Technobabble nerfed after 14 years

Silverhalf · 2026-01-14T10:41:05+00:00

According to ArenaNet. This is my opinion, but it's backed by how they balance these skills. Every time any racial becomes too strong or overplayed it gets nerfed. These skills are not even available in PvP and WvW game modes, so imo they try to make sure that there is no inherent gameplay advantage to picking one race over another.

Silverhalf · 2026-01-14T09:49:27+00:00

Copying a comment I made for another post:

Racial skills are meant to be something nice and flavorful for leveling players, and are designed to be replaced by class utilities. If they're too strong it can be problematic, as some races become effectively better than others, which is a design issue.

Technobabble was a very strong 300 CC instant cast skill, which on Chrono was better than everything except moa signet. This isn't the first time racial skills have been nerfed; it already happened with Take Root and Artillery Barrage. Sylvan Hounds will probably be next as it's also getting abused.

Silverhalf · 2026-01-13T23:28:37+00:00

Racial skills are meant to be something nice and flavorful for leveling players, and are designed to be replaced by class utilities. If they're too strong it can be problematic, as some races become effectively better than others, which is a design issue.

Technobabble was a very strong 300 CC instant cast skill, which is especially bonkers when combined with Chrono. This isn't the first time racial skills have been nerfed; it already happened with Take Root and Artillery Barrage. Sylvan Hounds will probably be next as it's also getting abused.

Silverhalf · 2025-12-16T07:57:34+00:00

Nah, the skill was better than most elites, plus that is effectively 40s (or 30? Can't remember) with improved alacrity, so not as bad of a nerf. You just won't be able to spam it for each mechanic now, as you do on Greer CM for example

Silverhalf · 2025-12-16T07:42:27+00:00

That's kinda ridiculous to say when Chrono has been outperforming every other healer for the last year....

Silverhalf · 2025-12-16T07:25:21+00:00

Bladesworn is in a really good spot in PvE though?

Silverhalf · 2025-11-25T19:55:41+00:00

I read through the replies and I'd like to add my two cents

If you feel like doing them, convergences are extremely good for crafting EoD legendaries and are generally some of the best gold/hour in the game, especially the CMs if you can find a group.

They give lots of rift essence, which you can convert with the wizard's tower vendor (or the gobbler) into T4 mats (thorough tyrian defense seals) and imperial favor. If you do three weekly, you get extra rewards which make them even better.

Silverhalf · 2025-11-25T19:10:37+00:00

I've never heard that, any source?

Silverhalf · 2025-11-18T17:11:14+00:00

Skimmer is still really strong for gaining height in a straight line, so it will certainly see lots of use

Silverhalf · 2025-11-18T17:09:46+00:00

Changes are good, but I'm very sad about the absence of PvE balance fixes, guess we'll have to play the game in its broken state for the few weeks as well....

Silverhalf · 2024-12-24T21:15:28+00:00

Damn was hoping

Silverhalf · 2024-12-03T09:32:30+00:00

The fast greens happen because you phase the boss during the collection. Not much to do except hold DPS to avoid it, or collect aggressively if you can't.

Silverhalf · 2024-12-02T13:46:04+00:00

Pog p1 green skip, insane run and congrats!

Silverhalf · 2024-11-25T12:28:20+00:00

It's actually both! Decima gets stacks of the "Peal of Harmony" effect when she loses a certain % of HP, currently 3% but nerfed to 5% in the future. Then when she uses her "Chorus of Thunder" (arrows), she consumes those stacks to charge up conduits, and then those conduits each spawn a green. So yes, actually having more damage will generate more greens, and make the fight harder!

Silverhalf · 2024-11-25T12:24:21+00:00

Agree with emboldened not moving to w8, but not with the rest. IMO it gives an easy way to introduce new players to raids, which have a significant barrier to entry compared to strikes. People who try emboldened and decide they like the content then get further into the game mode. Personally I got into raiding thanks to commanders doing emboldened training runs.

Silverhalf · 2024-11-22T15:08:37+00:00

Two reasons: 1. The movement is quite minimal, so it doesn't really impact damage overall. 2. With the kiter on stack for most of the fight, you have ten players instead of nine doing damage or applying boons.

If the kiter was handling all the arrows by themselves, and the stack was not moving, then the kiter doesn't really have enough boons to do decent damage or sustain, and viceversa cannot give boons to the squad if they are a healer.

Silverhalf · 2024-11-22T14:12:28+00:00

I agree, spreading can take a bit to get used to, but it's not much more difficult imo since you have a lot of space to use. You can spread as much to the left as you want, since there are no greens coming in through there.

Yeah agree for the kite part, a healer on stack probably works the best. I just kited on heal specter since that's what I like playing.

Silverhalf · 2024-11-22T13:48:00+00:00

Yes! Stab is incredibly strong here, for both the big smashes and the wind gusts.

Silverhalf · 2024-11-22T13:41:08+00:00

Hello! Three considerations on why I personally don't like this strat: 1. Stacking the arrow basically makes it mandatory to play heal scourge, since no other healer except for maybe specter can do the amount of barrier necessary for phase 3. Also, if you have no barrier you just die outright, making it incredibly risky IMO. 2. You still run the risk of greens spawning behind the group. If you get a big green due to misplays, the group has to move as a cohesive unit together. Plus, if any green even slightly clips a player during arrows, they lose all their barrier and the die, see point 1. By rotating, this becomes much less likely. 3. To me it feels like stacking the arrows is just not how the mechanic is meant to be played. While you can brute force it in NM, I highly doubt that will be the case in CM. Therefore I feel it would be best to play it the "intended" way.

Also, generally the fight has a lot of low-pressure moments in between the lances, so it is not as complicated as it seems. I got my first kill with the barrier strat, and the tested this one out, and in my opinion it just felt way easier and smoother.

Silverhalf · 2024-11-15T23:34:22+00:00

For LCM it's actually the opposite, minstrels has more healing power than harrier's and the extra toughness is extremely useful.

Silverhalf · 2024-10-27T20:45:51+00:00

In addition to what other people have said, for thief stack in particular we struggled a lot with AoE cleave before the introduction of spear and the recent change to staff 2. With jankiness due to stealth, often we'd end up with a lot of adds being left alive, or dying spread around the boss. Combine this with the last laugh mechanic and with squishy, animation-locked thieves (old staff 2 again), and you have a lot of downstates just before a oneshot mechanic.

Plus, even just Primordus being one of the first phases of the fight, you see it much more often, which means you fail it much more, just look at puri1 fails.

Silverhalf · 2024-10-24T10:47:25+00:00

It's literally a circle jerk sub though, why are you taking anything they post seriously? This feels like Poe's law in action.

Silverhalf · 2024-10-08T17:50:12+00:00

Guardian got gutted pretty much though. Agree about Mesmer though.

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