January 30 Balance Update Preview

[Althean.5976]

10 hours ago, JDub.1530 said:

No, it makes NON-torch weaker, because they don't gain any benefit from the trait.

You'd still get the "burning you inflict has increased duration", which applies to all burning from every skill as it does currently.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

• Transfusion: This trait now increases the cooldown of Garish Pillar to 60 seconds in WvW only

absolute win

also: took you long enough

Edited January 14 by Stand The Wall.6987

[Thy Weeping Willow.6851]

16 hours ago, VeriBeri.9528 said:

Exactly my thoughts. Can we finally have a balance lead, that actually knows what "balance" means? We have tons of underperforming specs, and he keeps AdJuStInG the same few, based on stupid idea of snowcrows benchmarks, instead of actual usability in game. About time there was a PvE balance lead, that actually plays PvE, and understands how it works, instead of running everything over with a bulldozer, so the numbers look even.

Also, leave mirage alone. No one plays it anyway, let the remaining 5 people have some fun at least.

yeap.. the mirage one makes me sad. it used to be my fav class to play, but since its just too situational i barely use it at all nowadays. and seeing this change, doesnt make me want to play it again either. i dont understand it at all really. in the past months of playing in groups- i have barely seen any mirage on any fight at all unless its like.. largos / soulless horror. while virtuoso is everywhere. and now its just.. yeah lets nuke mirage more 😞

Edited January 14 by Thy Weeping Willow.6851

[Jski.6180]

Seeing how Barrage is getting an massive buff for ranger L. Bow why not carry it over the MS for staff ele. As things stand after this update rangers L. Bow will be an better aoe mages wepon then staff on ele.

[Millian.9730]

Mesmer taking nerf while Necromancer breathes and deals huge damage. Haha

[DylanLucas.6058]

Quote

Applied Force: Reduced the bonus power per might stack from 35 to 30 in PvE only

Don't take the fun away.......

Why is it that you guys overtune stuff and then nerf it again like theres no tomorrow. Same for Mirage, one of the most hardest classes to play.

 

EDIT: don't forget the painoplay called condi tempest and weaver. Isn't it time that you buff staff on Ele @ArenaNet 

Edited January 13 by DylanLucas.6058

[aymnad.9023]

 

This is a small patch but it is quite decent.

General : I like the relic changes. I just find some of them hard to slot on most of my characters which have their cd (healing / elite) way higher than the icd.  Runes had the same issue. Relic of durability could be nice in PvP and I am considering trying a stance soulbeast with relic of the weaver.

Ele : ok Hammer nerf is fine as the rotation is easy and the damage high.

Engineer : Good. Applied force was crazy as predicted.  I played some healscrapper in raids / strikes recently and it was really strong + easy to play. Guess it is even stronger with Bulwark gyro changes. It might even be played in other game modes. 

Guard : 

• I like radiant fire change to try other weapons but I need to see how it feels. When I was testing axe/torch + pistol/pistol it was a buff for my willbender but a nerf for my fb.
• I think the mantra changes are good but you need to be REALLY carefull. Even if you think Igniting burst updates look small all I see is that the tomes are slowly but surely becoming overloaded. I guess it also helps to get might in PvE but I did not feel like I needed it.

Ranger : 

• Gs : I am happy to see gs getting an update but some skills like counter are supposed to be situational
• Let Loose :  I do not think Might was needed but it will make quick untamed better with Hscourge
• Devourer : It sounds so heavy. I am not sure devourer are going to be worth after the patch or that it was what needed to be targeted
• Barrage : I guess it “somewhat solves” the issue of projectile but it probably won t be fun to fight or play

Mesmer :  about dagger Do you have any plan to make dagger ambush more fun to fight? Being under a barrage of daze and condi while fighting a build that often spams evades, distortion, blind is extremely obnoxious / not interactive. 

Necro : about power harbinger I am not sure the kit of harbinger can fit a power playstyle. If at some point it does I am not sure either that it will be healthy. For example if it pulses too much dmg or can one shot too easily. 

Condi rev :  good for PvP. More damage, faster cc, might without combo. Condi herald is looking quite potent in PvP.

Thief :  Finally! A lot of us talked about the 2 spam back during PoF. 

War : I expected it after last patch. A bit surprised by the lack of PvP changes for czerker

Edited January 13 by aymnad.9023

[Divity.3049]

The Mesmer changes are really bad and make not much sense. Condi Mirage already has it really hard, and it took you a VERY LONG TIME to make heal chrono good and fun again and after only one patch you are going to nerf it into the ground again for no reason? Even the WvW changes are strange, Chrono is not too strong there, it already has the disadvantage of "needing" clones to perform decently while other healers have everything on demand at any time. Mesmer changes should be removed from the patch.

[Rong.5470]

Does usual balancing session includes checking top builds from https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks and nerfing them without proper explanation? It feels like all of the balancing in the game is based on the DPS on the golem which is kinda crazy. 

[Doul.9314]

Boooooooooo

[Asum.4960]

On 1/12/2024 at 12:26 AM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Necromancer

We considered some improvements for power harbinger builds, but we want to see where the build lands with the introduction of swords before making any additional changes.

We know where it's going to land though - exactly where it's been since EoD Beta 1 in August 2021, in the trash. 

Sword/Sword would have to be ridiculously over-buffed since it's Beta to compensate for Power Harb being so lacklustre - to a point where it would then make S/S Power Reaper utterly OP. So that is not happening. 

/E: Cascading Corruption especially needs a rework, Swords or not. Which again, is multiple years old common Beta feedback at this point.

 

And looking at the usability improvements for Mesmer Mantra's, why are Harbinger Elixir's still 240 radius? Why are these things taking literally years for the most minor iterations?

Edited January 13 by Asum.4960

[phokus.8934]

On 1/12/2024 at 3:17 PM, Pie.2167 said:

The nerf to Escape Artist was not warranted.  

Balance team in all of their GvG wisdom don't want Phantasmal Disenchanter stripping boons while being invuln.

EA and phantasms go back to being useless in fights.

[Sweetbread.3678]

Mirage over here with a 0.9% pick rate and Weaver with 1.31%. Better nerf them into the ground because of a static golem benchmark even though in any fight with actual mechanics they'll generally average less dps than some Condi Virt (11.9% pickrate btw) that's 100 times easier to use. Anet isn't even pretending to balance around anything but static golem Snowcrows benchmarks at this point. All it would take would be to hire one single person to actually perform some data analysis over there, but nope, better save money by relying entirely on a third-party website.

It really feels like yall don't even want anyone interested in skilled gameplay with any sort of depth to play the game. If you aren't playing something with a hugely inflated pick rate due to being brain-dead af and low-risk/high-reward, you're basically just asking for pain every single balance patch. I wonder if yall can get Mirage down to sub 0.1% pick rates and Ele in general to under 3% by the end of the year. I believe in you!

Edited January 13 by Sweetbread.3678

[Gwynnion.7364]

There are some classes they like and some classes they hate, they don't know how their own game works, and they don't care.  They don't even pretend to listen to feedback on these previews anymore.  It's just them throwing down the gauntlet of who they're going to screw over this cycle, and Mirage / Mesmer is usually on that list somewhere.

[Pecar.1236]

Rework or buff Guard torch 5 because its most useless torch 5 skill in game.

[AlPower.2476]

I was about to get upset for condi holo nerfs when I read that was a global nerf for +42k dps builds

So np, dps is out of control right now

I'd nerf every class thats over 40k dps, and to have only harder ones reach (without exceeding) 40k dps

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

Ah yes.... More reliance on trickery for thief. That's the solution for everything! How about leave it alone? It's fine?  Maybe deadeye is popular because everything else isn't doing enough?

 

I actually had hope after the last patch.

Seriously, this should not go through. As this is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. You are bumping the cost of Death's advance to FRIGGIN 8 in total to use. It's already akward to use immediately because you need to kneel (costs 2), be inside the  line of smoke from snipers cover (costs 4) - which does not last long enough to recover thr lost init - and use the skill again to teleport (now 4) for a total of 8 WITH THESE CHANGES. OR 10 IF YOU CHAIN IT WITH KNEEL

 

Thief's init pool is only 12 by default, and 15 with trickery, which thief is absolutely forced into taking because of crap like this. Thief is the ONLY profession in the game that is completely locked out of a full rotation of their skills because of these skills. And noe you're increasing the cost even more?!

 

After burning death's advance you can only use one more skill, and then you're stuck to auto attacks

 

 

Why?! Do you seriously not understand this dang class?

 

Edited January 13 by Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497

[FalsePromises.6398]

14 hours ago, Lazarus.4105 said:

Also it makes torch weaker. You'll be doing half the damage as you were before. The cool down of the traits proc and the cool down of the torch skill weren't shared before... Now the ammo skill will share a cooldown. It's actually going to make you do about %50 less burning... It's a terrible change and TBH it was actually fun to swap to your torch when you got the proc.

The right solution is make the zealots flame last longer and pulse less burn or duration. That way anyone would have time to actually swap over to their torch and throw the fireball.

I'm 90% sure they intend to make the THROWN fire (Zealot's Fire) into two ammo every time you activate the self flame (Zealot's Flame), not make the self flame (Zealot's Flame) into two ammo. I think they just mistyped in the post, because I see them say Zealot's Flame. It WOULD be a 50% dps loss to change Zealot's Flame (the self flame) to two ammo since you still have the same cooldown, but if you get two ammo of Zealot's Fire (the thrown fire) per cast of Zealot's Flame (the self flame), it's effectively the same with torch, and actually a 4% damage increase since Zealot's Fire with the trait and alacrity is 9.6 second cooldown compared to 10 second cooldown on the trait. It's way more sensible that they'd change the thrown fire into two ammo rather than the self flame. 

[FalsePromises.6398]

On 1/11/2024 at 5:26 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Bulwark Gyro: This skill no longer redirects damage from nearby allies to the user, and it now grants barrier to nearby allies upon activation and on each pulse.

I missed this the first read, and I actually really like this change. That skill was poorly aged and it's great to see it usable as a reliable support effect that won't get you killed in the wrong situation. 

[Equinox.4195]

Illusion of Life is still untouched in WvW? That's disheartening.

[scerevisiae.1972]

13 hours ago, Eveliien.7619 said:

For WvW your Chronomancer needs alot more nerfs then this, and fast. It's ridiculious how much boons you just poop out.

I think the real problem is they've made boons WAY too accessible/spammable while simultaneously nerfing boon strips/corrupts because low-skill WVW zerg guild commanders complain that they die to 2-3x their numbers while standing in mortar and arrow cart fire on the internal dev forum.

 

WVW zerging has been reduced to zero tradeoff PVE builds/rotations. So while some classes have WVW builds that didn't before, WVW is in the worst state it's ever been due to boonball PVE builds. 

Edited January 14 by scerevisiae.1972

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

Wow, the devour-er pet had no reason to be nerfed there, im more honestly surprised they haven't checked on the other pets. Considering there other pets that can hit hard like a truck when trait-ed properly.

[Lazarus.4105]

4 hours ago, FalsePromises.6398 said:

I'm 90% sure they intend to make the THROWN fire (Zealot's Fire) into two ammo every time you activate the self flame (Zealot's Flame), not make the self flame (Zealot's Flame) into two ammo. I think they just mistyped in the post, because I see them say Zealot's Flame. It WOULD be a 50% dps loss to change Zealot's Flame (the self flame) to two ammo since you still have the same cooldown, but if you get two ammo of Zealot's Fire (the thrown fire) per cast of Zealot's Flame (the self flame), it's effectively the same with torch, and actually a 4% damage increase since Zealot's Fire with the trait and alacrity is 9.6 second cooldown compared to 10 second cooldown on the trait. It's way more sensible that they'd change the thrown fire into two ammo rather than the self flame. 

Yeah with that change you still lose the pulse burning so it's still a DPS loss

[Lazarus.4105]

9 hours ago, KyiuTec.7926 said:

In my opinion, the winner is the Guardian again. You can tell it's Anet's favorite class. Back in the beta, he was able to generate 40 stacks of burn in PvE in seconds. With the change, there are no longer 40 stacks. "Radiant Fire: This trait no longer grants Zealot's Flame when critically striking an enemy, and instead it grants an additional ammunition to Zealot's Flame. This trait also causes Zealot's Flame to inflict additional burning to enemies in PvE only." I'm curious to see how the Necro plays with the new weapons. He was unplayable back then.

Overall, I personally am not happy with the changes.

As a guardian main the radiant fire change is terrible. 

[Lazarus.4105]

17 hours ago, VaegaVic.6394 said:

What did my Willbender do to you to receive such crippling?

I use Radiant fire to keep burning up on an enemy, which keeps up my fury and crit rate. 

Now I'm going to run at a significant DPS loss because reasons?

Yeah they only care about dps meters for raids. They balance it all based upon people in a squad with 100% boon uptime.