Tails.9372

Any effect that needs the player to actively meet a condition to trigger is per definition not a passive. Also the point of the trait choices are generally not to provide completely new gameplay but to further adjust / enhance the existing one. If you want to completely change up your gameplay then you can always just choose another skill but if a trait allows you to "dodge more" at the cost of missing out on the damage boost you would have gotten from Twin Fangs then that's already a change that has the potential to impact your gameplay in a noticeable way. The way it currently works however just creates needles conflict between what the skill wants to do and what the trait wants to do and so would swapping out the ini gain for X seconds of unblockable for that matter.

Why would anyone ever bother with it? Having to waste a skill use designed for X just to gain Y is bad design to begin with and it also has to provide decent value vs. Twin Fangs which it doesn't (neither does Assassin's Fury for that matter but at least that one, in its current iteration, is still salvageable). The previous version of the trait had the potential to provide a decent alternative to Twin Fangs that goes more into the utility direction but they failed to realize it. All they had to do would have been to change the "on kill" effects to "on crit" and tone the values down if necessary.

I would like to see the big asuran golem thing from the loading screen as a Siege Turtle skin.

I don't mind the "sniper stance" but it could use more range (at least the 1800 ranger LB has but iderly a bit more). What does irk me however (for multiple reasons) is the forced jumping around Silent Scope promotes. I just wish they they would remove the stealth on dodge and replace it with a Stealth Attack flip over while at max malice.

If "the 10% increase in damage of that trait will lead the build to become more popular among lazy people similar to how it is with rifle mech but to the point where the devs will feel inclined to nerf it again" was not the point you're trying to make then you should have been more clear if you don't want people to misunderstand you. Also, as I said the point of a forum is to have discussions about the subject matters in question which would ofc. include arguments about things people disagree with. Sadly many people default to argue in bad faith especially when faced with something they disagree with.

No you don't, you seem to have a strange fixation on the words "akin to" but that only shows that you don't understand the points being made. And even the devs seem to have realized that their latest nerf went overboard as the last couple of balance changes for mech were all aimed to dial it back. Aren't you talking about yourself here? You didn't even seem to know that people don't use the AoE trait for content that puts them up against a singular target. Also, I'm arguing for the sake of the subject matter which is the point of these forums but at this point your whole argument essentially boils down to "its going to get nerfed because it's going to get nerfed" which is based on nothing that holds up to scrutiny (talk about "arguing for the sake of arguing"). Even the limited infos we have (like the statistics on GW2 Wingman) show that things like them turning P/P 3 into a glorified AA didn't do anything to make people pick up the build so expecting a change that makes you go from +10% damage from Practiced Tolerance to +10% damage from Deadly Aim to make people flock to P/P thief to the point to which the devs feel like having to nerf it is rather nonsensical. So I take that you don't even know what a strawman is then.

So you didn't understand neither the point he made nor the post you were responding to. If there is no reason to asume that rifle Mech is going to get nerfed (which there isn't) why would you (or anyone) think that P/P, which is both objectively worse and "less lazy", is going to get one? First things first good job on taking things out of context as "and for OW content" relates to "rifle Mech would..." so what exactly are you trying to do here? Argue against your own strawman? Secondly, going from Practiced Tolerance to the new Deadly Aim would not be a "10% damage buff" for instanced boss fights.

You do realize that even after the buff rifle Mech would still be the vastly superior choice for "lazy people", right? The buff doesn't even change anything substantial for instanced boss fights and for OW content rifle Mech would also still be a vastly superior choice, even on a considerably more defensive build, as the damage would still be relatively comparable while offering more range, a vastly better survivability and an even more passive playstyle that, unlike with the thief, doesn't have to compromise anything for its basic utility. From a practical perspective the notion that this would "result in a nerf" for P/P thiefs is rather absurd but then again thief has gotten some absurd nerfs in the past so I guess there is that.

Good QoL changes for CS and DE but the main QoL issue for thief rifle (the forced jumping around in the rotation) still persists. At this point just remove the leash mechanic from the Mechanical Genius trait already, it was a bandaid solution for a something pretty much nobody took issue with in the first place.

For Deadly Aim they should remove the damage penalty and turn it into a variant of the ranger LB trait by adding "Ini cost for pistols and harpoon-guns reduced by 1" and "critically striking foes grants boons (Swiftness (10s), Quickness (5s), 15s icd)" to it. For Invigorating Precision they should go back to the 10% baseline for the on crit dmg based healing and then add "While you are under the effects of Fury you gain "Incoming Healing Increase: 50%" to it. For Silent Scope they should remove the stealth on dodge and replace it with "While you have maximum Malice stacks you gain access to your Stealth Attack.".

So what? Mech rifle does pretty much the same thing with its skill 1 while being more passive and having both more range and damage even on a more defensive build. Pretty much wrong in every aspect, the weapon set has always been all about a "power "Spam 3" build" and the change did address one of its major shortcomings by making using other skills (at this point mainly skill 4 due to a general lack of utility on the weapon set) less punishing. Being able to "infinately spam 3" was always something one could easily do. Also, even with this change the weapon set is still just an amalgamation of downsides: damage still sucks (especially if you use the related weapon trait), survivability sucks, no mobility on the set and the utility is extremely limited. The ability to faceroll trashmobs in Queensdale does not make something "broken".

The axe itself is fun to play (I'm specifically refering to axe / pistol here). The malicious stealth attack malice consumption effect offers nothing of real value for power builds which goes directly against the stated "the weapon is condi or power focused based on the off hand" theme of the weapon. Legendary effects / skins are not applied to the spinning axes (huge disapointment).

Yes, they only said, after they noticed, that it consumes malice for poison damage.

From the stream: Given the main theme of this weapon (it being more condi or power based on the off hand) this seems to be a rather poorly thought out implementation as it completely sidelines power builds. Making the malicious stealth attack do poison and apply a further bonus to condi / strike damage (based on the equiped off hand) for each stack of malice consumed would be a much better implementation for it.

Just take a look at similar weapon traits on other classes like Lead the Wind for Ranger LB. That trait gives boons on hit and a cooldown reduction on top the piercing. There is no good reason for the double standard here.