The state of PvP (after the 27/3/2018 balance patch)

[Dostymen.1269]

Hey, I am back with another juicy post and boy do we have a lot to talk about. There were a lot of changes and even better is that most of them were focused on PvP and WvW. So as always, I will try to talk about the builds running around the PvP ranked games and talk about them, give my opinions on how strong they are and why, suggest a few changes and basiclly try to start a discusion. I will be also talking about a few topics in the PvP world that deserve more light and attention.

 

So with that let's look at all of the current builds:

 

**Mesmer:**

This whole class (not just one spec) is busted, broken, whatever you wanna call it. The rework brought the class back which was really cool until you started getting 20k bursted from out of nowhere and then the mesmer just ported back to defend far. The problem is too high of a burst partnered with too much mobility. Portal is the most broken thing in the game right now. If you don't play with it then you are just crazy. They need to remove the high burst or the high mobility (higher portal cooldown please), the class just accomplishes too much around the map with portal, blink and distortion. Also, if you get jumped by 16 illusions and you have to search for the real one for 3 seconds before you can hurt it while you are getting fucked by all of those illusions isn't fun. Power variants of mesmer are better than the condi ones because they can abuse the crazy disenchanter damage.

_Mirage:_ Probably the best mesmer spec, the heal skill it offers is really good, the ambush skills are strong, jaunt is a great mobility tool and the evades without the roll animations are crazy good. You will succeed playing power or the condi variation nonetheless.

_Chronomancer:_ Old spec but it offers one of the best grandmasters, chonophantasma, which doubles up on the illusion overload in the class. Durable build with a lot of dueling potential. Both condi and power variants are viable.

 

**Necromancer:**

_Scourge:_ The changes pushed the blood sage above the shadefire variant which is a good thing in my opinion because the spec has quite noticable support flavor so blood should be a must in the build, the problem is the ritual of life is so stupidly strong for an adept trait. It should be a grandmaster if it is supposed to be this storng. The resurects you can pull off with that + transfusion are crazy. It needs to be tuned down cause damn, you can't even cleave the body cause it is instantly up. Shadefire is still viable, it just doesn't use blood and you lose out on that crazy support.

_Reaper:_ Oh yes. It is finally usable. Sadly not the variant I would want to see but still, people are playing reaper and I love it. It fills the sturdy teamfighty supporty place on mid. You just drop your wells and go for the dps. It sadly has to abuse blood to be good which is another reason for it to get nerfed. All I want to see is a buff to shouts and damage just to push the more dps variant above this blood one.

 

**Guardian:**

_Hammer:_ People finally realized the power of righteous instincts and they are abusing it. I mean, hammer is really boring in my opinion but it gives your whole team protection which is really valuable in this power meta. It has high burst and good survivability with blocks. You'll be successful playing this.

_Burn:_ Oh, it made a comeback I guess. It is really eazy to counter cause it only inflicts one condition but if you don't have condi cleanse right in that moment you will die. Fast. Simple build.

_Meditrapper:_ Dragonhunter is having a hard time right now. Still, this build is somehow living. Nothing really changed with it. Not better than hammer but still viable. I would like seeing ANet giving some love to dragonhunter.

_Firebrand:_ After receiving number of nerfs over and over again and losing the magi's amulet people are still using it. That just shows how overtuned it was. Still the best support around but the nerfs made it not a must.

 

**Warrior:**

_Spellbreaker:_ It got nerfed a bit but because of the number of power builds running around it is still standing strong. The only noticable change is rampage, suprisingly it is really good. I really like the rampage being used. Just look out for it, the damage it offers is crazy.

 

**Thief:**

_S/D:_ You don't even have to use a elite spec for this one. Very effective sword 3 spam (it is unblockable, it rips boons and it deals 5k for some reason). You get a reset on steal. Very effective and good build even after the nerfs.

_D/P:_ Not as effective as S/D but it gained a bit more play after the patch. You get an AoE stealth for your team and for yourself, 3 spam is still a 3 spam and headshot spam is still a headshot spam. You can actually beat S/D thieves cause of the blinds and weakness you put out.

_Condi:_ You can basiclly turn any power thief build into a condi one just by switching a few traits so few people started running various alterations of the build to suprise people. Not as good as power but still usefull in some situations.

_Deadeye:_ I love seeing more of deadeyes. Nothing changed for them so there is still the only problem and that is the gameplay is just so different and people can't get used to it but I urge you, go learn it, it is super fun.

 

**Engineer:**

_Holosmith:_ So after the damage nerfs to explosions people started looking for other trait lines so they first found the conversion protection variant but now it seems it has shifted to this damage reduction variant with iron blooded and static discharge. It gets really sturdy cause if you count all of the damage reduction you end up close to 90% power damage reduction and 60% condi damage reduction if they have the shield up. Nice durable side build.

_Scrapper:_ Oh, they fixxed the gyro and look, the spec is back. The best build people have is the conversion variant of holosmith mixed with scrapper. It has nice damage reductions but none could argue it is better against condi builds and because there is not really many of them right now holosmith takes the cake. Still a viable build tho.

 

**Ranger:**

_Druid:_ It got nerfed, hard. Yet it is still there and still storng. It is like nothing happened to it and sure, you can actually kill and damage it but you have to ask yourself, why is it still a great build if it got nerfed so hard. I actually saw some aggressive builds running around with longbow which is alarming cause getting point blank shot into rapid fire the whole game is not fun. Make it the mid suppot for god's sake. I think ranger as a class needs the changes the most. Make other pets usable, remove hard CC from the pet skills and put them only on F2, stop the matchups where the ranger just presses F1 and the pet kills his opponent without the ranger doing anything and make axe, torch and dagger have a use. Those are the ones that come to mind right now. On the other side, druid is not as cancerous as it was, so I guess that is a plus.

_Soulbeast:_ It is sad, because the only thing you can play with this is a longbow sniper with a berserker amulet. And that is really bad (talked about longbow gameplay earlier), this needs some buffs. This has to actually become a side noder, better than druid while the druid takes mid support. So let's all hope ANet does something about it.

 

**Revenant:**

_Herald:_ Oh yes. Rev is played. What is happening? Rev couldn't be played cause it lost to warrior, druid, thief, holosmith and got blown up at mid by the scourge but now that it all got nerfed we are starting to see it pop up again. It is disappointing that only the glassy power build is played but at least it is something. The rev needs some buffs to the survivability lines, I really want to see some Jalis and Ventari revs running around with hammers and shields.

 

**Elementalist:**

_Weaver:_ Well, the only ele build you see is a sustainy sword/dagger side noder that has evades on everything. It'll hold a node forever but it doesn't really have any damage so it isn't a big threat. Hope ele can get some love and start running something else.

 

So those were all of the builds I wanted to talk about, now I am gonna talk about builds/specs that are not favoured and why is it so:

 

**Tempest:**

Basiclly, firebrand happened and it can't really compete with it. Firebrand has heals, blocks and a lot of boons like stab and protection while you have heals and some auras that don't really do much. This needs big buffs to make it a viable choice while firebrand is around.

 

**Renegade:**

I get it. It isn't really a PvP spec but I am sure that ANet has the tools (like split balance) to make it at least viable. It would add to rev and it would add to the game with it's amazing theme. It'll take a lot cause it is the worst spec in PvP right now.

 

**Fresh air:**

You maybe asking yourself why did ANet nerf this if the build was already mediocre. The answer is simple, they are scared of it becoming too strong so they just got rid of it. Maybe it was a bit premature because it was the only "good" ele build and now it has really nothing intersting going for it. Unfortunate.

 

Let's get real now and address some big problems going on. First of all, wintrading. It is quite apparent it is becoming more and more of a problem that is harded and harded for ANet to deal with. It is a real disgrace and not what we need for this small PvP community. We need to help ANet get hold of this so if it ever happens and you have proof just post it right away.

 

Moving to the second point. There are a lot of afkers in the game but now that it started happening in ATs I am wondering if ANet even looks for the leavers and punishes them somehow.

If you DC you DC, whatever, but if you AFK and you talk in chat about it and you don't get banned it really just shows that ANet isn't looking at the reports. I am not trying to throw shit at them I am just saying what I see and what I feel like. You really don't feel like any punishments being haneded out.

 

Third and last point and this isn't really a problem. I just want to urge you all that read this (you are probably already doing this) to go out, make teams, guild teams, pug, whatever and participate in the ATs, it is literally free gold and QP. Tell your PvE pleb friends to join, practice, improve, have fun and maybe win the big one. There are a lot of awesome people doing casts of the ATs so I am gonna include some links below so you can check them out.

 

If I summarize this, it was a great balance patch that opened up the door to many awesome builds that were just outclassed in the past and they can actually do shit now. I applaud ANet and I hope they keep going with this and make some more awesome shit. This is the best balance we ever had people, go and enjoy it.

 

Dosty

[pah.4931]

I've been enjoying Power Reaper more than I did before the patch, but I still don't bother taking it into ranked anymore (for lots of reasons).

 

I think a 7s shroud cd would just about make it perfect (I like wells and spectral grasp is FUN AS HELL). I'd like to see some elite reworks for pvp (or even a new elite well). Chilled to the Bone is great, but it's basically our only choice (Lich form did not get any reduced CD like other transforms).

[Arnox.5128]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> I just want to urge you all that read this (you are probably already doing this) to go out, make teams, guild teams, pug, whatever and participate in the ATs, it is literally free gold and QP. Tell your PvE pleb friends to join, practice, improve, have fun and maybe win the big one.

 

I'm not going to participate any longer in a game mode that ANet has almost completely abandoned. If they are seriously not handling reports of match manip or cheating or what have you then I fail to see why I should care when ANet clearly doesn't. And where the HELL is Guild vs. Guild??? This WvW copy they were talking about putting in isn't going to cut it.

[Buran.3796]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

 

> If I summarize this, it was a great balance patch that opened up the door to many awesome builds that were just outclassed in the past and they can actually do kitten now. I applaud ANet and I hope they keep going with this and make some more awesome kitten. **This is the best balance we ever had people, go and enjoy it**.

 

A couple of classes lacks any build which would make them electable to fill the 5th slot in a conformed team if serious tournaments were a thing (they even't qualify for the current semi-joke AT). I guess is a good time if you don't main one of those...

[EnderzShadow.2506]

@"Dostymen.1269"

 

 

 

I don't know anyone who seriously plays that uses Berserk with soulbeast, thanks for trying.

 

[Kageseigi.2150]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> heartseeker got buffed

 

Thank you for the post.

 

However, I do not believe the above is true. In fact, the only weapon skill of the Thief to get "buffed" is Cloak and Dagger which had its initiative cost reduced from 6 to 5.

 

Unfortunately, the Heartseeker buff and Shadow Shot changes were scrapped. The only buffs the Thief got was 4 utilities got cooldown reductions and 2 heal utilities got an increase in healing. Everything else was straight up nerfs outside of a bug fix.

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"Arnox.5128" said:

> > @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > I just want to urge you all that read this (you are probably already doing this) to go out, make teams, guild teams, pug, whatever and participate in the ATs, it is literally free gold and QP. Tell your PvE pleb friends to join, practice, improve, have fun and maybe win the big one.

>

> I'm not going to participate any longer in a game mode that ANet has almost completely abandoned. If they are seriously not handling reports of match manip or cheating or what have you then I fail to see why I should care when ANet clearly doesn't. And where the HELL is Guild vs. Guild??? This WvW copy they were talking about putting in isn't going to cut it.

 

I agree with them not handling the reports enough but if we just abandon it they will have no reason to get back to it. We need to show to people that the gamemode it fun and the more people we get, the more discusions we start the more will ANet be forced to deal with the problems. It is not that they don't care it is that they did and it failed them and now we have to show them that this has future.

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"Buran.3796" said:

> > @"Dostymen.1269" said:

>

> > If I summarize this, it was a great balance patch that opened up the door to many awesome builds that were just outclassed in the past and they can actually do kitten now. I applaud ANet and I hope they keep going with this and make some more awesome kitten. **This is the best balance we ever had people, go and enjoy it**.

>

> A couple of classes lacks any build which would make them electable to fill the 5th slot in a conformed team if serious tournaments were a thing (they even't qualify for the current semi-joke AT). I guess is a good time if you don't main one of those...

 

That is why we have to get more people in, the more people we have the more data will the devs have to make the game better.

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> @"Dostymen.1269"

>

>

>

> I don't know anyone who seriously plays that uses Berserk with soulbeast, thanks for trying.

>

 

Well that is what I saw when I actually saw a soulbeast in PvP. It can be totally different in the area you play in.

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"Kageseigi.2150" said:

> > @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > heartseeker got buffed

>

> Thank you for the post.

>

> However, I do not believe the above is true. In fact, the only weapon skill of the Thief to get "buffed" is Cloak and Dagger which had its initiative cost reduced from 6 to 5.

>

> Unfortunately, the Heartseeker buff and Shadow Shot changes were scrapped. The only buffs the Thief got was 4 utilities got cooldown reductions and 2 heal utilities got an increase in healing. Everything else was straight up nerfs outside of a bug fix.

 

Yeah, I am sorry. I still have the remains of the part one patch notes in my head and I didn't notice. But thief can recover from most nerfs just because how strong mobility is in this game.

[EnderzShadow.2506]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> > @"Dostymen.1269"

> >

> >

> >

> > I don't know anyone who seriously plays that uses Berserk with soulbeast, thanks for trying.

> >

>

> Well that is what I saw when I actually saw a soulbeast in PvP. It can be totally different in the area you play in.

 

I can't really expect any one person to know how well all the classes are actually doing, so I applaud you for the effort.

 

 

How do you know what they are running?

 

My guess is that you play a necro, which seems likely the way you gushed about Reapers and you've been on the business end of a Long Bow Rapid Fire and you're just guessing.

 

Or yanno, you run a program you shouldn't and you know exactly what they are running.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> > @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > > @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> > > @"Dostymen.1269"

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > > I don't know anyone who seriously plays that uses Berserk with soulbeast, thanks for trying.

> > >

> >

> > Well that is what I saw when I actually saw a soulbeast in PvP. It can be totally different in the area you play in.

>

> I can't really expect any one person to know how well all the classes are actually doing, so I applaud you for the effort.

>

>

> How do you know what they are running?

>

> My guess is that you play a necro, which seems likely the way you gushed about Reapers and you've been on the business end of a Long Bow Rapid Fire and you're just guessing.

>

> Or yanno, you run a program you shouldn't and you know exactly what they are running.

>

>

>

>

>

 

It is called knowing the game and noticing what you are getting hit by, what traits rtigger and what utilities they use. It is an ability that everyone should have in PvP .

[Crinn.7864]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> **Necromancer:**

> _Scourge:_ The changes pushed the blood sage above the shadefire variant which is a good thing in my opinion because the spec has quite noticable support flavor so blood should be a must in the build, the problem is the ritual of life is so stupidly strong for an adept trait. It should be a grandmaster if it is supposed to be this storng. The resurects you can pull off with that + transfusion are crazy. It needs to be tuned down cause kitten, you can't even cleave the body cause it is instantly up. Shadefire is still viable, it just doesn't use blood and you lose out on that crazy support.

> _Reaper:_ Oh yes. It is finally usable. Sadly not the variant I would want to see but still, people are playing reaper and I love it. It fills the sturdy teamfighty supporty place on mid. You just drop your wells and go for the dps. It sadly has to abuse blood to be good which is another reason for it to get nerfed. All I want to see is a buff to shouts and damage just to push the more dps variant above this blood one.

 

When people are complaining about necro having support capabilities. :/

 

Blood Scourge is fine, the speed of the rez is balanced by the fact that the Scourge has no way to protect the rez. Also the rez is by no means instant and you can in fact cleave out a blood rez.

 

As for Reaper, it is not viable, it has no winning matchups, it still struggles from a inability to land attacks, and it's survivability is still subpar.

 

[EnderzShadow.2506]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> > > @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > > > @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> > > > @"Dostymen.1269"

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > I don't know anyone who seriously plays that uses Berserk with soulbeast, thanks for trying.

> > > >

> > >

> > > Well that is what I saw when I actually saw a soulbeast in PvP. It can be totally different in the area you play in.

> >

> > I can't really expect any one person to know how well all the classes are actually doing, so I applaud you for the effort.

> >

> >

> > How do you know what they are running?

> >

> > My guess is that you play a necro, which seems likely the way you gushed about Reapers and you've been on the business end of a Long Bow Rapid Fire and you're just guessing.

> >

> > Or yanno, you run a program you shouldn't and you know exactly what they are running.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

> It is called knowing the game and noticing what you are getting hit by, what traits rtigger and what utilities they use. It is an ability that everyone should have in PvP .

 

Traits and utilities aren't dictated by amulets....but I know what you mean.

 

I digress. It's possible. I just don't see it.

Imo the hardest hitting thing any Decent ranked player uses is Marauder.

Zerk is a easy kill.

[Poelala.2830]

There are other good soulbeast builds.

[Arheundel.6451]

> @"Poelala.2830" said:

> There are other good soulbeast builds.

 

Soulbeast requires massive outplay for almost any encounter, it has limited sustain in itself and entirely linked to core ranger which is not the best core spec by a long shot, the GM traits are terrible and not worth the GM slot, the adept traits for soulbeast are the best part about the entire traitline, master and GM are utterly trash.

 

There is no role in pvp that other specs cannot do better, for a supposed sniper it lacks optimal ways to disengage when heavily outnumbered and the added DPS is not worth anymore slotting soulbeast over druid

 

Anything you can do on soulbeast...druid does the same but more safely and easier

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

Did you read the patch notes for thief? Thief got hurt.... BAD.

[Ragion.2831]

> @"Crinn.7864" said:

> > @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > **Necromancer:**

> > _Scourge:_ The changes pushed the blood sage above the shadefire variant which is a good thing in my opinion because the spec has quite noticable support flavor so blood should be a must in the build, the problem is the ritual of life is so stupidly strong for an adept trait. It should be a grandmaster if it is supposed to be this storng. The resurects you can pull off with that + transfusion are crazy. It needs to be tuned down cause kitten, you can't even cleave the body cause it is instantly up. Shadefire is still viable, it just doesn't use blood and you lose out on that crazy support.

> > _Reaper:_ Oh yes. It is finally usable. Sadly not the variant I would want to see but still, people are playing reaper and I love it. It fills the sturdy teamfighty supporty place on mid. You just drop your wells and go for the dps. It sadly has to abuse blood to be good which is another reason for it to get nerfed. All I want to see is a buff to shouts and damage just to push the more dps variant above this blood one.

>

> When people are complaining about necro having support capabilities. :/

>

> Blood Scourge is fine, the speed of the rez is balanced by the fact that the Scourge has no way to protect the rez. Also the rez is by no means instant and you can in fact cleave out a blood rez.

>

> As for Reaper, it is not viable, it has no winning matchups, it still struggles from a inability to land attacks, and it's survivability is still subpar.

>

 

He is really saying reaper should be nerfed. This guy is an animal rofl. Folks plz stop commenting on pvp if you dont play it.

 

Crinn have you switched mains yet? It took me 2 years to switch from necro during vanilla . You are long overdue.

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"Poelala.2830" said:

> There are other good soulbeast builds.

 

Nope, not even the sniper build is good. Maybe you saw some builds running around but druid is just better.

[Dostymen.1269]

> @"Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497" said:

> Did you read the patch notes for thief? Thief got hurt.... BAD.

 

Every top build got hurt. So everything should be brought down a notch so other builds can be viable as well. Thiefs are still where they were.

[Odik.4587]

> @"Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497" said:

> Did you read the patch notes for thief? Thief got hurt.... BAD.

 

He wasnt hurt bad as you say

[voltaicbore.8012]

If a ranger's pet solos you, you have serious L2P problems. Pet AI is a well-documented joke. Literally running in a circle severely reduces the pet's ability to hit you.

[Poelala.2830]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > @"Poelala.2830" said:

> > There are other good soulbeast builds.

>

> Nope, not even the sniper build is good. Maybe you saw some builds running around but druid is just better.

Nope. I play soulbeast and my build is good.

 

[CaldaRaric.6305]

> @"Dostymen.1269" said:

> > @"Poelala.2830" said:

> > There are other good soulbeast builds.

>

> Nope, not even the sniper build is good. Maybe you saw some builds running around but druid is just better.

 

I have been able to 1v1 every Druid I have met as a Soulbeast with almost perfect success. I can’t hold a point as good as a Druid, but Soulbeast is not useless.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

I play pvp for farming purposes only. This mode is absolutely impossible to be enjoyed in current state.