Since the devs recently said theyre looking to change the banner and remove the healing (which i am very much in favor of), I thought maybe the possibility of a new ability altogether is possible.

Ive mained bulwark since the beginning, over 300 hrs in the game and lvled all classes to 25, (rly looking forward to prestige)

and it really feels like the banner is the only ability in the game that doesnt boost the classes combat effectiveness. Tactical has an area dmg tool, assault and vanguard has a mobility and dmg tool, sniper has a repositioning and get out of jail free tool, and heavy has an ability to rain down fire without retaliation tool. Bulwarks banner stands out in the sense that it doesnt boost the bulwarks combat effectiveness. While it might allow u to hit around u mindlessly for a short while, that isnt the optimal thing to do when surrounded as bulwark, ud rather get the parry dmg, or potentially build up block charge, both of which would make the banner redundant. If you remove the healing from the banner, would it even really be used much? and to how much success? the illusion of safety can often be more dangerous then the danger and make a good player make bad mistakes. 

PERSONALLY, ive never been a fan of the banner, and thought a more selfish active ability or potentially a buffing ability would be cooler. 

my two suggestions are:

1:

True strike: The bulwark makes one heavy swing with his melee weapon for massive dmg. Short cd or multiple charges, could tie multiple cool perks into this to really create build diversity, also rather simple to animate, yet still an impactfull and fun ability.

(Im also for giving assault and bulwark a healing perk similar to vanguard, especially if the healing for bulwark is removed, in which case i believe one could make "killing, or putting an enemy into execute state with this ability heals bulwark for X" a good sustain perk, alas this post isnt about that, just wanted to mention)

2:

immovable fortress: The bulwark raises his shield and embodies the emperors strength to become immune to knock backs and dmg from the front for X seconds, the bulwark can use his melee weapon normally in this state. 

while this might be a bit weird to animate, im sure there are good ways to pull it off. Personally i believe either of these options would really bring home the "palading, frontline fighter vibe"

Let me know if u agree or disagree! 

I've made an ideas post with my thoughts on how to change the banner itself and some other perks to fit with the suggested changes and enable tanking while the banner is active if a player wants that.

I think the banner is taking inspiration from campaign where brothers rally by the chapter standard and fight to the death against all odds, modify current banner functionality to mimic that behaviour, example:

1. No death, even if health drop below 0 so long as banner is active and you are within its range.
2. Some % of damage dealt while fighting within banner area of effect is returned as HP.
3. Some % of damage dealt by every battle brother within the area of effect of the banner redistributed evenly to every battle brother after banner expires.
4. Contested health does not fade while you are within range of banner effect.

An interesting idea. The no death thing is a hard-no for me. Perhaps being picked up within the banner results in no mortal wound? That would basically be the same thing but with more danger. Maybe add that effect to the one that allows you to pick up down allies with it and hit it with a cooldown penalty when used to do so?

Damage distribution doesn't seem like something they could easily implement.

Stop contested health decay and heal on hit seems like something potentially to replace Icon's current effect. Rather than a big burst heal a heal that is contingent on a rallying offensive far more in-keeping with the vision for the class.

The banner is, after all, a chapter relic.

Contested health on the banner somehow switches bulwark mentality from active combat use, to post combat/execution use. I understand its the most secure way to regain missing health, but then all other functionality of the banner are ignored. 

The cool down nerf further cemented this mentality, because now you have to wait extra long time between each use, forcing bulwarks to look for perfect timing even more. I hope we can change the mentality of bulwarks to place banner mid battle more by tying  benefits to active combat instead.

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ZingFreelancer wrote:

I think the banner is taking inspiration from campaign where brothers rally by the chapter standard and fight to the death against all odds, modify current banner functionality to mimic that behaviour, example:

1. No death, even if health drop below 0 so long as banner is active and you are within its range.
2. Some % of damage dealt while fighting within banner area of effect is returned as HP.
3. Some % of damage dealt by every battle brother within the area of effect of the banner redistributed evenly to every battle brother after banner expires.
4. Contested health does not fade while you are within range of banner effect.

still not a fan of a immobile aoe ability, doesnt really fit the pace of the game. Would be better if it at least followed the Bulwark around. 

Still would prefer either of the options i suggested, seems more fun.

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PANTHERX0 wrote:

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ZingFreelancer wrote:

I think the banner is taking inspiration from campaign where brothers rally by the chapter standard and fight to the death against all odds, modify current banner functionality to mimic that behaviour, example:

1. No death, even if health drop below 0 so long as banner is active and you are within its range.
2. Some % of damage dealt while fighting within banner area of effect is returned as HP.
3. Some % of damage dealt by every battle brother within the area of effect of the banner redistributed evenly to every battle brother after banner expires.
4. Contested health does not fade while you are within range of banner effect.

still not a fan of a immobile aoe ability, doesnt really fit the pace of the game. Would be better if it at least followed the Bulwark around. 

Still would prefer either of the options i suggested, seems more fun.

I personally would like the banner to just be on the bulwark's back and be an AoE that follows him when active. Even that would be way more useful in making their vision of him being a tank a reality because then he has super armor for 20 seconds every 2 minutes and can run over to boost the armor of brothers in trouble rather than having to drop the banner and hope they can make it over, honestly at that point invigorating icon could just double the AoE of the banner.

It wouldn't need to heal if you could pop it more often to keep allies from taking damage in the first place. 

Potentially giving him something like shield slam gives 50% CD speed for 5 seconds on a 30 second CD in place of that drop a shock grenade that just kills you because it drops at your feet when your armor breaks and then prevents your armor from coming back and deals HP damage because it is a grenade instead of a shock field. If that ability is fixed to not be a detriment then replace the stagger/knockback resist while you have armor because I would much rather an ability that can make me able to use the banner more and would actually consider that over instant executes every 90 seconds.