Blurred Frenzy PVE nerf

Blurred Frenzy: The animation time of this skill has been reduced from approximately 1.75 seconds to 1 second while retaining all previous attacks. Damage of this skill has been reduced by 17% in PvP and WvW, with PvE being reduced by 36%. The baseline recharge time has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.

I would like a Dev (yes, I'm an optimistic, I know) to explain me why this skill is nerfed so much in PVE compared to PVP and WvW. Or it's a mistake and they inverted the two numbers?

The skill still does a lot more damage in PvE then in PvP and WvW because of the following patch note:

October 18, 2016
The damage of this ability has been increased by 100% in PvE areas only.

Ah, I see. Thanks for you much better memory than mine!

Previously you could activate blurred frenzy every 12 seconds. Fencer's finesse reduced this to 9.6, and alacrity reduced it to 6.4 seconds. Previously it would take 1.75 seconds to activate, so a full damage cycle would take 8.15 seconds.

The base cooldown is now 10 seconds. Fencer's finesse reduces this cooldown to 8 seconds. Alacrity reduces this to 5.33 seconds. The activation takes 1 second, so a full damage cycle takes 6.33 seconds.

The new blurred frenzy cycles in 77% of the time of old blurred frenzy. New blurred frenzy does 64% of the damage.

The new blurred frenzy has been nerfed to about 82% of old blurred frenzy.

Why they felt the need to nerf an already non-top-tier dps build is beyond me, but I've never been one to accuse the balance devs of silly things like foresight, planning, logic, or good practices.

I don't understand this change. In PvP BF isn't a damage dealer, so why make it weaker. The patch notes say Mes has too many evade frames, when what it should have said is Mirage with core Mes skills has a lot of evade frames. So what do they do they nerf a core mes skill that affects everyone who doesn't play Mirage. They've done this to several skills recently and it crazy. Things that weren't problem before mirage came along are now apparently major issues. This makes no sense.

Does this also affect off hand sword? Cause it casts blurred frenzy by default as primary damage?

Again Anet make odd and ridiculous changes completely missing the point. MIRAGE'S capabilities are the issue, not core mesmer related abilities. They keep butchering the core abilities and traits of classes when clearly it is the elite specs that have thrown balance out of whack. What's next? A scepter nerf? Lol..I can't help but feel they have a "dart board" balance approach, even eles got hit hard on a skill that was not even the issue at all. Lava font and blurred frenzy were so OP, yeah right.

From a PvE perspective:

There’s a reduction in cast time though, but I don’t know how it interacts with quickness and the overall dps rotation. Yes, there is dmg loss if you purely cast Blurred Frenzy, but could it output the same dps as before in a single cast or in a rotation?

@Pyroatheist.9031 said:The new blurred frenzy has been nerfed to about 82% of old blurred frenzy.

I doubt this means 82% power Mesmer (Chrono) effectiveness... if so, I’ve got a box of tissues ready D:

Does this apply to the iSwordman as well? I’m kinda scared :scream:

@Noodle Ant.1605 said:From a PvE perspective:

There’s a reduction in cast time though, but I don’t know how it interacts with quickness and the overall dps rotation. Yes, there is dmg loss if you purely cast Blurred Frenzy, but could it output the same dps as before in a single cast or in a rotation?

@Pyroatheist.9031 said:

The new blurred frenzy has been nerfed to about 82% of old blurred frenzy.

I doubt this means 82% power Mesmer (Chrono) effectiveness... if so, I’ve got a box of tissues ready D:

This means exactly what I said. Blurred frenzy does 82% of what it used to, that's all. It doesn't have anything to do with anything else.

Welp... I guess we still get an evade 1 second sooner.

Still concerned about the iSwordsmen though, they use practically the same skill :cold_sweat:

Can Power DPS chrono still do more than 30k after this patch?... before patch it was 33-34k..

Looking at

One thing to notice is that BF is not used on cooldown, since other skills have higher priority in the rotation, but I don't know how that affects the numbers.

@RabbitUp.8294 said:One thing to notice is that BF is not used on cooldown, since other skills have higher priority in the rotation, but I don't know how that affects the numbers.

It lowers the dps further. Lower cooldown with lower damage per use means that you need to use it more frequently to keep close to the previous damage. If there are other higher priority skills, lowering the cooldown effectively ends up having less of an effect, leaving you just with the lower damage.

@Pyroatheist.9031 said:

@"RabbitUp.8294" said:One thing to notice is that BF is not used on cooldown, since other skills have higher priority in the rotation, but I don't know how that affects the numbers.

True. Though it's not clear how it will play out yet, since there are examples like

Still, Frenzy's contribution is ~3400 dps overall, that's not much room for a big dps drop, since there were no other changes to the build. We'll see, since other top builds got bigger nerfs. Though, thief is now getting 36-37k with a 2 button rotation, so that's funny.

Somehow I'm getting more DPS on my pChrono than before (golem). I think the new bench will be higher than the old one.

@RabbitUp.8294 said:

@Pyroatheist.9031 said:

@RabbitUp.8294 said:One thing to notice is that BF is not used on cooldown, since other skills have higher priority in the rotation, but I don't know how that affects the numbers.

Hey now... uncalled for... it needs to keep re-marking its target, so it's three buttons.

The shorter duration with quickness makes it really hard to use as a defensive skill.iSwordsmen feels like its doing less damage to me but that could just be my imagination since I haven't tested it yet.

Another "buff" for me is that the animation no longer looks like garbage on non-Asura. It always felt too slow, now it's much smoother.

This isn't a nerf in DPS, but it is a nerf in evasion/defenses. It's actually a buff.

New Blurred Frenzy = 64% of old blurred frenzy damageOld Blurred Frenzy canceled on one second (to match the same duration of new one) = 1/1.75=57% damage of old blurred frenzy.

To add it is in shorter cooldown, you can cast skills faster in queue, you start your auto attack earlier. I'm getting similar numbers doing benchmarks of PChrono.

@Refia Montes.3205 said:This isn't a nerf in DPS, but it is a nerf in evasion/defenses. It's actually a buff.

New Blurred Frenzy = 64% of old blurred frenzy damageOld Blurred Frenzy canceled on one second (to match the same duration of new one) = 1/1.75=57% damage of old blurred frenzy.

To add it is in shorter cooldown, you can cast skills faster in queue, you start your auto attack earlier. I'm getting similar numbers doing benchmarks of PChrono.

It's a nerf in dps, did you not read my post explaining that?

@Pyroatheist.9031 said:

@Refia Montes.3205 said:This isn't a nerf in DPS, but it is a nerf in evasion/defenses. It's actually a buff.

New Blurred Frenzy = 64% of old blurred frenzy damageOld Blurred Frenzy canceled on one second (to match the same duration of new one) = 1/1.75=57% damage of old blurred frenzy.

To add it is in shorter cooldown, you can cast skills faster in queue, you start your auto attack earlier. I'm getting similar numbers doing benchmarks of PChrono.

Did you even try doing benchmarks of it?

It's definitely a big nerf to the PVE burst and cleave of my DPS Chrono. Big enough that I'm actually considering retiring that character because now she can't even take down trash mobs like she should. The problem wasn't the sword skills; it's the fact that Mirage is a badly designed spec. It's been OP from the start and needs a full re-design to bring it more in line with other classes. Also, actually testing this stuff more in house before putting it live would probably help too.

@Jimbru.6014 said:It's definitely a big nerf to the PVE burst and cleave of my DPS Chrono. Big enough that I'm actually considering retiring that character because now she can't even take down trash mobs like she should.This change shouldn't be much of a buff/nerf to the damage application of DPS Chrono (or any power Mesmer). Blurred Frenzy + Mind Slash (+Gash) should cover whatever damage is missing from the old Blurred Frenzy (it's not that much slower either) - I still perform to pretty much the same standard to see any difference. The only real difference in the playstyle of sword is that you can't just sit there with a ~2s (only ~1s with quickness?) increase in DPS with a free evade, but instead need to start mashing your other buttons (usually AA) a bit sooner. Also, someone here has already calculated that the new Blurred Frenzy has more instantaneous DPS?The problem wasn't the sword skills; it's the fact that Mirage is a badly designed spec. It's been OP from the start and needs a full re-design to bring it more in line with other classes. Also, actually testing this stuff more in house before putting it live would probably help too.Agreed, this what a lot of other people are also saying. But the devs might be trying to focus on something else, like tone down Mesmer's life-long erratic PvP status, though I don't even play that mode to understand this nerf in its entirety...

@Jimbru.6014 said:It's definitely a big nerf to the PVE burst and cleave of my DPS Chrono. Big enough that I'm actually considering retiring that character because now she can't even take down trash mobs like she should.

That doesn't make any sense, this shouldn't even affect the burst, since phantasms are where the bulk of the damage comes from. If anything, the damage is slightly more front loaded now. The only explanation is if you afk for that 0.75s that you now have compared to old Blurred Frenzy.

Meanwhile, chrono is still the class that can maintain solo might and fury on a proper build, along with small amounts of quickness for the burst.

@"squallaus.8321" said:Can Power DPS chrono still do more than 30k after this patch?... before patch it was 33-34k..