD. 1/2s cast time. Gain 5 Adrenaline. Gain 3 adrenaline and 2 stacks of might (5s) per nearby foe.

Change Versatile Power to only reduce the CD on F1 skills. Add in traits that benefit the activation of the F2 skill. Swap the places of Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger for BSW.

Marching Orders, and Soldiers Comfort on F2 for example.
Berserker's Power, Burst Precision, Burst Mastery, Adrenal health, and Cleansing Ire on F1.

Gives room to add some sustain traits tied only to F2 and not F1.

[Infusion.7149]

I don't think a complete rework of adrenaline is ideal. There are traits for adrenaline on incoming damage already , weapon swap, and outgoing CC : out of combat adrenaline seems unlikely.

[xellink.7568]

Signet of fury?

[Fueki.4753]

I'd already be happy, if Adrenaline didn't drain outside of combat.

Necromancers don't lose Life Force.

Virtuosos don't lose Blades.

Thieves don't lose Initiative.

Firebrands don't lose Pages (unless the recent change added that).

Revenants' Energy doesn't reset to 0.

I don't see why Warrior, which already has the most simplistic profession mechanic, should have to lose its resource out of combat.

[xellink.7568]

1 hour ago, Fueki.4753 said:

I don't see why Warrior, which already has the most simplistic profession mechanic, should have to lose its resource out of combat.

 

That's because warrior fights is like watching an episode of Dragonball. The more they fight, the more powerful they become.

 

If they leave battle. Then that excitement build up needs to happen again. 

[Fueki.4753]

2 hours ago, xellink.7568 said:

That's because warrior fights is like watching an episode of Dragonball. The more they fight, the more powerful they become.

If they leave battle. Then that excitement build up needs to happen again. 

But Bursts aren't all that powerful anymore, so that analogy doesn't hold up.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

3 hours ago, xellink.7568 said:

 

That's because warrior fights is like watching an episode of Dragonball. The more they fight, the more powerful they become.

 

If they leave battle. Then that excitement build up needs to happen again. 

I get that that is supposed to be the fantasy behind the mechanic, but that doesn't mean it's good design or good gameplay.

 

I think passive adrenaline generation while in combat and generation up to 10 adrenaline (25 flow) out of combat (i.e. so you can enter combat with a T1 burst ready) would be ideal.

Edited December 31, 2022 by CalmTheStorm.2364

[KryTiKaL.3125]

I still think they need to update what Adrenaline actually does for Warrior as a class mechanic. I.E my prior suggestion elsewhere in this forum for making it so that when you gain a bar of Adrenaline you proc effects, either boons or otherwise, and they build from that with traits as well to supplement the mechanic change.

I still genuinely believe this would offer the most benefit overall to Warrior as it actually incentivizes gaining and spending Adrenaline while also bolstering Warrior's still significantly lacking personal boon generation (assuming that is the route taken) and uptime when not running a specifically support or boon duration oriented build.

As a rough example;

First Bar of Adrenaline gained: 2 stacks of Might (5s)
Second Bar of Adrenaline gained: 4 stacks of Might (5s), Fury (5s)
Third Bar of Adrenaline gained: 8 stacks of Might (5s), Fury (10s), Quickness (3s)

Of course you would have to spend the Adrenaline to be able to proc these effects again.

Warrior, unlike any other class with the exception of Thief, has been left behind in terms of ANets progressively more blunt shift towards Boons as the like primary form of augmenting your character within combat itself, the primary difference between Warrior and Thief, however, is that Warrior doesn't exactly get Stealth and god tier mobility (which is mostly relevant in PvP). This shows in PvE and PvP where classes that do have significant enough boon generation and uptime are consistently and almost overwhelmingly meta.

This isn't to say that Bladesworn or Spellbreaker don't hold their own, or even excel, in PvE as DPS because they do push out some juicy numbers, but in PvE Warrior also doesn't really have a reliably good Support option that can actually compete with things like Firebrand for a spot (Banner changes/updates made this better but again...Firebrand). I think this aspect, as well as Warriors' general personal boon generation and uptime in Competitive modes, can actually be solved with a change to Adrenaline like my suggestion above. Traits could be built around proccing when gaining a bar of Adrenaline, even ones that could provide Support in your group through Boons (cough Quickness cough).

Warrior is severely held back by its class mechanic typically relying on "on hit" to actually activate effects you typically need to even remotely be on par, but not quite close, to other classes since they don't have anywhere near those kinds of similar stipulations to gain benefits from their class mechanics or any number of their traits.

[Jzaku.9765]

It's fascinating how differently the exact same mechanic can be discussed, if you look at the discourse surrounding Energy on Catalyst (which is literally Warrior Adrenaline copy pasted onto Ele). They complained so hard that Energy was changed to immediately fill to max when starting Endgame encounters.

I agree with the premise of OP's post - Warrior needs more baseline ways to access a comfortable amount of Adrenaline, or the class stays in this constant state where several traits are taxed just to make the extremely simple class mechanic functional. 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Jzaku.9765