Skill UpdatesJuly 10, 2008
Developer Notes

This week's balance update primarily focuses on addressing problems within the state of PvP. The main problem areas we're seeking to resolve are melee teleport spikes, the dominance of Signet of Judgment, and the power of Dervish spike. We have not changed elite skills commonly featured on Dervishes in competitive play (such as Avatar of Melandru and Wounding Strike), but we have altered some skills that make these builds so deadly. While Shadow Form is unchanged in this update, we are exploring solutions. The goal is to slow down builds that keep Shadow Form up permanently, while not invalidating it for other uses.

Assassin

In PvP, teleporting melee characters have become extremely commonplace, due to their unpredictable nature and the speed with which they can focus on a single target. We've added a .75 second aftercast to teleports to give targets (and their Monks) a chance to react to the incoming damage. Shadow Walk got a different treatment because it is a stance. Since stances have no casting time (and therefore no aftercast), we made it disable attack skills for one second so that it is not strictly superior to other teleports. We recognize this is harsher on Warriors using the skill (because they lose all built up adrenaline when their skills are disabled). However, when we made this change, we accounted for the fact that Warriors typically use stances to increase attack-speed or movement-speed. The disabling effect makes Shadow Walk less desirable than other teleports for Warriors in most situations.

Dervish

Signet of Mystic Speed costs no energy, has no cast time and can be maintained permanently. By increasing the recharge, it now requires a high investment into Wind Prayers to achieve this same effect. Chilling Victory is a hard-hitting skill that contributes a lot to a Dervish spike. By moving it to Wind Prayers, we lower the damage on most builds since attributes are traditionally higher in Scythe Mastery than Wind Prayers.

Mesmer

Previously, Mantra of Inscriptions would recharge signets faster under any circumstances -- including ones that were disabled from enemy disruption. This change doesn't affect the basic function of the skill, but opens up signets to counters by interruption and disabling effects.

Monk

Signet of Judgment was the only unconditional ranged knockdown without a very long cast time or Exhaustion or both. Even as an elite skill, this proved too powerful, especially when featured in skill bars that maximize signet efficiency. We've lowered the damage and range on this skill to bring it in line with other ranged knockdown skills.

Necro

Enfeebling Blood has been far too effective at spreading Weakness everywhere, especially at low Curses attribute. We've adjusted the duration scaling and increased the health sacrifice to add cost and enforce some more attribute investment.

  • Note: All skill ranges are for Attribute 0...12...15.
  • Aura of Displacement: now has a .75 aftercast.
  • Dark Prison: now has a .75 aftercast.
  • Death's Charge: now has a .75 aftercast.
  • Shadow Prison: now has a .75 aftercast.
  • Shadow Walk: now disables your attack skills for 1 second.
  • Chilling Victory: this skill is now in the Wind Prayers attribute line.
  • Signet of Mystic Speed: increased recharge to 20 seconds.
  • Mantra of Inscriptions: now affects only those signets that you successfully activate; Interrupted and disabled signets no longer benefit from this skill.
  • Signet of Judgment: decreased damage to 5...41...50; decreased range to half.
  • Enfeebling Blood: increased health sacrifice to 17%; decreased duration to 1...13...16.