June 27 Balance Update Preview

[Zizou.2358]

On 6/9/2023 at 10:53 PM, Darius Glazkov.9750 said:

dude, what is going on over there? how do you not see passed your biased viewpoint of boon application/boon strip? why does spellbreaker even exist anymore, do you forget why you added it to the game in the first place? this is honestly just depressing

I don't I don't entertain anymore even the slightest hope...

[Viper.2436]

If i understand all this feedback right, the most of the players are not liking it.

 

Will Anet release this stupid balance patch anyway?

Rip Berserker Warrior :( the only build which was fun to play for me in pve.

[xCristo.2063]

2 hours ago, Zephire.8049 said:

Stubborn and/or think they know better than players. I have no doubt that they know their preferred classes in their preferred mode(s) but that doesn't cut it for other classes or when changes are made for modes they're not as familiar with. But like you, I don't have much hope for any changes. Maybe some cursory number changes but it's been over a week since they had the livestream and posted this thread (to supposedly get feedback) and haven't said a word since.

My prediction: We'll get the patch with a tweak here, the changing of something minor there, and then we'll be told to wait until the next balance patch for them to revert anything not utterly game-breaking (as in makes encounters too easy, not that a class/spec is rendered DOA for 1/4 of the year) and to just be patient and trust them. Maybe that's cynical but that's what they told warriors for the banner change patch, after telling players that the first big balance patch after EoD was going to be great and trust them on how great it will be.

49 pages of the preview feedback thread and they haven't said a thing, not even to indicate they've read it. So yeah, no hope of any significant change to what we've seen already.

@Zephire.8049 Out of all the 49 pages there are only a couple of pages with some good feedback. The rest are just random people that just want to keep everything the same no matter what.

Imagine they would actually answer everyone, which btw is impossible since they lack people to do so. Telling someone this or that is incorrect before changes were even tried by the people would only lead to more outcry because they want more attention for nothing or expect to be hand-held by the already busy devs. 

Second scenario, they would reply only to relevant posts. The others will feel neglected and will ask questions like "why are people that actually gave competent feedback more important than me?", which will obviously, ultimately lead to an outrage.

Third scenario, they don't reply at all and actually think and maybe test eventual changes and when the patch is released, get out the end result. This would still lead to outrage, but without the trouble of feeling like having to reply on their side, because I bet they are fairly swamped with work anyway.

End results in all scenarios is outrage by people not wanting things to change, so tell me, if you had more work to handle than the 8h work schedule, would you bother with extra tasks, that eventually would also make you even more responsible (we are all humans. when you put your heart into doing something, sometimes rude people make you lash out and you can't speak rudely to rude people, among other things), or stick to your already existent tasks, trying to work out a solution so that everyone is happy?

 

I personally am alright with most changes. The shade duration should be a bit higher and mirage needing some tuning, but other than that I'm fine with everything else. More than that I really like druid and herald changes. Felt for quite a while that druid should also have a dps variant (don't know the effects, but I really like the design for it). Spirits and support build changes may not be the best, but I like that you can do both might and alac at the same time in CA, which was a pretty big issue in pve and spirit cast time for alac was annoying when having to do multiple things at the same time. Herald is more in theme now (upkeeping stuff is the main objective of heralds, not spamming every upkeep you have and revs main feature is energy management. Both fit right in with the changes made and could probably help support rev a bit). Not entirely sure on thief changes, since I haven't looked very well on them, but flanking being gone for pve content is godly for a lot of build. Quick on deadeye is a pretty nice idea, but no clue how it will work and alac on spectre while spamming shroud skills may also be pretty good. Warrior changes were also fairly healthy with quick removed from banners and adding it in an actual rotation. Can't say much about dmg builds on it, but people haven't even tested the changes yet, so everyone has mostly just a rough idea of how things will be. The other classes didn't get/lose much afaik, so won't mention them. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by xCristo.2063

[Viper.2436]

20 minutes ago, xCristo.2063 said:

Out of all the 49 pages there are only a couple of pages with some good feedback. The rest are just random people that just want to keep everything the same no matter what.

I can understand this part.
However, you must also note that it brings nothing if 50 pages are full of factual content that always repeats itself.

Example warrior, Zephire.8049 has said on page 6 everything there is to say about this patch concerning warrior.

For my part, I actually play in PVE ONLY Berserker with greatsword.
This change makes Berserker with Greatsword 100% unplayable as more or less all damage is taken. So i don't know why you are telling that the warrior changes are fair.

[ImProVision.5806]

Quote

 Forced Engagement: Reduced number of targets from 5 to 1. Increased range from 600 to 900.

Give this skill a second activation to pull the opponent to me. Then the skill name and skill function is consistent, so that it is worth to use this skill.

 

Lets face it almost every class burst skill is AOE, and our hard to play revenant class gets 900 range on a target for not even CC, not even shield, or projectile stop. Before you reach the Target they already oneshot you. This skill is energy waste-

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by ImProVision.5806

[sigmundf.7523]

Meanwhile, Dragonflight will have another content update in early next month, while also the devs actively monitoring classes throughout the patch and make an actual balance / changes that tremendously help all classes. I don't know boss, maybe try to replicate on what the others popular MMO (WoW) devs do ? Have a public test server, let players test all changes the devs proposed and giving feedback from their (players) perspective ? Maybe create a system that record and store data regarding profession and e-spec performance in PVE / PVP / WvW ? So then you will have an actual database as basis to make changes / adjustment, and make those database publicly accessible to a certain extent,  so players will understand better on why you change A B C, instead of just taking cmc and roy words on facevalue. 

I mean, is it that hard to just look into what your competitor doing in improving their product, and then you try to imitate what they do, adjust it according to your product needs ? Instead of doing this game of blind-dart profession changes. Sometimes you nail it, but most of the times you hit other people forehead. 

Maybe the answer is, it is that hard. Most likely need more income to pay the employee to do exceptional thing in releasing amazing content, and do an actual balancing work. But boss, by keep doing things like this, you most likely won't creating any extra income that can be budgeted into another project, and you are going to stuck in a loop, until either your employee taking matter into their own hand to actually make the game better so sales going up, or watching sales stagnant and god-forbid having sales trickle down slowly to the point that you won't profiting in sustaining the game anymore. 

[Waffles.5632]

Anet seriously released a big balance preview and then went zero communication right up to patch day. My goodness. Cannot make this stuff up. 😭

Edited June 27, 2023 by Waffles.5632

[Obtena.7952]

47 minutes ago, Waffles.5632 said:

Anet seriously released a big balance preview and then went zero communication right up to patch day. My goodness. Cannot make this stuff up. 😭

That's not really alarming; it's status quo. The only time I would expect them to communicate further is if they modify some proposed changes based on feedback. 

[Zoser.7245]

Radio-silence is the answer.  So eat that sh*t.   One of them want to play his GvG boonball and both visual heads at balance favour their mains personally and then do random things to others under the global idea of the moment while taking care they can beat them with no problem.  Great!!!

I wonder how much time they dedicate to this. The feeling is that they are working in a new project mainly and GW2 is something extra today.  NCSoft is funding Arenanet for it.  

Time to go for a walk and do something healthy. I'm sure much healthier than staying to read the patch notes and getting really pi**ed off about the wonderful (crap) update they've made-released.   At night I'll look at how many happy people are around here... 😆

[Grith.9534]

1 hour ago, Waffles.5632 said:

Anet seriously released a big balance preview and then went zero communication right up to patch day. My goodness. Cannot make this stuff up. 😭

This has always been the status quo. Anet is absolutely terrible at responding to player feedback and communication in general.

If we do get the patch as is, what the heck was the point of the preview? I've never seen a patch preview so universally criticized by the player base. The hate for this patch might even up there with the infamous Feburary balance overhaul disaster.

Some excellent points have been raised by the community, lets see if Anet actually gives a kitten about this game.

 

[Waffles.5632]

On 6/27/2023 at 10:47 AM, Obtena.7952 said:

That's not really alarming; it's status quo. The only time I would expect them to communicate further is if they modify some proposed changes based on feedback. 

It's not surprising, but still quite alarming to me because of how much negative feedback this patch has gotten.

I at least expected some type of throwaway response, something like "We're reading feedback and looking into it" but not even that!

[Zok.4956]

4 minutes ago, Girth.9731 said:

Some excellent points have been raised by the community, lets see if Anet actually gives a kitten about this game.

If Anet takes the well-founded criticism seriously, the balance update would be postponed and today's patch would be without a balance update, because there would hardly be enough time to make major changes in time.

[Treacy.4067]

53 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

That's not really alarming; it's status quo.

Which is worse.

[Barraind.7324]

18 hours ago, Wiseguy One.1782 said:

Its solar all over again 

Wow, its almost like the guy who was trying to raise the skill floor in a game known for being, in places, beyond overly complex, wasnt the actual problem. 

[Suyheuti.1732]

Quote

• The balance team has been reviewing your feedback to the balance notes preview and making adjustments based on that. Below are the updated balance notes. We will be making further adjustments on July 18, focusing on damage-focused scourge, alacrity-focused mirage, and alacrity-focused willbender builds, as well as tuning for changes from June as needed.

If you wont move alacrity (mirage) to GM trait, please dont bother. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Suyheuti.1732

[Diskyp.9461]

We NeEd YoUr FeEdBaCk!!1

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

27 minutes ago, Treacy.4067 said:

Which is worse.

Of course it's worse. That's how ZOS from Elder scrolls online operated. Make radical changes that do more harm than good in 3 months incremental balance patch, make slight changes to appease players who criticized it. Once the patch DOES hit, People will realize that the reality is far worse than they thought, with new issues rearing their ugly head.

People will slowly adapt and lose focus as to why patch is bad, The devs have to spend their time and resources for fixing problems that they made for themselves. Rinse lather repeat until Player get sick of it, and we get a mass exodus on our hand. It happened with Eso, I can see it happening with guild wars 2. This is not me being a doomsayer, This is me speaking from experience.

You only need to look back when Anet changed Vindicator's dodge mechanic the first time to see just how bad they are with balancing their game. They didn't even have the foresight, or paid attention to the consequences of giving Vindicator two dodges until it was too late.

Vindicator are STILL feeling this negligence, even in this patch.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Astralporing.1957]

Quote

The balance team has been reviewing your feedback to the balance notes preview and making adjustments based on that.

...and, of course, nothing of the major stuff that has been talked about has been addressed at all. I see no explanations either. So, exactly as expected. Why people still keep clinging to any hope, i honestly have no idea.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

5 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

...and, of course, nothing of the major stuff that has been talked about has been addressed at all. I see no explanations either. So, exactly as expected. Why people still keep clinging to any hope, i honestly have no idea.

Better yet, notice the expansion announcement on patch day?

The PR team are hard at work lol.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Obtena.7952]

1 hour ago, Waffles.5632 said:

It's not surprising, but still quite alarming to me because of how much negative feedback this patch has gotten.

I at least expected some type of throwaway response, something like "We're reading feedback and looking into it" but not even that!

The only thing alarming is that people believe a volume of negative feedback means Anet has to stop what they are planning to do. Feedback is simply considered and I have no doubt that the quality of the feedback is a massive factor in how much consideration it gets. It MIGHT cause Anet to change plans, but no one should expect it to. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Obtena.7952

[Hectoncheir.4210]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:15 PM, Hectoncheir.4210 said:

Considering how the last """"balance"""" patch went down, I've no doubt that this balance patch preview will go live as-is; the balance team at Anet will, naturally, disregard player feedback.

Didn't think an MMO could ever have an expiry date, but apparently Guild Wars 2 has one: 27/06/2023

 

Much to our peril, I was not wrong on either points.
 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cal_Cohen -- Once this lists CMC as 'Former Skills and Balance Team Lead' and/or 'Former ArenaNet Employee', I may (read: more than likely won't) come back to play this mess of a game.

Back to playing Club Penguin!

[Otter.3841]

Awesome. Over 10 years of loving this game ruined by this patch. 

[Xainou.1502]

Lmao, "we need feedback".

Don't get me wrong, I love Anet and I really want to keep doing so, but I'm done being a paying customer if some specs are being treated like horse manure. This stinks.

[Tachenon.5270]

Not going to be pre-ordering that shiny new expansion today. Or spending money on anything else in the gem store. Not today, not any time soon. My long-standing policy towards Arenanet and GW2 remains unchanged:

No cash for trash.

That's my high quality feedback for this patch.

8 seconds... brilliant.

[CoolkilleR.9583]

By Name Berserker should be the classes that damages and does not fear the surrounding with less supports skills and banners skills yet every time their is an update , The berserker class gets nerfed either his great sword or his axe , buffing the rifle / hammer that people play on thief. 

What is a Berserker ? 
Filled with rage and without fear for his own life, the berserker cast himself into the midst of the battle arousing terror amongst friends and foes alike. The word may also refer to the fact that the fighters had a bear's strength and wildness. They were even known to bite their own shields out of pure rage. 

 

Instead what we see is a Berserker with condition Bow / Sword / Torch , The Pure Damage and Craziness of Berserker is always nerfed. If their are new Specialization it does not mean to destroy the old ones , Since 2015 Berserker Class had to Either put down Banners or play Support , Instead as I have explain what a Berserker Really Is. 

All The Classes should be balanced :

 

Spell Breaker Should be a Class that provides spell damage in counter to the PVE , PVP or etc. Instead of Raw Damage . The Spell Breaker animation are so lack luster that when I play it , I feel like the DAMAGE is coming out of nowhere . Please refine the animation for Spell Breaker as the Damage feels absurd to its animation 

 

Blade Sworn : Only Getting Buffed since its launch provide some kind of stability in either the trait like or Block in trait line while sacrificing some of the DPS as its already really tough to stand while playing , PVP,PVE ETC.