Update 6/18/09

Update - Thursday, June 18

Skill Updates

The major goals of this update are to balance certain overpowered skills, increase the effectiveness of Spawning Power, make Ritualist spirits viable in PvE, and increase the effectiveness of Paragons in PvE through the Command and Leadership lines.

Other than a few niche builds, the Ritualist and Paragon have had trouble finding a place in PvE. The basic concepts of these professions make them very strong in PvP and over the course of balancing them for competitive play, they've become underpowered or awkward to use in PvE.

The Paragon has a lot of strength as a support class where it buffs up the party by adding survivability and damage. In this vein, we've focused on the Command and Leadership lines in PvE and given them new utility while restoring some of their original power.

The Ritualist's primary attribute, Spawning Power, is a little underpowered and doesn't offer players enough of an incentive to play a primary Ritualist when they want to use weapon spells. We doubled Spawning Power's effect on weapon spells, an increase that should make it more appealing as a primary attribute and make the weapon spells of secondary Ritualists weaker in comparison. Ritualists use binding rituals to summon spirits which can either heal and protect, or deal damage and provide utility on the battlefield. The metered pace of building a base of spirits is balanced for PvP. In PvE, however, where the battlefield rapidly shifts ever forward, there is rarely time to establish a spirit base before the encounter is over and the party moves on, leaving the spirits behind. Drastically reducing the casting time of all binding rituals in PvE will give Ritualists ample time to summon spirits to each encounter. Also, the increase to the maximum level of spirits will help them survive longer during encounters.

PvE and PvP

Assassin
Palm Strike: increased recharge time to 7 seconds.

Palm Strike's recharge was perfectly positioned to combo with Trampling Ox for consistent knockdowns with a frequency that made it difficult to counter and not fun to play against. We increased Palm Strike's recharge to break up the timing of this combo's knockdown effect.

Elementalist
Ether Prism: increased recharge time to 20 seconds.

Mesmer
Visions of Regret: functionality changed to: "For 10 seconds, target foe and adjacent foes take 15..45 damage whenever they use a skill and 5..50 damage if not under the effects of another Mesmer hex."

Visions of Regret has been extremely powerful, particularly when stacked with other hexes in a team-based hex-overload build, or just coupled with a similar skill (such as Empathy or Backfire), so we've limited how much damage it does in these circumstances.

Necromancer
Lingering Curse: increased Energy cost to 15.
Suffering: increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
Weaken Knees: decreased duration to 1..16 seconds; decreased Health degeneration to -1..4; decreased damage to 5..10.

Weaken Knees was too good without any points in Curses, so we've reduced its damage output and scaled the Health degeneration based on the Curses attribute. Lingering Curse and Suffering were a little too good at pressuring enemy teams because they are easily maintained on all enemy targets. To make this more balanced, we've increased the Energy cost of Lingering Curse and the recharge of Suffering.

Ritualist
Brutal Weapon: decreased duration to 10..40 seconds.
Guided Weapon: decreased duration to 4..10 seconds.
Resilient Weapon: decreased duration to 5..15 seconds.
Signet of Binding: functionality changed to: "You lose 200..50 Health. Gain control of target spirit."
Spawning Power: increased effect on Weapon Spells to 4% per rank.

As a primary attribute, Spawning Power lacked compelling reasons to put attribute points into it. Players also had little motivation to choose primary Ritualist over taking it as a secondary. By increasing the effect of Spawning Power on weapon spells and adjusting the skills to compensate, we hope to encourage Spawning Power for builds with weapon spells while toning down those spells for secondary Ritualists.

Spiritleech Aura: functionality changed to: "Skill. For 5..20 seconds, all of your spirits within earshot deal 5..20 less damage and steal 5..20 Health when they attack."
Spirit Siphon: functionality changed to: "The spirit nearest you loses all Energy. You gain 15..50% of that Energy."
Vital Weapon: decreased duration to 5..30 seconds.
Wailing Weapon: decreased duration to 3..9 seconds.
Warmonger's Weapon: decreased duration to 3..13 seconds.
Weapon of Shadow: decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.
Weapon of Warding: decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.

We split all binding rituals into PvE and PvP versions so that we could better balance them for PvE without negatively affecting competitive play. We drastically decreased all the cast times because it takes too long for a Ritualist to build an effective spirit base while keeping up with the rapid pace at which most parties move through PvE encounters. Spirits also tend to die quickly in PvE, where their low level and Health make them prime targets for the monster AI. So, to make spirits survive longer, we raised their maximum level by four. Certain binding rituals had a high Energy cost or lengthy recharge to balance their powerful effects for PvP. Since this kind of balance is less of an issue in PvE, we've adjusted the numbers on those binding rituals accordingly. We also reworked certain spirit-related skills and split the ones we feel could create a potential balance issue in PvP.

PvP Only

Elementalist
Savannah Heat: increased Energy cost to 15.

In Heroes' Ascent, Elementalists carrying Savannah Heat, Searing Heat, and Teinai's Heat have been prevalent in the meta for some time. While the numbers on Searing Heat and Teinai's Heat are at a good place for balance, Savannah Heat's Energy cost was clearly too low for its powerful effect in close quarters PvP. A higher cost should apply more Energy pressure to the build and slow down its damage output. Because this is an issue for PvP, we split the skill and only changed it there. Unlike other Energy management skills, Ether Prism has both damage mitigation and Energy gain with no downside, causing it to grow popular in all PvP formats. Increasing Ether Prism's recharge slows down the influx of Energy and brings it more in line with other Energy management skills.

Paragon
"Help Me!": functionality changed to: "For 1..10 seconds, you gain 5..50 Health and other allies' spells targeting you cast 50% faster."

PvE Only

Sunspear
Cry of Pain: functionality changed to: "Interrupt target foe's skill. If that foe was suffering from a Mesmer Hex, that foe and all foes in the area take 25...50 damage and -3..5 Health degeneration for 10 seconds."
Vampirism: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 4..14.

Cry of Pain's strength is the speed at which high amounts of damage can be dealt to big groups of enemies. By separating half its damage into Health degeneration, we make multiple copies of the skill not stack well and limit synergy with Visions of Regret (which often serves as the required hex to trigger devastating damage). This change is targeted at builds that use multiple copies of the skill to quickly spike down large groups of all difficulties. Vampirism has also had its casting time reduced and spirit level increased as part of our changes to binding rituals.

Ritualist
Agony: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Anguish: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; decreased Energy cost to 15; increased spirit level to 1..11.
Armor of Unfeeling: decreased Energy cost to 5. Functionality changed to: "For 10..35 seconds, your spirits takes 50% less damage and are immune to critical attacks."
Bloodsong: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Destruction: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Disenchantment: decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased Energy cost to 15; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Displacement: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Dissonance: decreased casting time to 1 second; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Earthbind: decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Empowerment: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Gaze of Fury: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Life: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Pain: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Preservation: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Recovery: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Recuperation: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Rejuvenation: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..20.
Restoration: decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..14.
Shadowsong: decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..10.
Shelter: decreased casting time to 1 second; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Signet of Creation: increased recharge time to 30 seconds. Functionality changed to: "For 5..30 seconds, your next 1..3 Binding Rituals cast instantly."
Signet of Spirits: increased recharge time to 20 seconds. Functionality changed to: "Create three level 1..12 spirits. These spirits deal 5..30 damage with attacks. These spirits die after 60 seconds."
Soothing: decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased Energy cost to 15; decreased recharge time to 45 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Union: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Wanderlust: decreased casting time to 1 second; increased spirit level to 1..12.
Weapon of Warding: decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.

Paragon
"Brace Yourself!": functionality changed to: "For 5..12 seconds, the next time target other ally would be knocked down, all nearby foes take 15..75 damage instead."
"Can't Touch This!": functionality changed to: "For 20 seconds, the next 1..5 touch skills used against allies within earshot fail."
"Fallback!": decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
"Find Their Weakness!": functionality changed to: "For 5..20 seconds, the next time target ally attacks, that ally also inflicts a Deep Wound and does 5..50 additional damage for 5..20 seconds."
"Go for the Eyes!": decreased recharge time to 0 seconds; increased chance to land a critical hit to 30..100%.
"Help Me!": decreased recharge time to 10 seconds. Functionality changed to: "For 1..10 seconds, you gain 15..90 Health and other allies' spells targeting you cast 50% faster."
"Incoming!": decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
"Never Give Up!": decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
"Never Surrender!": decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
"Stand Your Ground!": decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
"We Shall Return!": increased Energy cost to 25; increased recharge time to 30 seconds. Functionality changed to: "All party members in earshot are resurrected with 25..50% Health and 5..20% Energy."
Anthem of Disruption: decreased casting time to 1 second.
Bladeturn Refrain: functionality changed to: "For 20 seconds, target non-spirit ally has a 5..20% chance to block incoming attacks. This Echo is reapplied every time a Chant or Shout ends on that ally."
Blazing Finale: increased Burning duration to 1..7 seconds.
Defensive Anthem: decreased Energy cost to 10.
Signet of Return: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.

For the Paragon, we have split numerous skills so that we can restore the power to PvE versions that was lost in previous balance updates targeted at PvP. We also tweaked and reworked the functionality of a handful of skills to make them better suited for the PvE environment. These changes are meant to serve as a gentle reminder that the Paragon is an excellent support class, well-suited to the speed and mobility of PvE content.

AI Updates
The following AI updates apply to Heroes and Hard Mode NPCs.

Assassin
Heroes are more likely to use offensive Shadow Step skills before their Health reaches 50%.
Heroes will now use Black Lotus Strike against non-hexed foes when appropriate.
Dervish
Heroes are more likely to use Attacker's Insight during combat.
Elementalist
Heroes are more likely to use attunement skills during combat.
Mesmer
Heroes will now more appropriately use hex spells that require an interrupt to take effect.
Heroes will now maintain Mantra of Inscriptions both in and out of combat.
Monk
Heroes are more likely to scatter appropriately when affected by Ray of Judgment.
Heroes will now use Life Sheath to remove conditions out of combat.
Heroes will now use Boon Signet more frequently.
Heroes are now more likely to use Spotless Mind and Spotless Soul in conjunction with other hex and condition removal skills.
Heroes are now more likely to use Restore Condition if their target is suffering from multiple conditions.
Heroes will now use Dwayna's Kiss more frequently when hexes and enchantments are present on the target.
Heroes will now use Words of Comfort more frequently on characters suffering from conditions.
Fixed a bug where the AI only used Healing Burst as a self-targeting spell.
Fixed a bug where the AI did not recognize Unyielding Aura as a hard resurrection skill.
Necromancer
Heroes can now cast Lingering Curse off-target.
Heroes will now use Blood is Power and Blood Ritual on casters holding bundle items.
Heroes will now maintain Aura of the Lich in and out of combat.
Paragon
Heroes will now check if Angelic Bond is active on all party members before using the skill.
Heroes will only activate Angelic Bond if a party member is under 50% Health.
Heroes are more likely to use "Incoming!" outside of combat.
Heroes will only use Chest Thumper against foes that are suffering from Cracked Armor.
Heroes will now use "Never Surrender!" both in and out of combat.
Ritualist
Heroes will now use Resilient Weapon, Spirit Light Weapon, and Weapon of Warding to overwrite non-defensive weapon spells when the target's Health is at critical levels.
Heroes will now use Offering of Spirit more frequently and will now use it out of combat.
Heroes will now use Mending Grip as a self-targeting spell.
Heroes will now only use Brutal Weapon on targets who are engaged in combat.
Heroes will now cast Weapon of Quickening on spell-casting classes regardless of weapon type equipped.
Fixed a bug where the AI would not use Renewing Memories while holding a bundle item.
Warrior
Heroes are more likely to use Defy Pain at 95% Health to make better use of its damage-reduction feature.
Heroes will use "or Great Justice!" as is appropriate for their weapon type.
Heroes are less likely to overwrite Rush with other stances.
Heroes are less likely to overwrite Frenzy with other stances unless Health is low.

General

Fixed a bug where Heroes would not use zero-Energy skills when low on Energy.

Runs, Solo Farming, and Speed Clears

Players have long asked for our viewpoint on these ways of playing through content. For the most part, we think these are acceptable ways of playing Guild Wars but may occasionally take steps to increase their difficulty or even block a particular build. For instance, when it comes to Shadow Form, there is little concern about solo farming in most places; however, the speed clears of our most difficult content have become fast enough to warrant a more watchful eye. Over the coming months we will monitor these areas and, starting with Cry of Pain, make adjustments where necessary.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that would cause GvG matches to end in a tie if a Guild Lord died when the tiebreaker triggered. All Guild Lords will now become non-combatants when the match ends after 28 minutes according to the server clock. Note that this time may differ slightly from your client's timer.
Fixed a bug that prevented Depravity and Ether Phantom from displaying Energy loss.
Fixed a bug that caused Depravity to affect all nearby foes.
Fixed a bug that caused the following Ritualist skills to use an incorrect casting animation: Agony, Anguish, Empowerment, Gaze of Fury, Recovery, and Rejuvenation.

Miscellaneous

Xunlai Tournament Agents now offer prizes for the May tournament. These agents can be found in the Great Temple of Balthazar, Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center, and Kamadan.
Reduced the amount of wins needed for the base objective and second bonus objective on the Random Arenas Zaishen quest.
Increased the Zaishen Coin rewards for all Zaishen Mission quests and Zaishen Bounty quests.

The PvE-oriented Zaishen Quests were rewarding fewer Zaishen Coins than non-repeatable quests should. We have increased coin payout across the board to more appropriately reward players for completing these tasks. The objectives of the Random Arena Zaishen Quest required more time than was intended for its reward, so we lowered the required number of wins to complete the quest. Last week, we also reduced the rewards for the Hero Battles Zaishen Quest in response to players who were manipulating the outcome of matches to gain fast rewards. This lowered Zaishen Coin reward more accurately reflects the time it takes to complete the quest.

I'm liking this last sentence right here ^^^^


NINJA FENIX EDIT:

Note; Although the update says that Ray of Judgement's AoE was only updated to be recognized by Heroes and cause scatter, it is also now recognized as AoE and will cause scatter on all enemies.

was just about to post this awww well,

Heros will scatter for RoJ, which is aoe, will they scatter for other aoe as well?

YAY!!! SPIRIT CASTING TIMES ARE LESS THAN A SECOND!!

VoR NERRRRRFFFF!!!!!

Did they just un-nerf Rits and Paras?

Dear Anet:

I'll never yell at you again

Love, Axel

Looks like they have tried to make them more viable :P ,here's their explanation. Awesome , looks like i can finally roll that Ritualist i have been meaning to make for the last year


The major goals of this update are to balance certain overpowered skills, increase the effectiveness of Spawning Power, make Ritualist spirits viable in PvE, and increase the effectiveness of Paragons in PvE through the Command and Leadership lines.

Other than a few niche builds, the Ritualist and Paragon have had trouble finding a place in PvE. The basic concepts of these professions make them very strong in PvP and over the course of balancing them for competitive play, they've become underpowered or awkward to use in PvE.

The Paragon has a lot of strength as a support class where it buffs up the party by adding survivability and damage. In this vein, we've focused on the Command and Leadership lines in PvE and given them new utility while restoring some of their original power.

The Ritualist's primary attribute, Spawning Power, is a little underpowered and doesn't offer players enough of an incentive to play a primary Ritualist when they want to use weapon spells. We doubled Spawning Power's effect on weapon spells, an increase that should make it more appealing as a primary attribute and make the weapon spells of secondary Ritualists weaker in comparison. Ritualists use binding rituals to summon spirits which can either heal and protect, or deal damage and provide utility on the battlefield. The metered pace of building a base of spirits is balanced for PvP. In PvE, however, where the battlefield rapidly shifts ever forward, there is rarely time to establish a spirit base before the encounter is over and the party moves on, leaving the spirits behind. Drastically reducing the casting time of all binding rituals in PvE will give Ritualists ample time to summon spirits to each encounter. Also, the increase to the maximum level of spirits will help them survive longer during encounters.

We split all binding rituals into PvE and PvP versions so that we could better balance them for PvE without negatively affecting competitive play. We drastically decreased all the cast times because it takes too long for a Ritualist to build an effective spirit base while keeping up with the rapid pace at which most parties move through PvE encounters. Spirit also tend to die quickly in PvE, where their low level and Health make them prime targets for the monster AI. So, to make spirits survive longer, we raised their maximum level by four. Certain binding rituals had a high Energy cost or lengthy recharge to balance their powerful effects for PvP. Since this kind of balance is less of an issue in PvE, we've adjusted the numbers on those binding rituals accordingly. We also reworked certain spirit-related skills and split the ones we feel could create a potential balance issue in PvP.

Easy mode users got owned on almost every format.

Minus SF.

I like the update.

This was a good update. I'm happy.

While I love Ritulists updates but Signet of Spirits seemed to screamed "I am badass, abuse me!"

VERY NICE. My Ritualist is pleased.

<3 Thats all I have to say.

"Find Their Weakness"... Did I read that right? 5...50 ADDITIONAL DAMAGE and party wide deep wound

*staples*

Holy fast casting spirits Batman!

Wow.

Ritualist buffs. Just...wow.

I really picked the right time to start playing my Rit again <3

Update took forever, but damn that was one hell of one!

The brainless Mind Blast spam will never end

wonder how much more the zoin rewards will be? (like a percentage)

spirit spammers got majorly buffed, paras got their non-OP skills buffed (Find their weakness looks especially sweet)

Wondering if RoJ only causes hero scatter, or if they forgot to write in it causes enemy scatter too

Nice to see massive hero AI improvements, not like I'll ever notice though

glad to finally have my z keys

edit: reduced signet of return recharge will make some areas of the desolation very annoying, esp mobs with 2+ paras

overall, one of the best skill updates of all, though balancing rit and para, is not merely 5 weeks late, but years late

We love you anet....again

So they're basically saying "necros, go f*ck yourselves, you're no longer welcome in GvG"?

Nice.

Overall pretty good update. I like the buffs to Paragon and Rt since no one uses them; I might play my Paragon more now.

I don't really like what they did to Cry of Pain though. Visions of Regret I don't mind as much, but Cry of Pain is the ONLY way mesmers can get groups in PvE. Ah well...

*Edit : A few skills unchanged that suprised me... Mind Blast, Shadow Form, Ray of Judgement (although they fixed the scatter on heroes, so maybe it applies to all enemies as well). Also I remember hearing about an update to "Wells" spells eventually? Ah well, this was good enough for this update.

I agree with this statement..

Skill updates, they're awesome.

Zkeys, delayed by a week and the point distribution still screws up. Ton of people didn't get their points. Oh anet, you silly silly people.

Time to ride the paragon express! at least for PvE anyway

Signet of Spirits is beautiful.

As part of the update we are supposed to get Tourney reward pts.. well some ppl got them and some did not again >.<

IDK this is just getting routine. Well Im hosting a Arena Tourney and we were supposed to use the keys we get on our accounts as the reward but.. its been delayed a week and now idk how much longer >.>

Please cant this be done better?

Well, it looks like you can't really get by without Frozen Soil in the Desolation, now. <- In before the whining.

AI fixes are awesome. I don't understand the point of Signet of Creation with the faster casting spirits. Rits got their Togo PvE skill. =p

Too late tonight but first thing tommorow my new Ritualist is being made,Thanks for the great update guys,i have never even considered playing as a Rit or Para before tonight,
but it looks like this update changes that sad state of affairs :P

Good to know that you're ready to take steps against these speed clear builds that have been running rampant. Unfortunately, I think you are a little too late at this, since these have only been going on for almost a year now.

The Z-Coin boost for the PvE tasks is appreciated, and ought to make buying those more expensive packs a little easier. Looks like nothing but nerfs for the PvP community, unless you consider all those skill changes and Spawning Power to necessarily be "buffs". Rits should be a little happier in PvE, but I don't see how you've done anything for helping out Paragons in PvE when you didn't touch "SY!". Best you're gonna see in changes I think will be some one or two new skills on the Imbagon bar.

That was my first thought as well. Vanquishing that will be pretty entertaining I think...

Looks like my Rit and Paragon will see some action soon.

As soon as I replace the bad RAM in my pc, that is...

I was just thinking about that. "We shall return" is now an AOE rez, and interrupting Signet of Return isn't going to do much now that it's down to a 5 second recharge. The paragons in that zone have both skills.

Whoa, super spirit spam buff for pve only. makes me want to make a rit

Ritualists get a nice PvE buff.

RoJ is still going to dominate JQ.

Am I the only person happy about this? I missed using Vampirism on my Ranger.

Now to bring this up: Is the Norn Fighting Tournament TOO easy now thanks to the Ritualist Explosion?

Very happy. Plus the "leaked" notes I heard from somebody are accurate.

VoR mesmers can't/shouldn't stack backfire with VoR anymore.
CoP mesmers are now less effective and HM NPCs will scatter from RoJ, essentially killing SCs for now (hooray!). Can't wait to see the QQ from talentless scrubs who can't beat HM UW/FoW without gimmicks.
PS sins can still use their chain, but can't spam PS for extra pressure.
And ether prism eles nerfed (before I got a chance to try em though :-( )

Edit: And boost to z-quests is awesome, especially for the RA one. Although you couldn't have done that BEFORE I did all the Thinak Orchard missions. That was the easiest 70 zoins per character ever. I can't imagine how many that will award the next time around. This plus Warhammer Online 1.3 Land of the Dead and [Prototype] make me a happy camper in video game land this week.

so the week late update was cause of problem with the tourney house but yet a lot of people did not get any points what so ever and some got points on some accounts and none on others with same picks wth happen or is going on

Nice Fixes <3 but i did not get my points on one account

Shame they didn't fix RoJ, or SF, or Mind Blast, or any of those skills that people have been posting about.

Oh wait, Rit buff, that's totally a good enough distraction right guys?

Great, I can still run my secondary account everywhere with my perma . And my main on my secondary account (rit) just got a hell of a boost in PvE play. I'm a very happy player!

Wow interesting update

I especially love the part where I don't get any reward points even though I should.

We're currently looking into the issue with the points.

Why nerf CoP and VoR for pve...? Those were really the only two viable mesmer pve skills out there, and now they can't be used together, and CoP is pretty much smiter boon'd.

I knew RoJ would be nerfed but i really wanted SHADOW FORM nerfed... Kind of dissapointed.