Update - Thursday, February 25, 2010

dunno why they touched obi not many people abused that like SF. i am sad to see 600/smite for monk messed up. and with murakai on the way ohboy i can see that run going for alot. if people can still run it. heck most dungeons will be hard to get runs for.

and i am also sad to see they messed with SoS i used that build to farm for nic and feathers. i dont main waiting for the recharge on it but i used it mainly to heal myself with the one rt skill. but still why no mes loving?

Those people wouldn't complete end-game areas for 'fun' if it wasn't the most profitable thing in the game to do.
The rich people are always going to be the people who spend their time trying to acquire money, regardless of how they do it.

I lol'd. Of all the things which might have been changed... someone picked this.

This isnt entirely true....

woe spreaders are still obtainable
raptors are still farmable with other builds
i farm feathers without sf or obby flesh or 600/smite
i farm traveler items with any of my characters (heroes dont kill the rates that bad)
ecto farming wasnt really killed with the skeles ... just made more difficult, and still possible


that being said, about the only thing i didnt like about the update was the 600/smite nerf and the obby flesh nerf... SF was getting boring... but now we gotta work with a diff tank build... other than that the update is great... back to fun times on gw

Wow there is just so much fail here...


At first I'll admit I was a bit upset at the nerfs, more so 600/smite than SF, but I really don't think this will change the way I play much.

SF now leaves several build oportunities that I'm looking forward to trying this weekend. Also looking to try some of the OP blood skills.

Glad I'm in a good guild that has worked on many balanced way dungeon, DoA, FoW teams. All that time spent not doing a typical SC sure wasn't wasted.

I wonder if other changes will be coming - UW skeles and spawns, different ways to gain faction, para and mes buff?

Is there anything SoS can't handle? >_>

So glad Anet decided not to buff steelfang.

Sad about the fear me buff. Critscythe just got kicked out the meta. And dervishes got spat on. Now the build that makes the entire class redundant is even MORE powerful.

Also, yay! SF and 600 can no longer anally violate PvE with foreign objects!

I dont mean it should be such a quick clear. The problem is, twofold, you have to spend a long time in there to maximize drops, and even then, they are so bad you would make more money farming feathers. Other than the trophy and personal accomplishments, if you like truly rare(not so dime a dozen drops) you have to take masochism to another level. Also, 4h and some other things are extraordinarily stupid when your not using some form of invincible build.Elite areas are the ultimate "Ok, I gotta go to work. Sorry guys" areas, in that after so much time, people just dont give a damn. Add to the fact you cant even bring in henchies, and most of them suck. Dungeons are ok for NM clearthroughs for fun, but the end chest needs to be quadrupled at least(4 drops NM, 8 HM).

Shadow Form will be change in the next skill update. At the moment there is a problem with Shadow Form. (I'm not saying that Shadow Form will be changed in the way it was before, actually i think there will be a single thing changed). I'm surprised that the test team didn't noticed this.

Funny nobody has realized Feather Farming got nerfed. Not because you can't farm them, many builds still work, but they were used mostly for Essence, which was used by..... SF permas. I see a drop in feather prices coming since fewer people will be making Essences. I definitely see a shift to Warrior+Necro teams. Hundred Blades and the new hammer skills (Crude+Earth Shaker) combined with some of the new Blood skills looks OP.

this really isnt a nerf, doasc is still possible just without sf tanks

Anet you suck, you don't even listen to the community. Everyone said this was a bad idea and you do it anyway. Nice job showing people you could care less what we think.

Finished UW in HM 56 minutes. Missed the screen because I DC'd but I'm sure someone got it. HAHA! Rt/Me triple EVAS bombers ftw.

Sounds like the new tank and spank is just a A/Mo or Mo/? tank with a bunch of Rit spikers using the new A-rage. Could take some Rt/Me chars to echo chain a-rage for a ton fo quick armor ignoring AoE. Might even be close to as fast as Cryway was for less energy. All you'll need is for the tank to ball em up nicely.

Just off the top of my head...

A/E running SF, Dwarven Stability, Dark escape (to be perma up) with a barrier bonding monk will make for a pretty effective tank, leaving room for some e-management and snares on the sin (and sliver armor even). Barrier bonder can (if done correctly) chain aegis to help out the sin a little more, reduces damage to sin greatly, dark escape halves what's left (yes it even stacks with prots I've checked before).

The rest can be random nukers/healers but a-rage seems to be the better option thanks to the OP buff.

What I've described is probably not even close to optimal, but I'll bet the over all idea is sound enough to allow SCs in a lot of places (skeletons in UW may still prove to be a problem but maybe with a BiP and HB the tank can tough it out?). Any, as I said just off the top of my head. Good hunting.

Apparently as a spell it had too much synergy with the new "powerful" barbed signet...

15% sac for bleeding. Yeesh... I wish I had some of what the live team has been smoking.

Hey Anet, thanks for proving you favor Warriors.


Let's compare shall we?
Keep in mind that 33% Adrenaline is not a lot and that Leadership is one of the worst attributes in Guild Wars. Almost all of the skills in that line are useless when compared to other professions skills.

Soooo.....

Demonic Flesh wasn't the overpowered skill I was expecting. Basically only viable on meleemancers.

Blood Bond is even more overpowered than originally described.

Auspicious Parry is lolwut overpowered. Not only does it give you the adrenaline when you cancel it into Frnezy, it gives the the adrenaline when you simply renew it! I can't imagine this was tested properly. Nor can I imagine it will stay for long.

Earthshaker animation is cool.

Renewing Smash is very nice.

Soul Twisting and Ritlord are both good enough to bring back the old Ritlord builds.

I've got a lot of stuff still to test.

Hmm.... Interesting statement and exactly the point. I do have a few questions to pose for those that want to nerf every build out there.

1. Did you ever try and learn the character and build that you hated so much?
2. Do you remember the cost of things back when the game first came out?
3. Have you been ran to a location, through a mission, quest or dungeon by said offending character?

I created a sin as my main character and had to switch to monk because of the unpopularity of the sin except to beat Shiro. Luckily I had guild mates that let me go with them as a sin but was told if i die they would not res me. (this was pre-Hero) The price of items such as sup vigor and absorption where way off the charts 75 to 125k depending, ectos unobtainable by the average gamer as well as many of the other rare items in the game. Those with rare items for sale couldn't pawn there wares due to extremely high prices. (now post-update the super rich gets mega rich) If you answered yes to any of number 3 (tisk tisk) you should be ashamed of yourselves. You have jumped on the hated band wagon and forgotten the survivor that was ran through the desert and elona's reach to do augury rock for the 50k in exp., the dungeons in hard mode to get max titles in GW:EN, or the run to Droknars to get that armor you wanted as well as to by-pass most of Prof to get to the end of the game.

All I am saying guys before you call for the mega nerf think about what you are doing to others in the game that help you do the things that you want to do or keep the price of things down so you can buy them. When a SC build or farm build is killed then you ultimately hyper elevate the prices of items in the game.

Please understand this isn't meant to flame anyone or to start one. I just wanted to point out some things that I have been thinking. Thank you for your time and be safe in your journeys.

P.S. Before the "newb", "nub", or "noob" name gets dropped here is a little about me. The monk I told you all about has 27 titles and working on the last 3 over the past three years going on 4. All of which have been the free titles except the last four and trying to get those without much plat output, but going to be harder to do now. Yes, I played the game and have been willing to learn new builds and game play. I also have every prof, of which, most have completed at least 2 campaigns some 3 plus expansion.

Yes, HB+WA+Demonic Flesh=scary.

I hate to say it, but it's now looking like these sorts of builds are becoming overpowered.

Also, to those who are looking at D/Ns: Sorry, but 10 or so AoE damage per skill use does not justify the amount of attribute points you have to sink into blood to do it. Remember, you still need energy to spam attacks to make use of it (wind prayers), scythe mastery for scythe damage , and mysticism for IAS (Heart of Fury). Plus your damage boosting PvE skills. After all that plus demonic flesh, you wont have a lot of attack skills anyway, and they won't be spammable enough due to recharge to make Demonic Flesh a worthwhile options versus what dervishes already have.

Unless there's something I'm missing here.

It's funny. I keep seeing quotes like this, along the lines of GW is dying or already dead, yet shock horror it keeps on going. by rights, with the amount of times this has been said, we should not be playing Guild Wars anymore because it would have been dead a year ago and the plug pulled already....

I have to say I am surprised. I expected to come on here and the Wiki feedback and see it full of QQ. A couple on the wiki and one persistent one here aside, the overall feel is actually positive, or at least to me it is.

For the Naysayers complaining about the SC kill, all I can say is this: It is called 'Elite' for a reason. It isn't supposed to be something you bomb out in <1h each day, it is something that is supposed to challenge you and you put aside time for every now and then. With the lack of attention for so long, I think it has made some players soft and accustomed to getting things easy. Some will now try and say it is a grind. You want a grind, try and get a level done over 50 in Deicide Online or some of the other games out there.

As for some things from the update:

Damnit Anet, now I need to redo my Hammer build (that I only made a couple of weeks ago). Also new Earth Shaker animation... Booya!

HaO... still wont make it onto my bar. Rampage as One is decent enough for healing for me, and unless you make some non-elite version of Strike as One or allow us to have 2 elites HaO will probably see the light of day on my bar.

SoS... What nerf? so it takes 10 seconds more to recharge (which is only bad if the spirits die quick), and the damage reduced... there are still 3 of them dealing damage, so lots of yellow numbers going off quickly

Some interesting things there, may play around with them (Hammer re-build time) but yeah, good to see the borderline invincible skills get reworked.


Sidenote: has the pool started for the next SC formulation? I am betting 3 days - 1 week

Don't need a SC for that. Just plain easy RAPTOR FARM already blows any sort of balanced clearing of "elite" areas out of the water, and even more during a special event.


Not really. Feather price goes down because of lack of SF, but without the speed clear the area becomes a nightmarish slow for pugs and frustratingly slow for most guilds, so they also get less drops from the "elite area". So in the end everything balances itself out, and solo farming is STILL by far the better option.

Thankfully I already got everything I want by truly "abusing" those skills for 2 months while Anet drag their heel. So no biggie for me anymore, I can retire this game easily knowing that I have maxed out everything without hellish grind and is assured whatever they give in GW2.

With the pressure gone I can just log on less frequently to fool around with my guild.

Haha great minds think alike. The moment I saw the new ancestral rage update I instantly grabbed my guild and easily got sub 1hr time again, apparently Risus' guild did too. The new SF can still become an invincible tank with a 55 A/Mo, which was my main reason for liking it in the first place...hopefully pugging would stay alive with this.

This is great. The more pug friendly builds the better, if only to see some of the people on this forum goes mad. Readying some popcorn for the impending whining about ancestral rage (and demonic flesh)

I'm gonna say one day. Two at the very most, but I really doubt it'll take that long.

Waits for a skill update that favors Paragons.

In my opinion this update was utter rubbish for PvP. Seeping Wound assassins everywhere, same necros everywhere. Anet has just destroyed the little left diversity left in Guild Wars. What the heck were they think adding a snare and 30 dps to a sin. I thought sins were meant to spike, that isn't spiking. It's basically a new IoP. And on that subject ritualists have become insane with their new degen hexes. Giving daze to a hammer warrior? In the preliminary update it was said that the hammer changes and ritualist changes were mostly for PvE. How did it get into PvP?

If someone from Anet is reading this tell them from me that you're all a bunch of tards. As someone has said, I don't care about GW2 at the moment I care about Guild Wars now.

I'm also extremely vexed at the change to BB but that's because I love to run BB sins.

Hah...you kidding?

Holy crap renewing smash is overpowered.
If you KD a foe with 3-4 seconds kd (stonefist gloves or backbreaker) and have ias you can get off 5-6 renewing smashes while they are KD by spamming it producing initial kd attack damage + around 400 damage damage plus 15-18energy.

too bad its pve only, try it out in isle of nameless, kd a target then spam renewing smash.

course it is rubbish for PvP. you got most of your update a month ago, which was going to be with this.

I've been having a blast with the new Rit updates. Ritual Lord and Soul Twisting are awesome, and so is Gaze From Beyond, Renewing Surge, Binding Chains, and Dulled Weapon.

no

Spear Swipe needs to be a aoe skill and causes daze on every foe u hit

No way, it needs to be an echo that dazes anyone you hit.
Reapplied when shouts/chants end on you.

Meh, SF is still "usable" which means people people will still try to run it rather than moving on to some more innovative sort of playstyle. 4/10 For effort.

Wow, epic fail post. Ever heard of a Mist Form build?

this was the update i waited 6 months for? It doesn't even stop DOA SC, actually it makes it easier.

Loving this earthshaker thing. Great job just for that. Well that and SF.

Finally gameplay.

Regarding Hammer warriors and KD in PvE - Large enemies don't knock down. Just something to think about if you're rolling hammer.


Overall though, there's a thumbs up from me for this update

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!??!?


The rest:
Ahh, that's my A.Net.
Thanks for not letting me down.
I mean the players bitch about overpowered crap for ages, and then when it's finally trashed, you guys overbuff other stuff to compensate.
And then people wonder why it's so easy to predict that we'll have a new trinity/Ursan/SF in a few months.

Those skills are now the same for both PvE and PvP? So, remove the PvP version.

Ahhh, I thought it was a new way to Smiter's Boon stuff!

Yes but they don't lose the energy unlike before ever been up Snake Dance on castor as well the up keep time is decreased.This also effects 55s and 105s that ran it no more UW for 55,SS/SV Monk and Necros.