Guild Wars 2

DutchRiders.2871:

Druid and mesmer are OP in raids and will remains strong. Their support is unrivaled and its about time not every group always takes 1 rev 1 mesmer 2 PS 2 druids. Support specs should be more interchangeable just like the current dps specs .

I disagree with the way anet goes about it, but the personal dps/healing and support a druid brings is absoluty ridiculous.

I agree with you. The point everyone is making is that these changes make this problem worse, not better. Everyone will still bring two druids and two ps. However, they will now also bring two mesmers. Revenants disappear entirely, and the classes you list as being a problem (that I agree with!) are more emphasized than ever.

Nike.2631:

Substance E.4852:

So we nerf the crap out of heals? That’s supposed to make things better?

This game has at least 4 -very- powerful healers. That people THINK druid is the only one is a pretty definite sign the class needs to be beaten about the head and shoulders with the nerf bat until you’re look for “a healer” from any of the 4-5 strong choices and not OMGBBQNEEDDRUID.

And yet, the reason people bring druids (GotL, GoE and spirits) aren’t being touched. This nerf is addressing gearing and hybrid druids, not the desirability of druids in raids. Ele and Rev healers will remain curiosities that no one cares about when optimizing comps, as evidenced by the fact that they already heal for more than druids do (by a wide margin, in fact).

Lucius.2140:

If you are nerfing inspiration signet, it could do more instead of a fixed duration to reduce the % of the duration shared, like 100% to 75%. This way the skill factor (as small or huge as it can be depending of the person perspective) of knowing when to share and when not, will still be there.

This is an excellent concept. The numbers suggest that SoI could be nerfed to share around 60% duration without forcing groups into a mirror comp, and arguably even 40-50% would still be alright (though some quickness downtime would be observed). The margin for error would be a lot lower, and bad chronomancers of today would be utterly intolerable chronomancers with this change. But it would work.

It doesn’t fix Revenants, but it at least avoids breaking everything else.

Nerfing Naturalistic Resonance is defensible. Revenants are too important right now due to their interaction with chronos. While I don’t like the idea of being forced to stat swap my chronomancer set from Berserker to Commanders, I think it’s defensible.

However, normalizing boon duration shared from Signet of Inspiration is a massive, massive problem. A huge part of the skill floor on chronomancers is ensuring that you’re optimizing your boon duration as you apply your boons to yourself (through properly timed weapon swaps procing Sigil of Concentration). Once this is done properly, Signet of Inspiration shares that benefit with the rest of your group. If Signet of Inspiration has a normalized boon duration on share, then it’s actually somewhat pointless to maintain a proper weapon swap rotation.

To make matters worse, this actually kills several Chronomancer builds. For example, Gravity Well is currently viable (and indeed, optimal for several fights!), since it is possible for a full-Berserker chronomancer with perfect weapon swapping, boon food and a Revenant to maintain 100% quickness uptime solely generating with Well of Action, Chronomancer Runes and Tides of Time, and solely sharing via Signet of Inspiration. That build instantly dies if you normalize the boon duration on SoI.

Basically, I don’t see why you would normalize SoI. It kills build diversity. It further inhibits raid composition diversity (by pushing groups toward multiple chronomancers). It significantly drops the skill floor on chronomancer by removing nearly all of the reward for a perfect rotation. It even nerfs the impact of gearing choices, since commanders gear and/or platinum doubloons will have no impact on SoI-shared boons.

In general, this is the wrong duration for PvE balance in this game. The skill floor and build diversity of chronomancer is something that other classes should aspire to. More importantly though, this change takes the biggest problem in the current PvE game and makes it even worse: composition diversity. Right now, 4/4/2 dominantes (two druids, two berserkers, four dps, one revenant, one chronomancer). That’s a 10 man raid group where only 4 slots have any choice about what they’re doing. Technically, mirror-comp (which is what everyone will run if these changes go live) still only has 4 slots that are fungible, but it removes the ability to bring a Revenant at all, which lowers class diversity considerably.

The balance team should be focusing on giving raid teams meaningful choices in their composition, either by adjusting the potency of buffs or by improving the strength of the alternatives. At best, these changes don’t move the needle; but more likely, these changes take a bad problem and make it worse.