Some ideas for Firebrand traits

[Lucentfir.7430]

Considering the top row for Firebrand is very undesirable for most builds along with other traits here's my take of what I think would be better changes

"Quick Criticism - Quickness you apply has increased effectiveness (50%) and has 33% duration increase. While under the effects of Quickness your strikes apply 0.75s of slow" -Replaces Stoic Demeanor"

"Liberator's Vow - Gain quickness when you use a healing ability(12s ICD). Grant nearby allies quickness when you gain quickness (5 target limit 360 radius). -A better synergetic version of Liberator's vow.

"Terms of the Resolute - Mantras gain reduced recharge, Mantra charges are replace by a lesser version of their final charge.

"Unrelenting Criticism - Bleeding your axe abilities apply has increased duration (50% base) Symbol of Vengeance dazes on the initial hit, when you disable a foe apply 2 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds. - Reworked

Now do these traits offer too much for their respective slots? I'm curious.

[npmis.7860]

@Lucentfir.7430 said:Considering the top row for Firebrand is very undesirable for most builds along with other traits here's my take of what I think would be better changes"Quick Criticism - Quickness you apply has increased effectiveness (50%) and has 33% duration increase. While under the effects of Quickness your strikes apply 0.75s of slow" -Replaces Stoic Demeanor"

This sounds a bit to strong for me. Let's +10% boon-duration or 20% increased quickness-duration, and the slow part can remain. (Maybe replace slow with vulnerability.)

"Liberator's Vow - Gain quickness when you use a healing ability(12s ICD). Grant nearby allies quickness when you gain quickness (5 target limit 360 radius). -A better synergetic version of Liberator's vow.

Too strong for a adept trait. And I think the trait is fine, the other option(s) are simply too strong. Maybe increase the base quickness from it.

"Terms of the Resolute - Mantras gain reduced recharge, Mantra charges are replace by a lesser version of their final charge.

Will this replace Weighty Terms? The second part seems kinda pointless, because they already are a weaker version of the final charge. Inspired by the old mantra trait of the mesmer: CD reduction and every time a charge is used the FB get's increased damage and condition damage(not stacking).

"Unrelenting Criticism - Bleeding your axe abilities apply has increased duration (50% base) Symbol of Vengeance dazes on the initial hit, when you disable a foe apply 2 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds. - Reworked

My personal idea: Reduce CD on axe skills by X%. Condition duration is increased while wielding an axe. Having a trait that relies on CC, when the associated weapon offers only one CC is a bit weird imo.

Now do these traits offer too much for their respective slots? I'm curious.

[Lucentfir.7430]

@npmis.7860 said:

@Lucentfir.7430 said:Considering the top row for Firebrand is very undesirable for most builds along with other traits here's my take of what I think would be better changes"Quick Criticism - Quickness you apply has increased effectiveness (50%) and has 33% duration increase. While under the effects of Quickness your strikes apply 0.75s of slow" -Replaces Stoic Demeanor"

This sounds a bit to strong for me. Let's +10% boon-duration or 20% increased quickness-duration, and the slow part can remain. (Maybe replace slow with vulnerability.)

"Liberator's Vow - Gain quickness when you use a healing ability(12s ICD). Grant nearby allies quickness when you gain quickness (5 target limit 360 radius). -A better synergetic version of Liberator's vow.

Too strong for a adept trait. And I think the trait is fine, the other option(s) are simply too strong. Maybe increase the base quickness from it.

"Terms of the Resolute - Mantras gain reduced recharge, Mantra charges are replace by a lesser version of their final charge.

Will this replace Weighty Terms? The second part seems kinda pointless, because they already are a weaker version of the final charge. Inspired by the old mantra trait of the mesmer:

CD reduction and every time a charge is used the FB get's increased damage and condition damage(not stacking).

"Unrelenting Criticism - Bleeding your axe abilities apply has increased duration (50% base) Symbol of Vengeance dazes on the initial hit, when you disable a foe apply 2 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds. - Reworked

My personal idea:

Reduce CD on axe skills by X%. Condition duration is increased while wielding an axe.

Having a trait that relies on CC, when the associated weapon offers only one CC is a bit weird imo.

Now do these traits offer too much for their respective slots? I'm curious.

Firebrand has a real big emphasis on quickness, having improved quickness through a GM trait "Quick Criticism" might make it stand out for a support role instead of having Chrono just occupying the space because it provides both quickness and alacrity. In translation a 50% increase to current quickness will be 75% faster action, we could always bump it down to a 25% increase effectiveness and that'll be 12.5% faster than base quickness. Vuln seems like a very meh option to replace with slow considering people speccing in Zeal will and can cap vulnerability easy and most of the time thae target will get capped on vuln if you're playing with other people. Keeping it giving slow gives FB consistent break bar damage.

Liberator's Vow is more or less the same for the heal portion, all it does now is just makes it so when you hop into tomes and proc Swift Scholar you share that quickness you gain to your allies so you can keep your party quickened more consistently . I don't see how that's too strong when it's competing for 8 pages or the Axe trait. The trait is already at a 12 ICD for 2s of Quickness.

Terms of the Resolute maybe i should have worded better, basically you gain recharge on mantras, and the effects that are normally reserved for the final charge mantras at a lesser impact(Flame Mantra's 3 burn=2 Truth Mantra Immob for 2s= 0,5s immob on lesser charges etc) I would have made traited mantras effect a larger AoE around you, but I think that's more for a QoL base change on mantras that should happen rather than having to trait for it.

Unrelenting Criticism, Axe has 2 cc's when it's traited, and they're on low CD. Symbol is a daze when traited, Axe 3 is a pull, you can run shield for a offhand with axe and you'll have a bubble knockback with skill 5, Tome of Justice has a AoE pull, and F3 has taunt. I only included axe skills for the duration increase just because i removed the portion where axe skills have a 33% chance to bleed, and replaced that with base duration increase and CC bleeds.

[Azoqu.8917]

As much as I enjoy the idea of fixing terrible traits, Quick Criticism is beyond broken. As a game, Guild Wars 2 needs LESS profession specific buffs and needs the profession specific buffs all consolidated into non-stacking versions. Quickfire should also been changed completely with the removal of Ashes from it, and the tome/axe buffed for damage so that the damage stays the same, and have Alacrity added to it with no cooldown when you give out quickness. The reason being is that Ashes is way to much DPS to even think of not taking it and is so annoying to use since you end up watching your buff bar more than you actually pay attention to the fight (goes completely against Anet wanting people to play the game and not the UI). The reason for Alacrity is then you actually have competition for the quickness/alacrity buff bot roll and both classes offer something different. The main differences would be distort vs Aegis (and even then Mesmers have aegis well), both have an AoE pull (Guardian at ~200 radius compared to 600 radius but on a lower CD), Mesmers make better tanks and having boon share while Guardians would either have better damage or heals, both can bring CC but the Mesmers would be far superior. Tossing Alacrity on Quickfire would not make Chrono lose it's job but would give competition to that spot in the stupid trinity set-up that exists right now.