Irenio CalmonHuang.2048

Hey all, These changes are not live yet, but coming Very Soon.

Feedback on this bit: a good change that toughness is coming off, but vitality feels like a bit of a shaky choice here. Is it possible to change the toughness component to armor instead? That would make it functionally identical but solve the raid boss aggro problem. We can't roll it into armor directly, unfortunately.

Or it's neither, and they may have forgotten to include that trait, or simply didn't think of that trait. But the fact they state "merging/unmerging will now count as a pet swap" should tell the whole tale in itself. Spirited Arrival is included and will work with merge/unmerge, but it won't have text on the trait itself listing this until a bit later.

Regarding FMW changes - we're going to see how things land after this set of changes and adjust further, if needed. We're not trying to take FMW out entirely - it should still be a decent source of group quickness, but it shouldn't be leading to stuff as dominant as it currently is. With some of the other changes coming in this patch, including a bugfix to Zealous Blades still granting 10% damage when it wasn't supposed to, there are enough moving pieces that we don't want to do so large a takedown that something becomes unused entirely. @Kamui.3150Thanks for askin' about those bits. There are a couple reasons why DR doesn't work well as a substitution for Toughness on those Polyphany and Imbued Haste. A bigger reason: DR works differently from toughness - it doesn't scale back like toughness does. It is generally additive and this can be very dangerous when stacking multiple forms of DR. There are a few cases where we've been able to make it multiplicative, but those are, frankly, really not pretty on the backend.A smaller reason: It reads really poorly on traits where multiple attributes are being granted. It goes from being +flat +flat +flat, to +flat +flat +percent. This is something we avoid whenever possible.On +Vitality instead of +Toughness, the way that it works: Your percentage of health, at the time your vitality changes, scales to your new maximum. ex. If you're at 100% health and gain 100 Vitality, you'll gain 1000 health to fill the new max +1000 health you've got. If you're at 80% health, you'll get 800 health. If you lose some health and are at 20% health when the vitality goes away, you'll only lose 200 health (keeping you at the same overall 20% health). To be clear, if anyone is concerned about dying due to a vitality loss - don't be. If someone is at 1 health and 250 vitality goes away, that's not going to ever round up to 1 health for them to lose; they'll remain at 1 health. Regarding Obsidian Flesh - This is something on our list to look at to address in a different way in the not-distant future and we've got a few ideas, but there isn't time to prototype and get these tested and QA'd. We're going to be looking at this to give you more potential control and address some of the concerns you've raised in this (and other) threads. I want to quickly expand on this, because this comes up a fair amount regularly:We aren't going to split core functionality between game modes. In general, core functionality includes: Cast TimesMissile VelocityRangeRadiusPulse Intervals ...and other stuff too, but basically the stuff that changes the way the skill plays.

Firstly:Thanks for the feedback from the balance preview posts (original global preview).Sweet feedback, salty feedback, spicy feedback it's all deeply appreciated as long as it is kept civil. We got these additional changes for upcoming update that'll likely be in the late notes, so if you don't see them in the immediate release notes, these changes'll still be there. New Changes:Feel My Wrath (FMW) was near the top of our list for adjustments for PvE and your feedback pushed it to be unsplit from PvP & WvW now rather than later. With the balance update, across all modes, Feel My Wrath will be:Cooldown 35 secondsQuickness - 5 secondsFury - 10 seconds As per the preview with Stone Flesh, we don't like that a minor trait gives you toughness and can make your elementalist a target in some of our content when that's not the goal of your build. We'll keep finding more places to adjust this, and the solution won't be the same in all places. We didn't have the opportunity this time to hit all of these cases so if you see something missing it is because we couldn't get to it this time. It's still on the list to adjust Soon. Weaver's Elemental Polyphany will grant vitality instead of toughness while attuned to earth.Firebrand's Imbued Haste will grant vitality instead of toughness while you have quickness.As a sidenote to this specific type of change: This is NOT something that we're changing if it is a major trait choice for this reason alone. If there are other reasons for changing traits, we'll look at this independently. Other traits with this behavior that we'll be looking at along these lines are: Spiked ArmorThick SkinPack Alpha (with SB)Armored ShroudWhile we won't be able to get in more changes after this week for this release, we'll be taking notes for the future. Please keep posting your civil, sweet, salty and spicy feedback.-The Systems Team

General:Auras: Aura effects have been updated to be larger and more noticeable. The previous aura effects are now used for auras on allies and for all characters viewed by PvP spectators when the "Effect LoD" option is checked in the graphics settings. Buff icons used for auras have been updated for consistency.Unblockable (Tooltip): The unblockable description has a new icon.Unblockable (Effect): Skills and traits which grant the unblockable status now use a unified buff. This buff is intensity stacking and stacks are lost whenever attacks hit or miss. Single strikes which hit multiple foes only consume 1 stack. Skills which grant the unblockable status for a duration have been updated to use number of hits instead.Downed allied players and defeated allied players icons on the minimap have been updated and are also displayed above the characters in-world.Elementalist:Summoned elementals offer a unique gameplay option for Elementalists that want to fight alongside an ally, but their short duration means that they can die frequently during fights. We have increased their summon duration, but we don't want to make them last indefinitely like necromancer minions as we feel part of the identity of glyphs is being able to switch attunements to have different options available. Additionally we felt that the lesser elemental summoning glyph didn't feel distinct enough from the elite glyph since the elite elementals had the same skills as the lesser elementals. To better distinguish the two glyphs, the command skill for lesser elementals is no longer present, which allows for multiple lesser elementals to be summoned at once. Overload Fire: Increased the might granted per pulse from 1 stack to 2 stacks in PvE. Clarified the description of this skill.Feel the Burn: Increased the burn inflicted by this skill from 1 stack of burning for 4 seconds to 2 stacks of burning for 4 seconds. Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from granting its full might effects to nearby allies.Obsidian Flesh: This skill now locks the player's skill bar while invulnerable.Stone Resonance: This skill now grants stability on initial use for 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.Lava Skin: This skill now grants stability on initial use for 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.Lahar: This skill now grants stability for 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.Grinding Stones: This skill now grants stability for 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.Glacial Drift: This skill now grants stability for 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.Molten Burst: This skill now grants stability for 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.Summoned Elementals: Increased elemental summon time from 60 seconds to 120 seconds. Added indicator buffs to show the remaining time for your elemental.Lesser Glyph of Elementals: These elementals can no longer be commanded. However you can now summon more than one at the same time. All lesser elementals die if this glyph is unequipped.Glyph of Elementals: Reduced recharge from 90 seconds to 40 seconds in PvE only. Command skills for Elementals are now considered elite skills for the purposes of runes and traits. Elementals will now play an effect when commanded to indicate that they are using a special skill. Additionally the command skill is no longer restricted to being in-combat and behaves similarly to necromancer command skills.Flame Burst (Fire Elemental/Lesser Fire Elemental): Now inflicts 1 stack of burning for 3 seconds instead of cripple.Flame Barrage (Fire Elemental): Increased projectile range from 300 to 360 so that the projectiles line up with the AoE attack. Increased damage by 150%. Increased recharge from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. Fixed issues with the description and skill facts to clarify how the damage from this skill is dealt.Windborne Speed (Air Elemental/Lesser Air Elemental): Increased radius from 240 to 360.Shocking Bolt (Air Elemental): Increased stun from 1 second to 1.5 seconds. Increased cooldown from 10 to 15.Stomp (Earth Elemental): Now immobilizes for 1 second in addition to its other effects.Stone Flesh: This trait no longer grants up to 150 toughness and instead grants 7% damage reduction while attuned to Earth.Bolstered Elements: This trait now grants barrier instead of stability when using a stance skill.Elemental Contingency: This trait has been retired and replaced with Elemental Lockdown.Elemental Lockdown (NEW): Disabling a foe grants you a boon based upon your attunement.Fire - 5 stacks of might for 5 seconds.Air - 5 seconds of fury.Earth - 4 seconds of protection.Water - 10 seconds of regeneration.Engineer:The Explosives line for engineer is seeing some major changes in this update. We are removing several traits which had weak or lackluster effects such as Minesweeper, Orbital Command and Blasting Zone and reorganizing functionality from others like Short Fuse and Big Boomer to be more unified. The Evasive Powder Keg trait has been removed and replaced with Explosive Entrance, which similarly adds damage after a dodge roll but does so in a more controlled and modifiable way. Finally we are updating grenade skills for better clarity in competitive modes where it can be hard to tell the difference between the different grenades during the cast time. Overheat: Instead of disabling all toolbelt skills until all heat is lost, this skill now adds 15 seconds to the recharge of toolbelt skills other than Photon Forge. Photon Forge remains disabled until all heat is lost.Photonic Blasting Module: When this trait is equipped, the additional recharge penalty from Overheat is reduced from 15 seconds to 5 seconds.Overcharged Shot: Slowed down the animation so the shot occurs at 550ms (up from 240ms)Personal Battering Ram: Slowed down the animation so the strike occurs at 600ms (up from 300ms)Orbital Strike: This skill now uses a higher detail effect. The lower detail version can be viewed for allies, enemies and spectators by checking the "Effect LoD" option in the graphics settingsGrenade Kit: Skills in this kit now have unique warmup effects based on which grenade type is being thrown. Fixed an issue where grenade kit skills caused the grenade bundle to vanish during the warmup.Crystal Configuration: Eclipse: This trait no longer causes Corona Burst to grant stability. Increased base barrier granted from 374 to 991 in PvE and 748 in competitive modes.Short Fuse: This trait has been removed and it's cooldown bonus added into the following skills.Fire Bomb: Reduced recharge from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.Concussion Bomb: Reduced recharge from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.Smoke Bomb: Reduced recharge from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.Glue Bomb: Reduced recharge from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Fixed an issue that caused the visuals for this skill to be larger than the effect radius.Big Ol' Bomb: Reduced recharge from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.Explosives: This traitline has been reworked, the new traits are as follows MinorExplosive Entrance (NEW): Your first attack on entering combat explodes damaging nearby enemies. (Counts as an explosion.) This ability refreshes after a dodge roll or while out of combat.Steel-Packed Powder: No changesShaped Charge: No changesAdeptGrenadier: No changesShort Fuse(REWORK): This trait no longer reduces the fuse time or recharge of bomb skills. Hitting a foe with an explosion skill grants 4 seconds of Fury (3s ICD)Glass Cannon: No changesMasterAim Assisted Rocket (REWORK): Rockets are now only fired on critical hits. Rocket recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 3 seconds. Rockets now require the engineer to be at least 450 distance from the target to fire. Every 5th rocket instead calls an orbital strike.Explosive Temper (NEW): Explosions grant +20 stacking Ferocity for 10 seconds when they hit (10 stacks max)Blast Shield (NEW): Explosive Entrance grants the engineer barrier (base 1508 in PvE and 340 in Competitive modes). Also converts 10% of power to vitality.GrandmasterFlashbang(NEW): Explosive Entrance now inflicts blind for 3 seconds if it hits. Additionally it inflicts Daze for 1 second on struck foes above 90% health.Shrapnel: No changesBig Boomer(REWORK): Increases strike damage by 10% against foes with a lower health percent than the engineer. Additionally causes hitting with Explosion skills to heal the engineer over 3 seconds, 202 health per second. (This effect does not stack.)Guardian:Dragonhunters are solid damage dealers, but there were a couple spots that needed some tuning. Deflecting shot, in particular, had a very short cast time and became crowd control when traited with Heavy Light. We've rolled the crowd control into the skill itself and increased its cast time to ensure that it feels reasonable for its effect. Several traits have also been improved for ease of understanding, like Dulled Senses affecting any foe you crowd control, not simply those you knock back. A couple particularly unused traits in the core Virtues specialization have been retired and replaced with fresh options. True Shot: Increased the damage dealt by 10% (2.2 to 2.44) in PvE only and improved the direction your arrow fires when you don't have a target selected.Deflecting Shot: This skill now knocks back and its animation has been slowed down so the arrow is fired at 740ms (up from 280 ms). Reduced power coefficient from 1.8 to 0.01 in PvP and WvW.Hunter's Ward: Increased the damage dealt by this final impact of this skill by 10% (2.0 to 2.2).Chains of Light: Slowed down the animation so the strike occurs at 600ms (up from 400ms). Increased the immobilization duration to 5 seconds in PvE and this skill now inflicts 5 stacks of vulnerability across all game modes.Dulled Senses: This trait no longer inflicts vulnerability when you cripple a foe. This trait now cripples any enemy you disable, not just those you knock back.Heavy Light: This trait no longer causes Deflecting Shot to knock back. This trait now grants stability whenever you disable an enemy, not just when you knockback. You additionally deal increased damage to disabled foes.Stoic Demeanor: This trait can now affect the same enemy each second instead of every 3 seconds.Virtuous Solace: This trait has been retired and replaced by Inspiring Virtue.Inspiring Virtue (NEW): This trait grants you increased damage after activating a virtue.Wrathful Spirit: This trait now grants fury in addition to retaliation when aegis ends.Binding Jeopardy: This trait has been retired and replaced with Furious Focus.Furious Focus (NEW): This trait inflicts vulnerability to any foe you strike while you have fury.Mesmer:In this update we are making some changes to the greatsword and domination trait line in order to provide a more reliable baseline ranged damage build or mesmer. We are removing the Confounding Suggestions trait which has been problematic to balance in the past due to its power level and adding in a new trait Vicious Expression which plays better with the Domination line's boon removal. Finally we are changing the Mirage Elusive Mind to no longer break stuns as we feel that the necessity of including exhaustion as a balancing factor has made it too binary as a choice. Signet of Domination: Slowed down the animation so the stun occurs at 560ms (up from 360ms)Spatial Surge: Now displays damage maximum then minimum in description.Mirror Blade: Fixed a bug which caused this skill to play its slashing effect on the player instead of its target. Cooldown reduced from 8s to 5s. Rather than inflict 1.0/0.6 dmg per hit, it now reduces the damage on future bounces by 15% each time.Mind Stab: Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds. No longer removes boons. It now inflicts cripple instead. 5s in PvE, likely to be reduced in PvP/WvW.Phantasmal Berserker: Cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. No longer cripples, instead the projectile removes 2 boons. Projectile no longer boomerangs.Confounding Suggestions: This trait has been retired and been replaced with Bountiful Blades.Bountiful Blades (NEW): Mirror Blades bounces 2 additional times. Phantasmal Berserker summons an additional berserker and they each deal less damage (33% instead of 25% less damage.Imagined Burden: This trait has been retired and been replaced with Vicious Expression.Vicious Expression (NEW): You and your illusions deal increased damage to foes without boons. Disabling a foe removes 2 boons in PvE, and 1 boon in PvP and WvW.Elusive Mind: This trait no longer stunbreaks or inflicts exhaustion. Increased the number of conditions cleansed from 1 to 3 in PvE, and to 2 in PvP and WvW.Necromancer:Necromancer has always been designed to be a resilient profession that was light on Stability. Since this update specifically is removing some stability from their traits we made sure to buff their stunbreak skills appropriately in response. Additionally we've fixed a few issues with minion responsiveness and buffed a few of the weaker minion command skills. Well of Power: Reduced the cooldown of this ability from 40 to 30 seconds in PvE only.Plague Signet: Reduced the cooldown of this ability from 30 to 25 seconds in PvE only.Spectral Armor: Reduced the cooldown of this ability from 40 to 30 seconds in PvE only.Spectral Walk: Reduced the cooldown of this ability from 40 to 30 seconds anid the swiftness duration from 30 to 24 seconds in PvE only."Nothing can save you!": This skill now applies 5 stacks of the new unblockable for a flat 10 seconds with an additional 2 stacks for each foe hit (see General section for more details).Minions: Necromancer minions will now play an effect when commanded to indicate that they will be using a special skill.Rigor Mortis (Bone Fiend Command Skill): Bone Fiend will now respond immediately when commanded, interrupting its current action to perform the special attack.Haunt (Shadow Fiend Command Skill): Increased radius from 120 to 300. Flesh Wurm: Reduced the cooldown of this abiltiy from 32 to 25 seconds in PvE only.Necrotic Traversal (Flesh Wurm Command Skill): Increased radius from 180 to 240Doom: This ability now has a cast time and inflicts fear on your foe at 640ms. The fear duration has been increased from 1 second at a distance or 1.5 seconds at close proximity to 2 seconds on successful hit regardless of distance. Death's Carapace: Added visual effect for this buff that updates based on the number of stacks the player has.Foot in the Grave: This trait has been retired and been replaced by Eternal Life.Eternal Life (NEW): Gain life force constantly up to a threshold while not in shroud. (66% in PvE, 20% in PvP & WvW) Gain protection when you enter shroud.Flesh of the Master: Fixed a bug that could cause Death's Carapace stacks to be applied incorrectly by this trait.Ranger:Soulbeasts, long standing without a tradeoff, are now receiving theirs - they lose combat access to a second pet and must choose carefully which pet they are going to be bonded with in battle. Soulbeast: Soulbeasts can no longer swap pets while in combat. Merging and unmerging with your pet now counts as a pet swap for the purposes of the Clarion Bond and Zephyr's Speed traits.Lightning Assault (Electric Wyvern): Added a 500ms warmup before the dash occurs.Glyph of the Stars: Reduced the cooldown of this skill to 60 seconds from 90 seconds.Call of the Wild: This skill now uses the new unblockable buff (see General section for more details).Throw Torch: This skill now applies its effects in a 180 radius around the target struck by the torch.Winter's Bite: This skill is now always AoE even when not traited with Honed Axes. Increased bleeding stacks in PvE from 2 to 3 and increased bleeding duration in PvE from 8 seconds to 12 seconds to match PvP/WvW version.Honed Axes: Baseline ferocity is now also applied to your pet. No longer causes Winter's Bite to strike AoE.Hunter's Tactics: This trait now increases damage when attacking from the side or behind by 10% in addition to its previous effects.Lead the Wind: No longer grants swiftness when performing a projectile combo. Instead grants swiftness for 10 seconds and quickness for 5 seconds (2.5 seconds in PvP and WvW) when striking with an attack from beyond 1200 range. This effect has a 15 second cooldown.Druidic Clarity: This trait no longer causes entering Celestial Avatar to stunbreak.Unstoppable Union: This trait no longer causes entering Beastmode to stunbreak. Entering Beastmode now grants protection and vigor in addition to removing movement-impairing conditions.Beastly Warden: This trait now has a 1 second delay before your pet taunts nearby enemies. Fixed a bug that could prevent this trait from working with underwater pets.Clarion Bond: This trait now uses the new unblockable buff (see General section for more details).Twice as Vicious: Increased the damage and condition damage bonuses granted by this trait from 5% to 10% in PvE only.Revenant:Revenants are seeing a large number of changes in this update. In addition to reworks of both the Devastation and Corruption trait lines we have also revisited several of their skills. Precision Strike has been reworked as an actual melee attack as we felt didn't really make sense for it to be a projectile skill. We have however kept its emphasis on single target damage if you can isolate a foe. Confusion has been removed from various Revenant skills as they didn't really have any meaningful ways to take advantage of it and instead we've replaced them with Torment which can be used in a more cohesive character build. Surge of the Mists: Added a 500ms warmup before the dash occurs. The evasion granted by this skill is active during the warmup.Temporal Rift: This skill no longer inflicts confusion. Increased amount of torment applied in PvE from 2 stacks to 4 stacks in PvE.Rift Slash: Updated animation to be more prominent. Skill timing unchanged.Precision Strike: This skill has been reworked into a new skill called Chilling Isolation. This skill is a 240 radius circular melee strike that chills up to 5 foes for two strikes. If the second strike hits only 1 foe it does bonus damage. Increased cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW.Banish Enchantment: This skill no longer inflicts confusion. Instead it inflicts chill for 1 second and removes 1 boon per hit. Number of hits increased from 1 to 3. Increase PvE damage by 380% (0.25 to 1.2). Damage in other modes increased by 20% (0.25 to 0.3)Phase Traversal: This skill no longer increases damage for your next few attacks. Damage increased in PvE only by 100%. Cost raised from 30 to 35 in WvW to match PvP version.Unwavering Avoidance: This trait now grants vigor instead of stability when evading an attack. The cooldown on this trait has been reduced to 5 seconds from 8 seconds.Determined Resolution: This trait now reduces incoming damage while you have vigor instead of stability. It no longer increases the duration of stability.Fierce Infusion: This trait has been retired and been replaced by Glaring Resolve.Glaring Resolve (NEW): Gain stability and heal when you stunbreak.Empty Vessel: This trait has been retired and been replaced by Contained Temper.Contained Temper (NEW): Gain fury when you disable a foe.Sudden Reversal: This trait has been retired and been replaced by Bold Reversal.Bold Reversal: When you stunbreak, gain several offensive boons and full Kalla's Fervor.Changes to the Devastation line are aimed at two major areas. The first is that several traits are highly niche such as Malicious Reprisal and Jade Echo. These traits are being removed and replaced with new traits that have more broad uses. The second issue is the opposite, some traits are too similar to each other such as Ferocious Strikes and Vicious Lacerations that they don't offer any meaningful choices. The siphoning traits are a part of this change and we are unifying the siphoning effect into a single buff for the combat log and making it a bigger part of the overall line. The new siphon effect named after Shiro's classic skill "Battle Scars" is a stacking buff that is expended when attacking and is more restricted in its applications but stronger than previous siphoning traits. Devastation: The Devastation Trait line has been reworked, the new traits are as follows MinorExpose Defenses: No changesDestructive Impulses (NEW): Outgoing damage is increased by 5% for each currently equipped weapon.Targeted Destruction: This trait has moved to the Grandmaster minor slot.AdeptAggressive Agility (NEW): Movement skills remove immobilize.Unsuspecting Strikes (NEW): Outgoing damage is increased when attacking a foe above 80% health. This damage increase is 25% in PvE and 10% in PvP/WvW.Battle Scarred (NEW): Gain 5 stacks of Battle Scars after using your heal.MasterAssassins Presence: Moved to the top slot in the same tierNotoriety: This trait no longer grants bonus might when using Legendary Assassin skills.Thrill of Combat (NEW): Grants 1 stack of Battle Scars every second while in combat.GrandmasterBrutality: Switched positions with Swift Termination.Swift Termination: Switched positions with BrutalityDance of Death (NEW): Each stack vulnerability applied to a foe grants a stack of Battle Scars. Battle Scars healing amount is doubled while you are below half health.Similar to the Devastation rework we are also re-centering the Corruption line around a new mechanic. Invoke Torment occurs when switching legends and causes nearby foes to be inflicted with torment. This ability can be upgraded with the grandmasters based on your preferred playstyle. The boon removal traits have also been removed as we felt that they had trigger conditions that offered little gameplay. In exchange we've added a few new powerful traits with drawbacks as we feel this is in line with the spirit of the Mallyx line and skills like Pain Absorption. Corruption:The Corruption line has been reworked, the new traits are as follows. MinorInvoking 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%.AdeptAcolyte of Torment (NEW): Torment deals 10% more damageDemonic Defiance: No changesReplenishing Despair (REWORK): While upkeeping a skill you gain +1 energy regeneration. Additionally you self-inflict 1 stack of torment for 5 seconds every second.MasterAbyssal 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.GrandmasterDiabolic Inferno (REWORK): Invoke Torment inflicts burning and poisonFiendish Tenacity (NEW): Invoke Torment grants resistance. Resistance heals you every second it is active.Permeating Pestilence (RENAME): Invoke Torment transfers conditions to struck foes.Thief:Thief pistol has been updated some to better smooth its gameplay and its associated trait (and harpoon gun's), Ankle Shots, has been replaced with a new trait - Deadly Aim, which causes attacks from those weapons to pierce, allowing for strategic movement and positioning relative to your foes. Vital Shot: Updated icon of this ability.Body Shot: This ability has been renamed to Bolas Shot, had its description and icon updated.Head Shot: Increased the daze caused by this skill from 0.25 to 2 seconds, in PvE only.Black Powder: Increased the radius of the area of blinding and smoke field around the thief from 120 to 180. Updated the description of this skill.Ankle Shots: This trait has been replaced by Deadly Aim.Deadly Aim (NEW): This trait causes your pistol and harpoon gun abilities to pierce, affecting up to five enemies, but reducing damage inflicted by those skills by 5%.Trick Shot: Updated the description of this ability to better reflect its function.Disabling Shot: Updated the description of this ability to better reflect its function.Choking Gas: This ability now dazes foes on its initial impact rather than when they are above a poison stack threshold. The daze duration has been increased from 0.5s to 1s. Increased initiative cost from 4 to 6 in PvP and WvW.Thief Bundles: We did a pass on all thief bundles and found several that were using some pretty old numbers. We've done a tuning pass on these to make sure that they feel impactful enough in PvE for both power and condition spec builds. Branch Bash: Increased damage by 100% (0.75 to 1.5)Elixir of Heroes: Reduced cast time from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.Eat Egg: Reduced cast time from 1 second to 0.5 seconds. Increased initiative gain from 6 to 8.Ice Shard Stab: Reduced chill duration from 10 seconds to 6 seconds. Increased damage by 100% (1 to 2)Rusty Scrap Strike: Increased damage by 200% (0.5 to 1.5) Increased bleeding stacks from 3 to 6. Increased poison stacks from 1 to 3. Decreased duration of all conditions from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.Shoot Rifle: Increased vulnerability stacks from 1 to 10. Reduced vulnerability duration from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.Throw Coral Shard: Increased damage by 25% (1 to 1.25)Throw Crystal Shard: Increased damage by 66% (0.6 to 1)Throw Lava Rock: Increased damage by 300% (0.25 to 1). Decreased burning duration from 15 seconds to 6 seconds. Increased burning stacks from 1 to 3.Throw Rock: Updated skill fact to show correct knockdown duration of 2 seconds. Increased damage by 50% (1 to 1.5)Throw Scale: Increased damage by 200% (0.5 to 1.5) Increased bleeding stacks from 1 to 3. Decreased poison duration from 20 second to 10 seconds. Increased poison stacks from 1 to 3.Tooth Stab: Increased damage by 166% (0.75 to 2) Decreased bleeding duration from 60 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased bleeding stacks from 1 to 6.Use Staff: Increased damage from chain lightning effect by 50% (0.8 to 1.2)Warrior:Warrior's rifle has been somewhat lackluster in its gameplay feel, so we're updating it to create some rotations by giving its 2-4 skills ammunition, shorter cooldowns between uses and slightly longer cooldowns to recover shots, plus successfully using Rifle Butt will allow the rapid recovery of the ammunition for those skills. Warrior hammer has a pretty good gameplay cadence, so we're pushing a bit further on what it does well - hurting crowd controlled enemies. Its iconic second skill, Fierce Blow, now does significantly greater damage to disabled foes, and Backbreaker will automatically recharge fierce blow for immediate use when you successfully knockdown an enemy. Aimed Shot: This skill now has 2 ammunition, a 3 second recharge between uses and recovers ammunition every 10 seconds.Volley: This skill now has 2 ammunition, a 5 second recharge between uses and recovers ammunition every 12 seconds.Brutal Shot: This skill now has 2 ammunition, a 8 second recharge between uses and recovers ammunition every 20 seconds.Rifle Butt: Increased the recharge of this skill from 15 seconds to 20 seconds. If you strike a foe with this ability then all other rifle skills recover 1 ammunition. Slowed down the animation so the knockback occurs at 600ms (up from 367ms)Fierce Blow: Increased the damage dealt to disabled foes by 25% (2.16 to 2.7) in PvE only.Backbreaker: This skill now recharges Fierce Blow if you knockdown a foe or strike an enemy with a breakbar.Disrupting Stab: This skill now extends the 0.25 second daze when used against foes using skills rather than stunning them. Extended daze is 1.5 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP/WvW. Removed bonus damage. Base damage increased by 50% (0.8 to 1.2 multiplier) in PvE only.Imminent Threat: Slowed down the animation so the taunt occurs at 600ms (up from 333ms)Signet of Might: Now gives 10 stacks of the new unblockable buff for 6 seconds (see General section for more details).

Hi Everyone, Today we're previewing the next set of balance updates to come to Tyria. With this release there are a significant number of changes we've put together for the the competitive game modes, but many of the fundamental principles are applicable in every game mode. In particular, the focus on gameplay being more active is a big piece of the planned changes. That said, we recognize that there are many specific differences between game modes and the nature of changes for game modes should follow suit.eg. Many bosses and creatures in instanced content focus attacks on the player with the highest toughness. A minor trait, Stone Flesh gives an Elementalist additional toughness while attuned to earth and can cut off both going into Earth attunement and selecting the Earth traitline. So we're changing that trait to grant 7% damage reduction instead of 150 Toughness, allowing it to play well with that type of content and expand some build options. We're planning many changes of this nature, as well as re-works and more. We look forward to seeing your feedback both on this set of changes as well as future potential changes. We've posted additional threads for the more PvP oriented changes and WvW oriented changes. -The Systems Team

This was not intended and is going to be addressed in the next (non-balance) update.

Hey all,It looks like the change for Zealot's Defense didn't make it into this release in time: Zealot's Defense: Increased PvE damage by 20%.We're aware of this issue and the change is in for the next release (not next balance update).

Greetings all! As before, here are the planned Balance update notes for next week's release! We look forward to your discussions and theorycrafting. ~GW2 Systems Team Profession SkillsGeneralWhen we originally created the alacrity and barrier effects, they were intended to be profession specific, but we've changed this stance after seeing how the game changed and evolved over time. While the original effects were visually iconic to their initial professions, it was a good time to update them with a look that could fit any profession. Barrier: Updated the visual effects of this effect to be less profession specific.Alacrity: Updated the visual effects of this effect to be less profession specific.Special Forces Training Area: Conditions on the Preview Holo-Golem will no longer be removed by player skills.Low-Health Traits: Updated traits that activate when the user drops below a specified health threshold so that they behave more consistently.ItemsSuperior Rune of Antitoxin: This rune no longer removes additional conditions from allies cleansed by the player. Instead, it removes an additional condition from the player whenever a condition is removed from the player.ElementalistIn this update, we're following up on some of the tempest changes from the previous update. Speedy Conduit has been a lackluster trait for a while, so we're combining it with Harmonious Conduit and creating a new trait that grants concentration. Imbued Melodies is being removed—we felt it wasn't very interesting while also being unnecessarily restrictive by being tied to the warhorn. Its replacement, Transcendent Tempest, provides an effect that is unique among other grandmaster traits, which we hope will provide a more meaningful choice when compared to the other options. Signet of Air: This skill can now be activated to break stuns without a target. Activating the skill while out of range of a target or without a target while not under control effects will put it on interrupt cooldown.Glyph of Renewal (Renewal of Fire): Reduced the amount of invulnerability granted when reviving the elementalist from 5 seconds to 1 second.Burning Rage: Reduced the burning duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.Speedy Conduit: This trait has been removed. Its functionality has been combined with Harmonious Conduit, and it has been replaced with Gathered Focus.Gathered Focus: This new trait takes the master tier, minor trait slot, and it grants 120 concentration plus an additional 120 concentration while the elementalist is above 90% health.Harmonious Conduit: This trait no longer increases damage after completing an overload. Instead it grants swiftness in addition to stability. It has also changed positions with Invigorating Torrents.Invigorating Torrents: This trait has switched positions with Harmonious Conduit. Its functionality is unchanged.Imbued Melodies: This trait has been reworked, and its name has been changed to Transcendent Tempest. This trait reduces the time it takes to attain a singularity by 33% when switching elements and increases outgoing damage and condition damage by 7% for 7 seconds after an overload completes.EngineerWhen the scrapper's profession ability was changed to an F5 skill, the tool belt skill from Sneak Gyro, Detection Pulse, was replaced. That skill was sorely missed as it provided useful and skilled counterplay if well timed. As the profession mechanic needed to remain on the F5 key, we looked elsewhere and saw that Purge Gyro, an inherently defensive and utility-centric ability, had a tool belt skill that did not fit its intent. Scrapper is also getting a bit of a tune-up with its hammer skills and a reduction to the vitality loss of the Impact Savant trait, which was leaving them a bit squishier than we intended for a bruiser style of play. Equalizing Blow: Increased damage by 9%.Electro Whirl: Increased damage by 9%.Rocket Charge: Increased damage by 10%.Shock Shield: Reduced recharge from 20 seconds to 18 seconds.Thunderclap: Increased damage by 6%. Reduced recharge from 24 seconds to 20 seconds.Corona Burst: Reduced might gained in WvW to the same amount as granted in PvP. Reduced the damage of this skill by 20% in PvP and WvW.Holographic Shockwave: Reduced range from 600 to 300.Function Gyro: Increased damage by 100%. Increased land radius to 240 and underwater radius to 360. Added clarification to skill description to clarify that function gyros are destroyed when their skill is interrupted. Reduced recharge from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.Shaped Charge: This trait now increases damage by 0.5% per stack of vulnerability instead of by a flat amount.Solar Focusing Lens: This trait now also grants 2 stacks of Afterburner when deactivating photon forge. Increased stacks granted from overheating from 5 to 6.Chemical Field: This skill has been replaced by Detection Pulse as the tool belt skill for Purge Gyro.Detection Pulse: This skill replaces Purge Gyro's previous tool belt skill, Chemical Field. The radius of this skill has been reduced from 1200 to 900, and its targeting has been improved in large group settings.Purge Gyro: The tool belt skill for Purge Gyro has changed from Chemical Field to Detection Pulse.Sneak Gyro: Increased the cooldown of this skill from 45 to 60 seconds in WvW.Med Kit: This kit can now be used underwater.Med Blaster (Med Kit): Increased healing to match tooltip.Cleansing Field (Med Kit): Fixed a bug that caused this skill to remove more conditions than intended.Elixir U: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to give endurance.Supply Crate: Fixed a bug in which the Healing Turret created from this skill would not overcharge.Health Insurance: Updated description and tooltips to accurately reflect the functionality of this trait. This trait increases incoming healing by 10% and increases outgoing healing by 20% while using Med Kit.Mechanized Deployment: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to grant less than the listed 15% recharge reduction.Mass Momentum: Increased stability duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.Impact Savant: Reduced the vitality loss from this trait from 300 to 180.GuardianFirebrand prevalence in group content has been quite strong as they offer significant support options to the point that they were crowding out other builds. In particular, Tome of Courage had a bit more power than was healthy, so we've sought to tweak that down while retaining its overall playstyle by removing some of its boon generation. We're also reducing scepter damage and increasing sword damage in PvE as the best melee damage option should not be a ranged weapon. Orb of Wrath: Reduced damage by 10% in PvE only.Symbol of Blades: Removed the double strike that occurs when the symbol is first created. Increased damage of each strike by 20% to compensate. Overall damage is unchanged.Zealot's Defense: Increased PvE damage by 20%.Sanctuary: Increased number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill before it expires from 10 to 20. Decreased duration from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Decreased recharge from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.Tome of Resolve—Chapter 2: Radiant Recovery: The existing split of cleansing 2 conditions in PvP has been brought to WvW as well. This skill continues to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.Tome of Courage—Chapter 2: Daring Challenge: This skill now grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.Tome of Courage—Epilogue: Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants retaliation. The existing split of a 15-second cooldown in PvP has been brought to WvW as well. This skill retains a 12-second cooldown in PvE.Purging Flames: This skill no longer reduces the duration of incoming conditions. Instead of removing 3 conditions from allies when cast, it now removes 1 condition from allies and 1 additional condition every second the skill persists. Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from being properly extended when Master of Consecrations was equipped.Eternal Armory: Changed burning from 2 stacks for 2 seconds to 1 stack for 4 seconds.Stoic Demeanor: This trait now inflicts burning for 5 seconds in addition to inflicting slow. Reduced the internal cooldown from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Cooldown is now determined per target instead of globally.MesmerChaotic Interruption has been reworked as a trait that offers a dynamic and skillful form of play by giving savvy players a means to use their abilities to recharge weapon skills. Some chronomancer tweaks are also in to offer another means of granting group quickness and to clean up some functional redundancy between Delayed Reactions and Lost Time. Illusion of Life: Reduced the amount of time a resurrected ally is invulnerable from 5 seconds to 1 second. This skill should now target more effectively in group situations.Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires mesmers to face their target and respects line of sight.Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires mesmers to face their target and respects line of sight.Chaos Storm: This skill now always dazes on the first strike but can no longer randomly daze on other strikes. This change also applies to Lesser Chaos Storm. Added a skill fact to show Chaos Storm's duration.Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been reworked. When interrupting a foe, it now recharges one of your currently recharging equipped weapon skills by 5 seconds. This trait has a 1-second internal cooldown.Delayed Reactions: This trait no longer grants alacrity but now triggers on any control effect rather than only on interrupts. Added a 3-second cooldown per target.Lost Time: This trait has been reworked. It now grants 3 seconds of alacrity to the mesmer when applying slow to a target. This effect has a 3-second cooldown.Seize the Moment: This trait now applies quickness in a 240 area-of-effect radius around the mesmer and can hit 5 targets (including the mesmer).NecromancerThe Death Magic specialization has had a significant rework this update, revolving around a new effect and various means of gaining additional defense while bringing together a more cohesive set of playstyles. The scourge elite specialization has also undergone a significant change such that its shade skills will only fire around them when they do NOT have a shade up. If they do have a shade present, then those skills will happen around their summoned sand shades. Alongside this change, the scourge and each sand shade now affect an increased number of targets by default, which can be increased further through the use of the grandmaster trait Sand Savant. This change leans into the dependence a scourge has on their unique elite specialization mechanic, shades, and opens up the specialization to future potential improvements across its kit. This change creates a choice between whether scourges expose themselves to some melee risk but charge in to affect foes around them, or whether they hang back and summon a shade near their foe and are unable to affect themselves with shade abilities (unless they also place one on their own location). We'll be keeping a close eye on the results of this change and making adjustments accordingly. Scourge: Shade skills no longer affect the area around the scourge while they have a shade present in the world. Increased the number of targets affected by shade skills from 3 to 5.Manifest Sand Shade: The duration of sand shades in WvW and PvP has been increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.Minion Summoning Skills: Fixed a bug that could allow minions to persist after the skill was unequipped.Oppressive Collapse: This skill now requires line of sight.Feast of Corruption: Reduced damage by 20% in PvP and WvW. The existing split of corrupting 2 boons in PvP has been brought to WvW as well. This skill continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE. This skill now queues behind other skills rather than interrupting them.Devouring Darkness: Reduced damage by 20% in PvP and WvW. The existing split of corrupting 2 boons in PvP has been brought to WvW as well. This skill continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE. This skill now queues behind other skills rather than interrupting them.Grasping Darkness: Fixed an issue that could cause the claw effect to pop out of existence before the skill completed. Removed misleading legendary projectile effects from this skill due to it not being a projectile.Blood Bond: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to heal the necromancer when it activated.Sand Savant: Increased the number of targets affected by the larger shade from 2 to 5 so that it now affects up to 10 targets.Death Magic: This trait line has been reworked. Many traits now revolve around a new effect called Death's Carapace that increases toughness by 20 for each stack up to a maximum of 30 stacks. Death's Carapace stacks are applied for 10 seconds from all traits except Flesh of the Master.Minor:Armored Shroud: This trait now gives 5 stacks of Death's Carapace when entering shroud.Soul Comprehension: In addition to its previous effects, this trait now also grants 1 stack of Death's Carapace for each kill the necromancer participates in.Beyond the Veil: This trait has been reworked. It now reduces condition damage by 10% while the necromancer has at least 10 stacks of Death's Carapace.Adept:Flesh of the Master: Instead of granting armor for each minion, this trait now causes the necromancer's minions to grant them 2 Death's Carapace stacks as long as the minions are alive.Putrid Defense: This trait has changed positions and its functionality has changed. It now causes poison to deal 15% more damage and grants 1 Death's Carapace stack when applying poison.Shrouded Removal: This trait has changed positions. In addition to its previous effects, it now grants 3 Death's Carapace stacks when a condition is removed.Master:Necromantic Corruption: This trait is unchanged.Dark Defiance: This trait is unchanged.Deadly Strength: This trait has been reworked. It now causes Death's Carapace to grant an additional 10 power per stack.Grandmaster:Death Nova: Updated skill facts and description. Updated attack name from Lesser Poison Cloud to Poison Nova in order to indicate that it has different behavior from Corrosive Poison Cloud. Fixed an issue that caused this trait to use the minion's stats instead of the necromancer's. Fixed various issues that caused this trait to behave inconsistently with certain minions. Increased damage by 60% in PvE only.Corrupter's Fervor: This trait has been reworked. It now grants 1 Death's Carapace stack when applying any condition. Additionally, at 25 Death's Carapace stacks or above, the necromancer gains pulsing protection for 3 seconds every 3 seconds.Unholy Sanctuary: This trait is unchanged.RangerIn this update, we're making a major change to sword skills in order to better improve their flow during combat. Monarch's Leap, Hornet Sting, and Serpent's Strike are all shuffling around into new slots, which should make the weapon a little easier to understand. We're also including some enhancements for the off-hand dagger, which has been a pretty weak weapon that hasn't kept up with the pace of the game very well. Finally, we're simplifying the greatsword's Counterattack skill and taking some power out of the chain-attack sequence. We hope these changes will make the weapon feel a little smoother while removing some of the frustrating random dodges that happen when fighting against it. Long Range Shot: Reduced the minimum damage of this skill by 14% and the maximum damage by 11% in WvW only.Sword Chain-Attack Sequence: Updated icons for Crippling Thrust and Precision Swipe.Stalker's Strike: Base damage of this attack has been increased by 200%. This attack now deals double damage and inflicts 2 additional poison stacks if it strikes a foe with a movement-impairing condition.Crippling Talon: This skill now uses the ammunition system and has 2 ammo with a 15-second count recharge time and a 1-second recharge between uses. Reduced cripple duration from 6 seconds to 4 seconds. Reduced bleeding duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.Hornet Sting: This sword skill has moved to weapon slot 3. It now recharges Monarch's Leap if it hits. Its recharge has been increased from 8 seconds to 15 seconds.Monarch's Leap: This sword skill is now the primary skill in weapon slot 2. Using this skill flips it over to Serpent's Strike for 5 seconds. It now has an 8-second recharge.Serpent's Strike: This skill is now the follow-up skill to Monarch's Leap. It no longer has a recharge.Swoop: Fixed an issue that prevented the casting bar for this skill from matching the actual casting time of the dash.Counterattack: Removed the Crippling Throw follow-up skill. This skill no longer automatically uses Counterattack Kick when blocking a foe within the range threshold. Instead, blocking any attack flips the skill to Counterattack Kick for 5 seconds. Increased the number of targets for Counterattack Kick from 1 to 3. Counterattack Kick now evades for its duration and activates faster.Power Stab: This skill no longer evades for its duration. Its name has been changed to Enduring Swing. This skill now grants 15 endurance if it hits.Quick Draw: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from reducing recharge time.RevenantIn addition to some changes to Coalescence of Ruin and Gaze of Darkness aimed at WvW play, we are also tuning up a few of Mallyx's Legendary Demon Stance skills from the last update as we felt they ended up on the weak side. Jalis's Legendary Dwarf Stance skills are also seeing some improvements aimed at making them more powerful and easier to use to better warrant the use of your energy. Coalescence of Ruin: This skill no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; it now always deals damage equal to what was previously the second-impact damage. Its damage remains split between game modes. Added a red warning rectangle visible to enemies.Embrace the Darkness: Lowered the recharge from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.Gaze of Darkness: This skill now reveals stealth enemies up to a range of 600, inflicting blindness and vulnerability.True Nature (Assassin): Reduced radius from 600 to 360.Call to Anguish: Decreased energy cost from 35 to 30. Reduced recharge from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased radius from 240 to 360. Damage increased by 33%.Inspiring Reinforcement: Increased pulsing stability duration from 1.5 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased initial stability duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased the speed at which the road is built by 100%. Increased road length from 600 to 900.Forced Engagement: Increased damage reduction from taunted targets from 20% to 33%. This skill now also throws chains at up to 4 additional targets within a range of 360 of the selected target.Focused Siphoning: Increased base healing by 88% in PvE.Elder's Respite: Added a 10-second internal cooldown to this trait.ThiefThe previous Shadow Arts update landed pretty well overall, but we think that the siphons ended up a little weak. We're tuning these up a bit, as well as touching up a few other traits that didn't feel quite right. In addition to these changes, we're updating Improvisation to recharge a random utility skill on the skill bar rather than a random utility skill type. This change is intended to lower the variance on the trait and to allow for more flexibility in utility selection. Finally, stolen bundles now use the ammo system in order to help with readability. Steal: Fixed a bug that could cause the shadowstep to fail in rare situations.Swipe: Fixed a bug that could cause the shadowstep to fail in rare situations. Reduced recharge from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.Hidden Thief: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to activate even if Steal failed.Leeching Venoms: This trait now immediately grants a stack of spider venom when the thief first enters stealth and every 3 seconds after.Improvisation: Instead of recharging an entire skill category at random, this trait now recharges one of your equipped utility skills at random.Stolen Bundles: Stolen bundles now show their number of uses as ammunition.Shadow Siphoning: Increased base healing by 62%.Cloaked in Shadow: Increased base damage and the damage multiplier by 100%. Increased base healing by 100% and the heal multiplier by 60%.Lead Attacks: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to grant less than the listed 15% recharge reduction.WarriorIn this update, we're focusing on changes to the Tactics trait line and warhorn skills. We've removed the traits related to reviving allies in order to make room for new traits and improvements to old traits that focus more on ways warriors can affect allies while they are still in the fight. The new Tactics traits are focused around empowering allies through boons and effects, helping allies who are taking a beating, and a selection of warrior-enhancing battlefield strategies. Charge: The icon for this skill has been updated. This skill now only removes movement-impairing conditions. It now increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% (10% in WvW) for 8 seconds in addition to its previous effects. Increased swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill is now a blast finisher.Call to Arms: This skill has been renamed Call of Valor, and its functionality has changed. Removed an unnecessary unblockable skill fact. This skill now removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. It also now applies barrier in addition to vigor.Sight beyond Sight: Increased the radius of this skill to reveal stealth enemies within a radius of 600.Burning Arrows: This trait has been removed, and its effects have been merged with Crack Shot in the Discipline line.Crack Shot: Instead of granting bonus adrenaline for base harpoon gun shots, this trait now adds 3 seconds of bleeding to each shot.Tactics: The Tactics line has been reworked. Several traits in this line now revolve around a new effect called Soldier's Focus, which grants bonuses when executing bursts.Minor:Marching Orders: This new trait grants the Soldier's Focus effect every 15 seconds. This effect is expended when hitting with a burst to grant 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds to allies within a range of 300.Empowered: Moved from the adept tier. The effects are unchanged.Mending Might: This trait now heals you when you grant might to an ally.Adept:Leg Specialist: In addition to its previous effects, this trait now also grants a 7% damage bonus against foes suffering from a movement-impairing condition. The cooldown on this trait is now calculated per target.Soldier's Comfort: This new trait heals nearby allies when Soldier's Focus activates.Roaring Reveille: This new trait increases the number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon. It grants fury for Charge and resistance for Call to Arms. It also grants an additional 120 concentration.Master:Warrior's Cunning: This new trait increases damage by 25% against foes with health above 90%. Additionally, it increases damage by 50% against foes that have barrier. These bonuses do not stack.Shrug It Off: This trait has moved, and its icon has been updated. In addition to its previous effect, it also causes the warrior to heal allies when removing damaging conditions from them.Empower Allies: In addition to its previous effects, this trait also increases the radius of Soldier's Focus to 600. Added a missing number of targets skill fact.Grandmaster:Martial Cadence: This new trait causes Soldier's Focus to reduce the warrior's equipped weapon skill cooldowns by 3 seconds.Vigorous Shouts: This trait no longer grants adrenaline when using shouts. Instead, it grants healing power equal to 13% of power.Phalanx Strength: Increased might duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

It seems there is some need for additional clarity. tldr; By all means, please keep constructive feedback coming! We'll review it once we're able. The initial post was not to say "Okay, feedback is now useless", but to communicate that further feedback isn't stuff we're going to be able to review/address with this next set of changes. We'll get to reviewing feedback and addressing it when we're able to, but right now we're no longer in a state of being able to review feedback for this upcoming update. I pointed out that Scourge, in WvW, is an important topic and, we're going to continue to keep looking at Scourge's target cap and Sand Savant in particular in the future. To get a reasonable amount of time for the posted changes QA'd and any bugs addressed or changed due to sheer functional need before the release we've had to stop adjusting things for the time being. That's simply a part of the design and implementation process. Thanks for understanding this and keeping the discussion constructive moving forward.

Hey again all, Thanks for the feedback on the proposed Balance Changes over the last three weeks - as a result several notes have been altered and re-visited.This post isn't a request for more feedback, but a heads-up that we're going to be getting the changes tested and vetted internally while we get stuff ready. It has been excellent to see that many of the conclusions we have reached internally are the same ones that you're having regarding the proposed changes. It has also been great to see your counterpoints and suggestions to some of the changes we proposed, as they've raised discussions on what the best course of action may be. I look forward to getting your feedback for the next set of potential changes once we’ve released the results from this set and others not discussed here. Below are the current changes that we're looking at from the proposed set: Items Superior Rune of Antitoxin: Change it so that instead of increasing outgoing condition cleanses by one it instead increases incoming condition cleanses by one, thus only affecting the wielder, but allowing it to scale up with external cleanses.Engineer Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 60 seconds in WvW.Corona Burst: The existing split from PvP of reduced might gain is brought to WvW. Reduced the damage of this ability by 20% in PvP and WvW.Holographic Shockwave: Reduced range from 600 to 300.Impact Savant: Reduce the vitality loss of this trait from 300 to 180. Unfortunately it doesn't look likely we'll be able to get this trait to work with conditions for the next balance update, but we'll keep investigating other options.Detection Pulse: This skill returns as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro, replacing Chemical Field. Its radius is reduced from 1200 to 900 and its targeting is improved for large group situations so it can't fail where there are many nearby enemies and stealthed foes are slightly further away.Guardian Stand Your Ground: Reduce the stacks of stability granted by this ability from 5 to 3 in WvW.Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants retaliation.Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.Mesmer Illusion of Life: Reduce the invulnerability period on revived allies from 5s to 1s. Improve the smart targeting on this skill so it can't fail in big group situations where there is someone downed and lots of people near them.Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities that is already on cooldown by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.Necromancer Scourge: For a long time, Scourge has been a strong elite specialization on the basis of its area coverage. With some of these changes we're looking to re-focus their gameplay around their unique elite spec mechanic, shades. These changes also open up space for improvements to the Scourge's kit in the future as the conversation has been dominated by Scourge's coverage.Scourge: Shade abilities only affect the area around you while you do not have a shade active in the world. This creates a choice of whether to be the focal point for your shade abilities by not summoning a shade or to place a shade at a distance and focus on your shade's positioning relying on distance as your safety. It also offers more distinct styles of gameplay where you may want to close with enemies and avoid having to place shades while being exposed in melee or placing a shade farther away to gain ranged offensive options at the risk of not having shade defensive benefits at your location (unless you place another shade beside you). To address the loss of some of the target cap, the number of targets affected by shade abilities will be increased from 3 to 5. Manifest Sand Shade: The duration of sand shades in WvW & PvP has been increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.Sand Savant: Increase the number of targets sand shade affect from 2 to 5, so that when traited you either affect up to 10 targets around you or have a single shade which affects up to 10 targets rather than the current incarnation where you've got a shade that affects 5 targets and you affect 5 targets near you. Oppressive Collapse: This skill will require line of sight on the activation.Sand Cascade: Reduce the base barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP, increase the healing power contribution by 20%, as the healing coefficient is already pretty strong.Sand Flare: Reduce the base barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW, increase the healing power contribution by 33%.Desert Shroud: Increase the base barrier granted by this skill by 10%, increase the healing power contribution by 15% and reduce the damage inflicted by this ability by 20% in WvW.Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.Ranger Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.6-0.8 in WvW only.Revenant Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.Coalescence of Ruin: This skill would no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; instead it deals damage equal to what was previously the middle impact damage. Damage remains split between game modes. A red warning rectangle visible to enemies has been added to this skill.Inspiring Reinforcement: Increased pulsing stability duration from 1.5 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased initial stability duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased the speed at which the road is built by 100%. Increased road length from 600 to 900.Thief Deadly Ambition: Reduce the poison inflicted by this trait from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 5 seconds in PvP & WvW.Warrior Charge: This skill only removes movement impairing conditions and then increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% in PvE and PvP and 10% in WvW in addition to its previous effects. Increase swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill becomes a blast finisher.Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.Quick Breathing: Thinking of re-working it to better pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration.Thanks again all for constructively sharing your feedback, thoughts, concerns and expectations. Sincerely,~Irenio

Greetings again all, Thanks for the feedback regarding the proposed changes posted last week. Below you'll find a set of changes we're looking at which is WvW-centric, as well as a few modifications to some of the changes from the last thread. With these changes the objective is to bring the dominant builds and compositions into line and offer more build diversity to the existing meta. Because there's been some confusion, we want to clarify that we're continuing to balance for other game types, including (as some of you guessed) significant changes to the warrior's Tactics line as well as the necromancer's Death Magic line, ranger sword changes and more. As before, this isn't the full set of changes we're preparing and this is not a call for general profession feedback.Here are a few questions to think about while looking over the potential changes: Would your gameplay change as a result? How?Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?Are you looking forward to these potential changes? Why?What are your concerns and the consequences you expect with this set of changes?Here is what we're looking at. Previously posted and unchanged items are italicized at the bottom of each profession's section so that it should be easier to focus on the new and changed parts of this set of changes: Items Superior Rune of Antitoxin: Change it so that instead of increasing outgoing condition cleanses by one it instead increases incoming condition cleanses by one, thus only affecting the wielder, but allowing it to scale up with external cleanses.Engineer Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW. Pending the superior rune of antitoxin change, this may stay at 5 cleansing pulses.Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 60 seconds in WvW.Corona Burst: The existing split from PvP of reduced might gain is brought to WvW. Reduced the damage of this ability by 20% in PvP and WvW.Holographic Shockwave: Reduced range from 600 to 300.Impact Savant: See if there is a way to include condition damage on this trait globally. Reduce the vitality loss of this trait from 300 to 180 in WvW and PvP.Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.Guardian Stand Your Ground: Reduce the stacks of stability granted by this ability from 5 to 3 in WvW.Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.Mesmer Illusion of Life: ~~Increase the cooldown of this skill from 75 to 90 seconds in PvP & WvW and reduced the duration from 15 seconds to 8 seconds of its effect in PvP & WvW ~~ Reduce the invulnerability period on revived allies. Improve the smart targeting on this skill so it can't fail in big group situations where there is someone downed and lots of people near them.Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities that is already on cooldown by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.Necromancer Oppressive Collapse: This skill will require line of sight on the activation.Sand Cascade: Reduce the base barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP, increase the healing power contribution by 20%, as the healing coefficient is already pretty strong.Sand Flare: Reduce the base barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW, increase the healing power contribution by 33%.Desert Shroud: Increase the base barrier granted by this skill by 10%, increase the healing power contribution by 15% and reduce the damage inflicted by this ability by 20% in WvW.Sand Savant: We've wanted to address the target cap issue with this trait in WvW for a while, however it is an incredibly gnarly problem because this is a large functional change that would need to be preserved between game modes. This was why the cooldown split was made on this trait originally. We hear you that the trait is an issue and we're working on it. This is a tough case to crack in a manner that does not leave one mode suffering due to the changes made for another.Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.Ranger Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.6-0.8 in WvW only.Revenant Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.Coalescence of Ruin: This skill would no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; instead it deals damage equal to what was previously the middle impact damage. Damage remains split between game modes. A red warning rectangle visible to enemies has been added to this skill.Thief Deadly Ambition: Reduce the poison inflicted by this trait from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 2 seconds in PvP & WvW. Reduce the internal cooldown from 5s to 2s in PvP & WvW.Warrior Charge: This skill would only removes movement impairing conditions and then increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% in PvE and PvP and 10% in WvW in addition to its previous effects. Increase swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill becomes a blast finisher.Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.Quick Breathing: Thinking of kicking re-working it a bit to pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration.Thanks once again for your feedback and for keeping things focused. Sincerely,~Irenio

Greetings fellow Tyrians, We've been thinking about implementing the following changes and wanted to share them with you to hear your thoughts and feedback. We’re aiming to bring into line some of the more dominant builds and compositions of the current WvW meta so that new options can be brought to the table, so the bulk of the changes shared here are WvW-centric. This is not the full list of changes that are being considered for the next balance update. This is not a call for general profession feedback. Here are a few questions to think about while looking over the potential changes: Would your gameplay change as a result?Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?Are you looking forward to these potential changes?What are your concerns with this set of changes?What consequences do you expect would come from these changes?With those types of questions in mind here's some of what we're looking at. Engineer Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.Guardian Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.Mesmer Illusion of Life: Increase the cooldown of this skill from 75 to 90 seconds in PvP & WvW and reduced the duration from 15 seconds to 8 seconds of its effect in PvP & WvW.Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.Chaos Storm: This skill now always dazes on the first strike but can no longer randomly daze on other strikes. This change also applies to Lesser Chaos Storm. Added skill fact to show chaos storm's duration.Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.Necromancer Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.Sand Cascade: Reduce the barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP.Sand Flare: Reduced the barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW.Ranger Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.65-0.75 in WvW only.Revenant Coalescence of Ruin: This skill would no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; instead it deals damage equal to what was previously the middle impact damage. Damage remains split between game modes. A red warning rectangle visible to enemies has been added to this skill.Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.Warrior Charge: This skill would only removes movement impairing conditions and then increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% in addition to its previous effects. Increase swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill becomes a blast finisher.Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.Quick Breathing: Thinking of kicking re-working it a bit to pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration.We look forward to seeing your thoughts and feedback! Sincerely,GW2 Systems Team

Hey all - the Elementalist notes were missing an entry from the initial posting: Power Overwhelming: This trait has been reworked. It now grants 150 bonus power while the elementalist has at least 10 stacks of might. This power bonus is doubled while attuned to fire.Sorry about that - it was a change made early, but with the note coming in a bit late. That should be all the notes.