October 8 Balance Update Preview

[MrAngio.6917]

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Revenant

We've focused on improving the viability of some underperforming revenant builds in competitive modes with damage improvements to herald and main-hand sword, defensive improvements to Legendary Renegade Stance, and an increase to the outgoing healing bonuses in the Salvation trait line for potential support builds in PvP.

• Chilling Isolation: Increased the power coefficient from 0.5 to 0.7 in PvP and WvW.
• Notoriety: Increased the might stacks from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW.
• Resolute Evasion: Increased the resolution duration from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds. This trait now also grants a small strike damage reduction for 2.5 seconds after dodging.
• Invoking Harmony: Increased the outgoing healing bonus from 10% to 15% in PvP only.
• Serene Rejuvenation: Increased the outgoing healing bonus from 15% to 20% in PvP only.

Herald

• Shining Aspects: Increased the healing from 533 to 640.
• Forceful Persistence: Increased the damage bonus from 13% to 15% in PvP and WvW. Increased the facet damage bonus from 3% to 4% in PvP and WvW.

Renegade

• Breakrazor's Bastion: Increased the base barrier when enhanced from 1,480 to 1,960.
• Soulcleave's Summit: Increased the healing when using a Legendary Renegade skill from 929 to 1,199. Increased the life siphon healing from 392 to 489 in PvP only.

This won't change anything in WvW Competitive for Revenant... 😅

[GeraldBC.4927]

21 minutes ago, daw.4923 said:

you guys realize that ANY OTHER HEALER CAN RESS ONE PERSON EVERY 90 SEC WITHOUT TELEPORTING HIM ANYWHERE RIGHT? why should necro be able to ress 5 ppl every 30 sec and as bonus teleport them to him???

Google "wiki gw2 search and rescue" and read through the result. 

• 5 targets
• 40 seconds without alacrity

If being able to do this is too powerful and needs to be removed, why does "search and rescue" exist? 

 

And remember, the short cooldown transfusion teleport is something you gain as a massive tradeoff, because there's several crucial tools necro does not have. To this day, scourge despite billing itself as a heal spec does not have

• proper stability (no, 1 stack for 5 seconds and you have to run around to apply it is not proper stability, I'm talking 5 stacks minimum, no cast time, 10 seconds duration, like mesmer, guard and revenant have, something you NEED for certain bossfights)
• proper cc (No, I'm not talking the 230 like with the flesh golem, I'm talking something proper-heal-spec levels of good like signet of humiliation, sanctuary, revenant staff 4, basilisk venom, whenever the healer is a scourge you immediately notice an apparent shortage in bar-breakage. People scoff at mechanist but even mechanist isn't this bad with that, especially when you know a breakbar is coming up and can prepare by preparing a mech drop)

Edited Saturday at 05:24 PM by GeraldBC.4927

[Radagast.6271]

lol nerfing thief's axe 3 while pimping every other class looks like a silly move to me

Edited Saturday at 05:24 PM by Radagast.6271

[Kulvar.1239]

52 minutes ago, Beddo.1907 said:

Longbow doesn't work in zerg. Projectiles don't exist and 5 needs you to stop moving and even then the damage spread kills it.

Signet of the Hunt let you use Rapid Fire by ignoring all the projectile destruction/reflection.

[SleepyBat.9034]

1 hour ago, Malus.2184 said:

Cele vs Cele is unfun

Being killed by Cele is unfun

Killing people as Cele is also unfun.

What fun builds? If you thin that stomping people is fun then you have issues.

Bro thinks getting instagibbed by power roamers is fun 💀

[SleepyBat.9034]

10 minutes ago, Radagast.6271 said:

lol nerfing thief's axe 3 while pimping every other class looks like a silly move to me

Deserved. Axe thief is kitten

[Volthix.2465]

That's all ?? 

the all spect boon dps are not balance att all...

Can we finally have something for alac mirage ?

Why some of class have 600 radius and other still with a stupid 360radius for exemple ?

[Katary.7096]

20 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Hi, everyone,

Welcome to the preview for the October 8 balance update! We're only a few weeks past the release of Janthir Wilds, so this update will be a bit smaller as we continue to watch and evaluate the impact of the new spears and relics. 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.

Thanks,

Cal "cmc" Cohen

Skills and Balance Lead

On the topic of relics: I dare say the system has worked out quite well for power based builds, as there is a decent variety of relics being used (though I'm still hoping for something that works better on Revenants than the Thief relic) but on the condition side things are rather gloomy. Every now and then you come across a build with Akeem, Peitha or Aristocracy but in general the Fractal relic is the dominant choice for condition builds.

20 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

General

The Celestial attribute combination has been exceptionally powerful in WvW since the addition of concentration and expertise, and it's something that we've been monitoring for some time. With this update, we're introducing the tech to adjust equipment's attribute distribution and the amount of attributes it provides on a per game–mode basis. The first use of this will be to remove both concentration and expertise from equipment with Celestial attributes in WvW only, to bring it back in line with other attributes. We'll be keeping an eye on how the tech performs and whether it needs any final touches, but, assuming everything goes well, it's something that we may use going forward to tune other attribute combinations in WvW specifically.

• Celestial equipment will no longer grant concentration or expertise while in a WvW map.
• Revealed: Increased the duration in WvW to match PvP.

 

I would rather see a reduction to the total stat budget of celestial gear which can be kept consistent across game modes. But I admit that this will solve the celestial problem for WvW. And while this new tech is impressive I hope you use it sparingly, I do not want to have to think about 7 or 8 different stat sets being nerfed in individual game modes 2 years from now.

20 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Elementalist

The June balance update included a few tune-ups to the elementalist's dagger skills in competitive modes with the goal of making them more viable picks. These changes didn't quite have the impact that we were hoping for, so we've made additional improvements to the dagger skills for this update. We've also bumped up the damage on a handful of spear skills in WvW and made a few smaller improvements for support-focused tempest and quickness-based catalyst builds.

• Burning Speed: Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Convergence: Increased the power coefficient from 1.2 to 1.35 in PvP and WvW.
• Updraft: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Ring of Earth: Increased the secondary-strike power coefficient from 1.1 to 1.25 in PvP and WvW.
• Churning Earth: Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 1.6 in PvP and WvW.
• Frozen Burst: Reduced the cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Cleansing Wave: Reduced the cooldown from 25 to 20 in PvP and WvW. Increased the base healing to 2,222 in all game modes.
• Blazing Barrage: Increased the power coefficient from 0.9 to 1.05 in WvW only.
• Meteor: Increased the power coefficient from 1.2 to 1.35 in WvW only.
• Fissure: Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.15 in WvW only.
• Haboob: Increased the power coefficient from1.33 to 1.5 in WvW only.

Tempest

• "Wash the Pain Away!": This skill now removes a condition from allies on every pulse.
• Rebound: This skill now grants stability instead of fury.

Weaver

• Elemental Refreshment: This trait no longer applies barrier to allies. Increased the barrier from 523 to 1,003 in PvE only.
• Bolstered Elements: This trait now triggers Lesser Stone Resonance when you use an elite skill instead of at a health threshold. Reduced the internal cooldown from 70 seconds to 30 seconds. Increased the protection duration from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Woven Stride: Reduced the internal cooldown from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.

Catalyst

• Invigorating Air: This skill now also grants 25 endurance when used.
• Spectacular Sphere: Increased the quickness duration from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds in PvE only. Increased the might stacks from 5 to 8 in PvE only.
• Sphere Specialist: Increased the boon duration increase from 100% to 150% in PvE only. This trait now also allows the catalyst to gain energy while a jade sphere is deployed.

Rebound feels like the wrong place to tag on a desirable boon. If you activate it for the stability you might not have it ready to save someone from going down, if you save it to prevent a downed state then the boon could end up being wasted. That said, Rebound with stability is likely better than Rebound with fury.
Looks like quick Catalyst is getting a significant increase in fun.

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Engineer

Quickness-based scrapper is another boon-providing support build that we felt could use a bit more might generation, so we've added it to the trigger on Kinetic Accelerators. Flamethrower also gets a big upgrade with Smoke Vent becoming a stun break, which gives the kit a much-needed defensive tool.

• Blunderbuss: Increased the minimum power coefficient from 0.87 to 1.1 in PvP only.
• Energizing Slam: Increased the base barrier from 196 to 516 and the barrier scaling from 0.2 to 0.5 in PvP and WvW.
• Healing Mist: Reduced the cooldown from 28 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Utility Goggles: This skill now applies protection in addition to its previous effects.
• Regenerating Mist: Reduced the cooldown from 21 seconds to 18 seconds.
• Smoke Vent: This skill now breaks stun. Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Elixir X: Reduced the cooldown from 85 seconds to 75 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Energy Amplifier: This trait now grants power in addition to its previous effects.

Scrapper

• Kinetic Accelerators: This trait now applies might in addition to quickness in PvE only.

Holosmith

• Crystal Configuration: Eclipse: This trait now only applies barrier on Corona Burst's first hit. Increased the barrier on hit from 991 to 2,256 in PvE and from 748 to 1,804 in PvP and WvW. The barrier on hit is reduced for each hit beyond the first.

Support Scrapper would probably appreciate fury more than might, but it is nice nonetheless.

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Guardian

In this update, we've made improvements to a number of underutilized guardian skills and traits to make them more viable options, including additional healing on Symbol of Faith, an update to Honorable Staff that makes Empower also grant endurance to affected allies, and additional ammunition for "Hold the Line!"

• Symbol of Vengeance: Reduced the cooldown from 12 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP only.
• Blazing Edge: Reduced the cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.
• Symbol of Faith: This skill now heals allies on impact. Reduced the casting time.
• Shield of Wrath: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Cleansing Flame: This skill now removes 2 conditions from the player when activated.
• "Hold the Line!": Increased the ammunition from 1 to 2.
• Signet of Judgment: This skill now applies protection in addition to its previous effects.
• Signet of Courage: This skill now breaks stun for the user and nearby allies when activated.
• Protector's Restoration: Reduced the internal cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
• Honorable Staff: This skill no longer grants additional concentration while wielding a staff and now causes Empower to grant endurance to allies.
• Writ of Persistence: Increased the healing from 64 to 107 in PvP and WvW.

Dragonhunter

• Hunter's Fortification: This trait no longer grants damage reduction and now heals when you block an attack in addition to removing a condition.

Willbender

• Heel Crack: Increased the ammunition from 1 to 2 in PvE only.

The Willbender trait Restorative Virtues speeds up the ammunition recharge of spear #2 Helio Rush but does not do that with the pistol #4 Hail of Justice, which is the intended behavior?
I understand that the celestial nerf is going to bring down the performance of Willbender in WvW, but it is still disappointing to not see specific nerfs.

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Mesmer

Ether Barrage is a skill that can vary significantly in effectiveness depending on which randomly chosen condition it applies with each strike. We wanted the skill to be more consistent, and going forward it will always inflict the same amount of torment and confusion every time the skill is used. We've also made some improvements to off-hand sword and axe in competitive modes and tuned up some other underperforming skills and traits.

• Axes of Symmetry: Reduced the cooldown from 12 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Lingering Thoughts: Increased the torment duration from 4 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Phantasmal Swordsman: Reduced the cooldown from 20 seconds to 18 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased the initial phantasm hit damage from 0.35 to 0.5 and the flurry damage coefficient per hit from 0.1 to 0.12 in PvP and WvW.
• Mirror: Increased the base healing from 4,299 to 5,195.
• Phantasmal Disenchanter: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
• Mass Invisibility: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 50 seconds in PvP only.
• Furious Interruption: Reduced the internal cooldown from 3 seconds to 1 second. Increased the quickness duration from 3 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE and from 2 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Mirage

• Ether Barrage: The conditions inflicted by this skill are no longer random. This skill will apply 3 stacks of torment and 2 stacks of confusion per use. Increased the torment and confusion durations from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Mirage Advance: This skill now dazes enemies that it strikes.

I like to see more consistency in what skills do, thanks for that. What happen to the plan to make power damage Mirage a serious build in PvE?

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Necromancer

Transfusion has been a longtime pain point in WvW, but it has also been an exceptionally powerful tool for scourge in all game modes. Its ability to easily revive allies who are downed while out of position is something that we've been keeping an eye on for a while, and we see it as being too powerful. We still like Transfusion's ability to help revive allies, but we're removing the teleportation component to make it less of a guarantee. We've also tuned up the damage on axe in PvE and made some improvements to the core death shroud in all game modes. Reaper and harbinger both get some defensive updates that are primarily focused on slightly improving their survivability in PvP.

• Isolate: Reduced the cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.
• Extirpate: This skill no longer inflicts Extirpation and instead inflicts weakness.
• Rending Claws: Increased the damage coefficient per hit from 0.6 to 0.7 in PvE only.
• Ghastly Claws: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.5 to 0.575 in PvE only.
• Unholy Feast: Increased the power coefficient from 2.0 to 2.5 in PvE only.
• Unholy Burst: Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.5 in PvE only.
• Consume Conditions: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Signet of the Locust: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
• Plague Signet: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Dark Pursuit: This skill no longer increases the cooldown of Dark Path.
• Life Transfer: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Increased the bleeding duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Tainted Shackles: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Overflowing Thirst: Increased the life force per strike from 1% to 1.5%.
• Unholy Martyr: Increased the life force per condition removed from 3% to 7% in PvP only.
• Transfusion: This trait no longer teleports downed allies to the user. This trait no longer increases the cooldown of Garish Pillar in WvW.

Reaper

• Soul Eater: The healing from this trait can now heal the player while they are using Reaper Shroud. Healing while in shroud has reduced effectiveness in PvE.
• Blighter's Boon: Increased the base healing from 103 to 133.

Harbinger

• Blight: Reduced the health percentage decrease from 1.5% to 1% in PvP only.

I was surprised to see Extirpation survive the spear beta and now I'm surprised again that it is getting axed shortly after the expansion's release. You could at least try out a nerfed version with fewer stacks or less duration first.
Maybe mainhand axe is going to be in the secondary weapon set of a power damage build? I'm not sure it should be honestly.
You are finally fixing one of the most notoriously gamebreaking effects in WvW and PvE encounters? This is definitely the correct decision for the health of the game, though it certainly seems to be an unpopular one. But at least this will open the door to make improvements in more general areas of team support for necromancer builds.
(Since we are on the topic of the health of the game: Please reduce the level of DPS powercreep in PvE.)

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Thief

This update includes a couple of significant quality-of-life improvements for the thief's staff and scepter weapons. First, Weakening Charge will no longer have a movement component, meaning that players are free to move during its casting time. We've also changed Shadow Sap into a ground-targeted skill to give scepter-wielding thieves a way to support their team without needing to target allies. Our goal with these changes is to improve the fluidity of the weapons and make them more enjoyable to play. We've also updated Helmet Breaker to only be usable a single time before flipping back to Debilitating Arc, giving more access to the defensive evade. This is part of a set of changes targeted at improving staff's usability in competitive modes.

• Shadow Sap: This skill is now ground targeted and will fire a projectile at the target location. When the missile lands, it will strike enemies and grant barrier, might, and protection to allies. The strike no longer inflicts weakness on enemies.
• Orchestrated Assault: Reduced the damage increase from 33% to 7% in WvW and PvP.
• Harrowing Storm: Reduced the torment duration from 6 seconds to 4 seconds in WvW and PvP.
• Debilitating Arc: Reduced the initiative cost from 5 to 4 in PvP and WvW.
• Helmet Breaker: This skill can no longer be used multiple times in a row. Increased the power coefficient from 0.6 to 1.1 in PvP and WvW only. Reduced the initiative cost from 3 to 2 in PvP and WvW.
• Dust Strike: Increased the power coefficient per hit from 0.2 to 0.35 in PvP and WvW.
• Weakening Charge: This skill is now named Weakening Whirl. This skill no longer moves the player.
• Cluster Bomb: Increased the power coefficient from 1.45 to 2.25 in PvE only.
• Shadow Refuge: Reduced the cooldown from 48 seconds to 40 in PvP and WvW. Reduced the stealth duration per pulse from 3 to 2.5 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased the healing from 1,775 to 2,851.
• Even the Odds: Increased the vulnerability stacks from 5 to 10.
• Sundering Shade: Increased the vulnerability stacks from 5 to 10.
• Hidden Killer: Increased the duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.

Specter

• Well of Sorrow: This skill now pulses conditions in a specific order. It will pulse torment, bleeding, torment, poison, and then torment.

Helmet Breaker could probably use the bonus defiance-bar damage that you are giving to the Warrior's Kick.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the new Weakening Whirl is going to play.
Once again, great to see more consistent behavior with the Well of Sorrow change.

21 hours ago, Joie.6084 said:

Warrior

Similar to the upcoming change to Kinetic Accelerators for quickness-based scrappers, Heat the Soul will now also grant might to allies to give quickness-based berserkers better might coverage. We've also made some improvements to off-hand dagger and rifle and tuned up a number of underperforming skills and traits.

• Volley: Increased the power coefficient per strike from 0.75 to 0.8 in PvE only.
• Explosive Shell: Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 1.6 in PvE only.
•  Rifle Butt: Reduced the cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only.
• Tremor: This skill now recharges Crushing Blow if it strikes an enemy.
• Wastrel's Ruin: This skill now always inflicts its bonuses against defiant enemies. Increased the maximum number of targets from 1 to 2.
• Bladestorm: Increased the barrier per hit from 289 to 445.
• Kick: This skill now deals bonus defiance-bar damage.
• Dolyak Signet: The passive effect of this skill now grants reduced incoming damage instead of toughness.
• Signet of Stamina: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• "To the Limit!": Increased the endurance gain from 50 to 100 in PvE and from 65 to 100 in PvP.
• Rampage: Reduced the cooldown from 90 seconds to 60 seconds in PvE only.
• Burst Precision: Increased the bonus ferocity from 150 to 250.
• Martial Cadence: Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 2 in PvE and PvP.

Berserker

• Heat the Soul: This trait now applies might to allies in addition to its previous effects.

Spellbreaker

• Sun and Moon Style: This trait now heals for a percentage of all strike damage instead of only critical hit damage.

Are you going to be fixing the Versatile Power trait reducing the cooldown of Full Counter more than it is supposed to?
Offhand buffs are neat.
Kick would benefit from the removal of forced movement that Weakening Charge is getting. (Maybe cut out a portion of the Willbender's Whirling Light animation? A warrior sliding sideways with the current Kick animation will probably look silly.)
Dolyak Signet change is welcome.
Might on Heat the Soul is nice.

 

Hopefully the next balance update will be a full-size one, there are few elite specializations that really need large scale changes.

[Kulvar.1239]

4 hours ago, Teknomancer.4895 said:

Even the idea of a healing necromancer is literally oxymoronic, but now that it's been a thing all this time there's no going back. If the necro class fantasy was done right, when someone in your party died their life force would make you stronger (LF is any death not just enemies), and maybe you'd raise a minion from the corpse and that would be it -- because your thing is Death not Life. Strictly speaking from a class fantasy perspective, a healing necro is a contradiction in terms and thus should not exist. But that's not the game we have, and it's quite clear that's not the game the community wants.

Nah it's not. Giving life force to allies to heal them, using blood magic to keep it in their body, using bone magic to hold their bones in useable shape are perfectly in line with Necromancer healing thematically.

D&D necromancy spell list includes "Spare the Dying" that stabilize a dying creature, "False Life" giving temporary hit points, "Gentle Repose" that prevent a corpse decay (allowing for delayed animation of an undead, but also resurrection), "Life Transference" that gives some of your health points to the target, "Revivify" and "Resurrection" and "True Resurrection" that revive a dead as a living with increasing results. And it's not something new, you already find such spells in the D&D of 50 years ago.

There's so many fictional universes that have blood magic capable of healing that I won't be making a list.

Edited Saturday at 05:49 PM by Kulvar.1239

[Kulvar.1239]

2 minutes ago, Katary.7096 said:

I would rather see a reduction to the total stat budget of celestial gear which can be kept consistent across game modes. But I admit that this will solve the celestial problem for WvW. And while this new tech is impressive I hope you use it sparingly, I do not want to have to think about 7 or 8 different stat sets being nerfed in individual game modes 2 years from now.

It would be much better way to tackle the critics of celestial. Lower the total from 639 for all attributes to 500~550 for all attributes.

[GeraldBC.4927]

8 minutes ago, Kulvar.1239 said:

There's so many fictional universes that have blood magic capable of healing that I won't be making a list.

For starters, Guild Wars was one of them since long before guild wars 2. 

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

54 minutes ago, daw.4923 said:

I would recommend all hscg players to swap to heal tempest for a week so you can see what other healers have to offer.

Ah yes, because Anet feed you garbage to work with so everyone else has to suffer too. Don't worry, it's buffed in the same patch if you care to read, maybe Heal Tempest can stop being so awful.

[jpsssss.7530]

14 hours ago, Kelvin.5390 said:

I think if you want to remove teleport downed players on transfusion you should at least give us something in return, like a boon application (I suggest aegis or maybe some stability could be nice)  or better healing or rez potential.  Like, could be nice if heal harbinger was usable you know? Scourge gets back the cooldown for garish pillar in WvW but that's not much of a reassurance for pve players who get a nerf across the board. Also what's up with the change to extirpate? it gives weakness now? it wasn't even that strong of an effect to begin with lmao. I mean sure weakness is usable, I just find it funny you gave up on the extirpation effect so fast. eh, I don't really like the spear on necromancer anyway. I wished it was condi. At least it works good on condi reaper, so there's that. 

Necro get something after a nerf? lol. I lost all hope of that after they replaced the well trait with blood bank.

[Beddo.1907]

47 minutes ago, Kulvar.1239 said:

Signet of the Hunt let you use Rapid Fire by ignoring all the projectile destruction/reflection.

That's not even close to useful. Similar issue as Longbow 5, where the damage is spread out in multiple hits and amounts to nothing. What we need are heavy ranged hits, with AoE, not spread out ticks and projectiles.

[Mousetrap.8726]

The transfusion teleport is currently all support scourge feels like it even has above other supports. It lags behind in every other metric. Taking it away and not reassessing the spec's value leaves me feeling like I shouldn't even try playing it in favor of other supports.

[Barraind.7324]

16 hours ago, sweetmesquite.5024 said:

did necro really need another two-handed power melee weapon

If it was actually good, sure.   Power has one good weapon (Greatsword) and a multitude of mediocrity you want to use as little as possible in the space between weapon swap and reaper shroud.   Its 2 best mainhand weapons are shared with heal scourge (which says something about just how bad heal scourges weapon toolkit is...).

 

Spear is just another mediocre weapon in the list. It had the potential to be interesting, but you cant have interesting these days. 

Edited Saturday at 06:46 PM by Barraind.7324

[Poplolita.2638]

4 hours ago, ShatteredStars.6548 said:

1. They did not make this whole expac about the spear, it's the housing for this expac and raid, and if you think they weren't going to balance anything, you thought wrong, how is that their fault.

I exclusively PVP, and I exclusively play necromancer. So let me make this crystal clear—there was only one reason I was ever considering this expansion: the weapon. Specifically, the necromancer weapon. Do you really think I care about anything PVE-related? New maps? Raids? Please. I couldn't care less.

And now, out of nowhere, I find out that Anet just casually decides to scrap the very thing that convinced me to buy the expansion? No explanation, no justification, just gone. Lmao.

It’s hard not to feel completely scammed. You give me something I bought and then gone??? Like wtf. 

If this change goes through, I'll be nerfing something too—my wallet. The next expansion? Not a chance. I'll make sure Anet feels this nerf just as much as necro mains like me are about to feel. Trust me on that, 100%.

[Shade.8037]

1 minute ago, Poplolita.2638 said:

I exclusively PVP, and I exclusively play necromancer. So let me make this crystal clear—there was only one reason I was ever considering this expansion: the weapon. Specifically, the necromancer weapon. Do you really think I care about anything PVE-related? New maps? Raids? Please. I couldn't care less.

And now, out of nowhere, I find out that Anet just casually decides to scrap the very thing that convinced me to buy the expansion? No explanation, no justification, just gone. Lmao.

It’s hard not to feel completely scammed. You give me something I bought and then gone??? Like wtf. 

If this change goes through, I'll be nerfing something too—my wallet. The next expansion? Not a chance. I'll make sure Anet feels this nerf just as much as necro mains like me are about to feel. Trust me on that, 100%.

I am not into the spear really at all, but i did just last night mention to friend "Wonder if anyone bought the xpack just for the spear, bet that would be enraging." And yeah...looks like I was right on the money there. Sorry bud, that sucks.

[Taki.2130]

If you need yet another person to protest the Necro - Transfusion change, consider this my protest. If it's a WvW consideration- split it, leave it in PvE.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

2 hours ago, Malus.2184 said:

Being killed by Cele is unfun

Being killed by power ganker is more unfun.

At least with cele you have some time to react and can see some counterplay. 😉

Edited Saturday at 07:15 PM by Gaiawolf.8261

[Svalinn.7480]

If you're getting insta gibbed by power roamers that tells me that you heavily rely on Cele to face tank stuff. Just learn to dodge/block/reflect. Power v Power is great fun when you aren't just running in smashing your face on the keyboard.

[xxrosebugxx.2345]

As someone who came to this game as a support main from another, I am unhappy with the changes being made to heal scourge. I enjoyed the spec so much, and it may very well make me quit the game now... Maybe, instead of changing Transfusion, consider nerfing Barrier instead?

[Gaiawolf.8261]

2 hours ago, Svalinn.7480 said:

If you're getting insta gibbed by power roamers that tells me that you heavily rely on Cele to face tank stuff. Just learn to dodge/block/reflect. Power v Power is great fun when you aren't just running in smashing your face on the keyboard.

Unless the combat starts from stealth/range without warning. Defensive stats let you survive the surprise burst and then counter. 

Also some players like to face tank. It's a popular playstyle in many, many games for a good reason.  Also very helpful for older players like me who don't have fast reaction times anymore. It lets more players play the game mode.

Edited Saturday at 09:56 PM by Gaiawolf.8261

[GeraldBC.4927]

9 hours ago, Lazze.9870 said:

We don't have splits for the functionality of traits. We have splits for coefficients and in some cases what type of boon a trait provides (mostly related to quickness and alac traits).

We do. Just to name one case, there's probably a lot more, lot of the traits that exist entirely to provide group alacrity have had their alacrity removed for WvW. Notably from scourge for instance. I think Druid was included as well. 

9 hours ago, Titan.7853 said:

You may as well get rid of portals for Mesmer,

Now this was the EXACT change I was going to propose if we go by Arenanet's reasoning. The reasoning behind removing transfusion teleport in PVE was that it trivializes certain bossfights, right? Well you know which other skill trivializes certain bossfights? Mesmer Portal. Imagine if we applied the same logic and removed mesmer portal from the game. Can't use it to outrange in Cerus CM anymore, can't use it to trivialize Qadim1 anymore, can't use it to trivialize W3 escort anymore. In fact why stop there?

You know which other skill has been trivializing a lot of bossfights? Feedback. The huge reflect dome where you can just plant it and every 'reflect this projectile' mechanic is automatically solved. You don't have to angle yourself and some finnicky reflect wall, you can just plant it there and it solves every problem automatically. Imagine if that was just gone, no more cheesing Mathias with feedback, no more cheesing Arkk obs with feedback, no more cheesing Sabir, no more cheesing Mai/Scarlet. It's just gone from the game. If lack of good reflects becomes an issue, you'll have to drop the mesmer in favor of a firebrand. Once we're done gutting the mesmer, the firebrand is next. 

You know which other skill has been trivializing things in fractal CMs? Sanctuary. HFBs that are good enough can straight up solo their sorrow AND help out with the other sorrow like it's nothing, because of how much of a cc powerhouse they are. You know what causes this? Sanctuary. It trivializes several fights so let's just remove it. 

Edited Saturday at 07:47 PM by GeraldBC.4927

[Shade.8037]

1 minute ago, GeraldBC.4927 said:

We do. Just to name one case, there's probably a lot more, lot of the traits that exist entirely to provide group alacrity have had their alacrity removed for WvW. Notably from scourge for instance. I think Druid was included as well. 

Now this was the EXACT change I was going to propose if we go by Arenanet's reasoning. The reasoning behind removing transfusion teleport in PVE was that it trivializes certain bossfights, right? Well you know which other skill trivializes certain bossfights? Mesmer Portal. Imagine if we applied the same logic and removed mesmer portal from the game. Can't use it to outrange in Cerus CM anymore, can't use it to trivialize Qadim1 anymore, can't use it to trivialize W3 escort anymore. In fact why stop there?

You know which other skill has been trivializing a lot of bossfights? Feedback. The huge reflect dome where you can just plant it and every 'reflect this projectile' mechanic is automatically solved. You don't have to angle yourself and some finnicky reflect wall, you can just plant it there and it solves every problem automatically. Imagine if that was just gone, no more cheesing Mathias with feedback, no more cheesing Arkk obs with feedback, no more cheesing Sabir, no more cheesing Mai/Scarlet. It's just gone from the game. If lack of good reflects becomes an issue, you'll have to drop the mesmer in favor of a firebrand. Once we're done gutting the mesmer, the firebrand is next. 

You know which other skill has been trivializing things in fractal CMs? Sancturary. HFBs that are good enough can straight up solo their sorrow AND help out with the other sorrow like it's nothing, because of how much of a cc powerhouse they are. You know what causes this? Sanctuary. It trivializes several fights so let's just remove it. 

My point exactly! There are so many broken builds that invalidate certain fights, but they get to stand. No what we MUST do is gut the identity of heal necro to the point there is no reason to play it. Feels real bad not gonna lie.