Curse

Sun Fired Blank · Jul 10, 2008, 07:56 PM // 19:56

Sorry, it's July 10th, I'm completely out of it today. Could I get a title change?

I didn't see them posted on the American site, but each of the European Community Coordinators (Martin, Julien, Peter) has posted the developer updates:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Arena...eloper_updates

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:...in/Dev_Updates
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:...ts/Dev_Updates
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:...st/Dev_Updates

In short (mostly because my foreign language is crap), here are the updates:

Assassin:

[Shadow Walk]: disables attack skills for one second
[Death's Charge]: has aftercast
[Dark Prison]: has aftercast
[Shadow Prison]: has aftercast
[Aura of Displacement]: has aftercast

Added to give targets and monks time to react versus shadowstep spikes.

Dervish:

[Signet of Mystic Speed]: 20 second recharge

Increased to make permanent uptime more difficult.

Mesmer:

[Mantra of Inscriptions]: only affects signets that resolve.

Used to affect signet recharge for any reason, even if they were interrupted. Now it doesn't.

PvP-Only:

Dervish:

[Chilling Victory]: moved to Wind Prayers.

Used for stupidly big damage. Moved to Wind Prayers. Hoping to reduce stupidly big damage.

Monk:

[Signet of Judgment]: 5...50 damage. Half-range.

Too good as an unconditional ranged damage skill for the effect (I shit you not), especially with "certain skills" (e.g. Mantra of Inscriptions). So it gets nerfed to balance its effect versus other ranged damage skills.

Necromancer:

[Enfeebling Blood]: 17% health. 1...16 second duration.

Too powerful for the investment, so they made it more expensive, made less effective.

Other:

GvG NPCs no longer get affected by shouts and chants, namely to reduce the power of skills like Anthem of Weariness.

My personal thoughts: the Dervish changes are just "okay;" Chilling Victory is still ridiculous even at a lower spec, it still has the broken clause for the second effect, and people that use dervishes are likely to push up Wind Prayers for the new Signet of Mystic Speed anyways. The necromancer change is "okay," but almost every life for effect skill is dumb anyways. The VoD change is good. The mantra change is really a bug fix, not a meaningful update. The shadow step nerfs are way over the top. The SoJ change is probably not meaningful; if more signet mesmers are ganked by pushing up on the half-ranged clause, they'll probably swap to a ridiculously obnoxious utility skill instead; my cash given the meta is on Signet of Removal, which is basically a 3 second hex / condition removal.

Overall, nothing significant: almost everything that had to be fixed was completely ignored, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.

*lemming* · Jul 10, 2008, 08:10 PM // 20:10

There's a bigger update coming after the Guru cup. This update was abbreviated so that it could get out before Saturday.

Billiard · Jul 10, 2008, 08:20 PM // 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by tehlemming

There's a bigger update coming after the Guru cup. This update was abbreviated so that it could get out before Saturday.

Correct. There was some concern about changing too much for lower division guilds to adapt to in a very short time.

Marverick · Jul 10, 2008, 08:23 PM // 20:23

So [Shadow Fang] isn't affected by the aftercast? interesting......

makosi · Jul 10, 2008, 08:25 PM // 20:25

So does the Ghostly Hero no longer get the benefit of Song of Concentration or is this change only for guild battles (like the spirit change)?

Red · Jul 10, 2008, 08:35 PM // 20:35

Thanks to OP for putting up the updates like this for us.

Because the tournament is in two days, I'm really rather pleased (and surprised!) that they issued a softpedal update. The Mantra 'fix', as well as the Chilling Victory and Signet of Mystic Speed nerfs, aren't dealbreakers--both signet mesmers and the common D/E's can still be run under these nerfs.

I'm not sure how much Enfeebling Blood and Signet of Judgment got hit. They were both pretty key skills (we've started seeing Mo/N running Enfeebling Blood, for cripes sake!), but inexperienced lil' ol' me can't really tell if they've been hit too hard, or not enough. The half-range of SoJ is at least an interesting solution.

.... but... gonna be honest. Where's the water ele nerf?

Sun Fired Blank · Jul 10, 2008, 08:50 PM // 20:50

Makosi: GvG only.

kvndoom · Jul 10, 2008, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by tehlemming

There's a bigger update coming after the Guru cup. This update was abbreviated so that it could get out before Saturday.

K, great news then, earlier post deleted.

Give toastgod time. Soon enough he'll break down and tell you that all you have to do is Divert or D-shot the signets.

Guillaume De Sonoma · Jul 10, 2008, 09:09 PM // 21:09

Very good update, a lot of the changes effect what rawr won last month with.

Anthem of weariness no longer affects NPC's.
Enfeebling Blood sacrifices more health.
The 3 copies of SoJ that rawr runs took a hit.
And the mantra change as well.

I don't know if it is enough to stop 5 healer builds from winning the mAT, but at least it shows Mitch is pulling the right strings

lol

Razz L Dazzle · Jul 10, 2008, 09:11 PM // 21:11

from what i've heard about the next update sounds like it's really make or break for PvP. This small patch should be titled "rawr nerf for guru cup." I'll have to see how this pans out for guilds besides rawr to have any other oppinion.

Turbobusa · Jul 10, 2008, 09:20 PM // 21:20

LOL chilling victory only moved in wind prayers in PvP how dodgy is that.
Shout and chants do not affect NPCs anymore also... nice but also a getaround, I'm not sure why they kept those "affect allies" skills instead of making them affect party members only...

Still no wounding strike/conjure+SoH stacking fix...

RavagerOfDreams · Jul 10, 2008, 09:23 PM // 21:23

i love how they nerf Shadow Stepping after the sinsplit era has died out again

good job anet your 4 months late

meh well wars have been abusing it a bit lately i guess....

Apok Omen · Jul 10, 2008, 09:51 PM // 21:51

Nerf to [skill]Signet of Mystic Speed[/skill] would have been good, if they hadn't decided to move [skill]Chilling Victory[/skill] to Wind Prayers. Now they will just take 1 out of Scythe Mastery and put it into Wind Prayers to satisfy both.

Nerf to ShadowSteps most likely directed towards solosins in AB and HB, and [skill]Shockwave[/skill] Spike. Though, Ele's in HA can still cast [skill]Return[/skill] on War callers for their precious [Skill]Shockwave[/skill]+[skill]Aftershock[/skill] combo.

Monks can still run [skill]Enfeebling Blood[/skill], nothing a quick [skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill] or [skill]Reversal of Damage[/skill] can fix. Smite Monks can still use [skill]Balthazar's Pendulum[/skill], or the braver ones can keep they're beloved [skill]Signet of Judgment[/skill].

[skill]Mantra of Inscriptions[/skill] got fixed, finally.

And now, since GvG NPC's are basically only affected by Wards, Ranger Spirits, and Skills targeting them, it'll be a little harder to baby them and buff them up to useful soldiers...

moriz · Jul 10, 2008, 09:52 PM // 21:52

could this be the Fall Of Shadow Prison Assassins [fall]?

Abedeus · Jul 10, 2008, 10:08 PM // 22:08

Shitty update, what else to say.

English Warrior · Jul 10, 2008, 10:14 PM // 22:14

are this update gonna come

Tyla · Jul 10, 2008, 10:34 PM // 22:34

I like how they kill the majority of choices in terms of shadowstepping. *Thumbs-up!*

Tearz1993 · Jul 10, 2008, 10:46 PM // 22:46

They nerfed powerful skills, but leave the overpowered ones alone?

Hmm...

DutchSmurf · Jul 10, 2008, 10:47 PM // 22:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by tehlemming

There's a bigger update coming after the Guru cup. This update was abbreviated so that it could get out before Saturday.

I know this is true, but this is the kind of info that should be posted by Anet more often by themselves. Instead of hearing it from people who happen to have some contact with Izzy and co. It is also kinda strange that the translations are posted faster then the original.
Anyway, except for SoJ it doesn't change much. Running high wind isn't a bad thing anyway. Maybe something more shows up in a version I can actually understand.

Riotgear · Jul 11, 2008, 01:12 AM // 01:12

Has promise, at least shadow step spikes are getting addressed.

Dervsmite needs a bigger tap than that to get resolved.