Guild Wars 2

I see complaint posts very often.

Nerf this.
Buff that.
X is overpowered.
Y is broken.
Arenanet isn’t listening.

followed by suggestion posts.

X should have Y
X would be much better with Z
Arenanet should do X to Z
etc

all while not considering the full picture- taking into account 9 professions, over 600 traits, 1,000 skills, Stat combinations, sigils, and runes.

As you can see, balance is not something easily accomplished, and the recent balance patches may have been the result of nonconstructive complaints and poorly thought out suggestions with group think. These posts- complaints and “small fix” suggestions do the game no good because complaints give nothing Arenanet to build off of, and small fixes ruin game balance further (if ArenaNet decides to go with them. The constant “meta-shifting” is a glaring example that these are working against us). Let’s face it- these forums have become a husk of what it should have been.

“The Guild Wars 2 Forums are intended to provide Guild Wars 2 players with a friendly environment to exchange information, get the latest news, share community-created content, interact with ArenaNet staff members, and discuss Guild Wars 2 with other members of the community. "

I’ve been getting tired of this, so I’m doing something in hopes that it will help ArenaNet achieve their goals better (whether it be a better e-sport scene, or happier wvw/pvp players)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Suggestion-Guardian-Balance/6004918

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Suggestion-Warrior-Balance/5903014

by breaking down professions and resetting all traits and skills to balance each other. Problem is, they’re not seeing enough feedback and often results in groupthink and bias (me included) because they’re placed in each profession’s respective forum. It’s like asking millionaires if they want to pay more taxes. You the answer you’re going to get. If you’re a warrior, you’re probably all for nerfing a reaper or scrapper, but if you mainly play scrapper, you’re probably not going to be so fond about that idea.

I will be making similar suggestion posts for every profession- eventually getting to making one for PvP as well, but I can’t do it without feedback from players of different backgrounds (e.g. different professions).

So how about it? Would you guys be interested in helping me do this?

Reapers don’t need a nerf (changed my mind on this). They are just as easy to take down as everyone else just don’t put 4 of them in a game. It’s only scrapper, rev and ele because they are too tough and don’t take damage. And revs shouldn’t get 25 stacks of might so easy. Balance done. That wasn’t hard.

Nerf chill it shouldn’t do as much as it should compared to everything else in the game

“Rise” is broken in pvp. Reduce duration to 8 seconds, reduce cooldown to 25 seconds.

jessiestiles.9437:

Reapers don’t need a nerf. They are just as easy to take down as everyone else just don’t put 4 of them in a game. It’s only scrapper, rev and ele because they are too tough and don’t take damage. And revs shouldn’t get 25 stacks of might so easy. Balance done. That wasn’t hard.

CuRtoKy.8576:

Nerf chill it shouldn’t do as much as it should compared to everything else in the game

Yasi.9065:

“Rise” is broken in pvp. Reduce duration to 8 seconds, reduce cooldown to 25 seconds.

Thank you for proving my point. See the contradictions.

CuRtoKy.8576:

Nerf chill it shouldn’t do as much as it should compared to everything else in the game

But Chill is only a problem when Reapers are using it.

Nobody complains about Elementalist chill.
Nobody complains about Revenant chill.
Nobody complains about base Necromancer chill.

Let’s put our thinking caps on for a minute: Is the problem reapers, or is it chill?

Reaper does not need nerf? So the anet delivery back buffs other classes to these reapers learn to use your fingers and not your head on the keyboard to play.

Sarrs.4831:

CuRtoKy.8576:

Nerf chill it shouldn’t do as much as it should compared to everything else in the game

But Chill is only a problem when Reapers are using it.

Nobody complains about Elementalist chill.
Nobody complains about Revenant chill.
Nobody complains about base Necromancer chill.

Let’s put our thinking caps on for a minute: Is the problem reapers, or is it chill?

No one complains about Ele or Rev chill because they don’t get damage out of it. Reapers are the only ones to get damage out of their chill and they get good damage out of it as well.

The problem with this game is the company…. They are really good at updating pve content and the gem store… but terrible at communicating with player base, terrible at customer service and terrible at addressing urgent issues. That’s simply a core problem of ANET they lack people with vision.

Typical PvP players (includes WvW and sPvP) are not happy, if they are not happy, they eventually stop playing, if they stop playing, game dies…… You can update the gem store every day… and that wont matter if u don’t have people to buy your products.

First for general quality of life changes:

General (PvP only changes across the board unless otherwise stated):

• Movement impairing conditions last a maximum of three seconds while base duration for damaging conditions is reduced but expertise is buffed so viper’s lasts a little longer than currently. Since this is still a sizable window to take lots of stacked burning, poison, and bleed damage base HP has been raised across the board.

• Each movement impairing condition has an internal cooldown of three seconds with a half second immunity to the condition after said condition leaves either by waiting it out or cleansing. This means you can chill for three seconds then be immune for half a second.

• Player summoned NPC’s such as minions now have a purple name and count as a second-tier hostile. Since some skills max out at five targets if there are five red and twenty purple names within an AoE then only the five red names would be affected but with four reds they in addition to one purple would be affected. Targeting also gives priority to red names even with an option to make purple named characters (player summoned characters) totally untargetable. This should encourage players to lock themselves out of targeting mesmer clones.

• Downed state HP has been reduced by 20% (PvP only)

• Stomps are 30% faster.

Scrapper:

• Sneak gyro’s cooldown is increased to 90 seconds.

• Hammer damage reduced 15% across the board.

• The miniform autoproc’s movement speed is unaffected by haste, quickness, or superspeed.

Mesmer:

• Autoattack damage raised 20% on all weapons to account for massive nerfs.

• Clones, illusions, and phantasms are in a state of perma-revealed. You can only react to something you’re aware of, so if clones can be stealthed it guarantees its shatter effects will be felt since counterplay relies upon having information. Mass stealth still can be applied to allies however.

• Moa form’s duration reduced to three seconds down from 10 to account for the possibility of a double moa. To compensate for people losing their class mechanics (e.g., can’t cleanse or dodge out of it) moa gives the affected player triple their total (as opposed to base) toughness. This will increase the liklihood that moa’d players will remain in the game after it ends. Moa form cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.

• Alacrity nerf undone.

• Flow of time now grants group alacrity.

Revenant:

• Nerfed sword damage by 10% across the board but buffed unrelenting assault 10%.

• Jade Daggers: A straightforward heal. Half second cast time, same healing modifiers as we heal as one.

• (PvE too) Ventari’s tablet is attached to the player and pressing the heal skill (“6” by default) mobilizes it. Otherwise Ventari skills use the revenant’s location as the center for the healing skills.

• Natural harmony’s energy cost reduced from 20 to 12.

• Protective solace loses 5 energy per second instead of 8

• purifying essence costs 20 energy down from 30.

• Precision strike’s damage reduced by 15% but projectile speed and cast time 20% faster.

Druid:

• Pet stats now scale with the druid. So if a druid/ranger took an ammy without power it would have a negative effect on bristleback or smokeskelk’s DPS whereas mender’s or (especially) marauder’s ammy would be an offensive buff to them compared to now.

• Due to the stomp mechanic changes search and rescue has remained unchanged. This is a controversial skill but the stomp and downed state changes listed above take this skill into account as downed state’s HP and stomp speed were made when the base game launched and therefore doesn’t take HoT powercreep into account.

Necromancer:

• Minion HP reduced by 1,000% as this would ensure a downed player could take one out in a couple of hits or one longbow 5 would do significant damage to them. Minions really aren’t that great and some use them to bodyblock, generally obstruct, and spread out revenant’s unrelenting assault. With the hostile tier changes if a minion master has his minions out and a revenant uses UA the necro will eat all the UA hits.

• Sacrificing a minion can now rally a downed ally.

• Speed and power buffs to greatsword.

Elementalist:

• Overload cast times are 20% shorter. This also means they do 20% less damage (or healing in water’s case) as a result of finishing a charge faster.

• Magnetic leap’s travel speed raised 50%, but the immobilize reduced by 20% to avoid getting out of line.

• Lightning flash counts as a dodge and therefore cleanses chilled and burning on allies as well as completely cleanses the ele of conditions.

• Lightning orb’s speed increased 50%

• Healing rain now cleanses conditions and does 20% more base healing.

• Geyser does 10% more healing and increased the radius by 25%

• Arc lightning damage raised 5%

*Phoenix moves 15% faster and now has a 17 second cooldown down from 20.

*More incoming changes to improve elementalist build diversity.

Thief:

• Instant reflex replaced by stay tight, where after a formal evade (as in the word evade! pops up so dodging by itself won’t grant the stability) stability is granted for two seconds. If you evade with a weapon skill gain two stacks of stability. Has a 15 second cooldown to avoid abuse (imagine spam evading rapid fire or unrelenting assault for lots of stability stacks and duration? How broken would that be?)

• Scorpion wire is now a profession skill rather than a utility skill. Instead, basket toss takes its place, instantly undowning the targeted ally and two other generic thieves appear to act as bases for the downed target then disappear. The formerly downed player does an arabesque, scorpion, or other stunts depending on the character’s race before being launched into the air for a toe touch flip then landing on their feet. This is entirely for cosmetic flair and has no real bearing on the heart of the skill (insta-rez single target) other than maybe telegraph that a thief used this skill and you therefore won’t have to worry about it for another seventy seconds making stomp attempts feel more secure within that window (yeah, it’s a powerful skill so a long cooldown is way justified.) Within the context of a system with 30% faster stomps this skill could be an invaluable game changer. That druid or tempest is downed? Basket toss them up and back into the game! Basket toss requires you to be right next to the downed ally.

• Don’t stop is made redundant by the daredevil line. As such it has been replaced by leap frog, where after a successful evade (except for sword 3, in which case you should be to the opponent’s side anyway) you automatically teleport behind your opponent. Has a 20 second internal cooldown (stealth too?)

• Base autoattack damage on all weapons except for sword and shortbow reduced by 25% while base HP has been buffed 5%. Pistol damage nerfed by 5%.

• Shortbow 4’s poison lasts 20% longer at baseline.

• Dagger/dagger 3 now needs to be aimed.

Guardian:

• Sword autoattack damage raised 15% and speed 10%

• Flashing blade’s teleport range has been increased to 750 up from 600.

That’s all I have for now. That was much tougher than I thought and still acknowledge it’s far from perfect but the game is currently in a poor state of balance and needs more emphasis on player reflexes and awareness rather than AoE spam.

The acro buffs would give more build diversity options since I think leap frog and stay tight make it competitive with deadly arts and trickery. Elementalist nearly always take dagger/focus or staff and that begs the question: why? People note their superiority over warhorn and scepter so I’ve given them buffs in addition to some staff water buffs.

Reapers don’t need a nerf. They are just as easy to take down as everyone else just don’t put 4 of them in a game. It’s only scrapper, rev and ele because they are too tough and don’t take damage. And revs shouldn’t get 25 stacks of might so easy. Balance done. That wasn’t hard.

You need two revenants for that and even then to get that much might you’re chugging lots of energy since keeping facets up either drains energy or makes regeneration much slower. I’d rather have some energy left for riposting shadows or phase traversal when I switch to Shiro.

TheBravery.9615:

all while not considering the full picture- taking into account 9 professions, over 600 traits, 1,000 skills, Stat combinations, sigils, and runes.

You are exaggerating.

I can give you some examples:

• ‘Spike Barrage’ from the Bristleback dealt too much damage regardless of traits or abilities involved. Therefore, you only have 1 choice → lower the damage.

• If you DPS for a Reaper is too strong, you have multiple options. E.g. Reduce the damage from ‘Deathly Chill’. The impact of this change differs, depending on the number of chill sources the Reaper picked, but does this really matter that much from a blance POV? In the end, we are only talking about ‘shaving’ (e.g. 5%).

• ‘Search and Rescue!’: Two options: Adjust the cooldown or lower the rez power from your pet. Only two traits to keep in mind: ‘Allies’ Aid’ and ‘Resounding Timbre’. Balance for the case, that the players picks ‘resounding Timbre’, because that’s the most optimal way, that should not be OP.

CuRtoKy.8576:

Nerf chill it shouldn’t do as much as it should compared to everything else in the game

yep, when Alacrity is nerfed to the ground, chill needs to match that nerf. If not, revert Alarcrity nerfs.

I’ll just leave my big blob of balance thought here, this is coming from an engi and thief main so if you think something is wrong with my suggestions then that may be why:

General Balance:
Split Pve and PvP balance (WvW will share balance with PvP)
-Big part of this is splitting the stacking of condis between the game modes. Leave it as it is in PvE so that people who enjoy that styl more won’t be shut out due to elitism and then PvE content can be added in the future that utilizes condi within it’s gameplay (VG). In PvP, change it to what it was before they were allowed to stack. Issue right now with condi is that everything can be stacked really easily and that kills the mentality of condi being a DoT style. I have no issues with those builds being tanky because theoretically the tankiness is there to help them survive long enough for the degen to overcome their opponent. But when those builds are able to apply enough pressure to kill an opponent in 2 seconds then I see it as an issue that needs to be changed and frankly this is a quick way to do it that has already had years of testing done on it.
Remove class stacking in queues for PvP
-As a result no prof swapping would be allowed
-While some see it as a band aid fix that would increase queue times I see it as a way to limit the influence of some op builds which will then stop them from forcing all the other profs out of the meta which would then encourage others to play as they could use their favorite class.
-Make revealed 3 sec in pvp again, atm 4 sec is not needed and the 3 sec will allow for some other thief sets to be utilized.
-Remove condi and boon duration stat increases and set base durations to an amount deemed appropriate by the balance team

Profession specific balance:
Most of these changes are just what I believe would be the best choices based on my experiences in the game.

Thief:
Weapons
If we look at the flow of the sets it’s obvious that d/p is the best set. The set doesn’t need any traits to actually make the set function (i.e D/D needing cloaked in shadows). But rather than nerfing D/P I think the other sets should be modeled off of it in terms of just flowing together well and synergizing with every skill so the set feels complete and not like it’s fighting itself.

S/D- Mostly feels good but there’s a couple things that if changed will make the set meta worthy again. Dagger #4 needs a damage increase so it becomes a reliable way to damage a foe who is not within melee range (probably not a huge one but definitely something along the lines of 5-10%). Sword 2 return needs to be instant cast but not a stunbreaker (I.E. can’t be cast when cced but it still is helpful in the times that you need it) and removes 2 condis instead of just 1. Sword 3 needs to cycle on block (after all the skill description is cycles to larcenous if you hit a foe, even if they block it you still hit them you just didn’t deal damage) will remain as it is with evades and blinds as that is considered a miss. Dagger 5 should have a single target blind on it so the skill flows better within both s/d and d/d.

S/P- Keeps all the sword changes but now has #3 split into 2 different skills, The first one is a charge/leap that stuns your foe (just like pw does now) and if it hits (same interaction I mentioned with sword 3) it cycles to the damage part of pw. Reason for that change is then S/P has some stealth access without having to trait for bound allowing the set to be more self reliant rather than trait reliant.

D/D- Keep all the dagger offhand changes I mentioned above and then remove the bleeds from death blossom and change it to act like staff 3 where it hits and then rolls backwards so the set then has a gap opener/disengage and we remove the annoying death blossom lotus training condi builds at the same time.

Staff- #4 blind leaves a smoke field to allow the set to stealth via #4 and vault.

P/P- Have the AA change depending on whether you are p/p or p/d. If p/p, then the bleed from the stealth skill and aa will be removed and the damage will be buffed so it is stronger, rate of attack maybe buffed a bit just so it applies a little more pressure with it’s autos. If p/d it will stay the same as it is now. #2 would have a small roll backwards after the immob shot was fired that would also be a leap to allow the set to stealth itself with pistol 2 and 5 combo’d.

P/D- just incorporate the stuff I mentioned above and it should be fine.

Traits
DA-
most of the traits are fine as is unless heal on steal were added as a baseline but imo that’d be a bit too much so I will leave this line.

CS-
Keen Observer- Health threshold reduced to 80%
Flawless Strike- Health threshold reduced to 80%
Unrelenting Strikes gives 5s Fury on steal and 5s Fury when hitting a target below 90%, 10s ICD

SA-
Replace Cloaked in Shadow with “Gain 1 stack of stability for 3 sec when you enter stealth” (5 sec cd) In order to help thieves deal with inc cc when going in for a CnD
Remove the reveal proc from engi and aoe from scrapper and rev that strips stealth. Have all reveal require a target similar to “sic em”

Acrobatics-
Replace Instant reflexes with the old Power of inertia
Remove guarded initiation and swindler’s equilibrium and replace with “Vigor regenerates health” (100 base) and “7% damage while under the effects of vigor”

Trickery-
Preparedness made baseline
Base steal CD reduced to 25s
Removal of steal cooldown reduction from SoH
Lead Attacks giving a 20% cooldown reduction to steal instead of 15% -> 20s CD from 25s
Trickster removing 2 condis

Daredevil-
Impacting disruption has its damage reduced by 20%
Whirl finisher removed from lotus training
Leap finisher removed from bound
Dash no longer removes immob

Engineer:
Weapons/Skills
Hammer-
2-reduce damage by 7%
3-remove triple leap finisher (set it to only 1)
4-Remove damage from block but keep vuln stacks
5-Reduce range to 600
Slick shoes no longer knocks opponent down if they are not moving
Poison Grenade reverted to a poison field

Traits
Explosives-
Fine as is.

Firearms-
Fine as is.

Inventions-
Heal resonator regen duration reduced to 3 sec.
Energy amplifier reduced to +150 healing power instead of 250
Bunker down Med pack regen reduced to 3 sec and CD increased to 5 sec

Alchemy-
Protection injection CD increased to 10 sec
Remove Self-Regulating Defenses and replace with Automated response (Incoming condition duration reduced by 25% while below 50% hp)
Backpack regen base increased to 150 hps

Tools-
Streamlined kits cd reduced to 10 sec and swiftness reduced to 10 sec
Lock on changed to “Striking a foe in stealth shoots a rocket at them and knocks them down” (basically the explosives one) (10 sec CD)
Adrenal implant allowed to stack with vigor

Scrapper-
Recovery matrix duration changed to 4 sec.
Rapid regen swiftness heal changed to 135 base and super speed changed to 350
Mass momentum convertion reduced to 7%
Impact savant all values reduced from 25% to 20%
Final Salvo stability reduced to 3 sec, lightning field removed

Elementalist:
Weapons
Scepter- Buff the autoattack rate on the weapon so it can benefit from the signet.

Traits
Air
Remove Tempest defense and replace with “Cast a dust storm at your location when you are disabled” (45 sec CD)

Other Vanilla’s are fine as they are

Tempest
Unstable conduit- (All aura durations reduced to 3 sec)
Harmonious conduit- make the stability 3 sec and baseline (1 stack)
Elemental Bastion- Healing Decreased by 20%

Warrior:
I don’t know enough to speak for the playerbase here so I’ll leave that one to the experts

Ranger:
Weapons
Axe offhand whirling defense no longer roots you while casting
Rest are fine as it is

Pets
Smokescale damage reduced by 5% (only because every hit is guaranteed to land)
Vanilla pets hit reliability brought up to the level of the druid pets and all pets share stats with the player (reason being they can’t build full tank if they want to deal damage, forces players to invest stats into what they want to do in order to actually do it.

Traits
Marksmanship is fine

Skirmishing is fine

Wilderness survival is fine

Nature magic
Allies’ Aid- remove the increased revival speed as the pet res already does enough.
Protective ward- weakness is reduced to 3 sec

Beastmastery
Resounding Timbre- Duration of boons reduced to 8 sec
Natural healing- Healing power removed and instead give the player a 100 hps buff
Zephy’s speed- might duration reduced to 10 sec

Druid
Primal Echoes- Remove the daze
Live vicariously- Healing reduced by 10%
Celestial shadow- stealth removed and replaced with 1 stack of stability for 3 sec
Verdant etching- remove blind and reduce healing by 10%
Natural Mender- reduced to 1% per stack

Celestial avatar
Lunar impact healing reduced by 5%
Rejuvenating Tides and Natural Convergence cast times reduced to 1.5 sec

Necromancer
Weapons
Scepter
-Corrupt boon removed from auto
Dagger (main)
-#2 reduced cast time to 2 sec, increased healing by 20%, and reduce CD to 10 sec
-#3 CD reduced to 15 sec
Dagger (off)
-Fine as it is
Axe
-Auto damage buffed by 10%
-Unholy feast now transfers 1 condi to every opponent hit
Staff
-Fine as it is
Greatsword
-Gravedigger damage reduced by 10%

Traits
Spite
-Reaper’s might reduced to 10 sec duration
-Chill of death removed “replaced with corrupt 2 boons when you hit a foe with more than the threshold” (4 boon threshold)
-Signets of suffering boons corrupted reduced to 1. Might duration reduced to 10 sec

Curses
-Chilling darkness now applies 5 sec of chill on 10 sec CD
-Target the weak conversion reduced to 7%
-Parasitic Contagion buffed to 15%

Death Magic
-Flesh of the Master health increase reduced to 25%
-Necromantic Corruption damage increase reduced to 15%
-Reaper’s prot removed and replaced with “release a corrosive poison cloud when disabled”
-Death nova made blockable
-Corrupter’s Fervor reduced to 20 toughness per stack

Blood Magic
-Vampiric changed to not allow minions to siphon health but boost it to 75 per hit.
-Vampiric presence changed to siphon 75 health

Soul Reaping
-Fine as it is

Reaper-
-Chill damage reduced to base of 100 dps (instead of 350, assuming same scaling the highest damage will now be 400 instead of 650 which is far more balanced)
Reaper shroud 5 damage reduced by 20% (zerks critting for 10k with this skill is silly even if it is slow)
-Shivers of dread given an Icd of 5 sec
-Cold shoulder duration increase reduced to 10%

Rise damage reduction reduced to 25%

Revenant
Weapons
Sword 2 damage reduced by 15%
Sword 3 interrupted if it hits a shocking aura

Traits
Corruption
-Fine as it is

Retribution
-Enduring recovery changed to “Chance to gain vigor when struck” (5 sec on 10 sec CD)
-Unwavering avoidance changed to “Gain stability when you break out of a stun” (1 stack for 3 sec on a 5 sec CD)
-Eye for an eye taunt removed and reduce CD to 20 sec

Salvation
-Fine as it is

Invocation
-Fine as it is

Devastation
-Vicious lacerations duration increased to 10 sec but damage reduced to 1% per stack

Herald
-Enhanced bulwark CD increased to 5 sec

Mesmer
Weapons
Greatsword
-Mirror Blade- Given it’s 1 extra bounce back so it has sufficient burst damage
-Mind Stab- Given a blast finisher to allow for some group support to come from the class.
-#4 and #5 cds reduced by 5sec each
Staff
-Phantasmal Warlock hit reliability increased
-Chaos armor CD reduced to 20 sec
-Chaos Storm CD reduced to 30 sec
Scepter
-Fine as is
Sword
-Fine as is
Pistol
-Reduce CD of #4 and #5 to 20 sec
Focus
-Fine as is
Torch
-Fine as is
Shield
-Remove Phantasm from Deja vu
-Turn the stun to daze on tides of time

Traits
Domination
-Fine as is

Dueling
-Phantasm Fury also is applied to allies around the Phantasm

Chaos
-Mirror of Anguish removed and replaced with “Dazes and stuns last 30% longer”

Inspiration
-Restorative illusions changes to “remove one condi for every illusion shattered” to help Mesmer deal with condis better
-Mental Defense CD reduced to 20 sec
-Illusionary Inspiration radius increased to 360

Illusions
-Fine as it is

Chronomancer
-Delayed reactions given a 5 sec CD
-Lost Time given a 10 sec CD between the time when you slow an opponent and when you can build charges again. As compensation remove the cd between charges.
Alacrity will be split between PvP and PvE. PvE alacrity will remain as it is and PvP alacrity will return to it’s pre nerf state.

Hammer-
2-reduce damage by 7% – ok
3-remove triple leap finisher (set it to only 1) – wut?? Make all 3 leaps into one but with same dmg dealt? Okay (2k+2k+2k = instant 6k dmg, I accept)
4-Remove damage from block but keep vuln stacks – useless now, so reduce cd then.. To 12sec… or viable toolkit without trait..
5-Reduce range to 600 – ok, can be only around you
Slick shoes no longer knocks opponent down if they are not moving-ok
Poison Grenade reverted to a poison field- you take my heart, I am with you!
Traits
Explosives-
Fine as is. – seeker rocket cd reduce to 5sec, but active only on explosion crit.
Firearms-
Fine as is.- ok
Inventions-
Heal resonator regen duration reduced to 3 sec.
Energy amplifier reduced to +150 healing power instead of 250 – 150… ok but for other allies
Bunker down Med pack regen reduced to 3 sec and CD increased to 5 sec- delete and bring back eib.
Alchemy-
Protection injection CD increased to 10 sec – and increase prot dura for 6 sec…
Remove Self-Regulating Defenses and replace with Automated response (Incoming condition duration reduced by 25% while below 50% hp) – cool
Backpack regen base increased to 150 hps – not needed
Tools-
Streamlined kits cd reduced to 10 sec and swiftness reduced to 10 sec- yea! Finally most step further and this trait can be key how to make core engi more viable! I really use SK on situation(weak slick shoes via EG etc) good point!
Lock on changed to “Striking a foe in stealth shoots a rocket at them and knocks them down” (basically the explosives one) (10 sec CD)
Adrenal implant allowed to stack with vigor- its not?
Scrapper-
Recovery matrix duration changed to 4 sec. – can be
Rapid regen swiftness heal changed to 135 base and super speed changed to 350 – meaby yea
Mass momentum convertion reduced to 7% – no
Impact savant all values reduced from 25% to 20%
Final Salvo stability reduced to 3 sec, lightning field removed – remove lighting field, remove final salvo

Problem is scrappy trait line and hammer. Rapid regen provide too much sustain.

Hm, I should have made it a little more clear in my OP.

What I meant to say was: would you guys be able to provide criticism to my suggestion threads (see signature for links, making one for every profession eventually)

but thank you (david and ario) for sharing your suggestions.

Stop buffing, and start fixing.

Necromancer:

• Rollback to 28.08.2012 – 23.06.02015
• Fix Death Shroud & Healing
• Fix our movement disabling abilities
• More stability options
• Life Force decay after fight
• Better access to Life Force regeneration skills

Agemnon.4608:

• Moa form’s duration reduced to three seconds down from 10 to account for the possibility of a double moa. To compensate for people losing their class mechanics (e.g., can’t cleanse or dodge out of it) moa gives the affected player triple their total (as opposed to base) toughness. This will increase the liklihood that moa’d players will remain in the game after it ends. Moa form cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.

umm, are you freaking kidding me?

Funny how thief main recommending nerfs to Mesmer is by overnerfing one of it’s most useful elites.

No, just no.

Ario.8964:

I’ll just leave my big blob of balance thought here, this is coming from an engi and thief main so if you think something is wrong with my suggestions then that may be why:

General Balance:
Split Pve and PvP balance (WvW will share balance with PvP)
-Big part of this is splitting the stacking of condis between the game modes. Leave it as it is in PvE so that people who enjoy that styl more won’t be shut out due to elitism and then PvE content can be added in the future that utilizes condi within it’s gameplay (VG). In PvP, change it to what it was before they were allowed to stack. Issue right now with condi is that everything can be stacked really easily and that kills the mentality of condi being a DoT style. I have no issues with those builds being tanky because theoretically the tankiness is there to help them survive long enough for the degen to overcome their opponent. But when those builds are able to apply enough pressure to kill an opponent in 2 seconds then I see it as an issue that needs to be changed and frankly this is a quick way to do it that has already had years of testing done on it.
Remove class stacking in queues for PvP
-As a result no prof swapping would be allowed
-While some see it as a band aid fix that would increase queue times I see it as a way to limit the influence of some op builds which will then stop them from forcing all the other profs out of the meta which would then encourage others to play as they could use their favorite class.
-Make revealed 3 sec in pvp again, atm 4 sec is not needed and the 3 sec will allow for some other thief sets to be utilized.
-Remove condi and boon duration stat increases and set base durations to an amount deemed appropriate by the balance team

Profession specific balance:
Most of these changes are just what I believe would be the best choices based on my experiences in the game.

Thief:
Weapons
If we look at the flow of the sets it’s obvious that d/p is the best set. The set doesn’t need any traits to actually make the set function (i.e D/D needing cloaked in shadows). But rather than nerfing D/P I think the other sets should be modeled off of it in terms of just flowing together well and synergizing with every skill so the set feels complete and not like it’s fighting itself.

S/D- Mostly feels good but there’s a couple things that if changed will make the set meta worthy again. Dagger #4 needs a damage increase so it becomes a reliable way to damage a foe who is not within melee range (probably not a huge one but definitely something along the lines of 5-10%). Sword 2 return needs to be instant cast but not a stunbreaker (I.E. can’t be cast when cced but it still is helpful in the times that you need it) and removes 2 condis instead of just 1. Sword 3 needs to cycle on block (after all the skill description is cycles to larcenous if you hit a foe, even if they block it you still hit them you just didn’t deal damage) will remain as it is with evades and blinds as that is considered a miss. Dagger 5 should have a single target blind on it so the skill flows better within both s/d and d/d.

S/P- Keeps all the sword changes but now has #3 split into 2 different skills, The first one is a charge/leap that stuns your foe (just like pw does now) and if it hits (same interaction I mentioned with sword 3) it cycles to the damage part of pw. Reason for that change is then S/P has some stealth access without having to trait for bound allowing the set to be more self reliant rather than trait reliant.

D/D- Keep all the dagger offhand changes I mentioned above and then remove the bleeds from death blossom and change it to act like staff 3 where it hits and then rolls backwards so the set then has a gap opener/disengage and we remove the annoying death blossom lotus training condi builds at the same time.

Staff- #4 blind leaves a smoke field to allow the set to stealth via #4 and vault.

P/P- Have the AA change depending on whether you are p/p or p/d. If p/p, then the bleed from the stealth skill and aa will be removed and the damage will be buffed so it is stronger, rate of attack maybe buffed a bit just so it applies a little more pressure with it’s autos. If p/d it will stay the same as it is now. #2 would have a small roll backwards after the immob shot was fired that would also be a leap to allow the set to stealth itself with pistol 2 and 5 combo’d.

P/D- just incorporate the stuff I mentioned above and it should be fine.

Traits
DA-
most of the traits are fine as is unless heal on steal were added as a baseline but imo that’d be a bit too much so I will leave this line.

CS-
Keen Observer- Health threshold reduced to 80%
Flawless Strike- Health threshold reduced to 80%
Unrelenting Strikes gives 5s Fury on steal and 5s Fury when hitting a target below 90%, 10s ICD

SA-
Replace Cloaked in Shadow with “Gain 1 stack of stability for 3 sec when you enter stealth” (5 sec cd) In order to help thieves deal with inc cc when going in for a CnD
Remove the reveal proc from engi and aoe from scrapper and rev that strips stealth. Have all reveal require a target similar to “sic em”

Acrobatics-
Replace Instant reflexes with the old Power of inertia
Remove guarded initiation and swindler’s equilibrium and replace with “Vigor regenerates health” (100 base) and “7% damage while under the effects of vigor”

Trickery-
Preparedness made baseline
Base steal CD reduced to 25s
Removal of steal cooldown reduction from SoH
Lead Attacks giving a 20% cooldown reduction to steal instead of 15% -> 20s CD from 25s
Trickster removing 2 condis

Daredevil-
Impacting disruption has its damage reduced by 20%
Whirl finisher removed from lotus training
Leap finisher removed from bound
Dash no longer removes immob

Engineer:
Weapons/Skills
Hammer-
2-reduce damage by 7%
3-remove triple leap finisher (set it to only 1)
4-Remove damage from block but keep vuln stacks
5-Reduce range to 600
Slick shoes no longer knocks opponent down if they are not moving
Poison Grenade reverted to a poison field

Traits
Explosives-
Fine as is.

Firearms-
Fine as is.

Inventions-
Heal resonator regen duration reduced to 3 sec.
Energy amplifier reduced to +150 healing power instead of 250
Bunker down Med pack regen reduced to 3 sec and CD increased to 5 sec

Alchemy-
Protection injection CD increased to 10 sec
Remove Self-Regulating Defenses and replace with Automated response (Incoming condition duration reduced by 25% while below 50% hp)
Backpack regen base increased to 150 hps

Tools-
Streamlined kits cd reduced to 10 sec and swiftness reduced to 10 sec
Lock on changed to “Striking a foe in stealth shoots a rocket at them and knocks them down” (basically the explosives one) (10 sec CD)
Adrenal implant allowed to stack with vigor

Scrapper-
Recovery matrix duration changed to 4 sec.
Rapid regen swiftness heal changed to 135 base and super speed changed to 350
Mass momentum convertion reduced to 7%
Impact savant all values reduced from 25% to 20%
Final Salvo stability reduced to 3 sec, lightning field removed

Elementalist:
Weapons
Scepter- Buff the autoattack rate on the weapon so it can benefit from the signet.

Traits
Air
Remove Tempest defense and replace with “Cast a dust storm at your location when you are disabled” (45 sec CD)

Other Vanilla’s are fine as they are

Tempest
Unstable conduit- (All aura durations reduced to 3 sec)
Harmonious conduit- make the stability 3 sec and baseline (1 stack)
Elemental Bastion- Healing Decreased by 20%

Warrior:
I don’t know enough to speak for the playerbase here so I’ll leave that one to the experts

Ranger:
Weapons
Axe offhand whirling defense no longer roots you while casting
Rest are fine as it is

Pets
Smokescale damage reduced by 5% (only because every hit is guaranteed to land)
Vanilla pets hit reliability brought up to the level of the druid pets and all pets share stats with the player (reason being they can’t build full tank if they want to deal damage, forces players to invest stats into what they want to do in order to actually do it.

Traits
Marksmanship is fine

Skirmishing is fine

Wilderness survival is fine

Nature magic
Allies’ Aid- remove the increased revival speed as the pet res already does enough.
Protective ward- weakness is reduced to 3 sec

Beastmastery
Resounding Timbre- Duration of boons reduced to 8 sec
Natural healing- Healing power removed and instead give the player a 100 hps buff
Zephy’s speed- might duration reduced to 10 sec

Druid
Primal Echoes- Remove the daze
Live vicariously- Healing reduced by 10%
Celestial shadow- stealth removed and replaced with 1 stack of stability for 3 sec
Verdant etching- remove blind and reduce healing by 10%
Natural Mender- reduced to 1% per stack

Celestial avatar
Lunar impact healing reduced by 5%
Rejuvenating Tides and Natural Convergence cast times reduced to 1.5 sec

Necromancer
Weapons
Scepter
-Corrupt boon removed from auto
Dagger (main)
-#2 reduced cast time to 2 sec, increased healing by 20%, and reduce CD to 10 sec
-#3 CD reduced to 15 sec
Dagger (off)
-Fine as it is
Axe
-Auto damage buffed by 10%
-Unholy feast now transfers 1 condi to every opponent hit
Staff
-Fine as it is
Greatsword
-Gravedigger damage reduced by 10%

Traits
I’m getting lazy now so I’m just gonna hit the stuff that’s broken rather than every little thing I want to change.

Reaper-
Chill damage reduced to base of 100 dps (instead of 350, assuming same scaling the highest damage will now be 400 instead of 650 which is far more balanced)
Reaper shroud 5 damage reduced by 20% (zerks critting for 10k with this skill is silly even if it is slow)

Revenant
Weapons
Sword 2 damage reduced by 15%
Sword 3 interrupted if it hits a shocking aura

Yeah that’s about all I feel like posting right now, I’ll edit and post more later when I feel like it.

no mention of Mesmer when the class was gutted, with it’s unique classic mechanic in alacrity overnerfed and the counter to it in chill from Reaper is left as is? You probably already working for ANet’s class balance team.

@rchu
Actually Mesmer being gutted was the reason I stopped my post where I did. As you see I said I got lazy and I wanted to take a little time to develop one for Mesmer that’d be at sbout the level of detail as the thief one so I could actually do something for the class. Chill and be patient, I’m working on one but it’s taking a bit of time. Might be able to get it out later today

Edit: There I got out what I could. Issue I have right now is there can’t be extreme buffs to classes like Mesmer before we see what especs being nerfed brings to the table in terms of letting some classes become meta again.

Believe me if I were working for anet’s balance team I’d have gotten all these changes pushed through already and you’d have patches way more often.

rchu.8945:

Agemnon.4608:

• Moa form’s duration reduced to three seconds down from 10 to account for the possibility of a double moa. To compensate for people losing their class mechanics (e.g., can’t cleanse or dodge out of it) moa gives the affected player triple their total (as opposed to base) toughness. This will increase the liklihood that moa’d players will remain in the game after it ends. Moa form cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.

umm, are you freaking kidding me?

Funny how thief main recommending nerfs to Mesmer is by overnerfing one of it’s most useful elites.

No, just no.

Agreed, that would be the absolute dumbest nerf to even be imagined.

a 90 sec recharge, single target, long cast activatio, 3 sec duration would have nothing aginst engi’s 120 sec recharge ( unless trait which would only be 10 sec more than suggested mesmer elite change), aoe, quick activated, 3 sec duration

You would literally have engi’s toolbelt elite elixi x overwrite another classes elite.

This this is why we can’t have the balance team listen to suggestions

Double moa changed this I think 3 seconds is harsh… but base 10 seconds, with continuum rift active it being reduced to 5 seconds.

It would make for a bit more situational play. Do you want to take out someone twice? Or only once, but give your team enough time to kill him? Do you want to take out two different targets?

As a mesmer main, I do not agree with some of your proposed mesmer changes.
Staff does not need CD reduction, it is a fine weapon

GS needs autoattack aftercast reduction. GS2 maybe fine. Power mesmer still has high burst. But now we have pretty much no sustained damage.

Shield 4 needs the phantasm to be inline with other off-hand, shield 5 change is fine

Mirror of anguish change makes no sense. We already have confounding suggestions

Restorative illusions change would make it completely OP. Current version is already very strong and provides one of the best condie cleanse for mesmer.

Nerfing slow trait on chrono line also makes no sense. Slow-related traits are already the worst in chrono line. That GM slow trait needs buff rather than nerf. I would propose add ‘increase slow application time by 33%’ to that GM trait. This gives power mesmer chance to give more sustained pressure when burst is on CD.

rchu.8945:

Agemnon.4608:

• Moa form’s duration reduced to three seconds down from 10 to account for the possibility of a double moa. To compensate for people losing their class mechanics (e.g., can’t cleanse or dodge out of it) moa gives the affected player triple their total (as opposed to base) toughness. This will increase the liklihood that moa’d players will remain in the game after it ends. Moa form cooldown reduced to 90 seconds.

umm, are you freaking kidding me?

Funny how thief main recommending nerfs to Mesmer is by overnerfing one of it’s most useful elites.

No, just no.

Maybe it was a bit too harsh. Maybe a nerf/buff by making Moa last 5 seconds but halving the cooldown to 90 seconds while the glyph symbol appears over the mesmer during a caste even in stealth (while keeping the benefits of stealth otherwise)? The moa form time existed before chronomancer had a cooldown reset so moa form needs to be reduced in half, but since a five second transform would be bad on a 180 second cooldown a 90 second cooldown seems appropriate.

Moa is quite a poweful tool since it denies class mechanics (chill at least can be cleansed as nasty as it is) so it needs a big tell in the middle of a big team fight with lots of obstructions and particle effects. The only tell is the mesmer leaning forward waving their hands with pink sparklies around them, and this is assuming they’re out of stealth and not obstructed. To improve as a player people shouldn’t have to rely on gimmicks but instead be forced to use big powerful skills intelligently and strategically. Elementalists need to time the correct aura for the correct situation and take into account the possibility that overloads can and will be interrupted by alert players. There is no stealth and overload lightning unless you have help from an engineer, in which case the gyro won’t be available for rezzing or stealth stomps.

Its always been a complaint waaaay before elite specs.

watch some mesmer streams on twitch – reality is deceant mesmers don’t rapid fire moa as you guys claim. If that has happened to you chances are they are trolling you – blind nerfs should not be made for troll moves.

moa signets passive is more valuable, only really time its wasted is either the mesmer needs to quickly kill you to get back elsewhere, or the mesmer is out of cooldowns in trouble.

I was wrong about necros not needing a nerf. I hadn’t played any that could down you so quick when I posted here.

jessiestiles.9437:

I was wrong about necros not needing a nerf. I hadn’t played any that could down you so quick when I posted here.

share with me your experience.

what exactly happened that made you change your mind?

There was a reaper alone at far, and I was on my healing druid, who immediately put 10 stacks of poison on me, chill and other conditions in about 2 seconds and I couldn’t heal, couldn’t use celestial avatar and was dead in about 10 seconds. Then again after respawn. That’s when I realised what people were saying here.

Your mistake was probably trying to fight him on point instead of trying to use terrain to your advantage (higher ground, obstacles), sending in your pet to whittle him down a bit already while getting up your astral force to counter his burst.

And to make this ontopic:
You see what I did there? Just because you havent found the right strategy yet to counter some builds doesnt mean they are hopelessly overpowered and have to be nerfed into the ground.
Take bunker chrono as negative example… bunker chrono could “facetank” 3-5 players without going down. Thats broken.
You dieing to burst because you didnt avoid it, that doesnt automatically mean its broken.

Lots of players are saying DH burst is overpowered, but reality is, it actually really is not. They just dont counter it properly, and it is quite easy actually to do it. Necro burst is a bit more difficult, but its also something that can be done (use block/invul when you see him dropping reapershroud 5… dodge out of it… outdistance him)

No the whole reason i play druid is I’m good at kiting. Warhorn speed boost staff 3 I’m out of everyone’s reach. They weren’t amatuer and had speed on and chased me. With chill I didn’t have a chance. That’s OP.

edit: Not bothering anymore to explain how you could have improved and probably won that 1v1, dont try to fix your learn to play issues with crying for nerfs.

Reaper isnt overly strong in a 1v1. He is very strong in teamfights, especially when paired with a tempest auramancer and power rev.

Let me just refer you to this post.. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/TheLordHelseth-on-how-to-carry-SoloQ/first#post6023658

Some sigils have no place in this game.

Too much passive damage/CC. Poorly telegraphed instant kill skills. Too much invulnerabilities against power based builds on top of sick amount of AoEs in the current meta (everybody and their dog seems to be doing splash damage). Almost no counter play to condi spamming necros unless you go 2vs1 or more. Sure everyone has condi cleanse … on a long cooldown. Meanwhile necros are spreading 10 stacks of cancer in the blink of an eye through unblockable marks xD Very few classes actually have access to resistance. And even resistance doesn’t cancel conditions the way blocking cancels power based attacks, because duration stacking is intense.

I have forgotten how the stability boon icon looks like because of all CCs all the time

Team fights are impossible for melee type classes unless you do damage while blocking.

Condi builds are very viable while remaining somewhat tanky. This ideology has to go. If you are going to spread cancer for as much dps as a power based build, you should be paper too.

^ That’s balance.

Druid/ele/scrapper tanking 3 people is just silly. Some increase in cooldowns is required there. When I chill eles they seem to go down fast. So it’s about denying them skill spamming.

Did you take the time to look at cooldowns on tempest skills before coming to your conclusion?

Chill is effective because you slow them down, making them easier fodder for your teammates.

Sorry, cant agree with your post at all. While it might look like that from a warriors point of view atm, thats only because warrior has serious issues and needs a complete overhaul to fit him into the current state of the game…. not the other way around.

Yasi.9065:

Did you take the time to look at cooldowns on tempest skills before coming to your conclusion?

Chill is effective because you slow them down, making them easier fodder for your teammates.

Sorry, cant agree with your post at all. While it might look like that from a warriors point of view atm, thats only because warrior has serious issues and needs a complete overhaul to fit him into the current state of the game…. not the other way around.

My post wasn’t just about tempest though. And condi builds are too tanky. I play mesmer for about a week and primo legends can’t kill me. I’m not a good mesmer.

GW2 player mentality:

“Wahhh nerf X and X and Y, but not my profession”

“Wahhh muh profession doesn’t need nerfs, only the weaker/unused stuff needs to be brought up to par”

“Wahhh arenanet what are you doing with all this power creep”

This is why balance is such a pain in the kitten .

TheBravery.9615:

GW2 player mentality:

“Wahhh nerf X and X and Y, but not my profession”

“Wahhh muh profession doesn’t need nerfs, only the weaker/unused stuff needs to be brought up to par”

“Wahhh arenanet what are you doing with all this power creep”

This is why balance is such a pain in the kitten .

The only balance ANet needs to register in their brains is that if you deal massive damage (direct, overtime or otherwise) you should go down fast.

I’m tired of seeing condi builds that deal up to 30k in condi damage be as tanky as bunker ele.

Also passive damage traits are not fun.

Power builds overall are severely handicapped compared to condi builds for the reaons

1) More bunker
2) Less resistance against condi
3) Everybody and their dog has MULTILPE block/evasion mechanics.
4) Dodge doesn’t pause condi ticks
5) Condi output should never be a build’s pedestal for a game that’s trying to be interesting to the viewer (eSports and kitten)
6) ^ Whoever thought this is fun is an idiot
7) I think i went too far.

Lots of suggestions on already meta classes, but not even single one about warrior. Woooo.

Rednik.3809:

Lots of suggestions on already meta classes, but not even single one about warrior. Woooo.

Here then. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Suggestion-Warrior-Balance/5903014

TheBravery.9615:

all while not considering the full picture- taking into account 9 professions, over 600 traits, 1,000 skills, Stat combinations, sigils, and runes.

As you can see, balance is not something easily accomplished, and the recent balance patches may have been the result of nonconstructive complaints and poorly thought out suggestions with group think.

How about anet does the work and doesn’t listen to the players?
I agree that it’s not something accomplished easily, still it’s their game so it should be possible that they can do it.
And yes, I’m kittened because their lack of interest in balancing their game led to players competing like little children for the attention of their parents.
I’m pretty sure that if anet took control and people had faith in their balancing again there would be 382792837498273948 less complaint threads.
I’m even writing in all these threads (on the thief forum) (although I’m really sick and tired of it) cause I know how dangerous it is when some guy with serious L2P issues comes to demand a nerf – it worked too long.

I disagree with all of Ario.8964 ‘s suggested changes to thief, btw – and me writing this is another case of a frightened little child that might have taken his toy away because his sibling said so – if balance wasn’t player based in this game I could just ignore it. You can’t imagine how much this annoys me.