November 29 Balance Update Preview

[ForeverEndeavor.5689]

• Hey all,
• Please take another look at Mesmer Mirage.
• I really think you missed the mark with this one. The general consensus in the community is that Alac uptime is very poor for Mirage, and that other classes provide it easier. I feel like everything you did here was the opposite of what needed to be done.
•  
• "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."

 

1st: The aoe boon provision is being reduced from 3 (around clones) to 1 (self), and because its "around the mesmer" it forces them to stack. This eliminates the ability to play ranged in group settings, significantly limiting player choice for gameplay style.

 

2nd: Reducing alacrity duration from 2.5 seconds to 1 second when it was already less than what it needed to be to stay competitive with other classes is the OPPOSITE direction of where you needed to go with this.

 

3rd: Reducing might stacks by 75% (from 8 down to 2) is too extreme.

 

Please, please take another look at this! Because this is definitely not what is needed here.

 

Thank you for all that you do! I really hope that you take another look at this and change your mind because this makes an already struggling subclass incapable of being beneficial in a group setting.

[Shagie.7612]

Was really hoping to see weapon changes for warrior. It's the biggest pain point across the entire class.

Rush tracking being a major one. So much so that there was even a joke about Vindi's Phantom Onslaught compared to it on the official preview stream.

Sword is a poor hybrid weapon in both hands. Final Thrust is a dead button until 50%. Flurry, if it sticks, ends up being a poor trade most of the time. Flaming Flurry still struggles to hit moving targets despite being sped up last patch. Impale/Rip tears off its own debuff which makes sense, but similar flip skills like Guard Torch 4 don't remove theirs for the other skill. Riposte only blocks one hit, and in some situations activates even when nobody's in melee range.

Longbow projectiles are so ridiculously slow that you can easily obstruct your own shots. No other longbow (or shortbow, probably? never really checked) kit has that problem. It's a ranged weapon, but you still have to play it in melee. Arcing Arrow probably should have gotten the PvE burn in SPvP/WvW. Pin Down struggles to track targets at longer ranges.

Off-hand dagger, pistol, and axe are all in a fight for just being raw power weapons and there's not really any interesting choices, but at least pistol and axe see use in two different builds. Dagger would need a massive buff for it to see use.

Mace struggles, I think, mostly because their intended uses aren't particularly valuable in the current metagame. 

Rifle is rifle.

[AllNightPlayer.1286]

Could you take a look at druid’s staff again? Buffing Astral Wisp is nice, but the way it currently reaches its target is unreliable. Also remove the target requirement for auto-attack, please. It’s a pain to use with action camera.

I already recommended this in a more detailed thread.

Edited November 12, 2022 by AllNightPlayer.1286

[zakkles.4158]

Targeting staxe for nerfs while saying nothing about BSW stacking (which is used much more in high end raiding!) is weird. Either DPS that covers boons with no downside is a problem or it is not.

 

The bladesworn thing isn't a difficult fix - only Martial Cadence needs to be changed. That being said, given how cata stacking was nerfed back in June, maybe bladesworn being untouched is a good thing. 🙃

[Omg Im Target.3095]

Patch with a good direction but the changes to ele are just  so weird Its like no ones plays the class or everyone is scared of even touching them.
For Weaver: 

1. (PvE) Sword cWeaver is weaker than  Scepter cWeaver despite being completely melee and harder to play.
2. (PvP) Fire (condi) Weaver gets buffed despite being already the only viable PvP build. You know that LR, Freshweaver and other much weaker builds exist? That one was genuinely baffling. I really wanna hear CmC's reason for this.
3. Countless amount of skills and traits completely useless in most or all gamemodes that can be easily fixed with slight number adjustments. But that has been an issue for a while.

The state of Tempest and Cata are a beast of itself but i dont feel like seething more.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Omg Im Target.3095

[Kilty.4906]

Those are good changes to Elementalist, especially the scepter skills, it's just a shame that the new water 3 scepter skill sacrifices the AoE ranged heal.

Though, there are some concerns I wish would be addressed in the future:

• The Lightning Orb skill getting a similar treatment to the Catalyst hammer's orbs skills;
• Adjustments for Conjured Weapon skills so they feel less clunky to use;
• Improvements on how Tempest applies alacrity so it feels less punishing;
• Improvements for Drake's Breath, Cone of Cold, and Fire Grab when using them on moving targets (especially Cone of Cold because we lost a reliable AoE heal skill on scepter);
• A safe check cooldown when summoning orbs with Catalyst's hammer so it prevents unwanted use of the skill Grand Finale;
• A shorter cast time for the Rock Barrier skill and a change from a toughness buff to a flat defense buff so it prevents unwanted boss aggro;
• Better condition application for Weaver when using hybrid trident skills;
• A distinct visual effect for Blinding Flash so it looks different from Lightning Strike;

[Batalix.2873]

I appreciate the Ele scepter changes as far as personal affinity goes. The Firebrand changes are...something, but imo moving toward homogenization in a way that I think may hurt longer term espec variety and gamefeel if we are constantly contorting balance around not touching DPS as the sole metric of viability. 

I also need to throw in my support with the Deadeyes: the changes are bad and gut the core identity of the espec in the same way that almost did Scrapper in.

In general, my thoughts on the biggest opportunities you guys are still missing (and I'm sorry for the length but these are quite large, fundamental, and imo obvious and easily confrontable issues that I still have not seen much talk of).

 

I. RANGED DPS TAX

 

At minimum, I think the clearest thing that needed to be done that was glossed over is a ranged DPS tax. As it stands and according to Wingman estimates, 70 percent of the PvE playerbase uses either Firebrand, or especs from the subset of Mechanist, Virtuoso, Specter, Scourge, or Harbinger (and then also somewhat Tempest, Druid, and Renegade). It is no coincidence that the reason those especs are favored is because (excepting DH as a casualty of Firebrand and Deadeye which has a difficulty curve) they comprise *all* of the ranged DPS especs in the game. And players play them because they can keep DPS uptime more consistently while being free to peace out and avoid interacting with damaging mechanics.

 

A very simple option to increase overall diversity and viability is to implement a ranged tax on ranged weapons. If players are going to turtle up at a safe 1200 distance, or even have the option of leaving melee range without their rotation suffering, they should not able to do sustained damage on the same level as melee builds. The purest example of this is Virtuoso doing equal if not more damage to Berserker. These are the two purest, basic DPS specs outside of Weaver.

(Deadeye was actually the one example of a class that needed no DPS nerf because of the mobility/cleave tradeoffs. I am disappointed that this was the first ranged class you went for.)

 

II. UNIQUE WEAPONS AND "SPECIALIZATION" (OR THE LACK THEREOF)

 

Not All Weapons Need to Do Damage.

 

GW2's second biggest problem is a defined stratum of especs that are, in concept and design, support specs, but can still churn out pretty consistent-to-high DPS numbers on top of very robust kits. I do not think it was off-flavor for the "book nerd" spec to know how to apply all the boons on command. I do think that, in a swathe of "fire mage" especs, there was no reason for Firebrand to be doing condi fire damage on a weapon that begged to be used more as a wand/crook or runecarver.

 

And we see this across several other support specs, where they have a weapon that *could* be used to further define, reinforce, and perhaps limit their versatility, but instead just do straight-up damage. In general, I do not understand why Druid gets a pure healstaff weapon, but Firebrand (Scholar) and Scourge (Dark Priest) have weapons that are used quite conventionally for straight-up damage. Imo, both specs do not use weapons in a way that feels synergistic with their concept and their respective strengths. Something along the lines of this would feel much more "on brand" while curtailing a bit of these specs' passive DPS:

* Firebrand axe fire damage removed, now pushes enemies with axe 1 finisher, heals with axe 2, and pulls allies with axe 3.
* Scourge Torch 4 now applies barrier to allies. Torch 5 now resurrects. Both do negligible damage.

 

Obviously these are examples and there are other ways to implement effectively the same idea. For example on Firebrand, with the shared tome charges, maybe pull back page costs to 1 again but give the spells a slight damage boost--FB could still do damage, but only with tomes/mantras (so not passively with auto-attack condo damage), and only with the express tradeoff of support resources. For Scourge, torch abilities could do other support things like boon rip.

 

I think these are two of the least imaginative weaponskill sets in the game, on two specs that have a history of being able to do too much, and that no longer need to overcompensate for Druid now that each profession has three elite specs that can (fancy that) specialize. There are so few especs built specifically for healing/support with the only real qualifiers being Druid and Herald, and the reality is this does affect the game's marketability to players who want to contribute but don't want the stress of pulling DPS rotations. In absence of having more true support builds, inevitably the casual player's point of access will not be a healer (inherently designed to be more reactive and LI), but the easiest DPS build, resulting in situations we have now with Mech being overplayed and undermining the totality of deep/complex class design.  Firebrand and Scourge (although I see potential cases for Specter, Harbinger, and Chronomancer) are the two clearest candidates to merit a push in a direction of opening up healer roles, bringing in more new players and directing some away from Mechanist as a lazily designed catch-all.

 

Some Weapons (Only) Want to Do Damage.

 

In a similar vein, and on the other end of the spectrum, Berserker Torch is perhaps the least viable unique weapon. It is used in condi builds, but the rotations spend some 80 percent of the time in Greatbow. Berserker is, alongside Weaver and Virtuoso, one of only three pure sustained-DPS builds that is geared to do nothing except damage. However, while sword is viable on Condi and Power Weaver, and dagger is viable on Condi and Power Virtuoso, torch is not viable on Power Berserker because it does comparatively little Offhand physical damage compared to other offhands.

 

This makes no sense for several reasons. Berserker is the only spec to use torch effectively as a mace, and is also the purest iteration of a spec that just wants to smash things. But also, this just highlights the oppressiveness of Axe 5 across the entire profession. You want to play power: you slot OH Axe and Spin to Win, the specific espec practically doesn't matter. And while there is nothing wrong with having good core weapons, generally the espec weapons should be the best option for the espec's core philosophy.

 

All Berserker wants to do is smash things. All it wants is a unique weapon that reliably does damage better than all the core weapons on both condi and fire builds like Virtuoso and Weaver. Arguably even more so than Virtuoso than Weaver as a matter of flavor. Torch 4 and 5, especially Torch 4, should have sizeable physical damage to reliably compete with offhand axe.

 

III. CATALYST: THE CONTINUED TRIBULATIONS OF ELE

 

I have said this several times on these boards, but Ele continues to be underplayed because of how slavishly it reveres four-attunement access and rapid attunement swapping. Ele feels BAD to play across most especs because the weaponskill damage is always so undertuned to compensate for overly-flexible-but-mandatory bloat. I think the scepter changes will help a bit, but the bigger issue is that, outside of Tempest, the Ele specs mostly play the same: 

 

1) The espec itself practically doesn't matter because your playstyle is so heavily railroaded by your attunement/build. You want to play power, you play fresh air Ele. You want to play condi, you play fire Ele. You play heal/support, you play water Ele. The distinction as "fresh air Tempest", "fresh air Weaver", "fresh air Catalyst" is almost irrelevant. You could just call them all "fresh air Ele" and know that there are only minor differences between them. (I know that there a few unique interactions per espec, I am mostly observing how overwhelmingly uniform the builds tend to be and that these tend to be rare exceptions).

 

2) Even with these "attunement-defined" builds, you are generally forced to attunement swap a lot just to do comparable damage to any of the other especs. So in like a second, additional layer of non-differentiation on top of how espec choice is largely eclipsed by attunement choice, the attunement choice does not matter in light of just rapidly attunement cycling on many builds.

 

And I realize that this is a system entrenched in years of designs on top of designs. But I expected Catalyst to provide some relief from these problems, and it has done precisely the opposite.

 

Catalyst, as a very broad concept, wants to be the "tanky" support class next to Tempest's power/healing burstiness and Weaver's frenetic condi DPSing. And I am inferring a "tank-ish" subtheme because (a) Ele has a survivability issue that begged for a tanky espec, and (b) Catalyst being a terrain-zoning geomancer/shaman is a clearly contrasting niche to Tempest's "air/weather mage" and Weaver's "fire/water spellblade" and signalled by things like the hardened aura traitline.

 

Catalyst puts its own unique take on past geomancer/shaman concepts. It still wants to plop down totems/luopans for terrain control and, in the context of GW2's systems, provide reliable AoE boon uptime or combo effects within those fields. But it also ties this whole "earth magic" into jadestones, which I think is a very beautiful integration of worldbuilding for which the design team should be commended. On paper, it is the most multifaceted and holistic espec in EoD. On paper.

 

When I think Geomancer/Shaman, I think being able to (relatively) consistently have a boon or combo field up of the type I want. I control the terrain, I set some ground rules on the playing field, much in a similar way to Ranger setting traps or Scourge laying shades, but in a proactive, boony way. So I don't understand why Catalyst's two main features, Jade Sphere and Hammer 3 orbs, do not let me do that. Due to a long JS cooldown and Grand Finale hardcapping me at one orb per attunement, swapping attunement is *mandatory* to get any use out of the class. I am not allowed to establish consistent control over the field. My fields change as fast as Weaver's, and they don't even last as long as Ranger's traps or Scourge's shades.

 

I especially do not understand why Catalyst is so self-absorbed around Grand Finale. There is no customizable utility or particular effectiveness to it because Grand Finale is always a haphazard mosaic of four mediocre effects. And there is little long-term satisfaction in it when the mini-game is always the same: a slower, crummier, more cumbersome version of Weave Self. All I can ever think playing Catalyst is "why am I not playing hammer" when I use any other weapon, and "why am I not playing Weaver" when I am using hammer.

 

And the general lack of combo finishers on other Ele weapons means that hammer is usually the most if not only viable weapon option. Somehow, you took a profession that was already mired in two layers of non-choice (espec and attunement inconsequentiality, see above), and created an espec that added a third layer (weapon).

 

Catalyst is a bad espec with a very simple solution. Let it attunement camp. Let players have a second espec with at least some capability of attunement camping.

 

* Free up orbs. Instead of summoning four of different elements, allow players to summon three in any element combination. Instead of being summoned by Hammer 3, summon them by attuning or reattuning. Design away from Weave Self.

 

* Free up Jade Sphere. Remove the cooldowns so we can summon the same field multiple times; energy already works as a limiting factor and is easily tuned up or down. Consider giving Jade Sphere more screentime, maybe letting it appear over your head for a single pulse boon whenever you attune/reattune, to fill in boon gaps between deployment.

 

* Free players from four-attunement undertuned weapon damage. Remove access to untraited attunements if you have to. Catalyst is the perfect espec to build around using only one or two attunements because the combo fields naturally boost damage if you provide enough access to them.

 

* Give hammer more access to combo fields, say with Hammer 5. They don't have to last long, could be extremely brief, but there should be options to fill in gaps between Jade spheres. Also it's imo a flavor miss not to include given the whole espec's concept.

 

Ultimately a lot of these proposed changes would not fundamentally change a lot of core features. of Catalyst. But they would give it a much needed identity that didn't rely on an unnecessary and unsuccessful revisit to Weaver, and overall shore up a lot of the Ele profession's shortcomings as a whole.

 

IV. MECHANIST AND LI BUILDS

 

It's practically two characters in one. Two health pools, two sets of abilities, two sources of boons, two sources of damage, two locations on the map you can maneuver.

 

This is horrible game design when your Mech can play the whole PvE game for you at range AND you retain full weaponskills and slot skills. Mech is singlehandedly obviated the entire profession and espec system in ways Firebrand only hinted toward.

 

Proposed Solution One: Consolidation

 

There needs to be consolidation, and it can go one of three directions:

 

1) Mech and player are one. A mechsuit. Likely discarded in the development process as too similar to Scrapper/Holo. Also would not satisfy the power fantasy well if it worked...as well as any other class.

 

2) Player keeps their power and utilities, mech loses their power and utilities. Definitely not an option. Why would we even have a J-Bot? Guts the whole class fantasy.

 

3) Mech keeps their power and utilities, player loses their power and utilities. This is the only path forward under this option.

 

Proposed tradeoffs:

 

* Player "operates" J-Mech remotely (an extension of what it already does). J-Mech mimes player weaponskill animations upon input. Player character does no damage. J-Mech does all weapon damage and effects at melee range at its own location.

* Player character still has access to utilities. Player character gets access to weaponskills when mech is gone from field.

* Targeting/placing J-Mech is refined.

 

Benefits:

* Mech fantasy preserved, if not strengthened with the whole "puppeteer" angle and synergy with jadebot remote controls.

* DPS consolidated to always come from a single character for consistent balancing.

* Reasonable tradeoff for having a tanky 1200 range swiss-army juggernaut is now you have to protect your squishy self. Makes PvP more interesting (and less infuriating for players downed by a Mech).

* Still allows players to casual/afk roam and farm from a safe distance in PvE since it functions as Engi's "ranged" espec. But gives them a reasonable threat of being downed if they take on more than their mech can handle.

* Brings our tall poppy Mechanist back down to the same brane of existence as the other 26 especs, allowing for at least some possibility of seeing more classes used in PvE.

 

In summary, this option would preserve the "supporting spacial tactician" aspects of Mechanist that more experienced players enjoy, albeit at the cost of alienating newer and lazier players who just want to win by autoattacking.

 

Proposed Solution Two: Simplification

 

Perhaps we don't want to alienate newer players. We want them to have these "LI" builds as a matter of accessibility and easing them into the game (even though I personally think that the community has perverted the concept of "LI builds" by increasingly adopting the notion that just because they exist (and plenty do, as an emergent accident of deep game design) means they should be used and encouraged by design regardless of a player's capabilities. The result has been a sea of Mechanists on every PvE map, most of which are players spouting lazy libertarian/neoliberal rhetoric to distract from the fact that they do not want to deal with the inconvenience of challenge, engagement, and maybe occasionally failure.)

 

So if that be the case, and Mech commutes itself to being baby's first espec, the LI-est of LI builds, then in my opinion there is a very simple standard by which LI builds should be designed:

 

LI BUILDS SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY ACCESS TO GROUP BOONS.

 

A major balancing problem, as I observed earlier, is that especs designed as robust support roles do too much baseline damage on top of their utility, primarily but not always through weaponskills and autoattacking.

 

The same is true in reverse. The only thing needed to get into content and clear content is selfish DPS. An LI build only needs decent DPS to function. And maybe a little CC. And maybe, because this is noobs we are talking about, some additional mobility options to help them run away and/or kite things they can't handle. Pure damage, and options to protect yourself, and only yourself.

 

What an LI build does not need, at all (for the health of the game), is the ability to provide group boons while easily doing DPS. That is not in the scope of what an LI build needs. New players will be focusing on their cooldowns and staying out of damage. They do not need that additional duty.

 

What an LI build definitely does not need is easily or even auto-applied boons while doing any reasonable amount of DPS. Mech had shown that is simply too much power. It discourages veteran players from playing anything more difficult except for conscious election of game feel or challenge. It discourages new players from trying the other 25-26 especs because they have been given a false sense of accomplishment for doing practically nothing.

 

There is always room for selfish DPS in group content. Other players can provide the group boons for noobs. There is even room for mediocre selfish DPS in group content--the LI builds don't even have to do top tier damage, just enough that they don't feel like dead weight when learning new content.

 

With all this in mind, if the aim is to keep Mech designed as an accessible, introductory espec, then the clear solution is to remove all group boons. New Mech players can learn how to apply some boons to itself if design space allows, but no one, noob or veteran, should be allowed such easy access to group boons. Especially on a ranged, LI build with a tanky second health pool and 18k in passive damage.

 

Pros:

* Emphasizes Mech's "protector" role as only being able to provide boons to the player character.

* Decentivizes experienced players from bringing Mech to group content (as it now slows down group DPS), but still gives new players a viable means of engaging with the game.

* Gives all the other classes. Literally all of them: Ranged specs, Melee specs, support specs, heal specs. Gives all the other classes a better chance at being viable in content. Might also even obviate some of them having to adopt ridiculous, tacked-on boons to keep up with Mech.

 

V. CONCLUSION

1. Please implement a ranged tax, at minimum in PvE (Deadeye excluded because it has actual limitations, and DH possibly excluded because it needs a lot of help). Ranged builds obviating melee builds is the most consistent inequity shown by the numbers in group PvE content, and likely affects WvW content. Might affect PvP too, but I concede that player skill can make up a lot of the difference there.

2. Some unique weapons need a once-over. Berserker torch especially has no good excuse for not being both condi and power viable. But also for certain overperforming, do-everything support builds (Firebrand, Scourge, Specter, Harbinger), consider making their weapons do less damage-oriented, more support-oriented things.

3. Make Catalyst campier and more terrain-oriented by freeing up orbs and jade sphere from attunement swapping and arbitrary cooldown caps. It has a very narrow gimmick that compares extremely disfavorably to core Ele and Weaver, and Ele sorely needs some more survivable and less virtuosic especs to make it more viable in PvE content.

4. Retool Mech to be either a strict Puppeteer class with no player damage, or baby's first pew pew toy with no group boons, and consider going even harder than that if those changes still are not enough. It is unconscionable in this state, and undermines/circumvents so many core design principles that the other 26 especs adhere to. This is your mark of shame. Fix it.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Batalix.2873

[Headhunter.7264]

The movement change to deadeye looks great, I've seen a lot of people ask for/suggest that change for while now, but why the range nerfs to it? Is deadeye no longer supposed to be a sniper spec? They still have to reduce their movement speed to get that extra range, but longbow ranger just gets the 1,500 range for no trade off.

[Bariel.3562]

52 minutes ago, Kuma.1503 said:

Same way Engineers do with kits. We either find a cooldown to line it up with, or we get used to keeping track of the CD in the background. 

 

It's not the same,  if it worked liked the Engineers kits then perhaps (Even though I'm not a fan of that). However, Eng kits don't also have a fixed number of uses shared across all kits where using skill 2 in medkit will consume 2 pages/initiative meaning I can't then use Skill Y in bomb kit for another X seconds until my page/initiative timer also ticks more.

 

FB would have 2 different timers  (page regen and skill timer), plus traits that then screw with that page regen timer like "swift scholar" using 3 skills in one book will refund a page and renewed justice that reduces recharge of F1 by 20% on kill. It's more than double the complexity of Eng, and trying to juggle that mental arithmetic across the 15 tome skills on top of playing a support role to keep your group alive in WvW just isn't going to be fun!

 

[Doggie.3184]

1 hour ago, keykey.9182 said:

This skill no longer heals allies

This skill no longer heals allies

This skill no longer heals allies

 

I think this is the last stone for my mental health as Ele Main.

 

Another Nerf jesusmariaandjoseph

It used to be an Elite spammable damage nuke that knocked down people in GW1 back when water DPS existed which has always annoyed me in GW2 where waters just heals. Though the healing could be moved/improved elsewhere if needed I'm sure.

I wonder if they'll finally fix the tempo of Shatterstone's sound effect. It hasn't matched the animation since it's animation was speeded up 7 years ago.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 hours ago, Mauti.3520 said:

Hey CMC!
Please stop playing your D/D Catalyst in PvP/WvW for once and join a pug for Raids and in particulary Strike or Fractal Challenge Motes!

As DPS Weaver, as Heal Alacrity or DPS Alacrity Tempest, as Quickness or DPS Catalyst. Play it for a couple of weeks, try some other classes with the same role then and there.

And then come back and tell us if those preview notes are the changes Ele needed for now. No pulsing Alacrity on Overloads. No buffs to Sword. No changes to the mindboggingly atrocious set of Elementalist Utility Skill Pool. Nothing "but scepter in PvP, I now can do dis stuff with it".

Enjoy the pleasures of a 11k HP stuck in a 4 seconds Overload for half the encounter Fresh Air Power Alacrity Tempest on MAMA 98 Fractal CM, seeing all your alacrity and most of your dps in shambles (and pray you actually survive it as you don't want to dodge lol on an overload) when eating a single CC, and then log onto your Alac Mechanist, go afk, deal more damage, deal trice the breakbar damage and remove boons from the boss and adds with Throw Mine while buffing Alac and Might from auto attacks and a pet that is immune to CC and almost immortal.

What the hell friendo, what the hell. This games balance is partially so ridiciolous unjust and unfair it almost physically HURTS!

If "Bleeding on Shearing Edge" (that's a Sword 3 skill for Air+Water mix attunement you almost NEVER EVER SEE ANYONE USE BECAUSE IT IS FREAKING ATROCIOUSLY BAD, and a pathetic bleeding which as a condi is deliberately skipped even by tryhard Condi Weavers in their gear stats and rotation in PvE won't change that!) for Weavers and some scepter "changes" that nerfs heal tempest indirectly are the only changes in PvE after that still I stand staggered.

Do we play the same game? Do we live on the same planet, friendo? 

My thoughts exactly.  What the hell indeed!  I was waiting for some positive change to sword weaver, expecting that with all the feedback provided it was more or less a common sense thing.  And we get nothing but a few irrelevant PvP changes?  This was supposed to be the PvE patch, wasn't it?  Do better, CMC.

[Foxon.2369]

The problem with Deadeye is that to perfectly do the rotation you need three stealth abilities minimum (2 from Shadowmeld, your heal, burst, and your Steal) and even then there's windows you can't Ambush because of gaps. Kneeling isn't the issue (though the change to no more coming out of Kneel when disabled is very welcome).

Deadeye's ambush mechanic could use a whole rework to make it less clunky to play and open up some of the utility choices. Maybe rely on how much intiative you spend to "proc" an ambush. Or give Steal's F2 multiple charges.

I have no clue why one of Deadeye's major selling points, the 1500 range, had to be nerfed.

[wcrWilli.9708]

You fail to make chrono the support spec it should be. Instead you give it more damage. Exactly the amount you nerfed 1.5 years ago. It will still be unused since power virtu is stronger and has a higher burst.

Wasn’t virtuoso the power dps spec?

the recent changes to the gm traits for alac and quick were a good start but you fail to deliver a proper support solution. Will be rendered useless as i is now.

 

no mirage pvp changes, that is just absurd.

Wasn‘t alac a chrono thing? Wasnt mirage the condi cannon for mesmer.

 

you totally destroy this class with every update you bring. Very sad development.
 

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by wcrWilli.9708

[Elessaria.9142]

37 minutes ago, ForeverEndeavor.5689 said:

• Hey all,
• Please take another look at Mesmer Mirage.
• I really think you missed the mark with this one. The general consensus in the community is that Alac uptime is very poor for Mirage, and that other classes provide it easier. I feel like everything you did here was the opposite of what needed to be done.
•  
• "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."

 

1st: The aoe boon provision is being reduced from 3 (around clones) to 1 (self), and because its "around the mesmer" it forces them to stack. This eliminates the ability to play ranged in group settings, significantly limiting player choice for gameplay style.

 

2nd: Reducing alacrity duration from 2.5 seconds to 1 second when it was already less than what it needed to be to stay competitive with other classes is the OPPOSITE direction of where you needed to go with this.

 

3rd: Reducing might stacks by 75% (from 8 down to 2) is too extreme.

 

Please, please take another look at this! Because this is definitely not what is needed here.

 

Thank you for all that you do! I really hope that you take another look at this and change your mind because this makes an already struggling subclass incapable of being beneficial in a group setting.

You need to read and understand the build better. Right now the clones give no boons at all. With the changes and 3 STAFF clones up you will put out the same might and almost double the Alacrity you do now. This is a buff with the sole exception that you will have to time shatters better with clone regen, but that's pretty trivial with Staff anyway. The only thing that is nerfed is the ability to spit out 3 axe clones for DPS whilst wielding staff and spamming your Ambush, which was never an intended part of the build design.

[Antina.5973]

Firebrand - Small problem, since Tome 3 skills all gain Protection from Legendary Lore, would that stack with the Stability changed to prot on Chapter 1: Unflinching Charge?

[Artificer.3468]

I like some of the changes and nice to see bloody roar has a fix coming soon.

 

I will say though I find the lack of mention of either power harbinger or Spite, necro's main power traitline to be a bit odd

It has 2 minor traits that desperately could use an update and a sign that that is being considered would be appreciated.

 

Really not feeling the water trident change at all honestly. 

 

 

 

 

[Bariel.3562]

37 minutes ago, CourtJester.5908 said:

If players are going to turtle up at a safe 1200 distance, they should not able to do sustained damage on the same level as melee builds.

Disagree, things are meta because firstly they kill the fastest and secondly the safest. Reducing ranged damage with a tax would just shift the meta to be melee, balance is achieved when both melee and range are equal in speed to kill and safety in doing so. In my view you need to make melee have more toughness or something to make them just as appealing.  

 

With regards to "Not all weapons need to do damage", sadly loot bags dropping from players in WvW is tied to damage and as supports you already get a lot less drops than DPS players even though some of skills damage and some don't.  Already hard enough to get enough supports if you cull the drops more nobody will play. Could agree if the way bags dropped in WVW was adjusted.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Bariel.3562

[firedragon.8953]

7 hours ago, Double Tap said:

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.

Wait, what? Which is it, is it extended or reduced when an enemy is nearby? Shouldn't it read, "Increased berserk duration when an enemy is nearby to 5 seconds in PvE only." or something that makes it the same as it is now without stab being a handicap?

Glad to see bloody roar is being looked at.
Would like to see changes to greatsword in general, which has been asked for a long time: 100 Blades "rooting," Bladetrail travel time too slow,  Rush being slow and having pathing issues compared to most other profession's blink/leap options. You made Bladesworn a stationary dps greatsword user, at least give some variety and make old school greatsword an actual mobility dps option. Variety and all that...

Edit: For firebrand, although I think shared pages may be a good way to address the "god utility" problem, the cooldowns and multi-page design is overly complicated. Just make each 1 page and do not change cooldowns. Figure out how to balance it on the "page recharge" rate. It's overly clunky and will likely not be fun. Don't kill a profession, just fix it. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by firedragon.8953

[Fire Fist.2546]

Warrior power berserker main and would love to see this class getting some love so we can be decent in a raids 

[eXistence.3876]

5 hours ago, Chromatic Drake.3168 said:

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.

Most ele changes are great. I love the scepter changes. Except water trident.

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 minutes ago, Bariel.3562 said:

Disagree, things are meta because firstly they kill the fastest and secondly the safest. Reducing ranged damage with a tax would just shift the meta to be melee, balance is achieved when both melee and range are equal in speed to kill and safety in doing so. In my view you need to make melee have more toughness or something to make them just as appealing.  

If you make them equal in maximum potential then range always wins because it deals equal damage at melee range but significantly more damage than melee at range.  Safety isn't really a significant factor in group PvE because of support.

[Placentlad.9742]

The buffs numbers for PVE seems abit tame. berserker and reaper can definitely do with even higher coefficents to be on par with other melee pdps specs.

[Noctosis.3786]

I'm just a little concerned about the thought behind Sword Thief, specifically in PvE. PvP and WvW I can see it's roaming potential.

But PvE I am unsure how it's holding up. AA for Sword is strong, and I can see the defensive application while Solo and that's perfectly fine by me. However, in group content, I can only think of two things for Sword that it brings that Dagger wont: slight healing, and boon strip after a long animation.

The unfortunate thing here is that in Group Content, you either fall into Boons, Heal, or DPS, and Sword definitely falls into a weird spot for those. Provides a bit of Healing if Traited, but you would only really use that on Specter, which it doesn't heal as much and at least from what I can tell isn't enough in harder content to heal others reliably.(Someone prove me wrong on this as this was where I was wanting to land)

Boon stripping I believe other classes have a much faster strip animation than thief, where thief has to dodge first and then strip. This also loses some dps due to the affects of it. 

Is Sword on Thief supposed to have an intended hole in PvE where group content you stow it away for dagger/staff/rifle/scepter? 

[Batalix.2873]

33 minutes ago, Bariel.3562 said:

Disagree, things are meta because firstly they kill the fastest and secondly the safest. Reducing ranged damage with a tax would just shift the meta to be melee, balance is achieved when both melee and range are equal in speed to kill and safety in doing so. In my view you need to make melee have more toughness or something to make them just as appealing.  

 

With regards to "Not all weapons need to do damage", sadly loot bags dropping from players in WvW is tied to damage and as supports you already get a lot less drops than DPS players even though some of skills damage and some don't.  Already hard enough to get enough supports if you cull the drops more nobody will play. Could agree if the way bags dropped in WVW was adjusted.

 

In theory the melee builds already have more toughness. They still are not played as often because the difference is not survivability and consistent damage but ease of play and willingness to learn mechanics.

 

The toughness does not sufficiently counterbalance player skill and/or laziness.

 

A ranged tax would shift the game to favor melee, with the added tradeoff of having to "get good" and respect mechanics instead of comfortably avoiding most of them at range.

 

So the end result would be: you want to kill the boss faster? Go melee and learn mechs. You want to play the easier route? Go ranged but contribute less to the party and kill speed.

 

And yeah I think the game should measure contributions in more than DPS overall. I think it is a pipe dream to hope that 27 specs can all compete to be viable when the only standard they are consistently measured against is DPS and the game design avoids "pure support" especs like the plague. I think it is crummy as it is that WvW does not favor support specs with loot drops. WvW has already demonstrated that the end state of large-scale warfare is the surprisingly monolithic and uninspired blob zerging. Any measures to incentivize other methods of play in that mode would likely improve it.

Edited November 12, 2022 by CourtJester.5908

[fatihso.7258]

First the mantra animations and effects are gone and now the firebrand tome opening animations are getting removed. Could you stop deleting these good effects and ruin the spec identity? We understand balance is necessary but you are butchering aesthetics for the sake of it.