Ritualist Splinter Barrager

[Seijin]

I wasn't aware that it was broken. It worked as described. It just needed to be reworked so people wouldn't take advantage of it during that one quest...which I might say was enjoyable to do every so often.

[WarBlade]

I wasn't aware that it was broken. It worked as described.

And the description was simply highlighting the brokeness of the skill!

It just needed to be reworked so people wouldn't take advantage of it during that one quest...which I might say was enjoyable to do every so often.

It was also overkill for 'nuking' Snowmen.

[KingOfPain]

That is one of those major GW things I dislike, as a not so hardcore GW gamer - I don't have the time to, nor want to keep up with all the skill changes.

KoP

[Seijin]

Whatevers WB. If you think it was broken, so be it...it was broken. What you say, must be. I don't really don't give a care.

[Hawkmoon]

I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree that major imbalances need to be fixed, which often involves nerfing obviously overpowered skills.

But I don't think this fits that category.

I have really enjoyed playing my Splinter Barrager Rit - there was really nothing so wonderful as the time in the Echovald Forest when I just happened to get a mob really bunched up, and nearly the whole width of the screen lit up with damage numbers. *wipes tear from eye* Yes, those were the days... (and please note that the mob didn't all drop dead from that one Barrage - Splinter Weapon wasn't overpowered!)

Given that I wasn't exploiting the whichever mission you were talking about, it really annoys me that ArenaNet continually shows this behavior pattern of breaking whichever skills are really effective. If there was just one mission where Splinter Weapon was a problem, did it ever occur to them to change the monster mix or spawn points for just that mission? Why the &*#% do they have to make all of us pay for the "bad behavior" of a few?

In their manual for GW (yes, I actually did read all the background info, once upon a time!), it talks about how it's the mark of good players to figure out which skills will synergize well with each other, and make a really effective combo. Well, guess what? Once a good combo is discovered, it's only a matter of time before it gets FUBARed. Thanks a lot, A.net. Punish players for figuring out what works well.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Havral]

Reading the notes on the change on the official wiki, the primary reason was that people were basically running splinter builds to annihilate the guild NPC during Victory or Death in GvG.

In short, GvG games were less about actually heading out and fighting and more turtling until VoD and seeing which side could splinter the Guild Lord and his entourage faster.

[WarBlade]

I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree that major imbalances need to be fixed, which often involves nerfing obviously overpowered skills.

But I don't think this fits that category.

-snip-

Given that I wasn't exploiting the whichever mission you were talking about, it really annoys me that ArenaNet continually shows this behavior pattern of breaking whichever skills are really effective. If there was just one mission where Splinter Weapon was a problem, did it ever occur to them to change the monster mix or spawn points for just that mission? Why the &*#% do they have to make all of us pay for the "bad behavior" of a few?

As Havral alluded to, there were other considerations entirely that brought this change about.

Developer explanation of the full list of skill updates here. (Be sure to take note of the summary at the bottom)

Constructive feedback/criticism can go here.

In their manual for GW (yes, I actually did read all the background info, once upon a time!), it talks about how it's the mark of good players to figure out which skills will synergize well with each other, and make a really effective combo. Well, guess what? Once a good combo is discovered, it's only a matter of time before it gets FUBARed. Thanks a lot, A.net. Punish players for figuring out what works well.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Unfortunately, with the ever-bloating list of skills coming out with each campaign (note how few came with the expansion outside of PvE-only), a problem arises where unexpected combinations get tweaked to the limit and start screwing with the game balance. Remember the discontent over "Touch Rangers" shortly after Factions released, or the Paragon GvG issues in the immediate wake of Nightfall? No matter how much testing gets done, nothing compares to the level of experimentation that happens once a new build goes live and sometimes the problems that crop up because of this just need to be remedied in some way, shape, or form.

But to answer the quoted statement more directly, occasionally a "good combo" turns out to be an "overly good combo" and may well need some retuning to make it simply a "good combo" again.

[Havral]

And now on the other side of the balance update...

Barrage: increased damage to 5..20 damage.

Woot. Barrage spam builds just got a little better than they already were. My ranger heroes were already dropping entire packs like flies through just spamming Volley and Barrage with Winnowing, and now their favourite Elite is a little more leeter.

[WarBlade]

Have a play around with Magebane Shot loaded on a Hero too...

[Havral]

Oddly enough, you can have some serious fun with two ranger heroes, and you've got a total of three (Plus anyone you want to be pocket rangers - I've got Xandra set up as the same splinter barrager as this thread discusses, though she's downright useless with it).

Let's assume you only want two spirits per hero. Load them up with Volley, Barrage, Crossfire (Blockers seem obscenely common throughout Nightfall and EotN), any interrupts you like, and a ress. That's four-five skills, six if you bring on a third interrupt.

Now load up one with Favorable Winds and Winnowing, the second with Edge of Extinction and a spirit of your choice (This could be entirely situation. Winter for Rodgort fire spikers, Nature's Renewal for anti-hex, maybe even a second Winnowing or EoE to mitigate the recharge times.) Disable the heroes from automatically casting Winnowing, EoE, and any "situational" spirits. It's fine to have them keep spamming Favorable Winds though.

If you're a dumb warrior, like me, then skills such as Hundred Blades or Whirlwind Attack for swordsmen or any axe AoE helps. If not, set a warrior hero up accordingly.

This setup works immensely well for large non-human packs (Unless you're up against Charr with Pyre Fierceshot as one of your rangers). Without any fire-damage preps (and Barrage removes them anyway, though it's probably best if you don't bring along Conflagration) the rangers will be do a steady amount of distributed physical damage, augmented with Winnowing's effect, your warrior will also be raking up some damage on the front line. By the time one enemy is about to peg it, almost everyone you're attacking is below EoE's health threshold and will take more damage when you kill the target. Move on and repeat.

Of course, if two barragers seem like overkill, bring in Broad Head Arrow or Magebane Shot. Volley is worth keeping. Personally, if I could actually get ritualists to keep casting Splinter Weapon on themselves you could bring this in too.

I really, really, really like ranger heroes. Even when moderately set up they know how to use a lot of their skills. I've had serious problems setting up elementalists to use their own skills in synergy, and I dislike ritualist heroes as the only thing they do well is spirit spam. Rangers on the other hand seem to do well with whatever they get handed, as do interrupting mesmers and necromancers.