BONDING

[elsalamandra]

I love to use bonds with my monk.

I was wondering, if Anet could devise some number or colour code so that one knows who has which Bond.

I say this because sometimes, when you have more than 8 bonds (eg in fow), and 1 party member or more loose their bond(s) it would be very advantageous to have the info at a glance.

I know what may be said, tell your party members to say when they loose thier bond(s), fair comment, but sometimes they are so engrossed in fighting they may not even notice and die.

Do I make any sense or do I suffer from noobitis acutis.......

[Ray Of Light]

I have not played as a Monk much, but I played with a fine bonder just this morning and your suggestion certainly seems sensible to me.
Maybe easiest to implement as a tool tip though - hover over any maintained Enchantment icon and it would show " Cast On x ".

So no, you have clearly recovered from your bout of noobitis acutis and are fit to rejoin society. :D

Maybe easiest to implement as a tool tip though - hover over any maintained Enchantment icon and it would show " Cast On x "
That feature is already in-game. :wink:

[Ray Of Light]

I am in sync with Anet then ! :idea:

[elsalamandra]

Really Wanderer?

If you mean that by hovering with the mouse on bonds, symbols (above the energy bar), that I know.

The only snag is that you loose vital seconds in having to check the casted bonds against the names in the group. When its a small group like for example a Oro farm team 5/8, its relatively easy but if you are maintaining 12 bonds or maybe 13' as one would in a fow team for example, it is really cimbersome to eliminate the bonded ones from those that have had the bonds shattered, even more frustrating is the fact that the bond skills, Life Barrier, Life Bond, Balthasar's Spirit etc, if you cast them on a person who is bonded, will still consume the energy cost required making the situation a bit tense for the bonder.

So perhaps our dear beloved game technicians, could make this 'double casting' cease by having a message pop-up saying 'invalid spell - players is already bonded'.

:)

[Grim Daddy]

but if you are maintaining 12 bonds or maybe 13' as one would in a fow team for example, it is really cimbersome to eliminate the bonded ones from those that have had the bonds shattered, even more frustrating is the fact that the bond skills, Life Barrier, Life Bond, Balthasar's Spirit etc, if you cast them on a person who is bonded, will still consume the energy cost required making the situation a bit tense for the bonder.

This is why I like to coordinate with my team to see who gets bonded (usually one of not all the Warriors), as a pose to covering everyone.

I don't know about the rest of you, but whenever I end up covering everyone I have to put together a build that is based solely on bonding & nothing else. When the **** hits the fan from an unexpected aggro, all the enchantments get wiped off half the team & I have no immediate countermeasures that I can emplace on them for protection.

In contrast whenever I'm only covering a few players with bonds (usually Warriors), I can carry a couple more Protection Enchantments to cover the bonds that can also act as direct counters if the bonds get stripped in the first place. However, this requires that the entire team be extremely coordinated, which means that the casters and Rangers should KITE instead of taking the blunt end of a Maelstrom.

Please note that my preference is just that: an opinion. You can do whatever method you'd like, but just remember that there are advantages and disadvantages to each method.

[elsalamandra]

Very good comment here.

I agree entirely.

Co-ordination is the key. When one does this in one's owen Guild Group it works ok but I guess that in random teams, us Bonders will have to cope with this hiccup the best we can.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback guys.

[Ray Of Light]

When I was in PUGs with a Bonder for those Titan Quests, he simply asked that whenever anyone's bond was removed they said "b" in team chat. A simple, effective, strategy so long as people watch their own Enchantment icons.

[Grim Daddy]

I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I decide I want to go as a bonder, considering such a method sounds like it should have been something generally implemented by the player populous a while ago.