Epi balance nerf coming?

For myself, I half-hope Epidemic is deleted entirely from the game. Necromancer without its core gimmick might get some attention.

Anyway, post your prediction! Dhuum's Day approaches (for the umpteenth time.)

Irenio CalmonHuang.204811:10AM in Guild Wars 2 DiscussionWe wanted to give everyone a heads up that we’ve got a balance patch releasing tomorrow.

Since the last update targeted underwater balance and the deadeye in particular, we’ve been listening to your feedback and are addressing some of the issues raised about each of those. There has also been a broad effort to target outliers traits and abilities on each profession.

We look forward to seeing you in game!

epi gets nerfed, axe 1 and dagger 1 damage buffed by 1% to compensate.

Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

I really enjoy the theme of epidemic and would hate to see it go. However I see that currently its our only way to keep a spot in Raids. So with that, I hope they at least over-compensate Necromancer if/when they remove it.

Edit: Prediction

More of a pipe-dream but I would hope that instead its becomes a status debuff on a target which either transfers conditions on death to 5 nearest targets or Increases condition damage by 15% on 5 nearest targets.

@Jethro.9376 said:Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

1st suggestion would make the skill useless, necros don't have easy access to alot of boons unlike chrono/mesmer. Only boons it can reliably stack is might with scourge, protection at the cost of transfusion and about 2-3 utility skills, and possibly regen with focus/staff. 2nd suggestion sounds interesting, but it would probably kick it out of the corruption classification.

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@Jethro.9376 said:Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

Fun idea: Epidemic copies Defiance to up to 10 allies within 600 range!

Edit; also gives break-bars!

@Anchoku.8142 said:

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@Jethro.9376 said:Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

pvpers and wvwers would cry nerf louder and faster than ever XD

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@Anchoku.8142 said:

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@Jethro.9376 said:Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

Warrior gets Defiance Stance!

@Anchoku.8142 said:

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@Anchoku.8142 said:

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@Jethro.9376 said:Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

I think that's enough forums for today. .

They should just make it like this skill: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=980/agony

Conditions that are spread do the same damage just more towards the end of the duration. In PvP people have enough time to clear it and in PvE the damage should still be relevant.

There's already a similar idea present in Plaguelands:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Plaguelands

Tsssk... who reported that there were tool tips that needed to be corrected!!!!

What is your problem with epidemic? So many whiners... are you bored to death or what...

I'd totally trade whatever they do to epi for more axe damage, since i always use axe and never use epi... but I might be biased. I just want focus 4 to become an unblockable tether or an unblockable aoe pull like death shroud 5 or spear 4, but keep the 1200 range. Also, I'd like to be able to remove a condition every time I hit a chilled foe. My life as a reaper would be SO much better.

@Sephylon.4938 said:

@"Jethro.9376" said:Rework epi to share boons and not spread condis.Or call it equalizer and heal all party members for 5% of the necros max health

1. i know. I just think we could use somethng else than "Signet of inspiration"
2. To keep it in the corruption classification it could heal players for every condi they're going to be affected in the next X period of time.

If Power reaper or Condi reaper or Condi scourge get a huge DPS buff, that one of them is at ~33-34k DPS I'm fine with epi nerf.Else no. Sure it's really strong if played right. But that's only a real issue in premade groups. In pugs there are most of the times players, that spam epi of cd and don't really know, how epi works (or the bounce).

So for the issue, pls don't patch necro out of raids again. That's been the real issue for a really long time.

If you take away epi bounces and don't give necro something else, necro will fall out of meta again for sure.

Granted anet's history if they nerf epidemic, it will be "number nerf" and most likely stack number nerf. This will change nothing to the reason why other professions cry and either the epi will still have enough punch when you stack enough necromancer leading to more necro stacking or it won't and this will lead to no necromancer at all.

Changing totally epidemic will most likely leave the necromancer into with is bottom tier offensive power which won't bother any other profession but at the same time solve nothing.

So my guess is that there won't be any epidemic nerf because that wouldn't solve anything and instead create more work for the devs.

Gonna assume this is sarcasm :#

The idea that epidemic needs to go in order to improve necro as a whole is a pipe dream. At best what will happen is epidemic would get nerfed into nothing and necro would remain the same way it is currently with less party value than before. I don't see it as a cause as to suddenly why necromancer does not get proper love.Necro has been in love denial long before epi. bounce was used as a major strategy people started crying about, anyone who thinks other wise has not been playing the profession long enough to be able to talk about what should go and what should stay.

There are many ways to nerf Epi to oblivion with just a "numbers" change.

• Radius 900 -> 180
• Number of conditions transferred 25 stacks of each -> 5 stacks of each
• Number of targets 5 -> 1 (and you have to find out which one before you can bounce).
• Use of Epidemic in raids now causes its target to develop 5 minutes of resistance and will spread that resistance to all other allies within 1200 range
• Certain mobs in raids become "structures" like in WvW
• Defiance now has a 50% chance to block unblockable skills
• Epidemic has been disabled for all instanced content

... and so on.

@"Anchoku.8142" said:There are many ways to nerf Epi to oblivion with just a "numbers" change.

• Radius 900 -> 180
• Number of conditions transferred 25 stacks of each -> 5 stacks of each
• Number of targets 5 -> 1 (and you have to find out which one before you can bounce).
• Use of Epidemic in raids now causes its target to develop 5 minutes of resistance and will spread that resistance to all other allies within 1200 range
• Certain mobs in raids become "structures" like in WvW
• Defiance now has a 50% chance to block unblockable skills
• Epidemic has been disabled for all instanced content

... and so on.

But why is this a problem to start with?

@ZDragon.3046 said:

@"Anchoku.8142" said:There are many ways to nerf Epi to oblivion with just a "numbers" change.

• Radius 900 -> 180
• Number of conditions transferred 25 stacks of each -> 5 stacks of each
• Number of targets 5 -> 1 (and you have to find out which one before you can bounce).
• Use of Epidemic in raids now causes its target to develop 5 minutes of resistance and will spread that resistance to all other allies within 1200 range
• Certain mobs in raids become "structures" like in WvW
• Defiance now has a 50% chance to block unblockable skills
• Epidemic has been disabled for all instanced content

... and so on.

1. Other players who do not want to main Necromancer want a skill like this, or
2. Players do not like seeing cheese skills they do not have.

@Anchoku.8142 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:

@Anchoku.8142 said:There are many ways to nerf Epi to oblivion with just a "numbers" change.

• Radius 900 -> 180
• Number of conditions transferred 25 stacks of each -> 5 stacks of each
• Number of targets 5 -> 1 (and you have to find out which one before you can bounce).
• Use of Epidemic in raids now causes its target to develop 5 minutes of resistance and will spread that resistance to all other allies within 1200 range
• Certain mobs in raids become "structures" like in WvW
• Defiance now has a 50% chance to block unblockable skills
• Epidemic has been disabled for all instanced content

... and so on.

1. Other players who do not want to main Necromancer want a skill like this, or
2. Players do not like seeing cheese skills they do not have.Then that leads me to askOther professions have skills that other people do not like, Should they be culled as well?Why is epic. considered a cheese skill?Hang on but at the start you said and i quote "I half-hope Epidemic is deleted entirely from the game. Necromancer without its core gimmick might get some attention."So which is it? Do you want it removed in hopes that necromancer gets love or because you simply do not like the skill?I want to ask you the questions to get a whole answer and not just short fragments of a whole answer.

@"Anchoku.8142" said:There are many ways to nerf Epi to oblivion with just a "numbers" change.

• Radius 900 -> 180
• Number of conditions transferred 25 stacks of each -> 5 stacks of each
• Number of targets 5 -> 1 (and you have to find out which one before you can bounce).
• Use of Epidemic in raids now causes its target to develop 5 minutes of resistance and will spread that resistance to all other allies within 1200 range
• Certain mobs in raids become "structures" like in WvW
• Defiance now has a 50% chance to block unblockable skills
• Epidemic has been disabled for all instanced content

... and so on.

And? The point? Would this give the necromancer more value in cooperating with other professions? No.Epidemic has been the only thing that gave a sliver of hope for a necromancer to be taken into a raid group since HoT. What do you expect will happen after nerfing this into oblivion? Power reaper buff? Very unlikely.

There has been so much complaining in the other sub-forums that I think this time there will be a change to Epi whether Necro mains agree or not.

Then, there is this comment, "There has also been a broad effort to target outliers traits and abilities on each profession," suggesting other professions will recieve buffs or nerfs to traits and skills.

We shall see if Epi survives today's balance patch.

Problem is if they kill epi, i don't think we get something to compensate it in terms of endgame viability. The balance team is not known for well made in depth things like this...

@Brigg.3961 said:I'd totally trade whatever they do to epi for more axe damage, since i always use axe and never use epi... but I might be biased. I just want focus 4 to become an unblockable tether or an unblockable aoe pull like death shroud 5 or spear 4, but keep the 1200 range. Also, I'd like to be able to remove a condition every time I hit a chilled foe. My life as a reaper would be SO much better.

Or Dagger damage in my case. Focus 4 just needs to be made into a non projectile 1200 range attack like focus 5. Remove the bounce and regen, up the damage and vuln into a single attack and grant yourself something like might quickness or fury instead. Make it a proper offensive single target ranged skill. And as someone that uses Binding of Ipos, I don't care that we'd lose the unique project effect from it.