Game Update Notes Preview: Profession Skills

[SeTect.5918]

Alright i ll just add my point.

I didnt play gw2 for almost 2 months. Reason: i m catalyst main and its extremely hard to keep 10 stacks of elemental empowerment up in a real fight. Even benchmarks struggle to keep it up on 10 stacks lol. I even made a post for it in the ele forum. 

I got a lot of agreement.

However. I waited for this patch with the hope that its a change to some problems of New and old e specs. 

What i got Was just making lots of problems worse. Who the ... got the idea to nerf catalyst???? 

What are these cooldown increases on herald? Like it wasnt annoying enough to get might stacks on herald. (Quickness is cool tho) can it also get dmg now? Or does it have to stay like 25k dps forever?

Ofc there are other bad decisions made in this patch but this is for my 2 fav e specs. 

 

I wont come back to this game for now. This is a sure thing. 

[SentriX.3209]

It feels like the "balance team" is some random dude that does balancing while he's not at his main job (very likely a graphic designer).

[Gehenna.3625]

I would think that the majority of the players never come to the forum or reddit, never use sites like Snowcrows and have no clue about these nerfs or what they mean because they don't even read or understand the patch notes (aka they don't care).

Having said that, your questions are valid and it does make you wonder what Anet's objectives are, because that's also not clear to me.

 

[Catilena.8729]

2 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Alright i ll just add my point.

I didnt play gw2 for almost 2 months. Reason: i m catalyst main and its extremely hard to keep 10 stacks of elemental empowerment up in a real fight. Even benchmarks struggle to keep it up on 10 stacks lol. I even made a post for it in the ele forum. 

I got a lot of agreement.

However. I waited for this patch with the hope that its a change to some problems of New and old e specs. 

What i got Was just making lots of problems worse. Who the ... got the idea to nerf catalyst???? 

What are these cooldown increases on herald? Like it wasnt annoying enough to get might stacks on herald. (Quickness is cool tho) can it also get dmg now? Or does it have to stay like 25k dps forever?

Ofc there are other bad decisions made in this patch but this is for my 2 fav e specs. 

 

I wont come back to this game for now. This is a sure thing. 

 

I was talking with some guys in a raid last night, and I got the sense that one of them was getting his face smashed in by a Catalyst because he was complaining about how it's OP in pvp and needed a nerf. I was just like "....what the hell did we do to you?"

[Tearthy Flame.1463]

13 hours ago, NorbertCrescent.5246 said:

After all the abuse the devs have done against their consumers I'm done with this game.

This kind of garbage behaviour is trying to become a standard in the industry, not only the devs getting abused, but also the players by the devs, censoring and warning people who go against their trash practices.

 

First the new storytellers cut all old stories hyped up for decades to present their own "new and interesting" storylines, which will probably all be the same old boring garbage of human politics, now they're destroying the game's mechanics unapologetically, and disrespecting on their players? Making fun of classes by constantly nerfing it, beyond being a meme, it's downright abusive. People will know about all of this and beginning from today anybody who is interested on this game I'll let them know the truth. This used to be a great game, with great devs, this new generation of devs is killing and sabotaging the game to it's roots.

no more. The dragons are dead. We won. The game is over, I finished it. Tyria doesn't need me anymore.

If I get warned for this post or something like that as a friend just did, so be it, it just proves my point.

You wrote exactly how I feel. I couldn't put it into thoughts before- everything from the Leaks and this Preview, I didn't know all of this was happening until an hour ago. Just as a player of GW in general for 10+ years I'm deeply conflicted about what to do next.

I at least know I gave up - I stopped giving a sh** . . . what was the point in fighting for real Balance changes and asking for Devs that truly understand the combat and professions? I'm disappointed in myself and what have I become? I'm awake and blinking, maybe breathing...

I need to see what Anet does about this.

[Dante.1508]

56 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

I would think that the majority of the players never come to the forum or reddit, never use sites like Snowcrows and have no clue about these nerfs or what they mean because they don't even read or understand the patch notes (aka they don't care).

Having said that, your questions are valid and it does make you wonder what Anet's objectives are, because that's also not clear to me.

 

People are informing the population quick smart trust me.

[Killthehealersffs.8940]

10 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

People are informing the population quick smart trust me.

I just hope people aren't trying to replace a dev with another more agreeable-izzy-dev and spread miss-informations .

Because if that don't happen , then it will be alot worse , with things aimed at them, were the  majority are not affected (Mystic Coins).

(Good luck)

Edited June 26, 2022 by Killthehealersffs.8940

[Erick Alastor.3917]

Considering Anet reworked aquatic to its current sorry state because a teeny tiny minority of speedrunners were farming the kitten out of it, I'm not surprised.
They want a clear ceiling, being it making gold or DPSsing, if something goes behind their expectation they act upon it.
I think they simply want to avoid that something that is not a problem right now MAY become one.
The main problem about builds is that they require investments.
If every player could swap stats for free they (probably) wouldn't have to fret like this, but that's not the case, so in a way they're trying to protect players from investing in something they know they'll have to fix at some point.
But it's not just for the players, it's for themselves too, since angry players are angry customers.

[Angesombre.4630]

There are imbalances in the game but this patch will amplify them even more. I remember a time when it buffed skills, now it's a mess. Since the Iceborn saga I find that it's all over the place.

Maybe if the patch is done as mentioned the best thing to do would be to make a small boycott of a few days from a majority of people.

If your method doesn't work try another one, I don't think there is only one solution. The game is moving towards group play, but they forgot that in every game mode there are people who want to be able to play alone and do things without going through a meta that is becoming more and more restrictive.

[pallas.8150]

All I can say is, if you wonder why the balance patch feels weird and off... simply go to reddit for some answers.

 

You can also go do a search YouTube on 'Guild Wars 2: Balance and Design' that was released yesterday (Saturday) and is extremely eye-opening.

Edited June 26, 2022 by pallas.8150

[BigShow.8460]

51 minutes ago, Angesombre.4630 said:

There are imbalances in the game but this patch will amplify them even more. I remember a time when it buffed skills, now it's a mess. Since the Iceborn saga I find that it's all over the place.

Maybe if the patch is done as mentioned the best thing to do would be to make a small boycott of a few days from a majority of people.

If your method doesn't work try another one, I don't think there is only one solution. The game is moving towards group play, but they forgot that in every game mode there are people who want to be able to play alone and do things without going through a meta that is becoming more and more restrictive.

Enter: GW1 style Heroes.  Npcs that you can earn through mastery that will enable you to do group content all by your lonesome self.  Maintenance mode may be on the horizon, folks.

[Ruisenior.6342]

9 minutes ago, BigShow.8460 said:

Enter: GW1 style Heroes.  Npcs that you can earn through mastery that will enable you to do group content all by your lonesome self.  Maintenance mode may be on the horizon, folks.

This!!!!!

[Requiem.9648]

What i can see is Anet try to go remove all the unique type of buff spotter,banner,assassin presence etc removing from other class to normalise the game. Personnaly i wish all CORE class have different share unique buff trait line or a dps trait option. But Anet go in the opposite way and that can maybe fine too but actualy no and that will actualy remove real build diversity instead of giving more diversity like removing 10 mans boon did. Now people want 2Fb and 2 Ingi Mech instead only 1 for 10 mans alac or 1 for10 mans quickness.

 

Problem no1 that will cause is having mirror comp in a lot of gamemode now. MOST of people will go whit easy buff/easy rotation stuff such as Ingi mech/Scrapper and Firebrand quickness. That will lead to problem no 2 Both can heal and give almost all boon in the game. There is no reason to go as an example use a heal tempest alac or a druid alac or warrior quickness cause they will not be able to provide the exact same quality of boon such as stablility or resolution or permanent 25 mights unless they adding it on those. They have removed back in older patch the chaos chrono trait line how was able to give almost all boon in game using shatter, why not bring it back then? 

 

If you guys want builld diversity and make other class reliable they need to be able to challenge a Firebrand or a Ingi in boon duration. Cause otherwise there is no reason to play them.

 

 

 

[Berune.7408]

Why are they nerfing Elementalist in PVE? Gah this is so frustrating! I have full ascended and focused/recommended specs, but I can't deal even half enough DPS  on any of my elementalist specs to be allowed into a normal raid group by anyone. I'm not interested in PvP/WvW, and basically have to play solo pve all the time because that's all I am apparently capable of.

Anet: Please just tell me which elementalist spec you want me to play in PVE so that I can be successful. I can not read your bloody minds!

[deadsyeren.9583]

Guess I'll be logging in for dailies for a while again until I see an update I like.

[Xaylin.1860]

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

Hi all, below is the profession balance section of the June 28 game update notes. The full game update notes will be published next Tuesday shortly before the update is live.

First of all, thanks for yet again sharing this kind of information in advance. Personally, I really appretiate it.

We are still missing some important information, for example, how Banners will work and how much Quickness they'll apply. Regardless, I want to give my overall impression anyway since I might not be able to play at all next week anyway. In general, the changes are more extensive than the more recent balance patches. I like. I'm also on board with getting rid of unique effects. I just don't believe those are good for balance. Yes, it might harm certain classes in the short term. But if those were the only reason to bring them, then they were just covering up other underlying issues. That being said, I'm having a really hard time with this patch. For one, having waited for bigger changes - aside from those that came with EoD - this still doesn't feel enough. Many skills and traitlines are in need of a more thorough rework. Second, this patch is hit or miss for me and I really can't see the big picture with many changes. I won't go into detail on everything but I'll share at least some thoughts for each profession - what I liked, what was unexpected or confusing and what I disliked.

Elementalist

• I like Alacrity being linked to Overloads. Of course, this is less desirable for Healing builds and not too great for scenarios with a huge amount of enemy CC. But this is the espec mechanic after all. The only systematic problem I see here: Fresh Air, once again. We need more traits that can reset Attunements. Otherwise Fresh Air will keep coming out on top way too often.
• I am confused by the Elemental Refreshment change. Why put something like this on a Minor? If Weaver is to bring some support, Invigorating Strikes would have been a way better choice. If needed, certain effects could be switched around.
• I don't like the changes to Quickness on Catalyst. While I am all for not having it by default in Air, splitting it between game modes is just bad. Make it Fury by default and link Quickness to either Augements or the Sphere via a GM trait. It is not rocket science, really. The same approach was used for Chrono, Ranger and Warrior in this patch.

Engineer

• I just recently said that buffing Rifle could help power Engineer a lot when it comes to weapon choices. So I'm all for it. The related changes in Firearms are also quite interesting.
• I'm not sure how I feel about the changes to Medical Dispersion Feeld and Blood Bank. But we will see how it plays out. By the way... revisit Healing Prism on Mesmer already. Thank you!
• I dislike that Mechanic hasn't seen any nerfs. I enjoy the spec more than I thought - I didn't want another pet spec - but it is just silly how easy it is to perform well. It is such an outlier it feels dirty to play it.

Guardian

• I like how Strengh in Numbers changed. However, the way Boons are spread out in Valor now really makes me want a rework of this traitline even more.
• I'm not sure how I feel about the changes to Signets. I understand that the trait had to change to get rid of unique modifiers. However, the changes are way off. The CD decrease on Signet of Mercy feels very out of line and the 6s Immobilize on Wrath is weird as well.
• Just as for Catalyst, I don't like the split on Mantra of Solace. What's the endgame here? Is there an endgame? Maybe just bring FB back to PvP'? It just doesn't solve any issues with Firebrand at all.

Mesmer

• I am suprised to see group Fury on core Mesmer. It is nice even if it is a slight nerf to self Fury uptime. And it is still better than having it locked into Virtuoso. We will see how many builds will be able to afford Duelling for this purpose. It probably would have felt a bit more natural in Chaos or Inspiration but I guess we didn't have many boon traits left in Chaos after everything was nerfed, did we?
• I didn't expect Alacrity on Wells. I can live with that. However, it is very weird to basically force Mesmers into Shield OH if they want to provide Alacrity or Quickness now. From this perspective, I really dislike the change. I probably would have preferred Alacrity being tied to Phantasms in some way.
• I really dislike the changes to Well of Action and Well of Recall. First, Chronomancer Wells are still plagued with the design of having a big effect on the last pulse. Second, Superspeed on the third tick of a Well that is supposed to be placed on foes makes no sense. Third, removing two boons on the third hit is laughable and redundant. I get why Alacrity and Quickness were removed. ANet wants to make sure Chronomancer can't be good at Quickness and Alacrity at the same time. But this is just aweful.

Necromancer

• I really like the changs related to Warhorn and can't wait to test them. Losing the Daze is sad but I prefer having Fear for the trait interactions.
• The changes to Reaper in PvP are appretiated but I don't really play it in PvP or WvW so I'm not sure whether this will change anything.
• I don't understand how the only thing changed on Habringer is Elixir of Ambition.

Ranger

• I do like the changes to Spirits in combination with Lingering Light. We will see how this turns out. Not sure how attractive those are for Soulbeast and Untamed, though. I just can't see myself using Nature Magic with either of them.
• I didn't expect Stance changes so I'm a bit surprised by this. I'd rather have seen fine tuning on Untamed. But this might need its own dedicated patch.
• New Spotter makes sense but it's placement is kind of weird now. Ranger can already provide Fury in different ways, Fury on Signets being another contender. In non-group scenarios, which Master trait would I pick now when running Vicious Quarry? Spotter now feels redundant because I don't necessarily need even more Fury. And both Striders Defense and Hidden Barbs only cater rather specific builds.

Revenant

• While I am sad that Alacrity on Ventari is gone - I never really enjoyed AlacRen - I do like the overall direction of the Ventari rework. I think it makes the traitline and Legend way more versatile and therefore a better pick in general.
• There are some weird things in the Ventari rework, e.g. Switftness on Protective Solace, but hey... we can work on that. I also like that healing orbs are gone. Those were just not it.
• 1.5s of Quickness on Consumes is kinda shady. While I feel that playing Herald is on the easier side to play, on first impression this heavily limits how you could play qHerald. That's just not fun. As much as I disliked this set up on Chronomancer, maybe some Quickness on Shield could help to fill in some gaps.

Thief

• I like that Shadow Arts moves towards effects on entering or leaving stealth. I never enjoyed playing or playing against builds with high stealth uptime.
• Without testing the Shadow Arts changes, I'm not sure which changes I like and which I don't.
• I don't like that we now have such an overlap between Unrelenting Strikes and Thrill of the Crime. Personally, I do use Trickery quite a lot. But maaaaaybe this would have been the right time to remove Fury from Thrill of the Crime trait.

Warrior

• I'm glad the unique Banner effects are gone because I hated cluttering my skill bar with those.
• Not so sure about all the Bladesworn changes. I do like the spec but I probably lack experience here. On a different note: Extra crit chance on Furious Burst is kind of rude. Arms really needs a rework to become more appealing to non condi- or hybrid builds. Personally, I would have preferred that modifier in Berserker.
• I'm very hesitant on how Quickness is implemented via Banners. I'm also disappointed Double Standards hasn't been moved to Tactics. Yes, we've already got Shouts there. But Banners just don't have any business being in Discipline.

Edited June 27, 2022 by Xaylin.1860

[Jimbru.6014]

A major part of the problem is the state of the GW2 world versus the state of playing in that world.

Whether or not Anet wants to admit it, GW2 is not a medieval fantasy game. The GW2 world is a high tech world with modern and futuristic battlefield threats. It has firearms, ranged magic, artillery, tanks, Vigil megalasers, golems and mechs, the list goes on. Every boss and even many trash mobs have ranged AOE and CC effects sometimes taken to completely ridiculous levels, as anyone who has fought Dragonstorm or been one-shot by a Mordrem Sniper knows first hand.

In the real world, starting in the 17th century, the real equivalent of the ranged firepower we see in GW2 caused combat to move more and more to dispersed formations emphasizing mobility, range, and concentration of firepower to survive. Conflicts from the mid 19th century up to World War 1 repeatedly proved that mass formations and melee combat were obsolete as primary modes of combat.

Yet in GW2, where we face the threats of a real 21st century battlefield, we are constantly forced by the nature of boons and healing into melee range dogpiles. We're trying to fight modern battles with medieval tactics because that's what the game forces us to do.

That imbalance between the kind of world that GW2 has, versus the tactics that the devs keep trying to force on us, is a major root of the game's problems. The devs act like GW2 is a medieval fantasy of swords and sorcery, when the reality is that it's a modern world with modern battlefield threats. The very idea that anyone is still carrying bows and melee weapons and using mass combat in a world like GW2 is laughable, and until the devs finally get their heads around that and adapt gameplay accordingly, the problems will continue.

[Angesombre.4630]

I'm looking at more nerfing, more complication and frustration for the player, destruction of a game I loved even if it wasn't perfect, on the rate you're going you won't make it to the 4th expansion.

Edited June 26, 2022 by Angesombre.4630

[Angesombre.4630]

Right now it's like Anet is spitting on all the work that was done before. Change doesn't mean better.

[Senqu.8054]

”I haven’t played ranger, so I’m operating based on GW2Wiki here”

[Asum.4960]

6 hours ago, Liorenath.5098 said:

People were complaining a lot about unique buff ruining the game by creating a power creep and the need to find a ranger with spotter and spirit, a revenant with assassin's presence and a warrior with banners.
They finally remove those and now everyone complaing about it.
Seems like whatever they do people are gonna complain anyways.

I could honestly not care less about the unique buff removal itself, I always saw them as just a semi-problematic crutch for uniqueness. 

The problem for me is that rather than increasing profession uniqueness in other, real, ways to compensate for their removal, they got yet another general homogenization pass (including the uninspired direct replacements for those buffs being copy paste passive boon share traits). 

 

It's just that with how both profession and encounter design is going there are no moments to shine for any profession anymore. All the unique profession mechanics, the unique synergies within them, every crafty interaction, is either already (often seemingly accidentally due to just not understanding the profession when making changes) butchered and removed or being systematically dismantled. 

 

I don't want the entire Trait system ending up to be a copy paste on every profession for passive damage modifiers and passive aoe boon share. 

I don't mind Professions having similar capabilities in result across their Elite specs, so players largely can easily slot into given roles on what they enjoy to play thematically. But if Professions don't do these similar things in result through different active gameplay, unique Trait interactions and skill picks, then what's the point? 

I don't just want to pick a colour scheme for my UI and flavour of Skill and Trait naming convention while playing the same unthematic walking boon aura in every case.

[Bookah pls.9352]

4 hours ago, Liisjak.4509 said:

It feels like the "balance team" is some random dude that does balancing while he's not at his main job (very likely a graphic designer).

He only does that when he's not playing his quick firebrand.

[Xaxxus.6719]

Vindicator is mostly mediocre all around. Not bad but not great.

 

why are there no buffs?

[Xylas Lothian.8473]

All these people freaking out and saying they won’t play more because of a balance patch have clearly never played an MMO before. You guys need to relax. If the balance changes aren’t effective I am sure it will be addressed in a future patch.

 

That’s how MMO’s have been for the last 23 years.

 

I can understand being frustrated about your “main” class being changed in a way you don’t prefer, but the fundamentals are all the same.

 

Banners are still buffs, for example. No one is going to “sit in air” for the 5% crit, they’re trying to make it more a more viable stance for pve. How many elementalists switch to air to do anything other than CC? The Shadow Arts stealth changes are also amazing for support thieves because you can actually get the abilities that apply benefits when you stealth while in pve content now without sacrificing active dps or healing. The ranger spirits pulse so that defensive and supportive players still get the buffs. Specter’s can dps (slightly) by just spamming barriers on someone, which doesn’t trigger the spirits right now.

They are trying to reduce the amount of raiding needing specific classes so that more people can get into raiding… which will make the game grow. I know you hardcore progression raiders are super used to your specific group make-ups but that turns A LOT of players off from raiding and is a big reason a lot of people don’t play GW2 currently.

 

Also there’s 9 classes with 3 elite specializations each… play something else for a while if the changes are so bad that you can’t even be bothered to adjust your playing.
 

The gear progression is also horizontal. I’m sure most of you have full ascended and legendary gear on your main. That character will be just as powerful when you try it out again later, and adjusting stats on existing gear has got to be the easiest thing I’ve ever seen of any MMO I’ve ever experienced. Especially on purples because you literally just right click it.  
 

Take this with a grain of salt and relax. Everyone acts like the game is ruined because it’s less specific about class makeup for harder content and that’s literally the biggest issue with raiding. Class specific buffs are an outdated concept. Not everyone that plays a warrior wants to use banners. Not every ranger wants to use Spotter. 
 

As for the pvp changes I’m sorry your optimal build may have gotten nerfed, that sucks and I sympathize because it’s happened to me  in many games including this one. But that’s how these kind of games stay alive. There are other class and build options though. 🫤

Edited June 26, 2022 by Xylas Lothian.8473
Spelling and grammar

[captrowdy.9561]

Please get a better balance team