Magizen.7842

No point complaining about balance when we're very close to xpac at this point but we can expect things to go loud again right after release.

That's intellectually dishonest because FA Cata took around 2 months (2 MATs) for people to realize you stack 2-5 of it. Most certainly didn't take one night LOL. The follow up balance patch where they nerfed Signet Cata happened only a few days or a week before the MAT, before that nearly everyone agreed you would definitely stacked at least 3 or more Signet Catas.

Like who? They are certainly not in this thread right now that's for sure. And whoever else you have in mind do you genuinely believe the NA finalists, especially USA, would think they're good enough for that role because I can assure you they only see 1 ranger in NA and he's banned.

I don't think you are aware of the fact that this build was tested several times in scrims w/c one would consider 'higher tiered play' as these were a mix of veteran players coming from USA, r55, Worms, etc.. to begin with, that is why it became popular and seen play in MAT. The reason Team USA nor the 2nd place in NA didn't play it in MAT is because both teams had no one that plays soulbeast and there was probably not enough time to practice it and be good at it in just a few days. The only top player that could play ranger well against other top players was banned which is why USA had no ranger this time.

Maybe a pull shouldn't have a 1/4 cast time (even faster with quickness) for a CC skill that also immobs you. Either nerf the cast time or remove the immob then a slight nerf to pet maul, even I can't contain my grin whenever I land a 10-12k burst on one skill mid CC+Immob it just feels dirty. I think sword needs a tiny bit dmg nerf and pig F3 then I think the build is pretty balanced.

This will be the greatest QoL update in the history of Guild Wars 2 PvP, you can even sell this feature separately as a DLC or in the gemstore. I wouldn't mind paying 5000 gems to unlock this feature.

You mean "What is even the point of Virtuoso in sPvP?"? Honestly, specs like Mech, Virt, Shout/Tactics Bladesworn, and Signet Cata shouldn't be a thing in PvP unless they get a big rework to cater to PvP'ers. The truth is, nearly everyone hates Virt but Virt players themselves which is why Anet can get away with gutting the spec with nothing to give back in return. It's frustrating for sure but I would highly suggest rerolling to a different class at least only for sPvP. No one likes Virt and CmC knows it, just come back when they rework virt.

If you're talking about signet Cata, it doesn't matter I haven't even seen anyone play it in the last 2 days. If it's FA Cata then I have no clue how you can get "perma" prot. If it's Hammer Cata well they kinda do need it considering how that spec was already slow and made even slower after the last balance patch by removing mobility on Hammer Air 4. Also, if you really want protection for free on any Ranger spec: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Companion's_Defense. Guard and Cata can just complain why they don't get to have 'perma'-stealth like Thief does, or perma-range pressure via AI like Ranger does... these types of complaints are ultimately baseless for obvious reasons imo. Just can't have all the mechanics in one class unless you're Engi LOL.

Well, these suggestions were probably ignored so we get to have a balance patch that weren't so effective. They're trying to increase build diversity but it created one overpowered build that again leads to indirectly nerfing other things which lowers build diversity for the class, the cycle continues. Can't help but be convinced that this was an uninspiring way to nerf Catalyst. Any hopes of making Scepter ever be strong on DPS Weaver, Tempest, Core Ele is completely gone YET it's gonna feel even more mandatory to run Signet Cata more than any other Ele builds. This nerf crushes any hopes of making Scepter useful outside of Catalyst, D/D builds across all Ele specs are nerfed, no reason to play Hammer Catalyst after this besides farming mechanically bad players, and the only build that was actually high risk-high reward FA Cata w/ off-hand dagger and FA Weaver is gonna feel even less rewarding to play now despite how much harder you have to out skill every other meta specs to achieve the same results. Basically, these changes indirectly nerfed builds that didn't need nerfing while not even solving the core issue with Signet Cata. People say CmC is bias to Elementalist yet at the same time do people actually think balance devs can be bias to classes they don't even play?

There's simply no type of matchmaking that will solve this issue if the game mode simply doesn't have enough players to make them as fair as most of us wish it to be. You will notice matchmaking has higher tendency to be balance and accurate during prime time in EU when everyone is at home (when a bunch of p1-p3 players are actually queueing). And then you can go to NA and try to queue on Monday-Tuesday off-hours and the matchmaking feels so RNG due to the fact that there's not enough players for the MM to pick up for your rating. Also, a good tip coming from someone who has had thousands of matches, once you're tilted you should just stop playing or at least take a 15-30 minute break to do something else because I noticed most of my lose streaks happened when I'm tilted and I'm not alone in this experience.

Catalyst is genuinely far too overtuned with this recent balance patch, there's a chance we might just get a signet catalyst stacking for the next MAT. Please do something about this class on your next follow ups or it's gonna be very unfun for everyone.

Signet Cata build has to be the most overpowered Elementalist build in the last 5 or so years. I understand the direction they want to go with this class which is to make it an aura/field/combo based playstyle (which I'm a fan of) rather than its outdated identity of being a jack-of-all-trades tank class but this patch only encouraged off-cooldown highly spammy playstyle that is highly rewarded for minimum effort in sPvP. I try to be as objective as possible without overnerfing but I'm open to hear your thoughts about this, especially Ele mains. For build reference: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAsilZwwYZMN2LOSPvxPA-zZoKjMTgeLApHAA Here are some Nerf suggestions: Add an Internal cooldown (ICD) on 'Staunch Auras' that lasts for 2s. (This does not only prevent stab stacking but will also force the player to choose between optimizing their DPS or their stab uptime.) 'Flamestrike' should no longer burn on its second strike (nerfing its condi damage and making it take longer to reapply burns) 'Churning Earth' bleed stacks reduced from 8 to 5 and increase cast time from 3/4s to 1s. 'Spectacular Sphere' might from fire sphere reduced from 5 to 2 but will now last from 6s to 8s. 'Energized Elements' will no longer grant might on attunement swapping and reduce energy gain from 3 to 2. (I know energy generation on Catalyst is horrendous without this trait, in fact no cata build will work in sPvP without it but Anet can address this in the future or by my next suggested change) 'Elemental Epitome' will no longer grant 'Elemental Empowerment' but instead grant 2 energy gain, ICD remains the same. 'Elemental Empowerment' stacks reduced from 3 to 2 while in combat. 'Signet of Water' reduce healing coefficient by 50% ONLY for the user but maintain the same amount of heal for allies. Add an ICD on ''Elemental Shielding'' for 1s. Add ICD on 'Written in Stone' that ranges from 10-20s. (most important and necessary nerf for signet cata) Decrease 'Geomancer's Training' Damage reduction from 10% to 7% and its range threshold from 360 to 180. Decrease 'Stone Flesh' Damage reduction from 7% to 5% Increase 'Gale' cast time from 3/4s to 1 1/4s, if this is too much then at least add a much more telegraphed animation for this ability it's the only way you can justify a 3/4s cast time Rework 'Earthen Blessing' to give an Earthen Blessings stack that lasts for 'x' after receiving any of these conditions: cripple, chill, immobilized. At 3 stacks it will trigger its function to grant 15 endurance. Will no longer decrease the duration of movement impairing conditions. (Overall a nerf, ele mains might hate me for it but I think this is a healthier implementation of what it tries to achieve.) The idea around these suggestions is to specifically nerf the currently overtuned builds for Catalyst (Signet Cata and FA Cata) while minimizing its effect on other Elementalist builds, especially those that are already underperforming or in a balanced state. This may finally push Catalyst out of meta BUT it should probably remain strong without being OP nor unfair to fight, which what every class should aim to be at.

Why does it matter? And besides if it was as easy as you want to think, there's only about 2-3 people (EU & NA combined) that plays it at a level it's expected to be played at a competitive level or in Monthly Tournaments. Unlike previous meta builds including the more recent one's like Catalyst, Chrono, Bladesworn, Vindicator, Scrapper, etc., about half of the tryhards I know just rerolls to it with ease and play at a top level.

Herald was actually the first thing that came in my mind but it doesn't feel strong enough in my opinion.

For me it would be Untamed and Catalyst as they are the strongest DPS classes in PvP in this current meta yet I don't feel they're overpowered, especially Untamed and Vindicator, they feel strong for right and fair reasons. Maybe FA Catalyst needs a bit more toning down but I don't see what else is there to nerf other than its absurd might generation and Gale (unblockable CC for 3s with very subtle yet fast animation), but other than that it feels fine.

Well ye, I don't think it will be taken by Cata, other specs are more likely to take it that is why it's not a concern but as I said it will simply depend on how much barrier it will give like if it gave 300-400 barrier per boon then I would start having a dilemma if it's worth replacing it over signet of air, block, or earth shield but anything below that simply isn't worth it on any Cata builds.

This is gonna require replacing one of their current utilities for a 40s cd stunbreak. This is a better thing for core, tempest, and weaver... for catalyst it will compete with block+barrier, 25s cd stunbreak+blind, flash/teleport, or earth shield. It will just depend now on how much barrier per boon it will give, I'd say 250 barrier per boon would be balance for Catalyst but that's too low for other Ele specs imo.

This is more of a QoL update for PvE but for PvP I imagine we simply detarget if we don't want to stop so this is not something to worry about.

I don't remember the last time Anet ever balanced around WvW roaming...

I'll say it again because it's either people didn't read my replies or they just refuse to be objective and ignored it. Power creeping a single weapon (Scepter) is not a solution into making Core Ele, Weaver, Dps Tempest good! We're completely dependent on the logic that Scepter dictates how good these specializations are in its entirety, if you balance Scepter Catalyst that way you only create new/more problems that doesn't actually solve the fact that those classes were simply underperforming relative to EoD specs (which is an issue for nearly all classes including core). BOTH Scepter and Catalyst requires a nerf, but I do think that Scepter is the much bigger culprit here over Catalyst. You don't want to stack DD Catas, Lrod Catas, Hammer Catas, or whatever non-scepter Cata build you have is probably not even meta or wanted in any competitive teams. Nerfing Catalyst itself just because Scepter is power crept would only make these existing build hopeless unless they make more changes to it that buff and nerf the spec simultaneously such as, buffing energy gain or reworking it but nerfing "Energized Elements" a trait Catalyst is extremely dependent due to how terrible base energy generation is. That's funny because I've started to main it since hammer Cata started and plan to keep playing it whatever the balance team does. If anything, I actually like Catalyst/Ele so much that I want them to nerf it in a way that it will actually make it skillful so that not everyone can just get on the train and literally be great at it within the first week of playing because it is so utterly broken for how easy it is. You're right, that's what is written on the title "FA/Scepter Catalyst nerfs" because I do think BOTH Scepter and Catalyst are a problem but Scepter is the much bigger problem of this specific build over Catalyst itself. And again, Catalyst has other builds that are just 'ok' or middle-tier yet I hear some people more eager to nerf Cata more than Scepter which will only create newer problems that is overall worse for the class in the long term, so not only Core Ele, Weaver, Dps Tempest will remain mediocre but hey let's make Catalyst as bad as Core Ele too because Scepter is not the problem!

That's because what you're suggesting is impractical and will never be done. Do you have any idea how long queues are at P2-P3? It gets even worse for top players in legend and you will see them take 10 minute qs whether it's solo or duo q. Completely separating their matches will just get rid of duo q'ing altogether because the population doesn't even support it, besides in order to have a 5v5 conquest that's separated from solo q, they would need to make a pre-made 5 man party not duo Q and again there's simply not enough population to have matches that will get you 5v5 pre-mades, what will most likely happen is you will go against the exact same team repeatedly and this gets even worse if you try to add 'ranked' system on it. It is a confusing suggestion for you because you didn't think through of the practicality of separating solo/duo q's because it's not that simple, the only way they can fix this solution is by implementing it a similar way I have suggested or have enough players/population in the game to begin with so this type of issues aren't prevalent. This doesn't completely solve the issue but I'm certain it will lessen it enough that a lot less player will care about it without hurting players who wants to play with friends. Everything is the same only difference is that if you Duo Q any rating you got from it goes to the Duo Q matchmaking rating/leaderboards (where titles are less meaningful/competitive), if you're a solo q'er then you lose less rating for losing against a Duo Q'd team it's not that complex. I've had enough games including streamers who literally streamed their solo Qs and still took ages to get a 5v5 no Duo Q matches, it would in fact take longer to get Qs if you completely remove Duo Qs in your matches and some people don't even queue unless they are duo'd. You're making a presumption that all Duo Qs have inflated rating therefore, it is making the Queue times slower... this is another topic on its own that I don't wanna write 2 more paragraphs explaining why you're wrong. I agree, and that happens when people care about their rating. That is why their rating needs to be separated and any solo Q'ers shouldn't be punished harshly for losing against it, that's the idea of my suggestion. It is very easy to recommend that you can just separate the 'chess' board for both solo q/duo q but you're not thinking about the practicality of that in GW2. This isn't league of legends (LoL) or Dota 2 where you actually have enough players that does make that viable. Funny thing is, LoL has a similar system to this you can actually Duo Q with someone (if their rating is close enough to yours) and get on matches with people Solo Q'ing and it works, it's not as complicated as you may think.

Yes by nerfing the elite and I also realized that Scepter is simply too power crept that it's inflating the true effectiveness of Catalyst. I think people's approach to this is too one dimensional, did people forget Cata has other builds that aren't even meta besides Hammer cata (which you only want 1 in your team or none at all because good players can counter it now)? So I think they should be careful nerfing Catalyst itself because this would literally only make the current or future C-B tier builds on Cata that are actually balanced become trash. I know it's easy to think this is a nerf to core, tempest, weaver but you would be relying on a premise that those classes were bad because scepter was bad which is simply not true.

How so? Weaver doesn't get affected as much because they don't even double attune unless it's in Air. Tempest doesn't run scepter ever and it simply has no reason to. As for core... when was the last time core ele had a popular build anyway, this is a core issue that's true on all classes. I think we can all agree Scepter was buffed, yes? Reverting or nerfing scepter this way (which would still be better than pre-patch btw.) is not meant to nerf all non-cata specs at all, especially because the issues with other specs isn't because scepter was underpowered it's that those specs (core ele, dps tempest, weaver) are underpowered or C-D tier classes to begin with! Power creeping a single weapon just to make underperforming specs viable is not a solution. Besides, I think the elite nerf on Cata is bigger than most people would think, on top play that added 15s cd and cast time just means it's a bit more punishing now to just spam it every CD on fire (which what nearly all FA catas I see do). And nerfing Catalyst (as an elite spec) itself would actually throw DD Cata/Lrod Cata/Hammer Cata or future non-scepter cata builds potentially bad again when the issue was Scepter Cata.

There's quite a lot of players that have made it to top 25 soloQ, top 10 even... But I do like the idea of just separating solo Q and Duo Q and there would still be a fair way to do this without making queue times worse imo. That would be to simply separate the leaderboards for both but can still get on the same game. If you lost to a duo Q you will lose n% less rating regardless if you had a duo on your team or not but winning will still give out the same rating. Duo q'ing on the other hand, should be counted towards the duo Q leaderboards and maybe have their own niche titles similar to mini-seasons, this way people can still have fun playing with their friend but discourage people from doing it just to cheese the matchmaking or inflate/deflate ratings (e.g. duo Q'ing with another top player off-hours to farm bronze-gold players).

(PvP Balance) Cata Nerfs: Dragon Tooth: 15-20% damage nerf. Water Trident: Remove the 50% damage buff on chilled enemies but instead add a 25% additional healing and 5 stacks of vulnerability to chilled targets hit. Shatterstone: Increase chill duration from 2 to 3s. Blinding Flash: Change the ammo from 2 to 1. Rock Barrier: 10% damage nerf and completely remove barrier. (Arguably the most bloated skill on scepter.) Elemental Celerity (Cata elite): Cooldown goes from 60s to 75s; Cast time is increased from 1/4s to 1/2s. *I think this elite is arguably the strongest thing Catalyst has as a whole yet it has very little if not non-existent counter-play to it. Do be reminded that the meta FA Cata build pre-patch was trash and had no place in either ranked or competitive matches as there was simply no reason to play it and it's really just the scepter buffs that made it too good combined with Focus. In my opinon, If an Ele build is running focus (or a defensive) off-hand it shouldn't be able to dish out "glass cannon" damage because it's really not a 'glass', only exception was FA weaver because that build commits nearly all their traits/utilities for more damage modifiers to achieve the "glass cannon" status it has. This means to keep FA Cata strong without being "broken"/"OP" they would need to play dagger off-hand to keep up with the damage loss they had with these nerfs but this would open up more counter plays to the build and would certainly make the build much more skillful and justify the reward. Focus off-hand would still remain good but the damage would be a bit lacking despite running berserker but it makes up for it with its utilities (gale, comet, swirling winds) to remain useful in team fights in coordination with other DPS classes. The balance team has a history of nerfing overperforming builds to the ground that you don't see them again for months or even years to the point of destroying other future builds for that spec as well due to how 'x' was over nerfed. I think starting with nerfing or reverting some scepter changes would be a safe and good start.