Jaykay.9641

I'm actually glad you necro'd this thread. I still think there is a good debate to be had about Battle Scars and the Devastation tratline in general. Some of my thoughts are below: I like some of your suggestions. The Devastation tratiline does need some tidying up after it's changes earlier this year. * First = Expose Defenses needs another way to refresh other than elite skill. Currently, Mallyx and Kalla elites are the best options to pair with Expose Defenses as they are low cost elites that can be spammed because you can toggle on and off with some small CD's. **I would also suggest a Legend Swap to refresh the trait as well as weapon swap** * Aggressive Agility is just - eh. Warrior has Warrior's Sprint which obliterates Aggressive Agility. **I would keep the cure Immobilization and add a flat 25% movement speed or I like your idea of giving swiftness after a movement ability.** Anything that can give swiftness other than Rapid Flow is a plus in my book. - The damage increase with swiftness may be too much as it gives the PvE scene another damage modifier. I personally just see a permanent damage boost (especially combined with Glint Swiftness Facet) too much. * I also like your suggestion regarding Brutality - A general reliable boon rip other than Glint F2 would be great. Maybe have Brutality prioritize Stability but then affect other boons if Stability is not currently not on the target. If that's too much, you can leave as it is and maybe have **Brutality affect Defiance bars so PvE can get some more benefit** from it as well. In regards to Battle Scars: * The first 2 traits (Battle Scarred and Thrill of Combat) really aren't very good as a standalone. I would suggest just combining them in to one trait and I don't think it would be overpowered. Like a suggestion above, maybe just make Thrill of Combat a minor and call it a day. This can open up another trait slot. * If we're looking at other professions, Necro Vampiric Presence is superior in almost every way. It only needs one trait and gives it to 5 targets. Not only that, the scaling is so much better than PvP Battle Scars. * As many have stated, the PvP numbers for Battle Scars in general is pretty bad. When this first got changed and saw the numbers, I was thinking "Oh, their just keeping them low for testing purposes and then will change in the future". Well, 10 months later, still hasn't been touched. So I agree it needs to be changed, but not the base numbers - **I think the scaling should be increased to differentiate the benefits for a Power Rev and Condi Rev** As of now, the power damage and healing coefficients are at a _TERRIBLE_ 0.003. If you increase the power coefficient to say 0.05, you can get to around 160 damage per Battle Scar with 2000 power. I would probably buff the healing coefficient to something around 0.03 - 0.04 as well. Lastly, **I think Unsuspecting Strikes and Swift Termination should be combined into 1 talent, but change values and maybe design.** I love Ying/Yang talents from other games and this scenario is perfect for one. In this case, you can have different effects that will change depending upon a health threshold. So for example, you can do something like: _You deal 10% more damage to enemies above 50% health. You take 10% less damage from enemies below 50% health."_ you can also flip it and make it your health - _"You deal 10% more damage when you are below 50% health and you take 10% less damage when above 50% health"._ I understand this may affect PvE, but the concept still remains. Ying/Yang talents should be implemented. The concept, numbers, and percentages can be adjusted. Anyway, I'm sure we won't see any changes to traitlines until new expansion. Hopefully they touch all the underperforming traits then. I'm more of an advocate to improve existing systems and a broad trait revisit for all professions should be a priority for the expansion. I'm eager to see if we can have more discussion about this.

As others have said, CC damage needs to be treated on a case by case basis. Skillshot and long cast time CC abilities need to have some damage reintroduced. Abilities like Rev Drop the Hammer (Hammer 5), DH Deflecting Shot (Longbow 3), Guardian Banish (Hammer 4), and Scrapper Blast Gyro are just some examples that should have some damage. On the other hand, quick hitting interupts and easy to land CC should stay low. Abilities like Mesmer Magic Bullet (pistol 5) and Thief Head Shot (pistol 4) are good examples of low damage CC. Will it happen? We can only hope.