Guild Wars 2

Ok I’ve noticed huge participation from the PvP devs on this forum lately so let’s get a thread to collect all views on class Balance.

First let’s set some ground rules.
1. You must state your current PvP rank when posting your opinion on balance. This will help Evan and the gang get a better picture of skill floors/ceilings.
2. This is not the thread to talk down to people, belittle due to lower rank, nor engage in flame fests over favorite classes.

Now I’ll go first. I’m currently in gold at 1386. Had a pretty bad streak of luck on placement matches and got silver. Since then I’m 16-3 and worked myself up to gold.

The issues with classes I see are the low risk high reward builds. DH is the biggest offender. Scrapper and Druid are the next tier of easy success. The highest performing class IMHO is the ele. Once again they are the MANDATORY class to ensure wins.

I welcome all skill levels be it bronze or ESL pros to weigh in and of course our dev team too. Also feel free to give advice, link helpful videos, or even meet up for duels to the lower rank players. We all benefit when someone improves.

Thanks in advance.

I’m sitting in gold with a 1642.

What I’ve noticed really as an issue is that everything in essence is too spammable. Not in the sense that people use it for thief where a chasing ability or certain skill can be used repeatedly until ini runs out. I mean it in the sense that everything in the game, especially really big influential skills, have very small cd’s for the effect they have.

My first big thing on balance is a general increase of cd’s for pretty much everybody to make the game less of a spam fest and encourage more timing in skills so people who can analyze their opponent’s style and adjust to it better will come on top, not the people who spam the most aoe damage and healing.

Second huge thing I’d put out there is a removal of all passives because this will fix a large amount of the carry mode nature of some builds present in the game. This will allow really good players to do massive damage chains when they land their stuff and will accordingly punish those who overextend or fail to avoid damage incoming to them.
As compensation for the automatic reduction in tankiness this would bring I’d propose an overall reduction in the amount of damage (both physical and condition) present so we don’t get stuck in a burst meta where everything is 1 shot or be 1 shot.

I also believe their needs to be fewer “guard” or “bulwark gyro” type skills in the game where you get essentially another stack of prot that can’t be removed. Especially when the same classes have high access to prot giving them the ability to ignore any need to build for armor due to the ability to mitigate 66% of direct damage.

Those are just some general things I believe should be addressed before we look at specific classes. Once those are taken care of I believe class balance would be a much more straightforward task.

Edit: I have to go so I’ll post specific class stuff later

gold 1460 atm
cc’s are off the charts. seeing people get completely locked down is insane (as a warrior main ill say warrior is one of the biggest contributors and needs to be toned down)

sophiewhite.3149:

gold 1460 atm
cc’s are off the charts. seeing people get completely locked down is insane (as a warrior main ill say warrior is one of the biggest contributors and needs to be toned down)

Direct damage warrior is fine, but condi warrior especially the two current meta builds need huge nerfs. Also rousing resilience is just flat out broken with the number of stun breaks berserkers have. 1000 free toughness with a 2000+ heal that can be easily upkept 24/7? K.

Although rather than nerfing condi I would rather see them just add better counters to condi, because lets be honest here the real problem with condi builds is they can be mindlessly spammed due to the serious lack of GOOD counterplay. In the current meta it is actually easier to avoid stunspam builds than it is to avoid condition spam builds, which is insane.

Thief is a good example of this sort of balance failure:
Infiltrators signet: Removes 1 ( ONE ) measly condition every 30 seconds at best.
Shadow return: 3 conditions every 50 seconds at best
…Bandits Defense: stun break every 12 ~ 15 seconds, and then grants block to prevent most further stuns for 2 seconds.

Average condi spam build can spam 5 conditions per second. Average stun based direct build has maybe one stun every 5~10 seconds depending on class. And yet stun break is more spammable in some classes than a cleanse? Can’t be right. It should also be noted that most stuns in the game have VERY obvious animation tells and it is not hard at all to dodge the majority of them. The same cannot be said for condi animations.

This isn’t just a case with thief either, but is a cross class problem that even can be seen in gear. There are ways to gain stability through runes. There are no ways to gain resistance. Should also be noted that resistance doesn’t even grant immunity to conditions so nothing about it discourages mindless condi spam.

sophiewhite.3149:

gold 1460 atm
cc’s are off the charts. seeing people get completely locked down is insane (as a warrior main ill say warrior is one of the biggest contributors and needs to be toned down)

Thanks for the contribution

Ele main here.

Condi mace warrior has obv more sustain than other classes.
Thief needs slightly less evade frames on their staff.
Rev should have some of its dps back (still waiting on mallyx condi meta for boonstrip)
Mesmer zerker build plz (also can contribute to boonstrip)
Thief ever gonna get buff to sword?

All in all, i’d like to see more boon hate and nerf to thief staff while buffing their other weapons

Silver 1330, but started from bronze 1025 (hi beloved MMR hole), mesmer main playing power build.

I have 2 big concerns:

• DH traps. It’s not about how good they are individually, but how ridiculously can be spammed. It’s insane how you are forced to play outside the point because you know stepping it means insta-death as 8-10-15 traps pop up on you with heavy CC, soft CC, heavy damage, unblockable hits…
  sPvP being so focused on point capture, traps need some sort of delay or limiting mechanic on use, so the mindless DH stack with trap spam isn’t such broken.

• Heavy CC chains should be limited so you aren’t locked into it. Specially those involving movement, like you being pulled, then knockbacked by some random skill ending up into a pulling trap or Gravity. It’s 2-3s where you’re doomed to be a ping pong ball.

Besides that, I find balance quite well achieved. Of course there are some strong builds out there, like condi mesmers, condi warriors, scrappers or unkillable auramancers, but they are inherently strong for how sPvP is designed, around fighting in small places where cleave and AoE is so determinant.

One thing I know for sure is class balance is not the biggest issue of this 5th season.

Around 1800+ atm. I would say, as in any other thread, besides the HoT introducing mindless gameplay, the major issue in matches atm is class stacking. Classes are designed around non-class stacking, some spells/traits/builds are really strong but stacked just become absurdly broken that you can’t deal with by any normal way. Class stacking needs to go – yes, it will introduce longer queue times, but i would rather sit in longer queue than sit in 15 min match that i simply won’t win due to bad class balance across the teams (3 thieves vs 3 dhs/2 engis).

Platinum 1700+ right now. I tend to play engineer or guardian, although I occasionally dabble with thief.

• Ele tanks are in every match. They slow down everything and make groupfights slow and unfun. Combine that with the massive rezzing abilities people have AND NOTHING EVER HAPPENS. Please reduce their self-healing. Right now they have it both ways and it makes the fights miserable. As it stands, whoever has the most ele tanks wins.
• Three classes have the same problem — Mesmer, Thief, and Revenants. If those classes are being played by high skill players, they are OP as hell, becoming nearly impossible to kill along with their high damage. But if the player is anything less than perfect, these classes are underwhelming.
• DH is in an ok place at the moment. Their groupfight presence is still too strong, 1v1 they’re not too hard.
• Rangers… I almost never see them any more except as healing druids. They just don’t seem viable in high level play.
• Necros seem to be in an alright spot. When they backline they’re devastating.
• Warrior is in a strange spot. Their burst damage and ability to ignore damage is devastating to classes without sustain, but they are wimpy to classes that kite and can sustain well.
• Engineers are still suffering from the lack of build diversity. There’s simply no viable alternative to scrapper hammer, especially at higher levels. This build suffers from an inability to chase fleeing foes and flee itself.

sPvP being so focused on point capture, traps need some sort of delay or limiting mechanic on use, so the mindless DH stack with trap spam isn’t such broken.

GW1 had such a method. Traps were easily interruptable — any damage and your trap laying was interrupted.

Ele Main, Still in placement, won 5 lost 1,

I see lots of people qqing about eles, as a healbot i do well when not focused and can put my heals on my teammates when im near them, when focused i melt so quickly, sometimes i cant press my buttons quick enough to use my obsidian flesh, once dead, i tend to see my teammates die too, Eles too only have 1 decent build.

Thanks.

Azukas.1426:

1. You must state your current PvP rank when posting your opinion on balance. This will help Evan and the gang get a better picture of skill floors/ceilings.

17xx plat right now. Had a bad placement at 1400ish, took me 60 games to get up to plat and well over 100 to get to where i am now, wasn’t fun fighting with keyboard turners and totally new players but I grinded through it but I digress.

I think every single class is decent right now in PvP and I’m never upset to see them which is great but class stacking is still an issue. Quite often I get 2 mediocre thieves who don’t wanna swap and loses us the match, I’m not talking pro league thieves here who can make 2 thief comp work.

DH – kinda strong team presence, good 1v1, overall decent pick

Ele – seems like a must/staple for every game unless the other team focuses hard and has necros + burst and/or just rotates around the Ele

Thief – decent to very good depending on player skill, seen a few variable builds like p/p, d/p, staff and d/d work quite well

Warrior – really strong in the right hands, power and condi both viable

Engy – feels a bit weak to me tbh, all I can do is be a res bot and beat bad players 1v1, might be really good at pro level and have low skill floor in lower tiers but mid tier it’s a bit weird

Necro – strong solid pick but requires a somewhat decent team or else you just get deleted instantly every team fight if your allies can’t support you 100% while you peel/kite

Rev – decent in the hands of a pro, everybody else should just not play rev though because it’s either they’re godlike or total trash depending on who plays it

Druid – still solid, haven’t really seen many around tbh but decent mobility / support i think it’s ok

FrownyClown.8402:

Ele main here.

Condi mace warrior has obv more sustain than other classes.
Thief needs slightly less evade frames on their staff.
Rev should have some of its dps back (still waiting on mallyx condi meta for boonstrip)
Mesmer zerker build plz (also can contribute to boonstrip)
Thief ever gonna get buff to sword?

All in all, i’d like to see more boon hate and nerf to thief staff while buffing their other weapons

What rank are,ya?

Ario.8964:

I also believe their needs to be fewer “guard” or “bulwark gyro” type skills in the game where you get essentially another stack of prot that can’t be removed.

I thought you could remove bulwark by destroying the gyro, but maybe I hallucinated that.

I’m Gold ranked Ele main.

Ele is definitely essential to every team, and its bunker Ele’s at that which is making this season a bit dull and a team with an Ele has an advantage over one without any day.

I would honestly say that Warrior is next and I feel is really OP right now. DH’s are everywhere and its true they are strong but they are so easy to beat if you know how as they are often played by people with 0 skill. Warriors on the other hand are running around god mode outhealing and being invulnerable to everything whilst dealing out huge amounts of damage.

The rest of the classes I would say are in a good place. Rev of course is the exception and might as well be garbage. Rarely come up against one and when I do it makes it feel like 5 vs 4.

I think warrior has too much damage, survivability, healing, and CC. It’s an uphill battle for me. I feel as though I can’t make any mistakes or I’m dead, and it’s okay if they make many. I would suggest to the devs to take a good lock at certain warrior builds.

FrownyClown.8402:

Rev should have some of its dps back (still waiting on mallyx condi meta for boonstrip)

Don’t hold your breath, everyone past and present apparently thinks condi rev is unviable. Dont know why people want to believe that so hard, I guess it’s just groupthink.

I am mid-gold atm, although I think its artificially low due to playing s/f burst ele during play-in games (very bad idea).

At this level, I have noticed the team with very good thieves basically always wins. The best profession vs. thief is guard, but they are easily rotated around.

Since every team doesn’t have their own thief/rev all the time, the opposing thief is welcome to run wild and completely dominate the map, forcing a snowball. If you are good at thief, it is the best class to play, with DH being shortly behind it in terms of effectiveness when groups don’t coordinate or support each other effectively.

While I believe eles are oppressive at higher levels, in Gold people are not playing coordinated at all, so its usually pretty useless. Bunker ele makes great teams awesome, good teams very good, and bad teams absolutely terrible. Without people who know how to position and play defensively, eles healing is worthless, and if you can’t do much by healing your team then you do absolutely nothing for your team. You are too slow and lack damage to effectively roam and make up for poor team rotations.

Ario.8964:

I’m sitting in gold with a 1642.

What I’ve noticed really as an issue is that everything in essence is too spammable. Not in the sense that people use it for thief where a chasing ability or certain skill can be used repeatedly until ini runs out. I mean it in the sense that everything in the game, especially really big influential skills, have very small cd’s for the effect they have.

My first big thing on balance is a general increase of cd’s for pretty much everybody to make the game less of a spam fest and encourage more timing in skills so people who can analyze their opponent’s style and adjust to it better will come on top, not the people who spam the most aoe damage and healing.

Second huge thing I’d put out there is a removal of all passives because this will fix a large amount of the carry mode nature of some builds present in the game. This will allow really good players to do massive damage chains when they land their stuff and will accordingly punish those who overextend or fail to avoid damage incoming to them.
As compensation for the automatic reduction in tankiness this would bring I’d propose an overall reduction in the amount of damage (both physical and condition) present so we don’t get stuck in a burst meta where everything is 1 shot or be 1 shot.

I also believe their needs to be fewer “guard” or “bulwark gyro” type skills in the game where you get essentially another stack of prot that can’t be removed. Especially when the same classes have high access to prot giving them the ability to ignore any need to build for armor due to the ability to mitigate 66% of direct damage.

Those are just some general things I believe should be addressed before we look at specific classes. Once those are taken care of I believe class balance would be a much more straightforward task.

Edit: I have to go so I’ll post specific class stuff later

This so sadly captures the bulk of the balance issues in this game but will continue to be ignored.

The only thing that seems missed is that most classes have a build that does everything well (I.e., self-sustain, team support, mobility, dps, cc mitigation, etc). This is in part due to the fact that so many skills have tons of effects (I.e., combo fields/finishers, condi application, direct damage, cc, boon application, etc).

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Dawdler.8521:

Ario.8964:

I also believe their needs to be fewer “guard” or “bulwark gyro” type skills in the game where you get essentially another stack of prot that can’t be removed.

I thought you could remove bulwark by destroying the gyro, but maybe I hallucinated that.

You can kill the gyro but the buff has already been placed on them and they only need it long enough to get a heal off. Those skills rarely last for longer than 4 or 6 seconds but that’s all the time they need to be able to shift the fight back into their favor. It also doesn’t help that those are the classes that already have high access to prot so you’re looking at 66% reduced damage when they have that on in which case you won’t be able to kill them before they kite, block, or heal.

CptCuddles.8912:

Ario.8964:

I’m sitting in gold with a 1642.

What I’ve noticed really as an issue is that everything in essence is too spammable. Not in the sense that people use it for thief where a chasing ability or certain skill can be used repeatedly until ini runs out. I mean it in the sense that everything in the game, especially really big influential skills, have very small cd’s for the effect they have.

My first big thing on balance is a general increase of cd’s for pretty much everybody to make the game less of a spam fest and encourage more timing in skills so people who can analyze their opponent’s style and adjust to it better will come on top, not the people who spam the most aoe damage and healing.

Second huge thing I’d put out there is a removal of all passives because this will fix a large amount of the carry mode nature of some builds present in the game. This will allow really good players to do massive damage chains when they land their stuff and will accordingly punish those who overextend or fail to avoid damage incoming to them.
As compensation for the automatic reduction in tankiness this would bring I’d propose an overall reduction in the amount of damage (both physical and condition) present so we don’t get stuck in a burst meta where everything is 1 shot or be 1 shot.

I also believe their needs to be fewer “guard” or “bulwark gyro” type skills in the game where you get essentially another stack of prot that can’t be removed. Especially when the same classes have high access to prot giving them the ability to ignore any need to build for armor due to the ability to mitigate 66% of direct damage.

Those are just some general things I believe should be addressed before we look at specific classes. Once those are taken care of I believe class balance would be a much more straightforward task.

Edit: I have to go so I’ll post specific class stuff later

This so sadly captures the bulk of the balance issues in this game but will continue to be ignored.

The only thing that seems missed is that most classes have a build that does everything well (I.e., self-sustain, team support, mobility, dps, cc mitigation, etc). This is in part due to the fact that so many skills have tons of effects (I.e., combo fields/finishers, condi application, direct damage, cc, boon application, etc).

I was in a rush so I kinda failed to cover that but I agree. Skills ought to be separated so people aren’t doing high damage, condi app, cc, mobility, and evade all in one.

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Hot Boy.7138:

I think warrior has too much damage, survivability, healing, and CC. It’s an uphill battle for me. I feel as though I can’t make any mistakes or I’m dead, and it’s okay if they make many. I would suggest to the devs to take a good lock at certain warrior builds.

Please list what rank are you. It helps,the devs

Im in Plat

ele and Dh are obviously overpowered no doubt.

To me dragon hunter and thief are too good, everything else seems fine.

I am in Silver.

Dragonhunter seems waaaay too OP (too much damage, at the same time with too much survivability with waaaaay too much mobility and too much team support).

I’d say DH trap stacking is the new cancer.

Thieves are a bit OP too. Mesmers…maybe.

I’ll throw my current experience into the ring. I’m probably the lowest skill rank represented in here at around 780.

Things that are powerful at this level:
-Dragonhunters. Their damage and sustain are consistent and relatively easy.
-Power Warriors. I’ve never been a fan of Vengeance and you’ll see Warriors get up a decent amount of times at this tier. Power variant tears through most people as I’m pretty sure no one is speccing toughness.
-Good Eles. Or at least semi-competent eles? Fire staff eles don’t seem to do much but Air Tempests can tear things up. They’re decently survivable if they know what they’re doing and have a few annoying “I’m not taking damage now” buttons.

Things that seem weak at this level:
- Thieves. Just. I’m sorry guys, I know you’re trying but… they can’t seem to DO anything except rotate.
- Necro. Might just be me but I’m seeing a lot of minions but not a lot of ooph. I’ll get hit with a good condi bomb once in a while but I’m not really worried if I see just one necro.

Things I haven’t seen:
-Revenant. I have yet to see a single Rev at my level.

Rangers, Engineers, and Mesmers seem to be the most balanced around my level. They have the tools to burst, condi, kill, kite, AoE, heal, or support depending on spec but not all at once. At the same time, none of them feel unbeatable.

I’ll also note that I’ve seen some weird point rotations or lack therof. And there’s usually a complete lack of team chat in any given game, without so much of a “hi team” when joining a game.

Ok so DH seems to be a given due to low skill floor vs rewards, and the ability of the class to pubstomp.

Ele seems to be another class that is OP at all skill levels

I’m intrigued by warriors and I think that might be due to lower skill levels not understanding the invulns/blocks/etc on em.

Now I’ve seen some thief is OP posts, and I’d like to get a feel on why. Is it b/c they can control a map and +1 really well. Nothing has changed for thief to make them OP btw.

I’m happy my class mesmer hasn’t really been mentioned so far.

Anyways great replies and keep em coming. It’d be great to get some ESL player feedback here, and maybe a dev too.

keep em coming

Azukas.1426:

Ok so DH seems to be a given due to low skill floor vs rewards, and the ability of the class to pubstomp.

Ele seems to be another class that is OP at all skill levels

I’m intrigued by warriors and I think that might be due to lower skill levels not understanding the invulns/blocks/etc on em.

Now I’ve seen some thief is OP posts, and I’d like to get a feel on why. Is it b/c they can control a map and +1 really well. Nothing has changed for thief to make them OP btw.

I’m happy my class mesmer hasn’t really been mentioned so far.

Anyways great replies and keep em coming. It’d be great to get some ESL player feedback here, and maybe a dev too.

keep em coming

Ele is not op at all. It is limited in what it can do. Classes like that are never op. Ele can be killed and cant kill anything ever. So i would actually say ele is the worst class along with necro.

However, both ele and necro can be very strong given the right set up. So balance is really good currently. Necro and ele are limited but both really strong in their narrow roles.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Azukas.1426:

Ok so DH seems to be a given due to low skill floor vs rewards, and the ability of the class to pubstomp.

Ele seems to be another class that is OP at all skill levels

I’m intrigued by warriors and I think that might be due to lower skill levels not understanding the invulns/blocks/etc on em.

Now I’ve seen some thief is OP posts, and I’d like to get a feel on why. Is it b/c they can control a map and +1 really well. Nothing has changed for thief to make them OP btw.

I’m happy my class mesmer hasn’t really been mentioned so far.

Anyways great replies and keep em coming. It’d be great to get some ESL player feedback here, and maybe a dev too.

keep em coming

Ele is not op at all. It is limited in what it can do. Classes like that are never op. Ele can be killed and cant kill anything ever. So i would actually say ele is the worst class along with necro.

However, both ele and necro can be very strong given the right set up. So balance is really good currently. Necro and ele are limited but both really strong in their narrow roles.

You’re entitled to you your opinion just as anyone else but please post your rank with your ideas of class balance.

As for Ele I was summing up the opinions of the thread. I’ve noticed all skill levels identifying the necessity of having an ele on your team. As for necro not one person has named them. I feel that is not because they are the worst class but due to necros having a proper weakness. You pair a necro with an ele on point and that combo is going to rip people. At that point in time one could argue how strong necros really are.

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Pretty much everything core engineer is getting kitten on. I cannot use pistols or rifle in any matches without at least one person yelling at me because I’m not “meta.” There is no good method to counter some of the BS I see — reflects from nearly every class, projectile destruction, and I have to overly rely on kits. The only reason pistol pvp still exists is because the kits aren’t completely kitten.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.
• Guardian: Smite condition, heal trap, leap of faith… blocks out the wazoo… Pray they run out of skills to spam before you die.
• Rev: One of the few metas that has no good counter to condi. I like fighting revs.
• Ranger: Watch conditions disappear for no reason, taunted by pet… knocked down, taunted by pet again, Immob… hopefully by this time they’ve burned all their CD’s and you’re still standing.
• Other engineers: Reflects out the wazoo, purge gyro, elixir gun 5 and heal turret. If an enemy engineer running hammer dies to you, then they’re really bad.
• Thief: Generally not too bad if they aren’t perfect. If they are perfect… interrupts and stealth.
• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.
• Necro: Avoid at all costs. All conditions will come right back or kill a teammate. Because plague sig is OP as hell against other condi builds.
• Ele: Ignores most of your conditions until a power build comes along and helps. Then you do ok. Otherwise you spend most of your time in flamethrower and tool kits for all their reflects.

Proposed solution? Grandmaster firearms trait to pierce blocks and reflects with projectiles. That would solve a SIGNIFICANT number of problems.

1650+ – Platinum

Necro’s corrupt and condi bombing is as strong as ever. Left alone, Necro’s are a nightmare for any opponent (as has always been the case). Nothing has changed for Necro as far as I could see. Don’t know what that means for their state though.

Ele sustain is still out of whack. They need to be balanced out in relation to other classes ability to deal with them in the “tanking” side of the discussion, but more importantly they need at least two more builds in other areas (like DPS) so that people can use them for alternative roles. However this is easier said than done when other classes are broken when it comes to peeling/burst etc, meaning this is unlikely to ever come to fruition.

Power warrior isnt feeling OP or over the top regardless of where the typical condi option stands. Numerous classes can peel or eliminate it under focus, as has always been the case. Fighting a power warrior is a game of patience, nothing more.

Rev’s damage nerf is nice but at the end of the day means very little. Why? Because the mechanics behind Rev and their ability to do X, Y, and Z with a single skill still exists. Without some serious skill redesigns I don’t see a solution to this. Unless, of course, nerfing them so hard in some important area knocks them completely off the grid (removing all damage for example), which is not something anyone wants.

DH had their daze removed on traps. Great. Mechanically they’re still an annoying presence, just a little less annoying than before. I don’t know how I feel about them.

For Thief, Vault is still ridiculous XD. Whether OP or UP, Thief has always been an anomolie and will be forever. This is due to how they function mechanically, and how so much of their success/failure comes down to both theirs, and the enemies team comp etc.

Oh, and Driud is still the same old pick pick pick with damage, while heal heal heal with their freely attached avatar + heal spam skills. It’s as idiotic as it has ever been to the game. Nerf the Druid sustain/support game, and replace it with major buffs/improvements to core Ranger and traditional Ranger weapons. Druid’s make the game a chore.

Condi spam and AoE is still mad in this game. Nothing has really changed since HoT in the grand scheme of things.

Core guardian (burns, some healing support), moving up fast from 1550 currently. 2 d/c players and my skipping last season put me in t1 silver on placement. Since then I’m around 75% win rate. Trying hard to put a core build into plat or higher just to do it.

DH are a non problem for me I can 1v1 them easily due to my knowledge of the class and in teamfights they have to ress their downed at which point I bomb them to pieces.

Mesmers have too easy condi pressure, power Mesmer is good but takes a good player.

Elementalists are over the top unless youre team has someone specifically to kill them. Which most teams wont.

Necros could use some defensive skills while taking away from their groupfight pressure.

Warriors – condi stun locking is over rewarding. Tone it down. Power wise they are unbalanced still but no real way to tone them down.

Thieves are just terrible to see on your team when theres more than one. They’ll squabble over who will swap, and usually the more inexperienced one will stay which spells disaster for your team. Balance wise theyre too hard to hit during a team fight to bother, they should be forced to time their dodges not spam them.

Rangers are one of the heavier hitting power classes this season suprisingly. Took a 17k maul, which is insane damage using exotic stats. Balance damage back to the player not the pet.

Engineers have too much sustain. However you can force them to lose the point over time which makes them less offenders than eles.

And revs I would now call balanced. Middle of the pack. Mallyx revs have a ton of potential but its only unlocked by an insanely good player.

Vagrant.7206:

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.

• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.

. 30+ seconds? where are you getting that? healing signet and berserkers stance only lasts a little less than 20 seconds if chained correctly and you lose the 382 healing a second on it.

Azukas.1426:

Hot Boy.7138:

I think warrior has too much damage, survivability, healing, and CC. It’s an uphill battle for me. I feel as though I can’t make any mistakes or I’m dead, and it’s okay if they make many. I would suggest to the devs to take a good lock at certain warrior builds.

Please list what rank are you. It helps,the devs

Gold rank, lockdown mesmer sword/sword and sword/shield.

sophiewhite.3149:

Vagrant.7206:

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.

• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.

the amount of misinformation here is insane. 30+ seconds? where are you getting that? because obviously me playing warrior for several months isnt enough.

Let’s remain civil. Educate the misinformation not berate.

Thx

T3 plat, 2 accts, T3 gold, 1 acct.

In order of efficacy.
DH – pubstomper. with a good duo to back u up u stomp the entire enemy team with extreme sustained dmg, and a potential 1shot every time JI is off cd.
Mes – Portal wins games. Hard countered by DH because it’s usually not worth fighting unless u are rotating mid and can spike it while it has cooldowns running. Sure u can win the 1v1 but its going to be difficult and long winded unless the DH is a weak player. Overall I believe mesmer is the most powerful class in the game by quite a large margin, its player skill limiting the class not the other way around. Tons of great match ups, moa, AND portal ontop make this class a necessity parallel to skill of players involved.
Thief – Solo, if the enemy team has more than a single DH, I would probably not run this class. With a duo however, this class is the apex +1’r and decapper, the extreme +1 power will snowball the map unless the enemy team has a hard counter (whether that is class hard counter or player skill).
Rev – Good player = RIP enemy team, Average player = long game usually ending close in score, Below Average player = RIP ur team.
Ele – If u wont be focused properly, u probably will not ever die during that match. 100% reliant on team to dps, but if u do have good dps players, its going to be a very good match for u.
Necro – Similar to Ele, if u can kite and not get focused ur going to win the game. If u go down, ur team will probably lose that fight. If ur team abandons u to 1v1 at pretty much any point in the match, its almost a 100% loss. U lose the 1v1 and are usually never able to even approach a point for the rest of the game.
Warrior – Solid class, nothing over the top, predictable.
Druid – Solid pressure class, with great small scale fight support and pet 1 shots. Great far point pressure and home / mid support.
Engi – I personally think this class is non viable atm. Other than Menders cheesing / trolling far I dont see a point to having on any team.

Strong Duo’s I’ve come across:
DH / Thief: 1shots inc, they have ports and are willing to use them, when they both arrive at a point it is VERY difficult to keep it.
Mes / DH: less 1shotty, but traded in for sustained map control. Mes has the mobility to contest 2 points at once, and the ability to 1shot with moa. The DH provides on point pressure that no one wants to sit in while the Mes ports him around the map.
Necro / Ele: Impossible to kill either quick enough before support arrives. Without strong coordination (TS / Dcord) u will never kill this duo before they kill u.
Druid / War: Seeing both of these moving together is a nightmare. What do u dodge the pet/staff1 or the f1 spam from the warrior? They also have ample access to stealth, with several finishers in the smoke field, along with Avatar stealth.
DH/DH: Yes, stacking this class with 2 above average players is going to generate a greater than 50% win rate. There is enough mobility for the 2 to manage home and mid, with enough defensive abilities to wait for support. 2 DH on the point is more challenging to combat for the majority of players I have seen than almost any combination sans Necro/Ele.

General observations:
~Ts / Dcord is necessary to stay in higher tiers, along with duo-ing.
~Double thief comps happen entirely too often, this is one combination that should never be allowed by the MM. Unless u have toker / kat or sind / (x) this combination more often than not loses; double thief should be a choice made by the team, not the MM.
~There is a distinct salt in the air in all of platinum. And certain individuals in Legend.
~Most matches in high ratings are decided at load in. 2k+ rating should never be matched up against <1650. It’s enjoyable for no one.
~Most importantly, if you are high mmr, queuing at off peak hours is such a dangerous gamble, you gamble 20/30/sometimes 40 rating for the chance to win 4/6/8.
~IDK who or when or why the trend is to bleed out every single body even if its on a neutral point but it NEEDS to GO. People have forgotten how to secure stomps, it is all too often that an easy stomp gets res’d because every one is trying to cleave with auto attacks (due to cooldowns) and not a single person is stomping. Stop it. Stomp the down’d body and focus the next target.
~Too many people are too concerned with 3 capping. You only need home and mid to win. Secure those points first before 4 manning far and leaving ur ele/necro to die mid and/or home.

Balance right here guys… this sums up the whole season.. UNBLOCKABLE PULLS, traps that HEAL even if EVADED (yeah that makes sense) oh and they dont go away… youre looking at a comp that can put 9 traps on 1 spot and never have to worry about a cap from an enemy.

sophiewhite.3149:

Vagrant.7206:

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.

• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.

the amount of misinformation here is insane. 30+ seconds? where are you getting that? because obviously me playing warrior for several months isnt enough.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Berserker_Stance

While I was exaggerating, this alone is 12-15 seconds of resistance. Combine with healing signet and you have 18-21 seconds of resistance. Run away and come back and you can repeat the process, as I have seen many warriors do. But that’s 18 seconds of my build being totally kitten while you’re fully powered. All I can do is hope I can cause you to trigger berserker stance early and kite for 20 seconds until I can finally do some damage.

Condi engi is in a real bad way right now — it’s viable only due to player skill. Any newbie trying to play it will fail spectacularly. Rifle engi is just flat out pointless at this point.

Crowley.8761:

Class balance is irrelevant below top tier. Stop whining about that and focus on player intelligence.

This is such a ridiculous statement. Class balance is relevant at all tiers, and there are strong arguments for balancing around the average skill level first, and then tweaking skills so that they perform well (neither OP or UP) at upper levels of play. Part of the reason we have had balance problems in the past is because balance changes were focused on ESL levels of play, which involve highly skilled players on a coordinated team. No wonder those “balance” changes didn’t leave the rest of PvP balanced, they weren’t designed for regular PvP games.

But back to the thread. This is interesting so far. From what I have read, the general consensus seems to be that

• DH are still vastly overperforming at lower levels of play
• Resistance boon is still way too effective versus condi classes
• Thief is underperforming at lower levels of play because people just don’t know how to play one effectively
• Eles are almost mandatory to win
• Necros can go either way. With good team support they are a nightmare, otherwise they can be easy to take down depending on the player’s skill level (imo this is a symptom of good balance. Good job on Necros balance team)
• Mesmers are for once not the class that everyone complains about. Seems like mesmers are still extremely powerful if the mesmer is a great player. Otherwise they are just mediocre, the only thing holding them back is player skill. Which is good. Though as a mesmer its annoying that DH can carry people so brainlessly while I have to actually try, and still get worse results than any DH will.

sophiewhite.3149:

Vagrant.7206:

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.

• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.

the amount of misinformation here is insane. 30+ seconds? where are you getting that? because obviously me playing warrior for several months isnt enough.

2 healing signet activations and zerker stance. it’s not far off actually. and it’s really really annoying with no corruptions.

I wanted to add some thoughts. With the daze removed from DH traps, they are far more manageable. They used to hard counter me as a memser, but I honestly feel like DH is in a good place right now. That daze was ridiculous.

I agree that ele and necro paired is a devastating combo. I fought the pair repeatedly for a point and it was total wreckage. I got totally rekt. But individually, I think they are both in good places. But of course that is probably just my perspective since I do run a lockdown build. I have plenty of interrupts and boon removal to deal with them. I can take a necro out fairly quickly, and the ele will be a much longer fight.

As melee, Druid roots will forever be annoying to me. But it’s not an issue I feel needs to be addressed by the devs. It’s just something I have to overcome by getting better and or running a build that is overall more efficient. I tend to go for fun over efficiency since I’m not a professional gamer.

Engineers are very hard for me to face 1v1. Lets forget about their massive boon output for now and just focus on one. Stability. Their access to stability makes it very hard for me to fight against them. Since landing interrupts is very hard with someone constantly pumping out stability, I feel pretty useless against them. Though, the fight is not impossible, it is challenging. Which is fair I guess. I don’t expect my build to be able to counter all builds.

Thieves actually do not give me an issue usually. But the ones that do are usually running d/p. If I get totally destroyed by a staff thief it’s usually because I wasn’t playing well at that moment or that thief was just much better player than me. With d/d condi thieves, it’s more about luck. I can’t cleanse condis without a target, and they dodge all my attempts at cleansing myself so I just wither and die slowly to conditions. So I just have to get lucky and hope a cleanse hits them at the brief moment they’re not in an evade frame.

I think revenants are in a good place right now. IMO, their nerfs were warranted. That staff surge was ridiculous since it could also be unblockable. Their damage is still competitive, it’s just not overwhelming burst like before.

I don’t know what to say about mesmers. They are just there doing their condi thing. They are difficult for me to fight because I use idisenchanter to cleanse. It’s my only cleanse. Their shatters, although intended for me, causes splash damage/condi to my illusions and they die. And there goes my cleanse. So it comes down to me having to decide if I should defend or aggressively attack.

Lastly warriors. And sophiewhite is my homeboy so he might be offended by this, but from my perspective, that class is overtuned. High uptime on stability so it’s difficult to lock them down. But if I do get some interrupts off, they have endure pain up. And my interrupts is supposed to immobilize them, but high ressitance uptime means they just ignore all my soft CC. I really can’t slow them down. And their berserker stance F1 skill vaporizes all clones in a large radius around them, and hitting me for half my health. Long stuns on relatively short CDs. Lots of passive healing. They just seem to have it all. My particular build and style of play is at a huge disadvantage against warriors. And the fight isn’t impossible. I can often win 1v1 if I play perfectly. But really one mistake and it’s over. And as I said before, they seem able to make many. It’s a very forgiving class. And I don’t have a lot of heals, so I just have to do my best to avoid all damage against a juggernaut class I can’t slow down. Condi builds are hard for me if I enter the fight unprepared. By unprepared i mean starting the fight without havng my idisenchanter up first and heal on CD. Cause my heal is used just for cleanses in that fight. And I could really use some practice 1v1ing a good warrior if anyone got some time to waste with me this weekend. I’ll appreciate it.

TLDR: fighting a warrior feels like I’m a regular guy trying to fight One Punch Man.

Vagrant.7206:

sophiewhite.3149:

Vagrant.7206:

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.

• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.

the amount of misinformation here is insane. 30+ seconds? where are you getting that? because obviously me playing warrior for several months isnt enough.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Berserker_Stance

While I was exaggerating, this alone is 12-15 seconds of resistance. Combine with healing signet and you have 18-21 seconds of resistance. Run away and come back and you can repeat the process, as I have seen many warriors do. But that’s 18 seconds of my build being totally kitten while you’re fully powered. All I can do is hope I can cause you to trigger berserker stance early and kite for 20 seconds until I can finally do some damage.

Condi engi is in a real bad way right now — it’s viable only due to player skill. Any newbie trying to play it will fail spectacularly. Rifle engi is just flat out pointless at this point.

i fixed my comment to be less rude but convey the same message. honestly what would you rather they do? not have any counter to condis at all? condis need a counter. warrior is one of the few anti condi classes alongside necro. except necro can also take out resistance by corrupting it and the meta build has all the corruption you could dream of. so in turn warrior counters most condi necro counters warrior condi resistance in a team fight but 1v1 warrior would take out a necro. this seems fair to me idk about you. if you want to nerf warrior shave some of that cc off. but dont kill the class because others dont like it.

sophiewhite.3149:

Vagrant.7206:

sophiewhite.3149:

Vagrant.7206:

coro.3176:

Alec B.8905:

sitting at zero because I got no engi changes I liked to even bother with pvp :I

WTB more base engi buffs and scrapper nerfs because scrapper screwed base engi.
MORE RIFLE BUFFS PLZ and quit nerfing things out of nowhere without any reason to.

the rifle change was not a buff, it was more loss of dmg. which was the exact opposite if what they were trying to do (bring it up to par with hammer).

Too true. That Jump Shot change feels like a nerf given how hard it is to land such a long telegraphed skill. Maybe if it was faster or had evades..

Things that were (I think) designed to nerf Scrapper, but ended up killing Base Engi even more:

• Gear Shield 3s->2s – Base Engi needs a long block for defense. It is the only defensive skill in a lot of builds.
• Healing Turret 0.5s->0.75s – Base Engi can no longer rely on HT to go off when cast. There’s a very real risk of it being interrupted or destroyed before it finishes. This hurts Scrapper, yes, but it hurts Base more because of the lack of defensive weapon skills on Rifle/Pistol.

Ultimately though, It’s projectile hate and HoT power creep that are forcing certain playstyles on pvp. It’s far too easy to just sit on point and spam aoe.

Here’s what I see when I play p/p Engi:

• Warrior: Ignores conditions for 30+ seconds + reflects on all blocks. Have to kite the ENTIRE time, but first I have to get them to trigger berserker stance.

• Mesmer: Nearly infinite blocks (which also reflect). Then spiked, then back to the temporary invulnerability… spiked, blocks again… I just avoid mesmers because there’s very little I can do.

the amount of misinformation here is insane. 30+ seconds? where are you getting that? because obviously me playing warrior for several months isnt enough.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Berserker_Stance

While I was exaggerating, this alone is 12-15 seconds of resistance. Combine with healing signet and you have 18-21 seconds of resistance. Run away and come back and you can repeat the process, as I have seen many warriors do. But that’s 18 seconds of my build being totally kitten while you’re fully powered. All I can do is hope I can cause you to trigger berserker stance early and kite for 20 seconds until I can finally do some damage.

Condi engi is in a real bad way right now — it’s viable only due to player skill. Any newbie trying to play it will fail spectacularly. Rifle engi is just flat out pointless at this point.

i fixed my comment to be less rude but convey the same message. honestly what would you rather they do? not have any counter to condis at all? condis need a counter. warrior is one of the few anti condi classes alongside necro. except necro can also take out resistance by corrupting it and the meta build has all the corruption you could dream of. so in turn warrior counters most condi necro counters warrior condi resistance in a team fight but 1v1 warrior would take out a necro. this seems fair to me idk about you. if you want to nerf warrior shave some of that cc off. but dont kill the class because others dont like it.

Actually, no, I don’t want to see a change to warrior in this case. Resistance is fine… for the most part. If annoying.

What I want to see are changes in other areas to even the playing field — engineers need a skill or trait to pierce blocks/reflects. It’s immensely frustrating to be unable to touch warriors until they’re right next to me. It makes it difficult to kite the resistance.

Gold 155X

I tried p/p condi engi to start the season, remembered why they are garbage after getting blown up over and over and swapped back to hammer scrapper.

Unfortunate that Engineer can only play hammer scrapper, at least its a decent spec.

Warriors seem to be completely OP right now. They were supposed to be weak to condi’s but thats not true with all the resistance they can stack. They are basically immune to regular damage with the insane heals they get and they also get to have a ton of defense while also dealing immense damage and CC. As the season goes on you will see more and more of them since its pretty clear they are the best class.

High Silver

Warriors need some sustain taken away. They need to pick one high damage or high burst potential that fact that they have both is stupid. Also, Warriors ability to handle conditions just isn’t right. I’ve put 18 stacks of burning on a warrior and their life didn’t move, in fact they were able to heal back up.

My average right now is the Brink of Mid/High Gold, dipped as low as Bottom Gold and I have been in Plat.

I am seeing just about every profession being played at different degrees. Guardian is stronger actually now, the daze nerf is nothing compared to the burn buffs both Power and Condi builds are rolling with. I would say it’s competitive-worthy, but it does have its weaknesses (A well-timed burst through the blocks on the low health pool does that).

Druid seems weaker but competent, Thief is slightly better, Mesmer is around the same. Necro never changes, Rev is still VERY strong given its toolset, all the bad revs have left the building leaving only the good ones. Engi is a solid pick as well as Tempest, and Warrior is still potent.

I think the changes overall will not adjust the High-end meta at all during Tournies, except during certain key line-ups. For instance, MaceBow Warrior is outstanding at 1v1 except against the current Sage Condi-Mesmer, I expect more representation therefore from Warriors and Guardians.

Now if you don’t mind, I need to win about 10 more times in a row to get back to plat, very fun!

Oh and fyi, the overall quality of the matches is much nicer. I get the feeling players at my level and above are playing harder than the previous seasons I have been in. I don’t want to take a dive into Silver and Bronze and see the states down there lol.

Im up and down, mostly around 1400 rank. Primarily playing condi rev and d/p staff thief.

Dragon hunters: are extremely low skill floor. Very easy to do well, very rare to see someone actively playing the class. I can almost set a 25 second timer on every dh I see. If they live till 25 seconds they have expelled all their cooldowns are now an easy kill.

Warrior: condi varient much like dragonhunter above. Class practically drives its self. See the odd power warrior that knows what they are doing and are a burst machine. Aside from that it’s a waiting game.

Mesmer: Condi varient is mind numbing to play against. It’s just a giant stall fest where low skilled players cycle through a rotation of cooldowns. When they run out they die. The odd higher skilled player is literally all over the map and unkillable.

Druid, Ele, & Engie: Mixed bag. I can tell immediately which ones know what they are doing and which ones are off in “lala cycle buttons” land. A lot players on support builds that do not know how to support or avoid focus fire. There are some very competent people on these classes looking to carry games.

Reapers: Often binary, they are either played absolute kitten or amazingly. Solid class this season as boons are still rampant and condi pressure is still very strong. I have to give kudos to the odd power reaper I see who knows how to counter dragon hunters completely.

Theif: again binary. Can be played really well and used to abuse people that don’t understand their own class. In the same note I have some people that cannot do anything other than camp stealth and attempt backstabs. I think thief is a solid pick if the person knows how to +1 and rotate. There is to much emphasis on spamming in many cases.

Rev : Not as good as it once was in +1 but still very good in team fights. Player performance is anywhere from someone trying walk a dinosaur to hard carries. I am honestly surprised how few I’ve seen lately.

Stuck in third tier silver after a brief stint in Gold.

Balance changes I’d suggest:
1) casting times for traps
– either make dh traps the same casting time and interrupted by taking other actions similar to thief traps… Or make thief traps instadrop as well. Preference to the former rather than latter.

2) cut the 5-7+ second invulns clean in half. Also, like bandits defense… Being invulnerable should be the full action. None of this I can’t be touched but can still use my full skill bar mess.

3) traps do less damage the more stale they are. Or give them a range before they autoexpire. you’re further than 1200… Trap breaks.

4) reevaluate conditions on ALL CLASSES. both their ability to deal them, as well as cleansing abilities. Reevaluate cooldown times.

5) not so much a balance suggestion as a general improvement. Make shadowstep a bit more like portal. Same distance and unphased by terrain changes. I.e. I walked up a staircase or around a pillar so when I run shadowreturn I get slammed into the pillar or just stand there in my own smoke.

6) reevaluate pulmonary impact and the torment variant… Torment variant does same damage standing still as moving. Pulmonary impact currently has a delay and seems to have a moving cooldown that’s unstated.

7) adjust ranger bristleback damage down 10 percent.

8) distracting dagger… Eliminate the cooldown between tosses. And/or Give a random skill increased cooldown…. Currently this skill is useless in all game modes.

Plus 1 on all the class stacking comments. When you enter a match and it’s 3 warriors and 2 guardians or vice versa vs a lineup with a higher skill floor you know it’s gonna be a bad match. I’d much rather wait 30 minutes for a match than play a combination of the same 4 classes every…Single..Match.