June 27 Balance Update Preview

[Sereath.1428]

No, the issue with melee range being unplayable in WvW is the sheer amount of CC everywhere.
That is why they are trying to make it harder to take away Stability by once again nerfing boon strip. But yes, it's the wrong approach.

They need to rework how CC is applied/refreshed on players to make it so that you are immune to it if you are mindlessly CCed, or give it diminishing returns over its duration such as 50% -> 25% ->10%, other MMOs do it this way.
And after that they should add more boon strip again.

Edited June 9, 2023 by XxsdgxX.8109

[Lukez.9716]

Some quick thoughts for DPS  druid.

Consider swapping Blood moon and Eclipse spots so that eclipse can be used on DPS alc druid. Since it will need to use CA skills to make alac, might as well benefit from them too!

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:12 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.

great... Tempest Shouts and traited Signets are now even MORE similar. they're practically the same now, except for being range targetted vs point blank AoE. i'll admit there's now more synergy within the earth line, with the adept trait giving defense boons on auras...

[Theroi.9536]

Please, you still have time to change what you'r planning.

Heal Scourge is an awesome build for trainings.

Maybe it's not the greatest heal, maybe it's not the greatest boon provider but it was the greatest thing you could get to help others learning.

Maybe you'r not really useful during most part of an encounter, but if anything goes wrong, you can show your true potential !

 

The groups has issue with some mechanics ? 

No problem you'r here to pick em up, res & keep trying to learn.

The healscourge isn't meta, it can't be meta bit it's ok, it's a niche build.

GW2 needs niche build. Not every spec needs to be able to do everything.

We needs build able to help others. We need build that offers time & flexibility to newer player to learn mechanics.

 

I wanted alac on healscourge to be able to play it with experienced group 

But with the changes you'r planning to do, you'r just destroying the thinking man, the healscourge.

 

Please, I know there's not a lot of arguments here, but I truly love this build, I truly love when you get new player happy to clear some content they would else have issue with just because you accepted to loose a spot for a meta build and accept a lil niche build, I truly love all the players I've met in training, commanders, newcomers.

 

Beeing able to offer this extra support, that extra utility, that extra something, no one else has.

 

All this message may seem a bit confused but I'm just writing it from the bottom of my heart.

 

 A healscourge lover.

Theroi.9536 aka Moréline 

[DeceiverX.8361]

Patch notes TL;DR:
"We think boons are fine and need fewer counters."

Laughable as usual from the competitive mode side of things.  Looks like the hiatus continues lol.

Edited June 9, 2023 by DeceiverX.8361

[Phantom.5624]

Celestial Harbinger is getting buff again oh boi gonna be pain to go outside now expected some nerf here to see some buff instead 😕 we will be seeing more Cele Harbs in WvW 🙏 
not liking this everyone will get every boon concept like alac scg but oh well
Good works otherwise 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Phantom.5624

[Magus.8152]

Regarding Druid changes, why is alacrity on grace of the land? GotL has been reworked so many times, and now you've made it so that the "damage builds" for druid will not be able to boon support with alac at all. We have to pick between providing alacrity (essential to being a boon support) or eclipse to increase damage (which means we're no longer a boon support). Alacrity should be on Celestial Avatar like it is for the specter shroud, and then the 1st or 2nd tier of traits can have something that says boons from CA are shared with nearby allies. Then rework GotL into something different, like reducing damage taken when you come in/out of CA, so those that want to play tank builds can mitigate damage better, and then those who want to DPS can take eclipse.

Untamed is just... I have no words. It's basically dead, and it's back to it's EoD launch days of nobody uses it, because it does nothing.

Tempest changes are a joke, what damage buff is from ONE trait to ONE aspect of play? Overload air? Fire? Increasing radius or making it not hitbox reliant? Scepter tuning/changes to air/fire skills? Staff buffs? Literally anything that is consistent and usable with tempest?

Scourge is so sloppy, alacrity should be on Sand Savant, it solves EVERY issue without creating other ones. 

Deadeye quickness is basically alac willbender (which also wasn't touch at all in this, btw.)

Guardian is still missing tuning/reworks to it's awfully designed weapons. Scepter is basically a throw-away weapon, torch is unreliable, longbow is still a meme for Dragonhunter.

There was a lot that should've been done, and this is extremely disappointing. I love Guild Wars, I've played it since early release and also since Prophecies. But stuff like this is what drives me off from playing. It's not well thought out, and it feels rushed, inconsiderate, and unprofessional.

I really hope you listen to these comments, and fix this. Even if it's delayed to ensure higher quality, don't ruin your game to meet a quota. Please.

[Jojo.6590]

Virt: 

Change to Dagger 3 is great and highly welcomed.

I'm curious about the damage of f5 given it is no longer a block. However, having an aoe melee damage shatter is nice and should round out Virt's kit more. 

However, Thousand Cuts needs to be changed so that it is a V/cone-shaped aoe. On the point of Virt's survivability, I'd also suggest taking away regen on duelist reversal and replacing it with 3 stacks of might rather than nerfing all of the chaos trait line. Other than this hopefully we can get better-designed/ reworked utilities for Virt one day. The change to the heal is a step in the right direction. 

Mirage:

So many of us told the team not to release Mirage with its current dodge mechanic as dodging while CCed was/is way too strong. I'm glad to see this finally fixed. However, I do believe not being able to do this while immobilized is too much. I do hope this "rule" is also applied to other classes with unique dodges.

There were a lot of trait reworks for many of the other classes and yet not much for Mesmer, odd. Infinite Horizon(IH) NEEDS TO BE A BASELINE TRAIT for Mirage. In anticipation of giving Mirage back two dodges two things were done. First, the ambush abilities were nerfed AGAIN  for the 100th time. This again pigeon holds (FORCES) people using Mirage into taking IH. Seconded, again in anticipation the Chaos line was nerfed. If you are nerfing several aspects of a CORE TRAIT LINE to balance ONE elite spec then the issue is the ELITE SPEC, this applies to all classes. Because of this I rather hold off on the Mirage "buff" and wait to give it back its 2ed dodge. This was a massive issue for the past two balance teams before this one. They aggressively nerfed classes/issues in every way possible rather than doing one or two aspects at a time and focusing on the Elite spec causing the issue. 

Chrono:

Still needs a full trait rework as does most of Mesmer.

However, changes to quickness and Alac are a step in the right direction. 

[Maria Murtor.7253]

Not a fan of the idea of brute forcing alac or quickness into some specs while damaging their gameplay style. Untamed literally brought me back to the game. But with Fervent Force being scrapped, I don't know if I wanna keep playing Untamed. Sure, quickness is nice. But that's not the reason people play this spec. There are enough other sources for quickness already. I don't see a reason to force it into the Untamed. If you want to bring quickness to the ranger so desperately, just introduce it with the next elite spec. Also mixed feelings about Heal Scourge. It would be nice to make Heal Scourge more viable. But for which price? Sacrificing the very unique way of this healer for – again – a boon?

[REMagic.8937]

Roy didn't hover over Virtuoso F5. I'm dying to know how often it hits post patch!

[Mewone.3247]

Maybe just scratch the balancing and just focus on fixing bugs (looks at shift signet)

[Glego.8320]

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

Spellbreaker

• Break Enchantments: Reduced the number of boons removed from 2 to 1 in WvW only.

I will hunt you cmc

[doozer.7063]

28 minutes ago, Vuko.5318 said:

Why Confusion still exists in the game, if it's slowly getting nerfed to the point where it has no identity? It as already gutted some time ago and now you are just following through. Why not just remove it and instead change all the Confusion stacks for Torment or Burn (burn, since you never nerf it) /s

They can rename it to bleeding 2 at some point... 

All in all it feels like CmC and Co. just want to kill every uniqueness and condi/ class identities and make the game maximum noobfriendly. Less to learn and less you need to understand when everything is the same right? And lets just all spam and facetank in brain-off mode, so a 6yo can play the game and feel like a pro!

Soon all classes gameplay look like this (except mesmer, it will be braindead too but ofc way weaker than the other classe since they hate mesmer, in particular mirage. Ele and warrior will get on beta siege turtle lvl first it seems). 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by doozer.7063

[Vizardlorde.8243]

Can Pure of Sight on Dragon hunter get  the same treatment as :

 

• Farsighted: Increased the minimum damage bonus from 5% to 10% in PvE only

Also can you throw Piercing Light a bone?  1.5 Sec slow on traps doesn't seem like a good  enough adept trait especially when its on the same tier as Dulled Senses.

[UpsHigh.5724]

So like... I don't get a lot of this. |

The 2nd bullet point on their main slide was "update outdated weapons" ... and 2?... Of them are getting changes?? Like in the whole game???

I understand that not everything can be updated every patch but like, it seems like ANet is just taking already popular or unique skills & traits and reworking them to do what they want now, instead of putting those options on other pieces of kits that aren't used??

Like wtf. Chrono Grandmasters triggering in the same way to provide quick or alac cool. Revenant getting resistance on moveskill, cool fits with their kit. 2 Mirage doges not while cc'd cool. Should have been done 5 years ago.

But like...

Condi Druid with 5s aoe CD daze + imob and chill and stealth and trapper runes... cool? I already hated using skills in WvW...

Scourge alacrity, fine but there goes a lot of it's class identity. Altho, idk how else they would do it. Dagger burst for PvP will be nuts tho.

[Daring Dragon] giving alacrity? I think like 50 people in this thread have said this already but... uhh wouldn't [Immortal Dragon] be a better place for this!? Considering that it already only gives 1s of protection rn & [Daring Dragon] is a pretty cool, fun, & unique trait.

 

Meanwhile there's about 20 guardian, warrior & engi traits literally unusable rn. And half of Warrior's weapons are unusable. Hot Take: ANet, no matter how much you buff longbow's cooldown or numbers it will still be bad (outside of zerk F1) cause THE SKILLS ARE BAD.

P.S. Can you tell the new balance dev plays ranger??

Also where are our new runes & sigils!? It's been A YEAR & still NOTHING for EoD? Starting to get the impression that all these "competitive changes" are just security theater.

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by UpsHigh.5724
formatting

[foxtrot.6902]

Scrapper: 

-Change to quickness could be fun, I'm down to try it but also worried if it just got made more clunky with zero pay off.
More actions to generate quickness than before. Also worried about being hamstrung w/build making sure you have blast finishers~ eg) is flame thrower kit going to be the staple, which sounds a bit obnoxious and we're talking even more keys to generate same amount of quickness (if base is same) having to flip into kit> use #2 > flip out of kit etc etc.  every 6 seconds. Guessing no more 3 gyro util. builds.

-This would've been a stellar time to revisit at minimum cd reduction to say thumper turret (40sec) and toolbelt Rumble (38 sec:). That one could be fun w/new scrapper changes and breath some life into old unused utilities. As it is now the cd is just to brutal to make thumper anywhere near useful.
-please stop stomping this spec into ground for wvw. It's already slow movement and easily kitable in wvw w/previous superspeed nerfs, now it'll be even slower, limping around with a hammer and no quickness. Rocket Charge still 6 sec longer cd in wvw as well. 

Elixirs:
-Get rid of toss, make it a mist. It's been a two steps forward, one step back deal with aim time + cast time + air time for ~3 sec buff

Willbender? Nada? That's fine? I can smack two buttons on mech and call it a day for alacrity I guess. 

[FreshF.5793]

Regarding specter..

Thats what i already posted 1 year ago on Reddit and this Forum:

Also dont change shadestep!!!! Replace "hungering darkness" instead!!!! Nobody uses it. 

Shadestep with its Revive has HARD Carry Potential!!!

Here are some points I hope you consider to change/improve specter:

Make the Shroud more impactful. Damage-wise and Support-Wise. The Damage does not feel strong at all. Maybe you could make it more rewarding using the shroud instead of waiting 5 secs and using Consume Shadows and spamming 3 Scept/Dagger again. Enemies should be feared of Shadow-Shroud instead of waiting until the next burst from weapon skills comes:
Haunt Shot:
Give Might to the entire group instead of 1 ally. Since The generation of might for my group is capped at 5 Stacks with Thrill of the Crime, give the Specter other options to stack might for the group. Haunt Shot could be one of them. Also the condi-dmg is pretty low right now.
Grasping Shadows:
The only Condi-Cleanse-skill you gave the specter which cleanses only 1 Condition. Change the Condi-Cleanse to 5 targets instead of 1 and increase the amount of condis removed so it can compete with skills e.g. from the firebrand (Mantra of Lore or Chapter 2: Radiant Recovery). Firebrand skills cleanse 2 or 3 condis per use and have multiple charges. So why not make the condi-cleanse on the shroud of specter strong as well, since you have limited time to use it. The damage of this skill is not impactful as well right.
I would suggest increasing the radius of the field, since I found myself in many situations where I put the field off target. Also increase the duration and the cooldown.

Alternatively besides increasing the radius I thought about a game-mechanic like the revenant has one:
Adjust the skill equal to "Project Tranquility" which is a field that is permanently active, but can be moved when using the skill. Change it to a pulsing field, that cleanses condis every second, and puts damage on enemies every second. Since you dont have unlimited time in Shadow-Shroud this is something special, which makes staying in Shadow-Shroud more appealing.
 
Dawn's Response:
Inflicting Fear fits the Style of Shadow Shroud pretty well. Though i would suggest here to give 5 Allies a Minimum-Barrier of 1605 instead of 1 Ally. Also the ranges of it could be a little higher (600 leap, 240 barrier).
 
Eternal Night:
It has a surprisingly high power-dmg but and good condi-dmg (4 Stacks of Poison), which is only useful, when you are playing the deadly-arts traitline. From a support-perspective there is nothing besides a heal for 1 group-mate (change it to 4 allies). Please consider adding some supportive boons to it. Maybe quickness would fit it pretty well, as it looks like a very aggressive skill. But i would actually suggest stronger defensive boons like protection and resolution, or even aegis to the teammates.
Mind Shock:
A mediocre AoE stun which gives stability for 1 groupmate. I would consider changing the the stability to 5 Targets. What i really do not like about this AoE skill, is the yellow field below me. I have no idea how long it takes to be activated since it is not mentioned in the skill-tooltip. It feels like 3-4 seconds which is way too long. Reduce the activation time please. Also the stability-base-duration should be at least 5 seconds. Since the skill takes so long to activate it is very hard e.g. in pve-boss encounters to time the stability to the correct time (remember you are also time-capped due to being in shadow-shroud). The Duration-Increase-Per-Target is also very strange because if there are more enemies who can cc you, you need more stability instead of a longer duration. I would rather suggest giving the skill 3 base stability for 5 seconds + extra Stability per target struck. Since it is hard to land because of the activation time, it should be worth it.
 
Scepter-skills from the specter. Still funny. So first of all. I like the animations from skill 1 and 3. Graphic and Sound-Design-wise they are awesome. But gameplay-design-wise I there are downsides I would like to see changed:
Shadow-Bolt:
I can not say they do much damage, but that is ok. They are auto-attacks. They should do less damage then e.g. dagger or a staff with auto-attacks, since it they are melee. Giving barrier to 1 player is also okay, though the targeting in strike/raid-content really sucks: → *A pretty important QoL-Update would be adding health-bars above the players heads. Give it a toggle-option in settings and everybody is happy. Many other MMOs got it too. For Single-Target Support this is in my eyes essential!* 
Shadow Sap:
This skill does not deal damage, neither does it support your group. This skill needs to be changed entirely in my opinion.

Proposals:
Change Skill 2 to a ground-targeted AoE, which gives 5 might to all allies in the radius (300 radius should be enough) + Barrier. Since you would have to use all of your 12 initiative to give only 20 might to your group, i would upper the duration of might or give even more stacks of might then just 5. We do not want to spam 2, since it should be fun, shouldn't it? 
When we talk about the condi-side of this skill, I would add at least vulnerability to it, since the specter it self does not bring any vulnerability-skills.
To make this skill also interesting for DPS-builds I would add a damaging condition like Bleeding (since there is no bleeding-condis at all, though we have a super new trait now for this) and burning or torment.
The reason why adding burning is a proposal of the skill-design. Use the existing Projectile animation but make it explode on the ground, leaving a dark-purple fire-field with taller dark flames at the edges of the radius. As a sample I imagine it like the flames from the amaterasu in the anime naruto. Here is a picture of the flames (https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Amaterasu).
Besides looking like a fire-field, the skill should be a Fire-field and a Blast-Finisher (not the first skill that has to combo-uses, referring to "Black Powder"). This would help generating additional might, while also showing the people how to do some easy combos.
Twilight-Combo:
The main dmg-skill which is spammed by every dps-player until there is no initiative left. The graphic-design is very nice. The damage-side is good as well. Boosting 1 teammate with barrier is also okay. But what I really do not understand is giving 5 secs of Swiftness to 1 ally. Especially since every build has to use the Trickery Traitline because of iniative. Thrill of Crime gives swiftness for 5 ppl. That is enough. 
The animation looks like it should be accelerating your group. Change it, so the projectile accelerates 4 allies that are near to the user and near to the impact. Give them either superspeed or quickness. Swiftness is not useful at all here. 
Measured Shot:
It has low power dmg and immobilizes. That is ok. What should be changed is the travel-distance to heal allies. The travel-distance to allies is 300. Compared to a staff 2 from guardian which has 1.200 it is way to low. A guardian can stand at his position and heal without any risks. If a specter ports to a location to support an ally it is higher risk (maybe the ally is standing in dmg-field or whatever). And if the specter is too far away, he uses the initiative but without healing someone, cause the ally is still to far away. My proposal would be increasing the travel-distance at least also to 900 when used on an ally, which is still less then the staff 2.
Another suggestion is to changing it to a pulsing heal-field, when using it on allies. The burst-healing might be okay for specter, but there is no sustained healing. Leaving a waterfield-combo when porting to an ally would be very useful and help with the sustained healing.
Endless Night:
Speaking of sustained healing. Currently the only skill, that gives sustained healing to only 1 ally is Endless Night. Channelling the skill for 2.5 seconds gives 5 seconds of regeneration for 1 ally. In its current state Endless Night is useless. Same goes for the quickness part. About 3 seconds of quickness with full boon-duration for a cast-time of 2,5 seconds for only 1 ally is not useful for a support class, since you want to other stuff too, right?
So what should be changed. Give regeneration and quickness around the target and around the user (e.g. like scourge) in a radius of 300. Alternatively you just give the caster+allies regeneration, but while targeting an enemy, since other support classes can heal+attack the enemy.
They are 2 options:
Targeting an ally should be more impactful, because the specter looses dps when targeting an ally with his skills (Regeneration and Quickness). 
Targeting an enemy gives a little dps but also Regeneration to allies even when I do not target them directly.

Besides the Support-Side the Damage of Endless Night needs to be increased by a lot. Increase the Tormet-Duration. Add bleeding-damage so dps-builds see a use in "Deadly Ambush" from Trickery.
 
Combo-Finisher? In the new Expansion EoD we were introduced to Combo-Finishers. It was required to progress. But when I started EoD I was surprised there were no finisher for the Scepter-Skills. Here my suggestions to Scepter-Skills:
 Shadow-Bolt-Chain: Projectile Finisher (maybe 20% like Shortbow for example)
Shadow Sap: Fire-Field, Blast-Finisher
Twilight Combo: Whirl-Finisher
Measured Shot: Water-Field at the ally who the caster teleported to, Dark-Field left at position where you teleported away  from, when enemey targeted
Endless Night: Projectile-Finisher or nothing
 
Utility skills. Wells. Graphic design is nice. But the cast-time of some of them is too long. Also I find my self not being able to use them, when I am targeting a boss. Maybe because shadowstepping to that location is not possible. What's totally missing is a stunbreak. Here a my suggestions:
Well of Gloom:
This skill has good healing. What should be deleted is the Cripple. When I use a heal-skill I want to stealth and get out of fight (at least in open world). Pulsing Cripple and Targets does not help here. 
Addionally I would either give this skill a group condi-cleanse (1 condi) or area-stealth so it can benefit from the trait "Panakus Ambition". The current group-stealth utility-options are Shadow Refuge with 60 second cooldown or blinding powder with 40 seconds.
Well of Bounty:
A nice idea which helps the group filling gaps in boon-uptime for some boons.
Though I would change the order a little. Resistance is most of the time not needed in PvE and could be lower priority. 
Well of Silence:
A pulsing CC skill which is not really needed because of the cc the Ultimates have. This woud be the skill i would give a stun-break to. But also it would need rework, since it would make more sense puting the aoe-field on the location you left with a shadowstep, then the target location. Also condi-cleanse or barrier together with a stunbreak would be nice.
Well of Sorrow:
This skill could use a little more condi-damage. Also it does not apply burning, even though the tooltips says "inflicts foes with any damaging condition they don't already have".
Well of Tears:
A power-version of Well of Sorrow. Have not used it a single time. Might be more useful if you play alac-support with harrier stats, since you have more power.
Shadowfall (Elite): 
I do not see any use for this skill, besides pulling mobs together or giving extra alac/heal. Since the cooldown with 75 seconds is way too high and does not provide more cc than basilisk venom (40 seconds cooldown) I would consider a rework. 
Since this should be a support spec, it should get a support elite. 
Proposals/Ideas:
- all allies in the area siphoned for 10 seconds and get the heal from shroud-skills (maybe 60 seconds cooldown)
- pulsing healing/ barrier to your group (+ stealth for 20 seconds)
- a unique boon, that increases healing or condition-damage for group, or reduces incoming damage
- the next 5 seconds you gain increased shadow-force or a passive that increases shadow-force gain, or refill shadow force when skill is used
- regain initiative

There are many options.
 
Siphon (Steal-Ability):
A great idea. Brings some damage (though torment should be added), soft-cc and and 3x might, fury, swiftness (with Thrill of crime). Downside on this is that it currently only works, when you siphon on a foe. You do NOT give your group boons when you siphon on an ally. This needs to be changed very soon, since this should be a support-specialization.
 
Traitline of the Specter. Next to the traitline of the specter, the other traitlines need to be adjusted as well. Especially Acrobatics (which gives +240 Concentration, but only self-sufficient traits) and Shadow-Arts (Shadow-Saviour [360 Range] from SA and Traversing Dusk [240 Range] from Specter both give healing when shadow-stepping. Same effect but different range. Also only 3/12 traits in this traitline are helping the group. Merciful Ambush. Shadow-Saviour. Meld with Shadows). But lets focus on the specter traitline here:
Specter (minor):
You don't get too much Shadow-Force from spending initiative (1%). Additionally it is lowered by 3 initiative. Having only 9 initiative lets you use 3 skills and your initiative is gone. This leads to being forced to take the Trickery traitline → lower variety because you can either take acrobatics for more boon-duration or shadow-arts for more stealth. Not both.
Proposal:
Remove the decrease of initiative.
Second Opinion (major):
I used this rarely. This trait bring only +120 healing power, which already has a bad scaling (compared to Firebrand with "Imbued haste" giving +250 Condi, +250 Vitality, +250 Healing Power). Additionally you get 7% of you Condition Damage converted to healing power. Which would force you to take a plague-doctor, since there is no Prefix available that brings Condition Damage, Healing Power, Boon Duration. This includes, that when you want to play a support-build you have to bring condition damage? Seems contradictory to me. 
Unless you execute some of the changes of the weapon-skills I mentioned before more healing power will not be useful. 
Compared to Consume Shadows it is underperforming, whereas my suggestion would be changing it to a trait, that brings damage to the table, adds more initiative or more shadow-force.
Or make this a trait, so you can siphon more then one ally (2 charges of siphon) at the same time.
Shallow Grave (major):
Did not use this trait. It would be useful, when you would change the elite in a manner, that you can tether 5 allies instead of 1 for a short duration.
Consume Shadows (major):
Very nice heal+barrier trait. Since the current Shadow Shroud is not strong everybody picks it for some extra healing and barrier. When the shroud-skills get buffed, this might not be that interesting anymore. Also it takes quite a bit to get fully shadow force why I don't think it is overperforming right now. You also can not use it instantly, which requires you to think some steps ahead. Good trait.
Dark Sentry (minor):
Since the venom got nerved and you dont have many skills to apply barrier to a group right now, it is a good trait. Though I would like to see it profiting from the Shadow Arts Trait "Leeching Venoms" to get lifesteal for your allies.
20% Heal increase is good.
Larcenous Tormet:
A DPS-Trait. From 20% → 10% torment-damage decreased. Quite a lot. 15% would have been fine, since thief has low hitpoints (higher risk, higher reward). Alternatively add a "Inflict Torment when Crit" section to this. Making the autoattack stronger as a compensation does not feel like more fun in my opinion. 
Amplified Siphoning:
Besides increasing the barrier on siphoning an ally it should heal at first and barrier when the ally has 100% hp. Giving Specter 2 charges of siphon would also fit here pretty well. The increase shadow-force-gain is not that exciting since it only works on foes and you either want to play DPS (Larcenous Torment) or Support (Traversing Dusk). 
Traversing Dusk:
Heal on Shadowstep + Alacrity on Wells. What I do not like about this trait is
that Alacrity does currently NOT increase Initiative-Generation. Please connect initiative to alacrity. This would mean the world the world to me.
the instant Alacrity. If allies are outside of the well and step inside, they do not get Alacrity. Make it to pulsing Alacrity instead. 
Panaku's Ambition:
Cool Trait. Maybe you could add lifesteal to the Rot Vallow Venom in here.
Strentgh of Shadows:
Nice trait.
Hungering Darkness:
The Condition-Transfer is currently only useful for 1 ally. Change it to maximum 4 allies with a radius of 360. Would be way more useful then and actually be taken over "Shadestep".
Shadestep:
So much fun. I love helping people. 33% revive-potential is nice. Though I do not understand why the caster does not get barrier when targeting an ally. Sharing barrier is also nice, though right now you don't get a lot of it. Mostly it is around 500-1000 Barrier per ally. 
I hope this finds its way to the developers of the game so they at least read it and maybe consider some of these changes/ideas.

These proposals are from a thief-main with 1.700h thief-playtime. Not much but also not few. If you have questions just contact me.

Have a good day.

[Kuragari.8290]

Love how Anet's fix to the boonball problem in wvw is to nerf rips across the board so that boonballs are even stronger.
Awesome balance team folks.

[Jianyu.7065]

I think I got lost on my way to the balance patch notes. Somehow I ended up in this mire.

[someguy.4107]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:12 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.

Warrior has a very difficult time dealing with aegis and blinds. That's fine with me cause everything needs to be weak to something. Could the one Arc Divider swing multi-hit as a compromise? Those extra swings are what got through aegis and/or blinds, and with the one attack being multi-hit you can still evade all the damage with one dodge.

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

this is why i never look forward to these balance updates... absurd changes

u pretty much fully destroy scourge in Wvw for what?

u nerf a semi dead class, scrapper?

some hits also on chrono rangestrips @ null

yet kitten sh#t for smallscale like ele and ranger get buffs? ok lul

since midrange basically got annihilated, we have now only 1200 spam or b#lls deep melee

so a very very untimely time to nerfs heal vindi... are we supposed to just full rangebomb, so nobody needs cleanse and heals anymore?

[Serephen.3420]

3 hours ago, shadowpass.4236 said:

Quickness on every sphere sounds like it is going to be too strong.

Also, it would be better to keep Fervent Force and replace Restorative Strikes with Let Loose instead.  Restorative Strikes is bad, it's getting nerfed again.  Fervent Force is a much more interesting trait and hammer really needs it in PvP.

Otherwise, everything else seems pretty good.

Nah quick catalyst really needed that change to keep up with other quickness builds. The duration was also reduced. 

[Cyanophyta.6345]

24 minutes ago, StabbersTheThird.6053 said:

No. Because its entirely different. Vindicator cannot dodge while immobilized let alone stunned. Their dodge provides buffs based on trait. Daredevil can only dash while immobilized on one of three, but not while stunned- and they are IMPAIRED for it. There is no candy. Mirage? Mirage dodges during stun or immob, gets a bonus attack, and gains all dodge trait benefits (clone, reflect, boons). Mirages CORE dodge trait is Ambush+Distort- it is not "get out of jail free". I disagree with you on a fundamental level because you are simply incorrect. I am sorry. If they removed the dodge options on Daredevil they'd be fools because thats the point. Daredevil does not get ANYTHING besides that. It has an entire grandmaster set and two minors attached. Vindicator has a grandmaster and a master set and a minor attached. Mirage has a minor attached, then some ways to extrapolate- but it does not lose out in the same way because it is regaining rather than selecting.

Vindicator Dodge is the jump providing damage, heals, or boons. Using skills that provide evade do not provide Vindicator Dodge.

Daredevil Dodge is Power damage, Condi damage, or mobility with limitations. Using skills that provide evade do not provide Daredevil Dodge.

Mirage Dodge is distortion (so it double dips distortion traits and doge traits) as well as an empowered attack via Ambush. It can also be triggered from Mirage Mirrors.

This is an objectively good change. It fixes pvp and lets you dodge twice. By reducing endurance cost rather than double size of bar it also DOUBLES the effectiveness of Vigor. This is a massive buff. At least as far as I can tell.

What I got from reading your posts: I'm glad Anet nerfed this already underperforming profession that hardly anyone uses in pvp/wvw because I'm bad at the game and lose to it. Because if I'm losing to it, it's clearly OP. Skill issue, should be embarrassed posting this tbh.

 

The one who is blatantly incorrect here is you. As mirage, if you're stunned, you can't use your mirage ambush attack while dodging, only avoid damage. So you lose a major offensive opportunity (ambush skill) on your ONE dodge to avoid further damage/cc. Most of the mirage utility skills that grant mirror shards suck compared to mesmer core utility skills, so taking those is granting yourself more shards at the cost of decent utility skills. Sounds like you don't play mirage or you'd know that. If Mirage is so good, go try playing it for a bit, then come back and tell us how OP it is.

 

Furthermore, the grandmaster/minor traits of an elite spec aren't the only thing that make an elite spec good. The core traits, weapon skills, and utility skills of a profession matter. Especially how well they complement the elite spec and its traits. With core thief you get tons of stealth, smoke fields, and mobility. You then get 3 dodges on top of all that with daredevil. The dodge also turns into a leap combo finisher if you take bounding dodger which pairs really nicely with all those smoke combo fields you get from core thief for extra stealth.

 

I honestly find it laughable that you're complaining about mirage invulnerability and dodging while under the effects of cc while you play a highly mobile profession that gets to be invisible 80% of the time and has 3 dodges which can be leap finishers, with multiple smoke combo fields for further stealth access. Like, that's totally balanced, but mirage getting to use its one dodge to avoid damage/CC while stunned? No, that's clearly too much, NERF IT NOW.

[Lana Del Bae.7156]

this did not make me pregnant

Edited October 29, 2023 by Lana Del Bae.7156

[Roadkizzle.2157]

2 hours ago, Mewtu.9720 said:

Hey I really enjoy the majority of the changes I am seeing but I feel like in some ways Mesmer got changes that are not tuned in a good way...

Virt F5 not longer blocks -> I feel that's a healthy change in PvP and WvW but for PvE it makes stuff like Deimos HK increadibly unreliable since we lose our one block that actually blocks for a duration. It's something I dont feel needs to be adjusted in PvE content.

Chrono rework: Losing the ability to provide meaningful alacrity in downtimes will make playing it feel like the inferior option compared to all alacrity providers... Quickness uptime may not matter when the party cannot proceed hitting hart but alacrity sure does. I'd welcome a change that does not restrict how much utility can be brought to a fight but if it comes at the cost of actual alac uptime I would not want to take it.

Since I play chrono mainly as a healer I'd also welcome to see better protection (and even regen) maybe trhough precog well or shield abilities because running Rune of the Herald to archive this is so much more work compared to other healers out there

 

Chrono was my first character and by far my favorite class for it's style. But I love using the Shield and Wells instead of just being a phantasm spam bot.

This change is seriously making me want to fully abandon it.

 

The changes are making me much more interested in actually using my Scourge as a support, and Druid, and creating an Untamed.

I'm wondering if I should delete the character to make room for trying out one of the other classes. I know it can always change again but from what I've seen on the Mesmer changes I don't expect them to change for the better.