Big Update & Feedback: rant or praise [MERGED]

I was only listing out skills that had the purpose of stopping a monk from casting. It was by no means a 'build'. In addition, I find fastcasting on 1/4 cast times very useful as it allows me to interrupt such skills as RoF.

glad to see skills being balanced and more incentive to OTHER builds. happy to see the change to the ranger interrupts. for once an exploit was ided and changed before it became rampant. love the change of pet skills to shouts (they really needed this from the beginning).

recharge on draw conditions has been upped again. don't know if i follow that one but oh well. you could have easily screwed smiters by removing the life gain from ether renewal but it seems you want that build to stay around so ok.

i like the maintained enchantment change. now there is no abuse from using renewal.

couple of skills from necros i'm not sure about. desecrate and rend were strong enough as they were.

love seeing the hammer skills adrenaline reduced. 10 adrin for a hammer skill is a little insane. still don't think they should be above 8 but w/e you make the rules.

most of all thank you for listening to the players that love this game.

Minor issue that may have been overlooked?

When you call the enemy skill being used, the skill still gets called even though it has already finished casting...is that supposed to be like that?

I'm glad for this addition though. Just a day or two ago, i tried calling enemy skills to see if it worked.

As a person that has always wanted to make a succesful pet team build, I love this update. I'll finally be able to get some damned information!

Monks- Holy strike is now useful for a hammer warrior, although with the earthshaker change, once the aoe of that is figured out, KD/AS may have its day again. I liked "fear me" even though its aoe was a wee bit too big. The decreased amnity recharges can make a close to permanent warrior shutdown with qz down. Divine healing got a nice buff, but again, thats in a QZ enviroment, which is a bit hard to maintain.

Mesmer - Damn you anet, my pro monk loved arena farming with almost a guarenteed giant heal from frag builds. Overall, nice changes, I agree with all of them but the mantra of persistence, because that was mainly only used for degen heavy builds.

Necro - Yay for viable dark aura bombers! The changes to the orders were probably needed, though I'll miss those things. The death utilities are nice, but I don't see them being used outside of minion mass builds. The rend change might make UW soloing impossible since that thing won't kill itself any more.

Ele - Anet, I know you're a shadowy organization, but have my babies -err...- anyway, I just love you guys. ERs nerf still makes it a powerful engine, but not impossibly strong. The EP buff is nice, although the damage gets pretty high. Kinetic can now be warrior armor on top of what you have whenever you have energy to spam stone daggers. The glyph changes will make eles no longer need a mesmer secondary to compete in damage with e/mes. Horray for ice buffs, however, I may actually need to pay to get to grotto on light armored pve chars *shudder*.

Warrior - Uhh... I still porbably won't use those skills, except for earthshaker to test its ability to break up healing balls, and thats a barest maybe. The riposites may be useful in pve now. I still prefer a spike to continuous damage but I may switch to cleave for PvE.

Ranger - Besides nerfing something that needed a tonedown, you made a pet tester very happy. I tried to do a backflip. It didn't work too well, but I tried anyway. Now my ranger can run almost as well as a warrior, since I can get permaspeed boosts. RtW won't be such a bitch to keep up now. The debilitating was needed because while echoed, even sig of weariness couldn't keep up with the single target loss.

Interface- I havn't gotten to see it yet, but the changes look great.

The conditional damage range for 'Smite' is incorrect, it is currently (taken from ingame values) 10-35, not 5-35 as listed in the update notes.

I disagree. You just can no longer take Hex Breaker to counter everything. If you really want to do hex removal now, you really need to TAKE hex removal, with multiple skills.

You might have noticed they nerfed the damage. And honestly, that build was never that hard to counter, especially since most of them use Phantom Pain which isn't hard to interrupt. Of course, it'll probably remain in favor because it's still pretty high nonconditional damage for a Mesmer.

IWAY is not overpowered. Any good build can deal with a couple warriors, and after taking out the necros a lot of the damage goes out the window too. You can also just not take much AoE and not kill the pets. Or, in other words, play smart.

Hundred Blades attacks twice, so it is actually a damage boost, and pretty significant if you throw in a Conjure, a Necro Order or two, etc. I haven't done the math myself but it seems like it could actually be significantly more powerful than Cyclone Axe (and thus worth the elite slot) in the right build.

*cries*

.....why are Mesmers the target of the skill changes? Seriously, Rangers and Monks get hurt bad but Mesmers get hurt even worse...whats up with that? When were we complaining that Mesmers were the problem with PvP?

Seriously tho, was energy stealing so bad? Changing 8-18 energy stolen to 4-10 is HUGE. Thats basically putting the effectiveness down 80%. Oh, and the already obscene recharge time gets boosted 1.5 times? They will recharge all of their energy before you even get your energy stealing back...sounds like a worthless elite now. Signet of Weariness gets buried with them too. Even with dedicating your whole skillbar to energy stealing by adding Domination too, it will take like 30 seconds for you to steal anything significant. You will be dead in 30 seconds. Considering the likely increase in Warriors (and we already have so many thanks to IWAY), an energy stealing mesmer will get raped left and right since they now have to dedicate the whole skillbar to doing it.

Soothing Images? Seriously, did they have to try to increase the effectiveness of Warriors so much that they nerfed another class? Hex Breaker? THAT needed a nerf? It wasnt that good before... Diversion? I havent even seen anyone use that in PvP..why was that nerfed? Mantra of Persistence? Do people USE that?

Okay, so then they buff Fragility. Thats right, Fragility. Also, Epidemic is buffed. Can you say Frag spam+Virulence combo+quick epidemic spike teams? Oh, and they nerfed Fragility's most common counter: Hex Breaker. Did they purposefully decide to make the new FoTM?

So, uh, why the penalty on SMART mesmer builds that take skill and the buff on a build that was already verging on overpowered? I was SO not expecting this....I thought mezzers were gonna enjoy a buff or something considering that you can barely find one these days...no one wants one already, why nerf em?

Ok ok!! I'm going to complain, but not really=P

I like the new avenues and challenges this update has brought. We (those of us who don't run crying to WoW) will get over the delay after Distracting Shot, and though I'll truly miss it, Faintheartedness will still be easily replaced (can anyone say "spamming Insidious"?).

Good Job Anet. Way to keep us on our toes, and get rid of the riff-raff in one excellent en-passent!

Infernal

They've added an aftercast time of 1.25 seconds (from my measurements) to those skills. In effect, they now work more like spells, with a cast time followed by a cooldown. I can't imagine why people would complain about the cooldown, as it's less than what casters get when they cast PBAoEs, only slightly longer than that of a normal spell, and still lets you chain them faster than standard bow attacks (without a speed buff).

Great. So why don't we nerf all the Warrior defensive skills so defense is no longe a viable role for a PvE Warior? Or maybe we should nerf all the Necro hexes so that's no longe a viable PvE option. Or maybe we should nerf all the Monk condition removal skills so that's no longe useful in PvE.

If those Mesmer skills had been even remotely ovepowered this might make sense, but they werent. None of the "fixed" (read: Broken) Mesmer skills were anything giving a Mesmer an unfair advantage. Hex breaker was already so easy to get rid of in PvP it's pathetic. Now it's really not usefull for anything. All you had to do previously was cast Wastrel's Worry once or twice and then you could hex them with whatever you liked. Or better yet have your warrior use wild blow. Yep, that's a really a game-breaking skill there. And energy denial was one of the few things mesmers could do effectively that other classes couldn't, right? No, wait it was the ONLY thing a mesmer could do effectively that other classes couldn't. Now there's nothing a mesmer can do that another class can't do as well or better. Interrupts you say? Not with the recharge rates a mesmer has. Even with the changes a ranger can still do better.

Even as I type this WoW is getting reinstalled. Given the ongoing crap and uncertainty as to how long any good build will be left useful, GW is no longer worth playing.
Isn't that a laugh. Obviously you never spent much time trying to do hex removal. To do any good at all you have to waste half your skill bar just on hex removal. Yep, sounds great to me. Or maybe you just sound like a newb. And using Hex Breaker to counter everything? Seriously, don't make me sick. Hex Breaker was so easy to break it's not even funny, as I already posted.

So the delay only effects interrupts, or are all skills delayed? Just trying to understand, I'm a long ways away from play time.

Red engined work... grr

Yes. Energy Drain + Arcane Echo + Energy Tap and you already nearly completely drained an enemy with a full energy pool and four more skills to run through. Keep in mind you still get significant energy from these skills since the return is doubled, so it's still a pretty significant energy advantage if you use it when you're low instead of brainlessly spamming it.

You haven't seen anyone use that in PvP? Really? It almost singlehandedly counters every build that involves spamming a skill.

Since when is reducing the damage buffing a skill?

I love the skill monitor, I have to admit. But, still, facts are facts, Mesmers got hit hardest when they were already the class, along with Necros, who everyone thought deserved a buff...I can tell you right now that the population of mezzers will not go up from its current state (which is like nothing) just because of an interface update.

To whoever said that frag got nerfed in damage and thusly wasnt buffed but instead nerfed...it got nerfed for 8 damage. The standard Frag combo does around 7 hits. Thats 56 damage. Wahoo, it could already deal like 500 damage. Now it can deal 450 but quicker, spammable, and able to do it to the whole team. Yes, so much for a nerf.

I wouldn't be so sure about the population of mesmers going down. My Me/E who spams Ice spear is still pretty popular in the CA

I dont' see Fragility becoming any more popular than it is. A single good monk with 1 specific Elite owns all frag dmg.

And that's overpowered how? That's what a mesmer is SUPPOSED to do. Energy drain doesn't kill anyone in five seconds. It was one of about two things mesmers were actually good at. Good luck trying to even FIND a mesmer for PvE now, let a lone one that's actually useful. Go play your Monk or whatever it is you whiners play and shut up.

Energy denial is dead. What I don't get is why? Was it really a problem?

What I don't get is what role they want mesmers to play? Interrupt? But the interrupts have far too long cooldown for that to be effective.

The only viable role I can see is 16 in Illusion and specializing in making warriors miserable in random arena.

I like all the changes except the nerfing of Energy Drain/Tap which probably could have used either a reduction in cooldown or a slight improvement in amount of energy drained anyway.

Oh, and why nerf Diversion? It was the best counter to any FOTM "spam one skill" build. Its a BUILT IN balance skill. Gah!

ANet hates mesmers.

I just tried the new interface.

On behalf of mesmers everywhere:
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you

At first I was a little dismayed by the reworked Energy Tap and Energy Drain (nothing sounded good about it) .... then I played with it a bit.
I like it even more now, you sneaky devils.... (I won't say why).

From the moment you fire your interrupt, there's a 1.25 second window where you can't use *any* skills, or attacks.

I still play Mesmer PvE. I do damage through empathy, backfire, shatter delusions, and energy burn, and I use skills like diversion (even though 3seconds seems like overkill now) and shatter enchantment for crowd control.

One thing, though. Energy drain is really about equal to energy tap right now, with a 2 second cast time difference. This needs to be changed.

Yeah that's pretty much the build I used to use before I came up with my latest one. Oh, and it sucked. Bad.

On behalf of energy denial mesmers everywhere: Good going on ruining the game for us.

Now that makes no sense whatsoever. It'll kill the FoTM interrupt spammers, sure... but I only carried one interrupt (Savage). Doesn't seem worth carrying an interrupt at all now.

Oh well, the abusers make the casuals pay again.

I don't listen to people who don't back up their statements with evidence.

OH DEITY OF CHOICE FORGIVE ME I HAVE TO SAY THIS

TRY IT YOU`LL LIKE IT........i almost died (Alka-Seltzed comercial)

I have just been tinkering with my distracting shots and i have to say that i have no quarrels with this update.
The ability to view my enemies stances is amazing...just amazing.

Top marks Anet!!

The interrupt nerf was not a case of abusers making the casuals pay. Quickshot should be faster than interrupts. It wasn't. Problem fixed. Oh and Kinetic Armor owns now. If it's not shattered.

Nice update. However:

I think the main problem is, mesmers didnt get anything good out of it, only bad. They probably should have buffed some useless mesmer skills like mind wrack so that mesmer players have something to go "hey, something new for me to try" about. I think a good general policy for future balance changes is to include something to look forward to, for every class, for both pve/pvp players, for both casual/expert players, etc.

notes:

Elems in pvp, fire/air, no love?

Aura of the lich now has half healing removed? Doesnt that mean its even better now?

Dwarven Battle Stance? Rotgort's Invocation? etc... there's still a lot of severely useless skills out there.

Attack speed cap... awww, couldnt they try to nerf IWAY in some other fashion? Even though I dont use it, I -like- insane attack speeds. Hundred blades should hit 100 times lol :P

I <3 anet

What's wrong with it? Interrupts still chain *faster* than normal attacks. It doesn't affect how often you can fire a single interrupt, doesn't affect your DPS compared to a normal attack. In fact, with only one interrupt, you won't notice a difference at all.

Oh and a note for the "no love for fire," uh, check back to the SF update. That was more than enough love for fire. People needed more of a reason to use Magnetic Aura and Kinetic Armor, and also water magic in general wasn't working right on the slowdown hexes.

WTF? Warriors got mainly pve treatments and almost non in the pvp department where they needed it most. Who will be bringing crap like reposte and deadly reposte in pvp anyway.

Change savage slash please, have it more act like disrupt chop, or atleast change it to adrenaline based. Hammers really need to do higher single hit damage or buff up the swing speed a bit.

Wonder what kind of hidden pve nerfs they've implemented this time around

Everyone greatly improved except rangers we are nerfed again, but we are not alone because music was nerfed too, ditch those violins in war camp please!

I will with hold my negative comments except for the fact that this is the first game I can remember that updates take away from the game rather then add to it.

It is time to shelf the game.

49 skill nerfs in 2 updates. that is pathetic.

No arguments on the earth/water changes, they are nice.

As for fire, I was hoping they'd make most of the poor skills slightly more usuable. I didnt particularly agree with the SF update since fireball and meteor weren't that bad to begin with. And both spells are merely average for pvp anyway.

The Mesmer change is actually a mixed blessing. I can't tell you how annoying it was to have to spam something stupid to get rid of a secondary Mesmer's hex breaker (apparently one of three skills Mesmer secondaries ever took). Nerfing hex breaker improves all our other hexes. It's a good change.

However, Holy Veil is now one of the greatest hex removers in the game. WTF? Monks really needed to be able to remove a hex every ten seconds for FIVE ENERGY...and they get to remove the hex they WANT? (Monk: HOLY VEIL, wait for Backfire (a SIX SECOND CAST now), remove holy veil, recast holy veil.) Sure the skill needed a buff, but to buff it into this???

Energy deinal Mesmers are dead now. Few will mourn them. Although Energy Drain is not worth that Elite slot at all anymore, Energy Tap got pretty good as a means to restore your energy pool. The one thing I really detest in the energy denial change is the 30 second recharge time on ED. OMFG, yet another long-ass recharge time skill for the Mesmer. And Mindwrack, which used to be only arguably stupid, is now pitiful beyond all other skills than perhaps Otyugh's Cry. Since one can never get another person's energy down to nothing, why bother?

The Diversion change is really quite aggravating. One nerf or the other would have been okay, but to both increase it's casting time *and* its recharge time is just...simply too much. It was already one of the only dependable skills that were semi-spammable for the Mesmer. There are now only seven Mesmer skills with recharge times of five or less: Soothing Images (mana-nerfed), Mind Wrack (energy denial-nerfed), Illusion of Haste, Conjure Phantasm, Distortion, Wastrel's Worry, and "inspired hex/enchantment" (which really don't count, b/c they actually have 20+second 'cooldowns'). So of the FIVE skills a Mesmer can spam, two actually do something. ...and there are *Rangers* complaining that they have to sit around and look at the scenery? At least they have some skills that recharge faster than once every 15-20 seconds.

The reworking of the Skill Monitor has been long in coming, but will actually make life easier, and keeps Mesmers arguably useful rather than relegating them to official status as the most pointless profession in Guild Wars.

I can only hope some of the pending changes improve the profession.

The other changes seem amazingly good. OMG, Water is useful, finally! Hammers are better than ever! Overall some very positive changes. Thanks ANET.

cmb

Yeah after some thought, I'd have to say the next update will be for the crap Air Skills.

they removed it from the description, it wasn't there to begin with.