shadowpass.4236 Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 Tradeoffs for Elite Specializations are incredibly inconsistent. Their severities vary greatly, from extremely harsh to almost completely irrelevant. There are also Elite Specs that have multiple drawbacks. I suggest categorizing each class based off of the type of class mechanic they have and making the tradeoffs for their Elite Specs more uniform. All Elite Spec tradeoffs should result in effectiveness decreases on their specific class mechanic(s). Furthermore, I believe ALL stat reduction tradeoffs should be reverted.Regardless, a tradeoff should be just that - a compromise. However, some of them feel incredibly restrictive to the point where entire elite specializations have been effectively rendered unplayable due to how badly their tradeoffs have affected the flow of the class. Build diversity is a good thing, and the recent balance patch seems to be headed in the right direction. Please, reconsider how the tradeoffs are structured so that these builds are still fun to play and viable in multiple different gamemodes.With that being said, here is an example of how I would categorize and design them.Resource Generation -> Expenditure:! Warrior: Adrenaline + Burst Skills! - Berserker: 15s cooldown on Burst Skills.! - Already has a tradeoff.! - Spellbreaker: Locked into T1 Burst Skills. (P.S. Arcing Slice damage doesn't scale with adrenaline and should be tiered like all of the other Burst Skills.)! - Already has a tradeoff.!! Mesmer: Illusions + Shatters! - Chrono: Reduce maximum illusions for Shatters to 2. Distort and Illusionary Persona should be given back.! - Gains stronger base Shatters in exchange for lower Shatter Scaling.! - Mirage: Reduce maximum illusions for shatters to 2. Second dodge should be given back. Distort should prevent skill usage. Dodges should not be able to be used while hard cc’d or immobilized.! - Gains stronger dodges in exchange for lower Shatter Scaling. This tradeoff also reduces the effectiveness of Infinite Horizon.!! Necromancer: Life Force + Death Shroud! - Reaper: Total Life Force should be reduced by 33%. Reaper Shroud degeneration should be the same as Death Shroud.! - Gains stronger Shroud Skills in exchange for maximum Shroud.! - Scourge: Total Life Force should be reduced by 33%. Desert Shroud Cooldown should be reduced to 23 seconds.! - Gains stronger Shroud Skills in exchange for maximum Shroud.Additional Non-Transformation, Non-Weapon Skills:! Guardian: 3 Virtues! - Dragonhunter: Swaps 3 Core Virtues for 3 Dragonhunter Virtues with a longer cooldown on Shield of Courage.! - Gains more effective Virtues but F1 and F2 are no longer instant cast. Already has a tradeoff.! - Firebrand: Swaps 3 Core Virtues for 15-24 Tome Skills. Tomes should have a global cooldown depending on which one was used. Cooldowns should be reduced from 40-50-75 to 30-40-65 to account for the extra skills and global cooldown.! - Gains 12-21 additional Virtue Skills in exchange for Global Cooldowns on Tomes.!! Thief: Steal! - Daredevil: For some reason, Swipe has a lower cooldown than Steal. Increase the cooldown from 25s to 30s to match Steal. Range has been halved, but gains 3rd dodge. Remove Unblockable from Swipe.! - Gains 3rd dodge in exchange for Swipe range. Remove Unblockable.! - Deadeye: For some reason, Deadeye’s Mark has a lower cooldown than Steal. Increase the cooldown from 25s to 30s to match Steal. No longer a teleport, no longer instant cast, gains stronger Stealth Attacks.! - Already has a tradeoff.!! Engineer: 5 Toolbelt Skills + No Weapon Swap! - Scrapper: Swaps F5 for Function Gyro. 1 for 1.! - Already has a tradeoff.! - Holosmith: Swaps 1 F5 skill for 5 additional skills from Photon Forge. The other 4 Toolbelt Skills should be removed. Remove the damage from Overheating. Overheating should increase non-heal Utility Cooldowns by 15 seconds. (P.S. Lock On is STILL has 2 procs that don’t share an internal cooldown. Please remove the on-hit proc as the on-CC proc is more skill-based.)! - Gains 5 additional Photon Forge Skills in exchange for losing 5 Toolbelt Skills.Special:! Elementalist: 4 Attunements + No Weapon Swap! - Tempest: Gains Overload Attunements in exchange for 20 second Attunement Lockout.! - Already has a tradeoff.! - Weaver: Gains 6 additional Dual Attacks and 60% lower Attunement Cooldowns. In exchange, they should have their Attunement Cooldowns increased from 4s to 6s.! - Reasoning: Instead of 10s -> 4s where the ability to Double Attune reduces the cooldowns by 10% more than half, it should reduce the cooldowns by 10% less than half in exchange for faster swapping and additional skills.!! Revenant: Energy + Legends! - Herald: Swaps Ancient Echo for True Nature.! - Already has a tradeoff.! - Renegade: Swaps 1 Ancient Echo for 3 additional skills from Citadel Orders.! - However, due to the Energy Costs required to cast them, I believe it already has a tradeoff.!! Ranger: Pet! - Druid: Gains 5 additional Celestial Avatar Skills. In exchange, Pet Swap Cooldown should be increased by 5 seconds from 20s to 25s. Revert the 20% Pet Attribute Reduction. Without the stunbreak on Druidic Clarity, and the nerf to Celestial Shadow (I still think the Stealth should just be removed, and maybe 2s of Alacrity could be given in its place), Celestial Avatar's cooldown should be reduced from 20s back to 10s.! - Gains 5 additional Celestial Avatar Skills in exchange for increased Pet Swap Cooldown. Even though Celestial Avatar can't be accessed until Astral Force is full, similar to the Resource Generation Classes, there's no way to reduce the effectiveness of the extra skills similar to Burst Skills, Shatters, or Shroud unless healing numbers just get gutted. But, that defeats the purpose of the spec.! - Soulbeast: Gains 3 additional Beastmode Skills in exchange for losing the 4 Pet Skills to access them. Re-enable Pet Swapping while in combat.! - Already has a tradeoff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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