Feedback:User/Widowmaker/Communing Skill Changes

With the days of the Spirit Spammers now pretty much gone, Communing is languishing as an attribute only used by spike teams for Brutal, Vital and Sundering Weapon. Without making Communing spirits overpowered, I would love to see a few buffs to make them actually useable and offer some utility.

It's been widely acknowledged that spirits aren't active enough, and given the recent PvE changes, ANet seems to understand this too. Thus, this is one thing I think also needs to be addressed in PvP, though personally I would not make such radical changes as the PvE ones.

15 3 30

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. This Spirit's attacks deal damage and whenever it strikes a Hexed foe, it deals a further  damage to that foe and all adjacent foes. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * Unless it hits a hexed foe, Anguish is worse than Pain, and costs 5 times as much to boot! By increasing the spirit level, slashing the recharge and duration to make it a little more active, and increasing the base damage, it becomes more comparable with Pain. The energy cost is also cut to 15 (though this may perhaps not be necessary) and an more powerful AoE effect is added so that this skill is worth its higher cost. In a hexway, this could become a potent pressure tool, but that would require taking a Communing Ritualist in place of another hex character.

15 3⁄4 30 Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. This Spirit's attacks deal damage and whenever it strikes a Hexed foe, it deals a further  damage to that foe and all adjacent foes. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * In PvE, Anguish is a lot less bad, but I would change it to mirror the PvP changes.

10 1 15

Hex Spell. For seconds, target foe moves 75% slower and cannot attack. Binding Chains ends if that foe takes damage.


 * A skill which is potentially useful, but actually really bad, Binding Chains could be made decent by changing it from a long-duration skill which puts a character out of the game - so long as they aren't damage - and requires just too much coordination for too little gain to a short-duration snare which could be used to keep enemy frontliners off you or your allies. With it now having a much shorter recharge, the ending-on-damage clause is not such a big deal, since you're not paying for extra time you're not going to get. Overall, the lowered cost and activation time make this much less unwieldy.

The 25/02/2010 Update has given this skill a new functionality, making the suggested adjustments obselete.

25 3 45

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. This Spirit deals damage and anyone struck by its attack loses one Enchantment. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * This is a potent skill, but it's already hampered by a high energy cost and shorter duration than its recharge - which is quite long, so killing it puts it down for a while. A 5-second activation time is too much for this skill, so cutting it to 3 would really help.

15 3 20

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. All non-Spirit allies within its range have a 66% chance to block incoming attacks. Every time an attack is blocked in this way, this Spirit takes 30 damage. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * Displacement dies too quickly to be useful. By increasing its level and lowering the health loss, it becomes a spirit which might actually stick around for a bit. To compensate, the block chance is slightly lowered and the duration is halved - though it's never going to live that long anyway. A massively reduced recharge also means it can be reapplied when it dies, but at the same cost and cast time as before.

15 3⁄4 20

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. All non-Spirit allies within its range have a 75% chance to block incoming attacks. Every time an attack is blocked in this way, this Spirit takes 30 damage. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * The PvE version gets much the same treatment.

5 2 30

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. This Spirit's attacks deal damage. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * The only half-decent spirit in Communing, at least for general use, Pain is a cheap, long-lasting, bread-and-butter spirit, but a 2-second cast time would let it be applied more easily. A reduced duration makes up for this, though it's still long even so. A PvE change is unneeded here, since the casting time is already really low.

10 1 15

Hex Spell. For seconds, target foe and all nearby foes cannot achieve a critical hit, and gain no benefit from Weapon Spells.


 * Comparing with Blurred Vision, we see that depending on the target's weapon type, Dulled Weapon actually lowers raw damage output by a roughly similar amount. It also prevents energy gain on Assassins and has a larger area. However, it does not prevent bonus damage or conditions from skills or adrenaline gain et.c. as BV does when it causes a miss. Most importantly, though, this is in an underused line. By making it the only anti-weapon spell skill in the game (though I think a few others should be added), it provides a way to get rid of those otherwise unremovable Brutal Weapons and things. To compensate, the duration is decreased and the recharge increased.

Thanks to the 25/02/2010 Update, this skill is now more or less where is should be.

25 4 30

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. All foes within its range attack % slower and gain only two-thirds as much adrenaline. This Spirit dies after seconds.

15 1 30

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. All foes within its range attack and move % slower and gain only two-thirds as much adrenaline. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * About as bad as Smiter's Boon (post-nerf) but with a longer casting time, Soothing has a powerful effect, but only against Warriors and Paragons, and there are better alternatives. By giving it an attack speed decrease too, it becomes a much more powerful defensive skill worth of its high cost. Since it's likely to be killed quickly, I would also lower the duration, recharge and activation time to make it a bit more manageable.

15 4 45

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. All non-Spirit foes knocked down within its range are knocked down for at least 3 seconds and take Earth damage. Whenever this happens, this Spirit loses Health. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * Like Displacement, Earthbind suffers damage when it does its job, meaning its survival rate is extra poor. However, this one at least only loses 25-50 health, meaning it can survive quite a few hits, especially with some Spawning Power - the problem here is more the effect. Though powerful, it requires that you take a lot of knockdowns, which can be prevented (Aura of Stability, Balanced Stance et.c.), and is somewhat inferior to a Stonefist Insignia on warriors. Since they are the most common source of knockdowns, with Backbreaker Assassins being another (who also don't benefit from it), it's not that useful. Adding some damage remedies this, and with it being Earth damage, lets the Ritualist do something a bit different (Rits normally inflict Lightning damage). The 5-second cast time is also lowered (no spirit should have that, really) and the recharge and duration reduced so that it can be used more as a short-term pressure or spiking aid.

15 1 25

Binding Ritual. Create a level Spirit. All non-Spirit foes knocked down within its range are knocked down for at least 3 seconds and take Earth damage. Whenever this happens, this Spirit loses Health. This Spirit dies after seconds.


 * The PvE version of this should also get the damage, which would be very helpful for dealing with mobs when combined with, say, an Earth Shaker.

Obviously, there are a lot more problems. For a start I would follow the same pattern suggested for Displacement for Union and Shelter. Possibly I may add a few more at a later date.