November 29 Balance Update Preview

[Double Tap.3940]

Hi, everyone,

 

We're back with another balance preview, this time for the upcoming November 29 update. As always, the goal of previewing these changes is to gather feedback before the live release. We'll be following the conversation and making further adjustments as needed.

Thanks,

Cal "cmc" Cohen
Skills and Balance Lead

November 29 Balance Update Preview

General
Sigil of Absorption is a longtime outlier in World vs. World, largely due to a bug with its cooldown (or lack thereof) when used against players. We're still planning a larger pass on boon applications and boon removal in WvW for a future update, but Sigil of Absorption was something we wanted to address sooner rather than later.

• Sigil of Absorption: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from having an internal cooldown when used against players.

Elementalist
Scepter is a weapon that sees some play in PvE, but it struggles to find a place in competitive modes as a lot of its skills are less reliable or simply lacking in power. We've tuned up a lot of the weaker skills in the kit with the goal of solidifying scepter as an effective damage-dealing weapon.

Catalyst was hit hard by the last update to PvE, and we're making a few changes to bring it back up, removing the damage penalty from Spectacular Sphere and giving a bit more damage to Empowering Auras. We've also updated the behavior of the hammer's third-slot weapon skills to make the strikes more consistent and remove the difference in effectiveness between hitbox sizes.

On the PvP side, Earth Shield gets some defensive shaves, primarily targeting two of the most potent builds in the meta: catalyst and tempest. We've also made some minor improvements to condition-based weaver, a build that has fallen out of the meta in recent months.

Last up is a slight improvement to tempest's healing in WvW as we continue to work toward a more diverse set of support options.

Core

• Dragon's Tooth: This skill now attaches to the target instead of being ground targeted. Using this skill with no target will cast a stationary spell at the user's location. Increased cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Phoenix: This skill now inflicts an additional stack of burning against enemies that are already burning. Reduced burning stacks from 2 to 1 in PvE only.
• Ice Shards: Reduced aftercast by 170 milliseconds.
• Shatterstone: This skill now inflicts chill instead of vulnerability and strikes enemies on the initial cast in addition to the explosion. Reduced explosion time from 1 second to 0.67 seconds. Reduced power coefficient from 1.66 to 1.0 in PvE, and from 1.5 to 0.6 in PvP and WvW.
• Water Trident: This skill is no longer ground targeted, and instead it fires projectiles at the target and up to 2 nearby enemies. This skill no longer heals allies, and instead it heals the caster when striking an enemy. This skill now deals increased damage to chilled enemies. Increased ammunition from 1 to 2. Increased power coefficient from 0.5 to 1.6 in PvE and from 0.5 to 1.25 in PvP and WvW.
• Lightning Strike: This skill now strikes up to 2 additional enemies near the target and inflicts vulnerability. Increased power coefficient from 1.2 to 1.5 in PvE only.
• Blinding Flash: This skill now strikes up to 2 additional enemies near the target and inflicts weakness against vulnerable enemies. Increased ammunition from 1 to 2.
• Rock Barrier: This skill now grants barrier and resistance to the user in addition to its other effects.
• Hurl: Reduced delay between projectiles from 0.5 seconds to 0.2 seconds.
• Dust Devil: This skill is now ground targeted and creates a spell that pulses three times. Enemies in the area are blinded by the initial strike, and bleeding enemies are crippled when struck.
• Tectonic Shift: Reduced barrier pulse from 778 to 506 in PvP only.
• Fortify: Increased cooldown from 30 seconds to 50 seconds in PvP only.
• Stormsoul: The bonus damage from this trait will now always affect defiant foes.
• Evasive Arcana: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from triggering Flame Burst while dodging.

Tempest

• Elemental Bastion: Increased heal attribute scaling from 0.4125 to 0.8 in WvW only.

Weaver

• Shearing Edge: This skill now inflicts bleeding in addition to its other effects.
• Twin Strike: Increased burning stacks from 1 to 2 in PvP only.
• Flame Uprising: Increased burning duration from 4 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP only.

Catalyst

• Hardened Auras, Empowering Auras, Staunch Auras, and Elemental Epitome: These traits will now only trigger when the catalyst grants an aura to themselves, rather than when gaining an aura from any player.
• Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, Rocky Loop: These skills now strike enemies once per second instead of using a projectile. Increased power coefficient from 0.001 to 0.25 in PvE only.
• Spectacular Sphere: This trait no longer reduces outgoing damage and causes Earth Sphere to grant aegis instead of resistance in PvE only.
• Empowering Auras: Increased damage bonus per stack from 2% to 3% in PvE only.

Engineer
For this update we focused on tuning up both power and condition damage builds for holosmith in PvE, neither of which were competitive picks. We've also made an adjustment to the mechanist to better reward players who are able to position well. We do like that mechanist is a viable option for a lower-intensity playstyle, but we see it as slightly overperforming relative to where we want those builds to be.

We've also tuned up a few skills for scrapper in PvP. We're being a bit careful as we've seen the result when scrapper's defenses are too potent, but we would like to reestablish scrapper as an effective bruiser.

Core

• Box of Nails: The first pulse of this skill will now immobilize enemies affected by crowd control or a movement-impairing condition. Increased ammunition from 1 to 2.
• Rifle Burst: This skill now fires one piercing projectile before the grenade instead of two. Increased piercing projectile power coefficient from 0.3 to 0.4 in PvE only. Grenade power coefficient increased from 0.4 to 0.6 in PvE only. Increased skill animation speed; total animation duration remains the same as previous version in PvE only.

Scrapper

• Electro-whirl: Increased power coefficient from 0.68 to 0.75 in PvP only.
• Bypass Coating: Reduced cooldown from 35 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
• Medic Gyro: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.

Holosmith

• Cauterize: This skill now removes additional conditions when used while above 100% heat.
• Particle Accelerator: This skill now gains bonus damage while above 50% heat and additional bonus damage while above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Prismatic Singularity: This skill now gains bonus damage on the explosion portion of the attack when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects. Increased explosion power coefficient from 0.5 to 1.2 in PvE only.
• Flash Spark: This skill now grants additional light aura duration when used above 100% heat.
• Blade Burst: This skill now deals bonus damage when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Spectrum Shield: This skill now grants additional duration when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Coolant Blast: This skill now grants additional duration to Cooling Vapor and Frost Aura when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Laser Disk: This skill now gains additional damage when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Hard Light Arena: This skill now grants allies the full duration of boons when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Prime Light Beam: This skill now gains additional field strike damage and burning duration when used above 100% heat, in addition to its previous effects.
• Corona Burst: Increased power coefficient per hit from 1.2 to 1.5 in PvE only.
• Holographic Shockwave: Increased power coefficient from 0.96 to 1.8 in PvE only.
• Sun Edge (PvE only): Increased damage bonus while above 50% heat from 10% to 20%. Increased damage bonus while above 100% heat from 20% to 30%.   
• Sun Ripper (PvE only): Increased damage bonus while above 50% heat from 10% to 20%. Increased damage bonus while above 100% heat from 20% to 30%.   
• Gleam Saber (PvE only): Increased damage bonus while above 50% heat from 10% to 20%. Increased damage bonus while above 100% heat from 20% to 30%.   
• Refraction Cutter: Increased projectile power coefficient from 0.275 to 0.4 in PvE only.
• Solar Focusing Lens: Increased burning duration on enemies from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Photonic Blasting Module: Increased burning from 2 stacks for 2 seconds to 5 stacks for 4 seconds in PvE only.

Mechanist

• Mechanical Genius: Combat attribute bonuses to the mech are now reduced by 50% if the engineer is more than a range of 360 away from the mech for a certain amount of time.

 
Guardian
Firebrand is a specialization that has access to a few too many tools with minimal investment. Tomes are a large component of this, as the utilities of Tome of Resolve and Tome of Courage are easily accessible even for damage-focused builds. Our goal for this update is to increase the opportunity cost of accessing these tools, and to that end, pages will now be a shared resource that builds over time. Firebrands will now need to more carefully decide how they spend their pages, whether they want to focus on damage, support, or a mix of both.

We've also made some improvements to dragonhunter and willbender as we tune up underperforming damage builds in PvE.

Core

• Binding Blade: Increased pulse damage power coefficient from 0.2 to 0.3 in PvE only.
• Sword of Wrath: Increased power coefficient from 0.666 to 0.75 in PvE only.
• Sword Arc: Increased power coefficient from 0.725 to 0.8 in PvE only.
• Sword of Justice: Increased power coefficient per strike from 0.72 to 0.8 in PvE only.

Dragonhunter

• Heavy Light: This trait now gives a 10% damage increase when striking defiant foes, in addition to its previous effect. These bonuses do not stack.
• True Shot (PvE only): Increased power coefficient from 2.44 to 3.2. Increased cooldown from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Hunter's Ward (PvE only): Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 20 seconds. Increased power coefficient of initial hit from 0.25 to 0.75. Increased power coefficient of final hit from 2.2 to 2.5.
• Spear of Justice: Increased power coefficient from 0.6 to 0.8 in PvE only.
• Dragon's Maw (PvE only): Reduced cooldown from 75 seconds to 50 seconds. Increased power coefficient from 2.4 to 3.6.
• Big Game Hunter: Increased bonus tether duration from 66% to 100% in PvE only.
• Hunter's Ward: Reduced ring duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in WvW only.

Firebrand

• The page mechanic for firebrand tomes has been reworked. Pages are now shared across all tomes and refill at a set interval instead of when summoning a tome.
• Page costs and cooldowns have been adjusted to the following:
  • Justice
    • Chapter 1: 1 page, no cooldown
    • Chapter 2: 1 page, 8 seconds
    • Chapter 3: (PvE) 1 page, 10 seconds; (PvP/WvW) 2 pages, 15 seconds
    • Chapter 4: 2 pages, 15 seconds
    • Epilogue: 2 pages, 20 seconds
  • Resolve
    • Chapter 1: 1 page, no cooldown
    • Chapter 2: (PvE) 1 page, 4 seconds; (PvP/WvW) 1 page, 8 seconds
    • Chapter 3: 1 page, 8 seconds
    • Chapter 4: (PvE) 2 pages, 10 seconds; (PvP/WvW) 2 pages, 15 seconds
    • Epilogue: (PvE) 2 pages, 20 seconds; (PvP/WvW) 3 pages, 25 seconds
  • Courage
    • Chapter 1: 1 page, no cooldown
    • Chapter 2: (PvE) 1 page, 4 seconds; (PvP/WvW) 2 pages, 8 seconds
    • Chapter 3: (PvE) 2 pages, 15 seconds; (PvP/WvW) 2 pages, 20 seconds
    • Chapter 4: 2 pages, 20 seconds
    • Epilogue: 3 pages, 25 seconds
• Chapter 1: Searing Spell: This skill now inflicts vulnerability in addition to its current effects.
• Chapter 4: Scorched Aftermath: Increased burning and bleeding duration from 2 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
• Chapter 2: Radiant Recovery: Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW.
• Epilogue: Eternal Oasis: Increased number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 5 in PvP and WvW.
• Chapter 1: Unflinching Charge: This skill now grants protection instead of stability.
• Swift Scholar: This trait now also refunds one page after using three consecutive skills in a single tome.
• Stoic Demeanor: This trait has been reworked. Retain the Tome of Courage passive effect while it is on cooldown. Grant boons to nearby allies when you disable, immobilize, or slow an enemy.
• Quickfire: This trait now also retains the Tome of Justice passive effect while it is on cooldown.
• Loremaster: This trait has been reworked. Retain the Tome of Resolve passive effect while it is on cooldown. You generate pages more quickly.

Willbender

• Heaven's Palm (PvE only): Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 20 seconds. Increased power coefficient from 1.0 to 3.0.
• Lethal Tempo: Increased bonus damage per stack from 1% to 2% in PvE only.
• Tyrant's Momentum: Increased damage increase per stack from 2% to 3% in PvE only.

Mesmer

One of our goals for mesmer is to address the performance of the staff/axe mirage build, which we feel doesn't have to sacrifice quite enough for the boon uptime it provides. We've moved some of the boon application to the clones' staff ambush, which will force the mirage to choose between higher boon uptime with staff clones or higher damage output with axe clones.

We've targeted some improvements to chronomancer's power damage builds in PvE, bumping up the damage of some sword skills, wells, and Chronophantasma. We've also slightly reduced Continuum Split's duration in PvP after seeing the performance of chronomancer following its restored access to distortion.

Core

• Mind Slash: Increased power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.0 in PvE only.
• Mind Gash: Increased power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.0 in PvE only.
• Mind Spike: Increased power coefficient when striking enemies with boons from 1.0 to 1.5 PvE only.

Chronomancer

• Chronophantasma: Increased resummoned phantasm damage from 75% to 100% in PvE only.
• Well of Calamity: Increased power coefficient of initial strikes from 0.5 to 1.0 in PvE only.
• Gravity Well (PvE only): Reduced cooldown from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. Increased power coefficient for pulsing strikes from 0.6 to 0.8. Increased power coefficient for the final strike from 2.4 to 3.0.
• Continuum Split: Reduced duration from 1.5/3/4.5/6 to 1/2/3/4 in PvP only.

Mirage

• Chaos Vortex: Clones using this skill will now grant the same boons in an area of effect around the mesmer instead of around the clones themselves. Reduced alacrity duration from 2.5 seconds to 1 second. Reduced might stacks from 8 to 2.

 
Necromancer

Power reaper is another damage build that we've sought to improve in PvE, bringing up some of its less potent skills in Reaper Shroud and giving it a bit more consistent pressure while out of shroud.

On the competitive side, we've adjusted a few less used utility skills. Corrupt Boon is a skill that saw significant reductions after it gained a second ammunition and hasn't seen a ton of play since then. We've removed the extra charge in PvP and bumped up the number of corrupts to make the skill a more potent threat.

Core

• Corrupt Boon (PvP only): Reduced ammunition from 2 to 1. Increased number of boons converted into conditions from 2 to 5. Increased cooldown from 24 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Spectral Armor (PvP and WvW): Reduced duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds. Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Signet of Spite: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Signet of the Locust (PvP and WvW): Increased healing per target struck from 500 to 800. Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Soul Barbs: Increased duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only.

Reaper

• Chilling Nova: Reduced cooldown from 8 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Nightfall: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Dusk Strike: Increased power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.2 in PvE only.
• Chilling Scythe: This skill now reduces the recharge of Gravedigger when striking an enemy.
• Death's Charge (PvE only): Increased power coefficient of initial strikes from 0.125 to 0.25. Fixed an issue that prevented the damage of the initial strikes from being listed on this skill's tooltip.
• Executioner's Scythe (PvE only): Increased power coefficient against targets at or above 50% health to 3.0. Increased power coefficient against targets below 50% health to 4.0. Increased power coefficient against targets below 25% to 5.0.

Scourge

• Feed from Corruption: The following boon applications from this trait have been adjusted in WvW only:
  • Might: Reduced stacks from 3 to 1.
  • Protection and resolution: Reduced duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
  • Regeneration: Reduced duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • Stability: Reduced from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 3 seconds.
  • Vigor: Reduced duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds.

Ranger

Untamed is one of the specializations that struggles the most against defiant enemies, as a lot of its kit is built around capitalizing against targets that are crowd controlled. As part of a larger pass, we've adjusted these skills to always inflict their bonuses against defiant enemies to make them more reliable in endgame PvE content. We've also made some improvements to the non-Unleashed side of the hammer kit to improve its defensive capabilities. Fervent Force is a trait that we're likely to bring down in a future update, but we want to improve other options for untamed before doing so.

In PvP, we've brought down the drake family's Chomp damage, primarily targeting the burst potential that it brings to untamed builds.

Rounding out the ranger updates are some improvements to druid's healing in WvW. We've seen more druids being played since the October update, but we think it could still use a slight bump to solidify its place as a viable support pick.

Core

• Chomp (Drake Family): Reduced power coefficient from 0.65 to 0.455 in PvP only.
• Predator's Onslaught: The bonus damage from this trait will now always affect defiant foes.

Druid

• Astral Wisp: Increased heal attribute scaling from 0.1 to 0.2 in WvW only.
• Ancestral Grace: Increased heal attribute scaling from 1.0 to 1.5 in WvW only.
• Ancient Seeds: This skill will now trigger against defiant foes in addition to its previous effects.

Untamed

• The following skills now also apply their bonus effect against defiant enemies:
  • Venomous Outburst
  • Rending Vines
  • Enveloping Haze
  • Unleashed Wild Swing
  • Unleashed Savage Shock Wave
• Perilous Gift: This skill no longer prevents lethal damage, and instead it prevents all incoming strike and condition damage for its duration.
• Relentless Whirl: Increased stability from 1 stack for 2 seconds to 2 stacks for 3 seconds.
• Wild Swing: This skill now grants barrier when striking an enemy.
• Overbearing Smash: This skill now grants barrier when striking an enemy that is using a skill. Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Unleashed Overbearing Smash: Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Savage Shock Wave: The first strike of this skill now applies weakness instead of immobilize. The second strike of this skill now applies immobilize instead of weakness. This skill now grants protection to the user. Reduced casting time from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Reduced cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Unleashed Savage Shock Wave: Reduced casting time from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Reduced cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Thump: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Unleashed Thump: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Restorative Strikes: This trait now also grants protection when you or your pet unleash.
• Debilitating Blows: This trait now applies poison instead of vulnerability and slow instead of weakness when disabling a foe based on your current state in PvE only.
• Ferocious Symbiosis: Increased damage bonus per stack from 3% to 4% in PvE only.

Revenant

Vindicator has continued to be a powerful force in PvP after the most recent set of changes, and we're making a few additional reductions in this update. We see vindicator as doing a bit too much damage when investing heavily in defensive traits, so we've shaved down a few skills to create more of a decision point between damage and defense. We've also reduced the stability from Reaver's Rage and removed the ability to dodge while immobilized with the goal of making vindicator slightly easier to bring down.

The last set of changes didn't have quite enough impact on condition-based revenant builds in PvP, and we're following up with a few more adjustments to improve their damage output and free up a bit more energy while in Legendary Demon Stance.

We've focused on improving damage builds for both herald and vindicator in PvE, improving the potency of sword off hand, Legendary Assassin Stance and Legendary Dragon Stance, and the Luxon side of Legendary Alliance Stance.

Core

• Shackling Wave (PvE only): Increased power coefficient of initial strike from 1.0 to 1.2. Increased power coefficient of additional strikes from 0.35 to 0.4.
• Deathstrike (PvE only): Increased power coefficient of initial strike from 0.33 to 0.45. Increased power coefficient of final strike from 2.0 to 2.67.
• Impossible Odds: Increased power coefficient on secondary strikes from 0.55 to 0.65 in PvE only.
• Jade Winds: Increased power coefficient from 1.5 to 3.0 in PvE only.
• Seething Malice: Increased condition damage from 120 to 240 in PvP only.
• Banish Enchantment: Reduced energy cost from 30 to 25 in PvP only.
• Call to Anguish: Reduced energy cost from 30 to 25 in PvP only.
• Rising Tide: Reduced health threshold from 90% to 75% in PvE only.

Herald

• Elemental Blast: Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvE only.
• Burst of Strength (PvE only): Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. Increased effect duration from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. Reduced damage bonus from 25% to 15%. Damage bonus now applies to condition damage as well as strike damage.
• Chaotic Release: Increased power coefficient from 2.0 to 4.0 in PvE only.

Vindicator

• Vindicators can no longer dodge while immobilized.
• Spear of Archemorus: Reduced range from 2,000 to 1,200. Increased power coefficient from 3.5 to 5.0 in PvE only. Increased torment duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.
• Scavenger Burst: Adjusted burning from one stack for 8 seconds to two stacks for 5 seconds in PvE only. Endurance gain increased from 5 per target to 20 per target in PvE only. Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only. Reduced power coefficient from 1.55 to 1.4 in PvP only.
• Tree Song: Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only.
• Battle Dance: Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only.
• Nomad's Advance: Energy cost reduced from 20 to 15 in PvE only. Reduced power coefficient from 2.3 to 2.1 in PvP only.
• Reaver's Rage (PvP only): Reduced power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.0. Reduced stability duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. Reduced daze duration from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.

Thief

Our primary goal for thief in this update was to improve the usability of deadeye in PvE. Rifle has a lot of potential as a damage-dealing option, but the stationary nature of Kneel made it difficult to reach this potential in real gameplay situations. We're updating Kneel to allow for some movement at a reduced speed to give a bit more flexibility during encounters.

We've also added a damage reduction to Shadow Shroud in PvE to compensate for the reduction in shroud health in the October update. We'll be keeping an eye on how this plays out and will make further adjustments to Shadow Shroud as necessary.

Wrapping up the thief changes are a handful of power damage improvements for daredevil and dagger.

Core

• Double Strike: Increased power coefficient from 0.3 to 0.4 in PvE only.
• Wild Strike: Increased power coefficient from 0.65 to 0.8 in PvE only.
• Lotus Strike: Increased power coefficient from 1.1 to 1.2 in PvE only.
• Heartseeker (PvE only): Increased power coefficient against targets at or above 50% health to 1.5. Increased power coefficient against targets below 50% health to 2.0. Increased power coefficient against targets below 25% health to 2.5.
• Cloak and Dagger: Increased power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.6 in PvE only.

Daredevil

• Impact Strike: Increased power coefficient from 0.75 to 1.75 in PvE only.
• Finishing Blow: Increased power coefficient from 2.0 to 4.0 in PvE only.

Deadeye

• Kneel: Increased initiative cost from 1 to 2. While kneeling, players can now move at a 75% reduced speed. Kneel is no longer canceled when you become disabled.
• Skirmisher's Shot: Reduced range from 1,500 to 1,200.
• Three Round Burst: Reduced range from 1,500 to 1,200.
• Death's Judgement: This skill now pierces foes not targeted by Deadeye's Mark. Damage dealt to unmarked enemies is reduced. Players can now move while using this skill. Reduced range from 1,500 to 1,200.

Specter

• Shadow Shroud: Added a 0.5-second cooldown to Exit Shadow Shroud after using Enter Shadow Shroud. Shadow Shroud now reduces incoming damage by 33% in PvE only.

Warrior

A handful of warrior's skill and trait bonuses will be applied against defiant foes. We've also made some adjustments to improve berserker damage builds in PvE, fixing an issue with Bloody Roar's bonus damage and making Outrage's berserk extension more reliable now that Headbutt no longer removes stability.

Enchantment Collapse is another boon-removal outlier that we wanted to address in WvW for this update, and we've increased the cooldown ever so slightly to reduce its effectiveness with Winds of Disenchantment.

Core

• Fierce Blow: The bonus damage from this skill will now affect defiant enemies.
• Banner of Tactics: This skill now breaks stuns on allies in addition to its other effects.
• Unsuspecting Foe: This trait now gives a 25% critical chance bonus when striking defiant foes, in addition to its previous effect. These bonuses do not stack.
• Merciless Hammer: The bonus damage from this trait will now always affect defiant foes.

Berserker

• Outrage: This skill no longer grants bonus berserk duration when breaking a stun, and instead it grants bonus berserk duration when an enemy is nearby. Reduced berserk duration when an enemy is nearby from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Scorched Earth: Increased power coefficient from 0.35 to 0.42 in WvW only.
• Bloody Roar: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to grant less increased damage than intended.

Spellbreaker

• Breaching Strike: This skill now deals bonus damage to foes without boons.
• Enchantment Collapse: Increased internal cooldown from 0.99 to 1.04 in WvW only.

 

[Falseprophet.1502]

 Power Willbender changes are pretty much a nothing burger and still will not introduce Power Willbender as a competitive DPS, especially if you play Radiance/Zeal. Virtues will be unrealistic due to the inaccessibility to high aegis uptime to maintain Unscathed Contender.

Firebrand's pages should regenerate based off Virtue procs and not be based off time.

 

Suggestions:

• Offhand sword needs buffed. See suggestions here: 
• Holy Reckoning needs to be reworked to better support power builds. This needs to reduce the CD of Rushing Justice or extend the Justice buff by four seconds (or you can just remove the penalty on Tyrant's Momentum, you already are forced to take this as a power/condi WB). You simply cannot maintain Rushing Justice consistently when you run Radiance/Zeal. 
  • Suggestion: make Holy Reckoning proc WB Flames, increase Justice buff time. 
  • Remove the buff reduction on Tyrant's Momentum
• Heaven's Palm needs the cast time reduced or have an pulsing AOE attached to the end of the burst damage to help proc WB flames
• WB Flames need damage coefficient tweaking.

Other issues:

• Scepter as a power option remains irrelevant
  • Scepter has been nerfed but now Longbow has been buffed and will be better than melee options
  • Scepter Nerf on 10/1/2019: "The best melee damage option should not be a ranged weapon."
  Hammer buffs from previous patch are still USELESS until they remove the symbol from the auto attack and put it elsewhere in the weapon (preferably hammer 2)
• Power Willbender relies on Virtues (WHICH IS UNREALISTIC TO USE IN PVE BECAUSE OF UNSCATHED CONTENDER), Restorative Virtues, and HIGH ALACRITY uptime. If you run Radiance and Zeal, Restorative Virtues makes Power Willbender EVEN WORSE.

Please take these in consideration.  PVE Power WB desperately needs attention. 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Falseprophet.1502

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Ok Changes. But feels a bit small this patch.

Expected quite a bit more changes overall.

Edited November 11, 2022 by DanAlcedo.3281

[shadowpass.4236]

Lower CA cooldown to 10s for PvP.  20s cd is way too long and inconsistent for what you want from a support.

Lower heal glyph cd to 20s so it lines up with entering CA.  24s cd is awkward because it's not up when you enter.

These are probably the only two changes druid needs to be good.

Edited November 11, 2022 by shadowpass.4236

[SleepyBat.9034]

I am shocked Harbinger didn't get any nerfs in WvW.

Engineer:

Cleansing Synergy is the only support trait with a 240 radius while every other support trait in the Inventions trait line is 360.

We're still waiting for Turret buffs/reworks.

Bunker Down needs to be reworked.

Autodefense Bomb Dispenser needs the bomb detonation time removed.

 

You guys are doing a great job, thanks a ton.

Edited November 11, 2022 by SleepyBat.9034

[Jokuc.3478]

Overall not bad but I'm surprised (and a bit disappointed) they didn't nerf Shift Signet and also would have liked to see Tempest (PvE) buffs.

edit: also the deadeye range nerfs sucks, you should have just added the crouch

Edited November 12, 2022 by Jokuc.3478

[Rozczos.8469]

Laughs in Ranger Longbow 1500 range: "Look at me. I'm the sniper spec now!"

Edited November 11, 2022 by Rozczos.8469

[Bookah pls.9352]

*Sad reaper noises*

[ZEUStiger.3590]

The changes won't be enough for power berserker to be relevant. As predicted. Essentially this patch just undoes the damage that was done to the spec over the last 3 months, and does nothing else. Back then the benchmark was 33271, with a fixed 20->25% Bloody Roar change (an overall increase of 4.1666~%) it will be 34657. This is essentially nothing, compared to most current power dps specs, and especially so compared to condi specs.

On top of that, we're still hurt by the removal of the already-exceedingly-little amount of utility we had in the form of knockback on Wild Blow, that was removed from it with no justification whatsoever. Can't even perform an occasional pusher role anymore (at SH, KC, Samarog for example), a role that other classes were better equipped for anyway, now we can't even be a poor man's replacement. Why should a build without anything besides dps be so much worse at dps than builds that offer utility and/or support besides dps? Berserkers either have straight-up nothing useful, or the opportunity cost dwarfs any potential benefit.

I also want to remind you that we still weren't compensated for the extra stats we lost from the removal of banner buffs in comparison to other power dps classes (because of +50% from Doubled Standards). Even precision wasn't compensated fully, we lost 250 (100 from Spotter, 150 from Banners of Discipline) and gained 210 (from 5% from Fury and 5% from the trait in the correct traitline), not to mention 150 power and 150 ferocity (i.e. 50 more of each stat than other power dps classes lost). Why wasn't our damage adjusted to compensate for this comparatively heavier nerf? Were we not already hurt enough by being equated to banners on feet, we deserved to be stabbed one extra time by the developers too?

Also, rifle is still a joke.

Stop being afraid of buffing berserker, please. You don't seem to understand just how much it lags behind other specs. Make Bloody Roar 40% and maybe we'll get somewhere - it will return berserker to pre-EoD levels. You can always nerf it later, if it gets out of hand. Nobody is going to play it anyway, just like nobody was playing the pure dps build back before the banners rework, especially now, when other specs exist that do the same and more, while being even easier and safer to play. People continue to conveniently forget this class whenever the topic concerns either damage or quickness, not even mentioning healing. Even if you buff it to be the best performing dps build, I'd wager that it will won't see widespread use, because the bannerslave stigma that affected the class for 7 years is going to take a loooong time to evaporate...

Edited November 12, 2022 by ZEUStiger.3590

[Adzekul.3104]

General feeling from the stream is positive, and encouraged. But ...

Alac-dps tempest seems untouched. It is really awkward to play (low dps; really clunky play style; gear attributes are a mess cuz neither ritualist nor diviner are ideal --- and they perhaps should be).

Edited November 11, 2022 by Adzekul.3104

[Infusion.7149]

Could you please explain this:

• Enchantment Collapse: Increased internal cooldown from 0.99 to 1.04 in WvW only.

Still poring over it but I noticed this in the stream too.

(reserved post)

[Mike.7983]

• Chaos Vortex: Clones using this skill will now grant the same boons in an area of effect around the mesmer instead of around the clones themselves. Reduced alacrity duration from 2.5 seconds to 1 second. Reduced might stacks from 8 to 2.

This is a hard nerf right?

 

[Jzaku.9765]

PLEASE don't remove Water Trident's ability to heal allies. It was so incredible for Heal Tempest to be able to ranged heal, something it used to be very weak at before the last round of balance changes! This change to make it a selfish heal pretty much kills Scepter as an option for that build!

[Carnifex.3275]

Definitely needed more attention to daredevil traits and staff. There were so much feedback but nothin was done. Barely anyone uses daggers as a power weapon and yet it got the most attention. Didn't make sense. Sure golem benchmark on power DE D/D is huge but in reality barely anyone plays that and it didnt need any buffs. Yet it got buffed. Mostly people play pDrD or cDrD in PvE. And sadly 0 changes to those builds.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Carnifex.3275

[Chromatic Drake.3168]

Coming from the stream, ele change are so ... weird. 

 

Power overall need much more love than condi, power weaver will bench lower than reaper with this patch.

Also "massive" buff to a weapon that is already good.

Also no change to the clunky tempest, already the least popular alac heal in the game. (edit : nvm it's a nerf with scepter water 3 nerfed. Lol.)

 

I just don't understand this part at all.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Chromatic Drake.3168

[Mikali.9651]

MAJOR patch being smaller than previous one. Disappointing. 

 

Changes here are good from the first glance, but the game needs far more. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Mikali.9651

[REMagic.8937]

Bladesworn can still provide good quickness uptime while on DPS. The raid speedrun meta is going to remain stale.

PLEASE make the trait not part of the highest DPS option - right now, quickness is incidental, it should be a choice.

[Jen.6021]

Two dodge Vindicator is still an issue

[Nika.8573]

Any chance there could be a slight nerf to the Tactics Trait "Martial Cadence"? 🙂

[Tails.9372]

The Deadeye changes are atrocious to say the least, not being able to move has never been the issue with Kneel. It not having enough range and having to jump around like a monkey to get the Silent Scope stealth is.

Also, about the mech changes: the whole proximity to the mech thing actually takes away the value of proper positioning and turns it into "just stack up on the enemy" which for many players is a major point of criticism about GW2s combat in general. If you really want to nerf mech further then there are better ways to go about it.

Also, the P/P set on thief is still the butt end of a joke but looking at how they want to "improve" the Kneel skills I think it's better to say "let's keep it at that".

Edited November 11, 2022 by Tails.9372

[NotTooFoolish.7412]

The cooldown on Chapter 3: Valiant Bulwark might be a bit of an overkill in PvE.
15 seconds with 5 second duration? So we cannot perma bubble the orb in HT with FB anymore.

[Doggie.3184]

Thief Pistols still need Ricochet re-added to them. Why do I even need to keep reminding, is there a good reason not to?

[DarkFlopy.8197]

Untamed buffs, never thought I will see the day.

[Adotiln Urthadar.1823]

Feels like DPS firebrand is going to be really boring to play now. Without being "locked" into tomes for a set period of time, you won't have any reason to use a weapon set other than Axe/Torch, and many of the F1 skills are going to be basically useless as it will all be about maximising damage/page so logically only one skill will be used (more only if you have excess pages).

[Overedge.2435]

Hi guys, watched the whole stream. Lots of good and interesting stuff in there, but I have one major critique: there's a lot of nerfs to stability availability in competitive modes, and in my opinion there is already not enough stability to deal with the amount of CC spam you run into there. There are a lot of instances where one side of a fight is completely shut down and can't respond, leading to a situation where you literally can't even play the game because the CC prevents you from doing so. This is a frustrating balance direction, and I know that you have the intention of adding more stability to other classes, but please try and do so before you start taking any more away. 

Since some abilities will now affect defiance bars in PvE, maybe expand that and gives all players in competitive modes a small defiance bar. Maybe there can be an effect like when a thief is revealed after attacking from stealth, where you're immune to additional CC after being hit by one or after using an active stunbreak. We need something.