Guild Wars 2

First, let me say those videos were well done. You had some excellent team play/comps with your allies and good solo fights as well.

But man, Deathly Chill is just so broken in WvW… Enjoy it for now— I’m still shocked it hasn’t been given the PvP treatment after all this time.

Shaogin.2679:

Julius Seizure.4985:

I also really like this end of match feature. Yes, some people are toxic and salty, but they would just spam the “shout” tab anyways. Nothing changes about toxic players.

If anything, this victory area gives a sense of community as we look over top stats, and since this implementation I have met a lot of good people through this. This feature was definitely worthwhile.

Also, Salt is a way of life:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3KquFZYi6L0

The same information has always been available. What about this has caused you to meet more people than before?

Information is the same. The difference is that we are all placed in the same area, and that tends to promote people talking.

I also really like this end of match feature. Yes, some people are toxic and salty, but they would just spam the “shout” tab anyways. Nothing changes about toxic players.

If anything, this victory area gives a sense of community as we look over top stats, and since this implementation I have met a lot of good people through this. This feature was definitely worthwhile.

Also, Salt is a way of life:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3KquFZYi6L0

Rifle can never really be viable without a change to skill #2, Net Shot.

Across just about every weapon in the game, skill #2 is a low recharge attack with extremely high damage. In many instances, this is the skill that defines the weapon. Maul, Gravedigger, Mighty Blow, Rapid Fire, Electro Whirl, Split Blade, Ghastly Claws are but a few examples. These are all high damage, low recharge attacks and just about every other weapon in the game follows this format.

Not on Rifle, however. On Engineer Rifle we receive a 0 damage immobilize that is largely useless in PvE, and can’t reliably hit moving targets in PvP/WvW.

If you truly want to fix Rifle you must start wth Net Shot first and foremost.

When you solo-queue, luck plays a bigger role in rating than we would like to admit. This is especially true if you play a more support-type class rather than a carry-friendly class (Thief). Team comp and skill level of team mates are highly variable, and this impacts classes that rely on synergy and support far more than decap/mobility/plus 1 classes. For instance, an Engineer is highly valuable so long as the players you are rezzing are competent. If you are the highest skilled player on your team and are playing Engineer, then by default the value of your rez depends entirely on the competency of the downed player, which in this case may be several tiers lower than you.

On top of this, a lot of people smurph to help friends artificially rise in rank. How many times have you seen a duo-queue with one borderline incompetent player with 0 top stats paired with someone that carried the opposing team while having 3-4 top stats (and being legitimately a good player well above everyone else)? Alt account smurphing is part of this luck equation.

The last thing that I can think of is that you may well have plateaued. This is the hardest to accept for players, The game may currently rate you higher than your actual skill level, and other more skilled players may have moved up the ladder and supplanted your rung. What you are experiencing may be a proper rebalance of an inflated ladder position.

What if we just made it into:

Win one game with a heavy armor class (Warrior, Revenant, Guardian).
Win one game with a medium armor class (Ranger, Engineer, Thief).
Win one game with a light armor class (Necromancer, Elementalist, Mesmer).

Two of these three options would be available each day. It’s easy to balance and encourages similar requirements as the old dailies, while allowing far more flexibility and (possibly) less class stacking.

choovanski.5462:

Julius Seizure.4985:

what are the sigil options available to a traditional Static Discharge Engineer running no kits? I know this is not a viable meta build, but it is a build that was recently buffed and would be absolutely useless in this new paradigm with regards to sigil options.

if you are running this man, sigils are the least of your problems.
i always run on swap or gen sigils on engi, egun is a must in nearly every build so you always have a swap. the cleanse on swap sigil is pretty exciting for eni.

The developers clearly want Static Discharge to be a viable build given the recent buffs to the trait. The simple fact that a class can have no weapon swaps and all sigils are pretty much being tied to weapon swaps is a problem of game design. We are talking about game design here, not meta builds.

Spartacus.3192:

Julius Seizure.4985:

Warrior with Fast Hands stands to gain significantly from a shift to this new system where almost all sigils are on-swap. Think about the cycle of weapon swap sigils with 5 seconds recharge— you can activate a unique pair of procedures every 5 seconds, or twice as often as other classes. To a lesser extent, Revenant gains an advantage as well.

Correct me if im wrong but I don’t see any On Swap sigils that have a 5 sec CD. All of them are 9 sec as usual.

But yes Warrior stands to gain most since they have always been able to use 4 on swap sigils and fast hands

None have a 5 second recharge, but you can have sigils A and B on weapon 1 proc, then 5 seconds later have sigils C and D proc on weapon 2. As soon as you can swap back to weapon 1, both of those sigils are off of cool down.

It has always been like this for Warriors, where they basically receive twice the benefit from on swap sigils because they can cycle weapon swaps twice as fast. The problem is that now pretty much all sigils are based on weapon swaps, while the few remaining on-hit sigils are pretty much garbage. And let’s not talk about the passive…

Simply put this setup really benefits Warrior and Rev, while it hinders Ele and Engi.

Spartacus.3192:

Ithilwen.1529:

Wait! You’re going to give conditions on-hit?

This means, for example, that a warrior can do a massive multi hit dps burst AND inflict stacked conditions at the same time? You’re talking about nuke level damage for War and ranger.

This will more or less turbo charge damage. That’s precisely the opposite of what we need.

You know the sigils have an ICD right?

I posted about this earlier on the thread, but it got buried.

Warrior with Fast Hands stands to gain significantly from a shift to this new system where almost all sigils are on-swap. Think about the cycle of weapon swap sigils with 5 seconds recharge— you can activate a unique pair of procedures every 5 seconds, or twice as often as other classes. To a lesser extent, Revenant gains an advantage as well.

This advantage was significant before, but lessened by the fact that on-crit, on-hit, and passive sigils work better for classes that camp a weapon or lack weapon swapping.

Meanwhile, classes like Engineer and Elementalist are hit quite hard by the lack of viable on-hit and removal of on-crit sigils. These classes do not gain two sets of sigils as they just have one weapon, which limits them significantly when weapon swap sigils are prioritized. They also need to swap kits/attunements at non opportune times simply to operate in a PvP setting and activate skills.

Just to add: what are the sigil options available to a traditional Static Discharge Engineer running no kits? I know this is not a viable meta build, but it is a build that was recently buffed and would be absolutely useless in this new paradigm with regards to sigil options.

First, let me say that I am intrigued by these changes!

However, has any thought been given to how the power shift from on-crit sigils to on-swap sigils will specifically affect the Engineer, Warrior, Revenant and Elementalist classes?

On the side of receiving high benefits under this system are classes that can run weapon swap procs at a higher rate than others— Revenant and Warrior. Specifically, Warrior with Fast Hands will again make far and away the best use of this new paradigm. The Warrior will be running 2x unique weapon swap procs every 5 seconds. A Revenant can achieve enhanced results by juggling weapon swaps and legend swaps properly.

At the opposite end of this, classes like Elementalist and Engineer are penalized by their class mechanic that limits them to just one weapon and one pair of sigils. These classes previously benefited from having viable on-crit and on-hit sigils, because their profession mechanic only really benefits from these types of sigils. Now that these types of sigils have been removed and/or neutered, I am wondering how you see this playing out.

Are you fine with the way this proposal affects these 4 classes? Is this give/take intended? As a primarily Engineer main I am a little concerned about this change.

I roam almost exclusively on my Scrapper, and I use a rifle build while soloing, and a hammer build primarily for defending camps and/or lords and providing melee/support in small groups. The reason I do this is because the rifle build has so much more burst and actual range pressure, that once you start roaming you realize that hammer just gets kited by any competent players. Hammer is great, but you reallly need a node to defend for it to work better than rifle.

I am not saying that you shouldn’t use hammer. It is great in small groups and, like I said earlier, extremely good with the more defensive aspects of node defense.

If you ever want to secure more kills while roaming, here is what I use:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnUUBlchtoCWXBEqilJjieuz7+e8DqgIQ8ZKgAA-TVCFQBA4BAwu9HQiSP9peA+Ux5iKBVoyg0oDABXAgAAHAO/8zP/8zjUAmL1C-w

The burst damage is extremely good, so is the CC and engage/disengage. I hit 3200 power at peak spike thanks to might from Mass Momentum (stability on 2x gyros and elixir tool belt). You also have excellent protection uptime.

With this build, I can also take camps just as fast as hammer by simply swapping Tool Kit for Bomb Kit, and Blast Gyro for Shredder Gyro. Clump the PvE mobs and kill them with 5 target cleave damage. When I see or expect to face a condition based foe I will swap Elixer B for Elixer C.

When I run Hammer, all I do is swap Tools for Inventions, equip my hammer, and then basically select the standard meta skills:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUBtbhFpCepCEqilJji+vr7+W8ZKgAIc7SmwC-TVCFQBE8CAgElesb/B8pijCVGoP1DuoSQA8AAenOgAAIA38mBgzbezbezbeu5Nv5Nv5NLFg5StA-w

This build has amazing sustain, good damage, lots of reflects, and is a potent small group fighter. It excels at node fighting and when other allies can provide your range pressure.

The reason I run these two builds is that all it takes is swapping 1 weapon, 1 trait line, and a few traits to go from meta-hammer to potent solo build.

This issue is that Blinks are still useful as a net speed buff, and more limited Z access mobility. They just aren’t insanely OP. Regarding ranged advantage… there is still so much projectile hate that I just have to wonder what people are doing wrong.

Cynz.9437:

Julius Seizure.4985:

Old Kylo was lots of fun and visually a much more dynamic map.

But blinks were beyond OP, and Thieves, Mesmer’s and Eles were far too good because of this. With a few fixes this new map will be far better from a balance stand point.

How dare roamers have a tiny advantage, especially on small map like Khylo where non-roamers have stupidly short ways between points….

So what adjectives would you use to describe the advantage blinks granted on other mapss?

According to you,

Khylo (original) : tiny
Legacy : ?
Temple : ?
Forest : ?

I mean, when it comes to original Khylo, all they did was grant unique access to the cata. Unique access to walkways. Unique access to the roof. Unique access to walls. Unique access to side points. Unique access to water pipes. Yeah…

Old Kylo was lots of fun and visually a much more dynamic map.

But blinks were beyond OP, and Thieves, Mesmer’s and Eles were far too good because of this. With a few fixes this new map will be far better from a balance stand point.

I prefer a mix of Wanderer’s, Commander’s and a few Sentinel pieces. The extra Boon duration is very noticible. Channeling 18 seconds of might duration, or pumping out protection and stability that lasts longer tends to be quite valuable. AoE Boon stripping is just not that great to counter boons to be honest.

The problem with adding stealth to Short Bow is that Long Bow already has such a skill, without an evade, and it has 12 seconds of recharge. That’s not going to happen and asking for stealth is just aping the design of another (much better albeit) weapon.

Short Bow should stick with the theme of skill shots and flanking. I would much rather see these skill shot rewards added to existing skills:

Skill #2, Poison Volley, inflict 1 stack of vulnerability for 5 seconds per arrow that hits while flanking.

Skill #3, Quick Shot: grant 2 seconds of super speed on a successful evade.

Skill #4, Crippling Shot, immobilize for 1 second when flanking.

Skill #5, Concussion Shot, successful interrupts inflict weakness for 5 seconds.

Glicko preventing CD moving up to tier 3 seems like less of an issue than the metrics that were used to formulae the CD lead quad-server.

Isn’t the fundamental issue here that the quad-server even exists in the first place? What kind of metrics are available to you developers as you determine world-linking, and how are they so flawed that something as unbalanced as this 4v3v2 mess was deemed as a viable competitive environment?

Addressing Glicko is less important than addressing how we got the quad-server romp in tier 4 in the first place.

Those first world problems of the favored quad server sure are frustrating. Multiple zergs and multiple commanders in tier 4? The horrors of navigating TS sound frightening.

Hey, I totally understand how frustrating it can be to defend— the walls are far more conducive to providing attackers angles for ground targeted skills while limiting the view of defenders. As a player that defends home BLs a lot as well, I can totally relate to this video.

Also, Strength of the Pack→Signet of the Wild→Signet of Stone→Siege Disabler with a good chance to get back to the door is the best you can do there. Like a poster above said, slow them down and hope for defenders arrive.

This matchup would be pretty great if it was 3v3v3. Would it not?

Let’s be honest, for all of the issues Darkhaven may be facing, the crux of this matchup is the fact that EBay and DH are the only dual server here.

Sweet Sanity.8593:

As much as I rip on dh though, really it is eBay who got the short end of the stick here. They did great with hod at the top of t4. They played very well and had a lot of good fights, but then they got stuck in last place as a guest to a dead server

You indeed have some serious anti-DH bias. Where did it come from? Look at the post above to see just how stupidly unbalanced this matchup is. The 4 server monster is more active than Blackgate…

Ansau.7326:

To OP, the best cpu out of your option is either the i5 6400 or 6500. The second is about 10% and if the extra price is less than that choose it, if not then the 6400 will be quite good.
Despite having higher single core performance, the i3 6100 has only 2 cores which are short for a game such cpu intensive as gw2.
About the gpu, a GTX 950 is more than enough for Gw2 at 1080p.

Julius Seizure.4985:

I am going to let you in on a little secret. A Haswell CPU with higher single core clock speed will outperform most current Skylake models for this game.

Is it a better CPU overall for gaming? No.

Is such a Haswell product better for GW2 specifically? Yes.

Sorry but that’s nonsense. There is not a single theoretical reason to say Haswel is better than Skylake.

Skylake has better IPC, faster cache and access to ddr4 which brings higher bandwidth.

And it has been proven Skylake is quite better than Haswell at gaming in cpu intensive scenarios.

Wrong. A cheaper Haswell processor with a higher single core clock speed will almost always outperform a Skylake model with more cores but lower single core speed for GW2 specifically— and be cheaper too. I never said Haswell was overall better than Skylake, all I did was specify that it is currently a better CPU option for this game specifically, mainly due to granting much higher single core performance for dollar spent.

DX9 vs DX12 gaming. Thus why I wrote what I did.

But what if the models have the same single core clock speed? Well then, yes, by all means purchase the more expensive Skylake model if you wish. It is the superior product for the future of gaming, but not specifically for GW2 as it currently runs.

OP— the question between i3 and i5 depends on how much PC gaming you do beyond GW2. If all you really play is GW2, then I would probably just go with the i3 and save money for an i7 down the road. If you play a lot of PC games currently, and specifically newer titles, then go with the i5 as it is better for them.

I am going to let you in on a little secret. A Haswell CPU with higher single core clock speed will outperform most current Skylake models for this game.

Is it a better CPU overall for gaming? No.

Is such a Haswell product better for GW2 specifically? Yes.

I would say you are having trouble killing people mainly because of your weapons— generally people take either Great Sword or Staff for mobility / utility and pair it with Long Bow. Long Bow is your DPS and burst, particularly when paired with pets.

Also, you are very defensive with this build. You have a defense rune, full defense utilities, and are running all defensive traits just about. Remove Nature Magic and take Skirmishing ( I ) ( I ) ( I ), primarily for quick draw and Fury on weapon swap. What you want to do is take either Staff or GS for the mobility skill on weapon swap, this will let you double cast it and move significant distances for positioning. When swapping to Long Bow, you can double cast Rapid Fire for offense, or PBS for extra CC. This also lets you proc Seeds at range.

Personally, I would also get rid of your runes for Pac Runes. As for sigils, Air and Blood are great on Long Bow. For Greatsword, Hydromancy is nice for setting up Maul (chill), and Leaching works well too. For Staff, I would also go with Air and Generosity.

This is perhaps the most effective build for solo WvW we have. You can out run anything, stealth, CC, and have 1500 range damage. When you combine that with Quick Draw granting double use of 1200 range leaps, it is just really hard to die.

Even if you hate LB and stick with Staff/GS, I Would still strongly recommend taking Quick Draw and the Skirmishimg line. It will actually increase both your offense and defense depending on how you use your -66% recharge reduction, giving you great flexibility.

Access to runes and sigils is nice. But without having an avenue for raid-locked trinkets it feels like a half measure. I will gladly take this as it is a significant improvement.

A lot of people are using this as an opportunity to kick DH while it is down. Having fun?

But the truth is that DH and FC are both servers that probably were punching above their weight class given their rankings before mergers. Both were combined, and ultimately other servers gained the necessary player-base mass to run zergs better, while the DH and FC link did not. The flaws that the two servers were able to mask— through whatever reason— were ultimately compounded.

It was nerfed. It was also buffed.

The odds of getting a buff were definitely decreased. However, the XP buff is now the improved variant that includes a kill streak booster and 50% PvP reward track gain. Also, the Magic Find buff is the improved variant with 33% chance of extra gathering, 10 seconds of swiftness on gather, and Black Lion merchant summoning when inventory is full.

Overall, it is still a great asset and much cheaper than buying these buffs with gems. However, it is definitely worse if you wanted just Karma Boosters or Damage Reduction boosters.

I will admit that the wings are a lofty goal for some. If you are only PvPing to grind the wings, then I don’t think they are with it. However, if you are enjoying PvP and at least increasing your skill level over the course of the tournament, then they are totally worth it.

The wings are a nice perk, but really can’t be your only goal to PvP.

Power Necro always brings Blood Magic to dungeons, and thus Vapiric Presence. Now this isn’t great for your “1337 zerk-meta only” runs— which by the way you are automatically excluded from anyways. However, this skill is great for the average pug, adding significant damage and noticible sustain. On top of that, dropping a well of blood when a player is downed is invaluable for the average pug.

Have you brought a power Reaper running Dagger/Focus + Greatsword to dungeons? Damage is fine, and utility is still there. Protection is spammed when needed, vuln stacks are maintained (and yes this can be an issue), and blinds are pulsed often.

Besides, current power creep means you can bring any elite spec and face roll dungeons. And anyone that doesn’t want a Necro with blood magic against Mai Trin or Jade Maw probably doesn’t know what’s up with that siphon…

It depends on both the situation and what pets you run. I would never use Guard with feline or bird type pets. They are just too squishy to absorb that much damage. Also, it is important to remember that Protect Me is a 600 radius stun break.

With tanker pets, Canine or better, Guard becomes more viable. That said, I generally prefer Protect Me in PvP and WvW, finding the value of an AoE stun break generally outweighs damage reduction.

For PvE, Guard is probably taken 60/40 over Protect me.

I know! It is so insulting that HoT has paid for all of the other free stuff that vanilla players have gotten in WvW! I mean, new BLs, revamped old BLs, new mechanics, population adjustments, reward tracks. It’s so insulting that all of that is free. Everything should be free.

In case you didn’t know, I am being sarcastic.

Either buy the expansion and come enjoy all the other great stuff in HoT, or appreciate all of the free upgrades you have actually been given. Not too much sympathy will be had here.

And FYI: Autoloot is exclusive to the HoT mastery system for PvE. Why should it not be HoT exclusive for WvW?

It’s pretty sad that even after an entire class revamp and specialization focusing on a Power Weapon (Greatsword) that Power Necro is still bad.

I am salty to, be honest, because I main a Power Necro and a Condi Berserker. Guess what? Can’t raid with either.

Juba.8406:

Julius Seizure.4985:

Juba.8406:

Julius Seizure.4985:

This is way too much sustain crammed into one godly and now mandatory MINOR trait
a trait this good should happen at the Major tier

OK

Look at chronomancer’s “Time Marches On” its basically 2 Major warrior traits combined into to a MINOR godly trait.

Warriors’s Sprint has 2 attributes (25% run speed and Immobilise removal).

Time Marches On has 2 attributes (25% run speed and -duration on impairing conditions).

I fail to see how that skills is as good as 500 HP/s heal that is attached to what you would be doing anyway— using burst skills. I also fail to see how it is better than Warrior’s Sprint, which negates one of the most powerful CCs in the game. Regardless, pointing out that another class has an unbalanced trait and using it as justification for this unbalanced trait is not the strongest argument to begin with.

Did you forget about Dogged March ?

here ill explain

Time Marches On =

• a better version of Warrior Sprint (since warrior 25% speed only works on melee weapons, cure immb on movment skills is useless for mesmer cos he got far better things …teleports which works even when immb)
• a bit weaker version of Dogged March

The fact remains, in order for warrior to get effects like what the “Minor” Time Marches On gives then he must equip TWO major traits Warrior Sprint and Dogged March

What im trying to say is there are several examples of minors being better than even a major grandmaster, so switching traits because its super useful is not a valid reason.

Time Marches on has parts of 2 separate traits the warrior has: Dogged March (- duration) and Warrior’s Sprint (passive run speed). Each of these have a unique second attribute that is also very powerful.

Regarding Warrior’s Sprint, did you forget about being able to remove imobilize on any movement skill? This is perhaps the best addition to any passive movement speed trait in the game. Maybe you just PvE. I don’t know, And yes, I am looking at Dogged March. Are you?

Dogged March as 2 attributes (Regeneration granted, and -duration on movement impairing conditions).

By the way, Dogged March is -33% and Time Marches On is -25% FYI.

You are comparing apples to oranges and then saying that bananas should be just as round as an orange based on your conclusion.

On top of this, Adrenal Health is not just better than any major in the game, it is also better than most #6 skills in the game— including Healing Signet— with regards to HP/s. When a minor trait can be compared favorably to all #6 healing skills something is not right.

Ironically, I have gotten really good at staying alive while Moa Morphed. It helps when I get targeted anywhere from 2-10 times in matches— that is a lot of experience playing as my second class: Moa! (I am always in group fights, Moa rarely happens when 1v1 with its tell.)

Mesmers are becoming super common now, approaching Season 1 bunker meta levels at least in the games I have played. Most are bad to be honest, but a single Moa on a player can turn the tide of battle significantly, so that’s why these bad players are gravitating to the class I guess.

Good Mesmers are very noticeable— you generally don’t survive a Moa Morph.

Touching on the active vs. passive debate. Looking at the “dictionary” definition of passive traits in MMOs would clearly not fit with what Adrenal Health is.

However, it is not changing your game play. You are not activating your Adrenaline/Berserker skills specifically for this trait, you are activating them just as you would have before—to damage and kill your foe. In that sense it is a passive buff, because the effect is triggering passively when another active skill is used. Btw, that active skill is used just the same as it always was— F1 for damage. Now it is also F1 for damage and a passive heal triggering in the background.

If Adrenal Health became F3, and would consume Adrenaline to heal yourself over time then yes, it would be an active skill.

Juba.8406:

Julius Seizure.4985:

This is way too much sustain crammed into one godly and now mandatory MINOR trait
a trait this good should happen at the Major tier

OK

Look at chronomancer’s “Time Marches On” its basically 2 Major warrior traits combined into to a MINOR godly trait.

Warriors’s Sprint has 2 attributes (25% run speed and Immobilise removal).

Time Marches On has 2 attributes (25% run speed and -duration on impairing conditions).

I fail to see how that skills is as good as 500 HP/s heal that is attached to what you would be doing anyway— using burst skills. I also fail to see how it is better than Warrior’s Sprint, which negates one of the most powerful CCs in the game. Regardless, pointing out that another class has an unbalanced trait and using it as justification for this unbalanced trait is not the strongest argument to begin with.

I would be fine with making Custom Arenas have an option to only allow classic builds using core specializations. Good luck filling them up, but if you think there is a niche for it that is about all I can see this request warranting. No. They are not going to give you your own queue.

The funny thing about a business is that they listen to paying customers. If you don’t want to be a paying customer, then you can’t really expect developer attention to freeze your playing experience in time by further diluting the player base and lengthening queue times. All of that costs resources, and you aren’t contributing to those resources.

Like the player above posted, feel free to wait it out and get it for free in a year or two.

I don’t know if suggesting a build with 0 condi clear in a condi heavy meta is the best idea. You are going to burst down a reaper and eat it all back. You are going to face Berserkers now, given the Adrenal Health buff. Condi Mesmers? Expect 1-2 per match now.

Yeah, that build is not going anywhere fast in this meta.

So why is this GRANDMASTER TRAIT not 4-5 stacks of bleed for 2-3 seconds, so that it at least has some semblance of matching the DPS of the old chill damage?

That would be the difference between adjusting for mechanics versus a flat out nerf.

high socks.7628:

I don’t invest in HoT because I already paid money buying this game originally. I don’t want to be pouring more money in this game, especially when I don’t know how much I love this game.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve been playing a long time but still, $50 is a lot of money to just throw around for some new skills

Fair enough, but I think the problem is with your thought process. You have everything you had before HoT came out, and while from your perspective you view elite specs as pay-to-win, the truth is that you are choosing to not invest in the game as it grows

Moreover, you have even more than you paid for free of charge. New amulets. New and revamped PvP maps. Access to all the WvW changes..

There are lots of still viable builds that use only the original Specializations. But the game has moved on and you don’t want to move with it. There is little that can be done about that.

Might I ask why you don’t want to buy HoT?

Investing in the game helps it grow and evolve. Elite specs are a big part of that process.

I agree that the new set up is much better mechanically. I don’t agree with the value of the heal, and the fact that almost all of our newfound sustain was crammed in one minor trait in a trait line that was already too mandatory in PvP.

Choppy.4183:

Julius Seizure.4985:

This is way too much sustain crammed into one godly and now mandatory MINOR trait. Why can’t there be viable sustain options spread more evenly in the trait lines? Besides, a trait this good should happen at the Major tier, where opportunity cost occurs. I am just frustrated that this even made it out of internal testing…

Is it though? I mean, do you think a warrior with this is even close to top of the heap in terms of sustain? Because it really isn’t… It’s a nice buff that needs field testing.

And it’s not mandatory if you can get by without it. We’ve been able to get by with warrior in most game modes without it until yesterday, and now we have to see how we do with it in light of all the other changes.

My point is that the Warrior clearly needs sustain. However, a 500+ HP/s passive heal as a minor trait is better than almost every Master tier Major trait in the game. Warrior clearly needs sustain, but too much of it was granted to this ONE minor trait when it should have been spread out to other revamped traits and placed in multiple trait lines.

I am very impressed. All of the changes across the board seem to be solid decisions.

Skyhammer:
+Leap pads work much better.
+People like this map enough that it is being selected regularly.
+The center node B is more open to fighting, and the elevated areas and sub area are much more useful for evasion without granting too much benefit for ranged DPS.
+Cheap kills from CC have been eliminated.
+/-Skyhammer as a weapon feels less potent.

Spirit Watch:
+All classes are equal when carrying, finally.
+Fundamental design for conquest works well, as both close nodes are easily accessed from spawn.
+Orb frequency makes it less of a snow ball mechanic. It feels just right to be honest.
+Skirmish at the beginning while racing to mid is fun and unique: Death Race 2016.
+/-Significant advantages exist for teleport skills.
-Another map where Portal is arguably too strong.

This buff has been frustrating because SB has been so bad for so long, After it finally got a balance pass I am dismayed by how underwhelming the buffs are.

Remember, Rangers have Long Bow, which serves as a baseline for a viable ranged weapon. Yet somehow:

—Skill #5— Concussion Shot is still terrible given the 25 second recharge time. Point Blank Shot is better CC at a fraction of the recharge. On top of this, the projectile speed is an issue for interrupting important skills at range.

—Hunter’s Shot is far better at providing combat evasion than Quick Shot. Quick shot should remove Immobilize or other movement impairing conditions.

—Crossfire even while flanking is worse than Long Rang Shot.

—Lead with the Wind offers a permanent flat 10% damage boost through attack speed. Meanwhile Light on your Feet gives at best a 40% uptime (given 10 seconds per dodge regen) on an arguably inferior DPS buff. Why?

—Rapid Fire does more damage at 1500 range than shot gunning a foe with Poison Volley at 0 range. Risk versus reward? Forget about it. Just make a skill shot happen in dangerous melee range and be glad there is an extra 1 extra second of poison.

Anyways, it’s just frustrating how A-Net has all of these mechanic and skill gated requirements on Shortbow skills, and yet even with them theoretically functioning 100% of the time by a godly skilled player, they still would struggle to match sitting still with Long Bow.

This is way too much sustain crammed into one godly and now mandatory MINOR trait. Why can’t there be viable sustain options spread more evenly in the trait lines? Besides, a trait this good should happen at the Major tier, where opportunity cost occurs. I am just frustrated that this even made it out of internal testing…

People are already breaking the map and buying these items from the vendors in LA. I am surprised Anet even has them there. The BL area in LA was a bad idea given how easily people break map and use teleport hacks.

It’s fun, but my Warrior takes about 7 seconds to start regenerating nearly 900hp/s passively, without any boons. Not sure if this is what warriors needed to address the lack of sustain, where one minor trait turns the Berserker into Wolverine.

I would like to see reasonable sustain spread more evenly in nearly all the trait lines rather than in one godly and now mandatory minor trait.

Wait, making leather / Elonian roughly on par with cloth / Damask is a nerf and not a buff?

I don’t want to change too much of your build— but within the framework of what you have going:

1— Why not use Axe/Torch instead of Long bow? Dropping 2x bonfires on downed foes, or having a fire field for your soldiers to blast in and stack might seems far better. This is especially true given your condi focus. If you go Axe/Torch then Ambidexterity is a must.

2— Poison Master is worse than Wilderness Knowledge given you are already taking 2x Survival Skills.

3— I feel that Lingering Light would be better for you. Unless I am wrong, healing allies causes them to Blind foes and heal themselves and this skill has a 12 second ICD per ally. That is a lot of Blinds when you have 20 people to spam heals on.

4— Why not take Spotter? I can guarantee that 150 precision for you and 4 players is better than more personal bleed damage. You are commanding players, so this isn’t even close.

5— You should really take Druidic Clarity for the full condi clear and extra stun break. A dead/CCed commander is useless.

6— I would run either Melandru runes (for durability) or Trapper Runes (for damage and evasiveness). For Trapper Runes, being able to stealth and relocate via Super Speed is great when you notice you are being focus fired. Melandru runes with the right food (Lemon Grass) will help a ton against conditions.

If you like your build, and mostly are a skirmish commander, these changes should make you much better while keeping the essence of what you have designed.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNEQNAW3fjMqQLLWuCurAVLWYEM4m6VdryUA+WBgmxVtKEUiyrA-TliAABmq+j67PwmSwwU+toOgOuAADqZI6DCAFPAAAOCAAA-w