Special note: Each State of the Game presents the opinions and insights of one game observer. These observations are personal in nature and do not reflect the opinions of ArenaNet. While ArenaNet does review each State of the Game article to assure that it offers content that is respectful of all players, we intend to allow our reporters the freedom to inject some personal opinion into descriptions of the current atmosphere of competitive play in Guild Wars, and to express views based on their experience and observation.

Casters with Heal Party run flags and help relieve pressure on the party without fear of an Assassin jumping on them. Monk backlines run Word of Healing. No, you haven’t stumbled upon another "remembering the past" article. This month, two significant skill balance updates shook up the metagame. At this rate, this article may become outdated before it even gets published! So let’s take a quick look at some of the more immediate effects on PvP: Monk Skill Bars have changed dramatically, Assassins must re-evaluate how quickly they can take down enemies, and fewer teams will ask Necromancers to substitute for Monks.

Goodbye, Light of Deliverance. Hello, Word of Healing.

Forget that the old LoD could only heal party members who were below 80% Health; this little Nightfall elite warped the competitive landscape by providing a simple solution to pressure-based offenses. In the days leading up to LoD’s nerf, teams had even begun running two copies because prolonged shutdown of the skill caused a team to collapse. Now, despite the fact that LoD can unconditionally heal all party members within range, the new two-second cast time means it no longer provides reliable party-wide healing at the flag stand or follow-up self-healing after Infuse Health because it’s an open invitation to any number of debilitating interrupts.