Feedback:User/Soldier198/Smiting Prayers PvE Rework

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The goal of this page is to offer up suggestions that may make Smiting Prayers more useful as a damage and support oriented attribute line in PvE. The changes as suggested are restricted to PvE only due to the very delicate balance between the healing and damage capabilities of Monks in PvP.

Overview[edit]

In the course of PvP balance, Smiting Prayers has been left in a wanting state. As described by the developers before, this was out of necessity due to the fact that allowing a single profession to heal, prot, and deal damage with efficacy has the potential for that profession to dominate the PvP gamemode. Before production on Guild Wars was discontinued, the developers stated that a Smiting Prayers rework was in the making, though a slated date of release was not given.

We can presume that this rework, should it have come to fruition, would have been one of either two things: A. The rework would mostly be restricted to PvE out of concern for imbalancing PvP, similar to how Ritualist binding rituals saw dramatic changes for PvE only, or B. The rework would have involved altering Smiting Prayers skills in a way that allowed for offensive support and utility, but not much in the way of direct damage, with an end goal of allowing a single Smiting Prayers Monk the ability to formidably enhance a teams offensive potential, yet meeting rapidly deteriorating returns once more than one Smiting Prayers Monk is added to a team.

This rework is intended to adhere mostly to the former theory, with a general improvement in the damage dealing capability of Smiting Prayers, yet there are also some functionality changes that aim to enhance the utility and supportive capabilities of Smiters.

Divine Favor

From a gameplay perspective, the bonus healing from Divine Favor provides Monks with an innate advantage over other professions when using their own primary profession skills. Other classes may dip into Healing Prayers or Protection Prayers to assist with healing and support, or even to entirely replace a Monk (such as is seen through the use of E/Mo bonders), but only a Monk can gain the extra healing from Divine Favor. This, in effect, means that anytime a secondary Monk uses supportive Monk skills they are unable to use them at their highest potential.

When it comes to Smiting Prayers and dealing direct damage, none of the methods in which Smiters deal damage gain any inherent advantage from the very profession they are native to, aside from the ability to use them at higher attributes. Whereas a Mesmer's Fast Casting will always grant the Mesmer an advantage over secondary Mesmers when using their own skills, which again serves to reinforce Mesmers as being the best operators of their own skills, this is not true of Divine Favor when it comes to Smiting abilities.

  • Divine Favor: Functionality of this attribute changed to: "For each rank of Divine Favor, allies are healed for 3.2 whenever you cast Monk spells on them. Several Monk skills, especially spells related to Energy gain and healing, become more effective with higher Divine Favor. In PvE, for each rank of Divine Favor, foes are struck for an additional 1 Holy Damage (maximum 10) whenever you use Smiting Prayers skills on them."

The idea presented here is to give Monks a source of additional damage for Smiting Prayers that only they can access. By tying a small damage bonus to Divine Favor, we give primary Monks a way to strengthen Smiting Prayers without negatively affecting secondary professions. My fear with improving Smiting Prayers without in some way tying its strength to Divine Favor was that we would see a situation where secondary Monks could utilize Smiting Prayers better than the Monks themselves, similar to the state of Restoration Magic after Factions released.

This damage bonus will only apply to skills that both target an enemy and deal direct damage. It won't activate when casting a hex on a foe, nor will it increase the damage dealt by skills like Scourge Enchantment or Shield of Judgement.

The majority of Smiting Prayers skills are underpowered relative to the current levels of damage in the live game. Ray of Judgment is the only outlier as it is a popular skill for Smiters in PvE due to its high damage. This nerf is intended to keep its power level unchanged after the buff to Divine Favor.

Improving Signets

  • Bane Signet Bane Signet: Reduced recharge to 15 seconds; changed functionality to: "Signet. Target foe takes 26...50...56 holy damage. If target foe was attacking, that foe and all adjacent foes are knocked down."
  • Signet of Rage Signet of Rage: Reduced recharge to 15 seconds; changed functionality to: "Signet. Target foe takes 26...50...56 holy damage. For each attack skill target foe has, that foe and all adjacent foes take +5...9...10 holy damage."
  • Castigation Signet Castigation Signet: Reduced recharge to 15 seconds; changed functionality to: "Signet. Target foe takes 26...50...56 holy damage. If that foe was attacking or casting a spell, you gain 1...8...10 energy."
  • Signet of Judgment Signet of Judgment: Reduced recharge to 15 seconds; increased area of effect to nearby.

Firstly, the recharge of the majority of the Smiting Prayers signets were simply too high for their abilities. Most all of them have seen recharge reductions. Additionally, PvE content favors abilities that strike more than one target. Where appropriate, select signets received an AoE component to what were previously single target only effects. Good examples of this are both Bane Signet and Signet of Rage. As these Signets affect foes that attack, giving them an AoE component seemed natural, for attacking enemies tend to gather around one target, such as a tank. Additionally, because not all martial professions have adrenaline skills, the condition for Signet of Rage to deal bonus damage was changed to rely on the number of attack skills a target has instead of their adrenaline skills. This change permits the skill will be more universally useful against all martial professions instead of those relying primarily on adrenaline-based skills. As Monks are hard pressed for energy management, Castigation Signet was updated to allow the energy again to occur on enemies casting spells as well, this way the skill is not so static and may be more useful in a wider array of encounters. Signet of Judgment received an increase in the range of its AoE, as adjacent range is rather small for an elite skill of this type.

  • Signet of Mystic Wrath Signet of Mystic Wrath: Reduced casting time to 1 second; reduced recharge to 15 seconds; changed functionality to: "Signet. Target foe takes 20...50...56 holy damage. If you are under the effects of an enchantment, two foes near your target take 20...50...56 holy damage. "

Signet of Mystic Wrath saw a dramatic change in functionality. Previously, it dealt a large amount of damage to a single target, yet to achieve this damage output one had to be under the effects of multiple enchantments. Additionally, to prevent a team from spiking quickly with this sort of damage, it had a lengthy cast time of two seconds. This new functionality is designed to give Smiters access to a less conditional form of AoE damage by requiring the Monk to be under only a single enchantment in order to strike additional foes, a rather easy requirement to fulfill. In turn, the AoE damage will be limited to striking just two additional foes as to not make this skill too powerful in comparison to Signet of Judgement.

Damage and utility

  • Banish Banish: Reduced recharge to 5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Spell. Target foe takes 20...52...60 holy damage. This spell does double damage and recharges instantly if it hits a summoned creature."

Certain skills received plain increases to their ability to deal damage, such as Banish. Banish previously had a recharge time that was about twice as long as would be expected for the amount of damage it dealt. The adjustment given to it took notes from the balance change made to Spiritual Pain in the May of 2010 Mesmer balance update. Quoting the developers, "We've lowered the Energy cost and recharge on Spiritual Pain to numbers more appropriate for a basic damage skill... This newer version is intended as a decent unconditional damage skill..." The suggested change to Banish has similar intentions. The addition of an instant recharge serves to increase its effectiveness against summoned creatures while simultaneously differentiating it from other anti-summon skills that often deal area damage.

  • Spear of Light Spear of Light: Reduced recharge to 10 seconds; changed functionality to: "Spell. Spear of Light flies towards target foe and deals 20...50...56 holy damage if it hits. If it hits an attacking foe, all other adjacent foes take 5...41...50 holy damage and are interrupted."

Spear of Light received treatment similar to that of Signet of Clumsiness while also taking some inspiration from Lightning Javelin. The damage bonus is now dealt in adjacent range around the target with an interrupt added on top.

  • Smite Smite: Reduced recharge to 8 seconds: changed functionality to: "Spell. Target foe and all adjacent foes take 10...26...30 holy damage and are weakened for 3...10...12 seconds."

Smite was updated to allow Monks a way to keep a group of enemies weakened. Because Smite still retains a small amount of armor ignoring damage that is now dealt in adjacent range, the weakness duration inflicted by this skill is considerably shorter than that of similar spells, such as Enfeebling Blood.

  • Word of Censure Word of Censure: Changed functionality to: "Spell. Target foe takes 10...70...85 holy damage. If that foe was under the effects of a hex or enchantment, you gain 7 energy."

Word of Censure was previously balanced very carefully in consideration of PvP play, and as such is another skill that received a straight up improvement in its ability to deal damage. In balancing this skill, I looked at the performance of another high damage, low recharge, armor ignoring single target elite skill, Discord, as precedence for how powerful a skill of this kind should be. When comparing these two skills, Discord has the ability to deal more damage, yet has a lower initial energy cost while also being conditional. Word of Censure was adjusted to deal more damage than it previously did and, uniquely amongst caster professions, the 10 energy cost is quite limiting as Monks have few options for energy management. As such, a conditional energy gain was added dependent on the target being hexed or enchanted. The 20 second disable was also extremely out of place in PvE play, and so was removed. These changes should significantly improve the performance of the skill in PvE content.

  • Balthazar's Aura Balthazar's Aura: Decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased energy cost to 15; decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.

Also formerly balanced carefully in consideration of PvP, Balthazar's Aura received plain improvements all around. The decreases in cast time, energy cost, and recharge should hopefully allow it to be used more liberally in the PvE format.

Uncoupling duplicate skills

  • Kirin's Wrath Kirin's Wrath: Decreased casting time to .75 seconds; reduced recharge to 10 seconds; changed functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 5 seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes are hexed with Kirin's Wrath. Whenever each foe receives physical damage, that foe has cracked armor for 1...8...10 seconds."
  • Symbol of Wrath Symbol of Wrath: Increased energy cost to 10; reduced recharge to 20 seconds; changed functionality to: "Spell. Create a Symbol of Wrath at target foe's location. For 5 seconds, foes adjacent to that location take 10...22...25 holy damage each second."

Symbol of Wrath and Kirin's Wrath as duplicate skills shared the same problem. They took too long to cast, had lengthy recharges, and did too little damage for the recharge they had. As the last major balance update released for Guild Wars saw an uncoupling of duplicate skills for the Elementalist profession, I decided to follow that philosophy when adjusting these skills. Kirin's Wrath saw a dramatic functionality change, turning it into a supportive hex. This change combined elements of skills such as Well of Ruin and Weaken Armor. Whereas Weaken Armor inflicts a higher duration Cracked Armor, the new Kirin's Wrath, as a hex, is a bit more difficult to remove and can inflict Cracked Armor more than once, negating the benefits of condition removal. As such, the Cracked Armor it inflicts has a significantly shorter duration, and the recharge time as compared to Weaken Armor is twice as long. Symbol of Wrath was changed to function as a vanilla, enemy targeted AoE damage over time skill, something that Monks were sorely lacking outside of the outstanding Ray of Judgement. Because Symbol of Wrath deals armor ignoring damage, its total damage potential is moderately less than similarly designed skills, such as Firestorm.

  • Stonesoul Strike Stonesoul Strike: Increased energy cost to 10; increased recharge time to 10 seconds; changed functionality to: "Skill. If target foe is knocked down, that foe and all nearby foes take 10...50...60 holy damage."

Lastly, with the improvements to some of the knockdown options in the Smiting attribute line, it seemed appropriate to give Stonesoul Strike a new functionality to differentiate it from its duplicate, Holy Strike. Stonesoul Strike is no longer touch ranged and now deals damage in an area provided the target is knocked down, while Holy Strike retains a higher damage output against a single target. When used with the improvements to skills such as Bane Signet, Signet of Mystic Wrath, and Signet of Judgment, it should make for a deadly combination.

Conclusion[edit]

The ultimate goal of these changes is to make Smiting Prayers an effective line for damage dealing and offensive support. The addition of AoE damage modifiers and recharge reductions to many of their skills are necessary changes needed to meet the demands of the PvE format. Functionality changes and the addition of conditions such as weakness and cracked armor aim to enhance the utility of Smiters and allow them to further aid their allies in dealing damage, while changes to Divine Favor cement Monks as best capable of utilizing offensive Smiting Prayers' skills.