Swirling Aura got tone down, fair or not fair?

Recently when I use my Water Elementalist. I realize the spell Swirling Aura got tune down.

The spell allow caster block or evade magical projectile and arrow attack with 75% success rate. At Water magic 16, it has 21 sec duration and horrible recharge time (60 sec)

Now... GW secretly adjust the spell from 75% evade rate to only 50%! I was suspecting a bug, because GW never formally announced the changed for this specific spell. Hence I reported... and I get the reply of they adjusting this spell for in-game fairness? And they suggest me to post up a topic here discuss with other online player, hence here I am.

I'd totally disagree with GW, as I know a lot of people are complaining about Water magics are overly underpowered. While I wouldn't fully agree with them. Because I find water have acceptible dmg output + function.

However, this Swirling aura spell.... even with 75% blocking rate, it has horrible recharge time, and I don't even think the spell have actual 75% evade rate.... not to mention a lot of people don't have Max Water Attribute points, so the duration is quite short. (Max duration = 21 sec)

Now GW even lower the blocking rate to 50%? With the 60sec recharge time and short-duration protection.... I'm a bit confused as how GW see this spell over-powered before. (As it really wasn't.... and I even suspect the spell never give u 75% evade rate before... as I still got arrow attack very often when I cast that spell)

I'd love to hear any GW in-game Water Elementalist giving me some opinions (please be polite even if u think it's fair, thanks)

Its not that all water magic skills are bad. Its that most of them are bad.

There are many that are very good (even overpowered) I think you may have found one. Everyone else is nerfed for balance...and I would have thought that water was safe...but then again...I hate elementalists

They went and gave it a nerf? Seriously? Goddamn it wasn't that amazing in the first place. It was decent yeah, but only worth it in certain situations even. We've got skills that block attacks in general with a 75% rate that are harder to get rid of than an enchantment, why in the world would they nerf it? I think you're right, there was no need to tone it down with such a huge recharge time on it. Go figure. I don't play an elementalist all that much but I still never had problems with it.

More than anything I'm irked that they left it out of the update notes. Every time I notice something that's been changed and isn't listed in the notes I complain about it, and they always say "We don't change anything we don't list." And still they leave things out of the update notes. They shouldn't do that. Rawr.

While I don't think they should've changed swirling aura, I don't so much mind it---if only they would've put it in the update notes!

While water is already underpowered enough, yet they still try to nurf down some water spells.

I think their might be a amazing build lurking in there, might be a discorvery like the Invinci build :O.

The question is whether the description was inaccurate, and it was really only 50% all along, or they actually changed it.
More importantly, since they changed it, they could have at least made it less confusing referencing, 'magical projectiles'.
Having tested it myself multiple times [including now, vs ice imps spamming ice spear], it does NOT aid against projectile spells in any way, which leaves wand/staff attacks. They could easily change it to a catch-all, "projectile attacks", which would entail arrows and wands/staves, but not spell-based projectiles.

I thought there would be no adjusting until after the GWWC is completely over. I think that's what Gaile said in the latest talk. If this is true, my trust in Anet is seriously damaged.

My guildie found a very powerful hydromancer build....I will never underestimate water again...

Considering that AFAIK no other skill balance changes have been made, I'm more inclined to believe that the skill was always 50% and the description was simply wrong. It'd be very far from the first time that has happened.

I'm with Mercury Angel on this matter of confusion. Skill descriptions have a notorious history of being inaccurate (For Great Justice, anyone? They fixed that one not too long ago...), so it could just be that it was 50% all along. I never actually thought it was 75% evasion when I used it... I always seemed to get pecked at while those evading rangers never seemed to get hit.

So before complaining about ANet, how about we first determine for certain that the skill itself was changed?

If Mercury Angel's right and it only blocks "projectiles" then I'd say the skill was underpowered to begin with, hell rangers and warriors and other classes already have skills that block 75% of all attacks, but this only blocks "arrows"? What the hell? Perhaps by magical projectiles it doesn't include wand/staff attacks, but does block against things like flare, ice spear, etc?

No, "magical projectiles" refers to wanding, i.e. it blocks any 'attacks' that are projectiles. It does not block projectile spells.

Well than that's just absolute bollocks and it should've been left as it was, in my humble opinion. We've got skills that block attacks as a whole, skills that block 75% of all attacks projectile and melee that are stances (harder to remove typically than enchantments), but we can't have a simple enchantment, that blocks 75% of some of the weakest attacks in the game? Pfft. I want to know what this massively awesome build was, because from my end I see no reason to have nerfed it, really.

Go figure.

It's got a 2 second cast time as well doesn't it, compared to instant stances on other characters...

This is annoying if it's been reduced, especially after Obsidian Flesh got it's cast time knocked down to 1 second, yet Mist Form still stays at a 2 second cast time. And Obsidian Flesh is for most occasions significantly better...

First of all, I'd like to thanks for all the replies I've got here.

Secondly, I must agree with Mercury Angel on her reply. As I did suspected Swirling Aura never actually gave us 75% evade chance toward arrows and magical projectiles. About the term magical projectiles, my understanding = wands/staff attacks? I've never tried to use it agasint spell like Ice Spears or Stone-daggers etc.

Then I agree with Piexags!!! This spell was underpowered at the very first place. It has long recharge time, and yes 2 sec casting time, short duration and ONLY prevent arrows and magical projectiles *which "probably means wand/staff attacks* While other classes has ""hard-to-remove"" stance that has 75% evade chance on any in-coming attacks. Like I said, I'm confused on how GW view this spell over-powered.

The only reason that I could guess.... probably becoz of the newest Tomb Farm. Water Elementalist can use Swirling Aura to prevent Wand/Staff attack hence (no finger of choas effect) But still no idea why GW intended to weaken this spell.

I'd totally agree with Poison Ivy, as I'm sure a lot of people expect a boost on Water Magics yet GW went on and nerf this spell. Which probably even discourage Elementalist using Water spells.

And at last... I must agree with Piexags again, as why GW has to "Adjust this spell without a formal spell-adjust-list*?? THIS MAKE ME VERY UNCOMFORTABLE! Sorry for the Cap-letter, but as a faithful GW Water Elementalist player, I like GW formally announce spell-adjust IF they must change anything! WhY DO IT SECRETLY?? If Mercury Angel was right, then GW should announce something like "Oh Spell Swirling Aura was fixed to the "ACTUAL" evade 50% rate"!!!

Fem-Ter even post up the common of how Gaile Grey said there won't be spell-adjust until later? I didn't even knew that, if I knew I'd wrote my concern to GW along with my previous email.

At last, Guardian of Light, can you tell me your guildie wonderful Water build? Mine is Maelstrom, Water Trident, Ice spike, Deep Freeze, Frozen Burst, Water Attuntment. Mixture with Monk's Smiting Power such as (BAL-AURA) ! I snare enemies with water hex then cast Bal-Aura on warrior ally for good combo dmg! (Same combo with maelstrom) Use Water Trident on any target who try to flee away. (With water magic 16, Smite 8, Energy 11)
Please share ur guildie's wonderful build ok Guardian of Light !

I do not believe that we have changed or "nerfed" any spells. I was told we would not touch skill balancing until after GWWC, unless we found a bug. As you are all aware, there are skills that require some seroius rebalancing, and we've left them untouched for three months. Why would we step in and adjust this one? I makes no sense at all. And if it makes no sense, then doesn't it stand to reason that it didn't happen?

I can ask the team about it, but I do believe that (1) we haven't changed the skill and (2) we haven't changed the description, either. Maybe you misremembered the description? Or maybe we did make a change to correct the skill description and forgot to post it? We're human, it's possible we did forget to record the text update. The thing is, we have posted so many minor changes in wording, it seems highly unlikely we wouldn't post this one. And certainly it wouldn't be an intentional omission.

As I said, I'll check. But unless I learn a change was made and I have more info to share, I will leave it with the assumptions I've made above and may not post back on this particular thread.

Ah, the old jedi mind trick.... this skill has not been nerfed (waves hand in a jedi like gesture) - perhaps you misremembered the skill - yes thats it... (waves hand again).

Perhaps its a good thing that its not a stance but an enchantment? You can use it in combination with a stance. If you're sick of those pesky interupt rangers then use mantra of resolve and stick this puppy on top. The swirling aura will block a considerable amount of arrows, thus reducing damage and minimising the energy lost through mantra of resolve (especially with low inspiration).

Hmm... If this skill did get nerf, that would be a shocker to me.

I did use this before for chest run in FoW (water ele runner! woot!!), those shadow ranger still will kick my butt regardless. I dropped this skill after the first 3 runs.

It being a enchantment is worst than it being a stance. If it was a stance, I would have kept it in my line. Stance = no cast time + only one kill in chapter 1 can remove stance (one of the reason that distortion is so over used in GvG).

[QUOTE=Gaile Gray]I do not believe that we have changed or "nerfed" any spells. I was told we would not touch skill balancing until after GWWC, unless we found a bug. As you are all aware, there are skills that require some seroius rebalancing, and we've left them untouched for three months. Why would we step in and adjust this one? I makes no sense at all. And if it makes no sense, then doesn't it stand to reason that it didn't happen?


Hello Dear Gaile Gray,

Thanks for replying me here. However, the spell WAS truely describe as 75% before. There are other sites which state the same 75% evade rate as well, because they probably didn't aware of how GW adjust this spell without a formal in-game update announcement.

I have special passion on playing as Water Elementalist since the game released in Canada. (Last year May) And it's been like half year or longer ever since I acquire this Water spell. How can I make a mistake on the evade %?
I even check back ALL the spell adjust list and I didn't see any noticed.

Furthermore, GW support team REPLY my emails by saying the """RECENT spell Swirling Aura was changed as intended!""""" <<< this phrase is clear enough to everyone isn't it? It's been adjusted.... and they claim it's adjust for in-game fairness. I can post up the exact email, if anyone need a prove.

Link from Guildwiki with spell description: http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Swirling_Aura
For 8...18 seconds, Swirling Aura has a 75% chance to "block" arrows and magical projectiles.

Interesting.

The skill is such a horrendous pile of yak dung that I wouldn't be surprised at all if the skill never worked properly but no one ever noticed. I doubt there was anything intentional involved.

Peace,
-CxE

I'm personally more inclined to believe the skill description was wrong, and got corrected recently. Perhaps during the multitude of description adjustments right before the PvP weekend?

I always hated that one, 60 second recharge times are nasty :P

Gaile. We're NOT making this up. Go check our own skill listing if you must, it was recently updated so all the information in it is correct. Heck, go check every skill listing currently in existance. They all say 75% because that is what the skill listing said up until now.

If it never worked correctly and it was always a silent 50% even though it said 75%, wouldn't the more logical way of changing the skill be to actually make it so that it blocks 75%? ie. fixing a bug instead of quietly nerfing?

hi

by exactly the reason of logic that is bunk.

lets see now.............

it does 50%

it was intended to be 50 %

the description was wrong to begin with at 75 %

changing the skill description to reflect reality of what it does and what was intended is not nerfing.

nerfing is making the skill less powerful not correcting the description of it

Why, yes, you're right! The description change --judging from existing databases and skill listings -- is uncontrovertible, so there's one thing cleared up. (Silly me. ) I have the question out to get a full answer, and I think I can post the details today. Thanks so much for the detective work and patience while we figure this one out.

Like I said it earlier... "IF" this spell was actually only 50% evade rate all along for like 8 months or longer... THEN... Guildwar should at least make an update notes for everyone! And if they must fix it now, why can't they fix it to the actual 75% rate? The fact is fact... the spell describition wrote it CLEARLY as 75%, and all the sites I checked gave us the same info! (those are newly updated info)

I must reiterate, I've got the email from support team SAYING the RECENT change of spell swirling aura was INTENDED!!! And I don't get it why it was intended... as someone mentioned, this spell start off underpowered. Furthermore, they promised not to change anything for awhile, why change this spell quietly?

Essence Bond used to only say trigger on physical damage in its description, but everyone (well, at least GuildWiki) knew for the longest time that it triggers on both elemental and physical damage. Anet never made a special announcement specific to the Essence Bond skill when they changed its description to now reflect what it really does (trigger on physical and elemental).

So by your logic, Anet should change Essence Bond to work only on physical and not elemental damage, as its old description used to say? I bet you'll get more angry monks at this nerf than happy elementalists at boosting Swirling Aura to 75%.

Yes, the description used to be 75% is a fact. The promise that no skill balancing is also a fact. Thus, if indeed it used to function at 50% (which we don't know yet), then the only thing Anet could do was to change the skill description accordingly, wait until GWWC, then change it to 75% or 90% or whatever.

And if it used to function at 75% and got silently nerfed 50%(which we don't know yet) recently, Anet should undo it immediately, and whatever reason it should be at 50%, it should only be implemented AFTER the GWWC.

Not to bash Anet's support team, but generally speaking, Customer Support are only knowledged in a particular set of FAQs that the customers always asked about. I personally would not trust their (customer support in general, not Anet's in particular) answer on anything that doesn't show up regularily. They would ask someone else who knows better, reinterpret it in their own
"customer-friendly" wording, and stuff gets lost in the translation.

Perhaps what the support team meant was the change in the skill "description" was as intended (but forgot to mention it was only a change to the description), to reflect how the skill has always behaved. With this interpretation, there is no contradiction with the "no skill balancing until after GWWC".

I think you should chill a little. We dont' have an answer from the dev team yet, your questions may well be moot depending on what actually happened, thus asking some of those questions are akin to jumping to conclusions, which is especially a bad thing when the head is not cooled.

did you even consider that the intended change to the skill referred to was the description of the skill and not the skill itself?

NOTE

dont you think if the skill itself were nerfed that a guild in the tournament that used the skill wouldnt be yelling bloody murder?

also they said no skill changes during the tournament.

they didnt say they wouldnt correct a typo which is exactly what this seems to be

A TYPO

There are alot of typos still in the game. Why stop with just this one?

more than one skill description is wrong, that's exactly what makes testing stuff needed

humm...well I'm pretty calm, it's just cyber-wording might mis-leading people thinking I'm quite fury.

We wouldn't know if it's a typo though, and if it's a typo, I do want guild war to announce it. Because a change is a change, it's better to make things clearly! *I mean if they announce everything saying oh Swirling Aura was meant to be 50% all these months and we are now fixing it, then I wouldn't even need to email support teams and making this topic here eh? *

Oh well we'll wait for GW's newest announcement or Gaile's reply ! Lets hope GW do not nerf this spell as a lot of gw-players noticed this spell is a bit underpowered.

BTW, so does anyone know when is the last confirmed date that the skill said 75%?

I'm specifically interested in knowing finding out whether the change was before or after the PvP weekend (when Anet did a big batch of description updates).

and most importantly has anybody done some testing to see if anything is greatly changed or things still act about the same regardless of what the description change says.

going from 75 to 50 if there was a change should be pretty noticable you know

Oh, and Gaile, I don't know if this is a good place to ask, but will the red ward spikes be fixed/removed soon? They're kind of annoying since they don't actually do anything useful yet.

The problem with that is, I doubt many people actually used Swirling Aura, Hydromancers included. It just isn't worth the skill slot to most people, giving such a piddly bonus, even at 75%.
I used it for testing purposes in the past, but to be honest, I'm not clear on many of the details other than the most obvious one, that the use of 'magical projectiles' in the name is misleading.

Unless Swirling gets a good buff post-world championships, I doubt more than a handful of people will care whether it's 75% or 10% block rate.

Short of stating that it makes the user immune to rangers, cant be removed, and recyclable like distortion, i doubt that it will ever see use. Thats kinda like saying "i will survive" will be used if a small tweak is made to it.

Well, if it performed as the description would lead people to believe and also affected spell-based projectiles, it'd make it a truly unique and interesting skill, and it might even see use if elementalists get a buff overall.

That aside, no Gaile post yet =\ (though it having been only a day, it's hardly long enough to really worry about it)

Well, if it start blocking magical projectile spells... that is only more nerf to ele than buff. Especially from PvP point of view.

What I mostly wonder about is the following: did they change magnetic aura too?? can someone please check this

thx