Suggestion for Scourge...Barrier Master

[Maven.1690]

One of my biggest frustrations with Scourge is really a lack of game play difference between various builds weather it be power, condi, or even healing.

We all pretty much spam the f2-f5 skills on cool down. The traits and runes don't vary much. Especially the barrier skill Sand Cascade. Healing power doesn't affect it much so we all press it on cool down. But Imagine if you could determine how much barrier (within reason) you gave your allies. Mind blown yet?

 

I have the solution.

Its so good god i hope someone from Arena net sees this.

 

We are going to ditch the desert empowerment trait and rewrite it to the following.

and yes I am naming it after me

Barrier Maven

Half of all life force generated is now converted to barrier for the scourge. Sand Cascade no longer does damage but removes the barrier that the scourge has and provides it to allies.

 

So if a skill provides 15% life force and that equates to 2000 life force points on the life force bar, 1000 of that will goto the life force bar and 1000 of it will be provided to the scourge as barrier. That barrier on the scourge no matter how high can then be given to allies based on existing Shade mechanics, while removing it from the scourge itself.

 

The depth of support play this will provide will be off the charts. Being able to pre-load self barrier and then be able to give it to your allies would be amazing.

To go along with this i suggest we also rework the fear of death trait to instead of inflicting fear provides life force, Change it to disabling a foe provides life force. This way we can dust off our warhorns again.

 

Traiting and armoring to support this skill will put a premium on life force generating skills, healing power, vitality, and runes which will reduce overall DPS while putting a premium on a skilled player applying large amounts of Barrier at the right time. A very fair trade off.

 

I welcome everyone's feed back.

[Dadnir.5038]

Don't you think it will be a huge issue in WvW? With each death around the necromancer gain 10 to 13.2% LF, which from your numbers mean that each death give the necromancer up to 880 barrier, granted that the number of death around the necromancer in the WvW environnement you can expect very high amount of barrier permanently. The "on death" LF gain is an ever looming threat to balance already, your idea make it a real threat (what's funny is that energy on death was the GW's necromancer's special mechanism and it was already an issue that they ended up being gated behind an ICD. Making people wonder if ANet really learn from their mistakes since in GW2 it's still there, untouched.).

[Maven.1690]

The rally mechanic that is in WvW already decides the fights already far more than a few seconds of barrier will. Not to mention your cutting the life force gain in half from those events. But i feel being able to absorb a bomb with well timed anticipation for your party at the expense of your own pool of health adds more to game play than double dodging on engagement like most zerg v zerg fights open with.

[Anchoku.8142]

I have not played Scourge in a while so I have only generalized thoughts.

 

Scourge needs a very good condition dps when providing __infrequent__ barrier sharing with no healing investment. Tiny, frequent shared barriers do not help but a fair sized barrier share with cool down determined by healing investment might reward smart play better. This can be split between game modes, of course.

 

Investment into healing vitality and toughness should increase the frequency that barrier-sharing is available and lower the rate of boon corruption. Trait selection can be updated to support this.

 

I wish Arenanet would increase the scaling of Scourge support and condi functions rather than only scaling barrier.

[LucianDK.8615]

Problem is that scourge simply does too much, which was the issue since release. And now dps and support have been nerfed to pitiful levels because scourge dominated wvw.

[Dadnir.5038]

> @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> Problem is that scourge simply does too much, which was the issue since release. And now dps and support have been nerfed to pitiful levels because scourge dominated wvw.

 

Well while I agree with you, I'd say the main issue when it come to dps is that ANet focused core dps traits around the idea of dealing damage while in shroud. It's probably the main reason the shade mechanism ended up being loaded with damage in "compensation". This is the flaw in the necromancer's design, the focus on it's special mechanism is just to overwhelming which, in case of e-specs, make modifying this mechanism tricky and hasardous balance-wise. In case of the scourge, ANet failed to find the proper balance point and will likely continue to fail, held back by the core design. what's funny, or not, is that this core design have been influenced by the design of the reaper to reach this point. So what will we see in the future? Will the core design be (eventually) influenced by the scourge design as well? What kind of consequences will this have on the necromancer?

 

NB.: the barrier's ability to stack is one of the main reason the scourge's presence in WvW have been overwhelming and probably the main reason it stay usefull in zerg. Without fixing that there will be no balance point for the scourge. If barriers didn't stack, I wouldn't mind the OP's idea, but it does.

[Anchoku.8142]

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> > @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> > Problem is that scourge simply does too much, which was the issue since release. And now dps and support have been nerfed to pitiful levels because scourge dominated wvw.

>

> Well while I agree with you, I'd say the main issue when it come to dps is that ANet focused core dps traits around the idea of dealing damage while in shroud. It's probably the main reason the shade mechanism ended up being loaded with damage in "compensation". This is the flaw in the necromancer's design, the focus on it's special mechanism is just to overwhelming which, in case of e-specs, make modifying this mechanism tricky and hasardous balance-wise. In case of the scourge, ANet failed to find the proper balance point and will likely continue to fail, held back by the core design. what's funny, or not, is that this core design have been influenced by the design of the reaper to reach this point. So what will we see in the future? Will the core design be (eventually) influenced by the scourge design as well? What kind of consequences will this have on the necromancer?

>

> NB.: the barrier's ability to stack is one of the main reason the scourge's presence in WvW have been overwhelming and probably the main reason it stay usefull in zerg. Without fixing that there will be no balance point for the scourge. If barriers didn't stack, I wouldn't mind the OP's idea, but it does.

 

I agree. Arenanet did not create mechanisms that scale broadly enough on Scourge and, in failing to do so, ended up with an elite specialization that had to be severely crippled in all builds and game modes.

 

Support builds should scale barrier availability, not barrier amount or LF gen.

 

WvW and PvP corruption rate should scale more strongly with equipment statistics, not LF generation or trait selection.

 

Condition dps should scale more strongly with condition damage and Scourge trait selection but it feels weak after being hammered for its competitive mode imbalance.

[Nimon.7840]

I agree with people here. The maven trait would be far too powerful in pvp gamemodes. Even though scourge is trash right now in spvp (as far as I heard) this trait alone might revive it and make it one of these annoying mega sustain sidenoders. And in wvw this would need another mechanic that instantly removes barrier from people. Like Messmer getting a skill that removes all barrier from 10 people in a big area.

[Maven.1690]

or reduce barrier from 5 to 4 seconds....