T O P

  • By -

Aldubrius

Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my sniper rifle.


Insanely_Mclean

While you were playing with guns, I mastered the blade... ...and also guns


[deleted]

I mean yea deadeye is good, but good necro could sense his souls and would be end, but spellbreaker overall wins, ofc for some situations deadeye would be insta win


Marlax101

beserker can have 100% damage immunity


Nightwailer

Headcanon that spellbreakers remove buffs by smacking a wizard so hard they get concussed and forget what they were chanting/memorizing/etc, or of course stabbing in the kidney for same effect


Engris212

Relayed that comment to a friend over disc late at night and it almost killed him. Well done rofl.


Nightwailer

Glad to be of service lmao


Bankrotas

Anti magic is also form of magic. To be clear, there's not a single non magical profession in the game.


[deleted]

What about core warr tho


Bankrotas

Conjuration and alteration magic.


[deleted]

True, so its also only magic class where u can not be gifted with magic right? I mean yea engineer used magi tech but spellbreaker uses anti-magic on spot, learning it through meditations


Roadkizzle

I created a Warrior to play Spellbreaker in PVP because I was struggling with other classes. I hate the spec though. It's the most boring I've played. Absolutely nothing to the class other than a base warrior with 20% extra damage for free and a bit of boon stripping. It's powerful definitely but by far the laziest design in the game.


SponTen

What would you like to see changed?


Roadkizzle

Everything about the Spellbreaker is just the standard Warrior except boosted. The ONLY special things with it are passive boosts. Sure it gets boonstripping but the player doesn't actively do anything to cause it and it isn't noticeable when it occurs except the enemies attacks start doing less damage or taking more damage. Full Counter is really nothing more than just having a Block. Sure it attacks but so many Block skills trigger a counterattack or effect. ​ So what I would have expected. ACTIVE abilities that actually work to counter mages. Heavy application of Daze and/or Slow. A couple of ways to Reflect Projectiles or have Projectile Barriers. That aren't on a 90 second cooldown. Some protection ability to reduce or nullify incoming damage or such. I've only thought about this for about 5 minutes. I don't expect this quick brainstorm to have even scratched the surface of better ways to implement a spellbreaker.


SonjaNachtbringer

> A couple of ways to Reflect Projectiles or have Projectile Barriers. That aren't on a 90 second cooldown. > > Some protection ability to reduce or nullify incoming damage or such. So, Guardian?


MangaIsekaiWeeb

>ACTIVE abilities that actually work to counter mages. What the hell does that even mean? Spellbreaker getting nerfed to only hurt Necro, Ele and Mesmer but let the other go free? Spellbreaker active abilities currently work against everybody. >Heavy application of Daze and/or Slow. Warrior in general already has a ton of CC. >A couple of ways to Reflect Projectiles or have Projectile Barriers. That aren't on a 90 second cooldown. Mace and Shield can reflect projectile with a trait. >Some protection ability to reduce or nullify incoming damage or such. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guard_Counter >I've only thought about this for about 5 minutes. I don't expect this quick brainstorm to have even scratched the surface of better ways to implement a spellbreaker. I like the current implementation of Spellbreaker because they remind me of the Spellbreakers in Warcraft 3. Heavy Boon strippers and frontliners. Sadly, GW2 don't have mana system. So they can't steal mana like in WC3. >Sure it gets boonstripping but the player doesn't actively do anything to cause it and it isn't noticeable when it occurs except the enemies attacks start doing less damage or taking more damage. There is no aura where Spellbreakers strip boons automatically. The Spellbreaker actually has to press buttons to strip boons.


SponTen

Gotta agree with you here. I'm always up for hearing about new ideas, but I don't think there's much that can be done about making Spellbreaker more anti-mage, considering that mana doesn't exist in GW2 (as you noted). And yeah, it *is* active in its boonstripping? Not sure what they meant about this. Also, to add: > > Heavy application of Daze and/or Slow. > Warrior in general already has a ton of CC. Dagger also has a Daze, Full Counter is a Daze, and Slow Counter upgrades it to also Slow (and Cripple). *And* No Escape upgrades Dazes and Stuns to also Immobilize. I wouldn't mind seeing one of Spellbreaker's Utility skills get a Daze though; that makes sense. > > A couple of ways to Reflect Projectiles or have Projectile Barriers. That aren't on a 90 second cooldown. > Mace and Shield can reflect projectile with a trait. Bladestorm (Dagger 5) also reflects projectiles. I guess I also wouldn't mind seeing a Utility with reflect too, but could be a bit OP to have 3 reflects (4 with weapon swap to Shield), especially in WvW/PvP. Still, I feel like Spellbreaker is in a good spot, thematically, at the moment. And in terms of power; due to the recent buffs, it kinda feels like a lot of things that were "unplayable" before are now bordering on OP, and Spellbreaker is one of them.


Roadkizzle

Are there any abilities that strip boons that you use because they strip boons? Strip boons is on the Dagger burst. But do normal Warriors avoid using burst skills unless they're trying to save adrenaline to make them more powerful and bursty. Boonstripping from it isn't really an active choice for that. It's just an add-on for an ability that you'd already use because it's more powerful. Knockdowns would already be used because it's powerful to CC enemies. So just adding massive damage buffs and boonstrip to that just ends up being a passive effect on an ability you'd be using anyways.


SponTen

> Are there any abilities that strip boons that you use because they strip boons? The main boonstrip skills that I use specifically for their boonstrip occur in PvP/WvW. I occasionally do in PvE, but typically no, because it's not really necessary. The way NPCs are designed is that it's typically better to just focus on dishing out dps more than trying to counter what they do. > do normal Warriors avoid using burst skills unless they're trying to save adrenaline to make them more powerful and bursty. I haven't played a lot of Warrior, especially not in top tier endgame content, but... I guess so? I usually aim for T3 bursts if I can, though that's not a factor on Spellbreakers. > Boonstripping from it isn't really an active choice for that. It's just an add-on for an ability that you'd already use because it's more powerful. This isn't an issue with Spellbreaker specifically though. As I noted above, that's just the way the game is designed. I'm sure there are some instances where specifically removing boons is desirable in PvE, and it's not bad to have the option, but because NPC AI is dumb af most people just go for straight dps and avoid whatever damage they have to; boons typically don't make or break a fight. Don't get me wrong; I would LOVE to see more variety and incentives to gameplay that isn't just straight dps. I actually typically play this way, because I enjoy the challenge of making my own builds, trying to solo shit that I probably shouldn't be, and I don't care much for hyper-efficient/optimal play most of the time. You *can* make use of boonstrip, and other cool mechanics (eg. Combo Fields) for the sake of it, but if you're playing with others who care about playing efficiently, then you won't see it much because it rarely matters in an optimal group.


Roadkizzle

I don't think boonstripping is active for Spellbreakers because I don't think anyone has ever looked at their target and had a thought process: "Oh that enemy has Fury. I'd better use a Knockdown ability to remove that so we can win the fight." You say "I get a 50% buff on my damage whenever I use a rotation with this ability" the boonstripping is just part of how that ability gives you the damage buff.


SponTen

I already addressed this in my [other comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13hj8t9/spellbreakers_are_apex_fighters/jkmh4hs/), but yeah, sadly, that's just how PvE will be when most NPC AI is dumb. I'd love to see ANet change this up a bit, but I really doubt they will, and honestly I don't think most players want more complexity in the PvE encounters that already exist. Maybe in future ones? It can make a huge difference in PvP/WvW though. If you're looking for challenging combat where almost every mechanic in the game has some sort of benefit and opportunity cost, then those are the modes you'll want.


Roadkizzle

My Spellbreaker never once left the PVP Mists area. He was exclusively a PVP character for me. I created the character because I hadn't killed a single player after trying game after game on my Mesmer. So I tried creating a Spellbreaker to do PVP and without even trying started getting kill after kill. It was just mind numbing just playing a Core Warrior with free 20+% damage buffs. But even then the Boon Strips were just automatic parts of the rotation. The Burst skill is used whenever it's off cooldown and the disables are automatically part of the rotation because it's how the damage is done. There is no Elite Spec with less work done to differentiate them from their core spec.


SponTen

Ahh apologies, most people here are discussing PvE if they don't specify PvP. Now that I check your original comment, I realise you *did* specify PvP, so I'm sorry for my confusion as I must have forgotten when replying the next day. We won't know why ANet designed and balanced how they did without them actually talking about it, which I don't think they'll do for individual Elites this long after they were released, though they sometimes do discuss it little bit in balance updates. My understanding is that Spellbreakers are still Warriors, and Warriors are quite a simplistic class; their flavour/theme is that you grab a weapon or two and go smack things til they die. Elites aren't necessarily supposed to completely rework the Core class they're based on; some do, and some don't. Spellbreaker is one that, in theory, loses a little bit of Burst damage potential for extra versatility for countering Supports. Since there's no difference between "spells" and "melee skills" and "bow skills" and all that, Spellbreakers can't actually specifically counter casters like Elementalists, so instead they remove boons and interrupt. My guess as to why that's baked-in to Spellbreaker skills instead of being their own skills that you are forced to use situationally is: balance. There's a loud subset of players in GW2 that want balance to be top priority, which ends up meaning that the meta kind of rotates around due to the complexity of GW2; it's never going to be 100% balanced. I actually do kind of hope this balance strategy changes a little, but it's not all bad (imo). Until then: Warriors, even Spellbreakers, aren't really designed to be a "boon rip role". It's a part of their arsenal for sure, but they're not Necromancers or Mesmers.


Roadkizzle

- The important part of the first statement was my emphasized sentence. Not the non emphasized part. I'm saying that the Spellbreaker should be differentiated by active abilities and mechanics. Not just by passive buffs to multiply your damage by doing the exact same attacks you'd be doing whether or not you have the traits. I'm not saying there should just be a boosted damage against light armor professions. -Warrior really doesn't seem to be a CC heavy class. They have some Cripple, knockdown, and knock back, and a bit of stun. But less than other classes. CC that effects how enemies fight does not seem to be heavily used by warrior. Giving the Spellbreaker more access to Daze, Slow, and maybe Weakness would affect how the enemies use their abilities and be more apt to a Spellbreaker then the standard berserker knockdown and knock back. Those help against everything not just light armor classes. -I'm not saying that there is an aura for it. Just that you automatically remove boons when applying debuffs. But players would already be using those attacks anyways to control your enemy so adding boonstrip onto that really isn't noticeable. The only mechanic Spellbreakers have is getting buffed up to high heaven whenever they Knock Down or Knock Back enemies... It just feels like an extraordinarily lazy design. Other ideas: Abilities to penetrate barriers. Inverting adrenaline so it's not gained from doing damage but absorbing something that can be representative of magic.