User:Aquadrizzt/Sandbox/A Balance Patch

Primary Attributes

• Strength: For each rank in Strength, your attacks have 1% armor penetration and you gain 1% more adrenaline from all sources.
• Expertise: For each rank in Expertise, the Energy cost of your stances and preparations is reduced by 3% and the duration of your stances and preparations is increased by 3%.
• Divine Favor: For each rank in Divine Favor, allies targeted by your spells are healed for 3 and enemies targeted by your spells take 3 holy damage.
• Soul Reaping: For each rank in Soul Reaping, you gain 1/2 Energy (rounded down) whenever a non-summoned creature dies. [This might still need a cooldown].
• Fast Casting: For each rank in Fast Casting, the activation time of your spells and signets is reduced by 3% and your spells recharge 3% faster in PvE.
• Energy Storage: For each rank in Energy Storage, your maximum Energy is increased by 3.
• Critical Strikes: For each rank in Critical Strikes, your chance to critically hit with attacks is increased by 1% and you gain 1/4 Energy (rounded down) whenever you critically hit.
• Spawning Power: For each rank in Spawning Power, your spells and rituals last 3% longer.
• Mysticism: For each rank in Mysticism, the Energy cost of your enchantments is reduced by 3% and you gain 1 armor while enchanted in PvE.
• Leadership: For each rank in Leadership, the Energy cost of your chants, echoes, and shouts is reduced by 3%.

Explanation: One of my biggest problems with the current primary attributes is that most of them do little to nothing to encourage creative synergy between them and various secondary professions. Expertise and Soul Reaping are particularly problematic in this regard, because the absurd amount of energy management they provide makes Rangers the best choice for most martial builds and Necromancers the best choice for most caster builds (barring some obvious exceptions like Soul Twisting Ritualists and most Mesmer builds). With the broadening of functionality and buffs across the board to most attributes (except Expertise, Fast Casting, Soul Reaping, and Critical Strikes), my hope is that different primary professions will be able to leverage their exclusive bonuses in new and exciting ways. Consider, for example a Ritualist/Monk whose Protection Prayers enchantments now last 50% longer, or a Monk/Elementalist who augments their Fire Magic with lots of holy damage.

Skill Types

Chants

• Chants have no activation time.
• Chants can be maintained indefinitely (although some will end if the cost of an effect cannot be paid), but can be cancelled early if desired.
• A character can only maintain a single chant at a time.
• Activating a chant while maintaining another ends the current one and begins the new one.
• A character can receive benefits from multiple chants at once.
• Some chants provide continuous benefits, while others will pulse benefits on a cooldown.
• Paragon chants generally affect all allies in earshot, whereas Mesmer chants (Mantras) typically only affect the Mesmer.
• Chants can be interrupted by specific skills.
• A character who is Dazed cannot use or maintain chants, and any chant they are currently maintaining ends when they become Dazed.

Explanation: There is a big divide between the theme/identity of chants and how they actually work mechanically. Making them function as maintained magical buffs should bring them closer to their theme.

Mesmer

Mantras

• Mantra of Concentration Chant.
• Mantra of Inscriptions Chant.
• Mantra of Persistence Chant. Hexes you cast last X% longer. (Inspiration Magic)
• Mantra of Recall Chant. You have +X Energy regeneration. (Inspiration Magic)
• Mantra of Recovery Chant. Your spells recharge X% faster. (Fast Casting)
• Mantra of Resolve Chant. Prevents interrupts against you. Prevention cost: you lose X Energy or Mantra of Resolve ends. (Inspiration Magic)
• Mantra of Signets Chant. You have +X armor for each signet. You gain X health each time you use a signet. (Inspiration)

Explanation: Thematically, mantras are much closer to chants than they are to stances. As you can now only maintain a single chant a time, the most important change is that mantras can be maintained indefinitely.

Elementalist

Energy and Attunements

Energy Costs

With the relevant elemental attunement, 10 Energy skills cost 6, 15 Energy skills cost 9, and 25 Energy skills cost 16. This has been streamlined to just moving all skills down one "tier", effectively applying the benefits of the relevant attunement without requiring the attunement itself. By default, all Elementalist skills that previously cost 25 Energy now cost 15, those that cost 15 Energy now cost 10, and those that cost 10 Energy now cost 5.

This accomplishes several things:

• It makes Elementalist spells more appealing to non-Elementalists who might not have otherwise have enough Energy to use them.
• It lets Elementalists use more than one attribute without needing to either eat a huge Energy cost for one attirbute or run two attunements.
• It fixes the fact that a high Energy pool by itself does not provide any kind of meaningful Energy management.

Attunements

• Air Attunement Stance. For 30 seconds, your spells that deal elemental damage deal lightning damage instead.
• Earth Attunement Stance. For 30 seconds, your spells that deal elemental damage deal earth damage instead.
• Fire Attunement Stance. For 30 seconds, your spells that deal elemental damage deal fire damage instead.
• Water Attunement Stance. For 30 seconds, your spells that deal elemental damage deal cold damage instead.
• Elemental Attunement Stance. For 30 seconds, your spells that deal elemental damage deal chaos damage instead.  

Attunements are a core part of any Elementalist's energy management, so much so that even the Codex Elementalist henchman is given "free" access to an attunement because they are so essential to the profession. With the rework of Elementalist energy costs to no longer depend on the relevant attunement, the attunements themselves are now free to provide other utility.

All five of the attunements are now stances with no linked attribute, and they each convert any spell the Elementalist casts into the appropriate damage type. This grants the profession unprecedented flexibility with their builds, and allows the focus of each attribute to be more about mechanics and less about providing the obligatory damage spells. Elemental Attunement may seem rather weak at first glance, but consider that chaos damage ignores any targeted armor bonuses, such as the bonuses many creatures have against fire damage.

These new attunements are not meant to be essential parts of any Elementalist's bar, as the current attunements are. Instead, they are meant to provide utility and open up possible synergies for both Elementalists and the other professions that have elemental damage spells (Necromancers, Assassins, Ritualists, and Dervishes).

Glyphs

This is a work in progress.

The behavior of glyphs has been standardized.

• Glyph of Concentration next spell cannot be interrupted and is unaffected by Dazed.
• Glyph of Elemental Power: next spell deals 25% more elemental damage.
• Glyph of Energy: next spell does not cost Energy or cause Overcast.
• Glyph of Renewal: next spell recharges instantly.
• Glyph of Sacrifice: next spell casts instantly but costs twice as much Energy.

• Glyph of Essence: next spell lasts X% longer. <Earth Magic>
• Glyph of Immolation: next spell targeting an enemy causes Burning for X seconds. <Fire Magic>
• Glyph of Lesser Energy: next spell costs X less Energy. <Energy Storage>
• Glyph of Restoration: next spell heals for X. <Water Magic>
• Glyph of Swiftness: next spell casts X% faster. <Air Magic>

Intensity: next instance of elemental damage from spells deals X% to other enemies in the area. <Sunspear> 

Attribute Identity

• Energy Storage: energy management, general utility
• Air Magic: targeted damage and martial hate (cracked armor, blind, weakness, armor pen)
• Earth Magic: protection and control
• Fire Magic: AoE damage and burning
• Water Magic: hexes (snares) and healing

Paragon

Attribute Identity

• Leadership: chant and shout synergy, effects that scale off number of nearby allies
• Spear Mastery: pointy sticks go poke
• Command: aggressive chants and shouts (attack speed, conditions, etc)
• Motivation: support chants and shouts (healing, energy management, condition/hex removal, etc)

Chants

See the changes to this skill type, listed above.

• Triggered chants: anthems (attack skills), arias (spells), lyrics (signets), song (skills).
• Passive chants: choruses.
• [I am uncertain what to do with Ballad of Restoration]

• Anthem of Disruption Every X seconds, allies in earshot interrupt an action with their next attack skill.
• Anthem of Guidance Party members in earshot are unblockable with attack skills. Whenever this effect causes a hit to not be blocked, lose X Energy or this effect ends.
• Chorus of Restoration Allies in earshot have +X Health regeneration.
• Energizing Chorus Allies in earshot have +X Energy regeneration.

Echoes

• Echoes require that the character maintaining a chant to be activated.
• Refrains apply a short term benefit, but do not end the current chant.
• Finales end the current chant for a significant effect.

• Blazing Finale Inflicts Burning (X seconds) on foes in earshot. Ends your current chant. (Leadership)
• Energizing Finale Allies in earshot gain X Energy. Ends your current chant. (Motivation)
• Finale of Restoration Allies in earshot are healed for X Health. Ends your current chant. (Motivation)
• Purifying Finale Allies in earshot lose X conditions. Ends your current chant. (Motivation)

• Aggressive Refrain (X seconds.) [attack speed]
• Bladeturn Refrain (X seconds.) [block chance]
• Burning Refrain (X seconds.) [burning]
• Hasty Refrain (X seconds.) [movement speed]
• Heroic Refrain (X seconds.) [attributes]
• Mending Refrain (X seconds.) [health regeneration]

Miscellaneous

• Enduring Harmony Enchantment. (X seconds.) ??? (Leadership)
• Soldier's Fury Stance. (X seconds.) While you are affected by a chant or shout, you attack 33% faster and gain 33% more adrenaline, but have -20 Armor. (Leadership)