User:Shard/SkillComparisons

A few days ago, I asked people to look over these skills and tell me what they thought about them. Here's the catch. These are not skills I made up - they are already in the game, but I have changed the effects. Here are the skills I typed, compared to their actual counterparts.

Some of the comments for this were:
 * Divine Fervor - - "(Healing Enchantment), For 20 seconds, target ally has +3 health regeneration and attacks 100% faster."
 * - For the next seconds, target foe attacks 50% slower, and that foe suffers - Health degeneration.
 * and
 * and

Some comments:
 * Greater Boon - - "(Elite, Healing) For 10 seconds, whenever an ally uses a skill, that party member is healed for 100 health."
 * - For 10 seconds, target foe and adjacent foes take damage whenever they use a skill. If they are under another mesmer hex, they take  damage instead.


 * Time Stop - - "(Elite, Fast Casting) Stop time for 4 seconds. You are the only character that can move, attack, and use skills."
 * - For seconds, all of target foe's attributes are set to 0.
 * Obviously, mine has no life sac, but prevents movement. Not really the same, but the most broken elements are still there. Wail of doom removes a player from the game for 4 seconds, and time stop gives one player an extra 4 seconds of time. The following were said about this skill:

These quotes made me smile, because that's exactly what WoD does now.


 * Divine Shield - - "(Elite, Divine Favor) Target ally gains 100 health. For 8 seconds, enchantments can't be removed from him/her."
 * - Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, you deal damage and target foe loses one Enchantment. This attack cannot be blocked.
 * Some differences. Mine does not require an offhand attack, nor is it touch ranged. However, it does effectively counter SA.


 * Rend Hexes - - "Remove 5 hexes from target ally."
 * - "Remove enchantments from target foe. You lose  health for each monk enchantment removed this way."
 * Some people said the following things about my version:


 * Some others said it was fine. I wonder if this is because of how big of a problem hexes are, rather than this being overpowered.
 * Some others said it was fine. I wonder if this is because of how big of a problem hexes are, rather than this being overpowered.
 * Some others said it was fine. I wonder if this is because of how big of a problem hexes are, rather than this being overpowered.


 * Mend Hex - - "Remove a hex from target ally. For 20 seconds, that ally gains +3 health regeneration."
 * - "Remove 1 enchantment from target foe. If an enchantment was removed, that foe suffers from Bleeding for seconds."
 * Comments for this were:


 * <--So would I
 * <--So would I


 * Super Vigorous Spirit - - "For 15 seconds, Whenever target ally attacks, that ally gains 50 health."
 * - "For seconds, whenever target foe attacks, that foe takes  damage."
 * This one's pretty straightforward. I forgot to add a duration to the original, but it was meant to be on par with empathy. Regardless, here's what people said:


 * sox11 told me to basically nerf every aspect of this skill.
 * sox11 told me to basically nerf every aspect of this skill.


 * GigaMending - - "(Enchantment) For 10 seconds, target ally gains 30 health each second."
 * - "For 10 seconds, target foe has - Health degeneration and takes damage each second. When Illusion of Pain ends, that foe is healed for ."
 * For those who don't yet know, 1 pip of degen = 2 damage per second (unprottable, obviously), so IoP at 10/10 ends up being 30 life lost per second. My version doesn't come with a drawback, but most of the time, neither does IoP.




 * Mending Wave - - "(Enchantment) Target ally and all adjacent allies are healed for 100 and gain another +100 max health for 15 seconds."
 * - "If this attack hits, target foe suffers from Bleeding for seconds. If you have other skills on your bar, target foe also suffers from a Deep Wound for  seconds."


 * Xinrae's Rage - - "(Elite Hex) After 1 second, steal 80 health from target foe."
 * - "For 8 seconds, the next time target ally takes damage from a foe that damage is limited to 5% of that ally's max Health and that ally steals up to Health from that foe."
 * Mine is identical, but without the damage reduction.


 * Everyone pretty much said the same thing: It's xinrae's weapon.


 * Lolraeg - - "(Spell) You gain 10 adrenaline."
 * This one was stumping people who figured out my plan earlier. Positioning, like adrenaline, is a resource. Melee characters (who are supposed to do more damage than casters) want to minimize the distance between them and their opponents, and casters want to maximize it. Shadow stepping gives a melee character an unlimited amount of positioning with a single use, which they can then use to fuel their attacks. When used on someone who needs to get away from melee, it basically resets the melee's positioning to the lowest possible state (far away). Here are some things people said about skills that give you tons of resource at once:
 * This one was stumping people who figured out my plan earlier. Positioning, like adrenaline, is a resource. Melee characters (who are supposed to do more damage than casters) want to minimize the distance between them and their opponents, and casters want to maximize it. Shadow stepping gives a melee character an unlimited amount of positioning with a single use, which they can then use to fuel their attacks. When used on someone who needs to get away from melee, it basically resets the melee's positioning to the lowest possible state (far away). Here are some things people said about skills that give you tons of resource at once:


 * <-equivalent of "25/90 it"
 * <-equivalent of "25/90 it"


 * Grace Healing - - "(Spell) For 5 seconds, all party members are healed for 40 each second."
 * ,, , , etc.
 * This is just a partywide (instead of aoe) fire magic dps skill, so mine is considerably better.




 * I win - - "Kill all enemies in this instance (PvE only)."
 * - "For as long as you are awake, enemies can't do damage."
 * If you try to whine that this is not actually what Shadow Form does, I challenge you to read the skill description. Anyone who is even a half-competent SF tank can stop 100% of the damage coming in. This skill (and the two others that support it, depending on your build) single-handedly reduces pve mobs to sandbags with loot.


 * Redeem - - "(Elite) Each party member is healed for 120 health."
 * - "Target foe and all nearby foes are struck with Searing Flames. Foes already on fire when this Skill is cast are struck for fire damage. Foes not already on fire begin Burning for  seconds."
 * Yes, mine does 20 more healing than SF does damage. Big difference.


 * <-I completely agree. 25 energy and exhaustion on Searing Flames, please.
 * <-I completely agree. 25 energy and exhaustion on Searing Flames, please.
 * <-I completely agree. 25 energy and exhaustion on Searing Flames, please.

Why did I do this?
I wanted to bring a new perspective to both players who have played the game for awhile, and to the developers, so they can see how outrageous they've let some of these skills become. When something broken stays in the game for years and years, it lowers the bar for everything else, and eventually, people think some of those skills are fine, simply because they've been there. When wail of doom was introduced, everyone was raging about it, but now, after nerfs that didn't change anything, people accept it as part of the game. Don't. A broken skill is a broken skill, no matter how long it has been left alone.