August 2 Balance Update Preview

[Mikael Ekvall.6039]

I really hope ANET fix Chronomacer "Wells" in the august 2nd balance patch. Wells are so bad right now that no one in their right mind would use them. Also fix Time Warp and SOI. They suck now.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Mikael Ekvall.6039

[Zaret.1450]

20 hours ago, Skyroar.2974 said:

As you are touching Mesmer's sword, can I ask you Anet devs:

1. Why Sword #3 being a completely different skill as Virtuoso is an undocumented change?

2. If there are any plans to make that version of the skill game-wide.

3. Why aren't sword skills tooltiped as "blades" for the sake of virtuoso's trait synergy, while greatsword's skills are?

I always felt Virtuoso's sword changes were released in an incomplete/rushed state, but I'm surprised how Anet has never acknowledged it and have completely ignored it so far.

the thing is sword 3 is a clone skill i think, while the others are ilusions or howerevr they are called.

so sword skill needed a change so it was still a movement skill, as clones are converted to blades, while the ilusion skills didnt need the change, i dont know if there are more weapon skills that work diferent, i mean sword 3 was the only dependant on clone, 1 to create it then to swap position with it, while other skills just create the clone and it has nothing to do with the rest of the skill.

[Valisha.8650]

1 hour ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Firebrand players are so spoiled that being just competitive in DPS with two specs and still dominant as support actually feels the same as being "useless".  Welcome to being a little closer to following the same rules all the other classes have to play by I guess? 🤦‍♂️  

For the privileged ones, equality feels like oppression. 

[Skyroar.2974]

19 minutes ago, zaswer.5246 said:

the thing is sword 3 is a clone skill i think, while the others are ilusions or howerevr they are called.

so sword skill needed a change so it was still a movement skill, as clones are converted to blades, while the ilusion skills didnt need the change, i dont know if there are more weapon skills that work diferent, i mean sword 3 was the only dependant on clone, 1 to create it then to swap position with it, while other skills just create the clone and it has nothing to do with the rest of the skill.

I understand why the change was made; I just don't understand why Anet didn't standardize it to the entire profession, and instead left it as an undocumented "exception" with no clear (in-game) or intuitive reasoning (to most of the playerbase) on why it works differently.

Functional skill splits between different modes was already something old Anet wanted to avoid really hard, after the mess it lead to in GW1, while new Anet seems fine with bringing it back. But functional splits in the same game mode? Seems like a surefire way to make GW2 really unfriendly to new players in the long run, if they continue to do this.

Standardization is important to pretty much nearly any product/work ever, because it helps complexity creep from going out of control. Clearly-defined rules are important to make your game approachable and easy to understand. (Undocumented) exceptions go against that and set a dangerous precedent that more may or are still yet to come.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Skyroar.2974

[Zaret.1450]

1 minute ago, Skyroar.2974 said:

I understand why the change was made; I just don't understand why Anet didn't standardize it to the entire profession, and instead left it as an undocumented "exception" with no clear (in-game) or intuitive reasoning (to most of the playerbase) on why it works differently.

 

Functional skill splits between different modes was already something old Anet wanted to avoid really hard, after the mess it lead to in GW1, while new Anet seems fine with bringing it back. But functional splits in the same game mode? Seems like a surefire way to make GW2 really unfriendly to new players in the long run, if they continue to do this.

 

Standardization is important to pretty much nearly any product/work ever, because it avoids complexity creep from going out of control. Clearly-defined rules are important to make your game approachable and easy to understand. (Undocumented) exceptions go against that and set a dangerous precedent that more may or are still yet to come.

mmm i dont realy care that much about the change, when i first used and saw the jump i said woa new change? then got on chrono and said, ah only virtu, then read the skill again and thought makes sense, not that it realy changes anything about the skill or anything, its still a movility tipe skill, and well if you know how the elite and sword works it makes sense, as for standarization, i disagree, i like diferent elites getting skills work different for them, i mean if virtu worked the exact same way as chrono it would be boring, if mirage didnt have ambush skills and its unique evade, if chrono didnt have its unique fskills, as long as the skill isnt bugged and it is the same tipe of skill, movility, dmg, cc etc.

Just think about it, they could have just left sw3 as it was and it would have been bugged, meanwile changing the skill in all mesmers would have been strange, the skill worked fine so why change it right? instead they made a skill work in an unique sinergy with the new elite and i like it.

 

They could also just make every class be a firebrand, spam mantras brainlessly and be the top class of the game.

[Bazsi.2734]

While I appreciate the devs admitting the "'hiccup"' on banners and reworking them again... this is still worse than it's initial 2012 version was. Having a new skillbar while carrying a banner was nice. Making one or two teammate having to pay attention and carry the other banners around with you was also adding flavor to having a warrior in the team.
Not to mention anyone could become a little bit of a support for the duration of carrying a banner. Just take that concept and tune it up to 2022 levels, why another inferior(less bad than the previous but still) version to the original? It's okay to just keep building on a good foundation once you have one.

Spirits, banners, turrets... they are all just immobile entities that pulse out boons for a while, and everything else about them is irrelevant. Please stop making everything the same.

[Alsandar.7420]

You guys decimated Chrono shield 5, Tides of Time, in WvW. Just gutted it. And left us with nothing. We CANNOT play Mirage in WvW. Ever. It only has one dodge. And Virtuoso is a no show. You've forced us to play Chrono in WvW for years. And you nerfed it.

 

Please be the fun, thoughtful company, that appreciates players. 

[Demented Lemur.7861]

17 hours ago, Roda.7468 said:

Oh boy more smaller boon ranges 🙃

I didn't want to see my character fighting, or be personally responsible for my positioning anyway

/s

 

Y'all want the greater population to get into more high end content?  Stop forcing everyone to play melee.  Other successful raiding mmos allow ranged archetypes for a reason. (the reason is they're fun to play), and no giving someone a ranged weapon to fire in melee doesn't count.

Question what mmo are you referring to?

 

Other MMOS usually have ranged classes either be incredibly squishy or don't allow the customization that gw2 does how many mmos let you swap weapons in combat.

 

Also the reason they generally try to make ranged classes weaker is due to the reward/ risk factor. During the beta of gw2 they realized they have to be careful with ranged weapons as the moment that they do equivalent damage to melee everyone will just go ranged because it's safer. Virtuoso is already showing how problematic this can be as the players often play virtuoso because they can deal decent damage at range and do mechanics that a melee spec would have to stop damage for.

 

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

31 minutes ago, Demented Lemur.7861 said:

Question what mmo are you referring to?

 

Other MMOS usually have ranged classes either be incredibly squishy or don't allow the customization that gw2 does how many mmos let you swap weapons in combat.

 

Also the reason they generally try to make ranged classes weaker is due to the reward/ risk factor. During the beta of gw2 they realized they have to be careful with ranged weapons as the moment that they do equivalent damage to melee everyone will just go ranged because it's safer. Virtuoso is already showing how problematic this can be as the players often play virtuoso because they can deal decent damage at range and do mechanics that a melee spec would have to stop damage for.

 

 

It's our fault.  We criticized the game for "stack-in-a-pile" gameplay.  We should have anticipated the uninspired response: just overtune all the ranged specs!

[Fueki.4753]

Arenanet, please just stop touching Warrior.

It's already the worst profession by far.

Unless you actively aim to lose customers, you don't need to make it even worse.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Mungo Zen.9364]

Underwhelming. The continuation of a development team that hasn’t the time, energy or resources to actually balance this game. I wonder if they even have a care about balance and playability. 

[Jajo.1428]

Oh joy, buffing banners and only banners... like they are the only warrior utility skill that needs it...

At least now they will be less painful to use, so I guess they have that going for them.

[AlCapwnd.7834]

23 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Hello everyone, I have an update from Game Director Josh Davis:

 

Hi all,

In our “Profession Balance: Next Steps” post on June 30, we stated that we’d be making some additional adjustments to mesmer weapons, traits, and warrior banners in the August 2 update. Below you will find a preview of those changes.

FYI: we’ve also added an additional balance update to our release schedule on August 23, focused on buffing a larger set of specializations. We’ll have more information on what that build includes in the coming weeks. Thank you for your continued patience and support as we address your feedback from the June 28 professions update.

Mesmer

Similar to recent tuning on Ranger weapons, the following are a small set of changes focused on improving damage capability of chronomancer builds in PvE. Improvements to greatsword and sword, as well as a significant damage increase added to the chronomancer's 'Improved Alacrity' trait will increase the performance of both damage and boon support chronomancer builds.

Greatsword

• Spatial Surge: (PvE only) Increased minimum damage multiplier from 0.69 to 0.8. Increased maximum damage multiplier from 1.005 to 1.1.
• Mind Stab: (PvE only) Increased damage multiplier from 1.0 to 1.8.
• Phantasmal Berserker: (PvE only) Increased damage multiplier of initial strike from 0.4 to 1.2.

Sword:

• Mind Slash: (PvE only) Increased damage multiplier from 0.75 to 0.8.
• Mind Gash: (PvE only) Increased damage multiplier from 0.75 to 0.8.

Chronomancer Traits:

• Improved Alacrity: In addition to its previous effects, this trait now also increases your critical-strike damage by 10% when you have alacrity. This is a multiplier to total damage dealt, not additive with critical strike damage from Ferocity.

Warrior

We badly missed the mark with banner changes in the June update. We've gone back to the drawing board to be bolder with changes, add more powerful utility, and make banners easier to use. Each banner will now do its most powerful effects immediately on use and have a much shorter base cooldown of 30 seconds.

To address situations where it felt like the Warrior needed to continually adjust the positions of their banners, pulsing boons are now granted in an increased duration per pulse, but over a shorter amount of time. It will no longer be necessary to stand around the banner for its full duration to upkeep banner boons - duration will stack up more quickly. The reduced cooldowns allow warriors the use of their powerful on-drop effects frequently. The radius and duration of banners has been reduced to better reflect this more focused role. The previous ability for banners to grant quickness to allies has been moved to the Doubled Standards trait.

General banner skill changes:

• Recharge reduced from 60s to 30s (except Battle Standard)
• Animation changed; cast time reduced by 0.2s (except Battle Standard)
• Light combo field radius reduced from 600 to 360. Combo field duration reduced to from 5s to 3s.
• Pulsing boon radius reduced to 360.
• Once dropped, banners last for 15 seconds, and can no longer be picked up.
• Banners no longer grant quickness on drop by default (except for Banner of Tactics in PvE only).
• Doubled Standards: This trait now grants quickness on banner drop, in addition to its other effects. Clarified in description that boon duration increase only applies to the pulsing boons, and not any other boons granted on the initial banner drop.

All banner skills (except for Battle Standard) have been reworked. They now grant different effects when dropped, depending on the banner:[CC1] [JD2] 

• Banner of Defense: Grants barrier and aegis to allies.
• Banner of Tactics: Applies stability and super speed (and quickness in PvE only) to allies.
• Banner of Discipline: Damages and applies bleeding and cripple. This skill no longer creates a light combo field, but acts as a blast finisher instead.
• Banner of Strength: Damages and dazes enemies. This skill no longer creates a light combo field, but acts as a blast finisher instead.
• Battle Standard: Damage multiplier has been increased from 1.5 to 4.0 in PvE only. This skill no longer creates a light combo field, but acts as a blast finisher instead.

Pulsing boons have changed to the following:

• Banner of Defense: Regen (4s)
• Banner of Tactics: Resistance (2s)
• Banner of Discipline: Fury (4s)
• Banner of Strength: Might (10s, two stacks)
• Battle Standard: Fury (6s), Swiftness (12s), Might (12s, two stacks)

Alliances When?

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

@Rubi Bayer.8493, I really think it would be worthwhile if the team could also add to Double Standards for the on summon effects of the new banners to also activate around the warrior. This would create a very viable set of builds in all game modes.

I see it working by having the on summon effects activate around the warrior during the cast, and then in the area of the banner once they land. Battle Standard excluded of course. It would also be great if the trait caused the pulses to also emanate from the warrior if the trait is taken. This would be in place of the duration increase.

Also, please make Banner of Defense or Banner of Tactics an AoE stunbreak.

[Devas.8104]

14 hours ago, God.5728 said:

 

Harbinger who passively vomits Quickness just by being in Shroud?

 

 

Make power harbinger builds more viable (add survivability, revert the death perception -20% shroud crit chance, and maybe revert the stupid -50% power dmg nerfs) and harbs will revert back to using the +Power GM trait rather than +Quickness/+Fury.

At least me, at least in PVP 😁

For now, I still don't even bother to login tbh

Edited July 28, 2022 by Devas.8104

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

23 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

• Once dropped, banners last for 15 seconds, and can no longer be picked up.

 

So basically, it's just a Guardian Shout. 🤨

 

The uniqueness of the banner is that it can be picked up. Just let the Warrior pick-up the banner and attach it their back for the duration.

[Ellon.4316]

When anet said they would make changes to chrono/greatsword i was really hoping for a blast finisher on greatsword 3. It would give support chrono a way to make wells useful by combo-ing with it (group wide chaos armor). It would also give mesmer an actual blast finisher, not counting torch because that's on a 3 second delay... It would even buff power chrono without buffing power virtuoso 🤯.

 

Looks like support chrono just has to wait and hope the next balance patch will bring some much needed changes. Just afraid nothing will change.

[mirage.8046]

Im lukewarm on them warrior changes ngl. They are admittedly more interesting than before but there's more to make warrior more attractive than just reworking banners. What would've been rly cool like others have said was attaching banners to the warrior. Make them mobile buffs and no one has to step out of your field for a second to dodge lol. 

Could either danger time or improved alacrity at least be moved to the major tier so we can run both? 

[anbujackson.9564]

When you are considering non support warrior buffs, please consider NOT to buff bladesworn yet again. The gap between damage on the especs isnt even funny anymore. Tune bladesworn down instead.

And remember about your core support changes: Everything can be used by the elite spec. Martial cadence, banners... You dont really want another catalyst do you?

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

8 minutes ago, anbujackson.9564 said:

When you are considering non support warrior buffs, please consider NOT to buff bladesworn yet again. The gap between damage on the especs isnt even funny anymore. Tune bladesworn down instead.

And remember about your core support changes: Everything can be used by the elite spec. Martial cadence, banners... You dont really want another catalyst do you?

I'd like to see more of the Primal Bursts recharge on hit personally. The -300 toughness removed from Berserker, and for Burst of Aggression to refresh on hitting with a burst. That and an F2 to exit Berserk Mode early.

[anbujackson.9564]

1 minute ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I'd like to see more of the Primal Bursts recharge on hit personally. The -300 toughness removed from Berserker, and for Burst of Aggression to refresh on hitting with a burst. That and an F2 to exit Berserk Mode early.

Listen to this! Please. Then put some minor love on greatsword, sword, torch and longbow and we are good.

[Zaret.1450]

10 minutes ago, anbujackson.9564 said:

When you are considering non support warrior buffs, please consider NOT to buff bladesworn yet again. The gap between damage on the especs isnt even funny anymore. Tune bladesworn down instead.

And remember about your core support changes: Everything can be used by the elite spec. Martial cadence, banners... You dont really want another catalyst do you?

funny thing is, catalist was good, but it was never meta defining, not as much as hfb hmec or the condi dps.

and they nerfed cata instantly but not the other  meta defining

 

what i mean is hfb is broken because its mecanics make it just good everywere anytime and however it wants, easy powerfull and versatile, ham is similar to that, while cata just had too much dmg at the same time ot gave boons... wich isnt the worst thing we have seen anyway, i dont mean to say, make cata hit 40k and perma boon, but if balance was realy good sups would never hit more than 22k dmg, not because they get - dmg % traits, but because they dont take +dmg% traits and instead take boon traits, condi shouldnt do that much more dmg to power, power, as i see it, is a burst of dmg, dificult to maintain but that shines in phased ecounters like vg, while condi should shine in things like mattias, bosses moving, no invuln phases, and consistent dmg. but now condis burst more than many power builds, soulbeast was the burst king with owp, little time, a huge peak of dmg that explodes enemies and then drop, yes its good to have better dmg overall but... how can that compete against condis?

what i mean is... i think balance is becoming more difficult to understand as time passes, hope anet explains why and how they do things soon.

[Teimarr.9270]

*sad reaper main noises*
fingers crossed for a buff, although I'm not holding my breath :')

Don't get me wrong, embolden and the recent(ish) LFG changes are a great step at making raids more accessible. But until I can play my favorite spec without feeling like I'm holding back the squad (why play reaper when scourge tends to do more damage on single targets, is 100% ranged, has more group utility and can more easily take a situational utility skill?), I don't think I'll be looking into training groups any time soon. Oh well. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Teimarr.9270

[Rybanek.1935]

I may not be the only one who thinks this but as a warrior main I sincerely appreciate the apology about the banner changes from June 28th and that Anet owned up to their mistake, for lack of a better word. I know I'm one player but thank you, I'm excited to try out the new banner changes when they drop.

[lexismetanoia.9321]

Warriors resurretion in pve T_T!!!! corean heart!!  <3