May 2 Balance Update Preview

[BatelGeuce.3591]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:39 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

but it didn't quite have the impact that we wanted

I like this, it sums up the balance changes very neatly.

Edited May 1, 2023 by BatelGeuce.3591

[Varnix.5204]

Nerf to berserker arc divider but nothing to scorched earth? What a meme 🤣🤣

You devs don't realise where power serkers damage actually comes from in that build and its hilarious. 

[Xoranium.6481]

On 4/21/2023 at 11:02 PM, Poki.8235 said:

PvE wise, Thief is not in a good spot right now. It's not in a terrible spot, I won't be hyperbolic here, but Thief needs a look. I'm glad to hear there's going to be a qdps option and a look at support specter, but this is like the 3rd or 4th patch that's supposed to help support specter, and support specter still does not exist. I want to give the benefit of a doubt, but I feel like someone here is out of touch with the class and needs to take another hard look at it.

Power Daredevil is in a bad spot right now. It's damage is lower then Power Berserker on the benchmarks, a build that was famously a joke post banner update. It's damage is lower then several boondps builds, while providing no support whatsoever. Go and look at DD dodges, then go and look at Vindicator dodges. Vindi does more damage, the damage buff lasts over twice as long, does vulnerability, doesn't force you to move (very important for quality of life for classes that use dodge for their damage rotation). The only thing Bounding Dodges has going for it is the finisher, but it's a leap so it's not a big deal anyway. This is a very blatant example of power creep, but since encounters also got creeped up Daredevil got left in the dust and the changes it recieved are not enough. I'd strongly recomend looking over other DD traits more closely as well. Brawler's Tanacity reduces rechange of Physical skills, but I thought you wanted to get rid of traits like those? Havoc Specialist makes you play with no dodges for "optimal" play, but you could change it to "15% damage when endurance is not full" instead, and the build would still not be up to snuff. Impacting Disruption is bad since the damage will never outperform Havoc Specialist or Staff Master, and speaking of Staff Master it's a worse Havoc Specialist too. The entire Major line is 3 traits who's goal is to do damage with no variety that's interesting, no actual choice to be made. Buff staff a bit and look to Vindicator and make Daredevil an interesting dodge focused build just like Vindicator is. Have dodges to a lot more.

Condi Daredevil, to contrast, is good, but unpopular. That's because it's very annoying to play. Make Death Blossom stop when it hits an enemy, like Weakening Charge and make Lotus Training not move you and this will be a much frendlier build to play. I would like to point out however that Condi Daredevil only uses Daredevil for the dodge and other traits are being wasted. Maybe nerf Lotus Training a wee bit, and add the power back into a condi focused Major trait instead of having 3 power major traits?

And since I started talking about condi thieves, I'll mention the elephant in the room: VENOMS! I don't think there's another class that's so hard reliant on it's utility skills for the simple simple role of doing damage. I would love it for venoms to be completely reworked into a completely different set of utilities because right now they are, ironically, a toxic influence on the class and tie up the power budget for more interesting options.

Power Deadeye got a good rework a little while back, even though the community had to step it to voice their concerns about the nerfs that were there in the preview that thankfully didn't hit Live. The small movement on the Riffle variant does a lot to the quality of the experience, and the Dagger build, even though the benchmarks make it seem way too overpowered, is actually in a good spot. It's hard to play, punishing for mistakes, rewards positioning, and has drawbacks in the form of lacking support and being single target focused. That's good. Strong strengths balanced out by specific weaknesses.

Spectre. Of, spectre. It's ok. It's not great. It's full of failed experiments that I think should be reworked. Points for trying, but let's not keep uniqueness just for uniqueness sake and nothing else, ok? Let's go over it.

First of, Ally Targeting. I want a hotkey to turn off being able to use skills on allies and an icon on the UI next to the skill bar of weapons that have Ally Targeting showing it's status. There are times I target allies, but they are extremely rare, and most often are by mistake because any other class doesn't need a specific target for most of their skills. You just swing your sword or wave your wand and it'll hit the enemy in front of you, even if you accidentally clicked on an ally, but what  made GW2 so fluid and unlike other "Tab Target" MMO's is a privilege not awarded to the poor spectre.

Next, Shadow Shroud. I'll start with the fact that you should buff the health coefficient somewhat. Your argument about changing it to the same as the Necromancer shroud was sound, up to the point that someone forgot that Thief is a low base health class while a necromancer is a high base health class. That's why the coefficient was no high in the first place. Now, besides that, the shroud is a powerful tool for damage, because it let's you do damage while regenerating initiative in the background. Do you know why Daredevil builds are less impressive then Deadeye and Specter builds? Because Deadeye has infinite initiative with Malivious Seven, and Specter has someone to do while waiting for initiative, but Daredevil does not. Hey, maybe that's another thing you should buff for Daredevil.... sorry, gotten offtopic there. Now as much as Shroud is good for damage, it has sero support, and that was pretty surprising. Yes, you take damage for one person, but that's just one person. GW2 is not a 2 player game in the places where balance matters this much. I'm interested to see what you do with it in the aforementioned June update. I'd love to see a trait that ups the tethers to 5 and does something more interesting then just taking damage.

Finally, wells. First off, please, for the love of the Pale Tree, do something about pathfinding. So many times I tried to cast a well under myself only to get a "No valid path to target" error. This is especially prevalent in some fractals and the Kaineng Overlook strike. Walk around on the main platform in KO casting wells and see how many places you can find with a broken pathmesh. At least make it so that, if you want to cast a well within a small radius of you and it fails doe to pathing, you cast it where you stand. It's better to cast anything then nothing. And also, the gimmick of casting boons and conditions that are missing was a failed one. Well of Bounty was already changed, Well of Sorrow needs to be changed too, especially since the "If enemy has all conditions already then..." option is THE WORST ONE OF THEM ALL! 1 stack of Torment? You're penalizing me for the fact that I have 9 other people in my group and because of that the enemy has pretty much all the condies on them at all times anyway? Also, rework Shadowfall somehow. It's worse then Basilisk Venom for almost all CC scenarios, and have DOUBLE the cooldown. (huh, venoms are a problem again, weird...)

So yeah, Condi Specter needs a small buff, nothing too major, and some system changes and it'll be fine. Buff it some extra to compensate for the lack of clieve and you'll have a really good build instead of just a good one.

Alac Specter is very simmilar, so it's also ok. Buff the Alac granted by the trait from 4 to 4.5 or 5 sec though. That would give the build a little friendly leeway.

 

OK, Wall of text over. I'm glad to have this off my chest. I've been meaning to write this semi-rant for a long while now. I hope it doesn't fall of deaf ears.

Edit: Hi, it's me again, forgot to add one more thing. Please remember that thieves have initiative and what that entails. A few patches ago you buffed might given by Scepter 2. If this was any other class that would be great, but this is a thief. Thieves don't have the luxury of using their entire skillbar, and any utility skills on the main skill bar come at great cost. Specter does not have the oportunity to use Scepter 2. Ever. It's a dead skill. Specter must do damage with Scepter 3 with every ounce of initiative to be relevent. Please keep that in mind. Many thief weapons have dead skills because of this.

Excellent summary, take note Anet.. (Especially the condi Daredevil :😜)

[Twilightmage.8309]

Can rifle deadeye please get a pve game play loop that isn't mashing the 2 key for solo content, and 3 key in single target group pve >stealth and 1 over and over. You also pretty much never kneel while alone so why do we have it besides the projectile block. It just feels so sad that we have more skills than a normal weapon but use less of them. Sword Pistol is still what you are swapping too for any aoe that isnt neatly lined up as well making rifle feel even worse in pve when virt has every single dagger skill, its elite, and its shatters pierce.

[Burnfall.9573]

(I will not mention servers: Anet can check the server that I am in)

 

I know this is an very old known issue; since day 1 of WvW.  At the moment, my server sits at the top spot with  partnering with another server who sits at the middle. They are 2 vs 1 a little server - Bullying the little server at their home)

 

There has been thousands of thousands of posts, threads about this issue. Will there be any solutions to this matter, in upcoming Balance patches?

 

(I know that it is a game and it's just a game...but there has to be a middle ground...a fine line to this serious issue, There real human beings with emotions playing in those servers who are constantly out of options and are being Bullied constantly because of their limitations)

 

Bullying goes far and I believe that 2 vs 1 server Bullying need be taken into serious considerations.

 

IT HAVE TO STOP!!

Edited May 2, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[Xenesis.6389]

lol two patches in a row now they haven't listened to any feedback, kitten so much so they can't even be bothered to repost the preview notes in actual patch notes, just a link back to the thread lmao.

🤭🍿

[dXfile.2863]

Am I tripping or did they say they'd do something about support (and many builds not support-focused, really) having to spam utilities far too much? Cause they didn't do anything to alleviate that in the slightest, right?

[Xenesis.6389]

6 minutes ago, dXfile.2863 said:

Am I tripping or did they say they'd do something about support (and many builds not support-focused, really) having to spam utilities far too much? Cause they didn't do anything to alleviate that in the slightest, right?

That's in the June 27th balance patch. Well for the ones that spam utility for alacrity and quickness, dunno about others.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Xenesis.6389

[Mike.7983]

Alac mirage is dead or severely broken, 1 second of alac with 3 clones and 33% boon duration? 

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

16 minutes ago, dXfile.2863 said:

Am I tripping or did they say they'd do something about support (and many builds not support-focused, really) having to spam utilities far too much? Cause they didn't do anything to alleviate that in the slightest, right?

they said for the June 27th update. I didn't notice, at first, the bold titles of each section included dates for some of the news.

[Moradorin.6217]

@Fire Attunement.9835@Cal Cohen.2358(last login 2019 lol) @Butterfly Kingdom.8349

 

Mirage had two dodges in all modes about 4 years ago. Then in a quick-fix fashion it had one dodge removed only in pvp/wvw. this left it with a lack of continuity when moving between pvp/wvw and pve. People got past it and moved on until EoD came out with Vindicator designed for one dodge which made one dodge a topic again. Then they gave VIndicator a 2nd dodge in wvw/pvp/pve and Mirage STILL has one dodge in wvw/pvp and two in pve. It ruins the continuity of play for the spec. It should be fixed.

 

A fix could be normal dodge, one dodge in all 3 modes or two+ dodges in all 3 modes. What is needed is consistentcy and continuity!

 

At this point CMC seems afraid of the topic. He mentioned Mirage's Missing dodge when they announced they would give Vindicator a 2nd dodge. Nothing since and it seems like we are running out of balance updates so as I suspected previously. I think CMC simply has demonstrated a major bias against Mirage, specifically, and Mesmer, generally. I hope it will get fixed, but I dont have much faith in the current balance team.

STILL WAITING!!!

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Moradorin.6217

[JohnDoe.5891]

.

Edited May 13, 2023 by JohnDoe.5891

[Arewn.2368]

Power Berserker buff was sorely needed. 

Adding critical strike chance to a trait that is taken by power builds is a good idea.

 

Adding critical strike chance only when you are in Berserk mode is a terrible idea that doubles down on one of the spec's main problems. Berserker is already too dependant on being in Berserk mode, considering the lack of tools to manage/re-enter it.

Optimizing Power Berserker dps is now going to make you even worse when not in Berserk mode. And the simple reality is that you can't always be in Berserk. And you have poor tools for deciding when you are.

This also conflicts with Arena Net's earlier philosophy of moving away from conditional critical chance modifiers.

[dead.7638]

Good to see cmc being true to only balancing and buffing his favorites.   Wow, nothing changes, does it?   

[Biermeister.4678]

Why the hate on Mirage they killed the evades by reducing energy a few years ago and now the Alacrity.

[Sylberin.7961]

So Mirage only had one actually meta high-end PVE build in the form of alac which doesn't even work in half the fights because you don't get enough time to build up boons properly AND are forced into condi and now you just ran it into the ground dps-wise while other alacs are still allowed to do as much (if not more) damage for half the effort?

 

Now the only true fights in the game where Mirages aren't outclassed in basically every way by Cvirt are Desmina and the Twin Largos, good ratio guys, keep it up, one day you might just become a real balance team.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Sylberin.7961

[Burnfall.9573]

1 hour ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

He hates mesmers. 🤷‍♂️

 

Supposely the reasons why Anet nerfed Mesmer Profession dodges was because it made them "Unkillable" to die.

 

I find this very baffling and insulting because Mesmer Profession can not Perma-Stealth unlike Thief Profession whom Anet Favors for 11 years including Guild Wars 2 - beta, with their Perma-Stealth

 

With so much Favoritism for their Favorite Thief Profession; they gave it an extra dodge...totaling 3 dodges. 2 Dodges were not enough for an 11 Years Broken-Overturned Profession in the entire game. So why not take 1 dodge away from Mesmer Profession and give it to it instead and Blame it for being "unkillable" and "Toxic"??

 

Lastly, there were absolutely no mention of Perma-Stealth or Stealth Mechanic in Anet visions for Guild Wars 2

Moving along; it seem like Anet is slowly bringing Mesmer Profession to its roots.

 

-Mesmer Profession- One and Only One Mesmer Profession--Forever!!

 

The True Mesmer Profession is a hidden Gem. who is alongside with Necromancer Profession..is the most Powerful Profession in Guild Wars history.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mesmer

 

One of Mesmer Profession Most Powerful Skills Is called - Blackout!. This skill alone would give Mesmer Profession the Respect that they deserve.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Blackout

Edited May 2, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[Xenesis.6389]

11 minutes ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

Supposely the reasons why Anet nerfed Mesmer Profession dodges was because it made them "Unkillable" to die.

No it was nerfed because they're lazy and didn't want to deal with the problem because they don't like the class.

[Burnfall.9573]

33 minutes ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

No it was nerfed because they're lazy and didn't want to deal with the problem because they don't like the class.

 

In comparison to Thief Profession 11 years dominance in the game, how it is excluded from hard nerfs...How Mesmer Profession was mal-treated throughout the years...with having their 2nd dodge permanently removed ..I agree that Anet don't like Mesmer Professionn.

Afterall, this is Gwen Thackeray (Mesmer) --Guild Wars--

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[Moradorin.6217]

2 hours ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

No it was nerfed because they're lazy and didn't want to deal with the problem because they don't like the class.

Agreed. I think its hard to argue against the point that it was a lazy quick-fix type solution to remove a dodge from Mirage in wvw/pvp 4 years ago and never bother to update the fix to either normalize Mirage with one dodge in all 3 game modes or normalize its damage and capability with two dodges in pvp/wvw. Since they did the quick-fix 4 years ago and never did a thing since. Then additionally designed Vindicator with one dodge then a few months later decide to give it a 2nd dodge in all 3 game modes. Meanwhile, NOTHING for Mirage's 4 year old one dodge quick-fix situation. Its either lazyness or lazy incompetence.

[Zash.1564]

On 4/21/2023 at 12:46 PM, Ulysses.2058 said:

Playing this game is still suffering.

And yet, here you are.

[Seneca.6319]

Don't know about the Mirage changes if they are too bad, you might need to go full Ritualist to get the same effect. 

 

The Stone Heart change is definitely a big nerf 4s when getting into Earth and 1 s when leaving. There's really no reason to even pick Earth traitline. Stone Heart was the only reason why people would pick it up and now that is gone too.

 

Balance Team = Nerf Team.

 

But keep at it ANet! I can see your goal is to end up having a game being played only by your testers and devs :) I think you are definitely improving there!

Edited May 2, 2023 by Seneca.6319

[Moradorin.6217]

1 minute ago, Seneca.6319 said:

But keep at it ANet! I can see your goal is to end up having a game being played only by your testers and devs 🙂 I think you are definitely improving there!

agreed

 

[Burnfall.9573]

Thanks to Anet continual disregard to Stealth Mechanic; there is a bug or whatever...which is allowing one of Mesmer Profession; Specialization to Perma-Stealth.

-we just fought one and that Mesmer Profession player said that its a bug-

Way to go....lol

"If Thief Profession can abuse Stealth; why not the rest of us!!"

"Perma-Stealth is working as intended!"

-I've long done reporting Stealth abusers...or whichever it is called-

Anet does not care to fix stealth, why should I care too.

 

--WHY NOT ONCE AND FOR ALL, REMOVE THE TOOL IN THE GAME FROM BEING ABUSED. PERIOD!!??--

Edited May 3, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[AlPower.2476]

Well they didn't fix scrapper at the end.

But at least flamethrower incendary ammo is now 17 cd in core engi (with tools).

Could it make condi core  engi viable again in PvE? (viable ≠ meta btw)

Edited May 3, 2023 by AlPower.2476