Paragon Rework - Stage 2: Iterated Design and Development

The following redesign of the paragon, within certain existing constraints, attempts to reduce the multiplicative stacking of paragon buffs without neutering them for low-paragon party parties, and increasing the variety of individual and team builds they're capable of supporting. Existing mainstream builds were often preserved in one form or another.

In the first stage of design and development, Paragons were given the Bardic treatment. Rarely-used chants typically had their current effect, in whole or in part, shifted over to an on-activation effect, with a minor passive bonus for your party if you choose to maintain the chant. For sacrificing your ability to cast spells and shout, you also gain additional incentives while chanting: +adrenaline gain with leadership ranks, and the ability to use Echoes and Finales to empower yourself or your party.

To limit the ability of paragons to provide so many unstrippable buffs to their parties, the vast majority of chants have cast times of 2 or more seconds, require adrenaline to activate, and/or end on movement. Thus, most paragons will be somewhere near combat before activating their chants, and vulnerable to interruption effects. When interrupts are no longer viable, knockdowns – which are played in the vast majority of builds – will serve to disrupt maintained chants and effects contingent on those chants.

Feedback regarding what skills look interesting to build with and why is particularly welcome, as it will allow refining skills and mechanics to facilitate such builds.

===
New Mechanics:

Chant: Chants have an initial cast time, typically an immediate on-casting effect, and a sustained effect on allies within earshot of the chanter as long as the chant is maintained. While chanting, a character can't active further Chants or Shouts. Other actions can still be performed normally. Each time a character activates a Chant, all other Chants and Finales are disabled for 1 second. Maintained chants are ended immediately whenever a chanting character is knocked down. Some chants have additional conditions that cause the chant to end immediately.
Mechanically, chanting is similar to the effect of Nature Rituals, but are portable due to the mobility of the character, and can be ended by the chanter at any time in the same way as Maintained Enchantments. Chants have no other cost beyond locking the character out of using certain skills.

Sample Chant:

Anthem of Flame - 5 en, 1.5 cast, 20 recharge
Chant
Foes within earshot are set on fire for 0...2 seconds. While chanting, party members within earshot gain +10...40 armor vs Fire and +10...25 vs Cold damage.


Finale: Finales have a cast time, and can only be used while chanting. Any Chants a character is maintaining end immediately on completion of a Finale. If a maintained chant was ended this way, an effect is produced on all party members within earshot. Note that since maintained chants can be ended at-will, Finales are merely a more rewarding method of ending a maintained chant.

Sample Finale:

Finale of Restoration - 10A, 1 cast
Finale
Each party member within earshot gains 40...80 health.


Echo: Echoes have a cast time and can only be used while chanting. Echoes do not consume the maintained Chant, but instead, harmonize with it. Echoes that produce a sustained effect immediately end when the maintained Chant is ended or otherwise disrupted.

Sample Echo:

Mending Refrain - 10en, 2 cast, 20 recharge
Echo
While chanting, party members within earshot gain +1...3 health regeneration.

===

Leadership:
You gain 2 Energy for each ally affected by one of your Shouts (maximum 1 Energy for every 2 ranks). While chanting, you gain one point of adrenaline per 2 ranks each time you successfully hit with an attack. (One strike of adrenaline is equal to 25 points.)

"Lead the Way!" - As-is.

"Make Your Time!" - 10en, 20 recharge
Shout
Party members within earshot below 66% maximum health gain 0...4 strikes of adrenaline, 0...8 energy, and move 33% faster for 0...8 seconds.

"They're on Fire!" - As-is

Aggressive Refrain - 5en, 1 cast, 15 recharge
Echo
While chanting, allies within earshot attack 5...20% faster.

Aggressive Refrain (PvP) - 5en, 1 cast, 15 recharge
Echo
While chanting, you attack 10...25% faster.

Angelic Bond {E} - 10en, 2 cast, 25 recharge
Echo
While chanting, you move 0...30% faster, have a 0...30% chance to block attacks against you, gain +0...4 health regeneration, and hexes and conditions on you expire 0...30% faster. If you would take fatal damage, that damage is negated, you are healed for 20...200 health, and Angelic Bond ends.

Angelic Protection - As-is.

Anthem of Flame - 5 en, 1.5 cast, 20 recharge
Chant
Foes within earshot are set on fire for 0...2 seconds. While chanting, party members within earshot gain +10...40 armor vs Fire and +10...25 vs Cold damage.

Anthem of Fury {E} - 3A, 1 cast, 10 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot gain 0...3 adrenaline. While chanting, party members within earshot gain +0...20% adrenaline from all sources.

Awe - As-is.

Blazing Finale - 10A, 1 cast
Finale
Enemies adjacent to each party member within earshot take 0...30 fire damage and are set on fire for 0...7 seconds.

Burning Refrain - 10en, 1 cast, 15 recharge
Echo
While chanting, allies within earshot set foes with more health on fire for 0...3 seconds.

Burning Shield - 5en, 1/2 cast, 12 recharge
Skill
If you are wielding a shield, target touched foe is interrupted, struck for 10...40 blunt damage, and set on fire for 0...4 seconds. You have +40 armor vs Fire and Cold damage for 0...8 seconds while wielding a shield.

Defensive Anthem {E} - 8A, 2 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
Attacking foes within earshot are interrupted. While chanting, party members within earshot have a 5...50% chance to block attacks. You stop chanting when you use an attack skill.

Enduring Harmony - As-is.

Focused Anger - As-is.

Glowing Signet - 3/4th cast, 15 recharge
Signet
You and adjacent foes are set on fire for 3...10 seconds, and you gain 3...7 energy.

Hasty Refrain - 5en, 1 cast, 5 recharge
Echo
While chanting, allies within earshot move 10...25% faster.

Hasty Refrain (PvP) - 5en, 1 cast, 5 recharge
Echo
While chanting, you move 10...25% faster..

Hexbreaker Aria - 9A, 2 cast, 10 recharge
Chant
Lose all adrenaline. Remove a hex from each ally within earshot. While chanting, hexes cast on party members within earshot have their durations reduced by -5...35%.

Leader's Comfort - As-is.

Natural Temper - 10A, 2 cast, 3 recharge
Skill
Adjacent foes are struck for 10...40 bludgeoning damage. If you have at least 8 ranks in Leadership, adjacent foes are knocked down for 2 seconds.

Signet of Aggression - 3 cast, 30 recharge
Signet
For 5...25 seconds, you attack 25% faster but have -20 armor. Signet of Aggression is renewed each time a chant or shout ends on you.

Signet of Return - As-is.

Soldier's Fury - Changed to Stance.

Spear Swipe - As-is.

===

Command

Brace Yourself - As-is.

Can't Touch This - As-is.

"Fall Back!" - As-is.

"Find Their Weakness!" - As-is.

"Go for the Eyes!" - As-is.

"Help Me!" - As-is.

"Incoming!" - As-is.

"Make Haste!" - As-is.

"Never Give Up!" - As-is.

"Never Surrender!" - As-is.

"Stand Your Ground!" - As-is.

"We Shall Return!" - As-is.

Anthem of Disruption - 7A, 2 cast, 10 recharge
Chant
Foes within earshot are interrupted. While chanting, party members within earshot interrupt foes on a critical hit while using attack skills.

Anthem of Envy - 8A, 1 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
Gain 10...25 life for each foe within earshot (maximum 120). While chanting, party members within earshot deal +2...6 extra damage to foes with more health.

Anthem of Guidance {E} - 3A, 1 cast, 5 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are cured of Blindness. While chanting, projectiles created by party members within earshot move faster than normal.

Anthem of Weariness - 10en, 1 cast, 20 recharge
Chant
Foes within earshot are weakened for 2...6 seconds. While chanting, conditions party members within earshot inflict have their durations lengthened by 10...25%.

Bladeturn Refrain - 10en, 1 cast, 8 recharge
Echo
While chanting, party members have a 5...20% chance to block attacks.

Bladeturn Refrain (PvP) - 10en, 1 cast, 8 recharge
Echo
While chanting, you have a 5...35% chance to block melee attacks.

Crippling Anthem {E} - 4A, 1.5 cast, 10 recharge
Chant
Foes within earshot are crippled for 2...5 seconds. While chanting, the crippled condition applied by party members within earshot is lengthened by 33%.

Godspeed - As-is.

====

Motivation

"It's Just a Flesh Wound!" - As-is.

"The Power is Yours!" - 4A
Elite Shout
For 3 seconds, allies within earshot gain 0...1 energy regeneration and +0...1 to all attributes.

Aria of Restoration - 2A, 1.5 cast, 10 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are healed for 10...40 health. While chanting, party members within earshot gain health equal to 150...300% of the cost of the spells they cast.

Aria of Zeal - 7A, 1.5 cast, 10 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot gain 0...3 energy. While chanting, party members within earshot gain energy equal to 15% of the cost of the spells they cast.

Ballad of Restoration - 8A, 2 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
Lose all adrenaline. Allies within earshot are healed for 40...80 health. While chanting, party members within earshot gain +0...2 health regeneration.

Cautery Signet {E} - 1 cast, 6 recharge
Signet
Target ally is healed for 40...100 and cured of all conditions. You are set on fire for 1 second for each condition removed this way.

Chorus of Restoration - 4A, 1 cast, 6 recharge
Echo
Party members within earshot gain 5...50 health.

Energizing Chorus - 4A, 1 cast, 6 recharge
Echo
Party members within earshot gain 0...3 energy.

Energizing Finale - 10A, 1.5 cast
Finale
Each party member within earshot gains 1...6 energy.

Finale of Restoration - 10A, 1 cast
Finale
Each party member within earshot gains 40...80 health.

Inspirational Speech - 5en, 20 recharge
Skill
For 10 seconds, target other ally's skills recharge 5...25% faster.

Leader's Zeal - As-is.

Lyric of Purification - 4A, 1.5 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
All allies within earshot lose 1 condition. While chanting, party members within earshot lose one condition each time they use a signet.

Lyric of Zeal - 8A, 2 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
All allies within earshot gain 2 energy for each signet they have (maximum 1...4) While chanting, signets used by party members within earshot recharge 5...20% faster.

Mending Refrain - 10en, 2 cast, 20 recharge
Echo
While chanting, party members within earshot gain +1...3 health regeneration.

Mending Refrain (PvP) - 10en, 1 cast, 20 recharge
Echo
While chanting, you gain +1...3 health regeneration and lose one condition every 8 seconds.

Purifying Finale - 10A, 1 cast
Finale
Each party member within earshot is cured of 1...3 conditions.

Signet of Synergy - As-is.

Song of Purification {E} - 4A, 1.5 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are cured of 0...1 conditions and hexes. While chanting, allies within earshot are cured of one condition and one hex every 8 seconds. You stop chanting when you use a skill.

Song of Purification {E} (PvP) - 4A, 2 cast, 12 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are cured of 0...1 conditions and hexes and are empowered by Song of Purification for 10 seconds. Each of those allies loses 1 condition whenever they use a skill, up to a maximum of 0...2 times. Song of Purification is not maintained.

Song of Power - 25en, 2 cast, 8 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot gain 0...2 energy. While chanting, allies within earshot gain +1...2 to all attributes. You stop chanting when you use a skill.

Song of Power (PvP) - 25en, 2 cast, 8 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot gain 0...2 energy and are empowered by Song of Power for 6 seconds. Each of those allies gains +1...2 to their attributes for their next skill. Song of Power is not maintained.

Song of Restoration {E} - 10en, 1 cast, 20 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are healed for 15...60 health. While chanting, allies within earshot gain 0...15 health each second. You stop chanting when you use a skill.

Song of Restoration {E} (PvP) - 10en, 1 cast, 20 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are healed for 15...60 health and are empowered by Song of Restoration for 10 seconds. Each of those allies gains 5...35 health the next time they use a skill. Song of Restoration is not maintained.

Zealous Anthem - 6A, 2 cast, 8 recharge
Chant
Attacking allies within earshot gain 0...2 energy. While chanting, party members within earshot gain 0...1 energy each time they use an attack skill.

===

Spear Mastery

Barbed Spear - As-is.

Blazing Spear - 6A
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals fire damage, strikes for +5...20 additional damage, and sets target foe and foes adjacent to the target on fire for 0...4 seconds.

Chest Thumper - As-is.

Cruel Spear - As-is.

Disrupting Throw - 5en, 1/2 cast, 10
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, target foe and each adjacent foe are interrupted if they are suffering from a condition.

Harrier's Toss - As-is.

Holy Spear - 4A
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals 0...15 holy damage to nearby enemies. Summoned creatures take quintuple damage and are set on fire for 3 seconds.

Maiming Spear - As-is.

Mighty Throw - 2A, 4 cast, 2 recharge
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals +10...40 damage and causes a shockwave at the location of target foe. Foes adjacent to the target are struck for 10...40 blunt damage, and knocked down if they are attacking.

Slayer's Spear - As-is.

Spear of Lightning - 5en, 6 recharge
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals +8...20 lightning damage to the target, and 10...40 lightning damage to up to two foes adjacent to the target. This attack has 25% armor penetration.

Spear of Redemption - 3A
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals +5...20 damage. If it hits a foe with more health than you, gain 5...35 health. If it fails to hit, you lose one condition.

Stunning Strike {E} - 10A
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals +5...30 damage. The target and foes adjacent to the target are interrupted and Dazed for 4...10 seconds if they are already suffering from a condition.

Swift Javelin - 10en, 3 cast, 10 recharge
Spear Attack
Launch one spear at target foe and up to 2 additional foes adjacent to your target. If there were no adjacent foes, launch a second spear at the target.

Unblockable Throw - 7A, 3 cast
Spear Attack
If this attack hits, it deals +10...40 damage. If Unblockable Throw is blocked, target foe and all foes adjacent to your target take 20...65 piercing damage, and you gain 1 strike of adrenaline.

Vicious Attack - As-is.

Wearying Spear - As-is.

Wild Throw - As-is.

===
No Attribute

Remedy Signet - 1 cast, 4 recharge
Signet
Target touched ally loses 1 condition.

Song of Concentration - 8A, 2 cast, 5 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are cured of Dazed. While chanting, skills used by allies within earshot can not be interrupted. You stop chanting when use a skill.

Song of Concentration (PvP) - 8A, 2 cast, 5 recharge
Chant
Allies within earshot are empowered by Song of Concentration for 10 seconds. The next skill used by each of those allies can not be interrupted. Song of Concentration is not maintained.


===

Additional Changes:

Power Block, Power Flux, Power Leak, Power Lock, Power Spike, Power Leech: Also interrupt Echoes.

Vocal Minority - 10en, 2 cast, 20 recharge
Hex Spell
End all maintained chants for target foe. For 5...20 seconds, that foe and nearby foes cannot use shouts, chants, echoes, or finales.

Cacophony - 10 en, 1.5 cast, 15 recharge
Hex Spell
For 10 seconds, whenever target foe uses a shout, chant, echo, or finale, that foe takes 15...75 damage, and other allies of that foe within earshot take 5...35 damage. If that foe is maintaining a chant, that foe takes 5...35 damage each second.

Roaring Winds – 10 en, 5 cast, 60 recharge
Nature Ritual
Create a level 1...10 Spirit. Chants and Shouts cost 1...5 more Energy and chanting creatures suffer -2 energy regeneration within range. This spirit dies after 30...60 seconds.

===

Version History:

1.02
Minor tweaks, and spellcasting no longer excluded while chanting. Nothing in command or motivation should really break on a secondary paragon as-is. Leadership adrenaline bonus increased to 1 point per 2 ranks, granting +5 points of adrenaline per hit (+20%) with 10 ranks in Leadership while chanting. Should help to further compensate for the downtime while activating chants, echoes, and finales.

1.12
Overhaul to Songs: PvE songs end on a skill use, allowing you to continue attacking and accumulating adrenaline. PvP songs all function differently.
Overhaul to Refrains: Refrains now affect all party members in PvE, resulting in much the same effect as they currently receive. Refrains in PvP are limited primarily to the chanter themselves.
Cast times on many chants reduced, effects weakened or recharges increased to compensate.
Removed the double listing of skills. Made the post too long.
Sample builds section cleared due to changes. Will restore the section with new builds in the future.

Is there a tl;dr version?

Sure. Paragons get to sing and prance around as bright and chipper as the newborn Spring.

Shouts - mostly unchanged.
Chants - Effect on cast, party-wide buff while maintained, only one chant at a time. Can't shout or cast spells while chanting, but can still attack and use other skills. Can end chant at any time, or use a Finale to do it. Countered by knockdowns, since the buffs are unstrippable.
Chants (Song subtype) - Stand around like a jukebox, doing nothing but chanting.
Echoes - Stuff you can still use while chanting. Self-buffs except for Choruses, which have one-shot effects for the whole party.
Echoes (Refrain subtype) - Self-buffs that only usable while chanting.
Finale- One-shot effects, costs a chant.
Spear Attacks - Minor AoE effects added to several for PvE and low-end PvP.

Skill splits or function shifts to preserve all current major paragon builds, more or less intact. (Example: Signet of Refrain cannibalized Aggressive Refrain's old function, since Aggressive Refrain got a new one.)

Beyond that, many more skills got changed than not, so it's not going to get much shorter.

Well now I'm going to /sign for sure. I'v always wanted my paragon to be able to prance around

When I have more time, I'll go through the changes and give my opinion on them.

Just because something makes sense in the real world does not make it a good game mechanic. In fact, the case is often the opposite.

These suggestions are overly complex and burden what is supposed to be a physical class with way too much cast time.

Agreed. I only use the instant-cast shouts now in pve and pvp, as I hate to stop attacking and cannot be bothered to wait for the flappy wing animation. If more skills became chants or whatever, I'd just ignore them completely.

That's what the maintained chant effects, refrains, and Leadership tweak are for. If you don't want to spend so much of your time activating non-attack skills, you can run a single chant of your choice, maintain it, maybe throw up a Refrain buff, and reap the +adrenaline from Leadership to fuel more frequent spear attack skills. Or, ignore chants entirely and run Shouts and Spear Attack skills as is currently done.

What already exists, exists, and it makes for a fundamental problem similar to what the Monk sees with Smiting Prayers. Every time Smiting Prayers has been brought into competitive play, it's been struck back down. Smiters have been able to pump out strong defensive support in conjunction with decent spike and/or pressure support at varying times. (Zealot's Fire, Smiter's Boon, Strength of Honor, so on.)
Paragons got similar treatment for their party heals (including Mending Refrain) and battery skills. They aren't going to be allowed to be turrets that can apply ranged deep wound on spikes and also pump out that kind of defensive support.

Thus, the direction I'm experimenting in for chants and related skills in is as an alternative to focusing on effective pressure and spiking. Facilitating builds for which Spear Mastery merely supports what else you can do, rather than vice versa. At the same time, I'm also looking for alternatives to the Imbagon build in PvE that make you feel like you're making a difference in the party, if not Imbagon difference.
It's an iterative process, and the first round of experimentation is often the messiest, particularly since I'm forced to work with a lot of pre-existing baggage.

Edit: Pulled spellcasting from the prohibited actions list while chanting. That should open some chants as options for primary casters willing to wand a few times to make use of their secondary paragon class chants.

Everything that was a shout is still a shout. Nothing that wasn't a chant before became a chant. Some things that were chants became Echoes - the Choruses - both of which have the same cast time as before.

Paragons are not Diablo 2 Paladins. Their concept is different.
There's no need for radical changes.
Its not that they are entirely flawed, it's that their few flaws have big effects because of their very nature.

Their problems are:
- Smaller skill pool. Since there's less options, their skills must have more versatile effects, like Dervish skills.
- Too conditional and situational skills, that are too good when the builds are tailored around them, but too bad in random party formation.
- Too many skills that target the whole party or all allies, that when balanced for big parties suck with small parties, and when balanced for small parties are overpowered with big parties.


This is how you fix paragons:
- Skills with conditions hard to meet: Split the effect, part of it happens always, part of it happens when the condition is met.
- Skills with conditions easy to satisfy: No change on that part in them.
- Skills that benefit only melee or only casters: Give dual effects, one easy to meet for the original type , and one a bit harder for other types.
- Skills that affect all allies or all party members, and have stronger effects the more people they affect:
** With lasting effects: Add counters so hey run out after they trigger X times. (e.g.: Anthem of Weariness ends on all other affected creatures after it triggers X...Y times.)
** With instant effects: Add "effect pools" that skills consume when they trigger and that end the effect when they run out. (e.g.: The 'of restoration' chants would have a pool of 'X...Y' HP, whenever they trigger, they take from that pool to heal the creature that had the effect. When it runs out, it ends on all remaining party members.)

I always thought the idea behind their conditional skills was to make them more interesting and strategical. But in the end, they ended up being simply boring, linear, monotonous, and their conditional effects only forced parties to create builds around Paragons.

I want their skills to be conditional depending on the flow and the context of battle, where you must think what's the best time to use them at any given situation. Not conditional in the sense that you must be forced to screw or limit your party's strategy so they can work.

I like much of the basic redesign ideas behind this. I had a similiar thought on how to go about redesigning the Paragon, albeit a little more simple. It's got alot of similiarities to the Guardian from GW2, which, presumably, Anet think is quite balanced now.

I love many of the skills redesigns too, however a few could do with some tweaking.

For example, the skills that give massive armour boosts verse Fire damage and moderate verse Cold damage should instead give massive armour boosts verse Fire and then a moderate armour boost vs. all other elements (Earth and Air too), not just Cold damage. Retaining their use vs. only Fire or Cold damage makes them a bit too niché and therefore rather useless (see the current in-game incarnation of Bladeturn Refrain (PvP) for example, which is one of the most useless skills in the game).

Or you could even go a slightly different way and give them the large bonus Vs. Fire damage (which I presume you included more for feel than anything else, seems Fire is already the element with the most counters), and a global damage reduction modifier against all other damage (something small, like 10%, maybe 15%), which would make them somewhat useful against all damage types, including armour ignoring and similiar damage types (something which is rare to come by), without being too strong, considering there is few other skills you could stack them with that have a similiar effect.

The Guardian's Virtues are a Paragon perfected, IMO.

1) You must make a choice between keeping yourself protected, or exposing yourself to more danger in order to protect your party;
2) You must time your party support effects right;

Although Paragons have a bit of those, they're extremely passive at doing that, which makes them a snorefest even when they're good, as Imbaway build shows.

The Guardian's Virtues are clearly based off of the Paragon chants , so it's an obvious evolution.

This was probably most obvious with the original incarnation of the Virtue of Courage, which blocked one in every five attacks originally (now its once every 30 seconds instead though), the same as an ideal-statted Bladeturn Refrain (the PvE one), which is 20% (I.E. on average once every 5 attacks).

Virtue of Justice was a clear adaptation of Anthem of Flame, and Virtue of Resolve like Mending Refrain.

My idea for Paragon basically had the Virtue system redesigned for Guild Wars 1, with Chants and Echoes working like maintained Enchantments (but with no upkeep), providing a moderate Passive Benefit to you while maintained, normally offensive based, while doing something nice for your team at the cost of putting the ability on cooldown when it ended (so the Paragon would basically be primarily a figher, through buffs on the echoes making them similiar in strength to a Warrior, with support abilities every once in a while that were powerful enough to be worthwhile and interesting, unlike the current ones, at the cost of temporarily losing your Warrior-like effectiveness as a fighter. No, this isn't like the Paragon at the moment, who is always inferior to a Warrior/Dervish/Ranger at what they do at all points in the battle, and always inferior to the support classes at what they do at all points in the battle).

A good example of how the skills would work would be like the PvE Unyielding Aura in Guild Wars, it's the best example I can think of (of course the baseline stats of the skills would be different from UA to balance the fact they had no up-keep cost).

Anthem of Flame, 10 recharge
(Working like a maintained enchantment without the energy upkeep)
While active, your attack skills cause burning for 1 second to your foes and yourself.
End effect: The next attack skill used by each ally within earshot also causes Burning for 1...3...3 second[s].

or

Mending Refrain, 30 recharge
(Working like a maintaned enchantment without the energy upkeep)
While active, you have +1...2...3 health regeneration.
End effect: For 7 seconds, all other party members in earshot gain +1...6...7 Health regeneration if their health is below 50%.

Something like this?

Yeah, but a little different, more like.

Anthem of Flame, 1s cast, no recharge
(Working like a maintained enchantment without the energy upkeep)
While active, your critical hits cause burning for 1...2...2 seconds to target foes.
End effect: The next attack skill used by each ally within earshot also causes Burning for 1...3...4 second[s]. This skill is disabled for 20 seconds.

(Granted the changes to the actual way the burning is applied of this skill compared to the last post aren't strictly neccessary, that's just what I think would work better)

or

Mending Refrain, 1s cast, no recharge
(Working like a maintained enchantment without the energy upkeep)
While active, you have +1...2...3 health regeneration.
End effect: For 7 seconds, all party members in earshot gain +1...6...7 Health regeneration if their health is below 50%. This skill is disabled for 30 seconds.

or
(to add one of my own)

Bladeturn Refrain, 1s cast, no recharge
(Working like a maintained enchantment without the energy upkeep)
While active, you have a 10...20...25% chance to block melee attacks.
End effect: For 10 seconds, all party members in earshot block the next attack skill used against them. If an attack skill is blocked, Bladeturn Refrain ends on that ally. This skill is disabled for 30 seconds.


Notice the discreet change?

So yeah, basically as you said, but instead of working on a recharge timer, the skills have no recharge and are instead disabled after you end them, with the amount of time they are disabled for changing depending on the recharge time you would have given them if they were on a recharge.

The reason for this would be to discourage spamming (infact, make it impossible), and have them used more tactfully instead (so instead of ending them every 30 seconds or w/e then recasting them, you only end it when you need it or it would be ideally beneficial). It would also force a period of self-vulnerability (as you aren't benefitting from the passive) after using the skill to buff allies. This would also help solve the problem of stacked Paragons in a team.

The Echos could have exhorbant energy costs each (10e~ +), with a little modifier on Leadership like Expertise or Mysticism that would reduce the energy cost of Echos by 4%~ per rank of Leadership, making them fine and usable by Paragons but discouraging abuse by other professions using a Paragon secondary.

I agree with what Mithran said, such a radical change is not needed/good, it would almost make of the paragon a totally different profession...also it seems to me the changes you proposed are overly ad uselessly complicated. I personally don't like them in general.

I would also agree that some changes are overly-radical or drastic. However, I really, really like the suggestion for chants. Making them maintained would be a cool new mechanic and it would eliminate the primary problem with chants right now (besides their sucky effects...), having to activate them mid-battle.

Except such skills aren't really used already, and what is used is almost entirely preserved as-is. The bulk of the paragon profession is entirely ignored as-is.
I suppose a variation on the Flash Enchantment mechanic could be a viable way to make chants run without dramatic transformation, though.


I'd forgotten about virtues. I'll mull that over.

Buffs are like drugs. The only problem drugs solve is the problem they create.

Literally every problem in this game is due to rampant buffing.