Guild Wars 2

After my experiences with this past elite spec preview weekend, I have the following suggestions to make for the Firebrand.

Tomes

- Remove cooldowns on tome equip.

- Make tomes share pages.

- Tome pages naturally regenerate over time.

- Power of the Virtuous speeds up page recovery.

- Loremaster reduces the cooldowns of the Tome weapon skills.

- Renewed Justice refills 1 Tome Page.

- Justice is Blind triggers on F1 tome weapon skills rather than equipping the tome. Gains a 5 second internal cooldown when Firebrand is equipped.

- Absolute Resolution triggers on F2 tome weapon skills rather than equipping the tome. Gains a 5 second internal cooldown when Firebrand is equipped.

- Indomitable Courage triggers on F3 tome weapon skills rather than equipping the tome. Gains a 5 second internal cooldown when Firebrand is equipped.

- Inspired virtue triggers on its respective tome weapon skills rather than by equipping the tome.

Mantras

- Rework both Guardian and Mesmer mantras to utilize “background casts.” This means that while charging mantras, the Guardian/Mesmer can take other actions while speaking the words of and charging the mantra. Any stun/daze/fear/launch/knockdown/float or other interrupt cast on the Guardian/Mesmer during this duration that is not stopped by Stability would interrupt the charging of the Mantra in addition to any other actions that the Guardian/Mesmer is currently taking. If necessary, increase the charge time to 3+ seconds to compensate.

- Weighty Terms – rework completely. Keep the charge recharge reduction, but remove the immobilize on final charge activation. Instead, have each Mantra activation apply Swiftness (3 seconds) with the final charge applying Swiftness (5 seconds) and Might (5 stacks, 5 seconds). Rename to Motivational Speech.

Goals

The goal here is to improve the Guardian’s flexibility and round out some of the crippling weaknesses of the elite spec.

By using the much-suggested initiative system for Tomes, we can rebalance tomes around intelligent use of individual skills rather than dedicated equips that lock the Guardian out of their main skill bar for extended times. This should be a large increase to the viability of the F2 and F3 tomes.

With the Mantra rework, the Firebrand will get some additional mobility. The general rework to tomes should encourage players to actually use the final charge of their mantras.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Diovid.9506:

1. He very clearly did not absorb all the magic in the bloodstone, only ‘the lion’s share’ as our character says.

2. How did you get from absorbind bloodstone magic to ‘could literally kill a dragon’? That is a huge leap of logic.

1. Thats what our character says, not what necessarily happened, he could have honestly absorbed all of it, considering his race was the only one out of the 5 old races that did “not” lower itself to giving up magic, meaning Mursaat have ALOT more expertease in controlling it.

He definitely did not absorb all of it. Only the lion’s share. It isn’t “just what the character says.” It’s an observable fact, judging by the amount of unleashed magic in the area of Bloodstone Fen.

2. Technically see above, but also, consider that Primordus is the WEAKEST of the Dragons, canonically meaning that he DOES have a fairly reasonable chance of taking him down.

NOTHING suggests that Primordus is the weakest of the dragons. He’s been awake the longest. He has access to any and all magic sources beneath Tyria’s surface. If the death of Mordremoth and/or the shattering of the bloodstone fed him magic in a similar fashion to Scarlet’s ley-line force-feeding of Mordremoth, he could become the next big-bad dragon and the entire plot device around Taimi’s ley line map suggests that this is the case.

Diovid.9506:

Literally the first thing he does is kill dozens of white mantle. How does that tell you ‘love, peace, respect’?

Everything we know about the mursaat tells us that they are only concerned with their own wellbeing. When they stood together with the other ancient races during the previous rise of the dragons, they fled to the mists. When a prophecy foretold of their demise, they sacrificed thousands and enslaved a nation.

I never said he was taking the high road for “good” reasons. More importantly, he makes it clear he is removing the competition, setting a “good” example, ergo, for now at least, he seems keen to make sure the mantle belongs to him, and him alone.

For what agenda? Who knows, but a higher purpose sounds to me like something clever, like killing a dragon, and taking the glory for it.

This is interesting speculation and I wouldn’t mind it being true, though this should not come at the cost of an Elder Dragon battle. We need to be able to fight that dragon. Perhaps the dragon overpowers us and Lazarus saves the day.

Diovid.9506:

He hasn’t shown this ‘ally’ side yet, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

If he was going to kill you he had “more” than an opportunity to do it there and then, clearly, he needs you for something.

This is true. Or, more likely, you’re insignificant to him.

Diovid.9506:

Yes the pact is weakened but again, I think you’re seriously overstating the extend of his power.

There are only 5 bloodstones in the world of Tyria, each one containing an absoleutley staggering amount of magic, and most of it, went into Lazarus, which makes him near enough on par with a dragon in terms of power.

There is nothing suggesting that the power in a single bloodstone – or even all of them – is on par with that of a dragon. We have no metric by which to measure the power of bloodstones or individual ley lines. Plus, the power of a dragon varies wildly based on the magic they’ve absorbed.

Also, the entire reason for the existence of the bloodstones was a last ditch effort to hide as much magic as possible from the dragons. If this was enough magic to defeat the dragons, would it not have been employed to do so?

Diovid.9506:

We’ll see but I don’t think he’ll live past this season.

If they pulled another Scarlet I think people would be more irritated than anything, and after Mordremoth, A-net knows the Dragons alone will “Not” carry the franchise, they need another villian, one with a humanoid appearence and motive.

I agree with this.

See bold. Note that I am not trying to undermine your theory. I think it would be a great direction to the story, with more nuance added, but you’ve made some clear logical mistakes here.

The character that I used my level 80 booster on, an Elementalist, has a permanent Flame Eye effect. It is not tied to any skin, and remains even while using another skin or while wearing no head gear at all.

If it isn’t fixed, I’ll have to re-roll the character. It doesn’t work with the look that I’m trying to create for him, and it just irks me. Is there anything I can do about this?

I’ve attached a picture to show the issue.

Darak BG.5396:

Well the topic states the question. From what I see playing through I believe some of the adventures need changes but what about you?

To list those I believe need some changes:

- fallen masks / shooting gallery (either needs a bit more time or for the masks/targets to not appear at random, I admit I’d prefer a bit more time but that’s just me)
- The floor is lava? (would like 10-15 seconds more as the current time doesn’t leave any margin to error (it might be too much so ANet should definitely playtest it a bit to find the right margin))
- salvage pit (feels slightly too easy at the moment, a few seconds less maybe?)

Those I believe are fine as they are:

- Tendril Torchers
- Bugs in the Branches
- Flying Circus
- On Wings of Gold
- Sanctum Scramble
- A fungus among us

I have yet to play the Tangled Depths one and will thus not post any opinion on those.

There you have it, my opinion, what’s yours?

You believe A Fungus Among Us is fine? This event has laughably short goal timers with clunky skills that barely function.

Etheus got an upgrade.

This is what he’ll look like once I obtain Ad Infinitum.

Sorel.4870:

New players are not supposed to know this, but there actually was a solo queue at a point in the history of the game. It was almost empty, therefore the match-making was terrible and even low tier players (like I was a year ago) got 15 minute queue times, to endup in a terrible one-sided stomp. Every decent player was forced to queue alone in teamq. Anet removed soloq to shorten queue times and to add a distinction between casual (unranked) and serious pvp (ranked).

Long story short, if the population does not increase drastically, soloq is not coming back. And frankly, it wouldn’t change much. How many times do you run into a full premade with all solos? I know almost noons on these forums has a high enough MMR for it to be problem, unless you only queue at 4am. You can see the team compositions by opening the in-game match recap at the end of the game.

How often do I run into a full premade with all solos? Let’s rephrase that question. How often do I run into a premade of three or more players with an entirely solo/duo queue team? Roughly half of my matches – more than half if I queue on Stronghold.

With that absurdity out of the way, let’s address why this is bullkitten. No competitive game can be sustainable without providing a casual safety net. None. This is why you see a majority of new MOBA titles fail, for example. Even standouts that have competitive potential and successfully distinguish themselves from other games cannot form a sizable competitive pool without forming some sort of reliable difficulty curve for new players.

What happened with Super Monday Night Combat, for example? A legitimately interesting and difficult game was neutered early on by a failure on its part to separate the best players in the game from everyone else. New players were completely turned off by the prospect of being turned into farming victims, and the game failed to build a sizable competitive scene to keep queue times short for those competitive players.

Merged queues are a joke. They aren’t a solution. They are a quick fix that ultimately kills your pvp scene in the long run. And don’t even start with the touted “highest growth sector” and “largest pvp community Guild Wars 2 has ever had” kitten. These claims were made immediately after the free to play launch. It stands to reason that the lowest population sector of the game would experience the largest percentage of growth with a free to play transition. But that f2p switch can only be flipped once, and the PvP community is only going to dwindle. Hell, my queue times are already lengthening. And all because there is no legitimate safe zone for the casual player.

Everything else could be perfect, but as long as solo/duo queue isn’t separate from 3-5 man premade queue, the game’s pvp will continue to be a complete joke.

My artificer doesn’t seem to be able to make these anymore. What gives?

Edit:

Nevermind. It’s been so long since I’ve bothered with these, that I didn’t realize +8 was the highest I’d done before. Just had to discover the rest.

I was playing a stronghold match as a solo queue against a premade. We were winning by a narrow margin, and I was about to kill their lord. Suddenly, I was booted to Heart of the Mists. No results. No win. They didn’t kill our lord. The game just decided to waste the last 15+ minutes of my time.

That really kittens me off. It really does. What just happened?

It’s a must-have for my Jalis/Glint Sw/Sh+Staff build. The power and toughness are required. The healing power helps out my shield and staff. The ferocity works excellently with traited Fury.

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding mastery and elite spec gating with Heart of Thorns. And here’s what I have to say about it.

Masteries and Elite Specializations are an important compromise.

Guild Wars 2’s vertical progression and horizontal progression crowds have forever been at eachother’s throats to the detriment of the game. Make no mistake – this is the cause of Vanilla Guild Wars 2’s biggest flaws, because compromise between these two diametrically opposed crowds has been thought of as impossible.

But with Masteries, we see something different. We see progression that isn’t just numbers. It doesn’t affect balance. It’s manageable. It doesn’t invalid old content. It is a system that can only improve with time.

OPTIONAL WORK IS NOT GRIND

Grind is a repetitive task that one is forced to engage in for the purposes of progressing one’s character statistically. That is the only definition. If you CHOOSE to engage in work, it is not bad design. If you CHOOSE to engage in work, the game is not forcing it on you. And if the “grind” at hand allows the user a free choice of tasks in order to achieve it, IT’S NOT GRIND.

Progression in Heart of Thorns is not a power curve.

Masteries do not in any way improve the performance of your character. You are not dealing bonus damage to mobs and, more importantly, other players universally.

While elite specializations are more of a grey area, they are not explicitly designed to be a flat power increase, and they are taken at the loss of a third core specialization slot, which can be quite detrimental to a good many classic builds.

So what are they?

Horizontal progression. They expand what you can do, without expanding your combat proficiency. This is good design. It gives the player something to work towards while not reducing the game to a gear treadmill. All content remains valid and the game becomes something more rather than different with each future expansion.

Thematically, Heart of Thorns Masteries are incredible.

It is rare to see mechanics married so well to story themes. Think on it. You’re in the jungle. It is a hellish warzone. Navigation is confusing and dangerous. There is a pronounced feeling of dread everywhere. This difficulty lessens, but remains relevant, over time as the player character learns to survive in this content. This is incredible.

The design of mastery “grind” IS fair.

The most important masteries are typically front-loaded. Gliding and Bouncing Mushrooms, the two most important masteries, are also the easiest to obtain. These are the core of Heart of Thorns travel, and players can get them within the first hour or so.

Everything after these is more situational and even optional. You don’t need to fight the Exalted champion for rewards, but if you work at it, you can earn that right. That is good design.

In closing, I personally believe the outcry is absurd.

The game has always lacked something to work towards. We have that now, and we have that in a fair and fun form that improves the game. But a certain very vocal crowd doesn’t seem to comprehend this. No, I am not a hardcore player. I work a full time job. I don’t get to play half as often as I’d like and these masteries will take me a long time. But I see this as motivation to make this game something great for the extended future – because that’s what it is.

If you unlock your elite specialization in the Heart of the Mists, it will not unlock your weapon collection or give you the first elite specialization greatsword for the collection. Happened with my Reaper.

I won’t be missing anything because I’ll be playing everything.

It just so happens that I finally have a main to put center-stage in this party of alternate heroes of Tyria.

For those of us that work, it would be nice if we could download everything a day or two before HoT launches to get the most out of the weekend hours.

Any plans on making this happen?

This was a hard choice for me, as Reaper, Herald, and Druid were all neck and neck for my vote, and I’ll actually be using them on my three most-played characters. But ultimately, I just had to give it to the Reaper. Shroud Knight is an even more fun version of what is already, in my opinion, the coolest and most fun profession mechanic, and that Greatsword is the only fun weapon in the Necromancer’s tool box.

So, it’s no secret that conjures are pretty niche (to put it generously), mainly because they lock the Elementalist out of their main mechanic and reduce their versatility.

My redesign is multi-step, but it’s also quite simple.

Step 1 – Redesigning the utilities:

Conjure weapons no longer replace all of your skills but rather only the skills of its associated attunement until either you press weapon swap to unequip the weapon or you run out of charges. Flame Axe replaces your Fire skills. Ice Bow replaces Water. Lightning Hammer replaces Air. Shield replaces Earth.

Time out durations and the dropped weapon are scrapped entirely with the rework. This is to give them a greater sense of identity and to allow more power to be focused into the conjure itself rather than the pair of them.

Step 2 – But what about Firey Greatsword?

The current FGS is honestly pretty similar to the Flame Axe – just better and with slight variations on the skills. So how do we fix it?

Simple. Make it match the Elementalist’s fifth core specialization – Arcana. It is now the Arcane Greatsword and has a new Collection weapon skin, Elementum, which requires you to collect all of the other Conjure-themed Mystic Forge skins to obtain.

To solidify it as an Elite skill, it now replaces all four attunements and has new skills for each attunement, effectively making it an entire new weapon set!

Step 3 – Now onto traits.

Remove Conjurer. It’s pretty much a joke. Conjure traits need to be more role fitting. And we can use these to buff some other traits. The traits in question, of course, would be those that best match the new attunements – those grandmasters that are themed around their attunement.

• Bountiful Power – Deal 2% more damage for each Boon on you. Gain boons associated with your current attunement each second while wielding an Arcane Greatsword.

• Pyromancer’s Puissance – Gain Might when you use a Fire skill. Increases the stat bonus of Conjure Flame Axe by 100%.

• Fresh Air – Air Attunement recharges when you critically hit. Increases the stat bonus of Lightning Hammer by 100%.

• Stone Heart – You cannot be critically hit while attuned to Earth. Increases the stat bonus of Earth Shield by 100%.

• Soothing Power – Increases the healing effect of Soothing Mist. Increase the stat bonus of Ice Bow by 100%.

So, what do you think?

I’m in the awkward position of not having a main (as I create and delete so many characters), but the closest I’ve had for some time has been Elementalist.

And I fully intend on maining a Revenant. Though the term main only means so much when you have 12 characters and are intent upon 18 characters.

Definitely pro-Sylvari. They are by far the best looking and most interesting playable race in the game.

So, Mallyx’s new redesign is profoundly boring. A fun, interesting playstyle that was useful to all manner of builds was demolished in favor of a standard condi build.

That said, I also understand the logic behind the change and the old Mallyx was unfun to play with condi-cleansing allies. Revolving an entire playstyle around something that the player has very limited control over is not solid design.

So, my suggestion is as such:

Embrace the Darkness

Reworked:
Increases all stats by 10% and empowers all other Mallyx skills while it is maintained. Removed Torment application.

Empowering Misery

When empowered, this skill grants the Revenant Might for each condition on them.

Pain Absorption

When empowered, this skill copies all conditions and their remaining durations on the Revenant to nearby foes after a 1s delay from pulling these conditions from allies.

• Unblockable

Banish Enchantment

When empowered, this skill inflicts additional Confusion.

Unyielding Anguish

When empowered, this skill pulls foes to its center on its initial cast.

With this new design…

Embrace the Darkness is once again the central mechanic of the Mallyx legend. There is a clear benefit to using it, but the skills will maintain a base power that makes their standard usage acceptable. There is a clear decision between avoiding the rapid energy burn of Embrace the Darkness and obtaining its powerful benefits. And, of course, the empowered Pain Absorption would bring back a portion of the old Mallyx’s flavor.

Now, let’s get the obvious part out of the way – gyrobots are basically Spirit Weapons but much more useful.

But that isn’t where the role creep ends. Compare Hammer to Guardian’s Greatsword.

• Guardian’s GS autoattack’s only utility is a 5 second stack of might (per target hit) on the third strike only. Engineer gets two stacks of Might (per target hit) for 8 seconds for its combo, plus a couple of overly long Vulnerability stacks to boot.

• Whirling Wrath vs. Electro Whirl is probably a case of apples vs. oranges, but the two skills are very much comparable whirl finishers that deal AoE damage. Chances are, Whirling Wrath wins out in the damage department (as it should given its lack of utility and higher cooldown), but the superior chain skill of the Engineer’s Hammer evens out this advantage. Plus, a projectile reflection on a 6 second cooldown? Are you insane?

• Does Leap of Faith sound good? Yes. How about giving the Engineer three of them consecutively on a much lower cooldown. If it weren’t for the blind, there would be no advantage to Leap of Faith whatsoever.

• I won’t compare the other two skills because their effects are different, but in my opinion, the Engineer Hammer skills are, in their totality, superior to the Guardian’s Greatsword with heavy role similarity.

How about traits?

Guardian’s are known for their solid bunkering – great healing, damage mitigation, condi removal, and access to stability. The Engineer is treading into all of that with the Scrapper.

• Adaptive Armor is quite possibly the most over-the-top and overpowered damage mitigation trait in the entire game, building up to 500 toughness with a hefty 20% condition damage mitigation thrown on top of that. Think of a similar Grandmaster trait on Guardian – Retributive Armor, which gives half of that amount of toughness on a less maintainable condition (blocking attacks). And while 13% toughness to ferocity conversion is good, it doesn’t compare to outright ignoring 20% of every damaging condition thrown on you in PvP.

• Perfectly Weighted, if you decide to take it over the utter lunacy that is Adaptive Armor, laughs at Guardian’s stability access. Couple it with Juggernaut and you are virtually immune to cc. And any cc that magically does manage to bypass the Scrapper’s shell is reduced by one of their minor traits.

• Rapid Regeneration, when coupled with the Inventions line, gives the Engineer competitive, if not better sustain than the Guardian.

So now we have a class that does virtually everything another class does, just as well, if not better…. but wait, there’s more!

Unlike the Guardian, the Engineer doesn’t suffer from poor mobility, low cc, and unreliable damage. In fact, the Engineer has always topped the charts on cc and this elite specialization brings their mobility through the roof while giving them even more damage through another means of reliable, potent might and vulnerability stacking.

I don’t even play much Guardian. I play everything, and I intend to main Revenant, but good lord, I feel sorry for the Guardians right about now. And everyone else too, for that matter, because you’ve just made an already-popular PvP class into the best bunker and bruiser in the game.

Nah. It’s better this way. The break bar was stupidly easy to counter, and this one has legitimate, but relatively rare counterplay.

And why complain about Reaper’s Mark. Necromancers could use a few cookies here and there.

It’s basically the Scarlet Invasions except:

- Your map can’t fail. Aka, there is zero illusion of challenge.

- None of these events are any fun. At any given one, you’ll spend most of your time waiting around for the plant to die/become vulnerable.

- You LOSE gold while participating in them, thanks to waypoint costs, gold costs on the bloom “rewards”, and a baffling lack of loot, karma, or event gold.

Menadena.7482:

So people want to see one NPC (Dougal) in HOT but in another thread today they said they did not want to see another NPC (Sya) there because a NPC there would take the focus off of the player?

Am I the only one seeing the irony in this?

Dougal is a major lore character who is criminally underused in the game. He has a defined personality, a developed backstory, and was largely responsible for the racial alliances that allow the players to succeed in the first place.

Sya is a background NPC that does nothing more than make a political statement. (One that I agree with, but still).

Personally, I support the addition of content around both, but Dougal is far and away the more important character to get to know and he lends himself to exactly the type of exploration and discovery that Heart of Thorns is supposed to be about.

I have never been of the crowd that NPC’s take away from the player and therefore we need less of them. The opposite is true – NPC’s are the player’s window into the game world, and they need to be MORE emphasized in order to create convincing storytelling and immersion.

Soleiya Starbow.7013:

Not to be a downer, but I hope I never, ever hear or have to deal with Dougal again. In my opinion, that first novel was the worst (depressing, poorly written, just not fun to read), and I never liked Dougal’s character. He was wooden and uninteresting. The second novel (Edge of Destiny) was light-years more fun and and better-written. Therefore I’m hoping that we get to fight alongside the Destiny’s Edge characters whenever we get to take down Mordremoth. I like Braham, Rox, Taimi and the other new characters a lot, but I was disappointed that DE didn’t have more of a role in the past two Living Story seasons.

So please, for the love of all that’s fluffy, NEVER bring back Dougal!!!!

Opinions are opinions, but Edge of Destiny was crap. It has the lowest general reputation and was critically panned. Why? Because the writing was inconsistent, characters were poorly developed, and the decisions were non-sensical. One minute, Logan is capable of running up an Ogre’s arm in the climax, and the next, he’s standing face-to-face with one. The entire ending – the founding of the game’s story – was pointless, as Jennah was able to save her own kitten , making Logan’s betrayal redundant and for nothing.

Not to mention, I found that all of Eir’s parts just dragged on. They were slow, boring, and painful to read to a degree that dragged the whole book down, and I don’t find that the least bit surprising, given that Eir herself is the most boring and dry of the Destiny’s Edge members. Neither Ghosts of Ascalon nor Sea of Sorrows suffered from that.

He’s the main character of your first (and, in my opinion, best) novel, and yet he does nothing ingame except for spout a few lines of text.

This is an ideal time for him to once again be a prominent Tyrian hero. The Pact is in trouble and there is exploration to be done and lost ruins full of treasure to be found. Bring Dougal back.

I feel like it’s in a good place. It does decent damage while gap-closing, sticking to the target, evading, and giving you might stacks.

With the smokescale dinosaurs, we have an enemy type with excessive evades. And that can be fair enough, if more than a little overtuned and frustrating at the moment. But why not make these blocks instead?

You’ve made a point of throwing out loads of unblockable effects on new skills, so why not put these to more use in PvE? It would be a great way to open up some rarely-seen counterplay and to make lesser-used skill types like traps shine.

I’ve had more fun with the Revenant than with any other class. It has the most unique theme. The best animations. The most interesting design. And a great flow.

I’m a Revenant main.

I probably won’t be using it much, but I appreciate the gift. Thanks, Anet.

Mace, scepter, and shortbow seem to see a shortage of use.

Fox.3469:

If this caused you to shelve GW2 you probally weren’t gonna play for much longer anyway. See ya.

This isn’t even the worst reason I’ve seen. I had a friend quit because they’re adding raids. Not because of the content, but literally because of the name “raids” on account of the term being “nonsensical.”

Honestly, it’s not really a big issues. These are nothing more than the first generation of elite specs. There will be others, and those others will likely fit the theme that some players want for their class. Can’t please everyone.

I for one am looking forward to the Herald more than any other elite specialization, and I’m surprised at the lack of hype surrounding it. It’s way cooler than the Chronomancer and more useful than the Reaper.

Here are my thoughts on improving the Tempest:

Warhorn

• Sand Squall – You also gain Magnetic Aura.

Shouts

• Rebound – Removed.

• New Elite – “Arcane Storm!”
  You are surrounded in a storm that does Critical damage to surrounding foes each pulse. Grant Chaos Armor to yourself and surrounding allies.

Traits

• Earthen Proxy merged into Hardy Conduit, opening up a new Master Major slot.

• Tempestuous Aura – Also reduces shout cooldowns by 20%.

• Harmonious Conduit buffed
  You gain Quickness (3 seconds) when Overloading an attunement. Overloads recharge 20% faster.

• New Master Major – Greater Auras
  Applied auras last 2 seconds longer.

• Imbued Melodies reworked.
  Instead of the old effect, now grants you and nearby allies Stability (2 stacks, 5 seconds) when you use a Warhorn skill. (15 second cooldown) All Warhorn cooldowns are also reduced by 10%.

Jelzouki.4128:

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

Or tell us the recipe xD

They’re avoiding this in order to prevent major economic shifts before the expansion even hits.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Tried it out and looks awesome. It won’t be out in time for the next beta weekend, but know that it’ll be coming.

Wow.

It took you two days to implement a flavor animation while working on the rest of the class and reading the forum. If every developer had that kind of drive, the game would be flawless by this point.

Menadena.7482:

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Menadena.7482:

So what is the point of this for those of us that do not do dungeons?

You don’t want to do the content, you don’t reap the benefits..

Seriously, why do people feel entitled to rewards for content they do NOT do?

I did not say that. I asked why someone who did not do X should get behind something for people who only do X.

Because it’s also highly conceivable to put unique gliders & backpieces in other forms of PvE/WvW content. Namely, Tequatl, Triple Trouble, and WvW tournaments and achievements would be good sources of these.

At no point did I suggest that only dungeoneers would benefit. Hell, I’m an open-world explorer above all other content.

MauricioCezar.2673:

I just think its not worth it, because gliding is super restricted to hot maps, and as far we know it can be only 4 pve maps + 2GH maps.

Serious, i rather prefer they work on dungeon backpieces than glider skins.

I highly doubt that they intend to leave a feature this game-changing and monetizable out of future expansion maps. It may be a HoT-only feature for now, but why wouldn’t it be included in future content?

On that note, you also missed my final paragraph, which stated that these glider skins would also be back pieces for the dungeons. As it stands, quite a few of the game’s back items would make fantastic glider skins.

In addition to those I mentioned as collections, we also have the Molten Jetpack and the Spinal Blade Backpieces, which could easily be modified to produce back skins. The trouble with those is their highly exclusive nature, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Menadena.7482:

So what is the point of this for those of us that do not do dungeons?

You don’t want to do the content, you don’t reap the benefits..

Seriously, why do people feel entitled to rewards for content they do NOT do?

I agree with this sentiment. By all means, include collections and glider skins for every form of content (which is part of the purpose of the gem store, Fractals, and PvP collections that I included as examples), but it is a poor attitude to complain about rewards given by content that you do not participate in. This is, like most of Heart of Thorns’ features, a foundation feature for rewards and progression.

Dragon Bashes you.

I’m going to be going Jalis/Glint. Herald, Retribution, Invocation. Staff, Sword/Shield.

Zealot’s gear to get a nice rounding of dps and healing.

Let’s take the glider mastery further.

Add a final rank to the glider track that unlocks collections that grant you new glider skins. Training it unlocks:

1 collection for each dungeon

Completing these will be arduous tasks that involve actively collecting specific new dungeon collectibles from doing dynamic events and scavenging the dungeons. Each will also require the respective collection ascended accessory for that dungeon.

The reward glider skin, of course, will be themed around the dungeon it is associated with.

Fractal Glider Collection

This collection will unlock the Fractal Glider – the glider equivalent of the upcoming legendary Fractal backpiece. The collection requires that you obtain the backpiece to complete it.

Glory’s Glider Collection

This collection will unlock Glory’s Glider – the glider equivalent of the upcoming Wings of Glory. It requires that you obtain the Wings of Glory.

White Raven Glider

This collection will unlock the White Raven Glider – the glider equivalent of the White Feathered Wings backpiece. It requires that you obtain the White Feather Wings.

Raven Glider

This collection will unlock the Raven Glider – the glider equivalent of the Black Feathered Wings backpiece. It requires that you obtain the Black Feathered Wings backpiece.

Daydreamer’s Wings

This collection will unlock the Daydreamer’s Wings – the glider equivalent of the Daydreamer’s backpiece. It requires that you obtain the Daydreamer’s backpiece.

And, of course any future Glider Collections

This is a feature that easily allows for future additions.

Yes, I’m aware that this is extra work

But if it’s not part of the expansion launch, it would be a great addition down the road. Yes, it would also involve making 8 extra skins (as the Dungeon collections have no current equivalent), but these will also double as potential back piece rewards for these dungeons, improving the appeal of dungeons.

Jalis would be perfect if they’d just reduce the cost of Forced Engagement to 30-40. No other changes to him needed. Soothing Stone is a great healing skill. Inspiring Reinforcement, even nerfed, is highly viable. We haven’t even had time to test the faster-casting Rite of the Great Dwarf, which will likely be pretty viable.

Ventari could certainly use a blast finisher on Energy Expulsion and a Light Field on Protective Solace. The absence of these is baffling. I don’t think I agree with a removal of the cast time on tablet moving however; I suspect they want to encourage moving the tablet to be a significant decision.

Ganathar.4956:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

There has been a continuous train of complaints surrounding nearly every specialization release that has, quite frankly, grown bothersome. And there is simply no excuse for it.

Look at the necromancer and mesmer forums and you will see that they are very happy with the changes that they received. It is only the guardians and the elementalists that have endless complaints about their specs, hardly “nearly every spec”.

Mesmers initially complained that they got shield.

Necromancers complained for some time that their new spec did nothing new for the class’s role (as it emphasizes things that the Necromancer already has – damage, chill, vuln, and self-might).

rotten.9753:

To reiterate over, aura traits are spread over five different spec lines, let that sink in.

If one were talking about a utility line, that would indeed be terrible. But auras are a core concept. It is healthy to have aura traits in every trait line. You don’t need to take them all, and it’s good for build variety to include options to take them everywhere. It makes building auramancer a more varied and complex concept.

That said, there just isn’t enough viability in some lines (like Earth), and the aura traits clearly aren’t weighted for equality to make the choice impactful.

AoE stab is better than AoE stunbreak? That statement demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the game. These two mechanics are entirely different in their purpose.

Stability is pre-emptive and protective. Stunbreaking is reactive. To make a comparison to more traditional support roles, Stability is Aegis while Stunbreaking is Healing. Both have their unique uses, and both are crucial in cc protection. In fact, most builds can’t effectively survive in PvP without having access to at least one stunbreak.

Similarly, Berserker’s Stance may defend a Warrior from incoming conditions, but it’s often a poor substitute for strong condition removal, especially in longer fights. But it’s predictive rather than reactive and thus serves a different subrole under the “anti-condition” umbrella.

Stability, as a preemptive measure is limited by the player’s ability to predict, whereas stunbreaks are limited by a player’s ability to react. A clean prediction or a particularly powerful stability application can protect a player and their team from cc, but a swift stunbreak can do the same – and stunbreaks cannot be countered by boon removal.

But the thing about the baseline Elementalist is that it has very little ability to support teammates with either. It has a very weak stability-sharing trait in the Earth line (the line that is the weakest line to begin with), and that’s pretty much it.

Tempest, though it needs work even here, does make the Elementalist one of only three AoE stun-breakers in the game. The Guardian has to take a Virtues Grandmaster and blow Virtue of Courage to do so. The Revenant excels at AoE stun-breaking and AoE stab. The Tempest is, if nothing else, a pretty decent AoE stunbreaker with fantastic aura share.

I’ve said it before in regards to expansion in general, but I have to say it again. I love this expansion. I love almost every single piece of news regarding this expansion.

But the Revenant? Oh, the Revenant was the equivalent of sending a letter directly to my house.

My story of a Guild Wars 2 player has been one of constant leveling, deletion, and recreation. I remade my main character over a dozen times, because nothing felt right, yet everything felt sort of right.

• For roleplaying purposes, I’ve always wanted a spirit-themed profession that can attack with pure energy, much like the Ritualist from the first game, but even more abstract. The Revenant is exactly that.

• I wanted something with a more intimidating, mysterious, and even enigmatic presence. The Revenant is all of that.

• The Revenant promises to take aspects of pretty much every profession, lending it a versatility and familiarity that I enjoy.

• I’ve always wanted a melee staff. Revenant has it.

• I wanted to be able to emphasize support, tanking, and crowd control. Oh, boy, does the Revenant do that!

• I wanted something akin to the Guardian but more active, visceral, and fun. Glint and Jalis are exactly that.

You’ve done all of this while making this fun and unique profession a love letter to fans of the first game, taking inspiration from Guild Wars 1’s energy management mechanics and even making famous characters from Guild Wars’ history “playable” through communing.

Essentially, you’ve made me a very happy player, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this profession permanently.

Malchior.5732:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Malchior.5732:

I don’t think any of us are just going to sit around and wait for Anet to give us a joke Elite spec. It’s like, if I get served a pile of crap when I ordered a Pizza, I’m not just going to accept it. I’m gonna go over and complain for my money back. It’s the same with any other service. Maybe we didn’t know how the Pizza would turn out, but they gave us expectations, and when they asked for money up-front, we expected results.

That’s a rather poor analogy because it comes with the assumption that Anet not only screwed you, but intended to do so and that they have an active hatred for the Elementalist profession. Newsflash. They don’t. You’ve been arguably the most powerful class in every game mode for over half of the game’s lifespan.

What actually happened:

• Anet brought each profession a jar of jelly beans.
• The Elementalist forum asked for chocolate, vanilla, and mocha.
• Anet went to the store and thought “you know what, those licorice jellybeans look interesting.”
• A few people actually like licorice but, as is life, most responded by spitting it out.
• Anet wonders why you didn’t like the licorice they gave you and is now trying to make licorice taste better.

Why don’t you like licorice, Elementalist forum? Why?!

Uhh, what?

Us being the most powerful currently changes what exactly? Just a while ago we were being out-classed by Shoutbow Warrs and to this day, we’ve still been stuck with the same build SINCE LAUNCH. I didn’t say Anet hates Eles, but they definitely don’t understand the class.

Also, your analogy is so wrong. Lets say the Elementalist is a Strawberry jellybean.
So, it’s more like Anet teased us with Chocolate, then said we’re actually getting Vanilla later.
A lot of people didn’t like the idea at first, but accepted it. Turns out we got a Strawberry jellybean but from a different brand.

Tempest is trying to be Cele D/D, but fancier. It’s also failing at it. If they only tweak the numbers around, it’ll either be out-classed by the base Cele D/D Ele or surpass it.
No one wants that, but it’s what they’re giving us.

They never teased chocolate. Datamining isn’t teasing. Placeholder data was mined. Said data was used as a possible route that this specialization could go.

At best, you could argue that you got strawberry vanilla. The role that you got is slightly different from what you have. The current Elementalist doesn’t have the capability to clump foes together much like a Greatsword Guardian and then punish them from mid-range while outputting decent support, but Cyclone allows them just that. The current Elementalist has to go Water to give auras to allies, but now they can give out auras via shouts that also have pretty decent secondary effects. Rebound (though it is complete crap) was an attempt to flesh out the support capabilities of the Elementalist with new options. The current Elementalist cannot copy (and thus multiply) the boons of their party nor extend the durations of these. The current Elementalist cannot AoE stunbreak, but the Tempest has multiple sources of this. The current Elementalist has almost zero incentive to intelligently camp an attunement or build around a single attunement, but, if they ever make Overloads not kitten, the Tempest will have a reason to do so.

They did give you something new. It’s just strawberry vanilla, rather than the vanilla that you THOUGHT they advertised or the chocolate, which they never advertised.

Malchior.5732:

I don’t think any of us are just going to sit around and wait for Anet to give us a joke Elite spec. It’s like, if I get served a pile of crap when I ordered a Pizza, I’m not just going to accept it. I’m gonna go over and complain for my money back. It’s the same with any other service. Maybe we didn’t know how the Pizza would turn out, but they gave us expectations, and when they asked for money up-front, we expected results.

That’s a rather poor analogy because it comes with the assumption that Anet not only screwed you, but intended to do so and that they have an active hatred for the Elementalist profession. Newsflash. They don’t. You’ve been arguably the most powerful class in every game mode for over half of the game’s lifespan.

What actually happened:

• Anet brought each profession a jar of jelly beans.
• The Elementalist forum asked for chocolate, vanilla, and mocha.
• Anet went to the store and thought “you know what, those licorice jellybeans look interesting.”
• A few people actually like licorice but, as is life, most responded by spitting it out.
• Anet wonders why you didn’t like the licorice they gave you and is now trying to make licorice taste better.

Why don’t you like licorice, Elementalist forum? Why?!

I think the only real issue is a lack of a variety in condition weapons and legends, including a lack of ranged condi weapons.

With future elite specializations, this will probably be resolved, but, for now, Mallyx is an unfortunate outlier.

morrolan.9608:

And lastly it is hardly a gift when we are paying an exorbitant amount for an xpac.

What is exorbitant?

$50 is pretty standard for an MMO expac that has a subscription involved. Guild Wars 2, on the other hand, has been an insane money value for the past three years. No subscription fee for a AAA MMO that can easily provide thousands of hours worth of content? Not what I would consider exhorbitant.

I would have gladly paid $100 for it. And I did. Because I don’t kitten about prices. I appreciate an opportunity to get more out of my game and support a game that I’ve gotten well over three thousand hours and counting out of.

Not to mention we aren’t even evaluating this expansion based on known content, because we simply do not actually know the extent of content we’ll actually be receiving. We’re simply speculating.

Though I’ve actually miscommunicated my point here.

Gift as I mean it is not something given for free.

Gift here, as I intend it, means that they are listening to a long-term wish on the part of the community – to expand the playability of their class. We’ve begged for more build options. We’ve begged for more weapons, skills, utilities, and traits.

And they are giving us a means of obtaining exactly this. It would have been so, so easy to simply say “oh, you can dual class like in the first game.” That would have taken zero effort and would have achieved an inferior effect. Because they’ve gone this route and created custom, exciting advanced classes that are inspired by other professions, the class system as a whole is going to be better, stronger, and more interesting in the long term.

There has been a continuous train of complaints surrounding nearly every specialization release that has, quite frankly, grown bothersome. And there is simply no excuse for it.

Why did we get an off-hand?"

At what point was it established that off-hand weapons are in any way bad?

The fact that Anet has to apologize for giving a profession an offhand weapon or “make up for it” by promising extra special mechanics is not a good thing. It reeks of, as much as I hate to say it, entitlement.

They don’t owe you anything just because they gave you an off-hand. In fact, off-hands are great. Sure, they don’t carry the five skills of a two-handed weapon, but they provide for more potential builds, granting the class more potential combinations depending on how many mainhand weapons the class has. This applies double to the Thief, who gets extra interesting mileage out of any new offhands or mainhands in the form of dual skills.

Why did we get this? We need that!"

Well, too bad. For every player complaining about Guardian longbow, someone else really wanted it. It’s a good concept that will give the Guardian new aesthetics and new options. A lot of people really want melee staff on the Thief.

The principle here is that taste is a subjective matter. Do you know what I want on a future Necromancer specialization? Torch. Yes, torch. I LOVE torches and think they are horribly underutilized. Is that by any means a popular opinion? Probably not, but it has merit and it can be used to interesting effects.

At the end of the day, if you like an elite spec’s weapon, rejoice. If you don’t like it, give thanks for the option of wielding it and wait for the one you do want. Chances are, you Elementalists will get your sword eventually, if not the next pass around. Same for you Mesmers and your mainhand pistols and you Warriors with your dagger.

But it isn’t a new role! They promised a new role!"

The kitten they did! At no point did they promise a new role. They promised that it would be profession-changing.

And this is the point that you Elementalists are missing. No, you haven’t been given a new role, but you have been given a new means of playing your existing role. You’ve been given additional build variety. You have relatively viable new utilities that aren’t Cantrips. You have a means of giving out AoE auras without rolling Water. You have a new mechanic that actually incentivizes dedicating yourself to one attunement for a fair amount of time. And while this new mechanic (Overloads) isn’t particularly viable in standard PvP settings, it could really do work in tandem with a Jalis Revenant or a well-used Armor of Earth.

All of this is profession changing. You don’t need to pull out an entirely new role to change.

And while the Eles complain that they haven’t changed, many Guards complain that they have!

This is just baffling. The Dragonhunter and longbow are rejected by quite a few Guardians for being such an outlier to the traditional Guardian style – the opposite of why the Elementalists are ranting about Tempest.

The wonderful thing about the Dragonhunter is that it takes a profession that has a strong role and provides a viable alternative. It complements every single core specialization for the Guardian, and yet it doesn’t feel overwhelming or required like a certain Chronomancer does. It is, with the exception of the Herald, perhaps the best-designed elite specialization to be revealed thus far, and I think it is to be applauded for its simultaneous simplicity and elegance. It stays within the Guardian themes while really bringing a new way of playing them.

The message

If you want a good concept, let the developers have some fun. Sure, submit your own ideas. Give your own thoughts, and express your wishes, but when they roll out something as unique as a sound-based Elementalist, don’t just dismiss the whole thing outright because it isn’t what you wanted, when you wanted it, and with the exact right kind of giftwrap. They’ve given you something that they wanted to see added to their game, hoping that you would love it. They’ve worked hard and given you something different and put the effort into making it something that they are proud to show.

Your job is to play with the new toy, figure out how it fits with your profession, how it expands what your profession is capable of, where it fits in the overall game, and how it feels to play.

Some of these elite specializations change the role of the class. Some give you new ways of playing existing roles. Some bring popular weapon types. Some help to expand the popularity of under-appreciated weapon types like torches.

What all elite specializations have in common, however, is that they are a passionate gift from the developers to the community.

I would say these would be very strong candidates:

1 – Owl
The Norn have few figures that really stand out story-wise, and while Asgeir is the one who knocked out Jormag’s tooth, Owl is perhaps the most revered of the Spirits of the Wild to sacrifice themselves to Jormag so that the Norn could escape. Thus, Owl has a serious legacy as both a Norn spirit and a martyr.
Potential weapons – dagger, shortbow

2. Kalla Scorchrazor
The most influential woman in the Guild Wars series who is known to be dead. She is a powerful soldier and leader who defeated the Flame Legion and brought Charr women into the legions.
Potential weapons – Kalla’s statue portrays her with a greatsword.

3. Archemorus AND Saint Viktor
Why settle for one? The nature of these legends as allies and rivals makes them ideal for a dual-legend elite specialization with unique mechanics. It would make an ideal offensive and protective support.
Potential weapons – Focus

Palador.2170:

If Caithe didn’t kill him (and I suspect that she did, especially now that we know what she knew about the sylvari), then she likely went after their pale tree with some kind of poison or something. So, he could be a bitter survivor, not under the dragon’s control, but out for vengeance in his own right. Someone out to repay Caithe in kind.

That would be remarkably bad storytelling, to have such incredible events happen entirely offscreen.