Thoughts on the Feb 25 updates?

As most (if not all) of you probably know, there were some changes made by Arenanet on February 25, 2010. What are your thoughts so far? What do you like and/or dislike about them?

News Segment can be found here

http://www.guildwars.com/support/gameupdates/



Personally, I haven't had a chance to check out the tactics/rit/blood reworks yet but I think the changes that were made to the major farming builds were fairly effective. Although speed clears haven't been destroyed, they are much more up to par with the expectations for challenge for areas considered "elite".

With the new "Heal as One" buff, I'm still kind of disappointed that they haven't decided to rework the pet control system; such as adding a flagging option for example.

Personally? I think it's great

Since my main characters are necro and ritualist, we've recieved some great buffs. Blood bond is working out nicely in a lot of situations, both solo and in groups, as is ritual lord.

I've heard a lot of people praising the hammer updates for improving their warrior characters. . though on the flipside, it's buffed up many of the hammer wielding foes in the game. Kinda annoying in dtsc, but fun overall

While it's somewhat sad that some sc's no longer run.. I'm sure people will find new ways of doing them pretty quickly. It'll be both challenging, fun and annoyign to learn the new ways but.. .keeps the game interesting

/agree i like the hammer updates cause not many people use them as char while they can be pretty handy. dont know if i like all the necro updates cause of touchers. And most of the time i like a full team over a run. But i gues we do have to figuer out how to do the rlly hard area's like DOA, the Deep and Urgoz.

YAY RITUALISTS! I love what they did...however i feel that they have a lot of moves that siute the same purpose...oh well Ritual Lord yay!

I'M
IN
HAMMER
HEAVEN
crafted my destroyer maul, wicked, hammers are back.
I have to try the tactics after. the stance deflect arrows ,holy moly, it rocks hard.

Well, aside from the skill balances, which has been the obvious part, Arenanet also gave some idea of their views concerning PvE and future updates. I don't know whether anyone has yet had the chance to read through the developer's notes but it seems the future of PvE is small scale farming and balancing builds so it will be equally effective to run a fully balanced build in say ... UW compared to builds that rely on a single/or few professions (like the UWsC used to do).

Aside from that, I really liked the updates. The only thing I regret is that heroes don't really have the brains to use some of the new skills.

I agree, it seems like the skills are getting more complicated with each update and therefore heroes are getting a more limited pool to draw from. Some skills heroes will just use very poorly but other become useless on heroes such as Ritual Lord.

Overall the update looks promising and I'm thrilled that ANet didn't just nerf builds by making the problem skills obsolete.

If anyone has some new builds (post update), it would be nice if they posted them just to see what people have come up with and so they can get feedback on possible improvements.

For a ranger the ability to have their pet instigate the attack, kind of a "Sick 'em" thing would be wonderful. I've seen that skill in other games and it is awesome!!

My (WOW) other game hunter would have pet attack while I took an aimed shot for mass crit damage from a distance. Hope they work in pet controls soon.

Shadow Form still works... gg anet.

Also... lol seeping wound...

I dont ming that SF still woks at all because i tend to use it from time to time.

BUT GOD SEEPING WOUND IS ANNOYING AS HELL!!!

lol

No, seriously. This was supposed to be a balancing skills update and yet there are skills incredably overpowering the game. What im trying to say is if they were going to make seeping wound effective again they shouldnt have made it THAT good.

Let me explain:
This is what the spell does currently
Elite Hex Spell. For 1...6...7 second[s], target foe moves 50% slower. That foe takes 5...21...25 damage each second while suffering from a condition. This spell has half the normal range.
Now what i think is just too overpowering is the dmg it deals, i mena 25? that is enough dmg to just auto attack the target with a condition spamming skill and it dies. it doesnt even have to be a +dmg dealing attack.

I would have made the spell do less dmg but the snaring and the ability is really nice.
Elite Hex Spell. For 1...6...7 second[s], target foe moves 50% slower. That foe takes 5...11...18 damage each second while suffering from a condition. This spell has half the normal range.

I see the update changed some skills foes used.

It'd be useful if they now gave heroes some intelligence

Change is the one thing that remains constant in this game. I like the update because it made me start exploring new builds I've never used before. For instance, my ranger is trying out a new beast master build and just sitting back and watching my pet hit consistantly for over 100. My necro has gone rit secondary and is now healing, and has also become a super curser.

Yes, hero AI needs some work. It is hard enough to get Koss to not run off and decide who he wants to fight. Sometimes you wished you could just turn on them and kill them yourself to save the trouble.

Personally i find it so and so! DTSC has been nerfed causing me to spend nearly 40k to make teh new builds (all for 600 and smite). This money was supposed to go into my kuz elite armor saving and white dye. Thankfully i survived this stock market clash by zeliting and selling zkeys!