The Buff, Nerf Game

You each get two buffs, two nerfs, a general buff and a general nerf. you must put something into each category.

It's harder than it's looks
For example:

Buff:

• Ward Against Harm
• Charge

Generally Buff:

• Ebon Vanguard skills

Nerf:

• Snaring Web
• Rodgart's Invocation

Generally Nerf:

• Binding Rituals

A little explanation: Ward Against harm was great until the armor nerf when combining it with other things was made impossible. Seeing as it's elite I think it could be changed to a general damage reduction and extra armor for fire, or immunity to conditions in it's radius. After all it's a ward against harm not just a ward against fire.

Charge, like many warrior elites from proph, is sub par. Speed boosts are easier and more frequently applied without using an elite slot. So perhaps this could have a "this skill ends when you attack, you hit for +10..15 damage on your first hit". To make it more like an actual battle charge.

The Ebon Vanguard skills are mostly anti charr, which I have no problem with, but it makes them less useful in general than they're counterparts. Make no mistake, the wards are great, but Assassin/sniper support and the sin based skills are of limited use unless fighting charr or playing as a sin. Perhaps some could have their Charr bonus removed in place of a weaker, more general added effect.

As much as I hate nerfs, I play ritualist and with my binding rituals i can add a huge amount of damage and survivability to my team. It's silly, there's no such thing as overpulling when you've got a rit on board, it's just a cake walk.

What are your choices?

Buff:
1.Crippling Anguish(15 energy cost 1 sec active 20 sec recharge, but to me it seems just not good enough to compare Mirgraine, PD,E surge etc)
2.Dervish skills in Wind Prayers(hardly ever seen ppl using it nor myself)
Generally Buff:
no idea tbh-_-
Nerf:
1:Fear Me
2:Mind Blast

Buff:
[skill]clamor of souls[/skill]
[skill]mirror of ice[/skill]

General Buff:
Non-spirit communing skills

Nerf:
[skill]searing flames[/skill]
Ursan Blessing
General nerf:
Lame assassin templates

Buff:
Energizing Wind
- The nerf made this skill almost useless for just about any build. The only use I've seen for it is to drop cheap set-up enchants (Attunements and such)

Quick Shot
- This is a really neat skill, and I've tried several times to make a build around it, but it's simply not that great. A damage bonus to it or something would make it much better, even if it were a small amount.

General Buff:
Fast Casting skills
- Another extremely cool idea, and I've seen (I even have) builds based on it, but there's almost no useful skills that actually use it as a primary attribute.

Nerf:
Volley
- Hooray for a non-elite skill that's good enough to replace the most common Ranger elite?

Wanderlust
- How the heck do you fight something that KDs you whenever you stop moving to attack it?

General Nerf:
Spirits
- Yeah, I already said Wanderlust, but it can get two mentions. Spirits are just to darn powerful - they allow Rits to combine healing, protection, damage, conditions, energy control, and just about everything else into one tidy little package. Anyone who's played PvP since Factions knows the horror of trying to fight a Rit hiding inside a mob of Spirits that inflict KD, Blindness, and way too much damage while healing the Rit's whole party and reducing the damage they all take.

Binding rituals are fine.

Buff:
Light of Deliverance

Generally Nerf:
Hexes

Binding rituals are fine. I heard DShot can't interrupt rituals, amirite? I heard spirits are invincible.
As for Wanderlust, lol.
Attack, strafe, attack, strafe, bye.

Buff:

* Thrill of Victory (health gain when you hit a foe with less health than you, just like Victorious Sweep)
* Defy Pain (-5...10 damage reduction instead of +20 Armor)

Generally Buff:

* Sunspear and Luxon/Kurzick skills (serious buff needed in order to compete with Ursan Blessing)


Nerf:

* Agonizing Chop / Critical Shop (spiking with these skills is still too easy, remove the activation time)
* Mystic Regeneration (um, yeah)

Generally Nerf:

* Norn Blessings (can only be used in Norn territory, just like Lightbringer skills)

Buff: Unused skills... too many to name, but to start, here are the less used and or POINTLESS elites.

Defy Pain (agree with guy above, add dmg reduction if your truly "DEFYING" it)
Extend Conditions (um lawls?)
Mirror of Ice (oh goody, I PHAIL)
Air of Disenchantment (pardon me while I um... do nothing)
Withdraw Hexes (hexes are gone, so is my elite FOREVAR!)
Aura of Faith (Outclassed, just needs a tweak with energy and recharge perhaps?)
Boon Signet (unwieldy and retarded to fulfill... BUFF)
Healing Light (Blight vs this...Blight wins by Nuclear Bomb...)
"Charge!" (Fall Back???)
Mist Form (only slightly tweak this one)
Glimmering Mark (ummm, lol)
Light of Deliverance (make it heal for more, same as heal party for example)
"The Power is Yours!" (seriously, at least make Cpt. Planet viable)
"Victory is Mine!" (lower recharge perhaps...)
Amity (just delete this poor skill)
Archer's Signet (lol? who uses this?)
Assault Enchantments (one word...Shattering)
Bull's Charge (it would be viable with lower recharge)
Crippling Anguish (this needs to do 10 degen or something better then it's current state and with ease of removing hexes these days)
Cultist's Fervor (tweak a little)
Vampiric Spirit (tweak more then Cultist's)
Discord (waaaay too conditional with its 2 sec cast time)
Double Dragon (lawl?)
Energy Drain (I know this elite is scary to buff, but give Inspiration mesmers a little love please...)
Ether Renewal (ummm, RIP ER...)
Equinox (this is an elite why?)
Expert's Dexterity (I wanted to like this elite, I really did, till I ran out of energy. The idea is to be able to spam attacks more, but with added cost negating expertise entirely, what do you expect people to do? Run a BiP in PvP? really....)
Famine (LOLOLOL, this is seriously an elite....riiiight)
Feast of Corruption (tweak, but don't bring back FoC spike pls)
Glyph of Energy (do what you did with other Glyphs, next X number of spells)
Greater Conflag (effect is cool in niche situations, but it needs more then that to be considered an elite status ritual)
Gust (would be great with 3/4 or 1/2 sec cast and 7 sec recharge)
Healer's Covenant (I have tried do make this skill good, it just isn't. Healer's Boon makes it look TERRIBLE. Make it like Healer's Boon, not maintained)
Healing Burst (LOL..... yes, elite Heal Area, oh gooody)
Lacerate (again, another "elite" ritual that wouldn't even see much play if it wasn't elite)
Mark of Protection (this one scares me, but tweak it intelligently)
Pain of Disenchantment (ummm, buff dmg or something...)
Peace and Harmony (lol?)
Quicksand (although the best of the "elite" ranger rituals, it still sucks)
Scavenger's Focus (ummm, failure)
Scribe's Insight (well... buff energy gain and it MIGHT be viable)
Shadow Meld (uhhh, no)
Shared Burden (this skill is totally retarded, make it like a better version of Sum of All Fears perhaps that is AoE?)
Signet of Ghostly Might (this skill was good...when it was glitched....delete it or totally rework it)
Signet of Removal (empathetic is better, lower recharge to 3 or remove enchantment clause)
Signet of Spirits (lower recharge, this skill blows...)
Signet of Suffering (up the dmg per hex to 60, lower max to 100 or so just like SoMR)
Soldier's Stance (uhhh, and elite IAS that sucks... ok, that makes sense)
Soul Bind (rework it, better melee counters then this elite..)
Spirit Channeling (umm, Reclaim Essence even makes this look bad)
Stolen Speed (we have fast cast already, make the hex effect more devastating, I doubt prot monks give a flying crap about 25% slower...)
Symbols of Inspiration (uhhh, I have no idea what to do with this one.....delete?)
Tease (fun idea, failed skill)
Unyielding Aura (this skill is just fun when you want to be an uber douchebag in PvE and low level PvP, otherwise, lolz...)
Visions of Regret (too specific to take as an elite, rework)
Wail of Doom (tweak it to make it more attractive)
Ward Against Harm (add damage reduction, immunity to burning, something...)
Wastrel's Collapse (rework to make this usable)
Weaken Knees (tweak, not too much though, it will be overpowered)
Word of Censure (it needs some kind of buff while preventing it from becoming some vile monk spike gimmick BS)
Ray of Judgement (um.... lol... Up the damage to summoned creatures to something like quadruple, bring back smiters a bit without allowing spike potential)


NERF:
The basic stuff that we all know is overpowered. I am sure you can fill this in.

I agree with "guy above" too.

Protective Bond ([skill]Protective Bond[/skill]) = epic fail (make it 10% like PS but with slightly lower energy loss)

Buff
Grenth's Grasp (the icon is so cool and i just wana use it as a derv!)
Every other poor skill that is blatantly ignored by anet.

In general
See above.

Nerf
Recall - balance this dam skill for once!
Return (these 2 are with HvH in mind)

In general
Shadowstepping

Buff : Ursan Blessing

Nerf: All Monster skills

These type of threads are only really good for a chuckle towards how absolutely clueless some people are as to skill potential and balance.

are you serious ?

ursan blessing isnt powerfull enough IMO

I think your sarcasm detector is broken

Dude ursan blessing is overpowered : /

No it isn't! Volfen Blessing is overpowered, along with Ward Against Harm.

"Dude ursan blessing is overpowered : /" i dont think it is, it could use a buff

to nerrrrrrrrrrrrrf:
Celestial skills: Then make them available outside of the Raisu Palace and the Imperial Sanctum missions.
Exhaustion: made almost every skill useless which doesn't cause knockdown: Energy Boon, Ether Prodigy, Chain Lightning, Ride the Lightning, Mind Burn, Mind Freeze (those skills are underpowered/not viable with exhaustion, however removing exhaustion from those spells would make them overpowered, this is why exhaustion is the real problem)

to buff:
Winds: worst skill in the game, absolutely useless in any situation
pve-only caster skills from EotN in general: are weak (Snow Storm)

other skills to buff:

That would actually be a nerf to Charge!

Buff
Healing Signet
Ward Against Harm

General:
Ebon Vanguard

Nerf:
Twisting Jaws (why did they invent a stupid lifestealing spike skill for monsters?)
Warmonger's Weapon

General Nerf:
Spirits

Buff
[card]Wastrel's Collapse[/card]
[card]Onslaught[/card]

Nerf
[card]Avatar of Melandru[/card]
All linked warriors IAS's

General buff
Dagger chain!

General nerf
Fire Elementalists

Also Charge is the Only reason I bring devona anywhere =P

Nerf Ursan and pve paragon skills.

See the action bar that fills up? It has the name "Wanderlust" in it. From about 0-74% full, go ahead and hit it. At 75%, click behind you a couple steps and wait for the green projectile to hit you while moving, thus not knocking you down. Repeat until dead (takes 2-3 cycles).

Spirits attack what, every 3 seconds? Just kill the wanderlust. I think you can blind them too. Or use a skill that makes you hard to hit. AoE damage? Interrupt the long casting time? lol

Buff: Double Dragon (Nearby rather than adjacent i think)
Buff: Too many useless skills to single one out, Rahja's list was pretty good.
General Buff: Earth Magic (Mainly focused on the useless elites)

Nerf: "Fear Me" (Perhaps make it target enemy, rather than everything in the area)
Nerf: Rampage as One (overdue?)
General Nerf: Deadly Arts (Mainly Augury of Death)

Oh, I mean with the +33% boost for 10 seconds too

Buff: Shitty skills

Nerf: PvE skills (I'm lookin' at you UB.)

Buff: Xinrae's Weapon
Buff: Lingering Curse

General Buff: Bow attacks

Nerf: Augury of Death
Nerf: Shadow Form

General Nerf: Self-casting heals and turtling skills

Details:

Xinrae's Weapon - Making this viable would help stop many flavors of caster spikes and slow down damage from many spell-spam builds. 10/1/10, increase disable time to 10 seconds.
Lingering Curse - This skill has been outclassed by a handful of recent disenchant buffs, and a buff here would benefit the class. Decrease cost to 15.

Bow attacks - Plenty bow attacks are inconsistent with each other in terms of power, cost, and utility, and a handful are essentially duplicates of each other. Diversify.

Augury of Death - This fuels all sorts of caster spikes. It's cheap, efficient, and is almost always a sure thing. To fix it, remove the shadow step, increase cost to 10, and have it trigger on the next critical strike under 50% health.


Shadow Form - This one is pretty obvious. Fuel for griefing builds. The solution is simple enough, to force use in a defensive manner. Remove the "lose all health" clause, but add "This enchantment ends when you are over 65..95% health. After this enchantment ends, you lose 300..150 health.". The alternative would be to make Rending Touch a skill instead of a spell.

Self-casting heals and turtling skills - These are skills that heal of benefit only the user, have no team value, and prolong matches needlessly. Mystic Regeneration is the biggest offender. I'd be happy with an increase to a 20 second recharge, and a cap of +10 regen gain from this skill. Shadow Form is another, but that's already been dealt with. Heal as One needs a reduction in healing from 25..145 to 25..120, with a 20-second skill disable if your pet is ressed.

The whole point of Charge! is to be able to use an ias with a speed boost, so it ending when you hit something would be pointless

Buff: Poison Arrow
Buff: Mindshock
GBuff: Elite Bow Attacks

Nerf: Augury of Death
Nerf: Rampage as One
GNerf: Dumb shit like deadly arts, RaO, and the like.

missed one there dex......[skill]Balthazar's Pendulum[/skill]

its the undisputed KING of bad elites

hi my name is [skill]Stone Sheath[/skill] but no one likes me because I'm a crappy elite

^stone strikers elite counterpart


Gbuff = Ele water magic, cast times are too long compared to other skills with same potential.
Gnerf = Sins, bangin your head on the keyboard for killz aint skillz. said this too many times lol

Buff UB<_<
Nerf [skill]Mind Blast[/skill]>_>
Gen Buff-Smite Monks
Gen Nerf- Paragons again<_<
j/k

Buff- EoE this skill was rendered useless after some pvp exploits if I remember correctly.

Nerf- The touch skills for touch rangers.

Gen Buff-Water Magic costs too much and is really to slow to be used in most situations effectivly

Gen nerf-SP enough said even though this is kinda specific it's so used now adays that it gets a general in my opinion.
Or make all ias 0 at whatever the main attrib for that class. That would kill all those SP sins and such

OBJECTION!

[skill]Primal Rage[/skill]

OBJECTION AGAIN
Pendulum is still worse.

Buff:
Primal Rage - be serious here. I dont even have to explain.


Generally Buff:
Water Magic
Smiting Prayers
Unblockable Skills

Nerf:
Guardian

Generally Nerf:
Fire Magic

lol wut?

let me fix it

Buff:

Mirror of Ice
Wastrel's Collapse
Xinrea's Weapon
Nightmare Weapon
Caretaker's Charge
"Coward!"

Generally Buff:

Wind Prayers Skills


Nerf:

WoH
Aura of the Lich
Dark Bond
Grasping Was Kuurong


Generally Nerf:

Spell Immunity Skills
Touch Skills