Guild Wars 2

The idea above to just completely scrap the current staff powers and put out 5 new effects sounds great to me at this point. Maybe keep staff 3 and 4?

I pretty much quit playing a while back when it became obvious that traditional core guard, where I have over 3,000 hours, was going to be continuously squeezed out of the game. Or so it seems to me.

The glaring reality that the elite specializations are intended to be just better, the instant 80, I mean why pretend that there is any parity or that the Intent is to have build diversity utilizing 3 different types of guardian, or that there will be parity between specializations for any other profession for that matter.

As for ‘loot stick’ aspect, the pitiful amount you get from selling blues and greens is so trivial compared to what you spend this has never made any sense to me.

The only thing I can think of is that some players had found a way to do really big damage through walls and they won’t give us the reason for the nerf because they don’t want to proliferate the tech. Yes, I buy my tinfoil in the large economy size!

I always found that having a spam attack you did not have to actually aim (fire and forget) allowed a less than gifted player like me to concentrate on positioning for using my buff powers, planning my next Wall of Reflection or Purging Flames, and just generally being in the right place as directed by the tag. The stick could put / keep a large number of opponents in combat so they could not escape, that was the thing I surged through enemy zergs for.

PS: I own the expansion, I just don’t like it. Never finished it and so can’t make a DH at present. I plan to wait a few weeks or months and see if any useful build shows up and try to learn to play it as I am ready to return to GW2 for a while. Sure was unpleasant to get a kick in the teeth just when I thought about making this game my primary again.

So Staff 3 speed symbol is just never used anymore to buff teams?

How does a core game guard get around? Just use the now pretty much castrated stick and only have one weapon for DPS?

Is this just a blunt instrument to force us to go DH or the new one?

I am really confused as to what to slot for WvW if I ever start regular play again.

The fact this could happen at all, with no discussion of how ‘unfair’ staff was is indicative of the reason I just log in once a week.

So far as I know Not One Guard in the guard forum has welcomed this strange change.

I mean seriously, the consensus is that Guard Staff is now effectively useless as a weapon.

We really need a red name explanation here.

Thanks for replies.

My spouse basically has no experience or preferred playstyle. She played a perma-pre Ele in GW 1 just to help me farm a bit many years ago. This was before the change to get to max level in pre. So that alt is still like Lvl 16. She picked Ele cause the outfit was cute. I leveled the alt for her.

So I suspect the advice to go Warrior is correct, at least as a learning tool.

Since I have over 3,000 hours on regular guard I could teach that best, but I do have a lvl 80 Warrior that was my second main for a bit, so I can probably pick that up again although he is unplayed in like two years.

Like every set there are a few I like and some I really dislike. The basic idea of Carnival Glass as a theme is pretty cool. But a lot of the specific weapons are meh at best, and a few are really awful.

My question is, do the Jester’s bells on the Scepter JINGLE? If they do, that then becomes a must have.

I also like that GW2 is willing to make boundary testing sets that will not appeal to everyone, but question exactly when they choose to release them sometimes. If this set does turn out to have a strong connection to a major plot element well ok then.

After only 4 years the most useless single thing in the game gets a possible fix. Any improvement will be great, thanks.

Did anybody waste an inventory slot to actually carry one of these for anything other than avoiding a run back when doing the Pirate Puzzle?

I settled on Guard for my main at launch.

Having seen it whittled away patch by patch to the point it is so much less fun to play I just want to ask -

Would you have a friend take Guard for a main?

Maybe it is just that I paly so seldom now. Perhaps I need to make different ascended gear and / or go DH.

Is Guard just a path to DH now?

Would You buy this class again? Building up a decent level 80 alt is not trivial and I want to give good advice.

If not Guardian then Which? My friend is really new with only a small amount of MOL play time.

Guardian was, is and will remain my main.

I just don’t play him anymore. Or any other alt.

I did not leave the game, but the game left me.

Kicked from all my guilds for non-play. I still check in now and then and wait for better times.

NCSoft – it would take a book to cover this.

Look at the history of City of Heroes, still the most fun I ever had in gaming, and the ruthless way NCSoft shut down an apparently healthy game to divert some resources to GW2. The idea that they don’t vet every major decision with a 1% magnifying glass for Profit strikes me as the height of naïveté.

Yep, 4 years and the disappointment still nettles.

Too bad all the dev time that was squandered on what became the giant hole in DR can’t be magically recovered and used to complete a few more Legendary Weapons.

Of course the stadium they finally covered it up with is pretty much like the Olympic venue in Greece, which at least still has a sports club that uses it. That one even has an event now and then.

tl;dr
My vote – decision sucks. Hope that it is revised someday.

Just another reason I have more fun elsewhere right now.

5 Accounts and I can’t even remember the passwords for 2 of them.

Miss the community though – a lot. Still the best ever.

Thanks for the “100% OFF Black Friday Weekend Thank You Sales Event”. This is how it should have been pitched of course, with a strong dose of wink-wink nudge-nudge.

I will certainly use my 5 free items, but the strategy here is Hard to understand.

Most people have only X amount money to spend for the holidays. There were so many great deals on other tangible things I really needed, that I actually went a little over budget to get extra items I had not expected to be able to achieve. I did not finalize my purchase decisions until late Friday, after checking back twice in game for any sale event. I suppose I should thank Anet for making it easy to ignore my number one hobby by Failing to Compete in the market place this Black Friday season, and forcing me to be responsible and only buy what I really needed.

Except of course for the $100 earmarked Entertainment Money I spent on multiple other games that did offer really great deals. I consider some entertainment a very great need, especially for the homebound, but try to exercise strict discipline on those expenses. Here I spent 6 months of fun money in about 6 hours.

It will be sad if Anet does choose to have a sale, for example on Cyber Monday, because my mad money is gone. I could not find any whisper of an upcoming sale despite multiple searches, so I did the only rational thing and seized the bird in the hand.

My only comment on the comical Mystic Forge Stone boondoggle, is to suggest that the execution of the trivial task of picking 6 cheap things to give away, and failing even that, is a just reflection of the whole Gem Store marketing effort.

2 hand battle axe, another vote yes!

So apparently I had purchased several of these ahead one day for a couple of alts, and stuck them in the bank.

Is there any way to exchange them for Spirit Shards or something?

I can’t seem to find anything about this issue via search.

Goodness yes! MOVE it!

Does new LA look like a Disney theme park, as some have said? Yes it does. For me not a problem, my spouse and I went on a Disney Cruise and Disney World combo for our honeymoon. Recommended. New LA is ok, but still under fortified. Could use some more budget housing in outer areas for flavor, more bars, etc.

Is it a pain as a hub? Yes it is. Do better alternative hubs exist? Yes and no. This is still the only place with a direct port cluster unless you have one of the two exclusive access passes. For new accounts where every silver counts that makes LA a money saving necessity over just using way points. One of the reasons my wife doesn’t like to play, as the load times on her system are painfully slow.

For mature accounts running level 80’s around the silver savings add up. On my system load times are pretty good (bless the SSD revolution) and I save about 40 silver a day basing all my alts in LA.

For just a handy service hub, using Rata Sum is very good advice imo.

Upgrade Extractors should have an immediate and permanent 50-66% price cut. They should have had it a long time ago. It is not just Ascended and Legendary gear either. If you accidently put anything in Karma equipment it is locked forever too.

The day this patch came out there should have been a 50% off sale on Upgrade Extractors, good till at least the end of July. (and I mean 50% off the already permanent 50% reduction. ie: 75% off what they are now.)

The Powers that Be should consider that half a loaf is better than no bread, and happy players spend more in general. Unhappy players don’t, and may look elsewhere.

While we live in hope that some tiny drop of sanity and a tiny trickle of concern for player qol will permeate what experience shows to be one of the most ossified departments ever, my solution to the kittened condition of several fully geared alts has been to just play the other alts, that I quit playing when the NPE fiasco happened.

At least the ones that were not kittened by the auto kitten build system. Fortunately I had enough tomes to level 2 alts out to 80 where the auto-kitten don’t matter.

So now I can xo gear them and explore the new system and two professions I have no expertise whatsoever in. Maybe I’ll make some ascended if I like what I find. Maybe I’ll take my pending 100 bucks and find something I like better.

ps: the word kitten in all instances was typed by me. While I have very little sympathy for certain of The Powers, I do feel sorry for the poor overworked profanity filter.

In a different thread about this same problem, a poster mentioned something I never knew. If you double click the skill bar it will cast at your feet like before. Works for both WoR and Purging Flames.

So while I would prefer the option to turn ground targeting off, this is at least a work around for fast action situations.

Of course I’ll also be spending the 50 bucks I could have used on a pre-order buying a mouse with many more buttons.

Yeah, the disconnects and the fact you have to go get a new gun every time something goes wrong, including the gun randomly de-spawning or just not firing after a while was harsh. Being randomly killed by multi-hundred thousand point damage during a trivial jump, or going down a stair or over a tiny berm, several times, was a bit much also.

At the least, the exterminator gun really should be like a birthday blaster or other special weapon and in your inventory, to be kept for a fond memory or discarded after the achievement, as the player desires.

As for including the jumping puzzles, I hate that so much stuff requires doing Jumping puzzles, but I love the game and have Forced myself to learn how to do them (I spent about 2 hours a day for three days in the quaggan nursery.) I still can’t possibly do the most difficult, but I have become a better player for it. The JP’s in Lion’s Arch are all pretty easy with practice, but two are quiet long. Search the net for guides, they Really helped me.

I feel the pain too.
But take a look around the forums and don’t do anything rash for a while. The REAL beta test is under way, and reacting in any way involving gear changes based on what we have today, or even for the next week or month may be a huge mistake. Things as they are now are going to change a lot, and over more than one fix, more like a series of fixes. I don’t even consider the new traits as set in stone, either in position or effect.

Consider using ‘get by’ rares or cheap exotics you can salvage later for ectos and dark matter if you just have to make a change. That is what I am doing.

My 2 cents on the AI builds on log in.

I only looked at my six level 80s. Every single pre-done build on every one was Comically bad. Trait lines I had not used in years like Zeal on my guard were fully bought. If the decision had not been made to allow a level 80 to be guaranteed enough points to fully unlock, this release would have been something unprecedented as far as player rage is concerned.

Jon, to take the decision as to where these precious new Hero points are spent totally and irrevocably out of the player’s hands, the player who OWNS the alt, with regard to sub level 80s in this arbitrary and ill-executed manner, well that could NEVER be acceptable. Or more simply, What Were You Thinking?

As it is, the ONLY possible response is a one time hero point reset. I suggest a free item, similar to the old instant trait point reset item, mailed to every sub 80 alt on every account. This solves the button problem, and hopefully has an attached text that makes clear that this is a SINGLE USE item.

please don’t squander the great goodwill you have generated by quickly acknowledging the more pressing problem of gross imbalances by failing to also deal with the character build hijacking issue too.

I was under the distinct impression that using a mouse to click skill bars was not the method used by superior/serious players. It is certainly not what I have ever done, as when I first started mmo play many years back I tried both hot keys and click. On any game with more than a simple console game level bar with more than 8-10 skills it really becomes impossible for me. And I found just preferred hot keys all around.
I am sure younger and more gifted ‘clickers’ prefer that, and doubtless beat me up constantly. Like the devs I watch clicking doing demos on twitch, and I guess they would know, doubtless all being champion gamers to get the jobs they have.

I did test it out (double click to cast centered) and sure enough it works, and at least that gives me a work around I might be able to learn.

So seriously, Thanks! for the heads up Mallis.

Boon Duration was +30% all the time, now supposed to be +20% but Only when wielding a staff. However the +20% Boon Duration from Honorable Staff is not working. Yes I wielded, Yes I cast skills that granted a boon. This has to be a bug, one of what will doubtless be a huge number. EDIT: After reading the actual patch notes Boon Duration buff has been removed from Honorable Staff. So we go from a +30% possible Boon Duration increase to ZERO. WHY? Surely there is a reason. Could someone explain how this was so broken as to need total elimination. Boon duration was already hard nerfed once before. Why not just eliminate it from the game.

The mirror your current build was Comically Wrong, as expected. Runes are unchanged, so Runes are not gear. Glad that is now understood.

For me power was up sharply and unnecessarily. Vitality and Healing power were both down. Health pool might be playable. But a rework of my Trinkets IS necessary. Missing Precision is also a problem. Assassin’s Gear incoming. Retributive Armor – no precision and an ON BLOCK triggered Grandmaster for an Armor and Ferocity? buff. So without the Precision this used to give we will have lots more Crits to exploit this new ferocity? Another sign that You Shall Play Mace Focus (see below) and nothing else, as that would be a source of On Demand Blocks iirc. But ICD and no stacking, correct?

You can have Absolute Resolution or you can properly wield a Hammer. What moron decided that one.

Greatsword is totally screwed for a zerg support role imo.

Apparently if you want to run classic zerg support you run Staff with Mace / Focus and nothing but Mace / Focus, or take inferior minors. And this is Build Diversity.

I see why Disco has been using that mace / focus set for a while. Guess I have to craft two new Ascended Weapons. And learn a completely new style.

Oh and you can have Shout recharge reduction as part of Pure of Voice, or you can have Writ of Persistence to exploit the new symbol off mace.

I guess rather than craft anything I’ll wait for people who are lots smarter than me to post the new cookie cutter builds.

Post your considered actual fails. Or new Wonder Builds ™, surely the devs slipped one in somewhere.

Oh just read elsewhere that there is no way to turn off ground targeting for Wall of Reflection.
As if I did not have enough to do in play.
EDIT: Lock Ground Target at Max Range – new check box that ‘might’ help with forced Ground targeting NOT WORKING. Second major Bug!

They revised the decision to have more than the Level 80 Hero points for full unlock. A level 80 is supposed to be able to get full unlock if this announcement is correct.

ColinJohanson
Game Director
A:
A quick update on this one -> After feedback from presenting the original hero point count – we decided getting to level 80 will give you enough hero points to unlock all the core skills and traits entirely. Doing hero challenges (aka skill challenges) will simply allow you to earn all the skills/traits earlier before level 80. With the release of HoT, there will be options to spend the excess hero points earned from doing hero challenges in the world.

There are a number of other changes on 6/23 to make the experience from 1-80 more exciting, better-paced, rewarding, and fun as well after having the time to evaluate and player feedback from the updates last year.

-CJ

Complete thread –
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Skill-points-and-Spirit-Shards

Oh &*%@^%. I forgot/did not consider the 30% boon duration being gone.

And trying to add it back with gear will probably be a total fail, unless there is a dramatic change in boon duration gear choices, like putting it back on Celestial.

Boon Duration was gutted a long while back.
:(

When I read that there was a game wide hard nerf to Vigor, reducing the buff to Endurance gain from 100% to 50% I expected to see a LOT of wailing and moans, especially from guards as it is a further nerf to selfless daring, which has already been hit hard twice, iirc.

But I don’t seem to see any threads about this anywhere.

I thought dodging, with or without a dodge roll effects, was a critical and defining skill in the GW2 Combat system, and that a major nerf to dodge availability would be important. What have I missed?

This based on this quote from the Specialization Changes thread.

•Vigor: Decreased the endurance regeneration rate from 100% to 50%.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/June-23-Specialization-Changes/first

As a courtesy to new players, all versions of the new Heart of Thorns expansion to the wildly popular Guild Wars 2 saga include a Free copy of the GW2 core game.

So there is what you could have said. I think people who rewrite hopeless goop posted on the net generally say Fixed. You would also be exploiting the Number One sales word in the English language – FREE. I think that is probably taught in copywriting 001.

You might also note in some of the rage threads that giving away the core game to attract new players with the expansion is actually a huge bonus to existing players, as we really do need some new blood (and dollars to pay for more devs to like Fix the Game too? Which is about to have a massive and doubtless bug ridden major revamp, that we loyal fans will survive – again.)

I certainly see the flip side of this, and personally I would honestly prefer an expansion at an expansion price with an attached perma-discount to get the necessary core game for the now usual sale price of 10 bucks, or even 5. Thus new players might pay 50 and existing players would pay 40 or 45. Any acknowledgement of existing players right not to pay for the same content twice, at this point, would be a pretty good save.

But cutting it off in the first place by stating that new blood gets the original game FREE was the screamingly obvious spin.

Get some talent for a department that just keeps stepping in it. Please.

The patch that hit about 30 min ago includes this -

•Updated condition damage. Previously, a condition that had a fractional remainder of time after it dealt damage would not inflict the rest of its damage. For example, a 1.5-second burn would deal 1 second of burning damage, then fail to inflict the remaining 0.5 seconds of burning. Conditions will now deal this fractional damage either at the beginning or end of their duration, depending on when the next damage pulse would occur and their remaining duration.

Does this help Guard DPS a lot or a little?

Does it make points in Condi worth looking at?

TL;DR so this may duplicate somebody else.

I have crafted multiple ascended armors.
You can gather metals, and I tend to get a boatload salvaging. Never had a problem there. Wood for weapons same.
Leathers can’t be gathered but are not too hard to get. Prices are a bit high on some. I would suppose that this is because they are less crafted and Leather is NOT used by all armors like Damask is, but can bring no evidence.

Fabrics, across the board are hardest to get. All but Jute really hurt to purchase.

It is not just the 3 to 1 for bolts it is also the 100 for 1 for Weaving Thread making 300 silk scraps, whereas Thick Elonian Cords and Mithrillium only need 50 refined and thus 150 of their base ingredient.

For anyone trying to get Tailor crafting to 500 these fabric issues are a double whammy, brutal expense to level then 36 Bolts of Damask to craft the armor, almost 50% more Damask than the other classes.

Whatever the policy maker’s intent was in creating this situation and then doing nothing to redress it, it is really grossly unfair to all the light armor classes.

So back on page 2 I had some pretty harsh things to say. Now I must eat some of those words.

It occurred to me this morning that I habitually run at almost minimum vid quality in game to fight performance issues in WvW during zerg battles. I clicked the Best Appearance button in DR and looked around this morning.

I)They still are not the black I would wish but no longer a dark gray.
2) Animation, when standing around, subtle but adequate.
3) Texture/dimensionality is a Lot Better, probably higher shaders and post processing. Not as good as I would like but much better than at zero/minimums.

They still move badly when running,/fighting imo, and the appearance is still not quite what I would want so I still would not buy them, but they are not that bad and look very good on some of the characters I saw.

Well I thought about it. Fortunately looked at the videos.

Clipping – a fail, but they look so awful on an Asuran overall to me, that it seems like the clipping is not the major problem. They just scale badly on Asura period, and if they scaled better I bet the clipping would go away.

Texture – Look at some of the exclusive hair styles, for instance, that have a lot more, I guess dimensionality is what I am trying to say. These wings seem very flat and lifeless – cheap plastic rather than cardboard in the videos and in the preview pane in game.

Animation – gentle rise and fall should already be available from the work done on the blades backpack, or at least that item shows they could do it.

As to why have Wings in a game without flight, well look at the amazing elaborations on some actual historical armors. If you like wings and think they’re cool I’ll bet someone on this planet could make you a pretty nice set to actually wear, limited only by your pocket depth.

And if they moved a bit they could actually act a cooling system. Real armor, if you have ever worn it, is HOT. Tens of thousands of soldiers and knights have died of heat related problems across the centuries.

Finally, I personally wish this item had been double or triple the price and had introduced a new class of Back Skin that could be DYED! These cry out for the kind of variation the hair system has.

Really like the newest skins.

Different, not reskins unless I missed something and a very attractive effect. Well done.

I am glad they are willing to let people who want to wear something truly bizarre have some fun. I had a character in City of Heroes that had horns that size. Possessed by a demon he was, and the horns were on his skull, not a helm. That was a character creator .

But having grown up in Texas and seen giant mounted Longhorns on the wall in the den since I was a tiny tot, my perspective may be a bit skewed. Won’t buy em, but sure won’t dis them either.

I said earlier in this thread that I could not contrive a proper expression of my dismay at this totality of particular change. I still can’t.

But the last two of my 14 Friends and Family Guild members that still played, only because I still played, informed me yesterday that they have come up with a definitive word for their feelings.

That word is “Goodbye.”

Not even for you, Jak, will we continue to play Guild Wars 2. This is the couple that includes my Best Man from my wedding 25 years ago. I think if things were bad enough he would give, not lend, but just give me money. But they won’t play this game anymore. If I did not enjoy WvW so much goodbye would be my word too.

I really hope we see the absolutely necessary changes to this system. A lower entre point – Level 25 perhaps, if they feel it just has to be raised from 20.
-And-
Three level appropriate ways to get any trait. One for PvE, one for WvW, and one for the various PvP.

If this system is not reworked and improved it is certain I will never buy another character slot, since I won’t be leveling any more alts. Not even five of the six alts I created pre-patch, to have grandfathered characters. Leveling just the one so far has been such a sharp diminution of fun, even with just the trait levels being so stingy. If it is fixed, maybe some people will return.

My greatest sadness is for the truly new players who won’t know what it was like under the old system. Who will cheerfully shell out tons of real coin to convert to gold, and farm champ bags to get the reams of extra skill point scrolls to help pay the skill point costs, so they can just buy the traits they think they need.

The only possible rational explanation of the current situation is gem sales. The people who designed this just can’t be as out of touch as the unlock task list suggests. CANNOT BE. Look for a Gem Store item that lets you donate Skill Points to other players. That will complete the golden circle. The Gold in the circle I reference is not a color, but rather a mechanism of exchange and a store of value (less inflation of course.) But it will be a lot less of MY gold. A LOT LESS.

I found the Enameled Dyes from the previous set brought out detail, and many were unique shades that I either preferred to other similar hues or helped match hard to mix armor. I would suggest trying them in the preview window (which is still too small, grrr) before you dismiss them.

Ok, I finally got around to looking at the list of activities that unlock specific traits.

Although I have spoken, read and written the English language for well over 50 of my 60 years of life, my command of my native tongue fails me in arriving at a sufficiently negative characterization of just how appalled I am at the choices made for the tasks needed for unlocking of traits, most particularly at the adept level.

Yet another example of game management doing everything possible to “encourage” players to actually Play Our Game Our Way®, and screw the play your way manifesto.

You MUST be “encouraged” to do WvW and various PvP. You might like it and then spend more money on things for those new activities.

Why not be open and above board about this stuff. No Character Progression beyond level 30 without 250 WvW player kills. No progression beyond Level 50 without 100 combined PvP kills. And give a one time free custom finisher for the first alt on each account that gets those unlocks. They’ll buy lots more once they see how cool a custom spike looks, Right?

Man the first 6 months in this game were so great, even with all the early bugs. But the deep philosophical changes and how the player base is being ham-handedly manipulated are really getting me down.

When daily achievements were first expanded with some rotation and some permanent, that was so player friendly. People that wanted to chase max achievements had lots more options, and people that wanted just laurels could count on a few favorite activities. Now? Sigh.

Long story short. I can deal with all the changes of this re-release of the game.

But this new Trait system is really awful. I mean Epic Fail bad imo.

The tier levels are probably the worst part. 30 is bad, 60 is really bad with 66 before you get 2 points at a time, but 80? Really?

At this point I could no longer recommend this game to a friend starting from scratch.

I have an inherent contempt for conspiracy theory mavens, but I actually hope that this is all a sham. That the Real new trait system, that still sucks but not as bad as the current one, is already prepared and will be put in place soon. That what we have now was just a way to get us to feel good about the Real system. with levels like 25 45 65 and points that make more sense.

If your Guild disbanded tomorrow, you have still secured your place in MMO History.
Outstanding.

Over 3K hours on main acct., about 400 on 2nd. 13K Achieves. Did all the usual stuff – No Precursor. Felt the curse. I did see a pretty good increase in Rare and Exotic drops as MF on main crossed 150%.

During the final Scarlett event I bought 30 bucks in gems on each account. Forged the Legend and dropped Scarlett’s Kiss on main account and dropped The Chosen on the 2nd account in less than 2 weeks. Gems On → Cruse Off? I sure hope not.

Megaserver is so unwieldy.

PIG – Permanent Involuntary Guesting technology is a lot more efficient and catchier.

:))

Jak

PS: It will all be ok guys.

Another vote for TOUGHNESS-Precision-Vitality

When you consider the cost to transfer you may want to simply get a 2nd account on the old server, perhaps on sale. My spouse does not WvW, so when my guild moved she stayed on our original server. It has been very handy to have two personal banks and the extra character slots to do mule storage with.

It does appear that Boon Duration mixing is taking the hardest hit from the sharp change in Superior Runes. I am sad since I only recently bothered to get that combo, to try to compensate for the nerf to Symbol of Swiftness. The added up time on stability was really useful. The change in PvP to no mixing period (one rune slot only giving the effects of all 6) makes it obvious that the balance issues with mixed sets are to be hated out of the game.

It seems unlikely they did this just to hate boon duration, so what other OP mixes are being used? Just curious what I missed and what Runes to dump if I have them in inventory.

I am also confused by why we spend the first 59 levels of the game being Trained to Mix Runes, or have un-Runed armor? Just seems pretty silly to me that if using full sets is to be the be all and end all of ‘proper’ game play, that there are only 2 runes per Minor and 4 per Major. Or is power leveling so common that the Minor and Major runes have become irrelevant?

I also wonder if they remembered to nerf the 10% Major Sanctuary rune down to 5%. At 10% it used to be the 3rd pair in a full boon duration set up.

I personally did not hear anything exciting in the live reveal of the new GM Traits, at least for the classes I play. I have not read one thread that presented a compelling argument for a new build incorporating any of the new GMs. I have seen a whole bunch of threads bemoaning the various new GM traits lack of applicability to just about anything, compared to existing builds/roles.

Did I miss something?

Is there Even One new GM trait that players Are excited about?

If you see real potential in one of the new traits, could we use this thread to link some positive, happy discussion threads?

I am really weary of all the crying. It’s like going to a funeral for a stillborn child.

I believe The Reason that Sounds Good and The Real Reason is the technique being employed by Anet here.

The reason that sounds good is that they want to “encourage” the use of full sets and make the game more “approachable.”
The actual blog paragraph →
“We know that some builds rely on mixing and matching different runes to optimize a given stat, and we don’t want to stop players from doing that.” [Inserted comment by me – ROFL- if the 15% to 5% nerf on rune pairs is across the board, that is SOME encouragement, kind of like how 12" high speed bumps encourage slower speeds. End inserted comment.] “Rather than limiting build diversity, we simply want the PvE rune system to be as clear and approachable as possible for new players, so we’re making it easier to understand the benefits of sticking with a single rune set.”

The Real Reason is that they have clearly decided that current Rune set values permit abusive Over Powered mixed gearing, and they have a company policy of never simply admitting a mistake, but rather improving it away, whenever possible. The changes being implemented will address other issues too, and make their lives simpler going forward as far as game balance issues.

Evidence for this being The Real Reason is blatant – in PvP you will no longer be allowed to mix and match – period.
Again the exact blog paragraph →
“In order to make it simpler to understand for new players and easier to switch between builds, runes in PvP will now be a single slot you equip. Equipping a single rune will be the equivalent of equipping it to your whole armor set and it will provide your character with the same bonuses that you’d formerly receive with a full six-piece superior rune set.”

So the evidence is overwhelming, they want Complete, iron-handed control over this aspect of gearing.

Finally, one of the silliest statements I have seen in a long time was made in a post near the top of the thread. If what follows seems harsh, well it is a bit harsh. I hope it will only provoke deeper thought.

“Runes are not supposed to be mix and match’d.”

In response I must ask the following.

Could you please name all the 6 piece Minor Rune sets? Do you only power level and thus never try to outfit lower level alts with 6 Runes?

Could you please name all the 6 piece Major Rune sets? Do you only power level mid range alts and never give them 6 Runes?

As someone else pointed out do you just get really aesthetically offended at mixed armor sets? Does the thought that an apparently unmixed armor set might actually be Transmuted and thus have mixed stats cause you to lose sleep?

If the idea that Armor sets Can be mixed and matched does not bother you, then what koolaid did you consume that makes invisible gear necessarily homogenous, but only after you achieve Level 60?

Or is it that people who, in part, find their Joy in the Game comes from being as efficient as possible are not playing the “Right” way, and are thus mystically interfering with your Fun?

If that last is the case then I humbly apologize, but must sadly inform you and your fellow travellers that I will continue to explore all the boundaries in the build system, no matter how much they dumb it down.

You speak of celestial gear but the link shows all Clerics armor and Zerker trinkets and Soldiers weapons.

Retreat is just bad. Put it on your underwater bar only, imo. Stand one extra tick in your Symbol of Swiftness and use an untargeted GS 3 leap if out of combat. Since you are using Empowering Might as opposed to Two-Handed Mastery your Symbol will still drop off but it’s all about choices. Without Two-handed you might consider a Hammer in place of Great Sword. The interaction of the free symbol from the Auto attack with AH can be useful.

Way too much Critical Damage and way too little Critical Chance. Vigorous Precision and Empowering Might must have Critical Hits to function. They are the key combo to make AH really good. You might want to review the 30 points in Valor thread by Brutaly, it is a sticky at the top of this forum.

The changes incoming on 4-15 will significantly impact all the berserker gear and celestial gear. See todays front page blogs.

I am just glad I made a Warrior as a 2nd main a few months ago. 2500+ hours on my Guard and I only play him in WvW anymore, and that has some serious issues after recent nerfs. sigh.

Without citing specific posts, several people have suggested that a change to the Chinese Release version of the personal story is motivated only by a desire to make the game experience better.

This game is developed, owned and operated by corporations. Every single decision made in any well managed corporation is always driven by, or at least reviewed for its impact on, the bottom line. Any action that seems to be otherwise has been deemed to be in the best overall interest of the enterprise in building or retaining goodwill (customer loyalty, public perception – which affects stock price, etc.)

A classic example is the company that donates a million dollars to fund medical research and spends 40 million dollars advertising the fact.

So while it may be completely true that a change in character progression, or the myriad other changes in the works, will make the game a better experience (and attract and retain more players → Ka-ching!) the idea that its effect on Key Farming was never considered is naive at best.

If this change is made I am sure that it will still be perfectly ok for player to key farm .

The fact that Black Lion Chests are just a bad deal, except under very special circumstances, and then only using free Keys or Keys bought on sale as cheaply as possible, is a problem in the BL department’s management philosophy.

Not really concerned with profit, just trying to understand if this item has any rational purpose in the current market. Even with exclusive dyes being in the mix it would be a bad bargain, and without them it is a screaming NO.

Now the sale is over. At full price Dye Pack goes from an insanely bad deal to a words fail bad deal. Really ought to be removed from the game for now, as every one sold is a horrible disservice to the purchaser.