Razor.6392

It should just be reverted altogether prepatch tbh. No one complained about it. It was already nerfed down to 3 seconds duration in pvp... what more do you want? 3 seconds where you're immune to damage, ever heard of kiting? Saving cds? Ele isn't a juggernaut that is constantly in your face unrelentingly. Even if they go ham in those 3 seconds wtf are they gonna do? Use flame uprising, burning speed or maybe fire grab for a combined of 6k burst in 3-4 abilities depending on the weapon? Or use it as a reset / small reprieve to regain some health? Is that so broken? Imagine if warrior or revenant got Obsidian Flesh. Now they're free to go ham on a mob of people while they shred them with 5-8k damage aoe for each ability. Now, that would be actually broken. This is not the case for elementalist. I struggle to think of a scenario where 3 seconds of invulnerability could actually break the game, or push ele over the top. Yes, it allows for their sustain (if the build allows it) to be even better (3 seconds every minute almost) but, that's it really. No, other classes can invuln stomp through many ways, not just ele. Oh, you want to get rid of the mechanic to do damage while invuln altogether? Are you aware many other classes can do this by simply mixing shorter cooldown abilities or traits together? What about class uniqueness? Can ele get... something that is unique to them, in one isolated weapon set? Would it be too much to ask? Lol.

It's actually a genius buff for fresh air. You can use all your instant-cast skills while channeling. Sadly this means no more invuln stomps... so idk anymore. Also it's hilariously broken because you can stow weapon and restart the cooldown XD expect a hotfix in 3 weeks.

Scepter works well on condi/might and FA tempest (pve) and FA weaver (wvw, there's literally a thread from 5 days ago). Staff weaver is still the highest dps build in wvw. Dagger OH was never really good on its own, but it still comes with aoe utility/cc/damage to complement another MH weapon. Focus still ahs arguably the best CC in game so idk what you're on about, stone flesh nerf doesnt make it bad. Even pve has FA tempest at least, other builds, as mentioned, are still very strong in other modes. The only garbage I see here are people not being able to adapt to changes, but considering that current pvp/wvw meta is condi and weaver never had problems with such, I dont even see what's the problem when it has one of the strongest kits to counter current meta (and if it's not cleanses it's the sheer amount of CC spam that d/f weaver can output). Just because 1 build (of 30 possible ones) that you like to play isnt "good", doesnt mean that the whole class is garbage. There's no reason to adapt to braindead changes. I've had 7 years of kitten balancing and that's 7 years too much. You need to understand that there is a GREAT difference between adapting to changes where power is shifted around, and adapting to changes where everything was trashed so kitten bad, that you have to look among the scraps of what resembles a somewhat decent build. It's a miserable feeling. I don't care about PVE. FA is dead and I find it hilarious that you say it's still fine. Focus has no reason to exist anymore, none of its abilities do ANY damage. At least magnetic wave contributed to it, now does 100 damage. Obsi flesh is worthless and Gale is cool, but one ability alone cannot carry it. Name another class that has an entire weapon set dedicated to utility (subpar, single target utility mind you), then this utility is nerfed to oblivion. I liked the part where you skipped talking about arcanes. It's almost as if you're nitpicking your arguments hmm? Stop justifying trash balance bro. ANet is not going to give you even 0.00000001 cents in your paypal. Maybe you should try lightning rod, then you'll see some damage on focus. I just cant realize how people can be so pigeonholed onto "oh no my class does no damage now" nerfs, when this patch literally enabled squishy classes to actually play almost glass cannon and still be tanky like other classes were since at least HoT. Just check streamers like Phantaram or Grimjack and you'll see them smashing everyone on d/f weaver because the build is just designed to spam CC and kill with passive procs.That's not fresh air though... Devs will NEVER FIX IT. Just likethey have refused to fix anything weaver related in 3 years. It's a lost cause. In what game mode? I haven't seen this happen to my weaver in OWPvE. When she dismounts, she is attuned to what she had been prior to mounting.Commonly happens in wvw.

Devs will NEVER FIX IT. Just likethey have refused to fix anything weaver related in 3 years. It's a lost cause.

Scepter works well on condi/might and FA tempest (pve) and FA weaver (wvw, there's literally a thread from 5 days ago). Staff weaver is still the highest dps build in wvw. Dagger OH was never really good on its own, but it still comes with aoe utility/cc/damage to complement another MH weapon. Focus still ahs arguably the best CC in game so idk what you're on about, stone flesh nerf doesnt make it bad. Even pve has FA tempest at least, other builds, as mentioned, are still very strong in other modes. The only garbage I see here are people not being able to adapt to changes, but considering that current pvp/wvw meta is condi and weaver never had problems with such, I dont even see what's the problem when it has one of the strongest kits to counter current meta (and if it's not cleanses it's the sheer amount of CC spam that d/f weaver can output). Just because 1 build (of 30 possible ones) that you like to play isnt "good", doesnt mean that the whole class is garbage. There's no reason to adapt to braindead changes. I've had 7 years of shit balancing and that's 7 years too much. You need to understand that there is a GREAT difference between adapting to changes where power is shifted around, and adapting to changes where everything was trashed so fucking bad, that you have to look among the scraps of what resembles a somewhat decent build. It's a miserable feeling. I don't care about PVE. FA is dead and I find it hilarious that you say it's still fine. Focus has no reason to exist anymore, none of its abilities do ANY damage. At least magnetic wave contributed to it, now does 100 damage. Obsi flesh is worthless and Gale is cool, but one ability alone cannot carry it. Name another class that has an entire weapon set dedicated to utility (subpar, single target utility mind you), then this utility is nerfed to oblivion. I liked the part where you skipped talking about arcanes. It's almost as if you're nitpicking your arguments hmm? Stop justifying trash balance bro. ANet is not going to give you even 0.00000001 cents in your paypal.

Fix the game first.

Bro the patch supposed to balance the game has reduced ele to maybe 1 build or 2. There are entire weapons that are not viable in pve, pvp or wvw. What are you smoking?These levels of delusion are really jarring. Staff weak and dagger OH unviable in pve (since HoT at least), dagger MH being somewhat weak, but in a better state. Staff weak in pvp (like it always was). Dagger OH generally not needed in pvp/wvw because focus is better (but it's not unviable). All other weapons have their use and strong builds around them in all game modes. I dont know how you got 1-2 builds (might be true for pvp) when pve and wvw have at least 3 strong ones.Scepter is non existent in every game mode because of nerfs. An entire utility type of skills were deleted (Arcane). Staff is at its weakest in every game mode. Dagger OH was nerfed significantly directly and indirectly, focus' best ability was made worthless. Only sword weaver and gimmicky healbot support builds remain alive. Power ele is dead. It's garbage, no matter what way you look at it. They need to do some serious reverting. Trust me that if they rebuffed arcane skills and lightning strike at least I would not be complaining. Hey, at least it worked with your little niece! Ele users have been begging for bug fixes and overall QoL changes for years, just to be ignored. The main ele dev almost died to svanir when testing tempest, time after time innocent builds have been hit while nerfing the 'meta'. Now, this patch has utterly ruined my weapon and build of choice (scepter FA) for seemingly no reason! Yes, my legendary weapon and foci that I farmed throughout the years along with my trinkets and stuff. All of that is worthless lol.

Bro the patch supposed to balance the game has reduced ele to maybe 1 build or 2. There are entire weapons that are not viable in pve, pvp or wvw. What are you smoking?These levels of delusion are really jarring.

Weaver is the ultimate expression of that difficulty in attunement dancing, now amplified tenfold. Also: Choose one. Tempest is trash, I probably have less than 20 hours playing as one.

Proposal, stop posting and keep quiet. If the build was so amazing everyone would have used it. Kinda makes you think no? It's almost like predicting dodges is a thing Uhh, what? Did I say it was amazing? I did not, you can pick up on my side of the argument from the context clues: "it's little surprise why this got the nerf hammer." To clarify, the design of FA ele is made in such a way that if its stats are scaled and benefitted by coefficients to the extent of, say, ranger, then it would become a widely-used spec for sure. It would be so broken that ANet will be flooded with mail demanding balance be restored. And that's my issue with FA ele, its stats should be up-scaled but the attack should not be instacast and snappy or else the build will never go anywhere.Then wtf is the point of a completely telegraphed build? No FA ele played the damn build to have zap their targets 2 seconds after the button press. I bet you wet yourself after seeing what they did to Updraft, now that's amazing balance isn't it? Something you would do for sure if you were on the balance team eh? Nevermind the fact that it feels like shit and ruined the ability for everyone.

Proposal, stop posting and keep quiet. If the build was so amazing everyone would have used it. Kinda makes you think no? It's almost like predicting dodges is a thing

If this is the new foundation then call me when the game is complete. I'll be gone until then. See you in a couple years.

Wanna know how to design the most balanced game in existence? Just put out 8 classes with punches, kicks while only changing their visual effects. A nerf across the board of this caliber might make the game easier to organize and balance, but if to do that you have to take away most things that were satisfying to use to the players then you're doing it wrong! I remember vividly a excerpt of a Riot Games balance patch where they had to nerf Kha'zix - don't get me wrong, riot balance sucks just as much but it's worth mentioning - It read that they could have just hit his leaping ability hard, but then the hero would not be fun to play as anymore, so instead they chose a different way to tone him down. This is exactly what's wrong in this massive 'balance' patch. The balance team just whack-a-mole'd "unfun" concepts across the board with very little regard for class uniqueness, feel or fantasy. Nobody likes a completely homogenized game. Fighting games are great because you can have multiple archetypes there, even those that can fly and do everything, but those in return have shortcomings of their own. That's how every game should be balanced, and that's a notion that has been missing in this game since day 1, with all of the overpowering specs that had zero downsides when it came to mobility, burst, brawling, condi clear, sustain, etc. A restart was needed but now everyone heals the same, everyone bursts the same, no cc does damage, no class has that outlier one ability that inflicts tons of damage. Everything feels so uniform and lifeless, uninteresting and dull. Collateral damage in nerfing has also been present since day 1 for the balance team. I've lost count of how many times they have murdered INNOCENT, nonmeta, fun builds just because they wanted to tone down the meta stuff. Plenty of suggestions have always been made so that many builds can coexist, or the problematic traits / skills / builds see a reduction without affecting other playstyles, but these have always been ignored. Fresh Air in this patch is once again a victim as multiple of the skills that made this build playable have been destroyed or nerfed to irrelevance, with no compensation buffs or even the most remote of acknowledgements from the dev team. I shouldn't be saying this but I will since I don't care anymore: The balance team is so clueless and stupid that they completely forgot to touch the dual weaver skills for scepter in the damage pass. Yes, plasma burst is still doing 8k damage but guess what, it's pointless since the spec is clunky as hell and hits as a wet noodle anyways. I don't expect this to ever be addressed, just like they never even acknowledged the bugs on scepter weaver abilties 3 years later, but if something, by some sort of miracle, were to happen, it'd probably be these nerfs. So yes, in pvp nothing that involves a scepter works. Focus was destroyed and offhand dagger received ninja nerfs that they didn't even care to mention in the patch. Arcane abilities do 1k damage, elemental surge was nerfed (a trait only used by FA eles), glacial drift, the water / air dual scepter skill that has a projectile speed so slow it can be outran, the same skill that will randomly say "obstructed" as soon as you cast it for no reason since 2017, yes, that one ability got 1 stack of stability FOR WHO KNOWS WHAT REASON. This is how they compensate buffs. Complete afterthoughts with zero brainpower behind them, and I cannot stand it anymore. I got over 5k hours on ele, playing since 2012 on and off and this is by far the worst time to play. Even when ele was weak, FA ele kept its niche: bursty mofo with not much else going for it but man was it fun, now it can't even do that. Just delete scepter at this point lmao. This game is not worth playing right now. Hopefully when anet decides to do a balance patch they start rightfully buffing and turning these gimped icons with various visual effects into actual classes.

Fresh air ele was obliterated for no reason by the apes in charge. Focus is a joke and since damage is overall lower maybe OH dagger could work? Except Updraft was stealth nerfed and not even included in the patch notes. There's no reason to play power ele at all.

The patch was terrible for every class, and I understand the need to make ele less of a healing prodigy (especially now that everyone has reduced damage) but this has gone too far. Nerfing meta Sword dagger or sword focus is fine. The problem is that all your changes also hit fresh air ele for no reason, and some of them don't even fucking make any sense. Changing Updraft - why? It's clunky and useless now. You didn't even have the nerve to include it in the patch notes.Changing Obsidian Flesh - again why? It's a 4 seconds self silence / daze. It's not fun, it doesn't fit the ele fantasy, no one enjoys it, no one complained about it.Giving Glacial Drift 3 seconds of stability - ???? I don't get it. This has been the most useless and slow dual skill on scepter weaver for a long time, and you think because you slap 3s stab it's good now? Could have given it to Fiery Frost, it would have been MUCH better.Elemental Lockdown, Arcane Prowess and Arcane Restoration. By far the laziest and most pathetic traits in the game. How many more skills or traits need to have a 5 seconds boon given depending on your attunement? Unravel has it, elemental attunement has it, elemental lockdown has it, the air glyph talent has it, come on dude. GET CREATIVE. Don't even get me started on arcane prowess and restoration. Complete freaking joke to have "gain might on attunement swap" and "restore a pitiful amount of health on attunement swap". HOW ARE THESE ALLOWED TO BE ACTUAL TALENTS?I'm sorry for those that worked so hard on the initial release of this game. To see all their work trashed by some clueless balance dev interns must be difficult.

The SOLE purpose of arcane skills is to do (critical) damage. They do literally nothing else. They have some synergy with Elemental Surge for additional condi application but this was also nerfed (immob down to 1s from 2s). Who in their right mind would pick damage only skills when their base damage (at 2800 power) is 450? PLEASE TELL ME. I'm really curious. Not just that, but they also didn't have the elegance to revert the nerf on Arcane Blast charges (was nerfed down from 3 to 2 time ago, for no reason again) now that it went from being a damage skill to a low utility one. This skill, with 2800 power and 260% critical damage does 1400 DAMAGE. 1.4K! Fresh Air ele was slaughtered this patch. A NON META BUILD FOR YEARS, barely saw any play in wvw either, but no, let's trash it for no reason. It's truly unbelievable the kind of people in charge of balancing this game. Imagine slowly buffing arcane over the years so that people, aside from one build, had ANY USE for them. Then you decide to throw all that to the garbage bin and go back literally 7 years and beyond, because these abilities don't even have a niche at this point.

LMAO I knew something was wrong. What the hell arenanet? I know instant CC sounds bad but this skill is now worthless. Just when I thought switching from fresh air focus to OH dagger could be worth it...

You right. It's not invuln on paper and it allows them to be cc'd but, the tradeoff is that they recover health at 1:1, both heavy classes while the light one with the lowest health was stripped of stability in weaver, and also had its invuln nerfed to irrelevance. Balance is sad af.

Dude, all those abilities grant INVULNERABILITY. They should get the same treatment or simply revert obsi flesh :)

I'm sure lots of Herald players will hate my guts for stating this but, if you're going to send out a rushed patch into the game, at least make sure to remain consistent in your whack-a-mole balance changes. Obsidian Flesh: [50 seconds cd, only available in off-hand focus] Become invulnerable to physical and condition damage for 4 seconds (3 seconds in pvp) Changed after patch: Your skill and utility bars gets completely locked out, just like Mist Form or Engi's Elixir S. So, I'm thinking, clearly ANet is aiming to get rid of abilities that allow you to become immune to everything while still being able to dish DPS. That must have been broken (???) and clearly everyone was complaining about that. So then we have next... Infuse Light: [30 seconds cd, Legendary Dragon Stance only in Herald] Heal yourself and convert ALL incoming damage into bonus healing for 3s. Changed after patch: Nothing. You can still do mad DPS while not only being invulnerable, but also regenerating health! on a 30s CD! Anyone else notice something going on? Shouldn't all design philosophy extend to every class, just like other clueless concepts have done so in the same manner? (I seriously laughed out loud seeing reaper's executioner scythe with a 0.01 coeff). So arenanet I really hope you lock out Revenants skill and utility bars after activating Infuse Light. It's only fair right?

It's almost like these changes had zero forethought or carefully analyzed the implications of them.

Reminder that they reduced elemental surge immobilize on earth from 2s to 1s btw. FA ELE TOO OVERPOWERED GUYS AM I RIGHT

That is the whole point of this patch. To help bad players survive a couple more seconds. Enjoy playing against equally bad players while all the good ones leave.

They are so utterly clueless when it comes to balancing the game it's unreal. Elementalist is just not allowed to have good talents, or dodging similar to other classes with their blocks and mitigation uptime. It's just not possible. 50% cd increase on vital skills, skills that are FREAKING #2 ON A SKILL BAR, (generally low cd skills). NO ONE ENJOYS PLAYING A GIMPED, CLUNKY CLASS ANET. Yes balancing is nice but picking the meta build, murdering it to tell you "PLAY THE OTHER NONMETA STUFF" is also not the way to balance a game. Balancing should never come at the cost of making a class / character / hero / champion lose its identity or feel extremely clunky and unsatisfying to play. Who are you balancing for at that point? For the other classes? So they don't have to deal with something strong possessed by X? What about the ele players in this case? Do you even care about ruining stuff that their playerbase enjoyed? I'm at a loss for words. This seriously reads like any other balancing rant you will find online, but this is undoubtedly the WORST set of balance changes I have ever read in my life, across several mmos, mobas, fighting games, etc. you name it. These people don't deserve to have a job. This patch disregards player satisfaction, build diversity, build viability, strength of a class in comparison to others, skill ceiling and how much it takes to get there.

That's demonstrably false. Sorry, I forgot bad players love the increased TTK, the bunker playstyle and condi emphasis. Enjoy playing this game with other people like you.