Guild Wars 2

DiogoSilva.7089:

Karl McLain.5604:

Thanks for the questions. Here are some answers:

• Blinding Ashes ICD (Internal Cooldown) is ‘global’, where it activates once and goes on recharge. The trait works much better in small engagements.
• Elemental Contingency’s Internal Cooldown is currently once every 10 seconds.
• Lightning Rod has no ICD. It will activate as often as a target allows you to interrupt them. The damage value of this trait is similar to that of Halting Strike.
  Weakness duration is 4 seconds base (but you’re putting points into Fire, so add 30% duration on that).

Thanks for the answers, Karl! I have a few comments:

• You mentioned that “we’re putting points into fire” in your Lightning Rod’s comment. I assume you made some sort of confusion with blinding ashes, am I right? So, the blind effect will be the one to have a 4 second base duration (aka, 5 with 30 fire), and not (only) weakness. Is the weakness duration still at 4, nonetheless? EDIT: NEVERMIND

• Elemental Contigency’s global cooldown will make it impossible to build around as it is, due to the combination of being triggered by your opponent and having a global ICD. This will mean that this trait will proc randomly, except at the beginning of a fight. It’ll be therefore impossible to trigger each attunement’s effect reliably, making it especially ineffective as an anti-burst tool.
  From my experience with Magic: The Gathering (and by the words of its own game designers), randomly-triggered effects like these are almost never viable, even when the innate effects are stronger than normal, because any innate advantage comes purely from sheer luck. It’s also impossible to build around this. I very objectively think this trait is ineffective as it is.
  Making the ICD per attunement would fix all that.

• Blinding Ashes ICD mechanic also cripples its potential build diversity, but at least it can still be worked around it. Burning Precision, Glyph of Elemental Power, and single target builds (say, fresh air scepter eles) can take full advantage of this trait. MH dagger and fire focus, however, and their respective aoe burning procs, will be confined to 1v1 situations, and only against non-pet builds. Understandable if it’s intended, but unexciting for those who were hoping to bring 6 fire d/f builds into pvp.

this.

please reconsider these unfortunate design decisions.

If there are balance updates, I hope the OP 5 are being addressed:

hambow, decap engi, s/p thief, spirit ranger, mm necro

style.6173:

If there are balance updates, I hope the OP 5 are being addressed:

hambow, decap engi, s/p thief, spirit ranger, mm necro

i’m quite sure that every spec that is “out of line” atm will surely be addressed.

Volrath.1473:

style.6173:

If there are balance updates, I hope the OP 5 are being addressed:

hambow, decap engi, s/p thief, spirit ranger, mm necro

i’m quite sure that every spec that is “out of line” atm will surely be addressed.

History says otherwise, but we can dream.

Karl McLain.5604:

DiogoSilva.7089:

Hey Allie! If it was possible, I would wish to get some clarification for the new elementalist’s traits too.

• Blinding Ashes – Is the ICD global, or per target?
• Elemental Contigency – Is the ICD global, or per attunement?
• Lightning Rod – 1) Is there any ICD? 2) What is lightning bolt’s damage value?

Thank you for your attention.

EDIT: Seems like I wasn’t the only one to have the same idea. x)

Thanks for the questions. Here are some answers:

• Blinding Ashes ICD (Internal Cooldown) is ‘global’, where it activates once and goes on recharge. The trait works much better in small engagements.
• Elemental Contingency’s Internal Cooldown is currently once every 10 seconds.
• Lightning Rod has no ICD. It will activate as often as a target allows you to interrupt them. The damage value of this trait is similar to that of Halting Strike.
  Weakness duration is 4 seconds base.

Edit: Fixed a hilarious blunder.

Blinding Ashes – Does this mean Blinding Ashes will be completely useless when fighting against petting zoo builds (MM necro and Spirit Rangers) and Mesmers because of their clones?

Elemental Contingency – Don’t you think 1 boon every 10 seconds is a bit lackluster compared to Evasive Arcana? Also, if I wanted Retaliation but I was currently sitting in Water when the ICD came off cool down, I’ll have to wait another 10 seconds. Not to mention Evasive Arcana will be more rewarding.

Please No!!!

• Elemental contingency competes with evasive arcana a global 10 sec icd means nobody will take it. Lets look at the blog post on the sigils changes for inspiration. Everyone takes fire sigil over air because the damage is marginally less and hits more then 1 target. You guys adjusted fires damage down and dropped Air’s icd to 3 secs. Reason given in the blog post is because it competes with fire and fire was always better. Elemental contingency competes with Evasive if the icd is 10 sec per attunement then I would certainly try it out. If it is global there isn’t any point because EA is always better.

• Blinding ashes is disappointing that it is 1 per target then global icd. I think a cap of 3 is better here we are talking about a 30 fire ele who will probably be squish.

• I like lightning rod being halting strike comparable that is what I was hoping for.

Volrath.1473:

style.6173:

If there are balance updates, I hope the OP 5 are being addressed:

hambow, decap engi, s/p thief, spirit ranger, mm necro

i’m quite sure that every spec that is “out of line” atm will surely be addressed.

they will more likely be buffed.

Won’t Fresh Air be innately better than Lightning Rod? We get roughly 2x more lightning strikes from the 15 air trait, which is likely more than the damage lightning rod will do. And we also get the lower attunement cooldown. Lightning Rod has a few seconds of weakness, sure, which equates to an average of 25% dmg reduction, but this is already mitigated by the fact that the weakness will start counting down while the enemy is stunned. A big fat meh.

Elemental Contingency would already have a hard time competing with Evasive Arcana (largely due to how great the heal+condi removal is that EA offers) if Elemental Contingency was a per-attunement CD, as EA is. With a global CD rather than per-attunement, only a fool will use it over EA.

Blinding Ashes ICD not being per-target makes it very near useless.

Overall, some potentially cool traits that are likely going to be somewhat useless due to poor design. At least they can be buffed to potentially make them worth using. Too bad buffs only happen every few months at best :/.

oZii.2864:

Please No!!!

• Elemental contingency competes with evasive arcana a global 10 sec icd means nobody will take it. Lets look at the blog post on the sigils changes for inspiration. Everyone takes fire sigil over air because the damage is marginally less and hits more then 1 target. You guys adjusted fires damage down and dropped Air’s icd to 3 secs. Reason given in the blog post is because it competes with fire and fire was always better. Elemental contingency competes with Evasive if the icd is 10 sec per attunement then I would certainly try it out. If it is global there isn’t any point because EA is always better.

• Blinding ashes is disappointing that it is 1 per target then global icd. I think a cap of 3 is better here we are talking about a 30 fire ele who will probably be squish.

• I like lightning rod being halting strike comparable that is what I was hoping for.

Exactly the same feeling, Blinding Ashes, nice 1vs1 but become that squishy to get to the 30 fire that means I have to stay away more and more from team fights.

And if a node is guarded with Sprit Ranger, MM Necro, Decap Engi I have stay away from them also so what is the use of this trait now, works against only Guardians.

Air GM, my only reliable way getting interrupts is shocking aura every 20s, so a GM trait they can use every 20s and I have to take this instead of fresh air, common……

So no lingering elements to Stone Heart again 30 point investement to a trait will not be any use at %25 of the time.

Water I don’t have to say anything I think.

Arcane GM I actually like but taking that instead of EA?

TimeBomb.3427:

Won’t Fresh Air be innately better than Lightning Rod? We get roughly 2x more lightning strikes from the 15 air trait, which is likely more than the damage lightning rod will do. And we also get the lower attunement cooldown. Lightning Rod has a few seconds of weakness, sure, which equates to an average of 25% dmg reduction, but this is already mitigated by the fact that the weakness will start counting down while the enemy is stunned. A big fat meh.

I mostly agree, but see the potential with skills that aoe interrupt to hit MULTIPLE targets. It might see some use, but you are probably always better off just taking tempest defense (decent for a peel with zerk staff) or fresh air (not staff). Perhaps someone will find it reasonable to trade sustained damage (fresh air) for harder bursts (lightning rod) so leading with an interrupt can get 100-0.

Elemental Contingency would already have a hard time competing with Evasive Arcana (largely due to how great the heal+condi removal is that EA offers) if Elemental Contingency was a per-attunement CD, as EA is. With a global CD rather than per-attunement, only a fool will use it over EA.

Blinding Ashes ICD not being per-target makes it very near useless.

Overall, some potentially cool traits that are likely going to be somewhat useless due to poor design. At least they can be buffed to potentially make them worth using. Too bad buffs only happen every few months at best :/.

Yea, these other two are confirmed to be 100% useless. Stone heart has potential in a bunkerish or brawler type build, at least. The water +healing will be useful for wvw healer-types. I guess the reason Karl was excited about “Stone Heart” is because its the only one that might be worth ANYTHING. Will it make up for the nerf to the air line – probably not.

Yoh.8469:

Sustainment on the other hand, yeah not going to lie, it sounds like total garbage.
An interrupt trait in phantasm/support line….. yeah, that’s just stupid and counter productive.
I honestly do not see a circumstance that will ever be useful.

Here’s a scenario that will help clarify the validity of Sustainment:
Restorative Mantras+Sustainment+Mantra Mastery+Harmonious Mantras+Phantasmal Healing with Mantra of Recovery, Mantra of Resolve, Mantra of Distraction and Mantra of Concentration. Staff+Sc/P – Plenty of self preservation, loads of ally support for main fight, nearly perma regen with increased Healing Power (an additional 255 HP/s), etc.. etc… When coupled with Runes of the Monk and Sigil of Benevolence that yields 3000+ heals every mantra cast. With the daze from 3X Power Break, Chaos Storm, and Magic Bullet, you can certainly maintain Sustainment indefinitely. It’s definitely a viable trait. It may not play into your play style, however.

Xaylin.1860:

Karl McLain.5604:

Lightning Rod has no ICD. It will activate as often as a target allows you to interrupt them. The damage value of this trait is similar to that of Halting Strike.
Weakness duration is 4 seconds base (but you’re putting points into Fire, so add 30% duration on that).

For those who aren’t that familiar with the damage of Halting Strike (which is a bit wonky): We are talking about 1k-2.5k damage per interrupt in Berserker gear (PvP) depending on the defense of your target.

Not sure why Karl would think we’d also go for 30 Fire at the same time, though.

It’s also a separate damage packet which is applied before the skill damage. So, any sigil that procs can be utilized more efficiently with Halting Strike.

Allie Murdock.8152:

For our 9th episode of Ready Up, we’ll be talking about the next phase of PvP rewards. On the show, we will have Evan Lesh and Hugh Norfolk along with our Champion Genius host, Josh Davis.

When & Where:
March 28th, 12pm PDT
Official Guild Wars 2 Twitch Channel

We’ll see you there!

If you happen to read this: It would be helpful if you could add the schedule in other timezones too. I know that we can check which local time 12pm PDT is with an online converter, but it would just make things easier.

Oh, oh got a legit question!

Can we have some kinda bonus weekend reward wise for 29th, 30th?

Perhaps a few more rank points, some extra coin…

Lightning Rod’s clarification is good news at least. We now know the damage will be good enough, and we’ll be able to trigger it as aoe. MH dagger elementalists can get some very strong burst with earthquake + updraft + shocking aura, and have it affect and weaken everyone around them. This might make some offensive builds potentially useful in crowded capture points. Considering how LR is based on a very niche playstyle to us (mesmer-styled interruption on an elementalist), it’s cool to know that at the very least least, it’ll be potentially strong.

About some others:
Blinding Ashes global ICD: works in some situations, but cripples build diversity, making it a lot less exciting;
Elemental Contigency global ICD: completely ineffective;
Stone Heart: it would be overpowered if it worked with lingering elements. It’s fine as it is. Nothing else to say about it.

While having a lot buildvariety is nice and I do like that you guys are giving us more options build wise.

I think one of the biggest “flaws” of GW2s combat is lack of combat depth in some cases. To name an example; this is one of the main reasons why my entire wow (pvp) guild quit GW2. Being able to kill people with 1 or 2 buttons is going to scare away a big number of pvp players.

So im really hoping for some development to improve this. To improve the flow of combat for some classes and builds.

So my question is: why the choice for horizontal development vs vertical development and is the later something that is in the pipeline for the (near) future?

i wont be able to watch this till next week. after streamed, can s’one post what pvp build button is about?

When fighting against pet classes as an elementalist, the 5 points minor trait will have a ~20% chance to ruin the new grandmaster trait, blinding ashes, if it randomly triggers on a pet.

You thought that 5 point investment was useless? Well, not anymore. Now it can potentially screw your entire build.

gesho.9468:

i wont be able to watch this till next week. after streamed, can s’one post what pvp build button is about?

Check today’s blog post.

Will there be a way to obtain tokens to use the MF for our PvP materials now that they are being removed?

It seems kind of underhanded to encourage us to spend all our glory, remove glory gains, and then tell us if we didn’t buy tokens we are out of luck with obtaining gear in the next 2 weeks.

Question: Will people, who have saved rank chests be able to wait until after the 15th to get a chance at a precursor?

What’s up with the chat banning? This is not North Korea kitten …..

Question:

Will players who won solo/team queues before the buffs to rank point rewards (back when a win was only worth ~300 points) be retroactively compensated and have their rank buffed?

Really sweet changes (for the most part) so far

1. If I change my sigil in PvP, will it change my sigil in PvE as well? Making it so I lose my PvE sigil and have to buy it again afterwards?
2. Can I still have a different armor set for my PvP or is it always tied to my PvE set? (in terms of look) thus costing transmutation charges every time I want to switch between PvE/PvP looks?
3. What happens of the PvP armor currently equipped on my characters? Will I have to pay transmutation charges to equip it back after the patch?
4. What actions help progress through the tiered tracks? Simple number of matches or specific actions?
5. How can I access my account vault in the mists? Do I have to go in PvE since you took away the PvP lockers?

1. Explained in the blog post: your chosen sigil/runes for your PvP build will overwrite your PvE stuff only in PvP and have no effect on your equipment otherwise.

2. You can have a different armor set but you’ll have to actually equip it before going into PvP matches.

3. You’ll have to pay charges, yes. You’ll get one free charge per rank (after the rebalanced rank points).

4. Completed matches.

5. I didn’t see, but I’d hope there’s an account bank somewhere there just like there’s one in WvW.

So, as runes are not anymore bound to an armor.

Does this mean, I can fight nude, without having any disadvantages? :O

I think armor does gives some amount of basic toughness still… (like how heavy armor naturally has more toughness than light and medium).

Karl McLain.5604:

• Blinding Ashes ICD (Internal Cooldown) is ‘global’, where it activates once and goes on recharge.

I hope you seriously reconsider the global CD, it kills the trait, as it means AOE burns will apply blind randomly (as distinct from skilfully). This is definitely a significant downside. I think the trait would be better if AOE blind were applied by AOE burns (such as from staff fire #3 or elemental surge) but the AOE application doubled the CD to 12sec.

I think Ele has too many source of AOE burning for this trait not to accommodate AOE applications of burning in some useful way.

• Elemental Contingency’s Internal Cooldown is currently once every 10 seconds.

If the CD is a singular global, I think this trait compares very poorly with evasive arcana, it wouldn’t even be worth considering. IMO have 1 CD per effect and increase the CD to compensate.

• Lightning Rod has no ICD. It will activate as often as a target allows you to interrupt them. The damage value of this trait is similar to that of Halting Strike.
  Weakness duration is 4 seconds base.

IMO good trait as given, though i wonder if Ele has enough interrupts outside of D/D to make it worth it.

scerevisiae.1972:

IMO good trait as given, though i wonder if Ele has enough interrupts outside of D/D to make it worth it.

I’d say the biggest problem with Lightning Rod might be the lack of/ or weak synergy. If tempest defense was moved to a lower tier, and/ or if aeromancer’s alacrity were to be slightly buffed, it could offset the lack of interrupts from an elementalist. Runes will be very important to consider too. If any rune can offer an interrupt – or better, if there was a rune that triggered shocking aura, it would be lovely.

Lightning Rod is pretty much the “best version of Tempest Defense”. Tempest Defense is a trait that wants you to stun/ KD foes and then burst them down, but it’s ineffectively because the burst window is low, and because the other half of the effect (the aura proc) implies that you are stunned in the meantime. Lightning Rod not only will allow you to burst with a higher diversity of cc effects (launchs, knockbacks, etc), but the burst will be immediate.

Tempest Defense should be moved to master tier, keep its aura proc, and have its damage buff be decreased from 20% to 10-5%. Aeromancer’s Alacrity should reduce cooldowns by 25% or more instead of 20%, and perhaps offer an additional, small bonus.

Those changes would also allow new aura builds to born with lightning rod. With short windows of weakness, protection, fury, swiftness and bursting, it could create a niche thief-ish playstyle of hit-and-run for the d/d or d/f eles.

awesome livestream guys keep it up