Curse

Stéphane Lo Presti · May 17, 2011, 09:55 PM // 21:55

Hi everyone,

We're going to push a skill update next Monday (23rd), but given that there's a MAT coming on the week-end of the 28th, we wanted to give you an early announcement about this update. You can find the update notes here on the wiki:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedb...pdate_previews

I also include below the Developer Update notes relative to this skill changes:

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In this update we're making a few more adjustments to the Dervish profession in PvP. While we are happy with the class in PvE, there are still a few aspects of the Dervish that allow players to output more pressure than is reasonable for the skill required.

Dervish Skills

Aura of Thorns: changed functionality to: "All nearby foes begin Bleeding for 5...15 seconds. For 30 seconds, this enchantment does nothing. When this enchantment ends, all nearby foes are Crippled for 3...8 seconds."
Aura of Thorns (PvP): changed functionality to: "All nearby foes begin Bleeding for 5...15 seconds. For 30 seconds, this enchantment does nothing. When this enchantment ends, all nearby foes are Crippled for 3...8 seconds."

Despite the last update to this skill, it's still too easy to continually Cripple several foes at once. By swapping the order in which the conditions are applied, we can require more skillful play to get the Cripple while emphasizing the Dervish teardown mechanic.

Avatar of Balthazar: decreased adrenaline gain to 25%; changed burning duration to 1...3 seconds.

Because only the duration scales, Avatar of Balthazar has become overly effective at low attribute points, allowing players to have higher attributes in other lines while still gaining the full benefits from the Avatar. By scaling the burning duration by Mysticism, this skill now requires a more dedicated investment in attribute points. Additionally the adrenaline bonus was enabling a little too much pressure in conjunction with skills like Twin Moon Sweep and Heart of Fury, so we are lowering that slightly as well.

Harrier's Grasp: added the following functionality: "This enchantment ends after you apply Cripple 1...3 times."

Harrier's Grasp had a similar problem to Aura of Thorns in that the skill makes it a little too easy to continually snare a single target. Changing the functionality like this keeps its overall purpose similar to Aura of Thorns but in a way that keeps the two skills distinct.

Heart of Fury: split for PvP.
Heart of Fury (PvP): added a recharge of 6 seconds.

While it’s good for IAS skills like Heart of Fury to be available on demand, the lack of drawback and the low cost made it a little too easy to have this one active all the time. We considered lowering the duration on the skill, but felt that part of what makes IAS skills usable is the fact that they won't usually drop off while you are in the middle of an attack sequence. Similarly, increasing the adrenaline cost would affect it's availability when a spike was needed. Instead, we're adding a recharge to the skill to force players to be more aggressive in maintaining it and to more heavily punish mistimed activations.

Onslaught: split for PvP.
Onslaught (PvP): decreased duration to 2...8 seconds.
Pious Fury: split for PvP.
Pious Fury (PvP): decreased duration to 1...5 seconds.

In addition to weakening Heart of Fury, we are also preemptively lowering the duration of the other Dervish IAS skills in order to keep them balanced with each other. Because changes to IAS skills could significantly affect their PvE usage, we have split them.

Wounding Strike: split for PvP.
Wounding Strike (PvP): removed bonus damage.

This skill, with it's fast recharge and heavy punch, was a powerful spike tool even without the bonus damage, easily more powerful than the axe elite Eviscerate. Removing the bonus damage is intended to put it closer in line with other elite weapon skills. Because bonus damage is important in PvE, especially in hard mode, we've split this skill.

Conclusion

While the last few skill updates have been centered around the Dervish, we'd like you to know that we are continuing to work on future skill balances for other professions. However, we felt that it was important to release these changes to the Dervish quickly, in order to address problems in the meta before the next MAT.

StormDragonZ · May 17, 2011, 10:42 PM // 22:42

All aboard! I'll start the train of negativity statements and then we'll go from there:

- Mostly PvP changes to Dervish only? Yawn...

Atro · May 17, 2011, 10:57 PM // 22:57

Hmm interesting, I'll pwn dervs in RA either way hahaha

DiogoSilva · May 17, 2011, 10:59 PM // 22:59

Glad for aura of thorn's change. I always thought that was the best solution. Onslaught is going to be hard on the new W/Ds (not that I care), and the overall cripple/ ias skills nerf for dervishes was long needed.

However, I wonder if this is enough to make sword/ axe warriors not completely obsolete compared to the dervs. The changes to WS helps a bit too, but still...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stéphane Lo Presti

While the last few skill updates have been centered around the Dervish, we'd like you to know that we are continuing to work on future skill balances for other professions.

That's the most interesting part for me. I wonder if we could get more details about this anytime soon. Which professions will be targetted? Paragons? Smiter monks? Pve Elementalists/ Rangers?

Ayuhmii Shanbwa · May 17, 2011, 10:59 PM // 22:59

i love to see pvp splits more instead of nerfs in both while its meant for pvp, thx Anet, thanks again

Del · May 17, 2011, 10:59 PM // 22:59

Leaving the adrenaline gain bonus AND IMS on AoB? Lame.

DiogoSilva · May 17, 2011, 11:01 PM // 23:01

If splits are being so heavily considered, I recommend future PvE splits for ranger/ elementalist skills. They need it too much.

Still Number One · May 17, 2011, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Del

Leaving the adrenaline gain bonus AND IMS on AoB? Lame.

AoB does not have an IMS effect.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Avatar_of_Balthazar

You gain armor against physicals, get an adrenal boost, and deal holy damage.

Anyways, the adrenaline bonus + holy damage is a bad feature for the skill. It needs to be changed to fire damage or something that you can counter with a shield mod.

Mike Jack · May 17, 2011, 11:07 PM // 23:07

I think he was like 6 months behind pre-dervish update when AoB gave an IMS.

Skyy High · May 17, 2011, 11:10 PM // 23:10

Seems like this hit a lot of the problem skills. I'm unconvinced that Heart of Fury's drawback is big enough, though. Worst case scenario: you're stuck without an IAS for a few seconds. Compare that to the worst case scenario of Frenzy or Flail, or any other IAS really.

yayowars · May 17, 2011, 11:12 PM // 23:12

I was hoping for the second effect of some skills like aura of thorns to only trigger from enchantment ripping skills, and only apply on targets that are hit (which would require SOME forethought).

Alas, I be disappointed.

AngelWJedi · May 17, 2011, 11:13 PM // 23:13

cool looks interesting. now to get info on WoC too be nice. xD

Shadar · May 17, 2011, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Harrier's Grasp "nerf" = weak. Needs to apply cripple only when USING ATTACK SKILLS.
Snaring by spear autoattack (or even longbow if you fail at dodging) is what makes this skill OP.

Fay Vert · May 17, 2011, 11:20 PM // 23:20

I'm waiting for Dervish Wars 2

Xenomortis · May 17, 2011, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Still not liking Avatar of Balthazar or Harrier's Grasp, but at least Aura of Thorns is more sane.

Essence Snow · May 17, 2011, 11:25 PM // 23:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stéphane Lo Presti

While the last few skill updates have been centered around the Dervish, we'd like you to know that we are continuing to work on future skill balances for other professions. However, we felt that it was important to release these changes to the Dervish quickly, in order to address problems in the meta before the next MAT.

This is the only part that interests most of the gw community...I think (had to throw that in there)

Xenomortis · May 17, 2011, 11:27 PM // 23:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Essence Snow

This is the only part that interests most of the gw community...I think (had to throw that in there)

But it's not the part that's concerning those that this update is aimed at.

JSX · May 17, 2011, 11:31 PM // 23:31

Good start, still needs more nerfing, but that'll be apparent after the next mat I guess.

*lemming* · May 17, 2011, 11:33 PM // 23:33

I'm curious to see if the damage that the past three months of dervishes have wrought on the population is recoverable.

It's nice to see a decent update for a change, though.

Del · May 17, 2011, 11:55 PM // 23:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still Number One

AoB does not have an IMS effect.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Avatar_of_Balthazar

You gain armor against physicals, get an adrenal boost, and deal holy damage.

Anyways, the adrenaline bonus + holy damage is a bad feature for the skill. It needs to be changed to fire damage or something that you can counter with a shield mod.

yeah, that was a total brainfart, my bad.