Banner Rework concept.

[HeliosMagi.9867]

Warrior lacks a dedicated support weapon for the main hand, and only has Warhorn for offhand. Warrior however already wields nearly every non-magic based weapon in the game, and new elite specs are likely not happening anytime soon. So Warrior is unlikely to ever get any new weapons, so the only realistic option is to rework an existing weapon. Many people have pointed out Mace as being the best candidate for a MH support weapon, but I have another idea:

Banners.

The idea is to make Banners function similarly to Engineer's Kits or Firebrand's Tomes, using a Banner would cause the Banner to replace the Warrior's current weapon as long as it's active. Banner skill 1 would be a weak auto attack and/or banner-specific non-boon utility, 2-4 would pulse boons to allies around the Warrior, and 5 would plant the banner in place and make it pulse boons for a given duration like how it works now. This 5th skill is what makes it interesting; 1-4 have their own separate cooldowns and don't cause the main Banner utility skill to go on cooldown, you can go in and out as much as you want without losing the banner. Skill 5, since it physically plants the banner in the ground, makes the banner utility skill go on cooldown, making the kit unavailable for a period of time. So there's a layer of decision making  between wielding the banner manually and having consistent access to whatever boons you need vs planting it for a powerful on-placement effect and autonomous operation but losing the ability to access its boons on-demand.

For example here's how Banner of Defense and Battle Standard could work with this rework:

Defence:

1: Grant Barrier to Allies

2: Pulse Regeneration to allies

3 Pulse Protection to allies

4 Pulse Vigor to Allies

5 Plant Banner, granting a large amount of barrier and pulsing the above boons to allies.

Battle Standard

1: Burst: activate effects that trigger when using a Burst skill (enables Warrior to provide boons that require using Burst before combat begins and during phases where there are no targets ro Burst.)

2 Pulse Resistance to allies

3 Pulse Stability to allies

4 Pulse Aegis to allies

5 Plant Banner, activating Burst effects, reviving allies, and finishing downed foes on placement, pulse resistance at interval.

I figured all the effects you'd want to use reactivly should be on one banner, and Battle Standard seemed the most appropriate one to put them on.

Though? Good Idea, bad idea?

Edited June 15, 2023 by HeliosMagi.9867
Spelling/Grammar corrections.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Banners becoming kits would actually be a good  idea. 

It would be so much design space that opens up, we could solve many problems. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

4 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Banners becoming kits would actually be a good  idea. 

It would be so much design space that opens up, we could solve many problems. 

Which means CMC won't let it happen.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

10 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Which means CMC won't let it happen.

He would need to read the forum first. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

16 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

He would need to read the forum first. 

Well, that's Roy's job.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

13 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Well, that's Roy's job.

I wonder where they get feedback from. 

It's not the forum. 

It's not reddit. 

I trust Teapot when he says it's not "the pros" either.  Because they hate the changes too. 

Do they really just do the changes themself without any reflection from the player's? 

It feels that way 

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Just now, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I wonder where they get feedback from. 

It's not the forum. 

It's not reddit. 

I trust Teapot when he says it's not "the pros" either.  Because they hate the changes too. 

Do they really just do the changes themself without any reflection from the player's? 

It feels that way 

 

Probably their friends list in game while sitting in the PvP lobby not actually playing the game.

[Fueki.4753]

I'd rather have the unique effects back.

And then, instead of being stationary on the ground, Banners should be strapped to the Warrior's back and be a mobile field pulsing said unique effect.

But these would be positive changes and Warrior can't have too many of those (if any at all) per patch.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[feeper.5287]

26 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

I'd rather have the unique effects back.

And then, instead of being stationary on the ground, Banners should be strapped to the Warrior's back and be a mobile field pulsing said unique effect.

But these would be positive changes and Warrior can't have too many of those (if any at all) per patch.

The problem with the unique effects were that it was extremely limiting on raid/strike compositions and also limited what warrior could do as it was basically just a bannerslave. Bringing those back isn't a great direction imo 

[feeper.5287]

Banners being kits is a solid idea. A mace rework could be sick too. I think we will get another weapon in one of the new expac's and it'll probably be staff? Seems the most likely since it's not necessarily  "magical" and could have support stuff on it/synergy with shouts. I see that being a heal/boon weapon for us but who knows!

[Jzaku.9765]

I get why you'd want to make Banners into kits, but the skills you have proposed would be some of the worst gameplay I can imagine. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

At this point I think what should happen is to give them flipovers to dismiss them with powerful effects on the flipover, all instant cast.

Strength: Burn foes, 3 stacks for 2s, and damage them, 1.25 coefficient.
Discipline: Torment foes, 4 stacks for 4s, immobilize them for 4s, and damage them for 0.6 coefficient.
Defense: Grant 3500 barrier and cleanse 3 conditions. Break stun for allies in range.
Tactics: Grant protection and resolution for 4s.
Battle Standard: Grant all boons to allies in range for 5s.

[Super Hayes.6890]

I like the idea mentioned above. Only one banner active at a time carried on your back. This would open up fun banner gameplay while giving us much needed access to pulsing boons. Only having one possible at a time means they could be a bit more powerful too.