Guild Wars 2

Source: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/preview-of-upcoming-balance-changes/

Thief:

Blinding Power: This skill no longer interrupts your own skills.
-Dev note: We feel that removing the skill-canceling nature of this skill will improve the overall value of the skill and provide better potential for both damage and support.

Dancing Dagger: The projectile speed from this skill has been increased by 33%.
- Dev note: This skill is intended to help thieves catch their enemies, which is pretty hard to do if the daggers are slow.

Needle Trap: The bleed duration of this skill has been increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Dev note: As a condition-based trap, we felt that the damage portion was underperforming by quite a bit and could use some help in that area.

Shadow Pursuit: The duration of might granted from this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Dev note: This trap is quite difficult to use and can be disorienting when activated. As such, we wanted to further reward thieves for using this skill.

Invigorating Precision: The health gain from this trait on a critical strike has been increased from 8% of damage dealt to 15%.
- Dev note: This trait was very hard pressed to return health of much value, so we increased the amount of health rewarded by a significant percentage.

Not bad if you ask me. They finally admitting how lame some of these skills are. Keep it coming ArenaNet.

I have been on a long hiatus, and I would have thought the Blinding Powder one would have been addressed by early on. Can’t tell if I am more excited for that or the dancing dagger buff.

Most excited about the dancing dagger change (buff-ish)

Edit: Don’t overlook the nerf to might(~14%) and sigil of battle(33%).

And still no-one will play with Traps , so sad that the devs do not understand the problem there…. (hint: let traps create a combofield ….. ).

The buff to Invigorating precision looks nice, however where / when would you use it ?
It’s useless in many worldboss fights b/c you cannot crit them .

It might have it’s place in certain situations where you would have to heal while dealing dmg, but i think it is still to low ( bufffood offers much stronger healing ).

At least no nerfs this time

Maugetarr.6823:

Edit: Don’t overlook the nerf to might(~14%) and sigil of battle(33%).

I don’t actually see that as a nerf — instead, it gives us more staying power in conjunction with the buff on Invigorating Prec (IP). Even without IP, the changes on Might affects those who like to stack boons and relies on them for their source of damage.

So in order for those profession to maintain the same level of damage, they would need to increase their base power instead of relying on Might. This means, they would have to sacrifice a bit of survivability which is good for the Thieves, IMO.

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

Warcry.1596:

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

ikr, I might even start using it. Although I think 20% would be the right amount considering the amount of risk taking 6pts into CS, but 15% is still way better than the horrible 8%.

still nothing for P/P

come on =(

P/P is already OP . Pls

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Maugetarr.6823:

Edit: Don’t overlook the nerf to might(~14%) and sigil of battle(33%).

I don’t actually see that as a nerf — instead, it gives us more staying power in conjunction with the buff on Invigorating Prec (IP). Even without IP, the changes on Might affects those who like to stack boons and relies on them for their source of damage.

So in order for those profession to maintain the same level of damage, they would need to increase their base power instead of relying on Might. This means, they would have to sacrifice a bit of survivability which is good for the Thieves, IMO.

Haha, yeah, I guess I didn’t phrase that correctly. I was excited for the nerf because we don’t rely on might stacking like the bruiser classes. We already give up (passive) survivability for damage, and now others will have to as well. Overall it’s something like a 43% nerf to the benefits of might stacking with sigil of battle.

Warcry.1596:

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

Yes, i love that stupid trait, though i still think the way to make it on par with the other two is to make it give you a passive bonus to precision in addition to the on crit heal.

Still can’t complain about this buff it is stronk, the trait will probably be useful in dungeons where executioner is not too noticeable like cleaving weak mobs that die fast anyway or the first two subject alpha encounters where he escapes at ~40% hp.
In situations like those having the heals to keep up your scholar rune might be better than executioner, maybe, possibly.

UPDATE WITH NO THIEF NERFS, CANTHA CONFIRMED!!!!11

glock.6590:

P/P is already OP . Pls

lolwut. trololol

Please show me your build. I too want to be an OP P/P thief.

As an IP user I approve of this message.

Invigorating precision buff is very nice. I can see it getting some play over executioner in some P/P or S/P builds.

Blinding powder buff is nice for securing stomps, but otherwise doesn’t change much.

Dancing dagger buff is warranted, but probably won’t do much given the underlying projectile issues. The thrown dagger still gets obstructed by nothing and will miss completely if your opponent strafes 2 pixels to the right.

Overall, thieves stand to gain from this simply because might stacking is being slightly nerfed, along with some d/d ele tweaks.

The blinding powder and dancing dagger fixes are definitely great; still unsure about the invigorating precision until I test it in battle.

Thief traps I think need more than just a buff though, a lot of them don’t feel like as though you’re “trapping” someone which is what you’d imagine a thief to be able to do.

Oh I forgot to add, the nerf to might I think will be an awesome change. It’ll give thieves a bit more staying power in pvp, especially against all these celestial elementalists and engineers who have awesome damage and can outlast our dps even on our full zerker glass builds. I have been finding (after almost a year away from the game and returning near Christmas) that thieves really are struggling to remain competitive in the current meta and fulfill that role of creating uneven numbers.

Surprisingly decent changes. Especially BP/DD, both of whom got rather unfairly hosed.

mango.9267:

Invigorating precision buff is very nice. I can see it getting some play over executioner in some P/P or S/P builds.

Blinding powder buff is nice for securing stomps, but otherwise doesn’t change much.

Dancing dagger buff is warranted, but probably won’t do much given the underlying projectile issues. The thrown dagger still gets obstructed by nothing and will miss completely if your opponent strafes 2 pixels to the right.

Overall, thieves stand to gain from this simply because might stacking is being slightly nerfed, along with some d/d ele tweaks.

I play S/D with 20066 a lot, and somehow I feel like that I am the one rely on might stacking, too.
So I don’t like the might nerf…. just a little bit.

This can’t be real.
2nd patch in a row with only buffs…
Perhaps, with the coming of HoT there has been some major organizational restructuring… firing/hiring employees type of deal.
Or… they realized that the thief forum hasn’t been receiving enough QQ’s lately and are attempting to promote QQ’ing on here…
Or… it will get reworked before release

foste.3098:

Warcry.1596:

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

Yes, i love that stupid trait, though i still think the way to make it on par with the other two is to make it give you a passive bonus to precision in addition to the on crit heal.

Still can’t complain about this buff it is stronk, the trait will probably be useful in dungeons where executioner is not too noticeable like cleaving weak mobs that die fast anyway or the first two subject alpha encounters where he escapes at ~40% hp.
In situations like those having the heals to keep up your scholar rune might be better than executioner, maybe, possibly.

UPDATE WITH NO THIEF NERFS, CANTHA CONFIRMED!!!!11

For max damage it won’t be better than executioner even if you can maintain +90% of your health 100% of the fight. 20% more damage 50% of the time is equivalent to 10% more damage 100% of the time. So with executioner you have the equivalent of + 10% damage for the whole fight + 10% damage while you have more than 90% health from the scholar runes.

But that’s assuming that you never get downed in the fight.

Zero Day.2594:

This can’t be real.
2nd patch in a row with only buffs…
Perhaps, with the coming of HoT there has been some major organizational restructuring… firing/hiring employees type of deal.
Or… they realized that the thief forum hasn’t been receiving enough QQ’s lately and are attempting to promote QQ’ing on here…
Or… it will get reworked before release

Typical Thief life cyle riding on the ArenaNet wheel to changes.

Sometimes we’re on top of the wheel, other times we’re crushed at the bottom while the driver engages the parking break.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Zero Day.2594:

This can’t be real.
2nd patch in a row with only buffs…
Perhaps, with the coming of HoT there has been some major organizational restructuring… firing/hiring employees type of deal.
Or… they realized that the thief forum hasn’t been receiving enough QQ’s lately and are attempting to promote QQ’ing on here…
Or… it will get reworked before release

Typical Thief life cyle riding on the ArenaNet wheel to changes.

Sometimes we’re on top of the wheel, other times we’re crushed at the bottom while the driver engages the parking break.

o.O there’s a cycle? I thought it was just getting crushed at the bottom.

BlueDragon.7054:

foste.3098:

Warcry.1596:

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

Yes, i love that stupid trait, though i still think the way to make it on par with the other two is to make it give you a passive bonus to precision in addition to the on crit heal.

Still can’t complain about this buff it is stronk, the trait will probably be useful in dungeons where executioner is not too noticeable like cleaving weak mobs that die fast anyway or the first two subject alpha encounters where he escapes at ~40% hp.
In situations like those having the heals to keep up your scholar rune might be better than executioner, maybe, possibly.

UPDATE WITH NO THIEF NERFS, CANTHA CONFIRMED!!!!11

For max damage it won’t be better than executioner even if you can maintain +90% of your health 100% of the fight. 20% more damage 50% of the time is equivalent to 10% more damage 100% of the time. So with executioner you have the equivalent of + 10% damage for the whole fight + 10% damage while you have more than 90% health from the scholar runes.

But that’s assuming that you never get downed in the fight.

You can’t really think about it that way because the trait does nothing for the most part of the fight.

What Executioner gives you is nothing until you manage to get your target down to 50%. You either get 0% damage boost or 20% damage boost. That’s not equivalent to 10% damage boost.

The only time you would benefit from Executioner is during a boss fight where your team mates bring down the boss below 50% and only you would begin to shine — but before that, you’re a liability.

Zero Day.2594:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Zero Day.2594:

This can’t be real.
2nd patch in a row with only buffs…
Perhaps, with the coming of HoT there has been some major organizational restructuring… firing/hiring employees type of deal.
Or… they realized that the thief forum hasn’t been receiving enough QQ’s lately and are attempting to promote QQ’ing on here…
Or… it will get reworked before release

Typical Thief life cyle riding on the ArenaNet wheel to changes.

Sometimes we’re on top of the wheel, other times we’re crushed at the bottom while the driver engages the parking break.

o.O there’s a cycle? I thought it was just getting crushed at the bottom.

I didn’t believe it either…until today.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Zero Day.2594:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Zero Day.2594:

This can’t be real.
2nd patch in a row with only buffs…
Perhaps, with the coming of HoT there has been some major organizational restructuring… firing/hiring employees type of deal.
Or… they realized that the thief forum hasn’t been receiving enough QQ’s lately and are attempting to promote QQ’ing on here…
Or… it will get reworked before release

Typical Thief life cyle riding on the ArenaNet wheel to changes.

Sometimes we’re on top of the wheel, other times we’re crushed at the bottom while the driver engages the parking break.

o.O there’s a cycle? I thought it was just getting crushed at the bottom.

I didn’t believe it either…until today.

It’s more of an epoch/era thing

i love how they nerf might across the board just like they did with crit did they forget that thief gets the shaft more than anyone else on these things we rely on compounding these stats more than anyone else.

for a class that has to put literally everything he has into dmg and ACTUALLY position its self while trying to somehow get into the CONSTANT aoe stream that is this game all while trying to get behind someone with kitten like asuras in the game were u literally cannot even tell what is front from back.. only to get a backstab negated by armor and protection for like 2k -

plz plz plz just give some love back to single target burst

i could name you 10 diffeerent aoe spells in this game that make backstab look laughable after all its effort

plz dont cave in to the public’s opinion on thief if balanced right you should have a majority of bads complaining because thief will always be the most hated class in any game

o and this is cruuk btw the real one not the new fake imposter pretending to be me

official.7362:

i love how they nerf might across the board just like they did with crit did they forget that thief gets the shaft more than anyone else on these things we rely on compounding these stats more than anyone else.

for a class that has to put literally everything he has into dmg and ACTUALLY position its self while trying to somehow get into the CONSTANT aoe stream that is this game all while trying to get behind someone with kitten like asuras in the game were u literally cannot even tell what is front from back.. only to get a backstab negated by armor and protection for like 2k -

plz plz plz just give some love back to single target burst

i could name you 10 diffeerent aoe spells in this game that make backstab look laughable after all its effort

plz dont cave in to the public’s opinion on thief if balanced right you should have a majority of bads complaining because thief will always be the most hated class in any game

o and this is cruuk btw the real one not the new fake imposter pretending to be me

AoE skills are not the problem — getting CC’d inside an AoE is.

I don’t understand your problem with back stabbing inside AoE when you can do a backstab and get out of AoE even before it ticks. :/

Sir Vincent III.1286:

BlueDragon.7054:

foste.3098:

Warcry.1596:

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

Yes, i love that stupid trait, though i still think the way to make it on par with the other two is to make it give you a passive bonus to precision in addition to the on crit heal.

Still can’t complain about this buff it is stronk, the trait will probably be useful in dungeons where executioner is not too noticeable like cleaving weak mobs that die fast anyway or the first two subject alpha encounters where he escapes at ~40% hp.
In situations like those having the heals to keep up your scholar rune might be better than executioner, maybe, possibly.

UPDATE WITH NO THIEF NERFS, CANTHA CONFIRMED!!!!11

For max damage it won’t be better than executioner even if you can maintain +90% of your health 100% of the fight. 20% more damage 50% of the time is equivalent to 10% more damage 100% of the time. So with executioner you have the equivalent of + 10% damage for the whole fight + 10% damage while you have more than 90% health from the scholar runes.

But that’s assuming that you never get downed in the fight.

You can’t really think about it that way because the trait does nothing for the most part of the fight.

What Executioner gives you is nothing until you manage to get your target down to 50%. You either get 0% damage boost or 20% damage boost. That’s not equivalent to 10% damage boost.

The only time you would benefit from Executioner is during a boss fight where your team mates bring down the boss below 50% and only you would begin to shine — but before that, you’re a liability.

In general the dps is equivalent. For example:

For 10 seconds and 1000 dps (base)

With +10% damage 100% of the time,

1000 dps *1.10 = 1100 dps

1100* 10s = 11000 damage in 10 seconds

For the first 5 seconds with no damage boost

1000 dps * 5s = 5000 damage

The last 5 seconds with +20% damage

1000 dps *1.20 = 1200
1200dps *5s = 6000 damage

Damage in 10 seconds = 5000 + 6000 = 11000

Of course that’s considering the time it takes you to damage the boss from 100 to 50 and 50 to 0 is the same, but still it’s a good aproximation. Although there are many factors to consider like the might stacks, downed people, etc.

i dont have a problem with the getting in and out i have a problem with how much of a reward vs risk it is vs others who can facetank and do if not more dmg in aoe for that matter thats my point im making

official.7362:

i dont have a problem with the getting in and out i have a problem with how much of a reward vs risk it is vs others who can facetank and do if not more dmg in aoe for that matter thats my point im making

The way I see it — the nerf on Might gimps their AoE damage which IMO is good for the Thief.

BlueDragon.7054:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

BlueDragon.7054:

foste.3098:

Warcry.1596:

Invig Precision, my favorite trait, is receiving a nice buff

Yes, i love that stupid trait, though i still think the way to make it on par with the other two is to make it give you a passive bonus to precision in addition to the on crit heal.

Still can’t complain about this buff it is stronk, the trait will probably be useful in dungeons where executioner is not too noticeable like cleaving weak mobs that die fast anyway or the first two subject alpha encounters where he escapes at ~40% hp.
In situations like those having the heals to keep up your scholar rune might be better than executioner, maybe, possibly.

UPDATE WITH NO THIEF NERFS, CANTHA CONFIRMED!!!!11

For max damage it won’t be better than executioner even if you can maintain +90% of your health 100% of the fight. 20% more damage 50% of the time is equivalent to 10% more damage 100% of the time. So with executioner you have the equivalent of + 10% damage for the whole fight + 10% damage while you have more than 90% health from the scholar runes.

But that’s assuming that you never get downed in the fight.

You can’t really think about it that way because the trait does nothing for the most part of the fight.

What Executioner gives you is nothing until you manage to get your target down to 50%. You either get 0% damage boost or 20% damage boost. That’s not equivalent to 10% damage boost.

The only time you would benefit from Executioner is during a boss fight where your team mates bring down the boss below 50% and only you would begin to shine — but before that, you’re a liability.

In general the dps is equivalent. For example:

For 10 seconds and 1000 dps (base)

With +10% damage 100% of the time,

1000 dps *1.10 = 1100 dps

1100* 10s = 11000 damage in 10 seconds

For the first 5 seconds with no damage boost

1000 dps * 5s = 5000 damage

The last 5 seconds with +20% damage

1000 dps *1.20 = 1200
1200dps *5s = 6000 damage

Damage in 10 seconds = 5000 + 6000 = 11000

Of course that’s considering the time it takes you to damage the boss from 100 to 50 and 50 to 0 is the same, but still it’s a good aproximation. Although there are many factors to consider like the might stacks, downed people, etc.

I understand fully what you’re saying, however, during the fight where your target is above 50%, you lose out on the damage increase when your triggered effects procs or you critical hit.

Buffs for us? Maybe it’s just some typo.

hummmm… nop still not coming back to this game.
A-net try harder!

:o Wow. IP might actually be viable now.

Invigorating Precision buff – pve tank zerk thief confirmed According to my highest 30k backstab a 4500 heal is pretty sexy.

The IP changes will be VERY welcome on my p/p thief. It will also reward high crit chance builds. With Ricochet and the attacks from an unload this can generate a lot of health for the dual pistol user. S/d builds that go the high crit route can be more interesting as well when selecting this trait.

The BP changes might make this skill more useful to the p/p thief as well. I am not yet certain as to exactly how this will play out but does this mean it possible to do a BP as ones unload is channeling?

The changes to crippling dagger are welcome.One reason I rarely used it is it was so easily avoided and there better ways to catch someone fleeing that were harder to avoid. It might see more play.

Trap changes are welcome but will be niche kitten few play traps. I did use trapper runes for a while on a p/d thief and this will help those types of players.

Overall I am quite happy with the proposed changes. Like others, I feel the changes to might will help the thief in the long run.

Still no change to Death blossom which is quite disappointing, so I guess they think DD is enough of a buff to the x/D sets. The nerf to might is a change I’m glad about though, I also hope they can fix the pathing when it comes to shadow stepping – because atm it usually doesn’t even port you to your target..

Xyonon.3987:

Invigorating Precision buff – pve tank zerk thief confirmed According to my highest 30k backstab a 4500 heal is pretty sexy.

What if we hit the tiny animals in wvw? XDlol we’ll get insta heal!!!

Nephrite.6954:

Xyonon.3987:

Invigorating Precision buff – pve tank zerk thief confirmed According to my highest 30k backstab a 4500 heal is pretty sexy.

What if we hit the tiny animals in wvw? XDlol we’ll get insta heal!!!

this works? o.O €dit: testet – sadly no xD

NO thief NERFS and an EXPANSION. Re-downloading the game as we speak!!!!

Well, my build will be nerfed as I rely on might stacks.. thanks anet!

Jana.6831:

Well, my build will be nerfed as I rely on might stacks.. thanks anet!

Dude it’s still viable if you stack enough. It’s just overpowered when you stack too much and others don’t get to. Like thief compared to engi for example. Dude I get close to 20stakcs easily on my engi… Like permanent might. Plus it buffs condi dmg n power base. Unless if you’re running a p/x or u bleed with d/d 3 you won’t have any problem.

Nephrite.6954:

Xyonon.3987:

Invigorating Precision buff – pve tank zerk thief confirmed According to my highest 30k backstab a 4500 heal is pretty sexy.

What if we hit the tiny animals in wvw? XDlol we’ll get insta heal!!!

Litany of Wrath on Guardians doesn’t heal off ambients, pretty sure Invigorating Precision doesn’t either.

This may be the first time I will use IP ever since it was added.

Shadows Rejuvenation, Invigorative Precision and Signet of malice could become the new D/D 0/6/6/2/0 build.

EDIT: I wouldn’t get happy guys.
usually those patch note previews don’t list nerfs.
We will need to wait for the full patch notes.

Something I would like to see is a rework of the skill you obtain from stealing from an engineer. When you steal from every other class you get something that can effectively disable or turn the fight in your favour if used properly.. Maybe it’s just me, but the engineers stolen item I feel doesn’t do more than waste a second of valuable dps getting rid of it. xD

Nephrite.6954:

Jana.6831:

Well, my build will be nerfed as I rely on might stacks.. thanks anet!

Dude it’s still viable if you stack enough. It’s just overpowered when you stack too much and others don’t get to. Like thief compared to engi for example. Dude I get close to 20stakcs easily on my engi… Like permanent might. Plus it buffs condi dmg n power base. Unless if you’re running a p/x or u bleed with d/d 3 you won’t have any problem.

Yeah, solo roamer – I can’t really stack that much of might, nice that you can as an engi.
Oh, and I’m a she, dude.

Jana.6831:

Nephrite.6954:

Jana.6831:

Well, my build will be nerfed as I rely on might stacks.. thanks anet!

Dude it’s still viable if you stack enough. It’s just overpowered when you stack too much and others don’t get to. Like thief compared to engi for example. Dude I get close to 20stakcs easily on my engi… Like permanent might. Plus it buffs condi dmg n power base. Unless if you’re running a p/x or u bleed with d/d 3 you won’t have any problem.

Yeah, solo roamer – I can’t really stack that much of might, nice that you can as an engi.
Oh, and I’m a she, dude.

Hard to tell by the name.
You could also be a weird dude that likes girl names.

Anet should keep/record data on which skills are used and which are not… 3/5 of the changes are interesting, and then the two trap ones are kind like “meh, still not going to use them. Thanks for trying”.

Zero Day.2594:

Hard to tell by the name.
You could also be a weird dude that likes girl names.

The first guild I was in got it after 2 months – they were devastated (no kidding) and disbanded soon after.

Zero Day.2594:

Anet should keep/record data on which skills are used and which are not… 3/5 of the changes are interesting, and then the two trap ones are kind like “meh, still not going to use them. Thanks for trying”.

I actually don’t think anet really cares or they come from an entirely different point of view – as seen with the white sword changes in wvw – to them solo wvw roamers are non existent.

Feral.3609:

Something I would like to see is a rework of the skill you obtain from stealing from an engineer. When you steal from every other class you get something that can effectively disable or turn the fight in your favour if used properly.. Maybe it’s just me, but the engineers stolen item I feel doesn’t do more than waste a second of valuable dps getting rid of it. xD

Well, usually in pvp in teamfight I use an immob (bow/Sword or maybe panic strike if you run D/P), throw the Throw Gunk switch to shortbow and fire clusterbombs at the area. Doing that you and you allies gain chaosarmor, enemy damage and a lot of condition with the gunk itself and the condition from the chaos armor when everything goes perfect, somestimes the ingi can escape and stops to fire into chaos armor, sometimes an allie has good reactions on what I´m saying or doing and add another immob. A lot of ingis have trouble with that combi because of the lack of condition removal. In a 1vs1 its much more difficult, because the ingi has his focus on you, less conditions from chaos armor, and less CC. Do you best with it, having him to stay in the gunk is nice, but difficult to do.

So, to the might stacks, the more might you stack and the more ways you use it (like ingi and ele for diect and condition damage) this patch will more hurt you. For exampe,I play S/D without Power of Inertia and Rune of Strength, I don´t collect that much might, so it will not hurt me that much. The traditional S/D stacks more might. Let us say about 5-8, of course the lack of 35 power will hurt here, but not that much like with a D/D cele. The 20 stacks from him will lose 100 power and 100 condition damage AND sigill of Battle giving less might will make it more difficult for them to be efficient.
With time and trying out, we will know how much that nerfs will bring balance.

@Jana How much might you stack and how you play is important here. When we speak about 10-20 might and you rely on condition AND raw damage, then yes, its a stronger nerf to you than me.

What I really hate right now is the whining from the eles and people saying that nothing will change, everythingis terrible and so on…
If I remember correctly a lot of people said that celestial would be still bad and no one is using it (and I speak obout the first feature patch with rune of thrength etc) Some month later everyone cried about celestial ^^
And if I raed comments in the ele forum about thief OP, I can´t take that person serious… We will se what time brings us.
I`m happy about finally a lot of buffs which could change something and the nerf bait is not used yet (be aware it still can come down to our heads)

I want to finish that post so everything left to say is that I want to see Incendiary powder being nerfed.
Finished ^^

Jana.6831:

Zero Day.2594:

Hard to tell by the name.
You could also be a weird dude that likes girl names.

The first guild I was in got it after 2 months – they were devastated (no kidding) and disbanded soon after.

I am tempted to stop posting on these forums now… It’s not you, it’s me.

Jana.6831:

Zero Day.2594:

Anet should keep/record data on which skills are used and which are not… 3/5 of the changes are interesting, and then the two trap ones are kind like “meh, still not going to use them. Thanks for trying”.

I actually don’t think anet really cares or they come from an entirely different point of view – as seen with the white sword changes in wvw – to them solo wvw roamers are non existent.

Well, it’s not so much to benefit a specific play style in this case.
If you record which skills/traits are used by which class on which map/map-group (PvE, PvP, WvW), you can infer builds/meta’s by looking at the top-used. From there you may be able to see how/why each skill is used in relation to other top skill/traits from other classes. On the opposite side of the spectrum will be skills that are used a lot less, or complete not used at all. You can then compare top used skills with less/not used skills and see how they can be changed or replaced to fit in with the top skills.
Not to say this is how you balance, but this kind of data can help.

:P It’s kind of like if grocery stores collected what items each person bought (over the span of say a few years), they would be able to infer things like when you had guests over, when you had a birthday/some other event, diets, some physical characteristics (are you a fat-ass?), health concerns, and so on… not sure why or for what they would need that kind of information but hey it’s possible to do so from your grocery receipts.

Zero Day.2594:

Anet should keep/record data on which skills are used and which are not… 3/5 of the changes are interesting, and then the two trap ones are kind like “meh, still not going to use them. Thanks for trying”.

From where do you think that the might stacking meta came from?

Anet has an OBLIGATION of tweaking the less used skills until they become viable.