February 14 Balance Update Preview

[Drag You Down.2615]

Plz, fix the coefficient of Well of Blood.

[Jokuc.3478]

I've heard a few people voice concerns about the final charge of the mantras that they don't like it because it's easy to hit by mistake (I don't share this opinion). But I thought of a solution that might work and thought I'd share it, would be neat to hear what you folks  think:

So for the final charge of each FB mantra, put one of those hold-release mechanics on only the final charge that you see in story/event instances on siege weapons and stuff, so that you would need to hold down the button for say 0.5s for it to be used up, and if you just pressed it once by mistake it wouldn't be consumed and end with a very sad qfb.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Jokuc.3478

[Nighthawk.2401]

On 2/2/2023 at 7:19 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Shadow Meld: This skill no longer removes revealed in PvP and WvW.

The paragraph of commentary about the thief changes didn't mention anything about this, I would've liked to hear the reasoning. Everything else was a buff, and the commentary was entirely about positive changes.

I personally feel that the community is too quick to blame "stealth" as this ominous boogey-man source of all problems regarding medium armor classes, especially thief, and ESPECIALLY deadeye, regardless of whether or not it was warranted. Just pointing out that a class has access to a unique mechanic does not automatically mean that class is unfair or that the mechanic is problematic. It's as rediculous as insinuating that guardian is unfair "because it has AEGIS", or "necro is unfair because it has *gasp* boon-corrupt!". People complain about stealth because it's the obvious unique thing that's easiest to see and point to, not because it's genuinely problematic.

Deadeye is very reliant on stealth as it's only defense, it has no aegis, not a single block, and very few options for any evasion - all of which have rather brief durations and come with the opportunity cost of reducing your ability to trade back afterwards (ie: using initiative defensively means you have less ability to dps afterwards, where as other classes can use defensive abilities without it affecting their following dps rotation/combo)

The insane burst from something like a sic'em ranger is already high enough to threaten to 1-combo deadeyes, even if they meld during the rapid fire, the entry into stealth doesn't cancel rapid fire, as it auto-targets every shot during stealth still. It's possible to double-dodge and still get killed in stealth to the standard sic'em combo. Being revealed by this now too will very much just be a "guess I get to choose: die, or back out to 2k+ range and do nothing for now"

I'm fearful that removing stealth as a reliable defense will only further encourage deadeyes using mobility to back out of fights completely and break combat / run away / reset. My talks with players who roam have consistently indicated that deadeye's propensity to retreat and reset/escape and constantly break combat is much more frustrating as a defense mechanism than being able to stealth.

I also really feel that this change is just overall unnecessary. The interaction of "the" stealth spec being the only spec in the game to have an optional answer for revealed-status just made sense, and felt like it was a rather well made and skill-expressive way to handle it, it wasn't easy to reliably respond quickly if you didn't predict what was coming. And it felt satisfying to get value out of even if it was rare.

At the very least, if this interaction is being removed, it'd be nice to see meld get some other buff in terms of charges or cooldown or duration, or extra functionality to compensate, because it was already one of the weakest options when it came to fully-committed 1v1s. Dagger storm has been the better option for deadeye for a long time, as it deals with most of the revealing-specs better (ie: unlike meld, using Storm can actually stop you from taking damage from sic'em soulbeast LB-2), and the evade frames were more valuable into melee classes which can often threaten to outright burst you through stealth by just continuing their combo even if you stealth during it.

The only reason I personally took meld was because in roaming WvW it was a more fun option to try to find value out of, and it opened up some cool highlight-worthy opportunities to get creative with it's usage. In sPvP where fights were more forced and I don't have the option to run away I always took dagger storm instead, even against the reveal classes, because as mentioned already, it counters their threats better and is more generally useful.

(edit note: incase it wasn't clear, I'm coming at this primarily from a roaming-WvW perspective. though I'm using some examples from sPvP to highlight the differences between "more proper" fights versus open field roaming which is more free form and allows for backing up and just ceding objectives at times. Also, I do feel like the vast majority of the changes this time are very healthy and reasonable. There's a couple of other questions I have - mainly about the decisions that go into which skills shouldn't have their cooldown compensated at all when their corresponding CD-trait loses it's CD reduction, there's a few on other classes that are parts of core builds which are now getting effectively nerfed by a 20% CD raise)

Edited February 4, 2023 by Nighthawk.2401

[Equinox.1463]

I've hardly seen a balance update thread be received well, but the lack of appreciation everyone shows this specific one is concerning.

 

I'm a PvP Bladesworn hardstuck gold that loves to duel mid and high platinum players because it's fun to do so, so do take my word with a grain of salt.

1; Catalyst received way more than a slap on the wrist. People don't understand that Catalyst was using weakness and blindness to their advantage to force resources over their opponents extremely fast or be "one-shot". Now, that's basically gone. More than 40% of their blindness and weakness uptime have been cut (don't take my math literally here).

 

2; For what it's worth, the buffs they gave to EVERY other class is a surprising change in balance direction after the few years where everything got nerfed down to unplayable levels but a select max-min builds, and it is refreshing. I'm intrigued at what fine-tuning will be brought forth by the balance team moving forward as this balance patch is pivotal in (at least PvP.s) meta. Keep the snowball moving forward ^^

3; And Roy, for the record, please organize the cameras differently next time! (I'm simply joking)

 

EDIT: Can we make gunsaber mode stowable? It's the only elite mechanic that can't be stowed I believe. At least Holosmith (closest thing to it) can stow their weapon casts, whereas you can't using Gunsaber.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Equinox.1463

[fatihso.7258]

Balance team, CMC and Roy, doing great job, I like how you take bold steps and spice things up and add new flavors to the gameplay, also great to see you actually read channels and make QoL changes people asked for.  Thank you also for bringing back profession aesthethics and restoring identity such as mantras channeling and animations.

 

I haven't been this satisfied with game for a long time. Good job and I wish more to come, you deserve a bonus.

Edited February 4, 2023 by fatihso.7258

[SoftPup.3048]

4 hours ago, Lyn.7902 said:

We are goin in a good direction in terms of thief but... Please more buffs and less stupid jumpy jumps on power DD, Vindi feels so good to play and power DD is still pepega, needs FULLY empty endurance to do little dmg it does compared to the rest. And I dont accept "mag bomb" and stupid "ectoplasm" as excuses for the low dmg... just remove those in the encounters and properly fix staff DD so it feels good to play and not this.. sad excuse of a spec. More options to play instead of changing anything = huge dps loss etc. It needs serious look at, it does not feel good to play for a while now.
 

Then some power willbender dmg boosts and we are good there, happy for the core wep buffs.

 

I am happy with reaper changes too just please please, FIX THE DISAPPEARING SHROUD SCYTHE WHEN stowing wep or getting knocked down, wep stow will always reproduce this bug so please look into it finally, its been reported for years now. Thankies ^.^

Agreed about Daredevil dodges, at least the power ones. Having to weirdly strafe to one side so i can jump back over and over to make sure I'm hitting the boss with each one feels so awkward, but Vindis can just dodge in place for the same effect.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

2 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

I managed to solo honor of the waves on reaper before the damage reduction nerfs to shroud. I haven't tried it recently and don't know if you can take pokemon sword/shield boons into dungeons (I imagine you can't but I never played pve much) but if you can then I think its even more doable than before. If you can't take the boons with you then yeah, you're going to need to play renegade or herald.

I remember soloing it too, long ago when I returned to the game after HoT was release but I guess it was because "Rise" still gave 50% dmg reduction and RS wasn't nerfed, even if our dmg was not as good as today but then again, dmg is worthless if you get inta-killed.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Sharpening Stone needs the CD reduction treatment or you are going to nuke bleed druid in competitive modes.  You will also hurt condition ranger as a whole a lot because bleed is practically the only condition ranger outputs consistently.  

[Valfar.3761]

I dislike Ranger's cooldown reduction traits being rolled into baseline CDs. It raises your APM whether you like it or not. It should be a choice whether or not you want to opt into a higher APM style or if you are content with relaxing builds where you only press an ability once every 5 or 10 seconds.

 

Quote

Unnatural Traversal: This skill is no longer instant and now has a casting time of 0.25 seconds.

 

Does that mean an animation for Unnatural Traversal has been created?

 

[Tnanever.3192]

41 minutes ago, Equinox.1463 said:

...

2; For what it's worth, the buffs they gave to EVERY other class is a surprising change in balance direction after the few years where everything got nerfed down to unplayable levels but a select max-min builds, and it is refreshing. I'm intrigued at what fine-tuning will be brought forth by the balance team moving forward as this balance patch is pivotal in (at least PvP.s) meta. Keep the snowball moving forward ^^

Where's the buff to scourge? Zero changes.  Still one of the most useless (or possibly the most useless) PvP classes.  What are these devs even doing?

[Equinox.1463]

Just now, Tnanever.3192 said:

Where's the buff to scourge? Zero changes.  Still one of the most useless (or possibly the most useless) PvP classes.  What are these devs even doing?

Scourge had an unfortunate event of nerfs, but I'm not complaining not seeing them in PvP when they've dominated the meta for the many years before their nerfs shot their potential down to hell and even under. And the buffs to core necro are indirect buffs to Scourge? Ish?

[Jaden.1420]

Elementalist: Obviously much to like here with so many buffs. I especially appreciate the pulsing alac and the reduced Lightning Flash CD. The change I'm actually most excited about is the strike damage on Weave Self (the only good ele elite), every chance to avoid the clunky FGS is welcomed. Apart from that, as someone who is playing Weaver every day, Weaver is actually in a good state and the buffs seem a bit too much to me. Instead of the power buffs, I'd rather see some QoL changes, e.g. some personal alac generation to compensate for alac downtimes which might mess up your weave self rotation. Staff looks really good, with the additional auras it should be top tier on WvW Support Builds now.

Changes I'd like to see in the future: Catalyst out of combat energy gain, better energy UI, Hammer 3 Mini CD, Conjure and Tornado rework.

Mesmer: I didn't like the changes while watching the stream because I was thinking from an offensive build viewpoint and no dps player wants to charge mantras. However the more I think about it the more I like it. With the additional might generation Heal Chrono might actually become viable, altough it will still struggle with protection uptime even with durability rune. Also at first I couldn't think of a useful application of the new Glamour trait, but I have to admit that a no target cap superspeed veil sounds pretty fun for WvW. I'm still not convinced by Well of Senility though, nobody will take it over Null Field, especially with the Glamour trait. Time Warp is still crap in PvE.

Changes I'd like to see in the future: Scepter AA and Ambush buffs, Chrono Major trait "cleaning" of the two dps options, Virtuoso dagger rework, restore Signet of Inspration.

Final Note: I'm a bit surprised that there were no PvE nerfs at all. FB and high hp high armor perma stabi heavy cc always has a block ready power Spellbreaker could need some fine tuning.

[Tnanever.3192]

2 minutes ago, Equinox.1463 said:

Scourge had an unfortunate event of nerfs, but I'm not complaining not seeing them in PvP when they've dominated the meta for the many years before their nerfs shot their potential down to hell and even under. And the buffs to core necro are indirect buffs to Scourge? Ish?

Previous meta is irrelevant.  No class should be useless for any patch, but ANet destroyed scourge because of their inept decisions.  Core necro buffs might help some (assuming the player even uses warhorns or daggers), but that's barely going to make a dent in how bad scourge is.   Cooldowns are way too high, shields are way too low, and damage is middling at best.

[Equinox.1463]

1 minute ago, Tnanever.3192 said:

Previous meta is irrelevant.  No class should be useless for any patch, but ANet destroyed scourge because of their inept decisions.  Core necro buffs might help some (assuming the player even uses warhorns or daggers), but that's barely going to make a dent in how bad scourge is.   Cooldowns are way too high, shields are way too low, and damage is middling at best.

I agree with you ^^ In general Scourge does deserve some love.

[Flapjackson.1596]

Some of the changes are really nice, like fixing the alacrity application on heal tempest. There are two points I'd like to raise though:

 

1. This patch glosses over the state of supports, both defensive and offensive. Boons in general are a bit ridiculous, as are the supports that vomit them out. The problem children are alacrity and quickness. These boons are so crucial, but the application method across classes is inconsistent and leads to degenerate gameplay for some builds. Spamming skills without concern for their intended purpose, just to keep up alac or quick permanently, is never satisfying. These boons are too strong to ignore, but applying them is not fun. Stab and Aegis are an arms race as well. Builds are getting stuffed with them, yet few can still compete with Guardian. I don't see anything in this patch to fix spamming gyros, spirits, facets, banners, wells. This patch does not address the glaring elephant in the room for PvE balance: Supports.

 

2. I liked that the last patch made Firebrand changes the focal point. I want more patches that take a deep dive into overhauling specific professions. Core professions are old rotten foundations for the current builds. Some professions have insane core utility and value like Mesmer or Guardian. Warrior is not one of these. Warrior core trait lines are messy and don't make much sense anymore. Why are Defense and Tactics being stacked with damage modifiers? Why are banners still traited on Discipline? Warrior utilities are similarly outdated. Banners are a horrendous skill design. Warrior exists in 2012. It needs to be given a make over that is not only reasonable in the modern game, but one that makes sense and feels like the design choices are driven by a cohesive vision, not simply overloading the profession with damage modifiers.

[Dr Meta.3158]

39 minutes ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

I remember soloing it too, long ago when I returned to the game after HoT was release but I guess it was because "Rise" still gave 50% dmg reduction and RS wasn't nerfed, even if our dmg was not as good as today but then again, dmg is worthless if you get inta-killed.

This was during early lockdown when I could only work half time on site and half time just meetings at home so got to play around with some builds. That last boss was far and beyond harder than anything else in the dungeons across the board but it was doable on reaper but much easier to do on renegade or herald.. Now, I don't think so. Maybe on herald, maybe.

[Asum.4960]

Disclaimer: PvE Feedback

On 2/3/2023 at 1:19 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Guardian

Power guardian builds still aren't quite at the level we want them to be in PvE after the previous balance update, and we're making some additional improvements to greatsword, sword, and focus to improve their damage potential.

One of our goals with the mantra update is to make the final charge of firebrand mantras a more compelling option, and as part of that, we've made an adjustment to Weighty Terms that makes final charge skills restore a page to the firebrand. We've also tuned up some tome skills in PvP, where firebrand is still struggling to find its footing.

Core

• Strike: Increased power coefficient from 0.9 to 1.0 in PvE only.
• Vengeful Strike: Increased power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.1 in PvE only.
• Wrathful Strike: Increased power coefficient from 1.4 to 1.5 in PvE only.
• Whirling Wrath: This skill no longer reduces the user's movement speed.
• Symbol of Resolution: Increased power coefficient per strike from 0.6 to 0.65 in PvE only.
• Sword Wave: Increased power coefficient per strike from 0.5 to 0.55 in PvE only.
• Symbol of Blades: Increased power coefficient per strike from 0.6 to 0.65 in PvE only. Reduced recharge from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Ray of Judgment: Increased power coefficient per strike from 0.33 to 0.45 in PvE only.
• Zealot's Defense: Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Symbol of Protection: Reduced casting time from 1.33 seconds to 0.9 seconds.
• Zealot's Embrace: This skill now grants barrier when striking an enemy.
• Banish: This skill now marks the enemy for 5 seconds. Mighty Blow will consume the mark to teleport to the target.
• Right-Hand Strength: This trait no longer reduces the recharge of main-hand sword skills.
• Unscathed Contender: Reduced strike damage increase while under the effects of aegis from 20% to 7%. This trait now grants an additional 7% strike damage increase while you are above 90% health.

Dragonhunter

• Test of Faith: Increased protection duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only.
• Light's Judgment: The first strike of this skill will now daze enemies in addition to its other effects. Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Wings of Resolve: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Shield of Courage: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 50 seconds.
• Fragments of Faith: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 45 seconds in PvP and WvW. Reduced stability duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Hunter's Determination: This trait has been reworked. It now causes all elite skills to break stuns on activation.
• Heavy Light: Reduced internal cooldown from 10 seconds to 1 second.

Firebrand

• Exiting a firebrand tome will now put that tome on a 0.5-second cooldown.
• Chapter 2: Igniting Burst: Increased weakness duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
• Chapter 3: Heated Rebuke: Reduced page cost from 2 to 1 in PvP only.
• Chapter 2: Radiant Recovery: Reduced cooldown from 8 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP only.
• Chapter 4: Shining River: Increased base pulse heal from 287 to 464 in PvP only. Increased pulse-heal attribute scaling from 0.2 to 0.25 in PvP only.
• Epilogue: Eternal Oasis: Reduced page cost from 3 to 2 in PvP only.
• Epilogue: Unbroken Lines: Increased the number of stability stacks from 1 to 2 in PvP only.
• Firebrand mantras now require an initial casting time to prepare the mantra charges. The final charge of each mantra is more powerful.
• Firebrand mantras will now automatically swap to their charged state when not on cooldown and when the player is out of combat in PvE maps.
• Weighty Terms: This trait will now only trigger on the final charge of a mantra and restores one page in addition to its current effect. This trait no longer has an internal cooldown.

Willbender

• Willbender virtues no longer remove the active effects of other willbender virtues.

Nice to see some more Power Guardian Buffs - and while I'm glad that includes Sword and Focus for WB, I'm a bit concerned for DH that this will push Longbow back into the dumpster where it has lived for so long. 

I'd like for LB to be a mainstay for Power DH since utilizing it's unique weapon increases variety of gameplay - and frankly imo DH needs that increased DPS-Uptime of at least having a decent ranged weapon on swap since the repeated nerfs of Scepter (not that I miss that AA sound effect). 

Please considering looking at LB for some QoL and coefficient/CD buffs as well. 

Additionally, looking at Symbol of Resolution, please consider buffing the Resolution Duration of this skill as well (to be at least on the level of Lesser Symbol of Resolution), considering how vital of a boon this is for Power Guard. 

 

Speaking of Resolution, the Unscathed Contender change giving the Trait a realistic use (especially post Aegis removal from Solace) is nice I suppose - although I'm still not sure if Virtues has any place for Power builds (core aside I guess). 

In theory Virtues Resolution uptime enhancement has great synergy with Radiance turning it into a vital DPS boon, but I don't see how it could compete with Zeal even after this change.

 

Hammer Buffs, especially the QoL interaction between Banish and Mighty Blow looks cool, and together with the reduced cast time of Symbol of Protection, that should make the weapon flow a lot better and much more fun to play with - although I'm not sure if this is enough as a whole to really create a significant space for the weapon, but we will see. 

 

The Willbender Virtues not deleting each other is a fantastic QoL change (at least from a PvE PoV - I can't speak about other modes at this point). That should make it a lot less clunky to play around with and actually getting value out of it's tools. 

Willbender, especially Power WB, does need a lot more love though. 

Right now it just feels like a worse Condi FB on Condi and a worse Power DH on Power - which would be okay in theory, there is always going to be something that's the best, and as long as they are close enough to each other, more options with different themes and gameplay are always good - but WB really doesn't have it's own gameplay, nor a strong theme/identity. 

Power Willbender is just pDH with Whirling Light instead of Procession of Blades - which needs to dash into Melee for Lethal Tempo, which at times is really just lethal for itself - and needs to spam it's abilities harder with Restorative Virtues for the same result. It has nothing unique going for it. It plays, looks, feels and smells the same, just worse.

Also no love for Off-Hand Sword?

 

Very glad to see the 0.5 second CD on Tome Exit finally coming - this has been a real bummer to play without. 

I'm greatly concerned about the return of charging Mantras though - I still have borderline PTSD like flashbacks from charging these things roughly 10 million times in my time of playing Fractals daily for years on FB. Them charging automatically while OOC in PvE (and I hope "in PvE Maps" does mean all of PvE, including Raids, Strikes, Fractal's, etc.) does alleviate a lot of that ofc, but I do struggle to imagine a final charge effect powerful enough to warrant recharging them mid fight - and if they are not, this is just a pretty big nerf with access to less charges and getting less value out of Weighty Terms. 

The Page recharge on final Mantra charges also seems pretty gimmicky, but we will see - I'm concerned about this one though.

E: Please also keep in mind, since PoF launch over 5 years ago, you never managed to fix the bug that causes FB Mantras to display the wrong Charge number (as in, skillbar displays 3 Charges, despite only having 1 Charge left). This isn't too much of an issue with the current implementation, but might get really annoying again when reverting to the full CD + lengthy recharge final Charge mechanic.

Quote

Necromancer

We're improving the reaper's shout skills, which will now deal increased damage and gain additional effects when striking enemies in melee range, rewarding players for diving deep into the fray.

Warhorn also sees some improvements, with Wail of Doom once again being unblockable and the cooldown reduction from Banshee's Wail being rolled into the baseline, allowing a wider range of necromancer builds to take warhorn without feeling tied to the Blood Magic trait line.

Core

• Banshee's Wail: This trait no longer reduces the cooldown of warhorn skills.
• Wail of Doom: This skill is now unblockable. Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
• Locust Swarm: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
• Necrotic Stab: Increased power coefficient from 0.7 to 0.9 in PvE only. Increased life force gained from 2% to 4%.
• Necrotic Bite: Increased power coefficient from 1.2 to 1.3 in PvE only. Increased life force gained from 6% to 8%.
• Life Siphon: Reduced cooldown from 10 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased damage bonus against bleeding foes from 20% to 50% in PvE only.
• Dark Pact: This skill now also inflicts bleeding on the target and grants life force to the caster for each boon removed. This skill now removes boons instead of corrupting them in PvP and WvW. Increased the number of boons removed from 1 to 3 in PvP, 1 to 2 in WvW, and 2 to 3 in PvE.

Reaper

• Augury of Death: This trait no longer reduces the recharge of shout skills.
• "Your Soul is Mine!": This skill now deals additional damage and grants additional life force per target struck within melee range of the caster. Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.
• "Nothing Can Save You!": This skill no longer grants additional unblockable attacks on all enemies struck. This skill now deals additional damage and grants additional unblockable attacks when striking targets within melee range of the caster. Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.
• "Rise!": This skill now deals additional damage and summons additional horrors when striking targets within melee range of the caster. The maximum number of shambling horrors that can be summoned is 5. Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 32 seconds.
• "Suffer!": This skill now deals additional damage and transfers one additional condition to targets struck within melee range of the caster. Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.
• "You Are All Weaklings!": This skill now deals additional damage and grants more might when striking targets within melee range of the caster. Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.
• "Chilled to the Bone!": This skill now deals additional damage, stun, and condition duration, and grants you additional boons when striking targets within melee range of the caster. Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 36 seconds.
• Chilling Victory: Reduced cooldown from 2 seconds to 1 second in PvP.
• Blighter's Boon: This trait now also triggers when removing a boon from an enemy.

 

I honestly think Warhorn is still utterly inadequate. 24 seconds CD baseline is imo still too much for what these skills do - and while it's great to see Wail of Doom back to being unblockable at least (although I am tired of Balance patches just partially undoing what the last balance patch screwed up, rather than ever moving forward notably), it's increased Cast Time from it's last Warhorn "buffs" seems to still be in place. This really shouldn't be more than 15-20 seconds CD though - even Reaper's Mark as another AoE Fear Weapon Skill, except at double the range + a big damage nuke now, is just 18 seconds CD at this point.

Locust Swarm needs a full rework. Period. It's an awful skill generally not worth pressing it's 0.5 second cast time over just an Auto Attack. The skill was awful at launch, and while most other skills doubled, tripled if not quadrupled in effectiveness in the 10+ years of powercreep since, Locust Swarm actually got worse by being doomed to utilize the Life Siphon mechanic, which neither can Crit, nor is affected by any Damage multipliers - nor does it provide any meaningful support outside of some fantasy five target 180 range cleave niche scenario. 

Focus needs a look at for PvE as well.

The Dagger buffs are.. interesting. I'm not sure why it's LF gain was buffed, considering it already fills LF sheer instantly - and the problem with Specs like Power Reaper is the fact that it rapidly loses it's LF while in Shroud to unavoidable damage, which Dagger AA's LF gain can't help with. As for regaining LF out of Shroud after that, the Greatsword LF gain buffs already fixed that part. So I'm not sure what Dagger's role is here. 

The Buff to Life Siphon Damage is nice I suppose, we will see how that performs - although I'm still not a fan of this whole (especially self-) Bleed interaction on this Power Weapon - but Dark Pact at least enabling it now is something. But maybe finally just embrace Dagger as a Hybrid Weapon by adding damaging Conditions to it's AA instead - giving it at least a space for casual and solo play, synergising with something like Celestial through it's healing, strike and then also condition damage, so Dagger at least has some purpose in the game. 

 

Reaper Shouts.. well, we obviously don't have numbers, but they will have to be quite something to compete with precasting Wells into Shroud with Death Perception. If they do end up better than Wells, just spamming the Shouts off-cd, rather than lining up Wells with Shroud, would simplify Reaper quite a lot though (maybe too much so), but I guess that's not always a bad thing. It might feel a bit too braindead though. 

 

Two problems remain though, for one, Reaper still needs a boost in DPS (at least I doubt the Shouts will nuke that hard to make that happen), and two, Reaper is still in desperate need of a at least decent sustained DPS ranged weapon on swap/increased DPS uptime. 

Both Staff as well as Axe drop off a cliff after Mark Spam/Ghastly Claws. Please have a look at Staff and Axe AA as well as Unholy Feast in PvE, and make that at least remotely relevant. 

Yes, Power builds need reduced DPS-Uptime as tradeoff for their Burst, but Imo you shouldn't feel completely doomed when forced out of Melee Range or when getting stuck on one of those ranged weapons. Reaper doesn't do nearly enough DPS when it can pressure Melee to make up for having absolutely no ranged presence for when it can't. 

P.S: Please rework Harbinger (I'd gladly do design concepts for you, genuinely).

p.p.s: Why still no Death's Embrace and Siphoned Power reworks for Spite? Siphoned Power's Might generation against targets below half health is made redundant by Reaper's Might, another, better, Minor in the same line - let alone in group play -  and Death's Embrace +25% Damage while downed (plus some pitiful 5 Stacks of Vuln against targets below half health, with not even 100% uptime) is horribly outdated too. 

These are such easy targets for boosting the Damage of Power Necro builds, all of which are either underperforming (Power Reaper), or so bad they aren't even a thing (Power Harbinger, etc.). Touching these up is a no-brainer.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Asum.4960

[Greviathan.6107]

My feedbacks from a WvW Roamer and PvP player about Necromancer update:

[Chingiz.6481]

Hmm, looks like "Mantra of Pain" is completely useless now? Channel ~2 sec for a few might and almost no damage (or 0 dmg in pvp\wvw).

[UsernameMaul.2106]

Please make the Guardian Firebrand Mantras, 360 degree AOE instead of a mostly Cone Shaped AOE, with minimum of 300 units. this will make the usability, baseline with most Healer and Boon-Support specs, as well as easier/convenient to use in all cases.

[Willy.1986]

Thanks for the review. I've got several questions about healers.
1. Why are druid spirits still stationary? I mean, they don't provide uniquie buffs anymore, just common boons. Is there a reason to leave this class mechanic soooo clunky and unpleasant to use?
2. Mechanist is the only heal that doesnt have acces to a revive ability. Have you considered swapping Elixir R active and toolbelt effects? It would help a lot in this matter.
3. Why doesn't heal Scrapper have access to perma protection without using a shield. I've got nothing against shield, but you have to take a condi weapon with 0 utility (Main hand pistol) to use it. Sounds like an oversight to me as well.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Willy.1986

[UsernameMaul.2106]

Please make the Thief Sceptre Skill's Boon and Barrier application, a Splash 360 degree AOE. this change could help the Spectre become more used/comparable as Healer choice, instead of, in most cases, a Boon-Support choice. some manner of Regeneration would also help, to this end.

[Nairolf.7024]

Gentle reminder that berserker needed a damage boost. More than 0.1 coeff on 1 skill of a weapon you won't equip if you need to bring a bit more CC. It does 34k dps in golem benchmarks right now and it should reach 40k to be in line with other specs. Spellbreaker shouldnt do more dmg than berserker... And Berserker should be in line with other power dps. You nerfed it bad 9 months ago when you removed banners as they used a trait to benefit 1.5 more from them and you still didnt fix that.

[Carnifex.3275]

Yeah.... back to OG clunky mantras. Who even enjoyed precasting your mantras for like 5 seconds while in combat? Really not a fun change, wish u could leave mantras as they are now. What most likely will happen is people will be sitting on that last charge as it was before. So in reality it's quite a nerf, -1 mantra charge basically for mesmer/fb.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Carnifex.3275

[Kuma.1503]

Just give scrapper back quickness in PvP. Make it only target the Scrapper itself in WvW so it doesn't take over zergs. 

Losing quickness was too harsh of a nerf, and that's why it's underperforming right now.  

Our tankiness comes from doing damage. Deleting quickness nerfs our damage. It nerfs how quickly we can apply that damage, thus forcing us to expose ourselves for longer. Lower damage is less barrier which means less tankiness. 

This is too much to lose for a spec that was barely mid-tier in PvP before the nerf. 

 

Give it back quickness. That's all it needs. Buffing around the issue is just going to result in something breaking before it finally becomes viable  again. 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Kuma.1503