May 2 Balance Update Preview

[Burnfall.9573]

Hi Anet, 

This is not something new at all. I mean...for 11 years allowing Thief Profession-Perma-Stealth to get away with anything....why not right?

-Pve Game Mode= Allowed...why not

-WvW Game Mode= Allowed...why not

-PvP Game Mode= ????...any reports?

(I am going to post a video of how Anet Perma-Stealth works in Pve leather farming)

Please do not attack the Thief Profession player nor Anet

Perma-Stealth is allowed to continue for 11 years+

--note--

Thief Profession - Perma-Stealth has done more than enough damage in Pve and WvW, especially with doing even more with Mesmer Profession - Portal

Throughout Guild Wars 2 11 years+, Thief Profession Perma-Stealth...allowed this Profession with the inclusion of Mesmer Profession - Portal...to go places where no Professions in the game goes and to gain total control of all game modes and manipulates it without limitations.

It is 11 years in the making and it is allowed to continue without having any consequences-hard nerfs

 

Thief Profession - Perma-Stealth Build Included with explanatory guide

why not, right?

-note-

Absolutely, Nothing Ever Happens To Thief Profession - Perma-Stealth 

-Perma-Stealth Has Gone Far Too Long.....-

THIS IS UNACEPTABLE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!

Edited May 8, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[Malavian.4695]

I don't mind nerfs to some of the burns on Guardian.  But I can't stand the change to the mechanic for the use of pages and having to recharge the Mantras.  Too often in WvW when lag is rising I suddenly find I've burnt all my Mantras and Pages when it suddenly catches up.  Then I'm stuck with trying to exit combat to recharge the Mantra.  If you want to nerf the Condibuild then look a the traits they depend upon not the mechanics.

[Haohi.8193]

On 4/22/2023 at 2:05 AM, Tulki.1458 said:

Does the ArenaNet team still know that a quarter of the engineer's core skills are turrets? Because those still haven't changed since before the first expansion. I mean come on, renegade legend skills are basically turrets but with proper design put into them. What's the deal here? At this point it seems like they're being deliberately avoided for some reason.

Is there a hard technical reason why they can't be changed?

Yes. If you havent realized yet this game is basically in maintinance mode and barebone patches like this are all we're ever gonna be getting. put down the copium cause core classes will never get reworked.

[Matoro.9708]

A case study: While it isn't technically within the sphere of balance, anyone who spent even a few minutes on the engineer forums or probably anywhere else would recognize that wanting different mech skins is a huge demand. As I understand it - the devs internally are saying "No." But PR says you can't tell them that, transparency and honesty is bad when you can't tell people what they want to hear. They obviously can't outright lie and say yes either. So we are expected to be happy with a limbo of lame hope or worse, expectancy, for a wide range of issues. Ultimately, I think that is the root of all the unrest and unhappiness here.

Additionally, when it comes to mechanics, there are players who look at the content they want to play and care only about having access to tools that let them explore it. As long as OP meta builds exist, then the game works. There's also players who care more about the tools themselves, and that the experience of playing is more in the RP value of how they win than what they win. This second type of player is probably being hemorrhaged by lack of reciprocal feedback. 

[Burnfall.9573]

Also, I would like to add; Anet, can you Please! remove Reflect from the game. Seriously, it is Atrocious and do not encourage healthy competitive play.

 

Thief Profession, Mesmer Profession, Elementalist Profession....Reflect, Reflect, Reflect

It Is Absurd and Pathetic that it is  considered skillful play

Reflect Belongs In A Action Flight Simulator Game

Reflect Does Not Belong In Guild Wars 2!!  Remove It In Its Entirely!!

(Guild Wars 2 is already frown upon as a "Gimmick game", so removing it, would help deviate the the game image...along side with; stun, daze, entangle, +1 shot, blind, steal, teleport, pulls...etc).
 

It is just too much that the players experience can handle!!

Edited May 12, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[The Boz.2038]

Hey, remember when they said retaliation was toxic for the game? Good times, lol.

[zeyeti.8347]

18 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

Reflect Does Not Belong In Guild Wars 2!!  Remove It In Its Entirely!!

Matthias Gabrel the raid boss agrees with you .... And i am pretty sure giganticus lupicus , back when he was considered the endgame boss , would really appreciate that .

You feel like a soulbeast player having too many times his rapid fire fired back .

And what will all those skills become ? I counted , there is more than 30 skills , traits , ... that acts as reflect or have the potency to reflect , need to all rework them ... seeya in 10 balances patches then.

Edited May 12, 2023 by zeyeti.8347

[Haohi.8193]

On 5/11/2023 at 11:18 AM, Matoro.9708 said:

A case study: While it isn't technically within the sphere of balance, anyone who spent even a few minutes on the engineer forums or probably anywhere else would recognize that wanting different mech skins is a huge demand. As I understand it - the devs internally are saying "No." But PR says you can't tell them that, transparency and honesty is bad when you can't tell people what they want to hear. They obviously can't outright lie and say yes either. So we are expected to be happy with a limbo of lame hope or worse, expectancy, for a wide range of issues. Ultimately, I think that is the root of all the unrest and unhappiness here.

Additionally, when it comes to mechanics, there are players who look at the content they want to play and care only about having access to tools that let them explore it. As long as OP meta builds exist, then the game works. There's also players who care more about the tools themselves, and that the experience of playing is more in the RP value of how they win than what they win. This second type of player is probably being hemorrhaged by lack of reciprocal feedback. 

they don't have the budget for it

[Burnfall.9573]

Hi Anet, 

I am losing Patience with Guild Wars 2 and I am playing less and losing interest in the future of Guild Wars 2. I find myself spending more time looking into future potential mmo games which are soon to arrive later this year. 

 

I have voiced my disgust and frustrations of the state of WvW and PvP so many times that, it only results in me, being devoted more in other Mmo games. 

Even the state of Guild Wars 2 Pve can not fully satisfy me without thinking about WvW and Pv.

 

So Anet, can you Please! give The Community a slight Preview of June Balance so that we can know where we stand.

 

Thank You!

 

[Moradorin.6217]

ur still playing? 

 

I would still just like a consistent number of dodges on Mirage. Doesnt seem like a big ask untill you see how the forums respond.

[bluehead.9842]

waiting June balance update preview 🙃

[Xenesis.6389]

On 5/17/2023 at 10:21 AM, Burnfall.9573 said:

So Anet, can you Please! give The Community a slight Preview of June Balance so that we can know where we stand

23 hours ago, bluehead.9842 said:

waiting June balance update preview 🙃

Well the next balance patch isn't until june 27th, probably won't see a preview until like june 16th at the earliest. Even then it sounds like it'll be support buff boon buff focused. 🤷‍♂️

[Burnfall.9573]

13 hours ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

Well the next balance patch isn't until june 27th, probably won't see a preview until like june 16th at the earliest. Even then it sounds like it'll be support buff boon buff focused. 🤷‍♂️

I can see that coming.....

[Burnfall.9573]

 

[FrancisN.9276]

On 4/21/2023 at 3:02 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.

I totally agree with this, as someone who has truly played a thief main and done enough group contents with said char to have a fairly good idea what "spot" thieves are in.

[ericpeggy.8206]

What has condi firebrand done?

Condi Firebrand hasn't overpowered in any strike mission boss and raid boss.

Actually, we can't do good like benchmark because boss mechanics.

If you don't have time to play this game, you can try to read the data.

We have so many websites can collect data.

Anet, please!

[MisterDantes.1384]

I'm a bit worried of this design choice to move more and more boons and mechanics to warrior burst skills. Alot of sustain and most damage is tied to burst skills and now the boons also? Blind (super common and spammable condition) and a well timed block in both PVE and PvP/WvW already shuts-down most warrior mechanics, but now warriors can't even provide buffs reliably except might (which is provided better by other classes). Idk man, this feels kinda bad. Mechanic-heavy bosses with invulnerability phases and competetive play will be very clunky with these changes.

And don't get me started on mesmer changes. It's riddiculous that Chronomancer, the profession that alac was LITERALLY MADE FOR is one of the worst alac givers in the game.

I don't get this design direction at all. It seems contradictive to what's been said before. PVE balance was kind of okay lately, I feel like i've seen much more variety in end game content lately (which I think is great) but that's about to be changed for the worse.

[Burnfall.9573]

On 5/29/2023 at 12:51 AM, ericpeggy.8206 said:

What has condi firebrand done?

Condi Firebrand hasn't overpowered in any strike mission boss and raid boss.

Actually, we can't do good like benchmark because boss mechanics.

If you don't have time to play this game, you can try to read the data.

We have so many websites can collect data.

Anet, please!

Guardian Profession is a Support Role Profession; Not A Condition Role Profession!!

"...This ability makes the guardian an excellent supportive fighter."

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/guardian/

vs

Necromancer is a profession of the masters of the dark arts who absorb life force from nearby deaths to fuel their profession mechanic, Death Shroud. In Death Shroud, necromancers endure incoming attacks while striking their enemies, ensuring they always outlive their foes. Necromancers command over death itself, they can summon undead minions to fight for them, overwhelm their enemies in conditions, corrupt their boons, drink their blood, rip their skin and soul, and steal their life. 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necromancer

Edited June 18, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[ericpeggy.8206]

13 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

Guardian Profession is a Support Role Profession; Not A Condition Role Profession!!

"...This ability makes the guardian an excellent supportive fighter."

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/guardian/

Why Firebrand can't do both well?

That is the reason we can switch equipment's prefix and traits.

If Anet really want one elite specialization to just do one job, please delete condition on guardian.

That made me misunderstand I can be a good condition role profession.

[Burnfall.9573]

2 hours ago, ericpeggy.8206 said:

Why Firebrand can't do both well?

That is the reason we can switch equipment's prefix and traits.

If Anet really want one elite specialization to just do one job, please delete condition on guardian.

That made me misunderstand I can be a good condition role profession.

It is ok. Profession roles and their Identity are important. I am sure you will be  very good with  Condition role Profession. We will see what happens in June Balance Patch.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[ImProVision.5806]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:35 AM, Nightara.1804 said:

kitten. You only reduce the Precision and Power by running full Ritu. Staff/Staff has 2k power DPS on the benchmark, so it is absolutely impossible for this change to have any greater effect than -2k DPS (And that's assuming the power DPS will be nerfed to LITERALLY ZERO, which is far from true). Yes, you will lose a few stacks of Bleeding due to Sharper Images, but I highly doubt those are anywhere near relevant for Staff/Staff considering its low attack speed.

The benchmark has a crit chance of ~45%, going full Ritu would reduce that to 30%, that's like one stack of Bleeding (Uptime, not total) you lose. Not. Even. Remotely. Relevant.

For Staff/Axe? Yes. For Staff/Staff? Nope. Absolutely. Not.

TL;DR

[ImProVision.5806]

On 4/21/2023 at 9:55 PM, Nightara.1804 said:

Please fix Mesmer Mantras. They feel extremely pointless and punishing now, especially for Power builds (Which are lacking any viable alternative to Mantra of Pain). Give us a third charge, reduce the precast time to not make us be stuck in a goddamn 2.5 second cast because we pressed a button half a second too early, give Mesmer Mantras the same treatment as Firebrand ones, idc. Just DO SOMETHING please.

Please make Infinite Horizon baseline already. It's not only the ONLY viable option for any Mirage build in PvE, but since the last patch you're outright FORCING people to run it for Alac Mirage. That GM trait is bascially a dead slot bc there is simply no alternative to Infinite Horizon.

Why fix mesmer mantras? WHY DO SOMETHING PLEASE? I like it how it is, stop begging.

[Nightara.1804]

Just now, ImProVision.5806 said:

Why fix mesmer mantras? WHY DO SOMETHING PLEASE? I like it how it is, stop begging.

Because
> They feel extremely pointless and punishing now, especially for Power builds (Which are lacking any viable alternative to Mantra of Pain). Give us a third charge, reduce the precast time to not make us be stuck in a goddamn 2.5 second cast because we pressed a button half a second too early, give Mesmer Mantras the same treatment as Firebrand ones, idc. Just DO SOMETHING please.

[Aylpse.6280]

Druid seems like, on paper, it's eating good. My question is now, will Druid actually be able to compete with HAM and Quickbrand? I much prefer the nature magic thematics, but I'm very much worried Druid still is going to lack the "omph" HAM and Quickbrand have that lets them dominate the healer game.