February 14 Balance Update Preview

[Alejandragon.1592]

Seems like a good oportunity to give a stun break to Specter, if you didn't know Specter is the ONLY elite spec that doesn't have a stun break in it's kit.

I personally would want to give it to Well of Silence, seeing that it has the longest cooldown of the regular wells.

Edit: Also PLEASE give some love to Well of Tears, it's probably the least used of all the wells.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Alejandragon.1592

[Mardomus.6984]

I'm disgusted with how Devs have treated Engineers throughout the years. You guys really need to sit down and fix this profession. Core abilities/specs need work, Scrapper needs work, and turrets, and our talents as well as improvements on kits with unique talents for them. There are MANY suggestions in forums and you continue to turn a eye. The "F" are you doing? At this point, I'm sure me and many are fed up to want to curse the crap out this Dev team. Straight disgusting. Play the spec dang spec. You call this Balanced? Trash

Btw what Rapid Regeneration going to do? Heal for 121 HP? 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Mardomus.6984

[noiwk.2760]

disappointing really..   

Cata will continue to be op
spell breaker will continue to be op

necro will continue to be useless garbage weak class..  
 

[SummonMinion.7306]

My feedback for the necro/reaper changes from a competitive standpoint is that they were overall okay in handling the things they chose to change but disappointing due to the small scope of changes.

Core

Warhorn: Honestly, anything that buffs this almost useless weapon is welcome.

Banshee’s Wail: Only concern with this trait is it’s just a nerfed trait due to the cd reduction now being baked baseline into the weapon (not complaining about that, WH was trash). The issue is that the trait was never a competitive choice when it offered both the cd reduction and 50% boost (excluding the LF gain per hit). Now it offers half of what it did before as a trait so I’m seeing even less of a reason to ever pick it up. Maybe buffing the 50% bonus effectiveness to 66% or 75% and finally having the effectiveness also affect the LF gain per hit would make this trait more attractive.

Dagger: Kinda sad that the auto chain will continue to be useless in anything but PVE but I’m happy overall with the changes.

Reaper

Augury of Death: Similar concerns to Banshee’s Wail. The CD reduction was the only reason people picked up this skill. Hopefully the lifesteal effect is buffed or the cd reduction is replaced by another useful effect.

Note: I wasn’t there to watch the entire stream and some people are saying that this trait now adds chilled to all enemies hit which would be amazing, but since I’m not seeing that in the official post I’ll just assume that it’s speculation for now.

Shouts: I like the change of having bonus effects granted when hitting enemies within a certain range threshold. I’m just hoping the range threshold to get those bonus effects isn’t something unusable like a 130 range and is more along the lines of 240 or 300 (to mirror Soul Eater).

What Also Could’ve Been Addressed

Greatsword:

The changes to shouts, WH, and dagger shows that y’all are finally addressing the fact that necro never really had any viable melee options and are finally encouraging closer engagements outside of shroud.

GS still maintains the original theme for Reaper being a slow but heavy hitting class and the slow skills overall have a decent payoff except for the auto chain and GS2 (Gravedigger). GS2 never feels rewarding to cast and I’d much rather rely on lucky crits from GS3 than GS2. Also, Reaper’s GS auto chain isn’t marginally stronger than any other classes’ GS auto chain so I don’t see the logic in it being so much slower. Please either make the chain shorter or make it stronger so that it actually makes sense that it has such a slow windup.

Soul Eater:

I still don’t see why the healing while in shroud was taken away and how the trait gave the Reaper “too much sustain”. If this trait is going to just be a power version of Parasitic Contagion, then I don’t see why the healing while out of shroud shouldn’t be buffed especially since it has a very limiting range threshold.

[Ovark.2514]

sPvP Warrior Main here. There have been only 4 of those which have contributed meaningful insights in this thread so far. I don't know if Roy and CMC are looking at the profession sub-forums which is where my contributions have been going, so I'm copy-pasting them here for visibility.

 

SIGNET OF STAMINA

Signet of Stamina: It's true that basically no one takes this skill in PvP even though it provides absurdly good 100% uptime un-stripable vigor and full condition cleanse. The reason people don't take it is that there are only so many utility skill slots you can dedicate to defense without sacrificing a lot of offensive effectiveness. While signet of stamina is very strong, it is notably NOT a stunbreak and notably NOT instant activation (so you cannot use it while disabled) . The 0.25s activation (before quickness) is so fast however, that you will only ever be interrupted when your opponent is mindlessly spamming CC or you are hit with random aoe CC. This means there is little reason to even have a cast time imo because anytime it's interrupted it will feel random and un-earned. You could just give it instant activation and/or a stunbreak function but I'm 100% certain that would make this skill instantly broken in sPvP. My suggestions for this skill are as follows:

 

Let the changes you already have planned go through. IN ADDITION reduce the passive endurance gain to 25% instead of 50% AND Give the skill either a stunbreak or let it be insta-cast (can use while disabled). This does 3 things that are healthy for the game: It allows Vigor to still be valuable to the warrior as it is stronger than the 25%. It allows the skill be to useful in more builds since it is a stunbreak or at least insta-cast to remove conditions. Finally, it keeps warriors from becoming another Dare Devil from HoT launch which evade CONSTANTLY and are incredibly un-fun to play against.

SUNDERING LEAP

This skill is HORRIBLE. Not once since HoT release has this skill been used in any decent, or even half decent sPvP build. Players don't use this skill because it does nothing well. It doesn't leap far enough to help players escape from unfavorable situations. The animation is clunky on-top of that so it doesn't even move you as far as say Savage Leap, yet it has a much longer CD. And afaik because it's ground targeted, you can't swap weapons mid-cast like you can with Savage Leap to get extra distance. There is not even an evade on the skill to help you survive a little bit. I'm aware that the flavor is that you're supposed to use this skill to engage enemies to get adrenaline to enter berserk mode (or maintain it for longer), but it's TOO EASY to Block, Dodge, Invuln, Blind, or otherwise avoid. This is a reoccurring issue with all damaging utility skills on warrior. They take up valuable real estate on the utility bar yet often are incredibly difficult to make useful (with notable exception Bulls Charge). Since the immense blind+block-spam in this game doesn't seem to ever be going away, certain warrior skills must be immune in some way to make 20-40s CD utility skills not feel like a complete waste to use. This could be done through trait interactions but in-order not to pigeon-hole builds, these would best be addressed on their own. Below are a couple directions I could see taking Sundering Leap in-order to actually allow it to see use.

 

1) The Offensive Route: Make the skill unblockable AND give it either Blindness Immunity OR Resistance for 1sec on activation (not when landing). While this is a solid option, I predict this will still not see much play. If you add a 0.5 evade to the skill, then I think it will see play. I'm usually very hesitant to suggest adding more evasion to the game, but this is one instance where I think it's warranted as, unlike spellbreaker, Berserker doesn't have built-in evasion skills.

 

2) The Defensive Route: Give the skill a 0.5sec Evade, a stunbreak, and the aegis on landing. I don't think this is a particularly healthy way to tune the skill but at the same time I think this is the best way to ensure it will see play. But isn't that how it is. . .  the most unhealthy skills/traits for the game are always the ones people abuse in sPvP. . .

 

ETERNAL CHAMPION

I like this proposed change! Its interesting strong, and can be played around.

The issues I see are that while Berserkers will almost always take Savage Instinct even when using the other GM traits, Dead or Alive is too weak compared to Blood Reaction to take it when you're NOT using Eternal Champion.

 

I would like to see Blood Reckoning get the +2s to berserk duration in PvP like it is in PvE. THEN I would like to see Dead or Alive gain that +2 sec berserk mode duration increase as well. That way, ALL BERSERKER BUILDS can benefit from taking this trait, not just Eternal Champion.

 

As an added bonus, I would really like to see the damage to healing on both Blood Reckoning and Dead or Alive increased to %50. As it stands, the heal is pretty bad unless you're running it for more burns; and even then I'm not sure it's the best choice. . .

OUTRAGE

This skill does so many things but at the same time is hard to justify taking because of how effectively weak it is, especially since it competes with Shake it Off. I have a proposal for how to change this skill to actually make it fun AND useful in all game modes.

 

Outrage: CD 20s. Breaks stun. Gain 10 Adrenaline. Extend the duration of Berserk Mode 1s. When BREAKING STUN WHILE IN BERSERK MODE: Extend berserk mode duration by 2 seconds, and FULLY RECHARGE THIS SKILL.

 

This would make the skill much more thematic and allow for more counterplay as foes will wait to CC chain you when you're not in berserk mode. Another idea I had was to change Last Blaze so that in addition to applying burning, it allows rage skills to extend the duration of Berserk Mode. That way the utility skills don't have to have that on them AND Last Blaze is useful for non-condi builds.

[Dr Meta.3158]

49 minutes ago, SummonMinion.7306 said:

My feedback for the necro/reaper changes from a competitive standpoint is that they were overall okay in handling the things they chose to change but disappointing due to the small scope of changes.

Core

Warhorn: Honestly, anything that buffs this almost useless weapon is welcome.

Banshee’s Wail: Only concern with this trait is it’s just a nerfed trait due to the cd reduction now being baked baseline into the weapon (not complaining about that, WH was trash). The issue is that the trait was never a competitive choice when it offered both the cd reduction and 50% boost (excluding the LF gain per hit). Now it offers half of what it did before as a trait so I’m seeing even less of a reason to ever pick it up. Maybe buffing the 50% bonus effectiveness to 66% or 75% and finally having the effectiveness also affect the LF gain per hit would make this trait more attractive.

Dagger: Kinda sad that the auto chain will continue to be useless in anything but PVE but I’m happy overall with the changes.

Reaper

Augury of Death: Similar concerns to Banshee’s Wail. The CD reduction was the only reason people picked up this skill. Hopefully the lifesteal effect is buffed or the cd reduction is replaced by another useful effect.

Note: I wasn’t there to watch the entire stream and some people are saying that this trait now adds chilled to all enemies hit which would be amazing, but since I’m not seeing that in the official post I’ll just assume that it’s speculation for now.

Shouts: I like the change of having bonus effects granted when hitting enemies within a certain range threshold. I’m just hoping the range threshold to get those bonus effects isn’t something unusable like a 130 range and is more along the lines of 240 or 300 (to mirror Soul Eater).

What Also Could’ve Been Addressed

Greatsword:

The changes to shouts, WH, and dagger shows that y’all are finally addressing the fact that necro never really had any viable melee options and are finally encouraging closer engagements outside of shroud.

GS still maintains the original theme for Reaper being a slow but heavy hitting class and the slow skills overall have a decent payoff except for the auto chain and GS2 (Gravedigger). GS2 never feels rewarding to cast and I’d much rather rely on lucky crits from GS3 than GS2. Also, Reaper’s GS auto chain isn’t marginally stronger than any other classes’ GS auto chain so I don’t see the logic in it being so much slower. Please either make the chain shorter or make it stronger so that it actually makes sense that it has such a slow windup.

Soul Eater:

I still don’t see why the healing while in shroud was taken away and how the trait gave the Reaper “too much sustain”. If this trait is going to just be a power version of Parasitic Contagion, then I don’t see why the healing while out of shroud shouldn’t be buffed especially since it has a very limiting range threshold.

The chill on hit on shouts by the augury of death trait may have been confused by my post/rant of desirable changes to reaper.
 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Dr Meta.3158

[Torbins.2367]

Hammer combo deals easy 2k +  4-6k + 2-3k damage EVERY 8 seconds cause his F1 has 6 secs cd, 2th hammer skill 4 secs and 3th skill 8 secs. I'm even not saying anytning about a ton of CC😱.
 
SUGGESTION: Make hammer's stun on F1 lower on 1th adrenaline lvl but increase it on 2th and 3th levels. So you will not kill Warrior's hammer but it will make it weaker on Spellbreakers. For example:

Hammer Adrenaline level 1:  1 sec stun > 0.5 sec stun
Hammer Adrenaline level 2:  2 sec stun > 2.25 sec stun (or leave it as it is now)
Hammer Adrenaline level 3:  3 sec stun > 3.5 sec stun (or even 3.75 s)

So if you want to kill bonus damage on spellbreakers dagger F1's, now it seems better to give someting instead of 45% lost damage. I dunno, maybe +2 might for 5 sec if target has no boons  or +1 second of superspeed if target has no boons.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Torbins.2367
grammar

[Solemn.7029]

Willbender should be taken care of honestly. No real change in PvE since expansion release. it's been a year, alac wb is still super bad. There are so many suggestions alrdy . Anet Can you buff it pls?

[AshkyLicious.4729]

@Cal Cohen.2358

Once again you and your team decided just to plainly ignore Mirage again. We are still waiting for our 2nd dodge, for our traits to get fixed, our ambushes and skills to get buffed and fixed. Mirage is in a very bad position today in competetive mode, because of all the nerfs it's been through. Enough is enough! There's professions in this game now that's 10x more OP than Mirage ever was, so no excuses there!

An solid explanation of what's happening with Mirage from the balance team is required at this point.

This bias needs to end, it's gone too far!

 

[Zyphor.3480]

Honestly, I was expecting more changes for the Scrapper. As I play a little of PvE and a lot WvW, my opinion is based on WvW:

 

-Hammer needs a trait for reduced CD. If you say you want the spec to be more aggressive, make hammer more viable. 

-Expert Examination trait is useless. I have never seen someone playing condi-scrapper. And now with Mechanist, even less. 

-Sneak Gyro is useless. Why our elite skill has 60s CD and gives you only 3s of stealth? We are an utility spec. Our elite doesn't give us any support right now. At least bring back the smoke field, so we can blast is somehow. 

-Defense Field needs a buff. If it's ground targeted, change it so it can reflect missiles.

 

About Rapid Regeneration, looks good IMO.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Zyphor.3480

[Dr Meta.3158]

4 hours ago, Magus.8152 said:

I don't understand why Reaper shroud doesn't get the same thing Specter did. Make them take 33% reduced damage in PvE only, and this would probably just make them able to function again in both fractals and raids.

 

Overall, very...underwhelming. I'd like to see something done to Untamed to allow for an alternative but effective build that doesn't require the high APM of FF.

 

EDIT: Also, please, for the love of the Six, make wells functional underwater for alac specter so we can actually DO the fractal content. 

Death and Reaper shroud do give 33% damage reduction in pve.

[milumilu.1759]

I made a post going through some aspects of the problems this mantra rework will bring, it ain't a in-depth post and might sound somewhat apologetic and superficial, but people are being too silent about this issue, unless you want to delete firebrand from most game modes and make casual players hate the elite, this rework cannot go through.

 

Please, spam me with confused emojis, insult me, hate me, prove me a biased noob, but don't be so silent about this rework, get vocal through multiple posts/topics and social networks to make it more noticeable.
 

 

[MorningGlow.5376]

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

to make it short: the ability to counter skills that were devised to counter stealth is not very healty, therefore i approve the change. having said that, it ultimately concludes in a nerf for rifle-flow aswell, so a follow-up buff to death's judgement is desirable. 

[Ragi.7291]

"cmc" and "Roy", you were both players.
At which moment after 3 months of waiting to get a major patch you are excited about anything?
Me by nothing, it doesn't make me want to create new builds.
I'm not English, I'm sorry if I misspoke.

I'm going to nuance it but some adjustments with the removal of traits that reduced the recast of some weapons and skills category is a very good thing for the game.👍
But the associated traits aren't reworked or changed to give things the class doesn't need.
"Brutish Seals" ranger trait now gives power and fury but it already gives itself a lot of power and fury in many ways, it doesn't need it.
Instead, give him a unique buff that increases his damage for X seconds after using a sign.

Other classes like Reaper could give him quickness every time he shouts, it would bring freshness and novelty.
Besides you can always buff at the time you want shouts will not be used for 2 reasons:

1.  in PVP you need to engage and disengage skills. 

We take "Summon Flesh Wurm" and "spectral walk" from Hot.(7 years ...)😒
If you want Shouts to have a chance to be taken, you need to be able to take them, so put a stunbreak on the reaper's 3 "Infusing Terror" and turn the reaper's 2 "Death's Charge" into a TP like "Sand Swell" to engage and disengage in shroud.

2. in PVE, we will not replace the wells in  builds dps.

So make shouts do something that the wells don't do. 
Bring  Quickness to these teammates via a trait, make shouts usable in Reaper's Shroud!  👈
Shouts will have something that other utilities don't have and won't be in competition.

Let's talk about mantras, whether it's in Mesmer or FB or any other future spe, pre-incanting a skill for 3s during a fight is absolutely not interesting in terms of gameplay, nobody likes that, it's the same thing for the invocation of minions (necro)
Why doesn't like with thief's traps, you press your skill and in 3s or more it is available.
You can do something else while waiting without being blocked.
In Mesmer, it is worse because you must precast and your first charge is boosted but in the vacuum since you make it out of combat.
And now you accentuate that because with improvements that for FB mantra, normal that everyone is to scream at injustice.🤬

Why don't all skills families work the same way?
It's already extremely difficult to balance for you and to use the complete battle system for most players, Simplified!
All shouts must work the same way, all wells, all mantras must have the same triggering, same for all other families ...
If you want something new, you need another family of skills and you need to name something else.

Comfort adjustments like "Lucid Singularity" in tempest are welcome, many other traits and skills would need a similar treatment.😄

There are also problems related to summoning skills that need to be dealt with urgently. 

• Golem of  Mech, does anything, we must call it back every 2s it's a nightmare, it does not tp when we change platform( #fractales or Sabir for exemple), with the trait you added it's a horror.

Also, we have to be able to summon our golem underwater, we are useless, we can't heal, buff, or Dps underwater while there are underwater fractals, meta event leviathan...

• Spirits of ranger, they die constantly, they must remove their life bar and we can tp them even at 2500 range, on full content or the arena is very large or we must move from platform to platform or room to room, Raid or Strikes, it's horrible.
• Minions of  necro, they die very fast, with all the aoe, keep us in combat for an eternity and force us to reinvoke for a long time when they die with a recast time or when we are transformed (#mathias, #samarog for example).

Press the skill, sacrifice some Lf and after 3 seconds like  thief's traps minions are created, because it is not interesting to incant for 3s something again like mantras.


A lack of vision (and financial means surely), and worthless changes because of need to fill the patch.
I'll take the necro again, the change from 6 months ago on the staff and focus, now it's  dagger and warhorn but if these weapons and skills haven't been used for 10 years there's a reason, they need an overhaul, micro adjustments won't change the problem.
You make adjustments but on what spe of  necro, you want us to play the dagger? with what?❔
We need a support weapon for example, you had the choice between focus, dagger, staff (which has been a problem in WvW for 10 years), war horn and there is no advancement.
We have skill and trait Death Magic for example which is used only by AFK farm and bot PVP, same not fixed. 🤬
We were promised a change so that the shell of death does not give more toughness (like the F3>5 of the FB), for the problem of tanking in PVE, the toughness is always there.

Runes and Sigiles, 60% of this aren't used and useless, it will be good to review this, and there is no need for animation or FX budget for this one.
For example, the thief runes, dardevil, sniper .. can be used only on the thief class and their spe. 👈
So you can be more creative and give them tools that class needs with runes and adjust the balancing more finely without having to take into considaration all classes. 

👉The desire to connect and test new builds is what is missing from this patch!👈

There is almost nothing, just percentage adjustments on some skills especially via the removal of traits - 20% recast.
I want to add also the balancing, it's also the balancing of mobs, boss in this game, not just the classes and specializations of players.
Because the differents patches don't fix the problem of the new PVE content that you release that always ask to dps at distance, to move away every 10s, to CC a lot, to dps several target so the classes with pierce and multitarget are always and still advantageous.
We still see the same classes: FB, Mechanist, and Virtuoso.
CM fights are too long + having 10 people with specific roles for a game that is casual and accessible, it's not logical and it doesn't encourage new players to start.

Thank you to those who have read 😋

Edited February 6, 2023 by Ragi.7291

[Radiancee.6537]

Quote

Orders from Above: (PvE) Alacrity duration increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds.

It was shown in the live stream but it was not posted here. 

I really hope you just forgot to mention it because the Alac Renegade would really benefit from this buff, since we need an insane amount of boon duration right now, really hurting the DPS output compared to quickness sources, making qDPS or other aDPS builds way more efficient except for really experienced Alac Renegade players.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Radiancee.6537

[Tnanever.3192]

6 hours ago, noiwk.2760 said:

disappointing really..   

Cata will continue to be op
spell breaker will continue to be op

necro will continue to be useless garbage weak class..  
 

The devs hate necro for some reason - ESPECIALLY scourge.  It's so clear that they need buffs in PvP.  These patch notes defy explanation. 

[Tnanever.3192]

1 hour ago, Ragi.7291 said:

"cmc" and "Roy", you were both players.
At which moment after 3 months of waiting to get a major patch you are excited about anything?
Me by nothing, it doesn't make me want to create new builds.
I'm not English, I'm sorry if I misspoke.

I'm going to nuance it but some adjustments with the removal of traits that reduced the recast of some weapons and skills category is a very good thing for the game.👍
...

You condensed several issues in one post.  Good points especially on necro dagger and warhorn.... and most people don't even mention minions anymore because they're just a dead feature that most players forget about.

[Enduronex.4865]

[deleted]

 

Edited January 14 by Enduronex.4865

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

2 hours ago, Tnanever.3192 said:

The devs hate necro for some reason - ESPECIALLY scourge

a few months ago, Reaper was literal crap in PvE and way below Scourge and Harbinger. Aside from the lack of sustain in semi-hard content, Reaper feels ok now. In sPvP I have no idea but in WvW it's the same, good damage, no sustain but very good if you know how to play it.

so yes, the new dev in charge of balance may not be aware of all the problems but they're listening and trying to fix them. They just can't fix all of them at once.

[Xaylin.1860]

Bit late to the party. I'd like to start with general topics and then at least touch on the points per profession that stand out to me.

CD reduction traits

I'm all for getting rid of those since I understand the issue and the variance in performance those cause. However, sometimes it feels a bit weird for which Utility skills the CD becomes innate. I assume, or at least hope, that this is done based on game data and not just ramdomly.

 
Mantras

First, I love that the change from back then has been somewhat reverted. To me, it makes sense that Utility types play differently and this can come with downsides like having to channel them first. Their current iteration just makes them Shouts with a different name. However, I really have an issue with some of the reasoning and how some professions are treated differently than others in this respect.

Quote

First, recasting all your mantras after changing maps or dying wasn't a particularly fun experience. This primarily applied to firebrand mantras, as mesmer mantras grant a bonus upon finishing their initial casting time.

First, the Mantra changes back then - and also now - are mainly viewed from a Guardian/Firebrand perspective. It is painfully obvious. Why? Charging Mantras out of combat and when switching maps is just as tedious as Mesmer as it is as Firebrand. Yes, there is an effect on cast on Mesmer but this doesn't change the chore. Some of those effects might be good but they hardly are that good that I'd leave my Mantras uncharged on a Mesmer. I just won't.

Quote

The other central idea was that using a mantra's final charge was a mistake most of the time. This is commonly due to an imbalance between the value of the initial charges and that of the final charge (or in the case of mesmer mantras, the on-cast effect) and is something that we feel can be addressed by tuning the effectiveness of these skills.

Second, again, mostly viewed from a Firebrands' perspective. I'm perfectly fine with Utility groups working differently across professions. But in this case it is not just different but just worse vs. better. Funnily enough, Mesmers already are in a similar situation with Wells where the design with a more powerful final effect is worse in most gameplay scenarios. Now would be the time to either move the final charge effect of Firebrands to an on-charge effect or give the on-charge effect of Mesmers as a final charge. Don't play favors! This is not about flavor.

 

Elementalists

Overall I like the direction of making Scepter the DPS weapon and Staff more support focussed. Blind on Flame Burst will probably be fine balancewise but feels a bit weird because it dilludes the differences between Fire and Air - plus, we already got Blinding Ashes. I'm not sure whether I like the changes for Dagger. I will have to play with them first. Pulsing Alacrity on Tempest sounds fine in isolation. I'm just curious how this will impact other Alacrity providers that are already at the lower end of the performance spectrum.

 

Enginer

Most of them sound like mechanical fixes, so sure, fine. The rest is kinda weird. Rapid Regeneration sounds good to me since I never enjoyed Damage Dampener. I still think that Mechanist needs more (balancing) working and that Barrier on AA needs to be looked at as long as it is used to provide Alacrity as well.

 

Guardian

Sweet salty Warrior tears - looking at you, Whirling Wrath. I really like the changes to Hammer and the new Hunters Determination is pretty interesting as well. I've already mentioned what I do and don't like about the Mantra change.

 

Mesmer

This is going to be a longer one. But I want to start with the positive first. Group Aegis and bringing back Temporal Enchanter in a way is great. I love it. But this sadly is where it ends.

Mesmer is in a very weird spott when it comes to Utility skills because most related traits are cramped into Inspiration. With the re-introduction of Temporal Enchanter and Aegis to Manipulations (even though not in Inspiration) this has become worse. Additionally, there is a huge overlap - or at least lack of focus - when it comes to Utility groups. Which one is supposed to be group focussed? Mantras? Wells? Glamours? Now Manipulations with Aegis as well? Aren't those more selfish offensive skills? What about the Aegis provided via Signets? It's such a mess that literally no other profession has. I get that reorganizing traitlines is a lot of work and impacts builds and balance significantly. However, the current situation is just very bad for the profession overall. But let's discuss some changes separately anyway.

• Master of Manipulation: As said earlier, the group Aegis is great. But I see severall issues here. First, Manipulations are mostly selfish and there are only two skills where this set up feels natural: Mass Invisibility and Illusion of Life. Aegis will still provide its benefits on others, especially Blink when escaping. But it still doesn't make much sense this way. We even got a somewhat bad interaction with Mirror where the Aegis will cover the reflect. I also don't see how the group support aspect is supposed to compete with other naturally group oriented Utility skills. That being said, Aegis feels well placed in Chaos. But the approach is very half-assed. Because Inspiration already does the same. Maybe this would have been the point to move some of the support capabilities from Inspiration to Chaos.
• Time Warp and Temporal Enchanter: Superspeed on stationary effects is bad. Period. Superspeed made way more sense with Manipulations or - hot take - Deceptions on Mirage. Also, it feels not very well thought-out that untraited Time Warp provides Superspeed and Temporal Enchanter doubles down on this. Time Warp needed a buff. And I'm happy that we are getting back a Glamour trait. But this just isn't it. And while it was pointed out on the stream, putting TE on the same tier as Wardens Feedback is counter-intuitive as well. Switching it with Mental Defense probably would have made more sense. But wait... then we would have two Utility traits on the same tier. Feels bad man. Maaaaybe Inspiration needs a rework. Just maybe.
• Protected Phantasms: Why not merge the Aegis effect into Mental Defense to cater Phantasm focussed builds and keep the synergy with Persistence of Memory?
• Tides of Time: Appretiated but where is the rest of Might supposed to come from? Charging Mantra of Pain? If Chrono is supposed to provide Boons, I don't think it is a good idea to tag literally everything, Alacrity, Quickness and Might onto one weapon skill.

Now... the elephant in the room. Mirage 2nd dodge?

 

Necromancer

I like most of the Reaper changes. However, I feel that Harbinger and Scourge are in bigger need to be looked at. I guess those are bigger tasks than fine tuning Reaper, so I understand that those Reaper changes might have been the lower hanging fruits.

 

Ranger

I like the change to Empathic Bond. Not sure whether the change to Wilderness Knowledge will change anything at all considering it is still an insanely powerful trait. The change to Primal Cry is nice as well and I'm curious if Brutish Seals will actually become a valid option for sharing Might. However, since it competes with Alacrity on Spirits it will probably just be niche. Nice addition regardless.

 

Revenant

Mostly number crunching so not too exciting. Overall look solid.

 

Thief

I like that Signets of Power encourages active gameplay now. Granting Initiative is also interesting. However, I feel like that this probably should be more of an Acrobatics thing - or Tricks for that matter. Just as with Mesmer, the effect itself feels misplaced. The change to Shadow Meld makes sense but no, it is not still an impressive skill without it. It is an elite. It now needs something else. Not too sure about the other changes.

 

Warrior

While I like the added range to Gunsaber - there is a gun in there after all - I wonder if this way the way to go? Yeah, we are forgoing trade offs for elite specs nowadays. But shouldn't it be a choice on player side to prepare themselves accordingly and pick a ranged weapon if needed? It feels more like the issue is that no MH Pistol was introduced and Bladesworn therefore lacks flexibility when it comes to weapon choice for ranged scenarios. Of course, this would be way more work. But still... feels like taking the easy way out and I'm no sure it was needed. Especially since there is a Dragon Trigger with range as well.

Now, the nerf to Martial Cadence is unfortunate because I preferred this set up over Banners. I'm not surprised, though, considering it was basically DH with Feel My Wrath 2.0. This aside, I'm looking forward to toying with the new Eternal Champion. The change to Full Counter feels reasonable as well.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Xaylin.1860

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

Signets of power cd and adjustments for active use is nice but it also needs to keep what it has now in regards to its passive effects to reward kills. Signet of shadows will not see active use at all if it is just a total rework.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Lithril Ashwalker.6230

[Sagedurk.7358]

On 2/4/2023 at 8:36 PM, Philalive.8654 said:

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.

You're forgetting about alac willy, barely gives any might at all. Hell, it barely gives any boons other than alac. Might, fury and/or resolution (regen as well, which will be overridden if your healer has regen), depending on what alac build you run. We are also locked into 2 GM traits just to give alac in the first place, and we have to hit something to apply it.

 

Not even on heal willy can you hold 25 stacks of might

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

18 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

I ended up soloing the entire thing including the last boss.

OK, I stopped memeing around and got serious, so I ended soloing the dungeon with core Necro, BUT I still got insta-killed by the elementals 3 or 4 times (plus got knocked down like a billion times) and although I killed the last Boss in one go, it was a pain in the kitten.

so yeah, I still think Necro (and Reaper) need some extra defenses/sustain.

[Luki Hofi.9058]

Wish
Catalyst PVE:

• Remove Energy
  • Lower Jade Sphere damage to compensate (not to 0.0001)
  • Increasing Jade Sphere cooldowns could be an option too, but with one or more traits to choose which one still have the current cooldown value. (pick your poison)
    • Fire and Air are the most used jade spheres + earth or water as kinda the optional 3rd depending on energy and rotation
      or water and earth for support builds(if you can generate enough energy which isnt the easiest task if you use staff for example)
• Add some regeneration to a hammer water skill
  • or replace water Jade Sphere resolution with regeneration

Edited February 6, 2023 by Luki Hofi.9058

[Dr Meta.3158]

9 minutes ago, Arianth Moonlight.6453 said:

OK, I stopped memeing around and got serious, so I ended soloing the dungeon with core Necro, BUT I still got insta-killed by the elementals 3 or 4 times (plus got knocked down like a billion times) and although I killed the last Boss in one go, it was a pain in the kitten.

so yeah, I still think Necro (and Reaper) need some extra defenses/sustain.

I think core necro probably needs more damage than sustain and probably an identity overall. I think minion skills like summon madness or Rise should be integrated into death shroud to help fulfill the namesake of necromancer and give the class more of an identity apart from the elite specs. Right now its only thing is having a fear that happens to be the longest but also the most ineffective since its single target and core necro should avoid dueling due to its lack of mobility and lack of ability to handle getting plussed. Overall, all of the core traitlines need reworks too but that's a long process.

As far as sustain for reaper. I wrote up some ideas that would help in that department as well as giving it far more build diversity and usability in group content while sticking to its core themes.