State of the PvE, along the same lines as the Rit and Para updates?

Here's a question. Would anyone like to have a conversation about PvE gaming that doesn't involve PvE-only skills, farming builds, and consumables?

The recent changes to the ritualist and paragon, in this one's humble opinion, were nifty, interesting, and actually improved the game quite a bit. Ritualists got a nice boost to one of their core themes, paragons received some nifty tricks that don't involve Imba builds, and a few Hard Mode bosses became quite sinister thanks to the overall buffs. Your mileage may very, but overall, I think they were a major improvement.

So.

I put this question before you, participants of That Which Is Guru. Aside from the hot topics of PvE, how goes your gaming across the continents?

Does the Water attribute need improvement?
Is Beast Mastery lacking, overall?
Do you have any ideas on improving the Dervish's use of the scythe to keep him on par with other classes using his own weapon?
Do Nature Spirits need a twist?
Hammer much? No, really, how is it?

Clarification: These were just questions to start things up, feel free to talk about anything from assassins to shortbows, axes to avatars, inspiration to IAS.

Share your thoughts on bits and pieces of the overall PvE skillset that you think could use some tweaking. Perhaps there is an attribute line about which you would like to complain? Or do you have suggestions that could change a character concept for the better?

Because it would be nice to see a conversation around here that isn't "This single skill is ruining the game because of this one explorable area gets easier", and a little more "I think that something needs to be done to improve the effectiveness of the dervish in day to day fighting" or "Here's an idea about the Tactics attribute to make it more interesting."

When in doubt, brainstorm a bit.

Thoughts?

I say they should buff dervs for pve, dervs in pvp are just fun to play

If Heart of Fury were maintainable, it would go a long way towards making dervishes better with scythes (it wouldn't be enough on it's own, but it would certainly help).

Pet death needs to not disable skills. As it is now, pets are either all or nothing. I feel like pets were meant to be more of an extra, though; something you threw on to fill out a build, rather than be the focal point of it. The pokemon center Anet threw in leads me to believe this to be the case. However, because pets are more of a liability than anything else unless you devote your build to them, no one uses them except dedicated beastmasters.

Does the Water attribute need improvement?

To some degree, yes. Although water is VERY effective in PvP, it offers no benefits in PvE. I mean, sure it's nice to have Blurred Vision on a bar, but it's not any better than other skills. Water needs a big PvE buff to make it more of a shut-down attribute. Currently there is no real need to snare things, so maybe there needs to be a change to the way it works in PvE.


Is Beast Mastery lacking, overall?

Beast Mastery, for a lack of a better word, is shit. There's really no other way to put it. It's a huge waste of attributes, unless you're running Rampage as One, and we all know that RaO doesn't use ANY pet skills. Needs a huge revamp.

Do you have any ideas on improving the Dervish's use of the scythe to keep him on par with other classes using his own weapon?

Not much you can do to change the Dervish without making it overpowered.

Do Nature Spirits need a twist?

Used to be overpowered, then were fixed, then were bad. Couple more updates and they were strong again, then some more updates and bad. They should make them strong. Like the Rit changes. Just buff the hell out of them.

Hammer much? No, really, how is it?

Hammer is good actually. Earthshaker is probably the 2nd best Warrior bar in PvE, behind Dragon Slash. Huge damage, fantastic KDs, does everything you need it to.

Does the Water attribute need improvement?

Water magic is ok in PvP, but it's completely worthless in PvE (as far as I know). A buff for PvE would be nice.

Is Beast Mastery lacking, overall?

I actually think Beast Mastery would be good if some pet mechanics were fixed. For example, if pets would switch targets faster and did not delay their attacks after arriving at a target, they would be more effective. Also, pet attacks should work similarly to other attacks. If I use a pet attack skill, my pet should drop whatever he's doing and attempt to use the attack.

Do you have any ideas on improving the Dervish's use of the scythe to keep him on par with other classes using his own weapon?

Someone in another thread had an idea about scaling the scythe aoe with Mysticism. So, a dervish with points in Mysticism could attack up to 3 foes at once, while other professions could only attack one target.

Do Nature Spirits need a twist?

It would be nice if the casting time of Nature Rituals could be reduced (not as low as binding rituals). And the functionality of useless spirits like Equinox, Primal Echos, Muddy Terrain, Fertile Season, Roaring Winds, and others could be changed.

Hammer much? No, really, how is it?

Hammers are actually pretty effective. I've seen Earth Shaker being used quite a bit.

Making heart of fury maintainable doesn't make dervs better than warrs or sins.

But, what Fenix said.

First of all, I like this thread already.

Water Magic -- Yes, it could use an improvement. In general, I think Elementalists should be buffed so that they play a more central role in team support both offensively and defensively. I would like to see more 12/9/9 or 12/10/8 splits viable in the Elementalist line. I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: buff Water and/or Earth magic to provide more consistent party support without doing insane damage. At the same time, yes, there should be a way to produce better damage in HM as an Elementalist. However, even without that, Eles have some great options for party support that have far too long of a recharge or far too little benefit for the attribute investment or even the investment of an Ele in your party lineup. More skills like Maelstrom with disabling functionalities and more effective snares/debuffs like Blurred Vision would bring Eles back into being useful. Plus, it would encourage skillful play instead of just hammering 5 fire spells on a mob and praying they stay in the hellstorm long enough to die.

Beast Mastery -- Yes, it is lacking, severely. There are several things wrong.

1. Several "use and leave" skills that are too powerful to ignore when using a pet but are incredibly underpowered in the scheme of things and incredibly boring due to the cast on recharge nature of them. They're very cool for buffing pets, but they're skill slots that are ultimately wasted because of...

2. Terrible pet AI. In my opinion, speed buffs and increased attack speeds. When you toss an arrow at an enemy, your pet should be there when the arrow lands (pulling, of course, is an exception). This would allow for much better target swapping instead of pets having the same idiot AI as minions but without the explosions on death or the damage mitigation.

Dervishes and Scythes -- In my opinion (as someone who LOVES playing A/D), the Dervish's weakness is in the Mysticism *line*. Yes, the attribute itself is subpar, but the Avatars are a shining example of a good, diverse, fun skill. They've been nerfed several times due to the temporarily overpowering nature of them in PvP settings, but c'mon, everyone knows Warrior's Endurance and WotM/CritAgil kick the crap out of anything the Dervish can produce. Here's what I suggest (and a lot of areas where I find the Dervish to be weak are bundled up in the changes I would make to the avatars):

Balthazar: Add 25% IAS.
Grenth: Cannot be blocked. Make it function properly with Conjure Frost so that you don't have to bring a Cold weapon to trigger Conjure.
Lyssa: +5...21 damage (not just against foes activating skills, but keep bonus damage to reward for good timing, big hits, etc.), and/or energy stealing on attack.
Melandru and Dwayna also need some work to make them suitable for general PvE.

Nature Spirits -- Are obviously incredibly weak, but I really have little opinion on them as I'm not a big fan of Rangers. Without directly buffing the skills themselves, maybe the best solution would be to make them more mobile, some way to dismiss them when you move to the next group that makes them recharge more quickly. Dunno. That's just a thought.

Hammers -- Are not as bad. Earthshaker is a greeeeat skill in quite a few areas (even on heroes), and you can conjure up a decent skill bar with AoE targeting to make use of the knockdown. Sure, it's no Hundred Blades or D-Slash SY, but it's a good skill for general (and some high-end) use. However, like several attribute lines in the game, it has only a handful of good skills that get boring after several uses. The thing with buffing hammers is that they already have the potential for great damage and most skills include debuffs such as KD or weakness, so there's a careful line between creating IMBA builds and giving multiple playable options.

I look forward to reading this thread, in hopes that there will be many great opinions and ideas tossed around and that the same old crap that's mentioned in every other PvE related thread won't come up ^_^.

Er, quick note to clarify: the above questions were just general starting points, feel free to branch out.

For example, I'd say assassins have two problems I would like to see changed.

1) Shadow Stepping. Positioning is vital in PvP, making this mechanic a deadly element. In PvE, not so much. A lot of the assassin's stepping skills are generally lackluster in PvE because of heavy recharge and simple lack of necessity. You generally don't need them to get around a heavy frontline, you can usually just walk.

I'd like to see their options expanded, firstly in a decrease in energy cost and recharge, allowing more active and mobile characters in PvE. Secondly, however, I'd like a shift in some of the actual text. For example...

Spirit Walk: change target spirit to simply target. Allow this to be your basic, I-Want-To-Go-There shadow step. No special effects, no riders, just a simple mobile mechanic.

Aura of Displacement: allow this skill to target enemies or allies. Rather than having Shadow Meld for allies and Aura for enemies, combine the two in PvE, and allow Shadow Meld to have some unique, nifty effect.

Another possibility: add attack chains into shadow stepping. For example: Beguiling Haze: "You Shadow Step to this foe. Inflicts Dazed condition (3...8...9 seconds). This skill counts as a lead attack." Allows compression of the assassin skill bar, and makes a mobility skill also fit nicely into chaining attacks together.

2) Finally, deadly arts needs love. Specifically, if one of the elites were freed up or changed in functionality, it would be great to have a half-ranged spell that acted as a dual attack. Right now, the only bridge between Mantis Touch's offhand rider and Impale's dual requirement is Vampiric Assault, which is a melee skill. If Vampiric were changed into a half-ranged spell, or an elite half-ranged spell was given the ability to count as a dual attack, it would do wonders for mid-line assassin casting.

Yeah, and again, as a big fan of Assassins in general, but in PvE specifically, I completely agree with the shadow stepping. Death's Charge is one of the most basic and functional steps in the game but 30 second recharge? What benefit is there in keeping that recharge so high? It's not like it would be gamebreaking to lower it and allow Assassins to more quickly navigate the battlefield. Okay, maybe lower the heal amount so that you don't self-heal between targets as well with the spammable step.

I'm not a big fan of Deadly Arts =P. Critical Strikes gives Sins several viable builds... after all there's really no martial weapon they can't use efficiently. Still, there's no disguising that it's a weak line. I'll let everyone else take care of suggestions for it though =P.

Every Elementalist attribute is weak in PvE. Water doesn't do anything that matters in PvE because PvE is super easy.


Well, it's weak, but seriously, how much dumber would the game be if pets were awesome?


Link Aura of Holy Might's duration to Mysticism the same way Critical Agility is linked to Critical Strikes.


No.


Awesome.


There's so much broken stuff that it hardly matters.

And we have a winner..
There are too many BROKEN PvE skills in the game as it currently stands, for anyone..be it a theory crafter, build masher, or wanna- be leet farmer... to even attempt to 'fix'.
Any 'improvement' would mean a complete over haul of all the games mechanics.
And I don't see that ever happening. So slip into your tin foil hats..it's gonna be a wild ride until GW2.

Energy Storage: for every rank in Energy Storage, your elementalist skills have +2-3% armor penetration. Armor cannot be reduced below 60AL in this way. This would help a lot vs all the crap armor mobs have in HM.

For water magic, Blurred Vision could use a larger radius of effect, and maybe Maelstrom could use a lower recharge and no exhaustion?

BM is just bad, there's plenty of suggestions out there already.

Dervs... there's another thread about this already but Mysticism needs to give some better benefits... also Dervs need a permanent IAS.

Says someone who runs Barrage on a Rit. Oh okay.



The main problem isn't that things are seriously underpowered, it's that a few things are far too overpowered. Remove SF, remove PvE skills, remove 55/600 etc, and force people to adapt with balanced builds.

But seriously, Barrage on a Rit? That's just appauling. I mean really, is that a joke?

I would like to see the number of foes you can hit scaled similarly to energy gained via Critical Strikes. Inherently you can hit one foe. At eight Scythe Mastery, you can hit two foes. You can hit three foes at thirteen (Maybe fourteen?) Scythe Mastery and above.

Other classes could get around this with cons, but dervishes wouldn't have to worry about that. Just a thought

I don't think changing how many foes you hit is a good idea, they attack too slow and damage radius is too radical to only hit one foe, and buffing avatars won't do much for scythe damage... mysticism needs something that makes derv more appealing.

^ This.

Problem is how to change it without it becoming the next gimmick OP class...
Energy management could be looked at by itself as a start. If you're going for a DPS build on a Derv chances are you wont have the required no of enchantments for Myst to really be effective enough (only build I've used where Myst seems reasonable is Orders...). If e-management is sorted some attacks (Eremites, Mystic, Victorious etc.) could maybe be tweaked a bit...

Maintainable IAS is also a good idea (and needed!) but that by itself will not be enough to make Dervs the best scythe wielders in the game.

Only if you attempt to cause masses of direct damage. Conditioning builds from Air can be pretty effective if you have enough of an imagination to not run Discordway.

BM will always be either too strong or too weak. The AI of a pet is its main limitation.


I'd like to see a cast time reduction but really... no. I really doubt Natures Renewal or Primal Echoes were ever going to be considered for use in PvE and unless they do something insanely overpowered, they never will be. They have powerful effects, mostly long durations, a large radius of effect and you will generally not have lots of spirits ran at once. The main thing is they work on everyone not just foes OR allies.

I definitely agree that Dervishes need a bit of a boost. I put off doing so for so long, but I gave one of my scythes to my Assassin and...she definitely uses it better, though I don't find it nearly so fun as playing my Derv.

A maintainable IAS would be nice. Heart of Fury is a decent skill as it is, but it needs to be longer and/or have a shorter recharge - perhaps change is so that the length of the enchantment is linked to your rank in Mysticism? Even if it did end up not 100% maintainable, it'd still be better than it having so much downtime.

And something needs to be done to give Mysticism a bit of an extra kick. My Dervish is my main and yes, I do use a lot of enchantments and I run Avatar of Lyssa, so I spec pretty high into Mysticism and the e-management from it is helpful, but it's just...it's not really enough. I don't necessarily agree with the idea of increasing scythe AOE via attribute rank. Linking AoHM to Mysticism could help. But even with that, the actual attribute itself needs something to add some oomph, to give a reason to play a Dervish primary over a secondary, but without overpowering the profession. I'm just not entirely sure what...

You know, I'm actually very pleased with this sudden rush to buff dervs/nerf other scythe users. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Yeah, changing Heart of Fury alone isn't enough to fix the derv (which I did note), but I'm trying to think of ideas for buffing dervs that I haven't voiced already. Half the ideas for dervs in this thread I've mentioned at least once.

Hmmm...how about allowing mysticism to give a small innate IAS boost that stacks past the usual 33%? Like 1% or 2% per rank?

Swap the holy conversion on AoHM for an IAS, and make the enchant duration dependent on mysticism. Wala.

A small innate IAS boost would be awesome. Scythes are such slow weapons to attack with, and even 1% per rank would add up quick. 2% would probably be overpowered, allowing you to go past 50% while using HoF. That might be a bit too much.

However, it'd definitely be an advantage that a Dervish would have over any other class using a scythe.

I also think that more armor buffs or blocking skills would be nice for them.

Sins and warrs still beat them

at 16 Myst that isn't even 33%

Did you miss him saying "stacks past"?

Meaning that it'd stack on top of the IAS from Heart of Fury or whatever other IAS skill you were using.

1% per rank, at 12 Mysticism, while using HoF - that's 45%. That's huge.

How's a sin or warrior going to beat that? Easy. They can't.

A dervish with 45% IAS?

That's the worst idea I've heard in weeks. That would make dervishes unbelievably overpowered.

It's also getting too far away from what Mysticism already does, which I don't necessarily think is a good idea.

(1% for every two or three ranks? =P)

Perhaps tweak the energy/health gain from it, or change the condition at which you gain health/energy...

Water magic: O yes indeed that needs a buff in PvE, and also the Air magic. Just a shame that those arn't used couse they are nothing compared with fire magic. Ok water is better than air atm in PvE due to the AoE slowdown of foe's ,but still it would be very nice to see Elementals that are using total differnt builds than they have ever used.

Beast Mastery: it is so nice to have running pets in your team, yep Beast Mastery definitely has to be raised to a higher level. Wouldn't it be nice to have team builds based on Beast Mastery, that would give playing GuildWars PvE (maybe PvP) a whole different dimension.

Dervish: Wel, I'll guess that there might be some buffs to several skills,
Dervish is nice already now they can have almost a infinite Aura with Eternal Aura. Still there can be some improvements.
And I don't think it's necessary making the Scythe Dervish only. I like to experiment with other weapons with my Necro. one of my favorite builds is with a bow, so who knows it might be with a scythe one day to. But ok I'm playing only PvE, so for PvP it might be a total differnt story.

Hammer: Underestimated it is, there might be some buffs comparing to sword and axe.

Spirits: I've done some sugestions in the past. And I'll keep to my opinion, and that is, If you want to make spirtis valuable and often used in PvE, make them not area bounded but just as Rt spirits, Foe ore Friendly bounded. That would give even more opportunities to Rt builds and again it would give a big twist in playing the game so far. There is a profit for both sides, Foe and friendly so it will not be overpowerd in that way.

Who knows.. maybe there will be some of those changes in the next big update.

Anet have to listen someday.. wont they ??

No, Eles have more than enough options. Earth for HM, Fire for NM, Support everywhere.

Yes, But there is no way to fix it because they would need to make skill powerful enough to warrant cost of three skill slots. Which would be insane.

Not exactly, But scythe could hit extra target with 8 mysticism or so.

No, why should they need change? If it ain't broke ...

Hammer "wins PvE" and is one of best things you can bring.

---

Remember, "useless" skill lines are completely fine as long as class owning them has other, viable, options.

Anyone wanting to play water or beast mastery for fun can choose to do so.

The thread effectively ended with Ensign's response; that's seriously all that needed to be said.

Which surprises no one, I'm sure.

I have to agree with Fenix. Dervishes with a 45% IAS would be way too powerful, even for PvE.

Does the Water attribute need improvement?

For PvE, yes. It's currently quite useless outside some gimmick farm builds that require a snare. It's fine for PvP, though.

Is Beast Mastery lacking, overall?

Yes, it is. It's never been too great in PvE. I wouldn't mind a buff, but I'm not going to cry if they don't. For PvP, it's only ever been used in gimmick builds (RaO) and quite overpowered ones (R/P in HB), so keep it as it is.

Do you have any ideas on improving the Dervish's use of the scythe to keep him on par with other classes using his own weapon?

Dervishes aren't horrible in PvE, but assassins and warriors use scythes better. Change AoHM so only dervishes can effectively use it, make mysticism useful, and they should be better. Again, no change for PvP.

Do Nature Spirits need a twist?

The only thing that's bad about them is that they affect both your teammates and your enemies. However, I don't see how they could make them more effective without making them overpowered.

Hammer much? No, really, how is it?

Hammers are fine.

Yes I did miss the stacks past, because a 65% IAS is so stupid I didn't assume he meant that.

I actually would use 16 Mysticism for that much, even at 45 I would use it, it's too imba.

Buffing mysticism to give out more health won't make them used more, sins and warrs are picked due to DPS, that won't increase DPS. Make AoHM scale with mysticism, like Crit Agility does

No !!!! couse they have Earth on HM and Fire on NM !!!!

Ok, just get rit of the water and air than???
So they need a buff to compeed with Fire and Earth ..agree... Yes.. thanks

Does the Water attribute need improvement?

Ele is my main character. I actually play water builds a lot in PvE, especailly in Hard Mode. Water magic is VASTLY UNDER-RATED. The slow hexes are far more useful than many players seem to think. Maelstrom is a powerful interrupt, and blurred vision works wonders at shutting down melee. Ward Against Harm is fantastic.

However, I only find 2 of the elites useful in PvE: Shatterstone, and the previously mentioned Ward Against Harm. Sure there are farming builds using Mistform, but they aren't generally team-oriented. Single target elite snares like Icy Shackles or Mind Freeze just don't work well in PvE, and Water Trident is just to limited due to AI behavior.

Ideas to improve things:

Icy Shackles - make a PvE version that is AoE version with same effect
Mind Freeze - greatly increase damage and/or remove exhaustion for PvE version
Mirror of Ice - make PvE version increase damage on every foe affected by AoE hexes, not just the main spell target
Water Trident - make PvE version also able to interrupt a non-moving target if they are affected by some number of water hexes (fewer required w/ more ranks in water).

Some non-elites could also use a buff for PvE, like Ice Prison and Swirling Aura

Is Beast Mastery lacking, overall?

I don't play a ranger much, but when I do, I often bring my pet. However, I never bring any pet skills. They seem to hard to manage with a typical bow-style skillbar. Without greatly overhauling the pet mechanics, I don't know how to improve this. I'd like to see more static buffs, that you simply equip, at the cost of a skill slot, to make the pet better, but that would be a huge change, and probably too powerful.

Do you have any ideas on improving the Dervish's use of the scythe to keep him on par with other classes using his own weapon?

I rarely play dervish, but it seems like the problem here could be solved by allowing Mysticism ranks to slightly increase scythe attack rate, damage or something similar. Enemy dervs (whirling wisps, awakened dune carvers) seem very powerful already (I hate facing Vow of Silence), so any buffs here need to be considered very carefully.

Do Nature Spirits need a twist?

I kind of like these how they are. If anything I'd like to see their casting times reduced similar to how rit spirits were improved. Maybe drop them to 2 or 3 seconds from their current 5?

Hammer much? No, really, how is it?

Need to be careful here. Tons of PvE foes use Hammers, so any buff to this could make certain foes and areas significantly more challenging.

The following Text relates to PvE:

Ritualists can now use spirits and run with the team. The fast casting times made it possible to run along the group at a regular PvE pace.

Assassins are still a binary affair. In some places you need them for complete invulnerability, so you take a Permasin with you. But that is the only thing Sins got going for them. Once they drop permanent Shadow Form, they are mostly considered a liability.

Paragons are in a tough spot. Look at PvX Wiki, you will only find an Imbagon build as rated good. So if you play Imbagon, then you are the delight of any group and your group will cut through hardmode like a hot knife through butter. If you try anything else but Imbagon, you end up with a weird mixture consisting of, some teamheal, some teamenergy, some teamdamage, and a spear. A good middleground, but playing PvE is not about middle grounds, it's about ultra-specialized builds. Maximum heal, maximum damage, etc. It might take some time until the overpowerdness of current Paragons in PvE is realized.

Water Magic trades off damage for movement restriction and or knockdown. In PvE that is not an issue. Maybe once in Moddock Crevice it's an issue to keep two enemies from running, but for regular PvE play it just does not make sense. The enemy won't run so why snare him?

You should say 'you can blind things' because otherwise Curses does it better, plus has a whole lot more goodies in it (spiteful and friends, hexes, removals).


To elaborate: if AI-way is a top-notch strategy, your game is broken. If letting the AI lines run over everything is the best strategy, then there's little point in playing something that actually is interactive or has gameplay.

Yes, that is also a comment on the state of heroes and PvE.

Note that this is true because most people are not capable of multitasking with much aptitude. If you want someone to be successful at something, you need to give them exactly one job and get them to practice it until it is right. People that can do multiple jobs consistently are relatively uncommon. When forming a PUG, you should expect that each player can perform exactly one job, and that asking someone to do more than one job at a time is a recipe for disaster.

Maximizing a single role isn't a design limitation of PvE; it is a design limitation of the human species.

Erm, Barrage rits do huge freaking damage. Imagine this for a sec. 4 Rt/r's with barrage and 16 channeling for splinter weapon. Then make a ball out of gigantic groups in urgoz and blow shit up. Even in regular pve, they do huge damage

Does the Water attribute need improvement?
Hmm, good question. I wish Water and Earth Magic was used for better party support, as nukers aren't useful in certain situations.


Is Beast Mastery lacking, overall?
Extremely. I was talking with some people in my alliance last night and we thought that it would be a great idea to give pets a chance (the percentage increasing with your rank in BM, of course) to inflict a certain condition with their attacks.

Not only would this make certain pets better than others in certain situations, it would create a whole new use for them. For instance, the bears and other heavy animals would probably inflict a Deep Wound with their attacks, something that Rangers cannot do themselves. Birds? Hell, they could reach up and poke you in the eye, blinding you. The rat could inflict disease. Other pets like Mel's stalker could inflict Bleeding with attacks.

Adding this innate ability would also make great use of the Menagerie; say I'm going to do a quest/mission where there aren't so many fleshy creatures. All I'd have to do is switch out my Bleeding-inflicting Mel's stalker for a Raven to shut down melee foes.


Aside from that, pets also need to have a quicker reaction time when it comes to attacking targets. Like someone else said, before my arrow can hit my target, my pet should already be headed there to attack.


Do you have any ideas on improving the Dervish's use of the scythe to keep him on par with other classes using his own weapon?
Buff Mysticism. I would like to see enchantments last 1-2% longer on your for each rank of Mysticism. An increase to the health gained per enchantment ending would be nice too.

A better IAS would be excellent, and a buff to the avatars wouldn't hurt. I would love them to fix the Avatar of Grenth/Conjure bug as well.


Do Nature Spirits need a twist?
A decrease in casting time would be nice. If Pestilence only affected foes in the area (as opposed to any creature), I'd probably use it to spread lots of conditions.


Hammer much? No, really, how is it?
I see no problems with it. It's great fun and the skills seem quite balanced in my opinion. Speaking of balance, I find Warriors to be one of the most balanced (if not THE most balanced) profession in the game. Tactics may not be the best attribute in GW, but it's by no means Beast Mastery-awful.



I also feel like Rangers need a buff to a couple of skills. I'd love to see Troll Unguent reduced to a 5/4 sec casting time as opposed to the 3 seconds it takes now. Lightning Reflexes could see a longer duration too.

In fact, I'd like to see a buff to other Ranger elites to make them worth using. Melandru's Arrows should do the +8...24 damage regardless if the foe is Enchanted or not.

Also, does Barbed Arrows really need the -40 armor penalty when activating? Maybe it's not that big of a deal, but that seems rather odd, considering Apply Poison doesn't have the -40 armor penalty when activating and is much better at the expense of 5 extra energy.



I don't know, these are just some thoughts. I have more, but it's getting late here. I'll post some more later when I get more time

Not at all. A MS/DB sin can pump out major AoE damage, with 90-95 armor. Far from a liability.

Do the changes even matter when you have nowhere to test them?

If this skill is to be tied to mysticism remove the scythe condition as well so dervs can use other weapon lines. Keep the holy conversion drop the damage when pulling up the enchantment and dropping it and add IAS. Tie the damage increase to lux/kurs line. Have the IAS increase to 33%. Set duration at 5 seconds additional 1 sec for ever point in mysticism and reapplies ever time multiple foes are struck.

I know this is supposed to be about things other than PvE only skills so personally I’d like to see some more damage in the air magic line. Yea it has armor penetration but still doesn’t come close to the Fire magic line for damage. Which kind of sucks because the Air line is mostly single foe targeting and fire is AOE so Air has less damage on single target but Fire has more on single as well as multiple. Seems to me Lightning should do massive damage on single foes. Equal damage to Fire at least with armor penetration to boot would be nice.

Water could use some reduced recharge time as well as buffed snare time and damage.

Beast Mastery line needs some major buffage.