Game Update Notes Preview: Profession Skills

[Alik.9651]

Changes of Salvation is more fitting Vindicator then Centaur

Centaur's changes look more like nerf then buff to me and it still hard to use ...

[Ziooo.8932]

Just now, Blumpf.2518 said:

Spotter got removed, so all classes lose 100 Precision.

Banners got changed, so all classes lose 100 precision and Warriors even lose 150.

 

Fury got buffed from 20 to 25%, so all classes gain 5% more Crit than now.

 

But, since 21 Precision is 1% Crit, all classes lose 9,5% Critchance from precision and gain +5% from changed Fury.

So, basically all Power Classes lose 4,5% Critchance and Warriors lose 6,9% Critchance.

 

Is it just me, or doesnt Anet want people to play power classes with a 100% Critchance ?

 

They put another 5% crit chance on other traits that supposedly are easily accessible for power builds, which we all know isn't true by just looking at the patch notes.

[BatelGeuce.3591]

I wish the people who came up with this could feel the disappointment I am feeling right now ...

[ZDragon.3046]

2 minutes ago, Blumpf.2518 said:

Spotter got removed, so all classes lose 100 Precision.

Banners got changed, so all classes lose 100 precision and Warriors even lose 150.

 

Fury got buffed from 20 to 25%, so all classes gain 5% more Crit than now.

 

But, since 21 Precision is 1% Crit, all classes lose 9,5% Critchance from precision and gain +5% from changed Fury.

So, basically all Power Classes lose 4,5% Critchance and Warriors lose 6,9% Critchance.

 

Is it just me, or doesnt Anet want people to play power classes with a 100% Critchance ?

 

could be worse you could have been power reaper who lost 5% critical damage for no reason because they didnt do the math properly for swapping death perception from 300 ferocity to 15% critical damage.

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

Would be excited bout this as a Thief main if my initiative costs and regen still weren't awful enough to force me permanently into taking trickery for all modes. Any ETA on that? Or am I just going to wait till the game's end of run time?

I got a weapon skill that costs 8 init out of a base pool of 12, and some skills that costs 4 and even 5! That pool only regenerates 1 every second, and the traits that're supposed to offset this don't do crap. I can be SOLed for just pressing two buttons against a class that can press all five, and two seconds later do it over again. And if I only got two init when I swap weapons, it's still two init! I gotta fight crap that can swap weapons or elements and have fresh skills ready to go!

Edited June 24, 2022 by Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497

[Shade.8971]

I thought this was a PvE balance pass. But it looks more like changes for PvP, though the changes for PvP aren't in the right direction imo.  SA changes were said to make Heal Spec more relevant, but all these boons and buffs are stealth related.  Heal Spec already has to bloat their utilities with wells for alac, how could this help heal spec? These changes are really random.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Shade.8971

[Virdo.1540]

No changes to celestial? Really? 

[Arthon.5394]

When you said you were going to do balance passes more often I got excited the game would be getting some needed attention.

 

But I never expected that you'd be intentionally releasing gamebreaking patches so you could then have something to address in the next months.

 

What the hell is that warrior section?

[Alik.9651]

1 hour ago, Lunia.2736 said:

Time to take a break...

Time to save my SSD for 70Gb space 🙂

[Kusarigama.6831]

https://imgur.com/a/thP0PkQ

[foxof.8752]

"Banners no longer provide attribute bonuses to allies. " 
😲 did Anet finally kill warrior for good with it nerf banners, warrior no longer provide a last bit of usefulness to a instance group...

[miiroto.3672]

On 6/23/2022 at 5:19 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Willbender

• Flowing Resolve: Reduced ammunition count from 2 to 1 in PvP only.

 

On 6/23/2022 at 5:19 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Harbinger

• Elixirs: All elixirs now use normal projectile targeting underwater, instead of using ground targeting.
• Elixir of Ambition: Reduced might stacks from 25 to 10 in PvP only.

These are the only 2 nerfs to one of the most broken specs/builds in PvP in history of this game? 🆗

And the bladesworn changes, specially

"

• Overcharged Cartridges: Using this skill makes your next five Explosion attacks deal 15% more damage. Using the skill again while you still have charges triggers Detonate Cartridges.
• Tactical Reload: In addition to its previous effects, this skill now also causes the next Dragon Trigger used to gain charges more quickly.

"

makes the bladesworn even more annoying oneshot bunker than it already is...

[Puck.3697]

29 minutes ago, littledemon.7659 said:

I'm confused, if catalyst is the most over-performing profession for the best players out there, why it is not the top 1 on the snowcrows benchmark? My theory is that the only reason the high caliber teams stacks catalysts is because multiple dps catalysts can cover the quickness for that group so they don't need a dedicated quickness provider. I kinda get it a pure damage dealer can provide ~25% coverage of quickness is a bit weird, thus I'm totally fine they remove that. But why they still feel the need to nerf 10% of damage for quickness catalyst? Are they too popular compared to other quickness providers such as harbinger or cQB?

Sorry that if I sound a bit aggressive. I am mad but not towards you. 

same reason RR Renegade was Stacked even though it wasnt leading on a DPS Meter.

Because boons / Buffs / Healing etc etc have to be equated for in the same process.. I.E Do u take the DPS Loss of bringing a Healer or do u take a bunch of hybrids and as a raid total more DPS.

however i will state:

Their change to Spectalur Sphere was Enough to fix this issue, the Rest never needed to happen.

[ToxycaL.5836]

By removing all the unique features from every class and replacing it with some random might and fury (which are covered by the usual meta comps - FB and Alacmech - anyways), the meta will not change at all. Instead, what works now will just solidify.

Why would anyone play some of the new Alac/ Quickness "options" when they're this weird to play and the PvE meta classes remain nearly untouched...

These patch notes are a hard hit to the endgame community - PvE, PvP and WvW - and I pray that they (somehow) don't make it to live servers on tuesday. Feeling kinda let down by the balancing team, especially after all the good communication and features Anet has put out recently.

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by ToxycaL.5836

[Gorem.8104]

Why do you hate Warriors Anet? Can we get an explanation as to why you hate Warriors? 

Untamed needed a massive overhaul re-design as well. How is it that once again the feedback from beta is ignored? What was the point of even doing those beta's and asking for feedback, if ALL FEEDBACK IS IGNORED? 

I saw so many good ideas for Warrior, and Untamed, and not one was used. Instead, Warrior and Ranger are both worse off with this update, They have lost their uniqueness, making them a class no one should pick. 

Why are you ruining the game? 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Gorem.8104

[FaustXIII.6409]

35 minutes ago, Daddy.8125 said:

it does share.

they changed it so the trait now gives Air Orb Quickness instead of being baseline.

to counter the fact people were stacking it... but they did nothing to actually increase its popularity.

At the cost of 30% damage because not only do you *not* take empowering auras you're then forced to take something that removes an additional 10% of your out going damage. This is NOT okay. 

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

Quote

Utility

• Seal Area: Reduced duration from 8 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only.

 

I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE SHUT THE KITTEN UP I KNEW IT

HELP

 

Quote

Shadow Arts

 

Wait hold on that's kinda nice actually wait hold on

 

Quote

• Hide in Shadows: Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.

 

So we just gonna put that back? I mean... ok?

 

Quote

Warrior:

 

["The Office" Stare]

 

[Puck.3697]

1 minute ago, ToxycaL.5836 said:

By removing all the unique features from every class and replacing it with some random might and fury (which are covered by the usual meta comps - FB and Alacmech - anyways), the meta will not change at all. Instead, what works now will just solidify.

Why would anyone play some of the new Alac/ Quickness "options" when they're this weird to play and the PvE meta classes remain nearly untouched...

These patch notes are a hard hit to the endgame community - PvE, PvP and WvW - and I pray that they (somehow) don't make it to live servers on tuesday. Feeling kinda let down by the balancing team, especially after all the good communication and features Anet has put out recently.

 

well yup.

because theres a lack of Vital changes realistically, these changes dont Enhance or fix anything to a degree to make any of these new things equally as valuable as what they no Compete against.

If Warrior took some Buffs Reworks and some weapon + Trait changes in the right places, this would be a very different story.

sadly they have just made a Few tiny changes which matter nothing with this implementation.

their playing too safe.. i dont know why their so scared to flip everything upside down....

[Puck.3697]

1 minute ago, FaustXIII.6409 said:

At the cost of 30% damage because not only do you *not* take empowering auras you're then forced to take something that removes an additional 10% of your out going damage. This is NOT okay. 

well yes.. this is because catalyst as a Quickness build was outputting alot mroe damage then other quickness proffessions.

but as i said in my above post, after the spectaular Sphere change it didnt need the hammer nerfs stacked ontop.

[Toro.7401]

Why isn't Fast Hands inherent to Warrior as a whole?  The fact that you take the related traitline because of how important that one trait is, where Warrior doesn't really have another defining factor (ranger has pet, virtues on guard, etc.).  That has irked me since release.
If that change was made, then it's possible that picking up Tactics in lieu would be a possibility (though it really needs a major buff); similarly, Arms is condi-focused, so no it doesn't make it useful for Warrior to take a terrible traitline to get 5% crit... which means they take more assassin gear and their numbers go further down.

 

If there is an overarching through or explanation about why this was the design choice, I'd love to see it; until then, it's assumed that there is no rhyme or reason.

[FaustXIII.6409]

I don't normally post but this is kind of a last straw. 

 

I have NEVER felt so betrayed by ArenaNet's so called 'balance' team. I have always had faith that there would be some inkling of reason behind changes but none of these changes make sense mathematically. Players aren't asking to keep the same power level per se but at least feel good about playing their classes and spec's. None of these changes address the issues properly. Are quickness and alacrity sources "supposed" to only do 25k damage on bench? Are they supposed to be linked to healers only then?

[Spellhunter.9675]

Most of the changes in the pvp part are made just for the sake of changes. While in fact, nothing fundamentally changes. 

 

Quote

February 28, 2022: Increased cooldown from 30 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP only.

 

Quote

June 28. 2022 Hide in Shadows: Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.

 

@CMC is this your work? Are you making fools of your playerbase and your management?

 

I am heavily disappointed.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Spellhunter.9675

[Lily.1935]

On 6/23/2022 at 11:19 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Necromancer

Warhorn

• Wail of Doom: This skill now inflicts 1 second of fear instead of 2 seconds of daze on enemies. This skill inflicts bonus defiance-bar damage on defiant enemies.
• Locust Swarm: This skill now heals nearby allies around the necromancer based on the number of enemies hit, in addition to its previous effects.

Utility

• Corrosive Poison Cloud: Reduced duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP only.

Soul Reaping

• Death Perception: This trait now gives 10% critical chance, regardless of whether the necromancer is in shroud. This trait now increases critical damage by 15% instead of increasing ferocity while in shroud.

Blood Magic

• Blood Bank: Now also converts incoming healing from healing-over-time effects such as regeneration into barrier. This effect now only occurs while in combat. To account for healing-over-time effects now activating this trait, the percentage of incoming healing converted to barrier has been reduced from 15% to 10% in PvE and from 10% to 5% in PvP and WvW.
• Banshee's Wail: This trait now grants a 10% bonus to outgoing healing effectiveness in addition to its previous effects.

Reaper

• Nightfall: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Grasping Darkness: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• "Your Soul Is Mine!": Increased base heal from 4,555 to 6,174 in PvP and WvW. Increased base life force generation from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW.
• "You Are All Weaklings!": Increased weakness duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased base might stacks from 5 to 8 in PvP and WvW.
• "Chilled to the Bone!": Reduced cooldown from 75 seconds to 60 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Harbinger

• Elixirs: All elixirs now use normal projectile targeting underwater, instead of using ground targeting.
• Elixir of Ambition: Reduced might stacks from 25 to 10 in PvP only.

 

So I actually have some pretty harsh criticism for this as a necromancer main. Y'all mentioned how you were trying to create new builds and build a bridge for new players to get into raids from open world, being able to take their build and adjust it basically? Well, none of these changes actually make any of that possible and it doesn't actually change any of the existing builds.

 

Warhorn changes
So the issue with this is its competing with Vampiric presence and life from death. More so life from death since these two traits are filling the same niche only in theory the warhorn should be better. But Life from Death doesn't compete with Vampiric presence because it just doesn't provide the damage boost needed. And if you're taking a necromancer as a healer you're taking scourge which just doesn't care about that as long as you can res. So this will likely go unused due to its placement. The extra break bar damage is nice but unneeded since scourge already brings flesh golem so its just more of what necromancer is already good at.

I don't know how this will pan out but if you're trying to sell me on a heal reaper/harbinger/core necromancer you're going to have to sweeten the pot a lot more than with a rather lack luster trait like this that's terribly placed.

Lack of Utility changes
Although some utility are strong necromancer's utility are woefully underpowered in a lot of respects. Minions would be the most common utility skill used by new necro players if not the most popular skills for new players by far. And getting into raids or fractals and finding out they're not only bad but actively detrimental to the group due to AI and the death magic traits granting toughness messing up a few encounters in raids it makes them horrible for the transition into harder content. So why weren't they touched? There isn't even a shell of a viable minion build for players yet we have 2 specializations which mention them specifically.

Some of the spectral skills like spectral ring and signets like plague signet and locus signet are a bit lacking as well and could use some TLC. Spectral Ring at minimum could pulse protection to allies within it.

Scourge's utility skills are notoriously bad in PvE, trail of anguish being the exception while the rest have a host of problem and their relating trait sadistic searing is just not enough. Serpent Siphon being the worst of them all relying on hyper awareness of party members and a ton of enemies to get the full value of it which is lackluster.

 

Soul Reaping
I'm going to have to see this one in action but my math says this might actually be really good. I'll be positive here and say power reaper might actually push there DPS. I have to actually test it in game But a dragon reaper might be extremely strong. I'm going to keep an eye on this but I'm actually kinda excited for this. It doesn't make a new build but it does change an existing one.

 

Blood Magic

I can't share the barrier from blood bank so It probably wont get used in PvE. PvP and WvW I could see it being quite threatening but if your taking blood magic you're taking transfusion. The only build which doesn't exist in any end game content and barely in open world would be core necromancer which still probably would just take transfusion to aid allies.

I already mentioned above about the Warhorn trait.

 

Something else to note about blood magic is that trait compression probably needs to happen. If we're going to push this warhorn trait is it competes with 2 traits which have similar function. Why take warhorn when you can get one of the few passive buffs for your party in the game now after these changes?

Reaper

Positive changes overall. However I'd have liked to see some more options for reaper. Such as with Blighter's Boon being geared more towards tanking with something like reduced decay rate on top of what it already does, and I also don't like that decimate defenses and soul eater are competing for the exact same slot. After this update Decimate defenses is probably better.

Harbinger

I'd have liked to see better adjustments for their power build. And the changes to soul reaping just doesn't cut it since they probably wont be able to get away with low precision like reaper can so that 15% will likely be a nerf.

The other side of harbinger is boons. We don't provide a lot of boons to really make us compete with firebrand or mechanist. We get a little bit of might and provide quickness and fury which fury is free on both of them and both provide way more. The harbinger's other elixirs aside from the elite needs to provide more. They're underwhelming which is why people are only taking the short recharge offensive buff elixirs and the heal and nothing else. Mainly harbinger just wants the blight, they don't care about the boons from them aside from quickness.

Also, what about the underwater bug where Voracious Dive is actually just Gathering Plague underwater. Are you going to fix that?

Weapons
Necromancer has some real stinkers when it comes to weapons. Main hand dagger, focus, warhorn, axe, offhand dagger, staff. Its basically Scepter is king and its spot is shared with pistol, greatsword and torch as good weapons. Everything else they're just passable.

 

MH Dagger is a pretty bad power weapon and its paired for a trait with offhand dagger which is a condi weapon and both are in the healing specialization which throws any synergy they would have out the window. I was honestly hoping that MH dagger especially would get looked at as an option for a healer rework much like Guardian staff was reworked since warhorn was being pushed in that direction but instead it will languish for another 6 months to 9 years. Sorry that was a little too passive aggressive...

 

Warhorn just got buffed but not really? Like cool reaper is going to give out some minor healing now sometimes, maybe? And condi scourge is too with there barrier? Its fine but why couldn't the trait allow me to give everyone locus swarms, fury and swiftness? Or make a new boon that stacks and steals life which blood magic could stack up. Okay now I'm having wishful thinking... I'm actually kinda regretting I made an ascended warhorn.

Focus is a weapon that when I talk about wanting focused to get a rework I get the response "Wait, necromancer can use focus? Why didn't anyone ever tell me that?". I'm not joking about that one, in the past two days I heard that like 5 times. Focus is in such a bad spot at the moment with a skill 4 that almost does nothing and a skill 5 which is useful in PvP and WvW but isn't as common as you might think. I Really wanted to see skill 4 changed to something else to support power builds because Axe doesn't have a good partner, warhorn being the best option for them. I once made the suggestion to make focus 4 summon Unstable horrors through a mark skill to provide some decent damage and help support minion masters at the same time but any change at this point would be welcome... I'll build binding of Ipos some day, but the precursor has been sitting in my bank ever since the skill was changed to Soul grasp. Holy heck is that skill just awful.

 Axe is a fairly decent damage weapon with a single good skill. It actually suffers the exact same issue as focus only it actually gets used. Axe's auto attack is dreadful and needs to be changed to a chain skill. And AXES AUTO ANIMATION ON FEMALES IS STILL BROKEN AFTER 8+ YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry... I want to scream about that one because its just awful.

Overall, I'm pretty underwhelmed. Necromancer is in an overall pretty good spot right now so I can't complain too much, even though this is a long and rather complainy response. But I'm legit having a lot of fun with the class so... Tell me we'll be getting more major changes soon because this, this is pathetic honestly and it wont solve the issues you want to solve.

[FaustXIII.6409]

2 minutes ago, Daddy.8125 said:

well yes.. this is because catalyst as a Quickness build was outputting alot mroe damage then other quickness proffessions.

but as i said in my above post, after the spectaular Sphere change it didnt need the hammer nerfs stacked ontop.

So buff the other quickness professions. People want to play their classes because they feel powerful they feel good. Lowering it to a standard where damage + alacrity or quickness sources don't do much damage just makes players not want to play them and then you're left with a scenario of instead of what we could have called 60% of players have a support option to 20% of players ever playing quickness or alacrity options and group content just gets more and more difficult to get people together for because no one wants to feel how little damage you do in open world.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

@Rubi Bayer.8493 Thanks for patch notes preview, it's appreciated. I don't think this warrior direction is working out for me though. If anyone on the balance team wants to talk about the pain points in game for warrior (for pvp and wvw in particular, though I am sure pve will join that band soon) at some point, I'd be more than happy to offer/refer to input as to what warrior needs to be an enjoyable experience for competitive. I think I will step away from this in the meanwhile. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Azure The Heartless.3261