Speaking of PvE only:

i like that the backbar meta isn't so overwhelmingly 2h now.
i like the synergy change to storm atro
i actually really like the empower change and the avenue for legit heavy attack builds

I can't think of much else i'm a fan of.

at best we're hoping the dps loss and the boss nerfs come out even and that the healing changes are not terrible.

Exactly 0 optimism. Because we all know whatever this update pushes out will be altered again in subsequent updates.

Ksariyu wrote: »

... but for lower- to mid-tier players, a lot of this content will finally become more accessible, which ultimately was the entire goal of this patch...

I lost more than 20k dps on my templar and even more on my warden. So how exactly is this giving me more accessibility to vet content???

GloatingSwine wrote: »

Login queue will be short?

And they fixed the lag at last. Less people, less lag.

FluffyBird wrote: »

I like running nDLC dungeons duo or solo, it was just the right amount of challenge. For most of those dungeons I wasn't quite there yet for soloing. With both DPS and healing nerfed there's no way I'll be able to clear and I have doubts about whether we will be.

I'll check out new dungeons in last couple of days of my sub and those dungeon where we struggle the most and if we won't clear them... I'd love to say I'll be playing only for the story, but the story is also getting quite meh.

I would note that the majority of the comments you see from the PTS are people trying to do harder Veteran content/ PvP.

For example, Warden's were changed to have additional penetration instead of additional damage. Needless to say penetration is generally less useful for people at the top who have already planned to cover their penetration needs so people at the top are significantly displeased by the change which reduces their damage but, is more of a meh for other players.

The Warden's taken a healing hit to many of our over time abilities but, one of the heals in the tank line is actually better than it used to be currently. Some of my PTS Wardens can heal themselves and an ally for 20k in burst and an additional 25k over the next 10 seconds.

One of the Warden's damage skills that does big burst damage had it's damage reduced and it's cost increased but, had a second burst added that does more damage than the first. Needless to say, the PvP players are displeased by the change as the later burst isn't going to be easy for them to hit and they counted on the first hit doing a lot but, for most everyone the damage for the skill will likely be up significantly per button press.

I can't say the new dungeons are soloable because I raqe quit the one I tried half way through and didn't bother with the other. I don't really like Druids much so the story wasn't interesting to me and the mechanics got old (My solo build is very durable but low DPS which makes fights last a long time in the newer dlc content where the bosses have increased hp) the visuals were nice though. I died abruptly to a boss when it had very little hp left and I wasn't enjoying the experience enough to do the fight a few more times as I couldn't tell what had killed me so I didn't know if I should be trying to increase my dps to avoid an enrage or playing more conservatively to avoid getting hit as hard.).

For much of the games content the changes appear to mess up being able to play the game how you want to play it more than they mess up the ability to actually complete content. Granted, the changes have been a bit extreme so it's possible next week they'll actually mess up the ability to complete content.

Ksariyu wrote: »

Quite literally, this change shrinks the gap between beginner content (Overland, delves) and end-game content, making the shift from one to the other less drastic and intimidating...[sic]..but for lower- to mid-tier players, a lot of this content will finally become more accessible, which ultimately was the entire goal of this patch.

No this actually does quite the opposite. It will be harder for people to make the jump to end game group content because you'll need to be even more on point with your timing, rotation, and buff management since overall DPS will be less and there will be less room for experienced group members to cover lower DPS players as they learn and progress IMO.

Ksariyu wrote: »

. . . But they also nerfed healing
Honestly, I'm sort of counting this as a blessing in disguise, as it facilitates an overall shift in power that I personally wanted to see. My hope is that DPS will be required to run defensive skills and sets more often, rather than every single DPS being a glass-cannon build. By lowering the ability for DPS characters to run 10 damage skills, this creates an opening for builds that already needed extra defense to stay alive (Mainly melee builds) to compete at a similar level without being at an overwhelming disadvantage in sheer damage output. This also feeds into the next topic. . .

I'm a trial and dungeon healer. We've been lamenting for a long time how the current over abundance of strong self heals are making our role largely unneeded in all but the hardest content and now they are making everyone heal themselves more? No this is bad for healers and bad for groups; there is no silver lining in this course of action.

Ksariyu wrote: »

Resto-DPS is kind of a thing now
This more just reflects a change that I really think the game needs, which is to allow support roles (Tank and healer) to put out respectable damage on their own. There's two main reasons why I believe this will ultimately help the game. One, beginning players should be able to build for their preferred role without massively handicapping themselves in solo content. Right now, a player who wants to build for a healer has to either create a second build for solo, or just accept the fact that everything will become a slog (Relatively: see overland difficulty thread).

Sorry if I wanted to do damage I'd queue as a DPS, I want to heal and don't care about "putting out respectable damage as a healer" as that's not my job. My job is to buff the group, debuff the enemy, and heal the group and adjust on the fly and contribute DPS in between my responsibilities. Making my actual job less effective for a role that we already have 8 players to fulfill makes no sense.

Regarding your comment on solo content, ZoS gave us the free armory system - there's no need to run my healer spec overland any more so this is a justification without a need. My toons all have several builds in the armory, solo/hybrid for overland, DPS, healer, tank, and PVP. I've been playing since closed beta and am overjoyed that I don't have to run a hybrid healer or have a toon reserved just for a specific role in group content any longer due to the armory system. Laziness when it comes to making a secondary build is no justification for the changes in update 35 and new players are not handicapping themselves when ZoS spams respec scrolls at them every few levels.

Rimskjegg wrote: »

Why should DDs carry resto staves?
Why shouldn't healers have separate builds for group and solo content?
Why make theoretical points about content adjustments that cannot possibly be properly tested in time?
Why grasp at straws instead of joining everyone in requesting that the combat changes be put on hold until at least Update 36, while reworking them over the course of the next PTS?
IMO, real grounds for optimism here are twofold. One, ZoS didn't stick to all the failed changes. So they can listen. Two, if they choose to continue listening, they can also shelve the combat and content changes for more adjustments over whatever time that takes and just release the new dungeons.

1. Nobody every said they should.
2. It's tedious and ruins character identity.
3. We know trials are getting nerfed HP. The specifics may still be up in the air, but at the very least we know the damage nerf won't hurt as bad in endgame content as it seems it will right now.
4. I do still support the idea of holding off on the changes going live. If the dev team would separate combat updates from DLC releases, I think everything would go a lot smoother. Sadly that's just not the case. So in the meantime, I'm at least going to point out avenues where I think they could move forward, rather than throw up roadblock after roadblock with nothing helpful to say.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

No this actually does quite the opposite. It will be harder for people to make the jump to end game group content because you'll need to be even more on point with your timing, rotation, and buff management since overall DPS will be less and there will be less room for experienced group members to cover lower DPS players as they learn and progress IMO.

Rotations and buff management are both getting easier with U35, not harder. That's why everyone's complaining about, for example, the new NB rotations being boring because it's just a few DoTs and spamming Surprise Attack (Which I don't particularly like myself, but that's a different topic). Further, high-end players are still parsing 100k+ on PTS; a year ago this was pretty much the top end of DPS anyway, so I'd imagine all the people who could clear it then will be just fine, especially considering the reduced enemy HP. Finally, we have people moaning about how easy DPS is with heavy attack builds now, which goes entirely against the argument that DPS will be so hard for lower-end players. Yes, weaving will be tougher, but now there's other options if you're really struggling.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

I'm a trial and dungeon healer. We've been lamenting for a long time how the current over abundance of strong self heals are making our role largely unneeded in all but the hardest content and now they are making everyone heal themselves more? No this is bad for healers and bad for groups; there is no silver lining in this course of action.

As is evident in every game with a holy trinity, pure healer/tank playstyles are just not that popular. Just look at the queue times between roles, even when the demand for DPS is 2-4x that of tanks and healers. I understand completely the desire to play a heavily support-oriented character; I'd even made a post a while back that suggested taking some of the bigger buffs away from DPS builds/skill lines and giving them to supports. As you can imagine though, that got met with just as much backlash from the DPS players who want to keep that utility. This is a very subjective balance and you're unlikely to make everyone happy. Your opinion about it though does nothing to discredit the potential benefits I listed. It also disregards the fact that if ALL healing is nerfed, that includes the healing you claim takes away from your role's value. Having a dedicated healer would now be more important, especially if your group can no longer burn through mechs as fast.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Sorry if I wanted to do damage I'd queue as a DPS, I want to heal and don't care about "putting out respectable damage as a healer" as that's not my job. My job is to buff the group, debuff the enemy, and heal the group and adjust on the fly and contribute DPS in between my responsibilities. Making my actual job less effective for a role that we already have 8 players to fulfill makes no sense.

Same as the last one, I understand and to an extent agree with your perspective, but that's not how everyone or even the majority of players feel, even with in those roles. There have been several threads created by people who dislike the current meta of tanks and supports simply being buff/debuff bots. As with everything, I'm advocating for more variety and more choices for the players. I don't want them to eradicate pure support builds, I just want more options for players who like to blur the lines a bit. You even state you like to adjust on the fly; having access to damage without a complete build change gives you that flexibility when things go south mid-fight. And again, this change is really more of a boon to PUGs. Coordinated groups don't usually have trouble with DPS and therefore the supports will still spend most of their time supporting.

Ragnarok0130 wrote: »

Regarding your comment on solo content, ZoS gave us the free armory system - there's no need to run my healer spec overland any more so this is a justification without a need. . . Laziness when it comes to making a secondary build is no justification for the changes in update 35 and new players are not handicapping themselves when ZoS spams respec scrolls at them every few levels.

The armory system is great for when you have a completed build you like but you want to try something else. Its supposed to aid in the horizontal progression aspect that ZoS has been pushing for recently. Once again though, this is a purely subjective opinion on what's more fun. You argue that it's "laziness" to not want to create build for every activity. I argue that if I spent the time grinding and perfecting a build I like, I want to be able to use that build in more than one type of content. It's the same principal as when people say they don't want to unequip their gear/CP to enjoy overland. It's disappointing to put effort into something just to have to ditch it because it's now hampering your enjoyment of the specific content you want to do.

The idea of reduced healing forcing players to run more defensive skills being a good thing is neat in concept, but broken in practice. All it does is widen the gap.

If you have a team that can manage to not need to self heal/defend, healers that can carry the heavier load, players that burn faster and need less healing, etc. Then you are putting all the players under that level into a position where now they have to use skill slots and resources to do things that those other teams don't, making them further behind.

That idea never plays out in game.

As for the DPS LA/HA changes, I'm no fan of. I get that many players love the hold my button down to do almost as much DPS as players that are actually working, but it's boring gameplay to me and its the reason I've already canceled my sub. Dots/Hots have gotten more confusing to manage and 'sticky' dots are almost useless in some game scenarios now. And there is no reason to nerf damage and nerf content - essentially that just puts you in the same place - except that assumes they nerf/balance content well - which they will not. Especially with things like healing ticks working differently now when you are taking one-shot level damage from bosses every half second in some situations.