Vallun.2071

@"Grimjack.8130" The advantage that power has over conditions is that its damage is instant. The advantage conditions have over power is that they do more damage if not cleansed. Also to avoid conditions you need to look at your condition bar while also looking at enemy animations. It may be too much information for lower skilled players to deal with. While playing against a power build it plays much like a fighting game (so long as its not instant cast skills or stealth one shots) and playing against condition builds is like playing a fighting game combined with a survival horror game. This combined with the lower requirement of stat allocation to deal damage on condis makes it much more difficult to deal with than a power build.

This was all fine because conditions should take a while to ramp up, however this is not the case. Conditions stack up way too quickly on some builds and can even deal as much burst damage as power builds. This is also kind of necessary to keep up with the power creep of power builds, so perhaps the application of conditions should be made much more clear. For example when you have blind on you your screen becomes grayed out to tell you that you are blinded, and you dont even need to look at the buff bar. Confusion I believe also shows up as purple on your screen. Adding more of these effects would be clutter, so maybe this is the best solution to the dilemma of conditions:

Add an option in settings to make the buff bar more visible, either through making conditions flare up on the bar and get bigger whenever an extra stack gets applied or making them customizable on the screen so that they are more seamlessly visible to someone who also must look at the enemy's animations

> @"Sampson.2403" said:

> Vallun you didn't go into too much detail about why you think that the chaos mesmer traitline "should not work" in pvp.

I thought I explained it pretty well. Survivability and burst damage and sustained damage are too broken together. Yea maybe removing the option for survivability isnt as good as making them choose between surviability and damage, but chaos has never been a healthy traitline, just like shadow arts on thief

> @"reikken.4961" said:

> Lead attacks was a dumb trait thematically. It was just a permanent 15% damage buffs. This change is both good and bad. Cutting thief initial burst is bad because that's thief's job but good because bursting people from stealth is bad gameplay. Anyway, the trait as a whole should be changed entirely. It doesn't make any sense for thief to have ramping damage, and the mechanic certainly doesn't fit the trait's name.

I agree completely, it ends up being a 15% dmg boost permanently before, but after it ends up making 0 sense, but the stealth burst nerf can come from nerfing the things that are found in stealth one shot builds, not the trait that is found IN EVERY THIEF BUILD

> @"Kuya.6495" said:

> I have to admit, this is pretty lol that the OP's main got nerfed after making a balance suggestion thread.

i asked for my main to be nerfed, i just asked for it to be nerfed in an intelligent way. the nerfs arent the problem the playstyle change is... it makes very trash thieves not punished and good thieves punished

Yes their burst is strong, but thats about all they have, thieves have to run from fights if they fail to get the burst off because no sustain or survivability. Unless if they are sd thief. Enjoy playing against more of those instead

> @"Vieux P.1238" said:

> Vallun, cuz thieves one-shoted players or nearly did even when that player was bunker build. & you quick disappear or evade after delivering that initial burst. Are you able to spell Broken Vallun?

when you say thieves you mean deadeyes. This change nerfed not only the damage of thieves but the playstyle of the melee thief builds. They can nerf the damage of one shot builds by hitting the key componenets of one shot builds not of burst builds. They did this by the way by nerfing deaths judgment and rifle 3, so why double it up and nerf every other thief build? Lets leave in broken dagger storm which is the most boring thing in the game but remove lead attacks which rewarded rotational burst plays.

Changes read:

Additionally, we've toned down the initial burst of damage that the thief can apply by removing the ability to stack Lead Attacks when outside of combat. Lead Attacks: The duration of this trait's Lead Attacks stacking effect has been reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. It now requires the player to be in combat in order to generate the stacking damage effect. Initiative skills that cause the player to enter combat will generate stacks of this trait.

______________

Why would we want to reduce the initial burst of damage thieves do when that is their job? They already have low enough sustained damage and survivability. This change is actually so bad not only because its a pointless nerf, but it also promotes terrible gameplay. If I'm a thief in PvP (where I assume these changes are intended) I'm rotating between nodes using my initiative to close the gap. If I'm gaining no lead attacks during that time it diminishes the advantage of having speed. It is basically almost saying that I shouldn't use initiative until I get in combat.

So basically if I want to play rotationally I'll want to either steal instantly or be very predictable. Get in combat to stack my buff or begin fights very disadvantageously just to start gathering a buff. Either that or I play intelligently and suffer getting a huge damage nerf. This promotes Sword Dagger gameplay even more which is already the best thief build in the meta, and absolutely dumpsters dagger pistol gameplay which is more front loaded and required much more skill. Not only that but the reduced duration also makes it ramp down faster so you have to stay IN COMBAT longer, which thieves simply cant do because they lack survivability and sustain. So instead of the skillful in and out combat they are forced to stay in fights longer, but there have been no changes to help their ability to do that. ?????????

My suggestion is revert this change, or even reduce the duration of the buff but allow it to be stacked out of combat. I'd rather not be stuck on an even more braindead version of the sd build for another several months.

Timestamps:

2:00 - Thief

9:25 - Ranger

15:00 - Engineer

20:40 - Warrior

22:48 - Revenant

24:13 - Guardian

27:40 - Necromancer

32:30 - Mesmer

36:25 - Elementalist

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

> > @"Vallun.2071" said:

> > just wanted to mention here that it is a 4.5 second evade. not sure if you guys know but that means it is by far the longest evade in the game and even if it is an elite it still is not fun to play around. Watch here as I play my placements on SD thief with dagger storm.

>

> Your video proved that DS is just fine.

I mean I would argue its just as effective as warrior rampage, if anet is fine with that then I guess, but I don't think rampage is fine either.

just wanted to mention here that it is a 4.5 second evade. not sure if you guys know but that means it is by far the longest evade in the game and even if it is an elite it still is not fun to play around. Watch here as I play my placements on SD thief with dagger storm.

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

> > @"Vallun.2071" said:

> > > @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

> >

> > >

> > > Winds of Disenchantment says "hi".

> > >

> > > Talk about that Elite Skill if you want to talk about power creep.

> > >

> > > Dagger Storm deserves this buff. I don't like the 90s CD, but it's worth it. If Death Blossom can evade, Dagger Storm should have had the evade in the first place.

> >

> > your logic is so bad and basically goes along these lines: one skill is a spin and is an evade with high counterplay to it (death blossom), therefore this other skill that is a spin should be a much longer evade with no counterplay to it (dagger storm)

>

> Yes, it follows the same logic that if you spin really really fast that you can actually deflect projectiles (even bullets and orbs of light) and maintain a solid stability.

were discussing game balance not roleplay lmao

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

>

> Winds of Disenchantment says "hi".

>

> Talk about that Elite Skill if you want to talk about power creep.

>

> Dagger Storm deserves this buff. I don't like the 90s CD, but it's worth it. If Death Blossom can evade, Dagger Storm should have had the evade in the first place.

your logic is so bad and basically goes along these lines: one skill is a spin and is an evade with high counterplay to it (death blossom), therefore this other skill that is a spin should be a much longer evade with no counterplay to it (dagger storm)

The new Dagger Storm changes read: This skill now grants evade while casting in addition to its other effects. Its cooldown has been increased to 90 seconds. This not only power creeps the skill in a way that isn't interesting, but also makes the skill very uninteractive.

Firstly, dagger storm is a reflecting ability. That means even though projectiles are not effective versus it, unblockable projectiles could still be worth using against a dagger storm. Secondly there was potential to interupt dagger storm through removing the stability or by corrupt. Now there is no reason to use anything against dagger storm because it has evasion, and walls like fear wall ele earth wall which were effective vs evading effects are not even effective here because the stability can't be stripped because of evasion, and theyll just lose a stack or two by passing through these walls. Very uninteractive.

These kinds of power creep are what we DO NOT want when bringing balance to underused skill and utilities. Forcing them into relevancy by making them overpowered rather than respecting their situational usage (I actually was going to put dagger storm as a slot in my pvp sd thief build) is how we got the current form of soul beast and rev 1 shot specs. Please revert this change, or make the daggers flung by dagger storm life steal which will give the extra survivability that you want to give to dagger storm without all the uninteractive uncounterplayability that you gave it with just flat evasion. I want my class to not be broken any more like all of the deadeye changes made in the previous patch.

> @"mrauls.6519" said:

> The duo-queue change is something we've been somewhat hesitant to bring back. It makes matchmaking at the high and low ends of the skill rating spectrum more difficult. Ultimately, it came down to the fact that most players have more fun queuing up with a friend. Regardless of the effect it has on competitiveness. So we're bringing it back and we'll see how it goes for the season.

>

> Makes sense. I have a feeling duo-queue will make games feel lame again @ higher levels. I'm ready to get crushed I guess.

>

> On a separate note - I recommend you check out the Guardian forum to see good ways to properly buff Dragonhunter. :)

Why not just find a duo partner? You can even queue in solo and then ask one of the players in that match if they want to duo? Thats how mmos work.

How is the systems team going to improve the current game modes? In the past there were feature packs which in my opinion were some of the best changes to the game. Some of the core systems that don't exist in the game right now are build templates and repeatable raid and CM rewards. These don't add new content but will make any future and existing content in the game more enjoyable and repeatable.

I'm guessing our system for rewards will be based purely on ascended shards now. Will there be any incentive to be good at ranked q? In other words, why should I try to get higher rating? Other than a badge and an extra pip, there is no reason. Makes me not care about winning.

> @"dominik.9721" said:

> > @"Poelala.2830" said:

> > > @"Vallun.2071" said:

> > > > @"Poelala.2830" said:

> > > > vallun is better than anya and zenyus? what a meme.

> > >

> > > Are you still mad that I called you trash for afking on a node instead of pushing kills? heres some content for you. learn yourself

> >

> > OH you mean the game you thought harrier firebrand was DPS And you pushed far FIVE TIMES according to you, dying each time, and dying 3 MORE TIMES at mid? You mean the game where you said I was afking on home and 1v0ing all game but I got top kills and top damage? You mean the game where you thought you were in the right for pushing mid 1v3 twice? You mean the game where you didn't focus my target so I can burst him down... as my build necessitates? Oh yeah, that game. That is a TERRIBLE example for you, especially since you threw so hard. Anya is #1 NA with no win trade ever. Zenyus is #3 NA with no win trade. How are you better than they are? Top 3 thieves...

>

> Who are you anyways?

> It's always funny to see all these randoms who have been absolutly irrelevant and who had zero presence in the competitive ESL scene, now coming out of their caves.

>

> Caring about a "powerranking", using leaderboard placements of SEASON 12 and TOP STATS as an argument- LMFAO. What's next, a daily AT win at 4 am?

> Your statements now are just another proof how small and irrelevant you and the other two guys must have been back then.

>

> I'm btw 100% sure that Vallun is thousand times better than you in decesion makings, rotations and what not else, when he would care at least half as much as you do.

> But congratulations rank 3 on the NA leaderboard of SEASON 12 apparently seems to be the biggest achievement you could get in the game since 2012.

The guy speaking isnt even the one ranked 3. Its just another random sheep who had a mental breakdown when one of their "gods" told them they were garbage

:/ :/ :/ :/

> @"Poelala.2830" said:

> vallun is better than anya and zenyus? what a meme.

Are you still mad that I called you trash for afking on a node instead of pushing kills? heres some content for you. learn yourself

> @"Zenyus.2569" said:

> Not that accurate but not bad at all

>

> btw why do you guys keep putting vallun above me and primal LOL thats a good meme

Even when I stream for 9 hours ranked q during -20 hours and get top 25, and you think playing decay and cuck queueing to get NOT EVEN GOD OF PVP makes you good? Big eggs dee to that. When I actually try hard you aren't comparable. Stick to 1v1ing far nodes LUL.

buff thief

> @"bravan.3876" said:

> Maybe he had a good day yesterday dunno, the 5-10 days i checked his stream he was always crying about every other class, even stuff clearly needs more skill than what he is playing. The word monkey repeated like a mantra. And when you read his balance notes most of it (not all, even a blind dog can find some food sometimes) is just stupid.

looks like we have a butthurt monkey on the loose

by the way the issue with mesmer is not ellusive mind, its mirage cloak period. the stun break isnt even that much of a problem when you cant even stun them

Hi my name is Vallun, and if I were balancing Guild Wars 2 PvP, here is what I would do.

Thief

It’s great that sword builds are being used now after being considered terrible for years, but there are some things that need to be changed in order to make the power acrobatics build and the condi build more interactive. Also a few suggestions in here to make the dagger pistol archetype a little more effective to compete with sword.

First of all, Infiltrator’s strike (Sw2) has too long of a range (900). The main counterplay to this skill is to stand near their return location to prevent them from creating distance between their bursts of damage. Reducing the range to 600 would make this skill much less abusive to the conquest game.

Another problem is the acrobatics trait Swindler’s Equilibrium which gives sword acro thieves a double steal effect. This is too front loaded and promotes spammy gameplay rather than well- timed bursts. I suggest reverting this trait to its former version of reducing steals cooldown by 1 to 2 seconds per successful evade with a 2 to 3 second internal cooldown. This will feel much more fluid to play as and against and will greatly reward players for actively trying to play around steal and punish players who miss steal.

Another issue is the condi s/d build, which completely bullies low condition cleansing builds out of the meta by simply front loading venom/steal/lotus/caltrops/sword2 immob with only a few key presses. The amount of burst available to this build should not be possible for any meta condition build. It creates a very binary situation where you either dodge the initial burst or you die, or you have your “oh shit” button cleanse or you die. While I don’t think that condi thief should be removed from playability, I do have some suggestions to improve its interactivity and counterplay.

The Potent Poison trait should be reduced from 33% more damage on poison to 20% which will remove most of its one-shot potential. Serpent’s touch which gives poison on steal should be reduced from 10 seconds duration to 6, and spider venom’s poison duration per application should be reduced from 6 seconds to 4. This will also make the front-loaded damage from stealing with venom less overall.

In return for these nerfs, more poison should be added to active traits and skills. Dagger Training (competes with mug in deadly arts) can have increased application frequency for dagger skills, so maybe 100% chance for off hand dagger skills and 50% application for main hand dagger skills (reminder that this would be in conjunction with the nerfing of potent poison trait). This would require being near fights longer to deal damage rather than going in with sword 2, dodging, and then immediately going back out. It also makes the dagger pistol or even dagger dagger (yikes) variant of condi thief more sustainable damage.

One of the reasons why sword is more effective than dagger as a main hand is because of the way Panic Strike works with Lotus Poison. Every time a thief lands their sword 2 they also apply weakness with these 2 traits, but for a dagger main hand thief they need to land their whole auto attack chain to reach their poison and therefore weakness application. This makes them much more vulnerable on an already low evade uptime weapon set. My suggestion is to swap the order of Wild Strike and Lotus Strike on the dagger auto chain so that the poison attack happens right after Double Strike, and gives you more survivability sooner.

Revenant

Revenants have been out of the meta for a bit, but are slowing being power creeped to uncontrollable levels which if left unchecked can become the new problem. In higher tier matches, a good revenant can be unstoppable with a little support or a lack of counter pressure. The main counters to revenant are condi classes like scourge, condi mirage, and condi thief. However, with all of these classes either receiving nerfs or expecting nerfs, revenant will need to be toned down as a result.

The one issue is that they do too much damage. Incensed Response and Nefarious Momentum allow revenants to easily reach 25 stacks of might within the few seconds that they enter a fight. Maintaining 25 stacks of might for an entire fight should not be possible. Reaching 25 stacks for a short duration and then getting off a good burst with it is fine, but no more than a short window. The duration of might given by these abilities should be lowered by half, and the internal cooldown of their application should be somewhere around 5 seconds.

Also lower the base damage of the off-hand sword abilities. There is really no reason to use any other off hands because of how power creeped the sword off hand is, and it is much more damage and easier to land than the axe off hand which was to most revenant players a much more interesting weapon to use.

In return for lowering the damage revenant does, it would be nice to give them some more condi cleanse, perhaps removing 2 conditions on legend swap from Cleansing Channel and reducing the cast time of staff 4 Renewing Wave.

Mesmer

Condi mirage is the best build in the game at the moment. The main issue is that the build has too much evade uptime for how much mobility, damage, and utility it has. Keeping the damage and utility and mobility is fine because those make the build fun to play, but lowering the evade uptime will make it much more interactive to play against.

I suggest reducing the duration of the mirage dodge Mirage Cloak from 1 second to 3/4 th of a second like every other classes dodge animation. Also increase the cooldown of the Sword 2 Blurred Frenzy from 12 to 15. This would keep the dodge amount about the same for reactive players to dodge with, but lower the overall evade uptime to allow vulnerability frames or to punish poorly timed dodges.

Also adding an internal cooldown to Blinding Dissipation (blind on shatter) of about 5 seconds will make spamming shatters less effective since blinds deal confusion with Ineptitude, and allow for less on-demand survivability. These changes may seem a bit light but the goal is not to ruin the spec, rather to keep it fun and interactive.

Guardian

The core radiance guardian build is known for being very one dimensional, kill instantly or die slowly. The one-shot potential of the hammer variant of this build is very high and results in very unfun gameplay where you die from nowhere t. I would reduce the damage from Glacial Heart significantly but make the icd 6 seconds, down from 10, to keep higher uptime on the chill, allowing you to stick to your targets and deal more damage over time. the burst potential. This doesn’t affect the greatsword variant of the build which has less burst, and barely nerfs the overall damage output of the popular hammer version since it already lacks sustain without support.

Necromancer

Scourge is within reasonable levels, but the blood magic trait line is a little too powerful in solo q where there is little coordination. Combined with scourge, Transfusion and Last Rites and Ritual of Life stack up for too much rez utility at the same time. It results in many situations where having enough cleave to prevent the rez is impossible and often pointless to even try. Also for blood reaper builds, the well trait gives protection to the downed body which can be just as effective as transfusion for rezzing. To nerf both I would lower the ticks of rez from ritual of life from 7% to 3%. Keep in mind you still have the 10% increased rez speed, last rites and the self heal from the blood well. Also putting an internal CD on transfusion of 12 seconds so it can’t port the body multiple times per Garish Pillar will make it easier to place ground targeted damage on the rez.

Warrior

Increase rampage cooldown by 40 seconds to make it less spammable.

Elementalist

Make tempest a viable support option alongside firebrand. Make sword weaver less annoying to fight and have more impact in more situations.

Engineer

Holosmith will be one of the best if not the best build in PvP if these changes go through, so something will need to be done to address the insane amount of damage, burst, and cc that holos can perform. While they are in a decent spot at the moment they may need to be looked at again if these changes are made.