Newholiday.8103

Insane. People actually think tempest is overtuned? The only significant things that have changed on tempest as far as I can remember have been dagger buffs some time back, and the alacrity buff in the recent patch (which also nerfed earth shield). And the alacrity buff requires the tempest to not take elemental bastion (i.e. heal on auras trait). I have no idea how people suddenly started 'struggling' against tempests.

With mesmer and warrior finally getting the buffs they needed, I feel like ele will become the new warrior. Herald getting quickness, harb/wb/vind/spec getting basically 0 nerfs (and some buffs), and new engi buffs, ele is gonna struggle to survive. kitten, they even nerfed eles survivability with the earth shield nerfs. Really wish we had an actual balance team.

Lol...they will not

Dude, I haven't logged in since the start of the 2v2 season, so I don't know how the recent updates changed things. But herald was literally 1 step below vind/spec/harb/wb during last season. It was in a significantly better spot compared to numerous specs. And from what I understand, it apparently got a quickness buff in the recent updates? This sounds like a LTP issue or a complaint that herald is no longer part of the top tier meta. In which case, as a staff ele main, cry me a river.

Fine, don't balance something just because it's harder to play. But kitten, don't make it substantially worse than the easier options.

It's not going to get corrected, within 2 weeks or 2 months, or even 2 years. Anet has made these types of promises numerous times in the past. They have never, in my memory, actually followed up with any fixes. Biggest example that comes to mind is the Feb 2020 patch, where it was promised that numerous corrections would follow after they gave 300 icds to various traits, removed damage on cc, stated various underperforming specs would get fixed. Nothing ever came of their promises.

I have no idea how it's possible to kitten off literally every class at once with patch notes. But Anet found a way. Bravo. Seems like the 'balance team' is more focused on pissing off players than actual balancing if the recent leaks are anything to go by.

No. There are no 'big buffs' to staff. Staff is currently garbage tier, and this does absolutely nothing to change that. They buffed the dps on 2 utterly irrelevant skills. Ice spike, which is currently only used for water/ice field blast finisher, not dps, got a pointless dps buff. Lighting surge barely did any more dps than the lightning auto attack. It was already ridiculously low damage, the damage buff barely changes things. Geyser is a ridiculously small 240 radius heal field that only (base) heals for 1380 hp over 4 seconds. Which means that in order to get that ridiculously low value heal, your ally would need to stand still in a tiny water field for 4 seconds. No one in competitive pvp is standing still for 4 seconds to get such a low value heal. Compare that to Guardian empower which (base) heals for 3k over 2.5 seconds to all allies with a 600 radius centered on the guardian. Oh, and the guardian skill also grants might to allies. Both the guardian and ele skill are on 20 second cooldowns. The 'buff' to geyser takes it from a kitten tier skill to a kitten tier skill. Frozen ground CD reduction is pathetic. I don't even know what the point of it was. The healing rain buff is literally the only meaningful buff to staff. And it is nowhere near enough to make staff anywhere near 'viable'. The only things these 'buffs' accomplish is to highlight how utterly clueless the balance devs are.

Please, Anet, just start using a dart board for balance updates. It'll have better results than the clowns currently in charge.

Great! You'll be happy to know that this patch has moved staff from garbage tier all the way up to garbage tier!

What an utterly garbage patch. Ele got kittenin nerfs? Are you kidding me? Guardian, the current meta-pick in every game-mode, got kittenin buffs? For the love of god, someone get rid of CmC. He's garbage.

I still use rune of speed.

For GoLE, prior to EOD, minion tempest was a pretty good duelist spec. While it couldn't kill anything very quickly, you'd win 1v1 vs. pretty much anything. Only thing it struggled with was specs with decent aoe that could kill multiple elementals quickly. Overall though, GoLE adds a lot of dps to support spec with no investment in any other stats or skills. Being able to instantly summon all 3 lesser elementals at once would add a substantial amount of dps. For the elite elemental, I currently use the ice elemental in pvp. I almost always get several heals from it, and even if I only get 1, it's a pretty substantial 7k aoe heal. Being able to summon another ice elemental right after the 1st one dies would be a pretty huge buff. I also tested the glyph of storms. You're right, it's pretty weak in pvp, so I suppose another charge could be added to it. Probably better just to give it a straight damage buff though.

Glyph of Storms - Effectively, you would get 18 seconds of area denial (9 seconds per glyph). It's basically a free point capture, unless your opponent(s) can tank all that damage. Glyph of Elemental Harmony - As you said yourself, it would be very strong even without cleanses. Glyph of Lesser Elementals - Having 3 ammunition would make this a must-have for support builds. If harbinger and willbender are ever nerfed, it would effectively make support builds into very strong duelists. As of now, harbinger and willbender are the only things that would keep this from being OP Glyph of Elementals - You underestimate how effective the ice elemental can be. It's a lot harder to kill than you think when a support build uses it, since I can make the ice pet heal itself when I use the heal skill. If any team is going around specifically focusing my ice elemental, then that's great, since it means that none of my teammates are taking damage. And as soon as it dies, I'd just resummon another one.

I also don't understand the arguments that warrior is low skill ceiling while apparently harbinger is high skill ceiling. It manages nearly the same number of skills as harbinger, and it needs to manage them at melee range rather than 900-1200 range. As others have said, just because all of warrior's skills are currently kitten, doesn't mean warrior is low skill ceiling. It just means warrior is kitten.

Jesus, I hate when willbenders on my team do this. And it happens way too often. Pretty much guarantees I have to waste my rez signet at the start of the fight.

Sahne's link is the most common build for reaper. That said, harbinger absolutely deletes it, so play with care. It's actually kinda funny. Harbinger is so overtuned, it's gatekeeping literally every other necro build atm.

This would make ele extremely OP. That said, I suppose it wouldn't make us any more OP than harbinger or willbender.

I still don't think virtuoso is overtuned. Personally, I feel it's on the level of holo/reaper/herald, and only if it's played well. It's also the only non-terrible mesmer build, so probably best to leave it alone.

This would be an enormous nerf to the ice elemental. It's currently the only worthwhile elite elemental in pvp.

ANET wants answers.

Huh, wasn't aware they said that. Pace was biweekly before that. Sucks then, I guess. Hopefully, they'll address willbender and harbinger in the June patch.

Fair point. That said, if willbender and harbinger ever get nerfed, it would make a strong sidenoder.

Latest changes were >2 months ago. Willbender and harbinger have been absolutely dominating for that entire time period. At bare minimum, I would expect numbers changes at a tempo faster than 2-3 months.

Right now, they're not even bothering with numbers changes. That's the current state we're in.