User:Dark Morphon/Balance stuff/Update
NOTE: This update is aimed at GvG.
NOTE: I'm restarting this page. I'm going to put up all my suggested changes in the feedback portal and other changes that I would like to see implemented in the game to have an overview.
Averting Power Creep[edit]
I've suggested many suggestions to avert power creep:
Primal Rage: Replace the IMS with either 5...17...20% armor penetration or an additional 5...27...33% chance to critical. Decrease recharge to 4 to compensate.
Dismember: Increase the adrenaline cost to 7
Enraging Charge: Change functionality to: "Stance. For 5...10...11 seconds, you move 25% faster and gain 50% more adrenaline. Ends if you use a skill."
Freezing Gust: Increase recharge to 10, change functionality to: "Hex Spell. Target foe moves 66% slower for 1...6...7 seconds. Initial effect: Deals 20...68...80 damage to foes suffering from a Water Magic Hex/moving foes."
Winter's Embrace: Increase energy cost to 10, recharge to 15, casting time to 1. Increase duration to 2...7...8 seconds}}.
Mirror of Ice:
10 
1 
15 
, change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 1...6...7 seconds, target foe moves 66% slower. Additionally, the next time that foe casts a hostile Spell it fails and the caster takes 25...85...100 damage."
Mind Blast: Make the skill inflict Burning (1...3...3 seconds) instead of the damage. <---- Credit goes to Nuke.
Perfecting the Ranger profession[edit]
Expertise is fine if it only affects Ranger skills: it makes sure other professions can use one, but can't fill a skill bar with Ranger skills due to Energy problems. It is problematic when it affects other profession's skills. The Ranger profession in itself has access to powerful survival skills and is highly resistant to Elemental damage. Combining that with the ability to take a skill bar full of spammable Energy cost skills without ever having to worry about running into Energy problems this creates a frontliner that takes very little skill to play. This is an unacceptable gimmick. Since there aren't any properly balanced skill bars that utilise Expertise like this, there is no reason to hold back. Attack skills, Binding Rituals and Touch Skills can be removed from the list of affected skills. A more detailed explanation can be found on this page.
Glass Arrows: Changed functionality to: "Preparation. For 24 seconds, your arrows inflict Bleeding (3...21...25 seconds). whenever they are blocked, they deal 5...41...50 Slashing damage to your target and adjacent foes and inflict Bleeding (3...21...25 seconds).
Barbed Arrows: Changed functionality to:
10 15 "Bow Attack Skill. Shoot an arrow at target foe and up to 2 adjacent foes. These arrows inflict Bleeding (5...21...25 seconds)."
Glass Arrows is a skill that, while viable, leads to Ranger builds focused on spiking or assisting in spikes. Since Preparations that inflict long-lasting Conditions lead to more interesting gameplay - as it essentially adds a new layer of strategy to the used build instead of just increasing the damage of an auto-attack -> Savage Shot combo - it should be reworked to such a skill. Making it inflict Poison will not really make the skill useful as Apply Poison is around. Therefore it should inflict Bleeding.
Ranger Preparations inflicting Bleeding may seem weak at first sight: after all, Rangers can just bring Apply Poison, which inflicts more degeneration. The reason why a Bleeding Preparation is strong is because as soon as you run two Rangers, their Apply Poisons will lose most of their value as one target can only be affected by Poison once. Bleeding and Poison stack. Two Rangers spreading both Conditions leads to a considerable amount of degeneration. Essentially doubling the Condition pressure two Rangers can inflict should come with a price. And that price would be having to spend an Elite Skill on it. Of course, these Elite Preparations should have a bonus added to them. Melandru's Arrows is more effective against Enchanted foes, Glass Arrows is more effective against foes that block your attacks.
Barbed Arrows' new function would allow Rangers to inflict their Condition to multiple foes if timed well, while also inflicting Bleeding, keeping the main function of this skill but making it less maintainable.
Dual Shot: Decreased recharge to 5, changed functionality to: "Bow Attack Skill. Shoot an arrow at target foe and up to 1 nearby foe. These arrows deal 25% less damage."
Forked Arrow: Changed functionality to: Bow Attack Skill. Deals +1...9...11 damage. You also shoot an arrow at up to 1 nearby foe if you're not under the effect of an Enchantment or Hex.
These skills also promote R-spiky builds. They are changed into skills that give the Ranger the option to sacrifice a skill slot for better Condition spreading abilities.
Natural Stride: Increase recharge to 25, duration to 5...10...11 seconds.
Natural Stride has effectively taken out every other Ranger Block Stance in the game. The combination of block chance to every source of attacks, the low recharge and the favorable recharge/duration ratio makes this skill extremely powerful. To bring it in line with the other Ranger Stances, the recharge of this skill needs to be bumped up drastically while at the same time slightly increasing the duration. This will make it more vulnerable to the end clause of this skill, which is currently completely irrelevant.
Mending Touch: Decrease amount of removed Conditions to 0...2...2
Antidote Signet:
¾ 6 , change functionality to: Touch Signet. For 3 seconds, target touched ally is immune to Poison and Disease. Initial effect: That ally loses these Conditions.
Mending Touch and Antidote Signet give the user immunity to casual Condition spread at zero cost. This is bad. If you want to be able to remove Conditions from yourself (an ability that should be rare as it promotes solo play too much), you should at least have to spec for it. Antidote Signet gets a unique function, preventing and removing Poison and Disease, two important pressure Conditions.
Punishing Shot: Change functionality to: "Bow Attack Skill. Interrupts target foe's action. If that action was a Spell, that foe loses 0...6...8 energy."
Concussion Shot: Make it also interrupt non-Spell skills.
Punishing Shot is generally considered an underpowered skill. In a regular Ranger skill bar, Savage Shot will always take its place without losing much effectiveness. However, since the +dmg is unconditional, Punishing Shot is a good skill to take in R-spike builds. The R-spike is an unacceptable build: It focuses on spiking and spiking alone and is therefore very one-dimensional. Any skill that supports it and has no use outside of supporting it needs a rework. The new skill is a mesh of Debilitating Shot and Savage Shot that will be a worthy replacement of Savage Shot if you want some additional Energy pressure.
Concussion Shot is a nice skill that unfortunately enough doesn't see much use. It has a very high Energy cost while also inflicting a powerful Condition, Daze. Use it badly and you will be out of energy a lot of the time, while using it well will yield big rewards. The skill is lacking some important utility all Ranger interrupts have, however: It can only interrupt Spells. Giving it just that will make it a worthy replacement for Savage Shot.
Stopping Hexway[edit]
To stop Hexway, I suggest functionality changes to most Necromancer skills and some Mesmer skills (I'll put some up later). The most important thing is to make sure Hexes do not deliver direct pressure (degeneration and the likes). This is a niche already filled by Conditions. Hexes should be about fucking over your opponent, not spamming on recharge and look at your opponents die to degen. I also suggest reworks for currently underpowered skills.
Some reworks:
5 1 12 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 3 seconds, the next time target foe blocks, that foe takes 10...50...60 damage and loses an Enchantment.
10 1 15 "Hex Spell. Also hexes foes adjacent to your target. For 4...9...10 seconds, those foes suffer from -1...3...3 health degeneration and attack 50% slower. For each foe, the next time that foe is blocked, that foe is also knocked down and this hex ends on that foe."
Parasitic Bond: Something anti-spikey. I'll think something up.
Defile Flesh: Increase recharge to 20, decrease duration to 0...9...11 seconds, increase health reducal to 50%
Insidious Parasite:
10 ¾ 12 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 4 seconds, the next time target foe targets an ally with an attack skill, that ally gains 30...94...110 health and target foe loses one adrenaline." <-- Credit goes to Nuke, changed it a bit.
10% 
10 1 12 , "Hex Spell. Removes an Enchantment. If an Enchantment was removed in this way, that foe is Hexed with Lingering Curse for 2...8...10 seconds. While hexed, that foe suffers from -1...3...3 health degeneration and benefits 50% less from healing.
10 ¼ 15 , "Spell. If target foe is suffering from a Hex, gain 30...126...150 health."
10 1 25 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 5...10...11 seconds, Spells targetting target foe only have half spell-casting range and that foe has -1...3...3 health degeneration."
10% 10 ¼ 20 , change functionality to: "Spell. Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was a non-Spell skill, all skills from that attribute are disabled (3...10...12 seconds)"
17% 1 1 5 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 1...6...7 seconds, Enchantments take three times as long to cast on that foe but your and your allies' Spells take twice as long to cast. If that foe was already suffering from a Necromancer Hex, that foe takes 20...68...80 shadow damage instead."
15 1 25 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 6 seconds, the next time target foe is the target of an Enchantment Spell, that Spell fails and that foe takes 15...59...70 damage and loses an Enchantment."
10 2 15 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. Deals 20...52...60 shadow damage. That foe is Hexed with Shadow of Fear for 2...10...12 seconds. While Hexed, allied Spells take twice as long to cast on that foe.
5 ¾ 12 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 4 seconds, the next time target foe uses an attack skill that foe is knocked down and the attack skill is disabled (0...16...20 seconds)
10 1 20 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 6 seconds, the next time target foe is the target of an allied Spell with "heal" in its description, it fails and you steal 15...59...70 health from the healer." <--- NOTE: Shouldn't trigger on a heal from Divine Favor. Otherwise, that's all it would ever do.
Reworking Blood Magic[edit]
Currently, Blood Magic serves no other purpose than Bloodspike and some utilious Spells such as Strip Enchantment and Blood Ritual. This needs to change. I suggest following the pattern of Strip Enchantment, ie making it a support line. To do this I suggest the following changes:
10 1 5 "Enchantment Spell. For 5...13...15 seconds, target other ally inflicts Bleeding (5...17...20 seconds) with its physical attacks." Move to Blood Magic.
5 1 8 , change functionality to: "Hex Spell. For 3 seconds, the next time target foe blocks, that foe takes 10...50...60 damage and the attacking ally gains 0...2...3 strikes of adrenaline."
10% 1 8 Changed functionality to: "Signet. Inflicts Bleeding (5...13...15 seconds) and Cripple (5...9...10 second)."
Foul Feast: Reduce recharge to 3 seconds. Move to Blood Magic. Change functionality to: "Spell. All conditions are transferred from target other ally to yourself. For each condition acquired in this way, you gain 0...40...50 Health."
Dark Fury:
17% 5 ¾ 5 , changed functionality to: "Enchantment Spell. For 1...7...8 seconds, target ally and nearby allies move 25% faster and gain 1 adrenaline on hitting attacks. For each ally, this skill ends the next time that ally uses a skill."
5% 5 1 5 , "Enchantment Spell. Lose all Enchantments. For 10 seconds, gain +1...5...6 energy regeneration. Whenever you cast a Spell/Touch Skill, you lose 5% of your health for every Spell/Touch Skill you have casted while under the effect of this Enchantment. Ends if you use a non-Necromancer skill."
Vampiric Gaze: Decrease recharge to 5, change functionality to: "Spell. If target foe isn't suffering from Bleeding, that foe suffers from Bleeding (10 seconds) and you steal 15...59...70 health from that foe. Otherwise, you gain 15...59...70 health."
Oppressive Gaze:
10% 1 1 8 , change functionality to: "Spell. Deal 5...41...50 damage to target foe. If that foe is suffering from Weakness gain 1...7...8 energy.
