Guild Wars 2

Whoops, wrote the code for the blacklist but forgot to configure Glory as a blacklisted currency. Just pushed a config update, #17 should disappear from /v2/account/wallet soon.

It’s about 25 million requests/day.

Most hit endpoint is /v1/wvw/match_details.json (as applications have to poll it to get accurate RI timers).

Hi everyone!

Long story short is that display names weren’t designed in a way that allows them to be changed without causing a potential (and significant) batch of problems on the account so we (support) only do them when we reeeeally need to.

Ricochet in its previous implementation is not slated to return at this time.
When the trait system was condensed, the standard was set in that each weapon set could only have one trait. Being that a player might want to receive increased damage from pistols, but not necessarily inherit the RNG bounce attacks from the secondary trait, this secondary trait was cut.
I will say though that pistols are something we’ll be looking to improve, being as they feel under-tuned at the moment.

-Karl

Hey all,
here’s some other changes that happened today.

note: There was a bit of feedback that the auto-attack wasn’t up to snuff. We took a look today and decided that it was quite the case, being that damage on this weapon set is more localized onto the auto-attack.
Staff Strike: Increased damage by 5%.
Staff Bash: Increased damage by 18%.
Punishing Strikes: Increased damage by 20% per attack. Added a missile reflect skill fact.
Hook Strike: Increased damage by ~250%. note: The damage is still on the lower side for the weapon, but now deals more than practically zero. This ability is intended to set up high damage combos through crowd control, thus we’re trying to keep the damage lower than other from-stealth abilities.

Weakening Charge: This ability is now targeted, with the animation being cleaned up a bit. Distance traveled is slightly less, to increase the ease of landing multiple hits on a target. Reduced aftercast slightly (120ms).

Debilitating Arc: Included an evade fact. This ability continues to evade from the start of the ability.

Impaling Lotus: Removed the hidden initiative cost.

EDIT FOR BOLD!!!!!!

I really like this a lot!

We’ll be watching the thread, but things seem to have settled now.

Thanks again for your patience.

Fay.2357:

Just to reiterate, could you clarify the cooldown of well of eternity? In BWE2, it was 20 seconds. Is it being moved to 25 or to 30?

Sorry that was a bit of confusion on my part. The correct recharge is 30 seconds. I’ve edited the original post to reflect this.

SaintSnow.6593:

One thing though, any clarification on the wells finally being distinguished as ally or enemy? For the last two weekends they have had ally rings on them regardless is if it is an enemy’s. Needs the red line for distinguishing.

Thanks for mentioning this, I hadn’t seen any reports on this yet so I’ll look into it.

Fnix.5608:

Not sure if I like this change at all, very sceptical about this one. Sure, I want to test it first – but placing phantasms in melee range, and only hitting one target with slow at the time is a big nerf overall to this one.

Slow is also applied AoE.

Zenith.7301:

So the question is, once that bar irons up, will status effects still apply for the purpose of still allowing traits to proc/function? Or will people have to wait until the bar is uncovered again to start benefiting from their traits?

You’ll still be able to apply them. Edited original post to reflect this.

Hey all,

We will be contacting the winners today, and you’ll have 24 hours to respond to confirm your win. Otherwise, we have a handy little forge into which we’ll toss all remaining entries and hope for a gold in return.

Because of minimum fees, and the inability to divide some values lower than standard whole numbers.

There have been a lot of questions coming up recently from several different profession forums regarding the use of soft-CC effects (cripple, chill, slow, etc) on bosses with the new Defiance system in HoT. We have a solution in the works for this but we wanted to make a post to explain how it’s going to work.

A hard-CC like a stun, daze or knockback will deal direct damage to a defiance bar, lowering it by a flat amount based on the duration of the CC. As an example, a 2 second stun on a 6 second defiance bar will take off 33% of the bar.

A soft-CC like chill, slow, or cripple will deal damage over time to a defiance bar for the duration of the debuff. Additionally soft-CC effects will apply to the creature for the purposes of triggering traits but not apply their debuff effect. As an example, chilling a foe with a defiance bar will cause their defiance meter to degenerate over time and place the chill debuff on their status bar, which will allow a Reaper to benefit from the damage reduction effect of the trait Cold Shoulder, but it will not affect the creature’s movement speed.

The exact numbers on the degeneration rates for each type of soft-CC are still in flux, but we hope this helps answer some of the questions about the viability of certain elite specializations in HoT.

EDIT: Even if the defiance bar is not vulnerable to CC, the conditions will still apply for the purposes of triggering traits.

I just wanted to provide an update for you all. We’ve been investigating the cause of VO failing to play under certain circumstances, and we think we’ve fixed it in our development environment. We’re now planning some tests to verify if the fix worked. I don’t have an ETA on when a patch would be deployed but I wanted you to know that we’re closer to a resolution. Thanks for your patience and for reporting the issue.

Shiki.7148:

Now can we please have CttB work under water please? I really want to be able to run something other than Plagueform.

I’m not sure if this change will be in BWE3 (been making changes in a lot of different places) but I’m intending for all shouts to be usable underwater.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Additionally, can you comment on Deathly Chill? This skill currently doesn’t work on 90% of PvE enemies. Any update on this?

I think the new icon will help with this. The damage is probably getting lost with the other attacks.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a client crash in PvP.

Just popping in to give you all an update. We had some folks investigate the issue, and we think we’ve figured out what’s causing the Story Journal to drop entries from view. We’re in the process of arranging some tests to see if the fix works as intended. I don’t have an ETA on when a patch might be deployed, but I do want to let you know that we’re closer to finding a resolution. Thanks for your patience, and for providing us with enough information to track this down.

Solzero.5380:

I noticed that the rage skills sundering leap and headbutt do not remove immob when traited with warrior sprint.

Thanks for pointing this out, I’ll see if I can get a fix in for this!

Kidel.2057:

No 5 target limit on Gun Flame explosion? Not even damage reduction?
This primal burst is still WAY more powerful then its normal burst.

Gun Flame has a 5 target limit for the explosion. It had this previously to, but it was per explosion, so you could hit 25 targets with the old version.

WhiteOil.1836:

we can trait for immobilize already. Rupturing blow was useful for area control and spacing, offence and defense, taking a rick leaping into an area just to immobilize is weak!! the damage was fine

Rupturing Smash has a significantly higher target cap than Earthshaker which is why we limited the immobilize duration. Each portion of the cascade strike can hit 3 targets, and there are 5 strikes per wave (minus a few where they would otherwise overlap) and 5 waves. I’m actually still worried this one might be too strong.

Thanks for the update guys! I will pass along that people are still crashing. Sorry for the inconvenience.

One other thing to note in the next beta revenant will have a stolen item for thief. It’ll be basically a more powerful version of Essence Sap.

We made a Hot Fix at 12:30 PM, but I’ve seen a few reports of PvP issues after the build. I’ve reported and we’ll see what transpires.

ARZK.8017:

Unfortunately the hotfix did not help. Entered a match and after some seconds the same client crash…

Since you wrote just after the fix, and I’m not sure if everything had a chance to settle down, would you mind updating to see if this truly is still broken?

EDIT: I see three of you wrote after the build was live. I will report this. Thanks.

So guys, We just updated. (Notes here.)

Let us know if things are better, or if you’re seeing continued issues.

Thanks.

Killyox.3950:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

• The recharge for unyielding anguish was a remnant of an old change and wasn’t supposed to be there. This skill shouldn’t have a recharge and I’m thinking about lowering the energy cost from 35 to 30 to make it more usable as mobility and condition application. It also should be applying 5 seconds of torment instead of 4.
• Embrace the Darkness now applies a lot of torment in an area, twice as much as before. I’m looking at adjusting the cast time or upkeep cost for it to make it a bit more in line with the new functionality.
• Since corruption and mallyx is all about being the master of torment and being pushed more that route, I’m playing around with an idea I wanted to run by all of you. Torment is less valued in stationary fights due to the way torment functions. Since torment is the main damaging condition for Revenant, I’ve been thinking about adding functionality to a trait or maybe changing the minor 2 in corruption to increase the base damage torment does while not moving while not increasing the while moving damage to help it become more of a viable option in all areas of the game. What do you all think?

I’ll keep reading and I’ll be open to suggestions and feedback. Just try to remember it may look more devastating on paper than it actually is in game. Some areas of this build actually got stronger.

I’ll try to get it as close as possible before the next beta, but there is still time to address feedback after BWE3 before launch. Just remember playing something usually tends to give different impressions rather then just reading it. Balance is an ongoing thing though and we’ll continue to adjust as necessary even after launch. Balance is never-ending.

So the 10 second recharge is a mistake? If yes then good because it would’ve been a crazy overkill.

30e for it sounds good but with no CC part I wonder if it shouldn;t get down to even 25e. But that’s up for testing

Embrace the darkness – Adjusting the upkeep but which way ? -9 -10 or less than -8 ? -8 is too much atm. It’s definitely weaker than it was so it’s warranted to reduce it. Point in case blind every 1 sec was imba

the bold part not moving but WHO? Us or the target? Sounds good but to what level. Mallyx being master of torment maybe make Torment be as strong as bleed when enemy is not moving (instead of weaker than bleed) and do normal torment dmg when target is moving (like it is now). Kinda similar to what Thieves have with +20% poison dmg.

Or did you have in mind something else.

I meant less upkeep cost for Embrace the Darkness, potentially. In the bold part it would be torment you apply to lessen the gap between moving vs non-moving. Sop instead of like 50% not moving 100% while moving it could be like 75% while not moving and 100% while moving as an example. Just throwing out random numbers for the case of the example.

This is a complex problem. The intention was to make it harder to fire from the ground onto and over walls while still being able to fire from walls downward, but trying to get such behavior is not simple. I do agree that the cases displayed in the screenshots are not great though.

The new build should fix the issue.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a client crash in PvP.
• Fixed a bug that disabled the Fractals of the Mists category in the looking for group tool.

Gaaroth.2567:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

The block time is 3 seconds, you are rooted, conditions can be applied to you if the attack is unblockbale (Works like any other block skill), and the healing is the same 900 per tick resulting is just under 4k base.

What about capture prevention? I immagine is still there.

No, it doesn’t have capture point prevention on it anymore.

The block time is 3 seconds, you are rooted, conditions can be applied to you if the attack is unblockbale (Works like any other block skill), and the healing is the same 900 per tick resulting is just under 4k base.

I just wanted to stop in and say I’m definitely closely reading all the feedback about these changes and while I know some of you will miss some old functionality we feel it will be the right choice for the health of the game and profession for the long term. That being said I’m open to feedback and suggestions to make sure everything is awesome.

Though, I will say for mallyx most of the skills were brought into the middle-ground of meeting the condition threshold. As an example Banish Enchantment applies 3 stacks of confusion, it used to apply 2 if you didn’t meet the threshold or 4 if you did.

Also while it may be hard to see it on paper, some areas got improved such as torment application actually went up significantly. I can stack up an incredible amount internally, which is a bit scary, but we’ll have to see how it plays. It should help with making it much more of a condition damage viable build though.

Some things to note:

• Unrelenting Assault did have some bug fixes to it which should help with issues like using it and having it fail being stuck in place as it animated should no longer be a thing. It’ll just fail without playing the whole animation.
• Condition removal or resistance application has not changed, so the Revenant should have the same way to deal with taking conditions on themselves.
• The recharge for unyielding anguish was a remnant of an old change and wasn’t supposed to be there. This skill shouldn’t have a recharge and I’m thinking about lowering the energy cost from 35 to 30 to make it more usable as mobility and condition application. It also should be applying 5 seconds of torment instead of 4.
• Embrace the Darkness now applies a lot of torment in an area, twice as much as before. I’m looking at adjusting the cast time or upkeep cost for it to make it a bit more in line with the new functionality.
• Since corruption and mallyx is all about being the master of torment and being pushed more that route, I’m playing around with an idea I wanted to run by all of you. Torment is less valued in stationary fights due to the way torment functions. Since torment is the main damaging condition for Revenant, I’ve been thinking about adding functionality to a trait or maybe changing the minor 2 in corruption to increase the base damage torment does while not moving while not increasing the while moving damage to help it become more of a viable option in all areas of the game. What do you all think?

I’ll keep reading and I’ll be open to suggestions and feedback. Just try to remember it may look more devastating on paper than it actually is in game. Some areas of this build actually got stronger.

I’ll try to get it as close as possible before the next beta, but there is still time to address feedback after BWE3 before launch. Just remember playing something usually tends to give different impressions rather then just reading it. Balance is an ongoing thing though and we’ll continue to adjust as necessary even after launch. Balance is never-ending.

Hey everybody, the team is actively working on a fix for this issue. We are anticipating a correction to this problem fairly soon.

I believe there is more than one issue. I think we’re having connection issues and issues with PvP (which of course includes SPvP). I’ve seen the build notes for a fix for the PvP issue, and the other connection and/or download issues also is being researched.

Thank you for these reports, and the details are exceptionally helpful.

The team is actively working on a fix for this issue. In fact, they’re already working on build notes, so I think we can anticipate a correction of this problem very soon.

While it does roots you, it is a long block that also heals you for a large amount. Basically like some of our lower heal skills right now. If you could move while using this skill it’s power would need to be brought down a lot.

Tanought and Mitz — thanks for the reports. Passing them along right now. (Can you give me your locations, and whether this is a new issue for you?)

We have a report that this issue has been corrected. Could you please post if you’re continuing to have issues? Thank you.

Hey, thanks for letting us know. And yes, I forwarded the concerns earlier today.

We believe that this issue has been resolved, and apologize for the inconvenience.

If you continue to have problems connecting, please update here.

Thanks.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General

• Added Vertical Position Near slider to camera options. The existing Vertical Position slider has been renamed Vertical Position Far.
• Added greater precision to camera position sliders.
• Adjusted some default camera positions when using the Adjust Camera to Character Height camera option.
• Achievements for the previous beta weekend have been disabled from the Achievements tab.

Personal Story

• Black Lion Chest Keys from the early personal story rewards have been limited to one per week accountwide.

Items

• Increased the drop rate of Black Lion Chests and Black Lion Chest Keys throughout the world.
• Laurel vendors now sell 1 hour of the new Item Booster, replacing the Laureate Magic Find Booster.
• Laurel vendors now sell 1 hour of the new Experience Booster, replacing the Laureate Experience Booster.

Profession Skills
Engineer

• Fixed a bug in which the Grenadier trait made grenade throws less accurate.

World vs. World

• Altered arrow cart line-of-sight checks to be more restrictive.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• For the next six days, the complete Living World Season 2 pack is 40% off in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store. Complete your playthrough of all eight episodes leading up to Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™.

Fanolian.8415:

Thank you!

Robert Gee.9246:

• Gravity Well: Now performs a knockdown, float and then pull. No longer gives stability on end. Increased final damage by 50%

Why not pull -> float -> knockdown? Stacking enemies should be a preferred starter to land following skills. And CCed targets are harder to escape from the center despite the small radius.

The primary reason for the order of effects is due to how it looks with multiple foes. I tried other permutations during testing but this one looks the best for the following reasons:

1. Putting the pull anywhere but last makes the rest of the skill look bad because the enemies are all in one ball the whole time with their models overlapping.
2. When the knockdown is placed after the float the animations don’t blend properly resulting in the skill looking like the knockdown was out of sync.

Hello,
With another round of beta weekends complete, here’s where we’re going for the next beta:

Overloading:
We’ll be normalizing the casting time of each overload to four seconds. This way, you’ve got a guaranteed amount of time to overload before the pay-out. We’ll be looking at improving the pay-out for each overload ability.

Overload Earth: Cast time reduced from 5 seconds to 4. Bleeding has been added to the pulsing effect, one application of 6 seconds per pulse. The effects of this ability now trigger when the ability starts, instead of waiting one second before it applies cripple and protection. This ability no longer has a break bar, but instead applies 3 stacks of stability for 4 seconds when it begins.

Overload Water: Cast time increased from 2.75 seconds to 4. The first pulse of this ability now occurs when it is initially cast and will cleanse also when the final blast occurs.

Overload Fire: Reduced cast time to 4 seconds. note: We’ll be reducing the damage of this overload, as it’s got too much in its current state. I don’t have the numbers on this right now, but will update when I get a chance.

Overload Air: The damage for this skill now activates at 0.5 seconds, rather than at 1 second. Increased duration of the static area by 1 second. Increased the radius of the static area from 240 to 360. Reduced cast time 4.75 seconds to 4 seconds.

Warhorn:
We’ve been looking at expanding the warhorn’s utility and will continue to work on its overall effectiveness and purpose.

Dust Storm: Removed vulnerability application. This ability now applies two stacks of bleeding for 10 seconds on each pulse.

Sand Squall: Added a number of targets/impacts skill fact. Fixed an issue that caused this ability to double the intended duration increase on themselves.

note: Heat Sync is currently over-performing in its ability to spread all boons to allies. We’ll be looking to narrow down the boons it can spread, to just the Might boon, in order to keep its purpose more clear.

Rebound: This ability now applies an effect to nearby allies for 5 seconds. If the ally would take a lethal blow, they are healed instead of going into the downed state. If this effect expires naturally, grant an aura based on your current attunement. Reduced cast time from 3/4 second to 1/4 second. note: It heals for about 2000 at level 80 and heals additionally based on 1.5x your healing power.

Traits
We wanted to re-work a couple of traits for this beta weekend, being as a few traits didn’t feel all that great, or were way too strong in odd scenarios. As you’ll notice, there’s now an option for Stability when overloading.
note: We’d like to add something more to Earthen Proxy at some point if it remains based on protection. It’s not going to go all that great if EP affects allies, because it’s hard to know when your own protection is on them and not your ally Guardian standing next to you. This trait is more likely to remain a bit selfish, or change to something else.

Speedy Conduit: Increased swiftness duration from 5 seconds to 8.

Elemental Bastion: Fixed an issue where shouts would cause this trait to double-heal. Increased base healing per level by 50%. Increased healing contribution by 50%. Reduced the base heal from 40 to 10.

Harmonious Conduit: This trait has been re-worked. Upon activating an overload, gain stability for 4 seconds. If the overload is successfully completed, gain 10% damage for 5 seconds.

Imbued melodies: This trait has been re-worked. While wielding a warhorn, your boon duration is increased by 20%. Use sand squall when you are struck while below the 90% health threshold.

Thanks for your continued constructive feedback.

-Karl

Greetings Chronomancers, it’s that time again to talk about the next set of changes to the chronomancer specialization based on feedback from the last BWE. Chronomancer remains one of the more solid elite specializations going into BWE3 so we are continuing to tune up a few of the clunky or lackluster elements.

Shield Functionality Updates
The single block on Echo of Memory didn’t differentiate it enough from the block on offhand sword and could be difficult to use in some of the more intense areas of the jungle. BWE3 will change the single block to a continuous block, however as a cost to that the phantasm is now summoned at the end of the channel even if you block an attack at the start. This allows you to have more control of which enemy the phantasm is summoned on but don’t cancel the skill or you won’t get the phantasm! The phantasm itself has also been overhauled to be more reliable about spreading its buffs to allies and enemies alike. Finally Tides of Time has some new behavior to bounce if it hits a wall, however given the variable amount of terrain in our game there may still be some instances where it will not return.

• Echo of Memory/Deja Vu: Changed functionality. Now blocks all attacks for a short duration rather than a single attack. If this skill fully channels, summon an Illusionary Avenger. Deja Vu is available if any attack is blocked during the channel time.
• Deja Vu: Fixed a bug which allowed players to constantly cancel cast this skill to get a longer than intended uptime of the block effect. Canceling this skill now removes the Time Echo buff.
• Illusionary Avenger: Increased damage of this phantasm by 20%. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from displaying the benefit from Empowered Illusions. Increased alacrity given to 2 seconds per hit. This phantasm no longer shoots a bouncing projectile but instead initiates a melee attack that slows enemies and gives alacrity to allies within a 240 radius around the target. Removed old phantasm description.
• Tides of Time: This skill now attempts to bounce back if it hits a wall. Fixed a bug where the time freeze caused by this skill would not show a stun icon in the status bar.

Well Tuning
Most of the wells have been changed to have more consistent effects. While the idea of duality and affecting enemies and allies works for some wells, we felt it would be better not to go overboard trying to force it when it didn’t. Gravity Well, Well of Eternity and Well of Precognition now have better defined effects for the situations they should be used in. Well of Recall now pulses despair and ends in happiness.

• Gravity Well: Now performs a knockdown, float and then pull. No longer gives stability on end. Increased final damage by 50%
• Well of Action: Increased damage per pulse by 17%. Lowered aftercast by 0.2 seconds.
• Well of Calamity: Lowered aftercast by 0.2 seconds.
• Well of Eternity: No longer gives vigor per pulse to allies but instead removes conditions from them. Increased recharge to from 20s to 30s. Increased base initial heal by 25%
• Well of Precognition: Updated functionality. Now gives blur for 1 second per pulse during its active portion instead of on end. When it ends, allies within the well regain 35 endurance.
• Well of Recall: Lowered recharge from 45 seconds to 40 seconds. Updated functionality of this well. It now chills for 1 second and deals damage every pulse then gives 5 seconds of alacrity to allies when it ends. New pulse damage is 70% of previous end damage. Effects have been updated to reflect this new behavior.

Traits
We didn’t feel that many changes to traits were necessary as they feel like they have gotten to a pretty good place at this time. However there are two I’d like to talk about in more detail.

• Illusionary Reversion: No changes.
  • There is a pretty clear division of people that would rather have an ICD on this skill and those that prefer the illusion requirement. After some thought we’ve decided we prefer the current version (illusion requirement) as it is an easier to understand limitation when compared to internal cooldowns. I know that some have asked that this requirement be toned down to 1 illusion required but this wouldn’t solve the original problem of being able to get large bonuses from your shatters without an investment.
• Lost Time – Added a 0.25 second delay between earning stacks of this buff. Fixed functionality: This trait previously applied slow on the first critical hit after generating 4 stacks. It now applies slow on any hit (does not have to be a critical hit) after 5 stacks are generated.
  • We’re still looking at good ways to limit some of the power from this trait. For now we are trying a small cooldown on the rate at which stacks can be generated. This primarily affects skills like Greatsword 1, and shouldn’t have a high impact on other weapon skills.

Bug Fixes

• Continuum Split – Fixed a bug which caused the Continuum Rift to take no damage from attacks.
• Flow of Time: Fix the description to show it gives alacrity per illusion.
• Illusionary Reversion: Fixed a bug which caused this trait to fail when used with Continuum Split.

That’s it for this round of changes, I hope everyone enjoys playing chronomancer in the next BWE!

Greetings all!
Now that the betas are over and we’ve been working through quite a bit of feedback, we now have the chance to give you the list of changes that will be available for the next beta.

Virtues:
This specialization will ask that you make a trade-off of instant-cast abilities in order to gain access to a more physical aspect of them. With that goal in mind, we want to ensure that the virtues are rewarding while, while still maintaining some risk about them. In this iteration we’ve shored up a bit of the risks. We’ve lowered recharges of both Justice and Resolve while specialized as a Dragonhunter, in addition to lowering the cast times and improving battle effectiveness.

Spear of Justice: Increased missile velocity by 100%. Reduced the casting speed from 3/4 second to 1/4 second. Updated skill facts when virtue traits are equipped. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to not trigger with Wrath of Justice. Reduced recharge from 25 to 20. This ability is now unblockable.

Wings of Resolve: This ability now removes Immobilize at the beginning. Cooldown has been reduced from 50 seconds to 30.

Shield of Courage: Reduced the cast to 0.25 seconds. The after-cast of this ability has been reduced by 200 ms. This ability now blocks all attacks from the front, while attacks from behind will strike the guardian.

Longbow:
As with the virtues, we want to continue to ensure that the longbow feels rewarding. A few of the missile velocities felt slow and not as deadly as they could be, so we’ve been making steps at increasing both velocity and lethality, while ensuring that there’s a bit of utility to go around.

Puncture Shot: Increased missile velocity by 66%

True Shot: Damage increased by 12.5%

Deflecting Shot: Reduced missile velocity by 25%. Reduced after-cast by 300
milliseconds. Increased base damage by 13%. Destroying a projectile with this ability increases the damage it deals by 100%. Increased the blocking radius by 33%. The attack radius of this ability has not been increased.

Symbol of Energy: Increased missile velocity by 60%. Increased symbol damage by 10%. The initial burning impact now inflicts two stacks of burning, up from one. This skill can now be fired behind you.

Traps:
We’re continuing to work on trap usability, functionality and improve visual effects. There’s not a whole lot in this update, but we continue to appreciate your feedback on these abilities.

Traps (general): Reduced the cast time of all traps to 1/2 second, down from 1 second.

Purification: Fixed an issue that caused this ability to not function correctly with Runes of the Trapper.

Traits:
We’ve updated the trait line a bit to be more in line with other profession trait lines.

Piercing Light: This trait has been reworked. While activating, traps will now daze enemies in the radius for 1 second. Trap recharges are reduced by 20%.

Hunter’s Determination: This trait has been reworked to apply aegis to the guardian and drop a Fragments of Faith trap at their location when controlled.

Hunter’s Fortification: This trait has been reworked to remove conditions when blocking attacks. In addition, receive less damage when you have no conditions on you.

Dulled Senses: This trait has been updated: Enemies you knock back are crippled. Enemies you cripple are also inflicted with vulnerability.

Zealot’s Aggression: This trait now allows Justice’s passive effect to cripple, in addition to dealing extra damage to crippled enemies.

Heavy Light: This trait has been updated: Longbow arrows knock back when enemies are within the range threshold. Gain stability when you knock an enemy back.

Cheers,
-Karl

The Reaper feedback from the last BWE was much more positive this time around so this set of changes will be less about large sweeping changes and more about smaller adjustments to numbers and timing to improve the overall feel of the specialization. Some of the more unpopular traits are also getting their functionality updated to be more competitive.

Reaper’s Shroud
The speed of Death’s Charge was increased to be more in-line with other gap closers like Savage Leap. I’ve also done some small animation changes that should reduce incidents of the skill going in the wrong direction. The small recharge on enter was also removed to make the functionality consistent with normal Death Shroud.

• Reaper’s Shroud: Removed the small recharge that was applied to the Exit Reaper’s Shroud when this skill was activated.
• Life Reap (Reaper Shroud 1c): Reduced aftercast by 0.2 seconds.
• Death’s Charge – Increased movement velocity by approximately 30%. Improved animation consistency.
• Infusing Terror: Removed incorrect fear skill fact from this skill
• Terrify (Reaper Shroud 3 toggle): Reduced casting time by 0.15 seconds. Adjusted animation speed.

Greatsword
With the last set of changes to greatsword the weapon is starting to feel like it’s in a good place. Some range adjustments to a few of the more difficult to hit with skills should help bring the rest of it together. Greatsword 5 was not changed in this iteration but we are aware of the problems it has and are working to improve them without changing the unique functionality of the skill.

• Dusk Strike/Fading Twilight: Fixed an issue where these skills would occasionally not award their listed lifeforce values.
• Death Spiral: Increased width on this attack by 33% to put it in line with other melee attack skills.
• Nightfall: Increased radius of this skill by 60 for all pulses. Maximum radius is now 360. Added effects to show damage/combo field radius. Fixed an issue which caused the combo field to persist longer than the effect of this skill.

Shouts
Shouts are getting to a good place but there’s still a little more to be done here. “Chilled to the Bone” and “Your Soul Is Mine” are getting buffs to make them more worthy of the slot and “Rise” is getting an update to make it more reliable as a defensive skill.

• “Chilled to the Bone!”: Lowered recharge from 120 seconds to 90 seconds. Reduced chill duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
• “Nothing Can Save You!”: Reduced recharge from 35 seconds to 25 seconds.
• “Rise!”: Updated minion models. Increased vitality and toughness of minions by 33%, but decreased minion power by 40%. This skill now summons one minion by default plus one additional per target hit. Shambling Horrors now apply Dark Bond to their master as soon as they are summoned but must still attack to maintain the bond.
• “Suffer!”: Removed unlisted lifeforce gain from this skill.
• “You are all Weaklings!”: This skill now has instant activation. Increased weakness duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds. Removed stability.
• “Your Soul Is Mine!”: Decreased base heal value by 25% but increased base multiplier by 16% and healing attribute multiplier by 40%. TLDR; This skill now has the same healing values as the Guardian skill Shelter.

Traits
While many Reaper traits had very positive feedback, there were a few that we felt could use some improvement. Augury of Death now adds a lifesteal component to help it fit in with the other “fighter” style traits in that row. Soul Eater similarly has had a small rework to make the CDR bonus easier to use. The lifesteal from Soul Eater was moved onto Gravedigger only since it allows us to better tune its power and provides a clearer use case for it. The change to Chilling Force fixes an issue where multiple Reapers attacking the same target could block each other from gaining the bonus if they were attacking the same target.

• Augury of Death: In addition to it’s previous effect this trait now additionally causes shouts to lifesteal. (Approximately 100-150 health.)
• Chilling Nova: Increased damage by 50%. Increased number of targets from 3 to 5.
• Chilling Force: Now has a 1s ICD but is not limited per target. Single strikes that hit multiple targets can activate this trait more than once before its recharge is activated. Increased might duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Deathly Chill: Now has an icon attached to the chill damage.
• Soul Eater: Changed recharge reduction to a flat 20% without conditionals. Lifestealing from this trait increased significantly but the lifestealing now only applies to Gravedigger. (Approximately 140-180 health.)

I hope that everyone has fun playing Reaper in the next BWE with these changes!

Hey, everyone! Once again, I’m back to talk with you all about upcoming changes to the revenant which you’ll get to play in the upcoming BWE3. These were made from all the awesome feedback we received from BWE2 as well as our internal testing.

Similar to the other posts like this that I have made, I’ll be providing some of the thought behind these changes as to why we made them. Overall, revenant has been doing very well and is much closer to how we want it for HoT launch. As you all have seen, the profession has come a long way since the first time that it has been played and a lot of that is with the help of all the amazing feedback from you all. (Thanks!) There were a few lingering issues, tweaks, and polish which I’ll discuss below. So, let’s get into it.

General
Here we have some polish changes for the profession. It was brought up on the forum as a suggestion to have a custom dodge FX and that got added as a direct result.

• Added an effect to dodging.
• Added underwater versions of the downed skills.
• Added a hand glow when invoking legendary centaur stance.

Downed
Unfortunately, the displace mechanic was interacting poorly in the game as a whole. It was causing undesired behavior with NPCs and pathing, its strength varied by game mode, it was very disorienting to the receiving foe and other issues as well. We made the decision to remove displace and change the skills which had it on them. In this case we changed it to a knockback because it was similar functionality.

• Forceful Displacement: This skill no longer displaces foes, instead it will now knockback the foe 600 distance.

Sword
For sword, there were some minor tweaks. Precision Strike was made a whirl finisher because it made sense as your character is spinning around, plus the skill needed a bit of help. Unrelenting Assault was a bit strong after the last set of changes so I slightly increased the recharge to have a lower window between evade times.

• Precision Strike: This skill is now a whirl finisher.
• Unrelenting Assault: Increased the recharge from 10 seconds to 12 seconds. Fixed a bug so that this skill will more report damage as a multi-hit skill allowing it to stack up damage per target rather than displaying each instance of damage individually.

Staff
In staff the changes were mostly about the flow of play. It felt awkward to have to stand still to cast Renewing Wave so I changed out the animation to one that would work while moving to keep this weapon more mobile feeling. Debilitating Slam had a long cast time for a skill which is used for an interrupt so I went ahead and shortened that down to so it could be used as a more reactionary skill.

• Warding Rift: Fixed a bug where this skill could be cancel-casted to gain the benefit of the block without going on full recharge.
• Renewing Wave: Changed the animation on this skill so it can be used while moving. It retained the same 1 second cast time.
• Debilitating Slam: Decreased the cast time from 1 second to 0.25 seconds.

Shield
We were trying out defiance bars on player skills in a few places, but it didn’t really work out. Defiance bar is balanced around being on creatures which left some pieces of it feeling awkward for players. It also had essentially a duplicate functionality to stability. In the end we felt like it didn’t play well on player skills so we removed all player defiance bars.

• Envoy of Exuberance: Decreased the energy cost from 15 to 10. Fixed a bug so that this skill will properly heal at the target location instead of around you.
• Crystal Hibernation: Removed the defiance bar. This skill will now block attacks for the duration while regenerating health. Lowered recharge from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Legendary Assassin Stance
Jade Winds was a bit too strong being able to cast it back to back if you stored up the energy. This skill got a short recharge to limit being able to chain it back to back with itself. You may notice we have some this with a few skills so pressing one skill multiple times wouldn’t be encouraged and allow for a breathing room for your foes.

• Jade Winds: Added a 5 second recharge.

Legendary Centaur Stance
Here I made some changes to the cast time. Now all utility skills are instant, only the heal and the elite have a cast time. The elite has also been lowered in cast time as well as decreased energy cost.

• Naturalistic Harmony. Decreased the energy cost from 25 to 20.
• Purifying Essence: This skill is now instant cast. Decreased the energy cost from 35 to 30 and added a 5 second recharge.
• Energy Expulsion: This skill is now a blast finisher and reduced the cast time from 2 seconds to 1 second. Decreased the energy cost from 50 to 35.

Legendary Demon Stance
In this stance we had a bit of a bigger change happen. Demon Stance was in an awkward place because it was mechanically cool when you looked at it in a vacuum, but when you were put around other players there was this point of tension which was created. When using demon stance you wanted to manage your conditions and try to keep certain amounts on yourself to empower your skills.

Though, allies directly impacted this play style. While you were around allies, especially players running support, it created tension and frustration between the two players. You wouldn’t want to be near these other players that removed conditions from you as it weakened your skills. This isn’t a tension or frustration that we wanted to create between allies so I moved this stance away from focusing on scaling effectiveness based on your personal conditions. As such, the self-conditions didn’t make sense anymore as you had less reason to utilize these so they were removed. Similar to Forceful Displacement, the displace was removed on unyielding anguish and the skill was re-designed a bit.

• Empowering Misery: Removed the self-applied weakness. Increased the base heal by 40% and decreased the heal per condition by 40%.
• Pain Absorption. Removed the self-applied blind.
• Banish Enchantment: Removed the self-applied vulnerability. This skill now applies 3 stacks of confusion for 6 seconds instead of being dependent on the conditions you have on you.
• Unyielding Anguish: This skill has been re-worked. This skill will now leap to the target location creating a dark field which chills for 1 second and torments for 5 seconds per pulse. The field lasts for 4 seconds and pulses every 1 second.
• Embrace the Darkness: Removed the self-applied torment. This skill no longer copies conditions to nearby foes. This skill will increase stats by 10% while active and pulse 6 seconds of torment every 1 second to nearby foes.

Legendary Dwarf Stance
A lot of you thought Forced Engagement was too high of a cost for a single target control skill, and I agree! But, I can’t allow you to use it back to back or else it creates bad chain controlling situations so there is an added recharge as well.

• Forced Engagement: Increased the recharge from 3 seconds to 5 seconds and lowered the energy cost from 50 to 35.

Herald
In herald overall I think it played out fairly well, but there was a few small tweaks I wanted to make. Shared Empowerment was slightly under-tuned compared to other similar traits. Gaze of Darkness bypassed defenses like dodging which wasn’t intended.

• Shared Empowerment: Increased the might duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Facet of Nature: This is now useable underwater.
• Gaze of Darkness: Fixed a bug so that this can be properly avoiding using things such as your dodge.

Corruption
In the corruption specialization, there were a few traits which needed some tweaks in power to be competitive options. As an example revenant did not have many options to apply poison, but had the trait Venom Enhancement which increased poison duration so I thought it made sense to also apply poison itself.

• Pulsating Pestilence: Increased the trigger chance from 15% to 25%.
• Replenishing Despair: Increased the base heal by 300% and added a 1 second internal cool-down.
• Venom Enhancement: This trait will now apply poison for 5 seconds with a 20 second recharge when you apply torment as well as increasing poison duration.

Devastation
In this specialization, I addressed an issue a lot of you brought up in feedback which I thought made a lot of sense. Basically you all said the profession stat buffs like empower are generally in master tier and ferocious strikes was just a weaker trait. So I went ahead and switched the position of both of these traits.

• Assassin’s Presence: This trait has been moved to master tier replacing the place of Ferocious Strikes.
• Ferocious Strikes: This trait has been moved to adept tier replacing the place of Assassin’s Presence.

Retribution
In the master tier for this line there were two traits based around incoming control effects, which made little sense and ended up fighting with each other. I went ahead and merged these two traits together creating room for a new trait which I added as the master tier needed a trait to help support the tank feel of retribution.

• Eye for an Eye: The Redeeming Protection trait has been merged with this one. When Eye for an Eye triggers, you will also gain protection for 5 seconds.
• Redeeming Protection: This trait has been merged with Eye for an Eye.
• Dwarven Battle Training: This is a new master tier trait replacing redeeming protection. This trait provides a 25% chance on hit to weaken foes for 4 seconds with a 10 second recharge and decreases weakness’s effectiveness on you by 50%.

Update 1:
I just wanted to stop in and say I’m definitely closely reading all the feedback about these changes and while I know some of you will miss some old functionality we feel it will be the right choice for the health of the game and profession for the long term. That being said I’m open to feedback and suggestions to make sure everything is awesome.

Though, I will say for mallyx most of the skills were brought into the middle-ground of meeting the condition threshold. As an example Banish Enchantment applies 3 stacks of confusion, it used to apply 2 if you didn’t meet the threshold or 4 if you did.

Also while it may be hard to see it on paper, some areas got improved such as torment application actually went up significantly. I can stack up an incredible amount internally, which is a bit scary, but we’ll have to see how it plays. It should help with making it much more of a condition damage viable build though.

Some things to note:

• Unrelenting Assault did have some bug fixes to it which should help with issues like using it and having it fail being stuck in place as it animated should no longer be a thing. It’ll just fail without playing the whole animation.
• Condition removal or resistance application has not changed, so the Revenant should have the same way to deal with taking conditions on themselves.
• The recharge for unyielding anguish was a remnant of an old change and wasn’t supposed to be there. This skill shouldn’t have a recharge and I’m thinking about lowering the energy cost from 35 to 30 to make it more usable as mobility and condition application. It also should be applying 5 seconds of torment instead of 4.
• Embrace the Darkness now applies a lot of torment in an area, twice as much as before. I’m looking at adjusting the cast time or upkeep cost for it to make it a bit more in line with the new functionality.
• Since corruption and mallyx is all about being the master of torment and being pushed more that route, I’m playing around with an idea I wanted to run by all of you. Torment is less valued in stationary fights due to the way torment functions. Since torment is the main damaging condition for Revenant, I’ve been thinking about adding functionality to a trait or maybe changing the minor 2 in corruption to increase the base damage torment does while not moving while not increasing the while moving damage to help it become more of a viable option in all areas of the game. What do you all think?

I’ll keep reading and I’ll be open to suggestions and feedback. Just try to remember it may look more devastating on paper than it actually is in game. Some areas of this build actually got stronger.

I’ll try to get it as close as possible before the next beta, but there is still time to address feedback after BWE3 before launch. Just remember playing something usually tends to give different impressions rather then just reading it. Balance is an ongoing thing though and we’ll continue to adjust as necessary even after launch. Balance is never-ending.

Yo!
First off, let me say thanks for all of the constructive feedback you’ve been providing. We had a great weekend watching everyone jump around like madmen. Here’s where we’ll be going with Daredevil in the future.

First thing’s first:
There’s a few pacing issues we’ll be wanting to solve. The first issue would be that of the new dodge rolls (I don’t have a section for this just yet, so we’ll talk about it here). We’re actively working on making this a more desirable experience and are looking to make them function the same way your baseline dodge-roll behaves.

Staff:
We’ll be looking at updating these abilities as we are able. There was a common tone in that the staff was too slow and didn’t feel as well as it could in its utility. We’ll be working on this now and in the future, so please continue to give feedback as you play the Daredevil.

Weakening Charge: Increased the maximum number of targets from 1 to 5. note: we’re still working on making this animation feel better. In addition to basic clean-up I’m hoping to make it targeted (ala Heartseeker) but still pass through the target. At the point of writing this, though, it’s not in yet.

Dust Strike: Reduced cast time from 1/2 second to 1/4 second.

Vault: Reduced initiative cost from 6 to 5. Reduced cast time from 1 second to 3/4 second. note: We’ve discussed leaving the initiative high and giving this ability an evade component at the beginning or end. Feel free to let us know what you think.

Bandit’s Defense: Increased recharge from 10 seconds to 15.

Utilities:
For this beta, we looked at increasing damage for a few things as well as clearing up bugs that could be skewing an ability’s usefulness.

Impact Strike combo: Removed endurance gain from Uppercut and Finishing Blow when Brawler’s Tenacity was equipped. _note:

Distracting Daggers: Reduced equip cast time to 1/2 second. This ability now lasts for 25 seconds. Thrown dagger velocity has been increased by 100%. Fixed an issue that wouldn’t allow this ability to increase interrupt cooldown.

Impairing Daggers: Removed the hidden initiative cost from these abilities. note: no more spending initiative on utilities, yay!

Fist Flurry: Increased damage per hit by 36%. Each successful hit applies one stack of vulnerability for 5 seconds. Removed hidden initiative cost.

Palm Strike: Increased damage on hit by 40%.

Traits:
This iteration was mostly bug fixes. I’ve seen a lot of feedback on how Escapist’s Absolution should be baseline. It is the case that we believe this trait is powerful enough that it should be a choice in the trait line between damage, survivability and utility, rather than just a given. Driven Fortitude’s healing allows for usefulness in all modes where you take damage, where EA’s condition removal is situationally useful in a combat scenario.

Brawler’s Tenacity: Fixed an issue that allowed this trait to grant endurance though the skill was canceled.

Endurance Thief: Updated Steal to reward the full 50 endurance, rather than 25.

Evasive Empowerment: This trait now grants 10% bonus damage after dodging for 2 seconds, rather than just the first attack after dodging.

See ya soon.

-Karl

Alright warriors, after gathering all your feedback, we are ready to present the next set of changes to the Berserker specialization. These changes primarily address the concerns with the torch weapon and some of the traits, but also include changes to berserk mode and several primal burst and rage skills.

Smoother Berserk Mode
Berserk mode was pretty good overall, but we felt like the global cooloown on burst skills and the attack speed not matching with other attack speed bonuses felt a little awkward in practice.

• Berserk: Removed the 0.5 recharge before you are allowed to activate a berserk burst after entering berserk mode. Increased attack speed bonus from 10% to 15%. The voice line that plays when berserk mode is about to run out will now has a 1 in 3 chance of playing (“Grrr no!”). Fixed a bug that caused the recharge of this skill to be reduced by the trait Versatile Power

More Competitive, Less Confusing Traits
We’re bringing up the power of some of the weaker or more niche traits to be more reliable while removing some of the elements from other traits that didn’t make sense (example: adrenaline bonus for Dead or Alive). These should help make the traits easier to understand while making them more competitive at each tier. Smash Brawler and Bloody Roar have significant changes this time around as feedback indicated that the top row of traits was the weakest by far.

• Always Angry: This trait now refreshes when berserk mode ends.
• Bloody Roar: Removed bonus effectiveness based on range. Now taunts for 1.5s and applies 4 stacks of bleeding at all distances. Now gives 3s of Fury for each foe taunted.
• Dead or Alive: This trait now heals for a flat amount which is approximately 100% more than the original minimum value rather than scaling with your adrenaline level. Added 30s ICD.
• Distracting Strikes: Fixed an issue which caused the the stun from Headbutt to confuse the caster.
• Fatal Frenzy: Increased quickness duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Now also grants 3 seconds of swiftness when berserk mode is activated.
• Last Blaze: Increase burn duration from 2s to 3s. Changed timing of the burning caused by this trait to occur with the skill hit.
• Smash Brawler: Changed functionality of this trait. This trait now reduces the recharge of berserk mode and primal burst skills by 33%.

Torch Burns Faster
Most of the torch feedback we got tended to focus around how the torch felt to use rather than its functionality. Torch skill activation speed and burning have been tuned up a bit to make it feel more like weapon worthy of the speedy Berserker.

• Blaze Breaker – Lowered damage of strikes by 20%. Increased range from 400 to 600. Increase burning duration from 2s to 3s. Increased radius of individual attacks so it is easier to hit foes with multiple strikes. Lowered cast time by 0.15 seconds, reduced aftercast by 0.18 seconds. Fixed a bug which caused this skill to go on full recharge if it was canceled before it fully activated.
• Flames of War – Added icon to show duration of this skill. Added additional effects to final explosion. Lowered duration of burning applied by final hit from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Lowered cast time by 0.25 seconds. Fixed a bug which caused this skill to go on full recharge if it was canceled before it fully activated.

Stronger Primal Bursts
We’re tuning up a few of the more lackluster primal burst skills and toning down Gun Flame, because as awesome as it was, it was a little too strong. Arcing Sear has had the most significant change in that it’s been changed from a condition burst back to a power based burst similar to the old Arcing Slice. This new version, Arc Divider, has some clear tradeoffs: larger range, more execute damage, but no fury to differentiate it from Arcing Slice.

• Arcing Sear: This skill has been replaced with Arc Divider. Arc Divider creates a 450 range shockwave that damages up to 5 foes it hits. This skill deals 75% more damage to foes below 50% health.
• Decapitate – The shockwave from this attack now deals the same damage as the initial attack. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to list higher than actual damage when traited with Burst Mastery.
• Flaming Flurry – Increase burn duration from 1s to 2s.
• Gun Flame: Now only explodes on the first target hit. This skill now allows player movement during casting.
• Rupturing Smash: Instead of knockback this skill now causes 1 second of immobilize on hit. This skill can no longer hit the same target twice. Increased damage by 100%.
• Scorched Earth – Updated to be a rectangular area of effect. Adjusted arrow flight type to more closely match ground AoE.
• Skull Grinder: Replaced Weakness condition with 4 stacks of Bleeding for 8 seconds.

Rage Skills
Blood Reckoning and Sundering Leap were consistently pointed out as being pretty weak in the last beta so we’re making some changes to make them feel more valuable. Wild Blow and Shattering Blow are getting increased hitboxes to make them easier to use.

• Blood Reckoning: Changed functionality. This skill now has a small heal on activation and grants 25% bonus critical hit chance for its duration. During its duration you are healed for 35% of critical hit damage and receive 1 adrenaline when you land a critical hit. Reduced aftercast by 0.3s. Fixed a bug which prevented this skill from receiving the benefits from the Restorative Strength trait.
• Outrage: Updated FX for this skill.
• Shattering Blow: Increased area of initial projectile reflection zone by 100%. Increased radius of secondary reflection zone by 33%.
• Sundering Leap: Now also inflicts cripple for 5 seconds on targets hit. Increased damage by 250%.
• Wild Blow: Increased hit box size to match other melee attacks.

These changes will be available for you to test in the next BWE and we hope that they will improve your experience with the Berserker specialization.

Rym.1469:

Champion Roy’s Boi :O

Ship it. On a more serious note I’ll pass on some of these suggestions.

All the above should be unstuck now.

Hey guys – I am in the process of unsticking people. Stay tuned …

Throughout the day today, players who were impacted by a game bug and lost Mordrem Blooms in the early part of the event were sent replacement blooms via the in-game mail system. A member of the development team mentioned today that the distribution covered the period that the bug was active—it was corrected early Friday evening—but would not include losses related to disconnects that may have taken place at other times over the weekend. The reason is that we’re able to retrieve game-related data for the losses incurred due to the bug, but disconnects can have a dozen different reasons behind them and they are not something that we cover through distributions of this sort.

You will find your replacement blooms in your in-game mail. A Mordrem Bloom Researcher NPC is located in the Durmond Priory and you may exchange your blooms there. If you have any questions, please contact Customer Support through a ticket and they will assist you.

Thanks for hanging in there as we got those blooms sent out!