Final Skill/Content Updates: What would you like to see happen before GW2 arrives?

Answer the question asked in the title [What would you like to see happen before GW2 arrives?]. You can discuss anything ranging from PvE to PvP, from skill functionalities to specific areas, etc.

I'd personally like to see some of the following skill functionalities changed, and some arenas fixed or removed. Here are some good examples of what to post:

PvP ONLY (since I'm a huge PvP junky):
Decapitate: [using same current skill stats]; Elite Axe Attack. Move 100% faster for 1 second towards target foe and deals +5...41...50 damage if hit. Inflicts Deep Wound condition (5...17...20 seconds). Automatic critical hit. You lose all adrenaline and Energy.

Counterattack: 5a [adrenaline]; Melee Attack. You gain 3...7...8 Energy if target foe is attacking or casting a spell.

Bull's Charge: 4a[adrenaline]; Elite Stance. (5...10...11 seconds.) You move 33% faster, and your next melee attack activates 33% faster. Causes knock-down if you hit a moving foe in melee.

Spiteful Spirit: 5e[energy]; 1/4s[activation]; 25s[recharge] Elite Hex Spell. (0...2...3 seconds.) Deals 5...29...35 damage to target and adjacent foes whenever this foe attacks or uses a skill. If a skill is used during this hex, deals 5...10...19 additional damage. affects foes within the area, and Spiteful Spirit is renewed.

Barrage: Elite Bow Attack. Deals +5...17...20 damage. Hits target, and up to 6 foes in the area. All your preparations are removed, and +20 recharge time if target foe is below 50% Health.

Word of Censure: 5e(energy); 1s(cast time); 20s(recharge); Elite Spell. Deals 15...63...75 holy damage and is hexed for 0...3...6 seconds. While under Word of Censure, if target foe casts a spell, that foe is dazed for 0...2...3 seconds. +20 recharge time if target foe is below 33% Health.

Codex Arenas: converted into a permanent Costume Brawl like arena.

Random Arenas: Either ban healer classes/attributes, or implement some kind of team "balance" whereby every team will have one, and ONLY one "healer" in their team, or else the timer resets. Also, ban all bad/griever skills that negatively impact matches [i.e.:Escape, Vow of Silence, B.Surge, etc.].

This is just a taste of what I'd like to see before GW2 arrives. What would you like to see happen on some of the final updates before GW2 gets here?

Ursan revert and old school halls.





Since OP skill balance is LOL.

...I hope you're joking about those skill balances.

I'd like to see a buff to the Smiting elites, the Dervish in general, and Paragon elites and Motivation line. That's about enough. Of course, I'd like Winds of Change to be fun and successful, and the 7 hero update is absolutely essential. Something I definitely want to play with for a while before moving on.

Yeeeeeah no. These are just complete reworkings of the skills and why so prejudice agaisnt barrage? Rangers have already been beaten a fair few times with the nerf stick.
And banning healers/support in RA? What planet are you on seriously.

All we need to see is buffs to dervish, paragon and smiting as well as maybe 7heroes.I would love to see some buffs for sword mastery and rangers but that's problem not going to happen.

+20 secs additional recharge time for a 1sec elite attack if an enemy is below 50% health?

Am i reading that wrong or for some reason you want barrage to be terribad?

Yeah, as if SS isn't powerful enough as it is, make it like an infinite damage dealer, woohoo! Let's make everything insta-kill stuff perhaps? Just cause it actually doesn't matter anymore..

Nah, i'd like to see an ele buff... They're way inferior to mes and necro atm, with their armor-ignoring damage... Eles aren't the top-notch nukers they're used to be, they're just some support bitch that stands in the backline bonding assassin tanks, and mesmer nukers... Where is the day they blasted shit to oblivion?

I've updated my post to express that my hopes would be for PvP only. Also, I welcome constructive criticism, so if you like one or more of my ideas and think that tweaking my numbers would help, post your thoughts. Feel free to add other skills, areas, etc. Express y'self!!

And another thing, don't just say why one or more of my ideas might be OP'd. Explain why it would be, especially with numbers and calculations.

Here's another skill functionality I would like to see happen before GW2 comes out:

Enchanter's Conundrum: 5e[energy]; 3s[cast time]; 12s[recharge] (PvP) Elite Hex Spell. (6 seconds.) Target foe's next skill casts twice as fast and takes +10...47...56 seconds to recharge. If target foe is enchanted, you cast this hex 50% faster and it causes -1...3...3 Health degeneration.

Ban Bsurge? I understand a bit things like SF or Escape as in their incarnations it tends to be griefing, but you can put a good damage build around BSurge as well as it's ability to help defend your team.

That is opening a can of worms to remove all defensive skills altogether which is just bad gameplay.

B.Surge's current form promotes bad gameplay. It's just a rollface skill that requires no skill and yields too good an outcome. It'd be more skillful to change B.Surge to the following:

Blinding Surge: 10e[energy]; 3/4s[cast time]; 4s[recharge]; Elite Spell. Deals 5...41...50 lightning damage. Inflicts Blindness condition (1...3...4 seconds) on target and adjacent foes. 25% armor penetration.

With this new tweak, B.Surge would require better timing and usage to yield optimal results. If blind doesn't last so long, it forces the user to use it whenever they think a meleer's going to unleash attack skills instead of just fire-and-forgetting him and shutting him down for too long a duration. It'd also punish user's energy if spammed.

You know that making RA like that (always a healer) will make it 999 times harder for people to win right? Wich will make the title even harder to archieve.

nah, you prolly don't understand that.

How? Please elaborate on that with some facts. I think it'd make teams equally capable of winning, and only the best players with optimal builds will win, as they should. Also, it'd make facing syncers way more fair than not having a healer and just losing to them [period].

Easy. Just deny the player entry if the "enter" button is clicked and if healing and/or protection skills are detected, etc., etc..

Haha I would love if they banned healers from RA (although I have no idea how they would do it). It would be all packhunters, defy warriors, and blood necros. It would be like a schoolgirls hair pulling match. I would want obs mode for RA.

Aside from the fact that OP's updates are never going to implemented, and are dartboard buffs:

I love how people alrdy say his SS is OP. People, learn how GW works, please to god.

Even IF you manage to use SS on recharge (which is once per second), AND you manage to use it on a skill each time AND you manage to hit up to 3 people with the AoE effect EACH time, you're still looking at only 162 DPS which is nearly nothing for an AoE damage dealer. It's 54 dps on a single target.

There is no way OP is being serious. I mean, those skill "balances" are the worst ideas ever set in this forum.

Would love to see a buff to eles (particularly water magic), Smiting prayers,
and I guess Shadow Steps. For all we know though, this upcoming derv update could very well be the last skill balance before guild wars 2 comes out.

I'd want Dhuum/Skeletons of Dhuum gone, Sliver re-bugged, and the 2009 version of Shadow Form back...

Annnd DwG nerfed.

Oh, and the Fast Casting cap for everyone else (Rock Candies, Pie un-nerfed) removed.

Yes, this.

OP has unbelievably hilariously bad ideas.

It's make every single team just as capable of winning, which means that your chances of getting 5 in a row are 1/(2^5) or 1/32. If you include player skill as a factor in the equation, you can reduce it some, and if you include a lucky team setup you can reduce it some more. But ultimately it's just RPS until beaten. Whereas now, the better of two balanced teams can win and achieve a streak. Think of how hard it was during CB this year to get a streak going with new people each time. It would basically be that.

Here's my Smite Elite buff (PvE only):

Balthazar's Pendulum: 5e, .25s, 8s
Elite Enchantment Spell. For 0...4...5 seconds, the next time target ally would take damage, the damage is negated and the foe dealing the damage takes 10...65...80 damage and is knocked down for 2...4...4 seconds.

Basically this becomes an elite Reversal of Damage. It maintains the "Pendulum" idea in the damage reversal, acts as a healthy prot, does some good damage without being an overpowered explosion of damage, and has the utility of a good knockdown. The KD is no more powerful than PI which can floor an entire mob, and the damage is not significantly better than RoD, and is also balanced by the recharge time and the cost of an elite slot.

Defender's Zeal: 5e, 1s, 15s
Elite Enchantment Spell. For 1...3...4 seconds, damage received by target ally is reduced by 10...18...25, and every time target ally takes damage, you and that ally gain 1...2...2 energy.

Changed from a Hex to an Enchantment mostly because things die too quickly and in my mind "Defender's" seems like a good utility enchantment. This combines the skill's original "zealous" functionality with a small bit of active prot. It's shorter than Shielding Hands but offers a little more reduction. It'll also pretty much pump the caster and the ally full of energy if they're under any kind of fire, and break-even occurs after only 3 hits for a dedicated Smiter.

Shield of Judgment: 10e, 1s, 30s
Elite Enchantment Spell. For 5...12...15 seconds, anyone striking target ally with an attack is knocked down and suffers 5...41...50 holy damage.

Shield of Judgment is actually kind of a neat skill to run on a Smite hero as is. The change in cost, recharge, and duration just serve to make it more viable for fast-paced PvE and less painful to see miscast on the wrong character or at the end of a battle.

Signet of Judgment: 0e, .25s, 12s
Elite Signet. Target and adjacent foes are knocked down. That foe and all adjacent foes take 15...63...75 holy damage.

Another minimally invasive fix. The cast time is reduced so it's a viable interrupt because let's face it, the damage is paltry. Recharge time reduced because it never needed to be 20s in PvE. The adjacent foe KD might be a bit much, but it is an elite skill after all, and I'm sort of comparing it to YMLaD which recharges faster, does more damage, and causes a condition. It also recharges in the same time as the more powerful group KD, PI, and is balanced by doing some damage instead of the extra long KD.

Word of Censure: 10e, 1s, 5s
Elite Spell. Target foe takes 10...63...75 holy damage. If your target was below 50% health, you gain 7 energy and Word of Censure deals an additional 10...35...50 damage to target and nearby foes.

Honestly, this still feels somewhat weak to me because of the high energy cost. However, the change to functionality reflects what I really want to do with this skill: reward tactical use instead of punishing it. It's the same with WoH and ZB, where additional benefits occur under 50%, when it's most needed. Likewise, WoC now rewards good use with some energy return and a good damage packet to a wide area, instead of punishing it with a ridiculous recharge when it is already expensive and underwhelming.

Best post on here so far. GJ on stating why you think SS isn't OP'd.

Worst posts by far. You lack supporting your argument with facts to the utmost degree. State why you think my ideas are the worst ever, please.

Funny OP

Crazy random skill changes and a few new game mechanics thrown in just to make it hard to implement. These are crazy enough to stand alongside Izzy's finest.

I'd like to see at least some form of buff for eles after incoming skill updates on derv, para and smite...hit 30% of listed dmg with elementalist skills only because you're are in HM its the worst thing for a class intended almost only for damage....

Thanks for explaining this to the TS.

Bull's Charge: insane bar compression. This is essentially Rush+ dumbed down version of Bulls. You honestly see no problem with that?

Many of the suggestions posted in this topic suffer from two fundamental issues:

1. They are aimed at only one side of the game (PvE/PvP). As has been stated many times on these forums, Anet will (sadly) never split skills unless it's absolutely necessary. This means that any buff happening to PvE will also have to be in line in terms of PvP, and the other way around. Most of the suggestions so far will therefore never happen.

2. Some of the suggestions are terribly bad. They don't need an explanation for people to see that the game would become totally broken that way.

In short, leave balancing to the pros, who can see the full spectrum of what will happen when you change something. And I'm not referring to the Test Crew.

You guys all know that GW2 isn't going tto come out until Q3 2011 at the EARLIEST right? More likely it's going to be Q4 2011/Q1 2012

You know how long it takes for the Live Team to develop and implement new content right? And that the thread doesn't give a specific time frame other than GW2 release?

Sardelac sanitarium' bells are ringing!

And since we're on the subject of changes:

Restore old CB.
Restore old TA. Remove certain skills: holy strike for starters.
Remove all titles.
Create incentives for people to play ladder gvg.
Dumb down HA so people can pug again and be somewhat successful.
Get rid of Shadow Form once and for all.
Remove /report function.
Remove Dhuum from UW.
Stop rigorous deleting of "non-contributive" posts on guru.
Let pve chars create pvp equipment to ease the transition from pve to pvp.
Let people create low req equipment on pvp chars.
Try providing equal server ping to all players.

Alright, here's my little wishlist:

Signet of Spirits: Change it so that it produces 2 spirits instead of 3 with their stats buffed back to the level that they used to be (I believe their stats would be spirit of Painish level).

Spirit Sipon: Raise recharge to 7 or 8

Summon Spirits: Limit Spirits traveled to three (regardless of lux/kurz title).

Wanderlust: Add some damaged to this spirit's attack... maybe damage equal to dissonance/disenchantment/shadowsongs's damage.

Dissonance: Reduce energy cost to 15

Spirit spamming would be so much more awesome (and varied) if the above changes were taken into consideration . Although SoS would probably still be the most used elite, hopefully, SoGM and Wanderlust builds would see more use.

A few other rit changes:

Destructive was Glaive: Increase recharge to 20, increase armor penetration to 25

Cruel was Daoshen: Increase armor penetration to 15

Spirit Rift: Cause cracked armor immediately (damage still comes 3 seconds later)

Less specific changes for dervs:

make critical strikes only affect dagger attacks

For paragons and rangers, I dont really have specific changes I would like to see. I don't know much about rangers so I cant really comment on them. For paragons, I would like to see their chants/shouts become less conditional/situational and make it so that the paragon can trigger when the effects occur (rather than having to rely on each party member to trigger the effect of the chant). Oh, Id also like to see SY restricted (in some way) to warrior primaries.

For all elemental damage users, I would like to see BuH give armor penetration to elemental damage.

For all casters, I would like to see AP changed to only affect assassin skills. Seriously... if your a caster, play as your own class. AP + PvE skill builds are lame and OP.

On the topic of PvE skills, Id like to see some reduction in power to the most powerful ones (EVAS, Finish Him, YmlaD, Ascan, etc.)

Discord needs a change imo. It isn't all that powerful on its own but the ability to slot it in a build and have pretty much the rest of the build free is kinda OP. Discord is too good when it comes to bar compression, as it allows you to slot all of your damage (and a high amount of armor ignoring damage at that) into one skill. I don't want to see a huge nerf to Discord, just something like "disables all non-necromancer skills for 10 seconds", so that it can't be abused on heroes.

For assassins, Id like to see death blossom's PvE state be nerfed to the same level of its PvP state (just get rid of the PvE death blossom and make the PvP version the PvE version as well). Its too powerful to have a 2 second recharge. Id also like to see fox fang's recharge increased to 4 seconds to give wild strike more competition with it.

Ether Renewal needs a complete functionality change. Eles already have lots of energy management elites, but ER is obviously OP.

Please not that these changes are PvE-oriented.

Anyway... they're never going to happen but I figured I would post my wishlist anyway. What I want is for more builds to be equally viable for each profession, as having one or two dominating builds per profession leads to a far more boring game. Having a variety of equally viable builds for each profession is what I think skill balancers should be looking to achieve.

Make finale of restoration refresh everytime a shout/chant ends.
add 30 hp extra to every moti heal.
screw game balance.

At least you captured the heart of the OP.

This. But more importantly the main thing GW needs is to roll back the massive power creep that has been it's bane since chapter 2. Shadow Form casued a lot of damage as ANet ramped up the difficulty of so many areas just to make that one damned skill not so bad, and in doing so made those areas so much harder for any normal player running a non-gimmick build. Heck, even in normal mode you have to run a very small subset of permitted builds to be successful. ANet just assumed that everyone was a bully pimped PvX RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO with cons and forgot about the average player, excluding them from the end-game content. I'd like to see a team of average (or even good) players beat UW now with just Prophesies.

In the final state of the game, I'd like all attributes to correspond to a particular role which differs at least cosmetically from that of the other attributes. Healing, Protection and Smiting Prayers make a clean trinity, for instance. Each has a recognizably different function and you can play feasible characters by focusing on any one of them.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that we should be able to thrive by specializing in secondary attributes and that two characters who specialize in different secondary attributes should play very differently.

Perhaps I'm just stuck in WoW. I want my Resto Dervish.

Pretty sure this thread should be in sardelac and if it were there, it would be closed for being a "multiple idea" thread.

I don't even see how decapitate can have that kind of effect as it is an attack and not a stance. If you mean while it is queuing up, you could always cancel the queue with no penalty and 100% movement speed???? Dash is only 50, come on man.

Maybe it does belong there, but why would it be shut down, seeing as the activity in this thread is in the positive?

Very nice catch! I didn't realize that. Maybe it should grant sort of a semi shadowstep, but a whole hell of a lot slower. It'd be "Dash"-like, kind of like in other games like League of Legends or Diablo 2. I just thought it'd be an awesome idea that'd spice up the meta a heck of a lot. It'd also be the newest GW1 mechanic if Anet could pull it off.

The thought that went through my head when I thought of this was kind of like Eviscerate in GW2 as well as how some characters in LoL dash into their targets, but knowing that players wouldn't want to see Eviscerate changed, I instead picked Decapitate. It's a worthy candidate because it'd be a worthy trade-off to be able to sort of Dash/semi shadow-step into a target, almost as fast as a teleport, but significantly slower, and respecting collision detection [no going through walls!]. Anyway, it's just a thought I wanted to throw out there. I'd sure give anything to see something like that developed, tested, and placed into the game.

A FA match when the turtles actually move and can not get stuck......I am dreaming I think.

A world where healers get a set of nadicals and have to stand in front of doors and not behind them.

A spawn point just out of reach from a longbow so a Ranger can not kill NPC's from behind walls. With no way to attack him back.

A key command that can remove a leecher and replace them with a NPC if more then 3 members call him out in a random PVP area - yeah it would be abused.

Maybe have that same invulnerability that the NPC get after a rez (2 seconds or so) this is a PVE request Insta rez deaths suck in HM

A solo player holding hands with a team of hero hench in the UW DOA FOW… wait they are working on this.

omg we hit the jackpot

I'd like for people to stop making stupid threads in the wrong section.