Guild Wars 2

I do not see a topic discussing the future balance patch that was in the livestream, so I thought I start one.

Link to a summary of the proposed changes:
http://dulfy.net/2014/01/17/gw2-ready-up-skill-and-balance-developer-livestream-notes/

adding in my person eyebrow lifts:
1. Runes: the no-mix and match mentality. Not sure why the devs frown on this one. To me it allows unique diversity. I guess they don’t like that? What I’m most concerned with is that this will be nerfing Boon Duration, since I use a mix set to max out my Boon Duration.

2. Vigorous Precision: I knew this was coming, and still don’t like it. This is not quite the answer that’s needed for the missing build diversity. This is also going to nerf a few builds that depend on it.

3. Nice to see the Sigil changes. That’s going to be an interesting one to say the least.

Add in your thoughts.

Will have to wait and see what they have planned for runes and sigils before I speculate too much there.

As for Vigorous Precision, I think as long as there are further tweaks to reduce our dependency on this trait to stay alive in offensive builds it should be OK. It will reduce our bunker builds a bit, but we have some wiggle room there so long as we we can have some other viable role to fall back on as well.

I am not impressed with the healing skill changes. They both suffer from some handicaps that will need to be addressed before they are very viable. Such as:

Litany of Wrath: Shaving the cast time is a start but I still feel that this skill really needs to be instant cast to be of much use. Otherwise it interrupts the burst chain type setups that meditations are tailored for. ALL other meditations are instant cast, having a cast time here is like having a cast time on a shout. The other issue is target sticking. We just don’t have a lot of ways to stick to a target to make the healing portion worthwhile, this also makes the amount of healing against a single target pretty paltry most of the time. An unreliable healing skill when you have such a small health pool and are running an offensive build that forgoes most of your defenses is very hard to manage.

Healing Breeze: This skill suffer from 3 problems. #1 is the 2.25 second channel time where you blow your minty freshness at anyone willing to stand there and take it. That’s a lot of time to be interrupted or not dodge or not attack. #2 is the awkward targeting. How many times are you going to hang out behind your team with them tightly knit into a cone in front of you standing still? Not enough to want to use this skill. #3 is the 40 second cool down. The relatively low healing amount is not near enough to warrant the long cool down, let alone all the other problems with this skill.

Healing Breeze is 6.5k with a 40 second cool down, 162.5 Hp per second
Shelter is 4.5k with a 30 second cool down, 150 Hp per second
Signet of resolve is a whopping 8.1k every 40(32) seconds, 202.5(253) Hp per second

The above is one reason we go bunker. The other is that all our good traits are bunker.

Rune mix and match will still be possible just not as good. They are also giving them a +10 stat buff to the main stat. So rune of strengths example = 175 power.

I like the idea of making all the runes better. This will have more diversity sure you can still get +30% duration of whatever you want which is ok. I would rather have good full sets to compete with +30% duration.

Right now you have 53 total runes and maybe 8 good ones. Off the top of my head for PvE = Scholar or Orbs

WvW =

Boon duration (traveler, water, monk) which invalidates the need to grab any other specific duration choice like earth. You don’t get the full 6 just 2/2/2. Some grab might stackers fire, strength, hoelbrak.

Ogre, full traveler, full speed, divinity, melandru, hoelbrak, resistance for cheaper melandru, forge, Lyssa, eagle or bugged rune of ranger.

Condition damage = perplexity or scavenger runes

So 13 out of 53 full 6 piece is desirable in WvW and even less in PvE for a “Meta” build. I probably missed a couple niche runes for niche builds.

The two healing skills need a lot of fixing indeed. Healing Breeze needs to go from a cone spit to an AOE radius heal to make it somewhat useful. I agree that Litany needs to go to instant cast. I didn’t when it first was introduced, but it needs it in comparison to its current state.

Runes and sigils do need an overhaul. If they are going to make sets have a full 45% durations, I’d be okay with doing that. But I highly doubt they are going to make the bonus durations that high. I’ve got the impression over the last few patches that they don’t like the dependence of boons in general, and reducing the availability of boon duration via runes is one way they’re going to nerf it.

I’ll tell you one thing, I’m playing this game less and less. I’m down to like 1 hour a week now. I’ve been slowing converting my gold to stock that will grow when gone and am about to walk away for awhile.

Vigorous Precision nerf sucks a ton. Pretty much only defensive ability for non-bunker builds.

My thoughts are that I find it unbelievable they can keep trying to fix Healing Breeze and never get close to making it useful.

Making Healing Breeze a consecration could be interesting. That way, close-ranged supportive guardians have a supportive heal, and longer-ranged supportive guardians can trait it for long-range. I’m okay with how it is now too however.
Of course, I think the healing would need to be over a smaller period of time since people would probably dodge out of the consecration area.

Healing Breeze is just like if I were to blow on an actual wound. It feels better while you’re doing it but when you stop you realise it didn’t do anything.