Harbinger elixirs blight on self instead of in impact area

[Ryndor.2081]

I was wondering if harbinger elixirs could be changed to always apply the blight effect on the caster instead of only if the caster is in the impact area?
This makes playing harbinger with action cam (I know, I know) a lot more fluent and fun.

Not sure if this has any downsides though (I don't see any).

[Asum.4960]

18 minutes ago, Ryndor.2081 said:

I was wondering if harbinger elixirs could be changed to always apply the blight effect on the caster instead of only if the caster is in the impact area?
This makes playing harbinger with action cam (I know, I know) a lot more fluent and fun.

Not sure if this has any downsides though (I don't see any).

Elixir's used to just give boons around the Harbinger in Beta 1 (basically Shouts with a terribly small radius). People rightfully complained about them being just boring boon buttons, so Anet made them clunky and annoying to use, on top of their small radius, instead - adding this thrown mechanic which serves little to no purpose. Now we throw them at our feet by clunkily aiming them there, giving boons around us. 

Since there is really no use case known to me to ever throw them, I wish they would just go back to the Beta 1 functionality, or ideally make the "harmful effect" happen in a 240 radius around the Harbinger for all I care, but make Twisted Medicine share the boons in, if not 600, an absolutely minimum 360 radius instead.

Also, Action Cam is the best, most fun and only way to play the game, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

It does have a downside - you're always getting blighted.
Current design gives you the option to avoid that which in some situations might be beneficial (like trying to run for your life and not reducing your max hp making it easier on enemy to kill you).

[Asum.4960]

Just now, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

It does have a downside - you're always getting blighted.
Current design gives you the option to avoid that which in some situations might be beneficial (like trying to run for your life and not reducing your max hp making it easier on enemy to kill you).

I don't think that niche downside justifies the constantly clunky gameplay of the general use case. 

Plus, even if running for your life/kiting you probably rather want the Blight to gain more healing from Alchemic Vigor to resustain.

[Ryndor.2081]

I do like the throwing component like poison on target or corrupt boons, that is fine, it's just the blight thing that is annoying to use.
The blight when running away, yeah that seems like a nicht downside to me.

[Apokriphos.7042]

For players in competitive modes, blight resource management can make the difference between victory/survival and failure/death. Giving players choice in whether to pay the cost to inflict blight on themselves is something Anet did right in Harbinger design. 

 

[XECOR.2814]

Elixirs were like that before but it was boring and simple while having multiple downsides that it put you in the health deficit for a long time once you get blight on yourself.

It introduces a superior mechanic that allows one to manage  blight willingly and is a quite a clever implementation. I never had a problem nor did I hear anyone having a problem in working with it. 

I would suggest learning how to play with it instead of making suggestions to change it.

[Ryndor.2081]

It’s not hard to learn where to throw an elixir. I just said it does not feel fluent when playing with action cam, which is a “forgotten” feature it seems. 

[Asum.4960]

On 7/7/2023 at 12:09 PM, XECOR.2814 said:

Elixirs were like that before but it was boring and simple while having multiple downsides that it put you in the health deficit for a long time once you get blight on yourself.

It introduces a superior mechanic that allows one to manage  blight willingly and is a quite a clever implementation.

I would suggest learning how to play with it instead of making suggestions to change it.

OP probably also comes from a PvE pov. 

"Blight Management" there means more Blight = better, and 99.99% of all Elixir uses are to throw them at your own feet for Blight, Blight generation being the primary reason they are taken to begin with, since Elixirs are pretty poor skills otherwise. 

Blight means more damage through Septic Corruption and especially Shroud 3&4 consumption, as well as more sustain through Alchemic Vigor. The maximum health reduction is fairly irrelevant - the game is designed around professions having as little as 11k HP, and fully Blighted Harb, esp. now with JB Core's, still has far more than that. 

Their entire use case in PvE being to use them on yourself as point blank aoe , specifically to generate Blight, but having to clunkily  manually aim them at ones feet and throw them every couple of seconds because of some redundant mechanic to remove Blight, is a more than valid complaint for the mode. 

There is nothing clever, no playmaking potential, no thought or management and no skill component here, is simply an extra unfun clunky step to use the skill as PbAoE, when it could just be that. 

Even in PvP (not that imo an incredibly and increasingly niche gamemode, and a niche build and a niche use case on that within that, would in any way be a justification for these skills to work this way), I can't see many cases in which you would want to throw Elixir's specifically to cleanse Blight, rather than gaining the Blight for Alchemic Vigor sustain, or as significant damage increase with Shroud 3&4 - which unlike Elixir's reward you for Blight dumping. 

 

I agree the Elixir's were boring and simple before, but now they are boring, simple and clunky. Complexity itself isn't a merit.

Quote

I never had a problem nor did I hear anyone having a problem in working with it. 

I suppose now you have.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Asum.4960

[Ryndor.2081]

On 7/8/2023 at 1:39 PM, Asum.4960 said:

OP probably also comes from a PvE pov. 

"Blight Management" there means more Blight = better, and 99.99% of all Elixir uses are to throw them at your own feet for Blight, Blight generation being the primary reason they are taken to begin with, since Elixirs are pretty poor skills otherwise. 

Blight means more damage through Septic Corruption and especially Shroud 3&4 consumption, as well as more sustain through Alchemic Vigor. The maximum health reduction is fairly irrelevant - the game is designed around professions having as little as 11k HP, and fully Blighted Harb, esp. now with JB Core's, still has far more than that. 

Their entire use case in PvE being to use them on yourself as point blank aoe , specifically to generate Blight, but having to clunkily  manually aim them at ones feet and throw them every couple of seconds because of some redundant mechanic to remove Blight, is a more than valid complaint for the mode. 

There is nothing clever, no playmaking potential, no thought or management and no skill component here, is simply an extra unfun clunky step to use the skill as PbAoE, when it could just be that. 

Even in PvP (not that imo an incredibly and increasingly niche gamemode, and a niche build and a niche use case on that within that, would in any way be a justification for these skills to work this way), I can't see many cases in which you would want to throw Elixir's specifically to cleanse Blight, rather than gaining the Blight for Alchemic Vigor sustain, or as significant damage increase with Shroud 3&4 - which unlike Elixir's reward you for Blight dumping. 

 

I agree the Elixir's were boring and simple before, but now they are boring, simple and clunky. Complexity itself isn't a merit.

I suppose now you have.

This is exactly what I meant. And yes. I was mostly talking about pve, not competitive. 

Maybe just adding the possibility to mark individual skills to be always cast on self would be a solution (preferably linked to a build template). That way the choice is up to the player. 

You do loose the potential damage on target when out of the splash damage radius. 

[The Boz.2038]

Harbinger rework? Yes please.

[Taygus.4571]

I only play on action cam and have no bother throwing elixers direcrly on me. With a controller at that.

If you have snap to ground target on, quickly face the camera to directly above you,  and the target will snap to you. If you're using action xam, you absolutely should have a button set to turn snap to ground target on or off as needed.

Its important for team boons to be able to fling the elixers at the group and not necessarily on just yourself.