August 2 Balance Update Preview

[Inglorious.7146]

11 minutes ago, Lottie.5370 said:

The extra 10% crit dmg modifier is big too.

You have to crit first. Now you sacrifice 15% crit from DT which mesmer already struggled to crit cap when it took, so now you have to devote even more stats to crit cap its bad, very bad. All the GS buff did was make pVirt better because why the heck would you play chrono for deeps when virtuoso exists?

Edited July 27, 2022 by Inglorious.7146
clarification

[SoloMona.7345]

1 hour ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

• Light combo field radius reduced from 600 to 360. Combo field duration reduced to from 5s to 3s.
• Pulsing boon radius reduced to 360.

 

I'm reserving judgment but I would really like to know why these changes where needed? Keeping people inside this circle will be notably harder. And doubling boon duration but halfling uptime kind of makes me see this entire change as an over all nerf with this additional reduction added on top; Aside for greater access to quickness because of the decreased cooldown or cores.

Edit: A nerf for boon uptime I guess, and not including banner of strength as well. I know the on drop effects are better now.

I don't see much combo field stuff outside of WvW though so I don't see finisher and field changes as super great, especially considering WvW prolly can't use banners because of their immobility.

Edited July 27, 2022 by SoloMona.7345
Clarification

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Did Banner of Tactics really need its quickness application not included for sPvP/WvW? Aside from Battle Standard, banners are almost never used in these game modes because of how lackluster, unimpactful, and clunky they are. While I understand this will be a buff to them (for competitive at least), I have trouble seeing how quickness would be problematic for it.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Za Shaloc.3908

[Xyonon.3987]

I don't think that's nearly enough for Chrono. This will put it prolly to 24-25k tops...

 

There are many power classes suffering hard right now, I'm usually patient but you really need to pick up the pace with the buffs. Holosmith, Dragon Hunter, Vindicator, Daredevil, Deadeye and the list goes on, even to the support focusing on DPS such as Scrapper, Mechanist (DPS Alac!!), Willbender, Herald, Chronomancer (even post this "fix"), are all horrible compared to the top alternatives. Never have we had such a huge gap in top vs bottom.

 

This is not about "but you can still do content with what you like" - yes you can, but it's a horrible feeling to play what you want but be automatically 30% lower than what you could be - it's a self handicap and also makes a player feel "contribute less than others".

 

Please, pick up the pace. It's been too long and it seems to get only dragged out further and further... :((

Edited July 27, 2022 by Xyonon.3987

[Moody Soul.5617]

I have no nice words for the changes I seen for chronos changes, literally the problem is that you have to spec into crit chance and you lose ALOT of power damage doing so and you can’t use stuff on chrono like accuracy sigil as it doesn’t applie to phantasms…… 

please you guys had to just add to one of chronos minors a buff to fury like what is on virtuoso, the one change you guys needed to do wasn’t done… 

Disappointedly 

Moody Soul😑

[SoloMona.7345]

2 minutes ago, Xyonon.3987 said:

There are many power classes suffering hard right now, I'm usually patient but you really need to pick up the pace with the buffs. Holosmith, Dragon Hunter, Vindicator, Daredevil, Deadeye and the list goes on, even to the support focusing on DPS such as Scrapper, Mechanist (DPS Alac!!), Willbender, Herald, Chronomancer (even post this "fix"), are all horrible compared to the top alternatives. Never have we had such a huge gap in top vs bottom.

 

I almost hate to agree with this because I'm 100% for Developers taking their time and making the right decisions, But I would really like to see bolder bold decisions coming from ANets Balance Team. I appreciate the step to bolder 😄 but from an outsider view this doesn't actually look much bolder at all. And still leaves a lot to be desired apparently.

[Dadnir.5038]

Mesmers change don't look very strong at first glance but ranger's didn't either so I'll take a wait and see stance here.

Warrior's change on banner look pretty good to me. Discipline feel weak thought... Gotta see the "numbers" here. (Also, combo and combo field were interesting in 2012-2015 but they aren't really that attractive nowaday, so I'm not sure where the devs are trying to go with the blast finishers and light fields...)

[Nebilim.5127]

What's the duration of the quickness of the double banner trait? I really hope it is enough to not have to slot all banners because other quick classes don't need to make such sacrifice

[Guillard.8561]

Why can't they be shouts instead of banners?

[Inglorious.7146]

6 minutes ago, Moody Soul.5617 said:

please you guys had to just add to one of chronos minors a buff to fury like what is on virtuoso, the one change you guys needed to do wasn’t done…

I wish that was the only change that they needed to make

[crazyhusky.2985]

I feel like you missed the mark a bit, you're going in the right direction.

In my view What banners should have when traited is a 5sec of Quickness when placed and then a second pulse of a 5 secs of quickness when the banner disappears at the 15 second mark. Giving the warrior a 2 pulses of quickness for10 seconds.

This allows a rotation where the warrior can fight while placing down banners.

So with max Boon duration, you can have 2 banners, to place one every 10 seconds or so. This makes it easier to cover your allies. but if you run less boon duration, you might need another banner. thought a lot Groups normally run Alacrity, so cooldown timers that shouldn't be an issue.

but the Cooldowns do line up, when the first banner fades, your second banner should be up and you should have 15 secs of quickness (if max boon duration), which is enough time for the First banner Cooldown to end and reapply it.

[Moody Soul.5617]

5 minutes ago, Inglorious.7146 said:

I wish that was the only change that they needed to make

In the context of a patch that's suppose to address the issues caused by the last patch it is the only fix, but even before last patch chrono needed some love not an amputation.

Moody Soul

[Xyonon.3987]

15 minutes ago, SoloMona.7345 said:

 

I almost hate to agree with this because I'm 100% for Developers taking their time and making the right decisions, But I would really like to see bolder bold decisions coming from ANets Balance Team. I appreciate the step to bolder 😄 but from an outsider view this doesn't actually look much bolder at all. And still leaves a lot to be desired apparently.

 

Trust me I have a lot of empathy for the developers. Stuff is often way more complicated than people make it out to be. But this isn't either black or white, there's a limit of "take your time" imo, and this time it has just been reached. 😕 Lots of friends temporarily quit over the current patch - it's really difficult to enjoy the time right now.

[Justine.6351]

1 hour ago, Skyroar.2974 said:

I understand why the change was made, but I find it weird how obscure it is, how arbitrary it feels like to your casual player who may not understand the reasoning, and I totally missed when they've talked about it. Have a source/link?

EDIT: Besides, for most PvE content, core sword #3 is somewhat of a bland, filler skill, while most damage is put into the evade skill; if Anet were to put virtuoso's more interesting #3 in the core weapon, they would not only make the weapon more interesting (it would have 3 useful skills instead of 2 and a half), but also have room to spread its damage application more evenly, instead of having this uber overpowered #2 to make up for a very crappy #3.

I see no good argument why a trash skill that desperately needs a overhaul in PvE has to coexist with, instead of being completely replaced by, its better, more functional version currently gated behind a single spec.

Because pvp and wvw still exist.

[Susy.7529]

The problem with banners is that they pulse minor boons (might and fury) which are already efficiently covered by most other classes and the only useful boon (quick) is only "on drop" thus not as effective as quickbrand.  

Anet, is it too hard to make banner pulse quickness? Or are you afraid that warriors could steal your precious child's (guard) role for once?

Edited July 27, 2022 by Susy.7529

[Decinomicon.4619]

2 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

• Light combo field radius reduced from 600 to 360. Combo field duration reduced to from 5s to 3s.
• Pulsing boon radius reduced to 360.

Why? You wanted to make them better, but nerf the range. Why?

[ericpeggy.8206]

I'm really not sure this way to balance is right.

 

Last time, you made axe great again on ranger.

 

At the same time, throw dagger, sword, shortbow and torch are into garbage can.

 

Do we will see mesmers throw focus and offhand sword into the garbage can again?

 

I really worry about that.

 

And this balance patch preview has no mention about PvP and WvW.

 

After June 28, PvP and WvW have many unbalance problems there.

 

If you have time, please give care for other orphan modes.

 

 

[kroof.5468]

2 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

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.

1) Banner of Defense: The aegis application feels a little unnecessary -- with the way aegis is sometimes negated in PvE Boss scenarios, and how random attacks can creep up on players popping the aegis away, it feels like a boon that has really fallen off at this point. To me, barrier is an excellent replacement for the aegis boon entirely -- allowing players to take more hits. So, perhaps up the barrier and remove the aegis? 

 

2) Banner of Tactics: This banner feels unnecessarily bloated. Stability would be just fine -- but the super speed feels like it doesn't match up with the theme. And, with the addition of Quickness in PvE, it feels so bloated. This banner feels more bruiser-ey in nature, and with Quickness being a very aggressive boon, it doesn't really fit. (Place Quickness on a different banner).

 

3) Banner of Discipline: This is the banner that feels the most deserving of Quickness, so I would swap the boon to this one -- gaining benefits of its more "DPS" focus. 

 

* With the shortened duration of Light Fields -- it got me thinking that it doesn't feel very "warrior" to begin with. Perhaps making Warrior Banners grant "Fire Fields (for 3s)" it would feel more in line with the theme of warrior, and allow more build flexibility with might sharing and fire aura application on Berserker. 

 

Just a few thoughts around the changes. Overall, better improvements to these Banners and such changes makes them feel more differentiated from Spirits. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

More thoughts on banners. I think these changes would great if the initial effects happened around the warrior and the banner summon location.

[Kunavi.2407]

Right, but can we expect some BladeSworn QOL and stream lining?.. Or was the spec meant to be a distraction while you revert us bit by bit to Banner slaves, even when playing BS? Current BS rotation and build can burst(With a wind up) and do high numbers in a vacuum... But it's neither fun nor comfortable to play, aside from inflated numbers due to cleaving hard and killing targets before other classes can even register DPS.

 

A few changes here and there to smooth it out would really go a long way towards letting the concept(Good) match the execution(Horrible) and giving BS some much needed flexibility; Smoother transition between DT, saber and regular weapons, no longer having to use utility or defense to boost damage, increased mobility(Or less standing still any way), moving away from having to use DragonSpike Mine and OC Cartridges(Especially these are clunky AF to use for various reasons) to boost DPS...

 

Would be nice...

[Kunavi.2407]

50 minutes ago, SoloMona.7345 said:

But I would really like to see bolder bold decisions coming from ANet

Me too, addressing CDPS versus power DPS for example, like how some CDPS classes burst even harder than PDPS and being able to sustain those numbers after, and other such nonsense... Not going to bother naming those classes, I'll have to wash my mouth after ;3 They've been filthy good for too long.

[Moody Soul.5617]

20 minutes ago, ericpeggy.8206 said:

After June 28, PvP and WvW have many unbalance problems there.

I don't think the problems started after that patch, pvp and wvw has always been ignored and the problem in it now go way back.

Sincerely 

Moody Soul

[Kunavi.2407]

1 hour ago, Nuunes.5046 said:

Are banners something that you enjoy as a mechanic, or even as a theme?

Warrior main here; No. I only like the theme because of that one SoulCalibur character. Absolutely nothing else about it, nor about playing it, and if these changes result in even BladeSworn becoming a BannerSworn, it will be a very sad thing indeed.

[ThunderX.6591]

4 minutes ago, Decinomicon.4619 said:

Why? You wanted to make them better, but nerf the range. Why?

Was reading all the various posts and i cannot believe that only one person noticed the "extra nerfs" the banner have taken...... really, 3 pages and only 1 person noticed at least 1 of the various nerf banner received confronting them with the actual one used atm?

All the post are about the needed change to the banner (noone noticed the multinerf they get in reality) and random rant about Mecha and FB (yeah, they are the most talked class of the game, the image of GW2).

I am seriously a bit shocked from the non-existent reaction about it

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Banner of Tactics seems kind of insane--stability, superspeed, quickness (when traited) and pulsing resistance?!  And getting all of that (sans quickness) without traiting for it? 

Can we at least get spirits to be immortal in WvW then? As 4s of Alac is great and all but seems super weak compared to these new banners...(and don't get me started on most of the pulsing effects, like vigor...).