Falan.1839

The whole tradeoff thing was just another half-assed brainfart anyway that has never been really consistently applied. The tradeoff on Holo obviously doesn't do much, but the coming nerfs on tuesday will be enough to remove holo from the meta anyway, at least the current build.

> @"EremiteAngel.9765" said:

> So is Weaver the strongest 1 vs 1 class now?

> Or is it just a matter of difference in skill level between the winner and the rest?

It is the hardest to kill simply, and the map forces an end after 2 minutes with gas mechanic. In an actual conquest map that build would just stall a lot of 1v1s. Also 1v1 is a lot about counters, I suspect a Core Warr could probably beat the build (at least until Tuesday when the anti barrier trait is nerfed), but he didn't face that. He faced a warr, but since traitline switching wasn't allowed the warr had to remain on SPB, which doesn't do great against that build.

He played Earth traitline, so with Diamond Skin and Stone Heart he had counters against both power and condi that he could switch between.

> @"Cal Cohen.2358" said:

> Rev is a class that's favored more by the best players, and the best players tend to win the monthly. With that said it's definitely strong, and it's on our watch list following the next balance update along with symbol firebrand and weaver. Essentially we're going to keep a close eye on the meta builds that aren't seeing any changes, but we want to see how the new meta shakes out first. Like I've said previously, we have the opportunity to make additional changes outside of the usual balance cadence if something terrible happens.

>

I guess that's the Dev Version of "PSA: Don't be mad because Rev outskilled you." :expressionless:

While it's true that the full potential of Rev is usually only reached by mechanical top players, that doesn't mean it's not overperforming. Many top players don't inherently favour that class, they roll it because it has consistently been one of top the teamfight classes over years. The spam of portengages and the near endless chain of dodges and blocks combined with one of the best heals in the game is definitely worth looking at. Rev might not be broken on its own, but it stacks very well and has extremely high synergy with FB since the lack of stability and cleanse is probably the only downside of Rev and an FB (or even two) completely changes that.

> @"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:

> So its deadeye but stronger and unblockable, until tactics gets adjusted?

>

Deadeye was/is obnoxious because of its stealth and mobility (and Binding Shadow), not because of the raw DPS. Rifle Warr is very easy to kill, Deadeye isn't, unless you have a lot of range/mobility and reveal in your kit.

25k is a pretty standard/low hit with that build, Ajaxx managed 40k with it.

https://www.twitch.tv/irajaxx/clip/DelightfulPeacefulTitanAMPEnergy?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time

Unfortunately this is how Arenanet does trait reworks, I mean, 50% extra dmg vs barrier, why not...

Since the last one was the October mAT there still should be one for November.

Warr is probably the best, the new tactics/should build is very close to the meta SPB and hardcounters all builds with barrier. Necro is good too, tons of corrupts and fears, very sustainy. Pressure is a bit lackluster. Guardian, Ranger and Thief are viable picks aswell. Core Mes is seeing some play with Misha popularizing the oneshot stealth/mantra build. Rev, Ele and Engi are very budget compared to their elite specs, I wouldn't recommend those on core.

And yet people are constantly whining about holo...

I think a weekly AT in addition to the dailies and monthlies would be great. Rewards shouldnt be as unique as for the mAT of course, but still make it worth to participate. Something like 1,2k gems and 250g for each winner maybe, and 10 of the tournament vouchers you get from mAT. That way gizmos/BotB/statues would not be devalued but there would still be an incentive to play weekly as a team.

Blackjack did a bet with Posi a few seasons ago and landed in P2 after 50 or so games. Core Ele is still tanky enough to not hardthrow in higher rated games when you play it well, but your impact will be very limited, since both support and dps don't really compare to metabuilds.

If anything more tryharding probably means more wintrading unfortunately. About Ranked Team Q: Yes, there would be some silver/gold teams but even those would probably not get balanced matches very often. I am not categorically against it, but I think the hype for a team Q would die out pretty fast.

The suggestions about ATs are very good. 2v2 would obviously be good aswell. I still don't see the population for a 5v5 queue at this point, even though it could be tried with one Q that is actually solo (not duo) and one for full teams. The all-star game would probably be hard to organize since people have different online times, also I don't see how this would change any of the issues with matchmaking and manipulation.

> @"Cal Cohen.2358" said:

>

>

> * Not enough holo nerfs

>

> Especially with the lesser nerf to agility, we agree that holo needs a bit more in this update. We’re looking at additional defensive reductions. Holo damage is certainly high, but we want to mostly leave that damage potential in the short-term, while adding more opportunity to counterpressure as a way of mitigating that damage. The new changes are included at the end of the post.

>

> * What about doing [any number of other suggestions]?

>

> There are more changes that make sense to do. There are concerns about some builds that aren’t being hit. There are questions about whether these changes are the right changes.

>

> These changes are all very focused on fixing problems in the short-term. Ideally we wouldn’t splash into other builds, but in some cases it’s bound to happen. We wanted to create a small set of high-impact changes to improve things while we work toward bigger goals. The alternative was to just not do any balance until the future update is ready, but we felt that we could address some problems so we’re going to take the opportunity. If other big problems appear following this update, we still have the ability to make small adjustments outside of the usual balance cadence as needed.

>

> Updates to the previous list:

> * Sigil of Agility: Reduced quickness duration from 2 seconds to 1 second

> * Photon Wall: Increased cooldown from 35 seconds to 45 seconds in PvP only

> * Heat Therapy: Reduced heal per stack from 65 to 49 (-25%) in PvP only

>

> We still have a bit more time to iterate, but at this point we’re primarily looking for feedback on the holo changes.

>

The heat therapy nerf is fine, the resustain of holo while not pressured but still in fight is too high atm. I am strongly against the Photon Wall nerf though, because it is the only skill that allows holo to keep pressuring while having some kind of protection. All the other lifesavers take you out of the game completely (Elixir S and Toss Elixir S). That already makes a very poor matchup against (Strength) Spellbreaker, who does 2k+ damage with every dodges and has multiple evade frames on offensive skills with very low cooldown (GS 3, Bull's Charge, Full Counter), combined with an absurd level of might stacking and damage modifiers, of which he will get yet another passive one with the change on fall damage traits. Rev workes similarly, Sword 3 combined with Impossible Odds, does huge damage while completely immune, Staff 5 is a CC with some dps while immune and there are several instant casts and passive procs that still hit while blocking, dodging or otherwise being immune. Mirage also works the same way with Distortion and Ambush tying major condition pressure to dodges. The lack of these kind of mechanics has always been the major downside of Holo, even though most people forget that when they complain about its damage, CC and resustain.

Essentially holo becomes stronger when coordination is poor and focus not constant, because in these kind of situations the ability to disengage relatively safely and resustain quickly becomes very effective. When pressure is constant and target focus is being kept up, like it is the case in more high lvl and organized settings, holo already has some disadvantages against builds that have both high mobility and the ability to cover their damage with immunity frames.

Courageous Return: This trait has been reworked and it has been renamed to "Stalwart Courage". It grants the guardian Protection for 3 seconds whenever aegis on the guardian is removed due to blocking an attack.

This desperately needs a high CD in PvP, similar to protection injection. Double Firebrand is already pretty much the meta comp for ATs, and this has potential to give them A LOT of free prot if there is no CD.

He probably had fewer games played and was still on higher volatility, otherwise it shouldn't happen-

> @"Cal Cohen.2358" said:

> **Holosmith**

> Holosmith quickness has been a big point of feedback and we’re planning to make some adjustments there. Removing Sigil of Agility was part of this, and we’re also looking at a minor nerf to Kinetic Battery.

>

> This leaves Elixir U. We’re considering a quickness reduction here as well, but are currently leaning toward an interesting change that’s worth discussing. That change being a heavy reduction of the stability granted. The goal of this change is to leave U as the big quickness skill, but also open the door for more counterplay. This would give opportunity to avoid Corona Burst and then CC the holosmith instead of just getting run over by quickness.

>

> * Kinetic Battery: Reduced quickness duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only

> * Elixir U: Reduced stability duration from 6 seconds to 1 second in PvP only

>

The nerf on Kinetic Battery is on point and not too excessive. The Elixir U one might be a bit over the top and also missing the point, since I don't think the stability was the issue. Possibly 6s was a bit excessive with boon duration, but one seconds basically means no stability at all. Keep in mind that Corona is already borderline useless. I'd rather cut of 20% of the quickness on Eli U and leave the stability duration. If the stability is deemed problematic it might be a good idea to reduce the stacks from 2 to 1, since that would mean the rather lengthy stab period can be broken without making it a non-factor. With the current Corona Burst and the suggested new Eli U this would effectively mean no stability at all for Holo, since Elixir B isn't really a great option (no stunbreak) and the duration on other sources is too low to figure. A 1s stability is effectively just a stunbreak and can only be used as such.

This post pretty much summarizes what is wrong with this community.

If this was done people would complain that they aren't home over Christmas and decay out of the LB before season ends.

Please no, Djinn was already disastrous and Spirit Watch is just as bad.

Embarassend and outsmarted, that's a good one. You threw around insults (which have since been deleted from this thread) and then wanted to make it appear as if you had made a valid criticism, that's all. And that's also all I said before with the half-intelligent part. Anyway, I'm out again. And no, not to our discord.

Since you don't mention who is supposedly was forced to leave the discord due to attempted bullying I can't really be sure, but if it is the person who I have in mind: That guy has a very long history of wintrading, stealing gold from accounts he got shared, catfishing, insulting, randomly asking girls for nudes, and a lot of other inappropriate behaviour. So if he got a reception like you describe, there are a lot of reasons for it.

Oh and thanks for the corrections, as you might have noticed, or maybe haven't, I am not a native speaker of English, so equating language proficiency with intelligence is, as you might put it, "literally a fallacy lmao".

I will now leave you to your intellectual brilliance and immaculate argumentation, so you can continue to derail this thread without me, since I have more important things to do.

Very short summary of current outliers:

Daredevil: Both the condition variant and the Staff version

Staff is almost impossible to kill, as the near constant dodge windows, combined with additional skills like Bandit's Defense or Roll for Iniative make for near permanent dodges. So in 1v1 it's basically impossible and even if you outnumber hard you still waste a huge amount of time because 95% of the time you only hit the dodge timeframes

The Condition variant is a bit easier to kill, but still has a very high dodge uptime. The problem here is that it does very high pressure on essentialle passive/instant effects like sword 2 and dodge. It basically doesnt ever have to use AA, or other sword skills, just the Sword 2 port, dodge and and occasional steal provide for tons of condition pressure that gets constantly reapplied. Also it has a lot of cover condis and the poison stack, which does the most damage, almost gets cleansed last, making it very hard to ever get a full cleanse on the damaging conditions off

Warrior: Mostly Rampage that is problematic. Huge DPS combined with tons of CC, decent mobility, permanent stability, high HP pool, damage reduction. It has basically everything. Profits a lot from damage modifiers too (Strength Line mostly). Almost no counters except massive spam of hard lifesavers or constant corrupt/condi pressure. The slight nerf on CD was definitely not enough.

Holo: Combination of hard lifesavers like Elixir S with very good resustain. With Elixir S and Photon Wall you have a long stealth period, a decent block that allows to keep fighting and a hard immunity with Eli S itself. This in itself isn't op, but the combination of Healing Turret + it's toolbelt skill on a relatively low CD with a lot of combo finishers, permanent regeneration boon and Heat Therapy means that the holo can basically almost always full resustain after disengaging. This makes it too hard to kill for a class with otherwise offensive build (high DPS/CC). Another issue is the excessive quickness uptime from Tools traitline and Elixir U. There is nothing wrong with the build having quickness in general, but the current duration is too high.

Mirage: Even though it has seen some significant nerfs, Infine Horizon is still a problem, as it means you get a ridiculous amounts of condis from clones, especially when they are using staff, as the Staff Ambush Skill is very strong. It also kind of counters your own shatter mechanic, because just keeping the clones up for AA spam does a lot more than the shatters, so they are usually only used as lifesaver (distortion) or to finish people off

Trichon also announced there will be a 2.000 gem giveaway at 1.000 members, right now we're at 990. Good time to join! Also I'm listed as coach there, which is obviously another good reason.

Decay doesn't influence matchmaking.