Is there anything in the balance patch that excites you?

[DemonSeed.3528]

@Dediggefedde.4961 said:

With the new mechanic, delaying 20% dmg by 2s, I'm actually optimistic about the sustain.I am a little interested in this, doesn't only 20% of whatever dmg come 2s later? We can probably cover that with some barrier too I bet.

[Aeolus.3615]

@subversiontwo.7501 said:I'm going to be honest.

There isn't for me. All it seems to do is stomp on a few off-meta builds so there is less build diversity or so things that were slightly behind is falling further behind. It doesn't adress any of the glaring balance issues sufficiently and it doesn't add anything that makes me feel like I want to try it.

Have you guys found anything exciting? Help out, give me something to look forward to. There must be something fun that I've missed so far.

Stomping some metas m8 be good, means more players can play other things or have room to try other builds besides metas.

There are quite a few changes that I’m forwarding to see how they work. That one way thief portal sound fun, wonder hownplayers will use it since it’s a one way.

The range damage calculation and unblocks from ranger changing seems interesting as well.

[subversiontwo.7501]

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@"subversiontwo.7501" said:I'm going to be honest.

There isn't for me. All it seems to do is stomp on a few off-meta builds so there is less build diversity or so things that were slightly behind is falling further behind. It doesn't adress any of the glaring balance issues sufficiently and it doesn't add anything that makes me feel like I want to try it.

Have you guys found anything exciting? Help out, give me something to look forward to. There must be something fun that I've missed so far.

Stomping some metas m8 be good, means more players can play other things or have room to try other builds besides metas.

There are quite a few changes that I’m forwarding to see how they work. That one way thief portal sound fun, wonder hownplayers will use it since it’s a one way.

The range damage calculation and unblocks from ranger changing seems interesting as well.

I think you read that wrong, friend.

The point I was trying to make was the complete opposite. They are impacting a number of builds but the builds least impacted are the meta. The builds hurting the most are options that are not meta. Such is the nature of eg., creating vitality holes. That stifles stat variety and locks the spec into builds that either compensates the hole with very one-dimensional roles (eg., minstrel) or gimmicks that overlook the holes and just places all their bets onto something else (which is also extremely one-dimensional). That impacts not only in-class variety but also between-class variety as certain roles disappear.

That's what the Scrapper example implied because the minstrel meta build is possibly the one that hinges the least of it's utility around the superspeed and already has gear that can compensate for the vitality loss. The meta build takes a hit that will be felt, sure. However, the other builds break and become unsuable. Then there will of course be new non-meta / off-meta builds appearing but here at first glance they seem to be far less creative and appealing for others to group with.

It's not too dissimilar to what we've seen them do to the Druid. It is absolute garbage now for anything but the most dulling instanced PvE play. They decided it should do something specific that doesn't make sense and does not work in the broad contexts of things. It's supposed to "heal" but they stripped it of group utilities and left it clunky and incompetetive - so now it's just a frost-spirit dropper and token heals. Everything exciting and different about it is murdered. We saw the same contradictory motivations behind that too where they said they wanted to make the class more "active" but removed the active damage utility (glyph) and kept the passive utility (frost spirit) which not only is contradictory but also counterproductive as the spirit mechanics only really works in PvE and killed off the non-meta group-utility possibilities it had elsewhere.

With recent history in mind, seeing them state that the Scrapper is supposed to be a "tank" which exists nowhere out of instanced PvE and strips the entire spec down to rely on 15% barrier from damage just scares the scrap out of some players and rightfully so. We can't tell for sure that there won't be some interesting burst/melee builds comming out of it, but very little suggests it on paper. It is far more likely that the entire spec/class is reduced to a lesser meta pocket healer and at best does something in instanced PvE. That feels very uncreative but I will of course try the patch and see if something interesting can be salvaged, I just can't see it beforehand.

[Doug.4930]

@geist.4126 said:Classes that really needed nerfs aren't touched (Warrior, Thief, Mirage), the worst mechanic in the game gets buffed (stealth) and things that should be buffed get weird reworks (malyx).

Really people think those 3 classes are the overpowered ones needing nerfs? I can't comment on thief because I play alot of it and would be biased, however I will state that I don't see many theives at all in WvW. But surely warrior doesn't need any nerfs. I would agree warrior is very easy to play, but its in a good spot at the moment. Mirage I'm on the fence. I'm not really convinced its in the top 3 though.

Top 4 for me, would be Holosmith and Soul beast for roaming with scourge and firebrand for squad fights/zerging. These 4 classes probably make up at least 80% of the player base at the moment. Holosmith has way to much sustain for the amount of damage it can output. Soul beast has too much burst damage to one shot targets. Scourges provide the best boon rip/corruption and cleave in the game by a huge margin. Firebrands Provide the best boon application and sustain by a huge margin. Its an endless loop of people running scourges to corrupt the boon spam, whilst running firebrands to boon spam their allies.

Even in small scale if you run into a team with a firebrand and you don't have a scourge you can't possibly win. So as a result we see both these 2 classes being spammed because they are the only things overpowered enough to counter each other.

[Dawdler.8521]

@Aeolus.3615 said:That one way thief portal sound fun, wonder hownplayers will use it since it’s a one way.They will probably use it one way.

[Shroud.2307]

@Doug.4930 said:

@"geist.4126" said:Classes that really needed nerfs aren't touched (Warrior, Thief, Mirage), the worst mechanic in the game gets buffed (stealth) and things that should be buffed get weird reworks (malyx).

But surely warrior doesn't need any nerfs. I would agree warrior is very easy to play, but its in a good spot at the moment.

I think a friend put it very accurately when she said '"Anet's like, "we noticed a few Warrior skills are unable to one shot so we've buffed those skills."'

I don't have issues with anything in particular because I'm not as concerned with balance as others. That doesn't mean I can't see when something is a little silly however, and Warrior is one of those that has gotten pretty ridiculous over time.

Before anyone wants to attack me for saying this, I'd like to state I'm not complaining about Warrior, only stating that at this point they can use pretty much use any skill they have and any one of them will do a colossal amount of damage if they're glassy. Shouts are probably the only thing left that don't do moderate/high damage because they don't do any.

[Taobella.6597]

new thief trap exicte me because if there semi low CD thief could make it way in to zerging again <3

[LetoII.3782]

I for one aren't looking forward to the coming warrior wars. That class feels too much like playing an fps with an aimbot... Where's the challenge supposed to be when the smart play is popping ignore everything buttons, then waiting in safety for your ignore everything buttons to come back off cooldown? Every time I've tried it I've been bored within an hour.

[Dediggefedde.4961]

@DemonSeed.3528 said:

@"Dediggefedde.4961" said:With the new mechanic, delaying 20% dmg by 2s, I'm actually optimistic about the sustain.I am a little interested in this, doesn't only 20% of whatever dmg come 2s later?Maybe it's because I'm tired, but I think that's what I wrote. ^^

To put more words into it: To my understanding, a burst dmg, for example, rev-hammer-3 hitting for 8k will with this trait only hit for 6.4k and 2s after you get an additional 1.6k damage without "hit". The latter bit is interesting for rune/sigil/trait proccing. If this has an ICD it would be completely trash, since every single auto-attack keeps it on CD. Without ICD, it might actually buy some time in a bomb to use medikit or have your guard heal you. ^^

[VDAC.2137]

I don’t think I’m ever excited for a balance patch as they mostly entail nerfing which never excites me. I am, however, curious to look at the new options for Elementalist. I’ve always wanted to play a power/condi hybrid Ele and maybe these changes will make that more effective?

I’m not happy about the further nerfs to Druid and Chrono, but then they had already been nerfed too much for me to want to play either of them. :anguished:

[Iozeph.5617]

@RisenHowl.2419 said:Yes, there is something to be excited about =D

Yes, but on a scale of =D to ==========D how exciting would it be?

[RisenHowl.2419]

@Iozeph.5617 said:

@RisenHowl.2419 said:Yes, there is something to be excited about =D

Yes, but on a scale of =D to ==========D how exciting would it be?

At least 3 = but no more than 6 =. And probably an 8 on the end, which will be primed but not used unless the patch exceeds expectations by 2+ =.

[Doug.4930]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Doug.4930 said:

@"geist.4126" said:Classes that really needed nerfs aren't touched (Warrior, Thief, Mirage), the worst mechanic in the game gets buffed (stealth) and things that should be buffed get weird reworks (malyx).

But surely warrior doesn't need any nerfs. I would agree warrior is very easy to play, but its in a good spot at the moment.

I think a friend put it very accurately when she said '"Anet's like, "we noticed a few Warrior skills are unable to one shot so we've buffed those skills."'

I don't have issues with anything in particular because I'm not as concerned with balance as others. That doesn't mean I can't see when something is a little silly however, and Warrior is one of those that has gotten pretty ridiculous over time.

Before anyone wants to attack me for saying this, I'd like to state I'm not complaining about Warrior, only stating that at this point they can use pretty much use any skill they have and any one of them will do a colossal amount of damage if they're glassy. Shouts are probably the only thing left that don't do moderate/high damage because they don't do any.

So what build do you believe is the accumulation of warriors strength at the moment? When you say damage are you speaking about something that can burst like berserker's arc divider? Or are you talking about something more sustained like spell breaker still being able to deal good damage whilst having so much defense?

[MedievalThings.5417]

Basically, you're going to see a lot of perma-stealth thieves, hiding inside structures, porting in mesmers.

[geist.4126]

@Doug.4930 said:

@geist.4126 said:Classes that really needed nerfs aren't touched (Warrior, Thief, Mirage), the worst mechanic in the game gets buffed (stealth) and things that should be buffed get weird reworks (malyx).

Really people think those 3 classes are the overpowered ones needing nerfs?

I'm pretty sure about that.If they nerf soulbeast (and boonbeast) they shouldn't stop there and instead have a good look at mirages, thieves and warriors. Warrior is the ony profession right now where all (core, berserker, spellbreaker) are really strong in roaming. I'm basically ok with that when you are not forced to choose one of those, but can play what you want and be successful with it, but warrior is far from being balanced right now. You have great passive heal, you have great mobility, you deal great damage and can be tanky. I don't know why it's completely under Anets radar.The mirage issue isn't new either, but I have the feeling Anet doesn't even know what to do with it, so they ignore it completely.

[Aeolus.3615]

@Ubi.4136 said:Basically, you're going to see a lot of perma-stealth thieves, hiding inside structures, porting in

Sniff and use skills that can reveal.

[MoonT.6845]

Nice one ANet, nerf the crap out of soulbeast and take away any chance we had of dropping any tanky builds. A thief can hit me out of the blue and drop me before I can do a damn thing about it, but that doesn't get nerfed. As a soulbeast I had to go in and out of beast mode, wait for cooldowns then have one shot at dropping my target before they close the gap and spank my glassy arse, and yet you take that away. Great friggin balancing.

[Rod.6581]

@"subversiontwo.7501" said:

I dream of a day when they add particle effects slider to the game.... And then they add option to remove hp bars from squad members, but let you decide if you want to show them for party members, and even color them differently on the mini map...

A man can dream....

And the balance patch... idgaf any more...

[Psycoprophet.8107]

@MoonT.6845 said:Nice one ANet, nerf the kitten out of soulbeast and take away any chance we had of dropping any tanky builds. A thief can hit me out of the blue and drop me before I can do a kitten thing about it, but that doesn't get nerfed. As a soulbeast I had to go in and out of beast mode, wait for cooldowns then have one shot at dropping my target before they close the gap and spank my glassy kitten, and yet you take that away. Great friggin balancing.

Weird cuz ontop of all the things ranger has over thief including sustain and huge range bursts I've actually been burst from 100-0 by a ranger on multiple classes from stealth as well lmao. Sry ur 2 button unblockable insta kill at 2000 range got a little hit :) were all crying for u.

[Svarty.8019]

@"hunkamania.7561" said:If you are a WVW player there is barely anything for you as per usual. The balance team doesn't know WVW exists after almost 7 years

When they used to do a regular WvW Livestream, back in the day, Karl McLain from the balance team was there playing WvW!Like this one: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/435419008

[MoonT.6845]

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:

@MoonT.6845 said:Nice one ANet, nerf the kitten out of soulbeast and take away any chance we had of dropping any tanky builds. A thief can hit me out of the blue and drop me before I can do a kitten thing about it, but that doesn't get nerfed. As a soulbeast I had to go in and out of beast mode, wait for cooldowns then have one shot at dropping my target before they close the gap and spank my glassy kitten, and yet you take that away. Great friggin balancing.

Weird cuz ontop of all the things ranger has over thief including sustain and huge range bursts I've actually been burst from 100-0 by a ranger on multiple classes from stealth as well lmao. Sry ur 2 button unblockable insta kill at 2000 range got a little hit :) were all crying for u.

Clearly clueless about ranger mechanics so resort to sarcasm, forum warriors of the world unite.

[MedievalThings.5417]

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ubi.4136 said:Basically, you're going to see a lot of perma-stealth thieves, hiding inside structures, porting in

Sniff and use skills that can reveal.

Not everybody has a reveal, and sniff is useless. Deadeye just removes reveal.

[godofcows.2451]

I'll just have to say it...it's still not enough.

[LordHT.8297]

One more source of stealth and no more detection pulse.. WvW can be called SvS now. Stealth vs Stealth

[alain.1659]

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ubi.4136 said:Basically, you're going to see a lot of perma-stealth thieves, hiding inside structures, porting in

Sniff and use skills that can reveal.

Like scrapper f5? Oh wait...