2:16 am, October 27, 2013
108
Toxin; the anti-zerg?
So I was watching Guildcast and early in they started discussing the new cross-profession healing skill coming with the next patch. And naturally this lead to speculation of what exactly this strange new condition called toxin could end up being. Now obviously it is going to be some manner of hindrance if not a direct damage condition, but between all the other options we have what kind of DoT is left for us to deal with (and hopefully start working into our builds)? Then it hit me; disease.
For those who didnt play the original Guild Wars, or who may have simply forgotten, disease was a simple damage dealing degeneration condition in the same family as bleed, poison, and burning. As far as damage goes it was at about the same level of damage as poison. However there was a catch. Something about it that made it awesome, and something that made the disease applying cross-profession skill Signet of Infection a mainstay of my DPS ranger build; disease was contagious.
Not only could it jump to adjacent or nearby enemies (be they PvE mobs or PvP players) but it could actually jump back. It could essentially re-infect mobs or players who just cleansed it if an infected ally got too close. Not only could this skill decimate entire swarms of foes, but it required careful skill and coordination to use in PvP or when facing human adversaries in PvE because it was entirely possible to inadvertently infect your own party and cause a wipe.
Imagine if this condition made its way into Guild Wars 2. Just think of its impact on WvW or world bosses. Players needing to spread apart and play skillfully together because a single diseased player could wipe an entire zerg; starting a chain reaction of infection and reinfection that cant be dealt with by uncoordinated groups. And those same uncoordinated groups wiping themselves with careless use of the condition. So what if one guy can cure himself; it will just keep bouncing back to him, perhaps even stacking higher and higher as the infection spreads and gets applied and reapplied by an ever increasing number of infected. Not even AoE condition removal would help; as there would inevitably be players who dont recognize what is happening and wander out of the area; preserving the condition and spreading it anew.
I cant say with any degree of certainly that this is what toxin will turn out to be, but I sure as hell hope so. What about you?
For those who didnt play the original Guild Wars, or who may have simply forgotten, disease was a simple damage dealing degeneration condition in the same family as bleed, poison, and burning. As far as damage goes it was at about the same level of damage as poison. However there was a catch. Something about it that made it awesome, and something that made the disease applying cross-profession skill Signet of Infection a mainstay of my DPS ranger build; disease was contagious.
Not only could it jump to adjacent or nearby enemies (be they PvE mobs or PvP players) but it could actually jump back. It could essentially re-infect mobs or players who just cleansed it if an infected ally got too close. Not only could this skill decimate entire swarms of foes, but it required careful skill and coordination to use in PvP or when facing human adversaries in PvE because it was entirely possible to inadvertently infect your own party and cause a wipe.
Imagine if this condition made its way into Guild Wars 2. Just think of its impact on WvW or world bosses. Players needing to spread apart and play skillfully together because a single diseased player could wipe an entire zerg; starting a chain reaction of infection and reinfection that cant be dealt with by uncoordinated groups. And those same uncoordinated groups wiping themselves with careless use of the condition. So what if one guy can cure himself; it will just keep bouncing back to him, perhaps even stacking higher and higher as the infection spreads and gets applied and reapplied by an ever increasing number of infected. Not even AoE condition removal would help; as there would inevitably be players who dont recognize what is happening and wander out of the area; preserving the condition and spreading it anew.
I cant say with any degree of certainly that this is what toxin will turn out to be, but I sure as hell hope so. What about you?