ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Monk/Scourge Sacrifice

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Scourge Sacrifice

A. von Rin's Issue

Discussion

• Issue: This is part of my "make Smiting viable" campaign. Make this skill more effective. It is just bad atm and doesn't realy help Smiters to become viable.

• Suggestion: "Hex Spell. For 3...10...12 seconds, target foe cannot use skills that sacrifice health." *5 Energy / *1 Activation / *8 Recharge.

Or (based on Enar's idea, but without the health sacrifice on the monk - doesn't fit to monks imo):

Complete rework of the skill: "Hex Spell. For 3...10...12 seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell, that foe sacrfices 10% Hp." *5 Energy / *1 Activation / *12 Recharge. (Making foes sacrifice a small amount of health isn't OP and makes the skill more viable because it wouldn't be so specialized anymore).

Enar's Suggestion

Issue : Make core / proph skills better and upgrade them.

Suggestion: Make Skill different like : " You sacrifice 30-10%.For 10 seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell, that foe sacrfices 10-30% Hp. " Recharge 15 seconds then.

Something like Backfire and Spoil Victor but with Sacrifice. 600hp monk sacrifice 15 % of like would be very good ;D ~Enar. hello. 20:42, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Thats just stupid. thats more overpowered than searing flames. 1s. cast time please. Or you could cause them to lose energy equivalent to the % sacrificed. Phill Gaston 04:06, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Rework the skill

Issue

This skill is too niche. How often do you come up against people who sacrifice?

Suggestion

Normally, I'm in favour of keeping the flavour of skills and just re-balancing them, but in this case I think the skill needs to be totally reworked and maybe even renamed so that it makes sense.

I would suggest:

Scourge Shadow. 5 1 5 .

Hex Spell. For 3...15...18 seconds, every time target foe casts a hex spell or deals shadow damage, that foe takes 15...63...75 holy damage.

This would no longer have the large area but since it lasts ~3x as long as its recharge it's still easy to spread about, and seems like a fair tradeoff for it's increased functionality. It's still a bit niche and so might not see use in RA and TA, for example, but in certain PvE areas it could be useful and perhaps HA/GvG too what with the hex-heavy teams you get nowadays (at least, in a team of 8 it might be worth one slot). Think of it like a cheaper but more specific Backfire.

Alternate Suggestion

Given ANet don't seem to like changing skill names, how's this:

Scourge Sacrifice. 5 1 5 .

Hex Spell. For 5...17...20 seconds, every time target foe sacrifices health or inflicts a Condition on themselves, that foes and all nearby foes take 15...51...60 Holy damage.

Not many people sacrifice health, but almost all teams will feature someone with Draw Conditions or Foul Feast, which will at least give this some use. You could even make it so that Draw and FF trigger this once per condition, meaning you could be taking up to 480 damage from using it (though that's highly unlikely to happen). This would also have some extra use against Paragons (Agressive Refrain) and Necros with skills like Chillblains or Signet of Agony. OK, it still wouldn't be that useful, but it would be better than it is now, and could always be used as a cover hex I guess.

Following this line of thought through, you could even add something like this:

Scourge Sacrifice. 10 2 10 .

Hex Spell. For 5...17...20 seconds, every time target foe uses a skill which targets an ally, that foe sacrifices 4...10...12% of their maximum health.

The only problem is that this doesn't really follow the theme any more... only that you're sacrificing yourself to heal others. Also it could be a bit powerful if stacked with Scourge Healing/Soul Bind.

Bathory's Issue 07:36, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Comments & Suggestions Here, Please

Issue

Making this an AoE hex skill is stupid because foes that sacrifice health (Necro and very very few Rits) will not conveniently bunch up for you. Reworking it to be more general against foes that do sacrifice health and hurting teams that choose to bring a member with health sacrifice. Making the secondary damage not hurt the Hexed foe makes this have little drawback if you are not in the area of an ally when you use a skill with a low health sacrifice (Blood of the Aggressor).

Suggestion

5 1 5

Hex Spell. (30 seconds) Doubles Health sacrifice. Deals 20...49...56 holy damage to foes in the area whenever health is sacrificed. Does not damage Hexed foe.