Update - Thursday, May 14

naturally, by next week you mean:

next week + 5 days 'cause you had been to busy doing smth else + 3 days because they seemed so important you wanted to check their reasonability + 2 days to work out a way to pull your head out of the sling until next update, which you will announce as "great skill update we have been working on for weeks"

If its not too much trouble, can someone write about the Reasoning behind why some skills were NOT nerfed... like everyon just gives out about skills.
what was done and what wasnt.. but can we actually just know WHY THINGS WERE NOT NERFED that need it?

and i know what one mans NEEDS is another mans WANTS.. like as far as common sense goes....

I would have to agree. I would rather see why they ignored so many problems instead of finding out why they touched the skills they did.

hexway actually got buffed, so did omega spike (even if some builds will have to be changed, it will be even stronger in 1 week)

WE used to be imba, and now dead again

no random game breaking buffs this month ? illusionary weaponry ? rofl

Skill balancing is a hard job - which is why anet should get some better people to work at it.

WOW...gee thanks ANet for an update that is such epic phail!!!! This looks like a randomway fest the devs had after a night of too much beer and bad pizza! The whole thing is bad but see below...why screw up Rangers yet again???

Another skill "rebalance" another Ranger cluster f***! ANet appears to be DETERMINED to nerf Rangers into impotency. Last time it was the +dmg from Read the Wind. Now the +dmg from Melandru's Shot has been made conditional and the Hunter's Shot +dmg is simply gone. I'm seriously thinking about giving up R and becoming an Imbamentalist, an Imbagon, or an Imbasin as ANet are proving themselves to be Imbaciles. They've turned what was a reasonably decent elite into another PoS by making the +dmg from Melandru's Shot conditional. So the choice is now to either simply spread easily removed conditions, be a pure interrupter, or go with the few unconditional +dmg skills left to Rangers. This is positively bulls**** !

All this while they completely ignore the ridiculously overpowered Ray of Judgement

Thanks a heap ANet for making what WAS a halfway decent class into a sad joke!

ok I did an in-game recheck on hunters shot, it's "causes bleeding" 5 cost 10 RECHARGE! (1 sec activation removed!!)

Change it the F*** back RIGHT NOW!!!! and I'm not asking this, just do it and don't bother touching it ever again.

I never post on updates either but this was a disappointment. Usually the balances before had a way of opening options not seen before. Nerfing skills to unplayability doesn't make more builds viable. There is nothing in there that says "hey I can try something new". Everyone is just going to revert back to previous metas without the aegis.

I don't like the idea of nerfing monks, too finiky. People will just take more defense to accomidate. PnH needed the nerf though but it could have been done better. Now if people learn how to spread hexes it is pretty useless.

Para, Rit, Derv have never seen use since completing their respective campaigns and have never entered pvp since the novelty of them ran out. I think it comes down to their primaries, all of them are too finiky and serve a purpose the class doesn't even preform anymore. This is one of the biggest compaints and requires the most work reworking the whole class. They have better get to work on it starting now and they may redeem themselves. Enough of saying it is too much work when it is obviously the biggest complaint.

We fully understand. This was such a massive skills update that it's going to take a lot to write up all that from a developers perspective. I also imagine that everyone is winding down after such an effort.

PS. I think someone might have forgotten to put the SF and RoJ updates in.

I was really expecting something more interesting... look at this, wtf is this!?!?
Aegis has been used since forever, now, OUT OF THE BLUE, they decided to make it into something completly different!! Holy crap! Talking about holy, strenght and honor will never be used again at pvp, this shows how little Izzy and His Super Best Friends knows about fixing... well... ANYTHING.
I think its time to Izzy consider the idea of starting to hang out with other people... and HEY, this is what came out of the ELITE PVP PLAYERS.... who are these guys anyway?
Dude... aegis...
PwK... just awful.
Aw man... seriouly, who let this go live, how could ANYONE see this and actually think "hummm LOOKS GOOD" BAH!

Good update, despite what most people are saying ^_^.

WE fixed, PnH fixed, FF fixed, Shadowfang fixed, Strength of Honor fixed.

Anything else is just a bonus. Sure, Aegis was... well let's not go there, but this should kick some of the degenerate rubbish out HA and GvG.

Edit: amusing irony with above poster. :P
PwK needed changing. It was this or 2 second cast time, which would have been far worse. RoJ scatter is important, but only applies in pve and HB. I don't see why it's such a major problem.

Can't wait to read what they were thinking..

This is just simply a disappointment and paras were TOTALLY untouched.

except for the fact that FF and PnH are still OP even in their current form...

Exactly what I'm complaining about. Anet completely abandoned their idea of paragons.

Top PvP players make suggestions, nothing more. Stop trying to blame bad updates on PvP players. If I recall correctly, Izzy doesn't even get the final word in the balances.

Adapt to what? Destroyed ranger skills? A highly important monk skill that has been vital in PVP since the release of GW 4 years ago suddenly being smiters booned?
But yes, I will adapt. I will just quit playing monk and play IWAY instead thanks.

*Aegis: reduced casting time to .25. Functionality changed to: "For 1..3 seconds, hostile spells and attacks against 'target other ally' fail."
*Master Architect Gunther in Fort Aspenwood now destroys any masterless Minions within earshot.


When was the last time any of you played Aspy?
8 monks + Aegis chains (plus cover it up with RoF) on the ele and NOBODY gets through the green gate EVER AGAIN.
Anyone that does not play a monk on the Kurzick side - deserves to lose.
Ohh and today's Z-Quest is Aspy, right?

I think its time to Izzy consider the idea of starting to hang out with other people... and HEY, this is what came out of the ELITE PVP PLAYERS.... who are these guys anyway?

this would lead to more abuse. Hey Buff this.. nerf that.. Next MaT.. the suggesting team would win easy as they had time to know what was coming

The steam nerf is disappointing, i really liked the 100 on 60 AL at 17 water...Distortion didn't got the deserved nerf, maybe anet wants eles playing that crappy build. I still don't get all this ranger's hate.
Vor is sexier now, guess i'll be back to mesmers.

Never played Aspy, but now, it looks like fun to try.

Let me guess, the NPCs spam Aegis?

Still no fixes to make either my Rit or Paragon more useful, but oh wait, Illusionary Weaponry needed a reduced cost.

Was this change suggested by these people that Izzy apparantly talks to?

And PWK as well? Because rits are so Imba in GW that they need one of their 3 useful skills nerfing again? (PWK, Wep of Warding, Life).

Next update for ritualists - [life] increased recharge to 45 seconds.

Aegis********************************************* *****
Warrior's Endurance***
Steam*
Peace and Harmony*
Protective Was Kaolai****

Excuse me while I kill myself.

You might want to take a Mo/N so you can clean the corpses of the other NPCs from the gate before they Profane it.

This problem underscores why having tons of PvP formats is a terrible idea. Three basic formats (4v4, HA and GvG) proved nearly impossible to balance. The current problem is out of control.

Pvp Balance is Made With GvG in mind. and maybe.. IF YOUR LUCKY.. about 5 mins given to HA... the rest..nothing.

Sigh, Rits seriously need a total skill revamps but I see none here except for badly unneeded nerf of PwK. Take a look at Lancy proposed changes of Rits for an idea.

refer to previous post:
you sir, would be correct.

And you Sir, Just confused the hell out of me. Its near 3 am for me.. explain

I'm guessing that's the plan. Mess this game up overtime till GW2 comes out and make it all nice an rosy so we migrate over to give anet more money, amIright?

How I love the overly defensive meta screaming in agony

Overall, I have to say that this was a very, very bad update.

*Heart of Shadow & Viper's Defense -- Bug aside, nice buff, but still not very useful.

*Shadow Fang -- whatever.

*Mirror of Ice -- Needed a nerf, but now too weak even on ele primary.

*Steam -- It's fine. If you were using it for damage before, you were an idiot.

*Illusionary Weaponry -- Underbuff to bad skill leaves it a bad skill.

*Castigation Signet -- whatever

*Peace and Harmony -- Needed nerfed. Perhaps this was right. We'll see.

*Word of Healing -- Seems like a tiny nerf so long as you're using it properly. We'll see.

*Foul Feast -- Perhaps needed a nerf, but 5 sec is probably too much.

*Lingering Curse -- Needed a nerf, but this wasn't enough.

*Hunter's Shot -- This skill was bad before, and remains bad now. I'm not even sure if you were aiming for a buff or a nerf.

*Melandru's Shot -- Maybe useful as compared to cripshot. Not even remotely interesting for PvE.

*Keen Arrow: -- Bad skill remains bad. Did they ever fix the bug?

*Protective Was Kaolai -- On a skill-to-skill-balance level, this deserved a nerf given its strength compared to other party heals (or perhaps the others needed a buff instead). The main problem with the nerf how it takes away from a very weak class one of the few strengths it had left.

*Strength of Honor (PvP) -- Whatever. It needed a nerf. Not sure if it deserved to be smiter's booned like that, but idc.

*Strength of Honor (PvE) -- Hmmm. Overbuffed I think. This is potentially meta-changing.

*Aegis -- what the hell? This is a terrible nerf. No, seriously. I can't even fathom what the hell Izzy was thinking. At all. The stupidity of this nerf boggles the mind. I've got to say that this one just needs reverted; end of story.

*Warrior's Endurance -- needed a nerf and got it. No complaints.

*Low Blow -- This skill is very strong now. The only thing keeping it from popping up all over is the 3 PvE-skill limit.

*Elemental Lord -- Nice. Perhaps overpowered for the ER Infuser though.

*Summon Spirits -- Buff is nice, but spirit spamming still sucks in PvE. Spirits need a fix to uptime and survivability in order to be viable.

*Fragility -- Nice buff. My mesmer likes it. The mangradors in EotN will need a nerf however.

*Tryptophan Signet -- Wow. That's one hell of a debuff. I'd stick this anywhere I had a free PvE slot. Which probably means it's too good...

Unaddressed Issues:

RoJ -- Needed an AI fix very, very badly, and probably an overall nerf too. Got nothing.

Spawning Power -- Still stinks.

top players have very very very little to do with the actual balance of the game, only discussion which 90% of the time is completely ignored. Izzy doesn't even have final control of what goes live.

Well, I usually end up defending Anet in their decisions but... this update, I seriously can't find anything to help in their defense. I don't know if you guys were just way too tired when you did these skill updates or whatnot, but it's... terrible. Sorry.

Oh i know that.. i mean.. if it were true that they would listen to top pvp players this is what WOULD happen.. not what does happen. i was refering to the poster saying that lindsey/izzy listens to pvp players.. and i meant lindsey/zizzy doesnt...

I wouldn't be surprised if they are using GW1 as a base to experiment with prospective GW2 skills. The new Aegis might be a skill that exists in GW2 and they want to see how it gets used in GW1.

Interesting changes. I saw a lot of skills complained about fixed. Foul feast is now completely reasonable. If I see any more QQ bout FF being op ima freak since I love seeing necros used.

A little sad at the lack of Rit Primary love, kinda laughing at the illusionary weaponry buff'..

all in all, ty for the update.

it won't be used. thats the problem.

There is plenty of already unused skills they could have used to experiment with but taking aegis away completely was just RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing dumb.

Divine Intervention or maybe Spell Shield anyone?

The new aegis would be awesome as Divine Intervention instead in both PVE and PVP - cast it on your melee character as they charge in to agro, and screw up the AI's initial spike on them. Would be great to cast on the warrior or sin in your group as they rush in with a speed buff to get into attack range.

While i like Devines purpose.. can be handy.. i suppose.. lol.
but yeah it suits the new aegis's purpose.. from the name anyways..

Every update is a "bad update" to you people. Seriously, you think anybody believes anything said on guru anymore?

While it wasn't that great, it nerfed WE, which is good enough for me right now.

Eh not that much impact on me, I liked Aegis better as it was and Im glad it wasnt nerfed in PvE. And the shadowstepping from HoS and VD, I like it so you dont have to wait 3 turns just to get out of the agro lol.