Guild Wars 2

(Copy pasta from the sPvP forum, since it didn’t get moved.)

General

Vision: With this update, I am looking to lower the power of some of the strongest builds and skills in the game, while providing more build options for every class. Elementalist and Mesmer are receiving the most help, while Warrior, Spirit of Nature, Engi AoE, and bunker Guardian are seeing some slight reductions in power. In addition, access to Endurance is being lowered across the board to reduce the length of teamfights and the amount of sustain that certain classes have access to. A few ways to counter stealth were added to provide some additional counterplay to the mechanic. Also, some weak or inflexible skills and traits were targeted with redesigns, to increase their viability.

The 6-set bonus of Superior Runes of Lyssa has been changed:
(6) When you use an elite skill, lose 3 conditions and gain 3 random boons for 5 seconds (not including Stability). (CD: 45 seconds)

Superior Runes of the Traveler have been added to PvP:
(1) +10 to All Stats, +2% Critical Damage
(2) +10% Boon Duration
(3) +10 to All Stats, +2% Critical Damage
(4) +10% Condition Duration
(5) +10 to All Stats, +2% Critical Damage
(6) +25% Movement Speed

Superior Sigil of Energy — Now returns only 25% Endurance upon weapon swap, down from 50%.

Transforms — All transforms have been adjusted so that they no longer increase Power or Precision. Instead, their base damage has been increased to provide approximately the same amount of net damage. This was done to eliminate abuse of laying down an AoE, and then immediately using a transform to spike up the damage of the AoE that was previously casted (wells + Lich Form, Meteor Shower + Tornado, etc.)

Elementalist

Summary: Elementalist, as the class currently in need of the most help, is being targeted in two critical areas: sustain and mobility. Signet of Restoration was restored to previous levels, and Ether Renewal was improved. Ride the Lightning’s cooldown was lowered to add back more out-of-combat mobility. In addition, several skills on the Focus were either improved or made more easy to use. Lightning Strike (scepter air #2) was made to no longer be instant, to reduce some of the instant spike possible in the Fresh Air build, and Diamond Skin was redesigned.

Dragon’s Tooth — Now uses ground targeting.

Lightning Strike — Added a 0.25 second casting time.

Fire Shield — The cooldown was reduced to 30 seconds.

Freezing Gust — Now a piercing projectile attack, similar to Dust Devil.

Comet — The casting time has been reduced to 0.5 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds. It now uses ground targeting.

Gale — The casting time has been reduced to 0.5 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds.

Signet of Restoration — The passive healing has been returned to its previous level of 202 (0.1), up from 168 (0.08). It once again behaves the same as it does in PvE/WvW.

Ether Renewal — Condensed to 7 pulses instead of 8, but still provides the same amount of healing as before. The resulting full channel time is now 3 seconds instead of 3.5. Also, the heal has been changed so that earlier pulses provide a bit more healing than the later ones, thus punishing the user less if the heal is interrupted.

Ride the Lightning — This ability now has a 25 second cooldown regardless of if it hits a target or not. Previously, it had a 20 second cooldown if a target was hit, or a 40 second cooldown if no target was hit.

Lightning Flash — Now breaks stuns. Its cooldown was increased to 45 seconds, up from 40 seconds.

Armor of Earth — Reduced the cooldown to 60 seconds, down from 90 seconds.

Arcane Brilliance — The casting time was reduced to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds.

Diamond Skin — This trait has been redesigned. It now reduces the duration of incoming conditions by 100% for 2 seconds after switching to Earth Attunement.

Engineer

Summary: Engineer AoE abilities are currently dominant in high level play, making them not only good for 1v1s, but also extremely dangerous in teamfights. As such, Poison Grenade and Concussion Bomb saw a slight reduction in AoE power. Med Kit was tweaked to be more competitive with Healing Turret, opening up its use as a support kit. Elixir R is currently still very powerful team utility, and thus was given back its stun break, but saw its reviving capabilities somewhat reduced. Gadgets were somewhat buffed, and Engineer now has a way to directly counter stealth. Supply Crate’s powerful impact in 1v1s was reduced, but its cooldown was also lowered to compensate, keeping it about as strong as before in teamfighting. More options were added in terms of condition removal, which is currently a weak point. Automated Response was changed to add a bit more counterplay to the trait.

Poison Grenade — Poison clouds now last for 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds, and deal 3 seconds of Poison per pulse, down from 5 seconds.

Concussion Bomb — The radius was reduced to 120, down from 180.

All Med Kit Items — Now are immediately picked up if dropped near an ally. Previously, the player had to move to pick up the item, even if it had been dropped close to them.

Drop Bandages — Reduced casting time to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.5 seconds. Duration was reduced to 30 seconds.

Drop Antidote — Reduced casting time to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.5 seconds. Now removes 2 conditions. Duration was reduced to 30 seconds.

Drop Stimulant — Reduced casting time to 0.25s, down from 0.5 seconds. Duration was reduced to 30 seconds.

Elixir R — Now instant cast and breaks stun. The cooldown was increased to 45 seconds, up from 30 seconds.

Toss Elixir R — Now revives 12% per pulse, down from 17%.

Analyse — This toolbelt skill has been redesigned. It now called “Deploy Detector”.
Deploy Detector
Deploy a detector that applies vulnerability and reveals stealthed enemies within the area.
Casting Time: 0.5 seconds
Recharge: 60 seconds
Range: 900
Radius: 300
Duration: 5 seconds
Revealed: 4 seconds
Vulnerability(5): 8 seconds

Launch Personal Battering Ram — This skill has been redesigned. It now knocks down any foes it hits for 2 seconds, does not cripple, and has had its cooldown increased to 45 seconds.

Supply Crate — Now drops a Rifle Turret instead of a Net Turret. The stun duration was lowered to 1s from 2s, and the cooldown was reduced to 150 seconds from 180 seconds.

Elite Supplies — Now adds a Net Turret to Supply Crate instead of a Rifle Turret.

Automated Response — Now reduces incoming condition duration by 100%, rather than granting complete immunity.

Scope — This trait has been redesigned. It is now called, “Antidote Pouch”, and reads, “Using a toolbelt skill removes 1 condition. (CD: 10 seconds)”

Guardian

Summary: Some of the weakest skills for Guardian saw some slight buffs, while the meta bunker build was slightly reduced in power. Purging Flames was made more useful for support in to open up additional build possibilities. DPS Guardians now have new powerful options in the classically weak Zeal tree. A bit less Vigor from the incredibly powerful 5-point trait “Vigorous Precision” will slightly nerf bunkers while encouraging DPS builds towards other trees.

Shield of Absorption — A bug has been fixed where cancelling the channel of the skill would cause the shield to become invisible.

Healing Breeze — The heal has been changed so that earlier pulses provide a bit more healing than the later ones, thus punishing the user less if the heal is interrupted.

Bane Signet — Lowered the casting time to 0.5 seconds from 0.75 seconds, and increased the knockdown to 3 seconds from 2 seconds.

Signet of Wrath — Lowered the casting time to 0.5 seconds from 0.75 seconds.

“Stand Your Ground!” — The cooldown was increased to 35 seconds, up from 30 seconds.

“Retreat!” — The cooldown was reduced to 50 seconds, down from 60 seconds.

Purging Flames — The casting time was reduced to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds. The radius was increased to 300, up from 240.

Zealous Blade — The healing has been increased to 50 (0.03), up from 25 (0.02).

Kindled Zeal — This trait has been redesigned, and renamed “Zealous Strikes”. It reads, “Deal 5% more damage when under 50% health, and heal yourself for the same amount as the extra damage dealt.”

Vigorous Precision — Reduced Vigor duration to 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds.

Mesmer

Summary: Mesmer saw buffs to their condition build options by having the Scepter skills improved. Some of the weaker skills, including Mantras, saw some needed buffs. Mantra of Pain was replaced by Mantra of Haste, giving the Mesmer a way to quickly recharge another Mantra or to quickly burst down a target. Confounding Suggestions was bugfixed, and some Vigor was removed from Critical Infusion. Deceptive Evasion was moved to the Illusions tree, removing some reliance of the meta shatter build from the Dueling tree and thus opening up new build possibilities. Prismatic Understanding was adjusted downward slightly, mainly for WvW concerns.

Ether Blast — Now also applies Bleed(1): 2 seconds.

Ether Clone — Reduced the casting time to 0.75 seconds, down from 1 second.

Confusing Images — Reduced the channel time to 2.25 seconds, down from 3 seconds. The first pulse now occurs at 0.25 seconds into the channel, with subsequent pulses every 0.5 seconds thereafter. Reduced the base damage to 760 (2.4), down from 840 (2.5).

Mimic — The first projectile absorbed is now also negated.

Arcane Thievery — The cooldown was reduced to 40 seconds, down from 45 seconds.

Mantra of Concentration — The casting time was reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 2.75 seconds.

Mantra of Distraction — The casting time was reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 2.75 seconds.

Mantra of Pain — This skill has been redesigned. It is now called, “Mantra of Haste”.
Mantra of Haste
Meditate, charging a spell that will speed up your actions for a short time.
Casting Time: 2.5 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds

Power Speed
Quickness: 2 seconds
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Mantra of Resolve — The casting time was reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 2.75 seconds.

Confounding Suggestions — This trait has been bugfixed to work properly with Chaos Storm.

Deceptive Evasion — Moved to Illusions Tree’s Master tier.

Critical Infusion — Reduced Vigor duration to 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds.

Prismatic Understanding — The Protection granted by this trait has been reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

Illusionary Invigoration — Moved to Adept tier. The cooldown was increased to 90 seconds, up from 60 seconds.

Dazzling Glamours — Moved to Master tier.

Phantasmal Haste — Moved to Dueling Tree’s Master tier.

Necromancer

Summary: The support from Putrid Mark was increased. Lich Form’s autoattack damage was reduced slightly, and two of its other abilities were improved. The duration of conditions caused by Signet of Spite were reduced a bit to lower its extreme effectiveness, especially in 1v1s. Minion Masters saw a slight reduction in minion damage from Training of the Master, and Terror was moved up to Grandmaster tier.

Marks — Marks now start to appear as they are being cast. They start off as mostly transparent, becoming fully opaque as the cast time ends.

Putrid Mark — Now also transfers 1 condition from up to 5 allies within 600 range of the mark when triggered to enemies within the mark, in addition to the 3 conditions transferred from the caster.

Grasping Dead — Returned the 3rd bleed stack to PvP.

Signet of Spite — Changed the active effect to the following:
Damage: 263
Bleeding(2): 7 seconds
Blind: 5 seconds
Crippled: 5 seconds
Poison: 7 seconds
Vulnerability(5): 7 seconds
Weakness: 5 seconds
Activation: 0.5 seconds
Range: 1200

Deathly Claws — Reduced damage by 10%.

Marked for Death — Now gives Vulnerability(10): 8 seconds, instead of Vulnerability(8): 10 seconds.

Mark of Horror — Reduced the casting time to 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds. Now summons 6 jagged horrors, up from 5.

Training of the Master — Reduced damage increase to 20%, down from 30%.

Weakening Shroud — Now applies Bleed(2): 6 seconds, instead of Bleed(1).

Withering Precision — Moved to Master tier.

Terror — Moved to Grandmaster tier.

Ranger

Summary: Greatsword, offhand Axe, and dagger got some improvements. Lightning Reflexes and Signet of Renewal got some quality of life adjustments, and shouts were greatly improved. Spirit of Nature’s healing was adjusted to match the tooltip. Pets will now scale based on the Ranger’s stats, making lesser-used pets more viable and lowering pet burst potential from defensive or condition-based builds.

Swoop — Added 0.5s of Evade at the beginning of this skill.

Path of Scars — Added a Cripple: 2 seconds to the outgoing half of the attack.

Whirling Defense — Increased total base damage to 1158 (3.0), up from 1008 (3.0).

Stalker’s Strike — Now applies Torment(2): 8 seconds instead of Poison: 10 seconds.

Lightning Reflexes — Now also removes chill, cripple, and immobilize. The cooldown was increased to 45 seconds, up from 40 seconds.

Signet of Renewal — This skill now always transfers all conditions from you to your pet, regardless of range.

“Guard” — This skill now also grants the pet fury and might, but all boons are now granted when the pet detects a target within range to attack. The casting time was removed to make it similar to other Shouts.
Guard
Command your pet to aggressively defend an area. Your pet gains stealth until an enemy is detected.
Stealth: 10 seconds
Protection: 5 seconds
Fury: 5 seconds
Might(3): 5 seconds
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 20s

“Sic ’Em” — The way that this skill applies Revealed has been changed. Instead, any stealthed enemies within 600 range of the Ranger have Revealed applied to them upon use of the skill. The cooldown has been increased to 45 seconds, up from 40 seconds.

“Search and Rescue” — The cooldown was decreased to 150 seconds in PvP, and is once again affected by traits.

Spirit of Nature — The passive healing was reduced to 320 HP/s, down from 480 HP/s.

Nature’s Voice — This trait has been redesigned.
Nature’s Voice
Shouts apply protection, swiftness and regeneration to allies, and transfer 1 condition from each ally to your pet.
Protection: 3 seconds
Regeneration: 5 seconds
Swiftness: 5 seconds
Conditions Transferred: 1
Radius: 600

Pets — Ranger pets have been rebalanced to have their stats scale based off the character’s own stats, rather than having flat stats based on the character’s Level. Different types of pets scale differently with each stat. For example, condition-based Rangers will fare best when choosing pets that scale well off of Condition Damage, like Spiders, whereas defensive Rangers will do well to pick defensive pets like Bears that give supportive effects and scale well off of Vitality and Toughness.

Thief

Summary: Thieves recently had major redesign changes, so my set of changes is relatively light. Shadowstep, the current clearly best stunbreak for all builds, had its cooldown timer swapped with Roll For Initiative to open up more build possibilities and provide extra Initiative for certain builds that need it. Thieves Guild is rarely used, so it saw a small buff. Quick Recovery is much worse after the latest patch, so its functionality was changed to better synergize with other Acrobatics traits. Hard to Catch now also prevents CC to increase its viability, and Sleight of Hand was adjusted slightly.

Shadowstep — Increased cooldown to 60 seconds, up from 50 seconds.

Roll for Initiative — Reduced cooldown to 50 seconds, down from 60 seconds.

Thieves Guild — Reduced cooldown to 150 seconds, down from 180 seconds. Increased the HP of the summoned thieves by 25%.

Quick Recovery — This trait has been redesigned.
Quick Recovery
Gain endurance for each point of Initiative spent.
Endurance: 2

Hard to Catch — Now also prevents the disable effect from occurring. Raised the shadowstep distance to 900, up from 600. Increased the cooldown to 60 seconds, up from 30 seconds.

Sleight of Hand — Reduced the decrease on steal cooldown to 15%, down from 20%.

Warrior

Summary: Some of the Warrior’s best skills: Pin Down, Healing Signet, and Berserker Stance, saw some slight adjustments. Support abilities, like shouts and banners, were given some necessary buffs in order to make them more viable in PvP.

Pin Down — The casting time was increased to 0.5 seconds, up from 0.25 seconds. The skill’s animation has been changed to be more clear.

Healing Signet — The passive heal was reduced to 342 (0.08), down from 392 (0.05). The active heal was increased to 4275 (0.6), up from 3275 (0.5).

Berserker Stance — Now reduces incoming condition duration by 100%, instead of granting complete immunity.

“Fear Me!” — This skill has been changed.
“Fear Me!”
Induce fear in your foes. Allies gain Stability.
400-600 range – Fear: 1 second
200-400 range – Fear: 1.5 seconds
0-200 range – Fear: 2 seconds
Stability: 3 seconds
Radius: 600
Breaks Stun
Cooldown: 60 seconds

Inspiring Battle Standard — This trait has been redesigned.
Inspiring Battle Standard
Banners also heal and remove conditions.
Healing: 1300 (1.25)
Conditions Removed: 1
Interval: 10 seconds (The first pulse happens immediately upon summoning the banner. A short glow animation now plays on the banner every time it pulses.)

Your ele suggestions would further complicate and nerf the ele. I vote no.

Mostly buffs, tiny nerfs. The changes to Signet of Resto, RTL, and Lightning Flash are pretty huge.

They are not so huge if you dont use it. You cripple ether renewal and just giving back lightning flash what it initially was would not be huge of an impact. Other classes blinks all are stunbreaks, I don’t get why we even got it removed.

I also sense someone having trouble with scepter eles. How else is that cast time for lightning strike explained? This would break scepter by alot.

The change to Ether Renewal is a buff. And the restoration of the original Signet is a huge buff.

I don’t have trouble with them, it’s just that the instant burst possible by Scepter/X Fresh Air Ele is a bit high when combined with arcane skills, and if other classes are brought in line (as they are with my other changes), the instant burst possible here is also something that should be slightly adjusted. A 0.25 cast time on Lightning Strike won’t break the scepter, that’s hyperbole.

Ether renewal short by 1 tick? Making first ticks tick smaller then last so we get EVEN MORE penalized then allready when interrupted? Where is that a buff exactly?

Scepter is mostly based on that instant burst. Without it it’s not even an option over staff or dagger anymore. Do you even play ele to make those suggestions?

Can you add something to your list for warriors?

I really want the sword to be more viable in power builds, for now it can do good but it lacks some damage.

Sword:
Increase AA raw damage.. increase all 3 hits with a 15% or only increase the last hit of the chain for like 50%.. last hit doesn’t apply bleeding also.. only a 1sec cripple

Increase flurry raw damage for 20%

Make final thrust a real 0,75 sec casstime… its now 1,25

Longbow
with the pin down change i also like to see a change to its AA
its a 0,75 casstime but its more around 1,2 make this also a real 0,75 sec
(rangers also get this buff on there longbow)

Ow about lyssa, i don’t mind the boons.. but i primary (most people i think) run lyssa for its condition wipe.. i think 3 conditions is just to low in this condition meta..
i don’t think lyssa is viable after that.

thank you

(nvm, i made a different topic for this :-)

silvershadez.8421:

Ether renewal short by 1 tick? Making first ticks tick smaller then last so we get EVEN MORE penalized then allready when interrupted? Where is that a buff exactly?

What? Read it again.

silvershadez.8421:

Ether renewal short by 1 tick? Making first ticks tick smaller then last so we get EVEN MORE penalized then allready when interrupted? Where is that a buff exactly?

It reduced the time you spend out of your day channelling Ether Renewal by 15%, but nets you the same healing. Also, frontloads more healing to you rather than spreading it evenly. Healing now is always better than healing later – if it gets interrupted, you almost certainly gained more healing than you would have without frontloaded healing.

cymerdown.4103:

Lightning Strike — Added a 0.25 second casting time.

Why do we need to make Lightning strike a cast? I feel like that would make air clunky. Can’t we make LS and ED like arcane blast? A fast travelling projectile? Still instant cast but dodgable.

Nikkle.4013:

cymerdown.4103:

Lightning Strike — Added a 0.25 second casting time.

Why do we need to make Lightning strike a cast? I feel like that would make air clunky. Can’t we make LS and ED like arcane blast? A fast travelling projectile? Still instant cast but dodgable.

Sure, I suppose that would be a good alternative.

Dps guard really needs something to help it stay on target a little cripple or something.

Ether renewal change looks good. It would probably end up as the go to heal.

Ele utilities need to be reduced in CD armor of earth down to 60 secs would really help. Lf is fine I think and maybe drop to 35 sec base with so 28 traited.

Tell genyen to see me irl!

Good suggestion on Armor of Earth, it was something that I’ve thought about in the past as well. I added it.

Yeah, I’ve already added a few things to help DPS Guard (including Traveller Runes), so I didn’t want to go too far.

I vote no, most of the nerf/buffs don’t reflect what the professions really need buffed/nerfed and just force new builds by completely obliterating the old ones. Less dodges for support Guardian = less heals from Selfless daring = nobody will play it because with the low base HP pool those heals were what keeps those bunkers from biting the dust. The Guardian damage buffs really don’t reflect what is needed. We need soft/hard CC and 1 sec more on the signet isn’t gonna save the day considering everyone runs at least 2 stun breakers. There’s also the problem with Guardian’s hardest hitters require huge uptime in the target’s face to deal their damage. People are two shotting enough as it is with less dodges it will be even more zergy, we Might as well rename the game Terra: Reloaded and run around chasing eachother and insta gib.

Some of the suggestions are good, I like some of the ele ones… but overall if you lower the amount of dodgerolls you also need to tone down burst potential.

Not everyone is playing sPvP where gear is normalized.

This is something I wonder about. Is dodging really that big a issue they it needs to be toned down? Warriors aren’t perma vigor unless warhorn and necro’s can’t smell vigor.

I saw it was kind of mentioned which was initially why they wanted to move renewing stamina to master tier as part of some “vigor rework”. I don’t understand how vigor is a problem.

For Lyssa rune, an alternative suggestion was to have the 6pc convert conditions to boons, but that may make it too weak for general use. Just removing Stability from it would be almost enough.

Overall, I like the changes. But I’m concerned about the changes to endurance recovery. I agree that it’s a little too plentiful, but there are a lot of subtle implications to reducing it. Not only does it affect survivability, it also affects skills that trigger on dodges. Skills or traits may need buffed with other survivability bonuses (longer regeneration or protection, etc) and on-dodge traits may need adjusted or un-nerfed.

Re: Lyssa, I think the full condi clear is the most powerful aspect of the rune set, not the boons. Of the boons, Stability is the biggest offender, but I don’t think changing it to converting conditions to boons is enough of a nerf.

Re: Dodges, I believe the nerfs are in order. Guardians and Mesmers currently get enough dodges where they are often just used “whenever”, or as an ingrained part of rotations/combos. Using a dodge should always be an important decision, and reward the players that use them skillfully, and punish those who don’t. It’s true that dodging is important for those two classes, since certain traits like Deceptive Evasion and Selfless Daring rely on them. The Sigil of Energy change equates to 1 less dodge every 20 seconds — a significant change, to be sure, but not game-breaking. As for the Vigor changes, it depends on Boon Duration, but most builds will still maintain >=60% Vigor uptime, especially outside of sPvP. Suffice to say, I believe these nerfs are not too large in the grand scheme of things, and won’t be a big enough change to reduce the viability of those traits, and shouldn’t be enough where large changes in the amount of damage dealt should need to change. In the event that some adjustments to damage are needed after this change, that could be determined during playtesting or addressed in the next update.