What if Specter support traits had a tradeoff?

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

I know, but hear me out. 

What if the big heal supportive traits in specter (the bottom row) were reworked with tradeoffs built in so that they could buff them back to the level needed for support specter to work without making DPS/PvP specter some unstoppable force in competitive modes?

The idea is that a healing/support specter wouldn't have competitive damage anyways, so the changes would force you to build full support/heal or full DPS. 

For example:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Consume_Shadows

Now: Gain stacks of Consume Shadows at regular intervals while in Shadow Shroud. Exiting Shadow Shroud consumes your remaining shadow force and heals allies based on the number of stacks you have gained. Allies that are fully healed receive the rest of the value in barrier.

New trait: (Removed stack mechanic, just a % conversion, 100% for PvE, 33-50% for PvP/WvW) Exiting Shadow Shroud consumes your remaining shadow force and heals allies. Allies that are fully healed receive the rest of the value in barrier (can now overheal and res downed players as before). Taking this trait reduces all outgoing Physical and Condition damage by 15%.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Traversing_Dusk

Now: Heal allies in the area around you when you shadowstep. Gain shadow force for each ally in the radius. Wells grant alacrity on their initial impact.

New trait: Heal allies in the area around you when you shadowstep. Gain shadow force for each ally in the radius. Shadowsteps give alacrity to nearby allies (duration to be determined, 2-3s base?). Taking this trait reduces all outgoing Physical and Condition damage by 15%.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadestep

Now: Siphon now grants you barrier when targeting enemies, and it revives allies when targeting them. Shadowstepping breaks your barrier and grants it to nearby allies, proportional to the number of allies affected.

New trait: Same as above, with Taking this trait reduces all outgoing Physical and Condition damage by 15%. in return, the % healed on downed allies is higher in PvP/WvW than it is currently. 

Supported by;

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dark_Sentry

Rot wallow venom now applies two stacks of torment per venom application.

 

Taking all three traits would allow you to get enough damage to tag mobs through Rot Wallow Venom while being able to focus on heals/support. DPS builds don't focus on rot wallow venom anyways, so wouldn't be affected to much by this. 

I know it's an off the wall idea, but short of redesigning the whole spec I'm not sure where to go on it. Thoughts?

[kash.9213]

If it's maybe Spvp only. I don't feel like an unstoppable force in WvW with those traits right now.

If RWV became an allstar and it worked on ourselves or something so at least the mechanics that are right now resource and effort intensive can scale up or down kind of reliably then it might hold up in WvW also. Can't always switch builds when scaling down.

If Anet did that then it would be the right time for a new Second Opinion also.

[Antycypator.9874]

I understand that the same fate would happen to every other quick/alac/heal providing class? Because why would you do it only to Specter? What about -15% damage reduction if you take Doubled Standards?

A good trade-off is when you have to sacrifice some stats for Concentration/Healing Power, or choose between two different traits.

Just look at Harbinger: you have 2 options: boost to DPS, or Quickness. This is how you create trade-offs.

[Zacchary.6183]

I would agree to tradeoffs if the profession had more oomph to it than it does right now. The biggest problems with specter is general support, rot wallow and half of the traits are lackluster. I wouldn't have many issues if specter healing also ressed downed players like it used to (even at a reduced rate) and the base durations of the conditions and boons it puts out were higher than they are. Second Opinion is useless compared to Consume Shadows because thief benefits more from going glass than stacking healing power.

[Doggie.3184]

Specter has enough trade-offs already and basically trades our entire Thief identity of speed/stealth/mobility/combo-finisher spam/shortbow&strike weapon access for a Shroud they don't even want us to use, a single target healing mechanic no one asked for and another ranged weapon that can't AoE.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Doggie.3184