A Note on Future Boon Direction

[Archslayerxd.3597]

It looks all nice and stuff, but most changes are too much focussed on one specific game mode. This is all because of PvE raids. I get the changes, boon mesmer rules there from day one. But changes like these affect other games reaaaally big aswell. Looking to WvW this mesmer patch hit really hard. Some boons are really hard to come by. Luckily our squad compositions are pretty flexible and we can apply many different roles for stuff, but that doesn’t take it away that still some boons are missing to the table.

Most of these things have to do with the survivebility of classes or combinations of specializations. For example let’s take fury:Fury is one of the boons that are a bit hard to come by especially if it is stripped away. Now a lot of classes have self fury but not sharing. You could use a herald, yes, but in WvW things are really fast pace and dynamic. Keeping you facets on for a long duration will be punished in dealing significantly less damage or eventually dying because you can’t use the skills to escape because of energy. Same goes for the support firebrand role. Yes you can give fury on the valor traitline with monks focus. But then you have to drop virtues or honor... both are too important to drop and let’s not talk about the tome CD nerf -,-.

This is just an example of a single boon problem in WvW there is a lot to say about it. Now with these changes, specific boons will be hard to come by. Especially alacrity. There is no class in WvW that can supposedly give alacrity other than maybe a renagade in change for all other boons herald give...

I hope that you, the developers, will look into the WvW aspects aswell and make appropriate splits between these game modes. I understand that you cant change whole skills and traits for game modes. But adapting them for large scale dynamic fighting would be nice too!

[Dawn Wulven.1485]

Reworked Signet of Inspiration:Passive: Gain swiftness every 10 seconds.Active: Copy swiftness and might that you owned to allies. Base on your concentration stat, copy additional category to allies. It following:1to 100: Regen(3s)101 to 200: Fury(3s)201 to 300: Vigor(3s)301 to 400: Protection(3s)401 to 500: Retaliation(3s)501 to 600: Agies(3s)601 to 700: Stability(3s)701 to 800: Resistance(3s)801 to 900: Alacrity(3s)more than 900: Quickness(3s)

You could also put Alacrity or Quickness into "501 to 600" so that Wearing equipment with 4 attributes also can trigger one of them bouns.That means limit the skill's effect by stats.

[Skobel.6920]

Because people love min-maxing everything, I have a feeling this is gonna end that only specific bonns/classes will remain in meta.Also what about class-specific effects, like banners, spirits? Some classes have them, other do not. When will equality in this field arrive?

Couldn't you merge sigil patch with this one? Because of all this changes, you provide a lot of chaos to the market and gameplay.But what grinds my gears is that you ruined chrono for WvW. There already wasn't a lot of them in zergs, and they were unable to tag enemies like necro or guard so farm was significantly lower than on these classes, but they were doing it anyway because it was needed. Now it's over. I spend time and gold to make gear and change server and now it's over.

Thanks, Obama Arena!

[Etterwyn.5263]

If the damn game didn't revolve around Quickness we wouldn't have half the balance issues we have now. I know it'll never happen but dang it, get rid of quicknes and give every class access to GW1 Frenzy as a slot skill. Use at your own risk.

[Agua.1607]

I just want to say that when you do changes, please don't only think in balance. Please think on the gameplay instead. Sure, chrono now can stil somewhat mantain some boons, but it depends more on luck that on real player skill. Before changes, he could see what boons he had and decide when to use signet, now he cant. He has to use signet when he thinks the other players have boons on them. For that, he must either be lucky, or know the exact build each other have, track their skill usage, and remember each skill and specialization boon time. That is impossible with one other player, much less with 10 players.I'm not sure the changed balanced the classes, but im sure as hell now playing boon chrono is boring as hell. You have no agency whatsoever.

[Yasi.9065]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:Thanks for the general feedback and thoughts thus far.

A quick clarification:

The addition of new attribute combinations does not mean that balance updates, re-works and other changes targeting boon diversity will stop.

We're not going to add either upgrade changes OR attributes combinations OR profession updates to offer those boon-centric playstyles as solid options.

We're going to do ALL of the above.

But if you are adding other changes to it, why do we have to suffer this horrible balance now for at least 3-5 months?

For pug raids, honestly, this is terrible. Either you run a fixed slot raid now, which takes forever to fill... or you have to suffer < 70% boon uptimes on critical boons. New players, casual players now have to REALLY step it up to get the boons out, which also makes raids less accessible. You are now going to have to kick that druid that doesnt have 100% boon duration and cant place down spirits fast enough. No more leeway on cc. Everyone that has to leave the stack for mechanics gets punished HARD.

Honestly, this is such a huge step backwards for raids and their accessibility. And all because the comps you want to promote by nerfing all aspects of chrono arent at all well balanced. We would need only a little bit longer boon durations (especially on might and fury) on fb/ren for it to become good enough to accept the downsides of it. And yes, there ARE downsides to that comp. Missing focus pull the most obvious. This means you have to add yet ANOTHER mandatory build to that comp. Something with big enough cleave, like condi scourge.

You could replace the druid with a herald, but no... you cant get 25 might reliably on that because AGAIN boon duration too short. On top of that, retaliation uptime now is way lower, so you cant even work around that anymore with retribution trait.

[dilo.1907]

Please just remember this, arenanet : we want Guild Wars 2 not World of Warcraft !Understood ?

[Sigmoid.7082]

@Dawn Wulven.1485 said:Reworked Signet of Inspiration:Passive: Gain swiftness every 10 seconds.Active: Copy swiftness and might that you owned to allies. Base on your concentration stat, copy additional category to allies. It following:1to 100: Regen &Vigor(3s)101 to 200: Fury&Retaliation(3s)201 to 300: Protection&Agies(3s)301 to 400: Stability(3s)401 to 500: Resistance(3s)501 to 600: Alacrity(3s)*more than 600:Quickness(3s)

That means limit the skill's effect by stats.

Its pretty clear copying boons is the problem for them. This suggestion isn't something that is likely to happen since it leaves intact the issues they had with the skill.

[DrakusEnderBorn.7904]

The time which they took to change chrono was a bit too late... 2-3 years of chrono where it was established and necessary have made alot of people... frustrated to say the least.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:Greetings Tyrians!

We are aware that the previous update to Runes and Sigils, coupled with the balance updates released this week, created a situation where boon duration has become a more highly-valued resource.

As you can see in the December 11 release notes, we’re moving toward a world where various professions are specialized at offering different boons and not all boons can (or should!) be provided by a single profession.

Toward that end, we wanted to let you know that we’re looking at new attribute combinations for the coming year to offer you better options. You may want to watch for those updates before making significant changes to your gear.

Merry Wintersday!

~GW2 Systems Team

Can you finally balance druid so others can take that spot spirits is unbalanced mech with to great affect on performance to be fair? Just a question since druid is giving to much dmg buffs along with its might maybe remove thr unique effects on spirits make it to fury or might instead or maybe swiftness this would open up the role to other classes thereby morr diversity in healer part

[Dawn Wulven.1485]

@Sigmoid.7082 said:

@Dawn Wulven.1485 said:

Reworked Signet of Inspiration:

Passive: Gain swiftness every 10 seconds.Active: Copy swiftness and might that you owned to allies. Base on your concentration stat, copy additional category to allies. It following:

1to 100: Regen &Vigor(3s)

101 to 200: Fury&Retaliation(3s)

201 to 300: Protection&Agies(3s)

301 to 400: Stability(3s)

401 to 500: Resistance(3s)

501 to 600: Alacrity(3s)*more than 600:Quickness(3s)

That means limit the skill's effect by stats.

Its pretty clear copying boons is the problem for them. This suggestion isn't something that is likely to happen since it leaves intact the issues they had with the skill.It's just to resolve that Someone playing buff machine also dealing impressive damage.

[Jethro.9376]

I can already see how some classes get gutted by the community becuase boons they provide aren't enough to make up for the lack of utility/damage.

[SidewayS.3789]

@Jethro.9376 said:I can already see how some classes get gutted by the community becuase boons they provide aren't enough to make up for the lack of utility/damage.

Remember those old metas at the beginning of HoT (in raids)? Well these changes will make 100 times worse.

[Dawn Wulven.1485]

Might Anet want to nerf/change mechanics for new DLC? :)

[Jethro.9376]

@SidewayS.3789 said:

@Jethro.9376 said:I can already see how some classes get gutted by the community becuase boons they provide aren't enough to make up for the lack of utility/damage.

Remember those old metas at the beginning of HoT (in raids)? Well these changes will make 100 times worse.

I remember the times where you had to stack might with fire fields in dungeons. This was even worse than HoT release.

[Zunki.3916]

Condi dmg, > @Morte de Angelis.7986 said:

Condi Damage (Major) / Expertise(Minor) / Conc(Minor)
Condi Damage (Major) / Healing Power ( Minor) / Conc (Minor) - Condi Version of Harriers

This stat cobinations would be my dream, condi harrier would be soo strong, sadly also for druid who needs balance anyway, so....

But to go even further, here the prime attribute combination fucking everything up:

Condi/Heal major, expertise/conc minor. That would make some strong builds right there :)

[Dadnir.5038]

Honnestly, this boon "specialization" in support sound like like a tremendous amount of work. It's also a hazy concept since there are effects that some professions can share that aren't exactly boons but still "buff" the players (stealth, barrier, banner, spirits and auras).

Also some professions aren't known to be great in sharing boons and some boons aren't really thought out.

No really, the amount of work this change imply is tremendous and I'm pretty sure most professions wouldn't like to be that profession that specialize in sharing that boon that nobody care about.

Thematically, we would probably have:

• Warrior -> might
• Guardian -> Aegis and maybe retaliation
• Ranger -> vigor and regen (lol)
• Thief -> fury
• Mesmer -> ??? It is supposed to be chaotic so... Well chronomancer are supposed to be time masters so quickness and alacrity.
• Engineer -> maybe protection (it's tricky they aren't supposed to be "magical"
• Necromancer -> just based on their focus on condition it would be resistance I guess.
• Elementalist -> ???
• Revenant -> probably dependant on legend.

All in all it wouldn't change the statut quo in PvE except maybe thiefs would have a holy support spot given to them. Worse some profession would end up being advantaged in group setting.

A lot of work... definitely.

[Lion.6590]

@Laila Lightness.8742 said:

@JasonLucas.4981 said:Right now I think alacrity need to be more accessible for others professions, and Chrono needs a new unique way to offer support for the squad without it begin additive (multiples Chronos).

Nah let chrono die its time for new metas

Chronos won't die.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

@JasonLucas.4981 said:

@Laila Lightness.8742 said:

@JasonLucas.4981 said:Right now I think alacrity need to be more accessible for others professions, and Chrono needs a new unique way to offer support for the squad without it begin additive (multiples Chronos).

Nah let chrono die its time for new metas

Chronos won't die.

Its time has come sorry but all things must die eventually

[Laila Lightness.8742]

@"Dadnir.5038" said:Honnestly, this boon "specialization" in support sound like like a tremendous amount of work. It's also a hazy concept since there are effects that some professions can share that aren't exactly boons but still "buff" the players (stealth, barrier, banner, spirits and auras).

Also some professions aren't known to be great in sharing boons and some boons aren't really thought out.

No really, the amount of work this change imply is tremendous and I'm pretty sure most professions wouldn't like to be that profession that specialize in sharing that boon that nobody care about.

Thematically, we would probably have:

• Warrior -> might
• Guardian -> Aegis and maybe retaliation
• Ranger -> vigor and regen (lol)
• Thief -> fury
• Mesmer -> ??? It is supposed to be chaotic so... Well chronomancer are supposed to be time masters so quickness and alacrity.
• Engineer -> maybe protection (it's tricky they aren't supposed to be "magical"
• Necromancer -> just based on their focus on condition it would be resistance I guess.
• Elementalist -> ???
• Revenant -> probably dependant on legend.

All in all it wouldn't change the statut quo in PvE except maybe thiefs would have a holy support spot given to them. Worse some profession would end up being advantaged in group setting.

A lot of work... definitely.

Maybe might. ProtwarriorSwiftness,regen rangerEngi prot. ResistanceTheif fury.vigorEle vigor. MightGuardian aegis.retributionMesmer alarcity. SwiftnessRev quickness. AlarcityNecro. Resistance and fury

[Novus Angellite.6589]

Just kill the Chronomancer Elite and be done with it already.

Remove the ES, issue an apology, and make a new one.

Because at the moment, it's effectively pointless to be a support on the Chronomancer now without any way of controlling what boons are active and when they are going to be shared unless we're going to scream at each other on TS or Discord "MY STAB IS RUNNING OUT".

Being able to cast all the shatters to start up, cast mimic when some are about to run out, then SoI, wait it out, then SoI again and repeat the process was already stressful for me to learn correct timing for--not to mention making sure it hits everyone since we have melee and ranged in our raids and I need to stand just right for it to hit our healers too so they're not naked of protection and quickness and other helpful boons.

Now I have no idea whose boons are going to run out. How many boons everyone has. When is it a good time to cast SoI? What's the point of using any of my shatters anymore besides Mind Wrack and Distort? Wells are literally hit or miss in many fractals and raids because it tends to be a death sentence to just stand still and wait for the wells to be cast and pulsed out. I've had days where I straight up miss the entire Time Warp because my timing was off on when we need to move for a phase of the boss!

You say you're planning to make something to make up for the loss of the support chrono--shouldn't you have released that on the same day you killed it? There are people like me scrambling to figure out "Am I even useful anymore?" or "Should I just give up and go Power Chrono now?" since Power Chrono still can cast Alacrity and Quickness regardless. I have raids in a few hours and I'm at a loss for what to do. My entire identity as a support class is gone. Just when I'm starting to think I'm actually good at it and am being pulled into raid groups outside of my own guild, I have to restructure and re-learn.

My 1 year on GW2 is this week.

I have sat around and experienced maybe 5 rebalancing/rebuilding/nerfs of my main class that I was determined to keep to and master. Everything from making it hard to solo the story with the loss of my phantasms fighting until they are defeated to the rebalancing and restructuring of various signets and trait lines I have to keep track of between PvE and WvW. Make up your mind on what you want the Chronomancer to be and stop jerking everyone's chain around. I can't even imagine the irritation from those who have mained Chrono since HoT was actually released.

[Safandula.8723]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:Thanks for the general feedback and thoughts thus far.

A quick clarification:

The addition of new attribute combinations does not mean that balance updates, re-works and other changes targeting boon diversity will stop.

We're not going to add either upgrade changes OR attributes combinations OR profession updates to offer those boon-centric playstyles as solid options.

We're going to do ALL of the above.

Cool, the only question is when? Are You aware, that with frequency of last changes you bring to the game, some people will not see that moments? Im not even talking about wvw which is long forgoten, but balance changes in pvp/ pve every 3 months or so is nothing good for community

[Tina Lou.9531]

Hello, this is my first post on arenanet foruns after more than 10 years being a guild wars customer.

I don't know what motivates anet to systematically perform those changes that are expensive and profound for a fraction of a game mode (PvE mode, raids and fractals) that I've always had impression it is small percentage of whole pve community. But these changes also impact other major game modes (PvP and WvW).

The solutions created by community to make raid and fractals was based on decisions that anet itself took years ago. The choice of the chronomancer specialization as tank was not random and came from arenanet itself, by the way that specialization was created. Why want to deconstruct now? Why want to reinvent the wheel? Regardless of the decision that anet makes, community will always set a meta and optimize rotations / compositions to accomplish raids/fractals.

That said: before patch meta never allowed so much diversity of classes. A role in raid / fractals for all classes was possible. After the change and these announcements, the only thing that the company is promoting is insecurity / mistrust, and considering an apparent decrease in number of players I believe that this further away those who like this game content than bringing other players in.

Remember, a meta will always exist.

However,

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 : Greetings Tyrians!

We are aware that the previous update to Runes and Sigils, coupled with the balance updates released this week, created a situation where boon duration has become a more highly-valued resource.

As you can see in the December 11 release notes, we’re moving toward a world where various professions are specialized at offering different boons and not all boons can (or should!) be provided by a single profession.

Toward that end, we wanted to let you know that we’re looking at new attribute combinations for the coming year to offer you better options. You may want to watch for those updates before making significant changes to your gear.

Merry Wintersday!

~GW2 Systems Team

If Anet insists on deep gameplay changes, I hope it's in the context of a new poll of specializations (new expansion, maybe Cantha?) rather than trying to rebuild specializations that have already been released.

A new expansion would be in accordance with most diverse declarations on the part of anet that efforts would be carried out for the realease of new contents.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 = Thanks for the general feedback and thoughts thus far.

A quick clarification:

The addition of new attribute combinations does not mean that balance updates, re-works and other changes targeting boon diversity will stop.

We're not going to add either upgrade changes OR attributes combinations OR profession updates to offer those boon-centric playstyles as solid options.We're going to do ALL of the above.

And how it would be? This statement is unclear.

[Will.9785]

This will be far worse for the game. The people asking for it don't realize what they have done.

Right now there are essentially 4 slots: DPS, Banners, Druid, Chrono.

I would imagine that most people have between 1-3 of the current slots fully geared and they actually know how to play them properly. A few people have all 4.

Now you'll need 6 slots to fill, but the average player will still only have gear for 1-3 characters.

If this change goes through and the number of slots increases to 5, 6, or maybe even higher it will be even more difficult to fill a raid.

[Linken.6345]

@Will.9785 said:This will be far worse for the game. The people asking for it don't realize what they have done.

Right now there are essentially 4 slots: DPS, Banners, Druid, Chrono.

I would imagine that most people have between 1-3 of the current slots fully geared and they actually know how to play them properly. A few people have all 4.

Now you'll need 6 slots to fill, but the average player will still only have gear for 1-3 characters.

If this change goes through and the number of slots increases to 5, 6, or maybe even higher it will be even more difficult to fill a raid.

What do you mean if its already pushed through.