Curse

[email protected] · Jan 23, 2007, 08:52 PM // 20:52

Power Attack

i like the damage increase to this skill, gives my PvE char extra oompfh

Desbreko · Jan 23, 2007, 08:58 PM // 20:58

Word of Healing
I'd rather be able to cast this on myself than have a bit more unconditional healing. With both Blessed Light and Zealous Benediction able to, I don't see why WoH is still stuck as "target other ally."

Resurrection spells in general
I love it. I finally have a reason to take something other than Rebirth in PvE. Mid-battle rez with Holy Haste + Restore Life ftw.

Searing Flames
I really didn't find the lowered burning duration to be that big a deal. As a single SF ele I can still cast SF->GG->SF before the original 5 second burning duration wears off, and with multiple SF eles it doesn't matter at all. I'd suggest lowering the damage a bit along with lowering the burning to 6 seconds.

Glowing Gaze
With the standard SF build, the nerf wasn't all that noticeable to me. If I can keep Fire Attunement up, and use Glyph of Lesser Energy whenever available, I can still keep casting for a long, long time. But in other builds it hurts more. Increase the recharge to 6 or 7 seconds if you must, but 8 is pushing it.

Savannah Heat
Please do not increase the recharge! This spell's energy cost is not the problem, its drawbacks are its recharge and the fact that it makes enemies scatter. 20 seconds isn't too bad, but at 25 seconds I might as well bring Searing Heat instead and free up my elite for energy management. I say leave the energy cost at 15 but reduce the recharge to 15 seconds.

Mark of Rodgort
The increase to "nearby" AoE was good. It made it more useful for comboing with Savannah Heat and the like, so I'd like to see the test changes for this one go permanent.

Locust's Fury
Good, but not quite enough. Being an elite that limits you to normal attacks, I really think you should always be able to keep it up. In addition to the test changes, either make it a skill (instead of an enchantment) that can't be removed or lower the recharge to 15 seconds.

Critical Defenses
Nice changes, I actually found it worth using with the higher block rate and longer duration.

=DNC=Trucker · Jan 23, 2007, 09:36 PM // 21:36

Skill Name: Simple/Arcane Theivery/Larceny
Impressions: 2.5 mil XP on my mesmer and I finally used these skills this past wekeend (for the first time) Also encourages the use of signet of illusions since it is an elite and your whole build has to revolve around it.

Skill Name: Illusion of Pain
Impressions: I like the shorter recharge, but think the healing should stay at 20 per degen point. In its changed form I could echo it with persistance and keep half a party at -10 degen.

Skill Name: Shielding Hands
Impression: Quite a buff here, expecially for how much damage it can sustain. I like the reduction in recharge, but maybe something between 15-25 would be better?

Skill Name: Shield of Absorption
Impression: If the casting time is 1 second, it needs to last longer then.

kess · Jan 23, 2007, 10:51 PM // 22:51

Elementalist I included some skills that are not included in the test weekend which I think need some minor tweak

skill name: Lightning hammer
Impression: 2s recharge is a bit extreme, I would prefer 8 sec recharge and reduce the energy cost to 15, comparable to lightning orb.

skill name: Blinding surge
Impression: Good change 10e is necessary for the skill, still a very powerful skill. Anytime you can shut down 2 melee attackers or ranger with a single skill, it's a good skill.

skill name:Mark Of Rodgort
Impression: Excellent change. Now more pyromancers can incorporate this skill in their skill bar.

skill name: mind burn/freeze/shock:
Impression: In order to promote these 3 skills, take away exhaustion, the conditional dmg already limit the skills to use just at the beginning of battle since all other skills in ele cost so much energy. But increase the energy cost to 10 or 15e and recharge at 85-8 is fine. And maybe increase the conditional damage. With the change, there will be more variety of ele builds.

skill name: Frigid Armor
Impression: Great buff, a 3/4 casting time would make it a great counter to SF.

skill name: Fire storm
Impression: Increasing the dmg is nice but if can increase the area of effect to nearby would be much better, and keep the energy cost at 15e.

skill name: Immolate
Impression: Nice buff, love the change

skill name: Glowing gaze
Impression: why nerf this if want to penalize SF team spike? This skill is not only use for SF build, mark of rodgort and immolate works well with this skills too. If a increase in recharge is necessary, then please have more energy return, maybe cost 5e, recharge 8s and energy return of 15e?

skill name: Searing flames
Impression: nice nerf, still usable but not as powerful as before. Even though SF team is not as common lately except for AB. with 5 sec burning, you can bare get the 3rd SF off in time to do damage.

skill name: mind blast
Impression: a mediocre skill, an increase of dmg will make this elite worth alot in my skill bar.

Skill name: Searing/Teinai heat
Impression: didn't have time to try it out, but by reading it, looks like a nice change.

skill name: Savannah heat
impression: An increased in recharge is really unnecessary. Nobody will stay in the area of effect for the full duration unless combined with snare and knockdown. Reduce the energy cost to 10e and keep recharge time at 20s or reduce it to 15s.

skill name: Smoldering embers
impression: good buff, don't see many eles bringing it in pvp.

skill name: Ride the lightning
impression: the dmg output is not high enough to have an exhaustion tag onto it, either increase the damage or take away the exhaustion. Being up close the personal with an enemy for an ele is asking for trouble anyway.

skill name: stone dagger
impression: Geomancers equip it because they wanted to keep kinetic armor up. Farmer rejoice.

skill name: Flare
impression: I never use the skill after pre-sear, would I use it with the slight dmg increase? maybe

skill name: phoenix
impression: nice buff, maybe I will switch out my fireball with this skill. Liquid flame still preferred over the 2 because of the casting time.

Mesmers:
Skill name: SV/AV
impression: Is it necessary? The only time this skill is used is for farming, the new AI already make it hard to farm melee mobs. Why this?

skill name: energy surge
impression: a reduction in recharge time to 15s will justify the change or area of effect.

mantra of recovery:
impression: nice buff

blackbird71 · Jan 24, 2007, 02:07 AM // 02:07

Skill: Shadow of Haste
Personally, I think the changes to SoH were a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done. Keep the recharge at 30s, but reduce the duration even further. As a primarily PvE Assassin, my understanding of the problems with SoH is that it was too powerful in PvP, and non-Assassin primaries were using it for a "perma-run" skill. It seems to me that this is far from the original intent of the skill. Being an Assassin skill, it seems that it should support the Assassin's role of a hit and fade attacker, someone who gets in, strikes, and gets out fast. In order to do this, the best thing that could happen to SoH would be to revert it to its original form. And I don't mean its pre-test weekend form, I mean original. At a decent level of Shadow Arts, the original SoH lasted just long enough to rush into a fight, unleash two attack chains, and snap you out before taking lethal damage without the need for a second stance. The skill could be used very effectively with just a little work in timing your strikes. It also synergized very well with the duration of Shadow Form. It could not be used as a "permarun" and it's use in PvP "ganking" would also come to an end.

When SoH had it's duration lengthened and speed decreased, it suddenly became useless for hit and fade, unless you wanted to waste an extra slot on a stance for the sole purpose of ending it. You had to be incredibly cautious with your timing if you used it with Shadow Form, because the longer duration could leave you very vulnerable if you weren't careful. Other classes found they could become Assassin secondaries and have an infinite speed boost.

It's time Shadow of Haste returned to being a skill that fit the spirit of the Assassin profession. Reduce the duration even further, leave the recharge as is, maybe even return the 30% speed boost, and it will once again be a staple of a true hit and fade assassin, instead of an eternal sprint.

Myrkwid · Jan 24, 2007, 02:47 AM // 02:47

Just some more or less thought-about ideas:

Skill name: Concussion Shot
Change during testweekend: not changed (=bad, needed for long)
suggested change: lower energy cost to 15, maybe increase casttime to 8s Bring the skill in line with the modified daze (+200% -> +100%), that is weaker and far more common than in early days.

Skill name: Skull Crack
Change during testweekend: not changed (=bad, needed for long)
suggested change: too weak to be an elite, either improve or maybe even remove elite status

Skill Name: Warriors Cunning
Change during testweekend: not changed
suggested change: lower cooldown

Skill name: Zealous Benediction
Change during testweekend: not changed
suggested change: increase cast time to 1s. Change to "target other ally". The power of this skill is, that it is a healing skill based on the protection attribute. Maybe slightly lower healing or reduce conditional energy gain.

Skill Name: Healer's Boon
Change during testweekend: not changed
Suggested change: deacrease lowered casttime to 25% or change it to something else.

Skill name: Punishing Shot
Change during testweekend: not changed
suggested change: rework, "interrupts target foe's action, if that action was using a skill, you deal an additional 10-40 damage" Prevents spike abuse and makes this skill really "punishing". Maybe, if somehow misused, add "deals just xx damge if target foe was not attacking/using a skill".

Skill names: ranger ordinary attack skills (penetrating attack, power attack,...)
Change during testweekend: not changed
suggested change: in line with the punishing shot change, increase the damage on these skills, as they can't be combined with punishing for imbalanced rangerspike

Skill name: Offering of Blood
Change during testweekend: not changed
suggested change: rework, restore sacrifice to 8%, link the energy gained to soulreaping, maybe soulreaping x1,5 or 2, or "gain x energy and +x energy for each x points in soulreaping)

Skill name: Charm Animal
Change during testweekend: not changed
suggested change: combine with comfort animal

Skill name: Panic
Change during testweekend: not changed
Suggested change: decrease energy cost to 15, increase cooldown and/or casttime

Skill Name: Shatter enchantment (=bad, needed for long)
Change during testweekend: not changed
Suggested change: Lower cooldown to 20s, increase damage or add area effect

Skill name: energy surge
Change during testweekend: bad / not needed
Suggested change: none, leave the skill as it was

Skill Name: Divert Hexes
Change during testweekend: too long cast, balance in another way
Suggested change: leave casttime at 1s, but maybe reduce healing by up to 50% or reduce it's effectiveness in another way a bit

Skill Name: Sharpen daggers
Change during testweekend: bad
Suggested change: leave as is, or maybe give critical just a chance to cause bleeding (50%?). If this change was geared towards critical barragers or others forms of different weapons involved and IF a change is REALLY needed, then, as it is called sharpen "daggers", change it in "your dagger attacks..."

Skill name: the other skills changed
Comment: the changes were either liked by me, bearable or I'm undecided/ had not the time to evaluate them properly.

For future updates:
Skill name: any skill "exploited" by secondaries and in need of a change
Suggested change: link them more to the classes primary attribute

Additional notes, and in my opinion very helpful to make warriors a more desired class for HA again:

Improve warriors primary attribute to always cause additional armorpenetration, not just when using skills.

Change back warriorabsorb to reduce damage from all sources again.

Azrael the Needle · Jan 24, 2007, 03:06 AM // 03:06

Gods, the update was great! I mainly focused on the assassin and monk skills, being an A/Mo myself, so I have many things to say, and hope someone from Anet gets to read them!!! This is my opinion on the changes done to several skills, being either good or bad.

Assassin

Assassins Remedy-Good
Sharpen Daggers-Bad
Flashing Blades-Good
Feigned Neutrality-Good
Beguiling Haze-Good
Assault Enchantments-Good
Black Mantis Thrust-Bad
Blades of Steel-Good
Critical Defenses-Good
Critical Eye-Good
Critical Strike-Good
Death Blossom-Bad
Exhausting Assault-Bad
Impale-Good
Heart of Shadow-Good
Lift Enchantment-Good
Locusts Fury-Good
Nine Tail Strike-Good
Shadow of Haste-Good
Shadowy Burden-Good
Shroud of Distress-Bad
Shattering Assault-Bad

Suggestions(please consider them!)

Expose Defenses: Reduce Casting Time to 1/4
Shroud of Silence: Dont disable own spells.
Twisting Fangs: Reduce recharge to 12
Shadow Shroud: Reduce Recharge to 10
Shadowy Burden: Keep the 1/4 cast, but extend duration.
Unseen Fury: Reduce Recharge time, shorter duration.
Way of Perfection: Extend Duration
Way of the Fox: Reduce recharge time.

Out of all of these suggestions, I beg of you to really consider at least one: Expose Defenses.

Monk

Shield of Regeneration-Good
Divert Hexes-Not clear what happened. IMO should stay at casting time 1.
Shield of Deflection-Good
Shielding Hands-Good

-Azrael the Needle

truemyths · Jan 24, 2007, 03:30 AM // 03:30

I'd like to make a request. I'd like to have aNet tell us why they changed each skill. If we could understand the reasoning behind the skill changes that may help it make more sense and promote a different sort of dialouge. Mostly skill changes feel frustrating. All my experiences are from a PVE and RA/Fort Aspenwood PoV.

A) It seems the majority of the time you weaken skills... rather than strengthen skills... may not be the case, but that's what it feels like.

B) What it feels like, is that some favorite builds or skills used by a smaller community get the nerf, while others way more popular (touch rangers, SF spammers) get a miss. For example, I play a memser... so a comment on specific changes:
- Mantra of Recall - maybe this was changed in a previous version... but does anyone really now use it anymore? Seriously, I know you all run stats...
- Energy Surge - it went from giving the mesmer a reasonable AOE to no AOE because Spiritual Pain was nerfed... are mesmers not supposed to have AOE spells? Is it because you want mesmers to be individual target pullers and have to rely on a dual class (Ele) to do AOE? Or was it just too popular in mesmer builds? I have a hard time believing it was too powerful.
- Spiritual Pain - Went from a good general AOE to one you'd only bring if you knew you were going to be facing a specific type of Rit, the spirit spammer. Now who really wants to bring a skill only good on spirit spammer rits. Most skills aren't niched so far down to a specific sub-class of character. Spirit creating seems to be done only by Rit primaries. Even anit-touch skills are good against more than just one primaries (both necs and rangers).

So you see, these three skills were basis for different builds for me and all three get the big bat... that's frustrating. And I have no clue why...I never felt too powerful (quite the opposite). And because I don't know why it certainly feels like mesmer-hate-nerf. ;-)

So the dialouge (a response to a change) goes different ways if its because you want to encourage trying different skills overall, another conversation if a skill is overused in PVP, yet another conversation if you're trying to create a balance against something else, and even yet another conversation if you're trying to narrow down the definition/role of a class... see what I mean?

I think then another great benefit is that there would be more acceptance of the change... when people don't understand the reasoning then they guess... and usually make up far worse things than the original intentions.

Hope this helps!

bsp kain · Jan 24, 2007, 09:54 AM // 09:54

Change: The "evade" mechanic has been removed from the game. All skills that used this mechanic have been changed to use "block" instead.
Impressions: It would be nice if you change some skills like Whirling Axe and Forceful Blow.

Change: Weakness now causes -1 to all attributes.
Impressions: Good change.

Skill Name: Blades of Steel
Impressions: I'm affraid that +80dmg can be a bit too much.

Skill Name: Shadow of Haste
Impressions: IMO Nerfed too much. Make duration lower and leave recharge.

Change: All avatar forms: increased recharge time to 30 seconds.
Impressions: I like this change, but Avatar of Grenth is still overpowered.

Skill Name: Searing Flames
Impressions: Make dmg a bit lower.

Change: Wither & Malaise
Impressions: Very good change.

Change: Paragon motivation chants changes
Impressions: Good change, but healing is still big.

Skill Name: Signet of Spirits
Impressions: Compared to Offering of Spirit it's give too low amount of energy.

Rest of changes are good, but take a look on some skills missed by you, that need to be improved or nerfed. Like Wielder's Zeal, Stoneflesh Aura and more...

yesitsrob · Jan 24, 2007, 06:58 PM // 18:58

Blades of Steel Too much damage, a +80 DUAL attack is ridiculously high, I would have thought just glancing at this skill after making the change would make one think "Wow, retardedly good"

Impale I heart it

Avatar of Grenth/Melandru's The 30 second rechagre on the dervishes is a nice change, these two however still remain insanely good. With the Melandru's a lot of it is to do with wearying strike.

Jagged Bones / Soul Reaping / Spirits Obvious what build I'm talking about, it's one of the over powered builds right now and has allowed some of the biggest scrubs in the whole of Guild Wars achieve great ranks because in fairness healers with 20 million pips of energy regen, spirit backup, hex shutdown, oh and a lot of degen can make even the worse of players do well, and it has

Malise / Wither Nice

Shadow of Haste I also like

Power Leak Good buff, didn't think it was necesarry but I don't really think the nicer recharge make it overpowered so it's all good

Belegwtfspelling haze Mmmrrgh, probably a bit too good.

Blinding Surge Good Change.

Spiritual Pain Good Change.

GhostBear · Jan 24, 2007, 09:27 PM // 21:27

Skill: Assassin's Remedy
Impression: Didn't like the Change, too restrictive. Would run out before I even acquired a condition at times.

Skill: Beguiling Haze
Impression: I like the change to the Mechanics, Recharge is a little too short

Skill: Black Mantis Thrust
Impression: The Duration wasn't the Problem it was the Energy investment, Hex cost + Attack cost

Skill: Blades of Steel
Impression: More powerful then it should be, less damage on the cap would be nice

Skill: Critical Defenses
Impression: The change was amazing and made this skill worthwhile

Skill: Critical Eye
Impression: The Increase in critical chance percentage was nice

Skill: Critical Strike
Impression: I liked this change, it really helped with energy management and made me take a harder look at some of the more expensive dagger attacks.

Skill: Feigned Neutrality
Impression: The Shorter Duration is good, maybe a tad too short.

Skill: Flashing Blades
Impression: The Increased block Percentage is great considering it doesn't protect you while your casting. I'd recommend one more slight change to this skill, adding a small amount of damage to melee foes you successfully block.

Skill: Heart of Shadow
Impression: I like the increase in Healing, made the skill that much more worth the 15 second recharge.

Skill: Impale
Impression: I like the addition of the Deep Wound.

Skill: Locust's Fury
Impression: I liked the Change (Set 50% double Strike, duration scaled to attribute) but found I still won't be using it in many, if any, builds due to the restrictive nature of not working with my attack skills.

Skill: Nine Tail Strike
Impression: I liked the cost reduction putting it on a par with the other Fox skills in the list.

Skill: Shadowy Burden
Impression: I liked the decreased cast time, it actually made the skill viable to use

Skill: Sharpen Daggers
Impression: Made this skill absolutely useless to an Assassin. Making it work on the next X attack skills means I'll just be stacking Bleeding on one foe with my next X attack skills.

Skill: Shattering Assault
Impression: The Changes were okay, I still don't like the cost or Recharge time. A lower cost with a longer recharge might be bettter

Skill: Shroud of Distress
Impression: The change was nice but still didn't make the skill viable. It's too expensive for the benefits it may provide if no one removes it first.

NOTE: I only posted opinions on skills I actively tested.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be heard.

Aleks · Jan 24, 2007, 09:46 PM // 21:46

These are the only skills I have thoroughly tested.

Mesmer

Ancestor's Visage
A very balanced change. It's more "spammable" with it being "weaker" - but not by much.

Energy Surge
This was unneeded... If this change is to stay at least make it fair by decreasing the recharge time. Otherwise this skill won't find itself in that many skillbars anymore.

Hex Eater Vortex
Completely agree! 15 energy was way too much for such a skill.

Mantra of Recovery
For once, I actually enjoyed using this elite. I don't remember the last time I actually used it. Very good in combination with hex spreads. This is one skill you will see a lot more of now, good job ArenaNet.

Power Block
Now this elite can be used more. 30 seconds was way too much anyway. Keep this as it is please.

Power Leak
Keep it. A much needed change for this skill. One of the big energy drainers for the mesmer.

Spiritual Pain
Very nice added funtionality. Works well with rits on the team.

Unnatural Signet
I love this! I personally thought it was overpowered before, but this is just... WOAH! I love it though.

Monk

Word of Healing
More healing is exactly what this skill needed. Good job.

Ritualist

Bloodsong
I always wondered why this was 10 energy... And Arenanet did you notice that people actually brought this skill with them over the weekend? Before they didn't. Amazing job changing this.

yugdfda · Jan 25, 2007, 12:35 AM // 00:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulivious The Reaper

Skill Name: blades of steel
Impressions: a bit over powered.. i've been playing around on my assassin with this skill prior to update and it was pretty strong (saw hits up to 110 each with only 2 recharging skills on a monk) and now its going to be even more deadly

Skill Name: Blades of Steel
BoS should be at least +80 b/c its the ONLY PURE damage dual. Every other dual attacks applies conditions in combination with +attack damage. +50 damage, what it is currently set as, doesn't really want to make me pick it over a different dual.
Ex Death blossom with 14 dm does +43 damage ALMOST the SAME AS BoS but it ALSO hits every adjacent foe
so IMO the weekend change was perfect- make Bos a PURE Spike ability

For those of u arguing against this u gotta realize that sins die just as quickly as they can kill+ there are many counters against them (ward/blind/interrupt/degen/MANY more skills) Since they die so quickly why would anyone pick something that attacks once every 10-20 seconds over a warrior/thumper/dervish (SINIFICANTLY GREATER LONGEVITY than SIN) *BTW dervish are hitting sins for over 100 damage*

The only place this could possibly seem out of place is RA and Alliance battles since teams are unorganized and random. However, these places should NOT be the focal points of balance... With this buff, sins would have better and more options so GREAT change.

*Edit:
Suggestion: Make the max damage scale with Dagger Mastery, max of +50...80
great idea that someone earlier in this thread mentioned

BryanM · Jan 25, 2007, 01:01 AM // 01:01

Mantra of Recovery:
At 5 energy, this is a viable elite.

Power Shot:
Power Shot is still just a beginner's skill for use in pre-searing. Give it some more damage. Screaming Shot was a kick in Power Shot's face.

Wither + Malaise:
Good. They used to be shrugged off by anyone competent. The conditional damage means they can actually do something now.

Gladiator's Defense:
This will always be a farming skill.

Elemental Damage:
Thank you for adding +30-50% damage to these things. After these couple years, it's nice that it's finally being acknowledged that these things are affected by armor and level. That Dark Pact and Blood of the Aggressor blew all the 5 energy elementalist attacks away in almost all situations wasn't right.

edited to note: I was comparing the level 0...15 range on the update notes and comparing them to the 0...12 ranges on the Guildwiki, hence why I sound so retarded there. 0...12...16 would be more sensible to anyone familiar with the game, but who am I to long for useful standards of notation?

Shield of Deflection:
I guess I can see why this skill is like it is - it's an okay single target protection spell for people who have nothing in Protection Prayers.... but realistically it should probably just be dropped to 5 energy, ~50% block, ~15 armor. It simply isn't going to see much use at 10 energy, no matter how much faster it can be whipped out.

Divert Hexes:
I liked the idea of Expel Hexes being the best hAx removal - added a bit of style to the mesmer.... Divert is pretty overpowered in the arenas, where it is a total hex hoser, 100% ---

* Increase the energy cost by 5, or
* Reduce the hex removal by 1, or
* Remove some of the condition removal and reduce the conditional heal to 40-55, or
* Double the recharge time

Nightmare Weapon:
Like getting 5 Vampiric Gazes with the suggested change. Suggest laming it up by reducing life steal to ~30 (which is kind of lame) OR making it work on the next 3 attacks instead.

Bloodsong:
I'd prefer this stay in communing. Add an attack spirit in the new campaign if you want to broaden the utility of the attribute lines - being able to just plant a single target auto-attack spirit doesn't belong in Channeling. Improve Gaze of Fury and/or move Anguished Was Linguah if you want a stop gap. If this change was to weaken communing, communing doesn't need weakening.

Jagged Bones:
This is a really fun skill. Unfortunately, the minion recycling is an insane tactic in PvE. Taste of Death and Putrid Flesh have zero drawbacks with this this thing. And the whole endless team-wide energy battery it is for Necro team builds is absurd. Assuming you're all still mulling over what to do with this one, the suggestions that minions only provide energy to their masters was a decent stop-gap.

Weapon of Warding:
1 sec cast = perfect change. Thank you. Thank you so much. Marry me? (Unless you are a guy, then no marry plz. That would be awkward and gross.) <- I am addressing this to the person responsible for this change, who is almost certainly a male. Unless he isn't. Which would be weird.

Blades of Steel:
+65 damage cap. That'd make it 30% better than Death Blossom for single targets.

Sharpen Daggers:
Change makes it uber lame. I..... don't really see assassins using this to spread conditions in melee... I don't see rangers using this over their Screaming Shot... I don't see paragons using this over Barbed Spear.

It needs to endure, and meeting the critical hit condition is not difficult for an Assassin. It has some utility for some people to power their Golden attacks with it, while adding damage at the same time. It should not be nerf-batted due to Barrage.

Critical Defenses:
At 10 (12 with +enchanting) seconds this is impossible to lose unless it's stripped.

Reaper's Mark:
The energy gain change seemed pretty whimsical. I like the skill with the degen and cost as-is; it's the same damage as two Faintheartednesses without the attack slow-down - an elite degeneration spell that deserves being elite.

Lion's Comfort:
I agree this needs some juice. I am assuming it blocks out signets due to Healing Signet. If that's the reason it's the way it is, make that disable explicit. It'd be ghetto, but it'd also be honest. Honestly ghetto. Having to choose between disabling your resurrection or certain death is not a good game mechanic.

This is the most interesting skill in the game to me, since, to my knowledge, it is the ONLY dual-attribute linked skill in the game so far. It needs to be about 10-15% better than its alternative (Healing Signet) when invested into.

Cloud5646 · Jan 25, 2007, 06:24 PM // 18:24

Loved the assassin's skills buffs, they now can be compared to dervishes and thumpers.

Assassin's remedy: Great change. But I believe there is something wrong with it because it can't remove a condition if you miss the skill, although, the description does not say you have to hit. (this ruins the main use of it: removing blind)

Assault enchantments: Great change but I believe people still prefer grenth.

Beguiling haze: Great change. An assassin without a shadow step is not that great.

Blades of steel: Great change. 50 dmg was ridiculously low, dervishes can hit 100+ dmg with a normal atk and they have lots of attack rate boosting skills which assassin's don´t have any.

Feigned neutrality: yeah guess it needed the nerf.

Impale: great change. I was getting sick of twisting fangs.

Lift enchantment: useful now.

shadowy burden: really needed the cast time buff.

Shattering assault: didn't test it but it really needed a buff.

I think the non elite shadow steping skills (death's charge and dark prison) should get lower recharge times.
A shadow steping assassin is much more effective in terms of surprising the enemy to get him offguard. If an assassins just walk to its enemy he will merely get protected (shield of absorption) and it will ruin your combo.
I personally can't afford to use an elite other then shadow prison because the non elite shadow steping skills have insane high recharge times.

Aleena · Jan 26, 2007, 05:34 AM // 05:34

Impale: too powerful. Assassins replaced Twisting Fangs with Blades of Steel and added this to the end of their attack chain, making Assassins' damage spikes even more powerful than the damage-dealing abilities of other classes.

Assault Enchantments: It needed a reduction in recharge, as it already requires sacrificing the high damage normally dealt by the dual attack. Additionally, this skill has limited applicability because it occurs after the Assassin has completed his attack chain. The most detrimental enchantments to an Assassin are spammable anyways: Guardian, Shield of Absorption...

Spoil Victor: The decreased duration made the skill less overpowered. I'd be interested in an even more decreased duration, together with a proportionate decrease in recharge time.

Shield of Regeneration: Even with this decreased casting and recharge times, this skill's practicality is somewhat limited by it's high energy cost.

Paragon skills: The Paragon needs strong buffing, as the class seems somewhat useless outside of specialized team builds. It is the only class that is hardly used in the arenas.

Ritualist skills: all seemed very good. The only really effective build for ritualists in the arenas is currently the spirit spammer. The additions seemed very good in allowing room for additional ritualist builds.

A big limitation on Restoration magic is that it's dependent on Spirits nearby, but there aren't any good spirits in the Restoration line (Recuperation's long recharge and high energy cost mean it can't be solely depended on for this). The changes to Bloodsong meant restoration builds could go with channeling magic also, instead of only communing magic, as their secondary attribute line.

The arenas benefited highly from having more healing options, and there was less incentive to immediately quit teams that don't have a monk.

Thanks!

Zoo X · Jan 26, 2007, 09:51 AM // 09:51

energy denial using hexes will be way too overpowered, mes/necro or necro/mes can have some combos really nasty, i was playing with a mesmer/necro during the event at TA using Price of Pride + Corrupt Enchantment + drain ilusions + ether phantom as core skills at the build, and it was insane overpowered.
as much as i loved playing such a toon, i have to say Corrupt enchantment and price of pride deserve a closer look.
Mantra of recovery wasnt very used because the mana cost was way to expensive, however, since GoLE, mantra of recovery + GoLE was a viable build, but , still need a skilled player to play it right and dont waste mana and get the most from MoR, as MoR was played during the event (5 mana 5-35 secs ) allowed cheaps builds and cheap tactics to be played, as for exemple diversion skillless spammers and such.

thats just a exemple about what i felt during the event, in other words, skill in a player is not as important as it used to be, and smashing buttons policy seems to be taking over.
there were some great post at this web site pointing out this problem, i wont be the first to say it, we dont want build wars, we loved guild wars cost at guild wars, skill, matters.

Selenis · Jan 26, 2007, 10:46 PM // 22:46

I hope this thread is still read by ArenaNEt staff.
I would like to comment on the experiment from perspective of paragons.

Well i don't have problems with particular skills, I just have one big critic about the latest experiment.
IMO it is a step in the wrong direction to adjust many little cogs although the system itself became imbalanced by introducing such a strong mechanism as shouts/songs/echoes.
The main reasons for this are:
- many shouts are instant and thus not interruptable
- there are no ways to end song and shout effects prematurely
- there is no way to deny any target the effects of shouts and songs

The biggest mistake was done at release of NF by not implementing any skills with said effects. Why is there no antishout-shout? Why is Necromancer the only class with any anti shout skills?
I understand that between releases its not easy to implement new skills to remedy those mistakes, but many problems with overpowered builds could be solved by adjusting "the big cogs" first.
For example you could add another new condition called "Deaf" which would make the target immune to any shouts and songs. Until next release you could combine this condition with for example "Dazed" and suddenly all skills resulting in being dazed would render the target a very soft victim in Paragon heavy builds and with next release you could introduce skills which use the new condition exclusively.
Also why not adding this deaf condition to AoE skills with KD effect? Its hard to listen to a song while meteors are falling on your head after all.

In conclusion I want say that in my experience as Dungeon Master in many Pen&Paper RPGs its never a good idea to take away beloved abilities only because the players found ways to use them in not forseen effectivity.
Its rather wiser to strengthen possibilities to counter those new found strong combos to avoid unnecessary frustration.

Thanks for your attention

And although it seems like theres alot criticism, NF is still a great release

Rey Lentless · Jan 28, 2007, 07:04 AM // 07:04

I liked almost all the changes, so I'm only going to mention some things I didn't like or changes I expected, but didn't see.

Ele elite skills still obsolete due to exhaustion Skills like Mindburn are still as near to worthless as you can get to do low recharges and exhaustion. If you're going to combine low recharge/exhaustion attack skills they need to be considerably more powerful.

Searing Flame This spell needs to just be an aoe immolation with longer burn duration to be part of a pressure build. Longer recharge time, burn + damage like immolation and no conditional damage promoting it as a spike skill.

Paragon elites There are a lot of these that just aren't up to par and are very bad skills still.

Paragon motivation line I don't like this. I understand the nerfing because of the effect that multiple paragons can have, but it also makes these skills as only 1 paragon in the group.. very lacking. There has to be a better way to deal with this than just removing the overpowered potential by having multiple paragons stacking these, than to make just 1 way underpowered.

Crude Swing Please fix this already. It can't be easily interuptable ok? Just realize that and nerf whatever else makes anyone think it would be overpowered otherwise.

That's about it. Overall, I was very impressed and seemed that the changes were coming from a very accurate prospective. Good job.

banditjin · Jun 18, 2007, 10:25 AM // 10:25

jus a quick question concernin the +25 max buff . it says - Added a cap of +25 to the armor buff when stacking skills. A single skill can still push the bonus over +25. Bonuses from shields, weapons, insignia, and inscriptions are not affected and still stack.

- so does this mean if i use stand ure ground (+24 AL armor) and a watch ureself (+10 AL armor), do i get max +25 armor buff instead of the +34 ? Say i also use blade turn (+30vs slashing) in addition to the stand ure ground and watch ureself, and i get attack via slashing, do i only get +25 armor buff or , +30 from the blade refrain or +64 (total)?

ty.