November 29 Balance Update Preview

[Sadistic.1572]

The reaper buff looks ok but I don't think it's gonna be enough to make people wanna play it over basically any other power class. 

[Agrios.1957]

Why Deadeye skills' range were reduced? It's counterintuitive to the class' theme imho.

[FreshF.5793]

Dont forget the Not so great stealth traits in pve:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/103795-specter-feedback-thread/?do=findComment&comment=1696020

[Antina.5973]

The cooldowns and more than one page costs on FB tomes are too long, also super unintuitive. 8 seconds per page is also a long time, compared to initiative on thief.

[FreshF.5793]

Give specter shroud 5 a purple circle:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/103795-specter-feedback-thread/?do=findComment&comment=1699650

[Durzo.8325]

Harbinger, fuller bugs, not even meantioned...

[AliamRationem.5172]

Really? That's it for weaver? No sword DPS buffs in PvE?  I thought this was supposed to be a PvE patch?

[FreshF.5793]

Also this ele-trait in pve... 2 Seconds of 1 Stab:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/119412-august-23-balance-update-preview/?do=findComment&comment=1733239

[Will.9785]

The increased cooldown of tome skills, in some cases doubling them, seems a bit heavy handed given that the pages are now shared.

You basically gutted the profession.

Time to roll a Mechanist, I guess.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Will.9785

[Sly Mutha.3195]

Why do you want to turn Firebrand into a 1 finger casino puncher game?   Shameful.  

[FreshF.5793]

Also catalyst-changes that should be looked at:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/119412-august-23-balance-update-preview/?do=findComment&comment=1736041

[Potato Slayer.3107]

This balance patch strives to shake up the meta and from first glance looks like a promising move in balance direction. Firebrand mechanic seems to be the real inspiration to this update, but the little amount of influential changes  thus far between widespread balance patches leaves much to be desired for other professions. 

[Poki.8235]

3 hours ago, Double Tap said:

Deadeye

 

• Skirmisher's Shot: Reduced range from 1,500 to 1,200.
• Three Round Burst: Reduced range from 1,500 to 1,200.
• Death's Judgement: This skill now pierces foes not targeted by Deadeye's Mark. Damage dealt to unmarked enemies is reduced. Players can now move while using this skill. Reduced range from 1,500 to 1,200.

 

Can you please explain this? I do not understand this change at all.

Skirmisher's Shot already has 1200 range, not 1500. Did you mean Spotter's Shot?

The Kneel Autoattack is still 1500 range, but the other skills (including stealth attack) are 1200 on a class can't can't move freely? This is going to feel absolutely terrible.

Also, I do not understand how a spec with the fantasy of SNIPER doesn't have the longest range in the game... I'm completely baffled by this.

[Xenesis.6389]

3 hours ago, Double Tap said:

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

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

Oh look second patch in a row I have to state this.

If you feel there needs to be an investigation into boon applications and boon removal in wvw, the system already overwhelmingly favors boon spamming, so in other words you think there might be a balance problem there, maybe with boon removals.... so why are you STILL REMOVING boon removals in the meantime? Should you not stop, do your overall assessment, then make changes? instead of continuing with changes you may have to change yet again?

At this point I get the feeling anet wants basically no boon removals in the game, so I don't know why bother stating doing an future assessment on that balance, when it's obvious what the goal is with all the constant nerfs to boon removals. Absolutely frustrating and disappointing that anet only wants to cater to the elite boon zergs and not the overall health of combat in wvw.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Xenesis.6389

[Venport.3925]

2 minutes ago, FreshF.5793 said:

Also catalyst-changes that should be looked at:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/119412-august-23-balance-update-preview/?do=findComment&comment=1736041

Dude make one post

[FreshF.5793]

Another thing regarding Specter, about well of Bounty Nerv:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/121353-october-4-balance-update-preview/?do=findComment&comment=1758028

[krytical.3697]

I'm sorry, you're nerfing Deadeye range, but want to add the ability to move while kneeling? Someone PLEASE make it make sense. 

[Doggie.3184]

The Mech range thing sounds kinda dumb if it doesn't include a toggle that lets me tell it to stay near me, especially when it's in gun mode. You'll basically be turning the Player into the pet and the Jade Mech into the owner.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[Will.9785]

I just noticed that not only are the tome skills cooldowns doubled... some of them now consume multiple pages.  Really ANET?  What are you even doing?  Firebrand was one of the best designed specs in the game and you've gone and ruined it.... for so called "balance".  You should be designing more specs like it.

All you are doing is making more mechanists.  If I can't play a class makes me think and that can adapt to a lot of situations then I'll just play one that lets me faceroll the content and not have to think at all.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Will.9785

[okeydoke.2765]

Not a fan of the Elementalist scepter water changes. Why change Shatterstone to not have vulnerability ? It’s a bit awkward there’s water Piercing Shards trait that’s effects vulnerability but now no scepter water ability that applies vulnerability? Also the damage is reduced in PvP/WvW? Also please keep the water trident healing others 

[Nimrook.6480]

I only play warrior because that is the profession that I identify with and used to enjoy the most. I have no interest in any other professions. I've been waiting for Anet to fix warrior for years so I occasionally check for updates to see if warrior is worth playing again. Hopefully one day i'll reinstall the game but sadly... it is not this day. 

[Sallyno.8197]

3 hours ago, Double Tap said:

Hopefully someone who's super smart creates a really nice Condi or Pwr Zerker build that's will actually do some good in raids. It's not all perfect, but it is a step in the right direction imo.
(Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a baby within the build making community)

[Brasides.9360]

53 minutes ago, soulknight.9620 said:

Anet is this for real? You buff a weapon on ele that is currently doing the most damage (hi scepter) and not buffing a melee clunky-fested poking stick that is sword? Like really? This is beyond even for me. Every ele on the forum was screaming 24/7 that sword is underperforming by a lot atm. Literary everyone. 

 

37 minutes ago, zakkles.4158 said:

PVE elementalist:

 

❌ staff buffs

❌ sword buffs

❌ core util buffs

❌ conjure rework

❌ summons persist after mounting

❌ pulse alac on overload

 

✔️ scepter 3 heal removed

 

27 minutes ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

So basically for ele:

 

small buff for scepter in pvp, probably still not viable

heal tempest got nerfed pretty hard in PvE (again!), removal of water trident heal is MASSIVE.

heal temp for wvw got a decent boost on elemental bastion

no changes for power staff/power sword weaver

Cata got both buffed, but mostly for the elite. empowered empowerment still requires 10 stacks and no longer is affected by aurashare. 

Quick cata probably is somewhat viable for cata pros

 

still: 

no changes on alac gain on tempest

no change in empowered empowerment

no damage increase in Pdps builds

and basically almost all the crap the ele community has been asking about has been completely ignored

 

But hey, we got our evasive arcana fixed so i guess evrything is suddenly all right again lol

 

 

 

 

24 minutes ago, soulknight.9620 said:

Where did you get that 1.5k boost? Shearing edge is not used in any rotation. The other two skills are boosted in pvp only. 

 

11 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Really? That's it for weaver? No sword DPS buffs in PvE?  I thought this was supposed to be a PvE patch?

Nice to know I'm not alone here. There was no mechanical reason to play sword weaver. There is still no reason to play sword weaver (except that it is fun). The kicked dog remains a kicked dog.

Why have an elite spec weapon when there is basically no reason to choose it over the scepter? Scepter has higher damage and more range - currently the only reason to play a sword is if you want to challenge yourself to survive on the least survivable PvE spec.

[Griifen.2473]

Summary: 
Guardian 
DH really good changes, will 100% be seen a lot more in raids and fractals 
Firebrand, changes are OP, it needs to get nerfed before release 
Willbender, no changes that actually target what makes the class terrible, like F1 up time and attacks per second to trigger it. No idea how they increased duration for DH f1 up time but didn't change willbender F1 up time at all. 

 

Revenant 
Good changes to power herald 
No changes to heal herald, still won't be seen because it has no alacdps that synergises with it 
Good changes to renegade dps, definitely got buffed. 
Not sure about vindicator changes, doesn't seem to be enough for it to become popular over night. 

 

Warrior 
Hammer d/d spellbreaker gets a nice buff from this 
No changes to heal warrior, still completely useless and unviable in any conceivable way. 

 

Engineer 
Holo got really nice changes, was really needed, will see it come back 
Mech got nerfed with this again, it's really going to lose popularity after these last 2 major nerfs. 
Scrapper, no real changes but it's in a pretty good spot right now so not too shabby. 
Heal mech didn't get touched, still very strong. 
Alac dps mech is on the radar for nerfs so will keep an eye on that. 

 

Thief 
Insane changes for deadeye, wow it really needed that mobility! 
Daredevil completely missed, dead class lol. Still feels terrible to play because of animation lock and no defense when you use all dodges. 
Spectre finally gets shroud compensation, dam it really needed it. Also good buffs to power damage so it's damge will be doing up a bit. 
Support spectre is still absolute trash because you can't save wells to be reactive for boons or healing. 

 

Ranger 
No changes to soul beast. It's doing quite well in pve right now with very good damage. Condi still struggles because of the requirement to flank in order to do any damage. 
No changes to druid outside of WvW. It's pretty decent right now in pve with the stability it got recently.

Untamed got buffed lol. The rotation won't change at all so it'll still be very difficult to pull off, but wow it's definitely going to go above 42k dps that its current dominating with. 

 

Mesmer 
Buffs to power chrono. No idea who's going to take a 50/50 melee chrono over fully ranged power virtuoso, so these changes were (okay but will you see chrono which has a much more complex rotation over super simple virtuoso - no)
Alac mirage got a really nice buff, wow. Almost double duration on alac which is desperately needed and this will definitely make it more viable because it can take more viper gear and can even dip into inspiration without as much dps loss because more viper gear 
Virtuoso completely unchanged lol. One of the strongest pve professions in the entire game and wasn't nerfed in the slightest. Very questionable 

 

Necromancer 
Reaper changes are pathetic once again. Sigh, Anet is still dumb as all hell when buffing reaper. Gravedigger is still completely unchanged so once you get to 50% your dps won't see any increase which is a hallmark of dps reaper. Way to go Anet. Buffing auto attacks on one of the only elite specs THAT DOES NOT AUTO ATTACK. Geesh. 
Scourge wasn't touched in pve at all. It's still a carry spec when combined with plaguedoctors but it's still going to be a bottom elite spec in the current pool of choices. 
Not one single change to harbinger, so it'll still be nearly non-existent because it loses so much health in fights which NO ONE likes playing with, regardless of the dps it can do at ranged. 

 

Elementalist 
No changes to tempest, regardless of dps, alacdps, or heal. Anet really just couldn't care less about how poorly it's performing because of how the alac works and how unreliable it is because of the single long duration application that just doesn't work in unorganized pug groups. You still won't see it being played. 
Really good buffs to catalyst, you'll 100% see quickness dps catalyst again, so rejoice ele players!

Condi scepter Weaver is going to be so strong now, it got some huge buffs! It's currently doing 39k dps as condi dps and this patch is going to push it well cover 40k dps, fully ranged damage. Even the fire only scepter catalyst and fire only tempest low intensity builds will see small buffs because of scepter buffs. 
Power burst scepter Weaver will 100% see a comeback in pvp and WvW. Gonna need to be watch out for these 1 second one shots from weavers bexusee they will be returning!

[Flapjackson.1596]

I hope the additional changes not listed include more general changes to boon application. The utility spam many builds do to apply boons is not fun. Looking at these changes I don’t see anything that makes Herald or Tempest more enjoyable to play. I understand that you want to be iterative in how you change builds, but the QoL of the majority of the boon builds in the game should not wait on you fixing FB and mech first.