Update 21st August 08

AI updates = good. I just hope they didn't add some new 'features'.

There's good reason to always be concerned about the relative power of smiting. It's easy for a damage skill line to become too good when each cast involves getting free (if small) heals; these casters can also easily spec into additional, efficient defense for the team and run runes to strengthen those defensive skills.

With that said, the skill change as posted is an insult to everyone's intelligence.

just a joke or something >.> they wouldnt nerf a skill THAT badly.

But there are like 5-7 Smiting Prayers that can be used on another player. Okay, 11, but I'm not counting crap like Holy Wrath, Retribution, Balthazar's Spirit or Judge's Intervention.

Actually this is good, smiters boon was just plain stupid as it was now... Izzy did a good job destroying it. This is propably with the double fame weekend in mind that he did this.

Well izzy just wants to get rid of the skill from the game and see what the meta will be like without it. The same happened to LoD a while back remember.

Think people are not looking at the bigger picture here aswell , a nerf this bad has made a small pool of useable skills in pvp even smaller - I AGREE it needed balancing , increased recharge (casting time maybe so it could be interrupted) but this is just plain stupid.
I know its just 1 skill , but I seriously question izzy's ability to ever get this game reasonably balanced .. Making useable skills few and far between FORCING players to use other cookie cutter builds is not the way to go ... making the pool of useable skills larger to add more diversity to the viable builds would make pvp alot more interesting.

So lets move onto the next build (its going to be dual ranger incendary arrows / expert dex meta) and wait for that to be made unuseable ..

Then why not just post as the update: "Smiter's Boon - removed from the game. This skill will no longer be available in PvE or PvP."?

You people act like all smiting monks use Smiter's Boon and you're wrong. Mine don't and never has... but then again, she doesn't PvP either.

Now I dont PvP so I dont pretend to know what skills are overpower etc....

But what is the point in making a skill basically unusable. There are already enough unused skills in the game.

You might aswell just delete the skill if you're gonna make it so no one in their right mind would use it.

Never had any problems with izzy but every time i read a skill change update I swing more and more towards the "Izzy hasn't a clue" team. Then again, he has a track record of wiping a attribute line doesn't he...Communing -> 3 elites make me lol

Because removing it from the game is way more complicated then simply make it crap.

Or in other words:

I don't like how this skill is used right now but I can't be bothered to work out how to balance it normally so i'm just going to rape it out of the game, maybe i'll fix it later.. maybe not.. meh.

Great commitment to your work there mate.

For everyone wondering why he destroyed it... Observe GvG, even HA for a couple of seconds, if you are still not convinced, go play some TA, the source of all these silly RaO axe with smiters boon monk gimmicks...

Meh the only meta that is using 4xsmiter junk is r500+ guilds and maybe some shitty HA teams...Other than that I don't see what the problem is with the template besides when there are 3+copies of it which has always been a problem in GW since it was released...

So, instead of doing his job and making it balanced, better to just f_ck it up and make it unusable?

Just so I'm clear: is it that you hate this skill altogether? Or simply as it existed pre nerf/rape?

Smiter's Boon got pizzowned

maybe smiting prayers shouldn't activate divine favor healing?

Dont hate the skill, the idea behind is was propably ok, but the way it existed and was used up to now, was just plain rediculous.

Cool - thanks for that.

the smiters boon update must've been a typo. or someone was seriously raging or trying to prove a point that rediculous changes can get thru

It might have to do with this whine:
Source: ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Monk/Smiting Prayers are Imbalanced