This change is now the third major “balance” change which completely gutted unrelated builds.
Nerfs to “bunker” eles have kicked unrelated glass cannon and PVE auramancer support builds in the groin.
Before that, mesmers lost the ability to provide might batteries to the group because of a completely unrelated bug that caused 200% shatter damage to a subset of exploiters, because ANet was too impatient to “wait and see” (and before that, mesmers were crippled by extra penalties which prevented them summoning pets while blind – even though half the phantasms are purely defensive)
Before that, the symbol support builds for guardian greatsword were gutted by a doubling of symbol of wrath cooldown. The target, perma-retal, was missed wide when this build was made extinct.
Is the game still fun to play right now, YES, but after 15 minutes, it becomes hard to do so, because I become acutely aware of the inevitability of ANet taking it away because of some unrelated build, because their balance team is apparently incapable of nuance and proper trait targeting.
Given it’s management who usually make these decisions, It’s not surprising given the glassdoor ratings for the company. Dysfunction within leads to dysfunctional results to the customer base.
I’ve filed for my refund, I hope ANet learns from me, because I can generally take a pretty heavy beating as a customer before moving on.
