Guild Wars 2

From Game Update Notes – February 26, 2013:

“Lesser air elementals now have legs and a tail.”

This is the most important news for elementalists! Leave out RTL!

Ok changes to focus, except Flame Wall, which remains borderline useless.

No real nerf to bunkers this time, sadly. 20 second RTL isn’t too bad. I just wish the update would give us more options in terms of making more viable builds. Suppose we get something interesting next month, although I do appreciate the boons to fire though. I wonder if you will get might bonuses if you are hit while being invulnerable..

silvermember.8941:

Five words: I am quitting the game. Refund time kittenes.

Mama, they nerfed my class. They are bad

QQ

The RTL nerf is a bit not necessary as it hurst DPS ele’s now, but the rest is ok. A good buff to quite a few skills, the frost aura is nice.

Still wished there was a DPS change for scepter though…..

Leo G.4501:

Regarding the auras, it feels rather cheap they didn’t do something for Magnetic Aura since it’s also an aura. 2sec of stability upon taking damage? Probably not worth much but don’t just forget about the skill.

No need. It’s already pretty awesome all by itself.

Fire focus is now much better, and focus overall is much better. More options!

Rtl nerf wasn’t necessary imo. Healing outside of water dodge EA should’ve taken a hit to address the bunkering issue. For x/d players, your rotation to air for Rtl may have to change since the 5 seconds extra cd may throw off the timing to have it available when you need it. Boo to this change

Frost aura got overbuffed – if they just changed the stacking chill fiasco, that would be fine. An additional 10% reduction to damage makes auramancer builds very tempting…

Edit: They did not mention the nerf of soothing disruption to half the regen and vigor duration, and the fix for shocking aura proccing zephyr’s boon for 5 seconds of swiftness instead of 10.

Most of these changes are reasonable, except RTL. There was no reason to nerf it, and the 5 second increase in CD makes a bigger difference than it seems.

Mitoman.1965:

From Game Update Notes – February 26, 2013:

“Lesser air elementals now have legs and a tail.”

This is the most important news for elementalists! Leave out RTL!

It’s the only buff my glyphs ever get! And I don’t even use Air elemental T_T

Happens that I mistake the timing to summon elemental and spawns the air one. Now I can’t play soccer anymore

Feels like this is the beginning of incremental changes considering the aura buffs, RTL/pvp heal nerf and lack of address to other issues. Nothing bad so far, but I’m sure we’ll see more reworkings over the next few updates.

The Frist Aura change seems to favor staff (and other ice field builds) more than D/D though.

A straight 10% damage reduction on frost aura? kitten I can deal with RTL nerf; that there is just awesome. It’ll definitely gimp thief’s bursting ability since they’re fond of big numbers.

Bunkers haven’t been buffed, but nerfed. Check EA healing and RTL changes. The frost aura thing every 40 seconds won’t do much. 10% damage reduction isn’t much, when comparing to protection. If it stacks, it would still be a nerf.

The EA changes are only annoying for builds that does’t aim to be bunkerish in nature. Not going 30 arcane on my focus build anymore.

ThiBash.5634:

The Frist Aura change seems to favor staff (and other ice field builds) more than D/D though.

Frost aura from combo fields are very brief sadly.

Anet just posted this in the PvP section;

“There are some updates missing from the notes. We are tracking down those, but some changes to the D/D and S/D ele build are in this patch despite not being in the notes.”

lawl

RTL nerf just killed the glass d/d ele’s, and just forced more bunker ones to pop out of the shadows. Now from all the people complaining, they get more of what they didn’t want. I have to say in hindsight those classes should have just practiced more and complained less, because now you’re going to have more d/d bunkers to deal with, and good luck with that.

And for those of you saying d/d bunker ele’s are hard to kill, THAT IS THE POINT, THAT IS WHY IT IS CALLED A “BUNKER”… we stack PVT and give up big dmg numbers to survive.

I personally have 4 80’s, and working on my 5th, all in full exotic gear traited for WvW, and I never had a problem with any class unless the player was just better then me. I’ve killed every class imaginable with every type of build, and I’ve also been killed by the same. Not sure where peoples deep rooted complaints come from on d/d ele’s. They can’t kill bunker guardians, they can’t kill bunker engineers, they sure as hell have trouble fighting mesmers (these are my 4 80’s), they can’t take out balanced axe warriors, not unless the guy behind the ele is an incredible player…

to all the other classes out there, stop running glass canon and thinking you deserve a voice towards nerfs, you seriously don’t. If your burst fails, you get worked down because you don’t run survival, that’s your problem, change your build or deal with it, just stop complaining already.

Don’t be relieved too soon guys. Apparently they have forgotten to write some of the changes in the patch note.

JonPeters.5630:

There are some updates missing from the notes. We are tracking down those, but some changes to the D/D and S/D ele build are in this patch despite not being in the notes.

Stealth nerfs (or at least some of them): Soothing disruption now only gives 5 seconds of regeneration and vigor. Shocking Aura now only gives 5 seconds of swiftness and fury when used with zephyr’s boon.

I don’t understand why they can’t just tell us everything -.-

Focus buffed. Still probably won’t use it outside of very specific scenarios.

Staff minor change. Doesn’t really alter most game play.

Evasive Arcana hit again. Could have been worse. Probably part of the whole unraveling the support ball that bunker eles have. May see future nerfs as well to other traits in the Water line as part of that initiative.

RTL nerf. Meh. Expected something like that. Could have really been worse.

pwain.4678:

silvermember.8941:

Five words: I am quitting the game. Refund time kittenes.

Mama, they nerfed my class. They are bad

QQ

Not before you tell Mommy, how you made a funny on the Guild wars 2 forums.

If you were not smart enough to figure i was joking, surprise I was joking.

They also messed with shocking aura’s boons from zephyr and cantrip boons from the trait

Navzar.2938:

Stealth nerfs (or at least some of them): Soothing disruption now only gives 5 seconds of regeneration and vigor. Shocking Aura now only gives 5 seconds of swiftness and fury when used with zephyr’s boon.

I don’t understand why they can’t just tell us everything -.-

I’m not in game yet, is this only pvp or pve too?

These changes will not make us survive an encounter with a thief.

Staff and scepter aren’t my main weapon sets, but here’s a couple things I noticed (and I may just be crazy). (These should definitely be double checked.)

- Water Trident appears to move faster

- Meteor Shower appears to hit more targets at a faster rate for a short period of time after it’s finished casting

- Eruption looks like it blows up faster

Sabyne.6329:

Navzar.2938:

Stealth nerfs (or at least some of them): Soothing disruption now only gives 5 seconds of regeneration and vigor. Shocking Aura now only gives 5 seconds of swiftness and fury when used with zephyr’s boon.

I don’t understand why they can’t just tell us everything -.-

I’m not in game yet, is this only pvp or pve too?

It’s PVE too, I tried it in LA.

Can someone verify the Shocking Aura/Zephyr and Soothing Disruption nerf? I use those heavily in my build.

pulsecodesgnl.3470:

Can someone verify the Shocking Aura/Zephyr and Soothing Disruption nerf? I use those heavily in my build.

I just verified both.

pulsecodesgnl.3470:

Can someone verify the Shocking Aura/Zephyr and Soothing Disruption nerf? I use those heavily in my build.

confirmed. 5 seconds. aura share on/off

I was just starting to accept the RTL nerf and then we get this.

Wish I could move legendaries to another profession.

Has anyone noticed that they severly increased the Area of Geysir???
Seriously, it’s a major buff it seems to me

Khalic.3561:

offence.4726:

RTL nerf is well deserved , the highest mobility skill with the shortest cooldown ingame ?

Ranger’s swoop (1100 range) is on 12s base CD. Warrior’s rush (1200 range) is on a 15s base CD. Infiltrator’s arrow or heartseeker can both cover as much distance, but with a significant initiative burn.

Sorry, but rush is 20 CD

EA will hurt but isn’t dramatic.
RTL is OK
All the rest is peachy.

This however:

Stealth nerfs (or at least some of them): Soothing disruption now only gives 5 seconds of regeneration and vigor. Shocking Aura now only gives 5 seconds of swiftness and fury when used with zephyr’s boon.

I don’t understand why they can’t just tell us everything -.-

… is painful!

Nuithari.3728:

EA will hurt but isn’t dramatic.
RTL is OK
All the rest is peachy.

This however:

Stealth nerfs (or at least some of them): Soothing disruption now only gives 5 seconds of regeneration and vigor. Shocking Aura now only gives 5 seconds of swiftness and fury when used with zephyr’s boon.

I don’t understand why they can’t just tell us everything -.-

… is painful!

Yeah I don’t understand these changes at all. I was using an uncommon build, I rely on vigor/regen during stress moments in dungeons, thats what my cantrips are for. And the nerf to Zephyr’s Boon is ridiculous, every other class has some way of maintaining fury far more reliably (good god don’t even compare warriors amiryte?), why was this even done?

The power of qq is powerful.

On to the next OP spec/profession my brothers-in-arms!!

So they nerfed our damage instead of the tanky builds. Good job guys.

pulsecodesgnl.3470:

Nuithari.3728:

EA will hurt but isn’t dramatic.
RTL is OK
All the rest is peachy.

This however:

Stealth nerfs (or at least some of them): Soothing disruption now only gives 5 seconds of regeneration and vigor. Shocking Aura now only gives 5 seconds of swiftness and fury when used with zephyr’s boon.

I don’t understand why they can’t just tell us everything -.-

… is painful!

Yeah I don’t understand these changes at all. I was using an uncommon build, I rely on vigor/regen during stress moments in dungeons, thats what my cantrips are for. And the nerf to Zephyr’s Boon is ridiculous, every other class has some way of maintaining fury far more reliably (good god don’t even compare warriors amiryte?), why was this even done?

And why not putting it in the notes? I’m glad I moved away from cantrips in sPvP, but I have yet to test stuff out elsewhere.

Flame Wall: The combat region for combo interactions has been increased.

Seriously, devs? You can do so much better at making Focus a lot more appealing, ya know. Up the initial damage on par with Burning Speed blast damage. Good god. If you gonna nerf a spec/weapon into oblivion, please do something about the other options. The fire shield improvement was a good start. Now reduce its CD pl0x. -_-

I can see why they nerfed RTL. I got hit with that far too often by D/D elementalists in WvW while on my ranger, which made it fairly easy to die, especially considering how fast they could reuse it. Also, to the one complaining they didn’t nerf Swoop, I’ll tell you why…it doesn’t make you invulnerable and you don’t knockdown everybody around you. Those two things combined makes RTL very powerful, so feel lucky they nerfed the cooldown and not the fact that it does those.

Man you don’t realize how much you were counting on shocking aura for swiftness until they do something like this.

Mind you you can still have perma swiftness of course, but you have to be an awful lot more careful with it now.

RyuDragnier.9476:

I can see why they nerfed RTL. I got hit with that far too often by D/D elementalists in WvW while on my ranger, which made it fairly easy to die, especially considering how fast they could reuse it. Also, to the one complaining they didn’t nerf Swoop, I’ll tell you why…it doesn’t make you invulnerable and you don’t knockdown everybody around you. Those two things combined makes RTL very powerful, so feel lucky they nerfed the cooldown and not the fact that it does those.

RTL doesn’t knock people down, updraft does. And it has a 40 second cooldown.

Man I really am miffed about this. Why nerf things that function correctly that people have built things around, yet refuse to fix the excess list of bugs that have been around for half a year now.

I’ll get over this eventually I’m sure, I’m just really bummed that I’ve had to kill two different builds because of patch changes now.

I mean hell, nerf my kitten Warrior, it’s at least fairly boring to play in comparison.

They didn’t seem to document it anywhere but now the 10 second fury and swiftness from shocking aura when using Zephyr’s Boon has been lowered to 5 seconds.

Edit: Oh, I should read the thread more closely. I’m still pretty unhappy about it all.

RyuDragnier.9476:

I can see why they nerfed RTL. I got hit with that far too often by D/D elementalists in WvW while on my ranger, which made it fairly easy to die, especially considering how fast they could reuse it. Also, to the one complaining they didn’t nerf Swoop, I’ll tell you why…it doesn’t make you invulnerable and you don’t knockdown everybody around you. Those two things combined makes RTL very powerful, so feel lucky they nerfed the cooldown and not the fact that it does those.

RTL doesn’t make you invuln. It makes you extremely vulnerable in fact. You can still take damage and be immobilized while using RTL, and if you do, you have no access to your abilities. It functions no differently than any other dash except that eles have the extra joy and losing all of our abilities when we use it. With the CD nerf to a regular dash, it should have its mechanics changed to a regular dash too.

As a pvp player, I’ve been defending a nerf to soothing disruption and a fix to shocking aura’s zephyr boon bug as the way to go to nerf bunker eles. Those traits were too strong, and almost mandatory for any build, bunker or not. Cool that the devs thought the same.

The nerfs to RTL and EA were smart. RTL is a crazy versatile skill (movement, escape, leap), and some people’s suggestions to nerf it in the pvp thread were terrible. Making it less available is a good way to nerf it without ruining it. EA’s nerf only affects pvp, and only affects builds with healing investment, which is fair, IMO.

Excited to see what other dagger and scepter changes were made.

I can’t believe this lol. The infamous bunker spec and aurashare are now more powerful, and every other spec has been nerfed indirectly thanks to the RtL changes.

Way to deal with the root of the problem ANet!

Razor.6392:

I can’t believe this lol. The infamous bunker spec and aurashare are now more powerful, and every other spec has been nerfed indirectly thanks to the RtL changes.

Way to deal with the root of the problem ANet!

You have no idea what you are you talking about, nor have you paid attention to this thread at all.

Razor.6392:

I can’t believe this lol. The infamous bunker spec and aurashare are now more powerful, and every other spec has been nerfed indirectly thanks to the RtL changes.

Way to deal with the root of the problem ANet!

EA’s healing scales for less, soothing disruption’s boons went from 9s to 5s, and shocking aura’s boons from the zephyr trait have been halved from 10s(?) to 5s. Frost Aura is less effective against multiple-hit attacks, but more effective in general play, and Flame Aura is potentially an option now.

I would like to see how you think they are stronger.

dreztina.4820:

RyuDragnier.9476:

I can see why they nerfed RTL. I got hit with that far too often by D/D elementalists in WvW while on my ranger, which made it fairly easy to die, especially considering how fast they could reuse it. Also, to the one complaining they didn’t nerf Swoop, I’ll tell you why…it doesn’t make you invulnerable and you don’t knockdown everybody around you. Those two things combined makes RTL very powerful, so feel lucky they nerfed the cooldown and not the fact that it does those.

RTL doesn’t make you invuln. It makes you extremely vulnerable in fact. You can still take damage and be immobilized while using RTL, and if you do, you have no access to your abilities. It functions no differently than any other dash except that eles have the extra joy and losing all of our abilities when we use it. With the CD nerf to a regular dash, it should have its mechanics changed to a regular dash too.

I’ve never seen it happen. I’ve hit them with knockback during it, does nothing. Hit them with immobilize, does nothing. Tried to slow them down with chill and cripple, does nothing. If it’s supposed to stop them in their tracks, I’m not seeing it.

Wait, did they neglect to tell us about other things in the update? Now I am curious.

sil.4160:

I don’t understand the change to evasive arcana for water. It never worked in PVE

your trolling right?

Malcastus.6240:

Wait, did they neglect to tell us about other things in the update? Now I am curious.

apparently they forgot to put changes into the patch….

I mean come on, how unprofessional, and this has happened before

The issue I am seeing is that nothing has really changed.. People were complaining about the super hard to kill FOTM 0 10 0 30 30 build, and after these changes it is still very viable and it is STILL about the ONLY viable build for us. So we will still have the FOTMs, we will still get the complaints, and we will just be slightly less mobile now.