atrophy

[atrophy]

i think this skill could use a buff
it could do wonders to stopping teh r/d and a/d scythers meta

i mean, then again so does general anti-melee
atrophy is supposed to be an all-around shutdown...
but seeing as it really does very little against energy storage, fast casting, spawning power, etc....
u really wont seeing it getting abused if it was buffed

i'd say increase the duration to closer match teh recharge

either 15s duration, 20s recharge
or 10s duration, 15s recharge
or 5s duration, 10s recharge
etc, etc

It does wonders against Energy Storage, you can can keep an Ele on 0e for 8 out of every 20 secs with this. The Ele Casts a couple of skills, Hit them with Atrophy and POW all his storage is gona and hes at Zero until the Hex is gone.

As far as fast casting, with out that a Mesmer is MUCH easier to Interupt

With the POWER of the Elite version of this [skill]Wail of Doom[/skill] Buffing this and placeing both in the same bar would be IMBA (Damn it, the description is wrong)

But really its useless on a Warrior or a Monk, It atleast slows a Necros Energy return and causes a Ranger to spend more energy

Faintheartedness does a good enough job.
On A/D's most specifically, because it makes their telespike obvious (~2 seconds for the beginning attack to hit).
For R/D's, you shouldn't be losing to them if you know what you're doing.
SS sorts out the bad melee players enough, with heavy hex stacking.

And Orange Milk, WoD is only really good in the 4 man arenas, in my opinion, anyway.

Either way, with my first paragraph, it's build wars. Bad, bad, BAD!
(But if you're running a Curses Necro in PvP, Faintheartedness is usually a staple I've found.)

Telespikes are still quite strong, but the more obvious the spike, the easier to prevent.

As Tyla said, there are many better necro curse options for anti melee (hell, that's what the entire skill line does).

And a buff to atrophy would mean wail of doom would need to be ajusted.

stripping an ele's attunement is better edenial than atrophy
and yea...faint rocks
but atrophy should be an all-in-one vs melee+casters

and rite now, it has little-to-no-effect on either

wod vs atrophy
wod is more spikey
atrophy rite now can only be used as spikey skill as well...
except its effect doesnt really stop anything

so i think it should be more of a pressure skill

but i jus want to teh buff mostly as an anti-meta that revolves around ppl abusing their primary attribute

atrophy really has no affect unless teh ppl r abusing their primary attrib
and i think atrophy has potential to counter this meta...
except rite now, teh skill is pretty horrible

How is WoD spikey?
It doesn't deal damage.

The word you were looking for was 'shutdown'.

Anyway, read my post again. They all are viable counters towards the current things.

Although I don't like hex shutdown much, but as they're abusing their primary attribute, I'm abusing their stupidity.

The A/D's are usually less stupid, but heck, I did see nada pre-veiling on that 'Sin when I played against it the first time.

But it's still build wars, unfortunately...QQ

theres spike shutdown...
and theres pressure shutdown...

wod's fast cast time and short duration implies that it is meant to be used during spikes
i.e. when their monk is taking heavy fast dmg and is dropping fast and is expected to be casting big prots or woh any second
(u dun jus spam it whenever)

A spike is a huge burst of damage concentrated on one enemy in order to do a kill.
Not reducing all of the enemies' attributes to 0.

And depending on the spike, it won't do much (I don't think), WoD'ing the Infuser won't have much of an effect.

And besides, there are 2 Monks anyway. That makes it kinda redundant if you ask me, 2 hex removals (One most probably being Holy Veil)...

Urg, its pretty useful. Just people don't use it does not mean it sux.

The skill itself can shut down 1/3 of the heal from the monk, make mesmer cast 3sec diversion, and no e-manage for R!

I think it's fine as it is!

The idea is you WoD the second healer and then spike the infuser.

Still... I agree that calling WoD a "spike" skill is misleading, since its just a support skill sometimes used in a spike (and even then, although it sounds good, in pratice it is fairly impratical).

why not just arcahne echo this, thats 16 seconds right there. lets see those touch rangers now

Atrophy shouldn't be buffed for the sole reason that it'll be either extremely overpowered or complete crap.

Atrophy is an uber skill. Unless you're Bruce Lee, and are lifting weights and/or doing calisthenics while playing GuildWars, muscle atrophy takes place. All seriousness aside, it is a powerfull skill which sets a primary attribute to 0 but for a few seconds; so I'd have to agree with the OP with making it last longer. Also, when Prophecies was fresh out, I believe one of the advertised mesmer skills was 'word of the mesmer', it forbade an opponent the casting of any spells whatsoever. It was on one of the plastic foldouts you got when you got Prophecies I think.

Wow, you really think that this skill is underpowered? Its stapled to any of my Curses PvP bars.

And if you think it doesnt haev any affect to melee, then you are really mistaken.

Mesmer; easily interruptable fastcasters ftw combine that with [Spinal Shivers] and you can wand a mesmer to uselessness

Ele; Ever seen the ammount of damage an ele can do if he has no energy?

Necro; OK, it is pretty useless against necros unless they are low on energy and a MM bomber is close

Monk; Usefull help for a spike on a Healing Prayers monk (no DF bonus healing means less effective Monk)

Ritualist: Not much affect here im afraid.

Ranger: very much like ele. No e-management form Expertise = Ranger only able to autoattack. This even extends past the duration of the hex as you arent removing the max energy pool like on an ele.

Warrior: usefull support skill to preassure/spike a sword/Axe warrior. They loose 8AR if they are wielding a Strength based shield. Combine that with cracked armor and you have a squishy Warrior.

Assassin: Not too much effect, but there are countless skills which make a sin useless anyways

Derv: Usefull on an enchant heavy derv... but there are better skills out there aswell, so overall pretty bad agaunst dervs in general.

Paragon: Dont have much knowledge about them im afraid.. but there are enough good other skills agains them anyways

actually it's very useful on Sins as it:
1. shuts down their main e-management
2. reduces their dmg
3. completely shatters combos that rely on critical hits such as A/D Scyther.

and yeah it is useful vs Paragons as they rely on their primary attribute(leadership) to fuel up and give almost endless energy, for all their chants/shouts and stuff

Lol...I would love to use Atrophy on a dervish right before they use their avatar.

/laugh

Hmm, that sa good thought... does the effect happen if you cast it while the Avatar skill is being cast?

What I mean is the Derv starts casting [Avatar of Balthazar] and you have a twitch reaction and cast [Atrophy] which has half the casting time. You finish castind before the Avatar has finished. Does Atrophy affect the Avatar (because it finished casting first) or is the Avatar unaffected (because the start of the cast was without the Atrophy effect)?

It should be an interrupt that turns the interrupted skill's attribute to 0 for a very short time (4 sec?). But then, it'll need to be moved to a Mesmer line instead.

Currently, I do not REALLY see it as being very useful at all unless the duration is WAY longer, like in the 20 second department. Then its effect will actually be pronounced, particularly on e-management attributes. Costed to fit.

Attributes are checked on skill casting completion, so yes, your target's avatar will be wasted.

Well I used to live in TA for the longest time, so thats where my line of thinking was. Buff Atrophy and place it on the same bar as WoD in a 4 man arena it would be IMBA.

WoD is viable in other Arenas, as you stated WoD the off Monk and spike the infuser, but there are better skills for this, like Diversion.

As they are neither is IMBA they do nothing to "non-attribute" skills like Holy Veil and Infuse(yeah its attribute linked, sort of, but not really) Remove Hex even.

Keep it as it is.

I say leave it alone. Works fine as is. If A-Net goes messing with it at all they will also up the casting time and probibly the energy cost for the benefit of it lasting longer. let alone the recharge time....
(having nightmares now)