March 2 skill balance update!

An interesting change...

I really was not expecting the griffon nerf because it has been farmable for so long.

Most of the other major changes were expected. (IWAY, crippling shot, OoB, etc) However with the eviscerate change to 8, swords seem to pull ahead. The bonus riptose damages will also be very useful in PvE giving more motivation to use swords over axes.

Interesting...

*humbly kneels before ArenaNet*

I'm not worthy...

Oustanding update...the long, excuciating wait was worth it. Anet has truly outdone themselves with this one.

It's incredibly helpful in a B/P farming group in ToPK where you have only one overworked healer.

Well, they nerfed my boon prot build as it was.

Things that make me sad:
OoB: 20% sacrifice is a bit too much for a Monk
Mend Ailment: too slow
Holy Veil: too slow
Distortion: 4...1 energy while getting wailed upon is too much while waiting for MoR to end
Order of the Vampire: Well, this makes B/P runs somewhat more annoying...
Wurm monster AI/Lieutenant's Helm: Wonderful. No more Forge-running for me.

Good things:
Expanded availability of Japanese language support to include non-Japanese accounts.
They didn't touch Ether Prodigy. Joy.

Sigh, my precious boon/prot build...

I dont see how iway was really nerfed.

"I will avenge you!": reduced attack speed to 25%; fixed a bug that caused this skill to trigger off of dead ally minions.

are pets minions?

But there is good news.
Peace and Harmony: skill reworked. Now ends if ally casts a Spell on target foe or deals damage to a foe; reduced recharge time to 30 seconds.

All this update simply did was end the domination of the boon/prot. You can still use it, but using a 3 monk backline is also a viable solution.

You are no longer considered "attacking," "using a skill," or "casting a spell" while you are running to get in range of a target.

<---Finally i cant be popped by an interuppt just cause i pressed Holy Strike while not in melee range.

Protective Spirit wasn't touched. The 55 monk lives! Gale Warriors should be done. Crippling Shot Rangers hit around bit. Boon/Prot monks should still live, but just have to be more conservative I guess. And on a minor note... Skull Crack wasn't touched. Now, people will continue to not use this skill. lol...

But most importantly of all, Peace and Harmony isn't completely useless anymore!!! It was un-fixed!

Pssst... There's another melee beast in the desert. It starts with mino and ends with taur. There are hundreds of them. Go kill.

Watchful Spirit might actually be useful now as a spike heal.

That's what I was thinking too... man I hope they have some cool axe skills in the 2nd chapter. I still can't believe I can't cause bleeding with an axe skill.

Kinda miffed about the Dust Trap nerf too... did that need it? For the cost/recharge/wrong-look-and-you're-interrupted, I guess I don't see why it needed toning down. Must be PvP-related?

Really the cripple shot is still a very viable build. It jsut means you cant be stupid and use it whenever it recharges. Its still the best skill to slow ppl down, just cant spam it onto 3 different ppl.(which msot the time you didnt anyways)
I could really see peace and harmony replacing OoB, since you can use it on 2 different ppl freeing up an elite slot for the other monk (maybe having 1 boon/prot with peace and harmony and a WoH monk, also dont forget recall)

The skill itself hasn't taken much of a nerf but the mechanics of the build certainly have.

I think I've killed over 2000 minotaurs and can only recall getting one non-max gold item.

FTL

well orders was nerfed, but that dosnt effect iway anyways. And eviscrate is know 8 adrenaline, but not to big a deal again. Like i said earlier, its still a viable build, just not so overpowering.

Side Note - Direct Song is updated.. but not in the way you would expect.

Added Elderscrolls III - Morrowind and Prey ?? to there game list in addition to Guild Wars = the remasteres Morrowind tracks sound cool.

The damage and cost/recharge is still the same. Its still a viable skill. This is mostly to stop the trapper build from blinding warriors for too long (after all, the longest blind should belong to the signet of midnight...an elite)

umm it says it damn bugs are feeding on thoes corpses too or did you miss that

Throw Dirt blinds for longer than Dust Trap ever did. How long does signet of midnight blind for?

The most important thing for IWAY haters is not the fact that they kinda balanced IWAY, its that they finally fixed the attack speed buffs. Before, just before the update, tigers fury stacked with IWAY to give you 166% attack speed boost which it shouldn't have according to an update a while back that was suppose to cap attack speed buffs at 133%. So I for one am glad they finally fixed this.

blinds you and your touched target for 15 seconds.