Mirror of Ice: functionality changed to: "For 5 seconds, plus 3 additional seconds for every rank of Energy Storage, you deal an additional 5..35 cold damage whenever you cast a Water Magic hex."

Steam: functionality changed to: "Target foe is struck for 5..50 cold damage. If target foe is on fire, Steam Blinds that foe for 5..10 seconds."

Fast Cast Mesmer/Elementalists have been used to devastating effect in PvP on numerous occasions throughout the history of Guild Wars competitive play.guild wars gold By coupling the Mesmer primary, Fast Casting, with the Elementalist's high-damage spells, players are able to work around the typically high cast times used to counterbalance the high damage of Elementalist spells. Layer on top of that the utility that Elementalists and Mesmers bring as midliners, and you have a character that is both deadly and difficult to counter. This character plays a key role in the versatile GvG builds we are trying to address with this update.

Mirror of Ice was used to further boost the damage of water spikes, which were already made more powerful by using Fast Casting to throw out multiple spike skills in quick succession.guild wars gold We've tied the duration of Mirror of Ice to Energy Storage, the Elementalist primary, so Mesmers won't be able to maintain it to create fast spikes at a moment's notice.

Steam was too good at being both a defensive skill with its Blind and a spike skill with strong damage, so we removed its conditional bonus damage to make it less valuable for spike builds.

Castigation Signet: increased recharge to 20 seconds.

Castigation Signet allowed heavily defensive characters to participate in spikes without negatively affecting their defensive roles, so we have adjusted its recharge to lower the overall damage output of this skill.

Hunter's Shot: removed 1 second cast and functionality changed to: "If this attack hits, your target bleeds for 3..25 seconds."

Melandru's Shot: functionality change to: "If this attack hits, your target bleeds for 5..25 seconds. If it hits a foe that is moving or knocked down, that foe takes +10..25 damage and is crippled for +5..15 seconds."

Keen Arrow: decreased conditional damage to 5..25.

Hunter's Shot has been far too effective at both spiking and quickly spreading multiple conditions, so we've reworked the skill into a simple condition spreader. Rangers can use this to stack with poison or cover up other, more impactful conditions like Cripple or Daze.guild wars gold In conjunction with the Hunter's Shot rework, we've adjusted Melandru's Shot to function as an Elite version of Hunter's shot. It applies the same basic Bleed, but it can also do spike damage and Cripple foes under specific criteria.

Keen Arrow was providing too much damage on a critical hit, making Rangers a key part of overpowered spike builds, so this skill's conditional damage was reduced.