Guild Wars 2

CutePicsHunter.7430:

2)Do something with elementalists traits so it will be possible to NOT spend 30 points to arcana and still be useful. May be if player spends more points to attunes, they should become stronger.

would definitely love to see something towards that direction. Fresh air was a stroke of genius – maybe you can come up with something similar for all trait-lines. (reduce attunement-CD for each point spent in the according traitline or something like that – there are great ideas all over the ele-forums). The necessity of 20+ points in arcana is the major reason why elementalists only have little viable speccs. Creating build-variety could really be that easy. Some decent defensive traits in offensive trees (fire and air) could also help to create viable gc-speccs. That’s the second reason why we have to spend points in Arcana (evasive arcana for heal, renewing stamina for vigor and elemental attunenment for regen and protection) What eles lack is a decent defense-mechanism – currently you can only decide between damage or heal – but not both at the same time. You either have damage (Arcane-Utilities, 30P air) but no survivability, or you bunker (30p water, cantrips) but deal no damage.
Some traits and utilities (tornado!) could use tweaks too – like said, just take a look at the ele-forum. I hope to see some changes here in the patchnotes.

last but not least: please revert the RTL-nerfs (or at least fix the issue with blocked/dodged/blinded/… attacks)

thanks for reading

Lexandro.1456:

Hunters shot in PVE is a godsend most times , I dont know why you dont use it. Being able to drop agro near instantly is an excellent additon. It adds extra survivability to our class. Plus the stealth means we can reposition or take a shot from complete safety.

With a range of 1200 (1500 if traited), a pet that can (if you so desire) have aggro the duration of a fight, a knockback, an aoe cripple, access to several crowd control utility skills, and whatever you have on your weapon swap, how much more survivability could a longbow ranger possibly need? Like I said, I never use the skill anymore. I mean that literally.

Lexandro.1456:

The only downsides to it are;

1. 3 seconds it rather short, and you have to be fast to make use of it properly.
2. If reflected the TARGET gets the stealth, which is frankly idiotic.

3. It’s completely unnecessary for PvE.
4. Its existence was made possible by the destruction of a universally useful skill.

SynfulChaot.3169:

By itself that stealth seems useless. When combined with the Remorseless trait, however, it goes from meh to great, even in PvE. 10 stacks of vuln and a guaranteed crit every 10 seconds isn’t bad.

Between Spotter, Piercing Arrows, Eagle Eye, Steady Focus, and the signet traits, I can’t imagine too many Rangers actually run Remorseless. But even if they do, if a weapon skill’s (one of only five static weapon skills) is wholy dependent upon (in PvE, at least) a trait then the skill needs to be reworked, in my opinion.

Small balence suggestions:

Mesmer:
- The simple way to improve build variety is either to move Illusionary Celarity to a lower tier to remove it all together and lower CD’s to compensate. This change messes with a number of builds and makes CD’s between shatter builds and non shatter builds lopsided for a lot of things that it shouldn’t – like sword 3 and 4. Please just consider looking into this or discussing it with us, there have been so many useful threads on the mes section which have been ignored. As you no doubt know from this thread, communication is key…
- Damage log needs to show phantasm damage, but not clone damage. It’s tedious testing different builds and setups when you can’t monitor phantasm damage. I presume rangers and necros have the same issue.
- A few bugs really mess with build variety, such as phantasmal haste not working properly (doesn’t reduce attack periods correctly for most phantasms), Illusionary Elasticity not affecting staff clones but other clones, etc.
- Arcane theivary CD is too high, and null field pulses take too long.
- The inspiration line in general is a mess.
- The ways to increase phantasm health are bad. A trait for +20% health is a joke (that’s like 600 more health….). Signet at 50% means they survive one more auto attack… it’s not worth giving up a utility skill for that.

Ele
- Conjures are such a good idea, but annoying due to the double restriction (timer and usage charge). This is also not newbie friendly. Please considering morphing these into one single restriction.
- Scepter 1 and 2 in water seems out of place.
- Focus needs love. There are little situations this is better than offhand dagger.

Stealth
- When someone exits stealth (not reveladed, just times out) add a 1 second revealed. This will make monitoring stealth more important and prevent Cloak And Dagger spam on pets (Mesmers/Rangers/Necro’s can dodge your CnD, but our pets can’t, it gives a huge advange to offhand dagger thieves).
- If someone makes an attack in stealth and it is blocked, it procs a 1s revaled. This makes managing stealth and positioning more valuable instead of just spamming backstab.

I don’t think these changes will break theives/mesmers, but will force many players to think about what they are doing with stealth more instead of just spamming it.

Bouncing attacks
- PVE focused here. If you use theif shortbow on a single mob and there are others nearby (yellows) it will hit them and aggro them. This means you are constantly aggro’ng other mobs by accident. Same with mesmer staff and ele staff air 1. Please look into the way these hit.

WVW
- There are a few skills in WVW which scale a little too well with power, and likewise can pull huge numbers. Can I suggest toning these down a little. Eviserate, Killshot, Backstab are examples. Even if wvw is your ‘casual mode’, the scaling with new ascended gear is a little too high on some skills and allows far too quick burst with some classes. Not a global nerf, just a change so these are less brutal in wvw.

Thank you for reading ( you are reading this anet right.. right… /Overly Attached Balencer )

Just want to say thanks to the devs for posting what they have in the forge for us and replaying to us so often!

we should do this more often

Nec
The Blood line underwent some tweaks, as it’s something that Necromancer players often feel is a lacking trait line. Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, Vampiric Master have all seen improvements.
For QoL (again, quality of life) we also improved the Life Force meter to show the actual bar better (moved slightly so it’s not competing with the skill icon for UI space), and the bar now shows your current Life Force amount, and the tooltip also shows current/max Life Force available. It makes it much easier to see how much Life Force you have, and lets you plan your engagements better.

Although this is exactly what we asked for, we also asked for a few other things. Some stability without wasting 30 into a traitline condition mancers can’t use, and please. For the love of god, and all that is holy, remove the reanimator trait. Just put something else in there, even if it is “Grants you nothing. But also no jagged horror spawns.” – After saying that, I welcome those changes. I’m thrilled to hear about a rework of our blood magic. As a fast ground targetting user, I also welcome that change.

Sick ‘Em will now apply ‘Revealed” to enemies they target. We want to introduce some counter play to Stealth (players have asked for that for a while), so we thought a pet “catching your scent” might be a cool way to insinuate some anti-stealth into the game.

This is plain awesome. if my golem had a nose, I would ask you to add this to my golem too.

Power Cleanse: We wanted to add some condition support, and made it so that this skill can remove 2 conditions from 5 allies.

Nerf this. nao. this is far too strong. Running 3 mesmers in a group of 5 or a group of up to 15 people will make for an insane conditions cleanse. Not even necros can do this that well…

Oh, one more thing, I FRICKING LOVE that you previewed it, and not just pushed out the “Here’s the patch. Read the notes.”. Thank you so much for that.

Thief’s ‘Last Refuge’ minor trait in the Shadow Arts trait line. Please consider changing that double-edge sword to something else.

darkace.8925:

Lexandro.1456:

Hunters shot in PVE is a godsend most times , I dont know why you dont use it. Being able to drop agro near instantly is an excellent additon. It adds extra survivability to our class. Plus the stealth means we can reposition or take a shot from complete safety.

With a range of 1200 (1500 if traited), a pet that can (if you so desire) have aggro the duration of a fight, a knockback, an aoe cripple, access to several crowd control utility skills, and whatever you have on your weapon swap, how much more survivability could a longbow ranger possibly need? Like I said, I never use the skill anymore. I mean that literally.

Sure 1v1 encouters can go like that and do most times, but any grouping of enemies and your going to take agro, and a lot of it because your pet wont hold that much agro or will die.

The only downsides to it are;

1. 3 seconds it rather short, and you have to be fast to make use of it properly.
2. If reflected the TARGET gets the stealth, which is frankly idiotic.

darkace.8925:

3. It’s completely unnecessary for PvE.

As said above, not when your facing groups of enemies (IE 5+) solo as most rangers do in the majority of PVE content. Even in the Scarlet events I was consistantly targeted by strikers/grenadiers while in the “zerg” at 1200+ range. Agro dropping is an extremely powerful tool when utilised properly. And in many cases will negate the need for multiple CC skils, leaving you free to use other utility skills. And it never hurts to be able to quickly rez a downed player while stealthed.

darkace.8925:

4. Its existence was made possible by the destruction of a universally useful skill.

I have no idea what you mean by that. You would need to clarify that further.

Remove ctrl + click set target, for the love of god…..

JonathanSharp.7094:

Thief

We’re also looking at shaving the efficiency of Flanking Strike slightly, so that it now only removes 1 boon instead of 2.

Is “shaving the efficiency” a creative euphemism for nerf? Or do you mean reducing the stats across the board, including initiative cost?

Can’t wait to try out cast-on-release!

Pet-reveal sounds cool (and this coming from a thief-main).

Concerned about Larcenous nerf though – halving to a single boon strip is not a slight change, and an incidental buff to bunker builds.

So let’s see:

Ranger
Sick ‘Em will now apply ‘Revealed” to enemies they target. We want to introduce some counter play to Stealth (players have asked for that for a while), so we thought a pet “catching your scent” might be a cool way to insinuate some anti-stealth into the game.
To help Rangers support allies, we increased the ability ranger pets have to support allies. For instance, the Bear condition removal isn’t strong enough, so we’ll be improving that. Moas and Fern Hound will also be improved.
There will also be # changes to some of the Ranger weapons.

So basically we get to equip an otherwise pretty useless skill as one of our three on the off chance we happen to run into a thief, who then, if we are really lucky and the pet manages to hit the thief whilst he is almost perma stealthed, gets a revealed buff and promptly resets the fight until the reveal is off then returns and rips everyone to shreds anyway.

The problem with the pet abilities is CAST TIME, pure and simple. Most of them take so long to cast, and the pet stops moving whilst it tries to do them, that they are utterly useless against anything that moves.

The other problem is the chances of your pet actually making it to an enemy and delivering any sort of damage before it dies to the melee train are almost 0.

Give rangers some way of still having decent damage when the pets are dead, or better yet just remove the stupid cooldown when both pets are dead in wvw. they are supposed to be a ‘constant companion’ not ‘dead for the next minute while the fight will be over’.

As for the guardian change, 3 conditions removed as an aoe and a continuing condition removal…sounds like another boost to the melee train meta and the end of necro condition builds in wvw.

Not exactly sure how are you are supposed to damage that melee train now- perma retal, perma regen, and now with a tiny bit of timing huge condition removal spam. Attack the melee train with conditions- removed instantly, causes burning. Fire arrows at them- boom, retal wipes you. Fire engineer grenades or FT- instantly dead. Elementalist – every skill pretty much an aoe (except annoying d/d soloists), can’t use skills or autodeath. Mesmer ranged- multiple targets, multiple retal hits, and feedback = death sentence (and null field ticks so slowly it’s pretty much useless now).

Glad to see thiefs getting another buff with ven aura now being in a large area….(/sarcasm). I wonder what class the devs play now- looks like warrior, thief and guardian.

It’s about time the trait stuff got fixed. The information is incredibly vague and having full knowledge can change everything. This is no exaggeration.

Disappointed in the fact that eles are getting yet another invaluable tool (line of warding). Eles are literally capable of anything at this point and it’s becoming a problem.

darkace.8925:

3. It’s completely unnecessary for PvE.

I agree, although completely may be a little harsh, I very rarely use it in PvE – however it is very useful in PvP.

darkace.8925:

4. Its existence was made possible by the destruction of a universally useful skill.

Lexandro.1456:

I have no idea what you mean by that. You would need to clarify that further.

In a nutshell darkace means that Hunters Shot was useful for everyone, now it’s only useful for some.

For instance, I did some testing and discovered:

As it is Remorseless doesn’t give as large a damage boost as Eagle Eye for high damage rangers, as in Power > 2,000

I would suggest a compromise for the longbow, because invis can be useful both defensively and aggressively on the longbow:

Longbow changes
• Remove vulnerability from Rapid Fire
• Add vulnerability (10 stacks) to Hunters shot
• Chain Invis on hunters shot, with a locked target if the first shot hits
• 14sec cooldown from invis, 12sec from vulnerability

I went into great detail here some time ago, think some of those changes probably won’t need making but would still like to see an offensive signet.

darkace.8925:

3. It’s completely unnecessary for PvE.
4. Its existence was made possible by the destruction of a universally useful skill.

3. What are you exactly saying? That they should abandon to try and make PVE anything other than a faceroll DPSfest where defensive actions don’t matter?
4. It was a vanilla damage skill that should be spammed on recharge for maximum efficiency. This isn’t exactly the design or indeed mentality they want to cultivate.

Hawksbane.2783:

For instance, I did some testing and discovered:

As it is Remorseless doesn’t give as large a damage boost as Eagle Eye for high damage rangers, as in Power > 2,000

That may be true if you’re only counting yourself. But if you take into account the fact that that foe will be taking 10% more damage from everyone, it becomes very worth it to run. Especially if they, as in the rest of your party, aren’t built to apply vuln.

MasterGeese.4756:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Thief

We’re also looking at shaving the efficiency of Flanking Strike slightly, so that it now only removes 1 boon instead of 2.

Is “shaving the efficiency” a creative euphemism for nerf? Or do you mean reducing the stats across the board, including initiative cost?

It’s not a “euphemism for nerf” because the word nerf itself has been twisted from it’s original meaning.

Do you know what nerf meant as terms of changes in RPG rule sets of old? It was a term used to emphasis a change to an ability so severe that it’s effectiveness was like that of throwing a nerf dart at the enemy.

Ex.

base spell:
Fireball
Does 100 damage per hit with 25 burn per 1sec tick for 5 sec. (basically 225 damage for full effect)
Enemy has 8,000 HP.
Time to defeat enemy is 180sec or 3 minutes.

post-‘nerf’:
Fireball
Does 35 damage per hit with a 15burn per 1sec tick for 3sec (now 80 damage for full effect)
Enemy still has 8,000 HP.
Time to defeat enemy is now 500sec or 8 & 1/3 minutes.

The reduction makes it nearly 1/3rd the original use. Taking a individually fought 3 minute fight and nearly tripling it into an 8 1/3 minute fight would be absurd by any rational.

So back to what I mean when I said it wasn’t a nerf. If something is “too effective”, or basically “OP” as others like to call it, then there has to be some give. Shaving off a single second is by no means a nerf when it comes to trying to balance out something that is superior to everything around it.

I actually wonder if Warrior axe, greatsword and..rifle skills get a rework

Axe 2-5 skills are pathetic at best and theres no point to cast any of them, running axe offhand is just pathetic.

Greatsword:

-HB is a great skill in pve, howered its impossible to land pvp without cc. A golden way should be made to properly balance it between both game types in case if that skill gonna stay here.

-Bladetrail getting obstructed on terrain like mad. Also throwing a sword like boomerang is just silly. I would like to see a blocking skill similiar to ranger one on gs.

-Rush..its keep missing even in downed played that don’t move at all..Its need a new animation like leap of faith with shorter cd and distance travel, or simple use the animation from conjured greatsword

-Arcing slide..the skill animation acts like “finish off” move but in reality its barely stronger than 2 regular hits from AA, also single target. I think its damage wise should be between skull crack and eviscerate with 1sec knockdown.

Rifle: Completely outclasses by lb in both pve and pvp. Skill animations are definitely too long and outside of volley and killshot this weapon lack damage to pressure anyone, its doesnt have a viable defensive options either.

Also the fact that theres no set up skills to help land killshot doesnt help it by any means. Take a look on harpoon gun, its a well designed weapon, too bad we can’t use it on land instead of rifle

Also the last thing is downed state..Vengeance..whats the point using that skill just to know that we’re going to die after 15seconds for heart attacks? In pvp i barely has a chance to use it, in pve theres no point using that unless we know that we going down anyway. #2 could get some love too to intterrupt more than single target.

Mesmer’s GS 1 skill should just chain to other targets, and the issue of targets being obstructed when they’re clearly not needs to be fixed.

Warrior’s war banner elite skill – for skill 2 that gives allies stability – this needs to able to be cast while the user is moving…

One request for Mesmers (which will probably be ignored) is to be able to spawn clones (not phantasms, cause that would be OP) without a target…

Siphaed.9235:

It’s not a “euphemism for nerf” because the word nerf itself has been twisted from it’s original meaning.

Do you know what nerf meant as terms of changes in RPG rule sets of old? It was a term used to emphasis a change to an ability so severe that it’s effectiveness was like that of throwing a nerf dart at the enemy.

That may have been the genesis of the term, yes, but that isn’t the usage of the term now. The current usage is when anything is weakened purposefully, it is nerfed. Just as buffing is strengthening it.

If you want a good Guild Wars term for nerfing into oblivion … try Smiter’s Booning or Booning.

SynfulChaot.3169:

Hawksbane.2783:

For instance, I did some testing and discovered:

As it is Remorseless doesn’t give as large a damage boost as Eagle Eye for high damage rangers, as in Power > 2,000

That may be true if you’re only counting yourself. But if you take into account the fact that that foe will be taking 10% more damage from everyone, it becomes very worth it to run. Especially if they, as in the rest of your party, aren’t built to apply vuln.

Except that with my suggested change you wouldn’t lose that option if you wanted it. I find that offering extra Precision and piercing arrows to the party is a lot more beneficial than 5 stacks of vulnerability.

Looks great all round on paper, i guess this all depends on if they get into the final game or not, if they don’t something is definitely out of whack..

As the ideas?/notes? go all good to me great additions we’ve needed since GW2 opened..

Nuka Cola.8520:

THIS is how it should be done. Finally they’re letting us know.

Agreed took a year but better late than never i guess..

I just hope they stick to what their notes say to us, i hate seeing these things looking great on paper then last minute “oh we took that out, sorry” very unpleasant for players that need these fixes badly..

Thanks for the preview guys. Everything from PvE/PVP splitting of certain skills to the tooltips on traits. Its all very welcome. Thanks for the preview and communication. Regardless of what some may say and QQ on the forums you guys do a good Job. thanks Anet.

Now as for what I would like to see. I play primarily a necromancer and I would like to see the blood and death magic lines made more viable. You guys are already doing abit to boost blood magic which is nice but it needs something that’ll make it stand out and be a must
Death magic fixes:
Protection of the hoard: The worst trait in the game and even on a minion user it does next to nothing. make it apply 35toughness and vitality per minion and make it an adept major trait so people aren’t forced to take it
-Make shrouded removal or spiteful vigor the new master minor: These 2 while nice on paper don’t get much use because they compete with 2 staff traits and ritual of protection (both of which outshine everything else non-minion). By making one if them the new minor it helps give us a defensive option we lack
-Rework re-animator: Change this minor trait from its current form to my fix………….When you kill a foe gain a horror token (max 3). when you click on the horror icon summon jagged horrors equal to the number of tokens (cooldown 30seconds, cast time 0.5) now its useful in minion build and everything else instead of just a lifeforce boost like it is now
Blood magic Fixes
-Merge ritual mastery and vampiric rituals: simple fix that makes wells and siphonmancers a lot more viable without having to go 30 into blood magic.
-Add a grandmaster trait which lets you siphon health death shroud: I said the line needed something special this would be it. Example trait……….Ghostly vampirism: Siphoning is boosted by an additional 20%. You can now siphon health in deathshroud people have been asking for away to heal in shroud so give it to them and make them work for it.

That’s my 2cents, I know it doesn’t have much of a chance of being implemented but Its still nice to try XD. Thanks again for the preview Anet, keep up the good work and I look forward to this and the additional patchs to come

Hawksbane.2783:

Except that with my suggested change you wouldn’t lose that option if you wanted it. I find that offering extra Precision and piercing arrows to the party is a lot more beneficial than 5 stacks of vulnerability.

I’ve found piercing arrows to be conditionally useful. I used to always run it with my SB, but I’ve recently found that Eagle Eye or Spotter are more beneficial for that slot in most cases. Only time I’ve taken Piercing Arrows lately is against Scarlet’s minions in the zerg rushes.

Regardless, maintaining those extra vuln stacks are far more beneficial to the party, I’ve found, than anything else in boss fights, where I typically run either Eagle Eye and Remorseless or Spotter and Remorseless depending on party composition. Also depending on if I’ll be spending more time in melee or ranged with my LB.

JonathanSharp.7094:

And finally, Engineer turrets will attack the Engineer’s target. They still take time to rotate to face the target, and they still have their respective cooldowns when firing. But this means the Engineer can focus damage on a single target by using their turrets.

Just wanted to highlight this little gem. This is the most important fix to turrets since launch; awesome work! The engineer community’s been getting a little angsty recently so I hope this fix gets the appreciation it deserves. Few things are more frustrating than seeing your net turret shoot a gate in WvW.

The entire list is really impressive. Keep up the good work!

I’d like to see the ranger trait eagle eye get some love maybe 5% dmg and 5% crit applies to bow skills and harpoon gun instead of just longbow and harpoon gun

Dasroth.9236:

I’d like to see the ranger trait eagle eye get some love maybe 5% dmg and 5% crit applies to bow skills and harpoon gun instead of just longbow and harpoon gun

I’d love to see it give some love to the SB as well. Maybe allow traited SB to regain 1200 range. Because, right now, rangers have no 900+ range condition damage.

Thieves effectiveness is too closely linked to stealth to be implementing methods of revealing them. I can agree with toning down stealth but it has to come at the same time as compensating buffs. The thief profession does not need nerfed, so please buff some areas to compensate for nerfing stealth.

Personally, now that it seems like half the classes are stealthing somewhat often, I find myself wishing that some visual effect occurred each time they stealth (like blinding powder’s animation) . It’s too hard to tell if a player A) stealthed B ) teleported C) disconnected/left.

Finally, since I’m sure I haven’t convinced you to cancel the sic ‘em revealed change, I’ll request that “enemy induced revealed” be more obvious to the player affected by it. The little icon at the bottom of the screen isn’t obvious enough when you’re not the one controlling if you’re revealed or not. Maybe put a blue boarder around the screen similar to the purple daze one. Or even better, instead of revealing the target, make it so the ranger can see the silhouette of the target the same way allies can. At least in that case a thief can still access stealth based traits/attacks, which are absolutely vital to the class.

Thanks for the patch preview

Umm, haven’t we already seen the update notes for this?

Shout support for warrior…. DAMMIT!!!!
i was hoping that was just a joke in the leaked patch notes

Mada.5319:

Umm, haven’t we already seen the update notes for this?

Those were unoffcial leaked ones. Though they do match what is being said.

Great, looks like Thief is gonna get shafted once again. What a surprise…
Thief is in arguably last spot in terms of viability in PvP/WvW.
What’s the point of “improving” Venoms?? So I can fill my utility bar with pointless skills that have less than miniscule impact in a battle?? No thanks! I’d rather keep the few utilities Thief has that are viable.

Here’s just some ideas I came up with real quick that could help make Thief better.
Personally I’d like to see Steal get a buff that makes it a stun break.
If you’re going to “improve” Venoms at least make it so when you activate them they last a certain duration instead of the measly 3 attacks that enemies can evade.

Btw Traps still suck. Why can’t we throw them like Rangers? Why don’t we have circle AoE traps? I really just don’t get it tbh. At least make them viable in tune with condition builds maybe?
I just don’t want to waste my utility slots on sub-par utilities that will leave me a sitting duck. That’s the opposite of what this class’ focus should be.

I think Signet of Agility should be a stun break, and if this current condi-meta sticks around, remove 2 conditions.

All venoms from here have a full 10 sec duration to continuously apply poisons per attack.

Ice Drake still applies 1s Chill for every attack within those 10 seconds.

Skale Venom: reduce condi durations to 2-3 seconds. Same as above

Spider Venom now applies Weakness and Poison. Condition durations are 2 sec Weakness per attack, initial 6 second poison on activation/first attack, 2 second poison per attack afterwards, but, the first attack after Spider Poison activation latches a spider (think Karka face grab) onto the enemy that continuously applies 3 second poison to the target every tick until the target dodge rolls. No more poison is applied after the spider is removed. Poison can still be applied during spider latch, but not after it is removed. Weakness can still be applied during and after spider latch for the full 10 sec duration.
An alternative buff could be the initial attack on activation surrounds the target in a web for (5) sec (much like the spiders in PvE) Can still apply Weakness and Poison.

Devourer Venom now applies 2 sec Immobilize every 5th attack starting with initial attack. Still maintains 10 second duration as stated above. Also now a stun break.

JonathanSharp.7094:

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Class balance:
Overall we’re looking to provide more builds for all classes, across all game types (PvE, PvP and WvW). We’re also looking to improve support potential for many classes. A lot of players have asked for this style of play to be stronger, so we’re looking to make it a more viable option.

These are some HIGH LEVEL previews, and you’ll still see number tweaks, trait fixes, and bug fixes for each class in the actual release notes, but we wanted you guys to have some transparency into the release:

Warrior
We’re looking to improve shouts so that support via shouts is more viable. This means moving Lung Capacity to Tier 1 so that you can take it along with Shrug it Off and Vigorous Shouts. The Warrior is in a pretty decent place overall right now, and sees play in many types of content, as well as in PvP/WvW.

Guardian
We increased the power of many support skills which weren’t seeing much play. We reworked Purging Flames: it now removes three conditions from allies in an area effect around the guardian on cast while still burning enemies (enemies that enter or exit the flames are still burned). Once the skill has been cast, it then reduces condition duration for allies who remain in the consecration’s area. It’s hawt. Literally. All meditation utility skills are now instant, and Focused Mind now grants fury on meditation use.

Ranger
Sick ‘Em will now apply ‘Revealed” to enemies they target. We want to introduce some counter play to Stealth (players have asked for that for a while), so we thought a pet “catching your scent” might be a cool way to insinuate some anti-stealth into the game.

To help Rangers support allies, we increased the ability ranger pets have to support allies. For instance, the Bear condition removal isn’t strong enough, so we’ll be improving that. Moas and Fern Hound will also be improved.

There will also be # changes to some of the Ranger weapons.

Thief
Venomous Aura was very difficult to use, as the radius was fairly tight. We’ve now increased that radius a bit, so that it’s easier to share venoms with allies without huddling closely together.

We’re also looking at shaving the efficiency of Flanking Strike slightly, so that it now only removes 1 boon instead of 2.

Also, pistol main hand may see one of its skills reworked to better support allies. We have multiple prototypes that we’re trying out, so we’ll have to see which we settle on by the next release.

_*Engineer*
We did some reworks on the Elixir toolbelt (f-bar) skills. These just didn’t have enough cool play to them, and we wanted to improve them. Like:

• Elixir S toolbelt is now guaranteed stealth.
• Elixir B toolbelt now guarantees Stability along with the random current effect. Base recharge increased to 30 seconds.

We also did QoL (quality of life) improvements to skills that saw little play.

And finally, Engineer turrets will attack the Engineer’s target. They still take time to rotate to face the target, and they still have their respective cooldowns when firing. But this means the Engineer can focus damage on a single target by using their turrets._

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Elementalist
We’re working on the staff in an effort to make it a stronger support weapon, and we also improved the conjure weapons so that they’re stronger for support. You’ll see improvements to all 4 of the conjure weapons to make them stronger and better for support.

We also increased the healing on Water Blast, the radius on Geyser and we reworked
Unsteady Ground to make it function more like line of warding.

Mes
To stay in line with the support theme, we wanted to find ways the Mesmer could support allies. We looked at Mantras, and just didn’t feel they were quite strong enough to do this, so we made some improvements.

Power Cleanse: We wanted to add some condition support, and made it so that this skill can remove 2 conditions from 5 allies.

Power Break also saw an improvement, as it now grants stability to nearby allies.

Nec
The Blood line underwent some tweaks, as it’s something that Necromancer players often feel is a lacking trait line. Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, Vampiric Master have all seen improvements.

For QoL (again, quality of life) we also improved the Life Force meter to show the actual bar better (moved slightly so it’s not competing with the skill icon for UI space), and the bar now shows your current Life Force amount, and the tooltip also shows current/max Life Force available. It makes it much easier to see how much Life Force you have, and lets you plan your engagements better.

This is the single greatest day in my Engineer’s life ;____; <333

Smoke Screen is now a circle with a hollow middle. No blind applying field in the middle of the ring, but the smoke combo field can still be applied in the middle, pretty much the same thing as Guardians Purging Flames skill, just replace the flames with a smoke/blind field. Opponents get blinded upon entering/leaving the ring. Duration and cooldown stay the same.

Blind Powder can now be used while already doing an action. Similar to how it was before. Example: While charging a channel skill using Blind Powder no longer interrupts the channel or action such as reviving a teammate.

Tripwire now also applies Weakness for 6 seconds. Cripple and Weakness now get applied once the target gets up from the knockdown.

Needle Trap is now “Bomb” trap that applies Burning(?), Chilled(?), Confusion(?), Torment(?) and Blind(?) on top of Poison and Immobilize for 4 seconds. Any 3+ combination of those conditions. Poison and Immobilize stay regardless.

Tripwire and Needle (Bomb) trap now have Shadow Pursuit as well.

All trap cooldowns stay the same. All traps now grant 50% endurance to self upon enemy activation. Something like this can be a trait. Along with being able to throw traps now. It needs a trait. Basically we need all Ranger trap traits.

It was stated in your post that pets will receive separate PvE/PvP healthpools. I certainly hope this applies to Ambush as well as Thieves Guild. I also still believe the Thieves from Thieves Guild should help the player revive teammates, similar to actual player teammates. Not similar to Spirit Elite, Illusion of Life, Necro Sig, or Warbanner. The Thieves actually get down and help you revive. Equal to 3 players reviving including yourself. Perhaps you can also add a secondary command skill after activation that allows you to command the time the Scorpion Wire Thief throws the wire, or when the P/P Thief uses the Blind Powder, or both simultaneously.

I don’t want to get that into traits that much but I thought of a Grandmaster/Master Trait called Eagles Eye, which makes all enemies dodges become nullified below 50% health. The dodge roll animation still plays but the dodge itself is nullified if your attack were to land. I believe Thief should always have the most important and highest number of dodges in the game, always. Things like this could help maintain that prowess. I think Thief should have much easier access to Weakness in general since Thief drastically needs the damage reduction on self as well as the endurance upper-hand.

One final opinion I have. If there is anything you take from my post, please let it be this. Either let us Thieves completely turn off Last Refuge or change it completely so we’re immune to blinds at 25% health. It can be renamed Dilated or something.

I actually didn’t want this post to be this long at all but there ya go I guess, got carried away.

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

This is the single greatest day in my Engineer’s life ;____; <333

What about when rocket boots was reworked?

Sandra Martino.3870:

Remove ctrl + click set target, for the love of god…..

this
please
it’s so annoying

Alacrity.4312:

Sandra Martino.3870:

Remove ctrl + click set target, for the love of god…..

this
please
it’s so annoying

did u even do liadri???
target setting is very important in pugs and in many situations where u stack bc it allows u to quickly target if u ever get off target for a reason (FGS fiery rush for example.)

Mr. Sharp,

I feel the guardian changes are very positive. The proposed change to the focus mind trait will give guardian the ability to aggressively push while having access to mobility and superior healing capabilities.

The change to purging flames is a amazing counter play tool for the current condition meta. It not only removes conditions from allies but it takes it one step further by introducing a new mechanic that lowers condition duration. Definitely a good change.

Things to take into consideration:

1. Power of the Virtuous is considered a weak grandmaster trait. In a already non damage oriented trait line. In most circumstances one will never be able to maintain enough boons to see any significant benefit from the trait. It probably will be better to award the player the extra 10% damage as long as they have any boon on them.

2. Unscathed contender is more like a gimmick. Its nearly impossible to maintain the extra 20% damage since aegis only last for one attack. It should be changed into something that is less situational, something players have direct control over. My idea is for each virtue you have active you do 6.5% extra damage. So when all three are active you do a extra 20% damage.

Looking into the future, I feel the Zeal and Radiance tree need to be reworked so that they both become relevant. While Radiance would benefit from minor tweaks, Zeal needs a total redo. The trait line has no coherent theme and it seems like its home to a bunch of random traits that have no synergy together.

My suggestion would be to make Zeal focused on spirit weapons. Merge improved spiritual weapons duration from the virtues line with spirit weapon mastery in Zeal. Make it a Tier 1 trait. Merge A fire inside from the Radiance line with Eternal Spirit from the Zeal line and make it a Tier 2 trait.

There aren’t many universal traits in zeal compared to the ones present in other lines. Radiance has this problem to a degree, just not as bad. More traits that can be used regardless of what kind of build you run would make the tree more viable.

Re-examine the adept, master and grandmaster zeal traits. For example, symbolic exposure would be more beneficial if it applied pulses of chill instead of vulnerability. The grandmaster trait could use a damage boost.

Overall I’m happy with the changes to come, definitely a step in the right direction.

The game is in desperate need for more counter play options and build variety.

Might as well change Hunter’s shot again along with this update, ever since the “buff” I stopped using it entirely. All I use my longbow for is Rapid Fire and Barrage with an occasional Point Blank Shot, but Hunter’s Shot? Totally useless in PvE

Great update, thanks!

Only one request:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Further down the Road

• We’re reworking the combat log to make it more easily used. This will involve help from a ton of departments, but it will help every player in the game. By providing you better combat information, you’ll be able to better make tweaks to your build, and you’ll be able to better adjust your play to deal with difficult encounters.

Please consider making the combat log exportable to some standardized data format like JSON, so we can start building websites for combat log analysis. I think that would be a lot of fun, for both the PvE and PvP/WvW theorycrafters.

Still no DPS meter so the game would remain basically the same – skill and animation based, play the game not the UI. But would give us a chance to go back later and analyze and evaluate our performance and figure out how to improve it.

NoTrigger.8396:

Grevender.9235:

since we will get a “support patch”, can we expect then a future “offensive patch”?
taking a quick look in the Elementalist forum you may notice that people are tired of being stuck into support roles.

i dont think you are aware of what an elementalist can do

most dps in pve, just saying.

I was going to go through your points Jon, giving my feedback but actually I found my self saying, ‘great/welcome change, a big thumbs up’…so I will just say that about the whole thing…

One thing about Runes/Sigils, you are planning on reworking them which is cool BUT have you considered instead of doing that, bringing out level 80 Runes/Sigils?

If you are going to work on them why not ‘kill several birds with one stone’ and create new lvl 80 Runes/Sigils. The advantages are:-

1. Gives players more to strive for/work towards.
2. Means all players equipment will be level 80 now, instead of runes/sigils being level 60.
3. Gives another reward option for players.
4. The current Runes/Sigils can be left alone.

Also have you ever considered ideas like those (a major shake up, I know):-

2 ways to shake it up in a major way (without NERFING anything) and bring back LOADS OF FUN again are:-

1) Open up the Elite only skill so you can have any Elite or Utility skill in there. So you could have 4 utility skills no elite. You could be even more DARING and open up the healing slot too. So you could have the choice of any 5 utility skills, still restricted to 1 heal/elite but you could opt to have no elite/heal and have 5 utilitys.

2) Make the 5/15/25 traits part of there respective 1/3 of the trait line. Thus allowing people to choose 6 picks of traits from one trait line when you invest 30 trait points in it. No longer have 3 traits ‘forced’ upon you.

Both those would have a BIG effect but also bring back a lot of FUN.

Alacrity.4312:

Sandra Martino.3870:

Remove ctrl + click set target, for the love of god…..

this
please
it’s so annoying

This is a lotwut? I mean honestly, how could you want such an important feature removed? Because you find it annoying? Target calling is an mainstay of group content, particularly in higher difficulty portions with mutliple targets. Having everyone focus on a single target can blow away its HP pool fast, and when used correctly will leave the remaining units severly weakended.

Not everyone has learned targeting priority. It helps to keep everyone on the same page, regarding combat intentions.

kurtosis.9526:

Great update, thanks!

Only one request:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Further down the Road

• We’re reworking the combat log to make it more easily used. This will involve help from a ton of departments, but it will help every player in the game. By providing you better combat information, you’ll be able to better make tweaks to your build, and you’ll be able to better adjust your play to deal with difficult encounters.

Please consider making the combat log exportable to some standardized data format like JSON, so we can start building websites for combat log analysis. I think that would be a lot of fun, for both the PvE and PvP/WvW theorycrafters.

Still no DPS meter so the game would remain basically the same – skill and animation based, play the game not the UI. But would give us a chance to go back later and analyze and evaluate our performance and figure out how to improve it.

No! NO! And SKRITT NO!

What it exactly leads to IS a 3rd party website that is made into a DPS meter through that. How so? Elite Group D requests you to upload your combat log to www.dpstrackers4us to see if your “worthy” of joining their Fractal level 20 group. You can only guess what the “D” in that group’s name stands for…..exactly. Understand?

Doesn’t matter if there’s no 3rd party in-game app, because if it’s made accessible through analysis, then that’ll be turned into a website through which it’ll be manipulated. Paranoid? No I’m not paranoid! I’m a realist looking at things in a logical fashion based on history. Remember the whole “unless you learn from it, history always repeats itself”? Well, here’s a lesson learned: Combat log data is a dangerous tool that works against the community.

Aza.2105:

Mr. Sharp,

I feel the guardian changes are very positive. The proposed change to the focus mind trait will give guardian the ability to aggressively push while having access to mobility and superior healing capabilities.

The change to purging flames is a amazing counter play tool for the current condition meta. It not only removes conditions from allies but it takes it one step further by introducing a new mechanic that lowers condition duration. Definitely a good change.

Things to take into consideration:

1. Power of the Virtuous is considered a weak grandmaster trait. In a already non damage oriented trait line. In most circumstances one will never be able to maintain enough boons to see any significant benefit from the trait. It probably will be better to award the player the extra 10% damage as long as they have any boon on them.

2. Unscathed contender is more like a gimmick. Its nearly impossible to maintain the extra 20% damage since aegis only last for one attack. It should be changed into something that is less situational, something players have direct control over. My idea is for each virtue you have active you do 6.5% extra damage. So when all three are active you do a extra 20% damage.

Looking into the future, I feel the Zeal and Radiance tree need to be reworked so that they both become relevant. While Radiance would benefit from minor tweaks, Zeal needs a total redo. The trait line has no coherent theme and it seems like its home to a bunch of random traits that have no synergy together.

My suggestion would be to make Zeal focused on spirit weapons. Merge improved spiritual weapons duration from the virtues line with spirit weapon mastery in Zeal. Make it a Tier 1 trait. Merge A fire inside from the Radiance line with Eternal Spirit from the Zeal line and make it a Tier 2 trait.

There aren’t many universal traits in zeal compared to the ones present in other lines. Radiance has this problem to a degree, just not as bad. More traits that can be used regardless of what kind of build you run would make the tree more viable.

Re-examine the adept, master and grandmaster zeal traits. For example, symbolic exposure would be more beneficial if it applied pulses of chill instead of vulnerability. The grandmaster trait could use a damage boost.

Overall I’m happy with the changes to come, definitely a step in the right direction.

The game is in desperate need for more counter play options and build variety.

zeal zealots speed and fiery wrath is king in pve though.

This does nothing about an OP necro or OP cc regen warrior. In fact it buffs the two strongest classes in the game.

It also does nothing to make rangers more viable.

Increase healing of eles?? Eles are the one class that can already not be killed if they don’t want to be.

S/D thief change? It should steal MORE boons, but damage less. Look at S/D as the support team class that will not kill anyone.

Penguin.5197:

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

This is the single greatest day in my Engineer’s life ;____; <333

What about when rocket boots was reworked?

That was good too, but at least there was a consistency. With this, you had to pray for getting the right effect, and if you didn’t, it was either waiting more to do your stuff in PvE, or life and death in PvP/WvW.

Burnfall.9573:

What all i got from the OP, is this…. I Love you and will continue buy you presents but, the Abuse will still continue; with a smile on the face

The Irony and Tyranny of Thief abusive mechanics; Stealth Stommping, Over powered Heartseeker+Backstabs, Perma-stealth will still continue.

You can take your presents and your happy smile back; not Interested and Never will

Also take your Fake Love Back cause all you ever done for me was loving me with your Pain and Tyranny

When you’re Serious, I will see that in your Actions.

I will say again, Stop wasting your time!

style.6173:

Bitter much?

Very. His posts are often poetic, but misguided. Amusing to read, but rarely anything to contribute to meaningful discussion, unfortunately.

Burnfall … what the FRELL? The list regarding Rangers is not that bad. In addition, Rangers being given a way to straight-up hunt Thieves? Seriously, man … relax a bit, OK?

SynfulChaot.3169:

Siphaed.9235:

It’s not a “euphemism for nerf” because the word nerf itself has been twisted from it’s original meaning.

Do you know what nerf meant as terms of changes in RPG rule sets of old? It was a term used to emphasis a change to an ability so severe that it’s effectiveness was like that of throwing a nerf dart at the enemy.

That may have been the genesis of the term, yes, but that isn’t the usage of the term now. The current usage is when anything is weakened purposefully, it is nerfed. Just as buffing is strengthening it.

If you want a good Guild Wars term for nerfing into oblivion … try Smiter’s Booning or Booning.

Curse you, Isaiah! Curse your black heart!