Balance Update Coming: 2/26/2019

[Arkantos.7460]

@Apokriphos.7042 said:

@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:

https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks/

Please adjust Power Reaper so that it is no longer the subpar version of Scourge, in both DPS, utility, and safety of ranged attacks. Forcing us to only use the latest prestige class to win in PvP isn't good for the game long term ESPECIALLY if it is strictly better in all game modes (even in PvE!, see above).

Power reaper needs significant improvements in sustain skills, leap, and ability to pressure, along with removal of some of its AoE and damage to compensate. The most recent removal of spectral mastery and last gasp really hurt reaper, since it cant use utilities in shroud. It has been forced into burst or die, a quick recipe for oblivion in any skilled PvP where it can be focused, which is very depressing.

It needs to become the Necromancer Duelist Specialization, which the class as a whole completely lacks. Reaper has no role that it does better then scourge (see link above). Please end the necessary forcing of firebrand support for all types of necromancer to survive a basic duel, and give the class, specifically reaper - since it has no role, tools to survive and thrive in a duelist scenario, like all other classes in this game have.

Please make the goal of Anet Balance to let players enjoy the game as designed by offering a plethora of choices for each class, and not feel frustrated by a lack of options besides scourge - or log in my Mirage or Soulbeast.

yea ... wish everyone in pvp would stand still and do nothing .... and rev isnt even in small hitboxes .... and renegade is trash tier in pvp

[LazySummer.2568]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:

We look forward to playing with you and discussing the changes to skills and traits once they’re available next week!

I personally cant remember any discussion on ele changes except silently moving them all to the ele subforum.

There also werent any discussion in regards to these highly questionable changes:

• Daggerstorm
• Rampage
• Elixir U
• Dolyak Stance

In fact, the only discussion i can remember was a timeline post regarding Sanctuary rune and a Scourge trait and a single post about counterplays with Warrior's Winds of Disenchantment with no follow up arguments to people who disagreed with the change and look at what we have now in wvw.

Let's hope it's different this time.

[misterman.1530]

Boy. Can't wait to see how badly Necros were nerfed again. Should be awesome.

[Jura.2170]

Please nerf gravity well

[Aaralyna.3104]

@Dahkeus.8243 said:

@Aaralyna.3104 said:@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" While you are at nerfing mesmer.... Can you please look into a particular mesmer skill for greatsword?

I play a mesmer myself, with greatsword as its the only weapon I like to play on it in pve (and pvp). Now the problem I find is with the skill "Spatial Surge" (

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spatial_Surge

).

This skill goes against all values of Gw2 being about playing together. It is the only skill (and its auto attack) on any profession that only does damage when you are far away from your target. So you get no boons ever, you get no heals ever, and everyone complains you aren't stacked (or simply not allowed to join).

So what I kinda like is to decrease its damage by lets say 30% (or whatever is needed % wise to balance) and remove the "you need to be on far distance to deal any damage thats on par with the average power dps". Why the damage reduction of the skill? Easy, we get boons from other players to keep up same damage as being max range, and when solo pve.... mobs always want to hug you so it will always be better dps than the closeby dps (worse than the long ranged but thats ok I guess). This may also make mesmer less strong in pvp (as close encounters are generally easier to fight than 1,200 range and the far range will have lower damage than staying close and work together with others on spot. And this change wouldn't make the greatsword mesmer a melee as the distance of attack could be, like rangers in example, the same as is but without the restriction that you always need to be far away to do any damage at all.

Ranger longbow has the same mechanic on its autoattack.

But I agree that the mechanic of requiring range for additional damage is one that just doesn't fit with the game too well. When they came out with Deadeye and put in the trait "Fire for Effect" that gives might at your target's location as well as your own location, it seemed like a shift to allow ranged players to still have the benefit of boons while not being stacked on melee, but there just isn't enough other similar traits/mechanics to support this. The range limit of boon sharing is really a handicap to group dynamics and until that's changed in some really meaningful way, anything that performs weaker in melee just won't fit into any sort of meta composition.

Then they should also adjust the ranger longbow auto attack skill in same way as I mentioned with mesmer greatsword auto attack. They can't give mesmer or ranger more boons for self on these weapons because ppl already complain they are too op. So they should just reduce % damage and delete the handicap of being super far away to do damage. So we can get the boons/heals from actually teamworking with others. I don't have to become meta (I already am if I go chrono jail which yuk), but at least I want to be able to cooperate with my team while still being a ranged and have that option (like all other ranged weapons without this silly restriction in play).

[Carlspackler.3471]

@fewfield.7802 said:

1. Please nerf condi mirage. It takes no skill to play while it does insane condi burst.
2. I have been zerging in wvw for awhile I can feel that Hammer skill on Revenant is doing to high dmg and it's spammable. That's why most of large scale fights are boring.People bring 10+ revenant backline and spam Hammer skill 2,3 on enemy. You repeat them until you will. It's not fun at all.
3. After Signet of Inspiration of Chronomancer got nerfed last patch, the class is still playable but not fun at all. It's been used as a Veil Bot so atleast you should try increase the stealth duration from Veil ?

I rarely see other Revenants when I am on mine. Much less a zerg of them

[Julischka Bean.7491]

@Baldrick.8967 said:Let's hope some real players actually tested them in solo as well as group situations...like on a public test server. Oh wait...

Right on. Get Joe in the mailroom and some of your friends who did not develop this game to be test subjects. Buy pizza and beer and sit them down in front of some computers and see how they do....for that matter this could be a great thing to do for the personal story...see how many of your test subjects can actually solo the story which is supposed to be soloable.

[Gorilla.4120]

The video speaks for itself. =)

Now we know :wink:

[Klypto.1703]

@Carlspackler.3471 said:

@fewfield.7802 said:

1. Please nerf condi mirage. It takes no skill to play while it does insane condi burst.
2. I have been zerging in wvw for awhile I can feel that Hammer skill on Revenant is doing to high dmg and it's spammable. That's why most of large scale fights are boring.People bring 10+ revenant backline and spam Hammer skill 2,3 on enemy. You repeat them until you will. It's not fun at all.
3. After Signet of Inspiration of Chronomancer got nerfed last patch, the class is still playable but not fun at all. It's been used as a Veil Bot so atleast you should try increase the stealth duration from Veil ?

I rarely see other Revenants when I am on mine. Much less a zerg of them

The average player who just played necro where the traits played the game for them are just realizing rev's are dangerous if they can fight back.

[crazyhusky.2985]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:‘allo fellow Tyrians,

Just wanted to give you a heads-up that we’ve been preparing a set of balance changes that are slated to go live next Tuesday.

We look forward to playing with you and discussing the changes to skills and traits once they’re available next week!

Sincerely,GW2 Systems Team

How about fixing and updating Dragonhunter.Can we please get longbow revamp or a fix for Dragonhunter, at least the longbow. With the release of Living Season 4 episode 5 you gave us the legendary longbow but you didn't give us a reason to use the longbow. Longbow on dragonhunter is still terrible.

Awhile back you said that you were doing through ALL of Guardian's weapons to fix and tweaking them, That SHOULD include the longbow, it's a weapon for guardian. You've gone back and tweaked and updated all the other guardian's weapons a part form the longbow it is still untouched, some of the weapon even got new skills on them.

The longbow is not good in any mode right now.

• It's not suitable Raids unlike most other weapons for elite specs
• WvW/PVP wise it's out classed by the base weapons and doesn't have any use, foes can see a dragonhunter's attacks from a mile away.

The longbow is suppose to be a good but it doesn't offer anything and it's questionable in what you intend with it.(LB3) Deflecting shot NEEDING a trait to give it knockback... but Ranger's Longbow doesn't require a trait to knock back foes.The trait Heavy light we use for it gives stability...? WHAT! If you're knocking back a foe why do need Stability, you're already a distance from the foes that can CC you.and by the time the foe has got to you to the Stability has gone. Dragonhunter needs a way to gain Retaliation within the elite spec. heavy light should be giving Retaliation or fury not Stability.(LB4) Symbol of Energy it's slow and it gives vigor... I am sure there is a better boon you could give instead of vigor, it's kinda useless you can't even use it to support an ally, Fury or Regen would be better.(LB5) Hunter's Ward is again so slow and takes too long to do, most people dodge it before you can trap them, and when you do 9/10 in pvp/wvw people walk right out of it... despite it supposingly having a ward effect to prevent that. ontop of that it has a long 40-45 second cooldown.

Please just re-vamp and fix the longbow. it's not been updated in years.

---

Also on separte note about Dragonhunter traps, could make a new virtue (F4) for Dragonhunter only that detonates your traps and gives you a buff like barrier and retaliation or something like Stun a foe.

Because it's rather annoying that bosses who don't move don't trigger the traps even when you place it on them. Stuff like Octovine I can't damage with traps since it doesn't move. In fractals the anomnly is hard to damage with the traps since you can barely get him in the trigger radius but the overall trap range will reach and damage him.

There are objects you need to destory don't trigger the traps. Prime example is In raids in spirit vale when you're running away from the ghost horde, you can't damage the spirit walls with your traps because they're an object. Despite being able to hit them with weapons. The issue is you NEED to damage the walls otherwise you all die, making you a possible liability for your team. If you were able to denoate your own traps then this would not be an issue, since you could place them next to the wall then detonate them.

In WvW, dragonhunter traps don't trigger/detonate on Siege, which is resonable given that they're objects but having to the option to set off dragonhunter traps would help a dragonhunter clear out rival's siege quicker.

These have been a big issue for a while, it limits how you can use the traps at parts during the game limiting the amount of damage you can do, when you should be able to always use them.I think to solve the issue, rather than going back trying to make traps trigger/detonate all bosses and objects, instead Give dragonhunter a new virtue (F4) that detonates/triggers the player's traps so then we can trigger/detonate them when we want, if the traps don't go off like they should.

it's been ages since you've done anything with Dragonhunter, it's starting to show for a while now. It's not been properly updated in 2 years, many traits and effects feel out dated or bad and questionable. You've been tweaking everything in base guardian to fit Firebrand and then tweaking Firebrand but Dragonhunter it's self hasn't gotten any love.The only tweak i can think of that Dragonhunter specfically has recieved is the slight buff to big game hunter increasing it's damage from 10% to 20% and that was back in october, before that I don't even recall when the last time Dragonhunter was touched, Maybe it was early 2017 before Path of fire and the nerf to guardian's staff.

[Kron.6938]

@Mexi.2764 said:cool thanks for the update lets see how much more you can kill WvW in a week

There are still a few nails in the coffin that need to be hammered. But at least we do know one developer still loves us, now show them some respect :) (btw anet work on your emojis because :D is showing the disappointed emoji first, which scares me when we talk about wvw ... bull kitten ;D

[Zaraki.5784]

Why do we always have to wait the deploy to know the hot changes of a balance patch? Can't you tell us in advance?

[KrHome.1920]

@misterman.1530 said:Boy. Can't wait to see how badly Necros were nerfed again. Should be awesome.There will be two steps for necros:

Step 1 (next week): Shroud skills have 50% reduced damage because they can crit too high with Onslaught and Death Perception.Step 2 (in 3 months): Shroud skills can't critical hit anymore.

Balanced!

[Auburner.6945]

@steve.2945 said:Please fix ele!

What's an ele? shrugs

[DeceiverX.8361]

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:I’m looking forward to the one week plus of complaints about the balance patch, how it didn’t meet up to so and so’s expectations, how out of touch Anet apparently is, and so on. This all coming after people wanting it in the first place. You know, the typical scenario we’ve seen with every other balance patch.

I think the problem is that most of the powercreep and nonsense that got us here to begin with was not wanted. At least, not by the existing playerbase, which mostly quit, which is why ANet's stock figures have continuously nosedived since HoT.

I appreciate the communication from Irenio, but one of the major contention points can be seen in the OP itself: ANet is looking for discussion after doing all the work to release these changes, meaning any instances where they miss the mark will just be wasted time and effort.

I don't think peoples' expectations are high - at least not seasoned veterans' - the bulk of the criticism is the apparent deliberate choice to ignore the necessary, unavoidable high-level changes that have been needed for years to fix the root of problems. Numbers tweaks will never properly fix stuff like Mirage, and still don't deal with the very fact that the entire concept of stuff like Mirage Cloak and chained invulns and permastealth DE, even if "balanced" are just simply not fun to play against.

ANet has over six years of overdue reworks to make up that they've never bothered with in order to get the more cynical to begin seeing things as improving. A number of builds, playstyles, and so on have been bad since pretty much the game launched with zero recourse. Some things have been oppressive and un-fun for just as long. Some poor ideas which make growth and expansion of game content difficult have not been trimmed with multiple releases over several years.

Nobody who cares about balance cares about new features, shinies, and other such new content. People just want the old content to be playable, considering that alone is literally achieving the same goal and feels a hell of a lot better. It's the reason why despite the fact Riot only releases a few champions in League of Legends per year (from one new champion every two weeks) is because they constantly update their older stuff to fix chronic and new issues alike with their existing content, which keeps the meta fresh and interesting.

[Emferno.5219]

Got few ways to balance mirage , while under effect of mirage cloak deal like 50% less damage(adjust it accordingly). After distortion ends for a period get increased incoming damage or while distorted do less damage .Soulbeast also needed to fixed so much tabky.Holo rifle damage and holo mode damage combined with cc and that reset capability and insane mobility is just too much .

[Emferno.5219]

@Ruufio.1496 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I’m looking forward to the one week plus of complaints about the balance patch, how it didn’t meet up to so and so’s expectations, how out of touch Anet apparently is, and so on. This all coming after people wanting it in the first place. You know, the typical scenario we’ve seen with every other balance patch.

as long as soulbeast gets buffed its fine, too many counters it sometimes feels disadvantaged

You are not getting buffs mate , soulbeast such a brain-dead class . Nerfs coming !!!!

[NecroSummonsMors.7816]

Thank you for communicating this!

[Shark Drake.9461]

balance change is irrelevant if chrono is still the only class for tanking in raids

[Fleuxy.2807]

Dont make update no one want. U dont even listen ur community its amazing. Thats how u lose some players, god god god. But al least i hope u win some money from pve boi right ? :smirk:

[Stand The Wall.6987]

welp thanks for the heads up, but leaving op things in the game will kill it.

[bennypig.6428]

Lets see what holo boonbeast mirage would get.

[Obtena.7952]

@DragonFury.6243 said:

@Dahkeus.8243 said:

@DragonFury.6243 said:why every thing must happen in a single day in a single patch ???????

kitten, the first comment in reply to us actually getting some communication

and

a balance patch and this is the salty kitten that someone says to the dev?

This is why we can't have nice thing!

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 Thank you for giving us the heads up and for bringing a balance patch.

and because teacher's pet like you we can't have nice thing

Yeah, it's players that prevent Anet from changing classes, especially the ones that are appreciative like him. You're so insightful. ><

[Iustitian.9176]

I hope they will

• nerf mirage (especially endless horizont!)
• improve both ele elite specializations and arcane skills
• give a better mechanic to the scrapper
• nerf the holosmiths mechanic skills 4 and 5 and improve sword 2
• rework the soulbeast traits
• rework the druid glyphs
• improve the two defensive thief trait lines (who is using them?!)
• rework dragonhunter bow skills
• improve berserker specialization
• improve spellbreaker dagger and meditation skills

And buff all the skills and traits that never a player would even take (and there are enough of them).

[Safandula.8723]

i bet this patch, will change nothing, like every other. sadly ;/