Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Engineer

[quake.9023]

overall quite fluid , alot aoe n hybrid dmg. good for beginners in meta. 

however, lack of utility. skill no.4 needs big rework. i get cc before my cc can finish cast. because its too long. also after u leap in using 2 or 5 and thn press 4 ,  if ur abit infront of them the skill miss and hits behind them.....useless. so make it abit aoe around yourself and faster cast, id rather faster cast n less cc. rather thn uselesss. skill3 second skill has potential but currently kinda pointless

[Tofu.1865]

2 hours ago, quake.9023 said:

overall quite fluid , alot aoe n hybrid dmg. good for beginners in meta. 

however, lack of utility. skill no.4 needs big rework. i get cc before my cc can finish cast. because its too long. also after u leap in using 2 or 5 and thn press 4 ,  if ur abit infront of them the skill miss and hits behind them.....useless. so make it abit aoe around yourself and faster cast, id rather faster cast n less cc. rather thn uselesss. skill3 second skill has potential but currently kinda pointless

" Quite fluid" 

Huhhhhhhh???

[LilBiM.3581]

Alright so my feedback is as follows:

1. AA is quite slow, feels like I am swinging a halberd
2. The AA range is the same as dagger; I've concluded that I'm holding this thing very poorly and or are absolutely terrible at using spears, if so it needs to do more if it can't let me kite (ain't nobody scared of one bleed)
3. 2 skills is nice, an evade would be nicer. Edit: 2 activated and released is 1s evade; 2 channeled (press and hold) is up to 3s evade however the CD is multiplied by the time held down (up to 18s CD).
4. 3 is pretty sweet, who doesn't like a good blender?
5. 4 is just 4. Animation is brilliant. The on focus should let the stun happen and apply chill instead (but it's not in the theme, theme is nice but we trying to oppress and kite people here).
6. 5. Uh, eye candy. Love it. I'd take a skill like this as an Elite Skill, cough, Elixir X, cough. Whomever reads this should take the animators/sfx team out for lunch (yes and pay for it).

That is all. Enjoy the lunch on me (you actually 😛). Thank you.

Edited Sunday at 08:38 PM by LilBiM.3581
Added more feedback/suggestion for Point 3.

[Cuilan.7091]

About 40 hours of spear gameplay, overall direction is solid but there are definitely glaring issues and a few solutions that can be done to ailment it. 

I've made a thread about Engineer spear names and minor adjustments before the beta, those thoughts still apply now.

1. Animations have a reliance on quickness to function. It isn't much of an issue in PvE where enemies and mostly immobile, or move in a predictable manner, but in competitive modes skills like Devastation and Rolling Skies require too much set up to properly land.  
   1. Have skills be animation locked in similar fashion to Hammer 3 (Rocket Charge) and manually adjust the cast times. Add a new Tooltip tag to denote this effect. 
   2. Add self quickness to the kit like Sword 3 (Radiant Arc) such as completing a channel on Lighting Rod
2. .More sources should apply Focus. Heavily reliance on landing Spear 2 (Which has its own quirks) means that if you miss, the target is out of range, or moves into you means that majority of your damage is now effectively locked by a 8 (6 for PvE) second cooldown. The overall duration of Focus should be reduced if more sources of applying are added. 
   1. Add a 2nd charge to Spear 2 (Conduit Surge) to enable its 'dart like' gameplay but also a means to give another chance to apply Focus
   2. 3rd Auto attack should apply Focus
3. Focus should be applicable to multiple targets, rewarding aggressive gameplay
   1. Spear 2 (Conduit) Surge should follow its root skill, Willbender F1 (Rushing Justice) more closely for consistency and usability
      1. Have its initial dash pulse damage and leave a electrify trail that applies focus up to 3 targets
         1. This is also a continuation of above, enabling consistent application of Focus
      2. Finish with a cleaving swipe that strikes all targets in a area, burning targets and applies focus to 3 more targets. Focused foes receive additional burning stacks. 
4. Damage should be split to encourage attrition and consistency instead of a singular burst
   1. Continuation from above, where Spear 2's damage can be split and segmented.
   2. Rolling Skies should be split to 2 parts, a quick cone strike that cripples, leading to the original launching / stun strike a delay after
   3. Devastator should be split to 3 parts , a fast initial slam (With a leap increase range if possible) that applies burning, with a secondary quake that strikes the ground with a orbital command strike. This allows the skill to be useable on its own, but to get full value the user must use other tools to secure the target, or use the delayed orbital command to set up field gameplay.
      1. Focused Devastation would apply when targets are struck by the Orbital Command, this includes to multiple targets if you could apply Focus to them. 
5. Spear 3 (Lighting Rod / Electrical Artillery) needs to be ground targeted, and be launched more early. This skill is mainly used as a precast tool as the initial skill is not as impactful unless you can properly land all strikes. 
   1. Give the initial cast offensive conditions to improve its value such as confusion or burning
   2. The Ground targeted Electrical Artillery would still allow its 600 cast range but allows you to 'skill shot' targets including stealth ones. This also allows for interesting gameplay if you could apply focus to multiple target.

Though even if spear gets a change most of engineer's traits and utilities don't encourage a conditional based gameplay unless you want to jump through various hoops, kits, and other questionable gameplay that's been around since 2012. Spear during the beta felt nice in WvW abusing celestial stats since I had the ability to hybrid burst someone with the weapon alone though I'd appreciate it more if I was able to cleave more for bigger fights. In sPvP I tried Tyrants, Rabid, and Grieving stats but they all came to the same conclusion of "There isn't an easy way to deal condition damage on engi and you don't have celestial stats to abuse, so just play power".

Yes, Vass Relic carried this build hard especially with the Elixir Buffs but there isn't enough consistent attacks to dump all those Vass stacks on to a target in time. 

If there was a proper rework to firearms to take it out of its World of Warcraft designs and giving a little bit of additional sources of offensive conditions in other traits (Tools with Static Discharge Confusion themes, Elixirs with burning / torment for the acidic themes [Please rework acid bomb into burning strikes and stop it from dealing so much power damage]) then we could see spear, even in its current state, a viable power house in all game modes. 

 

Edited Sunday at 06:24 PM by Cuilan.7091
typo

[mov.1246]

I havnt tested that much, but the focus mechanic doenst feel well.

Spear will suffer the same problem like it was with beta shortbow, skills feel weak without using its build-in mechanic.

Condi holo felt terrible with spear, especially skill 3 and cooldowns doesnt fit well into rotation.

Mechanist felt better but pistols are by far easier to play with similar DPS (at least at my case).

For power builds it doesnt feel viable with this numbers.

And a melee weapon without any defensives is pretty hard to play outside of instanced pve.

[ZombieED.1692]

I tested while playing Condi Alac Mechanist in open world/DRMs.

Overall it is good fit for Mechanist giving the spec the missing vulnerability and Defiance Break.

Things that needs to be fixed are Spear 3 is not triggering Rocket Punch and the throw is not even considered a ranged attack for Aim-Assited Rocket.

Things that I wish gets ironed out, Spear 5 feels a little clunky to use, the cast is slow but the main issue is the after cast it feels like Rifle 5 did before being tweaked to be smoother.

Another thing is about Spear 3 when it starts working with Rocket Punch there will be a mismatch between the 4 seconds duration to flip over to throw and also the Rocket Punch 5 seconds ICD.

The last thing is the Defiance Break tooltip in Spear 4, it just does not make sense, spear 4 does only 332 defiance break but the tooltip says 732, it should either say 532 or be separated into 2 values 200 and 332. On unfocused target it says it should do 2s of stun which is 200 CC, while on focused target is says it should do launch+3s knockdown which are (undetermined number but usually) 232 + 300 respectively but in total it does only 332.

[coro.3176]

4 hours ago, Cuilan.7091 said:

Though even if spear gets a change most of engineer's traits and utilities don't encourage a conditional based gameplay unless you want to jump through various hoops, kits, and other questionable gameplay that's been around since 2012. Spear during the beta felt nice in WvW abusing celestial stats since I had the ability to hybrid burst someone with the weapon alone though I'd appreciate it more if I was able to cleave more for bigger fights. In sPvP I tried Tyrants, Rabid, and Grieving stats but they all came to the same conclusion of "There isn't an easy way to deal condition damage on engi and you don't have celestial stats to abuse, so just play power".

Yes, Vass Relic carried this build hard especially with the Elixir Buffs but there isn't enough consistent attacks to dump all those Vass stacks on to a target in time. 

If there was a proper rework to firearms to take it out of its World of Warcraft designs and giving a little bit of additional sources of offensive conditions in other traits (Tools with Static Discharge Confusion themes, Elixirs with burning / torment for the acidic themes [Please rework acid bomb into burning strikes and stop it from dealing so much power damage]) then we could see spear, even in its current state, a viable power house in all game modes. 

 

It would help a lot in WvW/PvP if Firearms' condition traits were any good. They are awful. The main offenders:

• Incendiary Powder - This is supposed to be THE grandmaster condi trait, and it's WORSE than most traitlines' adept minor traits. A single burn once per 10s in competitive is nothing, absolutely nothing. That gets cleansed in 1 or 2 ticks, probably without your opponent even noticing, and does maybe a few hundred damage. At bare minimum, this should have double stacks and half the ICD.
• Thermal Vision - supposed to be the condi pick, but it's worse than Pinpoint Distribution right next to it. Expertise is near-worthless in competitive because people are cleansing like 4 conditions every 2 seconds. 5% condition damage is not a good option compared to just 5 stacks of might. Up this to 10%, hell, 15% or 20%! (in WvW/PvP only) , or add some other utility, like healing per condi applied or something (the traitline doesn't have any sustain options as it is) . Right now, it's not worth picking.
• Sharpshooter - is an actual kittening joke. 33% chance on crit to cause a 1 second bleed. Even if you are CONSTANTLY critting, it adds like.. a low double-digit dps increase in a game where power builds are throwing around 5k hits every few seconds.. Its only purpose is to combo with Sanguine Array, so in effect, it's wasting two trait slots to make one playable. Compare this with Explosive Entrance, which is a real adept minor that actually does damage.

Given that Spear is a condi weapon, it would be reeeeeaaallly nice if the balance team could have a look at those and give them their once-a-decade update. 

Edited Sunday at 10:53 PM by coro.3176

[mirage.8046]

more feedback about spear in PvE:

the power side of the spear is weak without holosmith because other engi specs don't have holosmith's damage modifiers. for other specs, the spear's power DPS is a 5k-6k DPS loss. it truly becomes a hybrid weapon in holosmith's hands.

from a few golem tests, on power scrapper, it was benching 22k; on power holosmith, it was doing 28k. 

add confusion on to electric artillery and maybe on devastator. the condition variety goes up in wvw and pvp with confusion so enemies aren't cleansing your main damage. devastator feels underwhelming in several aspects: as a mobility skill, its range needs to be increased to 1000 or 1200; it has no evades, and 20s is too long for a 450 dash. conduit surge and devastator would be better with evades because spear is a little squishy for a melee weapon. devastator's cooldown is way too long and the cast time needs to go down to 1/2. 

[coro.3176]

2 minutes ago, mirage.8046 said:

its range needs to be increased to 1000 or 1200; it has no evades, and 20s is too long for a 450 dash. conduit surge and devastator would be better with evades because spear is a little squishy for a melee weapon. devastator's cooldown is way too long and the cast time needs to go down to 1/2. 

1000 range dash every 8 seconds would be a nightmare in both PvP and WvW. There would be so many complaints about "run away" engineers. Leap in in from a million miles away, press all the buttons, then leap back out.

[Luthan.5236]

Played only a l il bit - since I have too much other time to do and leave the hardcore testing to others. So this is not about maxing dps (I am more casual anyways) or other stuff like that:

It seems more interesting than from the description. I like the skill 3 - how it charges and then gives a powerful attack. Definitely more interesting than the mace and short bow (the recent additions). Since I prefer to stay ranged at single bosses (champs or the lower tier fractals that I play) I mainly use rifle + for melee the toolkit. Other than that the hammer recently on mecha. (Before that I used it's mace or the rifle when it got buffed before they made it a bit weaker again.)

Spear seems fun. I like to switch between close and mid-range. Could give some breath to go to mid range when the skill 3 is used - then back into melee. Not having played condition builds that much. Seems this can favor a mix of condition and power? Maybe it can combine with celestial gear and other things. I might give core engineer a try (for the last trait line to be able to select from the core ones and not having to use a specific elite mechanic that basically becomes mandatory when using an elite.) Played core very long when I came back in 2019 after a looooong break catchin up and playing the elite specs only when I progressed to that expansion's maps/story.

The main issue I see is that this development focus could focus on trying to make the spears tooo strong (other weapons less interesting ... and we do not have a weapon swap to take others as well) since they are the selling point (besides homesteads) of Janthir Wilds. Also they try to put in small mini-mechanics. Which is nice. But almost does make it feel like the wanted a new elite ... but did not have the resources for it

I'd prefer more trait lines in the future expansions. (Though it would make sense to bring the other 2 water weapons for land use as well.) Tried the mesmer (my 2nd main though I barely played it lol ... almost engineer only) for even less time - did not really get into it. That spear seemed boring compared to engineer one.

[Zzik.5873]

My review of the spear:

 Better than the shortbow/10

[steinnovels.9675]

Engineer is my main, has been from launch but spear doesn't feel that good to use.

• The auto attack range feels too short, I feel like I need a proctologist elite spec with how close I need to be to hit anything. A 180 or 240 range would feel better and not make me feel too close to react to enemy tells and skill broadcasts.
• The 2 skill often over shoots the target and does not inflict the focused effect. It also doesn't seem to register as a finisher.
• the 5 skill is slow to fire off, feels like it is firing after a 1 to 2 second delay.
• The second stage of the 3 skill either doesn't fire off and the ammo is lost  or fires too late.
• I had little problems with the 4 skill, seemed a little unresponsive at times.

I really want this weapon to be good, but as it is I may just forgo the spear for other easier to use options that are more effective. I don't want this to become like the short bow, limited in my weapon rotation and only for niche use.

[DragoTheWise.7256]

Overall-

Pros:

• I like the theme of the spear. It hits the engi itch. The abilities look great and only need some cleanup on the character animation a bit.
• It was good that it has some utility thrown in to make it more distinct from using p/p
• Each skill is decent on its own and most likely do not need too much change in function… but more on that below.
• It was fun to play. I had a good time just playing with the spear and while it currently has rough edges, it is something that I will use in the future.
• Using the 2 skill to engage was fun and felt snappy when it did work properly. A nice way to be aggressive.

Cons:

• Some of the skills have a weird cast or after cast that makes the flow of the weapon not great. Mainly 4 and 5.
• The numbers for damage (power and condi) seem a little bit on the lower side and would like to seem them buff up. In addition, it felt like the power scaling was a little too low. This overall meant that the overall damage and burst even on a focus target didn't feel impactful.
• Targeting and movement is kinda weird at times. Like the 3rd skill once the spear is ready needs specific facing to work properly. It also just doesn’t fire if a target is too close. The 2 skill sometimes pushes you through enemies or even through objects (got stuck in column in a tower in WvW). I also got launched in the air a few times too!
• The focus target gimmick doesn’t feel like it has much impact. Yeah, it does some extra damage/KB, but besides that it doesn’t have a lot of weight (excluding #5 with the extra burning). It was also hard to tell if the target was focused if the model was some enemy too big. Even on a normal model, it would be nice to have a debuff on the enemy’s buff bar to help indicate that or have the focus graphic give a better tell.
• The 2 skill refreshing after your focus target is killed seems OK on paper, but it is already on a lower CD. I really don’t think it is all that useful and would only be used in open world since Raids/Strikes wouldn’t see this and wouldn’t fit in PvP/WvW either. I would either add something else for the focus target or add something like an evade or some other defensive ability instead. I would also like the 2 skill to have a little bit farther of a dash so it can be used in competitive settings as dashing without a target seems pretty short.

PvE Specific

Overall thoughts: It is OK. I mainly tried it out with condi mech DPS and condi mech alac DPS. The #’s are close to p/p or a bit above, but with the whole focus mechanic I was expecting a more damage on my focus target… So it needs improvements there. It has the benefit of a stun/knock down available which makes it a good choice for fights/situations where CC is necessary. As mentioned above, the cast/aftercasts made it not as smooth to use. With some clean up, it could be a decent condi weapon to use. I didn’t get a chance to do holo, but with the focus mechanic and how the skills are, it may be more difficult to pull off for that one since pistol is usually only used for a brief moment while spear takes up more of your time.

WvW Specific

Overall Thoughts: I played a some roaming in a small group with this weapon using firearms, tools, and holo. It seemed to do alright after a while I got used to what sort of combo I was able to unleash on a target. Even if I didn’t kill the target, the aggressiveness of the weapon helped push targets away from the group. I definitely had some trouble casting the 3 follow-up skill since the range is a bit short and so extending that a little bit would help. It would also just sometimes not cast because I was too close or wasn't looking at the target exactly in front of me. Sometimes the 2 skill would put me through enemies which made it a bit hard to follow-up with an attack. I say the hardest to pull off was the 5 skill since it is just so slow and has a bit of a aftercast. All of this combined made it difficult to pull off a full burst at times to truly make its effectiveness. This weapon for sure can’t be used in zerg warfare… But that is OK. Still, in order to make it competitive, we would need to see #’s bumped up, casts/aftercasts improved, and a little bit of a defensive… something added in.

Final thoughts:

Overall, it isn’t a bad weapon, just currently undertuned and needs some animation/skill/aftercast clean-up. Mechanically, it is almost there as we just need the focus target mechanic to have more weight to it. Finally, a light defensive option on a skill would help in the competitive scene to allow a little more flexibility in the utility skills.

Ways to improve Engi Spear:

• Mainly cleaning up skill casts/aftercasts (mainly follow-up skill 3, 4 and 5).
• Better #’s overall and more so for the focus target. If the whole gimmick is that the focus target is to receive more damage, then it should feel that way. Having #’s close to p/p on the focused target doesn’t seem to me that it does that much. We should be seeing higher numbers against the focus target but a bit lower vs unfocused.
• Another reason we should see higher numbers is due to this being a melee weapon. We shouldn’t have numbers similar to p/p which is ranged.
• Skill 3 should have some sort of pulsing damage condi like bleeding.
• The 3 skill follow-up should have better flexibility for the throw as a target too close doesn’t work or if you don’t have the target in front of you. Giving it a bit more range would also help it this regard.
• The refresh mechanic on skill 2 doesn’t have any use in a competitive setting nor most PvE settings. It should probably be removed and adjusted with something else.
• It would be nice to have the 2 ability have an evade or some other defensive use (remove immob, apply swiftness, etc.) built in instead of the refresh-on-kill as mentioned above.
• The 2 ability having a bit longer dash will give it a boost in movement flexibility, something that most engi main weapons lack.
• Final auto attack feels weak. It needs to be buffed up to really match other autos. I know it helps in refreshing the focus, but it never felt it was necessary and the damage didn't add much compared to the rest of the chain.

[inci.3705]

End-of-beta feedback (all of my initial comments still apply)

•  Holy kitten #2 is so inconsistent
  • I swapped to a build with streamlined kits e-gun, toolkit and blast gyro. Even with a target completely locked down, #2 still missed a lot (I didn't count but ballpark 30%)
  • Corellary: needs more focus sources and multiple focus targets (even if #2 is fixed)
• #3 spear launch facing requirement needs to be dropped/updated
  • Had an abysmall activation rate <20%
  • Sometimes it would successfully activate when it shouldn't/normaly wouldn't have
  • Ideally, it would be ground targeted
• #3 spear launch needs to be available immediately after activating the pulse
  • A target would run/kite but I wouldn't have a way to immoblize them like Rifle #3
    • The #3 pulse attack is low value so I constantly spammed it off CD to get access to the immobilize (and hoped that it will work!)
  • Otherwise, without rocket boots, you are terribly slow (see previous comment about not wanting to waste #2 for mediocre movement...)
• Because of the focus/#2 issue, spear #5 is usually way worse than Rifle #5
  • No evade
  • No initial leap hit to pop aegis/blind
    • AFAICT, aegis also prevents the focus bonus attack too
  • Some weird interaction with #2, #5, and instant cast where if you use #2 on an enemy, and the enemy moves behind you (or #2 overshoots you) and you attempt to use #5 behind you on the target, the #5 will not move you in the correct direction (you either stay in place or move the direction your character was facing)
  • Feels like the radius needs to be a little bit bigger or the animation shrunk
    • A target would be caught in the animation but not in the actual AoE ring, making it very unsatisfactory when they receive 0 damage...
• No defenses is ROUGH
  • Resorted to full celestial scrapper and holo builds with toolkit
    • Didn't do enough power damage (and fast enough) to warrant going glass cannon (especially when nade scrapper with hammer is just better)
  • Even full celestial without toolkit/photon wall was painful
  • #3 could become a projectile block but the CD would probably also need to be nerfed, harming the immob potential
  • Similarly, #4 could be split into a blocking portion with a CC chain skill (like shield)
• 3rd autoattack is really slow and weak for the cast time
  • Especially when focus application already has a ton of issues, it's not worth using

As a result, I found myself only using spear to do a #2 -> #5 combo after CCing/immobilizing the target with something else (usually not spear #3 or #4).

[bambi.6214]

8 hours ago, coro.3176 said:

It would help a lot in WvW/PvP if Firearms' condition traits were any good. They are awful. The main offenders:

• Incendiary Powder - This is supposed to be THE grandmaster condi trait, and it's WORSE than most traitlines' adept minor traits. A single burn once per 10s in competitive is nothing, absolutely nothing. That gets cleansed in 1 or 2 ticks, probably without your opponent even noticing, and does maybe a few hundred damage. At bare minimum, this should have double stacks and half the ICD.
• Thermal Vision - supposed to be the condi pick, but it's worse than Pinpoint Distribution right next to it. Expertise is near-worthless in competitive because people are cleansing like 4 conditions every 2 seconds. 5% condition damage is not a good option compared to just 5 stacks of might. Up this to 10%, hell, 15% or 20%! (in WvW/PvP only) , or add some other utility, like healing per condi applied or something (the traitline doesn't have any sustain options as it is) . Right now, it's not worth picking.
• Sharpshooter - is an actual kittening joke. 33% chance on crit to cause a 1 second bleed. Even if you are CONSTANTLY critting, it adds like.. a low double-digit dps increase in a game where power builds are throwing around 5k hits every few seconds.. Its only purpose is to combo with Sanguine Array, so in effect, it's wasting two trait slots to make one playable. Compare this with Explosive Entrance, which is a real adept minor that actually does damage.

Given that Spear is a condi weapon, it would be reeeeeaaallly nice if the balance team could have a look at those and give them their once-a-decade update. 

Hear, hear. I didn't even bother testing condition spear in WvW because of that garbage dump called Firearms...

[Bomboed.5697]

Overall, I an not a fan of this weapon. For me it is simply not interesting to play with. The Focus mechanic feels more like an unnecessary limitation rather than something engaging. The theme of the weapon is also very weird for me: I mean, it is another lighting-themed weapon, like hammer, but hammer felt somewhat engineerish, while spear feels like a pure magical thing.

For me, this weapon is another proof that devs don't know what to do with Engineer. They don't like this class, they don't understand it`s theme and fantasy, they don't want this class to be fun. Sometimes they accidentally create something fun for Engis, only to ruin and nerf it to the ground later.

[Xaylin.1860]

I tested all Spears in a rather casual PvE setting. So this is more of a first impression than a thorough assessment.

Overall, I enjoyed the weapon. The effects are quite nice and the weapon feels versatile enough for low or no kit builds. Two thoughts:

• Additional baseline Bleeding, e.g. on #4, would be great to have an easier time to benefit from Fireams (without Shrapnel via Explosions).
• The indicator which target is focussed just isn't working for me. It is way too hard to track in larger fights. It might recharge fast enough but I'd also like to know where it is.

Edited 15 hours ago by Xaylin.1860

[Artemis.8034]

Just saying all spears should have a throw on 1 from ranged spears are throwing and melee weapons after all. Also i think we have another shortbow on our hands, time will tell but you rarely see anyone using sb on engi

Edited Monday at 10:16 PM by Artemis.8034

[Coolster.2536]

I’ve seen some people suggest adding a boon onto Spear 2, but I think it’d be more interesting if Spear 2 stole a boon instead. Engineer only has one boon strip, so having more wouldn’t be bad and stealing boons would synergize with Alchemy where you have benefits for gaining boons. Spear 2 removing immob and/ or being an invade would be nice too.

On the animations side, Spear 5 is kinda weird to me. During the apex of the jump, the engineer holds the spear upright (with the tip pointing to the sky) then slams the tip into the ground in under a 1/4 of a second. I just find that animation really weird.

Lastly, I do kinda wish there was some mechanic to get to 12 stacks with Spear 3 even against single targets (mostly against strike bosses), but it is designed to be a cleaving weapon so it's not the end of the world. Someone mentioned gaining extra stacks from hitting focused targets with an explosion during Spear 3, which I would echo would be interesting.

Ditto on Spear autos also having a ranged counterpart (and the melee hits having more than 180 range)

Also spear 3 doesn't proc Rocket Punch on Mech. That is all 

[Josif.2015]

Puncturing Jab, Rending Strike, Amplifying Strike: no changes needed.
Conduit Surge: reduce the focus duration from 10 to 6 seconds.
Lightning Rod: no changes needed.
Roiling Skies: remove the knockdown because this skill already has two crowd control abilities. One launches focused enemies and the other stuns unfocused
enemies.
Devastator: increase the radius from 240 to 300.