Guild Wars 2

In the recent sotg it was stated that they wanted to clean up the battlefield and make sure that AI specs are not competitive at the very highest level. The reasons were solid. Ai specs clutter up the battlefield making both playing and spectating frustrating, or even impossible.

However, it is easy to say these things, when their actual actions (with respect to balance) don’t pursue this goal. Ai specs have been pushed more than anything by the developers. Constant buffs and no nerfs.

Here is a list of the changes to ai specs (I only did 4-5 months but there are more!:

February patch
Summon Blood Fiend: This minion’s healing effect has been increased by ~80%
Bow of Truth: The health of this spirit has been increased by 30%.
Hammer of Wisdom: The health of this spirit has been increased by 33%.
Sword of Justice: The health of this spirit has been increased by 30%.
Shield of the Avenger: The health of this spirit has been increased by 30%.

March patch
Tool Kit skill: Increased potency of skills that heal turrets by 100%.
Thumper Turret skill:
Damage from base attacks increased by 66%.
Base attacks now cripple for 3 seconds.
Self-destructs after 5 minutes.
Rifle Turret skill: Increased damage from this turret’s base and overcharged attacks by 50%
Rocket Turret skill: Reduced recharge from 60 seconds to 50 seconds.
Net Turret skill: Increased turret’s health by 25%.
Net Attack skill: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.
Flame Turret skill:
Reduced recharge from 40 seconds to 25 seconds.
Increased main attack’s arc from 30 degrees to 60 degrees.
MANY ranger pet buffs

April patch
About 30 pet buffs to rangers
Spiritual Knowledge trait: Increased activation chance from 15% to 35%.
Increased health of all non-elite spirits by 60%.
Flesh Golem minion: Increased health by 25% and toughness by 10%.
Flesh Wurm minion: Increased health by 25%.
Hammer of Wisdom skill: Increased health of this summoned spirit by 25%.
Shield of the Avenger skill: Increased health of this summoned spirit by 14%.
Regenerating Mist skill: Reduced Healing Turret Toolbelt skill recharge from 60 seconds to 25 seconds.
Healing Turret skill mega buffs
Glyph of Lesser Elementals skill: Increased the health of summoned elementals by 33%.
Glyph of Elementals skill: Increased the health of the summoned elementals by 33%.

June
Rigor Mortis: This ability is now instant.
Bone Fiend and Shadow Fiend now regenerate outside of combat.
Shadow Fiend Haunt: Increased the blind duration to 5 seconds.
Spirit-activated skill range increased from 180 to 240 (360 when traited).
Vigorous Spirits: This trait has been merged with Spiritual Knowledge.
Spiritual Knowledge: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
Surprise Shot (Rifle Turret—Tool Belt): Increased the damage by 33%.
Rocket (Rocket Turret—Tool Belt): Decreased the cooldown to 30 seconds.

So there you have it. They claim they “get” one thing and will try to nerf ai. But the reality is different. They have been on a mission to buff AI across all classes for some time now. I wouldn’t expect anything to change, but I HOPE the one good thing PAX accomplished was to show the devs how terrible this game has become with all the AI which exists.

Again, this all boils down to what we already know: PvE is king, and PvP is a peasant. Those changes really don’t have much to do with PvP (Some do, but mostly they are PvE buffs). So the problem remains because they buff the game with PvE in mind and then they refuse to separate them because “it’s too much work” or even worse “PvE may feel confused coming from PvE to PvP if there is too much skill split”.

PvE players love their pets to do the work and take aggro for them, thus, those pets/minions will keep getting buffed.

Balance made by a PvE-Team for PvP can’t become competitive. This game is allready lost. Too few good players still play the game, where all the old ones allrdy quitted or quitting by now to join better upcoming/ existing games.

felivear.1536:

PvE players love their pets to do the work and take aggro for them, thus, those pets/minions will keep getting buffed.

That’s not exactly true. Most pet builds like spirit ranger or minion master are just not good in PvE at all, which is why they get buffed to make them more appealing for PvE.

The things that get buffed are the things that are not used, not the things which are used a lot.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Balance made by a PvE-Team for PvP can’t become competitive. This game is allready lost. Too few good players still play the game, where all the old ones allrdy quitted or quitting by now to join better upcoming/ existing games.

Sadly could be true. Live in hope though :P

Lordrosicky.5813:

In the recent sotg it was stated that they wanted to clean up the battlefield and make sure that AI specs are not competitive at the very highest level. The reasons were solid. Ai specs clutter up the battlefield making both playing and spectating frustrating, or even impossible.

“Their actions don’t follow their words.” Well of course not, their actions came four+ months before their words. Its impossible for their actions to follow their words when you make a regressive comparison, which is, more over, impossible to even discuss.

This thread is a waste of time.

I think, from now on, everyone should be graded on how they performed in kindergarten.