June 27 Balance Update Preview

[MuscleBobBuffPants.1406]

15 minutes ago, Ascency.3580 said:

few months back, when one of the most hated patches dropped, i saw a couple of posts saying that quickness and alacrity should get removed from the game altogether. and i honestly tought its a bad idea. but right now i do feel this is the only way to get out of this spiral of bad decisions being made regarding almost every class in the game.

I think that is a good way to sum up the current state of the game "spiral of bad decisions".  It is what I have always felt, was that game design and game balance has always been this hodge podge of decisions but with no real underlying game philosophy behind it.  That is how balance patches have always felt as well.  They must be looking at internal data, but anyone in data science will tell you that being able to understand and interpret data is the key.  Being able to make connections.  At some point, they will need to get out of that cycle and move into a more holistic viewpoint toward balance which includes data but also design as well as feedback.  John Carmack is a great programmer but he also needed John Romero for design and ideas.  

[Ban Daur.4831]

Thank you for planning on adding some improvements to Weaver sword dual skills and cauterizing strike in pvp but would love to see these buffs directed more towards auto attack chain effects and weapon skill 2 effects on sword. Having these buffs/changes effect WvW roaming would be lovely as well.

Hopes and Dreams:
Am personally hoping more improvements towards actual auto attack chains nearly in all attunements. As when I compare sword auto attack chains and 2 weapon skills they rarely compete either whit power or condition damage whit the ease of landing these skill in their aoe radius, range and effect when comparing it to mainhand dagger or scepter. Biggest and most noticable difference is fire sword auto attack chain vs scepter flamestrike which does much more damage over time in also in a 180 AoE radius around the target compared to the sword's melee range 130 radius cone. The flame uprising skill 2 does not look to compete whit any of the other weapon skills either in power or burning damage vs scepter, dagger and hammer.

I would love to see a clear identity for sword in PvP and WvW game modes should we play it as a hybrid, power, condition or bunker/sustain I-frame weapon because atm it does not feel like a competetive option vs other elementalist main hand weapons. I might be wrong in this judgement so correct me if I'm wrong.

[Maethendias.1305]

why... did you just completly remove the entire core idendity of the entirety of the necromancer class?

that being corruption of stuffs?

like, thanks i guess

why even bother playing a necromancer anymore, and thats not even a hyperbole, cause necros dont do the best condi, nor are they the tankiest anymore, their "oh so op" revival strength got gutted and now they dont even corrupt anymore

hell why do you give necros alc in the first place, we literally dont need it, like, wat

great, first d4 sh*tting on necromancers, now gw2, what a great year

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Maethendias.1305

[TheGrimm.5624]

So ANet, just so we are clear when boonballs constantly come up in the WvW subforum you do realize it's not players saying yeah give us more of them yes? Just wanted to make sure the record was straight when people in the forums and in map chats in WvW are asking for more boonstrips and conversions to keep up with boon spam and handle the boonballs we aren't asking for nerfs to strips/conversions, yes? Or is this a hint that we will be getting another set of elites for the next expansions that are all stacked to edges with strips and conversions and it will be the anti-boon expansion for WvW maybe? 

Side note: thank you for posting the notes in an early manner so people can start planning for adjustments and drop feedback out.

[Xenesis.6389]

23 minutes ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

Side note: thank you for posting the notes in an early manner so people can start planning for adjustments and drop feedback out.

I feel like I should start planning my retirement from the game instead with this preview...  🤭🍿

[Suyheuti.1732]

3 hours ago, Ban Daur.4831 said:

Thank you for planning on adding some improvements to Weaver sword dual skills and cauterizing strike in pvp but would love to see these buffs directed more towards auto attack chain effects and weapon skill 2 effects on sword. Having these buffs/changes effect WvW roaming would be lovely as well.

Hopes and Dreams:
Am personally hoping more improvements towards actual auto attack chains nearly in all attunements. As when I compare sword auto attack chains and 2 weapon skills they rarely compete either whit power or condition damage whit the ease of landing these skill in their aoe radius, range and effect when comparing it to mainhand dagger or scepter. Biggest and most noticable difference is fire sword auto attack chain vs scepter flamestrike which does much more damage over time in also in a 180 AoE radius around the target compared to the sword's melee range 130 radius cone. The flame uprising skill 2 does not look to compete whit any of the other weapon skills either in power or burning damage vs scepter, dagger and hammer.

I would love to see a clear identity for sword in PvP and WvW game modes should we play it as a hybrid, power, condition or bunker/sustain I-frame weapon because atm it does not feel like a competetive option vs other elementalist main hand weapons. I might be wrong in this judgement so correct me if I'm wrong.

I dont play elementalist in PvP/WvW but reasonable requests. 
I have another request. Fresh air buff triggers only the first time attuning the air, according the tooltip, it should trigger when we full attune to air. 
Please Anet, can you make refresh the timer of Fresh Air buff when full attuned. I would like to see competing Fresh Air build with BTTH build. 
, 

[AresGuildwars.6372]

4 hours ago, Ascency.3580 said:

[spoiler]few months back, when one of the most hated patches dropped, i saw a couple of posts saying that quickness and alacrity should get removed from the game altogether. and i honestly tought its a bad idea. but right now i do feel this is the only way to get out of this spiral of bad decisions being made regarding almost every class in the game.

i mean, some classes just feel super bad when played solo, becouse of not having access to those boons. u always have to drop stats and dmg when taking those boons on classes that do have access. 

balancing around those is close to impossible, especially since, some classes can upkeep said boon with no concentration, and others have to gear up for it. condi and healer builds have it way more forgiving, since for power builds as soon as u start going for concentration u loose even more damage and crit chance, forcing u to compromise on runes and sigils, and as a result the boon providing classes vary hugely with their dps output. catalyst has to drop two traits in order to be able to provide quickness...

id much rather have quicnkess and alac be baseline, especially since jade protocols now exist, and make trait choices actually allow for flexibility when building a class. id much rather have a list of traits to chose from that actually changes how a class feels when played (mesmers bountiful blades for example) rather then being forced to choose between 20% dmg incres or passive quickness providing.

there could be a huge amount of personalization if traits allowed for modifying how certain weapons skills work (even if just a small boon aplication, range, target cap or we is concerned) between trait choices, choosing what passive effects u get when perforimg certain actions, and for elite specs choosing how certain aspects of the spec mechanic works.

overall class theme could be left untouched. balancing would be a breeze, choices would be more about utility, thus more meaningful, allowing for crazy builds, instead of there being only one build for most classes. u could tailor ur favourite class to how u want to play it, instead of boring choices that for 99% of the time is blind picking flat dmg increse, ocasionally swapped for quickness/alac providing. (unless of going for healing)

ps. flat dmg traits are among the worst in the game. they will almost always be prioritised over any other option, and still do nothing if u are a healer for example since u dont have stats for those to multiply anything, might aswell not exist and be replaced by something interesting. they are boring, and at the same time forcing players to drop some of them for quickness/alac providing is even worse.[/spoiler]

While I totally agree on the quick/alac part on paper, I'm afraid it would go back to the balance nightmare the more individual approach was. Take spirits for example, the unique boons they provided could proof mandatory if personal dps would still be kinda comparable (within n-1 times x % of dps compared to other dps specs with n being the number of targeted allies of said individual boon and x being the dps increase, so roughlt 20% for a 5%dmg spirit). That could, if balanced poorly, result in 4Warrior1Chrono comps because chrono brings the best individual boon and warri is dps of the month. Alac/Quick is means to have more roles/niches to be required to bring with for more spec diversity. Having that many unique but still balanced elite specs to handle is surely a monumental task for any gamedev, but that's also why Healscg for Boneskinner or Handkite or TowerMesmer are so beautiful ways to tackle this by creating even more niches for builds to shine and that's where the line should be crossed. They shouldn't sacrifice special niches for just more alac/quick. It's fine if there's a spec that is awesome for open world solo bounties/dungeons but might be lacking in endgame dps if played poorly(Mirage), a spec that can tank while providing alac and quick on cost of dps and in return frees the healer from needing to bring alac/quick for more viable comp options. With different endgame types and encounter this ensures that some specs surpass others for some content but are a tad behind on other encounter. This way quick and alac are fine, maybe tune em down a bit and add that to the baseline. 

tldr: Quick and Alac can work if they don't sacrifice unique stuff to have it on every profession/spec; just removing quick/alac would only make it harder to balance and instead they should just try to let specs be unique in their own niches/roles, but kinda comparable overall.

 

(Also don't kill Mirage's Dodge in PvE, I can't stress that out enough^^)

[Burnfall.9573]

4 hours ago, Maethendias.1305 said:

why... did you just completly remove the entire core idendity of the entirety of the necromancer class?

that being corruption of stuffs?

like, thanks i guess

why even bother playing a necromancer anymore, and thats not even a hyperbole, cause necros dont do the best condi, nor are they the tankiest anymore, their "oh so op" revival strength got gutted and now they dont even corrupt anymore

hell why do you give necros alc in the first place, we literally dont need it, like, wat

great, first d4 sh*tting on necromancers, now gw2, what a great year

 

Here is an Insult to Necromancer Profession Identity and Role....

Engineer Profession; a Support Role Profession conditions with other non-condition role Professions, leveling and surpassing Pure Core Necromancer Profession conditions??

https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks

THIS....IS... DISCIPABLE!! 

WHOSE 'CALLING THE SHOTS' WITH ALLOWING, NON-PURE CONDITION ROLE PROFESSIONS, TO LEVEL AND SURPASS; PURE CONDITION IDENTITY - ROLE --> NECROMANCER'S, CONDITION APPLICATION AND STATS??!!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corruption

Anet, You are Punishing Necromancer Profession by removing its access to Corruption; which is, part of its Condition Identity...in return, you are rewarding Thief Profession - The Most Toxic Profession, in the game; with, renewing and reversing one of it most Toxic skill ; Backstab..

Backstab; in the past, has only contributed and resulted with, creating a Toxic Negative Experience, to the players experiences and to the Community well state of being. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_n-iNiAYS0 

(video ends at 1:27)

Backstab can one shot players, while Necromancer Profession Conditions can't.

Anet, once again, Necromancer Profession who is a Pure Condition Profession, is continually Punished as The Scapegoat for Guild Wars 2; Toxic State

While You Continually Praise and Reward, Thief Profession -  Guild Wars 2, 11 years Most Toxic Profession, With More Access To Apply Toxicity

Edited June 14, 2023 by Burnfall.9573

[Myror.7521]

@Kiro Kobra.6478 but in PvP the Problem was not the block of this Skill. The Problem was the comb between Bladestorm Distortion (means 4 Seconds Invulnerability), scepter 2 ( a 12 Seconds CD Block), Blade Renewal (3 seconds Invulnerability on 40 Seconds CD), Bladeturn Refrain (Aegis for 3 Seconds on Bladesong use). All this where making Virtuoso nearly uncatchable. Tho a simple remove of Bladestorm Distortion would have been more than enough to bring it Inline without making an e-spec feature useless.

[DeceiverX.8361]

3 hours ago, Xenesis.6389 said:

I feel like I should start planning my retirement from the game instead with this preview...  🤭🍿

Honestly, the longer I go without playing the less I miss it.  The forum PvP genuinely is better than in-game.
ANet and by extension GW2 has totally abandoned its core principles that made the game stand out in the first place.

[WaterMud.8106]

Hopefully this comes across as constructive. I'd like to reiterate my thanks for actually DOING these previews.

Point #1 But after thinking about it I also have concerns with adding a pulsing power damage packet to dagger on necro.

The weapon obviously needs a bump, (& imo, it should be the core-"support" weapon in some way,) but if you're going to add a D-O-T to it, shouldn't that DOT be condi, isn't that what condi's for in this game? A pulsing, uncleansible debuff al-la guardian focus beam has the potential to be extremely strong, especially if it's not a projectile, giving it little to no counter-play. Even if it was 50 stacks of burning for 5 minutes or something ridiculous there would still be the opportunity to cleanse it before you died to something invisible.

With the increasing number of these skills in PvP a-la:

[Dragon's Tooth] - Forces a Dodge :: Could be fixed by tracking you "most of the cast" and stopping just before it fired so that if you had swiftness or anything greater you could move out & there would be counter-play.

[Ray of Judgement] - Already was a problem in PvP and had to be nerfed out of existence instead of balanced. :: Could be balanced if there was an obvious cast animation.

[Impale] - Applies a debuff that applies torment over time. (Not a problem right now because 5 stacks of torment to 1 target on a projectile has counter-play, is pretty terrible, & the rest of off-sword's kit sucks.)

& now [Necro Dagger Pulsing Thing] - Likely won't be a projectile, will have the same animation, a low cast time & will just be "A better, uncleanable condition" :: Could be fixed by making it high condi dmg.

...I fear that the game will eventually move away from traditional condi applications and more towards these "mechanically superior" forms of DOTs. Just something to think about.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Point #2 After-Thinking-About-It: I also feel that much of this preview / write-up was pretty unclear. And I'm curious about how much of people's concerns, (including mine,) are actually founded at all. For example:

Yes I'm still HIGHLY in favor of preserving class identity over dumping support boons onto places where they don't make sense. However, for example, [Daring Dragon] just says it's getting "reworked" & since the actual trait description or functionality was not shown & knowing ANet that could mean anything. If the trait retains it's existing identity / fun gameplay of "Letting you pay a cost to re-enter Dragon Trigger" but also adds group alacrity whenever you slash: Awesome! That could be both the bump the trait needed as well as eliminate people's concerns of just "spamming little Dragon Slashes" because the flow-cost-per-bullet would be higher. OR If the alacrity-on-scourge trait could somehow just decrease res potential of traits, awesome, balanced, done. Options are great!

BUT

If the new [Daring Dragon] just makes the Dragon Slash shorter + group alacrity as people including myself seem to be interpreting it / fear, that would both: eliminate the cool playstyle of repeated slashes that the trait affords as well a kind of invalidate the other Grandmaster traits that Bladesworn currently has in pretty much every game mode.  (Because you would be doing the same-ish damage, faster, and also now with alacrity. So we'd be back to the problem of the 2 other Grandmaster traits pretty much never being taken. / Support Scourge is forced to take the [Alacrity Trait] then: Druid just becomes the new res-bot & scourge isn't taken in raids anyway because Druid just now does it's new job AND it's old job better. -->> In which case the [Alacrity Traits] of both classes should probably just be put somewhere else. i.e. [Immortal Dragon] / [Sand Savant] or have modifiers attached to them.

Just something to think about I suppose. I really hope we continue to get more unique playstyles/builds, not less. & The unique playstyles of all the classes aren't sacrificed on the altar of including everything in the "currently-technically-viable-if-you-force-it-meta-pool" of raid classes.

[Burnfall.9573]

14 minutes ago, DeceiverX.8361 said:

Honestly, the longer I go without playing the less I miss it.  The forum PvP genuinely is better than in-game.
ANet and by extension GW2 has totally abandoned its core principles that made the game stand out in the first place.

"The Truth Always Comes Out In The End, No Matter How Hard Anyone Tries To Hide It. Lies Are Just A Temporary Delay To The Inevitable" 

[LucianTheAngelic.7054]

The Herald changes for quickness generation absolutely should not make it into the live game. The current method of quickness share is fine (bring slightly more BD if you want more flexibility).

The proposed changes to Herald will make the class even less flexible than the current version

[Ekko.9854]

This rework for herald is really bad imo, and here is why:

 

1) What was wrong with it right now? I have literally never seen someone complain about PVE quickness or qheal herald. It's like you guys want to make revenant mains mad? I get that you want to change other classes into the quickness, alac, heal trinity but why change something that is actually doing alright? You don't have to force changes that are unnecessary, to just 'change' something so herald doesn't feel left out ... 

2) It seems like you force heralds to swap legends now? This is a bad change imo because all other classes can change their abilities according to the situation, revenant can't do that. So imagine you are playing healherald and your party gets chunked by something but your ventari just ran out because you had to use it for no reason? Playing a healer is often a reactive class but you effectively removed the choice to swap legends efficiently ...

3) Why does herald need to permantly heal allies without you actively playing healherald? This seems so useless and just looks to 'compensate' for the changes which FORCED the legend swap in the first place. Let everything as it was and there is no problem. You want quickness, fine go glint. You need healing fine swap to ventari, but at least you have control over it.

4) Herald gives so much good boons, but does not have what a qhfb has and it will never have that because of the ventari-jalis problem. Why make it have less of its boon uptime via Glint? Makes no sense. It's what makes it so fun, but also viable to play. It looks like now, it will be a lot less fun to play because of the forced upkeep of stacks? So you can't actually press other skills in certain situations because you are forced to maintain upkeep for the quickness? Why would you force that upon a class ...

Idk it looks like a small change but for me, and I think a lot of other revenant mains it is absolutely not wanted, and especially unnecessary. I hope the devs find the light in time because i'm definitely not playing herald if this is the case. I never played herald until the quickness build came into being and had so much fun with it, but now it will just feel like you are doomed to press 2 buttons for upkeep and maybe if you have enough energy left you might do something else for your group. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Ekko.9854

[sweetmesquite.5024]

Hello! I’m a necro main and I have some 🌟thoughts🌟 about the upcoming balance changes.

 

First, and most importantly. DO NOT REDUCE SHADE DURATION TO 8 SECONDS. NO. BAD. All this does is promote skill-spammy gameplay. Reducing the shade duration will also eliminate a scourge’s ability to maintain 3-shade uptime, or force a player to choose Sand Savant to continue enjoying the concentration, expertise, and damage reduction bonus of full shade coverage. Also PvE only? WHY??

 

Overall, I’m fine seeing scourge get alacrity. It’s fine tying alacrity to barrier generation. But reducing barrier generation and a large part of the healing a healscourge can provide to “offset” gaining alacrity is very not fine. Additionally, part of the necromancer’s class identity is boon corruption. Why are you removing so much of it? Boonstrip is different, and they serve different purposes.

 

Now to specifics:

• Dagger already provides a ton of life force generation; changing Quickening Thirst to further increase it is unnecessary. Why not change it to allow Life Siphon to apply to allies as well?
• The Banshee’s Wail changes would take it from somewhat useless to completely useless. Don’t remove the healing from it. As a matter of fact, improve the healing from it. Even running full healing gear, the healing provided from it is negligible.
• Vampiric Presence could also use a boost if you’re still planning to nuke Life from Death.
• Why would I take Sadistic Searing for a single stack of burning, and no other bonuses?
• Very excited for the Serpent Siphon change. It’s going from a skill I’ve literally never used to what looks to be a solid support utility. A+ change.
• Why are the harbinger elixir cooldowns only getting reduced in competitive modes?

And Healscourge.

 

Look how you’ve massacred my boy.

 

It’s already a niche build. Its usefulness in instanced content is inversely related to group skill; it’s godly in training squads and borderline useless in experienced squads. And, because necro doesn’t have access to significant sustained healing, the core of the build is barrier generation to block the hardest hits, and Transfusion to pull downs to you so you can pick up. The bulk of a healscourge’s burst healing comes from Ritual of Life as you’re rezzing downs. Destroying the Blood Magic traitline to completely gut its pickup capability –as an offset to unasked-for alacrity on an elite traitline– feels unnecessary.

 

Other classes don’t have to sacrifice healing for boon generation; it feels like necromancer is getting singled out unfairly.

Edited June 15, 2023 by sweetmesquite.5024

[Allium Cepa.6927]

Necromancer

What I like:

• Well of Blood: Adding regen to it is a nice little boost to team healing. It's mostly used for reviving with Ritual of Life and this should help outside of that situation. It's not much and will just get overwritten by stronger regen from the party though.
• Quickening Thirst: I never used this trait for its cooldown or move speed. If for some reason you are blood magic and not taking Ritual of Life and using daggers I guess its better.
• Life Siphon: Changing it to single hit that applies a DoT/recovery effect frees up time to do something else and avoid being interrupted halfway into channeling.
• Desert Empowerment: Thematically, grating alac when applying barrier works for scourge (although I feel alac itself is another problem). I don't know any builds that were using Feed from Corruption that it replaces.
• Serpent Siphon: Probably my favorite necro change for these notes. A targeted party defensive skill. Barrier, regen and aegis. Good times.
• Abrasive Grit: Might generation isn't much of an issue in most groups, but its not a bad addition.
• Sandstorm Shroud: Pulsing barrier. Seems fine to me.

What I don't like:

• Ritual of Life: Why the massive nerf to revive? What's wrong with a trait/skill focused on picking up downed players? It's something (mostly) unique in the game. Or are we only allowed to play DPS and Boons? Elementalist will be way better at downstate/death management than Necro with Geyser and Arcane Resurrection now, somehow.
• Desiccate: It's better? Numbers wise at least. I'm not sure I would use it over other options yet. It feels like the skill is trying to do too much, but failing to do any of it well. Fury, Might, life force and boon conversion. It looks like the intent is to spam it off cooldown for maintaining 8 stacks of might and fury (at full boon duration). Spamming any utility skill off cooldown is just bad design imo.
• Spiteful Spirit, Path of Corruption,  Enfeebling blood, Unholy Feast: I don't see any reason to make these changes to boon strip/conversion. That's one of necromancers class identity things. In PvE, boon conversion/strip is just nice to have for things like fractals, but not that strong, and in PvP, there is so much boon spam that any boons removed are gona get reapplied in a few seconds. At least when a boon is corrupted you get a condition or two on the target, that you don't have that much control over.
• Banshee's wail: I see the heal was moved to Life from Death. I don't mid the heal moving, but now Banshees wail only makes Locust Swarm a tiny bit better. Anyone building for fear on Wail of Doom is going to take the Fear of Death trait. This trait needs to do something more to ever be worth picking over Vampiric Presence or Life from Death. Why not something like foes you fear/hit with warhorn skills have attributes reduced by 15% for 5 seconds? (kind of like how wail of doom worked in GW1).
• Sand Cascade: That is a massive nerf to barrier. At 1200 heal power that's 1104 less barrier. This is the main way scourge gives barrier and now it's down to ~2484 every 10 seconds, if you have lifeforce. I know healing and barrier aren't quite the same, but for comparison, that's averaging about 250 barrier/s. Now look at heal tempest. They heal 450hp/s  by literally just existing near someone (soothing mist). 
• Manifest Sand Shade: 8 seconds is way too short. Unless Blood as Sand and Sand Sage are getting changed it's going to cause problems.  It also means you need a new sand shade every cycle of shade skills. That's just clunky. If you want players to summon shades more, keep them at least 12-15 seconds but make the first shade skill you use after summoning a shade do something extra on that shade. Like how ventari tablet works.

After these changes we get (for heal scourge):

• Gain the ability to distribute aegis every 20 seconds
• Barrier gives alacrity and might
• Gain a bit of healing (~2500 every 20 seconds at 1200 healpower) from taking Life from Death over Banshee's Wail now that it provides the outgoing healing boost
• A bit more regeneration from Well of Blood and Serpent Siphon
• Gain a bit of barrier application from Desert Empowerment, now that it's mandatory and grandmaster

But:

• Much weaker revive potential
• Weaker barrier generation from Sand Cascade
• Depending on the numbers, even weaker barrier still when we need to drop some healing power for concentration. Judging by the might duration on desiccate (9 seconds and 16 sec cooldown), we will be expected to have near 100%
• Sand shades that only last 8 seconds leading to Blood as Sand and Sand Sage being weaker.
• Lose Sand Savant for big shade, as we now need Desert Empowerment for alac
• Must pick between Well of blood for regen and the now limited revive and Sand Flare to compensate for the missing barrier generation and to keep alacrity/might up
• Lose a utility slot to Serpent Siphon. It's too good not to take.

Conclusion:
What is the end goal for heal scourge mostly here? I understand you want to give it alacrity so it has more viability in end game group content. That's fine. But are the sacrifices is worth it? After thinking about it a while, it's not as bad as my first reaction. I'm not convinced it's enough though. With what I predict to be lower overall barrier values, and lack of revive, I would want to see a little more normal healing potential. Add a trait that makes regen a little stronger, or allies siphon more life while they have regen. (remember, tempest can get 450/s doing absolutely nothing). The 8 second sand shade duration means you are going to need to summon a new shade every time you want to use a set of shade skills. Summoning a shade is going to need to do a little more on it's own to feel worth it.

Other Concerns:

• There is way too much boon spam in the game. In all game modes. Back in my day (GW1), Boons (enchantment)  and removal meant something. It could be a key layer of defense providing the target 75% block chance as long as they keep critting. You corrupt that and now they are rapidly losing health for 10 seconds and your big meaty warrior friend can slap that silly sin around, and that enchantment is not coming back for another 30 seconds. Now days in GW2 you rip off a boon and 2 more show back up within a couple seconds. I genuinely feel that boon application rate needs to slow down to like 1/3rd its current speed, but increase the duration and cooldowns so losing it is more impactful. That or necro needs to be obliterating boons at the same rate. (or perhaps you could make something where corrupted boons cant be reapplied for a few seconds)
• The game is now being built around Alacrity and Quickness. I don't like Alacrity or Quickness
• Classes are slowly losing their identity every patch.

[N A T E.3108]

Yeah please don't nerf toolkit cds in spvp. That's just unnecessary. Why nerf it? It's not currently overpowered on any front, and it's another kitten nerf to core engi.

[fayth.1728]

The virtuoso Bladeturn Requiem nerf essentially makes it useless. Virtuoso's got a slow and clunky playstyle to begin with, and its shatters are slow to cast because everything has a cast time. what the heck is the purpose of f5 without defensive abilities, considering that the damage on it is peanut, and you cannot stack damage shatters effectively with it?

it's suppose to be a defensive skill to give you a chance at giving you some distance away from your opponents, especially considering the limited mobility this class has to begin with. If it's nerfed without defensive capabilities and without a damage buff it serves no purpose. It's like anet changed their mind and decided that virtuoso should try and melee inaffectively, while everything about the class is built to be a ranged assassin. It doesn't make sense at all. Maybe if it does reflect or give superspeed or something, then it would make better sense.

The most maddening thing about all of these nerfs and buffs is that it doesn't actually focus on some of the real abuses that are happening. For example, I mostly main wvw, and Gunflame berserker warriors crit for 30k, where's the base damage nerf for that?

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by fayth.1728

[Doomcryer.3650]

Can somebody summarize - was there any Anet feedback to community feedback to balance changes?

Or they will just nuke scourge and staff mirage on June 27?

[Steven.9165]

40 minutes ago, Doomcryer.3650 said:

Can somebody summarize - was there any Anet feedback to community feedback to balance changes?

Or they will just nuke scourge and staff mirage on June 27?

None i have seen so far

Dont think they will post anything before the 27th

Tbh i am a fan cmc and Roy and i hope they will listen to our feedback

[BlackNephilim.6591]

I'm not even mad about it any more. I have spent way too much time in the game lately. By what they do to my favourite builds now they will gift me with a summer of being outside, playing guitar and seeing friends. And maybe in 3 months they will undo at least some of the damage and so maybe I'll be back in fall. 

And I think that is the only right thing to do about this patch. Stop working around the kittens anet throws at us with full hands and enjoy life. Stop investing emotions. It's summer folks, there's so much to do instead of logging into a game with delusional developers. 

If their player base plummets they may get a feeling for the amount of people who quietly enjoyed the game as it was. Let the boonballs and thieves run alone through an empty wvw with no victims for them. Be outside, enjoy a barbecue instead or a nice walk. Life is precious, your time is precious. 

Might as well get a real kitten instead of the anet version ^^

[Acyk.9671]

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

 Necromancer

Core

• Unholy Feast: This skill now removes boons instead of converting them into conditions.
• Spiteful Spirit: This trait now removes boons instead of converting them into conditions

Anything close to Spite and axe/focus shouldn't corrupt in the first place so good change.

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

• 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.

You should let Curses and scepter/oh dagger apply corrupt as a class defining mechanic. Keep corrupt and stop nerfing those so a Curses/Blood support Scourge with celestial or plague doctor can exist.

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

Scourge

• Path of Corruption: This trait now increases the cooldown of Nefarious Favor by 50% in WvW only.

Same as devouring darkness and enfeebling Blood.

Still nothing to Sand Savant?

Edited June 16, 2023 by Acyk.9671

[GamerToad.9248]

The patch was so bad that they got ratioed by someone advocating for the removal of alac and quick (the entire reason we have this bad decisions and nerfs just to acoomadate such boons).

 

I think is time for them to listen to the players.

 

[Persephone.1423]

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

Desert Empowerment: This trait has been moved to the grandmaster tier, replacing Feed from Corruption. The barrier from this trait will now only apply around the shade and will affect 5 targets. This trait now also grants alacrity to allies when you grant them barrier.

So what is replacing Desert Empowerment and is feed from corruption moved?
I understand this the way that Feed from Corruption is gone and is replaced by Desert Empowerment. So it makes me wonder whats replacing desert emp?

Also side note when u give support scrapper elite that is viable? None of the engineer elitese feel like elite.

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Gabi.2351

[ZetsuZack.9217]

On 6/8/2023 at 5:12 PM, 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.

My biggest thing I have concerns about is the "making mech range penalty more visible". Basically if necro doesn't get changed can we not nerf mech skills?

If we really want the penalty something like 600 range instead of this 360 range that they wanted, mech's don't only play support mech and play mace all day, some of us enjoy playing rifle condi even, or pistol condi DPS builds.

Why necro's scourge gets thrown into this? As a balance patch everything should be fair, if necro can revert there changes with enough voice(and it's looking possible because people seem way too angry.

I'm here to UpVoice for mechs because there isn't enough voice, who don't want there condi application and minor solo quickness application from mech skills ruined because the cd gets drastically increased from being at range, which it MOSTLY is, unless your stacking for raids/strikes. Stacking shouldn't have to be mandatory for the mechanic class who's best damage weapon comes from ranged weapons or diehard mace melee veterans. We already do low enough damage on power rifle and work very hard for dps on condi builds with 4+ kits being mandatory to even come close to competing as a "dps" build.

Let's rethink this through please yea?