taugrim wrote: »

I find that I'm much more comfortable buffing without a target. That way I can enter an engagement fully buffed, and I can refresh buffs as I'm running away bravely.

I can definitely see the argument the other way: buffing through a targeted ability saves a GCD in-combat.

Exactly what you said about GCD (and also saving a slot) let me choose targeted abilities, although I also use the other variants sometimes for convenience (depending on content in the end).

In the end I think both options are viable and definitely should stay.

It's not about prebuffing vs buffing with an attack for me. It's more about other purposes of the ability. Rally, as an example; I used to have on every stam build. Now with hybridization; I use it much less and in favor of an on demand burst heal.

One thing Oakensoul showed me at it's height, was how tedious it is if 4/10 of your regular ability slots are buffs to keep up and monitor

For PVP I rather have a buff that requires a target, because in PVP it's basically a never ending fight with how big zergs tend to congregate.
You don't really have lots of time to back away and reset buffs, so just targetting someone with a damage ability and getting your buffs is the preference, you hit get 2 birds with 1 stone.
On DK for example I used to run molten armaments as soon as they hybridized weapon and spell damage, but I quickly dropped it and used a combination of degeneration + shattering rocks because I was using shattering rocks anyways, degen would just give me more damage and I'd get my minor brutality off shattering rocks, resulting in better usage of bar space.

I also like the Stamplar approach where Biting jabs gives you major brutality regardless of whether you hit a target or not, saves me bar space and I can slot a different damage skill, which is what templar lacks for pvp at the moment. However, Magplar is still forced to run an outside source of sorcery/brutality which puts it behind Stamplar. As much as I like using degen, I'd rather just use jabs to get my brutality/sorcery than having to use Jabs + degen at the same time. I'd rather use the other morph, structured entropy if possible. But ZOS doesn't like the idea of having puncturing sweeps give sorcery.

TLDR: I prefer the abilities that are tied to attacks(like degen or biting jabs) because then you don't have to back away or reset a fight, and it's far more convenient for bar space than having to use a skill for just 1 single effect, meaning I can get more damage in on my bar.