Guild Wars 2

Are these all the balance changes for tomorrow?

Warrior and thieves are still in rememberland?

Thank you for the information Gaile. I’m looking forward to see what the team have in mind for the Berserk. I find it a very lacking spec, and have not seen anyone using it in PvP, and I’ve seen one in open world.

Banish Enchantment Anet! Lower the number of confusion to 1 or make 3-5s cd! Also make people lose point contest while in mesmers evades!

So PvP is going to be in this garbage state until the end of January? lol…

I have no words.

please, please, PLEASE do something about Warrior. Anything.
block block block…. evade evade evade… immune immune immune immune… aaaand im dead

SO, warriors still kittened and mesmers can still hold point capture while being invulnerable with “blur”

That’s all?!? Are you kidding me.

I love the “all the above changes” part. Makes me giggle…

NiCEEEEE!!!!! Finally something official to re
*
*
*

As a note,not all of the above sentence will be posted today.After the new year i plan on sharing my full thoughts on this.

Very good change.

The incoming changes look good, however some important things still missing like preventing capture while under the effects of well of precognition for mesmer. Like someone else mentioned thief and war also need to be looked at. But kudos to anet for not waiting till the new year to sneak some of these in, don’t think pvp could last that long.

Dustin.2793:

Very good change.

Thief needs a lot of work though imo.

Are you doing these changes to PvP / WvW only or is PvE again getting randomly nerfed because balancing PvP is apperantly more important than PvE ? Rev nerf is unnecessary for PvE although i was expecting the mesmer nerf.

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the Balance Team:

As mentioned in our “Road Ahead for 2015” blog, our strategy for adjusting the meta-game in Guild Wars 2 after the release of Heart of Thorns focuses on releasing balance updates on a set cycle – each and every quarter.

Your strategy isn’t good.

First of all you need to fix broken skills that do 17-20k damage like Coalescence of Ruin or Gun Flame on the week we find out the issues, not 3 months later, because these press 1 button to win skills are ruining the game for everyone in the competitive modes.

Secondly, we don’t want “meta changes” where you are just stuck into playing the same build for 3 months. We want balanced skills so that we can have Build variety as it was promised with the new trait system. The players should be dictating the meta by creative thinking, Anet shouldn’t be dictating it for them and cornering them into meta-builds that they have no choice to run, as it currently is.

Good start. Would like to see something done to precog if possible, but these are not too overwhelming or underwhelming. Even with these changes, these will not stop teams from running 2-3 bunker mesmers (+tempest) and 2 condi revs.

actually very well thought out changes IMHO. Sure, it’s not much, but I like it. Thanks for listenting to the community to make changes mid-season, even though you didn’t plan to.

tyu.9470:

Are you doing these changes to PvP / WvW only or is PvE again getting randomly nerfed because balancing PvP is apperantly more important than PvE ? Rev nerf is unnecessary for PvE although i was expecting the mesmer nerf.

Balancing for PvP and WvW is definitely more important than in PvE. It is for the general health of the game. That’s a fact.

Thank freaking Balthazar, these are actually pretty big nerfs.

While it’s good to know that they have “something” planned for balance, it’s a shame it isn’t going to happen until after the PvP league season ends.

Gaile Gray.6029:

A

• Radiant Revival: This trait’s functionality has been altered to provide Infused Light for the revenant, instead of the downed target. This trait now grants the revenant 10% bonus revival speed.

Why not just give Infused Light to the downed AFTER the successful res? I feel that would be much more in line with other rez traits. and still be pretty strong.

Either way, I like the hotfix and I like that not too much was changed. Be interesting to see how this changes other classes viability.

Aeroxe.8140:

Good start. Would like to see something done to precog if possible, but these are not too overwhelming or underwhelming. Even with these changes, these will not stop teams from running 2-3 bunker mesmers (+tempest) and 2 condi revs.

Well of precog to disallow capping is what I vote for.

grouch, prevent capture point holding when under the effects of “well of precognition” or you will not change much in the current meta.

while i agree with some of the revenant changes (although others could have been implemented in a better way) the changes will still not do much against what’s ruining the meta.

- scrappers too tanky on marauder

- druid pets hitting too hard

- warrior basically useless

- chronomancer on point too strong

Enxas.9385:

please, please, PLEASE do something about Warrior. Anything.
block block block…. evade evade evade… immune immune immune immune… aaaand im dead

^

Add to warriors’ Signet of Might the ability to make their attacks unblockable + immune to evade + corrupts Protection.

The masters of weaponry should have the unique ability of having their attacks always landing successfully (aside from invulnerability).

Pretty much everyone is agreeing that these are all good changes, and they are all nerfs. I understand why you haven’t made too many at this time. There can absolutely be a positive reaction to a nerf and I hope you take this attitude to balance forward (and end up nerfing everything back down to having limited boons, dropping condition output, limiting CCs etc).

What really excites me though is that you will be showing us previews of the new balance changes ahead of time, hugely positive for the game and will really help to improve balance and gameplay.

Jekkt.6045:

grouch, prevent capture point holding when under the effects of “well of precognition” or you will not change much in the current meta.

while i agree with some of the revenant changes (although others could have been implemented in a better way) the changes will still not do much against what’s ruining the meta.

- scrappers too tanky on marauder

- druid pets hitting too hard

- warrior basically useless

- chronomancer on point too strong

As a druid I can attest to this. Otherwise the class seems fine.

It kills all Mallyx build till next balance patch, but I understand that harsh changes were needed and Mallyx will be changed, as promised, in full patch.

Not sure if Echo of Memory was the problem. Lowering Stability from Shatters would’ve been much better IMO.

Anyway, thanks for changes. Necro comes back to play.

Jekkt.6045:

grouch, prevent capture point holding when under the effects of “well of precognition” or you will not change much in the current meta.

while i agree with some of the revenant changes (although others could have been implemented in a better way) the changes will still not do much against what’s ruining the meta.

- scrappers too tanky on marauder

- druid pets hitting too hard

- warrior basically useless

- chronomancer on point too strong

While all of those will still be around, the block duration reduction still does a lot to the bunker chrono defenses. Not to mention the fix to runes of durability will play a massive nerf to the duration of the mesmer boons.

Viper revs might not be viable after that Mallyx nerf, probably needs to go Rabids or Carrion.

xbutcherx.3861:

Warrior and thieves are still in rememberland?

…apparently not.

While I appreciate Gaile forwarding the news, it’s about as welcome as telling me my dog’s going to die because the doctor won’t see her for a month.
[/drama]

…Seriously? January?
Can PvE get the balance patches early? Because I’m sick of PvP and WvW leagues getting in the way of balancing. With the exaggerated, unnecessary e-sports push, y’all don’t leave any time to actually inject a balance patch.

Rym.1469:

It kills all Mallyx build till next balance patch, but I understand that harsh changes were needed and Mallyx will be changed, as promised, in full patch.

Not sure if Echo of Memory was the problem. Lowering Stability from Shatters would’ve been much better IMO.

Anyway, thanks for changes. Necro comes back to play.

Mallyx will still have a strong condition presence and boon stripping (which consumes energy so keep doing that OR go into demon form with the passive torment application.)

A message to the balance team: Get your head out of your kitten….

Mesmer
Echo of Memory: Block duration reduced from 2.25 to 1.5

How is this going to balance the nearly spam-able team wide distortion and blur that are non removable, non corrupt-able, non counter-able invulnerabilities? Or perhaps the team-wide stability and protection and quickness and slow… like are you out of your gokitten ed minds? Is the balance team actually a thing? Or is it just someone attempting to make it sound like there are people ACTUALLY working on this?

Every single match in the esl has contained 4 mesmers, and your answer is to take off .75 seconds of block… I am sure that will kittening deal with this mess nicely.

Ele’s are not being touched? They have 90% play time in the ESL as well… like please….

Stop “taking a hard look” at balance, and instead just glance at it. A child could see some of the glaring problems without looking more than casually.

What? Mesmer shield block duration decreased? Really? Seriously?

As a necro main i am peeved. The shield block is the good, healthy aspect of mesmer gameplay. 2,5s means there is a reasonable time window for a profession with counter measures (like my reaper!) to take action and make itself an opening!

It’s the sick amount of evades/blurs and wells of gravity that are the issue here, as they have no counterplay whatsoever! Way to go fixing the car with engine trouble by replacing perfectly fine wheels!

Gaile. Could you ask the balance team why they thought it was necessary to gut mallyx resistance? A five second ICD is far too long for the 2 second resistance it grants.

There shouldn’t be an ICD at all considering boon strip exists in a variety of classes. If the change stays then it needs to be toned down to 2 seconds maximum.

This change alone just eradicated Mallyx from the game, and revs will now be non existent in WvW and PvP.

Is that it?
12345667891015

Razarei.2809:

Gaile. Could you ask the balance team why they thought it was necessary to gut mallyx resistance? A five second ICD is far too long for the 2 second resistance it grants.

There shouldn’t be an ICD at all considering boon strip exists in a variety of classes. If the change stays then it needs to be toned down to 2 seconds maximum.

This change alone just eradicated Mallyx from the game, and revs will now be non existent in WvW and PvP.

They needed it, but mesmer needed to go with it, and ele is a kittening mess.

This is a step towards right direction.

Coalescence of Ruin needs more adjustment for WvWvW. It can hit like a truck (due traits triggering at same time) and through the tower/keep gates as well. There is a separate thread about it in the WvWvW subforums. CoR is generally considered the most overpowered skill in WvWvW and so many warriors etc. have rerolled into hammer revenants.

Please try to make similar small balance changes every week. We cannot wait till February 2016.

My humble suggestions for warrior:
- reduce the untraited cooldown of “To the Limit!” to 25 s (20 s traited CD), reduce the base heal by 10%, giving warrior a viable burst heal
- increase the base heal of shouts by 200
- revert warhorn nerfs (conditions converted to boons with quick breathing trait, warhorn #5 is weak now with reduced vigor, either revert that or give the skill lower CD)
- reduce out of combat adrenaline depletion rate by 33%

This would make support/bunker warrior a bit more viable again, yet not overpowered, like chronomancer mesmer or tempest auramancer ele are now. The adrenaline change would benefit any warrior build.

Arena net you guys became from serious game, a serious joke.

I can’t wait that there is another MMO on the market that will take away some of your player basis, so you can start working and caring more, it clearly looks that you guys give less effort in then you should just because you have no competitor on market right now and while releasing unfinished and unbalanced game you’ve still sold expansion for full 50€ for some over 100€ which is shocking..

I understand you guys need to test the classes with large testing(live public) player base.. But taking 3 months for collecting data to release first balance is absurd. 14 days into expansion is enough for post-mortem to receive data, and make a huge balance patch within 3-4 days That’s a must… waiting for 3 months is just over kill.. GG Shame… where is ArenaNet that once cared for their community.

Jiggawattz.2697:

Razarei.2809:

Gaile. Could you ask the balance team why they thought it was necessary to gut mallyx resistance? A five second ICD is far too long for the 2 second resistance it grants.

There shouldn’t be an ICD at all considering boon strip exists in a variety of classes. If the change stays then it needs to be toned down to 2 seconds maximum.

This change alone just eradicated Mallyx from the game, and revs will now be non existent in WvW and PvP.

They needed it, but mesmer needed to go with it, and ele is a kittening mess.

In PvP sure. Such an extreme measure though? Have people already forgotten that revs have virtually no defence against conditions and mallyx was the reason this cancerous play was halted in PVP? Conditions aren’t really a problem openworld as you can just run away.

Meanwhile: Mesmers

I don’t want to be rude, but the only one of these that makes sense to all modes of gameplay is Coalescence of Ruin. The rest of these are purely PvP warranted nerfs and are ill considered at best since only maybe 2 of those nerfs address a problem (Blur Communing and Demonic Defiance).

Mallyx isn’t the only viable stance (it’s still good after the nerf) you have Shiro and Glint too which actually coordinate well together.

Mallyx has some strong passives but it’s the actives that really give it power (boon strip, sync with mace/axe and sword/shield)

Well at least they didn’t nerf the weakest profession again. Oh wait, they will fix some “bugs” instead.

While you’re at it could you make it possible for a thief to participate in a fight in pvp? Either buff thief or just finish removing it from the game, I’m tired of this in-between purgatory of kite until dead, and getting reported for not changing classes before matches.

EpicTurtle.8571:

I don’t want to be rude, but the only one of these that makes sense to all modes of gameplay is Coalescence of Ruin. The rest of these are purely PvP warranted nerfs and are ill considered at best since only maybe 2 of those nerfs address a problem (Blur Communing and Demonic Defiance).

PvE balance isn’t important because AI has no sense of fair play and others on the map won’t hate you for rolling an underpowered spec whereas if you’re suboptimal in PvP it potentially hinders your team. PvP balance matters because some of us want to play thief but don’t want to bring the team down. If you overpower it they won’t hold over your head how your class mechanics are carrying you (even if you beat people with similar builds to yours when dueling on points) whereas PvP is player versus player and should therefore be given precedence in balancing. It may be fun steamrolling people with a one man army, but it isn’t fun or fair to have that guy steamroll you. In this game however you can queue that class and immediately have access to good runes, sigils, and traits so it’s much fairer than WoW where a just introduced death knight has its top gear and you’re still gearing.

i would rather trade all of the mallyx resistance for actual cleanses. building the whole condition defense of a class on a stripable, and now with a icd of 5s, boon is just silly.

change the trait to “remove two conditions when you use a mallyx skill that costs at least 20 energy”.

I am not satisfied with the changes, but I appreciate the communication.

My guess is every team will still be running at least 1 rev and 1 chrono.

tyu.9470:

Are you doing these changes to PvP / WvW only or is PvE again getting randomly nerfed because balancing PvP is apperantly more important than PvE ? Rev nerf is unnecessary for PvE although i was expecting the mesmer nerf.

What’s wrong with the rev nerfs in PvE? The 3 things that got nerfed for PvE were things that Rev shouldn’t have in PvE anyway in its current state (broken level of damage from CoR, broken level of res speed from Radiant, perma resistance).

The problem with CoR was it was hitting more than 5 enemies? THAT was the problem? I guess I was too busy killing 2-3 backliners with 18K crits every 2 seconds to realize I hit more than 5 players occasionally.