Guild Wars 2

Abazigal.3679:

Maybe it would be better if conditions were a health degeneration along time and not x damage every y seconds.
I.e you have 5 conditions applied on you, you have 20k health. Instead of receiving 4000 damage every 3 seconds, you will have a big health degeneration for 15 seconds or more.

I feel like so many people did not play GW1, which arguably had a superior system when it came to conditions in my opinion. The game had its issues, but conditions running rampant without a reasonable way to address them was not one of them.

Conditions did fixed damage, and each had either a side effect that was utility, or did lower amounts of damage and were therefore easier to apply rapidly. You could perhaps increase their duration (and thereby increase your potential damage per “hit”) with a few pieces of equipment, but real damage was done by what we would call “power” builds,

I don’t know how they took the experience they had with GW1 conditions and ended up with this mess. Is nobody from the old team at ANET now?

You can get an additional blast finisher with Clarion Bond. TBH though rangers don’t need 25 might to do significant damage from what I’ve seen, at least I don’t. I also strongly feel that rangers do best focusing on either power or condition damage; they’re not quite like eles in how their skills scale, as individual weapons tend to have a certain focus whereas an ele’s entire kit can really go either way.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Holland.9351:

They should switch it with Rendering Attacks. Then all the Minor traits are direct pet buffs and you make Instinctual Bond an Adept choice.

Might as well delete it if they do that.

I kind of disagree. If they switch it, it allows it to be merged with another trait, or buffed so that it can actually be relevant.

I’ve been away for quite some time, and only just hopped back after seeing some of the video footage.

Instinctual Bond: When you are downed, your pet gains quickness.

After all the changes being made prior to HoT, I’m confused as to why this trait (and others as bad as it) still exist and are considered viable by the devs. I think a lot of the changes are good so far, but this in particular is just confusing. Has anybody ever actually utilized this trait effectively on a consistent basis?

How do we feel about this forced choice with the upcoming Arcana changes? Is anybody concerned about how Arcana will feel as a traitline once we cannot use both Elemental Attunement/Evasive Arcana? I think moving the Attunement baseline recharges down was a much needed change, but the line in itself feels a bit underwhelming now. Two of the traits right off the bat are too niche to really consider imo (related to falling damage and reviving allies), and there isn’t much incentive to use many of the Arcana traits over anything else that will become available once the changes hit.

Mungrul.9358:

I think it’s less the cost (although it IS restrictive for less affluent players), and more the limited and restricted amount of places you can go to refund trait points

Newer players with less access to in-game funds were hit the hardest; the very people who should be experimenting the most were the least able to. For those with more money, it was simply an arbitrary time sink.

This sort of system never made the slightest bit of sense, and Anet even had a model that worked very well in GW1. Everything was instanced, but you could freely change your trait point allocation when at an outpost.

This lack of consistency (though in this instance I guess it finally worked out) is bothersome and confusing. That it took a year and a half for this change to finally come to pass when the system benefited literally nobody in its original form doesn’t set up a good track record.

I don’t mean to detract from the fact that Anet seems to have realized that arbitrary limitations aren’t good for an engaging experience. I think this is a fantastic change and they seem to be putting a lot of work into the core functionality of the game; I just don’t understand the thought process behind this.

Don’t get me wrong, I like it, it’s about time, and it’s part of the reason I might come back to play this game in April, but the decision is leaving me confused.

With the coming feature build, you’ll be able to respec your traits anywhere in the world without returning to a profession trainer. To make the deal even sweeter, you won’t ever have to pay to reset your traits! We think the cost hinders experimentation and takes away from the fun of experimenting with builds in PvE, so we’re removing it entirely.

You were given this exact reason by the playerbase before the beta weekends even started; pretty much verbatim. There are plenty of other things you have recently changed, and seem to be changing with the feature pack that were criticized in the same way when the game was still young. Can we count on this new philosophy to mean that you are taking player feedback into account more than before? I’d really love for that to be the case.

Blinding Ashes- I have a feeling they have skills like Glyph of Elemental Power in mind with a trait like this; the problem is that GoEP will still be a garbage excuse for a stunbreaker.

Better late than never.

Carighan.6758:

I can see this be very strong against a single target but again, that’s a single target. Not going to make a significant difference in most cases.

Shutting down a priority target wins team fights.

Carighan.6758:

Why would it be overpowered?

Spamming single target interrupts on a target about to heal could potentially be a form of abuse. Doubling the interrupt recharge on such a crucial ability is huge.

I don’t play right now and I don’t post very often, but you took so many words out of my head and then added more amazing ones that I can’t not bump this thread up.

Just make it a stunbreaker again.

Remove the root while channeling the skill and instead change it to 50% reduced movement speed while channeling.

My guess is that Persisting Flames is much more reliable damage in PvE, because it is easy enough to blast finish for might, and the stacks from Puissance only last 10 seconds. Persisting Flames gives you a flat 50% increase in damage when spamming Lava Font as well as enhanced crit rate when you blast finish your own fields. I don’t think even maxed out might stacks would give you that kind of damage increase; Puissance is better for bursty builds.

I’m speaking from the perspective of a staff ele, because I’m assuming that’s the only weapon you’d want to use 30 fire on.

Do want a dolphin.

Wait til the full patch preview is up for the (likely valid) criticism.

Sevans.4619:

It increases pet healing power by 350 which does the following practically:

- Increases health gain of Beastmaster grand trait Natural Healing. (About 45 more points, I think?)
- Strengthens Fern Hound F2.
- Strengthens Moa skill Harmonic Cry.

I think that’s about it. It’s pretty much outshined by Mighty Swap in every possible scenario, with the exception of full regen bunker. Maybe.

Even a full regen bunker will do better with Mighty Swap. Being able to apply more damage to the people challenging your point is better than adding something that would be essentially negligible.

Eiland.1405:

Ill start by saying I don’t really care if they’ll nerf it or not and really don’t want to open a new discussion about it.

Then don’t open a new discussion about it and then provide facts without context.

Skrill.6170:

The rest of the skills really need some rework (fire cough)… but some of the things you suggest are just crazy and would make the focus an op weapon.

We already know that Air and Earth are decent and good respectively, and we already know that Water and Fire are lacking. What ideas do you have about how they could be improved?

Doctor Orderly MD PhD DDS.7625:

Except they’re not the same. Rush is easily countered with conditions, whereas conditions don’t have an effect on RtL. RtL’s effect is stronger, so a longer CD is warranted.

RtL cannot be traited to remove all snares on activation. RtL can have its CD reduction canceled by block, blind, evade, etc. RtL is the only significant movement ability eles have access to on a weapon set aside from Burning Retreat.

Doctor Orderly MD PhD DDS.7625:

Sure, I know. That’s why I mentioned conditions, and not CC. They’re not equal regarding CC either though:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ride_the_Lightning_
You can’t be stunned, except for knockdowns. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Control_effect

Unless wiki is incorrect.

Wiki mentions that you can be knocked down. It does not specifically exclude stun, which will still happen if for example a Thief uses Steal on you with Mug+Basilisk Venom.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Like i said, EVERYONE knows your attunement by looking at the player nameplate, it says what attunement you are in. So that really negates the “telegraph” idea. The fact it is just rubbish little things around your wrist that you barely even see most of them time anyway.

When i see another ele – i look at the name plate, it says what attunement they are in and boom i now am ready for what to really expect. What is so wrong with wanting the class mechanic to look a little less like it took 5 seconds to make?

Because mid-combat that animation will make all the difference to people who can see you but don’t have you directly targeted. It’s completely unnecessary considering there is a more intense flash of color as you enter any given attunement to begin with. There is also the matter of your profession mechanic including all 20 of your weapon skills, on-attunement trait visual effects, etc.

If this is something you think the ele earnestly needs, I think you need to sort out your priorities a bit better.

You mean for the f1-4? Interesting, but not really solving the problem of linking base level weapon swapping mechanics to maxed out traitlines.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

How about making the weapon(s) they are using have a sort of Aura or affect about them. I mean it isn’t exactly had to tell what attunement the ele is in anyway. I just think it would be visually appealing to a class that is rather bland visually.

So all the elemental effects that go off during spells are bland? Why do idle animations suddenly have to be stunning? You know as well as anybody who plays ele that there are much more pressing matters at hand.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Leuca.5732:

Yeah, make our already telegraphed weapon sets more telegraphed. That’ll really help eles get the jump on people and leave bottom tier.

Everyone knows all the skills anyway, i see no problem in them making it more visually appealing. I mean if the ONLY reason you win a fight is because they didn’t know anything about Attunements then you won against a bad player.

The MOMENT you use a skill they know what attunement you are in.

They know what attunement you are in from a distance, before you can even use a skill, assuming they pay attention. Don’t make it easier with a change that is really not necessary for functionality.

Yeah, make our already telegraphed weapon sets more telegraphed. That’ll really help eles get the jump on people and leave bottom tier.

I like Aeromancer’s Alacrity because I dislike how long some of the air cooldowns are. :/

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

as in, some profession will have an easier time against certain professions, and a harder time against certain professions.

But you think warriors should be good against all professions, and be the easiest to play.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

warriors on the other hand, allows the warrior player to make a lot of mistakes and still survive, provided if the enemy are equally not that skilled.

The fact that you think this is an example of “working as intended” is why nobody takes your posts seriously on the forums.

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

Attunement cooldowns are NOT a problem.
Lack of active defenses is.

Sure they are. Our weapon swap mechanic being the only one that gets to a base level at maximum trait investment and still being vulnerable to chill is a huge problem.

Zelyhn.8069:

Though LightningBlaze has a point: we have plenty of blatantly underpowered skills and traits to look at in priority.

This is my issue. It’s not that the evasion will suddenly make Burning Speed over-the-top (though I do have an issue with Evade being put on so many mobility skills), it’s that there are plenty of skills that are still extremely wanting, and they picked one to buff that was already pretty solid.

LightningBlaze.4913:

no nerf. All buffs so far from the stream. Watch it at http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/496005243 and skip to 25:16 for the elementalist talk. Burning speed will need a nerffffffffffffffff

I’m thinking most likely a revert. I’m confused as to why they bothered to do anything to it in the first place; it has never been wanting in comparison to other ele skills as it offers mobility, damage and a field all in one on a really good cooldown.

I’m really hoping they take a more comprehensive look at offhands/continue to streamline staff play.

It will open up some interesting offensive options for builds that previously used defensive sigils.

Sarrs.4831:

To play devil’s advocate; if you’re appropriately traited, Krytan Drakehound’s immobilize can last 5 seconds, affect 5 targets in its area and apply 9 seconds of Cripple as well. That isn’t small peas.

F2s are big abilities. Big abilities need tells. Sure, some of them are unwieldy to use (Drake F2s) but pushing them to be instant cast would make them ridiculously good.

Then they need better targeting and target following ability to compensate.

I wonder if they are considering the Rune/Sigil changes separate from the “balance” changes. They referenced class balance as a different topic during the livestream.

Pets are a very, very long work in progress. Don’t expect any miracles soon.

Remove damage and add the removal of snares. That’s literally all it needs.

Gulesave.5073:

Leuca.5732:

I was hoping they would release the sigil/rune changes sooner so that they could get a feel for the balancing impact.

That’s what their harem of internal testers is for

pls

-_-

/notenoughchars

I was hoping they would release the sigil/rune changes sooner so that they could get a feel for the balancing impact.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

warriors are meant to be fast.

There is a difference between fast and completely invalidating the use of snares/swiftness.

I play it for fun. Greatsword is still lacking and in general without decent defense (condition removal, etc) you will still die even with the evade spam.

Elemental Surge is basically only good for really gimmicky builds. Evasive Arcana is superior in almost every foreseeable situation.

Too bad you’ll still get melted by conditions.

ens.9854:

Tl;dr anet is doing what you suggest but slowly

Actually the huge, nasty condition meta we just had and are still recovering from happened relatively quickly. Then they compounded upon it by adding another condition to the game when conditions were already OP.

Phantaram.1265:

Leuca.5732:

Phantaram.1265:

Can’t give back what was never there.

Oh snap.

For real though there has never been a reason to play dagger over scepter in my opinion.

Back when Auramancer was overpowered there was certainly a reason to.

This fad never caught on in EU. Trap ranger mostly didn’t catch on in EU either. NA was very trendy. It was like whatever PZ ran everyone ran, and PZ just so happened to play Dagger ele and trap ranger.

Doesn’t matter if it was trendy or not. They were very numerically efficient at what they did.

Phantaram.1265:

Can’t give back what was never there.

Oh snap.

For real though there has never been a reason to play dagger over scepter in my opinion.

Back when Auramancer was overpowered there was certainly a reason to.

Another build proving that Diamond Skin is either redundant or just bad. Still, reducing conditions by that much must be frustrating for all the necros/mesmers.

LightningBlaze.4913:

The Game Slayer.7632:

It was a step in the right direction, but by all means it was way too situational to take seriously.

Notice all the necroes who were complaining about it the day it was released? lol i havent heard a peep from them since. funny if you ask me.

You should take a look at the WvW discussion sub forum to “hear another peep” from necros.

WvW balance is a joke. Condition necros have very little to be complaining about.

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

Escuse me, I don’t play Ele, but what were the nerfs that took D/D out of the scene? Was it any in particular or just the other classes getting stronger?

Combination of nerfs to ele/buffs to other classes.