Guild Wars Skill Updates Jan. 17th 2008

I've only been to DoA twice. It's more about the amount of effort that it takes (very little). DoA is mentioned the most because it's one of if not the hardest area in Guild Wars, hence it makes an easy comparison.

So people weren't having fun before Ursan? And a mini pet in no way affects your gameplay.

Energy Surge.

So like...

every warrior is going to be W/Rt.

Which means SR didn't get fixed.

Only where it matters, really. I'm finding little blind in the areas that I'm in.

...Or you could just continue packing Mending Touch, or let the Monk do his job.

I disagree. My builds right now:

Build 1

Burning Arrow 4enrg
Savage shot 4enrg
D-shot 2 Nrg

Build 2

Magebane Shot 4 enrg
Keen Arrow 2enrg (Optional Sloth Hunter 4enrg, hate the slow recharge tho)
D-Shot 2enrg

If I use Keen Arrow+ Magebane, my energy efficiency is still way better than I'm used to with the BA build.

Same nasty skill, no more room for griping-sweet

faithful intervention now casts automatically on heroes! Thats pretty useful, saves me 1/3 of a second whenever I enter a new zone!

seriously, i quite like the updates.

I like how they have tried to make Heaven's Delight useable, might make Kurz monks a little more difficult to kill but mleh.
also like the "Fall Back!" buff, 15e did seem a bit steep.

Hi my name is Lagg and I'm an Ursan hater. *group hug*

I've only ever finished two areas of DoA, never even been to Mallyx.

I'm also relatively poor by elite standards, I don't even own a single Obsidian armor or Tormented weapon or whatever.

It keeps a bad player bad while giving him the illusion of being a decent player without him ever learning to become one.

Seriously, Guild Wars isn't rocket science, it doesn't take much to become a decent player.

True, it takes the difficulty out of Elite areas (and granted, DoA was badly designed in the first place and is simply too inaccessible to some professions). But it also completely throws game design overboard for the sake of giving everyone everything IMMEDIATELY NOW FAST.

While I do understand that many people have lots of fun with Ursan now, it will hurt the game's lifespan in the long run. Less challenge means everything becomes faster and easier to achieve, which will ultimately lead to people becoming bored of it all, which is unfortunate with GW2 scheduled only for next year.

There's a fine line that a game has to walk between being too easy and too difficult. Let's call it... balance. And that, I'm afraid, is lacking at the moment.

Victory or Death: reduced the damage bonus to +15%; removed the maximum Health reduction. Guild Lords now prioritize other Guild Lords over players as targets.

Ownage.

You need an enchanting weapon to upkeep Sight Beyond sight.

Warmonger's Weapon: increased recharge time to 30 seconds. --> Hi, Glyph of renewal

Well, I guess I wasted an elite mesmer tome. Just bought one yesterday and started using HEV today...Other than that, I'm quite pleased with the other stuff.

Wastrels Worry:Maybe i'll actually use this now
Coward!: Funny thing, was actually meaning to test builds with this in the near future.
Patient Spirit: Could be usable in pvp now..perhaps
Restore Life: 2 second rezmers :P

No IWAY nerf? Lame

You've only been to DoA twice, so you must know what you're talking about - my bad. I agree making the elite stuff easier is the wrong direction but I never said I was for the Ursanway. All I said was it allows a broader range of people a way to finish said missions without losing their sanity. But you're right, we should all follow your example and hope they nerf Ursanway so you can play DoA a third time without worrying about other players getting an easy ride.

In regards to the PB mini I never said it affected game play but that it was far from enjoyable trying to obtain one. Around 99.99% of the people trying for it failed.. ask them if it was 'fun' and you should get a resounding 'HELL NO!!' (hence my point.)

Don't worry though, Wastrel's Worry does more damage now so it's ok.

~_~ ANet are baed.

I used it on my mesmer in AB all the time, although I don't really see the reason for the nerf. I took awhile to recharge & only removed 1 hex. Oh well, see if the change makes it worthless to use now, if so, find a new elite to use.

^ It was used in GvG.

I don't need to go to DoA to know that the skill is imba. Again, people refer to DoA because it's the hardest area.

That's all good and fun but I highly doubt that that's the driving force for a lot of Ursan users. It's mainly used because it's powerful, easy to set up, and with very little thought gone into it due to the fact that it has very few counters - and the faster they can set up and kill baddies, the faster they get phat lewtz.

Also, if they're losing their sanity (mainly from dying and the like) then that's Guild Wars' way of saying that you could use some improvement. When you bypass that, you have no idea how good/bad you are and you don't improve.

I would fully tell you why I'm against Ursan but I don't think you'd believe me, partly due to the above quoted comment.

And my point was that you did not need the Polar bear mini pet in any way, shape or form. It was a minipet. Not only that but it's rare for a reason...which is to be rare.

And if it's not enjoyable, don't do it. It's selfish saying "make this fun for me."

Ha, these territory restriction changes are HUGE! No more 'fake RA' for those in the Taiwanese, Korean or Japanese districts.... = ="

Anet forgot to correct Wastrel's Worry's skill description to "Destroy target Prophecies boss creature."

This is definitely a good update.

not like a lot of them in GvG aren't already, what with the use of Death Pact sig.

Interesting update, nothing that really calls for great discussion, except perhaps HeV, maybe Pious Assault, and Magebane for sure.

I've got no idea what to say about this one because I don't use the skills they changed for the post part.

Based on what?
None of these 'balances' will fix any of the lame crap running rampant thru Pvp at the moment.

VoD and GvG npc stuff is interesting tho.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts.

I've got a couple of complaints, though:

1) That stupid timer still has not been removed from Soul Reaping.

2)
But all-in-all this was a good update.

Exactly why I don't think this was a great skill balance. The only thing that got minorly balanced was TA, with the warmongers/magebane nerfs.

Hmm, more signs of a shrinking player base, perhaps, hence the reason to open the server gates.

Buffing of less used skills will always be random, cos there are bucket of skills like that. More of that please.

Fall Back!

I was hoping for MORE skill updates...but w.e

my guild has been using a glyph of renewal rit for a couple weeks now.. heh.

i like this update i dont use any of those skills tought

The activation times might make rangers more viable for DPS damage but it still doesn't make them good. Precision shot got a major buff, since activation of 1 is better than ~2-3 (bow attack speed) meaning it is more likely to activate properly.

Fallback was good to begin with in mobile environments.

Caltrops might see use on casters sins I guess. It is still half range though.

Ethereal Burden: reduced recharge time to 30 seconds. <-- does nothing for the skill it oculd be pushed to 20 (30 as opposed to 45)

Mind Wrack: increased duration to 30 seconds. <-- can you say cover hex???

Heaven's Delight: increased the area of effect to earshot. <-- usable, but not good due to 2 cast and 30 recharge (unless you have no prot/healing prayers)

Patient Spirit: decreased duration to 2 seconds; increased healing to 30..120 Health. <-- odd, since Healer's Boon doesn't synergize with this and the 2 seconds is still not going to save you since it doesn't stack (like Ancestor's Rage)

Renew Life/Restore Life --> touch range...

Wail of Doom: decreased Energy cost to 10 <-- might be viable with Masochism but 15 cooldown...and shutting down melee with weakness/miss hexes is better than shutting off their attack skills with an elite. As an interrupt it is costly and bringing cry of frustration/leech signet/web of disruption/complicate is simpler.

"We Shall Return!": decreased Energy cost to 5. <-- wasting a skill slot for a res buff? Planning to die before the battle starts?

Rejuvenation: increased Spirit's level to 1..16. <-- still a joke
(health=20*spirit level*(1+spawning*0.04))
-->16 restor, 13 spawning = 486HP--> 48.6 heals at 10hp a heal


Sundering Weapon: now affects the next 3 attacks. <-- turns into reapplied cracked armor most of the time

Warmonger's Weapon: increased recharge time to 30 seconds. <-- channeling magic got hit

"Coward!": decreased adrenaline cost to 4 strikes. <-- sort of pointless for snaring unless you run on a paragon...how do you get 4 adrenaline before hitting ...Make Your Time? Signet of Aggression? To the Limit? You Will Die!? (not really) Balthazar's Spirit? (yeh right maybe after taking damage for 15 seconds) It is sort of counterproductive to use your elite on a conditional knockdown when you have Bull's Strike/Shock. The best I can see this do is as a anti-kite mid-chain (after nonelites like enraging charge and whatnot)...
-->"If target foe is moving, that foe is knocked down." is not strong enough to be elite in most cases since if they are moving you want to use an energy skill/signet to pre-snare...not adrenal. This means it is only good for after you executed an attack and it isn't on demand.

I overlooked what many have pointed out: when is SR going to be addressed for the final time? The timer must go as spirit SR was nerfed, which is the only reason it was put in in the first place (Izzy notes stated this).

Nah, spoke with izz. This is it. VoD changes were the major thing, and Guild Lord behavior.

Oh, and if you guys didn't catch on to the major concept behind the balance, it was to stimulate hexes back into the meta in heavier form. (aka the SBS buff)

Oh, and elemental flame + earthen shackles + Freezing gust = hax?

It's not really the skill changes per se that is interesting, but the choosing of skill to change.

If ANET continue making changes in "NOT MUCH USE" skill, then perhaps if the changes accumulate, we would have more wide variety choice of useful skills to put in the skill bar.

About URSAN, well, it stays atm. Maybe people need better anti-ursan avatar and cat-photo cliche for arguments.

Peace.

Just in case you guys missed it, we have a Dev Update with some discussion of today's skill changes. Catch it here.

Update was decent, but feels small...

..Gonna suck if we gotta wait 2 months for another....

Make all 4 of these skills 5 energy as a final buff? I'd really like to see that. Keen arrow among other 5 energy bow shot skills are pretty powerful at only 5 energy, why not these as well?

Sub-par by default.
The only reason why it's considered good is because other options are worse.

Expel on the other hand IS sweet!




On-topic:
Sweet! I am just thinking of quitting GW - so this comes very handy. Nothing big that would make me go "OMG!11! I so need to play with that!1!!!".

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of skill changes, and this update is really lacking. Other than the Warrior skills, and maybe Signet of Agony, I don't see anything that makes me consider different builds.

*yawn*


EDIT: Oh wait, maybe the Bow Attacks... yeah, gonna have to mess with those

wut?

Have seen MBS in gvg twice ..

Hero key bind is great, i was thinking about that feature two days ago.