November 10 Balance Update Reworks Elementalist Staff and Engineer Rifle as the New WvW Borderlands Beta Begins
What's Changing
November 10 is a big day for Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet scheduled a large skills and balance update for today alongside the first public beta of the brand-new World vs. World Borderlands map.
The balance pass touches every profession. Its biggest targets are Elementalist staff, Engineer rifle and the Grenadier trait, Guardian's Firebrand and Virtues, several Mesmer weapons, Necromancer axe, warhorn and focus, and Ranger flanking. ArenaNet previewed these changes ahead of time and said "the goal of previewing these changes is to gather your feedback before the live release," so some final numbers in today's release notes may differ from the preview.
If you play WvW, your Borderlands will look very different for a while: during the beta, every existing Borderlands map is swapped out for the new gray-box map.
WvW Borderlands Beta
The new Borderlands map is set in Ascalon during the Searing, with areas from both before and after the catastrophe and strong ties to humans and charr. In the long run it will permanently replace the Green Alpine Borderlands, and each Borderlands map will get its own theme.
A sky view of the north keep on the new gray-box WvW Borderlands map
How the first beta works
It's a gray-box build. Art and assets aren't final, so the team can still change the layout, objective placement, travel times and combat flow.
All Borderlands are replaced. For the beta, every existing Borderlands map becomes the gray-box map.
No new mechanics yet. Shrines and the energy cannon are held back for a later beta.
Feedback focus: ArenaNet wants to hear about navigation, where fights break out, and travel time. An official forum feedback thread is planned.
The west keep on the gray-box Borderlands beta map
ArenaNet hasn't given an end date for this first beta. In its announcement, the team said: "The competitive team's top priority is making sure this new map captures what players love about the current World vs. World battlegrounds."
Balance Update Highlights
These are the key changes from ArenaNet's November 10 balance preview. Where a change applies only to one game mode, it's noted in brackets.
Elementalist
Staff gets a big tune-up: Fireball's cast time is about 0.25 seconds shorter, Flame Burst is reworked and renamed Fire Blast, and Chain Lightning now chains instantly instead of bouncing.
Lightning Surge now has a delayed second strike that deals more damage, and Shock Wave now immobilizes and briefly dazes.
Meteor's power coefficient rises from 2.7 to 3.0 (PvE).
Signet of Water's base heal goes from 1,940 to 2,440, and it now removes 4 conditions instead of 3.
Galvanize goes from 2.6 to 3.1, Fiery Impact from 1.75 to 2.25 and Shale Storm from 1.5 to 2.0 (all PvE).
Engineer
Net Shot and Overcharged Shot now flip Rifle Burst into a new skill, Rocket Burst.
Grenade radii grow from 120 to 180, and the Grenadier trait now boosts explosion damage instead of radius.
Rocket Kick's cooldown rises from 15 to 20 seconds in PvE and to 25 seconds in WvW and PvP.
Toss Elixir S drops from 45 to 30 seconds in PvE.
Guardian
Orb of Wrath fires faster projectiles, and Chains of Light hits up to 4 more enemies.
Inspired Virtue now gives 1.5% per boon, up to 5 boons.
Firebrand gets a large set of renames and reshuffles, and Purity of Word's baseline pages rise from 5 to 8 (PvP).
Mesmer
Illusionary Leap's clone now immobilizes instead of crippling.
Phantasmal Disenchanter and Phantasmal Warden swap places on focus.
Necromancer
Axe is reworked: Rending Claws now reduces the recharge of other axe skills, and Ghastly Claws deals bonus damage to low-health foes.
Locust Swarm and Soul Grasp are reworked.
Ranger
Short bow and Skirmishing traits now need flanking only periodically, not constantly.
Poison Volley's cooldown drops from 8 to 6 seconds in PvE, and its poison lasts 7 seconds instead of 5.
What's Next
ArenaNet plans more Borderlands betas after this one, with changes to the layout and objectives and possibly new mechanics such as the shrines and energy cannon. Also on the official schedule are the Evon "Birthday" Celebration on November 23, Wintersday on December 8, and the first release of the Hall of Monuments in December.
We'll update our Guild Wars 2 hub once the full release notes are out.
