Last skill update was in February...

Demonic Flesh has become one of the most useless skills ever: would be great for a warrior but is crap for a magic user. Roll it back the way it was intended originally: to give magic users a health buff!

Question: I see people laughing at the guy who's saying GW is balanced after the last update. Um...why? Save for complaints about Bsurge being a little too powerful, and the usual whining about getting hex stacked in RA as a warrior, I haven't seen any real complaints from the PvP-ers since the last update. Imo, it's the most balanced that it's been since Nightfall's release. What else needs to happen (besides, yes, VoD or some other way for GvG to end)?

If you were using the skill on a caster before the change, you were failing. Devoting a skill slot to a +hp skill is so useless for a caster, particularly a blood magic user who sacrifices percentages of his max hp to fuel spells, it's just silly. At least now it has a function. Plague touch is pretty useless for a primary necro too, but we have these things called "secondaries" which really are great...

Stagnation and balance are quite different. What anet has done is remove some of the most animated parts of the game (farming/runs).

Learn to expect nothing, then you will never be disappointed.

I know this is riverside, but still, the thread replies really hammer home how dead PvP is.

SW boon and some blood tweaks normally wouldn't be too much to ask, but I bet they will still be pushed aside. Beyond that I'd say GvG balance is actually relatively decent, and tiebreaker change is the shakeup that's really needed.

Make DWG work for all elemental spells so eles can use it?

I agree with the 'gw is now balanced' comments, in general. Nothing too OP or underpowered going on I think. Sure, there are classes that are played less than others, but that's more because of the nature of the class than because of how the class can perform the role they should primarily be doing.

Paragon, Mesmer, and Dervishes, gogo.

I don't know if I quite agree with you, maybe with the exception of dervishes. Paragons can do what they should do fine, that is shouting, chanting, party supporting, and dealing some damage. Mesmers can do what they should do excellently, that is interrupting, hexing, in general being a pita for the opponent.
They shouldn't be buffed just to become damage dealers that can be compared to other classes in DPS. That's just not the nature of the role those classes should play. Now Dervishes are a little underpowered, yes, but that is mainly because of their smaller selection of skills. You could buff those I guess.

The problem with the dervish is that there is no reason to choose a Dervish over an A/D or W/D as they deal far more damage and Mysticism is lackluster at best.

Paragon have one decent build, Imbagon, if this build did not exist, you would never see a paragon in any Elite PvE area. Their damage is outpaced by rangers and shouts can only help so much.

Just so you all know, it's not really the class that is at fault, its the way that the game is designed. Mesmers are a very well done class, but PvE does not require you to interupt skills. All PvE is, is being able to deal the most damage in the shortest amount of time, or being able to reduce/heal the most damage for the longest amount of time. Anything that falls outside of this is not required, and the only way to fix this would be a major game overhaul which is not going to happen.

mumbles ...something something pve mesmers
mumbles ...something something pve necros
mumbles ...something something pve ...

or something..

Motivation is soooo stinkin bad that no one ever says it needs a buff. That Attribute is like a neglected kitten.

Mesmers could do with a few extra aoe skills to be fair - i think all other professions have quite a few aoe skills.
If you used pvx wiki ( bad choice as we know they like only elite builds etc ) and checked guru archives on mesmers there hasnt really been a huge amount of mesmer primary builds - 2ndry mes probably every profession has builds for it.
Give mesmers a chance to show they can be as usefull as say a 100b war or a mm rather than a backline player who as someones said already is annoying to foes.
Would be fun to have mesmer skills that sort of does things like make a foe unable to attack or cast for a sec or two - like a sort of stun rather than backfire and empathy.

TBH, I would rather them focus on the new content for the 5th Anniversary (I have a feeling this White Mantle/Shining Blade thing will be part of it) rather than work on the skills, because it actually brings something new to the game, however...

A) I think we will probably get an update in May
B) umm didn't the last one arrive shortly after the CNY festival? there could be a skill update this month, you never know.

personally, I am going with A, but I dont think there will be the wait this time around

Judging from the live crew latest work, no update is a good thing.

Now I'm puzzled lol! I've use this spell before the change in a lot of caster builds, and the +100-180 health they got saved a lot of my casters in HM from instant deathspike. Who said they sacrifice health? That is only 1 of the Blood magic features. The skill was very useful to overcome a spike, buy some time to heal, and finish off the opponents...

You were wasting skill slot. Sorry. DF was pretty much weakest of self-preservation skills.

not to mention that self-only casted selfish preservation skill is not really good idea and if you found yourself seeing it making regularly difference, something else was very, very wrong.

Paragons can only shout and party support by shouting. Chants are best left to heroes and damage isn't that great, since, well.. imbagon makes 1-monk parties possible post-Ursan.

Doesn't mean that it's useful.

Interrupting in PvE? Good luck with bosses or HM or HM bosses.
Hexes are useless in PvE. Monsters have unlimited energy to remove them, and bosses shrug off hexes and conditions.
Being a pain in the ass? AI doesn't have an ass.

Everything, from damage and healing to party support is better done by other classes, who either have more useful primary attribute or better skills in general.

Not sure of the details, but I expect a mes buff (pve at least) along the lines of the more recent rit buffs that took rits from rarely played to ubiquitous.

*hoards elite mes tomes and crosses fingers*

I'd expect discord to get whacked, a bit of a tone down on splinter weapon maybe, AP to work with sin skills only and the good old dartboard to come out.

Get ready to fear chaos storm