[Update #2]: Guild Wars 2's late November update rebalanced many underperforming classes with endgame PvE and PvP in mind, and this includes the Power Reaper!

[Update]: It took a while, but Guild Wars 2 has now been unleashed onto Steam alongside a massive update.

Even though the June 2022 balance update turned out to be a bit of a disaster since it buffed up the overpowered classes and buried the ones that were already struggling, it might just end up being the best thing that happened to Guild Wars 2 in recent years. Because of the strong community reaction to the changes ArenaNet has already spent a fair bit of effort in bringing underperforming classes back up to par, and they aren't showing any signs of slowing down!

Last time around they reworked the Warrior's worrisome banners and buffed the Mesmer's mediocre Chronomancer specialization, and with the upcoming August 23rd update they're looking to ramp things up even further. This time instead of simply fixing a couple of issues, the update will bring in a massive array of tweaks to many of the long-forgotten builds and specializations!

The main goal behind this round of changes is to somewhat equalize the damage potential between power (direct damage) and condition (damage over time) builds and make it so every class access to both. And considering how dominant condition-based builds have been over the past few years, it should come as little surprise to hear that this means an absolute ton of buffs to fan-favorite specializations like Reaper, Daredevil, Deadeye, Scrapper, and so forth.

There are far too many changes for me to even attempt to summarize, so if you're interested in what exactly is coming in the near future, you'll find what you seek over at the Guild Wars 2 website.

As for the more distant future, you'll be happy to hear that ArenaNet is looking to address the Firebrand and Mechanist dominance in the support role. The August 23rd update will add some small tweaks that will give other specializations like Druids and Weavers a chance to compete, while future update will focus on this issue more extensively.

Have fun brainstorming new builds, and I'll make sure to let you know once the update arrives or ArenaNet announces anything exciting.