Dev Updates Today!

No, you spam local because you're an inconsiderate *****. People who actually want to trade open up the trade channel and will look for things there. I've never had any trouble trading using the trade channel only. Spamming local just irritate everyone. Also, do you really think that if you spam "WTS SNOO-SNOO" 5x in a row that makes it any more likely for people to buy your things than if you just put it up once?

Ok i read thru the dev reportGaile did on wiki and i seen something i think totally blows. and i quote "We intend for Paragons to have a supplemental defensive role, not a dominant one, and to encourage active play.......
We improved some underpowered skills to increase their likelihood of being equipped but have generally kept changes small so as to not upset the current play style of the Monk

we like the current balance of the Elementalist and are happy to see them in all styles of play and game types


in each case they r basically telling us how they want us to play our toons and don't care if u want a Pwning Paragon or not they want it as support toon.

way they r going they need to install a section in guild wars store where u can go and sell ur game back to them cause they obviously don't want you playing it.

it is like i was telling my wife they don't make money on you playing only on new game purchases. so once u spent ur money they done making you happy and could careless wether u keep playing or not. the way these nerfs r going by the time GW EN comes out they will have npc that u have to use to hold ur hand so you play the game correctly.

Why is Anet giving Elementalists energy return with glowing gaze and mind blast ? They already have GLE which gives them energy reduction on spells.
Ah and its not the fact that Searing Flames is too powerful its the fact that it is way too spammable. Other than that it is a pretty good update i think.

Ok can we now move on to GW:EN and future details on GW2 ?

Wow recall got raped.

Some interesting stuff in here, appreciate the fact that we are getting skill balance explanations. I like the spawning power buff for Rits, and I like the fact that they are trying to promote smiting monks.

However.

My mesmer is my first, main, title-hunter character. So I am really really hoping this isn't the big mesmer buff we were all waiting for. Sure I like the changes to clumsiness, ether feast, conjure phantasm. The fast casting signets seems only logical since with each chapter we've had more signets added to the mesmer line. Interupting chants is a purely pvp exercise, so I really don't care about that. But I still don't see my mesmer being taken in any high end team. Let's hope mesmers get an uber-overpowered sunspear skill to make them desirable then...

My biggest problem is with the continuing SR debacle. Now, I'm 100% sure the timer was referred to as an 'inelegant' solution by an ANet employee, so I don't see what has changed. I'm not complaining I don't have energy as a necro, but I HATE the way this has been implemented. It's terrible, and for a game supposedly based on skill, it makes play style haphazard. Until some sort of bar is put ingame that shows exactly when you can gain energy (which I am in no way advocating), SR remains broken. We can physically see how fast our skills are recharging, so if they REALLY want to stick with this silly timer, add a bar that displays it.

Looking forward to the full update though, I like that ANet are always trying to improve the game.

I officially hate this update because it did nothing to buff hydromancy damage. I don't want to snare only.

just...wtfomfg why?!

First of all I would like to thank Anet for taking the time to look at the mesmer profession, and I know from a recent Gaile Char they are looking at constructive feedback for the changes. So I'll do my best

Arcane Conundrum: now affects adjacent foes.

At first glance this looks to be a great buff. However. Adjacent range is too close for a lot of PvE mobs, especially in hard mode. Also Slowing down the cast rate does not, in reality achieve much. The affected mob still has to be interupted. In my view an AC mesmer will not deplace a BHA ranger for mob shut down

Clumsiness: reduced recharge time to 4 seconds.

This is a nice change It makes it spammable damage and interupt all in one. I'm not sure about the 10 energy cost tho, as cast 4 times against a mob will all but drain the energy bar of a normal mesmer, thus limiting it's usefulness

Conjure Nightmare: increased duration to 2..17 seconds.
Conjure Phantasm: increased duration to 2..17 seconds.

Degen is great, however it's maxed at 10, so with an SF ele in the team it's effects are limited. Also degen is single target, which reinforces the good against a single high AL boss sterotype. It does little to enable a mesmer to deplace an SF ele, or SS necro

Ether Feast: reduced casting time to 1 second.

It's nice to have a reduced cast time, but one should be able to get more energy back also

Fast Casting: each rank now decreases Signet activation time by 3%.

This would be a great buff if signet builds were a viable build in PvE. Some signet and signet builds have a niche use for sure. But in all honesty if I was the average pug and saw a mesmer flash a signet bar, I would take another ele instead.

Signet builds in PvE are great intellectual fun, but compared to the AoE Steamroller that is high end PvE they're like a water pistol trying to extinguish a volcano.

Love the idea, but more needs to happen to make it of any use.

Imagined Burden: increased duration to 10..30 seconds.

Again nice idea, but 15 energy and again on a single target. Useful in Moddock i guess.

Lyssa's Balance: functionality changed to: "Target foe loses one Enchantment. If you have more Enchantments than the target foe, this skill has no effect."


Mantra of Persistence: decreased duration bonus to 20..50%.


Power Block: now affects Chants as well as Spells.
Power Drain: now affects Chants as well as Spells.
Power Flux: now affects Chants as well as Spells.
Power Leak: now affects Chants as well as Spells.
Power Leech: now affects Chants as well as Spells.
Power Return: now affects Chants as well as Spells.

Not many chants in PvE. A nice buff not going to moan about this one

Power Spike: increased damage to 30..120, now affects Chants as well as Spells.

Nice

Shared Burden: increased duration to 5..25 seconds.

I like the increase in duration, but ele's get to Aoe snare people and not use an elite slot


In summary

While I totally and utterly appreciate the hard work that went into these changes, in my opinion they will do nothing to help the mesmer find teams, especially in places such as DoA.

I do feel as more should have been done to address this, and yes I understand the need for PvP balance but I do feel this is very much missed opportinity.

Why don't you read what I wrote again, this time think about what you're reading.

<3 Cripshot Buff.

4 sec clumsiness sounds painful already.

As far as I know, Power Block has always disabled any skill of the affected attribute, regardless of type.

What??
25 armor max for stacking skills and recall gets less range, is this some kind of deep steel wall tank nerf o.O
So warriors now will need to pay for the stoneflesh terratanks wich were a tad overprotective? it were still mainly enchantments on such eles and thus easily counterd.

it looks to me that the anet designer team is trying to cut apples with spoons here..

I have no doubt we'll come around the armor cap nerf (Deadly paradox/ Feigned neutriallity) but this is just bollocks.
How do you think HM will be now?, insane dmg monsters and we can't even use + armor skills effectively any more?

On a whole different tone: Mesmer and rit changes are good, necro nerf is decent since it now allows for energy from nukes or spikes. and who can't agree stoneflesh and Soul reaping were overwpowerd?

id like to point out that Barrage now dosnt remove GLYPH'S, didnt it remove preperations? i think this is a typo

Still thumpers, still shadow prison, still spirit spam, still button bashing.

Skill eh? It's really starting to piss me off how stale the game is with the very same builds everywhere and none of the proposed updates address this.

You meant to say "finally got fixed" right.
This was the most obviously broken skill in GWs

There was a glitch with it which made it it remove glyphs for some reason O_o. Can u imagine if it didnt remove preps Barrage+splinter+ignite=GG any pve mob

Whats this "stell wall thing??"

You guys forgot to buff Withdraw Hexes.

They can always check the chat logs, Visual evidence can be presented as well, which in my opinion still need be checked by logs.

I applaud for this notice ANet sends off. People should now be able to converse in all, and trade in trade channel. I hope they also act strongly against repeated lines (imo spamming) in trade channel itself, as it is asocial towards other traders as well.

It got fixed? How?

(I'm being metaphorical)

Orphan,
There was a bug in Barrage that caused Glyphs to be removed. No typo.

Kayelyyb,
A-net is not telling you how to play.
However, each profession has it's own role in a team, specially in PvP.
They did not want to touch Eles and Monks (too much) because they fit those roles at the moment.
And Para's are too powerfull in PvP, where they both have the offensive and supportive role when played with several at once. Not sure if this change will make a difference in that.
Paragons have never been intended as replacements for warriors, afaik.

You may always chose a different role, but it might not be the best one.
You won't take a caster in the front line (unless you have a specific build) because of the low armor and the fact that most skills/spells are ranged.
You also don't want to have your Warrior in the back line playing monk.

Good luck finding a game that doesn't do that - even in single player only there are only a few (Oblivion has a full featured enough construction set that you can).

Not really sure what you expect - you can not play an elementalist as a full time tank, a warrior being a primary healer, or all sorts of things you may very well want to do (and there are certainly a lot of warriors out there trying to be a primary healer). Turns out that those were Anet's decision of where they wanted those classes to be, after the initial release there were quite a few skill changes because they allowed the classes to not be themselves. I do not know at what point this game was ever any different than that, though granted I missed a few months after release.

WoW, EQ, DAoC, and all current pay per month games do exactly the same thing, I imagine that any others will also. It has nothing what so ever to do with their subscription model, it has to do with precisely what they say it does (class balance). To think that they do not want people to play their game is absurd.

You will note that there were WAY more buffs than nerfs in this update so I'm not sure where you are coming from on this one. Maybe you didn't read all of the update notes? You are free to try and play in any class in any role, wammo's certainly try at being a healer.

I said this before when some of these got leaked, and consoled myself that the leak couldn't be accurate.

How do these changes help mesmers in PvE?

I understand how arcane conundrum might help, but if I remember correctly, enemies in hard mode have increased casting speeds already.

Slows I only use in PvP, not usually useful in PvE

kinda sad about MoP, my illusion build needs a change

chant interruption, useful against the occasional paragon enemy in nightfall. Not much of a PvE buff. 1 class out of ten, one campaign out of three.

Personally I expected more E-management for mesmers, make up for all the "anti-mesmer-secondary-abuse" nerfs.

Signets? Until the leak the other day, I wasn't expecting that. maybe I'll bring rez signet, sunspear signet, signet of return, and some signet skills and be a dedicated ressurecter. Might be amusing, but honestly I can't really find a use for signets, not in large numbers. I rarely bring more than 1 or 2, including rez.

I could be missing something. Someone explain to a poor mesmer how these help me in PvE.

(PS, I am glad for the SR update about full energy not killing it. For me, SR is just as good as before)

I'd still like Mesmers to have more damage output to really be useful in PvE for PUG. I feel bad for one trying to find a group in the Deep (where as a War I got kicked from a group for having 1 skill different than cookie build and it wasn't Shove or Recall). How do Sins, Mes, Rits, Paras PUG here? I don't know. I don't think Anet knows or cares either.
Now I'm going tangent -- I think this is a general issue that needs to be addressed for elite missions in general. As a War, hard to find groups for Tomb of Primevil Kings. Those profs that aren't in the Holy Trinity for Torment. Elitist groups with specific builds in the Deep or nobody groups with you, not even in normal. This is a major problem with GW in general that needs to be addressed.

SR? I don't know. I noticed Olias running out of juice after first SR nerf. Hope its better now, but this still doesn't address the issue PvE had in the first place with no energy from spirits.

War? Armor cut-off may be an issue, but probably not a major one. Other tweaks don't seem important. However, will the nerf on Recall affect Wars in the Deep?

I'm really glad to see the Crip Shot buff and I think just about everyone here agrees with that. The mesmer update does look very nice as well.

However, I'm hoping to see a fix for Keen Arrow when the update comes around.

*Once again gives Gaile the cute hopeful puppy eyes*

See, just saying that they will be, in fact, included in this week's update is good enough for me .

Underwhelming is the word I was thinking when I saw the list. Once again buffs to underused skills... but not enough to start using them. We need more drastic action! There were excellent lists of skills in need of a buff / nerf but ANet chose not to take that advice.

Increased duration to some hexes isn't gonna help mesmers in PvE at all. Instead of Arcane Conundrum, why can't Clumsiness or Phantasm have AoE range with maybe a bit less damage/duration? This would make them much better to use.

I don't PvP much but I have been reading a lot of good discussion and it seems like there wasn't much updates on the skills that frequently came up as in need of a nerf/buff here either. Like I previously said, mostly buffs on mediocre skills which aren't doing much to the game and aren't gonna do much even after the buff.

25 armor cap why god why is dolyak sig the only + armor skill for wars or something might aswell completely remove watch yourself and stand your ground cause if someone brings a skill that adds him some armor their plain useless say remove all armor bonuses a skill can give cause this is retarded. The loot scaling nerf already pissed me off but giving the team armor bonuses was something id actually enjoyed doing in gw or working on builds that gave the entire team armor bonuses how on earth are you gonna tank something in hard mode with +43 armor max if your stupid enough to have 16 strength, or just make feigned neutrality have no drawbacks and no recharge cause this is just insane heres a list of skills that cannot be used in combination anymore for armor bonuses suggest you remove them from the game and keep the highest boost ones:

1. Defy Pain
2. Dolyak Signet
3. "Shields Up!"
4. "Watch Yourself!"
5. Defensive Stance
6. Disciplined Stance
7. Fertile Season
8. Otyugh's Cry
9. Dryder's Defenses
10. Convert Hexes
11. Shield of Deflection
12. Shield of Regeneration
13. Elemental Resistance
14. Physical Resistance
15. Armor of Earth
16. Kinetic Armor
17. Obsidian Flesh
18. Ward Against Elements
19. Armor of Frost
20. Armor of Mist
21. Frigid Armor
22. Ward Against Harm
23. Feigned Neutrality
24. Mighty Was Vorizun
25. Protective Was Kaolai
26. Resilient Weapon
27. Tranquil Was Tanasen
28. "Stand Your Ground!"
29. Bladeturn Refrain
30. Conviction
31. Avatar of Balthazar

just 30 skills we cant combine anymore if your thinking anyone is gonna take a +10 or +24 over a skill that give over +30 you must be hit by a train why dont you just say we dont like the fact people can prevent damage by getting more then 100 armor well it wouldnt be necesairy if a monster can kill a unprotected squishy in 2 or 1 hits griefers in ra are lame true but you cant be possibly nerfing armor skills for that the fact that someone has a obsidian tank or terra tank would mean he or she is virtually hard to take down true but their enchants if its so depressing in doa then give them chillblians or something. The best thing is that they implemented this nerf just when i adapted to the lootscaling nerf. That was by means of farming with 8 actual people in uw wich was fun and daring thanks to the combo of shouts my monks had +48 armor wich meant aatxes wouldnt kill em in one hit anymore if we were too slow and one slipped through our defense. As i see it theres only two options anet one leave armor skills alone. two make frenzy elite " you attack 33% faster and take only half damage from attacks cost 1 adrenaline and buff mending to you cant be targeted by enemy spells +3...6 regen and you gain 25...50 armor. your choice xD

You Sir, are an idiot, have you even looked at the water spells, and seen how good they really are.

For me:

SR Change: I don't care, it needed changing and I don't really like to rely on it with my necro anyway, so I'm fine with it.

Mesmer buff: Love them. Hurray for signets.

Paragons: As far as I care, they are just a filler class for nightfall, don't care now, never have.

Assassins: Fair changes. The skills I like got buffed, hurray.

Rangers: More love for another of my fav classes.


In general, a good update, but with all updates, we must have whiners that compain with little ground, so prepare for a lot of NAG NAG NAG.

[QUOTE=Diddy bow]There was a glitch with it which made it it remove glyphs for some reason O_o. Can u imagine if it didnt remove preps Barrage+splinter+ignite=GG any pve mob [QUOTE]

yeah but they didnt mention anything about it involving a bug. if so they should make it clear it was to fix a bug

1. Soul Reaping: 3 in 15 works better than 1 in 5
Still: CLUMSY. The Spirit stuff and all that, it is unintuitive.

2. Spawning Power: Not a big deal... little profit. Most of the time I will skill in other attributes.

3. Fast Casting: Someone tell me which Signets I should use by now.

4. Mesmer changes in general: Does not change anything for PvE, Clumsiness is now a bit stronger, not a big deal either!

5. Elementalist: Oh, someone does not like the Terra Tank and Stoneflesh Eles in RA? As I do not care so much about it, no further comment.



But: Can someone explain me this +25 Armor crap stuff?
Will "Watch Yourself" work with "Stand Your Ground" no longer stack? What will stack?

This is a dirty bandaid, I hate those limitations.



BTW: Dwarven Battle Stance is still crap, even after the 5th or 6th buff. This seems to be a trend, slightly buff skills nobody really wants to use too often at all. Why so cautious with them, they need bigger buffs or none at all.

No kidding. As someone who primarily plays offensive classes, I think some mesmers are underestimating just how evil that spell can be, and what a crazy buff that is.

Bad fix to at's anet, You just let pugs run wild! Why be in a guild when you can just guest and run bs build to get reward points!!!!!

^_^ Clumsiness / Ineptitude spike! Woot!

When is fury comming out? I think that is the most important question right now.

I have a question... can somebody please explain spawning/weapon duration spells? x_x;

if I read it correctly, it's 2% increase for every point is spawning, correct? so at max level (without runes) that'd be a 24% increase.... yet at max, 24% of 8 seconds is only .33 (or is my math screwed up?) so 12 points into spawning only increases it from 8 seconds to 8.33? o_O; I must...have screwed something up in that... so feel free to point out my faults and tell me how much it'll actualy increase it.

If you look at Shadow Meld, it was clearly overpowered to begin with.

On a side note:
YAY SPAWNING POWER.
YAY FAST CASTING.
BOO ARMOR cap. It killed any form of enchantment stacks, Dolyak signet + watch Yourself, Kinetic armor + Armor of Earth; Conviction + anything with + armor. Not just the lame Mystic Regen earth tanks that everyone hates nor the paragons with Watch Yourself + Stand Your Ground.
--> wow, how are people going to do DoA??? (Armor of Earth+ Obsidian Flesh + Dolyak Signet out of the question now)
--> how will you do hard mode without Protective Spirit, Shield of Absorption, or Shelter spammage (not that Protective spirit isn't more or less REQUIRED)


Assassins:
* "Beguiling Haze" - Broadhead arrow says hi
* "Expose Defenses" - no big deal if you have moderate Deadly Arts (9+)
* "Expunge Enchantments" - good
* "Hidden Caltrops" - just a technicality fix
* "Recall" - Shadow Meld still sucks.
* "Sharpen Daggers" - bug fix
* "Siphon Strength" - might see use, maybe not

Mesmers:
* "Imagined Burden" still won't get used, the recharge is what kills it.
* "Mantra of Persistence" + "Migraine" got less powerful.
* "Power" interrupts can now stop twiddling their thumbs versus Paragons ("Power Spike" anyone? )
* "Shared Burden" will still be trash when Deep Freeze/Ice spikes are in the picture, as they are NONelite.
* "Clumsiness" - mmmm bye sin lead attack
* "Conjure Phantasm" - why? It was so spammable to begin with
* "Ether Feast" - not a big difference if you have moderate Fast Casting
* "Lyssa's Balance" - nice buff
* Fast Casting - affecting signets will go a long way (Purge Signet, Signet of Illusions, Hex Eater Signet, anyone?)

Elementalists:
*Ash Blast - who uses this when you got Steam, which has a easier to meet condition, especially with a Burning Arrow ranger or SFer in your team?
* "Ebon Hawk" - used this anyway, weakness --> Glowstone energy management, this skill wasn't about the damage really
* "Ride the Lightning"
* "Shockwave" - PBAOE is suicidal
* "Stoneflesh Aura" - hurrah

Necromancer
* Soul Reaping - Spirits and minions don't have souls
* "Signet of Sorrow" - "Lamentation" says hi. That, and it is even more conditional.
* "Spiteful Spirit" - doesn't matter much with the Soul Reaping change
* Wells - well spam is awesome? I used to use Bloodstained Insignia for wells also, I guess it is 3/4 second awesomeness. Too bad Wells are even more conditional than wards and people don't stand in them.

Warrior
* "Agonizing Chop" - more or less a given, since all interrupt attacks are 1/2 second
* "Battle Rage" - outrun flag runners much? This + adrenaline attacks = insanity...most of the speed boosts are 25%, except for Dash and spellcaster based ones that give 33% and Charging Strike, which isn't permanent
* Dwarven Battle Stance - still going to be pretty useless.
* "Warrior's Endurance" - yeh! Zealous weapon + this = Power attack spam!!!
* "Yeti Smash" - not a big difference, only PvErs will even consider this anyway, so it could've been buffed to 5 adrenaline like Forceful Blow

Monk

* "Balthazar's Pendulum" - other than pve monsters killing Devona, I don't see how this elite is worth taking on any monk
* "Empathic Removal" - semigood buff, inline with Expel Hexes more or less but not to the extent of Blessed Light or Divert Hexes' 5 recharge.
* "Shield Guardian" - nobody is going to spam 10 energy skills except Mungri Magicbox. Reversal of Fortune completely decimates it.
* "Signet of Rage" - okay
* "Strength of Honor" - nobody uses it with conjures around since it is maintained. It should've been made to be like Aura of Faith, 60 second duration and with a recharge of say 15 seconds.

Ranger
* "Barrage" - bug fix
* "Crippling Shot" - decent
* "Heal as One" - technicalities
* "Melandru's Resilience" - Draw Conditions!!! + Disciple's Insignia...not. With Wild Strike and Wild blow so common in PvP nobody will carry this. Also, Ranger primaries have much better elites to choose from.

Ritualist
* Spawning Power - yay
* Weapon of Warding - % block should have been made to scale with attribute, instead of bumping it down to this level of duration (IMO)

Paragon
* "Never Surrender!" - 5 regen doesn't make or break a team, but it puts Recuperation (for party applications) to shame by all accounts due to not being able to remove it.
* "Defensive Anthem" - duration could have took a hit too, to make it more of an antispike for physical-based attackers rather than a nonremovable replacement for the o-so-hated Aegis. Right now it is more or less Aegis but with a better % of coverage, at least for monks and casters that don't use "attack skills".

I'm so disappointed with the SR update I could scream. Why do we need a timer?? Its dumb and now I have to spend more time standing around, praying that things die at the right intervals. Unless you have a general update planned where SR gets the energy management skills it needs this solution does nothing. GW isn't about balances, buffs, and nerfs to me, its about the experience. The last few months have seriously affected my overall experience and not in a good way. Oh, I don't get turned away from parties or anything but I'm generally slower than I was before and people are always saying "Hurry up Necro!" or "Stop. We have to wait for Necro.".

What I really don't understand is the full energy from the Spirits. I don't know any Necros that pack their own spirits. N/Rt might but at the end of the day Necros aren't as good at Spirit spamming as Rits. Its nice that enemy Spirits won't trigger SR anymore but otherwise this is an extremely ineffective update.

I don't know what to think about what happened to SS. I actually didn't notice when its cost got reduced for almost 2 weeks. Meh. Why create a skill like SS only to nerf it every other month?

Can someone explain me Skill Armor Buff stacking? (the +25 AL max thing)

I understood it as follows:

So let's make an example with random numbers: Dolyak Signet +32 AL, Watch Yourself +20, Stand Your Ground +24 = 32+25, 57 instead of 76.

So it is now better to have a strong buff and a weak on instead of several weak ones. Do people still follow?

If you have a +80 AL buff like Feigned neutrality, Stand Your Ground still adds +24 AL. But if you also add Watch Yourself, you only get +1 more armor (+25 max). - Did I understand that right?

Yes, your math is bad.

8 * .24 = 1.92

If it works like the enchanting mod, it will round up to 2 seconds. So you should get a 10 second weapon then.

Longasc, assuming they implement exactly what they said and it works like IAS and run speed caps, your math is also off. With DS, WY, SYG you only get 32 AL. With feigned, SYG, and WY you only get 80. If you have a skill that pushes past 25, you (should) get the highest value skill, and the others are ignored.