MagicBot.1570

Holo is 2 to 7k higher than DH on every boss now, by the way. It's almost as if the data was too inconsistent a few days after the patch to make assumptions based on it I still stand by my point that DH is in an embarrassing state

Wrong, wrong, and wrong

Your comment on its own is a great summary of the situation. I completely agree and do hope that this can get the visibility it needs

I didn't compare condi engi and DH, only Holo. I also didn't say DH was harder than Holo, I said it was trickier to play efficiently, which is true The data you're using is also just a couple dozen logs for each spec, since the patch came out two days ago. Besides, take gorseval for example; Cata is just 1k above both. But cata benches 8k higher than Holo and 10-11k higher than DH. Should that mean that we must leave its dps as it is, even though players are performing equally poorly on all of them? History says no. Also what's with this criticism about having a guardian agenda? Are we just dropping the big words now 😅 am I part of a conspiracy too?

@Infusion.7149 DH is by no means easier than Holo. Have played both extensively and DH is far trickier to play efficiently. You can also use weapon swap for kits, I would know since I've been posting condi engi benchmarks for years. @otto.5684is right in saying you are way off mark here

Even if they lowered it to 4s it would probably not be enough

As Holosmith reaches Soulbeast-like burst and DPS, Catalyst and Thief sit at 44.5-46k; meanwhile, Vindicator managed to break 40k on small hitbox, and Chrono and Spellbreaker are just shy of 39k. Even Weaver and Power Untamed, when you least expect it, bench higher than ever at 39k+ on the first day. It seems as though only two classes got the short end of the stick this time, and maybe Berserker too. Even Reaper, against the odds, is on the brink of doing 36k thanks to additional buffs. Dragonhunter is doing about the same, maybe even slightly less. I think it's a shame that Guardian and Necro don't get to have a strong power option. Guardian has two power-based specs for crying out loud. They both get outclassed by basically everything as it stands today Can we expect both DH and Reaper to reach an easy 37-38k without having to wait four more months? Surely a 5-10% damage mod somewhere isn't too much to ask!

Yes, even at the time it felt like a lousy excuse to nerf scepter in favor of Sword, but I always prefered the spammy gameplay of scepter. But the recent cooldown increase unironically probably has more to do with server costs and maybe an over use of the spell in WvW, hence the cooldown increase. It's the type of minor spell-related optimizations they started doing these last few years; it's probably not much but it helps. I agree Scepter is a meme though, and since their philosophy now seems to include ranged weapons as competitive options then itcould definitely use a nice buff.

Reposting what I said in the Guardian sub, as a long-time DH player and somebody who occasionally does the math on it, I would leave the cooldown of True Shot as it is right now with the planned coefficient buff. I think increasing the cooldown on it is too cautious of a change. I just want to stress how impactful the buffs need to be on DH to allow it to make the cut. Other than that, great changes overall, really! Hoping that this message reaches the balance team. Thanks

Regarding DH buffs from the Nov 29th preview, they look pretty good, albeit too cautious compared to some other specs that are already performing quite well damage-wise in PvE (Holo and Deadeye). The True Shot cooldown increase to compensate for coefficient buff from 2.44 to 3.2 is unnecessary, and it makes it a bittersweet change. I would leave the cooldown as it is. The rest of the buffs are fine. I would've added a little something to procession as well but overall, it'll do the trick. As a long time DH player and someone who occasionally does the benchmarks as well, I do want to stress that True Shot should remain on a 4-second cooldown. Hoping that this reaches the balance team, thanks for the changes! Detailed Reddit Post :

In an ideal world these are the changes I would like to see for Guardian and Dragonhunter (I excluded the Willbender buffs I had in mind due to a lack of data to evaluate it basically) Core: SwAuto3: 1.5 → 1.875 SwAuto1: .666 → .7 Gs2: 3.15 + 7 * 0.375 → 4.9 + 7 * 0.3 Gs4: +10% dmg Dragonhunter: GM3: 15%→ 20% Lb2: 2.44 → 2.7 Lb5: 2.2 → 2.5 (final hit) Based on current logs, with those changes, Radiance Sw/Focus DH would go from 32.8k DPS to ~36k DPS. Longbow Radiance DH would probably end up slightly higher, ~36.5k. Virtues Longbow DH would go from 35.8k DPS to ~39k DPS. Breakdown of the results based on logs ( I assumed perma Big Game Hunter (GM3) uptime, which is pretty inaccurate but still, gives some idea for the final number even if it's an overestimation) Radiance Sw/Focus DH: https://dps.report/1ZCd-32889rdh_golem 3963989 total dmg over 120.726 seconds Sw3: 279720 Sw1: 153055 Gs2 : 625468 Gs4 : 405132 Scaled up damage: Sw3: 349650 Sw1: 160868 Gs2: 758143 Gs4: 445645 New total dmg : 2500614 + * = 4214920 34.913k DPS over 120.726 s GM3 5%: take away the condi dmg and multiply by 1.2/1.15 : 36,414 DPS Virtues Lb DH: https://dps.report/D6B5-20220902-121208_golem (Ignoring the fact that this wasn't 100% critchance) 3969644 dmg over 110.868 seconds Gs4: 466331 Lb2: 366968 Gs2: 701410 Lb5: 95219 Scaled up dmg: Gs4: 512964 Lb2 : 406071 Gs2 : 850194 Lb5 : 104902 New total dmg: 2339716 + * = 4213847 38.007k DPS over 110.868 s GM3 "5%" increase: 39,620 DPS

For some reason it feels like this went completely under the radar. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistlock_Instability:_Toxic_Trail Toxic Trail doesn't do the thing that it says it does, since the instability update. Basically it never worked. Can we expect a fix? While we're at it, can we also get the 2.5k damage and Weakness from getting Aegis stripped removed on Mistlock Instability: Vengeance ? It's unintended. It's also been bugged for years.

Some comments here are actually infuriating.... I happen to make youtube videos of fractals, mostly fast kills and speedruns of t4 fractals these days, but they're not watched by many, and my viewers are mostly people who are dedicated to the type of content I upload (or at least share a common interest with me in the way we're playing the game) I always try to make it very clear that the strategies I apply are not meant for unorganized parties and newer players, whenever I get the chance to clarify something to someone who is new or confused by what they're seeing. I don't understand why some people think that this type of youtube content should disappear simply because we do not appeal to the casual or fresher playerbase. There is a TON of content out there for this audience, including guides for everything. I am more concerned with the low intensity guides that are spawning everywhere these days, rather than fractal content. Some of them are made of clickbaity nonsense and filled with terrible advice, and it's definitely a bigger problem to me because the people who make those builds get a LOT of views

More PvE feedback Felt the need to provide more PvE feedback for the Willbender after testing it a bit more in endgame content. It's a very promising spec because it can be played as a support, but it lacks some of the tools that other supports might provide (especially on the offensive side like Renegade) There are three main issues : Offhand Sword, Lack of Might, and CC. CC: The Willbender has excellent CC but Heaven's Palm cooldown is way too high. 400 CC on a shadowstep is great for PvP, not so much for PvE. I suggest a cooldown Split between gamemodes, lower it to 25-30s in PvE so it can be used more often. Increasing the CC on Heel Crack also wouldn't hurt, this ability is so weak (then again lowering the cooldown to 10s instead would work as well). Offhand Sword: Offhand Sword is decent but it needs a little boost. I think another 10% damage on both skills wouldn't hurt. Could also add some CC on Sw4 if damage is too much to ask. I also would love to see Right-Hand Strength work on both hands instead. Might: The Willbender lacks Might application. Then again, I think everyone lacks Might application, so I think it should be more common accross all DPS roles to provide Might. This doesn't have to be a Willbender issue if things are done properly. Making Holy Reckoning Might shareable would do the trick though. Last minute suggestions : - Put weapon swap CDR somewhere in the traitline to make rotations smoother on Willbender (some damage can be nerfed to compensate); - Move some of the damage around in the Virtues traitline to make it less punishing to lose Aegis. I think Unscathed Contender is a bad trait that is not very engaging. Could buff Inspired Virtues to 15% for 3 seconds instead of 6 and change Unscathed Contender to 10% under aegis and 15% for 3 seconds when losing Aegis or something like that (with a small cooldown so both buffs don't overlap).

PvE feedback (+ Ensolyss PoV to back up my feedback) Ensolyss Alac Willbender PoV Hello, Here are a couple suggestions to turn Willbender into a viable PvE spec, in the alacrity generation role. Currently it's too weak for 5-man content and I would assume it's the same for 10-man content, because Renegade does the job better. Willbender doesn't bring much to the table outside of Alacrity. It Can keep good uptime (and it should stay that way) but it's still not competitive enough. It has the advantage of sharing Bane Signet to the party if played with Radiance, but I heavily suspect that Perfect Inscriptions will get reworked too on June 28th, since unique class buffs seem to have become public ennemy #1. I think offhand Sword should receive major damage buffs, because Focus still outperforms it. Willbender should also be allowed to have an access to party might generation. Since it seems that you want to allow DPS roles to share some boons, giving might share to baseline guardian would be a good idea overall. I suggest adding might share to Radiance (on Perfect Inscriptions for example. Casting a signet could give might to allies) That's all I have to say on that matter. Weapon Swap Cooldown Reduction Somewhere would be nice too since cooldowns are so short (on Tyrrant's Momentum when using Fishing Justice for instance).

PvE Feedback after long considerations ahead In PvE, Willbender is very fun to play and the changes that were made are definitely on point. We're almost there! Personally I think there's very little to change now. Some additional changes to make in order to make Power Willbender viable : - Executioner's Calling : reduce the cooldown from 12s to 10s. - Advancing Strike : increase the power coefficient from 2.0 to 2.55 in PvE only. - Rework "Right-Hand Strength" into "Sword Proficiency" or something, so that it works on both mainhand and offhand Sword. It would just feel so much better. The recent changes on Greatsword cooldowns just go in that direction of Guardian having very short cooldowns. This would make the cooldowns of Executioner's Calling and Advancing Strike respectively 8s and 16s, which would fit like a charm on a power DPS rotation. - Fix the unintended 10% damage buff against Chilled foes on Tyrrant's Momentum (I believe the bug comes from there, unless I'm mistaken) - Please keep Restorative Virtues exactly as it is ! It's absolutely amazing and feels great to play. As a final note on these proposed changes, I must add that the only thing missing for this spec in my opinion is a way to slightly reduce the weaponswap cooldown. This spec has ways of constantly spamming abilities, and it would fit in so well with the rest : having to wait 9 whole seconds on a set is actually kind of hampering the spec's full potential. The change I suggest for Tyrrant's Momentum is twofold : - Either change Tyrrant's Momentum so that Lethal Tempo gives 5% power damage per stack and 3% condition damage per stack (Power and Condition builds are not equivalent). - Or add the following effect to the existing Lethal Tempo enhancement : Using Rushing Justice reduces the cooldown of your Weaponswap by two seconds. Now obviously that would be quite a significant buff, but I was thinking that putting it on Tyrrant's Momentum would make a lot of sense. Instead of the power buff I suggested, you could say that activating Rushing Justice reduces the cooldown of your Weaponswap by two seconds. It's original, fun, and I doubt that it's stronger than a 10% modifier. Additionally, someone made a valid point earlier in this thread saying that two Grandmaster traits out of three already enhanced their own Virtue respectively. Wouldn't it be amazing if Rushing Justice had a thing of its own, like this one? Another option would be to simply add that to the rune of the Willbender we'll get on release, which would cause balance issues for other classes. I personally wouldn't change anything else. Perhaps you'll find that the condition variant is a bit overtuned, but damage-wise, it is almost exactly on par with, say, a Daredevil for example. Here's a YouTube PoV on Dark Ai : I hope I kept it short. Thanks for reading and listening to our feedback, I'm very excited for this spec!

I wanna start off by saying that the Mechanist was the specialization I was most excited about out of all the preview videos and livestream, and after trying it out live, I think it's my favorite one (although I am a big thief fanboy too, and I didn't really get the chance to try out Specter that much yet because I was so focused on Mechanist) I'll try to provide you with a proper list of the issues that I encountered, as well as my opinion on those. This is just my opinion, as a PvE player, and I understand some people may disagree with me on some of the things I will mention. I have mostly tried the condition variant (99% of the time I spent on the Mechanist), and so some of my arguments might be a bit biased because of that. Good things about the Mechanist : The Jade Mech : - looks good ; - is rather well balanced, whether it is condi application or power ratios ; - has abilities that are actually powerful ; - gives more depth to a power or condi DPS rotation than the toolbelt in a PvE environment (off the top of my head, trying to keep track of the Mech's abilities so as not to cancel anything is one aspect that gives more depth to the rotation ; the toolbelt is usually just a list of filler abilities in an already very lengthy priority list of abilities) ; - the condi line is well balanced. Issues with the Mechanist : MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE : Rocket Punch STALLS any order given to your Mech. You cannot do anything with your Jade Mech abilities while it is Rocket Punching. This absolutely NEEDS to get FIXED. The engineer rotation is far too complex already, and having to deal with this every now and then is a HUGE problem. The signets are, for the most part, unimaginative, and one-dimensional. This makes them incredibly weak. The point of the toolbelt, which is at the core of the Engineer gameplay, is the opposite of having rigid, one-sided abilities. The way signets are designed, they force you to choose between passive or active. Also, think about how good kits are : you slot one of them in, and you immediately gain access to 5 permanent abilities !! It's no surprise that the condition build only uses kits : they've been a staple ever since launch, kits are the engineer's attunements. At the very least, they are for the condi engineer build, because weapons aren't strong enough on their own for condi damage (which is not an issue for power : sword/photon forge, rifle burst/bomb autos. This is how the class was designed after all, few weapons but access to insane kits). The active effects of those new signets are also weak in essence. It's risible that Concussion Bomb is more valuable than Superconductor Signet : it's only one fifth of a utility skill. The Elite signet is also laughable. It deals so little damage that it's probably only competing with Grenade auto in terms of damage. Those abilities need some serious buffs and actually useful condis on them (and not just 3 seconds of burning). Mace is bad for a DPS build in PvE. Mace autos are worse than Pistol autos (and that says a lot). Mace abilities have NO damage output. Absolutely nothing of value. Perhaps there's a CHANCE that it MAY be better than a Pistol in very niche situations (actually, just one) when you wish to maximize confusion damage (Twin Largos) but that is it. Perhaps this weapon is only designed for PvP, or for party support, and in that case I cannot say if it does a proper job. But for a traitline that tries so hard to make every build work, I find it hard to believe that Mace was intentionally designed to be terrible for condition damage (there's even conditions on it). The Jade Mech takes too long to walk to the boss, because it's a pet (example : Dark Ai). Using a Jade Mech ability is clunky when it is out of range. Basically it's pretty unresponsive because it has to come to the boss. It would be very nice if it had a built-in opening ability that would teleport it to the target, like the shadowstep signet (one can dream). The Jade Mech dies WAY too easily to some of in-game mechanics that are in some cases unavoidable. It dies to the star-shaped laser patterns on Dark Ai when they are not reflected (you can reflect those however, but I'm not sure if it's even intended). I think the Mech should honestly get at least a 50% damage reduction to abilities which do not target it directly in PvE. The cooldowns aren't showing properly on Jade Mech abilities F1 and F3, but it does work properly on the F2. Supposedly, it should work the same way on all of them. Core problems with the spec in PvE : This spec is obviously more balanced, at least for now, for a condi build. The difference in stat inheritance between power and condi, by the way, is hilarious. I think the balance team is a bit out of touch with the condi/power divide. The fact that the golem inherits from 50% of the berserker stats but 100% of the condi stats is not only unfair, but inconsistent with the Exposed changes from May (+30% power damage / +100% condi damage). The truth is, condi builds function with two stats, and power builds function with three stats. If you hurt the builds that already start at a disadvantage, you cannot expect them to work equally well. The power stat inheritance should be, I think, 80-85% of each stat. The Jade Mech steals boons like quickness from certain classes, because boon application is sometimes broken (Firebrand mantras do not prioritize players properly as they used to). It also double dips on might because its stats scale off of your fully maxed stats (power+might and condi+might), which means that theoretically your golem can virtually have 50 might. The Jade Mech doesn't inherit specific condi or boon duration increases, which is also an issue in the long run. I think it should inherit all of that and be balanced with that in mind, to make it less confusing. I also believe there should be a "synchronization" trait that copies your boons to your Mech periodically. In this case, the Jade Mech should be balanced with this feature in mind, obviously. The Jade Mech doesn't work underwater and is replaced with a "Jade Mech Support" ability. I think it goes without saying that I'm disappointed in this, even if I don't care about underwater content. I think it is bad design, because underwater content should at least be maintained properly. But to be fair, this issue is minor. The Jade Mech's name constantly resets, whether it flies away or dies. This should be fixed as well. Here's some footage of the condition build rotation : https://youtu.be/RJUBAGISNC0 I encourage anyone who's interested in condi Mechanist to check out Lunar's channel on youtube. He did some crazy good work with on the DPS rotation for this Beta : https://youtube.com/c/GuildWarsUploads More specific engineer issues that do not involve Mechanist, but are related to the build : - Aim-assisted Rocket in Explosive having a range threshold is just sad. It would be insanely fun if it could work with melee as well, now that the mech can benefit from it too. - Pinpoint Distribution or Thermal Vision should be moved so that both can be run in the same build, but it's hard to know where to put them. This trade off doesn't make too much sense. Unique party buffs give insentive to bring the class in a squad. - Napalm is annoying and too easily cancelled. - Poison Dart Volley doesn't connect properly on moving targets.

I don't think I understood what you meant, I think Pinpoint and Thermal are next to each other only to force a tradeoff, I doubt there was a lot of thought put into it. But I believe this trade off feels bad and it shouldn't exist

I know there are plenty of things people want to see fixed, but as someone who doesn't play Elementalist much, and has a different perspective, I just wanna say one thing : Why are Augments not shared with allies ? I have a feeling that Arenanet has developped an aversion for unique party buffs. But I don't understand why because it's a reliable way to enforce a class into the PvE meta.

I'm surprised that it was never decided to move Thermal Vision or Pinpoint Distribution around. They were purposely put next to each other, to force players into making a choice : either the selfish, personal DPS option, or the party-buffing option. But chances are you're unlikely to bring multiple condi Engineers in a party, because those builds are hard to play and they sometimes have a hard time competing with other best-in-slot DPS classes in real scenarios. Major Master seems completely overloaded in Firearms, you essentially have to pick one trait out of three excellent traits, and it really is a bit of a shame. Moving Pinpoint Distribution to Explosives Major Master would help, but it would hurt the integrity of the Explosives traitline which I feel is well designed. Tools on the other hand is a very, very poor traitline where Pinpoint Distribution would fit extremely well. It would also give a purpose to core Engineer and make it a lot more support-y, by enhancing allies' condi damage. This way, both condi Engineer and Condi Holo (which in its current state is almost perfect) would be pretty competitive, even if both rotations are hard. We don't know yet what the Engineer specialization will be like, but I am assuming, like other specializations we're currently seeing, it will have some disposition to be played as condi. In that case, adding Pinpoint to Tools would allow three condi Engineer builds to be somewhat competitive with each other, without any build really stepping onto the other since, really, the DPS gains from Pinpoint Distribution and Thermal Vision are pretty similar party-wise. So my main point is that one of these two traits should be moved, and I suggest to put Pinpoint Distribution in Tools to allow for more build diversity. Thoughts?

Still bugged a year later ! :)