Guild Wars 2

Having come back recently and seeing how much the PvP scene has improved, seeing Arenanet’s more frequent balanced patches and patches like this one, I’m honestly loving the game right now. The only issue with the PvP scene is lack of tournaments, but that’s for another thread.

This balance patch is absolutely awesome. Contrary to what most people believe, In higher levels, Plat+, classes are very well balanced and represented. The only issue was that guardian was seeing a little too much play, Thief being too easy, and rev is a little crappy. Rev buffs are somewhat mediocre and it’ll still be slightly undertuned, but with thief and guard nerfs it should be alright.

The guard nerfs are very well done, Arenanet hit the right areas by making the pull dodgeable and reducing the burst heal from the trap. The pull was the main issue with DH and adding a decent cast time is really nice.

I love the thief nerfs; nerfing PI is stupid because thief is meant to deal damage and disrupt, the nerf that they did in order to make thief riskier by cutting down on dodges is awesome and is exactly what needed to be done.

Warrior got slightly nerfed, but the nerfs are fair.

Mesmer got buffed. This is slightly questionable but condi didn’t get buffed by much so it’s whatever.

Rest of the classes saw minor buffs and adjustments to specs that aren’t used, which may increase build diversity slowly.

Overall great patch.

you wana talk pvp issues? Have you tried queuing as a party? or try the League tab :P

Or have you thought that it took them 4 months for those “minor buffs and adjustments”?

No the problem with DH is at mid and lower levels of play there are a million of them and its impossible to avoid traps when facing 2 or 3 of them and since there are no diminishing returns on traps of the same type its easy to instagib people which is about the least funnest thing in gaming. Also, the problem with Warriors is how conditions basically don’t effect them most of the time and all the damage avoidance they have and this nerf you are talking about was a 10% nerf to adrenal health. 10 percent lol. They still shed conditions like water and still have two endure pains every 60 seconds. This game shouldnt be balanced around the top 250 players anyway who cares about “high levels” of play or whatever you want to brag about A-net is moving away from that E-sports garbage anyway they need to balanced around the average player.

The new League tab is amazing

Potato.2567:

This balance patch is absolutely awesome. Contrary to what most people believe, In higher levels, Plat+, classes are very well balanced and represented. The only issue was that guardian was seeing a little too much play, Thief being too easy, and rev is a little crappy. Rev buffs are somewhat mediocre and it’ll still be slightly undertuned, but with thief and guard nerfs it should be alright.

The guard nerfs are very well done, Arenanet hit the right areas by making the pull dodgeable and reducing the burst heal from the trap. The pull was the main issue with DH and adding a decent cast time is really nice.

I love the thief nerfs; nerfing PI is stupid because thief is meant to deal damage and disrupt, the nerf that they did in order to make thief riskier by cutting down on dodges is awesome and is exactly what needed to be done.

Warrior got slightly nerfed, but the nerfs are fair.

Mesmer got buffed. This is slightly questionable but condi didn’t get buffed by much so it’s whatever.

Rest of the classes saw minor buffs and adjustments to specs that aren’t used, which may increase build diversity slowly.

Overall great patch.

DH didn’t have a nerf. They buffed the greatsword, which anyway is inferior to sword + focus so isn’t to change anything, and they “nerfed” the F1 with a longer cast which will change very little due is a unblockable and most of people doesn’t even known that the evade key exists.

Revs are done: they buffed Warriors and Mesmers which ALERADY hardcountered Revs, so Revs are now comparatively weaker than yesterday. They buffed legends that noone uses and the only decent work were the bug fixes in the mace and axe which also doesn’t matters because condi Rev is even weaker than power Rev.

Warriors got a 10% nerf in Adrenal Health in exchange of a wide array of buffs, but I think tha is fine because someone needs to stop Mesmers from being unstoppable. Both are S tier now.

Yeah! Ranger damage was buffed! Now to buff it even more and keep buffing it and THEN nerf pet damage into the ground. Gotta love it. All hail our Druid and Engi continued overlords. Oh well, I can’t complain. I main ele and we got some much needed CD buffs to skills that aren’t very powerful for how long their CDs were. Though some changes were unnecessary. Static Field doesn’t need a 30 second CD. Actually, I found it fine at 40. Instead, buffing different staff air skills would have been better, like Lightning Surge which has a day long cast time for crappy damage and blind in a small area on a 10 second CD. Gust could have used 5 seconds off the CD instead as well. Frozen only needed a 5 second CD reduction IMO. HR was a good buff. It’s a powerful skill and a very long lasting water field. What this patch really tells eles is that Anet wants to overbuff staff and other weapons instead of solving the spamming of high damage and high defence skills that still forces ele into the D/F support spec. As long as staff has mega long cast times and elite specs remain OP and allowing for both high damage and high defence in one spec, staff will never be truly viable in the top tier.

oh sweet summer child…

steelheart.7386:

No the problem with DH is at mid and lower levels of play there are a million of them and its impossible to avoid traps when facing 2 or 3 of them and since there are no diminishing returns on traps of the same type its easy to instagib people which is about the least funnest thing in gaming. Also, the problem with Warriors is how conditions basically don’t effect them most of the time and all the damage avoidance they have and this nerf you are talking about was a 10% nerf to adrenal health. 10 percent lol. They still shed conditions like water and still have two endure pains every 60 seconds. This game shouldnt be balanced around the top 250 players anyway who cares about “high levels” of play or whatever you want to brag about A-net is moving away from that E-sports garbage anyway they need to balanced around the average player.

Balancing around the average player is like communism. If you pay a Doctor who studies for 10 years the same as an 18 year old McDonalds worker, there will be no more doctors. There’s no motivation to do anything or get better. If Arenanet balanced around the average player, people who have any sort of motivation to play well will quit the game, because the higher tiers will be horrible and imbalanced.

I haven’t had a lot of time to play since patch. Is the DH F1 change working well? I was one of those people that considered the skill — 1/4 second cast, fast projectile, unblockable, pull interrupts evade — to be a bit too good given all those factors, but “slightly under 0.75 seconds” struck me at first blush as a tick too far, kind of like when they decide that some crafting recipe that needed 2 bits was cheapening a material, and the obvious balance would be 3, but instead they make it 4, so the price goes way up, which is a thing you run into if you spend any time in pve, which I started to do after they eliminated wvw, but in any case…

So you say it’s working out, eh? Good.

Is this some kind of marketing attempt?

So awesome that Revs are now chronomancers, even though that was the “unique” specialization of Mesmer.

Ithilwen.1529:

So awesome that Revs are now chronomancers, even though that was the “unique” specialization of Mesmer.

Nothing is unique in this game, give it up. Thieves were supposed to be king of stealth, but mes, engis (actually got improved version of sr), rangers and even DHs got stealth. Embrace homogenization!

As far as revs goes, i know why they gave them mes tools – revs became obsolete in raids when target cap got nerfed to 5 for mes/war/druid buffs. Instead of actually reverting the change and thus making room for revs in raids, Anet decided to do a change that… well won’t change anything as far as rev standing in raids goes……………..

The thing is they didn’t tackle the root of the problem.

There is only one quickness generator and they also happen to generate alacrity pretty well too.

There is only one class capable of keeping up a 25%+ damage buff on 5 people. They tried to allow 1 druid to keep up GotL on 10 which hopefully should open up new healer roles but frost/spotter is hard to give up.

As for the patch I’m glad the DH F1 got a cast time added, it was way too quick to cast at close range and avoid while being too punishing when combined with traps.

Also lol @ mesmer buffs, yeah those phantasms are going to wreck everyone with that extra attack they do, mark my words, we will all soon be bowing before our AI overlords and boon remover mesmers.

apharma.3741:

The thing is they didn’t tackle the root of the problem.

There is only one quickness generator and they also happen to generate alacrity pretty well too.

There is only one class capable of keeping up a 25%+ damage buff on 5 people. They tried to allow 1 druid to keep up GotL on 10 which hopefully should open up new healer roles but frost/spotter is hard to give up.

As for the patch I’m glad the DH F1 got a cast time added, it was way too quick to cast at close range and avoid while being too punishing when combined with traps.

Also lol @ mesmer buffs, yeah those phantasms are going to wreck everyone with that extra attack they do, mark my words, we will all soon be bowing before our AI overlords and boon remover mesmers.

Quickness is not even a problem, revs had basically guaranteed spot in raids prior to target cap change due raid wide boon duration and overall utility. They should have reverted the target cap change but it will probably never happen as it would be admitting a mistake.

Acrisor.8097:

Or have you thought that it took them 4 months for those “minor buffs and adjustments”?

Pre-Patch the majority of the ‘top player base’ agreed that the game was at it’s most balanced state since the release of HoT. I’m not sure why you or others were expecting big changes.
This being said every patch will bring complaints, typically from players who are tired of being countered by another class. That is, however the nature of MMO’s and in this case adds depth to the game, from a conquest perspective at least.

Cynz.9437:

apharma.3741:

The thing is they didn’t tackle the root of the problem.

There is only one quickness generator and they also happen to generate alacrity pretty well too.

There is only one class capable of keeping up a 25%+ damage buff on 5 people. They tried to allow 1 druid to keep up GotL on 10 which hopefully should open up new healer roles but frost/spotter is hard to give up.

As for the patch I’m glad the DH F1 got a cast time added, it was way too quick to cast at close range and avoid while being too punishing when combined with traps.

Also lol @ mesmer buffs, yeah those phantasms are going to wreck everyone with that extra attack they do, mark my words, we will all soon be bowing before our AI overlords and boon remover mesmers.

Quickness is not even a problem, revs had basically guaranteed spot in raids prior to target cap change due raid wide boon duration and overall utility. They should have reverted the target cap change but it will probably never happen as it would be admitting a mistake.

They had a place because a chrono could provide quickness to 10 people alone and revs did good damage, great CC, kept fury, regen, protection and might up at decent levels and allowed you to skimp on boon duration with facet of nature.

What changed this is that 1 chrono couldn’t share quickness to 10 people so they needed to replace something with a second chrono as quickness is that good. Rev had it’s damage reduced, it’s boon duration reduced from facet of nature and wasn’t strong enough within any role to warrant replacing warrior, druid or being a competitive option for DPS unless you were good at it.

Rev now might at least provide a viable option of healer while running a condi group if a solo chrono can keep quickness on 7 people. The rev can then fill in the coverage gap on alacrity but it’s a poor change for PvP as it didn’t change that the tablet is a clunky mechanic. They should make the tablet AoE bigger, possibly 360 possibly even increasing the AoE of the activated abilities and have the fragments of the tablet on elite last for 10s. Might become a decent on point bunker/healer but it needs to be able to compete vs ele and guard AoE heals/cleanse which it can’t with such a small area.

Anonymouse.4760:

Acrisor.8097:

Or have you thought that it took them 4 months for those “minor buffs and adjustments”?

Pre-Patch the majority of the ‘top player base’ agreed that the game was at it’s most balanced state since the release of HoT. I’m not sure why you or others were expecting big changes.
This being said every patch will bring complaints, typically from players who are tired of being countered by another class. That is, however the nature of MMO’s and in this case adds depth to the game, from a conquest perspective at least.

We expect big changes because we want diversity. Play the same game, in the same state, with the same features for 5 years… wouldn’t you be bored? This is the problem. We want shifting and changes and diversity and options. We want more builds for each profession, not just a single one that actually works… good.

Besides, we tend to compare this game with MMO market. Other games have more diversity, more builds, more options. MOBA games suffer changes every week. We have 4 months to wait for a “5 seconds reduced cooldown” on some spell, and then we successfully call it balance. Those 5 seconds on an unused spell were exactly what we needed, now we can PvP happy, everything is perfect.

When I see an enemy I want to be surprised by the build, so that I may know if I should engage in combat, or not. Instead we play the same kitten over and over again, and everything is already known as there is nothing to surprise me. If a player does not play meta… he dies; if that player plays meta… it’s boring. See my point? No options.

Acrisor, what a lot of people want is not big changes but small changes done regularly, you know, every month.

I want 5s shaved off an unused skill then in a month another change and another till it or the weapon set become useful. I want shaves in power level for all classes month by month till we get things with a reasonable risk/reward balance.

Think about it like this, had we changed spear of justice every month since the last balance patch it would have been at 3/4s cast time on Feb 13th and that’s assuming we changed it by 1/4s each time and only from the last patch on Dec 13th. If we had monthly balance patches since HoT everything would be in a better more balanced state months ago.

Small changes regularly and see its effect rather would be a welcome change.

apharma.3741:

Acrisor, what a lot of people want is not big changes but small changes done regularly, you know, every month.

I want 5s shaved off an unused skill then in a month another change and another till it or the weapon set become useful. I want shaves in power level for all classes month by month till we get things with a reasonable risk/reward balance.

Think about it like this, had we changed spear of justice every month since the last balance patch it would have been at 3/4s cast time on Feb 13th and that’s assuming we changed it by 1/4s each time and only from the last patch on Dec 13th. If we had monthly balance patches since HoT everything would be in a better more balanced state months ago.

Small changes regularly and see its effect rather would be a welcome change.

Small changes are good, but we did not like it. People complained about changes in seasons. Players do not like when changes come mid season. They tend to start with one meta profession, learn it, and have fun with it. So ArenaNet made a promise (I know, this is extremely rare, but they actually did it) to never introduce balance patches in seasons. Therefore, the only obvious solution is to add balance patches between seasons. As such, your argument is rendered useless, because they can’t possibly add balances patches every month. Remember, we asked for it.

Acrisor.8097:

apharma.3741:

Acrisor, what a lot of people want is not big changes but small changes done regularly, you know, every month.

I want 5s shaved off an unused skill then in a month another change and another till it or the weapon set become useful. I want shaves in power level for all classes month by month till we get things with a reasonable risk/reward balance.

Think about it like this, had we changed spear of justice every month since the last balance patch it would have been at 3/4s cast time on Feb 13th and that’s assuming we changed it by 1/4s each time and only from the last patch on Dec 13th. If we had monthly balance patches since HoT everything would be in a better more balanced state months ago.

Small changes regularly and see its effect rather would be a welcome change.

Small changes are good, but we did not like it. People complained about changes in seasons. Players do not like when changes come mid season. They tend to start with one meta profession, learn it, and have fun with it. So ArenaNet made a promise (I know, this is extremely rare, but they actually did it) to never introduce balance patches in seasons. Therefore, the only obvious solution is to add balance patches between seasons. As such, your argument is rendered useless, because they can’t possibly add balances patches every month. Remember, we asked for it.

You have your arguements front to back, the first ever league started on 1st December 2015 and there was a balance patch that day, there were no other balance patches that weren’t bug fixes or an emergency fix to something grossly overturned till it ended.

The only changes made between start of league 1 and end of league 1 were a few changes to tone down how no-one was dying as everyone had durability runes and would be rezzed instantly either by blur from mesmer or radiant revival on revs. A few other things were changed too because of WvW and again to reduce how unkillable classes were.

No-one asked for ANet to not balance between seasons as they dictated to us before hand they wouldn’t. We had no choice in it, never had and never experienced much for balance changes within league seasons. Go look at the balance patches, under release notes, there’s literally only 1 page of release notes many of which are nothing to do with balance changes so it won’t take long to cross reference with league dates.

Serious, Who are care Top 250!? They can easy to handle every changes of balance from their skill. We talking about long term development, pls care the new player base. Who want to see the DH in everywhere? If no new blood join your game, all will be over!

Buran.3796:

Potato.2567:

This balance patch is absolutely awesome. Contrary to what most people believe, In higher levels, Plat+, classes are very well balanced and represented. The only issue was that guardian was seeing a little too much play, Thief being too easy, and rev is a little crappy. Rev buffs are somewhat mediocre and it’ll still be slightly undertuned, but with thief and guard nerfs it should be alright.

The guard nerfs are very well done, Arenanet hit the right areas by making the pull dodgeable and reducing the burst heal from the trap. The pull was the main issue with DH and adding a decent cast time is really nice.

I love the thief nerfs; nerfing PI is stupid because thief is meant to deal damage and disrupt, the nerf that they did in order to make thief riskier by cutting down on dodges is awesome and is exactly what needed to be done.

Warrior got slightly nerfed, but the nerfs are fair.

Mesmer got buffed. This is slightly questionable but condi didn’t get buffed by much so it’s whatever.

Rest of the classes saw minor buffs and adjustments to specs that aren’t used, which may increase build diversity slowly.

Overall great patch.

DH didn’t have a nerf. They buffed the greatsword, which anyway is inferior to sword + focus so isn’t to change anything, and they “nerfed” the F1 with a longer cast which will change very little due is a unblockable and most of people doesn’t even known that the evade key exists.

Revs are done: they buffed Warriors and Mesmers which ALERADY hardcountered Revs, so Revs are now comparatively weaker than yesterday. They buffed legends that noone uses and the only decent work were the bug fixes in the mace and axe which also doesn’t matters because condi Rev is even weaker than power Rev.

Warriors got a 10% nerf in Adrenal Health in exchange of a wide array of buffs, but I think tha is fine because someone needs to stop Mesmers from being unstoppable. Both are S tier now.

they also nerfed warriors healing. but you dont care you just want the class to be useless right?