Warrior balance preview

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Warrior

Berserker's improvements will make it slightly easier to maintain berserk mode in PvE encounters, and a lower cooldown will make it a bit less punishing to fall out of berserk mode. We've also improved the critical-hit-focused side of the arms specialization and tuned up a handful of underperforming skills and traits.

• Crushing Blow: Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.25 in PvE and from 1.5 to 1.75 in PvP and WvW. Increased the might stacks from 3 to 5. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Tremor: Reduced the cooldown to 18 seconds in all game modes. Increased the power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.25 in PvE only.
• Dolyak Signet: Increased the base healing from 1,640 to 2,870.
• Signet of Stamina: This skill now also grants 10 endurance per condition it removes.
• Vengeance: Increased the chance to rally from 25% to 100% in PvE only.
• Opportunist: This trait will now also trigger when disabling an enemy. Reduced the cooldown from 10 seconds to 1 second. Reduced the fury duration from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Furious Burst: This trait no longer grants fury when using a burst skill and instead grants fury when swapping weapons. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 4 seconds. Reduced the fury duration from 5 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
• Deep Strikes: This trait now also grants 5% increased critical strike chance against bleeding enemies in PVE and 10% increased critical strike chance against bleeding enemies in PvP and WvW.
• Burst Precision: This trait now also grants 100% critical strike chance and 150 ferocity for 2, 3, or 4 seconds based on adrenaline level when striking with a burst skill.
• Aggressive Onslaught: This trait now also grants 2 stacks of might for 6 seconds. Increased the movement speed bonus from 25% to 33%. Increased the quickness duration from 2 to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Soldier's Focus: Increased the heal attribute scaling from 0.8 to 1.0. Increased the protection duration from 2.5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE and from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Vengeful Return: This trait has been reworked and renamed to Stalwart Focus. Increased  the incoming healing effectiveness and outgoing healing to allies.
• Heightened Focus: This trait will now also recharge all burst skills when it activates. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

Berserker

• Berserk: Increased the duration from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.
• Smash Brawler: This trait no longer extends berserk duration by a flat amount and instead causes Primal Burst skills to extend berserk duration by 2 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP and WvW when striking an enemy, once per skill. Decapitate will extend berserk mode by 1 second in PvE.
• Heat the Soul: This trait no longer has an internal cooldown. Reduced the quickness duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only. Decapitate grants 2 seconds of quickness.

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

The Burst Precision change. OMG they went above and beyond there. Enjoy the initial change before they hot nerf it.

Opportunist is going to be great with a 1s CD, gaining 5 adrenaline when CC'ing or immobilizing a target on a 1s CD...

Heat the Soul and Smash Brawler, nice changes too.

Soldier's Focus and Stalwart Focus, I'm starting to have faith in Staff when it comes out...

Also OH Mace: "Please play this weapon..." buffs.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Imo an ok patch.

Thinking about my Rifle Zerker in Openworld.

I could drop Defense for Arms.

Opportunist should give plenty Adrenalin now. A 5% crit chance increase and ferocity from Burst Precision.

A buff to Aggressive Onslaught is very welcome.

With the change of heat the soul, i probaly can drop Boon Duration entirely too.

And the QoL buff to Berserker uptime.

 

Seems nice to me.

 

 

[Mikali.9651]

Berserker+Burst Precision = 100% crit chance without precision? Am I understanding this right?

Berseker will feel great now, but Warrior needs far more...

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

• Quote

   

  • Opportunist: This trait will now also trigger when disabling an enemy. Reduced the cooldown from 10 seconds to 1 second. Reduced the fury duration from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
  • Deep Strikes: This trait now also grants 5% increased critical strike chance against bleeding enemies in PVE and 10% increased critical strike chance against bleeding enemies in PvP and WvW.
  • Furious Burst: This trait no longer grants fury when using a burst skill and instead grants fury when swapping weapons. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 4 seconds. Reduced the fury duration from 5 seconds to 2.5 seconds
  • Burst Precision: This trait now also grants 100% critical strike chance and 150 ferocity for 2, 3, or 4 seconds based on adrenaline level when striking with a burst skill.
  • Aggressive Onslaught: This trait now also grants 2 stacks of might for 6 seconds. Increased the movement speed bonus from 25% to 33%. Increased the quickness duration from 2 to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Smash Brawler: This trait no longer extends berserk duration by a flat amount and instead causes Primal Burst skills to extend berserk duration by 2 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP and WvW when striking an enemy, once per skill. Decapitate will extend berserk mode by 1 second in PvE.
  • Heat the Soul: This trait no longer has an internal cooldown. Reduced the quickness duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only. Decapitate grants 2 seconds of quickness.

   

  Want me to run Valkyrie Arms Zerker? ok. 

• Quote

  • Please play this weapon

             No

Edited October 27, 2023 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[KryTiKaL.3125]

27 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

The Burst Precision change. OMG they went above and beyond there. Enjoy the initial change before they hot nerf it.

Opportunist is going to be great with a 1s CD, gaining 5 adrenaline when CC'ing or immobilizing a target on a 1s CD...

Heat the Soul and Smash Brawler, nice changes too.

Soldier's Focus and Stalwart Focus, I'm starting to have faith in Staff when it comes out...

Also OH Mace: "Please play this weapon..." buffs.

We'll see about Staff.

But with those changes to Arms its kind of seeming like a maybe passable option for competitive modes? There is some potential with Sword & Shield/Greatsword running Str/Arms/Spellbreaker with Opportunist mixing well with No Escape and the Immob on Sword burst, as well as the Ferocity bump from Burst Precision and the Crit Chance bumps from hitting Bleeding enemies.

Squishier than running with Defense but MMR is present at least and there is added mobility from Sword.

Also maybe Disc/Arms/Bladesworn, Opportunist giving additional opportunities for more positive flow uptime, higher Fury uptime, 100% crit chance moments for Dragon Trigger plus more Ferocity from Burst Precision to pair with Guns and Glory. Sustain is typically taken care of by Relic of the Defender and Combat Stim due to the presence of Aegis.

You run the right stats on either possible build and watch your effect triggers and we may be talking more consistent damage because this trait line is actually providing the class with a consistent boon other than Might for once with multiple avenues to trigger. I mean it would be nice if it was a defensive boon like Protection or Resistance/Resolution but y'know...baby steps I guess?

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

28 minutes ago, KryTiKaL.3125 said:

We'll see about Staff.

But with those changes to Arms its kind of seeming like a maybe passable option for competitive modes? There is some potential with Sword & Shield/Greatsword running Str/Arms/Spellbreaker with Opportunist mixing well with No Escape and the Immob on Sword burst, as well as the Ferocity bump from Burst Precision and the Crit Chance bumps from hitting Bleeding enemies.

Squishier than running with Defense but MMR is present at least and there is added mobility from Sword.

Also maybe Disc/Arms/Bladesworn, Opportunist giving additional opportunities for more positive flow uptime, higher Fury uptime, 100% crit chance moments for Dragon Trigger plus more Ferocity from Burst Precision to pair with Guns and Glory. Sustain is typically taken care of by Relic of the Defender and Combat Stim due to the presence of Aegis.

You run the right stats on either possible build and watch your effect triggers and we may be talking more consistent damage because this trait line is actually providing the class with a consistent boon other than Might for once with multiple avenues to trigger. I mean it would be nice if it was a defensive boon like Protection or Resistance/Resolution but y'know...baby steps I guess?

No real place in Arms for defensive traits though. That should come from Defense, Tactics, Strength, or the utilities. Disc/Arms/Brrrrrzerker we Brrrrr extra hard with Burst Precision. I can see Arms/Def/any playing well now. We'll have a no precision option finally, so be on the look out for tankier builds that still crit often and hard in WvW.

[KryTiKaL.3125]

8 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

No real place in Arms for defensive traits though. That should come from Defense, Tactics, Strength, or the utilities. Disc/Arms/Brrrrrzerker we Brrrrr extra hard with Burst Precision. I can see Arms/Def/any playing well now. We'll have a no precision option finally, so be on the look out for tankier builds that still crit often and hard in WvW.

I meant more just a place for them somewhere in general not in Arms specifically.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Alright, time for some genuine feedback.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Crushing Blow: Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.25 in PvE and from 1.5 to 1.75 in PvP and WvW. Increased the might stacks from 3 to 5. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

Okay. Seriously though decrease the cast time on Crushing Blow. That is the real issue. It is a 3/4s cast that maxes in effectiveness against CCd targets. Targets with brains will stunbreak. Give it a 1/4s cast.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Tremor: Reduced the cooldown to 18 seconds in all game modes. Increased the power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.25 in PvE only.

No matter how you buff it, so long as it is a projectile it will see little serious use.

Dev: "Please play this weapon"

Warriors: No, buff it the right way first. Cast time reductions, and a 900 range cone AoE on Tremor please.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Dolyak Signet: Increased the base healing from 1,640 to 2,870.

This is good. Also consider a increase in healing power scaling.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Signet of Stamina: This skill now also grants 10 endurance per condition it removes.

This is good, but there will be endurance over capping going on. On paper it is a good buff, but in practice it will be less useful than you would think.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Vengeance: Increased the chance to rally from 25% to 100% in PvE only.

*GLARES AT THE PVE ONLY* Can you at least make it 50% in PvP/WvW? Still a welcome change in PvE though.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Opportunist: This trait will now also trigger when disabling an enemy. Reduced the cooldown from 10 seconds to 1 second. Reduced the fury duration from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.

This is an awesome change. Do not nerf the adrenaline gain. Also, consider making the Fury an AoE application.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Furious Burst: This trait no longer grants fury when using a burst skill and instead grants fury when swapping weapons. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 4 seconds. Reduced the fury duration from 5 seconds to 2.5 seconds.

This is also a good change, though I'd make the fury duration 3s.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Deep Strikes: This trait now also grants 5% increased critical strike chance against bleeding enemies in PVE and 10% increased critical strike chance against bleeding enemies in PvP and WvW.

Good change. Please consider buffing the base bleed duration back to 3s.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Burst Precision: This trait now also grants 100% critical strike chance and 150 ferocity for 2, 3, or 4 seconds based on adrenaline level when striking with a burst skill.

Many of us have been pushing for this. Thank you so very much for listening! The ferocity boost is an unexpected bonus as well! If you see fit to nerf this (please don't) I would suggest reducing the ferocity first before touching the duration of the effect.

You forgot about Dual Wielding though guys! That is one of the most useless traits on warrior! Please take a look at it and come up with some new and interesting trait in it's place. That or make it stack with other attack speed boosts...

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Aggressive Onslaught: This trait now also grants 2 stacks of might for 6 seconds. Increased the movement speed bonus from 25% to 33%. Increased the quickness duration from 2 to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Its a good change, but so long as MMR is in GM tier then it gets priority in PvP/WvW, and so long as BP is in the GM tier then it takes priority in power benchmarks in PvE. I can see this in OW play though. You need to evaluate the rest of Strength and it's trait placements and their purposes.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Soldier's Focus: Increased the heal attribute scaling from 0.8 to 1.0. Increased the protection duration from 2.5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE and from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

All good changes. As said in the stream, there is a certain minimum that is needed defense wise out of a support, and you are getting there here. Not sure if you've reached that minimum threshold yet, but maybe Staff will finish the job. Keep an eye on if support warriors become more widespread in all parts of the game.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Vengeful Return: This trait has been reworked and renamed to Stalwart Focus. Increased  the incoming healing effectiveness and outgoing healing to allies.

I like this. I like that it is dual purpose. Whatever support warrior builds develop after staff comes out will probably need this.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Heightened Focus: This trait will now also recharge all burst skills when it activates. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

I really like that we are adding burst recharging to core. Please explore this avenue further.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Berserker

• Berserk: Increased the duration from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.

*GLARES AT PVE ONLY* Guys, do the same thing for WvW and PvP. At least make the CD 12s in WvW/PvP.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Smash Brawler: This trait no longer extends berserk duration by a flat amount and instead causes Primal Burst skills to extend berserk duration by 2 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP and WvW when striking an enemy, once per skill. Decapitate will extend berserk mode by 1 second in PvE.

Nice! You've finally seen that forcing a bar of certain utilities to maintain a mode kills build variability. Nice going on the Decap split as well! I think we'll still need a rage skill or two to maintain the mode, but this is a great start.

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Heat the Soul: This trait no longer has an internal cooldown. Reduced the quickness duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only. Decapitate grants 2 seconds of quickness.

 

This was very much needed  to make the quickness build work in PvE, thank you.

Please, consider the following for next quarter:

• Dual Wielding made to stack with other IAS effects, or changed completely.
• A source of Torment or Confusion in Arms
• Reevaluating the structure of Strength, especially the GM tier.
• Reduce the CD on Brave Stride.
• Real changes to MH and OH mace, not just number changes
• Meditations rework.
• Guard Counter and Revenge Counter granting their boons in an AoE
• Moving Alacrity from Bladesworn to Spellbreaker onto Slow Counter.
• Buff Hundred Blades. Pick one of:
  • Unroot
  • 2s cast time
  • More damage in all game modes
• Make Bladesworn not required to have Flow Stabilizer, Overcharged Cartridges, Dragon Spike Mine, and Tactical Reload
• Change some of the Bladesworn Aegis applications to evades instead. There is too much projectile hate, but it still needs the defenses to function.

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

I like most of the changes proposed... though I'm feeling meh about Furious Burst, mostly because my build that uses arms doesn't swap weapons all that much, so it's a loss of fury for me.  Though, attacking w/ a mount counts as swap, so there's a lot of combats when it will proc in the beginning. 

I have similar feelings for the same reasons for the Opportunist change; I get that it's tempting for a lot of builds and I'm happy for that, but it's a nerf for the one I'm currently using.  I'm currently getting 17.25 sec of fury out of it, so it'll drop to somewhere just over 5 sec with no extra procs for what I've got slotted except (like FB above) starting combat w/ a raptor/springer mount.

...I guess because of both trait changes I'll be starting more combats with my raptor/springer.  Maybe also go from using sw/sw to sw/ma... I will need to test it. 

As far as the player commentary suggestions to getting rid of Dual Wielding, no thank you.  Add stuff to it, sure, but for solo/duo w/o chasing quickness it gives 1-h weapons much better game feel.  They are all otherwise way too sluggish to enjoy, not to mention it would be a noticeable efficacy drop for 1-h sw.  I also appreciate and can tell the slightly faster resource gathering.  All of which, while suckier than quickness, is not predicated on a boon upkeep. 

~EpWa

Edited October 31, 2023 by EphemeralWallaby.7643

[UNOwen.7132]

Ngl, Im really annoyed that Daring Dragons fun playstyle is still gone. They ruined the trait for the sake of an alacrity build that no one uses. Just revert it please.

[draxynnic.3719]

I suspect the logic behind Vengeance being 100% only in PvE is:

1) Dying often feels harsher in PvE than in competitive, and having a chance to fail to revive makes Vengeance really feel like a hail mary in PvE - it's a massive feels bad when it fails to trigger, and often feels like warrior just doesn't have a downed 3 skill except as a last-ditch "I'm about to bleed out anyway".

2) Getting up again has a greater chance to be decisive in competitive. If it didn't have the downside of reducing the chance of being able to revive, Vengeance would be the best downed skill in the game by a considerable margin. I've had plenty of times when a clutch Vengeance proved decisive even though I still died afterwards. If it didn't have a downside, then fifteen seconds where you can't be stomped, can stomp yourself, and can use all your skills (including potentially a Battle Standard finisher) would probably be a bit too good.

50% could probably work, though.

[Arewn.2368]

This is a nice list of changes, so I almost feel bad harping on it, but....

You did an Arms rework, but did nothing for Dual Wielding? This trait has been bad through pretty much the entirety of the game's history. And it has aged terribly, only getting worse with time as the prevalence of quickness increased. They haven't changed it at all since PoF released in 2017.

This is like... the key trait I expected them to change for an Arms rework. And it got nothing. 

It needs to be modified in some way so that it isn't rendered worthless as soon as you have quickness. Especially given that Warrior has a fair amount of quickness access itself.
I don't really care how that's achieved. They can make it stack with quickness, or just change its functionality altogether. But whatever it is, they need to resolve this trait's relationship with quickness.

[Fueki.4753]

I don't like the change to Furious Burst. Not only did they neuter the Fury we get, they also moved it off Bursts, we I use significantly more often than that I swap off my Daggers. They could have done all this without cutting any Fury from this or Opportunist and Warrior would still be far from over-performing.

Also, the Mace changes are pointless, if they don't update its functionality. And the right hand Mace is lacking damage buffs in this patch.

It kind of goes in the right direction, but still feels like a baby's first steps to me.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Hey they didn't ruin anything so that's good.

Arms Hammer Zerker in WvW might be worth it more now that the Bow builds are falling off flavor. And frankly I played enough ranged warrior the past months when I felt the itch for it...

Arms didn't change that much. It will still be a big deal to drop Signet trait for Opportunist, especially with the improved means of self-fury access. I appreciate the extra crit dmg on Burst precision tho, gives the line a bit more dps if we stack ferocity.

OH Mace needs more changes to become a viable offhand for cleave and CC, otherwise Hammer is simply better for aoe cc, axe for dps and hell...Dagger for strips and sustain rn.

Heightened Focus should have "focused" on improving warrior's mobility or self-sustain. Recharging bursts with Full counter existing and blood reckoning, will create weird interactions that people will not enjoy. 3 skullgrinders in a row or 2 full counters will create severe balance issues. Don't let this change pass honestly.

I still believe that Leg Specialist should be rolled into a Major Master trait in Arms like the top trait to enhance that idea of immobilizing and gaining attributes for it. But idk.

I wish meditations were tweaked a bit and shattering blow was made a bit more usable for power builds in comp.

[Jzaku.9765]

Quote

Crushing Blow: Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.25 in PvE and from 1.5 to 1.75 in PvP and WvW. Increased the might stacks from 3 to 5. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
Tremor: Reduced the cooldown to 18 seconds in all game modes. Increased the power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.25 in PvE only.

Cool but it's still ONLY going to be taken when people are desperately in need of CC just like how it is now, due to the opportunity cost of it directly competing with pure DPS weapons.

Quote

Opportunist: This trait will now also trigger when disabling an enemy. Reduced the cooldown from 10 seconds to 1 second. Reduced the fury duration from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.

What I'm happiest about this change is that it's providing a very accessible source of trickle Adrenaline gain into the traitline available to multiple builds due to how generic it is. This should be moved to be one of the minor traits, mirroring [Versatile Rage] in Discipline. This would make the Minors in Arms more generic too to be able to support both Power and Condi builds. 

Quote

Burst Precision: This trait now also grants 100% critical strike chance and 150 ferocity for 2, 3, or 4 seconds based on adrenaline level when striking with a burst skill.

This is the de-facto trait for power builds looking at Arms, but managing to utilize this trait optimally makes all of the Fury and Crit chance increases throughout the line pointless. Considering that the entire traitline combined gives you about 35~45% crit chance consistently including the other changes in these notes, the power level of this trait is deceptively low, especially for a GM trait. 

Overall Arms Feedback

Almost every trait in this traitline reads "do more damage". Please add some utility traits options in here as well. [Might Makes Right] is a fantastic trait exactly because it's positioned in the otherwise damage-oriented Strength traitline. [Dual Wielding] is long overdue for a rework, freeing up a slot.

Quote

Vengeful Return: This trait has been reworked and renamed to Stalwart Focus. Increased  the incoming healing effectiveness and outgoing healing to allies.

Cool to see focus on Support Warrior, but -

Quote

Soldier's Focus Comfort: Increased the heal attribute scaling from 0.8 to 1.0. Increased the protection duration from 2.5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE and from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

You just changed [Heat the Soul] because everyone hated the ICD tied to burst skills. The entire [Soldier's Focus] mechanic (which this trait is tied to) is an ICD tied to burst skills in the EXACT SAME WAY, WITH A 10s ICD. Please get ahead of the curve and update the traits tied to [Marching Orders] and [Soldier's Focus] before it sits for another few years waiting for someone to notice that everyone hated that.

Quote

Heightened Focus: This trait will now also recharge all burst skills when it activates. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

I don't really see value in periodically randomly resetting my Burst Skill sub 50%, when I might not even have Adrenaline for it. 

Quote

Berserker Changes

Great to see that someone on the dev team identified the pain points of playing Berserker. Please note that tying the extra extensions to [Smash Brawler] works great for Power Builds, but it's competing directly with a significantly powerful Condi trait in [Last Blaze] in the same tier so the Condi Builds still have to suffer without this additional QOL. Not sure if intended. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

3 hours ago, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

Heightened Focus should have "focused" on improving warrior's mobility or self-sustain. Recharging bursts with Full counter existing and blood reckoning, will create weird interactions that people will not enjoy. 3 skullgrinders in a row or 2 full counters will create severe balance issues. Don't let this change pass honestly.

The heightened focus change is going to be... interesting. You're right in that there is potential for F1->F2->F1->F1->F2->F1 depending on trait loadout giving adrenaline. Perhaps this will create the need for even more adrenaline gain and the devs will add in some to the weapon sets directly. Things like Fierce Blow giving bonus adrenaline when striking CCd targets for example.

It does give the chance for Core to spam more F1s though, so that is nice. We're going to see Bladesworns pop of an extra dragon slash every 12s on sub 50% HP targets.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

The heightened focus change is going to be... interesting. You're right in that there is potential for F1->F2->F1->F1->F2->F1 depending on trait loadout giving adrenaline. Perhaps this will create the need for even more adrenaline gain and the devs will add in some to the weapon sets directly. Things like Fierce Blow giving bonus adrenaline when striking CCd targets for example.

It does give the chance for Core to spam more F1s though, so that is nice. We're going to see Bladesworns pop of an extra dragon slash every 12s on sub 50% HP targets.

No clue what they try to do with Discipline at this point. Is it meant to focus on QoL? Will it do suppor? Why does it have trash traits anyway? They literally don't create natural synergy with some changes, they force synergy like Heightened Focus, which will 100% be toxic in competetive.

Arms lookin bland ngl. I don't mind removal of fury from bursts, weaponswap works fine for warrior. Tho I do question why this isn't the case for many other minor traits too. A 4sec ICD for stuff like Marching Orders or Discipline traits etc, is the best and only solution for ICDs on warr. 

It's a whatever patch. If the devs paid attention to anything we'd get a patch like this every 3 weeks.

[Verdict is Vengence.6912]

20 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Burst Precision: This trait now also grants 100% critical strike chance and 150 ferocity for 2, 3, or 4 seconds based on adrenaline level when striking with a burst skill.

I main rifle warrior and this is pretty strong with the meme glass sniper build. I haven't been able to hit consistent big boy numbers and this change will probably guarantee kills.

All and all, I would've liked to see Daring Dragon back or something incredibly fun added. One day we'll get moving hundred blades and it'll be sweet lol

[mandala.8507]

3 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

Great to see that someone on the dev team identified the pain points of playing Berserker. Please note that tying the extra extensions to [Smash Brawler] works great for Power Builds, but it's competing directly with a significantly powerful Condi trait in [Last Blaze] in the same tier so the Condi Builds still have to suffer without this additional QOL. Not sure if intended. 

Because they made the 20 second berserk uptime baseline and not reliant on Smash Brawler, so the condi build that is already running full rage skills for dps will now be easier to maintain berserk for across larger dps windows. Add onto that the now incredibly low cd of berserk mode, and berserker is far easier than it was before on power and condi variants in the hands of less skilled players.

However, I don't really share the same sentiments that these are great changes that identified actual pain points with berserker.

To me, it shows that the devs making these changes don't understand just how rapidly you can spam decapitate based on the alternate interactions the skill has with the extension of the berserk timer and with quickness output at baseline on Heat the Soul. Now you can run a power build with ZERO boon duration and only the baseline rage skills that don't take up the slots of more powerful dmg utility skills (headbutt and blood reckoning, with probably wild blow because there's nothing better to run) and still put out perma quickness and have better berserk mode uptime than the power build did before when its dps output was already pretty good in the hands of someone fast enough to not fall out of berserk (and when it was running outrage for no dmg benefit, just for maintaining berserk mode uptime). Now, you don't even need to be fast. It will just happen for free.

Additionally, it's unclear whether or not they are altering Heat the Soul's implementation, because currently it operates on an ICD, but also procs ANY TIME your burst skills make contact with a foe. So, if they forgot how that works, when the ICD goes away with this patch, it's free perma quickness just for existing on the condi variant as well.

And honestly, even if they did revamp how it procs, 3 seconds baseline quickness per burst makes providing perma quickness pretty free even on the condi variant. Swap into some firebrand runes and you're significantly overcapped on quickness without having to change a thing about your build.

I REALLY think they need to do another pass on these numbers.

And beyond my concerns for the power potential of these changes, it just seems like weak design to have the power quickness build being funneled solely through one trait change in the berserker line. There are unironically NO other changes than swapping from blood reaction to heat the soul in the trait line to become a dps support. It's just so uncreative and uninteractive with GW2's buildcraft systems.

And I simply don't understand why they want to open up this can of worms with decapitate. It can only end up in two places. Either top players are going to be the only people who can play the power builds to their full potential, or they're going to be hilariously broken (and even more so in the hands of top players). There's not going to be an in-between here.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

They do view Warrior as a offensive support, so easy to pump quickness, might, and fury is their vision I guess.

[Khlori.6209]

Still no Gunsaber revert, maybe one day. *insane copium*

[Jzaku.9765]

1 hour ago, mandala.8507 said:

Because they made the 20 second berserk uptime baseline and not reliant on Smash Brawler, so the condi build that is already running full rage skills for dps will now be easier to maintain berserk for across larger dps windows. Add onto that the now incredibly low cd of berserk mode, and berserker is far easier than it was before on power and condi variants in the hands of less skilled players.

However, I don't really share the same sentiments that these are great changes that identified actual pain points with berserker.

To me, it shows that the devs making these changes don't understand just how rapidly you can spam decapitate based on the alternate interactions the skill has with the extension of the berserk timer and with quickness output at baseline on Heat the Soul. Now you can run a power build with ZERO boon duration and only the baseline rage skills that don't take up the slots of more powerful dmg utility skills (headbutt and blood reckoning, with probably wild blow because there's nothing better to run) and still put out perma quickness and have better berserk mode uptime than the power build did before when its dps output was already pretty good in the hands of someone fast enough to not fall out of berserk (and when it was running outrage for no dmg benefit, just for maintaining berserk mode uptime). Now, you don't even need to be fast. It will just happen for free.

Additionally, it's unclear whether or not they are altering Heat the Soul's implementation, because currently it operates on an ICD, but also procs ANY TIME your burst skills make contact with a foe. So, if they forgot how that works, when the ICD goes away with this patch, it's free perma quickness just for existing on the condi variant as well.

And honestly, even if they did revamp how it procs, 3 seconds baseline quickness per burst makes providing perma quickness pretty free even on the condi variant. Swap into some firebrand runes and you're significantly overcapped on quickness without having to change a thing about your build.

I REALLY think they need to do another pass on these numbers.

And beyond my concerns for the power potential of these changes, it just seems like weak design to have the power quickness build being funneled solely through one trait change in the berserker line. There are unironically NO other changes than swapping from blood reaction to heat the soul in the trait line to become a dps support. It's just so uncreative and uninteractive with GW2's buildcraft systems.

And I simply don't understand why they want to open up this can of worms with decapitate. It can only end up in two places. Either top players are going to be the only people who can play the power builds to their full potential, or they're going to be hilariously broken (and even more so in the hands of top players). There's not going to be an in-between here.

Fundamentally I actually largely agree with you both in terms of (1) no/minimal stat investment for perma boons is bad and (2) no gameplay changes for different "builds" within the same spec is boring.

But for (1), Quick Herald has been in the game for about a year now, with minimal stat investment, providing close to every boon in the game and sees no nerfs this patch - so we can unfortunately conclude that it is the new benchmark for what a "good build" should look like. (And regardless of boon duration investment what really matters is how much DPS the build ends up being)

and for (2), I'll take it over using utility skills off cooldown - that was equally bad, if not worse, in terms of gameplay. It's quite difficult for Warrior specs too since they're so one dimensional. 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Jzaku.9765

[mandala.8507]

1 hour ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

But for (1), Quick Herald has been in the game for about a year now, with minimal stat investment, providing close to every boon in the game and sees no nerfs this patch - so we can unfortunately conclude that it is the new benchmark for what a "good build" should look like. (And regardless of boon duration investment what really matters is how much DPS the build ends up being)

Doubling up on boons and support capabilities that are already covered by the healer is almost irrelevant. And the dps is going to be crazy on the power variant, I'm pretty sure:

Not to mention, quick herald isn't very fun or intuitive, and a lot of the strength of the build comes from the margins. Someone playing quick herald poorly is doing much less for their team than they imagine. It was the same thing when everyone complained about quickness firebrand. Only top players were really getting all there was to get out of it, and everyone else was just pretending it mattered that it had all that free interventive utility that they never pressed and that their healer was covering anyway.

[Lighter.5631]

no matter how strong they make the traits to be

warrior weapon skills still clunky AF and bad mechanically

which generally result in unfun-ness which is the reason why minimum player play warrior.

no matter how many burst reset they give, if burst is unfun to use, it doesn't matter

and why more CC traits, defense already have adrenaline on CC, now arms also adrenaline on CC?...CC does no damage in pvp/wvw and CC skills for warrior are slow and clunky AF to use. how about fix this instead of over stacking effects..

Edited October 29, 2023 by Lighter.5631