March 19 Balance Update Preview

[Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341]

As Willbender, Harbinger and Cata has not been nerfed in wvw please don't nerf druid in wvw.

Having good access to cleanse is needed against those over powered specs.

Ranger is already weakened as it is, don't make it even more weaker.

[Fwog.9387]

Anet your favoritism for wvw updates are showing again. You ignore the classes that are auto pick and nerf the recent flavor of the month classes that are actually a breath of fresh air for the meta. You don't even pretend to balance most of the classes. Its more like Anet just decides certain classes aren't allowed in wvw at all and nerfs them every patch until people get the message that anet doesn't want you playing them at all. 

[JusticeRetroHunter.7684]

Some of this seem very off for some reason...

we go through a bunch of nerfs, followed by a bunch of buffs, followed by a bunch of nerfs in an endless cycle of pointless numerical changes, avoiding design and streamlining game mechanics.

Some of the changes to design are much welcome, like the warrior rush fix, med-blaster auto-attack feature, and redesigns to some of the useless elements that have existed for years.

Just seems like there is a conflict going on and they dont really know what they are doing, or where they want the game to go.

Edited February 17 by JusticeRetroHunter.7684

[Fwog.9387]

3 minutes ago, JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

There's something very off about all this. 

But i bet this is just yet another turn on the merry-go-round where we go through a bunch of nerfs, followed by a bunch of buffs, followed by a bunch of nerfs in an endless cycle of pointless numerical changes, avoiding design and streamlining game mechanics.

Unless your firebrand. Then almost nothing meaningful happens or you are buffed. Because the meta defining class since 2017 will never not be balanced or balanced around. I wish i never had to play firebrand. I only play firebrand because there must be a firebrand in every wvw party. A class should never be auto pick.

[Vissarion.6509]

I don't like the changes to renegade. They will butcher the class and the whole fun of it.

[Bluberi Len.8342]

I am not sure what to feel about this patch aside from "now that Renegade utilities are not targeted, can they exist underwater?" (Yes I will keep saying it, I am sick of having those 2 legends unusable underwater)

[bluberblasen.9684]

I love the willbender, harbinger and thief nerfs in wvw 😉

arigato gozaimasu 😊

[enkeny.6937]

6 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Carnivore: This trait has been added to the grandmaster tier slot previously held by Empathic Bond. Steal health from enemies when you or your pet disable them.

Lets call it "Predatory Season" from Guild Wars.
:)

[cheese.4739]

As what feels like the only Elementalist who ever runs Arcane Wave + Elemental Surge... I don't think I like this rework.

Arcane Wave has been a consistent part of my arsenal for many years as an instant long-range AoE blind or immobilise, and it got really fun after End of Dragons dropped since that added the perk of allowing it to proc combo/aura synergies for me as a Staff Catalyst. I'll often make use of that brief immobilise or chill to keep an incoming opponent out of a capture point for a moment longer or hold someone in range of my ground-targeted skills, or I'll pop the AoE blind to help secure a stomp or react to a big incoming attack, or I'll use the combo to get off a cleanse or access an aura or gain a bit of stability without having to interrupt another skill or reposition myself. Having the skill's range cut by a third and forcing a teleport on there removes so much of its utility - especially for me as a Staff user since I lack close-range defenses and have to manage distance to stay alive, and I don't think the daze and potential practical benefits of a (short!) blink compensate for those losses nearly well enough.

It sounds like you're trying to rework the skill into a close-range brawler attack to give Hammer/Dagger Eles even more to play with, further reducing the options for a longer-range Staff player. And if 'leaps' means it's going to have its blast finisher effect changed to a leap finisher, or even worse if it's going to gain cast or travel time... that basically ruins the skill for all current users.

And from the PvE side of things: it's an incredibly useful tagging skill when running large group content. I don't want to lose out on loot!

I've gotta say that I do like the sound of the change for Arcane Brilliance, and the Elemental Surge interactions with Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Shield; Arcane Shield in particular has felt undertuned for a long time, since attack rates on all professions have gone up but it's stayed at just those three wee blocks before shattering (which are often just entirely ignored since there's better access to unblockable skills now too). And I'm not necessarily averse to an Elemental Surge rework changing from the current condition infliction to something else. But I'll be sorely disappointed if Arcane Wave loses its range (both casting distance and AoE radius) and forces me to land on top of enemies if I cast it.

What I've actually wanted from Arcane Wave for a long time is for it to apply Revealed for a couple of seconds. This would add a lot of practical use to the skill without hurting any builds that currently use it, and applying a brief Revealed in an area would have practical benefits for all weapon playstyles. Please consider using this as the skill's 'flavour' instead!

Edited February 17 by cheese.4739
typos, clarifications, that kind of thing

[Lupini.6938]

• Quote

  Mantra of Concentration: Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 25 seconds in WvW only.

  So you are going to get rid of the 2.25 activation time, right?  RIGHT?

[Za Shaloc.3908]

The nerfs to Energy Expulsion and Serene Rejuvenation are really brutal for WvW. On one hand I can agree that spamming the skill is most definitely too powerful. On the other hand, a 15 second cooldown really messes with the flow of the legend and the accessibility to the empower mechanic. It basically means you *have* to use the elite on legend swap in order to give out any stab per Ventari rotation (unless on core/Herald). Otherwise what are you gonna do, use the elite and then wait a whole 15 seconds without using any other Ventari skills so you can sit on your empower charge for more stab? I understand the logic but don't agree with the severity of the nerfs. 

I'd like to make some suggestions as to help reach a better halfway point between these nerfs and maintaining the integrity of the empower mechanic/flow of the legend.

-Revert or lessen the duration nerfs to the stability and resistance. The increased CD will already significantly reduce the uptime on these boons as you cannot continually spam the elite over and over.

-Reduce the Energy Expulsion CD nerf to be somewhere between 8 and 12 seconds.

-Either through a minor Salvation trait or simply baseline, make it so using your F2 skill gives you a stack of Empowered. This is already a thing for core and Herald, but would then allow it to extend into both Renegade and Vindicator. Compensate for core/Herald in some way.

[Apokriphos.7042]

Necromancer needs significantly more adjustments. 

With swords being projectile attacks, ***due to the plethora of projectile block/reflect** they will have little/no use in large fights. Harbinger shroud and pistol suffer from the same issue. Similarly, so does Core Necromancer Shroud. This needs to be looked at.

 

The change to Signets of Suffering will still leave them unusable in WvW, and even less then usable in other game modes. Why is necro the only class to be unable to use signets while within its unique class ability? Signets of Suffering should be restored to its original function, providing use of signets in shroud.

Additionally, the power based harbinger changes should be extended to WvW. Power-harbinger lacks invuln frames, sustain, and other abilites other power burst specs enjoy. It needs ***significant*** work to be useful in competitive modes.

[TripleC.7365]

Revert arc divider back to spin to win plz, that was so freaking fun

Even tho it's better/faster right now, I'm sure there is a way to revert the animation without affecting much of the skill itself 

Edited February 17 by TripleC.7365

[Vekaiel.8493]

6 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

• Energy Expulsion: Lowered the stability duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in WvW only. Increased the cooldown from 2 seconds to 15 seconds in WvW only.
• Serene Rejuvenation: Reduced the Energy Expulsion resistance duration from 4 seconds to 2.5 seconds in WvW only.

So you just don't want that skill to be used at all. You increase the cooldown while decreasing the effectiveness of it. This is not balance. Slowly revenant start to feel worst to play then thief since you have to manage cooldown and energy on all skills. 5-7sec cooldown is fair if you are keeping this boon durations. It already use a lot of energy to cast.

If boon is such a problem, bring back all our ways to remove them. Mallyx is a husk of what it was before.

[daw.4923]

while its nice to get superspeed on "Feel My Wrath!" wouldn't it make more sense just add superspeed in trait "Stalwart Speed" which is currently underused and never see any play. 

still no boon-strip on guard and boon radius is still taboo topic while rene with 0 bd can perma uptime all his boons in  600 radius.

[XenesisII.1540]

Quote

Scourge

• Serpent Siphon: Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW only.
• Sandstorm Shroud: Increased the cooldown from 30 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW only.
• Sand Cascade: Increased the cooldown from 12 seconds to 18 seconds in WvW only.
• Desert Empowerment: This trait now grants vigor instead of alacrity in PvP and WvW.

Anet just spent the last year converting this spec into a alacrity barrier spamming support bot, and now you're taking out alacrity AND nerfing cooldowns? why not nerf the barrier  amount instead?

Why?

Why do you do this?

We've been telling you for years boon spam is bad for wvw, we can't even fight in wvw without lag in every big fight, but you insist on adding more support spam and now scourges gonna get nerfed again for changes you did not even a year ago. Insanity.

[Doggie.3184]

My prayers to Abaddon finally answered and we got an actual Thief patch.

Deadly Aim finally fixed 🙂 hope it still pierces.

Havoc Specialist fix is a big door opener for Daredevil being fun again. Lots of other moist things too, thanks.

any news on this issue though?

 

[Barraind.7324]

8 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Glue Shot: Increased the cooldown from 12 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.5 in PvE only.

 

???

W.H.A.T?

[Yerlock.4678]

8 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

 

• Arcing Slice: Increased the power coefficient from 1.213 to 1.36 in PvP only. The power coefficient when striking a low-health target is unchanged.
• Hundred Blades: Increased the power coefficient per strike from 0.35 to 0.4 in PvP only. Increased the final strike power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.0 in PvP only.
• Rush: This skill now tracks moving targets better.

Please buff Bladetrail also. That skill is easily the worst on GS and needs a buff at least or a rework.

Edited February 17 by gmmg.9210

[RisingDawn.5796]

Nerfing boon strip in large scale wvw, shouldn't be considered at this point, even though support chrono needed toning down. 

Infact, there should be buffs to boon strip, for some  classes/specs.

Edited February 17 by RisingDawn.5796

[Angel.5491]

8 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Havoc Specialist: This trait now gives a flat damage bonus when your endurance is not full instead of scaling with remaining endurance.

I've been waiting so long for this, future with the realistic possibility to dodge attacks makes me very happy! 

Even the other changes to Critical Strikes and Deadeye are amazing, and I am very grateful for the Thief changes in the upcoming balance patch =^ ^= 
Thank you!

Now my only remaining issue is ''Weakening Charge'' 's Animation lock

[Skyroar.2974]

3 hours ago, TyrantPuppy.1893 said:

 Why is [Glacial Heart] going to trigger on Chill??? Does Guardian have chill on it's kit LITERALLY ANYWHERE?? Flow Stabilizer still gives Fury not Stability. Don't make the excuse of "it's in the name."

Glacial Heart will still replace Hammer's #2 to its chill version. That means all non-AA hammer skill will self-heal the user with this trait.

[LichOverlord.6329]

6 hours ago, Geronmy.3298 said:

Buffing power Mirage for pve is completely uncalled for. The dune cloak change COULD be good for heal Mirage but you still refuse to put alacrity on it for no reason.

As a mirage main myself, I need to point out that these are buffs for the class in general

After being nerfed into the ground, ill happily take any buffs to mirage, and this is a decent start

...unless you're saying it's "uncalled for" because... what, you think they should nerf it further? If so, we cannot be playing the same game...

[LichOverlord.6329]

6 hours ago, Gesbo.6420 said:

I kind of don't see the point of dune cloak, it needs more to compete with infinite horizon.  Same goes for infinite Forge imho 

Whereas before it was super niche, I think now it actually does compete with infinite horizon, and offers new, unique gameplay

Infinite horizon makes it so basically all your ambushes (mirage cloaks) are better, but now this trait will make it so you can ambush a lot more frequently - basically quality vs. quantity

Gaining an additional cloak/ambush everytime you shatter (since realistically you're not going to be shattering at 1 or 0 clones anyways) is actually kind of insane, and will mean a lot more ambushes overall, especially on high-shatter builds

So yeah, I think this is a great alternative, and you'll probably see it taken on builds that rely on having a ton of clone generation and constantly shattering, which in turn will mean you'll be constantly going in and out of mirage cloak - which will not only mean more ambushes, but better survivability with more invulnerability frames

Of course, this is the idea on paper - we'll have to see if it actually preforms this way in live testing - but at least they're trying something new, here

Edited February 17 by LichOverlord.6329
Added the last paragraph to specify a lack of testing

[Geronmy.3298]

7 minutes ago, LichOverlord.6329 said:

As a mirage main myself, I need to point out that these are buffs for the class in general

After being nerfed into the ground, ill happily take any buffs to mirage, and this is a decent start

...unless you're saying it's "uncalled for" because... what, you think they should nerf it further? If so, we cannot be playing the same game...

I mean, said it from a point of these ambushes buffs being kinda pointless. They can say they buffed Mirage without actually doing it.

I mean now you can do OW with power sword i guess.