Showing Posts For Clovis.7386:

Collaborative Development: Ranger Profession

in CDI

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Specific Game Mode
WVW … applies to every mode, I also play everything.

Proposal Overview
Add a blast finisher to Maul

Goals of Proposal
- To give the Ranger access to a reliable blast finisher
- To create more combo synergy with fields
- To boost the team functionality for Greatsword

Proposal Functionality

  • Maul is a highly predictable/visible skill
  • It is easy to dodge
  • The animation is long and easy to interrupt
  • Adding a blast finisher makes up for these qualities

Associated Risks
With trait cool downs it may be too frequent of a blast finisher (although there is precedent for this in the game)

Collaborative Development: Ranger Profession

in CDI

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Specific Game Mode
PVE … applies to every mode, I also play everything.

Proposal Overview
Remove Pet Swapping… Ostensibly removing all mechanics associated with Pet swapping. This is a long term goal.

Goals of Proposal
- To simplify Pet mechanics (and balancing)
- To strengthen Player/Pet relationship
- To reduce Player dependency on Pet
- To free up Ranger Traits/Skills/F1,2,3,4 for new possibilities.

Proposal Functionality
These changes should allow for a new Ranger/Pet combat dynamic. Where the strategy to combat changes when the Pet is active/inactive. There is precedent to this with the Molten Bosses in Fractals where defeating one empowers the other.

  • Having one Pet at a time makes the choice of Pet seem more integral to the Ranger than simply disposable weapon swapping (as it is now).
  • Remove traits and skills which revolve around sacrificing your Pet enough until Pet Swap recharge.
  • Add traits and skills which empower the Ranger when the Pet is not available, AND, empower the Pet while available
  • F2 changes functionality when the Pet is inactive (either another active ability, or passive)
  • F4 is freed up for future development possibilities. (could function as another F2, or a skill to manage active/inactive Pets)
  • Having one set of Pet skills available during combat reduces the amount of balancing for the Ranger in half.
  • Having one pet makes the name reset easier to manage.

Associated Risks
I know the single Pet system was considered in the early development of GW2, but I think the issue with the old system was that it punished the Ranger for not having their Pet as opposed to empowering them in other areas to change the combat dynamic instead of surviving long enough for the Pet to become available again.

I don’t think the Pet should have a defeated state per say, simply an inactive one. I would very much like suggestions on how to handle this inactive state. Does the pet disappear? Follow your around? etc.

(edited by Clovis.7386)

Constant Nerfing of Mesmers

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

All I want is Blurred Frenzy back on a 10-second cooldown. It’s utterly appalling that this skill received a cooldown nerf on top of being nerfed into an evasion (effectively a double over-the-top nerf)… I mean Thieves already have the highest evasion up-time spamming Pistol Whip.

I’m not sure why Anet seems to be reluctant to dial back overnerfs when they happen. I rarely see them fudging with numbers to come to happy balances. It always seems like they either keep overnerfs, or change the skill completely and hope it works better than before.

Blurred frenzy back to a 10sec cool down is something that could easily compensate for I-leap bugs.

Also, why double Critical Infusion cool down to 10 seconds. If they want Boon duration to be needed for vigor upkeep, why not just make it 8 seconds? It would get the job done and people wouldn’t complain.

Sylvari EYE color changed with patch

in Sylvari

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Thank you Kristen for updating us. =)

Sylvari EYE color changed with patch

in Sylvari

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Has anyone noticed that their Sylvari’s eyes have been significantly darkened recently?

My character’s eyes used to be bright yellow, and now they have become a murky dark orange, covered with some sort of texture.

Ranger sword too annoying to use?

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

OP is right, you need to be able to dodge during any part of the Sword #1 skill chain. Auto attack on or off.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DOWN SIDE

Signet of Malice: Buff/Nerf

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

The casting time for the active needs to be shortened. No argument.

Signets

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I also made a post about Signets a while back.

BTW, what the OP is asking for, Elementalists can do with a trait

Signets in general are way too focused on pets. I think Anet thought pets would be far more valuable than they turned out to be.
Just looking at Passive Abilities
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Signet of the Wild: Heals your pet for more than double the amount that you get healed.
Player: 62 health/s
Pet: 125 health/s
Lets compare to other classes. All lvl 80
Warrior: 200/s (healing signet)
Elementalist: 202/cast (signet of restoration)
Thief: 100/hit (signet of malice)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Signet of Stone: Gives your pet 3.4 times the amount of Toughness that you get.
Player: 35 Toughness
Pet: 120 Toughness
Lets compare to other classes. All lvl 80
Elementalist: 90 Toughness (signet of earth)
Warrior: 90 Toughness (dolyak signet)
Guardian: 10% less damage (signet of judgement) ~ arguably better than all classes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In conclusion, the passive effects of ranger signets are far too weak to even be worth the slot because pets take the majority of the benefit when they are far more squishy than the player. Raising the player’s benefits would fix this, which could possibly be tied to Signet of the Beastmaster, even though I think the raise should be traitless

Superior Runes of Lyssa

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Does anyone actually look at these? Or do I need to post a video for proof or something?

Suggestion: Make Maul a blast finisher!

in Suggestions

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

This is an idea that I can’t believe wasn’t thought of before. It should definitely be part of the game.

Lack of viable offensive builds

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I agree with the boring aspect. I just use my lvl 80 to farm daily now. I wanted to use long bow effectively,(for Kudzu) but there really aren’t any dungeon worthy builds for that weapon. So now I just play Engineer.

Pets and a Lack of F2 Responsiveness

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

*FERN HOUND: * F2 gets interrupted if the pet decides to attack, has been attacked, or decides to move. The pet also does not cast its skill if it is already attacking.

It also takes incredibly long to activate.

Busting the Myth of Useless Pets

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

lol, it’s funny that you think my experience with the Rangers signets is bias, yet you try to disprove it by using math.

I never said you were bias, simply that it is one of 3 possibilities. And yes, math is good =).

The pet mechanic is still the Ranger’s weakness until it can be reliable and work as intended.

Busting the Myth of Useless Pets

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

You can’t compare Signet of the Wild with any other Signet those classes get simply based on the fact that Signet of the Wild isn’t attached to my heal…Signet of the Stone can probably be compared but then again with the right talent Signet of the Stone becomes incredibly powerful (otherwise I agree, it’s not great)

and pets aren’t a ranger’s weakness.

Thief’s Flanking Strike is a good skill in theory, it’s useful to remove boons and evade; buts the second strike is not reliable and often doesn’t hit, making the skill weak.

Ranger’s Pets are a good mechanic in theory, they are useful to divide aggro and can be traited to hit hard; but they often miss moving targets, their F2 skills don’t activate consistently, their revive mechanic often doesn’t work, making pets weak.

Both these things can be micro managed to compensate for better usage; but compared to mechanics and skills that are 100% reliable, they are weak.

Superior Runes of Lyssa

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I’m not sure if this is the right place, but the effect on the 6th signet (remove all conditions +give all boons for 5 seconds) works inconsistently with some elite skills.

I’ve noticed on the thief; Thieves Guild, Basilisk Venom, Reaper of Grenth, Mistfire Wolf all trigger the 6th effect on activation of the skill.

Dagger Storm however, triggers the 6th effect after the skills is finished (8 sec after activation)

Busting the Myth of Useless Pets

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I disagree with shouts and signets being bad. I use them a lot, and switch between different shouts and signets all the time.

Just because you use a skill doesn’t mean its good. It could mean that you are bias, or that the pool of skills is worse than the one you choose. Anyways you are wrong about signets they are sub par in comparison to other classes. Although the speed buff was nice. I don’t use spirits enough to judge, but from what I hear they are worse than signets. I think the dev team even said as much. Here’s an analysis I did of two ranger signets because they were easily comparable.

#################################

Signets in general are way too focused on pets. I think Anet thought pets would be far more valuable than they turned out to be.

Just looking at Passive Abilities

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Signet of the Wild: Heals your pet for more than double the amount that you get healed.

Player: 62 health/s
Pet: 125 health/s

Lets compare to other classes. All lvl 80

Warrior: 200/s (healing signet)
Elementalist: 202/cast (signet of restoration)
Thief: 100/hit (signet of malice)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Signet of Stone: Gives your pet 3.4 times the amount of Toughness that you get.

Player: 35 Toughness
Pet: 120 Toughness

Lets compare to other classes. All lvl 80

Elementalist: 90 Toughness (signet of earth)
Warrior: 90 Toughness (dolyak signet)
Guardian: 10% less damage (signet of judgement) ~ arguably better than all classes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In conclusion, the passive effects of ranger signets are far too weak to even be worth the slot because pets take the majority of the benefit when they are far more squishy than the player. Raising the player’s benefits would fix this, which could possibly be tied to Signet of the Beastmaster, even though I think the raise should be traitless. Like most Ranger problems, they generally have to do with one thing.

“pets are the ranger’s weakness"

(edited by Clovis.7386)

Nature's Bounty + Runes of Dwayna

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Thanks. Clearly the runes of dwayna are not working as intended

Nature's Bounty + Runes of Dwayna

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I guess no one knows?

Sword / Pistol - Which sigil should I use?

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Superior Sigil of Strength:
It has a 2 sec CD – and its gonna proc quite often from the cleave autoattack

I thought the cooldown was tested to be 1sec

Nature's Bounty + Runes of Dwayna

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Does anyone know how these regen percentages stack?

Is it 33% + 20% = 53%

Or some other calculation?

Revert Pistol Whip nerf in PVE only

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Wvw already uses all the pve versions of skills that have been changed in PvP, why should pistol whip be any different? Besides, WvW was never intended to be balanced like PvP.

I agree with OP

signet of agility bug

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Truth. The signet does not do what the description says.

Signet of Malice: Activation Time Fix

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

You guys are repeating the disengaged scenario I already mentioned.

The active is useless unless you are not being attacked. I’ve already said as much.

Lowering the activation time would allow the skill to remain the same while also being slightly more useful in a scenario where you are being attacked. It makes the skill more useful without making it overpowered. Oy vai.

Signet of Malice: Activation Time Fix

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

The thing is, by the time it takes you to use SoM, you usually are taking 3 times the damage you needed to heal, because the heal amount is literally 2-3 times less then the other heals, with almost a bigger cast time.

While that is true in a lot of high lvl content, I was being modest so that it could apply to combat encounters across the board, but the principles remain the same.

ALSO, I like the idea for a written in stone trait. But not in the critical trait line. They have too many good traits as is. Vit could lose hard to catch and gain this trait.

Signet of Malice: Activation Time Fix

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Yes, you’ve done an excellent job of explaining why SoM’s non-active damage mitigation mainly takes place prior to activating and the other two healing skill’s non-active damage mitigation takes place after activating the skill, but not why this is a bad thing.

But, you just alluded to the problem in your own post?

one of our healing skills helps mitigate damage constantly as long as you’re aggressive but the passive mitigation stops after dropping the burst.

Why would you ever need to drop your burst unless the damage you were being dealt was larger than your regeneration? You wouldn’t.

So the only time you would need the active heal in combat is a scenario where you are heavily damaged. Following? NOW, as a thief you have a few options in this scenario, you could stealth to break aggro, dodge to get out of aoe, or use condition removal. A combination of those options are represented in the other two healing skills. So what is SoM left with?

A burst of healing. Which is great! Sometimes you can go a long way with that extra 3000 health. One problem. While you are casting this heal you are left completely vulnerable to knock down, fear, daze, interrupt, pull, spike damage, etc. FOR 1.25 SECONDS. Your thief literally raises his hand and signals “pleas hit me!". And even if you manage to activate SoM, the healing is so low(which only receives 50% from Healing Power) that if you are disengaging from combat because your passive heal is being out damaged, chances are you would lose 3000 damage in the time it took you to activate SoM.

So in all rational thought, it makes more sense to just use dodge/stealth with utilities and hope you can be removed from combat. THEREFORE, making SoM only useful outside of combat. Wait? 2+2= a bad activation time left over from beta that didn’t update with the skill change. SO, how do we fix this without making the skill overpowered?

Oh! Oh! I have an idea! Why don’t you just reduce the activation time so you can receive your healing more reliably when you need it? Like you know, how it’s supposed to work.

Hmmmmm, it’s almost like I’ve heard this all before on a first post somewhere… oh well, waste of time on deaf ears.

(edited by Clovis.7386)

Signet of Malice: Activation Time Fix

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I will clarify, I think SoM is a great heal, both in passive and active healing. But in any scenario where things are actually attacking, the activation time makes the active heal more of a hindrance than a utility.

To reiterate:
Good. That is how it should function. If you want a heal to pop while being heavily beat on, the other two are excellent choices. SoM is not well-suited to that particular situation, nor should it be altered to be. There are sufficient uses for the SoM active as-is.

The active skill is only useful when enemies are not attacking,so let’s not change it. Great.

Its not like I could just keep using the passive while not being attacked therefore rendering the active part of the skill useless.

Oh wait,

Signet of Malice: Activation Time Fix

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I don’t see anything wrong with this. SoM supports a more offensive play style where the best option to heal yourself is to continue being aggressive. The active is not useless because of its use in situations where you cannot be aggressive (running away, or no available targets), and because of its incredibly short traited cooldown allowing you to activate “on heal” synergies from traits/runes.

The three thief heals are very well balanced so that each is situationally amazing, the role you’re finding SoM weak at is well-filled by the other two heals.

I think you misunderstood the point of this thread. I’m not having a philosophical discussion about whether something can or cannot be useful, it wastes time and energy.

Just use the signet for whatever build you want, play some PvP WvW or run some dungeons, and then tell me you thought that the 1.25 activation time was useful in ANY situation where you are not being left alone. That means a heck of a lot more to me than conjecture.

I will clarify, I think SoM is a great heal, both in passive and active healing. But in any scenario where things are actually attacking, the activation time makes the active heal more of a hindrance than a utility.

How does "Hard to Catch" exactly work?

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Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Absolutely the most useless grandmaster trait there is.

Signet of Malice: Activation Time Fix

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Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

The activation time of Signet of Malice is a hold over from when the active ability healed for a larger amount than now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If the purpose of the active heal is to be used for a larger short burst of health, in many scenarios, by the time SoM is activated, the player is healed for the amount of damage they received while activating. (SoM takes 1 1/4 seconds to activate and only takes 50% of healing power)

Since the passive healing was raised and the active healing was lowered, in most scenarios, it makes more sense to keep attacking and apply pressure than wait to activate the heal leaving the active part of the skill useless.

The only time I ever use the Active healing now is for extra might and initiative when not being attacked.

Suggestion: Decrease the activation time to 1/2 s. Or let the active be 100% affected by Healing Power.

What are some ways P/P can be made favorable?

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Black Powder is pretty much a melee attack, but has 87 damage? What are you smoking, you know how much it hurts blasting someone point blank with a gun, filled with black EXPLOSIVE powder?

THIS, I really agree with.

Black Powder should do more damage the closer you are to your target.

What are some ways P/P can be made favorable?

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Vital Shot, Change bleed on #1 to vulnerability.

Unload, Remove a boon on last hit

Body shot, I don’t know

Black Powder, Increase duration by 1 second or remove 1 initiative cost

Keep damage the same.

(edited by Clovis.7386)

The current bug fixes needed for ranger

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

F2 skills definitely need to be looked at.

They take forever to cast, and often they just get canceled out. I hate having to stare at my F2 slot to wait and see if I need to press it again in three seconds.

Also, the root on sword attack 1 seems to be a bug. But the fact that it has never been addressed makes me think otherwise.

Ranger Signets / Abilities (Ideas)

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Signets in general are way too focused on pets. I think Anet thought pets would be far more valuable than they turned out to be.

Just looking at Passive Abilities

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Signet of the Wild: Heals your pet for more than double the amount that you get healed.

Player: 62 health/s
Pet: 125 health/s

Lets compare to other classes. All lvl 80

Warrior: 200/s (healing signet)
Elementalist: 202/cast (signet of restoration)
Thief: 100/hit (signet of malice)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Signet of Stone: Gives your pet 3.4 times the amount of Toughness that you get.

Player: 35 Toughness
Pet: 120 Toughness

Lets compare to other classes. All lvl 80

Elementalist: 90 Toughness (signet of earth)
Warrior: 90 Toughness (dolyak signet)
Guardian: 10% less damage (signet of judgement) ~ arguably better than all classes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In conclusion, the passive effects of ranger signets are far too weak to even be worth the slot because pets take the majority of the benefit. Raising the player’s benefits would fix this, which could possibly be tied to Signet of the Beastmaster, even though I think the raise should be traitless. Like most Ranger problems, they generally have to do with one thing.

“Pets are the Ranger’s Weakness”

Keep saying it until Anet fixes it.

(edited by Clovis.7386)

Why is Ranger Bad?!

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

Rangers trying to play like warriors are bad. Rangers trying to play like they’re any other class but rangers are bad (need t3h big numberz plox).

Rangers that play like rangers are good. My view of it is that we’re not as good at straight up tanking as other classes. guardians can do that, Necros to an extent, im sure some others- but the difference is rangers can balance excellent survivability with damage, which the other bunker classes can’t even really finish off other players.
THAT is our trademark, along with imo the most offensive condition combinations. Lots of bleeding, burning, poison, chill…while other classes get weakness, and some cripple, and some blind(wow, 1 attack. cool), etc that help them but our conditions are for killing while theirs are more to mess with you. Pets also come into play here, giving you access to things supposed to be specialties for other classes (wolf’s fear, for example) or to supplement what you already do (more chill, more bleeding, more burning).

1. trait for surviability, and traps
2. kill with conditions
3. ???
4. profit

There’s fancier ways of killing, but our simple way of killing you with traps and conditions and…well pretty much just the shortbow work just fine

Yes lets all be forced to use condition builds. I like not having other options.

Mystic Coins DISSAPEARING!!!

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

AAHHH, Thank you very much.

I admit I panicked. This thread can be closed. =)

The thief and its gameplay - Your feedback [Merged]

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Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

As mentioned, HIDDEN THIEF needs bug fixing. It unstealths you too often after being triggered.

Also SIGNET of MALICE needs some rethought. The casting time is too long for how little health you receive. In almost all instances it’s more useful to keep attacking. I suggest increase the health you receive or removing the cast time.

One last suggestion, since thieves have such a low health pool, I think having a grandmaster trait similar to the elementalist’s WRITTEN IN STONE would be useful. It can replace a current grandmaster trait many of which are lackluster. For example HARD TO CATCH which by design almost never works when needed.

(edited by Clovis.7386)

Game Improvement - Suggestions

in Suggestions

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I second this. Maybe not this exact system but something along the lines to make finding a party to run a dungeon a chore.

General Patch Discussion [merged]

in Ranger

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I understand that there are only 2 developers working on this…. but come on Jon, you must have seen this reaction coming right?

Thanks for your hard work.

Thoughts on Ascended Gear? [Merged threads]

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I’ve never understood people whose initial reaction to news has been “If you do this developer, I’m quitting your game”; and perhaps I’ve never cared enough about a game to sympathize.

BUT, when I read this news, that is exactly how I felt inside.

One of the biggest reasons I chose to invest into GW2 was because I could play when I wanted, without the feeling of falling behind the player population who seem to have more time to invest in progression wheels. While I still intend on playing GW2 for the time being, this change has definitely left me with one foot out the door, just in case future changes to GW2 follow this pattern.

to ANET, I understand that future problems may endanger your original vision; I just hope that in finding solutions you don’t compromise that vision until it becomes blurred.

Things that could use a buff!

in Thief

Posted by: Clovis.7386

Clovis.7386

I think that signets could use a utility trait similar to that of the elementalist “written in stone".

As a grandmaster trait it would make the active abilities on signets more useful since currently the only signet worth activating is the “infiltrator’s signet" for stun breaking. This would greatly improve “signet of malice" which heals for so little on activation, that it’s not worth the casting time when you lose the passive healing (increasing the recharge time slightly might be necessary).;