Guild Wars 2

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/combat-changes-dotsanddashes/

I think this is imminent, not HoT-linked. Though the bit about “along with the new specializations” could mean either the new spec system or the elite specs, and the latter won’t come until HoT. But I lean to this being in the next week or two.

We’ve added more currencies to the wallet! When you log in after the update, the following items will be converted to currencies and stored in your wallet:
Pristine Fractal Relics
WvW Tournament Claim Tickets
Geodes
Bandit Crests
These items will be automatically converted to the new versions of the currencies when the character holding them logs in, so be sure to check each of your characters’ inventories.

Jesus Christ. Is this real life?

Not sure who signed off on the horrid grid view of currencies that we have now, it was pretty clear to everyone how bad it was.

Also:

“As an added bonus, we’ve slightly changed how currencies display in the bottom of your inventory. Your gold will always be there, but the other visible currency will change based on where you are. For example, in World vs. World you’ll see badges of honor, and while in the Fractals of the Mists you’ll see fractal relics”

Terrible idea. All it does is annoy you when you can’t see the currency you want to see just because you happen to be in the wrong location.

That gave me pause as well, Lord Kuru. I’ll have to see how fluid it is in practice, though, as apparently the inventory will toggle to the wallet and in that view you’ll be able to see everything. Hopefully the button to toggle will be at the bottom in the area where we currently mouse to get the numbers list (which I use exclusively, I generally forget the Hero Panel Wallet view even exists).

A screenshot would have been nice, but given that Roy’s placeholder line [ screenshot here ] made it to the blog about combat, I’ll settle for the verbal description

What about converting Dragonite Ore, Bloodstone Dust and Empyreal Fragments to currency? Now that would actually be helpful.

Too bad for people who are hoarding the writs and were hoping to potentially use those to power level masteries.

Johje Holan.4607:

What about converting Dragonite Ore, Bloodstone Dust and Empyreal Fragments to currency? Now that would actually be helpful.

Unfortunately, though I agree it would save some space, they are an ingredient, not a currency. I think we’d need an actual item to craft with for crafting.

Excited for both changes. Makes the wait rough but looking forward to both changes.
I understand the reasoning for the items that were selected. On the wallet any options for keys (DT/SW/BL), weapon scraps/tickets, shovels, boosters? All of these are non-tradeable.

Trying to make conditions on par with direct damage is a futile exercise as long as GW2 is a game with 3 stats that affect dd and 1 for condi.

Either the two playstyles are equal dps, and one has vastly superior survivability, or they aren’t, and zerker stays meta forever.

THANK YOU ANET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is like every change I wanted all at once!

Edit:
To above poster there are 3 stats that effect condition dps. Damage, Duration and Precision. Prior to now the second two were worthless due to the cap. With it removed they will directly effect total dps now. We still need a gear set with those stats though.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Edit:
To above poster there are 3 stats that effect condition dps. Damage, Duration and Precision. Prior to now the second two were worthless due to the cap. With it removed they will directly effect total dps now. We still need a gear set with those stats though.

Precision only affects condi damage through a very small number of procs from traits that trigger on crit, which not all classes have. It is also in no way actually worthwhile, and is only gotten because there’s literally nothing else unless you want a defence stat.

Duration does not exist on gear and never will, since balancing it will be a nightmare given that it affects cc durations like fear.

alexei.9364:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Edit:
To above poster there are 3 stats that effect condition dps. Damage, Duration and Precision. Prior to now the second two were worthless due to the cap. With it removed they will directly effect total dps now. We still need a gear set with those stats though.

Precision only affects condi damage through a very small number of procs from traits that trigger on crit, which not all classes have. It is also in no way actually worthwhile, and is only gotten because there’s literally nothing else unless you want a defence stat.

Duration does not exist on gear and never will, since balancing it will be a nightmare given that it affects cc durations like fear.

Givers weapons exist.

And “cc durations like fear?” Try only Fear.

What happens now when two armies are fighting near a lord in wvw with no other npc’s around and a necro epidemics the lord? Do conditions applied by his side get copied out to enemy players, do all conditions regardless of which side applied them get copied to enemy players or does it not do anything? Should be interesting if the lord in stonemist has an insane amount of conditions with the caps removed and two sides are fighting over the cap and epidemic works on him.

Tofu.1978:

What happens now when two armies are fighting near a lord in wvw with no other npc’s around and a necro epidemics the lord? Do conditions applied by his side get copied out to enemy players, do all conditions regardless of which side applied them get copied to enemy players or does it not do anything? Should be interesting if the lord in stonemist has an insane amount of conditions with the caps removed and two sides are fighting over the cap and epidemic works on him.

5 people get heavily loaded with conditions, I’d imagine. Cleansing is still rampant in zergs.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Givers weapons exist.

And “cc durations like fear?” Try only Fear.

Taunt is coming in HoT, so that’s two.

TheGrimm.5624:

Excited for both changes. Makes the wait rough but looking forward to both changes.
I understand the reasoning for the items that were selected. On the wallet any options for keys (DT/SW/BL), weapon scraps/tickets, shovels, boosters? All of these are non-tradeable.

They’re non-tradable, but they’re not really currencies. They’re items that you use.
Except for Black Lion tickets/scraps, those should probably go in the wallet.

Tofu.1978:

What happens now when two armies are fighting near a lord in wvw with no other npc’s around and a necro epidemics the lord?

I expect it will result in loud, evil laughter from the necro.

It is an interesting point, though. I guess people will have to learn to worry more about the conditions on the NPCs and cleanse them if they get too many. Or stay away from them.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Givers weapons exist.

And “cc durations like fear?” Try only Fear.

Giver’s ascended doesn’t, and for a reason. One of the devs commented that Giver’s was a mistake.

And, you know what I meant. Conditions as a whole have a lot of utility that direct damage doesn’t. Chill, immobilize, etc. all scale directly with duration. You can’t balance condi duration as a dps stat the way you can, say, power.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

5 people get heavily loaded with conditions, I’d imagine. Cleansing is still rampant in zergs.

It never really mattered before because condition clearing is so rampant but if its enough conditions that a second or less of exposure is enough to kill you then there’s probably not enough cleansing around to help you. Unless they repriortize cleansing to take into account stack intensity over party and distance prioritization. Its an obscure case especially since if the lord is that loaded with conditions he will probably die soon anyway but I’m sure there will be lots of squeals of necro joy.

Palador.2170:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Givers weapons exist.

And “cc durations like fear?” Try only Fear.

Taunt is coming in HoT, so that’s two.

Taunt isn’t a condition, so condition duration has no effect.

Given that these changes weren’t in yesterday’s patch notes, does this mean these changes are for a future patch? Would this likely be in 2 weeks?

Just gonna bring this up here and hope anet sees it.
How come Baubles and Bauble Bubbles also didn’t get put into the wallet? They’re currency, and can only be used in one place (if it ever comes back…).

I think some of the ascended crafting mats like dragonite ore could benefit from simply reducing the crafting amounts and amounts in game. What if we reduce the amount of dragonite ore generated by a factor of 10. Suddenly it only takes 10 to craft and you don’t get as much from its current sources. Then simply reduce everyone’s current quantities by a factor of 10 and round up. Surely no one has reason to complain if someone gets a little more ore during the switch. So now we get 10x less dragonite ore than normal, crafting is the same relative to the new amount and we have 10x more space in the bank relative to the new norm for ore. I might still throw it out after a couple laps in SW or a Open World Boss rotation but I won’t have 4 stacks, hopefully just one.

ekarat.1085:

Given that these changes weren’t in yesterday’s patch notes, does this mean these changes are for a future patch? Would this likely be in 2 weeks?

“When you log in after the update,” from the wallet blog.
“I’m here to tell you about changes to our combat systems that’ll be arriving alongside the new specializations.”

Both in future tense. When it’s coming, who knows? Could be in the next few days (not every big change has to be on a Tuesday, right? And they might want this in place before E3), could be Tuesday, could be the week after that, could be in a month.

movement impeding skills won’t affect leaps….

That’s really frustrating. Chill on thief just got more useless. greaaaaaaaaaaat.

hazenvirus.8154:

I think some of the ascended crafting mats like dragonite ore could benefit from simply reducing the crafting amounts and amounts in game. What if we reduce the amount of dragonite ore generated by a factor of 10. Suddenly it only takes 10 to craft and you don’t get as much from its current sources. Then simply reduce everyone’s current quantities by a factor of 10 and round up. Surely no one has reason to complain if someone gets a little more ore during the switch. So now we get 10x less dragonite ore than normal, crafting is the same relative to the new amount and we have 10x more space in the bank relative to the new norm for ore. I might still throw it out after a couple laps in SW or a Open World Boss rotation but I won’t have 4 stacks, hopefully just one.

This, a million times this. This would solve our banking issues with this junk instantly.

What I got from the post was “go big or go home…” in other words… you will have to stack a kittenlaod of a condition type to make it worth while to play any type of condi build at all…. to hit that 700 dmg mark takes 15 stacks and at that point he says you are breaking even. I dont know about some of the rest of you, but when I play anythingthat is not condi build, i rarely get or maintain 15 stacks of anything. If I play a build focused on that condi, then yes I can get a bit more and maintain it. But doingthat requires full dedication to the build forcing a player to play a certain build to be effective.

CorrynnStarr.7942:

What I got from the post was “go big or go home…” in other words… you will have to stack a kittenlaod of a condition type to make it worth while to play any type of condi build at all…. to hit that 700 dmg mark takes 15 stacks and at that point he says you are breaking even. I dont know about some of the rest of you, but when I play anythingthat is not condi build, i rarely get or maintain 15 stacks of anything. If I play a build focused on that condi, then yes I can get a bit more and maintain it. But doingthat requires full dedication to the build forcing a player to play a certain build to be effective.

“The formulas are still being adjusted, but to give you an idea, the break-even point before you start doing more damage is around 700 condition damage.”

The 700 condition damage refers to the Attribute not the amount of stacks.

CorrynnStarr.7942:

What I got from the post was “go big or go home…” in other words… you will have to stack a kittenlaod of a condition type to make it worth while to play any type of condi build at all…. to hit that 700 dmg mark takes 15 stacks and at that point he says you are breaking even. I dont know about some of the rest of you, but when I play anythingthat is not condi build, i rarely get or maintain 15 stacks of anything. If I play a build focused on that condi, then yes I can get a bit more and maintain it. But doingthat requires full dedication to the build forcing a player to play a certain build to be effective.

I think he means that you have to invest 700 points in conditio0n damage to obtain the same results as before. Condition focused build we significantly more damage. Full berserker gear will probably result in way less condition damage than currently.

First of all a big thank you for the additions to the wallet. Now I want to ask you why you are not also adding the living world tokens, like Piece of Zhaitaffy, Queen’s Gauntlet Entrance Ticket and Baubles.
Also a big thank you for the long overdue condition buff, now it might be worthwhile to play my necro once more

I kinda don’t understand how the writs and tomes and such are going to be exchanged?

I don’t understand the part about (paraphrasing) “…log everyone in to claim their conversions because they’ll have a lot more than you think blah blah…”? All my writs and tomes and such are all in the bank. They aren’t really owned by anyone. So who gets those? Does ‘using’ them convert them, and I should log in each character and use a few on them?

Also, the bullet points of other conversions, there isn’t any really ‘practical conversion ratios’, if you will, for the world problem impaired (I was always pretty good at math, but failed heinously when math was presented to me as a story :p).

So I have my main 80. I have a bunch of other 80s. And then I have one character that’s like 16 and leveling up, which I have no intention of ever wanting to ‘auto-level’ with books and such, I like to map-explore it all out. However, I like to ‘cheat’ and give her the things that give her skill points so she can get into those ASAP. I don’t really use a lot of extra SPs on the other 80s at this point, but my main does all the Mystic Forging and what not.

So, there’s my ‘word problem’. Throwing that up against their ‘word answer’, what would be the best thing to do with what I have lying around?

300 Scrolls of Knowledge
63 Tomes of Knowledge
490 Writs of Experience

Or, wait, reading it now…since it’s wallet, those are all account shared now? The spirit shards? So the logging in each character thing was to make sure anything in their bags is converted into the wallet, and then everyone gets to share?

But then there’s my 16. I don’t see anywhere where it talks about how that level 16 character gets skill points. Presumably I can’t spend Spirit Shards on skill points? So if I want a lot of SPs on her before next week (week after; later?), I should eat a bunch of Scrolls with her ASAP?

If they are all in the bank, logging in on any alt should convert them. That note is to alert people that items in alt inventories won’t convert until that alt logs in. They will be account bound as you note in your penultimate paragraph.

Your level 16 gets them by a) leveling and b) doing blue chevrons in maps. There’s been some discussion as to when you start being able to spend Hero Points; it seems that by level 20 you should be able to spend your first point, if not sooner, but that’s an implied dev goal not a definitive dev statement.

The Scrolls of Knowledge will become currency for the Mystic Forge. There’s no point in spending them on your 16 because you only get credit for level + skill challenges. The Tomes will continue to give a level, the Writs will continue to give XP, for anyone under 80 (read the bottom of the blog, it describes exactly this).

Donari.5237:

If they are all in the bank, logging in on any alt should convert them. That note is to alert people that items in alt inventories won’t convert until that alt logs in. They will be account bound as you note in your penultimate paragraph.

Your level 16 gets them by a) leveling and b) doing blue chevrons in maps. There’s been some discussion as to when you start being able to spend Hero Points; it seems that by level 20 you should be able to spend your first point, if not sooner, but that’s an implied dev goal not a definitive dev statement.

The Scrolls of Knowledge will become currency for the Mystic Forge. There’s no point in spending them on your 16 because you only get credit for level + skill challenges. The Tomes will continue to give a level, the Writs will continue to give XP, for anyone under 80 (read the bottom of the blog, it describes exactly this).

To the last point, if I were to use all them now on her, they’d take them away and only give her enough for level + skill challenges completed to spend on skills? I didn’t see in the blog where they talked about what you just said, that ‘level + skill’, which sounds like if I used all the scrolls on her today so she ended up with lots of SPs, they’d just take them away and say, “Well, you’re 16, and you only did the chevrons in Queensdale at this point, so that’s all you have to spend on skills.”?

Edit: And thank you

The “only level + skills” isn’t in this blog post, it’s in the earlier one about the new traits, as well as in the 4 hour live stream about the new traits. While some fine details are subject to change or not entirely clear from dev discussion thus far, the gist of the new system has been fully disclosed.

But yes, spending the scrolls on your 16 will be a waste. Probably. They miiiight take 16 + any challenges, credit her with that many Hero Points, and turn the extra spent skill points into the new currency. But in that case you’re still better off leaving them unspent because then you’re guaranteed to get the currency conversion and if you’ve spent them and they get converted … it’s exactly the same as if you hadn’t spent them.

Donari.5237:

The “only level + skills” isn’t in this blog post, it’s in the earlier one about the new traits, as well as in the 4 hour live stream about the new traits. While some fine details are subject to change or not entirely clear from dev discussion thus far, the gist of the new system has been fully disclosed.

But yes, spending the scrolls on your 16 will be a waste. Probably. They miiiight take 16 + any challenges, credit her with that many Hero Points, and turn the extra spent skill points into the new currency. But in that case you’re still better off leaving them unspent because then you’re guaranteed to get the currency conversion and if you’ve spent them and they get converted … it’s exactly the same as if you hadn’t spent them.

OK that makes sense. Thank you again.