February 11 Patch Notes Script

Hey everyone, this is Sheff, and it's balance patch season once again. The list of changes in the stream that we got on Friday was extensive, and addresses many complaints that the World vs. World community had with the state of the gamemode overall, both for small-scale and large-scale groups. These changes are set to go live on February 11th, which is about two and a half weeks from now. So in this video, we're going to dig into those changes, and what they mean for World vs. World going forwards. This video will start with a survey of overall changes to the gamemode, followed by chapters for each profession affected by the changes, and then at the end we'll recap how these changes may affect the way that World vs. World players organize into groups going forward. So if there's a specific subject or profession you're interested in, you can navigate directly to those. And if you like these balance patch review videos and want to see more of them, I'd invite you to like this video, leave a comment, or subscribe to the channel. I really do use all of these metrics to figure out what kinds of content I should spend my time on. Anyway, with that out of the way, let's dig into some changes.

We're going to start with an overview of stuff that isn't profession-specific, and that includes changes to Relics, as well as the Barrier mechanic. Barrier has been a problem for organized World vs. World squads for about a year now, with squads running increasing amounts of barrier with Scourge, Scrapper, Specter, and even Mechanist sometimes, in order to survive the high spike damage that's able to be generated by DPS professions like Dragonhunter, Berserker, and Holosmith. This upcoming patch will lower the amount of barrier that a player can have from 50% of your maximum health, down to 25%, reducing the amount of barrier that needs to be applied in order to reach barrier cap. Relic of the Flock, the Relic that applies Barrier on use of your heal skill, is getting its cooldown doubled as well, and as we get into profession changes, we'll see that almost every profession that provides barrier is getting cooldown increases, or application reductions, and sometimes both. This is a clear sign that ArenaNet thinks that being able to share large amounts of barrier across a party is a problem, and is taking steps to cut down on how much barrier groups can apply.

Also mentioned at the start of the stream was Alacrity as a problem mechanic, but this one was already flagged as an issue by the balance team all the way back in the March 19th patch. So I guess it's just taken awhile to actually get around to this one. Simply put, Alacrity is too good. It makes everything else better when you use it, and it ends up warping decisions about what professions to run based on what can provide good Alacrity uptime, to the extent that it starts to make the process of theorycrafting builds too restrictive. As Taylor said in the stream, the current patch removes almost every source of shared Alacrity from World vs. World. I've said on some previous streams and videos that this would be an interesting balance option, but I feel like it's pretty extreme, and I'm surprised that it's the option the balance team has chosen. That said, I think it's a great change, and it provides a lot of extra flexibility in what World vs. World groups are now able to play in order to be effective. As part of this change, Relic of Rivers is having its Alacrity duration cut in half, from two seconds down to one second, and even though this wasn't Alacrity shared with your party, it was definitely a powerful Relic option, and it's getting a preemptive nerf here to reduce Alacrity access overall.

With those overall changes to the gamemode in mind, let's get into some specific profession balance changes, starting with Necromancer, which is getting a cooldown increase to Greatsword 4. This limit's Necromancer's ability to corrupt boons, but to make up the difference, Scepter 3 is getting a cooldown decrease, while Spiteful Spirit is removing an additional boon, and these changes will increase the amount of boons that the profession can remove, so this probably ends up not being a big change in either direction. For Reaper specifically, your Shroud 5 skill Executioner's Scythe, is getting a pretty big damage coefficient increase, and this will make it an interesting part of Reaper's DPS kit going forwards, as it was pretty unusable previously. And for Scourge specifically, we can start to see the reach of the changes to Barrier overall. Serpent Siphon, Sandstorm Shroud, and Sand Cascade are all skills that provide Barrier, and each of them is seeing a cooldown increase, which will limit Scourge's ability to apply Barrier regularly. I like that this change is increasing cooldowns, rather than decreasing amount, because it allows a Scourge that's good at timing their skills to still pad up their allies' health when necessary, but it makes it much more difficult to spam permanent barrier and roll these skills off cooldown. Overall, I think Scourge's access to Transfuse, as well as being a support profession that can also access boon removal, is going to keep it viable overall, but it's unlikely that it will be a profession that every group chooses to run. On the other hand, I think Reaper becomes a more interesting damage option, given that it can pad its own health with its Shroud to survive spike damage, and offers very high boon removal potential from using Spiteful Spirit every ten seconds.

Moving on to Elementalist, which gets a minor nerf to Transmute Frost and Water Dagger 3, and a few buffs to Warhorn abilities, including Superspeed on Air Warhorn 4, Resistance on Earth Warhorn 5, and a Blast finisher on Water Warhorn 4. These changes feel like an attempt to give Warhorn more viability as an offhand weapon for Elementalists, but Warhorn lacks the ability to Transmute any generated Auras, and is unlikely to be used by Support Elementalist builds like Tempest or Catalyst. A handful of Spear abilities are also being buffed, mostly with an eye towards damage, but Staff is already very powerful on DPS Elementalist builds, and I'm not sure the Spear changes go far enough to make it a viable alternative. I don't really think that this patch is going to change the status quo for any Elementalist build in World vs. World, though it does give Staff a good edge over Dagger/Dagger for Support Tempest. But in general, Elementalist profession balance is in a pretty good place in groups right now, and probably doesn't need much balancing in the first place.

Last of the light armor professions we have Mesmer, and to go along with changes to Alacrity across the gamemode, the ability of Chronomancer to share Alacrity with allies via Stretched Time is being removed, and replaced with Might. Chronomancer's uptime of Resistance, from Mental Defense, and Protection, from, well, every Shatter, are also being reduced. Chronomancer now only has access to Protection off of Shatter 2 when using Illusionary Defense, though the duration of that Protection has been increased. Flow of Time is also getting a slight buff, making Chronomancer's improved access to personal Alacrity an interesting part of deciding to use the profession. Finally, Illusion of Life is getting...fixed I guess? So that Barrier no longer prevents players from going down when the effect expires if they have Barrier. The cooldown is also being increased, from 75 seconds to 90 seconds. I'll be honest -- I always assumed that using Barrier was intended counterplay to Illusion of Life, so the only way to clear the IoL effect now is to defeat an enemy player, or get out of combat and mount. In total, I don't think these changes remove Chronomancer from its current role as a primary support. Chronomancer's primary role is still to provide Stability and other defensive boons to allies, and the boons that Chronomancer has lost -- like Resistance, Protection, and Fury -- bring it more in line with what other supports are able to provide. Plus, many of the other supports that provide these boons, like Firebrand and Scrapper, are losing access to them as well, so I don't think Chronomancer's nerfs here are going to be any more or less drastic than nerfs that are hitting other support professions.

Starting medium armor professions with Engineer, and as with other supports in the meta right now, Scrapper is receiving a series of nerfs that tune down its support abilities, in particular, its access to barrier and boons. The Might duration and Barrier amount that you get off of Shortbow 2 is being reduced, the Protection on Shortbow 4 has been replaced with Resolution, and Kinetic Accelerators has had Fury removed from it, as well as having its Might duration decreased. Whirl finishers will now also trigger Kinetic Accepelerators, but Scrapper doesn't have access to good Whirl finishers, so this seems like something targeted more towards builds that use Hammer for DPS. Bulwark Gyro has also been nerfed, with reductions to Barrier amount and healing power multiplier. Also, for some reason, Acid Bomb is getting a buff. I'm not convinced Holosmith really needed it, but Elixir Gun is definitely the better option for your kit in the DPS Holosmith build now. The majority of changes to Engineer here look to be focused on bringing the profession's Barrier and boon application down, while leaving the healing and cleanse components of the build intact. For Scourge, nerfs to Barrier all involved longer cooldowns on skills that applied Barrier. But if you take the same approach to Scrapper, increasing the cooldown of Shortbow 2 also hurts its ability to heal as a Blast finisher with Karakosa, and increasing the cooldown on Bulwark Gyro hurts your ability to provide Superspeed to allies with Gyroscopic Acceleration, which is part of the draw of using Scrapper in the first place. The reductions to Might duration also prevent a KA Scrapper from generating 25 stacks of Might and permanent Fury entirely by themselves, which is a nice change as well.

Ranger also got a number of changes, that should affect both Druid and Untamed, but neither too significantly. Glyph of Stars is getting a cooldown increase, and a decrease in the revive per pulse, while Might is being removed from Rejuvenating Tides and Natural Convergence, and reduced in duration on Grace of the Land. This should turn down Druid's Might generation pretty dramatically, but it leaves your healing and condition cleanse relatively untouched, which is usually why you're bringing a Druid in the first place. While Druid isn't the most interesting pick for secondary support lately, it's still a very powerful build, and is perfectly fine to use for organized groups. For Untamed, on the other hand, Exploding Spores has been buffed to also remove boons from enemies, while a handful of damage skills have had their modifiers increased. Untamed right now is a bit of a fringe DPS pick for groups. It's not necessarily bad, but it can't quite compete with the professions that are at the top of the pile like Dragonhunter, Berserker, and Holosmith. I don't think these changes are going to get it all the way there, but adding boon removal is an interesting way to try and give it an edge in thinking about what DPS professions to run in your groups.

Last of the mediums, we have Thief. Specter has enjoyed a role in the current meta as a tertiary support alongside professions like Scourge, providing Barrier to allies and generally helping to pad overall health during a fight. Because of the gamemode-wide changes to Barrier as a mechanic, that role is going to become much less valuable, but I think it's possible that Specter may survive it. Shadow Sap, your Scepter 2 ability, is having its Barrier reduced, but this wasn't your best source of Barrier on the profession. Instead, that's Shadow Refuge with its interaction with Panaku's Ambition, as well as Dawn's Repose, your Shroud 3, and neither of these skills are being touched in the patch. Aside from that, the biggest thing that's held Specter back in World vs. World groups is the awkwardness of ally-targeted support skills, but that's also getting addressed in this patch, as your Shadow Shroud skills will now affect nontethered allies, in addition to the tethered ally. And this includes Dawn's Repose, which is one of your primary Barrier sources. So if Barrier continues to be important in the meta, even with its reduced cap, Specter should be just as good as Scourge as applying it, if not better, and it may even see increased use in groups going forwards as a result of these changes.

Moving on to heavy armor professions, let's start with Revenant. The majority of these changes focus on the role that Support Renegade has in the current meta, with its consistent Stability, Resistance, and Alacrity uptime. Following the patch going live, all three of those roles will be gone. Renegade's Alacrity is being replaced with Resolution as part of the broader Alacrity reworks, Inspiring Reinforcement's cooldown and energy cost are both increasing, making it more cumbersome to fit two casts into one ten-second legend rotation, and Pain Absorption is getting a five second cooldown, which both prevents out-of-combat Resistance prestacking, and prevents in-combat Resistance spam as well. As a result, I really don't see current versions of Renegade getting played after the patch goes live. Instead, we'll talk about what might replace it at the end of the video.

Guardian, ArenaNet's favorite blue profession, is really only receiving one change as far as World vs. World groups are concerned, and that's an increase in Stoic Demeanor's internal cooldown, from one second to five seconds. Stoic Demeanor is one of your main sources of Resistance, generating it any time your crowd control abilities interrupt a foe, and this should cut back on the amount of Resistance that Support Firebrand is able to generate overall. You likely still take Stoic Demeanor, as you have a number of different abilities that are all able to generate interrupts, and your only real option as an alternative is Loremaster, but this does make Stoic Demeanor less of a slam-dunk pick when you're working through your Firebrand traitline.

Finally, we have Warrior, and I saved this one for last because it's the one that I'm least sure about, and possibly the one with the most to talk about. Starting with Rifle rebalances, Rifle is an exceptionally dangerous weapon to use in World vs. World groups, as it's extremely projectile-focused. Gunflame, your F1 Primal Burst skill, does a ton of damage, but is also reflectable, and none of the changes to your Rifle abilities address that inherent limitation and risk with the weapon, and considering that Berserker has a lot of other viable options for weapons, including Greatsword, Hammer, and Dagger, I don't think Rifle's going to make the cut. On the other hand, Dual Wielding has the potential to make some interesting Dagger/Axe or Dagger/Dagger builds as an alternative to the double two-handed weapon builds that Berserkers tend to stick to. You do have to take Dual Wielding at the expense of Furious, which helps to smooth out your adrenaline curve while in Berserk, but for players who are skilled Berserkers and don't struggle with Adrenaline, Dual Wielding provides a neat alternative. The other thing I wanted to mention for Warrior changes is the rationale about changing the damage coefficient on Break Enchantments and Winds of Disenchantment. Many players, myself included, are nostalgic for the old versions of Spellbreaker that used more powerful versions of these skills. But something Taylor and Roy mentioned on the balance stream is that any time a support profession has access to good boon removal ability, it becomes a nightmare to balance around. And we've seen that borne out over the last two years with Support Chronomancer, Support Scourge, and Support Renegade all being major design problems in the gamemode. If Winds and Break Enchantments were buffed by adding boon removal, the most attractive options for groups to run wouldn't be DPS Spellbreaker, it would be Support Spellbreaker, and it would drive the meta back towards tanky, support-driven comps that are generally unpopular to play both in and against. It was great to see that rationale being made out loud, and I'm glad that the design team has recognized some of their previous errors with enabling support professions that have access to boon removal to exist in the World vs. World meta.

So, with individual profession changes out of the way, let's talk about how the meta might look moving forwards. The biggest thing that jumped out to me in these patch notes was that support professions, and barrier in particular, were hit with pretty heavy nerfs, while damage was virtually untouched, and in some cases, buffed. I still think that the reason we wound up in a barrier-heavy, four-support meta was because groups needed tools to allow them to survive damage spikes from professions like Berserker and Dragonhunter, and those support tools are gradually being stripped away. This makes me think that the upcoming meta is going to be one that is very damage-heavy, with a lot of emphasis placed on your individual ability to position, dodge, and avoid damage within your group. But for groups that want to continue to run tanky, and sustain damage, barrier is still going to be a useful tool. The other direction that I see groups going is leaning more heavily on Rite of the Great Dwarf, your Jalis Elite skill on Revenants. Rite reduces incoming damage by 50% while it's active, and having Rite available on engage is a good way to endure up-front damage. Frost Auras are also a damage mitigation tool, as is Firebrand's Courage 5 ability, Unbroken Lines. With all that considered, a four-support comp after this patch may look like the following:

[[ Firebrand Tempest Specter Vindicator Berserker ]]

Firebrand provides flexible overall support, plus damage mitigation through Courage. Dagger/Dagger Tempests have access to improved Protection coupled with Frost Auras, and with the nerfs to Chronomancer, have some of the better Protection uptime available among supports. Specter acts as a primary source of Barrier, while the Vindicator can be either support or DPS, as long as it's running some form of Jalis for access to Rite of the Great Dwarf. Finally, some DPS profession like a Berserker provides the spike to generate downs in an enemy group, though a Holosmith or a Dragonhunter would be perfectly fine here as well. That's one way that squads could be build that currently preserves the status quo, but if damage professions are tuned so highly relative to support professions, groups may decide that the best way to win a fight is to generate more downs than an enemy group, and win fights through protracted and chaotic rally wars. In that case, something like a three support, two damage comp could come back into favor, which may look like the following:

[[ Chronomancer Scrapper Scourge Spellbreaker Holosmith ]]

This comp would focus on maximizing allied boon uptime, while removing as many boons from an enemy group as possible, doubling up boon removal both on support professions like Scourge, as well as on DPS professions like Spellbreaker. Cleaving through an enemy's Protection, Resistance, and Stability would help to secure additional downs on engage, while two damage professions in each party would allow this more aggressive comp to overcome relatively weaker support professions, and lower barrier caps, that we're likely to see post-patch. And to be honest, I don't know which way the meta is likely to go. I personally hope that we wind up in a balance environment where both of these approaches are viable, but neither feels overtuned, and whether that's actually the case or players identify some new strong squad composition is something that we won't know until after the patch releases.

Anyway, I think that's about all I've got for you. This is a major, major patch, that is going to affect a lot of different squad compositions and profession mechanics, and I'm excited to see how players adapt when it releases on February 11th. If you want to stay up to date on how the meta evolves, make sure you subscribe to this channel as I work on releasing updated build guides to account for these changes, and if you want to watch me play through some of these changes live and work on figuring them out for myself, I stream on Twitch every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'll hope to see you there if you wanted to talk about some of the effects of this balance patch in real time, and ask questions there, but until then I've been Sheff, and enjoy the rest of your day.