Post by Indigo on Oct 22, 2016 16:55:53 GMT 1
NOTE : This whole piece will be from a Raiding perspective. I really won't be talking WvW, PvP or Open World PvE here.
It's nearly been a week since the now infamous October 2016 Balance Patch or Triggerween as I like to call it and we are now seeing the dust settle on Raiding. I'll go through individual classes and then raid compositions at the end. What I'm presenting here is all the information I've collected via reading Reddit, GW2 forums, qT's website, watching kills on YouTube and speaking to raiders about the subject. The meta is still shifting and it'll likely be a few weeks until things are agreed upon but we are starting to see the outline of the future.
Chronomancer
Chrono was heavily nerfed indirectly and directly in this patch. Changes to the maximum amount of Boon stacks and Signet of Inspiration (SoI) being hit hard means Chrono isn't in a great place compared to before. To explain the changes a bit more, most people think of Quickness as a duration based Boon, where as raid Chronos are aware it's also a stack based Boon limited to 9 stacks. This meant before the patch the maximum amount of Quickness a Chrono could share was around 32 seconds. Now Quickness is limited to 5 stacks, which means 5 sources of Quickness before it's overwritten by a new source. Straight away this means less Quickness for a raid group, it also means Time Warp is no longer useful in the raid rotation. Time Warp provides 11 stacks of Quickness, and chances are you'll overwrite the Quickness of a Well of Action or Tides of Time and reduce your overall Quickness duration. (I hope this makes sense).
This would be quite a nerf to Chronos in general, however, SoI also took a massive hit. Before the patch, SoI would copy any boon of any length to 5 party members. This meant a top Chrono could copy many stacks of Quickness to an entire raid group and everyone would have permanent Quickness for a run. Now, SoI will copy all boons on you to 5 party members, but it's limited to how much the passive of SoI can give you. A Chrono with 100% Quickness will only be able to copy 6 seconds of Quickness. That's quite the drop from the 30 seconds of before.
What does this mean for Chronos? They are still vital to the Raid composition because they are the only class who can give consistent Quickness to a group and this is a huge DPS loss if you don't have Quickness. They can still Tank fine, they have just as much blocks, invulns and evades as before. However you are more likely to see 2 Chronos now. The 2nd being a Commanders build Chrono (Offers maximum Boon Duration and Damage) in a mirror composition, 2 groups of 5.
Revenant
Revenants were hit with Boon Duration nerf stick of doom and it's put them in an awkward spot. Before, Facet of Nature (F2) increased 5 party members Boon Duration by 50%, which was awesome. You'd put them in a group with a Chrono, the Chrono could build a decent amount of damage and not worry too much about Boon Duration. After the patch, Facet of Nature is now at 33% increased Boon Duration and it seems Chronomancers who are looking to replace their now useless Runes Of The Chronomancer have said
That's not an actual quote, but it's the mindset.
What does this mean for Revs? Unfortunately for Revenant it's not in a great place DPS wise and it's unlikely to see a buff because of how successful it is in other game modes. There are groups trying to experiment with Revenant and get it in compositions but it's only used in niche situations. For example an encounter where you are lacking Fury for the group. But with the emergence of another class in the Condi stakes we may see Revenants in general raids fade away. Which brings us nicely to...
Druid
Druids were hit with what looked like a big nerf to non-healing Druids and what looked like a small buff on Shortbow. ANet have decided that Druids should only be dropping big healing numbers if they are building Healing Power, which I guess makes sense. Initially it was thought that Condi Druid was going to be less useful and as a result seen less. Things are shaping up somewhat differently however, Condi Ranger has seen a significant DPS increase as a result of the Shortbow buffs and is looking to be THE favoured Condi class of the masses. This is very much evolving within the past day or so but the numbers on Benchmarks are telling.
What does this mean for Druids? If you were building Healing Power you won't see much of a change. If you have a Condi Druid it might be worth dropping the Druid trait line and moving into Beast Mastery. We may see that the Condi Druid takes multiple spirits and this would allow a Healing Druid to take more Glyphs, which means more healing. This would also lean us towards a mirror composition as discussed before in the Chrono section.
Reaper
Reapers, THE Condi class before the patch, if anyone asked about Condition builds everyone would say Condi Reaper, it's an easy rotation and great DPS. But ANet says NO to you Reapers and slaps them down HARD. Jagged Horrors before the patch were pretty good. If you had a good druid they could heal the Horrors over and over and a Reaper could stack horrors forever meaning huge bleeding stacks. After the patch, horrors no longer have health. They just last 30 seconds and that's it. That means over a long fight Reapers have a lot less potential DPS.
What does this mean for Reaper? The timing of the horror nerf and the buffed Condi Ranger means that the meta is leaning towards Condi Rangers as THE Condi class now. Reapers having Epidemic is keeping them somewhat competitive and useful in certain encounters but groups are taking less Reapers as a whole simply because their DPS isn't as consistently high as it used to be.
Engineer/Scrapper
Engis are a tough group to discuss for a couple of reasons. First, I really don't play much Engi at all and second, neither does a lot of the community. They are a very complicated class to play effectively, a great Engi can keep up Condi DPS with other Condi classes no problem but because their learning curve is so high and rotation is so difficult nobody would ever recommend them. There's also the fact they can't spread Conditions like a Reaper with Epidemic, they can't group stack Might like Condi PS Warrior, and whilst they probably could provide some utility like a Condi Druid getting that into a Condi Engi rotation... well you'd be a better player than me. With the patch ANet seemed to be aiming towards Power builds and therefore PvP with the buffs Engi received. They did also receive some additional CC in the Bomb Kit.
What does this mean for Engineer? From what I've read and understood, it's status quo for Engi. Nothing much has changed to effect Condi Engi. Honestly, maybe our Engis will have something more in depth and better understood to say here. Although Engis will ALWAYS argue they need more buffs.
Elementalist
Eles took some of the worst hits from the last balance patch and this time they seem to actually got a bit of a buff. Mainly in the Dagger weapon, we have a few adjustments to cast, aftercast and cooldown timers in dagger. This should allow a bit more DPS for those players. Also Condi Ele (which is not a thing) received a buff in the form of Glyph of Elemental Power, allowing you to create a lot more burning stacks. Whether this will ever be a competitive Condi DPS remains to be seen, I doubt it but who knows. SOMEONE RUN THE NUMBERS.
What does that mean for Eles? Staff Eles are unaffected, Dagger/Warhorn may see some DPS increase and a slight change in rotations. Back to the mirror comp point, with 2 Chronos in a raid it maybe more beneficial to take 4 Eles over any other class simply because they benefit from Alacrity so much. Eles were already a highly requested class, you are just more likely to see at least 4 in raid kill videos in the future.
Dragonhunter
There's not much to say here. Before the patch Dragonhunters were in a good place, they were one of the best DPS classes for large target hitboxes. You'd see them a lot in Gorseval kill videos for example because of the multiple hits on their traps. This patch doesn't really hit the Dragonhunter directly at all, most of the changes are aimed at WvW and PvP and I'm not sure any of the changes effect the raid builds.
What does that mean for Dragonhunters? Not much has changed at all for them, you'll probably see next to none used in small target hitbox kill videos for example Vale Guardian because they don't benefit as much from Alacrity like an Ele and their traps won't hit as much. But you'll almost always see one in a Gorseval kill. They are a competitive DPS class right now.
Daredevil
DD's were in a similar spot to Dragonhunters before the patch. One of the best DPS classes in the game on small target hitboxes. Again directly DD's weren't hit too much by the nerf sword. However, indirectly with the emergence of the mirror composition you may see less DD's. To explain a bit here, with 2 Chronomancers in the raid you are likely to see a lot of Alacrity, something a DD gets nothing from as most of it's skills are not on cooldowns instead based on remaining initiative.
What does this mean for DD's? You may see them slowly being muscled out of compositions by Eles because DD's get nothing from Alacrity. They are still a great DPS class but they may struggle to see through the emerging meta with the mirror composition.
Warrior
Warrior, the old workhorse of the raid group, decent DPS, perma 25 Might stacking, great CC. Prior the patch everyone took 2 Warriors, that's how essential they are to raids. They can even switch up to a Condi variant and be more helpful in a composition with 2 Reapers bouncing Epidemic. Whilst the patch didn't touch them too much, indirectly the Condi PS variant maybe a victim of other balance changes. With the hits to Chronomancer boon share and Revenant's been less wanted in a composition Condi PS Warriors will struggle to keep up 25 stacks of Might.
What does this mean for Warriors? Standard PS Warriors, nothing at all if anything you might find certain CD's are better for you now. Condi PS maybe slowly moving away into more of a niche Condi class only used in certain encounters especially if we are seeing less Reapers in a composition.
Raid Compositions
Before the patch you were likely to see one of a few compositions. 4-4-2, 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1. This allowed the maximum sharing of boons between the entire raid and it allowed heals to be prioritised correctly. However as stated before we are seeing the meta lean towards 2 Chronomancers,2 Druids/Rangers, 2 PS Warriors and 4 DPS classes. Which will mean a mirror comp or 5-5. Both groups of 5 will have the same boons shared between the group and should receive the priority. This is something I kept referring to in the changes above, it's very important to the meta. The boon sharing changes are that severe that the whole composition has to be looked at to fully benefit the raid group.
Finally
The meta is always shifting, we've had a few months of stability rocked by these large balance changes and I doubt the meta will be stable for a few weeks. I will try my best to keep you informed where I can. It'll take some getting used to all these changes and some classes will be less wanted in raids for the foreseeable future as a result. If anyone has more in-depth knowledge on a specific class and wants to discuss what the changes mean please do. As you can see I can discuss Chrono all day but other classes (like Engi) I lack the knowledge on.
It's nearly been a week since the now infamous October 2016 Balance Patch or Triggerween as I like to call it and we are now seeing the dust settle on Raiding. I'll go through individual classes and then raid compositions at the end. What I'm presenting here is all the information I've collected via reading Reddit, GW2 forums, qT's website, watching kills on YouTube and speaking to raiders about the subject. The meta is still shifting and it'll likely be a few weeks until things are agreed upon but we are starting to see the outline of the future.
Chronomancer
Chrono was heavily nerfed indirectly and directly in this patch. Changes to the maximum amount of Boon stacks and Signet of Inspiration (SoI) being hit hard means Chrono isn't in a great place compared to before. To explain the changes a bit more, most people think of Quickness as a duration based Boon, where as raid Chronos are aware it's also a stack based Boon limited to 9 stacks. This meant before the patch the maximum amount of Quickness a Chrono could share was around 32 seconds. Now Quickness is limited to 5 stacks, which means 5 sources of Quickness before it's overwritten by a new source. Straight away this means less Quickness for a raid group, it also means Time Warp is no longer useful in the raid rotation. Time Warp provides 11 stacks of Quickness, and chances are you'll overwrite the Quickness of a Well of Action or Tides of Time and reduce your overall Quickness duration. (I hope this makes sense).
This would be quite a nerf to Chronos in general, however, SoI also took a massive hit. Before the patch, SoI would copy any boon of any length to 5 party members. This meant a top Chrono could copy many stacks of Quickness to an entire raid group and everyone would have permanent Quickness for a run. Now, SoI will copy all boons on you to 5 party members, but it's limited to how much the passive of SoI can give you. A Chrono with 100% Quickness will only be able to copy 6 seconds of Quickness. That's quite the drop from the 30 seconds of before.
What does this mean for Chronos? They are still vital to the Raid composition because they are the only class who can give consistent Quickness to a group and this is a huge DPS loss if you don't have Quickness. They can still Tank fine, they have just as much blocks, invulns and evades as before. However you are more likely to see 2 Chronos now. The 2nd being a Commanders build Chrono (Offers maximum Boon Duration and Damage) in a mirror composition, 2 groups of 5.
Revenant
Revenants were hit with Boon Duration nerf stick of doom and it's put them in an awkward spot. Before, Facet of Nature (F2) increased 5 party members Boon Duration by 50%, which was awesome. You'd put them in a group with a Chrono, the Chrono could build a decent amount of damage and not worry too much about Boon Duration. After the patch, Facet of Nature is now at 33% increased Boon Duration and it seems Chronomancers who are looking to replace their now useless Runes Of The Chronomancer have said
"I don't need a Revenant for that Boon Duration, I can just replace my runes with Leadership, Herald or Durability and I'll be fine."
What does this mean for Revs? Unfortunately for Revenant it's not in a great place DPS wise and it's unlikely to see a buff because of how successful it is in other game modes. There are groups trying to experiment with Revenant and get it in compositions but it's only used in niche situations. For example an encounter where you are lacking Fury for the group. But with the emergence of another class in the Condi stakes we may see Revenants in general raids fade away. Which brings us nicely to...
Druid
Druids were hit with what looked like a big nerf to non-healing Druids and what looked like a small buff on Shortbow. ANet have decided that Druids should only be dropping big healing numbers if they are building Healing Power, which I guess makes sense. Initially it was thought that Condi Druid was going to be less useful and as a result seen less. Things are shaping up somewhat differently however, Condi Ranger has seen a significant DPS increase as a result of the Shortbow buffs and is looking to be THE favoured Condi class of the masses. This is very much evolving within the past day or so but the numbers on Benchmarks are telling.
What does this mean for Druids? If you were building Healing Power you won't see much of a change. If you have a Condi Druid it might be worth dropping the Druid trait line and moving into Beast Mastery. We may see that the Condi Druid takes multiple spirits and this would allow a Healing Druid to take more Glyphs, which means more healing. This would also lean us towards a mirror composition as discussed before in the Chrono section.
Reaper
Reapers, THE Condi class before the patch, if anyone asked about Condition builds everyone would say Condi Reaper, it's an easy rotation and great DPS. But ANet says NO to you Reapers and slaps them down HARD. Jagged Horrors before the patch were pretty good. If you had a good druid they could heal the Horrors over and over and a Reaper could stack horrors forever meaning huge bleeding stacks. After the patch, horrors no longer have health. They just last 30 seconds and that's it. That means over a long fight Reapers have a lot less potential DPS.
What does this mean for Reaper? The timing of the horror nerf and the buffed Condi Ranger means that the meta is leaning towards Condi Rangers as THE Condi class now. Reapers having Epidemic is keeping them somewhat competitive and useful in certain encounters but groups are taking less Reapers as a whole simply because their DPS isn't as consistently high as it used to be.
Engineer/Scrapper
Engis are a tough group to discuss for a couple of reasons. First, I really don't play much Engi at all and second, neither does a lot of the community. They are a very complicated class to play effectively, a great Engi can keep up Condi DPS with other Condi classes no problem but because their learning curve is so high and rotation is so difficult nobody would ever recommend them. There's also the fact they can't spread Conditions like a Reaper with Epidemic, they can't group stack Might like Condi PS Warrior, and whilst they probably could provide some utility like a Condi Druid getting that into a Condi Engi rotation... well you'd be a better player than me. With the patch ANet seemed to be aiming towards Power builds and therefore PvP with the buffs Engi received. They did also receive some additional CC in the Bomb Kit.
What does this mean for Engineer? From what I've read and understood, it's status quo for Engi. Nothing much has changed to effect Condi Engi. Honestly, maybe our Engis will have something more in depth and better understood to say here. Although Engis will ALWAYS argue they need more buffs.
Elementalist
Eles took some of the worst hits from the last balance patch and this time they seem to actually got a bit of a buff. Mainly in the Dagger weapon, we have a few adjustments to cast, aftercast and cooldown timers in dagger. This should allow a bit more DPS for those players. Also Condi Ele (which is not a thing) received a buff in the form of Glyph of Elemental Power, allowing you to create a lot more burning stacks. Whether this will ever be a competitive Condi DPS remains to be seen, I doubt it but who knows. SOMEONE RUN THE NUMBERS.
What does that mean for Eles? Staff Eles are unaffected, Dagger/Warhorn may see some DPS increase and a slight change in rotations. Back to the mirror comp point, with 2 Chronos in a raid it maybe more beneficial to take 4 Eles over any other class simply because they benefit from Alacrity so much. Eles were already a highly requested class, you are just more likely to see at least 4 in raid kill videos in the future.
Dragonhunter
There's not much to say here. Before the patch Dragonhunters were in a good place, they were one of the best DPS classes for large target hitboxes. You'd see them a lot in Gorseval kill videos for example because of the multiple hits on their traps. This patch doesn't really hit the Dragonhunter directly at all, most of the changes are aimed at WvW and PvP and I'm not sure any of the changes effect the raid builds.
What does that mean for Dragonhunters? Not much has changed at all for them, you'll probably see next to none used in small target hitbox kill videos for example Vale Guardian because they don't benefit as much from Alacrity like an Ele and their traps won't hit as much. But you'll almost always see one in a Gorseval kill. They are a competitive DPS class right now.
Daredevil
DD's were in a similar spot to Dragonhunters before the patch. One of the best DPS classes in the game on small target hitboxes. Again directly DD's weren't hit too much by the nerf sword. However, indirectly with the emergence of the mirror composition you may see less DD's. To explain a bit here, with 2 Chronomancers in the raid you are likely to see a lot of Alacrity, something a DD gets nothing from as most of it's skills are not on cooldowns instead based on remaining initiative.
What does this mean for DD's? You may see them slowly being muscled out of compositions by Eles because DD's get nothing from Alacrity. They are still a great DPS class but they may struggle to see through the emerging meta with the mirror composition.
Warrior
Warrior, the old workhorse of the raid group, decent DPS, perma 25 Might stacking, great CC. Prior the patch everyone took 2 Warriors, that's how essential they are to raids. They can even switch up to a Condi variant and be more helpful in a composition with 2 Reapers bouncing Epidemic. Whilst the patch didn't touch them too much, indirectly the Condi PS variant maybe a victim of other balance changes. With the hits to Chronomancer boon share and Revenant's been less wanted in a composition Condi PS Warriors will struggle to keep up 25 stacks of Might.
What does this mean for Warriors? Standard PS Warriors, nothing at all if anything you might find certain CD's are better for you now. Condi PS maybe slowly moving away into more of a niche Condi class only used in certain encounters especially if we are seeing less Reapers in a composition.
Raid Compositions
Before the patch you were likely to see one of a few compositions. 4-4-2, 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1. This allowed the maximum sharing of boons between the entire raid and it allowed heals to be prioritised correctly. However as stated before we are seeing the meta lean towards 2 Chronomancers,2 Druids/Rangers, 2 PS Warriors and 4 DPS classes. Which will mean a mirror comp or 5-5. Both groups of 5 will have the same boons shared between the group and should receive the priority. This is something I kept referring to in the changes above, it's very important to the meta. The boon sharing changes are that severe that the whole composition has to be looked at to fully benefit the raid group.
Finally
The meta is always shifting, we've had a few months of stability rocked by these large balance changes and I doubt the meta will be stable for a few weeks. I will try my best to keep you informed where I can. It'll take some getting used to all these changes and some classes will be less wanted in raids for the foreseeable future as a result. If anyone has more in-depth knowledge on a specific class and wants to discuss what the changes mean please do. As you can see I can discuss Chrono all day but other classes (like Engi) I lack the knowledge on.
