Upcoming Balance Notes

[fatihso.7258]

Soulbeast hardly keeps up on power dps competition against other specs yet keep nerfing it to the ground, thanks Anet. I'm gonna switch to staff DD and just auto attack while watching netflix and that will beat Slb eventually with these nerfs every once in a blue moon.

[hugo.4705]

What is freecmc ?!!!!

[Marxx.5021]

Reverting shade skills to always work on necromancers location is the right decision for PvP. Thank you.

[Svez Poizon XD.5268]

Condi herald has just too many source of 2 second resistances, it can keep resistance uptime. However its glint heal 6 and shield 5 has very short cooldowns for spells that fully absorb damage but also heal to full health if activated correctly. I think its weakness should be its defenses. Its dps should stay. I suggest reducing resistance durations from 2 seconds to 1,5 seconds all but also increasing cooldowns on glint heal by 10 seconds and shield 5 skill by 5 seconds.

[JasonLucas.4981]

Okay, so about Scourge, the shades logic must be reworked/addresed to make it viable in the future, because right now they are so easy to mess up with changes.

Scourges shades work like a replication of Scourge, they trigger the F1 effect when spawned and whenever an F2-5 command is sent, **all** these effects happen around the Scourge and at every shade spot as a replica while shades and the Scourge cannot affect the same target twice, they can and will still affect other targets using each one their own target cap. Reverting the scourge shade effect basically just made Scourge able to affect 20 targets (5 on the Scourge and +5 per shade up) at the time with all their shade effects. This is insane... And is exactly why shades need to have their logic changed because otherwise, it will be horrible to balance a class that can replicate their attacks instead of using shades as an extension. Do something about the scourge shades and enforce that **all their effects and attacks** share the same target cap between the Scourge and all the shades up. There was also a change to Scourge shades a while ago that added a line of sight check to it, although that line of effect was only added to F1 effect, all the F2-5 effects still happen without a line of sight check or the default range check. That should be fixed too.

 

Reverting the change to shades was good because shades affecting around the Scourge were never a real problem and it only created a problem for support builds, the problem is how shades works which allowed Scourge to hit too many targets at once. Address that problem, change the max cap to 10 in PvE and 5 in PvP/WvW, this should make Scourge shades much less problematic in competitive game modes and for future balance patches.

 

And please, change or remove that horrible orange animation of Harbinger Shroud which is terrible, it looks like a boss attack and it is totally pointless. Make an effect on the skill icon instead or an animation on the scourge skill bar, idk, but for now, just remove it.

[Shiyo.3578]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> What is freecmc ?!!!!

 

Allowing him to balance the game again, since these patch notes show he very clearly did not participate in these balance changes as they are a complete 180 of the past 3+ months of changes and even revert a lot of his good changes. People are unhappy with the direction these changes are taking the game and much vastly prefer CMC's direction.

[Taril.8619]

_Elementalist nerfs._

 

y tho?

 

_Engie not having Holo nerfed in PvP, instead getting overall buffs_

 

y tho?

 

_Scrapper Superspeed nerfs_

 

y tho?

 

_Chrono finally getting IP back_

 

**Everyone liked that.**

 

_Chrono getting nerfed to heck because of IP_

 

y tho?

 

_Bunch of irrelevant changes to Mirage_

 

y tho?

 

_Shade skills triggering on Necro and Shades_

 

Nice.

 

But you forgot to put "In PvP and PvE"

 

Or is this just a precursor for you deleting WvW entirely because this change suggests you have 0 interest in making the mode fun or interesting in any way, shape or form.

 

_Well trait removed and replaced by Blood Bank_

 

That sounds absolutely awful. Remove some of Necro's only team support via boons as well as the only offensive option in GM Blood traits for this piece of garbage which will never compete with Transfusion unless it is compeletely and utterly broken with Bunker builds.

 

_Signets of Suffering nerfed_

 

y tho?

 

_Ranger nerfed in PvE_

 

y tho?

 

It's not like Ranger is top of benchmarks. That honour goes to Power DH and Condi Mirage (Depending on if a boss prefers Power or Condi builds)

 

_Revenant mass QoL changes_

 

**Everyone liked that.**

 

_Herald shield nerfed instead of Rev Condi output in PvP_

 

y tho?

 

Especially when you mention in the Thief section **"we're looking to [reduce] more egregious condition builds in PvP and WvW."**

 

_Warrior "Lesser used off hand weapons buffed"_

 

Buffs OH Axe in PvE only.

 

??????????????????????????

 

What builds are you looking at in PvE that **DON'T** run Axe/Axe

 

Also the buff is increased Quickness generation... What PvE content are you looking at that doesn't include a perma-Quickness boonbot?

 

_Loss Aversion and Break Enchantments damage buffed in PvE_

 

That'll be great for all of those Boons that exist in PvE... All 0 of them...

 

Pog.

 

[Leonidrex.5649]

> @"Senqu.8054" said:

> Great more nerfs to chrono this is exactly what we need!

 

those are buffs dummy

[Adzekul.3104]

These changes may be the right direction for PvE. I let others decide. But they are the wrong direction for PvP and WvW (see all the comments in this thread as support for my statement).

 

Please delay the implementation of this patch for up to 1 month in order to give CMC & co time to implement splits to prevent these changes from sending the PvP and WvW metas in the wrong direction.

[Doug.4930]

Its not too late. You guys release these notes before the patch is dropped for good reason. That good reason being the community can help you avoid a complete catastrophe.

> @"Fire Attunement.9835" said:

> - Shade Skills: These have been changed back to triggering at both the necromancer's location and their shade locations with each use.

 

A catastrophe such as this.

[Dami.5046]

Thief stealth. why do you never nerf that

[Senqu.8054]

> @"Leonidrex.5649" said:

> > @"Senqu.8054" said:

> > Great more nerfs to chrono this is exactly what we need!

>

> those are buffs dummy

 

Nope they are not. IP is the only real buff here. F1 got nerfed F2 got nerfed F3 got nerfed. The other changes are not worth to talk about

[Konrad Curze.5130]

The 3 game modes of GW2:

 

* PvE (Player vs Environment)

* PvP (Player vs Player)

* SvS (Scourge vs Scourge)

[Poelala.2830]

> @"rbbthole.9074" said:

> No tuning on Tornado perma cc

> No tuning on Lightning Rod weakness spam

> No tuning on shocking aura

> No tuning on Granade Barrage (just the second skill on the kit)

> Just a 50 power/condi cut on soulbeast dps

> Burning still beyond broken

> A nerf on an hardly used Mirage skill

> Only 2 lines for thieves...

>

> I could go on and on... Anet for the love of god, ask for help. You have no idea on how to balance your own game, it's starting to became a meme. I am really disappointed in you

 

ele's fine :)

[zealex.9410]

If anything this patch shows a lack of communication between the systems teams and a disregard about the competitive gamemodes and the balance direction we saw in the previous mega patch.

 

Many of these changes needed to be split and many more should see nerfs to balance out their effect on wvw and pvp.

 

Id rather see this patch delayed but a couple weeks to nail it than have it ship now in its current state.

[DirtyDan.4759]

The necros changes are proof that ArenaNet does not even realize WvW is still in the game. Shade skills triggering on scourge and on the shade was a huge problem until February and now you bring it back in addition to reduce all well cooldowns baseline. No communication with cmc, the only good skill balance dev.

 

I am dissappointed in the way you ignore not only your community but also your own coworkers.

[Virdo.1540]

I have a feedback towards the "Facet of Chaos" -change

 

It is an thing thats not the main part of thing you are trying to fix. Facet of Chaos with its way too high energy-drain has an normal protection uptime, like facets of heralds should work. The thing you want to take a look at is "Draconic Echo", which lets heralds just spam their actives ,while having energy-free boon ticks.

It would be better make facets pulse one more time in PvP and WvW (now its 2x) instead of gutting a core part of herald.

Plus have you ever thought about the sound of gaining protection? Do you want to let us heralds hear that every 3 seconds?

 

If this Facet of Chaos change hits, then im sure that the amount of players that play herald will get cut to 50% or less of its current amount.

It is nothing gamebreaking, just extremely annoying for players and Profession-Mechanic destroying too.

[Nimon.7840]

> @"Virdo.1540" said:

> When will Pve-herald be changed ,so people wont make jokes anymore until they kick them out of groups?

>

> They are bad. Giving boons that everyone always can give themself. Damage is terrible. Sustain isnt needed with a healer.

 

Same for necro

[Nimon.7840]

> @"senterya.4937" said:

> I don't really understand the point of nerfing Deadly/Ferocious Archetype for ranger if it's in PvE only. At first glance, this will only mean that soulbeasts will be even less wanted in strikes/raids and fractals.

>

 

Lol? Soulbeast is one of the meta dps classes right now. And 50 power and condition damage less won't even be a 1% dps loss.

[Nimon.7840]

> @"Black Storm.6974" said:

> Signets of Suffering was a great Grandmaster trait for PvE, it was generally far better than the other two.

>

> It was providing much better survivability and often even “better dps” (it was often really easy to lose dps by taking damage while in Shroud, when not using Signet of Suffering and Signet of Undeath).

> That trait being underwhelming was just a fantasy shared by many people.

> Anyway, I think Signets of Suffering will be useful even in its new spot. I appreciate the change and I think it will make necromancer a bit stronger.

>

>

>

 

I don't think so. The change is a straight up nerf to the trait.

Why would you take signets of suffering on a power reaper, that only increase your power by 90 power when you can get extra 5x25=125 power from choosing the middle trait?

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"DirtyDan.4759" said:

> The necros changes are proof that ArenaNet does not even realize WvW is still in the game. Shade skills triggering on scourge and on the shade was a huge problem until February and now you bring it back in addition to reduce all well cooldowns baseline. No communication with cmc, the only good skill balance dev.

Problem is, the previous change was good for WvW, but ignored PvE and PvP. That's the core of the issue - a change that was good for one mode, turned out to be a massive nerf for two other modes, including the mode where Necro was already way too underpowered compared to other classes (which, funnily enough, was also the mode with most players).

 

> I am dissappointed in the way you ignore not only your community but also your own coworkers.

And i am disappointed in the way a lot of balance changes that were made with WvW in mind made a mess of things in PvE. ignoring a way bigger part of the community. Funny how that works.

 

At this point they should probably start working on a way that would allow them to split whole mechanics, and not only coefficients, because it's clear that a proper balance just cannot be made without some mechanics and skills working completely differently between modes.

 

[Jura.2170]

I really dont like the changes to Guardian

 

Chapter 2 Igniting Burst, it already did very little damage even with 100% duration and full condi stats. Now no one will use it in wvw

 

Chapter 4 Shining River, healing was already low for raids and wvw, now its worse. Why change it?

 

Feel My Wrath, this was the only elite skill wvw guardians should use. Now we dont have a good elite skill

 

It feels like Anet is trying to make guardian so useless and unfun that people stop playing it. We remember the bad changes that happened last year to Daring Challenge and Unbroken Lines

 

The changes to kitty warclaw pounce, dragon banner and siege damage are also really awful and take a lot of fun out of wvw. Kitty pounce is being taken away, and dragon banner and siege will hurt even less. These are horrible changes and I honestly hope they dont happen. Scouts already have an impossible time trying to defend wvw places against zergs. Most have quit in the last 2 years because of the nerfs to siege damage and wall health as well as tact trolling. Siege doesnt hurt big groups at all already. If the new changes happen, no one will bother trying to tier up a place or defend it if theyre outnumbered. What would be the point when siege doesnt do anything?

 

The changes arent going to make wvw better. All thats going to happen is, when a zerg comes to an outnumbered place, the scouts and pugs will leave and go to another map or log off. No one will try to defend, because theres no point trying

 

And more scouts and pugs will quit the game

 

If anything, siege damage needs to be a lot higher, and siege needs more health, so that we have a chance to defend

[Vlad Morbius.1759]

There is only one thing to say.... #FREECMC

[Aeolus.3615]

RIP melee combat WvW again!

 

3 scourge per party in wvw, mostly scourges and fb with scrappers now are needed, in this era of MIN MAX stats the change to scourge are dangerous.

 

If necro update is final veredict, vetari should start healing 7-10 players rather than 5, and increased heals on rev and druid.

[Euclid.2517]

> @"Janke.1358" said:

> "Deadly Archetype (Soulbeast): Reduced the condition damage increase gained while merged with this Deadly archetype pets by 25% (200 to 150 at level 80) in PvE only.

> Ferocious Archetype (Soulbeast): Reduced power increase gained while merged with Ferocious archetype pets by 25% (200 to 150 at level 80) in PvE only."

> Why? Really? No ranger players on the balance team?

 

I think they shouldn't nerf condi. It is underperforming comparing to other classes.

But power Soulbeast should be nerfed more.