Guild Wars 2

By my calculations, Unrelenting Assault is receiving a nerf of around 20% damage, going from a co-efficient of around 5 to one of around 3.9 or 4.

Essentially while we’re getting individual hits buffed by 10%, we’re still losing 2 hits total, so we actually lose quite a lot of damage on it. This may be a little much. The total reduction to should be a little closer to a 10% total damage nerf. This would mean we could go down to kittens, but we’d see an individual hit boost of around 25%, resulting in a little under 4.5 on the modifier. That means that the skill is far more rewarding to use correctly, instead of just mashing it, as less hits mean that it easier to dodge, block, evade and counter, especially when we already see most people dodging the vast majority of hits.

Now, this is also taking into consideration that we’re already losing 2 stacks of might, alongside the loss of a bit over .5s evade time, going from a 2s Evade to a 1.5s evade, assuming they reduce the total cast, not to mention less synergy with skills like Enchanted Daggers. Reducing these is fine, but not if the damage is going to take a huge hit as well.

They like seriously never really think about the changes they make. All this mindless nerfs and buffs to random kitten remind me so much of Destiny, the pvp here is getting also as bad.

Staff starts to look stronger and stronger opposed to sword as dps weapon. Just sayin

Yeah, it is curious that they’re trying to make sword more of a ‘single out targets’ weapon, and nerfing the signature for singling out targets. Buffing Precision Strike – if you can get multiple strikes on a single target – helps, but when the point is to make sword less AA-oriented, nerfing the damage on UA more than the AA damage seems like a counterintuitive choice.

Now that i look at my tooltip values between new sword and staff in wvw..i just lol.

794, 833, 937+281 sword – 2,2sec to complete chain. Total 2845 (3164 atm)
744, 859, 1,144 staff – also 2,2 sec to complete chain. Total 2747

Staff auto damage lower by about 3,5% only. Legit? Legit.

UA – 4097 after the patch. Atm 5026. In both cases it still worthless in teamfights, and in 1v1 situation it just got worse.
Surge of the Mists – 4383

In the end we are still better by spamming sword and staff auto with quickness than use UA. Precision strike assuming it even land and that no pet/something else is around it will be 3012, but im sure they nerf it into oblivion as well cus 4,5sec chill on 4cd is just broken

OP, I think in that case, UA would need to cleave with each hit within a given radius of the current target. Losing 2 hits means that even 1 jump away from the original target makes it a sizable damage reduction (including 2 less stacks of might overall).

Also, this is some weird math so please correct me if I’m wrong:

7 hits = original total damage (base damage with power modifier)
7 hits – 2 hits = 5 (the new hits without the 10% increase in damage)
5 / 2 = .4 (comparing the new version to the original version, the original has 40% more hits)

So that means:

5 * 1.4 = 7 (this would be the increase needed to reach the original total damage with base damage and power modifier)

For UA to regain it’s full base damage + power modifier (not including the might bonuses here), wouldn’t that mean each individual hit would need a multiplicative increase of 40% to both base damage and power modifier?

Also, with a .5 decrease in evasion, that’s a 25% reduction in evasion on top of the 2 less stacks of might so there’s that too. I honestly think adding a 240 radius cleave (you won’t gain might with each target hit in a cleave, but rather, the first target hit, so the might will still be 5 stacks at the end assuming all attacks hit)would compensate even with the supposed 10% damage increase.

Your maths look correct to me. My mental maths went down a different path but ended up at the same answer: it’d need to be a 40% damage buff per hit to make up for the two lost hits.

Part of the logic, though, might be that if the skill lasts for a shorter time, you make up for it by resuming other attacks faster (compressing the full damage into 1.5 seconds makes for a faster spike). However, I don’t think it makes up for it enough – at a rough estimate you’d need a 20% damage buff per strike for that to work.

sword just does way too much damage for it’s survivability offered by UA……rev is the only class who can run berserker amulet or viper amulet and not getting completely instagibbed and being just as hard to kill as other classes..so losing damage instead of some part of evade frame on sword 3 is already a better change then i expected.

lighter.2708:

sword just does way too much damage for it’s survivability offered by UA……rev is the only class who can run berserker amulet or viper amulet and not getting completely instagibbed and being just as hard to kill as other classes..so losing damage instead of some part of evade frame on sword 3 is already a better change then i expected.

Really? Because I run zerk on necro, teef, mesmer, and DH in pvp and survive just fine. Your statement begs the question, do you play rev?

borrok.9267:

lighter.2708:

sword just does way too much damage for it’s survivability offered by UA……rev is the only class who can run berserker amulet or viper amulet and not getting completely instagibbed and being just as hard to kill as other classes..so losing damage instead of some part of evade frame on sword 3 is already a better change then i expected.

Really? Because I run zerk on necro, teef, mesmer, and DH in pvp and survive just fine. Your statement begs the question, do you play rev?

Oh? and? i run naked warrior and win random matches and soloqs, naked warrior totally viable and op man.

lighter.2708:

borrok.9267:

lighter.2708:

sword just does way too much damage for it’s survivability offered by UA……rev is the only class who can run berserker amulet or viper amulet and not getting completely instagibbed and being just as hard to kill as other classes..so losing damage instead of some part of evade frame on sword 3 is already a better change then i expected.

Really? Because I run zerk on necro, teef, mesmer, and DH in pvp and survive just fine. Your statement begs the question, do you play rev?

Oh? and? i run naked warrior and win random matches and soloqs, naked warrior totally viable and op man.

Blatantly obvious that you don’t know what you are talking about now. L2P for you.

Precision strike is being buffed to stupid OP levels. Would be too OP to not nerf 3 with 2’s insane single target damage/chill. Precision strike has 1.0 coefficient per projectile x 3 with chill and 600 range on a 4s cooldown with .5s cast time. You know what else has a 3.0 coefficient? Gravedigger, except that skill is melee, doesn’t chill, has a 1.25s cast time, and has twice the cooldown above 50% health or if it misses. Hundred blades has an 8s cd too, but only has a 5.31 coefficient, and has a longass 3.5s channel. Of course those other skills CAN hit more than one target, which is sort of what a.net was going for, sword being the Shiro/assassin weapon to wreck that single target’s day.

Xhyros.1340:

Precision strike is being buffed to stupid OP levels. Would be too OP to not nerf 3 with 2’s insane single target damage/chill. Precision strike has 1.0 coefficient per projectile x 3 with chill and 600 range on a 4s cooldown with .5s cast time. You know what else has a 3.0 coefficient? Gravedigger, except that skill is melee, doesn’t chill, has a 1.25s cast time, and has twice the cooldown above 50% health or if it misses. Hundred blades has an 8s cd too, but only has a 5.31 coefficient, and has a longass 3.5s channel. Of course those other skills CAN hit more than one target, which is sort of what a.net was going for, sword being the Shiro/assassin weapon to wreck that single target’s day.

Considering you can dodge through s3 nearly entirely, it chooses the targets for you, is junk in team fights. Gravedigger hits everything around you, heals when traited, spammable, and reliable. S3 doesn’t single targets out, you have to be a distance away from other targets to have it focus, and if the target is MM or ranger, GG the skill is purely defensive now. Play the class.

- PS never makes contact anyway, wasted skill. No one uses it because it misses 9 out of 10.

Unless they change the way the projectiles work, you won’t be hitting anything or anyone with all 3 unless you’re standing inside of their hitbox. Good luck.

Prothescar.7842:

Unless they change the way the projectiles work, you won’t be hitting anything or anyone with all 3 unless you’re standing inside of their hitbox. Good luck.

Yeah, it’s essentially now become a point blank weapon, but believe it or not it can still work for you.

Phase traversal > precision strike (dmg + chill) > go to town with sword AA or UA instead if that’s your thing :-)

I know I’ll certainly be abusing the hell out of the above.

Hexalot.8194:

Prothescar.7842:

Unless they change the way the projectiles work, you won’t be hitting anything or anyone with all 3 unless you’re standing inside of their hitbox. Good luck.

Yeah, it’s essentially now become a point blank weapon, but believe it or not it can still work for you.

Phase traversal > precision strike (dmg + chill) > go to town with sword AA or UA instead if that’s your thing :-)

I know I’ll certainly be abusing the hell out of the above.

Explain me whats the point of going blank point with ranged attack. It doesnt make sense, does it? Instead of reworking it to be a melee attack they will keep it in current trash state. So kitten lazy.

Prothescar.7842:

Unless they change the way the projectiles work, you won’t be hitting anything or anyone with all 3 unless you’re standing inside of their hitbox. Good luck.

Karl said it would fire all 3 projectiles at the same target if there is only one in the area.

Burtnik.5218:

Hexalot.8194:

Prothescar.7842:

Unless they change the way the projectiles work, you won’t be hitting anything or anyone with all 3 unless you’re standing inside of their hitbox. Good luck.

Yeah, it’s essentially now become a point blank weapon, but believe it or not it can still work for you.

Phase traversal > precision strike (dmg + chill) > go to town with sword AA or UA instead if that’s your thing :-)

I know I’ll certainly be abusing the hell out of the above.

Explain me whats the point of going blank point with ranged attack. It doesnt make sense, does it? Instead of reworking it to be a melee attack they will keep it in current trash state. So kitten lazy.

Just about any ranged attack with slow projectiles necessitates using it at close range or people will strafe/dodge it all day. Ask just about any Guard out there how he ever manages to hit anyone with scepter AA at anything other than close range. I didn’t say it was perfect. I just said you can make it work.

Sigmoid.7082:

Prothescar.7842:

Unless they change the way the projectiles work, you won’t be hitting anything or anyone with all 3 unless you’re standing inside of their hitbox. Good luck.

Karl said it would fire all 3 projectiles at the same target if there is only one in the area.

That’s fine, but if they don’t land what’s the point? Anyone strafing will avoid them completely.

Keep in mind the nerfs aren’t in a vacuum and survivability is going down for bunkers across the board with many amulets like soldier’s getting removed (but replaced with better ones like Paladin’s) but especially the toning down of passives and scaling.

I’m just saying wait for the preseason, get out there in the field, and judge if it’s a net nerf, buff, or feels technically similar for ourselves. Facet of Light though was nerfed too hard since self healing is already situational and weak. We should adapt to the changes and stuff will be rebalanced when the actual season starts anyway.

Unfortunately I’ve been here for a long while and if we get the short end of the stick, we’re likely to stay that way for a long time. The projectile from Sword 2 is just bad and increasing the number will help with landing a few, but overall it’ll be a poor ranged skill with a very recognizable animation.