SKILLS AND TRAIT BUFF WISHLIST for PVE

[Bunny.9834]

As the title says, this is a wish list for skills and traits in PVE. 

I want to address that the lack of access to quickness and shave down some of the cool downs. 

 

Sword: 

AA1: Slice - reduce casting time to 1/4s. 

AA2: Slash - reduce casting time to 1/4s 

AA3: Crippling Strike - add: increase damage by 25% if foe is movement impaired. 

Stealth Attack: Tactical Strike - gain 1s of quickness. 

Pistol Whip: reduce initiative to 4. reduce casting time to 1/4s. 

 

Trickery: 

Burst of Agility - Reduce cooldown to 24s. 

 

Tricks: 

Withdraw - Reduce cooldown to 14s. 

Haste - Reduce cooldown to 18s 

Dagger storm - Reduce cooldown to 60s. 

Deception: 

Hide in the Shadows - Reduce cooldown to 24s. 

Shadowstep - Reduce cooldown to 35s. 

Blinding Powder - Remove cast time. Reduce cooldown to 24s. 

 

Acrobatics: 

Feline Grace - add: Stealing also gives you 2s of quickness. 

Upper hand - add: also gain 2s of quickness when evading. 

 

 

 

[Stx.4857]

Bring back Ricochet.  
 

Also buff sword in PvE.  

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

I want collateral damage to not only detonate on kill but create an unswappable pulsing shadowflare

Edited March 5, 2023 by Lithril Ashwalker.6230

[Tails.9372]

I'd like to see them extent the Dual Wield class mechanic to at least include AAs for sets with matching main and off hand weapons as some things here are in dire need of addressing while other commonly requested things (like an off hand sword e-spec weapon) would feel rather underwhelming without it.

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

Ricochet. Nuff saaid

[Bern.9613]

Split for pve/competitive modes for super speed (which I hate) or speed increase while stealthed in pve. Stealth, for deadeye in particular, in pve is 3 secs, in wvw/pvp 1 sec. While stealthed in pve you move soooooo sssssslllllllooooooowwwwwwww.

[ZeroTheRuler.7415]

4 hours ago, Bern.9613 said:

Split for pve/competitive modes for super speed (which I hate) or speed increase while stealthed in pve. Stealth, for deadeye in particular, in pve is 3 secs, in wvw/pvp 1 sec. While stealthed in pve you move soooooo sssssslllllllooooooowwwwwwww.

Normally in competitive modes people take Shadow Arts for which has a trait that gives swiftness on stealth. Shadow Arts is not viable in PvE. If anything you should be suggesting Shadow Arts be more viable for PvE content if speed is your complaint.

[TwiceDead.1963]

Do ANYTHING with Acrobatics! ANYTHING! ;_;

[Doggie.3184]

Hmm, I have a whole lot of them... I don't really care about figuring out numbers though, just some QoL and fun ideas mostly.

~For Traits:

Spoiler

Bounding Dodger: Pressing the dodge key without moving now allows you to dodge in place and dodging with a direction held down allows dodging in that direction. 

Impaling Lotus: Pressing the dodge key without moving now allows you to dodge in place and dodging with a direction held down allows dodging in that direction. 

Dash: Added feature: Turns your body into a projectile combo finisher. Enemies or Allys you pass through receive the finisher effect.

Deadly Aim: Replaced with "Cursed Bullets," This changes Vital Shot and Sneak Attack (Pistol 1) to a new version of Cursed Bullet and Cursed Sneak Attack (As well as Cursed Versions of Harpoon Gun 1). These attacks fire rounds cursed with a Shadow that splits apart on critical hits and strike 3 nearby targets within 180 range. Also inceases Strike Damage for all Guns. (I don't know what they have against Ricochet, as they seem to ignore addressing it, but whatever it is I feel like the least they could do is something like this trait idea. It also needs to not be a dead trait during 1v1. Deadly Aim is not only bad and buggy for a gun-type projectile but it reduces damage for no reason on main/solo target.)

(and along with this Deadly Aim change we'd need a bug fix for Bounding Dodge not prioritizing the user's personal Black Powder Smoke Fields for combo finisher... and maybe Pistol and Harpoon Gun's other attacks become piercing by default dealing full damage to target and less to additional targets.)

Pulmonary Impact: Deleted since it conflicts with their new law that (most) CC skills aren't allowed to do damage, making it pretty useless. Replaced with "Trail of Shadows" Making Dust Strike leave a rectangle AoE trail that grants Stability and does pulsing damage at probably increased ini cost. (Don't really know what to replace it with but I do know I want Stability so I can make this a proper Melee brawler. Pulsing damage kinda makes sure it's most useful on non Stealth builds even though Shadow Flare's design on a stealth class exists; which is really weird.)

Acrobatics: This traitline is a total mess and would require way too much detail. But I believe a good chunk of this traitline should revolve around AoE Quickness Support, and AoE Superspeed Support. Acrobats often perform in groups in the Circus, Olympics and ect after all. Taking Acrobatics is a huge trade-off of your damage so it really needs good support options. I personally don't see anything of value in the entire traitline except for maybe Swiftness on dodge; which Daredevil does better, and "Don't Stop;" which Daredevil also does better.

Shadow Savior: (This just encourages a dumb playstyle...) How about combo finishers AoE heal instead. Something that has active rational purpose to use often in PvE combat...

Collateral Damage: Marking an enemy wraps them in shadow magic that causes the target to emit Strike Damage in a 180 radius when struck by the user's Rifle 1 (Deadly Aim/Brutal Aim/Death's Judgement skills~ to help with tagging/cleaving in PvE mainly). Burst of Shadows is triggered on death as the magic disperses~ with it's radius increased to 240. (current radius makes it almost never hit anything else)

Deadeye's Mark: Can now be used without a target, which targets yourself, to proc traits like "Thrill of the Crime..." and gain "Steal Precision." 😗 (Could be done to Steal too for Blinding Turfs if that doesn't scare anyone.)

Siphon: Can now be used without a target (which targets yourself) to proc certain traits as well.

Travasing Dusk: Siphon grants Alacrity instead of Wells doing it. Wells Heal and gives the Shadow Force per ally instead of Shadowsteps. (The previous mentioned Siphon targeting fix allows procing boons like Alacrity and Thrill of the Crime when used on allies as well as when used without a Target; auto choosing yourself. CD reduction on Ally Target removed.)

Shadow Shroud: The Persistent Ally Tether mechanic when in Shroud is removed. Entering Shroud now casts an Eclipse that possesses the Shadows of the 5 nearest allies in a 480 radius, including the Specter themselves, and supports them all with it's Heals/Barriers/Boons. These auto-selected Allies (Prioritizing Party members ofc) don't change unless one moves out of range or you re-enter Shroud. Siphoning an Ally or Enemy will do a short duration (1 second) Tether animation as you manipulate their shadows momentarily; which is just a visual effect to keep the animation alive. Multiple Tethers branch from Siphoned Ally/Enemy to nearby ones for the new AoE effects. They have the original coloring for Allies and bloody red coloring mixed in for Enemies.

Consume Shadows: Changed to the return of  "Shadow Protector;" which makes Mind Shock grant Protection to nearby allies. Heals and Boons provided by Shroud skills affect all Eclipsed allies and have increased Effectiveness and Duration.

Second Opinion: Replaced with "Tormentor;" causing your Scepter attacks to coat the enemy in a Volatile Venom that explodes when it reaches the threshold (6) dealing short duration Burn damage to the target as well as Torment damage in an area around it... Splatter Torment in a venomous 240 radius explosion when an enemy with this effect dies. Non-Scepter weapons now deal Torment damage with their Auto Attacks and Stealth Attacks. 

Shallow Grave: Changed to "Ferocious Eater:" Become a ravenous monster in Shadow Shroud; Increasing the radius of all your Shroud skills, including Eternal Night. Shroud skills have greatly reduced condition damage and no-longer heal allies. Shroud skills gain a unique "Devour" effect instead that deals additional Ferocity-scaling Life-Siphon damage. (To help Specter builds that only focus on Strike damage do more~ but you would need Healing Power still for the Healing portion of Life-Siphon.). Shroud gains a bloody red coloring mixed into it.

Dark Sentry: The Ferocious Eater trait changes this to "Dark Stalker;" which increases Strike Damage when wielding a Scepter and Increases Movement by 25% instead of increasing Healing to Others... (Either delete, ignore or change Rot Wallow Venom to something else, idk, but it won't be very useful on Strike builds. Maybe make the Venom do some Life-Siphon damage when Allies hit things with it?)

Amplified Siphoning: Additional Feature: Siphoning an Ally now gives Barrier to allies around them, including yourself if near them (5 total, 240 radius). The "Ferocious Eater" trait makes this "Abyssal Siphoning;" which increases the amount of Shadow Force gained by allowing it to Siphon up to 5 enemies total in the target enemy's 240 radius. Siphoning allies (including yourself) gives Shadow Force, which is also increased by how many allies it hits within the radius when Ally-Targeting/Self-Targeting. No longer gains increased Barrier effectiveness. (should probably cause Mug tweaks when taking this?)

Hungering Darkness: Ally Tether mechanic was removed. Entering or manually Exiting Shroud transfers up to 5 conditions from 1 ally each (if none are already on youself~ otherwise 4), and consumes all 5 casting a Barrier to allies around you based on how many were consumed. If by yourself, for every ally absent you consume an additional one affecting yourself (If you have 5 conditions on you, eat them all). The "Ferocious Eater" trait makes this "Ravening Darkness." Instead of eating Ally conditions it casts an Enemy Tether that links to your nearest/last-siphoned enemy to consume their Boons or damage their health if they have none. Consumes 1 condition from yourself in intervals. Enemy Tether has bloody red coloring mixed in. 

Panaku's Ambition: The "Ferocious Eater" makes this "Panaku's Wrath:" Stealth Attacks gain Shadow Force instead, and Stealth grants fury on self/allies. 

Shadestep: Siphon grants Regeneration to nearby Allies, including yourself, regardless of ally/enemy/self targeting. Still Revives. Breaking Barrier part deleted.

~Scale the healing/support numbers based on Healing Power/Concentration... I jus' want Shroud to be more useful to stay in and to have additional traits for Berserker builds... and for things to actually have decent AoE... 9 trait options feel like too few when it comes to Specter and I personally find most of the current ones a waste of space that I never use or am forced to use and dont really care about: Second Opinion, Shallow Grave (long CD that you can't even see), Dark Sentry (completely useless on non-condi), Amplified Siphoning, and Shadestep (which used to be great for revive but not that much now). Also; the current Ally Tether mechanic is nearly a no-presence feature by being single-target.

Alternatively, a bunch of these trait ideas can just be done through giving AoE to our weapons that don't have any. 🥺

~For Skills:

Spoiler

Measured Shot: Delete the Shadowstep mechanic.

Shadow Strike: Delete the Shadowstep mechanic. Alternatively it can be changed to flip to an optional skill to spend ini on a Shadowstep, and merge Repeater into the Strike portion without the teleport interupting it if you use it... Then it flips back to Shadow Strike after the animation.

Death Blossom: Remove the animation locking jump, give it full WASD mobility and stationary use if not moving. Give it better scaling for if you're a Strike Damage build or Condi.

Weakening Charge: Remove the animation locking charge, give it full WASD mobility and stationary use if not moving.

Pistol Whip: Allow Movement, even if it's walking.

Flanking Strike: Make it actually move you to target enemy's nearest Flank and have it attack in place if you're still at a close range Flanking position...

Sword Slice/Slash/Crippling Strike: Sword 1 Skills fire a short ranged piercing Shadow Blade projectile finisher through the enemy when you're above the health threshold. Kinda like a single projectile Dragon Claw. (A fun way to give sword combo finishers without it being stealth combo related.) 

Shadow Shroud: Add Legendary Weapon Effects to Haunt Shot, and Fix Dawn's Repose in water. Give Shroud 5 a friendly telegraph like Vindicator's heal jump. Retain Signet Passives in Shroud.

Preperations: 1 second arming time if used in combat and outside of stealth due to having a better sense of urgency or something, idk, I just hate the 3 seconds. 😃

New Elite Signet: Signet of Demons: Passive: Summons a small demonic Shadow Imp to fight by your side. The Imp enters stealth when you do and uses it's own follow-up stealth attack when you land one. Active: The Imp holds position while it charges up a sphere of condensed darkness that grows in size over time and then hurls it into the enemy when complete. If dead the Active revives it. 🦇 Can do Strike or Condi damage, more of either depending on equipment stats.

Distracting Daggers: Changed to "Throw Brick" which throws a single heavy brick that damages and launches enemy 🧱(No ammo needed, just one good solid brick. Daredevils carry them around to practice chopping them in half with their hand.) 

Withdraw/Roll and Initiative: Goes in movement direction.

Shadow Flare: Doesn't break Stealth.

Well of Bounty: Breaks Stun.

All Wells: Changed to be ranged ground target skills that flip over to an optional Shadowstep into them. 

Shadowsteps: Make them always work when there's a valid path.

Bullets: Remove the "obstructed" effect when bullets transverse unobstructed paths. Make them only obstructed when they actually hit an object/wall in the environment rather than when they collide with thin air and empty space. Make bullets not fly directly upwards when piercing enemies at close range; missing everything behind them.

~Bonus:

All Underwater Weapons: Can now be used on land.

All Land Weapons: Can now be used in water.

All Slot Skills: Can now be used in water. hehe.

~Extreme Bonus: Specter gets Off-Hand Focus to go with Scepter.

 

[Exo.2143]

In general Thief needs a buff for power damage builds. Even though Deadeye has a power build that is currently leading the benchmarks: it's unrealistic to pull off in a lot of fights. In fractals for example, the phases of bosses just last way too short, and you will never be able to use M7 to the extent of the benchmark. It's a nice damage number on the golem for sure, but unrealistic in a lot of scenarios.

[Tails.9372]

1 hour ago, Exo.2143 said:

Even though Deadeye has a power build that is currently leading the benchmarks: it's unrealistic to pull off in a lot of fights. In fractals for example, the phases of bosses just last way too short, and you will never be able to use M7 to the extent of the benchmark.

There is a rather simple solution for this: change Silent Scopes "Enter stealth when you dodge roll with a rifle equipped." to "Unlock Death's Judgment if you have the maximum number of malice stacks while you have a rifle equipped". This would save you the time you'd otherwise spend on the dodge animation in addition to the removal of the forced movement which would in and of itself be a huge QoL improvement.

[Infinity.2876]

Traits:

Spoiler

Upper hand: trigger on dodge and evade

Don't stop: cleanses all condition types

swindlers equilibrium: triggers on shadowstep instead of evade.

burst of agility: reduce icd

Skills:

Spoiler

death blossom: gain barrier as well

cloak and dagger: reduce inish cost remove vuln

Unload: grant inish if done out of stealth not if all attacks hit

backstab: buff damage reward for hitting in back significantly

larcenous strike: convert boons into conditions instead of removing them

pistol whip: put evade back in

 

[ArcanistSeven.8720]

On 3/18/2023 at 5:16 PM, Infinity.2876 said:

Traits:

  Reveal hidden contents

Upper hand: trigger on dodge and evade

Don't stop: cleanses all condition types

swindlers equilibrium: triggers on shadowstep instead of evade.

burst of agility: reduce icd

Skills:

  Hide contents

death blossom: gain barrier as well

cloak and dagger: reduce inish cost remove vuln

Unload: grant inish if done out of stealth not if all attacks hit

backstab: buff damage reward for hitting in back significantly

larcenous strike: convert boons into conditions instead of removing them

pistol whip: put evade back in

 

i havent play sword in years they actually removed the evade on pistol whip! lol that was really the only thing it had going for it what a useless skill at least let us move when using it now instead of locking us in place.

[Doggie.3184]

On 3/26/2023 at 3:04 AM, ArcanistSeven.8720 said:

i havent play sword in years they actually removed the evade on pistol whip! lol that was really the only thing it had going for it what a useless skill at least let us move when using it now instead of locking us in place.

It still evades, it's just not on the tooltip. And yeah it's all it's really good for since the damage is terrible and it roots you in place. As long as it has a stun on it they'll never let it do damage cuz of the whole "CC shouldn't do damage" thing. But that weapon set has Headshot on it already so I'd take +damage and allowing movement during channeling over the stun.