February 14 Balance Update Preview

[Philalive.8654]

Tempest should get more range on might application from their Fire Overload in PvE.

Considering the access to aegis that alacrity builds can bring, shouldn't renegade get access to aegis as well? It is basically a requirement to be viable in a lot of encounters.

Why is it that all other alacrity provides can give 25 might and Renegade can't?

 

Citadel Bombardment either costs too much energy or does too little damage in WvW.

[Abel.1492]

21 hours ago, Jake.7526 said:

The burning speed and earthen rush changes on dagger main hand ele are so cursed for tempest. Because on tempest its not used for dps its used to move away from enemies or evade..

 Yes! Even on open world i use them to go through enemies, and immobilize them to be out of range of their atacks, now i'll dash exactly to their face where they can destroy me because... Elementalist health.

[Rick Z.2198]

Chronomancer is nowhere near as useful as any other support class

 

Mirage needs their dodge back please

 

Willbender is the most lacking elite spec in the entire game

 

Other than those, the balance feels great

[Yogurt Goblin.5934]

Still no Catalyst out-of-combat energy production?

Please just add a slow re-fill, or add it onto a trait.

[Nighto.2704]

Please Fix Asura Necromancers not having character animation for "Chill to the bone!" Elite skill !! This problem is specifically on ground combat for some reason, the character animation works fine underwater

Edited February 4, 2023 by Nighto.2704

[Mixchimmer.7230]

Other Thoughts Regarding Thief

 

I posted earlier with concerns regarding the Thief acrobatics line but I was just thinking of something else.

 

Keep in mind, this is from a purely PvE perspective.

 

I really like the direction that Thief is going for Daggers - the backstabbing Mega heavy single target build is definitely fun,  even if it falls short on utility.

 

However; even though Thief Sword has had some buffs recently, I just don't think it's enough - at least from a PvE perspective.  In-Fact, I think some clarity would be nice on what purpose you guys want sword to even have in PvE because at this point it really doesn't serve one.

 

Tactical strike is basically useless when the off-hand pistol with Sigil of Paralyzation exists, and malicious tactical strike is also pretty much useless when you have permanent  vigor either from the trickery line solo, or from your teammates in group play.   Additionally, the buff to infiltrators strike damage was nice, and made it one of the best damaging abilities on the sword's kit, but it's not really a viable part of your DPS rotation because every other cast has to be wasted on a teleport.

 

Finally, the dual attacks leave A LOT to be desired.  The functionality and utility is good, but the damage just isn't there.  Auto attacking is higher DPS than Flanking Strike (Even against a target with no boons) and pistol whip does less damage than blurred frenzy, despite having a longer cast time.

 

I think it would be important for thief sword to be looked at if we want it to have more build diversity.

 

If the answer is that the weapon is purely designed to be a competitive weapon - I suppose I can understand and that, but I would still be very disappointed.

 

At any rate, just some thoughts.  I generally feel like Thief has overall poor build diversity, and this could go quite a ways in increasing it a bit.

[koralinaLAIN.3892]

I'm not sure about vindi's nerf.

First they increased the power coefficient of the nomad's advance, scavenger burst and spear, but then they decreased them again, is this profession so strong now? Is it possible to meet so many vindis in pvp?

[Firebeard.1746]

7 hours ago, Ascency.3580 said:

the mantra changes shouldnt really be a thing, if they didnt change them to what they are now some time ago. this change was the sole reason why the WHOLE GAME was dominated by firebrands. becouse it made a complex but extremely potent build into a spamfiesta-has-everything more potent build that requres no tought. this in turn led to numerous nerfs to the class, and the whole tome rework. becouse it was impossible to tone it down without deleting its core functionalities. with mantras requireing more tought, and alowing for dealing with oh kitten moments by expending the final charge fb by default was way more rewarding to play, and naturally blanced a bit more. becouse u could have found yourself without charges, and needing to prep the mantras while kitten was going down. this also made thinking about using final mantra charges vs going into f2/f3 tomes a thing. the mantra nerfs, specifically for firebrand (mesmer not so much) was one of the worst decisions anet made, that looked innocent at first, but led to a huge mess in the whole meta for more then a year now. its GREAT they are reverting this to where it is supposed to be, but do be prepared that combined with all the other nerfs that this has spawned in the past fb might feel weaker untill they bring it back up.

And that's basically my concern. My hb doesn't feep any stonger than any of the other supports i play. I'm afraid hb is going to get overly clunky and difficult to use. It feels like managing the tomes and weapon skills is enough finger and rotation gymnastics. Being forced to plan mantras into that mess is going to suck, but i'm willing to try it.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

22 hours ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

CMC and Roy:  Thanks for this.  As always, I appreciate your hard work and transparency.

 

Some feedback on Warrior Changes:

 

Bladesworn:

1) Ranged attacks on Auto Attacks: GOOD.  Nice change; will add a lot of value.

2) Blooming fire being ranged: BAD. 
We now have an overabundance of ranged attacks, and if an elementalist drops Swirling Winds I can't even auto attack without shooting myself in the face.  Blooming fire is currently a terrible skill because it does no damage and has a very long cast time; reduce its cast to 1/2s and increase its damage by 25%.  Bladesworn Needs a powerful melee attack to combo with stunning people with dragon slash (with unyielding dragon); Blooming Fire would be the natural skill to do this. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE IT RANGED; MAKE IT A REALLY GOOD MELEE ATTACK.
 

3) Artillery Slash Changes: PROBABLY BAD. Artillery slash is currently the only truly good skill on Gunsaber.  Please do NOT take it away.  BS already has good CC output thanks to Unyielding Dragon; it doesn't need to upgrade AS into CC.  What BS needs is strong, reliable damage.  Leave AS the way it is and buff Blooming Fire as above.

 

4) Cyclone Trigger gaining Aegis: GOOD.  Gunsaber desperately needed some defense; this helps.

 

5) Break Step: Please let it cleanse immobilize.  Being Immob'd is one of BS's biggest issues; please give it some countermeasures.

 

6) Bladesworn desperately needs stability in Dragon Trigger. Loss of stab is one of the biggest reasons BS fell off in competitive.  Warrior is built around its burst skills (see: Berserker's power, Adrenal healing, Burst mastery, etc....) and BS is already at a disadvantage because it only has one burst.  It is at a further disadvantage because it needs to stand still and channel in a warzone.  The least that could be done is to let it have some stability while attempting the charge.  Please return stability to Dragonscale Defense in competitive modes.  If 3s stab on 8s CD is too much, let it be 1.5 or 2s of stab.  That would be enough to cover a partial charge of Dragon Slash, forcing people to either fire a weaker, protected burst or risk getting interrupted if they charge for the full 2.5s for a max-powered burst.

 

On a related note: Dragon Trigger remains bugged.  If you are interrupted in DT it goes on an 8s CD, not a 4s CD like everything else in the game.  Please fix!

 

Berserker Changes:

1) These largely look good.  The utility skills still largely suck, but aegis on Sundering Leap is nice.

2) Eternal Champion re-work looks promising.  However, I think a manual exit from Berserk Mode should be baseline and not locked behind a GM trait.

3) Please commit to making Berserk Mode a Rage Skill and eliminate the adrenaline requirement. Or make it a burst again and keep the adrenaline requirement.  But currently it is the worst of both worlds.  However, I think eliminating the adrenaline requirement is the way to go; making Berserk Mode a regular skill on a 12s CD would make it much easier to utilize Berserker's Mechanic and free it from having to take signet of fury or similar adrenaline boosting utilities in order to get into Berserk on demand.  

 

Sword Changes:

1) Flurry still sucks.  Please reduce its cast to 1.5s.

2) Savage Leap: good change, but does nothing for condi builds

3) Final Thrust: good change.  However, please reduce cast to 1/2s.  It currently requires a CC to reasonably land, which is unreasonable for 3-6 bleeding, especially since most of the damage/bleeding is conditioned on the target being <50% health.  Most other professions are able to do their damage without nearly as much headache and set-up.  Heck, even look at Warrior's Axe 4...

 

Adrenal Healing:  BAD change.  Please Revert.  You're nerfing AH to less healing per second than it was even before the Defense Rework, all because of Spellbreaker.  Do NOT nerf core traits to target an elite spec.  As for Spellbreaker nerfs...

 

Spellbreaker:

FC change: good.  Honestly, you should probably fix the bug in Discipline which makes FC an 8.75s CD instead of 10.25s.  That's really the biggest nerf that Spellbreaker needed.

Dagger F1 nerf: overnerfed.  A 50% mod was high, but a measly 5% buff for actually ripping enough boons to make a target boonless?  Do you realize how rare that is?  A 15-25% damage mod would be much more appropriate.  

 

Shield Master:

You didn't actually touch this trait in this patch, but back in October you removed the CD reduction of the trait  but left the CDs of the Shield Skills the same.  Everyone else is getting the CD reduction built into their skills; please do the same for shield!!!

 

Thank you for your time and consideration!!

Following up/clarifying my concerns about Bladesworn changes:

 

The planned changes means gunsaber will have 3.5 skills (only counting cyclone trigger as 0.5 because it has a melee component and does some other things too) that do basically the same thing:

 

AA chain: ranged filler damage

Blooming fire: highly telegraphed, low DPS ranged damage

Artillery slash: (you guessed it) ranged damage

 

AS is the only skill that provides additional utility, and that only if you have 2+ charges. In short, the design is redundant.  BS currently lacks a powerful melee attack outside of Dragon Slash-Force, and that needs to be charged to be impactful. 

 

Therefore, it would be better design to leave Blooming Fire as a melee attack but buff it so that it is actually useful. Reducing the cast time to 1/2s and increasing the damage by 25-33% would do this. You could also increase the range to 180 if you're feeling especially generous.

 

However, far and away Bladesworn's biggest issue is it's lack of stability in competitive modes when in Dragon Trigger. Please consider letting Dragonscale defense provide at least 1.5s of stab in PvP/WvW to protect a partial charge of DT. This, more than anything else, is what BS needs to be a solid pick in competitive modes.

 

Thanks for considering it!

Edited February 4, 2023 by CalmTheStorm.2364

[Einar.1482]

Do not take the only mobility mesmer has aside from mirage thrust off Master of Manipulation. That superspeed is the only thing that allows mobility in large scale environments like wvw. Being without mobility is the single most detrimental thing to a class in wvw... with the hypermobility of will bender, ranger, thief etc... it puts any form of mesmer at a massive disadvantage and relegates it to one playstyle 

 

several classes have access to their own personal superspeed such as holo leap, thief stealth entrance and I dont think mesmer should be relegated to team based superspeed. Its really important for mesmer mobility that it remain as is presently to provide options for personal mobillity in a game where there is so much of it that being even comparatively immobile is amongst the most disadvantage you can have. I implore you not to make that change

Edited February 4, 2023 by Einar.1482

[Dualumina.1760]

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

Master of Manipulation: This trait no longer reduces the recharge of manipulation skills, and it now grants aegis to nearby allies instead of superspeed.

 

• Protected Phantasms: This trait has been replaced by Temporal Enchanter. Temporal Enchanter causes glamour skills to grant superspeed and resistance to allies in the area and increases glamour durations by 1 second.

Was initially very distraught at seeing the change to Master of Manipulation but was cautiously relieved at seeing Temporal Enchanter. Don't normally play 100% support Mesmer builds however my jumping puzzle mesmer build is very reliant on the on demand superspeed given by MoM. It'll be nice to have superspeed given in the Inspiration spec, though Chaos will still be used for Prismatic Understanding and this new version of MoM most likely. 

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

Mesmer mantras will grant an effect upon finishing their initial casting time.

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

Mesmer mantras now require an initial casting time to prepare the mantra charges. The effects they grant when completing the initial cast are as follows:

Unrelated to the jumping puzzle meta, giving mesmer mantras back their prep time without likewise letting them auto-prepare outside combat seems unnecessarily punishing. Imagine going into a raid/fractal/strike with Mantra of Concentration for the stability source and oops! you forgot to precast it after your 8th /gg and now the mechanic where you need that stability popped up.

If anything, if you really, really, want to force mesmers to manually precast a mantra (though I'm encouraging you not to) without making mantras too demanding to use, give an effect during the initial cast. That way you can actually go "Oh yeah, precasting Mantra of Recovery gives regeneration/invulnerability/insert some other effect here, let me do that real quick."

 

[Sensations.9507]

4 hours ago, jokeshop.9548 said:

Just a note in terms of consistency - it seems that Ranger and Warrior's quickness skills got their cds reduced to 35s, and Thief's was reduced to 24s. Should not Engineer's Elixir U also receive the same reduction to 35s? As it was the original vision of Elixir U to produce a random effect from one of these three other skills (Frenzy, Haste, Quickening Zephyr).

This is actually a huge catch.  Elixir U does have way too long of cooldown for the extremely short duration of buffs it provides.

[jcluzio.6207]

Regarding mantras initial cast time, Mesmer mantras previously had 2,25 secs and Guardian mantras 2,75 secs, which do not feel good to use (seems an eternity while casting and doing nothing else) and I personally was glad that it was gone.

If this component comes back, please tune the casting time to something like 1 or 1.5 seconds.

[Melian.5368]

DPS Spellbreaker just became viable with the defense + discipline lines and now that it's getting nerfed, roaming with spellbreaker will again fall off. It was fine as it is, nerf it in PvP if you like, but please leave it on WvW. Nobody complains about a roaming spellbreaker, it's not even that strong.

[Volcanis.4872]

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

Elementalist

Catalyst

 

• Deploy Jade Sphere: Increased cooldown from 10 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.

If we are increasing the cooldown for Deploy Jade Sphere, I think we need to rethink the energy mechanic for Catalyst and its overall theme.

I think energy should be removed, it's not a fun mechanic. I also think that catalyst is not 'there' yet in terms of an elite specialization. These are my thoughts:

Hammer 3 skills should be different skills. The circular orbs should be a part of the specialization and not specific to a weapon. Instead, when swapping attunements, a circular projectile should summon. Balancing the cooldown for attunement swap and how long the projectile lasts can be discussion points.

Once a circular projectile is summoned and after it gains enough centripetal force (again, the time required can be a subject for balance discussion), Deploy Jade Sphere for that element can be activated. For example, when you swap to fire, Flame Wheel will activate and after let's say 10 seconds, you can use Deploy Jade Sphere under the fire attunement and summon a phoenix and fire field.

Arguably this is similar to Tempest where you can choose to stay longer in an attunement to do an overload or swap to different attunements.

BUT, my idea is if you have more than 1 circular projectile active, the Deploy Jade Sphere skill will provide quickness or superspeed (these can be a traits). This is very on theme for the name "catalyst" since the circular projectiles act as a catalyst to speed up your actions.

For example, if you swap to fire, Flame Wheel will activate. Then you swap to water and Icy Coil will activate (for balance reasons, it can refresh the durations of all circular projectiles). If you then use Deploy Jade Sphere in water attunement, it will summon the kirin, a water field, and provide quickness to allies. Another fun idea is if you have all 4 circular projectiles active, the quickness duration can be longer. For example, 1 active circular projectile will provide no quickness, 2 will provide 5 seconds of quickness, 3 will provide 10 seconds of quickness, and 4 will provide 20 seconds if quickness (all subject to balance). Ideally if you swap to different attunements on cooldown and with the right traits and gear, you should be able to maintain quickness for allies.

I can see at least two different playstyles with this mechanic (which can have associated traits).

1. Swap attunement, wait until Deploy Jade Sphere can be activated and use it for the combo field (associated traits for this playstyle can focus on combos). I imagine for balance reasons, the duration of the circular projectile will expire shortly after Deploy Jade Sphere can be activated.

2. Swap attunements quickly until you have 4 circular projectiles and then activate Deploy Jade Sphere for a long quickness buff (associated traits for this playstyle can focus on boon support).

Edited February 4, 2023 by Volcanis.4872

[Mivikon.2701]

23 hours ago, stormemperor.3745 said:

Rewarding reapers by letting them die sooner. Could have added easier access to stab

necro in general needs better mobility and access to stab to make them competitive in wvw. right now it sucks.

[Owatari.1609]

Please give Scourge alacrity, we scourge players are tired of playing dps and rarely Healscourge.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

10 hours ago, VictorLeal.4102 said:

melee range of the caster

same as GS, duh.

[Mivikon.2701]

so there are several classes with insane mobility in competitive modes. yet, over time mesmer has been nerfed again and again. Now you are taking away more mobility by removing superspeed from manipulations... genius move, don't do it. At least give mirage its second dodge back. And actually the CD on manipulations needs to be shorter. or, make blink an ammo skill... Or if you aren't goin going to level things up by giving the second dodge back, then make skills like Lingering Thoughts an evade frame. Right now, both necro and mesmer needs  some simple changes so they can be more competitive with eles, willbenders, engineers, etc. in the mobility and sustain departments.

 

Also, WvW REALLY needs some basic fixes. Like warclaw leap sucks, pounce is useless, and they get stuck on stairs, twigs, pebbles... If a thief can outrun a warclaw you know its not right.

[nuwanomura.5763]

3 hours ago, schento.4980 said:

you know that Spellbreaker is overpowered?

with the 50% damage on top of its 1.32 power ratio in PvP breaching strike easyly hits for 7-8k before stuff like "Sun and Mun" style and "Pure Strikes" get involved. I personaly have hit 12.5k crit with Breaching Strike this monday.

btw, Elementalist's base health is 11,5k.

 

still wanna stick to your argument?

Haha they buffing elementarist where in high rank competitive they had a team with 5 people elementarist and they nerfing on 45% damage with no compensation.

 

yeah you right warrior needs to be nerfed that hard ... if any other class got gutted on frickin 45% damage i bet people would be up in arms.

 

but warrior is the punching bag.

 

lemme remember you berserker sucks on competitive also does bladesworn spell breaker was the only viable  high level warrior.

 

now we are relegated to a walking WOD.

 

 

 

 

[VeriBeri.9528]

Mesmer balance as usual: done by a person, who doesn't even play the class in PvE environment, and doesn't care that 2 out of 3 specs are pretty much dead.
Chrono is bad in every single way, except raid tank. It's painful to play, it's not a good support, and as a dps, it doesn't even come close to any other power spec.
Time Warp is one of the the worst skills in the game, with its ridiculous cooldown to boon ratio. Only quick chrono would ever use that crap, and you didn't even bother reducing its cooldown in PvE. Also, adding superspeed to a stationary ground effect, is just *chefs kiss*, now the spec is gonna pop off to the moon. Adding complexity to the gameplay, by making people decide if they wanna stand faster, or run away from boons.
The way wells work, will never make chrono a good support anyway, because people DON'T STAND IN THEM. Make them mobile, or at least apply boons instantly, like specter wells. Let's not pretend chrono is ever going to be viable in PvE in the current state.
Regarding mantra changes: no one is using mantras in PvE, because they are just bad, and now, no one is going to use them even harder. Add a cast time to a weak skill, and you get a waste of space, not worth equipping at all.

 

Pretty sad to see, that the new balance team is mostly focusing on WvW and PvP, treating PvE like it's an inferior game mode, and acting like adjusting the dmg values by 0.1 is solving all the problems for underpowered specs.

 

[VictorLeal.4102]

meow

Edited February 4, 2023 by VictorLeal.4102
wrong

[VictorLeal.4102]

49 minutes ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

same as GS, duh.

lmao so this going to be stupid, that's why i dont wanted to believe on this.. 

What's the point of a 600 range shout now only works with a 130 range? The information is not complete, I hope it's not really that

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

4 minutes ago, VictorLeal.4102 said:

What's the point of a 600 range shout now only works with a 130 range?

shouts will work just like they do now, but they'll have reduced cd plus additional effect when hitting a target on melee.

for example: with "Rise!" you summon 2 horrors if you hit just one target. After the update you will summon 2 horrors plus one extra horror if your target is on melee range.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

deleted

Edited February 4, 2023 by Stand The Wall.6987