June 27 Balance Update Preview

[NoggDog.5486]

Looking at the Catalyst quickness, I think 2 seconds of quick is too small. Now, even with a concentration setup in mind, you're swapping between each element to throw down spheres, using 1 or 2 abilities, and swapping element to use sphere. That's not better than what it was with air, that's more micromanagement especially since catalyst has a class energy meter on the sphere. Not appreciating that.

[Jamallan.8562]

Some things that I don't like about this patch:

1. No adjustments at all to Willbender alacrity generation or boon application in general. Remember, Willbender only has access to alacrity and regeneration as of now outside of utility choice, and is completely unable to apply alacrity during fight downtime or pump extra alacrity in anticipation of a phase change.
2. Gyros are still going to be forced on Scrapper due to no changes being made to Superspeed application on Gyroscopic Acceleration. It'll also extremely hamper Heal Scrapper from being viable since they don't have a lot of leap or blast finishers baked into their kit (just Blast Gyro, the updated Function Gyro, and Elixir Gun 4 iirc). Depending on how the numbers look, it may be possible by dropping Shredder Gyro for Thumper Turret or Mine Kit, but it'll probably feel less good to play overall.
3. Scourge Alacrity not being on Sand Savant. It'd solve the worries of 10-target alacrity generation and the ridiculous 20 -> 8 second shade duration nerf wouldn't be necessary.
4. Warrior boon application being on Bladesworn instead of Spellbreaker. Spellbreaker has the most design space to potentially foster a heal build, and it would be much easier to tie alacrity to some aspect of Spellbreaker gameplay than wait for Bladesworn to hit max flow in order to apply their alacrity. And thematically it makes much more sense as well.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Jamallan.8562
elixir gun 4

[Kuma.1503]

I missed the scrapper section. 

If Kinetic Accelerators does not give quickness in PvP, it should now that it is tied to combos. Combos can be reacted with and interrupted, and there's a delay between first performing the combo and gaining value out of it. 

This is far more balanced than quickness sources that other classes get (Harbinger gets theirs by just existing). I hope that quickness in competetive is brought back with this change. It would really help bring bruiser Scrapper builds back into relevance. 

[Giovanni.7051]

Forced Engagement currently seems to cast from the bottom of your character and consequently seems to get blocked by nearly all terrain. With this change to 1 target can you please move it up to start from higher up or do something to deal with it's collision detection? With it only effecting 1 target with this I expect to burn energy for zero results 60% of the time if not more.

 

[NoggDog.5486]

4 minutes ago, Malsheem.1794 said:

Im not really sure what you want Scourge do to now. Youre giving it Alacrity (which btw, nobody wanted) and by doing so, you deleted both DPS Scourge AND Heal scourge. 

 

I wanted it. I don't want it this way. I was hoping they'd just put it on Sand Savant since it limits their target cap to 5 anyways. This is not what it should be.

[FalsePromises.6398]

Big disappointment with scourge, lot of uncreative and roundabout changes that just raise more issues. 

Copying mechanist with alacrity on barrier, then reworking barrier applications to match is so incredibly dull. Support scourge's barrier is very powerful for its large chunk applications, not for middling passive barrier, and it's great that way. Plus, reworking shade uptimes to preemptively balance possible 10 man alac is jank as all hell. Protip: DON'T TIE ALACRITY TO TEN TARGET SKILLS TO BEGIN WITH.

It could have been done much better if alacrity was tied to regeneration application instead, which is entirely limited to five man, and is granted rather freely thus far thanks to blood magic and staff, yet with no further use. All you'd need to do then is add some more area five man regeneration applications to scourge (e.g. add a pulse of regeneration to five targets around the scourge when casting F2), and then bam, you've got a good setup, maybe build a bit more identity and healing around regeneration too in the scourge line. 

Now dps scourge is going to be paying for this alacrity barrier change due to losing shade upkeep stat bonuses, just because alacrity got ham-fisted in in a way that lacked the consideration. 

[SunTheBro.4853]

I got so excited when I saw weapon buffs/reworks for other classes, but then it got to Revenant and ...that's literally the best you could come up with? 

 

Feels like every balance patch for Revenant is just Vindi PvP/WvW nerfs, to the point where it's becoming a meme.

[Pengu.7481]

• Bladeturn Requiem: This skill no longer blocks incoming attacks.

wtf is this skill good for then?? noone is gonna use this thing for dmg. might aswell remove it entirely

[Bugabuga.9721]

So does this mean we will no longer have quickness scrapper? As leap finisher is basically not a good thing in pve environment and application of superspeed was more convenient than some random blast finishers. Or are quickscrappers expected to be bomb kit forever? Ugh

[Stwomy.4720]

PLEASE keep Arc Divider as 3 spins! :<

The skill is INCREDIBLY FUN and SATISFYING to use. I still remember years ago when the zerker was reworked to having its bursts locked behind berserk, but having Arc Divider change from one to three made it SO FUN. You have a very angry character overextending their normally boring spin to three rage fueled, mob deleting, high impact hits all with the fancy rage effects that just SELLS the skill. I've enjoyed it a whole lot for years! It has to be my favorite skill in terms of enjoyement.

I know they intended it as a buff, but don't nerf the fun! :<

[Astralporing.1957]

10 minutes ago, Tulki.1458 said:

I hope the Mechanical Genius change to a cooldown penalty still has the buff as a grace period. Pet pathfinding and movement are too unpredictable to take into account without a grace period buff.

In general, the whole penalty for not having Mech close, but without giving us some better tools to keep that mech close seems like something that was done by someone that never actually tried to play the game. If devs do not want players to have mechs too far out, they should either give us tools to keep them close or flat out leash them to never go beyond certain range. If they can't do either of those things however, the penalty needs to go away.

[Lalary.3561]

What the heck is the point of keep nerfing/removing boons strips while a solo player can poop out every boons in the game by itself?

[Jgc XD.5940]

Remove energy from catalyst

[Skyroar.2974]

Just now, Jgc XD.5940 said:

Remove energy from catalyst

Yes. Or greatly improve how it functions.

[Reig.8173]

 

Studio Update: Spring 2023

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

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

Tempest

• Tempestuous Aria: This trait no longer causes shouts to inflict weakness, and it now also grants the tempest a bonus to outgoing damage for a period of time after applying an aura to an ally.

😢
 

[YellowFlash.3914]

The quickness application of Deadeye does not sound good at all tbf. Reminds me of alac on willbender: can be done, but it's not a good idea. Seems like a hack-job for the most part, something like "let's give deadeye quickness application, but let's not mess about too much". I think the process should be reworked.

[Nomad.4301]

I missed the stream, but did they actually remove alacrity from specter? I would assume they'd add it to shroud skills, otherwise the change to shadestep makes no sense, but the notes don't mention any changes to shroud skills??

[Helgaley.3619]

17 minutes ago, Nightrise.8937 said:

so y'all wanted to introduce tempest dps buffs and make dps tempest more viable and then proceed to introduce ONE thing for tempest and that's on tempestuous aria to give a dmg buff when giving auras instead of on unstable conduit the trait who's entire purpose is to give auras. and now we have to take tempestuous aria instead of harmonious conduit which is already tedious because no stab = no overload.
also why no staff dps buffs?? air staff skills is still VERY bad. why is meteor shower still very bad?
why no overload dmg buffs the thing that would actually go VERY far in helping tempest dps?? air overload target cap should be pushed to 5 why is it 3, increase the dmg on air overload and fire overload and increase radius on fire overload why is it the size of a penny. 
why continuously leave dps tempest in the dust while simultaneously buffing every other spec that is vastly outperforming tempest by a huge margin?
why are you able to change unstable bladestorm for virtuoso to not be a hitbox reliant skill but not able to do the same for lightning orb?
why are you able to move traits around for scourge but not able to do the same for tempest?
why are so many specs allowed to do 40k dps now but tempest isnt allowed to do that anymore? (not to mention tempest wouldnt even be doing that since its hitbox reliant despite y'all claims to wanting to make things not so hitbox reliant anymore)
this cant be all that's coming for tempest because this is a joke and y'all got alot of work to do.

1000% agreed. Other than the spectacular sphere change, I'm underwhelmed by the elementalist adjustments. We needed more than this, especially since they were aiming to elevate under used weapons. We aren't really going to have any changes to the weapons we HAVE to use in PVE group content if we want to be competitive. 

[NoggDog.5486]

Don't change sand shade duration, just put alacrity on Sand Savant and be done with it. Why are you nuking sand shade uptime under the guise of it being for target caps when you already have a trait that limits target cap to 5? You can completely avoid moving Desert Empowerment altogether, avoid a disastrous nerf to sand shrouds, the core mechanic of Scourge, just by putting the alac on barrier on the thing that already reduces target cap in the GM traits!

[FalsePromises.6398]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:12 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

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.

Hot hot no. BIG no. It should be a golden rule to NOT design important things around combo skills in Guild Wars 2 given how jank and inconsistent they are. Scrapper quickness is fine as-is. Don't try to screw scrapper over AGAIN just because of WvW, or whatever this is for. 

[Randulf.7614]

As a catalyst, I think I prefer the longer quickness but in one attunement. Seems a bit overpowered now and less strategic. Feels a little like everything is balancing around alacrity reading through this. Surely that’s reducing diversity?

Maybe the issue is that alacrity shouldn’t exist? When everything revolves around it and no mention of protection or regen or other boons, then you are just hitting a wall and going round chasing your own tail

Edited June 10, 2023 by Randulf.7614

[Yogurt Goblin.5934]

On 6/8/2023 at 10:12 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Herald

• Elevated Compassion: This trait now grants boons to nearby allies while six or more points of upkeep are in use, in addition to its current effect.
• Draconic Echo: This trait no longer grants boons when using a consume skill and instead causes facet passives to grant an additional bonus to the herald.

 

More details need to be given on this.

As it stands it looks like Quick Heal Herald will need to choose between providing quickness and providing full uptime of the other key boons?

Also can I say the reasoning behind this change is stupid. You don't want players to have to just sit and spam the same 5 utility skills to provide quickness..........and your genius fix is to now make it so players have to sit and keep 1 of 5 utility skills (1 in each stance) continuously on to provide quickness? 

There was nothing wrong with Quick Heal Herald, please leave it alone.

[solemn.9670]

Really don't see why Twist of Fate wasn't made 30s in both pvp and WvW. No one uses it in WvW because it's terrible. How do you point out that it's bad in PvP and then go on to do nothing about it in WvW? They're both pvp gamemodes. 

Also, thanks for the ele buffs but now my favourite class is going to be memed into oblivion for being OP yet again. I mean, honestly I guess all things considered ele deserves it considering it's the most difficult class but the amount of coping we're going to have to deal with as a result of them not seeing it nerfed, I don't want to think of it.

[ClawfingerPL.5263]

ai generated balance ahh changes 💀

[Plavski.4092]

Any chance of adding quickness or alac to vindicator to give it some viability in PvE? Cheers