The Balance in Guild Wars 2 has gotten better and better. The team continuously iterates, revamps, and works hard on so many different split ends that plagued Guild Wars 2 last year. Power Mechanist is no longer our God Emperor, yet is still a strong build for those who want a ton of utility for not too much effort. Many of the more intricate builds feel very rewarding, like Power Catalyst, and there are a ton of builds that fill in between. Things are better than ever.
That doesn’t mean things are perfect.
The ArenaNet team recently announced their balance changes at the end of April, and have now been around since May 2nd in game. While these are great, there are still a few things I’d love to see tweaked a little bit. I’d like to give a quick list of what I’d like to see.
Damage buffs to Scrapper
I’m not one to subscribe to the doomers that will never stop complaining no matter what good changes happen, and it’s almost always correct for those working on these classes to ignore them. With that said, I do think that Scrapper specifically could use some love in the damage department. Scrapper in particular is an interesting case because the damage isn’t necessarily bad (currently ~37.4k as of this writing), but I think having the option to do a bit more damage at the cost of its utility (gyros) may be worth considering. Strain the Superspeed application, forcing it into its rotation, in exchange for a bit more damage.
Quality of Life improvements to offensive supports
Speaking of Scrapper, there are a ton of classes, offensive supports in particular, that just don’t feel good to play at all. Quickness Herald, as good as it is right now, is also on this list. I don’t really enjoy having to spam a bunch of skills to apply my primary boon. I don’t know what the range is between that and exactly Alacrity Renegade, but I think I’d much prefer the latter, then go from there. This kind of clashes with my first point, as being forced to spam skills is what I implied initially, but I’m sure they can figure it out!
More rune and sigil options!
Rune of the Scholar is wonderful and all, but I think it’s time for more of the lesser used runes to get a bit more of a place. It doesn’t need to necessarily be as good in a vacuum, but it’d be nice if there was more of an application spread amongst different classes. Maybe some new runes on the horizon that could make combo fields even more effective? WIshful thinking, I know, but it would certainly help break the monotony of our rune choices right now.
A bit more work towards the bloat
Guild Wars 2 is an incredibly bloated game at the high end, but the things that cause the bloat can also contribute to the monotony of a lot of play patterns. I touched on this with the offensive support section, but it starts to really become an issue when you play certain classes like Catalyst and Axe Mirage. Granted, bloated is not synonymous with complicated, as classes like Untamed are seen as complicated, but because of the sheer apm of the class, not with how many different buttons you actually have to press. I think complexity can be achieved through knowledge relative to what you’re doing, and when you’re bogged down by lengthy rotations combined with timing restrictions, it makes for a bad time.
One of the best things about Guild Wars 2, for me, is going in depth with builds and pushing them as hard as I can. Seeing that sweet 40k dps on a Power Willbender, or saving your team from the brink with perfectly timed burst healing is one of the more joyous parts of improvement. Balance patches are always a tumultuous time, but there is no better time to explore and work on discovering new things and working on what’s already established.
