Feedback from June 2024 patch notes

[Rage.5734]

Hello friends! 

I'm a guardian main since launch. First off I'm a big fan of the game. GW2 is my favorite game. 

Support firebrand has fallen behind other supports. The fix is easy I'm my opinion. The range of their boon application in awkward and small, especially compared to other supports like herald or harbinger. The cone is unwieldy to aim and often misses during busy encounters. The cone is a fun idea, just make it a bigger range. I believe the cone is 450 range with a much smaller circle around the firebrand. Make the smaller circle 450 and the cone reach out to 600. 600 is the range of the aforementioned herald and harbinger boon application. No aiming a cone required.

 

That's the easiest fix. After that, there's give them something special to differentiate them from other supports. Return aegis to the heal mantra or add stability to the Regen mantra or something that makes one think, "man I wish we had a firebrand. they would help so much with this encounter."

 

For example, my favorite heal support is the scourge. I love the barrier and the rez. They are unique and special. No other support has those two abilities at the same time to that extent. 

 

Then the API is high for the boon uptime. I don't mind playing piano on a firebrand, I just need to get more out of it for all the effort. Make the cool downs longer and the boon application longer. That way I have time to react to the group and the encounter. I'm not saying go crazy like the alac application on renegade, an extra second or two will give me time to reposition and support my team better.

The kit is fun and versatile. Give me a little more breathing room to utilize it.

Thank you to whomever takes the time to read this.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

3 hours ago, Rage.5734 said:

Hello friends! 

I'm a guardian main since launch. First off I'm a big fan of the game. GW2 is my favorite game. 

Support firebrand has fallen behind other supports. The fix is easy I'm my opinion. The range of their boon application in awkward and small, especially compared to other supports like herald or harbinger. The cone is unwieldy to aim and often misses during busy encounters. The cone is a fun idea, just make it a bigger range. I believe the cone is 450 range with a much smaller circle around the firebrand. Make the smaller circle 450 and the cone reach out to 600. 600 is the range of the aforementioned herald and harbinger boon application. No aiming a cone required.

 

That's the easiest fix. After that, there's give them something special to differentiate them from other supports. Return aegis to the heal mantra or add stability to the Regen mantra or something that makes one think, "man I wish we had a firebrand. they would help so much with this encounter."

 

For example, my favorite heal support is the scourge. I love the barrier and the rez. They are unique and special. No other support has those two abilities at the same time to that extent. 

 

Then the API is high for the boon uptime. I don't mind playing piano on a firebrand, I just need to get more out of it for all the effort. Make the cool downs longer and the boon application longer. That way I have time to react to the group and the encounter. I'm not saying go crazy like the alac application on renegade, an extra second or two will give me time to reposition and support my team better.

The kit is fun and versatile. Give me a little more breathing room to utilize it.

Thank you to whomever takes the time to read this.

Everyone says this. Players, Youtubers, streamers, forum posters, Redditors, philosophical thinkers alone in their basements.... It's so obvious to so many people. The new page reductions are nice, but they just don't address the issue. I can only imagine Anet is taking so long to implement a useful change because a) they feel cones give mantras an identity they are clawing to hold onto, b) they are not sure how to make the change, and c) they are always slow to change unless it's a nerf. But it's a bad identity to hold onto at this point, and the solution is so simple: just open it up to a 300-450 inch radius, and extend the cone to 600 inches. Boon application would be back on par with other supports, and you'd still have the identity for a little extra range.

Edit: I don't think firebrands need anything other than this to be proper healers. They have enough in their toolbox to be effective. I would like to see mantra spam/recharge reduced to help with the insane APM and "feel-bad" recharging loops, especially on Quick DPS and condi DPS builds tho.

Edit 2: A small heal on the staff auto-chain would be a nice QoL improvement too. Okay, I think I'm done now.

Edited May 26 by Gaiawolf.8261

[Sansar.1302]

Willbender needs a big nerf in WvW 

[AlphaReborn.1567]

5 hours ago, Sansar.1302 said:

Willbender needs a big nerf in WvW 

Willbender is in a weird spot. It is pretty much limited to just roaming in WvW as it’s not picked for group play. In a roaming context, it can outperform a lot of builds - particularly power builds, but is still inferior to a lot of celestial builds while not really having a strong celestial option itself (compared to Catalyst, Mirage, Druid, Harbinger, Daredevil, Renegade/Vindicator, etc).

So I’m not really sure what you’d do with it. If you make the power versions any worse it’ll make Guardian mostly useless in any roaming context, which isn’t ideal. To be honest, 80% of the roamers I encounter these days use one of the celestial builds I mentioned above now. If you play one of those and lose to a power WB on one of those (assuming you were paying attention and not caught off guard), the person probably severely outplayed you and you would have lost regardless of what he/she was playing.

[Trejgon.9367]

15 hours ago, AlphaReborn.1567 said:

It is pretty much limited to just roaming in WvW as it’s not picked for group play.

That I find mildly weird, because it's core mechanic favours greatly zerg fights (and on release it used to be strongest there, dunno if anything changed there).

[Sansar.1302]

On 5/27/2024 at 6:51 PM, AlphaReborn.1567 said:

Willbender is in a weird spot. It is pretty much limited to just roaming in WvW as it’s not picked for group play. In a roaming context, it can outperform a lot of builds - particularly power builds, but is still inferior to a lot of celestial builds while not really having a strong celestial option itself (compared to Catalyst, Mirage, Druid, Harbinger, Daredevil, Renegade/Vindicator, etc).

So I’m not really sure what you’d do with it. If you make the power versions any worse it’ll make Guardian mostly useless in any roaming context, which isn’t ideal. To be honest, 80% of the roamers I encounter these days use one of the celestial builds I mentioned above now. If you play one of those and lose to a power WB on one of those (assuming you were paying attention and not caught off guard), the person probably severely outplayed you and you would have lost regardless of what he/she was playing.

I used to play ranger, but now with specs like willbender, Harbinger  and Catalysts being so insane op in WvW (the only game mode I played) I don't play guild wars 2 any more. 

[Ezrael.6859]

1 hour ago, Sansar.1302 said:

I used to play ranger, but now with specs like willbender, Harbinger  and Catalysts being so insane op in WvW (the only game mode I played) I don't play guild wars 2 any more. 

= He used to play Celestial Trapper Druid, but after that got nerfed and he couldn't roll his forearm across the keyboard to win anymore, he quit the compeitive mode.

[Sansar.1302]

On 6/5/2024 at 4:52 PM, Ezrael.6859 said:

= He used to play Celestial Trapper Druid, but after that got nerfed and he couldn't roll his forearm across the keyboard to win anymore, he quit the compeitive mode.

What makes you say that ?

yes i tried cele Druid for a week or so , but only after the nerf.

I have always been playing direct damage builds.

[Sansar.1302]

Willbender is ruining wvw smal scale

[MercurialKuroSludge.8974]

6 minutes ago, Sansar.1302 said:

Willbender is ruining wvw smal scale

And how would you know, anyone with skill sees WB as bags these days, you been out of the loop too long.
You think Mesmers still have Shared Distort or something old man?

[Gaiawolf.8261]

19 hours ago, Sansar.1302 said:

Willbender is ruining wvw smal scale

WTF is WVW small scale? You mean capping a keep with less than a squad of 20?

Edited June 10 by Gaiawolf.8261

[draxynnic.3719]

5 hours ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

WTF is WVW small scale? You mean capping a keep with less than a squad of 20?

Think things like 1v1s or small groups fighting over who gets to flip a camp. Does happen, especially on quieter times when zergs aren't around but people are still trying to tick off daily or weekly achievements. I think ArenaNet has acknowledged that balancing for small-scale WvW is not a priority, though, due to how inherently unbalanced such encounters are likely to be however finely balanced the professions are, and they don't want balancing for small-scale to make an elite specialisation nonviable for zergfights.

[Trejgon.9367]

11 hours ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

WTF is WVW small scale? You mean capping a keep with less than a squad of 20?

roaming parties.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

3 hours ago, Trejgon.9367 said:

roaming parties.

 

9 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Think things like 1v1s or small groups fighting over who gets to flip a camp. Does happen, especially on quieter times when zergs aren't around but people are still trying to tick off daily or weekly achievements. I think ArenaNet has acknowledged that balancing for small-scale WvW is not a priority, though, due to how inherently unbalanced such encounters are likely to be however finely balanced the professions are, and they don't want balancing for small-scale to make an elite specialisation nonviable for zergfights.

It seems WVW is primarily balanced for resource management and flipping objectives. It's really being exposed with the nerfs to defensive strategies.

My suspicion is that they intend their balancing for spvp to cover roaming or  small groups. So I kind of doubt they tend to it specifically. Which doesn't always feel appropriate.

[Trejgon.9367]

1 minute ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

 

It seems WVW is primarily balanced for resource management and flipping objectives. It's really being exposed with the nerfs to defensive strategies.

My suspicion is that they intend their balancing for spvp to cover roaming or  small groups. So I kind of doubt they tend to it specifically. Which doesn't always feel appropriate.

Roaming parties were always a thing in wvw, there is not always a point of having whole zerg flipping camps or towers, when it could be besieging keep, or keeping enemy zerg occupied. There is also a middle ground of a havoc group - not quite zerg yet, but enough to flip an undefended keep on their own in sensible timespan.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

11 minutes ago, Trejgon.9367 said:

Roaming parties were always a thing in wvw, there is not always a point of having whole zerg flipping camps or towers, when it could be besieging keep, or keeping enemy zerg occupied. There is also a middle ground of a havoc group - not quite zerg yet, but enough to flip an undefended keep on their own in sensible timespan.

Sure there is player involvement in small tactics, and I enjoy it myself. I just don't think the devs give it much attention when making design or balance decisions.

Edit: Players posting for things like stealth, mesmer, celestial, and willbender nerfs are generally falling on deaf ears, because the players roaming with these are not winning the war for their teams. Apart from some coordinated scouting efforts for a commander maybe, which rolls up under the balancing for resource management, not individual fights.

Edited June 11 by Gaiawolf.8261

[Trejgon.9367]

2 hours ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

I just don't think the devs give it much attention when making design or balance decisions.

It is very widely popular opinion among wvw crowd, that AN is balancing the mode with zergfights in mind primarily, if not only. But people always have complained how X class is ruining roaming, and the only thing I ever noticed changing is which class is being complained this time around. Cannot comment on how Willbenders affect the scene, I am yet to run into one outside of beta event.

[Saiyan.1704]

On 5/27/2024 at 6:17 AM, Sansar.1302 said:

Willbender needs a big nerf in WvW 

I think you need to look into how you're dying to a class that isn't even the best in WvW.

I roamed around in WvW farming silver players who are just trying to get camp rewards... took maybe 15 minutes for me to run into a G3/Plat player that's on a meta build. Trust me when I say that WB isn't the best 1v1 spec in WvW & sPvP. It just farms newbies.

[Matt H.6142]

Please add a chance the mantra voicelines play when they recharge.  Seems silly to remove flavor from PVE.  I know that tech exists because of ele overloads.