November 29 Balance Update Preview

[AphoticEssance.7592]

Who wants 5 second large scale epic battles? We all know how that panned out in spvp balance.. sPvP is a joke now

 

[DamDam.9746]

1 hour ago, DtenCfour.3567 said:

But, I have to ask, do you play a FB?  I do and am very tired of the nerfing in WvW. 

 

I do, though essentially only in PvE. Both as a healer and as a dps.

I have to say my first impression when seeing the rework on the stream was indignation, but after some thoughts about this, we have to admit the rework offers more flexibility, be it either from the player's side or from the balance team side.

 

I in no way think that the current values feel just and optimal (pages, cds and all), but they can be adjusted in the near future if needed.

 

We have to see it as a work in progress, like an alpha or beta version of the rework. Otherwise it would make no sense.

 

I want to keep some hope in the balance team and think they can correct their mistakes and fix the remaining problems.

I hope i'm right doing so.

Edited November 12, 2022 by DamDam.9746

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

8 minutes ago, Drag You Down.2615 said:

Signet of vampirism

SoV was a mistake =:/

[Khenzy.9348]

Some suggestions to give Elementalist's Scepter some support functionality back (which was basically taken away):

 

Scepter. Water attunement duality. Allied targeting.

 

Water Trident is now called Ice Trident by default when targeting a foe or not targeting anything.

Ice Trident turns into Water Trident when targeting an ally. Can now be casted on an ally and provides an AoE heal (+ regen).

Ice/water Trident is now a blast finisher.

 

Shatterstone is now called Shattering Orb (or whatever). You now summon a magical water orb at the target area that quickly freezes and shatters. Heals allies on summon and leaves a water field for a second (or two) and damages allies and chills them when it quickly freezes and shatters.

The brief water field would allow some quick combos with the Water Trident now being a blast finisher.

 

Ice Shards now turn into Water Orbs when targeting an ally. Can now be casted on a targeted ally. You throw some small water orbs providing some small yet constant healing to the targeted ally.

 

With Scepters 'new' intended direction of being a mostly damage weapon, to maintain that philosophy, these water support skills need a relatively high value in healing power to actually heal a respectable amount, which means: 

Shattering Orb, Water Orbs and Water Trident have low base healing with low healing power, high healing with high healing power only.

 

They would all use basically the same animations, maybe slightly modifying the texture of Water Trident to make it more Icy (Ice Trident), similar to the new Shattering Orb and Water Orbs, wouldn't be that resource heavy to implement.

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Khenzy.9348

[Drag You Down.2615]

8 minutes ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

SoV was a mistake =:/

I totally agree!!! A huge design problem, which can be easily found by high-school design students.

[screechfox.5072]

If I'm being honest, I'd rather be unable to move on Deadeye than to have the range reduced. I don't mind having to kneel and unkneel, it feels really unique, and the range is what makes rifle Deadeye so fun to play for me.

[megamino.1430]

1 Small thing that i wanna add outside of this preview of balance patch, it might be awesome to put skill / trait icons, i'm a visual memory person where I kinda know the thing that are mentioned by looking at the icon...

Outside of that, I am not familiar with other professions yet because it quite complex, however even though i am maining a scourge and the only change scourge has is the nerf on the boon removal / gain, i kinda wanna go back to reaper... and seeing the changes it's not quite appealing to me even though Anet bump up the numbers... But, i am keen to try that and see the numbers myself. Although, this is not a "major" patch according to me... Well, we'll about to see when it arrives at the end of this month

[Gaiawolf.8261]

33 minutes ago, DamDam.9746 said:

 

I do, though essentially only in PvE. Both as a healer and as a dps.

I have to say my first impression when seeing the rework on the stream was indignation, but after some thoughts about this, we have to admit the rework offers more flexibility, be it either from the player's side or from the balance team side.

 

I in no way think that the current values feel just and optimal (pages, cds and all), but they can be adjusted in the near future if needed.

 

We have to see it as a work in progress, like an alpha or beta version of the rework. Otherwise it would make no sense.

 

I want to keep some hope in the balance team and think they can correct their mistakes and fix the remaining problems.

I hope i'm right doing so.

Flexibility at the cost of theme. Overall, looking at the numbers, it seems we will be spending a lot less time and casting a lot less "spells" in tomes, specifically Tome of Justice. What set FB apart from other guardians, as much as its extra support mechanics, was its themes as lore masters and divine casters. That seems mostly gutted. So now we are just regular paladins again that occasionally whip out a book for a spell or two before going back to camping that kittening axe.
RIP for the divine smite caster aesthetic.

[Varis.5467]

1 hour ago, screechfox.5072 said:

If I'm being honest, I'd rather be unable to move on Deadeye than to have the range reduced. I don't mind having to kneel and unkneel, it feels really unique, and the range is what makes rifle Deadeye so fun to play for me.

Agreed, and I might add that the slow walk is pointless in the practical sense of combat-skill interaction outside of a demo situated in the vaccum of HoTM.

Edited November 12, 2022 by xxXLightningXxx.8476

[Moist Skelemans.6298]

Hi Anet, 

Reaper main here, really digging that you guys remembered this class existed!
Totally stoked to see that we're getting some buffs to some skills to help us keep up with damage outside of running full summons. Idk if this is asking too much but do you think we reapers could possibly borrow some of that power the firebrands had for way too long? That would totally be sick! 

But no seriously I think reaper needs more damage capability outside of shroud. I know it's the whole "the classes mechanics should be the reason they are good at XYZ" which is fine and fair and all but Engineer rifle exists. soooo... yeah... #BuffReaperGreatSword

[FreshF.5793]

You said you were gonna focus on support builds this update... This (Reddit)+ Alac-Specter and Quickness Warrior shouldnt be waited on until 2023...otherwise numbers are gonna be still the same:

I was actually hoping for support specter changes since june Update. Nothing. Actually dont know if these forums are read at all from the devs, unless theres a big shitstorm like scrapper-wells.

Disappointing 😞

 

 

[GrizzlyTank.3145]

So heal specter is still very dead...

[Freedoms.2635]

10 hours ago, Mike.7983 said:

• 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?

 

Extremely hard nerf, they reverted a similar change earlier but apparently they feel they need to nail this coffin shut chain it and dump it in the ocean. 

[Argonil.6970]

14 hours ago, Double Tap said:

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.

This is a VERY bad change, please revert this. Usually you want Alac uptime between fights to reset your abilities and your special action skill (like in the Twilight Oasis fractal where you work for Joko, you want alac to reduce the cooldown on the jump ability. Or the Deepstone fractal where you need the light ring for the platform puzzle) but since Mirage won't have clones outside combat and only applies 1 second alac per ambush without clones, it's pretty much a dead spec for fractals.
What problem do they solve with this change, is there an actual problem? It's not like you could keep full uptime on Alac or Might if you switched to axe anyway so what's the point?

With this change, Mirage will be a pseudo-alac spec that isn't worth taking for any content where you're on the move. I can't create a sincere argument for why someone should bring an alac mirage for fractals. It also gives lower QoL as you can't reduce cooldown on movement abilities or on your Portal for when you're doing jumping puzzles with friends. I absolutely hate this change.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Argonil.6970

[Lord Voldemort.6189]

Is the mechanist change just for PVP or all game modes? If all game modes then why PVE? The engineer is a ranged character to begin with when you have a rifle that lets you be 1200 units away from your target and the ability to set your mech up as a melee build. So if what your doing is for PVE as well then that means if my mech is set for melee and I have a rifle then I have no choice but to give up 840 of my 1200 units distance to get the most out of my mech build. If that is how it's going to be then thanks alot for breaking my build and ruining my game experience and I will quit the this piece of kitten elitest targeted game to go play ESO. At lest there devs beleave in content that everyone can do and do for the most part solo. And to be honest Giuildwars 2 as always been a game that I've been borderline play/don't play cause of how hard it is.

And just an FYI. Why would you mess with mech in the first place? you shouldn't be nurffing it but taking notice to the fact that the reason everyone's play mech is cause they don't want to play a build that requires 10 to 20 buttons to get any decent damage or a hard as fk game like this one.

To be honest I get the feeling that you won't be happy until it takes 20 players just to kill 1 level 80 trash map NPC but I'll be gone from this train wreck long before then. Anyway I'll keep my eye's on the patch notes and see how things go.

Also if you really want to nurf something then nurf most of the kitten OP NPC's in this game. I also read something on here that said you understand that meck is a nice low intensity build but that you didn't like how it over performed. Well to that I would say who gives a fk what you want. who's keeping food on the table? you or the players? You better stop making the game the way you want it and start making the game the way players want or all you going to get is an eviction notice when you can't pay the bills. Anyway I could say a 1000 thing that I feel are wrong with this game but I think I went on long enough. In short make the game the way the player wants or you can support your own game yourself. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Lord Voldemort.6189

[Drag You Down.2615]

7 minutes ago, GrizzlyTank.3145 said:

So heal specter is still very dead...

That's right, I can't save anyone, not only NPCs when I do the event, but also players, the shields on one target is not very helpful.

[Wolfshade.9251]

The range nerf on deadeye feels unjustified. It's as though we're going from a professional sniper with low mobility and high range to some sort of sniper-in-training that can't shoot as well and hobbles around instead of staying at his post.

The main problem with Deadeye in open world wasn't just the fact that you had to kneel to do any respectable amount of damage with a rifle, it was the complete lack of cleave damage coupled with the lack of piercing on almost all rifle skills. Engineer rifle has increased mobility, range, damage, good CC and piercing. Deadeye rifle now has similarily bad mobility to before, decreased range, damage increase still tied to whether you kneel or not, weak CC and piercing on only 1 of the 4 skills. 

Kneeling feels as though it should have been a profession mechanic as opposed to 5th rifle skill. This way it could be applied to other weapons (in a slightly changed form for meele).

[Negshy.6901]

Hi guys, Thief main here, i appreciate the dagger buff since they should be the main weapon of the core class but see almost no play. However i belive that the deadeye changes are going in the wrong direction. At this point rifle DE has no sense since D/D makes way more damages and has higher mobility, furthermore the sniper class get outanged from other classes that don't even have the kneel mechanic tradeoff, that's pretty sad

[Nero.7369]

13 hours ago, Double Tap said:

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.

This sounds kinda awkward, I mean why?

Rifle Power Mech both are ranged.

HAM Engi and Mech are melee

Condi Mech with mace both are melee.

Alac Mech with Rifle, usually mech is melee but you could als swap traits for ranged

Condi Mech with pistol pistol, Mech is melee... Well pistol 4 needs you in melee range frequently anyway.

So overall impact is probably minimal... And probably only really relevant on the last two. Tho this sounds like a really clunky mechanic. Specially because in large battle it can be really annoying to keep track where you golem is. And you kinda use the personal target for it. Seems like a bad attempt for me to make mechanist "more complex".

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Nero.7369

[EstiCelesti.6047]

I just wanted to chime in and say that the Deadeye changes run against the theme of the spec. To nerf the range messes with the powerfantasy that comes with playing a sniper-type character. I don't even care what you do to kneel, just please don't reduce the range. 

[xXxOrcaxXx.9328]

I would like to see more stability stacks on Druid skills that give stability. Apart from the unfortunate reality that there are some boss fights, like Dragonstorm, that have a lot of CC that can strip your one stack of stability, it also makes it hard for allied players to synergize with the Druid, as they either try to avoid the CC themselves, since the Druid has to delay the application of stability until the last moment to not have the stability get used up early. Or they trust the Druid to apply stability at the last second when the Druid doesn't have their cooldowns available.

[Paroxzyme.6053]

The Deadeye changes won't lead to an increase in PVE usage, but the range changes will result in lower WvW usage.

[Maria Murtor.7253]

Every post about reducing the Deadeye's range I've seen so far is either confused or negative. You asked about feedback, and you got it. So, if you gonna still stick with these odd changes which you have in mind, then I don't know what's wrong with you …

[Salt Mode.3780]

Based on the majority feedback you guys clearly don't play the game enough to be qualified to be in the balance team. So this was just hyped up disappointment.

[Trigarta.3841]

I think it's good that you want to strengthen Druids place as a viable WvW support but this can't be enough to break up the stale support meta we have in WvW for ages!

Firebrand is finally getting some nerfs although I will have to to play it myself to see how significant the changes are. Didn't you want to do something about stability? you replaced stability on one skill with protection but you gave no stability to the other supports. Just give the other supports more opportunities to hand out stability for their groups. 

What I don't like the most about the update is that you didn't touch Heal Vindicator at all for WvW! Before the massive nerfs in the october 18 patch, it was actually becoming a viable support. The numbers could have been tweaked a bit, of course, but you basically pushed Heal Vindicator back into the "not viable pit" it just climbed out of. The changes were so severe that playing Heal Vindicator just isn't worth it anymore unless you want to play a subpar heal spec with lackluster cleansing and barrier output. I had a lot of fun with the Heal Vindicator before it got nerfed so hard and want to see it come back. I know the big problem is probably the second dodge you introduced and and the endurance regen rate but Heal Vindicator wasn't overperforming. It didn't shake up the meta in a meaningful way. It just gave support players more choice what they wanted to play and break up the meta that is going on for years.