Shadowcat.2680 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:Ranger• Dolyak Stance: The duration of this skill has been split between game modes and reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only.• Leader of the Pack: The increased duration that this trait grants the ranger has been split between game modes and reduced from 150% to 120% in PvP only.Consider bringing these changes to WvW also. Dolyak Stance sits at a 30 sec cd and a 9 sec duration when traited currently. Soulbeasts running both it and Second Skin have 66% condi and direct damage reduction (damage reduction from Dolyak Stance stacks additively with that from protection) for essentially a third of the time they're in combat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade.2570 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:• Unending Corruption: This trait has been reworked and renamed Herald of Sorrow.• Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts into a single detonation after a 3-second delay. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity.I need to ask some questions here:What is the radius, does this detonation burst out from only the shade or the Necro and the shade? What is the cooldown?If this still spawns out from the shade AND the necro its of value, if not and it only spawns out from the Shade your three second delay makes this entire thing of no value. People will pick other traits and simply avoid it. You may even shift the entire meta back towards full condi and conditions in the long run will be cried about on the forums once again. There is absolutely no way my enemies will stand in a shade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAZOR.7246 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Not sure why there's any hype around these changes especially from a PvE perspective. A nerf to banners hits everyone from a DPS perspective. The rationale given is that this is done to encourage more versatility in warrior's play but ultimately it will be the same class playing the same role with a weaker class mechanic. It's totally unjustified and there was no reason for it at all. There is literally no viable alternative to banner warriors and what they bring to the party from the proposed changes in PvE content like Fractals. What's the point of nerfing something when nothing new is introduced in it's place?As someone who does both speedrun fractals and pugs daily, the changes to instabilities are already widely considered to be unpopular. Some combinations of instabilities render certain fractals to be undoable even in 2nd tier fractal groups which should not be the case at all. These coupled with a party wide DPS nerfs just makes these unnecessarily tedious and is just another waste of players' time. People were asking for changes to instabilities because some of the old ones were considered to be annoying, but they've gone one better and made them even more annoying. The new fractals in particular fail to grasp the essence of what fractals are really about which is namely, burst damage,mechanics, skips, runs within a reasonable time frame and most of all NO RP. Fractals are not so rewarding as to warrant them being undoable for the average player. I sincerely hope these nerfs are being done with the view to buffing something else in the future. I for one do not appreciate this format of nerfs to certain setups with no alternatives and having to wait months for the next balance patch for it to be rectified. As for instability changes, there's a lot that can be rectified to enhance player experience. Right now they are actively discouraging players from doing fractals with certain instabilities or entire fractals just because they take too long. As such I propose the following changes:Slippery Slope: Give a special action key on each player similar to the thaumanova one where players have to take turns to give slippery slope immunity.We Bleed Fire: Remove the physical damage aspect and increase the burn stacks to put more emphasis on condi clear insteadOutflanked: Reduce the aoe from 300 to 180 and damage increase so that ranged enemies cannot 1 shot players and mob heavy fractals aren't as punishingBirds: Remove the blind condition and reduce the frequency of spawnsSocial Awkwardness: Reduce the AoE to the extent that players will only be pushed back if standing on top of each otherFlux Bomb: Should be changed to a bomb mechanic similar to Sabetha where it needs to be destroyed before the timer expires instead of randomly choosing players to explode onSugar rush: Reduce attack speed and move speed on addsI find myself getting constantly irritated when it comes to balance patches and game changes in the last year and I can assure you I'm not the only one. I hope something is done to stop this trend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitta.3657 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Please do not go with this Signet of Ether change. Takes away both fun and competitive DPS in the power chrono build while adding nothing back in return. DT nerf is to be expected as it was the one thing that pushed the build towards overperforming. I understand this isn't intended design but it's essentially lowering skill ceiling so arbitrarily while offering 0 compensation especially coupled with another nerf. This is not a good idea and if you really do want to remove this interaction (which would make the build feel far less satisfactory to play) then wait to couple it with appropriate buffs that can keep the build alive otherwise this could kill it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigmoid.7082 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @Nightshade.2570 said:@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:• Unending Corruption: This trait has been reworked and renamed Herald of Sorrow.• Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts into a single detonation after a 3-second delay. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity.I need to ask some questions here-Irenio, as a six year vet wvwer and necro player my questions are:What is the radius, does this detonation burst out from only the shade or the Necro and the shade? What is the cooldown?If this still spawns out from the shade AND the necro its of value, if not and it only spawns out from the Shade your three second delay makes this entire thing of no value. People will pick other traits and simply avoid it. You may even shift the entire meta back towards full condi and conditions in the long run will be cried about on the forums once again. My suggestion:Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts A SHADE THAT HOVERS OVER THE NECRO AFTER 3 SECONDS IT or can be DETONATEd. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity OF THE NECRO.That may help if the shade is a movable item and moves with the necro much like the Gyro's do. Right now the shade gets placed down and shades have become more defensive simply because they have been made so visible in WVW that they are just moved away from. There is absolutely no way my enemies will stand in a shade.If you keep it tied to the necro and just make it alot like our F5 in sand shroud, where we are a ticking time bomb... that has some play and functionality that definitely would be interesting if the radius is well like, the cooldown is not abhorrent and it does enough barrier, corruption and damage to be a viable choice. I dont want to bring this out of line I know you are trying to clear up the spam of shades everywhere and lower our corruption abilities. But consider to that the necro must still have a certain amount of defense with offense and that if we wait three seconds for a shade that is in the wrong place to be detonated they will be stomping our bodies by the time it is done.Maybe wait and see how it actually interacts before passing any sort of judgement or making suggestions for it to be changed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Boyer.6524 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 This is what I have to say about it:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/69996/s15-upcoming-balance-changes-2-28-2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade.2570 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @Sigmoid.7082 said:@Nightshade.2570 said:@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:• Unending Corruption: This trait has been reworked and renamed Herald of Sorrow.• Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts into a single detonation after a 3-second delay. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity.I need to ask some questions here-Irenio, as a six year vet wvwer and necro player my questions are:What is the radius, does this detonation burst out from only the shade or the Necro and the shade? What is the cooldown?If this still spawns out from the shade AND the necro its of value, if not and it only spawns out from the Shade your three second delay makes this entire thing of no value. People will pick other traits and simply avoid it. You may even shift the entire meta back towards full condi and conditions in the long run will be cried about on the forums once again. My suggestion:Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts A SHADE THAT HOVERS OVER THE NECRO AFTER 3 SECONDS IT or can be DETONATEd. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity OF THE NECRO.That may help if the shade is a movable item and moves with the necro much like the Gyro's do. Right now the shade gets placed down and shades have become more defensive simply because they have been made so visible in WVW that they are just moved away from. There is absolutely no way my enemies will stand in a shade.Maybe wait and see how it actually interacts before passing any sort of judgement or making suggestions for it to be changed? I havent passed judgement I think it will be great if it is tied to the necro still if it is not tied to the necro and just the shade thats a huge change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan.9421 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 The best part about this update is everyone freaking out and overreacting despite the patch not even being live yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallist.5917 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 • Repeater: For builds that use a pistol in their main hand with no off-hand weapon, the damage of this skill has been increased by 20%. Striking a foe with this skill now applies 4 seconds of bleeding per hit.This needs some more clarification. Your saying that P/D will have access to, as a flip skill, repeater, but then the description of this change sounds like it will not apply this buff to the flip skill version of P/D, just the version you get with P/Empty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAZOR.7246 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @spartan.9421It may not be live yet but there are those experienced enough to know what these changes mean for each class and the game in general. It's highly unlikely at this point that they'll make large scale changes. Besides it's not like previous balance patches haven't p***ed people off to the extent that they want to leave game. The huge nerf last year saw over 10 people from my own friend's list alone quitting game just because they were annoyed with the changes and they only returned after the next patch when certain things were fixed. It may not seem like a big deal but these kinds of nerfs with no alternatives or improvements just leave a bad taste in the mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkEagle.7381 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @"spartan.9421" said:The best part about this update is everyone freaking out and overreacting despite the patch not even being live yet.Well, some "freak outs" are justified such as the lack of Mirage nerfs in PvE. Tell me how waiting for the patch will magically manifest in PvE Mirage nerfs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodzynald.5897 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @Sorem.9157 said:@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 I urge you to reconsider this change:• Righteous Instincts: This trait's critical-chance bonus has been reduced from 50% to 25%.It is the bread and butter for many Guardian builds other than the Core Guardian, which is where it is causing most trouble. Harrier Firebrand viability will diminish even more after this, despite being a high skill floor build, it is constantly getting hit because of other Guardian meta builds. PvE dragonhunter also relies on this trait and despite being a strong burst option, it is what most Guardians play for PvE. Again, i urge you to reconsider the nerf and try to target specifically the build that is causing trouble, which is radiance core guardian for pvp.Hold up... radiance core guardian is causing trouble in pvp? Clarify, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maria Murtor.7253 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 For Thief: Make Silent Scope work with the Trait Meld with Shadows (Shadow Arts). People will take Shadow Arts for defense matters => sinks outgoing damage and stealth time is still reduced. Still a good nerf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kappa.2036 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @ Irenio CalmonHuang.2048One thing is not clear to me, will ranger's Spirits still be damaged by enemies attacks? because if the answer is yes, I would like to expose my opinion.Spirits are basically UNUSABLE in PvP/WvW. They die by a single AoE/autoattack. Basically, the majority of the support that the ranger has is locked behind this fact. If they also start to lose health by their own, or teleporting on us in the middle of WvW aoes, well... i don't think this rework will have a positive impact outside PvE raids or fractals. Right now ranger desperately needs AoE mobile support in competitive game modes. In 6 years the class didn't have 1 single WvW meta build. So please, make spirits not being affected by enemies damage ATLEAST in WvW and maybe give them damage reduction or more health in PvP! I would like to use them in competitive game modes but they are just,like i said, unusable. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrury.4627 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Sneak Attack: Increased the duration of bleeding that's applied by this skill from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.• Shadow Strike: This skill now grants access to Repeater for 4 seconds upon landing a successful melee hit.• Repeater: For builds that use a pistol in their main hand with no off-hand weapon, the damage of this skill has been increased by 20%. Striking a foe with this skill now applies 4 seconds of bleeding per hit.I actually have a build that uses/will use these in a big way, but it's on DE. Will Malicious Sneak Attack get the bleed buff as well? If not, it's straight weaker than the base version until 4-5 malice.• Inspiring Battle Standard: This trait has been renamed Doubled Standards. It no longer causes banners to apply regeneration and instead causes the warrior to gain 5 seconds of swiftness when summoning or picking up a banner. Additionally, the banner effect improvements that are gained when this trait is equipped have been increased from 50% to 100%.Is the +100% stats effect a buff to everyone or just to the Warrior (as it is now)? It sounds like tactics condi banner is on its way out either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdahnSurian.3895 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Thanks for the Information. Personally I prefer to get the info a few days before a patch hits rather than on the same day. The explanation of why you changed things and the direction you want to take certain classes is a good move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 • Inspiring Battle Standard: This trait has been renamed Doubled Standards. It no longer causes banners to apply regeneration and instead causes the warrior to gain 5 seconds of swiftness when summoning or picking up a banner. Additionally, the banner effect improvements that are gained when this trait is equipped have been increased from 50% to 100%.That removes pretty much ALL of the group sustain that warriors could provide. And it deletes banners from my berserker entirely - I'll get more sustain from running Dolyak Signet instead of the Banner of Discipline that I currently carry. The entire reason that I have that banner when I am at group events like Octovine is strictly because of the regen it pumps out. That regen lets me out-sustain a large mob of bad guys when I'm soloing the open world on my berserker. The little bit of precision it granted was a bonus, but the regen was what really mattered to me. Without that regen, does Berserker have any thing to offer for group sustain, because all I am seeing is group dps buffs and no sustain.I really like the kit changes to the banners, and the recharge reductions, BUT, stripping regen from it is BAD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAZOR.7246 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:• Inspiring Battle Standard: This trait has been renamed Doubled Standards. It no longer causes banners to apply regeneration and instead causes the warrior to gain 5 seconds of swiftness when summoning or picking up a banner. Additionally, the banner effect improvements that are gained when this trait is equipped have been increased from 50% to 100%.That removes pretty much ALL of the group sustain that warriors could provide. And it deletes banners from my berserker entirely - I'll get more sustain from running Dolyak Signet instead of the Banner of Discipline that I currently carry. The entire reason that I have that banner when I am at group events like Octovine is strictly because of the regen it pumps out. That regen lets me out-sustain a large mob of bad guys when I'm soloing the open world on my berserker. The little bit of precision it granted was a bonus, but the regen was what really mattered to me. Without that regen, does Berserker have any thing to offer for group sustain, because all I am seeing is group dps buffs and no sustain.I really like the kit changes to the banners, and the recharge reductions, BUT, stripping regen from it is BAD.The effect improvements are exclusive to the warrior, they don't apply to any other group memebers. Theoretically it's a buff on the warrior itself but a huge nerf for banners on groups. Regeneration isn't the main issue with the banner nerf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yasi.9065 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Will gw2 ever get a PTS? Ive been playing ESO for some time now, and I find having a PTS really helps a lot with balance there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutOfOrder.3719 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 incredible changes to Tempest and Scrapper.Great communication and these changes look like they were well thought out. Reducing the duration of Mirage cloak will do wonders in PvP.Reducing the duration of invisibility of Dead Eyes after Dodging is incredible.I'm not sure of the impact that reworking Unending Corruption into Herald Sorrow will do in PvP, but it was definitely needed in WvW.I play Scourge actively in PvP, and Mirages and Deadeyes 1vs1 were always situations that required me to play perfectly to have even a chance at winning either of these fights.Best balance patch in a long time to be honest. Keep up the good work ANET !I don't understand why nerfing mesmer' Signet of Inspiration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds was necessary though for Chronomancer's, considering it was so recently changed from a fractals and raid perspective.I think 4 seconds would be more realistic , and not a drastic 2 second reduction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorem.9157 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @Rodzynald.5897 said:@Sorem.9157 said:@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" I urge you to reconsider this change:• Righteous Instincts: This trait's critical-chance bonus has been reduced from 50% to 25%.It is the bread and butter for many Guardian builds other than the Core Guardian, which is where it is causing most trouble. Harrier Firebrand viability will diminish even more after this, despite being a high skill floor build, it is constantly getting hit because of other Guardian meta builds. PvE dragonhunter also relies on this trait and despite being a strong burst option, it is what most Guardians play for PvE. Again, i urge you to reconsider the nerf and try to target specifically the build that is causing trouble, which is radiance core guardian for pvp.Hold up... radiance core guardian is causing trouble in pvp? Clarify, please.Many people complain about how core guardian can deal "lots of damage very fast". It is really only a problem for newer players that haven't learned how to fight against it yet. It is kinda like how Trapper DH was super strong in low tiers but complete thrash in high tiers but less extreme. It is a high reward low risk build at low tiers and a regular (slightly underperforming, if you wanna know my real opinion) at high tiers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apharma.3741 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @DeceiverX.8361 said:Okay, we're about halfway there seeing some attempts of reverting to normalcy after the PoF powercreep despite soulbeast and holo still being massively overtuned. Silent Scope nerfs are good, but DE still camps stealth via D/P to abuse the busted MBS damage, and TRB spamming is about all rifle can do now. But baby steps I guess.But...Repeater: For builds that use a pistol in their main hand with no off-hand weapon, the damage of this skill has been increased by 20%. Striking a foe with this skill now applies 4 seconds of bleeding per hit.You guys really hate power D/D thief that much to apparently buff Pistol/Nothing before making power D/D usable in the PvP modes?• Shadow Strike: This skill now grants access to Repeater for 4 seconds upon landing a successful melee hit.It's a buff to P/D.Edit: Nope I'm wrong I have no idea, I don't. Maybe it's a mistake and meant to carry over as a buff to P/D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apharma.3741 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 @"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:Greetings all,I posted last week that we’re looking forward to talking to you all about the balance changes once the release went live. Due to the delays, that obviously hasn’t happened.We’re getting the Balance notes to you now so that you can speculate on how they will affect your gameplay. We won’t be discussing them with you yet however, as the changes aren’t live. I hope you’ll enjoy theorycrafting for now and take the time to try out the changes and join the discussion about them when they arrive. As a quick note: It is easy to judge a change in isolation – I ask that you consider how the full set of changes in tandem will affect Tyria.Sincerely,GW2 Systems teamGeneral• Fixed a bug in which some ring effects with a range of 600 were appearing larger than they should.• Exhaustion: This boon now stacks in duration up to 3 times.• Confusion: This no longer deals damage when a skill is prevented from activating due to an invalid position of the target relative to the caster.ElementalistIn this update, and in the future, we're looking to enhance the support role of tempests through boons, healing, and cleansing. Specific to today's release, we've adjusted the tempest's support through its skills, shouts, and traits. With this in mind, we've added some classic elemental attunement support to each of the shouts, and we've altered Tempestuous Aria so that its support functions are easier to access for tempest players.• Conjure Frost Bow: Changed the name of the item summoned by this skill from "ice bow" to "frost bow."• Sand Squall: The increased boon duration that this skill grants has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. The number of allies this affects has been increased from 5 to 10.• "Wash the Pain Away!": This skill now cleanses one condition from nearby allies on its final pulse.• "Feel the Burn!": This skill now applies 3 stacks of might to nearby allies for 10 seconds in addition to its other effects. Updated the effects to more accurately represent the attack's radius. Updated the hit detection to be more consistent at close distances.• "Flash-Freeze!": This skill now applies 4 seconds of regeneration to nearby allies in addition to its other effects.• "Aftershock!": This skill now applies 5 seconds of protection to nearby allies in addition to its other effects.• "Eye of the Storm!": This skill now applies 10 seconds of swiftness to nearby allies in addition to its other effects.• "Rebound!": This skill now applies 5 seconds of fury to nearby allies in addition to its other effects.• Weave Self: The toughness effect provided by Woven Earth has been replaced by a 20% reduction in incoming physical damage.• Tempestuous Aria: This trait now modifies tempest shouts to affect up to 10 targets in addition to its current effects.EngineerWith this update, we're reworking one of the less reliable skill sets: gyros. While potent, their difficulty to use and to optimize has brought them to a spot where they're not really desirable outside of a few niche situations. As part of this rework, gyros are being reclassified as wells, and the scrapper's particular version of them is mobile and point-blank to enhance the scrapper's melee-oriented playstyle.• The gyro class of skills has been reworked and changed to wells. Gyros are now no longer targetable and instead hover over the engineer to grant their effects.• Flame Blast: This skill now targets the ground and will explode automatically when it hits the targeted location.• Light Strike: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to display incorrect damage in PvP when a trait is equipped with Crystal Configuration: Storm.• Blast Gyro Tag: This skill has been reworked and renamed Blast Gyro. The gyro now creates a fire field that follows the engineer while it pulses might to nearby allies every second during its countdown to a significant explosion.• Medic Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a water field that follows the engineer while it pulses heals to the player and nearby allies every second.• Bulwark Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a lightning field that follows the engineer while it grants them barrier every second and redirects some damage from nearby allies to the engineer.• Purge Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a light field that follows the engineer while it removes conditions from the player and nearby allies every second.• Shredder Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now follows the engineer and performs a whirl finisher that inflicts damage on nearby enemies every second.• Sneak Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a smoke field that follows the engineer while it grants stealth to the player and nearby allies every second.• Shocking Speed: This trait now increases the radius of effect of all gyro skills and causes them to grant superspeed to nearby allies on their final pulse.• Expert Examination: This trait no longer alters a gyro's behavior to inflict weakness and vulnerability upon its detonation.• Crystal Configuration: Storm: Projectiles fired by this trait no longer deal reduced damage. Updated the tool tip to now use the phrase "projectile range" instead of "range threshold."• Crystal Configuration: Eclipse: Reduced this trait's stability duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.• Crystal Configuration: Zephyr: This trait now causes Holo Leap to inflict cripple for 1 second in addition to its previous effects.GuardianRighteous Instincts has been an incredibly potent trait since it was reworked to grant a large boost to the player's critical-hit chance. Because of this, it has crowded out other grandmaster options for the radiance build. In this update, we're bringing down the power of this trait to be more in line with other grandmaster traits and to give a little boost to its competition. Furthermore, we are giving a small boost to staff and torch weapons and enhancing Hallowed Ground to help it achieve its purpose: to help allies manage crowd control.• Symbol of Vengeance: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to function improperly with the Symbolic Avenger and Symbolic Power traits.• True Shot: This skill's range has been increased from 1,200 to 1,500.• Tome of Justice—Chapter 2: Igniting Burst: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to fail to hit foes at the center of its radius.• Cleansing Flame: Increased this skill's damage per hit by 21%. The final hit of this attack inflicts 2 stacks of burning for 4 seconds.• Hallowed Ground: Increased this skill's radius to 360.• Amplified Wrath: Instead of burning foes that the guardian blocks, this trait now increases the duration of the burning passive effect applied by Virtue of Justice by 20%.• Honorable Staff: This trait now grants 120 concentration, plus an additional 120 concentration while wielding a staff, in addition to reducing staff skill recharge times.• Lesser Smite Condition: The damage of this trait has been reduced by about 40% in PvP only.• Perfect Inscriptions: This trait now applies its shared signet passive effect to the guardian in addition to their allies.• Radiant Fire: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to occasionally fail.• Righteous Instincts: This trait's critical-chance bonus has been reduced from 50% to 25%.MesmerAfter watching mesmer builds develop following our last update, we have a few more adjustments for both chronomancers and mirages.While we think that Signet of Inspiration's new functionality is working well, it's a little too strong, so we're slightly reducing both the recharge time and the extension of the boon duration. This still leaves it a little on the strong side, but we don't want to remove it entirely. Similarly, the Danger Time trait ended up being too strong; we've been seeing some very high damage numbers coming out of chronomancers who are also bringing support skills.Lowering the defiance-bar damage on Signet of Humility made it fairer when compared to other defiance-breaking skills, but left it in an unsatisfying place due to its high recharge time. We're lowering the recharge time in PvE areas to allow it to be used more frequently in situations where additional defiance damage is needed.Finally, we're slightly reducing the duration of the Mirage Cloak dodge in order to make it more like the normal dodge move. When we first built the mirage specialization, we felt that the dodge window had to be larger than a normal dodge in order to compensate for the fact that the player doesn't move with the dodge. As players have become more accustomed to the specialization, we've found that this advantage is no longer necessary. Coupled with the superspeed that's granted by the other minor trait, mirages can travel significantly farther than a normal dodge while attacking. This change does not affect the window for an ambush attack, which has always been on a separate timer.• Tides of Time: This skill's collision logic has been updated to reduce instances where the projectile could be unexpectedly destroyed. The returning wave now returns toward the current location of the mesmer rather than trying to predict the mesmer's future location based on movement speed and direction. This skill now applies quickness while traveling outward and alacrity while returning.• Well of Recall: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.• Signet of Humility: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 180 seconds to 120 seconds in PvE only.• Signet of the Ether: This skill's recharge time now begins at the same time as phantasm skills are recharged.• Mirage Cloak: All applications of this skill's effect have had their duration reduced to match the duration of a normal dodge roll. This change does not affect the timing window for ambush skills.• Speed of Sand: Superspeed's duration has been reduced to match Mirage Cloak's duration.• Imaginary Axes: Reduced the amount of torment stacks applied in PvP and WvW from 3 to 1. This skill can no longer be used on targets behind the mesmer.• Ambush Assault: This skill can no longer be used on targets behind the mesmer.• Split Surge: This skill can no longer be used on targets behind the mesmer.• Signet of Inspiration: Lowered the extended durations of boons that this skill grants from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Lowered the recharge time from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.• Axes of Symmetry: Reduced this skill's damage in WvW to match the PvP version of this skill. The number of confusion stacks that this applies is now 3 in all game modes.• Illusionary Ambush: Increased the recharge time of this skill from 20 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP and WvW only.• Mimic: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.• Cry of Pain: The number of confusion stacks that this trait allows Cry of Frustration to apply has been decreased from 2 to 1 in all game modes.• Ineptitude: The confusion duration of this trait has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.• Danger Time: The bonus critical-hit chance that this trait grants against slowed enemies has been reduced from 30% to 15%.NecromancerAs we continue to update the necromancer, we're looking at each of its elite specializations and moving them more toward their expected roles. Scourge applies a bit too much instant corruption pressure in large-group WvW settings by simply laying down shades; we've reworked Unending Corruption and renamed it Herald of Sorrow to address this. The reworked trait now acts more like a delayed version of boon corruption that also grants an area-of-effect barrier. Reaper has seen an excessive loss of damage with the update on traits in the last patch. We'll be pushing some of its damage higher through skill updates in PvE, but will be mostly leaving it alone in competitive modes, as all the necromancer specializations have a healthy representation in competitive game modes.• Nightfall: Increased the damage of this skill by 50% in PvE only.• Desiccate: Fixed a bug with this skill in which its might gain applied in a larger radius than the listed value. Removed an unlisted whirl finisher. Reduced the casting time from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Increased its damage by 150%. This skill now grants a bonus 2% life force for each target it strikes.• Oppressive Collapse: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from granting might when used on targets in a downed state.• Enfeebling Blood: Increased the amount of bleeding stacks that this skill applies from 2 to 3.• "You Are All Weaklings!": Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased its damage by 40%.• "Nothing Can Save You!": Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Increased its damage by 40%.• Serpent Siphon: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to list an incorrect amount of barrier. Reduced its recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased its damage by 21%.• Spectral Ring: The description and skill facts for this skill have been updated to indicate the amount of life force that is gained when fear is applied to a foe.• Cold Shoulder: Increased the amount of bonus damage that this trait grants from 10% to 15% in PvE only.• Unending Corruption: This trait has been reworked and renamed Herald of Sorrow.• Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts into a single detonation after a 3-second delay. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity.RangerIn our last balance update, we made a few changes to Nature's Vengeance to tweak the boons provided by each spirit. In this update, we've applied major changes to the spirits themselves. Active spirit skills are generally not usable due to the high cost of sacrificing the spirit and the localized effect that the sacrifice causes. We are changing these active skills to teleport the spirit to the player's location before the spirit uses their skill. Additionally, we're removing the 100% health sacrifice. In exchange, spirits no longer have preset time durations for how long they can stay alive and instead lose health as they passively enhance allies. This is intended to provide a more dynamic gameplay experience than their current cast-on-recharge functionality. Of course, spirits can still be used in this manner, but proper use of the ranger's healing skills and more powerful active skills to reposition and attack with the spirits will yield stronger results.• Bear Stance: The duration of this skill has been split between game modes and increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only.• Dolyak Stance: The duration of this skill has been split between game modes and reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only.• One Wolf Pack: The duration of this skill has been split between game modes and reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP only. The casting time of this skill has been reduced by about 0.5 seconds.• Leader of the Pack: The increased duration that this trait grants the ranger has been split between game modes and reduced from 150% to 120% in PvP only.• Spirits have been reworked as follows:When a spirit pulses its passive effect, it loses health equal to a percentage of its maximum health. (7.5% for nonelite spirits, 3% for elite spirits.)The effect radius of a spirit's active skill has been reduced from 1,000 to 600 for all spirits.Spirits now die automatically if the ranger moves away from the spirit beyond a range of 5,000. Spirits also die automatically if the ranger transitions between water travel and land travel.Fixed a bug that caused underwater spirits to use their unique skill when killed.• Spirit Active Skills: These skills no longer sacrifice the spirit and instead cause them to teleport to the ranger's location before the spirit uses their active skill. These skills now have a 0.25-second casting time. The recharge time for these skills remains at 20 seconds.• Water Spirit Active Skill—Aqua Surge: This skill no longer heals the spirit that casts it.• Spirit of Nature: This spirit no longer benefits from its own pulsing heal effect. Reduced the healing per second that this spirit grants to 101 at level 80, plus 3.5% of your healing power.• Spirit of Nature Active Skill—Nature's Renewal: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 120 seconds to 40 seconds. Reduced the radius of the revive pulse and condition-cleansing effect from 600 to 240. Each ally revived by this spirit causes the spirit to lose 30% of its maximum health, but it can still revive up to 5 allies. Reduced the number of conditions that are removed from 5 to 3.• Storm Spirit: Reduced the duration of vulnerability that this skill applies to foes from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.• Storm Spirit Active Skill—Call Lightning: Reduced the duration of daze that this skill applies to foes from 3 seconds to 1 second.• Sun Spirit Active Skill—Solar Flare: Reduced the duration of blindness that this skill applies to foes from 8 seconds to 5 seconds, and reduced the duration of burning that is applied from 3 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 4 seconds. Reduced the effect's size to more closely match its range.• Soften the Fall: Reduced the duration of immobilization that this trait applies to foes from 3 seconds to 1 second. Reduced the duration of crippling from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. Added a tool tip that shows the interval between pulses.• Muddy Terrain: Fixed a tool tip that showed an incorrect value for the intervals between this skill's pulses.• Ambidexterity: This trait is no longer split between game modes and now uses its highest stat value in all modes.• Bonfire: Increased the duration of burning that this skill applies from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds.• Poison Master: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to fail if the ranger was in a downed state. Fixed a bug that prevented the effect applied by this trait from being removed when the ranger's pet's attack failed to hit.• Nature's Vengeance: This trait now reduces the passive health sacrifice from spirits by 33%. Additionally, boons granted by spirits are now applied when the spirit's active skill is used instead of being applied upon a set interval.• Boon durations have been increased as follows:Spirit of Nature now grants 3 seconds of stability.Water Spirit now grants 5 seconds of regeneration.Frost Spirit now grants 3 stacks of might for 8 seconds.Stone Spirit now grants 3 seconds of protection.Storm Spirit now grants 5 seconds of fury.Sun Spirit now grants 3 seconds of vigor.RevenantWe're making some changes to the revenant in this update that will curb their excessive condition damage in PvE and bolster their damage in PvP. Additionally, we're making a few changes to help power builds that are struggling in PvE but doing well in competitive modes. Targeted Destruction, for example, will now grant higher damage bonuses in PvE areas where higher stacks of vulnerability can be maintained, but lower damage in competitive modes where applying multiple stacks of conditions is harder.Song of the Mists has struggled to compete with the other grandmaster traits in the Invocation line even after its rework, so we are improving various aspects of the skills, making them easier to land hits and stronger when fewer targets are struck.• Inspiring Reinforcement: This skill can no longer hit the same target multiple times in a single cast.• Natural Harmony: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to fail if the player was in the air or swimming on the surface of water after the skill had finished charging.• Ashen Demeanor: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to apply conditions to the revenant if they were knocked off their mount.• Targeted Destruction: This now grants 0.5% damage per each stack of vulnerability instead of a flat 10% bonus. It's also no longer split between game modes.• Draconic Echo: Fixed a bug with this trait that prevented lingering passive effects from granting boons while the revenant was in other stances.• Shackling Wave: Increased this skill's damage per each additional strike by 40% in PvE only.• Searing Fissure: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds on its first hit, and 1 stack of burning for 1 second on the next three hits. The damage of the first hit has been increased by 100%. Increased the recharge time from 3 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP and WvW only.• Rampant Vex: Reduced the duration of torment applied by this trait from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.• Song of the Mists: This trait's radius of effect has been increased from 180 to 240. The effects provided by each skill activated by this trait have been updated as follows:Call of the Assassin: The stacks of vulnerability that this skill applies have been increased from 5 to 8. It now grants 2 seconds of quickness with an additional 1 second per each target that's hit. This skill's damage is no longer split between games modes and now uses its highest value in all modes.Call of the Dwarf: This skill now grants a baseline amount of barrier with additional barrier per each target that's struck. Barrier values for each portion have been adjusted. Its damage has been increased by 50%.Call of the Demon: Increased the duration of torment that this skill applies from 6 seconds to 8 seconds.Call of the Centaur: The radius of this skill has been adjusted.Call of the Dragon: The amount of burning that this skill can stack has been increased from 1 to 2. The damage is no longer split between games modes and now uses its highest value in all modes. Damage has been increased by 42%.Call of the Renegade: The amount of bleeding that this skill can stack has been increased from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW. It now always grants 1 fervor stack in addition to the stacks gained per each hit in all modes.ThiefWe've been looking at ways to improve the pistol main-hand and dagger off-hand build for thieves. We wanted to give the weapon pair a little more lethality without improving other weapon sets or removing current utility, so we decided to go with the mechanic we used for Tow Line during the underwater update. This allows Shadow Strike to flip over to Repeater for a period of time. Additionally, the team has adjusted Unhindered Combatant so that exhaustion scales with the severity of the condition that was removed. Finally, we're reducing the duration of stealth for Silent Scope in competitive modes so that it is more of a brief respite in combat rather than a stealth upkeep trait.• Sneak Attack: Increased the duration of bleeding that's applied by this skill from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.• Shadow Strike: This skill now grants access to Repeater for 4 seconds upon landing a successful melee hit.• Repeater: For builds that use a pistol in their main hand with no off-hand weapon, the damage of this skill has been increased by 20%. Striking a foe with this skill now applies 4 seconds of bleeding per hit.• Shadowstep: The window to use Shadow Return after using this skill has been increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. A tool tip has been added to show the window's duration.• Silent Scope: The duration of stealth that this trait grants has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvP and WvW.• Unhindered Combatant: The duration of exhaustion that this trait applies when dodging is now 2 seconds if crippled is present, 3 seconds if chilled is present, and 4 seconds if immobilized is present. Exhaustion will now be applied when the dodge is initiated.• Lead Attacks: Fixed a bug with this trait that allowed players to enter combat with more stacks of the damage effect than intended.WarriorBanner skills have long been very passive in nature. Today we're releasing some changes to give them a bit more active gameplay while also reducing their granted attributes to give greater role flexibility in group settings. However, we do think that the warrior gives up a lot in order to use them, so we're increasing the bonus stat gains when warriors equip traits that modify banners. As a larger change, we're also removing the bundle skills from banners and changing the pick-up action to now recharge the banner skill. Previously, the banner skills could be a trap for players, providing weaker skills in a bundle that anyone could interact with. We considered enhancing the banner skills, but we don't want banners to be alternate weapons that take away from a player's normal weapons.• Banner skills have been reworked as follows:Banners no longer have skills and are instead destroyed when they're picked up.Banners can now only be picked up by the warrior who summoned them.Reduced all banners' stat gains from 170 to 100 at level 80.Banners' durations have been reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.All utility-slot banner skills have had their recharge times reduced from 120 seconds to 80 seconds.Picking up a banner now reduces the recharge time of that banner by 60 seconds.• Battle Standard: Resynced the time at which a banner appears to properly line up with the effect. When planted in the ground, this banner skill now deals damage to foes within a radius of 180. Foes who are in a downed state are now finished when damaged by Battle Standard. This skill's targeting reticle will now display the radius for effects that finish foes who are in a downed state and effects that revive allies.• Winds of Disenchantment: This is now a channeled skill, and it will follow the warrior. Its pulse time has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds with the duration remaining at 5 seconds. Breaking the channel will now destroy the spell. The casting time has been reduced to 0.5 seconds.• Inspiring Battle Standard: This trait has been renamed Doubled Standards. It no longer causes banners to apply regeneration and instead causes the warrior to gain 5 seconds of swiftness when summoning or picking up a banner. Additionally, the banner effect improvements that are gained when this trait is equipped have been increased from 50% to 100%.OK so firstly thank you for an update at this trying time. I personally really appreciate the heads up on the balance patch and some advanced information of what's in it, even though the comments will no doubt have salt I think this is a nice trend.Is there any chance we can start seeing PvP changes going to WvW at the same time and past PvP only changes being brought over to WvW as well?I say this because in WvW (I know it's got this inbalance by design and it's not lost on me) we have soulbeasts absolutely dominating small scale because stance cool downs weren't increased but functionality increased for dolyak stance. We have most photon forge abilities on holosmith providing far too much damage while letting them keep a lot of survivability too. Druid nerfs to Celestial Avatar and Ancient Seeds weren't brought over either so it's an incredibly annoying almost unkillable build too. Revenants still stack to 25 might without trying while enjoying some bonkers damage on many skills still which can easily hit for 7-8k on a 6s Cool Down and surge of the mists, a defensive skill, can still chunk off half to all your health.This has been really hurting smaller scale fights from 2v2 up to 10v10 for a long time which do happen a lot outside of prime time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snh.7091 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 How about a PTS @Irenio CalmonHuang.2048? Why don't you let us test instead of theory crafting. Wouldn't that be more helpful for you devs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mixxed.5862 Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Thank you for the heads-up and in-depth explanations! Many of the changes look quite good for PVP! However I have a few concerns:Righteous Instincts really doesn't need that nerf, it's unnecessary :(And besides that I feel like for PvP some builds could do with a few more changes. While it's good you're making adjustments I wish there were more changes regarding mechanics, toolsets and playstyle as well. The way it looks these specs will be more balanced but PvP as a whole gameplay-wise won't be more fun.Soulbeast only sees nerfs to stances while there could be changes to the might/boon stacking as well. Axe AA in particular needs to be revisited after it was way overbuffed a year ago! And Fresh Reinforcements still offers a lot for an adept tier trait. With bird the mobility of soulbeast remains insane.Mesmer's Scepter #3 needs a nerf - it basically does over 10k damage! Chrono could do with less access to invulnerability instead of slightly more. And Mirage while nerfed will remain just as frustrating to play against mechanically (chaos traitline, axe target break, evade spam and evading clones, dodge while stunned mostly).Deadeye has less stealth now, which is a reeeally good thing, but the DJ spam stays which is another issue imo.I know all of this is arguable, maybe I'm wrong and it will turn out just fine with all the changes you're about to make. But I doubt it.Best regards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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