Panaku's Ambition useless?

[nopoet.2960]

How often are you guys triggering Panaku's Ambition?  In DPS mode I never do.  I haven't played support much but when I tinkered around with it blasting smoke screens was a really low priority.  Are you stealthing yourself or team often?  If Panaku's was replaced what would you want?  I would rather it do something like: Gain Rot Venom and apply barrier to nearby allies when you exit Shadow Shroud.  

Edited July 21, 2023 by nopoet.2960

[Infinity.2876]

I think it's intended to improve shadows refuge as a support skill and is helpful for any full Specter support builds

Edited July 21, 2023 by Infinity.2876

[kash.9213]

I mostly play WvW with Shadow Arts. I trigger Panakus a lot with Grasping Shadows Blast on Black Powder on pretty much every Shroud flip which is also going off a lot unless I feel plotting or if I feel large map movement lag creeping our way, and I'll save it for a drive or stealth bomb. 

I'm not sure I'd try to stealth people without a plan in pve but I'm not really messing with anyone's rotations or whatever where I'm at and it drops some of our people as targets real quick along with mitigating through drives or even when just holding a hallway. 

I also don't trigger it much if at all when we're trying to take a point and that always gets a little dicey unless I know we're struggling too much to hold or at least bail in time. 

Edited July 21, 2023 by kash.9213

[Impling.4170]

2 hours ago, kash.9213 said:

I mostly play WvW with Shadow Arts. I trigger Panakus a lot with Grasping Shadows Blast on Black Powder on pretty much every Shroud flip which is also going off a lot

Basically this yeah. Specter has really great synergy with offhand pistol since it gets access to 1 leap and 2 blast finishers in shroud, so you can proc it when both entering and leaving shroud. I don't think the trait has too much value in endgame PvE content but the barrier from the trait plus the healing granted from entering/leaving stealth from SA adds up to a lot.

Otherwise it has nice synergy with builds like Hizen's SA Sc/D open world build since you go in and out of stealth a lot and are using stealth attacks on every stealth application.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Impling.4170

[LyraOrpheo.8450]

It feels like this would've been better off as a Major for heal builds to invest in rather than Minor, since the use is pretty situational for a build with a single objective, that may be why it feels useless.

Edited July 21, 2023 by LyraOrpheo.8450

[Impling.4170]

4 minutes ago, LyraOrpheo.8450 said:

It feels like this would've been better off as a Major for heal builds to invest in rather than Minor, since the use is pretty situational for a build with a single objective, that may be why it feels useless.

I've been thinking with relics coming in, how it could be really interesting if they had one that modified stealth we apply. Something like...

Relic of Panaku's Embrace: Stealth that you apply is now converted to dark aura. Dark aura now increases incoming healing and barrier by 15%. Stealth applied by others is not affected.

Something like this could add a way of actually utilizing the group stealth effects in SA (as well as Panaku's Ambition) in a non-intrusive way for PvE content. In theory, all stealth application/expiration effects would instead interact with dark aura application/expiration. I doubt this would ever happen, but it's a fun thought at least.

[kash.9213]

1 hour ago, LyraOrpheo.8450 said:

It feels like this would've been better off as a Major for heal builds to invest in rather than Minor, since the use is pretty situational for a build with a single objective, that may be why it feels useless.

Before the recent changes though it was also a mostly consistent way to feed Rot Wallow Venom to a group instead of a single target. It was like an immediate defense to offense flip and it added up offensively if I was putting RWV on allies who were hitting a lot of stuff or if they knew how to inundate a spot with focus fire. There was also the old Shadestep with Sanctuary Runes but I kind saw those changes coming so I didn't count on that. Even being able to give residual Barrier to the group easily now, Panakus is a reliable burst. 

You're right though, it is pretty situational and maybe that trait slot could get freed up as long as we're more generous with Barrier now, but I still like it there if they keep it as is. 

Edited July 21, 2023 by kash.9213

[nopoet.2960]

3 hours ago, LyraOrpheo.8450 said:

It feels like this would've been better off as a Major for heal builds to invest in rather than Minor, since the use is pretty situational for a build with a single objective, that may be why it feels useless.

Yeah, I think this is right especially after the change to Shadestep.  The minor grand master slot is kind of a prominent place to stick a very situational trait.  Anet take a look this.

[LyraOrpheo.8450]

3 hours ago, kash.9213 said:

Before the recent changes though it was also a mostly consistent way to feed Rot Wallow Venom to a group instead of a single target. 

I thought we were using Consume Shadow with Dark Sentry for that. I dont recall any of the rotations applying stealth