ArenaNet:Developer updates/20071108

This is an archive of Developer Updates, originally posted through the official website. It includes semi-official announcements, clarifications, and news from the developers.

[Dev Update] Skill Balance -- 08 November 2007

Assassin

• Recall: when this Enchantment ends, it now disables all of the caster's Skills for 10 seconds.

Recall has single-handedly removed tactical movement from Hero Battles because combatants can use it to both easily flee and to quickly gang up on opponents. By disabling skills after using Recall to Shadow Step, we hope to maintain this skill's value for retreating and for general maneuverability while diminishing its offensive usage.

Dervish

• Mystic Healing: Decreased heal amount to 5..65.

With Mystic Healing, a Dervish/Necromancer can provide party-wide healing while powering physical attackers with "Orders" Enchantments. Since we are reducing the power of Light of Deliverance (a more general purpose party-wide healing skill), we felt Mystic Healing needed to be brought down a notch to prevent this character (and the extreme focus on physical attackers that it encourages) from becoming the only way to play.

Elementalist

• Shell Shock: Decreased recharge time to 8 seconds. This skill now has 25% armor penetration.

Overall, we're looking at ways to improve skills that apply Cracked Armor. Shell Shock should be one of the premier ways to do this, but it was strictly inferior to even averagely powered Air Magic spells like Enervating Charge. We adjusted this skill's numbers to see if it can become a viable way to create more synergy between Elementalists and physical attackers.

Mesmer

• Conjure Nightmare: Decreased Energy cost to 15.
• Shrinking Armor: Increased Health degeneration to 1..4.
• Signet of Illusions: Fixed a bug that allowed this Signet to stack with itself.

Conjure Nightmare had two issues. First, it could be used to fuel Auspicious Incantation to power the Energy costs of Illusion skills (especially Clumsiness, which is limited much more by Energy cost than recharge time) endlessly. Secondly, compared to Conjure Phantasm, Conjure Nightmare granted only 33% more Health degeneration but at 150% of the cost (without Auspicious Incantation). This change should restore balance to Energy-limited skills such as Clumsiness while making Conjure Nightmare's Energy cost more closely match its effect.

Because Cracked Armor is a less powerful condition than Deep Wound, Shrinking Armor (which applies Cracked Armor) was clearly underpowered compared to Phantom Pain (which applies Deep Wound). The increased Health degeneration for Shrinking Armor should help balance these skills out.

Monk

• Blessed Light: Increased heal amount to 10..140.
• Cure Hex: Now affected by Healer's Boon.
• Glimmer of Light: Decreased recharge time to 1 second; increased heal amount to 10..115.
• Healer's Boon: Instead of an upkeep cost, this skill now has a duration of 10..55 seconds and no longer ends after a number of Spells are cast.
• Healing Breeze: Increased duration to 15 seconds; increased Health regeneration to 4..9.
• Healing Ribbon: Now affected by Healer's Boon.
• Heal Party: Increased heal amount to 30..90.
• Light of Deliverance: Increased casting time to 2 seconds; decreased heal amount to 5..70; now affects all party members regardless of Health.
• Restful Breeze: Increased duration to 8..18 seconds.
• Vigorous Spirit: Decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
• Word of Healing: This skill can now target the caster; increased non-conditional heal amount to 25..150; decreased recharge time to 3 seconds.

Monks have received what is quite possibly the most experimental set of changes we've ever made to the profession. The efficiency of Light of Deliverance completely removed the need for most other healing skills on a team, causing it to invalidate a large number of those skills. This aggressive change is meant to explore Light of Deliverance's overall effect on the game, as well as the impact of players using alternate methods of party healing. To accommodate this goal, we've also slightly increased the healing amount of Heal Party. Because simply reducing the power of Light of Deliverance would have effectively reduced the power of Monk healing overall, we improved several other Monk elites that were not up to par; Blessed Light, Glimmer of Light, and Word of Healing all received significant updates to encourage their use.

Another goal is to support non-primary-Monk healers and encourage split tactics. Thus, we greatly increased Restful Breeze and Healing Breeze to be much more efficient, as these are attractive to characters who do not have access to Divine Favor. In addition, Vigorous Spirit received a casting time decrease for a small, overall effectiveness boost.

Necromancer

• Oppressive Gaze: Conditional effect now only triggers on foes who are below 50% Health.
• Weaken Armor: decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased casting time to 2 seconds; decreased recharge time to 5 seconds; changed the skill type to a Spell; functionality changed to: "Target foe has Cracked Armor for 5..20 second[s]."

Oppressive Gaze has become the central skill in a powerful Necromancer spike build, so we wanted to add another conditional element to limit its spike potential. Weaken Armor has been reworked to take advantage of the Cracked Armor mechanic; thus it no longer needs to be a Hex spell.

Ranger

• Energizing Wind: Increased Energy cost to 15; decreased duration to 30..90 seconds; decreased Spirit's level to 1..6.
• Fertile Season: Increased Energy cost to 15; decreased Health bonus to 50..150; decreased armor bonus to 8.
• Magebane Shot: Functionality changed to: "If this attack hits, it interrupts target foe's action. If that action was a Spell, it is disabled for 5 seconds. This attack cannot be blocked."

Most of the Ranger changes revolve around decreasing the effectiveness of the common "Spiritway" build in Heroes' Ascent. This build typically slows games to a standstill by cluttering the screen with an overwhelming number of minions, Spirits, and pets. Energizing Winds is the lynch pin to the effectiveness of the skill Rampage as One for the Ranger/Warriors on the team, allowing this otherwise defensive team build to deal a lot of damage. Fertile Season, on the other hand, can be used to stall the game when a team is losing. As a result, both of these Spirits have taken an overall hit to their effectiveness. Finally, Magebane Shot has been improved to provide Rangers with a new option for interruption while not encouraging Ranger spikes.

Ritualist

• Ancestors' Rage: This skill is no longer considered an Enchantment.
• Spirit Leech: Fixed a bug that swapped duration and effect time.
• Weapon of Warding: Increased duration to 5..10 seconds.
• Splinter Weapon: Functionality changed to: "For 20 second[s], target ally has a Splinter Weapon. Target ally's next 1..5 attacks deal 5..50 damage on up to 3 adjacent foes."
• Sundering Weapon: Increased duration to 5..20 seconds.

Ancestors' Rage is featured in a new quick spike build involving the Elementalist skill Ride the Lightning. When used with a caster item that increases Enchantment duration on the target, Ancestor's Rage could be used by teleporting Elementalists for instant kills on targets. Changing this from an Enchantment spell to a skill prevents this particular interaction without otherwise decreasing the skill's effectiveness.

Splinter Weapon has turned the Victory or Death period in Guild vs. Guild matches into an NPC bloodbath. This in turn has lessened importance of early tactical maneuvers to kill NPCs earlier in the match. The new target limit should keep its power in check for this situation. Even so, we know that Splinter Weapon has been a favorite skill in high-end PvE and will be watching this change closely.

In the past, Weapon of Warding has supported interesting character builds and split-tactics in Guild vs. Guild play. We're encouraging that interaction again with a duration boost. The duration increase on Sundering Weapon was made to further support the application of Cracked Armor.

Summary This balance change is quite experimental, especially considering the nature of the Monk profession changes. We will monitor this update closely, possibly making other changes in reaction to the game's evolution after players get a chance to try out these updated skills. Our goal is not to remove healing or force additional defense into the game, but rather to promote diversity in the Skill Bars of healers, and push active defense (as opposed to passive) further into play.