Core Warrior Needs an F2 skill and More Adrenaline Capacity in Order to Compete (Ideas)

[Yerlock.4678]

The problem with core Warrior in competitive:

Core Warrior is Yesteryears game, resembling the archaic non power-crept pre spec world of 2012. While buffs to the core traits and skill would definitely help, it would also inherently give rise to potential power creep for its other specs. This would result in balance that could easily become bloated or shaky. The real issue is that it can’t keep up with raw stats alone in game modes like pvp/wvw. 
The truth is that it doesn’t have the skill ceiling high enough to compare or compete.

 

Whats the solution? 

The other specs for Warrior all involve an F2 of some kind. This is important because this extra ability or skill allows skilled players to more finely show off their skill or prowess in competitive settings. While core Warrior can still shine against some classes in some areas, it can’t handle the raw power levels of many of the stronger specs. The philosophy of this game has always been that specs are new and different but not inherently “better”. Following that goal I believe it would follow suit to make adjustments to core and only core Warrior mechanics. Specifically adrenaline and a new F2 skill.

Basic Reworks:

Warrior now will have 4 bars of adrenaline instead of 3, so the max is now 150 instead of 100. Using an F1 or F2 ability will now use up to two adrenaline bars. This will allow the player to potentially combo their F1 and F2 skills if so desired back to back more easily. Using 2 bars of adrenaline will use the current and be the same as 3 bars as it is currently. This way there’s no damage loss and the F2 only adds to the power level of Core Warrior.

F2 Axe- Annihilate- Leap through the air to Lunge at your enemy, granting fury. Range is 300, uses Dagger f1 animation.

F2 Dagger- Savage Strike- Lunge at your target, granting yourself 3 stacks of might and applying 3 stacks of vulnerability.  Range 300. Uses eviscerate animation.

F2 Mace- Twisting Quake- Spin in place, granting yourself Aegis while dazing nearby foes. Cyclone axe animation.

F2 Hammer- Ground Quake- Stomp the ground with your hammer, launching foes in place while dealing damage and inflicting vulnerability depending on adrenaline level. Radius 250. Uses Symbol of Resolution animation but more slow. (Ideally this would be a setup for other hammer abilities).

F2 Sword- Mortal Tether- Throw your sword at your enemy and impale him, linking a tether to you and your target Your skill will then flip to a new F2 called “Mortal Pull”. Does damage and applies bleeding per second based on adrenaline level. Same duration and range as spell breaker tether.  Uses Spear of Justice animation. 
Mortal Pull- Pull your target to you, applying another stack of bleeding based on current adrenaline level. 
While Mortal Tether is active, your sword 4 skill changes to “Rip the Wound”. When used, it moves the tether chain in a ripple and applies extra stacks of bleed and torment.

 

F2 Pistol- Hook Attack- Shoot a small hook at your target, doing damage and granting might. Them immediately pull them towards you. Range 900. Uses Scorpion Wire animation. Might stacks depend on adrenaline level.

F2 -Shield- Shield Assault- Grant yourself aegis and leap at your opponent, doing damage and dazing them. Daze duration based on adrenaline level. Same range and animation as Breaching Strike.

F2-Rifle- Shotgun Burst- Shoot your weapon for a close ranged spread-fire devastating attack. Damage depends on adrenaline level. Range 450, pushback 100-150 depending on adrenaline level.

F2 -Longbow- Fire Assault- Shoot firey arrows at your target, inflicting burning. Number of arrows either 2 or 3 depending of adrenaline level. Uses Ranger Longbow 2 animation. Range 1200.

F2- Greatsword- Concussive Bash- Charge your target and bash them with your hilt, dazing them and doing damage. Rage 450. Daze duration depends on adrenaline level. Uses Hilt Bash animation. (This is basically Hilt Bash on Warrior but better range/stun duration).

F2-Torch- Detonate Torch- Throw your torch at your opponent, burning foes and lighting the ground of fire in an aoe where it lands. Range 900. Burn duration scales with adrenaline. Uses some sort of throw animation. (This is basically the in game equivalent of a Molotov cocktail.)

F2- Warhorn- Rallying Rejuvenation- Blow your Warhorn in an aoe to heal nearby Allies. Also applies regeneration/might/barrier. Heal and might/rejuvenation/barrier duration depend on adrenaline level.

[Chips.7968]

Is it supposed to be able to "compete"? I mean part of the free game being as good as the expansions? 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Current adrenaline max is 30 not 100. With Burst Mastery you'd be able to combo anyway, but they should make it so crits grant 2 adrenaline baseline to alleviate the issue.

Otherwise I'm on board with this idea.

[Jzaku.9765]

3 hours ago, Chips.7968 said:

Is it supposed to be able to "compete"? I mean part of the free game being as good as the expansions? 

Same thoughts here. Why put so much effort into something 99% of players won't see - Core isn't a supported archetype, and the elite specs that 100% ARE won't even see the benefits of these improvements. Developer time is a resource.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

11 minutes ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

Same thoughts here. Why put so much effort into something 99% of players won't see - Core isn't a supported archetype, and the elite specs that 100% ARE won't even see the benefits of these improvements. Developer time is a resource.

Yeah, but core would see more play possibly. That and adrenaline itself needs a rework, which would benefit two of the especs. A new F2 would also remain relevant if they continue to add new core weapons to the game.

[KryTiKaL.3125]

39 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Yeah, but core would see more play possibly. That and adrenaline itself needs a rework, which would benefit two of the especs. A new F2 would also remain relevant if they continue to add new core weapons to the game.

I'll say it again like I've said it many times before; Adrenaline should be reworked to provide benefits (boons, effects) when gaining a bar of Adrenaline. Only able to activate these benefits again after having spent the Adrenaline as well to incentivize both building and spending the Adrenaline and no longer needing to explicitly tie benefits to physically hitting with our burst skills anymore. Something by which gets countered by all of the blinds, blocks, invulns, evades and dodges present in the game that every other class has multiple sources of, either through a boon (Aegis as a block) or through some AoE that pulses it or low CD skill (usually blinds here) or they just have multiple skills that do it.

[Bankrotas.8215]

4 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

the elite specs that 100% ARE

But all warrior elite specs suck. 

[Smoosh.2718]

Honestly what should have been done is 3 F skills,

One for offense,

One for tactical support

One for defence.

 

This way you have to choose how to spend you adreniline dependant on the situation. This would in turn provide the warrior with more depth than the puddle it currently has.

 

 

Also warrior rightfully needs a mainhand pistol...

[Chips.7968]

21 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

Same thoughts here. Why put so much effort into something 99% of players won't see - Core isn't a supported archetype, and the elite specs that 100% ARE won't even see the benefits of these improvements. Developer time is a resource.

Not quite what I had meant; i meant why make a free-to-play version of the game competitive with paid versions. Obviously am a big cynic 😄 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

53 minutes ago, Chips.7968 said:

Not quite what I had meant; i meant why make a free-to-play version of the game competitive with paid versions. Obviously am a big cynic 😄 

To get players hooked and willing to pay for expansions.

[Leo G.4501]

Being honest, do you feel adding an extra attack to miss or be blocked/dodged is all that revolutionary? These are pretty meh. Wouldn't a warrior weaponmaster tech that modified other skills in some way be a better option? Like, instead having an F2 sword skill that adds a flashing steel attack to your weapon swap for the next 8sec that does damage, bleeds and dazes 280 range around you; a secret arrow tether that you can tag the next 3 targets you attack and if they teleport, they are knocked down for 2sec or if they are inflicted with burning, the tether adds 3 more stacks of burning + torment...

Basically, instead of adrenaline attacks, they're attack modifiers that alter your other attacks, meaning you can spend adrenaline without needing a target. Maybe a couple of these F2s can be straight up attacks, but I say leave that to the F1s mostly and the F2s can be your hidden parrying option/knife twist people aren't expecting on that innocuous dodge roll or something.

[Yerlock.4678]

On 7/26/2023 at 4:09 PM, Chips.7968 said:

Is it supposed to be able to "compete"? I mean part of the free game being as good as the expansions? 

I mean I think it should. To be honest I don't know the official stance of Anet on this, and I'd wish they'd clarify. Cuz some core specs easily compete in game modes like Guard, but most are falling behind. If their official stance is that core specs are just the lesser versions of classes pre xpac's than that's fine. But I think the specs should instead of being more powerful, offer gameplay variations and alternatives. That way you can play the game with something good,  but have to pay for xpacs to see all the other alternatives to the class specs that it offers.

[Jzaku.9765]

55 minutes ago, gmmg.9210 said:

I mean I think it should. To be honest I don't know the official stance of Anet on this, and I'd wish they'd clarify. Cuz some core specs easily compete in game modes like Guard, but most are falling behind. If their official stance is that core specs are just the lesser versions of classes pre xpac's than that's fine. But I think the specs should instead of being more powerful, offer gameplay variations and alternatives. That way you can play the game with something good,  but have to pay for xpacs to see all the other alternatives to the class specs that it offers.

It's a disparity that has been hampering the game since launch. Some classes have an incredible toolbox in their core set, and some classes are carried by their elite specs. Short of a huge rework to the game to equalize this distribution of power across all classes between core and espec (because buffs to make core stronger also make especs stronger), I think it should just be resigned acceptance that Guard just happens to have a strong core build (and it's definitely one of very few outliers) and others don't. 

I get that your idea would be buffing core Warrior without affecting it's especs, but I'm just saying its happenstance that core Guard is good in PVP (and the only reason it sees play over Fb is because Fb got smiter's booned at one point and hasn't recovered afaik).

Edited July 28, 2023 by Jzaku.9765

[KryTiKaL.3125]

I just don't think the solution is to add more skills to Warrior's kit, the core issue it seems to have stems from the profession mechanic not being as reliably effective as the profession mechanics of other classes.

Warrior is literally the only class that has an "on hit" stipulation for its profession mechanic in order for it to be used to access any number of benefits and other effects. This isn't an issue in PvE because mobs and bosses don't vomit out a metric ton of boons plus other effects that negate the "on hit" stipulation, but in competitive modes those things do exist with every class (blinds, blocks, invulns, dodges, evade effects).

Warrior's profession mechanic needs to see a rework so that it is much less reliant on the "on hit" stipulation because it drastically hinders its effectiveness in competitive modes and contributes to Warrior probably having one of the most punishing learning curve processes in the game.