ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Ranger/Lacerate

From Guild Wars Wiki

Lacerate

[edit] Klumpeet's Issue -- 11:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Discussion

Issue

Provides 2 extra degen from bleeding and sometimes spreads it to other enemies. Very weak and not worth an elite slot, especially since there are fairly few ways of spreading bleeding and it is outdone by Ulcerous Lungs and Toxicity for poison.

Suggestion 1

Increase to 2...5...6 degen, decrease to 5 energy.

Suggestion 2

Change functionality:

"Elite Nature Ritual. Create a level 1...8...10 spirit. Whenever a creature within range would take more than 120...72...60 damage, that damage is negated and spread equally between all creatures within its range that have less than 90% Health. This spirit dies after 3...15...18 seconds."

I know this isn't very ranger-ish or similar to the previous function, but it still fits the name and could create some interesting circumstances in-game.

[edit] Suggested buff

Issue

As above. It might be worth taking in some builds (good synergy with Barbed Arrows or teammates with Barbed Spear, for example), but for the fact that it's an elite and it's just not worth that.

Suggestion

Giving the skill some conditions which are more under your control would, I feel, make this spirit more useful (sure, you can choose to bring lots of Bleeding, but it's a very common condition that other people are likely to have as well).

10 2 15

Elite Nature Ritual. Create a level 1...8...10 Spirit. Whenever a non-Spirit creature within its range suffers from Bleeding, it takes 5...17...20 damage. The creatures also have -2...8...10 armour against Slashing damage and suffer -3 Health degeneration while Bleeding. This Spirit dies after 30...126...150 seconds.

Having a 2 cast time would also make this the quickest spirit currently out there, which would mean that it would be very hard for your foes to take the spirit down and keep it down (with the short recharge you will be able to put it up again soon and easily). The armour penalty against slashing damage would also strengthen synergies with weapons such as swords (which cause Bleeding a lot and so already benefit from this skill), possibly helping to push them into the meta.