Warrior - Spellbreaker [Rework] - Edited 07/03/2020 for Formatting

[Geoff Fey.1035]

_"The broken weapons of the Sunspears have become daggers in the hands of their descendants, which they use to strike at the very fabric of magic and strip it from their foes. They meditate to see past their enemies' defenses, and they use their adrenaline to counter attacks."_

 

In practice, a couple of things have been realized with the Spellbreaker:

* Full counter - This single skill has become the primary point of the entire Elite Specilization in all modes. It has decent interrupt and daze, middling damage (depending on traits), and is a great "OSHI-" button for when you need it in addition to recharging your normal burst skills.

 

* Daggers - Daggers in theory are nice but almost their entire use is based off the Burst Skill for boon rip or the heals with Sun & Moon (requires offhand). Their damage is middling at best compared to other weapons, and you can maintain better heals using the right traits with Greatsword/Axes than with Daggers. Even if you spec into Power, Precision, and Ferocity, they just don't reach high nor consistent enough spikes to be much use.

 

* Meditations - Almost all of the Warriors other Utilities are higher value than these ones. Winds of Disenchantment is by and large the only one you will ever take and even then it's primarily competitive. Break Enchantments and Featherfoot Grace see **some ** use in competitive modes but in PvE there are far better choices. The recent damage bump for Break Enchantments is a nice step in the right direction, but honestly it could use +% per Boon Removed or +% vs. Boonless foes.

 

Currently the traits are designed roughly in the below setup:

* 1-1-1 = Boon Removal Focused

* 2-2-2 = Full Counter Focused

* 3-3-3 = Stun/Dagger/Burst Focused

 

For the reworks we're going to try and keep a similar design while thematically trying to keep a Spellbreaker focused on the removal of boons and the empowerment of the Spellbeaker. Given that Full Counter is a purely defensive skill and that the daggers appear designed around the idea of Critical Hits to make up for their comparatively low damage, we're going to focus on the Spellbreaker as a boon-rip-crit-tank rather than the Jack-of-all of Core or the Condi-/Power-burster of Berserkers.

 

 

# **TRAITS**

## _Minor Adept: Spellbreaker's Conviction_

This will be left as-is. In the case of all Elite Specializations, the Minor Adept trait is the "unlocking" of the unique Elite mechanic.

 

## _Major Adept: ~~Pure Strike~~ replace with current Loss Aversion_:

This trait is oddly designed. The intent appears to be giving the Spellbreaker incentive to rip boons from enemies, but the primary way of doing so necessitates a CC focused weapon to consistently get this trait's full bonus. It would probably be better off being bundled into the dagger-specific trait as that one currently seems to be missing the type of baseline bonus that all other profession's weapon traits get (+additional if using the specific weapon).

 

To Rework this one, it would be better to move the Major Master trait _Loss Aversion_ to this slot rather than an actual rework. The whole point of Spellbreakers is in the name: break spells. The Minor traits already promote this via CC's, so by having this Major Adept being the logical evolution to that would make sense. It's an additional bump of adrenaline as well as a little bit more damage for performing the role of the Elite Specialization by removing boons from foes.

 

Admittedly, this doesn't solve the problem that in Open World PvE enemies with consistent boons typically are located in the S4 maps, but it's a nudge in the right direction. I believe it could use a little bit fine tuning or alternatively give ongoing adrenaline generation to promote the rampant use of Bursts without needing to rely on Signet of Rage so that Winds of Disenchantment or Battle Standard may see more use.

 

## _Major Adept: Guard Counter_:

This trait currently have a baseline 37.5% uptime (3s duration on 8s cooldown, assuming you hit with Full Counter). This means fairly little because the stun from Full Counter itself is 0.5 seconds, and enemies usually need another 0.5 seconds before they can actually hit you, giving it only 2s of effective use. In all honesty, the only reason this one would be taken in its current form is because you tossed a coin on this or Pure Strike.

 

Rework:

* Upon activation of Full Counter: Gain Resistance: 4s.

* Upon successful hit of Full Counter: Gain Protection 6s & Barrier X Amount

 

Full Counter is already a highly defensive focused skill. This rework promotes that by giving the Spellbreaker consistent access to protection (not 100% unless stat & traited via other lines) as well as Barrier to shore up their defenses even further.

 

A common problem Spellbreakers experience is dying during their Full Counter due to conditions. By having a tiny bit of Resistance occur at the start of the skill it negates damage on the Spellbreaker. This could be seen as a little over the top considering Full Counter currently is Unblockable and then also having Resistance making Blind useless would be overkill, so an alternative is that upon activation, Full Counter now ignores damaging conditions (Poison, Fire, etc).

 

Again, this tries to fit with the theme of Spellbreakers using broken spells to protect themselves and fuel their fighting prowess. The barrier is that extra bit of health to keep you in the fight while the protection is to keep you alive just a little bit longer (stretches out the barrier/your health further than just barrier alone).

 

## _Major Adept: No Escape_:

This trait is effectively useless. Most dazes/stuns last for 0.5-1+ seconds, so by the time the enemy is no longer stunned they are no longer immobilized. Yes, it immobilizes those who have stunbreaks but 1s is far too low to be of any real use unless you have stats in Expertise, but since Spellbreaker as a whole is designed around power that does not make any sense whatsoever.

 

To rework this, I'd suggest:

* Increase Damage to Stunned Foes: 5%

* Dazes now Stun instead

 

Spellbreakers have decent access to Dazes via Full Counter & Dagger MH. What this trait does is promote the use of weapons that daze (Mace/Dagger) and reward you for doing so by giving a damage increase. Also, it effectively performs the same effect of the original trait (i.e. not being able to move) but without it being a condition that can be removed or Resisted.

 

## _Minor Master: Dispelling Force_

This will be left as-is as it thematically and functionally promote the use of Crowd Control to rip boons from enemies.

 

## _Major Master: ~~Loss Aversion~~ replace with reworked Pure Strike_

Again, pure strike currently gives critical damage as well as additional against boonless foes. This is nice enough, but largely a "throwaway" trait as the +% is dependent on your Critical Chance which is always an issue for warriors. You would have to go nearly 100% Precision Based Armour, Weapons, Trinkets, and Runes/Sigils to hit 100%, but warriors can hit harder with focusing on Power first due to its scaling on weapons and other traitlines.

 

I'd recommend reworking this to be more thematic with Spellbreakers:

* Burst Skill Update

* Remove 1 boon on self. If a boon is removed, gain X Barrier

* Remove 1 boon on foe. If a boon is removed, do +% Damage.

 

This is similar to the Natural Harmony healing skill in promoting Spellbreakers to not just remove boons from their enemies but also themselves to power their attacks as well as their defense. I believe the +% Damage proc would need to be only if that particular foe hit has a boon removed to keep it fair. As well there's some counterplay against this one because you're constantly lowering your own damage or defense by removing Fury, Might, Protection, or another boon, so there is a bit of a tradeoff. The Barrier cannot be too high, but enough so that it gives you a pat on the shoulder for removing your own boon in addition to the damage against foes.

 

## _Major Master: Slow Counter_:

This trait has always felt like it was trying to make Full Counter into a more offense skill. While I like the idea of the cripple & slow, slow is already an improved version of cripple so the only reason to have both is to have a condi-cover for slow in the case of cleansing.

 

Tweak this one slightly by having:

* Upon activation of Full Counter: Cripple & Weaken nearby enemies for 5s (up to 5 enemies)

* Upon successful hit of Full Counter: Slow & Vulnerability nearby enemies for 5s (up to 5 enemies)

 

The idea of this is to make Slow Counter into a more offense trait. It lets you cripple enemies that are running away, and if they turn to fight you they get further punished with slow and vulnerability to your attacks. by making Cripple/Weakness on activation, it is effectively taunting them "you can't get away" and giving a setup in case they try to burst their way through your defenses. By making the Slow/Vulnerability dependent on hit it's further punishing them for activating your Full Counter and giving you additional damage to spike them in return.

 

## _Major Master: Sun & Moon Style_:

Quickness means little for the daggers due to the lower damage coefficient and the fact that quickness is only up 60% of the time (baseline) this is more of a gimmick than a boost for daggers. If it stacked duration per foe interrupted, then it'd have some value being almost permanent if you Full Counter in a group, but this trait is trying to function as an improvement for Daggers without really being one. In addition, it's missing the baseline bonus that all other weapon traits get so it is functionally half of a trait. The offhand heal is good (and pretty much the only reason someone takes this), but most people use a Main Hand Axe because of the higher Critical Damage from its burst vs. Daggers. There's simply no point to a Mainhand dagger with this trait when other weapons perform both the stun and the heals better.

 

To rework this:

* Overall: Bonus to Critical Damage 7%.

* If wielding two daggers: Bonus to Critical Damage 21%

* Dagger Skills Cooldown Reduced: 10-20% (I'm hesitant about this one)

 

This rework is designed to give you the additional critical damage originally seen in Pure Strike as well as reward you for using Daggers. The biggest problem with Daggers is simply that they don't do enough damage to really benefit from the critical hit damage--other Warrior weapons simply do it better. However, by going all-in and dual-wielding daggers, the tripled Critical Damage will (hopefully) allow Daggers to more readily compete with other weapons while proving the Crowd Control and effects that dagger skills inherently have.

 

This may open things up for other modes (Fractals) because while it may not hit the same levels as Berserker damage-wise I would hope it would be within the 80-90% range assuming the Spellbreaker is traited with high Critical Chance. Having boonrip on demand while still getting fairly close to Axe/Axe would be quite the help to a team and free up other professions (Alacrigade, Necromancer) to focus on other things rather than having to dedicate themselves boonrip.

 

I hesitate having cooldown reduction for daggers as the skills are already pretty low CD as-is. I think it could definitely help with the offhand skills, but that 12s daze on the MH skill #3 could become broken pretty fast, especially if combined with the No Escape rework suggested above.

 

## _Minor Grandmaster: Attacker's Insight_:

I believe this one could benefit from a higher stack cap, but it would be fine if left as-is. With the additional power and ferocity that cannot be removed via boonrip (self- or enemy-inflicted), it's keeping Spellbreaker's damage high as long as they keep sending out crowd control effects. Good synergy with the dagger due to the 12s cooldown on daze for MH skill #3.

 

## _Major Grandmaster: Enchantment Collapse:_

Removing a boon from a foe causes all nearby foes to lose additional boons. Honestly, I don't particularly think this one needs a hard rework. Maybe some tweaking or putting a native +% damage to boonless foes in this one, but really this feels like a good spot for annihilating boons (culmination of the Spellbreaker Elite Spec) especially with the reworks promoting more boonrip.

 

## _Major Grandmaster: Revenge Counter:_

Currently, Revenge Counter copies conditions from yourself to targets that you hit in addition to Resistance. The Resistance and extra damage is "nice", but the conditions don't have a huge impact because they scale with your own condition damage with is low considering this is a power-based traitline.

 

I feel drawing on the design of a particular Guardian trait would be a good move for this one:

* Full Counter Damage Increase: 10% (Down from 20%)

* Upon Successful Full Counter: Gain Retaliation 10s

* Damage increased while under effects of Retaliation: 10%

 

Warriors natively have a hard time getting Retaliation outside of the Defense traitline (requiring blocks and being hit with critical hits) and having the additional damage while under the effects of Retaliation is twofold.

1. Further punishes the enemy for continuing to attack (and Retaliation damage increases based on own power & damage traits).

2. Boost to Spellbreaker's damage.

 

It's fairly balanced in that warriors have VERY LIMITED access to retaliation. In addition having an extra easily generated boon to work with the Pure Strike rework will help Spellbreakers readily proc their own traits if needs be, as well as working as another component if someone wanted to use daggers more readily. Admittedly, I believe Greatsword and Axe/Axe would highly benefit from this effect, especially in group scenarios, but this rework may get more weapons to compete with those ones on an even playing field

 

## _Major Grandmaster: Magebane Tether_:

Magebane Tether is in a weird spot because you need to hit someone with a burst skill on an 8s CD for some pulsing might and minor CC if they get too far away. While it's decent for self-sustain, it can be a little clunky at times and promotes the warrior running away to drag someone off by themselves rather than staying in the fight. As well, this one is currently heavily taken in combination with Might Makes Right for the might generation more than anything else as the rest of the Grandmaster traits can be fairly "meh" in most situations (outside of competitive in the case of Enchantment Collapse).

 

I know you'll hate me, but I think a good rework for this would be un-tethering it from Might Makes Right:

* Burst Skill Update

* Hitting with a Burst Skill (including Full Counter) casts Magebane Tether on all foes hit (max 5 foes) 450 Range, 6s CD

* If foe moves outside of range, Daze for 0.25s

* Damage Increase to Tethered Foes: 5%

* Duration: 8s

* Barrier: X Barrier pulses every second from each foe Tethered

* Unblockable

 

The idea of this is to provide sustain to Spellbreakers by way of barriers. Warriors have an issue with Health Regeneration, and having it wholly dependent on Might generation is a bit of an oddball situation. With this rework, you won't get Might anymore but there's still the damage increase to tethered foes to offset that. In addition, the reduced range allows you to reposition without needing to run half-way to Cantha in order to get the Daze effect, although most would prefer to stick in close to as many foes as possible to get a massive spike of barriers, especially if this is used with an AoE burst followed up by Full Counter chaining them together.

 

This is also the re-implementation of the original Sun & Moon Offhand trait whose sustain was fairly great for those who enjoy dagger play-style.

 

It removes the Revealed effect because this skill will already have quite a lot of effects and we don't need it to be overpowered. If you are nervous about that floating chain hovering where the thief was once standing, you can run away to daze him and then get back into the fight.

 

Your thoughts? (Meditations to follow)

[Lametoile.7394]

You obviously put a lot of thought to it. As a spellbreaker huge fan, i shall look this.

 

You didn't make changes for meditations skills (which are the most in need for a change in my opinion) but perhaps you're still thninking about it?

 

Anyway:

 

- pure strike to loss aversion: fair enough.

- guard counter: i'm definitely for more defensive bonus to full counter! However, i think 2s of resistance and 4s of protection would be more balanced. Still accomplish the goal to prevent condi dying and blind on activation, while giving decent survival bonuses.

- No escape : we all agree this trait is useless. However, considering knockdown as an animation and that 0.5s of knockdown doesn't make sense, it feels strange. Also, 3% damage increase is negligible.

**I would suggest this: +7% damage to disabled foes, inflicts immobilize (1s) when removing stability (either by cc or boon removing)**

 

- Loss aversion to pure strike and rework: I love this idea! Adding a trade-off is very satisfying, granting barrier is a nice continuity to guard counter, and this also make every burst skill a potential boon remover, not just the ones with cc.

- Slow counter: i would remove vulnerability (make the skill description heavy with too much conditions) and probably reduce the durations from 5s to 4s. Not sure about the weakness too.

- Sun and moon style: mixed feelings about this. While i agree adding quickness to dagger is unecessary cosnidering its attack speed, i actually like to use it before switching weapons, and the healing, while too low, introduce a different use of critical damage. Also, adding a cc to a quick auto-attack seems very OP.

**My suggestion: convert 7% of critical damage to healing (baseline). Disrupting stab and wastrel's ruin grant quickness (4s) when their enhanced effect triggers. Increase critical damage by 14% by wielding two daggers. ** (purpose: making it more consistent to others weapon traits, keep the quickness gain, while giving to dual daggers the boost it deserves)**

 

- Enchantment collapse: agreed, no needs for change

- Revenge counter: I think the original idea was to give the spellbreaker a way to counter condi users as well. But you're right, it's useless if the foes doesn't use condi, and since it's a power spec, the condi copied will do little damage. I love the retaliation idea (which we clearly needs more) and the bonus damage sounds like an appropriate way to mirror that "revenge mode" following full counter. And the synergy with spiked armor would feels VERY nice.

**Suggestion: what about adding a +10% bonus to barrier you grant to yourself? **

- Magebane tether: Being an insane user of both Might makes right and this trait, i would oppose the reduction of might. The best way to gain sustain in my opinion is precisely to synergize with MmR or Mneding might, plus the fact it's an invaluable source of might for the spellbreaker. Magebane tether doesn't need change in my opinion, i like it the way it is.

**Or like this: change damage increase by a +10% crit chance (for synergy with sun and moon style and daggers). No longer remove the effect when you pull the foe. You can affect up to 3 ennemies (but gain the might only once)**

 

I'll look forward for your rework on meditations.

 

 

 

[Geoff Fey.1035]

> @"Lametoile.7394" said:

> You obviously put a lot of thought to it. As a spellbreaker huge fan, i shall look this.

 

Thank you! I took some of your stuff into consideration--you had awesome thoughts man. One of my biggest pet peeves with warrior is that our self-sustain outside of our healing skills and Strength Traitline are pretty much garbage. Defense Traitline has some pretty nice sustain, but with that Traitline in its current form you're hamstringing your damage by taking it, unfortunately. For Slow Counter the Slow/Vuln & Cripple/Weakness is mostly to give us just something that gets pumped out in an offense manner for the trait. It's always felt like they were trying to make Full Counter into an attacking skill so I wanted there to be little additives that someone could lather onto it if they were full bore into all Full Counter traits.

 

I've updated almost everything above so please feel free to take a gander.

 

While tinkering with the Meditations I was reading your notes on Might Makes Right and the sustain with it and kept trying to think of a way to "free" Spellbreakers from relying on a boon for their sustain. I accidentally wandered over to the Necromancer page and realized: Barriers. Barriers are effectively a secondary health-pool for players, and can be reasonably generated by different professions. Perhaps if we reworked the Spellbreaker to generate barriers as a form of self-sustain, rather than healing, that would help solve that problem. I think an Arms/Discipline/Spellbreaker build could be pretty interesting by having that constant reduction of weapon cooldowns.

 

Now... onto the Meditation rework:

 

# **Utility Skills**

Meditations are largely bad. The effects they have are incredibly niche, long cooldowns with no way to reduce them, or lackluster considering other Utility skills do it better. I must admit, with my entire rework above I _completely_ forgot about even tweaking a trait to have anything to do with Meditations simply because the Meditations in their current form are almost laughable.

 

The most highly used skill out of this entire category is Winds of Disenchantment, and that's largely only in WvW. There little to no place for its use in PvE.

 

## _Healing Skill: Natural Healing_:

This one is a fairly decent skill that I actually see floating around from time to time. Admittedly, Mending's condi cleanse (especially with the potential July 7th update) makes this one irrelevant except for the healing amount.

 

If anything, I would say it should be brought back into line with GW: Nightfall:

* Healing: 12,000

* Cast Time: 1s

* Boons Removed: 5 (Boons = Sustain for a Warrior, and 7 seems over the top)

* Conditions Removed: 5 (Matching Mending)

* After removal if you have no boons this skill activates Instantly

 

If you're in the middle of a fight, Burning, Bleeding, Poisoned, Weakened, Immobilized, with 1 HP left, it doesn't matter that you have Stability, Resistance, Protection, Fury, Swiftness--you are going to die. So this skill is the solution to that: drop absolutely everything instantly and get back in the fight.

 

Losing all those boons in a fight is a big hit and just getting the extra ~2.5K healing over top of "To the Limit!" doesn't really make up for losing all of those boons. Even losing the conditions doesn't make up for it, especially seeing as how Mending (July 7th) is a faster cast, half CD, 55% healing version of it with no drawbacks. There's not really much of a reason to take Natural Healing over any other heal skill except for super specific scenarios.

 

So, if this is reworked to be instant cast if you completely remove all of your boons, suddenly it's a big deal. It's a last ditch panic button to get ~60% of your health back (assuming no Vit. gear) and try and take down the enemy.

 

If you don't remove all boons, then it's kind of a slap on the wrist for maintaining the condi-cleanse and a sizeable heal. Not perfect, but again fits thematically with Spellbreakers stripping/sacrificing magic for their skills.

 

## _Utility Skills: Sight Beyond Sight_:

Just..... this one has always bothered me. I don't know why it exists. Having the "Next Attack is a Critical Hit" is fine and dandy, but you need such precise timing to get this one off and then immediately hit your burst that it's more likely you'll accidentally auto-attack and lose it immediately.

 

The blind cleanse is nice, but I think this could be taken one step further to make it actually worth something.

* Sight Beyond Sight: 5s Immune to Blind

* Revealed: 5s You cannot Stealth

* Targets 5, Radius 600, Max Count 2, Count Recharge 20

 

Blind is the bane to power warriors everywhere. In every single mode if you miss with a Burst skill it completely ruins your day as so many traits, effects, and even just the damage are wholly dependent on Burst.

 

The Critical Chance from this one is nice, but with the reworks to skills and traits it's not necessary anymore. Having the ability to ignore blind for the duration of the skill as well as revealing those pesky stealthed enemies would work wonders because it would add a huge chance of being able to land your Burst/Full Counter.

 

## _Utility Skill: Featherfoot Grace_:

Given the reworks mentioned above, this might not have the best synergy since you're stripping away your own boons as well, but I feel as long as the Might generation from various skills keeps covering it, you should be largely fine.

 

I figured following with the theme of Dervishes stripping boons away from themselves for effects:

* Duration: 6s

* Cooldown: 30s

* Increased Critical Change: +10-20%

* Superspeed: 5s upon cast

* Removes Boon every 2s, if a boon is removed, gain 2s Superspeed

* Remove 2 Conditions upon cast

 

The idea of this one it to maintain it as a condi-cleanse (something the Spellbreaker truly needs). But since Resistance is now available via the reworked Guard Counter, I felt that we should tweak this one to feel more like a classic Dervish skill.

 

The boon loss is the tradeoff for suddenly having so much additional speed, and it provides the additional Critical Chance (not a boon so it can't be removed) to help Spellbreaker's to hit 100% criticals for spikes to synergize with the other trait reworks. This would be great for suddenly getting rid of blind/slow, charging across the field shedding off boons at a spellcaster, and then critical spiking them. If Fury survives the charge, all the better, but at the very least a Spellbreaker would still have a considerable amount of Crit Chance once they get within striking distance of the foe.

 

## _Utility Skill: Imminent Threat_:

Must admit, I completely forgot this one even existed. It's just.... not good. It's similar to "Fear Me" or "On My Mark" where in theory it'd be okay but long CD and middling effects (that can be more readily caused by weapons anyways) makes it very mediocre.

 

With the rework noted above for Revenge Counter, the Retaliation on this one would actually be fairly good, assuming the Retaliation stacked per enemy affected. As such:

* Targets: 5, Radius: 300

* Taunt: 1s to each foe affected

* Retaliation: 3s per each foe affected

* Adrenaline: 3 per each foe affected

* Cast Time: 0.5s

* Cooldown: 24s

 

Because the Retaliation suddenly gives such a big jump in damage, I didn't want this skill's rework to be over the top, hence why the duration is lessened. It's not the best when used on just one enemy, but when facing a group it's a great way to forcefully proc Full Counter, stack an obscene amount of Retaliation duration (15s from skill at max, + 8s from Revenge Counter rework) in addition to Adrenaline for spikes and the boon rip/cc from the Taunt.

 

This one could consider competing with the reworked Winds of Disenchantment simply because of the possible synergy, but this skills full effect relies on specific traits and usage being taken, whereas Winds works with nearly any build as a Hail Mary.

 

I like the potential of this one being a reliable way for Spellbreakers to proc their Full Counters in emergency scenarios, as well as giving them a boost to damage via Retaliation in emergencies. Its synergy is a lot higher with the above mentioned reworks than with the original form of the traits.

 

This all being said, I'm unsure about the CD. 24s might be a little low, but I feel allowing this skill's use for every 3 uses of Full Counter (8s CD untraited) is fair, vs the current 4.375 uses, especially since the current traits are fairly meh with Full Counter.

 

## _Utility Skill: Break Enchantments_:

The July 7th update is going to increase the Damage X value by 50%, and the Damage Increase (Upon loss of Boon) will go from 100% to 300%. That's a considerable spike for this skill and honestly pretty much what I would have recommended myself. The cooldown of 15s is reasonable enough in those cases as it won't cause too much damage to be a one-hit-KO but will be a great spike (especially in PvE/WvW) if someone gets caught unawares by it.

 

My understanding is a bit rough with it, but if the damage is applied per boon removed (2 boons) then if some poor soul was running around with Aegis and Swiftness, you'd do a pretty heavy double-tap to them right out of the gates without it being blocked.

 

## _Elite Skill: Winds of Disenchantment_:

Current this is a channeled skill that removes boons. It's decent enough, but with the reduced target cap and the fact that it's channeled and does little to no damage, it's a very so-so skill outside of zerging in WvW. Elite Skills are described as "powerful skills designed to be used infrequently and have a dramatic effect on the tide of battle"--this one currently feels like more of a Utility skill to be used in WvW here and there, and there is almost **no situation in PvE **where this skill would be of equal or better use than any other Warrior Elite Skill.

 

Honestly, in Guild Wars Nightfal (#DervishLife) I really enjoyed having this skill. It was a great way to spike enemy groups and punish them while stripping off your own boons. This is primarily what I used as a template when redesigning this one.

 

Rework:

* No longer channeled, follows Spellbreaker.

* 0.75s Cast Time

* 6s Duration, 5 Targets within field.

* Radius: 360, Blocks Missiles, Combo Field: Lightning

* Interval 1 Seconds - Remove Boon from Self. If a boon is removed in this way do X Damage to nearby enemies (5 targets)

* Interval 1 Seconds - Remove Boon from Enemy. If a boon is removed in this way, inflict 3s Slow and 3s Weakness on enemy (duration stacks per boon removed).

* Upon Ending: Gain X Barrier per boon removed on the final interval of this skill.

* Upon Ending: If Enemy inside bubble has no boons when this skill ends, influct X Damage.

 

This makes the skill more of an offense based Meditation while still focusing on the idea of "breaking spells". The ending is meant to work with the Spellbreaker theme. By stripping away boons during the cast, it's inflicting Slow (i.e. "Cold" from GW:NF) and by the final interval giving you Barrier it's stripping the magic away from the enemy and using it for your own defense.

 

As well, there's a tradeoff, because if this is used right when the enemy is spiking you, you might strip away Stability, Retaliation, Protection, Resistance, etc from yourself at the worst possible time. But by doing so you're causing bursts of damage to all enemies inside by expelling all of the boons from yourself in one big burst.

 

I wanted this skill to synergize well with the boons that the Spellbreaker generates in the reworked traits, as well as by the auto-attacks from dagger. It promotes a "do or die" final assault while giving the opportunity to gain either protection or a final execution at the end of the skill.

[Lametoile.7394]

You're welcome!

 

Well, you have my thoughts on traits. About your changes:

- I like your "no escape" modification. Simple and clear.

- About magebane tether, and sun and moon style, i told you my preferences but i sympathise with what you try to accomplish here. Having magebane tether becomes sustain in itself would indeed free us from might makes right (or rather give us a choice. Personnally I woudl love to have both Berserker power AND sustain)

- So i back up your magebane tether change. Though i'm uneasy about make it relying over the number of ennemies. Also, does daze trigger on pulse or does moving out of range remove the effect? (I suppose not, since that would make the skill useless). Finally, i think we should stay at +10% damage, don't forget we just lost 16 stacks of might here.

- I would rather not put reduced cooldwon on dagger. I now it's the norm for weapon trait but dagger actually already have low ones and I think they didn't add it on purpose. I think we still need an effect that doesn't require two daggers.

 

**Now for Meditations:**

 

**Natural healing:** I think you really pin-pointed the core theme of this skill: cleaning everything, both the good and the bad, to start fresh and anew. While mending is indeed more powerful, the cast is the issue, so adding an instant cast option would set them apart. That would also compensate for the frustration of losing your boons.

_If I may: what about a little change to your new pure strike version to include this skill in the barrier gain? The barrier would not change with the number of boon suppressed (to prevent the number from being to weak when it's a burst), but that would be a way to indirectly boost that skill, since meditations don't have a related trait._

 

**Sight beyond sight:** Nothing to say, it's exactly how the skill should be. Blind is a pain in the ass, especially for warriors since our most powerful traits relies on landing the burst. Countering it would be fair and suited to the spellbreaker discipline and instinct.

 

**Featherfoot grace:** Pretty nice actually. Since it removes boon, it becomes the situationnal skills needed to be activated at the right times (else you lose the benefits of guard counter and revenge counter). Removing resistance also make your 4s resistance duration for guard counter much more acceptable.

Basically we replace classic boons by a pure, upgraded variant that can't be altered, i think it suits the concept of spellbreker so perfectly.

_I maintain what I said about natural healing and pure strike. That trait definitely would be the meditation enhancer and I like it_

_Just one thing: though i definitely see the interest of bonus crit chance, I thought maybe an attack speed bonus would suit the speed idea of the skill more appropriately. I also thought about removing slow and movement impeding conditions instead of 2 random ones._

_Finally: do we keep the stunbreak? I think it's legit_

 

**Imminent threat:** Yeah, i also forgot this one so easily... it basic concept is to allow the spellbreaker to jump directly into a group fight, immediatly granting the adrenaline and attacker's insight stacks needed. In that it's fair. If you have revenge counter, you should already be able to maintain perma retaliation anyway. But you can also do it while having this skill and Defense instead.

_That said, I also think 24s is too low. 30s seems reasonable_

_At one point i thought having it refreshing the cooldown of full counter? Would go with the thematic: "attack me...and pay for it". Obviously not in pvp because full counter should have long cooldown, but definitely reasonable in pve, since taunt is useless anyway_

 

**Break enchantments:** Agreed, the next patch will put it right where it belongs

 

**Winds of disanchantment:** The current state of that skills despair me. Break enchantment is no elite skills yet it does exactly the same thing except much, much, MUCH BETTER. What's the point?

So...

Totally agree on the cast removal and the field following the warrior

I back up once again the idea of sacrificing one's own boons (_and pure strike effect enhancing it_). Damage however would have to be pretty high wouldn't they? We gonna be at 6.0 coefficient for break enchantments in case of removal. Being at 1.0 per pulse seems fair however.

I'm not fan of the idea of turning ennemies' boons into condis. That sounds like a necro thing to me that doesn't suit the spellbreaker at all. I know it was a great theme for the dervish but something just feels off.

The lasting effect is pretty nice though, depending on wether or not you succeeded in removing all the boons of the ennemy, or if there's still a way to go. Not sure about the actual results though. Draining barrier over ennemies is too reminiscent of magebane tether in my opinion.

Also worth asking: does the impossibility to gain new boons also apply to the spellbreaker? It would go accept the concept if no, but that would also ruin the boon gain opportunity he has.

 

_My suggestions:_

_You and and foes cannot gain new boons and lose 1 boon every 1s. Each boon you lose grant you barrier. Each boon foe lose inflict slow on them (2s) Ending effect: you gain 8s of alacrity if you have no boons. Foes take strong damage and are dazed (1s) if they have no boons_

_Why?: I feel like the purpose of this skill is to apply a massive boon rip on AoE, but also that the spellbreaker should wield the strength to carry it until the end. Hence the cleansing of his onw enchantments rewarded as protection, and ennemies slowed by the wind so that he's protected. Alacrity is in tribute of the dervish skills containing "pious" (reducing cooldown if you effectively lose enchantment). Final damage is there to punish the foes for staying in contact to the spellbreaker. Consequently, either they leave and the spellbreaker enjoy a quiet pause in his protective bubble, or he chase them and crush them as they're exposed. Note that it works very well with magebane tether, no escape and pure strike_

 

 

 

_Side Note: Do you think that we should have a slight modification on full counter, that it cancel the conditions inflicted on the attack countered?_

 

[sarangajit.5648]

Sight beyond sight: Ability to see stealth foes within 600 radius for 5 secs (without revealing them). First hit reveals them for 5 sec.

I always thought it should work like this. Immune to blind is a great addition.

[Tycura.1982]

I like it how it is. I don't want to be a tank I want to be a duelist.

[Geoff Fey.1035]

> @"sarangajit.5648" said:

> Sight beyond sight: Ability to see stealth foes within 600 radius for 5 secs (without revealing them). First hit reveals them for 5 sec.

> I always thought it should work like this. Immune to blind is a great addition.

I think programming-wise this would be difficult to pull off. They'd probably need to cannibalize some coding from how you can see stealthed Mordrem to do it that way. I like the idea but I don't think gameplay-wise it'd come through with the same effect. As well, if you can just see them/reveal them, then you're stuck being blinded still.

 

> @"Tycura.1982" said:

> I like it how it is. I don't want to be a tank I want to be a duelist.

Right now daggers are almost useless as a weapon. Not enough damage to be competitive with other weapons (despite the utility) and other weapons/skills synch better with the traitlines than the current format. As well, Spellbreaker dps in PvE is comparatively bad vs Core/Berserker, the reworks were attempts to increase that dps a bit while keeping the rough theme with Spellbreaker.

 

It wasn't necessarily turning SB into a tank--even though the Full Counter is essentially a tank button--and even with the reworks you could be a duelist by focusing on those spike damages with boonrip as opposed to focusing on Full Counter or the stun/dagger/tether traits.

 

> @"Lametoile.7394" said:

Haven't had a chance to review and incorporate some of your suggestions. The only thing I'd spar with you on is turning boons into conditions. Agreed, it's more of a Necro thing, but since the reworked WoD would do more damage if you strip your own boons I wasn't really sure how to work in the original stripping of enemies boons beyond just simply stripping them and being done with it. The slow is more of a "flavor" thing to it than anything else.

 

Was kind of thinking the Spellbreaker could be moved away from boons altogether and more towards effects (think similar to "Endure Pain" and the original form of "Berserker Stance"). That way you're not Spellbreaking and then just applying boons on you (even though that's simpler) but you're focusing on getting rid of boons everywhere and then stacking duration based effects that can't be stripped and barriers.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[Lametoile.7394]

> > @"Lametoile.7394" said:

> Haven't had a chance to review and incorporate some of your suggestions. The only thing I'd spar with you on is turning boons into conditions. Agreed, it's more of a Necro thing, but since the reworked WoD would do more damage if you strip your own boons I wasn't really sure how to work in the original stripping of enemies boons beyond just simply stripping them and being done with it. The slow is more of a "flavor" thing to it than anything else.

>

> Was kind of thinking the Spellbreaker could be moved away from boons altogether and more towards effects (think similar to "Endure Pain" and the original form of "Berserker Stance"). That way you're not Spellbreaking and then just applying boons on you (even though that's simpler) but you're focusing on getting rid of boons everywhere and then stacking duration based effects that can't be stripped and barriers.

>

> Thoughts?

>

>

 

I'm not sure of what you means. We shouldn't have too many "special effects", boon removing from ourselves have to stay a trade-off if chosen to do so. Applying barrier is a nice way to compensate i think. Adding a special effect for wind of disanchantments could be nice.

 

Check on my answer. I think slow if fine because it suits the mood "creating a calm area when spellbreaker can have a break"