Obsidian Flesh rant and my issues with balance.A PvErs perspective.

[Phazon.3975]

I am curious as to why the Elementalist skill Obsidian Flesh got such a ludicrous nerf for PVE. The skill was absolutely fine as it was before the patch. It was a good defensive skill to a glass cannon profession. It was a setup window for your combos and kept up the momentum but now we're stuck unable to do anything and using a focus now feels pointless. I would've understood if this change was for PvP/WvW (even if I don't play those modes) but why open world? Was it that much of a problem? Was it to reference Guild Wars 1's Obsidian Flesh so we veterans players go "Haaa. Yeah I remember when Obsidian Flesh prevented you from attacking." This isn't Guild Wars 1. Combat/gameplay is nothing like that game. If that's the reason for the change, then Meteor Shower here should cause knockdown, right?

The change is clunky and feels like it broke the skill as well. I thought it was going to "lock" your skills, not delete your entire bar. We can't even precast a skill before using Obsidian Flesh because it just cancels you out of everything. Start casting a skill like Glyph of storms then use Obsidian Flesh. Canceled. Overload Earth into Obsidian Flesh. Canceled. Even using Obsidian Flesh beforehand and then Overloading Earth, if Obsidian Flesh ends during the overload (because it's now a form or bundle I guess?) you stop overloading. Tempest is one of my mains so I'm at least relieved we can switch elements during the invulnerability as Fresh Air. But what about core or weaver? What makes focus an attractive option for those specs over dagger or staff? Why would I use focus over warhorn on my tempest? Fire is useless on focus. Water has pitiful CC skills (Comet is "okay"). Earth only has a reflect now. Air is the only viable element. Tempest can manage the change better but core ele and weaver got completely shafted. Obsidian Flesh on a sword weaver? Lol. Not to mention I think there's a small delay now when casting Obsidian Flesh. Like if you're changing build templates or picking up a bundle. Could be my end tho. Did I also forget to mention you didn't add the change of "locking your skill bar" in the skill description? It's still the same.

Which brings me to another thing. More effort and higher consideration need to be put into PvE/PvP splitting. Stop making changes for the sake of change or adding "drawbacks" to things that don't need them. If something ain't broke, don't fix it. These needless changes and skill rebalances need to stop. Why do elite specs need drawbacks? Why force balance when things may already be fine? Some core builds already existed before these drawbacks because sometimes having 3 core trait lines work together just as well as having an elite spec. Ranger for example: Core spec is used often in open world for a tankier pet and because the traits are good enough to work without an elite spec. So why do drawbacks like the one Druid got have to exist in PvE? Why the needless and harsh pet nerf and the pitiful "lore" reasoning over it. Were Druids dominating PvE? In PvP and WvW I heard they were a problem, so why didn't you just split it for those modes? I'm sure there are many players, like myself, who want to play an adventurous PvE support druid. Then there's things like the removal of pet swap on soulbeast. Why? Playing a soulbeast now just feels so restricting and tense. You've cut all fluidity from the class. Being able to merge pets while being able to swap made the spec exciting and fun to play in its own right. I thought the drawback was sacrificing your tanky pet for more damage? And what about other classes and elite specs? Don't cram in these drawbacks if things are fine as they are. If you want core specs to not to look underpowered compared to elite specs, why not just buff core traits so that they work well enough to not need elite specs? Some elite specs already change the gameplay style on certain classes. Wouldn't hurt to make support specs more attractive for open world either.

I've only posted on the forums a few times. Open world is also what I do 99% of the time in this game so I apologize if this is a pointless rant.

[Elden Arnaas.4870]

A lot of these changes were quite needed for the competitive modes. But like you I feel like one game mode shouldn't have to suffer for the benefit of another. I wish they had made changes in a way that did not impact PvE. They split skills, but then made changes that went across all games modes. -?!?

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Elden Arnaas.4870 said:A lot of these changes were quite needed for the competitive modes. But like you I feel like one game mode shouldn't have to suffer for the benefit of another. I wish they had made changes in a way that did not impact PvE. They split skills, but then made changes that went across all games modes. -?!?

As I understand it they can't split the functionality itself, only the numerical values.

[Elden Arnaas.4870]

Thanks for bringing that up. It is the problem. Changes in number values can be completely independent. But where they change actual functionality like in CC, stun break, stability - these type changes have to be across all modes. And that means one or more game modes suffer for the benefit of another. If you feel the need to implement three totally different game modes with totally different game play - why wouldn't you make it easier to split functionality?(Before you even release your new game, with its new game modes)edit - typo