Curse

Fates · Apr 01, 2009, 09:08 PM // 21:08

Awesome changes. Thank god RoJ got a boost.

Quote:

April 2009 PvE and PvP Skill Balances

This month's balance update focuses on PvP/PvE issues. Most changes apply to both formats. Skills that we weakened are not featured heavily in PvE, and we expect that players won't mind skills that were made more powerful.

We felt that some of the more effective skills needed to be toned down, while other skills were either too weak or simply didn't fit their intended purpose. New technology added over the last several months has also allowed us to change a number of skills to match the design team's original vision of Guild Wars gameplay.

Rebalancing Skills

Scorpion Wire: no longer has half-range. Changed functionality to: "Target foe is teleported to your location and knocked down."
Shroud of Silence: changed functionality to: "For 5..20 seconds, target player cannot send chat messages."
Shadow Stepping has triggered complaints about how an Assassin can move instantly to a target, keep the target knocked down, and kill it before anybody has a chance to react. To address this concern without decreasing the Assassin's overall effectiveness, we're instead experimenting with allowing Assassins to teleport their foes directly to them.

Shroud of Silence gave us an opportunity to give players the ability to disable opposing tactics callers. Since everyone uses text to call targets, this should prove a deadly change in large battles.

Increased duration of all Avatar skills to 40..70 seconds.
Avatar of Grenth: changed functionality to: "For 10..90 seconds, your attacks steal 1..2 enchantments from any foe you hit and apply those enchantments to you."
We've made Avatars easier for non-Dervishes to permanently maintain with the use of consumables. Now Avatars give players a reason to bring an elite in skill slots normally left empty and frees up valuable inventory space by reducing the need to carry tonics.

Ray of Judgment: Removed Burning condition, increased damage to 10..90.
Searing Flames: Removed Burning condition.
These two skills were overpowered when combined and used together. To reduce the effectiveness of spike builds that use these skills, we took out the Burning and gave Ray of Judgment more damage to compensate.

Signet of Ghostly Might: reverted functionality to: "For 10 seconds, target ally or foe does +10..35 damage. When this skill ends, that target is slain."
Ritualists have struggled to find an effective offensive role in PvP. We think that our earlier changes to Signet of Ghostly Might reduced this build's effectiveness too much, so we reverted it to the originally intended function.

Context-Sensitive Skills

Sandstorm: now deals 10..30 more damage if the caster is standing in a sandy area.
Equinox: Exhaustion duration is now based on the time of day.
Dwarven Battle Stance: duration is now based on the user's height.
Gladiator's Defense: duration is now doubled in Random and Team Arenas.
Game engine upgrades have allowed us to track a number of interesting statistics and data. To gauge the popularity of this new feature, Sandstorm has been changed to give a small bonus when used in an appropriate region. Similarly, Equinox will now vary its duration depending on the time (Pacific Standard). Based on the success of these changes, we expect to base other skills on terrain, location, time, and height.

Guild Battles

Guild Battle NPCs now respawn at regular intervals until the Guild Lord is slain.
NPCs have always played an important role in Guild Battles, but we are dissatisfed with split builds that focus soley on killing opposing NPCs. Since NPCs don't respawn, losing just a few NPCs can drastically lower a team's chance to win. To give losing teams more chance at a comeback, NPCs respawn on a slightly longer timer than players. The Guild Lord is unaffected by this change.

User Interface

Characters suffering from Blind cannot see distant enemies.
Characters suffering from Dazed will now spin in place. The camera is locked for the duration of the effect.
These exciting new additions will improve both the PvP and PvE experience by improving the interface display of your characters state. It is now much more obvious when your character is blinded or dazed, something that benefits front line and support classes in PvP. This also provides a more realistic environment for PvE players to roleplay in. With enemies you can't see and your display spinning around, you'll get a better sense of what it's like to be a Guild Wars hero!

Other Changes

Removed the Lucky Aura effect from the Lunar Fortune item.
Although we were satisfied with the current effects of Lucky Aura, it unfortunately provided more of a benefit than expected to certain types of builds (especially farming). To bring this effect under control, we have had to remove it from the Lucky Fortunes. Other methods of gaining the Lucky Aura effect have not been changed.

On a direct hit, the Zaishen rank emote now deals minor damage based on the user's rank and knocks the target down.
We thought this would be an interesting way to encourage emote spamming instead of skill spamming. We kept the damage minimal for now, though it does increase as you gain rank.

Introduced a new Cartographer title for the Battle Isles.
PvP players need more to do besides killing each other, so now they can explore and show off their accomplishment with this brand new title.

Perkunas · Apr 01, 2009, 09:10 PM // 21:10

LoL April Fools

trickfred · Apr 01, 2009, 09:13 PM // 21:13

Can't. Stop. Laughing.

XD

Angel Killuminati · Apr 01, 2009, 09:13 PM // 21:13

Hahaha good one!

riktw · Apr 01, 2009, 09:15 PM // 21:15

i love the rit one, hmm old bug is old

and a-net listens to us, spawning power neded buff, and we get:
Spawning Power: Weapon skills now last 50% longer for each rank of Spawning Power.

SerenitySilverstar · Apr 01, 2009, 09:17 PM // 21:17

Damn...almost had me on RoJ...then I read sandstorm.

Classic LULz

Raven Wing · Apr 01, 2009, 09:18 PM // 21:18

LOL yes....hahaha disabling chat messages and stance depending on height of the user lollers

faraaz · Apr 01, 2009, 09:18 PM // 21:18

OMG I'm laughing so hard I literally fell off my chair.

I <3 you Anet.

Bob Slydell · Apr 01, 2009, 09:24 PM // 21:24

"Equinox: Exhaustion duration is now based on the time of day."

hahahaha

Verene · Apr 01, 2009, 09:25 PM // 21:25

Hahaha, this made me laugh. A+, Anet

SonicTHI · Apr 01, 2009, 09:26 PM // 21:26

Quote:

"The Power is Yours!": changed functionality to: "Sacrifice all Health. Until resurrected, 5 nearby party members gain +1..5 Earth Magic, +1..5 Fire Magic, +1..5 Air Magic, +1..5 Water Magic, or +1..5 Healing Prayers."

This update is made of win

pipo · Apr 01, 2009, 09:36 PM // 21:36

I could see loads of scorpion wire trappers in pvp

Icy The Mage · Apr 01, 2009, 09:39 PM // 21:39

It's hilarious that they actually put reasons behind them all xD

NotJustAnothaNinja · Apr 01, 2009, 09:42 PM // 21:42

I love how well thought out these were. I almost believed them. My brother asked his GF to marry him today...i laughed when he told me...turns out he was serious

MisterB · Apr 01, 2009, 09:44 PM // 21:44

Can we use Shroud of Silence in town? I don't think that's too much to ask. Love the "update," especially "Other Changes."

Janlijm · Apr 01, 2009, 09:45 PM // 21:45

Linsey just sayed ingame that there will come a merchant who sells items when you farm ingame. Here is a preview of it from the beta in 2005, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_knhO0PIgA

lutz · Apr 01, 2009, 09:54 PM // 21:54

What's spooky is that these updates could actually happen thanks to our intelligent skill balancers.

Zahr Dalsk · Apr 01, 2009, 09:54 PM // 21:54

Quote:

Spawning Power: Weapon skills now last 50% longer for each rank of Spawning Power.

I see nothing wrong with this. ArenaNet could implement it in PvE, Spawning Power would have a purpose, and it'd still be more balanced than things like SY builds, Soul Reaping, MSDB sins, RoJ teams, etc.

Celeborn10 · Apr 01, 2009, 09:56 PM // 21:56

Hmm Paragons would actually be useful with "The Power is Yours!". Pity the Zaishen thing isn't for real, I would set my Mouse 4 to spam rank and Bull's on my warrior. Forget Chizu dancing, perma-knockdown would be fun.

Wait, oh nuts the target would be able to spam rank as well! Melee would be a futile endeavor with at least 2 people permanently knocking each other down.

furanshisuko · Apr 01, 2009, 10:03 PM // 22:03

lol!!!

i tought it was a real update for a sec, i was like wtf? target player cannot send chat messages???

edit: best 1 [its just a flesh wound]This skill can now be used while dead.