Guild Wars 2

ANet has a new blog post up lightly discussing the upcoming 25 June patch – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-skill-and-trait-changes/

Some areas of discussion:
Torment – a new condition wherein enemies will take damage periodically; as they move, they’ll take even more damage.

Weakness changes – Weakness will now cause all hits, both critical and non-critical, to have a chance to become a glancing blow.

Stun breakers – spread out across more utility types.

I know “regen nerf” is an area of concern for us but the devs stated, “When possible, we try very hard not to take away too much potency from popular builds because we know that a lot of people enjoy them.”

As with any patch, we simply do not know nerfs/buffs/changes until patch day, but June 25th will be interesting to say the least.

update:
Torment stacks in intensity Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Torment

One thing we know for certain: Axe 3 just got even better.

I don’t have a good feeling about this at all.

It sounds like elementalist, thief and mesmer got major buffs.

jcbroe.4329:

One thing we know for certain: Axe 3 just got even better.

I’m not sure, it also says they adjusted the duration of weakness skills. They might have made it 3 seconds.

O well let’s wait and see, but I’m excepting the worst update to date. You can’t have a low enough expectation in this game. I’m still really curious about the Ranger changes of course.

Blah blah blah no mention of rangers…. I know… Lets make them less effective underwater, that would be fun… Seriously, every patch seems to do nothing but nerf us even more, building up other classes. How about some love to the Long bow? Not that a “ranger” would have any use for an effective long bow or anything. How about giving us a special ability to see invisible thief’s or something? Right now, we are nothing but sitting ducks for them. They can sneak up and kill us before we even realize we are in a fight. When we do try and fight back. POOF! gone again… it’s so OP it’s ridiculous. Almost 800 hours of play on my ranger and still have to run GS SB build (like everyone else) to have any shot at playing WVW or dungeons.

I have an Idea. How about giving use the option of having quick weapon swap sets? Basically or main set used 90% of the time (GS SB) and a way to switch out to a secondary set like (LB SB). Armor sets would be nice too. Be able to build up a full set, put it into a box and then just click that box to equip the whole set instead of having to pick each piece over and over and over…. Example, my Dungeon set, my WVE set and my magic find set…

Oh and fix magic find.

And btw, I can not use any of the extra mini pets… double clicking on them does nothing so something is broken there as well.

What if they moved evasive purity to a major skill and allowed it to remove blind, poison, and torment on dodge? That would make me happy. The point is that it’s better to chill axe until we have all of the facts.

@people complaining about rangers not being mentioned every time a dev speaks

Chill axe. Winter’s Bite.

Chopps.5047:

What if they moved evasive purity to a major skill and allowed it to remove blind, poison, and torment on dodge? That would make me happy. The point is that it’s better to chill axe until we have all of the facts.

@people complaining about rangers not being mentioned every time a dev speaks

Chill axe. Winter’s Bite.

+1 for sweet use of ranger skill title jargon.

Don’t forget the discussion of pet damage nerfing. Wonder if that’s being included in this wonderful update.

Holland.9351:

I don’t have a good feeling about this at all.

It sounds like elementalist, thief and mesmer got major buffs.

jcbroe.4329:

One thing we know for certain: Axe 3 just got even better.

I’m not sure, it also says they adjusted the duration of weakness skills. They might have made it 3 seconds.

O well let’s wait and see, but I’m excepting the worst update to date. You can’t have a low enough expectation in this game. I’m still really curious about the Ranger changes of course.

But it still makes weakness more useful than before. Essentially, giving our bunker build that much more survival capability against power opponents, but also making it more counterplay play friendly (you can’t just stack weakness and win, there will be a layer of skill in predicting your opponents next action and applying weakness to get the highest benefit achievable, while still having a benefit from not being able to predict/wrong predictions).

Also, for the Torment people, guild wars 1 already had skills like that coming mostly from the necro and thief class, as well as mesmer having similar options.
Anybody remember these skills:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weaken_Knees
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Binding_Chains
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shameful_Fear
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Winter%27s_Embrace
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Crippling_Anguish

Those are the ones that most resemble what Torment will probably function like (and probably where the concept came from).

Take a look

http://pastebin.com/2rrFg9pS

I’m 90% sure they’re going to nerf the ever living crap out of Rangers

in fact i would honestly be surprised if they didn’t break or ruin bunker build this patch.

To many people whining that they have to pay attention to the pet.

Tricare.2946:

Take a look
http://pastebin.com/2rrFg9pS

Yeah, I was just posting the same thing.

If these “leaked” notes are anything close to what is going to be released we in for some “interesting” changes, and not in a good way for the most part, with the exception to the long bow/shout changes when compared to all other noted classes changes.
Still no word on pets being able to hit moving targets for the huge hit to their damage vs the slight buff we get to lb. No buff to axe main damage either.

Note of missing needed fixes:
Pets able to hit moving targets with their new plastic dentures.
Sword combo chain not locking all combat
Dagger buffs
Change Master’s bond to not lose all stacks on swap since using just one goes against the entire point of the game-play they’ve forced us into.

-Don’t know why the Beast Mastery signet trait is still in the line geared towards bows instead of the beast mastery line.
-Lastly, I was really hoping they’d finally do away or at least lump into one major grand master skill all of the dumb pet specific pet buffs and give us some decent traits in beast master instead of those focusing on using one type of pet.

Here’s the exert concerning rangers:

Ranger

*“Protect Me”: This ability now breaks stuns.
*Splitblade: Reduced the aftercast on this skill from .4 seconds to .2 seconds.
*Path of Scars: Now pulls enemies on the return flight.
*Long Range Shot: Reduced the aftercast on this skill from .5 seconds to .25 seconds. Increased arrow speed by 15%
*Rapid Fire: Reduced initial cast time by .4 seconds. Increased arrow speed by 15%
*Point Blank Shot: Increased arrow speed by 15%
*Barrage: Increased cripple duration by 50%.
*Muddy Terrain: Decreased the duration from 20s-10s. Increased cripple duration per pulse from 1s->2s. Decreased the cooldown from 30s-25s.
*Lightning reflexes: travel distance has been halved underwater.
*Man o war: 18 base recharge to 25
*Counterstrike: 15 base recharge to 20
*Swirling strike: .6 to .8
*Crossfire: Range decreased to 900.
*Poison Volley: Range decreased to 900
*Quick Shot: Range decreased to 900. Damage increased by 14%.
*Crippling Shot: Range decreased to 900. Damage increased by 14%.
*Concussion shot: Range decreased to 900. Damage increased by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.
Spirit activated skill range increased from 180 to 240 (360 when traited)
*Call Lightning: Increased damage by 150%.
*Solar Flare: Decreased the cast time from 1.7s to .5s.
*Winter’s Bite: Reduced weakness duration to 3 seconds. Fixed a bug so that it now chills for the 3s (as listed in the tooltip) instead of 2s.
*Enfeebling Roar: Reduced weakness duration to 8 seconds.

Pets
Armor Fish: Bite: Reduced damage by 50%.
Bird: Slash: Increased damage by 15%.
Eagle: Lacerating Slash: Reduced damage by 50%.
Raven: Blinding Slash: Reduced damage by 34%.
Canine: Bite: Reduced damage by 27%.
Devourer: Twin Darts: Reduced damage by 20%.
Drake: Bite: Reduced damage by 27%.
Drake: Lightning Breath: Reduced damage by 17%.
Feline: Maul: Reduced damage by 50%.
Jaguar: Stalking: Critical chance increase while in stealth reduced to 25%.
Jellyfish: Tentacle Slash: Increased damage by 50%.
Jellyfish Blue: Chilling Whirl: Decreased damage by 33%.
Moa: Peck: Reduced damage by 7%.
Pig: Jab: Reduced damage by 25%.
Shark: Bite: Increased damage by 10%.
Spider: Spit: Increased damage by 10%.

Beastmastery
*Instinctual Bond: This trait has been swapped with Zephyr’s Speed. Quickness increased to 3s.
*Stability Training: This trait now causes the pet to ignore the incoming crowd control skill as well as granting stability. This has a 10 second internal recharge.

Marksmanship
*Keen Edge: This trait now activates when you strike a target that is below 50% health, instead of when your health reaches 75%.
*Beastmasters Might: This trait now grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
*Spotter: This trait has been increased from 70 precision to 150.

Nature Magic
*Vigorous Spirits: This trait has been merged with Spiritual Knowledge.
*Spiritual Knowledge: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
*Evasive Purity: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
*New Grandmaster trait – Nature’s Voice: Shouts apply 10 seconds of regeneration and swiftness to allies in a 360 radius.

Skrimishing
*Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to your pet, up from 1 second.

Wow, great work on the paste bin. Looks like huge longbow buffs and powerful reworks on traits. I called it too! Evasive purity became a master trait. :p

And, by the way, call lightening was already strong but a 150% buff? That’s what I’m talking about!

if they are real…Power Ranger here i come……

Thank god, shouts are actually viable now, as are spirits possibly. And my LB grows stronger still.

But…no torment for us? That irritates me, as it means we’re getting the short end of the stick, as are the warriors (who could really use torment).

If real then i think we might see more zerker longbow rangers…

AND off hand axe skill Path of Scars is already really powerful but now it will pull too? This could make the sword/axe build VERY tasty indeed. Another zerker build i foresee right there. I hope this is real because i will certainly be giving zerker another go, and this time it’s gonna be a longbow/sword + axe deal.

the nature magic traitline will also look more attractive too..but thats a lot of nerf in pets and not enough boost at longbow imo….still Power Ranger here i come

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

Hmm, all shortbow skills reduced to 900 ? fail

Pets
Armor Fish: Bite: Reduced damage by 50%.
Bird: Slash: Increased damage by 15%.
Eagle: Lacerating Slash: Reduced damage by 50%.
Raven: Blinding Slash: Reduced damage by 34%.
Canine: Bite: Reduced damage by 27%.
Devourer: Twin Darts: Reduced damage by 20%.
Drake: Bite: Reduced damage by 27%.
Drake: Lightning Breath: Reduced damage by 17%.
Feline: Maul: Reduced damage by 50%.
Jaguar: Stalking: Critical chance increase while in stealth reduced to 25%.
Jellyfish: Tentacle Slash: Increased damage by 50%.
Jellyfish Blue: Chilling Whirl: Decreased damage by 33%.
Moa: Peck: Reduced damage by 7%.
Pig: Jab: Reduced damage by 25%.
Shark: Bite: Increased damage by 10%.
Spider: Spit: Increased damage by 10%.

This would absolutely break Beastmaster rangers

I mean… absolutely destroy the build.

Hell, It would absolutely break most ranger specs in general because i’m not seeing a massive damage increase across the board to rangers to make up for it.

Expiatus.4210:

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

People weren’t taking LB because SB had the same range for more DPS and conditions. Now that’s been replaced with less range for more DPS and conditions.

Expiatus.4210:

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

These are “leaked” but they are highly likely due to all the portions already mentioned by the admins are included with the exception of the necro new ds 5 name being incorrect.

Boomstin.3460:

Hmm, all shortbow skills reduced to 900 ? fail

Well it is supposed to not shoot as far as the longbow, hence the “short” lol.

Yep they’ve screwed SB over but fair play it sounds like LB could actually be a viable DPS weapon now. Maybe.

I agree that hit to pet damage is freaking insane.

On the other hand I like the love for spirits and finally a trait for shouts other than recharge reduction.

With that range… why would we use the SB over, say, the axe?

Anyone out there who thinks this is a good “patch” for rangers is out of his mind

Not only do they nerf the range on SB, which hurts a lot of ranger builds

They absolutely gut the damage of Pets, which hurts all rangers..and they don’t give you anything else in return, I’m sorry… a few trait changes for spirits which still blow is not equal trade to gutting almost all our builds.

Calling lightning skill in spirit does like 1000-1500 dmg i think…now it will do 2500-3000?Power Ranger here i come….

If this is real, I guess this means good bye gw2. Beastmaster Ranger will be a joke. Perhabs anet wants all players to reroll thief and messmer, so that they have to balance only2 classes.

I still don’t rely on my pet too often, but that irks me too.

Xsorus.2507:

Anyone out there who thinks this is a good “patch” for rangers is out of his mind

Not only do they nerf the range on SB, which hurts a lot of ranger builds

They absolutely gut the damage of Pets, which hurts all rangers..and they don’t give you anything else in return, I’m sorry… a few trait changes for spirits which still blow is not equal trade to gutting almost all our builds.

you are a respectfull Ranger..but i think that this will do help in these dmg nerfs: Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to your pet, up from 1 second.
With a good crit build you will be able to stack a lot of might to pets imo…and will also increase their cond dmg

Dardamaniac.1295:

Calling lightning skill in spirit does like 1000-1500 dmg i think…now it will do 2500-3000?Power Ranger here i come….

Interesting maths.

Cufufalating.8479:

Dardamaniac.1295:

Calling lightning skill in spirit does like 1000-1500 dmg i think…now it will do 2500-3000?Power Ranger here i come….

Interesting maths.

hmm im not good in maths…but i geuss thats what they mean by 150% increase

Dardamaniac.1295:

Cufufalating.8479:

Dardamaniac.1295:

Calling lightning skill in spirit does like 1000-1500 dmg i think…now it will do 2500-3000?Power Ranger here i come….

Interesting maths.

hmm im not good in maths…but i geuss thats what they mean by 150% increase

It would be 1500-2250

150% of 1000-1500 would be 1500-2250, but still.

I’m just grumpy because we have, as usual, been nerfed while others get buffed.

The more I read that the more I wonder if it’s a hoax. Can anyone verify?

SafiMoyo.5130:

With that range… why would we use the SB over, say, the axe?

Well, look at it this way, we’ll finally stop spamming #1 for damage like they’ve wanted us to for so long now…

No changes to the wilderness survival line though? I could’ve sworn I read somewhere that every single trait line would have some changes.

i wouldnt call it a total nerf..IF these are the real patchnotes i think they are good again….Pets wont be so easy to put a lot of dmg..now you have to trait properly to pull out dmg from pets….with 2-3 traits you can do it easily imo…..lets see
we take these:
1.Stability Training:This trait now causes the pet to ignore the incoming crowd control skill as well as granting stability. This has a 10 second internal recharge.
2.Beastmasters Might: This trait now grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
3.Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to your pet, up from 1 second.
4.Fortifying Bond
5.Rampage as One

Some runes will also help and here you go a decent might stacking that not only boosting raw dmg,but also cond dmg

Wow if this is accurate we are totally screwed, we’ll get minced by everyone unless everyone is nerfed into the ground aswell only read the ranger nerfs so far, kitten pets will be totally useless by the looks of it.

Path of Scars pull…

:D

RyuDragnier.9476:

Expiatus.4210:

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

People weren’t taking LB because SB had the same range for more DPS and conditions. Now that’s been replaced with less range for more DPS and conditions.

Anyone who thinks a 15-20% increase in damage on SB 2-5 is a dps boost has never used the thing before.

as i said before you can now stack a lot of might to pets…i think is much better now,BM builds had low skill cap…everyone had a jaguar released and thought that was the king of the map….no ppl if you want Jaguar to do dmg,go specc for it

Seda Khold.5428:

Path of Scars pull…

:D

So they can kill you faster cause now all pets meerly tickle them…

Manekk.6981:

Seda Khold.5428:

Path of Scars pull…

:D

So they can kill you faster cause now all pets meerly tickle them…

Pets do a lot of dmg,before the dmg nerf was a AI that you cant fully control and does a lot of dmg..Learn to control it better and pets will provide more dmg after the nerf

Substance E.4852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Expiatus.4210:

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

People weren’t taking LB because SB had the same range for more DPS and conditions. Now that’s been replaced with less range for more DPS and conditions.

Anyone who thinks a 15-20% increase in damage on SB 2-5 is a dps boost has never used the thing before.

DPS = Damage per second

Conditions play into that, and #1 does all the DPSing, not the other 4.

Dardamaniac.1295:

Manekk.6981:

Seda Khold.5428:

Path of Scars pull…

:D

So they can kill you faster cause now all pets meerly tickle them…

Pets do a lot of dmg,before the dmg nerf was a AI that you cant fully control and does a lot of dmg..Learn to control it better and pets will provide more dmg after the nerf

Oh I just have to learn to control my pet? well cool then I feel better I was under this crazy assumption that I knew that already and that every useful pet we have will lose either it’s (possible) sustained damage or it’s burst entirely.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Substance E.4852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Expiatus.4210:

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

People weren’t taking LB because SB had the same range for more DPS and conditions. Now that’s been replaced with less range for more DPS and conditions.

Anyone who thinks a 15-20% increase in damage on SB 2-5 is a dps boost has never used the thing before.

DPS = Damage per second

Conditions play into that, and #1 does all the DPSing, not the other 4.

So then explain your logic that they reduced the damage but increased the dps because, according to the notes, they didn’t touch the damage or conditions on crossfire nor did they increase the duration of poison volley.

You have to be closer, so the arrows will be hitting the enemy at a slightly miniscule faster rater. Like I said, they increased the DPS. I never said how much though.

Substance E.4852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Substance E.4852:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Expiatus.4210:

Are these verified? Why decrease SB to 900? Call me suspicious but hey, “Trust but verify” you know.

People weren’t taking LB because SB had the same range for more DPS and conditions. Now that’s been replaced with less range for more DPS and conditions.

Anyone who thinks a 15-20% increase in damage on SB 2-5 is a dps boost has never used the thing before.

DPS = Damage per second

Conditions play into that, and #1 does all the DPSing, not the other 4.

So then explain your logic that they reduced the damage but increased the dps because, according to the notes, they didn’t touch the damage or conditions on crossfire nor did they increase the duration of poison volley.

Also let me inform you that you have 3 projectile finishers at Shortbow…Well i geuss that youve never fired above a fire field with dat…Its ok,you will do it now

Manekk.6981:

Dardamaniac.1295:

Manekk.6981:

Seda Khold.5428:

Path of Scars pull…

:D

So they can kill you faster cause now all pets meerly tickle them…

Pets do a lot of dmg,before the dmg nerf was a AI that you cant fully control and does a lot of dmg..Learn to control it better and pets will provide more dmg after the nerf

Oh I just have to learn to control my pet? well cool then I feel better I was under this crazy assumption that I knew that already and that every useful pet we have will lose either it’s (possible) sustained damage or it’s burst entirely.

take these:
1.Stability Training:This trait now causes the pet to ignore the incoming crowd control skill as well as granting stability. This has a 10 second internal recharge.
2.Beastmasters Might: This trait now grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
3.Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to your pet, up from 1 second.
4.Fortifying Bond
5.Rampage as One

Stack might to your pet,build for pets to do dmg,dont exept to be given to you easily…