The Captain brought his wisdom again.

[WingSwipe.3084]

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I was trying a Staff/Staff qHeal Berserker in convergences yesterday after seeing the Martial Cadence changes that are coming. The healing output is going to become insane with the MC and HF changes...

[StraightPath.3972]

My feedback on the vid:.

1. Cd reduction on PvE skills (mostly stances) will be more impactful than you think.
   Especially Endure pain and Frenzy, but once again these are PvE only things.

2. Battle Standard cd reducion isn't that big of a deal.
   This is mostly a competitive elite because it can both ress and stomp, which is huge.
   In PvE there's barely anything to stomp, so it should get something else in this mode, next to cd reduction.

3. Banner of Tactics and Defense are generally reactive panic buttons - hence the reduction in cast and aftercast.

4. MMR "buff" baffles me. The trait is already very hard gated from running away (only might you apply, only to self).
   Why such extremely moderate buff - I've no idea. And that's with poison being rampant, and Lord have mercy if enemy
   uses Relic of the Demon Queen..

5. Tactics changes - (Venom voicce) - it's starting to look really good.. and juicy!

6. Heightnened Focus - I won't lie, I feel very comfortable seeing it right next to axe mastery.
   I can pick Discipline, go Harrier and depending on situation either amp my healing by a ton,
  or opt for some free ferocity and axe adrenaline gains for more aggressive healer dps.

 

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

6 hours ago, StraightPath.3972 said:

4. MMR "buff" baffles me. The trait is already very hard gated from running away (only might you apply, only to self).
   Why such extremely moderate buff - I've no idea. And that's with poison being rampant, and Lord have mercy if enemy
   uses Relic of the Demon Queen..
 

There have been a couple of patches where might makes right supported bunker warrior builds due to how magebane and some other functionality works. I can see why theyre cautious about adjusting it.

@ OP: I didnt notice the martial cadence change. I will keep an eye out for that one. odds are it has a cooldown (or will be swiftly given one). I'm not as optimistic as he is but I will say the pve changes are welcome. Given my lust for the blood of the salty, though, I am negatively inclined to seeing balance pushing support, and not ironing out damage delivery. Personal grievance though. 

Edited May 28 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[StraightPath.3972]

4 minutes ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

There have been a couple of patches where might makes right supported bunker warrior builds due to how magebane and some other functionality works. I can see why theyre cautious about adjusting it.

@ OP: I didnt notice the martial cadence change. I will keep an eye out for that one. odds are it has a cooldown (or will be swiftly given one).

Not OP but ...

There's no need for cadence icd - the boogie man (fast hands) isn't real.
In practice in a prolonged fight Fast Hands will make Martial Cadence only around 11~13% more effective.

One could push this advantage into something meaningful by going Discipline + Relic of Warrior,
but that's again ppl overhyping stuff. Sure you can, but you do so at expense of a relic.

And there are other, very impactful support relics that can be equipped instead.

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

15 minutes ago, StraightPath.3972 said:

Not OP but ...

There's no need for cadence icd - the boogie man (fast hands) isn't real.
In practice in a prolonged fight Fast Hands will make Martial Cadence only around 11~13% more effective.

One could push this advantage into something meaningful by going Discipline + Relic of Warrior,
but that's again ppl overhyping stuff. Sure you can, but you do so at expense of a relic.

And there are other, very impactful support relics that can be equipped instead.

 

Relic of the Warrior reduces weapon swap by 2.5s regardless of whether you have Fast Hands or not. So, with FH and RotW you can have 2.5s weapon swaps. It isn't really that useful at the moment mind you, but with the incoming changes to MC and how Soldier's Comfort doesn't care about adrenaline, just that you hit F1, anything that can generate 4 adrenaline in 2.5s (**cough** Axe and Decapitate **cough**) will be pumping out healing, protection, and condi clears like no tomorrow. For PvP/WvW, that is also a lot of quickness, for PvE its perma stability for the group.

[StraightPath.3972]

9 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Relic of the Warrior reduces weapon swap by 2.5s regardless of whether you have Fast Hands or not. So, with FH and RotW you can have 2.5s weapon swaps. It isn't really that useful at the moment mind you, but with the incoming changes to MC and how Soldier's Comfort doesn't care about adrenaline, just that you hit F1, anything that can generate 4 adrenaline in 2.5s (**cough** Axe and Decapitate **cough**) will be pumping out healing, protection, and condi clears like no tomorrow. For PvP/WvW, that is also a lot of quickness, for PvE its perma stability for the group.

Ok, I stand corrected. Didn't know about this broken Relic of the Warrior behaviour o_O,.
 

[DanAlcedo.3281]

18 hours ago, StraightPath.3972 said:

My feedback on the vid:.

1. Cd reduction on PvE skills (mostly stances) will be more impactful than you think.
   Especially Endure pain and Frenzy, but once again these are PvE only things.

2. Battle Standard cd reducion isn't that big of a deal.
   This is mostly a competitive elite because it can both ress and stomp, which is huge.
   In PvE there's barely anything to stomp, so it should get something else in this mode, next to cd reduction.

3. Banner of Tactics and Defense are generally reactive panic buttons - hence the reduction in cast and aftercast.

4. MMR "buff" baffles me. The trait is already very hard gated from running away (only might you apply, only to self).
   Why such extremely moderate buff - I've no idea. And that's with poison being rampant, and Lord have mercy if enemy
   uses Relic of the Demon Queen..

5. Tactics changes - (Venom voicce) - it's starting to look really good.. and juicy!

6. Heightnened Focus - I won't lie, I feel very comfortable seeing it right next to axe mastery.
   I can pick Discipline, go Harrier and depending on situation either amp my healing by a ton,
  or opt for some free ferocity and axe adrenaline gains for more aggressive healer dps.

 

1. Reducing the CD on pure defensive skills is kinda pointless in PvE as people who know what they are doing will never slot them. Even if they had 5s CD. 

It's only noobs that would consider them and we don't need noobs to make even more bad choices. 

2. The CD reduction is a big deal. It's still a FAR worse version of Glyph of stars. Which is 48s CD. The elite banner would need a CD of 30s or something to be balanced. 

Which says more about how OP current support builds are. 

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

5 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

1. Reducing the CD on pure defensive skills is kinda pointless in PvE as people who know what they are doing will never slot them. Even if they had 5s CD. 

It's only noobs that would consider them and we don't need noobs to make even more bad choices. 

I don't know... Endure Pain on a 5s CD would get taken in Raids for certain things. Hell, I would solo several fractals on CM with a 5s CD Endure Pain. As to the actual CD decreases, yeah they won't matter to people who know what they are doing.

5 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

2. The CD reduction is a big deal. It's still a FAR worse version of Glyph of stars. Which is 48s CD. The elite banner would need a CD of 30s or something to be balanced. 

Banner is a full revive where several others are percent-based revivals. The percent-based ones are all 20-48s CD and range from 7%-25% revival, with pulsed revivals being on the order of 7% and bulk ones at 20-25%. The pulsed based ones average out to the same as the bulk ones after all pulses with some variation. The druid elite and battle standard are 120s currently and full revive. After the buff to a 90s CD it will be in line with the percent-based revival skills.

 

[DanAlcedo.3281]

18 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I don't know... Endure Pain on a 5s CD would get taken in Raids for certain things. Hell, I would solo several fractals on CM with a 5s CD Endure Pain. As to the actual CD decreases, yeah they won't matter to people who know what they are doing.

Banner is a full revive where several others are percent-based revivals. The percent-based ones are all 20-48s CD and range from 7%-25% revival, with pulsed revivals being on the order of 7% and bulk ones at 20-25%. The pulsed based ones average out to the same as the bulk ones after all pulses with some variation. The druid elite and battle standard are 120s currently and full revive. After the buff to a 90s CD it will be in line with the percent-based revival skills.

 

Yeah cheesing boss mechanics. Still a dps loss taking it. 

Glyph is still better. 

You pop is the moment people go down or even Pre cast it. 

It heals and when people go downstate again, they get up again. 

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

1 hour ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Yeah cheesing boss mechanics. Still a dps loss taking it. 

Not if you're doing it solo, but that is a discussion for a theoretical 5s CD endure pain that will never happen.

1 hour ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Glyph is still better. 

You pop is the moment people go down or even Pre cast it. 

All true, self banner rezes are a thing.

1 hour ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

It heals and when people go downstate again, they get up again. 

 

You just caused an earworm from a crappy song. Lyssa curse you...

[StraightPath.3972]

8 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Not if you're doing it solo, but that is a discussion for a theoretical 5s CD endure pain that will never happen.

Gentlemen, gentlemen.
Comments like this make me fuzzy inside, making me appreciate just how different oddball of a warrior I am compared to most.

I am most certainly not above using endure pain to it's disgusting limits, and these will go very far in pve after patch drops.
You may want to make sure kids leave the room prior to reading this, but:

Endure Pain - 30s
Defy Pain - 20s if attached to a Headbutt
Defiant Stance - 30s
Last Stand - +1 second to all of above.
Savage Instinct + Eternal Champion - a lot of on demand strike damage immunity.

Slap all these together and your 5s cd enduring pain isn't so far off ..
Even if my damage dips somewhat, the ability to ignore some mechanics and just focus on hitting would be worth it imho.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

22 minutes ago, StraightPath.3972 said:

Gentlemen, gentlemen.
Comments like this make me fuzzy inside, making me appreciate just how different oddball of a warrior I am compared to most.

I am most certainly not above using endure pain to it's disgusting limits, and these will go very far in pve after patch drops.
You may want to make sure kids leave the room prior to reading this, but:

Endure Pain - 30s
Defy Pain - 20s if attached to a Headbutt
Defiant Stance - 30s
Last Stand - +1 second to all of above.
Savage Instinct + Eternal Champion - a lot of on demand strike damage immunity.

Slap all these together and your 5s cd enduring pain isn't so far off ..
Even if my damage dips somewhat, the ability to ignore some mechanics and just focus on hitting would be worth it imho.

Throw in shield stance and using Berserk to fuel immunity rather than offense and you could do it. You'll need regen or condi condi clears on top of it.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

On 5/28/2024 at 2:10 PM, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

I didnt notice the martial cadence change. I will keep an eye out for that one. odds are it has a cooldown (or will be swiftly given one).

effectively none if you take discipline~

Edited June 26 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Jzaku.9765]

1 hour ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

effectively none if you take discipline~

The 4s icd does stop Relic of the Warrior/Bladesworn shenanigans unfortunately. Ah well...

[Agronach.4903]

It does prevent the warrior relic shennanigans but I played around a bit earlier with an alac bladesworn and it made it way more fun/effective.  Tactics 2-2-1, Discipline 3-1-2, BS 1-3-3.  Relic of Febe, full harrier, capped boon dur.  I kept up 25 might between SF, Staff 2 + 100% Alac, Fury, Prot, Reso, Resist, Swift, Stab, 2 Aegis buttons, blocks, some CC, multiple condi clears. Only real miss was Vigor unfortunately but had the shout heal giving some extra endurance every 18 secs.  Lush forest helped cut down on recharges with the 1 or 2 skills I had to use on gunsaber before switching back to staff.  Using Elite, Tactics, Defense banners + a swap skill (Shake it off mostly).

I actually had more fun on this than I did on QHeal Berserker before the patch. Going to experiment some more.

Edited June 26 by Agronach.4903