Buff Black Powder Mine

First, I know, it's a pve skill, who cares, ursan qq, yadadadada.

But C'mon, look at it [Black Powder Mine] . I'm a trapper at heart, it was one of my favorite time wasters early on in the game, watching a whole mob explode in a spray of smoke and fire. I was excited when I heard there'd be PvE trap skills, and I do kinda like weakness trap against the charr, but BPM.... it doesn't live up to it's moniker... A: Dust Trap is better, while each pulse is weaker, there will be 5 of them, and the blindness, and you only have to set it once for 5 pulses. Barbed, piercing, vipers, most will do similar damage and degen(although without the blindness, it's only real strength, but then Dust>mine still)B: Expertise doesn't affect it, making any ranger trap, set by a ranger, better. Couple ideas to make black powder a little more fun(one or more of them, not all of them combined):

#1: Let expertise affect traps in addition to attacks, touch skills/spells and ranger skills. It makes sense, rangers get all the other traps for cheap, why not these...

#2: Reduce the cost and recharge to 5 energy, 3 seconds recharge(maybe even 1 sec cast time). Let us lay an actual 'minefield' with it. keep the damage and conditions effects as is if this gets considered.

#3: It's a 'Mine', mines don't just cause blind and bleeding, they maim and would do the whole spectrum of GW conditions pretty much. As it stands, there's no trap to crack armor or Deep wound, and only 1 that dazes, yet there's a trap that exploits cracked targets. Maybe add in daze, Deep Wound and/or Cracked armor to the conditions it causes, maybe even let it KD foes. Or, Reduce the raw damage it does and let it cripple, DW, Daze, Crack, Bleed, Blind, KD and weaken. Up the cost and recharge.

#4: Take out the 'easily interrupted' clause. If we're stopping for 2 seconds and using 10 energy to throw the mine down, maybe make sure it gets through.

#5: Change it's functionality to an 'Item Spell', like the kegs Budger gives you. On a similar note, and kind of weird, but what if you carried it around, then dropped it and when enemies came to the area where it was dropped, THEN it would explode. meaning you could drop it on them, or leave it in a choke point(kind of like the slow totem in dunes of despair, but with a boom instead of a ward, or a time delayed Cruel was Whatshisname)

Black powder mine is at the correct power level, its the other pve skills that need to be brought back to its level. It gives an effect almost as strong as dust trap, is usable by non-rangers and operates with 0 attribute investment - thats decently balanced.

/not signed.

As a Ranger who goes trapper from time to time i'm note sure why you would ever want to use this when Expertise doesn't affect it.

/not signed.

/not signed

i can agree to this one if it weren't a PvE skill
PvE skills should be the same for everyone

No way, if you think ursan is overpowered, this will make ursan look underpowered
2 energy (@ 15-16 expertise), cast every 3 seconds
let's assume cast time remains to sec, that's one trap every 5 sec
in 80 secs (leaves you 10 secs to lure), you can lay 16-17 traps
=> which gives 480-510
and then you would be able to cut recharge down to 2 seconds by using serpents quickness => 20*30=600
take 2 people and you can clear any area with only 2 skills (maybe 3 with IMS)

2 conditions are more than enough

it's a trap. trap's are easily interrupted
if you don't want them to be easily interrupted, use [Trapper's Focus] or [Tranquil Was Tanasen]

^ stupid idea imo
just place a trap and let monsters walk over it.

/not signed for most of it

Over all.

The only idea I sorta liked was expertise. It is a trap skill, Ex should effect it. I may be wrong but I believe that Fast Casting effects the asuran skills.

/signed for expertise (only)

~the rat~

Either energy reduction or expertise effect.
I will not agree with anything else.

Expertise change. Why? Because Ursan is better for warriors, 15-energy spells are better for casting classes, ALL spells are better for SoI mesmer and so on, so on. So don't say that pve-only are for every class the same.

Bad ideas.

Your full of them.

You didn't expect to get any /signs or positive comments I hope...
IMO the skill looks strong enough.

well I was hoping.... I think the most important change that could me made to it is the cost/expertise thing, so at least a few people agree with me on that. Thing is, why would ANY ranger waste 10 energy on BPM when they can set Dust tap for roughly the same cost or a whole stack of others for less. And any other class won't spend 10 energy and stop for 2 seconds and be interrupt bait for what BPM does... It either needs to do a little more or cost less to be effective.

exactly... /notsigned

Pretty good thinking right there. Only argument I'd have against that is that since ANet is gearing so many skills towards the PvP environment, trashing them for PvE, it's good to have some other PvE only skills that we can rely on.

Still, my vote goes to /notsigned.

/not signed

It works fine

PS When I go to DOA I don't Ursan, I run a Trapper and BPM is one of the traps I run, the 20 sec recharge makes it all good.

But what cellardweller said hits the nail on the head.

/unsigned

Expertise maybe, but it isn't needed. Most traps are 15-25 energy anyway, so the 10 energy cost is nice.

Uninterruptable is insane. 3 second recharge is hilarious.

Only 2 Traps provide more than 1 condition. Barbed (Bleeding and Cripple) and Smoke (Blind and Daze). One of those is an Elite skill. BPM provides 2 good conditions, has a better recharge than Dust, and doesn't need help.

Wow..... bad idea.