Guild Wars 2

MarkPhilips.5169:

I’m not really sure these changes will change nothing, We can see now how a double bunker + 3 zerker comps (like TCG, 2 cele + 3 zeker) can do really well against a 4 cele/5 cele or soldier/1 zerk.

Hambow warrior was nerfed too with these changes (+ ele celestial/engi) so i think we’ll see a meta more shifted to zerker setup instead of a pure tank/bunker comps. Mesmer torch was buffed + TW.

Is it a buff for TCG comp? Maybe, i think it will be really interesting to watch next tournaments. I think TCG and 55hp with Strong mesmer meta will do the difference.

My two cents.

Apparently ROM, Tage and Denshee have left TCG to form a team with Cheese Mode. Only Helseth, Sizer and Texbi are left. What team comp are you talking about?

Concerned a bit about no nerf to IPowder and adding of Torment sigil.

I feel like P/S Spamgineer will be back in meta, with big bang, along with current position of Celengi.

Bonus damaging condition proc giving even more condition cover? No problem.

5 conditions application proc off proc with a single skill? No problem.

P/S engi is probably the least skill requiring engineer build, just after turret and yet it recives a buff. Now just add Perplex runes and there you go ANet, 50% of T1 WvW roaming radamer into PvP!

GG, WP.

As for Necromancer – I see that Power issues are here to stay.
And if you nerf Nightmare runes like that, either make fear proc in someSoE radius of affected attacker or further reduce cooldown to 50 seconds.

One last thing. Bonfire. I think that after the radius buff it might get a little crazy. It’s cool that the base radius will be bigger for non-trait users.

But honestly, every condi ranger picks that trait in Master Major. And the small point coverage with over 2 sec tick could be brutal. But not sure here.

I like these changes, the decreased the value of metabuilds and increased the value of nonmeta builds. hopefully the changes are good enough.

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast.

Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

While we’re at it, can we make it ground-targeted instead of random? I’m so tired of porting into an even worse AoE because of RNG gods. And dieing because I used a “survival” skill.

Did you pray to Lyssa before you press 2? I suggest you to do that first.

Terrahero.9358:

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

How is Mesmer’s downstate the best? Mesmer probably lost downstate fights to most of other professions. The deception movement is random which means you can end up in a worse position! This is so much weaker compared ele’s downstate where u just vapor to your allies for a ress.

Terrahero.9358:

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

As if this will have huge effect in pvp. I assure you, you wouldn’t run out of targets when you are downed.

But, i gotta agree this upcoming balance patch is crap. Ele ang engi need a direct nerf not just a nerf to a kitten sigil. Lame.

Exciton.8942:

Terrahero.9358:

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

How is Mesmer’s downstate the best? Mesmer probably lost downstate fights to most of other professions. The deception movement is random which means you can end up in a worse position! This is so much weaker compared ele’s downstate where u just vapor to your allies for a ress.

It’s the best along with Ele because it’s not possible to stomp it first try, unless you pop it as soon as someone starts stomping. Who cares about downed state damage, (even though mesmer is among the highest), it’s about getting back on your feet.

Terrahero.9358:

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

100% agree and i main mesmer.

If you cant win a 1v1 anyway as mesmer and they stealth stomp (thief is a bit more tryhard) then its your fault and you deserve to die anyway.

Most of the time when im in down state and the enemy stealths, there is usually SOMEONE or SOMETHING (AI eg, a treb, enemy on another node, a pet, a turret, ANYTHING red) in sight to just target and then use downstate 2.

It’s like they buffed something without buffing it, or needing any changes and im not sure why.

SlimChance.6593:

A dolyak can out run it. LITERALLY!!!!!!!

Stop lying!!!!!! That dolyak wasn’t even running!!!!

Shockwave.1230:

infantrydiv.1620:

I think most of us are just sitting here wondering how Arenanet manages to ignore balance issues with Engineer so well. cough cough Cele Rifle cough cough

I’m still wondering how they managed to ignore Incendiary Powder after calling Dhuumfire bad design and changing it to something with good design.

It’s also funny that they are apparently ignoring air/fire/doom.

I think we know the answer is Grouch

IP will hopefully be changed someday, hopefully the 16 second recharge 3 second dot block as well.

This!
And this explains why condi necro gets nerf each patch =)

i will list my personal feedback here based on my experience.

Changes to might: im okay with this. might was strong.

Sigil and runes change: nerf to battle is ok i guess. nerf to nightmare runes was needed.

however: no nerf to air/fire which is very disappointing.
__________________________________________

ele

drake’s breath: im okay with this. the burn was pretty long and the cd of the skill was low.

lightning whip: stowing abuse removed. that’s fine. i didnt do the maths but i wonder if 0,2s casting time less equals 10% damage.

comet: sure why not. but not many eles are using focus anyway.

shatterstone: useless. this skill sucks because of the mechanics/damage/utility and not because of the casting time.

dust devil: ok.

no changes to churning earth? make it like killshot, the more you channel it the more damage it deals but let us also use it unchanneled instantly for some bleeds and the cripple (not the full bleeds ofc).

ele got nerfed the most this time. it wont break ele but its a bit sad that engis and shout wars are allowed to stay as powerful as they are. as might nerf is equal and healing capabilities have not been touched i wonder if these classes can even kill each other now.

i hope there will also be trait changes. otherwise this is a huge letdown. still no other possibilities for offensive eles but fresh air which has the defense of a tissue. buff their survivability while reducing or changing the insta damage from air.

engi

Shrapnel Grenade: ok. this will tone mad king engis a bit down.

Throw Mine: ok. not too bad for power engis. not that they are viable^^

Launch Personal Battering Ram: overall the idea is good but the problem is the travel time and the casting time. a better way would be to make it instant and as fast as surprise shot but with less damage. this way i see it more like a random interrupt instead of something like thief’s headshot.

no changes to the passiveness of incendiary powder or transmute. disappointing.
no changes to turrets. even more disappointing.

guardian

litany of wrath: imo the problem of this skill is the initial heal. 1,6k is not enough. double it and this skill will be way better. the health return should be a bonus and not the main thing. if you see a guard activating this skill you know that a burst is coming.

shield of judgement: ok. wont make shield more viable than focus though. a way to make this skill more viable would be: knock your enemies back. for each enemy knocked back you and your allies will get 1 second of protection.

shield of absorption: ok. a bit more healing with the reduced cooldown.

zealot’s fire: ok. results in more dps for torch guards.

no changes to cleansing flame. more damage or simply a self cleanse with a nerf to overall cleanse of this skill would have been good.

mesmer cant talk too much about this one because i dont play mesmer very often.

Deception: i dont agree with this change. while this is mostly to annoy stealth stompes other classes like necro still get trolled by stealth stomp. especially with the unbalanced downed skills arenanet should keep equality.

phantasmal mage: increasing the initial confusion but lowering the rate of fire which results in less condi cleanse but more overall confus pressure. i just wonder why you keep buffing condi mesmers.

confusing images: same as above. why do you keep buffing condi mesmers? they are not weak at all and dont need to be buffed imo.

time warp: ok.

illusion of life: ok but i dont think that it will change much. most of the mesmers dont run this anyway and its a risky skill to begin with.

phantasmal defender: ok.

necro

Locust Swarm: good qol change but this skill is still not aoe. hello war/ranger aoe warhorn swiftness.

Corrosive Poison Cloud: overall this skill is way too weak. nobody uses it and its not because of the casting time. its a wasted utility slot if you take this one over a teleport or corrupt boon.

Signet of the Locust: maybe this is beneficial for MM. i dont see much use for it on condi or power necro though.

Signet of Undeath: meh its not really big and as i said above, its a wasted util slot if you take this one.

still no changes to the life force issue on start for necros. first fight for a necro is a pain since the anti-stack-before-match update.

ranger

throw torch: ok, makes landing it a bit easier.

bonfire: was needed. bonfire next to a combustive shot always felt so disappointing…

hunter’s call: was needed.

call of the wild: at least it has the same cd as the water field now. i still think that a bit more might stacks on this skill could have been beneficial.

heal as one: was needed. this skill was an invitation for interrupts.

tbh im not sure if this will help rangers enough to get back into the meta.
__________________________

thief

blinding powder: ok.

dancing dagger: even with faster travel speed this skill still sucks. the only time when this skill was good was on release when it dealt damage. why would a thief need this skill anyway? thieves are faster than any class so they dont need the cripple. rather give it torment or boonhate, 3% more damage for every boon on the enemy.

needle trap: still useless.

shadow pursuit: this trap was destroyed with the cooldown on destroy. while the increase in might duration is nice this trap will not see any use even with this change.

invigorating precision: this is actually an interesting change but i still think that this trait is not worth it as you need to crit. rather lower the % but enable it for all hits.

thief still locking most other dps classes out of the meta which is very bad for the game imo.
_________________________________

warrior

killshot: was needed. i dont think it will change much though. its still the same as churning earth and requires setup and is easily avoidable.

brutal shot: why was this on 1s casting time to begin with?

arcing slice: was needed.

rush: was needed. sometimes this skill just randomly failed.

i dont think the changes to rifle will increase its use. the changes for the gs are nice but then again the gs isnt such a great weapon for pvp overall.

not sure if leaving shoutbow untouched is a good idea but we’ll see.

overall im disappointed and i really hope that this is not all we get. you had enough time to figure some good changes out but all i see here are minor fixes.

most likely the meta will still be the same and thieves still lock other dps classes out except dps guard (which is locked out by ele).

i tried to be as constructive as possible and i hope that these changes are not final.

Good changes.
Shaving only needs to be a tad faster (3 months max).

Condie mesmers are not good. They are never viable at all.
I am also not sure about the image and confusing image change. But even after the maim buff, condie mesmers are still pretty bad. They can’t hold point. Their damage is okay but not enough to force a capture. Their contribution in team fight is also low. Bottom line is condie mesmer has some decent 1v1 ability but does not shine in any specific department.

still you can’t make them too strong so that they can perform well in teamfights because they already have good 1v1 capabilities. the problem with condi mesmer in pvp is, as you said, they’re not very good point holders because of their class mechanics (so are shatter mesmers) and their reliability on kiting and PU.

for many classes its very hard or even impossible to kill a condi mesmer in a 1v1. not every build is viable for conquest after all.

Terrahero.9358:

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

It highlights a real issue with Mesmer in general that those other classes don’t have to worry about when still up and fighting. That being that without a target, Mes is dead in the water where their skills are concerned. Want to summon a phantasm without a target? Can’t. Want to use your sword leap without a target? Can’t. Want to summon a clone off scepter AA, or use your long kitten confusing images channel? Sorry, cant. GS Mirror Blade, AA, summon a Warden to drop on a ranger to destroy projectiles? Cant.

But hey, whatever.

Meta is getting stale and boring. Probably time to buy that fancy ps4 and ditch this lame mmorpg.

Joke.

such changes would be acceptable on a monthly basis, not after 6 months.

this game is hopeless.

Josh Davis.6015:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/preview-of-upcoming-balance-changes/

Meanwhile….. 2015 ele’s permavigor, permaprotection and permaregen + engi’s incendiary powder still there untouched

but hey…now downed shatter mesmer can port even if the thief that rped him 1v1 with panic strike is stealth stomping…much wow, some serious op survivability buff right there…worthless in 1v1 and in teamfight you can just target anything else and still use downed 2…or maybe pve heroes couldn’t…who knows…

Terrahero.9358:

How can anyone take these devs serious?

•Deception: This downed-state skill no longer requires a target in order to cast. ? Dev note: This will allow for mesmers to better use their survival skill when facing an opponent using stealth.

They are buffing one of the best downed states in the game already, while leaving the professions with much weaker downed states in the cold. And the reason!? “Mesmers had trouble dealing with stealth stomping while downed”. Yeah, just like the Warrior, Engineer, Necro and Ranger, who all have an objectively worst Avoidance as it is.

Downed state has been unbalanced since forever, but hey lets buff one of the best right? And these are the people responsible for balance changes. Embarrassing.
No wonder the balance patch’s in this game suck and they can’t handle separating balance changes for different game modes. Unless of course it might harm and inconvenience pvp, then suddenly we can isolate changes to specific gamemodes.

BREAKING NEWS

In the early morning a large quanitity of white substance was found spilled on the gw2 forums. Officials on scene have confirmed the white substance as an intense mixture of Sodium and Chloride. The cause of the spill isn’t because of an increase in damage or sustain, but much to the surprise of many viewers due to the fact that the mesmer profession down state 2 ability will no longer require a target to be casted. Fearing the worst case scenario that mesmers will dominate the entire game from down state 2, we have sent our news crews into the hot spot with the all important questions " how do you feel about the fact that 90% of the time whena mesmer uses down state skill 2 they end up 1 cm from where they were and still gets spiked by the finish they were trying to avoid or they end up in even more aoe fields?". So far attempts to contact the person who made the statement has been all in vain, at this time we’d like to take the time to urge viewers not to start panicking. Please stay tune for this live coverage.

Looking at the balance patch made me sick to my stomach.. You are going to BUFF Ranger? that’s so ridiculous I can’t even express it accurately.

Jekkt.6045:

thief

shadow pursuit: this trap was destroyed with the cooldown on destroy. while the increase in might duration is nice this trap will not see any use even with this change.

I think shadow pursuit most underrated utility in game.
For mobility between points, skill have 10 000 range to port which is crazy. Instant help for close after clean up in mid, ninja decaps for far and all other possibilities you can do with it.
For 1v1/mid fights; you can use it as 10s stun breaker, just need to predict enemy when enemy heavy cc will land. It may be used as extra stealth escape. Also it was used a lot for tracking other thieves or mesmers in 1v1 fights. Plus it works great with improvisation trait.

I suspect that ANET buffed side skills hoping to tone down the use of longbow 2 on ranger.

NERFING LONGBOW AND PET is badly needed.

Rangers aren’t in the meta because they are seen a one trick pony cheese class. It’s that they have too much power, not too little.

The same happened with HamBows. People stopped wanting to play it because it was too strong.

ranger is too strong? lol

ranger is not in the meta because ele and engi are better at supporting and have a higher damage output because of the might stacks which they can stack for themselves and their allies.

and power rangers get killed by thieves, guards and mesmers.

Ithilwen.1529:

People stopped wanting to play it because it was too strong.

I doubt that is the total reason, there is a definite ‘win at any cost’ mentality with the pvp, or why wasn’t there a gentlemen’s agreement no to exploit elemental all this time?

Hope thats not all becouse if its all we get after 6 months well then just lol…

That made my day

Locust Swarm: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.
Dev note: This change will give necromancers a bit more mobility.

I agree with OP generally. Well said mate.

Ithilwen.1529:

Looking at the balance patch made me sick to my stomach.. You are going to BUFF Ranger? that’s so ridiculous I can’t even express it accurately.

Yes, because Condi Rangers with Torch and Power Rangers with Warhorn have been terrorizing everyone in the top tier meta for 8 months similar to Elementalist and Engineer, right?

Dear Josh,

My deepest wish is a fix for all current bugs, instead of changes.

Can you seriously be any more dull and boring with Necromancer changes?

You have changed absolutely nothing!

thank you

How is it a feedback? The changes are not implemented yet! Those forums sometimes…

Sorel.4870:

How is it a feedback? The changes are not implemented yet! Those forums sometimes…

Because some people can actually tell how the changes will impact the game. For example, after these latest balance changes, engi is going to be the most OP class by far. It is obvious.

Not that it isn’t already said by many others above me, but is the Might nerf really needed alongside the Sigil of Battle nerf…?

With no touch on Celestial, I can only see DPS players phasing out, Might stacking builds vanishing—among which is a Pistol/Dagger Thief build—something I actually think is fun to play—, and the meta shifting back to more bunkering

The new runes and sigils might bring in some new builds utilizing Torment but seeing some Might build disappearing in the near future…I am not positive this patch increases build diversity

edit: At the very least it is slightly comforting to see Mesmer’s confusion builds may emerge again. They have been silent recently thx to the amount of Guardians and condi cleanses out there. I say that as a Guardian main because I do not think a less diverse PvP is going to benefit me, either

shoutbow actually beats engi.. so its hard to tell which one is gonna be more op. at least in small scale.

style.6173:

Sorel.4870:

How is it a feedback? The changes are not implemented yet! Those forums sometimes…

Because some people can actually tell how the changes will impact the game. For example, after these latest balance changes, engi is going to be the most OP class by far. It is obvious.

It’s true, and I’m a little worried about engis myself. But it still doesn’t qualify as a feedback. More like meta speculations. Furthermore, the actual balance patch sometimes varies a little from the initial plans, for example Arcing Slice being less buffed than expected, and Blinding Powder being less nerfed in the previous patch.

I am aware that the current future patch notes are incomplete and there are still more changes coming in the next Patch (hopefully).

This is what I believe would further improve the balance of the game;

Engineer:
- Increase cooldown of rifle knockback by the 3 seconds.

• Reasoning behind it:
  Increasing the cooldown will make the rifle knockback more punishing and less spammable. This will either force engineers to be more passive (by counting dodges as all people should be doing) or will force them to take 2 traits in firearms if they want the same Crowd Control power. Taking 2 traits in firearms will reduce their survivability because they will have to remove 2 trait lines from toolkit trait line which is usually reduce the cooldown on toolkit skills — which fixes the other issue of Engineer the short cooldown on block.

- Make Elixir C more viable by adding a stunbreak factor.

• Reasoning behind it:
  As it is obvious to all people who play engineers, they lack condi clear. In order to fix that they have to rely on Line of sight, dodging the right skills, and optimally using their healing turret. However, classes like Necromancer and Condi Rangers will be a real threat in the next Patch – Fixing Elixir C making it a stunbreak will make it a viable option as there is little counter play against necros that know what they are doing. It will also leave engineers in a spot to decide to replace Slickshoes with Elixir C — Further reducing its Crowd Control.

- Nerfing Balthazar Runes.

• Reasoning:
  This is self explanatory. There is incinerday powder(idk how to spell it lol), there is doom sigil, then there is Balthazar runes. With upcoming nerfs to Celestial rifle there is no doubt that some people will be running back to Condi Engis, and the issue of Balthazar rune will become more and more clear — the burn duration and burn on heal is just absurd combined with the IP and doom/geomancy Sigils.

Necromancer;

- Change the animaton of Dark Path making it different from the animation of staff auto attacks.

• Reasoning:
  Dark path , when traited, is already a really powerful boon converting to condition gap closer with 1200 range that is very hard to Line of sight due to the nature of the skill. Dodging that skill is essential for a lot of classes that have a lot of boons and low condi clear (mesmer, thief, engineer) and unfortunatley it is a very hard tell in a 2v2+ team fight because it looks exactly the same as staff auto attacks. Combined with the passive and active fears the necro has it is extremley hard to dodge, adding an extra animation to the skill would make counter play possible to classes such as thief, elementalists, and Engineers.

- Add more animation to Staff mark 4 and 5, and Corrupt boon.

Necromancer is a balanced class. However, the class has almost no tells and it is very hard to dodge the right skills due to the lack of animations (EVERYTHING IS BLACK AND THE ONLY THING THAT IS DIFFERENT IS THE SMALL HAND ANIMATIONS.) I suggest adding more animation to the essential skills such as the ones listed above. (I mean they already have VERY low cast time.)

- Spinal Shivers passive Proc at 50% health trait — too powerful against light armor classes — possibly make it a grandmaster trait instead.
--——————————
Elementalist:

I don’t think there should be any more nerfs to ele as we don’t want to remove it from meta.

Warrior:

- Mercy runes and warrior combined provide very strong res capabilities, requires a little shave (Change from 20% to 15%).
- Minor nerfs to Longbow and Combustive shot clearing condis even tho it doesn’t hit any target. (It already has a large radius, this is a very minor shave).

Ranger:

- Let’s not forget entangle. The cooldown is too short, and the immobilize is too long. (Either increase the cooldown, or reduce the duration of immob)

- Increase the Survivability of power ranger while decreasing their Rapid fire damage. I believe ranger is too glassy to be viable, and too annoying in solo qs. If there was a way to make it more viable, it is by making it more survivable and reduce the damage of Rapid fire so it doesn’t get out of hand.

General changes:
- Sigil of Air and Fire combined is too powerful.
- Sigil of Doom is too powerful.
- Sigil of Intellegince should be changed to 2, not 3.
- Turret Engineer should be Reworked — low skill floor and ceiling, annoying to deal with — hurts the community by making it less skillful and more toxic.
- Necromancer Healthbar and Deathshroud Bar should be differenciated in the UI as you can’t tell if your ally necro is low, or his deathshroud is low.

Thank you for reading this, I would really love to read your opinion on this, I haven’t given much thought on the Balances of Ranger, nor am i Experienced enough to talk about Thiefs, mesmers, or Guardian. However, I Strongly believe that Necromancer requires more animations to their skills — As an engineer myself it is very frustrating to fight them, and in my opinion necromancer counter engineer harder than a thief counters a mesmer. That should not be a thing. Adding animations would certainly reward skilled players.

TL:DR; Some suggested balance changes to engineer, necromancer, warrior, and ranger. Furthermore, some minor suggested nerfs such as doom/air and fire/intelligence sigils.

Lol at everyone saying thanks to devs for fixing that pesky lightning whip stow that was giving eles 38484959675754774747425254483926649 health per second. I’m just going to continue to stow weapon to cast faster on all the 5000 other skills that it effects still =)

Joshua Grouch Davis,

We like the game and aren’t unthankful, but the pace at which the balance team releases changes is abysmal and their impact on the metagame in PvP and PvE is none.

I really hope it’s because HoT brings new weapons and skills and whatnot and that the balance looks different there, that the team was working hard to make the meta and playing all professions fun in the expansion (with the new game mode that is coming) which was the reason for close to no balance changes over the last year. Otherwise you’re never getting even close to making a competitive game and your e-sports dreams will remain just that – unfullfilled dreams. You’re moving farther away from it with every player lost to months of stale, uninspired and, sorry to say, plain dumb management of the game balance.

PvP can be a great community-building device, but it needs to be nurtured and taken care of. What’s been done during last year is just a spit in the face of your loyal players who’d been there even longer than some of the Devs and who supported the game and promoted it through viva voce. You’d be nowhere without these people. They deserve at least some honesty on what the hell is going on and why it’s taking the team 5 months to change 36 skills. Makes me sad thinking of it.

It’s been too long.

Sincerely,
a gw2 pvp fan since beta

Shadelang.3012:

Patchi speaking as a necro I kinda cant help but laugh at what you said about greater marks. I cant think of a single build that takes this trait ever since the original marks got buffed in size to what was at the time the greater marks effect.

The only place I believe it was taken before that buff was for WvW and in certain early attempts at a heavy staff build for pvp. I havent seen anyone run that build in an extremely long time though.

I…honestly doubt your running into necros traited with greater marks as often as your claiming to.

Dude, you must be from EU or out of the NA scene for a while. EVERY good necro in this game uses Greater marks, and it counter the kitten out of engineers. If you look up to necros, you should look up to the best of them – Noscoc. He uses Greater marks, and he laughs at every engineer for playing that class against him. General counter to staff marks was to block and walk through them, now you can’t. Jokes on us. Reaper’s Protection is so easy to counter with little patience, while greater marks — well it’s obvious.. you’re screwed. If you’re not using greater marks as a condi necro against engineers, then i would suggest you reconsider that.

I agree let’s make corrupt boon harder to land we can’t have precious hard to come by buffs like boons converted, I mean it’s not like you can just spam boons. Same with spinal shivers, we should just remove all boon hate traits and skills. Same with dark path.

Change the animations for marks all you want, I’d actually like it if I could fake cast a reapers mark and force you to burn a dodge.

This game needs more boon hate, not less.

Patchi.9061:

- Sigil of Air and Fire combined is too powerful.

I fess up I’ve being abused this a lot.

No surprises if it get nerfed, It’s simply too good.

Then again, with the torment sigil some new builds are going to open nicely.

Sorel.4870:

style.6173:

Sorel.4870:

How is it a feedback? The changes are not implemented yet! Those forums sometimes…

Because some people can actually tell how the changes will impact the game. For example, after these latest balance changes, engi is going to be the most OP class by far. It is obvious.

It’s true, and I’m a little worried about engis myself.

I’m confused what yall are saying.
This coming patch will nerf might stacking. Other than a couple minor cd reductions, Engi’s aren’t getting buffed.

I hope you mean that Cele Engi’s will be weaker yet more OP than Ele and Warriors. Because other than that, the class after this patch will be the same as before.

imaclown.1628:

I agree let’s make corrupt boon harder to land we can’t have precious hard to come by buffs like boons converted, I mean it’s not like you can just spam boons. Same with spinal shivers, we should just remove all boon hate traits and skills. Same with dark path.

Change the animations for marks all you want, I’d actually like it if I could fake cast a reapers mark and force you to burn a dodge.

This game needs more boon hate, not less.

Don’t get me wrong. Necromancer is supposed to be a strong Boon ripper. I’m not suggesting a change to the cast time. All i’m suggesting is an indication that the skill is gonna be cast. (Kinda like Ranger longbow knockback — very hard to dodge, yet you know its coming ). The only thing saving you from that is a very good reflex and awareness/prediction of what the necromancer would do next (if u have boons to be corrupted for example). To be honest, corrupt boon is not the major issue, but rather the Dark path and the staff marks. Fake cast them all you want, all i need is a tell so i know what im dodging. The game has a lot of mind-games but if you’re completely blind on what is being thrown at you, you’re like a punching bag to the necromancer — good ones at least.

SoulSin.5682:

Patchi.9061:

- Sigil of Air and Fire combined is too powerful.

I fess up I’ve being abused this a lot.

No surprises if it get nerfed, It’s simply too good.

Then again, with the torment sigil some new builds are going to open nicely.

Torment isn’t bothering me. They added torment to mesmers, yet they are still unviable — people thought it would be strong , not really. I can see them being strong with condi Engineers or Rabid condi necros — but those already have a very strong offence, and a very weak defence since they lack stunbreak. A lot of people switched to celestial rifle because of how absurd it is with the CC and survivability, something that a condi engineer lacks — which is a weak point to all condi engis is that they are very weak to heavy bursts and even the 16 second block and 25 second stunbreak won’t save u that long with a well coordinated burst. As for rabid necros — there’s a reason why top necros use carion, i’ll let you figure that out by urself.

invigorating precision change could be really interesting for unranked
sometimes when i’m bored i play P/P with signet of malice, my unloads deal around 6-8k
(i have massive crit chance) i can expect to get around 600hp from invigorating precision now each time i unload, added to the truckload i already get from SoM.

could be interesting!

overall good changes, disappointed that shatterstone only received a cast buff, also we need a balance pass on elites for all classes!

Simon.3794:

Awesome, now hambow is officially dead.

what game are you playing? hambow is still cheese. ridiculously high health regen mixed with decent damage potential on a build that a chimp could play.

assuming an ele/war stack 25 might, with the nerf that’s gonna be overall 3 less might stacks and of those remaining 22 they will lose 5*22 power/cond dmg because of 35-30 stats. resulting in a loss of 200 power and condition damage.

engi doesnt stack might with fields but only with battle. assuming an engi stacks 15 might stacks, that way he will lose 3 of those because of the battle nerf and 12*5 because of 35-30. thats a loss of 150 power and condi damage. 50 less than ele/war.

engi doesnt need a high might amount to be as effective as ele/war so this nerf is in favour of the engi.

and why does this not qualify as feedback? im giving my feedback to their balance change ideas. and i have played this game and especially pvp enough to be able to predict certain things.

If that’s the case there are a LOT of other skills spread around the classes that need fixing, steal, ip etc.