November 29 Balance Update Preview

[Acemos.2856]

Instead of increasing the initiative cost for kneeling on Deadeye, can we just keep it at 1? What's the reasoning for increasing the cost? Because kneeling and walking is too OP? I mean, the range already got nerfed on the kneeling skill to match the standing skills.

[AViegarien.3625]

The changes for ele scepter are a mixed bag for me. I only play in PvE so the change to dragon's tooth shouldn't be much of a change it might cause some missed blasts though which will make me sad. I can't say I'm a big fan of the change to Water Trident (though if I'm totally honest I mostly heal on staff) but that does take away a tool for heal ele. The other changes I can get behind.

 

I'm also torn on how I feel about the change on earth sphere. On one hand Aegis is super nice and to have it available really frequently will make many encounters much more trivial. On the other hand, I like having resistance to counter stuff like Slothasor or White Mantle Necro's fear. I'm sure there are other tools I could use instead, it was nice to show people that you don't need stability for everything (especially on Sloth where stab can get corrupted into fear).

[Ascency.3580]

what i feel would be a good solution to having multiple specs be able to deal with multiple roles would be to have one tier of elite specs traits be dedicated to selecting specific playstyle. be it adept master or grandmaster choice, would steer the spec into fulfilling a specific role, modyfying slightly what other trait tiers do. for example, selecting 'healing' subspec(?) trait on tempest would add several boons to specific skills, bump healing power a bit, and maybe completely change 1 or two skills to add some more powerful defensive tools while on this spec. it could also make other trait options work slightly differently, for example master stab trait for when overloading, while on 'healing spec' could apply this stab to the party instead of just the ele.

on the other hand, going for 'dmg' trait would for example couse this same stab trait to add superspeed when overloading or whatever, increse the dmg, change them powerful heals into powerful attacks, so the roles would be more pronounced, and at the same time allow for more granular balancing, where changing one overperforming aspect of a class often times makes the whole class useless. like it was with warrior. which was being stomped into the ground for its much needed banners, and then when they took away the banners it became a meme.

they could specify 3 distinct roles for every elite spec. for example mesmer chrono - quick support, alac support, dps. balance each individually by slightly tweaking each subspec(?). dps option could retain its decent solo uptime on quick and alac, and be easy to then balance around. while going support, could give more ammo on defensive mantras, more boons and so on.

huge amount of work i know. but since after such system would be in place, players could see before investing in a class what roles they would be able to fulfil, and be sure those roles would perform, and not be overshadowed by other aspects of a class. like eles generally being nerfed to hell with their dmg, becouse they always have access to too much healing or we the reason is.

[buchtas.3269]

Who came up with idea that reducing range on Deadeye "SNIPER" class is a good idea, you have a freakin rifle  you should be able outshoot most enemies in the game. This is not a good idea, I think it would be too much of a middle finger to those few players who play deadeye.

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

11 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Mirage cloak + ambush is a pretty big gimmick, though.  I think mirage is one of the most enjoyable elites, imo.

Sure it is enjoyable, after all, which other class have such broken mechanic to allow free actions on it's evade iframes? Oh right, none.

[mov.1246]

On 11/11/2022 at 7:51 PM, Double Tap said:

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.

Please dont do this, while i agree to nerf mechanist, i think this is way too much.

First you need to adress the AI itself, sometimes it stands far away, you call it back, and nothing happens at all. The AI needs to react faster and more precice.

Second, there are some cases you need to split with your mech. When i tank enforcer and big mech at KO CM, meanwhile i usually send my mech to the rest of my sub to boon them. This patch will punish smart and optimal gameplay (at least in this case).

Third, in a squad scenario where are 6 players are mechanist, where do i know what is mine? Yes, the name, but in the heat of fight while doing my job and looking for mechanics i cant look out which of the 6 green things is mine. In this case i beg you to give us a customization. Let us dye it and scale the height. It is a jade-mech, but jade isnt straight green, jade can have a lot of different colors.

 

other thought, can we finally get a rework to pistols?

 

And the last, thank you for the holo buffs, hope it will be enough to be a solid pick again.

[Avatara.1042]

Please give Elementalists some BREAKBAR UTILITY SKILLS!

[AliamRationem.5172]

4 hours ago, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

Sure it is enjoyable, after all, which other class have such broken mechanic to allow free actions on it's evade iframes? Oh right, none.

They could just give them back the second dodge and take away the ability to dodge while CC'd.  I think that's the biggest problem with mirage in competitive.  It doesn't really matter what you do to them, they can still dodge.

[Gehenna.3625]

5 hours ago, buchtas.3269 said:

Who came up with idea that reducing range on Deadeye "SNIPER" class is a good idea, you have a freakin rifle  you should be able outshoot most enemies in the game. This is not a good idea, I think it would be too much of a middle finger to those few players who play deadeye.

game mechanics > reality. I also question why a Ranger with a longbow can shoot further and do more damage on most skills than a Dragon Hunter, for example. You'd think that you would need more range to be able to shoot dragons but what do I know? It is what it is. But then Deadeyes have access to stealth and can attack from stealth, so I don't really think that you need range 1500 to begin with from a game mechanic pov. 🤷‍♂️

If it was stealth based on hiding behind a wall or inside a shrubbery that could work, but stealth out in the open is completely ridiculous by the same principle. So if you want realism then you have to think about how realistic other things are as well. It's a fantasy game and a lot of things are just done for game mechanics. In the end I feel that long range weapons should all have 1500 range or all have 1200 range, but hey, that's just my opinion.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

8 hours ago, Ascency.3580 said:

what i feel would be a good solution to having multiple specs be able to deal with multiple roles would be to have one tier of elite specs traits be dedicated to selecting specific playstyle. be it adept master or grandmaster choice, would steer the spec into fulfilling a specific role, modyfying slightly what other trait tiers do. for example, selecting 'healing' subspec(?) trait on tempest would add several boons to specific skills, bump healing power a bit, and maybe completely change 1 or two skills to add some more powerful defensive tools while on this spec. it could also make other trait options work slightly differently, for example master stab trait for when overloading, while on 'healing spec' could apply this stab to the party instead of just the ele.

on the other hand, going for 'dmg' trait would for example couse this same stab trait to add superspeed when overloading or whatever, increse the dmg, change them powerful heals into powerful attacks, so the roles would be more pronounced, and at the same time allow for more granular balancing, where changing one overperforming aspect of a class often times makes the whole class useless. like it was with warrior. which was being stomped into the ground for its much needed banners, and then when they took away the banners it became a meme.

they could specify 3 distinct roles for every elite spec. for example mesmer chrono - quick support, alac support, dps. balance each individually by slightly tweaking each subspec(?). dps option could retain its decent solo uptime on quick and alac, and be easy to then balance around. while going support, could give more ammo on defensive mantras, more boons and so on.

huge amount of work i know. but since after such system would be in place, players could see before investing in a class what roles they would be able to fulfil, and be sure those roles would perform, and not be overshadowed by other aspects of a class. like eles generally being nerfed to hell with their dmg, becouse they always have access to too much healing or we the reason is.

That's what they are doing with the firebrand grandmaster traits. They have one trait for Virtue of Courage for boon support and utility, one for Justice and DPS, and one for Resolve and healing/support. It's one of the really interesting changes for the rework that opens up some possibilities. 

[Gaiawolf.8261]

8 hours ago, Ascency.3580 said:

 

Delete double post. 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Gaiawolf.8261
Double post

[Ghos.1326]

9 hours ago, mov.1246 said:

Please dont do this, while i agree to nerf mechanist, i think this is way too much.

First you need to adress the AI itself, sometimes it stands far away, you call it back, and nothing happens at all. The AI needs to react faster and more precice.

Second, there are some cases you need to split with your mech. When i tank enforcer and big mech at KO CM, meanwhile i usually send my mech to the rest of my sub to boon them. This patch will punish smart and optimal gameplay (at least in this case).

Third, in a squad scenario where are 6 players are mechanist, where do i know what is mine? Yes, the name, but in the heat of fight while doing my job and looking for mechanics i cant look out which of the 6 green things is mine. In this case i beg you to give us a customization. Let us dye it and scale the height. It is a jade-mech, but jade isnt straight green, jade can have a lot of different colors.

 

other thought, can we finally get a rework to pistols?

 

And the last, thank you for the holo buffs, hope it will be enough to be a solid pick again.

There is one thing you must understand about anet and its consumers.

1) most are just crybabies that love to spitball popular talking points, while having no clue what the actual issues are.

2) i'm convinced that the devs cater and cave to these crybabies, resulting in the mess that is gw2 "balance" currently.

[Kal Durak.2830]

19 hours ago, Acemos.2856 said:

Instead of increasing the initiative cost for kneeling on Deadeye, can we just keep it at 1? What's the reasoning for increasing the cost? Because kneeling and walking is too OP? I mean, the range already got nerfed on the kneeling skill to match the standing skills.

Does kneeling give you more range?  What does it give you?

[Kal Durak.2830]

5 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

game mechanics > reality. I also question why a Ranger with a longbow can shoot further and do more damage on most skills than a Dragon Hunter, for example. You'd think that you would need more range to be able to shoot dragons but what do I know? It is what it is. But then Deadeyes have access to stealth and can attack from stealth, so I don't really think that you need range 1500 to begin with from a game mechanic pov. 🤷‍♂️

If it was stealth based on hiding behind a wall or inside a shrubbery that could work, but stealth out in the open is completely ridiculous by the same principle. So if you want realism then you have to think about how realistic other things are as well. It's a fantasy game and a lot of things are just done for game mechanics. In the end I feel that long range weapons should all have 1500 range or all have 1200 range, but hey, that's just my opinion.

A bow is good at 50yrds... a rifle 300+ yrds.  I don't think Anet shoots either weapon haha

 

[Ruisenior.6342]

28 minutes ago, Ghos.1326 said:

There is one thing you must understand about anet and its consumers.

1) most are just crybabies that love to spitball popular talking points, while having no clue what the actual issues are.

2) i'm convinced that the devs cater and cave to these crybabies, resulting in the mess that is gw2 "balance" currently.

   Sadly this is the reality.

   Anet is no longer targeting to maintain their game, they just care of more and more and more money so they keep messing with their 'once amazing game' to please that volatile playerbase that dunot even know what they talk about.

  That will hurt the game on the long run for sure.

[Ghos.1326]

Just now, Ruisenior.6342 said:

   Sadly this is the reality.

   Anet is no longer targeting to maintain their game, they just care of more and more and more money so they keep messing with their 'once amazing game' to please that volatile playerbase that dunot even know what they talk about.

  That will hurt the game on the long run for sure.

Lets say a final prayer for our beloved gw2 game. may it rest in peace, and may its memory of blazing a path with amazing combat mechanics burn in our hearts forever more.

amen.

[Xenesis.6389]

52 minutes ago, Ghos.1326 said:

There is one thing you must understand about anet and its consumers.

1) most are just crybabies that love to spitball popular talking points, while having no clue what the actual issues are.

2) i'm convinced that the devs cater and cave to these crybabies, resulting in the mess that is gw2 "balance" currently.

Well in wvw they only cater to the guilds, and certainly don't listen to the wvw forums, sooooooo.. are the guilds the crybabies?

[Ghos.1326]

3 minutes ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

Well in wvw they only cater to the guilds, and certainly don't listen to the wvw forums, sooooooo.. are the guilds the crybabies?

That's quite possible.

[Yureii.4236]

As a thief main im pretty excited about the Deadeye changes, i've been wanting Deaths Judgement to pierce for some time now. kind of sad the Kneel skills are getting their range cut but we'll have to see how it feels.

I think in addition to the dagger buffs, it would be a nice QoL to slightly reduce the time we're Revealed in PvE from 3 seconds to like 2.5 - 2.9 seconds which would allow us to loop 2 Heartseekers -> Auto chain -> Cloak and Dagger -> Backstab pretty reliably with Maleficent 7.

Also kind of sad to see that power Daredevil isn't getting any decent buffs, Staff could use some love, and noone ever takes any of the Physical utility skills aside from Fist Flurry in PvE...

[Ajia.7820]

Is there anything we can do to help Deadeye to keep their range? It just feels wrong to me that arrows can fly further than sniper bullets. This is purely from a aesthetic perspective.

 

As an Elementalist main, I am very excited by the changes coming. I love the idea behind the Catalysts hammer as being a sort of hybrid melee/range. It's a really fun and interesting idea. With the changes coming to Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, and Rocky Loop, I was wondering if there's any chance you might consider the range of these skills to better match their attunement. As an example, every single Hammer Air skill has a range of 600, except Crescent Wind (130).  Fire attunement are 600, except Molten End(240) and flame wheel (130). It's be really interesting to see if there might be a way to extend the range of flame wheel and crescent wind to 600 so you might get the benefit of those two even when you're chasing after your foe.  

 

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

@Cal Cohen.2358 

Sorry for pinging, but I want to at least try to make sure someone looks at this before the 29th. Thanks for being available to have ideas pitched. 

Power-oriented Zerker is still pretty bad for competitive content. Consider that power zerker needs to run melee oriented weapons and make their way close to an opponent who can see them coming to do any effective damage, and increase the damage payoff for doing so. They do not have as much built-in defense as Spellbreaker or as much range as bladesworn, so their damage needs to be intimidating if they can get up close to their targets. 

The resistance addition to Bloody Roar, while nice and necessary, did not justify Berserk's conversion into a rage skill and did not justify the damage nerf (the bug notwithstanding). 

Consider increasing the damage output for bloody roar back to what it was (15%) for PVP, while retaining the resistance. If possible, also consider making Berserk a burst skill again, so it synergizes with Berserker's Power and other burst related traits. It makes little sense for it to be counted as a Rage skill, when it requires 30 adrenaline to access and only synergizes with two condi oriented traits in the berserker trait-lineup (condi berserker was functioning properly and did not need this additional boost). Power berserker has to forgo a lot of sustain to play in competitive, and its damage should reflect that more appropriately. 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Riba.3271]

Some changes I wish to see in the future for WvW :

- You should increase mesmer and reaper AoE pull cooldown in WvW to same as Dragonhunter pull, so 40 seconds.

- You should nerf some boons and buffs by 20%. So prot and resolution should be 25% damage reduction, vigor +40% endurance regen, dwarf elite 40%, superspeed 80% instead of 100%. Alac 20%, quickness 40%. Speed runes 80%. Since there are so many new buffs and boon duration in the game, all potent ones need  to be tuned down.

- Energy sigil should be reduced to 40%, it isn't used in PvE and PvP has their own sigil. Draining sigil should get same treatment as absorption.

- Concentration stat should be reduced from 1% per 15 stat to 1% per 21 stat.  The stat just scales too well and has taken over the gamemode.

[Solstice.5790]

On 11/11/2022 at 7:51 PM, Double Tap said:

 

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.

[...]

 

Perfectly explains the reason for the shared pages on all tomes. I like that approach, since that will force you to sacrifice either damage or healing or boon application should you chose to do the other.

 

And the reason for the increased page cost, which reduces your damage output, healing output and boon support individually and in total is... what?

Edited November 19, 2022 by Solstice.5790

[Gaiawolf.8261]

6 hours ago, DtenCfour.3567 said:

A bow is good at 50yrds... a rifle 300+ yrds.  I don't think Anet shoots either weapon haha

 

To be fair an expert longbowman can hit a target at over 200 yards. Then again, a good rifle marksman.... over 2 miles. 😅

1 hour ago, Solstice.5790 said:

 

Perfectly explains the reason for the shared pages on all tomes. I like that approach, since that will force you to sacrifice either damage or healing or boon application should you chose to do the other.

 

And the reason for the increased page cost, which reduces your damage output, healing output and boon support individually and in total is... what?

Pretty much sums up many players' skepticism for the rework. We all expected the shared resource from the image, and the changes to the grandmaster traits look interesting too, with some good possibilities. No longer only 1 BIS trait! 

But, all math seems to indicate Tome 1 skill usage will be considerably lessened, even when used fully and leaving zero pages left for the other tomes. It's not like cFBs or qFBs were anywhere near the top of the BMs either. Tome of Justice used to yield 5 tome skills per 30 seconds. Now with only one page per 8 seconds and #4 and #5 costing 2 pages, we only get to use our cool Tome skills and see those beautiful spell animations maybe 2-3 times per 32s. They even got rid of the nice tome opening animations. Quickfire or the buff to Aftermath might help DPS some, depending on the game mode and situation, but that's just a further example of balance treading too much on art, lore, and theme.

Tome of Resolve actually looks okay if you give up all uses of other tomes. Okay, fine. Tome of Courage users look like they will have it rough. Again, this is when focusing totally on one tome. Any cross-Tome action is going to be very touchy if it's even possible at all, which might be okay. My biggest fear is Tome 1 usage.

Edited November 19, 2022 by Gaiawolf.8261

[Drag You Down.2615]

On 11/17/2022 at 5:31 PM, Batalix.2873 said:

A fair number of players don't care about dealing damage, so it kind of sucks that there are so few especs that are really designed around healing and tanking. In trying to avoid the holy Trinity, GW2 just leaned full-on into "everything DPS".

That's me!!!!! TBH, I never thought I will have to play DPS one day, because supports cannot do anything meaningful in current patch. (Maybe a boon machine?) Everyone's either alive or dead (especially in strike mission or raid that kind of pve), no space for healing and shielding. Everyone only cares about boons that can provide more damage, and defense is totally a joke.

 

All you need to do is just using all your skills as quick as possible, throw them on enemy's face. Healing? No one cares, kill all the enemy is the best defense. And THAT IS SUPER BORING!!!

 

Plz, let the others show their value, not only offensive boons, but some defensive boons like protection, regeneration, resolution, and many great non-damaging conditions, and healing, shielding, and other utilities. It looks pretty much like a killing fest for now.