June 27 Balance Update Preview

[StabbersTheThird.6053]

Oh. Less feedback and more hip hip hooray. Thanks for removing Mirage's dodge during stun. The amount of times in pvp I have them cornered, stun, immob- then they just dodge is frustrating. They can do this with other Mesmer skills too (Distortion, Torch Stealth, Staff hop) but those I can time. Dodge is harder with Vigor since its more frequent than Alac into T4, S2, F4.

Now stand aside Mirage's. My Devourer Venom S/P Daredevil is coming. Vengeance >:]

[Yerlock.4678]

Please just fix the jank of Bladesworn and sword mainhand for warrior. Cleaning up those animations will go an extremely far way and inherently improve QoL by a thousand miles. Blade could already be god tier in competitive modes arguably if the bugs and jankiness were fixed.

None of the following are balance requests but bugs that should simply be fixed to improve QoL.

These include:

• The 5 skill on Gun Saber stopping a little bit short of its intended distance.
• Sword 2 Leap skill being janky and not connecting well with targets. This is especially noticeable in wvw/pvp as players move around more than npc's.
• Dragon's Slash- Boost sometimes doesn't even dash forward and the jank of the skill forces it to stay in place. This is a massive problem and must be addressed.
• Unable to swap between gun saber and normal weapon due to it being a "kit" when using the swap weapon button and jumping, but it working fine when pressing f1.
• Dragon Slash- Reach being unable to deal with uneven terrain or terrain from two different levels that are minutely different.

Other than that just keeping an eye on Mirage, as the second dodge is dangerous (remember vindi?). 

In the future, granting Triggerguard Stability for a short time would be something to shoot for. As right now Bladesworn is the only spec warrior has that does not have stability in it's spec or kit in some form or fashion (spellbreaker has fc, zerker has stab breaking out of stuns). This is odd and glaring, as this was supposed to be the brawler themed spec. I.e., supposed to handle group scrimmages and teamfights. 

Still good stuff, keep it up.

[Atomnium.1532]

I was hoping for scourge to get alacrity, I was also expecting its revive potential to have to be nuked to make room for balanceability.

I was not expecting Scourge as an entire spec to be nerfed for this and become trash. Yes shades making the scourge have 10 target is a problem, not having perma 3 shades is a big problem too as the spec was designed around it.

It means that Sand sage now provides a variable expertise and concentration amount making itemisation clunky, it is also a 10% damage received nerf and because of blood as sand makes scourge an underwhelming low damage, squishy condition spec, a weak alac provider that needs to sacrifice everything to get alacrity.

The trade-offs from this patch are not worth it, and it basically kills scourge in every meaningful way but as a pure support barrier-alac healer, and its competing with alacmech for this....

In the end, logging in after the patch would be as a condi scourge :
-Lost 150 expertise & concentration
-Lost 840 barrier / seconds (all targets from desert empowerement counted)
-Lost 6 target on every shade skill and trait except for 20 secondes every minute
 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Atomnium.1532

[CowOfGlory.5816]

We need MORE Boon rip in WvW, not less.

[vrauns.3215]

Just now, CowOfGlory.5816 said:

We need MORE Boon rip in WvW, not less.

That's not up to you.

[tasat.9426]

Quote

Heat the Soul: This trait has been reworked. This trait will now grant boons to nearby allies when you strike an enemy with a burst skill.

I can see how WvW longbow berserkers hiding in 50men blob will provide infinite amount of quickness, while not receiving any targetcap or damage nerf to scorched earth

[LichOverlord.6329]

2 minutes ago, StabbersTheThird.6053 said:

Oh. Less feedback and more hip hip hooray. Thanks for removing Mirage's dodge during stun. The amount of times in pvp I have them cornered, stun, immob- then they just dodge is frustrating. They can do this with other Mesmer skills too (Distortion, Torch Stealth, Staff hop) but those I can time. Dodge is harder with Vigor since its more frequent than Alac into T4, S2, F4.

Now stand aside Mirage's. My Devourer Venom S/P Daredevil is coming. Vengeance >:]

I get that they're frustrating to play against, but this is not the way to do it. How would you feel if they removed your daredevil dash traits and instead you just dodge normally like everyone else - wouldn't you feel like your class's unique identity is tarnished?

Going after a core feature of a spec that's been the way it is for years across all game modes just for the sake of one is silly, and I'd rather see them add limiters to the dodge in pvp than remove key aspects.

[Barraind.7324]

30 minutes ago, SunTheBro.4853 said:

I got so excited when I saw weapon buffs/reworks, but then

Me: "Ooh, guardian scepter, guardian hammer, rev hammer, mesmer scepter, thief sword changes ?!?!".

...

Nope.

[vrauns.3215]

31 minutes ago, Reig.8173 said:

 

Studio Update: Spring 2023

• Introducing alternate playstyles for some specializations, including quickness-support deadeye and damage builds for druid and tempest.

😢
 

It says more damage, like in the studio update, whats your problem.

[Brujeria.7536]

I think the dagger change for necromancer is good, we are almost at a weapon with an identity. A followup to skill 3 that lets you shadowstep to the target when hit would be great.

I honestly dont like the scourge changes at all. On paper it looks like a shift from barrier / babysitting to the added alacrity. Scourge in WvW apart from group settings was already a sitting duck, this worsens the situation. Compared to other support heavy specs their base class dont get a huge removal of survivability like scourge does, so the spec in WvW and PvP is in my view even worse off unless in direct 5v5 orzerg scenarios.  If you shoehorn a elite spec that deep into the support angle while nerfing everything else it should really shine in that angle.

Trait changes especially the removal of cooldown trait: Its generally a good idea but some of these traits for necro now feel really lackluster and also some of the traits have been forgotten - what about axe /focus cooldowns? The traits feel very blank. Sadistic searing - 2 seconds of burn when using a punishment skill? Elixiers giving vulnerability? Worst offender here is Signets of Suffering - why apply only this effect and especially in the power traitline? Normally GM traits offer something more significant like an overarching effect to another mechanic. The current signets of suffering for example enables a pretty niche build. Maybe add something like removing or corrupting a boon deals damage / siphons life?

Boon changes: I also dont like these much. Removing some boon rip is fine, but giving these skills nothing as compensation for it turns them way weaker. I think dagger 5 will be the most boring and basic skill in the entire game. Targeted boonrip is also lackluster, ripping two boons of a target that has 10 isnt a big deal. I think the main issue here is, that boons are given around like candy by every profession so loosely that its making them mandatory and necromancer as a single profession cant possibly and shouldnt be able to counteract this. 

 

 

[Kuma.1503]

25 minutes ago, Decinomicon.4619 said:

No, just no, the way quickness scrapper is has a good flow, this would interrupt that flow. Getting quickness from superspeed feels good, being forced to interact with combo fields as part of normal gameplay does not, that's why I avoid elementalist. Just don't do this change please. Everything else in this patch with the exception of this and sand shade duration is fine. 

It's a shame they don't share the amount of quickness we gain so we can math this out. 

But Hammer 3 is 2 leaps on a short cooldown, and Blast Gyro is a combo field + blast in one skill. 

We may be able to rely on just these two skills (plus function gyro at low boon duration) to maintain quickness. Assuming we get a decent amount of quickness per combo. 

 

If so, that does not change DPS quick Scrapper's rotation significantly. We will simply weave in more Hammer 3 into our rotation, paring it up with any of our mortar shells if no other combo fields are available. All else should remain the same. 

If the amount of quickness is too low and  end up having to do some funky piano with throw mine and kits, that can (and hopefully will) be solved by tuning the quickness duration up. 

 

This is a huge net positive for Heal Scrapper. We are not pressured to use bandage self on CD. We can run shield for blasts or hammer for leaps. We get a good amount of combos out of our Elixir Gun and Med kit, and blasting combos was something heal scrapper wanted to do anyway. 

We can use Purge Gyro and Bulwark Gyro reactively! 

 It fixes the problem they had where they couldn't use their supportive gyros when they needed them since you were mashing everything off CD. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Kuma.1503

[NeedForSleep.7390]

On 6/8/2023 at 2:12 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Arc Divider: Reduced the number of strikes from 3 to 1. Reduced the casting time from 1.86 seconds to 0.8 seconds. Reduced total power coefficient from 5.1 to 2.5 in PvE and from 2.112 to 1.82 in PvP.

• 
  For the love of god and all that is holy. This skill is the pinnacle of warrior class fantasy. To spin and everything kittening dies. Please revert this change. I agree as a warrior main since launch, its extremely powerful. But the issue was just the obscene power buffs you gave berserker. Please for the love of god look at the buffs you gave to smash brawler and bloody roar you made only a few months ago.
  
  Please. From the perspective of a warrior main since launch. Don't kill the one skill that makes me feel like a warrior. Just tome my damage down, I'll be a good boi.

   

[Raim.6123]

It would have made WAY more sense to just put alacrity on Sand Savant so you wouldn't have to worry about changing durations at all. 

[Venport.3925]

Is the shallow grave change a typo? because it sounds like its meant to be a change to the major grandmaster trait "Hungering Darkness"

[Exzen.2976]

6 minutes ago, TheRunningSquire.3621 said:

That's not up to you.

I hope it is xD

[JuusGod.8541]

Had a debate about posting this but did anyways. Tried to summarize the concerns of most people and myself.

Well now we also get to see how "well done" Anet's auto censoring of words is. It's only limited to censoring the F word, the D word etc. On the forums but not censoring "anal beads" and other foul language. They've been really lazy with it so all foul language that remains on this post is actually not here only because of me but also because of Anet's poor censoring. It turns everything it censors to the word kitten... How heartwarming, who doesn't like kittens. So mind not if this post is perhaps even comedical to some extent.

It is what it is but I think I know it, you know it and everyone else with a common sense knows it that this was not too great of a balance preview.

Anyways that is not the point of the post, the poor censoring but rather the balance changes and I'd like to express my thoughts about them.

First of all I do not usually get angry and make posts like this or complain about things at all but this balance update overall pushed it over the edge.

This post contains foul language and swears, read at your own risks. Some of it was autocensored but i will just let it be.

Some of the dumbest things you guys (anet) have done so far. Taking off more unique class mechanics and nerfing them to ground. Such as corrupts on necro. Not including underwater weapons in your weapon traits and completely trashing them. Literally the opposite what most players would like to see and makes the games classes more bland in general because each class is supposed to have proper unique buffs, attributes and effects that other classes do not have. As well as unique weapon traits, and unique status conversion traits, power to toughness, precision to power and so on.

Nerfing scourge's shades, hs, and, scourge's/harbs damage is obsolete as they were already balanced. Why kitten on fervent force anymore.... It was already dead. Why not focus more on water combat and water weapons. Why ruin the uniqueness of classes and so on.

What the kitten is up with making every single class a boon, mostly alac slave, and why the kitten would you remove quickness for a warrior because a warrior being fit and being able to attack faster makes overall more sense and is more fitting to the average warrior / berserker fantasy than having a warrior that has a kittening pocket watch anal bead up it's kitten and pumps alacrity.

Also why would you cut the kitten off power berserker and nerf arc divider, was finally having fun with berserker and it actually felt fluid to play when you had sufficient arc divider and got to a solid amount of dps in comparison to other dps specs. Literally who asked for a Power Berserker nerf, where the kitten did that idea come for and why do you guys think it's justified to make berserker be that junky slow axe spam shitclass it was before the buffs. A berserker needs to be able to rip and tear, not poke enemies and it needs to actually feel angry.

How do you guys keep forgetting that hammer rev exists and it feels like complete dogshit and the animations are garbage. Rework the skills and give them something unique, perhaps make them more related to Jallis and try tieing the weapons on rev to the spec and the legend being played. And give them unique animations/effects based on the legend being used.

Then the fact that you guys do stuff like this, you nerf a really good major trait that is useful to the class as whole and then say "the offensive playstyle is still there for you to enjoy" kitten no it's not, it's just not the same anymore. (Ferv. Force for example.)

Necro dagger nerfs were pointless, really got nothing else to say about them. Why would you give more boonstrip to necro and take the unique stat buffs of the signets... Necro DOES NOT NEED any more boon strip and was COMPLETELY FINE with the current boon strip amount. Adding more makes no logical sense and shitting on the boon corruption mechanic is very harmful to necro,

Why would you ever take off the most important part of vile vials and render the trait completely useless by removing the cd reduc. After that you could have at least included the elixir cooldowns IN PVE TOO INSTEAD OF JUST BATHING IN PURE IGNORANCE AND ONLY Doing it on PVP and WVW. Tune up ghastly breach more and just dont do that kitten to scourge with the shades, it will kill the spec forever.

We want to see something fun cool and unique, for preferably each spec and overall QOL improvements not you guys constantly taking those three things away from specs and classes.

Lastly one of my biggest issues with GW2 is how it's pay for convenience. I know, I know you can grind the gold for it but at the point when you lock stuff like extra bank slots, material inv slot, mistlock sanctuary passkey etc. Behind a currency that you induce with the RMT kitten into the game.

It just becomes one big gold farming simulator, the whole game and makes buying gold sound tempting even though I'm highly against it. It's harmful to the game to have so many gold sinks and makes all your goals be the same in order to achieve direct benefits with little effort - buying gold, buying gems, farming gold, one of these.

Then on top of all this why the kitten can't we have something that respects our time in the game instead of achieves that waste it such as fractal god that brings very little benefit to the amount of work it takes.

Why can't we have more skins for mounts and weapons, and more items be unlockable via achievements or great content - instead of our credit cards.

Even World of kittening Warcraft exceeds you in mount collections and unlockable mounts and this in my opinion is something to be concerned about.

Anyways I hope you all get my point, if you got any questions let me know, and I hope you all have a great day/night!

Edited June 9, 2023 by JuusGod.8541
Warning readers about the foul language.

[Kirevey.5079]

Why are we nerfing boon strips at the same time we are getting cooldown reductions for a lot of skills which in turns make it easier to spam boons ?

• Already nerfed scourge in the past but now we also have:
  •  Devouring Darkness: Increased cooldown from 10 seconds to 18 seconds in WvW only.
  • Enfeebling Blood: This skill no longer converts boons into conditions.
  • Lesser Enfeeble: This skill no longer converts boons into conditions.
• Spell breaker boon strips were also nerfed in the past but now we also have:
  • Winds of Disenchantment: Lowered the duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds in WvW only.
  • Break Enchantments: Increased the number of boons removed from 2 to 4 in PvE only. Reduced the number of boons removed from 2 to 1 in WvW only.
• Revenant now has a 5s cd on Banish Enchantment when it already has a high energy cost of 30.

I do not understand why are we doing this changes when one of the biggest complains everywhere is that boon blobs in WvW are a pain to deal with and all these changes just make it easier for anyone to just do that, be a blob. 

If the aim is to remove boon strips from the game, at least make the use of boons more impactful by making their duration shorter so ppl have to think before using their skills instead of spamming them, and also removing the boon bloat of a lot of skills and traits that give u 3+ boons for 1 action. 

One last thing, in WvW strips are key for getting downs in the enemy zerg to get rid of boons like aegis, protection, resistance, regeneration, etc. Its already difficult to get down with so much boons and healing and ress skills. I'd be ok with these changes if at least we also got some changes like:

• Remove ress skills from WvW
• Remove boon duration from traits
• Cap boon duration at 50%

Lastly, these changes don't look at all like balance changes. They look more like a way to increase build variety for ppl so they don't have to change classes, while completing disregarding the effect that this would bring to an already hard to balance WvW ecosystem.

[NeedForSleep.7390]

On 6/8/2023 at 2:12 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Written in Stone: This trait no longer reduces the recharge of signet skills, and it now grants an aura to the elementalist after using a signet skill.

All my support tempests out there. What do you think of this?

[Nickv.8031]

5 minutes ago, LichOverlord.6329 said:

Yeah, I can't help but wonder if the reason this change even occurred was due to devs not actually playing the class - if they did, they'd realize that this change makes mesmer - already one of the squishier classes - basically now just dead with some easy cc and condi application

It makes not dodging out of a CC ability FAR TOO punishing, while also removing one of the core aspects of its toolkit. I sincerely hope they decide to adjust talents elsewhere if they're worried about it being too strong, rather than going after it's core profession mechanic (dodging)

I agree, it kinda ruins the whole magic of mirage. if they wanted to make my dodge not clense immob, I would be fine with that. Losing my ability to clense after getting immobilized, and my ability to not just fall over and die after getting stunned. really is going to leave the class defenseless 

[Allensjuice.8579]

What is the point of the Scrapper boon change? Single handedly killing the class. Gg CMC.

Edit:

I retrack, this is me not liking changes, scrapper is going to be broken now. Orbital Command Strike is a blast finisher. This is busted.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Allensjuice.8579
ITS ACTUALLY BUSTED

[ailidh.5680]

Please stop trying to mess up scrapper. This change pretty much deletes heal scrapper, and makes it harder on quick scrapper. You already want to bring gyros for the buff you get while having superspeed. Guess I'll just yeet myself off the Deimos platform so everyone can get 4 seconds of quickness.

Please focus on other classes that need reworks in boon application (willbender somehow absent from this patch). Scrapper as it is now is fun, not overpowered, and relatively easy to master. It's the first boon dps I've felt confident on, and it has literally become my main now. You've trashed so many specs just as I was getting the hang of them. If this one goes live, I am done. 

[Exzen.2976]

If you're going to reduce boon strips in wvw, please please please please do something about cele stats in wvw. Thanks. 

[JhonnyCatwolf.9042]

I'm confused:

Why are you promoting Virtuosso (the easiest mesmer profession to play) while taking away the identity of chrono, and nerfing mirage dmg (due to confusion changes) -the more challenging professions-.

Should noone play mirage or chrono in Pve?

What about bosses in raids/strikes where they cannot generate clones due to bosses being untargetable (KC comes to mind) how should quick/alac be upkept.

What about fractals, should chrono support just not exist in fractals at all?

Not to mention the changes to mirage cloak in PvE. I understand in PvP in WvW, but was this such an opressive skill in PvE that it had to be nerfed?

The trend of patches is so inconsistent, making some classes deeper and more complex to play, while mainstreaming the already existing complex classes (Quick cata will have same rotation as dps cata now for example).

Insert visible confusion

Edited June 9, 2023 by JhonnyCatwolf.9042

[madrono.9468]

On 6/8/2023 at 11:12 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Bladeturn Requiem: This skill no longer blocks incoming attacks.

So, what is the point of the skill?

If it's not defensive, doesn't do significant damage, has a small radius, and doesn't offer any other advantages, what does it provide?

I understand that the defensive capabilities of the virtuoso can be irritating (the same thing happens to me with the willbender) but at least the skill should have some specific functionality.

[zealex.9410]

• On 6/9/2023 at 12:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

  To make them more reliable in endgame PvE content, all effects that benefit when the player strikes from the flank or from behind now always apply their benefits when striking defiant foes.

  
  This seem lazy more than anything, whats the point of flanking? It would be more elegant if you just removed this interaction from the game.
   

  On 6/9/2023 at 12:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

  Well of Action: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased pulse power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.5 in PvE only. The final pulse of this skill now grants alacrity instead of superspeed.

  Giving baseline alacrity on chrono is a mistake, you can have it so picking a trait makes it possible to give alacrity or quickness but giving both isnt healthy.
  Also personally im not a fan of killing shield again as a weapon i think it was nice that boon chrono used its signature weapon but im in the minority on this one im assuming, still id like if quicknesss chrono relied on shield while alac chrono used well of actions (also putting alacrity on the final pulse is ?????? and rip superspeed)