I wanted to show my appreciation for all the work you’ve done going into WvW this update since there’s no feedback thread yet. The Reward track, skill balance issues, and server linking will help revive this game mode significantly (not to mention everything else).
The Provisions master ability line was a nice surprise. Fantastic!!
Stability: The frequency at which stability can be removed by control effects has been increased from 0.05 seconds to 0.75 seconds. A brief effect will now play on the character when stability is removed via control.
This change will ensure that there is at least a minimum duration of immunity to control, without being as binary (on or off with no middle ground) as it was when the boon stacked duration. While this change is primarily targeted toward WvW, it does also carry a positive note for the PvP and PvE game types as well. We’ll continue to monitor the effectiveness of this and address it where appropriate.
Finding the sweet spot is going to be difficult no doubt, but we’ll just have to test it out.
Hunter’s Ward: This skill now creates barriers on enemies only if they are struck by the final attack. Barriers created by this skill now only stop enemies who have been marked (struck) by the final attack. The final attack damage has been increased by 33%. The ring duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. This skill’s cooldown has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds. Added a red ring for enemies so they can be identified as hostile.
May not be enough, will have to note more.
“Retreat!”: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
<3
Blowtorch: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
Wait what?
Healing Turret: The casting time of this skill has been increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds.
:(
Rocket Charge: This skill now executes two leaps instead of three. This skill now charges straight forward rather than angling slightly on the initial two leaps.
Ah kitten it. But at least it won’t fling me off randomly.
“Search and Rescue!”: The radius of this shout has been normalized and now affects a radius of 600, down from 1200. The recharge time of this skill has been increased from 45 seconds to 60 seconds.
Well, that wasn’t fun.
Balanced Stance: This skill now periodically applies swiftness and two stacks of stability for 3 seconds every 3 seconds that the stance is active.
Mebe.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
barricades gone opens up the dbls a bit stilll needs works here and there but progress reward track like pvp one of the big things i wanted and asked for. provision master line unexpected but im good with it heriocs account wide good. yeah id like to go back to the old upgrade system made maps livelier. havent checked out near keeps yet and changes there yet but so far im happier
Search and Rescue range of 600 is fine for sPvP but too low for WvWvW with all the (more potent) AoEs and cleave being sloshed around. I’m fine with the increased CD.
Good ideas and good direction, I like the changes around WvW and skills (don’t know about the others yet – I almost only play WvW).
For a very long time this is the first patchnote that I’m reading that I actually like. It feels like someone was actually thinking and trying to make things better; someone who actually listens and knows how to play WvW.
The reward track, the stability and skill changes, map changes all make sense to me so far (of course we’ll see how it feels in the long run, but after raiding today I definitely noticed the difference with stability).
Anyway, in short I wanted to say thank you. Some faith in Anet restored.
There’s a lot of delicious WvW candy in this patch! And I love the flavors!
I’m very glad to see that you’re walking the talk and back in the Shipping business.
Bravo!
I can’t wait to see what reset is going to be like!
Thank you, SINCERELY, for the plethora of positive changes to WvW!
PS – now just throw a couple devs back on them there legendary weapons, and, “Woahhh, Nelly!” LOOK OUT!!!
So far i’m liking the changes they made for WvW (and outside of WvW).
Things we spend 3 years asking for. Better rewards, unique rewards, a fix to boring but neccesary roles, and my personal favorite, recognizing WvW as a seperate entity in terms of balance.
We’ll have to wait and see how the World merging works out come Friday, but at least anet is actually trying to adress the problem.
I’ll give anet kitten when they deserve it, but i’ll happily recognize it when they do something good. This was a good update, a really good update.
I wonder what the big WvW update we’ve all been waiting for is, though. They added a single reward track, new armor and tweaked a handful of HoT skills. Meanwhile, there’s a useless, floating mortar at north Airkeep now, the final jump pad on the north side doesn’t push a player high enough to get on the bridge (or anywhere), and siege play went completely untouched.
If we have to wait another 3-4 months for them to even talk about those things I’m probably going to call it quits. Rewards are nice and all but they don’t do me any good if the gameplay is rubbish.
I read the whole thing and am continuing to keep up with it. There were no direct answers to my questions but it did sound like they weren’t holding anything back. I’m kind of baffled as to how this can really be it…but oh well.
It says -20% for WvW and again in the patch notes for “professions”. So is that -40%?
They nerfed it once for both modes, tbh only thing left that can’t be reflected is Coalesence, that still does too much damage in WvW. Also boonshare/stacking needs to be toned down, or I guess you could run corrupt boon and thieves with bountiful now.
Scrubio
Plays completely opposite professions to his main Teef.
ANet, thank you! I have been waiting for this day. So excited. I enjoy all the changes that you have made. Honestly, the patch notes are almost too good to be true. Love it.
It’s an excellent change as far as stability goes.
Keep WP change to tier 3 means defending a keep means more now
Skill change for gunflame to bugfix was great.
Usability improvements were a nice change for structures’ upgrade status
Fire keep change was a decent one as far as the lava in lords room , air keep turrets’ removal from bridges was good, barricade removal allows more roaming.
Autoloot is also welcome , Lvl 80 Boost, as are WvW reward tracks.
There’s more to be done, but I have to commend Arenanet on the update. The last change that brought usability improvements was probably the squad change.
Desolation (EU) → Yak’s Bend (US)
In your backline: Elementalist+Mesmer+Necromancer
+1 Excellent job with the update, thank you!! Feels like this update is already injecting new life to the game mode. Desert Borderlands is my favorite map by far and the redesign with all the new changes makes it even better, WvW is feeling fluid and packed with action.
All the updates are amazing, cheers for the many great moments to come!
~Red Kvothe~
Kaineng Server
Leader of The Doors of Stone [DS]
For the last year and a bit I have been fairly consistently critical of anet’s handling of WvW and they deserved all the criticism they got.
This however has much improved the situation, it’s not perfect but well on the way.
I like to think of improvements to coincide with the Goldilocks and the three bears story, not too much, not too little, just right. This certainly fits into just right.
Linking the worlds, new rewards (including a wvw armor!), stability changes and so much quality of life. Hoestly its amazing! Almost hard to believe how they got all of this right. Great job!
Thank you Tyler Bearce! The map changes seem good so far and the reward track is definitely working to get people back to wvw. We really appreciate you for listening to the community. Keep up the good work!
Anet has finally taken a few steps in the right direction with this update. It’s nowhere near enough to offset their several years of moonwalking of course, but it’s a start.
So am I the only one who doesnt see much of a difference? Granted I havent played much but it’s not something that’s gonna save WvW.
There’s already a thread titles 100 queue EB, 0 BL, and this is now; this reset we apparently have the server linking, how bad are the queues going to get then?!
Things arent going to go well for the next few weeks.
We’ll release SAB, everybody loves SAB they wont notice the lack of other updates!
On Piken we have more people.
Yes EB queue is always bigger, but now we have queue on all BL !
Small queue yes, but at least maps are full.
For me playing only on BL I see a huge difference with more people, keeps are now valuable because you have the WP at T3, map is easier to travel.
No seriously it’s a good improvement.
I always want Alpine back, but at least actually DBL is not so annoying.