[2023] May 2 Balance Update Preview

Hi, everyone, Welcome to the preview for the May 2 balance update! This is a smaller update focused on addressing some outliers in the current state of the game while we wrap up our next major profession balance update, which is currently slated for June 27. As always, the goal of previewing these changes is to gather your feedback before the live release. We'll be following the conversation and making further adjustments as needed. Thanks, Cal "cmc" Cohen Skills and Balance Lead Elementalist Fresh Air catalyst is a build that we've been addressing over the last few updates in PvP, but it's still a strong build in WvW. We've brought over a few more of the recent PvP adjustments to bring down its power. We've also updated Stone Heart to introduce a window of vulnerability and make earth-based tempest builds slightly easier to bring down in PvP. Core Signet of Water: Increased healing attribute scaling from 0.7 to 1.3. Dragon's Tooth: Reduced power coefficient from 1.5 to 1.33 in WvW only. Stone Heart: Critical-hit immunity is now granted for a period of time when entering and exiting Earth Attunement, instead of always while attuned to earth. Tempest The effects of channeling tempest's overload skills now occur more quickly if the elementalist also has quickness. Catalyst Fortified Earth: Reduced base barrier from 3,000 to 1,254 in WvW only. Increased cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW only. Elemental Celerity: Adjusted recharge amount from 100% recharge to 25 seconds of recharge in WvW only. Bug Fixes Wildfire: Fixed an issue that prevented projectiles from interacting properly with the combo field created by this skill. Undercurrent: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from sinking enemies as intended. Static Field (Lightning Hammer): Fixed an issue that caused this skill to occasionally stun noncombatants. Overload Fire: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times. Fiery Whirl: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times. Soothing Mist: Fixed an issue that prevented the elementalist from being healed when the effect was refreshed. Engineer The focus for engineer in this update is improving the effectiveness of condition-based holosmith builds. We've also brought down a couple of overtuned damage sources in WvW, namely Photonic Blasting Module and Grenade Barrage. Core Incendiary Ammo: Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Grenade Barrage: Reduced power coefficient from 0.5 to 0.4 in WvW only. Holosmith Corona Burst: This skill now inflicts 2 stacks of burning for 5 seconds when striking an enemy in PvE only. Photon Blitz: Increased burning duration from 1 second to 3 seconds in PvE only. Photon Blasting Module: Increased burning from 5 stacks for 4 seconds to 7 stacks for 6 seconds in PvE only. Reduced power coefficient from 5.0 to 3.5 in WvW only. Bug Fixes Throw Mine: Updated the skill description to clarify that the second mine produced by this skill when the Gadgeteer trait is equipped will only drop after the first one has landed. Gadgeteer: Fixed an issue that prevented the overcharged version of Rocket Boots from having its cooldown reduced when the skill is used underwater. Guardian On the PvE side of things, we've brought down the damage potential of a few overperforming builds: condition-based firebrand and alacrity willbender. Power-based dragonhunter builds still aren't performing at the level they need to be to compete with other damage builds, so we've improved a few of their key skills and traits. We've also made a few more improvements to firebrand in PvP with the goal of making it a competitive option in the support role. Core Sword of Justice: Reduced ammunition recharge from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. Dragonhunter Big Game Hunter: Increased damage bonus from 15% to 20% in PvE only. True Shot: Reduced cooldown from 6 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE only. Firebrand Tome of Justice: Reduced passive burning duration from 2 seconds to 1 second in PvE only. Permeating Wrath: Reduced burning duration from 2 seconds to 1 seconds when using the firebrand elite specialization in PvE only. Legendary Lore: This trait now grants might when using a tome of justice skill instead of increasing the burning duration. Increased regeneration duration from 3 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only. Increased protection duration from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds in PvP only. Epilogue: Ashes of the Just: Reduced stacks from 3 to 2 in PvE only. Unrelenting Criticism: Increased trigger chance from 33% to 100%. Increased bleeding duration from 3 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE only. Chapter 4: Shining River: Reduced page cost from 2 to 1 in PvP only. Epilogue: Unbroken Lines: Increased toughness from 200 to 300 in PvP only. Portent of Freedom: Increased stability duration from 1 second to 2.5 seconds in PvP only. Willbender Phoenix Protocol: In PvE only, this trait now reduces the duration of resolve by 1 second instead of increasing it by 2 seconds. Bug Fixes Hammer of Wisdom: Fixed an issue that displayed an incorrect number of targets when the Eternal Armory trait was equipped. Roiling Light: Fixed an issue that prevented the swiftness granted by this skill from being displayed in the tooltip. Battle Presence: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to remain active when Tome of Resolve was not in use. Symbol of Vengeance: Fixed an issue that prevented players from using skills after casting this skill and swapping weapons. Power for Power: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from increasing the damage of flames created by Flowing Resolve and Crashing Courage. Indomitable Courage: This trait will now properly stun break allies when casting Crashing Courage. The allied stability portion of this trait has been moved to the initial cast of Crashing Courage. Whirling Wrath: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times. Mesmer The main outlier we wanted to address for mesmer is staff/axe mirage. We made an adjustment to Chaos Vortex back in November with the goal of reducing the overall damage output of the build while providing alacrity, but it didn't quite have the impact that we wanted. For this update we've brought down the alacrity duration to require these builds to invest more in boon duration. Core Phantasmal Duelist: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 18 seconds in PvP and WvW. Magic Bullet: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW. The Prestige: Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW. Phantasmal Mage: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW. Chronomancer Chronophantasma: Reduced daze duration from 1.5 seconds to 0.25 seconds in PvE only. Well of Calamity: Increased pulse power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.3 in PvE only. Reduced final power coefficient from 3.0 to 2.1 in PvE only. Gravity Well: Increased pulse power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.1 in PvE only. Reduced final power coefficient from 3.0 to 2.1 in PvE only. Mirage Chaos Vortex: Reduced duration of alacrity granted by clones from 1 second to 0.5 seconds in PvE only. Bug Fixes Blade Renewal: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to improperly remove distortion at the end of its cast. The Prestige: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to reveal the user upon ending. Phantasmal Warden: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times. Necromancer Power-based reaper is another damage build that we looked at for this update, and we've brought up the damage of a lot of its key skills to make it a more competitive pick. We've also increased the rate at which harbinger shroud accumulates blight in PvE to slightly reduce the reliance on elixirs for blight generation, and potentially introduce more flexibility in utility skill choice. Core Rending Claws: Increased power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.2 in PvE only. Unholy Feast: Increased power coefficient from 0.88 to 2.0 in PvE only. Increased threshold for second strike from 25% to 50% in PvE only. Unholy Burst: Increased power coefficient from 0.88 to 1.0 in PvE only. Soul Grasp: Increased power coefficient from 0.2 to 2.0 in PvE only. Increased base healing from 440 to 1,003 in PvE only. Spinal Shivers: Increased power coefficients from 2.0/2.375/2.75/3.125 to 2.5/3.0/3.5/4.0 in PvE only. Wail of Doom: Reduced cooldown from 24 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW. Locust Swarm: Increased life-siphon healing from 37 to 55 in PvP and WvW. Reaper Shouts' damage bonus for melee range increased from 50% to 100% in PvE only. "Chilled to the Bone!": Reduced cooldown from 36 seconds to 30 seconds in PvE only. Gravedigger: Increased power coefficient from 3.0 to 3.6 in PvE only. Nightfall: Increased power coefficient from 1.05 to 1.15 in PvE only. Soul Spiral: Increased power coefficient from 0.6 to 0.7 in PvE only. Life Rend: Increased power coefficient from 0.9 to 1.4 in PvE only. Life Slash: Increased power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.6 in PvE only. Life Reap: Increased power coefficient from 1.7 to 1.8 in PvE only. Infusing Terror: Increased damage reduction percentage from 20% to 66% in PvE only. Deathly Chill: Adjusted bleeding from 2 stacks for 8 seconds to 4 stacks for 4 seconds in PvE only. Harbinger Harbinger Shroud: Increased blight stacks per second from 1 to 2 in PvE only. Voracious Arc: Reduced blight threshold from 10 to 5. Elixir of Ambition: Increased stacks of each condition from 1 to 3 In PvE only. Reduced cooldown from 90 seconds to 60 seconds in PvE only. Bug Fixes Twisted Medicine: Clarified in the trait tooltip that this trait hits 4 additional targets instead of 5. Death Spiral: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times. Ranger Fervent Force is a trait that we've been considering bringing down for a while now, and in this update we're making a slight adjustment to its cooldown reduction in order to bring down the damage output of builds that utilize it. We'll be keeping a close eye on how these builds perform going forward and will make additional adjustments as needed. Core Hunter's Call: Increased power coefficient per strike from 0.1 to 0.12 in PvP and WvW. Call of the Wild: Increased might stacks from 6 to 8 in PvP and WvW. Stalker's Strike: Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW. Crippling Talon: Increased bleeding from 3 stacks for 6 seconds to 4 stacks for 9 seconds in PvP and WvW. Druid Natural Mender: Increased astral force generation from 5 to 8 in WvW only. Soulbeast Eternal Bond: Increased base healing from 584 to 701. Untamed Fervent Force: Reduced cooldown reduction from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only. Bug Fixes Fortifying Bond: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to display an incorrect might value in certain game modes. Grace of the Land: Fixed an issue that prevented might from being applied to downed players. Two-Handed Training: Removed an erroneous internal cooldown indicator. Fixed an issue that prevented soulbeasts from remerging at the end of zip lines. Revenant Condition-based alacrity renegade is another build that slightly overperforms in PvE, while power renegade builds aren't up to par. We've brought down the condition damage and bumped up the power damage of some renegade skills to bring these builds more in line with other options. In PvP, condition-based revenant is a build that we've been bringing up slowly over the last few balance updates. It's starting to see a bit more play, but it's still not quite up to the level of other builds and we've made a few more improvements for it in this update. Core Fiendish Tenacity: Increased base healing from 165 to 196 in PvP only. Echoing Eruption: Reduced ammunition recharge time from 12 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP only. Herald Facet of Nature: Reduced maximum number of targets from 10 to 5 in PvE only. Renegade Citadel Bombardment: Burning duration decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1 second in PvE only. Increased power coefficient from 0.452 to 0.6 in PvE only. Icerazor's Ire: Increased power coefficient from 0.3 to 0.35 in PvE only. Reduced cooldown from 12 seconds to 10 seconds in PvE only. Soulcleave's Summit: Life-siphon damage coefficient increased from 0.04 to 0.1 in PvE only. Bug Fixes Vindicator: Fixed an issue that caused dodge skills that deal damage to occasionally use weapon strength for damage calculations. Draconic Echo: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to reduce the recharge duration of facets that were already on cooldown when energy was depleted. Thief Thief is generally in a good spot, and we didn't see any major outliers that needed to be addressed with this update. We're working on some larger adjustments for the next update in June, including the goal of significantly improving specter support builds and introducing a quickness build for deadeye. Signets of Power is a trait that we reworked in the last balance update that didn't quite hit the mark. We want to be cautious with repeatable initiative sources like this, but we feel like there's still room to tune it up. Core Signets of Power: Increased initiative gain from 1 to 2. Bug Fixes Weakening Charge: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times. Well of Sorrow: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from being affected by quickness. Warrior For this update, we focused on improving power-based berserker builds in PvE. We've also made improvements to warrior's support tools in PvP, as well as tuning up some bladesworn skills and traits in both competitive modes. Core Charge: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only. Reduced swiftness duration from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only. Call of Valor: Increased barrier attribute scaling from 1.2 to 1.5 in PvP only. Vigorous Shouts: Increased heal attribute scaling from 1.0 to 1.15 in PvP only. Martial Cadence: Increased quickness duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW. Berserker Smash Brawler: This trait now grants 15% increased critical-strike chance while in berserk mode in addition to its current effect. Decapitate: Increased power coefficient from 2.5 to 3.0 in PvE only. Arc Divider: Increased power coefficient per strike from 1.5 to 1.7 in PvE only. Reduced power coefficient per strike from 0.705 to 0.6 in WvW only. Spellbreaker Attacker's Insight: Reduced power, precision, and ferocity per stack from 35 to 30 in WvW only. Bladesworn Gunstinger: Increased ammunition from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW. Reduced cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW. Dragonspike Mine: Reduced cooldown from 35 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW. Unshakable Mountain: Increased base barrier from 801 to 1,003 in PvP and WvW. Artillery Slash: Reduced ammunition recharge time from 10 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW. Tactical Reload: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP and WvW. Bug Fixes Whirlwind Attack: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times.