February 14 Balance Update Preview

[SleepyBat.9034]

1 minute ago, InfamousBrad.5879 said:

Because if Signet of Shadows loses stealth on kill, I'm finally once and for all done with my Thief characters.

Probably in addition to the changes, otherwise no one would ever take Signets of Power.

[bluberblasen.9684]

LOL are you playing your own game?

Thieves buffs in wvw?! Are you really that blind.?

They can outplay everything and you buff them...

WTF

[SleepyBat.9034]

Just now, bluberblasen.9684 said:

LOL are you playing your own game?

Thieves buffs in wvw?! Are you really that blind.?

They can outplay everything and you buff them...

WTF

Calm down, they're very small and Daredevil steal isn't unblockable anymore so it's basically a nerf.

[Kodama.6453]

Engineer

Pistol

It's great that pistol is finally getting some of it's clunk removed with the reduction of aftercast for auto and cast time for PDV.
But these changes are not enough.

There is no reason why the auto attack shouldn't apply the bleed on all targets hit. What even is the purpose of it just applying to the main target and having the ridiculously low power damage portion apply in AoE? If the bleed duration needs to get nerfed for this, so be it, but please make the bleed AoE.

Also piercing added to PDV would be great. Habringer pistol is allowed to pierce, while dealing more damage, I don't see why engineer can't have that.

Also it would be great if you could find a place to add an explosion tag to pistol somewhere.

Utility Goggles

You said during the stream that you just give it a buff and hope to see it taken... at least for PvE, you are touching the wrong thing here.

The big problem of Utility Goggles in PvE is that it comes with an useless toolbelt skill. It applies revealed and nothing else. But 99% of enemies in PvE don't use stealth, so the skill literally reads "1/2 cast time, do nothing".

Please add something to Detection Pulse to actually make the skill worth casting in PvE. You could make it apply fury to all allies in range for 6 seconds. Or make it apply 10 stacks of vulnerability on enemies. Just something to not make it a dead skill on the bar.

Turrets

It is really disheartening that over all these years, you never attempted to rework turrets in the slightest. They are never mentioned to be on your mind anywhere. While they get fully neglected, you are reworking other skill sets several times. Please, just give us a sign that you are aware that they need help. That we will get a rework in the future.

Right now, it feels like you are trying to make the playerbase forget that turrets exist in the game. Never mentioned, never anything done with them, nothing. Just one little bug fix you made to ensure that healing turret overcharge always fires before detonation.... so the only change you make to them for years is one to ensure that the time people are exposed to their existence is at the total minimum. Please, talk to us.

[SleepyBat.9034]

6 minutes ago, lmao.7816 said:

These are the Deadeye changes nobody asked for tbh, at this point the only useful & worth DE skill to  keep is "Mercy" yet i'm afraid it will be next to be doomed. Only purpose for "Shadow Meld" nowdays was to remove revealed not to get one shoted by a ranger for example. It's such a shame since DE will never compare to other specs at PvE and now it's also getting vanished from PvP & WvW, you know it's tiring seeing ppl trying out DE's and having such a bad impression on a meta full of shields, reflectives, invulnerability, blah blah. There are still some good DE's around, not me for sure but soon they might find out their roaming spec will soon end up on the same state as chronomancer. It's either core thief or quit PvP modes 😕 cause certainly DE will no longer be a safe option with so much reveal jeje for that u should have simply deleted stealth from the equation dude. Awful change in my opinion, hope other folks got it better with their specs 🙂

Yes hello @Lithril Ashwalker.6230

We know you don't like the deadeye changes, no need for you to get on your alt. Just be glad it's not as bad as Stealth Gyro.

Edited February 3, 2023 by SleepyBat.9034

[Tharan.9085]

45 minutes ago, Khyan.7039 said:

 Sword power weaver isnt in a great spot since a while. weaver uses dagger for the power build in PvE. Here are sword buffs which was needed. There’s an hybrid build with sword that is viable but nowhere meta right now. It will help it a bit to be on par with dagger, and I’m not even sure it will be better anyway, and tbh it’s not that simple to play so you will barely see any weaver. Not worth the effort when others classes can do the same for less obnoxious rotation (which isn’t a bad thing, some players love difficult rotation).

i wish they added more buff to sword for condi builds tho.

Sword power weaver is higher than dagger power weaver and sits at 40k rn.

36 minutes ago, Nukk.3492 said:

I think I'm in the 1% of players who play warrior in PvP / WvW.

There have been very few players playing this class (core, SB, Zerk, BSW) in competitive modes for what feels like forever. For a VERY good reason.

Well, no drama here but my well of goodwill has run dry. I may pop my head in on the next "balance" patch in say 3 to 4 months?

 

Warrior is one of the most played and strongest classes in PvP rn.

17 minutes ago, Omg Im Target.3095 said:

 

That was just a guess since the number of Weave Self's  increased strike damage  wasn't given. Read the notes again but slowly this time. Lets assume its as high as the condition damage number which is 20% then Im probably right.

No you are absolutely not, you seem to forget that Weave Self by far isnt permanent and only the air auto chain and fire/fire 3 are used in the current rotation.

[ilabsentuser.8726]

I do like some of the changes to be honest. Don't like others, but that is always going to happen. I do have one single thing going in for the warrior. We are weapons master, we are solely supposed to be good at this. We don't have flashy things, overpowered tools, etc. I know everyone knows what I mean. We have weapons and physical prowess if you like, we are lagging behind hard on the support department in comparison with many other classes etc. So my take is this, do not restrain bladesworn on one weapon only (by not being able to swap) I mean, lots of classes have similar things, attunements, engi kits, firebrand tomes, revenant legends switching your utilities, etc. How so that the weapon masters are only able to actually use one weapon and a "bundle"? If you ask me, bladesworn should have added our "backup backup weapon" like a real weapon master, that could be unique, having 3 "weapons" sort of. We drop a lot for it, yes it hits hard. But standing still, relatively low functionality (besides damage), versatility is low, supporting is low, lose 2 sigils etc. I love the changes, but they are not quite there yet... The only thing high with it is damage. I really think we shouldn't lose the secondary weapon, or at least, make us able to, with the only one weapon we do have be able to use its burst skill, our essentially "core" mechanic, gone, for a worse implementation. Seriously, not a rant. This should be really double checked...

Edited February 3, 2023 by ilabsentuser.8726
Typos and more legibility

[Pansoul.9436]

Some good Bladesworn changes, but why stop there?

 

Dragonscale Defense is still gain Protection while having 15 seconds CD on competitive mode. It can at least make it back to 8 seconds CD.

 

Tactical Reload is 60 seconds CD on competitive mode while only reload Bladesworn skills. Why not reduce it to say, 50 or 40 seconds?

 

Bladesworn pistols is underperforming on competitive and bladesworn skills is either too long of a CD compare to other warriors skills that do the same; see Flow Stabilizer and "For Great Justice!"

 

And since Daredevil more or less buffed with removal of swipe, why not do the same for Specter? Revert the total shadow force, or add damage reduction for competitive mode?

Edit: Or better yet, since Daredevil is pretty much has no drawbacks, remove the Specter reduced initiative too

Edited February 4, 2023 by Pansoul.9436

[Matoro.9708]

Holy cow. They actually changed engi pistol. I am stunned.

My offer still stands, I will donate $1000 to Anet if they update turrets as well. Is it possible? Maybe.

[Littlekenny.4196]

I don't think it was considered that making roll for initiative give 4 initiative instead of 6 stops the combo of vault->vault->weapon swap(hydromancy)+>RFI->steal->dodge->vault->vault being able to use it's last vault without having to wait for initiative regen, and having that pause allows the enemy supports to get up back up when the purpose of that 5th vault is to put overwhelming pressure down.

The condi cleanse on trickster didn't really serve any benefit so that's now useless and I guess bountiful Thief has no competition.

[Omg Im Target.3095]

Quote

No you are absolutely not, you seem to forget that Weave Self by far isnt permanent and only the air auto chain and fire/fire 3 are used in the current rotation.

 

You dont say Sherlock. It's not like Weave Self is the only thing that got buffed. Given the encounters it could be even beyond 20% overall damage depending how burst heavy a boss is (hello fractals). Also there isnt just one Power Weaver build. There is also one which has earth in its rotation and does just as much damage.

 

[Heibi.4251]

Thief port ability in WvW needed to be reduced to only the thief.  It is far too unbalanced in a competitive environment. The current port can't be seen and can bring in 5. Truly needs a nerf.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Heibi.4251

[Lightning.5740]

If Firebrands are able to get their tome refreshed upon respawning, why Catalyst can not have their energy refilled upon respawning??

[Tharan.9085]

12 minutes ago, Omg Im Target.3095 said:

 

You dont say Sherlock. It's not like Weave Self is the only thing that got buffed. Given the encounters it could be even beyond 20% overall damage depending how burst heavy a boss is (hello fractals). Also there isnt just one Power Weaver build. There is also one which has earth in its rotation and does just as much damage.

 

The other things that got buffed dont have any effect on power weaver since only the auto chain of air and fire/fire 3 is used, can you not read? Earth didnt get changed at all

[Nero.7369]

My feedback as Mesmer, Guard and Engi Main.

Mantras

Mantra changes imo absolutely unnecessary. Those long cast time was always a pain and one ended up not using the last charge. Guess we are back to it then. At least you removed the really annoying precast on each map change.
But yea Mesmer Mantras are kinda boring.

Engineer Pistol

About Time! Pistol 5 could also still need some love.

Guard Hammer

Nice to see some changes here, lets see how it plays out. But I guess it needs more to is specially Banish could be an AoE, and Zalots Embrace a bit wider. Also the animation speed should be faster.

Willbender Virtues

Awesome, might be really good for alac willbender specially as condi.

Dragon Hunter Changes

Nice to see some more love there. CD Reduction on dmging traps is missing. Not mandatory on procession of blades, but for test of faith and dragons maw would be nice.

Scrapper Gyros

Make Sneak Gyro great again, just a joke compared to mass invis. Even comared to Throw Elexier S.

Holo PvE DPS Options

I guess you missed this option 😛 It got some love last time, but the heat management and risk should still be more rewarded imo.

Heal Chrono

Another part you missed out to push it.

Heal Alac Tempest

Nice to see some pushes here, always loved those in my group

Edited February 8, 2023 by Nero.7369

[Yasai.3549]

Not the Reaper Shout buffs I was expecting but at least they're doing something with it.

 

Also really nice to have reduced cooldowns without forcing it onto a trait, but doesn't that make the trait really weak now? Any plans to just rework the thing eventually?

[Crystal Black.8190]

Can Mesmers get the firebrand mantras with s stronger effect on final charge and auto-preperation out of combat?

For Firebrand you have a  instant potentially stronger effect in exchange to preparing them again.
Mesmers on the other hand have a effect after a huge cast time, that isnt even accessible until all charges are consumed. Its also an annoyance to manually prepare mantras. No one used mesmer mantras because of their preperation effect. What will most likely happen is that you will keep sitting at one charge and wait for the second charge. I dont see the mesmer mantras in a space that would encourage you to use up all charges.

[DeceiverX.8361]

22 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Since then, we've become more open to functional differences across game modes,

This really, really needs to stop.

People opting to step into a new game mode should not have to completely relearn skills they already use.  People should not have to sit in a PvP lobby attacking golems to get their intro-level practicing, and constantly bounce back and forth between function if they want to unlocks skins or play the story while working on their baseline-level mechanics to eventually take into the PvP modes.

Coefficient/proc effect splits are bad enough as it is and make the move into WvW brutal where people's gear can effectively be invalidated by changing screens.  Tell a new player to regear for WvW because the concept they came up with while looking at their character in mainland Tyria is completely and fundamentally conceptually and numerically different, and they'll just... leave and not come back.

This is getting so tiring.

[Junkpile.7439]

Killed thief in WvW while playing core mesmer couple days ago and thief get insta buff and mantra of pain get nerf. Anet probably got some alarm that thief lost core mesmer. 🤦‍♂️

Edited February 3, 2023 by Junkpile.7439

[Doctor Hide.6345]

So, I am liking the power weaver buffs since I love the sword gameplay of it, but I don't know if the changes to deadeye rifle will ever be enough to make it good. The nature of the fights are more or less mobility needed, and even with the deadeye changes from last time I don't think it will be enough because the problem is not damage. It is the rifle roots you in place too much.

[Xanfell.3475]

Why remove ele cantrip CD trait but didn't lower cantrip skills CD like all other professions weapon skills and utility? 

Like survival skills of rangers for example. 

[vice.2697]

Over buff ele, followed by over nerfing ele... Sigh.

[fungusjungus.4890]

these are great thank you i love you

[Shade.1234]

I'm liking the buffs to Weaver and the Reaper shout skills look like they may finally find a home in certain builds. I know not everything here is perfect and there's still much work to be done, but as far as I'm concerned (as a filthy casual player) most of these appear to be good changes.

[Evoxx.2143]

I'm happy for the other classes but man...all these Necro changes the past few patches are just not it. Other classes get lots of cool kitten while Necro gets new Axe buffs in form of shout buffs every patch and that's basically it.
 

My PvE pleb perspective:
 

Reaper went from being decent/mediocre -> borderline trolling (unique buff removal patch) -> decent/mediocre (but with staff and better shouts! Tbf it's more fun now)
 

Scourge is still in that weird role where it doesn't know wtf it is. It very much feels like a heal spec being stuck as dps spec. The dps build is too versitile for it's own good, the heal build is too unhealthy/just carries entire groups of people who don't have dodge binded but provides nothing outside of that.
 

Harbinger has it's problems with typical uninteresting EoD trait choices and just being a glass cannon condi quick source without any utility access. Yeah the condi Build has more damage and is more fun to play than scourge, but it still often gets outclassed by it's counterpart by just having safer damage, more utility and just simply being more versitile. Harbinger also has some lifeforce issues ond phasing/invuln bosses which is fine I guess but just feels bad.
 

I like what they're doing, I'll definitly try out the things other classes got again, prolly never touching my fb tho lol. At least we're not alone with being kinda left out, thieves don't really get anything in these too lol