March 19 Balance Update Preview

[Burnfall.9573]

3 hours ago, Crowfang.8529 said:

You're playing a glass canon. This build is there for years now and nobody play it in the current and past metas at high ranks for a reason. Thank you anyway.

 

I hope you didn't think I was attacking you. You mentioned Mesmer Profession and I only disagreed with your conclusion, that's all 🙂

Ok, throughout the years, I have shared this on the forums especially with Anet...in hope that they would take action towards The Community concerns. Mind you, this was way before Bad Design: Willbender Profession, Deadeye  Profession and Hot Expansion were released in the game.

https://www.tentonhammer.com/articles/guild-wars-2-are-thieves-and-mesmer-s-the-cause-of-the-meta

As the article stated, Mesmer Profession and Thief Profession were the Top Most Destructive Toxic Professions during that time. This was the warning and concerns that The Community, new players and potential players were pressing on to Anet with including our own personal Experience with evidences of videos of these two Professions creating a Hostile Destructive experiences for us.

You would think with all the noise..a lot of noise with endless threads and posts by The Community, new players and potential players that we were making on the forums, on video streaming services such as Youtube and on websites and articles...would encourage Anet to reconsider their Design descisions, rethink their Philosophy, remove their personal Agenda and Mindset and to take The Community concerns into consideration?

Nope!! They ignored Everyone, They made the decision to Intentionally ignore the players experience and Intionally Disregard The Community concerns, new players including potential new players who Desired a Healthy Competitive Gaming Experience 

Fast forward 12 years later--has Anet changed?

Absolutely Not!!

Anet will never change, Period!!

For 12 years, Anet continues to Betray and Annihilate The Community Trust by refusing to turn the game into a Healthy Competitive Gaming Experience for the players and allowing Toxic Professions to continue to create a Hostile Toxic Destructive Gaming Culture for the players without having Counterplay, Risks and Consequences.

The worse part in all of this, they are making no effort to rebuild our Trust and loss in Faith in them in Caring about us who still Care, at least.

“Trust is not simply about believing someone’s words; it’s about relying on their actions.”

“Betraying someone once can be a mistake. Betraying someone twice is a choice.” 

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”

“When your trust in someone is broken, you will inevitably experience shock, denial, anger, and sadnes"

Edited February 18 by Burnfall.9573

[Gehenna.3625]

By the way, does anybody else think it's a bit odd that this preview comes out before the next quarterly update is live or even announced with a date? I mean, the quarterly content update will introduce the new weapon proficiencies after all. Presumably, they will change the context for balancing at least to some degree.

 

[Buzzbugs.1236]

1 hour ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

For 12 years, Anet continues to Betray and Annihilate The Community Trust by refusing to turn the game into a Healthy Competitive Gaming Experience for the players and allowing Toxic Professions to continue to create a Hostile Toxic Destructive Gaming Culture

The only toxic & hostile thing about this game is it's community. Just look at how you all behave each time a balance patch comes out and how you treat each other on these forums and in-game every day. GW2 is the last MMO I'll ever play and it's not because of anything Anet did.

The only thing that is betraying and annihilating the community is yourselves.

Edited February 18 by Buzzbugs.1236

[Klypto.1703]

Only took what almost 7 years for them to fix renegade lol.  Although a bit too late and the game is just one giant animae now which some people might want but I'm guessing most people are just playing this new content just for something to do.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

45 minutes ago, Buzzbugs.1236 said:

2 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

For 12 years, Anet continues to Betray and Annihilate The Community Trust by refusing to turn the game into a Healthy Competitive Gaming Experience for the players and allowing Toxic Professions to continue to create a Hostile Toxic Destructive Gaming Culture

The only toxic & hostile thing about this game is it's community. Just look at how you all behave each time a balance patch comes out and how you treat each other on these forums and in-game every day

Hate to break it to you, but every gaming community, Not just mmos, have their own flavor of toxicity. Gw2 isn't special.

 

2. The community wouldn't be so toxic if the devs stop being out of touch with majority of the changes. You can talk to a brick wall so much until you can't take it anymore.

 

Hell, the fact Anet doesn't have a pts (Public test servers.) In this day and age just shows how out of touch they really are, and even then I doubt Anet would do anything with the feedback outside of using a shredder.

Edited February 18 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Apolo.5942]

On 2/16/2024 at 3:34 PM, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Revenant

Our major initiative for revenant in this update is a rework for the legendary renegade stance. While the stance is actively used in PvE modes, it has struggled to exist in a healthy state in competitive modes due to the underlying mechanics. Our goal for this rework is to reduce some of the visual clutter and increase the counterplay of many of these skills, while still maintaining its viability in PvE. Soulcleave's Summit will still have a potentially long duration due to being an upkeep skill, but the other legendary renegade stance skills have all been adjusted to have more immediate impact, granting an immediate effect on summon and having quicker secondary skills instead of long channels. These skills can also quickly combo with a mechanic that we're calling Band Together: using a skill other than Soulcleave's Summit will cause your next renegade stance skill to activate instantly with a bonus effect.

Have you really thought this through?. You are essentially making every skill, half a skill.

What cosideration was taken for energy costs?.

What cosideration was taken for CD?.

I am VERY Skeptical of this solution, and to be honest, you dont exactly have an awesome track record ballance wise. Case in point, this has been an issue since release back in June 2015.

Edited February 18 by Apolo.5942

[Apolo.5942]

17 hours ago, someguy.4107 said:

Bladesworn on life-support continues.

My dude, Bladesworn was born on life support... I just wish they would pull the plug already.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

5 minutes ago, Apolo.5942 said:

Have you really thought this through?

You can only look at the dodge changes they gave vindicator to tell you they lack foresight for these sort of things. I wouldn't have hope that this will be balanced. The rework will either suck balls, or brokenly op, and get gutted later. Pick your poison.

Edited February 18 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Apolo.5942]

1 hour ago, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

You can only look at the dodge changes they gave vindicator to tell you they lack foresight for these sort of things. I wouldn't have hope that this will be balanced. The rework will either suck balls, or brokenly op, and get gutted later. Pick your poison.

I make no claim about the state of Vindicator. Having said that, this entire game revolves around invulnerability windows (not what i would have chosen but this is a long ago settled matter), taking away a dodge is a non starter.

Edited February 18 by Apolo.5942

[Phyb.6704]

11 hours ago, Vooksa.2941 said:

Wanted to comment after having taken the time to watch the devstream, and the follow-up podcast.

There are a lot of good changes here, and a lot of "Gain advantage for having performed a related action" trait updates that were noticeably absent in the past. That said:

• ONE WITH AIR: Group superspeed would have been nice instead. Punishing the combo with Fresh Air is bizarre, because isn't synergy with traits a GOOD thing?
• ARCANE WAVE/ARCANE LIGHTNING: Needs playtesting to form a clear opinion, but a ground-targeted mobility leap is great. The issue here is that Arcane, as a mix-together catch-all, loses a significant amount of elemental versatility because of this. Catalyst could use Earth+Arcane to proc immob for energy, and Weaver also uses Water+Arcane for chill on Elemental Pursuit. If Elemental Surge was unpopular, I'd direct you to how good Evasive Arcana (variety of good effects, and Ele has dodge-related traits already) and Bountiful Power (as much as +24% bonus damage with twelve boons; why not limit it to 6 boons, for a maximum of +12%?) are in comparison. Reducing the mix-match of controlling conditions when using arcane skills might solidify them by purpose, but I don't imagine will make them more popular as a result.
• ENGINEER has solid changes, from pDPS holo to boons provided by relevant actions, but BUNKER DOWN ends up feeling like a loss of purity. The point is that you're generating healing for yourself without moving very far, and creating a minefield to punish enemies who converge on your location, by landing crits. Spawning mines under enemies when disabling them feels much more aggressive than the name suggests, but not in a way that mechanically competes successfully with Anticorrosion Plating or Medical Dispersion Field. Rename it if you have to, but come on. I get you don't want a bunker meta in PvP, but past a certain point, you've gutted the fantasy.
• FEEL MY WRATH frankly doesn't need additional help. Group superspeed is nice (read: One With Air), but it's already an incredibly short cooldown with group access to strong boons.
• GLACIAL HEART doesn't compete as a self-heal against Absolute Resolve's group condi cleanse and enhanced passive groupwide healing. Including chill as a heal source is a joke, given that you now only have one source of chill, and it's when using hammer, exclusively. We'll have to check back after the values for the healing are released, but I don't imagine that it sees use.
• WILLBENDER absolutely does not need a buff to a trait that makes them unkillable. There's already very little counterplay to a Willbender in competitive, but DEATHLESS COURAGE is going to be extremely oppressive, having aegis, prolonged duration, reduced condi damage, AND bonus strike damage. It's not clear if these are it's only features, and it's preventing you from being downed still, but please reconsider.
• Having Heaven's Palm be a finisher is cool, and I wish more classes had access to finisher skills. It's not within the scope of this update, but it'd be nice if Ranger pets could do it somehow. Not relevant, just thoughts.
• MESMER's MASTER FENCER and DESPERATE DECOY are more good changes in "granting boons relevant to the action" design. INFINITE FORGE is a decent update, especially in the field of pDPS alternatives to Bloodsong, but it still feels extremely passive. You joked on the podcast about "somewhere between 1, and infinite, and settled for 2", but honestly? Continue that line of thinking. Why not a trait that allows you to stock 10 blades instead? Bladesongs still only use up 5 at max, but it gives you an opportunity to stock more blades than you shoot, and have a "backup quiver" of blades if you want to cast two skills. It'd also help justify Blade Renewal's ludicrous 60s cooldown to stock 10 blades at once, and create a cool niche case for traits like Illusionary Inspiration.
• SIGNETS OF SUFFERING needs numbers on exactly how much lifesteal we're talking here, but it's almost guaranteed to not be much, so it's not clear who's supposed to be excited for this.
• VILE VIALS providing protection, "and group prot with Twisted Medicine!" is like... peak example case of how overcosted Harbinger traits are. Elixirs suck. The idea that you have to take TWO traits, AND an entire medicine cabinet of elixirs to provide a reasonable amount of protection on a group, is absurd. Just, roll the protection into Twisted Medicine, and delete Vile Vials and come up with something else. Call Twisted Medicine "inoculation" or something, because, and I hate to say it, "your boon-granting vials now also grant boons to allies" isn't twisted medicine. That's just medicine. Stocking players with boons that help protect them in the future isn't twisted, that's just how inoculation works. I am going to throw a dictionary through a window.
• RANGER's SURVIVAL INSTINCTS and CARNIVORE are really interesting new tech for, as the streams put it, creating a bruiser archetype that uses pDPS rather than cDPS. The exact values still have to be rolled out, so it's not clear exactly how good it's supposed to be, but I expect ~5% of offense/defense, and it's anyone's guess how good the lifesteal of Carnivore is supposed to be. If other lifesteal traits are any indication, Carnivore will have a very difficult time competing with Poison Master as a grandmaster trait.
• NATURAL BALANCE no longer granting reduced incoming strike damage is... curious. A lot of condi druid is using Celestial Shadow, to invisibly wait out DoT ticks, reposition, and escape in WvW, but I can understand why Natural Balance is getting targeted. The bonus boon duration is the thing that gets me: Verdant Etching is a massive source of group prot, because just about every druid glyph is actually pretty good to slot, but bonus damage and bonus boon duration is... well, it stumps me. Is this meant for alacDPS? All-Harrier, Monk runes, Nature Magic gets druid to 95% boon duration, so I imagine this is for Ritualist's or something?

Finally, Renegade:

• As before, I think this needs to be playtested before anybody can have a good opinion about this. I'm shocked that there was no designs to bring down the ludicrous effectiveness of Herald, but for now, we'll just have to see.
• The redesign of Legendary Renegade is sound in theory. It brings the summons in line with what was done with Ranger spirits; an initial summon effect, and then a secondary effect after, without being an entity that can be targeted (and hopefully that also means damaged).
• Band Together, without knowing how long the effect lasts for, doesn't seem to indicate if the empowered summon ALSO restarts Band Together. If it does, this doesn't become a buddy system, like the devs playfully suggest, it becomes a "spam all of your summons simultaneously on cooldown" system. This SUCKS, and is a huge downgrade to how the system currently works, where you use the summons that you need, WHEN you need them, and only the ones you need, because of the energy cost limitations. Consider a similar mechanic: Ventari's 'empowered'. When Ventari's tablet is summoned, the first skill you use has bonus effects: this encourages you to swap out of Ventari, or to use Energy Expulsion to destroy the tablet and summon it again. Herald is the ONLY ELITE SPEC that has synergy with this, with True Nature creating another option for getting the effect back again. Ventari's empowered mechanic is already not super good, but with enough practice and timing, you can be astoundingly effective with it, given how jank it is. Band Together is the same concept, but in a completely opposite direction. 
• BREAKRAZOR'S BASTION: Good. Resolution synergizes with the Retribution specialization, and the pulsing heal helps ward off damage that rolls out in phases.
• DARKRAZOR'S DARING: Good-ish. If repeated dazing was an issue, it could have been a knockback instead, and Darkrazor could have been maintained as a zoning device. As it stands with the change, group prot, a daze, and then resistance if enhanced helps it synergize with the Corruption line. It's not bad, but it definitely loses an old application.
• RAZORCLAW'S EDGE: Unknown. Bleeding was on a 1s iCD and ten pulses, so can we expect that we'll have ten stacks applied to all allies in the initial impact zone? Bonus torment is fine, even if it feels like a consolation prize.
• ICERAZOR'S IRE: Bad. Icerazor holds synergy value with Devastation, as multiple strikes, and multiple applications of vulnerability. Reducing that to three projectiles, even if they do also apply torment, immobilize, and potentially chill, basically guts what this skill was capable of, and turns it from a pDPS, into a purely cDPS skill. I get that Renegade is meant to be a cDPS spec, but considering that even Herald has ways to be a cDPS using Glint, Renegade basically lacks any kind of unique nuance to help it stand out, and this rework doesn't introduce any.
• I half expect Renegade's alacrity, Orders from Above, to be stripped in an upcoming patch as well, given how it was taken out of Druid, Scourge, and Tempest here. At that point, there will literally be zero reason to play Renegade in PvP and WvW over the vastly superior damage, boons, and healing that Herald provides. If your goal was to make "Renegade exist in a healthy state in competitive modes, while maintaining it's viability in PvE", you'll basically have completely failed, by completely altering what all the PvE players were using to a completely untested state, while failing to introduce any meaningful mechanic that would make it stand out or have value in PvP or WvW. Literally cannot comprehend what the thought process was here.

There was a lot of very good, very interesting changes in this release, and if certain traits come back with decent enough numbers, there'll be a good amount of builds with expanded usability. There were, however, many changes that feel like half-measures, or attacking unused traits in a way that fails to compare to their competition, and a rework of Renegade that blatantly doesn't resolve the issues that the elite spec suffers from. I've worked on reworking Renegade for years, in multiple documents and posts, but I urge you to go back to the drawing board on this one. Kalla is not the issue with Renegade, and changing Kalla this way does not make it more playable.

They want to make soulcleave be used like ventari tablet. BECAUSE THERE IS EVEN 1 PERSON THAT FINDS PLAYING VENTARI FUN? Its anoying and has little reward. 
I agree that icerazor change is horrible. To me they might as well remove the skill. None are going to use it with that change. In that state its basically just 3 hits of torment. Imob maybe but most will break out of it right away or throw out a projectile reflect skill in wvw. 
Darkrazor is horrible. That cc is a huge bar break in pve. Just change it to chill? slow? something less anoying in wvw / pvp. Removing the cc spam removes why it is used in pve. 

These changes basically destroy the elite spec. None going to play it. 

This guy is a kitten joke. How is this cohen even retaining his job. Every patch just gets worse. Its degrading the game and making balance worse. It is obvious he does not care. 

[PrinceValentine.9320]

I dont know about you guys but I think the devs are doing great with the balancing tasks. Firebrand is not as great as everyone says it is. The real menace here is chrono, farting boons here and there and devs are adjusting so it is in line with the other specs. Heal druid is also being adjusted but not to the point that it becomes useless. I say, as far as I have read so far, the changes are good. Not drastic and not rushed. 

[Angesombre.4630]

All I see in this patch for the revenant is Nerf, Nerf, Nerf again.

[Apolo.5942]

39 minutes ago, PrinceValentine.9320 said:

I dont know about you guys but I think the devs are doing great with the balancing tasks. Firebrand is not as great as everyone says it is. The real menace here is chrono, farting boons here and there and devs are adjusting so it is in line with the other specs. Heal druid is also being adjusted but not to the point that it becomes useless. I say, as far as I have read so far, the changes are good. Not drastic and not rushed. 

Oh you sweet spring child....

[Teknomancer.4895]

On 2/16/2024 at 1:34 PM, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Desperate Decoy: This trait has been reworked. Gain vigor when you evade an attack.

Actually, the trait has been destroyed and replaced with something else. Please also change the name, because the new effect has nothing to do with a "decoy." The name literally described the function, and you have decided to remove that functionality.

If you're going to kill and replace it, then at least do the whole job.

Edited February 18 by Teknomancer.4895
clarity add

[Matt H.6142]

Automated Medical Response How does this work on Mechanist?  A healing toolbelt skill isn’t apparent.  Is this a dead trait for that spec?  You know better than to do that.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

3 hours ago, Apolo.5942 said:

5 hours ago, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

You can only look at the dodge changes they gave vindicator to tell you they lack foresight for these sort of things. I wouldn't have hope that this will be balanced. The rework will either suck balls, or brokenly op, and get gutted later. Pick your poison.

I make no claim about the state of Vindicator. Having said that, this entire game revolves around invulnerability windows (not what i would have chosen but this is a long ago settled matter), taking away a dodge is a non starter.

You asked if they thought their balance patch though. I answered, no they don't, and I used vindicator as an example.

 

A few years back, Anet gave vindicator another dodge, without addressing the synergy that made it absolutely broken. So broken that Anet had to do an emergency patch to tone down the near unlimited endurance that made thier op dodge possible.

 

So no, to answer your question for them, no they don't. They wouldn't have let those synergy slide otherwise.

[Vooksa.2941]

9 hours ago, Katary.7096 said:

"Band Together" is not going to chain into itself.

"Band Together: Your next Legendary Renegade skill activates instantly and is enhanced. Activating a Legendary Renegade skill in this way does not trigger Band Together again."

Ah yeah, I didn't see that in the notes. I suppose that's why the second summon is instant-cast, so getting the boon you want is based on you casting a completely unrelated summon first. What a clownshow.

3 hours ago, ohericoseo.4316 said:

They want to make soulcleave be used like ventari tablet. BECAUSE THERE IS EVEN 1 PERSON THAT FINDS PLAYING VENTARI FUN? Its anoying and has little reward. 
I agree that icerazor change is horrible. To me they might as well remove the skill. None are going to use it with that change. In that state its basically just 3 hits of torment. Imob maybe but most will break out of it right away or throw out a projectile reflect skill in wvw. 
Darkrazor is horrible. That cc is a huge bar break in pve. Just change it to chill? slow? something less anoying in wvw / pvp. Removing the cc spam removes why it is used in pve. 

These changes basically destroy the elite spec. None going to play it. 

I actually enjoy Ventari. It's a little clunky, the abilities cost too much energy, and the CDs are too long, but each ability is pretty solid. My healer Herald can walk the burning hallway in the Thaumanova fractal with True Nature on and outheal the damage just by passive means, projectile blocking has a lot of uses (especially if you can move it at will), and it's got a decent set of boons attached to it. It's about as balanced as any of the other core legends, but Glint is just that busted by comparison.

Renegade ends up being just a dozen different options for cDPS, with a single trait that enables alacrity, and a mess of boons that nobody will use, since even with these changes, Soulcleave doesn't drop enough healing to justify a healalac, and healers are the ones responsible for bringing better boon variety. In competitive, none of these changed skills are strong enough to justify using over any other legend, elite spec, or class, so it ends up just being a does-nothing build with zero variety.

[Apolo.5942]

1 minute ago, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

You asked if they thought their balance patch though. I answered, no they don't, and I used vindicator as an example.

 

A few years back, Anet gave vindicator another dodge, without addressing the synergy that made it absolutely broken. So broken that Anet had to do an emergency patch to tone down the near unlimited endurance that made thier op dodge possible.

 

So no, to answer your question for them, no they don't. They wouldn't have let those synergy slide otherwise.

A class can not have 1 dodge in this game.
If there is an issue, removing a dodge is NOT an option.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

9 minutes ago, Apolo.5942 said:

A class can not have 1 dodge in this game.
If there is an issue, removing a dodge is NOT an option.

Are you comprehending what I'm saying, or are you a troll?

 

I can be a little slower if you want.

 

I'm not complaining about two dodges. I'm just telling you about Anet's incompetece. How you managed to come to that conclusion when I made it clear that I took issue with their incompetent I'll never know lol.

Edited February 18 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[ElectRic Raikou.8349]

Quote

On 2/16/2024 at 1:34 PM, Butterfly Kingdom.8349 said:

Mecha Legs: This trait has been reworked. Gain resistance on dodging.

 

This one was really good for wvw when you are not on scrapper, it helps stay on the group with passive speed and immob reduction. My issue with the new alternative is that you are forced to waste a dodge if you want to stay on team, and also since you cant dodge while immob, it will be hard to use.

What about: "get 2 secs of superspeed and resistance when breaking out of stuns" or "gain resistance on condicleanse with an internal cooldown of 10 secs" or something similar we can use for keeping up with the team

Still not as good as the permanent passive effects we used to have, but at least it helps in the high pressure situations.

Edited February 18 by ElectRic Raikou.8349

[Sugar.1946]

PvE only.PvE only.
PvE only.
PvE only.PvE only.
PvE only.
PvE only.PvE only.
PvE only.
PvE only.
 

[AlPower.2476]

 Engineer

p Holo - PvE

changes seems pretty well. I mean, Holo doesn't feel good considering any little interruption like CC or boss phase change will demolish ur dps if u can't use some skills before overheating; plus he doesn't have stun breaks plus aside burst, damage isn't that good 'cause it only relies on the overheating, electro-whirl, prime light beam, grenade barrage and throw mine rotation part. And if we consider that classes with similar playstyles  (for example, reaper) he also can't obtain stab, self-boons (besides fury and some might). He's very dependant on team healing ('cause glass cannon), team condition dealing, ('cause modified ammunition) and boons/resource management (mess up your forge skill without quick/alac, and it hurts more than a delayed trap from a DH or a slightly off axe skill from a ranger) That's why I always thought that, despite being a little harder, 150 heat holo builds should be prefered to be top over overheating ones (a high sustained damage over a high spiked one with mediocre intermediate phases that results frustating if your team /squad isn't good). So buffs on sword pistol are welcome.

Inventions

-Automated medical response- It's a meh change, probly we gonna still prefering Ally ward instead of this skill. In addition it's not that hard to keep regeneration with current options. In any game mode. Considering that this is the lesser trait part, another boon option could be resolution, or getting healing increased by 10/15% in a low health threshold

-Mechanical legs: A good change in competitive, too much imob and chillness spam right now. If we are going to have a support option or 'bunkering', it will be probly the solid option to pick

-Bunker Down: the mine would be good for have some damage, 'cause taking this trait line would reduce engi damage by a lot. 

For competitive engi

- glad to see that glue shot CD increasing is only for PvE and not for PvP

- Consider buffing F5 skills for Core engineer. Scrapper, nor Holo, nor mechanisct can't use it, so med pack drop cd reduction or orbital strike rework should be good. A condition damage boost with dual pistols would be cool for core. Streamlined kits are only really useful for maintaining swiftness, and only in certain cases with the med kit or elixir gun. With flamethrower, toolkit, and elite mortar, it's pretty much garbage.

- Scrapper is strong right now but only the grenadier one, with new changes idk if a bunker one is coming out too. I'd prefer to have the old kit one to be buffed but seems hard with those two out there.

-Holo's looking like a solid pick, probly gonna be even better with those rifle buffs.

-Mech probly will still meh

-Core will still meh

 

Edited February 18 by AlPower.2476

[Nimon.7840]

Necro:

It's nice to see the addition of optional shareable protection at a damage loss for harbinger. Though I'm wondering about the duration of that protection. The current condi- quickness build doesn't use any boon duration gear I believe and gets around 13% from the twisted medicine trait. Will that be enough with two elixirs and the elite elixir to keep up protection? I kinda doubt it, but we will see.

We will see if power harbinger will be an option. But I believe that it would be better to put some effort into reworking the traits instead of just increasing the numbers.

What I absolutely don't understand, is why support scourge in wvw gets the double hammer. First you take away the alacrity, which is a bummer already, then the cooldown of most barrier skills goes up as well. Not to mention that transfusion is at a 60s CD.

Unless you want to delete support scourge, imo the cooldown increases shouldn't happen. Also what is there left to play as Necro in wvw?

Power scourge isn't in a particularly good spot. It still strips, but the dmg is awful. Condi isn't viable.

Reaper will still be the best option, but why would you keep decreasing good builds for a class, when you are looking to increase it for others or don't touch others at all.

The only good thing is, that mesmer sees a pretty hefty nerf to boon removal, which might increase the demand for some kind of Necro spec in the Zerg, because apart from alacrity the boon spam doesn't see any decreases.

Plague signet and signets of suffering: 

While I think that it's really nice, that you can't get randomly immobilized anymore, it also removes a lot of flavour for plague signet. That being said, apart from cdps harbinger in pve this skill doesn't see any play right now because of the self grief possibility and because you are basically forced to play spectral walk and Wurm in spvp or wvw roaming, which leaves you with one free skill choice.

Signets of suffering: I don't think anyone will ever use this trait. For pve the boon remove is kinda pointless and for pvp modes the signets aren't really good. There will be one good signet, which will be plague signet, but as I already said: you don't really have space for another one. And the only good one would be signet of spite. The heal doesn't do enough. It doesn't cleanse condis, nor gives boons, nor does it heal much or ist just a lot lower cast time. it just heals once and the active passive will be kinda wasted.

So maybe people will experiment with it, but soon realize, that awaken the pain and chill of death are both much better.

 

Edited February 19 by Nimon.7840

[Buzzbugs.1236]

8 hours ago, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

Hate to break it to you, but every gaming community, Not just mmos, have their own flavor of toxicity. Gw2 isn't special.

 

2. The community wouldn't be so toxic if the devs stop being out of touch with majority of the changes. You can talk to a brick wall so much until you can't take it anymore.

 

Hell, the fact Anet doesn't have a pts (Public test servers.) In this day and age just shows how out of touch they really are, and even then I doubt Anet would do anything with the feedback outside of using a shredder.

You are making stuff up. The toxicity of the GW2 community has nothing to do with the way Anet balances the game. The community has become so toxic and elitist over the last couple of years they've effectively destroyed GW2's reputation as being one of the friendlier MMO's. So you're right, Gw2 isn't special anymore because the players ruined it.

[XenesisII.1540]

16 minutes ago, Buzzbugs.1236 said:

You are making stuff up. The toxicity of the GW2 community has nothing to do with the way Anet balances the game. The community has become so toxic and elitist over the last couple of years they've effectively destroyed GW2's reputation as being one of the friendlier MMO's. So you're right, Gw2 isn't special anymore because the players ruined it.

Well what did you expect when they decided to bring in competitive content like raids, that forces certain meta builds and dps standards. Toxicity naturally comes along with any competitive content, whether that's pvp or high end pve stuff, it's the same for every single mmo. 🤷‍♂️