March 2 Update

[WarBlade]

The full list of changes in the March 2 update are here.

By now I'm sure most of us have had a chance to have a play around with some of the skill changes and changed builds etc. Going through the list I didn't see too much that would effect the character builds that I usually drag out, but there were a few scattered around in there.

Updated Adrenaline behavior so that death removes all Adrenaline.

Ragnar will not be impressed! This one is a PvP nerf. Ragnar used to die in RoF arena (can never remember the name) and come back at the shrine on a full tank of adrenaline, or at least as full as it was at the point of death. He could use a knock down attack for his first shot in the re-entry to combat, which given the nastiness and adrenaline requirements of Backbreaker was a neat trick to do. Oh well. Them's the breaks eh?

You are no longer considered "attacking," "using a skill," or "casting a spell" while you are running to get in range of a target.

Another Warrior alteration. It used to be that a Warrior running down a Wind Rider etc. with one skill loaded up and pending would suck on a Cry of Frustration shortly after entering spell range. I used to exploit this annoying fact by making the damned things unload on a 5 point cheapo, but overall I'm actually happy this ridiculous state of affairs was changed.

Reduced the Lieutenant's Helm Hex duration bonus to 20%, and added it to the PvP character creation screen.

Ugh! Fair enough that PvPers get this item, but did it really need to be rendered largely pointless in the process? With one breath they get to say "Yaaaaa- Wha-? It's only worth something to runners now? Oh FFS!"

And PvP Mesmers didn't really need that 'buff'.

Energy Drain: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
Energy Tap: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds

Ooh. More energy for Eles. Interesting. Not a huge change, but it seems to fit my experiences with Kronin and Ice Blade.

Conjure Frost: no longer removes Enchantments.

Seemingly inocuous this looks to me like one of the biggest changes in the batch. I did some testing with Ice Blade and have realized that he's now much more capable of operating in a solo tank capacity than before.

Here's the kicker: Mist Form neutralizes the direct damage from the caster's wand/staff/sword/whatever, just like it neutralizes the weapon attacks of the enemy. Meanwhile it does nothing to the bonus damage from Conjure Frost. With those two enchantments Ice Blade can stand there tapping away on things without fear of riprisal in a "death by a thousand paper cuts" tactic. The Mist Form duration still hinders him (21s at Lvl16, 30s recharge) so he's untouchable 2/3's of the time at least, but then Blurred Vision can sustain him in the gap. In the past he had to rely on spell attacks to hurt, but now Conjure Frost can be effective indefinitely (with re-casts once a minute) yielding a cheap fire and forget alternative.

Conjure Lightning no doubt becomes similarly more usable and one wonders about the applications with such skills as Glimmering Mark (Blinds enemies hit by Lightning), Gale (knockdown with attacks enchantment), Thunderclap (knockdown with attack hex) in tandem with a player's other defensive enchantments.

Mist Form: decreased cast time to 1 second.

The other side of the the coin where the above combo is concerned. The caster becomes much harder to interrupt and the approximately 10 second gap in the enchantment at level 16 gets a little smaller.

Resurrect: reduced cast time to 6 seconds; increased recharge time to 5 seconds.

Interesting. It's competitive against Rebirth in cast time now. Trickier for me to interrupt using a Maelstrom and the 5 second duration thing screws over Maelstrom versus Stone Summit Priests (They used to ignore and try multiple resurrection attempts, drain themselves flat and just die). Alternately those same Priests become easier to stop for Warriors stuck with adrenaline based knock downs. Somewhat Zen will be happier too I am sure.

Peace and Harmony: skill reworked. Now ends if ally casts a Spell on target foe or deals damage to a foe; reduced recharge time to 30 seconds.

Haha. Good job!

Live Vicariously: increased amount healed per swing to 2..17.

It's not a huge jump but considering that I was already mixing this skill with Barrage for solo runs with a result that was like having 3 or 4 self targetted Mendings multiplied by the number of targets hit, this buff is quite surprising.

Dwarven Battle Stance: now also increases attack speed by 10%.

It needed that I think. Hammer attack rates are slow enough that other attacks could slip between interrupting hammer blows. Those dwarves in Sorrow's Furnace just go a whole lot more annoying.

Fixed miscellaneous bugs with the wurm monster AI.

Oh dear. I suspect someone else may have discovered the sneaky little trick I stumbled on while having Somewhat Zen guide seven henchies into Tombs. Or perhaps not. I'll have to re-test it I think.

[Lurker Wyrm]

Ragnar used to die in RoF arena (can never remember the name)

The Crag. One of the ones I like the least.

[Green_Gloom]

Ugh! Fair enough that PvPers get this item, but did it really need to be rendered largely pointless in the process? With one breath they get to say "Yaaaaa- Wha-? It's only worth something to runners now? Oh FFS!"

And PvP Mesmers didn't really need that 'buff'.

Anti-Warrior Hexes are completely irrelevant with the Lieutenant's Helm at 50% reduction. The penality for using the helm vs any other helm is minescule compared to the previous advantage.

It's still useful and a lot more balanced now, just not overpowered as it used to be. There was a reason (beyond Gale being extremely effective) you almost never saw a hexer in high level competitive play but lots of Gale Warriors.

[KingOfPain]

I would bet PvPers will still be complaining it is unfair because they can't switch hats...

Sheesh, just tag items il/legal-for-PvP, and move on. The mechanism is already in place, aka, candy canes.

If you think about it... it is sick how much the PvE game experience is held back by PvP balance issues.

[WarBlade]

I thought of something to add which my previous post edged towards, but never quite reached. Playing Ice Blade and his all-out Water Magic investment I've seldom had much cause to drop Water Trident from the elite slot. Now I get two more Water elites vying for much more attention:

1.) Mist Form. Already mentioned. Marginally better in that the 1 second cast is difficult to interrupt making it much more reliable in itself. Considerably better with the new found versatility with the Conjure Frost combo.

2.) Ward Against Harm. No changes to this skill, but Fire Magic seems to have made some gains (possibly a late tweak to mitigate the AoE AI) and bringing Ward to the battlefront, not to mention Ward with a 21s duration and 20s recharge, makes this a more worthy choice than it had previously been for those areas.


I still don't use Mind Freeze though. I suppose I could do what the Imps do and put the brakes on to stop people running from Maelstroms, but otherwise just spamming Water Trident > Ice Spikes > Water Trident gets roughly the same result in stoppage, but with much more bang for the buck.

[Lurker Wyrm]

If you think about it... it is sick how much the PvE game experience is held back by PvP balance issues.

The vast majority of skill balance changes have come as a result of the PvE game, so saying something like that is pretty uninformed. Besides, Guild Wars was designed as a PvP game, so it makes sense that balance issues that have a direct effect on PvP play should be addressed. Also, there are a lot of people who feel that the PvE game is constantly getting in the way of the PvP game (55 monks ring a bell?).

Personally, I feel that the PvE game is held back more by the terrible AI as well as people who try to play the game as something it's not. The biggest problem with our guild and this is that we're small, so we usually wind up teaming up with the same groups all the time; that's fine for getting to know each other, but when there are personality conflicts, they tend to drain away the energy of the group and lead to people either leaving the guild, playing the game less, or whatever else.

I still don't use Mind Freeze though.

My impression of Mind Freeze is that it's there to be a snare and make a warrior or whoever unable to close in, or to make a target unable to run away from a spike. You can snag whoever's getting hit, then turn your attention to someone/thing else, rather than having to constantly spam the skill. Or something like that. Actually, I think that when they were putting in the ele elites, they thought up Mind Burn and Shock, then figured they should throw in a similar water something, thus creating Freeze. They should probably beef up the damage a bit though.

[WarBlade]

My impression of Mind Freeze is that it's there to be a snare and make a warrior or whoever unable to close in, or to make a target unable to run away from a spike. You can snag whoever's getting hit, then turn your attention to someone/thing else, rather than having to constantly spam the skill.

Ice Prison. 21 seconds at level 16, doesn't have any "my energy must be greater than your energy" tircks to it and doesn't hog the elite slot.

[Swiss Mercenary]

Yeah, but Ice prison wouldn't work too well if you are trying the 6 meteor shower E/Me build.

But, yes, I can't see myself using Mind Freeze either.

The changes are all good. In regards to the Leutenant's helm - it was, IMHO, an overpowered item for both PvP and PvE. The problem was just more pronounced in PvP.

At 20%, it's a 'tradeoff vs tradeoff', rather then the good old 'If my enemies ever use significantly scary hexes, then I'm always better off by bringing it'

[KingOfPain]

The vast majority of skill balance changes have come as a result of the PvE game, so saying something like that is pretty uninformed

LoL. This must be along the same line when you said no one in high end PvP uses Heal Party. If you say so...

Edit: Snip

KoP

[Swiss Mercenary]

Nobody in high end PvP uses heal party as a primary source of healing.

There's a subtle distinction.