Preliminary Skill Update Notes: Feb 19

well this disapointed me greatly...
they didnt even bother to tell us hwo they would change the MAJOR nerfs everyone wants to know( SF/600/smite and now Obi?(im sad about this one))
I liked alot of what they did w/ this but im still really ticked they are messing w/ obisidian flesh...(a.k.a say good bye to vaetirr farming and since stoneflesh armor is part of the obi build im going to say goodbye stoneflesh aura and raptor farming).

sad they are messing w/ my ele which i told them not to, but at least they are getting rid of shadow form.(also, just dont mess with eles.. they are really the only class i know alot of my ppl in my alliance play as... i dont want a dead alliance

Great news there, this update looks at least half amazing! Just shame that in all that extremely long time they didn't touch ALL important issues, so after this one there will be a great need for another one of just as massive proportions. Shortly: Mesmers and Eles (besides ER) in HM PvE are quite useless, Dervs could also use some love. And if you're hitting Obsidian Flesh then also look at solo rits being able to practically vanquish at least half areas in game themselves, completely unmatched by any other class (after sf nerf).

I like what I see so far. Blood stuff looks fun as does the pet/hammer/tactics stuff. people will stop whining when they find builds with the new toys on PvX. Then they will start complaining again as usual when they aren't getting as much money from the drops because everyone is running the same thing. Ahh the skill update cycle is so fresh before it's playable. I also love all of the whining about stuff that was said, "Isn't set in stone" yet.

Looks good actually.

Must be great to be able to set yourself up on a pedestal from where you may gaze around at your lands and followers and judge anyone with the slightest complaint or otherwise as "Whining". Did you ever stop to think that peoples fave classes, hell after 5 years probably their only reasons for still being in GW, actually matter to them?

Probably not, because when the time comes to get ticked and grizzle, it's only people like you with your unimpeachable holier-than-thou moral high ground that are deemed worthy to raise concerns, because obviously your whine is by far a finer whine than that of the common peons..

anet should just make cripshot a 1s recharge again. the fast arrow was borderline broken (longbow cripshot+high ground=spirit range snaring), while the slightly longer cripple duration really doesn't change much.

It nice that mesmers finally got some buffs after 5 years.




Oh wait..

Looking forward to the nerfs and buffs.

Why the SoS nerf? That made spirit spamming so much fun.

Firstly, wow, Anet surprised me, I was expecting another update anytime soon so this was good. Thank you Anet. Second, I only looked at the Rt's and nec updates but since I rarely play necs anymore the rt update just dwarfed the whole thing for me. But wow!!!! I am now very excited for this update and and whilst I will be missing shadow form, I won't qq for it (much at least) since I rarely play now anyways let alone farm. Also I think it will still be very use-able since they seem to not want to nerf it so as to make everyone 'migrate to another overpowered build', but just make it a little/lot less abuseable.

Really liking the changes so far with the warrior dealing with hammer and tactics.

Since this is a preview I wont complain NOW about the Mesmer only appearing in this skill list as a mention in a dervish skill nerf (and the metion was to a mesmer skill, not even the name "mesmer" itself is showing up there), but if A.net comes up in 25th with no mesmers changes or those nerfs in skills that nobody uses... Well I will honestly will be without words about the (lack) of competence in this company.

So please, please A.net, dont let me down on 25th and show me that i'm wrong in not believing you people.

Definately be playing around with some of these on my warrior and may even go grab a hammer for once and try bashing things instead of slicing them with a sword. Not much into the casters so can't say much about the changes to Blood magic.

Looks like there will be some new tanking builds for a warrior as well , should be some intersting things happening in Ft Aspenwood in the near future.

i actually quite liked and used tactics even tho many other wars don't... this will be even better fun woot. and please don't touch 600smite pleeaasseee.

oh and i agree with many others... 5 months only for this???....doh.

i think it's obvious they didn't mention what they were doing to those skills because they haven't fully decided what the changes are going to be. They still have a week to make final adjustments and such. Knowing this community, the last thing they want to do is say they're going to change x to y, then change it to z at the last second.

As for the whole 'it took 5 months' thing - you do realize that this isn't the only thing the teams been working on, right? Yeah, it's delayed, but it's not like it took them 5 months of only working on the skill balance 24/7 to do.

On another note, I'm sure the next thing the live team will address is dervishes and mesmers in PvE. They can't focus on everything at once, because when they try they take forever and usually fail.

Very detailed info. Except for the things people are concerned with. SF, 600/Smite, and of course a lack of info on anything for Derv and Mez..... but at least the stuff will shake things up some for a bit.

Balanced+Tank? Does not compute.

It looks funny i agree drunkard - even funnier when you think .. nerf perma and ppl migrate to 600/smite and obby so lets nerf all 3 at once and give test krewe another 5 month vacation till we do next nerf lol.

I have 1 question tho - anet nerfs 3 farming professions ( sin/monk and ele ) and on what skills they are nerfing and buffing - how comes 1 skill isnt touched but widely used ( or abused in anet terms ) in raptors ? yes im talking about mark of pain .
Are anet going to wait a month or 2 then kill w/n raptor farming as w/n and a/e are widely used there?
Btw w/n dont take offence im not anti w/n but surprised and shocked they are not being hit

all i got to say is that it's about time sf is gonna get nerfed and i hope it kills sf. since those perma runs the game got to easier for ppl and to many cry babies have shown up for thoses stupid fail speed clears. i am glad it's done witht eh sf runs and i sure do hope all the runners leave make hte game a bit more frendly then and you wont be able to jsut pay a runner thier will be teams once agian to do more stuff ppl will actually have to use some kinda of skill not just wait for the perma to do so. Cheers For anet

so, mesmer love in next six months? sure...
some now would be better than none for years.

i don't find rt buffs necessary at all, since rits already run spirits, splinter barrage (better than rangers...), resto, 330 and all kind of hybrids. and apart the fact that every class can run spiritmancer, i thought that rits were the most innerly balanced and playable class since buff to binding rituals.
seriously, have they needed a buff in high-end pve THAT MUCH so that dervs/paras/mesmers have to wait?