top of page

DESCRIPTION

Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG known for its action-oriented combat, dynamic event system, and player-driven progression. Unlike traditional MMOs, it removes mandatory gear grinds and subscription fees, focusing on horizontal progression and strategic buildcrafting.

  • Consulted on skill design and balance across all nine classes, 36 specializations, and structured PvP.

  • Provided detailed design feedback to the balance team to refine competitive gameplay.

  • Led weekly and monthly balance discussions with developers and top-level players.

  • Authored design documents that influenced skill reworks and game balance updates.​​

DRUID

Druid was originally designed as a support specialization, but in practice, it functioned more like a DPS or tank in competitive modes. Despite this, I identified key opportunities to realign its mechanics, making Support Druid a viable choice.

Key Design Issues​​

​

  • Selfish Sustain: Most sustain-related traits in the skill tree only benefited the caster, rather than supporting allies.

  • Offensive Incentives: The specialization rewarded crowd-controlling enemies and attacking crowd-controlled players—a counterintuitive design for a support role.

  • Lack of Survivability: Druid struggled to maintain range and survive in larger fights due to weaker defensive buffs and shorter ability ranges compared to other supports.

  • Tradeoff Penalized Its Strengths: Years after launch, a balance change reduced pet stats by 20%, weakening pet synergy—one of Druid’s core mechanics.

  • Unreliable Access to Support Tools: Unlike other supports, Druid’s healing abilities were locked behind a 20-second cooldown transformation (Celestial Avatar), making it unreliable in key moments.

​

Design Goals

​

  • Encourage selfless play by shifting sustain to benefit allies.

  • Incentivize healing over offensive play.

  • Improve positioning tools to help Druid engage in support-oriented fights.

  • Increase reliability of core healing abilities.

  • Introduce a unique "healing-over-time" identity, distinguishing it from other burst-healing supports.

​

Proposed Changes

​

  • Druidic Clarity: Reduce self-only condition cleanse from 13 to 3, and apply the same cleanse to nearby allies.

  • Celestial Avatar: Reduce cooldown from 20s → 10s, making support uptime more consistent.

  • Ancient Seeds: Change pulsing root effect to a 1-second root on successful CC, improving clarity and counterplay.

  • Defensive Buffs: Introduce AoE Stability (CC immunity) and Protection (damage reduction) sources.

  • Pet Stat Tradeoff Removal: Reverse the -20% pet stat reduction, restoring pet synergy.

  • Glyph Adjustments: Increase radii of glyph abilities from 300 → 600, matching other supports.

  • Glyph Swap Mechanic: Flip glyph behavior—supportive versions become default, while offensive versions activate inside Celestial Avatar, reinforcing its support role.

  • Search and Rescue: Increase revive range from 600 → 900, bringing it in line with other support utilities.

  • Ancestral Grace: Restore evade frames to its movement skill, improving survivability.

​

Outcome

​

  • 5 out of 9 proposed changes were implemented exactly as suggested.

  • ​Support Druid became viable in PvP for the first time in 7 years.

  • Playrates increased, improving its place in the competitive meta.

MIRAGE

Mirage was designed as an elusive duelist, capable of dodging attacks without rolling and executing ambush attacks. Instead of a standard dodge roll, it used Mirage Cloak—a unique defensive mechanic that:

​

  • Lasted 0.25s longer than normal dodges.

  • Provided evasion frames without interrupting active casts.

​

However, Mirage Cloak and its associated traits disrupted the combat economy, creating an overpowered and uninteractive playstyle.


Key Design Issues​​

​

  • Invulnerability on Any Action: Mirage Cloak allowed any skill to be cast while fully protected, eliminating risk-reward balance.

  • Bypassing Defensive Counterplay: Unlike other classes, Mirages could activate Mirage Cloak while stunned, feared, or immobilized, avoiding damage without needing a stun break.

  • Universal Problem Solver: It cleansed debuffs and removed CC, allowing Mirages to counter nearly every threat at no additional cost.

  • Oppressive and Uncounterable Builds: Due to abundant endurance regeneration, Mirages could chain Mirage Cloaks repeatedly, making them:

    • Untouchable (immune to damage, CC, and debuffs).

    • Uninterruptible (key casts always succeeded).

    • Able to capture map objectives while completely invulnerable.​

​

Proposed Changes

​

  • Prevent Map Exploits: Remove the ability to capture objectives while under Mirage Cloak.

  • Reduce Duration: Lower Mirage Cloak from 1s → 0.75s to match standard dodges.

  • Elusive Mind Adjustment: Remove its free stun break on dodge, restoring risk to disengagement.

  • No More Cloaking While Crowd-Controlled: Prevent Mirage Cloak activation while stunned, feared, or immobilized, requiring proper investment in defensive abilities.

​

Timeline

​

  • 2018: Map capture exploit removed (implemented immediately).

  • 2019: Mirage Cloak duration nerfed from 1s → 0.75s.

  • 2020: Mirage lost a dodge—making it completely unplayable. The stun-break removal was also implemented.

  • 2023: After extensive advocacy, Mirage regained its second dodge, balancing its power while keeping counterplay intact.

​

Outcome

​

  • 4 out of 4 proposed changes were implemented exactly as suggested.

​

As a result of the changes, Mirage went from one of the lowest picked specializations to a meta DPS in competitive PvP, with increased playrates and a frequent draft in tournament play.

OTHER

Additional Builds, Skills, and Playstyles I Consulted On

​​

  • Bird Knight

  • Decap Druid

  • Bunker Soulbeast

  • Marksmanship Modifiers

  • Mantra Mesmer

  • Swipe

  • Aggressive Onslaught

  • And many more

bottom of page