User:Mordax Praetorian/Melee

=Guild Wars Melee Classes (Warrior, Assassin, Dervish)=

I'll make no secret of it, I like casters, but I love melee classes. Its also obvious that right now, the Assassin and Dervish are very weak. The Assassin is currently lacking in the spiking effectiveness which is really the only thing the class does, and the Dervish is so easy to disrupt and so clunky to play that its advantages simply aren't worth it.

The solution that most people seem to be tossing around is simply to nerf the warrior into line, but my view even before I created my Warrior was that the Dervish and Assassin were simply weaker than all of the other classes due to their inherant flaws, the reason the Assassin and Dervish aren't used in GvG anymore isn't because the Warrior is stronger, its that all of the other classes are stronger.

The Warrior as Intended
If we look at the Warrior in isolation from the other classes, we see a distinct trend in its skills. Of its 3 weapons, Axes naturally lend themselves to damage, Swords naturally lend themselves to condition spreading, and Hammers naturally lend themselves to disruption (via knockdown).

Tactics seems meant to be used by any Warrior, to provide greater durability (via Parries) to backup any weapon choice.

The Warrior Now
There are 2 things that in my mind break the intended vision of the Warrior.

The first of these is Scythes, Scythes may be used by a W/D and unseat the Axe as the Warrior's primary Damage weapon, today we mainly see the Axe used to combine a good spike damage with Deep Wound and KD Disruption.

The second is that over time Tactics skills have been nerfed out of use, generally because of abuse by caster classes.

We hence see a new 4-weapon Warrior, with Swords and Hammers where they were intended, albeit very underused in PvP, Scythes used for damage, and Axes used to combine a good damage with other aspects for a more balanced Warrior.

As fas as I am concerned, the reason we see fewer Hammer Warriors these days is not because of any flaw with Hammer Mastery, it is imo about where it should be, but simply because of the use of Shield Bash by casters, which is faultless counter to the Hammer Warrior

Fixing the Warrior
In my mind, the correct approach to the Warrior is to embrace what it is becoming, the class is fun to play and as long as Scythes exist the Warrior will never be exactly as intended. I see a Warrior with 4 distinct playstyles based on weapon choice, all of which are dragged up to standard by the Warrior's natural durability.

Strength
The only nerf to the Warrior for its own sake should be made here, Warrior's Endurance is a slight too good when combined with an IAS, I am able, using Warrior's Endurance and Burst of Aggression to out-damage my parties Elementalists while standing still (and equal them while running around), And to race Assassin Spikes without stopping to recharge.

All the skill needs is to be a Stance again, in this way one would be prevented from using an IAS stance, requiring instead Enchantment based IAS (from Dervish), and although these skills exist they are easier to counter due to being Enchantments, and stop the Warrior taking secondary Elementalist for Conjure spells.

Swordsmanship and Tactics
I choose to address these Attributes together because my ideas for them are interlinked, as are the 2 attributes by the presence of many Sword-Only skills in Tactics.

Swords are good for condition spreading, but with things as they are, this simply is not enough to put them on par with the Warrior's other weapons. In my mind the Sword should also be the tanking weapon of choice for the Warrior.

A good Warrior tank does so with Earth Magic, primarily through the use of Grasping Earth to keep enemies away from the casters, but I envision a Warrior better able to tank on its own merits, through the use of Parry skills that allow it to block for adjacent allies. This version of the Tactics Parries are less vulnerable to abuse by casters, because they retain their lack of effectiveness where a single target is concerned.

These parries are good because they allow a Warrior to share its durability with those that need it nearby, these skills now promote some clumping, which is good because it helps the Dervish out by providing a tactic for it to counter, and also helps out Heat Spells which are currently of little use in GvG, RA and TA, and it also provides interesting options for PvE.

Other Tactics and Swordsmanship skills can be modelled similar ways, providing bonuses either to resources (Adren/Energy) or damage for using them to defend allies, particularly with a Sword in hand. Skills providing a Defensive bonus with an "If you are wielding a sword" line for some extra bonus when triggered.

This provides a new and interesting way to play a Sword Warrior, which is distinct and different from the Protection Monk and Paragon which can provide similar options. A Warrior would never be as good at it, but could provide notable damage through Sword-Only bonuses either on their own or fuelling other attacks through resources, or provide a strong Tank at the same time through use of skills like Defy Pain.

Scythe Mastery
Not a Warrior Attribute, but definitely relevant to the Warrior.

Warriors need the Scythe, having the Scythe as the Warrior's damage weapon encourages Hybrid Bars, and frees up the Axe to do more interesting things.

With Warrior's Endurance put in its proper place (as a Stance), Spamming energy scythe attacks at IAS speeds becomes a lot harder, requiring Enchantment IAS to be used to opening up suitable counters to bring Scythe Warriors into line.

Axe Mastery
Axes are good as they are, they are the Warrior's Balance Weapon, able to combine aspects of what the other weapons can do, and with the changes described above they should fall into their roll perfectly.

In my vision for the Warrior class, Axes would provide many interesting build options to bring about these combinations, requiring thought and creativity to build and use. This mostly comes off the simple fact that Axes by nature are a high Attack Speed, medium Damage weapon that allows the use of a shield, doesn't rely on points in Tactics, and keeps Secondary Profession open.

The Assassin as Intended
The Assassin playstyle is clearly very defined:

Go in -> Spike -> Retreat -> Repeat

You use Shadow Arts to get you in and out, and to keep you alive, chains from Dagger Mastery to pull the damage, Critical Strikes to provide extra damage and Energy to pull the Spike, and Deadly Arts for utility, including as part of the Chain.

But this style creates massive problems in the Guild Wars system. Firstly the Assassin is marked as being the only class that is only intended to be capable of doing 1 thing. Secondly this style is frustrating to play against and difficult to balance.

The Assassin Now
The Assassin has had its intended playstyle nerfed away over time because it it irritating to play against and difficult to balance. Assassin chains are easily disruptable through the use of Enchantment/Hex/Condition Removal, or simply Shield Bash. When disrupted they typically require their full recovery time before they can try again, and even when the chain goes off smoothly the Spike is no more effective than an Air Spike or Dervish Spike.

In PvE, the ability to spike 1 target every 30 seconds is generally useless anyway, making the Assassin a poor class overall for anything other than farming, unless using as a False Primary.

Fixing the Assassin
Clearly the best way to pull the Assassin into line with the other GW classes is to open up more playstyles based mostly within the class itself, and to stop Assassins from being reliant on combo extenders such as Impale to free up space on their bars.

Spiking Assassins
Allowing the Assassin to pull spikes at its current efficacy more often would make this playstyle work a lot better with less chance of breaking the game, and less irritation overall.

Assassins should be encouraged to have smaller Spike chains, by only shortening the recharge times on standard Lead, Offhand and Duel attacks, leaving skills like Impale and Signet of Toxic Shock as usable only once every other spike chain, or better yet changing their function to work only for other Assassin archetypes. Thus freeing up more space on an Assassin's bar for utility and durability skills.

Utility/Disruption Assassins
These Assassins would mostly use Deadly Arts, and would have attack chains devoted to conditions, and disruption through energy denial and cripple. I feel a good way to explain would be a sample chain of what the new Deadly Arts might look like

Lead - Dancing Daggers - Now requires Daggers, Hits up to 3 foes and hexes them with -1 energy degeneration for a few seconds Offhand - Signet of Toxic Shock - Affects nearby foes that have been hit by a Lead Attack, inflicts Poison and deals some Lightning Damage Duel - Impale - Maybe not quite as much damage, but otherwise a Duel Attack that does what Impale used to do

This Chain should probably have a recharge of about 10 seconds, with affects it inflicts lasting about 5 seconds. You can also see that it makes use of skills that would once have been used to extend another chain.

Assassins using chains like this would inflict less damage than other classes, but be able to spread conditions such as Poison, Cripple and Deep wound around, while making a small dent on enemy energy. Simply cycling the above Chain would synergise with team members that can take advantage of Poison, inflict some damage to 3 foes at once, hurting their energy slightly and providing deep wound for other allies to take advantage of with their spikes.

Another option for these types of Assassins comes from Shadow Arts. Shadowsteps are currently not too useful because of the Aftercast, and rightly so, but perhapse some of them could be redone to transport both the player and targeted enemies. Giving the Assassin the option to run up to an enemy threatening an allied caster, and then transport them off somewhere else to spike, or to create clumps for Utility Chains.

The Dervish as Intended
There are clearly meant to be 2 types of Dervish, the Enchantment upkeep Dervish that renews its Enchantments and uses their duration affects to win, and the Enchantment cycling Dervish that uses short duration enchantments and cycles them for the sake of their end effects, and the effects of skills that remove enchantments.

Combining the 2 concepts is made difficult due to lack of bar space.

An Upkeep Dervish would be a good tank due to defensive enchantments. A Cycling Dervish would be a good damage dealer due to powerful end effects.

The presence of Dervish Healing Skills also points towards a Dervish Healing Option

The Dervish Now
All options for the Dervish are fundamentally flawed due to its reliance on enchantments.

The Upkeep and Healing Dervishes don't work because removing their Enchantments is easy and they cease to function if you do so, creating a class that although powerful, is far too easy to counter to be any good at all.

The Cycling Dervish is a lot more stable, but can be killed by its own monks, for example:

Dervish uses Vital Boon -> Removes Vital Boon with Twin Moon Sweep to gain healing from Vital Boon, Mysticism and Twin Moon Sweep to stay alive, Energy from Mysticism to keep cycle going, and 2 attacks from Twin Moon Sweep to deal damage from the cycle.

Instead, this could happen:

Dervish uses Vital Boon -> Receives beneficial enchant (Guardian for the sake of argument) from Monk -> Remove Guardian with Twin Moon Sweep because its on top -> Fail to receive healing from Vital Boon -> No longer has blocking from Guardian -> Dead Dervish

These Issues plague Dervishes of all types, creating a class that fails to work through its intended means. There simply isn't enough bar space, energy or time for the Dervish to cover its important enchantments and still take advantage of them.

Fixing the Dervish
There are ways to make all 3 types of Dervish work.

The Enchantment Upkeep Dervish (Tank)
This Dervish requires more ways to cover up its own Enchantments, or ways to recover faster if its enchantments get stripped. Simply lowering the recharge time of Dervish Enchantments would help, but some loss of efficacy may be required if a Dervish that recovers too quickly turns out to be too powerful. A generic cover enchantment, such as a no upkeep enchantment without end, a fast cast time and a description that simply says "this enchantment does nothing" would also help a lot.

Upkeep Dervishes are incapable of taking advantage of their Scythe's high damage because of having to stop every 20 seconds to recast their enchantments, this makes playing Upkeep Dervishes a very clunky playstyle, so another option to improve the class would be a general reduction to the effectiveness of Dervish Defensive Enchantments and a shortening of their cast times. This would make a more fluid and more damage oriented Upkeep Dervish.

The Enchantment Cycling Dervish (Damage)
This is easily fixed by making Enchantment Removal Skills like Twin Moon Sweep only remove enchantments applied by "you". However I can see that this might not be possible, or that this may make the skill descriptions wordy and difficult to understand, so maybe making them only remove Dervish Enchantments would be a better option, despite the discouragement of hybrid bars this would create.

A Cycling Dervish wants enchantments with a low cast and recharge time, it is more able to take advantage of its Scythe Damage, but kept in check by the lack of its enchantment defenses for points in its cycle.

The Healing Dervish
I do believe that Dervish should be allowed to be the 3rd healing class, and along with the lower recharge on Dervish enchantments suggested for the Upkeep Dervish, a Dervish Healer would also benefit from some more targeting. Mystic Healing for example could say "one party member including the target." to better enable Dervishes to better make sure their healing goes where needed.

Natural Healing could also do with being able to target party members, or with doing a small party heal.

=Summery=

With these changes, we bring about 3 balanced Melee classes, that are reliable and that casters want to see infront of them. With these changes the 3 Melee classes would each support multiple playstyles, that are different enough from what casters and ranged are capable of to keep the game interesting, and hopefuly in balance with what other classes are capable of.