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[DanAlcedo.3281]

Warrior

This update includes a number of improvements for support warrior builds. We've significantly reduced the casting time of the defensive utility banners to allow them to be used more reactively while also bringing Banner of Tactics more in line with other stability options.

We've also updated Martial Cadence to refresh Soldier's Focus when swapping weapons to make it a bit more accessible when it's needed, made some minor improvements to the strength specialization for competitive modes, and tuned up a number of defensive utilities in PvE.

• Inspiring Whirl: This skill now heals allies instead of granting them regeneration.
• Banner of Tactics: Increased the stability stacks from 1 to 5 in PvE only. Reduced the casting time from 0.8 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Reduced the aftercast by 0.3 seconds.
• Banner of Defense: Reduced the casting time from 0.8 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Reduced the aftercast by 0.3 seconds.
• Endure Pain: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 30 seconds in PvE only.
• Balanced Stance: Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Frenzy: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Dolyak Signet: Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Stomp: Reduced the cooldown from 32 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Signet of Stamina: This skill now activates instantly.
• Battle Standard: Reduced the cooldown from 120 seconds to 90 seconds in PvE only.
• Reckless Dodge: Increased the might stacks on hit from 1 to 2 in PvE and PvP.
• Restorative Strength: This trait now grants resistance in addition to might. Reduced the might stacks from 5 to 2 in WvW and PvP.
• Might Makes Right: Increased the healing from 85 to 98 in WvW and PvP.
• Shrug It Off: This trait now triggers when using a healing skill instead of when having a number of conditions on you. Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 3 in PvE only.
• Martial Cadence: This trait now also recharges Soldier's Focus when you swap weapons and causes Soldier's Focus to remove a condition from nearby allies. Reduced the quickness duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds in WvW.
• Heightened Focus: This trait now also grants the user increased outgoing healing for a duration when striking an enemy with a burst skill, based on the adrenaline spent.

Spellbreaker

• Sight beyond Sight: This skill now also removes 3 nondamaging conditions from the user.
• Featherfoot Grace: Reduced the resistance and superspeed duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only. Reduced the cooldown to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW. Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

The Warrior changes make me sad.

The only changes that matters to me is the Frenzy buff. That could make for a nice Core Warrior build in openworld.

Cool. Heal Warrior is buffed. I see still no reason to play it over Druid.

I dont understand the CD reductions to the defensive Skills in PvE. Nobody should ever slot them anyway, Not openworld nor Group Content.

Reducing the CD of stomp in Pve is pointless as Launch is a negative effect in PvE.

Why not make Imminent Threat 20s CD in Pve? That skill has actual use in openworld.

 

No improvements to our bad weapons. Which is almost all of them.

No Alac Spellbreaker.

For me, its just another "nothing happend" Patch.

Edited May 24 by DanAlcedo.3281

[Aaron.1294]

@DanAlcedo.3281banner cast times are getting reduced by more than 50%

 

Edited May 24 by Aaron.1294

[DanAlcedo.3281]

1 minute ago, Aaron.1294 said:

@DanAlcedo.3281banner cast times are getting reduced by more than 50%

 

And that matters HOW exactly?

[Roan.5194]

FIX BLADESWORN

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

4 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

And that matters HOW exactly?

Being able to use them faster to land them before a spike. Those two changes and the frenzy change are alright, but the rest are meaningless.

[Aaron.1294]

@DanAlcedo.3281@Lan Deathrider.5910might makes right got heal buff aswell as might generation in strength traitline. IF restorative strength get a 6-8 sec of resistance it might be worth being used over defence.

Edited May 24 by Aaron.1294

[DanAlcedo.3281]

2 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Being able to use them faster to land them before a spike. Those two changes and the frenzy change are alright, but the rest are meaningless.

But? Uhm....

When would you even play Qheal Warrior? If Qdps herald + Aheal druid exist?

Openworld, sure... but really now.

 

Edited May 24 by DanAlcedo.3281

[Aaron.1294]

@DanAlcedo.3281 we were talking about pvp. Sorry for not clarifying that.

Also can we get same cast time reduction on every single banner maybe not on elite? I just want to poke stuff with banner of strength...

Edited May 24 by Aaron.1294

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Just now, Aaron.1294 said:

@DanAlcedo.3281 we were talking about pvp. Sorry for not clarifying that.

Ohh ok.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Maybe Core Warrior is playable gain (openworld) with the Frenzy change.

 

[Myror.7521]

Hmm overall not too Bad ^^. Stances CD reduction in PvE is ... hmm what ever good to have i gues xp. Banner buffs yea okay i will still not use them ^^ maybe only Defence one. Battle standart one is good to have tho ^~^. Matrial cadance rework is not too Bad ^^ perma stabi uptime inc xp. (Sadly for the loss of shout healing tho). Strength Spellbreaker will see an Omega buff with the Patch witch is realy nice cause of the fav way of many peops to play warr. 

 

I think this notes are overall pretty Solid ^^

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

8 minutes ago, Aaron.1294 said:

@DanAlcedo.3281@Lan Deathrider.5910might makes right got heal buff aswell as might generation in strength traitline. IF restorative strength get a 6-8 sec of resistance it might be worth being used over defence.

Its only a couple extra points of healing per stack, if the fully reverted the Feb2020 nerf it would matter.

For the resistance on Restorative Strength, it would need to be 6-8s to matter.

I do see some shenanigans with mending, shrug, and VS. Also TTL, shrug, and VS. Warriors going to be full healing themselves on some builds.

[Lonecap.4105]

Inconsequential buffs in competitive, will have no impact sadly.

[HeliosMagi.9867]

The Martial Cadence change is really interesting, because it means we don't need to spam Staff 3 for Protection uptime, so we can instead save it for on-demand burst healing or Aegis. Also if it keeps its base 3s Stability, that would mean Heal Berserker would be capable of 100% group stability uptime. Which would actually give Heal Warrior a niche, as I don't thing any other healer build can do that.

Heightened Focus I don't know if Healzerker will use, it's kinda too dependent on the 30% Adrenaline refund from Burst Mastery for its rotation. It's a straight upgrade for Healsworn though.

Speaking of Healsworn, aside from Heightened Focus we didn't really get anything. If anything losing the Regen on staff autos hurt since now one of our utilities is locked to Banner of Defense, as its now our sole source of group Regen. Healsworn still needs some serious reworks, we're locked to Relic of Febe to apply Swiftness, and we lack a source of Vigor at all. Immortal Dragon is right there, no one is using it, it's begging for a rework to make it the Healer trait.

[Langeball.9351]

Was reckless dodge so strong it couldn't be buffed for WvW? Lmao

[Etaoin.4362]

• Inspiring Whirl: This skill now heals allies instead of granting them regeneration.

Well, one less boon for corruption/removal. Could be useful.

• Banner of Tactics: Increased the stability stacks from 1 to 5 in PvE only. Reduced the casting time from 0.8 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Reduced the aftercast by 0.3 seconds.
• Banner of Defense: Reduced the casting time from 0.8 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Reduced the aftercast by 0.3 seconds.

These seem like solid buffs, although I still have reservations about the banner-slave setup.

• Endure Pain: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 30 seconds in PvE only.
• Balanced Stance: Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Frenzy: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Dolyak Signet: Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.
• Stomp: Reduced the cooldown from 32 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Signet of Stamina: This skill now activates instantly.
• Battle Standard: Reduced the cooldown from 120 seconds to 90 seconds in PvE only.
• Reckless Dodge: Increased the might stacks on hit from 1 to 2 in PvE and PvP.

Decent buffs. Could be better in some areas, but no real complaints.

• Restorative Strength: This trait now grants resistance in addition to might. Reduced the might stacks from 5 to 2 in WvW and PvP.
• Might Makes Right: Increased the healing from 85 to 98 in WvW and PvP.
• Shrug It Off: This trait now triggers when using a healing skill instead of when having a number of conditions on you. Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 3 in PvE only.
• Martial Cadence: This trait now also recharges Soldier's Focus when you swap weapons and causes Soldier's Focus to remove a condition from nearby allies. Reduced the quickness duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds in WvW.

This all sets up some interesting synergy between the Tactics and Strength lines, likely to compete with the Defense/Strength combo that's common in competitive modes. I don't know how well it will work as an alternate, though, as Shield Master is still the best (only?) way warrior variants can counter-pressure ranged opponents. That said, the Soldier's Focus/Martial Cadence changes may make it a compelling alternative to shout builds as a way of sustaining through fights. I'm also interested to see how Shrug It Off will pair with bladesworn's Combat Stimulant. Is there going to be a high internal cooldown? If not, then this could make bladesworn a good source of group cleanse.

• Heightened Focus: This trait now also grants the user increased outgoing healing for a duration when striking an enemy with a burst skill, based on the adrenaline spent.

Will need to see numbers to decide if this is worthwhile or wasted.

All in all, probably nothing groundbreaking, but at least nothing hard nerfed here.

Edited May 24 by Etaoin.4362

[Frozey.8513]

Hundred Blades fix when?

[Fueki.4753]

This cooldown reductions for Stunbreaks are nice.

But that's all that's mildly positive to me in this patch. The rest doesn't effect me.

[Zekent.3652]

Well, they buffed the STR spb reveal meme build that i was using in WvW/PvP, that's... good i guess, and also disappointing, nothing really changed for warrior, not a single real issue was addressed.

Edited May 25 by Zekent.3652

[Jzaku.9765]

It was an incredibly unambitious balance patch in general, but the [Martial Cadence] change is an alright workaround for the poor implementation of Soldier's Focus, I guess. It does shoehorn you into using it together with discipline though, so I would have preferred an implementation that reworked Soldier's Focus altogether - [Heat the Soul] was reworked for essentially exact the same reason after all. 

That said, all 3 Tactics grandmaster traits are still competing with each other, when all 3 combined is baked into the meta healer builds like Druid and Chrono. What gives? 

[Geoff Fey.1035]

I don't really understand why some people are saying these are nerfs?

Literally the only reductions are for PvP/WvW by 1s on boons, and even then the changes to Martial Cadence are massive enough to make it negligible, and the CD reduction on Featherfoot Grade is "okay" because the skill itself is "okay" compared to other options.

Everything else is a definite upgrade, with it being cast time reductions, duration increases, stack increases, and now healing on auto-attack with Staff rather than Regen being a big win (the regen is pretty much capped anyways)

[Fueki.4753]

54 minutes ago, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

I don't really understand why some people are saying these are nerfs?

In this thread at least, noone says these changes are nerfs.

54 minutes ago, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

Everything else is a definite upgrade, with it being cast time reductions, duration increases, stack increases, and now healing on auto-attack with Staff rather than Regen being a big win (the regen is pretty much capped anyways)

On paper, most changes on that list seem like they are upgrades. In practice, however, these changes end up being little to nothing.

There has been nothing of note to the bigger issues that Warrior mains wanted changes for for years now.

Hundred Blades still is an immovable ability with a pittance of damage, that hardly even hits enemies in PvE. Most weapons are just bad in comparison to other professions' weapons. The Adrenaline economy is abysmal.

And these are just three examples of the many issues on Warrior.

Edited May 25 by Fueki.4753

[draxynnic.3719]

Yeah, that's basically it - the changes are improvements, particularly the faster deployment for defensive banners, but apart from the stability banner always landing too late they haven't addressed any of the real pain points.

Given the number of times I've seen "if you're not going to fix warrior you might as well delete it" sentiments expressed, I do have to wonder if the "we're removing warrior from the game" joke at the start was a response...

[Leo G.4501]

22 hours ago, Myror.7521 said:

Hmm overall not too Bad ^^. Stances CD reduction in PvE is ... hmm what ever good to have i gues xp. Banner buffs yea okay i will still not use them ^^ maybe only Defence one. Battle standart one is good to have tho ^~^. Matrial cadance rework is not too Bad ^^ perma stabi uptime inc xp. (Sadly for the loss of shout healing tho). Strength Spellbreaker will see an Omega buff with the Patch witch is realy nice cause of the fav way of many peops to play warr. 

 

I think this notes are overall pretty Solid ^^

I agree. The Martial Cadence thing seems interesting.  Not sure how the locomotion with that will go but it seems like it makes Soldiers Focus more controllable.  If you're going for a support Bladesworn, this might iron out needing to wait to use dragon slashes but still kind of gets you stuck in gunsaber.  I dunno, I'm not playing support Bladesworn.  I wonder how it would work with a build for support on Spellbreaker tho.

Also, don't they usually run changes in PvE first and if it's not too strong, they give a watered down version in PvP/WvW? Some of those stance changes might translate to lower cd in competitive.