Follow Up to May 11 Balance Preview

[bigo.9037]

55 minutes ago, Cynstriss.5063 said:

Ranger has become useless.  I feel like I am playing with foam Nerf darts.

Soulbeast has plenty of damage lol. Highest single target burst dmg in wvw afaik.

as for pvp or pve I’m not sure.

[Touchme.1097]

30 minutes ago, Omg Im Target.3095 said:

Made me laugh that you see nothing wrong with the power weaver nerf. A role that is first a glas cannon, second brings no utilities to the group and third clunky to play. It hasn't been meta for a while EVEN IN PRO PLAY.

I agree with your point, I got flamed in game for playing a power weaver and had to switch to condi because of the lack of utility and the squishyness. The power build has some break bar damage and utility comes with conjured weapons that are part of the weaver rotation. I can say almost the same thing for the condi version. Not only that but weaver is not for everybody because the rotations are two of the most difficult in the game and for this reason I wouldn't mind if it had more utilities added or being rewarded with 1 or 2k more dps than the rest. The best approach to improve this elite spec is a total rework in my opinion.

[Xeon.5768]

16 minutes ago, bigo.9037 said:

Soulbeast has plenty of damage lol. Highest single target burst dmg in wvw afaik.

as for pvp or pve I’m not sure.

The changes in the May 11th patch is mostly for pve about rangers. For wvw and pvp, it already received a series of historic nerf on its single target burst potential.

 

On the other hand, some squads in wvw just refuse to accept rangers, because there is rly not much benefit rangers can bring to the squad in the zerging situation, which happens most frequently in wvw, either it is 50 vs 50, or 3 vs 3. Soulbeast or druid has very bad areal cleave potential, making it the bottom dps pick for mid to large fights.

[Omg Im Target.3095]

17 hours ago, Touchme.1097 said:

I agree with your point, I got flamed in game for playing a power weaver and had to switch to condi because of the lack of utility and the squishyness. The power build has some break bar damage and utility comes with conjured weapons that are part of the weaver rotation. I can say almost the same thing for the condi version. Not only that but weaver is not for everybody because the rotations are two of the most difficult in the game and for this reason I wouldn't mind if it had more utilities added or being rewarded with 1 or 2k more dps than the rest. The best approach to improve this elite spec is a total rework in my opinion.

Hard disagree with this elite spec needing a total rework. I would even say that Weaver imo is by far the most enjoyable PoF spec. Especially condi weaver since u make use of every element.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Omg Im Target.3095

[Gorilla.4120]

Another thing worth mentioning, warriors Healing Signet was nerfed too hard on the Feb 2020 patch for WvW/PvP.  It's passive heal should have been reduced to 326 instead of 230, making it more comparable to Mending. With the upcoming change to resistance, the skill is going to become even more anemic.

[rezzonico.8046]

23 hours ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

A message from the Guild Wars 2 Systems Team:

 

Last week we posted a preview of the May 11 Skills and balance update and have since been keeping a close eye on the discussions (and memes) regarding the planned changes. Now that we’ve had time to read and discuss your feedback, we want to share some of our observations and the changes we’re making as a result. This goes without saying, but we do truly appreciate the feedback and your passion for the game!

And also hope one day you will do something thinking about the vast majority of normal people that play the game and not just about the few elitist top players that usually abuse the system, ty ANet for your constant effort.

Edited May 6, 2021 by rezzonico.8046

[ZDragon.3046]

8 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@Fire Attunement.9835

My first comment was done quickly and voiced my main concern. I SHOULD have included in the beginning of it my thanks to you and the Systems Team for the response to the feedback thus far. It is really important for this to happen, and I am super happy that you all are discussing our feed back the way you are.

I've voiced some concerns with the May 11th patch over in the Warrior forums, but I'll post them directly here.
 

Edits for completeness due to lack of morning caffeine.

 

The changes to Resistance and Retaliation->Resolution means that Warrior condition management is going to get rough real quick. You absolutely need to address this. We have one source of Resolution on Core and have little agency over its availability. We also have one source of Resolution on Spellbreaker, on a utility skill that rarely sees play due to how important it is for us to have CC and stunbreaks on our bar. Our Resistance access is again locked behind one weapon skill on core, and one trait on Spellbreaker. Warrior has strong burst cleansing potential, but with how quickly some classes put out conditions having boons like Resistance and Resolution are very important in competitive play.

 

Edit: Our other sources of Resistance are a nerfed heal skill with pitiful healing, and Berserker's Stance. These were important because the old Resistance at least let us get some breathing room from damaging conditions and non damaging conditions and have a window where we can actually function in competitive play. With the Resistance changes we'll need some of those skills to either grant Resolution as well, or grant Resolution instead.

 

The notes profess wanting to increase Spellbreaker's damage, but then you nerf the stats to Attacker's Insight to make room for the extra precision in the competitive game modes. Make it 50 per attribute, per stack in all game modes. This is not something that should be split, especially given that you have to actively acquire stacks of Attacker's Insight and isn't something that passively happens.

Make the 10% damage bonus on the new Sun and Moon Style apply regardless of if the foe has boons. In the competitive game modes you've nerfed boon strips, and this bonus will see very little uptime at all with what you have proposed. It is essentially a buff in name only. Spellbreaker needs more DPS in competitive play. It's fine for you to decide that it has to be with Daggers, but trust me the new version of the trait you all have proposed won't accomplish giving Spellbreaker more DPS in competitive play.

Also. PLEASE address the 300s CDs in Defense (not just Defense, but the other traits in other classes as well that got this treatment). They were billed as place holders until something could be made to replace them, but it has been over a year now and having these traits lay dead has created a dead traitline in competitive play.

 

Here are some suggestions that I had. Defense is the Warrior's selfish sustain traitline, so I reworked a few of the traits to better reflect the nature of the new boons while keeping in theme with the traits' purposes.

 

Defy Pain: This skill now grants protection and resolution for 4s when struck. 15s CD.  Resolution you gain has increased effectiveness (40% condition damage reduction). Nothing says Defy Pain like taking less of it. No stunbreak, no 100% damage immunity. So less powerful than the 300s CD version, but more useful overall.

 

Last Stand: This skill now grants vigor and resistance for 5 seconds when activating a stance. Stances last 20% longer. Same deal here. No stunbreaks, which was a toxic part of the 300s CD version. No Lesser Balanced Stance, so no crit immunity which was another reason why it got the 300s CD. The boons gained on activating a stance fit the theme of someone taking a last stand. More dodging, while ignoring non-damaging conditions for a short while.

 

Hardened Armor: When you block an attack or are critically struck gain resolution for 8s. Resolution grants 10% damage reduction.15s CD. It felt prudent with the change to the boon to revisit the duration.

 

Dogged March: Gain regeneration for 5s when inflicted with a movement impairing condition. Durations of such conditions are reduced by 66%. 10s CD. Being snared and kitted is one of the Warrior's main issues. This was to give it a better means to mitigate that within an underutilized traitline.

 

Thick Skin: While above 75% health you take 5% reduced strike damage and 5% reduced condition damage. Again, which how things are changing boon wise and looking at Defense on the whole it felt prudent to update this trait as well. Minor change though and not too important.

If I had to rate the above in order of what I'd like to see first it would be Defy Pain, Last Stand, Dogged March, Hardened Armor, and then Thick Skin.  But addressing the 300s CDs that have languished across several classes is important as the length of time we've all waited for them to be 'fixed' is becoming egregious.

 

Again, thanks for the hard work and for listening to and discussing our feedback!

I just want to say I agree with most of your changes especially the suggested changes to the 300s cooldown traits.

 

However, I have a few problems with these suggestions.... namely the fact that they lack berserker suggestions and that you want dogged marched to be stronger than any other similar type of trait in the game for free at all times.

 

Lets talk about dogged marched first. 

Asking for a 66% reduction is fine however it needs to be conditional. No other trait works this way and warrior certainly should not be the exception. Make it so that its always a base of 33% reduction and only ramps up to 66% reduction while under the effects of regeneration. This put its in line with a few other traits that potentially ramp up to 66%. It should be possible to use the 66% reduction but shouldn't be free at all times. Especially for an adept trait.

 

Next asking for spell breaker increases is ok I suppose but considering some of these changes are clearly targeted at pvp i have to ask why you gave no suggestions for berserker whats so ever. That was the most disappointing part of  the entire warrior notes I saw. I think its a problem specifically in pvp that spell breaker (rather often) outperforms berserker in terms of damage (in most players hands ive seen) while having the ability to slot defenses that berserker cannot. Berserker is a much more risky elite spec but the damage it throws out is in most cases is relatively equal or less than core or spell breakers especially in terms average burst damage.

 

Berserker. 

As I mentioned its pretty sad that anet only looks to pve to see how berserker is performing. Because in pvp its suffers greatly behind the other versions of warrior.

 

Currently

Savage Instinct Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and reduces incoming damage.

Feel No Pain (2s): -100% Incoming Damage.

Burst of Aggression Gain a burst of speed when entering berserk mode. (only activates once on entry and does nothing else what???)

Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s)

Outrage: Break out of stun and extend the duration of berserk mode. The extension of berserk mode increases if a stun was broken.

Duration Increase: 1 second

Stun-Break Duration Increase: 5 seconds

Headbutt: Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill removes all stability and deals increased damage if stability was removed.

 

My suggestion is to increase berserkers viability to keep up with core and spellbreaker builds without just making it hit bigger numbers than the other two options. I feel like adding more raw dps is not the solution needed here. (seeing as how the other two options sometimes already hit bigger numbers in the majority of players hands) I think the utility side needs to be adjusted not the outgoing damage.

 

Savage Instinct Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and reduces incoming damage. Activating Primal Burst reduces incoming damage.

Feel No Pain (2s): -100% Incoming Damage.

Feel No Pain (1s): -100% Incoming Damage (Primal Burst Activation)

(This change promotes the ideal play style of berserker and increases risk for reward. Using a burst to punish a foes burst)

 

Burst of Aggression Gain a burst of speed when entering berserk mode. 

Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s)

The next trait highlights this one as this changes is kind of needed. It makes no sense that this is a one off minor that basically does nothing. There should be an risky optional to expand upon it. (see Bloody Roar Grand Master suggestion)

 

Bloody Roar: Deal increased damage while in berserk mode. Gain Burst of Aggression when using a Primal Burst.

15% Damage increase. 

BoA: Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s) 

This change is just outright needed somewhere in the berserker elite if not under the BoA trait itself then some where else. It makes no sense that the Burst of Aggression trait is a one off activation with no options to make more use of it. This is a perfect addition to bloody roar!

 

Outrage: Break out of stun and extend the duration of berserk mode. The extension of berserk mode increases and conditions are removed if a stun was broken.

Duration Increase: 1 second

Stun-Break Duration Increase: 5 seconds

Stun-Break Condition removal: 2 conditions removed.

I would say this is more than fair as the suggested buff implies that you must be stunned to even take advantage of it.

 

Headbutt: Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill ignores the blind and immobilize conditions, removes all stability, and deals increased damage if stability was removed.

Berserker use to have a few skills that ignored the blind condition. I think that should make a return specifically on this skill.

 

Rupturing Smash (Hammer Primal Burst): This skill now impacts a full circle at the target location around the berserker instead of a half circle. 

[lodjur.1284]

22 hours ago, Demon Puppet.6873 said:

OH Hi also when is the skill " Epidemic" going to get fixed in WvW? It does not work on Down State enemies anymore and there was never ANY patch notes or word on this. Was this intentional? Or has the skill just been broken for 4 years?
Clarification would be appreciated  Anet 💖

I actually tested this recently.

 

I'd imagine it's a bug (or a very ugly fix). Because if you use it on a downstate player, each projectile that would have gotten launched from the target, actually hits the down player meaning the downed player gets hit by the power dmg up to 5 times, where as on targets that aren't downed, the initial target ofc takes power damage 0 times from it.

 

I believe it somehow has to do with the height of the hitbox of downed players, but kinda hard to test

Edited May 6, 2021 by lodjur.1284

[Dawdler.8521]

7 hours ago, Shlexd.6071 said:

Please do something for the condi engi , the condi took a stray bullet with the power holo nerf, and it's not a very strong condi class right now and hasn't been for a while, but extremely complicated to play.

Stray bullet? Anet intentionally nerfed the engineer condi burst damage by around 70% (stack changes+firearms), while other classes cry about their power damage being marginally lower because it was a "power nerf" patch and that condi is still super OP in WvW compared to power (meanwhile, even zerker grenadiers instakill people).

Edited May 6, 2021 by Dawdler.8521

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

@ZDragon.3046 You raise some great points. I haven't figured out how to break quotes up in the new forum reliably, so some of my commentary is embedded in italics.

 

56 minutes ago, ZDragon.3046 said:

I just want to say I agree with most of your changes especially the suggested changes to the 300s cooldown traits.

 

Thanks!

 

However, I have a few problems with these suggestions.... namely the fact that they lack berserker suggestions and that you want dogged marched to be stronger than any other similar type of trait in the game for free at all times.

That is because they passed over Berserker and what I am putting forward is in regards to their Spellbreaker changes, the boon changes, and the 300s CD traits. My suggestion for Dogged March is admittedly a powerful one. That answer is no unless you ask right?

 

Quote

Lets talk about dogged marched first. 

Asking for a 66% reduction is fine however it needs to be conditional. No other trait works this way and warrior certainly should not be the exception. Make it so that its always a base of 33% reduction and only ramps up to 66% reduction while under the effects of regeneration. This put its in line with a few other traits that potentially ramp up to 66%. It should be possible to use the 66% reduction but shouldn't be free at all times. Especially for an adept trait.

Somehow I separated the quote here. I have no idea how I did that... Someone please tell me.

You are not wrong at all here, like I said the answer is no unless you ask. It would work as a flat 33% reduction with an increase if you have regeneration though.
 

Next asking for spell breaker increases is ok I suppose but considering some of these changes are clearly targeted at pvp i have to ask why you gave no suggestions for berserker whats so ever. That was the most disappointing part of  the entire warrior notes I saw. I think its a problem specifically in pvp that spell breaker (rather often) outperforms berserker in terms of damage (in most players hands ive seen) while having the ability to slot defenses that berserker cannot. Berserker is a much more risky elite spec but the damage it throws out is in most cases is relatively equal or less than core or spell breakers especially in terms average burst damage.

Again that is because they passed on Berserker. It was disappointing as Berserker is NOT doing well in high end competitive play at all. The warrior Omnibus Request thread is filled with so many different ways to change/update Berserker with PvP/WvW in mind that at times they veer into the exotic. I think Anet may be at a loss as well at this point. 
 

Berserker. 

As I mentioned its pretty sad that anet only looks to pve to see how berserker is performing. Because in pvp its suffers greatly behind the other versions of warrior.

 

Currently

Savage Instinct Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and reduces incoming damage.

Feel No Pain (2s): -100% Incoming Damage.

Burst of Aggression Gain a burst of speed when entering berserk mode. (only activates once on entry and does nothing else what???)

Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s)

Outrage: Break out of stun and extend the duration of berserk mode. The extension of berserk mode increases if a stun was broken.

Duration Increase: 1 second

Stun-Break Duration Increase: 5 seconds

Headbutt: Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill removes all stability and deals increased damage if stability was removed.

 

My suggestion is to increase berserkers viability to keep up with core and spellbreaker builds without just making it hit bigger numbers than the other two options. I feel like adding more raw dps is not the solution needed here. (seeing as how the other two options sometimes already hit bigger numbers in the majority of players hands) I think the utility side needs to be adjusted not the outgoing damage.

 

Savage Instinct Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and reduces incoming damage. Activating Primal Burst reduces incoming damage.

Feel No Pain (2s): -100% Incoming Damage.

Feel No Pain (1s): -100% Incoming Damage (Primal Burst Activation)

(This change promotes the ideal play style of berserker and increases risk for reward. Using a burst to punish a foes burst)

This is something that got mentioned in the Omnibus thread. I like it, but I can see where a dev may have concerns with it. The main problem with Berserker is that a lot of it's useful traits only have an effect as you enter Berserk Mode. The spec would be in a healthier place if they also triggered upon activating a Primal Burst.
 

Burst of Aggression Gain a burst of speed when entering berserk mode. 

Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s)

The next trait highlights this one as this changes is kind of needed. It makes no sense that this is a one off minor that basically does nothing. There should be an risky optional to expand upon it. (see Bloody Roar Grand Master suggestion)

This is another trait that SHOULD trigger when you activate a Primal Burst.
 

Bloody Roar: Deal increased damage while in berserk mode. Gain Burst of Aggression when using a Primal Burst.

15% Damage increase. 

BoA: Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s) 

This change is just outright needed somewhere in the berserker elite if not under the BoA trait itself then some where else. It makes no sense that the Burst of Aggression trait is a one off activation with no options to make more use of it. This is a perfect addition to bloody roar!

I like this. It would be good for each of the Grandmasters to have an effect when you use a Primal Burst. King of Flames already does that as they count as Berserker Skills.

I would say then that Eternal Champion could trigger something on using a Primal Burst as well. Not stability, but perhaps barrier. Something like 1000 barrier per Primal Burst Activation, with something like 0.25 scaling with Healing Power.
 

Outrage: Break out of stun and extend the duration of berserk mode. The extension of berserk mode increases and conditions are removed if a stun was broken.

Duration Increase: 1 second

Stun-Break Duration Increase: 5 seconds

Stun-Break Condition removal: 2 conditions removed.

I would say this is more than fair as the suggested buff implies that you must be stunned to even take advantage of it.

I like that too. Berserker needs more defenses of any sort.

 

Quote

 

Headbutt: Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill ignores the blind and immobilize conditions, removes all stability, and deals increased damage if stability was removed.

Berserker use to have a few skills that ignored the blind condition. I think that should make a return specifically on this skill.

So, some how when I hit enter SOMETIMES it breaks the quote up, but others it doesn't...
Headbutt can already be traited to remove immobilize. I say let it give a few seconds of resolution. Blind immunity is what it needs, but resolution may be the smarter update.

Quote

Rupturing Smash (Hammer Primal Burst): This skill now impacts a full circle at the target location around the berserker instead of a half circle. 

 

Amen. I hate the current AoE pattern. You can't use it to hit behind you, which is one of Earthshakers strong points.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Lan Deathrider.5910

[xXxNikiGoesWildxXx.3678]

Do something with Herald-revenant. Can't see it viable in PvE neither as dps nor support. In PvP renegade is now better option. WvW also not good enough, maybe hammer rev but i think it is better with renegade anyway.

I like the way it provides facet effects to 10 allies in PvE. However all those boons are worthless. It doesn't provide 25 might(that fast as other supports) neither quickness neither alacrity, it heals not that much and its dps is not existent. What is the purpose of Herald?

[Omg Im Target.3095]

To the people who used the "confused" emoji  on my comment, stop hiding and please elaborate on what's wrong with me thinking that weaver is a great spec.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

@Fire Attunement.9835

With the assumption that the boon and class changes are geared toward ensuring upcoming content has its own niche to fill in GW2: End of Dragons, the following is  general feedback as to the current state of balance as far as Structured PvP is concerned. I have suggested some changes down below to mitigate the weakening of class options in pvp that do not need to be weakened, and have made comments on changes that I believe need to be adjusted with the May 11th patch. 

 

Please note I am only commenting on class interactions regarding Structured PvP. I am not concerned currently with how the classes perform in PVE, but if any suggestions impact PVE please let me know. 

Guardian:

I do not know enough about Guardian functionality to comment about this class at length, but note that the change to retaliation will weaken guardians against power oriented mesmers and other classes that rapidly apply damage. Their resolution adjustment will toughen them vs condi, however, so it may be a worthy trade.
 

Thief 

The Binding Shadow change was good. This skill should be visible whenever used. Please ensure the effect paired with it (the orange trail) is also visible when used. Be careful with condition changes though. You’re creeping condition damage into more thief builds, and while thief condi damage will suffer due to the torment changes, I don’t think it is going to suffer enough that it needs free bleeding, especially with how easy pistol/dagger is to play. Power damage in pvp also needs to be looked at.
Thief power oriented weapon skills that cannot be accessed from stealth, namely autoattacks for sword and staff, should be buffed. These skills require thieves to be close to their targets and visible to use, and should be rewarded appropriately. 
 

Ranger 

No comments on skill changes. “The Sic ‘Em!” change and Warhorn change seem warranted. 
Please fix the bug that allows downstate ranger to continue rezzing themselves with lick wounds when the pet is interrupted. This should go on full cd if the pet is hard cced. As it stands right now, rangers can down and remain almost as effective as threats vs opponents. By swapping between cc-oriented pets and using Call Lightning, rangers can often pick themselves back up vs solo targets while maintaining reasonable damage output.

Warrior

 

Berserker is not successful in all content.

 

It is successful in PvE and potentially WvW. It is the worst elite spec in the game currently in PvP. Spellbreaker functions fine, and core warrior, while not as good as spellbreaker, can still create some solid builds.

 

The same is not true of Berserker. 

 

Please note that with the resistance changes, Warrior will lose access to condition resistance with berserker stance, and warrior will lose access to condition resistance with healing signet. These skills will need to be modified and their cds adjusted appropriately.
Also note that Hardened Armor will now go on cooldown on its own if the warrior is crit, regardless of whether they have been afflicted by a condition or not. This trait will need to be adjusted as well.
These changes, paired with the QoL changes to Mirage and condition buffs to thieves, will further hamstring them vs these classes that are -already- losing matchups.

I am not certain what exactly needs to be done to return Berserker to viability without also moving Warrior and Spellbreaker out of their current performance brackets in all content, but I took a shot at an adjustment below. I would refer you to @ZDragon.3046's post for some additional suggestions that are reasonable.
 

Adjustment Suggestion for Berserker:

 

Append (Keep the base functionality of the trait the same and add this functionality to it as well) either Burst of Aggression or Blood Reaction with the following: Gain a stacking token (1 min for each token to expire) every time you are blinded. Gain 2% damage for each token you have. (Max stacks 5.). 

That punishes blind spam while not outright rewarding the berserker for being afflicted with blind, and the damage modifier is specific to berserker as well.
You can even rename it “Blind Rage” if you want.

Additionally or alternatively for Berserker:
 

11 hours ago, ZDragon.3046 said:

I just want to say I agree with most of your changes especially the suggested changes to the 300s cooldown traits.

 

However, I have a few problems with these suggestions.... namely the fact that they lack berserker suggestions and that you want dogged marched to be stronger than any other similar type of trait in the game for free at all times.

 

Lets talk about dogged marched first. 

Asking for a 66% reduction is fine however it needs to be conditional. No other trait works this way and warrior certainly should not be the exception. Make it so that its always a base of 33% reduction and only ramps up to 66% reduction while under the effects of regeneration. This put its in line with a few other traits that potentially ramp up to 66%. It should be possible to use the 66% reduction but shouldn't be free at all times. Especially for an adept trait.

 

Next asking for spell breaker increases is ok I suppose but considering some of these changes are clearly targeted at pvp i have to ask why you gave no suggestions for berserker whats so ever. That was the most disappointing part of  the entire warrior notes I saw. I think its a problem specifically in pvp that spell breaker (rather often) outperforms berserker in terms of damage (in most players hands ive seen) while having the ability to slot defenses that berserker cannot. Berserker is a much more risky elite spec but the damage it throws out is in most cases is relatively equal or less than core or spell breakers especially in terms average burst damage.

 

Berserker. 

As I mentioned its pretty sad that anet only looks to pve to see how berserker is performing. Because in pvp its suffers greatly behind the other versions of warrior.

 

Currently

Savage Instinct Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and reduces incoming damage.

Feel No Pain (2s): -100% Incoming Damage.

Burst of Aggression Gain a burst of speed when entering berserk mode. (only activates once on entry and does nothing else what???)

Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s)

Outrage: Break out of stun and extend the duration of berserk mode. The extension of berserk mode increases if a stun was broken.

Duration Increase: 1 second

Stun-Break Duration Increase: 5 seconds

Headbutt: Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill removes all stability and deals increased damage if stability was removed.

 

My suggestion is to increase berserkers viability to keep up with core and spellbreaker builds without just making it hit bigger numbers than the other two options. I feel like adding more raw dps is not the solution needed here. (seeing as how the other two options sometimes already hit bigger numbers in the majority of players hands) I think the utility side needs to be adjusted not the outgoing damage.

 

Savage Instinct Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and reduces incoming damage. Activating Primal Burst reduces incoming damage.

Feel No Pain (2s): -100% Incoming Damage.

Feel No Pain (1s): -100% Incoming Damage (Primal Burst Activation)

(This change promotes the ideal play style of berserker and increases risk for reward. Using a burst to punish a foes burst)

 

Burst of Aggression Gain a burst of speed when entering berserk mode. 

Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s)

The next trait highlights this one as this changes is kind of needed. It makes no sense that this is a one off minor that basically does nothing. There should be an risky optional to expand upon it. (see Bloody Roar Grand Master suggestion)

 

Bloody Roar: Deal increased damage while in berserk mode. Gain Burst of Aggression when using a Primal Burst.

15% Damage increase. 

BoA: Quickness (3s) / Super speed (3s) 

This change is just outright needed somewhere in the berserker elite if not under the BoA trait itself then some where else. It makes no sense that the Burst of Aggression trait is a one off activation with no options to make more use of it. This is a perfect addition to bloody roar!

 

Outrage: Break out of stun and extend the duration of berserk mode. The extension of berserk mode increases and conditions are removed if a stun was broken.

Duration Increase: 1 second

Stun-Break Duration Increase: 5 seconds

Stun-Break Condition removal: 2 conditions removed.

I would say this is more than fair as the suggested buff implies that you must be stunned to even take advantage of it.

 

Headbutt: Stun your target and stun yourself. Gain adrenaline and extend berserk duration if you hit. This skill ignores the blind and immobilize conditions, removes all stability, and deals increased damage if stability was removed.

Berserker use to have a few skills that ignored the blind condition. I think that should make a return specifically on this skill.

 

Rupturing Smash (Hammer Primal Burst): This skill now impacts a full circle at the target location around the berserker instead of a half circle. 

 

Revenant 
 

Do not neglect Mallyx/Corruption Traitline.
Mesmer can afford to take the hit to torment that comes with the mechanical change. Mallyx revenant cannot. Condi oriented revenant relies on foes moving away from it and its other skills to allow torment to tick and do damage, because their other damage avenues outside of Renegade builds via condition are limited. By changing the torment mechanic to only do heavy damage on non-moving enemies, you nerf a build that was already only performing serviceably with the nerfs that it got after the megapatch. 
This change makes Replenishing Despair a potentially useful option, but in exchange Pain Absorption becomes a suicide skill, drawing damaging conditions to the revenant and giving them no way to mitigate the damaging ones. This skill will need to be adjusted in a way that does not affect its pve functionality.

 

Elementalist 

Elementalist does not seem to have been impacted largely by these changes. No comment, though I would keep an eye on prior comments about Staff weaver not being viable in any content.

 

Engineer 

I will need to see the changes live before I comment on these. The change to rifle seems like it could pose some problems, but rifle has fallen off the map since the change to Holo stability and probably can use the buff. No significant comment.

 

Mesmer

I understand the rationale behind the mantra change. However, it is important to consider that you are removing a large window of counterplay that existed in pressuring mesmers that needed to charge mantras. The changes to torment do not egregiously impact mesmers because they have options to prevent classes from moving. However, their mantra changes reduce their likelihood of being cowed by guardians if power oriented, and exacerbate their winning matchup vs non-spellbreaker oriented warriors and power oriented necromancers. The changes to guardian and to a lesser extent necro seem to be geared to mitigate this potential balance shift, but this will still need to be watched closely. Refer my notes above for how it affects warriors. 

 

Necromancer 

I do not know enough about/have not played enough Necromancer to speak about this class in depth, however, the scourge specialization seems to be geared to suffer the same way Mallyx revenants are geared to suffer. You may want to look into bumping up burning damage associated with applying torment in PVP via Demonic Lore, and watch the performance of scourge closely to be able to respond with additional tweaking as needed.

The lich change was good. There is now counterplay that doesn’t involve being near an object or having a block off cd. If lich needs to be changed in the future and have damage moved off its 1, please buff the damage/utility of its 2-5 accordingly .

Edited May 7, 2021 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Cougre.6543]

34 minutes ago, Svez Poizon XD.5268 said:

However all those boons are worthless.

Permanent swiftness, protection, fury, 20% CAP IGNORING boon duration, lifesteal, and some might for the whole squad is worthless?

Quote

its dps is not existent.

Overstatement of the century. It's not far off from the dps players that don't provide huge utility in most scenarios.

Quote

What is the purpose of Herald?

It's quite similar to dps scourge. It's not for competing for world record kill times, but it makes boss kills extremely secure by providing a bunch of safety nets at a negligible cost of dps. It's also a very fun and simple build for newcomers to pick up.

[Imba.9451]

I really think Hammers for Warriors and guards are overlooked. I want to like those weapons, but there is almost never a reason to use them over anything else. They are in desperate need of a rework.

[Sly Mutha.3195]

We see your concerns about Firebrands taking over the world.

 

*nerfs Revenant*

[ZDragon.3046]

17 minutes ago, Imba.9451 said:

I really think Hammers for Warriors and guards are overlooked. I want to like those weapons, but there is almost never a reason to use them over anything else. They are in desperate need of a rework.

Hammer on guard is actually pretty good as is. It probably needs number tweaks but not a full rework.

I could say the same for hammer on warrior honestly. Maybe warrior hammer could use a few mechanical tweaks for example adding bonus damage against stunned targets to the auto and hammer shock skills. 

 

Revs hammer is the one that needs the full rework imo. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by ZDragon.3046

[Imba.9451]

11 minutes ago, ZDragon.3046 said:

Hammer on guard is actually pretty good as is. It probably needs number tweaks but not a full rework.

I could say the same for hammer on warrior honestly. Maybe warrior hammer could use a few mechanical tweaks for example adding bonus damage against stunned targets to the auto and hammer shock skills. 

 

Revs hammer is the one that needs the full rework imo. 

While I do agree that Warrior Hammer is better than Guardians, i think it excels at nothing in particular. Warrior has enough cc as is.

Also, the immobilize skill for guard, as well as the circle, are borderline useless in most PvE encounters. Additionally, the trait that makes your hammer 2 icy increases it's cooldown, effectively decreasing it's damage potential in favor for a chill effect. It's a decent weapon for some PvP build (and even those are outdated, but I am not good enough in PvP to judge this), but at least 2 of Guardians Hammer skills need either a rework or excessive tweaking in order to be useful. Maybe let the circle give boons or deal conditions or whatever. I have no idea how to improve the immobilize skill though.

 

Edit: Better cast times would help as well.

And I don't mind hammer for rev as much tbh. Yes, it's not the best dps option, but like most ranged weapons a decent way of dealing damage from a safer position. I think that weapon could do with number tweaks just fine. But I am not a Rev main and haven't played the class enough to speak from a educated perspective.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Imba.9451

[ZDragon.3046]

1 minute ago, Imba.9451 said:

While I do agree that Warrior Hammer is better than Guardians, i think it excels at nothing in particular. Warrior has enough cc as is.

Also, the immobilize skill for guard, as well as the circle, are borderline useless in most PvE encounters. Additionally, the trait that makes your hammer 2 icy increases it's cooldown, effectively decreasing it's damage potential in favor for a chill effect. It's a decent weapon for some PvP build (and even those are outdated, but I am not good enough in PvP to judge this), but at least 2 of Guardians Hammer skills need either a rework or excessive tweaking in order to be useful. Maybe let the circle give boons or deal conditions or whatever. I have no idea how to improve the immobilize skill though.

 

Edit: Better cast times would help as well.

its very useful in pvp though which makes it a well balanced weapon imo. What would be worse is changing the weapon to be 100% locked into one mode or the other. While i do agree that hammer is underwhelming it still fun to use simply because almost no one else uses it. 

 

Interesting.... The cooldown change only exist in pve for some reason, Also keep in mind that the skills base damage and scaling damage actually does increase which means even with the slightly higher cooldown its not that big of potential damage decrease. The trait does not increase the cooldown at all in pvp which is likely a simply tweak that could be made to improve it in pve. Thats not worthy of a whole rework imo. 

The  hammer 3 on guardian could maybe use an update (just make it a bit faster so the projectile is accurate) the skill 4 and 5 are good as is. skill 4 is viable in both game modes as a simple cc and skill 5 is more viable in pvp only but every class has skills like this (spinal shivers on necro focus 5 is useless in 90%  pve where foes have no boons meaning it will always do the lowest possible damage for example. But its a great skill in pvp where foes almost always have boons.) Hammer 5 on guardian is a great skill for locking down a target multiple targets for your hammer 2.  

 

Hammer is sure not the best weapon but I would say its not entirely it need of a rework. Just some tweaks its probably easier to say that everything else is too easy and too good to use which is why people dont bother using hammer. Why use a hammer when you can smash scepter 3 > scepter 2 and be super effective without a thought. That works in both game modes.

 

 

[Orion Templar.4589]

Thank you balance team for taking the time to read and react to the feedback.  That is appreciated!  I think you're making some needed changes and heading in the right direction.  The one that still sticks out to me as needing discussion is the ICD for Soulcleave's Summit.   1 s ICD is too much, and really ruins the fun/flavor/effectiveness of the skill, especially considering its high cost.  Please consider reducing the ICD, or possibly make the ICD not apply to the Renegade that cast it.

[Asum.4960]

9 hours ago, RuneMF.9342 said:

Without getting in to a big argument I don't really see what you are trying to say with that, yes it is a nerf to the burst. & What they are trying to do is reducing the burst yes but it is nerfing something that is not really utilized at all anyway, except MO where you can run full guard and all prestack ashes and swap to DH and you just got 1 FB with massive opener at no cost at all.

But what I was talking about in my original comment was the fact that 5 of the stacks potentially won't do anything because of a 1 sec icd. Unless it is a 1 sec icd per person, which in that case doesn't really solve anything really.

If it is 1 sec icd per person sure you wont see MO 150k opener, but many groups will have 8-10 stack opener from prestack which will work with this iteration of a 1 sec icd pr person. For example check this great pov from Tantor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuD8VoHkWYQ&t=0s  8 Stacks prebuffed resulting in a 89k peak opener on a NON exposed boss.

Again I like this change but if it is option A, the ICD of ashes is on the guard itself, then a lot of the stacks will get wasted on every single cast which just feels wrong to not be able to proc the full ability because of ICD application limits. Or option B, there is a icd on each person in which case it doesn't really do much since the best groups run 2 max 3 fb's anyway and allows for absolutely disgusting burst damage even with this nerf.

 

What you see in the video won't be possible anymore. Ashes of the Just has a 10 second duration, and as you can see was about to time out by the time the fight started. Currently, all 5 players were able to apply the 8 stacks each almost instantly before they timed out for a total of 40 Stacks of Burning. 

After this change, each player will maybe just so get to utilize 3 stacks, one per second, before the precast wears off, resulting in 15 stacks of Burning. 

In short, the opening burst of FB stacks (and mistlock abuse) was reduced by ~60%, while taking a single FB, while a slight reduction to burst/increase in ramp up, DPS wise won't be affected at all. 

 

As such a clever change that actually does exactly what it's supposed to from what I can tell.

 

That on top of the removal of burst potential with Sword of Justice/Eternal Armory/Zeal, those openers will be no more - and while still relatively bursty due to the nature of Burning, FB will be a lot closer to condi ramp than before.

[lorephoenix.9185]

any chance of renegade skills becoming snap to target? 

[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. Make this skill have animation priority over other skills instead of queuing behind so this can be used reactively instead of predictively. Reduce block duration to 1 second. Return the damage in competitive modes.
Hammer
issue	Suggestion
Earthshaker: The damage nerf in competitive mode really guts this weapon..	Return the damage in competitive modes.
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.
Staggering Blow: The damage nerf in competitive mode really guts this weapon..	Return the damage in competitive modes.
Backbreaker: The damage nerf in competitive mode really guts this weapon..	Return the damage in competitive modes.
Longbow
issue	Suggestion
Auto Attack: Would be nice to have the condi damage here without taking the trait, it has a decent condi set but the auto attack lacks it.	Add bleeding effect to auto attack.
Mace
issue	Suggestion
Skull Crack: CC Damage nerf should not exist on burst skills.	Return the damage in competitive modes.
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: From a design perspective, warrior has 3 skills that are nearly identical to Counter blow (Sword Riposte, Spear Parry)..	Scrap Counter Blow. Replace with a new skill: Armor Crush. Leap 300 units and strike your target with an overhead blow. Unblockable. Removes protection, dazes if target is blocking or has protection.
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. Return the damage in competitive modes.
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	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.
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	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.
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, niche use. Damage nerf in competitive mode makes this a terrible skill.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline. Return damage in competitive modes.
Sight Beyond Sight: That recent 2 second revealed increase did not change the underlying flaws with this ability and how stealth works in game.	Grants self the ability to see stealthed players within range for 10s. Instead of having the next attack critically hit, change it so it inflicts  Exhaustion for 3 seconds on enemies you strike.
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 resolution and adrenaline feels more of an afterthought than anything.	Reduce cooldown to 30 seconds, reduce taunt to one second. Remove the resolution and adrenaline gain. Replace with Protection. Gain new effect: Cause all incoming damage to glance for 5 seconds.
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. 30s 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). Deal damage when planted. Reduce CD to 30s, banner duration to 20s
Stomp: Was hardly ever used in competitive modes before damage CC nerf. The damage nerf made this trash.	Return the damage in competitive modes, lower cd by 5s
Kick: Was hardly ever used in competitive modes before damage CC nerf. The damage nerf made this trash.	Return the damage in competitive modes
Bulls Charge: The CC damage nerf was overbearing, the long cooldown makes this unjustifiable to take.	Return the damage in competitive modes, alebit at a lowered amount.
Signet of Stamina: Too long of a cooldown for its active when condi re-application is rampant. Usability would improve if the CD was reduced in exchange for reducing the # of conditions cleared..	Instead of removing 12 conditions, have it just remove damaging conditions. Grant 8s of Resolution, reduce CD to 30s.
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. Having this deal no damage while stunning yourself makes this a terrible unusable skill.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, reduces the berserk mode cooldown. Increase CD to 30s. Return damage in competitive modes.

 

 

Traits

Strength
Issue	Suggestion
Brave Stride: 2s of stability on 10s cd that's dependent on use of a skill makes it difficult to choose over peak performance which grants a static passive benefit without any active input	Normalize to 5s cd, 5s stability across all game modes
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.	Make it so attacks that deal control effects also deal more damage in addition to current effects.
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.	Remove the damage increase on controlled foes while using a hammer. Change it so interrupting foes reduce all hammer skill (including burst) cooldown by 3 seconds.
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. 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%. Increase crit damage when striking a disabled foe or from the side/behind by 10%
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
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. Revert cooldown back down to 60s.
Sundering Mace: Trait only benefits mace.	Make it so taking this trait grants a +15% outgoing CC effect duration, where the duration is doubled to +30% when wielding a mace.
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. Revert cooldown back to 40s.
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
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.	Change it so you use "Shake it off" when you revive an ally with no cooldown. Increase conditions removed to 3.
Martial Cadence: Soldier's focus has a 15s cd and to have a trait dependent on soldier's focus makes this unattractive vs the other grandmasters.	Have this trait reduce the cooldown of burst skills in addition to current effects.
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
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 (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. Rename to Reckless Abandon. Swapping weapons will now cause you to throw your weapon at your target (600 range), inflicting multiple conditions.
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.
Burst of Aggression: Similar problem with Savage instinct. Activating berserk mode is far and wide in between, can be extended to beyond 30 seconds. Having this trait only activate when entering berserk mode makes this trait too limited for any real lasting benefit.	Move the quickness and superspeed to (on primal burst hits). Reduce duration to 1s each..
Dead or Alive: Benefit scenario of the fatal damage healing is too limited and specific. Competes yet is outperformed by blood reaction and heat the soul.	Instead of healing while taking fatal damage while in berserk mode, make it so landing primal bursts grant barrier.
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, resolution, regeneration, and resistance. Daze nearby foes 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.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by TheBravery.9615

[mixxed.5862]

Thanks for the follow up, although it doesn't really nerf condi firebrand. But that was probably intentional.

 

Just one more thing: Please revisit the Mantra changes! I really despise them. I think they're boring, unnecessary and all they accomplish is make the game less interesting. They're just bad. I beg you to reconsider and keep Mantras as is until you figure out a more appropriate balance direction.

Edited May 7, 2021 by mixxed.5862

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

5 hours ago, TheBravery.9615 said:

Fairly pleased with the rifle changes on Warrior as the ability to engage in multiple targets will greatly enhance the weapon's viability in mobbing, however I can't help note that the changes are mostly being made to traits/skills that have received plenty of attention. There are a lot of neglected aspects of Warrior that see no use in either PvE, PvP, or WvW. Please address them soon. Example:

 

 

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. 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. Return the damage in competitive modes.
Hammer
issue	Suggestion
Earthshaker: The damage nerf in competitive mode really guts this weapon..	Return the damage in competitive modes.
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.
Backbreaker: The damage nerf in competitive mode really guts this weapon..	Return the damage in competitive modes.
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.
Mace
issue	Suggestion
Skull Grinder: No one uses Mace on berserker anymore. The splits are no longer necessary	Undo splits, revert to PVE specs.
Skull Crack: CC Damage nerf should not exist on burst skills.	Return the damage in competitive modes.
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. Return the damage in competitive modes.
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, niche use. Damage nerf in competitive mode makes this a terrible skill.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, gain adrenaline. Return damage in competitive modes.
Sight Beyond Sight: That recent 2 second revealed increase did not change the underlying flaws with this ability and how stealth works in game.	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. 30s 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). Deal damage when planted. Reduce CD to 30s, banner duration to 20s
Stomp: Was hardly ever used in competitive modes before damage CC nerf. The damage nerf made this trash.	Return the damage, lower cd by 10s
Bulls Charge: The CC damage nerf was overbearing, the long cooldown makes this unjustifiable to take.	Return the damage, alebit at a lowered amount.
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. Having this deal no damage while stunning yourself makes this a terrible unusable skill.	While in berserk mode, increase berserk duration. Outside of berserk mode, reduces the berserk mode cooldown. Increase CD to 30s. Return damage in competitive modes.

 

 

Traits

 

Strength
Issue	Suggestion
Brave Stride: 2s of stability on 10s cd that's dependent on use of a skill makes it difficult to choose over peak performance which grants a static passive benefit without any active input	Normalize to 5s cd, 5s stability across all game modes
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.	Make it so attacks that deal control effects also deal more damage in addition to current effects.
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.	Remove the damage increase on controlled foes while using a hammer. Change it so interrupting foes reduce all hammer skill cooldown by 3 seconds.
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. 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%. Increase crit damage when striking a disabled foe or from the side/behind by 10%
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
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: Trait only benefits mace.	Make it so taking this trait grants a +15% outgoing CC effect duration, where the duration is doubled to +30% when wielding a mace.
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
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.	Change it so you use "Shake it off" when you revive an ally with no cooldown. Increase conditions removed to 3.
Martial Cadence: Soldier's focus has a 15s cd and to have a trait dependent on soldier's focus makes this unattractive vs the other grandmasters.	Have this trait reduce soldier's focus icd down to 10 seconds in addition to current effects.
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
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 (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. Rename to Reckless Abandon. Swapping weapons will now cause you to throw your weapon at your target (600 range), inflicting multiple conditions.
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.	Instead of healing while taking fatal damage while in berserk mode, make it so landing primal bursts grant barrier.
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. Daze nearby foes 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.

 

Keep in mind how the changes, especially to berserker, will affect the class in PvP. If your skill changes are PVE oriented, please consider noting  this.