Guild Wars: Redoing the Costume Brawl

After talking to some of my PvP buddies over the weekend, I think the consensus is that the Costume Brawl is a fine little format but not exactly one for the PvP afficiandos. That's fine, of course, since the game benefits from places like that. But if you wanted to make a real format for real pro players instead of a scrub spawning ground, you'd have to make some changes. The first thing to do is realize that the Costume Brawl is a place that's going to be weak on healing and heavy on offesne by design. That the constraints are no secondaries and concentrating on one narrow band of skills instead of splashing in a lot of lines. And that, within those limitations, there are some design decisions that could have been made differently to promote the kind of skillful, intricate play that drives high-end PvP instead of a capping gank fest. Opinions split from there, of course, but I think if you tweaked some of the builds and drastically redid some of the others, that's about all it would take.

Starting with the easy changes first, I'd actually leave the Monk alone. Not because it's particularly good but because I have no idea how you'd optimize something so deformed. You don't want a bonifide healer here, that's for sure, so this Frankenstein mess is probably for the best - maybe you want Smiter's Boon or something in favor of Banish but I don't know so I'm leaving it alone.

The Ranger is almost note perfect, it just needs better attributes. 12 Expertise is weaksauce, that has to be at 13 so you hit the better breakpoints even if it means sacrificing a few seconds of Poisoning or a bit of raw bow-slinging damage. This is a bit of a controversial position on my part, as most of my friends think I smoke the crack rock on this one, but I'd prefer CripShot to BA. The Costume Brawl is all about mobility and disruption and what CripShot does is allow you to keep multiple targets snared while working them down with degen. You won't kill as quickly as with BA but you will have an easier time when dealing with multiple attackers - which is probably why this would be a bad idea for balance unless you want to keep the Ranger as the hands down best class - but I think a Ranger that focuses on disruption and denying the opponent free movement is the best thing you could do with the character. And I think it sets up a nice little RPS where Rangers have real problems with the Dervs and that's the chink in their armor that good players can exploit so they don't run so completely away from the pack.

Next, the Warrior. It's going to suck because you don't have any removal and you really can't because there's none within the skill lists. So you're always going to be in trouble when there's a Ranger or an Ele around. Some people have argued that the best thing to do with the Warrior is to go Hammers for the knockdowns for the same reason I want CripShot on the Ranger but I'm fine with CripSlash. But Tiger Stance and Enraging Charge are suboptimal. E-Charge lasts for one hit after which you're chasing your kiting opponent around in a format where everyone should have a run buff or a snare. You need an always on speed boost and while there's a case to be made for Sprint, I favor Rush here. And for the IAS I'd stick with the classic Frenzy. It's better than Tiger Stance although it's the sort of thing that scrubs turn up their nose at and frightens the newbs - but we're building an expert's Arena here so we don't have to care about that.

Likewise, the Dervish is only a few skills from being where it needs to be. You want Ermite's or Mystic for the damage compression from the 3/4 swing speed. And, at the same time, I'd drop Pious Fury for Heart of Holy Flame as the IAS because it'll let you keep Pious Haste up at the same time and it's better regardless. Tweak the attributes a bit, too, so you get to 12 Mysticism so you hit the 4 energy return breakpoint and, presto, deadliness in tree form.

The Sin is a scrub class. I don't like. But if we're going to be making it as optimal as it can be, then it should be a Shadow Prison build. Aura is good because it's much easier to counter, strip it off and the Sin is blinking away, helping newer players to survive the spike test. But Shadow Prison is much better from an effectiveness standpoint so it's in. That means switching to a different attack change although not necessarily all that different - swap in either Black Lotus or Black Spider for Golden Phoenix and you're not doing to bad. I'd like Impale and a different dual but that's me, Twisting Fangs and space for some self-healing works. Expose doesn't really matter in this format but Siphon Speed would be a nice secondary hex to throw around, giving the Sin a snare although the bar's awfully crowded at this point.

The Ritualist is fine as is but I'd drop the spirits in favor of, you know, actually good stuff. Instead, I'd go with a Resto weapon build with channeling nukes since you'll be picking up Splinter anyway. There's nothing wrong with Weapon of Rememdy, so that's what I'd use. Switching to weapons means you have to get some different offensive skills, so, instead of Essense Strike and Spirit Burn you get....Wielder's Strike and I have no idea what else.

Mesmers need a complete overhaul. The lack of a run buff hamstrings them and it doesn't have to since, unlike the Necromancer, they actually have a speed buff in their skill lists. At the same time they need some defense to survive the ubiquitous Sins and Dervs that you know are gong to run rampant throughout the format. All signs point to Illusion and what I'd do is drop the Surge/Burn e-denial/interrupt thing and go with an Illusion hexer. You have your degen staples like Conjure and Phantom and you can pick up Crippling Anguish as your elite for a snare. Distortion for the defense. Illusion of Haste for a run buff. Then you dip into Inspiration for things like Ether Feast and Power Drain and Drain Enchantment and I think you're good to go. Maybe throw in Spirit of Failure or LeechSig. Obviously, I have no idea how to set up a Mesmer bar with the current skill situation but I think you get the basic idea. Degen for damage, snares to control movement, an interrupt or two, some e-management, and a run buff and something to help them live longer when they get targeted.

Necromancers, too, need a make-over. I think the way to go is to flip things with the Mesmer. Making the Mesmer a sticky hexers means that having the Necro as a sticky hexers is probably going to be a bad idea. There's not a lot of removal in this format and we don't want there to be in favor of fast play and avoiding defensive enchantment webs but also offensive hex webs. If the Mesmer's going to become a sticky hexer then the Necro needs to go shutdown - because that's the only way they'll survive. The problem is they can't. Unlike the Mesmer they don't have any speed, snares, or defense available - at least, none that I'd seriously run. The Necro, as a class, is poorly suited here. But, they do have a few ways of not just hampering attackers - which is the problem with the current build they can slow the Sins and Dervs and Rangers down but they can't stop them and they can't outheal even the reduced damage - and that's what they need to focus on. I'd get Wail of Doom - the out-of-place interrupt that locks attack skills - as the elite and then work on a blood spiker. Again, I have no idea here and I'm not even going to try but the idea would be to make another offensive caster like the current SF Ele, one who'll steal health in order to be more survivable. It's not going to be particularly good, mind, but it will at least not be so vulnerable while actually being a nasty threat to some of the physical based classes instead of a nuisance.

Speaking of the Ele there's a bit of a split in opinion here. I'd like an Air Ele. A blindbot with Gale and Storm Djinn's who'll be able to disable attackers, interrupt, and knockdown to prevent kiting, who'll pack enough of an offensive punch to spike people out. But I've been informed by reliable sources that Air completely blows at the moment and it's just not going to work. Instead, the consensus seems to be to go with Water. A Shatterstone build, maybe, with things like Frozen Burst and Freezing Gust and Blurred Vision and Armor of Mist. Someone who'll snare through hexes and devour people who are disabled. Again, I'm a bit leery of making things too hex heavy here but the nice thing about Water hexes is that they're not sticky. They're the kind that do their damage and get out quickly, that aren't really affected by removal because it just can't race them. So, I think it could work. Either way, get rid of the newb-friendly SF build and get a character who gives up a bit of offense for the ability to shut opposing characters down hard.

The Paragon has to focus on what made it so broken at Nightfall's release - party wide support. Like the Necromancer, this is a class that's just not at its best in a capping format and is probably never going to be particularly good. But the thing to do is not to create a spear-chucking psuedo-frontliner who lacks a snare and an interrupt and any way of surviving contact with the enemy and, instead, creating a character like the Monk or Ritualist who's going to be standing behind some teammates making them better. I have no idea what that means, really, since most of the stuff you really want them to be popping off from the midlines is cross-class.

So, taken altogether, we have an environment where the damage dealers are a lot nastier. Where nearly everyone should have a speed buff or a snare. Where hexes are a lot more common while removal is almost non-existent. But, hopefully, one where the Ranger isn't completely dominant. Add a few more maps and I'd play it. And I think a lot of other people would, too.