Balance Patch coming Feb 6th

[Strider Pj.2193]

Scourge corruptions on two of the F skills should be strips instead. This would tone a little of the conditions from scourge, not impact PvE, and keep some of the needed boon hate.

Would love to see continued small tweaks to the classes, slowly bringing condis into line with power, and slowly reducing the ceiling on some of the burst damages.

Large nerfed only drive people away. As do large buffs.

Yes, the state of the game has gradually driven people away, but balance will not be achieved quickly.

There are ALWAYS unintended consequences of any nerf/buff. Doing it gradually is more likely to mitigate those consequences.

[Odinens.5920]

@"KeyOrion.9506" said:Been playing Ranger in GW1 for 7 years. Been playing Ranger in GW2 since Beta. Between the groups that didn't want Ranger in their Hall of Hero runs, between player groups that didn't want ranger's in The Deep, or Urgoz runs, never in a MILLION YEARS, would I have known and seen that same "ranger suck" attitude from the Commanders on multiple servers, or from my fellow player base in such vehemence.

Gale Gray is the only person I know that plays ranger as a consistent main as an Anet employee. The rest. I don't think I've EVER seen any other arenanet employee with their little icon over their heads on a RANGER. And because of this, I don't think they have a CLUE (by Anet's OWN admission), of how to properly deal with the Ranger Class. Commanders in WvW say, guardian and ele can still pump out better heals than Druid. The only thing anet did with Soulbeast is finally give Ranger's what they wanted was to STOW their pet. Base Ranger's are spat on by commanders in WvW, and told to get on a class that can give something "to the group" as a whole.

I expect the Feb 6th, 2018 Patch, to be nothing more than more power creep for the professions that Anet loves, and more nerfs to those professions that anet doesn't even play as a bloody main. Lets give more DPS. Let's give longer boons. Lets increase the amount of time shields last. The overall Scourge damage SOLO is monstrous. Able to take down up to 5-8 opponants. Wow. What were you people thinking. The warrior Domes, to take down BOONS, I thought was pretty balanced, but then you just gave out a tone of damage for necro's to take down 1/6th of a fricken zerg, and all I could think of is..."Wow...I wish my Ranger could take down 5-8 opponents simultaneously. I mean like...dang. Commander's want them Scourges. They want them Dome warriors. They want them Firebrands to burn hot. They want them Mesmer clone bombs and alacrity. What those commanders don't care for much is some thieves, engineers. And they ....by their own admission...don't ...want.....any....Rangers.

And so far Anet has their head so far up their backside, they continue to chop and whittle Ranger's down from an elongated arrow, to a tiny toothpick only fit for stabbing Strawberry Golems, because that's about the only thing we can deal with according to the Commanders.

Hard being a Ranger in WvW, when your own team believes your class is total and complete garbage. Thanks anet for not listening, reading, or even caring.

There are good frontline Soulbeast builds out there that do bring something to the group (knockbacks, condi-clears, heals). The problem is that most of their damage is still single target, and they are still a bit squishy. You have to have know what you're doing and have a good party comp to be able to stay on tag all the time.

[Offair.2563]

Note to self; Don't expect to much as they are planning to do these changes.

[Strider Pj.2193]

Also: I think the part about PvP/WvW splits is very encouraging. We have been asking for this for a number of years. It may allow for improved balance down the line as the needs of PvE vs WvW are very different.

[Baldrick.8967]

@Strider Pj.2193 said:Also: I think the part about PvP/WvW splits is very encouraging. We have been asking for this for a number of years. It may allow for improved balance down the line as the needs of PvE vs WvW are very different.

That depends on where and how often they actually play wvw so they have a clue what actually occurs in wvw and which classes become OP in wvw groups and which are shunned and why. Then they might have a hope of balancing.

[Strider Pj.2193]

@Baldrick.8967 said:

@Strider Pj.2193 said:Also: I think the part about PvP/WvW splits is very encouraging. We have been asking for this for a number of years. It may allow for improved balance down the line as the needs of PvE vs WvW are very different.

That depends on where and how often they actually play wvw so they have a clue what actually occurs in wvw and which classes become OP in wvw groups and which are shunned and why. Then they might have a hope of balancing.

Agreed. But the way it is currently, they either kitten off PvE or WvW. And trying to make both happy is kittening both off.

Painting something nice on a pile of kitten, is still kitten. Starting with a more appropriate slate, allows for more appropriate possible outcomes.

[Eypheha.5831]

Great. sigh

[Vermillion.4061]

10 man renegade alacrity coming : )

[Mylerian.9176]

They will nerf condi hard and boost power way more. Good for me, bad for the other 75% of WvW atm lol

[Curunen.8729]

Regeneration effectiveness prioritisation?

I'm digging that one, as long as they leave Renewing Oasis alone. ;)

[X T D.6458]

@Strider Pj.2193 said:Scourge corruptions on two of the F skills should be strips instead. This would tone a little of the conditions from scourge, not impact PvE, and keep some of the needed boon hate.

You need to trait for those skills to corrupt, so its balanced that way. Scourge doesn't put out a lot of condis through any ONE skill, it comes from shade spamming because its the only way to kill anything since none of the skills do much damage on their own.

[X T D.6458]

@Strider Pj.2193 said:Also: I think the part about PvP/WvW splits is very encouraging. We have been asking for this for a number of years. It may allow for improved balance down the line as the needs of PvE vs WvW are very different.

I am also interested about the skill splits. I have been hoping for separate balancing between game modes for years...although I wonder if they meant PvE/WvW.

[DaVid Darksoul.4985]

Hoping superspeed gets toned down along with confusion, unless they give necros easy access to them also :p.

[ketzer.3158]

The bad thing is that when they rework conditions they mostly hit scourge with it and that's the only real good necro spec in the actual meta. Yes, stacking the class and the condi fields is annoying, but so is stacking Firebrands, Power Revs and Spellbreakers. And Scourges aren't a really great roaming class compared to everyone else.We had this before PoF with the nerf to Epidemic which is a completely useless skill now.It's stupid to play, the meta is stupid, but I don't expect it to improve when you take Scourge out of the equation.

To nerf Mesmer, you have to rework a lot. Starting with stealth, invulnerabilities, clone generation and it's not done with nerfing conditions, because power is not less stupid.

No big expectations to see a good patch coming, but at least I have now 3 full ascended characters ready to switch if shit hits the fan.

[Riba.3271]

Scourge ought to be gutted. It should deal less damage than reaper on melee range due increase support + condition + boonrip + tankiness + range.

I dont understand why people complain about upcoming possible minor nerfs on WvW forums, Necro and its elite specs have always been in meta because it is only AoE damage profession with reliable spammable boonrip. In HoT at least Staff eles and Warriors dealt more damage while being selfish. Currently there just is no reason to pick anything else than scourge because most damage + support outside firebrand. It needs to balanced for WvW and dealing like 30-40% less damage is fine because all the support/rip.

[ketzer.3158]

Because some people want to play Necro outside of zergs. And Scourge is pretty terrible when you are not zerging.

[Zephyra.4709]

We are planning PvP/WvW splits, changes to the Confusion condition, regeneration effectiveness prioritization, boon/condition conversion table changes... PLUS MORE!! There are some mesmer changes we're excited about and hope to talk them about in more detail as we draw nearer to the update. Stay tuned!

-Karl

• I really hope confusion is reverted to doing dmg on using an ability or simply toned down. Right now it feels too punishing and similar to torment; constant dmg regardless
• Regen should prioritise the player with the highest healing power regarding who cast it. It's no fun dishing out mad heal ticks when someone not even traited for healing power overruns yours
• Boon/condi conversion table tweaks deem interesting; here's hoping there are changes to the amount of boon corruption running rampart - I feel there is excessive boon corrupts happening in WvW fights where simple boon stripping would be preferable

I genuinely hope this isn't another one of 'those patches' ... buffs to already relevant things, minimum tweaking % modifiers or barely a change at all. Change how skills work entirely, shake things up for once.

[Aeolus.3615]

Zephyra.4709 , it will be at most that minimun tweaking with some sorta of QoL for sure. :)Dont get high expectations is the first rule when waiting for Anet stuff.

[Ragnarox.9601]

@shagwell.1349 said:Because some people want to play Necro outside of zergs. And Scourge is pretty terrible when you are not zerging.

if you die as scourge while not zerging you must be terrible. Scourge can 1v3 easily just like Spellbreaker. Only difference is that scourge uses his 343724723 condies while spellbreaker uses raw power.

[MedievalThings.5417]

@Ragnarox.9601 said:

@shagwell.1349 said:Because some people want to play Necro outside of zergs. And Scourge is pretty terrible when you are not zerging.

if you die as scourge while not zerging you must be terrible. Scourge can 1v3 easily just like Spellbreaker. Only difference is that scourge uses his 343724723 condies while spellbreaker uses raw power.

Depends on what you face. The only time I lose to a scourge is if it's inside pang and the ring up. Otherwise, range is king. Sure, they are annoying because it is barrier, barrier, health, barrier, barrier, more health, etc. But, I play soulbeast and have 0 issues killing them.

[primatos.5413]

Really hope they get some things done this time .. ridiculous confusion spam .. power builds taking nerly no harm but put out an insane amount of dmg.. still a lot of clown builds out there since PoF release unable to handle most of them as an tempest atm .. once there were some hard counters but now it doesn´t matter what i do .. i´ll get beaten .. shit balance which a so called balance team should be ashamed of -.-

[snh.7091]

@Zephyra.4709 said:

We are planning PvP/WvW splits, changes to the Confusion condition, regeneration effectiveness prioritization, boon/condition conversion table changes... PLUS MORE!! There are some mesmer changes we're excited about and hope to talk them about in more detail as we draw nearer to the update. Stay tuned!

-Karl

• I really hope
  confusion
  is reverted to doing dmg on using an ability or simply toned down. Right now it feels too punishing and similar to
  torment
  ; constant dmg regardless
• Regen
  should prioritise the player with the
  highest healing power
  regarding who cast it. It's no fun dishing out mad heal ticks when someone not even traited for healing power overruns yours
• Boon/condi conversion table tweaks deem interesting; here's hoping there are changes to the amount of
  boon corruption
  running rampart - I feel there is excessive boon corrupts happening in WvW fights where simple
  boon stripping
  would be preferable

I genuinely hope this isn't another one of 'those patches' ... buffs to already relevant things, minimum tweaking % modifiers or barely a change at all. Change how skills work entirely, shake things up for once.

You're right. Only two words I can think of in this moment when I think about class design in general are poor and tragic.

[Deniara Devious.3948]

@Threather.9354 said:Scourge ought to be gutted. It should deal less damage than reaper on melee range due increase support + condition + boonrip + tankiness + range.

I dont understand why people complain about upcoming possible minor nerfs on WvW forums, Necro and its elite specs have always been in meta because it is only AoE damage profession with reliable spammable boonrip. In HoT at least Staff eles and Warriors dealt more damage while being selfish. Currently there just is no reason to pick anything else than scourge because most damage + support outside firebrand. It needs to balanced for WvW and dealing like 30-40% less damage is fine because all the support/rip.

Good post. I agree that scourge should deal less damage than reaper. Reaper feels nowadays so weak that I have even stopped playing my reaper.

Scourge and Firebrand are the clearly biggest balance problems at the moment, but I would like to add that mirage (mesmer) is also an overpowered elite, which needs to be toned down, especially at small scale and roaming. Mirage can have extremely high burst, high DPS, while still having a lot of evades, good mobility and escapes via invisibility. Elusive Mind gives a stun break + condition removal on every dodge. It is also possible to build mirage to stack confusion to such amounts that it is ridiculous.

I just hope Arenanet is smart enough and will not gut nor nerf some of the under performing core classes. They should nerf the PoF and HoT specs (e.g. hammer herald revenant). The only core spec which has been popular in WvWvW is the core guardian, but even that is overshadowed by Firebrand.

There is a lot of old core skills which almost nobody selects, maybe time to at least reduce their cool downs to introduce more build variety? Build variety for many professions is really bad e.g.almost every warrior using healing signet (other heals show very little usage), greatsword and/or shield are mandatory for almost any builddagger/pistol is still the best thief weapon set for most situations, due stealth on demand and other utilitiesalmost every engineer is using healing turret (other heals show very little usage) and so on...

More viable choices and thus more variety is better for the long-term viability of the game.

[snh.7091]

@Deniara Devious.3948 said:

@Threather.9354 said:Scourge ought to be gutted. It should deal less damage than reaper on melee range due increase support + condition + boonrip + tankiness + range.

I dont understand why people complain about upcoming possible minor nerfs on WvW forums, Necro and its elite specs have always been in meta because it is only AoE damage profession with reliable spammable boonrip. In HoT at least Staff eles and Warriors dealt more damage while being selfish. Currently there just is no reason to pick anything else than scourge because most damage + support outside firebrand. It needs to balanced for WvW and dealing like 30-40% less damage is fine because all the support/rip.

Scourge and Firebrand are the clearly biggest balance problems at the moment, but I would like to add that mirage (mesmer) is also an overpowered elite, which needs to be toned down, especially at small scale and roaming.

Nope, Warrior's perma-invulnerability along with long resistance uptime and overall capacity to outlive anything are a problem as well. No class should have immortality. This isn't War of the Gods 2, it's Guild Wars 2, except with no support for actual guild wars aka. GvG.

Reapers are far too strong now. With nearly 4k armour with all bonuses on my Homelessmith I almost went instantly down from Reaper elite. Additionally, with near 3k armour and about 20k health I almost went down in 2 hits.

I just hope Arenanet is smart enough.

I will stop you there. No offense, but does the state of the game at this point remind you of anything even remotely reasonable?

[Ragnarox.9601]

@Deniara Devious.3948 said:

@"Threather.9354" said:Scourge ought to be gutted. It should deal less damage than reaper on melee range due increase support + condition + boonrip + tankiness + range.

I dont understand why people complain about upcoming possible minor nerfs on WvW forums, Necro and its elite specs have always been in meta because it is only AoE damage profession with reliable spammable boonrip. In HoT at least Staff eles and Warriors dealt more damage while being selfish. Currently there just is no reason to pick anything else than scourge because most damage + support outside firebrand. It needs to balanced for WvW and dealing like 30-40% less damage is fine because all the support/rip.

Good post. I agree that scourge should deal less damage than reaper. Reaper feels nowadays so weak that I have even stopped playing my reaper.

Scourge and Firebrand are the clearly biggest balance problems at the moment, but I would like to add that mirage (mesmer) is also an overpowered elite, which needs to be toned down, especially at small scale and roaming.

Mirage can have extremely high burst, high DPS, while still having a lot of evades, good mobility and escapes via invisibility. Elusive Mind gives a stun break + condition removal on every dodge. It is also possible to build mirage to stack confusion to such amounts that it is ridiculous.

I just hope Arenanet is smart enough and will not gut nor nerf some of the under performing core classes. They should nerf the PoF and HoT specs (e.g. hammer herald revenant). The only core spec which has been popular in WvWvW is the core guardian, but even that is overshadowed by Firebrand.

There is a lot of old core skills which almost nobody selects, maybe time to at least reduce their cool downs to introduce more build variety? Build variety for many professions is really bad e.g.almost every warrior using healing signet (other heals show very little usage), greatsword and/or shield are mandatory for almost any builddagger/pistol is still the best thief weapon set for most situations, due stealth on demand and other utilitiesalmost every engineer is using healing turret (other heals show very little usage) and so on...

More viable choices and thus more variety is better for the long-term viability of the game.

Firebrands are not that strong. There is no use outside of zerging in wvw, there are no FB roamers, FB condi dealers, even in raids FB is not welcomed. Its bad at roaming cause everything is 3/4 cast time and that is a killer battling with fast and cc classes. (everyone uses 3-3-3 on FB cause other trait lines suck badly especially 1-1-1)

Regarding Spellbreakers, Endure pain should be in same state like other invulnerabilities, you cant cast spells, that would make them vulnerable and you dont need to nerf dmg or heal, or make it something like "you deal 30% dmg while invulnerable".

Scourges need to be nerfed hard, make their aoe like gaurdian symbols, todays aoe's are too big and you cant get away from it, and giving them torment is a bad thing to do, cause you cant get far cause of torment dmg and big aoe that is following you if scourge is smart enough.