Rainiris.1975

>Why do you want these changes and what are you expecting them to do? To address what feels unreasonable. Not so much what feels unfair because WvW is a PK simulator, and that's something that wont change no matter what. The most edge cases I've confronted come from thieves, mesmers, and zergs. Like I understand thieves are squishy beyond cool and the whole point of mesmer is missdirection, but being able to disengage and reset at practically no cost, even several times in a row, feels like going too far. Mostly because it's further compounded by being able to break target through stealth. So the idea for Thief is to force a commitment to either flee or take the lead - not both, and certainly not reset for eternity. For harbinger's shroud 5, I just feel that CC is too much for Necro to deserve it. It feels like a free pass when I'm using it, and it feels like a free pass when I'm caught by it. Cele Harbinger already has more than enough power and sustain to bomb. Mesmer falls in a similar category to thief, but it's more due to the ammount of invulnerability and reflection it has access too. On top of breaking target through stealth, portal has always been an annoying skill in my book due to absolute lack of counterplay (it wont even show on my screen until it's open so I can't react until I've been bombed, and even then I have to react to the sound, not the visual... what?). Trying to push for a nerf on this end is meaningless because of the more important pressing matter, and that's the change to blocking and projectile. With all the survival mesmer has, and considering shield on mesmer is a paid ugprade, I just don't see as reasonable also gifting free invulnerability to one of the best blocks in the game. It is a chronomancer weapon and I'm on the mind only the chronomancer has a right to make proper use of it instead of a Mirage. It's the gratuituous ammounts of reflection and block on zerg play that's the main issue to my eyes. It negates counterplay unless you can meet on an equal or large group, and that's taking for granted there is enough people active at the time. What this means is that you're guaranteed to lose. That's different from being *very likely* to lose. WvW matchmaking has not been stellar, and a large enough zerg at the correct hour of the day can just camp an opponent's keep. No organization is going to help that when the core issue of WvW has always been numbers. Ultimately the idea is to tone down a zerg's ability to just bunker down so they can, at least, be forced coerced to retreat instead of just camping in place only attacking lord when "the fun's over". The ideal move would be to avoid your own keep and go elsewhere, but the scenario where one team can just hunk down at the enemy's keep also precludes the scenario where there's so many of them you can't even take a camp without 2-5 appearing at lightspeed. This is the absolute worst part of the WvW experience, and ultimately the reason behind the buffs from outnumbered - to still allow the (underpoblated) parties to remain a treat - treating damage as siege so gates and walls can be hurt without spending an entire tick building a siege that will be destroyed on sight before you can use it, and granting defiance to prevent a CC stunlock - scaling it with HP already makes it a pretty thick bar, which is why I also propose to only make it regenerate through Stability instead of fully recovering out of combat - not dissimilar to how golems do not recover health. I believe that by removing the effectiveness of area blocks and reflects, zergs will be forced to interact more directly with everything. Large enough organized groups will still be able to keep a near perfect uptime, but between them being able to "break down" and there potentially being a second or two where they are not active, it shoudl at least feel like there's a fighting chance. Between this and the changes targetted for thief, there isn't much need to do anything about mesmer at this point that wouldn't be unnecessarily unfair. In small scale fights, the reflection and block changes shouldn't have an effect (the blocking and reflection duration should be ending before it "breaks"), and in large groups it forces their precious boons to be active. Warclaw being able to move through entire groups unimpeded feels like an excess, so I'm mostly forcing a decisions by enabling bond of life by default. Bond of life causes the pet to gain the player's HP pool, so if a mounted player dies, the player dies. As things stand right now Warclaw with over 10k hp would just be able to ignore everything, so by making shackles work (Immobilize condition) on short periods, it can at least be expected to be somewhat stoppable, forcing a decision between continuing being mounted, or engaging. Willbender has an absurd ammount of mobility but what really gives it an excuse to be so mobile is Renewed Focus. So the idea was to bring it in line with other similar skills that offer virtual invulnerability. By making it so it can be hit, at least it is possible to counter it through condition application. Because that would require stability to be a perfect swap, instead movement impaired is turned to self-poison. Guardian is a very versatile class with free access to condition cleansing, which means the poison itself wont do much, but it'll force a cleanse if the player also wants to heal from low, thus granting a much needed window of counterplay. As I said, ultimately the goal is a paradigm shift. A change large enough to cause everyone to look at the game differently.

Not a nerf. A paradigm shift.

They'll never happen though. Between SotO and WvW linking being in beta for two years, it's obvious the game's on its sunset. These changes are likely too radical for most people's taste, too. I recently finished my second legendary armor piece. Decided to go with WvW's over others because, as an all rounder player, figured it would go nicely along the PvP backback I worked on because no way I was going to be caught grinding fractals; let alone raids; let alone mindlessly grinding the increasingly boring kyrptis rifts. It's been a chaotic experience so far. The first few weeks I couldn't tell what was going on, and as I finally started coming to grasp with matchups, weekroll came and everyone was using completely different builds so whatever I figured wasnt enough. The irony behind all of this, is that my greatest success has been with a core condition ranger - elites just seemed to get in my way. But still anyhow, join me, and poder the question: What if? Changes to global mechanics: WvW Mount Bond of Life active by default. Affected by Immobilize (duration caps at 1 second) Other forms of crowd control (except knockdown and float) are converted to Immobilize (0.1s). Caps at 1 second. Knockdown and Float cause forced dismount (Stun 1s, dismounts) Stealth and Revealed Revealed: Base duration 20s If an effect would cause Revealed to end early, the remaining duration is added to the next application of Revealed Stealth applied by Elite skills break Revealed and do not incur into extra duration upon Revealed (if Revealed was triggered by breaking out of Stealth) Does not break Revealed from skills like Ranger's "Sic 'em". Blinking and Teleporting Effects that cause to teleport (Like the mesmer's portal, Thief's Steal, Guardian's Symbol of Blades) cause "Reality Check" on caster for 5...7...10s (scales with distance). Reality Check: Blinking/Teleporting while under this effect: Refreshes Reality Check Consumes 5 stacks of Stability If there is not enough Stability, all remaining stacks are still consumed and the Blinking/Teleport is negated. Other effects continue as normal (ie.: Thief's class mechanic continues to steal, Symbol of Blades continues to Blind) Projectile Reflects and Blocks Effects that "reflect incoming projectiles" now instead grant stacks of Projectile Reflection. Effects that "block incoming projectiles" now grant stacks of Projectile Blocking. Projectile Reflection: 5 stacks by default. Projectiles cause stacks to be reduced and those projectiles are reflected. Stacks increased by 1 per stack of Might (up to 30 at full Might stacks) Casting multiple effects with Projectile Reflection does not cause the stacks to increase or the duration to refresh. In other words, Projectile Reflection cannot be gained while under the effects of Projectile Reflection. Projectile Blocking: 5 stacks by default. Projectiles cause stacks to be reduced. The projectile is considered blocked. Stacks increased by 1 per stack of Might (up to 30 at full Might stacks). Virtually the same as Projectile Reflection down to not being refreshable or obtainable while already under Projectile Blocking. Being affetec by Projectile Reflection dispells this effect. Cannot be gained while under the effect of Projectile Reflection. Legendary Centaur Stance: Protective Solace Because this skill is a sustained skill, Projectile Blocking works slightly different. Always starts at 5 stacks. Gains 5 Projectile Blocking stacks every 3 seconds. Caps at the ammount of Might Stacks. Can only achieve 25 stacks while under full Might stacks Losing Might stacks while at maximum Projectile Blocking stacks, reduces Projectile Blocking stacks by that ammount (down to a cap of 5) Other boon and condition changes: Dodging an unblockable attack with stability stacks removes stability. *1 Unblockable attacks without stability or Aegis become undodgeable. Can still dodge if under Aegis. Can still dodge while under Stability. Stability is not lost this way. Aegis is not lost this way. While under the effects of Weakness, Regeneration you grant yourself becomes self-Bleeding. This corruption does not apply when applied Regeneration from an outside source, or to Regeneration already on you. It does not apply bleeding to other players while you yourself are under the effects of Weakness. While under confusion, outgoing healing also heals enemies within range by the same ammount. For clarity's sake, that's the range of the ability or effect that causes the healing. Does not include healing from Regeneration. Cleansing Shackles also removes 1 stack of Stability. Nothing if it naturally expires. WvW Movement Speed: Movement Speed when there are no nearby allies(4000 units) increased by 33%. Movement Speed reduced by 1% for each ally within range (4000 units). Caps at 90% this way. If you *only* have Superspeed, and are part of a 50 player squad: During combat: your movement speed is 100%. (150-50) Out of combat: your movement speed is 150% (200-50) These effects also apply while mounted. WvW Outnumbered: Effect is now only applied to players within the active map at pipcount, and is not granted retroactively to players joining mid-skirmish. I probably got the terminology wrong, so what I mean is that it takes place during the pip tally of every 5 minutes. Effect can still be lost if the conditions for Outnumbered are no longer met mid-skirmish. While under this effect, all your attacks are considered siege attacks., and deal extra damage to fortifications and structures. Grants you a Defiant bar equal to your Max HP. Does not replenish out of combat. Gaining stability retores an ammount of Defiance scaling with Healing Power. Grants 1% incoming condition and strike damage reduction per enemy player within radius (4000). Starts at 50%, caps at 99% Grants 1% outgoing condition and strike damage increase per enemy player within radius (4000). Starts at 25%, caps at 200% Grants 100% outgoing damage against WvW npc's. Changes to Classes: Guardian Renewed Focus: No longer grants invulnerability. Instead, incoming strike damage and condition damage is reduced to 0%. Movement impairing effects on you while under Renewed Focus' get converted to Self-Poison (3s) "On interrupt" or "when interrupted" effects are still triggered. Thief Time to be considered out of combat increased by 5 seconds. Mesmer: Echo of Memory (Shield 4): If the user is not a Chronomancer, this skill does not become useable again upon block. Necromancer: Vital Draw (Harbinger Shroud 5): (WvW and sPvP) Instead of floating for 3 seconds, causes Knockdown (1s). *1: Typo

I started playing again last week after three years, and I've learnt to fear these balance changes. Theres a build that completely dies every patch. And you just offed the whole point of Plague Signet... I fear scrolling down.

Masteries are only mounts. Missing variety. Adventures are pointless. Mounts put a sour note on future masteries. A cliffhanger for the expansion's climatic ending is bad practice. Consider including LS4 chapters in the next expansion's release. There is... less content than in HoT. That's fine if the content offered is of better quality, but the only real thing this expansion is offering, are the mounts. Repeatable hearts should not lock the karma vendor until recompletion. Even with the joy of movement, exploration feels worser than in HoT.