There were many things that I liked about the season 2 patch and also many things that I did not like about the patch. Here are the changes that I think should be made before ranked season 2 starts.
This is a long post, but I think reading it in full is well worth it.
I would also love some response from ArenaNet. It will give me hope that good changes are coming in the future. If all these changes were made, I would be very happy
The Goals that I’m trying to achieve with these changes:
1. The pvp meta should be right in the middle between a “bunker” meta and a “1-hit KO” meta. The “bunker” meta of season 1 was bad. It promoted slow and static pvp. Likewise a “1-hit KO” meta is bad because fights are over too quickly.
2. Class, build and team variety. If one build is superior to everything else, that’s what most people will play. No one wants to see every pro team using 1 aura ele, 2 bunker mes, 2 brawler revs. That’s boring.
3. Good pvp interaction between classes. When two equally skilled people enter into a 1v1 fight, they both should have reasonable chances of winning the fight. Both players should have plenty of opportunity to put their skillful playing to good use. An example of bad pvp interaction is a season 1 bunker class versus a thief or warrior. No matter how skilled the thief or warrior was, the bunker would always beat them. Another example is a season 2 necromancer vs an elementalist. With a decent necro build and a skilled player, there is just not much that a skilled elementalist can do in a 1v1. The boon corruption is just too powerful.
Changes:
Items:
A new 5 stat amulet needs to be added.
A 3 stat amulet has 3000 total stats.
A 4 stat amulet has 3220 total stats.
A 7 stat amulet has 3920 total stats.
If you follow the pattern, the correct amount for a 5 stat amulet is 3480 total stats.
These are the stats that it needs:
900 power
900 condition damage
560 toughness
560 vitality
560 healing power
(3480 total stats)
This amulet is just like a Mercenary’s Amulet however it trades 150 power and 150 condition damage for 560 healing power. Healing power is often regarded as the weakest stat so the trade-off is relatively fair. This added healing power doesn’t need to create another bunker meta. For example: In season 2, Necromancers typically run 0 healing power because Mercenary’s and Paladin’s amulet are both very powerful. If this new 5 stat amulet gave necromancers too much damage+healing, then you can always slightly reduce the healing power coefficient of their heals. This won’t nerf Mercenary or Paladin necromancers, but it will make sure that this new amulet isn’t OP on necromancers. This amulet will be great for those who want to play a hybrid build and for those who are forced to play a hybrid build (i.e. elementalist).
Classes:
Necromancer:
Necromancer currently stomps any class that relies on boons. That causes bad pvp interaction.
1. Tone down the boon corruption; Reduce the amount of boon corruption, or reduce the duration of the conditions, or change the priority of corruption so that it corrupts stability, protection, block and regeneration last. Or do some combination of those suggestions.
2. The reaper shroud’s #2 and #4 ability seem to do a little bit too much damage. But if you nerf boon corruption, then maybe this won’t be a problem.
Thief:
When playing a revenant, each weapon feels like it has it’s role. The unique style of each revenant weapon feels right. Likewise with thief, the unique style of each thief weapon feels right. Each weapon provides a nice unique set of utility and play styles.
The problem with assassin has never been his DPS, but his survivability. While fighting on a capture point in a 1v1, the thief has 3 options:
- Fight the opponent, use invisibility to stay alive and lose the capture point.
- Fight the opponent, use mobility to stay alive (by running in and out of the fight) , and lose the capture point.
- Fight the opponent, use minimal invisibility/mobility to contest the point, but will end up dying due to minimal defense and will lose the capture point.
Here is what I suggest:
1. When a thief goes invisible on a capture point, for the first 1s (maybe 1.5s) of his invisibility, he should still be able to contest the point. This will allow thieves to contest the point more and will also allow them to stay alive more.
2. The auto attack DPS of daggers seems a little bit too high (especially in PVE) compared to other thief weapons. The auto attack DPS of thief weapons needs to be similar in order to promote build diversity. Dagger auto attack DPS might need a slight nerf, and the other weapons need to be buffed to do similar DPS as the “slightly nerfed” daggers.
3. With the new 5 stat amulet combined with a 1s point contest delay, thieves would be able to make hybrid builds which would have much higher point contest power. Traits like shadow’s rejuvenation, assassin’s reward and driven fortitude would allow the thief to stay around so much better. That high sustain could then be combined with hybrid damage build using bleeds and poisons.
Elementalist:
Elementalists have a tiny HP pool and thus need to rely on their boons and heals to survive. Necro boon corruption just ruins elementalists (and other boon reliant classes too).
1. Because of the elementalist’s small HP pool and heavy reliance on healing, the ele needs to have vitality, toughness and healing power on an amulet. Additionally because of the ele’s hybrid damage abilities, he needs to have both power and condition damage on an amulet.
2. The elementalist relies on protection, regeneration and vigor to survive. Boon corruption just ruins that. Changes to necro (see above) need to happen.
3. Diamond skin is now kinda useless. It should be Remove a condition every second while above 75% hp. (i.e. remove the requirement to being hit).
4. Scepter auto attacks need to be buffed. Specter #2 and #3 abilities feel strong and useful (except shatter stone). The problem is with the auto attacks. They are too weak and are too slow. Often you will cancel your auto attack so that you can cast your #2 – #5 abilities. Then once overlord is ready, you will cancel your auto attack to overload as soon as possible.
Scepter auto attack speed needs to be increased. This will increase their DPS and also allow you to finish casting the attack before you overlord or cast #2 – #5 abilites.
Mesmer:
With alacrity nerfed, chronomancer cooldowns are now 20% slower (1.33/1.66 = ~80%).
1. The default cooldown of key Mesmer abilities needs to be sped up by 10%.
This will accomplish a few things:
#1: season 2 chronomancer cooldown rates will be 10% slower than in season 1 (instead of 20% slower compared to season 1).
#2: Alacrity will remain as a 33% cooldown reduction team buff.
#3: Reducing cooldowns of mesmer abilities will buff non-chronomancer mesmers which will increase build diversity.
The new 5 stat amulet will also help with hybrid mesmer builds.
Revenant:
Revenant still seems pretty strong in season 2, I don’t think any massive changes need to be made. All the revenant weapons feel useful for various purposes.
The new 5 stat amulet will also help hybrid revs. If the new amulet provides too much damage + healing, then you can always slightly reduce healing coefficient values on skills.
Nerfs to necro boon corruption will also help rev a lot.
Engineer:
Engineer also seems pretty strong in season 2. I don’t think they need any nerfs.
I think other less used and weaker weapons/traits/utilities/kits need to be buffed. Engineers seem forced into 1 of 2 builds, which isn’t fun.
The nerfs to necro boon corruption will help scrappers and elixir engineers. And the new 5 stat amulet will help hybrid engineers.
Guardian:
With their low HP pool, guardians also rely on their heals and boons to keep them alive. Additionally, guardians tend to do hybrid DPS due to all the burning the apply. The new 5 stat amulet will help guardians a lot. Nerfs to necro boon corruption will also help guardians.
1. All the 1-hand guardian weapons feel weak. The attacks miss a lot. Scepter auto attack projectiles need to be sped up or given some homing ability. 1-hand sword and 1-mace auto attacks either need to have more range/cleave or do more damage.
2. Spirit weapons need to be buffed. They are just so clunky to use and feel weak.
Warrior:
I like the healing buffs to warrior in this latest patch. I think the 5-stat amulet will help them even more. By using this amulet, warriors would lose their crit power, but they would gain tankyness. Combine this amulet with burst precision (100% crit chance on burst skills) or rune of the daredevil (100% crit after dodge roll) or sigil of intelligence (3 100% crits after weapon swap) and you can have warrior who can do high damage with his bursts, but also has the sustain so that he can do it again. This amulet would also work well with hybrid damage builds using burns and bleeds.
Note: if this new amulet provides warrior with too much damage + healing you can always once again just slightly reduce the healing power coefficients on his healing abilities.
Ranger:
Rangers/Druids still feel strong in season 2, however they once again get punished by necro boon corrupt. Nerfing necro will help druid a lot. The new 5 stat amulet will also help druid as he tends to do lots of hybrid damage and relies on lots of healing.
1. Shortbows feel inferior to staves and longbows for short ranged damage. Short bow should be buffed so that is it noticeably better than long bow/staff in close range. Maybe change it to have a 100% chance to bleed for 2s regardless of the target’s facing.
2. While the longbow/shortbow/staff auto attacks feel “crisp” and accurite, the axe main hand auto attack feels very cumbersome. The projectile speed of the axe auto attack should be increased.
3. Smoke scale and bristleback are by far the strongest pets. Their high burst damage abilities should get a slight nerf. Other pets need to be buffed to be roughly the same power as the “slightly nerfed” smoke scale and bristleback.
(edited by Barnesy.5839)