Guild Wars 2

Looks promising!

Good changes in general.

Not sure if the nerfs to revenant is a bit too harsh. Without revenant’s firepower, it gets really hard to kill all those nasty bunkers in the game.

Still wishing for some more buffs to the large amount of unused skills/traits.

I bet there will be a lot of hate from ppl unhappy with the changes, but I wanna see what this will bring. The only change where I would disagree is the mesmer one. Making it healing power reliant is a bad idea imo, just increase Illusionary Reversion from 2 to 3 clones, put an ICD on Chronophantasma and leave the healing as it is.

Also, your pretty much killed Rev. GG on that part. I mean, I abused it while it was OP for free climb in divisions, but those damage nerfs are bigger than the nerf-bat ele was hit with when it was nerfed smth like 4 months ago. I doubt rev will be picked after this.

Looking good so far, not every might agree with the changes but these are the type of meaningful changes this game mode needs, unlike the last balance patch
I’m pleasantly surprised as I was not expecting a balance patch, thanks!

Well, it was a long journey but I think now you killed definitely the Power revenant from the meta.

PvP only fixes are very good for the game, especially if they tone down overpowering specs, but the really strange thing here to me is that so many of the skill buffs would diversify and improve gameplay in PvE as well. Things like making Signet of Courage have a less godawful cooldown should absolutely be reflected in PvE as well as PvP, for instance. Additionally, I can’t see any downside to echoing the Thief buffs in PvE; those weapons are horribly outclassed right now and could use further buffs.

Anyway, I guess I will be swapping back to condi Rev for S5! Poor power. >.>

Poor Revs xD. May condi rev forever reign supreme.

I wonder why no warrior changes, they are pretty mediocre in PvP not great but not bad. Give us warriors something to look forward to at least in PvP.

As a rifle engi.

The rifle change looks to be taking rifle to the right direction, and honestly i think it would be fair to apply these changes to pve too, a more risky weapon for more damage value is an appreciated change.

Let’s see if the damage it’s now at pair with hammer.

Looking forward to trying out the Deadshot Amulet. Are there more changes coming for Warrior, Necro, and Ranger though?

Wishing they rework Berserk Hammer Primal skill and buff Hammer Warriors. Sick of condy.

This is most likely just an initial update and not the whole thing, think of it as a sneak peak if you want.

I wouldn’t comment too much on others before they actually start the season, but most of the changes looks promising, especially mallyx’s long waited stun break.

On the other hand, maybe I’ll try to dust off my odd guardian burn build and see how it goes. Now that it has both the duration and the burn stacks it might be a potent combo if survival-ability is spec right. I can probably boost it to 6-7s burn duration per passive proc, which is deadly when used with symbols’ multi-hit.

Any dev here? as an engi, there will be any buffs that could encourage the use of gadgets? its one of those things that we would love to see.

Independent of whatever you are changing, it is great that you’re finally doing it in a split manner. I hope PvE balance can be looked at too so that some stuff can be buffed there while preventing PvP powercreep **cough**necro**cough** . With that said, these particular changes are looking promising; I like how you’re slowly introducing a support role into Guardian (as it should have from start) and tuning up Elem damage.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Revenant is in an interesting place in PvP. It’s undoubtedly one of the more difficult professions to play, but when mastered it is devastating on the battlefield. We’re going to bring some elements of the main power build down slightly,

• Surge of the Mists: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
• Precision Strike: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.

SLIGHTLY.

LoopySnoopy.7923:

I wonder why no warrior changes, they are pretty mediocre in PvP not great but not bad. Give us warriors something to look forward to at least in PvP.

We are looking pretty ok overall compared to some other professions. Besides, meta shifts on other professions affect us indirectly.

I am absolutely stoked though about more PvP split on abilities. Regardless of the changes, the fact that the devs are pushing for PvP abilities not being tied to the PvE meta will ultimately serve the SPvP community in the long run! And that applies vice-versa as well.

• New PvP-only Rune: Rune of the Lynx: +175 power, +100 Condition Damage, +25% Movement Speed
• We’re looking to add a viable damage-oriented movement speed rune to help professions with minimal access to in-combat movement speed or swiftness. This may impact match pacing, so we’re going to keep a close eye on it.

Amazing.

Although I’d really suggest including a Power-Based movement rune and a Condi-Based movement rune while still keeping an eye on movement runesets (I do HEAVILY welcome more Movement Runesets for all gamemodes)

Suggestions:

Rune of the Tiger – Power-main Movement Bonus Runeset

• 175 Power, 100 Precision (or ferocity), +25% Movement speed

Rune of the Lynx – Condition-main Movement Bonus Runeset

• 175 Condition, 100 Expertise, +25% Movement speed

Every time I decide I will pick up Rev and finally actually learn the class you guys nerf it. Are you watching me? Why do you do this to me?? /sad

Thank you! I think splitting the skills is the right direction to go in, and I’m glad you’re taking the comments from the pvp community seriously.

Super excited about the new season now.

With this massive nerf to power revenant, I think it is good time to learn to play warrior again.

how come none of the pvp changes apply to wvw?

oEnvy.3064:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Revenant is in an interesting place in PvP. It’s undoubtedly one of the more difficult professions to play, but when mastered it is devastating on the battlefield. We’re going to bring some elements of the main power build down slightly,

• Surge of the Mists: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
• Precision Strike: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.

SLIGHTLY.

3 out of 9 classes get no changes?

maxwelgm.4315:

Independent of whatever you are changing, it is great that you’re finally doing it in a split manner. I hope PvE balance can be looked at too so that some stuff can be buffed there while preventing PvP powercreep **cough**necro**cough** . With that said, these particular changes are looking promising; I like how you’re slowly introducing a support role into Guardian (as it should have from start) and tuning up Elem damage.

Echoing this sentiment: I’m also pleased the balance team is fixing this longstanding problem, though it also means overnerfed skills like Well of Precog will probably stay worthless since there won’t be a functionality split.

In any case, I’m eager to support this game again. Kudos, balance team.

Glad I abandoned rev, as it looks like total kitten now.

PvP splitting is an excellent start to what could be one of the best PvP systems in an MMO, or the potential to be one.

The Elementalist change is absolutely great. Very welcome to see Arcane Shield have that much if a significant CD reduction. It could even make Elemental Surge viable… !

And another buff to the Glyph – I’m very very happyyyy+! With Inscription, the CD is a staggering 16.

Hope phoenix and Dragon’s Toith are buffed too, inom

Omg could the developers stop nerfing rev ? This getting ****** annoying .. hope this gets re-thinked

oEnvy.3064:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Revenant is in an interesting place in PvP. It’s undoubtedly one of the more difficult professions to play, but when mastered it is devastating on the battlefield. We’re going to bring some elements of the main power build down slightly,

• Surge of the Mists: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
• Precision Strike: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.

SLIGHTLY.

Surge of the mists has been nerfed 3 times !!! And each time it’s by an atrocious number .. man you guys know how to ruin the mood

Gaile Gray.6029:

Thief

We’re putting in two small changes in this release that might open up additional options for pistol main-hand and sword builds

• Infiltrator’s Strike: The range of this ability has been increased from 600 to 900 in PvP only. Immobilize duration has been increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.

I don’t want to sound too harsh so I’ll start saying thanks for the try, but you really need to play this game because you look like you lack profession knowledge.. If you want to give sword a chance as a viable build (not only in PvP but in WvW too), you definitely have to redo some of the nerf you land on it (after HoT those nerf become too heavy).

Let me help you just a little bit:

1) Remove casting time from Infiltrator’s Return. (global)
2) You can use Larcenous Strike even if Flanking Strike doesn’t land on the target (pvp only/Global)
3) Pistol Whip casting time reduced to 0,5s/0,25s (pvp only)
4) Bring Larcenous Strike cost back to 1 initiative (pvp only)
5) Reduce Infiltrator’s Strike cost to 2 initiative (global)

IL

ps: I’m sorry for my English, I hope you can understand what I wrote.

Is this the full list of balance changes coming with the patch or is there more waiting for us?

Piercing Light: This trait no longer causes traps to daze enemies and will instead inflict the Slow condition on enemies for 1.5 seconds on the initial ‘trigger’ of a trap.

Also, since it doesn’t mention PvP only, is it safe to assume this change will hit PvE too?

Kastiel.1947:

Surge of the mists has been nerfed 3 times !!! And each time it’s by an atrocious number .. man you guys know how to ruin the mood

0.85*0.85*0.5 = 0.36125.

Rev staff 5 will only do 36% of the damage it could when expansion first came out.

I feel like this is definitely a step in the right direction for PvP however releasing this on the same day as season starts is not going to be very pleasant. We won’t have any time to practice or test out any builds before the season. Either way really nice work from the team.

Revenant though… Why? You killed it from raiding and now it looks like it’s going to completely die in PvP too. it’s one of the hardest classes to play in PvP imo now it feels like it’s going to be impossible to play now. /Sad

Kastiel.1947:

Omg could the developers stop nerfing rev ? This getting ****** annoying .. hope this gets re-thinked

It seems they have logs and numbers.

REV easy burst combo is main reason why meta is bunky. And it is the main reason since season 1. Nerfing all tank because of REV dps opness was not the appropriate answer.

But still, easy REV burst with evade will still work and do what it need.

But now, not every joe would make it happen.

It will get the same with next xpac. The new OP classes of the Power of Sales will look at all others getting specialization nerfes and will have their own after everything got change again.

Enjoy a game where the META is not made by the player decision from their builds, but by the nerf and buff of the dev.

But so far, so good. I like those little balances changes and always find a way to do what I have fun with in this game. I still miss bunker guard, but I did adapt to new meta and many meta died (shoutbow war, bunker guard, decap engi, power necro were my favorite) since then.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Is this the full list of balance changes coming with the patch or is there more waiting for us?

Piercing Light: This trait no longer causes traps to daze enemies and will instead inflict the Slow condition on enemies for 1.5 seconds on the initial ‘trigger’ of a trap.

Also, since it doesn’t mention PvP only, is it safe to assume this change will hit PvE too?

I assume theres more, because the post mentioned changes to pistol engie, but theres nothing written about it in the balance changes

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:
As for Jump Shot, it’s difficult to land both the first and second attacks consistently unless you’re cleaving a downed player. To address this, we’ve moved some of the initial damage to the end of the attack, making it easier to spike. The total damage done by the skill will be the same.

This is actually a nerf btw, considering how easy the 2nd hit is to avoid and how often rifle engi needs to use jump shot for actual repositioning, as it needs to stay mid-range most of the time to actually avoid damage. The problem with rifle isn’t that rifle is bad, it’s that hammer and most of the new HoT stuff are just leagues better. That, and all the additional stability and reflects HoT added makes it very hard to land overcharged shot when it matters. Stop looking at how to bring old meta weapons up, and start looking at how to bring the new ones down. Power creep isn’t good for anyone.

—EDIT— and also revert the gear shield nerf (it wasn’t a problem anyway), and revert the trait buff instead (it wasn’t needed and nobody asked for it). The gear shield nerf and the healing turret cast time nerf hurt core engi more than any buffs you can give could possibly help.

Eleazar.9478:

bunker burn guards inc woooo…….

Just run Signet of Might Variant Condi War.

Kappa

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:
The change to Shadow Strike should hopefully give a bit more punch to some off-meta condition builds.

What would give more punch to ‘off-meta condition builds’ (Read: P/D) would be to actually address the garbage condi application of the MH pistol steath attack. It’d be great if this can one day at least pretend to be in line with the bleeds that D/D Death Blossom is capable of racking up against a single target, to say nothing of the 3 targets plus evades that D/D enjoys when wearing out their initiative on this skill.

Sins.4782:

The gear shield nerf and the healing turret cast time nerf hurt core engi more than any buffs you can give could possibly help.

No worries. Coming soon to patch notes near you:

“The greatest buff to the Engineer’s survivability will come as a result of reductions to other professions.”*

*Now with more Purity of Purpose.

Ivantreil.3092:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Is this the full list of balance changes coming with the patch or is there more waiting for us?

Piercing Light: This trait no longer causes traps to daze enemies and will instead inflict the Slow condition on enemies for 1.5 seconds on the initial ‘trigger’ of a trap.

Also, since it doesn’t mention PvP only, is it safe to assume this change will hit PvE too?

I assume theres more, because the post mentioned changes to pistol engie, but theres nothing written about it in the balance changes

It mentions that they ‘have been’ as in past and present, so I think they might be referring to the love pistol got last round of adjustments.

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Blunderbuss: The damage of this ability has been increased by 10% at all range thresholds in PvP only.

Not sure why this was PVP only considering this is a marginal at best gain in DPS to use in PVE (not worth using over alternatives basically), but whatever, not sure 10% would change much anyways.

oEnvy.3064:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Revenant is in an interesting place in PvP. It’s undoubtedly one of the more difficult professions to play, but when mastered it is devastating on the battlefield. We’re going to bring some elements of the main power build down slightly,

• Surge of the Mists: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
• Precision Strike: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.

SLIGHTLY.

Oh god kitten Jerus! You had to say it!

Now we are going to have Rifle Engi Blunderbusses all S5. RIP META.

Edit: Rev will be fine, hell the DH change for Piercing Light probably worse overall, interrupts are gone!

Can you change lucid singularity and tempestuos aria and latent stamina? They’re terrible for elite spec traits

Good to see some PvP only changes even if I don’t agree with all of them.

Engi changes: Play hammer or gtfo

Sins.4782:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:
As for Jump Shot, it’s difficult to land both the first and second attacks consistently unless you’re cleaving a downed player. To address this, we’ve moved some of the initial damage to the end of the attack, making it easier to spike. The total damage done by the skill will be the same.

This is actually a nerf btw, considering how easy the 2nd hit is to avoid and how often rifle engi needs to use jump shot for actual repositioning, as it needs to stay mid-range most of the time to actually avoid damage. The problem with rifle isn’t that rifle is bad, it’s that hammer and most of the new HoT stuff are just leagues better. That, and all the additional stability and reflects HoT added makes it very hard to land overcharged shot when it matters. Stop looking at how to bring old meta weapons up, and start looking at how to bring the new ones down. Power creep isn’t good for anyone.

—EDIT— and also revert the gear shield nerf (it wasn’t a problem anyway), and revert the trait buff instead (it wasn’t needed and nobody asked for it). The gear shield nerf and the healing turret cast time nerf hurt core engi more than any buffs you can give could possibly help.

I agree with this, but the healing turret cast time isn’t a big deal. It means you have to be aware of when you heal. It was kinda needed for counter play, pvp wise. As for rifle, yeah you didn’t need to nerf the initial cast. Like he said, the last part is what people are dodging.

Revenant has no place in raids and now gutted in pvp.

I’m guessing you’re aiming to popularise condi rev by nerfing staff/buffing mallyx but it’s plagued with bugs.

Congratulations, you have reduced the build diversity from one to none

First of all, Cuddos on splitting balance though. Great Call. But i can’t help but to show my frustration on the notes itself

Why would you do this kind of “balance” to a class that has a high skill ceiling such as revenant? Seriously. The class is hard to play, you said it yourself, so it should be rewarding. This kind of nerf you cant ‘’work your way around’’ with skill. Youre punishing both the experienced and the unexperienced revenant for rev being too strong on high level. A good balance to a class that is hard to play tho too overpowered if mastered should involve making it easier to play yet nerfing characteristics that only high level revenants can take advantage of.

Im not saying i agree with nerfing revenant at all. Im saying that if youre gonna do it, do it the right way.

Such shame pvp team, tired being beaten by pve players and their pve bragging skillz? shame indeed.