Balance patch preview

[Anthony.8056]

Is anyone else not excited about the preview tomorrow? After the disappointment of the final patch, I'm really not looking forward to how they will butcher Elementalist any further or even change much at all. I look forward to more nerfs or one or two changes and that's it, the bar is set low.

[Neko.9508]

21 minutes ago, Anthony.8056 said:

Is anyone else not excited about the preview tomorrow? After the disappointment of the final patch, I'm really not looking forward to how they will butcher Elementalist any further or even change much at all. I look forward to more nerfs or one or two changes and that's it, the bar is set low.

Do you still have hope they will give elementalist nice buffs?

[Chyro.1462]

One day they'll give Catalyst some nice QoL (#copium). Maybe remove energy or make it not locked with sphere out. Perhaps even out of combat energy regen.

I think I'd really enjoy playing Catalyst for a change if they improved its gameplay flow.

I mainly play tempest and not really worried about any changes. Both heal and condi dps (with or without alac) seem fine to me currently. Any small nerfs or buffs shouldn't be a problem, and any QoL would be quite welcome.

Edited May 23 by Chyro.1462

[Faebe.7341]

its clear theres nobody who cares about pve ele in the balance team, I hope we get skipped again, I expect nothing good.

[Mini Crinny.6190]

Pistol nerfs, Shatterstone buff, skill damage buffs by 0.1%

wait not pistol nerfs that's SoTo weapon, Earth and Fire traitline nerfs more likely instead and staff because why not?

Edited May 23 by Mini Crinny.6190

[bluberblasen.9684]

Elementalists changes: [...]

🤗

 

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Looking at class playrates, ele and war should be a big focus. 

But we all know. We know. 

[Jski.6180]

Conja wepon rework the dream and most likely only an dream.

[scerevisiae.1972]

9 hours ago, Anthony.8056 said:

Is anyone else not excited about the preview tomorrow? After the disappointment of the final patch, I'm really not looking forward to how they will butcher Elementalist any further or even change much at all. I look forward to more nerfs or one or two changes and that's it, the bar is set low.

I think every Ele weapon in ever expansion with the exception of sword has been crap, with pistol and hammer being especially terribly designed.

 

Like, i get the design rationale - hammer as hybrid ranged/melee and pistol as ranger condi, just the execution on those weapons' implementations is terrible.

 

hammer is a melee weapon competing with sword and dagger for design space, ranged aspect of hammer is like an afterthought.

 

ranged condi is only useful in PVE which is bad by itself but in this case ele pistol skills themselves are boring as batshit.

 

the power level of Ele is IMO fine, they just need to make the expac weapons relevant and interesting.  

[soulknight.9620]

I expect shatterstone buff and nerfs to weaver because why not. 

[rwknoll.7824]

The staff has always been near and dear to my heart, and I hope it gets some love. The change to Arcane Wave involving a leap to the location removed some of its functionality for me and I wish that it would get reverted so I can use it again for ranged combo fields without getting into melee. I would like to see some other way to provide unique benefits to it as a true long range weapon.  

Edited May 24 by rwknoll.7824

[zeyeti.8347]

I expect funky things and bugs , like attuning to water make you go fire , tornado make your game crash , summoning the elite elemental kills yourself and you play as the elemental, catalyst generate no more energy , tempest overloads take 2x the time to succeed and weaver cannot 2x attune anymore .... i expect nothing more , after all don't forget ele is meta !

And if you attune to air in water you simply die and kill all people around in 5000 range with no number of target treshold.

[Atoclone.4810]

8 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

I think every Ele weapon in ever expansion with the exception of sword has been crap, with pistol and hammer being especially terribly designed.

 

Like, i get the design rationale - hammer as hybrid ranged/melee and pistol as ranger condi, just the execution on those weapons' implementations is terrible.

 

hammer is a melee weapon competing with sword and dagger for design space, ranged aspect of hammer is like an afterthought.

 

ranged condi is only useful in PVE which is bad by itself but in this case ele pistol skills themselves are boring as batshit.

 

the power level of Ele is IMO fine, they just need to make the expac weapons relevant and interesting.  

i like War Horn, just wish it wasn't so op that it's the only pve off hand that counts. quite like the hammer too.

Edited May 24 by Atoclone.4810

[Faebe.7341]

@Atoclone.4810 it isnt that op only against the traininggolem maybe. I mostly prefer dagger or focus

[soulknight.9620]

3 hours ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

I expect funky things and bugs , like attuning to water make you go fire , tornado make your game crash , summoning the elite elemental kills yourself and you play as the elemental, catalyst generate no more energy , tempest overloads take 2x the time to succeed and weaver cannot 2x attune anymore .... i expect nothing more , after all don't forget ele is meta !

And if you attune to air in water you simply die and kill all people around in 5000 range with no number of target treshold.

No, attuning to water and going into fire is somewhat based on logics since fire and water are opposite elements. They will make it when you attune to water you actually become a cat golem so that monsters can test their rotations on you. 
Tornado will overheat your CPU.

You dont summon elite elementals, Fire Elemental World boss will summon you and automatically attune you to water (see p.1).

Catalyst starts in debt of over -500 energy and will firstly have to repay the debt before he could use jade spheres. 
Tempest overloads will have a 0.5 sec window from 5.5 sec to 6.0 sec of overloading when you can safely "cool down" your ele. If you miss that timer you will explode. 

Weaver will loose its power to attune to elements. Its a weaver after all so it will start weaving some cloths or something. 

Your last statement is false, ele cannot kill anyone except itself. So attuning to air and water would just short circuit the whole neighborhood 

 

There... i made it more believeable. Dont thank me!

[Atoclone.4810]

4 hours ago, Faebe.7341 said:

@Atoclone.4810 it isnt that op only against the traininggolem maybe. I mostly prefer dagger or focus

unless i'm support i tend to go /d too whilst it may not be as powerful as wh i've been playing d/d for a very long time and when the muck hits the fan i don't need to think about what my buttons do. also air 4 go WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

 

[Faebe.7341]

31 minutes ago, Atoclone.4810 said:

unless i'm support i tend to go /d too whilst it may not be as powerful as wh i've been playing d/d for a very long time and when the muck hits the fan i don't need to think about what my buttons do. also air 4 go WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

 

yeah dagger offhand is really fun, I use it on my power weaver, for condi its focus, awesome utility and cc. for supports its warhorn of course

now that the update notes dropped I'm actually speechless, after all the crap they did in the last patches, we now get huge buffs they'll improve alot of things never expected that. somebody in the balance team finally listens and cares 😄 

[Chyro.1462]

Elementalist

With the recent introduction of pistol as a ranged condition damage weapon, we wanted to solidify scepter as more of a power damage weapon in PvE, and we've made a number of changes toward that goal.

We've also made some usability improvements to dagger and staff by reducing the casting time of breath attacks and adding an initial defiance damage-dealing strike to the crowd-control skills that require movement. This update also includes improvements for support tempest builds with more reliable might and fury sources in PvE and additional defensive tools in the earth specialization for competitive play. Overload Air also gets a significant power increase in PvE as we look to improve power-based damage builds for tempest.

• Flamestrike: Increased the first-hit power coefficient from 0.225 to 0.5 and the second-hit power coefficient from 0.375 to 0.7 in PvE only.
• Ice Shards: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.24 to 0.4 in PvE only.
• Water Trident: Increased the power coefficient from 1.6 to 2.0 in PvE only.
• Arc Lightning: Increased the power coefficient per stage from 0.15/0.3/0.449 to 0.4/0.45/0.5 in PvE only.
• Stone Shards: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.15 to 0.5 in PvE only.
• Hurl: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.33 to 0.44 in PvE only.
• Drake's Breath: Reduced the casting time from 2.2 seconds to 1.6 seconds. Increased the power coefficient per strike from 0.4 to 0.44 in PvP and WvW.
• Cone of Cold: Reduced the casting time from 2.2 seconds to 1.6 seconds. Increased the base healing from 944 to 1,416 in PvP and WvW. Increased the healing coefficient from 0.6 to 0.8 in PvP and WvW.
• Frozen Burst: This skill now creates an ice field before performing its blast finisher.
• Convergence: This skill is now a blast finisher. Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.2 in PvP and WvW.
• Ring of Earth: Increased the secondary-strike power coefficient from 0.9 to 1.1 in PvP and WvW.
• Earthen Rush: Reduced the cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Static Field: This skill now performs an initial strike that deals defiance-bar damage when deployed in PvE.
• Unsteady Ground: This skill now performs an initial strike that deals defiance-bar damage when deployed in PvE.
• Armor of Earth: Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Mist Form: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 30 seconds in PvE only.
• Arcane Shield: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Signet of Air: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Earth's Embrace: This trait has been reworked. Gain resistance after using a healing skill.
• Earthen Blast: This trait now grants barrier to the user in addition to its other effects. Barrier will not be granted when attuning to the same element.
• Diamond Skin: This trait has been reworked. Remove a condition from yourself when you successfully combo a field with a leap finisher. Remove a condition from yourself and nearby allies when you successfully combo a field with a blast finisher.
• Soothing Ice: This trait now triggers after using a healing skill instead of when critically hit. Reduced the internal cooldown to 15 seconds in all game modes.
• Flow like Water: Increased the bonus strike damage while above the health threshold from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW. This trait now also grants 5% bonus strike damage while under the health threshold. Reduced the health threshold from 75% to 50%. Reduced the internal cooldown from 10 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Soothing Power: This trait now also grants 300 vitality to the elementalist.

Tempest

• Overload Air: This skill now also grants fury to allies. Increased the power coefficient from 0.715 to 0.951 in PvE only.
• Heat Sync: This skill now also grants fury to the user before copying boons.
• "Feel the Burn!": Increased might from 5 stacks for 10 seconds to 8 stacks for 15 seconds in PvE only. This skill now also grants fury to allies in PvE only.
• Gathered Focus: The additional concentration from this trait no longer has a health-threshold requirement.
• Hardy Conduit: This trait now also grants protection to nearby allies.

Weaver

• Fracturing Strike: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.77 to 1.2 in PvE only.
• Plasma Beam: Reduced the cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only.
• Glacial Drift: This skill no longer requires a target. Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 2.0 in PvE only.
• Earthen Synergy: Reduced the cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. Increased the power coefficients from 0.77/0.33 to 1.4/1.0 in PvE. Reduced the power coefficients from 0.77/0.33 to 0.01/0.01 in WvW and PvP.
• Stone Tide: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.15 to 0.3 in PvE only.
• Stone Resonance: Reduced the ammunition recharge from 50 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Twist of Fate: Reduced the ammunition recharge from 40 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Invigorating Air: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Fortified Earth: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.

 

 

Sooo.. lots of buffs. I really like most of it. Tempest finally gets to dish out fury on its own! Earth trait looks like a more appealing option now that it offers both more stab and some condi cleanse, more prot uptime from tempest trait too. Also like that they're buffing power on scepter along with air overload, maybe power tempest can make a bit of a return. Don't know weaver enough to know how much it's gonna be affected, but also looks good. Sadly no mention of Catalyst or fixing anything about the awkward energy system. Really feels like the spec just gets overlooked or ignored. Oh and more CC on staff now that the skills that require enemies to move over them do initial-hit CC 😄 (remains to be seen how much defiance dmg thou)

Edited May 24 by Chyro.1462

[Loke.1429]

3 minutes ago, Chyro.1462 said:

 

Sooo.. lots of buffs.

pve only

[Chyro.1462]

9 minutes ago, Loke.1429 said:

pve only

There are a few pvp/wvw only changes, and some are global changes. But yeah it's mostly PvE stuff. What's wrong with that though? There's always gonna be balance patches that lean more one way or the other. And as a mainly PvE player I really like what I'm seeing.

[Loke.1429]

1 minute ago, Chyro.1462 said:

There are a few pvp/wvw only changes, and some are global changes. But yeah it's mostly PvE stuff. What's wrong with that though? There's always gonna be balance patches that lean more one way or the other. And as a mainly PvE player I really like what I'm seeing.

I assume it is extra content for pve, with the story, open world and instanced content and whatnot. For wvw balance changes are the only content.

[Mini Crinny.6190]

What did FA weaver do to anet this time 

Edited May 24 by Mini Crinny.6190

[Chyro.1462]

41 minutes ago, Mini Crinny.6190 said:

What did FA weaver do to anet this time 

Just curious since I'm not seeing it, which part of the changes nerfs FA weaver? On the weaver section I only see buffs other than earthen synergy (and that's only nerfed in wvw/pvp), and in the general elementalist section not seeing anything that interacts with Fresh Air. Maybe I'm just blind or unaware of something.

Edited May 24 by Chyro.1462

[Mini Crinny.6190]

17 minutes ago, Chyro.1462 said:

Just curious since I'm not seeing it, which part of the changes nerfs FA weaver? On the weaver section I only see buffs other than earthen synergy (and that's only nerfed in wvw/pvp), and in the general elementalist section not seeing anything that interacts with Fresh Air. Maybe I'm just blind or unaware of something.

Yee, it's the earthen synergy that got netfed in PvP/WvW, other things are buffs in PvE only 

Edited May 24 by Mini Crinny.6190

[draxynnic.3719]

The Earth's Embrace change is arguably also a nerf to the sustain of condi weavers, although most builds will probably just switch to Serrated Stones. There are some other areas where I have concerns, but they're more concerns about what might come later than what's here.

23 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

I think every Ele weapon in ever expansion with the exception of sword has been crap, with pistol and hammer being especially terribly designed.

Warhorn is good for what it does, it's just that offhands are naturally a bit lower in impact.

Hammer really needed to commit to being a melee/ranged hybrid, though, and pistol... *shudders*