Why does Balthazar's Avatar cost 15e?

milias

milias

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Nov 2005

Defected back to America

Me/E

Just wondering, why does Balthazar's Avatar cost 15e as opposed to the 10e for all the other avatars? Is Balthazar's Avatar intrinsically better than all the other ones? If so, is ANet saying that Balthazar is the most powerful god out of the 5 (or 6)?

Arkantos

Arkantos

The Greatest

Join Date: Feb 2006

W/

Melandru is 25.

Bowstring Badass

Bowstring Badass

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Character selection screen figuring what I want to play...

Purple Lingerie - :D

(SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Thats Anet for you.

And I think it's 6 if you count Abbadon before the other 5 left him.

milias

milias

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Nov 2005

Defected back to America

Me/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkantos
Melandru is 25. Hmm, what makes Melandru's Avatar so good that it costs 25e? I guess it's good in condition heavy areas, but not really in others. And in PvP, you don't really know what the other team's going to run beforehand.

Ulivious The Reaper

Ulivious The Reaper

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Shadowed Assassins

W/Mo

look at it this way, NO other skill in the game gives you more than a minute of +33% running and +40 armor now i think 15 energy is pretty cheap :P

as for melandru, i don't like it conditions are a push over and losing 200 health quite possibly in mid battle for a dervish is a huge loss

Khaunshar

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2006

Legacy of Corvus

Rt/Me

Lyssa is 5e.

In other words, the OP didnt even bother looking anything up.

It costs 15e cause it does. Except perhaps Melandru, all Avatar forms are dirt cheap for their abilities.

Paperfly

Paperfly

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2006

The Forms all cost what they cost because of their relative popularity during the original PvP preview weekend (when they all hovered around the 10E mark). At that point, a team of eight Balthazar D/Mos with unnerfed Contemplation of Purity could roll pretty much any but the top 10 GvG teams in minutes.

...While the cost to Avatar of Melandru is very high, remember that it's an effect that can't be duplicated by any other skill in the game. It also lets the Dervish ignore a lot of melee shutdown (e.g. Blinding Flash) and snares (e.g. Crippling Shot). It prevents 100% of the damage from Searing Flames (and I hear that's popular these days), lets you run through lava, and makes you harder to spike both because of the extra HP and because you can't be Deep Wound-ed.

Saider maul

Saider maul

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2005

Baltimore, Maryland

avatars are over rated. As is scythe. I'll stick to my D enchants.

milias

milias

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Nov 2005

Defected back to America

Me/E

Follow-up question, is there any way to keep up any of the avatars all the time?

Khaunshar

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2006

Legacy of Corvus

Rt/Me

nope, you cannot keep one up more than the 70ish seconds they last.

milias

milias

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Nov 2005

Defected back to America

Me/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Khaunshar
nope, you cannot keep one up more than the 70ish seconds they last. What if you had another skill-disabling skill, like Blackout, would the disable duration of that reset the disable duration of the avatar?

Guardian of the Light

Guardian of the Light

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

Radicals Against Tyrants

W/

If you got morale boost every minuite or so you could keep it up all the time

Giga Strike

Giga Strike

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

stranded in vabbi this time

None [N/A]

no, the disable time is part of the skill. they tried pretty hard o keep avatars nerfed. the only way i could think of is to use arcane mimicry to get echo from an ally and use that to copy the avatar.

milias

milias

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Nov 2005

Defected back to America

Me/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Giga Strike
no, the disable time is part of the skill. they tried pretty hard o keep avatars nerfed. the only way i could think of is to use arcane mimicry to get echo from an ally and use that to copy the avatar. Yea, even that would only add about 20 seconds to the duration, which is still short of the 120 second disable. I wish there was a Dervish form that just gave you +40 AL but could be kept up constantly, because Dervishes fight in the front lines, and it's hard to keep them alive without proper armor.

Draak

Draak

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

Clan Union [Uni]

W/

The reason Melandrus is great is because of the attack skill "Wearying Strike". Because we all know that the attack gives you weakness, but since you in melandrus, you don't get it.

Now imagine the skill, +33 dmg and a deep wound. Basically, it's a spammable Eviscerate that can do AoE strike aswell. This skill is so getting nerfed >.<

Shuuda

Shuuda

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Guildless

Me/

Wearying Strike + plague touch, is better than Melandru + Wearying Strike.

Draak

Draak

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

Clan Union [Uni]

W/

Basically, in high level GvG, a warrior secondary for the dervish is a must. So Plague touch gets expelled.

RA, PvE, etc ... is another story though.

Skuld

Skuld

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2005

Thousend Tigers Apund Ur Head [Ttgr]

A/

Perma avatar D/Me: Arcane Mimicry assassin's promise, kill target in 5 secs or less; or Simple Thievery plus luck

twicky_kid

twicky_kid

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quite Vulgar [FUN]

Quote:
Originally Posted by milias
Hmm, what makes Melandru's Avatar so good that it costs 25e? I guess it's good in condition heavy areas, but not really in others. And in PvP, you don't really know what the other team's going to run beforehand. In PvP mels is an unstoppable tank.

800 life means cannot be spiked.

Immue to conditions = walk through lava at normal speed, blind or crippled so you cannot shut his melee down, no deep wound from spikes.

Dervish also have the best self hex removal skill on the game. Did I mention it also heals you 80 at the same time? Combine that with mystic regen and there is no way to stop mels.

If a mel's dervish ganks your base you have to send at least 3 people just to deal with him. He's also completely immune to Searing Flames. It will more than likely get nerfed again. If it doesn't I know what the next season meta will be.

Balthazar is a 33% run boost for 1 minute with +40 armor. It would cost you 30e and 2 skills to get that kind of speed boost through other skills. +40 armor means he can be in the frontline with no worries of being spike easily.

Morale boost = all skills recharged.

If you can control the stand you will only be down for 1 minute out of 4

Fallen Hunter

Fallen Hunter

I Saw That

Join Date: Mar 2006

The bushes

D/R

It is possible to keep your avatar up permanently in Abaddon's Gate because killing each group of two graven monoliths gives you a morale boost, and you kill alot of graven monoliths! Thats the only situation i know of...

milias

milias

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Nov 2005

Defected back to America

Me/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by twicky_kid
In PvP mels is an unstoppable tank.

800 life means cannot be spiked.

Immue to conditions = walk through lava at normal speed, blind or crippled so you cannot shut his melee down, no deep wound from spikes.

Dervish also have the best self hex removal skill on the game. Did I mention it also heals you 80 at the same time? Combine that with mystic regen and there is no way to stop mels.

If a mel's dervish ganks your base you have to send at least 3 people just to deal with him. He's also completely immune to Searing Flames. It will more than likely get nerfed again. If it doesn't I know what the next season meta will be.

Balthazar is a 33% run boost for 1 minute with +40 armor. It would cost you 30e and 2 skills to get that kind of speed boost through other skills. +40 armor means he can be in the frontline with no worries of being spike easily.

Morale boost = all skills recharged.

If you can control the stand you will only be down for 1 minute out of 4 Okay, that makes more sense, thanks!

Darkpower Alchemist

Darkpower Alchemist

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2006

NYC

The Circle Of Nine[NINE]

E/N

The powers of each Avatar is the embodied presence of a God. The powers that each wields is reasonable in the sense that this reasoning is being used.

If you are a War God, wouldn't you be the embodiment of the ultimate form of a warrior? Melandru is THE earthly presence, so how can the elements damage the spirit that created them? The earth heals all,so what can ever effect the earth in the since of a malady, like being crippled, or blinded? This is the closest bit of logic to explain their power.Anymore and it would become too philosophical for a thread based on a game.

My point is, when you logically compare the powers of the Avatars to other skill sets used to mimic these abilities the thinking behind each avatars creation and purpose can be explained. The energy cost to use these skills can reflect their overall purpose and power in comparison to their game wide usefulness. But, to balance the use of the ability by non Dervish Primaries means a limit to how much the skill will cost to use.

I first caped Melandru with my ranger. What a glorious 15 seconds! No poisoning, no crippling, nothing could effect me(But it did help to have Punishing Shot,too, at the time). But once I played with it abit, I went back to the norm and capped the others. No Mysticism, but 15 seconds of Godhood.

The reason for the 25 mana max(for Melandru) would be that a warrior could use it still with Radiant/Gladiator's armor, even if it isn't practical. It gives them a choice, no matter how foolish we may think it would be. ANet has a habit of giving us things we can't use just the same as things we can use. It's all about choices. My entry is a touch off topic, but I think it has validity.

l Batman l

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2006

Melandru's also has nice synergy with imbue health.

dgb

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Sep 2005

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuuda
Wearying Strike + plague touch, is better than Melandru + Wearying Strike. No it's not. That starts making the combo cost 10e every ~2s. That's nowhere near sustainable.