User:Titani Ertan/Suggestions

Warning: This is a suggestion page for GuildWars, and describes the author's opinion. Every comment can go to the talk page. If you have problems with the thought of people dying/making a point/using common sense/failing/eating Pie, do not read this. Thank you.

Note: For skill-specific suggestions, see User:Titani Ertan/Update.

Blocking

I remember that before Faction was released, when there was only Prophecies, I sat near my friend when he played GvG, just for the fun and competition, and not to make a bar in his H panel become filled with blue stuff. The first few times, he explained to me what was the job of the Warriors, Eles, Monks, etc, and here are some examples:

• "Monks are the lovely priests that heal your ass. You can do stuff without them, but it is very hard, as you have a very short amount of spammable and reliable self heals."
• "Elementalists are different, as they have a different role for each Attribute they have (Air, Fire, Water, Earth). Water is for Snares, Earth is for defense, Air is for spike assist, and Fire is for ZOMG LOOK AT ALL THE NUMBERS."
• "Mesmers... ah, they are wonderful. They are the anti-monk or ele class. They shut down the target, whether by punishing it, or by Interrupting it with insane speed."
• "Warriors are your uber beef machine, they're the real damage dealers around here. They use neat speed buffs to get to your target, and start using damage skills that have effects on target. Sounds overpowered? No worries, each class has their own defense mechanism, so that they hinder warriors, and Mesmers can punish Warriors for attacking. Sounds fair."
  

A few years passed, and NF came, and A.Net came with the awesome idea that Casters won't have to be stuck in their support/hinder class mechanism, they can acutely deal damage on their own, without the need for the target to do something or be in a certain situation. It looks nice on the page, and looks nice in your mind; I mean, Casters can feel left out with all the new damage dealers. Good, do it. But, what about... I dunno, some... well, protection against it? What do classes have against tons of damage? They is a very little amount of counters against caster damage. Thats not very fair. It was balanced before, as every single class had a way to counter the raw damage dealers of time old, and now, we can only pray.

Suggestion

Tweak skills a little. I quote from the Dazed page:"Because it's a very dangerous condition, skills causing Dazed are either elite or have a condition that needs to be met." There is also a short line of skills that deal the Dazed condition, and lots of them are, useless, over-shadowed by other skills. Now, take a look at the Blindness skill page. VERY long list. And I quote: "Blind can almost neutralize an attacker since they will only hit one attack out of ten".

1. Change some stances. Example: Lightning Reflexes. Makes a hard time for melee damage dealers, unless they have a stance removal skill. Casters override this, it only means that they will receive more red numbers before the target explodes. But, what if it will also have a 75% chance to block spells? ALL spells, including ally spells (so it won't be overpowered)? NOW they have a fair chance, and are not supposed to rely on interrupts. Of course, if now there are Spell-blocking stances, there will need to be a Stance Removing spell (I suck at skill balance so I won't even try doing this). Spell-removing stances, which are unblockable like other stance removals, will reward skillful play; it will also kill hinder Palm Strike assassins, or anyone who heavily relies on stances, like stance monks.
2. Dazed will be more easy. If you give more classes the ability to counter Casters by inflicting Dazed (which is the Blind for casters, but with Energy punishment), you will also reward good playing style.

Hero's in PvP?

"Hey Titani"
"Hey there talking pie!"
"Say, what does PvP stand for?"
"Player versus Player"
"Then why can you have Hero's and Henchman in PvP?"
"Emm... is that my leg burning over there?"

I don't know the answer. Can someone explain to me? I quote from Shard on his suggestion page: "

Heroes have godly timing on interrupts, which makes them superior to human interrupters and gives some teams an unfair advantage.

Heroes know when certain hexes/enchantments/conditions are on someone, so they can remove/apply them more efficiently than humans.

Heroes know who each person on the other team is targeting at all times, which, again, gives their team an unfair advantage.

Solution

Ban heroes from Player vs Player."

Deadly Arts

*party member explodes in 50 seconds from the 2 "Assassins" that were in the map*
*Another party member follows the 1st one*
*both of the Assassins die because they spammed while under VoR and Backfire*
*we lose*
*they call us n00bzorz*

Grr, Deadly Arts doesn't really seem to be an Assassin secondery attribute. I mean, Assassin's are MELEE, look into me eye, MELEE. Not "ZOMG SPAMZZZZ SPELLZZZZZZ AUGAIOFAILFGOL" or something like that. Look at the Assassin's attributes:

1. Critical Strikes. 97 AP (Attribute Points) to max, and for maximum efficiency, use with a Rune or a Head-gear. Good combination with melee or Ranger classes. Very good combination with Daggies.
2. Dagger Mastery. 97 AP to max, and again, mostly used with a rune. After this combination with Critical Strikes, you normally have 6 AP left, or if you lower Dagger/Critical by 1, 26, which is enough to spec 1 attribute to 6.
3. Shadow Arts. Self-heal line, and lots of utility skills.
4. Deadly Arts. Save yourself the need for Critical Strikes and Dagger Mastery, and spec 97 points into DA. After you have done this, you only need some small form of E-management, and thats it. Now you see why it is overpowered?

Suggestion

1. Nerf Dancing Daggers. Yes, as simple as that. Remove the small sentence that says: This spell counts as a lead attack. As it is clearly not an attack.
2. Nerf Entangling Asp. Make it require a Dual Attack, or an Off-hand, and lower the cost to 5 Energy, that way it will allow synergy with other attributes.
3. Give Deadly Arts to Dervishes. Epic pwnge gg.

Fire Magic

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Normally, in MMORPGS, there is a profession or a class that does AoE damage. Useuly, it either does small amounts of damage-over-time, or it has serious Energy problems, you know, as balance. Fire Magic lacks both.
Auron took a nice screenie of it. Doesn't look like he has Energy Problems, nor does he deal small packets of damage. Moreover, Fire Magic hasn't received a good kick in the ass in a looong time. This is insanity. Fire Magic kicks ass in all of the game; both in PvE and in PvP. Moreover, it can be adapted to ANY PvP situation/arena. For AB, a nuker. For HA, SH. For the Arena's (Team Arena and Random Arena), Searing Flames. It is simply overpowered. 2 people can wipe a group spamming low energy cost AoE spells which deal lots of shiny numbers every second, and if used in places that you need to gather like HA, your party is bound to die, as probably the other team replaced all their frontliners with Fire Magic Ele's.

Suggestions

1. Nerf Fire Attunement. Not much of a huge kick, but at least it will harm their Energy Bar.
2. Nerf Searing Flames further. 1 sec cast time and 2 recharge is too low. Make the recharge longer, to like 8 seconds, so it will require players of the same party to actually think and time their spikes.
3. Nerf all of the AoE spells. A bit drastic, but increasing the Energy cost of them all, can make people use them sparingly, so their Blue Bar Banker won't kick them in the nuts.

Henchman AI SUCKS

The other day, I was trying to H&H the Ring of Fire mission in Hard Mode Foes On Steroids Which Either Makes Them Go Boom From Joke Skills Or Make You Go Boom From Overpowered Skills That Cast In 1/4 A Second Mode. All went well, we got to the Citadel, and as I wanted the bonus, I started luring the Jade Armor and Bows, and the few Mursaat so the Ether Seal won't drain our energy. All wen't well, beside the fact that the Jade Bow have a perma-Whirling Defense. Opened the gate, lured mobs out, killed them, and then, oh no! Whats this? The Ether Seal is targeted as Obstructed, although it throws glowing orange stuff right at me. I try to flag all my H&H to the tiny safe spot, and 1 of them dies. Like all good morons, they all try to resurrect Eve at once. How lovely to see Dunkoro+Norgu cast Resurrection Chant in amazing union, seeing Jora cast Resurrection Signet, and all of the other Henchies joining her. Of course, Dunkoro dies because he tried to cast a 6 second spell on someone who got resurrected 4 seconds ago, but that doesn't bother him too much. I send in Jora to the Ether Seal, so she can start pwning him, she is filled with Adrenaline skills so she doesn't need the Energy too much, and I back her from a safe distance, and Dunkoro sometimes comes in and heals her. But Eve had something else in mind. "Oh no!" Eve thought to herself. "Jora is out of Energy!! Quickly, I must run in, probably killing myself, to cast Blood Ritual on her, so she can not use it!" Eve, on an amazing move, dies again. I flag all H&H away, and disabled all of my Hero's res skills for being morons. While I wait to recharge, Lina had a fantastic thought to run in from 2 agrro bubbles away, and cast a touch-skill on Eve, while the 4 Ether Seals are attacking her and a boss patrol just went by. Of course, she dies, and I res her with Sunspear Rebirth Signet, and flag her A LONG DISTANCE AWAY. I then flag all of the H&H to a safe distance, and re enable Norgu's resurrect spell, thinking that he learned a lesson. I then flag them all again to a relatively safe spot, close to a patrol of Mursaat. It could be easily handled; only 1 Ele and 2 Jade Armor. Of course, my dearest Norgu thought to save Eve, so he charged in, along with all other party members except Dunkoro, to resurrect her. And of course, a party wipe. gg.

Suggestions

• Limit the hero's range for resurrect. Meaning that they won't resurrect an ally so far away from them.
• If Hero's have such an amazing view of what effects are on target ally/foe, why not give it to Henchman too? I mean, Jora was under an effect that sucked away her Energy that was not needed for her anyway, but Eve still wanted to play Energy-doctor with Jora. She can play doctor-and-patient with Jora afterwards, giving her a full body scan if she likes. Iil be the Doctors assistant.

Blinding Surge

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Blinding Surge Most skills on your bar Going to miss anyway Maintainable Deals -14...43...50 damage. If targeted at a Melee or Ranger foe, all of the Physicals of that foe's party become useless. Oh yeah, you deal damage too. Wanna hear a secret? Get closer, bend your ear. Closer. CLOSER I SAID. This is maintainable.
See the problem here? Elementalist's already deal with that amount of Energy, so E-management is not the problem here. This is a hard to interrupt, for it's fast cast time, and if used with Mesmer primary, almost impossible to interrupt. The recharge makes it very maintainable, and all of the target's ally which are near him, which is the case in 99% of the battle, become blinded too, AND on top of that, this deals damage too. A bit lot imbalanced if you ask me.

Suggestions

1. Increase Energy cost. Not much of a nerf. Combine with Shock Arrow on the poor guy who auto-attacks you and you get the Energy cost back (sounds familiar?).
2. Increase cast time to 2 seconds. This way it can be interruptable, so it will be balanced.
3. Increase recharge. So it won't be maintainable.
4. Remove AoE effect. Whadya think?

Withdraw Hexes

Withdraw Hexes 15 1 5 Elite Spell. Removes all hexes. Also affects adjacent allies. Removal cost: +20...8...5 seconds recharge for each hex removed.
This is bad. 15 energy for hex removal, and to make it actually efficient, you can't use it till battle ends. Making a Spell that makes it's recharge longer as it's more efficient is a good idea, but it shouldn't have an already set recharge. Normally, a GvG monk would run about 13 Divine Favor. Thats 7 seconds per hex removed. This means, that to remove Insidious Parasite, you say bye bye to your Energy and to your Elite for 12 seconds. To remove a normal Necro-hex stack (Lingering Curse+Faintheartedness+Insidious Parasite/Defile Defenses)=3 hexes removed=+21 Recharge time=26 Recharge. This is less than the recharge time of all the hexes which you remove combined, with about the same Energy. This is worse than mid-battle Resurrect, as you wasted your elite slot. Just like Mark of Protection, which only use is a shortest time nerfed build.

Suggestion

Withdraw Hexes

• 10
• 1
• 2

Attribute

Divine Favor

Type

Elite spell

Campaign

Factions

Animation

Click to view

Elite Spell. Removes all Hexes. Removal effect: Heals target for -0...32...40 for each Hex removed. Cannot self target. Fails unless Divine Favor 6 or less. (Attribute:Divine Favor)

• This gives a skill which is a hex-based RC. Maybe tweak recharge a little. But it just doesn't make sense to me that your hex removals recharge much slower than the average hex. And please, Hexway isn't viable? Hexway is overpowered, VERY overpowered. The only viable hinder that it had was nerfed as it destroyed all condition based builds.
• Finally, maybe this is the cure for Hexway, but I don't think that anyone will see it, or move according to it, still, maybe an idea will sprout.

Adrenaline VS.Every other kind of Melee/Ranged damage

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I ask you, kind reader, what would you prefer if you had the choice:

1. Auto-attacking for a frustrating time, praying that the target doesn't block you, and when you finally get to use your attack skill, and you get blocked/you miss, you have to restart over again.
2. Waste 1/5 of your Energy pool to do exactly what the last skill did, only better. If blocked/missed, do it again in 3 seconds.
   

The choice is simple. You see the problem? Adrenaline building isn't the problem: Better skills require more adrenaline, meaning more time to activate them mid-combat, and the intervals are longer; sometimes not maintainable. That makes it balanced. But, when a balanced skill is such greatly overshadowed by a much easier to use, available, and spammable skill with greater reward and much less risk. If it doesn't hit, you use it again in 3 seconds. Thats the problem. Adrenaline gets blown to the trash can if it doesn't make it, and you have to reload it again. It doesn't give you greater reward for greater risk.It doesn't have a good side-effect if Adrenal skills fail to hit.

Suggestions

• If an Adrenaline Skill fails to hit via. Block or Miss, instead of losing all gained adrenaline for that skill and having to start over, you instead lose 2 Adrenaline strikes.
• Change Elite Adrenaline Skills, so that if they are blocked, instead of having +500 secs recharge, they give a positive buff, like "Gain 4 adrenaline strikes" or "gain 100 HP", and to balance it, make it scale with Strength, so that secondary Warriors can't benefit too much from it.

Practiced Stance

Elite Stance. (20...32...35 seconds.) Your preparations recharge 50% faster and last 30...126...150% longer.
This is horrifying. You can only have 1 preparation at a time, meaning that this effect doesn't benefit you in the long run. It has synergy with very few skills, as only a handful of Preparations can't be kept indefinately. This also wastes your elite slot, which can be used for a better a)preparation b)damage skill c)any other freakin skill. In short, this wastes your 1)elite slot, which is equivalent in value to 2 skills 2)your Stance, which can be used for defense or offense 3)your time.

Suggestions

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• Elite Stance. (10...26...30 seconds.) Your preparations and Bow Attack skills recharge 50% faster and conditions you apply last 40...72...80% longer. (cost 10, recharge 20)
  • This makes it somewhat effective, as you can now spam attack skills under your chosen preparation, creating spikes and awesome pressure. Moreover, your conditions last longer, making further pressure.

• NOW, for the real suggestion that I kept in my head for a looong time.
  

Elite Stance. For 10...22...25 seconds, you shoot an extra arrow whenever you use your bow, but lose 5 energy for each time your normal attacks hit. Nothing happens unless Expertise is higher than 4 or if your Energy is 0.

Practiced Stance

• 15
• 30

Profession

Ranger

Attribute

Expertise

Type

Elite stance

Campaign

Prophecies

Animation

Click to view

Elite Stance. For 10...22...25 seconds, you shoot an extra arrow whenever you use your bow, but lose 5 energy for each time your normal attacks hit. Nothing happens unless Expertise is higher than 4 or if your Energy is 0.

Concise description

Elite Stance. (10...22...25 seconds.) Whenever you shoot with your bow, you shoot an extra arrow. Lose 5 energy whenever you hit with an ordinary arrow. No effect unless Expertise higher than 4 or you have 0 Energy.

This way, you create double pressure, as you shoot 2 arrows at a time, but you lose 5 energy whenever doing so, meaning that you also can't spam your attack skills (the second arrow isn't effected by attack skills). This ends if energy reaches 0, so you can't abuse it if you are low on Energy, or if you mindlessly spam attacks.