Hi ,
Let me introduce my self , i’m a average pvp player (made it to legend x2 both season , was top 100 EU in the first ladders.), there is nothing great about me but i think I have a good knowlege on most classes/ specs , since i play every single class exept Ele.
I think this balance patch went in the good direction , reducing the gap between the core classes and the Elites ones. Some traits and skills might have been overnerfed , but i think it’s to soon to know if they became worthless.
scrapper :
Scrapper sustain nerf and stealth giro nerf are great nerfs. The rocket charge is clunky , they should rework it but reducing the leaps is also preventing to many water field/leap combos. Scrapper is still a bit stronger than regular engi.
Engi:
Slick shoes was way to strong even back then on regular engineer , but the recent change are maybe to much of a nerf , the healing turret nerf makes it weird to use but it give counter play to engi’s sustain and I think it promotes a better gameplay.
Now the biggest problem on engineer is the projectile hate that’s going on this game , the random stab procs and the increasing number of unblocable hits and the fact Pistol/x engi has no reliable way to condi cleanses ( lets remember engi is 70% projectiles offencively , most combos on riffle engi are focused on overcharged shot and 50% of his defences are blocks).
Reaper :
Reaper changes to Chill is a huge nerf , i can’t say yet if it will be useless or not but reaper is now verry close to core necro levels. I think the stability nerf was maybe to much. Chill needed to be adressed , it was obviously to strong , but nerf hammer was maybe to big, let’s wait and see. But i think this nerf was good since it brings core class close to elite one. (Problem is some classes remain way to strong wich puts reaper in a bad situation.)
Necro :
Overal nothing change here , the class still suffers from focus fire in pvp , but it’s putting à lot more presure than what it used to do before (pre scepter buff). We need a proper balance to see where it stands now.
Herald :
This class is simply just the best class you can pick if you wan’t a power speced sustainable / mobile / evasive and bursty class. The little nerf they brought to rev are to small compared to the other nerfs (lets forget about chronomancer here.). I just think herald trait line is to strong in the first place and some mechanics on weapons are to strong.
Revenant :
I din’t try this out so I can’t tell if ventari will become somehow close to good. but for what I know revenant is a verry strong class , some weapon skills could be towned down (same as for herald.) it’s still way closer to be balanced than herald.
Chronomancer :
Chronomancer based on condition damage is just to strong at the moment, the double moa + continuim split is way to strong and should be adressed . The acrilty buff gave this build verry high presure in most scenarios , especialy in 1v1 and situations where mesmer can +1 with the portal. This build is no where close to core mesmer.
Mesmer :
Scepter buff din’t do much here , it’s not a competitive weapon and I don’t think scepter buffs on regular mes will help , nor the off hand sword buff. Power messmer is weak vs high sustain classes and has nearly no acces to condition clear, they should maybe look into this for regular mesmers.
Overal Chronomancer stomps every thing now is not remotely close to be balanced / in line with core specs.
Dragon hunter :
The nerf made the dragon hunter closer to the regular meditation guardian , it’s still a bit stronger but my thoughs is it’s close to be balanced. I still have to say CC / stab on a passive trait is nowhere near fun they should put this on bow 3 and remove the range tresh hold. The unblocable pull is also reducing the skill floor on this class. I’d rather see Anet remove the unblocable part of these 2 skills and revert the nerfs on true shot.
And work from there to make it similar to core class levels. Overal I din’t like the changes even if it puts DH closer to Medguard levels, I feel like they did it the wrong way.
Guardian :
Bunker guardian need a trait that significaly increase it’s HP in the less used trait lines. The changes they made to virtues are in the good direction to make bunker guard a bit more viable. But we are far from cleric ele support. Mediguardian and burn guardian used to be strong before HOT I think they are at the “sweet” balance spot.
I could continue this list , but i think you got the idea.
It’s great anet nerfed Elite specs , but the problem is they did it in a weird way, hard nerfing some HOT specs whyle they din’t touch other verry strong HOT specs.
(edited by Abimes.9726)