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November 28 Skills and Balance Update Preview


Rubi Bayer.8493

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Warrior Notes Feedback:

  

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Crushing Blow: Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.25 in PvE and from 1.5 to 1.75 in PvP and WvW. Increased the might stacks from 3 to 5. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
Tremor: Reduced the cooldown to 18 seconds in all game modes. Increased the power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.25 in PvE only.

Cool but it's still ONLY going to be taken when people are desperately in need of CC just like how it is now, due to the opportunity cost of it directly competing with pure DPS weapons.

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Opportunist: This trait will now also trigger when disabling an enemy. Reduced the cooldown from 10 seconds to 1 second. Reduced the fury duration from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.

What I'm happiest about this change is that it's providing a very accessible source of trickle Adrenaline gain into the traitline available to multiple builds due to how generic it is. This should be moved to be one of the minor traits, mirroring [Versatile Rage] in Discipline. This would make the Minors in Arms more generic too to be able to support both Power and Condi builds. 

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Burst Precision: This trait now also grants 100% critical strike chance and 150 ferocity for 2, 3, or 4 seconds based on adrenaline level when striking with a burst skill.

This is the de-facto trait for power builds looking at Arms, but managing to utilize this trait optimally makes all of the Fury and Crit chance increases throughout the line pointless. Considering that the entire traitline combined gives you about 35~45% crit chance consistently including the other changes in these notes, the power level of this trait is deceptively low, especially for a GM trait. 

Overall Arms Feedback

Almost every trait in this traitline reads "do more damage". Please add some utility traits options in here as well. [Might Makes Right] is a fantastic trait exactly because it's positioned in the otherwise damage-oriented Strength traitline. [Dual Wielding] is long overdue for a rework, freeing up a slot.

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Vengeful Return: This trait has been reworked and renamed to Stalwart Focus. Increased  the incoming healing effectiveness and outgoing healing to allies.

Cool to see focus on Support Warrior, but -

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Soldier's Focus Comfort: Increased the heal attribute scaling from 0.8 to 1.0. Increased the protection duration from 2.5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE and from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

You just changed [Heat the Soul] because everyone hated the ICD tied to burst skills. The entire [Soldier's Focus] mechanic (which this trait is tied to) is an ICD tied to burst skills in the EXACT SAME WAY, WITH A 10s ICD. Please get ahead of the curve and update the traits tied to [Marching Orders] and [Soldier's Focus] before it sits for another few years waiting for someone to notice that everyone hated that.

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Heightened Focus: This trait will now also recharge all burst skills when it activates. Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

I don't really see value in periodically randomly resetting my Burst Skill sub 50%, when I might not even have Adrenaline for it. 

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Berserker Changes

Great to see that someone on the dev team identified the pain points of playing Berserker. Please note that tying the extra extensions to [Smash Brawler] works great for Power Builds, but it's competing directly with a significantly powerful Condi trait in [Last Blaze] in the same tier so the Condi Builds still have to suffer without this additional QOL. Not sure if intended. 

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1 hour ago, Convet.2605 said:

Can I query about underwater pets and HoM pets? I don't see any note about Black Moa or Black Widow having changes. No Jellyfish have changes including Rainbow Jellyfish.

 

Was the HoM pets forgotten or just their attacks are generic? 

 

Was underwater pets ignored for being underwater only?

Been awhile since I used my ranger but if I remember correctly the HoM pets are merely reskins. For instance the Black Widow Spider is just a reskinned Jungle Spider. So the HoM Pets should be updated too.

As for underwater its underwater and people have given up all hope for underwater in this game.

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On 10/26/2023 at 8:40 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Guardian

Support-focused firebrand is receiving a few smaller improvements in PvP to make it a competitive pick. We've also tuned up a few of guardian's defensive tools alongside some improvements to the hammer, including additional burst damage potential with Banish now refreshing Mighty Blow when striking an enemy.

  • Symbol of Protection: Reduced the casting time from 0.9 seconds to 0.7 seconds.
  • Zealot's Embrace: Reduced the casting time from 1.2 seconds to 0.94 seconds. Increased the additional-hit barrier from 225 to 625. Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.25 in PvE only.
  • Banish: This skill now recharges Mighty Blow when striking an enemy. Increased the number of targets from 1 to 3.
  • Strength in Numbers: This trait has been reworked and renamed Redemption. Cast Lesser Litany of Wrath when you use virtue skill 3. Lesser Litany of Wrath lasts for 3 seconds.
  • Might of the Protector: Increased the might duration from 6 seconds to 9 seconds in PvP and WvW.

 

A) The new Redemption trait seems pretty op if it gives us Litany of Wrath lasts for 3 seconds. In a medium to large wvw fight this is easily enough to heal us back up.  Even in small fights i think this could have huge impact. I'd recommend not to deploy this change!
B) Nice to see some hammer improvements, really welcoming. It would be nice if the SKill 5 also has another effect maybe some benefit for allies passing thu.
C) Some adjustments to mace would be really nice to. Shorter Skill 2 cast time, and an short evade frame on Skill 3.
D) 1h Sword Skill 3 is still absolute pain to hit against moving target for years. 
E)  PS: Sad to not see a comeback for invis on traps for DH 😞 the traid could have given invis instead of aegis

 

On 10/26/2023 at 8:40 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:
  • Relic of the Water: Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 2.

If the conditions would be cleansed before the healing applies this relic would be actually much more useful.. so we can remove poison before getting the heal.
 

On 10/26/2023 at 8:40 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Engineer

Rifle and pistol are both receiving some general improvements to make them more compelling options, with pistol filling the role of a hybrid damage off-hand weapon to play alongside both sword and pistol main hands. We've also made some improvements for support-focused scrapper builds and reworked some of the passive trait triggers in alchemy for more active gameplay.

  • Net Shot: Increased the casting time from 0.24 seconds to 0.62 seconds. This skill now inflicts vulnerability in addition to immobilizing enemies. Increased the power coefficient from 0.5 to 1.25 in PvE only.
  • Jump Shot: This skill will now evade for 0.5 seconds at the start of the animation.
  • Static Shot: Reduced the casting time from 0.4 seconds to 0.2 seconds. Reduced the cooldown from 12 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Blowtorch: Increased the minimum power coefficient from 0.33 to 1.0 in PvE only. Increased the maximum power coefficient from 1.0 to 2.0 in PvE only.
  • Glue Shot: Increased the missile velocity from 900 to 1,200. This skill is now a blast finisher and deals strike damage to enemies in the impact area with a power coefficient of 1.5. Reduced the cooldown from 20 seconds to 12 seconds in PvE only.
  • Bandage Blast: This skill will now directly target up to 5 allies with bandages instead of firing them in a fan-shaped area. Bandages will now only hit their intended target unless that target is at full health.
  • Elixir B: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.
  • Toss Elixir B: This skill no longer has a chance to grant swiftness.
  • Toss Elixir U: Reduced the cooldown from 32 seconds to 25 seconds.
  • Soothing Detonation: Increased the healing coefficient from 0.2 to 0.5 in PvP only.
  • Health Insurance: Increased the outgoing healing bonus from 7% to 10% in PvP only.
  • Invigorating Speed: This trait will now also activate when gaining superspeed.
  • Transmute: This trait will now activate after using a healing skill instead of upon reaching a threshold of conditions.
  • Emergency Elixir: This trait will now activate after using an elite skill instead of when being struck below a health threshold.
  • HGH: Adjusted might from 3 stacks for 6 seconds to 2 stacks for 10 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Scrapper

  • System Shocker: The barrier granted by this trait is now also applied to nearby allies.
  • Mass Momentum: Increased stability stacks from 1 to 2. Increased the number of targets from 3 to 5.
  • Expert Examination: This trait has been reworked. Your function gyro grants protection to allies when summoned. Using a healing skill's associated toolbelt skill grants protection to nearby allies.
  • Rapid Regeneration: Increased the swiftness base healing from 88 to 101 in PvP and WvW. Increased the superspeed base healing from 176 to 214 in PvP and WvW.
  • Applied Force: The condition damage penalty from this trait has been removed. Increased the bonus power per stack of might from 20 to 40 in PvE only.
  • Blast Gyro: Reduced the cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only.
  • Bypass Coating: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.

Holosmith

  • Spectrum Shield: This skill no longer has a reduced recharge when used above a heat threshold and now grants stability when used. Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
  • Flash Spark: Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 25 seconds.

 

Mechanist

  • When equipped, the following relics' effects will now activate when the mech's abilities fulfill their requirements but affect the mech and the engineer separately:
    • Relic of the Herald
    • Relic of the Brawler
    • Relic of the Scourge
    • Relic of the Aristocracy
  • When equipped, the following relics' effects will now activate when the mech's abilities fulfill their requirements, but cooldowns are shared with the engineer:
    • Relic of the Monk
    • Relic of Antitoxin
  • Mechanical Genius: For a short period of time, the effect will remain active even after the mech moves out of range of the engineer.
  • Rectifier Signet: Reduced the base pulse healing from 142 to 115 in PvP only.
  • Superconducting Signet: Reduced the burning duration from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvP only.

 

A) I really appreciate the evade from on Rifle Skill 5, much needed
B) Net Shot is still a absolute garbage skill imo. It's a good kitten single target skill. Increase the target cap to 5! Or at least 3!
C) Nice to see some improvements for pistol offhand!
D) Appreciate the scrapper changes
E) Holosmith seems "high risk low reward"ish. It used to hit hard but it feels like a wet noodle in wvw.
F) When will be Static Discharge have meaningful impact again? 😛
G) DONT CHANGE EMERGENCY ELEXIER!

Edited by Nero.7369
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uhm why are we buffing all the overperforming builds in pvp and nerfing... scourge? 
love to see the pve changes though. but yeah the pvp balance is not it and hasnt been good for a loooong while now. the mode is unplayable already and i fear that will just make it so much worse. just cut back on the oneshots instead of buffing the broken specs even more please

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5 hours ago, gmmg.9210 said:

Spellbreaker has fallen behind in pvp compared to Berzerker and Blade. Buffing O/h dagger again and Featherfoot Grace would go a long way. Tbh making Featherfoot have a 20 second cd as opposed to 30 would help it in it's duelist role. Offhand dagger could get a bit more damage on the 5 skill. A slight buff to Might makes right would nudge strength spb's back into the meta and help core, and with another shave to Unshakable Mountain in BSW it would even itself out I'd say.

What are you talking about? I have a friend that mained  spellbreaker in PvP since the start of it, and she is still getting high plat consistently. Hell, in my rare moments of wanting to rank for whatever reason, Spellbreaker gets me up to the low end of Plat. Spellbreaker isn't falling behind, Berserker is actually in a very compromising position because with all of these extra buffs, it's going to only get nerfed stupidly hard back into nothingness. And Berserker has always struggled with that. It's either stupidly broken or useless.

Spellbreaker is probably the one spec that is actually 'balanced' since it hasn't gotten out of hand in a good while, while also still being solid enough to always be a problem for boon heavy/reliant specs.

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Ouch... why the swapping of the Krytan Drakehound archetype with Hyena's? My whole soulbeast build is basically built around Drakehound. I've been using him as my pet since pre-launch day one. Looks like I'll have to replace him after 11+ years, and it won't be with Hyena since that's completely incompatible with my aesthetic. I just don't really understand why swapping the archetypes is necessary given that it completely messes with soulbeast builds.

Edited by Elricht Kaltwind.8796
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Love that they are trying to make skills and traits that are not being used useful.

If someone form Anet is reading this, the build i relay want to exist is power dps Specter Thief. The build would focus on burst cleave dmg from Well of Tears, Shadowfall and shroud skills.

The way to make this build possible is to change some Specter traits that are not being used to boost power dmg and to buff dmg of Well of Tears, Shadowfall and possible shroud skills 2 and 4 (of course buff to power wells and and shroud skills would be only in PVE to not make it broken in pvp and wvw).

Also hoping that one day the initiative reduction on Specter will be gone, as it was sad a few patches ago, but never seen light.

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Be for real right now. If you're gonna take out the knockdown from the smokescale's takedown you may as well change the name of the skill. We all know people use that skill for that effect and not for damage. It's a valuable effect to have and if there's a balance issue with it in wvw or pvp work on that instead of completely negating it.

There's other choices here that are questionable at best but this one in particular like ????????? what was the logic behind that 

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On 10/26/2023 at 8:40 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Mesmer

Our goal for mesmer in this update was to improve the set of tools available to support builds. We've made larger changes to the chaos and inspiration specializations to provide better access to certain boons and improve healing capabilities.

What I don't read here, but do gather from the patch notes, is that there will be huge nerf to the Illusions traitline - and I wonder if this was on purpose. The traits Restorative Illusions and Blurred Inscriptions are key for survivability in competitive game-modes; offering some much needed sources of condition cleansing. These two are arguably the strongest traits in all of the Mesmer traitlines.

With the suggested changes, Restorative Illusions will join Blurred Inscriptions at Grandmasters and we will be unable to take both. The new master trait 'Ego Restoration' seems very underwhelming and I'd be hard pressed to imagine it seeing use; and it joins two other very narrow Master traits. While we do get some healing in the new minor Illusionary Inspiration, this is very far from the healing or condition cleansing that Restorative Illusions grants.

I worry that this change will have a mayor impact on many Mesmer builds, especially impacting their survivability in competitive game modes.

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Necro still needs some of its sustain returned to compete. 

Please revert below nerfs:

 

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Nice mediating of the horrible nerf to shadow strike happened 2 years ago....

That said, it won't change much, the main problem of pistols viability in wvw is that deadly aim should grant not only pierce but also unblockable. Choosing deadly aim means that you will not have the practiced tolerance bonus to ferocity which is basically a 15-20% penalty (based on sensed precision) plus a reduction of 5% on the basic damage, so basically a -5% on non critical hits and a -20%/-25% on critical hits.... The amount of lost damage is huge, that's why you should grant to deadly aim pierce+unblockable in order to get a well deserved "full target accessibility".

As it is now, whether be condi or power won't change much, the result is the same: poor paper made thief shadow stepping on the flank and getting erased by his own shots cuz of the 250 billions deflecting barriers between him and his target.

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Orbital Command Strike of Aim-Assisted Rocket needs some buff, it should hit atleast twice or thrice harder since it only cast sometimes but also Miss alot...

underwater combat of Engineers needs some tweaking also

Edited by Tofu.1865
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5 hours ago, Beesh.8923 said:

uhm why are we buffing all the overperforming builds in pvp and nerfing... scourge? 
love to see the pve changes though. but yeah the pvp balance is not it and hasnt been good for a loooong while now. the mode is unplayable already and i fear that will just make it so much worse. just cut back on the oneshots instead of buffing the broken specs even more please

 

this

It is the same cycle all over again and The Community is blind to it. Anet mindset hasn't changed when it comes to the players experiences including competition. 11 years+ of posts, threads after threads, are once again being thrown in the trash can in favor of Toxic game play. 

The feeling of "Powerful specs, skills and mechancis" is what Anet is selling to The Community. 

Anet Marketing Team is pushing this Agenda once again to the extreme and then what happens next?

Nerf accross the board. The Cycle repeats itself over and over again.

As I already stated before, none of those "Improvements, Power" will matter, as long Anet mindset remain the same and Stealth Mechanic and Thief Profession remain untouched.

Not one Anet paid streamers; called out Anet of not resolving Willbender Toxicity in PvP and WvW. Yeah! that's right, no one pointed out in their streaming of Anet pushing Power Creep to the extreme level.

We already have threads like these and many more, that is calling out Anet to stop pushing Power Creep to extreme levels. 

Every Professions will be 1 shotting everyone players, it is going to be extreme. 42k damage will be in the past, prepare for 52k+ damages in addition to Overpower damages.

Anet did nothing about the years and years of pulling, stuns, immobolize, aoe area control effects

Anet Does Not Care about our experiences, they just Don't Care!! 

"When someone is using you, taking advantage of you...they only care about their happiness, what they can get out of you"

Anet clearly knows the game is in survival mode, 'the double edge of the sword' and doesn't care. They will milk every profit they can until the players see what is really happening and quit.

Anet mindset is; Toxcity vs Toxicity

Until that changes, untill there is a new leadership with a new mindset that believes in Healthy Competition and putting the players experience first before profit, with a revamping of their company members: don't be deceieved, fall into the trap and be manipulated into thinking that Anet is for our good. They are not!!

They know that Toxicity and Power Creep sells until every penny is dropped then everything falls flat. 

Don't be treated as a cash cow to Toxicity and Power Creep!! 

Wake Up!!

Nothing Is Ever Going To Change For The Better

Toxic Competitive Mindset Will Not Allow It!!

Edited by Burnfall.9573
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3 hours ago, PiippoN.2056 said:

I don't understand why Dual Wielding in Arms was left untouched when it has the exact same issue with quickness as Malicious Sorcery does.

The Malicious sorcery rework is here within the context of making mesmer's scepter arguably "better", it doesn't question the usefulness of the attack speed buff of the trait. Now, if you ask me, they don't do a good job with the arms traitline minor traits and dual wielding definitely deserved to be part of the traits reworked.

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1 minute ago, Chingiz.6481 said:

Revert "Emergency Elixir: This trait will now activate after using an elite skill instead of when being struck below a health threshold. ".
Why do we want to activate this trait via "elite skill" if elite skills are usually used offensively?

True, they should rename the trait.

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I personally like mesmer being changed toward ally support, however you need to change blocking/stealth uptimes on virtuoso as it got chronomancer's shield(Echo of MemoryDeja Vu) double long block. Then virtuoso shatter skill 5 Bladeturn Requiem is useless skill, needs rework. Mirage new dagger ambush 1 skill Phantom Razor is overtuned and needs some of its kit moved to dagger 2 or dagger 3, spamming dagger ambush skill with clones is not fun to fight against(daze/condi/trait interupt effects spam). 

Willbender is having main issue as being designed over melee and closing the gap. So problem is that as melee it is hard to land hits enough to proc virtues passives. And main problem comes from control condition effects like cripple/chill/imobilize. Such counter is set under f2 Flowing Resolve which fully removes these, however it is often between getting healing from f2 or removing these 3 conditions(once), other words f2 is overtuned. Willbender needs resistance boon on Vanguard Tactics when shadowsteping instead of getting protection/resolution. That way when willbender is closing the gap it can actually land hits instead of being instant slowed and unable to do anything when it needs to. And as set back it would be squishier as tradeoff for being more opressive. Currently willbender can teleport to you and be unkillable but also can't do anything when it needs to do which makes its gameplay fully pushed into one shot builds and kiting. I hope you see the problem there, virtue passive not mattering much(mostly used to close the gap) while whole kit is into teleporting in and bursting with greatsword and whirl combos. 

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51 minutes ago, Maraxus.6219 said:

What I don't read here, but do gather from the patch notes, is that there will be huge nerf to the Illusions traitline - and I wonder if this was on purpose. The traits Restorative Illusions and Blurred Inscriptions are key for survivability in competitive game-modes; offering some much needed sources of condition cleansing. These two are arguably the strongest traits in all of the Mesmer traitlines.

With the suggested changes, Restorative Illusions will join Blurred Inscriptions at Grandmasters and we will be unable to take both. The new master trait 'Ego Restoration' seems very underwhelming and I'd be hard pressed to imagine it seeing use; and it joins two other very narrow Master traits. While we do get some healing in the new minor Illusionary Inspiration, this is very far from the healing or condition cleansing that Restorative Illusions grants.

I worry that this change will have a mayor impact on many Mesmer builds, especially impacting their survivability in competitive game modes.

The only thing that isn't a nerf is the weapon skill changes.

Its a DPS & HPS loss in Chaos & Inspiration with these changes, and we lose more class identity. 

Those who think this benefit Mesmer haven't looked close enough at what is happening. 

The only people excited about it are people who don't use them currently. Those who do realize how awful these changes are. 

Was planning on buying the expansion today, but looks like another long break when this patch launches so I'm holding off. Maybe they'll get it right in another year lol. 

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Please think about increasing Elementalist's base HP, there's really no good reason to have it so low compared to Mesmer, Necromancer and many other professions who just have access to as many skills as Elementalist (and Ele have to work on their rotation to pull good numbers). The class is really suffering from it.

Improve Elementalist's sword condi damage : this is an obvious issue when you compare it to scepter. Why would a ranged weapon do much more damage than a melee weapon, both with condi damage when you're fully geared for condi damage. It's hard to understand the design philosophy behind this besides generating frustrations.

Improve Elementalist's focus, it sees very little to no play in PvE, it does need love.
Dagger and Warhorn (latter even copies some of Focus' abilities) surpass it by far.

Edited by Scar.1793
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