Feedback:User/Widowmaker/Strength Skill Changes

Warriors make great use of their Strength, but while this line offers both a damage increase and some key skills, it also features a lot of dead wood which could use a breath of life. Here are my thoughts:

5 12

Shout. If target foe is below 75% Health, you gain strike[s] of adrenaline and  Energy.
 * With such a stringent condition, "YWD!" just isn't worth the effort for a few strike of adrenaline with a 15, especially when the time you needed the adrenaline was probably before attacking the target in the first place. Though I can see scope for a rework, a simple buff should be sufficient to make this skill viable.

5 12

Stance. For seconds, you attack 33% faster and gain 50% more adrenaline. Berserker Stance ends if you use a skill.


 * A recharge cut means that while you still can't use this skill for spiking, it's great for gaining adrenaline, using skills, and then re-applying. It could also be alternated with Frenzy, for example, working as a cancel stance as well as an IAS and adrenaline provider.

5 15

Sword Attack. Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was an attack, all of that foe's attack Skills are disabled for seconds.


 * A recharge cut and slight duration increase makes this a lot more powerful, without being quite so good as it used to be ( with 12 was a little too good).

5 20

Skill. For seconds you have an additional  Health.


 * The point of this skill is... what? Apart from making new player look stupid by enticing them with a huge health bonus which is actually only temporary, and very dangerous. Yes, it has its uses, but with a shorter recharge and longer duration (at high Strength), it might actually be decent at something.

5 3⁄4 8

Elite Skill. All of your attack skills become recharged. You gain Energy for each skill recharged by Flourish. For each equipped adrenaline attack skill you have, you also gain 1 strike of adrenaline.


 * The activation time makes this a bit rubbish. The adrenaline gain would also be a nice buff without encouraging dagger warriors and other potentially overpowered gimmick builds.

5 25

Shout. For every 25% of your Health you have lost, you gain +3 Health regeneration and + armour for seconds. You also gain a further +2 Health regeneration for each Condition you are suffering.


 * With the duration/recharge ratio being so bad, this is pretty useless... it also relies entirely on conditions. Now, it can be used as a basic survival skill which makes it harder to kill the user the closer you get to it.
 * EDIT: Decreased armour slightly.

5 10

Elite Skill. Gain strike[s] of adrenaline. For 8 seconds, whenever you use an adrenal skill, that skill recharges for seconds.


 * A really interesting skill, I tried using this under Quickening Zephyr and it was still only fairly decent. Thus the un-boosted version should probably be buffed, since 1-7 adrenaline every 15 seconds is not great when your adrenaline skills all have recharges. In essence, this skill is replacing attacking with your adrenaline source - good when there's lots of blocking et c. but not really worth an elite.

5 1 15

Skill. Strike target foe with your shield, dealing blunt damage. If that foe was moving or attacking, they are knocked down, and any attack skill they were using is disabled for an additional seconds.


 * A fairly unskilled skill, Shield Bash finds it place on the bars of Monks and other casters as self-defense... and rarely on an actual Warrior's bar. By re-working this into a more aggressive and active version of the skill, we could promote skilled play and fit the theme of the warrior a bit better without losing its great anti-melee functionality. It also now scales more with Strength, meaning that while casters can still use it, they won't get so much out of it.

5 15

Elite Stance. For seconds, you gain 3 Energy each time you hit with a melee attack. Warrior's Endurance cannot raise your Energy above.

5 15

Elite Stance. For seconds, you gain 3 Energy each time you hit with a melee attack. Warrior's Endurance cannot raise your Energy above.


 * A great skill, Warrior's Endurance was too powerful when it got changed from a Stance, but now that it's been reverted it just doesn't see play, because a good warrior needs both an IAS and an IMS, and it's nigh impossible get both without one of them being a stance (or in the case of Whirling Charge, without a drawback or condition). However, by making it short-duration and quick to recharge, it could be used to charge up energy in between spikes, before switching to an IAS stance to use attack skills. Though you would now have a constantly changing amount of energy, rather than a limitless pool, this would actually require more skill. Possibly 12 might be necessary to make this viable, however.
 * As the PvE version is not a Stance, it doesn't need this treatment, though it may as well get the quick recharge (for no real reason, I guess).

A few more:

5 1⁄2 8

Elite Melee Attack. If this attack hits, you strike for + damage. If your target is casting a spell or under the effects of an Enchantment, that foe suffers from Bleeding for seconds. This attack cannot be blocked.


 * An elite Prot Strike, Magehunter Strike is a nice skill which has been used well on spike warriors in the past, but for mainstream use it's just too expensive. By adding some Bleeding, it suddenly becomes very useful since it allows a Sword warrior to inflict a Deep Wound with Gash, without the need of Sever Artery. Making the blocking unconditional (while it limits the thematic tie to Magehunter's Smash) also improves it since now it can be used for some handy damage even when fighting, say, rangers with blocking stances, who may not be enchanted. Since you would often be using this on an enchanted monk anyway, this does not improve it that much, and since the Bleeding is conditional a warrior who relied on this for Gash would get the damage but not the Deep Wound where before they would only not get the damage. However, a recharge increase seems in order so that it can't be abused with energy-gaining skills (though admittedly the best for this is Warrior's Endurance, which is also elite).

Signet of Stamina (PvP) 3⁄4 15

Signet. Gain Health. For 20 seconds, you have + Health and your Warrior skills cost 20% less Energy.

3⁄4 15

Signet. Gain Health. For 10 seconds, you have + Health and your Warrior skills cost 20% less Energy.


 * A pretty useless skill, SoS is like an even worse Endure Pain. Giving it some healing and energy management is a bit random, but better than what it does now. Since it can be used for farming, I would keep the PvE version maintainable and with a larger Health boost.

10 30

Skill. For seconds, your melee attacks cannot be blocked. Warrior's Cunning ends if you are knocked down.


 * The 60 makes this powerful, but much of a one-shot skill. However since it's very powerful, I wouldn't slash the recharge without tweaking the duration. The ending clause also allows enemies to remove it, albeit in an unconventional way, since as a skill, stance and enchantment removal are useless agaisnt it. Since you want to save your KDs for the enemy backline you have to make a choice about this skill, and a KDed warrior has probably just failed his spike anyway, so this shouldn't weaken the skill overmuch, it just stops it from being overpowered. 10 is still a lot to pay, after all, and 30 seconds isn't a quick recharge, it's just not stupidly large.