New Patch Preview Update - PvP (Thief Nerfs)

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/97627/balance-update-update-pvp

• Concealing Restoration: Reduced stealth duration from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Rending Shade: Reduced number of boons stolen from 2 to 1.
• Assassin's Signet: Increased cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Leeching Venoms: Reduced maximum stacks of spider venom provided by this trait from 6 to 2.
• Malicious Backstab: Reduced power coefficients from 1.2/2.4 to 0.9/1.8
• Smokescreen: Increased cooldown from 35 seconds to 45 seconds

“Smokescreen: Increased cooldown from 35 seconds to 45 seconds”

Lol they listened to all the forum complainers before the patch was even released. smh

I wish they would actually plan balance and then actually test it before listening to forum complainers.

Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

I mean, correct me if Im wrong, but isnt the Malicious Backstab nerf just them extending the backstab nerf to it as well, i.e. fixing an oversight?

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

Then that's odd since they didn't do the same to Malicious Sneak Attack. Another "oversight"?

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

Malicious Sneak attack only adds 1 second of torment per shot. The malice increases the duration of that. As far as MSA is concerned you don’t even approach nearly enough condi damage to be worth nerfing.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

Yeah Id say so. My guess is that since theyre technically seperate skills, but also not, they just got through the first time. And while MBS is used enough for people to raise alarm, Sneak Attack, not so much, so it just got forgotten.

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

I misread the earlier post.

Basically the nerf to base Sneak Attack was from 1.8 to 1.5 (with five bullets so .36 to .3 per bullet).

Either the notes are just missing and MSA will also be nerfed to .3/bullet or MSA gets to keep the overall 1.8 modifier (it still doesn’t hit that hard and I was surprised that a multi bullet attack like Sneak Attack was being nerfed (Unload, if all bullets hit, still has a much higher coefficient post patch) when it usually doesn’t hit for that much damage.

Edit: I’d add that if any attack should be hitting for 1.8 (in the range for “big” hits set by Anet) it should be the stealth attacks, unless other factors are in play.

The reduction of Death’s Judgment made sense because of the huge malice damage modifier. Similarly, MBS also has a big malice damage modifier so it can still hit much harder than the coefficient would suggest.

Stealth attacks like Sneak Attack and it’s DE version MSA lack those same power damage modifiers and have to contend with a multi bullet channel that all have to hit to achieve the theoretical coefficient maximum. Put another way, reducing Sneak Attack to a 1.5 coefficient doesn’t make sense when considering that Unload is balanced around Might stacking and higher base coefficients if all bullets hit. 1.8 is already a balanced coefficient for the set (no one is being hit for high damage Sneak Attacks even pre-patch).

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Yeah, I'm bummed about the Concealing Restoration and MBS nerf. Sheesh.

It seems that they intend to nerf the Malicious attacks by nerfing the core stealth attacks, but since they are completely different skills, they have to nerf the Malicious attacks separately. If that is the case, they can just unnerf the core stealth attacks. Otherwise that's a lot of DPS loss.