Curse

suiraCLAW · Jul 14, 2006, 07:52 AM // 07:52

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

Some quotes:

Quote:

Modified the Burning Isle guild battle map so that Flame Cursed Sentinels are now Lesser Flame Sentinels. Lesser sentinels are vulnerable to all Conditions, do not heal when out of combat, and slowly die on their own in the first 25 minutes of the match.

Will probably make Burning Isle somewhat more balanced (keep in mind that they die because of health degen, in other words, if you engage them at 12 minutes they will be at 50% health)...

Quote:

Lowered the cap for Healing Reduction to 40%. *

Quote:

Recurring Insecurity: reduced the duration to 1..10 seconds.

Makes the SB-RI spike somewhat less powerful, but it's still possible.

Quote:

Elemental Attunement: this skill is now attributed to Energy Storage; increased duration to 30..55 seconds.

No more FC air spike?

Quote:

Air of Enchantment: added a minimum 1 Energy cost; increased recharge time to 8 seconds.

The smiters now need minimum 13 protection prayers (or 11 + 20% enchantment mod) to renew it before it ends. Minimum cost is somewhat worse, but can be evaded with channeling (wich is a great cover ench).

Quote:

# Equinox: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
# Famine: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
# Greater Conflagration: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
# Lacerate: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.

Still "impossible" to use without serpents quickness...

Zui · Jul 14, 2006, 07:59 AM // 07:59

You forgot the buff to Mind Burn! Man, I'm so glad they buffed that skill...

/end sarcasam

Slit Wrists · Jul 14, 2006, 08:16 AM // 08:16

This skill update is pretty good imo :

no more fc air spike,
foc got nerfed,
smiting got nerfed,
infuse health got fixed,
spirits aren´t affected by wards.

Ensign · Jul 14, 2006, 08:46 AM // 08:46

The Recurring Insecurity change didn't actually do anything to the SB/RI build. I'm puzzled by it myself, since the general opinion is that the skill was unplayably bad outside of that combo - then it recieves a nerf that makes it even worse, without addressing the SB interaction at all.

The only nerf to the SB/RI build is the healing reduction, uh, reduction. We'll see how effective that ends up being.

Peace,
-CxE

Wasteland Squidget · Jul 14, 2006, 08:52 AM // 08:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

The only nerf to the SB/RI build is the healing reduction, uh, reduction. We'll see how effective that ends up being.

Seems like your standard SB/RI will probably just swap out one of the OOBs for a Lingering Curse. They can spare the elites, and 50% healing reduction isn't that much worse than the 66% they had before.

Overall, really unimpressive set of nerfs and buffs. All the major gimmick builds will still work with minor changes (smiters need channeling now), with the exception of FC-Air which is now completely unviable. I'm assuming they went light with the nerfs at first since they'll be observe to see the effects and do another balance at the end of the 3-day season, but maybe they just decided that these builds were fine.

Vindexus · Jul 14, 2006, 08:54 AM // 08:54

I don't think you can easily swap out one of the best energy management skills in the game for one of the biggest energy hogs.

I like the changes to smiting, FC air and the fire map the most.

cookiemonkie · Jul 14, 2006, 09:02 AM // 09:02

Thats been long needed to burning isle. Not sure about the SB/RI, a potential 10% more healing potential during the SB/RI spike, sounds next to useless. Lowered duration of RI changes nothing. We'll see. Overall a decent update, but still need a bit more vs SB/RI.

yesitsrob · Jul 14, 2006, 09:29 AM // 09:29

Quote:

Elemental Attunement: this skill is now attributed to Energy Storage; increased duration to 30..55 seconds.

This is awesome

Quote:

Quivering Blade: increased Daze duration to 8 seconds.

why? >_>

Quote:

Modified the Burning Isle guild battle map so that Flame Cursed Sentinels are now Lesser Flame Sentinels. Lesser sentinels are vulnerable to all Conditions, do not heal when out of combat, and slowly die on their own in the first 25 minutes of the match.

Awesome

Quote:

# Updated Mesmer Courtly and Virtuoso armor sets so that the +15 armor bonus applies only to the piece the bonus is on, not to the entire body. The bonus is now active whenever the equipping character activates any skill (not just spells).
# Updated Warrior Ascalon and Knight's armor sets so that the damage reduction applies only when the corresponding location of the body is struck. The damage reduction applies only to physical damage, and the amount of reduced damage was increased from 2 to 3.

I guess this is pretty good too, though a bit of fricking warning would have gone a long way before i spent a crap load of gold on some 15k knights boots only a week ago, k thx

Quote:

Feast of Corruption: increased Energy cost to 15

I like this too

decent update overall in my opinion, though could have done with a bit more sbri hate >_>

Neo-LD · Jul 14, 2006, 11:59 AM // 11:59

I like this update very much as well.

I stared at the nerf to RI and couldnt figure out what in the world Anet was thinking. Referring to Ensigns comments:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

the skill was unplayably bad outside of that combo - then it recieves a nerf that makes it even worse, without addressing the SB interaction at all.

At least the SBRI is still somewhat nerfed by the heal reduction cap.

Rob - The 'nerf' to Quivering Blade is actually a buff. Anet is trying to make QB + Plague Touch viable.

minor · Jul 14, 2006, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Agree with everyone else here, the "nerf" to RI is not much of anything imo. It may help stop teams that take 10 secs to spike with it, but if the spike is done right this nerf shouldn't make a lot difference.

Fenix Swiftblade · Jul 14, 2006, 12:23 PM // 12:23

Maybe they secretly made it always reapply outside of other hexes, and a hex removal will now eliminate half of the damage?

Cassius The Bold · Jul 14, 2006, 01:14 PM // 13:14

I figured a skill update was coming, but thought it wouldn't come until after the tournament. However, I was somewhat surprised they didn't do something about touch rangers and the nerf to SB/RI does not sound like much of a nerf at all. Guess I'll find out how this affects my builds when I get home.

yesitsrob · Jul 14, 2006, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo-LD

I like this update very much as well.

I stared at the nerf to RI and couldnt figure out what in the world Anet was thinking. Referring to Ensigns comments:

At least the SBRI is still somewhat nerfed by the heal reduction cap.

Rob - The 'nerf' to Quivering Blade is actually a buff. Anet is trying to make QB + Plague Touch viable.

I know, I just didn't think it was too good of an attempt to be honest, I still think it's severely lacking compared to other attractive elites a sword warrior could take. Hm, maybe it will work though.. I've not exactly tried it

I think overall it was a good update too, I really really really like the burning isle change, Finally have the a better chance to avoid unwanted 8v8s on that map.

And I like anything that hurts fc air spike...

... and feast spike for that matter, and I'm glad touch rangers didn't get nerfed because i would have hated for anet to give into a wanted nerf for something that didn't need it

remmeh · Jul 14, 2006, 02:29 PM // 14:29

i hope touch rangers will get nerfed and never see the light of day again.

Greedy Gus · Jul 14, 2006, 02:50 PM // 14:50

-Anyone know what this meant?:

Quote:

Modified the algorithm that causes the alliance battle line to shift. A faction that pushes into enemy territory will temporarily gain a "momentum bonus" that helps it drive the battle line further into enemy territory.

-Also, I guess the update to green shields means they're worth the same AL as gold ones were all along? Nice change for poor pvp players

-RIP IAS fire wand

-Mark of rodgort: Man they really want someone to use this. You can now keep it on 5 people simultaneously....it just costs over 10 pips to do so

-Blackout: Rangers cut down to 4 seconds and mesmers to 6. Still an awesome skill.

As far as the good skill changes, Vindexus covered my short list already. Good update overall.

TheMadKingGeorge · Jul 14, 2006, 03:15 PM // 15:15

FoC Spike Has Been Around Since The Start Of Time Why Nerf It Now, Nob Heads

yesitsrob · Jul 14, 2006, 03:21 PM // 15:21

because they thought with the ritualists, even with the nerf on soul reaping, they still thought it was a bit good? maybe? yeah?

Parkerbsb · Jul 14, 2006, 03:38 PM // 15:38

I'm suprised no one commented on the knights/ascalon armor nerf. Was this something that was known to be coming that I missed?

I'm not impressed with the skill "balances" at all. Sbri and trismite are still very potent - moreso than they should be.

Meh

tomcruisejr · Jul 14, 2006, 03:45 PM // 15:45

omg they didnt delete the warriors in this update? when will iway get nerfed?

Divineshadows · Jul 14, 2006, 04:55 PM // 16:55

I fail to see how this update did anything to SB/RI spike in GvG. From having played against this build and triple smite, this SB/RI spike was the build more desparately in need of adjustment. Unless they moved RI to the top of hex stack so that single hex removals can remove it without documenting it, then they effectively did nothing.

On triple smite, sure the smiters can run channeling to try to counter this update. However, this is another skill in their bar for an enchantment that can be removed and is likely taking the spot of something like hex breaker or aegis. I feel the recharge of Air of Enchanting should have been set to 10 or 12 seconds, but 8 helps nonetheless.

I think that the biggest game adjustments were to the way damage reduction works on physical only and the fact that a single piece of knight's armor no longer grants global damage reduction. So this means that a warrior being attacked by another warrior with an elemental weapon will not be able to have any damage reduction, correct? Overall, I think this makes warriors a little easier to kill in GvG especially if you can black them out while frenzied.

Quote:

Originally Posted by guildwars.com

Fixed a bug that caused a number of skill sounds to play incorrectly as non-positional sounds.

Awesome. Much of the information I collect while playing the game in PvP is based off of sound and positional sounds always further enhance the amount of information I can gain in a minimal amount of time and effort.