Curse

Zui · Jun 13, 2007, 04:58 AM // 04:58

I have to say, the update is very disappointing, but not surprising in the least.

Patccmoi · Jun 13, 2007, 05:09 AM // 05:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zui

I have to say, the update is very disappointing, but not surprising in the least.

Ofc not, they buffed Dwarven Battle Stance. An update isn't an update if it doesn't buff DBS in a way or another.

Productivity · Jun 13, 2007, 05:26 AM // 05:26

Epic failure.

Div · Jun 13, 2007, 05:36 AM // 05:36

I must say this is a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT after all the discussion that's been going around about proper ways of skill balancing. Of all the skills they changed, the only ones I see and like on improving gameplay are cripshot, recall, and SoH. Hexes are surprisingly untouched, and the fast casting change to signets will just make hexes even better. Paragon chants being interruptible is nice, but there are many other things to worry about there. Spawning power and soul reaping changes are pretty lame as it is too...

Buffing crap PvE skills is not going to make them playable as a whole, and for all we know, there's going to be 1-2 skills that are overbuffed and become the new meta given how much of a failure Anet is at balancing.

Why does Anet continue to try and convince that they care about the PvP community when it's obvious they either didn't read Ensign's post or completely neglected most of the suggestions there. Most of those buffs feel like all they want is to appease the PvE community's whining of always nerfing skills. This is why a lot of the top players are quitting GW and not regretting that decision, and this is why there isn't a growing PvP community nowadays. Once again, epic failure, Anet.

Bebop_time · Jun 13, 2007, 06:02 AM // 06:02

Would someone mind linking me to this this epic post on skill balances that ensign wrote. Thanks.

I think its great a lot more mesmer skills can interrupt paragons, death to p.d
Increasing the duration of weapon spells through spawning power lead to some quite interesting. (go Warmongers!)
Does the buff to the duration of mesmer hexes and nerf to mantra of persistance cancel each other out or is there a net gain for the duration of mesmer hexes?
Power leech interrupts chants but do you steal energy when a chant is used or is it still only spells?
I do hope the buff to clumsiness brings back ineptitude mesmers!

oonly · Jun 13, 2007, 09:03 AM // 09:03

Its good nerf - Expose 15s recharge can be quick removed by holy veil, and can't be spammed.

Spam guardian on yourself, and Assasin will not kill u.

zakaria · Jun 13, 2007, 12:08 PM // 12:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

Izzy wanted to add another thought: "I know there are a lot of concerns about hexes, so this week during the test please bring out all of the hex builds and really push the issues you feel are going to be a problem, as normally during this week you will have a lot of eyes from Anet on things and if you want skills to change, now is the time to prove they are broken."

Help them in this weekend..nuff said.

Ensign · Jun 13, 2007, 12:15 PM // 12:15

A few more cheap shots from the middle of the night.

Quote:

Assassin

Have you ever had one of those jobs where after a point, you realize that you're not really responsible for anything, and were getting paid to come to the office and not do anything? Then you worry and realize that if you've figured this out, someone else might too and then the gig is up, so you start doing lots of little pointless things in the interest of appearing busy, even though you no longer do anything to affect the bottom line?

If you have, some memories might have been brought back when you saw that Expose Defenses is going to a 15 second recharge.

Quote:

Arcane Conundrum: now affects adjacent foes.
Clumsiness: reduced recharge time to 4 seconds.

Well, at least the PvE Mesmer's prayers have been answered - apparently the wave of the future is AoE caster shutdown that's about a tenth as effective as BHA/Epidemic, and single target, physical-only DPS that interferes with Empathy and Spiteful Spirit.

Quote:

we increased the duration of some Illusion Magic Hexes that Mantra of Persistence affects so that these skills wouldn't depend on it as much to make them attractive choices.

It's very important to scuttle the few really good changes you make (like neutering Mantra of Persistence) with simultaneous changes that achieve the exact opposite effect (Conjure Phantasm buff). Chopping Conjure Phantasm down from 24 seconds to 21 seconds through the combination will have a huge effect on how Illusion Mesmers are played.

...it actually might, as they may just look at the raw Illusion durations and decide they're better off with another hex on their bar rather than the Mantra.

Quote:

Last, but not least, we've tweaked Fast Casting to benefit Mesmers who equip Signets.

Signet of Humility was far too easy to interrupt.

Quote:

Although we are keeping an eye on the powerful AoE damage of Searing Flames, we haven't done anything to it because we expect a lot of destruction from Fire Magic.

Especially when there are half a dozen of them in the same 8-man build. You'd expect a build with six guys all mashing on the same elite to be good, right? That is a sterling example of what we call deep, compelling gameplay.

Quote:

We tweaked some Earth Magic skills to encourage Earth Elementalist builds

Out of sheer morbid curiosity, what Ash Blast / Ebon Hawk / Shockwave bar do you see coming out of nowhere to take the metagame by storm?

Quote:

Soul Reaping

Congratulations, you win a prize for getting something right! We now have evidence that, when faced with resounding public outcry from all facets of the community and given several months of preparation, Arena.net can, in fact, recognize the painfully obvious.

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Spiteful Spirit: increased Energy cost to 15.

Just in case any of you were thinking about running something other than Reaper's Mark for a change.

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Agonizing Chop: decreased activation time to .5 seconds.

We had so much fun nerfing the karate chop spikes the first half dozen times, that we might as well do it again right?

Quote:

Monk

Go play LoD + RC like everyone else.

Quote:

Crippling Shot: decreased Energy cost to 10.

Good change, moving an interesting skill from marginal to attractive.

Quote:

Spawning Power: each rank now adds 2% to weapon spell duration.
Weapon of Warding: Decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.

It's very important to scuttle the few really good changes you make (like expanding the scope of Spawning Power) with simultaneous changes that achieve the exact opposite effect (nerfing the one weapon that really benefits from the change). Now we get to invest a bunch of points into an otherwise useless attribute in order to maintain the status quo, huzzah!

I'd say something about Weapon of Warding on Elementalists taking a hit being a good thing, but everyone dropped it for Shield of Regeneration 3 weeks ago.

Quote:

Paragon

Ok, to be clear, the real change was further up in the armor stacking, so that you don't get anything out of running SYG with WY anymore. That's a good change. Incremental and minor, but a good change. Same with Defensive Anthem. They're the kind of sane, incremental changes that, if you made 20 of them in each patch instead of 2, we might actually get somewhere.

Not that I want to denigrate the good changes, but when you only get a couple per patch nothing really changes, a couple attributes get tweaked and the status quo is maintained. That'd be a good thing if people were happy with how the game was, but as things are...

Expose Defenses has a 15s recharge now.

Peace,
-CxE

Blame the Monks · Jun 13, 2007, 01:28 PM // 13:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Expose Defenses has a 15s recharge now.

I know its my own fault for daring to dream, but reading ensign's balance made me dream of the quality pvpers returning and having fun, competitive GvG again. Sure ATs still suck, but with Ensign balance I would grit my teeth and bear it because the underlying game play would be balanced enough to make up for it. Izzy isn't totally clueless, I told myself. He won't let the game wallow in filth for another year, I told myself.

Instead....Expose Defenses has a 15s recharge. And so dies a game that could have changed everything. /sigh

yesitsrob · Jun 13, 2007, 01:34 PM // 13:34

15 seconds you say!?

Skuld · Jun 13, 2007, 01:43 PM // 13:43

Thats more than 10!

around · Jun 13, 2007, 01:58 PM // 13:58

Is it OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDD yet?

Quote:

Power Spike: increased damage to 30..120

POWER SPIKE SPIKE.

Also: has anyone noticed that many of these balances were done with HvH in mind?

glountz · Jun 13, 2007, 01:58 PM // 13:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skuld

Thats more than 10!

But that's less than 20! (SP recharge)

Shendaar · Jun 13, 2007, 02:45 PM // 14:45

Someone should create Epic Failure[Anet]. I was really looking forward to this skill update and I didn't think I could even possibly be this disappointed.

Expose Defenses ...

Thomas.knbk · Jun 13, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommy

New linebacker bar: MoR, clumsiness, 5 emanagement skills, res sig.

at least SP sins can only spike every 15 seconds now!

linh · Jun 13, 2007, 03:08 PM // 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

Expose Defenses has a 15s recharge now.

THIS IS MADNESS

Relambrien · Jun 13, 2007, 03:14 PM // 15:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by linh

THIS IS MADNESS

THIS IS ANET!!!!!

Seriously...come on...Expose Defenses made me cry...does Anet not even know the concept of skill chaining?

I have lost what little faith I had left in them.

Draikin · Jun 13, 2007, 03:19 PM // 15:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by spawnofebil

Also: has anyone noticed that many of these balances were done with HvH in mind?

They didn't have HvH in mind at all. The nerfed Recall still works on several maps and 90% of the people playing HvH are using assassins. Anet's answer to this problem: Expose Defenses now has a 15 seconds recharge.

master of cookies · Jun 13, 2007, 03:25 PM // 15:25

Was really looking forward to seeing a whole load of changes to the paragon to make a real change, instead we get our chants nerfed once again and an armour cap - spose the armour cap isn't too bad really altho i'll just have to run SYG and WY for that extra 1AL... joke.

Hope that when this week is over, A-Net will have had enough time to realise that skill balances should actually CHANGE over powered skills porperly instead of expect fire magic skills to be destructive. I was half waiting to see: fire magic skills are destructive, water skills snare and earth skills increase armour. just to clarify things further for us!

TheOneMephisto · Jun 13, 2007, 03:26 PM // 15:26

Dude, I don't know what all of you guys are complaining about. I mean, expose defenses has a 15 second recharge now!!! Now SP sins can only use expose on spikes every 15 seconds!!!