Why would you give cast time to a blink skill (Unnatural Traversal)? Spvp/WvW Aspect

[singanushiga.5803]

I came back to game after 6 months of break, and I just saw that Anet gave cast time to Unnatural Traversal skill. This skill was the whole fun point of sPvP/WvW combos, because of this skill, Untamed was a viable spec for small scale fights. Whose idea was that and why did you do that? Probably this is the only teleport skill that has cast time in this game.

Edited May 17, 2023 by usulyagmur.4092

[BumboJumbo.1308]

Revenant has the same thing as untamed in shiro stance. 

Also, the combo with the teleporting > hilt bash > pet swap > maul > tail swipe(or pet ability that did big damage). Is, or was, stupid. No one can predict that one shot combo, which is why a cast time was made so you can't instantly hilt bash into the whole combo thing.

[Beddo.1907]

Cause ppl didn't like getting hit for 15k in the face with no time to react.

[singanushiga.5803]

Guys... I see your point, but only handful of players were able to do that. Also, players who faced against Untamed in 1v1 before were able to dodge that combo easily. It wasn't as broken as OWP>LB 4>Rapid Fire>Smoke Assault combo that anyone can do without any game experience. I still believe that that wasn't proper way to nerf it. Thanks to this change, Untamed in WvW almost non-existent right now. 

[Dr Meta.3158]

6 minutes ago, usulyagmur.4092 said:

Guys... I see your point, but only handful of players were able to do that. Also, players who faced against Untamed in 1v1 before were able to dodge that combo easily. It wasn't as broken as OWP>LB 4>Rapid Fire>Smoke Assault combo that anyone can do without any game experience. I still believe that that wasn't proper way to nerf it. Thanks to this change, Untamed in WvW almost non-existent right now. 

Only a handful of players can do anything well in pvp.

That has no bearing on getting rid of a troublesome interaction, especially once that outperforms the playstyle of an existing class (power herald) while having access to more utility on top of that.

The sic em combo is at least reactable since rapid fire doesn't do its damage all at once given that you have a stunbreak and the main issue with that combo isn't so much with the combo itself but the mobility and stealth access that class has to allow itself to keep reseting repeatedly. 

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

10 minutes ago, usulyagmur.4092 said:

Guys... I see your point, but only handful of players were able to do that. Also, players who faced against Untamed in 1v1 before were able to dodge that combo easily. It wasn't as broken as OWP>LB 4>Rapid Fire>Smoke Assault combo that anyone can do without any game experience. I still believe that that wasn't proper way to nerf it. Thanks to this change, Untamed in WvW almost non-existent right now. 

Most players who are competent could do at least some variation of the UT burst on Untamed.

 

While I disagree with the specific change they made, I do think a change was needed, because it was pretty busted.

[Beddo.1907]

3 hours ago, usulyagmur.4092 said:

Guys... I see your point, but only handful of players were able to do that.

Press 2>Press UT (if you need more, Press f5+1)
Top tier gameplay right here.
Trust me I am not a genius and yet this was some of the easiest burst kills I've done and I've played pre-nerf Sic'em Soulbeast.

3 hours ago, usulyagmur.4092 said:

Also, players who faced against Untamed in 1v1 before were able to dodge that combo easily. It wasn't as broken as OWP>LB 4>Rapid Fire>Smoke Assault combo that anyone can do without any game experience.

It's easy when it's 1v1, it's not easy when you focus on more players. If you were winning an easy 1v1 against someone and suddenly you were hit for most or all remaining of your hp because you didn't see Untamed 900 units away, would you think "Oh my bad"?
OWP>PBS>RF>SA is way easier to avoid since it's not instant and starts with a push and it's mostly projectiles, so it has more counters.
 

3 hours ago, usulyagmur.4092 said:

I still believe that that wasn't proper way to nerf it. Thanks to this change, Untamed in WvW almost non-existent right now. 

Almost like the entire espec was nothing special and only one part of it was abused to produce a oneshot.
And almost like the same thing happened in the past with yet another ranger espec. 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Oh, don't worry, they'll reverse course on it at some point.

Just like they did with soulbeast pet swapping, which for years was so OP that had to be disabled, but not a peep since they not only added it back, but also added ability to do it when merged via trait.

I personally never got hit by it in WvW or in 1480 and below in sPvP--so not sure most players actually could pull it off.  Or maybe I just have too much experience on ranger and knew what to avoid, but even then, it was way easier to get caught by random mech rifle spam or engi nade spam then it was UT burst. 

The skill itself has always been bad though, because while horizontally it could be useful, it is/was useless vertically. 

That, and actually using the burst overcommits like no other, so either you hit or die and even if you did hit with it, in group scenarios you still die or blow your elite trying to get back out without being CC'd a million times.  

 

[Zyreva.1078]

14 hours ago, Beddo.1907 said:

Press 2>Press UT (if you need more, Press f5+1)

That's not how it worked.

Also it was only unreactable if used from behind obstacles. On open terrain it was just as telegraphed as regular non port gs burst.

I wasn't a big fan of that sort of "oneshot gameplay", but also didn't had any troubles dealing with it ...

[Beddo.1907]

3 hours ago, Zyreva.1078 said:

Also it was only unreactable if used from behind obstacles. On open terrain it was just as telegraphed as regular non port gs burst.

Like I said, it was mostly annoying when not noticing the player or being unable to monitor everything in a fight. In a 1v1, you could easily see the precast and avoid it.

3 hours ago, Zyreva.1078 said:

That's not how it worked.

That's how I used it and it worked just fine. Obviously there were other combos, but Maul+Unleash was the most common for me.

[Sandzibar.5134]

Steal + heartseeker combo has been operating identically for a decade no?

Is it just that maul is a bit more spikey on full hp targets?

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Sandzibar.5134
anet bad

[DarkFlopy.8197]

In my opinion the "no time to react" excuse is just BS.

you have backstabbing thieves - no reaction, its a guess when they will strike you for that unreasonable heavy damage and then spam heartseeker which they can do like 4 times in a row (damage will start increasing while its already doing way over most bursty skills) while you only have 2 evades at max without burning unnecessary weapon swap for energy sigil or defensive utilities

you have FA scepter eles - their combo is so fast you maybe be quick enough to dodge half of it and still you took serious damage since they are doing A LOT of small hits very fast

you have hammer/gs willbenders/core - can instantly teleport on you with serious damage in less than a fraction for reaction time easily critting above 10k unless you are cele/support (but if you play cele then in my opinion you cant complain about anything).

you have shatter mesmers - go stealth, use blink on you and GS #2 on 0 range for maximum efficiency on damage and sword bounce for might and shatter you instantly, it happens in less than 0.5sec unless you see the GS #2 visibly coming then you can somehow react.

you have the most used LB soulbeast - like ppl said, from mount > downstate (can even be completely dead too) in less than 2sec and if you manage to avoid the rapidfire you still have the smoke assault (merged smokescale teleport) which alongside one wolf pack will still deliever heavy damage and if you manage to avoid that too he can still knock you down and use worldly impact (or stomp w/e its called) and if you survive that he can swap pets while merged to siamoth or any other pet that has a bursty merge ability to continue heavy damage pressure and CC.

And no, building yourself a build in consideration that it can happen to you is no way to play the game, it will remove the usage of any other existing build for the class/spec.

People are just slow and blame it on everything else than themselves, I am quite slow myself most of the time but I see more skilled players play and their reactions are way quicker.

The game is unbalanced, some classes/specs can burst you in almost an instant and the balance updates never focus on the core problem they focus on "whats more broken right now?" while others still exist.

Edited May 24, 2023 by DarkFlopy.8197

[kiwituatara.6053]

I'm hoping that with this nerf they'll actually make untamed viable in the June balance patch, instead of relying on a single combo gimmick. My hopes aren't up tho...

[Beddo.1907]

2 hours ago, kiwituatara.6053 said:

I'm hoping that with this nerf they'll actually make untamed viable in the June balance patch, instead of relying on a single combo gimmick. My hopes aren't up tho...

The FF and this nerf would suggest that at least something will happen. The question is if it's good or bad.

[DarkFlopy.8197]

After all the "Balance Updates" they done to Untamed, I would not relay on this one, actually from here on I would be surprised on any positive change they will do.

But I am coming from a WvW roamer/small-scale/small-group-play perspective, anything that is related to PvE or PvP I just ignore therefore my reaction and opinions about how Untamed is are very "narrow".