Guild Wars 2

It’s been a week now . . . What effect has the latest patch had on PvE balance?

ANet has been working all year to balance classes and open up new builds. The latest patch was possibly the most wide reaching of these changes, affecting all classes and a large proportion of builds. Anet’s changes have significantly improved balance and (to a lesser extent) diversity in PvP. But PvP is the least attended area of the game. So, what about the most populous area of the game by far, PvE?

What is the state of class balance in PvE?

Rangers are in a worse state than ever before, that much i know.

Necros are finally in a good state in all aspects of the game.

Guardians, Elementalists, Necromancers and (I think) Mesmers are fine now. They could have a better AI for their summons, they could use less useless traits and more build variety, but they are balanced.

Thieves have been made to be WvW gankers, so their abilities in PvE don’t really matter. Warriors in full Berseker trivialize PvE, but that’s more an issue in the way PvE has been built than with warriors. Engineers could still use some help.

Rangers are now very, very bad.

Expect all the classes that got buffed to be nerfed the next time around.

Expect all the classes that got nerfed to be given slight buffs the next time around.

Welcome to the status quo of MMO balancing. Hasn’t worked since inception, but that wall certainly does have a nice head shaped impression by now.

Thieves are still being shown childish favoritism.

Necros are finally welcomed in some kind of content, and may have even been bumped up to Guardian, Mesmer, and Elementalist tier.

Rangers have been bumped down slightly too far, though about 1/10000000000th of the amount of whining you’ll find on the ranger forums.

Warriors still need work, zerker gear still needs to be removed.

And the developers once again forget that engineers exist…

Conncept.7638:

And the developers once again forget that engineers exist…

Unless I’m mistaken, Engis got the most buffs not counting necros.

Celestina.2894:

Conncept.7638:

And the developers once again forget that engineers exist…

Unless I’m mistaken, Engis got the most buffs not counting necros.

Actually they’re about tied with warriors, but like warriors, some of the buffs feel more like fixes (the changes to jump shot and rocket boots for drawbacks that shouldn’t have existed in the first place) and so many others feel completely meaningless and small.

Guardians.

Best DPS, best survivability, best support.

Care to explain why mesmer should be OK now in PvE?
They got a major nerf due to PvP losing a great part of their dps or reliability…..
In Exchange got a buff in HP so now phantasm are oneshot for 1,5 of their HP instead of 2,5 …..(at least in every dungeon).

Ele is still uneffective as dev already told us mostly because they didn t have any meaningful buff while the past (and present) nerfs hurts a lot and know what?
Izzy said they are nerfing ele again soon (mobility, fiery GS, arcana and water traits in his opinion ele should not have mobility).
Again i wonder how on earth they should be considered “good now” the “buffs” had no impact on PvE…..but they got one more skill broken (Focus fire 4 this time it doesn t even start).
But they got a strong dps (they are already the weakest class) cut for water line.

Guardian and warrior (they only have to change weapons) are the OP broken professions as ever while ranger got worse :|

There is no such a thing like PvE balance…..

Can’t say I’ve noticed that big of a difference to any of my chars except my Necro, who is enjoying her 5th skill in Death Shroud, but that’s about it.

Haven’t changed the way I play any of my chars, and I have one of each profession (though just started the Engi, so can’t say really with this one).

Overall, I am ok with everything, I think. Maybe I was just lucky and not using a very particular build that got nerfed with any of them.

PvE only, btw.

I can’t say that I have noticed a big difference but I use funny builds on all my characters so I was mostly unaffected.
If anything my ranger feels more powerful- I use a LB/SB btw

Celestina.2894:

Conncept.7638:

And the developers once again forget that engineers exist…

Unless I’m mistaken, Engis got the most buffs not counting necros.

I definitely wouldn’t say they were ignored this update.

But Engi’s still need a lot of love. Although most of this update was fixing pointless things, it’s a step in the right direction