ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Assassin/Critical Defenses

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Critical Defenses

Ryudo's Issue -- 18:16, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

• Issue: 75% block rate easily maintainable by any Assassin that knows what hes doing. Comparing this to the enchantment Magnetic Aura (the first 75% block enchanment I could think of), Magnetic aura has lower energy cost and cast time, and a longer inital duration, but has a massive 1 minute recharge time, and isnt maintainable without the elite Glyph of Renewal. Critical defenses basically makes an Assassin a "cold" target for any melee without blind/enchant removal. Also theres the fact that its a superb defense skill seemingly out of place in an Offensive attribute, whereas Magnetic aura is in the overwhelming defensive attribute earth magic. In short, a sin with this skill is nearly untouchable by most non-caster builds.

• Solution: Decrease block % to 50%, or change the attribute to shadow arts to force further spread of skill points.

Discussion

76.64.56.90's Issue -- 01:19, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

• Issue: Fails a lot in PvE, especially in comparison to Crit Agil. Meh in PvP, only used in some RA builds.

• Solution: Increase duration to 15 or so seconds at 12 crit strikes, keep energy cost, increase recharge to 45 seconds to prevent abuse, increase activation time to 3 seconds. Becomes unusable in PvP (this skill should have no place in PvP anyways) and good for PvE.

Discussion

If you don't have enchantment removal, you are ----ed.

Issue

Welcome to Build Wars, where you have to bring a counter for everything. If you can remove enchants, you are most likely a spell caster and don't need to remove the blocking effect. If you are not a spell caster, you probably didn't bring enchant removal.

Suggestion

Rework it or 25/90 it. This skill is a result of bad design, rewards bad strategy/tactics, and should be banned from PvP.

← moved to ArenaNet talk:Skill feedback/Assassin/Critical Defenses

So blocking is OP? so guardian is OP, Aegis is OP, Weapon of Warding is OP, so why not remove them? and why not uninstall the whole game? Good people bring enchantment removal or kite/snare/block the assassins attacks. It can be countered by many ways. If your team fails countering it then you have a bad team.

Yeah, maybe guardian is op if it renew itself, maye aegis is op it it renew itself. This skill is op because it renew everytime crit strike. Everlasting blocking, balanced?--RedTeaCat 05:34, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Blocking is not overpowered. Guardian, aegis, and weapon of warding are not overpowered(well, perhaps weapon of warding since it cannot be removed). However, they are hard to maintain. Guardian must be recast every 5 seconds, eating your energy. Aegis eats up energy and can only be maintained 2/5 of the time (with 14 protection and +20% enchant). Critical Defenses only requires 10 energy and you can block indefinitely. Forget the energy cost as critical strikes covers it.

If you say RA or AB, then yes, you have a chance to get into a bad team, or bad allied teams. You also have a chance to fight with bad enemies. Boro 18:44, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Ezekial's Issue, 23:27, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Issue

Broken Concept. Gives the martial glass-cannon profession the ability to tank indefinitely without any downside.

Suggestions

1. Put a damage cap on it, perhaps 90...50...40%, lower cast to 1/2 or 3/4. This provides more of a "defense" rather than "near god-mode" aspect.
2. Dump the "refreshes every time you land a critical hit" clause all together. Increase duration to 9...19...21 or decrease recharge to 14. At 13 Critical Strikes this allows one to maintain this near 2/3 of the time.
3. Change the "refreshes every time you land a critical hit" to "gets extended 1...3...3 seconds every time you land a critical hit." This weakens its ability to be maintained indefinitely. In theory, this also buffs its ability to be maintained indefinitely, since, if skillfully cast (i.e. in the crowd without getting interrupted), then one could get the duration over 9 seconds.

Gates' Issue 01:55, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Issue

This skill is instant god mode for an profession that uses it. It's like shadow form for PvP. One sin can tank an entire other RA team, even the good ones that have monks and casters. Since attacks are the only way to deal damage in this game, it makes all melee professions trying to kill this one person useless. And since the order of killing is ALWAYS 1) Assassin with 75% blocks 2) Monk 3) Spiker Ele 4) Anti-melee necro, there is no chance of winning! As long as that sin is alive, there is no way to kill anything else. If only there was a way to kill everything else FIRST so that our team could all focus on killing that stupid OP sin then this might not be overpowered, but too bad that can't happen.

Suggestions

1. Leave it as it is. It's punishment for being terrible at this game. Even in 4v1, you can let him take out one of your guys while everyone else spreads far apart so the ENCHANTMENT runs out and then you kill it. It's really easy to beat it, please for Christ sake ignore them. Focus on skills that actually need nerfing.

And most people who use this bring Dash. Also, after it ends, it has usually recharged so it can be put up again/

Overpowered in RA, underpowered in PvE

Issue

If you don't have enchant removal, you are ----ed. Gets shattered/drained/removed in PvE

Suggestion

Buff for PvE, 25/90 for PvP.

Then learn to kite until it wears off, or take a rend. ---Chaos- 19:33, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Agreed to the above, if you PvP enough, you'd know that stances & enchantments are the vast majority of opponents' defenses. If you don't bring any removal, it's your loss. I get my Crit. Defenses ripped from me easily as every hit I land refreshes it, causing it to go to the front of the enchantment line, making it strippable 99.9% of the time. All it takes is just one rend, rip, drain or corrupt enchant., etc... to make me a sitting ducky. --Ulterion 19:47, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

8 skill limit says O HAI.

as if you'd bring a rend with 9. ---Chaos- 09:11, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Simple solution

Issue

Overpowered. Enchant removal is generally found on casters, but they don't need to remove this. This can give martial professions a lot of grief, and they lack enchant removal in general with a few exceptions. Can usually be maintained because most players are either dumb enough not to kite, or the ninja brings Dash, Caltrops, or Palm Strike and cannot be easily kited without spells that cause crippled or slow you down, and those are probably found on caster professions anyway.

Suggestion

Make it a stance. That way, it is more easily removed by the professions that would need to remove it. Furthermore, changing it to a stance prevents use of convenient run buffs. You would have to use an enchant-based run buff which needs to be recast every few seconds, requires your secondary profession, and needs attribute investment, and can be inconvenient. Also, stances do not benefit from "increases enchantment duration by 20%" bonuses. This "nerfs" the skill without destroying it for anyone. It can even be helpful because stances do not have activation time. Less broken in low-end PvP and more useful in PvE and high-end PvP.