Balance patch preview for 18 Aug 2021

[Anchoku.8142]

 

 

 

Necromancer

– Death Shroud: Players may now use the mount key while in Death Shroud. Doing so will automatically deactivate Death Shroud.

Curses

– Furious Demise: Fixed a bug that caused precision granted by this trait to not be used for bonus condition damage by the next minor curses trait, Target the Weak.

– Target the Weak: The description of this trait has been corrected to include that it also increases the necromancer's condition damage by a percentage of their precision.

– Lingering Curses: The bonus condition damage granted by this trait now applies with any weapon, not only scepter.

Death Magic

– Death Nova: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to fail to properly summon a jagged horror when killing enemies in certain content types or locations.

– Soul Comprehension: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to fail to properly grant a stack of carapace when killing enemies in certain content types or locations.

– Flesh of the Master: Reduced minion health bonus from 25% to 15% in PvP only.

Soul Reaping

– Dhuumfire: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to activate multiple times without triggering its internal cooldown when used with scourge specialization skills.

Spite

– Dread: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to fail to properly reduce the cooldown on shroud skill 3 when killing enemies in certain content types or locations.

Reaper

• – Reaper Shroud: Players can now use the mount key while in Reaper Shroud. Doing so will automatically deactivate Reaper Shroud.

Scourge

As the community has observed, scourge has quickly become dominant in many game modes, from PvP to PvE. In PvE, the barrier granted by damage-specialized scourges to nearby allies as part of their normal damage rotation has caused scourge to provide overwhelming support even while traited and geared as a pure DPS build. We would like a clearer distinction between scourges' support and damage builds. To this end, we're making a change to the scourge's healing skill, Sand Flare, so that it only grants barrier to the caster by default. The first-tier support trait, Abrasive Grit, was previously very underwhelming, especially when compared against its chief competitor in that tier, Fell Beacon. Abrasive Grit will now cause Sand Flare to affect nearby allies, restoring it to its previous target cap. With these changes, we're shifting some of the scourge's passive barrier-granting ability off of the damage-specialized scourge build and on to builds that have specifically chosen to trait for support.

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– Sand Flare: Barrier granted by this skill now only affects the caster by default.

– Abrasive Grit: This trait has been reworked to the following: Sand Flare now also grants barrier to nearby allies. Granting an ally barrier removes conditions afflicting them.

– Demonic Lore: Fixed a bug that caused the internal cooldown of this trait to not occur under certain circumstances.

– Herald of Sorrow: This trait now renames the skill Desert Shroud to Sandstorm Shroud instead of to Harbinger Shroud. The effects of this skill are unchanged.

 

On the PvP side of things, we're making some additional changes to bring scourge down. Feed from Corruption is a trait that we've been looking at for a while, and given the continued performance of scourge, it's something we wanted to make sure to touch in this round of changes. For this update, we're primarily targeting the defensive boons as we look to address some of the scourge's overall bulk, but we also wanted to tone down the might generation that this trait could potentially create. We're also shaving down some of the scourge's barrier applications and Nefarious Favor, with the overall goal of making the scourge just a bit more killable.

•  

– Sand Cascade: Reduced base barrier from 2,428 to 1,859 in PvP only.

– Desert Shroud: Reduced base barrier from 5,016 to 4,013 in PvP only.

– Desert Empowerment: Reduced base barrier from 966 to 773 in PvP only.

– Sandstorm Shroud: Reduced initial base barrier from 5,016 to 4,013 in PvP only. Reduced final base barrier from 1,684 to 1,327 in PvP only.

– Feed from Corruption: The following boon applications from this trait have been adjusted in PvP only:

– Might: Reduced stacks from 3 to 1.

– Protection: Reduced duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.

– Resolution: Reduced duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.

– Regeneration: Reduced duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds.

– Stability: Reduced from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 3 seconds.

– Vigor: Reduced duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds.

– Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in PvP only.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Anchoku.8142

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

Fair changes, I would say.

[Lily.1935]

I think this is good for the health right now. As a scourge main I do think its fair to split up the support and DPS a bit more.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

The issue was not really sand flare, the issue is there is no reason to take sadistic searing over desert empowerment. Now scourges will take vamp signet, have more dps and apply more barrier passively. Sand flare was a dps loss.

[Infusion.7149]

The Sand Flare change was a step in the right direction regardless although base barrier on desert empowerment should probably be reduced to make hybrid plaguedoctors more meaningful.

Anyone should have been able to see the Dhuumfire bugfix happening though.

[KrHome.1920]

Great update for condi reaper.

 

Shroud 5+4 combo will now always land no matter what fields other players spam and lingering curses will buff condi damage even when using greatsword.

[Tobias.8632]

I'm so glad whoever is making balance changes on necro these days isn't the same kitten who used to nerf us into the dumpster any time we approached being good in raids during the first 7 years of the game's lifespan. These are actually fine.

[LucianDK.8615]

I am definitely interested in hearing if condi reaper will have any decent output with guaranteed use of chill field.

[fatihso.7258]

How will fixes to Dhuumfire and Demonic Lore affect the current dps of Condi Scourge after the patch hits?

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by fatihso.7258

[Kumouta.4985]

Condi reaper was already great, now it's slightly better

[LucianDK.8615]

47 minutes ago, fatihso.7258 said:

How will fixes to Dhuumfire and Demonic Lore affect the current dps of Condi Scourge after the patch hits?

 

 

 

 

Mind giving a summary? My hearing is rather poor.

[Infusion.7149]

1 hour ago, fatihso.7258 said:

How will fixes to Dhuumfire and Demonic Lore affect the current dps of Condi Scourge after the patch hits?

 

 

 

Current benchmarks don't abuse scourge stacking and unless you spam shade skills in less than 1s windows you're going to be more than fine.

[Nimon.7840]

4 hours ago, LucianDK.8615 said:

I am definitely interested in hearing if condi reaper will have any decent output with guaranteed use of chill field.

There's only one problem about condi reaper:

You don't have permanent access to epi.

 

I thi k all these changes are pretty well thought through. Heal skill only gives barrier to allies when taking abrasive grit is really smart.

 

But there's something I miss.

Like @Infusion.7149mentioned.

Not you will never ever take sand flare as a heal skill on DPS scourge anymore.

it already was a DPS loss, but if you used a second punishment skill you could use it together with sadistic searing and you didn't loose too much (DPS loss was pretty minor, don't get me wrong)

 

now you will always play desert empowerment. Which is support spam once again.

I would have wished, that this would be changed as well.

slightly buff the burning duration on sadistic searing, nerf base barrier application of desert empowerment, buff the healing power modifier on it.

 

 

[LucianDK.8615]

36 minutes ago, Nimon.7840 said:

There's only one problem about condi reaper:

You don't have permanent access to epi.

 

I thi k all these changes are pretty well thought through. Heal skill only gives barrier to allies when taking abrasive grit is really smart.

 

But there's something I miss.

Like @Infusion.7149mentioned.

Not you will never ever take sand flare as a heal skill on DPS scourge anymore.

it already was a DPS loss, but if you used a second punishment skill you could use it together with sadistic searing and you didn't loose too much (DPS loss was pretty minor, don't get me wrong)

 

now you will always play desert empowerment. Which is support spam once again.

I would have wished, that this would be changed as well.

slightly buff the burning duration on sadistic searing, nerf base barrier application of desert empowerment, buff the healing power modifier on it.

 

 

You mean epidemic?

Wouldnt sadistic searing be taken for adding burning to sand shades?

Would Harbinger of Sorrow have any value or still too weak?

[Dadnir.5038]

Lingering curse change is a good sight.

Scourge's change will probably fail to meet expectations.

 

[Infusion.7149]

11 hours ago, LucianDK.8615 said:

You mean epidemic?

Wouldnt sadistic searing be taken for adding burning to sand shades?

Would Harbinger of Sorrow have any value or still too weak?

You don't run sadistic searing because you use signet of undeath + blood is power. Typically shadow fiend is run if not using epidemic. This means you have a total of zero punishment utility skills unless you use sand flare which is getting nerfed.

With the change to Sand Flare , sadistic searing is really pointless as a DPS trait because punishment skills in PVE are underwhelming. I could see Dessicate doing a bit more in PVE when boon corrupt isn't in effect, the same goes for Trail of Anguish (heavily used in WVW) , Ghastly Breach (heavily used in WVW), and Serpent Siphon (laughable 1 stack of poison).

Edited August 14, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[LucianDK.8615]

32 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

You don't run sadistic searing because you use signet of undeath + blood is power. Typically shadow fiend is run if not using epidemic. This means you have a total of zero punishment utility skills unless you use sand flare which is getting nerfed.

With the change to Sand Flare , sadistic searing is really pointless as a DPS trait because punishment skills in PVE are underwhelming. I could see Dessicate doing a bit more in PVE when boon corrupt isn't in effect, the same goes for Trail of Anguish (heavily used in WVW) , Ghastly Breach (heavily used in WVW), and Serpent Siphon (laughable 1 stack of poison).

 

Some good points, but how useful is the part of Sadistic Searing that adds burning shade placement? Or is it junk?  And how does Harbinger shroud compare?

Asking as I dont have a lot of experience with Scourge.

[Infusion.7149]

Harbinger shroud is more or less a side-grade at best as the damage happens in one hit but delayed. You gain a boon corrupt and a barrier on ending (which doesn't compare with Desert empowerment) with harbinger shroud and it seems it is balanced with that in mind.

Desert shroud hits more times so it also is more likely to proc traits such as Barbed Precision, Vampiric , Demonic Lore, etc.

[LucianDK.8615]

36 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Harbinger shroud is more or less a side-grade at best as the damage happens in one hit but delayed. You gain a boon corrupt and a barrier on ending (which doesn't compare with Desert empowerment) with harbinger shroud and it seems it is balanced with that in mind.

Desert shroud hits more times so it also is more likely to proc traits such as Barbed Precision, Vampiric , Demonic Lore, etc.

thank you.

[quaniesan.8497]

1. Minions should no longer transfer conditions to foes in pvp. They should just take condi from master necros.  This change of reducing their HP doesn't address the elephant in the room regarding the MM builds in pvp.

2. Necros are super tanky no matter what you build you use. Even when you intentionally sabotage yourself for fun.   I always feel like like their life force in shroud should take ONLY a portion of incoming damage instead of upfront 100%. 20% would be already overgenerous.  Some other classes only get conditional 5,-10 % damage reduction.  

3. Scourges are discouraging in pvp , especially when there are 2 or 3 of them stacking on points.  I feel like these changes are not enough.  Also their barrier and sand things should have ICD per application  and have further reduction in potency , 30% for starter.

Edited August 15, 2021 by quaniesan.8497

[LucianDK.8615]

3 hours ago, quaniesan.8497 said:

1. Minions should no longer transfer conditions to foes in pvp. They should just take condi from master necros.  This change of reducing their HP doesn't address the elephant in the room regarding the MM builds in pvp.

2. Necros are super tanky no matter what you build you use. Even when you intentionally sabotage yourself for fun.   I always feel like like their life force in shroud should take ONLY a portion of incoming damage instead of upfront 100%. 20% would be already overgenerous.  Some other classes only get conditional 5,-10 % damage reduction.  

3. Scourges are discouraging in pvp , especially when there are 2 or 3 of them stacking on points.  I feel like these changes are not enough.  Also their barrier and sand things should have ICD per application  and have further reduction in potency , 30% for starter.

As long necromancers have no active defenses, the shroud has to stay at 100% reduction as long its up.