Guild Wars 2

Awesome, was waiting to here which classes would be next. Thanks for the update.

Looking forward to the balance preview. The more frequently you guys can bring updates to the game the better. (new game mode plz)

This preview better start with the word nerf and end with the word HAHA.

But seriously, please talk about some of the nerfs and not just all the improvements the classes may receive. Was shocked there weren’t more nerfs discussed about engis to be honest.

This show used to be about previewing upcoming content and hyping people, but it’s not anymore.

Anet is clearly not working on anything PvP related. The last 4 ready ups have all been the same: talk about the same tournaments without adding anything new at all.

Just check the announcements of the last ready ups:

Episode 19: “…Josh will be joined by German shoutcaster ChroNick to talk about the International All-Stars Tournament taking place at gamescom next week, as well as the ongoing Tournament of Legends Qualifiers…”

Episode 18: “…Josh will cover the ongoing Tournament of Legends qualifiers and the upcoming Guild Wars 2 International All-Stars Tournament at gamescom next month…”

Episode 17: “Josh is joined by authorized shoutcaster Jebro to discuss the Tournament of Legends 2 qualifier, the International All-Stars Tournament taking place at gamescom…”

Episode 16: “I’ll be joined by TCG captain Helseth […] learn how to secure that Llama Mini in ToL2!”

They don’t know how to fill the streams anymore. They even split the balance updates in many shows because they don’t know what to talk about.

Great idea to go from two professions that were pretty much universally considered in need of buffs and fixes, to the two professions that are pretty much universally considered in need of nerfs. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you guys did well.

Bhawb.7408:

Great idea to go from two professions that were pretty much universally considered in need of buffs and fixes, to the two professions that are pretty much universally considered in need of nerfs. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you guys did well.

Totally agree with this sentiment. If only the actual updates didnt roll out every six months. Imagine if games like LoL and DOTA2 only updated on a six month basis, DOTA2 gets balance “shaves” almost weekly and HUGE balance shakeups every couple months. I believe that ANet cannot call a balance update that rolls out that infrequently “shaving” as that implies small incremental changes rapidly released.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Actually, we split the balance update into multiple episodes because a single, 80 minute balance show was exhausting for both the team and the viewers.

As for content previews, when we are able to talk about upcoming content, we will include it on the show. Until then, the episodes will focus on tournaments and events happening within the competitive community.

The shows talking about tournaments are great, but my point was that keeping the palyerbase in the dark is really bad for everyone.

Anyway, I’ll watch the show for sure and I appreciate your answer.

Marcos.3690:

This show used to be about previewing upcoming content and hyping people, but it’s not anymore.

Anet is clearly not working on anything PvP related. The last 4 ready ups have all been the same: talk about the same tournaments without adding anything new at all.

Just check the announcements of the last ready ups:

Episode 19: “…Josh will be joined by German shoutcaster ChroNick to talk about the International All-Stars Tournament taking place at gamescom next week, as well as the ongoing Tournament of Legends Qualifiers…”

Episode 18: “…Josh will cover the ongoing Tournament of Legends qualifiers and the upcoming Guild Wars 2 International All-Stars Tournament at gamescom next month…”

Episode 17: “Josh is joined by authorized shoutcaster Jebro to discuss the Tournament of Legends 2 qualifier, the International All-Stars Tournament taking place at gamescom…”

Episode 16: “I’ll be joined by TCG captain Helseth […] learn how to secure that Llama Mini in ToL2!”

They don’t know how to fill the streams anymore. They even split the balance updates in many shows because they don’t know what to talk about.

I’d rather they be honest about timetables than take us on another four month hype train like the last feature patch. Still remember the balance stream in January for “upcoming” changes that weren’t added until April.

Bhawb.7408:

Great idea to go from two professions that were pretty much universally considered in need of buffs and fixes, to the two professions that are pretty much universally considered in need of nerfs. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you guys did well.

Engineers don’t need buffs. Neither do ranger really. Both are good. Nobody needs buffs really. Warriors, thieves and eles just need big nerfs.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Bhawb.7408:

Great idea to go from two professions that were pretty much universally considered in need of buffs and fixes, to the two professions that are pretty much universally considered in need of nerfs. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you guys did well.

Engineers don’t need buffs. Neither do ranger really. Both are good. Nobody needs buffs really. Warriors, thieves and eles just need big nerfs.

And signet of spite too, aka signet of skill

Marcos.3690:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Bhawb.7408:

Great idea to go from two professions that were pretty much universally considered in need of buffs and fixes, to the two professions that are pretty much universally considered in need of nerfs. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you guys did well.

Engineers don’t need buffs. Neither do ranger really. Both are good. Nobody needs buffs really. Warriors, thieves and eles just need big nerfs.

And signet of spite too, aka signet of skill

Nerf stuff people don’t run. Fine by me.

Marcos.3690:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Bhawb.7408:

Great idea to go from two professions that were pretty much universally considered in need of buffs and fixes, to the two professions that are pretty much universally considered in need of nerfs. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you guys did well.

Engineers don’t need buffs. Neither do ranger really. Both are good. Nobody needs buffs really. Warriors, thieves and eles just need big nerfs.

And signet of spite too, aka signet of skill

Most top necros don’t run it.

I think they are stalling for what ever reason as well with the balance previews now.

Isn’t it basically evened out to be 1 class a week? Seeming it’s what, 2 classes every 2 weeks?

So 2 months to just get through the previews.

If I’m correct, we’ve waited this long for changes then it takes you another 2 months to just preview what you’re going to do. And then you’ve actually got to implement the changes which is no doubt going to be even longer after that.

It’s kind of sad really that it takes this long. What does the people who work on balance do in their 9-5 job? I seriously don’t understand how the pacing of balance is so horribly slow.

Mjgander.1905:

I think they are stalling for what ever reason as well with the balance previews now.

Isn’t it basically evened out to be 1 class a week? Seeming it’s what, 2 classes every 2 weeks?

So 2 months to just get through the previews.

If I’m correct, we’ve waited this long for changes then it takes you another 2 months to just preview what you’re going to do. And then you’ve actually got to implement the changes which is no doubt going to be even longer after that.

It’s kind of sad really that it takes this long. What does the people who work on balance do in their 9-5 job? I seriously don’t understand how the pacing of balance is so horribly slow.

I would guess that it will take another month or so after the last balance preview. That is kind of a best case scenario situation too. So at best I would say the next balance patch will be early October.

I told my friends that anet most likely wont spill all the beans on what they have planned for the next balance patch on just the ready up, can you confirm that we will still be in for surprises after we have seen the ready ups on all the classes

I told my friends that anet most likely wont spill all the beans on what they have planned for the next balance patch on just the ready up, can you confirm that we will still be in for surprises after we have seen the ready ups on all the classes

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Actually, we split the balance update into multiple episodes because a single, 80 minute balance show was exhausting for both the team and the viewers.

As for content previews, when we are able to talk about upcoming content, we will include it on the show. Until then, the episodes will focus on tournaments and events happening within the competitive community.

Well let’s be realistic here Mark, Anet obviously has the ability to pre-record content, so you could more than easily record portions and compile it all into one video for us to take a look at as we please or summarize changes into a written document, etc. This spacing out and show itself is entirely for a hype/content train. Unless you literally think the changes are so mind-blowing here that your community base couldn’t possibly take them all in one single episode or combined forum post? Granted, I can’t complain because any information is welcome information, but don’t treat us like we’re brainless. We all know views on twitch drop incredibly when the show is just about ’community events’ as opposed to ’game changing balance decisions’.

Maybe now the Eviscerate thread in Proffession balance section will reach an end… or burn even more :P

docMed.7692:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Actually, we split the balance update into multiple episodes because a single, 80 minute balance show was exhausting for both the team and the viewers.

As for content previews, when we are able to talk about upcoming content, we will include it on the show. Until then, the episodes will focus on tournaments and events happening within the competitive community.

Well let’s be realistic here Mark, Anet obviously has the ability to pre-record content, so you could more than easily record portions and compile it all into one video for us to take a look at as we please or summarize changes into a written document, etc. This spacing out and show itself is entirely for a hype/content train. Unless you literally think the changes are so mind-blowing here that your community base couldn’t possibly take them all in one single episode or combined forum post? Granted, I can’t complain because any information is welcome information, but don’t treat us like we’re brainless. We all know views on twitch drop incredibly when the show is just about ‘community events’ as opposed to ‘game changing balance decisions’.

What’s more disappointing is how long it will be between balance patches. I hope ANET realizes that this game will never be an esport because of their own decisions. Compare balance frequency to LoL

Also to ANET: If your goal is balance, it is not a great idea to adjust 30 different skills at once. It is impossible to balance the game that way.

only things i really want to see for thief / warrior balance:

nerfs
warrior still has along way to go with making hammer a non-viable zerker weapon,
currently you can still spec into a defensive trait tree and use a CC weapon to 3 shot an ele…
choosing hammer should be a choice to sacrifice damage for CC, it should not be critting people for 4k, if people want to be doing huge crits then they should be using a dps weapon, not a CC weapon!
also cleansing ire with longbow should require a hit.

thief, the p/d condi spec that more and more people are using could use a tone down, it seems like they touch you twice and your health vanishes in 5 seconds.
plus it doesn’t rely on any cooldowns so its spammable,
we only have so many condi removal skills!

Buffs
warrior is pretty good across the board, i know people have been asking for an axe #5 buff for awhile now though, but i dont think it needs one.
also making traited warhorn convert 2 conditions instead of 1 would be a massive help to an underused weapon

thief could do with some changes, make Death Blossom a power attack (the rest of the skills are power attacks) and fix the weird “sometimes it does, some times it doesn’t” evade.
buff Invigorating Precision from 5% to 7 or 8%
retcon the nerf to C’n’D’s damage

a weird final suggestion, but “offhand light” dual skills could be made better than 2 weapon dual skills, this would give thieves an extra option of sacrificing the utility of something like blackpowder or C’n’d in exchange for more raw dakka.

If warrior/thief get’s any boosts, and warrior Rush is not nerfed, then I guess my ‘ranger excitement’ will be shaved into darkness again.

Full SEntinel (not pvt, so even less damage, more tanky) warriors, can dish out NON STOP 1k damage strikes. Any other profession, cannot do that in full tank gear, they end at 500-700 damage. Guardian can compensate with permanent retaliation, but that’s about it. And that’s what makes wvw boring. Everyone that is serious in t1 wvw, uses a warrior, guard or necro. Even ele’s are diminishing fast. IF so you will, Nerf Rush only in wvw (i have no qualms with it in pve, and pvp), but it needs a serious nerf. Anet said ‘every prof has weaknesses’, warrior has non really. They are to perfect allround. We should start with mobility nerf, as the most heavy armored prof in the game doesn’t deserve that.

These are probably balance changes scheduled for December…

In my point of view the problem with the warrior and 3shot an ele is, that the warrior is able to have 22+ stacks of might for free. So even with hammer + cele amu the damage is awesome. 1 mistake from the ele and the warrior wins.

I´m not expecting big changes to each class. Warrior now is depending on runes / sigils / might to deal good damage so they just need to reebalance those things. Thief is the same with the problem of ports / evades and boon steal. They should only rebalance a little those things and done with it.

Predictions: Developers will misquote the vast majority of players and say Warrior mobility is fine. Some wording was changed on their abilities and Healing Signet passive was buffed (now removes all conditions on active, grants stability, knocks down target, and makes the Warrior immune to all damage for 12 seconds). Added a trait that allows all Active abilities on Signets to be Passive.

The remainder of the podcast will be talking about Thief nerfs, including the return of the 4 second Reveal across all game-modes.

#nerfwarriors

Let’s wish at least 4 classes are introduced this time…
I really can hardly wait for the balance patch to hit ASAP.

Aomine.5012:

Let’s wish at least 4 classes are introduced this time…
I really can hardly wait for the balance patch to hit ASAP.

you will regret it a week after it hits xD

I feel like most professions are actually fine to some extend.
With few correct changes the meta could be stable for a while.
Warriors are definitely the most broken atm. Their passive healing whilst being able to 3-hit rather tanky builds is ridiculous.
It seems like Anet won’t nerf Healing Signet again, so my proposal is simply to make (Healing Signet is still to strong though, make it scale with healing power, and have a lower base-healing):

Adrenal Health scale well with healing power, and only grant a very slight regen without any. Additionally it could be an Adept Major trait, so you would have to choose it over Dogged March (still with the proposed nerfs, although the nerf should not be as severe).
Remove the adrenaline-gain from Cleansing Ire.
If an adrenaline skill is blocked/missed or evaded; lose all adrenaline without benefits from Cleansing Ire (depending on how the other nerfs would affect warrior, this or removing the adrenaline gain from CI could be undone, testing would be easy).
Pin Down should probably have either a higher CD or a slightly longer casting time as well. The telegraphing is okay on anything but Asuras however.

Thieves could need their evades toned down, but to be honest I don’t see them as gamebreaking. Their dmg compared to their squishyness is a fine ratio, if their evades could just be toned down. A suggestion could be to give “Withdraw” as longer CD. That healing skill is ridiculously good for a 15s CD.

Last fix I would implement is for “Signet of Spite” to have an increased casting time as well as a renewed telegraphing – I’m thinking from 3/4 to 1½. It’s simply impossible to dodge that skill if you’re playing against an asura, and it’s incredibly difficult against a normal sized human – it shouldn’t be.

As a general change, I would change “Might” to grant 35 Power and 15 condition damage, instead of the current 35 condition damage. This would punish the current might-stacking builds like Ele and Warrior. I like the idea of might being used for power better than for condition damage. 25 stacks would still grant 375 condition damage, which would be a total of 909 in a standard Ele build, compared to the 1409 it is now.

These are only nerfs, as a lot of underdog builds could use improvements, but I won’t bother writing them down here. Although “Time Warp” having a 210 sec CD is mind boggling.

Only thing I want to say is do not put music of any kind in this stream or the VODs will be muted for the people who might have missed the live stream.

KrisHQ.4719:

I feel like most professions are actually fine to some extend.
With few correct changes the meta could be stable for a while.
Warriors are definitely the most broken atm. Their passive healing whilst being able to 3-hit rather tanky builds is ridiculous.
It seems like Anet won’t nerf Healing Signet again, so my proposal is simply to make (Healing Signet is still to strong though, make it scale with healing power, and have a lower base-healing):

Adrenal Health scale well with healing power, and only grant a very slight regen without any. Additionally it could be an Adept Major trait, so you would have to choose it over Dogged March (still with the proposed nerfs, although the nerf should not be as severe).
Remove the adrenaline-gain from Cleansing Ire.
If an adrenaline skill is blocked/missed or evaded; lose all adrenaline without benefits from Cleansing Ire (depending on how the other nerfs would affect warrior, this or removing the adrenaline gain from CI could be undone, testing would be easy).
Pin Down should probably have either a higher CD or a slightly longer casting time as well. The telegraphing is okay on anything but Asuras however.

Thieves could need their evades toned down, but to be honest I don’t see them as gamebreaking. Their dmg compared to their squishyness is a fine ratio, if their evades could just be toned down. A suggestion could be to give “Withdraw” as longer CD. That healing skill is ridiculously good for a 15s CD.

Last fix I would implement is for “Signet of Spite” to have an increased casting time as well as a renewed telegraphing – I’m thinking from 3/4 to 1½. It’s simply impossible to dodge that skill if you’re playing against an asura, and it’s incredibly difficult against a normal sized human – it shouldn’t be.

As a general change, I would change “Might” to grant 35 Power and 15 condition damage, instead of the current 35 condition damage. This would punish the current might-stacking builds like Ele and Warrior. I like the idea of might being used for power better than for condition damage. 25 stacks would still grant 375 condition damage, which would be a total of 909 in a standard Ele build, compared to the 1409 it is now.

These are only nerfs, as a lot of underdog builds could use improvements, but I won’t bother writing them down here. Although “Time Warp” having a 210 sec CD is mind boggling.

Those changes are really good in general.

It’s not enough to change how much power or condition damage Might gives, or to lower or increase the stat numbers Celestial amulets or Valkyrie amulets or whatever else gives, or to lower how much skill X scales with Power or Healing etc. What’s needed is a change of the scaling system for ALL skills and effects from a linear scale to a curved scale, to give diminishing returns. The current system just encourages building for extremes – ie either going full bunker or full burst, and it’s a balancing nightmare. It pushes every balanced build out of the meta because they can neither kill the bunkers, nor survive the burst professions.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Actually, we split the balance update into multiple episodes because a single, 80 minute balance show was exhausting for both the team and the viewers.
.

how can it be exhausting to talk infrot of a camera when you get paid to do it???

just askin, cuz if you need a talkactive person to do the marathon videos for you, then hire me. Ill gladly sit there and let my chatterbox run rampant all day long.

Josh Davis.6015:

See: Deceptive Evasion

Did you refer to the trait or my post with that sentence?

KrisHQ.4719:

Thieves could need their evades toned down, but to be honest I don’t see them as gamebreaking. Their dmg compared to their squishyness is a fine ratio, if their evades could just be toned down. A suggestion could be to give “Withdraw” as longer CD. That healing skill is ridiculously good for a 15s CD.

I agree with toning down evades, but I would prefer a different approach. Instead, I would change Feline Grace to give back 10 endurance instead of 15 on a dodge and see how it goes from there.

Hello frands! Vee Wee here, #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

Here’s hoping for nerfs!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

can skill bars have its own episode? create more shows anet like i dont know intoducing anet devs and stuff lol

KrisHQ.4719:

Last fix I would implement is for “Signet of Spite” to have an increased casting time as well as a renewed telegraphing – I’m thinking from 3/4 to 1½. It’s simply impossible to dodge that skill if you’re playing against an asura, and it’s incredibly difficult against a normal sized human – it shouldn’t be.

Signet of Spite is 3/4 second cast already and has a big ‘ol symbol of the signet appear over the caster’s head. I could see arguing for the symbol to appear at the start of the cast rather than about 1/3 through, however. Gives a little extra time to recognize and react, but the skill is well telegraphed and definitely dodgable already.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

KrisHQ.4719:

Last fix I would implement is for “Signet of Spite” to have an increased casting time as well as a renewed telegraphing – I’m thinking from 3/4 to 1½. It’s simply impossible to dodge that skill if you’re playing against an asura, and it’s incredibly difficult against a normal sized human – it shouldn’t be.

Signet of Spite is 3/4 second cast already and has a big ‘ol symbol of the signet appear over the caster’s head. I could see arguing for the symbol to appear at the start of the cast rather than about 1/3 through, however.

But you gotta remember how strong a skill it is. To me (and those that I mainly play with) it’s the strongest skill with the worst telegraphing. I can’t remember that I’ve ever dodged that skill on purpose. That’s not saying it can’t be done, but in a fight, having to watch extremely closely for an important skill is not optimal.
I’ve dodged “Steal” more times than I’ve dodged Signet of Spite, which should say something.

KrisHQ.4719:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

KrisHQ.4719:

Last fix I would implement is for “Signet of Spite” to have an increased casting time as well as a renewed telegraphing – I’m thinking from 3/4 to 1½. It’s simply impossible to dodge that skill if you’re playing against an asura, and it’s incredibly difficult against a normal sized human – it shouldn’t be.

Signet of Spite is 3/4 second cast already and has a big ‘ol symbol of the signet appear over the caster’s head. I could see arguing for the symbol to appear at the start of the cast rather than about 1/3 through, however.

But you gotta remember how strong a skill it is. To me (and those that I mainly play with) it’s the strongest skill with the worst telegraphing. I can’t remember that I’ve ever dodged that skill on purpose. That’s not saying it can’t be done, but in a fight, having to watch extremely closely for an important skill is not optimal.
I’ve dodged “Steal” more times than I’ve dodged Signet of Spite, which should say something.

I wish I understood how strong this skill allegedly is since I never use it and see it as generally not very effective. I almost never see it used, anyway.

Roe.3679:

KrisHQ.4719:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

KrisHQ.4719:

Last fix I would implement is for “Signet of Spite” to have an increased casting time as well as a renewed telegraphing – I’m thinking from 3/4 to 1½. It’s simply impossible to dodge that skill if you’re playing against an asura, and it’s incredibly difficult against a normal sized human – it shouldn’t be.

Signet of Spite is 3/4 second cast already and has a big ‘ol symbol of the signet appear over the caster’s head. I could see arguing for the symbol to appear at the start of the cast rather than about 1/3 through, however.

But you gotta remember how strong a skill it is. To me (and those that I mainly play with) it’s the strongest skill with the worst telegraphing. I can’t remember that I’ve ever dodged that skill on purpose. That’s not saying it can’t be done, but in a fight, having to watch extremely closely for an important skill is not optimal.
I’ve dodged “Steal” more times than I’ve dodged Signet of Spite, which should say something.

I wish I understood how strong this skill allegedly is since I never use it and see it as generally not very effective. I almost never see it used, anyway.

Well, his arguments don’t make sense anyway. He’s using asura animation (First post), and now how he’s already able to dodge instant cast steal (second post) as his arguments. The fact that not a lot of necromancers use this skill is probably irrelevant for him.

inb4

“We noticed that some players weren’t playing Warrior, so we removed the Necromancer and Ranger professions and replaced them with more Warriors.”

Hello frands! Vee Wee here, #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

Vee Wee approves these new changes! Vee Wee would like this patch to be released thuper ASAP!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

It would be cool if they could just post the changes here in form of patchnotes for the people that missed the stream or don’t want to listen to Karl like me. :<

Underwhelmed: was hoping for a nerf to the 100% condition reduction on Berserker Stance. Hard counters are terrible game design: nobody in a pvp game should be immune to any other player’s main source of damage for 8/60". And the problem with Flanking Strike wasn’t just the low initiative cost, but the lack of counterplay: if they changed it so the thief was only evading for 0.25" of the 0.5% activation time it would be fine.

Dulfy.net will have them at some point today in text no worries.

Also warrior and s/d d/p thief nerfs hehehe

Also I only heard it from a friend so I may not be perfect on accuracy here but the 3 skill is a huge counter play to s/d thiefs. Basically if you dodge the highly telegraphed high initiative low damage skill they cannot use the low initiative high damage skill. It also hurts them on high burst entry.

hope anet realizes the change to s/d thief in that you need to land flanking strike to use lacernous strike completely destroyed s/d. Literally I dont think anyone will run it solely because of that change.

Not really nw they can spam evade with sword…
srsly, don’t they have enough evade? lol