Big balance updates like Nov 29th are fantastic

[Esquilax.3491]

There's a common trend on the internet where people tend to only add their feedback when they are disagreeing with something.

 

For this reason, I felt like I wanted to chime in with my worthless 2c as a veteran player, and say that big balance patches like this are one of my favourite things about playing any online game, whether it was Warcraft 3 back in the day, Diablo, WoW or GW2. It breathes fresh life into the meta game and provides us with new ways to have fun interacting with and experiencing all the content the game has to offer.

 

Gw2 has a fairly poor track record of providing balance updates like this, for example some skills or  classes can be meme tier for years at a time. I don't know if it's because the devs are afraid of community backlash or something, so that's why I want to speak up by saying I love this update. I applaud the new direction and communication and hope to see more of this type of patch through out next year and hopefully into the future.

 

So thank you to Cal and Roy and the rest of the team for loving the game as much as we do and striving to keep it fresh and fun for us.

[Biziut.3594]

Yeah... 300 less range on DE, so many ways to expirience new stuff, so much fun. I think I just might get a cold from all that fresh air.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Biziut.3594

[Leo G.4501]

My 2c as a casual who played since a month after launch and had taken lots of breaks from the game for various reasons (some breaks being a couple of months, others being over a year):

 

It's rather annoying coming back to the game and stuff you did play or like are fundamentally altered or completely removed. Sometimes it's not too bad, other times it's actually positive. If I came back to the game to play my Deadeye to find out I can slow walk instead of kneel and my ranged was nerfed while kneeling, I'd probably just shelve DE and play core thief or just something else.

 

Coming back to my FB with only 6 pages shared by all my books...ngl, I knew that kitten shouldn't have been like that lol. I specifically jumped on playing FB at launch of PoF because I felt that 3 sets of extra weapon swaps would get nerfed into the ground and I wanted to have fun with it. Didn't think it would take the release of a whole new expansion for that to change tho.

 

I wouldn't say it's a positive that these kinds of changes flow down every now and then but it does influence what I end up playing.

[captrowdy.9561]

Yes something positive. One of the reasons I left ESO was the meta completely changed every patch. Actually it wasn’t even the meta the way your class played changed pretty significantly. 

[ArjukKagrim.6049]

I totally agreed,  big balance changes keep games fresh. They are content for many players like new maps for other players. For those WHO dont believe this: People enjoy League and dota over years only because there are regular big balance Updates.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Totally disagree, rather have smaller more frequent update. Current balance creates a winner and loser system that ends up taking years to correct. It has been 6 months since reaper and dh were dumpstered and it appears they will have to wait another 3 months. 

Compare that to the years post pof that mirage was beyond broken.

[Ruisenior.6342]

On 11/16/2022 at 7:52 PM, Leo G.4501 said:

My 2c as a casual who played since a month after launch and had taken lots of breaks from the game for various reasons (some breaks being a couple of months, others being over a year):

 

It's rather annoying coming back to the game and stuff you did play or like are fundamentally altered or completely removed. Sometimes it's not too bad, other times it's actually positive. If I came back to the game to play my Deadeye to find out I can slow walk instead of kneel and my ranged was nerfed while kneeling, I'd probably just shelve DE and play core thief or just something else.

 

Coming back to my FB with only 6 pages shared by all my books...ngl, I knew that kitten shouldn't have been like that lol. I specifically jumped on playing FB at launch of PoF because I felt that 3 sets of extra weapon swaps would get nerfed into the ground and I wanted to have fun with it. Didn't think it would take the release of a whole new expansion for that to change tho.

 

I wouldn't say it's a positive that these kinds of changes flow down every now and then but it does influence what I end up playing.

   Same here, in my case i used to play ranger with greatsword and all my utility skillbar filled with spirits. Then sudenly they removed the evasion every 3rd auto chain and spirits will no longer follow you, and since those and other changes on my main specs i completly lost interest on the game and i just play for short periods of time.

   Adding all the chaos this game has been runing on 2022 im almost done with it.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

That is something weird I noticed.  This balance patch is mostly buffs to most things.  I don't always agree with the mechanical changes, particularly with Deadeye, but this patch is doing a lot of good things.  It's increasing the offensive power of water attunement for ele, it's buffing Catalyst while making it less chaotic and unreliable, it is reigning Firebrand in finally (the exact numbers can be adjusted later), and Holosmith utilities are finally getting boosted effects in ECSU builds.  

[the krytan assassin.9235]

The added frequency of big balance patches is definitely an improvement. Though the quality of the changes aren't that great honestly. 

They tend to focus way to much on a single profession/traitline/weapon and give it a complete overhaul. I'd much rather see some basic damage coefficients/cd on skills get changed to balance all especs. Its relatively easy to fix and can fix almost any problem ingame. 

Ofcourse some more intricate weapon/trait/Espec changes are required from time to time, but plz just focus on balancing the current state of the especs first. You can always downtune/buff a spec again after changing some of the more fundamental mechanics. There are multiple especs that have been waiting for years now to become relevant again. Just give them some love already (PvE patch from 23rd August was decent, but definitely need more of those!)

[Bunny.9834]

7 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

The added frequency of big balance patches is definitely an improvement. Though the quality of the changes aren't that great honestly. 

 

This. 

Where’s the actual update on Acrobatics?

Cantrips are still trash. 

Meteor Shower gutted. 

Alac Tempest still lame cause they refuse to change the way they apply alacrity.

 

[X Anthony A.8409]

Yeah Your right with meme tier just look at vindicator its nothing but meme tier at this point

[Leo G.4501]

6 hours ago, X Anthony A.8409 said:

Yeah Your right with meme tier just look at vindicator its nothing but meme tier at this point

I took a break back when they were public beta testing the elites and only got the chance to mess around with Virtuous and Vindicator, back when it only had one dodge. Since then, I've been on break only to come back somewhat recently to find they have 2 dodges. What was the goal or purpose for that change?

[Raizel.8175]

I'd rather take small changes instead of big changes like the changes to Firebrand tomes which have the potential to kill off said specialization. Sadly, Arena Net has a quite disastrous track record with disfunctional to downright horrible balancing. The community itself is also rather slow with accepting changes in general. It took ages after making the Firebrand/Renegade combination overpowered until people finally used them in fractals - just to name one prominent example.