So. Specter.

[RagingRube.2540]

DPS Specter and alacrity/DPS Specter are both honestly in pretty good places as far as I am concerned.

The changes in the patch today seem like they were aimed at heal Specter, but unfortunately they really didn't change much.

 

• Shadow Sap: The enemy-targeted version of this skill now grants might in an area around the specter. The ally-targeted version of this skill now grants protection.
• -Cool, the enemy-targeted version of this skill isn't totally worthless to a support now, and it rounds out Specter to very easily upkeep 25 might.
• -The ally targeted version, however just seems plain bad. Single-target protection for 2 & 1/2 seconds (with no bd, so assume that's 5sec with 100%bd) is honestly just pretty worthless, and you'd be better off just running a quickdps Herald in your sub to give permanent protection, and never using the ally-target version of this skill.

 

 

 

• Well of Silence: This skill has been reworked. It now dazes enemies on the initial strike, then removes conditions from allies in the area on each pulse. Gain shadow force for each condition removed. Reduced cooldown from 50 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• -This would be a pretty awesome skill for heal specter now. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to be reactive with your wells, and utility slots are in very high demand on specter builds due to the nature of the alacrity generation, and the Shadestep trait, which encourages you to use your wells in a timely manner too, to share barrier.
• -Seems good in PvP and WvW

 

• Well of Bounty: Increased might stacks from 6 to 8 in PvE only.
• -With the Shadow Sap change, this is only really relevant to alacrityDPS Specter, as a healing focused build on Specter will easily upkeep 25 might.

 

 

Overall, heal Specter got very, very slightly buffed. 25 might is nice on paper, but most classes naturally bring enough these days that you were already well capped on might before the patch. The protection, as mentioned, is not particularly impactful, and you'd be better off saving your 3 initiative for your Scepter/Dagger 3. Well of Silence is kinda nice, but until Specter alacrity application gets reworked, it's going to be more of an incidental condi cleanse sometimes than the big condi cleanse button it should be. Well of Bounty changes doesn't really matter for heal Specter for the same reasons as the might on Shadow Sap (though you will definitely get value from this change, whereas the Shadow Sap change could potentially never get used).

 

It really seems like Specter has a bit of an identity crisis as a healer. It has only a couple of strengths, one of which is the ability to Siphon downstates awake at a *very* high pace due to the Shadestep trait - but only if you're quick enough and they don't get bonked down below 66% of their downstate health. It also can do decent healing and barrier to a subgroup whilst dealing very high damage for the healer slot.

 

It's weaknesses are pretty glaring ones for a healer

-No regen

-Very bad protection, maybe the worst of the healers

-Your one stability-sharing skill needs to be spammed off cd for boon upkeep

-Your biggest heal (Consume Shadows) doesn't scale off healing power, but vitality (this isn't the worst thing, but it does definitely mean harrier is an even worse/less synergistic option)

-Very restricted on utility slots

-No good elite option, just a couple of flavours of CC

-Terrible tank due to wells, additionally has no means of tanking certain mechanics like Mind Crush

 

A few things that would help a lot:

-A better way to apply alacrity. Something similar to Mechanist's applying on barrier would be far more fun and interactive.

-Aoe Protection, and if we're feeling spicy, Regen. Though I'm kinda ok with no regen being one of Specter's weaknesses if the protection is addressed

-Wells need a useability pass. At minimum they should all have the same cast time, except for maybe the elite to keep with its punchy animation, though it's not a particularly compelling skill function-wise. Range should be increased to 900 in all cases (at least in PvE), it's ridiculous that I can shadowstep backwards because these ranges are so short I run past where I initially targeted them. Additionally, a way to perfectly drop them on yourself without needing to skillclick would be nice for tanking purposes.

-Buff Shallow Grave cooldown to 40sec in PvE so Specter can tank Deimos. This would be a huge trade off because you'd be losing Consume Shadows, so I'm not even sure this would be something you'd want anywhere else outside PvP.

 

 

Thanks if you read this, I tried to be fairly thorough without being exhaustive. Let's talk about this!

[Asra.8746]

A good support can support itself before it can support others...

[Zacchary.6183]

I wouldn't bother complaining about healing power on thief. It has never benefitted the profession since inception because thief's heal scaling is crap across the board. Shadow Savior and Traversing Dusk have a high base heal and is good enough at healing a party. Even a few +10% outgoing healing would make it unnecessarily high. In fact, it still can pump out 2-3k hps a target post-nerf.

Honestly, Anet should have kept Specter's ability to AoE healrez. It would have been fine if it was at a reduced rate, so it didn't essentially make groups immortal. It would be great to bring along for pugs.

[Doggie.3184]

I will not be happy till my Specter Scepter has AoE damage and heals and they fix the Sc/P 3 flinging me everywhere. Ele Staff 1 now targets an ally and heals 5 people on hit so like... cmon. I wanna have fun.

[kash.9213]

Group protection would have been alright and a nice option choice on one skill. Should still be alright to cover a squad driver, I was using it to build might on whoever's on point anyway so there's still a decent choice, it just fell kind of short not being group protection. Maybe they thought with good Initiative management that it would be too much. I guess it's still a good budget if whoever you're keeping up is providing something else for the group to turtle up with on bursts. 

I kind of like more interrupts and Well of Silence was good pressure, but maybe the janitor work it's doing now will be a comparable answer to stuff and give better sustainability.

Edited February 14, 2023 by kash.9213

[Doggie.3184]

3 minutes ago, kash.9213 said:

Group protection would have been alright and a nice option choice on one skill. Should still be alright to cover a squad driver, I was using it to build might on whoever's on point anyway so there's still a decent choice, it just fell kind of short not being group protection. Maybe they thought with good Initiative management that it would be too much. I guess it's still a good budget if whoever you're keeping up is providing something else for the group to turtle up with on bursts. 

I kind of like more interrupts and Well of Silence was good pressure, but maybe the janitor work it's doing now will be a comparable answer to stuff and give better sustainability.

"not being group..." is the sole issue of every Specter problem that keeps it from being fun. It's depressing seeing so much wasted potential. They're still addicted to this idea of making our class purely "single-target" in all aspects which should be a long dead concept in this game for every class.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Doggie.3184

[Asra.8746]

2 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

"not being group..." is the sole issue of every Specter problem that keeps it from being fun. It's depressing seeing so much wasted potential. They're still addicted to this idea of making our class purely "single-target" in all aspects which should be a long dead concept in this game for every class.

This wouldn't be an issue, if it was actually better than every other class at doing those things simply because it was single target....except it's not. It's just the same, but worse because it's single target instead of AoE.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Asra.8746

[Tenal.1546]

Was the removal ALL movement-impairing abilities from Well of Silence a PvP/WvW thing? Not that I do EITHER. Just TWO seconds of Daze now? It's an alacrity generator. Balance my KITTEN KITTEN KITTEN!! Meh.

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

gain shadow shroud for each condition removed - yet wont matter in WvW / spvp where your shroud is SHITE anyway and can be taken away with a Pet Fart. Lazy balancing

[Infusion.7149]

They slightly improved might gain but the largest thing holding back specter healing is the healing coefficients. There is no reason to run healing gear instead of ritualist if your largest heals all have 0.1 or 0.2 heal coefficients. The payoff is not there, whereas running ritualist alac specter with consume shadows outputs quite a bit of barrier.
Second opinion should really add barrier when someone is overhealed to even out the trait choices, for example.

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

24 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

They slightly improved might gain but the largest thing holding back specter healing is the healing coefficients. There is no reason to run healing gear instead of ritualist if your largest heals all have 0.1 or 0.2 heal coefficients. The payoff is not there, whereas running ritualist alac specter with consume shadows outputs quite a bit of barrier.
Second opinion should really add barrier when someone is overhealed to even out the trait choices, for example.

the only good thing is .11 healing coefficient on shadowsquall

[Infusion.7149]

Maybe they want to force shadowarts (Shadow Savior due to relying on wells is currently 596+0.4*healing power in PVE) but it is still baffling to me why the actual single target heals are not something akin to 5k heals in PvE on the long cooldowns. If specter is to be a single target healer it should have AoE barrier / regen but give high powered single target heals when not applying barriers. That is likely the only way it could truly work in PvE without a total UI revamp.

• Shadow Savior still is ~1K in AoE with 1K healing power which is not amazing since Traversing Dusk is 645+0.1*healing power or roughly 750 with 1K healing power. People could probably make some janky build using sword mainhand but really I do not think this is a strong way to play nor is it user friendly.
• Twilight Combo is 714+0.2*healing power meaning your healing contribution is nearly negligible (~200 extra heal with 1K healing power) even if you get extra barrier which you simply may overcap on without actually healing people. Of course this is mainly used as DPS skill.
• Measured shot has 2151+0.444*healing power but it teleports you to your target so maybe that is what is meant for healing. This would be ~2.5K with 1K healing power which is not that impressive. Similarly, Endless Night if was converted to alac when traited with Traversing Dusk then you would not need as many wells or to use them not for their intended purpose (i.e. CC when you do not need CC). The potential barrier from Endless Night gives it a high level of variance however due to Rot Wallow Venom.
• Dawns Repose in Shadow Shroud has a large barrier but negligible healing contribution of 0.1*healing power on top of the 514 base heal. The barrier is dependent on targets hit so it is a poor choice in a low target count scenario.
• Eternal Night lacks barrier but has the 0.1 healing coefficient on top of 514 base heal. It is used in the DPS rotation so it probably is not getting a large heal.

All this leads to relying on consume shadows. It is kind of odd to me that a single target heal spec has one of the largest AoE heals if the situation allows for it. Moreover, skills that do not give barrier also do not give rot wallow venom , which in turn drops your DPS output.

Actually another interesting way I could see alac specter being pivoted is if Second Opinion healed when giving barrier to the tethered ally (to keep the single target healer idea but improve its usefulness) if they are not full health in PVE or something akin to that. It would actually make it usable over Consume Shadows.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Infusion.7149

[Tenal.1546]

On 2/14/2023 at 10:38 PM, Infusion.7149 said:

They slightly improved might gain but the largest thing holding back specter healing is the healing coefficients. There is no reason to run healing gear instead of ritualist if your largest heals all have 0.1 or 0.2 heal coefficients. The payoff is not there, whereas running ritualist alac specter with consume shadows outputs quite a bit of barrier.
Second opinion should really add barrier when someone is overhealed to even out the trait choices, for example.

I use TBs/Cele when soloing. Though I miss the big barrier numbers before "they" nerfed that into that ground, I nearly quit the game and disputed all charges for the last year on my CC against the company. Though after calming down, it was just a game in the end, and Anet has been trying hard for all of us and for me when I ask for customer support. I couldn't and wouldn't do that. Though that is how I felt.

At this point Specter is quite solable and does have a place in PVE instance. Though I see more evidence of them via videos of them in pairs with teammates or in packs. Well, of Shadows DOES CLEANSE others, but I used it when NEEDED to slow MOBS in OW mainly.  That STINGS, Anet. I can live with it. Still it stings a little. Besides, None of the slow mechanics would work against PVE instanced bosses.

This seems PVP inspired and not so much WvW. I don't do the first at all, and the second I want to get into since you're apparently doing a great job at revamping already. Well of Sorrows was very useful to slow others coming at you especially if you stealth CDs were not up. NO, I'm not talking about a cheesy perma stealth build which I would never touch nor could play.  Thus I play  my Harbinger in WvW when I do, and I like the rewards. You're doing what you said.

Just consider this ANET if you are listening or some Moderator wants to pass this on because I'm going to send you bosses a very well written letter next detailing some complaints and some good things they have done.

Anyway, I just don't see the tradeoff of movement impairing abilities in Well of Sorrows being entirely removed for a 2 second daze (which yes, has its function in group play) and the ability to cleanse players in the area of the well WHICH is not very big. Plus most don't KNOW to stand in it for a sec.

Also, is Short bow as a second weapon our only choice of evasion or rapid movement, perhaps consider increasing  our wells to 900 at least. I think that would be a sweet spot.

Infusion,.7149 thank you for letting me quote you, sort of hijack your post, but I think we're on the same page. And sure Anet hardly sees these. Thus have I heard that they read Reddit more. I don't talk there. Here is much nicer. Also, sure, I could as said earlier just send a ticket being all LOUD but nice to Anet, but I only do that when Absolutely necessary.

As said, I almost did a number of thing when they first "nerfed" the Specter. However, there are a number of very viable solo builds, they do tend to be desired in some strike content still. I just wish you'd send them a little LOVE sooner rather than later mainly for us PVE player without overbalancing for the other two modes of play.

Cheers, and thanks,

Ten.

[Doggie.3184]

On 2/15/2023 at 1:22 AM, Infusion.7149 said:

Maybe they want to force shadowarts (Shadow Savior due to relying on wells is currently 596+0.4*healing power in PVE) but it is still baffling to me why the actual single target heals are not something akin to 5k heals in PvE on the long cooldowns. If specter is to be a single target healer it should have AoE barrier / regen but give high powered single target heals when not applying barriers. That is likely the only way it could truly work in PvE without a total UI revamp.

• Shadow Savior still is ~1K in AoE with 1K healing power which is not amazing since Traversing Dusk is 645+0.1*healing power or roughly 750 with 1K healing power. People could probably make some janky build using sword mainhand but really I do not think this is a strong way to play nor is it user friendly.
• Twilight Combo is 714+0.2*healing power meaning your healing contribution is nearly negligible (~200 extra heal with 1K healing power) even if you get extra barrier which you simply may overcap on without actually healing people. Of course this is mainly used as DPS skill.
• Measured shot has 2151+0.444*healing power but it teleports you to your target so maybe that is what is meant for healing. This would be ~2.5K with 1K healing power which is not that impressive. Similarly, Endless Night if was converted to alac when traited with Traversing Dusk then you would not need as many wells or to use them not for their intended purpose (i.e. CC when you do not need CC). The potential barrier from Endless Night gives it a high level of variance however due to Rot Wallow Venom.
• Dawns Repose in Shadow Shroud has a large barrier but negligible healing contribution of 0.1*healing power on top of the 514 base heal. The barrier is dependent on targets hit so it is a poor choice in a low target count scenario.
• Eternal Night lacks barrier but has the 0.1 healing coefficient on top of 514 base heal. It is used in the DPS rotation so it probably is not getting a large heal.

All this leads to relying on consume shadows. It is kind of odd to me that a single target heal spec has one of the largest AoE heals if the situation allows for it. Moreover, skills that do not give barrier also do not give rot wallow venom , which in turn drops your DPS output.

Actually another interesting way I could see alac specter being pivoted is if Second Opinion healed when giving barrier to the tethered ally (to keep the single target healer idea but improve its usefulness) if they are not full health in PVE or something akin to that. It would actually make it usable over Consume Shadows.

Don't forget Twilight Combo is completely useless as a heal/support skill because it's bugged and bodyblocked by allies and pets.

Even reported it again recently with first time being a year ago. AoE would certainly bandaid this bug though if they dunno how to fix it normally. 🙂

 

[Mohrr.8294]

As a returning player been back about 2 months  I would love to see some buffs to specter squad play 

I find it to be challenging to play with positioning, and shadowsteps to focus where you want to land but not viable to compete with other classes zergs prefer ( I thought the point of specs like this were to make viable in zergs)

-the barrier is about half of vindi, stealth is a big application for heal but if you drop a well you lose alot of uptime of alac that is required for how long cds are compare to other healing classes

-healing is about 1/4  of other healing classes

- other healing classes bring other benefits compare to specter ex: strip, cleanses

+boons that it does have are good upkeep if you spam on cd (not easiest with shadow step lag and positioning)

 

things that could make it viable for zerg play would be more boons resist, stab, reso application, f1 being aoe rez instead on single target,  or buffing strips/cleanses on the class (ex: applying barrier to tethered ally give a aoe cleanse icd of 5s would make it not so over tuned but might be close enough to viable for zergs to consider it 

 

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

What id like to see is flip variants like how preparations work or a fire for effect effect for wells that dont force u to blow UTILITY SKILLS ON COOLDOWN FOR ALACRITY ALONE!!! The tools and methods are there...use them anet...sheesh

[Depths.4051]

Really interesting to know the that our main healing well scales of vitality. I hadn't known that. 

 

 I'm using minstrel to try and heal fractals and even with a super tanked up thief healer I find myself downed frequently depending on the instance. I wanted to make a go of it, and have honestly tried really hard with various builds and play styles. I tried harrier first, since I had it from my engineer, then I tried plague doctor, and lastly minstrel. I had trouble surviving in sirens reef as a healer with plague doctor, so I thought surely minstrel would perform better. I found I was still dying in t3 uncategorized poison golem fight where healing and dps is really important. I was spamming all my wells, and I tried the shadowstep spam with main hand sword to get as much shadowstep healing for the group as I could. This wasn't enough healing for myself tho, and I was the first to go down, because I feel that my self healing is not good compared to my outgoing healing. I was using bountiful maintenance oil, riceballs, and monk runes, so my outgoing healing was as high as I could get it I believe.

 

I feel that the single target aspect heal of the specter is a nice quality, and with shadowstep you do get the aoe heal option. I love being able to focus one person by toggling them from the party tab when I can't find them roaming somewhere away from the group. It would be a great option for pug groups in fractals... if it had enough self healing imo. The shroud I don't find very useful, because you lack aoe healing with it. It basically turns off healing in general except for 1 random ally until you can get 5 stacks for a burst aoe heal. If I could toggle shroud on and still use my heal abilities, I would love the shroud for healing. The fact you have to replace all your active abilities you could be healing with to get a delayed heal is not great imo. So I'm usually stuck not bothering with shroud most of the time.

 

I want really badly to love specter healing, but no matter how I look at it, the self healing in situations where you can't avoid damage is a problem. When you can't provide protection, aegis, or get a free -10% damage reduction like HAM, or even get more self healing, you're going to go down much faster. A downed healer can't heal. I know you can use shroud for a second set of HP, but if your teammates are dead while your in shroud as a healer, what's the point?

 

This is all my own opinion and experiences I've had with specter healing so far in fractals. Sorry for reviving the thread, didn't want to start a new one when I know there's plenty of healing specter threads already.

[kash.9213]

54 minutes ago, Depths.4051 said:

Really interesting to know the that our main healing well scales of vitality. I hadn't known that. 

 

 I'm using minstrel to try and heal fractals and even with a super tanked up thief healer I find myself downed frequently depending on the instance. I wanted to make a go of it, and have honestly tried really hard with various builds and play styles. I tried harrier first, since I had it from my engineer, then I tried plague doctor, and lastly minstrel. I had trouble surviving in sirens reef as a healer with plague doctor, so I thought surely minstrel would perform better. I found I was still dying in t3 uncategorized poison golem fight where healing and dps is really important. I was spamming all my wells, and I tried the shadowstep spam with main hand sword to get as much shadowstep healing for the group as I could. This wasn't enough healing for myself tho, and I was the first to go down, because I feel that my self healing is not good compared to my outgoing healing. I was using bountiful maintenance oil, riceballs, and monk runes, so my outgoing healing was as high as I could get it I believe.

 

I feel that the single target aspect heal of the specter is a nice quality, and with shadowstep you do get the aoe heal option. I love being able to focus one person by toggling them from the party tab when I can't find them roaming somewhere away from the group. It would be a great option for pug groups in fractals... if it had enough self healing imo. The shroud I don't find very useful, because you lack aoe healing with it. It basically turns off healing in general except for 1 random ally until you can get 5 stacks for a burst aoe heal. If I could toggle shroud on and still use my heal abilities, I would love the shroud for healing. The fact you have to replace all your active abilities you could be healing with to get a delayed heal is not great imo. So I'm usually stuck not bothering with shroud most of the time.

 

I want really badly to love specter healing, but no matter how I look at it, the self healing in situations where you can't avoid damage is a problem. When you can't provide protection, aegis, or get a free -10% damage reduction like HAM, or even get more self healing, you're going to go down much faster. A downed healer can't heal. I know you can use shroud for a second set of HP, but if your teammates are dead while your in shroud as a healer, what's the point?

 

This is all my own opinion and experiences I've had with specter healing so far in fractals. Sorry for reviving the thread, didn't want to start a new one when I know there's plenty of healing specter threads already.

If you're trying to keep yourself up a little more and you're more about healing people than damage ticks, then maybe take Ritualist or something else for Vitality and take Shadow Arts to go in and out of stealth for self healing and add more area healing on your shadowsteps and Consume Shadows.

Even if you're trying to stick with Deadly Arts or whatever you run for Fractals and whatever else, I would still try to cycle through Shroud and back almost as soon as you can combo with Grasping Shadows for group stealth to give barrier going into a burst and then possibly a little more with Consume Shadows to bring you and your group out of the burst. Healing stat doesn't scale well for us and Specter signature healing methods get more from Vitality pool. It might be more bursty barrier and healing than sustained, but it's pretty close anyway if you're cycling consistently, or readily for bursts. Also, Shroud has a Leap to jump on Water for yourself and Eternal Night.

I'm mostly in WvW so I'm sorry if that doesn't help for what you're doing but as long as I'm not getting melted trying to keep up someone who went down in a bad spot then Vitality, Shadowsteps, and Shroud plus Shroud skills mostly keep me in large fights. Me or my Tether getting focused hard can burn Shroud fast though, but enemy Siphon and a couple quick Shadowsteps with enough Allies in the radius can burst Shadow Force, just have to be smart with Initiative or take Quick pockets since Shroud drop also counts as weapon switch if you don't need another Daze.

[Depths.4051]

51 minutes ago, kash.9213 said:

If you're trying to keep yourself up a little more and you're more about healing people than damage ticks, then maybe take Ritualist or something else for Vitality and take Shadow Arts to go in and out of stealth for self healing and add more area healing on your shadowsteps and Consume Shadows.

Even if you're trying to stick with Deadly Arts or whatever you run for Fractals and whatever else, I would still try to cycle through Shroud and back almost as soon as you can combo with Grasping Shadows for group stealth to give barrier going into a burst and then possibly a little more with Consume Shadows to bring you and your group out of the burst. Healing stat doesn't scale well for us and Specter signature healing methods get more from Vitality pool. It might be more bursty barrier and healing than sustained, but it's pretty close anyway if you're cycling consistently, or readily for bursts. Also, Shroud has a Leap to jump on Water for yourself and Eternal Night.

I'm mostly in WvW so I'm sorry if that doesn't help for what you're doing but as long as I'm not getting melted trying to keep up someone who went down in a bad spot then Vitality, Shadowsteps, and Shroud plus Shroud skills mostly keep me in large fights. Me or my Tether getting focused hard can burn Shroud fast though, but enemy Siphon and a couple quick Shadowsteps with enough Allies in the radius can burst Shadow Force, just have to be smart with Initiative or take Quick pockets since Shroud drop also counts as weapon switch if you don't need another Daze.

 

I have a full set of ritualist, but I don't use it for healing. Its my dps/alac set. You can't get much tankier than minstrel tho even if vitality is a sub stat. Plague doctor has vitality as a main stat as well, and I find its much squishier than minstrel. I've heard healing power doesn't scale well, but I don't know what else I would put points into if I want to main healing/alac for a group in fractals. I see plague doctor is recommended on metabattle, and thats what I tried second, after harrier. group stealth isnt worth much except for protection buff in pve. It might be worth it to take shadow refuge, and I see it recommended in metabattle, but I don't because people often don't stack in fractal pugs. So I mostly don't bother with that. I don't use deadly arts at all. If you want to know mostly what I'm running, meta battle support healer specter build is very closely what I am following.

 

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Specter_-_Support_Healer

 

I use the shadow refuge slot as my flex slot, and often use blinding powder there as a break stun/invis so I can follow up with the heal spam bolts (idk what its called, I've heard people complain that it can get blocked by pets and other people tho, and have had problems with this myself **edit: its called shadowsquall). 

I also use minstrel stats are very heavy on tankiness/support. ++toughness + vitality ++healing power + concentration.

I appreciate your input, bursty is a good way of putting the healing perspective on it tho. WvW is going to be a very different experience from PvE tho. I've played a fair bit (I say a fair bit but Im only about level 350 or so in wvw) of WvW and if you want to be effective you certainly can't run the same things you run in PvE and vise versa.

 

I'll try playing with shroud more, but right now most groups aren't willing to take a specter healer into higher level fractals because they either want a HAM or a HB and nothing else. So there's not a lot of room for practice in anything very challenging. Pugging can go badly as well when people aren't happy with you if you aren't fulfilling your role too, so that's a thing.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Depths.4051

[Depths.4051]

You know, I haven't tried Sanctuary runes, if you think vitality would be a better stat investment than healing power from monk runes... perhaps these could help me with more survivability? does the final effect of sanctuary rune effect allies? I know I'm wishing hard here because it says on it "any heals you receive", but I mean that'd be a wet dream. Would it detract from its support capability at all, or only boost it you think?

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

6 hours ago, Depths.4051 said:

You know, I haven't tried Sanctuary runes, if you think vitality would be a better stat investment than healing power from monk runes... perhaps these could help me with more survivability? does the final effect of sanctuary rune effect allies? I know I'm wishing hard here because it says on it "any heals you receive", but I mean that'd be a wet dream. Would it detract from its support capability at all, or only boost it you think?

Sanctuary runes aren't vitality they are toughness resulting in vitality loss resulting further in reduced barrier and heals. It's not worth it.

 

I use minstrels no no issue

[Depths.4051]

5 hours ago, Lithril Ashwalker.6230 said:

Sanctuary runes aren't vitality they are toughness resulting in vitality loss resulting further in reduced barrier and heals. It's not worth it.

 

I use minstrels no no issue

 

umm... what? 

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Sanctuary

[Infinity.2876]

Some changes that would solidify specter in a more single target support-based role.

 

Mechanics:

Spoiler

No self-barrier from shroud: barrier would be applied to tethered ally can be traited to apply this barrier to self to midigate this effect (see traits)

Ally tether stays tethered to specter even when not in shroud: to reference certain traits and abilities. (Tethered ally would still not have barrier when not in shroud)

 

I don't like the changes to siphon granting might to allies because I believe it will herald another nerf after people spamming it in wvw.

Wells:

Spoiler

Well of gloom: grants regen to tethered ally additional.

Well of bounty: now grants initial might to tethered ally and tethered ally also has more duration on the boons applied by it

well of silence: also grants resistance to tethered ally.

well of gravity: also grants stability to tethered ally.

Traits:

Spoiler

Traversing dusk: should grant to tether instead for increased duration. Also reduces cast time of well of gloom as well.

Second oppinion: instead of healing power increases entering or exiting shroud puts fear on enemies. Apply rot wallow venom when you inflict fear.

Hungering darkness: instead of consuming conditions and healing, grants might while in shroud to tethered ally while in shroud.

 

[kash.9213]

Ya, in WvW I have one template that is almost the Snowcrows condi alacrity build with Hungering Darkness (and sometimes Shadow Arts 1-1-1 or 2 if the squad is comped instead of Deadly Arts) for when I know me and my Tether are going to get target focused pretty hard and another that is kind of ripped from Jugglemonkey on here with Sanctuary Runes, Shadestep, and then I take Shadow Arts 1-1-1 or 2 in a lot of places until I start getting squad targeted more. 

Your eye catches on to the yellow barrier text on your Health pool so you should know pretty quick when to break your barrier with Sanctuary Runes or even with just Shadstep. You can sustain gradually with quick shadowsteps or heals just to pop off a small barrier frequently or scope out where the big heals are for a large barrier to break. 

I don't like not having Hungering Darkness when I need it and can't switch though but that's a fair build choice.

Your Health pool is what determines your Shroud health and that will become your Consume Shadows, but will also determine how well your Tether holds up. When my tether gets focused, that's when I feel Specter falling short of other classes where otherwise it's pretty solid. It could still provide either more residual or more burst healing and have a non Well Alacrity source though. 

Edited April 2, 2023 by kash.9213

[draxynnic.3719]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:20 AM, RagingRube.2540 said:

 

-A better way to apply alacrity. Something similar to Mechanist's applying on barrier would be far more fun and interactive.

 

I'm wondering here if they should make Shadow Sap chill the target and grant alacrity instead of weakening and granting might. Would provide specters with a means to convert initiative into alacrity, so a specter would have the option to rely mostly on Shadow Sap (and not have much initiative for other things), rely mostly on wells, or something in between (such as being able to hold a well in reserve to respond to situations by using Shadow Sap instead, but once the well is used, they can use the initiative to Twilight Combo instead).

(They'd probably need to modify Twilight Combo to weaken instead of chill to compensate. Which might produce other problems. So maybe it'd be simpler to just change the associated boon and not the associated condition. Still, it'd be a way to give greater access to alacrity without making it free, and give Shadow Sap a stronger use case.)

Edited April 2, 2023 by draxynnic.3719