I get they buffed the active to strip boons, but unless I'm missing something huge here, the signet is only really worth taking when traited, and even then, the heal component is still a low priority on the list despite being the featured and original purpose of the skill itself.

This change feels really heavy-handed and as if it's in response to its usage increasing rather than an inherent strength of the utility itself. I understand the skill is probably overloaded in terms of sheer scope of what it does now, but it'd have made a lot more sense to cull the boon stripping to 1 than cut the healing, as the healing never was historically problematic, and a two-boon strip is not a high priority when it comes to playing necromancer and looking at its other utility options.

If anything, I feel the skill is still rather weak based on its dependency on Spite to be any good, which competes heavily with ATP, an already very potent trait choice for power builds.

And if it's because of core necro sustain... it's not SotL that's the problem.

So with all this considered... is there any insight at all as to why this utility was nerfed as aggressively as it was? A 66% heal reduction on a skill which already depends on having multiple targets to even be somewhat useful, at the cost of the movespeed bonus it provides, seems rather obtuse and baseless.

Edit: I was missing something huge. The heal per boon stolen was unnoticed since the first update, despite playing with the signet. Testing in-game reveals that the healing amount works as intended, so pretty much /thread since the healing amount is working as it was before any of the signet changes in most PvP settings.

I think Anet forgot that all of the well players needed something to switch to and are knee jerk nerfing necro. That or they're just salty because now whenever my guild sees an Anet employee in WvW my group mad dogs them and sets up the stomp for Necros...

Can't wait to see my next roaming Anet employee. If he's on our side, I'll make sure to point him out to opposing players. This has gone beyond absurd.

Some players were saying that it was potentially strong alongside blood bank, so they nerfed it. Nothing more, nothing less.

When we said whats next on the chopping block its fair to say this wasn't an option.

justANetthings

It healed a very high amount of hp and was on par or stronger than most other healing skills at 2 targets.

The overall healing is still stronger than it was than when it got buffed.

Considering in the modes it got nerfed in the likelihood that people have at least two boons is almost 100%. When they change the skill they increased its total healing by 86% as well as making it scaling with healing power better by 33% , from a max of 1500(0.6) to 2790(0.8).

It is still stronger than before the update.

It used to heal 1500 per target and grant 25% movement speed.It now removes 2 boons per target, heals for 1790 per target and grants 33% movement speed in shroud when traited. And if traited it is also off cooldown every time you leave shroud.

Its overall utility is a lot better now.

It was obvious this skill will see a quick nerf for the same reason the bloated jack of all trades well of darkness on a laughable 25s cooldown would see a quick nerf.

Side Note: awaken the pain in the competitive modes? Seriously? If you pick spite, then you do this to play a signet build. Otherwise blood magic is the far superior choice.

@jpsssss.7530 said:I think Anet forgot that all of the well players needed something to switch to and are knee jerk nerfing necro. That or they're just salty because now whenever my guild sees an Anet employee in WvW my group mad dogs them and sets up the stomp for Necros...

They roam ?I need to invest in wvw then to take revenge on them lol

@misterman.1530 said:Can't wait to see my next roaming Anet employee. If he's on our side, I'll make sure to point him out to opposing players. This has gone beyond absurd.

How you know if he or she is an anet employee?

@KrHome.1920 said:

It was obvious this skill will see a quick nerf for the same reason the bloated jack of all trades well of darkness on a laughable 25s cooldown would see a quick nerf.

Please leave Well of Darkness alone in PvE!

@Methuselah.4376 said:Please leave Well of Darkness alone in PvE!

You know, it's not the skill you like but the make up they put on it... ;)

@Methuselah.4376 said:

@KrHome.1920 said:

It was obvious this skill will see a quick nerf for the same reason the bloated jack of all trades well of darkness on a laughable 25s cooldown would see a quick nerf.

Please leave Well of Darkness alone in PvE!It's not an issue in PvE. And just look at spectral armor and walk in PvE. The insanely low cooldowns... there won't be any nerfs to WoD in PvE. The purpose of the WoD buff was to increase the reaper dps. That's the main reason why they went nuts with this skill.

Well of Darkness was ridiculous in WvW on july 7th. I equipped WoD and WoS and every time some target (or multiple at one spot) was downed I dropped these 2 wells from 900 range and entered shroud (for the death perception and onslaught trigger). Absolutely no change for the enemy to get this player on his feet again - a guaranteed kill while I was at safe distance. More often than not the rezzing guy died too. And I could repeat this every 25 seconds since both wells shared that cooldown. That was so broken... I felt almost bad doing it.

Locust Signet was more niche, but nevertheless potentially unhealthy to the game.

Barely anyone used this skill before and barely anyone will use this skill now

@silent killer.5732 said:

@"misterman.1530" said:Can't wait to see my next roaming Anet employee. If he's on our side, I'll make sure to point him out to opposing players. This has gone beyond absurd.

They have Anet icon beside their Server/Rank name. So if they are a Yak's Bend Soldier, it will say "Yak's Bend Soldier "

It was way too strong before. Did everything on a 30 second cooldown. Just look into yourself and think if you truly can't understand why they did this.

@Pregnantman.8259 said:Barely anyone used this skill before and barely anyone will use this skill now

I had used it in PvP (mid plat). It is just a joke how other traits that have a real negative impact aren't touched forever.

Having a must use ability is only bad if your a necro...looks at other classes. shakes head

@"Blocki.4931" said:It was way too strong before. Did everything on a 30 second cooldown. Just look into yourself and think if you truly can't understand why they did this.

This is the issue with skills nowadays, they simply do to many things because ANet's devs solution to unpopular skills is to add more and more effects on them until they become "popular" (most often they do when they end up being broken). Locust's signet have long been used for it's passive only because breaking a passive movment buff always feel bad for a player that accustomed himself to the movement speed.

What I find interesting is that they didn't nerf the heal in PvE which make me want to think that they finally start to acknowledge the fact that boon hate isn't great in this game mode.

Well - all cmc was talking about last weekend was more nerfs when it came to scourge. I guess that tells all about the future ...

Yeah, the class bias is obviously showing. For ele its completly fine to get fully healed with weapon skills under any circumstance. For necros it MUST BE HOTFIXED when a utility skill gets situational good. It wasnt too strong in most cases. It was only strong against 5 targets, but then again, so should scaling heals be and this is also a big rsik for a class with no mobility, stealths, evade or active defenses.. There are several heal / damage prevention skills that are as strong under ANY circumstance. This one actually required you to hit a lot of targets.

But well at this point, alongside the totally unecessary scourge nerfs im 100% sure that its class bias. Some classes are broken and overpowered since 8 years straight, nothing is done. like at all. Oh its ele WE CANT NERF IT, OUR BALANCE LEAD PLAYS IT! Oh its rev? WE CANT NERF IT ITS THE SELLING POINT OF OUR EXPANSION! THIEF AND STEALTH IS COMPLETLY BROKEN. Why is it not nerfed? oh because its fun to play- at least for the thief and not for anyone else.

The complete balance in this game is so rotten and biased that, if this would be real life, and you would convert the classes into different nations, they would surely get sued for blatant racism.

@"Brujeria.7536" said:Yeah, the class bias is obviously showing. For ele its completly fine to get fully healed with weapon skills under any circumstance. For necros it MUST BE HOTFIXED when a utility skill gets situational good. It wasnt too strong in most cases. It was only strong against 5 targets, but then again, so should scaling heals be and this is also a big rsik for a class with no mobility, stealths, evade or active defenses.. There are several heal / damage prevention skills that are as strong under ANY circumstance. This one actually required you to hit a lot of targets.

But well at this point, alongside the totally unecessary scourge nerfs im 100% sure that its class bias. Some classes are broken and overpowered since 8 years straight, nothing is done. like at all. Oh its ele WE CANT NERF IT, OUR BALANCE LEAD PLAYS IT! Oh its rev? WE CANT NERF IT ITS THE SELLING POINT OF OUR EXPANSION! THIEF AND STEALTH IS COMPLETLY BROKEN. Why is it not nerfed? oh because its fun to play- at least for the thief and not for anyone else.

The complete balance in this game is so rotten and biased that, if this would be real life, and you would convert the classes into different nations, they would surely get sued for blatant racism.

It's reminiscent of the balancing that happened in Warhammer Online...

Where the balance lead mained Bright Wizard and thus it (Alongside its Destruction counterpart, Sorcerer) was THE best class in the entire game by a mile, with the highest damage output and a "Drawback" that was so laughably undertuned it literally didn't exist so long as you received an heal one per minute...

When Slayer and Choppa came out, they also were pretty good. Not quite as strong as Bright Wizard, but still decent. Making the total number of worthwhile classes to play up to BW+Sorc, Slayer+Choppa, Healers (Mostly Warrior Priest/Disciple of Khaine).

Sure, you COULD still play other classes, but they would be far inferior to BW/Sorc in literally every way, besides maybe an tank to take on Keep bosses (Though, WP/DoK could often do it especially with a bunch of heal spam from multiple healers)

Meanwhile, Marauder was the punching bag for the balance team. Anytime someone found a set up that could do anything at all, it got nerfed immediately. Like, it wouldn't even be good, it'd just be playable and BAM! Nerf hammer! Literally, the class didn't do anything at all and it would just get nerfed and nerfed and nerfed, it had absolutely no skills that were worthwhile at all (Unlike its counterpart White Lion which had a brokenly OP repositioning skill which was fine... I guess because White Lions would be on the same team as Bright Wizard, ergo balance lead)

I guess this balancing can work. I mean just look at how well Warhammer Online is doing as a result of it.

......... Oh wait.

My Guardian Approves! #IMADETHESWITCH

That is the only justification I can give for the recent giant pendulum swings. I wonder what is next... Time to jump ship.

@KrHome.1920 said:It is still stronger than before the update.

It used to heal 1500 per target and grant 25% movement speed.It now removes 2 boons per target, heals for 1790 per target and grants 33% movement speed in shroud when traited. And if traited it is also off cooldown every time you leave shroud.

Its overall utility is a lot better now.

It was obvious this skill will see a quick nerf for the same reason the bloated jack of all trades well of darkness on a laughable 25s cooldown would see a quick nerf.

Side Note: awaken the pain in the competitive modes? Seriously? If you pick spite, then you do this to play a signet build. Otherwise blood magic is the far superior choice.

Good points in that I didn't notice the healing per boon stripped was even added.

What's odd is that despite having run the skill for years, I didn't notice the healing per boon stripped/increased healing overall when running the skill after it received the stripping and prior to this patch in terms of the amount of healing it gives relative to past patches.

Having now tested it in-game, I can confirm the skill does heal appropriately now at least.