Guild Wars 2

Why does every balance have to consist of completely destroying things, then making others incredibly strong EVERY time anet? I understand you guys have to keep the meta fun by reducing the effectiveness of overpowered specs, but this system just forces people to jump around. Can we please have a balance system that consistently chops off only a bit at a time without destroying a cool mechanic so much that it voids something entirely useless? Reduce overpowered specs, but slightly; and buff more things to add variety.

Your pretty much destroying most forms of support. Take into consideration just how much condi is going to be pumped out by everything now. It was bad before; look at condi rev and reaper. You guys actually increased the condi output from reapers with all the changes. Reapers will be even harder to kill with the new mercenary amulet as well.
The main support classes are irrelevant. Without a bunker amulet, mesmer won’t keep up. Without celestial amulet, eles will just get condi overloaded by reapers and die (even with the new diamond skin). Druid is the only one that might be able to survive, but its put in a weird spot without a full bunker amulet (because bristleback still does more damage than any of its weapons) and it will die to condi overload too. In addition to this, your destroying the support role that a lot of people like to play. Its certainly good that you toned down the bunker meta, but this doesn’t mean remove support entirely. It could turn into a giant fight between semi and full glass-cannon builds. Its probably more entertaining to watch, but not with conditions and certain power specs getting no reduction. Will watching a skill-less dragonhunter (lets be honest, 90% of people who play DH just faceroll) spamming trueshot on people for 8k because they have no healing be interesting? This takes classes that can revive too easily, to barely any reviving period.

Hopefully you guys reconsider some parts of the balance, but it was a good idea to push things away from a FULL bunker meta. Support needs a role too, but not the same as before. Reduce condi so the supports aren’t destroyed by it.

*Also, whats the need to nerf energy sigil after your desroying most survivability anyway? It makes support even less viable as they can apply vigor for allies.

This is a really good idea in changing the stances to f2, f3, f4, and maybe even f5 (defiant stance?). Having a second heal skill only puts it on par with revenant, druid (celestial form), necro (second hp bar), etc. I still think it would lack sustain, especially in regards to condi cleanse as shouts/rage (physicals 2.0)/physicals offer little. Also the base warrior would still be slow and clunky, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. It would mean you could slot some more interesting skills on your bar as all stances would be baseline ex: To the limit as shoutheal, full shouts, and banner elite might be able to get close to the current support classes with some shout updates.

I believe there’s an anet dev named Nightmare who plays shoutbow occasionally in pvp. I was in a queue with him and grouch shortly after HoT release, but I haven’t him since. Also he was getting chilled to death by a condi reaper while attempting to bunker home if that’s any indication of the current state of warriors.

They actually nerfed the double hit on gunflame, so thats not even really worth running anymore. Too bad, atleast anet could have given us a weekend of fun with the only good part of the spec.

Im sure all this has been mentioned a few times before, but I didn’t read every post on here :P

PvP/WvW raiding/GvG perspective=

Anyway; someone did mention on the first page that fast hands needs to become baseline. This is 100% true to create build variation in this class. Discipline is a really great traitline even without fast hands, but the lower weapon swap is something that nearly all warrior builds rely on. I think the best example of how class build variation changed with the specializations patch was mesmer. By making illusionary persona baseline, it removed the need to trait illusions for shatter builds. Now we have all types of condition shatter, mantra shatter, pure burst shatter, etc ALL because you dont need to have the illusions line anymore.

But for berserker itself, I only felt like arc divider and gun flame were actually worth running for any mode. I realize that gun flame is actually hitting twice currently, but theres no way to make it competitive without keeping its damage the way it is with two shots, or just increasing its damage flat out. The only reason berserker was strong this weekend was because of gun flame being extremely strong still. Arc divider felt a lot stronger and seems balanced, so no complaints there.

The problem with condition on berserker is the fact that you need to be constantly within melee range of your target, and your burns aren’t even that potent. When compared to burn guardian, the damage is nothing. When compared to a normal burning engineer or elementalist, they can both output more burns with much more sustain in their builds. Basically, they can output lots of burn damage without that even being the focus of their build. Torch still feels weak, and the final burn actually got reduced (if you were lucky enough to land it). Even reaper can do insane condition damage with chills, burns and bleeds; while being insanely difficult to kill.

The hammer burst needs some update to it still. As a warrior that raids in WvW every day with my guild against great numbers, its too difficult to hit. The aoe is not smooth and therefore you cannot really aim the immobilize (not that it matters with how short it is). If I could suggest something, it would just be to change the hammer burst to be a field that sits there and maybe pulls enemies in for a short time? Or maybe just make it a field that quickly expands on impact, immobilizing. The burst needs to feel more fluent as it lands; not guessing on who your going to hit with it.
The sword burst needs work too. Its very slow and inaccurate, and does nearly no damage. When I played pvp or wvw with it, I feel like im just useless sitting with it, waiting a few seconds for my next weapon swap back to rifle or greatsword. If I could suggest anything to it, it would be at least bring it back to a melee-oriented burst.

I think overall, fast hands baseline is the major change that is needed to offer berserker a chance into new builds. Berserker itself needs some update to burst skills (specifically gun flame (assuming that the double shot is a bug), hammer and sword), and a small overhaul on the rage skills (outrage is good, but it wont replace anything else competitively).

It is unlikely that the gamemode of keg brawl itself has been benefited from being limited to one day a week. Instead of simply increasing the activity one day of the week to make it worth even existing, anet should just advertise it more in some way to make it played 7 days a week. Even only having it open certain times per day would work to prevent late night deadzones. An activity central area would be a good addition to have all the games central. New players would see that and even if they didn’t play the games, they would atleast be aware that they existed; rather than the randomized system it currently is.

Ok so, I just got howler recently and have found a possible(?) bug. When I use the original legendary howler skin, the effects don’t appear at night. Like the aura is still there and the skill effects, but the moon doesn’t appear in the circle at night, nor does it play any sounds or sparkle. However, when I skinned an older warhorn with the howler skin through the wardrobe, the effects were restored…the moon was there and sparkling, and the sounds were back. Doesn’t matter what I do to the original Howler skin, it does not regain the effects…does anyone know if this is a bug or intended?

Hey guys, just want some opinions on which class I should aim for getting sunrise on. I hear that getting it on a Mesmer would be wasted due to very little attack animation. The choice between guardian and warrior is very difficult, I like the warrior’s greatsword skills better so far, but many have told me that Guardian gets to be a very good class at 80. Also some things I am considering is which class will make a better commander? (I already have an ele as a commander, but its obviously quite squishy and don’t always enjoy it in WvW).