Curse

Ensign · May 30, 2007, 11:58 PM // 23:58

The May tournament is over, and A.Net is free to make another big balance update without any pending events. In the spirit of things, here's my wishlist of most of the really stupid garbage in the game that should go away. I'd like to see a bunch of sane buffs to underused stuff as well, but at this point taking out the garbage that's been festering for nearly a year now takes precedence.

Nothing would make me happier than seeing a list along these lines posted on guildwars.com early next week:

Assassin
*Reduce maximum Shadow Step distance from radar to half radar*
Black Lotus Strike: 10...20 Damage, 3...15 Energy
Shadow Prison: 2...6d

Dervish
Wearying Strike: 5...20 Damage, 5s Weakness, 10r

Elementalist
Searing Flames: 10...85 Damage, 1...7 Burning Duration
Mark of Rodgort: 10...25d
Blurred Vision: 8...14d
Frozen Burst: 12r
Rust: 15...30d, 1c

Mesmer
Panic: 5...20d
Mantra of Persistence: 20...50% longer hex duration
Spirit Shackles: 8...20d, 10r

Monk
Aegis: 20...50% block

Necromancer
*Soul Reaping - Fix it. Best solution so far is "Remove Energy from Minions and Spirits that are not your own"*
Faintheartedness: 33% Slower Attack Speed, 2c, 5...20d
Meekness: 33% Slower Attack Speed, 15...30d, remove health sacrifice
Reckless Haste: 25...70% miss chance, 4...10d, 1c, 20r
Shadow of Fear: 33% Slower Attack Speed, 15...30d
Reaper's Mark: 1...6 Degen, 20d, 10e

Paragon
"Go for the Eyes!": 50...80% Critical Chance, 6A
"Stand Your Ground": 20 Armor
Aggressive Refrain: 5...20d, -10 Armor
Defensive Anthem: 2c
Finale of Restoration: 20r
Purifying Finale: 20r

Ranger
Broad Head Arrow: 4...10d

Ritualist
Spirit Burn: 15...60/5...20 Damage, 5r
Spirit Rift: 2c
Splinter Weapon: 1...4 triggers, 12d
Wielder's Strike: 10...40/10...40 Damage, 5r

Warrior
"Fear Me!": 6A
"Watch Yourself!": 1...16 Armor, 6A
Steady Stance: 10r

That should clear out 90% of the degenerate, braindead garbage that makes me want to not play Guild Wars. Did I miss anything?

Peace,
-CxE

---

Edit Log

Removed 15e from Concussion Shot. That is a sufficiently substantial buff that it warrants discussion on its own.
Added Wielder's Strike, Spirit Burn, and Spirit Rift nerfs, on Nurse's suggestion.

Raised max shadow step distance from earshot to half radar.
Frozen Burst 10r->12r for no more endless looping on its own.
Changed Wielder's Strike and Spirit Burn from spike skills back into pressure skills.
Added Suffering, Rust, Mark of Rodgort duration hits, because AoE hexes are lame.

Added Blurred Vision, Parabond hits. Lowered Weakness duration on Wearying Strike.

Pulled Parabond and Suffering changes...on account of those not being problems if the problem hexes being balanced.
Pulled Concussion Shot from the list, as the changes I'd want to it would be a full rework and a net buff.
Removed energy buff to Mantra of Persistence
Added Reckless Haste hit/rework
Added slight Aggressive Refrain duration hit. I'm afraid of making it bad.

Moved the armor debuff of Paragons onto Aggressive Refrain, on brilliant suggestion by rii.

Nurse With Wound · May 31, 2007, 12:22 AM // 00:22

Perfect list. But you forgot some skills...

Wielder's Strike, Spirit Burn and Spirit Rift.

All three of them are used only in notorious gimmick 'rit spike'. They are of no use to any other ritualist build that might be used in balanced builds. Damage should be significantly reduced on all of them to clear this awful trash out of Guild Wars.

yesitsrob · May 31, 2007, 12:41 AM // 00:41

Weapon of Warding? Maybe. Can't say I really care for that either.

I agree with the list fully. Doubt the much larger PVE community will.

InfernalSuffering · May 31, 2007, 12:45 AM // 00:45

Yeah, that ritualist channeling line that got buffed awhile ago needs to be un-buffed (ala nerfed). Other than that seems like a good skill list. Corrupted Isle and Jade Isle are still imba isles and they should also get changes.

Edit: I can already seen PvE players crying over the paragon nerfs especially armor reduction.

The Real Roy Keane · May 31, 2007, 12:47 AM // 00:47

Rework the Curses line altogether; give them shorter durations and quicker recharges so as to make the melee shutdown more 'active.'

TheOneMephisto · May 31, 2007, 12:49 AM // 00:49

I think that weapon of warding is fine, as it really isn't that amazing, it's kind of like a more expensive unremovable guardian. I like that it allows ele/rits to be much more versatile split characters. Other than that, it's fairly obvious when a target has weapon of warding, so you're only really going to be using it when someone's being trained or to save priority targets (it is pretty nice on incoming flaggers) just because target switching destroys it.

Otherwise, I agree with all the others. Rit spirit spikes need some changing, and the maps need changing. After that, we can see what's left and make some more minor changes, but that should just be the garbage clean-up that is needed.

Mad Pig · May 31, 2007, 12:50 AM // 00:50

I totaly agree with this list

Phades · May 31, 2007, 12:53 AM // 00:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Real Roy Keane

Rework the Curses line altogether; give them shorter durations and quicker recharges so as to make the melee shutdown more 'active.'

That would make hexes funciton like conditions and as a consequence, the hex removal would have to function like condition removal. It would be pointless to make two different mechanics function the same way, despite the options to spam conditions across a party from a single player in a relativly short period of time compared to the slower paced overwhelming nature of overstacking hexes versus single top layer removal.

Do something like that and in GW:EN we might get "blessed" with mending touch for hexes...

Grj · May 31, 2007, 12:53 AM // 00:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Ranger
Broad Head Arrow: 4...10d
Concussion Shot: 4...10d, 15e

One skill is an elite and you want the duration to scale with an non-elite that has an energy reduction from 25 to 15 energy which is the same as the elite skill?

Sorry in advance if i misread this part, oh and why no monks skills?

lacasner · May 31, 2007, 12:55 AM // 00:55

I agree in principle with this nerflist, left some things out but thats fine. However , a lot of things need to actually be made useful, such as certain certain elites (life sheath, maybe add some life regen or +armor to the skill, or seeping wound for assasins). Truly, ensign this list is good but I see it as the bare minimum necessary to somewhat fix the biggest problems.

Zui · May 31, 2007, 01:00 AM // 01:00

If all of Ensign's suggested nerfs took place, I'd probably start playing Guild Wars again. That is of course, if ANET doesn't randomly buff unused stuff to IMBA proportions, of which there is a 99.998 percent certainty...

Avarre · May 31, 2007, 01:11 AM // 01:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grj

One skill is an elite and you want the duration to scale with an non-elite that has an energy reduction from 25 to 15 energy which is the same as the elite skill?

Conc needs to hit a spell in casting, BHA is unconditional so long as it hits.

Seamus Finn · May 31, 2007, 01:14 AM // 01:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOneMephisto

I think that weapon of warding is fine, as it really isn't that amazing, it's kind of like a more expensive unremovable guardian. .

??? 10 energy for a max-specced(??? can guardian even hit 50% block?) unremovable guardian is REALLY good. The counter to degen on splits ends up being useful too. I think it's actually a fair deal overpowered when placed on targets like flag runners. It dumbs down the game a bit since there's no way to remove it and putting it on targets that need harrassment feels kind of broken to me. I personally am on the fence with this skill, and I would still consider bringing it even without the health regen...

Draikin · May 31, 2007, 01:26 AM // 01:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Assassin
*Reduce maximum Shadow Step distance from radar to earshot*
Black Lotus Strike: 10...20 Damage, 3...15 Energy
Shadow Prison: 2...6d

This would also make Hero Battles a lot better than it is right now. Not just because everyone is using SP assassins but skills like Recall give the player an unfair advantage against someone who isn't using shadow stepping skills.

Wasteland Squidget · May 31, 2007, 01:29 AM // 01:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Concussion Shot: 4...10d, 15e

That actually makes the skill stronger, and I think you'd see it replacing Savage on almost every ranger bar. An excessively spammable Daze without giving up your elite slot? Yes please.

wuzzman · May 31, 2007, 01:32 AM // 01:32

and bring about the dark ages....

Lord Natural · May 31, 2007, 01:36 AM // 01:36

I'd pretty much go with Ensign's list, however in addition I'd like to see Faintheartedness as a 2 second cast and holy veil at 8r.

Thom Bangalter · May 31, 2007, 01:40 AM // 01:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grj

One skill is an elite and you want the duration to scale with an non-elite that has an energy reduction from 25 to 15 energy which is the same as the elite skill?

Sorry in advance if i misread this part, oh and why no monks skills?

one requires skill to use, the other is just random randy daze when the ranger runs next to your monk with no thought required.

fenix · May 31, 2007, 01:43 AM // 01:43

Nice list Ensign

Although, Anet won't do most of them (if any), because it'll make a lot of PvErs ragequit

[DE] · May 31, 2007, 01:59 AM // 01:59

Great list; however it's a far cry from hell that Anet would even consider lowering the paragons AL.