User:Soldier198/PvP Balance Project
Project to identify over performing PvP skills and suggest balance chages.
Skill Changes[edit]
Elementalist[edit]
Mind Burn: Split for PvP; this spell no longer strikes adjacent foes; reduced the burning duration to 1...7...8
Against a single target, Mind Burn is extremely powerful, capable of inflicting an instant 120 fire damage in addition to a very long duration burning. This sort of damage comes from a spell that is rather spammable due to its mere 5 second recharge and low energy and overcast cost. Like the other Mind spells, this type of power should be restricted to a single target only, and so the removal of the adjacent range is an appropriate change.
Gust: Split for PvP; no longer knocks down attacking foes.
The current GvG meta is being dominated by the recent emergence of the Dual Gust Sin team. These teams have very high damage from the Assassins and, to a lesser degree, the Elementalists while also boasting strong linebacking abilities thanks to the power of certain Air Magic skills. Gust, with its affordable 10 energy cost and only 10 second recharge, acts as extreme bar compression by allowing the Elementalist to increase the movement speed of himself and an ally while also damaging and knocking down foes. Removing the knockdown from affecting attacking foes will allow players to more easily line back enemy teams utilizing this skill.
Lightning Surge: Split for PvP; increased energy cost to 15.
Lightning Strike: Split for PvP; decreased damage of the second strike to 5...33...40 damage.
Lightning Surge and Lightning Strike are an extremely popular combination for Elementalists using Air Magic. While these spells do have the drawback of being hexes, and so are vulnerable to hex removal, at the moment they are allowing a bit too much damage and pressure for their ease of use. Increasing the energy cost of Lightning Surge to 15 will make it more costly to use and may also incentivize the Elementalist to better take advantage of the energy management offered by the application of cracked armor from this skill. Lightning Strike at standard attribute levels deals the same amount of damage as more costly and difficult to use non-elite Air Magic spells such as Lightning Bolt (projectile based and higher recharge), Lightning Orb (projectile based, twice the cast time, and 3x higher energy cost), and Lightning Hammer (5x the energy cost and twice the cast time of Lightning Strike). Slightly reducing the damage from only the second strike of Lightning Strike will better balance these skills against each other.
Teinai's Wind: Split for PvP; decreased unconditional damage to 10...26...30; decreased conditional damage to 30...66...75.
Tenai's Wind did a bit too much damage for how little it cost and the ease with which its conditional requirement can be met. This, coupled with the fact that it also interrupts and strike adjacent targets, led to it having a high frequency on Elementalist bars. A slight damage reduction better balances it out.
Mesmer[edit]
Wastrel's Demise: Split for PvP; no longer strikes adjacent foes; increased recharge to 5 seconds.
Wastrel's Worry: Split for PvP; increased recharge to 3 seconds.
The Wastrel spells are highly spammable and often very effective at dealing damage due to the Mesmers ubiquitous amount of shutdown that neatly compliment the mechanics by which these spells inflict their damage. Firstly, to ensure a more reserved and strategic use of the Wastrel spells, their recharges will be increased to match the duration of their effects. This way, a Mesmer must be more certain of their ability to shutdown a foe at a given moment, otherwise they will have to wait longer to reapply these spells and try again. Additionally, both these spells permit a huge amount of AoE armor ignoring damage against balled NPC's in arenas such as FA, JQ, and AB, while also allowing the Mesmer to retain a skillbar that is equally effective against players (an Elementalist with AoE skills might be effective at destroying these same types of objectives but their AoE skills are significantly less effective against players as those skills are able to be kited, while Wastrels type skills cannot be kited and the shutdown skills that allow Wastrels to inflict damage are effective against both NPC's and players). To better balance these skills, Wastrel's Demise was chosen to lose its AoE effect because it is currently more popular than Wastrel's Worry overall in PvP. Wastrel's Worry will retain its AoE effect to make it a more appealing choice in arenas with gates and capture point objectives, while Wastrel's Demise will remain a bit superior as a single target pressure skill due to the fact that it immediately begins dealing damage and does not have the 3 second delay of Wastrel's Worry, a delay which gives players a bit of breathing room to think about their next action.
Energy Surge Split for PvP; increased energy cost to 10.
Mind Wrack (PvP) reduced duration to 5...25...30 seconds; increased recharge to 10 seconds.
Mind Wrack is especially powerful in combination with the Mesmers other sources of energy denial. Against enemy casters, Mind Wrack makes it difficult for these opponents to weapon swap into a shield or low energy set, as doing so might cause them to trigger Mind Wrack and take damage. However, if they opt not to switch into a shield/low energy set, then they remain further vulnerable to both energy loss from the Mesmer and damage from enemies (due to the fact that they are not in their shield set). The duration decrease and slight increase in recharge of this skill is intended to reduce the frequency with which a Mesmer can keep it active on an opponent. Energy Surge was a bit too effective for such a low energy cost, and so saw an increase to 10 energy.
Shatter Enchantment Split for PvP; decreased damage to 15...75...90.
Shatter Enchantments high damage was previously justified by a 15 energy cost and a 25 second recharge. Successive buffs reduced these limitations but kept the damage the same. A slight reduction in its damage output puts it in line with other sources of enchantment removal.
Dervish[edit]
Attacker's Insight: Split for PvP; reduced enchantment duration to 3...7...8; reduced weakness duration to 3...7...8.
Grenth's Aura: Split for PvP; reduced lifestealing to 5...17...20; reduced damage reduction to 5...17...20.
As an individual skill, Attacker's Insight makes it difficult for the Dervish to be linebacked by opposing players. Dervishes using this skill not only gain a near permanent block chance while attacking, they also inflict a long duration AoE weakness on opponents once it ends. Reducing the duration of the enchantment and of the weakness inflicted by this skill is intended to make the Dervish a bit more vulnerable to linebacking attempts.
Grenth's Aura was a bit too strong on pressure builds in low end arenas, particularly those using Avatar of Grenth, as it allows the Dervish an effective way to both sustain themselves with healing while also bypassing armor. Reducing the lifesteal and the damage reduction of this skill will help balance it out.
Harrier's Grasp: now only affects scythe attacks; reduced the number of cripple applications to 1...2...2.
Harrier's Grasp is extremely effective at countering kiting foes as it not only inflicts cripple multiple times but it also removes cripple plus one other condition from the user. This change is intended to increase the attribute requirement needed to inflict cripple twice as well as to stop Dervishes from using spears, bows and other projectile weapons to inflict cripple from range, which now makes it a bit easier to actually kite from Harrier's Grasp.
Assassin[edit]
Golden Fang Strike: Split for PvP; increased recharge to 6 seconds.
Jagged Strike: Split for PvP; increased recharge to 5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Lead Attack. Deals +3...9...10 damage. Inflicts Bleeding condition (3...13...15 seconds)."
These changes are also an attempt to address the dual gust sin meta in GvG. Increasing the recharge of these skills is aimed at reducing the frequency at which Assassins can execute their attack chains. Crucially, Jagged Strike is seeing its recharge increased to 5 seconds. This change will prevent the Assassin from immediately attempting to reinitiate their attack combos after having failed a Jagged Strike due to blocking or blindness. Because this increase in recharge is fivefold, a small damage boost is being added to Jagged Strike to preserve the balance between it and other lead attacks.
