Guild Wars 2

Spartacus.3192:

Rarnark.5623:

Really?

The only Tier 1 meta build playing this amulet at the moment is condi mesmer. Do you really think the amulet is broken or does condi mes just have broken mechanics? This is going to kitten so many specs that are on the fringe of viability at the moment.

My goodness the balance team is lost……

smh((

Mercenary Amulet was used by the Meta builds for Mesmer, Necro and is currently used by Condi Warriors and if anyone did play Condi Rev it was used by that also. So no its not a niche amulet used only by condi mesmer.

Yeah i said “Tier 1” builds. I didn’t say mesmer was the only one using mercenary amulet, it’s simply the only class using the amulet that is out of hand at the moment. Necro, Condi Rev, and Condi Warrior are fine as is in terms of relative power to other specs and mercenary removal is going to kitten those specs by a HUGE amount giving us an even smaller number of builds to choose from. Honestly, I shouldn’t even need to explain this.

Mightybird.6034:

Good change. There was a reason (before HoT) there weren’t any condi amulets with tough + vitality. A step back toward having to choose a weakness .

And what has already been said, this will increase amulet use, instead of every single condi build using mercs.

There was also a reason why nobody played condi before HoT.

sigh…good bye burn warr….

In retrospect at this point of the game, mercenary was a bit broken. It gives out a lot of offense with good defense. There’s little trade-off. Still, this is reckless. My melee burn warr was only effective with merc amulet, now he’s DONE. I wonder how many other professions’ builds were completely nuked from the face of the earth!

There should be better efforts to actually balance professions themselves and get to the root of the problems instead of hacking away amulets willy-nilly.

Dramen Maidria.1034:

All hail the new revenant overlords

Where have you been? Rev and Mesmer have been the best two classes for the first two seasons. Rev has been broken during that time and will continue to be broken in S3 unless there is some surprise nerf next week.

My hope is the balance changes are significant enough to offset the loss in survivability for the few builds that genuinely relied on it. It needed to go but there are some things that only worked because of it that were not even remotely op.

Mesmers is going back to be food for the high pressure builds. Nice job Anet.

Warrior can use destroyer in compensation of merc amulet being removed if they desire condition dmg, the amulet is quite strong in terms of dmg. Same thing goes for mesmer… Sorry that you’re going to have to start being good at playing those classes in order to kick kitten but thats the way the game should be right?

Mr Godlike.6098:

Eh another proof that nobody from balance team reads profession forums…and any other kind of player feedback…I just waiting when they will remove cleric amulet and buff sceptre dps on my ele so it will be removed from pvp completely.

They do read it.

I see so many brain dead people cry for removal of Mercenary Amulet.

it might seem the right choise for pvp
every class should have role
condimes had 2
good roaming with portal and good 1v1 while also good in holding the point

but warrior now has the same abilities with great regen 880 per sec, immunity to direct dmg for 10 sec, resistance for 24 sec, even if they use viper as their base armor is higher and health pool.

messiah.1908:

it might seem the right choise for pvp
every class should have role
condimes had 2
good roaming with portal and good 1v1 while also good in holding the point

but warrior now has the same abilities with great regen 880 per sec, immunity to direct dmg for 10 sec, resistance for 24 sec, even if they use viper as their base armor is higher and health pool.

Yes the damage immunity is ridiculous and lets warriors stop using their reaction time to avoid damage.

Sorry if i seem aggressive but I’ve had a rough night and I apologize beforehand if i offend anyone but this needs to be said.

Removing amulets is all well and good if they are overperforming but let’s take a look at the reality of the situation:
-Literally only 1 build in the entire game is overperforming with this amulet, removing it just limits build diversity in other classes.
-The overperforming can be changed with 1 easy fix and then the rest of the ridiculous balance can be addressed after
-Build diversity will never exist if we make stupid band aid fixes like this. Hybrids are a good thing to have in a game but where cele was too strong, most of the other ammys are either not utilized because something is better or being removed because ONE build is too effective. Sorry for being straight forward but this is what i honestly consider to be a stupid balance decision.
-You see how once you remove these ammy’s the builds stay the exact same but with a new ammy? It’s not a problem with the ammy and if it’s not in your power to make balance decisions then don’t touch it. Instead put pressure on the balance team to start making better decisions, take community feedback and act on it quicker, separate balancing in each mode because it is atrocious right now, and if need be hire new people to be in charge of said projects because as it is now, the only thing keeping most people from playing the game is how gimmicky and faceroll it has gotten due to opness in builds.

Now that I’ve listed complaints, here are some suggestions to take into account right now to either give you guidelines or possible approaches to balancing (I’ve said this a ton of times but I’m obligated to list these things if I’m going to complain):
1) Revert the condi stacking change in pvp and wvw. Make every condi unstackable (in intensity) outside of bleed and reduce the damage they do so that condi builds will actually be DoT not alternative burst.
2) Remove ALL passive counter cc traits. The auto break can stay in those traits or gaining prot/retal/etc. but passive counter cc needs to disappear COMPLETELY
3) Reduce base everything across the board but improve scaling. Force people to invest stats into an area to be effective there, not barely touch it and still get the full benefit. The issue right now is so many HoT things do such high base damage that people can build tanky and still hit as hard as a vanilla zerker. Forcing investment will remove the “ideal build” situation we have gotten into and it’ll open up a place for actual roles to emerge within the many game modes.
3) Reduce the amount of aoe present and reduce the damage of aoe so that single target always hits harder. Should be common sense but it is not this way right now and something needs to be done to make it so.
4) Reduce the amount of blocks/invulns in the game. Things like chronomancer, scrapper, dh, etc. all have insane amounts of blocks, invulns, and heals that they are either unkillable or they take a ridiculous amount of time to kill which should never be the case.
5) Reduce cc present because it’s silly how much there is. The game should be designed around comboing and chaining to beat opponents, not button mashing until something dies.
6) Remove any buffs to ressing (any 10% faster traits, S+R, etc.) so it’s uniform across the game
7) Reduce the amount of defenses combined with strong attacks. I.E fewer evades that do damage simultaneously (Thief sword 3 is good because the damage is low and after the evade. Rev sword 3 and scrapper’s rocket charge are bad cause they do damage and evade at the same time while sticking to you hard. Mesmer sword 2 is okay because you are rooted)
8) Remove all gimmicks from the game. This should be accomplished if everything else above is done but in the future all gimmick builds need to be destroyed because there’s no fun in that and there’s no skill involved.
9) Remove the full investment into traitlines change. Let people take multiple parts of multiple traitlines to increase diversity. (basically the old trait system with enough points to max 3 and no stats gained from traitlines)
10) Reduce the presence of boons in the game and remove some of necros corruption ability (corruption on scepter auto) but in return add more boon hate to other classes. (I.E. stolen boons steal the full stacks and duration).

Class Specific:
Daredevil:
-Remove Bound’s damage and keep the leap
-Add a 5 sec icd to impacting disruption
-5 Sec icd to dash’s condi removal
-Reduce the condi stacked by lotus training (1 impact per person)
-Increase cd of bandit’s defense
-Reduce the endurance gain from channeled vigor to 50 endurance total given at the end of the skill

Thief:
-Reduce cd of Roll for Initiative
-Sword 2 return is instant but can’t be used while hard cced. Remove 2 condis
-Sword 3 cycles on blocks, after all it hits something (still fails to cycle on blind, dodge, etc.)
- Backstabbing into a block strips stealth but no reveal is applied. Reveal only applied when damage is dealt
-Stealth removed from all other classes and given only to thief in order to balance its possibility as a defensive tool. Other classes compensated with alternate defenses for the loss of stealth.

Scrapper:
-Hammer damage toned down significantly
-Hammer 3 does 1 leap
-Hammer 2 damage reduced and reflect now instant. Longer cd.
-Block gets damage removed and instead does damage to those who hit you while you are blocking
-Hammer 5 reduce range to 900

All other vanillas are fine imo so especs are the only ones that need addressing. Keep in mind that all the other changes above would be put in place so if there aren’t many changes lsited keep in mind there’d already be a ton beforehand.

Druid:
-Pet damage significantly reduced as base and pet stats now match that of the ranger (do not change if the ranger is given might but the pet is not. Do not benefit from food buffs) no more full bunker druid’s killing people because AI does the work for them

Tempest:
-Aura heals reduced
-Obsidian flesh now prevents you from attacking. Utility skills still available.

Herald:
-Surge of the mists damage reduced significantly (like 40% damage reduction, it’s already a strong evade and cc, doesn’t need a ton of damage too) as compensation some of that damage is given to other parts of the set.
-Shiro teleport no longer makes attacks unblockable. a port is strong enough on a 5 sec cd
-Precision strike damage buffed by 10% but only 1 projectile can hit a target. cd increased by 2 sec
-Unrelenting assault damage reduced and cd increased

Reaper:
-Reaper shroud 5 damage reduced by 10%
-Scepter auto no longer corrupts boons

Dragonhunter:
-Block uptime reduced
-True shot cd increased by 3 sec
-Test of faith damage reduced
-Remove daze from traps and instead just reduce the recharge
-Porting/shadowstepping through traps no longer procs cc from them or damage

Chronomancer:
-Clone summoning abilities reduced (chrono only, base mesmer is fine)
-C split no longer affects elites (moa duration can be reverted if need be to compensate)
-Shield block is 3 sec and only happens 1 time, not 2 times.
-Reduce access to cc HEAVILY

Berserker:
-Range on arcing slice rage mode skill reduced
-Stuns will only apply condis if they interrupt. Spam needs to be discouraged while skilled timing is to be rewarded

This is by no means my full proposal but it is a very big taste of what I believe needs to happen. Please put time and efforts into this rather than limiting our options by removing stats! I have defended this company for a long time saying “they will fix it all soon” please don’t prove me wrong.

Edit: Forgot runes
-Passive “when you are hit” procs removed

why yall think mesmer gets fixed? instead of 560 toughness they got 560 healing power now i dont think thats a huge difference

Druid:
-Pet damage significantly reduced as base and pet stats now match that of the ranger (do not change if the ranger is given might but the pet is not. Do not benefit from food buffs) no more full bunker druid’s killing people because AI does the work for them

Try to play 5 games with non hot pets, actually play with the wyverns, and then realize how wrong you are. Only 2 pets are good for damage and that is only because they can hit moving targets reliably.

Just to remind everyone a canine pet can crit up to 7k (depending on armor) with brutal charge or crippling leap while under the effect of remorseless & attack of opportunity (signet of the hunt, moment of clarity, hilt bash), a drake pet can hit even harder with tail swipe but these pets are not reliable. Hot pets are not the ones with the biggest burst but they are the ones that hit most often with theirs, so stop kittening about it.

I know the balance is hard in a MMORPG. But can you make a Raid with out Tank Heal DPS? Tank Heal DPS is not necessary for Riad, more movement and coordinate is a better choice in Raid. Tank Heal DPS make hard to balance other paths of the game. Healing , High Condition Damage ,Block , CC , AOE out of contorl is not health in PVP and WVW. This will make the game boring to watch , playing and need more team fight. A team have ele and without is so difference in same level because of healing and cleaning. This will kicked out the newbie and solo ppls they want join/try the PVP. GW2 is the last hope of MMORPG. Pls don’t make it die.

Oh wow I really did not expect merc amulet to be removed. I don’t think this is a bad change because so many condi mesmers were using it (including myself) and I think it was part of what was making them overpowered. I am looking forward to having to learn how to play with another amulet, maybe wanderers.

Lol saw this coming, I dunno why “dire is imba so we’ll nerf by adding it with power!” was considered a good idea.

I don’t really mind seeing it go, but there are going to be other major issues that will not get addressed in relation to this, and season 3 will be same status quo just different meta and roster of apex predators.

This is A-nets sought after fluctuating meta all forced by the designs of buffs and nerfs.

Ok dev team I’m going to say that this change is a step in the right direction but I do want to bring some underlying problems into the light, direct damage classes are suffering. To look at a specific class Thief has been kicked and had its legs broken since the launch of HoT even with the damage buffs they don’t address the problem of survivability with the class, as a person who plays thief extensively I would say I am qualified to say this. The class would be fine if they had ways to counter the abilities of other classes giving them an innate way of ignoring active defenses of classes (block, invulnerability, etc.) but this would be wildly overpowered. Thieves need more ways to avoid damage and strip condition damage off themselves so they can survive and slip away when under fire. The nerfing of condition damage would be a godsend for people who play the direct damage thief build but that would cause riots from those who like to use something that requires less brain power than picking their nose (looking at you, yes you, you know who you are). It does not need to be something easy to use for a thief, they are supposed to be high skillcapped to play, but a way of breaking out of the massive stun and condi combos that opponents use that destroys everyone but the most powerful classes at this time would be rather nice. In all I just want you to understand that thieves need more than damage to survive in pvp so if at all possible could you give them some more innate ability to survive that would be much appreciated by all thieves.

Sincerely your loyal player and customer,
Alavant

P.S. Just a side note I really want a return of sword thief as it gave variety to what thief was so if you could make sword more viable that would be really nice. Please?

On the other hand, team fight is not good in a e-sport and it like a toxin. You can contrast LOL, DOTA and HOTS. Team fight will cut the newbie/solo to join your game, make the player pool do not growing up. The match also not good to watch. People want to see a star to do they cannot do. Like Sizer, Magic Toker, ROM. If everyone can do the same skill or solo skill is not influences the match or stack in a chaos fight than the match will go boring. Don’t forget Star and good match is disseminate your game with no cost.

Are there going to be replacement amulets for condition builds with just one minor defensive stat, like Wanderer’s?

Josh Davis.6015:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

When will anet realize, that amulets are not the (main) issue?

As mentioned in the OP, there will be a few balance changes coming next week as well, but runes/sigils/amulets are one of the things the PvP team can change on our own without impacting the rest of the game. To be clear: the PvP team, just like fractals/raids/wvw/etc, does not handle profession balance – there is a separate team for that.

Which is a shame because profession imbalance is still quite a problem, especially for pvp, in this game and very little effort has been made to not make elite specs just straight up buffs in many cases.Balance wise Anet needs to step up a bit.

I’m not really understanding the moan regarding removing this amulet or believeing ‘this is targetted directly at the class i play’ nonsense. They clearly said
a) they wont introduce dire to pvp since its imbalanced
b) when they added this amulet in they said they are keeping an eye on it since it may be too strong

How is it even a surprise its being removed?

Why not remove paladins too? Same exact stats as merc. but instead of condi damage it has precision.

Because of the difference between condi and power damage, how they scale, and their supporting stats with relevance to pvp.

Spartacus.3192:

bLind.6278:

Well, so long warriors, again.

No. Power War with Demolisher GS X/Shield will be very good in Season 3 since Mesmer/Necros are squishier now.

Demo-War has no problem whatsoever against Necro, but it’s pretty even against Mesmer, so it’ll help there for sure.

Also, War could still use various other amus. Even running LB with demo-amu works pretty well.

I feel too many people are looking at the change froma worng perspective. The problem is not about hybrid builds or 4 stat amulets, it’s about packing too much defense on a condition amulet.

Unlike power damage, which rarely works outside of some very specific builds, condition damage is usually dangerous enough with a single stat investment, so Condi/Thoughness/Vitality and Condi/Thoughness/Healing combos can easily create monsters.
Balanced condition amulets need to have points asigned into “filler” stats or offer combinations which are far from ideal, basically because they need less total stat points to work.

If Dire were available in PvP, many of the classes which have been using Mercenary would be using that instead at the cost of some stat points. I wouldn’t be surprised eitherabout Mercenary remaining popular if it would lose half of its Power, maybe even the whole 1050 stat points.

For every hybrid build to remain somewhat viable, all we need is a new amulet with Ferocity instead of Vitality, which should cover the needs, maybe even be a buff, for those builds relying on sigil of intelligence for big direct damage spikes.
A Condition Damage/Power/Precision/Vitality amulet wouldn’t probably hurt at all either.

Obviously, there needs to be some additional balance changes on classes too. Mercenary removal is a hit for pretty much any condition build, most of them not being top tier picks, and definitely puts Power Herald on an even more dominant position.
The removal, however, is by itself a step in the good direction.

Endownment effect.

What are you guys onto about? Merc amulet was the sole reason condi builds were so strong. This is a good change. Now they’ll either go glass condi or power, not both. Their skills would not hit for much, leaving most of the damage to be done through conditions. Which should’ve been the case to begin with. There shouldn’t exist any +power +condi.damage amulets. Ever. Otherwise the AI play is too strong. It’s the one thing I don’t like about this game’s PvP.

Will you please consider removing clerics amulet as well? It really should have went away when the other “bunker” amulets were removed….

Also would you mind swapping rune of leaderships +stat from all stats to vitality? It would be really cool if the full set could also add a +vitality % bonus based off of precision as well along with changing condition removal from the use of elite to the use of shouts.

Its basically a soldiers rune at this point with boon duration replacing the toughness and slightly more vitality, there is a particular class with a very low base hp pool which would greatly benefit from a rune set like this if it wanted to try and aim for a more damage oriented build…

PS: TY josh for keeping us in the loop, you have no idea how much I appreciate this.

Why are you destroying build diversity instead of toning down the one class that relied on the amulet to be so strong ? Why not go for fixing the class instead ? Why do you have to ‘fix’ other builds that had no problem whatsoever

I do understand why Mercenary Amulet wasn’t a good idea to be begin with, but it still only gave birth to that one extremely strong build. Alongside that one there were other ones for different classess – something for that the much needed build diversity a lot of people complain about.

Maybe the patch before season 3 will surprise me (don’t believe it’s possible though).

And R.I.P necro. Cause it really needed another nerf. If the last patch downed him, this one just stomped it.

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

Shadow Bane.9362:

RIP Burn Guard too? It was a fun distraction. In the right comps it could even work. More of a toy build but now less fun options for guardians again. I have a swell of pity for everyone who mains guard right now not necessarily because of this but in general they’re in such a kitten situation in almost all game modes.

Glad I’m not the only one. Wow. There goes my kittening burn guard. Had some promising results in unranked. I was like maby. Just maby this could work. But nope. Guess i won’t get the chance to find this out in ranked. On the other hand necro’s and mesmers are a lot squishier now. So yeah. And how funny, to do change this right before the season starts.

I played burn guard for the complete last season. Yes, it was never meta but who gives a crap? I always played guard in pvp, and I seriously fell in love with that build. It just so feels so kitten good killing the same power rev three times in a row because he dodges the traps and doesn’t realize that the burn is what is killing him.

With the necro I can just go back to playing vipers amulett, but a guard with vipers is just dead meat. Mercenary already felt incredibly squishy at times, with medium health pool and all. Now I have no idea what build I could run with a guard what will still be somewhat viable. Any suggestions?

Ashamir.9574:

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

Shadow Bane.9362:

RIP Burn Guard too? It was a fun distraction. In the right comps it could even work. More of a toy build but now less fun options for guardians again. I have a swell of pity for everyone who mains guard right now not necessarily because of this but in general they’re in such a kitten situation in almost all game modes.

Glad I’m not the only one. Wow. There goes my kittening burn guard. Had some promising results in unranked. I was like maby. Just maby this could work. But nope. Guess i won’t get the chance to find this out in ranked. On the other hand necro’s and mesmers are a lot squishier now. So yeah. And how funny, to do change this right before the season starts.

I played burn guard for the complete last season. Yes, it was never meta but who gives a crap? I always played guard in pvp, and I seriously fell in love with that build. It just so feels so kitten good killing the same power rev three times in a row because he dodges the traps and doesn’t realize that the burn is what is killing him.

With the necro I can just go back to playing vipers amulett, but a guard with vipers is just dead meat. Mercenary already felt incredibly squishy at times, with medium health pool and all. Now I have no idea what build I could run with a guard what will still be somewhat viable. Any suggestions?

Maybe try this build from the test section of metabattle…it was using mercenary before but they changed it to sages’ ammy…

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_Burning_Arrows

Edit: provides some added sustain via healing power and more vitality

Ravenmoon.5318:

What are you guys onto about? Merc amulet was the sole reason condi builds were so strong. This is a good change. Now they’ll either go glass condi or power, not both. Their skills would not hit for much, leaving most of the damage to be done through conditions. Which should’ve been the case to begin with. There shouldn’t exist any +power +condi.damage amulets. Ever. Otherwise the AI play is too strong. It’s the one thing I don’t like about this game’s PvP.

Not condie but hybried builds, and it was used by condie players because ther is none other amulet that give U condi dmg with vit and toughness. And if U did not realise condis need time to kill an oponent, and still they can be cleansed just by one click skill. Going condi U need time and tanky stats give U that.

Jesus guys, to all of you complaining that this will ‘kill’ warrior… warriors been dead for a long time, but if you want to keep your condi warr alive, you can just use carrion… same stats, you will just give up the toughness. I think removing merc amulet was a good move, just gave you too much of everything.

Bjarkov.9751:

Jesus guys, to all of you complaining that this will ‘kill’ warrior… warriors been dead for a long time, but if you want to keep your condi warr alive, you can just use carrion… same stats, you will just give up the toughness. I think removing merc amulet was a good move, just gave you too much of everything.

I think sage ammy warr could be descent as well

Ravenmoon.5318:

What are you guys onto about? Merc amulet was the sole reason condi builds were so strong. This is a good change. Now they’ll either go glass condi or power, not both. Their skills would not hit for much, leaving most of the damage to be done through conditions. Which should’ve been the case to begin with. There shouldn’t exist any +power +condi.damage amulets. Ever. Otherwise the AI play is too strong. It’s the one thing I don’t like about this game’s PvP.

Do you mean there should not be any +Condi +Power as primary stats ? In that case I agree with you.
But having 1050 Power/560 Condi or the contrary is a good thing for hybrid builds though. Especially since they are slowly pushing some weapons into hybrid roles….

Ashamir.9574:

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

Shadow Bane.9362:

RIP Burn Guard too? It was a fun distraction. In the right comps it could even work. More of a toy build but now less fun options for guardians again. I have a swell of pity for everyone who mains guard right now not necessarily because of this but in general they’re in such a kitten situation in almost all game modes.

Glad I’m not the only one. Wow. There goes my kittening burn guard. Had some promising results in unranked. I was like maby. Just maby this could work. But nope. Guess i won’t get the chance to find this out in ranked. On the other hand necro’s and mesmers are a lot squishier now. So yeah. And how funny, to do change this right before the season starts.

I played burn guard for the complete last season. Yes, it was never meta but who gives a crap? I always played guard in pvp, and I seriously fell in love with that build. It just so feels so kitten good killing the same power rev three times in a row because he dodges the traps and doesn’t realize that the burn is what is killing him.

With the necro I can just go back to playing vipers amulett, but a guard with vipers is just dead meat. Mercenary already felt incredibly squishy at times, with medium health pool and all. Now I have no idea what build I could run with a guard what will still be somewhat viable. Any suggestions?

Hmm, Well atm I’m thinking of replacing it with carion.

Well the build I intended to use was this.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRArd8flsAhyhY1QwbIwPEH+DlNAqg6M/gV4FeD3L4DA-TZhAQBX4BAAxyAU4MAAgDCgO2fAA

Thanx to the mercenary amulet. It also has like a very high base damage, And thanx to right hand strength and the fury i get from my mediations. I could also crit often and use my sigil of fires. Espically when i use smite which does multiple hits. the 7 percent damage boost on burning foes thanx to runes of the flame legion also makes it quite handy. the damage was high for both power and condi damage.

Guess I will have to replace it with carrion. But man the lack of toughness is realy going to make it hard. Even with the 2.7 k toughness. I couldn’t exactly tank.

So yeah u could retain your same dps but it’s gonna be incredibly hard to survive. So yeah u can use this. with carrion and hope it works.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRArd8flsAhyhY1QwbIwPEH+D1NcvgPwGAVQdmfwK8CB-TZhAwAjLDc5BAQ5MAob/BAHEAA

foste.3098:

Druid:
-Pet damage significantly reduced as base and pet stats now match that of the ranger (do not change if the ranger is given might but the pet is not. Do not benefit from food buffs) no more full bunker druid’s killing people because AI does the work for them

Try to play 5 games with non hot pets, actually play with the wyverns, and then realize how wrong you are. Only 2 pets are good for damage and that is only because they can hit moving targets reliably.

Just to remind everyone a canine pet can crit up to 7k (depending on armor) with brutal charge or crippling leap while under the effect of remorseless & attack of opportunity (signet of the hunt, moment of clarity, hilt bash), a drake pet can hit even harder with tail swipe but these pets are not reliable. Hot pets are not the ones with the biggest burst but they are the ones that hit most often with theirs, so stop kittening about it.

So you’re justifying 2 overly strong pets based on the fact that the other pets aren’t as reliable? That is one of the worst arguments ever. The goal is once the damage is toned down on the pets to an acceptable level, the burden falls on anet to make every pet as reliable as smokescale and bristleback. You have to look into the future for these types of changes not just at the now. I personally can deal with it the way it is but for the sake of balance in the game there should be changes. I’d rather all pets be viable options rather than 2 be too strong and every other pet be put into a shelter because people like you neglect it.

Or let druids be happy that they finally have pets that don’t miss 9 out of 10 attacks

I’m on neither side but I do understand why the bitterness in his post

Vargamonth.2047:

…

Unlike power damage, which rarely works outside of some very specific builds, condition damage is usually dangerous enough with a single stat investment, so Condi/Thoughness/Vitality and Condi/Thoughness/Healing combos can easily create monsters.
Balanced condition amulets need to have points asigned into “filler” stats or offer combinations which are far from ideal, basically because they need less total stat points to work.
…

Your logic is only good considering the other amulet option.

If sPVP stat system would be like PVE or WvW, pure POWER build would wreck any Mercenary like stat system.

The thing is, even Berzerker amulet is not pure power enough to do that.

Hand holding spvp stats for the sake to balanced the game is bad.

A good balanced game, let the community find the solutions to meta build in giving the options to do so.

Adding or removing amulet is not options.

Options would be to have the freedom to build like we want.

Of course, some optimal build would be meta. But at least, the players could try to counter it with OPTIONS.

Now the only options is to QQ on forum, because Anet did removed our OPTIONS to balanced the META by ourself.

We need FREEDOM to do the META and counter it.

The PVP team should not add or delete amulet, they should adjust cap, soft cap, diminishing returns for sPvP stats.

brannigan.9831:

What a joke. It’s always some amulet that is a problem. It’s too hard to make tough decisions so make easy ones. Necros thank you for a bigkitten

Whats a necro?

Ario.8964:

foste.3098:

Druid:
-Pet damage significantly reduced as base and pet stats now match that of the ranger (do not change if the ranger is given might but the pet is not. Do not benefit from food buffs) no more full bunker druid’s killing people because AI does the work for them

Try to play 5 games with non hot pets, actually play with the wyverns, and then realize how wrong you are. Only 2 pets are good for damage and that is only because they can hit moving targets reliably.

Just to remind everyone a canine pet can crit up to 7k (depending on armor) with brutal charge or crippling leap while under the effect of remorseless & attack of opportunity (signet of the hunt, moment of clarity, hilt bash), a drake pet can hit even harder with tail swipe but these pets are not reliable. Hot pets are not the ones with the biggest burst but they are the ones that hit most often with theirs, so stop kittening about it.

So you’re justifying 2 overly strong pets based on the fact that the other pets aren’t as reliable? That is one of the worst arguments ever. The goal is once the damage is toned down on the pets to an acceptable level, the burden falls on anet to make every pet as reliable as smokescale and bristleback. You have to look into the future for these types of changes not just at the now. I personally can deal with it the way it is but for the sake of balance in the game there should be changes. I’d rather all pets be viable options rather than 2 be too strong and every other pet be put into a shelter because people like you neglect it.

Pet’s account for 30% of the ranger damage, this is the reason why ranger weapon skills’ damage coefficients are one of the weakest in the game. You know this right?

If you wanna nerf pets, Buff ranger weapon damage to thief levels.

I am betting now when that happens all of you guys will be complaining bout RF and LB AA or even maul being too strong.

Okay, here is my view on why the removal of Merc’s amu is a mistake.I’ll try to be objective and give reasons:

1) Removing an amulet reduces build diversity – this one is pretty simple.
2) What builds are currently using Merc’s amu? Condi-mesmer, necro and condi-war, but are they OP?

- Condi-Mesmer: I’m not too sure about if this build is actually OP or not since the Moa-nerf. Also, there’s the rise of condi-war, which absolutely shred them. Now there are 4 builds that can deal with condi-mesmer pretty well (win, or hold a point) in the current meta: necro (with either 4 shouts+soldiers or consume conditions, it’s IMHO a even, skill-based MU, slightly Mesmer favoured maybe), Ele can easily hold the point if he plays well, druid can actually even win and condi-war shreds the mesmer. This build would disappear with the removal of mercs amu.

- Necro: In a pretty decent place now, but removing Mercs would hurt it greatly. I have no clue why some ppl actually choose to run wanderers, it’s so much worse than merc’s.

-Condi-war: It’s too early to say if it’s OP, but it likely is. But the kicker is, that out of the 3 builds that use mercs amu, war has by far the easiest time going for another amulet.

3) There might be some builds that could use mercs amu in the future, based on how the patches look like, especially D/D-Ele and condi-thief, which greatly rely on the mercs amu, because they simply need the stats provided by it.

PowerBottom.5796:

Okay, here is my view on why the removal of Merc’s amu is a mistake.I’ll try to be objective and give reasons:

1) Removing an amulet reduces build diversity – this one is pretty simple.
2) What builds are currently using Merc’s amu? Condi-mesmer, necro and condi-war, but are they OP?

• Condi-Mesmer:* I’m not too sure about if this build is actually OP or not since the Moa-nerf. Also, there’s the rise of condi-war, which absolutely shred them. Now there are 4 builds that can deal with condi-mesmer pretty well (win, or hold a point) in the current meta: necro (with either 4 shouts+soldiers or consume conditions, it’s IMHO a even, skill-based MU, slightly Mesmer favoured maybe), Ele can easily hold the point if he plays well, druid can actually even win and condi-war shreds the mesmer. This build would disappear with the removal of mercs amu.

• Necro:* In a pretty decent place now, but removing Mercs would hurt it greatly. I have no clue why some ppl actually choose to run wanderers, it’s so much worse than merc’s.

• Condi-war:* It’s too early to say if it’s OP, but it likely is. But the kicker is, that out of the 3 builds that use mercs amu, war has by far the easiest time going for another amulet.

3) There might be some builds that could use mercs amu in the future, based on how the patches look like, especially D/D-Ele and condi-thief, which greatly rely on the mercs amu, because they simply need the stats provided by it.

I think p/p core engie which is running rampant nowadays too uses mercenary with grenades, I might be wrong though.

I also remember condi rev using mercenary iirc.

StickerHappy.8052:

PowerBottom.5796:

Okay, here is my view on why the removal of Merc’s amu is a mistake.I’ll try to be objective and give reasons:

1) Removing an amulet reduces build diversity – this one is pretty simple.
2) What builds are currently using Merc’s amu? Condi-mesmer, necro and condi-war, but are they OP?

• Condi-Mesmer:* I’m not too sure about if this build is actually OP or not since the Moa-nerf. Also, there’s the rise of condi-war, which absolutely shred them. Now there are 4 builds that can deal with condi-mesmer pretty well (win, or hold a point) in the current meta: necro (with either 4 shouts+soldiers or consume conditions, it’s IMHO a even, skill-based MU, slightly Mesmer favoured maybe), Ele can easily hold the point if he plays well, druid can actually even win and condi-war shreds the mesmer. This build would disappear with the removal of mercs amu.

• Necro:* In a pretty decent place now, but removing Mercs would hurt it greatly. I have no clue why some ppl actually choose to run wanderers, it’s so much worse than merc’s.

• Condi-war:* It’s too early to say if it’s OP, but it likely is. But the kicker is, that out of the 3 builds that use mercs amu, war has by far the easiest time going for another amulet.

3) There might be some builds that could use mercs amu in the future, based on how the patches look like, especially D/D-Ele and condi-thief, which greatly rely on the mercs amu, because they simply need the stats provided by it.

I think p/p core engie which is running rampant nowadays too uses mercenary with grenades, I might be wrong though.

I also remember condi rev using mercenary iirc.

True – they might have a bit of an easier time switching to another amu, but since the builds aren’t OP whatsoever, why remove the amu that works best for them?

Josh Davis.6015:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

When will anet realize, that amulets are not the (main) issue?

As mentioned in the OP, there will be a few balance changes coming next week as well, but runes/sigils/amulets are one of the things the PvP team can change on our own without impacting the rest of the game. To be clear: the PvP team, just like fractals/raids/wvw/etc, does not handle profession balance – there is a separate team for that.

So who should we send our bribes of cookies, cake, pies, fruit baskets… to?

PowerBottom.5796:

True – they might have a bit of an easier time switching to another amu, but since the builds aren’t OP whatsoever, why remove the amu that works best for them?

Because mesmers needed a nerf and just like with moa they found the easiest / laziest way to do it

Who cares if warrs would’ve barely made the meta (maybe – just maybe). Who cares that necros are dead now.

Since quite some time anet has been listening to the fans. I mean also look they nerf necro (I mean they nerf him into oblivion, but hey – they did it!).

And about the warr – I might be presumptuous, but considering the sorry state the warr has been since quite a long time ago, I think most are so happy about the buffs last patch that they don’t mind this at all – we’re just really really glad that next season maybe we won’t get flamed from playing warr in ranked (the kind you receive for not rerolling the class before the start)

See? Catering to the needs of the fans

Stop with this anet finding the laziest path nonsense, they already explained that the pvp team can only work with amulets/sigils/runes. These are changes the pvp team said they would be making, I’m just grateful they’re being more frequent with these pvp updates in general.

why don’t remove paladin also ? on different site ( condi damage, direct damage ) i find them similar … low risk high reward in term of damage

If build diversity means having extremely tanky builds do extremely high damage, I am all for removing build diversity. Proper balance is high defense = low offense and vice versa.

Is it possible that too may amulets is the part of the problem? Why not break it down to 3 main stats? Power / condi / healing, pick one of these and mix in precision / ferocity, or something like that? No defensive stats. It seems as though the professions would play the way they were meant to. Soldiers would be in the scrum slugging it out, adventurers would be bouncing in and out of melee / casting range and scholars would mostly stay at range. Of course all professions would be able to move around freely as they all have melee and ranged weapons.

No offense but should an ele or druid really be able to tank a capture point? No wonder warriors and guardians are still out of the meta.

Too many amulets doesn’t really mean more choices. It means if X prof uses X amulet they’re the best at X role. This is adds to the issue with certain professions not being in the “Meta”.

Balance is another issue, but if removing amulets will help then I’m all for it. If people think that’s the lazy way out or whatever, I’m okay with that.

This game doesnt follow a trinity, every class is supposed to have a few diff playstyles depending on weapon and traits.

Imo anet probably should try and work its way down to a smaller pool of amulets, their balance team in the past has not been making all the adjustments we want, perhaps less amulets will mean an easier time adjusting traits, weapon set values, etc…

The problem is not the amulet, its the classes that gain too much benefit from said amulet.

They need to just make it so certain classes cannot use certain amulets instead of removing them from everyone’s use.