New Skills with Original Icon Art

After participating in the recent contest in the Community Contest section, it intrigued me enough to make multiple skills. I like the idea of making art for new skills and working with game balance and skill mechanics.

I would like some opinions on these skills in regards to balance, ease of use, and usefulness.

I only have 3 now, but may make more later. All the icon art is stuff I made just for these skills. This is my first attempt at making skill suggestions, so constructive criticism instead of flaming is preferred .




Unbreakable Bond
Profession: Monk
Attribute: Divine Favor

Elite Stance: For 3...9 seconds, enchantments you cast can not be removed. Cost: 5 energy. Recharge: 15 seconds.

Divine Favor: 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20

....Duration : 3-4-4-5-5-6-6-7-7-8- 8- 9- 9- 10- 10-11-11-12-12-13-13

Mechanics:
- One you use this skill it can only be removed by canceling the stance or having the stance removed by an enemy. As soon as the stance ends, any enchantment you will or have cast, can then be removed. Once you reapply the stance, even previous enchantments you've cast are unbreakable.

- This skill is unaffected by other skills that lengthen stance duration. Skills such as Dwarven Stability will fail to take effect.

Notes:
- As it's not a spell, it can not be used in conjunction with Arcane Echo.

- Mirrored Stance can be used on you while under the effects of this skill. The duration for you and the hexer will be equal to your divine favor attribute.

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Vaccine
Profession: Monk
Attribute: Protection Prayers

Enchantment Spell: Remove 1 condition from target touched ally. For 3...15 seconds ally can not be affected by the condition that was removed. Cost: 5 energy. Casting Time: 1/2 second. Recharge: 25 seconds.

Protection Prayers: 0-1-2-3-4-5-6- 7- 8- 9- 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20
.....Spell Duration : 3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-20-21-22-23-24

Mechanics:
- The skill will not stack when used with Arcane Echo. If suffering from 2 conditions, after the first one is removed by Vaccine, the echo'd copy will remove the 2nd condition and make the ally immune to that condition instead.

Notes:
- Great skill for casters to use to remove daze, due to short cast time and temporary immunity. However, it's best to not use this as a primary condition remover due to cover conditions that may make this skill much less effective.

- May replace Mending Touch on some melee skill bars as a good answer to blind, weakness, cripple, and other conditions that would be beneficial to be immune to for a skill chain or two.

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Hammerhead Arrow
Profession: Ranger
Attribute: Marksmanship

Elite Bow Attack: Shoot a slow-moving arrow that deals +10…34 damage. If this attack hits, target foe is knocked down. This attack can’t be blocked. Cost: 10 energy. Activation Time: 1.5 seconds. Recharge: 10 seconds.

Marksmanship: 0 – 1 – 2- 3- 4 – 5 – 6– 7- 8 - 9- 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19
Spell Duration : 10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28-30-32-34-36-38-40-42-44-46-48

Mechanics: Pretty self explanatory.

ROFL at hammerhead arrow's skill icon. I would pay an ungodly amount of ecto to see an arrow like that fly from my bow.

Try looking up aerodynamics for that Hammerhead Arrow icon. That "arrow" would never fly, or hit anything but the ground or your own foot. I like the rest of the picture, though.

lol, yea. It def. wouldn't be very effective IRL. I tried to make the skill and picture kind of match the idea tho. I made it a long activation time and slow moving arrow, but when it hits you....your going down, lol.


As far as usefulness and balance, do you think it's a well rounded skill? I studied up on similar skills as the ones I made, to try and make the pros and cons similar but unique at the same time.

lol Hammerhead arrow + ranger spike = h4x!

The monk ones are simply too weak. The only use I could see for Vaccine is on a flagger to ward off Cripshots, it's simply too clunky in energy/recharge to see use for other stuff.

Bond on the other hand is utter crap - you'd just recast enchants and take a good elite; except for maybe a few specific farms.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hammerhead is far too strong. Give it a 30 recharge or make it elite (with 12-15s recharge) and then maybe - there's a reason KDs always have a massive drawback, they're damn powerful - Hammerhead simply has no downside at all.

That Hammerhead Arrow would be awesome to see. Love that icon.
And no, aerodynamics (physics, really ) say that this thing could fly, it is just that your bow would need to be crazy-strong (like, ballistae strong) in order to put enough force to get it to fly. I don't think a human would be able to with a normal bow put that kind of force on the arrow, though maybe a Charr

At least the icons are funny...

I love the skill icon, but you mixed something up here. Bow attacks range from 2.7 second refire, to 2.0 seconds at the fastest. With that bow attack, you're actualy increasing the attack speed.
I love the skill too, but it's too powerful at the moment. It deals a powerful amount of damage, has a medium recharge rate, doesn't have a high cost, is unblockable, and provides an unconditional kd. I'd either reduce the damage or increase the cost and recharge to 15e and 15sec.

Hammerhead..... throw balance out the window.

Crip Shot is your anti-kite skill, Hammerhead could serve as that as well, except for the slow moving makes it hard to hit. However, Crip Shot supplies how much damage compared to Hammerhead?

Magebane is your unblockable interrupt. Hammerhead is the same thing, with a similar energy/recharge cost. However, since Hammerhead not only interrupts you (knockdown), but also prevents kiting, it does too much. Oh, and how much damage does Magebane supply?

I don't see how/why an arrow would cause a knockdown. However, it you want to make a skill that is balanced, remove the damage, increase the recharge, increase the energy cost, or remove the 'unblockable'.

On Hammerhead Arrow, I actually meant for it to be an elite, hence the gold border. I forgot to write elite in the discription, I fixed it. I also made it a 10 second recharge. Any more then that and I think it would fall by the wayside and no one would use it over skills such as Melandru's Shot or Prepared Shot.

On Vaccine, how about cutting the energy cost to 5? I'll put that and see what other think.

On Unbreakable Bond, I'm at an impass. I think it has the potential to be overpowered in PvE due to Dwarven Stability, and I think it's right on the edge of being just right for PvE. If used right, you could be a successful bonder in TA. I'll change the wording a bit and give it a slight buff, and see what others think.


By 1.5 seconds, I meant Activation Time on top of bow speed. So it would take a long time to start the attack, and then a slow moving arrow a long time to reach target. Think that helps any?

Removing unblockable may be an option, and I increased recharge a little. I think making all those changes would make this skill useless. You have to realize the Activation Time and Slow Moving parts. It makes it horrible at stopping a kiter and even more horrible at a planned interupt.

Fixed Unbreakable Bond to work better in PvE.

Do you honestly think they will add new skills to the game at this juncture? I don't. Although you may have fun coming up with ideas, they are not going to be used, and waste time/energy/space in this forum.

Either suggest changes to current skills or stop wasting your time.

I don't think you understand the concept of "wasting time".

First: That opinion, as with all opinions, is extremely subjective.

Second: One could argue that playing a video game is wasting time, or talking on a forum is wasting time, or you responding just to complain is wasting time, etc.

Third: It doesn't matter if these are implemented at all, I enjoy being creative. It would, however, be awesome if the general ideas of the skills were maybe looked into for inclusion for GW2. I am completely aware of how unlikely that is, though.

idk, unremoveable prot, that would be incredibly annoying in GvG. Prot spirit = immunity, no enchant shattering possible.

The last two skill icons were rofl-worthy though, kudos.

Also: I always wondered why there wasn't an arrow that didn't knockdown (obviously apart from balance concerns). I mean, you get hit by an arrow from a real longbow in the chest, you're going down from the sheer force of the impact. But, yeah, arrow KD = imba.

because we need more monk and ranger skills....
/not sighned

If Hammerhead were elite, I think it'd be close to balanced, and I'd pretty much carry it all the time.

How bout making something a little bit more conventional?

Like,

Wounding Arrows:

E: 10 Ac: 2 RC: 24

Type: preparation

For 2....10seconds target foe suffers from a deep wound and is crippled for 2..4 seconds.

It's that simple. Think of something is already existing in real life and just import it to a skill.

not rly... Anything could kill a prot monk, if the monk was a 55 in GvG, 55 vs. Touch ranger, easy. Anything with a touch char could penetrate those defenses...

There isnt a single build thats invincible. Annoying and hard yes... but no unbeatable.

an even better change is just suggesting they make the change to existing skills that have no use. monks and rangers have more skills then 4 other class. ie para derv sin rit. they dont need any more skills.

I made it elite.

Those 4 classes also came in after expansion packs. Dervs and Paras have two whole campaigns missing worth of skills. That's just because they are core professions.

i already know that. it also dose not justify adding skills to those two classes.

hammerhead arrow should only knockdown if the target is moving. rangers shouldnt have knockdown like that though.

For Hammerhead Arrow, you need to put expertise into the equation before thinking up the energy cost. For typical rangers, it would take 4-5 energy to shoot an unblockable knockdown ev ery 10 seconds. Kinda unbalanced to me. Maybe increase the energy to 15-20?

Your not factoring in the fact that it takes 1.5 seconds to activate this skill, +the speed of your bow, +it's a slow moving arrorw. If I made it only while moving, it'd likely be the worst ranger elite in the game.

That's a good point. If I made it 15 energy, though, I think I would have to take off the slow moving arrow part or something.

It may be unblockable, but that fact that it takes so long to reach its target and a long activation time with a tell-tale animation, most casters would have an easy time strafing it.

It would be an easy tag-team knockdown chain. W/E Bull's Strike for a knockdown. When they call Bull's Strike, you fire Hammerhead. As soon as they get up, your Hammerhead hits, and they are down again. Shock is ready for their next stand. True, it would take team work, but the slow moving does not prevent good use or dodging from all players. This skill has too many parts that are too good. Unblockable, knockdown, low energy cost, low recharge time, high damage.

Yes, that would be a good combo. If the skill didn't have a way to make a good combo then it would be a crappy skill. Almost every skill has a use and every skill/build/combo has a counter.

To counter that specific scenario: just snare/blind the warrior and just blind/strafe from the ranger. Or just empathy/SS/spirit shackles/insideous parasite/etc. either/both of them.

Your basically saying nerf every skill that can be used in conjunction with other skills. Why not make warriors unable to use hammers altogether, if knockdown is that bad?

I completely agree that it's a powerful skill, but thats why it takes up the elite slot and takes so long to actually reach the target.

If everyone agrees that it's still too powerful even with the slow activation and slow moving speed, then I could lower the extra damage some.