Absolutely LOVE the direction of this patch! I'd wager that with your handful of exception meta builds that will emerge after this patch, you can breath a small sigh of relief when it comes to balancing over or undertuned skills and traits for a while.
Two requests:
Passive trait nerfs be applied in WvW also, not only applied in pvp. I know you like to balance mainly around zerg v. zerg but in a small scale fight (such as between two groups of roamers) those passives make a huge difference.
Maybe it's beyond the scope of this patch, but consider a pass on the underperforming weapons/traits for each class. There seems to be some attempt at that here with a utility skill here and there which is great.
That said, you guys need to look at mesmer, specifically the self sustain it has access to in addition to the damage it does. Currently it is disproportionate with classes as is, and this will be particularly the case after these changes go live. Places to look at would be the rate at which stab can be applied through shatters when using the Chaos traitline (2-3s icd perhaps) as well as the mesmer's access to clone generation.
I think that this list looks pretty good, addresses a lot of the pain points that I think have developed since HoT.
That said, some of these passives keep getting nerfed, over and over, to the point of being pretty useless for the CD they have. Don't get me wrong, I actually love that, I hate seeing people get carried by passives, I hate being carried by passives. But when will the skills team just admit that such passives are not healthy for the game period? I really want to see most, if not all, of the passive traits that are in this list be eventually removed from the game entirely
@Tresura.5209 said:
Desert Shroud: Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW.
Kill the only possibility to play power scourge in WvW. Find another way to nerf condi.
This change nerfs condi as well. What the kitten are you all talking about? This change nerfs scourge as a class itself because both damage and survivability are taking a huge kitten to the kitten.
Sure it also nerfs condi but it nerfs other builds harder.
(POWER SCOURGE 1 Minute fight) If you do 500k damage about 200k of that damage is from desert shroud alone. I find anet should address scourge in another way instead of nerfing the diversity of scourge.
@MightyMaxwell.3468 said:
I don't know whether the balancing team plays this game, but nerf every class and leave Mesmer/mirage in it's current state? Are u guys delusional or just mental?
To break it down: Shatter Mes has to shatter to do dmg - counter: dodge the burst. BUT mes will have the same burst in 3s max again. and this 3-4 times atleast if not in an infinite loop. The dmg of 1 full hit burst is enough to 1 shot a full trailblazer scourge.
This is already broken, BUT the mes has invis, evades, good selfsustain, 4 blinks (1 blink + 3 times elite). Ohh and don't forget the STUNBREAK on his dodge. Use dodge food and GG
So, I really don't know what I shall say. Maybe consider a change of carreers or just don't try to balance idk
Yeah Mes is insane. I'm already at the point where I just ignore them because they are un-hittable.
@Jaberse.8726 said:
that being said sword dagger thief is probably one of the highest skill specs in the game to make use of effectively at this point
This is just plain wrong. I almost exclusively play Thief and even I can admit that Sword/Dagger Thief, while not being super easy to play, is absolutely not even in the top 10 of specs requiring high of skill to be effective with.
Nothing but nerf after nerf to WvW necro. But that's not even the worst as I suppose necro can use some nerfs, the problem is what these nerfs are: longer cooldowns everywhere.
That's just lazy balancing. It's all about making necro as slow as possible by adding insane cooldowns to everything so not only it becomes weaker, but the gameplay also goes to kitten.
I don't mind nerfing necro if everyone agrees they're too poweful, but just adding more and more cooldowns instead of fixing damage numbers and modifiers is lazy and completely ruins the gameplay.
After this goes live Scourge will be nothing but a braindead class where you autoattack for the majority of the time while your skills are on ridiculously long cooldowns.
At least try to work on improving other weaker specs and builds instead of simply nerfing everything that works, because I guarantee that after this goes live, Reaper will still be 100% kitten tier in WvW.
ok im not sure if youve played guild wars 2 but power is most a problem but its not power its CONDITION power that is the problem. why dear god WHY am i punished for using something that is in place to help me... why is boon conversion in place? why would you have EVERY thought that was a good idea? yes power used to be meta power is not meta anymore condi is there are no two ways about it. it is meta. now then increasing power to diversify build is a very good idea. but you have not addressed the meta if you want diversify CONDI MUST BE ADDRESSED. i can see what your goal is why your attempting this but fix problems where there are problems but if you "fix" to much things that are not broken you break them.
is warrior buffs aimed for shout warriors return to the scene? Any intention to move "Powerful Synergy" to Discipline so shout warriors can take both "Powerful Synergy" and "Vigorous Shouts"?
Edit: Any intention to increase treshold and amount of condition removed of "Shrug it off" in wvw?
I like this patch. I am a WvW player that mostly goes around in large zergs. Engi: I am sad to see you nerfed the 2 of the more powerful traits in WvW and the holoform. it kinda makes my new cleanse-superspeed-dps blobsmith worse but it will still be in meta because it has some unique strengths that people have been overlooking. Eclipse got pretty much gutted but i was using zephyr anyways that is pretty good for roaming too so I dont mind. Buffing the mortar kit makes clearing acs faster which is good in this bunker siege meta. Mesmer and ele: Not much changes, its ok, its cool, they will still be strong part of WvW. Not sure why you made Gale Song unusable in PvP, 90 second autostunbreak??? Buffing illusion of life which is one of the best group skills for WvW is pretty interesting. Mesmer will be awesome. Druid and thief: Seems like druid CA got the treatment it deserved, it was uninteractive. I like to fight dagger thief when roaming so i welcome the changes. Neither will be viable in large scale fights which is ok. Warrior: So dagger got nerfed and sword buffed... Its good, I was already wondering if sword was better than dagger due to burst on 3 skill and better leap but it will be pretty clear now. I doubt shouts will be viable spellbreaker. Rev: this is good. Lot of revenants were abusing hammer damage to be useful in blob fights and now that hammer rev overall damage got nerfed like 10%, now they actually have to go ahead and use their dwarf and mallyx skills. Buffing dwarf and mallyx seems reasonable, Dwarf was already the best one to have, mallyx definitely needed some buffs. Guardian: Yea, healing ratio nerfs, thats ok, little worried about the resolve autoattack nerf but guess we might go back to cele builds soon since lot of other supports are coming back to meta with scourge getting gutted. Necromancer: Hmm, yes I can understand why you nerfed the desert shroud because you didnt want to nerf the scourges cleanse potential for allies. This will push power necros into playing reaper which I dont mind. Dagger buffs were necessary. Signet of locust will be pretty good now, instant full health, definitely viable option.
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend ~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
The prevalence of passives is a common competitive player complaint. (PvP only)
Yeah this is weird, I also play WvW and I really think that these sPvP nerfs should also be applied in WvW. Unless you don't want for WvW to be taken competitively? That would be terrible to think to be honest.
Reduce effectiveness of offensive instant cast skills/traits
Instant cast spells don't give players an opportunity to respond. While we don't want to remove combos utilizing instant cast abilities, we wanted to reduce the impact they have.
1) With out seeing the big picture for rev and these are the only changes. No one will want them any more. CoR is all we got left.
2) Necro dagger needs help
3) revert or change the Resistance -> Immob
I really like that you try to remove unfun elements of the game (passive gameplay, passive effects having a too great impact) but I really want you to rebalance and adjust heavy burst builds (fresh air scepter weaver, power shatter mesmer, d/p or p/p thief, etc.)- These builds are so unfun to fight against because you barely have any time to react and those builds instantly kill you in pvp without having a real fight.
Renegade and Kalla could use way more buffs than what is already proposed. Shortbow damage is still way too low, extremely. Renegade still also completely lacks sustain. So this spec needs to honestly have more damage than other specs by a fair margin rather than the lowest or the sustain needs to be increased tremendously and the damage still needs to be increased on shortbow.
Hammer is not a lethal weapon. Outside of zerging it really has no use amongst anyone that is good at your game so you are kind of pandering to the lower skill crowd with this change. I rarely even use hammer in zergs as it is already.
Condi rev is also extremely underperforming in pvp right now. It can't even compete with power rev. Mace #2 field is too small and damage ramp up too low compared to other condi specs. Mallyx is also ironically extremely weak to condis coming from the more potent condi specs (condi thief, scourge). Condi rev is also extremely weak to power damage due to having 0 tools to deal with it that are beneficial to a condi spec.
@Threather.9354 said: Druid: Seems like druid CA got the treatment it deserved, it was uninteractive. [Druid] will not be viable in large scale fights which is ok.
How is that remotely okay? Group support is entirely why Druid exists.
I want to re-emphasize the importance of reducing the amount of unnecessary skill splits. I feel that all of the proposed buffs affect skills and traits that are underperforming in PvE, and they would not come to change the PvE meta with these buffs. Therefore they should not be split between gamemodes. This reduces the amount of potential player confusion and build differences from one gamemode to the next, while still accomplishing the same goals in PvP and WvW.
I'm going to give my initial impression on this patch for how I see it effecting the current Metagame. For context, everything I'm about to write is purely for a Zerg versus Zerg perspective in WvW. I'll break down in to class by class with some suggestions on what could be toned back and taken further in regards to these changes specifically as well as some additions I believe could be a strong choice for diversifying gameplay.
Changes I think are fantastic I won't touch, and I think overall this is actually a great step in the right direction.
Warrior
Good change in general imo, great direction to move in for diversity.
Break Enchantments Damage nerf is appropriate for its utility, however the boonrip should NOT be buffed. Winds of Disenchantment removes 100 boons every 90 seconds. With proposed changes, Break Enchantments will be able to remove 90 boons every 90 seconds. This is exceptionally high, and significantly easier to land consistantly than WoD. Keep the damage nerf, don't buff the boonrip.
Battle Standard This is not quite enough to bring back the Banner WvW zergs. Other classes can revive more consistently and effectively, with the current meta of multiple Transfusions revive allies faster than the cast time on Battle Standard. 90 Seconds cooldown would be great here imo.
Sword AutoAttacks I love this direction of introducing another weapon to the kit, but the buff will not viably do so for WvW purposes. To bring it to comparable damage for the trade off you get (comparing to GS mobility, Hammer CC, Axe Burst damage, Mace CC) 0.9, 0.9, 1.4 are more viable numbers for a strictly WvW purpose.
Revenant
Another solid change, if anything could be taken even further. Not a lot to say here.
Ventari Stance This is an area that could see a small bit of love. A functionality change (which I know is not covered by the scope of this patch) would be the Scourge treatment, where skills activate around yourself AND the tablet, only effecting the same person once per cast. But outside of that, on a pure numbers game, increase healing co-efficient on Purifying Essence from 0.2 to 0.35.
Guardian
Good changes to some outlying powerful skills. Guardian nerfs should always bear in mind that people do still NEED AoE stability, so taking it too far can really hurt the game mode's health without buffing stability from other sources.
Signet of Courage Reduce time between pulses by 5 seconds. Increase healing co-efficent from 0.5 to 0.7 on the passive heal.
Zealous Blade Good change to the damage, increase healing base to 42 so Greatsword doesn't 1shot the player using it against Retaliation.
Thief
Generally not a lot changed to effect their position in the metagame- or lack thereof.
Invigorating Precision Increase healing to 20% of outgoing critical damage.
Ranger
Druid was gutted, without a lot of reason in the WvW meta. Already falling behind as a healer thanks to low AoE cleanse, it will now sit in a state where any other heal role will be better than the one specialization DESIGNED as a healer. Damage buffs are great for Soulbeast builds however.
Seed of Life Increase conditions cleansed from 1 to 2 to compensate for the cooldown (still a nerf, goes from 6 cleanses per 6 seconds to 4 every 6 seconds etc).
Signet of Stone Increase duration to 4s on a 40s Cooldown
Celestial Avatar Do not increase cooldown in WvW.
Engineer
Holosmith took huge hits despite vastly under-performing in zerg scenarios. In order to do decent damage, Holosmith had to fully invest traits and utilities, with extremely minimal defensive options, and this split hits both.
Light Strike Do not change in WvW
Holo Leap Do not change in WvW
Holographic Shockwave Do not change in WvW
Spectrum Shield Keep the 4s duration, do not increase the cooldown to 40s.
Elementalist
Not quite enough to push them into the metagame outside of staff weaver, but definitely a great step in the right direction.
Primordial Stance Increase radius to 240
Necromancer
The Scourge elite spec needs to be hit, but I strongly disagree with the cooldown hits. Its the Staff Elementalist problem all over again, taking away from the fun of the class when a numbers game would be better suited.
Desert Shroud Reduce base damage to 710 (current 840) Reduce power scaling to 2.75 (currently 3.15), reduce barrier base to 4,555 (current 5016), reduce torment to 4s in WvW and PvP per pulse. Similar if not better impact than the CD nerf, but keeps the class fun and with a high APM that is indicative on Scourge. It is also the only skill to proc 'Activate on Shroud usage' traits and 'Death Perception' so nerfing cooldown SEVERELY reduces the effectiveness of some of the necros most interesting traits.
Thats all from me for now, thanks for your time reading my novella
P.S. Resistance to immob is extremely obnoxious- stab to fear is punishing enough, please and ty.
I would agree warrior is pretty strong, but it seems like a lot of abilities are getting hit pretty hard. Probably a bit more than needed. I was actually expecting a few more holo skills to see damage reductions, but it is a good start. I am hoping someone forgot to copy+paste the rest of the mesmer notes as I was expecting a number of.... adjustments?
@Threather.9354 said: Druid: Seems like druid CA got the treatment it deserved, it was uninteractive. [Druid] will not be viable in large scale fights which is ok.
How is that remotely okay? Group support is entirely why Druid exists.
~ Kovu
It wasnt viable before either. Ventari rev, melee tempest, melee rev, firebrand, boonshare chrono etc were all just outperforming it outright. No reliable CC, no unique support, not enough group cleanse or boonshare...
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend ~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
Renegade and Kalla could use way more buffs than what is already proposed. Shortbow damage is still way too low, extremely. Renegade still also completely lacks sustain. So this spec needs to honestly have more damage than other specs by a fair margin rather than the lowest or the sustain needs to be increased tremendously and the damage still needs to be increased on shortbow.
Hammer is not a lethal weapon. Outside of zerging it really has no use amongst anyone that is good at your game so you are kind of pandering to the lower skill crowd with this change. I rarely even use hammer in zergs as it is already.
Condi rev is also extremely underperforming in pvp right now. It can't even compete with power rev. Mace #2 field is too small and damage ramp up too low compared to other condi specs. Mallyx is also ironically extremely weak to condis coming from the more potent condi specs (condi thief, scourge). Condi rev is also extremely weak to power damage due to having 0 tools to deal with it that are beneficial to a condi spec.
I fully agree with what you said in the first paragraph, additionally I think the summons need to work like wells in wvw already (now they jsut get destroyed instantly), but CoR nerf was long overdue and youll still easily get top dps alongside some weavers in open fights, and honestly the nerf isnt even that crazy
And I fully agree with the entire third paragraph again
Instead of brutally murdering any chance Scourge has at all in higher level PvP (and not doing other Necro variants much of a favor with other nerfs), why not just rework Sand Savant?
Without the ability to cover an entire point with a single shade in PvP, Scourge loses its oppressive nature while retaining its threat. Remove the radius increase on Shade abilities from Sand Savant, rework the trait as a whole (no more single shade, though target increase and reduced recharge should be fine to keep) and Scourge will actually have to place multiple shades out to cover a capture point, meaning they can't do so indefinitely.
Plague Signet is the only skill in the game that is worse when traited.
@Threather.9354 said: Druid: Seems like druid CA got the treatment it deserved, it was uninteractive. [Druid] will not be viable in large scale fights which is ok.
How is that remotely okay? Group support is entirely why Druid exists.
~ Kovu
It wasnt viable before either. Ventari rev, melee tempest, melee rev, firebrand, boonshare chrono etc were all just outperforming it outright. No reliable CC, no unique support, not enough group cleanse or boonshare...
Yeah, so lets nerf it further, instead of addressing those issues.
Feedback for changes to ranger
I'm a really big fan of the high level changes you've made but I think you might have missed some really good ones and hit some that aren't relevant:
rejuvenating tides is seeing a very good nerf, one that was probably a little overdue.
solar beam nerf is ok but pretty pointless to nerf damage an a set that doesn't do damage.
celestial avatar recharge increase creates too much of a split between PvP and PvE, I don't think this is the right way to nerf druids sustain because it affects every druid build, there is a better way that is more in line with your goals.
Some things that I thought you missed:
empathic bond could very much use a buff, as it is it contributes less to dealing with conditions than with wilderness knowledge. Nerf Staff not CA
When you read complaints about druid on the forum you read "afk pressing 1" not "omg unkillable ca combo." People hate the passive game play of staff, less the active usage of CA. It's not because CA is weak, but rather because staff is too strong. Look at meta battle and it's very clear that the meta kit for druids is almost always staff.
solar beam, this is the problem skill in PvP and WvW, more than any CA ability, this skill contributes most heavily to the passive playstyle of druid. I would recommend decreasing the healing contribution by at least 50% if not more.
astral wisp, much like solar beam this skill is actually kind of unhealthy, its a set and forget skill that pumps out aoe healing and damage and will hit people who are still fleeing.
ancestral grace, this is actually an overall pretty well designed skill, because of the blast combo though I think that it is also a bit too good for what it does. Consider reducing its healing by around 20%.
@Threather.9354 said:
It wasnt viable before either. Ventari rev, melee tempest, melee rev, firebrand, boonshare chrono etc were all just outperforming it outright. No reliable CC, no unique support, not enough group cleanse or boonshare...
Yeah, so lets nerf it further, instead of addressing those issues.
~ Kovu
They would need to rework ranger weapons for it. Which is not obviously going to happen in this patch. Theres just no viable weapons for fights that deal enough damage or CC. Also some utility skills would need to give stab, aegis, superspeed, clenase, quickness, resistance etc for allies. Ranger is just too pet reliant for the weapons to be good.
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend ~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
Can you make a bigger Health Pool for all professions? Zerker Weaver 12k is ridiculous, same for Guardians, thieves, all.
25% - 40% more health (HP) could be a great change for more strategic and collectives battles, than HK ones.
@Gaile Gray.6029 said:
A message from the Competitive and Skills & Balance Teams:
LB and GS are a ranger or soulbeasts primary DPS weapons in WvW, optionally Sw/x in place of GS. These are the weapons that could use damage increases to make up for the loss of sustain.
The point was to create more options for build diversity. Almost every power SB I see uses LB and GS. Why the heck would they want to further make those weapons the go-to choice? That's the opposite of their end goal.
The simple answer is because those are our best power weapons and GS provides the best cleave we have. The axe is a wannabe hybrid weapon that completely under-performs so why buff it and not buff weapons like LB that when traited can give rangers some cleave or GS. Axe may get used by roamers but thats only one aspect of WvW play and the range is too short to survive the pirate ship.
@Threather.9354 said:
It wasnt viable before either. Ventari rev, melee tempest, melee rev, firebrand, boonshare chrono etc were all just outperforming it outright. No reliable CC, no unique support, not enough group cleanse or boonshare...
Yeah, so lets nerf it further, instead of addressing those issues.
~ Kovu
They would need to rework ranger weapons for it. Which is not obviously going to happen in this patch. Theres just no viable weapons for fights that deal enough damage or CC. Also some utility skills would need to give stab, aegis, superspeed, clenase, quickness, resistance etc for allies. Ranger is just too pet reliant for the weapons to be good.
I mean, you're right. As it is now I don't disagree.
But that said, change the support aspects to be more geared towards supporting your party more consistently instead of relying on supplementary damage. Gear the healing towards being more consistent instead of so bursty and make changes that'll help the Druid be more efficient in those large group situations without turning them into personal sustain gods in the small scale. 'Outgoing Healing' is a thing.
I made some suggestions on the previous page in regards to that, though there are any number of directions they could take it.
the mirage problem is not solved. still superior sustain and mobiliy mixed with insane dmg.
i think there shouldve been more nerfs on s/d thief tho and spellbreaker is going to be awful after the patch. so either core war is going to be the "viable warrior build" or u just made war completly unplayable again.
@Gaile Gray.6029 said:
A message from the Competitive and Skills & Balance Teams:
General
Rune of Surging has been removed from the PvP build panel
Magi Amulet has been removed from the PvP build panel
Guardian
Skills
Tome of Resolve – Epilogue: Eternal Oasis: Reduced the bonus heal effectiveness from 33% to 20% in PvP and WvW
Tome of Resolve – Chapter 2: Radiant Recovery: Reduced the healing power coefficient per condition cleansed from 0.77 to 0.5 (-35%) in PvP and WvW
Tome of Resolve – Chapter 1: Desert Bloom: Reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.96 to 0.8 (-17%) in PvP and WvW
Signet of Resolve: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW
Leap of Faith: Increased the power coefficient from 1.1 to 1.25 (+14%) in PvP and WvW
Signet of Mercy: Reduced the cooldown from 150 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP and WvW
Sword of Justice: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW
Bow of Truth: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW
Hammer of Wisdom: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW
Feel my Wrath: Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP and WvW
Traits
Virtuous Solace: Increased the cooldown from 75 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
Hunter's Determination: Increased the cooldown from 75 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
Zealous Blade: Increased the bonus damage from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW
I am all up for changes, but come on lol more nerfs to FB??! And more buffs to Spirit Weapons?! This cant be serious, Anet gotta be trolling at this point...what is the end goal here, turn FB support into Shout Warrior level or something? If you guys dont want Support/Bunker specs to be viable on the game its cool, but atleast give us something to play that can be competitive.
And now Magi will be removed too...FB trying to hold a point is bad, but a power Mesmer being able to erase you in a sec is okay? Next expasion better give guardians some kind of ninja elite spec that can evade, teleport, stealth and deal heavy damage, since in this game the only thing allowed is damage...that or undo the nerfs to DH.
Lot of this is great, Scourge nerfs in are 10000% deserved and i think will do better for the mode overall
But, please, PLEASE change resist ->immobilize corruption; this single interaction heavily discourages any melee builds. I get that this would probably have to be a game-wide change, however this funtionality is practically useless in basically all PvE content, and has next to no meaningful interactions in PvP
Some specific notes:
Battle Standard: Reduced the cooldown from 240 seconds to 180 seconds in PvP and WvW - This is 100% just worse than transfusion in almost every scenario, where transfuse can near instant revive while also moving allies out of WoD or cleave. I'd suggest to increase the banner impact heal by 100% to counteract poison, to make it unique and guarantee a rally so this skill has at least some viability. Basically everything warrior can do, scourge has in its toolbox and does it better.
Vengeful Hammers: Reduced the upkeep cost from 7 to 6 in PvP and WvW - using this skill more often than not just loses you health outright due to retaliation. It's just a complete waste of energy, either increase its healing to mitigate retal dps or make it destroy projectiles or something useful
Elusive Mind - decent idea to add Exhaustion, although bear in mind Mirage still only has 2 dodge bars therefore 4s of zero endurance regen could be too punishing. Will have to be monitored carefully.
Also bear in mind unique nature of Mirage dodge compared to Daredevil - Mirage can still dodge when stunned even without EM - this puts EM in the weird situation where it can be a detrimental trait.
Example - on Mirage without EM you will be able to dodge while stunned, not break the stun (but if it is short duration wait it out), and maintain endurance regen. With EM you will break the stun but lose endurance regen for 4s - but the question is is breaking the stun always necessary? I'd argue that it isn't always necessary, especially with short duration dazes and stuns (less than 1 second), such that EM becomes a negative effect trait. What if I want to evade but NOT break stun, and clear a condition?
Finally Exhaustion could be addressed at this point because I believe UC was excessively nerfed in the past. Exhaustion could provide only a 50% reduction in endurance regen (same as weakness) rather than 100% reduction.
Alternative solution I would prefer - a flat ICD of 10s on the stunbreak portion, with a clear visual tell - ie icon on status bar, aura arround player, UI effect on endurance meter, etc.
So let me get this straight. You heavily nerf every single meta build in PvP (balance OMEGALUL) but you leave mesmer more or less untouched...? Time and time again mesmer has been shown to be the blatant favourite getting away with murder and this time it's no different.
Resistance converting to immob is a huge problem in WvW. Resistance was the only real dependable counter to getting immobilized in AoE before, now it pretty much guarantees you'll get caught.
Kinda funny to see things like Soothing Bastion getting increased cd, but I get that it's for consistency ;D .
When it comes to amulets, I talked about this in the past. Additional profession-specific (or putting 2-3 similar professions into a group and assigning group-specific) amulets and runes would go a long way in bringing new builds to the table. More often than not, an amulet has to be removed because of just one profession abusing it and all builds on other classes which strive to do the same get punished. Removing Magi from Guardian, but leaving it for Necro is an example. You could even make it specialization-specific (so Guardian has access to X amulet on core, but for Y elite guardian specialization it's locked for being too synergistic).
Skimming through the changes, Warrior seems to be getting a noticeable nerf. Time will tell if it's needed, but just a quick note: Since the new Physical trait is cut in 1/3 for WvW and PvP, you could buff Rampage damage in these game modes to match the previous state. Losing 23% damage is a big deal and I think it was just overlooked.
As far as Scourge goes, could you just take out Sand Savant out of the game and nerf Scourge this way instead. Pretty please, it's one of the dumbest traits in history that essentialy, as a final trait, removes the decision-making of Scourge you've added in the first and subsequent minors.
I am not sure if I agree with reverting the resistance corrupting to immob for WvW like lot of people here suggest.
If there would just be enough players on commander with AoE clenase, there would be no conditions at all with the new specs like scourge, holo, firebrand.
Real guilds have no problem with it. Why do these people do?
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend ~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
@Gaile Gray.6029 said:
A message from the Competitive and Skills & Balance Teams:
General
Rune of Surging has been removed from the PvP build panel
Magi Amulet has been removed from the PvP build panel
Guardian
Skills
Tome of Resolve – Epilogue: Eternal Oasis: Reduced the bonus heal effectiveness from 33% to 20% in PvP and WvW
Tome of Resolve – Chapter 2: Radiant Recovery: Reduced the healing power coefficient per condition cleansed from 0.77 to 0.5 (-35%) in PvP and WvW
Tome of Resolve – Chapter 1: Desert Bloom: Reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.96 to 0.8 (-17%) in PvP and WvW
Signet of Resolve: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW
Leap of Faith: Increased the power coefficient from 1.1 to 1.25 (+14%) in PvP and WvW
Signet of Mercy: Reduced the cooldown from 150 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP and WvW
Sword of Justice: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW
Bow of Truth: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW
Hammer of Wisdom: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW
Feel my Wrath: Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP and WvW
Traits
Virtuous Solace: Increased the cooldown from 75 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
Hunter's Determination: Increased the cooldown from 75 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
Zealous Blade: Increased the bonus damage from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW
I am all up for changes, but come on lol more nerfs to FB??! And more buffs to Spirit Weapons?! This cant be serious, Anet gotta be trolling at this point...what is the end goal here, turn FB support into Shout Warrior level or something? If you guys dont want Support/Bunker specs to be viable on the game its cool, but atleast give us something to play that can be competitive.
And now Magi will be removed too...FB trying to hold a point is bad, but a power Mesmer being able to erase you in a sec is okay? Next expasion better give guardians some kind of ninja elite spec that can evade, teleport, stealth and deal heavy damage, since in this game the only thing allowed is damage...that or undo the nerfs to DH.
Notice how they barely touched mesmer, just giving it a couple of token nerfs and then compare the rest of the nerfs on every single class. Back to getting one shotted for 14k by disenchanter or having 8 berserkers delete you all day every day.
Yea at this point the favouritism is beyond a joke.
@Rym.1469 said:
As far as Scourge goes, could you just take out Sand Savant out of the game and nerf Scourge this way instead. Pretty please, it's one of the dumbest traits in history that essentialy, as a final trait, removes the decision-making of Scourge you've added in the first and subsequent minors.
This. The biggest reason Scourge is so strong in PvP is because Sand Savant lets it cover a point entirely. Rework this trait entirely if you have to, but this is one change that would actually bring Scourge into line without butchering the spec's ability to deal with people that can dodge the biggest tells in the game.
Plague Signet is the only skill in the game that is worse when traited.
I don't think the skill balance team spends any time in actual WvW against actually good opponents. They follow around pugmanders and fight trash-tier players during off hours. I don't think I've ever seen a single Anet tag during prime time NA WvW. If they did, and maybe played with a dedicated WvW fights guild, and not a braindead PPT one, they'd see how horrible it is to look at WvW the same as PvP. Coordinated fights between 20+ people on each side is as different from sPvP as playing a raid wing in PvE. It's like saying American football and MMA fighting are the same thing. The mechanics, movement, skill-ceiling, teamwork; everything is different. When you're using PvP as the baseline for these changes and expecting the same outcome for WvW it's asking for widespread imbalances and even rendering some classes either completely useless or pigeon-holed into one single build and playstyle. This method of thinking has made and continues to make this gamemode less and less fun to play.
Please for the love of everything holy, bring back 7s CD for reaper shroud, base degen rate, and perma 25% move speed in shroud. this is needed SOOO MUCH in WVW.
@ImperialWL.7138 said:
I wouldn't complain, I get you're mesmer main but for an idea of the favouritism just compare the length of nerfs mesmer got to the length of nerfs every other profession in the game received.
I don't disagree with you, but the physical length of a section of patch notes has no bearing on their severity. More text doesn't equal more change. I think that mesmer needs some additional changes, but let's at least try to discuss them in meaningful ways.
The prevalence of passives is a common competitive player complaint. (PvP only)
Why the passive trait nerfs only in PvP and not in WvW?
I'd argue that they have an even bigger impact in 'making the game less skillful' in WvW than they do in sPvP
@Curunen.8729 said:
Elusive Mind - decent idea to add Exhaustion, although bear in mind Mirage still only has 2 dodge bars therefore 4s of zero endurance regen could be too punishing. Will have to be monitored carefully.
Also bear in mind unique nature of Mirage dodge compared to Daredevil - Mirage can still dodge when stunned even without EM - this puts EM in the weird situation where it can be a detrimental trait.
Example - on Mirage without EM you will be able to dodge while stunned, not break the stun (but if it is short duration wait it out), and maintain endurance regen. With EM you will break the stun but lose endurance regen for 4s - but the question is is breaking the stun always necessary? I'd argue that it isn't always necessary, especially with short duration dazes and stuns (less than 1 second), such that EM becomes a negative effect trait. What if I want to evade but NOT break stun, and clear a condition?
Finally Exhaustion could be addressed at this point because I believe UC was excessively nerfed in the past. Exhaustion could provide only a 50% reduction in endurance regen (same as weakness) rather than 100% reduction.
Alternative solution I would prefer - a flat ICD of 10s on the stunbreak portion, with a clear visual tell - ie icon on status bar, aura arround player, UI effect on endurance meter, etc.
I wouldn't complain, I get you're mesmer main but for an idea of the favouritism just compare the length of nerfs mesmer got to the length of nerfs every other profession in the game received.
Oh I'm not that bothered - but I am noting the delicate situation of this trait where it can go from overpowered to becoming something bad for your build, due to the unique nature of Mirage dodge allowing evasion while stunned anyway.
Since there will be an increased CD on scourge skills,please,consider an equal adjustment on Life Force consumption.....and please,pvp and wvw those warning are making me bleed my eyes.
25% CD increase to Garish Pillar
33% CD increase to Desert Shroud
21% CD increase to Ghastly Breach
40% CD increase to Plague Signet
And this is going to Reduce influence of passive traits, Increase build diversity, Reduce effectiveness of offensive instant cast skills/traits.???? CDs are NOT cast times and they are not passives either. These changes do nothing for build diversity unless you count killing off a build as diversity. These are just blanket nerfs to some of the most used Scourge abilities. Please try again.
Let's nerf everything, so that we don't need any skill to play.
The Truth sometimes hurts but it is good for you.
Comments
Absolutely LOVE the direction of this patch! I'd wager that with your handful of exception meta builds that will emerge after this patch, you can breath a small sigh of relief when it comes to balancing over or undertuned skills and traits for a while.
Two requests:
Passive trait nerfs be applied in WvW also, not only applied in pvp. I know you like to balance mainly around zerg v. zerg but in a small scale fight (such as between two groups of roamers) those passives make a huge difference.
Maybe it's beyond the scope of this patch, but consider a pass on the underperforming weapons/traits for each class. There seems to be some attempt at that here with a utility skill here and there which is great.
Good changes overall.
That said, you guys need to look at mesmer, specifically the self sustain it has access to in addition to the damage it does. Currently it is disproportionate with classes as is, and this will be particularly the case after these changes go live. Places to look at would be the rate at which stab can be applied through shatters when using the Chaos traitline (2-3s icd perhaps) as well as the mesmer's access to clone generation.
Angeels - twitch.tv/angeels
https://godsofpvp.net
I think that this list looks pretty good, addresses a lot of the pain points that I think have developed since HoT.
That said, some of these passives keep getting nerfed, over and over, to the point of being pretty useless for the CD they have. Don't get me wrong, I actually love that, I hate seeing people get carried by passives, I hate being carried by passives. But when will the skills team just admit that such passives are not healthy for the game period? I really want to see most, if not all, of the passive traits that are in this list be eventually removed from the game entirely
Eyyyy I unlocked signatures
A step in the right direction. Good job ANET
Sure it also nerfs condi but it nerfs other builds harder.
(POWER SCOURGE 1 Minute fight) If you do 500k damage about 200k of that damage is from desert shroud alone. I find anet should address scourge in another way instead of nerfing the diversity of scourge.
It's good that instant combo attacks are finally being acknowledged as a problem, but which changes are actually addressing them?
Yeah Mes is insane. I'm already at the point where I just ignore them because they are un-hittable.
This is just plain wrong. I almost exclusively play Thief and even I can admit that Sword/Dagger Thief, while not being super easy to play, is absolutely not even in the top 10 of specs requiring high of skill to be effective with.
Fort Aspenwood
[ShW] Jekkies
Nothing but nerf after nerf to WvW necro. But that's not even the worst as I suppose necro can use some nerfs, the problem is what these nerfs are: longer cooldowns everywhere.
That's just lazy balancing. It's all about making necro as slow as possible by adding insane cooldowns to everything so not only it becomes weaker, but the gameplay also goes to kitten.
I don't mind nerfing necro if everyone agrees they're too poweful, but just adding more and more cooldowns instead of fixing damage numbers and modifiers is lazy and completely ruins the gameplay.
After this goes live Scourge will be nothing but a braindead class where you autoattack for the majority of the time while your skills are on ridiculously long cooldowns.
At least try to work on improving other weaker specs and builds instead of simply nerfing everything that works, because I guarantee that after this goes live, Reaper will still be 100% kitten tier in WvW.
ok im not sure if youve played guild wars 2 but power is most a problem but its not power its CONDITION power that is the problem. why dear god WHY am i punished for using something that is in place to help me... why is boon conversion in place? why would you have EVERY thought that was a good idea? yes power used to be meta power is not meta anymore condi is there are no two ways about it. it is meta. now then increasing power to diversify build is a very good idea. but you have not addressed the meta if you want diversify CONDI MUST BE ADDRESSED. i can see what your goal is why your attempting this but fix problems where there are problems but if you "fix" to much things that are not broken you break them.
is warrior buffs aimed for shout warriors return to the scene? Any intention to move "Powerful Synergy" to Discipline so shout warriors can take both "Powerful Synergy" and "Vigorous Shouts"?
Edit: Any intention to increase treshold and amount of condition removed of "Shrug it off" in wvw?
I like this patch. I am a WvW player that mostly goes around in large zergs.
Engi: I am sad to see you nerfed the 2 of the more powerful traits in WvW and the holoform. it kinda makes my new cleanse-superspeed-dps blobsmith worse but it will still be in meta because it has some unique strengths that people have been overlooking. Eclipse got pretty much gutted but i was using zephyr anyways that is pretty good for roaming too so I dont mind. Buffing the mortar kit makes clearing acs faster which is good in this bunker siege meta.
Mesmer and ele: Not much changes, its ok, its cool, they will still be strong part of WvW. Not sure why you made Gale Song unusable in PvP, 90 second autostunbreak??? Buffing illusion of life which is one of the best group skills for WvW is pretty interesting. Mesmer will be awesome.
Druid and thief: Seems like druid CA got the treatment it deserved, it was uninteractive. I like to fight dagger thief when roaming so i welcome the changes. Neither will be viable in large scale fights which is ok.
Warrior: So dagger got nerfed and sword buffed... Its good, I was already wondering if sword was better than dagger due to burst on 3 skill and better leap but it will be pretty clear now. I doubt shouts will be viable spellbreaker.
Rev: this is good. Lot of revenants were abusing hammer damage to be useful in blob fights and now that hammer rev overall damage got nerfed like 10%, now they actually have to go ahead and use their dwarf and mallyx skills. Buffing dwarf and mallyx seems reasonable, Dwarf was already the best one to have, mallyx definitely needed some buffs.
Guardian: Yea, healing ratio nerfs, thats ok, little worried about the resolve autoattack nerf but guess we might go back to cele builds soon since lot of other supports are coming back to meta with scourge getting gutted.
Necromancer: Hmm, yes I can understand why you nerfed the desert shroud because you didnt want to nerf the scourges cleanse potential for allies. This will push power necros into playing reaper which I dont mind. Dagger buffs were necessary. Signet of locust will be pretty good now, instant full health, definitely viable option.
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend
~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
Yeah this is weird, I also play WvW and I really think that these sPvP nerfs should also be applied in WvW. Unless you don't want for WvW to be taken competitively? That would be terrible to think to be honest.
So...why mesmer wasn't touched with this?
1) With out seeing the big picture for rev and these are the only changes. No one will want them any more. CoR is all we got left.
2) Necro dagger needs help
3) revert or change the Resistance -> Immob
Nice to see dagger Weaver getting some help, but we'll see if it's enough.
Shameless plug for F5 Unravel and condition removal stance to replace it!!
I really like that you try to remove unfun elements of the game (passive gameplay, passive effects having a too great impact) but I really want you to rebalance and adjust heavy burst builds (fresh air scepter weaver, power shatter mesmer, d/p or p/p thief, etc.)- These builds are so unfun to fight against because you barely have any time to react and those builds instantly kill you in pvp without having a real fight.
REVENANT
Renegade and Kalla could use way more buffs than what is already proposed. Shortbow damage is still way too low, extremely. Renegade still also completely lacks sustain. So this spec needs to honestly have more damage than other specs by a fair margin rather than the lowest or the sustain needs to be increased tremendously and the damage still needs to be increased on shortbow.
Hammer is not a lethal weapon. Outside of zerging it really has no use amongst anyone that is good at your game so you are kind of pandering to the lower skill crowd with this change. I rarely even use hammer in zergs as it is already.
Condi rev is also extremely underperforming in pvp right now. It can't even compete with power rev. Mace #2 field is too small and damage ramp up too low compared to other condi specs. Mallyx is also ironically extremely weak to condis coming from the more potent condi specs (condi thief, scourge). Condi rev is also extremely weak to power damage due to having 0 tools to deal with it that are beneficial to a condi spec.
How is that remotely okay? Group support is entirely why Druid exists.
~ Kovu
Ranger, Necromancer, Fort Aspenwood.
I want to re-emphasize the importance of reducing the amount of unnecessary skill splits. I feel that all of the proposed buffs affect skills and traits that are underperforming in PvE, and they would not come to change the PvE meta with these buffs. Therefore they should not be split between gamemodes. This reduces the amount of potential player confusion and build differences from one gamemode to the next, while still accomplishing the same goals in PvP and WvW.
Heyo,
I'm going to give my initial impression on this patch for how I see it effecting the current Metagame. For context, everything I'm about to write is purely for a Zerg versus Zerg perspective in WvW. I'll break down in to class by class with some suggestions on what could be toned back and taken further in regards to these changes specifically as well as some additions I believe could be a strong choice for diversifying gameplay.
Changes I think are fantastic I won't touch, and I think overall this is actually a great step in the right direction.
Warrior
Good change in general imo, great direction to move in for diversity.
Revenant
Another solid change, if anything could be taken even further. Not a lot to say here.
Guardian
Good changes to some outlying powerful skills. Guardian nerfs should always bear in mind that people do still NEED AoE stability, so taking it too far can really hurt the game mode's health without buffing stability from other sources.
Thief
Generally not a lot changed to effect their position in the metagame- or lack thereof.
Ranger
Druid was gutted, without a lot of reason in the WvW meta. Already falling behind as a healer thanks to low AoE cleanse, it will now sit in a state where any other heal role will be better than the one specialization DESIGNED as a healer. Damage buffs are great for Soulbeast builds however.
Engineer
Holosmith took huge hits despite vastly under-performing in zerg scenarios. In order to do decent damage, Holosmith had to fully invest traits and utilities, with extremely minimal defensive options, and this split hits both.
Elementalist
Not quite enough to push them into the metagame outside of staff weaver, but definitely a great step in the right direction.
Necromancer
The Scourge elite spec needs to be hit, but I strongly disagree with the cooldown hits. Its the Staff Elementalist problem all over again, taking away from the fun of the class when a numbers game would be better suited.
Thats all from me for now, thanks for your time reading my novella
P.S. Resistance to immob is extremely obnoxious- stab to fear is punishing enough, please and ty.
I would agree warrior is pretty strong, but it seems like a lot of abilities are getting hit pretty hard. Probably a bit more than needed. I was actually expecting a few more holo skills to see damage reductions, but it is a good start. I am hoping someone forgot to copy+paste the rest of the mesmer notes as I was expecting a number of.... adjustments?
It wasnt viable before either. Ventari rev, melee tempest, melee rev, firebrand, boonshare chrono etc were all just outperforming it outright. No reliable CC, no unique support, not enough group cleanse or boonshare...
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend
~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
I fully agree with what you said in the first paragraph, additionally I think the summons need to work like wells in wvw already (now they jsut get destroyed instantly), but CoR nerf was long overdue and youll still easily get top dps alongside some weavers in open fights, and honestly the nerf isnt even that crazy
And I fully agree with the entire third paragraph again
EDIT: also shortbow is still clunky af
Instead of brutally murdering any chance Scourge has at all in higher level PvP (and not doing other Necro variants much of a favor with other nerfs), why not just rework Sand Savant?
Without the ability to cover an entire point with a single shade in PvP, Scourge loses its oppressive nature while retaining its threat. Remove the radius increase on Shade abilities from Sand Savant, rework the trait as a whole (no more single shade, though target increase and reduced recharge should be fine to keep) and Scourge will actually have to place multiple shades out to cover a capture point, meaning they can't do so indefinitely.
Plague Signet is the only skill in the game that is worse when traited.
Yeah, so lets nerf it further, instead of addressing those issues.
~ Kovu
Ranger, Necromancer, Fort Aspenwood.
Feedback for changes to ranger
I'm a really big fan of the high level changes you've made but I think you might have missed some really good ones and hit some that aren't relevant:
Some things that I thought you missed:
empathic bond could very much use a buff, as it is it contributes less to dealing with conditions than with wilderness knowledge.
Nerf Staff not CA
When you read complaints about druid on the forum you read "afk pressing 1" not "omg unkillable ca combo." People hate the passive game play of staff, less the active usage of CA. It's not because CA is weak, but rather because staff is too strong. Look at meta battle and it's very clear that the meta kit for druids is almost always staff.
solar beam, this is the problem skill in PvP and WvW, more than any CA ability, this skill contributes most heavily to the passive playstyle of druid. I would recommend decreasing the healing contribution by at least 50% if not more.
Shadow Consort | Formal Elite Specialisation Recommendation
They would need to rework ranger weapons for it. Which is not obviously going to happen in this patch. Theres just no viable weapons for fights that deal enough damage or CC. Also some utility skills would need to give stab, aegis, superspeed, clenase, quickness, resistance etc for allies. Ranger is just too pet reliant for the weapons to be good.
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend
~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
Can you make a bigger Health Pool for all professions? Zerker Weaver 12k is ridiculous, same for Guardians, thieves, all.
25% - 40% more health (HP) could be a great change for more strategic and collectives battles, than HK ones.
The simple answer is because those are our best power weapons and GS provides the best cleave we have. The axe is a wannabe hybrid weapon that completely under-performs so why buff it and not buff weapons like LB that when traited can give rangers some cleave or GS. Axe may get used by roamers but thats only one aspect of WvW play and the range is too short to survive the pirate ship.
I mean, you're right. As it is now I don't disagree.
But that said, change the support aspects to be more geared towards supporting your party more consistently instead of relying on supplementary damage. Gear the healing towards being more consistent instead of so bursty and make changes that'll help the Druid be more efficient in those large group situations without turning them into personal sustain gods in the small scale. 'Outgoing Healing' is a thing.
I made some suggestions on the previous page in regards to that, though there are any number of directions they could take it.
~ Kovu
Ranger, Necromancer, Fort Aspenwood.
The changes are not bad but....
the mirage problem is not solved. still superior sustain and mobiliy mixed with insane dmg.
i think there shouldve been more nerfs on s/d thief tho and spellbreaker is going to be awful after the patch. so either core war is going to be the "viable warrior build" or u just made war completly unplayable again.
I am all up for changes, but come on lol more nerfs to FB??! And more buffs to Spirit Weapons?! This cant be serious, Anet gotta be trolling at this point...what is the end goal here, turn FB support into Shout Warrior level or something? If you guys dont want Support/Bunker specs to be viable on the game its cool, but atleast give us something to play that can be competitive.
And now Magi will be removed too...FB trying to hold a point is bad, but a power Mesmer being able to erase you in a sec is okay? Next expasion better give guardians some kind of ninja elite spec that can evade, teleport, stealth and deal heavy damage, since in this game the only thing allowed is damage...that or undo the nerfs to DH.
WvW perspective on most of this
Lot of this is great, Scourge nerfs in are 10000% deserved and i think will do better for the mode overall
But, please, PLEASE change resist ->immobilize corruption; this single interaction heavily discourages any melee builds. I get that this would probably have to be a game-wide change, however this funtionality is practically useless in basically all PvE content, and has next to no meaningful interactions in PvP
Some specific notes:
Battle Standard: Reduced the cooldown from 240 seconds to 180 seconds in PvP and WvW - This is 100% just worse than transfusion in almost every scenario, where transfuse can near instant revive while also moving allies out of WoD or cleave. I'd suggest to increase the banner impact heal by 100% to counteract poison, to make it unique and guarantee a rally so this skill has at least some viability. Basically everything warrior can do, scourge has in its toolbox and does it better.
Vengeful Hammers: Reduced the upkeep cost from 7 to 6 in PvP and WvW - using this skill more often than not just loses you health outright due to retaliation. It's just a complete waste of energy, either increase its healing to mitigate retal dps or make it destroy projectiles or something useful
Elusive Mind - decent idea to add Exhaustion, although bear in mind Mirage still only has 2 dodge bars therefore 4s of zero endurance regen could be too punishing. Will have to be monitored carefully.
Also bear in mind unique nature of Mirage dodge compared to Daredevil - Mirage can still dodge when stunned even without EM - this puts EM in the weird situation where it can be a detrimental trait.
Example - on Mirage without EM you will be able to dodge while stunned, not break the stun (but if it is short duration wait it out), and maintain endurance regen. With EM you will break the stun but lose endurance regen for 4s - but the question is is breaking the stun always necessary? I'd argue that it isn't always necessary, especially with short duration dazes and stuns (less than 1 second), such that EM becomes a negative effect trait. What if I want to evade but NOT break stun, and clear a condition?
Finally Exhaustion could be addressed at this point because I believe UC was excessively nerfed in the past. Exhaustion could provide only a 50% reduction in endurance regen (same as weakness) rather than 100% reduction.
Alternative solution I would prefer - a flat ICD of 10s on the stunbreak portion, with a clear visual tell - ie icon on status bar, aura arround player, UI effect on endurance meter, etc.
My ears, how are you! | Hammer Mesmer - elite spec concept.
So let me get this straight. You heavily nerf every single meta build in PvP (balance OMEGALUL) but you leave mesmer more or less untouched...? Time and time again mesmer has been shown to be the blatant favourite getting away with murder and this time it's no different.
Resistance converting to immob is a huge problem in WvW. Resistance was the only real dependable counter to getting immobilized in AoE before, now it pretty much guarantees you'll get caught.
I'm loving you.
when does it go live?
Kinda funny to see things like Soothing Bastion getting increased cd, but I get that it's for consistency ;D .
When it comes to amulets, I talked about this in the past. Additional profession-specific (or putting 2-3 similar professions into a group and assigning group-specific) amulets and runes would go a long way in bringing new builds to the table. More often than not, an amulet has to be removed because of just one profession abusing it and all builds on other classes which strive to do the same get punished. Removing Magi from Guardian, but leaving it for Necro is an example. You could even make it specialization-specific (so Guardian has access to X amulet on core, but for Y elite guardian specialization it's locked for being too synergistic).
Skimming through the changes, Warrior seems to be getting a noticeable nerf. Time will tell if it's needed, but just a quick note: Since the new Physical trait is cut in 1/3 for WvW and PvP, you could buff Rampage damage in these game modes to match the previous state. Losing 23% damage is a big deal and I think it was just overlooked.
As far as Scourge goes, could you just take out Sand Savant out of the game and nerf Scourge this way instead. Pretty please, it's one of the dumbest traits in history that essentialy, as a final trait, removes the decision-making of Scourge you've added in the first and subsequent minors.
Yeah, I stream once in a blue moon.
I am not sure if I agree with reverting the resistance corrupting to immob for WvW like lot of people here suggest.
If there would just be enough players on commander with AoE clenase, there would be no conditions at all with the new specs like scourge, holo, firebrand.
Real guilds have no problem with it. Why do these people do?
Riformed - On break from commanding
Diamond Legend
~Waiting for them to fix WvW~
Can the Well of Suffering buff be universal please or at least wvw as well? - this kindly power necro
"Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death."
Notice how they barely touched mesmer, just giving it a couple of token nerfs and then compare the rest of the nerfs on every single class. Back to getting one shotted for 14k by disenchanter or having 8 berserkers delete you all day every day.
Yea at this point the favouritism is beyond a joke.
This. The biggest reason Scourge is so strong in PvP is because Sand Savant lets it cover a point entirely. Rework this trait entirely if you have to, but this is one change that would actually bring Scourge into line without butchering the spec's ability to deal with people that can dodge the biggest tells in the game.
Plague Signet is the only skill in the game that is worse when traited.
I don't think the skill balance team spends any time in actual WvW against actually good opponents. They follow around pugmanders and fight trash-tier players during off hours. I don't think I've ever seen a single Anet tag during prime time NA WvW. If they did, and maybe played with a dedicated WvW fights guild, and not a braindead PPT one, they'd see how horrible it is to look at WvW the same as PvP. Coordinated fights between 20+ people on each side is as different from sPvP as playing a raid wing in PvE. It's like saying American football and MMA fighting are the same thing. The mechanics, movement, skill-ceiling, teamwork; everything is different. When you're using PvP as the baseline for these changes and expecting the same outcome for WvW it's asking for widespread imbalances and even rendering some classes either completely useless or pigeon-holed into one single build and playstyle. This method of thinking has made and continues to make this gamemode less and less fun to play.
Please for the love of everything holy, bring back 7s CD for reaper shroud, base degen rate, and perma 25% move speed in shroud. this is needed SOOO MUCH in WVW.
CD-FA-TC-HoD-SoS-TC-FA-SBI-SoS-JQ-ET-SFR-FA-DR-SF- Mag
Darth
I don't disagree with you, but the physical length of a section of patch notes has no bearing on their severity. More text doesn't equal more change. I think that mesmer needs some additional changes, but let's at least try to discuss them in meaningful ways.
Why the passive trait nerfs only in PvP and not in WvW?
I'd argue that they have an even bigger impact in 'making the game less skillful' in WvW than they do in sPvP
Oh I'm not that bothered - but I am noting the delicate situation of this trait where it can go from overpowered to becoming something bad for your build, due to the unique nature of Mirage dodge allowing evasion while stunned anyway.
My ears, how are you! | Hammer Mesmer - elite spec concept.
Since there will be an increased CD on scourge skills,please,consider an equal adjustment on Life Force consumption.....and please,pvp and wvw those warning are making me bleed my eyes.
25% CD increase to Garish Pillar
33% CD increase to Desert Shroud
21% CD increase to Ghastly Breach
40% CD increase to Plague Signet
And this is going to Reduce influence of passive traits, Increase build diversity, Reduce effectiveness of offensive instant cast skills/traits.???? CDs are NOT cast times and they are not passives either. These changes do nothing for build diversity unless you count killing off a build as diversity. These are just blanket nerfs to some of the most used Scourge abilities. Please try again.
Let's nerf everything, so that we don't need any skill to play.
The Truth sometimes hurts but it is good for you.