Guild Wars 2

Infusion.7149:

Deadeye : lowered mobility for rifle users so it will likely be for defending structures / scouting keeps . The deadeye marks may be used with regular thief weapons

Deadeye/stealth gank squads will be a thing (just like ghost thief). The ranged Deadeye’s Mark (boon strip from stealth/daze to knock gliders out of air/mug damage/poison spam) with 1500 range basically spammable immobilize/also applies poison all while possible to do in 2x 4s Quickness burst plus multiple stealth options or multi-teleport/escape option is way too strong.

OK, here you go – new zerg meta

(aka multi-target ranged pull bomb)

Yes, please starve the Necros of life force. They have nothing on weapon sets or combinations with utilities/traits that generates it. Also, don’t die either and don’t let those couple of plebs die that seem to fall at the beginning of just about every zerg clash.

This is kind of nonsense though. 40 coordinated and built with synergy of mechanic stacking will always beat 40 random or even more.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Mirage is extremely strong from a selfish defensive capability and condi damage and in combat mobility aspect. Core Mesmer Veil and Portal utilities will continue to be the role that they play though. Every zerg will want to have a few to fulfill this role but can live without it. More coordinated zergs will continue to win because of initiative and there is a solid role for Mirage to play rez focused while in the heat of it because of mirage evade mechanic not interrupting actions.

You’ve completely lost me. Mirage doesn’t offer anything over Chrono for a zerg.

Literally nothing. not a single one of mirage’s utilities or traits are helpful for a zerg. The only thing Mirage has over chrono is the ability to continue casting while dodging, and sword 1 ambush leaps.

That’s it.

Mirage is the Mesmer equivalent of a non-venomshare Thief. It holds zero value in a zerg over the other possible variants of Mesmer.

Want more invuln? Take signets. Want utility? Mirage has none. Want clone generation? Chrono. Want to use veil 4 times as a single person? Chrono. Want a useful shield that’ll help you survive when the fight starts? Chrono.

Want to play the most selfish Mesmer build to exist yet? Even more selfish than base power shatter Mesmer? Play Mirage.

We are saying the same thing. Mirage is self defensive focused (basically the 2nd traits across the elite line) and the rest of it is weak. But portal and veil will still have a role as they did before for zerg.

General zerg

Mechanics of meta zerg will be ball up, pull and bomb based. This is caused primarily because projectile hate is still very strong like in HoT and classes that have these mechanics seek them out – 100% mitigation and reflect typically to boot. Boon hate (removal of stab) will be high, and with the nerf to pulsing Stab, and the mass influx of stacking Scourge corrupt and Spellbreaker mechanics will make CC very strong again.

Most ideal zerg parties splits will be 1-2 Guards (at least 1 Firebrand), 1 Spellbreaker, 1-2 Scourge, and a filler class. Outside of Firebrand, all these classes can be replaced to an extent. Damage will appear to be heavily condi based but is really a hybrid mix of direct and condi so sustain of mixing toughness and vitality to a point will continue to be key for general stat builds especially since damage will be more burst/lockdown in nature.

Class builds

Firebrand – the pivot of the new zerg because of Heated Rebuke (F1, 3) and (F3, 2) Daring Challenge on a 4s cooldown which is basically a huge pull/taunt CC that can be coupled with GS pull as well. The commander can lead the bomb initially and then pull back some for support/regroup if needed while in Tome of Courage. Mantra Elite will see some use just because of the AoE stun break but RF will continue to be primarily used.

Note, Dragonhunter will continue to see some use for havoc/roaming, single target pull F1 and general survivability. However, DH is more suited in general for older pirate ship meta or when ganking.

Scourge – get used to it. With the heavy boon corrupt and heavy condi cleanse capable, you’ll see a lot of Curses or Blood/Soul Reaping/Scourge meta which will destroy less coordinated zergs. Fear from Shade and AoE staff fear will support CC meta. Shades will have heavy Lifeforce costs (or rather allows some very strong spam) but will be the cornerstone of success or failure to counter a similar sized zerg. I expect to see target limits nerfed soon.

Spellbreaker – Interrupt/CC/boon removal coupled with Firebrand pulls. Hammer and Full Counter and offhand dagger or shield. The return of the melee train meta is heavily influenced based on CC from Warrior after initial clash coupled with the new Elite for melee bomb and supported by Magebane Tether. I do expect the Elite utility to be nerfed from 10s to 6s because of it. It’s going to be fun to play Spellbreaker in the new world melee train initially.

Mirage is extremely strong from a selfish defensive capability and condi damage and in combat mobility aspect. Core Mesmer Veil and Portal utilities will continue to be the role that they play though. Every zerg will want to have a few to fulfill this role but can live without it. More coordinated zergs will continue to win because of initiative and there is a solid role for Mirage to play rez focused while in the heat of it because of mirage evade mechanic not interrupting actions.

Weaver will generally see low game play in WvW. Weaver’s Tailored Vicory is very strong and stances with multi-ammo mechanic are nice but the Sword itself will see low play outside of dueling/roaming where basically passive barrier gain is strong against single targets. Eles will be encouraged to continue to join zergs but just not as Weavers per se.

Renegade will fill similar type builds as Scourge. With CC from Hammer or will fill a lesser form of condi damage role with spammable (but reflectable) AoE bleed spam makes them strong. Mallyx will be able to fulfill the Scourge role of condi clear but ultimately will be more vulnerable than the equivalent Scourge when things go south – better to just lose the condis than to gain a corruptable resistance boon.

Soulbeast will be in odd spot as the base pet disappears when needed now. There will be a lot of shout based/WHaO/Live Fast combo builds but because they ultimately require boons to be effective and with the heavy strip meta incoming, will be seen as a liability in the new meta. If a zerg is heavier ranged base/outnumbers opponent zergs, they’ll continue to do fine. Soulbeast will be highly suited for solo/roaming because of how strong/quickly boons can be stacked quickly and steam role. Good luck all you perma Bearbeast players.

Deadeye will be rare outside of roaming where it’ll be extremely powerful due to more recent Deadly Arts changes on giving Poison stacks on every immobilize. Rifle will see use for the Immobilize/Poison spam until nerfed (couple with Sword mainhand on switch) with supplement mobility/stealth – sorry all, I will abuse until then. Daredevil D/P will continue to be the preferred tag keep/take sentry/general gank build. In zerg, thief will still primarily use SB/Deadly Arts and general outside ganking as normal. Chasing will be less necessary with more spammable CC bombs.

Hah – somehow Holosmith fell off. You can probably figure out why. I do think Holosmith can make a great roaming option but that playstyle is also high risk and in zerg is an auxiliary burst damage role at best. I think the big miss with Holosmith is that I don’t believe it is done in development as the Photon Forge mechanics aren’t made in such a way that they could with interact with other Engineer abilities and traits i.e. Juggernaut, Flame Turret, Flamethrower, Fire Bomb, etc. and even explosives (even if it was just radius at 50+ heat) themes. It feels incomplete just in general.

Other thoughts, Travel
Primarily mount based so less focus on stacking Swiftness and many classes may forego for the equivalent 25% option if available. But with an abundance of Scourges, it may become a coordinated chain Sand Swell (especially if lasting 20s lasts) to hop move around the map (golem rushes and bombs into opponent zergs).

Thoughts?

Rima Naru.4086:

Sigmoid.7082:

The name and sand theme all come from stuff around Palawa Joko

So everything is new things they have come up with for GW2 path of fire? Cus i don´t remember Palawa Joko ever using anything related to sand in GW1. Except him being a mummy and form Elona.
I´m sure Palawa Joko is more known for blood magic and undead summoning in GW1 then sand stuff.

It’s not a retcon of GW1 per se as Palawa Joko has had time to rethink his strategy of conquering since then and the sand is filled with magic (or is, for now). But it’s clear that something is afoot that his undead mummy followers (the Awakened) have begun to have their own goals (conjecture based on seeing Awakened as merchants near the casino).

Read this as it is really our only current source:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-path-of-fire-road-to-the-desert/

Josh.4016:

Seems like barriers are being dismissed, which seems odd to me. Unlike a healer you get to preemptively mitigate damage that could otherwise result in a death. Rift had a similar mechanic in the Oracle class and it was highly wanted in raids.

I like the idea of blood being reworked it’s always seemed mediocre to me.

Providing some buffs other than might seems great. Making the barriers scale off of precision, power, or condition DMG.

The difference of GW2 to Rift is everyone has a universal heal ability in GW2. Rift is a modified Holy Trinity – in Rift, class can be one of the three or a weaker hybrid between two of the three of tank/dps/healer. My point is that doesn’t really apply in GW2 raids.

The second aspect you need to think about is Barriers are actually weaker than a single class heal in general. They are potentially more plentiful but that isn’t always a good thing since it (Life Force) is a constant resource drain that could be converted to damage instead.

EDIT: Unrelated but on topic
The ONLY way Barrier becomes meaningful in raids is in lieu of healing directly is because of the Poison-33% heal potency reduction mechanic. It needs to be a heavily applied or non-clearable condition mechanic since Poison condition can easily be cleansed too. But that’s a BIG if and will probably be for only one boss fight. Basically, no unique reason to bring Necro still over many other classes.

The issue with Barrier is not that it decays rapidly (although there is a case that Drain Life or siphon mechanics could refresh it as that requires active combat and then would buff that other neglected Necro mechanic).

The problem I see is that barrier needs to be a split second decision in order to use for a counter to incoming damage for you or your team (higher skill ceiling, which is a good thing) so it needs to be instant or near instant (1/4s) cast. All of the current Scourge barrier abilities do so except for two abilities, the main heal Sand Flare and the one utility Serpent Siphon. These two abilities need to be adjusted even if the boon corrupt and ally targets are removed from them. Note, Weaver’s abilities and traits are perfect even with Lava Skin since it is a mere 1/4s cast time.

If anything gets added to Barrier, it should be a Retaliation boon (or a similar mechanic) to slightly disincentivize players from hitting you during it’s uptime. This then doesn’t screw with balance of incoming conditions, stacking protection boon mechanics, etc. that has been suggested here and it is universally useful in all game modes.

Brutaly.6257:

Selendile.9106:

Kerivek.5740:

Selendile.9106:

Well, let me amend that: all mantras except the burn mantra for PvE condi builds will be useless.

- Sele

I don’t even know that the burn mantra will be use for PvE. From what I recall it was a horribly inefficient way to apply burn.

Sadly, this is a fair point.

Pretty much sums up the issues with mantras, other skills do the job better.
Signet of Judgment do the burning part better, syg is better at stab, hold the line gives protection which fb almost lack…

Mantra of Flame and Mantra of Truth should have been combined. Neither will be used as is. Range should also be 600 at a minimum if cone.

The 4th mantra (i.e. something like Mantra of Grace) should have been a protection boon + resistance boon version.

The enhancement to tomes would be to put them all on the Ammo system for pages, that way you can switch between the tomes to an extent (one page from a tome, that tome starts recharging ammo, swap tomes, use another page from another tome, that tome ammo starts recharging, etc. up to a maximum charge of 5 or 8 pages per tome to not encourage single tome camping until fully spent like it is now.)

It seems like ANet originally intended this feel of ammo-based tome pages play but then scrapped it for the full cooldown version. IMO, that’s what feels clunky. Long cast times are fine to an extent because the abilities from the tomes are impactful (some abilities more so than others).

Let me clear up something. When you create the API key for Blackgate TeamSpeak, you only pick the required options when the API is created (don’t select them all), so check Progression, Guilds, Account, and PvP.

You do not need to share your BLTC stuff at all…this is not gw2efficiency.com level scrubbing which a lot of people have fallen into that trap.

I’m not the Blackgate TS admin so maybe I’m wrong here but I doubt it. You sound like someone who just doesn’t want to use TS. That’s fine. Not a single TS requires you to actually speak, it’s just a listen to commander because typing in combat sucks from a commander’s standpoint.

Oh how theorycrafting can be fun…

Tome of Justice spam (start with 5, then just face roll) + Renewed Justice (gives perma use when targets die) + Legendary Lore (more burn stacks). Then
sprinkle in Amplified Wrath + Wrath of Justice (1200 range immobilize too good) + the lovely GM trait combo of Loremaster + Permeating Wrath (for passive AoE burn) and always pumping out AoE perma-Quickness boon and equip mantras for insta AoE condi cleanse and elite AoE stun break/stab of course and don’t forget the beauty of Purging Flames in this spec…wow! I dare not mention the Aegis spam share version (real invincibility).

Ooo the fun. Let’s see if I can find another premade coordinated 40-man version that will annihilate in AoE at range against any PUG zerg.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Not sure what game mode you’re interested in, but if things remain the way they are, I would take Demonic Lore for solo roaming in WvW.

Gives more burning reapplication options with Fear > Torment > Burn for the Scourge, just like how I used Blind > (Fear)Chill > Bleed build for my Reaper in the same game mode for more Bleed reapplication.
Reaper seems to be able to reapply bleeds more often than Scourge can with burns though given the current sigils/runes/traits/skills.

I count for Reaper Blind > (Fear)Chill > Bleed in a possible build (there are other options):

• Main traits that make up the reapplication chain
• Chilling darkness: Blinding a target will also apply chill. (3 Sec CD)
• Deathly Chill: Applies 3 stack bleeding whenever chill is applied (No CD)
• Shivers of Dread: Whenever you inflict fear, you also chill. (No CD)

Reapplication abilities in a possible build:

• Sigil of Ice x 2: Chill
• Sigil of Hydromancy: Chill
• Sigil of Mischief: Blind
• Rune of Grenth: Chill x 2
• Dagger 4 Blind
• Staff 3 Chilled
• Staff 5 Fear
• Shroud 2 dash Blind
• Shroud 2 Leap finisher on Shroud 5’s Ice field for Frost Aura Chill
• Shroud 3 Fear
• Shroud 5 Fear
• Shroud 4 Whirl finisher on Shroud 5’s Ice field Chill
• Corrupt Fury boon to Blind
• Corrupt Resistance to Chilled
• And your Utility and Elite skills depending on what you take can apply chill/blind/fear too.
• And not counting other direct bleed application

I count Fear > Torment > Burn for the Scourge in a possible build (there are other options):

• Main traits that make up the reapplication chain
• Demonic Lore: Torment you inflict deals increased damage and causes your foes to burn. (3 Sec CD)
• Terrifying Descent: When you fear a foe inflict torment. (no CD but capped by Demonic Lore’s CD)

Reapplication abilities in a possible build:

• Sigil of Torment x 2: Torment
• Rune of Tormenting: Torment
• Staff 5 Fear
• Torch 4 Torment
• Torch 5 Torment
• Scepter 3 Torment
• Shroud 4 Fear
• Shroud 5 Torment
• Corrupt Stability to Fear
• There are no boons that corrupt into Torment unless using Punishment skills. We got something Unique!
• And your Utility and Elite skills depending on what you take can apply Fear/Torment but depends on having boons to corrupt into Torment
• And not counting other direct burn application

Comparing it to Reaper (purely on paper), you need re-read Manifest Sand Shade. Every time you use a shade ability you apply torment. Every time. Now it takes Life Force each time but you see what theoretically could happen if LF generation is a focus/lots of death around you. That’s what my theory build is based upon since TTK in WvW will go way down with the huge PoF power creep in damage…

Regarding OP Sand Savant, you’ll want it situationally in WvW simply for tower offense (anti-seige)/defense or just for general PvE tagging. However, the GM trait is actually very weak even with the reduced cooldown when you consider how much it doesn’t synergize well with multiple condi cleanse of Abrasive Gift/Desert Empowerment or Unending Corruption or even heavy Punishment utility use/Sadistic Searing or the Manifest Sand Shade mechanic and Blood is Sand is also weaker (if I recall correctly). Sand Savant GM trait needs to be increased to at least 50%-66% cooldown reduction from 33% reduction honestly to compete or it could reduce the Lifeforce cost of all Shade abilities. It’s actually really really bad in current implementation just because of how it doesn’t synergize with traits in it’s own trait line.

Curunen.8729:

1. Dodge spam – take Duelling, maximise vigour/endurance regen with food, abuse Elusive Mind to remove conditions, use Deceptive Evasion for extra shatter fodder. Bonus of Sharper Images and Evasive Mirror.

This is the probable winner. Add in stealth (Decoy, Signet of Midnight) or mobility (Blink, the new Mirage Advance utility, and Jaunt elite) for getting in/out of trouble. Both options have their benefits.

Boon corruption/strip will be much higher so the harder part will be not using a default speed +25% rune if you don’t have have multiple Swiftness options. Although Mirage does have Speed of Sand at 1s, it’s just too short in duration to be that useful (this needs to get buffed to 3s duration).

SloRules.3560:

Artaz.3819:

Sword ambush + Sigil of Absorption (WvW or PvP) or Sigil of Draining (for spike damage) … not to mention up to 4 stacks of Stability lost too … and I’m not counting all the traits that synergize with interrupts. Interrupt builds just got a whole lot more powerful.

GS ambush is basically a let’s-tag-everything move which is great for a whole different reason (PvE or WvW zerg). The problem here is just the cast time needs to be shortened but maybe that’s the intention of balancing since this seems like a huge possible power alpha spike if 3 illusions are out.

How do you think of removing 4 stacks of stability using that?

Removing stability has 0.75s internal cooldown.

Oops, living in 2015 still

This does say “you and your clones can use an Ambush skill for your weapon for a short time”.

That being said, a lot of the wiki info is missing still so…

Sword ambush + Sigil of Absorption (WvW or PvP) or Sigil of Draining (for spike damage) … not to mention up to 4 stacks of Stability lost too … and I’m not counting all the traits that synergize with interrupts. Interrupt builds just got a whole lot more powerful.

GS ambush is basically a let’s-tag-everything move which is great for a whole different reason (PvE or WvW zerg). The problem here is just the cast time needs to be shortened but maybe that’s the intention of balancing since this seems like a huge possible power alpha spike if 3 illusions are out.

The mirror mechanic is based around using melee for a .75s (can attack while dodging) + 1s evade frames. The mirrors also gives out weakness condition. There is also strong condi alpha burst on use if traited. The GM trait gives both stun break and condition removal on dodge… The damage component on the mirror is small to prevent a stealth + perma dodge situation (gives you revealed).

It “seems” balanced to other PoF class specs by giving the mesmer a get in/dodge/get some condi range melee burst in/get out playstyle. Axe clones will need the uptime evade to not be cleaved down/AoE down immediately.

It “seems” OP if you don’t use Axe/Sword and stay ranged with a solid block/evade uptime from scepter or just nuking/juking with staff/GS from afar (or cringe, mix in PU/stealth) and core distortion as you basically get more defense and more burst available after a dodge. From an opponent standpoint, it will be infuriating to have to fight through a mirage mesmer than can burst with condi in immortal mode, then kite while condis (spam from illusions) do their damage/Distortion F4/repeat for 2nd opponent.

In PvE, weakness condition after dodge is huge already without any other benefit from mirror.

Pre-open weekend and I already see there is going to be some significant changes to PoF mirage mesmer. Only Rev Shortbow looks more spammable condi AoE/hard CC broken.

I do agree that Malicious Sorcery GM trait is basically the balance to scepter to make it viable as your primary weapon. And since it also affects ALL other activations too (i.e. basically a lesser form of perma-quickness), it greatly supplements longer cast-time utilities/heal and the channel 3. From a PvE standpoint, it makes Chrono much more viable for spamming wells quickly (especially for tagging) and watching things fall down.

And Mesmer has a unique trait already … Master of Misdirection:“https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Master_of_Misdirection”. No other trait under any class gives +33% duration to a condition. Plus that whole reduced shatter cooldown which is good enough by itself as a GM minor. And MS and MoM traits are both in the Illusions line so no odd spec builds.

All that said, it would have been interesting if Malicious Sorcery did gain a form of Mistrust:“https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistrust” so that confusion was added AoE to scepter skill 3 or on skills 1 and 2 an AoE confusion was added upon summoning a clone. Something to give scepter a larger AoE component.

Huge burst potential with high-crit/guaranteed crit abilities + increased damage from Heat mechanic on base abilities (balanced by basically a 6s wind-up time because of Elite) = broken OP damage

Wait and see…

OK – on lack of defensive options – people, “Barrier” is a temporary hitpoint buff mechanic. Depending on how often the Scourge/Shade mechanic works and how large the “Barrier” temp HP buff can be is unknown (probably modified by stats). The difference for Necros is this looks like an AoE party support buff mainly and could be very strong.

The BIG ISSUE is really lack of mobility. If Reaper is replacing Scourge, the Shroud 2 Death’s Charge ability is no longer available and I don’t see any other options in Scourge line which means the Necro/Scourge is a sitting duck.

1. You are killing pre-existing server community. Longevity of WvW is based on the principle that allies and rivalries are just as important as the game mode itself. It’s what keeps people playing WvW. It keeps the team play and competition healthy in a very static map in a very static meta with a very static strategy based on your population at a given time.

2. You are making buckets for PUGs versus Guilds. Very bad idea simply because PUGs are not PUGs. PUGs are WvW players that don’t want to be lumped into some random function of chance that they get the right leader/active world. And in order for this to self-correct, you then have to wait ~3 months for the reset…yeah, that won’t kill WvW. /s

3. Your system mimics EotM too much. If you’ve spent any significant amount of time in EotM, you’d see the flaw with being lumped with strangers into a match destined for snowballing for one side over another.

4. There are simpler and much more easier to implement solutions. If you are trying to get server transferring for free and basically forcing everyone off their current game world to reset where people go, why not just do that. In your scenario, guild leaders get first crack at where they go but I’m not sure that even makes the most sense since all that does is encourage mega-guilds.

A much simpler alternative solution would open up free world transferring for a specific period of time (announce a month+ ahead of time so guilds can coordinate) using the server population cap of the highest WvW server currently (BG in NA). Then after a few weeks, force move (must choose a different server) the low population server players also for free. Everyone is now on a closer to “high” population server. Re-lock worlds/start new glicko and reboot as a new WvW season.

Run more Revenants (Mallyx condi/boon removal) that also spam AoE Resistance … meta will evolve. 20%+ (never bad to have more since people screw up when to use PA) should be running Mallyx Revs. I’d argue that the 2 DH/Guard per group rule should be replaced with the 2 Mallyx Rev rule (cycle spam the boon strip) for zergs.

By the way, if you think JQ blob is bad, try going against Mag blob.

People still roam. It tends to be small group (2-5) mostly from what I see. It is fairly rare to run into single solo roamers unless stealth class (90% thief) or it is a player just getting activation credit between ticks at some random objective (typically focused on mobility).

WvW game is highly slanted towards condi builds right now with a couple of burst power builds from mes/thief/dh still out there but even they can be hybrid. HoT Resistance boon is strong because of it.

I think the roaming is more or less the same as before. DH longbow, Rev Hammer, Scrapper Hammer, Chrono boon share, Druid CA stealth, Berserker traits, stability pulse change was nerfed pretty hard. But on the same side, there is no longer Ghost Thief and by default Tempest, Reaper and condi Daredevil have gone up. Basically everyone runs the HoT Elite spec although there are a couple of contenders of base spec only versions in Guard (carried by Virtues line), Warrior (carried by Invulns/Resistance boon) and Necro (carried by Wells).

AllNightPlayer.1286:

It’s some kind of security mechanism to avoid sabotages from a guild. Since the guild doesn’t even need to put in all the tactics

Right here. Honestly, Anet needs to go a step further and if the available tactic slots are not slotted within 2 minutes, then the objective should become public again to claim/guild gets kicked off.

Working as intended (gem/cash shop)

Note, when people bandwagon, more continue to follow and that also is intended.

zomgbuffalo.5276:

Path of Fire.

Jesus… Was it hard to find out? New trailer is named ‘One Path Ends’. Balthazar = fire. S6 finale trailer + Balthazar = Path of Fire. EZ

More likely ‘Path of Flames’ as it’s more story-driven. “Flames” has also has multiple meanings. i.e. the flame of romance between Kasmeer and Marjory. Flames grow and dwindle in strength, etc.

Price of Freedom

Common words,

Path
Power
Prophecy
Price
Paragon
Pyramid

Of
On

Fortune
Fate
Freedom
Flames/Fire/(even Furnace)

I’d say no just because some of the WvW dailies are NOT really in theme with WvW (like Daily WvW Veteran Creature Slayer and good luck on Daily WvW Keep Capturer). It’ll just create even more whining.

Better to just add extra WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets to the Skirmish Chest (key word Skirmish). It then incentives Veteran/High-Rank players to continue playing which means more people play more because the High-Ranks are the ones tagging up throughout the week. Admit it or not, tags make more people chill and play zerg which means more action, more time, more fun.

We are now on week 7 since the skirmish changes so could mail the difference to WvW players that have already opened these chests.

PGame of FThrones

Pound of Flesh

#Guild Wars 2 Player of Fortune

In short, your “Call to Actions” are misplaced considering the information you have on the front.

It’s too hard to tell “what the specials are”. The top section should be the graphic of what is on special “and a quick action link”. Less is more here – too much info and it is jarring. The arrows on either side of the top half should be smaller spatial-wise (slim down the area between the main graphic and side bar). Also, make the arrows brighter ‘green? arrow’ with circle around graphic so it is a clear action button) to scroll through. Add 5 dots (or how many pages of specials you have) as an indicator on which page you are on nearby the top middle and allow that also as navigation instead of the arrows right/left. This is your front catalog adds, you need to be clear how many specials you have going.

The good is the top navigation bar and its loading time (these should be a bit more pronounced as action scroll items to get to them early). It still needs more clean color differences and space between categories (think formatting style and stick with it). The general shop is way too dark/depressing looking.

The missing to me is ‘consumer driven’ buying section behaviors. Off the top of my head, “This is a popular buy right now”, “This is on sale/special” (and actually pick the really low volume items), and “These items are leaving the store in the next 7 days” sections. (Or consider these as filters for buying)

EDIT: You all should be A/B Testing this store front non-stop. That way you don’t have to use a forum post to find the information. You actually KNOW what is working and what is garbage with real data.

Remove the physical projectile (aesthetically it’s not physical) which would remove the reflect issue. I’d prefer a hit area around target like Fragmentation Shot which make it an AoE attack and would give it better purpose considering the slowness of travel time. Adding a condition (like Vulnerability for theme) per attack wouldn’t hurt either.

Monk Tank.5897:

Who has the time to Defend now? You are going to lose your participation.

If you kill someone (get 10 min) or repair a wall/door (get 5 min), you get event completion for defense (get 10 min) and you don’t lose participation or just hit enemy siege (1 min) in between or just destroy enemy siege (5 min) as well. It’s actually one of the better ways to get participation.

That being said, all the time in between scouting for that defense to happen is effectively -0- unless you are in a squad/given participation credit by squad leader if you stay within the tower/keep/camp. But this same issue really hasn’t changed with this update. That’s why you don’t see scouts in towers that are T3 and basically never attacked (covered by Watchtower anyway) except for the occasion siege refresh when needed.

However, what this update does do is two things:

1. Mobility classes win (especially roamers). If it takes too long to go to objectives, you need to run a mobility class.

2. It discourages PUG commanding hitting T3 objectives that are even somewhat defended (sieged) unless fully zerg blob. It takes too long and the only few getting credit after the initial 2 minute Veteran Guard kill tagging (remember don’t created OJ swords) is the people using the seige. Non-PUG commanders are usually hitting T3 objectives to lure in the response…that’s different.

Note, I’m not saying make T3 easier to take. More objectively, if siege is being used near you that is giving participation credit to one person, then every ally around you should also be getting participation credit.

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

I think some people are confused and think that whenever you do something that gives participation it adds to the decay, which has not been and is not the case. For example when you take an objective, it gives you 10 minutes before your participation will start to decay; then if you kill a guard it will only reset to 2 minutes if you have less than 2 minutes left otherwise it won’t affect the timer. This is how it has always worked; the only thing we have changed is the reset time for each action.

The reset times are as follows:
• Killing a Player – 10 minutes
• Killing a Caravan – 2 minutes
• Destroying a fortification – 5 minutes
• Killing a Guard – 2 minutes
• Killing a Lord – 5 minutes
• Killing or reviving a merc npc – 1 minute
• Repairing – 5 minutes
• Siege Damage Wall/Gate/Player – 1 minute
• Destroying Siege – 5 minute
• Killing a Veteran Creature – 5 minutes

These happen on event completion:
• Defending a Caravan – 2 minutes
• Completing a Merc Event – 5 minutes
• Completing a Defend Event – 10 minutes
• Capturing an objective – 10 minutes
• Capturing a Ruin or Shrine – 2 minutes
• Capturing a Sentry – 5 minutes

It is still possible that we will tweak these numbers going forward.

Question:
Destroying Siege – 5 minute
Does this include not fully built siege?

Killing a Guard – 2 minutes
Are Veteran Guards the same as Veteran Scouts (wiki (link here) implies they are not counted the same) on participation but both are the same when delaying decay timer? … oddity

Why isn’t auto-generated tower/keep siege (cannons, oil, mortars only) included when destroying siege – 5 minute is included?

What about Siege disables and other WvW traps that are triggered?

By the way, there has been an odd Defend Camp or Defend Sentry issue to get event credit for a very long time (i.e. kill players or kill mercenaries in a camp or rez the Veteran Supervisor) and you’ll never get credit if you then leave the camp radius or sentry radius before the event timer is up…this same requirement does not apply to towers/keeps event defense.

Ubi.4136:

I had the decay timer kick on while I was actively trebbing an enemy tower.

Fix please.

Bug or change to Participation Table ? That should not be happening unless we have something undocumented.

ANet if you increase the decay timer you also need to increase the WvW Participation %s for each tier…you know the Participation Chart by tier.

You missed increasing participation on everything by +66% …

Quicker to gain/quicker to lose

The way to fix middle desert BL/home towers (towers can see portal area) would be to put portals in the middle portion of the map that transported near to the NE, NW, and S camps of the map. It would make the desert BL map travel times smaller and allow for greater use of the big blank area in the middle.

Barriers were badly designed ideas. Chokes/higher-level terrain on sides advantage are much better and serve the same purpose. If you need a temporary wall, your side can build shield generators.

That being said, highly vertical terrain is generally badly implemented in this game when it comes to WvW. There are too many advantages for teleport-based classes and defensive placed siege. It basically discourages player on player battles even when one can see others since vertical differences requires large side tracks to just meet the enemy. Hay bales are too few and should be everywhere. And there also needs to be jump pads everywhere to return to those same areas too from below.

PvP has FAR MORE outbalanced builds than WvW…PvP forums highlights them too and ANet ignores for months/balance updates are few and far between. Any slight build/class advantage for a PvP team has huge impacts on the outcome of a win. If a team has two or more of the unbalanced classes in a ranked match, it is even worse.

Also, since the PvP match time is limited and nearly everyone plays PvP with random others, there is no real regroup, change/adapt, communicate and learn. It’s mostly a snowball game where winners keep winning by larger and larger numbers because the time of a match is very limited.

WvW is unbalanced because of one primary thing. It’s a number of players online and playing on maps (coverage). There are many ways to win in WvW. PPT winning happens in streaks (typically a few hours at a time) for every given server. But winning specific battles (zerg v zerg or on a roaming scale) happens all the time for all sides.

That’s why WvW continues on relatively consistently with player base and PvP has ebbs and flows of gains and losses.

Sarrs.4831:

So much Outmanned pip whinging. This is more venting than constructive, but…

Outmanned is there for a reason. It has 5 pips for a reason.

Why do people want it nerfed or removed? Do you not want people to be incentivized to play against you, even if you have an overwhelming advantage?

The problem is Outmanned PIP bonus is having the exact opposite affect on WvW play.

When WvW #pipstress farmers are on a map, most have a tendency to not call out that a map is outmanned (or wait as long as possible) even though objectives are being taken non-stop including keeps being lost because it hinders their own PIP reward progression.

Secondly, #pipstress farmers are basically afk-in-usefulness players. That #pipstress farmer is there for the reward tick and switch back to whatever map can give them active participation again.

TL;DR Outmanned PIP bonus is detrimental to WvW coordinated team play.

Time for a Charr Car week! Just like the Golem event

Spartacus.3192:

steppjoe.4386:

so guys there’s actually a nice viable build with LB in wvw?

Ive yet to meet a warrior in WvW thats using longbow.

It’s fine for a burn-version build. But honestly, it’s a primary “swap to this weapon” when stuck in attack/defend towers and keeps do to pirate ship mechanics when knocking down doors and walls.

Longbow 5 (supplementing other CC) is still very strong in roaming but there are just better options usually.

A potential solution is to disassociate tickets earned from other WvW rewards earned in the PIP track or make all the tickets for the week more upfront in the rewards.

Tickets should be “fairly easy” to attain in a given amount of time similar to raiding/boss week caps or even by day for WvW.

The second component is to make Skirmish Chests valuable to attain too. This encourages veteran WvW players to continue on throughout the week after attaining the first final Diamond chest.

Now as for feedback on part 1 component, “fairly easy” is subjective as this should describe somewhere in the neighborhood of ~1 hour of playtime per day (~7 hours per week). This keeps the casual/quick WvW crowd happy while giving enough exposure to WvW to learn the enjoyment of it (or leave and go about other activities).

Part 2 component is actually far more tricky. Ideally, you get a highly demanded resource that is updated with the rest of the game (like magic-warped bundle ) or just straight up gold that satisfies the economic portion – leave the other options just because. The other additional thought is to alleviate some of the ongoing WvW rank requirement tiering on armor is to also include Thimble of Liquid WvW xp inside the Skirmish Chests too.

TL;DR there is a middle ground that satisfies both sides of the coin here. ANet should split weekly capped tickets versus other WvW PIP rewards.

People still haven’t realized what Condi Mallyx Rev does … the real condi plague has yet to come.

I’d take 50% condi mallyx revs over 50% necro reapers in a zerg anyday.

EDIT: On D/D condi daredevil, it’s the same as D/P power Dash except more annoying sustain. The only thing going for it is it has massive synergy with Spider Venom in small group but so few know to swap out for it.

Use voice to text window software overlays. Join TS, turn on speakers (or use the plug-in), run software. Take the box and place it right over the same area as the chat window (or right above your dodge bar). Kids these days with their excuses…

Some text is garbled junk – but you get the gist of it During battles, most of it is power up, leap in, bomb here (repeat), get on me, turn right, turn left, push, jump down, get ready to push, kill this down, blah blah blah … 95% of commanders prefer you don’t even talk anyway, just listen.

IndigoSundown.5419:

drcraig.9403:

I don’t mind the pip system because advanced players should earn more pips. I’m only rank 150. I have a problem with the chest reset at the end of the week. If a person can’t invest the time to get all the chests during the week to get the tickets they get screwed. Your progress toward your next chest SHOULD NOT reset.

I agree with this. While I understand that the system is designed to get players to spend a lot of time in WvW, the system already provides more reward for those who do. Perhaps ANet should consider that the pre-launch hype about the game being for part-time players as well as those who have a ton of time to throw at it need not apply only in PvE. The change drcraig suggests would benefit anyone who was partway through a track at reset.

Then PIP system should have been a reward track (repeatable) with tickets.

But ANet wanted both a reward track and a secondary (PIP) system capping ticket generation. People seem to forget that this is still literally the best time to be playing WvW for gear as it far outpaces gear/gold from anything prior regardless of all the complaining.

ANet could of easily made the tickets a reward track grind + WvW badge or Proof of Heroics cost (to reward the vets). They have chosen not to. Why do you think that?

ANet wanted the rewards to be prestige based and barred behind time gating far greater in time commitment than any other similar gear. If you are doing WvW just for the rewards, realize this and decide if you want to put in the time for rewards (like the vets will do regardless) this content is not for you.

Ultimately, the largest flaw of the PvE Legendary armor comparison (that PvE should be enraged about but are not) is why wasn’t PvE Raid Legendary armor harder to get?

Why won’t my legendary armor be comparable to the prestige that WvW players have after 4+ years and a minimum of r2000 to use?

Why didn’t it take Raids at least 1-1/2 to 2 years of weekly play to acquire?

It won’t be 900 (Warrior design philosophy is up-in-your-face so weapon will be designed to do that). Don’t get any crazy ideas that you’ll be able to equip with offhand shield or warhorn…at least yet.

It will be faster attacking. Faster attacking = more adrenaline. More adrenaline = OP especially with some traits (quickness boon/additional adrenaline per related).

Yes, it’ll be far and away better like HoT power creep still subject to nerfage but ANet is gunning for “balanced” DPS across all new expansion elite specializations. I don’t have a high degree of faith here since quality balance is poor especially with a lack of understanding on burst damage/stat stacking and how non-player bonuses work (recent change adding Might boon to clones).

New elites will likely support the new condi type.