PvP/WvW Skill Split Release

[zinkz.7045]

@Cruens.1640 said:What is the reasoning behind not including the passive trait nerfs for WvW too? These 'dominant' builds tend to be either just as or more dominant in WvW.

Not really, for example holo is strong in PvP, but is basically surplus to requirements for squads in WvW.

[Turk.5460]

@Prophet.1584 said:

@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:A message from the Competitive and Skills & Balance Teams:

Ranger

Skills

• Seed of Life: Increased the cooldown from 1 second to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Rejuvenating Tides: Reduced the base healing per pulse from 650 to 550 (-15%) in PvP and WvW
• Solar Beam: Reduced the power coefficient per strike from 0.3 to 0.25 (-17%) in PvP and WvW
• Signet of Stone: Reduced the duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW. Reduced the cooldown from 80 seconds to 40 in PvP and WvW
• Celestial Avatar: Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Ricochet: Increased the power coefficient from 0.7 to 0.8 (+14%) in PvP and WvW. Increased Might duration from 5 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Winter's Bite: Increased the power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.5 (+20%) in PvP and WvW. Increased the Bleeding duration from 8 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Splitblade: Increased the power coefficient per axe from 0.3 to 0.4 (+33%) in PvP and WvW
• Instinctive Engage: Increased the power coefficient from 0.6 to 1 (+67%) in PvP and WvW
• Healing Spring: Increased the number of conditions cleansed per pulse from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW

Traits

• Stoneform: Increased the cooldown from 70 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Shared Anguish: Increased the cooldown from 60 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Protective Ward: Increased the cooldown from 18 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only
• Refined Toxins: Increased the cooldown from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Rugged Growth: Reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.245 to 0.1225 (-50%) in PvP and WvW
• Grace of the Land: Reduced the number of Might stacks applied from 3 to 2 in PvP and WvW
• Fortifying Bond: Reduced duration of shared Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW
• "We Heal as One!:" Reduced duration of copied Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Fresh Reinforcement: Reduced shared Might duration 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Ambidexterity: Increased the Condition Damage granted from 150 to 240 in PvP and WvW
• Two-Handed Training: Increased the bonus damage from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW

LB and GS are a ranger or soulbeasts primary DPS weapons in WvW, optionally Sw/x in place of GS. These are the weapons that could use damage increases to make up for the loss of sustain.

The point was to create more options for build diversity. Almost every power SB I see uses LB and GS. Why the heck would they want to further make those weapons the go-to choice? That's the opposite of their end goal.

[Warscythes.9307]

Hard to tell exactly how this is going to turn out considering pretty much everything strong has been nerfed, rev hammer in wvw, scourge, spellbreaker, druid in pvp etc etc with some buffs are applied to things that people really never use. Is pretty much impossible to say whether or not how this is going to turn out but I think ultimately the direction seems fine. At the very least the right things are being nerfed which indicates the balance team knows what is strong and what is weak; that by itself is pretty important.

[mbalk.6731]

All of these changes look pretty good. However, the most important change WvW needs is resistance to immob conversion. Immob is such a dangerous condition and with the amount of corrupts in the game it's almost harmful to use resistance at all.

[Falseprophet.1502]

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:One additional note: The changes we're targeting here are nearly all focused on areas we could split between game modes. Please try to keep feedback focused in that area.

Things outside of basic numbers changes (changing the way a skill works) are not splittable.

Can I ask why the infatuation with Spirit Weapons? I almost miss the days where they were completely ignored and you guys focused on skills that were decently designed. Spirit weapons will always be terrible as long as you are able to dodge them and keep them with a cast time. Guardian's problem is that they're terribly inconsistent in WvW/PvP situations. You have the hammer burst and that's it. Lowering the recharge time so they can pump out a Sword of Justice that anyone with a reaction could dodge. Please just make them latch on to the target, remove the cast time, and lower the power coefficient.

[Eleazar.9478]

Looks great! But can y'all please put some uttility in ranger dagger the thing is trash tier in PVP/wvw

1) the nerf to refined toxins why? Its one of our few tools for keeping pressure on bunkers.

2)please look into adding opening strike to interact with all the grand masters, being limited to remorseless just to have synergy with our minors is pretty lame

3) as per the tether update glyph of unity still does not apply reveal, and sic em does not give any boons (just give it fury for like 3 secs for the love of god)

4) please make pack alpha effect beast skills 5% damage increase and 10% reduction on beast skills in soul beast form and bountiful hunter to aply 1.5% more damage while merged per boon.

5) fix sig of renewal in beast form

6) please look into reverting the trap and spririt changes per the old specialization update, theyre just comeplety useless out side of pve due to there lack of placement and mobility

7) for the love of the five please please please allow the beast skill traits to apply at the beginning of the beast skill cast instead of the end, any cool skill syngery is destroyed do to it happening after the cast,

• for example beastly warden and worldly impact seem like a match made in heaven but what happens instead is that you miss the impact and the taunt gets you cleaved to death.

(but freak ya anet! love the new focos, the best thing about this game is the combat so any polish and reworks to it is yessssss)

[Poelala.2830]

Hey, I actually like this. All I could ask is bringing back ele and rev by buffing them a lot more.

[Zintrothen.1056]

Ouch! Painful nerfs to warrior! I love it! It might actually take an ounce of skill to play now. Keep it up! I enjoy playing warrior but I know it's a faceroll profession at times.

Now WTF is up with the ele changes? You barely do anything to help Stone Resonance. It needs far more than less than 100 barrier per pulse to make it a valid pick. I hope you follow this up with actual skill reworks because that's the only thing that'll make Weaver good against anything with any mobility or even boons. I agree with the passive trait CD increases but that brings up another concern for me.

Why do we still have those passive proc traits? CD increases just make them a nerfed mandatory trait. It changes nothing in the end. In fact, it hurts professions who rely on passives the most. If you just replaced all those traits with something active, then everything finally gets switched up for the better.

[ThatNAESLGuard.6238]

Virtuous solace nerf even though no one has EVER taken that trait like what the fuck is going through these peoples brains LMFAO

Also obligatory DH nerf, can't forget that

[Dreams.3128]

From a PVP perspective:

Druid absolutely needed to get hit this hard. They were doing too much. Healing too much and become rewarded for VERY passive gameplay.

From WvW:

Druids did nothing but run around in big groups and just avoided and kited people like in PvP, but on a large scale. They didn't do anything but stack as much healing power as they good and essentially bore people out of fights. Now they must learn to actually fight with the pet, instead of flipping everywhere and doing nothing.

Ele: Why are you hitting random traits? You're hitting fire for what purpose? No one really uses fire in the good builds?

Engie: Maybe Condi Engie can come back? Eh, we would have to see.

[MakubeC.3026]

A bit overhand on the Thief, who are already under-performing. Now with less reliance on Pulmonary Impact and less AA chain dmg, I think they will be in a very bad spot.Also, love the changes to Ventari Rev.

[cat.8975]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

Guardian

Skills

• Signet of Resolve: Reduced the cooldown from 35 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Leap of Faith: Increased the power coefficient from 1.1 to 1.25 (+14%) in PvP and WvW
• Signet of Mercy: Reduced the cooldown from 150 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Sword of Justice: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Bow of Truth: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Hammer of Wisdom: Reduced the ammo recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Feel my Wrath: Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP and WvW

Traits

• Zealous Blade: Increased the bonus damage from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW

I feel like all of these guard buffs could be applied to PvE as well. Some of these splits are a little unnecessary. Overall very nice changes for WvW though, and the removal of Magi Amulet/Surging Runes will help PvP immensely.

[arnitheking.8427]

overall, since a lot of these changes are nerfs, there will be a lot of salty people thinking their class was gutted. But in the end, ALL passive sustain and cheese stuff is nerfed so personally I think those changes are really good (mostly)

[shippage.1983]

This patch actually addresses most of my complaints with the game, I'm really excited for this and wasn't even expecting a patch this big so soon. I'm glad we're getting changes much more rapidly and devs are instead making small increimental approaches. I still think Confusion needs a damage buff since it's about a third on it's old damage.

Just one request: please fix Chrono shield 5 bug?

Also thank you for making these changes PvP only!!!

[Theomars.6472]

@Lasiurus.4067 said:So you nerf traits for elementalist, and only buff some scepter Skills ? What about Sword Weaver ? No buff at all ?Please, make sword viable in PvP. Weaver is in a very bad place at the moment in PvP.You really should increase Sword DPS, its really low even with Offensive Amulet.Autoattacks are very weak, you could increase the power coefficient.And make #3 Dual Skill From Sword easier to hit (increase range ?) because its nearly impossible to cast it, if ennemy is not immobilize or downed.Thanks !

Weaver is not bad in PvP. Sword is bad. Fresh air scepter is OP right now. Not all weapons/skills need to be viable in a single game mode. sowrd weaver is still decent in PvP.

[Falan.1839]

On first view it looks quite good. Mesmer gets off to easily though. Most other meta specs get hit quite massively in terms of their damage and survivability, while Elusive Mind and Phantasmal Disenchanter are the only nerfs for Mes.

[Sodeni.6041]

I have to say I really like that you put out balance patches a lot faster now which is great!I also like that you split a lot of skills more and try to give us more build diversity!

[Kolmena.2416]

@Endelon.1042 said:None of these changes will affect play in the guildhall teehee.

Yeah Anet! Please change how guildhall works! So JQ players have a save space to play when they are getting demolished in WvW.

[Anodic.6712]

Confounding Suggestions on Mesmer's Domination tree should be nerfed in PvP and WvW. When comboed with Mantra of Distraction it can lead to many, many too easy one-shots in PvP and WvW (especially in WvW) since when it's charged already, it's pretty much an instant cast that can be cast whenever. The cooldown should be increased, or the stun chance should be lowered from 100%, or even both.

Mantra of Distraction's cooldown/recharge time could also be increased as well.

[Deemo.6094]

One major need was missed out in this post, The need for resistance to NOT be converted into immob.

[saerni.2584]

I generally support the direction of the overall changes.

Specifically, I support the change to long cooldown abilities that were interesting but useless due to the durations.

I also like the decrease in passive cleanse/invuln in favor of longer cooldowns to make them impactful but not overwhelming.

It seems a number of sustain builds are being toned down.

And the EM change will make a lot of UC Daredevils really happy :-p Fair is fair.

[Viicksterr.8961]

I don't see a change to Winds of Disenchantment. In WvW it is the predominant skill. It provides too much utility (Projectile Block, Boon removal and boon application negation). Either the utility needs to be reduced or the skill needs to be reworked.

[Theros.1390]

@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

Elementalist

Skills

• Glyph of Renewal: Reduced the cooldown from 165 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Stone Resonance: Increased the base Barrier granted per pulse from 972 to 1069 in PvP and WvW
• Lesser Stone Resonance: Increased the base Barrier granted per pulse from 972 to 1069 in PvP and WvW
• Shatterstone Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.66 (+66%) in PvP and WvW
• Impale: Increased the power coefficient from 0.6 to 0.77 (+28%) in PvP and WvW
• Ashen Blast: Increased the power coefficient from 0.77 to 1.1 (+43%) in PvP and WvW
• Steam Surge: Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.5 (+50%) in PvP and WvW
• Lightning Touch: Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.5 (+50%) in PvP and WvW
• Ring of Earth: Increased the number of Bleeding stacks from 1 to 3 in PvP and WvW
• Tornado: Reduced the cooldown from 150 seconds to 100 seconds in PvP and WvW. Reduced the transform duration from 15 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Elemental Requiem: Reduced the cooldown from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW
  • Dust Charge: Reduced the cooldown from 10 seconds to 7 seconds in PvP and WvW

Traits

• Burning Fire: Increased the cooldown from 40 seconds to 60 seconds in PvP only
• Tempest Defense: Increased the cooldown from 25 seconds to 60 seconds in PvP only
• Earth's Embrace: Increased the cooldown from 75 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Soothing Ice: Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only
• Final Shielding: Increased the cooldown from 60 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Gale Song: Increased the cooldown from 60 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Pyromancer's Puissance: Adjusted the Might granted from 1 stack for 15 seconds to 2 stacks for 10 seconds in PvP and WvW

On skills, the changes seems good to bring some daggers in Elementalist right hand.

But, about the traits, I really do not understand why some ICD would be so much increased. Just like Burning Fire. Who is using Burning Fire in PvP nowadays ?

And also, if the goal in general is to reduce the number of Auras that the ele can generate, then give us back the 3 sec of Protection from Elemental Shielding ;)

Elementalist defenses have been largely enough decreased in the past. I really think we're fine now.

[Deemo.6094]

Oh and also make the passive trait changes effect WvW as well please, k thanx.

[Hiraldo.7954]

@dani.4398 said:

@Hiraldo.7954 said:

Also, nerfing warrior damage is silly, they aren't overpreforming at all in that regard. Full counter and break enchantments coefs should stay as they are on live. Dagger changes make sense though.

Edit: I mean warrior damage in groups, not roaming. Dagger changes and featherfoot grace nerf should hit roaming spellbreaker hard enough to leave break enchantments and full counter as is in order to keep spellbreaker viable as melee dps in groups

I don't agree. Full Counter already does a lot as it is. Gives you defensive boons, absorbs the next incoming attack and dazes enemies, on top of that the damage it does is insane and AoE. The nerf is valid. It is also good that they nerf Break Enchantments, it has a 15 seconds cool-down, it is unblockable, it will now remove 3 boons and if traited does extra damage when you remove a boon.

Will have to respectfully disagree with you here, BE and FC are two of the biggest sources of damage on spellbreaker right now and the class isn't even close to topping the dps charts in 90% of engagements. They have very few reliable AOE damage skills as is, and all are extremely high risk to make use of. Looking back at it the full counter nerf seems reasonable but I don't think a 50% damage nerf on BE is called for.