October 4 Balance Patch Wishes

[Kydar Schattendolch.6879]

I would like to open this topic to collect some wishes for the october profession balance update announced by Anet few time ago.

I'll start with some ideas, that came to me. Feel free to add your ideas 😃

 

Thief:
Death Blossom: Increase bleeding stacks from 3 to 6. Reduce duration from 15s to 8s.

Specter
"Panaku's Ambition": Shift the first effect "Gain barrier when you strike foes with a stealth attack." to Shadow Art "Shadow Siphoning"
"Shadow Siphoning"  now grants barrier when foes are hit with a stealth attack in addition to its actual effects
"Panaku's Ambition": Add the following effect to this trait:  A percentage of the healing provided to allies is converted into barrier, if allies are fully healed. Converted heal amount: 15%

Ranger:
"Frost Spirit": Increase might  stacks from 1 to 2.
"Moment of Clarity" and "Predator's Onslaught": These traits now consider knockdown in their effects.
 

Druid:
"Grace of the land": The following effect is added to it's current effect: Avarat 4 "Rejuvenating Tides" and 5 "Natural Convergence" now grant stability for 1,5s per pulse to up to 5 allies within the area of effect.
 

Herald:
"Draconic Echo" is revamped to the following effect:
You retain your facet passives for a duration after using their consume abilities. Using a upkeep skill grants quickness to allies around you.
Quickness shared with Herald upkeep skills can be stacked.
Quickness: 1s (per Herald upkeep skill in use)
Maximum count for Herald upkeep skills: 3
Quickness: 2s (for other legends upkeep skills in use)
Interval: 3s
Radius: 600
 

Vindicator:
"Spear of Archemorus": The torment is removed from this spell. This skill is changed to an upkeep-skill. When activated, Archemorus  is summoned and grants boons to nearby allies every second and the skill switches to "Throw Spear". The activcation of "Throw Spear" throws it to the targeted enemy, ends the upkeep effects and the skill starts to go on CD. Increase CD to 15s.
When the Legend is switsched ot energy drains to 0, the skill gies on cd without the possibility to activate the chain skill.
Upkeep cost: -8
Might per pulse: 2 Stacks, 10s
Stability per pulse: 1s
Quickness per pulse: 1s
Interval: 1s
Radius: 600

Thwow Spear:
Energy Cost: 5
Damage: 1200 (3,5)
Range: 2000
 

Thanks for more ideas and a hoopefully great discussion 😃
 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Kydar Schattendolch.6879

[Zsoak.5409]

Remove and rework all 300 sec cooldown traits which are placeholders since years

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

7 minutes ago, Kydar Schattendolch.6879 said:

Specter

"Panaku's Ambition": Shift the first effect "Gain barrier when you strike foes with a stealth attack." to Shadow Art "Shadow Siphoning"
"Shadow Siphoning"  now grants barrier when foes are hit with a stealth attack in addition to its actual effects
"Panaku's Ambition": Add the following effect to this trait:  A percentage of the healing provided to allies is converted into barrier, if allies are fully healed. Converted heal amount: 15%

Oh hell no. Specter can enjoy this trait because of his drawbacks (smaller initiative pool, clunkiest thief spec, no stolen skills and no shadowstepping with steal).

But giving this to core thief and all other elite specs that are often build as glass cannons will be game breaking in competitive modes. Especially if it's a minor trait. It'll either break the balance or get gutted so hard it'll be next to useless. And big fat barriers for allies from healing are accessible for specter with adept tier trait that converts all of remaning shroud into huge aoe heal, or barrier on fully healed.

As for my wishlist:

1. Mesmer core healing skills. We all know only signet of Ether matters and rest are garbo, because their synergies are weak, the skills themselves are weak or both. A-net should give other options (Mirror, Mantra of Recovery, Ether Feast!!!) some love.

2. Acrobatics specialization for thief - eons long cooldown passive traits. TOO MUCH. Both of such traits and cooldowns on them. It gets to the point there's next to no diversity when using this line, because if you want something that doesn't function once in a blue moon there's hardly any choice!

3. [PvE] CORE NECRO & Power reaper dps. When was it that core necro got a benchmark allowing it to do end game pve? Ah, that's right - never. And let's not pretend that last balance patch didn't do reapers dirty. We all know power reaper damage comes from shroud, then gs and axe 2 burst. What gets big power buffs? The staff, and single hit shouts... No comment.

4. [sPvP] Anyone else here thinks that rifle mechs still need some nerf batting?

5. [sPvP] and while we're at it - Bladesworns some fixing? Word it's literal bugs carrying the spec.

 

[Mike.7983]

Wish list? Firebrand/Mech gutted to normal values, or straight up jack every other elite/build to to reach equal numbers.

Fix Vindicator its garbage

It is not ok when your average 10 person group is 3-4 mechs, 2-3 firebrands then maybe virt and some other being carried build.  Not healthy in general when the game is heavily favoring the first 2 to carry the rest.

[Kydar Schattendolch.6879]

39 minutes ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

Oh hell no. Specter can enjoy this trait because of his drawbacks (smaller initiative pool, clunkiest thief spec, no stolen skills and no shadowstepping with steal).

But giving this to core thief and all other elite specs that are often build as glass cannons will be game breaking in competitive modes. Especially if it's a minor trait. It'll either break the balance or get gutted so hard it'll be next to useless. And big fat barriers for allies from healing are accessible for specter with adept tier trait that converts all of remaning shroud into huge aoe heal, or barrier on fully healed.

 

I'm not sure, that a 0,7k barrier available for thief specs when using stealth attacks would be game breaking. 

 

Ya, u are right. U can share barrier by using shadow shroud. But all the healing would be wasted on thief by using shadow steps or other healing sources. And I think 15% is'nt that much of barrier amounts, but can nicely stack up by permanent healing. This could make heal-support specter great for high end content. 

Maybe it would be op, I'm with u there. But it would need some testing IMO. 

[Requiem.9648]

I mean right now i can see litteraly 5-6 orange (ingi, mech) in every single raid/strikes fight if i was Anet i will figure this issue when you see around 60% of your compt is designed to play Mech Wars 2. I mean there is a way to have fun with this class but litteraly overwhelming every other dps class right should lit up  the light and said to Anet there is something wrong and something need to be fixed/balanced.

[otto.5684]

Where do I even start, there is so much. Just focusing on rev, guardian and mesmer, and only for PvE:

 

Mesmer:

Mirage, the damage is fine as is. No need to nerf it. Axe in particular. 
 

Virtuoso, condi version is fine. Power needs a bit of damage a lot of sustain. It is incredibly bad to play in most situations.

 

Chrono, I do not play often. I know it has consistently issues.

 

Rev:

herald, IMO, no matter what you do, the damage is not there. The support is getting better. I find the design of consuming a facet that provides boons to get boons contradictory. Could herald get a bit more burn damage access/buffing. Overall, traits need to be reworked. 
 

Vindicator. Needs some level of support and damage consistency. First, GS5 should deal the same amount of damage to all targets. I dunno who thought the random bull kitten atks was a good idea. It needs to be changes to pulses, similar to Berserk. Second, since Anet already mentioned it wants to improve access to stability, give Vindicator the ability to provide stability. Alliance legend already has access to personal stability. Make some of that sharable to allies.

 

Guardian:

DH damage is behind. WB condi damage is slightly behind. WB power… is not working. Personally, I think a slight buff to GS and sword MH and OH could solve the lack of power damage issues. 
 

WB, many of aspects need rework. Other than condi dps, nothing works effectively. And even if GS, sword WB would work, this has been the power build since HoT. We need variety. Make sword/sword a thing.

 

FB, all the changes to mantras have not worked well. And for kittens sack, why does the kittening heal spell, not heal in pvp. And why does it have aegis, again? Did not we all agree that was a terrible idea in WvW? This lazy, have backed work that either render the skill useless or does not change its viability. Rework the heal and the elite mantras.

[Suyheuti.1732]

Firstly, I want Anet to stop ignoring Mirage bug. This is massive problem. And I expect to fix it sooner than october. Here is the thread: 

 

Chrono, chrono. Please rework chrono's traits. Alac chrono is using 2 3 1, quickness chrono 2 3 2, power chrono 2 3 3. This shows how bad traits chrono has. Once upon a time, I remember, Danger Time existed. Now it is junk after taking damage buff at 11 May 2021's patch and giving damage buff to Improved Alacrity at 2nd August patch. 

 

Engineer: I'm getting sick to see power rifle mechs dominating every game mod. Anet needs to nerf Mech's damage. (Not rifle) 

Power Holosmith is the worst power class in Engineer specs. Even Power Scrapper's benchmarks are higher than Holosmith. Latest buffs are not enough. So holo needs more love. (Don't nerf Scrapper, it is not too high but Scrapper has too many utilities, pure DPS classes requires higher damage.) 

Also mh pistol requires rework like rifle. Especially its autoattack. (I'd like to see condi holosmith an alternative to condi mechanist, holo has good foundation to upgrade condi version, after pistol rework and modifiying some unused trait in Holosmith will bring back it to the table)

 

Elementalist: 

Come on Anet. Nerfing Catalyst by using "Meta-defining" was brutal. I'm not pro ele player, just I know, ele is not easy to play. I think, I'm not pro yet for that reason. 😅 Pro ele players should be rewarded especially weaver and catalyst. Revert the latest nerfs to catalyst and buff condi sword weaver noticeable. 

 

 

[Angesombre.4630]

8 hours ago, Kydar Schattendolch.6879 said:

Herald:
"Draconic Echo" is revamped to the following effect:
You retain your facet passives for a duration after using their consume abilities. Using a upkeep skill grants quickness to allies around you.
Quickness shared with Herald upkeep skills can be stacked.
Quickness: 1s (per Herald upkeep skill in use)
Maximum count for Herald upkeep skills: 3
Quickness: 2s (for other legends upkeep skills in use)
Interval: 3s
Radius: 600
 

Vindicator:
"Spear of Archemorus": The torment is removed from this spell. This skill is changed to an upkeep-skill. When activated, Archemorus  is summoned and grants boons to nearby allies every second and the skill switches to "Throw Spear". The activcation of "Throw Spear" throws it to the targeted enemy, ends the upkeep effects and the skill starts to go on CD. Increase CD to 15s.
When the Legend is switsched ot energy drains to 0, the skill gies on cd without the possibility to activate the chain skill.
Upkeep cost: -8
Might per pulse: 2 Stacks, 10s
Stability per pulse: 1s
Quickness per pulse: 1s
Interval: 1s
Radius: 600

Thwow Spear:
Energy Cost: 5
Damage: 1200 (3,5)
Range: 2000
 

Thanks for more ideas and a hoopefully great discussion 😃
 

I don't know what it would look like, but I like the idea especially for the herald of quickness on maintenance used it would fit more. 
I don't know about the removal of the torment.
For the vindicator if the elite gives buffs it could be like a kind of susanoo (Naruto) but smaller behind the player.

A correction of the vindicator for these bug or revanant which are mentioned in its post could be already well and can be to return on decisions taken anyhow.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Angesombre.4630

[the krytan assassin.9235]

For Ele:

core utilities:
arcane brilliance: improve base healing by 20%
Conjure skills: no longer cast item on ground, reduce casting time by 0.5 sec and make it like a toolkit
signet of water: impove healing power by 180 instead of -20% condi duration
signet of fire: grants 180 power instead of precision

Signet of Earth: now provides 10% dmge reduction

Cd lightning flash reduced to 30 seconds

Glyph of (lesser) elemental no longer despawns while mounting
tornado: increase damage of tornado skills by ~500%

weapon skills
Staff skills:
lower fireball dps by 10%
increase lava font dps by 20%, increase radius to 240
remove -10% dmge per hit on Meteor shower (and Lightning hammer, frostbow, ice storm and lightning storm)
improve dmge ice spike by 20%
improve dmge lightning surge by 20%
Add 5 seconds of group superspeed ontop of swiftness on windborne speed
Gust 400 defiance break instead of 150

Projectile speed AA increased by 50%

dagger skills:
add 1 sec of burning/hit to dragonclaw
increase dmge vapor blade by 30%
increase lightning whip dps by 30%
reduce casting time churning earth to 1.5 sec

scepter skills:
arc lightning:  increase dmge by 200%
lightning strike: improve dmge by 50%
blinding flash: now grants damage in addition to current effect
rock barrier: now grants -10% damage instead of 250 toughness.

Core traits:
Powerful aura is now a grandmaster arcane trait (instead of elemental surge)
smothering aura's is now a master trait in arcane and has increased duration on all auras
new adept arcane trait (instead of arcane precision): elemental auras now grant an extra boon:  resistance on earth, fury on air, might on fire, resolution on water
Internal cooldown evasive arcana removed
swap soothing disruption with arcane resurrection
any sort of condi dmge trait instead of diamond skin trait.
blinding ashes: reduce cooldown to 5 seconds, grant an additional 10% condition damage

tempest:
duration of transcendent tempest is corresponding with tooltip (15 sec instead of 7)
overload time is reduced to 3 seconds
minor adept trait (singularity): now standard provides an aura upon finishing an overload.
minor grandmaster trait: now also grants stability upon casting an overload.
tempestious aura: now grants 2 seconds of alac when casting a shout (instead of might), cooldown of shouts is decreased by 20%
new master trait instead of harmonius conduit: after overloading an attunement you gain a specific stat boost depending on your attunement. 

eye of the storm: now provides shocking aura in addition to current effects
remove all casting time off shouts. 
Increase dmge of overload air by 30%
increase heal coëfficient on overload water by 0.2 on pulse and 0.5 on final heal
overload earth now grants party wide stability

weaver: 
invigorating strikes is now party wide barrier

Weaver's prowess & element of rage duration increased to 12 seconds

sword:
increase dmge of quantum strike by 10%
increase dmge of flame uprising by 10%
increase dmge of rust frenzy by 20% 
increase dmge natural frenzy by 25%
increase dmge gale strike by 30%

 

Catalyst
automatic energy regen up to 10
same energy bar as beserker (visual change)
spectacular sphere no longer deals -10% dmge when traited
empowered empowerment now doubles the effect of elemental empowerment regardless of the amount of stacks. 
duration of no energy renewal after sphere cast reduced to 3 sec. 
staunch aura now offers party wide stability upon gaining an aura. 
invigorating air now grants party wide superspeed, recharge time reduced to 20 sec

hammer

Remove cd on orbs, Grand finale cd is fine.

Make all utility augments instant cast

Reduce cd on molten end, shock blast and ground pound to 20 sec to promote combo blast/aura/EE synergy

Remove self knockback on wind storm

Make invigorating air party wide

Edited September 1, 2022 by the krytan assassin.9235

[Kaladel.1670]

Meaningful Reaper buffs for spooktober would make sense.

[Jski.6180]

Make self stab skills (mostly in wvw) stronger then support stab skills. Its odd that we have 1 min cd on self stab effects but often 30 sec or less for support stab even though the support stab is also an self stab for the player using the skill.

I see no way for anet to be able to give out stab support to all classes in an meaningful way so the best chose would be for anet to go back on there old chose of 1 min self stab skills and maybe make support stab skill have an over all longer cd.

[Fueki.4753]

My wish is for them to bring Warrior up to modern standards.

However, I doubt they will even try to do that.

[Kydar Schattendolch.6879]

Maybe we could use this thread for some constructive suggestions regarding skills and traits. If a dev ever read this, it may be more impactful and give ideas to think about. 

IIRC the next update will have a focus on support builds so....

Edited August 30, 2022 by Kydar Schattendolch.6879

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

4 hours ago, Kydar Schattendolch.6879 said:

Maybe we could use this thread for some constructive suggestions regarding skills and traits. If a dev ever read this, it may be more impactful and give ideas to think about. 

IIRC the next update will have a focus on support builds so....

Remove the windup on Earthshaker.

Reduce 100blades cast time to 2s.

Buff killshot damage by 50%.

Unroot Flurry.

Reduce CD on Shake it Off by 25s (PvP/WvW).

Adrenal Health activates on burst use.

Cleansing Ire activate on burst use.

Berserk Mode pulses 1s of resistance every second.

Healing Signet passive heal buffed by 20%, active buffed by 100%.

Bladestorm removed boons per hit.

Changes unless stated otherwise are for all game modes.

[Kuma.1503]

Staff Ele

Reduce the delay on Eruption (Earth 2 on Staff) by 3 seconds. (4 second delay down to 1 second delay)

Double the damage of lightning surge so it's a dps increase instead of a DPS loss

Increase projectile speed of chain lightning and reduce aftercast. Let it repeatedly bounce to the same target if nothing else is in range. 

Remove -10% modifier on Meteor Shower. 

 

Catalyst:

Remove the energy gen lockout after dropping a jade sphere

Make energy refill OOC. 

Make augment skills supportive instead of selfish. 

Remove -10% damage on spectacular sphere

Make stacks of Elemental Empowerment refresh all other stacks. 

 

Tempest: 

Combine Alac trait with Elemental Bastion. We don't need this big of a trade-off. Especially when other builds can give boons AND heal at any time and not just in specific attunements with cooldowns. 

Make Stab on overload baseline. Make the stab trait pulse stab to allies during overload. 

Make Aftershock instant cast so it can be used mid overload. Remove aegis. 

Move Aegis onto Feel the burn and give it 2 charges like it has in PvP (On par with Retreat).

 

Engineer:

Reduce aftercast on Fragmentation shot so that it matches the tooltip. Make the bleed apply on the AoE explosion and add explosion tag. 

Speed up animation and projectile speed of poison dart volley to be in line with Weeping Shots (Harbinger pistol 2). Add projectle finisher tag. 

Allow static shot to bounce to the same target if no other targets in range. 

Increase Blowtorch hitbox so it doesn't whiff when it shouldn't. 

Replace Glue shot with something useful. 

 

Rework how Scrapper gives quickness. Spamming all of your utilities on cooldown to mantain a single boon isn't fun or skillful gameplay. 

 

Make mechanist synergize better with condition builds and less well with power builds. Condi mech builds are healthy and on par with other builds in terms of difficulty. Do not tie stat inheritance to traits to make trait selection less cookie cutter. 

Make the mech work under water, and allow it to proc on heal traits when med kit is selected. This can be accomplished by allowing toolbelt skills when mech is stowed. (Nerf mech appropriately to ensure this doesn't break it). This also increases the skill cap of mech further while making mech more flexible and less polarizing in PvP. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Kuma.1503

[Tails.9372]

There are a lot of things I would like to see but to keep it short:

Extend thiefs "Dual Wield" class mechanic to the AA when using the same weapon type in your main and offhand and add a new Dual Wield skill to 3 if appropriate (e.g. for P/P replace Vital Shot with Unload, reduce both the number of hits and execution time to 25%, remove both the cost and the ini gain on hit and give it a smooth loop like Tainted Bolts then add a new Dual Wield skill to 3).

Change the activation condition of the bonus effects from the Critical Strikes trait "Signets of Power" to "on crit" without giving them an ICD (but tone down the numbers accordingly if appropriate).

Remove the Deadly Aim trait, bring back the Ricochet trait and make the "Trigger Chance" 100%.

Remove the "Shadowstep away from your target / toward your target" effect from Measured Shot and give the "Enemy target" part of it to Bola Shot.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Tails.9372

[Serephen.3420]

3 hours ago, Kuma.1503 said:

Staff Ele

Reduce the delay on Eruption (Earth 5 on Staff) by 3 seconds. (4 second delay down to 1 second delay)

Double the damage of lightning surge so it's a dps increase instead of a DPS loss

Increase projectile speed of chain lightning and reduce aftercast. Let it repeatedly bounce to the same target if nothing else is in range. 

Remove -10% modifier on Meteor Shower. 

 

Catalyst:

Remove the energy gen lockout after dropping a jade sphere

Make energy refill OOC. 

Make augment skills supportive instead of selfish. 

Remove -10% damage on spectacular sphere

Make stacks of Elemental Empowerment refresh all other stacks. 

 

Tempest: 

Combine Alac trait with Elemental Bastion. We don't need this big of a trade-off. Especially when other builds can give boons AND heal at any time and not just in specific attunements with cooldowns. 

Make Stab on overload baseline. Make the stab trait pulse stab to allies during overload. 

Make Aftershock instant cast so it can be used mid overload. Remove aegis. 

Move Aegis onto Feel the burn and give it 2 charges like it has in PvP (On par with Retreat).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eruption is earth #2 

 

All pretty good except your last suggestion about taking aegis from aftershock and putting it on feel the burn, which makes no sense at all to me.

 

One additional suggestion. 

Change the might/weakness master trait(hardly used because it feels so pointless) into a proper shout trait, that gives a different effect depending on the shout. Weather it is a boon or condition or a bit of both. Or enhances what they already do.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Serephen.3420

[oscuro.9720]

7 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Remove the windup on Earthshaker.

Reduce 100blades cast time to 2s.

Buff killshot damage by 50%.

Unroot Flurry.

Reduce CD on Shake it Off by 25s (PvP/WvW).

Adrenal Health activates on burst use.

Cleansing Ire activate on burst use.

Berserk Mode pulses 1s of resistance every second.

Healing Signet passive heal buffed by 20%, active buffed by 100%.

Bladestorm removed boons per hit.

Changes unless stated otherwise are for all game modes.

Revenge counter transfers conditions instead of copies, changes FC damage mod to 1.1-1.3 (or increase the % damage increase from 20% to 2500-3500% so it does ~2000 damage when at 2k power, 200% crit dmg)

1 might added back to MBT

Berserker stance cleanses 1 condition per pulse

 

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

7 hours ago, oscuro.9720 said:

Revenge counter transfers conditions instead of copies, changes FC damage mod to 1.1-1.3 (or increase the % damage increase from 20% to 2500-3500% so it does ~2000 damage when at 2k power, 200% crit dmg)

1 might added back to MBT

Berserker stance cleanses 1 condition per pulse

 

 

Guard Counter now grants Resolution and Protection for 4s in an area.

Revenge Counter grants Resistance in an area.

Full Counter gains a flipover skill to activate it directly for reduced damage and reduced daze duration.

[crosknight.3041]

keeping it short
would love Ele core utility skills to get an modernizing update. they are stuck in 2012. Tempest shouts to become ammo skills
rework tempest alac application.. both FB and HAM have access tp their heals all the time as well as their corresponding boon. ele should be able to as well. and the all or nothing approach to alacrity on tempest needs to be less punishing.

[Devas.8104]

Hotfix:

- delete the guardian class and all its especs,

- delete stealth,

- revert the -20% shroud critrate buff for necromancers,

- revert the lich form AA dmg coefficients

[Dadnir.5038]

Wishes?

- Rework the 300s CD traits. (It should be the top priority)

- Work on the disabling skills that deal little to no damage in competitive modes.

- QoL PvE Alac tempest.

- QoL for PvE Quickscrap.

- Put a 25% movement speed trait in mesmer's core traitline or one of it's signets.

- Rework spite's siphon power to add extra power to your attacks based on your foe health treshold (make it like last rites) instead of a might when hitting a foe below 50% health.

- More QoL on core pets on ranger, the last patch was a step in the right direction, keep going! F2 skills need to be at the same level than x-pac pets' F2 skills (there is a dire need for CD shaves and numbers upgrade).

- Buff Herald's shield please.

- Some work on Haste and Roll for initiative on thief, I'm not sure anyone ever used those skills.

- Make martial cadence provide a different boon based on the e-spec used please.

[otto.5684]

2 hours ago, Devas.8104 said:

Hotfix:

- delete the guardian class and all its especs,

- delete stealth,

- revert the -20% shroud critrate buff for necromancers,

- revert the lich form AA dmg coefficients

Well, lets delete GW2. 

[Devas.8104]

50 minutes ago, otto.5684 said:

Well, lets delete GW2. 

Yet what I suggested would do more good than harm balance-wise in all PVP modes 😁