Guild Wars 2

This is my minimal set of changes to try to balance out a few of the more overpowered specs in the current meta, and boost up a few things that need it. I tried to keep it brief and pinpoint-targeted, and also conservative to avoid over-balancing. If you guys have any suggestions or additions, feel free to comment! These are only my own opinions, so disagree or agree as you like. Enjoy.

• Stun breaks now also remove Immobilize.
• Players are now immune to control effects while already under a control effect. This is to prevent chained CC locks where the victim is unable to regain control of their character for extended periods of time if no stun breaker is available. Note: This change does NOT affect Fear and Immobilize, since those are conditions.
• Stability now has a visual cue, similar to Protection.

Warrior

• Healing Signet passive was decreased from 392(0.05) at level 80 to 342(0.08). The active was increased from 3275(0.5) to 4275(0.4).
• A casting time of 1/2s was added to Skull Crack. Damage was increased by 20%.
• Berserker’s Stance was fixed to actually lower incoming condition duration by 100%. It previously granted the user complete immunity to conditions.

Ranger

• Passive spirit procs now have an icd of 12 seconds, up from 10.
• Spirit of Nature now has 20% less health in PvP.

Engineer

• Elixir R can once again break stuns, and was reverted to its previous cooldown of 45 seconds.
• Toss Elixir R now revives by 12% per pulse, down from 17%.
• Rocket Boots now breaks stuns, and its cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
• Automated Response was fixed to actually lower incoming condition duration by 100%. It previously granted the user complete immunity to conditions.

Elementalist

• Lightning Flash can once again break stuns, and was reverted to its previous cooldown of 45 seconds.
• Ride the Lightning now has a flat cooldown of 25 seconds, regardless of whether or not it hits an enemy.

Guardian

• Purging Flames is now instant cast and has a radius of 360. The burning application has been changed so that it applies no burning upon casting and then 1s of burning every pulse. Its cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
• “Stand Your Ground!” cooldown has been increased to 35 seconds.

Thief

• Infiltrator’s Strike now requires line of sight, otherwise it will fail to teleport the user (Obstructed).
• Shadow Return (from Infiltrator’s Strike) can no longer be used while CCed.

Mesmer
No changes.

The active was increased from 3275(0.5) to 4275(0.4).

What is the point of this? The only usage of the active is when you’re <1000 health and have condition stacks on you.

Anyways, I do like the change, especially the warrior ones because they’re actually reasonable. Though, I think Unsuspecting Foe should have been included. I think if you replaced the Skullcrack nerf with moving Unsuspecting Foe to master it would be better, and it would also address the real issue which is hammer.

The only ones I really disagree with are the double nerfs to sword thief and the Stand Your Ground nerf.

i also think berzerker stance and ar are fine how they are atm. 1 is on a limited timeframe and the other only during a dangerous state of the player. nerfing zerker would really hurt builds without cleansing ire.

I actually agree with most of them. Not sure about RTL.

oh and…
Mesmers won’t get anything for Christmas? =/

hooma.9642:

nerfing zerker would really hurt builds without cleansing ire.

So… who again?

Larynx.2453:

The active was increased from 3275(0.5) to 4275(0.4).

What is the point of this? The only usage of the active is when you’re <1000 health and have condition stacks on you.

Anyways, I do like the change, especially the warrior ones because they’re actually reasonable. Though, I think Unsuspecting Foe should have been included. I think if you replaced the Skullcrack nerf with moving Unsuspecting Foe to master it would be better, and it would also address the real issue which is hammer.

The only ones I really disagree with are the double nerfs to sword thief and the Stand Your Ground nerf.

Increasing the Healing Signet active attempts to add some extra play to the heal, considering that currently, it would only be activated in a very small number of circumstances. If the passive is lower and active is higher, it becomes more of a decision as to whether you want the long-term or short-term benefits. More decisions for the player = more chance for skill to get involved.

Unsuspecting Foe and Hammer are both addressed by the change regarding chained CCs. With that change, UF becomes quite a bit weaker of a trait, and Hammer can no longer chain with other weapons/utils to 100-0 opponents.

Many still believe that s/d Thief holds down a number of builds, including many Mesmer and Ele builds. Those two changes are meant to address the surpression of that part of the metagame.

SYG is the most powerful utility in the game for PvP, partly because of its very short CD for the effect given. It’s only a 5 second increase, bunker Guard would still be easily viable after that change.

cymerdown.4103:

SYG is the most powerful utility in the game for PvP, partly because of its very short CD for the effect given. It’s only a 5 second increase, bunker Guard would still be easily viable after that change.

I thought it was a 15 seconds increase, my bad. I read it as 45 seconds.

Anyways, I still don’t agree with not nerfing Unsuspecting Foe, but whatever. It does at the least address the issue, which I am happy with.

Larynx.2453:

hooma.9642:

nerfing zerker would really hurt builds without cleansing ire.

So… who again?

troll?

hooma.9642:

Larynx.2453:

hooma.9642:

nerfing zerker would really hurt builds without cleansing ire.

So… who again?

troll?

Who does not take cleansing ire in their build?

condi uses it
hammer uses it
bunker uses it
greatsword uses it

Is there some rifle build I am not aware of that is sweeping the meta by storm?

Larynx.2453:

hooma.9642:

Larynx.2453:

hooma.9642:

nerfing zerker would really hurt builds without cleansing ire.

So… who again?

troll?

Who does not take cleansing ire in their build?

condi uses it
hammer uses it
bunker uses it
greatsword uses it

Is there some rifle build I am not aware of that is sweeping the meta by storm?

thx for proving that you are a troll

hooma.9642:

Larynx.2453:

hooma.9642:

Larynx.2453:

hooma.9642:

nerfing zerker would really hurt builds without cleansing ire.

So… who again?

troll?

Who does not take cleansing ire in their build?

condi uses it
hammer uses it
bunker uses it
greatsword uses it

Is there some rifle build I am not aware of that is sweeping the meta by storm?

thx for proving that you are a troll

What are you talking about? He is completely right. oO

I agree with almost all of these except for a few points:

I like the chain-cc change as completely losing control of your character is just not fun.

-Warrior should lose adrenaline (at least some) and go on a full CD for missed burst. No Cleansing Ire proc should come with that.

- Rocket boots to 40s would be really bummer for those who like mobility in other game-modes especially. I think rocket boots is fine as it is.
-I wouldn’t make elixir R a stunbreak unless bombs were nerfed back to their previous form in pvp. Engineer is REALLY strong right now, and giving them even more is setting them up to be the next Warrior.

-I would even suggest giving thieves back their second boon on larc. strike to partially compensate for fixing inf. strike/shadow return (the real culprit, imo).

-Eles would weep tears of joy, even though a 20s RtL would still be fine (remember that 20% range reduction they received at the time they were nerfing the skill and every ele build into oblivion – the range was the real issue).

Non-stacking CC would be a massive change, but I think it could work. It would add a skill component to landing spikes, which would raise the skill cap at the top tier, but it would also make things more casual-friendly at the bottom tier. I think simply saying “no stacking” would be better than trying to implement some kind of system of diminishing returns.

This change would also promote actually using interrupts as interrupts (whoah!) instead of just lockdown.

Any change that makes damage harder to land is an indirect buff to bunkers, though, so I’d expect to need to shave down some sustain along with that. Also, warriors would need a special tutorial to train them how to play the game like a normal person

On top of the no stacking CC, how about adding a 1s stability to all stun breaks

I think stun times need lowered or CDs raised, you don’t want to prevent CC overlapping because that does something awful to skill usage and unpredictability. If CC chains are too long, lower the time they last before you make them work clucky with one another.

Smarter update for Ranger’s, the problem isn’t the icd on the passive proc’s just go test spirit ranger and you will see what I mean it doesn’t always proc every 10 seconds, only in a perfect world it does. Most of the time it takes 15-20 seconds to proc the effect.

Ranger
- Elite: Spirit of Nature: Summon a spirit that gives nearby allies a 35% chance to gain regeneration on hit. Command the spirit to revive and cure conditions on nearby allies.
Regeneration: 10 seconds.
Duration: 60 seconds.

- Storm Spirit: Active skill, Call Lightning reduced to 2000 base damage.

They nerf Spirit Elite so doesn’t carry these ranger’s who only started playing the class when Spirit’s came out.

Also Storm Spirit is hole reason some builds (Ele) can’t fight a Spirit ranger.

ronpierce.2760:

I think stun times need lowered or CDs raised, you don’t want to prevent CC overlapping because that does something awful to skill usage and unpredictability. If CC chains are too long, lower the time they last before you make them work clucky with one another.

Well, be specific: what exactly are you worried about happening? I think it’s good – you should use CC in coordination with allies, and if you mess up and overlap them, you get punished by an Immune message.

Sol.4310:

Smarter update for Ranger’s, the problem isn’t the icd on the passive proc’s just go test spirit ranger and you will see what I mean it doesn’t always proc every 10 seconds, only in a perfect world it does. Most of the time it takes 15-20 seconds to proc the effect.

Ranger
- Elite: Spirit of Nature: Summon a spirit that gives nearby allies a 35% chance to gain regeneration on hit. Command the spirit to revive and cure conditions on nearby allies.
Regeneration: 10 seconds.
Duration: 60 seconds.

- Storm Spirit: Active skill, Call Lightning reduced to 2000 base damage.

They nerf Spirit Elite so doesn’t carry these ranger’s who only started playing the class when Spirit’s came out.

Also Storm Spirit is hole reason some builds (Ele) can’t fight a Spirit ranger.

Maybe, I do agree that Storm Spirit does more damage than it should. Though, the amount of protection and burning procs are sort of an unseen menance in teamfights: hard to calculate the effect but when you don’t have a Spirit Ranger you notice a sizable difference in team sustain. The effects have a 70% chance of proccing traited, so like 2 hits, or about a second or two on average. Turning the healing into a regen proc is an interesting idea, I hadn’t thought of that. The elite is quite a lot of healing as it stands right now, so that could be better. Doesn’t work well with other regen sources, though, so that’d be a pretty big nerf in some cases. Not sure if that heavy of a nerf is warranted, but maybe it is.

take a guess at which class OP plays. Im guna take a stab at mesmer

Peow peow.2189:

take a guess at which class OP plays. Im guna take a stab at mesmer

good guess

cymerdown.4103:

ronpierce.2760:

I think stun times need lowered or CDs raised, you don’t want to prevent CC overlapping because that does something awful to skill usage and unpredictability. If CC chains are too long, lower the time they last before you make them work clucky with one another.

Well, be specific: what exactly are you worried about happening? I think it’s good – you should use CC in coordination with allies, and if you mess up and overlap them, you get punished by an Immune message.

It’s just clunky, no one likes having their stuff say immune because they like to play to the .1 second and get screwed by lag/unlucky clipping, this game has done well with not purposefully making things clunky and annoying. If chain CCs ARE in fact an issue the better ways to handle it is either Diminishing returns (predictable) or making CCs last longer/have higher cooldowns (also predictable). Never let clunky mechanics lazily fix something that has more practical fixes.

Guardian
Searing Flames: Move to tier 3 radiance and make it remove a boon when you crit some one when theyre on fire. PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ; – ;

cymerdown.4103:

Thief

• Infiltrator’s Strike now requires line of sight, otherwise it will fail to teleport the user (Obstructed).
• Shadow Return (from Infiltrator’s Strike) can no longer be used while CCed.

I don’t think this can be changed in that way without anet, changing teleports in someway. Maybe like they did before, but these two changes hurt the thief more then they help the game. Thieves would still spam rolls to disengage, while being unpunished, even use dodges to dive for higher priority targets.

cymerdown.4103:

Sol.4310:

Smarter update for Ranger’s, the problem isn’t the icd on the passive proc’s just go test spirit ranger and you will see what I mean it doesn’t always proc every 10 seconds, only in a perfect world it does. Most of the time it takes 15-20 seconds to proc the effect.

Ranger
- Elite: Spirit of Nature: Summon a spirit that gives nearby allies a 35% chance to gain regeneration on hit. Command the spirit to revive and cure conditions on nearby allies.
Regeneration: 10 seconds.
Duration: 60 seconds.

- Storm Spirit: Active skill, Call Lightning reduced to 2000 base damage.

They nerf Spirit Elite so doesn’t carry these ranger’s who only started playing the class when Spirit’s came out.

Also Storm Spirit is hole reason some builds (Ele) can’t fight a Spirit ranger.

Maybe, I do agree that Storm Spirit does more damage than it should. Though, the amount of protection and burning procs are sort of an unseen menance in teamfights: hard to calculate the effect but when you don’t have a Spirit Ranger you notice a sizable difference in team sustain. The effects have a 70% chance of proccing traited, so like 2 hits, or about a second or two on average. Turning the healing into a regen proc is an interesting idea, I hadn’t thought of that. The elite is quite a lot of healing as it stands right now, so that could be better. Doesn’t work well with other regen sources, though, so that’d be a pretty big nerf in some cases. Not sure if that heavy of a nerf is warranted, but maybe it is.

Well I don’t see a point to adding 2 seconds to the icd, just seems like you are trying to find blanket cover when your looking at it all wrong when the icd isn’t the problem at all. There is a core problem to the build and trust me when I say it’s the Spirit of Nature and Storm Spirit.

Why Spirit of Nature healing is to strong. Healing Signet + Spirit of Nature + Regeneration + Guardian Support. Not one drop of Active game play from the warrior, now you add 320 Healing per-second + regeneration that is over 500 a second healing team wide. Now add in support a guardian already give’s + protection + dodge + blind + cc + any other types of control effect’s. Now that is for team fight only, also in 1v1 Spirit of Nature carries bad ranger’s and they win most of there fights due to the Spirit Elite not skill or well timed dodges.

Also Call the Lightning, here is good E.g. which happens allot to BAD ranger’s who think they are good. They run in Cast there Call the Lightning in there 1v1 then they cast it again over that 20seconds there waiting for the cd to come off the Spirit takes X amount of damage they get the 2nd Call the lightning off so within 20 seconds they done 6k damage right, now spirit dies 9k damage. What if it crit’s thats 5k damage. ITS ON A GOD DARN BUNKER BUILD….. So the Spirit Ranger just done 9k worth of damage ruffly in 25 seconds, now he can keep repeating it over and over.

Now think of it like this, Say you land your Call the Lightning in your 1v1 and you land the 2nd one and very soon after that the Spirit dies, now add in your pet’s damage and his F2 + the burning proc’s which also can come from Spirit’s Active skills and the pet + you. You can effectively beat someone using Storm Spirit – Spirit of Nature + Pet and not even use any other skills.

Nerf the Elite and Storm. I’ve been playing Spirit Ranger for so long now and I know why the build is so strong in many cases. But there is also 2 hard counter’s Engineer’s and Warrior’s.

Sorry if this seems like a one hell of a Rant but i hate Spirit Ranger so much. Nerf it so us real ranger’s can go back to playing our class and all the FOTM ranger’s who get carried and call it skill and go away and suck again.

Sol,

Fair enough, you have much more experience playing it, I only fight with and against it. Thanks for your input, hopefully a dev will read our suggestions.