Update 9/10/08

So long ghost running.

Oh no ressing ouside of aggro not that I have done that.

Not if you got a really good perma

good bye to Deep runs with heros. i actually enjoyed playing in that place again. guess the fun is over.

Saw it coming to UA. Mind Blast made me smile. Don't use a Necro, but OoU could be interesting for PvE.

it was used in uw SCs in case one of the eles died. it helped a lot with pugs since you never know how good of an ele the player is. with the frog scepter farming, they just ghost ran to the end then killed the boss for the chest.

Looks like HB is going to be the elite of choice again for better heals. rebirth can easily take the place of UA's effect.

Someone care to explain what I missed?

About time for that UA fix.

Actually, I don't think any of those changes have any real negatives. Gg to ANet on what I think has been their first all-positive update in a while.

What happened to buffing "less useful elites"? *cough aura of lich, hundred blades cough*

There are still plenty of Elites that are snoozetastic.

Kinda sad to see Unyeildig get nurfed. Will make CoF runs slightly less insanely easy.

plz say bye bye to snarers in teh meta, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

How come 1 moment UA is overpowered and the next moment it becomes useless? Where's the middle?

Not sure. Somewhere in radar range

Not a very creative solution to nerf the VS run. UA is now essentially an elite rebirth. The added healing percentage doesn't really make up for the -1 energy regen, that is what Healers Boon is for.

The Ele skill changes could go both ways. Clone skills is just lazy, and though very usefull, do eles really need more energy management?

It would have made a lot more sense to make UA enchant range not casting range.

Radar range = no ghost running, no Frog farming, no inexperienced UWSC.

If it was in Anet's intenion to fix an exploit, radar range would have been the easy and obvious solution. So that leaves us with 2 potential explanations:

Either

A) The devs have no clue what happens in the game and are not in touch with the community.

Or

B) The Devs have another motive in mind other than "balance". Freeing up servers will always be a suspected factor.

wuts ghost running ;3

It works under the same principle as HFFF. I think it worked like this:

1. Bring a hero with UA and lots of run/survival skills.
2. Go to the explorable area you want to run.
3. Kill yourself. Have the hero cast UA.
4. Put your camera on the hero and run them close to the portal at the end of the area where you want to be.
5. Switch the camera back to your dead body.
6. Cancel UA. You spawn at the hero.

It works because heroes don't seem to trigger mobs like players do.

UA is not bad. Increased healing is better than Healer's Boon, but without the casting speed boost. What makes it even nicer, is it removes the need to carry a rez. In fact, the rez is 100% health and energy, and moves the target to safety. Not sure why people view this as bad, but I still find is an amazing elite, and use it more than HB now.

Wait, what was the value of OoU @ 16 Death Magic before it was changed? I haven't played GW in so long that I forgot.

The only real problem is that Anet consistently implements a lazy fix.

For the people moaning about the balance already , you clearly havent played or even watched GvG in the past month or 2. The balance was directed towards making E/X the more viable selection as it was meant , and drive out the Me/E fast cast versions - part of the skill involved in gvg relied on disruption and shutdown on the opposing parties melee hate to allow your warriors to pressure , when FC water ele was intoduced this went out the window - it was more spam spam hope for a lucky dshot or diversion. (FYI - Mesmers were not intended to be more effecient with elemental spells ... then elementists)

Sloth hunters needed to be toned down as expert dexterity + read the winds could produce a sloth hunter of 180 or so damage - better tone down one skill then tone down 2 ?

Last of all , oath of protection is an excellent addition - this will stop guilds making last minute suicide rushes for lords , if they dont take out bodyguard first they will be dishing out minimal damage

Overall - me likes.

Because there is no point in bringing it any more. You get better heals with HB (due to faster casts) without the energy penalty, and u can use other rez skills. Rezzing was never really a problem in PvE, the problem was the range of rez. Now with its range similar to rebirth, resurrect, and rez chant; why bother bring it when u can get better heals with HB with no energy drain.