August 2 Balance Update Preview

[Gorem.8104]

7 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Nerfs to mechanist and overtuned EoD ranged specs?  Buffs to ele?  How long do we have to wait?

 

Considering the main balance dev mocked us and Anet defended him instead of firing him, fully expect buffs to Axe FB and Mechanist instead of nerfs. Remember, he says that complicated specs should not do good dps, so Ele will never see the light of day under him. 

[TheArq.9861]

17 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)

Please see my post on banner rework, I like the barrier approach but rest could be more unique. 
 

Title of post under warriors forum page “banner rework ideas”

Edited July 28, 2022 by TheArq.9861
Edit

[Lexer.8096]

I think the people who are balancing the game don't play the game or dont play all the classes!!!

[The Boz.2038]

I am liking this, and wish to see more of it.

Specifically for, like, Reaper. Why does Chrono get PvE buffs, if Chrono is ~75% current Mesmer playtime on endgame Pve content? Mirage is entirely forsaken... Buffing pVirt is okay, but cVirt already sees play, whereas you still have entire e-specs that see *no* play at all. Such as Reaper. Spellbreaker. Holosmith. Dragonhunter. The entire existence of the Elementalist.

EDIT: Disregard comment about Chrono, am dumb.

Edited July 28, 2022 by The Boz.2038

[Ombras.2853]

5 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

I am liking this, and wish to see more of it.

Specifically for, like, Reaper. Why does Chrono get PvE buffs, if Chrono is ~75% current Mesmer playtime on endgame Pve content? Mirage is entirely forsaken... Buffing pVirt is okay, but cVirt already sees play, whereas you still have entire e-specs that see *no* play at all. Such as Reaper. Spellbreaker. Holosmith. Dragonhunter. The entire existence of the Elementalist.

Excuse me?

Virtuoso and Mirage in pve are in a very good shape, while Chrono is a dead spec.

[firedragon.8953]

19 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

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.

After writing a looong post, I just realized that this is probably stacking with the inherent quickness of Banner of Tactics (in PvE), right? 😆

So let's say Double Standards grants 6s of quickness on banner drop, and Banner of Tactics grants 5s of quickness on banner drop (in PvE), does that mean with Double Standards traited Banner of Tactics will be 11s?

I'm not sure what the actual numbers are going to be, I guess the PvE only additional quickness on Banner of Tactics makes more sense now. If 2 banners can provide about 17s of quickness, could a strength/discipline/berserker traitline banner berserker provide 100% quickness if it uses some Diviner's gear? Combining a light field banner (Tactics) and a blast field banner (Strength) for example? Could a full harrier's or minstrel's warhorn shout heal spellbreaker be viable with Banner of Defense and Banner of Tactics and For Great Justice? Could they even maybe only need to take one banner? Maybe if we swap Martial Cadence and Warrior's Cunning in the Tactics Traitline so we can have Martial Cadence with Vigorous Shouts traited together?

Really hoping the durations are good!

Edited July 28, 2022 by firedragon.8953

[soulknight.9620]

1 hour ago, Azrius.6085 said:

You....you're aware what the word "preview" means, right? 

You're aware that everytime they "previewed" balance notes it was exactly what we have got in the end and nothing more, right?

[The Boz.2038]

10 minutes ago, Ombras.2853 said:

Excuse me?

Virtuoso and Mirage in pve are in a very good shape, while Chrono is a dead spec.

You're right, I was looking at the wingman graph wrong. Didn't scroll all the way. 

[lodjur.1284]

Shame about this massive nerf to banner.

Outside of PvE the current iteration is quite unique and powerful. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by lodjur.1284

[Ashantara.8731]

Oy, just discovered this post!

Glad to see the Warrior's banners reworked. 🥰 Now I can offer to play BS in Strikes and Raids again. 😄

Edit - Hint: Sarcasm 😉

Edited July 28, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[DanAlcedo.3281]

8 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Oy, just discovered this post!

Glad to see the Warrior's banners reworked. 🥰 Now I can offer to play BS in Strikes and Raids again. 😄

Ohhh you can offer but if they accept it is still in the stars., 😅

[Syvaris Laskaris.5247]

17 hours ago, Chaos.9270 said:

Why nerfing 2 classes, instead of bringing 7 to their level, so all are equal good balanced instead of equal bad balanced? Like do you actually want all 9 classes to be like Elementalist? xD 

Because mechanist and firebrand aren't good balance. You shouldn't have that much utility for free even on dps if game designers have any idea what they are doing. Balancing the game with them as the standard is brain dead.

Edited July 28, 2022 by TheSeraphim.7413

[Sahne.6950]

18 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)

Just a reminder that There is still traits completly bugged on necromancer. 2 patches have hit the liveservers and its still bugged.... reported it numerous times.. forumposts... spamming on rediit.. you name it.. nothing happens.

The "weakness on crit" part of the trait "Weakening Shrouds" is not working, in all gamemodes.      <- THIS INCLUDES PVE! (maybe this helps 😄 cuz they dont seem to care if its pvp or wvw)

Edited July 28, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[Loboling.5293]

18 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

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.

Looking forward to it.

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Ohhh you can offer but if they accept it is still in the stars., 😅

I know. It seems that my sarcasm wasn't obvious. 😂

[Massimoni.9453]

19 hours ago, soulknight.9620 said:

Thats it? 2 out of 9 professions get something fixed? Ok, warriors needed that. But what about ele? Still "meta defining"? What about mechanist/FB nerfs to get them in line with other specs?

Why nerf firebrand even more? Still not happy with it now only managing mediocre DPS? It's the only choice left to not be completely useless as a guard atm.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Massimoni.9453

[Ashantara.8731]

When do we get a preview on the other professions?

Edited July 28, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[DanAlcedo.3281]

6 minutes ago, Massimoni.9453 said:

Why nerf firebrand even more? Still not happy with it now only managing mediocre DPS? It's the only choice left to not be completely useless as a guard atm.

How about the actual problem with Firebrand and its mountain of free utility? 

Let us nerf that or bring everyone else to the same level. Then we buff dps again. 

[Vekks.6013]

Bring FB, Mech down in line please. Too much utility access with no tradeoffs. The whole game is just firebrand and mechanists everywhere.

[Massimoni.9453]

1 minute ago, Anscenic.3268 said:

with no tradeoffs

Lol.

[Dadnir.5038]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

When do we get a preview on the other professions?

in october 😉

[Voyant.1327]

This is why I don't trust the vision trajectory of the class balancing.

You say you're gonna make mesmer weapon adjustments and improve chrono dps. You add 1 trait change. And barely adjust two weapons that are already overused.

If you want your base to be respectful, maybe not disrespect em with things like this. Stop getting people's hopes up just to deliver this garbage again. Its only gonna grief your base.

How hard is it to just look at the information, test things, take feedback, and implement FUN changes... Not whatever this is. AGAIN. 

P.S: It is awesome to see admitting to mistakes, but please learn from them. Two ok minor patches after one large bad one... Now followed by another "wtf" patch. Don't need to succeed everytime, but at least on the Mesmer half of this equation its another fail. Please have someone play the class on the dev team, as its beginning to feel like its just simply not understood at all. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Voyant.1327

[Ashantara.8731]

4 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

in october 😉

Yay!

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 hour ago, Massimoni.9453 said:

Why nerf firebrand even more? Still not happy with it now only managing mediocre DPS? It's the only choice left to not be completely useless as a guard atm.

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? 🤦‍♂️  

[ThunderX.6591]

I would like to read the name of the 2 specs guardian dps are competitive with, (And i say guardian, not FB specs), but apart that, i would point out one simple thing.

Soulbeast after the "nerf" 28/06 to elite skill and extra duration to it's "class skill" was really in a bad position and shape, expecially the power build; but they simple changed the weapons coefficient and he returned at a decent-good level (At least as power build), so why not do the same with the other classes?

You can mods a little various weapons and see the result, is easy i think and give nice reward without "destroying" traits of entire specs.