August 23 Balance Update Preview

[Kori Jenkins.9017]

11 hours ago, Parpage.9867 said:

Keep telling yourself that, a build that literally does 29k and you could go make yourself a cofee is just insulting and you can't change that fact

Uh oh, an objectively factual statement that makes the company whose game I support look bad, better spam confused emojis. 

[scerevisiae.1972]

By far my biggest problem with these patch notes is that it's all for a game mode i don't care about.

 

Where are the WVW changes? the WVW meta has barely changed since release.

 

I also strongly dislike that PVE and competitive skills are diverging by an ever-increasing amount, a small amount of differences is fine but now PVE v competitive are like totally different games and it's difficult to see how this can be healthy for the game long-term.

[MementoMori.6087]

After all the changes to party might and fury, isn't it time to update Heat Sync (tempest warhorn)? It feels especially weak now

[Cherazade.4170]

11 hours ago, Vova.2640 said:

Firebrand

• Mantra of Liberation: Ammunition reduced from 3 to 2 in PvE and WvW. Recharge increased from 25 seconds to 45 seconds.
  
  
  Dont nerf this in wvw !!!!!
  You are going only make pirateship meta even worse......
  
  buff other specs to give stab then consider nerfing this. Until then all nerfs to FB in wvw will make the gamemode worse.

 

 

Did you mean: Better? Im so tired of bunker blobs. Yawn.

[Malus.2184]

What I worry about is that the practical implementation of the Mechanist changes will leave them unviable as support in PvE. I know that Barrier is affected by +Healing, however, unless the Barrier is larger than the healing from Regen the only thing that'll await people in a slow death. Mechanist has no instant heals like everyone else, even Mortar and the Elixir Gun delivers their healing over time.

The Stab change is only worrisome. While a long duration stab completely negates some mechanics it's also a hinderence since Mechanist only has one application of stab to give on a long CD, meaning that if something strips it then Stab is absent for the next long while. This is the drawback of this. I feel that this is more of a panic change meant to make others comparatively better than a change made in the context of the Stab-application since the resulting outcome of this is  the worst of both worlds, a long CD and an application duration shorter than the period it takes to be ready again with no Ammunition gain.

And unless HFB Stab application has a 60-sec cooldown it's still going to be vastly superior to anything else since it has two charges, reducing the charge from 3 to 2 in PvE makes little practical difference in context since you seldom need more than one or two Stab-applications spread ouit over a short period.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Malus.2184

[Solstice.5790]

The role of a firebrand in WvW is boon support, with the most important of those boons being stability.

Our healing is sub par compared to tempests and scrappers, and we have way less cleanses as well. Non-existent damage, no boonrips/-strips. Stability and Aegis are the reason the class is played.

So while I do like the idea of giving more of those boons to e.g. tempests, the blow to Mantra of Liberation is a direct nerf to WvW Firebrand. And I would like to remind you of the rollback on the healing mantra a while ago, we need blocks and stabi.

So at this point I would like to ask:
If you keep giving more and more boons to every other class to make them a more viable choice as a support - when do Firebrands get more healing and cleansing to make them viable as healers?

 

Some players will always be complaining about the toolkit of a Firebrand, it seems like your solution is to turn everyone else into an FB as well and nerf the original.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Solstice.5790

[xXxOrcaxXx.9328]

Please look into giving Condi Soulbeast some buffs as well. They couldn't keep up with other builds with the latest round of buffs, and with this, they might be relegated to mediocrity for good.

[Suyheuti.1732]

For warrior, changes look fantastic. Condi Berserker is the only condi spec and now it will be better position comparing to the another condi specs. I dont know offhand sword will be chosen over torch but in general, great. Power berserker's buffs make it awesome again. Most exciting news are spellbreaker changes. It has no identity, I dont know it will be meta over other 2 power specs. 

 

For engineer, harpoon changes are good. But there is one thing I cant get. Condi mech is the only viable condi spec and it will get nerfed. On the other hand, power mech gets buff. Why? 

 

And mirage, disappointment. Sorry anet it is the truth. Reckless and unthougthful nerf. If you have a problem with staxe mirage, the solution is not nerfing base weapon damages. There are many. We have been telling you many things about mirage. 

1- Giving alacrity to mirage was bad decision, and giving it to the staff ambush was the worst decision ever. That alacrity should be on gm trait not ambush. Move alacrity to Dune cloak and end this mess. Maybe dead weapon like scepter can be used after this. 

2- Chaos traitline is defensive traitline but staff mirage and axe mirage are both using same traits at those weapons. Chaos 131. Primary traitline for axe should have been Dueling/Illusions/Mirage. (And also fixing axe ambush) 

And the solution should have been not nerfing weapons, nerfing chaos traitlines damage multipliers and buffing illusions. 

If you have done this, you wouldnt worry about staxe mirage's overperforming. 

With this changes, mirage is dead. On paper, condi virtuoso has lower dps but in most encounters, virtuoso acts better performance, thanks to 1200 range advantage, stocking blade on mesmer and easy to play. 

 

 

[Parpage.9867]

8 hours ago, iNaddict.8021 said:

this isnt really the problem.. its easy to play sure.. 

You literally have a weaver as a profile pic, doesn't it bother you that you have to commit yourself to learn an actual rotation to deal a fraction of that dps? With that build you literally go afk and press 1, i can't stress enough how ridiculous it is. Low apm build are fine but this thing it's not, all because the jade bot itself is so cracked that it doesn't matter if you're at the keyboard or not 

[don.8459]

any buffs on "pinnacle of strength" in warrior strength trait line? why is it only 5% additional crit chance while guard, engi, ranger and rev can have 20%+ additional crit chance?

[Andy.5981]

Thank you for sorting out the issues with Ranger pets, long overdue. Could someone take a look at Soulbeast Daggers, both main and offhand and see how theyre performing overall.

Some nice changes to the PVE mode. Sure we can over analyse them, but in the main the average player is going to benefit quite a bit from this.

Hopefully the WvW and PvP Devs are taking note

[Terrorhuz.4695]

I was walking downtown with my small dose of copium to face the day, everything seemed fine when suddenly a grotesque looking figure, bald with watery eyes and walking on all fours, grabbed the copium from my hand at burning speed and climbed on some tree where it started injecting the copium in what looked to be his own brain. I didn't understand much of the situation, other than the weird apparition was drooling while muttering something about "CmC... will save... PvP..." and "unchained", whatever that means, which was honestly very creepy. I will get my own copium somewhere else, it's not a problem, but... just what are these creatures?!?

Edited August 13, 2022 by Terrorhuz.4695

[melodyspectrum.2980]

So FB still has no contenders in fractals, got it.

[crazyhusky.2985]

For Dragonhunter

Could you make "True Shot" (Longbow skill 2) not root you in place.

It feels awkward to the stop and sometimes you end up canceling the skill because you move.

Edited August 15, 2022 by crazyhusky.2985
typo

[Myror.7521]

Could we talk about how Sundering leap will now deal more damage than Wild blow? xD

[Ashamir.9574]

(PvP only) 😞

 

Will we ever get a WvW patch? I mean we needed how many years to even go into a beta for Alliances? 5 or 6?

[Le Person.1548]

I am a little sad about the changes to Thieves's venoms.
I understand what you are aiming for, but the proposed change moves dps from poison to bleeding dmg when it is already quite difficult to do poison focused builds.
More importantly: 15 sec bleeding on Death Blossom would result in 30 sec with full expertise which is just too long to pay of on enemies that are not huge bosses (you were trying to buff thief in solo play, lol).
I personally would prefer to see this rebalance in the form of poison added to death blossom. That way thieves gain condition dmg that is available semi-short term and the dps isn't too focused on bleeding.
Overall happy with your ideas.

[Siok.2798]

13 hours ago, TheSeraphim.7413 said:

I'm sure increasing the damage on literally everything won't have any repurcussions.

 

Nice to see Herald shield will still never be used.

When I read they wanted  for other supports to have more access to Aegis and Stability, I thought they were doing it on Herald Shield...I was disappointed to see that's not the case. Such an easy thing to implement and would make shield gameplay a loooot better.

[Certero.2594]

Some feedback on the mesmer changes:

 

Core

Phantasm warlock is not really a weapon skill you want to use like, at all when you're playing staff mirage. Is a power skill on a condi weapon, you want to avoid pressing it in the first place if you can. The cooldown reduction on it does no harm, but is kinda meaningless at the end of the day.

 

 

The chaos armor is nice, a small buff to condi damage on staff mesmer, but is at the end of the day of little consequence, since the only build that uses staff is staff mirage, and its rotation is based around using every trick in the game to maximize dodge uptime, meaning chaos armor's goes unused for almost all situations.

Blink's buff is very welcome. It's still a worse shift signet, but a 33% reduction on this utility is still good nonetheless.

 

Chrono

Well, the increased alacrity on wells is alright, mostly because it might mean you can drop a well from your utility bar and pick an actual useful utility.

Alacrity chrono is still not going to be a thing, because no matter how much you buff the numbers, wells themselves are still a bad utility, your damage is subpar, and your healing is laughable.

 

If you want to make alacrity chrono work without overbuffing power quickness, here are the routes I would take:

-Buff scepter, and make condi alacrity chrono a thing

-Work on making inspiration an actual support traitline, and make heal alacrity chrono a thing.

-Buff shield A LOT to make up for not taking an actual damaging/utility weapon in its place (it would be weird since shield is a defensive weapon in the first place)

Note: Power quickness chrono uses shatters to provide quickness, which means it has the entire utility bar and the entire weapon set free to choose, whereas alacrity chrono requires you bring shield and slot your utility bar full with terrible utility instead of dps ones, so making alac chrono competitive with power quickness using the same vision (power alac) without overbuffing is a lost cause, which is why I suggest alternative approches.

 

Mirage

I'm a bit puzzled by these "very small cuts to condition damage on Mirage's axe and staff " of 25%. I legit have not seen mirage axe being used outside 3 or 4 raid encounters where people stack them, and they are forgotten everywhere else.

Mirage staff is also very rarely seen, all I see is alacrity mechanist and heal alacrity mechanist everywhere. The nerfs to staff were not as harsh, but I can't help but think they were unwarranted.

 

This is like back in the day, when mirage and revenant were the only alacrity providers, people posted videos non-stop of encounters where confusion builds are busted, and alacrity staff mirage was nerfed to the point where it did pretty good in the encounters where confusion is favoured (4 raid encounters) and mediocre for everything else (the rest of raids, fractals and strikes) compared with the competition.

This is due to how mirage works, and you would need a rework to confusion as a whole if you want mirage to be used outside those encounters, but not overperform in those.

 

 

Overall:

-Some cooldown reductions to a bad skill you don't want to use (phantasm warlock) ,, n okay skill (chaos armor) and a good skill (blink)

-Some very very very small buffs to shield and a buff to wells so you can take less wells (very good, since wells are terrible)

-Very harsh nerfs to mirage which was the only mesmer build (other than virtuoso) that was in a very good (and niche) place

 

Mirage changes would fit perfectly in the June balance patch.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Certero.2594

[Bomboed.5697]

Not a single change for Engineer pistols.
Still the worst weapon with tons of bugs.

[Hysteria.1368]

in pvp Unga Bunga pew pew

[Powerfat.7294]

Tbh you are probably over nerfing hmech, it is probably the most overrated build in the history of gw2. The worst part is heal scrapper is getting nerfed as well, and it definitely didn't need nerfs in pve.

Also, the iboga nerf did go live, it was doing like 5k more dps before that change, it was a good week to be playing druid.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Powerfat.7294

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

overall, i think i like the ele staff changes. they are a good step in the right direction. however, i would still suggest the following:

1) since air has 3 low/ non-damaging skills,

~i would combine air 3 + 4,

~i'd add another spike damage skill to replace the hole left by 3+4

EDIT:

Just now, Forgotten Legend.9281 said:

here's my train of thinking, and first brainstorms considering your feedback.

 

~ Gale is a slow moving 1200 range knockback that is very hard to use (in other words, it's hard to hit the target if it moves.)

~ combining it with the speedboost, i would change it to a 300 range point-blank AoE centered on the Elementalist, to break movement cc, provide a getaway speed boost, and knock-back attacking melee enemies, giving you a better chance at escape.

~ NEW THOUGHT. combining staff air 3+4 like above, staff air 5 would also need a change to stun everyone (up to 5 targets) in the field when it's originally dropped, to provide a guaranteed (sans stability) ranged CC in place of losing Gale

 

if 3 is NOT combined with 4, then i would suggest to

~ upgrade Static Field to pulse damage (like a well) to anyone (target cap 5) inside the field. (currently only damages people who run into the wall). and since it's positioned in the 5 slot, with a longer cooldown, i'd make it do high damage per pulse, for a total of 4k base damage, since the CC is so unreliable. (the stun only occurs if the target actually runs into the wall.)

~ double the speed of Gale to make it easier to land the CC, since it's so easy to avoid.

2) earth doesn't offer enough damage either, power nor condi. and also has 3 low / non-damaging skills

~ i'd add bounces to the AA or double the damage, brainfart... missed this patchnote that doubled the damage of this skill.

~ i'd add a poison field on one of the higher number skills, (4, or 5)

~ i'd add a damage component or a knockback to skill 3 in addition to earth aura

3) Water 4 lacks a damage component. (i'd add a high damage amount, power= damage number) it only creates an ice field and applies a movement condition (chill)

Edited August 22, 2022 by Forgotten Legend.9281
added water suggestion, Added quote

[CharmingRogue.8731]

Can you please just add alacrity to Elemental Bastion so Tempest can be an awesome healer with alacrity output? Still have to choose between awesome heals or alacrity. And now with the buffs to shouts the choice is even harder. 

 

Also, why kill Mirage? To improve the leveling experience? Come on lol

Edited August 13, 2022 by CharmingRogue.8731

[Ambrecombe.4398]

Sorry if I'm going to sound negative, but I have a couple of issues with the Thief changes :

 

A 60 to condition damage boost doesn't make up for a 25% DpS loss on Spider Venom. I play a core condi thief Dagger/Dagger with Pistol/Dagger swap with Deadly Arts, Shadow Arts and Trickery, the rework of Shadow Arts made condi thief viable for once in PvE. It's not the best condition build, because the build up is a bit slow but once you max out your bleed and poison stacks, it deals respectable damage.

 

A 50% condition duration on Death Blossom is good and bad. Yes it's a 50% damage increase, but the issue with this skill is still the same. It's a mobile skill, and moving around with a squishy profession like thief in some fights gets you killed. It's also not ideal for fights like Harvest Temple where most of the fighting happens close to the arena's pit.

 

Not only that, there's barely any compensation for Pistol/Dagger, you are getting 60 condition damage and some extra power scaling at the cost of 25% less damage on your venoms. That's a huge nerf!

 

Honestly, these updates are bit too random for my liking, don't get me wrong, there are some good changes like the Harpoon Gun for Engineer. But there are other things like 6sec immobilize on some weapons (who actually thinks that is ok for PvE?) that absolutely make no sense to me.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Ambrecombe.4398