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Upcoming Changes to Fall Damage and Revival


Robert Gee.9246

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  • ArenaNet Staff

Hey folks,

I wanted to pop in today to give you all a preview of some upcoming changes to fall damage and revival that we'll be rolling out in an upcoming balance update. The quick summary is that we are removing trait functionality that reduces fall damage and increases passive revival speed.

While fall damage reduction traits were useful when the game first launched we feel that they are currently over-complicating trait descriptions in a post-glider/mount world. Falling damage reduction is already pretty niche and in the past we have added additional functionality to make them more generally useful. However for most of these traits, that bonus functionality eventually became the main reason to take the trait. At this point we felt it just makes more sense to remove the fall damage portion, which leaves some design space if we want to buff these traits in the future.

For revival traits we want to focus more of that power onto active revival rather than simply increasing the speed of "press F to revive". You may have noticed that we've slowly been removing some of these traits already as was the case with the Tactics rework. We like how revival traits like Necromancer Transfusion and Elementalist Arcane Resurrection actively tap into existing skills and augment them so we added similar functionality to a few other revival traits when we removed the revival speed increase. In addition you'll also see some improvements to skills which revive allies directly.

Here's the list of changes by profession:

Elementalist

  • Arcane Abatement: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Renamed to "Arcane Restoration."
  • Glyph of Renewal: Reduced recharge to 90 seconds in all game modes. Lowered cast time from 3.25 seconds to 2 seconds.
  • Arcane Resurrection: This trait no longer increases revival speed. Auras granted by this trait are now granted only to the elementalist at the start of a revival attempt rather than at the end. This effect has a 20 second cooldown.

Engineer

  • Grenadier: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Additionally this trait now casts Lesser Grenade Barrage on your location when using a healing skill.
  • Toss Elixir R: This skill no longer removes 1 condition when thrown. Increased projectile speed by 25%. The projectile thrown by this skill is now unblockable. Fixed an issue where the land and water versions of this skill moved at different speeds.

Guardian

  • Protectors Impact: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Renamed to "Protector's Restoration".
  • Signet of Mercy: Reduced recharge to 90 seconds in all game modes. Changed passive effect from granting 180 healing power (216 when traited) to granting 120 concentration (150 when traited).
  • Protective Reviver: This trait no longer increases revival speed and no longer grants boons on a successful revival. Fixed skill fact to show correct 3 second duration. Fixed a bug which prevented the recharge of Lesser Shield of Absorption from being affected by Stalwart Defender. Lesser Shield of Absorption now heals nearby allies when it ends. This trait now causes all versions of Shield of Absorption to revive allies by 15% when it detonates.
  • Courageous Return: This trait has been reworked and it has been renamed to "Stalwart Courage". It grants the guardian Protection for 3 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP/WvW whenever aegis on the guardian is removed due to blocking an attack.

Mesmer

  • Descent into Madness: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Renamed to "Method of Madness"
  • Medic's Feedback: This trait no longer increases revival speed. It now causes Feedback to revive allies inside it by 5% per second.

Necromancer

  • Terrifying Descent: This trait has been reworked. It has been renamed to "Insidious Disruption". It now causes control effects to inflict torment on foes.
  • Signet of Undeath: Reduced recharge to 75 seconds in all game modes. Reduced cast time from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Reduced number of allies revived from 3 to 1. Added additional health cost of 50% of base health to this skill. Increased passive lifeforce gain by 100%.

Ranger

  • Soften the Fall: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Renamed to "Child of Earth"
  • Allies' Aid: This trait no longer increases revival speed. Reduced cooldown of this trait from 85 seconds to 60 seconds. Fixed a bug which caused the version of "Search and Rescue!" associated with this trait to be considered a Shout skill instead of a Command.

Revenant

  • Planar Protection: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait.

Thief

  • Uncatchable: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait.

Warrior

  • Peak Performance: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Reduced conditional damage bonus from 20% to 15% in PvE and 10% to 7% in competitive modes. Now grants 5% bonus damage baseline in PvE and 3% bonus damage in competitive modes.
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I am glad to see them go I always saw them as a waste of traits.

But some players may miss it on some jumping puzzles that do not allow mounts or gliding but have a lot of long falls, like Griffonrook Run.
Would it be possible to return the fall damage reduction in a limited way through the mastery system? Like in a new or existing Pact Commander mastery?

By being in a PvE mastery it won't affect WvW and PvP, so there won't be gimmicks with it in those modes. And it should also be possible to disable a mastery in other spots in PvE where fall damage reduction may be used to map break or skip routes not meant to be skipped.

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Question about this:

Medic's Feedback: This trait no longer increases revival speed. It now causes Feedback to revive allies inside it by 5% per second.

Does this mean that a mesmer can just tap F to cast the feedback then suddenly stop reviving but allies in the feedback still get revived?

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Before Heart of Thorns, when players were falling a very long distance, they had a flailing animation and their character yelled? It was removed right before the introduction of gliding, but it would be really cool if it was added back for accounts that have not yet unlocked gliding (or Bond of Faith, Soaring Rescue, and Aerial Rescue masteries) and for all players in areas where gliding is not allowed, like jumping puzzles.

It's one of the things that made the game really unique; most MMOS don't have custom animations and character sounds when you're going to fall to your death, it just happens. It was pretty funny to hear other players in the open world (& jumping puzzles) fall this way. ArenaNet mentioned at one point it didn't sound very heroic, but I think a lot of people would want it back in situations where you can't glide.

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@Melech.4308 said:Question about this:

Medic's Feedback: This trait no longer increases revival speed. It now causes Feedback to revive allies inside it by 5% per second.

Does this mean that a mesmer can just tap F to cast the feedback then suddenly stop reviving but allies in the feedback still get revived?Yes, it's similar to how the Arcane Resurrection trait works.

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Can't deny that I am disappointed. Fall damage traits are awesome in WvW, however niche they may be. I know they may be easy to dismiss, but the amount of times these traits have allowed me to win outnumbered fights in WvW is countless.

Revenant still has no trait OR skill that has any sort of rez interaction ever since Radiant Revival was removed. Do you have any intention to include one? I dont see any reasons to exclude a single class from this especially one that has high support potential.

Also, why are you buffing Guardian's rez potential? The last thing the class needs is rez buffs. Please look at MI while you are at it. This skill was swiftly nerfed in PvP, but for whatever reason was ignored in WvW. The class continues to hold the monopoly on support and this will only further reinforce it.

Signet of Undeath change looks really super nice though, but potentially overbuffed. I will definitely play around with this.

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@"killfil.3472" said:Wait, hold on.

Signet of Undeath's passive life force generation has been increased by 100%?Does that mean the trait "Signet of Suffering" 's increase has also been increased by 100%?That could be a bit too powerful, no?

Signet of Undeath currently gives 2% lifeforce per 3 seconds.This change increases it by 100% up to 4% per 3 seconds.When traited with Signets of Suffering you get 6% per 3 seconds which is a 100% increase from the previous 3% per 3 seconds.

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@"Pterikdactyl.7630" said:Can't deny that I am disappointed. Fall damage traits are awesome in WvW, however niche they may be. I know they may be easy to dismiss, but the amount of times these traits have allowed me to win outnumbered fights in WvW is countless.

Revenant still has no trait OR skill that has any sort of rez interaction ever since Radiant Revival was removed. Do you have any intention to include one? I dont see any reasons to exclude a single class from this especially one that has high support potential.

Also, why are you buffing Guardian's rez potential? The last thing the class needs is rez buffs. Please look at MI while you are at it. This skill was swiftly nerfed in PvP, but for whatever reason was ignored in WvW. The class continues to hold the monopoly on support and this will only further reinforce it.

Signet of Undeath change looks really super nice though, but potentially overbuffed. I will definitely play around with this.

They don't really understand aspects of wvw so they aren't really thinking about it when they do balance changes. As far as this goes yeah it'll cause so many more deaths an require even more time picking people up off the ground. So if they are going to actually do these changes they should dramatically reduce the fall damage amounts in wvw. The only decent potential I see out of this as well is the Signet of Undeath for being traited as a frontline spite/death magic/reaper. However I would rather they focus on actual issues that make things in the game unplayable when it comes to wvw like the kalla legend it has practically no use in wvw as well as weapon setups that can never be used because they have either no utility or the utility is so dismal that something else far outshines it.

Also aspects like guardian one balance problem that is always existed is that it was designed around boons and retaliation being one of its cornerstones. The problem people had with it back when it was nerfed is kind of needed back with the mindless spam to be a counter for mindless spamming. If I'm on my thief and someone tries to use retaliation its just a joke its not retaliating in any way lol if they plan to keep it like this they should rename it to tickle.

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Since it's stated :

Mesmer

  • Descent into Madness: Removed fall damage functionality from this trait. Renamed to "Method of Madness"
  • Medic's Feedback: This trait no longer increases revival speed. It now causes Feedback to revive allies inside it by 5% per second.Would that mean if a Mesmer casted normal feedback it would revive people? So if they mimic -> feedback -> feedback -> revive for medic's feedback and then cancel to proc after that 18s the person would be ressed 90% from full dead? If so wouldn't this be too broken in WvW lord ressurecting or ressing wiped people in a Zerg v Zerg fight? Esp since it just states "allies inside it" theoretically you could revive an entire zerg with 2+ mesmers placing feedback.
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@"Robert Gee.9246" said:Ranger

  • Allies' Aid: This trait no longer increases revival speed. Reduced cooldown of this trait from 85 seconds to 60 seconds. Fixed a bug which caused the version of "Search and Rescue!" associated with this trait to be considered a Shout skill instead of a Command.

This is basically a nerf for a trait that was already not so good, can't you guys make it works like transfusion and the pet pulls and tries to revive up to 5 downed players?

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Courageous Return: This trait has been reworked and it has been renamed to "Stalwart Courage". It grants the guardian Protection for 3 seconds whenever aegis on the guardian is removed due to blocking an attack.

This desperately needs a high CD in PvP, similar to protection injection. Double Firebrand is already pretty much the meta comp for ATs, and this has potential to give them A LOT of free prot if there is no CD.

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Could you move the fall damage reduction onto some of the minor traits instead? Sometimes - in PvE at least - I really, really need fall damage reduction. Usually when I'm doing a jumping puzzle that doesn't allow gliders, or I have some distance to fall but it's a biiiit further than I'd survive otherwise.

I like the Signet of Undeath change a lot. Hopefully you can also look at Signet of Spite sometime - a power signet that applies a bunch of damaging conditions doesn't make a lot of sense.

Courageous Return definitely needs a PvP/WvW split.

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I have a core "medic necro" WvW build that gets some pretty epic plays out of Signet of Undeath. I'm disappointed that you chose to buff the passive and nerf the active. Not trolling, I found it to be one of few skills in GW2 that gives an honest high-risk high-reward. Especially given its small radius.

I ask that you consider maybe a 50% passive increase with an allowance of 2 revives? I don't think PvP is a big consideration with this skill because of the difficulty of hitting off a 3-second recharge before the nerf-buff.

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@"Robert Gee.9246" said:We like how revival traits like Necromancer Transfusion and Elementalist Arcane Resurrection actively tap into existing skills and augment them so we added similar functionality to a few other revival traits when we removed the revival speed increase. In addition you'll also see some improvements to skills which revive allies directly.>

You like transfusion.....on the healing aspect fine w/e ...but in practice the bleeping teleport kills more people than it saves. I've hated this trait with a passion since the day it landed. You can be off to the side perfectly fine on your own then someone hits shroud 4 in the middle of the worst possible positioning known to man and you get to join them and enjoy the walk back together. Thrilling

Remove the port or put an option in the settings so I can block its "help"( obviously not realistic but I hate it that much) . Instead of yelling at people to take the trait off. I don't think there's any other support trait in the game that can finish you and your 5 closest allies at the press of a single button.

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we feel that they are currently over-complicating trait descriptions

What's complicated about "reduces fall damage by 50%" ?

Removing the fall damage trait is going to make doing some jumping puzzles impossible to complete. For example someone without a mount or glider doing the Silverwastes JP, that requires you to jump down to reach a checkpoint needs the fall damage reduction part of the trait to survive. There is no way around it.

I believe they should remain in PvE at the very least.

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