Potential Future Balance Changes

[EvilSardine.9635]

These are great changes. Especially the sneak gyro and the longrange shot balances.

Can you please take a look at weapons that are barely used and aren't considered meta? It would be great if every weapon in the game was perfectly viable. For instance, offhand sword, mace, and axe on warrior is pretty terrible and would never be picked over shield. If you give offhand sword some buffs to damage, give offhand mace a better number 4, and give offhand axe a reflect it would be amazing.

[TheBravery.9615]

Traits

Strength
Issue	Suggestion
Reckless Dodge: For a Minor adept trait, this is disproportionately overpowered in comparison to their traits in the same tier. Unblockable, grants might, and capable of hitting over 8K damage by glass builds.	Make blockable, reduce damage.
Brave Stride: Design of this trait only benefits the warrior once when entering combat and provides no benefit in sustained combat state. Goes against the design philosophy of the warrior remaining in combat and gaining adrenaline.	Rework this. Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on your first strike entering combat. Landing burst attacks grant 1 stack of 4 second stability. (8s ICD)
Peak Performance: Death from above has no target cap, possible oversight or bug.	Implement a 5 player target cap on death from above.
Body Blow: Competes directly in line with Forceful greatsword, which has benefits even on warriors running without greatsword / spear. Condi damage based trait in a power based traitline, zero use case scenarios to take this over great fortitude or forceful greatsword, even on condi builds.	Rework this. Critical hits grant 1 second of might and grant bonus adrenaline.
Forceful Greatsword: Disproportionately stronger compared to it's cousin traits, Blademaster and Heat the Soul. (Basically an increase in trait with the added benefit of gaining might)	Remove might gain (Move to Body Blow)
Merciless Hammer: A niche trait that mainly benefits hammer (for those that don't use hammer, the adrenaline is not worth taking. Control windows are far too short to take any benefit of the damage increase on controlled foes), competes with berserker's power and might makes right which are superior choices to take, yet not in any means overpowered.	Rework this. Hammer skills gain reduced recharge. Backbreaker becomes Merciless Hammer. (Basically the same skill, except it's an 180 radius aoe blast finisher that removes barrier off foes). Inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability when you disable, additional 10 stacks on interrupts.
Arms
Issue	Suggestion
Wounding Precision: Unusual combination and lazy by design. Precision benefits critical strikes, which is power based. This expect players to have high precision before condi based stats to maximize benefit, but would typically be the other way around. (max condi damage, precision would be an afterthought)	Rework this. Gain 180 expertise for 5 seconds when landing a burst attack.
Signet Mastery: Inaccurate tooltip, grants might	Update tooltip to reflect the might gained.
Opportunist: Warrior only have 5 skills in their entire arsenal that inflict immobilize. 1 of which is from an aquatic weapon, another 1 from a utility, and another from a burst attack- meaning only 2 weapons skills inflict immobilize For a trait that benefits when you inflict immobilize, this is extremely lacking. Need to turn it around and have it inflict immobilize under special conditions. Would be great if was in tactics with leg specialist.	Rework this. Swap with Burning Arrows in Tactics. Critical strikes against foes under 25% health will immobilize them for 1 second (15s cd). Gain 5s fury when striking foes under 25%. (15s cd)
Unsuspecting Foe: Window of opportunity is too low to make use of this trait as is. CC effects usually last under 3 seconds at a time, stun breaks and stability abundance makes this useless. Adding more opportunities may make this worth taking.	Rework this. Increase critical chance against foes when striking from the side, from behind, or when disabled. Reduce crit chance from +50% to +20%.
Furious: Similar issue with Wounding precision and the arms trait line in general, how it mixes critical hits with condition damage. The grandmaster traits all seem to lack any traits to offer to pure condi builds without requiring precision.	Rework this. Burst attacks inflict multiple conditions based on boons on you and as long as you have fury. (based on boon-condition conversion table; e.g. if you have aegis, your burst will also inflict burning). (maximum 6 conditions inflicted per foe per burst, 8s icd)
Dual Wielding: Too much of a niche and the benefit is minimal even when wielding dual weapons. The speed increase conflicts with the speed cap that comes with quickness.	Scrap this, replace with Concussive Blows. Critical strikes against a foe with 25 stacks of vulnerability will inflict a concussion. [Concussion: 1/4 second daze. If target was interrupted, stuns for 1/2 second instead. inflicts 4s weakness and 2 stacks of 6s confusion, and deals some damage. Loses all stacks of vulnerability, 8 second icd]
Defense
Issue	Suggestion
Thick Skin: Design of this trait is ill-suited for warrior. Better to base it off range constraints instead of health.	Reduce damage from foes by 10% within range threshold (300 range)
Defy Pain: Despite it's history of nerfs it remains a prime choice in the defense trait line, but mostly because of the fact it competes with the likes of sundering mace and armored attack. It's likely in the best interest of the balance of this game to just move it to swap it with Rousing Resilience in Major Grandmaster, so the Major Grandmaster traits offer the choice between physical damage mitigation (defy pain), condition damage mitigation (Cleansing Ire), or control mitigation (Last Stand). Needs an active component to reduce passive traits.	Swap places with Rousing Resilience in Major Grandmaster. Revert PvP splits. Add an activation requirement: Must land a burst attack to activate trait for 60 seconds
Sundering Mace: Too much of a niche and current benefit is minimal.	Rework this. Change it so stun/daze/knockdown effects last longer based on +0.5% per vulnerability stack regardless of weapon wielded. (25 stacks of vulnerability = 12.5% longer). Effect is doubled when wielding a mace (25 stacks of vulnerability = 25% longer). Mace skills have reduced recharge.
Last Stand: Tooltip is inaccurate. Trait will proc when warrior has stability and isn't disabled. Also a passive trait that needs active components.	Either update tooltip so it clarifies so this will proc when struck by an attack with a disable effect or account for when the warriors have stability. Add in a activation requirement: Must break a stun in order to activate trait for 60 seconds. Revert PvP splits.
Cleansing Ire: Fell out of favor due to rampant condi re-application. In need of a minor tune up. Conflicts with spellbreaker's "Revenge Counter", removes condition before they're transferred.	Update this so you remove 3 conditions regardless of amount of adrenaline spent. Rework it so transfer effects occur before the conditions are removed. Removes Blind before burst.
Rousing Resilience: See notes on Defy pain.	Swap with Defy pain in Major Master.
Tactics
Issue	Suggestion
Leg Specialist: Almost the same issue as opportunist, but also partly empowered is superior and there's hardly any use case scenarios for this.	Rework this. Cripples and immobilizes you apply have longer duration. Inflict cripple when you immobilize a foe. (No ICD)
Quick Breathing: Benefits only warhorn, continue reworking weapon only traits to have a wider benefit.	Make warhorn target 10 allies baseline. Gain vitality, gain bonus vitality when wielding a warhorn. Reduce cooldown on warhorn skills.
Shrug it Off: Weak due to it's nerf of being a passive trait, redundant shout trait, and only removes one condition on a high cooldown.	Scrap this trait. Replace it with a new trait: Removing conditions replaces the condition with regeneration. Regeneration you grant also gives 150 bonus vitality and toughness.
Burning Arrows: Similar issue with Sundering mace, too much of a niche. This is often sought by condi builds but it's out of place in tactics..	Rework this. Make the burning baseline. Swap places with the new "opportunist" trait in Arms. Increase precision. Double effects when wielding a longbow. reduce cooldown on longbow.
Powerful Synergy: This is great and all, but I can't help but wonder why all combo finishers inflict only condis and offer no real benefit to power builds.	Allow combo finishers to inflict power damage as well in addition to its current effects. (Might be a deeper issue at hand with combo finishers in general). In addition to it's current effects, grant the combo imitator regeneration and endurance.
Phalanx Strength: Fell out of favor with the nerf and made it no longer a viable option.	In addition to it's current effects, increase personal might cap from 25 to 30.
Discipline
Issue	Suggestion
Crack Shot: See notes on rifle rework. Weapon is ineffective by design and needs more than this trait to make it workable. Also suffers from the nice issue with Sundering Mace and Burning Arrows.	Rework this. Deal 0.5% more damage per stack of vulnerability on foes. Effect doubles when wielding harpoon gun or rifle.
Warrior's Sprint: Trait offers plenty of utility by itself, the damage increase is power creep.	Remove the damage increase. Replace it with: Removing immobilize grants 3s of swiftness.
Vengeful Return: Too much of a niche with limited benefit. Requires you to actually go into downed state to make this beneficial and must wait for vengeance to become available.	Scrap this and rework it. When your health falls below 50%, gain 10 strikes adrenaline and recharge your burst attack. Outgoing power/condition damage is increased by 20% for 10 seconds when your health is low (60s cd).
Fast Hands: This has long been an issue of controversy for warriors. Being the profession with the least amount of skills available at a given time, a large percentage of skills are locked behind the weapon swap cooldown. This is the reason why warriors are so dependent on this trait. Not totally in favor of making weapon swapping 5 seconds, but willing to compromise.	Make warrior baseline weapon swapping reduced down to 8 seconds. Keep trait at 5 seconds.
Axe Mastery: Have an issue with how the 3 major grandmaster traits in discipline all compete for power damage. Axes have decent combo-chains, so adrenaline is hardly an issue.	Rework this. Burst attacks deal 10% more damage regardless of weapon wielded. Gain 200 ferocity while wielding axes, reduce axe skill cooldown.
Heightened Focus: Have an issue with how the 3 major grandmaster traits in discipline all compete for power damage. Heightened focus is the only option that gives condi builds some place, yet it's slightly weaker than burst mastery.	Also restore a portion of Adrenaline spent in addition to current effects.
Burst Mastery: Have an issue with how the 3 major grandmaster traits in discipline all compete for power damage. Heightened focus is the only option that gives condi builds some place, yet it's slightly weaker than burst mastery.	Scrap this trait. Move the adrenaline recovery to heightened focus, move the burst damage increase to axe mastery. Create a new trait in it's place that specifically benefits condition builds. Swapping weapons will knock back foes within a 130 range PBAOE radius (8s icd). If this attack hits, your next 5 attacks will inflict 2 stacks of 8 second poison.
Berserker
Issue	Suggestion
Smash Brawler: My issue with this is that it's pve minded only and is not a viable option for PvP and WvW due to the uncontrollable nature of berserk and when it's needed most.	In addition to current effect, Rage skills are now able to reduce the cooldown of berserk mode outside berserk mode.
Last Blaze: Panders to condi builds, but requires usage of rage skills. Only condi rage skill available is shattering blow. Berserker being a condi oriented spec should have an option for their primal bursts inflict more condi as a trait. No such option exists, this would address that issue.	In addition to its current effects, primal burst attacks inflict burning. Can only occur once per interval per target for multi hit burst skills.
Savage Instinct: Seeing how long berserk mode is now, this trait is only useful when you enter berserk mode. Incredibly useless trait due to it's' limited use scenario. Warriors enter berserk mode to deal damage and this punishes warriors from entering berserk mode unless it's used defensively. Granting primal bursts stun breaks will provide more situations to use this trait. Damage reduction in berserk kind of goes against berserk design philosophy.	Remove the damage reduction. Add stun breaks to primal bursts.
Dead or Alive: Benefit scenario of the fatal damage healing is too limited and specific. Competes yet is outperformed by bloodreaction and heat the soul.	Scrap everything, replace it with: landing primal bursts grant barrier.
King of Fires: Really have no idea why they added power damage to this.	Remove the power damage.
Eternal Champion: Bloody roar and king of fires outright outperform this. Requires you to be controlled in order for this to take effect, even then the benefit is limited.	Rework this. Prevent berserkers from gaining stability and protection while in berserk mode. While in berserk, your attacks are uninterruptible and any incoming stability or protection you gain is immediately converted to vigor, fury, retaliation, regeneration, and resistance. Evade for half a second when you break stuns. Getting interrupted outside of berserk mode will grant adrenaline.
Spellbreaker
Issue	Suggestion
Sun and Moon Style: While Loss aversion and Slow counter aren't overpowered traits, Sun And Moon Style is specific to dagger and even as a niche falls short in comparison.	Change it so 3% of outgoing damage heals you regardless of weapon wielded. Effect is doubled when wielding daggers.

[TheBravery.9615]

Skills

Mechanic
issue	Suggestion
Full Counter: For a profession mechanic this has become a very weak attack in competitive modes. Overnerfed. Initial issues came from it's behavior, activating from ranged attacks and punishing allies near the spellbreaker if hit accidentally.	Change it's behavior so it's similar to Riposte, blocking ranged attacks and only activating when struck by a melee attack by an opponent within range. Increase damage in competitive modes to 50% of PvE damage.Make this skill have animation priority over other skills instead of queuing behind so this can be used reactively instead of predictively. Inflict disenchantment for 5 seconds on enemies you strike (unable to apply boons). Reduce block duration to 1 second.
Hammer
issue	Suggestion
Rupturing Smash: Part of the reason why berserker warriors don't run with hammer, there's little reason to take it over other weapons because it's burst is weak and awkward to use with it's unusual hitbox.	Change AOE to full circle. Return the cascading attack effect. Reduce daze duration to half second, Remove immobilize.
Longbow
issue	Suggestion
Scorched Earth: Minor bug or oversight, your are able to proc adrenaline traits even if you don't hit anyone with this if you just fire this and it lands on the ground.	Fix bug
Combustive Shot: Same issue as scorched earth.	Fix bug
Auto Attack: Would be nice to have the burning here without taking the trait, it has a decent condi set but the auto attack lacks it.	Add Burning effect to auto attack.
Rifle
issue	Suggestion
Gun Flame: Probably the only reason why berserkers take rifle in the first place, gunflame is a formidable attack that's capable of dealing sudden high damage up towards 30k+ on certain builds. I admit this may need a tune-down.	Slightly reduce damage
Kill Shot: Severely outdated cheesy attack. Needs a usability update	Remove the kneel animation to cast. Allow movement. Add visual indicator.
Auto Attack: Rifle is full of usability issues. The biggest issue with it is it's dependency on single striking attacks and low adrenaline gain. Having bonus adrenaline contingent on vulnerability is a patch but does not resolve the issue.	Divide damage across a 3 round burst, gain bonus adrenaline if all 3 rounds hit your target.
Aimed Shot: Continuing with fixing rifle, it lacks multi target hitting attacks.	Rework this, make this shoot an explosive bullet that inflicts vulnerability and cripple around your target. (2 charges)
Brutal Shot: The animation of the dodge and how it's positioned after the attack casting animation makes the reaction predictive instead of reactive. Reducing cast time could help.	Reduce cast time to quarter second, give animation priority instead of queuing behind current active skills.
Mace
issue	Suggestion
Skull Grinder: No one uses Mace on berserker anymore. The splits are no longer necessary	Undo splits, revert to PVE specs.
Auto Attack: The final attack has a longer windup than necessary	Reduce Pulverize cast time to half second to align with rest of mace auto attack.
Counter Blow: Having access to a blocking ability on a mainhand weapon is valuable, but this requires a usability update as it's difficult to make use of.	Allow control over the counter attack, continue blocking until struck. If struck, replace adrenaline rush with Counterattack. Make this skill have animation priority over other skills instead of queuing behind so this can be used reactively instead of predictively.
Pommel Bash: This is a low damage skill and used primarily to interrupt. Would be nice to make more use of it.	Give 2 charges, increase cooldown to 20 seconds, reduce daze to 1/2 second.
Tremor: It does decent damage, but it's awkward to use at range mainly due to it's slow projectile speed in which enemies can simply sidestep it. Also looks weird, like you're unleashing a gopher.	Make ground targeted, make it an ranged AOE attack instead of projectile.
Sword
issue	Suggestion
Flurry: This is a pretty awful attack to spend adrenaline on. Long cast time, self rooting, poor damage. Final Thrust is more worthy of being a burst attack..	Just swap places with Final Thrust
Final Thrust: This is a good attack, worthy of being a burst. More so than flurry..	Just swap places with Flurry
Riposte: In need of a usability update	Same recommendation as Counter Blow on Mace.
Harpoon Gun
issue	Suggestion
Puncture Shot: Inaccurate tooltip, low damage	Appears to do more damage than tooltip suggests. Update tooltip. May also want to increase damage, autoattack does more damage.
Split Shot: Inaccurate tooltip, low damage.	Update tooltip so it shows that 5 shots are fired in a fan. Update tooltip damage so it shows (5). May also want to increase damage.
Knot Shot: Low damage (183)	Increase damage
Spear
issue	Suggestion
Wild Whirl: Leaves much to be desired. Whirling strike is superior in damage and control. Not worthy of a berserk skill.	Give this the arc divider treatment underwater. Remove burning.
Parry: Usability Update	Same recommendation as Counter Blow on Mace.
Healing
issue	Suggestion
Natural Healing: Zero reason to take this when it removes your boons.	Add the benefit of refreshing your full counter ability as well.
Utility
issue	Suggestion
Outrage: What I dislike about the changes to the rage skills and h ow they tie with berserker duration is the fact that they don't benefit the warrior outside of berserker. It could be given a Glyph / physical treatment which would give it more uses	While in berserk mode, this increases berserk duration (more if breaking a stun). Outside of berserk mode, you gain adrenaline. Gain 2 additional charges, increase cooldown to 20 seconds.
Shattering Blow: Same issue as outrage.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline.
Sundering Leap: Same issue as outrage, doesn't have a use scenario or niche to use.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline. Reduce cast time to half second, change from vulnerability and cripple to burning, bleeding, and torment.
Wild Blow: Same issue as outrage, nice use.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline.
Sight Beyond Sight: That recent 2 second revealed increase did not change the underlying flaws with this ability and how stealth works in game.	Increase radius to 600. Grants self the ability to see stealthed players within range for 10s. Add visual indicator.
Featherfoot Grace: No longer used in competitive settings	Normalize to PVE cooldown of 30 seconds in competitive modes.
Imminent Threat: High cooldown with low benefit. The retaliation and adrenaline feels more of an afterthought than anything.	Reduce cooldown to 25 seconds, reduce taunt to one second. Remove the retaliation and adrenaline gain. Inflict Exhaustion on foes for 5 seconds on taunted enemies.
Fear Me: Cooldown too high for low benefit.	This is a gimmick so I guess embrace the gimmick? If the 5 target cap limit is lifted and this is able to fear 15 enemies, this would be worth taking in such a scenario even with a 60 second cooldown.
Frenzy: Reason why this isn't taken is because this is only a damage modifier skill and there are better options out there for warrior. If this offered more utility in the form of something else, this would be considered.	Rework this. No longer breaks stuns. For 10 seconds, burst attacks use reduced adrenaline. Pulse quickness and alacrity. 40s cd.
Banners: Banner of Defense and Tactics will never see use in any game mode. Banner of Strength and Discipline see good use in PvE. Unequal weight of banners, favoring strength and discipline.	Make the banners single stat @ 170 points. (Power / Ferocity / Condition Damage / Expertise)
Elite
issue	Suggestion
Battle Standard: Tooltip doesn't specify how many downed enemies will it finish. The might/swiftness/fury does not benefit from compassionate banner trait, benefit is heavily loaded into the initial cast and the lasting effect of the banner is underwhelming.	Remove the might/fury/swiftness. Replace it with a +100 gain in power, toughness, Concentration, and precision. Update tooltip so it specifies how many downed foes it can finish.
Signet of Rage: Totally obsolete skill that's been forgotten.	Rework this. While passive: Adrenaline decay outside of combat is slowed down by 75%. While active: your cleave cap is increased by 5 additional targets for 20 seconds. Killing enemies during this time will fill your adrenaline and refresh your burst cooldown.
Headbutt: Same issue as outrage.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, reduces the berserk mode cooldown. Increase CD to 30s.

[RisenHowl.2419]

@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048" said:Engineer

• Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.Excellent change, the reveal was the best/only counter to stealth pushes in wvw.
• Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.This isn't a good change, the problem with scrapper is the interaction between antitoxin runes and purity of purpose. The same runes are broken for every class they are used with. On mesmer and thief, they make you essentially immune to conditions. On tempest or scrapper, you make your entire zerg immune to conditions. Purity of purpose is strong, but only broken due to the runes.
• Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.Good

Guardian

• Sanctuary: Increase number of enemies that can be knocked back by this skill from 10 to 20 before it expires.10 fbs in a full squad can now strip 200 stacks of stab while putting out 500 stacks of stab using stand your ground. This could be an interesting change, opening up CC heavy comps. Unfortunately, sanctuary isn't the way to do it unless you make the CC start when the skill lands. Currently the knockback doesn't occur until the bubble has been up for ~2s, that's why the trait for it is never picked in competitive modes- you're dead before it starts pushing people away.
• 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
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 2 - Daring Challenge: This skill grants retaliation for 3 seconds instead of aegis.The aegis only applies to the guardian, not the people around them. Removing it from this skill makes you a free kill versus thief, rev, holosmith, and warrior. It's the "oh kitten" button that makes the tome worthwhile in pvp combined with f3 #4, they provide breathing room to recover if you get jumped. It's already locked behind two cast times. Bad change
• Tome of Courage, Chapter 5 - Unbroken Lines: This skill no longer grants aegis or retaliation.This is a good change, f3 #5 is way overloaded with effects and removing these two will have a noticeable but not severe impact

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.Good change, won't have much impact though
• 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.Good
• 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.Good, makes the skill more reliable and opens up skilled play
• 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.Make it 1-2s for the entire current weapon set. Otherwise your fights can come down to RNG instead of player skill

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.Both good changes
• Sand Cascade: Reduce the barrier granted by this skill by 33% in WvW & PvP.This is a bad change in pvp and won't make a difference in wvw, scourge is already incredibly easy to focus. <900 Range or chain CC and scourges just melt, they have no mobility and really poor access to stability.
• Sand Flare: Reduced the barrier granted by this skill by 25% in WvW.This is a good change, lowers the prestack of barrier on push.

Honestly though, the problem with scourge is sand savant. It's insane not to take it, going from 3 to 5 targets is a 60% increase in output. It's one of the best traits in the game, bar none. If you really want to address scourge, keep the target cap on sand savant but add a modifier that changes your manifest sand shade to healing at the same rate that it currently deals damage.

where currently it deals damage with a .666 power coefficient, have it instead heal targets inside your shades with a 200 base and .666 healing modifier. Since each shade skill triggers manifest sand shade, now each f skill is a small 10 target heal. That opens up support scourge for both pve/wvw, reduces the spam and load on the servers, and opens up every other melee class that is currently pushed out by scourge. This one change would completely revamp the wvw meta in a way that would get people excited instead of pissing them off.

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, might also consider changing the coefficient for rapid fire from .375 per hit to .3 as well. That still leaves is really strong while cutting out the top end.

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.THANK YOU! THIS HAS BEEN NEEDED IN WVW FOR YEARS. Seriously, this makes rev hammer useful in push and de-incentivizes the pirate ship meta. Being able to see the 15k CoRs means you can actually react to them instead of 'oh, suddenly i died' checks log 'yup, CoR again. sure wish they'd add a way to see it coming'
• Gaze of Darkness: This skill would reveal stealthed enemies up to 600 range away in addition to striking enemies within its 360 radius.Good, not as important as reveal on scrapper but definitely still useful

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.Everything but the +25% damage is a good change. It should only be 10%, 25% is a big number when you factor in all the multipliers available. You'll end up reinforcing the pirate ship with this change instead of shaking it up. stack->stealth+might->charge->CoR+phase smash and hey look 15 downs!
• Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.Good
• Sight Beyond Sight: Increase the radius of this ability to reveal hidden enemies up to 600 range away.Good
• 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.Great change

We look forward to seeing your thoughts and feedback!

Sincerely,GW2 Systems Team

Thank you for posting the ideas for community feedback =D

Seriously though, your main problems are antitoxin runes, sand savant, and coalescence of ruin. I'm glad you guys are addressing CoR, don't forget the other two or randomly nerf classes because of them. antitoxin is a 200% outgoing modifier and sand savant is a 160% modifier and both are active 100% of the time, that's why they're so incredibly strong/meta defining

[Cyric.7813]

Me reading every Ranger's notes: nerf nerf nerf nerf

[Falkor.7932]

This is my first time logging in to the updated forums, so I hope that says something to how I feel about this change.

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.

While I don't particularly like the change, I understand why it's being done. My main problem when you start doing these changes, is that when you are NOT moving, and use a skill on a target behind you, they don't always change your facing on activation, and instead proc a "no line of sight" message. If I pause my movement to cast a skill on a target I've spotted behind me, using the skill should change my facing to hit that target.

Thank you.

[Acyk.9671]

deleted

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Acyk.9671

[FrigginPaco.4178]

Generally speaking, I like the stated changes for Rev, however, Mallyx needs some energy management love. It's difficult to maintain pressure when the right hand skills drain so much and you might want to also use your weapon skills occasionally... Additionally, they're still pretty clunky.

Would your gameplay change as a result? Not much? It would just be "extra" concerningDo you feel these changes would improve or worsen the state of the game? I mean, they an only improve things from what I saw.Are you looking forward to these potential changes? Sure.What are your concerns with this set of changes? They're useful, but I don't see a lot of build diversity with rev. It's hard to do with the weapons they have since they're so niche and so few with combinations that work. If you're power you're S/S or S/A and Staff. If you're condi you're Mace/Something, not much else happening with weapons shortbow, but frankly I never use renegade....What consequences do you expect would come from these changes? Well... I would only access Gaze of Darkness on a regular basis because I haven't changed from Herald in 4 years... like a good chunk of roaming revs...

[Alexander.4561]

Any chance you revert the insanely stupid Steal range nerf for daredevil?Daredevil is already inferior to both deadeye and core in pvp, there was no reason to nerf it, its just baseless thief hate while necro is still untouched pvp wise and this small nerf wont change anything about it, promotes degenerate gameplay with only spamming your shade skills off cd and every other weaponskill.

[Atille.5047]

First of all, thank you for communicating - I hope this will be heard as a heartfelt thanks, and I pray that these posts on this thread will influence the final deliberations for balance patch.

Now, going down the list of changes; whichever I don't mention means I don't mind it.

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

I understand the need, and chemical field is a very underwhelming skill. However, what I would prefer is rollback on about half of the last rework. The design of "deal damage to generate barrier but you don't actually deal good damage to do it fast enough, also -300 vit for no reason" is what hurts Scrapper's viability the most, not reveal loss. I did like Function Gyro on F5, though.

2) 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.

It's a very long cooldown kit with limited uses between that said cooldown. At least Unbroken Lines should keep aegis, because otherwise this skill is not worth pressing - during heavy pressure, those 300 toughness won't make a lick of difference, especially considering that skill before it - 4 - allows you to negate condition damage entirely for the duration. And breaks stuns. I do agree with Stability removal, however.

3) Mesmer

Ah, my former main.

Illusion of Life

This skill a useless niche pick for extremely situational purposes, which are often (practically never) see actual play. Rework entirely, please. We could use a better manipulation, especially now that manipulation trait is nerfed heavily.

Mantra reworksIt doesn't address the issue. They don't do a lot already, especially now that CI is gone. Mantras are being complained about due to "lacking counterplay", sure, but this doesn't address it whatsoever. Maybe mantras shouldn't be 1200 range?

Chaotic InterruptionI'd prefer just getting boons, not unreliable rng game for playing interruptions. The payoff would be inconsistent.

And now, can we please get something about Chrono? Do you intent on keeping it this way? Does majorly negative feedback about it's reduced usability influenced anything? Can we pray that 2012 - esque change will be undone, for it did nothing for class' powerlevel, just hampered it's mechanical enjoyment and killed it in PvP modes?

4) Scourge

Agree with all. Would also add "nerf blood". And Greater Sand Shade as a trait needs to go.What also needs to go is ability to use shade skills without shades. If anything ever needed illusionary persona, it's this.

5) Warrior

It's okay. Please take a look at very underperforming weapons on this class (rifle, hammer, swords, bow) as well, and do something about banners. My proposal would be making their effects attached to a passive trait in Discipline, granting the effects upon landing burst/cc/using healskill, etc, thus making bannerslave warrior requiring it while freeing up it's utility choices by making banners, well... Less of an uninteractive statstick button you press once a minute and then forget about? It'd also force it to change up the rotation and finally will allow Berserker to exist like a normal DPS, making builds more defined. Also, buff def plz

If you did read through it, again, thank you. I'm hoping any of this was helpful.

[LucianTheAngelic.7054]

It might actually be a buff in sPvP, and maybe even PvE as well. The odds of getting a maximum-range hit in the often fairly cramped sPvP maps is pretty darn low, so increasing the close-range damage of CoR would probably be a buff in sPvP.

Not that rev hammer gets used in sPvP more than once in a blue moon anyway, but if anything this change might actually help it.

As someone who has played predominantly hammer Rev in PvP since HoT I don’t agree that it would be a buff overall. Hammer’s role is to provide long range big hit AoE damage And it can only achieve that because the 3rd hit is strong. With proper positioning it’s certainly possible to hit that 801 - 1200 range 3rd hit on enemies in fights consistently (I’m able to do it so others can too). While it’s certainly a buff for close range it’s not a big enough buff to be impactful since hammer is not great at close range anyway due to the fact it’s slow and has no knock backs. If you’re in close range with hammer you’re usually going to switch to your melee set shortly anyway. So the trade off to these changes here is that hammer loses more of its far range damage for more close range damage, except it only functions well at long range anyway so by reducing its long range damage it essentially loses more of what its purpose is. By losing more of its purpose it loses reasons to be used

Similarly, in PvE while it’s a buff for close range, you’re not going to be running hammer in a raid (except handkite Deimos) or fractal (due to horrible damage regardless of range) and you’re not going to be using it for close up combat in Open World. Its best use in PVE tends to be in Open World nuking mobs from 1200 quickly when you don’t want to melee them. So hammer here has the same dilemma as PvP where it loses some of its ability to nuke at range and gains very little in the way of close range damage, which isn’t even relevant for the weapon anyway. So it continues to lose its purpose meaning it loses more reason to be chosen.

@Irenio CalmonHuang.2048

For Coalescence of Ruin, just reduce the damage on the 3rd strike to be the same as the 2nd strike in WvW and add the red indicator you’re thinking of adding. No need to change the skill entirely as the cascade is still useful elsewhere and is unique to the skill and the proposed changes won’t make it better in other modes. BUT the same thing you’ve proposed here for WvW balance can be achieved by just lowering 3rd strike damage to be equal to 2nd strike in WvW.

[Lobo.8023]

About the possible balance changes. I like the changes.Guardian- Been playing this class since core guard meta. Gaurdian always meant to self- sustain and party support, but when Path of Fire released after WvW community get hold of the spec we understood very soon how busted the class is . As a frontline guardian player I feel Firebrand had too much sustain , but then slowly it got Nerfed which is good. Playing Firebrand it feel the moment you open your F3 / F2 tome you literally becomes super saiyan and can take 10 v 1 and still survive for a decent time . Plus the Aegis spam from heal mantra and F3 tome skills. It's really easy to play and less challenging. So it's a welcome change I would say.

Engi - Reveal is back it's a welcome change. And also a good decision to give stealth gyro longer CD. Recently Even after nerfs the support Scrapper is still busted . I would say nerf the antitoxin runes or, put an internal CD on how many maximum Condi scrapper can clear on a go . As a engi you literally just drop purge gyro and that's it condi's gone , or blast that water field with shield 4 or elixer gun 4 you cleared 4 Condi in a sec. Now another thing you can do is in invention trait line " Medical dispenser field" make that outgoing heal 25% from 50% and may be touch comeback cure little bit And make engi more like anti- Condi bot rather than anti-condi bot + massive heal bot. But I would rather say give the antitoxin 6th bonus an internal cooldown that would be more easier solution and quick fix then we can see how things go from there .

Necro- Necro is still Face roll . You just literally put a shade into enemy and press F2 and F5 and boom done . But I like the changes that you guys have been thinking. Tone down the F5 dmg a bit . Or Make the sand savant work in way that if you take sand savant you lose a bit of dmg . Like we are sacrificing some personal power to get a bigger shroud . I don't know. But think the changes that you guys posted is good enough to see some changes in the class itself.

Rev- Cor change is a welcome sight . Rev is doing way too much dmg is all the game modes . So it's a good changes and with gaze of darkness it's now a viable option to reveal if you don't have reveal from engi.

Ranger - I don't know why people play longbow rangers . melee ranger is much more fun . So no opinion on that .

Mesmer- well CI change is a good one. All the cancer mirage or even base CI Mesmer it's a disappointment but honestly CI Mesmer is like playing gw2 drunk and blind and just daze your opponent and chaos Strom them for the win. But yea it's sad that chrono is dead in WvW . Although I don't think IoL is over performing . It's good as it is.

Now Warrior -I would say one thing it's my 2nd most fav class and been playing it regularly. And I feel like base warrior is over performing. It's too strong than its other specs and also I think it's arguably 2nd or 3rd best dual class atm. With sheer amount of dmg and sustain a base warrior has is really undeniable ..LastlyThief - this is my fav class and sadly I felt like you guys just gutted it to the ground. Thief use to be fun, agressive and challenging now with the passive game play I feel like the enjoyment the rush we use to get playing as a thief is gone. People are making troll builds giving the class a bad name. Thief use to be a class that everyone every other class feared it. now it's a joke. Condi thief is more like a troll and button mash type class . You go in dodge and do some Condi bomb go out wait for enemy to clear the Condi and Condi bomb again. It's really " not fun" to play. So is S/D power . It's gameplay style is way too passive that what thief use to be. Thief use to be high risk high reward now it's just passive and passive . Please rejuvenate the class once again.

But anyway. Over all I think the changes are looking good. I will be looking forward to it and wanna see how it affects meta.

[nthmetal.9652]

Thank you very much for this information, and the request for feedback. Let's get to it then.

Engineer

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

Very good. We need more ways two counter stealth, not less. I think this will not remove the idea of stealth, but it will make mass stealth bombs more difficult again.

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

IMO we need more, not less condi cleanse, but maybe this also just will mean, more than classes will have to alter builds to bring their own own condi cleanse. Sadly in its current state, the game needs something to counter boon corruption, and this is the way to do it. On the other hand, you also reduce the number of corrupts on the necromancer, and the number of cleanses on the Guardian. I don't expect any gameplay changes with this change.

Guardian

I already mentioned my feedback on the cleanses above.

• 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.

:( This will greatly benefit the already existing pirate-ship Meta. Lack of aegis makes it hard to go into damaging areas; as long as no measures are found against the pirate ship Meta (in which AoEs create a zone of death between the Zergs and Rev hammer then down enemies), these changes will turn zerg fights in WvW into a war of attrition. I fear this change will be detrimental.

Mesmer

I see no deeper changes to Mesmer gameplay with the proposed changes. Especially I don't see it becoming more relevant to roaming or zerg fights in WvW.

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.

These changes are in line with with the cleansing changes to Engi and Guardian. Fine.

• 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.

However these changes are imo detrimental to the gameplay, just like the changes to Guardian aegis. These will only benefit the pirate ship Meta, as less protection means there will be less ways to cross the gap between the Zergs. In WvW.

However maybe, just maybe, both sides becoming more vulnerable combined with the retaliation granted by guardians now, means pushes will be a lot more devastating for both sides.

Ranger

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

Welcome. There is no good way for classes with low mobility and low range to cross the gap to a Ranger; this change would at least make the attack itself less devastating.

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.

Very welcome, as this change might help to counter the pirate ship Meta. This might make approaching WvW Zergs easier, hopefully leading to to more dynamic fights, but see below.

Warrior

• Call to Arms: Removes 3 conditions from affected allies instead of specific conditions. Grants barrier in addition to vigor.

Like *Shake it off", only better? Will this not make the shout irrelevant?

• 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.

Very nice, might make warhorn relevant in WvW, introducing more valid build options for warriors. But also look the utility skills like "Shake it Off!"I really like how this would make warriors potientially cleanse-monsters. Might lead to more warrior - commanders, and more warriors overall.

Thank you for this insight. There is a lot to like about the proposed balance changes.

However there is one more thing you should take into consideration. WvW might need a change to the overall Meta. Currently the pirate ship Meta is very strong, and it has been ever since I started playing gw2 a year ago. I do not see any substantial changes to that, and believe that you should take a look at the consequences of the stacking AoEs. The changes I see will not do this, and I doubt even changes to a set of classes will, as other AoE casters will replace the current ones. Especially the connection between firebrand and scourges limits the ability to tackle a Meta change from the perspective of class balance changes.IMO it would be better to look at the underlying mechanics of area stacking and their consequences.

We (WvW players) need a Meta change maybe more than a simple rebalancing of classes, because the game needs to keep moving to keep people engaged.

[Axl.8924]

The necromancer changes are awful and will push them further out of meta

The nerf to barrier was a bad idea the nerf to the boon corrupts was also bad and getting rid of boon corrupt gives boon spammers like rev/Guard etc too much leeway.

[nthmetal.9652]

I would like to add something: I am not 100 % sure how retaliation works, for example if it triggers when you block an attack, or if it triggers when taking 0 damage. If this is the case, the combination of Guardians and professions which can mitigate damage (like warrior) could with the proposed changes actually work to overcome the pirate SHIP. This would affect WvW gameplay in a big way.

Due to the fact, that barriers are less effective and aegis is harder to come by, retal is easier to come by, poefessions which can mititage damage could under the effect of retal push into the death zone. Thanks to less aegis and lower barriers, this could work to damage and break up the attackers through their own damage.

[MLinni.6109]

Here's my take on the proposed engineer changes:

Engineer

• Chemical Field: This skill is replaced by Detection Pulse (from the old Sneak Gyro elite toolbelt) as the toolbelt skill for Purge Gyro.This is interesting. While Detection Pulse is a very useful skill and I would love having it back, it robs the support scrappers of mostof their ability to tag stuff. Loot in WvW already has been getting skint, and something was changed a few weeks ago that dropped thenumber of bags for supporters significantly for me imo, whether it was a bug or intended.Also Chemical Field allowed you to keep enemies down and prevent people from ressing them. Unless there was some solutionfor this problem I'd rather keep it instead of Detection Pulse however painful that is.

• Purge Gyro: Reduce the number of cleansing pulses from 5 to 3 in WvW.Cleanses is the one significant thing this build has. This is getting close to changing Scrappers out from being useful. Do we all have toplay Firebrands? There's already pretty few of us around, and I expect to be kicked from "meta" zergs if this keeps up. We were alreadyhit pretty hard last patch.

• Sneak Gyro: Increase the cooldown of this ability from 45 to 75 seconds in WvW.I don't see the use of it, I've never thought it was THAT powerful of an ability since it doesn't allow you to cloak most of a zerg likeveil and is mostly useless for pushing.

[Nimon.7840]

i dont think, that These changes will lead to different playstyles, Maybe they will make wvw slightly better, but not much

across the board, dmg Needs to be toned downthen across the board: aoe spam Needs to be toned down (yes, im saying this as a necro main, my main class is definetly one of the culprits here)

so to specific changes:i like that engi gets detection pulse back

i like, that firebrands support gets nerfed a bit, but i dont think thats good enough. there will still be firebrands needed in every single Group

i dont think mesmer Needs an nerf on Illusion of life

i dont think, scourges barrier Needs to be toned down, or if you town the base value down, make the healing power coefficient a lot better. but i think, kinda reworking the necro as a whole would be best. so scourge is mainly support, not dmg, but still offers some condi dmg, reaper for power dmg, and core for condi

not a single nerf to builds that kill you from 100 to 0 with one skill? i know they sometimes are a bit gimmicky but they shouldnt exist in the game

[alain.1659]

If you want to nerf HoT specs into oblivion ypu shouldve had given us new elite specs, mates. Druid and chrono is already struggling, scrapper is still holding but by a thread. Tempest started to fall in love with interrupts (stockholm) and Dh are committing ritual seppuku when they try to use lb in serious pve content.

[bluberblasen.9684]

no ele nerfs? iam dreaming ? okey just joking.

These changes are for medium to large scale zerg fights, right?i dont play large fight only small scale roaming.

as for roaming - the game is okeyish balanced, it needs some little adjustments.

• holo is a little too strong in small scale ( it needs less damage in holo mode / or less survive. )
• dead eye / thief / is a laughing number - its no real fight.. he is annoying as hell but you can ignore them. ( but reduce its mobility or perma stealth or give me as ele player some anti stealth add ons )
• mirage its okey - its like thiefs = annoying but not over powered
• core warrior : this one is strong and you rarely find any good one- when you find them its an unending duel ( no changes needed )
• spellbreaker: annoying as hell because they seems immune to damage, but no changes needed. ( i ignore most of them ) ( no changes needed )
• weaver: rarely good ones. when you find good ones its a bless for me duelling them.. i think they hate me as core ele.. and their anger is rising.. ( no changes needed )
• reaper: no changes needed
• boon beast : unending duels ( reduce its life reg or boon gain or do not change anything - i will for ever ignore this duel...)
• beastmaster ( longbow / GS ): its fine as it is. do not change anything.
• core ele: give mainhand dagger air 1 and air 2 the 300 range! Thank You .. MH dagger air 1 with 240 range is NOT good :-(

ele / tempest / weaver:

• please give them finally some good elite skills !
• reduce recharge of FGS to 60 seconds and increase the range of the " rush " skills :-)
• rework that elementalist pet: * start recharge when you activated that skill - so that you have perma pet. reduce recharge to have perma pet. increase damage and life and speed from the pet. give them better abilities. for example give them anti stealth ( detection ) and a smoke field :)

Thank You :)

[TheBravery.9615]

This is the result of the system team's work

[revolucion.3864]

girfuy

Edited February 15 by revolucion.3864

[LincoHd.4597]

With the Scrapper purge Gyro nerf I think you kinda miss the point, the problem dont lie in the Purge Gyro it is in the Rune of Antitoxin (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Antitoxin) It cleary not a Healer Oriented Rune but you need it because of it 6 Trait on Scrapper.

[DeadlySynz.3471]

A lot of the comments here are coming from stance that either goes for or against the class they play without actually thinking about it's overall impact. People complain about the meta, these changes do nothing to change the meta. Commanders are still going to squat in spawn and refuse to move until they have enough firebrands and scourges.

Rev's are still going to obliterate you from the back line if you're not paying attention. All the flashy effects going on are going to make you blind to any visual cues of an incoming CoR. Rangers are still going to be useless in zergs because the reflect skills of some classes are double to triple the amount of lingering time of the unblockable skills on other classes (with shorter cool-downs). People are still going to get shade bombed and killed; not because a shade bomb is overpowered (it's actually quite pathetic on it's own), it's because you're being hit by multiple shades due to the sheer amount of scourges. Elementalists will still remain non-existent because their damage to squishiness ratio is too off-kilter and their support pails in comparison to other classes. Guardians still do far too much which is why they are essential. Warriors still remain basically unkillable if they really don't want to be killed (why this still remains today to me is one of the greatest mysteries of life).

The amount of boons being doled out is still going to vastly outweigh the boon corrupts (even more so if these patch notes go through as is). Whenever you click on a player, you'll see they have the full gambit of boons. Whenever you drop CC, you're still going to see "Immune" all over the place, because it's pretty much impossible to not have permanent stability up-time. Conditions are still going to be mostly mitigated due to resistance up-time (you can thank the firebrands for both). Retaliation is still going to dole out a lot of damage to a player nowhere even close to the person with retaliation (why this doesn't have an area of effect around it is beyond me). This is probably why we don't see many Elementalists or Dragonhunters in WvW at all.

If you really want to shake things up in WvW in regards to the meta, first and foremost, the Guardian class has to be gutted. They are responsible for this stale meta, not scourges; scourges are easily killed by almost every class. Guardians are what make or break the group, and that class shouldn't have the ability to do either.

[duillyn.2697]

sure, these are nice but how long till more clown changes + a wait of literal years to have them addressed? zzzz

[nthmetal.9652]

@"LincoHd.4597" said:With the Scrapper purge Gyro nerf I think you kinda miss the point, the problem dont lie in the Purge Gyro it is in the Rune of Antitoxin (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Antitoxin) It cleary not a Healer Oriented Rune but you need it because of it 6 Trait on Scrapper.

You're also missing the point. The call for the Antitoxin runs exists, because of the condispam, especially booncorruption. Generally the amount of conditions become a problem in zergfights (nope. It is not dead. If it were, we wouldn't need so much cleansespam and boonspam). The problem of condis and boons can only be tackled as one matter. In so far, the changes to scourge (corrupt 2 boons instead of 3), and scrapper and guard have to go hand in hand.

This is also, why these changes have to be presented together in a thread. They are interconnected and can only be evaluated together.

The problem is also not so easy to tackle by just taking away the antitoxin rune. You cannot look only at conditions. There is still a misbalance in game mechanics: Beneficial boons can only stack a limited time, some 25 times, some only 5 times. Some boons become more effective, some stay on the same level of effectiveness and only increase duration. Especially boons, which protect you, do not become more effective!AoEs and their effect, regardless of whether they are condi-based or power-based, can stack (for all practical purposes) as much as they need to stack - basically an unlimited time. Stacking them will often not extend time (which would not make much sense due to condi cleanse), but they stack intensity. As such you will a single condi-cleansing healers/supporters to be a lot more effective than a single condi-dealing or AoE providing attacker. You can't synchronize condispam and condi-cleanse / boonspam, because then (many) players simply cannot overcome the challenges posed by AoE spam and / or condi spam.

One vital information is missing though: Dev lists upcoming changes, but not the reasons for them yet. As such we can only speculate as to the target and we cannot evaluate, if taken measures are, in our opinion, hitting their proposed goal.