June 27 Balance Update Preview

[Decinomicon.4619]

5 minutes ago, Decinomicon.4619 said:

What about rev hammer? That has been horrible for years. Guardian Scepter? Mesmer Scepter? I never see a warrior use mace. 

Or a warrior sword for that matter

[delsolated warrior.2736]

This destruction of the scourge needs not to go through. It's clear that the changes that have been going through are trying to give all professions support options in the form of alacrity and quickness with the elite specializations. Leave scourge alacrity free. it IS a support class. a support class unlike any other. that isn't a bad thing. classes having their own flavor isn't wrong. Stop trying to fit all the specs into a box for the sake of having them in there. do what is right for them.  a necromancer having special power to prevent them from dying is awesome. they don't give boons. they don't really heal. they are very niche already. they are a waste in a high performing team. honestly? it's at its best when the team is learning. it isn't 'too strong' it diminishes its usefulness when the party learns and progresses..... the usefulness is already limited. 

[Pyrin.2741]

Adding my two cents that I'm extremely disappointed by the alac Specter changes. After 10 years of nothing but DPS builds, I really enjoyed finally having a chill support role, casually tossing down my alac wells as needed and occasionally getting a sneaky ranged res. And you're removing both of those things! I'm so baffled by this decision. And you're removing alac from wells without being at all clear how we're going to be granting it going forward. If alac is going to come from shroud, then the rotation will have to be all shroud all the time or alac uptime suffers. That just sounds like the DPS build with the extra stress! And maybe that's the plan, you're trying to merge the DPS and alac DPS Specter builds? But if that's the case, it's a terrible idea. If I wanted to play DPS Specter and micromanage my shroud gauge, then I would play DPS Specter. That's not what I like about alac Specter. I enjoy being able to throw down my wells as needed, and pop into shroud when I can rather than it being a necessity. It's much more forgiving if something goes wrong.

Also, trying to target single allies while in combat is so incredibly awkward. I don't overall mind it, but I can't see the single-ally targeting becoming a regular part of most gameplay when you almost always would rather be targeting an enemy. The only time I ever intentionally target an ally is to sneaky res someone... which is the one fun part of ally targeting on Specter that you're getting rid of. 😞

Edited June 10, 2023 by Pyrin.2741
Edited my thoughts on ally targeting

[Endaris.1452]

Giving Sanctuary a lower base CD is unhealthy for the game.

It already chokes out other classes in terms of CC significantly and this only intensifies the issue.

[soul.9651]

11 minutes ago, Decinomicon.4619 said:

What about rev hammer? That has been horrible for years. Guardian Scepter? Mesmer Scepter? I never see a warrior use mace. 

Or rev shield xd it has to be the least used weapon in the game..

[Roxtorf.9623]

Thanks for totally killing my scourge 😞

Boon corrupt - class-defining for Necro --> GONE

Rezz of downed players - class defining for Necro --> GONE

Barrier --> class defining for scourges (before it got butchered into other classes) --> almost gone

Alacrity? WTF no one asked for that.

 

STOP making all classes do everything! Make each class do the thing it does really good so there is a difference between them! Not every class has to be able to do everything. Druid is a great healer. Why add condi dmg? You can play sth else if you want to play cdps. Necro was a great support dps with some unique specialties, perfect, why add alac and take away everything else it got going for it? This is just the worst patch preview ever... Hope it never sees the day of light.

 

[eldrevo.1746]

First of all, this patch is huge! Shoutout to cmc and the balance team for the hard work as well as commitment to take the risk! The more moving parts, the bigger the chance something will break. I for one won't be mad if some of the changes won't arrive in 10/10 quality because of that.

Now to the changes themselves.

Cooldown reduction traits
I dig the idea of loosening up trait / utility choices so I like this decision overall! However, most of the CDR traits were stripped of their most juicy part without getting something in return, so I can't see the reason they would be picked at all. I suggest giving those traits some counterweight buffs in the future or reworking them completely. And to be honest I still like the fantasy of specializing on a certain skill type / weapon, so I'd rather see some buff to these traits.

Ranger
WOO YEAH BABY I am a DPS druid main now! As a long time WOW druid main, this was one of my biggest issues with Ranger and I'm so happy to see it gone! Blood Moon and Eclipse sound cool both from gameplay and fantasy standpoint, and one could only hope DPS druid could also get altered visuals to Celestial avatar abilities too.
Untamed changes make me hope it will become a little less messy, though the whole unleash and ambush mechanic remains in its wonky state. We'll see how it rolls I guess. I loved the old Alac Untamed, it was fun even though it wasn't healthy.
Spirit changes look a little complicated but are overall great. Sword finding its own place makes me happy, though it's a bit sad if the second skill of Serpent strike (with a dodge on it) has to go, that was pretty cool. And if we are still expected to bring the offhand Axe for power set, it becomes a little weird. Can we expect some buffs to OH Dagger and Torch? Their skills feel outdated anyway.

Thief
While other professions received some pretty straightforward reworks, Specter and Deadeye feel just weird and unnecessarily complicated to me. Random AOE quickness baseline and trait that kills the random? Weird, and doesn't really play into the spec fantasy. AOE support but still tied to one target tether? I dig your commitment to the spec's theme there but I hope it won't get wonky gameplay wise. Overall hyped to try these changes and see how they work in practice, especially compared to other boon supports. One of the thief's issues is that some professions do the same job while being much easier and safer to play, and I see this unnecessary trend going here.

Other things I don't play as much
Quick Herald changes are welcome, it's funny how we 180 from the spammiest kitten in the game to upkeep-and-AFK playstyle. 
Alac scourge changes seem unhinged enough, hope the spec ends up being valuable. Sadly there's no love to harbinger, it's still a bit bruh to play.
Quickness Berserker adjustments look like great design, even though 'giving boon on burst use' can feel a bit too straightforward. Still happy to have more utility slots (would also like the obligation to slot as many Rage skills as possible lifted at some point).
Alac willbender in me is still sadge. I know you intended it to be a meme, but hey, maybe it's time to un-meme it?

[eldrevo.1746]

P. S. Oh, and I agree about the concerns of homogenizing professions. Please be careful with removing and toning down unique things that are iconic for professions. They may be a pain to balance, but if everything will end up playing and feeling samey, the game won't be as fun anymore.

[Omg Im Target.3095]

Why do you homogenize everything? Making confusion just like any other condition, making Hscourge just another support alac, nerfing the stolen skills from daredevil which excelled at few boss fights, i could go on. You make the game alot less interesting by removing all the flavours. It would be a bit understandable if this was done due to gatekeeping issues but this was never the case.

I wish i got paid to make a videogame worse.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Omg Im Target.3095

[troy.3257]

I think trying to brute force alac and quickness in every class is  taking away their uniqueness. There are other buffs/boons in the game besides those two. Maybe work on weapons that are really outdated and nobody uses . Quit trying to fix crap that is not broken

Edited June 10, 2023 by troy.3257

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

and in the meantime, thieves still hit, stealth, jump away,  hit, stealth, jump away and you can do nothing about it.

 

WHERE IS THE FIX TO BROKEN STEALTH?

 

[darkkillerHD.7164]

Please don't take the uniqueness away from Heal Scourge. The reviving power is amazing for leading a group and getting them into new (harder) content. What else would a Necromancer healer do besides resurrect the dead? It's the whole reason I play Necromancer

[Wulfhearth.7962]

 

Arc Divider feels very meaty and satisfying right now, please don't change it. It never felt clunky to me but if it really needs an "usability improvement", consider tweaking the aftercast instead. 

 

Apart from that, there are some huge shakeups and i'd have to see how it plays out. Overall i'm cautiously excited for now. 

As someone who doesn't really play "instanced endgame pve content", i am a bit worried about (non-alacrity) scourge with the drastic sand shade nerfs but we'll see how it goes.

I look forward to trying out dagger though i'd need a clarification on "Quickening Thirst". Will it still have the movement speed increase after the rework or will it only give increased life force on dagger skills? This might be relevant for pvp, or is signet of the locust supposed to fulfill that role?

 

The overall ranger changes sound very good. Non-projectile based ranged aoe is something the class has been lacking for a while and i look forward to experimenting with spirits (and dmg druid). 

Removing quickness from the sword trait and instinctive reaction as well as giving instinctive engage only one charge will affect essence of speed boonbeast, which has already been in an (imo undeservedly) weak state ever since the resistance changes.

With dmg druid being a condi spec as well, i feel like condition ranger is in a very good spot, while power ranger is lacking other options besides longbow/gs burst builds.  Bring back boonbeast duelist please. 

In that light, really appreciate  the demonic defiance buffs on rev . The changes to resistance heavily affected some builds, that were previously nerfed because the old resistance was too strong, and so far they never got a closer look after resistance got changed. Very happy there is awareness about that now and it's being addressed. 

 

Solidifying acrobatics as a traitline that enhances thiefs mobility skills and shadowsteps as a sort of counterpart to shadow arts is also appreciated and i look forward to playing around with it. The specter changes look promising and welcome too. 

As for the Warrior Rifle Buffs: Keep 'em coming!  We'll get there eventually and i'm looking forward to it. 😉

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by Wulfhearth.7962

[Amber.8193]

What a sad day for necromancers...how can you just decide to remove all the uniqueness of this class? (corruption gone?? rez, barriers nerfed etc). Don't get me even started on the 20s to 8s manifest shade duration not even mentioned in these notes...Scourge is now a mediocre dps, mediocre healer, mediocre alac source, no one's going to go for it. Really hoping for a U-turn on this one.

[Malus.2184]

37 minutes ago, Decinomicon.4619 said:

Or a warrior sword for that matter

Sword is used if going for a Condition Berserker build. It uses Sword/Sword and Longbow. Since there are no other viable Warrior Condition builds it's rarely used otherwise.

[Malus.2184]

Please change Stealth so that it gives a Grace period where you after using a Stealth effect are unable to benefit from another. The Grace period is dependent on the effective duration of the previous stealth, to avoid people just spamming stealth. Then remove Marked as a way to Reveal targets and prevent them from re-stealthing. Fixing a broken mechanic with another broken mechanic does nothing to make it less broken, it just makes it even more broken relatively unless you have the counter, in which case, it's also broken, just in the direction of uselessness.

A change like that would make it so that Stealth is still good without being overpowering.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Malus.2184

[Wulfhearth.7962]

5 minutes ago, Malus.2184 said:

Sword is used if going for a Condition Berserker build. It uses Sword/Sword and Longbow. Since there are no other viable Warrior Condition builds it's rarely used otherwise.

There are also Sword/Torch+Mace/Shield builds in PvP/roaming as well as condi spellbreaker variants. But yes, sword is warriors main melee condi weapon.

It will be viable as condi warrior is viable. 

Edited June 10, 2023 by Wulfhearth.7962

[Tarusto.2941]

Great to see support spectre getting some love and new tools, but wouldn't mind if you'd push it even further.

What comes to mind, like...

• Traversing Dusk: more shadow force per ally, and some more well utility meaby. (just to make it on bar with "Larcenous Torment" shadow force generation)

• Panaku's Ambition: "Gain barrier when you strike foes with a stealth attack. When you shadowstep to allies you also grant them barrier." (Spectre wont benefit as much from stealth then other builds, and as we have wells to shadowstep it would complement very nicely to support playstyle)

• Cover of Shadow (Shadow Arts): "When you shadowstep to allies you also grant them protection (or something else)." (Same as above, shadowsteps would fit more on support play because of wells and whistles)

• Shadow Shroud: One skill could be well or shadowstep ability.

Just my two cents for the cause.

[humfrid.2615]

 First things first, before I get to my concerns and grievances: thank you for the last balance patch that made reaper a force to reckon with again and harbinger much more fun to play. 🥰
     
 But now back from the past, and into the future of the announced changes...
   
 SCOURGE 😬

 I can understand that giving 10 player salacrity is not “allowed”, but the solution that is offered for that, to me looks like someone tried to make something fit, realized it wouldn’t really work that way and then smashed things until it kind of worked but also was a big mess. Granted. I don’t have all the details, e.g. what trait will replace Desert Empowerment in the master tier, but from what I can see, things look kind of forcefully hammered together. 

Probably my main concern: The  Manifest Sandshade duration reduction from 20 to 8 seconds messes with all non-alacrity DPS builds, who want 3 shades up. Preventing that also makes it impossible to get the full benefit from the Sand Sage trait, which puts that trait into question. 

To me this seems like a “back to the drawing board” situation, where you leave things as is for the moment and IF you want to have scourge give alacrity in the future, FIRST change the core mechanics that currently allow 10 player boon application in a way that makes that makes that no longer possible, but without butchering the class
 

SCRAPPER 🤔

I’m somewhat concerned that by trying to not force quickness scrapper to bring 3 well skills, they will now be forced to bring a skill bar full of combo fields and finishers, alternating between the two types.  Unless the base quickness duration from combos is really high, that does not sound like the most fun ever, having so spam those combos left and right. I’m happy to let the actual changes convince me otherwise, but I personally don’t see the need for this rework, having always thought that the quickness via wells application on scrapper was rather neat, easy enough to get into and still leaving at least a  little bit of wiggle room for utility skill variation.  
 

FIREBRAND 😔

I pretty much gave up hope that the mantas would get re-re-worked again, but while I am at it, I wanted to comment on how much unfun I find the need to recharge mantras during combat in PvE. Firebrand went from my favourite quickness class to being very frustrating for me to play. Personal grievances aside, someone much more competent that me has posted about their concerns regarding the quickness mantra here and I would highly recommend taking their thoughts into consideration:

Thank you for your attention.
 

[Beheaded.8531]

My first time posting in the forums, but I have to do it seeing these patch notes. The only character I play is a Scourge, focused on world PvE. Ressurrecting huge amounts of people in some of the harder world bosses is just fun. This guts it and gives me access to alacrity if I decide to drop my main QoL feature (the big shade). I really hope they walk back the changes, as it is fully killing a unique playstyle, which happens to be the one I enjoy.

[felincyriac.5981]

you tried with the necro changes, you really tried. But maybe we leave these ones to cook a bit longer? 

[CrazyM.1852]

Step in right direction for Specter, still w8ing for getting initiative back that you lose like they sad few patches ago, and hoping they buff wells for dps specs. Would love to see condi dps Specter use wells for dmg and not venoms, it would make the build have more cleave and be less dependent on applying venoms to other players to be useful. Also still hoping they buff power wells, would be relay fun to play power Specter in pve for big cleave dmg.

For Deadeye, i hope that they increase the dmg for Shadow Flare to be still viable for dps build, but dont realty like the change atm, if you time the backstab right, it wont interrupt it, and multiple hits on Shadow Flare skill helped with sustain with multiple mobs in combination with heal signet passive.

Thief s/d build could be good with new changes, but that depends on the percentage of dmg increase and steal cd.

Buffs for dps power Daredevil look good, but not sure that it will be enough to compete with other dps options, will see once someone does the benchmark.

Also hope that new changes to Power quickness Herald dont destroy the build, it is a fun build to play atm.

Edited June 10, 2023 by CrazyM.1852

[ClawfingerPL.5263]

I like how this patch is released on 1 year anniversary (not really, one day off but still) of another dogshit patch. 

[WhiteSmoke.5926]

For Necromancer. Please put alacrity on "sand savant", this trait is done for support. I dont want to spam my F1 while I could focus on the gameplay and player, it will be painfull to target player with a small shade

[Yve.2045]

Where do I even start? This note is a disaster. Every change I thought would be nice to see was implemented in the worst way possible. Let’s go down the list, shall we?

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Scrapper

• Speed of Synergy: Reduced ally superspeed from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in WvW only. Reduced personal superspeed from 7 seconds to 4 seconds in WvW only.
• Kinetic Accelerators: This trait has been reworked. Apply boons to nearby allies when you successfully combo with a blast or leap finisher. Your function gyro is now a blast finisher.

There’re 2 ways to go about this. The more sensible way is to increase the base duration and/or make it scale better with concentration, so they can provide full quick with less gyro and free up their utility skills. Or if you want to go with this comboing nonsense, scrapper hammer 2 have 2 whirl finishers on a 6 second cooldown and is the main damaging tools. Shredder Gyro pulse 12 whirl finishers over 6 seconds and is taken by every DPS/qDPS scrapper. Both skills are the main damaging skill that is used by every hammer scrapper ever, if your goal ‘Improving the feeling of moment-to-moment gameplay for many boon support builds’ WHY BLAST AND LEAP? Why would you want scrapper to hoard blast finishers and spam them to provide quickness? This ‘improvement’ doesn’t fix the problem of spamming certain skills, instead of spamming gyros you’re spamming blast finishers instead. Not to mention that leap finisher in hammer 3 is UNCANCELLABLE, so you can and will toss yourself off the platform.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Mechanist

• Mechanical Genius: This trait has been reworked. Instead of the mech incurring a stat-reduction penalty, command skills now take longer to recharge if activated while the mech is farther than a range of 360 away from the engineer.

Do you remember why you remove the toughness penalty from Fatal Frenzy? Because it feels bad to be punished for doing your job. I’d rather have the current Mechanical genius than whatever this is. Hell, I’d rather have the old Mechanical Genius than this. Instead of this, why not reduce the cooldown of the command skills by 20% if you execute it while being in leash range? Rewarding the player for good positioning/bot babysitting instead of punishing them for failing to wrangle with your god-awful pet pathfinding system.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Necromancer

Scourge has always been intended to be a viable support option, but the lack of quickness or alacrity has held it back in endgame content outside of specific cases. That won't be an issue anymore, as we've adjusted Desert Empowerment to be that source of alacrity. With scourge support likely becoming more viable in general use, we felt that its reviving power was just a bit too high and have made some adjustments to bring it more in line. We'll be keeping a very close eye on alacrity scourge's performance and will follow up as needed.

What the hell happened here? What are you doing? Do you play your own game? Heal Scourge have little to no utilization in higher skill setting, yes. But not everyone is a world first raider. I don’t use heal scourge; I don’t encourage new player to find a heal scourge so they can brute force every fight the game throw at them. However, using heal scourge to help newer player see the fight and get them used to the mechanic is invaluable to a training group. It doesn’t feel good to get slammed by Slothazor’s tantrum attack and have to sit and watch your raid mates doing the fight. It doesn’t feel good to die to Sloth’s shake over and over again and have to restart from the beginning because you get only 1 chance to dodge each pull, so you don’t get a lot of practice for the time you put in.

          Aside from that, Heal Scourge have no alternatives. What other profession in GW2, or even any other MMORPG that is specialized in reviving player? How cool is it that The Necromancer is good at reviving the dead… including the dead players! You’re sacrificing this unique aspect of the profession for… alacrity?

To dig even deeper than that, Heal Scourge make sense balance wise.Heal scourge have low health healings, which is a fair trade-off given they can shield and revive VERY well. You nuke BOTH the shield AND revive for… the same amount of health healing… and a little bit of alacrity on the side? Alacrity that everyone and their mother’s dog can also provide. Alacrity that no-one asked for, and if someone did ask for it, they would probably keep the current heal scourge and not whatever this ‘implementation’ is.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Druid

• Grace of the Land: This trait now grants alacrity instead of might.
• Rejuvenating Tides: This skill now grants might to nearby allies in addition to its previous effects.
• Natural Convergence: This trait now grants might to nearby allies every pulse.
• Blood Moon: This trait replaces Primal Echoes. Daze nearby foes when you become a celestial avatar. Bleed foes you immobilize or disable.
• Natural Balance: This trait replaces Natural Stride. Deal increased damage and take reduced damage for a period of time after entering or exiting Celestial Avatar.
• Eclipse: This trait replaces Ancient Seeds. Your celestial avatar abilities inflict conditions on enemies.
• Glyph of Alignment: Increased bleeding duration from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in PvE only.
• Glyph of Equality: The non-celestial version of this skill now applies stability in PvE only.
• Natural Mender: Increased astral force generation from 5 to 8 in PvE only.
• Cosmic Ray: Increased radius from 120 to 240.
• Lingering Light: This trait no longer grants increased outgoing healing after exiting Celestial Avatar, and it instead reduces the recharge of Celestial Avatar every time another player is healed by a celestial avatar skill.

Again, for the people at the back in case they didn’t hear it the first time This ‘improvement’ doesn’t fix the problem of spamming certain skills. Instead of spamming *spirits* you’re spamming *heals* instead. If we’re going with this alacrity from CA skills direction, pack it on CA 5 or CA 2. Maybe each pulse of CA 5 gives substantial alacrity, just enough until the next CA 5, or you need to spam CA 2 3-4 times while casting CA 4 and CA 5. Is it spammy? Yes, but the main problem of spammy boon giving skills is that…

1.       It has a cast time. Its annoying to spend 3 seconds in the middle of the combat casting 4 utilities that you don’t care about just for quick/alacrity… every 20 seconds.

2.       You can’t save the skill for use in the situation that requires it and/or must use it even when you are not supposed to use it. Like Blast Gyro, I can’t save it for use during CC phases, and I sometimes have to use it even when the strategy requires me to hold CC.

3.       It eats up a skill slot that could’ve been used for other utilities.

CA 2 doesn’t have any of these problems because it a 1. And instant cast that can be weaved in during other skills 2. It doesn’t have a cooldown, and I have yet to encounter an instance where you have to hold cleansing CC. and 3. Its already is a part of the kit. Curb the heals down and put it on CA auto-attack if you think spamming heals and cleanse is over-powered. For competitive, just give it an internal cooldown or something.

To reiterate, the above is just if you are going with the CA skills giving alacrity direction, you could just rework spirits to have no cast time, weaveable, and give enough alacrity with just 2 spirits we could’ve just keep heal druid as is.

Natural Stride. Just please put the 33% speed somewhere else. If you think DPS druid zooming at Mach 5 is too over-powered, just put it with the new alacrity trait.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Thief

In addition to moving alacrity off of wells, we wanted to improve specter's ability to play a support role in larger group situations. Ally-targeted scepter skills will now grant their effects in an area around the target, and Shadestep has been reworked to allow Shadow Shroud skills to affect multiple allies around the tethered target. We're also introducing a quickness build for deadeye. Fire for Effect will cause every stolen skill to become Steal Time, which now grants quickness in an area. We've also bumped up daredevil's staff damage while reducing the damage of the more powerful stolen skills to make the build more consistent.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Daredevil

• Bound: Increased power coefficient from 1.75 to 3.5 in PvE only.
• Staff Strike: Increased power coefficient from 0.75 to 1.0 in PvE only.
• Staff Bash: Increased power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.2 in PvE only.
• Brawler's Tenacity: This skill no longer reduces the cooldown of physical skills.
• Channeled Vigor: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Bandit's Defense: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds in PvE and from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Fist Flurry: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.
• Impairing Daggers: Reduced cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Impact Strike: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Detonate Plasma: This skill now deals damage to nearby enemies and no longer grants quickness.
• Throw Magnetic Bomb: Reduced power coefficient from 1.5 to 0.7.
• Throw Unstable Reagent: Increased power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.0.
• Throw Cursed Artifact: Reduced power coefficient from 0.5 to 0.4. Reduced bleeding, torment, and confusion stacks from 5 to 3.
• Time in a Bottle: Reduced duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.

DAREDEVILS WEAKENING CHARGE IS STILL AN ANIMATION LOCK

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Deadeye

• Stolen Skills: Stolen skills now grant their beneficial effects in a radius around the caster. Reduced casting time by approximately 25%.
• Steal Time: Increased quickness duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
• Steal Resistance: Increased resistance duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
• Malicious Intent: Increased malice gain from 1 to 2 in PvE only.
• Fire for Effect: This trait no longer requires a target to grant boons to allies. Additionally, equipping this trait guarantees that the stolen skill will be Steal Time, regardless of the target's profession.
• Shadow Flare: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. This skill now only damages once when used instead of pulsing.
• Shadow Swap: This skill now causes an additional strike to occur at your original location when used.
• One in the Chamber: This trait now also increases the damage of stolen skills, in addition to its previous effects.
• Binding Shadow: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE and from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW. This skill now immobilizes marked targets instead of knocking them down.

So where did ‘Improving the feeling of moment-to-moment gameplay for many boon support builds’ go? You trashed 2 specializations to ‘Improving the feeling of moment-to-moment gameplay for many boon support builds’ and make a new boon provider plays the exact same way those 2 boon providers I just mentioned did. Now you just spam stolen skills and cast cantrip to get more stolen skills to spam, so utility skills aren’t freed up either.

How will I implement this Quickness Deadeye? Malice. It can either replace Be Quick or Be Killed (fitting, is it not?) or augment Fire of Effects like you would do here. Every time you marked or stealth attack, you (and/or your target, not stackable of course) give quickness. Depends on how much malice was consumed by the stealth attack, the longer the quickness you give out. Marking is counted as 1 (or 2) malice stealth attack for this effect. Doesn’t that sound much more engaging? This rewards you with boons from doing what Deadeye does, stacking malice and stealth attack. And not spamming the same stolen skills over and over again.

Someone might say ‘What if you can’t stack malice because its an adds fight, how would you give quickness then?’ my answer is… you don’t. Alacrage and Alacbender can’t either, if that can be in the game, this can too.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:12 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Specter

• Ally-targeted scepter skills now also grant a lesser effect to additional allies in a radius around the target.
• Second Opinion: This trait now grants condition damage instead of healing power when equipped and while wielding a scepter.
• Shallow Grave: This trait has been reworked. It now causes Siphon to transfer conditions to a targeted enemy or remove conditions from the specter and their targeted ally.
• Traversing Dusk: This trait no longer grants alacrity to allies when using a well skill.
• Shadestep: This trait has been reworked. It now spreads the beneficial effects of your shadow shroud skills to allies around your tethered target, and it additionally grants boons to yourself and those allies when you use a shadow shroud skill.

The shining jewel of this patch, Specter. For those of you who loves heal specter, RIP to you, but I couldn’t care less. Uncoupling Alacrity from well is an INCREDIBLE change, and if it goes to Shadestep where it would pulse alacrity if you stay in Shadow Shroud like Harbinger’s Deathly Haste would be completely fine by me.

If someone actually read this through to here, please for the love of everything THINK THIS WHOLE PATCH OVER. As I typed this out, these 6 pages of a word document comment didn’t cover all the terrible changes made in this patch, but I need to stop at some point. These changes seem to be an attempt to ‘shake things up’ to make the meta game more interesting with zero regards to how these professions functions, or to ‘Improving the feeling of moment-to-moment gameplay’ (I swear to the gods above and below, the more I read on the patch this quote infuriates me more and more) by moving the problem to a new type of skills instead and not actually fixing the problem. Granted, the solution I’ve came up with is not perfect. But I believe that this would be a better alternative.

I’m not a game designer, but I play the game. And if you play the game too, I think you will know how terrible these changes will be to play.

So please… don’t.