Potential Future Balance Changes

[FallFoliageFreek.4925]

In the past while in WvW, I have played support necro and/or thief until both became ineffective. I've tried support Firebrand but do not enjoy the class. Once I tried support Scrapper I knew it was the class for me. Even with recent nerfs, I still love it.

- Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.

I use chemical field on downed players and although I miss pulse detection I much prefer the usage I get out of chemical field as it is more helpful to my team. Support Scrapper has little in the way of DPS, chemical field is one way I can help take a player down.

- Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.

Although I do not currently use Elixir Gun (I opted for Rocket Boots), Scrapper can utilize the condi cleanses via Fumigate and Super Elixir. I'm not happy with a nerf to Purge Gyro (mainly because I'll have to give up Rocket Boot for Elixir Gun) but can adapt to this change.

Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.

I use this exclusively as a defensive measure and feel a 30 second increase from 45 to 75 seconds is far too punishing and prefer if this remain untouched. When compared to the Mesmer's elite Mass Invisibility with its 6 seconds of stealth on a 60 sec cooldown, covering 10 targets in a 1,200 base radius (allies do NOT have to stay within the Mesmer's range once invisi'd) AND additional methods of invisibility (Signet of Midnight and Veil - 2 sec, Decoy and The Prestige - 3 sec, ) at their disposal... toss in Mimic with any of those utility skills and the invisibility of those utility skills just doubled. The Scrapper only has Sneak Gyro with 5 seconds of stealth, a base radius of 240 with a max of 360 radius and allies have to stay close or will be revealed.

Please just leave this alone. This is really of most use to the engineer, especially with the recent nerfs, as we need some way to defend ourselves. Hiding and regrouping is one way of doing so.

Would your gameplay change as a result? Yes, I'd probably discontinue playing WvW altogether. Scrapper has already been hard-hit and these changes would render them nearly useless.

Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game? Anything that takes the fun out of playing does, in my opinion, make things worse. Ten sand shades dropped by multiple players in a large group onto a small group of players would be one example. Near continuous stealth by Thieves and Mesmers, another.

Are you looking forward to these potential changes? No.

What are your concerns with this set of changes? That Scrapper will become useless. There are already fewer Scrappers after the last set of changes.

What consequences do you expect would come from these changes? Fewer Scrappers... heh, no Scrappers.

[Laureh.2097]

Where is the mount dismount thing? It's absurd to have enemies riding along with us and nothing we can do. Nerf the ranger and forget the rest. These balance changes are meaningless if you can't even get an enemy off their mount. If you want it balanced, give everyone portal and stealth. Less reward for upgrading keeps no one has attacked for 4 hours or more. There's only one thing wvw was expecting and that was dismount.

[Opopanax.1803]

I really like almost all of these changes.

I really like the idea of where you are going with warhorn. I really like the idea of Resistance for horn to help the meta (and help counter scourge), but if Resistance is too strong, please consider Protection. I really would love to have warhorn as a better support tool.

Thanks!

PS, Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I would love more communication like this! Please do more of this!

[Ralimisu.2946]

Ranger"Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.65-0.75 in WvW only."If the issue is because of Soulbeasts running power builds it may be more effective to have a built in trait to reduce the effectiveness of +% modifiers rather than touching the auto attack of the longbow as that would impact core rangers and druids as well.

Warrior"Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.""Quick Breathing: Thinking of kicking re-working it a bit to pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration."In my opinion these were quite nice when there was the 20% Cooldown Reduction and 2 conditions removed per warhorn ability via the trait. Less potential condi clear than as it is currently but it was more reliable.

[blambidy.3216]

@Leonidrex.5649 said:

@"blambidy.3216" said:If anything with mesmer you need to rework mirages confusion. I know your trying to nerf mirage, but the only way is to nerf confusion or Riddle of Sand, and nerf confusions movement damage.

sorry to break it to you but Confusion is the wors damaging condition in the game, and RIddle of Sand is not used by anyone ever becouse it sucks.

If it was the worst damage in the game, then how is mirage so crazy in pve including nerfs? How is that mirage being nerfed couple times yet still can produce 30k on largos fight which is the hardest damage fight to do? The fact that confusion relies on movement makes confusion devastating to movement bosses. I do have the incorrect trait that would be nerfed but to say that "confusion is the lowest condition damage in game," is kind of silly.But mirage blind skills provide massage confusion damage which truly should be looked at. Its sad that mirage is the only condi class in meta to use in condi fights besides dhuum. Mirage in pve should indeed be changed. It should also be changed in pvp.

[kraai.7265]

wvw perspectiveEngineer: the problem here is massive stealth low cd rotation, and tons of condi cleanseIn small scale the problem are holos, i don't see many scrappers.

Guardians: I would love to see an end to the fb+scourge meta, im sick of it but this is not enough.

Mesmer: how about giving us back chrono?? single gravity well is useless, scrapper is far better for stealth so forget about veil+mass invisibility, only thing we got left is some cc, focus pull (not enough) and the 30 seconds portal, a skill we share with thiefs now somehow..Illusion of life now with warclaws instakilling, plus all the power creep is really hard to pull off, mantras are useless in big fights, in small scale changes are good.The other changes are ok.

Necro: this ones are good, but same as with guardians i still think it's not enough, maybe narrowing aoe of skills and shape? or range nerfs?

Ranger: any thing that removes a one shot build from the game is good, specially if its a ranged one shot.

Revenants: Gaze of Darknes: do we really need more stealth counters in wvw? now with towers revealing it's impossible to play stealth builds properly.this sort of changes not only hurt perma stealth deadeyes, but also kill other builds like dp thief, or dd power.

Warrior: this changes look ok.

Thiefs: like mesmers, they don't have a substancial place in large fights, except for that staff build but it's meh, organized guilds would prefer you to use any other spec, in small scale all i see is permaevade condi thiefs, i can't understan how they have any fun, but they get no kills, some perma stealth one shot deadeyes, i don't mind them, stealth builds are hard to pull of today, but builds like sword dagger, or staff daredevil are gone, maybe giving it some sustain trading some evades, idk its hard to balance thieves.

Ele: i don't play it, but all i see is bunker builds focused by 4 to 5 players, that kill nobody but rarely die, or one shot builds really hard to play because of skill casting and delays. It was a must in zergs back then because of water fields and blast, but engi strikes again.

[Lonewolf Kai.3682]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:Greetings fellow Tyrians,

We've been thinking about implementing the following changes and wanted to share them with you to hear your thoughts and feedback. We’re aiming to bring into line some of the more dominant builds and compositions of the current WvW meta so that new options can be brought to the table, so the bulk of the changes shared here are WvW-centric. This is not the full list of changes that are being considered for the next balance update.

This is not a call for general profession feedback. Here are a few questions to think about while looking over the potential changes:

• Would your gameplay change as a result?
• Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?
• Are you looking forward to these potential changes?
• What are your concerns with this set of changes?
• What consequences do you expect would come from these changes?

With those types of questions in mind here's some of what we're looking at.

Engineer

• Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.
• Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.
• Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.

Guardian

• Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.
• Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.

Mesmer

• Illusion of Life: Increase the cooldown of this skill from 75 to 90 seconds in PvP & WvW and reduced the duration from 15 seconds to 8 seconds of its effect in PvP & WvW.
• Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.
• Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.
• Chaos Storm: This skill now always dazes on the first strike but can no longer randomly daze on other strikes. This change also applies to Lesser Chaos Storm. Added skill fact to show chaos storm's duration.
• Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.

Necromancer

• Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.
• Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.
• Sand Cascade: Reduce the barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP.
• Sand Flare: Reduced the barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW.

Ranger

• Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.65-0.75 in WvW only.

Revenant

• Coalescence of Ruin: This skill would no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; instead it deals damage equal to what was previously the middle impact damage. Damage remains split between game modes. A red warning rectangle visible to enemies has been added to this skill.
• Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.

Warrior

• Charge: This skill would only removes movement impairing conditions and then increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% in addition to its previous effects. Increase swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill becomes a blast finisher.
• Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.
• Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.
• Quick Breathing: Thinking of kicking re-working it a bit to pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration.

We look forward to seeing your thoughts and feedback!

Sincerely,GW2 Systems Team

Let me first say thank you for the opportunity to let us discuss these changes. Now, as a Guardian who does not play as a support meta build, these changes really worry me, especially with the removal of aegis on F3 2 and 5 skills. This is too big of a nerf to the class. At least consider leaving one of the aegis on the skill.

Considering I play WvW 99.9% of my time and as a Guardian, I’m afraid this will be the death of the game for me. Guardian already has a hard time surviving if you’re wearing stats that aren’t tanky.

[Sandzibar.5134]

More nerfs to longbows? really?Thats the issue in WvW is it? not scourge aoe dmg? pressure from a weapon that suffers from reflection/retal/and projectile hate defense?

Now that unblockable is down to X hits, how about you apply the same logic to reflect and block walls? make them only defend against X hits rather than duration?

Seems logical and fair.

So why no thief changes? their ability to one shot is just as bad as mesmer/rangers ever was. Their ability to evade reprisal is makes them even more unbalanced now that we've got a counter to the counter of stealth.

I dont understand your balance logic @Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 Can you explain what your goals are? maybe add some explanation for your proposed changes? where are you trying to get to?

Its cool you're trying to do something WvW orientated though. Don't get me wrong.

[Ashen.2907]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:We’re aiming to bring into line some of the more dominant builds and compositions of the current WvW meta so that new options can be brought to the table, so the >bulk of the changes shared here are WvW-centric. This is not the full list of changes that are being considered for the next balance update.

Ranger

• Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.65-0.75 in WvW only.

Honest question here:

Do you honestly think that rangers are part of the WvW meta?

A skill that every character has a counter for, a counter without a cooldown....moving, that other characters can reduce the damage of by, again, moving, is going to be nerfed in order to increase the meta viability of other classes that already out damage it?

@Substance E.4852 said:

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:

• Would your gameplay change as a result?

I would stop playing ranger in WvW entirely if you nerf longbow damage directly

If you remove the only thing that made the class unique then I;m just playing a worse Warrior

Essentially this.

[Forbidden Virtue.1089]

Have you ever listened to us before? Because I certainly have never had that feeling whatsoever.

Would your gameplay change as a result? No.Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game? Slightly worsen.Are you looking forward to these potential changes? No.What are your concerns with this set of changes?

• Necromancer: It's still too overpowered, I was kinda hoping for a rework of the shade skills.
• Mesmer: You've already killed off the chronomancer in the last patch, The clones die too quickly - I was hoping for an update on this instead of adding more nerfs.

What consequences do you expect would come from these changes? I don't think the meta will change with these updates. You're just "breaking" things that aren't really broken and you arn't fixing what is broken.

[Leonidrex.5649]

@blambidy.3216 said:

@Leonidrex.5649 said:

@blambidy.3216 said:If anything with mesmer you need to rework mirages confusion. I know your trying to nerf mirage, but the only way is to nerf confusion or Riddle of Sand, and nerf confusions movement damage.

sorry to break it to you but Confusion is the wors damaging condition in the game, and RIddle of Sand is not used by anyone ever becouse it sucks.

If it was the worst damage in the game, then how is mirage so crazy in pve including nerfs? How is that mirage being nerfed couple times yet still can produce 30k on largos fight which is the hardest damage fight to do? The fact that confusion relies on movement makes confusion devastating to movement bosses. I do have the incorrect trait that would be nerfed but to say that "confusion is the lowest condition damage in game," is kind of silly.But mirage blind skills provide massage confusion damage which truly should be looked at. Its sad that mirage is the only condi class in meta to use in condi fights besides dhuum. Mirage in pve should indeed be changed. It should also be changed in pvp.

you are confused my friend, confusion doesnt have its damage tied to movement, but rather attacks.also also, since its bad on literarly everything else, mb let it be good at just 1 thing? preety please? its the worst condi on 99,99% of the content, let it be good for at least 1 thing, ya ? not that i care that much about pve balance, you can do the content with any dps.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Necro:

I don't do much WvW, but imho if 7 to 8 professions span boons like mad, and one specializes in countering that, then you better not nerf that ability on it, unless you're nerfing the boon output of the others in which case - fair game.

[Zedd.8239]

Guardian:

• Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.

My comments are mostly about the proposed changes to the guardian since it's the class I play the most.

Would your gameplay change as a result?Absolutely and not in a positive way.

Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?I don't think the proposed guardian changes will improve the game at all because I don't understand why they're being proposed or what they're trying to solve. If the goal is to reduce the usage of the elite spec in PvE and WvW, then it'll probably achieve that goal. That would worsen the state of the game.

Are you looking forward to these potential changes?No. The guardian changes don't appear to be addressing actual problems with the guardian and instead are being made to fix serious balance problems with other elite specs. That's the exact opposite of what I would expect with balance changes.

What are your concerns with this set of changes?These changes will greatly impact the role of support firebrands in PvE and not for the better. If they're absolutely necessary because of balance issues in WvW or PvP (and I personally don't think they are in WvW at least), I think it would make more sense to split all of them between game modes. Support firebrands already have difficulty taking on a support role in a lot of groups in PvE. Nerfing them further will make it that much harder to fill that role with a firebrand. They also have a decent role in WvW. They aren't unstoppable, though.

What consequences do you expect would come from these changes?Aside from possibly the removal of the condition cleanse to Tome of Courage, Chapter 2, a reduced role for firebrands in every game mode. It'll greatly hurt the firebrand's role in high level fractals and raids. In WvW, it'll make it more difficult to counter scourges and reduce the massive amounts of incoming damage in large encounters. The reduced damage from scourges might help address that particular issue. But the changes to the firebrand feel way too drastic and they appear to be addressing a problem that doesn't exist. The bigger problem with WvW is that scourges are way too powerful and used too much.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

@Ok I Did It.2854 said:there is no competition when fighting someone who can nearly ( if not completely ) 1 shot you from invis, and if they dont, they can just go invis, heal up reset all skills then finish you while your skills are on recharge, completely 1 sided.

You realise that describes at least 4 classes right?

[Jakkun.4561]

Engineer

• Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.
• Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.
• Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.Good changes, also adding an ICD to Purity of Purpose or Superior Rune of Antitoxin 6th effect to make sure conditions are viable again in WvW.

Guardian

• Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.Mostly irrelevant due to the amount of stability and Superspeed available in WvW. No one is dropping any utility skill for it, not even cleanse mantra.
• Tome of Resolve, Chapter 2 - Radiant Recovery: The existing split from PvP of cleansing 2 conditions is brought to WvW as well. This ability would continue to cleanse 3 conditions in PvE.Good change
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.Removing Aegis from all the Tome3 skills ISN'T a wise choice for ALL the game modes for sure, since it hurts directly all the support Firebrand builds in raids/fractals, PvP ATs and WvW zerging.

Mesmer

• Illusion of Life: Increase the cooldown of this skill from 75 to 90 seconds in PvP & WvW and reduced the duration from 15 seconds to 8 seconds of its effect in PvP & WvW.
• Power Break (Mantra of Pain): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.
• Power Lock (Mantra of Distraction): This skill now requires you to face your target and respects line of sight.
• Chaos Storm: This skill now always dazes on the first strike but can no longer randomly daze on other strikes. This change also applies to Lesser Chaos Storm. Added skill fact to show chaos storm's duration.
• Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been re-worked and now reduces the cooldown of one of your weapon abilities by 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.The IoL change makes no sense, but the rest good changes for PvP mainly.

Necromancer

• Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.
• Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.
• Sand Cascade: Reduce the barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP.
• Sand Flare: Reduced the barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW.Good changes for WvW even though barrier application is meh in WvW unless you are running Celestial Scourge, which isnt the case at the moment. Sand Cascade doesn't need a nerf at all for PvP though, no reason to gut or change anything about scourge in PvP, its already balanced.

Ranger

• Long Range Shot: Reduce the damage range of this skill from 0.7-0.9 to 0.65-0.75 in WvW only.Good

Revenant

• Coalescence of Ruin: This skill would no longer deals increased damage with successive impacts; instead it deals damage equal to what was previously the middle impact damage. Damage remains split between game modes. A red warning rectangle visible to enemies has been added to this skill.
• Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.Good change, let's see how the visual will affect WvW since we already got Shade visuals.

Warrior

• Charge: This skill would only removes movement impairing conditions and then increases the damage of affected allies' next 2 attacks by 25% in addition to its previous effects. Increase swiftness duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill becomes a blast finisher.
• Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.
• Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.
• Quick Breathing: Thinking of kicking re-working it a bit to pair with the warhorn skill changes so they feel more cohesive. Continues to increase number of targets for warhorn skills from 5 to 10 and causes warhorn skills to grant an additional boon instead of reducing the cooldown (Fury for Charge and Resistance for Call to Arms). Grant +120 Concentration.Good change, bringing other supports options to the table, even tho i don't think it will verse scrapper, but a niche pick for sure in WvW

[Are.1326]

Honestly not a fan of the changes to chemical field on Engineer with PvE in mind. While Detection pulse is great in WvW and PvP (in very specific situations), it does not even work on most invisible PvE mobs and have no practical aplication in that gamemode.

[TheBravery.9615]

@Are.1326 said:Honestly not a fan of the changes to chemical field on Engineer with PvE in mind. While Detection pulse is great in WvW and PvP (in very specific situations), it does not even work on most invisible PvE mobs and have no practical aplication in that gamemode.

Well then maybe it should be working on pve mobs and more enemies should be using stealth like pvp/wvwPvE in genreal needs to stop being a moronic dpsfest. PvE should respect toughness and armor, should evade more, position better, corrupt/strip boons, apply boons on self, CC more etc.

[Baldrick.8967]

Terrible change for ranger and totally unneccessary. It you're worried about some freak glass cannon one shot build set up, then nerf the co efficients so max damage output from that outlier build comes down- don't use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Rangers are already borderline in wvw, making them worse isn't going to help the class any.

[Zero.3871]

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048 said:Greetings fellow Tyrians,

This is not a call for general profession feedback. Here are a few questions to think about while looking over the potential changes:

• Would your gameplay change as a result?
• Do you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game?
• Are you looking forward to these potential changes?
• What are your concerns with this set of changes?
• What consequences do you expect would come from these changes?

With those types of questions in mind here's some of what we're looking at.

Necromancer

• Feast of Corruption: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.
• Devouring Darkness: Reduce damage by 20% in PvP & WvW. The existing split from PvP of corrupting 2 boons is brought to WvW. This ability continues to corrupt 3 boons in PvE.
• Sand Cascade: Reduce the barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP.
• Sand Flare: Reduced the barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW.

I am somehow scared by getting more overall nerfes on scourge since this class is hardly playable in any game mode outside of big groups.

scourge dont need overall tuning down. it just need BIG group fight nerfes. so you should address the crucial traits/skills on those builds.IMO scourge zerg strenght comes from sand savant, and sand savant should be addressed. if you JUST nerf scourge in the way you plan here, there are 2 results. people that try to counter boons will EVEN MORE stack scourges because you need more to counter all the boonspam OR people will completely abandon this class in the last viable mode. also nerf power dmg on shade skills would drastically change necro meta for zergs since current builds are all power based.

take out sand savant and create a new trait for more support strenght on that class. scourge will loose range on shades that will impact the playstyle and you can create more defensive builds on scourge.

[Sviel.7493]

These seem generally good, but my main profession isn't on the list so I'm looking at it mainly from the outside.

-Generally speaking, lower damage, fewer barriers and less boon chaos seems good for WvW.
-Necromancers need to have less effect or have their effects curtailed in range and these changes start down that path.
-Rangers also deal absurd amounts of damage for how scrappy they are. They should still hurt, but toning it down a bit should allow for more fun than simply getting blown up if they land a stun/knockdown.-Revenants also needed some damage shifting, though I can't say I have a great handle on how it should happen. CoR seems like a good place to start checking around.-Warriors new charge seems a lot more fun. I don't know if it's better or worse, but I would absolutely try to use it if these changes go through.

[Kiroshima.8497]

Why are we nerfing necro's scepter (affecting reaper and core) and not scourge's damage? If anything barrier healing power scaling should be buffed on scourge.

Core Necro should be the mixed range damage dealer (trait to adjust). Make Shroud 4 and Shroud 5 ranged, centered on the target, but casts on self with no target. Add aoe to Doom (shroud 3), and make Life Blast aoe with a trait, but spends more life force.

Reaper should be the melee specialist (heavy condi or power options, make deathly chill inflict 1 torment OR 2 bleeds)

Scourge the support specialist and boon corruptor. Basically slapping a guardian multiclass onto necro with a sand/desert theme.

First, remove all damage from F1. Adjust to grant barrier on placement.Increase the healing ratio and nerf the base values of barrier.

Punishments are true corruptions, no longer inflict torment and cripple.

F2 converts 1 condition into barrier.F3 is fine.F4 grants barrier to nearby allies per enemy feared (check for stab first, applied in 1 chunk to avoid barrier traits multi procing).F5 no longer inflicts torment nor damage, instead turns into a 2nd skill that consumes all barrier on the necro for damage and burning. The more barrier you have, the more damage and burning stacks. F5-1 cooldown reduced, F5-2 cooldown should be like 45.

As for traits, they will focus on raw barrier, boon rip and burning, or on barrier utility.

Abrasive grit: F3 grants protection and retaliation.Fell Beacon: Torch increases concentration and expertise instead. Torch skills grant barrier to allies in their aoe.Nourishing Ashes: Heal allies when their barrier runs out. No longer grants life force.Desert Empowerment: F2 converts an additional condition into barrier. Whenever you cleanse yourself or allies, grant might to them. (consume conditions could give you all the might).Sadistic Searing: Gain life force and inflict burning whenever you WOULD corrupt boons on enemies (enemies with no boons wouldbe burned still). Punishment cd still reduced.Herald of Sorrow: Granting barrier to allies (not self) reduces CD of f5-2 by 1 second. f5-2 only removes 50% of the necro's barrier.Sand Savant unchanged, no longer necessary since damage has been removed at base.Demonic Lore: Feed from Corruption goes here, additionally corrupt an additional boon whenever you corrupt or remove boons.Feed From Corruption: Replaced with a new effect called Sand Dispersion. Skills that do not pulse barrier grant stability and aegis.

[Tranquillity.8697]

Illusion of life nerf is unnescesary in pvp. please stop taking away interresting things from mesmer. I get that mirage is still op but you keep taking away things that makes mesmer unique. Same goes for recent chrono changes.

[Moody Soul.5617]

Great balance all across the board I dislike the mantra changes cause power Mesmer needs some love, but everything else I say is fine maybe bring some holo nerfs to mind and rework to portal on Mesmer possible make it like the theif portal or bring back the old Mesmer portal but limit the number of people who could go through and one last wish is to rework warrior sword f1 and possible make to similar to axe f1 to make it a choice of massive damage by buffing axe two or more mobility with sword 2 and makes a dagger a choice between the two, simply sword needs a new f1 to be somewhat more viable but no damage buffs is needed for sword though.

[LegohBrave.1823]

I have a few issues with what ANET is doing with SUPPORT classes for wvw.First, I like the idea of bringing back REVEAL and replacing Chemical field. If you do nothing else, PLEASE DO THIS.Second, please do not break Purge Gyro... It is fine just how it is.Next, I am not happy about nerfing sneak gyro but I will accept it. It sounds fair. The stealth meta is a little meh.Lastly, my real issue is that we are stuck with Firebrand/Scrapper as your main support classes. Despite your attempts to make Tempest meta again, you have failed because PURITY OF PURPOSE exists. As long as POP exists, no clear class is desired besides scrapper. Think about it. Every condi clear class you add instead of scrapper is a loss of BOONS. I can hear a thousand boons dying in the void when tempests outclear scrappers in fights. We are stuck with Firebrands because of the consistent STAB and utility and we are stuck with scrappers because of the clears, heals, and stealth. The amount of SuperSpeed is also toxic. like 15 seconds of nonstop superspeed when a class like rev and tempest has massive superspeed cooldowns.To many any support class compete with firebrand and scrapper, all the other support builds need to be boosted, or POP and FB stab uptime pounded hard.Many thanks for balance patches, please update more often. o7

[Jables.4659]

I main Mesmer so my gameplay will not change at all. We are already terrible in zergs and will apparently be even worse now. I know you didn't want specific profession feedback, but please consider making Chronomancer useable again. Also, I'd appreciate you not nerfing core Mesmer traits and skills, and instead look at the thing that makes Condition Mirage an oppressive force. Ill give you a Hint, it starts with Infinite and ends with Horizon. In order for proper changes to occur, you will need to revert a good chunk of the core profession nerfs as well as tweak some numbers in relation to stacks and durations of conditions on various skills to make up for the loss in passive damage. The goal would be to force the cancermirage to actually engage the target in order to deal damage. Its been rather sad to see so many fun Mesmer builds essentially trashed in order to have a minor impact on the IH condi builds. Its not fun to play, its not fun to play against. Just get rid of IH and rebuild the profession. It will take work, but that's what your job is supposed to be.