August 23 Balance Update Preview

[Sahne.6950]

"giving tempest access to Stability for the group".... this has to be the biggest joke of all time.... 1 stack on a 30 second CD...

WHAT A JOKE!

How about turning transcendent tempest into this: "after finishing a overload, you grat 1 stack of stability for 3 seconds to neaby allies" "while equpping transcendent Tempest, the trait Harmonious conduit gains increased strength, The Stability from Harmonious conduit will now be shared with nearby allies".

slapping 1 stack of stabi on  "eye of the storm" which is a skill that noone uses anyways, and then thinking it can now compete with Fb... is delusional to say the least.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[Mr Aqua.7854]

On 8/11/2022 at 11:59 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

A message from the Skills and Balance Team:

Hi, all,

In our August 2 balance update preview, we mentioned that we added yet another balance update to our schedule for August 23 to address some lingering feedback from the June 28 release. Below you'll find the comprehensive preview of that update. While there are a handful of updates that impact all game modes, our focus for August 23 is largely on PvE gameplay.

 We'd like to hear your feedback on this. Please take today and the weekend to read through it, think it over, and share your thoughts. We'll be keeping an eye on the conversation and listening to what you have to say.
 

Core Weapon Tuning

In this update, we focused on improving the number of viable core weapon choices across many professions in PvE. This included increasing base damage on many ranged weapon autoattacks to a higher baseline damage per second. These changes should help reduce the performance gap between players using suboptimal and optimal weapons.

Guild Wars 2 is designed to encourage social gameplay–you should be stronger playing together than alone. With that in mind, we took another look at how boons are given out. Several weapon skills have been updated to grant might to nearby allies as well as the user in PvE, further contributing to boon availability in group events.

Damage Build Improvements

Our player community develops builds that are considered the gold standard for effective play, so we review them regularly. We made changes to some elite specialization weapons and traits to make various builds more competitive. Our goal is for every profession to have viable power- and condition-based damage builds.

• Power Tempest
• Condition Tempest
• Power Weaver
• Power Scrapper
• Power Holosmith
• Power Dragonhunter
• Power Reaper
• Power Herald
• Power Vindicator
• Power Daredevil
• Power Deadeye
• Power Berserker
• Condition Berserker
• Power Spellbreaker

Improving Support Diversity

Firebrand and healing Mechanist are currently dominating group compositions. In this update, we're improving support-role diversity by adding stability and aegis to Tempest's shouts and giving Druids increased access to those boons as well.

We're also making targeted reductions to stability and might uptime on Firebrand and Mechanist builds to make room for other professions. Firebrand's high on-demand stability from Mantra of Liberation is too essential in Fractals of the Mists and other group content, while Mechanist's barrier and might upkeep are cementing it as a build that pairs together too well with a Quickbrand to meet a group's support needs.

In the immediate future, we want to make sure more builds can be used successfully. In future updates, we'll expand this further by shoring up more support and healing build options.
 

Elementalist

We've firmed up the role of Fire Attunement skills in condition builds and improved Air Attunement skills' direct strike damage. Tempest's Transcendent Tempest trait has more than doubled in power to set it apart as the keystone choice for damage builds.

Staff
Fire

• Fireball: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.4. Now also inflicts 1 stack of burning with a 1-second duration.
• Lava Font: (PvE only) Now inflicts 1 stack of burning with a 1-second duration on each strike.
• Flame Burst: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.01 to 1.0. Burning stacks applied increased from 2 to 3.

Air

• Chain Lightning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.8.
• Lightning Surge: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.44 to 1.8.

Earth

• Stoning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.2.
• Shock Wave: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 2.5.

Scepter
Fire

• Phoenix: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Burning stack count increased from 1 to 2.

Water

• Water Trident: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.

Earth

• Rock Barrier: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 8 seconds.

Dagger (Main Hand)
Water

• Vapor Blade: (All game modes) The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been decreased by 0.5 seconds.

Air

• Convergence: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.8.
• Shocking Aura: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 10 seconds. Duration increased from 4 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Transmute Lightning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.5.

Earth

• Ring of Earth: (PvE only) Final impact damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.5.
• Earthen Rush: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 18 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.8.

Dagger (Off Hand)
Fire

• Fire Grab: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, matching PvP and WvW.

Water

• Frost Aura: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Duration increased from 4 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Cleansing Wave: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Air

• Ride the Lightning: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Updraft: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 40 seconds to 20 seconds.

Earth

• Earthquake: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 16 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 3.
• Churning Earth: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Trident
Fire

• Magma Orb: Now also applies 1 second of burning on explosion.
• Boil: Now also applies 1 second of burning on hit.
• Steam: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Lava Chains: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.

Water

• Ice Globe: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Ice Wall: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

Air

• Electrocute: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 2.4.
• Air Bubble: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

Earth

• Rock Anchor: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Murky Water: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.

Weaver

Sword

Fire

• Fire Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.8.
• Fire Swipe: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.77 to 0.9.
• Searing Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.6.

Water

• Seiche: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.33 to 0.5.
• Clapotis: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.45 to 0.6.
• Breaking Wave: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 1.0.

Air

• Charged Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.77 to 0.8.
• Polaric Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.88 to 0.9.
• Call Lightning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.2.

Earth

• Crystal Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.8.
• Crystalline Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.9.
• Crystalline Sunder: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.4.
• Earthen Vortex: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.8.

Tempest

Traits

• Transcendent Tempest: (PvE only) Damage modifier increased from +7% to all damage dealt to +15% to all damage dealt.

Shouts

• "Feel the Burn!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 2.5. Might stacks applied increased from 3 to 5.
• "Eye of the Storm!": (PvE only) Cooldown reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Now also applies 1 stack of stability to allies for 5 seconds.
• "Aftershock!": (PvE only) Cooldown reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds. Now also applies aegis to allies for 5 seconds.

Engineer

The previous update's Mechanist-only damage reduction to Aim-Assisted Rocket left us with room to add damage to the core trait Big Boomer, bringing up the damage output of Holosmiths and Scrappers. That's not enough to close the gap on its own, so we're also making specialization-specific damage increases to Scrapper and Holosmith on sword, hammer, and Blast Gyro–which, in addition to more damage, will now stun enemies rather than knocking them away.

We're reducing the output of dominant Mechanist healing builds to give other support options more breathing room. We're also slightly reducing the output of condition damage builds with reductions to the Mech Command skills Rolling Smash and Discharge Array.
 

Harpoon Gun

• Homing Torpedo: Animation time reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second. Damage multiplier increased from 0.84 to 1.0. Applies 1 second of burning. This is now an explosion.
• Scatter Mines: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Timed Charge: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.75 to 3.5.
• Net Wall: (PvE only) Immobilize duration increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Utility Skills

• Throw Mine: (All game modes) The animation aftercast before another skill may be used has been reduced by 0.5 seconds. The mine will now detonate immediately if there is an enemy target in proximity when the mine lands. Now causes knockdown instead of knockback, with a duration of 2 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP and WvW. (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 2 to 3. Boons removed from targets increased from 1 to 3.

Med Kit

• Med Blaster: (PvE only) Healing power multiplier reduced from 0.2 to 0.1, matching PvP and WvW.

Elixir Gun

• Super Elixir: (PvE only) Duration reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

Explosives

• Big Boomer: (PvE only) Damage increase changed from 10% to 15%.

Holosmith

Sword

• Refraction Cutter: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.4.
• Radiant Arc: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.8.

Photon Forge

• Corona Burst: (PvE only) Might stacks per pulse reduced from 2 to 1, but they are now applied to up to 5 nearby allied targets.

Scrapper

Hammer

• Electro-whirl: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 3.
• Rocket Charge: The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been decreased by 0.35 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 3.3 to 3.6 in PvE only.

Gyros

• Blast Gyro: (PvE only) Now stuns enemies for 3 seconds instead of knocking them back. Damage multiplier increased from 2.65 to 3.5.

Mechanist

Mech Commands

• Rolling Smash: (PvE only) Bleeding stacks applied reduced from 8 to 4.
• Discharge Array: (PvE only) Confusion duration per hit reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Crisis Zone: (PvE only) Stability duration reduced from 15 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Barrier Burst: (PvE only) Base barrier value per pulse reduced from 434 to 260. Might stacks per pulse reduced from 3 to 2.

Mace

• Barrier Blast: (PvE only) Base barrier value reduced from 434 to 260.

Signets

• Barrier Signet: (PvE only) Base barrier value per pulse reduced from 434 to 260.

Traits

• Barrier Engine (Passive): (PvE only) Base barrier value reduced from 434 to 260.

Guardian

Multiple stored uses of on-demand stun break and stability have made Firebrand mandatory in Fractals, Strike Missions, raids, and even WvW. In this update, Firebrand's Mantra of Liberation is reduced from 3 to 2 ammunition, with an increased cooldown. Together with an added source of stability for both Tempest and Druid, this will provide better parity across different professions' support builds in PvE. Firebrand's multiple sources will be countered by higher recharge.

The greatsword damage increases benefit Dragonhunter builds, and hammer improvements will help close the gap between it and other damaging weapons while living up to that weighty feel a hammer should have.
 

Greatsword

• Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 0.9.
• Vengeful Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 1.0.
• Wrathful Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.4. Might is now applied to up to 5 allies in a radius of 360.
• Leap of Faith: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds, and damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 2. Healing per foe hit increased from 235 to 1,053 in PvE, matching PvP and WvW.
• Binding Blade: (PvE only) Damage multiplier on initial hit increased from 1.0 to 1.5.

Hammer

• Symbol of Protection: The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been decreased by 0.65 seconds.
• Mighty Blow: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 2.1 to 2.4.
• Glacial Blow: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 2.5.
• Zealot's Embrace: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 1.5.
• Banish: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 3.

Staff

• Bolt of Wrath: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 0.65.
• Searing Light: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.65 to 0.75.
• Seeking Judgment: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.75 to 0.9.
• Holy Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.8.
• Empower: (PvE only) Might stacks per pulse reduced from 4 to 3. Might duration reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.

Firebrand

• Mantra of Liberation: Ammunition reduced from 3 to 2 in PvE and WvW. Recharge increased from 25 seconds to 45 seconds.

Dragonhunter

Longbow

• Puncture Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.85 to 1.0.

Mesmer

In the August 2 update, we reviewed and updated the greatsword and sword core weapons. In this update we're increasing Chronomancer's alacrity duration from Stretched Time and increasing the damage of Tides of Time, the fifth shield skill. This will give a slight bump to boon-focused Chronomancer builds.

We also wanted to reduce some of the longer cooldowns on staff, but Mirage's high-performing condition damage builds made that tricky. We're making very small cuts to condition damage on Mirage's axe and staff ambush to maintain parity with other professions' builds. The reduced cooldown on the Phantasmal Warlock and Chaos Armor weapon skills will improve the Mesmer's leveling experience when using a staff.
 

Staff

• Phantasmal Warlock: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Chaos Armor: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

Utility Skills

• Blink: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Chronomancer

• Stretched Time: Alacrity on well cast increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Tides of Time: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.5.

Mirage

Axe

• Lingering Thoughts: (PvE only) Torment duration decreased from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Imaginary Axes: (PvE only) Torment duration decreased from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

Staff

• Chaos Vortex (Staff Ambush): (PvE only) Might stack count reduced from 8 to 5, and might duration reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. Torment, bleeding, and confusion duration reduced from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.

Necromancer

Necromancer changes are focused on improving damage and skill-recharge timers for several weapons and abilities.

Staff

• Necrotic Grasp: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.666 to 1.
• Mark of Blood: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.33 to 1.5
• Chillblains: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 16 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 1.8.
• Putrid Mark: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Reaper's Mark: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 32 seconds to 18 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.275 to 3.

Dagger (Main Hand)

• Life Siphon: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Dark Pact: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 2.4. Immobilize duration increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Dagger (Off Hand)

• Deathly Swarm: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 18 seconds to 16 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 1.2.
• Enfeebling Blood: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.5.

Focus

• Soul Grasp: (PvE only) Ammunition recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. Ammunition count increased from 2 to 3.
• Spinal Shivers: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds. Damage multiplier on targets with no boons increased from 0.5 to 1, one boon from 1.125 to 1.625, two boons from 1.875 to 2.375, and three boons from 2.625 to 3.125.

Reaper

Greatsword

• Fading Twilight: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.3 to 1.4.
• Chilling Scythe: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.7 to 1.8.
• Death Spiral: (PvE only) Damage multiplier per hit increased from 0.425 to 0.5.

Reaper Shroud

• Life Rend: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.875 to 0.9.

Shouts

• "You Are All Weaklings!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 2.5.
• "Nothing Can Save You!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 2.
• "Suffer!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 1.5.

Ranger

Feline pets' autoattacks aren't affected by quickness, a long-standing issue that makes them subpar in group play. Meanwhile, the iboga is the most powerful pet in any PvE boss encounter because its base attack damage scales with number of conditions on the target. A release note from 2018 indicated that this was fixed, but the change didn't make it to the live game.

A recent fix to the calculated critical-hit-chance values in the pet stats UI caused pet critical-hit chances to appear to drop by 17.8%. This was a display issue only, and the text now reflects the real value.

We're using this as an opportunity to improve pet balance in PvE overall by delivering that long-delayed reduction to iboga damage while bringing all Ranger pets' performance up by giving them a flat 17.8% critical-hit chance across the board.

Ranger pets and spirits will now also have a locked defiance bar in PvE, making them immune to crowd-control effects. This quality-of-life improvement will ensure that their skills are available for use when needed and that pets will perform more consistently in all PvE content.
 

All Ranger Pets

• (PvE only) All ranger pets' chance to critically hit has been increased by 17.8%.
• (PvE only) All ranger pets are now immune to crowd control when on a PvE map.

Feline Pet Family

• Slash (Autoattack): Now affected by quickness.

White Tiger

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act when summoned.
• Guardian's Roar: (All game modes) Casting time reduced from 1 second to 0.4 seconds. (PvE only) Cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.

Other Pets

Wallow

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act after being summoned.

Phoenix

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act after being summoned.

Siege Turtle

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act after being summoned.

Iboga

• Consuming Bite (Autoattack): Reduced the base damage of this skill by 33%. Reduced the damage per condition by 40%.

Spirits

• (PvE only) All ranger spirits are now immune to crowd control in PvE maps.

Druid

• Glyph of Equality (Celestial Avatar): Range increased from 300 to 360 in all game modes. Now applies 5 seconds of stability to allies in PvE only.

Revenant

For core revenant, we're improving hammer as a ranged damage option. All revenant specializations will receive damage increases from Invocation trait updates.

Hammer

• Hammer Bolt: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.95 to 1.1.
• Phase Smash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.75 to 2.
• Drop the Hammer: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 2.3.

Invocation

• Rising Tide: (PvE only) Damage increase changed from 7% to 10%.
• Ferocious Aggression: (PvE only) Damage increase changed from 7% to 10%.

Herald

• Reinforced Potency: (PvE only) Bonus damage per boon increased from 1% to 1.5%.

Vindicator

Greatsword

• Mist Swing: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.9 to 1.0.
• Mist Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.1.
• Arcing Mists: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.3.
• Mist Unleashed: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.9 to 2.0.
• Phantom's Onslaught: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.6.
• True Strike: (PvE only) Base damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.5. Damage multiplier added per blocked attack increased from 0.4 to 0.5.

Thief

In group content, venoms can account for as much as 25% of a thief condition damage build's total damage. Their solo damage is lacking in comparison. We're shifting some of that damage from venoms to direct attacks with increased condition duration on Death Blossom, Specter's scepter, and Shadow Shroud autoattacks, as well as a 50% increase to the condition damage attribute granted by the trait Deadly Ambition. The net effect of this change is to increase condition damage dealt in solo and open-world play.

Deadeye and Daredevil both get power damage increases as well, giving those builds stronger top-end damage potential.

Dagger (Main Hand)

• Backstab: (PvE only) Front damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.5. Back damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 3.
• Death Blossom: (PvE only) Bleed duration increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.

Dagger (Off Hand)

• Dancing Dagger: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.9.

Pistol (Off Hand)

• Head Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.25 to 1.

Sword

• Slice: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 0.85.
• Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 0.85.
• Crippling Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.3 to 1.4.
• Infiltrator's Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.8.

Venoms

• Skale Venom: (PvE only) Torment duration decreased from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Spider Venom: (PvE only) Poison duration decreased from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

Deadly Arts

• Deadly Ambition: (PvE only) Condition damage attribute bonus increased from 120 to 180.

Specter

• Shadow Bolt: (PvE only) Torment duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Haunt Shot: (PvE only) Torment duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.

Traits

• Traversing Dusk: Alacrity radius on well cast and healing radius on shadowstep increased from 240 to 360.

Deadeye

• Premeditation: (PvE only) Bonus damage per boon increased from 1% to 1.5%.
• Iron Sight: (PvE only) Bonus damage dealt to and damage reduction taken from your marked target increased from 10% to 15%.

Daredevil

Staff

• Staff Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.75.
• Staff Bash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.80.
• Punishing Strikes: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.672 to 1.8.
• Hook Strike (Stealth Attack): (PvE only) Knockdown duration increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.

Traits

• Weakening Strikes: (PvE only) Damage dealt to weakened foes increased from 7% to 10%.
• Bounding Dodger: (PvE only) Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15% in PvE, matching PvP and WvW.

Warrior

Warrior's longbow updates will make Arcing Arrow relevant in PvE and turn Smoldering Arrow into a useful defiance-bar breaker. We've also increased damage for several core weapons, elite specialization weapons, and traits.

Greatsword

• Greatsword Swing: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 0.8.
• Greatsword Slice: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.95 to 1.05.
• Brutal Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.5.
• Arcing Slice: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.32 to 2. Damage multiplier against foes with less than 50% health increased from 1.98 to 3.
• Bladetrail: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.5.
• Rush: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.7 to 2.5.

Sword (Main Hand)

• Sever Artery: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.8.
• Gash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.8.
• Hamstring: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.2.
• Savage Leap: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.66 to 2.

Sword (Off Hand)

• Impale: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.5.
• Rip: (PvE only) Might is now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.

Longbow

• Dual Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.44 to 0.525.
• Arcing Arrow: (All game modes) The aftercast animation duration before another skill may be used has been reduced by 0.5 seconds. (PvE only) Increased ammunition count to 2. Now applies 5 seconds of burning on hit.
• Smoldering Arrow: (PvE only) Now applies 1 second of dazed on hit.

Rifle

• Fierce Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.605 to 1. Might is now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.
• Explosive Shell: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.5.

Hammer

• Earthshaker: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 2.
• Hammer Shock: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.8.

Arms

• Furious: (PvE only) Condition damage per stack increased from 10 to 15.

Berserker

• Shattering Blow: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.5.
• Sundering Leap: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 3.

Traits

• Bloody Roar: (PvE only) Damage bonus increased from 20% to 25%.

Spellbreaker

Dagger (Main Hand)

• Breaching Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 2.5.
• Precise Cut: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 0.6.
• Focused Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.65.
• Keen Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.85 to 1.05. Might is now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.
• Aura Slicer: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.8.

Dagger (Off Hand)

• Bladestorm: (PvE only) Damage multiplier per hit increased from 0.35 to 0.5.

Traits

• Pure Strike: (PvE only) Damage bonus increased from 7%/14% to 7.5%/15%.
• Magebane Tether: (PvE only) Damage bonus to tethered target increased from 10% to 15%. Might stacks per second reduced from 3 to 1, but they are now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.

MECHANIST RIFFLE NEED DMG NERF !

[Sahne.6950]

On 8/13/2022 at 2:37 AM, LadyKitty.6120 said:

Secret trick to big heals: Frost Bow. Heals more than Staff Water auto-attack and not bound to attunement and even allows you to trigger attunement swap stuffs.

secret trick to big heals: Water elemental; heals 8k on a 15 second CD.

[Daeth.8912]

Going to add a suggestion. The change to ranger spirits was nice, but getting them out is pretty clunky with the current cast time. It feels especially bad compared to the reworked banners. Especially given they are pretty moderate effects over time, and not a huge burst of power, could these be changed to instant or1/4s cast?

 

Would also be nice if they weren't targetable in PvP so they could actually see some use there. When you compare them to similar skills (banners, pulsing buffs from players, shouts) there isn't really a reason for them to be so vulnerable to ae burst when they already have the limitation of placement and range. 

[Jimbru.6014]

- What's being tacitly admitted but not stated, is that Mechanist and Firebrand being so ridiculously overpowered has made all the other classes underpowered. In the case of Firebrand, it's been that way for YEARS, and we all already know why so I won't go into that any farther. Bottom line is that the bar of "balance" has moved. Mechanist can do 20K plus DPS with autoattacks while AFK and Firebrands can basically do EVERYTHING. Every other class and spec in the game feels half baked by comparison, and that won't change until either the nerf bat is swung or the other classes are more thoroughly buffed to compensate.

- Giving Tempests alacrity and stability tied to shouts on long cooldowns and requiring specific builds to use them that sacrifice other functionality, along with similar situational changes to other classes,  is NOT an answer to the fundamental problem in the first point.

- Speaking of "doing everything", can we talk about Virtuoso a minute? The entire class has basically one DPS build with minor variations. It's way overspecialized. It needs more versatility.

- Crisis Zone needed a nerf. Most other sources of stability in the game, across all classes, only give like 6 seconds of stability at most. The nerf brings Crisis Zone back into line with all those other sources of stability.

- Regarding Glacial Blow: I've always thought it weird that the Guardian class as a whole is broadly based on fire and holy light type skills, but in the middle of it all you have this one oddball ice skill. I'd rework the aesthetics to fit better in the overall Guardian class theme.

- Necro staff: I backbar a staff on my heal scourge for the marks and life force. The broad damage increase might move it to the front bar. Also, I can see some scourge experimentation with power builds coming.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Jimbru.6014

[Daeth.8912]

Iboga

• Consuming Bite (Autoattack): Reduced the base damage of this skill by 33%. Reduced the damage per condition by 40%.

 

Rather than lowering the base damage, mostly impacts solo play, why not just cap the number of conditions to reach max damage to a number you are more comfortable with as a maximum? If the issue is really about the number of persistent conditions against bosses.  

[Inverse.5817]

I've probably missed it being mentioned already, but I personally don't see the holo buffs bringing it back up fully (rifle holo especially) - especially since a) not all holo builds use sword and b) the big boomer buff also works to help scrapper (not a bad thing at all) and also mech (doesn't really need the bonus imo). For a spec that pretty much only offers damage builds (compared to one that can give quickness and the other that can give alac), would some slight buffs to photon forge damage skills be a decent ask? Shaving a little off the aftercast of Holo Leap would be nice too!

All around, though, the buffs and direction things are going looks great. Really excited to get back into using some more forgotten and sub-optimal weapons on various specs!

Edited August 15, 2022 by Inverse.5817

[Farwind.8016]

The nerf to Condition Mechanist F1 hits two builds (mace/pistol and pistol/pistol), the second of which is not overperforming in the current meta, and is likely to removed from the current meta with this nerf. By buffing mainhand pistol to offset some of the nerf, some of the damage could be given back to pistol/pistol Mechanist, as well as supporting the other engineer condition builds which have fallen behind over the last few years.

 

Details:

We have 5 condition builds currently for Engineers:

1. Condition Mechanist (mace/pistol j-drive)
2. Condition Mechanist (pistol/pistol j-drive)
3. Condition Holosmith (pistol/pistol 4-kit)
4. Condition Core Engineer (pistol/pistol 4-kit)
5. Condition Quickness Scrapper (pistol/pistol 3-kit)

Of these builds, (1) and (2) are currently considered meta, while (3-5) have slowly lost dps to various nerfs to the point where they aren't considered viable choices in most end-game content. (aka benching 33k or less).

 

Condition Mechanist (mace/pistol j-drive) is currently overperforming due to it's high confusion damage from mace. However, it's counterpart, the pistol/pistol variant, does not generate nearly the amount of confusion that the mace variant does. The current changes to the f1 skill will hit this build hard, dropping it's dps into that 33k or less range with the other condition engineer builds.

 

 If the damage which has been removed from the Mechanist f1 skill is moved to the mainhand pistol, it would prevent pistol/pistol Mechanist from being overly nerfed due to mace/pistol overperforming, and give a welcome damage buff to the other Engineer condition builds, which could really use it.

 

Thanks.

TL;DR -- I suggest moving the bleed damage being removed from Mechanist f1 to Core Engineer mainhand pistol

[eldrevo.1746]

1 hour ago, Jimbru.6014 said:

- Regarding Glacial Blow: I've always thought it weird that the Guardian class as a whole is broadly based on fire and holy light type skills, but in the middle of it all you have this one oddball ice skill. I'd rework the aesthetics to fit better in the overall Guardian class theme.

While I agree that it stands out as the only Chill source while everything in the profession is about flames and burning, I still like this as an option. Guild Wars 2 is very much about variety to me, and Guardian, while being quite versatile and hosting many roles and archetypes, does feel a bit... one-dimensional when it comes to conditions it can inflict.

In fact, instead of getting rid of Glacial Blow, I'd like to see some more options to put Chilling and Freezing effects into play, maybe with another Elite spec or just within some Core traitlines and utilities. It's a blue profession for a reason right? 😄

[SentriX.3209]

I feel like core engi, scrapper, holo need more help...maybe a rework on traits are due, also pistol?

Edited August 15, 2022 by Liisjak.4509

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Some more warrior based feedback for the teams:

It's great that you all are realizing that the utility skills on the whole on warrior have been lacking in damage. I love that you are tweaking them, first with banner of strength, now with some of the Berserker utilities. Please take a hard look at Meditations on Spellbreaker, they need some love. Spellbreaker itself needs more boon rip in PvP/WvW, and possibly grant those boons to allies in the area.

Speaking of PvP/WvW, the Longbow changes need to migrate over to those modes. It is not a smart idea for weapons to function differently between game modes. Please make Fan of Fire a burning version of Sevenshot so that it is no longer functionally a melee skill

Rifle will still need more damage after this for it to be viable as a weapon, again in all game modes. Brutal Shot really needs to evade before the shot is fired, not after.

For Greatsword, please fix the tracking on Rush. This is a well known issue, ditto for Savage Leap on MH sword. Also on Greatsword, please shorten the cast time or remove the self root on Hundred Blades, in all game modes.

Final Thrust should have 3 bleed stacks on foes above 50% HP, all game modes.

Banner of Discipline is too weak after the rework, it needs more bleed stacks, easily double the stacks if not more, and it needs to pulse something in addition to Fury, possibly weakness on nearby enemies. Again, in all game modes. As is the skill will never see use again. 

Banners in particular should have 900 range, not 600 range.

Please swap the positions of Martial Cadence and Warrior's Cunning in Tactics.

Please rework the 300s CD traits for all classes that have them.

Please rework Arms and Defense on warrior. These traitlines are unused, stale, and in bad need of reworks, there are lots of suggestions on the warrior forum that the devs can pull from.

Again, thank you for all the hard work. I'm sure you've seen by now that most people are piling on the fact that these changes are for PvE only for the most part. The teams really need to take some time to do similar changes in PvP/WvW as well. If this is planned for the future, then it would be great to hear that timeline.
 

[Xhariel.3219]

Readying thourgh all that comments and everyone who mentioned reaper says the same...

 

-wont change much 

-dmg still to low...

-whats that 0.1 changes ?

-etc...

 

everyone who is playing that class 100% understands.

thats just how it is ..anet dosnt even know about there own classes and what they do on dmg.

an cause they are so scared or lazy to touch the reaper they do like pitty 0.1 changes pathetic ngl..

 

everyone seems to feel the same and noticed:this changes 4 reaper are useless...

Only anet: well thats 100% enough to be right into the top tier! XD they got no clue about there own classes and specs

Reaper maybe after the changes: 27k-30k dps avarage without much(to non)group support

Bladesworn still: 250k crits and 45k dps + 55k dps peaks.(with group support)

Edited August 15, 2022 by Xhariel.3219

[Jijimuge.4675]

Re Mesmer & Mirage,  there are a couple of changes that I don't understand.

 

Phantasmal Warlock - the skill is very low impact already, so reducing its cooldown seems almost irrelevant.  Its main use is just to get a couple of extra clones.  Personally, I'd rather see a rework of Phantasmal Warlock.

 

Damage changes - a suggestion re Dune Cloak -  if the reason for reducing the damage was that Axe/Staff hybrids were able to do too much damage in raids whilst also applying decent alacrity, I think a better way to separate the alacrity buffing ability from higher damage potential could be to attach the AoE alacrity to "Dune Cloak" for staff users instead of making it baseline on staff ambush. In other words, have Dune Cloak change the staff ambush skill in a similar way to how "Lingering Curse" changes sceptre 3 for necros.

Dune Cloak is seldom used and already has a boon focus.  The consequence of this idea would be that being able to grant alacrity to the group would be mutually exclusive with Infinite Horizon, thus forcing some kind of choice between providing more boons or doing more damage.

[nerdypg.3647]

TEMPEST SHOUTS

 

I don't know if this has been said in this forum post but I will. Swap the boons in shouts make eye of the storm give aegis and aftershock give stability, why you might ask, let me explain.

Eye of the Storm is an aoe stun break using it to prevent/gain a stack of stability before the cc takes away the use of the skill it self.

The aegis on Aftershock will take away one hit of the reflect on the magnetic aura.

Basically the boons added as suggested per the patch notes go against the original design, purpose and utility of the skills themselves.

Edited August 15, 2022 by pail.6412

[Camniel.7238]

On 8/13/2022 at 11:32 PM, Kolzi.5928 said:

I would also like to talk about the way condis are applied to ele weapons. It seems every elementalist weapon gets bleeding on earth, burning on fire, and that is it. We see this continuing with the move to add burning to staff. To me, this is a slightly frustrating design approach, as it leads to the weapons feeling both unfocused and a bit same-y. I would like to see you step out of your comfort zone on this a little bit. For example, shatterstone and ice shards (water attunement scepter 2 & 1 respectively) could both have bleeding added to them with it fitting the flavour quite well - the shards of ice can bleed enemies just as well as shards of rock in earth attunement can. Scepter has at least some history of being used in condi builds unlike staff, and a condi rotation that allows you to move outside of fire and earth attunement would be novel (apart from a very brief dip into water during weave self for condi weavers). I don't exactly have a problem with having burning on staff fire, it just feels an odd direction to go when there are weapons which already have support for condi, but are lacking, due in part to only two attunements ever being useful for it.

YES! This please! I would love to see Scepter be focused into an all Condi weapon, with condi's on each attunement. I'm not really a fan of having to go Celestial just so I don't lose almost all value out of Water and Air in a Condi set up. I also agree that Ice Bleeds makes perfect sense and would like to see this on Scepter. Air I think should have a condi too, but I'm not sure which one would work thematically besides Vuln. Thanks for putting this out there! 

[Suyheuti.1732]

52 minutes ago, Jijimuge.4675 said:

Re Mesmer & Mirage,  there are a couple of changes that I don't understand.

 

Phantasmal Warlock - the skill is very low impact already, so reducing its cooldown seems almost irrelevant.  Its main use is just to get a couple of extra clones.  Personally, I'd rather see a rework of Phantasmal Warlock.

 

Damage changes - a suggestion re Dune Cloak -  if the reason for reducing the damage was that Axe/Staff hybrids were able to do too much damage in raids whilst also applying decent alacrity, I think a better way to separate the alacrity buffing ability from higher damage potential could be to attach the AoE alacrity to "Dune Cloak" for staff users instead of making it baseline on staff ambush. In other words, have Dune Cloak change the staff ambush skill in a similar way to how "Lingering Curse" changes sceptre 3 for necros.

Dune Cloak is seldom used and already has a boon focus.  The consequence of this idea would be that being able to grant alacrity to the group would be mutually exclusive with Infinite Horizon, thus forcing some kind of choice between providing more boons or doing more damage.

 

I agree about Phantasmal Warlock. It is useless, it should apply condition to foe. 

 

I'm partially agree about Dune Cloak, I ve mentioned about that several times. It shouldnt work with staff only, it should be triggered by all ambush attack. We can generate alacrity underwater with that change. Also sacrificing infinite horizon to take alac "Dune Cloak" will be huge impact for dps players like anet wants. Win - win for everyone. If anet does that, we can also save scepter as an unused weapon. 

[Kal Durak.2830]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:54 AM, Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:

(PvE only)

Yeah that was bulljunk upon reading the changes... 

"and giving Druids increased access to those boons as well."  They already have unlimited boons, can hide forever and dash away 2000 meters at an instance.  GIVE ME a break!  Those are WAY overpowered.  Anet, come play WvW!  Hello Anet?

[elijah.1689]

For Druid, can you shift Grace of Land or Celestial Shadow to give out stability when using Celestial Avatar forms? This would make druid SO much more useful in WvW.

[Kozumi.5816]

lol @ power creeping every old elite to the power of the new ones instead of nerfing the new ones

  

On 8/12/2022 at 6:51 PM, Tails.9372 said:

38651 rounds to 39k, if you want to split hairs at least do it correctly.

always floor

 

Can you revert all the dps nerfs to catalyst? ty

Edited August 15, 2022 by Kozumi.5816

[sharkmyth.3489]

• Skale Venom: (PvE only) Torment duration decreased from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Spider Venom: (PvE only) Poison duration decreased from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Bruh wtf this kitten better not go through. Your nerfed the kitten out of venoms yet added no damage to the condi weapons other than dagger and scepter. There's a reason no one plays that dagger-dagger cuz it feels clucky af. Why the f do I got to dodge to dps like what. If it was just spin in place yeah dagger-dagger would be great but there's a reason pistol-dagger is better. You nerf venoms and buff dagger but what about pistol dagger? What about short bow? like hello? And don't give me that "oh dagger-dagger was weaker than pistol dagger NO.  They were already close in dps but pistol dagger just felt easier and felt satisfying to play. Remove that spin around your target bs from dagger-dagger and buff all condi weapons should have been your move if you're going to "shift condition damage away from venoms". This is just an excuse to nerf condi deadeye single target while making it look like something else. Condi ele changes are great though, that spec was weak af. 

Edited August 15, 2022 by sharkmyth.3489

[timgod.9456]

Quote

Multiple stored uses of on-demand stun break and stability have made Firebrand mandatory in Fractals, Strike Missions, raids, and even WvW. In this update, Firebrand's Mantra of Liberation is reduced from 3 to 2 ammunition, with an increased cooldown. Together with an added source of stability for both Tempest and Druid, this will provide better parity across different professions' support builds in PvE. Firebrand's multiple sources will be countered by higher recharge.

 

Nerfing this in WvW will have a negative effect on the gameplay - this is way too heavy of a nerf without a suitable replacement on other classes - if you insist on going with this nerf, it will encourage boring, pirateship gameplay, driver pin sniping, and will just generally be bad for the game mode.

 

Please reconsider nerfing MoL in WvW - I don't see anyone in favor if this change, and several posts asking you not to. Removing this nerf is a slam dunk for the dev team to show they are actually listening to player feedback

[Brodix.5214]

I really want to know where Developers want to take game, for me for example i very like playing staff on elementalist, staff Weaver or staff Catalyst sound fun, Weaver have his own Mechanics, Catalyst should have his own on all Weapon? Like hammer 3 , every Weapon should have other Effect?

[Asur.9178]

Going to migrate this over from the other sub since this is the 'official thread'.

Thief Summary:

• Pistol and sword changes are irrelevant. Sword will continue not being used because those changes are simply not enough to make the weaponset relevant. Those changes are negligible in terms of making them any more useful than they are.
• Staff power Daredevil (pDD) will continue being better than D/D power Deadeye (pDE). Obviously they both get stronger, which is nice after the last patch.
  • Staff pDD does about the same DPS as D/D pDE currently. The only '?' is how much impact will the Backstab (BS) change have, and if it applies to Malicious Backstab (MBS) in the first place since the notes only mention BS.
  • Staff pDD bring more to the table than D/D pDE, especially after the patch with higher cc capability.
  • Staff pDD doesn't care about positioning and has better AoE, unlike D/D pDE, which is a single target pure DPS build. Even the full staff auto attack chain does more damage after the patch.
  • Staff pDD is less cumbersome to play than D/D pDE. Playing a good D/D pDE requires weaving in Shadow Flare in between 2 MBS without failing and getting revealed...which is not an easy task for vast majority of the players.
• Condi Specter (cSpc) is getting gutted. Yes, believe it or not, those venom changes does more damage to the spec than those buffs do to help it. Losing 1-2s on venoms is equivalent to losing 30-40s (base with no duration increase), because that's each application from each player.
  • The trait increase has very little impact with just 60 points. It's an almost negligible amount of buff for how much you are losing on venoms with the proposed changes.
  • cSpc does not rely on auto attacks for damage, and thus those buffs to auto attacks are pretty much negligible. In fact, auto attack is the lowest source of damage on the spec because that's simply not how the spec is played. Further to that, the buff to Shadow Bolt is literally the first attack of the auto attack chain - not the whole chain.
  • Condi Daredevil (cDD) is getting a nice buff. It's not losing as much as cSpc, and in fact, the boon cDD version (a niche variant) is benefitting the most from the change.

_____________________________

Suggestions for further adjustments:

• Weapon skills:
  • Sword:
    • Auto-attacks: Increase the sword auto attack coefficients a bit more than what's already proposed. 6.25 - 7.69% is far too miniscule to make the weaponset relevant in endgame PvE content.
  • Scepter:
    • Twilight Combo: Increase the duration of poison and torment applied by 1s.
  • Shadow Shroud:
    • Eternal Night: Increase the duration of poison by 2s.
• Utilities:
  • Deadeye:
    • Shadow Flare: Slightly increase the damage coefficient. Eg: 0.6 to 0.7.
• Traits:
  • Deadly Arts:
    • Dagger Training: Increase the additional power when having dagger equipped from 80 to 120. This is similar to Revealed Training. This change not only benefits the power main-hand (MH) dagger builds, which are lacking compared to the staff pDD, but it also benefits builds that use off-hand (OH) dagger, including S/D.
  • Critical Strikes:
    • Deadly Aim: Remove the damage penalty from this trait. Currently, you are better off simply using shortbow with the Practiced Tolerance trait than using this trait. The damage penalty in this trait is completely unnecessary and thus makes it an easy pass if someone is looking for AoE presence.
  • Trickery:
    • Lead Attacks: Increase the damage gain per initiative spent from 1% to 1.5%. This benefits both power and condi builds which utilize the Trickery traitline. In particular, it benefits condi builds the most, putting some of the lost venom damage back into the thief. Furthermore, it allows open world builds that utilizes this traitline for self-reliance (eg: self-boons) to perform better, allowing vast majority of open world players to do better by default.
  • Daredevil:
    • Impacting Disruption: Thanks to numerous nerfs over the years, this trait has become nothing short of dead in both PvE and PvP. So, it's time for some necromancy. Re-vamp this trait to trigger Pulmonary Impact on cc usage, without requiring interruptions. This will allow builds like power S/P to have some form of competitive presence compared to the other 2 options (D/D or staff). In terms of PvP balance, minor number tweaks achieves that effortlessly if required. This trait is already worse than other similar traits like Lightning Rod, which applies weakness and allows for crits on any cc usage without any delay (Pulmonary Impact cannot crit and only does damage with a delay - no other effects).
  • Specter:
    • Dark Sentry: Allow this trait to apply Rot Wallow Venom to the thief itself. This will put back a lot of the lost damage from the venom changes to the thief, without requiring allies.

_____________________________

Additional notes:

• I'm hoping all potential oversights with the coming changes on the 23rd will be addressed before going live. For example, I'm hoping the following will be addressed appropriately.
  • Backstab: Ensure that the coefficient changes apply to Malicious Backstab as well.
  • Traversing Dusk: Ensure there's some way to identify the effective range of the Alacrity with the new proposed 360 radius, even if it means increasing the wells themselves to 360 radius.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Asur.9178
Formatting

[DeceiverX.8361]

Q:  What exactly is the direction the game is intended to be going in respects to why these changes are being made?

A:  (PvE-Only)

I appreciate the early communication.  That said, these aren't really changes that will make people excited or promote much diversity outside a handful of configurations for, well, PvE-Only content, which has some of the highest diversity as it is...

At this point, just remove the competitive modes and drop the charade.  The game is so massively disparate across the formats that you literally cannot create a build in preparation for this game's PvP if you have any previous basis of experience built on PvE, just because any and all said knowledge accrued from engaging in PvE might as well be coming from a different game entirely, and is so fundamentally incorrect that it's just going to make more people upset about even trying it out than having not played the game/moved to PvP/WvW in the first place.

You simply can't participate in PvP/WvW as a new player simply because even the remotely semi-viable options introduced into the PvE-formats are just straight terrible in competitive, with numbers and trait interactions that aren't even remotely close to consistent.

Doing things solely for the optimized PvE content/pursuers will cause this game to fail.  Remember Wildstar?  GW2 is rapidly following that trajectory.

Edited August 15, 2022 by DeceiverX.8361

[Zoser.7245]

It's fun to watch that after the fail in the Necromancer's warhorn...  You have ignored it completely in this update instead of profit it to improve the warhorn in someway to not be completely obliterated by the update of the other off-hand weapons in the following patch. 

If we look at the meta and optimal builds...  the warhorn is ignored in fractals, open world, wvw, pvp... and only used actually in raid, but in builds that completely ignore it in their rotations as, if you use it , you lose dps. The warhorn in raid is a filler for the extra CC when needed and maybe a bit of life force generation that in reality is not needed. So the support  update you did for the weapon seems a failed thing/atempt. Also the two - four builds that include it today... do it completely UNTRAITED.  Which confirms that the weapon is only used as a filler.   For improve the warhorn through traits you also need to invest in it too much to make it worth as a weapon and by choosing those traits you lose more than resign them and chose the alternatives available in the same tiers.

So, watching the updates for the dagger and for the focus, that are nice ones.  What will happen to the warhorn again?  Place your bets...  But, it seems that it will  be thrown again the box of the forgotten/obsolete weapons.  I still can't understand why every warhorn in this game must to be a support weapon yes or yes.  It would have been better improve it in an offensive and more fun way instead of add that shared healing you added and only profitable if you can stay above your foes for a long time as it only works if you hit them in a small 180 radius despite the healing being applied in 360.

On the other hand, the addition of the fear to Wail of Doom openned some alternatives to trait, but those doesn't seems to be used even today,  maybe some could be reviewed and watch if can be improved a bit to make them more appealing against the alternatives in the same tier of traits.

The Necromancer's warhorn cooldowns are also insane untraited.   30 seconds for each skill is too much. And will make it even less desirable after this update as the trait for improve them is in the blood magic trait line that you nerfed in damage and sustain in the update that nerfed the sustain globally. Like the torch from mesmers, another weapon with too high cooldowns for who knows what reason in PVE or even WvW where phantasms are useless.

Some suggestions if you want to add some of them to the Necromancer's warhorn:

• Reduce the cooldown of its skills to 25 seconds. Or at least the cooldown of the Locust Swarm.

• Locust Swarm is a very slow in application, it need too much time to stay on the foes. I would like to add a way to let your locusts chase your foes on demand.  So once you cast them, you gain a second skill that let you command them as you can command your minions. Sending your Locust Swarm against your foes if you command them, they must fly really fast.  The remaining life/duration of your locust swarm will be the time that the new skill will be available for use it. The new skill to command your locust swarm could be named as "Chasers", for example. The skill could have a count of two, so you can use it twice.  And once expired or used, Locust Swarm skill will be available again with its remaning cooldown.   The range of the Chasers skill... between 900 - 1200 to be defined.

• Increase the active area of the Locust Swarm and Chasers if added to 240 at least.

• Finally study if some of the traits that interact with Wail of Doom and the fear applied can be improved to make them more appealing against their alternatives in the same tier. 

Thanks for reading.

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Zoser.7245