Guild Wars 2

Tomes are not meant to be Kits!
Tomes are not meant to be Elemental attunements!

We are not meant to slip in and out of them, they are cooldowns we save for emergency situations, pop for big burst, burn through the pages fast, then return to our weapon.

Stop trying to make Tomes something they never were meant to be.

Core guardian is our support spec, you can talk about making core guardian stronger but not making new elites similar to core guard. The entire point of elite specs are them feeling like completely new classes, not the same as before.

I’m fine with it being bad in PvP if it’s strong in PvE, which it is, so stop complaining before you make it bad in both PvP and PvE.

Kerivek.5740:

Doombringer BG.3740:

lol look at these people cryin’ failing to understand that this is not pvp/wvw oriented

None of the specs are intended to work in only one game mode so stop with this crap. The specs that are only used for one game mode are that way due to bad design, not intent. If they get the spec right it should have some kind of place in all aspects of the game. Obviously this isn’t as easy to achieve as we would like, but stop acting like the spec was designed for the sole purpose of PvE use.

You are wrong.

The devs have clearly stated numerous times that elite specs have niches and won’t work in every game mode and every scenario.

Look at the Warrior elite spec, purely PvP.

It isn’t “bad deign”, it is deliberately and smart, we are meant to swap our Elite specs in and out, DragonHunter should be seeing just as much play time as Firebrand this expansion, that is how this game is meant to be played, that is the entire point of elite specs.

The entire point of elite specs is that it feels like a new class, they are not meant to be a replica of our core traits, not every elite spec is going to be a support/dps/tank spec.

I think they should strip ALL support from the Firebrand and focus on making it a strong condi burn spec.

Alteran.9510:

They don’t need more range, they need to be a 360 AoE.

Then they would be nerfed into the ground and shouts would be useless.

Cones also allow the skills to be stronger, make them aoe and they will have to be nerfed.

Alchimist.4738:

Clunky is the word.

…and in PvP cone attacks are horrendous to use against allies because they’re constantly moving…

…Tomes should behave more like Engineer kits…

…As a condition build Firebrand is quite good, but as a support it’s clearly too clunky to be efficient at its job.

Then don’t use Mantras in PvP? Like i don’t understand why y’all are struggling with this concept, just because it’s new doesn’t mean it replaces all our other skills.

Tomes should never be like Kits. Tomes are meant to be cooldowns we use in intense situations, not swapped in and out as a weapon replacement.

Why should the Firebrand be good at both condi and support? That is how balance problems are created.
I would much rather have a strong condi guard with no support then a weak condi guard with weak support. The ‘jack of all trades master of none’ thing is horrible class design.

Then don’t use Firebrand in PvP/WvW? That is perfectly ok to so and is ArenaNets design intention.

This is what happens when they allow a beta test only in PvP, they should have allowed PvE testing to.

My only minor suggestions would be put quickness on axe symbol and widen the cone and range on mantras slightly, besides that the spec feels amazing to play.

Tomes are meant to be cooldowns, not something you just slip in and out of. You save them for those intense moments.

Instead of asking for the cooldown and cast time to be reduced we should ask for the tome skills to be more impactfull.

Tomes may function like Kits, but we are not meant to use them like Kits, they are essentially 3 bonus elite skills, just like our old tome elite skills were.

The cones on Mantra have to stay, otherwise what’s the point in Shouts? We can talk about widening the cone and increasing the range but the cone is a key aspect to the gameplay.

The charge up on Mantras is good, your’e not meant to burn through all charges in one go, you have to weave your skills and time them according to the situation, not spam use them all at once.
The final charge can be more impactfull so that flirt of going on long cooldown is more incising.

Also why do we need to be the masters of everything? That creates design chaos, if Firebrands are good are fire bombing then let them be good at fire bombing, use DragonHunter if you want more support.

Mikali.9651:

what slow casting with such huge amount of quickness? Are you even reading skills? seriously.

Exactly.

Don’t get mad at the spec just because you don’t know how to play it correctly, it is one of the fastest, least clunkyest elite specs in the game.

Darknicrofia.2604:

You’ll be gods in Sabetha, Gors and Xera.

Then do nothing vs the other raid bosses that require more than standing in melee range.

Then we can respec and use our other elite specs are talents.

Firebrand is not meant to replace DragonHunter.

Mantras are not meant to replace all our other skills.

If shouts work better in WvW then use shouts, it dosn’t mean Mantras suck, it just means there not meant to WvW.

Brutaly.6257:

Darknicrofia.2604:

Firebrand deals insane amounts of damage to a DPS golem standing still at melee range.

That’s about all it does.

This, it is only good versus a golem, its just crap in wvw and pvp.

Well no more guard for me, got to test my main char “The Deadeye”.

Some elite specs are not meant to be played in some game modes, look at the Warrior elite spec, it’s pure pvp.

We are not meant to forget about DragonHunter, elite specs are meant to be switched in and out, let DragonHunter be our elite spec for PvP, and Firebrand our elite spec for PvE, it makes balance easier and allows the devs to make those elite spec strong in their unique ares.

Darknicrofia.2604:

Firebrand deals insane amounts of damage to a DPS golem standing still at melee range.

That’s about all it does.

So we will be gods in PvE, i see no problem here
We can use DragonHunter for PvP.

I’m seeing a lot of people complaining about Mantras when they are not even using them properly lol.

Maybe the Firebrand isn’t meant for PvP? Not all elite specs are made for every game mode. Firebrand is insanely overpowered right now and extremely fun to play.

It’s fast, flows extremely well, Mantras are fun, burn guard is insane, i don’t understand the complaints, we are gods right now, instead of complaining and asking for buffs you should begging the devs not to nerf us into the ground.

You guys love to complain over nothing.

I know you would love to have super overpowered aoe infinite burn support skills but that would break the game.

You should also be clear about what game mode your complaining about, not all elite specs will work for all game modes.

Yall are asking for buffs meanwhile i’m worried we will be nerfed hard, Firebrand does insane amounts of damage.

Once again not a single Spirit Weapon change… this is beyond a joke at this point.

And yet more Signet buffs no one asked for… signets still suck ArenaNet.

Are the devs even trying? Are they listening? This is embarrassing.

AegisFLCL.7623:

warbignime.4610:

Why are people keep saying it’s a small patch? We get a new map, even though it looks small on first glance but the verticality makes up for it, if we count the playable land mass together excluding air portion the map is still around the size of southsun and certainly bigger than half of DT. We also get a new pvp map, a new fractal and tons of qol changes. I dont get why are people complaining.
lets see s2 for example, 2 weeks with huge breaks delivers way less content than this in period of 2-3 month. As well as considering the quality increase in story, voice acting and map quantity.

I believe the main reason that disappointment is being expressed, is because we’ve had NO living story content since the HOT release. While we did get plenty of other content, those of us waiting mainly for the story end up with very little to do in between 2-3 month periods of content drought.

This.
If they had released this patch three months after HoT launch i would be very happy, but after nearly a year? This is not enough.

warbignime.4610:

Arnath.2319:

What have the devs been working on over the past year because it can not just be this incredibly tiny patch?

I am already finished, story done, map done, achievements done.

They added no new armor, no new weapons, no rewards to work towards, nothing to keep me loged in.

What they did add was great but it was way to small. I thought MO said this patch would be roughly the size of 8-9 old Living World chapters? This felt like the size of one!

Not only was the size of the content small but the polish was bad too, compared to Season 2 and Dry Top and SIlverwastes this map, the achievements, the rewards, feels like a massive step backwards.

First, MO never said that ever. So dont know where u got that from. Also I can not take you seriously when you call Bloodstone Fen a step back . Even though its small on the map, the verticallity makes up for it, if we are counting the landmass together it is bigger than southsun and bigger half of DT. The rewards are cool where as you get gliding combat skills. I can not take what u said with a straight face.

“Some of you may look back nostalgically at 2013 when we shipped updates every two weeks. That year we shipped a wide variety of things: nine or ten releases that we’d today call a Living World episode, plus updates to systems and content for other parts of the game, plus festivals. So it was the extreme unbundled version of this.” -MO

Mo did say that.

The map is tiny, the verticalality tricks you into thinking it’s larger than it actually is. The rewards are terrible, another ugly backpice, some minis that wont show up in a map because they get auto hidden, and a bunch of useless glider skills that can only be used on this one pointless boring map.

The new map is the smallest in the game, and because there are no rewards tied to it there is no reason to play it more than once, which i already have.

The story is nice but predictable, no achievements tied to it like Season 2 stories did so there is no reason to replay it, already finished the story.

Fractal is cool but again no new rewards to work towards so doing the fractal once and i’m done.

So that is it, i am now extremely bored again for 3-4 months.

What have the devs been working on over the past year because it can not just be this incredibly tiny patch?

I am already finished, story done, map done, achievements done.

They added no new armor, no new weapons, no rewards to work towards, nothing to keep me loged in.

What they did add was great but it was way to small. I thought MO said this patch would be roughly the size of 8-9 old Living World chapters? This felt like the size of one!

Not only was the size of the content small but the polish was bad too, compared to Season 2 and Dry Top and SIlverwastes this map, the achievements, the rewards, feels like a massive step backwards.

Raiders asked for difficult content, no exclusive rewards.

Legendary armor is not raid exclusive, it will be coming to other game modes. The only exclusive part is how it visually looks.

An easier mode raid (i prefer to call them dungeon mode raids) will give content to the other 99% of players.

PLUS it allows the devs to make the normal mode raids much harder, giving you the difficult content you’ve been asking for.

It is win win, there is not a single negative consequence to allowing dungeon mode raids. Everyone is happy. People stop complaining about raids. It gives the devs more time to develop content since more players are consuming raid content instead of the current 6 month drought.

What really angers me is that Raids get there own independent team, and the last 6 months have been 100% Raids and NOTHING else, yet Living World Season 3 gets interrupted for PvP?!

I am so disgusted at how this game has forced Raids upon us with no other content, and now the other content that they have had SIX MONTHS to work on will be slowly released and interrupted by PvP.

At this point i have basically given up. Arena Net is quickly proving to be one of the worst company’s at releasing content. This has been one of the longest content droughts in MMO history.

I hope all gaming media picks up on this, “GW2 abandons its core fans to cater to Raiders” “GW2 in danger of dying after mass exodus of players due to no content”.

webtoehobbit.4201:

And to those of you who think, “They said each chapter will have a higher quality.” Just look at their history of making promises. Each chapter will be as short as Season 2. Calling it now, nothing will change.

And “higher quality” is not the same as “more content”. These LS3 chapters could be just as small as previous chapters, just with more polish.

I think it was a mistake of them to let third party websites release this info first, hopefully a dev can clarify these statements before the riots start.

Personal feelings about this:

How is it that Raids get there own exclusive team that apparently does not interrupt all other content, yet Living Story has to make sacrifices for PvP?
Is the Living Story team and the PvP team the same team?

If there is going to be a two-three month gap between chapters each chapter better be the size of half an expansion worth of content. New maps, new armor, new weapons, new story, new achievements. These chapters better be HUGE in content.

Why such long gaps between chapters? What have the devs been working on the last few months if they need even MORE time between chapters?

Overall i am really disappointed.

Interview from E3:

“The Season 3, scheduled for the coming months, probably by the end of the summer, provides a lot of irons in the fire and the introduction of new content both in PvE you in PvP.
As for the upcoming episodes of the main quest, they will not be released together but will be held by one every two or three months, unlike the second season, for several reasons. The first is definitely having listened to feedback from players interested in PvP, giving more balance to the support among the various types of content instead of reserving too much importance to history, which will continue Yes to be expanded but not as fast as before. Release the episodes on a lower, at the same time, will increase the quality and possibly the density of content to satisfy even those who, perhaps, was not pleased by an overly hasty release.”

• No Living Story till the end of Summer (maybe).
• 2-3 months between Chapters.
• PvP content interrupts Living World content.

Also only one new fractal this year.

BobbyStein.2315:

Stand The Wall.6987:

BobbyStein.2315:

• If any lore information from the raids is relevant to storylines in other content, we’ll make sure that information is also available in that other content.

So if that other content isnt created yet, can we assume it will for the sole purpose of providing lore information present in other content?
:3

Not sure I understand the question.

If any plot points or lore information from the raids are relevant to other content in the game (e.g. Living World, WvW, etc.) we’ll make sure that when you’re playing that other content you get the info you need. Does that make sense?

Even tho it was very clearly stated even before HoT launch that Raids would be a completely different separate story from Living World and all other GW2 main story.

I find it shocking, hilarious yet entirely predictable that over the last few months this has now changed into “the story is connected and if you don’t do raids we will add a wall of text to read somewhere else to catch you up”.

Once again in no way shape or form is this acceptable.

Absurdo.8309:

It seems like you want less of a lore mode and more of a easy mode raid. Especially since fighting the bosses + finished instance seems to meet your lore criteria.

Easy mode raid is a bit off topic, and I recommend you comment in the plethora of threads on this issue. But, briefly, not all content needs to be complete-able at all skill levels, as long as there is a variety of content to choose from. There’s no easy mode arah explorable, for instance, and that has a lot more lore.

Lore mode is easier mode, i seem them exactly the same. There is no reason to make raids soloable. There is no reason to turn raids into a living story instance, or story mode instance like dungeons have.

My problem with raids are both locking out content to players AND locking out lore to players.

Not all content needs to be completed by players, but all players should have the option to complete the content. Raids are currently the only game mode that lock players out for multiple reasons.

You don’t need an easy mode Arah because it is already at an acceptable accessible level. It is easy to get five players together and clear it within a reasonable time.

Most of the lore is in the cleared instance. The only “missing” component is minor dialog during the fight and actually fighting the boss.

Most of the lore is in cleared instance, but all of the experience is in the bosses, experiencing the lore is what we want. I want to play a game, not read about it.

The thing is, you can experience that right now. Nothing is stopping you from fighting the bosses.

We have covered this already. Multiple times. In multiple threads. Over and over and over again.

But instead, you want a “story mode” raid.

I want a Dungeon Mode, exactly the same as raids except dungeon level of difficulty, doable with five players. With slower to acquire rewards or different rewards.

Something that will have no replay value.

No replay value for YOU.
Dungeons are very popular and still see lots of replay to this day.

Will require developer resources.

True, but if the smallest dev team can produce this much content in a few months, taking 1-2 devs from the expansion team (or the cancelled legendary team) to work on scaling the raids down for 5players seems very reasonable to me.

And cater to an extremely small segment of the population.

You mean… just like raids currently do?
Allowing a dungeon mode would open this content to everyone, catering to the overwhelming majority of the population.

BobbyStein.2315:

Kossage.9072:

Izithel.6853:

Yup, the only ‘lore’ you might miss by not fighting the actual bosses is some meaningless boss banter to give them some personality and vague hints at what the notes and environment proceed to explain in a crystal clear manner.

I’ve seen quite a few comments like this both here and on Reddit, and I feel I must chime in on this subject which is very dear to my heart as a player interested in Guild Wars 2 lore. I’d argue that people, who don’t play through raid content and only appear after the instance has already been cleared, do miss out on lore. There’s more lore in the raid than just the spoken exposition at the end of Salvation Pass or the written contents of the scattered journals.

The raid team delivers the narrative in many other ways as well as per Guild Wars tradition and have even invented a new, exciting way to do so which is currently exclusive to raids (I hope we’ll see them expand that great narrative concept to other group content like fractals etc. if possible).

I just wanted to call out your thoughtful and informative post. You’re exactly right. A person can get pretty much all of the optional and supplementary lore by exploring a cleared raid instance. They will miss out on character interactions, enemy dialog, and player commentary that would be triggered during fights, however.

We try to structure the cleared raid instance experience to still convey all the most important bits of the narrative. If we’re not meeting that expectation, then we’ll have to look at ways to improve this. You’ve all given us some great feedback for consideration. Thanks for that.

Entering an empty raid instance to experience lore is unacceptable, this has already been discussed numerous times. This is a game, we want to play and experience the lore.

Telling your players to enter an empty raid wing is just as bad as telling your players to go read a wiki or watch a youtube vid.

It is not fun.

I believe you would prefer it if people actually purchased and played the game? Purchased the HoT expansion?

“GW2 the MMO that there is no point in playing because it’s just as fun as reading a wiki page”

Look at Living World Season 1, why do the devs want to bring it back? Because they know that content matters, they know reading about it from a wiki, or npc is NOT fun.

Until they make Raids accessible to everyone this issue will continue to get worse.

All of ArenaNets problems would disappear if they just made a Dungeon Mode of each raid.

Exactly the same as Raids except it is 5man, lower difficulty, and lesser/slower/gated rewards.

Bam, Raiders are happy, Dungeoners are happy, no more complaints, peace on earth.

After playing on my Mesmer and even my Warrior during this PvP season going back to my Guardian is extremely painful, we move sooooooooo ssssllllooooowwwww.

We need an F4 that gives us a passive and a active speed.

If they want to nerf the damage, despite it not being overpowered, they need to also remove the root in place, and reduce the cast time on both this, symbol and ward.

I am trying to not get upset and get angry but i just don’t understand how incredibly unaware the devs are, three years and we are still dealing with half this class being broken and now HoT has put the nail in the coffin, and the devs remain silent….

Even Wooden Potatoes who hit legendary on his Mesmer agrees that it is stupidly overpowered.

Meanwhile no one is playing Guardians for the last two seasons and they nerf them even further…

Zeghart.9841:

Can’t help but feel like this is just overreaction.

They are not overreacting, Guardians have been garbage for months with problems stemming back many years. Every single patch it is nothing but nerfs, none of our many broken traits/ weapons/ skills ever get touched despite years of mature well written posts.

HoT made everything worse, Guardians are the most useless class in the entire game now, this isn’t even an exaggeration, we truly are completely moldy garbage in every game mode.

And the devs do nothing about, no communication, no acknowledgment of our problems, nothing.

I honestly don’t know what to do anymore, trying to talk to the devs like mature adults doesn’t work, and i am not going to wait another three years in the hope that they finally stop being lazy and do something meaningful.

This patch was the last straw for me, i thought after the train wreck that was the last balance patch and once again the overwhelming mature positive feedback that followed that would finally get something positive, but no, once again ANet insults its playerbase, the way they are treating us is disgusting and immoral

Be thankful, us Guardians have been useful for the past two season, receiving nothing but nerfs for years, and are now the most useless class in GW2 history with this recent patch.

There was a Warrior in our match, he appeared offline yet ran around the map deliberately losing and spamming chat about his exploits.

StickerHappy.8052:

Arnath.2319:

They also need to nerf Scrappers and Necros if they want to save this season.

No revs?

And Revs.

They also need to nerf Scrappers and Necros if they want to save this season.

Insanely high damage, insanely high sustain, insanely high group support. Scrappers are God tier and need the biggest nerf that has ever nerfed in the history of all nerfs.

This is some of the worst balancing i have seen in MMO history.

It has been a few days, the devs clearly see how Necros and Scrappers are super mega out of this world ultra massive insanely mind blowing over powered. Every match all i see is Necros and Scrappers, they are being stacked like crazy!

I hope as soon as the devs get back to work after the weekend they quickly work to implement massive mega nerfs, otherwise no point in playing this season just like the last.

Necros and Scrappers a insanely over powered, how have they not been super nerfed yet?

Honestly this season is so much worse than last season.

Has the latest patch changed anything for PvE?

Indure.5410:

but dear god why did Anet even mention “In keeping with the general theme of improving less used options, we’ve been updating both traits and abilities to be more useful and to have a meaningful impact when you equip them.”

This, they did NOTHING to fix our most least used skills, Spirit Weapons. And barely did anything to our second most least used skills Signets.

Yet they buffed the skills we already used the most in pvp.

I honestly truly believe the devs are not even trying.

i’m waiting for Obal to give his thoughts on the patch notes.

Scowny.1654:

Guardians have always been viable. They just aren’t optimal.

I wish people would stop saying this, it basically means the same thing in practical terms.

I could try open heart surgery, but with no medical training it’s not very optimal.

Marvok.1083:

Funny thing is the buffs to smite condi are bugged because it still only removes 1 condi and f2 is still affected by cc, so gj anet even the buffs you gave us are bugged…

wow really? they really hate Guardians.

i doubt a dev is even reading these forums, whens the last time a dev posted here?

maybe in three months when the next balance patch hits they will fix the bugs.

mrauls.6519:

We survived!

Few nerfs ^__^! CoP buff! Woo hoo!

huh?
we are still completely useless in pvp and pve.
if by survived you mean they didn’t spit on our graves then ok…

Guardians are in the same boat, not meta since HoT launch.

We should team up to kidnap all the Chronomancers in the game, combine their time powers and go back in time to stop Revenants from ever being implemented.