Guild Wars 2

I was really hoping that trait to become somewhat more useful, now it’s worse than what it was earlier. Maybe anet just forgot about like most eles do.

Sounds about right. Rock solid builds were hard-countered by trickery thieves before, now they are just bad in general. While previously this would secure a stomp, now it just negates the incoming cc from the downed player. Also, this is super-easy to strip and interrupt ether renewal, making that combo even weaker.

Haven’t been in game, but if you’re telling me its only 1 stack. We’ll I think they forgot. It would need to be 2 at least, 3 preferably.

Ya i was hoping they would do something with that at least making it a bigger aoe.

Yeah, I used this trait before but will now most likely remove it from my build. This is a huge nerf to the trait and I think it is now not worth being a “Master” trait anymore.

Now it somehow feels like one of those minor traits…

from patch notes:

“All instances of stability not listed in these release notes will remain at one stack.”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-March-16-2015

it was quite a nerf for everything not listed in patch notes, other skills have so many stacks it’s not even important to have them, maybe in WvW in zerg, but it wont change them in SPvP

I used to very much like this trait…it was strong, had a lot of counterplay opportunities, and was close to having a “build” using it. I sometimes even brought it to secure a heal/stomp/res. Now…ded trait, will not even consider it.

MaXi.3642:

from patch notes:

“All instances of stability not listed in these release notes will remain at one stack.”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-March-16-2015

it was quite a nerf for everything not listed in patch notes, other skills have so many stacks it’s not even important to have them, maybe in WvW in zerg, but it wont change them in SPvP

That’s the problem though. There are other game modes besides SPvP… The changes are problematic for WvW/PvE – in other words, everywhere. where CC spikes due to large scale fights are present.

With the 2 seconds of Stability Rock Solid provided, you could at least stomp someone while under high pressure of more than one player, if you timed your attunement switches right. You could push through gates or up into the lord room of a tower.

Now you get stuck with the fist CC that hits you. While stomping, that CC often already comes from the downed player him/herself, which strips your stability so that his/her “friends” can lock you down and prevent the stomp. I’m sure in a coordinated guild fight it will be impossible to stomp anyone since there will be called CC spikes focussing anyone trying to stomp, so that also the 10 stacks of e.g. Armor of Earth will go poof. So we will have to cleave down every enemy or even pop invulnerability skills to stomp…

In case of choke points, you now get stuck on the first guard/ele wall, static field, whatever hits you first and get stuck inbetween 2 CC walls if you are totally out of luck. So there will be no way around using other Stability skills. You won’t even be able to push through with Tornado since you only get 1 stack every 3 seconds…

Also in PvE (e.g. SW where there is lots of knock down/back going on) 2s Stability were enough to at least escape a group of Teragriff charging you, without blowing any other CDs. Now you can’t even escape one charge of them, since to my knowledge the CC procs more than once (could be mistaken there, didn’t test this yet).

Don’t get me wrong, I think the stability change was needed desperately to change the meta. I just think this will need some tweaking/balancing between different game modes. You can’t just treat stability the same way in different game modes where there is a different amount of CC sources.

BlackBeard.2873:

I used to very much like this trait…it was strong, had a lot of counterplay opportunities, and was close to having a “build” using it. I sometimes even brought it to secure a heal/stomp/res. Now…ded trait, will not even consider it.

Same here. I used it to cover my Ether Renewal, Ice Bow 4, safe stomp, pushing through gates. That doesn’t work anymore in its current state. I think if there is no intention to change the amount of stacks, it could as well be added to a minor trait and be done with it… There are too many other viable trait options to justify using Rock Solid anymore.

I understand, but this is obviously a supposed nerf to stability, it was just too powerful especially in large scale fights, so it’s not likely to change…

MaXi.3642:

I understand, but this is obviously a supposed nerf to stability, it was just too powerful especially in large scale fights, so it’s not likely to change…

As I said, it needed a nerf. I fully agree and overall am happy that they finally implemented it.

But even a nerf needs to be adjusted depending on game mode so that it is equally nerfed. It clearly makes a huge difference if 5 people are spiking you with CC (sPvP) or if 50+ are doing the same (WvW). That’s more or less the short version of my wall of text – I buried the point I was trying to make very well xD

But we will see how things will develop over time. I think it’s maybe too early to say anything and I’m just being too negative. But this one specific trait definitely lost all usefulness to me.

I think the main problem is with its AOE, if you use it with its full potential, it’s 5 stacks of stability on quite a short cooldown in master trait… I think it could be too strong if it would be 10 stacks…

No increase stack, no increase duration … GG anet, once again nerf what dont need to be nerf. Kill build diversity, way to go. Now every DD player will run 00266

MaXi.3642:

I think the main problem is with its AOE, if you use it with its full potential, it’s 5 stacks of stability on quite a short cooldown in master trait… I think it could be too strong if it would be 10 stacks…

1 Stack on 5 people on a short CD (when you only switch to earth for the sole purpose of maximizing stability and have 6 in Arcane that is). I use the trait a bit differently and run a build that only has 2 points in Arcane, but I get your point.

But yeah, that needs to be taken into consideration. In a group of 5 Eles all with this trait, that would be OP. In case ANet tried to rebalance the trait, they would either need to treat the personal stability differently from the shared stack (e.g. give 1 stack to nearby allies and 3 to yourself or something), or maybe even remove the AoE effect entirely… Good point, didn’t think about that at first.

Rayti.6531:

they would either need to treat the personal stability differently from the shared stack (e.g. give 1 stack to nearby allies and 3 to yourself or something)

I think this sounds quite good

Mattmatt.4962:

No increase stack, no increase duration … GG anet, once again nerf what dont need to be nerf. Kill build diversity, way to go. Now every DD player will run 00266

There is always 02066 and 20066, but those are crippled by having minor traits that don’t actually exist.

Even if this were 10 stacks aoe(so it functioned as it did before) it still would see very little use (as it did before). Eles without 6 in water have very little cleanse, while those with 6 in water have all the cleanse in the world. Just another case of having almost necessary traits for most situations, and having a bunch of incredibly sub-par and unviable traits all over the place.

BlackBeard.2873:

Mattmatt.4962:

No increase stack, no increase duration … GG anet, once again nerf what dont need to be nerf. Kill build diversity, way to go. Now every DD player will run 00266

There is always 02066 and 20066, but those are crippled by having minor traits that don’t actually exist.

Even if this were 10 stacks aoe(so it functioned as it did before) it still would see very little use (as it did before). Eles without 6 in water have very little cleanse, while those with 6 in water have all the cleanse in the world. Just another case of having almost necessary traits for most situations, and having a bunch of incredibly sub-par and unviable traits all over the place.

with -40 food and ER, cleansing should not be a problem if u do not go 6.

Fuzzion.2504:

BlackBeard.2873:

Mattmatt.4962:

No increase stack, no increase duration … GG anet, once again nerf what dont need to be nerf. Kill build diversity, way to go. Now every DD player will run 00266

There is always 02066 and 20066, but those are crippled by having minor traits that don’t actually exist.

Even if this were 10 stacks aoe(so it functioned as it did before) it still would see very little use (as it did before). Eles without 6 in water have very little cleanse, while those with 6 in water have all the cleanse in the world. Just another case of having almost necessary traits for most situations, and having a bunch of incredibly sub-par and unviable traits all over the place.

with -40 food and ER, cleansing should not be a problem if u do not go 6.

Same goes for those who have chosen Diamond Skin (to not even get the conditions in the first place) and/or wield S/F, which also provide cleanse. There are many ways to circumvent conditions without 6 in water.

But I think his point was, that some trait lines generally hold more useful/nearly must have traits that can be used with many builds while other trait lines hold very sub-par traits that never see any improvement and are therefore not even used in the first place – which generally messes a lot with build diversity… But maybe I got that wrong.

Not surprising, balance “team” changes stability, dozens of skills and traits become worthless.

Didn’t they say before that they wanted to help the elementalist in other lines than water? Why are they doing the opposite then.