Guild Wars 2

What if we made raids accesible for squads larger than 10 players and give bigger groups (15?) lower rewards?

In that case, anet does not have to rework that much of the raid. The teams could learn the mechanics, get the better gear and gradually build down the players to 10.

What do you guys think?

In the current state each raid will need a couple of condition damage DPS. The gear for condi dmg DPS is sinister. This means that these players will need Sinister and/or Viper gear.

Condi dmg players that want to participate in raids will not only need to buy HoT, but also buy parts of the living story and do time consuming achievements for it, while some players just want to do raids.

This reduces the freedom of the playerbase and is against the play how you want philosophy. I want to play raids with my friends, but if I want to go condi, I first have to spend loads of gems and some weeks to be optimal (which is required for raids). This has nothing to do with skill.

In my opinion this is bad design and every stat should be available (for the right gold price) for all players.

Let’s Get Constructive guys.
So elemenalist is lacking a frontline role, and warhorn is supposed to fill that spot. This post is mainly focused on the role of elementalist in WvW, since PvP seems to small scale to be a true frontliner and PvE is easy.
Well, an extra 7% protection reduction is not gonna cut it. If we look at the guardian, the main frontliner in WvW, they actually use Wave of Wrath as main “melee” option. I’d like to propose something similar to the tempest. Tempest is supposed to be a class with a lot of AoE effects, so why not put one on all auto attacks.
This trait could be added to the warhorn trait, it could be a standalone trait.

Send out a wave of the tempest (based on your elemenent; more balance options, more animation design) on (critical hit) by your auto attacks. (2 sec ICD)

This trait could potentially make scepter more viable aswell as making the autoattacks more useful while your attunements are recharging from overloading.
Finally, I think tempest needs at least some kind of mobility skill.

Warhorn Air 5 – Blow your warhorn on the ground and leap to your target, then hit your target with your feet and daze him and foes around him. 25 sec icd 600 range

My male sylvari ele.
Head: Adventurer’s Scarf
Shoulder: Devout Mantle
Gloves: Illustrious Wristguards
Chest: Zodiac Light Vest Skin
Pants: Zodiac Light Pants Skin
Shoes: Zodiac Light Shoes Skin
and a Windcatcher:)

I’d say sylvari. Im not a huge fan of humans and I enjoy their glow. If you don’t like plant armor like me. Here is a screenshot of my sylvari elementalist with a mix and match armor and my sylvari guard in costume. I have no problems with the beltweapons (mostly dagger/dagger) since you will keeping spamming the skills for more movement.

Screenshots : http://imgur.com/ERSdTL5,fJqaZiO

I think they should first drop the casting times of these skills, if they want to see the conjures more in pvp.

My ele. +9 characters

Hi,
I have a male sylvari elementalist and need a new style. My sylvari is currently all black with blue hair and glow effects, I do however have a Makeoverkit I’m looking for a style without or atleast very few sylvari cultural armor. Since all of my weapons are blue I would like a style with blue and some basic black, white or greyish colors. Currently I am using zodiac light armor, but it just doesn’t cut it. This is what i would like:

• The colors blue in combination with colors like black, grey and white
• Rather no cultural armor , but if you can make it work, go ahead.
• I like the zodiac effect, just not the whole set.
• I have zodiac and trickster’s light armor and I will buy maximum one new gemstore set if necessary, also ascended gear is not a problem.
• I don’t really like head-covering headpieces.

Thank you in advance.

For some reason the sixth piece bonus of Superior Rune of the Warrior is not working with the attunement swapping system of elementalists. I think this is odd since a Sigil of Battle and any weapon swap sigil is working with attunements.

I also think this will open up new ways to play with elementalists, rather than just
no-braining Rune of Strenght/Hoelbrak.

My thoughts on sword/sword.
#3
Sword MH:
Riposting Blades (3 initiative)
Cross your swords in front of you, block the next 1/2 attacks.
Duration 1-2 sec

Blades of Steel (5 initiative)
Raise your swords above your head and stab foes with both swords for high damage.
Inflicts vulnerability

I wonder if we have a base ferocity at all and if so how high it is.

Do you guys know anything about that?

When I opened the Trading Post I think I saw someone else’s inventory to sell.
Check image attached.

Hmm. Is the issue fix of Basilisk Venom and a bug with whirling axe a high level change? Personally I have never heard of both. A huge part of the thief community would like to know whether the minor trait “Last Refuge” is made into something more stealth friendly.

Also I want the bug fixed that makes you use your stealth attack after you use a skill.

Personally I like the quick moving around.
Maybe it is an idea to give ranged weapons more gap creators.

In Guild Wars 2 most melee (auto)attacks do cleave damage, while in Guild Wars 1 the only weapon auto attack with cleave damage was the Scythe.

The problem , I think, with cleave damage is that it does the same or even more damage than single target skills. The fact that all cleave damage does the damage as single target damage promotes staying stacked up in PvE content (apart from world bosses), because the npc’s will move to you anyways and then you can melee them all for the same damage as most single target skills.

In WvW most people are just running with the commander and spamming their AoE-skills (including cleave autoattacks), but what if the AoE damage of melee auto-attacks was nerfed a bit, or even made single target, so that it will be worth it to use single target attacks. The zerg might break and turn zerg vs. zerg into a dynamic fight.
Another thing is that hitting up to 3 foes with a sword, axe or whatever does not really seem realistic, but it is a fantasy game so that’s no problem.

I do not mean to nerf most cleave/AoE skills. (e.g Earthshaker, Clusterbomb, Choas Storm, Meteorshower etc.)

Swagg.9236:

Sword main-hand skills
[Infiltrator’s Strike] (2-1)

• Initiative Cost: 3
• Cast-time: 1¼ second
• Dash at your foe to deliver an immobilizing strike. You gain Super Speed if you are in combat when you use this skill.
• Damage: 204 (0.55)
• Immobilize: 1 second
• Super speed: 1 second
• Range: 600
  • Uses the Warrior banner [Sprint] attack animation.
  • If you strike a foe with this skill, it chains into another skill: [Infiltrator’s Return]

[Infiltrator’s Return] (2-2)

• Initiative Cost: 1
• Cast-time: 0
• Evade backwards and lose up to 1 condition.
• Evasion: ¾ second
• Evasion distance: 400
  • Condition removal occurs before the backwards evasion roll.
  • This chain skill remains active for up to 20 seconds.

Skills that dash at foes can be easily dodged, or you can even move away so it does not hit. This skill has had several nerfs, and I think it does not need yet another. The teleport is an important part of the thieves deception abilities. However it will probably make a good movement skill now.
About all your proposed changes (most of them are nerfs).
I think all of the damage reduction and recharges on skills are not the way to go for thief. But maybe adding some chain skills (it can function as a small recharge on some skills) on currently apparent OP skills might bring the thief in a better place. For example Disabling shot (against the evade spam). For utility skills and traits I think that all of the signet changes are stupid, the venom changes you proposed look better than it is now, however the increased recharge on basilisk venom makes it even more underwhelming. Note that this skill can be seen on the thief and can then easily be blocked or dodged.

Swagg.9236:

THIEF BASE HP

• Thief base hp at level 80 increased from 10,805 to 15,082.
• The Thief’s hp now scales identically to Engineer, Ranger and Mesmer hp levels.
  
  NEW CONDITION UNIQUE TO THE THIEF – STAGGERED
• Staggered foes cannot gain protection or stability. Staggering a foe removes up to 2 stacks of Defiant.
• Staggered does not stack in duration nor in intensity. If a staggered foe were to be staggered again, the second instance of staggered would simply overwrite the first instance.

Increasing the base HP is not a huge buff.
Staggered looks like a really underwhelming, situational & RNG condition.

Swagg.9236:

Stealth Attack skills
[Surprise Shot] (1)

• Recharge increased from 0 to 5 seconds.
• Damage reduced from 202 (0.6) to 159 (0.5).

[Tactical Strike] (1)

• Recharge increased from 0 to 5 seconds.

[Backstab] (1)

• Recharge increased from 0 to 5 seconds.
• Front damage reduced from 403 (1.2) to 302 (0.9).
• Back damage reduced from 806 (2.4) to 554 (2.0).
• Now also inflicts 10 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds when striking a foe from behind.

[Sneak Attack] (1)

• Recharge increased from 0 to 5 seconds.

Putting a recharge on thief attack skills is just ridiculous, and it promotes more stealthy and “in and out” play style. And if you use an utility skill while in stealth, you will use your stealth attack(bug).
Backstab might hit hard against glassy foes, but the damage is perfectly fine against the heavy classes, classes with high protection up time or classes that can spam weakness. In addition, I believe if you decide to run glass you know that there are thieves and that you should be able to prevent backstabs from happening, by timing your dodge, gaining distance or spam the floor with AoE’s.

I’ve always used the standard 0/30/30/10/0. If you are power based builds basically the first traitline you go in is Critical Strikes. It gives Precisision and Critical damage and has some good traits in it. You can use either D/P or D/D with this build. You can use them both or you can use just one with a shortbow for superior mobility.

I have never run a condition spec, but what I can say is that most thieves run a power based build. I think this because condition thieves are not useful for group situations, because it the spec has not enough burst and in group situations there are more condition cleanses.
Personally I never had trouble killed a condition thief, or did not bother because it was too tanky and not worth my time.

Remove the current inbalance between Exotic gear and the boring & harder to acquire Ascended gear.

This can be done two ways.

Give the ascended gear the same stats as exotic gear, this option is not really cool for the people who crafted ascended gear.

The other option is to make some kind of Mystic Forge recipe that gives exotic gear the same stats without the infusion slots.

My Thief, Necromancer, Guardian and 2x Warrior.

9/10
Awesome asura servant of grenth. Nice use of the mask with simple clothes in black ofcourse. I like your axe (sad thing they can’t be bought anymore).

My necromancer does not changes clothes often. It recently found a new headpiece.

My human guardian:
Shoulders: Barbaric
Chest: HoTW
Arms: Barbaric
Leggings: HoTW
Boots: Barbaric

My human necromancer:
Head: Winged
Shoulders: HoTW
Chest: Tactical (WvW skin)
Hands: Arah
Leggings: CoF
Boots: Arah

My thief.
Head: Anonimity Mask (starters)
Chest: T3
Hands: HoTW
Leggings: T3
Boots: T3

Shadow Arts V—Infusion of Shadow: Increased the amount of initiative gained to 2, but only when entering stealth.

Atleast they increased the amount of initiative gain to 2.

I would like to propose a new defense mechanic to thieves.
Shadow Form, a short duration “protection” with a higher reduce of damage than the normal protection.
But introducing this ability should go in hand with reducing the amount of stealth and perhaps the amounts of evade. This is neccessary to make thieves less annoying to fight with, while keeping them strong enough to compete with the other characters.
This ability could be introduced via traits and skills. Think of something like this:
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form when you are disabled.
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form on venom use.
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form on signet use.
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form on Stealth (note that the amount of stealth should be reduced)
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form on weapon swap
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form when using a healing skill.
- Trait: Gain Shadow Form when using a trap.
- Skill: Gain Shadow Form

This would still give the thief it’s own way of fighting, just less dependant on stealth, evade spam and heavy teleports.
Note that I have no intention to make thieves better than ‘the balanced classes’ in any part of the game. Just a less annoying thief.

mikeew.8607:

My biggest frustration with this build that he runs is the gear. He says Valks gear w/Travelers Runes you are talking a almost 100gold investment. The armor is 24 gold and only available via craft so either u make or buy it. The runes are roughly 10g each x6 60 gold for those and 4g and some change for the armor x 6 so 25 gold there about 85 gold.

Traveler’s runes are nice, but if you just swap out Acrobatics I for Acrobatics VI.
You’ll still have your movement speed when you need it to most to deliver that backstab in the back. Then you could take any runes or orbs. For example Runes of the Hoelbrak (to counter conditions), Beryl Orbs (cheaap) or any other rune that has atleast some more damage in it.

Even for gear, take what you think is best. Some prefer Berserker’s gear for the highest burst damage, others prefer a set of Beserkers and Soldier’s mixed. These 2 sets can both be bought with badges or tokens.

If you don’t want to be squishy you could try my build. Currently i’m still testing it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYm6OHcS6E+5Ey2jeSo4JuCWY3DuS+sKA-jUyAofioRKCERAkKIkl9KiGbZrIas6aMlbi0uC1xAYG-w
Use Daggerstorm just for the stability.

It is not effective at all if there is a skill lag, but with good positioning and dodging you will outlive every zerg fight.

I think the backstab damage is high enough at this point and an increase will probaly in the end result in a bigger nerf. However, if you see warrior’s that have several traits of damage increase by 10% for specific and we only have 5% on dagger dmg, shortbow dmg and dual skills dmg and 5% extra damage for hitting from the side, which is most of the times useles in PvE. We don’t even have a damage increase trait for sword. This looks to me imbalanced, since warrior have greater armor and greater health without any traits, while thiefs have to spec for stealth or evasion with traits

Besides, I think our traits could be improved in another way to increase our survive ability a bit. There are definitely some good traits, but some traits are just totally useless or way too situational.
Afterall I think that the thieves are not that bad too play, but it just seems kinda weird to me.

They have not, there is the same icon as a cooldown with skills is indicated.

Nerfing perma stealth thieves is fine, but I don’t see the point of nerfing this useful trait in the condimeta instead of infusion of shadow with an ICD for example.
However, anet should remember that we had several nerfs and we seriously need some improvements to be viable in more aspects of the game.

Pistolwhip for example. It roots you!?! A thief with a root that is not moving even if it is evading will be dead in a few after that. As a thief you have to keep moving, positioning, anticipate on incoming people. You can’t stay at one place. Why not make it so that you can move while using it? It is easy to evade with one dodge through the thief, It won’t be OP in PvE or atleast more OP than warriors. The S/P set has not access to stealth so it wouldn’t be have the stealth S/D has. It will, however, give thieves an extra really viable weapon set.

messiah.1908:

MatthijsB.4731:

That just use Daggerstorm for stability(cancel it) and your damage seems kinda low to me. Atleast for what I’ve seen in the video.
I use S/D in zergs with 0/30/20/20/0 and my Larcenous strike seems to deal the same amount of damage of you PW.

thanks
what are your state which yield more dmg?
and doesnt LS base dmg is third of PW so how it does same dmg?

and do you think SB should be buffed anc could be used as main hand weapon?

I just noticed in your video that you were hitting ~3-4k with PW. Maybe it was a high armor target, or you did’nt manage to hit the foe all the time. In WvW fights are a bit more moving than PvE so I don’t know if it’s the best choice to root yourself with PW.
Well in zerg fights I prefer surviving rather than maximum damage, if I’m following the commander during pushes I’ll try to evade as much as possible with my Flanking Strike, and when I’m not running with the commander or in stealth I’m spamming poison fields. So SB is perfect in it’s current state for me.

Daendur.2357:

i’d change runes.

That just use Daggerstorm for stability(cancel it) and your damage seems kinda low to me. Atleast for what I’ve seen in the video.
I use S/D in zergs with 0/30/20/20/0 and my Larcenous strike seems to deal the same amount of damage of you PW.

This is what I am currently experimenting with:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYmiOHfy7E+JFyWhKkrgT59wB/KyqTBXZVA-jkCBofCiUEQkFAEBgZPFRjtquIas6aYKXC1aXJycuIa1yAYuAA-w

Withdraw can be changed with Signet of Malice depending on the situation. I tend to use Withdraw on more chaotic fights. Caltrops for Roll for Initiative if you have taken SoM can be a good option.
Use your S/D goodness in zergfests: Evade stuff, Strip boons, Snare foes. (make sure you don’t target anyone if you want to follow the commander)
Use safe finishers on downed foes:
Finish cast>Shadowstep>Shadow Return if skill is almost charged.
Blinding Powder>Finish
CnD>Finish
Infiltator’s Strike>Finish>Shadow Return>Steal if skill is almost charged.
If you do not have SoM, use Daggerstorm only for it’s stability. So cancel it.
Use Withdraw and Roll for Iniative to move around so turn fast then cast them.