Recent Patch is just more of the same

Just to preface: yes, passive skills make the game less skillful; however, making a passive skill recharge slower does not make it any less passive and any less skillful. Anet doesn't change anything about its game in how passive and effortless it is to play; it is just as devoid of player skill and expression as it was before, just on a slightly different timing interval.

• Random auto-attack chain damage reduced overall by 15%.

Individual attacks will still deal thousands of damage since the collective 15% doesn't shave that much off of the already over-tuned individual strikes. Moreover, the overtuned damage issue is largely unresolved given that the majority of the patch changes were wholesale damage buffs.

• Generic passive proc cooldown increased from X seconds to Y seconds.

It's still a game-dominating passive proc. The only difference now in most of these is that their cooldowns will reset after a fight resolves rather than occasionally resetting mid-fight. They still exist as a brainless, frustrating barrier to player effort.

• Generic buff/debuff reduced in duration from A seconds to A/2 seconds while intensity scaled from X to 2(X).

Considering how most of these buffs' respective intensities were doubled (as in the case of warrior shouts and an ele trait) and their low-end “nerfed/adjusted” duration is still around 10 seconds, it's still completely ridiculous to assume this is supposed to be some sort of meaningful change given how PvP burst will still 100-0 a player-HP target in under 3 seconds. More meaningless number shifting garbage.

• Phantasmal Disenchanter – Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.

So it RNG-crit, one-shots people from 75% HP on a cycle that's just 5 seconds slower than what it used to then? This sort of insipid adjustment is a common anet appeasement tactic which ultimately doesn't change anything at all (or it entirely removes a certain skill or spec from the game). You can see the same change at least once in every other class featured in these patch notes.

• Shadow Shot: Increased the initiative cost from 4 to 5 in PvP and WvW. Increased Increased (Nice typo) the power coefficient from 1.325 to 1.8 (+36%) in PvP and WvW.

Yes, so dagger isn't getting enough mainhand action; let's buff everything by 20-36% including the no-cooldown, unblockable, blind-inflicting, instant teleport (because a 5-initiative cost will surely prevent a thief from using this skill at will without any downside given how it's pretty common to see one escape with an Infiltrator's Arrow (6-initiative cost) double-cast without much issue; and it wasn't as if Shadow Shot wasn't dealing thousands of damage on its own already).

This game died in 2012, man. I haven't played Guild Wars 2 consistently over its entire lifespan, but it's still just shockingly hilarious how this game's legacy has been nothing but 6 years of numbers arbitrarily going up and down with no real changes to how the game is held back by its own sluggish and inexpressive movement mechanics and reliance on tab-targeting to deal a player's damage instantly from range. Just a super top tier joke, my guys.

shadow shot is neither instant (the shoot has a travel time) and the unblockable is only for the blind, the dmg itself is blockable

@Kasdwer.3721 said:shadow shot is neither instant (the shoot has a travel time) and the unblockable is only for the blind, the dmg itself is blockable

When has travel time in GW2 ever been a factor in anything after 2012 (and only for ranger longbow)?The blind is the most important part considering it denies the target from being able to instantly retaliate with any sort of CC defense despite the thief being incredibly obvious and straightforward about how it's about to start spamming autos or 3 at melee range.Also consider how it's a direct-to-target teleport without a cooldown. It passively counteracts the idea of positioning one's self with the press of a button.

I think you underestimate how significant nerfs on auto attacks can be.

Also, I am still trying to understand how increasing the initiative cost of shadow shot is in any way a buff to the skill