Guild Wars 2

There have already been waves of topics about how you made the “mistake” of removing Clerics. The reality is, PvP has been in an unhealthy state. Conditions are silly, the crazy time-to-kill for Eles and Druids was vapid, etc. The removal of Cleric’s Amulet, along with the changes made to specific classes like Druid, were extremely necessary.

It is the first in what I hope to be a long string of “game feel” patches. It felt awful to fight against a D/F Auramancer. Builds like that are what limit build diversity. If you are playing a D/F Auramancer two weeks ago, you output X amount of healing per second, regardless of what happens (assuming we account for interrupts, etc — but it is still an expected, measurable value). What this means is that if your build can not produce damage greater than X, then you will never kill the Auramancer. You would be forced to +1 them or fall to boring, slow gameplay of sustain.

This is not an ok reality for the game. It crushes new players, limits build options, and ultimately is unfun. More plainly, too much of the outcome was decided by what build you were using, rather than the skill you brought to the table and how that interacted with your build. Consistently they have pushed the idea of “minute-to-minute” combat. The D/F Auramancer build this targeted is categorically out of line with that mind set.

ArenaNet — You are game developers. You are experts. Please continue making the tough decisions that you know are necessary. This game is great, and I’m looking forward to coming home and playing tonight.

Cheers.

Note: I’m speaking strictly from PvP as the PvE rotation complaints about Ele are probably valid, but I have very little insight into that.

Edits in bold

You see, the problem isn’t that Anet decides to nerf. The problem is that Anet doesn’t address problematic things correctly. They just flip numbers.
Oh and these nerfs are probably gonna push ele out of meta, more than thief ever was, it’s gonna probably be as weak as warrior pre-buff.

Tomiyou.3790:

You see, the problem isn’t that Anet decides to nerf. The problem is that Anet doesn’t address problematic things correctly. They just flip numbers.
Oh and these nerfs are probably gonna push ele out of meta, more than thief ever was, it’s gonna probably be as weak as warrior pre-buff.

I whole-heartedly think Menders will do a fine job. Will power builds eat you harder now? Yes, but that’s kind of okay since they were too powerful before. No one wants immovable objects. It leads to unfun gameplay.

AN outdid themselves with this patch. I’m glad Guardian is still balanced, but had a complete overhaul of its skills/traits. Falling in love with the profession all over again

JediSange.1645:

Tomiyou.3790:

You see, the problem isn’t that Anet decides to nerf. The problem is that Anet doesn’t address problematic things correctly. They just flip numbers.
Oh and these nerfs are probably gonna push ele out of meta, more than thief ever was, it’s gonna probably be as weak as warrior pre-buff.

I whole-heartedly think Menders will do a fine job. Will power builds eat you harder now? Yes, but that’s kind of okay since they were too powerful before. No one wants immovable objects. It leads to unfun gameplay.

Vitality and Healing Power don’t scale well. Mender’s was bad before for an ele and will be even worse now with the heal nerf.

Do you realize that for an ele to be “unkilable”, which isn’t exactly true, they had to take every single possible defensive trait? How is that ok? I don’t see other professions pigeonholed into defense like the ele because they have other ways to mitigate incoming damage with blinds, blocks and evasion. Removing cleric was a bad decision, other professions can benefit from the amulet as well.

Another case of treating of the symptom instead of the source. At this point the Elementalist profession need to be scrapped and start from zero because Anet has no idea how to properly balance it.

I am going to cry I can now do activities with my friends while waiting for matches… Oh my gosh so awesome.

Patch seems more like pvp class removal then ,,balance" from elementalist perspective.

Ohh you mean Ele are masturbation objects for PVP players, you just look their direction and they will die.

No my friend Ele is an extinct race now PVP, you can’t kill one if you don’t see one.

mrauls.6519:

AN outdid themselves with this patch. I’m glad Guardian is still balanced, but had a complete overhaul of its skills/traits. Falling in love with the profession all over again

You mean “balanced” right?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Possible-bug-DH-traps-now-unavoidable/first#post6257634

Lucred.1802:

mrauls.6519:

AN outdid themselves with this patch. I’m glad Guardian is still balanced, but had a complete overhaul of its skills/traits. Falling in love with the profession all over again

You mean “balanced” right?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Possible-bug-DH-traps-now-unavoidable/first#post6257634

Is it not a bug?

mrauls.6519:

Lucred.1802:

mrauls.6519:

AN outdid themselves with this patch. I’m glad Guardian is still balanced, but had a complete overhaul of its skills/traits. Falling in love with the profession all over again

You mean “balanced” right?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Possible-bug-DH-traps-now-unavoidable/first#post6257634

Isn’kitten bug?

And lauding a class who gains greatly from said bug (effectively exploiting game mechanics) is not a good thing.

Lucred.1802:

mrauls.6519:

Lucred.1802:

mrauls.6519:

AN outdid themselves with this patch. I’m glad Guardian is still balanced, but had a complete overhaul of its skills/traits. Falling in love with the profession all over again

You mean “balanced” right?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Possible-bug-DH-traps-now-unavoidable/first#post6257634

Isn’kitten bug?

And lauding a class who gains greatly from said bug (effectively exploiting game mechanics) is not a good thing.

Can you quote me on where I praised a bug…? I love AN’s intended changes to Guardian. Full stop

Lucred.1802:

mrauls.6519:

Lucred.1802:

mrauls.6519:

AN outdid themselves with this patch. I’m glad Guardian is still balanced, but had a complete overhaul of its skills/traits. Falling in love with the profession all over again

You mean “balanced” right?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Possible-bug-DH-traps-now-unavoidable/first#post6257634

Isn’kitten bug?

And lauding a class who gains greatly from said bug (effectively exploiting game mechanics) is not a good thing.

He wasn’t praising any bug just the overall class updates that were in the notes. The issue with Dragon’s Maw appears to be a bug, which if it is, would/will be fixed “soon.”

Mr Godlike.6098:

Patch seems more like pvp class removal then ,,balance" from elementalist perspective.

Actually eles just now actually have to play vs just standing on point living forever.

style.6173:

Mr Godlike.6098:

Patch seems more like pvp class removal then ,,balance" from elementalist perspective.

Actually eles just now actually have to play vs just standing on point living forever.

Wrong – state of ele is right like this:

1. ele vs anything in pvp – dies
2. ele bunkers node – dies
3. ele suports – dies
4. ele enters match – dies

No matter what amulet, no matter what traits and skills have ele will DIE – druid staff auto attack will blast ele in deep space…

Mr Godlike.6098:

style.6173:

Mr Godlike.6098:

Patch seems more like pvp class removal then ,,balance" from elementalist perspective.

Actually eles just now actually have to play vs just standing on point living forever.

Wrong – state of ele is right like this:

1. ele vs anything in pvp – dies
2. ele bunkers node – dies
3. ele suports – dies
4. ele enters match – dies

No matter what amulet, no matter what traits and skills have ele will DIE – druid staff auto attack will blast ele in deep space…

It’s been a problem for years, that’s why the ele had to be bunker in the first place, because nothing else was viable. Because of pretty high skills level of many elementalist rotations for might blasting made celestial a viable thing to regain the lost damage output. With the removal of celestial only cleric bunker was left as viable, zerk was already pretty bad. Now there is nothing left.

How come the balance team is still clueless about balancing the game?

No offense to anyone but 4 months of waiting, and all we get are majority of unecessary changes and very minor needed ones.

There is ample feedback from the community yet they all fall on deaf ears. like this:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Needed-Buffs-Tweaks-2016/page/6#post6256742

Let’s look at what hasn’t changed and will never likely be addressed:

• Soul Reaping, Discipline, Inspiration, Beastmastery + Nature Magic, are all Mandatory still. This alone kills build diversity.
• Elementalists after the FA nerf way back then, Eles still doesnt have a DPS spec aside from the Staff Zerk/Marauder one which has 11k hp (not viable), with the removal of cleric, Eles do not have any roles now.
• Ranger pets AI never gets addressed, took them 3+ years just to save pet names.
• Thief role is always the same since launch. 0 build diversity.
• A lot of the Core traits from ALL CLASSES Never gets reworked.
• Unused Utilities, Elites since before HoT (or more) are the same till now.
• Still No build diversity

I mean Cmon Anet, 4 Months of waiting and you wanna nerf [Beastly Warden] when 95% of Rangers Trait [Zephyr’s Speed]

Lets Buff Pigs and Moas but let’s not address Hitboxes and AIs of Pets?

I am sorry to say, all these stuff you delivered can be done in a month’s time. 4 months for subpar changes. Another important point and is the real problem on classes never gets addressed, you just tweak random stuff for “balance patch fillers”.

I guess anet was thinking “since none of you can kill eles, we’ll do it for you”.

Vinegaroon.4369:

I guess anet was thinking “since none of you can kill eles, we’ll do it for you”.

It was like ,,Let’s kill amber/emerald problem with nuke!"

azyume.6321:

-snip-
I don’t see other professions pigeonholed into defense like the ele because they have other ways to mitigate incoming damage with blinds, blocks and evasion.

wtf are you talking about? look at the meta builds pre-patch. The forumla is: HoT spec (cause marketing > balance team) + 2 defensive lines. The classes that came out on top were ones that could still put out significant pressure while being heavily, if not entirely, invested in defense. Ele, engie, mesmer all say hi…

StickerHappy.8052:

Let’s look at what hasn’t changed and will never likely be addressed:

• Soul Reaping, Discipline, Inspiration, Beastmastery + Nature Magic, are all Mandatory still. This alone kills build diversity.
• Elementalists after the FA nerf way back then, Eles still doesnt have a DPS spec aside from the Staff Zerk/Marauder one which has 11k hp (not viable), with the removal of cleric, Eles do not have any roles now.
• Ranger pets AI never gets addressed, took them 3+ years just to save pet names.
• Thief role is always the same since launch. 0 build diversity.
• A lot of the Core traits from ALL CLASSES Never gets reworked.
• Unused Utilities, Elites since before HoT (or more) are the same till now.
• Still No build diversity

The build diversity argument doesn’t make much sense. Talk us through it here; do you expect to be able to hop on any class, run any traitlines and/or weapons? condi or power or support; it don’t matter? Yours and others gripe with build diversity lies in defining viable and optimal.

Your point on the theif’s build diversity doesn’t make sense. Thief’s role was decap and +1 fights. Thief’s incredibly high mobility has made it the best choice for filling this role it’s not just a build ‘thing’. Both s/d and d/p were the meta setup in the past, and still filled their role of decap and +1. So what’s build diversity for a thief look like to you then? Looking outside GW2, could you point to an example of a game that you see this ‘build diversity’ concept well implemented?

StickerHappy.8052:

Lets Buff Pigs and Moas but let’s not address Hitboxes and AIs of Pets?

One of these two things is much easier than the other, hence the changes. Realistically, does this even matter? i.e. do these changes bring the vanilla pets up to part with the HoT pets? So why all the tears fella?

Naix.8156:

So what’s build diversity for a thief look like to you then?

I can only speak for myself, but personally, I would like the Thief to become more independent.

As it stands, the Thief is effective only when it is completely alone or when it outnumbers the enemy.

It cannot take an occupied point alone.
It cannot defend a point alone.
It cannot win 1v1.

It lacks vitality.
It lacks AoE.
It lacks boons.
It lacks passive defenses.
It lacks damage mitigation.
It lacks non-Stealth sustainability.

The Thief can hit hard if built for it. But that damage output is negated by the plethora of passive defenses that exist in today’s game. And if the Thief builds for sustain, it lacks the damage needed to down the enemy. Yet its sustain is still not enough to withstand the enemy… especially on point.

So in other words, it’s a lose-lose situation for the Thief.
There’s no way to trade mobility for combat ability.

The Thief basically counts as 0.5 in the team combat numbers.
0.5 beats 0
1.5 beats 1

At least a bunker Elementalist has historically been able to hold a point by itself even if it could not kill anything.
But a Thief does not have the build potential to hold or attack by itself. It is always dependent on teammates, yet its nature is more suited to be independent. That’s why it performs so much better in WvW than PvP.

Basically, the Thief doesn’t know what it’s supposed to do in PvP. It suffers a severe identity crisis.

Naix.8156:

azyume.6321:

-snip-
I don’t see other professions pigeonholed into defense like the ele because they have other ways to mitigate incoming damage with blinds, blocks and evasion.

wtf are you talking about? look at the meta builds pre-patch. The forumla is: HoT spec (cause marketing > balance team) + 2 defensive lines. The classes that came out on top were ones that could still put out significant pressure while being heavily, if not entirely, invested in defense. Ele, engie, mesmer all say hi…

QFT

Patch Notes:

-Resolved a bug where the Elementalist was doing damage to other players.

-Fixed an issue wherein there were only 12-15 Guardians in every squad.

-Fixed a GUI issue – Elementalist will now properly display “KILL ME” over the Elementalist’s head.

-Fixed an issue in which the Elementalist was still being played.

Naix.8156:

azyume.6321:

-snip-
I don’t see other professions pigeonholed into defense like the ele because they have other ways to mitigate incoming damage with blinds, blocks and evasion.

wtf are you talking about? look at the meta builds pre-patch. The forumla is: HoT spec (cause marketing > balance team) + 2 defensive lines. The classes that came out on top were ones that could still put out significant pressure while being heavily, if not entirely, invested in defense. Ele, engie, mesmer all say hi…

WTF are YOU talking and comparing about? Does the other professions uses 3 defensive traitline with all 9 traits being defense/support? Does the other professions uses cleric amulet on top of that to be able to be meta? What about evade? Block? Blinding? Do they depend exclusively of healing and protection to survive? Do they need to invest 100% into defense to be into meta???

So no, engi and mesmer don’t say hi. They aren’t even close to where ele stand…