Guild Wars 2

Sooo tired of typing >_<

The legendary backpack for PvP:
Looking ahead to the Year of the Ascension Part IV (season 4) achievements – for anyone who hasn’t noticed it yet.

One of the 11 requirements to get the Hymn of Glory (which you are supposed to combine with the 3 other pieces from the other seasons to create the gift of the competitor which is undoubtedly used to make the legendary version of the PvP backpiece) is:

“League Elite – cross 4 league division thresholds during a PvP season” which, in essence, means you need to get to Legendary rank it at least one of the 4 seasons or oops, sorry bout your luck, no legendary for you and with all the bugs still being sorted out in the first season (not to mention the holiday event to distract you if you PvE at all), if you didn’t get it, then hopefully it will be a little easier in other seasons.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels they put a lot of effort to hit the exactly 11 requirements (which was deceiving at first glance because all of the class based achievements appear like they would count toward the 11 actually only count toward 1 of the 11 … I didn’t notice this until I got 3 of them done and it did not advance me any further) to get “The Thrill of Battle” piece this season and even with the distraction that was Wintersday. I’m proud to say I still got to Ruby rank (and my Winter’s presence (snowstorm) shoulders. However I do really want to get the Legendary backpiece for PvP and I’m afraid that the time required strictly on PvP may be a bit much for me to maintain a normal life and still get everything I want out of PvE (ugh and WvW … when I can find time to do that … stupid legendary precursor).

My main point is I’m gonna be sick if I put all this effort into all 4 seasons and miss 1 piece of the Legendary because of 1 requirement. I feel that the requirements are not clear and are too harsh for a time gated event in a game that has various modes of play and other conflicting time gate events. In essence I want to be able to do it all, but I fear the limitation of time my make it impossible.

My suggestion is then to either add requirements that are not as restrictive or to make it available in some other way after the season. Such as a reward track next season or purchasable with extra PvP league tickets or such … but also to communicate that this will be an option so people know they are not just out of luck if they missed something, otherwise people will be upset, which is fine if that is what you want, but I think your goal should be to make it a challenge but not make it impossible for those willing to put in the work but may not have the skill or may not want to conform to meta norms in order to achieve … which I believe cheapens the victory more than putting in time and valiant efforts.

Ok! Stability vs Ragdoll.

Yeah so I’m sure most people who have played in this tournament and probably PvP in general in Gw2 recently know that right now one of the more frustrating things is getting caught in dragonhunter traps and mesmer wells and necro pulls and stuns and knockbacks and knockdowns an push/pulled until you are dead with no real way to counter it.

Sure all classes have some access to stability, but with all the CC effects added in HoT (even in PvE) is there really ever enough. Well true there shouldn’t be because some of the CC should land and is a very useful and vital to some builds. However at this point I believe there is a bit too much of it without reliable counter. Games should always involve moves and counter moves i.e. the very classic game of chess. True there are situations where you will have used up your counters (perhaps foolishly, perhaps not) and be susceptible to getting hit with a CC. However there should be few instances where you become a punching bag with no means to make it otherwise.

In honesty, it’s really not fun for either party the ragdollee or the ragdoller. Sure the ragdoller may think they are dominating or that the other player is just bad, but the issue is there is no skill required in denying the other player even the means to counter and without the push and pull of a real challenge it can get boring and/or unfun for both parties.

My point and suggestion is to add more access to stability in the game as a form of counter, just as condition cleansing is to conditions. Sure you will still get pushed or pulled or knocked down or stunned, and if nothing else it will interrupt the skill they were trying to use, but at least they will be able to get up from it and keep playing (unless maybe they are zerker … then they are kind of asking for it).

Faster and more prevalent access to stability I think is the key. I love on my Ele to start overloading my attunement to get the stability to break out of a stun or CC, but that is only available as a Tempest and only if you select that exact trait, otherwise there is are a couple traits in earth or a utility skill with a really long cooldown and a short duration (which mind you I don’t think the duration on stability should increase, just the access to it) and other than that if I don’t choose a build that has stability … it’s pretty hard to come by … CC on the other hand is not.

ShadowHunter.5173:

Weirdness Abounds.8924:

I have been stuck in Division 4, Tier 4 for a week. I average 10 games a day, for those 7 days. My best position was 4.4. my worst has been 3.8. I have encountered very few named teams but sometimes the scores are wildly lopsided. From my own experience, it feels like the game doesn’t want me to progress. that’s reinforced when I read explanations like the one above dealing with MMRs. In the end, it is not fulfilling in the slightest. Worse, I know people who have lost 10 and 15 games in a row. Why even bother to play? These losses aren’t their faults. The teams lost but the teams were decided by the algorithms.

But again, playing 70 matches and moving up and down on tier 4 is not at all rewarding.

Seems to me like you reached your max level of play, unless you start getting better in terms of carrying such teams that is probably where you will stay.
Regardless, you gain as many rewards from those matches as you would have gotten from plain simple unranked ones.. you should not be rewarded extra stuff just for playing said ‘ranked’ games if you dont progress. And it is completely fine not to progress in a mere week of play.
Depends on your will to adapt to your situation and learn from it, you should not expect getting to legendary in a matter of weeks. When you do get better I believe you will reach your ‘rightful’ place in diamond or beyond.

I have issue with this, but you do bring up a valid point shadowhunter. My issue is that this league pretends to reward players for their skill, when in actuality it is rewarding then for knowing how to play the cheapest or most overpowered builds at the moment and for having good luck in getting assigned to a team that counters the other team well.

That being said I know that there is definitely skill required, you need to know how to play your class and your spec (even if it is cheap) and how to adapt to deal with your teams weaknesses and play style vs the other team … but there is only so much you as a player can do.

i.e. if one of your teammates has given up because they are tired of being rag-doll knocked around (without enough stability to counter it (which frankly who does … which brings up another issue I’ll address in another post)) Then you’re basically playing a 4v5 at that point and it’s not necessarily about your skill, but a numbers game. Sure this doesn’t happen that often and you should be able to recover from it in the next game, but it still is someone else affecting your score and it not a true indication of your skill but rather an indication of your bad luck to get put on a team with a quitter.

This gets me to a main point. I feel that a lot of what is barring good players from progressing is gross balancing issues which will never be fully worked out. Don’t quote me on this because I don’t play, but someone told me League of Legends goes through and balances every couple weeks or so. Gw2 is however different in that it has PvE and WvW to deal with as well and as much as Anet may want it to be so things will never be balanced. There will always be the cheap builds of the current game build it’s just the nature of having 2 different skill sets vs each other.

So I’m dealing with the issue right now of whether to continue to play the builds I enjoy (that are only mildly cheap (otherwise I’d not even stand a chance)) or to conform to whatever the current game build meta is which, shadow hunter is in essence what you are suggesting to Weirdness Abounds (That is if he doesn’t play meta builds already … which I don’t believe he does (we are in the same guild after all)) just to get the points that are needed to get a piece of a Legendary (which again is another issue I’ll address in another post because this one is getting long.

A couple things I wanted to mention in response to the news feed post:
1. There was some mention about how much you had to use your entire skill bar in battles.
I think that I often had to use most skill in battle, between weapons swaps, utility skills, and the f skills, you can have a lot of abilities to utilize and a lot to learn. Knowing what skills do and when is the best to use them takes a lot of practice an experience and what separates new players from seasoned ones.
2. Teaming up with other players is always preferable to going it alone. I don’t even think you could do any of the events in this small area of HoT on your own. Certainly you can kill a few enemies … I tried to escort a Pack person during the night event on my own … and he just kept dying.
3. I did not feel the need to change up the skills or traits to overcome certain encounters. I usually stick to a “Build” that I like and maybe switch up utility skill. I often do that in fractals. The issues with changing a build, is that it is usually based on Armor/Weapons & Runes/Sigils. which are tough to change on the fly (unless you carry around extra armor sets for just such an occasion). I put a lot of thought an testing into my builds so I know what they do and what makes them work. Changing on the fly is not my style.
4. Leaderboards I could care less about … I am not in a competition. I play for fun not stress. Please be careful when making my PvE experience a competitive one. If I have to fight people to get the armor skins I want, I will stop playing because it will no longer be fun. PvP and WvW are there for the people that need to feel superior. I want to work together for a goal that does not make one group of players losers and another group winners, so far I’ve been able to do that (though I do like to PvP and WvW on occasion when it suits me, but there is a time an a place for it).
5. Masteries are great. I like the idea of learning new skills in an area that help you to better navigate the area. Gliding is a ton of fun as well The mastery points were a bit odd … you could complete a mastery track, but not get the mastery until you had a point to spend on it. I feel like that could cause problems if people raised the wrong masteries. Say for some crazy reason I decided to not take gliding and raised my other masteries in the area first. Will there be enough mastery points for me to then raise gliding? (since some of the mastery points require gliding to obtain). I feel like masteries should just complete, like PvP tracks and notify you and move you on to the next one (if you don’t choose a different one yourself). You have put in all the time to get the skill, why do you then have to get an arbitrary mastery point just to confirm it?
6. The events were nice, but I feel like we never made any headway and never really achieved anything lasting in the area. It seemed to me that every night things just reset and we’d have to do the same escort everyday to re-take the camps. Maybe just because this was beta, but it felt a bit like the temple events. All the sudden it is reset and you need to re-take it. I feel like there should be more of a preservation or defense aspect or events. Defend the camps at night or they get re-taking and you have to take them again the next day or some such. So we don’t follow the same route of retaking all the camps the next day. The route would then change to just re-take the ones that were lost during the night (maybe some just require gathering materials and defending the rebuilding process separate from the escort). Or something like that … maybe that is kind of how it works. I could not really tell. I was a bit confused by the nighttime events.

Overall I really liked the beta test and am excited to see what is fixed/changed for the next one (hopefully there will be more missions to do and more world to explore and more encounters to test out skills on). If nothing changes other than bug fixes, I will still enjoy HoT because I get to to go on new adventures with the characters I love to play and play with in the developing story of a world that has captured my imagination.

Thanks for all the hard work Anet!

Reaper:
I really was excited for this class, and it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what I expected.
I went with a zerker build similar to the one my current Necro has. (though he has zerker/Valkyrie accessories for the added lifeforce bar and hp)
I went full zerker with gear and weapons, Greatsword and Staff.
Traveler runes and Ice/Chilling Sigils.
Traits: Soul Reaping / Death Magic / Reaper
I used Consume conditions, Spectral Wrath, “Suffer!”, Blood is Power, and “Chilled to the Bone!”
I started with Blood Magic instead of Death Magic (my Necro used both which lets him stay in shroud a good amount of time when running with a group). I liked Death Magic a bit better because it cured conditions, upped my damage in Shroud, and gave me the shroud failsafe incase I was killed, which also worked with Blighter’s boon from Reaper to help heal me up when I was in shroud with low health.
Reaper seemed less about damage as I thought it would be, and more about control. (though it did do good damage as well)
I liked the function of “Suffer!” and “Chilled to the bone!” a lot they were great for adding chill and dealing with conditions and it was nice to have an elite skill that was not a form or a pet.
The greatsword was good for me … I think I like playing ranged classes better (even if I play them in melee at times) It was nice that the auto attack gave chill, because there is a lot of benefits to having the target chilled (might and damage increase and slowing the enemies movement and skills).
The #2 gs skill was cool. It hit pretty hard and had the nice cd recharge if it killed or hit a low health target.
The #3 skill was great for damage at close range …. I would miss sometimes though with sucked, because of bad positioning or the target moving, but overall I liked it, especially against several mobs and it gave a ton of vulnerability.
The #4 skill was my favorite. a growing field of blind and cripple, that does damage too. Great for close combat.
The #5 skill was useful, but felt weak … I feel like it would be better if it were closed to the guardian #5 greatsword skill. I was often hitting it in the wrong direction, or the enemy would move. … maybe add a directional arrow if it can’t be made more like the guardian one and give it a wider spread (like a cone) so you have a better chance of getting the enemy or multiple enemies.
Reaper skills

1. skill, is very similar to their Greatsword #1 skill and is nice for the chill. I also liked that the third hit added some lifeforce since you can’t get as much as a reaper as you can in regular deathshroud.
2. skill … This skill was the cause of most of my deaths in this beta … I was forever going off of cliffs using this skill. yeah, I know it was my fault because of bad positioning and maybe after awhile I would better learn exactly how far it takes me … but yeah I don’ t think I have the patience … I just stopped using it. It dosen’t seem to do a lot of damage either. I think this is the one that I had an issue with because it would charge at whatever I had targeted as well, instead of straight in front of me … which would be fine if it stopped me at the target … maybe that was another skill though. I can’t remember, I just remember that I was done with this skill.
3. on the otherhand was amazing! Yay stability! as soon as I went into shroud I would use this skill so I could get my #5 & #4 off without being interruped. (mind you the stability could still get removed, but it helps give you that defense … if skills are going to take awhile to cast, the option to use a stability skill beforehand makes it actually viable. Otherwise you get interrupted like crazy and your skill goes on cooldown and there seem to be no real point to even trying to use it)
4. this skill did soooo much damage in an Aoe (maybe too much, but I really don’t want to complain and I think the long CD makes up for it anyway) and it stacked poison like crazy. <3 this skill.
5. skill was very nice to chill. Again with the stability skill #3 offers it make this very viable.

Would I go for a Reaper as a main … probably not, especially since I like my Necro as it is better. I am able to stay in shroud longer and supply more group support with my current build. But Reaper chilling is really nice and I may consider it at some point for fun or for a change or on another necro.

Chronomancer:
Obviously not a good condi trait line, so I went with Soldier’s gear and weapons and Berserker Accessories.
Sword/Shield & Scepter/Focus … I am a bit of a focus addict (though scepter did surprisingly well as a power weapon) I went with Illusions/Inscriptions/Chronomancer
and took the Well of action & well of Recall (along with signet of Ether, null field, & timewarp)
I was going for all the slow, quickness, and alacrity I could get, to be more useful in a group.
Runes of the Pack & sigil of ice/force … though I would probably use something other than force … maybe water for more group support.
The Continuum Split Shatter was cool like a bigger version of mimic and without taking a utililty skill slot. I liked being able to use time warp, the wells, and the #5 shield skill and then getting to use them again … but of course I had to have illusion created first, so I think it was not too powerful, but more fun and somewhat useful than anything.
I like the #5 shield skill a lot how it stuns enemies & gives quickness to allies … if I moved however it would sometimes choose an odd path to come back on that would sometimes be too far away for me to catch on the way back. Though that is quite a fun dynamic
It also would not come back sometime (I think mostly when I was on a ramp or if it went over a cliff) then I was standing there waiting for it and feeling kinda awkward.
The block skill was nice. I love blocks, plus it would trigger the phantasmal defender and then when I shattered them, they would come back so I could use/shatter them again … I missed dodge rolling for clones, but this was not a bad alternative.
Though there were many times that I would hit the block skill and wait for something to hit me and it would hit my phantasm or someone else and I would not get my phantasm. Maybe if the block covered nearby allies as well and would just absorb the next attack anything took then it would be more reliable. (and a better support skill)

I have an issue with blocks like that (i.e. the scepter #2 skill) which are great if something actually hits you, but if not, you just stood there doing nothing and feeling stupid. Perhaps if they did there effect when the skill reaches its end (weather you blocked an attack or not, but not if you cancelled the skill early) that way you ether get the added bonus of blocking the attack and getting to resume play earlier or you can still get the effect of the skill but it just takes a little longer. I think that would alleviate my issues with block skills.

Would I play a Chronomancer over my current mesmer (My main)… probably not, though I may make another mesmer to be a chronomancer because it could be fun to play in dungeons as another way to support a group. My friends always like it when I drop time warp, so being able to drop 2 and having a mini one would make them happy I’m sure

Dragonhunter:
I went with full zerker gear since my aim was to be a ranged and play keep away (though some condi damage may have been useful too). I still went with Traveler runes (like I tend to on a guardian) the increased condi duration was nice for this build. I went with Sigil of Incap/Ice to help with the keep away aspect.
My build was Zeal/Virtues/Dragonhunter
The longbow is very nice … I feel bad for Rangers longbow in comparison, though their stealth ability is nice. (I also used a hammer, though not much for it’s ranged immob, ring of warding and knockback. I felt it paired well with my build focus)
The #1 longbow skill is nice. Yay! ricocheting shots and cripple if they do!
The #2 lb skill did a lot of damage so I was cool with it.
The #3 lb skill was nice to have a projectile defense
The #4 lb skill, Yay! ranged symbol … my scepter dosen’t have one QQ
The #5 lb skill, is what rangers should have as their #5 lb skill, but I’ll take it!
I used Signet of Resolve, Test of faith, Hammer of Wisdom, Purging flames, and “Feel my Wrath!”
Test of faith worked great with my build and was nice to lay down and have last for so long.
Hammer of wisdom, when it was traited was a nice knockdown and added burning
Purging flames I did not have to use all that often, but I like having it a s a condi cleanse just in case
Feel my wrath was great to get quickness and fury before I started attacking.
The sigils helped with the keep away as well
I feel like this was my most effective beta character to handle the stonehead dinos, but it was good against groups as well.

Would I make it my main … probably not (not enough group support I think), though I will change my guardian to a dragonhunter because I really enjoyed it and it fits his theme … I had always designed him (his look at least) to be focused of fighting the dragons, so when I heard of this specialization I was excited. I think it holds up well and I think I will enjoy playing it with him in the future.

Blow up the vinecrawler encounter (my technical name for it)
… I was lost on this encounter … when I was in a big enough group we were able to keep the menders and the hivekeepers back on one side, I would load the mortars and fire them … but they didn’t seem to do anything to the vinecrawler’s shield. Maybe it was just a cut off event or broken?
The hivekeepers were rather harsh (especially surrounded by menders) … definitely had to have a group to deal with them when they were veteran or above. Their bees if stacked on you take you down pretty quickly and they don’t leave when you are downed so there is little chance to survive.
The menders (in my opinion) should never be veterans or above, just send a lot of them if need be. Their healing can basically make the rest of their allies basically unkillable unless you are in a decent sized group (maybe that is the point … I’m not sure what then entended group size is supposed to be for the event encounters in beta)

Classes:
I tried the Revenant, Dragonhunter, Chronomancer, and Reaper
I am not a min/maxer (I believe that is considered meta in this game) nor do think berserker is the only relevant playstyle. I always like to do my own thing and see how it goes. I try to play more of what seems cool or fun or useful, rather than being the most powerful or effective.

Revenant:
So, I played this one basically like I did last beta … I <3 conditions for some reason. So I went with the Demon & Dwarf form Carrion/Sinister/Rabid gear and Mace Axe/Hammer. Corruption/Retribution/Devastation Traits (Scavenging runes & Blasting/force Sigils)
I enjoyed this a lot and I felt it was the most powerful of the classes I playtested … does that say something about the elite specializations? I dunno maybe I played them wrong.
I would use the #2 mace skill for a fire field the most (it has a low cooldown and burning seems do do quite a bit of damage) I like to combo it with the #3 mace skill and get might … Did the #4 skill for the axe change? I don’t remember it teleporting me to the target on the last beta, but I enjoyed this very much. and #5 Axe skill was useful to gather enemies together and as an interrupt.
I like the first utility skill that gives resistance and would use if after I would use the elite skill to give me some respite from the torment, or to supress an immobilize so I could dodge other attacks.
The skill that causes confusion I would use sometimes, it seemed expensive, and I had trouble having enough conditions on me to make it worthwhile.
The skill that teleports the enemies throught the mist seemed better this time than in the last beta, It seemed to group them up better, instead of spreading them out, but I still did not use it a whole lot because it could be hard for a group to deal with (it was nice for rezzing though)
I really only used dwarf form for the road to blast it and give everyone swiftness, and for the heal that would remove conditions.
The hammer I pretty much only used if I needed ranged or to block ranged attacks, but it was useful for that.

Would I make this Revenant my main … possibly. I think it would get decent play from me … low condition cleanse and low reflects make it hard for me, but at least it has some. Plus the lack of changing utility skills to fit the need makes it a bit rough for fractals I think.

Heya,
I enjoyed the PvE part beta very much! (I did not try PvP or WvW, while I do play those modes, PvE is my favorite part of the game)

(Attached is my Quantic Foundry gaming style)

Warning I don’t really read the forums and I did not do a ton of research on HoT so I may not understand some things as I first encountered them in the game, (I do try to keep up on the news feed from the launcher though) so if it was just stupidity on my part I’m sure I’ll learn at some point, but I left it in because I feel it may be valid for the devs to know

I am also not a competitive player, I play for fun and to enjoy spending time with friends. Though I do try to be skilled and knowledgeable. I have more drive to get a new piece of armor to complete a character’s look or because it would be interesting in a new build I want to try than because it would make me dominate.

I also just realized what a noob I have been (after writing this whole thing up) … I did not use food or utility buffs for my playtesting. I also don’t really use them in the game, though they give a great benefit … it just has never seemed to outweigh the pain of farming up herbs or the like to make them and I don’t like buying consumables off the AH, especially if I could make them myself. I have a love hate relationship with consumables. I know they are really useful, but it seems like every game I play I tend to not use them. I like renewable skills and abilities, and though I tend to horde consumables sometimes for a rainy day … when that rainy day comes, I forget to use them.
I was just looking at the Bowl of garlic Kale Sautee and thinking how much I would like to have that benefit … but then I looked at the materials needed to make 1 bowl to last me 1 hour: 20 head of garlic and 30 kale leaf and I know I will never bother … it is more of a pain to farm that up than to go without … and I certainly won’t use gold to get something that is a consumable when there are so many more shiny permanent benefits I can get with it. (course I would not want to slight anyone who makes extra money buy selling these consumables). … but I digress anyway, on to my thoughts on HoT!

Gliding:
Gliding is a blast, I can’t wait to use it more! (I noticed you can do it in Silverwastes too … dunno if that was just in the story mode or a bug or if it will be added)
I still couldn’t figure out how to get to the mastery point on the rocks to the left of the entrance rock. … maybe my gliding wasn’t leveled enough.
Being able to stop gliding and fall and start again was very useful as well.

Jumping Mushrooms:
I leveled to get the jumping mushrooms, which were nice, but there weren’t as many as I hoped there would be and the one near where the daytime escorts stopped (near the pit but not next to it) missed the bridge a couple times when I used it and I had to glide back down and use it again.
I liked that the mushroom by the wall (that you defend the top for a very long time during the daytime escort) landed you first on a place that you could afk safely. With all the enemies that randomly spawn on this map, it is nice to have safe areas when you need to take a quick afk break.

Beta Map & enemies:
Enemies could get a bit overwhelming, if you were on your own or in a small group.
The Stoneheads worked well. I could pretty easily take out a Veteran on my own if I avoided the attacks, which had good tells to them.
The pocket raptors were adorable and not too tough even when there was a lot of them since they did not attack too often, so they were good.
The snipers were a bit hard to deal with if you had more enemies to face, they did a lot of damage that was hard to negate without reflects (even if you had decent tough/vit)
Punishers seemed good, I did not totally understand the defiance bar … but I did not have lot of interrupts either. (Not sure when defiance was broken or not they had a red shield and a grey bar when they were charging their attack, some enemies had a blue bar that would go down … maybe it meant these guys could not be interrupted? … I probably just need to encounter the new defiance more to learn it)
Tormentors aoe’s lasted a long time and got quite large … but they did not seem to hurt too much, though the cripple was a pain. They were easy with a ranged class though.
The Mushroom guys could get a bit overwhelming when you got a lot of them together. Maybe you could make it so that when they die, if you stun (or cc) them, then they don’t explode? Could be a fun dynamic.

I wouldn’t care if it did just a tiny bit of damage … it was good for getting tags on multiple targets and fun to see the bouncing numbers. Not to mention the only real reason I started playing a thief. I love the double pistol thing, but not hitting multiple mobs kills my desire to play it. Sure it is shallow, sure I was a crappy thief, but I sure had fun watching my bullets bounce around.

/cry … that is all

Hello,

This was not covered in the post on march 26th, so I thought I’d inquire about it.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

I am in the process of creating a legendary at the moment and am getting very close to having in completed (just need to farm some more T6 mats). I already have my precursor and got excited to hear that they will have new skins and that:

“We like to think of these new precursor skins as the legendary weapon before it is embodied by its soul. Unlocking one of these new skins in your wardrobe will also unlock the two previous tiers of skins. So, should you get lucky and find a precursor out in the world, you won’t miss out on the skins.”

However, I am wondering if I should craft my Legendary now, or if I should wait for HoT because I want to unlock the skins for my precursor as well.

I am at an impasse because I really want my Legendary as soon as I can make it (it will be my first), but I don’t want to miss out on unlocking the precursor skin just because I am impatient.

I know I will be able to go through the Mastery track and unlock the skin after HoT drops, but there are several other legendary weapons I want to work on first … and going through all the work of crafting a precursor for a legendary I already have just to get the skins does not sound very exciting.

My suggestion is then, that all the precursor skins unlock for each legendary equipped when HoT comes out. That way people can focus on the Legendary weapons (and precursors) they don’t have first, as opposed to working to make a precursor to a Legendary they already have just to unlock the new precursor skins.
(I mainly want to make my legendary now and enjoy it instead of having to wait for HoT to hit >=} (since I don’t want to be penalized for crafting a legendary just before the expansion and miss out on the new precursor skins))

P.S.
Mind you, I may still want to craft it eventually for the experience and to get the additional tradable precursor:

“This final collection unlocks the recipe to craft the polished final iteration of the precursor. For all of our existing precursors, this is a tradable exotic weapon, but they will all be updated to use new skins that look much like the legendary weapons they’ll one day become. "

However, that would only be for fun (if the process is fun) after I have worked on all the other legendary weapons I want.

Heya,
I have to believe this has been mentioned before and if so, maybe I can shed some light on it again.

I often find myself wanting to dodge (I play a mesmer mainly and use it to make extra clones) but when I do I end up falling off a cliff to an even worse doom than if I had just taken the hit (or gone without the extra clone). To that end and some others I will mention. I think it would be very beneficial if there was an option to:

\o/ Dodge roll in place!!! \o/ (<—-cheering people to either side … at least in my head ^.^)

Another reason I would like to mention is that several traits give an effect at the end of a dodge roll. One for warrior, that does damage, and one for elementalist, that does an attunment based effect … there may be more I do not know of or cannot recall at the moment. I believe it would be more useful to on occasion dodge roll in place to have these effects trigger where you are at, instead of where you are rolling too. It would give them a great deal more control and usefulness.

A further reason … and why I intitally though of this to begin with is that of tanking. I know that the game does not have hard Tank/Heal/Dps roles, and I love that about the game (being a veteran of 8 years of World of Warcraft). However sometimes it is fun to try and focus more towards one of those bents. I was thinking that “Tanking” in this game would be much easier if you could dodge roll in place and not risk losing aggro on a boss because it chose a new target, at a closer proximity to it, now that you have dodged across the room. Though tanking is not really a part of this game, I believe that players who choose to try it on as something new (or fondly remembered on occasion from previous digital lives) would have a better go at it.

… And of course the whole dodge rolling off a cliff thing I mentioned at the top and would be grateful to never encounter again (except of course by and errant keystroke, that seems ever to be the bane of my existence :P)

I’m sure there are other reasons as well (which hopefully others can shed light on in this post) but I’ll stop there and give my thoughts on how maybe to achieve this.

My first thought (and favorite, might I add) is to make it a keyable option so that you would have the normal dodge roll key (“V” by default) and the dodge roll in place key (“C” or the like … not sure if “C” does something else already … it would be changeable anyway, none the less)

A second option I was thinking of is maybe making it a toggle with the normal dodge roll, so out of combat you could switch your dodge roll to dodge roll in place for certain times when it would be more useful cough jumping puzzles cough. This option would be less versatile I think, but adding restrictions is sometimes a fun challenge and it would be better than not being able to dodge roll at all (for fear of falling to one’s death)

A third option may be to add it to Trait lines (maybe specifically the ones that have effects that happen at the end of a dodge roll or are more “Tanky” in nature). Thus giving the player the choice whether or not they feel it is beneficial enough to add to their build. (Though again I would prefer the first option … this is way better than nothing)

Hopefully this will be useful food for thought … or a happy reminder of old thoughts, with perhaps a chance of adding some additional useful function to the game I am coming to know and love.

Thanks, and Cheers, and Well Wishes!
~A~

In the latest article “New Drum instrument and Avian Minis in the Gem Store!” they again mention transmutation splitters:

“Transmutation Splitters will continue to work on items that were transmuted before the April 2014 Feature Pack. You also have the option of exchanging Transmutation Splitters for 5 Charges at a Black Lion Armor Trader in any major trading post.”

But will they be available before the feature pack?
It sounds like they won’t be available after the feature pack because they will no longer be necessary. They now have a solution if you have extra … but if you did not get one in the small window that they were available after the 25th, than you are just out of luck? Sorry, this is just frustrating I’m not sure why they are not available at this point.

Heya,

I cannot find the transmutation splitter on the Black Lion Trading Post, even when searching for it. I did not see in any article where is was being removed (though this could have been an oversight on my part) In the march 25th article “Introducing the Wardrobe system” concerning the up coming 2014 feature pack it states: “Use a Transmutation Splitter on any transmuted items if you want to have access to the stats of both components.” I would like to do this with a couple of my items, however I do not have any transmutation splitters and cannot find them on the trading post. If they have been removed, could they please be added back before the patch so that I and others like me can follow the advice of the article and get the stats for both of the items that were transmutated.

Thank you kindly!

(I put this in the bug forum, though it may be better suited to suggestion … I was not sure which to put it in so feel free to move it accordingly ^.^)

I want to chime in too. The Underground Facility Fractal kills many a group I’ve been in, compared to the rest of the fractals it is longer for some reason. I have had several groups fall apart for that reason alone. People have time constraints in their lives and though they want to complete the fractals having to do 3+boss including this one just seems to be too much sometimes. I would have like to continue this fractal the time that I got it, but the instance leader often seems to be the one on the time constraint and so everyone has to abandon it because he or she leaves.