Skill balance is a core concept of Guild Wars as well as an on-going procedure that ArenaNet performs to keep the game of Guild Wars about player skill.
Skill balance means that no skill (or combination of skills) is overpowered in the game in a way that makes that skill or set of skills unstoppable. Every skill will offer the player advantages, but will also suffer from disadvantages that prevent it from defeating other players by itself. Instead, the player will always have to think of ways to make the skill (or set of skills) work. In contrast, others faced with this combination of skills, can always find a way to counter it if they spend enough time studying the combo.
In some cases, if ArenaNet notes that few people are using a skill, they sometimes re-design it in such a way as to, ideally, make it more useful to encourage people to utilize it. This can sometimes be controversial, since it can "break" the connection of the skill with its name, and/or effectively neutralize the "one lone use" anyone actually has found for it and actually make it even less useful. An example of the latter was the alteration to the skill Defiant Was Xinrae which used to neutralize an attack form for all nearby foes, making it useful for, if nothing else, doing Secret Lair of the Snowmen. It would briefly neutralize the Snowmen's snowball attacks, leaving them without an attack. After the alteration, it no longer did this, and a common perception was that it went from limited use to no use at all. In addition, controversy can also come because such alteration can cause a long-working and effective build (but presumably one not widely known) to stop working, requiring a player's character to need redesigning, sometimes substantially.
Rebalancing[ | ]
Changes to skill balance are done by ArenaNet on a regular basis through game updates. Major updates are done after the end of a tournament season but updates may occur at any time. Skills that are deemed too powerful are toned down, sometimes called nerfing, while skills that are deemed not powerful enough are given a boost, sometimes called buffing.
It is believed that ArenaNet observes high-level GvG and HA games to determine whether or not a skill or build is too powerful. They may also collect data from their servers about which skills players equip or use most and least frequently.
Notable skill balances[ | ]
- August 25 2005: The first skill balance, dealing with Chain Lightning spike teams, spirit spam Rangers, and Protective Bond Underworld solo Monks.
- September 29 2005: Dealing with Ether Renewal Elementalist smiters and some aspects of Ranger spike.
- March 2 2006: Dealing with secondary profession energy management and IWAY Warrior builds.
- April 26 2006: Dealing with balancing existing skills with new Guild Wars Factions skills and professions.
- June 1 2006: Dealing with rebalancing new Guild Wars Factions skills and professions.
- July 13 2006: Dealing with Air of Enchantment Smiters, Fast Casting Mesmer-Elementalist spikes, and Feast of Corruption spikes.
- September 14 2006: Second major skill balance for the Factions professions.
- October 25 2006: Dealing with balancing existing skills with new Guild Wars Nightfall skills and professions.
- November 30 2006: Dealing with high-defense Paragon teams.
- January 19 2007: Major balance dealing with rebalancing new Guild Wars Nightfall skills and professions.
- February 1 2007: Second major balance dealing with rebalancing new Guild Wars Nightfall skills and professions.
- February 9 2007: Dealing again with high-defense Paragon teams.
- April 5 2007: Major skill balance dealing with Soul Reaping and passive defense.
- March 6 2008: Removed long aftercast from PBAoEs and functionally changed several skills.