June 25 Balance Update Preview

[latlat.4516]

14 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Lead the Wind: This trait no longer grants boons when striking a target at long range and now grants boons when using Point-Blank Shot.

is it possible to have more details about this ? I'm not too sure about tightly coupling a whole trait to not a only a weapon, but a specific skill of this weapon.

Edited May 25 by latlat.4516

[Gesbo.6420]

22 minutes ago, latlat.4516 said:

is it possible to have more details about this ? I'm not too sure about tightly coupling a whole trait to not a only a weapon, but a specific skill of this weapon.

*all of the mesmer comunity* - first time? 

[Steven.9165]

Thank you for the balance preview!
Really appreciate you to ask our opinions before going live with the changes 🙂

May I offer some feedback please:
- In my opinion these are solid balance changes. Love that you like to bring up builds and skills that are under performing, while not overshooting existing ones.
- that brings me to my first point; your changes to power holosmith are...difficult? To bring more power to grenade kit makes things more difficult to balance. If you feel power holosmith to be too much at the moment, dial it down a bit (a bit), but dont give more power to a kit which is available by other classes like power scrapper. That build is in quite a good spot and it does not need more strength. Would not be good to overshoot there, so maybe dont touch grenade k. & make the nerfs to power holo not as severe.

- really like the changes to support classes & by reducing many cooldowns you make them more viable! But what you really need to look at are boon ranges. Some builds have a very hard time keeping specific boons up and you really should address this asap.
Examples would be...heal alac Tempest has only 360 boon radius (Fire overload is only 180!). The radius of alac should be increased to 450 for all the boons giving skills (just the boon, not the dps). This would make it much easier to keep the boons up.
Firebrand was the former god emperor, so I agree that you need to be careful, but if you want to bring HFB back into the fold, you should really look at the mantras and how the build brings boons. The easiest fix would be to make the mantras have instead of a cone (you can leave the animation for all I care), to make the boon radius 450 around the caster. I am not even talking about the treatment other boon supports have with 600. But 450 should be sufficient. Please really have a look at this, because those builds suffer because people choose other alternatives because they are far easier to do their basic job with. 

- boon duration on some builds could be increased slightly too. I have done a similar journey to Muk (I am a support main myself) to play every healer so I have got quite a good feel how the builds feel (can heal pretty much any CM on any healer - except for those not possible with some builds ^^).
In my opinion the alac duration on Tempest could be increased (additionally to the boon radius). For the healer variant its not so bad, but the adps Tempest has a really tight rotation and in fights with a lot of movement, for full boon uptime full ritualist (viper weapons) & even relic of the herald for nearly 70% boon duration is necessary. That is really not good. So please increase the alac granted by a bit, so help a bit there.
Another build that needs a bit more alac uptime is Druid in my opinion. The uptime granted from the skills is on the tighter end and the builds tends to be quite spammy and often its quite hard to time when CA is needed for the dmg windows. Of course Mace did a wonderful job to help compensate a bit, but nonetheless please think about increasing the alac uptime a bit to help the build be less spammy. I am fully aware that its one of the strongest healer builds right now, but the would be really a big QoL change which would make the build more enjoyable to play 🙂

- Please bring an accessible form of aegis to Heal Alac Specter. Maybe put it on shroud 5 or 4). Its the only heal spec missing aegis. And if we are at it, i love the change to give shadow Sap more boon duration (50->75). Please think about giving endless night also a bit more (like 60%). Its pretty hard to keep protection up first and foremost & after that regen. This is btw a fantastic choice to make the boon more accessible! Love that! Maybe change the Trait Cover of Shadow to not give protection but instead provide more barrier. The current meta with Heal specter is to spam blinding powder ofc to provide protection uptime. Your change clearly addresses it but i dont like the playstyle behind it. I also bring it in fights, but dont spam it but instead use it as an emergency heal for the party (interrupting attacks on allies is not a good thing ^^). Maybe put a bit of an internal cooldown on it to not promote a spammy playstyle and compensate for it with a good chunk of barrier provided.

- Love the change to shadow Portal. But also please make it more accessible by making it possible to enter it from both sides (not having to place it first and then run to your group but either way). Let it be one way still - i am perfectly fine with that, but please allow one to place it, run to a place, open it up and let the people enter it and come to you (or the other way). But that would make the skill so much more usable so please consider that.

- Love that you like to make power renegade a thing again. Please support this build more so its a good viable option again. A lot of people enjoy the power variants on rev more (me included), so it would be very nice to have it viable again. Please dont touch any of the weapons (GS or SwSw - both are in a good spot. Give the build power through traits, what you do now anyway 🙂 )

- When we are on it, Heal Renegade definitely needs more love. Your scheduled change to Soulcleave S. shows that you are aware of the build & want to make it viable. Appreciate it! But what you need to look at here is the regen uptime. That one is really hard to keep up and we all know that regen is one of the main tools to keep your group healthy and make a healer viable. So please make sure to give it better & consistent sources or the healer will stay behind other which would be a pity. Please be careful with all for one, because its also the trait heal Ren uses for his protection uptime. Please be careful not mess with that or compensate for it in other places please.

- love that you want to bring power tempest back! Please try to make the numbers right so its a viable build to play.

- There are 2 supports missing proper accessible builds for supports where the whole elite spec is a bit...messy right now... Cata & Mirage. Cata is a good power dps option, but its boon support variants are really bad (defense & offensive). You please need to have a look at Cata soon, to make it fun to play, because besides pdps its really not fun at all. One easy change before you can make a proper well rounded elite spec could be let it regen energy while having spheres out. Keep cooldowns on the spheres so they can not be abused on the dps build, but its really bad to have an elite spec that is designed (in my eyes) as a class that should combo a lot and have spheres left and right, but (right now) needs to combine spam 2 spheres one after another and then waiiiiit for energy to recharge to spam the other 2 again. This is a really bad gameplay loop, so this needs urgent help. Not many people play Ele anyway, and even less Cata so please make this feel good to play for the few people that even know the elite spec exists ^^. Please also consider a bit of passive regen (like CA energy on Druid) to make downtime between phases at least manageable to keep quick up.
Mirage is a complete other thing...it is (in my opinion!) not in a good place at all. The dps spec is awkward to play - the boon dps abysmal and the heal variant is not accessible at all. I fear you need to redesign it from the ground up again. I have no good idea at the top of my hat, but try something new or be adventurous with crazy ideas. Why not? Please let your creativity run free 🙂

I think thats all I can think of right now - nonetheless please keep up the good work! I do not agree with most of the negativity of many here - i enjoy the game since it launch (yeah had a few breaks too - real life stuff ^^), but I want the game to prosper and I think you do a very good job to make sooo many things more accessible. I hope my feedback gave you a few pointers 🙂

Thanks!

[Yogurt Goblin.5934]

15 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

 

"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"

Can we actually have our feedback implemented this time? I feel like you promise to listen to feedback with each balance preview and then proceed to go ahead with them anyway even after many people have voiced concerns.

[NovaanVerdiano.6174]

Any plans to look at Mesmer's Dagger or Jagged Mind? I think that weapon + trait grossly overperforms for what it does, and is the real main reason condi Virtuoso receives so many requests for nerfs. I'm not sure what the best route of action here would be, perhaps a range nerf to 900, damage falloff after 600 (then probably coupled with a nerf to Jagged Mind that makes it less likely to work past 600 range?) or something about its ability to cleave for free, either damage falloff again and/or once again including Jagged Mind to make it less likely for any target hit beyond the first one to apply bleed on a crit. I do still think that Condi Virtuoso overperforms but that the build itself is fine on paper; it's just too stacked with things it can do, partially owed to the fact that it is part of Mesmer and that a lot of things simply favour this build in particular. Then there is of course the choice whether there'd be a hard commitment to one nerf (e.g. Jagged Mind) or a combination of multiple, smaller nerfs.

I also understand that there might be some concern regarding the clear-ability of Cerus LM by nerfing cVirt, but if that is the case, then other builds should be allowed to do better in that fight (and/or nerf Gluttony so killing Despair is an option for melee strats, but I digress here)

[hash.8462]

6 hours ago, Sojhien.2841 said:

SWEET!!!!! Considering Strength of the Pack doesn't provide might currently, How many stacks do we get??
 

10 Stacks of Stability for 8 seconds

Fury for 12 seconds

Swiftness for 12 seconds

How many stacks of might for 10 seconds?

Glad we're even looking at the same game.......

 

Are you serious?

Strength of the Pack!

"Rampage with your pet, gaining stability, fury, and swiftness. You and your pet also grant might to each other when you attack."

[Tofu.1865]

12 hours ago, Sovngarde.7502 said:

Because they can’t keep nerfing core engi skills because *Holosmith* is the problem.

pistol has seen nothing but nerfs for almost two years, making condition engineer builds except Holo piano miserably low on damage. Condi mech is the lowest benching DPS full stop because Holosmith has been the problem. Finally they’re actually nerfing Holosmith itself instead of core engineer traits

This!

 

Everytime they try to nerf Holos its the Mechanists and Scrappers are getting affected, Very big example is Lock On nerf last patch and engi Pistol nerfs

[Snowskau.4369]

Willbender's absence from these notes really bends my willy
But in a bad way

Also, Engineer Grenade Kit is already BIS, so I see no wisdom in buffing it even further. It's Engi's other utilities that need love. I'd much rather have weapon buffs if the goal is to increase their DPS.

Berserker's and Scrapper's quickness application methods are very unfun so I hope reworking them to be not unfun is still on the agenda for some day. Particularly not being able to give boons without a vulnerable target in the former case is very suboptimal.

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

15 hours ago, Perceptor.7189 said:

"We are gonna buff unused skills" Procede to buff most used engi skills, and the most unsued skills remains untoached...

Uhh are you blind? Buffed holo utilities, buffed healing turret, elixers(especially elixer U OMG it's literally engis best stun break now) buffed ram(lol who's even gonna run that kitten.

 

Utility goggles is a pretty niche skill in PvP, but it can be quite handy vs Thief, so a slight buff will never hurt. I'm gonna assume it's gonna be 5 secs of 5 vuln. Not bad as you can also pop it in teamfights for AoE vuln, so it pays off more when you're taking it for anti stealth tech. 

Edited May 25 by WhoWantsAHug.3186

[Dadnir.5038]

2 hours ago, latlat.4516 said:

is it possible to have more details about this ? I'm not too sure about tightly coupling a whole trait to not a only a weapon, but a specific skill of this weapon.

Only longbow could go beyond the range treshold anyway... Objectively, you'll have a better access to the boon after the change.

That said, anything that encourage the player to use PBS as a part of a rotation is a stupidity.

Edited May 25 by Dadnir.5038

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

15 hours ago, Langeball.9351 said:

The change to magnet pull should also have a decrease in cast time. 1 1/4 seconds cast is too long for something that will now have a visual effect for the entire cast.

Yea idk exactly how it's worded. It doesn't say you can't use it without a target in the preview, so you can still wind it up with no target, but now you can't kitten it. Idk guess we'll have to wait for the patch

 

I'm speculating cause it's worded differently than the MOA change

[MedievalThings.5417]

3 hours ago, bambi.6214 said:

Hi ANet people (cmc in particular) - I know this might come as a surprise, but engineer has some other turrets skills, except healing turret. Crazy, isn't it? You're probably wondering why they don't show on any lists or statistical analysis - it's because nobody used turrets, for years! Let me give you a hand and list all the useless, underpowered turret skills that you seem to have missed in your patch which was supposed to improve the usability of underpowered skills and utilities:

• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_Turret
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Net_Turret
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rifle_Turret
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rocket_Turret
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thumper_Turret

Cause only necros are supposed to AFK farm.  This is why we can't have nice things.

[kurosy.1384]

Speaking about Ele in pve
I love the buffs at tempest and the staff adjustments! And i really really appreciate that the pistol/scepter condi dilemma has been directly addressed to add a bit of clarification. I would LOVE if something like that could be done for staff too. In the last year it received some love aka qol improvements but the reality is that there's not a single reason to use staff over anything else. And if the reason could be "my own entertainment" in the support role, when it comes to condi/power it has no chances at all.
Years are passed since staff ele was meta-defining and overshadowing everything from a safe distance. Right now there are classes that can handle ranged damage with ease. Isn't this the time to bring staff back? Not even asking top meta numbers, i'd be glad if it was just a viable option. Few months ago there was a viable staff condi build but sadly it's quickly been deleted by some nerfs to weaver modifiers. Please bring some damage back to the weapon :C

Speaking of FA Ele, which the devs stated they want to bring a bit back
I honestly don't understand what they did to try bringing it back. FA ele was a competitive glasscannon build but all the improvements to numbers are pve only, while in competitive modes one good skill has been nerfed. I mean no mockery here but i'm sincerely wondering if devs are aware that when the community refers to "FA weaver" they mean the competitive glasscannon build and not "any build based on the FA trait".

Edited May 25 by kurosy.1384

[Aamu.3952]

"Unleash Pet: The unleashed visual effect will now fade out over time when applied to the pet as it does on the player."

Soulbeast fart cloud 7 years and running.

[ilabsentuser.8726]

I don't even want to comment on this...

[SleepyBat.9034]

10 hours ago, Sojhien.2841 said:

SWEET!!!!! Considering Strength of the Pack doesn't provide might currently, How many stacks do we get??
 

10 Stacks of Stability for 8 seconds

Fury for 12 seconds

Swiftness for 12 seconds

How many stacks of might for 10 seconds?

Glad we're even looking at the same game.......

 

It gives you a buff which grants might when you or your pet hits the target.

[Lily.1935]

Still haven't fixed Scourge's Traits and the mess you made with the Shade duration. Ruined their playstyle in Open world for Raids, stripped its identity as a field control option, and removed an interesting trait but didn't fix the original support trait which still languishes.

[soulknight.9620]

#GiveWeaverSelfQuickness

That is all. 

[hHahansbuz.4532]

I wish this is only a preview, and you reconsider holosmith and mirage changes. Also bring back arc warrior skill with its 3 greatsword rolls to wvw. It felt awesome before, and now if feels a bit underwhelming

[SleepyBat.9034]

2 hours ago, WhoWantsAHug.3186 said:

Uhh are you blind? Buffed holo utilities, buffed healing turret, elixers(especially elixer U OMG it's literally engis best stun break now) buffed ram(lol who's even gonna run that kitten.

 

Utility goggles is a pretty niche skill in PvP, but it can be quite handy vs Thief, so a slight buff will never hurt. I'm gonna assume it's gonna be 5 secs of 5 vuln. Not bad as you can also pop it in teamfights for AoE vuln, so it pays off more when you're taking it for anti stealth tech. 

Bro... They nerfed Holo utilities in PvE. They buffed healing turret, ok fine, but it was hardly the least used engineer skill. Elixir U was already Engineers best utility skill. The Battering Ram change was a rework. Elixir skills in general are quite high up the tierlist for most used engineer skills.

• A.E.D.
• Elixir R
• Bomb Kit
• Flame Turret
• Utility Goggles
• Flame Turret
• Thumper Turret
• Rocket Turret
• Net Turret
• Hard Light Arena
• Sneak Gyro

You guys managed to buff 1 skill from the list, nice job.

Edited May 25 by SleepyBat.9034

[PusiYawer.6508]

now that you are changing elementalist to feel better and have more options, how about we get more changes to skills that feels bad to use and utilities (a lot of them are bad)
here some ideas
let us move with 50% less ms during meteor shower casting
speed the cast time of fireball to 3/4 sec
make dust storm (wh earth 5) leave a combo field
make stone heart re proc on earth overload, the change to not being permanent while in earth heavely nerfed tempest
make earth and water overload leave a combo field
do something to conjured weapons to make them viable or atleast usable (i dont have thoughts for this)
bring signet power more in line with signets from other classes (ele signets are pretty underwhelming)

thats it for me, if you could do atleast some of those changes, ele probably will feel a lot better to play and allow more build variety

[Martzi.7341]

Please, give us Heretic stat combo in pve too! 

 

[BenaSPACE.6028]

So!

New patch preview, and I'm excited to see a lot of these changes. I'll put a link to each of the profession-specific ones at the end of this one, but I'll put down the overall general changes and my response here.

On 5/24/2024 at 2:23 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

• Heretic Amulet has been added to the PvP build panel.
  • 1,000 Power
  • 1,000 Precision
  • 500 Ferocity
  • 500 Healing Power
• Tyrant Amulet has been added to the PvP build panel.
  • 1,000 Power
  • 1,000 Condition Damage
  • 500 Precision
  • 500 Toughness
• Rune of the Ogre and Rune of Tormenting have been added to the PvP build panel.
• Taunt: Increased the defiance damage per second from 75 to 100.

Good additions in my opinion. There's not much for me to say about these here. I'd also consider adding a lot of the PvP only stats to other game modes as well. Speaking personally, I've had more than a little disappointment when I couldn't use Swashbuckler or whatever in open world, and I don't think they'd overpower WvW.

Class specific changes:
Elementalist
Engineer
Guardian
Mesmer
Necromancer
Ranger
Revenant
Thief
Warrior
(I'll edit these as I add them in)

Edited May 27 by BenaSPACE.6028
Added Engineer's request list.

[Ruufio.1496]

.

Edited June 13 by Ruufio.1496

[Frenade.6745]

Now to make elementalist daggers playable again.
Please bring back the old "Burning Speed" and "Earthen Rush" functionalities, to let us dash through enemies again! Bring back the dagger mobility! ❤️

Edit:
To clarify, what's most problematic is that the created fire field from "burning speed" doesn't hit the target, as it spawns behind us.
So what would be great is if a fire field could spawn underneath the target on impact instead/as well.

Edited May 30 by Frenade.6745