Guild Wars 2

This skill now provides 3 seconds of protection every time you gain regeneration, but with a 15 second cooldown. This cooldown was added, but not noted in the patch notes. Just figured I would alert everyone to this change.

Wow this is a big disappointment for me in an otherwise pretty good patch.

I’ve run 15/15 Chaos/Inspiration since launch because I loved that trait so much.

Now its nearly useless..

Given the fix to Phantasmal Healing ,this would have been quite powerful. Not really unexpected a nerf, sorry.

This is stupid! Why do they keep messing around with out builds…
And what if we dont run phantasmal healing…

Then you … well… didn’t have 100% reliable Regen anyhow, right?

No but I ran with classes that did, like banner warriors. I am very much into the team game and synergy though class interaction. My warrior friends do nott have much innate protection, and I didn’t have regen. But together his banners allowed me to amass some protection which I pass on with the signet.

This kinds teamwork made well thought out group composition quite useful and when you take it away it removes some of the usefulness I had in a group.

as if it was op or something….

The trait allowed me to have ~80% uptime of protection in my tank build, along with 100% uptime of regen, 100% uptime of retaliation, and high uptime of chaos armor, so it was a strong trait. However, I think the nerf is unnecessary.

I feel like it gets more and more difficult to play any other role than dps. I would love to see buffs on support builds.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I feel like it gets more and more difficult to play any other role than dps. I would love to see buffs on support builds.

The only builds they have really buffed or improved upon are shatter builds. They have always been strong. Support specs have been repeatedly kicked in the groin even when they still were not even comparably strong to other classes support specs in the game. To be fair though the reduced cast time on Mantra charges did buff the healing output of mantra healing a small bit for those that spam mantra of pain to heal with. Conditions still have major issues since they gain less benefit from the boons/debuffs in the game i.e. vulnerability etc..stacking issues.. amongst others that have never been addressed.

This changed destroyed the s/tpvp Mesmer bunker build. I know that build was used extensively for pve tanking/wvw soloing as well. Realistically speaking yes it was possibly to reach nearly 100% uptime on protection. That is overkill however the 15sec internal cooldown feels like a knee-jerk reaction especially since it wasn’t even in the patch notes. I think a 5-10 second cooldown(8 sounds good) would be fair enough on it preferably on the lower end but 15 i absurd.

I just think I should be able to play the role of a great supporter / tanky helper with my Mesmer instead of having to switch to my guardian who spams hammer1 for perma-protection for everyone standing in my huge symbol.

I can see, that guardians should have an advantage to support, but I would love to see others taking this role and doing it just as fine when played well.

(to be fair: mantras were buffed, but I find it quite boring to spam mantras to heal – yes, it’s my problem, not Anets… I… just… the tanky-build was so fun to play sniff)

I’d be fine with a 5 second CD, most skills like that for all classes have a 5 or 10 second CD so it fits. I’d accept 10 seconds as reasonable enough, though not be all that happy.

15 second CD is just heavy handed, and they JUST said in the patch notes that they were against huge increases that upset how things are, so how did this sneak in there…

Worst of all, they sneak it in with no mention in the notes, and so far have ignored us on it while they have commented on other patch issues, really bugs me.

it’s sad. it was only nerfed because duelists gave more regen than other phantasms. they fixed the wrong thing, again

lupercaleb.6041:

it’s sad. it was only nerfed because duelists gave more regen than other phantasms. they fixed the wrong thing, again

Yeah I feel that this was very much a knee-jerk reaction that little to no actual research went into.

lupercaleb.6041:

it’s sad. it was only nerfed because duelists gave more regen than other phantasms. they fixed the wrong thing, again

At least all phantasms (haven’t tried underwater ones though) are granting 3 secs of regen and renews every 3 secs, just like the iDuelist.

Just killed my spec… i was wondering why my protection wasnt popping with my banner warrior friend.

Not letting this thread be left behind.

Need a answer from a dev about this, to nerf this, this much is just horrible.

It was necessary due to 15/15 spec actually having perma-regen if near the Phantasms, now.

Yes I don’t like it either, but I can understand it. If I ever want defence which does not require 15 Chaos, I need it to not be so strong that the classes’ defence is centred around it.

Here’s a link to a build I had made just several days before…now it’s half as effective. Went from having protection stacked up to 30 seconds to not being able to maintain it even 80% of the time during fights, and that’s a very generous estimate.

It is such a disappointment to see this adjustment (nerf) ruining some ppls experiences. I wouldn’t call it a nerf if they actually increase the Duration of Protection to 6’s at least or if the CD added was only 6’s, giving you 3’s of Protection and 3’s sec. without protection but, 15 seconds CD!!!!!! just for a 3’s sec of Protection…. is this a Joke!!!! How useless is this forced trait. Has no strategy or build now.

I think a CD is necessary, especially given that Phantasmal Healing is fixed for non-iDuelist Phantasms; but 15s is a bit too much. 10s would be better IMO.

Disastro.4086:

lupercaleb.6041:

it’s sad. it was only nerfed because duelists gave more regen than other phantasms. they fixed the wrong thing, again

Yeah I feel that this was very much a knee-jerk reaction that little to no actual research went into.

That’s because they’re letting the interns determine class balance.

That definitely closes my pvp gaming.

If you think mesmer’s support buffs are OP go roll a hammer guardian and get back to me – they can easily maintain protection/retaliation/regen on the entire party.

Mesmer highly specced towards it could just about maintain all 3 played right, but mezzies innately have less armour and much MUCH less healing than a warrior or guardian so we’re not talking mesmer-tank here, a mezzie with all those buffs will still die way faster than say, a guardian, they’re just much more capable of weathering the hits that get through.

I’m not unhappy with our buffs to shatter builds lately, but it’d be nice if they stopped trying force us down the shatter path and let us branch into say, phanty or support builds too.

looking at the guardian and whith that what “defensive potential” means, I say: what were they thinking? Do they want only Guardians and Warriors to be able to have a tanky role?

Carighan.6758:

It was necessary due to 15/15 spec actually having perma-regen if near the Phantasms, now.

Yes I don’t like it either, but I can understand it. If I ever want defence which does not require 15 Chaos, I need it to not be so strong that the classes’ defence is centred around it.

Um 2 other class’s can keep up perma protection, and regen.

Second if you going to be a defence mez you going to be putting points into chaos anyway, so it not center around it, but it will be part of it. Even with this nerf you still will have the trait, since you going to ALWAY have points into chaos if you a tank mez.

Third we light armor class’s so to be a tank we gotta have things like this, before I could keep up with a guardian almost.

Now I am working on a new build trying to get back up to where I was, however not I wont be able to do any where near as much damage.

Because gotta focus on healing big time now.

Which already my damage was lower then any other class their is. I had 3k damage at most with warden and less then 2k bf.

Now I be lucky for a 2k warden damage.

So instead of before where I could still have semi okay damage, and center most of my traits around CONTROL, so I can better protect my group.

Now if I wanna be tanky, I gotta have almost no damage and almost no control.

Which means even a freaking tanky ele is now better then me at being a true tank, since a true tank can protect their party and not just theirselfs.

It was fine before this patch… when I saw a mes hugging a phantasm I would just kill it with 1-2 auto attack and their protection/regen would go away (on my guard I wouldn’t even need to target it… the aoe from my attacks would kill it).

It had a simple & easy counter. Very stupid change to a class that’s already hurting very badly in the phantasm department.

Yeah…. more flawless ANet balance, so far every nerf I’ve seen for thief/mes is completely kneejerk like the 50% reduced damage on DD with zero compensation.

Their so called dislike for huge nerfs that disrupt things is complete bull. They don’t even think on the changes at all, just throw an over zealous change out there and see how it handles.

Oh and it doesn’t matter how it handles, because the community is ignore anyway.

I want to hear the reasoning behind nerfs with nothing in return instead of their trademark silence. I’d like them to actually communicate with the players.

The only way a mesmer could have near permanent protection was if the enemy chose not to kill any of the mesmer’s phantoms. This was not even an issue since the mesmer had to be within melee range of their phantoms which left them more susceptible to aoe damage and limited their movement.

Hiki.9310:

The only way a mesmer could have near permanent protection was if the enemy chose not to kill any of the mesmer’s phantoms. This was not even an issue since the mesmer had to be within melee range of their phantoms which left them more susceptible to aoe damage and limited their movement.

“Solo” it was easily countered but if you always ran with a class that could pump out multiple forms of regen to keep it pulsing such as engineers they would be able to keep it up indefinitely as a duo. Still it was nerfed to hard any way you look at it or try to justify it.

The issue about the nerf is that they gave us compensation. . . they put Protection in another source further into the same tree. If you are going all out on a build that is going to absorb a good amount of damage then you’ll find that dropping targeting with the stealth abilities quite strong, coupled with instant protection (almost all the time) to stave off their AoE when you do stealth is rather strong. I’ve found I like stealth just for being able to finish casting abilities and the such, and setup and plot my next move.

Delofakitten.4231:

The issue about the nerf is that they gave us compensation. . . they put Protection in another source further into the same tree. If you are going all out on a build that is going to absorb a good amount of damage then you’ll find that dropping targeting with the stealth abilities quite strong, coupled with instant protection (almost all the time) to stave off their AoE when you do stealth is rather strong. I’ve found I like stealth just for being able to finish casting abilities and the such, and setup and plot my next move.

Um sorry but no, that MAYBE getting protection for 3 secs when going stealth does not cut it at all.

Maybe if we had tons of stealth skills, but includen torch we only got 4.

Well easy to see you dont to tanky builds

EsLafiel.4517:

Delofakitten.4231:

The issue about the nerf is that they gave us compensation. . . they put Protection in another source further into the same tree. If you are going all out on a build that is going to absorb a good amount of damage then you’ll find that dropping targeting with the stealth abilities quite strong, coupled with instant protection (almost all the time) to stave off their AoE when you do stealth is rather strong. I’ve found I like stealth just for being able to finish casting abilities and the such, and setup and plot my next move.

Um sorry but no, that MAYBE getting protection for 3 secs when going stealth does not cut it at all.

Maybe if we had tons of stealth skills, but includen torch we only got 4.

Well easy to see you dont to tanky builds

If I’m not mistaken, it doesn’t even affect the torch Prestige anymore anyway.

Bump,, I WONT LET YOU DIE,,,,,, BREATH kitten IT BREATH

EsLafiel.4517:

Um sorry but no, that MAYBE getting protection for 3 secs when going stealth does not cut it at all.

Maybe if we had tons of stealth skills, but includen torch we only got 4.

Well easy to see you dont to tanky builds

Actually mostly all I play is Tanky builds in PvP. Simply because Shatter is stupid and most people are too stupid to counter it and that annoys me, Tanky Builds are hard to counter, have life and do some medium damage. As I was saying though, 2 things here, first torch does proc Prismatic Understanding, just it’s duration isn’t extended by a second because that’s kind of bad. Secondly, if you have Prismatic Understanding you also already have Illusionary Membrane, which means when you pop a stealth you get either Aegis (reducing the damage taken from the next hit completely), Protection (33% damage reduction for duration) or Regeneration (Hey look it procs Illusionary Membrane and I get Protection!), look you have a 66% chance of getting protection, and if not protection then Aegis. . . but wait, all the stealths last at least 3 seconds, so it procs again at the end and another chance to get either Protection or Regeneration to proc Protection from Illusionary Membrane. I didn’t make this up, I actually play a Tanky Build, yes it’s not very useful for PvE while tanking a mob, but it’s great for solo’ing champs and being extremely handy for your team with helping them drop aggro in a dungeon via Veil or Mass Invis.

So to recap, they ‘might’ have nerfed it in because they gave yet another source of protection, and the new source ALSO procs the old source often. So yeah. . . try looking at the bigger picture here, and believe me I was as annoyed with the change as you obviously are at first, and for several days after too, but I’ve come to terms with it, this new build they’ve forced me into is infinitely more fun than the old one, far more interactive and less just get 3 phantasms out and stand around and comb my lack of hair (bald Asura).

@Delofakitten: sounds interesting, I’ll have to try this. Do you have a clip of this in action?

bradderzh.2378:

No but I ran with classes that did, like banner warriors. I am very much into the team game and synergy though class interaction. My warrior friends do nott have much innate protection, and I didn’t have regen. But together his banners allowed me to amass some protection which I pass on with the signet.

This kinds teamwork made well thought out group composition quite useful and when you take it away it removes some of the usefulness I had in a group.

I’m sad, but I kinda understand why nerf it. I also run with a banner warrior, and I was constantly getting >1 minute of protection on each fight.