Preliminary Skill Update Notes: Feb 19

^Quoted for truth. All of it. See, like Shoyon here, I'm a niche too. Mesmer Derv and Para are my 3 favorite classes. As I said earlier, I'd prefer as would most I daresay, that something viable that wasn't pure gimmick be done, and be done before GW2 came out.

Don't get me wrong, it may well be as Arkantos says, they may well be using a further split to put the flame of wtfpwn over them, but given that they haven't even thrown us a bone, it's hard to believe.

Just a bone. Just one measly, 50c at the butchers, bone. Is that too much to ask?

I'm excited about the update, yet in anotherway, rather dissapointed due to the small size of it.

+ This is why I should have been in the TK, because apparently none of them seem to have much clue what skills synergies there seem to exist. I'm going to save you the trouble of possible glitch/OP synergy, and just post it here:

Backbreaker, Sever Artery, Gash, Sun and Moon Slash, Steelfang Slash, Frenzy, Rush, Resurrection Signet.

Combined with Weapon Of Fury means indefinatly quarterknock.

In GvG, this related to 3 of those warriors being able to fully shutdown 3 enemy teammembers, aswell as doing big damage in the process. How did this get overlooked?


And then something that, apperently, got overlooked aswell is the Demonic Flesh update:

Exhausting Assault, Way of the Empty Palm, Demonic Flesh for lolAoE damage. (In PvE, if you run a 33IAS in the sin (agility), this will relate to +- 7 Exhausting Assaults per second. I ASSUME Demonic Flesh will do around splinter damage, as the intent is for it to get used by frontliners (So 35 damage seems balanced per attack skill), and that will result in upwards of 200 armor ignoring DPS.)

Or better yet:

Blinding Powder, Deadly Paradox, Demonic Flesh which will result in about 6 Blinding Powers per second. So that'll be around 180 DPS (Lifestealing per second I gues)



Anyways, just letting you guys know. You saw it here first . (And yes, I do find it sad in a way how I never every skill in GW like the back of my hand)

still.. no Derv update..

Fortunately you have more than 12 att points to throw around!

Ok, impressions:

The nerfs to SF and 600: Good. I will finally be able to say the words "balance" and "PvE" together in the same sentence without bursting out into laughter.

Nerf to OF? Hmmm...Interesting. It will remove one of the primary reasons to play an Elementalist, but since the other useful build they have (Ether Renewal healer) is so ungodly powerful it makes monks useless by comparison in most areas, it's not really a problem in my mind. Be aware, however, that by nerfing OF you will be unable to touch ER in the future without removing what is literally the only build the class has that is worth running.

Be very careful what you do to SoS. Due to their inferior energy management, the main reason Ritualists are still better spirit spammers than other classes (which is the really the only reason to use the class at all) is because of SoS. This particular tap with the nerfbat is fine (maybe even good) because it hits secondary rits just as hard. But if you ever want to nerf spirit spam in some way, make sure it hurts secondary rits more than primary rits. Otherwise they will become a useless primary once again.

I like the changes to Aggressive Refrain and Soldier's Fury, because they address people's concerns about heroes removing the Cracked Armor pointlessly, without removing the downsides of the skills.

Some of the other changes seem a bit unnecessary (I guarantee you, no one is going to be using Featherfoot Grace even after this change), while some of them seem interesting ("Fear Me!" and Heal As One, for example). And a couple of them strike me as having unintended side effects (Silverwing slash may open the door to even more HB+WA spam).

I'm worried about the Necromancer changes. To be frank, Necromancers are already overpowered due to their sheer versatility (MoP+AP, Minions, SS; that's more viable builds right there than some professions have at all!). And builds based on buffing physicals, who then deal as many damage packets as they can, are already pretty close to being overpowered in some cases (the Silverwing slash change may push this way over the edge).

I'm happy that you chose not to give assassins some buffs to try to make them feel better about the SF nerf, because they really don't need them. Even without SF, assassins are one of the most powerful classes in the game thanks to builds like MSDB and critscythe.

I'm confused as to why you chose to prioritize certain things here. Hammer warriors were already powerful enough in PvE (honestly, there's not that much blocking, and scythes are just as slow to swing as hammers), and Ritualists don't really need help. Sure, they don't have much that is worth doing besides spirit spam, but some classes don't even have that much.

Due to the uselessness of interruption, most conditions, and reactive hexes in PvE, Rangers and Mesmers each only have a couple of builds (of questionable usefulness) that are worth using (the only two I can think of for Rangers that other classes can't do better are Barrage+SY! and Barrage+GoForTheEyes!; and all Mesmers are good for is Fevered Dreams or combining AP with Arcane Echo and EVAS). Paragons too, have only one worthwhile build, and it centers around the synergy between TNTF and SY (the latter being a warrior skill).

And the dervish has absolutely nothing worth doing. Any decent dervish build can be done better by another profession (note that the avatars are not "decent"; their effects are either miniscule or useless, depending on the avatar). Scythe warriors beat the best dervish builds by almost 20 dps, while having more armor and no significant downsides. And Assassins beat dervishes by about 40 dps, despite the fact that they have to burn a PvE-only skill on IAS (and they can do it without even using an elite skill!). Even ritualists can use scythes better than dervishes thanks to Spirit's Strength.

I understand that you may already know all of this, and that you may prefer to prioritize the popular classes, but come on, at least give the dervish something he can do better than the other guys. And try not to forget about the other underpowered classes, either.

Interesting update planned. Some ideas I like like the ToV buff, a few I see nerfed, some of the tactics stances might be useful, but I don't see most warriors using them unless they help a warrior's DPS more than frenzy/flail. They could become cancel stances in pvp, but the benefits of rush/sprint especially if you are running a bull strike bar would be hard to pass up.

I'm inclined to believe the same thing. That or we'll receive some sort of "nerf" to SF (600/smite & Obs. too) that will ultimately not be much of a nerf. Aka like the previous update in which farming with sf was supposed to have been slowed down a bit.

I dont see the point in making a big fuss over SF anyway. Its been going on for quite awhile. Guild Wars is dying. Let people enjoy whatever little pleasure they still manage to get out of the game.


I STILL think the Live Team's resources would be better spent on helping build Guild Wars 2. (Am I still the only person that thinks its odd that Linsey decided to takeover GW instead of working on GW2? I mean for the most part I think people would agree that GW1 is old and busted. There's not much you can really do for it anymore.)

I'm not too thrilled about this upcoming update. I didn't expect any mesmer buffs (not that I never do anymore..) I was hoping for some Paragon loving but I guess not. Not much to look forward to. Want to see the SF/600 stuff but thats about it. I'm guessing holy wrath and retribution will receive some sort of nerfs

I'm quite shocked the Test Krewe hasn't leaked anything. (To my knowledge atleast...)

If by some you mean half assed along with a longer wait for the full update, sure. Mesmers aren't terrible, they're just unwanted in pugs because pugs fail, hard.

Also, primary rits suck. The only thing they're good at is spirit spamming and splinter barrage, and neither are super amazing.

So basically what you're saying is balance every profession or don't balance at all? Face it, if ANet tried buffing every single profession in PvE, we wouldn't have gotten this update for months. Balancing some things in one update is better than complete half assed balances for every profession, or no balancing at all.

Believe me, I don't usually defend ANet, but stop thinking they can focus on everything at once and pull off a good update. They focused on some professions/attribute lines that needed change, they changed them. They can't change everything at once.

First of all HAHAHAHAHA!
And then:
- Ancestors' is fabulous! Not only does it mean a damage increase for the players, it also means a nerf to all the blasted ritu baddies that use it!
- Hopefully the new Spirit Rift will cause the AoE flee effect! Once again, that would be a superb nerf to the monsters!
- My assassin will LOVE the change to Binding Chains. I am guessing it will be made even better by removing the "can't attack" clause? Well, "better" for the people that it's used on.

Oh and an interesting choice to buff Cripshot and then trash it the next month. Shows how thought through the changes were.

Edit:
If rits suck, then mesmers are terrible.
They are the dirt that rits place their spirits on.

Primary rits suck, yeah. Other than spirit spamming, a N/Rt can do pretty much everything primary rits can do, just better. Primary mesmers aren't super amazing, but they aren't terrible if you know how do use them. Yes, they definitely deserve buffs for PvE, but people need to stop acting like they're complete shit.

Maybe try reading the whole post and not one line, no offense. And nobody said to not have any skill balance at all.
Almost nobody uses Fevered Dreams (cruddy energy management with scattered groups and long lasting fights), AP, or SoH/Cleaner mesmers (niche).

So PvE-only one of the critical changes.

Maybe I missed something here. Won't Exhausting/Blinding Powder just go on recharge after you use it the first time? How are you managing to use skills with recharges multiple time sin the same second?

I do, however, agree that it looks OP even without your 7-skill-activations-in-a-second combos that I don't understand.

My full comments coming tomorrow.

They aren't complete shit, but most of what we have is someone elses, and that which we did have, was taken away from us first by Nerfing VoR senselessly for PvE when it was PvP where it was being griped about, then seconded by messing with Cry (I say messing, not nerfing ) which they should never have had to do if it'd been thought through and put in FC as a lot have suggested.

I'd go so far as to say that IMO when we still had the disgusting brute force of the VoR chain, when we actually were a wanted class, u know, u say VoR, they say "Ooohhhhh nice wtfpwn damage!!" Then we were a super amazing class in our own way. Anyone who says mesmers can't be about DPS would deny us that time in the sun as well.

As I said, they aren't complete shit. Far from it. You know that and so do I. Problem is getting the rest of the community to notice that, as well as at the same time not going out of their way to reduce the viability we do have.

Sure, there's plenty of builds for Mesmers that are sufficient enough to suffice, but a little shine for once would be far nicer than merely sufficient.

Im glad I did UW (SF) , Foundry of Fail (600) + Slavers Exil (Obby) in HM before these nerfes.

Once again ANet proves that their main concern is nerfing farming and not polishing their High End Content.
These above Areas will be a nightmare from now on for the majority.

GG no Re.

the hell i went through the list and no mesmer pve buffs

hammer looks like beefy fun

DWG is gunna be huge spammable damage for the rit

if the tactics change is also for pvp...
deflect arrows 75% chance to block for 5s at 9 tactics, with a 10s recharge. say hello to the new even better than pre-nerf disciplined stance.

thrill of victory as the new spike skill could be interesting

fear me! is back on iway bars for sure

retreat! on multiple team mates sounds godly...

blood bond looks good for pve physicalways

demonic flesh, see above, could also be used on manlyway spikes

i can't wait lol

No changes to mesmers and dervs? This reminds me of last year April's Fool
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Game_...0090401#Mesmer

Anyway... I cant wait to see the new Shadow Form. And I was especting a EDA pve revert...but I can live with that.

Considering that A-net has limited resources and that they can't do it all - choosing one's priorities should be a given.
So, when one needs to decide between working on warriors, ritualists, necros OR something like mesmers - which one should get the most urgent help?

If your description of the ritualist class is that it sucks, then the mesmer class needs to be described as terrible. While the rit may be a one trick pony, that's one more trick than the mule of a mesmer can do.
And to make matters worse - they decided to buff the options that were already better than the guy, making him even less desirable.

Well I'll have a good reason to use Hammer now. The SoS won't really do much to my vanquishing abilities cause the damage reduction is small, and the increase in other things will help out. So all in all I like it.

Actually, the wiki usually puts the numbers of any skill at an attribute level of 1...15. So if that's the case then 25 damage is at 15 channeling, so it's actually a difference of 7 damage. That's 21 damage per volley. Pretty significant.

And the thing with SoS recharge was that you didn't need to bring Summon spirits for it to work since the really short recharge meant that you could cast it pretty much wherever you want and it would synergize extremely well with feat of souls, spirit siphon, boon of creation, explosive growth, etc. which required you to constantly create and kill your summons.