November 29 Balance Patch Wishes/Suggestions

[Felices Bladewing.3914]

preparedness finally baseline. QoL and also makes balancing initiative-skills so much easier for anet

Trickery less focused on condi dmg but therefore more access/synergy for boon steal an share. (which imo should be the support style of thief, not the specter stuff)

Death blossom being more viable (even if just situational) for power builds.

dancing dagger getting an additional effect (maybe stun) when hitting just one target.

For Acro i lost hope tbh

controversial: getting rid of all those x% more dmg per boon/condition, or +power when using x.
those also makes balancing harder without bringing fun or having unique interaction.

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Felices Bladewing.3914

[alex.8417]

Super, so a return towards a trinity, here is a super news, it will avoid us the hybrid build to all make, which currently breaks the balance of the game, ANET finally took the good decision😄

 

It will allow to value the various roles and in particular that of the healer if ANET can relaunch the debate on "Regeneration stack intensity" to 25, as with the boons of Powers. with an adapted balancing as that of the condition.

 

I say that because currently the regen is not really useful and not so great impact as the other boons in the game 😇

[Serephen.3420]

17 hours ago, alex.8417 said:

Super, so a return towards a trinity, here is a super news, it will avoid us the hybrid build to all make, which currently breaks the balance of the game, ANET finally took the good decision😄

 

It will allow to value the various roles and in particular that of the healer if ANET can relaunch the debate on "Regeneration stack intensity" to 25, as with the boons of Powers. with an adapted balancing as that of the condition.

 

I say that because currently the regen is not really useful and not so great impact as the other boons in the game 😇

I don't think you know what you are talking about 😅

[Lerthil.7621]

Please make Chrono Minstrel Great again, you nerfed my beloved character to the point that its useless in all ways shapes and forms.

[Sagedurk.7358]

Some non-Firebrand Guardian PvE wishes

Willbender is in desperate need of buffs. I very rarely see anyone else in raids play Willbender, and when I do, it's always Condi Willbender. Anet, please do NOT make the mistake of only buffing DH when it comes to Power Guardian

Power Willbender / DH

basically the same build, and DH's only build, which is why I mention Willbender almost exclusively

• Please remove the conditional crit cap provided by Resolution. At this point, Power Guardian is in such a poor state that just giving us a permanent 25% crit chance increase will do very little in PvE. Guardian was the only class that didn't get any sort of crit chance change in the June patch, and removing this requirement would make it ever so slightly easier to create teamcomps.
• Needs more damage, which could be added to Zeal, since it's only used for power builds
• Buffing the multipliers of Tyrant's Momentum & Big Game Hunter would also be an option, this would also buff Condi Willbender, which got indirectly nerfed due to a core condi trait being hit because of Firebrand.

 

Condi Willbender

• If Tyrant's Momentum is buffed, it would buff Willbender's DPS builds without buffing Firebrand, this would also enlargen the gap between pure DPS vs Alac Willbender, which could be important depending on how impactful my proposed alac changes are.
• Do note that buffing GS or core Sword would not only affect Power Guardian, but also Condi Willbender

 

Power Alac Willbender

• Remove the need to take BOTH Phoenix Protocol and Battle Presence to provide party-wide alac. Make Phoenix Protocol be 5-man by default. Personally, I don't know of any other alac/quick provider which relies on 2 different traitlines to share their buff.
• This would allow Power Alac to take Radiance over Virtues, which removes the need to upkeep aegis for damage potential. Since DPS Alac Willbender only provides alacrity as a reliable boon, damage should be on the higher end for alac support.

 

Condi Alac Willbender

• Removing the need to take Battle Presence would allow Condi Alac to take Permeating Wrath instead, increasing its damage. But traiting Phoenix Protocol would make you lose out on Tyrant's Momentum, as well as needing to primarily use Virtue 2 instead of Virtue 1, which would decrease the effectiveness of Permeating Wrath

 

Heal Alac Willbender

This build is already sitting in a weird spot, since if you want to play guardian healer, HFB is superior, and if you want to play Heal Alac, other alac healers are superior. Snowcrows gave up on this build so fast that it still has Lorem Ipsum text on SC

• Removing the need of Battle Presence would allow for Indomitable Courage to be traited, making Virtue 3 a substitute for Stand Your Ground, freeing up a utility slot for other things, and giving some flavor to Heal Alac Willbender over HFB.
• Might uptime is more difficult than on Firebrand, since the only utility skill Guardian has that gives party-wide might is on Firebrand, and Holy Reckoning isn't even sharable with Battle Presence
• Absolute Resolve needs to work with Phoenix Protol. It's beyond stupid that Phoenix Protocol replaces the healing provided by Virtue 2 with Regen, but Absolute Resolve doesn't buff that Regen by 25%. Absolute Resolve is currently reduced to 3 condi removals/Virtue 2 activation. Not trigger, but activation.

 

 

Willbender is extremely fun to play, but it lacks numbers and proper trait interactions, and something needs to happen next balance patch.

As a Willbender main, I don't want it to become OP, but I also don't want to feel like I'm griefing the squad for playing what I want. The reason for these propositions is for a change to happen, and if there's one specific thing I want to see fixed on this list that isn't just "increase damage", it's to make Phoenix Protocol standalone and not being forced to use Battle Presence.

I usually play Power Willbender, and used to personally bench around 31k/s, when the Snowcrows bench was at 35k/s, now I bench 27k/s, on a pure DPS, full melee build.

Power and Power Alac Willbender are full melee, while Condi and Condi Alac Willbender are mostly melee builds. Even if you have a lot of movement, you still suffer the problems of melee DPS.

[Hector.9035]

In general:

I'd like all support buids to be able to give quicnkess or alacrity with just one or two abilities or interactions so they don't have to use ALL utility skills and some weapon skills too just to give one boon.

On Scrapper, for example:

It has some amazing utility, like the revive on function gyro and the AoE breakstun of toolbelt, but it cant use them when it needs because those skills are part of a rotation designed to give quickness. It feels really bad to see a downed comrade and have function gyro on CD because you used it to maintain quickness.

So my suggestion: Buff quickness and alacrity duration so they onle need 1 or 2 skills to maintain 100% uptime. That way every class will have a way to use their skills in a more reactive way.

 

Engi:

Rework or even remove every single kit, they feel old and unfun. If you are not going to replace them with something nice and fun (like the mine, for example) at least give us a scrapper condi build with flamethrower kit, that would be awesome.

Dont touch rifle mechanist, its fine as it is.

Buff holosmith dmg in PVE, its jut not worth it to play it as it is.

 

Thief:

 

Daredevil: Power daredevil NEEDS bigger numbers. Like, badly. Its not that easy to play since you have to constantly dodge and reposition yourself and still flank, and it does way too low dmg in return.

Condi darededvil is fine, its not comfy to play for the same reason, but at least it does proper dmg to compensate that.

 

Specter: Please more AoE dmg and let the shroud as it was. My favourite EoD spec nerfed again and again and again. Please stop. Also, the "one player support" with autoatacks its... weird, it doesnt belong to this game. In PVE when are you gonna need to give barrier to a single player? Make it bounce between teammates and it will be nice and fun.

 

Deadeye: Just remove the kneel on the ground mechanic or at least give it a reliable way to move, its impossible to play this spec in PVE beside pylons on W7.

 

Ranger:

Soulbeast: Its fine, Dps builds are fine, tho it would be nice to have a stunbreak builded into weapon skills (LongBow 3, GreatSword 4, ShortBow3)

Untamed: Power dps build with hammer please. I mean, a viable one.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Hector.9035

[Dadnir.5038]

Here is what I'd want:
 

Quote

Defiance update:

- Now boon ripping and boon conversion deal 50 breakbar damage.

- Traits and skills that would proc on removing/converting a boon now proc whenever a boon ripping/converting effect is used on a defiant foe.

- Using a boon conversion effect on a defiant foe generate an 8s bleed stack.

- Boon hate traits are now updated to have an effect on defiant foes (example: Warrior's destruction of the empowered would now add "deal 10% more damage on defiant foes")

 

Defiance deserve to be countered by boon hate as it effectively replace stability, vigor and resistance, yet cannot be stripped. Doing this much when defiance was made in it's current form would have solved so many issues that the balance team struggled to "fix" balance patch after balance patch for the last 7-8 years.

 

Another one:

- Traits that proc skills with damaging component can now critically hit in PvE. Sunspot, earthen blast, loss aversion, chill of death, spitful spirit, weakening shroud, chilling nova, shattered aegis, glacial heart, mug, thermal release valve, Power block... And I probably forget a few of them. None of them are going to be meta in PvE even if they can crit, please just allow them to gain back this bit of dignity.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Dadnir.5038

[felincyriac.5981]

surprise me.

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

Thief initiative rework

 

[Iustitian.9176]

Hoping so much for more build diversity: 

General 

- change must-have-traits over all professions (buff other traits or nerf the must-haves) 

- necessary nerfs (perma-block virtuoso and guardians, imba bunny vindicators) 

 

Elementalist 

- weaver should get aegis as woven elemental shields instead of small barriers after dual attacks and some skills with stability

- weaver stances need some rework for more usability 

- catalyst traits are really hard to master actually

 

Engineer 

- engineer defense and gadgets traitline need a massive rework 

 

Guardian 

- some willbender utility skills are no option actually 

- guardian defense traitline need a massive rework 

- guardian hammer skills 1, 3 and 5 need a rework 

- some dragonhunter traits (which don't just increase damage) really need a rework 

Mesmer 

- mesmers chaos traitline need a rework 

- mesmers elite signets passiv effect is absolutely useless 

- mirage need special shatter skills

- chrono need traits for more damage or slow condition synergies

 

Necromancer 

- some scourge and harbinger utility skills are no option actually 

- harbinger shroud skill 3 should cause fear 

- harbinger shroud skill 4 with trait transfusion is very confusing actually 

 

Ranger 

- many ranger traits are too weak (in traitlines archery, nature magic and beastmastery!) 

- druid glyphs still need a buff to be nearly as useful as spirits

- untamed playstyle is very monotony -> only with skill reset trait actually

 

Revenant 

- herald shield skills need a massive buff 

 

Thief 

- thief critical hits and acrobatics traitline need a massive rework (more about positioning and with individual buff effects) 

- venoms skills need same amount of stacks (except elite venom skill)

- deadeye with quickness support would be great

 

Warrior 

- spellbreaker offhand dagger and meditation skills need a rework 

[Kuma.1503]

Alac/Quickness 

Rework supports that need to burn all of their utilities to apply these boons. It's not fun, satisfying, or skillful to do so. More supports should work the way Mech/Firebrand do.

These two dominate because they have full freedom to make use of their utility slots, and they don't need to invest them all for boon uptime or DPS. 

 

Ele

Utility skills need a balance pass. Ele has arguably the weakest utilities in the game. We have very few ways to react to encounters or support allies with our utility skills. The best we've got is water elemental, frost bow, and glyph of revival. 

 

Staff could still use some work. The two stand-out skills are Lava Font and Erution. 

Lava font doesn't do a tick of damage when placed, and the AoE radius is infinitesimal. Mobs walk out of this all the time, sometime before it even does its first tick of damage. Making it bigger would help with this, maybe bump it up to guardian symbol size and let it do a tick of damage when placed down. 

Eruption doesn't need to take 4 seconds to go off for there to be sufficient counterplay. Reducing it down to 1 second keeps the intended weakness of the skill without making it infuriating to land. It would also make blasting combo fields with this skill more intuitive. 

Air auto attack should deal more power damage than fireball. 

Air 2's DPS still doesn't justify the self root or the cast time. 

Meteor Shower's DPS also does not justify the self root or the cast time. 

Catalyst

The energy mechanic needs to go. It makes the spec over-reliant on hammer, because it's the best weapon for generating energy quickly. 

Staff, Scepter, and Dagger all become unecessarily cumbersome to use because of the energy mechanic. Starting fights with 0 energy and having no way to build it OOC  also feels like complete garbage.

Our utilty skills are too selfish. Let catalyst apply some AoE support with their utilities. Right now we just burn our utilties mindlessly off CD for extra DPS. 

Hammer skills are also too selfish. Let Catalyst apply some AoE healing, cleansing, and barrier instead of just to itself. 

 

Tempest 

 

Alac at the end of overloads is far more punishing than it needs to be. 

Some fights are designed in such a way that you need to dodge to avoid one shots or enemy crowd control. These fights put tempest in a lose/lose/lose situation. 

1. Delay overloading until the CC goes off. Drop boon uptime
2. Dodge the attack mid overload. Miss the alac at the end. Drop boon uptime
3. Greed for the overload. Die or get CC'd anyway. Drop boon uptime. 

Putting alac at the start of the overload would help fix this issue. 

 

Choosing between healing on aura and alacrity is not a good trade-off. It makes sense on paper, but in pracctice, it just punishes Heal Alac Tempest for no reason. Ele has arguably the most trait-based trade-offs as is. It does not need to keep this one. 

Our utility is split up among the air, earth, fire, and arcane, and water traitlines. 

We need water to apply AoE auras, fire to cleanse on aura, air to give fury and swiftness on aura, earth to give prot on aura, arcane to gain extra boons, concentration, rez power, and utility on our dodge. 

Ele does not need this extra trade-off on top. Let them apply alacrity while also healing on auras. 

 

Engineer

Kits are outdated. The only significant changes they've gotten in years have been nerfs. Bring these up to the modern era, and consider giving them each clearer roles. This way condi builds don't need to run 4 kits to function. 

Bomb Kit 5 - Maybe swap the magnetic bomb from Streamline'd tools with the glue puddle. This way bomb kit has a baseline skill that synergizes better with the kit. 

Finally replace the mortar kit placeholder model. We've been waiting on that for 8 years now. The over-the-shoulder models Drizzlewood Coast are perfect candidates. 

 

Harbinger pistol is what engineer pistol wishes it was. It's very clear that one was designed to modern standards and one... has been neglected for years. 

Pistol 1 - Should be an explosion, Is MUCH slower than the tooltip states (should be as fast as ranger shortbow!), doesn't apply bleed on the splash damage proc. 

Pistol 2 - Takes too long to channel. Projectile velocity is too slow. This game doesn't handle slow projectiles well, and they have a habit of missing moving targets when they shouldn't. 

Pistol 3 - Is fine, but underwhelming in single target. 

Pistol 4 - NEEDS a hitbox adjustment. This whiffs all the time in situations where it shouldn't. 

Pistol 5 - Underwhelming, especially for a 5 skill. At least let it pulse immobilize. 

 

Holosmith 

Just needs more damage. Has no glaring design flaws. 

 

Mechanist

Rifle Mech is most likely fine at its current tuning. Avoid overcorrecting it. 

Bring up underperformers instead There are a lot of builds that desperately need work beyond the ones I've listed here. (Reaper, Daredevil, Willbender, DH, and Thief in general are the biggest offenders). 

Scrapper

Sneak Gyro was overcorrected in WvW. This is the worst elite skill in the game with its current tuning. 

Med Kit and Elixir gun were nerfed in PvE to tone down HAM, but this hit Heal Scrapper as collateral damage. Revert those nerfs and make them only apply when Mechanist is selected. 

Also refer to the Quick/Alac section.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Kuma.1503

[Josiah.2967]

1.) Undo the terrible Chrono Phantasm nerfs before the expansion. The new direction just proves how the nerfs were unjustified. 

2.) Don't forget Reaper.

[Iustitian.9176]

1 hour ago, Josiah.2967 said:

1.) Undo the terrible Chrono Phantasm nerfs before the expansion. The new direction just proves how the nerfs were unjustified. 

2.) Don't forget Reaper.

If reapers shroud skill 1 would do some more damage and shroud skill 5 would be a finisher for downstate enemies and generate much life force for low hp enemies this elite spec would be a very nice option again. Ok, some major traits could be more useful too. 

[captrowdy.9561]

Nerf Mesmer