[how do you feel about the upcoming balance changes?]

Seems to be a lack of understanding how balance patches work based on this option:

Negative: these balance patches mostly nerf off meta builds and buff things nobody uses

Balance patches don't just need to focus "meta" builds. Of course, meta builds need to be adjusted, but there's often builds that become too popular for the majority of the population of players without being exactly "meta". Look at turret engineer, deadeye, etc.

Meta builds are based around top tier games where meta builds fight other meta builds in balanced teams such as the tournaments. However, most people play PvP in ranked/unranked games, which consist of games where you may not have a bunker/roamer/etc. at all on your team. I mean, a rev is a beast when they're paired with a bunker in a team fight because that bunker gives them the defense they need to keep running offensively. Without that, they just don't have the disengage mechanics to survive an even matchup.

And of course balance patches will buff things people don't use. That's why those things need to be buffed.

[Sic em soulbeast nerfed -- What's the next build to play?]

Personally, I prefer double axe boonbeast to Sic 'Em, but the unblockable trait was still nice for that build on some matchups and even that build will still take a hit from the Second Skin nerf and warhorn nerf.

@Joshewwah.2956 said:

@Revolution.5409 said:The build will still be usable after nerfs, it will just be more difficult to manage.

How can you deal damage with only 3 attacks being unblockable? (assuming the longbow 2)

If you're running Clarion Bond or warhorn offhand, you can use Point Blank shot to knock back and interrupt the block before popping Rapid Fire. However, that assumes you're running marks for Clarion with your pet not merged and pet swap not on cooldown (or are on your warhorn set with weapon swap on cooldown).

So realistically, pulling off an unblockable rapid fire is still possible, but highly unlikely.

The Barrage change is meant to offset the unblockable nerfs, but I doubt it will be enough to save the build from irrelevancy.

@"mulzi.8273" said:I do find it kinda ironic that any site, like metabattle that lists classes for each mode (wvw, pvp, pve) never, ever lists the ranger as 'meta'. Yet these classes seem to get nerf after nerf after nerf. Playing WvW 75% of folks are on FB or scourge. Thats the balance problem.

They aren't "meta" because they aren't as effective in the top tier of PvP gameplay, but they're very effective in lower tiers of gameplay. It's the same reason that Deadeye has seen so many nerfs. It's the same reason why turret engineers were nerfed long before that.

[New Daggerstorm change coming question.]

@Shade.8971 said:What did thief get in return? Useless traitline changes for troll builds and new utilities that can't compete with meta utilities.

Balance patches don't need to be quid pro quo. The change to make Daggerstorm evade was a shit change that made all thief builds into troll builds since it's 4 where a thief can sit around invincible, AoEing down everyone nearby without pressing a single button on their keyboard. Problems with thief also have nothing to do with Daggerstorm since the class was in a better place long before Daggerstorm ever became an evade compared to where they are now.

[Upcoming Balance Notes]

Please reconsider the removal of the evade from Ancestral Grace. Here is why:

1) Druid is already underperforming in PvP and there are no other changes listed here that would do anything to make that otherwise, so this would just make that elite spec even less worth considering for that game type.

2) Druid is already a difficult role to play in raids and this will take away an important tool to filling that role.

The cooldown change proposed to this skill, however, makes sense and does not need to be reconsidered.

[Balance Patch appreciation thread]

@JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

@Dahkeus.8243 said:

@Zenix.6198 said:

@Dahkeus.8243 said:

I'll reserve my opinion until I see what actually comes from all of the big reworks, but if we do end up with a tanky meta, I'll be disappointed since that just leads to really boring and frustrating games with people that just never die.

Not sure what merit that statement has.Bunker scrapper got nerfed, chrono bunker got nerfed, weaver essentially only dmg buffs.

Overall dmg from the prominent burst classes got nerfed (soulbeast and herald) so Firebrand prolly will have an easier time.But other than that I don't see a bunker meta emerging, since the sidenoders will just be as susceptible to +1s as before.But maybe im just talking BS here ....I dunno

It may not be a bunker meta, per say, since a lot of the changes weren't necessarily towards big fight bunker specs, but there were still a lot of buffs to support utility and damage reduction.

Bunker scrapper got some nerfs, but also a huge buff from Function gyro. Not sure why any buffs/nerfs to chrono bunker would matter.

Tempest and Thief are probably the wild cards though. I don't know ele enough to know whether the Tempest stuff will matter much for PvP, but the buff to overloads certainly makes water overloads a pretty massive heal. If thief ends up getting any support builds, they'll almost certainly be completely obnoxious as they always are, even though they've never been meta.

For ele, they are nominal changes. Most of the changes are okay for tempest. But nothing of major impact.

Thief however is a different story...defined run a wild card. I predict Deadeyes with shadow portals. But there may be some really cool kitten with shadow arts that could come into the gold as well. Daredevil still dead tho until swipe gets reverted.

Yea, thief could definitely be wild. I mean, will we see D/P come back as DA/Tr/SA? Will the Shadow Savior trait be good enough that it makes it ideal for sword builds? I doubt it would replace a trait line in the meta S/D build, but maybe a S/P build would be viable? If Flickering Shadows doesn't have an internal cooldown, will people abuse it for a Thief bunker build or sorts?

[Why the range increase to Infil Sig and not Swipe?]

@omgdracula.6345 said:

@"Dahkeus.8243" said:Because Daredevil was supposed to be changed to be more melee focused, of course:

From April 23rd patch:

With this update, we are adding a trade-off to the profession skill that keeps the theme of a melee-oriented specialization.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/74356/game-update-notes-april-23-2019

Inf sig buff

can

be a long range buff to daredevil, but it's on a long cooldown and isn't specific to that elite.

Seems pretty obvious to me.

It can be but it won't be. No thief would take this over shadowstep. Being able to cleanse 3 condis is so massively needed for thief that exchanging that for some more ini isnt a good tradeoff IMHO.

Yea, I agree that's likely to be the case. I mean, ini sig isn't that bad for certain builds and has been meta in the past, but it'll be a hard sell, particularly if any of the new preparations end up being worth consideration for one of the utility slots.

[Balance Patch appreciation thread]

@Zenix.6198 said:

@Dahkeus.8243 said:

I'll reserve my opinion until I see what actually comes from all of the big reworks, but if we do end up with a tanky meta, I'll be disappointed since that just leads to really boring and frustrating games with people that just never die.

Not sure what merit that statement has.Bunker scrapper got nerfed, chrono bunker got nerfed, weaver essentially only dmg buffs.

Overall dmg from the prominent burst classes got nerfed (soulbeast and herald) so Firebrand prolly will have an easier time.But other than that I don't see a bunker meta emerging, since the sidenoders will just be as susceptible to +1s as before.But maybe im just talking BS here ....I dunno

It may not be a bunker meta, per say, since a lot of the changes weren't necessarily towards big fight bunker specs, but there were still a lot of buffs to support utility and damage reduction.

Bunker scrapper got some nerfs, but also a huge buff from Function gyro. Not sure why any buffs/nerfs to chrono bunker would matter.

Tempest and Thief are probably the wild cards though. I don't know ele enough to know whether the Tempest stuff will matter much for PvP, but the buff to overloads certainly makes water overloads a pretty massive heal. If thief ends up getting any support builds, they'll almost certainly be completely obnoxious as they always are, even though they've never been meta.

[New Preparations Utility Skills]

@"Shio.5826" said:It depends on the window given to activate the skill to be honest. But it would get rid of the scenarios when an opponent accidentally dodges into your traps and activating it without doing anything (this is for the first two utility skills similar to Tripwire and Needle Trap, the seal and portal are different in functionality and would require us to be able to activate it at will to be effective in the first place). It also gives you more control over who will be the receiving end for the "trap" (in an outnumbered fight in PvP for example) instead of just hitting the first person to step on the trap, which is very unreliable.

Yea, but the same thing would be true for most of these if it was just a one click to cast the activated portion of these.

My guess though is that there will be a cast time on the preparation side and an instant cast on the activation. If that is the case, you'll want to drop the preparation ahead of time to avoid getting interrupted and to get the instant effect, which means that you'll have to think ahead on where you want the effect. If the prep and activate are both instant, then the preparation step will just be a redundant button to click with the exception of the portal ability.

[Why the range increase to Infil Sig and not Swipe?]

Because Daredevil was supposed to be changed to be more melee focused, of course:

From April 23rd patch:

With this update, we are adding a trade-off to the profession skill that keeps the theme of a melee-oriented specialization.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/74356/game-update-notes-april-23-2019

Inf sig buff can be a long range buff to daredevil, but it's on a long cooldown and isn't specific to that elite.

Seems pretty obvious to me.

[Balance Patch appreciation thread]

Looks like a lot of nerfs to bursty specs and a lot of buffs to tanky specs with a lot of other buffs that may make other tanky builds become meta. I'm not a rev expert, but I expect that they will overall benefit from this patch a lot since they rely on having a support build with them and won't have much competition from other burst builds.

Dragonhunter is the only other damage build that may be improved as well since they got some small direct buffs along with some big indirect buffs from the Soulbeast unblockable nerfs.

I'll reserve my opinion until I see what actually comes from all of the big reworks, but if we do end up with a tanky meta, I'll be disappointed since that just leads to really boring and frustrating games with people that just never die.

[Upcoming Balance Patch]

Yes. Nerfing Sic 'Em will increase Soulbeast damage. Rofl!!

The reason people don't run Marks is because it's just glassy damage with no utility, but they've already been using Maul and Greatsword since day 1. Either way, it won't matter because there's no longer any meaningful unblockable damage anymore, so even if they can't do big burst on a target dummy, it won't matter in actual PvP.

@Cyric.7813 said:

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:Reductions to unblockable uptime is adequate. This was really what needed to be addressed.

It s not adequate...And again ranger will enjoy all projectiles hate and blocks, yay bunker meta rises!

It definitely looks like we will be running into a very tanky meta after this patch...

[GW2 Needs Living Story Recaps]

I came across an article on Massively.com recently which I think makes a really good point.

Full article here: https://massivelyop.com/2019/07/09/flameseeker-chronicles-guild-wars-2s-living-world-is-a-barrier-to-entry/Tl;dr for article: The living story makes it hard for new players to get into GW2 because they start in the middle of a big, expansive story and it's hard to make sense of it all.

Personally, I've played GW2 since beta and have never missed a living story update. However, I can imagine that this is a pain for new players to make sense of. I mean, one of the reason I never got into comic books was that it was too much of a pain to make sense of the story arc when it's divided between a bunch of small issues, many of which have been published long ago.

So, I think ANet should consider two main ways to address this:1) Create an intro cutscene for players once they hit 80. At the very least, it should give a recap of Season 1 since that's not replayable.
2) Whenever a player starts a new living story, they should give a prompt with the option to give them a recap of prior seasons. This could be like the dialogue boxes that are used for things like the portal scrolls where the player can watch a recap of any living story for any season before the one they're starting based on the selection. Not only would this help new players, but it would be a nice reminder of what's happened for current players that want a refresher on what happened in the last update.

[Dont want to talk about OPness, but some builds that are not fun to play against at least]

@praqtos.9035 said:

@Dahkeus.8243 said:

@Alatar.7364 said:

@"Swagg.9236" said:

Thief passive playstyle? Eh.

There is no arguing possible because Vault is not

it simply IS NOT

in any way or universe, a dangerous or annoying skill, it is easily avoidable, easily interuptable skill that locks thief in to "punish and delete thief now" state/animation that can not be canceled or even ported from, it even has a kitten glowing aura to shout outloud when to do it. Doesn't matter what you tell yourself about it, it is a joke of a skill.Why are you defending this brainless evade spam? Thief main got triggered because he feels his class is in danger?Spam vaults, spam evades,spam staff 3 while jumping to abuse evade frames without rolling back while doing damage on top and this is REALLY ANNOYING. OP said its about ANNOYING(not OP) and if you disagree that is annoying keep your opinion to yourself and stop to impose your opinion to everyone.

I'm just stating my objective opinion on the matter. I don't argue for or against things because of some allegiance to some imaginary pro/anti class agenda.

[Dont want to talk about OPness, but some builds that are not fun to play against at least]

@ discussions about evade weaver:The evades are annoying as hell, even though I'm glad eles have a build with some sustain once again. I just wish that sustain was built around other defensive abilities rather than just dancing around in evade frames.

@Alatar.7364 said:

@"Swagg.9236" said:

Thief passive playstyle? Eh.

There is no arguing possible because Vault is not

it simply IS NOT

in any way or universe, a dangerous or annoying skill, it is easily avoidable, easily interuptable skill that locks thief in to "punish and delete thief now" state/animation that can not be canceled or even ported from, it even has a kitten glowing aura to shout outloud when to do it. Doesn't matter what you tell yourself about it, it is a joke of a skill.

It's spammable as hell and the thief toolbox has so many stun breaks and other defensive tools like blinds and blocks from Bandits defense that it just becomes obnoxious when it's used with a defensive amulet, which is where the real problem with this build stems from.

When thieves run glassy, hard hitting amulets, they're a fun, engaging fight. Without this, catching them between evade frames just isn't enough to deal with them in any meaningful way. All the things you state about it may be true, but it's still heavily spammable, which negates any counterplay when the thief won't suffer much from being countered a couple times.

[Quoting GW2 Dialogue IRL]

@"MithranArkanere.8957" said:"Everything in moderation, including moderation" is a quote useful for both when you are binging on dessert or complaining about overzealously overreaching oversight.

I love it when NPC quotes end up being surprisingly insightful.

I played Tera long ago in Beta and at launch, just before GW2 came out, and there was an NPC that would say "Be a scholar, but don't just be a scholar." I still love that quote, but last time I checked that game, the NPC didn't seem to use that dialogue anymore, sadly.

[Nerf the Mirage Daze spam]

They can leave mantras alone, but they should nerf Magic Bullet. It's too much AoE cc and at least should have a longer cd.

[Quoting GW2 Dialogue IRL]

You missed an important one!

When struggling with something: "Just give me, uhh, give me a moment. (mumble)" from Molten Furnace Fractal

Source: Am the spouse.

Edit: Also "Warn...the tribune...." from CoF, just because it's stuck in our heads from farming it so heavily way back when it was the go-to gold farm.

[Dont want to talk about OPness, but some builds that are not fun to play against at least]

I've run into a tanky staff daredevil build off and on lately and it's annoying as hell. Pretty much the only thing I mind fighting against.

I will agree that Rampage is annoying, but that's mostly because it just occurs so often during games. They really need to increase the cooldown or decrease the duration.

[PVP Queue Button: Ranked and Unranked Not Working]

@hypersonic.6785 said:

@hypersonic.6785 said:i cant queue in ranked or unranked.. pls help, the same issue for me

UPDATE:as of right now i can queue againSTEPS I HAVE TAKEN :

logged in to diffrent charecter and tried queuing (not worked)

logged in to diffrent charecter and tried to queue after changing PVE maps ( not worked)*logged in to a charecter with incompleted PVE map (21%) and fiinished some heart (NOW IT WORKED), i CAN queue on the ranked and unranked.OTHER STUFF I HAD IN MIND BEFORE IT WORKEDtry this meathod , if you dont have incompleted map then do some daily path of fire hearts or heart of thorn hearts(living world hearts), or try doing events (example:silverwaste meta or something like that)

Pretty sure this is all just a coincidence. I've had this happen off and on lately and it just starts working again when it wants to. No number of logging off/logging on/restarting the game/switching characters/changing maps/etc. has ever made a difference for me.

[Add pvp events to pve]

Heh, yea, I'm sure that would go over just great with the majority of PvE players.

Honestly, the best way to mix PvP into PvE has and is already being done: Festival arena fights like Snowball Mayhem and Dragon Ball. This is because it doesn't force PvE players to dig into all the build and gear aspects of full PvP and put dedicated PvPers who already know this stuff well at a big advantage.

If you want full PvP with PvE-type stuff mixed in, you'll find better success adding PvE stuff to PvE. That way PvE players who are willing to jump in PvP don't feel as forced into the content and the transition for PvP players into PvE hybrid content is smoother. Hell, you could just take something like Obsidian Sanctum and add some mobs and rewards to breath some life back to that area. PvP used to be really fun there until the zone became a ghost town.

[The 10 most common errors and misconceptions of Conquest PvP]

@Falan.1839 said:2)“Thief close”One of my personal favourites. I am still at loss about where this originated, but I keep reading it. I suspect it might have to something with trollish thief builds like Staff DD or Dagger/Dagger Condi CD being common in lower tiers. However, most thief builds viable in high tier (almost exclusively SD core as of the last patch) are notoriously awful duelists and should not be sent into 1v1s. They can take a few matchups (Mes, Rev, Mirror Matchup), but are absolutely awful in others (Holo, Scrapper, Warriors and Rangers in all their forms). The strength of Thief is in rotations, resulting in either +1s for quick kills or decaps. Sending it to cap close and risking it to be drawn into a 1v1 sacrifices this strength. Either the thief will fight a bad 1v1 and possibly lose, or be smart enough to disengage and create a number advantage in mid. However, even in that case close will be instantly lost, and that is not a desirable outcome whatsoever.

This is likely from DrD D/P thieves that can reach close and cap it far faster than any other class (although S/D isn't that far behind). If the other team doesn't push close, then this is a decent advantage on your team since the thief can cap home before the other team and rotate to either +1 a small fight around mid or sneak behind and decap far.

Of course...if the other team pushes close, the thief might as well just give it to them. This, along with DrD D/P now being dead is likely why you don't want to use this strat.

[Are there any katana sword skins?]

@"Kal Spiro.9745" said:Belinda's Sword is a straight up Katana. It's a Gem Shop Greatsword skin.If you're looking for a one hander the closest thing I know of is https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ceremonial_Sabre

In before the inevitable argument about the definition of a "katana" vs other similar-styled swords.

[How many of the professions do you play?]

Question doesn't make sense. What do you mean by "play"? I mean, I've played all the classes to some degree, but I hardly touch most of them on any regular basis.

But I guess I'm a monkey, so what do I care?

[RIP Banner Slaves and warriors in general]

Y’know, the community has been surprisingly level-headed about reading the patch notes (I’m guessing because of the good communication here and the other recent events). Your knee-jerk reply would just be another normal response to a balance patch, but comes across as particularly harsh with so many other people taking the notes on a more reasonable level.

As for your argument, banner warriors are going nowhere. A nerf to the overall stat benefit of banners doesn’t negate that they are still such a net positive, particularly since warriors have much better personal DPS than they have had in the past.

[Will Dragonhunter Longbow Ever Receive More For PvE?]

Would love to see this happen. I get that every patch can’t address every issue, but I think this one is overdue. Considering all the other changes in this balance patch, I can understand longbow getting missed, but I really hope to see it getting love next patch.