Guild Wars: Just When I Think I'm Out...

Another skill balance just dropped. I really don't have time to play but this looks to be an amazingly awesome one.

They've finally taken the bat to Black Lotus Strike and insta-gib Assassin chains. The switch to Impale is nice, makes it a lot easier to interrupt that attack chain or slip some defense in there. I'd like to see Blades of Steel scaled way, way back, too, but the big change is making BLS a lead attack. You still get to skip ahead in the chain with things like Black Spider but you no longer have enough energy to keep it up.

And they also finally took the logical step and took spirits out of the SR equation. It's only been suggested for about two years now.

Magebane keeps looking better and I was just eyeing Barrage the other day - trying to put together a B/P team for my next dungeon dive. It looks like my new Ranger Hero might see some play after all.

WoH got scaled back slightly which is alright if you ask me. Being able to self target was enough to make it pop, the additional healing was just gravy. And I see Mhenlo's now packing it in the Far Shiverpeaks. I know people were howling about it but, really? A henchman had a bad skill bar? He doesn't know how to use it as well as another person could? That's not exactly breaking the game, I don't see the need for all the fuss. He still sucks. If it really bothers you that much you have plenty of room in your party to find another player or add a Monk hero.

And, for that matter, LoD isn't that bad now. It heals for a bit less. But it's not like a 2 second cast really matters all that much in PvE. In PvP where you have D-Shot Rangers roaming the corridors looking to put your hide on their walls, sure, but, okay, so it gets blown up a few times, it's still a lot of health being pumped out cheaply. It's the patch effect, I think. LoD's numbers got smaller so now touching it will give you the cyber-AIDS or something. Still, this change does make me smile because it means one thing: The new LoD-less meta is sticking around. They don't change Mhenlo if they're reverting next week.

All in all, it's the other kind of update I really like. The one narrowly tailored to get rid of some junk that's clogging up the game. It's not going to be as big a deal as the craziness of last weak - although nerfing the hell out of LoLSins is a pretty big shift - but it's going to make the game a lot better. A lot to like here. Especially that this is two updates within a week.