Greetings, Wayfinders. My name is Taylor "Trig" Brooks, and I am a combat designer here at ArenaNet. We ran a beta event in June for the new Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ combat feature: land spear proficiency. Today, I'll go over the feedback we saw about the spears and the changes you can expect to see when the weapons are released this August. This blog will outline what we feel are the most impactful changes at a broad level; the full list of changes will be detailed in the expansion release notes.
Elementalist
Spear-wielding elementalists sought to harness the power of natural disasters to bring calamity to their enemies. It is the most visually ambitious weapon we have created, and we couldn't be prouder of the Art Team's work. However, in the beta, the damage wasn't as impressive as the visuals were. We agree with the feedback that the weapon's power level landed too low, and you can expect to see damage increases for all game modes, especially for the capstone etching skills.
Alongside damage enhancements, we'll be making the following quality-of-life adjustments to the weapon. Etching durations will be increased by a few seconds, while Ripple's distance is now controllable through a ground target. Seethe and Energize will not affect autoattacks, and the visual noise of etchings has been reduced. We've also added a strike-damage component to Fulgor and rebalanced some of its effectiveness away from the damage over time in PvE for a more immediate effect. We're hoping these changes result in a smoother experience with greater impact.
Necromancer
Necromancers aim to execute their foes with both spear and soul shards. With a gameplay loop of building and spending these soul shards, we saw that the shard economy was too dominated by Isolate and Distress. We are increasing soul shard generation outside of the fourth spear skill, and soul shard duration will now be refreshed when you gain more shards. With those changes and a lowering of the threshold needed to immobilize with Addle, we are hoping the weapon has a more consistent power level and doesn't feel as weak when you miss Isolate. Additionally, Extirpate will now generate life force as well, to help you follow up on its big hit.
Mesmer
Mesmer spear provided a unique gameplay pattern, and we were happy to see it find use in many places. The beta event gave us clarity about how we could make the weapon feel even better. The largest problem we got feedback on was that the weapon's performance varied a lot depending on whether you had Clarity. Clarity will now be gained by hitting Mind the Gap, regardless of whether it was an outer-edge hit. But that outer edge will still be important! We're updating the visual to better outline where that hitbox is, and the skill will still deal increased damage as well as a guaranteed critical hit on the outer edge.
Imaginary Inversion is also seeing a shift in how the skill functions. To help the consistency of the tools it brings, it will now always clear conditions from you at the start of casting, with no Clarity required. It will also heal you if you evade an attack, even if you don't land the attack portion. Clarity will now increase this healing.
The final large change to the weapon concerns its phantasms. We saw in the beta that the lancers routinely got outplayed by terrain, whether that was a cliff or a small pebble. The lancers have taken a more vertical approach to their attack, and they will now jump in the air and launch a spear at their target instead. This spear will damage an area on impact, a much more reliable follow-up for the mesmer.
Thief
Thief spear endeavored to bring the skill-chaining mechanic used by assassins in the original Guild Wars® into the modern game. We were pleased to see how it turned out, but we found that it could use some polish. We will be changing a rule for how the skill chains progress; the chain will now always progress when you use a skill instead of relying on hitting a target. This aims to help the weapon feel smoother with the skill queueing system and enhance its reliability in competitive modes. The weapon ended strong in PvE, so there will be some unsurprising downward adjustments to its damage output. Its finishing skills and stealth skill will have their target cap raised to help thief spear's identity as a cleaving weapon.
Ranger
Much like elementalist spear, ranger spear had a strong narrative theming, but it didn't quite follow through fully in the game. Some of its skills, like its stealth skills and Bee's Sting, lacked the damage needed to make it a competitive option against other ranger weapons.
Additionally, due to the popularity of traps and other pulsing damage skills, it was hard to weave in and out of stealth and complete your attack before you were revealed. To remedy this, Panther's Prowl will now grant Hunter's Prowess for a short duration. Hunter's Prowess will allow you to use your next stealth skill even if you were revealed.
Another issue was Panther's Prowl and Spider's Web sharing a cooldown. This was consistent with the rest of the weapon's skills, but it made the opportunity cost for using Spider's Web too large. We'll be separating their cooldowns so that using Spider's Web feels good and you don't have to worry about wasting a charge of stealth.
Engineer
Engineer spear surged onto the scene, finding a home mainly in condition-based builds in PvE. It sported competitive numbers but was still rough around the edges in places. Keeping track of who was focused and for how long wasn't an easy task, so we'll be adding a visual aura to your focused target. We'll also be adding an effect to the player when they have a focused target, making it easier to determine how long the mark will persist. Some casting times were also a bit slow; they'll be sped up to help the weapon feel smooth. Lastly, Devastator will see speed increases, a range increase, and a significant reduction in its aftercast.
Revenant
Revenant spear aimed to be a heavy weapon that built up strength, culminating in powerful damage. However, in the beta we saw that this weight was unwieldy and its punches lacked impact. Casting times are being decreased across many skills, and we are increasing the condition variety of the skills to help its damage stick.
Crushing Abyss's maximum stacks has been reduced from 5 to 3, making the weapon reach its maximum potential a lot faster. Abyssal Blot will now pull immediately, helping the weapon set itself up better. The result of these changes is a more fluid weapon with more tools to secure its damage.
Guardian
Guardian spear shone brightly in WvW, especially in large-scale fights. Spear's biggest pain point was how its second skill functioned. Pressing the key again to stop early felt awkward and had a few bugs. Helio Rush is seeing an update similar to the elementalist's Ripple: it is now a ground target, and you will stop when reaching the target location. Its tool kit is getting some updates, like improvements to its self-healing and healing on Solar Storm, and Symbol of Luminance will now always apply resistance to allies once.
Warrior
Spear on warrior was met with mixed reception. It was a strong option in PvP but didn't stand out in other places. Its range threshold mechanic also didn't garner a warm welcome. Warrior spear will be updated to feature a new mechanic.
We want to emphasize the force the warrior is launching their spears with, but in a different way. Instead of effectiveness varying by distance, skills will now do more damage to the first target struck. Spear Swipe will get some updates to its functionality, such as a cooldown refund if you evade an attack with it. The most important note is that the spearmarshal has been sent back to remedial javelin school, as Spearmarshal's Support has been improved and will now track the target better.
Well, that wraps things up for the high-level changes coming to spears when they launch with Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. For the exact numbers and smaller changes, be sure to check out the official release notes when the expansion is live on August 20.
Until next time, I'll see you in the Mists!