Guild Wars 2

And the hits keep coming.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/preview-of-upcoming-balance-changes/

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

Yay PvP balance!

I’m happy for my thief, but sad about might.

Edit: I assume the might nerf will prompt a record reset? That’s an across-the-board decrease of 125 power for all party members.

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

Well not the fault of Anet if you didn’t know that Lighting whip could be exploited to double the healing with diminishing the damage. Its was kind of broken when someone was exploiting it.

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

“Moved the attacks points in the cast further, aftercast recuded by 0.2 seconds. Dmg reduced by 10%.”

Total attack chain was 1.15 seconds including aftercast, after update it will be 0.95 seconds.
0.9/0.95 > 1/1.15. In other words are we getting a ~7-8% buff for the Lightning Whip, assuming you can keep AA 100%.

dlonie.6547:

I’m happy for my thief, but sad about might.

Edit: I assume the might nerf will prompt a record reset? That’s an across-the-board decrease of 125 power for all party members.

I think its possible, but in lower level dungeons you were probably stat capped (or close to it) anyway with Might and food so it probably wouldn’t change much for sub-80 dungeons. I could see it being something in level 80 though.

Thanks for debunking my wrong statement Particlar

Snowball.3497:

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

“Moved the attacks points in the cast further, aftercast recuded by 0.2 seconds. Dmg reduced by 10%.”

Total attack chain was 1.15 seconds including aftercast, after update it will be 0.95 seconds.
0.9/0.95 > 1/1.15. In other words are we getting a ~7-8% buff for the Lightning Whip, assuming you can keep AA 100%.

Nice, good to hear. Curious how that will change rotations, able to slip an extra whip in here and there between swaps?

Also, before any anti-dungeon meta conspiracy theory anet hates us stuff starts, just want to say that the Might nerf is a response to the PVP Celestial meta. Granted it still sucks but it probably sucks less than nerfing strength runes (again) would for most of us. Obviously the best solution would be a pve/pvp split functionality for Might but thats beyond hope.

hybrid.5027:

Also, before any anti-dungeon meta conspiracy theory anet hates us stuff starts, just want to say that the Might nerf is a response to the PVP Celestial meta. Granted it still sucks but it probably sucks less than nerfing strength runes (again) would for most of us. Obviously the best solution would be a pve/pvp split functionality for Might but thats beyond hope.

Confusion: The effect of condition damage on confusion has been increased by 33% in PvE only. This change does not affect PvP or WvW.

Hmm. . .

Jerus.4350:

hybrid.5027:

Also, before any anti-dungeon meta conspiracy theory anet hates us stuff starts, just want to say that the Might nerf is a response to the PVP Celestial meta. Granted it still sucks but it probably sucks less than nerfing strength runes (again) would for most of us. Obviously the best solution would be a pve/pvp split functionality for Might but thats beyond hope.

Confusion: The effect of condition damage on confusion has been increased by 33% in PvE only. This change does not affect PvP or WvW.

Hmm. . .

What??!?! So they can split PvE and PvP balance after all??!

ArenaNet being inconsistent? Well I never….

Confusion already dealt more damage in PvE :P Not sure by how much tho

@might: Doesn’t seem like it will have a huge impact in PvE, 125 power is quite negligable, considering most of the time in dungeons is spent skipping (or timegates :/) and not actually fighting. Does not warrant a reset in itself to me, but maybe the other balance changes will be impactful enough.
Definitly something for the agenda of the speedclear meeting

Thaddeus.4891:

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

Well not the fault of Anet if you didn’t know that Lighting whip could be exploited to double the healing with diminishing the damage. Its was kind of broken when someone was exploiting it.

Whats this about? Lightning whip heals? Wot? I assume this is something in PvP.

Engie condi solo is gonna be sweet on lupi doe. 10x confusion stacks will be like 7k ticks when he does a move.

spoj: people were using stow weapon with lightning whip and healing signet to proc both heal triggers in only half the attack time.

spoj.9672:

Thaddeus.4891:

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

Well not the fault of Anet if you didn’t know that Lighting whip could be exploited to double the healing with diminishing the damage. Its was kind of broken when someone was exploiting it.

Whats this about? Lightning whip heals? Wot? I assume this is something in PvP.

Not LW by itself, but there is an exploit with the signet of restoration. You could have the full healing effect of a LW+Signet of restoration wihtout completing your LW fully. So you could make 1 whip, cancel, make 1 whip, cancel, etc. This give you as much dmg, but double the amount of healing from signet of restoration. That’s why sometime you can see the Ele heal himself constantly while you are doing a burst on him.

spoj.9672:

Thaddeus.4891:

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

Well not the fault of Anet if you didn’t know that Lighting whip could be exploited to double the healing with diminishing the damage. Its was kind of broken when someone was exploiting it.

Whats this about? Lightning whip heals? Wot? I assume this is something in PvP.

Signet of Restoration procs.

Ah. Never used that signet before. x)

hybrid.5027:

dlonie.6547:

I’m happy for my thief, but sad about might.

Edit: I assume the might nerf will prompt a record reset? That’s an across-the-board decrease of 125 power for all party members.

I think its possible, but in lower level dungeons you were probably stat capped (or close to it) anyway with Might and food so it probably wouldn’t change much for sub-80 dungeons. I could see it being something in level 80 though.

Might doesn’t get attribute capped.

Jerus.4350:

Nice, good to hear. Curious how that will change rotations, able to slip an extra whip in here and there between swaps?

I decided to do a ‘in depth’ video of the current rotation, showing fresh air CD as well as number of Lightning Whip AA’s. You can see it here: http://youtu.be/XfGtRcHSNqs

I do by no means a perfect rotation in the video linked and there’s also slight differences in builds. A solo 66002 build has lower recharge on attunement than the 66200, —> swapping back to fire more quickly.

I would guess though that the current rotation will change to x9 AA before going back into fire and maybe x4 before each blasts. In a more detailed manner,
Current D/F Rotation

• Burning Speed
• x3 AA (3.45 sec)
• Water -> both blasts
• x7 (8.05 sec, which is a bit fast with 66200)
• Burning Speed
• x3 AA (3.45 sec)
• Earth -> Magnetic Wave + Ring of Earth + Arcane Brilliance
• x7 AA (8.05 sec, which is a bit fast with 66200)
• Burning Speed

New D/F Rotation?

• Burning Speed
• x4 AA (3.8 sec, really tight with water blasts)
• Water -> both blasts
• x9 (8.55 sec)
• Burning Speed
• x4 AA (3.8 sec, really tight with water blasts)
• Earth -> Magnetic Wave + Ring of Earth + Arcane Brilliance
• x9 AA (8.55 sec)
• Burning Speed

New rotation has no trouble with fresh air but a slight issue with the time for water blasts. In the calculation below have I neglected the might differences in each AA hit, ie I’m assuming the rotation has reached its steady state.

Old Rotation in AA’s
x3 + x7 + x3 + x7 = 20
New Rotation in AA’s
(x4 + x9 + x4 + x9)* 0.9 = (26 AA)*0.9 = 23.4.

We seem to have gained DPS corresponding to 3.4 AA of current Lighting Whip, or 2.5 AA if we keep x3 for the water blasts, for the price of 1.7s or 0.75s longer rotation.

Someone with a detailed spreadsheet should be able to see the total damage increase of that and ofcourse, correct me if I’m wrong

Oh you are right

In hindsight I would keep 3 LW for the “short” air period and fill additional ones in the “long” air period of each phase, due to the really tight timing that comet would have with the fire field if 4 LW are done in the “short” period.

But more than anything I want to recheck cast times. I will do this after the patch for all D/F main skills. Until I do that I do not feel confident designing a proper rotation.

Side note: you made a D/F rotation video today too?
http://youtu.be/kLpEcF5pGbQ

Particlar, based on what you have napkin math is telling me this is like a 10ish% dps increase. Which should make it only slightly worse than S/F hammer in personal DPS. Pretty interesting.

hybrid.5027:

Engie condi solo is gonna be sweet on lupi doe. 10x confusion stacks will be like 7k ticks when he does a move.

spoj: people were using stow weapon with lightning whip and healing signet to proc both heal triggers in only half the attack time.

Yeah I was thinking about that confusion, how will it play, make pistol/shield any more viable (you lose a lot losing JS/Blunder, but with the confusing on pistol3 maybe decent?)

But, we’re also losing bleeding stacks on shrapnel so a little loss there.

I just had a showerthought. If D/F changes to come close to S/F LH, then D/D should be above both?
My rotation is very rough, maintains 12-15 might without Sigil of Strength.
What do you guys think? DD meta?!
http://youtu.be/0gsWj3N6DsM

D/D Rotation
Cast when off CD: Fire Grab, RtL, Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Wave

• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed
• x4 AA
• Frozen Burst
• Earthquake + Ring of Earth
• x9 AA
  Repeat following x2:
• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed
• x4 AA
• Frozen Burst
• x4 AA
• Ring of Earth
• x6 AA
• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed

Just something, but seems like there’s a little bit of time between frozen burst and when you can swap to earth, maybe put the A.Bril in that spot?, other than that, seems interesting.

You’re right, edited the rotation

I don’t see DD being viable to be honest, d/f has more utility, survival and slightly more control. The bosses you use dagger on are generally ones which last longer and are more difficult. So I don’t see DD or d/f becoming part of the dungeon meta as they are both unnecessary. For fractals offhand focus is much more useful for swirling/obsidian flesh. The issue with DD in dungeons is that fights are over so quickly that it’s not even worth using over say a scepter LH 05540/04550 DPS conjure build or a staff build

This is for fights where you would generally bring S/F or S/D, ie most dungeons. I’m not saying it should replace D/F.

hybrid.5027:

Also, before any anti-dungeon meta conspiracy theory anet hates us stuff starts, just want to say that the Might nerf is a response to the PVP Celestial meta. Granted it still sucks but it probably sucks less than nerfing strength runes (again) would for most of us. Obviously the best solution would be a pve/pvp split functionality for Might but thats beyond hope.

Actually making might weaker in sPVP – making it go from 35 to 30 wouldn’t have been such a huge change.

Think about it – the average player wouldn’t have felt it as an immediate fracture between the two modes ( their primary reason they invoke when saying they don’t want to split balance). They probably wouldn’t even have noticed much.

The overall trend I’ve seen for the past year has been a disturbing one :

“let’s nerf player damage and increase already tedious encounters even longer because everybody loves another 10-15-20 seconds on that boss fight they’ve done a hundred times”

Why no fury love?

The might nerf is one of the biggest changes Anet has ever done to the record runs scene. Unfortunately it’s neither positive for dungeons in general nor is “the biggest change” we ever got from new content or complete remake of dungeon encounters, which would be ideal.

Funny thing is Might got nerfed because of PvP Celestial strenght. And now you wonder why don’t they just make the change for PvP/WvW?

It’s always the shortest straw.

So, Sigil of Strength over Battle for Warrior Phalanx build now?

And yet confusion gets a pve only change. K ANet -_-

5x crowbar engi new meta.

Grok Krog.9581:

So, Sigil of Strength over Battle for Warrior Phalanx build now?

That has always been the case. O.o

I guess, he’s reffering to axe sigill

Thought it was battle, or maybe I had that for in general and forgot.

Edit: On my mace

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

5x crowbar engi new meta.

Half Life 3 Confirmed.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

5x crowbar engi new meta.

I have always wondered about power wrench giving tool kit the dmg needed to play in the meta. I believe you have the dmg with something ( my guess ) 4/6/0/0/4.
my conern is toolkits atk speed.

You almost certainly want 5 in the last line if you’re going Wrench. Another 10% dps mod is clutch.

Maybe we will have a confusion reset meta.

Sarahfull.4930:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

5x crowbar engi new meta.

I have always wondered about power wrench giving tool kit the dmg needed to play in the meta. I believe you have the dmg with something ( my guess ) 4/6/0/0/4.
my conern is toolkits atk speed.

It’s very decent against Power Lich Necro. Oh wait, wrong game… Let’s just say that base damage is good enough against objects like tre-… well, I mean clown car for example)

Iris Ng.9845:

Sarahfull.4930:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

5x crowbar engi new meta.

I have always wondered about power wrench giving tool kit the dmg needed to play in the meta. I believe you have the dmg with something ( my guess ) 4/6/0/0/4.
my conern is toolkits atk speed.

It’s very decent against Power Lich Necro. Oh wait, wrong game… Let’s just say that base damage is good enough against objects like tre-… well, I mean clown car for example)

yea true, you have to crit 1st. =) oh well, at least I still have my fractals

Snowball.3497:

I just had a showerthought. If D/F changes to come close to S/F LH, then D/D should be above both?
My rotation is very rough, maintains 12-15 might without Sigil of Strength.
What do you guys think? DD meta?!
http://youtu.be/0gsWj3N6DsM

D/D Rotation
Cast when off CD: Fire Grab, RtL, Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Wave

• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed
• x4 AA
• Frozen Burst
• Earthquake + Ring of Earth
• x9 AA
  Repeat following x2:
• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed
• x4 AA
• Frozen Burst
• x4 AA
• Ring of Earth
• x6 AA
• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed

Quick reply: as I am telling you on youtube, this rotation does less damage than the optimal D/F rotation. I have tried many times to make a good D/D rotation myself in the past, but I never found anything as good as D/F.

spoj.9672:

Maybe we will have a confusion reset meta.

Honestly this would be hilarious. Saw those vids people were making a few months ago. It’s not going to be allowed on GWSC though right?

My Staff Ele will mourn the nerf to Sigil of Battle. (Still gonna keep using it though.)

Sigil of Battle on a staff elementalist? Erm…

Assume Fire Sig, Banners, 100% uptime on all modifiers and fury, 25 might/vuln, night/force. Gear and food optimized a bit for highest EP, no infusions included.

For D/F
Build is VI-VII-XI / VI-X-XII / VI / – / -. Berserker everything with truffle steak.

D/F Non-Flamewall rotation
Burn Speed – Air – Arc Wave – LW x4 – Earth – Arc Brill – Mag Wave – Air – LW x9 – Fire – Burn Speed – Air – LW x4 – Water – Comet – Frozen Burst – Air – LW x8 – Fire

11,991 DPS fully buffed. Averages about 4.9-5.7 vuln, 11.13 might, 55% burning uptime. 11,669 direct DPS.
Old rotation would have been 11,864 DPS. This is a 1% DPS increase.
With Strength Runes: New rotation is 11,156 DPS, 15.60 might.
Note if the ele is the only source of burning then Fire VI should be swapped for Fire V.

D/F Flamewall rotation
Flamewall – Burning Speed – Air – Arc Wave – LW x4 – Earth – Arc Brill – Mag Wave – LW x10* – Fire – Burning Speed – Flamewall – Air – LW x4 – Water – Frozen Burst – Comet – Air – LW x11 – Fire ( *that LW x10 may have to be LW x11)

With Scholar’s Runes: 11,838 DPS fully buffed. Averages about 5.5-6.5 vuln, 9.18 might, 100% burning uptime. 11,255 direct DPS.
Old rotation would have been 11,171 DPS. This is about a 6% increase in personal DPS.
With Strength Runes: New rotation is 11,032 DPS, 12.91 might.

S/F hammer
Berserker everything with Sweet and Spicy.
Conjurer: Build is II-VI-XI / VI-VII-X / VI / 0 / 0. 12,399 DPS fully buffed (12,121 direct). Averages about 3-4 vuln, 17.29 might, 48% burning uptime.

Non-Conjurer: Build is VI-*-XI / VI-VII-X / VI / 0 / 0. 13,266 DPS fully buffed (12,699 direct). Averages about 4 vuln, 18.49 might, .97 burning uptime for the duration of the non-repeatable sequence of actions.

Of course, adding in Glyph of Storms in Air affects these figures but should be cast as early as possible without missing blasts. Also, S/D Hammer Conjurer rotations are still higher DPS than S/F Conjurer rotations, but S/D non-Conjurer is lower DPS than S/F non-Conjurer.

When you say LW x4 does that mean four hits or four attacks (8 hits)?

And I take it ring of earth is a dps loss?

I believe of Ring of Earth is a dps increase it just doesnt fit in the optimal rotation. Correct me if im wrong.