The developers of Guild Wars 2 remain attentive to the comments of the community. Also, for the upcoming January 27 update, ArenaNet gives us an overview of the changes that will be made regarding powers and professions.
Without speaking of revolution, we will still be able to appreciate some modifications.
Upcoming changes
General changes
Power
Power is a formidable perk that can grant up to 875 Power and Condition Damage when stacked to its maximum. This makes it a particularly popular damage boosting source for players. With this update, we are going to slightly reduce the bonuses granted by Power as well as the effects of certain items that improve the gain of Power.
- Power: Reduced power and condition damage from this perk from 35 to 30 per stack.
Confusion
In addition to the changes to Power, we will also be modifying the Confusion condition in PvE. Confused creatures attack less often, and the condition's effects may feel a bit dull when striking. That's why we'll be increasing Confusion damage in PvE only.
- Confusion: Condition damage increased by 33% in PvE only. This change does not affect PvP or WvW.
Objects
We are going to decrease the effects of certain items that could be misused.
- Superior Sigil of Combat: Reduced the number of Power stacks granted by this item from 3 to 2. The duration is still 20 seconds.
- Sigil of Major Combat: The number of stacks of Power granted by this item has been reduced from 2 to 1. The duration is still 20 seconds.
- Rune of Nightmares: The duration of Fear inflicted by the sixth rune has been reduced from 2 to 1 second. Cooldown reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.
Player versus structured player
The items below will now be available in Player vs. Player structured.
- Rune of Desecration:
- (1) Condition Damage +25
- (2) 25% chance to Drain Health with your next attack when struck (Cooldown: 25 seconds).
- (3) Condition Damage +50
- (4) Your next attack will steal health after using your healing skill (cooldown: 10 seconds).
- (5) Condition Damage +100
- (6) 7% of Vitality is converted to Condition Damage.
- Superior Sigil of Torment:
- 50% chance to trigger Torment in ZE (for 5 seconds in a 180 ° radius) on critical hit (cooldown: 5 seconds).
- Sentinel amulet:
- Potency +650, Toughness +650, Vitality +932
Changes in occupations
In keeping with the changes to Power, the professionally specific updates this time will focus on the general use of certain skills, including efficiency reductions for specific skills. The changes below are intended to make the skills involved more reliable and effective, and in some cases return them to normal use in PvE, WvW, and PvP.
Elementalist
- Drake's Breath: Reduced Burn duration from this skill from 3 seconds to 2 seconds per pulse.
- Developer Note: This skill was used to inflict Burn for a very long time with a single use. Which is still possible after this change, but will require a little more control.
- Lightning Whip: The first and second attacks of Lightning Lash are triggered later during the cast. Reduced casting backlash by 0,2 seconds. To compensate for its higher attack speed, the damage of this skill has been reduced by 10%. When Lightning Whip is used and Sign of Restoration is equipped, the player will only receive healing if the second attack is triggered.
- Developer Note: With these changes, Lightning Whip can no longer be abused, but Elementalists will still be rewarded for successfully completing the attack.
- Ice Comet: The radius of this skill has been increased from 120 to 180.
- Developer Note: It's now much easier to hit moving targets with this skill!
- Rockbreaker: The casting time of this skill has been reduced by 22%.
- Developer Note: The total time it takes for the stone to break remains the same, but you can activate your skills a little earlier.
- Dust Devil: The projectile speed of this skill has been increased by 66%.
- Developer Note: This buff allows the skill to hit targets more effectively.
Engineer
- Shrapnel Grenade: Reduced the Bleed duration of this skill from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Developer Note: The total Bleed duration this skill is currently inflicting is a little too high, hence the slight reduction.
- Mine Throwing: The proximity radius has been increased from 60 to 120. In addition, the explosion radius has been increased from 180 to 240.
- Developer Note: We want to distinguish Mine Throwing and make its impact more visible than other mines in the engineer's arsenal.
- Personal Ram Cast: This skill now inflicts Stupor for 1 second.
- Developer Note: The Personal Ram is a gadget designed specifically to confuse enemies. This change allows this utility belt skill to better serve its purpose.
guardian
- Litany of Anger: The percentage of health regained by this skill has been increased from 20% to 25%. The backlash of this skill has also been reduced by 0,5 seconds.
- Developer Note: Not only will Guardians recover a bit more health, they'll also be able to use their skills faster after casting.
- Shield of Judgment: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
- Developer Note: This change is intended to improve the overall effectiveness of the shield.
- Shield of Absorption: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Developer Note: See above!
- Devotee's Fire: The cooldown increase has been removed.
- Developer Note: This penalty was both superfluous and onerous.
Mesmer
- Deception: This downed skill no longer needs a target to be used.
- Developer Note: This allows for better use of Mesmer Survival skills when confronted with a Stealth Enemy.
- Phantasmagoric Mage: The illusionary mage summoned by this skill now inflicts 4 charges of Confusion instead of 3 during an attack. Confusion duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Illusionary Mage's rate of fire has been reduced by one second.
- Developer Note: These changes are intended to improve the overall effectiveness of the mage.
- Confusing Images: The duration of Confusion inflicted by this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 7 seconds.
- Developer Note: As this skill is based on Confusion, we wanted the effects applied to be felt very strongly by their victim.
- Temporal Rift: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 210 seconds to 180 seconds.
- Developer Note: This general improvement is intended to increase the reliability of Mesmers as support.
- Illusion of Life: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 130 seconds to 120 seconds.
- Developer Note: An additional improvement for support!
- Spooky Defender: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
- Developer Note: This reduction slightly improves survivability by allowing the defender to be active more often.
Necromancer
- Swarm of Locusts: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 to 0,5 seconds.
- Developer Note: This change grants the necromancer slightly more mobility.
- Cloud of Corrosive Poison: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 to 0,5 seconds. Reduced the cooldown of this skill from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Developer Note: The effect of this skill is not very strong, so we wanted it to be able to launch faster. We also wanted it to be able to be cast more frequently so that necromancers would use it as area denial (with less damage).
- Sign of the Locust: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds. Base healing has been increased by 4%, and the bug that allowed the Bloodthirsty ability to grant 25% healing bonus instead of 20% has been fixed. The base bonus granted based on Healing and the bonus granted under the effect of the Bloodthirsty ability have been increased by 108% and 100% respectively.
- Developer Note: We wanted to reduce the loss of perks associated with using the active ability of this skill and improve the perks obtained with high Healing.
- Sign of Unlife: The passive life force gain of this skill has been increased from 1% to 2%.
- Developer Note: We wanted to provide more support options for necromancers who use this sign while keeping this percentage low.
Prowler
- Torch Throw: The projectile speed of this skill has been increased by 25%.
- Developer Note: A general improvement for torch use.
- Bonfire: The base area of effect of this skill has been increased from 120 to 180.
- Developer Note: Like the Torch Jet, a larger area of effect allows for greater area denial and improves mobility.
- Hunter's Call: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1,5 seconds to 1 second.
- Developer Note: We want to improve the responsiveness of the Ranger's Warhorn abilities.
- Call of the Wild: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Developer Note: Reducing the cooldown of this skill slightly increases the reliability on support.
- Team Healing: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1,25 to 1 second.
- Developer Note: This change improves the consistency between this skill and similar healing skills.
Voleur
- Blinding Powder: This skill no longer interrupts your own skills.
- Developer Note: Removing the skill canceling effect from this skill improves its attack and support effectiveness.
- Dagger Waltz: The projectile speed of this skill has been increased by 33%.
- Developer Note: This skill is intended to help thieves stop their enemies, which can be tricky if the daggers are too slow.
- Needle Trap: The duration of Bleeding inflicted by this skill has been increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Developer Note: We thought this condition-based trap was ineffective, so we've increased its damage slightly.
- Shadow Pursuit: The duration of the Power granted by this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Developer Note: This trap is relatively difficult to use and activating it can confuse players. We therefore wanted to improve the benefits obtained for its use.
- Invigorating Precision: The health gain granted by this trait on critical strike has been increased from 8% to 15% of damage dealt.
- Developer Note: It was very difficult to recover health from this skill, so we decided to significantly increase the amount obtained.
Guerrier
- Rifle Salute: Reduced the casting time of this skill from 1,75 seconds to 1,25 seconds.
- Developer Note: This skill has always been very difficult to place on an opponent. This change is intended to make it easier to use while retaining the visual clues that a Unleash Skill is about to be cast.
- Brutal Shot: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 to 0,5 seconds.
- Developer Note: This general improvement is intended to give Warriors greater casting speed for their powerful skills.
- Arched Slice: The damage of this skill has been increased by 10%.
- Developer Note: After observing how it works in-game, we believe it's possible to grant this unleash skill greater damage.
- Rush: The animation and attack radius of this skill have been adjusted to improve the consistency of hits.
- Developer Note: The actual attack phase of this skill begins at a greater distance from the target and gets you there, like other leap skills.
What is your opinion on these changes?
