Guild Wars 2

I really hate the actual situation. Different stat combinations need to be obtained in different ways, I cannot find Berserkerstats in AC, I cannot find cleric stats anywhere besides the AH and some statcombinations do not only exist. Furthermore, the actual system is interesting, but far to complex to be fun, especially for players, that dont want to play always the same builds and that wont reduce their actions to one playsryle. So here a far easyier system, I have no hope for t, but I cannot now.

My problem are things, that will not work out: Runes with +bleed duration on a armor with condition damage becomes worthless, if you switch to a weapon, that does not inflict bleeding, on-critical-hit sigils are worthless without precision…) My idea for stats, I make them for ascended gear, after all changing the existing gear would be to much trouble.

No stat tripple anymore!
It would be far easyer to find your perfect armor, if you had to collect first only one armor. These would be: Power, Thoughness or Vitality, only 3 types. Furthermore exist precise, defensive and condition infusions, increasing the types to 9. The armor would look the fallowing way (The numbers are only an example):

• 100 Power, … armor infusion slot, rune slot or
• 100 Vitality, … armor infusion slot, rune slot or
• 100 Thoughness, … armor infusion slot, rune slot or
• 100 Condition Damage, … armor infusion slot, rune slot

Weapons would have even less choices. I mean you deal damage with them. So you can choose between Precision, Condition Damage and Power:

• 100 …, weapon infusion slot, two sigil slots for two-hand weapons or
• 50 …, weapon infusion slot, one sigil slot for a one-handed weapon

The actual ascended weapons can stay, like they are, they wouldnt effect my idea too strong. Only the infusions, there should be a new ascended infusion, that works like my ideas below.

Armor Infusions
One the one side yu can use the same infusions like now, but only with a rareness on exotic or less. Ascended infusions have a type, one for armors, one for weapons and one for the rest. These let you create the weapons you want. Of course, they also give the resistance. Precise armor infusions are:

• 100 Precision and 5% Critical Damage
• 100 Precision and 5% Condition Duration
• 100 Precision and 50 Condition Damage
• 100 Precision and 50 Healing Power
• 100 Precision and 50 Vitality
• 100 Precision and 50 Thoughness.
• 100 Precision and 5 MF

You see, now you decide from the start, if you want a build with precision or not! Condition armor infusions are:

• 100 Condition Damage and 5% Critical Damage
• 100 Condition Damage and 5% Condition Duration
• 100 Condition Damage and 50 Precision
• 100 Condition Damage and 50 Healing Power
• 100 Condition Damage and 50 Vitality
• 100 Condition Damage and 50 Thoughness
• 100 Condition Damage and 5 MF

May the ground armor is easier to obtain, but to find the right infusion will still be a lot of work. Defensive infusions are:

• 100 Vitality and 50 Power
• 100 Thoughness and 50 Power
• 75 Thoughness and 75 Vitality
• 100 Healing Power and 50 Power
• 75 Healing Power and 75 Vitality
• 75 Healing Power and 75 Thoughness
• 100 Healing Power and 5% Boon Duration.

Weapon infusions and new ascended infusions for trinkets
They are devided into defensive, offensive and omni, all of them give the resistence.

• Defensive are: +Thoughness, +Vitality or +Healing Power
• Offensive are: +Power, +Condition Damage or +Precision
• Omni are: +Karma, +EP, +MF or +Gold

New Sigils and new Runes
You can use exotic runes on your armor, but there will be new ascended runes (for lvl 80). Ascended runes work all alone and have not a 6/6 system (celestial runes will be changed to ascended runes). There are 4 types of runes:

• Increased Condition Duration (only one condition, for example +10% burning duration for an +60% buff with 6 of these runes).
• Increased attributes, here exist the old types like berserker, cleric… celestials are also these.
• Increased Boon Duration (only one boon, for example +10% fury duration for an +60% buff with 6 of these runes).
• -Chance for an effect on criticals, for example the 10 chance to inflict a bleeding with a 60% chance with 6 Runes.

Also there are new ascended sigils, there are three types:

• effect on foes death (endurance, a boon, healing, …, more types than actual),
• stack on foes death (now also Thoughness), they are a buffed version of the actual line and go up to 30 stacks
• effect on weapon switch, most likely only changed formally from exotic to ascended
• effect on each … attack (for example bleed foe with each 20th attack, gain quickness with each 150th)

Big Change for actual Sigils and Runes
For exotic Sigils exist the fallowing types now:

• +5% damage or +X% damage against a type of foe
• +5% Chance to hit critical or or +X% Chance a type of foe.
• effects on death are changed to ascended sigils
• stacks on death have a new ascended version, but the exotic version still exists
• effects on swao hav a new ascended version or are changed to ascended sigils
• sigils, that increase condition duration, are changed to ascended runes
• sigils, that hace effect on critical hits, are changes to ascended runes

This way a few problems are solved: Swap weapons and critical weapons cannot be combined, cause their CD hinders each other, the new “on each … attack” has not such a CD. Also are critical sigils a problem without precision. If all may weapons wotk with critical hits and i change from my Precision armor to a no Precision armor and a no precision build, these sigils are useless… Furthermore finally two sigils per weaponset. Runes of course also need to be changed: Only 2/2 runes now in PvE. I mean you most likely want only one effect anyway, for example all boons on elite skill use with lyssa. There are now only a few types:

• Effects on hit: Increase … Duration (1); Chance to gain/inflict … on hit. (2) one rune for each condition and each type
• Effects on heal skills: +50 Healing Power (1); … happens, if you use a Healing skills (2).
• Effects on elite skills: +50 … (1); … happens, if you use a Elite Skill (2).
• Other effects (like fire Aura) +50 … (1); gain a fire aura on… (2).

Only give a new buyable item in the AH, that removes upgrades without distroying them and send all players one for free on this update and noone should cry around.

I wrote this already somwhere else, but I feel a need to explain this again. I really believe, that celestial stats (they are called so, right?) will destroy the games armor stats. Why?, cause there are many players like me, that go not full on a stat but mix their stats, but the only advantage of non-celestial-stats is, that they have few attributes far higher than otheres, but this didnt work anymore at the point, where the stats are mixed…
An easy and not complete correct example to show the problem (Each letter is an attribute, G is Critical Damage):
celestial stats: A150, B150, C150, D150, E150, F150, G15 = 900 + 15
mixed stats: A300, B200, C200 = 700
or: A200, B150, C100, D50, E50, F100, G5 = 650 +5
or: A300, B200, G20 = 500 + 20
You see, celestial gives the most stats, so anyone wants them. Completly mixed stats are more or less like weak celestial stats, so noone wants them. Pure Defensive stats let you life longer than celestial stats, but fights last forever, cause you deal no damage, noone wants that. Pure Damage kills foes faster and cause foes are killed so fast, that even the lack of defensive can be ignored, so anyone wants them

Celestial vs. non mixed stats: (same stats on armor, weapons and accessoures+rings+trinket+back)
Celestial stats buff everything. You have healing power, thoughness and vitality with celestial equipment, that is more than enough defensive stats. Furthermore you have Power, Precision, Critical Damage and Condition Damage, so you also do damage. biggest disadvantage: the precision may is not enough for a precision builds and condition damage is not needed in any build.
Power stats are great for dealing damage. Power, Thoughness and Vitality are good stats to deal high damage and have also a high defensive. Power, Precision and Critical Damage lack defensive stats, but the massive damage is worth it. If a player goes down a lot, you first are annoyed about them using berserker stuffs, but in a real group of berserks, the foes die so kitten fast, that you can ignore going down more often.
Precision stats are more or less the same, used to deal massive damage, the biggest difference should be, that you use effects working on critical hits. Cause these effects are often a condition dealing Condition Damage, Precision, Power+Condition Damage is a good armor.
Healing Power stats are nice for support builds, but there is no healer in GW2 and the increased healing is a less useful support compared with killing the foe faster, so a no for healing power equipment.
Vitality and Thoughness stats are a nice way to increase your defensive, but i really think, that Power, Thoughness and Vitality are enough defensive. There are no tanks in GW2, so there is no need to try to be one.
Critical Damage is only useful with enough precision, furthermore celestial stats give nearly the same amount of additional critical damage but furthermore other stats.
Condition Damage stats are an alternate to direct Damage, but have the big disadvantage, that there is a maximum of 25 stacks of bleeding and even if you can hold up burning or poison endless on the foe, direct Damage would be better, if there are already other Players inflicting conditions. I mean, Poison and Confusion are may a bit harder to hold up, but there are not many builds with spamming these conditions (25stacks confusion are rare even with many mesmers) and one ele is enough for endless burning and there are also professions, that can hold up 25 stacks of bleeding alone. So Condition Damage is good for a condition build, but even only switching weapons can destroy such a build…
To sum it up, more or less I see only two high effective stats for any situation: Celestial or Berserk. The third useful stats would be around Condition Damage, but these are not effective in any situation.

Celestial vs. mixed stats
Mixed stats can be better than celestial stats, if still one attribute is increased a lot (for example Power, Thoughness and Vitality; Power, Vitality and Critical Damage; Power, Precision and Critical Damage), or if a maximum of 4 stats is buffed (for example Precision, Power and Condition Damage; Condition Damage, Thoughness and Precision).
+Mixed stats are not better than celestial stats, if they are totally mixed up. Totally mixed up stats may have some stats, that are sightly higher, but alone the far higher amount of additional statpoints make celestial stats the better choice.

Why mixed stats?
You not always get averything with the same stats Dungeon armor dont has all stat combinations, some certain weapons (loot found or skins buyed) also exist with certain stats and furthermore some stats are harder to obtain.
Some sets are mixed up from the start Best example are the karma sets.
Multiple sets can be useful, for example should you have a glass cannon armor and a more defensive armor. Glass cannons do wonderful amounts of damage, but they still are glass cannons after all. Furthermore, you can compensate missing stats like this. Also weapons with different stats are useful, condition damage stats are useful on a weapon, that inflicts a high amount of bleeding. Healing Power stats are great to use your heal skills. Defensive stats are great for selfprotection.
Cause defensive stats exists Players use defensive stats and mix them up with their offensive stats to life longer (remember, there are players, that have problems with dungeons, of course these need a higher defensive)

So what?
Pls no celestial weapons and armor! Damage is the most important to do, it kills the foe faster and so you need less time. All stats useless for Damage maybe let you life longer, but also the foe lifes longer, so defensive stats should never be your main stats. This means, these stats are only effective, if mixed, but in the moment celestial stats come out, all mixed armors including non mixed with defensive stats are bad compared to these ne equipment. Look only at the actual runes. The most expensive ones are the ones, that deal much damage, but the absolutly most expensive one is the celestial rune. I mean, of course, also the other stats do something, but they are not, what we want. After all, CoF is a great way to get your offensive stats and the laurel-merchant a easy way to get celestial stas, but it is obviouly, that we want offensive/celestial stats like you can see in the AH more than obvious! So pls never add celestial weapons and armor, otherwise noone will aim for your non offensive equipment anymore, which is already now unloved.

Hmm, i will give some additional feedback.

Some Feedback and a few suggestions. This is only about PvE, I dont play anything else and dont have time for anything else^^.

Regeneration/Burn/Poison Duration
Takes effect after each whole second, I dont like the powerless 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4 seconds.

Bleed Duration
Horrible. After these stack intensety, 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4 seconds are always useless, furthermore the left time hinders new stacks to be inflictes. Maybe save the quarterseconds on the foe for the time it bleeds and inflicht one 1s stack, if four quarters are saved on the foe.

Environmental weapon
Here you failed. They maybe are funny, but I seldom see any really weapons (environmental weapons with 5 skills), most WvW-things cannot be used in PvE and the standard weapons lying around… less damage than your weapon, often melee range and short use (one use or breakeable weapons) and even the better effects like knock down cannot ignore the unmoveable second I need to grab them. Really, the only environmental weapons I use are summoned ones.

Warrior Mechanic
Adrenaline is build up fast, you have strong adrenaline skills and traits to buff you with full adrenaline. Maybe a bit boring, but easy to handle and works nice. Only add a 25% increased movement signet or something similiar…

Guardian Mechanic
The passive 1s burn is a bit problematic, cause you will only burn with each 5th attack. The chance, that your burn runs out before you burn the second time will make your increased condition duration useless for the 1s and after the guardian is not so much of a condition-spam, the use of condition duration is anyway not so usefull. Also would it be great, if the passive effect of giving Aegis would give a small chance to block instead, making Aegis gained by any other source more useful. I do not really use guardian weapons, but I think an endless life without regeneration and the chance to finish them off would be more appealing (or at least an effect symbol to show the remaining time). Furthermore the symbol traits of the first traitline… not all weapons create symbols, use a wand and a sword or go underwater and the 5th trait symbol is the only symbol created, making the 15th and 25th trait rather useless. F4 is lwft, give us a 4th virtue

Ele Mechanic
I wrote already a lot about Ele, short form, I hate, that not all elements are buffed in the same way (each traitline buffs only one element), furthermore, that there are always both kinds of effects, buffing one attribute (staying in the attunement is good) and buffging attuning (the opposite is good).

Necromancer Mechanic
A slow attack with long cast time, a slow attack with a port to your foe, a 1s instant fear and a good AoE. OK, the skills are not too bad, but i dislike the first skill (long cast, easy to avoid), the port of the second and the life force runs out to fast. There are really great Death shroud builds with the traits of the last traitline, but without, I only use Death Shroud to be invulnerable (which ends fast), to fear a foe sometimes and most often to use the AoE, if I stand in foes group. Something like a trait (outside the last traitline) or a skill, that uses the life force bar would make the mechanic more interesting. I mean, F2, F3 and F4 need some love.

Ranger Mechanic
I really like the Ranger, but sometimes my pet annoyes me. It acts not always like I would wish for it to do, It rather runs always after the foe I do attack than after the one I targeted for it and it is really annoying, that I have no 1200 range pets (TA, fw/up, my pet is deactivated, so I can attack). Also, if my idiotic pet dies and I have the 40s recharge time, I am pretty useless. Ahh, I nearly forgot, I hate to use the environmental weapons of pigs. And the Markmanship trait… One critical + vulnerability for you and your pet, OK, in normal PvE usefull, you can often fight foes one after another, but against groups and bosses? It is more ore less ONE strong Extra attack for you and your pet without needing Extra timee, but so longer the fight lasts, so more useless is it. I mean, look at the Mesmer. Vulnerability on Interrupt, Vulnerability on daze and 5% damage against inactive foes, use tripple daze against bosses and single foes and you have most likely already effects equal to the rangers, but you can daze and interrupt bosses more than once (they life long) and hane area-interrups against group of foes. Marmanship-minor-traits without the 30 trait (and even with it, i dont love them) are my most disliked traits in the game.
Furthermore some more abilities would be fun: F1 targets the foe and pet attacks target to the point you are out of range, it dies or you call it back. F1 has a short recharge time maybe 15s or so and gives your pet a short buff. F2 is now dependend on the type you choose for your pet (I explain this later), and F3 calls your pet back, has a CD, making it passive and granting regeneration (not the boon, pet will gain weaker identical effect, if defeated) and a boon to it. It stops to be passive, after you left the fight or after you target the next foe for it or it is healed. F$ switches your pet. Now, you can choose a training in the pet menu: Speed Training, Protection Training and … Training. Speed Training grants your pet might with F1 and if you dont target a foe, your pet attacks your target. F2 is your typical pet skill, but using it will not change the foes target anymore. F3 grants your pet Swiftness. Protection Training let your foe stay at your side, it will attack foes next to you, but will not run after them. Yor pet will only run after targeted foes and comes back after targets death. Your pet uses its Skill automatical and F2 calls your pet back to lick and heal you. F3 grants your pet protection. … Training is the long awaited no-pet-ranger. Here the ranger has no pet, but F2 and F3 can summon your pets for a limited amount of time. F1 summons a bird swarm or an elite pet (phoenix like in GW1 factions, no idea, can alo be choosen in pet menu). While summoned, their summonskill is replaced by their pet skill. F4 calls your summones pets back, reducing the CD.

Mesmer Mechanic
Problem one: Clones and Shatters work great together, Phantasms not. Shatters are great and especially from bigger use than letting your foes die, but phantasms do better damage than your shatters, grant massive regeneration to nearby allies (if they stand near to each other) and you can buff yourself for each living illusion. But this is nothing really problematic, Problem two: Illusions use not all your attributes. Many boons and conditions inflicted through traits and/or illusions are nor affected by Condition Duration ór Boon Duration, that should be changed. Also Vitality should effect illusions health, of course not 1:1. And interrupts… Interruptbuilds are so useless against bosses, really, and although you said you dont want an real interrupter, groups can already work well together for interrupting, but this needs fast team communication, hard for TS-haters like me. So why not give the Mesmer more interrupt skills, that also would make interruppt traits more useful. Also a 25% faster movement signet would be great.

Engeener Mechanic
I am annoyed, that there are unique tool-belt skills for each racial skill, cause that means me being unable to use 11 skills with only an Asuran Engeener. The normal weapons are a bit weak against the kits sometimes. Not so used to play Ebgeener so far.

Thief Mechanic
Initiative is great, but stealing… The trait effects are nice, but the stolen stuff is rather only a funny bonus and to shadow step into melee is not always, what I want. Alternate Skills “F1 to F4” would be fun, they should go on a shorter (not on a full) recharge to make the use more intelligent. There could be a skill to transfer your conditions to the foe or to steal boons or a shadow step with time limitation or a only theoretical step, that steals a ranged environmental weapon.

Anti-Mechanic-Mechanic
How about a skill to hinder the profession mechanics? Of course not in PvE. Like Thiefs and Warriors have no normal initiative/adrenaline regeneration (other sources like skills and traits still give some) and Eles/Mesmers cannot attune/create illusions. Or maybe a field instead of a condition and maybe through an environmental weapon.

Hey, there, you really brought a few nice things with the new update, but I am a bit unhappy about the ele and the mesmer. Also I am still unhappy about a few things not done well yet.

The new/buffed mesmer traits are really nice, but doesnt you oversee one trait? 30 Domination, 50%-chance to inflict stun instead of daze. Which skills of the mesmer can daze? Diversion, the staff randomely, the Mantra, these are the most effective daze-inflicter. Stun does not only hinder skill use, it also hinders you to move. I can imagine, how this helps especially in PvP and WvW a lot, but in PvE. I will show you my Interrupt and daze builds, compare them and think about them:

First: Daze: 15,20,00,05,30 Daze inflicts invulnerability, Diversion in my mainsource, through dodging i can create clones without problems to shatter and I can choose between Imbued Diversion for AoE Interrupt and massive AoE Vulnerability and Illusionary Persona for one additional daze and additional vulnerabilitystacks against target foe. You see, this is a shatterbuild, not an interruptbuild. I think, this build is far more effective than the dazestun.
Second: Daze: 30,30,00,10,00 Daze inflicts invulnerability, Diversion is a good source, but this is a Mantrabuild and I have 1 additional charge, heals remove a condition and I use the dazemantra and the healmantra. If I go a bit more into interruptions, I will deal damage and gain quickness on interrupt. After the Mantra is less useful without the additional charge and Diversion has its maximum recharge of kitten , I dont think, that the dazestun is an worthy alternate.
Third: Interrupt: 20,00,30,20,00 This is an Interruptbuild, Interrupts make foes vulnerable and immobile + one more condition, grant you might + one more boon and damage them. Your weapons are Greatword + X/Focus. Daze is from rather low importance and if daze can interrupt, the immobility for 2s is a good alternate to the stun.

I can imagine builds with dazestun, but if I would really play with daze or interrupt, I would play one of the three builds above. Furthermore, if I have 30 Domination, there are soo much better traits, with shatters mind wrack buff + boonremoval and vulnerability on shattering illusions, without shatters increased damage for illusions, cripple on clones death and shorter signet recharge time. Something like a chance to stun foes on a critical hit would be far more interesting.

Next thing, you killed my retalitation phantasms… one thing I loved the most about phantasms was retalitation… how about changing some traits for phantasms?
inspiration, adept: phantasms deal +5% damage with their attacks. (you know, that there is a major adept trait, that does the same, but also to clones?)
inspiration, master: phantasms heal nearby allies, if they attack (heal depends on the phantasm)
inspiration, grandmaster: phantasms recharge 20% faster.
illusions, major master: 50% chance to inflict stun instead of daze, if you use diversion.
domination, major adept: clones deal +5% damage and damage nearby foes on death.
domination, major grandmaster: phantasms have retalitation.

Next the Ele, first thing: The idea with the recharging attunements is really my thing. But please then for all attunements. Fire and earth have melee-attuning effects, furthermore fire burns foes hitting you, so what about: Gain might on using fire skills. If you are struck in melee, you burn your foe and fire attunement recharges (15s CD). If you loose more than 20% of your health or are hit critical, earth attunement recharges (10s CD). Grant stability to nearby allies, if you attune to earth. And: If you are struck with less than 10% health, Waterattunement recharges (10s CD). Attuning to water removes a condition from you and nearby allies.

Second thing, auras. You can inflict magnet aura with stuff, fire aura with Focus, shock and frost aura with daggers. Fury+Swiftness or Protection on Aura use is not bad, but not the world, furthermore underwater there are not even auras… But there are two problematic builds with signetauras:
20,10,10,30,00: Four signets for spamming (no passive effect), you grant nearby allies and yourself a fire aura, fury, swiftness and protection on each use. Or:
20,10,30,10,00: Four signets for spamming and the passive effect, grants yourself fire aura, protection, swiftness and fury while inflicting vulnerability.

I know, builds without arcana are not the prefered builds, but really, these builds must be OP. The first buffs the whole team, the second only you, but more effective. I really would prefer good aura builds without the signet trait. Here some suggestions: Auras have charges instead of only a duration for better balancing and to give them the ability to stack. No Poweful Aura anymore. Weapon skill auras now all effect also allies. Fire Magic and Air magic already have skills to inflict Auras. Earth Magic: If you are hit from a projectil with less than 10% health, you reflect the projectil and gain a magnetic aura (CD 20s). Deal +5% damage to foes in Melee range. Water magic: new grandmaster trait: Dodging converts burning into might and chill into swiftness. If neither burning nor chilling is removed, you gain frost aura. new master trait: Auras grant regeneration.
Furthermore i really see a need for different builds underwater: there you coud have: fire, master: signets burn foes (instead of fire aura), master: burn nearby foes in vapor form and gain a fire aura, if you rally (instead of additional charges). Water, Grandmaster: Powerful Aura: Auras affect nearby allies and recharge 20% faster. Arcane, adept; You gain a 10s aura on rezzing an ally (15s CD). Auras are a utility skill type, replacing summoned weapons underwater.

Same idea for Guardians and symbols. The first traitline grants a symbol (tier1) and buffs symbols (tier2+3), Furthermore valor has strong symbol-buffs. Now look at underwaterfights (on land, only scepter+sword is a build complete without weaponsymbols), there is only the one symbol from tier1, furthermore no spitit weapons underwater, so why not make symbols an underwaterutility?

One more trait, I hate: Minor Markmanship. To explain the problem again: The effect is OP against weak foes (you AND your pet hit critical AND inflict vulnerability, the foe takes massive damage from the start, the foe dies and the game starts again), but UP against strong foes, there are more than enough other sources for vulnerability and the granted critical hit is less effective with high critical damage. Or in other words, opening strike means two additional hits, but this is not such a big deal against a Champion, who needs 10.000 hits to go down… So why not change it to a more normal effect: tier1: You gain opening strike (only one stack of vulnerability). Recharges, if you kill your foe. tier2: Opening strike is always critical and cannot be blocked. tier3: You gain opening strike after swapping your weapons (10s recharge), new gransmaster trait: your pet has opening strike. if you swap your pet in combat, your pet gains opening strike.

And the burning on the necro… 4s and 20s CD… +30% Condition Duration makes 5,25s, the additional quartersecond is completly useless without any other profession with burning… I really wish for a proper use for quarter seconds of conditions, especially for the stacking one. Is it really so hard to let a left quarter second deal 1/4 of the damage a full second would have done? Or to save it on the foe to inflict a full second, after 4 quarter seconds were saved? Especially after the new condition is also a stacking one…

About the armor skins in the gem shop… really?… REALLY!? The gears/cogs together with the other electronic parts could have been a great armor, like the chronomancer or a bit like PNO3 (do I remember the names correctly?); the skirt/gloves of the light armor and the skirt of the middle armor could have been so great normal-cloth-armor, but you mixid both… really, you made two great armors and distroyed both by mixing them… the better solution would have been two armors, on the one side a common-dress-armor (the light skirt is already OK, the gloves would be so great without the leather part, also the middle chest and legs without the metal parts in the front…), although light pants are even more wished, these armor would have been loved by any player, who cant stand these hilarious shiny armors or the superskinny ones. On the other side there could have been leather-body-suits (like chest and legs of heavy), rather decent and plain (not possible anymore, but i made a nice picture of the combinition of the middle loot skin pants and the light inquest top, it looks soo great!). Then add the gears/cogs and let them move! I thinks, these would have been a far better pirate armor…

A few things about the new dungeons of the living story… Not everybody is able to do normal dungeons, so i wont say anything about the jumping parts beeing too hard for them, but look at normal players… The jumps in flame and frost were fun, I need to train more in jumping at the right moment, but it is really a great idea. About the circling walls in the aether pirate story, I am not so happy… You hinder us to rezz at a waypoint while the rest of the group is still fighting. OK, situations like being pushed into the lava in SE are (although not really a problem) already a bit of a fail (how exactly shall I rezz an ally in an area which means instant death to me…), but you also create situations, were trying to rezz is so dangerous, that not rezzing is the better solution. I mean, if your ally goes down in a still active AoE, he needs fast help, but the chance, that you will go also down while rezzing is high (I often try too rezz allies in AoE, most times I also go down instead). At the moment you are dead, noone will only try to rezz you, cause it takes too much time.

A very great example is the new pirate story with the circling walls. The third phase means two golems and the high walls + the low walls. If you fail to avoid the walls, you take massive damage, so it happens fast, that one player goes down. Even if all players try to rezz him instantly, the chance for the next wall to kill him before you only reach him is high and there still are the golems. From there on, to attack the foe with four man while avoiding the walls has a far higher chance for killing the foes than to try to rezz your ally: you can maybe rezz 2 seconds before you have to avoid the walls again and to stay still for rezzing increases the risk to be reached by the golems or by the wall massive. Or to sum it up a bit:

reasons to rezz a downed player:

1. he rallys faster and can help you again
2. may you have traits rewarding rezzing
3. to avoid his defeat

reasons against rezzing a downed player:

1. you cannot attack while rezzing (that is not a reason for me, but seems to be a reason for enough players…)
2. killing the foe will also rezz your ally very effective in glass cannon builds, even if you go down, the foe dies first.
3. you want to rezz, but you stay far away and rather than running directly to him, you come near him slowly while still figthing
4. (without teamspeak, i really hate to play with ts) you dont realize in time, that one ally went down
5. ally should be able to rezz himself, so far he is not in a dangerous situation
6. to avoid your own defeat, if ally is in a risky position like foes AoE

reasons to rezz a defeated player:

1. otherwise you have to fight with one person less

reasons against rezzing a defeated player

1. it takes a lot of time less, if all four players rezz together, but to rezz alone or with two man while the others aggro the foe makes more sense
2. to avoid your own defeat if ally was defeated by the foe, the foe should be a dangerous fellow, which means staying still is not intelligent.
3. killing the foe with four players is easier in most situations the foe can be killed faster with four man than first rezzing and then with five man.

Don’t understand me wrong, the downed mechanic works nice, it gives me a chance to rezz myself or to be rezzed by my allies and if I go down in the middle of the foes group or in an AoE, that means I couldnt avoid it and it is OK to punish me with breaking on of my armor peaces and beeing defeated. My problem is the situation, if a ally already is defeated. Like you see above, defeated players are rather rezzed only the fight is already finished… In dangerous situations – what is the normal case, if a players was defeated – even the downed/defeated players scream “DONT REZZ ME!”. In other word, especially in dangerous situations, where the rezzing is needed the most, the game makes it so hard to rezz the ally, that rezzing is more or less not a possible solution… So please, overwork the rezzing and rallying mechanic a bit to make it more useful in dangerous situations:

my suggestions:

1. new effects for rezzing
2. overwork rezz skills at least for PvE
3. overwork downed bar

new effects for rezzing
First idea to this, you all know traits about rallying and rezzing. These traits are on the one side sometimes OP (if there lies a dead NPC ally in the dungeon around, I can spam my reflecting bubble as mesmer by using F and stopping to rezz directly!), on the other side they are useless, if neither you nor your allies go down. It would be useful to really work around the rezz mechanic similiar to the profession mechanics. Second idea to this, if you would power up the rezz mechanic, you could create harder situations in the game. If the player has strong chances to stay alive, you can power up also the foe! Third idea to this, if the foe is powered up, the player is pushed to work more around the rezz mechanic to really stay alive. So what is my suggestion: Create an additional new traitline about the rezz mechanic!

attributes speed/damage/armor on downed speed/armor/health on rezz
These work always around the rezz mechanic, either on rezzing or on being downed, the attributes give 1,1% per point with a total of 33% with 30 points. BTW, rezzing 33% faster could only effect defeated players

warrior: Increase rezz speed + Decrease damage you take while rezzing.
mesmer: you rezz allies with more health + you rezz faster
Engeener: you rezz allies with more health + Decrease damage you take while rezzing.

guardian: Increases damage you inflict while downed + Increases downed health
ele: Increases damage you inflict while downed + healthdegeneration while downed is reduced
Thief: Increases damage you inflict while downed + Take less damage while downed
Necromancer: Increases damage you inflict while downed + steal more life, if downed

Ranger: Your pet deals more damage, while you are downed + Your pet rezz faster, takes less damage while rezzing and rezz for more health.

Furthermore 3 different runes, all effects stack with trait boni.
thoughness: take less damage, while reving; revive faster; revive ally with more health.
vitality: you have more health in downed state; slower healthdegeneration in down state; you rally with 50% more health.
power: gain retalitation, if you go down; gain fury, if you rally; deal more damage, while downed.

minor traits
These work always around the rezz mechanic, here examples for some professions:

warrior: grant thoughness to nearby allies, while rezzing; grant might to nearby allies, if you rezz a ally; grant fury and swiftness to …
mesmer: create a feedbackbubble, if you rezz; your feedbackbubble lasts longer; projectils reflected by the feedbackbubble confuse foes.
engeener: grant regeneration (not the boon) to nearby allies, while rezzing; chance to gain a lightning flash, if hit while rezzing.

guardian: burn nearby foes, if you go down; chance to burn foes, that hit you while downed; grant aegis to yourself and nearby allies, if you rally.
ele: create a field depending on your attunement, if you go down; increased critical hit chance, while downed; grant a boon depending on your attunement to nearby allies, if you rally.
thief: stealth yourself and target ally, if you rezz; you rezz 33% faster, while stealthed: stealth yourself and target ally on revival.

major traits
these work around the things that are not buffed through attributes, also either being downed or while rezzing. some examples for the professions:
warrior, master: vengeance has a 100% chance
warrior, grandmaster: vengeance last 100% longer and restores your adrenaline.
mesmer, grandmaster: if you go down, you teleport yourself to a random position, create a clone and stealth yourself.
ele, grandmaster: gain an aura depending on your attunement, while you rezz.
ele, master: depending on yor attunement, you gain a buff while rezzing; fire: 33% chance to burn foes, if hit. air: you rezz 33% faster. earth: you take less damage. water: rezz your ally with more lifepoints.
thief, grandmaster: steal an environmental weapon from your ally, if you rezz him.

overworked rezz skills
I dont know, if there is any better use for these skills in PvP/WvW, but in PvE? I mean, the banner is useful and I see it more often than other rezz, or to be more precise, the only situations I remember players using utilityrezz skills were situations the players didnt know, that they are useless to defeated allies… I understand, that they would be too strong, if they could rezz defeated players in the same way they rezz downed players, but a long recharging rezz for the worst case is exactly what we need for dangerous situation. Furthermore, why using a rezz skill on downed players instead of rezzing the ally directly. If the situation is critical and foe in the middle of an AoE, you still need to cast first the skill, that takes often far too much time.
ele: glyph: fire: the next time you would go down, you burn instead all nearby foes and gain massive might. air: the next time a ally in 1500 range would go down, the ally is ported to you instead. water: the next time you rezz a downed ally, you and the ally are healed and gain regeneration. earth: the next time you rezz an defeated ally, you gain invulnerability for 5s and rezz the ally twice as fast during these 5 seconds.
mesmer: manipulation: 60s, grant one ally in the target area illusion of life, if the ally was a defeated player, the skill recharges 10 times longer than normal. Even downed players use their downed skill under the effect of illusion of life (see my suggestion further down).
guardian: signet: rezz a defeated player in the area, 500s recharge.
warrior: banner: rezz all downed allies in the area. (no change)
ranger: the spirits attack now also gives 20% health to defeated players.
engeener: elixir: grants 50% health to downed players and 20% to defeated players.

overworked downed bar
change it like death shroud to a normal bar. what I hate actually the most about the downed bar is the slow visibility of the downed skills. I use my skills with my mouse, so I have to wait first, before i can see, where to click, on the other side, it happens annoyingly often, that I want to click a not downed skill (low health, low reaction time) and click my 2nd downed skill instead. I mean especially with mesmer and ele, I prefer to not port with my mesmer and furthermore mist form, I first wonder, why I am in mist form and the moment, i realize that i am downed and used vapor form, the form ends and I cannot use it effective anymore… There should be at least one downed skill to flee out of the danger area with each profession. Furthermore, why not add a few more downed skills? the left bar is only your first attackthe rest empty (maybe later, if you ever want to add more downed skills), the right bar are downed utility skills. Above your left bar stays your profession mechanic, above your right the effects. In the middle stands the healthbubble, the amount of healthpoints can be seen there (instead of what was above the left skills before). bandage is placed in position 6. The downed elite cannot be choosen. For the utility skills, you have one for each weapon type and can choose the about your window. the elite has a recharge before you can use it.

warrior
the warrior keeps his adrenaline and his former downed skill number 2 becomes the downed profession mechanic skill, dealing more damage and knock down foe longer. the downed banner grants increased rezz speed to allies. the downed physical skill let you move for 5s, you can dodge, but move slower. the elite is vengeance.
mesmer
the mesmer can still shatter his illusions. the clone skill ports you away to a choosen area, creates a clone and grants you stealth, the phantasm is the well known phantasm. the glamour stealth you and nearby allies for 2s. the mantra blinds and pushes away foes, but must be channeled first.
ele
the ele can still attune, the ele has a not so slow recharging elite (former number 3), the effect now depends on the attunement (earth would be identical with the actual one). vapor form is a black magic.
ranger
the rangers pet bar changes slightly: if you call your pet to you, it will rezz you, you can call it to you instantly. at the pet switch button position, there is placed a button to rezz your pet instead. the elite calls your other pet. throw dirt is a survival skill. cause the ranger has his pet, the ranger has no flee skill.
thief
the thief has a second left skill, that uses initiative. if the thief uses his steal skill, he teleports to the foe and can move for two seconds. the elite calls a thief (pls, cant you make them doppelganger, another suggestion of me placed somwhere else)
engeener
i dont know anything about engeeners
guardian
the guardian has his virtues and as elite the symbol. I hate the guardian
necromancer
ehhm, although i have a necromancer around lvl 40, i have no idea about his downed skills… the necromancer can enter death shroud (so far he has enough life force, the elite is like skill one, but hits all foes around and grants life force instead of health.

overworked rezz mechanic
A defeated player rezzed during a battle is not rezzed completly like normal. The player uses his downed skills during the next 15s and holds no weapon. all effects like more damage while downed stay active. you cannot interact with most things. you can dodge and have your normal life points. Bandage is a good way to increase your lifepoints during these 15s and after the 15s, you are fully rezzed. If you go down during these 15s again, you enter downed mode. If you are revived in downed mode, you are rezzed to 100%, even if less than 15s are over. If you are killed again during this first down mode, your armor is not damaged.
One other thing, if you are not in combat anymore, you rezz instantly, also, if downed. It is so hilarious, if the last foe is killed and you are not counted as its killer and have to rezz yourself first…

Now to something completly else, I talked about the funny new dungeons and the problems coming with them. One completly different problem are pets. Mesmer and Ranger mechanics work with pets. mesmer pets live only a few seconds under such circumstances and if i let them shatter, they often run into the effect and die before reaching the foe. But on the other side, i am a mesmer, mesmers are liked and have no problems to find a group. Other thing with rangers. The reactions I have seen in my teams was a liking for warriors, guardians and mesmers, a OK for ele, engeener and necromancer and a disliking for rangers and thiefs. I dont have anything against such professions, but my expirience has shown, that warrior teams are often pretty effective (although I have a big dislike for these only berserker sc-teams), thiefs go down very fast (not aways, but if, than over and over again) and rangers in your teams deal often very low damage. Cause you have only one pet at a time and have a 40s recharge after this pet dies, these new dungeons are horrible for rangers. My pet cannot dodge, does not move away from walls and will be useless…

BTW, a few easy tips to some players having problems in dungeons with unpopular professions: If you are not able to play warrior… no idea, it is so easy to play warrior :P … If you play guardian, dont play a pure supporttank, you should deal damage, for example my most important action with my lowlvl guardian is spamming Empower (might!) and my virtues to buff my allies damage, cause my own damage is ignoreable… If you play ranger, use a ranged pet and go glass cannon with bow or play tanky with greatsword and push your pet (30points in beastmastery). If you play thief, stealth is not invulnerability and dodge, if you have to, I play doubledagger-glasscannon-ele in dungeons and can stay alive… If you play engeener… ahh, i remember, i dont know anything about him If you play ele, don’t go doubledagger, if you cannot handle mellee. Don’t go glasscannon, if you cannot handle the damage. Dont go Arcana, if you cannot handle the fast swapping of atunements. If you play necromancer, pls no pets in dungeons… necromancer have high health, make damage with them. If you play mesmer… wait, again, the mesmer is too easy to have problems with him

BTW, a few easy tips for playing a glass cannon. Go ranged, avoid damage, you are no help for your team, if you always go down. If you are a good glass cannon, play in full glass cannon teams, 5 glass cannons deal massive damage and can kill foes on the one side fast enough to be rezzed by killing out of the down state, on the other side, even if you wipe, a good glass cannon team finishes a dungeon in so short time, that the few silver dont matter.

BTW, a few tips for people with no sense for good builds for dungeons. Dont play to intense support, support is great, but damage is better, noone wants a team, that is unkillable out of great support, but needs 3 times longer for each foe. Dont play a glass cannon, if you are not a good player! Fast killing is great, to be killed fast the worst. Dont play to intense with condition damage. Conditioin damage is great, but nothing is more annoying than players screaming always around “Dont use conditions, i can make 25 stacks of bleeding alone”.