Reworking very unpopular weapons => build diversity

[ZeroTheRuler.7415]

On 1/12/2023 at 8:33 AM, Dadnir.5038 said:

To be fair I'd like if they could go to the end of their current pet project before focusing on something else for once.

I know it's frustrating to see that some weaponset don't see much use but, wouldn't it be awesome if, for once, they could finish thoroughly one of the objective they told us they are working on?

I mean, years ago they said: "We want weapon trait to be useful even if you don't use the specific weapon" and this would have been awesome if it allowed to see some use for these trait in any kind of environment yet after a round of change to some of the most used weapon traits.

• Spellbreaker's sun and moon force you to use a dagger,
• Ranger's light on your feet force you into shortbow,
• Necromancer's soul mark force you to use staff,
• Guardian's stalwart defender force the use of a shield,
• Guardian's focus mastery force the use of a focus,
• Firebrand's unrelenting criticism don't work for anything but axe,
• Mesmer's bountiful blade only work for GS,
• Mesmer's duellist discipline only benefit pistol,
• Mesmer's warden feedback only work for focus, 
• Mesmer's malicious sorcery only work for scepter,
• Mesmer's mirror axe only work for axes.

I mean can we have those 11 traits updated so that they can at least have some effects while used underwater? The same goes for utility skills traits with utilities that can't be used underwater, I think of:

• Elementalist's conjured weapon trait conjurer,
• Druid's glyph trait verdant etching,
• Dragon hunter's trap trait piercing light,
• Chronomancer's wells trait All's well that end well,
• Renegade's all for one,

I mean, that's 16 traits with 0 use underwater. I know that underwater content isn't the priority but can we at least have the decency to not ignore it?

So, yeah, update to underused weapons would be great but, so would be many other projects that the devs talked about and never saw their end.

Projects like WvW alliances right? I'm not a WvW main, buuuut I really really want to see this feature in the game. Hopefully the interface update to the store also updates some of the other interfaces too in preparation for it 😀

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

*cough* necro offhand dagger *cough*

[Cuks.8241]

I'm all in for all weapon viability. But the weapons you listed, outside of guardian hammer, are not bad at all if you count all game modes. The niche ones might fall out of meta, but they return. 

[Cuks.8241]

5 hours ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

*cough* necro offhand dagger *cough*

Is fine. Qdps Harbringer, maybe not the best qdps out there but completely viable, even listed on snowcrows as one of the meta necro builds. Various pvp builds (I use it on my condi harb in spvp and  for wvw). 

[draxynnic.3719]

8 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

Is fine. Qdps Harbringer, maybe not the best qdps out there but completely viable, even listed on snowcrows as one of the meta necro builds. Various pvp builds (I use it on my condi harb in spvp and  for wvw). 

Necro offhand dagger isn't really good, it's just the only condi offhand necro has outside of certain trait interactions.

Which is one of the problems with the premise of this thread - sometimes a weapon is used despite being terrible because there are no real alternatives, and sometimes a weapon is unpopular not because it's bad but simply because other weapons on the same profession fit better into the popular builds.

[DeceiverX.8361]

40 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Necro offhand dagger isn't really good, it's just the only condi offhand necro has outside of certain trait interactions.

Which is one of the problems with the premise of this thread - sometimes a weapon is used despite being terrible because there are no real alternatives, and sometimes a weapon is unpopular not because it's bad but simply because other weapons on the same profession fit better into the popular builds.

 

I think necro OH dagger has a way worse reputation than it deserves.  I've been running it on my reaper for years and honestly, it's a pretty good all-rounder to keep yourself alive with.  The skills themselves are quite potent if used well in the PvP/WvW modes, but yes, underwhelming in PvE.  I think the biggest issues it has are the lack of LF gen and the lengthy cooldown on Enfeebling Blood.  Since LF and damage are basically all that matter in PvE, it suffers as a consequence.

Drop EB to 5 seconds of weakness on 16ish seconds cooldown, and put like 3% LF gain on skills 4/5, and suddenly OH dagger becomes VERY good on virtually any build looking for a good balance of offense/defense.