WvW Balance Patch May 10th

[Xenesis.6389]

 

 

Competitive Balance

Necromancer

"Rise!" is a skill that we've seen a lot of feedback around following the last set of balance changes. One of the primary issues with the skill is the number of minions that it's capable of summoning, as these minions can potentially soak up a lot of damage while also creating damage threats via Death Nova. To address this, we've reduced the target cap of the skill, which will both reduce the number of minions summoned and increase the cooldown of the skill by granting fewer hits of cooldown reduction from Augury of Death.

• "Rise!": Reduced maximum number of targets struck from 5 to 2 in WvW only.
• Death Nova: Reduced power coefficient from 0.75 to 0.6 in WvW only.

Another World vs. World goal for this update is to bring down some of the primary sources of ranged area-of-effect damage to create more opportunities for melee pushes. Ranged versus melee is always going to be a delicate balance as we do want both options to be viable, but we currently feel that ranged pressure is too high, and we're making some adjustments. For necromancer, this involves bringing down the damage of Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption. Unholy Feast is also being brought back down to its previous damage value, as the increase from the previous update pushed it a bit higher than it needed to be.

• Well of Suffering: Reduced power coefficient per hit from 0.9 to 0.65 in WvW only.
• Well of Corruption: Reduced power coefficient per hit from 0.35 to 0.28 in WvW only.
• Unholy Feast: Reduced power coefficient from 1.3 to 1.0 in WvW only.

Revenant

The revenant's hammer is another source of ranged pressure that we looked at for this update, with both Coalescence of Ruin and Phase Smash receiving damage reductions.

• Coalescence of Ruin: Reduced power coefficient from 1.15 to 0.91 in WvW only.
• Phase Smash: Reduced power coefficient from 1.2 to 1.0 in WvW only.

Vindicator has continued to overperform in PvP, largely due to the defensive strength of the Kurzick side of Legendary Alliance Stance. We want to keep the energy costs on the lower side to maintain the flow when switching between the two sides, but the cooldowns of Tree Song and Battle Dance make them too easy to use repeatedly while staying on the Kurzick side. Saint's Shield is also getting an adjustment to its attribute scaling to bring down the sustainability of Avatar Amulet builds. We're continuing to keep an eye on the strength of Saint's Shield for nonhealing builds, but we want to gauge the impact of the adjustments to Tree Song and Battle Dance before making any further changes there.

• Tree Song: Reduced the number of conditions removed from 5 to 3 in PvP only. Increased cooldown from 3 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP only.
• Battle Dance: Increased cooldown from 3 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP only.
• Saint's Shield: Reduced healing and barrier attribute scaling from 1.0 to 0.7 in PvP only.

While the defensive side of the vindicator has been strong, its offensive capability has been a bit less impressive since the adjustment to Eternity's Requiem. We've bumped up the damage on some of its weaker skills on the greatsword and the Luxon side of Legendary Alliance Stance to make damage-focused vindicators a bit more threatening.

• Phantom's Onslaught: Increased power coefficient from 1.18 to 1.33 in PvP and WvW.
• Scavenger Burst: Increased power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.55 in PvP only.
• Nomad's Advance: Increased power coefficient from 2.0 to 2.3 in PvP and WvW.
• Spear of Archemorus: Increased power coefficient from 2.33 to 2.67 in PvP and WvW. Reduced energy cost from 20 to 15 in PvP and WvW.

Elementalist

Elementalist is another profession getting a pair of adjustments to some of its more potent ranged damage skills, namely Meteor Shower and the Firestorm from Fiery Greatsword.

• Meteor Shower: Reduced power coefficient from 1.1 to 0.88 in WvW only.
• Firestorm (Conjure Fiery Greatsword): Reduced maximum number of targets struck from 10 to 5 in WvW only.
• Fiery Eruption (Conjure Fiery Greatsword): Reduced maximum number of targets struck from 10 to 5 in WvW only.

Guardian

Finishing up the ranged damage adjustments for this update are a pair of changes for guardian, bringing down the damage of Symbol of Punishment and Sword of Justice.

• Symbol of Punishment: Reduced power coefficient per hit from 0.33 to 0.28 in WvW only.
• Sword of Justice: Reduced power coefficient per hit from 0.54 to 0.45 in WvW only. Reduced ammunition count from 3 to 2 in WvW only.

Engineer

Mechanist has continued to be a dominant force in PvP, and for this update we've taken a harder look at some of its defensive capabilities. Rectifier Signet in particular is an extremely potent source of healing, especially in combination with the grandmaster trait Mech Core: J-Drive, and it's something that needed to come down. We've also made another slight adjustment to Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits to further reduce the mechanist's alacrity uptime. Finally, we have an adjustment to the engineer's shield cooldowns. We've seen the strength of the shield previously with protection holosmith builds, and it's no surprise to see it again as a key piece for the mechanist. Shield skills are available a bit too often with the cooldown reduction of Over Shield, so we've bumped up the cooldowns of both Magnetic Shield and Static Shield.

• Rectifier Signet: Reduced pulse heal from 230 to 142 in PvP only.
• Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits: Increased internal cooldown from 3 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only.
• Magnetic Shield: Increased cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Static Shield: Increased cooldown from 30 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP only.

Ranger

We've enjoyed seeing the recent performance of the untamed specialization in PvP, but it's clear that the damage of the drake's Tail Swipe is a bit too high, and we're bringing it down a notch.

• Tail Swipe (Drake Family): Reduced power coefficient from 0.9 to 0.72 in PvP only.

Thief

Specter is another specialization that has continued to perform well following the previous adjustments to its sustainability, and we're adjusting shadow force generation with the goal of making specters a bit more susceptible to enemy pressure.

• Specter: Reduced shadow force gained per initiative from 1% to 0.75% in PvP only.

 

------------------------------------------

Ok cool, Rise got nerfed, well deserved...

But why do another round of damage nerfs? CoR, Meteor, Wells, all got more damage nerfs? was that really necessary?

What is anet doing? they make boon ball super strong, where you're encouraged to just stack more numbers, then they want to gut ranged damage which is more needed when you're outnumbered or less organized against those blobs, do they want to turn wvw into a runaway ktrain so badly? Do they think those pull bombs will get affected? not when those blobs can just freely run over everything now because the hardest hitting aoes all hit like wet noodles....

And still have june patch coming up..... 🙄

 

 

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

outside of reaper nerf, this - another time random nerfs only - update is 100% pointless and goes into the wrong direction.

 

rangespikes outside of ele been weak anyways, the rev nerfs been 100% pointless

 

and ele does most dmg not directly from range, bc for full potential the zerg has to push into your direction and sorta stay around its area ...

 

 

[Junkpile.7439]

Seriously well of suffering hit like wet noodle already and they nerf it. Sometimes i see like 2k tics. 😄 

[Kuma.1503]

Anet found a new excuse to nerf Ele. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At least now people can't use the excuse "but staff is good in WvW"

This means we can buff it now right? ... ... ... Right?

Edited May 10, 2022 by Kuma.1503

[Santo.2419]

Well Fiery Great-sword IS part of a melee push for me. I'm usually in the thick of it, if not ahead. With a 900 600!! range aint like you're using Fire storm for a ranged spike. Seems like nothing can be 10 targets anymore though, so probably inevitable, just commenting on the reasoning. 

It's High Risk vs High reward. I have to duck in and out of blobs and try and survive as a clothy with 13- 15k hp.

 

EDIT - My bad, the firestorm is 600 range!!

Edited May 12, 2022 by Santo.2419

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Lets see if anything is gonna die when Zergs bring actual healers now.

[Xenesis.6389]

Anet, always balancing to the extremes, they don't know where the balance line is.

Of all skills to nerf, meteor, which hasn't been relevant in years.

I get a laugh every time a zerg goes to the wall and you "might" get a glimpse of 1 meteor on it.....

Thought april 1st was last month.

Don't worry warriors, it's your time to shine again through the melee murder ball! Hammer time is back baby! (they're totally not going to turn you all into support banner slaves next patch) 🤭

Edited May 10, 2022 by Xenesis.6389

[Kanto.2485]

TL:DR:

 

- The power coefficient of all relevant skills of non-EoD meta power specs has been nerfed by a random value between 10% and 20%

[Riba.3271]

Great changes. All necro specs were running 2 wells and ranged damage was too high. Especially Phase smash. Fiery GS had no place being better than catalyst elite in blob fights.

Now just nerf concentration stat and increase sustain cooldowns (prot, aegis, regen, burst heal, cleanse) slightly. Then we got a skilled game.

GS + Mace/Sword Vindicator anyone?

Edited May 10, 2022 by Threather.9354

[Kuma.1503]

12 minutes ago, Threather.9354 said:

Great changes. All necro specs were running 2 wells and ranged damage was too high. Especially Phase smash. Fiery GS had no place being better than catalyst elite in blob fights.

Now just nerf concentration stat and increase sustain cooldowns (prot, aegis, regen, burst heal, cleanse) slightly. Then we got a skilled game.

GS + Mace/Sword Vindicator anyone?

You were using Cata elite to get double metoer showers. 

Nerfing Meteor shower nerfs Cata elite. 

Flaming GS is probably still better. 

[Xenesis.6389]

All that meant was you brought one staff ele rather than two.

Now you bring none and ear blast any ele that dares to enter a squad with a staff.

[Hotride.2187]

I wonder if 50v50 just got to be the staring contest that 20v20 was...?

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

20 minutes ago, Kuma.1503 said:

You were using Cata elite to get double metoer showers. 

Nerfing Meteor shower nerfs Cata elite. 

Flaming GS is probably still better. 

Wow, some Elementalist casted double Noodle Shower! S C A R Y
"Ele: Bruh, look at these crazy critial hits! 3k! I SAY 3k!!! WOA! Enemy will perish now! 24 hits will melt them!
Random 1: Yea man! These 2.5k hits are amazing!
Random 2: Did you say 1.5k?
Random 3: I only see 500 though.
Enemy: Did you cast anything though? (hits for 10)"
 

[Kuma.1503]

1 minute ago, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

Wow, some Elementalist casted double Noodle Shower! S C A R Y
"Ele: Bruh, look at these crazy critial hits! 3k! I SAY 3k!!! WOA! Enemy will perish now! 24 hits will melt them!
Random 1: Yea man! These 2.5k hits are amazing!
Random 2: Did you say 1.5k?
Random 3: I only see 500 though.
Enemy: Did you cast anything though? (hits for 10)"
 

Random 4 doesn't even get a number in front of his name. That's how much emotional damage that meteor did. 

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

2 minutes ago, Kuma.1503 said:

Random 4 doesn't even get a number in front of his name. That's how much emotional damage that meteor did. 

What if these Randoms were people watching twitch stream? You didn't though about that.
You are right though, Elementalist now only deals EmOtIoNaL dAmAgE and then dies to sneeze.

[solemn.9608]

38 minutes ago, Kuma.1503 said:

You were using Cata elite to get double metoer showers. 

Nerfing Meteor shower nerfs Cata elite. 

Flaming GS is probably still better. 

 

Catalyst was never better than DPS weaver.

Not even close.

Double meteor is a gimmick, it can generate some downs - and then nothing else for awhile because weaver dps is overall way better.

It was never an issue. Absolute monkeybrained balance patch.

 

[Biermeister.4678]

Really nerfed Rise because the minions pop the ranged marks and traps oh and Death Nova reduces healing by a little bit

for one Reaper it takes Med Scrapper, Support Heal-brand, with either a Support Chronomancer or a Druid to keep them alive in a fight.  Reapers are melee.

 

If the Developers want to make a balance, then they need to look at firebrands and scrapers because if they are getting any type of Alacrity from Chrono or Renegade they have constant up time for Stab, Heals and Condition clear

 

As for nerfing Met shower why? Did a Wall Huger complain because two Ele's took out their AC 

[Kuma.1503]

11 minutes ago, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

What if these Randoms were people watching twitch stream? You didn't though about that.
You are right though, Elementalist now only deals EmOtIoNaL dAmAgE and then dies to sneeze.

Here I thought that "4" appearing on screen wasn't damage dealt. It was Random 4's number falling off from sheer trauma. 

 

3 minutes ago, solemn.9608 said:

 

Catalyst was never better than DPS weaver.

Not even close.

Double meteor is a gimmick, it can generate some downs - and then nothing else for awhile because weaver dps is overall way better.

It was never an issue. Absolute monkeybrained balance patch.

 

I agree. I'm just stating that nerfing Flaming GS doesn't help make Catalyst elite better if one of the best applications of catalyt elite gets nerfed too. 

[Xenesis.6389]

2 hours ago, Biermeister.4678 said:

Really nerfed Rise because the minions pop the ranged marks and traps oh and Death Nova reduces healing by a little bit

It's borderline abusing the target cap by using recyclable pets to spread and soak damage from players, while they're already running a 40-50 sized squads. These groups are already organized, have super strong healing, boon spamming, shielding, cleansing, insta res, boon recycling, and also using pets to redirect damage away from players, like how much more invincible do these groups need to be?

Why are all these changes being made to benefit larger groups?

They killed aoe damage.

They killed boon strips/corruption.

They killed aoe target caps.

They killed null field of bubbles.

They killed aoe damage yet again.

More support and boon spamming coming in a month.

You're just going to have melee blob balls roaming around killing pugs because these balls don't even bother to face each other, and the moment a group loses they switch maps.  Now the question is when will these morons giving anet the advice on this stuff to destroy their playground, get bored of their own suggestions and leave.

 

There's a balance line anet, between support and it's counters, stop stampeding all over it to one side, even your precious boon blobbers will get bored when they run out of content because less people want to face this garbage meta and leave. None of this would be a problem if those groups would "grab some stones" and face each other like they're suppose to, instead of running after one defeat and going off to farming easier pugs with their huge advantages.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Xenesis.6389

[chronometria.3708]

These changes make no sense - a decent boonball is already immune to a constant rain of aoe damage - and they make the aoe damage even more ineffective? 

 

The problem is the boons and massive shared healing. WvW blobs are beating on one another till one of them gets bored and goes home - and if you are a spread group of defenders trying to take down an organised group, then you may as well be throwing paper darts, because nothing is going to get through.

[Loke.1429]

nerfs without buffs for ele like always, clueless devs

[ArchonWing.9480]

Firey greatsword nerf is pretty strange.

Rise I guess.

Not much of a patch, more of a "hotfix" if any.

[Rasfar.6921]

Another all around damage nerf to game mode where ppl stack, gain every boon in the universe, gain 24/7 projectile reflect/destruction, become immortal and lose 50% of their brain cells. Bravo!

[aspirine.6852]

Rise I kinda get.. The nerf to elementalist are so weird I am not going to bother commenting.

[Lévis.5489]

Another update where Anet forgot that Ranger exists.