January 30 Balance Update Preview

[Alex.5283]

Flow of Time changes in the upcoming balance update from base 1.5s to 0.75s in WvW game mode is a huge nerf to the Chronomancer elite spec for Mesmer. It doesn't allow power based Chronomancer players to self sustain alacrity without overly investing into boon duration. In addition, there is a further hit when you take the trait "Improved Alacrity", which reduces our applied alacrity duration by -33%. In other words, we will only have a base of 0.5s per shatter if we were to take Improved Alacrity as a trait for an additional 10% damage with Alacrity present and the maximum alacrity duration we can get from 3 clones and ourselves will be 2 secs. This will also be the lowest alacrity duration since 2016. 

My suggestion would be a base 1s for Flow of Time for WvW so Chronomancer's can still have the ability to self sustain alacrity reasonable without having a high alacrity boon duration, I believe this is the reason why "Stretched Time" base duration was reduced from 3 secs to 1 secs during the last balance update.

If WvW zerging is an concern, then a base 1s Flow of Time Alacrity would require support players to maximum boon duration to achieve 2s Flow of Time but will won't achieve 2s Flow of Time if they were to take Improved Alacrity as a trait.

Best,

Alex 

[Maxwell.8564]

Thanks for continuing to support this game! 🙂❤️ Please also work on the team balance in PvP. I'm constantly playing games that end in 500 to < 100. 🙂 

[Warrior.9487]

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

Bloody Roar: Reduced the damage bonus from 20% to 15% in PvE only.

Just WHY?
And where is our 3 spin arc divider?????
Incompetent fools!

[DanAlcedo.3281]

18 minutes ago, Warrior.9487 said:

Just WHY?
And where is our 3 spin arc divider?????
Incompetent fools!

The golem benchmarks on snowcrows.com are to high.

[Warrior.9487]

31 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

The golem benchmarks on snowcrows.com are to high.

If only these self-proclaimed experts would play this class themselves for once.
I really am lost for words at the stupidity of these people.

Hardly anyone plays warriors anymore because Anet doesn't give a kitten. Why do you have to make it worse with every single patch?

[DanAlcedo.3281]

9 minutes ago, Warrior.9487 said:

If only these self-proclaimed experts would play this class themselves for once.
I really am lost for words at the stupidity of these people.

Hardly anyone plays warriors anymore because Anet doesn't give a kitten. Why do you have to make it worse with every single patch?

Tradition. 

[Fueki.4753]

1 hour ago, Warrior.9487 said:

Hardly anyone plays warriors anymore because Anet doesn't give a kitten. Why do you have to make it worse with every single patch?

It's not every single patch. There were a few times when we were lucky enough not to be mentioned in the patch notes.

[Voyant.1327]

4 hours ago, Warrior.9487 said:

If only these self-proclaimed experts would play this class themselves for once.
I really am lost for words at the stupidity of these people.

Hardly anyone plays warriors anymore because Anet doesn't give a kitten. Why do you have to make it worse with every single patch?

As many have said they're balancing around theoretical benchmarks, the meta, and basically not using common sense. (No offense to any on the team)

A very large portion of western MMO players often play solo more then anything else. These balance patches reduce the experience for those players, yet make it better for that small collective of Meta obsessed? 

How does making the game less fun for the average player, reducing customization is never a good move, and worst of all its the exact opposite of what we assured was going to take place. 

We were told the game wouldn't be balanced around one type of player/theory & be balanced around the experience. 

Its simply not happening right now for a lot of us. 

[thief.7429]

On 1/11/2024 at 6:26 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Thief

Deadeye has been growing in popularity in PvP over the last few months, and we've seen that it can be a bit too difficult to lock down for the damage it's capable of dealing. We're increasing the initiative cost of Death's Advance to require a larger resource investment for the survivability that it provides.

• Skirmisher's Shot: Reduced the power coefficient from 0.8 to 0.7 in PvP only.
• Death's Advance: Increased the initiative cost from 2 to 4 in PvP only.

Edited January 24 by thief.7429

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

8 minutes ago, thief.7429 said:

They acknowledged that its hard to lock down enemies as a deadeye. So they nerf it? What? 

 

8 minutes ago, thief.7429 said:

and we've seen that it can be a bit too difficult to lock down for the damage it's capable of dealing

It's hard to lock down a deadeye, Not a deadeye struggling to lock down players.

Edited January 24 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Warrior.9487]

1 hour ago, Voyant.1327 said:

As many have said they're balancing around theoretical benchmarks, the meta, and basically not using common sense. (No offense to any on the team)

A very large portion of western MMO players often play solo more then anything else. These balance patches reduce the experience for those players, yet make it better for that small collective of Meta obsessed? 

How does making the game less fun for the average player, reducing customization is never a good move, and worst of all its the exact opposite of what we assured was going to take place. 

We were told the game wouldn't be balanced around one type of player/theory & be balanced around the experience. 

Its simply not happening right now for a lot of us. 

I think, as a doctor, I should treat and operate on exactly these people completely wrong so that they learn.

As soon as they complain that they are missing body parts, I ignore that and claim that they have no idea ^^

[Juan.6124]

On 1/18/2024 at 8:10 PM, Voyant.1327 said:

These Mirage Nerfs for example, Nerf every single Mesmer that uses the Chaos Traitline.

Which is only Mirage.

[Stronger.8273]

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

Hi, everyone,

Welcome to the preview for the January 30 balance update! As always, the goal of previewing these changes is to gather your feedback before the live release. We'll be following the conversation and making further adjustments as needed.

 

Thanks,

Cal "cmc" Cohen

Skills and Balance Lead

 

This update is a smaller set of changes intended to address outliers that came out of the November balance update, plus a handful of changes to prepare for the new weapons coming in the following release. Due to the smaller nature of this update, there won't be an accompanying livestream. We'll be previewing changes to the new weapons themselves at a later date. This update will only include changes to existing skills and traits. After that we'll be working on the next regular balance update that is currently scheduled for mid-March.

General

As with the November update, this update also includes improvements for some underperforming relics.

• Relic of Karakosa: Lowered the healing multiplier from 0.8 to 0.5 in PvE and WvW.
• Relic of the Flock: This relic now heals instead of granting barrier. Excess healing is converted to barrier.
• Relic of Resistance: This relic now triggers when using a healing skill instead of when using an elite skill. Reduced the resistance duration from 5 seconds to 2.5 seconds. Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Relic of the Pack: This relic now also grants might and fury to affected allies.
• Relic of Durability: This relic now also grants resolution.
• Relic of the Weaver: This relic no longer has an internal cooldown.
• Relic of Dagda: The projectile fired by this relic now dazes enemies that it strikes. Reduced the warmup duration from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
• Relic of the Citadel: Reduced the warmup duration from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Relic of the Krait: Reduced the warmup duration from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Relic of the Nightmare: Reduced the warmup duration from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Relic of the Wizard's Tower: Reduced the warmup duration from 2 seconds to 1 second.

Elementalist

The changes to hammer in November pushed condition builds for tempest and weaver a bit higher than we like to see, so we're making a few tweaks to bring those builds back in line.

• Singeing Strike: Reduced the burning duration from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvE only.
• Surging Flames: Reduced the burning duration from 9 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Ground Pound: Reduced the bleeding duration from 10 seconds to 6 seconds in PvE only.

Engineer

Condition holosmith and power scrapper are both a bit overtuned in PvE and are getting brought down in this update. We've also slightly reworked Bulwark Gyro to be more reliable for supporting allies, and Adaptive Armor has been reworked to be an effective grandmaster trait for support builds to prepare for the introduction of the short bow.

• Blowtorch: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to inflict more burning than intended.

·         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.

• Adaptive Armor: This trait has been reworked. Your function gyro has two ammunition and grants barrier to allies when cast. Function Gyro no longer has an increased recharge when creating additional gyros but has a higher base recharge.

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

Guardian

Support firebrand still isn't quite at the level we'd like to see in PvP, so we've made a few more improvements to it in this update. We've also reworked the Radiant Fire trait to be less dependent on always having a torch equipped to make room for condition builds to swap between off-hand torches and pistols.

• 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.
• Soaring Devastation: The movement speed granted by this trait is no longer removed when Wings of Resolve is on cooldown.
• Mantra of Solace: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvP only.
• Mantra of Liberation: Reduced the ammunition recharge time from 45 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP only.
• Chapter 3: Azure Sun: This skill now also heals affected allies. Increased the cooldown from 8 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Chapter 2: Igniting Burst: This skill is now a blast finisher. Reduced the casting time from 0.86 seconds to 0.68 seconds.
• Chapter 4: Shining River: Reduced the casting time from 0.86 seconds to 0.68 seconds.
• Merciful Intervention: Reduced the cooldown from 32 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased the radius from 180 to 240. Reduced the base healing from 2,344 to 2,024 in PvP and WvW. Reduced the healing coefficient from 1.1 to 0.8 in PvP and WvW.
• Reversal of Fortune: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from healing while in the air. Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from triggering on-heal effects.

Mesmer

Condition mirage's damage output is getting toned down after it landed too high with the changes in the November update. The November update also pushed mesmer support builds a bit over the top in WvW, and we're starting with some reductions to its alacrity and quickness access. We'll be keeping a close eye on the effectiveness of these builds once the rifle is available, and we will make additional adjustments as needed to bring them in line with other support builds. Supportive mantras are also getting minor usability improvements to prepare for the release of the rifle.

• Lingering Thoughts: Reduced the number of whirl finishers from 4 to 2.
• Lacerating Chop: Reduced the clone condition durations from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvE only.
• Imaginary Axes: Reduced the clone torment duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Mantra of Pain: Increased the radius from 240 to 360. This mantra no longer requires a target.
• Mantra of Recovery: Increased the radius from 240 to 360.
• Mantra of Resolve: Increased the radius from 240 to 360.
• Mantra of Distraction: This mantra no longer requires a target.
• Split Second: Increased the cooldown from 12 seconds to 15 seconds in WvW only.
• Illusionary Membrane: Reduced the condition damage bonus from 10% to 7% in PvE only.
• Chaotic Persistence: Reduced the expertise from 250 to 150 in PvE only.
• Restorative Mantras: This trait now triggers when using a mantra ammunition skill instead of when charging a mantra. Reduced the base healing from 1,640 to 820. Reduced the healing coefficient from 1.0 to 0.5.
• Escape Artist: Reduced the distortion duration from 5 seconds to 1.5 seconds in WvW only.
• Improved Alacrity: Reduced the alacrity recharge speed from 50% to 35% in WvW only.
• Flow of Time: Reduced the alacrity per clone from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds in WvW only.
• Seize the Moment: Reduced the quickness per clone from 1 second to 0.75 seconds in WvW only.

Necromancer

Necromancer is currently in a pretty good spot in PvE. 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. Transfusion is a trait that overperforms in support scourge builds in WvW, so we're making a change similar to what we did with Path of Corruption, in which the trait will increase the cooldown of its related scourge skill in WvW only.

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

Ranger

Condition-based quickness untamed is another build that's overperforming in terms of damage and is getting a few adjustments to bring it more in line. Quickness untamed builds can struggle with might generation for their allies, so we've added might to the Let Loose trigger in PvE to improve this. Greatsword is also getting a handful of tune-ups with the goal of making it a more competitive option for power builds.

• Slice: Increased the power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.0 in PvE only.
• Enduring Swing: Increased the power coefficient from 1.4 to 1.6 in PvE only.
• Maul: Increased the power coefficient from 1.75 to 2.0 in PvE only.
• Swoop: Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 2.18 in PvE only.
• Counterattack Kick: Increased the power coefficient from 1.3 to 2.25 in PvE only.
• Hilt Bash: Increased the power coefficient from 0.72 to 2.25 in PvE only.
• Barrage: Increased the ammunition count from 1 to 2 in WvW only.
• Twin Darts (Devourer Family): Reduced the power coefficient per hit from 0.25 to 0.15 in PvE only.
• Poisonous Cloud (Carrion Devourer): Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in PvE only.
• Sundering Volley: Reduced the bleeding stacks per hit from 3 to 2 in PvE only.
• Let Loose: This trait now grants 5 stacks of might for 10 seconds in addition to its previous effects in PvE only.

Revenant

In addition to toning down the damage of power vindicator in PvE, we've made some minor adjustments to axe to improve its usability for condition builds.

• Frigid Blitz: This skill no longer inflicts slow. This skill now also inflicts torment.
• Temporal Rift: Reduced the time the rift takes to collapse from 0.9 seconds to 0.75 seconds.
• Echoing Eruption: Reduced the number of blast finishers from 3 to 1. This skill now also grants might to the user.
• Leviathan Strength: Reduced the damage bonus from 15% to 10% in PvE only.

Thief

Deadeye has been growing in popularity in PvP over the last few months, and we've seen that it can be a bit too difficult to lock down for the damage it's capable of dealing. We're increasing the initiative cost of Death's Advance to require a larger resource investment for the survivability that it provides.

• Skirmisher's Shot: Reduced the power coefficient from 0.8 to 0.7 in PvP only.
• Death's Advance: Increased the initiative cost from 2 to 4 in PvP only.

Warrior

Power-based quickness berserker is the final overperforming build that we're tackling in this update, shifting a bit more of the power away from Bloody Roar and into Blood Reaction to create a larger damage tradeoff for the quickness build.

• Blood Reaction: Increased the precision to ferocity conversion from 10% to 12% in PvE only.
• Bloody Roar: Reduced the damage bonus from 20% to 15% in PvE only.

You are going too far! you are gonna kill my game experience I'm new I almost got 3 months of playing this game! my class is an Elementalist! what is the point of nerfing the hammer? they take reference from a static golem! In a real boss, a fight doesn't deal the same damage! besides the hammer is the only good weapon with a few range! scepter doesn't perform well at this moment! The Weaver sword is too bad and doesn't have any range! it can easily lead you to death, The Dagger on the main is bad and the staff is the worst to DPS the animations are too long. this class is the closest to a wizard and doesn't have a good Range

It's PVE! It's Unnecessary! Anet should nerf on WVW and PVP! where people can get affected! PvE doesn't damage the game experience from other players but this coming nerf is going to damage my experience on this game

I'm going to check this out if it's worth playing this game or if I have to look at a new MMO.

[Liewec.2896]

On 1/12/2024 at 6:07 PM, JDub.1530 said:

Am I misreading something? The changes to Radiant Fire are stated to enabled off hands other than Torch, but it seems like it's packing all the benefits into Torch instead.

yeah "we're making radiant fire less dependent on torch by making it do absolutely nothing unless you're running a torch."

madness...there goes most of the condi damage from my hybrid build that doesn't run torch...thanks anet.

[Kyon.4810]

Such strange bololololance patch. So 100% invis uptime for deadeyes + 6 jumps (about 9k range in total) with 12k unblockable (because u cant see it from invisibility) shoots is ok by anet mention 🤣 ok, lets keep trolling ppl then.

It is just step backward with this patch as long as I can see.

Nothing nerfed from what should be nerfed long time ago (wilbenders, deadeyes, celestial stats), but nerfed some stuff which doesnt matter at all (Transfusion: This trait now increases the cooldown of Garish Pillar to 60 seconds in WvW only. - It could be 300 sec cooldown, anyway ppl uses it 1 or 2 times maximum in LONG fights and its minor changes to gameplay).

[graishak.5406]

i dont like how common resistance has become now. 
new relic of resistance may give an uptime of 40% with little investment for such a stong boon, and a clearly better option than febe.
having it up for your push is perfectly fine, but perma resistance should be a bigger investment.
it isnt as prevalent as the likes of prot, so it should be possible for it to stay rare, else soft ccs become meaningless.

also nerf supports, i dont enjoy the wvw meta

[Tofu.1865]

Mechanists Discharge Array need some QoL buff since its very weak for a skill that has 30 sec CD
- Change number of targets from 3 to 5

Also main hand Pistols Poison Dart Valley for Engineers should have Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile 20% chance
Mace need some love too.

Mechanists got lower DPS compared to other classes while having 3 kits, it has 0 utility and the defiance bar skill is lacking
it takes 105 sec to reach 39k DPS

Edited January 26 by Tofu.1865

[taara.3217]

90% 80-lvl players are defeated by Champions even at a low-level zones in Kryta every day

Quote

are both a bit overtuned in PvE...
damage output is getting toned down after it landed too high...
In addition to toning down the damage in PvE...
etc...

and they said it's because of mega high damage that needs to be nerf (PVE)
L --> Logic, thumbs up...

Edited January 26 by taara.3217

[arazoth.7290]

18 hours ago, graishak.5406 said:

i dont like how common resistance has become now. 
new relic of resistance may give an uptime of 40% with little investment for such a stong boon, and a clearly better option than febe.
having it up for your push is perfectly fine, but perma resistance should be a bigger investment.
it isnt as prevalent as the likes of prot, so it should be possible for it to stay rare, else soft ccs become meaningless.

also nerf supports, i dont enjoy the wvw meta

Febe is nice if you already have some nice uptime and want some additional counter for yourself/allies same time.

I use it sometimes on support.

So the difference is that 1 is more selfish, while the other can give allies too and functions more supportive.

 

So it's nice there is some differences in selfish use and ally useage too

 

[graishak.5406]

1 hour ago, arazoth.7290 said:

Febe is nice if you already have some nice uptime and want some additional counter for yourself/allies same time.

I use it sometimes on support.

So the difference is that 1 is more selfish, while the other can give allies too and functions more supportive.

 

So it's nice there is some differences in selfish use and ally useage too

 

both relics affect allies afaik so i dont see a difference between support/selfish here, just that one shuts down all condis for seconds(unless there is heavy boonstrip, which you cant count on) and the other affects condis just in the moment heal is used

[Stand The Wall.6987]

 We've also reworked the Radiant Fire trait to be less dependent on always having a torch equipped to make room for condition builds to swap between off-hand torches and pistols.

• 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.

your stated intentions and the change itself contradict each other

[RoninM.7829]

It really feels like you basing decisions on snowcrows golem benchamarks instead of actual player data. There are so few mirage players in PVE, let alone ones that hit those bench high numbers. Mechanly harder builds like mirage and certain elementalist builds should do more damage as a reward, plain simple, otherwise none will even try to put effort into learning it at all.

Plus you are nerfing condi mech without even adressing it by "fixing" the blowtorch bug.

 

[GamerToad.9248]

2 hours ago, Stand The Wall.6987 said:

 We've also reworked the Radiant Fire trait to be less dependent on always having a torch equipped to make room for condition builds to swap between off-hand torches and pistols.

• 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.

your stated intentions and the change itself contradict each other

I don't even play Guardian and I know this is dumb.

[Burnfall.9573]

On 1/25/2024 at 10:13 AM, Kyon.4810 said:

Such strange bololololance patch. So 100% invis uptime for deadeyes + 6 jumps (about 9k range in total) with 12k unblockable (because u cant see it from invisibility) shoots is ok by anet mention 🤣 ok, lets keep trolling ppl then.

It is just step backward with this patch as long as I can see.

Nothing nerfed from what should be nerfed long time ago (wilbenders, deadeyes, celestial stats), but nerfed some stuff which doesnt matter at all (Transfusion: This trait now increases the cooldown of Garish Pillar to 60 seconds in WvW only. - It could be 300 sec cooldown, anyway ppl uses it 1 or 2 times maximum in LONG fights and its minor changes to gameplay).

-this-

'Excuses and exempting conditions aim to mitigate responsibility'

'Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure'

"The main reasons for failure are excuses. Since the nails are what holds a house together, if you want to build a house of failure, use excuses as such. Finding excuses for all of the things you failed to do is of no value. What you need in order to put an end to your house of failure and move on is spotting the problem and coming up with a solution."

 

'Excuses/Exeptions Change Nothing'

A new year, repeat history, ignore the playerbase experiences, another balance failure, same excemption/exception= same excuses are being made to create a healthy competitive experiences for the players. Once again, expect nothing to change.

 

Edited January 29 by Burnfall.9573

[Phyb.6704]

1 hour ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

-this-

'Excuses and exempting conditions aim to mitigate responsibility'

'Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure'

"The main reasons for failure are excuses. Since the nails are what holds a house together, if you want to build a house of failure, use excuses as such. Finding excuses for all of the things you failed to do is of no value. What you need in order to put an end to your house of failure and move on is spotting the problem and coming up with a solution."

 

'Excuses/Exeptions Change Nothing'

A new year, repeat history, ignore the playerbase experiences, another balance failure, same excemption/exception= same excuses are being made to create a healthy competitive experiences for the players. Once again, expect nothing to change.

 

My reaction to this preview......... oh yeah....... ncsoft owns anet........... thanks for the reminder.......