Why hasn't more been done with PvE version of skills?

I know there are some skills with pve-only versions that were buffed (or just not nerfed) for pve, but the vast majority of skills never saw any kind of pve-only buff.

I'm not asking that every skill be given a huge pve buff, because pve has been made easy enough already by the EoTN skills. What I'm asking is why haven't many skills who were designed for pvp use, and thus very limited in pve, been given some sort of attention? The majority of Mesmer skills could use some work, as well as a lot of paragon, ranger and i'd say elementalist (water magic). Is it just too much work to revise these skills, or was the point to let EoTN skills fill in the gap?

I just find it disappointing that in a game with so many different skills and possible combinations, that the actual number of good viable builds is quite low. I'm not saying you should be able to have an awesome build with 8 random skills, but I'd rather play a game where theres more variety.

I think the older approach of some skills rule in pve/suck in pvp and vice versa made more sense. There's more than enough skills to go around to balance them this way.

Also the new management seems to be using pve/p split far more sparingly.

Yes, it is a huge problem. Power Creep has made it so many of the older skills are terrible compared to the newer ones. They will never do anything about this.

They could fix PvE spirits.

ANet is too lazy and GW is just a grind.


Wait, this was about skills?

Be careful what you ask for. Monsters in PvE use those skills too.

Because it would take a lot of time to balance everything. There are a lot of skills that have been overnerfed or completely neglected that still need use even without the pvp/pve split.

Could not agree more plus they have unlimited energy

ER (PvE) is just way too strong for me.

Alright time to beat DD, the good news is, the nerf weaken Destroyers ten fold, the bad news is, Destroyers self heals ([[healing [email protected]], [[ether [email protected]], [[soul [email protected]]) is so powerful they can't die... runner anyone?

Maybe better to wait for some of the upcomming skill nerfs to say this... However, its well known that many skills were heavily nerfed before the PvP/PvE split, and most of these were not reset (or even close) after the split. I do think this would be a good thing to do, but it'll require a lot of time and play testing to do it well, since even a small nerf/buff to a heavily used monster skill can cause chaos. The good thing is that players can generally find ways of dealing with over-powered monsters, so maybe it's not as big an issue. I personally think its more important to recheck some of the areas that are now super difficult in HM because of various buffs and nerfs.

Another way of looking at those monsters that had their skills nerfed for PvP is that they're now weaker than they were originally intended to be. Reverting those skills for PvE might just be reverting them to their intended strength.

I don't know how much they can buff w/o making things too easy. Here are my suggestions:

Paragon: All (or most) mass shouts/chants affect allies too
Ranger: Buff Pet skills
Mesmer: More skills with AoE effects. E.g., Frustration being AoE followed by CoF and CoP would be nice.
Rit: Buff spirit health (through a spawning power buff).
Necro: Nothing. SR and other skills like SS, SV, Discord, etc. are great in PvE HM as is Necrosis. Also have some decent AoE options.
Monk: Nothing. Prot is fantastic in PvE and giant heals, i.e., WoH and HB, are handy too.
Ele: A PvE armor penetration skill or glyph liked to Energy Storage. You get puny damage in HM otherwise. Maybe change Elemental Lord to +10% dmg and +20% armor penetration and let it be 75% maintainable with 13 Energy Storage.
Melee (war, derv, sin): Nothing.

Split coding.

Sigh.

Rit: Far more is needed than just a spawning power/spirit buff (although I agree that is really vital). Can't really think of specifics, but even some dart board buffs would be so great for the Rits at this point.

Necro: Funny how you state all the skills that Necros use in HM, and yet the most common elite among HM Necros would be Assassins Promise. Some elites could use a buff, such as Cultists Fervor or Order of Undead, which are pretty useless.

War: Could use some buffs to swordsmanship, so hundred blades isn't the only decent elite. Other than that they are pretty good all rounders, excluding tactics but thats too big for me to get into at this time.

Dervs: Avatars need a buff.

Sins: Nerf Shadowform plox.

They have trouble with their regular skill balances, the 4th anniversary update was already the pinnacle of new content according to them, they are all working on GW2 and so on... what do we expect?


I personally hope that they learned from their mistakes and do not repeat them in GW2. Diablo 3 is coming, a good reason to try harder.

Well, the big updates are now on a 3-4 months schedule. What about next update being solely about balancing skills, both PvE and PvP?

This answer is pretty simple. The pve versions of skills are only created in almost every case because the skill needed to be nerfed, and people hate their pet skills getting nerfed in pve. Because the dev team barely spends any time skill balancing gw1, few nerfs = few pve versions.

I plan on buying them both. I know, its such a strange concept.

Magma is very wise. Were all of you paying attention to how much more dangerous certain places became in HM after the mega-buff to [hundred blades]? (I know that's not a pve-skill example, but it illustrates the point).

OP: It would help if you'd offer some specific examples of what you are talking about. I have one of each profs in PvE, and I have no trouble at finding/creating effective builds with the skills available.