March Balance Update Preview

Do A Flip!

Long term fans of Power Daredevil are familiar with the highs and lows of 's unique design—a proper sense of risk and reward, while being uncomfortably beholden to allies providing varying amounts of Vigor and raw Endurance.

Unlike Power Engineer's and Power Vindicator's , Power Daredevil was rewarded for keeping its Endurance fully depleted. When combined with the build's lack of other active defenses, melee-range focus, and frequent animation locks with , the build took serious risks befitting its name.

Those risks are being sanded down next patch: will now fully reward the player so long as Endurance is not full.

Excitingly, this will allow the bulid to play with its Endurance generation in new ways. We saw the first step with the rotation featured on our build page—using (and the very powerful ) to Dodge more for the damage buff from . Don't forget grants enough Endurance for two Dodges—and it's shared with your subgroup! (That's liable to actually cause problems in uncoordinated groups).

Additionally, and in the Critical Strikes Trait Line are being toned down. Instead of requiring the player to stay above 75%/90% HP respectively, some amount of the Critical Chance/Critical Damage bonuses will be permanently active, with an additional amount granted above 50% HP.

These same Critical Strikes buffs are extremely important for Power Deadeye, which is strictly required to score Critical Hits to generate Malice for a stable rotation with .

Mark Your Calendar

Caving to the inevitable precedent set by most other professions in game, (and standing variant ) will now pierce through enemies ( already pierces). This won't, however, make Power Deadeye the next Condition Virtuoso for straight-line cleave; due to relying on damage bonuses against a Marked target, the build can only deal 68% of its nominal DPS against cleaved targets.

This build still loves piercing, as it makes the rotation stable even when its main target is body-blocked by adds.

There are two significant changes for Power Quickness Deadeye:

• Deadeye Stolen Skills like and are getting a baseline 150% damage increase.
• 's damage buff is being increased from 10% to 25%.

When was first reworked into a Quickness trait last June, buffed Stolen Skills damage by 300%. Factoring in the nerfs to and since then, the new skills will deal 71% of the damage they had at that time. We expect Quickness variants wielding Daggers, Staff, and even Rifle to perform very well next patch. (Follow those links to see benchmark candidates for the current patch!)

Lastly, there are interesting changes to Cantrips most relevant to Rifle builds:

• - Reduced Charge Cooldown from 45 to 25 seconds.
• - Increased Charge count from 1 to 2.

These changes benefit players at the skill ceiling while simultaneously extending a hand to players beginning their contract-killer career:

• More Stealth access means more Rifle damage output.
• These skills can correct rotation mistakes by ending Revealed early and restoring Initiative. Certain Raid/Strike mechanics can also target the player and Reveal them—using can bounce that mechanic to someone else in the squad who doesn't need to enter Stealth every couple seconds.
• grants more Deadeye Stolen Skills for Quickness builds.
• A spare Charge lets us update our Marked target during boss phase transitions.

I CAN break bars in that attunement!

Elementalist's will now leap to a target area to deal Damage and Daze enemies.

This new skill will compete with and for Defiance Break, but it might feel responsive enough to make a difference.

is being reworked and notably will no longer act as a Burning source. PvE "Fire Wizards" who never leave Fire Attunement, Fear Not!—you don't need the Arcane Trait Line when you could play this modern rotation made by our expert Crone (it's already the superior option).

Lastly, Tempest's is gaining a Radius increase, and 's healing modifier is receiving a small Buff.

A bit of editorial side eye (Of the Storm!): still has only 180 Radius.

Irregularly Scheduled Maintenance

Mechanist's Jade Mech receives a penalty when its human supervisor isn't holding its hand within 360 Radius—extending the Cooldown time of Mech skills. The current +50% adjustment will become only +20%.

The latest SotO Patch introduced Short Bow as a new support weapon, competing directly with Mace & Shield. Without Shield, has no support for allies. Short Bow grants Protection, and 's competing trait is being reworked into a Regeneration source. That boon is mostly sourced from , with the rest comes from Mace on Heal Alacrity Mechanist and 's on Heal Quickness Scrapper.

Speaking of :

• is receiving missile velocity improvements to better hit your allies.
• currently has competitive-mode scaling in PvE by mistake: 6-second base duration on Boons and a 20-second Cooldown. The patch notes specify this skill's boons will no longer have "lower duration than intended in PvE", so it might be getting a significant buff with 10-second/20-second Duration and Cooldown, or the bug might get fixed entirely and go back to a 30-second Cooldown.

Stop right there, criminal scum!

Guardian is receiving a few small Buffs focused on movement.

• Sword's can now be used while moving.
• grants Superspeed in addition to its other effects.
• 's flipover to will always be available so long as you complete the skill, even if you do not land all 5 hits.
• now Evades attacks during the cast. (It also finishes downed enemies if isolated, but we can't quite stomp bosses yet!)

is changed from an offensive trait to a defensive trait, and we speculate this will no longer apply a damaging effect. If so, it will no longer see use on any DPS-oriented builds.

Nothing more to say: straightforward, fun improvements.
If you want to try out these improvements, might we suggest our Power Alacrity Willbender build?

All-Natural Balance

Condition Alacrity Druid has not seen great success, caught in between the damage potential of the DPS build and the support responsibilities of the Heal build. will now grant bonus Boon Duration, which will allow the build to run more offensive gear for a DPS boost. However, the build is more held back by difficulty with Astral Force generation than by any gear constraints.

Quickness Untamed enjoyers rejoice: Unleashed Ambush skills will no longer automatically cast when Auto Attack is enabled. This behavior could be undesirable especially right after Weapon Swapping to trigger .

This Technically Counts as a Mainhand Sword Buff

Before taking you on a wild ride, let's revisit a familiar build: Power Virtuoso.

is getting reworked so that every time you craft an item, your phantasms craft a duplicate item.

Actually, it's being reworked to refund 2 Blades every time you cast a Bladesong using 5 Blades, in addition to its current effect.

This will further differentiate Power Virtuoso from its Condition variant, but we'll have to see how strong it makes the build. It has quite lot of ground to cover to catch up with the rest of the roster, and it can't afford to drop a utility slot for .

is also getting Buffed to always apply its bonus damage against Defiant enemies, but the numbers still aren't strong enough to matter.

Next up: Mirage is getting Buffed!

The Power build, that is. Not quite the build used to farm during Halloween—this is something new!

Condition Mirage is famous for getting great value out of its Clones by using them to apply Damaging Conditions via traits like and .

By contrast, Clones wielding Power weapons only tickle your enemies—don't mistake them for powerful Phantasms like and ! Power Chronomancer and Power Virtuoso use Clones/Blades only as fuel for Strike Damage shatters.

Enter the reworked : after shattering with 2 or more Clones, gain Mirage Cloak for an Ambush like Dagger's and Greatsword's .

Sword's strike coefficient is being tripled, but Dagger's is also being brought up to an identical output while allowing you to stay at a comfortable 1200 Range.
's coefficient is also being buffed significantly, and we're expecting to see Greatsword accompany the Dagger in whatever may come out of the other end.

Because is mutually exclusive with , only you will Ambush—don't pity your Clones when you blow them up for more stage time.

"The reaper is a harbinger of death."

Necromancer's new Swords added by SotO haven't made an impact on the meta, but the design team is already penning the sequel—Power Harbinger.

Particularly astute gamers may have noticed that Harbinger has had Power traits for a long time—all the way back to its original conception, in fact.

Harbinger's and are being buffed to yield more damage. These traits are decidedly uninspired, and Snow Crows corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures:

Okay, so we're looking at Power Reaper at home. What could interest someone in Power Harbinger if they're not already an ironic fan?

Simple:

1. does not absorb damage like , so you can't be kicked out prematurely by damage pressure.
2. Power Harbinger can share Quickness with the group.

Now, that also means won't insulate you from damage, and you lack the built-in healing conversion from —but when playing in a group, you don't always need your own sustain.