May 11 Guild Wars 2 Skills and Balance Update Preview

[Mayga.7241]

1 hour ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

The Exposed effect that is placed on many boss enemies when their defiance bar is broken has been adjusted. It now increases power kittenmage taken by 30% and condition kittenmage taken by 100%.

Have you ever played your own game, Anet? You know what this change mean in reality, not in your strange plans? It mean that all fractals will be smth like: "cms+t4, cfb, cfb, cfb, cfb, more cfb, only cfb, gimme more cfb please". You just killed all dps specs in all fractals and left us only condy firebrand. This has already happened with 100cm, and now it has spread to all other fractals.

 "Fantastic work. Truly."(c)

 

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

12 minutes ago, WIR BRAUCHEN ONE EIGHTY.42 said:

 

So Mantra of Solace will stay in competitive with 199 base heal?

I believe that all charges use the final charge values.

[Demeth.5816]

I hope all the flavor of mantras is not lost like the audio cues and visuals

 

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Demeth.5816

[Orion Templar.4589]

1 hour ago, Svez Poizon XD.5268 said:

This could be fine if it was maybe 0,5 sec but 1 sec is overnerf. Whole strategy of Khalla is to hit as many as possible in order to proc life steal effect. If such effect created problems for team/allies then let it be 1 sec cooldown for allies but let it be the same for renegade( no cooldown ) or 0,5 sec. Almost all spells are designed to hit a lot just because of such life steal effect. 

Agreed - if the change to Soulcleave's Summit is necessary to tone down team usage, I'd propose that it is overnerf for the casting renegade. This really needs to be no limit on the life steal effect for the renegade who cast Soulcleave's Summit.

[itspomf.9523]

If boons get capped, then what's the point of Concentration?

 

Can I maybe get some different pkittenive attribute gains out of Thief specs, then, if I can't walk out of a fight with potentially 3 minutes of swiftness and fury, neither of which are hurting anyone but the krait in the next wave?

 

(Expaning on this, if *outgoing* conditions are also capped, then what's the point of Expertise?)

Edited April 30, 2021 by fluffdragon.1523

[Nephalem.8921]

16 minutes ago, Euclid.2517 said:

Not bad balance in terms of PVE.

Basically, nerfed most meta power clkittenes burst potential: Slb, DH symbols, Holo.

Good job on tuning the kittenmage between power/condi weaver. Condi weaver simply deserves higher sustained kittenmage comparing to simple power weaver gameplay style.

 

I don't quite understand nerfing on Lightning orbs. It is the strongest skill on power tempest, yet power tempest is only viable on huge hitboxes bosses, while also has innate low critical chance. It is quite hard to achieve good number in real combat, based on my own play experience and comments from Roul from Snowcrows.

 

The change on exposed buff is kinkitten weird. Most pug these kittenys simply stack 4 firebrand and 1 rev. It may not be the optimal compo, but really safe and strong for pugs, with the burst potential of cFB when people CC slowly, while cFB is also really easy to play. Should probably reconsider this tuning.

 

Power chrono nerf was anticipated and kinkitten arrives too late.

 

Condi thief is gonna be stronger. It is actually not bad atm for some boss, though not many people use it.

 

One general trend is to nerf 10-man boost to 5-man: warrior and thief. Tho warrior can still take double stankittenrd to get 10 man but only 50% attributes boost. Not bad, since power creep was the main theme of last patch. This change will probably make speedrun record harder to break in next patch, and make pug life harder. (Not like I raid anymore.. Except for meme run like 10 rev gors 10 core profession Adina) 🙂   

 

For WvW:

The change on torment and resistance kinkitten hits condi herald hard. It is a really strong clkitten in WvW roaming and small scale fight, but is the nerf too heavy? Let's see.

 

-----

 

I thought change on retaliation would be adding an internal cooldown so that fast hitting clkitten won't suffer too much

torment would be increasing base kittenmage, tuning down moving kittenmage.

 

Well, guess on torment is kinkitten right. But completely wrong on retaliation. I don't quite like the change on retaliation, since it has much higher uptime than protection in general (especially on guardian), which basically much lowered condi kittenmage taken.  

 

 

Condi weaver does already way more kittenmage than power. The nerf to power is bigger than the holo nerf. Cweaver benches 41-42k currently. It could reach 44k after patch. kittengger focus is just not on the benchmark snowcrows list for some reason.

Only the weave self part on cweaver is harder than power. kittengger weaver doesnt have to count autos like power.

 

Power chrono deserved a nerf but it still requires perma slow and it got nerfed by too much. Part of the high kittenmage comes from a bug aswell. TW is a 120sec 6sec quickness now that also applies just 6s slow down from 10. This hurts solo chrono aswell for no reason. At least double the amount of quickness it grants to the chrono or something.

[Vova.2640]

2 hours ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

Elementalist

We feel that the elementalist has been in a very good place since the July 2020 balance upkittente. 

 

  

? no? the single most squishiest dps clkitten in the game with pretty much 0 self boon generation ability.. and they dont even do good dmg...
 

2 hours ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

 

 Tempest is also powerful in a support role.

 

 

?????? Are we still talking about gw2 here?

Edited April 30, 2021 by Vova.2640

[Gorilla.4120]

49 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

For Warrior

You forgot the 300s CDs that need fixing in Defense....

You're asking for too much.  They need more time to fix things like that.  Its only been 1 year, 2 months and 6 kittenys since they applied the 300 second placeholders.
I'm sure by the time Alliances rolls around, we'll have those traits fixed good as new. 😉

[Leggendalex.4659]

aside the weird changes to warrior, that are super confusing because you wanted to make people able to choose between discipline and tactics but now discipline is mankittentory even more than before i am pretty worried about one of your statements: 

2 hours ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

Tempest is also powerful in a support role.

This is not true at all, i have seen heal tempest played less than heal scrapper in raids, it offers no offensive boons at all and it`s an elite spec designed to be a support, if you want nerf the dmg, it`s fine, but please give tempest offensive boons like quickness/alac since HoT i was never able to play a support tempest in pve and i fear i will never be 😕 .

Edited April 30, 2021 by Leggendalex.4659

[Jaykay.9641]

So many questions from a PvP perspective arise from these changes....

 

Regarding Resistance and Resolution

• -Is Retaliation conversion to Resolution the best strategy? I feel like old Resistance is used to counter condi D amage but now new Resistance doesn't do that. Maybe a better conversion would be Old Resistance -> Resolution, Retaliation -> New Resistance. Rev Mallyx seems like it may suffer heavily in PvP without the current Resistance effect.
• -How is the new Resolution going to effect Light Aura? Light Aura gives 10% condi d amage reduction as well as new Resolution. Is this intended? Radiance Guards going to be super strong with perma Resolution and on demand Light Auras.
• -Will Runes be adjusted to new Resistance changes? Lots of players take Rune of Revenant and Rune of Resistance so they don't have to slot a utility cleanse. A cleanse will almost be mankittentory now for professions that lack consistent cleanse.

 

Other PvP Questions/Concerns

• -Will we see any changes to 300 sec CD talents? I unfortunately expected a change on these to something more useful. Maybe at a future kittente before EoD launch?
• -Will we see kittenmage brought back to some CC abilities? I strongly feel some CC abilities should have some kittenmage added back to them. Abilities that are Skillshots or AoE ground targeted should have some d amage while point and click abilities should stay low as they are super reliable.
• -Will professions be compensated for the Resistance/Resolution changes? As stated, Rev/Mallyx may need substantial changes, Resolution/ Resistance uptime on some professions may need to be reduced, etc...

 

I'm all for changes to the game, but I was hoping for more trait/weapon changes as well to underused talents/weapons. Hopefully these come at a later kittente before the expansion.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Just now, Jaykay.9641 said:

So many questions from a PvP perspective arise from these changes....

 

Regarding Resistance and Resolution

• -Is Retaliation conversion to Resolution the best strategy? I feel like old Resistance is used to counter condi D amage but now new Resistance doesn't do that. Maybe a better conversion would be Old Resistance -> Resolution, Retaliation -> New Resistance. Rev Mallyx seems like it may suffer heavily in PvP without the current Resistance effect.
• -How is the new Resolution going to effect Light Aura? Light Aura gives 10% condi d amage reduction as well as new Resolution. Is this intended? Radiance Guards going to be super strong with perma Resolution and on demand Light Auras.
• -Will Runes be adjusted to new Resistance changes? Lots of players take Rune of Revenant and Rune of Resistance so they don't have to slot a utility cleanse. A cleanse will almost be mankittentory now for professions that lack consistent cleanse.

 

Other PvP Questions/Concerns

• -Will we see any changes to 300 sec CD talents? I unfortunately expected a change on these to something more useful. Maybe at a future kittente before EoD launch?
• -Will we see kittenmage brought back to some CC abilities? I strongly feel some CC abilities should have some kittenmage added back to them. Abilities that are Skillshots or AoE ground targeted should have some d amage while point and click abilities should stay low as they are super reliable.
• -Will professions be compensated for the Resistance/Resolution changes? As stated, Rev/Mallyx may need substantial changes, Resolution/ Resistance uptime on some professions may need to be reduced, etc...

 

I'm all for changes to the game, but I was hoping for more trait/weapon changes as well to underused talents/weapons. Hopefully these come at a later kittente before the expansion.

I'd be in favor of Old Resistance -> Resolution and Retaliation->New Resistance. 

That and you are right about Light Auras. Perhaps they should grant the new resistance instead.

[Juan.6124]

(talking about raids)
Nerf to power tempest seems odd because barely anyone plays it. 
The changes to torment will make condi renegade dps shoot through the roof, 43+k benchmark. Soulcleave Summit in its current state is one of the most overpowered abilities in the history of the game. Giving it an 1 second internal cooldown is a gigantic cut in effectiveness. You need to either make more adjustments (shorter icd, higher damage/healing numbers or completely rework it.
You want to make warriors not rely on discipline but you make discipline even more mandatory. Fast Hands and Doubled Standards are very potent traits, the first one is even key to make playing warrior enjoyable. Moving Doubled Standards to tactics would be the first step in making banner warriors take a different traitline than dps warriors.

 

For your changes to retaliation->resolution, please remember that retaliation is a key mechanic for the raid bosses Xera, Adina, Qadim and Qadim the Peerless. Broken King utilizes resistance which will be rendered useless on it after the patch. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by DirtyDan.4759

[Stand The Wall.6987]

gonna repeat what i said in another thread. resolution is gonna be very hard to balance in pvp, its gonna make some builds really tanky. resistance hard nerf is dumb, it should make kittenmaging condis ineffective to preserve balance for builds that used it and to help differentiate it from superspeed. boon and condi duration caps are awesome, i wanted this for some time, its gonna smooth out gameplay and make wvw encounters a lot more tolerable.

 

professions. why did you buff blood bank? necro with this, sanctuary rune, and death magic is gonna be really busted. purging flames gutted for pve, very disappointing. please restore the radius at least. symbolic power nerf is great, that trait was clearly borken. engi rifle 4 removed knockback is cool i guess, i don't know how i feel about it since its such a powerful cc effect. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Stand The Wall.6987

[Asum.4960]

1 hour ago, Svez Poizon XD.5268 said:

Does this mean scourge will be able to get 25 might by getting barrier as it could with sanctuary rune before?

Abrasive Grit has long been changed to only apply to Barriers granted by Scourge Skills and Traits - which Blood Bank is not.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Yeah, Anet You want to make other traitlines an alternative to Discipline, then undo the target cap change on Banners.

 

Another great way to make Discipline not so mankittentory on every build would be to make 5s weapon swap baseline on Warrior.

 

Or, MAYBE, just maybe finally do a rework on Defense and Arms so that they are viable traitlines in all game modes.

 

The Tactics changes are all good though.

 

Body Blow needs to do strike kittenmage and not bleed. THAT would do wonders for Spellbreaker kittenmage levels.

[Zyreva.1078]

2 hours ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

• The Celestial stat combination on gear now also increases concentration and expertise. The per-stat values have not been decreased.

 

 

Please do not buff Celestial (or at least make those changes PvE exclusive). This is a massive buff for certain builds in WvW that should not recieve any bukitten whatsoever. Celestial gear is strong enough as it is now.

 

Generally the notes look very worrying, especially from a PvP/WvW perspective. Not only is the patch purely aimed at PvE, there doesn't even seem to be reasonable balance splits to prevent collateral dmg to other game modes.

 

And what about the  follow up changes to the big feb patch last year, that were announced, but never delivered? Rework of 300cd traits, useless dmg mods on skills that don't deal any dmg, out of control boon spam in WvW, and many things more that should get looked at.

Edited April 30, 2021 by UmbraNoctis.1907

[ThomasC.1056]

I'm a bit bewildered by all those changes. There're ideas indeed, some things that might be worth trying, but...

 

It's juste plainly obvious that raids and fractals were the only considerations in mind when designing them. Bosses, long fights, static foes etc. That's not what you get in sPvP or small scale WvW.

 

The effect of torment change will be terrible in these game modes. The whole idea of a 30s boon cap is plainly ridiculous when most of a fights are a matter of seconds, and the boon output is insane.

 

I'm not expecting much of changes designed to tweak the effectiveness against 2 million HP static opponents, when they'll be on air against 20k HP moving foes.

 

Oh and : goodbye druids, scourges... You'll be missed.

 

We'll see...

Edited April 30, 2021 by ThomasC.1056

[Obtena.7952]

14 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Yeah, Anet You want to make other traitlines an alternative to Discipline, then undo the target cap change on Banners.

 

Another great way to make Discipline not so mankittentory on every build would be to make 5s weapon swap baseline on Warrior.

 

Except having a baseline low weapon swap CD makes traits in Discipline MORE attractive, not less.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

For now I'd like to see just one additional change for Warrior Rifle, in Brutal Shot. I'd like to see it reworked with two changes:

 

* Make it evade in the direction you are moving instead always backwards.

* And make it shoot while you are evading instead with a movement-locked animation after the evade.

 

This way it would work as a move to both get away and approach enemies, making the rifle feel more like an 'videogame assault rifle' in the hands of a warrior, and pair better with melee weapons.

 

Brutal Shot would probably have to be renamed too, tho. I would go with "Shootdodge" as a reference to Max Payne's signature move. 

[Chiorix.5361]

As a Rev main, my big concern is with the idea of torment changing. I totally get the change for the sake of boss fights, but on a PvP level, it seems to break apart. GW2 isn't the only game with a condition like torment in its current state. It's a trade-off: either take the extra damage by moving around, or lower the damage and risk standing still in a fight. To swap that would mean that moving would be the obvious choice, which most people default to anyway. I dunno, maybe keep its functionality the same in PvP and only alter it in PvE? Just my two cents.

[Infusion.7149]

3 minutes ago, Chiorix.5361 said:

As a Rev main, my big concern is with the idea of torment changing. I totally get the change for the sake of boss fights, but on a PvP level, it seems to break apart. GW2 isn't the only game with a condition like torment in its current state. It's a trade-off: either take the extra damage by moving around, or lower the damage and risk standing still in a fight. To swap that would mean that moving would be the obvious choice, which most people default to anyway. I dunno, maybe keep its functionality the same in PvP and only alter it in PvE? Just my two cents.

I doubt that would happen as it has been stated any splits are numerical.

[Asum.4960]

I feel like this Torment change completely breaks Scourge design - which is all about forcing movement (Fears) and kiting, while applying Torment and Bleeds. 

 

Fearing enemies now essentially grants them 50% damage reduction against your main damage Source, if they aren't moving already as is the case for most things save for some static bosses - where Necro still likely won't be able to compete with Renegades and such, not to speak of PvP where you never want to stand still in the first place.

 

Insidious Disruption is especially ironic, applying Torment - a condition which now primarily does damage to Targets standing still -  on CC, which in the case of Necro almost exclusively is Fear, a condition forcing movement.

 

Just seems like Scourge lost what made it good in Dynamic Fights, while likely still underperforming in Static Fights, been completely deleted from PvP, and it's synergistic Design of Fear + Torment got turned around into a counter intuitive gameplay loop of your own tools reducing your own damage.

 

/E:

While it will be fun to see a condi Necro build benchmark reasonably for the second time in GW2's history (on static Golem fights), the fact that that is something that for some reason has never been allowed to be the case before also makes me nervous about that being reason for it to get nerfed yet again. 

All while already doing similarly or worse in situations and encounters it previously had been good at, and being less fun and counter intuitively to play everywhere outside of (static) bosses. 

 

Scourge always had design issues with benefitting from movement through it's damage while wanting to keep targets static in Shades to apply that damage in the first place, and how that conflicted with fear. 

But now it seems almost mandatory for Scourge to receive tools to snare enemies instead, possibly with some Trait that changes Fear to make targets cower in place instead (or adding Immobilize). 

Like Shivers of Dread on Reaper, this could be a Scourge Minor, which frankly always needed some rework anyway.

Free Concentration on a minor for Scourge never made sense, considering it's almost complete lack of boon support.

 

TL;DR:

The entire design of Scourge now, from Shade summon to Torment, screams for Scourge's to lock targets in place now, yet it has barely any tools to do so. Quite the opposite with it's main CC's available forcing movement (out of Shades, and granting reduced damage from Torment).

Edited May 1, 2021 by Asum.4960

[Eddbopkins.2630]

I feel an expansion drop soon....with in 3 months....6 at most.

[Dahkeus.8243]

Maybe this is already in the works, but now that we have two specializations that are condi focused and also able to provide alacrity (Renegade and now Mirage), we could really use an armor set that provides condi stats with concentration.  Any chance we could get a new stat set that is like Diviners, but with Condi Dmg and Expertise as secondary stats instead of Power and Ferocity?

[Dahkeus.8243]

8 minutes ago, Asum.4960 said:

I feel like this Torment change completely breaks Scourge design - which is all about forcing movement (Fears) and kiting, while applying Torment and Bleeds. 

 

Fearing enemies now essentially grants them 50% damage reduction against your main damage Source, if they aren't moving already as is the case for most things save for some static bosses - where Necro still likely won't be able to compete with Renegades and such, not to speak of PvP where you never want to stand still in the first place.

 

Insidious Disruption is especially ironic, applying Torment - a condition which now primarily does damage to Targets standing still -  on CC, which in the case of Necro almost exclusively is Fear, a condition forcing movement.

 

Just seems like Scourge lost what made it good in Dynamic Fights, while likely still underperforming in Static Fights, been completely deleted from PvP, and it's synergistic Design of Fear + Torment got turned around into a counter intuitive gameplay loop of your own tools reducing your own damage.

A trait that makes torment deal its increased damage on feared targets might be a good change to offset some of what you describe here.