November 29 Balance Update Preview

[Sadek.5398]

I've been playing only Deadeye for the last month and it's been a blast in PvE, WvW & PvP. IMHO the Kneel mechanic is very niche. I barely use it as I find the key to success as a Sniper Thief is positioning & moving. My recommendation would be to remove the Kneel mechanic altogether and replace it with one of the following new skills:

1. Bullet Shower: An AOE where the thief shoots upwards in the sky and the bullets land in a designated area causing bleed. (CC, PvE focus)
2. Shoot & Stealth: Just like the dagger 5, the thief shoots a target & goes into stealth (3-5 secs) causing bleed. (PvP focus)

I would also recommend modifying the Deadeye 3 skill to hit 3 to 5 targets with reduced damage, giving more might depending on the amount of targets hit. The might would be given to you & your allies. This would add a much needed multi target attack skill to the Deadeye's arsenal and would be good for the entire party.

 

Regarding the 1500 range, I haven't played a ranger class. But if any class / weapon has a default 1500 range, then the Deadeye should definitely have that too. Otherwise I'd recommend adding 1500 range when in stealth for the Deadeye class.

 

[lemora.1304]

Regarding the firebrand changes, so in summary there are now 3 layers of nerfs while getting almost nothing in return as compensation:

1) shared pages amongst all tomes

2) increased cooldowns on most skills

3) increased page cost on most skills

While it's true that nerfs to firebrand utility are long overdue, 3 layers of nerfs with no compensation is simply too much. This is especially terrible in WvW where these heavy nerfs will result in less pushes and a return back to pirate shipping/ranged meta which everyone hated. You say you wanted to see grandmaster traits other than Loremaster used, but after these changes it will make it the only viable grandmaster trait because the others are simply terrible by comparison.

Please Anet, stop with the heavy hammer approach - start with minor nerfs first and work your way up. At the very least please consider keeping the skill cost to only 1 page each and see how that goes. Thank you.

Edited November 15, 2022 by lemora.1304

[Pooh.6897]

22 hours ago, Nimon.7840 said:

..., but if you really want to rework the trait, keep in mind, that scourge doesn't have a power grandmaster trait.

This is something I'd like to see as well. I know Scourge is a condi-spec through and through, but it would be awesome if the door could be opened for some sort of power boon support build that's not harb.

[Daeth.8912]

The min range thing will be annoying for Mech if you pick the ranged talent at all (due to crappy AI positioning), but largely ignorable if you use a melee one as you'll both just stand in melee. It's not exactly a skill challenge, all you will do is kill the ranged mech choice further (it's basically already dead anyway post rocket nerf). I assume this was to fix PvP issues of chasing mechs and not related to PvE anyway, so maybe make the pet lose 50% stats if you haven't hit the target for more than 10s. 

[VPX.1325]

I understand the reasoning behind the Mechanist's Mechanical Genius trait, but the range of 360 need to be widen to at least to 500 or there is no point in having your mech have ranged attacks at all and  so that you can still use some sort of cross fire tactics.

You first have to fix it's AI that makes it move erratically and often when you command it to come back to you and you use Mech Arms: Jade Cannons the mech will come to you and then go away positionin itself sometimes still close to you, sometimes a bit away, but randomly.

Second you need to fix Recall Mech that often bugs and cycle between recall and crash down when at max health

Third Mechanist coud greatly benefit from a positioning command to send it some stand somewhere around us.

[Malus.2184]

On 11/13/2022 at 7:19 PM, Gambit.9501 said:

Anet PLEASE DO NOT reduce the range of Knelt Deadeye Rifle skills.  That does not make the class better to play in PvE, that makes it worse.  If this was a change made due to PvP, then friendly reminder that YOU HAVE A SPLIT-MODE SYSTEM FOR A REASON.

Deadeye Rifle fantasy is supposed to be long-range quick-killing.  Why is Ranger Longbow allowed to have 1500~1800 range skills but Deadeye suddenly isn't?

Nerfing Kneel skill range goes COMPLETELY AGAINST THE CLASS FANTASY.

Which it completely fails at. Having the additional range means nothing when the target is below 1200 units in PvE, which it most often is. In group content this literally only makes things more difficult as the kneeling makes them slower while they still have to practically crawl inside any boss to get Boons.

[kurosy.1384]

Please don't gut the 1500 range on kneeled deadeye in pve at least 😞 It's very well themed and well counterbalanced by kneeling, for THE sniper profession. It gives the right vibe! Also, reduced mov speed isn't that much of a playstile change since it's still better to rely on dodge and shadowsteps. 

That said, i'll comment just about my main class which is Ele. So happy to see Cata getting back on track! Can't wait to test it out.
But what about Tempest alac? I really was hoping to see a small qol help with the alac mechanic. Like, pulsing on overload, at least. Don't get me wrong, i mostly play HAT in raids nowadays and i love it but it feels like a 2nd tier alac spec since every other spec can give alac nearly instantly. Alac on Tempest feels overpunishing especially when i have to interrupt my overload to ress some teammate, which gives me the feeling that promptly-supporting is actually negatve for tempest :''D

[VeriBeri.9528]

13 hours ago, kamikharzeeh.8016 said:

they could have phrased a bit more precise what these FB changes are finally gonna be. i have the bad feeling that anet nerfs again Wvw without a second thought through pvE issues...

while in pvE it barely matters, in Wvw it could massively disturb the whole groupbased gameplay.

Have you ever even played firebrand in endgame content like raids or fractal CMs? Barely matters, as in I'm using all tomes off cooldown all the time, to keep people alive and add a bit to the dps.
If anything, nerfs usually happens because of PvP related issues, not the other way around.

[DobyCool.3701]

5 hours ago, lemora.1304 said:

Please Anet, stop with the heavy hammer approach - start with minor nerfs first and work your way up. At the very least please consider keeping the skill cost to only 1 page each and see how that goes. Thank you.

When all skill only cost 1 page, it will be to strong on the support site because there is no cd on f23, which will make those powerful skill be used more frequently. However, when it is 2 pages, it was too weak because of page management, not to say that F3-5 is 3 pages.  I would say, maybe increased the base page number to 6 or 8? I know there is a trait for it, but taking that trait will either lose dps on axe auto or lose quickness, which is not desired. 

[Jski.6180]

I know i am still waiting for conja weapons update that is very much needed even if its just an lower cast time and after cast (though the ability to not give it to other ppl would be very nice and not change the over all balancing that much no one enjoys the fact that the conja wepon are put on the ground.)

[DobyCool.3701]

WillBender had problem ever since launch. it was too much alike DH and core Guardian on its fighting style.  They only thing it do differently is it has the ablate to bring alac, but look at it, do anyone ever use WB alac build?  Anet, when can you fix this, at least give it a good alac build to completed the missing piece from Guardian spec. My idea is change it to something like when use F2, it will give WB a buff that pulse out alac for some amount of time.  WB don't need to stay in F2, they can go back to F1 and do their thing. Ideally, it should take all trinket in Diviner or full set of Ritu or Cele to have 100% coverage. If it was too hard to manage dmg, you can simply make the alac trait have an effect that will take away some Power, and turn it into Concentration. 

[Soilder.3607]

Untamed: Improving WvW Squad Viability

 

Currently, the Untamed is not seen as squad viable by the majority of WvW guilds. While I do share this view, I believe that there exists potential for the Untamed to be improved in a way that makes it viable for use in organized squads.

 

The Untamed has an emphasis on melee area damage and is also the only Ranger specialization to feature boon stripping. Boon stripping is a highly valued aspect of squad play, and it's something that I think can be focused on in order to improve the untamed.

 

List of Suggestions:

 

1. Rending Vines - Currently, this skill has a radius of 180 and removes 2 boons from up to 5 targets. Increasing the radius to 240 would allow it to more consistently affect 5 enemy targets.

 

2. Savage Slash - This skill, when traited with Corrupting Vines, is the single strongest source of boon ripping available to the Untamed, as it removes 4 boons from up to 5 enemies with a mere 15 second recharge. To improve its effectiveness, I suggest that the skill be made unblockable, that way it may more reliably strike targets. Adding unblockability to boon stripping is not at all unprecedented as can be seen through skills like Break Enchantments and Banish Enchantment

 

3. Exploding Spores - I am suggesting a mild redesign to this skill. Instead of summoning 6 spores with a 120 radius each, I suggest that it summons a single spore with a 300 radius. This spore, when detonating, will no longer knockdown foes but will instead remove 2 boons from up to 5 foes while retaining its damage and boon application. The time needed for the spore to detonate will be reduced by 50% (similar to the change to Seed of Life in the October patch). Lastly, reducing the recharge to 20 seconds would be of good benefit.

 

Solving the pet issue

 

Unique amongst ranger elite specializations, the Untamed is much more reliant on its pet as compared to the Soulbeast or Druid. Soulbeasts in WvW squads tend to stay merged with their pets in order to benefit from stat increases, as well as to gain access to new skills, most notably the immob and pull from Prelude Lash. In regard to the Druid, the pet is essentially unneeded in order for that specialization to fulfill its role as a healer and cleanser.

 

So, for the Untamed to reach viability in WvW squads, there need to be changes made that allow the pet to survive and activate their class mechanic skills with consistentcy. This isn't an easy thing to do, but I will put forth some suggestions that may work.

 

1. Shared Healing - Pets have a lower priority than players in a squad to be healed. This means that they often miss out on healing that would otherwise stop them from dying. My suggestion is to add shared healing to one of the Minor Untamed traits. It could read something like this: Healing you receive is shared with your pet (100%). This could be balanced by adjusting the percentage of healing that is shared: Healing you receive is shared with your pet (75%)

 

2. Shared Dodges - Pets cannot dodge, which means they are unable to avoid bombs and other sources of damage. We could again adjust one of the minor Untamed traits to remedy this. Here's an example : Vow of the Untamed - Your outgoing strike damage is increased while you are unleashed. You take reduced damage from strikes while your pet is unleashed. Whenever you dodge, your pet gains evasion (1s). This could also be balanced by adjusting the duration of evasion that the pet gains.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Soilder.3607

[Hedonismbot.3697]

The changes to catalyst seem like anet is afraid of overtuning it? i’m not sure if   +5% dmg on fully stacked auras merits them counting only if you made them yourself… this just seems to make the “maintain the stacks” minigame more important and difficult at the same time. not sure if that’s the direction the spec should take. I also feel it invalidates the freedom of weapon choices. and forces the use of utilities to help out with finishers. I get that interaction with its class mechanic should lead to meaningful reward, and that an aura and combo finisher are already quite rewarding. however, if one would want to go for the dps build, the entire spec boils down to a dps rotation which makes attunement swapping totally arbitrary as you don’t go into water to heal or earth for protection, but because it comes after fire and air and you need to upkeep …

doesn’t this go against the design philosophy of meaningful choice? Isn’t that just a more punishing weaver with extra steps? the risk reward scaling seems not very appealing to me here… 

I was theory crafting a staff build with double meteor shower, as i find catalysts elite one of the most fun aspects of the spec. But with these changes, the staff dream has become more challenging and not less so… 

full stacks the dream… but has anyone play tested if this is achievable without hammer? Is there a viable weapon other than hammer that isn’t too punishing for swapping into water? the new scepter maybe?

dmg penalty being removed from the bigger sphere trait is a buff by 10% if for quickness dps though, so that’s nice. can’t imagine why anyone would go for the stacks dream other than them being adept at the game and all it’s encounters and wish for further skill expression. buts that’s a rather niche clientele, no?

——

tempest’ wvw aura healing scaling doubling is quite meaningful, also for roaming. 

——

and while i too hoped for some weaver love, i suspect reworking an entire weapon is a big impact change, and we should see where things land thereafter first. 

[Hedonismbot.3697]

1 hour ago, DobyCool.3701 said:

 I know there is a trait for it, but taking that trait will either lose dps on axe auto or lose quickness, which is not desired. 

you mean, a meaningful choice would have to be made? I’ll consider that a good thing and desirable design. IF everyone plays by such rules, the game would be healthier for it. 

[DobyCool.3701]

55 minutes ago, Hedonismbot.3697 said:

you mean, a meaningful choice would have to be made? I’ll consider that a good thing and desirable design. IF everyone plays by such rules, the game would be healthier for it. 

nope it is not, as quickness FB will have no choice to go with quickness one, and the condi FB will have to loss dmg to trade for something that they originally had.  that is a net nerf.  I understand that they want to nerf the flexibility of FB, but it turns out that they are also nerfing its dmg, and its dmg is already low compare to other specs, plus the CD increase on F1 skills and the page cost also take away FB's burst, which is one of it signature.   Plus there is a nerf to the 8-pages as well, originally it will instantly gain 3 more page upon enter F skill, but now it will still take 24s to generated those pages.

Edited November 15, 2022 by DobyCool.3701

[Batalix.2873]

10 minutes ago, DobyCool.3701 said:

nope it is not, as quickness FB will have no choice to go with quickness one, and the condi FB will have to loss dmg to trade for something that they originally had.  that is a net nerf.  I understand that they want to nerf the flexibility of FB, but it turns out that they are also nerfing its dmg, and its dmg is already low compare to other specs, plus the CD increase on F1 skills and the page cost also take away FB's burst, which is one of it signature.   Plus there is a nerf to the 8-pages as well, originally it will instantly gain 3 more page upon enter F skill, but now it will still take 24s to generated those pages.

 

FB, being literally designed to have a suite of support options should never have been a damage oriented class. FB players, and players in general, have too much tunnel vision over DPS as the only metric worth pursuing and preserving.

 

People really need to broaden their minds and recognize that:

 

(a) the game can support "pure healer" especs like Druid and Herald, and only struggles in that aspect because it hasn't designed more healers to better fill out that niche; and

 

(b) the guardian profession can afford to have a "pure healer" now that it has both DH and WB to accommodate DPS.

 

Firebrand is not a closed system. It is not the be all and end all of Guardians. If FB loses DPS, Guardians have two other especs they can build into to fill that role.

 

FBs and Mechs really need to stop being so self-centered. I can understand not wanting to level another character to suit a role (even though you are missing out on like 8/9 of the game's charm by not doing so). But demanding your espec continue to do everything under the sun, rather than take a couple hours to level DH/WB or Scrapper/Holosmith to fill different roles, is just...lazy and myopic. Not to mention, every time the game doubles down on Mech/FB being generalists, those other especs might as well not exist.

 

Playing FB and Mech (and Virtuoso) is already a weakness of character. Defending them, absent a very honest acknowledgement of their impact on job diversity and consideration for the game as a whole, is tantamount to a moral failure.

[Lendorn.3786]

9 minutes ago, Batalix.2873 said:

 

 

FBs and Mechs really need to stop being so self-centered. I can understand not wanting to level another character to suit a role (even though you are missing out on like 8/9 of the game's charm by not doing so). But demanding your espec continue to do everything under the sun, rather than take a couple hours to level DH/WB or Scrapper/Holosmith to fill different roles, is just...lazy and myopic. Not to mention, every time the game doubles down on Mech/FB being generalists, those other especs might as well not exist.

 

Playing FB and Mech (and Virtuoso) is already a weakness of character. Defending them, absent a very honest acknowledgement of their impact on job diversity and consideration for the game as a whole, is tantamount to a moral failure.

You just said what i wanted to say since i read the first Page and went on. I kind of understand that the Mech Player dont want to follow the Mech but in my opinion they just needed to downgrade the general dmg a bit. Also i've played 7 out of the 9 Classes with 14 espec and FB and Mech are so strong right now compared to other classes and specs.

[DobyCool.3701]

22 minutes ago, Batalix.2873 said:

 

FB, being literally designed to have a suite of support options should never have been a damage oriented class. FB players, and players in general, have too much tunnel vision over DPS as the only metric worth pursuing and preserving.

 

People really need to broaden their minds and recognize that:

 

(a) the game can support "pure healer" especs like Druid and Herald, and only struggles in that aspect because it hasn't designed more healers to better fill out that niche; and

 

(b) the guardian profession can afford to have a "pure healer" now that it has both DH and WB to accommodate DPS.

 

Firebrand is not a closed system. It is not the be all and end all of Guardians. If FB loses DPS, Guardians have two other especs they can build into to fill that role.

 

FBs and Mechs really need to stop being so self-centered. I can understand not wanting to level another character to suit a role (even though you are missing out on like 8/9 of the game's charm by not doing so). But demanding your espec continue to do everything under the sun, rather than take a couple hours to level DH/WB or Scrapper/Holosmith to fill different roles, is just...lazy and myopic. Not to mention, every time the game doubles down on Mech/FB being generalists, those other especs might as well not exist.

 

Playing FB and Mech (and Virtuoso) is already a weakness of character. Defending them, absent a very honest acknowledgement of their impact on job diversity and consideration for the game as a whole, is tantamount to a moral failure.

Well, the real problem with DH and WB is that they are pretty much the same, in my idea WB is just a bad design over all compare with DH.  Not to said the only condi main hand that Gaudian have is axe and it is FB weapon.  I feel that WB is just designed for power as it reveal at first, but they add in the ablate to do condi in a very strange way.  Plus I think the idea of getting a class into a "pure healer" is just a very bad idea, Anet should work on getting those who are already "pure healer" out of that loop, as GW2 is about diversity of the builds and not force some spec to only do 1 build.  I think Druid is the only spec that don't have a dmg build currently, which is very sad, I really don't hope Anet putting any other spec into the same spot as Druid.  And from the stream, I think they just don't want FB to have all those tools while doing dmg, which is ok, limit the tools, but don't touch the dmg.
I do have 8 class with most of them unlock 3 some unlock 2 spec, the only thing I miss is ele and will probably getting it soon, I have no issue switching characters. I do play a lots of Mech and virtue and SLB while they are so strong right now. I am defensing FB because it gets some unfair treatment. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by DobyCool.3701

[Jacks.1703]

I suggest modifications in SHIELD SKILLS of HERALD:

 

Envoy of Exuberance > Shield Skill 4
      - Reduce energy cost of 8 to 5.
      - Reduce cooldown of 15s to 10s.
      - Add Resolution (5s).

Crystal Hibernation > Shield Skill 5
      - Reduce energy cosst of 20 to 15.
      - Reduce cooldown of 25s to 15s.

 

This brind the possibility of Herald be much more defensible.

Please view these suggestions carefully. Herald is a very cool class to play, but it needs this modification to its "main weapon".

Edited November 15, 2022 by Jacks.1703

[Antina.5973]

4 hours ago, DobyCool.3701 said:

WillBender had problem ever since launch. it was too much alike DH and core Guardian on its fighting style.  They only thing it do differently is it has the ablate to bring alac, but look at it, do anyone ever use WB alac build?  Anet, when can you fix this, at least give it a good alac build to completed the missing piece from Guardian spec. My idea is change it to something like when use F2, it will give WB a buff that pulse out alac for some amount of time.  WB don't need to stay in F2, they can go back to F1 and do their thing. Ideally, it should take all trinket in Diviner or full set of Ritu or Cele to have 100% coverage. If it was too hard to manage dmg, you can simply make the alac trait have an effect that will take away some Power, and turn it into Concentration. 

Willbender alac relies heavily on active gameplay, how much you can hit target in your F2. I might be one of 3 people in the game actually using that build, it is rare indeed. What I'm trying to say - making every alac/quick build a bot, passive or boring as in press 2 skills off-cooldwon is not a good approach. Alac willy has some great potential and is fun, it's problem is a bit more hidden. For some builds like scrapper or firebrand, you take a different trait, and maybe swap a skill or two.

In case of alac willbender, you take a whole traitline just for F2 passive share, on power that's devastating, cause playing Virtues is unrealistic. As in you want full aegis uptime and a lot of boons on yourself. Virtues power guard was/is already a rare sight. On Condi alac willbender your damage also suffers heavily because give up on Permeating Wrath GM in virtues to take Battle Presence (you take Virtues on power alac wb just for that GM trait as well) and on top of that, in case of both condi/power alac build you take Phoenix Protocol GM in Willbender traitline over Tyrant's Momentum.

So to sum up, you end up giving up on a lot of damage, have a build that requires something to hit to generate alac and which is probably the nail in the coffin - it shares absolutely no other boons. Some alac dps givers spit out tons of might, fury and other boons. Willbender can just take some CC (elite) and maybe stuff like SYG from core guardian utility. It's low dps, barely any utility, hard to play.

Despite the mentioned issues, I'd play it a lot more if it wasn't so low DPS, the active playstyle and the fact it can't upkeep alac on downtime punish this build enough to justify some bigger numbers, maybe even top dps in alac bracket.

[coro.3176]

The mech change is good, but to be fair to players, it'd be nice if the pet return command teleported the mech to the player rather than having it slowly path back.

Also, are we never going to get a fix for Engi pistol auto? If you're not going to fix it, please just change the tooltip to say its cast time is 1s and maybe in parentheses "this is bad, don't use it" in case players hadn't noticed.

Edited November 15, 2022 by coro.3176

[nopoet.2960]

The changes to Deadeye are odd.  Yeah, kneel is problematic but allowing movement at 25% of normal speed doesn't solve anything.  There are many many fights that punish you for being immobile and a 75% reduction is still to slow to escape the red circles.  If anything, at this point, I think the devs could double down on kneel if they aren't going to completely remove it.  Maybe give extra range based on how long you've been kneeling.

[Asum.4960]

1 hour ago, coro.3176 said:

Also, are we never going to get a fix for Engi pistol auto? If you're not going to fix it, please just change the tooltip to say its cast time is 1s and maybe in parentheses "this is bad, don't use it" in case players hadn't noticed.

Although especially egregious, this isn't just a Engi Pistol thing, actually most (especially older) chainless Auto Attacks have this behavior.

 

See Necrotic Grasp: 0.75s cast time, which actually is 1.3 seconds.

Fireball: 1s cast time, which takes 1.4 seconds.

Waterblast: 0.75 which is 1.2 seconds

Stoning: 0.75 which is 1.35 seconds

Puncture Shot: 0.75 which is 1 second.

Hammer Bolt: 1s which is 1.25 seconds.

etc.

 

And this isn't at all exclusive to AA's either - plenty of other skills suffer from this too (Necro Wells with cast times of 0.25 seconds for example can still even be stow cancelled almost a second into the cast).

 

Cast times are just not at all accurate.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

4 hours ago, Batalix.2873 said:

 

(a) the game can support "pure healer" especs like Druid and Herald, and only struggles in that aspect because it hasn't designed more healers to better fill out that niche; and

 

Ack. Please no. The idea of a pure anything in GW2 is an affront to the game's core combat design. Plenty of games do the holy trinity. I chose GW2 over all of them at beta because there was no pure anything and builds were largely self sufficient. They could all fulfill more than one role at a time, except maybe some thief builds? I agree no build should be able to do everything, but neither should they be forced to do only one thing at any given moment like a one-trick pony.

And let's face it, especs are basically your character's class identity now, since they change the lore and theme so dramatically, and usually the playstyle. Changing from a firebrand to a dragonhunter, or a tamer to a druid, is basically a different class. My plant spent years in Elona learning the lore of the firebrands. Picking up a bow or doing a Ryu-style hurricane kick are the furthest things from her mind.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Gaiawolf.8261

[Brasides.9360]

On 11/14/2022 at 7:46 AM, Griifen.2473 said:

I hear you on the simplicity of only going for % damage modifiers and how uninteresting this can be, but when you're making a build who's sole purpose it to do damage then these % modifiers absolutely make or break a build. 

 

As soon as venture outside of instanced group content this almost always falls away in favor of skill and trait synergy - and this becomes absolutely essential in competitive mods, most notably when roaming in WvW.

 

A nice example of this is the vindicator's dodge which is set in the grandmaster trait line. You use each grandmaster in pvp, pve, and WvW respectively and there are a lot of traits that synergise with each variety of effect-on-dodge. Another example is the daredevil's dodge which swaps between power, condition, and survivability/manuverability. For mesmers you can create builds that are centered around shattering whereas others don't favor shattering at all. Mechanist traits which completely alter how the mech behaves is another nice example. The arcane trait line in elemsntalist offers a lot of bonuses to swapping elemental attunements which works really with weavers when they don't have someone else offering them boons, but isn't as useful for tempests who need to stay in a single attunement for a long period of time in order to complete their overload. Ranger has two major utility buffing trait lines for survival and command skills which can really shake up your gameplay. Warriors can give themselves massive amounts of personal quickness at the cost of survivability, of they can become gods of might generation and practically never die so long as there's a single other player in close proximity. 

 

If you look around YouTube you'll find some channels that showcase runs which took 10+ hours of theory crafting anf practice in order to try break a record or make their make on unofficial leaderboards or just have bragging rights. This is especially seen in fractal runs and kill times on single fractal CM bosses where they would sometimes completely modify certain builds to allow every necessary boon to have 100% up time whilst perfectly allowing for the maximum damage output - and it's damage output that would put 90% of the playerbase to shame XD 

 

Sometimes flat damage % bonus are just the best trait to slot in because the other 2 alternatives are effectively useless, negligible with the gear stat set, or are covered in a more efficient way by another class. 

 

So my advice would be to try and look at these traits in light of the bigger picture. Are they alternatives that you could select and would they be worth the while for nor not you but your party/subgroup? Is an entire trait line chosen because of only a small handful of traits that offer a few thousand dps increases, whereas another trait line would offer much more engagement opportunities and may even an overall damage increase outside of optimal conditions? Could you chose an entirely different trait line that sacrifices 5k dps but offers your party extra healing, stability, aegis, boon extension, personal essential boon up time and massive amounts of personal sustain in tough situations (in case anyone is curious on taking about inspiration2-2-3 with mantra of concentration for mesmers instead of dueling for condition builds). 

I hear what you are saying about variety of purpose for the traits, and I do really like that not every trait is made to fit into the "highest DPS/support/heals" paradigm. It is really fun for me to look up the solo and open world builds that make more use of trait variety than the snowcrows benchmarks, and those more varied ones are often what I find myself using.

For example, this is a really fun build using the "Fervent Force" trait now on the chopping block. Honestly it is kind of ridiculous how much of a one-character party this build is, and I had a feeling Anet would nerf it out of existence.

This might be a bit off topic, but are there any fun playstyles that jump out to any of you folks which aren't slated to be nerfed down, or new builds you have in mind that might make use of the upcoming balance changes? I know we don't have numbers on a lot of these balance notes, just fishing for more fun builds to nerd out on.

Bonus points if you have a link to a video or text description of how/why the build works or is interesting.

On golem (no external boons or conditions - aka insanity): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-lFDhGcHA

On legendary bounties: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pjFQ1oug2zs

These are not my videos, but whoever this person is - you are awesome and an inspiration to newbies like me. 

Edit: rereading the quoted post I am glad to see someone else enjoys the arcane dodge and healing signet on ele, that is the kind of thing I just love using for multiple procs to sustain. It feels like you are almost breaking the game when you proc a passive like that, but it requires habit, the right build, and honestly ele needs all the sustain it can get since a single mistake can = downstate.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Brasides.9360