March 19 Balance Update Preview

[Valamano.4963]

12 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Null Field: Reduced the field duration from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in WvW only. Reduced the number of pulses from 6 to 3 in WvW only.

ANET here is the idea for next Null Field nerf to complete kill this skill

"Null Field now corrupt boons from allies and give them to enemies"

[Jzaku.9765]

There really wasn't a single trait or something you felt like deserved a tweak on Warrior? Imagine waiting 3 months for a quarterly balance update, to get coefficient tweaks for PVP only and a bugfix to Rush 11 years late. 

[Zepoolpe.9217]

The 3rd word of the post title made me chuckle.

[Sindust.7059]

13 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Mechanical Genius: Reduced the recharge penalty for Mech Command skills when far away from the mech from 50% to 20%.

Why does it even still exist at all? Just get rid of this penalty altogether, because all it does is making it annoying to play mech that oftentimes is out of range even when it's melee and the whole group is stacking. The changes you keep making to it almost every single balance patch just proves that it was a mistake creating this penalty in the first place. It doesn't work in this game. Make it 0% already like it used to be before you killed the spec.

[Tanro.4175]

You needed to un-nerf heal scourge, not keep beating the dead horse. 

It went from a maybe you take 2-3/50 spec, to a 0/50 spec in January. But at this point you are literally beating a dead horse. Heal scourge is already so bad you cannot take it comped wvw at all, and YOU ARE NERFING IT AGAIN? 

Just show us on the doll where Heal Scourge Hurt you. 

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

I feel that nerfing the condi clense on healing spring and Glyph of the stars uncalled for considering how some classes can consistently apply conditions. Though I guess this is the best for Zerg vs Zerg matchups. Really annoying, Atleast give us Resolution boon on pulse or something to make up that condi cleansing loss.

Now changes for wilderness surivial trait I have a mix back about, we now have the ability to sustain as a Strike user although I really despise the loss of our stability generation, thats going to suck.

 

[Doul.9314]

13 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Vigorous Recovery: This trait has been reworked and renamed to Pumping Up. Gain might when you dodge.

This trait rework would be better if it were in Feline Grace's place. 😞

13 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Upper Hand: This trait now additionally restores initiative when you dodge.

This trait already gives 1 initiative when we evade. If it will recover more initiative points above 1 for dodge its ok. Or are they talking about just dodge even if not evade nothing and get the buff even so? that's ok too

Give us some quickness in any major trait of Acrobatics. It's make much more sense

 

 

[Edibleghost.5631]

I considered making a separate thread for this but decided to keep it here for the sake of visibility. It's meant only for the devs so feel free to skip.

I want to give a bit of background on me as a player as a primer for my feedback. I've been playing for coming up on 4 years and considered myself not the best but thoroughly experienced. I've engaged with every form of content in the game, cleared most CM's, I've taught raid wings, I sometimes tag for metas and often for strikes, I enjoy theorycrafting builds, I offer advice to new players, participate in player run events, I'm generally polite, generous and helpful. I believe I'm a highly valuable player to have in your game's ecosystem. In addition to that I also spend money, I'd estimate a few thousand dollars which is fine because it's a hobby that I've enjoyed but I am now approaching the point that I vote with my wallet. You will lose the knowledge and initiative for leadership that I bring to other members of your community and more importantly to you, you will lose my small contribution to your bottom line. This is not meant to be read as a threat for you to nerf or buff 10% on any specific thing, I am simply stating that for me you are reaching the tipping point of your value proposition with this game. I've played for more than 3 years and this is my first post on these forums and I hope that gives some weight to this. I feel that you are doing a terrible job shepherding the direction of this game, here's a bit of why I feel that way.

I'm a WvW player primarily and everything I do in the rest of the game serves to enhance my experience in that mode so if I'm not enjoying it then the rest of the game doesn't offer enough to continue playing. sPvP is an all but abandoned mode, this much is clear to anyone with eyes and so my experiences with it are more often negative so I don't engage with it anymore outside of events with a specific reward so none of my criticism is aimed here. PvE is overall easier to analyze with metrics because it's ultimately a binary result, people pass the challenge or they don't so the floor for player experience can only sink so low before it is glaringly obvious that action is needed on your part. Anything in between those two results is benchmark chasing, changes to skills or traits rarely impact that pass/fail result, they only shift what is meta but in 99% of content people are not kicking you for bring what you enjoy so long as you perform your role. So likewise my criticism is not aimed here either.

WvW as opposed to sPvP still has enough of an active playerbase that it can offer a nuanced and varied experience whether you enjoy duels, small gangs, clouds or tight large groups. But that feels like it has been changing more and more over the last year or so. I'm not going to talk in terms of specific numbers but just how it feels to me and what I see as the main culprits. In the case of duels and solo or small gang roaming we now have a number of classes and specific specs that feel far overtuned with too many tools and seemingly no drawbacks when played at least competently. The common complaints and I echo them are Harbinger, Willbender and some Elementalist builds, with other lesser offenders moving in and out of the meta but they share a feeling of being absolutely oppressive if you are playing anything but another meta build. We move from a climate where counterplay is talked about in broad terms like bring more condi or more CC to one where you need to bring a specific class or build or even just not engage at all because you will never catch them when they decide they're losing and pull away. I'm left dumbfounded seeing 10 people aggressively chasing down one elementalist or willbender and it's still not enough. And to be clear, I play every class to varying degrees of skill so it's not that I'm picking on something I don't have the option of using myself. But these builds are so over-performing that it begins to feel unrewarding to play them because I know that my own skill and decision making was not what made the difference. So when I see for example the proposed changes for willbender I can't help but wonder whether the person making them is either heavily biased toward their own enjoyment over that of their playerbase or simply incompetent.

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Zealot's Defense: You can now move while using this skill. Adjusted the projectile behavior to interact better with gaps in terrain.

One of the few things that will actually lock a willbender in place and you're removing it.

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Vigorous Precision: This trait now triggers when dodging instead of when critically striking and no longer has an internal cooldown. Reduced the vigor duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.

You've changed this into a self-sustaining loop that allows even more damage mitigation and mobility on a spec that needs neither.

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Flash Combo: You now gain access to Repose as long as you complete the skill, even if you do not land all 5 hits.

Makes the spec even more non-committal by removing a drawback.

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Repose: This skill is no longer an attack. This skill now heals and removes conditions from you after shadowstepping back to your original position.

Followed by a reward of even more sustain with said skill, especially when condi is one of guardians primary weaknesses.

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Heaven's Palm: This skill now evades attacks and finishes your targeted foe if they are downed and no other enemies are nearby.

Giving it the ability to secure a down with 0 counterplay.

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

"Feel My Wrath!": This skill now grants superspeed in addition to its other effects.

You're giving superspeed to a spec with perma swiftness just on it's f2 that also has access to 2 shadowsteps, 3 dashes and a leap before even factoring another potential shadowstep, a dash and a leap on its weapons. How do you figure that it needed this change? How does somebody look at changes like this and think that anyone competent is steering the ship? And this is just one set of changes for one spec.

Rounding out solo and small gang is Celestial stats, they flatly give too much to a select few classes and I know because I use them, maybe they'd be fine in a different balance climate but as it stands the concentration and expertise push it over the top and removes a lot of fun in making builds.

On to large scale fights, I shouldn't even need to say it because it's been shouted so loud and so often but boonballs make for a terrible experience and I again struggle to grasp how someone could think it's a healthy direction to continue leaning into. Boon generation is so fast and easy that counterplay from smaller groups or even large but unled groups is all but impossible and yet you continue to nerf boon strip and corruption. If I know I have no chance of effect with a smaller number of people why would I bother playing at all? I could roam and flip easy objectives but I either encounter nobody or encounter the overtuned builds mentioned above. So I log off because I play this game for fun and not to raise my blood pressure. You craft an experience where two walls press against each other until one blinks and gets slaughtered and once they know that result they're more reluctant to try again because there's very little give and take, you either get a total steamroll or a total loss and you kill off small level content at the fringes in pursuit of it. And I ask, who does it serve? Does it serve the health of this pillar of the game? Does it even serve your bottom line beyond next quarter?

And all of this is, all of it, is me trying to be brief with my grievances, I could go on and on. I would maybe have more understanding if we had an exact idea of the overarching ideas behind these changes but we are left floating adrift in a sea of ignorance to brood and speculate. My reserves of good faith are sitting on empty. Once the next major release is out I'll give it two weeks to see how things settle but after that I'm telling you, dispassionately, that I will take my money and walk away because the product you are crafting is no longer fun to me and I am hardly alone in this sentiment.

Edited February 17 by Edibleghost.5631
small typo

[Jobber.6348]

Willbenders buffed again. Lol. 

[Gesbo.6420]

5 hours ago, LichOverlord.6329 said:

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

Hey mate thanks for that. With fresh eyes and reading the patch notes I think it would pair well with the changes to Mirage thurst probably. (3.0 power coefficient) pair this with shatter storm, evasive illusion and you can shatter and generate nonstop. It's the way mirage somewhat gets endurance back without getting endurance back in a way. 

I'm actually pumped. Thank you!

 

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

14 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

We're keeping an eye on the strength of Evasive Purity,

This needs a buff or redesign rather than a nerf. If you plan to modify or toy around the trait, may I suggest this.

Evasive purity - Dodging removes a damaging condition and a non-damaging condition from you.

*New Evasive Purity* - Successfully Evading an attack removes a condition & Non Damaging-condition.
or
*New Evasive Purity* - Dodging gives you resolution and Successfully Evading an attack gives you resistance

Alternatively

*New Evasive Purity* - Dodging convert's a condition to a boon; evading converts an additions condition to a boon (its nature's magic, this should make sense magically speaking)

The suggestion I proposed, add a rewarding feeling that you successfully evaded an attack which better than spamming dodge rolls to remove condis. This also nerfs the condi clear while giving something else that doesn't inherently buff the condi clearing aspect that you so dearly worry about or rather invest it risk vs reward aspect of it. Risking to evading a single attack for a single clear or timing it correct to cleave a good amount of condi.

[apharma.3741]

12 hours ago, Bunbury.8472 said:

BRING BACK BOONRIP IN WVW

MAKE SPELLBREAKER GREAT AGAIN

STOP NERFING BOON REMOVAL ENTIRELY!

Null Field: Reduced the field duration from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in WvW only. Reduced the number of pulses from 6 to 3 in WvW only.

Then again this plays into someone's agenda of 2 big blobs smashing into each other like meat sacks as they dance around pretending to have skill.

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

4 minutes ago, apharma.3741 said:

STOP NERFING BOON REMOVAL ENTIRELY!

Null Field: Reduced the field duration from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in WvW only. Reduced the number of pulses from 6 to 3 in WvW only.

Then again this plays into someone's agenda of 2 big blobs smashing into each other like meat sacks as they dance around pretending to have skill.

This what makes me roam more or do small scale fights. Zerg to me are just a way to get content, let me just heal people and hope they kill someone or provide boons to people so I can get content.

 

Untill they make a system where Small scale fights reward more than being in a zerg thats when Wvw would change, that a map redesign and an actual reason to balancing things rather basing stuff on a whim. (cough cough, benchmarks)

[Calen.8945]

Quote

Solar Focusing Lens: This trait now triggers when swapping from Photon Forge to a kit.

Does this only work with swapping from Forge to a kit now? Does this mean we lose the buff for going in and out of Forge mode?

[Itchyscott.6091]

Let's all guess what profession 'Cal "cmc" Cohen' plays in WvW -_- ...

[Myror.7521]

Anet: We want to buff Power Berserker in PvP but also some underused weapons.

Also Anet: We buff a condi weapons Power DMG, Core Greatsword skills, Hammers Burst skill and at least one burst skill that was not used in tha game at all cause of its Animation and will still Not be used cause of this. Although we Shadow Nerf wild blow in PvE cause we can. We willl not touch Axe cause its the only realy Power focused weapon and it would makes too mutch sence to buff its burst skill

Edited February 17 by Myror.7521

[Serenity.5914]

Null Field: Hi there.
Signet of Inspiration: Welcome!

[Sichel.8726]

16 hours ago, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

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.

Really i never wrote about a change before but now i cannot hold anymore.
Please, as a main Necro zerg wvw player, stop this frustrating habit to destroy this class. You made scourge viable at least as support (because previous nerf on dps role in zerg wvw), and now you are destroying it again completly. Please re-evaluate your choice.

Edited February 17 by Sichel.8726

[Divity.3049]

13 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.

It is way funnier to me, that his change will be absolutely useless since you gaing mirage cloak when you just killed off all your clones 😄

[Lazze.9870]

On 2/16/2024 at 10:46 PM, Bunbury.8472 said:

BRING BACK BOONRIP IN WVW

MAKE SPELLBREAKER GREAT AGAIN

WvW Spellbreaker has a pretty disgusting CC/immob/boon rip build at the moment, it doesn't need buffs.

Edit: I forgot I ented the forums where 90 % of the people got zero clue. I'll give you a hint: Leg Specialist in tactics immobs on cripple, ICD is only per target, and spellbreaker runs hammer with an aoe ranged cripple and sword/x with a cripple on the leap and immob on f1. The build kittening slaps. With celestial stats you're pumping out some decent quickness as well.

Or are people confused because they think boon rip is dead? It's not. They are literally killing off alac in WvW, they are massively reducing Res and Stab on rev, and people get mad because Null field is gonna take litte bit more thought to use. Eugh. 

Edited February 21 by Lazze.9870

[Lazze.9870]

On 2/16/2024 at 7:34 PM, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Ranger

Condition-based druid has been overperforming in PvP, and we've brought down some of its defensive tools with the goal of making it a bit easier to take down. We're keeping an eye on the strength of Evasive Purity, but we want to see how the reductions to Healing Spring and Glyph of the Stars impact the build's susceptibility to conditions before making further adjustments. We've also made a few improvements to the wilderness survival specialization to make it a more appealing defensive option for power-based builds as well as condition-based builds.

The Wilderness Survival changes look good.

You're removing too much condi cleanse from druid in WvW. Removing Alac means druid basically provide heals, cleanses and a handful of common boons. Stripping away so many cleanses puts it too close to other builds that can heal + cleanse while also providing meaningful boons or barrier. Meaning you're essentially downgrading it to a second grade support.

Since you're looking at hammer; there is definitely more room to improve hammer for competitive modes. It feels a bit underwhelming especialliy without the ambush skill (non-untamed builds, basically). A little bit more range and damage could make up for the almost complete lack of defensive utilities.

I also feel like untamed should have better boon rip access. It feels a bit half baked. A couple of the cantrips could perhaps provide some. 

Edited February 22 by Lazze.9870

[Lazze.9870]

39 minutes ago, Sichel.8726 said:

Really i never wrote about a change before but now i cannot hold anymore.
Please, as a main Necro zerg wvw player, stop this frustrating habit to destroy this class. You made scourge viable at least as support (because previous nerf on dps role in zerg wvw), and now you are destroying it again completly. Please re-evaluate your choice.

Scourge should NEVER have been buffed like it was, and reaper is still a very functional dps+boon ripper.

No one enjoys playing against barrier/transfusion scourers, and I can't imagine anyone actually enjoying playing it either. Most boring support build to ever grace the game mode.

Edited February 17 by Lazze.9870

[OscLin.7253]

We have a boonball meta in wvw and you continue to kill boonstrip. With even less boon strip tuning down healscourge wont to anything. Boon Ball is fine but there has to be ways to beat it.. Just watch a gvg between two good guilds, a round now takes 5 min because no one dies unless they kitten up... Tune down scourge barrier so that timing and skill becomes a thing  and add more strips in general.

[VictorLeal.4102]

I really don't understand what role they want Scourge to have in WvW, with each patch it changes and then gets worse

1 hour ago, Sichel.8726 said:

Really i never wrote about a change before but now i cannot hold anymore.
Please, as a main Necro zerg wvw player, stop this frustrating habit to destroy this class. You made scourge viable at least as support (because previous nerf on dps role in zerg wvw), and now you are destroying it again completly. Please re-evaluate your choice.

 

While there is currently a group in NA of experienced players (which coincidentally the leader is known and some devs play with them sometimes) abusing boonball with 9-10 chronos in the squad additionally with the insane CC... Anyone who has played against this group knows how difficult it is to take their boon away, that's if you manage to escape 10 null fields and grav wells followed by Warrior skills 🙂

In addition to hunting and chasing commanders across maps with members who have the specific function of stalking friends list, strengthening this type of group will only make fewer people play WvW.

WvW situation is getting worse and with boring gameplay, i invite developers to come play in smaller guilds and see the mode from a different perspective.

Edited February 17 by VictorLeal.4102

[Marxx.5021]

9 hours ago, XenesisII.1540 said:

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.

They have answered it. Their preference are support and boon spam classes. It is not so much about balance obvously.