October 4 Balance Update Preview

[Kylden Ar.3724]

10 minutes ago, Lazze.9870 said:

They literally said they are working on it, but haven't found a solution they are happy with. Mirage is getting two dodges back at some point.

It's not hard to fix. Here it is, the SUPER SECRET SAUCE:

 

Quote

Mirage can no longer dodge when stunned/immobilized.

 

Easy. Simple. Done. Now has the same limitations as everyone else, while still being unique (in that you don't have to move or stop attacking to do it).

 

  

6 minutes ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

What's funny is they decided to make a class with one dodge after the mirage nerf, but fix it 6 months after, but the class they dumpstered it with first still has to wait 3 years before it gets it's own fix. But oh in the meantime take some more boon strip nerfs mesmers.

 

One dodge should have never been even an idea for balance mechanic, every class should have two dodges at minimum, you make players level and basically "train" them through the entire game to use two dodges as their main defense, and I'm sure they balance encounters with two dodges in mind, there is absolutely no reason to mess with that at all. FIX MIRAGE ANET.

AMEN!

Also, love your signature and agree 101%.

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Kylden Ar.3724

[Fang.1407]

If these Specter changes are coming to PvE (I don't see PvP or WvW only on them), you're going to BOMB Healspecter. This shroud reduction is WAY too high and is effectively HALVING the healing from using shroud. On top of that, the boons from Well of Bounty in this change are practically useless. I do Might, Fury, Vigor on Siphon already and you took away the ability to give Aegis, Protection, and Resolution with the well.
These changes for Specter are good for PvP and WvW. Keep them there please. Leave PvE Specter alone.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Fang.1407
More detail.

[Kheron.9062]

8 minutes ago, Kuma.1503 said:

AoE quickness is gone from Scrapper and Herald. 

 

But we forgot about Harbinger? Reminder that Cele harb is a menace in WvW and Curses Harb is still top tier in PvP. 

Can't nerf necros. Gotta ruin non-necro, non-guardian classes until only those two remain.

[Nomad.4301]

Was really hoping for some reworks to Theif's acrobatics traitline, it's been basically non-viable in all 3 game-modes for at least 2 years now if not longer, and its uselessness is one of the main reasons every thief runs Shadow Arts these days, because we basically only have 1 defensive traitline that works. The 300-second trait reworks are meh:

• Hard to Catch: This trait has been reworked. It now grants endurance when shadowstepping. - This will basically only work well with sword because of the spammability of Sword 2  (maybe rifle, but DE would rather use SA, not acro) and the problem with that is this trait is in the same tier as Swindler's Equilibrium which is the sword specific trait in acro and probably one of the better traits in acro period. It would have to restore at least 33 endurance per shadowstep to be worth using with only our 50s CD utility skills. Bad 4/10
• Instant Reflexes: This trait no longer grants evasion when dropping below 50% health. Instead, it grants evasion after using an elite skill.  The problem with this one is that most thief elites are preemptive, not something you would pop in the middle of being attacked, like Basilisk Venom or Thieves Guild, this may work with the DD elite or the Specter elite and Deadeye would likely not be using Acrobatics, opting instead for Shadow Arts (at least with rifle)  Meh 6.5/10

Also, why no rework to Pain Response? It may not be a 300 second CD skill but it was nerfed to 60 seconds in the same patch and was just as passive, the reason I imagine they stopped at 1 minute was because all the skill does is remove a couple conditions, something that other classes can do much more frequently and easily, hell even specter can passively remove condis once per second in shroud these days.

[Jash.3104]

13 minutes ago, Lazze.9870 said:

The fact of the matter is that wvw support scrapper has been overloaded with utility with no other options ever gonna be able to compete unless they made drastic changes.

Now it has wells that behave like actual wells. Fair enough. Shame they let the interaction run for as long as it did, people are used to be being carried by scrappers.

Then change something about it in WvW. Don't completely ruin Scrapper as a spec everywhere. Having gyros be stationary is antithetical to how the rest of the spec plays.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Jash.3104

[Styopa.2538]

On 9/14/2022 at 11:22 AM, Double Tap said:

Scrapper wells are now stationary ground-targeted skills with a range of 900.

Um what?

Are you kittening kidding?

[zealex.9410]

39 minutes ago, GuriGashi.5617 said:

Willbender and Firebrand are literal memes in PvP and didn‘t get improved at all. Firebrand is useless - Willbender has no sustain and the physical skills aren’t used in a single game mode. Why would anyone still play Guardian in PvP after October 4th

U use a physical skill in pve

[Griifen.2473]

On 9/14/2022 at 6:22 PM, Double Tap said:

Scrapper wells are now stationary ground-targeted skills with a range of 900.

No. Ow God please no. No. No. Nooooooooo

 

Hey everyone scrapper is an extremely mobile class since HoT and we've never, ever, not once had a problem with its wells moving since the gyro's are thematic to the scrapper. Ow, HA! But what, screw you everyone who's ever played scrapper and let's just ruin it for everyone because look how well wells work on chrono - it's God awful and that's why no one is playing it so GG scrappers you're screwed now. 

 

Seriously who the F is okay-ing this? 

[TexZero.7910]

17 minutes ago, Lazze.9870 said:

Leaving cleanse and stealth as is combined with its superspeed would leave scrapper the undisputed healer/cleanser in WvW until the game shuts down, which is the path it has been walking for quite a while now.

About time this interaction was put down a notch, because there was no way tempest or other potential supports were gonna compete with the scrapper utility. The alternative would have been to remove the superspeed, and that would essential change the entire spec as it is very much built around superspeed as is.

Disagree. They've already more than gutted core Engie healing which scrapper piggiebacks off of.

Scrapper is good at cleansing and providing defensive support sure. But to claim that stealth + cleansing makes them the undisputed best healer is silly. There are plenty of other classes that heal better. It's Anet's job to make the distinction here of how they want the supports to play and it's very telling how contradictory the balance is when they lead off stream stating that it's okay to be different where it makes sense but not draw the distinction between how Gyro's are functionally different than conventional wells. Also they really should just revert them to being Gyro's as no build is even taking the Well specific support runes anymore.

[Malus.2184]

I see a lot of changes, none of the ones that are needed in general though and would instantly solve many issues.

1. All Reflects and Blocks and similar that comes with no opportunity cost should be halved in duration in PvP and WvW. Things that require a channel or that you're able to do nothing else except move around shouldremain as they are in duration as they come with a big opportunity costs. The others are esentially fire-and-forget abilities that can be used to grant effectively invulnerability while they can still attack freely. This makes the former so much better than the latter that it's unfair.

2. Stealth in general is an issue. While individual stealth skills can be given an increased CD doing so would have a lot of unforseen effects. And some has their Stealth as a collatteral to doing something else. Using Stealth should place a Grace period on the playert that prevented that player from gaining Stealth while it lasts. This would effectively curb some of the insane short duration Stealth builds that uses short duration Stealth and then attacks from safety repeatedly. It would also seriously curb the roaming power of Theives, which would be good. This could also be extended to other areas, especially the Specter, becayse the Health Shield change is going to do nothing to solve the issue of them faring around the place with their Well that also gives them Alac, and then they have Stealth on top. The Grace Period could for them be that while the Grace lasts they're unable to getthe Teleport effect from Wells as well as Gaining Stealt. As a trade-of Marked should go away in it's effect on Stealth, completely. Solving one unbalanced mechanic by adding a just as unbalance counter to it is horrible balance design.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Malus.2184

[Cevr.1984]

What was the logic to make scrapper gyros change?

It will make scrapper feel not really fun to play pve wise.

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Cevr.1984

[Matoro.9708]

9 minutes ago, Bomboed.5697 said:

Anet keeps changing things nobody asked for and ignoring things people talking about for years.
Who asked for scrapper changes? Nobody. People asked about Turrets reworks. People asked about most of Gadgets being useless. People asked about Pistols changes. People asked about Pistol #1 being broken for years. People asked for Core condi- build changes.
And yet they decided to destroy Scrapper for no reason.

I agree that many things have been suspiciously ignored for half a decade. Not defending that. 

I do applaud though that they are at least doing things. They could do nothing. Management could say it's a waste of effort. You may disagree with their choices, but they can't please everyone, and they are trying, so I recognize that. 

And personally, I have been playing scrapper long enough to remember ground target shredder gyro being quite fun. The fact you need to more strategically place things now and maybe have a slower zerg did not "destroy" a class. What a silly notion. Sure, maybe it wasn't the best way to nerf its WvW performance, but something in that vein needed to happen.

[Infusion.7149]

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this patch. Good to see Roy Marks in the studio! 👍

Some rather large shakeups to the scrapper meta with the Fumigate changes , removal of quickness, and mines changes. Projectile users are probably ecstatic about Defense field changes.

This mantra of liberation change is far less drastic than the proposed change in the last patch. With the change to Mantra of Concentration's range I could see chrono be even more common for some commanders. Mirage doesn't seem to be getting its second dodge back which is jarring for anyone that plays multiple game modes.

Druid could be a stronger support, but I haven't seen anything related to Astral Force maybe I'm missing something. In the Feb 2020 patch astral force generation wasn't revamped. There also isn't anything about pet stow in WVW in these notes so I have to go watch the stream I guess.

There's some curious changes to 300s cooldowns in the Stoneform trait in that you don't always use your elite defensively. Perhaps it is designed with core ranger and such in mind since Entangle is used. There is a similar change to Last Stand, I think this could be a bit more well thought out since your elite is probably going to be banner , Winds of Disenchantment, or something else and not Tactical Reload as on Bladesworns in PVP.

The restoration of core burst to Berserker is interesting, will see how that ends up since the toughness tradeoff has also been removed. It's good to see some damage on CCs back on warrior.

Vindicator's single dodge being altered to two dodges is probably for the better. Altering such a core gameplay mechanic is highly impactful to people learning the spec and some things are designed with 2 dodges.


Lastly I think it is somewhat confusing for players if skills do completely different boons in PVE and WVW/PVP such as mantra of solace and the proposed change to Draconic Echo for herald. 

P.S. I hope power rifle mech is being addressed as Xyonon stated above.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Infusion.7149

[Incurve Giidis.7829]

On 9/14/2022 at 7:22 PM, Double Tap said:

Gale Song: This trait has been reworked. It now grants protection to nearby allies after using a healing skill.

this was a nice comfy trait for mob and cc pressure in fractals and ibs strikes, raid pre events (your overloads/teammates' skills got interrupted but whatever it did something)

but im p sure healtempest with arcane or earth, and with aftershock, already cap protection at 30s. it doesnt feel too tight with other traitlines either, when you are stacked atleast

 

maybe it does smth for the offensive variant idk

Edited September 16, 2022 by Incurve Giidis.7829

[Lazze.9870]

7 minutes ago, Kaizz.7306 said:

I agree we've been overloaded with util for ages, but the only change I don't agree with is the wealls being placed thing. Who knows, this might not be the worst thing ever, it's not like wells are bad, but scrapper was really clunky back when gyros were stationary, and this feels like we're just gonna revert back to that headache. 

As far as cleanses go, you can get lots of cleanses with stationairy fields, I have been doing it on druid since forever and been doing fairly well on the cleanse table compared to scrappers. It requires some actual thought, which the current cleanse field doesn't. The downside from the perspective of balancing support options is that tempest still cleanses A LOT while on the move, that alone might make it the go-to support now. If people can let go of superspeed that is.

The stationairy stealth is actualy more important in regards to shifting the utility scrapper had compared to others. 

[Styopa.2538]

Was WVW overwhelmed with thousands of scrappers?  I haven't seen it.  Yes, there are some that still remain in wvw you know, unlike PvE where they've been basically purged in favor of the all-better Mech.

 

Jesus.  Who is sitting there making these changes saying "yep, this is better for BALANCE"?

 

Wait a second...Eureka!  Everyone said they need to revisit turrets so by making scrappers main thing immobile, they're basically now performing like turrets!  Both problems solved.

[Valisha.8650]

2 minutes ago, Matoro.9708 said:

I agree that many things have been suspiciously ignored for half a decade. Not defending that. 

I do applaud though that they are at least doing things. They could do nothing. Management could say it's a waste of effort. You may disagree with their choices, but they can't please everyone, and they are trying, so I recognize that. 

If something works okay, don't touch it -_-

[bambi.6214]

Virtuoso seems to have a little too much block with that distortion?...

[CarlPaul.1479]

26 minutes ago, jozze.9532 said:

heard about power vindicator? it has a very viable build for PvE. sure, it's not a 40k benchmark with 30-32k but it is still very well usable. That might now even get buffed now that you have two dodges.

Right ! the 30 k power benchmark that  needs you to nonstop attack (unable to use support skills since you need to get out of that stance  or you will drop to 0 dps and cant provide any important boons ) to match  support buids , what's next ?  being happy that you match a healbrand dps wise ?

[patton the great.7126]

Still no mirage dodge changes. Sad. On the brightside it's nice to see zerker get some love. 

[TasteOfChaos.2198]

I have been playing this game since the start, and you have finally listened on fixing warrior since you destroyed it 2 years ago. Thank you SO MUCH, you guys deserve a raise!😁

[Ghos.1326]

On 9/14/2022 at 12:22 PM, Double Tap said:

Hi, everyone,

 

Today we're taking a look at some upcoming balance changes in the October 4 update. The August 23 balance update was primarily focused on PvE, and we felt it was important to do a similar update for competitive modes. After this update, we'll be returning to the usual update format that includes changes targeted at all game modes.

The goal of previewing these changes is to hear your feedback on these changes before they're released. We'll be following the conversation and making adjustments to our plans as needed.

Thanks,

Cal "cmc" Cohen
Skills and Balance Team Lead

October 4 Balance Update Preview

Revisiting Elite Specialization Tradeoffs

Many elite specializations have some mechanical weaknesses compared to the core profession, commonly referred to as the "tradeoff" for the specialization's new mechanics. In some cases, these tradeoffs feel natural, like when a reaper loses access to Death Shroud and gains access to Reaper's Shroud, but in other cases, these tradeoffs feel unnatural and can contribute to making a specialization feel less fluid to play. For this update, we've started to look at these unnatural tradeoffs and evaluate whether they're still necessary for the balance of the game. In many cases, we've simply removed the tradeoff, with the expectation that these specializations can still be balanced in other ways.

300-Second Cooldown Traits

Back in February 2020, we increased the cooldown of many powerful passive defensive traits (such as Defy Pain) to 300 seconds because we didn't want these effects to have an impact in competitive modes, and for this update, we've revisited these traits with the goal of making them into healthier mechanics. In some cases, we've made the defensive effect trigger off something more active (like using an elite skill), and in other cases we've reworked the traits entirely.

General

The previous update to torment was a good change mechanically, as standing still to avoid increased damage isn't a realistic counterplay, but it left builds reliant on torment for damage in a tough spot. We're increasing the base values and reducing the bonus against stationary enemies to make torment damage a bit more consistent.

• Torment: In PvP and WvW, damage has been adjusted as follows:
  • While moving: Increased base damage from 15.9 to 19.8. Increased condition damage scaling from 0.045 to 0.054.
  • While stationary: Reduced base damage from 31.8 to 26. Reduced condition damage scaling from 0.09 to 0.07.

 

Elementalist

The last set of catalyst enhancements in PvP pushed it a bit over the top. With other top performers like specter, bladesworn, and herald coming down in this update, we wanted to include a few smaller adjustments to catalyst, and we've shaved down a few of its more potent defensive tools.

"Eye of the Storm!" also gets a slight cooldown shave in WvW as part of a tuning pass on existing group stun breaks.

• Earth's Embrace: This trait has been reworked. It now grants barrier when attuning to earth.
• Final Shielding: This trait no longer grants Arcane Shield when dropping below 50% health. Instead, it grants Arcane Shield after using an elite skill.

Tempest

• Gale Song: This trait has been reworked. It now grants protection to nearby allies after using a healing skill.
• "Eye of the Storm!": Reduced cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW only.

Catalyst

• Fortified Earth: Reduced base barrier from 3,000 to 2,520 in PvP only. Increased cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Rocky Loop: Reduced damage reduction from 10% to 7% in PvP only.
• Staunch Auras: Reduced stability duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only.

 

Engineer

On the PvP side of things, we're revisiting an old powerhouse: grenade holosmith. While we don't want it back at the level where it dominated the meta, it's currently underperforming and there's room to bring it back up a bit.

For WvW we've primarily focused on scrapper. As we look to improve support diversity in WvW, it's clear that scrapper is an outlier. Builds like vindicator, tempest, warrior, or druid (after this update's changes) have the potential to be potent support options, but they aren't quite at the same level. We see scrapper as overperforming relative to where a support build should be, and so we've brought down its power in a few areas rather than raising other support builds to that overperforming level. We'll be keeping an eye on the support meta following this update and will make additional changes in future balance updates with the goal of creating many viable options.

 

Skills

• Grenade Barrage: Increased power coefficient per grenade from 0.3 to 0.3333 in PvP only.
• Shrapnel Grenade: Reduced cooldown from 6 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only.
• Freeze Grenade: Increased power coefficient per grenade from 0.2 to 0.5 in PvP only.
• Magnetic Shield: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only. Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE and WvW.
• Static Shield: Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only. Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvE and WvW.
• Utility Goggles: Increased resistance duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. This skill now removes one damaging condition in addition to its other effects.
• Throw Mine: Reduced number of boons removed from 2 to 1 in WvW only.
• Mine Field: This skill no longer removes boons. Instead, it cripples enemies that it strikes.
• Fumigate: Increased cooldown from 12 second to 20 seconds in WvW only.
• Cleansing Field: Increased cooldown from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in WvW only.

Traits

• Over Shield: This trait no longer reduces the cooldown of shield skills.
• Medical Dispersion Field: Reduced healing conversion percentage from 10% to 7% in WvW.
• Mechanized Deployment: This trait now removes a condition after using a toolbelt skill, in addition to its other effects.
• Reactive Lenses: This trait no longer triggers Lesser Utility Goggles when disabled or blinded. Instead, it triggers after using a healing skill.
• Lesser Utility Goggles: Increased resistance duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. This skill now removes one damaging condition in addition to its other effects.
• Takedown Round: This trait has been reworked. It now grants increased outgoing strike damage while endurance is not full.
• Kinetic Battery: Increased quickness duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Scrapper

Skills

• Defense Field: This skill is now ground targeted. The spell area of effect created by this skill is now stationary. Increased cooldown from 25 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW only.
• Scrapper wells are now stationary ground-targeted skills with a range of 900.

Traits

• Impact Savant: This trait no longer reduces vitality.
• Gyroscopic Acceleration: Superspeed is now applied on the first pulse of wells instead of the final pulse.
• Kinetic Accelerators: This trait no longer grants quickness in PvP and WvW. Instead, it grants might and fury.

 

Holosmith

Skills

• Coolant Blast: Increased base healing from 4,740 to 5,250 in PvP and WvW.
• Cauterize: Reduced burning duration from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW. Reduced the number of conditions removed from 3+3 to 2+2 in PvP and WvW. This skill now activates instantly.
• Photon Wall: Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP only.
• Prime Light Beam: Increased power coefficient from 0.01 to 1.0 in PvP and WvW.

Traits

• Enhanced Capacity Storage Unit: Increased might duration from 6 seconds to 9 seconds in PvP only.

 

Guardian

Dragonhunter

Hunter's Determination gets the "on elite skill use" trigger that a lot of similar traits received in this update, but we've also focused the effect on its defensive elements. After using an elite skill, the trait will immediately grant aegis and stability and create aegis fragments rather than creating a damaging trap that needs to be triggered.

Test of Faith will also receive a slight reduction, as it is one of the more overperforming aspects of dragonhunter damage builds in WvW.

Skills

• Test of Faith: Reduced passthrough power coefficient from 2.22 to 1.87 in WvW only.

Traits

• Hunter's Determination: This trait no longer grants aegis and casts Shards of Faith when disabled. Instead, it grants aegis and stability and creates aegis fragments after using an elite skill.

 

Firebrand

Mantra of Liberation is a skill that has long overperformed, but it's not something that we want to bring down in isolation, as the need for group stability and stun breaks in WvW cannot be understated. With the improvement to some existing stability options and the addition of other new ones in this update, we're taking the opportunity to bring down the mantra and rein in some of firebrand's dominance in WvW. Firebrand's strength goes beyond the power of an individual skill, and we're investigating some additional adjustments for a future balance update.

Skills

• Mantra of Liberation: Reduced ammunition count from 3 to 2 in WvW only. Increased ammunition recharge time from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

 

Mesmer

The primary change for mesmers in this update is the addition of distortion to both chronomancer and virtuoso. We've also tuned up Mantra of Concentration to be a more viable stability source in WvW with additional stacks, longer duration, and a larger radius.

We're planning a larger investigation into the balance between boon applications and boon removal in WvW for a future update, but for now we wanted to address a few outliers on mesmer, namely Phantasmal Disenchanter and Null Field.

Skills

• Mantra of Concentration: Increased stability from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 5 stacks for 5 seconds in WvW only. Increased ammunition recharge from 30 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW only. Increased range from 240 to 600.
• Phantasmal Disenchanter: Reduced number of boons removed from 5 to 2 in WvW only.
• Null Field: Increased cooldown from 25 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW only.

 

Chronomancer

Skills

• Continuum Shift: This skill has been moved to slot 5 of the profession mechanic bar. Distortion is now accessible in slot 4.

 

Virtuoso

Skills

• Bladeturn Requiem: This skill has been moved to slot 5 of the profession mechanic bar. Distortion is now accessible in slot 4.

 

Necromancer

Scourge

Scourge's punishment skills are a powerful source of cover conditions, breaking the usual expectation of a one-to-one boon conversion by always applying torment and cripple. We don't consider this one-to-two conversion to be a healthy mechanic and have made an adjustment to all punishment skills in this update. We're considering changing these skills to use the standard boon conversion table, but we wanted to try to maintain some of scourge's unique flavor, so we've started by increasing the number of torment stacks while removing the cripple application.

Trail of Anguish is another big outlier on scourge, as its lack of a target cap allowed it to have a much greater impact than desired in large-scale fights. We've updated the skill so it can only affect a maximum of ten enemies to bring it more in line with similar effects.

Skills

• Punishment skills no longer inflict crippled when removing a boon. Increased number of torment stacks applied when removing a boon from 1 to 3.
• Trail of Anguish: This skill can now affect a maximum of 10 enemies.

 

Ranger

Traits

• Shared Anguish: This trait no longer transfers incoming crowd control to pets. Instead, it grants stability to the ranger and their pet when swapping pets.
• Stoneform: This trait no longer grants Lesser Signet of Stone when dropping below 50% health. Instead, it grants Lesser Signet of Stone after using an elite skill.

Druid

Druid is a specialization that was intended to enable a more supportive playstyle for rangers, but it has always lacked the set of tools needed to compete with other support builds in competitive modes. In this update, we've added some reliable group protection to Verdant Etching, group stability to Glyph of the Stars, and more consistent astral force generation for all druid builds to Natural Mender. We've also made some usability improvements to a few of the clunkier druid skills.

Skills

• Astral Wisp: This skill can now target allies. After attaching to a target, this skill will now pulse healing to allies around that target instead of creating a circling projectile that heals allies.
• Glyph of Alignment (Base): Increased immobilize duration from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Glyph of Alignment (Celestial Avatar): Increased number of conditions removed from 2 to 3. Increased base healing from 2,585 to 3,076.
• Glyph of Equality (Celestial Avatar): Increased range from 360 to 600.
• Glyph of the Stars: This skill is no longer channeled and instead creates the spell area of effect after an initial casting time.
  • Base: Reduced the number of pulses from 7 to 6. This skill now grants stability instead of preventing condition applications to allies in the area.
  • Celestial Avatar: Reduced the number of revive pulses from 18 to 6. Increased the revive percentage per pulse from 4% to 12%. This skill now grants stability instead of protection, in addition to regeneration and vigor.
• Glyph of the Tides: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Glyph of Equality: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvE only.
• Glyph of Rejuvenation: Reduced cooldown from 24 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Glyph of the Stars: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 48 seconds.
• Seed of Life: Increased range from 180 to 240. Reduced blossoming time from 1.32 seconds to 0.66 seconds. This skill now activates instantly. Reduced the number of conditions removed from 3 to 2 in PvP and WvW.

Traits

• Celestial Being: This trait no longer reduces pet attributes.
• Natural Mender: This trait no longer uses a stacking effect. Instead, it grants a flat amount of increased outgoing healing. This trait also now grants astral force every few seconds while not in Celestial Avatar.
• Druidic Clarity: This trait now also removes conditions from nearby allies. Reduced number of conditions removed from 13 to 3.
• Cultivated Synergy: Increased healing attribute scaling from 0.2 to 0.75.
• Verdant Etching: This trait now grants protection to nearby allies after using a glyph skill instead of its previous effects.
• Lingering Light: This trait no longer grants astral force while not in Celestial Avatar form.

 

Soulbeast

The big update for soulbeast is the removal of its tradeoff; soulbeasts will once again be able to swap pets while in combat. We've also increased the range of the stance sharing from Leader of the Pack to make it a more reliable stability option when sharing Dolyak Stance.

Traits

• Elevated Bond: This trait no longer prevents pet swapping while in combat. Traits that trigger when swapping pets no longer trigger when entering Beastmode.
• Eternal Bond: This trait has been reworked. It now grants healing when using a merged skill. You can swap pets while merged.
• Leader of the Pack: Increased range from 240 to 600.

 

Revenant

Condition revenant is in a similar position to grenade holosmith in PvP: a once-powerful build in the meta that fell out of favor after a few rounds of nerfs and is currently underperforming. The build's resistance sources were reduced significantly back when the boon still granted full condition immunity, but now that it only negates nondamaging conditions, we're bringing the durations back up.

Skills

• Demonic Defiance: Increased resistance duration from 1 second to 2 seconds in PvP only.
• Fiendish Tenacity: Increased resistance duration from 1 second to 2 seconds in PvP only. Increased base healing from 132 to 165 in PvP and WvW.
• Spirit Boon: Increased resistance duration when invoking Mallyx from 1 second to 2 seconds in PvP only.
• Echoing Eruption: Increased ammunition from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW.
• Pain Absorption: Reduced energy cost from 35 to 30 in PvP only.
• Call to Anguish: Reduced energy cost from 35 to 30 in PvP only.

 

Herald

The recent update to Draconic Echo pushed power herald builds a bit over the top by granting easy access to a lot of quickness. The change was primarily targeted at PvE modes to make herald a viable source of group quickness, but it's clear that this isn't a healthy mechanic for competitive modes. Lingering facet passives is already a powerful effect, and we've changed the boon to might in competitive modes to bring the trait down to a more reasonable power level.

Traits

• Draconic Echo: This trait now grants might instead of quickness in PvP and WvW.

 

Vindicator

The single dodge that vindicator has access to has been a long-standing point of negative feedback, and for this update we've adjusted the timing and endurance cost of the vindicator jump so it's more in line with regular dodges.

We've also made some small usability improvements to the vindicator's group stun break Awakening, increasing the range and removing the casting time.

• Vindicator no longer consumes all endurance to dodge. Reduced endurance cost of dodging from 100 to 50. Reduced dodge evade window from 1.6 seconds to 0.8 seconds.

Traits

• Awakening: This skill now activates instantly. Reduced energy cost from 35 to 30 in WvW only. Increased range from 360 to 600.

 

Thief

In addition to reworking the passive traits in the Acrobatics trait line, Meld with Shadows gets a slight shave off its superspeed duration, targeting the strong performance of deadeye builds in PvP.

Traits

• Hard to Catch: This trait has been reworked. It now grants endurance when shadowstepping.
• Instant Reflexes: This trait no longer grants evasion when dropping below 50% health. Instead, it grants evasion after using an elite skill.
• Meld with Shadows: Reduced superspeed duration from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.

 

Specter

Specter is currently one of the most powerful specializations in PvP. The build has a lot of strengths, but the thing that stands out is the sheer amount of shroud health available, especially in combination with additional sources of vitality. We're reducing the shroud health by a significant amount, with the goal of making specters a bit easier to kill.

We do see specter's reduced initiative pool as one of the tradeoffs we want to revisit eventually, but given its current power level we didn't want to do so in this update. We'll be keeping an eye on the strength of specter going forward and will be looking for an opportunity to restore the lost initiative once it's less dominant.

• Reduced Shadow Shroud health scaling from 1.5 to 0.69.

Skills

Well of Bounty is another skill we wanted to make into a more reliable source of group stability, and to do so we've adjusted how it applies boons. Instead of picking from boons that the target doesn't already have, the skill will consistently apply the same boons on specific pulses, starting with stability on pulse 1.

• Well of Bounty: Increased cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW, and from 20 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP. This skill now applies the following boons:
  • Pulse 1: Stability
  • Pulse 2: Might
  • Pulse 3: Fury
  • Pulse 4: Vigor
  • Pulse 5: Resistance

 

Warrior

Berserker is a specialization that was heavily impacted in competitive modes by the introduction of its tradeoffs, and it was one of the primary targets for improvements in this update. In addition to removing these tradeoffs, we've added adrenaline back to many of berserker's rage skills to make berserk access more reliable. The Defense trait line has also received some significant updates, tuning up some weak traits and improving some of berserker's key synergies with Adrenal Heath and Cleansing Ire.

We've also included a handful of improvements for power and support spellbreaker builds in PvP, both of which have been underperforming.

Skills

• Call of Valor: Increased base barrier from 2,064 to 2,580 in PvP only.
• Charge: Increased quickness duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
• Earthshaker: Increased power coefficient from 0.01 to 0.682 in PvP and WvW.
• Skull Crack: Increased power coefficient from 0.01 to 0.75 in PvP and WvW.
• Whirling Axe: Reduced power coefficient per strike from 0.373 to 0.298 in WvW only.
• "To the Limit!": Increased endurance gained from 50 to 65 in PvP only.
• "Shake It Off!": Reduced ammunition count from 2 to 1 in PvP and WvW. Reduced recharge from 75 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW. This skill now breaks allies out of stuns in addition to its other effects.
• Signet of Rage: Reduced casting time from 1 second to 0.25 seconds. Increased might duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Hammer Shock: Reduced cooldown from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Counterblow: Reduced cooldown from 10 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Pommel Bash: Reduced cooldown from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.

Traits

• Berserker's Power:  This trait now grants one stack of Berserker's Power, plus one additional stack per bar of adrenaline spent. Increased maximum stacks from 3 to 4. Bonus damage per stack reduced from 7% to 5.25%.
• Aggressive Onslaught: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster tier slot formerly filled by Merciless Hammer. Gain quickness when you disable a foe. While you have quickness, your movement speed is increased.
• Thick Skin: This trait has been reworked. It now grants protection to the warrior when using a healing skill.
• Adrenal Health: This trait now grants one stack of Adrenal Health, plus one additional stack per bar of adrenaline spent. Increased maximum stacks from 3 to 4. Healing per stack reduced from 133 to 100 in PvE, and from 100 to 87 in PvP and WvW.
• Shield Master: This trait no longer reduces the cooldown of shield skills. Blocking an attack or reflecting a missile now grants adrenaline instead of might.
• Cull the Weak: This trait no longer applies weakness when striking an enemy below 50% health. Instead, it applies weakness when striking an enemy with a burst skill.
• Defy Pain: This trait no longer grants Lesser Endure Pain when dropping below 50% health. Instead, it grants Lesser Endure Pain after using an elite skill.
• Armored Attack: This trait has been removed and replaced with Resilient Roll.
• Resilient Roll: Gain resistance at the end of your dodge roll.
• Sundering Mace: This trait has been removed and replaced with Merciless Hammer.
• Merciless Hammer: This trait now also increases damage from mace skills when striking a disabled foe. Reduced adrenaline gain from 10 to 7. This trait no longer reduces the cooldown of hammer skills.
• Last Stand: This trait no longer grants Lesser Balanced Stance when disabled. This trait now applies barrier in addition to vigor when using a stance skill.
• Cleansing Ire: This trait now removes one condition, plus an additional condition per bar of adrenaline spent. Burst skills still must hit an enemy to remove conditions.
• Rousing Resilience: This trait has been removed and replaced with Stalwart Strength.
• Stalwart Strength: Disabling an enemy grants stability. While you have stability, your strike damage is increased.

 

Berserker

• Berserk: This skill has been moved to slot 2 of the profession mechanic bar. Core burst skills are now accessible in slot 1 of the profession mechanic bar for the berserker specialization.
• Berserk mode now activates instantly.
• Entering berserk mode no longer initiates an attack, and now counts as a rage skill instead of a level 3 burst skill.

Skills

• Blood Reckoning: Reduced berserk mode extension from 5 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW. Increased adrenaline gain from 10 to 30 in PvP and WvW.
• Outrage: Reduced bonus berserk mode extension from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW. This skill now grants adrenaline: 10 base adrenaline, plus an additional 10 when breaking stun in PvP and WvW. 5 base adrenaline, plus an additional 5 when breaking stun in PvE.
• Shattering Blow: Reduced bonus berserk mode extension from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW. This skill now grants adrenaline (10 in PvP and WvW and 5 in PvE).
• Sundering Leap: Reduced berserk mode extension from 5 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW. Increased power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.33 in PvP and WvW. This skill now grants adrenaline: 10 base adrenaline, plus an additional 10 on hit in PvP and WvW. 5 base adrenaline, plus an additional 5 on hit in PvE.
• Wild Blow: Reduced berserk mode extension from 4 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW. This skill now grants adrenaline (10 in PvP and WvW, 5 in PvE). This skill now removes blind, weakness, and slow upon activation, and it knocks enemies down instead of knocking them back.
• Head Butt: Reduced berserk mode extension from 2 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW. This skill no longer removes stability from the user, and it no longer deals increased damage when removing stability. Increased power coefficient from 3.0 to 4.5 in PvE only.
• Rupturing Smash: Increased attack area from 180 degrees in front of the player to 360 degrees around the player. Increased daze duration from 1 second to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Flaming Flurry: Increased projectile speed.
• Blaze Breaker: This skill now creates a blast finisher at the initial casting location. Increased ammunition count from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW.
• Flames of War: Increased the number of conditions removed from 2 to 3 in PvP and WvW.

Traits

• Fatal Frenzy: This trait no longer reduces toughness.
• Dead or Alive: This trait has been reworked. It now grants 2 seconds of Blood Reckoning when entering berserk mode.
• Bloody Roar: This trait now grants resistance when entering berserk mode in addition to its other effects. Reduced damage bonus from 15% to 10% in PvP and WvW.

 

Spellbreaker

Skills

• Featherfoot Grace: Reduced cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Full Counter: Increased daze duration from 1 second to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.
• Breaching Strike: Increased power coefficient from 1.2 to 1.32 in PvP only.
• Aura Slicer: Increased power coefficient from 1.32 to 1.45 in PvP only.
• Disrupting Stab: Increased daze duration when interrupting an enemy from 1 second to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.

Traits

• Attacker's Insight: Increased power, precision, and ferocity granted per stack from 35 to 45 in PvP only.
• Revenge Counter: Increased resistance duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only.
• Magebane Tether: Increased might duration from 6 seconds to 9 seconds in PvP only.

 

Bladesworn

Skills

• Tactical Reload: This skill now only recharges bladesworn skills instead of all warrior ammunition skills.

Traits

• Dragon Trigger: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to have a shorter cooldown than expected.
• Dragonscale Defense: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to have a shorter cooldown than expected in PvP and WvW. This trait now grants protection instead of stability in PvP and WvW. Reduced internal cooldown from 60 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.

So, condition rev. It's pretty much only underperforming because everything in the current meta has 100 million and 1 condition clears. tldr; they're still going to be underperforming because you haven't done much to reduce the amount of clears some of these things have, and in fact have increased the amount of clears in some instances.

 

Warrior, you buffed call of valor. why? it's already a very strong defensive tool on a relatively low cooldown, and now you've made it stronger. does something like scrapper get the same buff? bulwark gyro is on a what, 35s cd and only gets around 3k-3.5k barrier.

 

Engineer, kinetic accelerators....removing the quickness. why? This was a good trait that competed with the others. You had a choice between being defensive, bursty with kinetic accel, or sustained dps with applied force. I dunno man.

Impact savant. ok? so you got rid of the reduction to vitality. and? scrapper, which was supposed to be a tank (which i can now also see you're changing to mention that scrapper is meant to be a support), can not tank.

gyro changes. not too fond, but might be alright in the long run. will need to test.

Defense field. ok, not too bad, considering it grants stab and is a large anti projectile dome.

Mechanized deployment. um, ok? i guess it's fine, but that "remove one condition when you use toolbelt skills" could have easily went back into Alchemy.....which is supposed to be the trait line dedicated to boons and manipulating conditions....my how far we have fallen from the founders' original design concepts....

Utility goggles, pretty cool. nice change, though the immune to blind for x seconds was a pretty cool little niche thing for it. considering blind spam is, ya know....a thing.

Still nothing done about Inventions and how utterly crap it is. Main hand pistol autos still have a total cast time of around .9s instead of the advertised .5.....that's cool.

 

Scourge, pretty cool changes overall. Very nice.

 

Thief changes, pretty cool. Nice.

 

Ele changes, not too bad. Might need to see it in action first, solid change to staunch auras.

 

Others, I'd need to see to know whether or not the changes made any kind of difference, good or bad. but, all in all, a few good changes. The rest....yeah, no.

[Xenesis.6389]

3 minutes ago, Styopa.2538 said:

Was WVW overwhelmed with thousands of scrappers?

They're in every group in every zerg, they're the two top meta classes for groups behind firebrands.... do you even wvw?

 

[Lazze.9870]

1 hour ago, Jash.3104 said:

Then change something about it in WvW. Don't completely ruin Scrapper as a spec everywhere. Having gyros be stationary is antithetical to how the rest of the spec plays.

It's clunkier and less fun when you can't run around with your hammer and gyro effects blasting around you regardless of positioning, but it doesn't completely ruin it everywhere else. Other specs can manage with stationairy wells, so can scrapper. Especially in PvE. 

That change hits hardest in WvW, by far. It was needed, and there is a limit to how much you can split change skills between modes. Numbers and boon output is one thing, this is a complete mechanic overhaul.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Lazze.9870

[KrakensEmbrace.8215]

If you hate druid this much, just remove them from the game 😂

How did you manage to nerf it's current use, and completely screw over roaming and non-GvG small scale, while at the same time not making it any more viable than other supports (even with nerfing scrapper to all hell)?