Big Update & Feedback: rant or praise [MERGED]

Meh, I guess I generally enjoy the new updates. Seems standard enough. I was however, hoping to finally see my goddamn 15k tormentors set updated. Guess that updating armor that's been awaiting it for many months though gets a big back seat compared to a new skill monitor though.

One day I'll finally see that armor, one day I won't look like a poor droknar-fresh necromancer even when I'm wearing the 15k. I mean, sure I could change into one of the other three sets but who would want to?!

I like that I'm going to be able to see my Mark of Pain and Spiteful damage now.

you are mistaken. so what if the skills are changed that's what makes this game fun. its never the same. you come back 2 weeks later and its completely different.

as said in plenty of other post. you want a game that doesn't change, allows hacks, cheats, and exploits to stay then go play wow.

the fact that the devs listen to us and make changes to better the game is a great thing. so what your fav build just got nerfed. go make a new one. mine just go nerfed beyond belief but i stand by the change b/c i knew it was out of BALANCE.

you are the only person to reply to the post after dozen+ veiws. i've learned that if no one post then the agree with you. there are other post about the changes to so its kind of like beating a dead horse.

learn some manners and stop throwing around any digit you can think up to justify you cause. provide solid proof and reason. saying that i don't like it not a reason.

never said i agree with all the changes. in fact i see some skills that were buffed that didn't need to be (mentioned some of those above but just the obvious ones). now if you don't mind i'm going to go abuse those new buffs while i get the chance.

exactly. all my characters became useless, but i don't care. it's not like it'll kill me to change a few skills around.

I think the problem always lies in "Yes, this certain combination of skills is overpowered, we must nerf it"

But for someone who just uses one or two of those skills in their build which is normal and not overpowered at all, it then becomes underpowered or weakened by the change.

I think you're right. Necros are really, really good. They were already beginning to bug me in PvP, now they're slightly sped up and will bother me even more! Time to complete those Necro elites for me, I think.

cmb

Couldnt agree more! I love all the new updates, they really did a good job of monitoring the gameplay, and preventing (as in the ranger interupt exploit, like you said before) things from getting out of hand. I am so sick of people whining about Anet, but I really think that they have (and still do) do an amazing job!

-Venus

Maybe for PvP, but imho the Mesmer changes put a bit too much stress on the Mesmer profression within PvE. Is there a way around the differences and balancing for one play system vs the other? Probably not. I'm unhappy, but such is life. I dont play PvP, so will tinker and fix my PvE stuff.

Question (forgive my oversight please if its obviously updated somewhere): Do we have a list of all skills as they currently exist, this update included? My printouts/sources are sort of whacked at the moment. Is the skill list on this site up to date sans this update? (I dont know that even). Thanks. ^^

As opposed to the people who liked things the way they were and hated the game?

I have nothing against the changes, I'm just saying. For all the people who were for the changes, there were just as many people against them. Not one "Nerf this skill" topic didnt have two sides to it.

people are complaining about the changes but i see many skills that didn't need any buff at all in the current environment. they got buffed like mad and no one is pointing this out. its like they don't think before they post.

such an impulse generation.

What a typical response from a PvP player. You want an answer to your question? Here you go: Yes it's fair. That's how little I care about your pathetic example. And no I won't bother explaining why, you don't deserve it.

And yes I'm going to go play WoW now. Oh and you can quit quoting my posts and asking me irrelevant questsions because I'm done here.

I'll start 6 of these threads if they finally updated my friggin' 15k tormentors set.

I do like the idea that they nerfed E/Mo smiting and IWAY.

However, they went *much* too far in nerfing E/Mo smiting. Ether renewal is now completely worthless. Classic E/Mo is aura of restoration, z fire. With everything decent taking 5 energy and 2 sec recharge, and figuring 2 spam skills such as reversal, and guardian, if you tried smiting off yourself with renewal you could get a maximum of 15 energy per cast, 18 with ageis assuming you are smiting off yourself.

Now, figure this, 10 to cast renewal, 5 energy per spell for 8 sec assuming a staff wrapping of enchanting and 18 energy regain. You can probably get off around 8 casts off with ether renewal on. That is (18-5) * 8 - 10 = 94 energy regained net... assuming you have SIX enchantments on yourself and you never get interrupted. The bad thing is that you must cast enchantments only on yourself so that you can have six. Even if you don't bring Ageis and have someone else cast for you, you need to carry 5 enchantment skills. What happen if you say only have the 5 enchantments? (15-5) * 8 - 10 = 70 energy regained...

Now let's say that you are the average elementalist (non- smiting)... you have aura of restoration, XYZ attuenment, and maybe 1 global enchant. That's 3 or (9-5) * 8 - 10 = 14 energy gained. Wow what an ELITE skill since you've now lost 9 seconds doing that.

Note if you get diverted once doing this, you are gone.

The sad thing is that ether renewal is now worthless unless you are E/Mo self smiting and are getting enchants from others. I really don't like the idea of nerfing an elite to the point that it is worthless.

Bottom line... ether renewal was nerfed TOO much. I do think that they should have SLIGHTLY lowered the damage of Balth aura and Z fire, but much less than they did. It is not that hard to heal someone being pounded by 2 E/mo smiters, certainly not enough to justify this.

Otherwise... elementalist... I like that they helped water magic quite a bit. It has been very underused.

Next mesmer... weren't these things supposed to be anti enemy energy? Energy tap and energy drain now take half as much energy. Mind wrack is now limited to only use in conjunction with spirit shackles. Drain's extra recharge lowers the effective regen effect by 20%. Yes, it does mean that you get more energy when someone is at zero energy, but it takes a lot longer to get an elementalist there even with guilt.

Diversion... they should have nerfed this skill undoubtedly. Instead of having a max of around 60 sec, at 16 skill in it it should only have lasted 50 sec. Yes it was a pain to go up against, but it added a great dimension to the game.

Monk... as I've already said, they did a bit too much nerfing to smiting.

Warriors... they got a SINGLE nerf. Fear me... Something is wrong.

Ranger... I like playing ranger. Not that bad of a nerf.

Necro... order of pain nerf... GREAT! This is what it should have been from day 1. Overall ... I think they did pretty well on the necro.


All this being said. I have 2 accounts since the week the game came out, virtually everything unlocked twice on 7 lvl 20 PvE chars across both accounts + 1 slot for PvP char. I 'm buying WoW this weekend. I play every profession in pvp so I think I have a pretty decent feel. The ONLY thing they needed to do was nerf IWAY a SMALL amount by decreasing Order's range to what they did. IWAY wasn't that difficult to beat except on large maps where it was hard to get to the necro.

Hey, look what I did. And uh, quit responding ifin' you don't want to be quoted. Some of us here are quote MACHINES. Go elsewhere. You're mean. A meanhead is what you are.

Dear Endobiotic Chaos: Yay.

Dear everyone else: Anybody but me notice how these updates tend to weed out people who do nothing but complain and never think for themselves anyway? Such as the Prot Bond nerf, LOL man was ToA funny. All those monks, and none of them thought to use spirit instead... Anyway, this "Mesmer nerf" just means Mesmers are even better now because there will be almost no noobs playing them because they "suck" now. That is all.

We dont deserve it? Wow, what a king you must be. So high above us.

Hurry up and leave and stop posting already...

Oh, stop your whinging. So you're not uber-zero-energy man anymore. Whoop de bloody doo. Guild Wars is primarily PvP, secondary PvE. I have a PvE mesmer, and I'm GLAD for these changes. Use your bloody imagination for once, and stop acting like a petulant toddler who's lost his lollypop.

EDIT: What unienaule and AtO said. Glad to not have you anymore. Go to the realm of endless grind, and loose your mental capacity. Although I'm not sure there's much to lose...

Its only primary PVP to the people who are primary PVP.

The people who are PVE only get kinda pissed with this type of stuff.

I'm going to have to agree here, I HATE it when little wanks walk around bragging about how wicked 1337 their build is that...they got off a website...and that...takes...no skill to use. I ADORE updates that nerf popular builds that everyone uses, people need to start thinking of their own damn builds for a change! Rawr for thinking for yourself! RAWARWARWARWERRRRR!!!!!

My Mesmer, Elementalist, and Ranger are PvE only. And I very rarely play PvP. And I'm not pissed.

Point, bad example. Let me rephrase; it's not just PvE that needs balance, it's PvP too. You essentially have to keep 1.5 games in balance. Not the easiest thing. Be glad it isn't worse.

Better?

This is when I'm happy to be an uncommon Mesmer. None of my skills even got touched.

Eltar: Yes

yes that is true. anyone that really defends an abusive skill is someone that doesn't want to see it changed b/c they are using it. now they have to spend hours on the search finding a new build instead of making something themselves. bring on the change. the "dups" will seperate from the builders and the game will be better for it.

i try to post some new build everyday at the campfire. my fav build of all times MANTRA OF PERSISTANCE was nerfed beyond belief and was never complained about. didn't see any post here about but someone must have complained somewhere to get it changed. i understand why it was changed but i still have to deal with it.

where did all these buffs come from? players wanting some weaker skills stronger. they have listened to us every step of the way. no other game i know of has ever done that. they devs care about this game and that is what is going to keep me here. its not the meta game, skill changes, new items, or new classes. no subscription and devs that care is what is going to keep me.

Holy Crap!

I just tried out the new changes.

I played a arcane conmdrum/concussion shot ranger with read the wind and escape.

This was a fun as hell build to play in arenas.

Interrupting nerfs my ass. Ive never had and easier time putting pressure on monks as a ranger. All casters that I so selected became my b*itch.

The only thing that keep me down on one of my runs was a water eley (imagine that)
They froze the hell out of me and I couldnt keep up with targets that ran away from my dreaded onslaught of dazed goodness.

I tryed the build again but this time with a pet with fercious strike for energy and maiming strike (cuz dazed casters like to run so I figure instead of keeping up, Ill let thier running be used as a weapon against them)
Worked like a friggin charm.

The new interface has made interrupters 100% (mesmer interrupters too) more deadly. If you get your reflexes up, its much less a guessing game.

Since Ive been playing this game, this is one thing Ive always tried to skillcraft as a ranger and now all my practice is paying off.

Ill test out some of the other stuff later, but as of now, Im very pleased with the turn outs.

I sort of agree with Ether Renewal, but the skill was never really useful with Elementalist skills and it never will be. It would have to be rewritten to be a one-time spell to be useful with the slow casting Elementalist skills.

Oh, and as for the Necro skill... you're thinking of Awaken the Blood, which was unaffected. The buffed skill is Blood Renewal, which gives health regeneration and more health at the end and needed the reduced sacrifice cost because the spell is practically a death wish.

no the sad part of the update is the huge blue bar that appers when u cast a spell. i like seeing how long till the spell comes from the enemy and all but why big and blue

It's Just me or Incendiary Arrows got a +2 sec boost ? :P
I remember it was only 8 sec , now it's 10
better

BTW for what i tested , i really like this update

not to mention that blood renewal balanced it self out unless lvl 16 blood.

so ether renewal doesn't fill up all the way now big deal. they could have just taken the life gain off of it or increase the recharge and completely screwed you. this way it is still usable w/o being abused.

Also, there's a bunch of people (myself included) who rely on PVE to unlock skills they'd need in PVP.

I like the changes to the drain and tap. It made energy denial have a little more effort put behind it without skewing your energy management. (energy tap being quite an important skill for a protection Mo/Me who goes through energy like mad).

The only gripe I really have is with Hex Breaker and the Elementalist buffs. Hex breaker was overpowered yes, but it was really the only thing keeping hex stacking in check. Hex removal needs a little buffing now. Elementalists are still underpowered. It's good that they buffed the water line and the earth line a bit. But I suppose I wont complain, at least they're taking baby steps to buff the Elementalist without making it overpowered.

Balthazar's Aura is going to make soloing a little harder. I haven't done it in a while cause I needed someone with me to practice without loosing a lot of plat. However I can see how it needed balancing out a bit as it really was quite overpowered in PvP. It'll just maybe make interruption a little easier and maybe battles take a little longer. Big deal.

I really like the "Drop Item" button and Spell cast bar now being customisable elements of the user interface now. I've always wanted to change their positions as they got in the way >.<

Good.

Anet has your money already, so they don't need an arrogant shithead around like you polluting the community.

So long.

You know, there are a group of players online who dont even go to forums, make builds themselves, and get screwed over by nerfs. Also there are people who dont see certain skills as overpowered, not because they are cheap and want to be UBER, but because they just dont use them in an abusive way.

What your saying is, unless your on the side of the nerfings, you're against the community. When the community is everyone, and the people who want nerfs are just a part of it.

yeah they need a lot more like you instead. they'll make more money that way.

lmao if your angry because of an update like this then WoW is not for you, with their constant imbalances.

You already got a topic locked tonight, and probably warned for it, trying to go for two?

Is this sarcasm, joke, or just a really bad statement?

I think it was a very unsuccessful attempt at a flame.

I would have liked to have seen the duration of water magic spells (malestorm and deep freeze, in particular) scale with your skill level. Both of those skills are still best usable with very low water magic. The deep freeze change is welcome, but I would have liked to see the AoE increase a bit more; it's still not even heal-area size. (I had a AoE "clump" and they were tightly clumped, yet only 3 of them got hit with the freeze).

Agreed. I also like the ED changes; they are far less conditional on the amount of energy that your opponent has. The only problem I have with the new interface is that I cannot tell if I've interrupted a spell in the 85-99% of its casting window. Having it stop the cast bar, in this case, doesn't help. Could the display show a "successfully interrupted" skill with a color change as well? Furthermore, I noticed that the after-cast doesn't seem to apply after a skill is interrupted -- why? That .75s is a good penalty that should not be simply tossed out the window when we "get em". It's hard enough to interrupt a skill, an extra .75s penalty would be nice.

Moderators - I had to go through 3 clicks to filter this idiot so I don't see his remaining comments. Can I have the filter command in the pop-up dialog? Pretty please?

I feel hurt about the mesmer update. yes I do play a mesmer, and now I'm forced to use henches for most of the game : ) Than you ANET (thank god I'm past the desert >_<)
As a mainly interrupt/denial mesmer in PvE, I feel like maybe some skills should say, have been made better? I mean, come on, since I don't run fragility, I basically have nothing good happen. I'm just hoping that maybe they buff some of the mesmer skills in another update.
Also, mesmers have fast casting, but now everything has a killer recharge time...well...we're casting spells fast but just sit around waiting for them to recharge. I see a big problem with this. I mean, denial was crazy in random PvP.

I guess now I can spend even MORE time waiting in towns just to find a group (who will probably kick me when an ele with maelstrom comes along, or an interrupt ranger).

Basically, I want to see some buffs on mesmers to make them a more viable option for PvE, not just a bunch of nerfs to completely rid some of their role in PvP.

PS: For those of you who thing that the skill thing helps a ton....it doesn't help too much against many monk skills which I tend to interrupt...such as orison before the boss can heal himself, etc.