What changes do you think professions need outsife of the upcoming EOD specs?

[The Boz.2038]

Speaking specifically of core and current specs, what do you think should change with upcoming and post-EOD-release updates for them?

[Kodama.6453]

Oh boy, this is a long list for my main (engineer).

 

Weapons

 

Rifle

In my personal opinion, at least every power based weapon of the engineer (if not condi weapons as well) should have an explosion tag in the kit. Other classes get consistent stuff like this, like every guardian weapon having a symbol for example.

The change to hammer, giving it the explosion tag on electro whirl, was great, since it allowed scrappers to trigger explosives traits without having to rely on specific kits. I want the same for rifle, so they should either add the explosion tag to blunderbuss or jump shot.

 

Pistol

Mainhand pistol still is not a great weapon. One change I never understood they didn't implement is that it deals bleeding in an AoE. It deals AoE damage, but just the power portion of the skill, which is miniscule? It made sense that they avoided it when engi had a trait that made all pistol skills pierce, since this would lead to insane AoE bleed on multiple targets, but that trait is long gone. Poison dart volley should also get the shot frequency increased, so it doesn't take so long to unload and make the shots not spread at all please, they are too easy to avoid....

 

Hammer, sword and shield are fine.

 

Utility Skills

 

Turrets

The skill category needs a complete rework. They were nerfed so much into the ground, it is laughable. Not to mention that Anet treated this minion category unfairly compared to other minions. In the past, turrets used to be immune to conditions, since they were constructs, but because of this they also didn't receive boons. I know that they had to make them vulnerable to conditions to make them fair, but why didn't they make them receive boons at the same time then?

 

They have many problems in my opinion. Their damage is terrible, since it is disconnected from the engi's stats (so rifle turret, for example, deals 250 dps....). Too many are utilising CC (rocket turret, thumper turret and net turret have hard CC on their overcharges). There is just 1 condition based turret, the rest are all power based.

 

I would rework the skills to be more active. Don't let them attack passively anymore, but instead, let the turret skill flip over to an active skills which builds up charges. Unlike other ammo skills, they don't just consume one charge per use, but all charges when you activate it and the effect of the skill directly scales with the number of charges you built up. Tool kit and traits may help to build up charges here.

 

Net turret should get completely replaced with a new turret that uses conditions and maybe also boons. Something like an alchemical/elixir turret which spreads gas with the active skills. Toolbelt skill could be an aether combo field which deals conditions or even transfers conditions from the engi to enemies.

 

Supply create gets replaced with a new turret as well. My idea has been an assembly turret, which creates small mechanical attackers based on the number of charges used.

 

Gadgets

Many skills are fine here, but some outliers I want to mention:

 

Utility goggles need help, both in the skill itself and the toolbelt. Since the change to resistance, utility goggles are worse than they ever were. Maybe give it an unique buff or the ammo system. The toolbelt skill should get something small, like granting fury to allies or applying vulnerability to enemies. A skill which does absolutely nothing against enemies without stealth is terribly designed.

 

I would also like to see slick shoes improved slightly. For example, it could get the slow condition added. It already slows in the underwater version and I think the condition fits well for the skill.

The toolbelt, in my opinion, should get changed completely. Engi has so many sources of superspeed that it just isn't interesting anymore and actually got powercreeped alot. Missing ideas here, but maybe something defensive, since the skill was supposed to be defensive in nature at first? For example, they could make it regenerate the engineer, with him healing more while he is moving or something. Just spitting an idea, tho, I would like suggestions here.

 

Elixirs

REWORK ELIXIR X!

Elixir had the theme and shtick of being "random" in the past, almost all had random effects attached to them and fairly often they were just "stolen" skills or effects from other classes.

Anet moved away from this, since having a skill being a coinflip is kinda bad in a competitive game. Elixirs are way more consistent now, with the exception of elixir x, which still randomly choses one of two different transformations from other classes.

 

Rework this skill to always grant engi an own unique transformation. My suggestion would be to turn the engineer into a big ooze, which focuses on CC and conditions/boons.

 

Kits

I would like many kits to get reworked.

They did a wonderful job with med kit and mortar kit back then, because they had a clear design intent. They didn't have one when designing the first kits. (Side Note: please fix mortar kits auto attack to finally apply projectile finishers in an AoE, like it was advertised)

 

The other kits are all a mixture of power and condition (and control/support as well for quite some).

There is no clear direction for them, hence why many dps builds for engi also have to run multiple kits to cherry pick the power or condi skills from them, while leaving the skills of the other type out. To show what I mean:

• Bomb kit: fire bomb and concussion bomb are condi (fire bomb is one of our best condi skills), while auto and toolbelt skill are power based
• Elixir gun: auto and fumigate are condition skills, while acid bomb is one of our best power skills
• Flamethrower: auto is heavily power based, while napalm, flame burst and toolbelt are condition skills

 

You get the idea. I would like them to rework some kits to fall into a clear niche. Like making bomb kit a pure power kit, for example and grenade kit a condition kit.

 

Also: mortar kit and grenade kit are a bit too similar. Make them more distinct, please. One change for example could be to move the burning from bomb kit to grenades, while making fire bomb a fire field skill which ticks power damage. Ele has multiple fire based skills which deal power damage, so there should be no problem with this.

 

Traits

 

Alchemy

Backpack regenerator should get changed in my opinion, but I don't know yet what to replace it with. At the very least, it's interaction with medical dispersion field needs to get fixed, so it shares the healing with allies.

 

Firearms

In general, the trait line seems fine. One change I would welcome, tho, would be to return a trait for rifle specifically. Maybe something like "lead bullets", a trait which applies an unique debuff to the enemy which deals ticking power damage to them if you hit them with a rifle skill critically. Could replace sanguine array.

 

Inventions

Replace automatic medical response (too long cooldown) and autodefense bomb dispenser (engi has too many "on CC" triggers). One new trait I mentioned could be one that helps turrets build up charges from the system I explained above or maybe increase the maximum charges they can build up. Still thinking about what to replace the other with.

 

Also change the name of soothing detonations. It is not related to detonations anymore, since it now triggers on toolbelt skill usage. My suggestion for the name would be "surgical tools".

Edited June 21, 2021 by Kodama.6453

[The Boz.2038]

19 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

...all a mixture of power and condition...

...There is no clear direction for them...

This describes a lot of the Engineer in general. Tiny bit more polarization (and turning the Rifle into an out-and-out close-range-dangerous shotgun) would help a lot.

Turrets? I like the idea of no autoattack; deploy them, they begin stacking ammo, use skills to fire turrets at current target (or PBAOE, with the Thumper). 

For kits, I'd really *love* if they redesigned Engie around one, selectable, mandatory kit, either as Util#3 or Tool#5.

Edited June 21, 2021 by The Boz.2038

[Kodama.6453]

2 hours ago, The Boz.2038 said:

This describes a lot of the Engineer in general. Tiny bit more polarization (and turning the Rifle into an out-and-out close-range-dangerous shotgun) would help a lot.

Turrets? I like the idea of no autoattack; deploy them, they begin stacking ammo, use skills to fire turrets at current target (or PBAOE, with the Thumper). 

For kits, I'd really *love* if they redesigned Engie around one, selectable, mandatory kit, either as Util#3 or Tool#5.

Not sure what to think about the idea of having 1 selectable mandatory kit. No other class gets so restricted like this when it comes to utility skills. Keep in mind that kits are literally 1/4 of our utility skills. Having them mutually exclusive would limit build diversity quite alot.

 

Also: what is going to happen with med kit and mortar kit, which don't hold an utility slot in the first place, but healing skill and elite skill slots respectively?

Are they moved to the utility 3 slot? Are they getting deleted? I can't think of any beneficial scenario here.

If med kit and mortar kit are removed, what to replace them with? And which skill category will the new healing skill be? You can replace mortar kit with a new elite gadget, I guess, but for healing skills, we have just kits as a core utility skill type left anyway...

 

This change would have so many problems and so much potential to screw over engi entirely that I prefer to keep the system as is with us being able to use as many kits as we are willing to invest utility slots into.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Warrior:

 

Everything in this thread: Warrior Balance Requests Omnibus - Warrior - Guild Wars 2 Forums

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I would like to see some changes with the inevitable traitlines of each profession, the ones you need for almost every build. They will balance/nerf them sooner or later, as those trait-lines are going to overpower the new Elite Specializations quickly. But if they fix them as they normally do, the core professions will suffer heavily and the Elite Specializations become 'slightly' weaker. The problem is predictable, but it looks like they will accept those 'mandatory' traitlines and not alter them until EoD.

 

On the other hand, we have a couple of more or less broken/useless weapons, which will not suddenly turn useful in EoD - except we find a massive exploit.

 

Engineer has one special feature: Holosmith was shipped unfinished. Every other Elite Specialization (even the HoT ones) got their original weapons implemented on the new Elite Specializations. The only thing that works with the heat-mechanic of the Holosmith is the Sword. They never bothered to add heat-improvements to our other weapons. Maybe we have too many? We have a pistol MH and a pistol OH, a Rifle and a Shield. In comparison Elementalist and Berzerker got unique skills for their Elite Specializations for their old weapons. Elementalist has four attunements for every weapon. Even Mirage received Ambush skills for its old weapons, Thief did, ranger received fusions for all of its old pets, not just the PoF ones ... etc. - you get the idea.

 

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Kodama.6453]

33 minutes ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

I would like to see some changes with the inevitable traitlines of each profession, the ones you need for almost every build. They will balance/nerf them sooner or later, as those trait-lines are going to overpower the new Elite Specializations quickly. But if they fix them as they normally do, the core professions will suffer heavily and the Elite Specializations become 'slightly' weaker. The problem is predictable, but it looks like they will accept those 'mandatory' traitlines and not alter them until EoD.

 

On the other hand, we have a couple of more or less broken/useless weapons, which will not suddenly turn useful in EoD - except we find a massive exploit.

 

Engineer has one special feature: Holosmith was shipped unfinished. Every other Elite Specialization (even the HoT ones) got their original weapons implemented on the new Elite Specializations. The only thing that works with the heat-mechanic of the Holosmith is the Sword. They never bothered to add heat-improvements to our other weapons. Maybe we have too many? We have a pistol MH and a pistol OH, a Rifle and a Shield. In comparison Elementalist and Berzerker got unique skills for their Elite Specializations for their old weapons. Elementalist has four attunements for every weapon. Even Mirage received Ambush skills for its old weapons, Thief did, ranger received fusions for all of its old pets, not just the PoF ones ... etc. - you get the idea.

 

 

Anet has a history of leaving engineer unfinished for years to come. Scrapper was the same, it was an absolute disaster on release. Our elite spec mechanic, the function gyro, was just tacked on last second since they reworked scrapper from the ground very short of release and they had to come up with just something.

[Jski.6180]

All core classes need there own effect that you cant get when in the eleit spec. a slight debuff or buff to one effect or another is not enofe. As well as chaning how you do things is NOT enofe different if the thing your doing is the same.

[Puck.3697]

6 hours ago, The Boz.2038 said:

Speaking specifically of core and current specs, what do you think should change with upcoming and post-EOD-release updates for them?

 

What dont they to do

 

Elementalist

Weaver needs Redesigning

Tempest need Redesigning

Core needs Redesigning.

 

both elites Fulfill Roles Which arent needed at all in content., Pure DPS And Highest healing ability is just irrelevent to the game in current state. Core is made redundent because neither elite speccs lose anything.. Elites Need to have slightly altered attunements realistically either that or give core a 5th attunement.

 

Guardian

 

Firebrand Needs redesigning

 

Firebrand has too much, its litterally a god among men because of how much it has access to, it needs to be cut down in how much its capable of actually doing. its overbloated and too gamebreaking.. it also prevents anything in the future being beneath its bar otherwise will be irrelevant.. it needs a Redesign and bringing down in how much power creep this speccs responsible for

 

Engineer

 

Core Needs Redesigning.. its just soo bad.

Its Weapon kits need updating again it has terrible Conditional Options.. for it to have a 1handed elite specc.. it needs redesigns to some of the weapons to make it feasible

 

Mesmer

Chrono needs a Redesign

Mirage needs a Redeisgn.

Core needs a Redesign

 

Its Core is too attached to Shatters and clones for any other playstyle to exist, Give core Mesmer hexs and give a Elite specc the clones/shatters. this allows for the class to have much more variety in playstyles as its soo stagnant.

 

Chrono needs reworking, since it got "Balanced" its gutted beyond belief, its no longeranywhere near what was intended.. Mirage is too game breaky for it to not be treated the same way, instead of constantly nerfing it.. redesign it to something more stable.

 

Warrior

 

Rebuild its trait lines, prolly redesign some of its weapons in the process also. Its held up well in PvE with banners.. but its builds are static as hell due to not being playable without specific traits taken which makes build diversity feel awful

 

Revenant

 

Rework Core Revenant, its Awful compared to its elite speccs... rework hammer so it actually sees some play also

 

Necromancer

Redesign Scourge, Reaper and core are pretty fine, however Scourge is again too broken to exist.. it Artifically raises the bar of everything that will come in the furture and it needs bringing down.. but with current design u'd have to nerf it into Just being Bad to make it work out.. so just redesign it to work differently and maybe make its barrier self only.

 

Thief

 

Redesign Daredevil and Deadeye. Deadeye feels irrelevant in 99% of content outside memes. and Daredevils soo impactful it just overshadows all its other options.

 

Ranger

 

actually feels alright, the most i'd want is prolly a Longbow Rework. but thats because i find it personally very bland overall.

 

Overall:

 

Alot of CC Such as Engis Big ol'bomb need major reworks.. .since they removed the damage tied to them they litterally arent usuable anymore or worth anything due to the fact they're Seriously underpowered now.

 

Boons

 

Stop permanant boons being a thing.. they're no longer boons.. but apart of the class balancing itself, its pointless they Just mean classes are Pushed 5 steps back to make sure they work.

Remove Alacrity and Quickness Increase the base rotations of proffessions to even this out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Infusion.7149]

Class by class:

Guardian - firebrand needs mantra of solace nerfed in PVE and fixed to be more usable in WVW/PVP : a good "balance" would be to make it into a team-wide shelter (i.e. medium heal for the firebrand+ one aegis on 25-30 cooldown). Currently that's the main offender when you look at CQB and CFB now that Ashes of the Just has an internal cooldown. I would say that having Mantra of Solace provide quickness isn't healthy either as Mantra of Potence could have been given more emphasis and a longer duration.

Firebrand will remain a staple in WVW so long as the stability output is maintained. Some commanders I know already run "Receive the Light" in WVW while on Firebrand. DH and core guardian see strong play in PVP while firebrand is mostly a worse core guardian, arguably the only broken thing is the trapper rune.

Warrior - needs 300s cooldowns reworked into new things , Defense traitline isn't taken in PVE anyway. Greatsword probably shouldn't root while channeling Hundred Blades. Hammer could probably have some damage added back onto it in competitive modes because normally you don't see it in PVE anyway. Some resistance skills could have resolution added as Quality of Life in competitive modes.

Berserker needs a way to drop Berserk mode primarily for competitive modes , maybe at a cost of temporarily locking rage skills/losing all adrenaline or some other non fatal drawback. In PVP/WVW spellbreaker is the defacto choice and boon rip + CC remain as strong as they always have been.

Revenant - Boon application interval on herald facets increased in WvW so that "boon spam" is reduced. PvE might application on herald increased to support offmeta healers such as tempest and scrapper would be beneficial.

Ventari could probably use a stunbreak and Soulcleave probably could have 0.5s cooldown to make heal renegade more viable since heal herald is of dubious quality given the weak heal on elevated compassion. Supposedly soulcleave summit was incorrectly changed to 2.5x heal in the past May 25 hotfix patch instead of 1.5x , but even if that is true it's conditional ~1K/sec healing. If renegade is supposedly to be offensive support then elevated compassion should scale better on herald and healing marginalized on soulcleave summit by dropping it further.

Overall the whole salvation line doesn't seem as viable as it could be given the state of soulcleave summit. PvE damage reduction on condi renegade and condi RR could help reduce stacking, preferably via hitting torment output slightly again or otherwise just reverting Destructive Impulses to not affect condition damage output.

Engineer - In my opinion giving scrapper quickness wasn't a great idea , but at the very least it should be cut in duration for WVW. Similarly the superspeed from gyros could be halved in competitive modes to 1.5s as you have gyros spitting out 3 or 4 strong effects simultaneously. In PVE holo is in a decent spot if all you're after is DPS and some CC. Not to mention mine kit removes boons if you are in dire need of boon rip or added CC every so often.

Holo is supposedly broken in PVP but it comes down to needing a shave on the heat therapy probably to reduce its sustain. It's also been suggested drop photon forge be increased to 9s in PVP instead of 6s to effectively reduce its weapon swapping ability but I'm not sure about the other implications. I'm not in agreement with any turret buffs that are game-wide and not primarily QoL (such as picking them up similar to spirits or banners), in core days one of my guild leaders actually reached the top of PVP leaderboard with turret spam and that's partly how they became nerfed.

Ranger - I'd like to see One Wolf Pack reverted in cooldown and the Furious Strength damage bonus dropped a bit. Right now it rewards autoattack spammers in PVE. For WvW purposes druid needs a way to perma-stow pet for stealth pushing and overall in competitive modes astral force generation needs to be reevaluated after Feb 2020 damage and healing nerfs. For PVP I would say ranger isn't in the worst spot if you run soulbeast.

Thief - Instead of scrapper providing quickness to groups in PVE, thief probably could have been the chosen class. Bountiful Theft would have been a prime target for quickness to the group equaling the amount generated by Detonate Plasma (4s), for example when the enemy has no boons. Otherwise deadeye could apply quickness if quickness is desired as it already is able to apply might + fury (maybe put it onto Be Quick or Be Killed as normally as a DPS you run M7). Due to the condition damage rework this may not be necessary but this is something that is fundamentally lacking on thief, a "support build" usable everywhere.

I've seen some condi daredevils pull great numbers in PVE and staff power daredevil while not top DPS is fairly consistent. Right now "support thief" is in the situation where boon thief is usable in a few encounters and is not even that strong outside Matthias. For WvW staff daredevil is serviceable and in PVP people complain it is overpowered (d/p thief) even after shortbow changes so I don't know what to say about that.

Necromancer - Scourge shouldn't be doing so much damage in PVE given the support it provides. Instead of 37K it should be closer to 33K ; in real scenarios when damage uptime isn't 100% scourge is often the top DPS while bringing superior support even when not running blood magic. In some instances I was doing more DPS than full DPS classes while running blood magic, which doesn't have Dhuumfire or 10% damage bonus from Soul Barbs. In WVW, the primary drawback to scourges (not reapers) has always been the Purity of Purpose trait on scrappers but that was scaled back. Scourges don't have reaper shroud so the power damage pressure output in WVW isn't excessive. Scourges have been problematic in PVP apparently so I would say sustain traits such as Blood Bank need careful rebalancing there.

Mesmer - I think danger time should have been removed as it still encourages chrono stacking. With danger time removed I would say Chronophantasma could probably be reverted to 100% damage (chrono does 38-39K with DT and 36K with IA) to make a clearer delineation from StM and pChrono. Mirages on staff should be reevaluated outside encounters that confusion is strong : it is both weak and strong depending on the scenario when it should be at least mediocre when confusion doesn't proc. I think the best way to achieve a better balance is to put torment/burning/bleeding on the warlock which reduces the passiveness.

Elementalist - needs serious help on sword weaver , particularly the power variant which was nerfed for no good reason to promote condi. More damage is necessary especially against small hitboxes to make it attractive to play since you would be able to run marauder and roughly keep up with other power classes (should really push 40-41K in full power DPS gear not 36K). In WvW , staff weaver is not weak but fails terribly against superspeed squads unless a chokepoint is utilized. In PVP fire weaver is heavily countered by kiting and boon corrupt. Pyromancer's Puissance probably shouldn't remove 10 stacks of might also unless you overload fire, at best 2-3 stacks unless it's changed to be +10 power and -10 condition damage per might.

Tempest could use some looking at in PVE with respect to lightning orb + overload air RNG on small hitboxes. As the support it provides in PVE / WVW is effective in the right hands it doesn't deserve more damage, just more consistency on the damage if the hitbox isn't favorable. Conjure weapons probably could be adjusted to be ammo skills at this point : if you want to share one you could just drop it. Glyph of Storms and Invoke Lightning similarly could use a look at the RNG factor as far as PVE goes. Glyph of Elemental power probably shouldn't consume on autoattacks.

Overall:
I would say any skill that does multiple powerful effects at once (even when traited) should be reevaluated. That goes for mantra of solace, purge / stealth gyros, etc.

300s cooldowns need to be reworked, we're long overdue for that.

Edited June 21, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[The Boz.2038]

9 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Also: what is going to happen with med kit and mortar kit, which don't hold an utility slot in the first place, but healing skill and elite skill slots respectively?

This is a part of a not-small rework of some Engineer features.

Mortar and grenade would be merged (grenade name and functionality, focused on ranged power damage and non-damage conditions). Elite gadget could easily be made to fulfill the Engie's new existing niche as the OctoBlast (think Plaguelands, but for boons; eight pulses, with each one pulsing more boons in addition to the previous ones). That would be yet another Goonies reference, which would complete the Gadget set. (you remember Data, right?).  Med Kit and Elixir Gun get merged, likewise. There would be no Elite or Heal kit.

Important: This would make Holosmith's forge a Kit. This would also make Holosmith unable to access *any* kit other than the forge. 

If the at-least-and-at-most-one kit takes over the Utility slot, Engie gets its weapon swap back. Elsewise, it gets tossed into Tool#5, eliminating toolbelt elites. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by The Boz.2038

[Kodama.6453]

5 hours ago, The Boz.2038 said:

This is a part of a not-small rework of some Engineer features.

Mortar and grenade would be merged (grenade name and functionality, focused on ranged power damage and non-damage conditions). Elite gadget could easily be made to fulfill the Engie's new existing niche as the OctoBlast (think Plaguelands, but for boons; eight pulses, with each one pulsing more boons in addition to the previous ones). That would be yet another Goonies reference, which would complete the Gadget set. (you remember Data, right?).  Med Kit and Elixir Gun get merged, likewise. There would be no Elite or Heal kit.

Important: This would make Holosmith's forge a Kit. This would also make Holosmith unable to access *any* kit other than the forge. 

If the at-least-and-at-most-one kit takes over the Utility slot, Engie gets its weapon swap back. Elsewise, it gets tossed into Tool#5, eliminating toolbelt elites. 

So engineers end up with 1 less healing skill than all the other classes, since med kit is eliminated? This is the first thing that sounds terrible already.

 

Weapon swap is completely useless for core engineer, since we are lacking the weapons to begin with. If you want to give engineer weapon swap, they would have to at least release 3 new core weapons for engineer alongside it.

 

If I am playing core power engineer... What do I want to have weapon swap for? Core engi just has rifle as a power weapon and nothing else. Am I supposed to just swap to another rifle? Having weapon swap if you have no other weapons worth swapping for makes no sense.

 

Next up you would outright kill build diversity for holosmith here. You are eliminating 5 possible utility skill choices and their associated toolbelt skills from the elite spec, it would be the very first case of an elite spec getting a utility skill type locked out. You would have to buff photon forge to the moon to justify this.

 

Every single meta holo build uses at least 1 additional kit, some use more (power rifle uses 2 with bomb and grenades, condi holo even uses 3 with bomb grenades and flamethrower). Removing these would make holosmith the weakest elite spec in the game, pretty sure of this.

 

Putting kits on F5 is also not so easy to implement. For holosmith and core engi, sure, why not. Problem is that you would delete scrapper's elite spec mechanic, the function gyro, with this way of implementation. So scrapper's are just not having any elite spec mechanic at all?

 

I could go on and on with this... this change just doesn't work on so many levels.

[The Boz.2038]

2 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

So engineers end up with 1 less healing skill than all the other classes, since med kit is eliminated? This is the first thing that sounds terrible already.

Stop and think about it like this, though: as a support engineer, you get to have a med kit *and* your personal heal.

  

2 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Removing these would make holosmith the weakest elite spec in the game, pretty sure of this.

You keep acting as if the short snippet of the change is the only thing that would happen. I did mention this is a not-so-tiny rework.

Edited June 22, 2021 by The Boz.2038

[Dadnir.5038]

Three things:

- High ICD traits need to be removed/reworked. (That should be on top of the priority list)

- Transformation skills on elite slots need to be removed/reworked.

- Weapon and utility traits need to all have at least a general effect instead of being restrained to a single weapon/utility category.

 

Ideas a bit more extrem:

- AA that inflict condition(s) should need a crit to apply this condition.

- Barrier need a rework, the amount of barrier gained shouldn't be additive but caped at the highest amount of barrier gained. Gaining new, lower amount of barrier should just refresh the duration of the current amount of barrier you have.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Dadnir.5038

[Kodama.6453]

24 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Three things:

- High ICD traits need to be removed/reworked. (That should be on top of the priority list)

- Transformation skills on elite slots need to be removed/reworked.

- Weapon and utility traits need to all have at least a general effect instead of being restrained to a single weapon/utility category.

 

Ideas a bit more extrem:

- AA that inflict condition(s) should need a crit to apply this condition.

- Barrier need a rework, the amount of barrier gained shouldn't be additive but caped at the highest amount of barrier gained. Gaining new, lower amount of barrier should just refresh the duration of the current amount of barrier you have.

Can you explain why you think that auto attacks which inflict conditions should require a crit for them?

Seems like just randomly wanting to screw over condition weapons.

 

Take, for example, pistol AA from engineer. All it does is a tiny amount of power damage in AoE and 1 stack of bleeding to the primary target. Why should this require a crit? The AA already sucks as is, why make it worse?

[Dadnir.5038]

1 minute ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Can you explain why you think that auto attacks which inflict conditions should require a crit for them?

Seems like just randomly wanting to screw over condition weapons.

 

Take, for example, pistol AA from engineer. All it does is a tiny amount of power damage in AoE and 1 stack of bleeding to the primary target. Why should this require a crit? The AA already sucks as is, why make it worse?

 

To reduce the ease of condition application and promote further need for building in order to get such effect. In practice it would do a lot in shuting down the sPvP subforum complains against condition damage, making the main argument of the naysayer null and void.

(This is not a personal offense against the engineer)

[Kodama.6453]

4 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

 

To reduce the ease of condition application and promote further need for building in order to get such effect. In practice it would do a lot in shuting down the sPvP subforum complains against condition damage, making the main argument of the naysayer null and void.

(This is not a personal offense against the engineer)

Then this doesn't require a global change, tho. They could target the weapons which are actually seen as problematic when it comes to condition spam from their AA with this instead of making it a change for every auto attack.

[Dadnir.5038]

15 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Then this doesn't require a global change, tho. They could target the weapons which are actually seen as problematic when it comes to condition spam from their AA with this instead of making it a change for every auto attack.

 

A change to every AA would be "fair".

Afterall, what's the issue? You just need to increase your crit chance to get the same amount of condition output than right now. It promote the use of precision, fury and crit chance traits in condition builds. It reduce the potency of condition builds with higher survivability (which is probably not an issue). If anything it is in line with many "condition/crit chance" traitlines.

[Kodama.6453]

1 hour ago, The Boz.2038 said:

Stop and think about it like this, though: as a support engineer, you get to have a med kit *and* your personal heal.

  

You keep acting as if the short snippet of the change is the only thing that would happen. I did mention this is a not-so-tiny rework.

As a support engineer, you can take med kit and a healing skill, yeah. But properly think this through, please.

 

If we are able to use a healing skill and med kit together, then bandage self (med kit's toolbelt skill which serves as a healing skill by itself) will get nerfed. Heavily. Probably to non-existent levels. Since they surely won't allow engineers to run around with 2 healing skills in their build.

 

Support engineers also lose elixir gun and mortar. Elixir shell from mortar kit provides quite some healing on itself. Same goes for super elixir.

While yes, you mentioned that elixir gun and med kit get fused, I highly doubt that they would just stack these 2 kits on top of each other, since creating a kit that holds the total power of 2 kits is just way too much. We will lose stuff from elixir kit for sure, which makes it still a total net loss for support engineer.

 

You also keep ignoring multiple points I made against this change. Like the extreme limit you are putting on build diversity for engineer with this. You are literally making 1/4th of core engineer utility skills mutually exclusive, don't you see how limiting that is?

Alot of fine tuning simply won't be possible anymore.

[Kodama.6453]

5 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

 

A change to every AA would be "fair".

Afterall, what's the issue? You just need to increase your crit chance to get the same amount of condition output than right now. It promote the use of precision, fury and crit chance traits in condition builds. It reduce the potency of condition builds with higher survivability (which is probably not an issue). If anything it is in line with many "condition/crit chance" traitlines.

The issue is that you are suggesting here to make one of the worst auto attacks in the entire game even worse. That is the same type of thinking which made many skills absolutely worthless in PvP, since they removed all damage from CC skills without valuating on skill by skill basis if this is justified.

 

If this change happens, then some skills should get compensation for it. Like increasing the stacks of bleeding on pistol AA if you crit from 1 stack to 2 stacks, for example.

[Lazze.9870]

In general, replace the 300 seconds cooldown traits. Possibly add heal and elite skills to utility groups that don't have them?

 

Make druid competetively viable as a support elite spec in pvp and wvw. I'd really like a bit of an overhaul of druid, but I don't see that happening, so I'd take any QoL changes. Dropping the 20s avatar cooldown in pvp down to 15s (adjust the two you-know-what traits if needed), reworking CA1 to a cone skille instead of the awkward thing we always had, make Glyph of the Star feel better to use, completely replace Glyph of Unity. Change staff 2, increase the size of staff 5, reevaluate healing coefficients and healing power scaling - some are too low. At least make glyphs work underwater?

 

For ranger in general I'd like to see some improvements in Nature Magic. Create some better synergy with druid, other than spirits. Make Evasive Purity an aoe cleanse, replace Invigorating Bond with anything useful. In Marksmanship I'd like to see all GM traits provide a way to refresh opening strike so that we don't have three dead minor traits when running 2/3 GMs, but still keep Remorseless as the burst option. Signets leaves a bit to be desired, but I don't think they will ever feel like a good set of skills unless we get a heal, an elite and then proper overhaul of them all + the traits.

 

Soulbeast is.. fine? The traits that were boring in 2017 are still boring now, but what can you do. Anet might change them if the office darts align correctly. Or maybe not. Eternal Bond in exchange for anything else, yes please. But I guess that garbage trait falls under the 300s category now anyways. Dagger still feels like a weapon that core ranger always should've access to. Not that I'm looking for dagger buffs, just expressing my disappointment with dagger, both as an elite spec weapon and the fact that it really should have been a core ranger weapon from the start.

 

I could nitpick on several skills and individual traits, but I will leave it at that. I don't think I care enough give my opinion on other classes I play.

Edited June 24, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[ThrakathNar.4537]

Firebrand needs some pretty big changes, but these don't need to destroy the spec. At least in the gamemodes where it hasn't been nerfed to oblivion already.

 

The big issue with firebrand is tomes. Their design makes the spec too powerful, and there are multiple things that contribute to their bad design:

Firstly, they just do too many random things. There are several random boons (swiftness and resolution) put on skills that really don't need them.

They're so gimmicky to use. You active your tome of courage, use several extremely high impact skills, but then have to wait over a minute to use them again. This makes them very powerful when you use them, but relatively weak at providing consistent boons like protection and vigor for longer, more drawn out PvE fights (compared to other supports).

Most of the value comes from the effects the tomes provide and not the durations/coefficients, which makes DPS firebrand effectively fill the role of a support whereas other classes have to be very selfish to do DPS.

 

But in terms of how to fix it:

Firstly, the recharges need to come right down. Something closer to 25, 35, 40 for them (this seems crazy now, but bear with me).

Secondly, loremaster needs to be changed or removed. There are almost no firebrand builds that don't run this trait, and it eliminates the passive/active tradeoff virtues were meant to have.

Thirdly, pages need to be reworked into a profession resource of sorts. Currently, you're given the max number of pages when you use a tome, using up one with every tome skill until you run out or you stow the tome. Instead, pages should be a resource you accumulate passively to use. Pages could recharge at a rate of 1 per 5 seconds in combat, and 1 per 2 seconds out of combat, and are shared between all tomes. This means that if you use up all 5 pages in tome 3, you're going to need to wait a few seconds to use tome 2, and you're not going to be able to get nearly as much value out of it as you normally would. This is the big change, as it forces you to be less spammy and more tactical with which buttons you use, but also allows you to use your skills more frequently. Here, a DPS firebrand would actively need to be sacrificing part of their DPS rotation in order to use some utility from their 2nd and 3rd tomes, and healers would need to ration their resources more carefully.

Optionally, traits could be added or changed to interact with how pages now work. There's already a trait that increases your maximum from 5 to 8, but there could be other traits that reduce their recharge or give you some back when you do something like use a heal skill or elite skill (would need to be balanced carefully, of course).

[Xelvas.5784]

I really want to be able to use traits to reduce the cooldown timers of skills 2-0. This game is great, and the elite professions are great, but I'm having a really hard time enjoying myself with the long cooldown timers. I just hope they really change that. 

[Mediahead.3542]

I only want 2 things;

 

1. To have all utility skill types have their own healing and/or elite skills across all professions

 

2. For all utility skills to be useful underwater

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I think that elite transformations should have all their stat buffs, condition reduction,and pulsing boons removed. The boons can be traited though. After that make them stowable kits without CDs. Lich Form AA would need a small damage nerf though for that.