Guild Wars 2

Ohoni.6057:

There’s nothing about the Ice Encased armor pieces that couldn’t be mixed and matched with other pieces. It is not any more “seamlessly fit” than any other armor. Would every possible combination look as good as any other? No, but that’s for players to decide.

Well obviously it isn’t.

And you state not every piece combo would work but apparently our mentality should be just give it to us anyway even if no one would bother using it. That is the illusion of choice.

Ohoni.6057:

There is not an Outfit in the game that could not exist as armor pieces. All the Outfit does is prevent you from swapping out portions that you don’t like for other portions you prefer.

Only if you ignore how some peices seamlessly fit together. For example, Ice encased.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Leo G.4501:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

I don’t understand the allure of outfits, from a player’s point of view. Apart from the issues of dye channels and shoulders, everyone who wears them looks alike – which seems the very antithesis of what this game is about (Fashion Wars 2). You pay for them, and yet you look like other people wearing them. /shrug Each to his own, I guess.

The same can be said about undyable backpieces, but people still wear them and ultimately look similar (primarily because a portion of your attention is drawn away to said wings/backpieces).

But the problem I have with people who try to use this mentality as a vice against outfits is that, you can only wear one outfit at a time. How can you look alike if you’re not wearing the same outfit? Oh, you’re wearing the same outfit? ~click~ Now you’re not wearing the same outfit.

You could say “I’m talking about someone wearing the same outfit”, to which read my 1st paragraph. You’ll look the same as someone else who wears the most attention drawing pieces as you (usually, helm, shoulders, body and back…and I guess weapons in some cases).

As for why I like outfits: They look good. They not only look good, but in some cases, they look like something you could never wear before, which is a troubling issue when I go to make an armorset look. Most pieces look the same as the other lists of options with some changes (swap a spike or two for a jagged spike, or maybe an added cloth texture under those spikes). Outfits are a great thing. You’ll look even less like everyone else when more outfits are released.

As an aside, there’s nothing wrong with looking alike sometimes too. Having everyone wearing a “team uniform” like those old comic book supergroups can be a neat option too.

Relax. I wasn’t ..uh.. trying to “use this mentality as a vice against outfits”. They’re not my cup of tea but you’re welcome to them. Each to his own.

That wasn’t a heated response. It’s more likely restating things I’ve said before in similar debates. But i also have some other things to say about fashion wars mentality but that’s not really aimed at an individual.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

I don’t understand the allure of outfits, from a player’s point of view. Apart from the issues of dye channels and shoulders, everyone who wears them looks alike – which seems the very antithesis of what this game is about (Fashion Wars 2). You pay for them, and yet you look like other people wearing them. /shrug Each to his own, I guess.

The same can be said about undyable backpieces, but people still wear them and ultimately look similar (primarily because a portion of your attention is drawn away to said wings/backpieces).

But the problem I have with people who try to use this mentality as a vice against outfits is that, you can only wear one outfit at a time. How can you look alike if you’re not wearing the same outfit? Oh, you’re wearing the same outfit? ~click~ Now you’re not wearing the same outfit.

You could say “I’m talking about someone wearing the same outfit”, to which read my 1st paragraph. You’ll look the same as someone else who wears the most attention drawing pieces as you (usually, helm, shoulders, body and back…and I guess weapons in some cases).

As for why I like outfits: They look good. They not only look good, but in some cases, they look like something you could never wear before, which is a troubling issue when I go to make an armorset look. Most pieces look the same as the other lists of options with some changes (swap a spike or two for a jagged spike, or maybe an added cloth texture under those spikes). Outfits are a great thing. You’ll look even less like everyone else when more outfits are released.

As an aside, there’s nothing wrong with looking alike sometimes too. Having everyone wearing a “team uniform” like those old comic book supergroups can be a neat option too.

While I think some outfits could have parts split off and sold separately as armor pieces (this is already done! Braham’s shoulders, for example), I’m in the camp that thinks doing that for an entire outfit (i.e. splitting the helm, the body, the pants, etc) is a waste of time and resources. It’s just better aesthetically to take a good part of an outfit that can mesh well and stand out rather than trying to pull the pants that look like any other set of buttcape or boot but with a slightly different texture just so people have the illusion of variety.

So, it would be more likely, less work intensive and more profitable if we focus on outfits with nice parts and request those specific parts rather than taking the mile of having them recreate the entire outfit as an armor set.

That all being said, I think the devs should get a bit more experimental with their outfits. Since they use a different rig and are a whole package look, they should start stepping away from making them look like armor sets and more like distinct looks. For example, Imperial, Exemplar, Lyssa, Ice-encased and Ancestral outfits don’t look like pieced together light/medium/heavy which is great, but stuff like Sentinel, Dynamic-exo and Slayer’s outfit look exactly like what you’d expect from a heavy armor set which isn’t particularly bad (so long as it looks good) but you can do something unique with the freedom of a full-package look!

Vayne.8563:

Considering how many mastery points come from just doing the story and communing with points on the map, I’m having trouble believing you couldn’t make progress at all, at least to get through the story.

There are several communes in VB alone, two of them you only need basic gliding to get to, and you get a point for that, just by doing the first story, which you need to unlock masteries in the first place. I honestly think you made this harder than it was.

I can see being confused for a few days, maybe, but months? I’m not really sure how that’s possible.

That could very well be an issue with the system in that, through confusion, a user unintentionally makes it more difficult on themselves. It also doesn’t help that the later map is particularly convoluted so aiming to get the map point masteries could be something unobtainable until later.

Since it’s been around a year since I got over the issue, I can’t recall the particular roadblock I found or made for myself but it did force me to take a break for a long while. And considering it is possible to blow points on something you think you might need and not everyone goes and reads guides (at least at first), it’s not a perfect system, not even close.

As far as how someone could be stumped for months, it’s likely the whole “play how you want” mentality of the game, i.e. playing the content you actually want to play, not the stuff that annoys or frustrates you. Granted, I’ve learned to just deal with a different level of BS (similar to how Orr used to feel like BS but is a walk in the park now…but Tangled Depths isn’t really a parallel), but there were definitely hurdles to that adjustment.

AliamRationem.5172:

Use facts, not salt.

That goes both ways. There’s nothing wrong with indicating facts but the way you go about it, and then demean someone’s opinion won’t get you the opposite response.

AliamRationem.5172:

Your vague complaint indicated that the “majority of content” is locked behind masteries. I simply pointed out that you only need 4 points to explore the vast majority of the maps themselves as well as complete the meta events.

And this is your own communication malfunction. Had you “simply” explained something, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But you didn’t and say you did so whatever.

AliamRationem.5172:

If “the majority of content” includes the story and 100% map completion as well, then you need 43 points, which you can easily earn in the process from strongboxes, insights, story, meta, and map completion. But that’s only if you need full map completion. Leyline gliding is not required to complete the story, as I recall.

I consider “majority” as access to all the maps, the entire HoT story and possibly onto LS missions. The main issue is that the masteries were locked behind mechanics that previous unlocks were not linked to (you never needed Achievements to unlock Traits or Skills…well, you used to but not any more) so the hunt for more points went from playing the game to sifting through achievements. It could have been more from exploring the maps but that’s a whole different issue.

AliamRationem.5172:

You’re welcome to hate HoT and consider any amount of time spent there a grind. Just as I’m welcome to think that you’re exaggerating how much of a burden the mastery system is. It turns out my opinions matter as much as yours do. Cool, huh?

You know what I really hate? How polarizing people are these days. You either love or hate something. You either agree and support or disagree and dismantle. Like I’m suppose to thank you for allowing me to dislike HoT just because you consider my argument an exaggeration therefore invalid. Which is likely why you have these polarized expressions now-a-days because no one wants to hear that you are in the middle, they want to hear if you love something or hate something so they can try to bash you or flutter on about how they agree.

Well, my experience with masteries wasn’t an exaggeration because I seriously was confused about it for the 1st 3 months, so much so that I took a break and came back still confused until I hunkered down, opened the wiki, hunted down more points despite not wanting to so that I could comfortably progress. It meant I had to do some stuff I didn’t like or found unfun.

And I don’t have a problem with you having an opinion of my opinion. I DO have a problem with you making up what my opinion is and then complaining about that. It’s called a strawman.

Whenever they do make it so players can sit in chairs, they should disable your ability to sit in chairs if you’re wearing a backpack/wings.

Weapons already disappear in various interact states so not a problem.

The one I hear a lot of people talking about is the Griever attribute combo which is Major Power/Condition Damage Minor Precision/Ferocity.

One thing I’d like them to do is add more 3-stat combos as well. Would love Power/Condi+Healing or Power/Condi+Ferocity. Or do something crazy like having Ferocity or Expertise be a major of a combo. You wouldn’t want to have a full set of it but you might use them for your weapons.

AliamRationem.5172:

Leo G.4501:

I don’t see why having an opinion is such a controversial thing.

Personally disliked most of the HoT maps. Verdant Brink wasn’t bad. Like Auric Basin but Tangled Depths is annoying. My dislike of HoT was how the majority of the content was hard locked by the masteries which, when i started HoT, had no clue how to get more mastery points outside of the ones marked on the map (which weren’t enough). Even to this day, i am limited in mastery points until i do achievements i don’t want to do but at least the remaining masteries aren’t necessary to progress.

The reason i don’t like Tangled Depths is because the visual map is useless as a guide. At least Verdant Brink was open enough that i could explore to find out how to get somewhere or if you’re able to reach it.

Yes, the majority of content is locked behind masteries…a whole 4 points worth of them (bounce mushrooms, basic gliding, updrafts). By earning about as much experience as it took you to level from 70-80, you can explore all but a handful of objectives and complete every meta!

No, there were points in the playthrough of the story, I had to grind out Leyline gliding to progress while also needing to get the Nuhoch lore soon after in the next zone.

But what’s the point of attempting to berate me for not enjoying an aspect of the game that I felt is annoying? Your point amounts to zilch to me as I’ve already got most masteries unlocked but didn’t enjoy doing it.

AliamRationem.5172:

All I can figure is that the gameplay is simply so unappealing that players who dislike HoT want to spend as little time there as possible. How else to explain why 4 mastery points is such a barrier to enjoyment or why taking your time to explore a map is unacceptable to a so-called “casual” population that shouldn’t be in a rush to complete objectives in the first place?

Perhaps you conflate your opinion to such lofty levels, you think everyone should just take your strawman argument. Just going to be straight up with you, you don’t matter.

Panda.1967:

You are mistaken… Condi builds require 3 stats just like Power builds…

Power builds: Power, Precision, Ferocity

Condi builds: Condi, Expertise, Precision

Yes… both need precision… Condi builds utilize a lot of “on Crit” effects through specs and runes.

We’ve already rehashed this point.

I won’t say a consensus has been reached about this point, but ultimately, what stats would be deemed “required” is dependent on build and game mode. For example, in WvW, you don’t need precision as sustainability would provide far more via toughness/vitality or for a condi guardian you can get a fair amount of crit% without precision. But again, it can go both ways. If you can manage to attain good enough crit% without devoting gear to precision, you can put those stats on other things for power specs too.

An aside, I personally don’t think expertise is required for condition damage builds. You can likely have passable (or even more favorable) builds by taking traits and/or runes/sigils/food to extend condition duration or just utilize those to apply more condition procs instead.

Counter question, just how many procs out there are direct damage aimed and what stats do they utilize?

Captain Obvious.6951:

Leo G.4501:

Considering the ranged and mobility disadvantage a Guardian has

This is a joke right?

Good job taking words out of context tho.

I said “range and mobility disadvantage a Guardian has vs a Thief”.

Are you saying Guardian can do more damage at range with a Longbow than a Thief and has equal or better mobility?

Captain Obvious.6951:

Kadj.6725:

Captain Obvious.6951:

6 unloads in 4.5 seconds

I agree with a couple people above me – pressing 3 a whole bunch may be a demonstration of just about the least amount of skill imaginable.

You want to stay on topic? Alright – no, I don’t think retaliation needs to be scaled down/nerfed. Why? Because Retaliation here is doing exactly what it should be doing – that is, it’s punishing spammy gameplay, and is an active, direct counter to the specific kind of move that lasts longer than a dodge roll.

First, the thief doesn’t play like other characters in this game. He has energy instead of cooldowns. So while spamming one button may take less skill than having to hit 2 or 3 buttons like an Engi, it’s how the class was designed. Don’t fault me for playing a character as it was designed to be played.

Second, I’ve already attempted to strip boons from the target. I don’t always get the retaliation boon especially when people have a ton of boons up. I’ve also come up against people who are literally ticking like 5-10 seconds of retaliation.

So once again I’m back to my point of not liking skills in a PvP game that force me to not attack. What am I supposed to do… run off for 5-10 seconds and ‘wait it out’? Do you realize how dumb that sounds? 5-10 seconds of not being able to attack someone can be the difference in living or dying, winning and losing a fight or a pvp match.

Retaliation is punishing fast attacking heroes, but is all but useless against slow hard hitting ones. Do you realize how dumb THAT sounds?

This is why I was suggesting maybe to make it a more well rounded skill, to deal more damage to slow hitters, less damage to fast hitters, and put a damage cap on the returned damage cause I still find it utterly completely stupid that one boon can return enough damage to kill an entire health bar of a player.

Thief doesn’t have fewer consecutive but harder hitting skills? They don’t have to be “slow” to be considered harder hitting.

Or is Thief just the flurry hit profession and I just didn’t realize it. If so, wait for Deadeye.

Captain Obvious.6951:

Sifu.9745:

Jesus, guys! Can’t you see he’s just mistaken Retaliation with Reflection?

So we’re all on the same page, I took a screenshot.

http://imgur.com/a/aJqWc

Unload attacks 8 hits in 1.5 seconds.

With quickness on, that’s 50% faster, .75 seconds.

8 hits x 247 = 1,976 damage retaliated in .75 seconds

6 unloads in 4.5 seconds, 6×1976 = 11,856 damage returned in 4.5 seconds.

So I was exaggerating just a little bit.

First I only have about 11k health in PvP.

Second, it takes 4.5 seconds to kill myself when someone has retaliation on, not 3 seconds.

I mean kitten me all to hell right? It wasn’t 3 seconds, it was 4.5 seconds. GOD FORBID I was off by 1.5 seconds.

So the fact still remains. Do you really think it’s fair that someone sitting still DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, JUST SITTING THERE, can return 11,856 damage back to their attacker with JUST retaliation on?

Personally, and maybe I’m just flippin crazy here, I think that’s an absolute joke.

This is why I said………. the skill needs some kind of damage return cap or something on it. But at the same time maybe balance the skill out so it’s better against slow attacking players and monsters too.

Thus why I suggested maybe the skill should just return 15% of damage, to a max of like 2k or 3k damage or something to that effect. Or make it so it does something like remove 1s of duration for every 1k damage returned. Just something other than the guy standing still getting healed and healing himself, returning almost 12,000 damage back to one player… that’s not even counting any hits from other players.

Considering the ranged and mobility disadvantage a Guardian has vs a Thief, and that he popped retaliation just as you were using a boat load of Unloads, I’d say the Guardian required more skill here to put you down. He likely waited for you to feel safe using Unload, healed it back, maybe even tried reflecting it and when you though, “he burned his reflect, time to unload”, he countered.

Another stipulation i want to add to those arguing that conditions hold no deception and are as straight forward as power:

• regarding threat, because cleansing cannot always remove everything, every bit of condition, regardless of source, potency or duration, can hinder your efforts to cleanse the most threatening condis. Basically cover condis.

• regarding deception, not all condis are created equal. Someone pop a burst of 15+ stacks of bleed on you, you have exactly 1 second to decide to cleanse and by then, gauge if the duration warrants it, the intensity can be withstood. For all you know, 10 of those stacks could have came from a power bunker ele while 2 stacks coming from that necro in the back waiting fou you start burning cleanses.

Brutaly.6257:

Leo G.4501:

That’s all? A

That is all, you do realize it is a 50% nerf to every weapon in condi builds, except axe.

That is not how math works. Go do your homework.

And before you rebutt, taking 2sec off a single stack of burn does not equal a 50% nerf.

Kidel.2057:

Please remove Winds of Disenchantment

No.

Absconditus.6804:

You use dodges, evade skills, blocks, invulnerability, mobility skills to re-position yourself with and get health back, healing skills, cleanses, Resistance (which trumps Protection with it negating the damage completely) and then some.

Just wanted to comment, but how much resistance application is out there? I know a lot of sources for Protection, which accounts for why Resistance trumps Protection…because it’s a rarer boon application. Granted, I’m not versed in raid which may have perma-resistance, but that isn’t a common circumstance.

Diak Atoli.2085:

Knuckle Joe.7408:

Every time one of these posts come out, people (I assume avid condi players) always say stuff like “you don’t have condi cleanse?” as if the stupidly imbalanced condi classes can’t reapply the them isntantly.

The problem with condi is that you got stupid shutdown capabilities WHILE also doing stupid high damage, which is easy to apply/reapply. Most of the cleanse skills take away 2-3 condis at max, while the ones that remove all of them are under long-ass cooldowns. How are you suppossed to remove cripple, chill, burn, poison, bleed, torment etc, with your modest condi cleansing?

You don’t have to worry about that with power built enemies. You just dodge, dodge, dodge, (you can literally pull out vigor out your ass at this point of the game) a few blocks here and there and that’s it. Stuns are rare tbh and most of the time hard to apply.

5-7 stacks of bleed alone and you are already doing damage equivalent to some bread and butter power skills, each second.

Condi classes should not have so many crippling condis, they should have only damage ones.

I’d like to address several things. Disclaimer: This is merely a set of examples and observations. Interpret as you will.

1. The same skills and tactics used to avoid power-based damage also avoid the majority of condition-based applicators. Without those applicators, condition builds don’t do direct damage, nor apply damaging conditions.

2a. A Condition Druid; running full Sinister’s, Runes of the Krait, a Sigil of Malice, and food; has +33% bleeding damage on top of 1,817 condition damage.
- A single stack of bleeding does 174.25 damage-per-second.
- Five to seven stacks deal 871.25 to 1,219.25 damage-per-second.

2b. A Power Ranger; running full Berserker’s, Runes of the Ranger, a Sigil of Force, and food; has 2614 power, 58% critical chance, and 225.33% critical damage.
- Rapid Fire deals a minimum of 3,734.75 to 9,440.98 damage.
- Rapid Fire is a 2.5 second channel, so damage-per-second is 1,493.9 to 3,776.39
Note: This damage is against 2500 Armor. Soldier Professions using Berserker’s, Viper’s, Sinister’s, etc have a Armor rating of 2271.

3. There are no condition professions. Power-based builds have access to the same inhibiting conditions as condition-based builds.
- Afore-mentioned Power Ranger has access to Immobilize, Cripple, and Slow; the same conditions the Condition Druid has.

Now to be a cheeky fellow.

The afore-mentioned Power Ranger also has condition cleansing on a 20s CD (4 conditions), a 20s CD (2 conditions), a 32s CD (2 conditions), a 40s CD (2 conditions), and a 48s CD (2 conditions). These also apply Immobilize, Cripple, and Slow while being stun breaks and evades.

Your build can’t do that?

There’s also a slight stipulation in those two scenarios. The power ranger is locked into a channel skill to perform that while the druid has spent whatever cast to apply those bleeds up front, after which the druid can dodge, heal, apply more damage, etc. Of couse, those channels can be sped up by quickness.

Another consideration is that there are combo finishers that can ruin condi damage (light field) while the corresponding finishers are a bit more limited (dark fields).

Ramoth.9064:

A lot of traits for every class are built around their profession mechanics. At the most basic level, these traits essentially do the same thing; apply boon on activation, remove condition on activation, added stats while activated etc, etc.

The common denominator here is activation. Activation benifits are often based on two of three things:

Resource: Life force, adrenaline, pet HP
Time: Cooldowns
Accuracy: Connecting with the skill used.

If we look at each profession and see which requirements they have it will look like this:

Elementalist: Attunements swapping only require time.
Engineer: Toolbelt skills only require time.
Guardian: Virtures only require time.
Mesmer: Shatter requires resource and time. And resource is only required for greater effects.
Necromancer: Entering Shroud requires resource and time.
Ranger: Pet swapping requires resource (health) and time.
Revenant: Legend swapping requires time.
Thief: Steal requires time and accuracy.

Warrior: The benefits attributed with burst skills, of which there aren’t all too many to begin with, require resource, time and accuracy

Oddly enough I found myself agreeing with the changes to primal burst adrenaline but I felt some sort of trade-off should have been given back, e.g. entering berserk mode should count as 2 stacks of adrenaline depleted.

But going back to my original argument, it doesn’t make sense that burst attacks are constraint upon 3 things, where every other class only has two. I think accuracy shouldn’t be a criteria for effects like adrenal health, cleansing ire, since you are held back by requiring time and resource to activate it to begin with. Thematically it works too, if the adrenaline is what heals you, expending it should be the cost, not landing the hit.

Either that or missing with a Burst Skill/Primal Burst doesn’t deplete Adrenaline…

…or add some kind of field effect to every Burst/Primal Burst that can be benefited from (a la Combustive Shot) so that it doesn’t matter if you miss…

Diak Atoli.2085:

Leo G.4501:

Sifu.9745:

As condi Guardian i also don’t need crit much: i get 15% crit on one handed weapons (trait), 10% on burning + 4 base crit = 29% crit + some more from Fury every now and then. So as Guardian i use same stats as i use them on my thief: condi, power, vitality.

I actually took the build in a slightly different direction. My Guardian focuses on Power, Toughness, Ferocity and some Vitality. He doesn’t use Right Hand Strength for the 10% crit chance on 1 handed weapons but instead the 50% crit chance while having Retaliation. I built him to get retaliation and light auras a lot and use a hammer for added protection and I can get 2-4k crits with autos and a bit of might here and there. Fury’s not always necessary but it’s a fun bruiser build. I had a similar set-up with my Warrior until they changed the +prec on signet use to +fer. I’d either need to change the build to Power, Precision, Toughness to see how it’d pan out or just go back to my berserker build.

…but that’s all rather beside the point. Guardian may have a build to bypass precision but it still doesn’t compare to a good spec’ed full power damage Dragonhunter-type build.

Interesting idea. My biggest problem with the new Guardian traits was getting reliable retaliation outside of greatsword.

It requires taking some unpopular traits and a utility but my sources are spamming VoJ (this is just standard PvE btw, not high fractals or anything), the heal signet, the stunbreak signet, any aegis you apply and getting hit in the face.

On topic, just as your build won’t compare favorably with a meta-spec’ed Dragonhunter, neither will condition builds favoring defense compare to a full Viper’s build. (Or is it Sinister’s now? Meta makes my head hurt.)

Most players on each side of the argument only tell half truths. And then when people step in to argue the case, its taken into the context that you either think condi and power are equal or that condi is overpowered.

nuaa.4962:

Tome of justice is 1 sec of burn. When virtue of justice is 2 sec.

That’s all? And you do mean the passive ToJ, right? Kind of balances with being able to retain the passive while using the tomes. So long as regular VoJ is the same, i can definitely live with that.

What change to Virtue of Justice was made?

Sifu.9745:

As condi Guardian i also don’t need crit much: i get 15% crit on one handed weapons (trait), 10% on burning + 4 base crit = 29% crit + some more from Fury every now and then. So as Guardian i use same stats as i use them on my thief: condi, power, vitality.

I actually took the build in a slightly different direction. My Guardian focuses on Power, Toughness, Ferocity and some Vitality. He doesn’t use Right Hand Strength for the 10% crit chance on 1 handed weapons but instead the 50% crit chance while having Retaliation. I built him to get retaliation and light auras a lot and use a hammer for added protection and I can get 2-4k crits with autos and a bit of might here and there. Fury’s not always necessary but it’s a fun bruiser build. I had a similar set-up with my Warrior until they changed the +prec on signet use to +fer. I’d either need to change the build to Power, Precision, Toughness to see how it’d pan out or just go back to my berserker build.

…but that’s all rather beside the point. Guardian may have a build to bypass precision but it still doesn’t compare to a good spec’ed full power damage Dragonhunter-type build.

Captain Obvious.6951:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Retaliation is a two way thing. If you can’t deal enough damage to nearly down the player with 3 unloads, then its time to change strategy…

I have nothing against unload, but its a range attack that can ramp up a lot of damage if you land it. And provided that you get retaliation it means they actually landed.

First, you’re changing the subject. We’re not here to talk about how much damage you can deal with unload. Besides I’ve dealt over 48k damage with unload to one Guardian and NOT EVEN DOWNED HIM.

Second, I find it completely absurd that someone can deal 12k damage back to you with 6 unloads on them, without them even pressing a single button or doing anything. Just standing still doing absolutely nothing.

So if you don’t find that a bit over the top stupid strong I don’t know what else I can say.

I honestly dont think its stupid strong. Just use a harder hitting move that doesnt hit 8x in quick succession and suddenly that amount of damage is cut to a fraction.

I don’t see why having an opinion is such a controversial thing.

Personally disliked most of the HoT maps. Verdant Brink wasn’t bad. Like Auric Basin but Tangled Depths is annoying. My dislike of HoT was how the majority of the content was hard locked by the masteries which, when i started HoT, had no clue how to get more mastery points outside of the ones marked on the map (which weren’t enough). Even to this day, i am limited in mastery points until i do achievements i don’t want to do but at least the remaining masteries aren’t necessary to progress.

The reason i don’t like Tangled Depths is because the visual map is useless as a guide. At least Verdant Brink was open enough that i could explore to find out how to get somewhere or if you’re able to reach it.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Bear.3689:

How is it that to play a power spec, you must get multiple stats such as power, precision, ferocity, and when you play a condi spec you only need 1 (maybe 2) stats at most and the rest can be put into tank (toughness/vitality).

This assumption is incorrect. You only need max power, precision and ferocity if you want to maximize your direct damage output. If you want to similarly max your condition damage, you also need three stats: condition damage, expertise and precision (there’s a lot of “apply condition on critical” out there).

So, the questions should be, “How does Rabid compare to Knight?” and, “How does Dire/Trailblazer compare to Soldier?” If you answer those questions, you will see that the discrepancy is lower than people who hate on condition builds are assuming.

Now, the OP is expecting three rebuttals. While all three are applicable, the real issue is balance. There are specific skills which apply conditions that are out of balance. However, that’s not a gear issue, it’s an issue of outlier skills. There have been and still are outliers for power damage attacks, also.

Adapting is another good one, though I’m not going to play the meta card. Condi has been strong in the PvP modes for a long time. However, they’ve certainly gotten stronger since the condi rework. Power, on the other hand, has always been strong. The real issue in most of the condi complaints is that the power players don’t want to have to adapt.

Aomine.5012:

Are we living in same era?

Most traits and sigil has been patched to be on hit instead of on crit.

Zero on-hit sigils apply damaging conditions. Two on crit sigils apply a damaging condition: Earth and Torment.

Of the 9 professions, five have a trait that can apply a damaging condition on crit.

Sharpened Edges: chance for bleed on crit
Rampant Vex: chance to apply torment on crit
Bloodlust: Chance for bleed on crit
Sharpshooter: chance for bleed on crit
Barbed Precision: chance for bleed on crit

This can’t be right. I don’t see Burning Precision (apply burn on crit) or Arcane Precision (apply bleed in earth and burn in fire attunement). There’s also traits like Symbolic Power (symbols have a chance of burn), Ancient seeds (striking a CCed foe bleeds), Sharper images ( illusions bleed on crit).

Your identity definition doesn’t reflect reality (the pressure warrior that is always on your tail, etc) because core warrior can do that part. Regarding what you feel berserker should do and how its executed sounds like a straight damage upgrade with no downfall. But in a way, it has become truth because you say core warrior is the one to hold his ground, cleansing ire and adrenal health helps that, but berserker not so much.

If we’re going to identify berseker(that is, emphasize its unique iddntity) why baselessly hold onto the thing that paralells core (primal bursts aren’t really the unique factor here since they are only altered burst skills) while ignoring what actually makes them unique? It’s the fact that Berserker has 2 modes that make it different from both core and spellbreaker.

So i hear some people complaining at the loss berserker suffered, but for the sake of discussion, if getting what was lost (in PvP, higher sustain from adrenal health/cleansing ire; in PvE, more power from berserkers power) is off the table, then what changes would you see filling in A gap? Mind you, it may not fill the same gap that was made.

While i think everyone can get a chuckle out of imagining cute and weird mounts, my serious answer would be no.

Regarding mount skins in general, i am against any mounts that heavily deviate crom the original design. Like a raptor mount with 3 more dye channels and a feathered look or a springer mount with antlers or with a few articles of armor/clothing/jewelry attached. But please, no horses, chinese dragons, golems, kangaroos, etc.

What possible moves could do 13k damage to the user in 1 sec against 1 target? You’d have to have proc that target nearly 30 times in an instant!

How much can retal do per tic? I don’t think it goes that much higher than 400, right?

All Ascended gear (weapons, trinkets and armor) have the same number of stats as Legendary.

The difference is you can change what stats a Legendary piece of gear has at will. To change the stats of Ascended gear requires a bit more effort and using the Mystic Forge.

Not gonna lie, if they named the spec Purifier, I’d have laughed my kitten off. The first thing that would pop into my mind is one of those things that you pop onto a faucet or those special water pitchers.

Aren’t you also able to swap out the runes of Legendary armor without losing them and if you tried the same on Ascended, you just destroy the rune?

Yeah, you’re talking to a person who has done 0 raids and not much into that whole scene. I was more stating that to cover more grounds for discussion.

My personal wish is to emphasize berserk mode more and give you alternative uses for it depending on the grandmaster you choose. Like a power berserk mode, a utility/condi berserk mode and a bruiser/sustain berserk mode. I feel, because there’s not enough emphasis on F2, players fixate on the primal bursts and the benefits from using them above all else.

I think now that players are warming up to Spellbreaker and the outrage over the nerfs might be lessening, how about talk about changes to Berserker.

While the changes might not be to everyone’s liking, I do enjoy how it gives core Warrior a decent foot to stand on while Berserker/Spellbreaker would be more side-grades to change up tactics. That being said, I think there could be room to improve Berserker and differentiate its style and mechanics. What are your thoughts?

Make Berserker a meta-raid spec? Improve its sustain? It’s burst DPS? Balance it or specialize it in condi or power?

My personal opinion is simply make Berserk Mode more of a drastic change and make it the center of the build similar to how Full Counter is for Spellbreaker. Also, give more options for staying in berserk mode or maintaining it in some way and more bonuses for being in berserk mode vs just going in and out of it.

Vagrant.7206:

Your argument is predicated on the idea that a normal civilian needs to kill other people to survive in “wild” conditions.

…

The only logical conclusion is that this is an MMORPG, not real life.

It’s not about need, it’s about willingness. You don’t need to kill other people to be willing to kill other people in a state of war (your point of the Wild West being somewhat peaceful until armies started getting involved is moot when you consider that most beast races are in some phase of war and therefore the environment doesn’t exactly reflect the Wild West you’re making an example of). My point, that the killing of others is where we and our characters differ because we would never kill, is not true for everyone.

And no, that doesn’t make me a psychopath, just a realist.

Vagrant.7206:

Leo G.4501:

Danikat.8537:

Now I’m sure someone’s going to respond to this with something like “anyone with any sense understands it’s just a game. Just because you do it in a game doesn’t mean you’d do it in real life”.

And I’d agree that’s absolutely right. But if I’m playing as a person who does things I would never do in real life (and wouldn’t do things that I will do) how is that person me? Even if they look like me, they’re still a different person because they’re acting completely differently.

And if they’re not me why do they need to look like me? Or be the same gender as I am?

I’ll bite.

If you’d never kill, then in a world like Tyria, you’d just be a helpless citizen who likely would be dead or live sheltered lives among two-faced aristocrats that have no perspective of the world.

Even if you are just a farmer or a merchant, you still would have to protect yoruself and your goods from thieves, murderers or just the wildlife itself. If we’re going to be speaking about aspects that divide us and our characters, the willingness to kill isn’t one of them, at least for me.

It’s all good to consider diplomacy but to have such options, you need power. Nothing you mention of your true parallel in Tyria indicates that you would have any power at all thus when trying to talk down someone that is willing to kill you for whatever reason, you negotiate on the terms of the individual with the power.

You realize the world of Tyria makes no sense, right? The Seraph can’t handle the problems in Queensdale or Kessex Hills, despite enemies being exceedingly weak and the areas are traversable in less than day. The Pact can field massive armaments and armies, but can’t handle problems at their front doors. Meanwhile in the real world, even the “Wild West” wasn’t that wild.

Surprise; it’s a game, where people do unusual things.

What does that have to do with anything I said?

I don’t mind having some flashiness in a set of armor, but it has to be the one central piece of flashiness to build the look around. When you start adding glowing weapons, glowing hands, auras and wings, it’s just way too much! That and I just tend to hate wings (or how people use/overuse them).

That said, I haven’t changed the look of my big strong Asura warrior who (if you knew his backstory) can arm wrestle a Norn into submission on a modest day. I’ve added to his look and sometimes use outfits but he looks mostly the same. I can also pretend he’s got a six-pack there.

Donari.5237:

I’d love to have looks templates too. I’m not disagreeing one bit.

But I will say that if you have a specific look you really like, it’s not that hard to make a Word doc to list the armor pieces used and the dyes on each. Just be consistent on what order the dyes go in. E.g., my list of preferred outfit dye schemes for each character lists the dyes as
1 2
3 4
so I know that (random selection here) Butterscotch, Flare, Pyre, Celestial are in the corresponding numbered slots. If there were fewer channels, I’d still go top row from left side to its end, then bottom row from left side to its end.

Annoying to have to track it outside the game, yes, but why let fear of forgetting prevent you from trying out new looks? This is why we have written language, to preserve knowledge

It’s a circumstantial solution that’s still tedious and annoying. Like, you still need to mouse over all the similar dyes to find the right name, you still have to do similar for the armor in the wardrobe, you still likely have to tab to the .doc if you don’t have 2 monitors, you’re likely not going to do this change on a whim unless you’re really quick.

I made a similar thread a few weeks ago. I don’t think anyone would be opposed to the idea. A huge hindrance is if have Legendary/Ascended armor and you use that between characters. I’ve been doing the ascended gear collecting but the trouble comes when swapping them to other characters so you either have to settle for a uniform look across all armor-weight characters who wear it or re-skin/re-dye EVERY TIME you swap the gear over. And if you skin them with a race specific skin, any other race cannot equip it at all.

“Custom Outfits” (that’s what I call them) would be a much needed band-aid for this problem.

The real solution is to just divorce armor skins from armor completely. We already have skin items, just change it so that any gear you put on has no skin and just stats then the wardrobe system would be giving the character a costumed look (at the cost of transmutation charges like now) so you can wear whatever you want and swap things around later.

Kenze.3678:

It would make it all so much better with these outfit slots. Only game i have seen with a good system is LOTRO, but such a system would hurt their transmutation stone idea. But either that or just a slot we can edit with those stones and maybe 1-6 slots per character.

The game with the best system I’ve seen is City of Heroes (although it no longer exists so…). If every character had 3 costume slots by default that you can swap on the fly, more slots purchasable via gems and in-game currency being the way to edit each slot, everything would be perfect…although likely at the cost of Anet getting extra cash.

Danikat.8537:

Now I’m sure someone’s going to respond to this with something like “anyone with any sense understands it’s just a game. Just because you do it in a game doesn’t mean you’d do it in real life”.

And I’d agree that’s absolutely right. But if I’m playing as a person who does things I would never do in real life (and wouldn’t do things that I will do) how is that person me? Even if they look like me, they’re still a different person because they’re acting completely differently.

And if they’re not me why do they need to look like me? Or be the same gender as I am?

I’ll bite.

If you’d never kill, then in a world like Tyria, you’d just be a helpless citizen who likely would be dead or live sheltered lives among two-faced aristocrats that have no perspective of the world.

Even if you are just a farmer or a merchant, you still would have to protect yoruself and your goods from thieves, murderers or just the wildlife itself. If we’re going to be speaking about aspects that divide us and our characters, the willingness to kill isn’t one of them, at least for me.

It’s all good to consider diplomacy but to have such options, you need power. Nothing you mention of your true parallel in Tyria indicates that you would have any power at all thus when trying to talk down someone that is willing to kill you for whatever reason, you negotiate on the terms of the individual with the power.

If we’re talking about preferences, mine tend to stem from the first MMO I had played, FFXI. In that game, I played a human male and in that era and the way accounts were handled, most people expected you to play your personal sex and guys who played females tended to be seen as using cheesecake to get gil and items from people. So I played a representation of myself.

As I played that game for years, I got an appreciation for game worlds and their inhabitants and began feeling regret for not picking one of the other 3 non-humanoid races.

While I don’t bar myself from any type of character, I’ve grown to choosing character races that don’t resemble humans (the less, the more intriguing). I had characters of every race (re-rolled my Norn into a Human) but most of my characters are Charr and Asura.

Not sure about smell, but I was under the impression Charr have an enhances sense of hearing, being capable of hearing things in the very high and lower pitch thanks to their 4 ears. Hearing certainly can substitute for sight to a decent extent, with examples of blind kids being able to ride a bike using echo location.

Odokuro.5049:

Playing a toon of the opposite sex?

Fixed the title for you

FrostDraco.8306:

Leo G.4501:

The devs do listen to player input and suggestions

Then entire necromancer forum is laughing at this. Same for rev’s.

I think it’s just that people are so used to democracy.

Malthurius.6870:

Dragon Hunter would have hit the mark a bit better if the ‘Dragon’ theme was ran with a bit more. To me, Dragon Hunter is trying to evoke a ‘Demon Hunter’ type of idea, and this evokes in me an image of a person taking on aspects of their quarry to more effectively destroy/hunt their quarry. Dragon Hunters only have Dragon Maw. If more of their kit centered around a dragon theme, the name would be more justified.

Small things, like making Wings of Resolve dragon wings instead of angel wings, having symbol of energy have dragon claw marks engraved into it, hunter’s ward ending in dragon talons instead of fences, etc.

It’s not an awful name, I just think the theme missed it’s mark a bit.

I thought the exact same thing back when HoT was being revealed! I was behind the people suggesting a change to Dragonhunter but I also backed the side of just giving more draconic flavor to the spec so at the very least, it was using something to link it back to the spec’s theme. Definitely the dragon wings for Wings of Resolve, perhaps teeth instead of blades for Test of Faith, give one of the longbow skills a dragon look (like #2), etc. I still think they could make that change for a better theme but I’m overall over it now.

Last round of Elites, I had beef with 3 of the names; Dragonhunter, Berserker and to a lesser extent Druid. Druid was mainly because the lore behind druid wasn’t as explored and felt tacked onto Ranger (maybe it was touched upon in raids, but I haven’t played any raids), Berserker because it was just a bland name and we equate berserker to a stat combo (and no lore could or is linked with the spec; the spec could definitely use more of an identity as well) and as mentioned above, Dragonhunter.

This round of elite specs, I actually like all the names. Even if not linked to lore, at the very least the name makes sense thematically.

Athrenn.9468:

I don’t think that the existence of the springer is nearly as strange as the fact that the local cultures would have chosen to domesticate them thousands of years ago in favour of sturdier looking beasts.

If you were to look at the origin of dromedary camel domestication for example, this is a process that would have began a very long time ago, probably since the first humans settled in the desert. At what point did our ancestors look at these strange kangaroo mouse mutants and think “Now that, brothers and sisters, would make for a glorious beast of burden!”

Personally, I suspect that this person would have been kicked out of the tribe to live with the wild kangaroo mice until one of them ate him.

Eh, well Earth is far different from Tyria. For one, you have people around that literally have pet Great White Sharks, somehow. Granted, I’m sure there are some circumstances in the real world where a great white won’t rip you apart if it swims up to you in the ocean, but likely not follow you around and do what you tell it.

In that circumstance, perhaps Springers aren’t domesticated? I haven’t seen how we get them in the game yet, but even if there are groups of Springers kept by humans, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to go through the domestication process like our horses and cattle have. So your example of someone suggesting domesticating them hundreds of years ago might have play out more like.

“Where was that guy? He’s been missing from the village for weeks and now he comes back bouncing on that creature? Such a fool!”

“Yeah, but it jumps over trees. Looks like fun.”

It might not have been so popular to use the Springers until the recent century. It might even have something to do with the powers of a Soulbeast.

Athrenn.9468:

In fact, I would think that the cultures of the region would look better riding something quadrupedal with a sturdier frame that can bear lots of weight for transporting goods. There’s a reason why real world cultures chose creatures that all look similar to each other: donkeys, oxen, horses, mules, camels, elephants. They have four legs and strong frames, and that is the perfect physical trait for a creature that would be bearing a lot of weight.

But none of those can jump over houses, glide over water and one of those might be able to leap across a chasm…

The real question is, why haven’t the people built infrastructure so you wouldn’t need to leap over chasms, up cliffs or over large bodies of quicksand/water?

A humble perspective would take into consideration your flaws and shortcomings when evaluating the advantages.

A narcissistic perspective don’t even think there are flaws and is the best (not even just one of the best) choice.

Player input has many flaws and shortcomings. The devs do listen to player input and suggestions (some even think an entire elite spec’s origin was from a forum suggestion) but it’s not necessary to make a quarterly thread for each profession because players constantly make threads criticizing and suggesting stuff for the game. If you need validation that your ideas were specially considered, I’m just going to say you’re asking for too much.

[EDIT]Also, just to anyone reading this thread, are forum specialists still a thing? I felt they were a crap idea for free labor rather than any of the goals put forth when creating them.

Having never played GW1 but from listening to your description of the Ritualist, I’d recommend 2.

Scourge, because you summon “sand ghosts” that then trigger various effects like conditions, heals for allies and “Barrier” which is an HP shield that deteriorates over time. It can be seen as a support type.

Renegade also summons “ghosts” of Charr that heal and buff allies or attacks foes. You also have the bow which summons arrows from portals and stuff. These ghosts are actual figures whereas the “sand ghosts” are amorphous with the shadow of a face on it.

I believe that both need a lot of tuning (or that’s what I’ve heard from the Necro and Rev community) and it’s very likely Scourge will receive some nerfs and Rev some buffs so that may prioritize what you try first.

I’d ultimately recommend both as it’s always cool to have alternate playstyles that feel very different to mix things up.