Next Skill Balance

No, because casting spell breaker, spirit bond, running into a mob, soa, spirit bond again, and then just standing there until everything dies, recasting soa on recharge, takes a hell of a lot more skill than casting deadly paradox and then SF.

You also do not think we (the TK) know this?

Without 600/smite groups does this mean going back to taking FOREVER to max allegiance titles again D:

I have just added two threads in the warrior section in case people would like to have a specific discussion about those items individually there.

Hammer Mastery thread
Tactics thread

Improvements to hammers is very nice to see.

Leave 600/Smite alone, it's not overpowered, it takes a measure of skill, and more than one player, it's not even remotely invincible.

And even more importantly Protective Spirit, are 2 ESSENTIAL protection skills that should never ever be touched because of the sheer naked damage output of most foes.

It's all up to you now, Test Krewe. You guys (and gals?) are the s**t. The bar has been set and the community's standards are very high. While it's understandable that nobody's perfect, the first impression is the most important and so this skill update will probably make or break your reputation.

What I'm trying to say is: we're all looking forward very much to the fruits of your labour.

Sounds good to me.

I look forward to the update. I have to say I'm suprised at the amount of people claiming 600/smite takes skill, not sure if they really believe that or that is their excuse to keep their farming ability alive when shadow form goes the way of the dodo. I know you aren't invincible but you can let prot spirit and sb drop and still survive, shadow form drop = death. neither takes a great deal of skill and that's what made them appealing the casual players as a farming option.

On the faction note, not too worried for luxon cause the worst that it will do is cut your faction earning potential in half. mqsc ~ 10 min, mq h/h ~ 20 min meh.

Don't touch 600 smite~
it is not broken. Yes its fast killing, but not like SF u walk thru everything and go straight to the boss/chest, u still need to kill.
Nerf the farm, not the build.

" Skill Updates are for games that matter. "

Given that you said this:

Makes it clear that this:

Is not a given, and also worries me that the TK may know it but may not care in its zeal to kill farming.

Took me 2 months to go from r4 to r12 kurzick with JQ Only(and there was no freaking faction event all those 2 months )

*pleads for derv buffs* *Very seriously pleads for derv buffs* Or at least nerfs in accordance with other classes out damaging the derv with it's own weapon.

By the looks of it, the update has the potential to be one of those magical moments where we'll be able to /point and /laugh at the people involved!
Good times for the /pointing&/laughing crowd.
Bad times for the game.

One bridge at a time. Dervs do need help, but we can't expect Anet to fix everything all at once (plus, rangers and mesmers also need some help, though I wouldn't say they need it quite as much).

Thank you, Anet. I'm glad to see you're keeping your promise of more openness when it comes to these sorts of things. I look forward to the results of this skill update.

I also suspected that 600 was going to take a hit, but meh, it was overpowered too, if we are truly honest with ourselves (just not anywhere near as much as SF).

Hey, don't complain about grind being too long without 600/Smite, guys. I tried suggesting a fix to that, remember?

In any case, it is possible to max alliegance titles without 600/Smite. For example, just a couple days ago I hit r10 kurzick, just vqing DT with my dervish.

Leave 600/Smite alone, just nerf imbapower shadow form
p.s. do not feed trolls pls

Very wise of Regina to publish news concerning Shadow Form and other farming builds. People should cease this opportunity and invest every gold coins they have into ectoes as we are all aware that the fundamental law of economics still covers this situation. Kudos to you, regina and the team. Thanks for informing us and help make the rich, richer. Sometimes, it's best not to be so specific and open about a certain issue ^_^.

PS/SB interaction is not problem. It can tank well limited amount of enemies, but will fail when encountering larger mobs which can produce enough damage packets to exhaust SB charges faster than player can reapply it - five enemies under hm buff is breaking point, even with 2s recahrge, not to mention that energy will be eventually issue.

It Is SOA interaction that makes it overpowered.

First, SB triggers even if SOA reduces incoming damage to zero, that means that SB is free to healup any damage that can get past SOA.

Seccond, Essence Bond/Balthazars Spirit still grant energy even when recieving zero damage. Essence bond does not grant energy when recieving zero damage usually - with exception of SOAed damage, so there is quite huge inconsinstency.

Fix theese two bugs, and 600 without soa will not be imba anymore.

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I kind of do not minda 600 myself because i still would like to eventually use it to finish up kurzick title in sane amount of time. Kind of ironic, eh.

Thanks for letting us know about the planned changes. I am of course disappointed that it is not gonna happen this month but at least we know what to expect when.

For the love of Dwayna, I hope you're not part of the Test Krewe. I saw you troll plenty of topics last years and I don't have faith in you whatsoever. So no, you're not assuring me, on the contrary.