Curse

Gaile Gray · Mar 07, 2007, 01:57 AM // 01:57

Hello,

It's time for another official Dev Update, straight from the Guild Wars Design Team. Hooray!

This week, we'll be making some changes, including a modest number of skill balances and an alteration to Hero Battles. So here's the latest news, with an outline of the upcoming changes and a note about the why's and wherefore's of each. So here we go...

Upon reviewing the first half of the Celestial Tournament, we’ve decided to balance some skills to improve the competitive environment. These changes will take effect after 12:01 PM PST on Wednesday, March 7 to allow completion of Round 4 of the tournament.

This permanent update addresses critical balance issues within the tournament and is not a temporary weekend implementation. We are still working on a larger play balance review in preparation for next weekend’s event.

Ritualist

The following skills have changed:

Gaze from Beyond: increased casting time to 2 seconds.
Spirit Burn: increased recharge time to 8 seconds.
Lamentation: increased casting time to 1 second; reduced damage to 15..75.

When these skills were first implemented, they required the caster to be very close to a Spirit in order to use them effectively. We recently changed all such skills to work at a much greater distance, though they became too powerful. Our intention is for these skills to remain effective but not be out of scope with other damage-dealing options.

Necromancer

The following skill has changed:

Discord: increased casting time to 2 seconds.

We have been pleased to see Discord useful in a variety of PvP and RP situations, but its rate of sustained damage output is excessive. Increasing the casting time lowers the damage output to a reasonable amount while giving opponents an opportunity to use general purpose counters such as interruption and Condition/Hex removal.

Assassin

The following skills have changed:

Shadow Prison: increased Energy cost to 10.
Blades of Steel: decreased maximum damage bonus to 60.

Shadow Prison was simply too powerful for its cost, thus the increase to its Energy cost. The damage from Blades of Steel was out of scale with that of other dual-attack skills. We hope that these skill changes will encourage build diversity for Assassins and Warrior/Assassins, and we believe both of these skills will remain viable but not superior to other options.

Mesmer

The following skill has changed:

Wastrel’s Demise: increased casting time to 1 second.

With a ¼ second casting time, this skill was too fast and powerful as a source of follow-up damage.

Hero Battles

We’re taking this opportunity to make a change to Hero Battles. Currently, very defensive builds are capable of holding the center shrine, needlessly slowing down games and homogenizing strategies. As a result, we’ve made the following change:

Capturing and holding any or all shrines on the map now contributes to your morale. The center shrine now grants twice the amount of positive “pip” arrows on the morale meter than other capture points. The secondary benefits associated with these shrines will remain unchanged.

We feel this change will impact movement, tactics, and build creation in a positive manner and will generally make battles more competitive and interesting. With the upcoming Hero Battles ladder on the horizon, we felt a need to improve this format before the ladder is put into place. We will continue to monitor this venue and adjust this mechanic as needed.

So that's it! As I mentioned, this update will be streamed into Guild Wars sometime tomorrow afternoon. As always, your thoughts are welcome, and we invite your feedback on these changes after you've had a chance to try them out and see how they function in the game.

Windstriker · Mar 07, 2007, 02:04 AM // 02:04

The changes to Hero Battles seem to be very nice when they are going to be implemented. We'll have to see on that. Also it was kind of expected that Shadow Prison would be changed but Blades of Steel, didn't that just revert it back to what it orignally was when Factions came out?

Zinger314 · Mar 07, 2007, 02:06 AM // 02:06

The Discord change completely and utterly breaks the skill. It's conditional enough for an elite! I don't believe it...

The Heroes Battle change might be worse! Hero Battles already strongly favored Runners. Now, that appears to be only viable build...

I hope I'm misreading something.

Cacheelma · Mar 07, 2007, 02:10 AM // 02:10

I'm so happy to see that the team now provides some reasons behind each change! I think it's what had been missing. Thank you!

Bryant Again · Mar 07, 2007, 02:13 AM // 02:13

Hero Battles will literally become a race. Gank builds will dominate. Bad idea.

Bring Shield Bash!

Randomway Ftw · Mar 07, 2007, 02:15 AM // 02:15

Still waiting on Halls, ANET.

Assasin changes seem mild for a combination abused so much (sp/boa).

Byron · Mar 07, 2007, 02:15 AM // 02:15

Harder nerf on shadow prison, pl0x. It's still way too good compared to other assassin elites, a no-brainer.

Blame the Monks · Mar 07, 2007, 02:17 AM // 02:17

Woot! Some of the IMBA skills got nerfed....but the underlying flaws remain

The quick patch to fix the worst abuses is nice, but I hope the dev team is taking a serious look at overall game balance.

Detraya fullvear · Mar 07, 2007, 02:17 AM // 02:17

hero battles a great idea, no more spirit spam sitting in a circle. running wont work with snares... learn how to stop the meta, and stop complaining. also, skill balances = great. rit spike had it comming

Lord-UWR · Mar 07, 2007, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Thank you Gaile for informing us about that. Although I do agree with the shadow prison change, I don't agree with Blades of Steel change. BoS was just so much crazy damage, it made you feel good.
Still Shadow Prison needs more nerf, like less duration or something.

BUT, for sure, Rit Spike builds in HA needed a nerf and FAST, they got buffed too much.

Edit: Wow, it's simply amazing how fast people respond. There was only one reply when I was typing the first part. Now it's post #10.

linh · Mar 07, 2007, 02:19 AM // 02:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zinger314

The Discord change completely and utterly breaks the skill. It's conditional enough for an elite! I don't believe it...

The Heroes Battle change might be worse! Hero Battles already strongly favored Runners. Now, that appears to be only viable build...

I hope I'm misreading something.

If you design a build around that skill, you can easily make it meet the condition it requires. And 2s recharge is good enough for an elite to make 105 armor-ignoring damage. Thus, 1s casting time is just too good, too powerful.

Cantos · Mar 07, 2007, 02:21 AM // 02:21

Looks like good stuff.

I don't think the Shadow Prison change will be meaningful though, because usually the very next skill after Shadow Prison/Burst of Aggression is Black Lotus Strike, and you get all your energy back. More relevant for the W/A's though I guess?

tomcruisejr · Mar 07, 2007, 02:26 AM // 02:26

Compare the casting time of the new discord and most of the condition removals out there and tell me what discord has become.

Now you can counter a discord damage with using dismiss conditions with your eyes closed or draw conditions while you're checking your email.

gfg again.

They should edit their public release.

----------------------------------------------------------

The following skill has changed:

* Discord: increased casting time to 2 seconds.

While it is virtually absent in the officially sanctioned Celestial tournament, we at least have been pleased to see Discord useful in a variety of PvP and RP situations, but its rate of conditional damage output is excessive to GvG ladder farmers and level 28 RP bosses. Increasing the casting time lowers the damage output to zero because opponents can easily spam less than 1 second condition removals. Now, whiners can pwn those noob discord teams and the supply of green items floating in the market will be lesser than usual.

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Narcism · Mar 07, 2007, 02:32 AM // 02:32

at 5, 2, 2.. and.. unarmorable damage, i hope it has counters... stop complaining.

Lafayette · Mar 07, 2007, 02:40 AM // 02:40

Some good changes, addressing some skills which needed addressing. Thanks for the info.

Ecko- · Mar 07, 2007, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Glad to see the rit spike got a much needed nerf, along with discord. I don't think the BoA sin will be affected much by this since black lotus strike usually follows up after SP and BoA. Thanks for giving an explanation for why things got nerfed. Now where are the buffs! :P

Bane of Worlds · Mar 07, 2007, 02:56 AM // 02:56

Finally some explanations on why changes are being proposed

The change in HB may encourage running builds but it's not too big a deal as it takes a while to capture shrines and 4 characters can easily dispose of one measily character(unless designed to tank extremely well)
Good change overall

Ecko- · Mar 07, 2007, 03:03 AM // 03:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomcruisejr

Compare the casting time of the new discord and most of the condition removals out there and tell me what discord has become.

Now you can counter a discord damage with using dismiss conditions with your eyes closed or draw conditions while you're checking your email.

gfg again.

They should edit their public release.

----------------------------------------------------------

The following skill has changed:

* Discord: increased casting time to 2 seconds.

While it is virtually absent in the officially sanctioned Celestial tournament, we at least have been pleased to see Discord useful in a variety of PvP and RP situations, but its rate of conditional damage output is excessive to unprepared teams and level 28 RP bosses. Increasing the casting time lowers the damage output to zero because opponents can easily spam less than 1 second condition removals. Now, whiners can pwn those noob discord teams and the supply of green items floating in the market will be lesser than usual.

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Oh please, dont be mad because your discord build that MATH was using to farm their way up the ladder got nerfed.

cellardweller · Mar 07, 2007, 03:04 AM // 03:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

[*]Wastrel’s Demise: increased casting time to 1 second.[/LIST][INDENT]With a ¼ second casting time, this skill was too fast and powerful as a source of follow-up damage.

Then decrease the unconditional and increase the conditional damage - 1 sec on this spell makes it totally unusable. It is just as conditional as an interrupt spell - how exactly are you supposed to that with a 1 sec spell?

tomcruisejr · Mar 07, 2007, 03:08 AM // 03:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ecko-

Oh please, dont be mad because your discord build that MATH was using to farm their way up the ladder got nerfed.

Quote:

"Tournament Ladder to Reset One Last Time
Yes, you read that correct. At the start of 2007, we will reset the tournament ladder, for the very last time. As previously discussed, the main purpose of the ladder and the ELO system was to provide mathematical strength measurements of competitors and their history.

While the ladder will still be around, and players can view the competitive history of each guild, the focus will shift to how well guilds do in individual tournaments as opposed to grinding the ladder."

http://www.guildwars.com/competitive...sentfuture.php

Uhuh, ladder rank is everything. Nerf those overpowered builds coz they make the ladder useless.