Weakness

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

We all know how expertise affects the costs of our Ranger's skills. And we know that, due to rounding, expertise is most efficiently set on breakpoints.

Now, the condition [wiki]Weakness[/wiki] is being changed to substract 1 from all attributes. Meaning that skills will suddenly cost more, a whole lot more, upto 50% for 5E skills.

I suggest 'raising some hell' about this with ANet. There are some forums here on GW-Gurus and you can find a link to GW's support here. Speak up!

ss1986v2

ss1986v2

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

Mo/

i actually like that changes to weakness. now you can be penalized for simply meeting your breakpoints and not investing heavier. punish warriors with 9 in strength with a strength shield. take that extra second of burning away from SF nukers and burning arrow rangers. make that e surge only do -7 energy rather than -8. deny that assassin some energy my lowering his CS. and yes, even make that ranger use one more point of energy to use some of his skills.

if you dont like it, bring some more condition removal (mending touch ftw!) or boost your attribute one above there breakpoints. yes that means you sacrifice somewhere else, but thats the point.

and dont worry, if they do keep this change to weakness, they will probably adjust skills like enfeebling blood, making it harder to to apply weakness to a large number of ppl.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

How much heavier do we need to invest, spend 14 or 15 in expertise just to meet energy demands with weakness? No other class has such a heavy penalty. Imagine your 5E healing skills costing 7 or 8, or their effect reduced by 50% when under weakness. Would you not consider that to be a major effect?

I do worry, if the developpers cannot see now that weakness has this huge effect and that the cheap skills that cause weakness on a mass-scale may require toning down, they really are shortsighted and very poor at what they are supposed to do, maintaining a balance between the classes.

It is obvious that the ANet developpers are as poor at judging skills and maintaining balance as they were when they were with Blizzard.

ss1986v2

ss1986v2

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amy Awien
How much heavier do we need to invest, spend 14 or 15 in expertise just to meet energy demands with weakness? No other class has such a heavy penalty. Imagine your 5E healing skills costing 7 or 8, or their effect reduced by 50% when under weakness. Would you not consider that to be a major effect?

I do worry, if the developpers cannot see now that weakness has this huge effect and that the cheap skills that cause weakness on a mass-scale may require toning down, they really are shortsighted and very poor at what they are supposed to do, maintaining a balance between the classes.

It is obvious that the ANet developpers are as poor at judging skills and maintaining balance as they were when they were with Blizzard. i do agree that the skills that cause weakness on a wide spread level must me changed. if not, then weakness will be too overpowered. that is a must.

as for 14 or 15 in expertise, who says you have to invest to get 5 energy skills down to 2 energy? why not just put it at 10, for example. that will cover you on both 5 and 10 energy skills, even with weakness on you. you get 5 energy skills down to 3 and 10 energy skills down to 6. plus you have freed up several attribute points which you can now invest elsewhere.

no, you dont get to run whatever you want, but thats kinda the point. force the opponent (as well as yourself) to rethink how to set up builds. dont forget that your team can also apply weakness, crippling them just as much as they cripple you. or you could just run a support e/mo with extinguish. or martyr or cautery sig or whatever other mass condition removals you may like. as long as skills like enfeebling blood are tweaked, weakness wont be an insurmountable issue and you can still run your 13 expertise. maybe a couple of your skills get fired off at +1 energy, but once the weakness is gone, you are right back where you should be.

but yes, things need to be tweaked so you cant maintain a perma-weakness on the other team, and if they are, i dont have a problem with weakness.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

You are turning things upside down, you cannot free attribute points by having to invest more to counter the effect of weakness. You now have to invest 10 rather then 9, or 14 rather then 13. If I reduce expertise from 13 to 10, I may have freed some attribute points but I have also increased the energy costs of the majority of my skills by 50%.

Expertise is used to lower the cost of rangerskills, this is neccesary because, unlike other energy using professions, rangers only have 3 'pips' of regeneration. Rangers need expertise to be able to use skills.

This change has a far greater negative effect on rangers then on any other profession, and rangers weren't the most powerfull profession to start with and this isn't helping.

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

i agree with Amy...

besides... this change in weakness makes almost impossible solo runs in the UW...

Raven Nebula

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jan 2007

Serenity Gaming Community

R/E

I almost feel like my only chance to have the same energy in certain situations now will be to use barrage with a zealous bow to gain some of that energy back =\

Mesmer in Need

Mesmer in Need

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

[ToA]

I dont really mind this... so far. this just means my hammer war will become all powerful

Thomas.knbk

Thomas.knbk

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by anshin
i agree with Amy...

besides... this change in weakness makes almost impossible solo runs in the UW... Man, I wish I bookmarked that thread where Ensign explains why farming is bad and boring.
Anyway, owned I guess

Vexed

Vexed

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2006

Mo/

Honestly, I think it's a fantastic change.

Weakness only affecting your melee damage output has always seemed a little silly to me, as being "weak" could by definition affect any aspect of a person / character.

So now, having weakness actually becomes just that - a weakness. Condition removal still works just fine, by the way. But this punishes everybody who invests the bare minimum in a weakness-prone environment. Warriors with min req. for shield lose 16 armor, rangers end up spending 1 more energy per skill (panic!), monks / eles / necros / etc lose time off their hexes / enchants / conditions.

It's actually a viable condition now that requires attention. Fun! Seriously, weakness is only going to cost you ONE more energy for your favorite skills. Remove the weakness and you're fine again. It's inconvenient, but it isn't gonna break you.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

It's +50% energy cost in many situations, Vexed, did you miss that? Because of the breakpoints the effect on Expertise and Critical Strikes is far more then just the reduced effectivness of skills.

jesh

jesh

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

San Diego, CA

Penguin Village

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amy Awien
Imagine your 5E healing skills costing 7 or 8, or their effect reduced by 50% when under weakness. Imagine your monk removing a condition. This thread blows.

Isileth

Isileth

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2006

R/W

You seem to be forgetting, not only will you be able to put weakness on the enemy...you will also be able to remove it from yourself. I think its a good change, now means it effects those chars who arent about pure dmg.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by jesh
This thread blows.
Only since you decided to post in it. If you don't care for it, stay away, no one is interested in what you have to say anyway.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Isileth
I think its a good change, now means it effects those chars who arent about pure dmg. It has nothing to do with doing damage, it affects Rangers and Assasins more then other professions because their primary attribute has 'breakpoints' where even a small

This would not be a problem when energy calculations were not rounded, or were scaled up, like health is.

Senrath

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

Halfway between here and there

Advanced Technology [CCCP]

Personally, I like the change. It makes weakness actually do something now. But I have to post what one of my friends said about this:

"Oh no! My muscles feel weak and now I can't cast spells right!"

Vexed

Vexed

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2006

Mo/

The only time it's going to increase your energy cost by 50% is when your 5e skill, which you're casting for 2e, suddenly costs 3e because you lost your breakpoint. For the duration of weakness.

That's one energy, but it sure is more dramatic to say 50% more

Conditions are just as easy to remove as they were before. It's not that big a deal.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

Expertise is needed to reduce the energy-costs of skills enough to make them useable, with the lower energy-regen and pool of rangers and the relatively high cost of ranger skills.

Weakness means loosing 1 energy everytime you use a skill.

Other professions don't suffer as much consequences from Weakness, being able to remove it does not change that. Following the reasoning that one can remove conditions easily, there would be no reason to make Daze so expensive and difficult to inflict.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Senrath
But I have to post what one of my friends said about this:
"Oh no! My muscles feel weak and now I can't cast spells right!" Similar for weakness and expertise, it doesn't make sense.

GourangaPizza

GourangaPizza

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2006

R/W

Having a -1 to all your attributes is too severe for it to be part of a condition's effects. It also makes little sense that it should be related to weakness. This is going to add a huge problem to the rangers' and assassins' limited energy pool.

What it should have been is instead is a % of that skill being of a -1 attribute.

KamikazeChicken

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by anshin
besides... this change in weakness makes almost impossible solo runs in the UW... "It's a good thing."

Crazyvietguy

Crazyvietguy

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

[Njk]

Rt/

OK wow, this thread is boring. Everyones just saying the same thing, boo hoo weakness is good now, boooooo.

OK well, heres the thing. Anet wanted to create a "balance" of conditions. Blinding hinders warriors and Dazed.. basicaly shuts down a caster. Weakness used to ONLY be used against melee characters, because it only affected them. 66% damage reduction. NOW it effect everyone.

Because of this change, warriors MUST now take 1 req over their used item, but.. shouldnt you be putting more than 9 req in your sword? maybe even tactics/strength too?

Plus.. its a condition, which is the easiest thing to remove (hell of a lot easier than hexes). Perhaps characters should just "call" (i know.. PvP term) when they have weakness on them.

Weakness has basically turned into the new Blind/Dazed.. which were the most "needed" removal conditions.

Vexed

Vexed

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2006

Mo/

Amy,

I don't know why you think this affects Rangers more than anybody else. Assassins will lose their Critical Strikes breakpoint, Warriors and Paragons lose the extra defense from shields, even dervs are losing energy return on Mysticism kickback. Those are all just as serious as a Ranger's skills costing 1 more energy, probably more so in many situations. Don't forget casters' hexes, enchants, nukes and heals are all losing efficiency. It hits EVERYBODY.

Even still, at worst it's annoying rather than game-breaking. Weakness doesn't exactly last for ages, either.

I think it's fantastic that they've made this condition actually mean something. Before, I think the only time I ever paid attention to Weakness was using it for knockdowns with my hammer warrior.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Senrath
Personally, I like the change. It makes weakness actually do something now. But I have to post what one of my friends said about this:

"Oh no! My muscles feel weak and now I can't cast spells right!"
And i'll post what i said in another thread.

"Oh no, i'm dazed *little birdies fly around head*, i can't concentrate enough to use spells..... COME HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARD *charges with hammer*"

Yeah? Perhaps dazed should make attack speed 100% slower too. Would be quite fun, least them when my heros use BHA on warriors/rangers i get a useful effect from it.

Quote: Even still, at worst it's annoying rather than game-breaking. Weakness doesn't exactly last for ages, either. Have you ever seen a skill that inflicts weakness? They all (i think) make it last for 21 seconds at lvl16 stat. Not only that. They are all spammable, cheap, low recharge skills. Perhaps we should make Broadhead Arrow sacrifice health and inflict foes nearby foes with Dazed? Sound familiar? Enfeebling Blood?

Quote: I think it's fantastic that they've made this condition actually mean something. Before, I think the only time I ever paid attention to Weakness was using it for knockdowns with my hammer warrior. Now i'm starting to think you've never played a char that doesn't cast spells. Why do you think Wearying Strike was given a 10 second weakness? What can a dervish do damage wise when they're weakened? Nothing. Weakness may now be as powerful as Blind is as anti-martial but it lasts alot longer.

Quote:
Plus.. its a condition, which is the easiest thing to remove (hell of a lot easier than hexes). Perhaps characters should just "call" (i know.. PvP term) when they have weakness on them. Sorry, have you ever played a ranger? I'm pretty sure if i used Crippling Shot on you... you'd do what? Remove it instantly? Oops, its been covered with Poison... grats your still crippled. Oh, now your suffering Bleeding and Poison again. What a bummer. Oh your an RC monk? Shame you can't cast it on yourself or i just distracted it. Or perhaps you've gone /Mo and brought Mending Touch/Purge Conditions? Great, i crippled you again and instead distracted Mending Touch. But don't you worry, i'll make sure to bring 2 RC monks with me whereever i go to remove this condition.

You do realise that its just as easy to cover a condition you want on a target as it is to cover a hex don't you? If someone WANTS a condition on you, its VERY easy to ensure it stays there.

If this condition gets implemented i want more attribute points and/or lower breakpoints on skills. My entire Cripshot build would need a rework just because it works entirely on the breakpoints of skills/expertise to be as effective as possible.

Quote:
besides... this change in weakness makes almost impossible solo runs in the UW... Huh? What inflicts weakness in UW... or are you inflicting it yourself :S

I still maintain that this new weakness is more powerful than most elites in terms of shutting down/draining an enemy.

Am I A Good Sin

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2006

Tyria

Pyromaniacs Inc

A/E

Wow all u anti-weakness ppl make me laugh. Weakness is a great skill. U throw a fit about 1 energy? What about the 2 handed staff that adds 10 energy at 9 healing? Or the healing ankh? 12 energy at 9 healing. Same scenario. oh no I have weakness on me. Oops there went 10/12 energy. What about all the skills that have a minimum requirement ( such as gale ) 50% failure with 4 airmagic or less. Ill put 5 in air so it works. Oh no I'm weakened. *Gale* eh? It didn't work. I'm screwed >.<
Also this game isn't meant for soloing anyways. U have to work as a team now since u need to add attribute points in case of weakness. OMG! What will I ever do? I HAVE to work with another player!?! Go play FFX12 or something if u wana solo something. Besides have a ranger with high expertise and marksmanship and a bit of wilderness survival. Another ranger with high expetise beast mastery and wilderness survival. Now u have 2 ppl. That's twice as many skills packing more of a punch than a single player with a bit of everything. So to recap
1) weakness forces us to work together
2) evens the field out against an ele and monks on the other team have lesser healing
3) more condition removals
4) less hex time on u
5) less degen from things such as enduring toxin
6) less dmg from warriors or a chunk of health and armour from them as well
Every class gets hit by this. Maybe rangers have it bad but what if u don't have weakness and ur monk does? Who is more important. A monk gets hit with weakness the whole team suffers from less healing. A ranger gets hit. Oh well add extra energy to a skill. Ur the only 1 affected on the team. I think ur just mad cause now ur build sucks cause of that extra energy cost. Am I right? My build isn't affected much. My ranger is but ill DEAL WITH IT. Change my build a bit and geuss what good as new.
Also don't forget u can inflict weakness as ez as the foe can.
Final line
Weakness = good thing

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

What are you talking about working together for? What does that have to do with it? We've been working together, either with players in PvP or henchies in PvE and that has nothing to do with effect of Weakness.

Did you know that with Critical Strikes at 8 Assassins recieve 2 energy on every critical hit and at 13 they receive 3 points of energy. At 12 they also get 2 energy and that is where Weakness comes into play, by lowering CS from 13 to 12. Wake up.

And raising an attribute from 4 to 5 is hardly comparable to raising it from 13 to 14, or from 14 to 15.

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

hehe... the UW thing is dumb heh?


the point is... Weakness now sucks... or as Evilsod said... it is overpowered...

but hey... i guess rangers do have it cool... cast time 1 sec of antidote signet ftw

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Am I A Good Sin
Wow all u anti-weakness ppl make me laugh. Weakness is a great skill. U throw a fit about 1 energy? What about the 2 handed staff that adds 10 energy at 9 healing? Or the healing ankh? 12 energy at 9 healing. Same scenario. oh no I have weakness on me. Oops there went 10/12 energy.
Are you a complete idiot? How many skills could you have activated in 21 seconds? Maybe ~5. 1 energy per skill more = ~5 less energy. Staffs don't add energy based on a stat. Focus items do. And as most focus items used are related to the stat your focusing on, chances are its way more than the req of the item. But what if its not? Losing 12 energy for a while seems fair because of a condition? Why not give us a mesmer elite to reduce the foes max energy by X for X seconds... oh wait! Its GAMEBREAKING!

Quote:
What about all the skills that have a minimum requirement ( such as gale ) 50% failure with 4 airmagic or less. Ill put 5 in air so it works. Oh no I'm weakened. *Gale* eh? It didn't work. I'm screwed >.<
= Gamebreaking. I have 5 points in Air Magic. This condition is f*cking everything up so i now have to take off 1 more attribute point elsewhere, leaving me that many spare i can now boost Air Magic to.... 8? I dont need 8, i need 5.

Quote:
Also this game isn't meant for soloing anyways. U have to work as a team now since u need to add attribute points in case of weakness. OMG! What will I ever do? I HAVE to work with another player!?! Zomg, are you completely ignorant or just plain stupid? Cover conditions? Shutdowns? Or do i have to take an RC Prot with me where ever i go now to shut you up?

Quote:
Besides have a ranger with high expertise and marksmanship and a bit of wilderness survival. Another ranger with high expetise beast mastery and wilderness survival. Now u have 2 ppl. That's twice as many skills packing more of a punch than a single player with a bit of everything. Are you just throwing random things in here? I'm presuming you just read the title of the thread 'Weakness' and thought you'd come in here to bitch at people. A ranger with high Exp and Marks? Great. Now a ranger with high Exp, BM and WS. What will i do with that? Neither of these rangers can remove weakness without a secondary and can both be shutdown within 5 seconds using Enfeeble. That entire quote paragraph makes no sense and has no connection with anything.

Quote:
So to recap
1) weakness forces us to work together
2) evens the field out against an ele and monks on the other team have lesser healing
3) more condition removals
4) less hex time on u
5) less degen from things such as enduring toxin
6) less dmg from warriors or a chunk of health and armour from them as well 1. Weakness always did if you relied on your weapon to do damage.
2. Doesn't effect them as much. An ele loses 3 energy, no more no less.
3. In place of what? More heals/prots? More hex removals? We have 8 skill slots each, not 80.
4. Eh?
5. Again, eh? Who even uses that.
6. Thats from the 66% less damage right? News flash, its ALWAYS been there. The lack of a shield is just lame.

Quote:
Every class gets hit by this. Maybe rangers have it bad but what if u don't have weakness and ur monk does? Who is more important. A monk gets hit with weakness the whole team suffers from less healing. A ranger gets hit. Oh well add extra energy to a skill. Ur the only 1 affected on the team. I think ur just mad cause now ur build sucks cause of that extra energy cost. Am I right? My build isn't affected much. My ranger is but ill DEAL WITH IT. Change my build a bit and geuss what good as new.
Also don't forget u can inflict weakness as ez as the foe can.
Final line
Weakness = good thing Wow, you made it through the whole thing and wrote 'ez' at the end... now you just look like silly.
A monk would lose out on maybe 7 points of healing, 3 if they're a prot. Which over time is alot. Coincidently theres no reason why weakness would do that.

We've been making new builds thanks to Anets pointless nerfs for a while. Now we have to make builds to work around the ridiculous change to Weakness screwing over breakpoints too?

This weakness is the dumbest thing Anet have ever thought of.

HalPlantagenet

HalPlantagenet

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

too far from Conwy

The Chained Swan

R/

As the OP rightly points out, the effect is catastrophic. For all the professions there are useful builds in which carrying the minimal attribute points necessary to support a weapon or off-hand has been valid. Now that is no longer so. The strategic consequence is a restriction in the variety of options available to apply in a given situation. In game development parlance it is "anti-emergent," the opposite of what makes any game interesting and compelling. I'm empathetic to the desire to make weakness a more serious issue; it's hard to imagine this is the best approach.

roselan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

in a montain, switzerland

R/W

for me, it's only one more parameter to handle. So I like it, even if it complicates my life.

weakness has just become one of the most mighty condition in the game imo, with blind and daze. Just with more uncertain output... it's a fcking meta-change ^^

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

yes... me again...

you know... weakness now doesn't help in PvE... because the bad guys don't use breakpoints like we do... but it being something that reduced damage....

have you ever tried to solo the mesmer or necro bosses? they can kill you physically in 5/6 shots of wands because they do over 50 dmg each glowing bubble...

i might be talking trash anyway....

Pick Me

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2006

Thornill, ON, Canada

THE CANUCK MONKS (TCM)

W/R

Honestly, I think Daze and weakness should be re-worked. I agree with EvilSod that daze should slow down attacks. I mean in reality, you would be able to hit someone when you suffer a concussion as you would without one. I mean the effectiveness just wouldn't be there.

Weakness should affect all non-magical attacks. Normal attacks and attack skills. Touch Skills like Vampiric Touch or signets or pure magic spells/skills should not be effected.

Antidote signet does not remove Weakness.

The Dervish will suffer greatly, unless they can remove their own weakness (there is a skill that causes weakness when used).

Besides, weakness can do more damage when you use other skills too. Some Hammer skills can cause more damge on a weakened foe, Stoning kds them, etc.

Weakness onto itself isn't bad, it really doesn't do much at all. With this new twist, it can be really abused.

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

my bad... was thinking weakness instead of disease...

LONGA

LONGA

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2006

Thailand

Agot

N/

Easy solution.get a rune with -20% weakness duration.

Sir Mad

Sir Mad

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Moe's Pub

Pigs Can Fly [Pigs]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by LONGA
Easy solution.get a rune with -20% weakness duration. That won't change anything: cf [skill=text]Enfeeble[/skill] for example - check the recharge time

EDIT - And concerning the new effect, I think I could leave with with it, but the spammability of the condition is nevertheless insane and should be changed. Weakness is now as powerfull as blindness or dazze IMO, yet none of those 2 conditions can be spammed as much. People complain about flash bots, but how often can they blind? And for how long? Now compare to skills causing weakness... You need 11 air magic to keep the blindness on 2 targets with blinding flash - with as many attribute points in curse, you can weaken more than 3 targets, for 1/3 of the energy cost. Check also how many skills can cause perma blind, and how many cause perma weakness. A bit unbalanced methink.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Exactly. The only thing more overpowering than the fact weakness completely screws with breakpoints is that all skills causing it last forever ages. Dazed can last 21 seconds... and the only 2 skills that can make it last that long are Concussion Shot and Broadhead Arrow. 1 of which if you get hit by in PvP, you deserve it and the other comes at a huge price and still has to interrupt you.
Blind lasts a max of 16 seconds, and thats Throw Dirt (again a ranger skill) with a recharge of twice that. Blinding Surge/Flash are spammable, but come at quite a high price for a ~10 seconds duration. Things like Ebon Dust Aura can be used to make a permanent blind... but Shatter Enchantment can fix that instantly. So can blinding the 1 using it.
And weakness. Enfeeble, 21 seconds, 5 energy, low recharge. Enfeebling Blood, 21 seconds, AoE, small sacrifice in health. Still low recharge. Enervating Charge, reasonable recharge but still spammable, damage, lasts 21 seconds.
All the hammer weakness inflicting skills. Dev Hammer, Staggering, Forceful, all 21 seconds and even the axe skill, Axe Twist at 20 seconds fixed.
Sure they're all adren skills. But Dev is 7 adren, Staggering is 6, Forceful is 5 and Twist is 7.

lennymon

lennymon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Seattle

Odin's Hammer [OH] - Servant's of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

Its a great change, weakness prior to this temporary change was the ugly duckling of conditions, was it scary like deep wound or blindness? no. Is having skills cost more worse than not being able to hit because you are blind? no. The fact that weakness never used to do JACK to a caster? Whoopdeedoo! This turns weakness from a 'farmer' only tool into a viable condition in my opinion.

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

I ran into a necro in an AB over the weekend (didn't get near as much time to PvP as I hoped, so this may have been more widespread) that was running a build centered on Enfeeble + Parasitic Bond + Discord. It was horribly overpowered imo.

lennymon

lennymon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Seattle

Odin's Hammer [OH] - Servant's of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

I don't think it's any more overpowered than any other *3 skill combo*. Seeing as how this IS a ranger forum I'll stick with my personal favorites: distracting shot, concussion shot, read the wind, and plague touch (I know its a great secondary class skill tho). In AB for example when I run cripshot, I also run mending touch and either holy veil or smite hex. It just doesn't make sense to NOT cover your own muscled ranger buttocks in a random arena scene. In a more team build oriented setting, believe in the monk, Heck, go trapper and hold resilient was xiko... (think Melandru's Resilience, but in a held item and it removes conditions when you drop it). The metagame skills *will* change, yes? just adapt, which is after all the ranger strongpoint.

Amy Awien

Amy Awien

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

R/

Rangers are already becoming rare, teams don't want them, and they don't need them because they believe other professions have more to bring into the fight. In the longer run, this new Weakness would just be another reason to not take rangers in the team. There is no adapting to that.

jesh

jesh

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

San Diego, CA

Penguin Village

Mo/

The way you adapt is to tell your monk to bring condition removal.
lennymon was right. Now that weakness has some validity to it, people throw a fit about it. It can still be removed just as easily as before. If you're in AB/RA where everyone sucks, then take your own condition removal.
Condition removal is cheap and recharges fast. Why? Because conditions are everywhere.

-=Weakness isn't any harder to remove than it was before!=-

Yes, maybe the weakness causing skills should be toned down a bit compared to the skills that cause other conditions. However, the changes to weakness are a far cry from "game breaking".

HalPlantagenet

HalPlantagenet

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

too far from Conwy

The Chained Swan

R/

With all respect to the previous poster's comments, my sense is that any team worth its salt can choose to keep a condition on you all the time, particularly weakness, given it's low cost etc. Current condition removal doesn't solve the problem, as previous posts in this thread have alluded.

A new skill (under Protection or Wilderness Survival) precluding conditions or specifically weakness might be one way of restoring balance. Nevertheless, I stand by my original position that the effect is so global that dramatically disrupts balance in the game.

One further thought: allocation of attributes is one of the specific controls given to players, compromising it, is, at the minimum, questionable if only on the grounds of the implicit increased complexity for new players. At the least it might have been better to test the strategy with more structurally local consequences.