Curse

Dragannia · Oct 26, 2006, 04:23 AM // 04:23

New updates are in.

http://guildwars.com/support/gameupdates/

Drain Enchant got nerfed, Mantra of Recall and E-Drain also suffered. Anet must really hate Boonprots.

Redfeather1975 · Oct 26, 2006, 04:37 AM // 04:37

I'm not familiar enough with boon prots to know how it affects them.

I see that a lot has changed in the last update. Holy smokeronies!
Some changes to mesmers look okay as well. I guess it's a give and take thang.

Mesmer in Need · Oct 26, 2006, 04:50 AM // 04:50

first off, will alll the things in the first paragraps stay even if you dont have nf?

Dragannia · Oct 26, 2006, 04:53 AM // 04:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redfeather1975

I'm not familiar enough with boon prots to know how it affects them.

I see that a lot has changed in the last update. Holy smokeronies!
Some changes to mesmers look okay as well. I guess it's a give and take thang.

Boon prots use Mantra of Recall/Energy Drain and Inspired Hex as their active E-management. Also, Blessed Light /Mes took a hit too because of the Drain Enchantment nerf.

Avarre · Oct 26, 2006, 05:40 AM // 05:40

Panic is sexy. 1/4 casting, but it's still a niche skill.

Empathy is awesome. The damage buff is nice for PvE mesmering.

Distortion took a small hit for mesmers, illusionists in any case. I'm not sure how big the duration change will affect its use.

Power Return is nicer. 5s recharge now, but then again, more energy for enemy.

Hella Good · Oct 26, 2006, 06:10 AM // 06:10

Distortion became completely useless on a non-Illusion Me (and I'm talking anyone with less than 14 points in Illusion). And the changes to Drain, Inspired/Revealed, E-drain, and MoRecall were more than uncalled for. Esp. the change in E-drain. Talk about not being able to make up one's mind, the skill balance fellas at ANet buffed this one, only to nerf it again. How stupid. >.<

The few buffs- Empathy, Echo, Overload are nice but who cares, Dist is no longer useful and nrg management no longer as good.

Toss in some completely weird updates- Panic and Epidemic were fine and the changes make 0 difference. And the cast duration decrease on Etherial/IoPain accomplishes nothing- it's the recharge that is in need of attention with these skills, not the cast time.

Avarre · Oct 26, 2006, 06:20 AM // 06:20

Distortion, at 6 illu (rather than 8), is now -2 3s. A secondary classer receives more stat points and 2s less on the distortion - still viable for avoiding mass melee/ranger preesure/spike, but certainly not for as long or as continually.

I know that we at least have mainly stopped running it on monk bars.. but not exactly unexpected, as it was easily one of the most powerful stances in game. I do know I would have liked it intact for the inevitable spearways.

Tartagan · Oct 26, 2006, 11:42 AM // 11:42

Distortion nerfed .... Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !

Empathy Upped Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees !

Effigy · Oct 26, 2006, 12:15 PM // 12:15

With the changes, Distortion is now basically an anti-spike skill. 2-3 seconds is long enough to prevent getting your face raged off while you're knocked down, but you can't keep it up contantly and ignore melee attackers.

Really, I think most of the "nerfs" were directed towards mesmer secondaries as opposed to the class itself. R/Me with Distortion were too resilient, and Mo/Me outshined all other combinations for energy management. These updates put /Me more in line with other secondary options, hopefully leading to a little more diversity.

Tartagan · Oct 26, 2006, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effigy

With the changes, Distortion is now basically an anti-spike skill. 2-3 seconds is long enough to prevent getting your face raged off while you're knocked down, but you can't keep it up contantly and ignore melee attackers.

Really, I think most of the "nerfs" were directed towards mesmer secondaries as opposed to the class itself. R/Me with Distortion were too resilient, and Mo/Me outshined all other combinations for energy management. These updates put /Me more in line with other secondary options, hopefully leading to a little more diversity.

I aggree with you but still I miss my E-management ...

What if... · Oct 26, 2006, 12:54 PM // 12:54

One, you could never keep it up to ignore melee attackers anyway (unless you were running 13 or higher illusion, and even then that was debatable). It was perfectly, fine as it was, and a dom mes could place 8 points in illision for an emergency escape tactic to make a spiking warrior switch targets. That incentive to switch targets no longer exists. Furthermore being in the midline, where warriors are likely to build adrenaline on you, distortion was an ideal skill to use when running into one monks whilst being trained on by two or more warriors. Now, on anyone running, a non-illusion spec, you can expect to pay almost twice as much energy for the same protection. I don't think it was initially strong enough to warrant this nerf.

Two, given the other defensive capabilies of the class, why did ANET think this was a good idea? You'll notice ether feast isn't on that list of skill changes and even then, it's like shadow refuge in that you have to be within attacking range to experience a benefit. We seem to be moving backwards not forwards.

E-drain and MoR have experienced a significant decline in usage since the birth of Mo/A BL monk. With this partial shift why was the change to Drain-Enchant and e-drain necessary? I'm convinced these changes had always been planned, and that they were executed without paying attention to the game. Historically the class has always had an awful time with e-management, why would they work to make that even harder?

I don't know if any of the buffs they've applied can effectively make up for these nerf either. I'm still not using arcane langor, keystone signet, psychic instability, or ether signet. Panic's use is still far too specific to fit on a typical skill bar. And I don't think in increase of damage on empathy will deter many warriors from simply auto-attacking, a heal sig every four seconds will cover up the damage every time.

I'm not particularly happy for this turn of events.

Sab · Oct 26, 2006, 01:13 PM // 13:13

Inspiration nerfs make me QQ. Distortion nerf also makes me QQ, but it had it coming.

The buffs don't matter much to me - the skills which were buffed still have their fundamental problems, e.g. Why use Overload when you can use an interrupt? Why use Psychic Instability...at all?

Evilsod · Oct 26, 2006, 01:39 PM // 13:39

I'd have to say some of these updates were so completely pointless. The majority were to nerf/buff secondary mesmers it seems.

Epidemic was useless to most primary mes, you barely ever had anything to spread. To a Ranger or Necro it just cost too much.

Most the E-managements were so unfairly nerfed. Most of them aren't even worth taking anymore. Perhaps they're trying to get us to use Ether Signet more? You know that 60s recharge is just leet now, can't wait to use it.................

The only decent update to mesmers was Empathy.

Effigy · Oct 26, 2006, 03:13 PM // 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by What if...

One, you could never keep it up to ignore melee attackers anyway (unless you were running 13 or higher illusion, and even then that was debatable). It was perfectly, fine as it was, and a dom mes could place 8 points in illision for an emergency escape tactic to make a spiking warrior switch targets. That incentive to switch targets no longer exists. Furthermore being in the midline, where warriors are likely to build adrenaline on you, distortion was an ideal skill to use when running into one monks whilst being trained on by two or more warriors. Now, on anyone running, a non-illusion spec, you can expect to pay almost twice as much energy for the same protection. I don't think it was initially strong enough to warrant this nerf.

Actually, you could keep Distortion up basically non-stop if you use Spirit of Failure with it. R/Me could basically chain it nonstop as well. Compared to other block/evasion stances, Distortion was out of the ballpark. Most, if not all, Ranger and Warrior defensive stances have a considerable downtime or require you to build a lot of adrenaline to keep them going. With good energy management, Distortion was a nonstop 75% chance to evade attacks. Now it's more in line with the other options.

What if... · Oct 26, 2006, 04:20 PM // 16:20

That you have to run something like spirit of failure to continually power it, proves its former balance. That would mean that the character combining Distortion and SoF would have to be under constant attack, which one, defeats to purpose of distortion, and two would still be reasonably balanced because of the space you'd sacrifice on your skill bar to run it and the attribute point investments you'd have to make to run it effectively. Both of these are things a mesmer could utilize without too much trouble. Other classes could as well, with a larger investment. Rangers would have a more difficult problem with this though because of their att points are already heavily divided.

If all they wanted to do was make the skill less friendly to other classes they could've attached it to the primary attribute. I don't understand many of these changes. Buff-wise, even basic amount of attention payed to the movement of the game in its many aspects will tell you what people want in a build. Things that don't meet those criterion simply won't be used. What's the point of buffing skills if they still aren't going to be used? Why are slight changes being made to skills when the primary reason behind their disuse is still going ignored? The only reasons I can fathom is that developer's aren't actually aware of their disuse, or don't really know how to make them useful. Prime example: Keystone signet; Correct me if I'm wrong, but this elite has carried the title of "most useless elite" for 19 months now.

Avarre · Oct 27, 2006, 12:20 AM // 00:20

Quote:

Prime example: Keystone signet; Correct me if I'm wrong, but this elite has carried the title of "most useless elite" for 19 months now.

There was an awesome typo on the updates page saying 'Keystone Signet recharge has been reduced to 1 second'. We had a whole team build built around it till we realized they meant casting time.

le sigh.

Apple · Oct 27, 2006, 12:21 AM // 00:21

So did I :P
Bonder with 1s recharge ether signet + blessed signet
Holy Wrath Bonder with bane signet smite
Mesmers with unnatural signet spam.
T'would have been a wonderful night

Terra Xin · Oct 27, 2006, 12:44 AM // 00:44

I reckon distortion hit primary mesmers than secondaries... I really favoured the 1 energy drain that a mesmer could have... that's gone now.,.

Distortion works better for a secondary class now, in most GvG matches you only need to use distortion to evade a heavy attack, good players will put no points into distortion, that way you only lose a bit of energy instead of it being able to drain you unnecessarily. (spell?)

Hella Good · Oct 27, 2006, 02:44 AM // 02:44

ANet seem to be pushing Me towards Sig use for awhile now. Too bad the Sigs currently available to the profession don't synergize well. Lets face it- we get Sig armor, we get Symbolic Celerity, and... we got no Sig builds in the current metagame that match non-Sig builds in performance. No matter how hard ANet pushes, I don't see Me building around Sigs unless they give us Sigs that actually synergize well. I love Sigs and by all means I will be testing out every single possibility to make them worthwhile. I just don't think I will the results I'm hoping for. But only time will tell.

Priest Of Sin · Oct 27, 2006, 03:39 AM // 03:39

thank god they didn't nerf fast casting.... think of how many skills would be affected! Like... 4!!!!!!