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Balance Patch Preview - Global


Irenio CalmonHuang.2048

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@Eos.4269 said:

@Dzheen.5291 said:In next patch we will loose 15% single target damage with pistols because of Ankle shot trait changes.Cripple isn't 100% uptime anyway, 3 seconds of cripple every 8 seconds (keep in mind you need to crit too) is 37.5% cripple uptime or a damage increase of 6.875% if you're alone. There's also no requirement to take the new trait. The alternative, Practiced Tolerance, which gives you ferocity based on a percentage of your precision, gives 191 ferocity in full ascended Berserker gear. This amounts to 13.06% Critical Damage, making the difference in taking one trait over the other for dps minimal.

Cripple apllies not only from this trait. In teamfights and in PVE uptime much higher. In condi builds you have Caltrops, Uncatchable, Impaling Lotus, Dancing Dagger. Dagger Storm apllies Cripple too.Of course you can select other traits, but here i compare Ankle Shot vs New trait. And i think it will be very strange if the trait designed special for pistol will be worse than common one. Whats the point then to take new trait?

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Corruption:The Corruption line has been reworked, the new traits are as follows.

  • Minor
    • Invoking Torment (NEW): When you switch legends nearby foes are inflicted with Torment. This attack is called "Invoke Torment" and can be modified by other traits.
    • Seething Malice (NEW): Gain +120 condition damage.
    • Yearning Empowerment (REWORK): Increase duration of all damaging conditions by 10%.
  • Adept
    • Acolyte of Torment (NEW): Torment deals 10% more damage
    • Demonic Defiance: No changes
    • Replenishing Despair (REWORK): While upkeeping a skill you gain +1 energy regeneration. Additionally you self-inflict 1 stack of torment for 5 seconds every second.
  • Master
    • Abyssal Chill : This trait has moved to a new location in the same tier.
    • Demonic Resistance: This trait has moved to a new location in the same tier. This trait no longer grants vitality based on condition damage. Increased damage resistance in PvE from 20% to 33%. Competitive modes remain at 20% reduction.
    • Pact of Pain (NEW): Conditions you apply to foes last 15% longer. Conditions applied to you last 10% longer.
  • Grandmaster
    • Diabolic Inferno (REWORK): Invoke Torment inflicts burning and poison
    • Fiendish Tenacity (NEW): Invoke Torment grants resistance. Resistance heals you every second it is active.
    • Permeating Pestilence (RENAME): Invoke Torment transfers conditions to struck foes.

Shouldn’t demonic defiance and demonic resistance be swapped so that replenishing despair has a way to be reliably mitigated by resistance?

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@Dzheen.5291 said:

@Eos.4269 said:

@Dzheen.5291 said:In next patch we will loose 15% single target damage with pistols because of Ankle shot trait changes.Cripple isn't 100% uptime anyway, 3 seconds of cripple every 8 seconds (keep in mind you need to crit too) is 37.5% cripple uptime or a damage increase of 6.875% if you're alone. There's also no requirement to take the new trait. The alternative, Practiced Tolerance, which gives you ferocity based on a percentage of your precision, gives 191 ferocity in full ascended Berserker gear. This amounts to 13.06% Critical Damage, making the difference in taking one trait over the other for dps minimal.

Cripple apllies not only from this trait. In teamfights and in PVE uptime much higher. In condi builds you have Caltrops, Uncatchable, Impaling Lotus, Dancing Dagger. Dagger Storm apllies Cripple too.Of course you can select other traits, but here i compare Ankle Shot vs New trait. And i think it will be very strange if the trait designed special for pistol will be worse than common one. Whats the point then to take new trait?I'm aware, but critical strikes traitline isn't used in condi builds if you care about damage output, you're also not really going to be using dancing dagger if you're using pistols either. That's why I didn't mention any of the condi related options. The new trait does feel a bit underwhelming but, compared to the old trait that is easily overshadowed by Practiced Tolerance, it's unique enough that it will have some use. The best case scenario to make the trait good for single and multitarget, and make it more useful to take would be something along the lines of"Deadly AimPistol and harpoon gun skills pierce/bounce up to 5 targets dealing 3% increase damage to the first target and 1% less damage (from base damage, so 3% is nulled after first hit) to each additional target.First Target: 3% IncreaseAdditional Targets: 1% decrease per target (cap 3%)Pistol range increase: 150"Pierce and bounce both have slight issues in some cases. Pierce would let you actually hit the target if enemies are body-blocking it, but fairs poorly with slopes in some cases. Bounce makes it easier to hit multiple enemies, but can be frustrating if enemies are in the path and your target is either far away or there are 2 enemies close together between you and your target. As a player I'm more so of the opinion that powerscaling needs to be reduced and damage increase (5% -> 3%, 10% -> 5%), stat increase (cut in half at least), and stat conversion traits (10% -> 7%, 7% -> 4%) toned down or replaced with more gameplay oriented traits. I personally feel that this would allow more focus on making traits feel unique. It would have the side effect of decreasing the dps difference between traitlines while also reducing some of the powercreep that has occured...ah, right, sorry. I got a bit distracted at the end.
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I also have an idea, and a desire to say it here - mostly concerning warrior:Remember when gw2 came out and warhorn warrior back then, and thruout all the patches, remained intact, pathetic, and only recently in 2019 did they do something about it, and was a refreshing change long awaited.... took them 7 years...What i wish to indicate atm is DUAL MACES, that virtually - actually practically - do not exist in any game mode... yes i remember condi f1 HoT meta mace, as annoying and shitty as it was it delivered some results - which brings me to the idea for the developers to actually consider or even make - full confusion-based dual maces for single-target condi stunlock build <3With such condi change for warr in mind (cuz being a long time warr player his condi is uncomparable and just bad to other classes):DUAL SWORDS - yes mainhand got some attention yet self-cancelling animations made the build and weps so damn annoying, especially off-hand sword, should be reworked to more aoe pve condi base, not that mace imitation with retarded lefthand throw - make it to be year 2020 <3Longbow -.- -.- -.-, too dependant on f1, way too dependant, i'd like to see it more like reve's shortbow as a guideline NOT final product, also some1 mentioned speeding the arrows up, sure, oh yes and the skill 3 which is zerk skill on a condi wep, keep it that way but MAYBE put after explosion a pulsating smoke/blind field? and remove skill 4 with ammo into something damaging, even if u give it a million stacks of spamming blind its still junk.SHOUTS - well Fear on lower cd.... shake it off is great as it is, remove On My Mark and put Battle Roar (with ammo maybe) skill alike soulbeasts condi roar, remove excessive and unused For Great Justice - and do us all a Great Justice and remove that skill with an ammo buff that gives PROTECTION (cuz warrior does not have a single protection for active use, and he was the only tank class in gw1 XD) along with protection, maybe aegis, vigor, regen, short alacrity, short resistance - a purely defensive buff to withstand and endure - Stances are tactical, not tanky tho ppl use it for the roleplay of tank....

The Concept of Off-hand Burst skills? The base f2 a warr should've had from the start?

Oh and I'll never forgive Anet for giving Para-dians a SHIELD that cannot BLOCK direct dmg (that whole concept should be seriously considered at least - and a hint for the new/old idea = DnD NeverWinter Guardian Fighter Block Bar)

Let the XD commence <3

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Regarding the Elementalist changes:

I'd like to see a different way of balancing Obsidian Flesh. Being unable to interact with the action bar for four seconds sounds like it'll be very frustrating, especially in PvE (where you're hitting buttons very quickly as a Weaver, which often uses a Focus for its condition build). Unlike in other games, like World of Warcraft, where you can remove buffs by right-clicking on them, there's nothing you can do if you accidentally hit Obsidian Flesh; no way to cancel it with by tapping ESC, dodge rolling, or canceling the aura.

I get that having an instant, four-second invulnerability that you can cast while doing other things in PvP is pretty insane, so if it must be changed then I'd much rather see it turned into a four second channel, or giving it a sizeable 1-2 second cast time, rather than locking the player out of their abilities. Both of these allow the player to cancel the ability if it's accidentally cast, but still punishes them for accidentally pressing it without potentially wrecking their rotation. Adding a cast time (which I'd rather see as the nerf instead of preventing the Elementalist from using their abilities) also allows opponents to react to the ability in a PvP setting.

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@Tuskeh.4697 said:Regarding the Elementalist changes:

I'd like to see a different way of balancing Obsidian Flesh. Being unable to interact with the action bar for four seconds sounds like it'll be very frustrating, especially in PvE (where you're hitting buttons very quickly as a Weaver, which often uses a Focus for its condition build). Unlike in other games, like World of Warcraft, where you can remove buffs by right-clicking on them, there's nothing you can do if you accidentally hit Obsidian Flesh; no way to cancel it with by tapping ESC, dodge rolling, or canceling the aura.

I get that having an instant, four-second invulnerability that you can cast while doing other things in PvP is pretty insane, so if it must be changed then I'd much rather see it turned into a four second channel, or giving it a sizeable 1-2 second cast time, rather than locking the player out of their abilities. Both of these allow the player to cancel the ability if it's accidentally cast, but still punishes them for accidentally pressing it without potentially wrecking their rotation. Adding a cast time (which I'd rather see as the nerf instead of preventing the Elementalist from using their abilities) also allows opponents to react to the ability in a PvP setting.

I think a channel would be the most elegant solution personally. It gives the player the power of cancelling the invuln early if they feel the need or desire, and could be cancelled while out of earth attunement as well. In that case I think it would be fair to give it a bonus effect if fully channeled, like a bit of prot or barrier.

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@Exalted Quality.8534 said:are we going to keep pretending that firebrands have a tradeoff?

my suggestion is to get rid of in-combat weapon swapping when using fb e-spec. tomes are analogous to engineer kits and elementalist attunements (both engis and eles can only swap weapons ooc). tome recharges would need to be adjusted to keep it playable.

This. Equipping a tome procs weapon swap sigils to begin with, so why not put all tomes and weapon swap on CD once a tome is used?

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I am all for changes that can or will bring positive vibes to the game, but history has shown that Guild Wars 2 has undergone many undesired phases in search of its image. From lore search for traits, costly resets, dungeon nerfs, and unwanted ability changes to professions. Only us 7th birthday characters will know what the game has gone through.

I could see the game going for tactical decision-based combat, and that might work in PVP. Let's be honest though, frames per second and ping play a significant role in who is victorious. Timing is an issue in large scale battles, and the increase to cooldowns and weakened damage won't fix that. Arenanet, are you trying to make the game solely auto-attack focused like a few years ago? Because I can assure you, you would only be decreasing the current population of players.

Sure, there is a skill gap in competitiveness, but most of it is who has the better key-bind and ping. Either you guys are preparing to unveil new specializations or appeal to non-skilled players, but what happened to make World vs. World better again?

I hope you guys aren't trying to make the game so reliant on groups and that soloing content isn't a thing anymore. Please, for the love of the community, don't do that look around you; there aren't enough people to group up with for content, let alone old content, especially when it's unrewarding. It'll be the biggest mistake on your end, and history shows you love to make mistakes, but please don't ruin PvE.

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Core necromancer isn't even close to being viable in PvE. Like, its crazy just how far off the mark it is. Reaper ans Scourge are both doing far better and even they face some hiccups when it comes to T4 fractals and Raids. But yeah, core necromancer is easy to level with, sure. Nothing in open world can really threaten you while leveling. I mean, the tools you have are almost useless in more difficult maps, but while leveling you might get the impression they're overpowered. Which is far from the case. This patch doesn't change that it actually makes it worse for the core necromancer in end game. Which is a real shame. Reaper and scourge are not negatively harmed in the slightest. Just core necro. For some reason.

Now, just because necromancer didn't get the overhaul it needs and deserves doesn't mean I'm quitting the necromancer. Oh no. Its my class. I can't just abandon her. However I do need a break from the monotony of the class. I only use reaper when doing dailies if I REALLY need the power and in select raids with my guild. And I run Scourge all the time for just about everything because its fun and requires me to pay attention to what I'm doing. I have almost entirely stopped using stunbreaks because the game is just not hard enough to warrant them in most situations. And I'd rather have the life force from Signet of Undeath.

I think with the exciting new changes with Engineer and Revenant who are both high use classes for me that I am both good at and enjoy playing I think once the update hits its a good point to take a break from my necromancer. Let her rest. I'll come back to her soon enough. She'll feel refreshing after I'm done playing with engineer and Rev. Engineer is my number 2 class and has almost as many ascended sets as my Necromancer.

Hopefully core necromancer gets the aid it desperately needs. Personally what I'd like to see changed is quite major. So that's a topic for another time. I'm just ready for my engineer to wreak house.

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Hey there, I want to be honest I dont like most of the balance changes.

  1. I dont think thiefs need more buffs or changes. In my gameplay experience they do really fine. besides that they always were fun to play and in my opinions have the coolest elite specialisations in the game.
  2. I dont understand the dragon hunter buffs why would they need it? They already are really good and easy to play. It seems to me they are better with the bow and have cooler trap skills than rangers - this also applys to thiefs - why is it that they have much cooler and unique trap skills than rangers ?.
  3. speaking of Rangers - I loose interest in the class with every new patch:I dont like the spirit changes - they should be more unique but they are just like the banners of the ranger - infact they are worse because you need to babysit them contantly to keep all their benefits up.I dont like that you removed skills and mechanics unique to the class and limit them - but other classes dont have these limitations.The new "trade-off" of the soulbeast seem really unfair to me, because other classes like the dragon hunter dont have these "trade-offs" in their skill sets. Its inconsistent to inrotuce penalties for some but not for all classes in the game. If it would be consistent for all classes I would be fine with it but not like this. If you want to prevent people to allways play the new elite specialisations why not make the vanilla classes more interesting and fun ? They pale in comparison to the elite specialisations - vanilla classes are simply bad and not fun anymore, I rarely see them in my playtime. If you see a class performing better others why not buff the others instead of nerfing a good working fun to play class. This applys also for the engineer! I would also like a new trait that teleports you to the pets location when mereging, that could be interesting... and please buff the trap skills - they seem so boring in comparison to dragon hunter and thief skills.
  4. necromancers - adding a proper damaging Chilled condition for the reaper skill instead of simply the old boring boring bleeding effect. That would introduce some new and intersting mechanics for condition damage reapers. Alos please rework the staff skills - they are really bad in my opinion - I would only staff for style points.
  5. I like the warrior rifle changes a lot- that really needed a rework.
  6. Mesmer seems really messy at the moment, its a hard class to balance but its really unique - so please, dont nerf it to much.

Conclusion: Make vanilla classes and skills more interesting by boosting their strenghts and roles. Dont nerf in an inconsistant way! If you want to inroduce penaltys for specialisations please do it for EVERY specialisation not for some of them - this seems unfair. Buff unique skills and mechanics of classes.

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Have some personal opinions (pure open-world pve, NA server). :

1) pvp and wvw focused responses should be in their respective sections (place the draft skill patch notes in those threads as well)

2) I noticed that a fair number of cc skills have had animation times increased. Is that casting time? If yes, how is that any kind of good idea for open world pve content? As things stand, there are players who do not know how to cc, and a significant bunch of these either do not read chat (and learn from those willing to teach them) or care. Which means that players who do cc, have to do more to account for their scaling effect.

3) I noticed some changes that incentivise ranged play. While nobody else cares if someone plays ranged while solo, you have designed various content that penalise the group when individuals range - in fact, the ai prioritises them sometimes. E.g mat. It can get really frustrating

4) instead of finding ways to penalise elite specs, how about creating different benefits for equipping the 5 core specs into the 3rd slot? I know that works out to 9x5 benefits, but if you think of it another way, it gives opportunity to game design to introduce new mechanics over time (pseudo-elite specs), can be done in batches, affords room for creative ideas, easy to balance as each option is distinct and independent. E.g. The minion spec would give more control over minions. Also, I don't mean complicated benefits, especially at the start. It can be as simple as, for eg. X% poison duration, x bonus condi when tormenting, etcetc

5) why can't skill balancing be about making more things separately viable, and leaving alone things that work? You don't need to bring something down in order to make another thing viable. It can be as simple as adjusting coefficients if any thing is over powered

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To my understanding, the game is about dead anyway. There will be no more expansions, and no more new elite specs.

In light of this, I fail to understand why the limited pick of builds are further limited from patch to patch. Is balancing decided with a dartboard by a couple unpaid interns?

There's no flexibility, nothing to experiment with, and they take away more than they give every time. Why can't I play my freezing, bleeding, shout based condi reaper? Taking that away was a very poor decision on Arenanet's part. Their power reaper is flavorless in gameplay by comparison.

Why take away the spread of the Scourge's aoe's?

If the design decisions here are to 'put everyone on equal footing', they're going about it in a terrible way. Give players more options, instead of restricting and nerfing and downgrading as a policy. Plenty of classes have only one way to play them in any given game mode, if that, with any expectation of victory. That's terrible game design.

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