ArenaNet talk:Developer updates/20090618

Goons

• "The basic concepts of these professions make them very strong in PvP and over the course of balancing them for competitive play, they've become underpowered or awkward to use in PvE."
• "The Paragon has a lot of strength as a support class where it buffs up the party by adding survivability and damage. In this vein, we've focused on the Command and Leadership lines in PvE and given them new utility while restoring some of their original power."
• "For the Paragon, we have split numerous skills so that we can restore the power to PvE versions that was lost in previous balance updates targeted at PvP."
• "These changes are meant to serve as a gentle reminder that the Paragon is an excellent support class"
  

Not that I'm complaining about the Goon's "Utility" in these attribute lines, but I feel it's necessary to point out that these weren't the areas where the Goon was nerfed. And these aren't the kinds of things that PuGs look for when they want "support". In PvE, groups of players expect HEALING (or atleast party-wide Damage-Reduction) when looking to fill those 2 or 3 "support" slots in their team. Everyone else had better be a Nuker, Spiker, or Bomber.
And when you talk about the Nerfs to Paragons for PvP that affected PvE, nearly all of them were in the Motivation Line. They're nice buffs, don't get me wrong. But they don't address the Lowest Common Denominator reasons that Paragons are "awkward" in PvE and thus left behind when you've already got the Holy-Trinity (Healers/Nukers/Tanks). As such: P/W Imbagons are still the only flavor of Goon that will see their popularity even budge with these changes. --ilr 19:00, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Actually, unnerfing GftE makes Paragons godly. Misery 19:05, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

How does a slight increase to Partywide criticals help, when more than half your team is usually carrying Staffs/Focuses? ...This is a case where the entire idea of a "Critical" clearly needs to be rethought. In other words: in addition to critical hits, there should be Critical Buffs/Heals/Conditions/Spells. --ilr 19:14, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

It's not about the criticals, it's about the fact that any paragon who takes it will have infinite energy. That's why it was nerfed. Misery 19:16, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

*Yawwwwwn* --ilr 19:36, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

1 second cast and the point is, you don't have to use it for shouts. Misery 19:39, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Palm Strike

• Palm Strike - 7
• Trampling Ox - 8
• Falling Spider - 8
• Horns of the Ox - 12
• Falling Lotus Strike - 12
• Twisting Fangs - 15

Palm strike still recharges faster than the whole bar. Hint to Izzy and Linsey - set it to at least 15. ~Shard 06:44, 21 June 2009 (UTC)