When is next balance patch?

Just curious. There is a huge need for an actual balance patch that isn't just a troll from Anet. I know you guys need to sell expansions but the game could really use a patch that doesn't make the strong stronger and the weak weaker.

+1I want my 'insert class' buffed now!and the cheesey op class I lost to 'insert class' nerfed .now! now! now!

The same day the next PvP season start, thought every knew that.

15th. Over a year ago. Arenanet wrote and stick to a releasing the balance patch plan , 2 week after every season end.

Thanks guys, I didn't know that. So there should be one tomorrow? if i got that right

16th actually. Sorry i was drunk.

Yeah, about that. It will be somewhere mid season now.

Could maybe a staff member tell us more so we're not in the dark?

They'll do it mid-season due to decreased gap between the PVP seasons (aka. balance team didn't get it done yet). They said it 2 days ago in some thread.

@Inoki.6048 said:Could maybe a staff member tell us more so we're not in the dark?

Ben P on the Pvp forums stated that it is happening Mid Season so a month from Jan 16th so either the 13th or the 19th of February, Even though we were told the Balance patch wouldn’t get pushed back by devs, they went ahead and pushed it back, don’t expect this added month to the release date to have any meaningful improvement on balance quality.

@Rufo.3716 quoth thusly:When is next balance patch?Please permit me to gaze into my crystal ball....... I see ... flying cars, robots, world peace, the apocalypse, the heat death of the Universe... ahhh! The balance patch! There it is!

@Svarty.8019 said:

@Rufo.3716 quoth thusly:When is next balance patch?Please permit me to gaze into my crystal ball....... I see ... flying cars, robots, world peace, the apocalypse, the heat death of the Universe... ahhh! The balance patch! There it is!

Is it în the bin?

@Rufo.3716 said:Just curious. There is a huge need for an actual balance patch that isn't just a troll from Anet. I know you guys need to sell expansions but the game could really use a patch that doesn't make the strong stronger and the weak weaker.

That a funny thing there. I almost believe that you think the balance patch is going to make everything the way you want it.

3 months from the previous patch is right at Feb. 7th. My best guess would be either the 6th or the 13th of Feb.

@Knox.8962 said:3 months from the previous patch is right at Feb. 7th. My best guess would be either the 6th or the 13th of Feb.

That last patch wasn’t a balance patch it was a bonus patch That Anet told us would not delay the Actual Balance patch which was supposed to be January 16th based on all other quarterly balance patches.

With that said Ben P stated that the Patch got delayed and will release mid Pvp Season 10. See my above statement

Deleted, move along.

@Arlette.9684 said:Hence, first week of Feb sounds reasonable, so the mini balance patch that wasn’t supposed to count... well it counts. It shows the new direction the Balance Team is taking. It’s called “Drop the Ball.”

You’ll struggle hard to find words to defend the decision they made. It signals that the balance team is having it rought with taking a direction to take the game to. Either that or they’re really that low on resources that the Balance team is working part time. If that’s the case, we might as well abandon ship now as that is a grim future they’re painting for the game’s future.

I do hope I’m wrong and NCSoft doesn’t pull the plug on them based on the Q4 earnings being less than stellar.

Just thinking out loud based on established business practices in modern day open market.

If it happens mid season as we were told it would be that would be second or third week either the 13th or 20th, a Very unlikely chance that it is the first week of February on the 6th but it could happen.

Just remember don’t take Anet Dev statements at face value you will only get your hopes up, just expect nothing and never be disappointed again.

@Jack Skywalker.5674 said:

@Svarty.8019 said:

@Rufo.3716 quoth thusly:When is next balance patch?Please permit me to gaze into my crystal ball....... I see ... flying cars, robots, world peace, the apocalypse, the heat death of the Universe... ahhh! The balance patch! There it is!

lol, I think it's on the dartboard!

@BlaqueFyre.5678 said:

@Knox.8962 said:3 months from the previous patch is right at Feb. 7th. My best guess would be either the 6th or the 13th of Feb.

Ben said they moved up the start of the season. He never said that the patch got delayed. 11/7 was the last major balance patch. 3 months after that is 2/7. They released a bonus patch in early December As well.

The 3 month release cadence has been very consistent for the last 2 years. I don't see any reason to expect differently now.

2/6 or 2/13 are the obvious dates.

@Arlette.9684 said:Hence, first week of Feb sounds reasonable, so the mini balance patch that wasn’t supposed to count... well it counts. It shows the new direction the Balance Team is taking. It’s called “Drop the Ball.”

You’ll struggle hard to find words to defend the decision they made. It signals that the balance team is having it rought with taking a direction to take the game to. Either that or they’re really that low on resources that the Balance team is working part time. If that’s the case, we might as well abandon ship now as that is a grim future they’re painting for the game’s future.

I do hope I’m wrong and NCSoft doesn’t pull the plug on them based on the Q4 earnings being less than stellar.

Just thinking out loud based on established business practices in modern day open market.

3 months after the bonus patch would be mid-March, not early February.

Early February is exactly aligned with the 3 month schedule they've maintained for over 2 years. If the next patch indeed lands then, the bonus patch will indeed have been a bonus.

Does it matter?

This is what will happen:

Out of the 5 problematic specs (scourge, mirage, firebrand, druid and to a lesser extent holosmith):

• One of them will be nerfed to oblivion. (Mirage is excluded)
• One will receive minor nerfs and really good compensatory buffs for some reason, probably a new must-pick trait or utility (Most likely holosmith or firebrand)
• One will be left alone entirely (Most likely mirage)
• One will be nerfed in ways that severely gimp their core traits while leaving the spec untouched (Probably druid or scourge)

Bonus:

• One underperforming spec will be nerfed for some reason (my guess is weaver's burst or deadeye's damage).
• Renegade will get overly buffed but it won't matter because it sucks.

Pick a random number generator or roll the dice, anything is possible (except mirage receiving heavy nerfs).

@Knox.8962 said:

@Arlette.9684 said:Hence, first week of Feb sounds reasonable, so the mini balance patch that wasn’t supposed to count... well it counts. It shows the new direction the Balance Team is taking. It’s called “Drop the Ball.”

You’ll struggle hard to find words to defend the decision they made. It signals that the balance team is having it rought with taking a direction to take the game to. Either that or they’re really that low on resources that the Balance team is working part time. If that’s the case, we might as well abandon ship now as that is a grim future they’re painting for the game’s future.

I do hope I’m wrong and NCSoft doesn’t pull the plug on them based on the Q4 earnings being less than stellar.

Just thinking out loud based on established business practices in modern day open market.

I double checked the release notes, you are correct. I missed the Nov 7th patch, so I was running on the idea that the “bonus” was the first PoF update we got. I’ll delete the previous comment.

@Razor.6392 said:Does it matter?

This is what will happen:

Out of the 5 problematic specs (scourge, mirage, firebrand, druid and to a lesser extent holosmith):

• One of them will be nerfed to oblivion. (Mirage is excluded)
• One will receive minor nerfs and really good compensatory buffs for some reason, probably a new must-pick trait or utility (Most likely holosmith or firebrand)
• One will be left alone entirely (Most likely mirage)
• One will be nerfed in ways that severely kitten their core traits while leaving the spec untouched (Probably druid or scourge)

Bonus:

• One underperforming spec will be nerfed for some reason (my guess is weaver's burst or deadeye's damage).
• Renegade will get overly buffed but it won't matter because it sucks.

Pick a random number generator or roll the dice, anything is possible (except mirage receiving heavy nerfs).

Is this PvP balance critique?, may want to clarify that

@Razor.6392 said:Does it matter?

This is what will happen:

Out of the 5 problematic specs (scourge, mirage, firebrand, druid and to a lesser extent holosmith):

• One of them will be nerfed to oblivion. (Mirage is excluded)
• One will receive minor nerfs and really good compensatory buffs for some reason, probably a new must-pick trait or utility (Most likely holosmith or firebrand)
• One will be left alone entirely (Most likely mirage)
• One will be nerfed in ways that severely kitten their core traits while leaving the spec untouched (Probably druid or scourge)

Bonus:

• One underperforming spec will be nerfed for some reason (my guess is weaver's burst or deadeye's damage).
• Renegade will get overly buffed but it won't matter because it sucks.

Pick a random number generator or roll the dice, anything is possible (except mirage receiving heavy nerfs).

This sounds about right ?

I anticipate some random core weapon for some class will get a remake, without making it viable. Also some random revnerf sold as a “fix.”

In all fairness, they tend to patch out issues where the gameplay does not reflect thier intentions.

If the meta is using traits, gear, etc outside of thier intent in design, they edit things to force us, the players, into using it as they designed it. (examples being the recent change to vulnerability related skills and traits. Or, the buffs to mirage axe after the bug on the seeking axe was fixed.)

This explains why we get confusing changes.

It must be difficult to balance when the community is using the traits incorrectly. This is why so many of thier statements about game balance include mentions of unintended consequences.For instance, they released Dragon Hunter expecting people to use longbow. And then the best DH build... Doesn't use it at all. So, because nobody uses it, they have comparatively little data on what about longbow needs changes. So, instead of patching longbow to be stronger and more usable, they are much more likely to change other things about core guardian, to force longbow to be the go-to weapon for DH. That way they can collect data, and know what to change.

And everything I just said about DH's longbow can apply just as much to renegade's SB.

The other thing that should be noted, is the changes they do make, tend to be great, inside thier intentions.

This last patch did reduce the pvp burst potential of condi builds. I feel it on every class I play except mirage. The changes they're making to core classes, are now affected by not one but two elite specs.They made elites to be better than core... Hence the name. So when they make changes to core, (like the changes to revenant's invocation trait line recently) everyone said it just broke core, and didn't give us any buffs... Yet, if used with the old condi herald pvp build... Those traits become lynchpin. But nobody noticed. Why? Because we expected all thier balance attention to be focused on renegade. Because of our confirmation bias, we missed that condi herald got buffed. And it's like that for alot of classes.