Guild Wars 2

Yes, move it back to Friday!

Sorry if this has been brought up, but I looked 30 pages deep and found nothing on the topic. I noticed something odd about this trait running Cavalier’s gear, specifically that Deadly Strength should be giving more power than it was.

Deadly Strength (Death Magic, Master Tier): Gain power based on your toughness. Power gain doubles while in shroud.

For example, I was at the time of my testing at 2,269 toughness and 2,374 power (untraited). With Deadly Strength turned on I was getting 2,533 power or a 7% increase as stated in the trait description, but when I entered into either shroud I did not receive an additional 7% increase. I only received a five point increase to 2,537 power.

Now, why is it increasing by this small margin? I figure the added toughness from Armored Shroud (+180 toughness while in shroud) is factoring into the original 7% from Deadly Shroud and the second half of it isn’t connecting somewhere in the code.

Thanks for the update and thanks for listening, Irenio!

Impact Savant, Stun Availability & the Daze/Stun Discrepancy

As previously stated in others’ posts, Impact Savant seems amazing, but Engineer in general has too few reliable stuns for it to be put to much use. The availability of stuns should be increased slightly to better flesh out builds that want to work the control aspect of the game.

Here are a few ideas to inspire you on this topic:
Stun on Critical Hit – May be too powerful if not tuned correctly, but would create a unique niche among professions. Something like 20% chance on crit to stun. However, it’s a passive buff and adds no real counter-play or variation on a theme.
Engineering for Contingency – Rework Final Salvo to generate a small point-blank AOE stun on a gyro’s destruction. Would definitely help bring parts of the Scrapper specialization together and add counter-play.
Stun on Turret Detonation – High amount of reliable stuns, but probably too much of a good thing. Doesn’t make the Scrapper specialization any more bountiful or add much counter-play.

UPDATE: A counter-argument I’ve run into on this topic has been that Scrapper has too many stuns, as the amount of Lightning fields it employs can be utilized to stun enemies using leap finishers. However, this is false, as this combo produces a daze, which although is similar in effect to a stun it is technically different from a stun. This differentiation is often grayed by traits that make dazes cause stun (Confounding Suggestions) or the pairing of Lightning fields and stuns in skill effects (such as Static Field and Thunderclap).

This brings about an interesting idea though: one way to increase the value of Impact Savant may just be to extend the modifier to daze.

Mallyx and Corruption

Conditions Specialization feels half-baked at the moment. With the loss of self-application of conditions, a number of traits in Corruption don’t make for great choices as the Revenant’s value in conditions has been devalued. There is also a substantial lack of synergy between Mallyx and Corruption and other legends and specializations. Furthermore, should the line even be called Corruption anymore? Maybe Affliction would be a better frame?

With the removal of self-generated conditions, only a few things make this specialization shine:

• Torment. The amount of torment this specialization can generate helps to differentiate it from other condition specs. The changes to Embrace the Darkness make it more reliable in this aspect.
• Venom Enhancement. The idea of one condition applying another condition is to my recollection pretty novel for GW2. This could be something to play with where conditions cause cascading effects on each other.

What feels wrong?

• A few of traits that synergized with the Revenant’s ability to self-generate conditions remain within a less opportunistic environment. Bolstered Anguish and Pulsating Pestilence are no longer strong choices as you are far more dependent on the enemy applying conditions on you than previously expected. This has in some way made the specialization more reactive and less proactive, which can translate into less fun, as instead of being able to self-determine to some degree the amount of conditions on you, you are now more at the whims of others.
• Mallyx and Corruption cannot stand on its own, but with the manner in which how the Revenant has been designed, they have been designed to be just that.

What could be done?

• One option may be to walk back the previous changes to self-generating conditions on skill use, but that would bring back the problems of party-wide condi-clear from allies affecting the condition spec’s strength. So what would be need to be done is possibly adding a further mechanic with this walk back that would fix this problem. To this end, I would call it “Masochism”, as a word that more aptly describes the willful rejection of aid in order to gain something positive escapes me at the moment. The idea is just that, it would block condition clears from allies. Where exactly where it would go? I am not sure, maybe as a special effect on Mallyx or as a minor trait on Corruption. Implementation would be a beast however, as I imagine it isn’t as easy build a new effect and test it as it is to play with pre-canned effects.
• Another option could be to flip some of these traits. Bolstered Anguish could be flipped to instead of gaining more damage for each condition on you to gaining more damage for each condition on your enemy.
• More flavored effects based on torment application. Since the other hallmark of this spec is axed, might as well make the other part better. For instance, give Revenant the ability to gain health if the enemy triggers the stronger walking effect of torment.
• Give Embrace the Darkness a more dynamic feel. For instance, instead of a 10% blanket stat increase, what if, depending on which specs are chosen, it gave a larger boost to Conditions for Corruption line, Power for Devastation, Toughness for Retaliation, etc… Or, otherwise a bigger bump to condition damage or duration while in Embrace the Darkness?
• Maybe a trait that snapshots energy loss per second and converts that temporarily into condition damage?
• Pain Absorption is untouchable in its current state. It is high risk and little reward. The player takes the sum of their allies’ conditions in one package upfront with a small delay from resistance, but is given few tools in order to deal with those conditions creatively and skillfully. The options currently are: trait for Pulsating Pestilence and forego any idea of active defense while you wait for a mob to hit and trigger the 25% chance to transfer conditions or slot in Jalis which is far from being an optimal pairing for Mallyx. Give us the tools to better deal with conditions and give us the choice of whether we want to take the risk, not the other way around.

In closing, BWE3 Revenant still needs work done, and I feel the removal of the mechanics that allowed Mallyx to be a conditions conduit was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction without a proper consideration and correction for the consequences of that design decision.

I don’t think they should have to balance around your bank guild. Get outside your comfort zone.

Reaper/Herald/Chronomancer

Reaper – Giving Necromancer some melee love was due. Reaper shroud is really strong and enjoyable to manage. I’ve particularly liked not being shoehorned into taking Berserker’s stats since Death Perception is a thing, instead taking Cavalier’s and playing with more tanky/dps roles. Can take some hits and keeps on truckin’.

Herald – Maintaining persistent effects and managing upkeeps is challenging and fun. Definitely feel it gives parties a bang for their buck since you’re a mini-phalanx warrior+a whole bag of chips without having to give up too many trait slots. I also see where Infused Light could be a big thing.

Chrono – I havn’t touched it much, but by seeing the kit I just know it is strong and useful. Slow/Alacrity application in certain scenarios could be sought after if ANET go back to BWE2 difficulty or harder. Chronophantasma is a wicked trait that will see a lot of play. Finally, move-speed increase as a minor is just awesome.

Other mentions…

Scrapper – Too early to say, but Scrapper has got a place somewhere. It definitely fills a gap in the profession.

Druid – Unless ANET fix the difficulty I don’t see much use from anything heal-oriented. Why go that far when everything hits you with a Fun Noodle.

Dragonhunter – Fills a need in having a more impactful ranged attack, but falls short with traps that feel disconnected gameplay-wise when you can easily kill the mobs before they get to said traps.

Tempest – This elite specialization’s traits are a casserole of nonsense. They’re just yesterday’s leftovers from the other core specializations. Some traits don’t even have weight unless you’re in one particular attunement. I really wanted to love the Tempest but it’s the least cohesive of the elite specializations.

Berserker – Nothing too astounding. Xzibit must’ve designed it because they put the zerker in the zerker so we can zerk while we zerk. In any case, it probably just puts Warrior in a better spot than it was before. It will probably see some use, but definitely doesn’t notch up the wow-factor.

Daredevil – Inventive differentiation of the dodge mechanic and welcome inclusion of physical skills. Will see a fair amount of play in PvP, but I find it hard to say whether it will see a lot of notice in PvE. Staff has harder hits than sword to fewer targets, but so does dagger. Staff brings a mixed bag on whether you can survive as well as you could doing pistol offhand. Otherwise, less reliable blinds aren’t positive to group survivability, and fewer smoke fields aren’t terrific either. However, you can dodge for days.

Since I don’t see it being asked and maybe this question is misplaced, but did anyone work down the wyvern’s breakbar, Mitch?

If not, it is definitely one of the big problems with GW2 that is still to be addressed is people simply do not realize that there are descriptors below the mobs HP bar that describe unique traits/mechanics of that mob. I’ve seen countless times where players will just blindly hit at something, waiting for it to die, only for that mob to stand there and laugh at the player who can’t read the descriptor, for example “mob is invulnerable until you move it off this spot”. They’ll simply get bored, think it’s bugged, and move on. But those descriptors need to be called out better on the interface.

Once again, may not be the case in this situation, but it is something that I see hasn’t been addressed in these 3 years and I feel ANET have simply taken the “you can’t fix stupid” approach.

Pick up the difficulty ANET. How are we supposed to see this “death of the zerker meta” when it is obvious that mobs have been made easier to kill? It was fun, interesting, and challenging to run in zerker gear knowing the risk that there were mobs out in the wild who could one-shot me. Now there is no risk/reward, only zerked-out lawnmowers.

Keep this, its a feature, not a bug! It gives so much flavor to the class!

I’m not entirely opposed to energy costs on weapon skills, but costs across the board seem too high. I’m also not opposed to the double-dip of energy costs & cooldowns, but similarly costs and cooldowns need to come down as Revenant’s playstyle feels too lethargic and auto-attack centric.

Yeah, I agree with you on the Ventari tablet situation. It is absolutely needless to make the tablet summon a separate skill. It should auto-summon on swap and shouldn’t lock you into animations besides maybe the elite skill. Perhaps have it auto-re-summon if you blow it up.

Hammer is a good ranged weapon if you’re not focused on damage. I feel we should be given hammer as a utility option, but we also need a more responsive direct damage option – a second ranged weapon. However, I feel they’re trying to put everything into one box with hammer, and that isn’t going to work. It muddles everything and makes it un-fun.

• Invocation Specialization
  • Swirling Mists
    • Globes of Mist don’t seem to appear or their visual cue is too muted.
    • I dislike the 5s ICD on Swirling Mists. It seems punishing toward burst playstyles. I would prefer a hard cap toward the amount of orbs a Revenant could spawn.
    • Suggestion: This mechanic could be great if fleshed out further, and build up the unique qualities of the Revenant . I’d like to argue that it should be baseline and each specialization does something to buff it/alter it. Same rule applies that these effects would be triggered switching INTO the stance.
      • Corruption: 3% increased condi damage per globe for 5s, point blank AoE condition per globe
      • Retribution: 3% increased toughness per globe for 5s, Retaliation boon per globe
      • Salvation: 3% increased healing power per globe for 5s, AoE heal per globe to allies around you
      • Invocation: Buffs the effectiveness of each globe. So maybe bumps it up to 5% increase or lengthens/strengthens the secondary effect.
      • Destruction?: 3% increased power per globe for 5s, Damage, damage, damage per globe
      • Elite spec: No idea what the theme of this spec is yet, maybe if it’s Glint you put enemies around you into crystals for a short duration depending on the number of globes. So AoE CC.
• Mace/Axe
  • Used it a lot in PvE.
  • Feels good for a melee condition weapon set. I really dig how much torment it dishes out. Was able to keep around 12 stacks of torment on mobs without effort with Corruption Spec and torment sigils/runes (might honestly be overkill).
  • Axe Skill #5 needs to either conform better to the surface of the ground or have better elevation detection.
• Hammer
  • Used it a lot on PvP as a support tank.
  • Slow projectile works thematically for a ranged hammer with defensive support. However, it being the only horse in town leaves a lot to be desired.
  • Hammer isn’t the impactful ranged damage weapon we want, but it is the utility weapon Revenant is designed to use well.
  • It is a good ranged weapon with a mix of support skills that definitely work with Legendary Dwarf Stance and Legendary Centaur Stance.
  • Don’t feel it needs to be changed, we just need more options.
• Staff
  • Played this set the least.
  • Good mix of damage, support, and mobility. Works well with Legendary Dwarf and Legendary Centaur Stance.
  • The amount of utility it brings bites into the damage by having a 3 mob cleave instead of the standard 5 mob cleave. Probably for balance. It looks well and would probably play well in scenarios where you would need a second smaller heal/condi cleanse or where you’re in a fight that is on the move.
  • Animations felt chunky. Needs to feel tighter and more fluid in the transition between attacks and skills. Maybe the aftercast is too long?

Edit: fleshed out the baseline Globes of Mist idea.

• General
  • Revenant specializations don’t seem as built up as other professions’. They don’t feel quite as impactful on Revenant as they do with other professions at the moment, since they really define playstyles within overall themes. Currently feels like the old system was copied over without any of the great trait mergers most professions experienced.
  • Lack of versatility between ranged and melee fights can hard-counter revenant currently due to lack of weapon-swap (leads to the un-fun “guess I’ll just stand here and watch” scenario in PvE).
    • Some encounters currently require you to either be locked at range or melee.
    • Revenant currently lacks any way to approach these situations with grace.
    • Other classes that are weapon-locked have means to overcome this shortcoming
      • Engineer: kits & turrets
      • Elementalist: Attunements alter the way each weapon interacts.
    • Suggestion: weapon-swap alters the main-hand weapon’s “range-melee” focus.
  • Downed Skill #2 seems unsatisfying. The displacement doesn’t break stomp %100 of the time as the 600 range isn’t enough to effectively move an enemy to where you’ll be outside the AoE of a stomp.
• Energy (Class Resource)
  • Plenty of energy as long as you don’t spam your skills.
  • Energy gain/loss balance needs to be addressed.
  • A few skills cost too much for their value.
  • Not enough means to gain energy. An active means to gain energy would be appreciated since we have active and passive means of losing it.
• Legendary Dwarf Stance – Retribution Specialization
  • Synergizes well with Legendary Centaur Stance.
  • Fair mix of party-wide defensive-support and damage.
  • Can’t give a fair evaluation of Rite of the Great Dwarf since part of the tooltip is missing; however, cast time seems too long. At least cut it to 2s.
  • Forced Engagement energy cost is too much for a 2s taunt that has a strong telegraph and can be dodged. It’s equal in cost to the Elite and is maybe half as strong.
• Legendary Demon Stance – Corruption Specialization
  • Currently seems to lack synergy between existing stances.
  • Good condition damage, manipulation, and support.
  • Felt punishing to switch stances when spec’d for condition damage since energy would reset/loose utility skills.
  • Skill icon for Embrace the Darkness’ Enable/Disable needs to be better differentiated. Difficult to identify whether it is active or not at a glance.
  • Unyielding Anguish (Legendary Demon Utility Skill #3) – needs a better visual cue to indicate that it is causing displacement. Maybe a pulse wave?
• Legendary Centaur Stance – Salvation Specialization
  • Synergizes well with Legendary Dwarf Stance.
  • Solid healing and damage mitigation.
  • I enjoy the object-oriented spell-focus. Very refreshing within the context of GW2. However, there needs to be a watershed moment with HoT in order for people to value it.
  • Having been killed while tablet is out breaks tablet. Seems you need to destroy the tablet (use Elite Skill) before you can re-summon the tablet after death.
  • Diminish Solace – the second half of Protective Solace (Centaur Utility Skill #1) needs a better skill icon to display that it turns the shield off.
  • Tablet needs a stronger telegraph to show its healing on pulse.

Sorry for necroing what is considered to be an old topic, but…

I am very interested in the topic of the Blood Magic rework. It was by far my favorite of the Necromancer’s attributes in GW1 and I feel it hasn’t translated well into GW2, so far. I posted about this earlier in another thread, but as I’ve read this is the thread it should have been in. Here are some ideas I have on the topic to improve upon the unique quality of the Blood Magic line and strengthen it as a serious choice for Necromancers.

Bloodthirst (20% siphoning effectiveness) should become baseline. As the Blood Magic line is currently, and proposed to continue to be, a trait line largely themed on the mechanic of siphoning; this line benefits a great deal through this trait. So much so, that placing this trait in the adept line, I feel, creates an illusion of choice, as the other two choices: Ritual of Life (creates a Well of Blood when reviving an ally and reduce revive time by 10%) and Mark of Evasion (create a Mark of Blood on dodge), are less useful in comparison, in my opinion. Ritual of Life only becomes useful if you have a downed ally, so the opportunity of use is finite; while Mark of Evasion is only useful if within melee range and is under-powered. On the flip side, not choosing Bloodthirst is a decision to make a line that seems more and more focused on siphoning to be 20% less effective. A better opportunity of choice needs to be made in the adept traits to strengthen the line as a whole. Furthermore, I believe it is a known bug currently that this trait alongside Vampiric Rituals actual decreases the siphoning strength of wells.

This is why I propose doing away with Bloodthirst as a trait, and either giving all siphons a 20% increase or otherwise a healthy rebalancing. This would create an opportunity to rebalance the adept traits and create an opportunity of choice, it strengthens the overall viability of siphoning as a unique mechanic for Necromancers to consider taking, and it may just simplify the game’s code (however, that’s just wild speculation on my part).

I like the direction Vampiric Aura is going in with regards to the preview we got, but I’m curious if giving a more passive buffs to the party is the best means of connecting the Necromancer to party-wide support. What I think would be a neat manner of supporting the party through life siphoning would be not to just copy the life siphoning mechanic over to other characters with a passive buff where, as I imagine, their attacks cause life siphon. Rather, I think what would create a unique support structure is for the Necromancers to tag party members with a buff that is connected to the necromancer and transfers a percentage of the necromancer’s life siphoning strikes to party members. Thereby making the Necromancer’s actions more closely tied to the support given to its party members. I’d like to call this idea “Doctor Death”, as although it is similar to GW1s Order of the Vampire, it is different in that instead of making the party all vampires the Necromancer is in theory “killing one to save many” and making the necromancer a party medic in a different way than through Signet of the Vampire, for instance, which doesn’t see too much use currently.

My last idea, given that the Blood Mage’s wheelhouse is in health pool manipulation more or less, is the idea of temporary linking health pools. The idea is that with the necromancer enjoying a pretty healthy health pool it could act as a temporary damage soak or buffer for squishier characters via an augmented set of skills that link two or more players together. Thus, providing support from the necromancer through damage mitigation within the theme of Blood Magic in a way that is unique to the class. However, as this mechanic isn’t something I recall ever coming across in GW2, it is certainly not a short term fix to a long term problem, and would take time to implement and iterate upon. But nonetheless, the Blood Magic line needs inspiration and a lot of work to make it a serious contender.

Bloodthirst.

Siphoning is weak even with it, and even now is causing traits like Vampiric Rituals to bug out and give reduced siphoning. Not only this, but a trait that affects the effectiveness of the theme mechanic of the traitline in comparison to two underwhelming traits (Ritual of Life and Mark of Evasion) creates an illusion of choice in the Adept line. So wouldn’t it just make sense to roll that 20% into every siphoning skill?

I like it. It fits the overall theme of a frightening, otherworldly being they are trying to create. The size of the scythe, as I see it, is supposed to be over-emphasized. It is supposed to be distorted to a proportion that creates fear of a weapon so large, its reach so long, that it appears nightmarish.

That would be perfect!

I think horrors wouldn’t be as disliked if they didn’t have the same dumb AI all the other necro minions have. I would like to see ANET drop the pocket raptor AI and damage into the horrors, as from how they were described they’re an intense encounter.

I am very interested on this topic as Blood Magic in GW1 was by far my favorite of the Necromancer’s attributes. Here’s my spin on the idea of making the Blood Magic line more supportive and fixing some issues that I feel haven’t been addressed yet.

Bloodthirst (20% siphoning effectiveness) should become baseline. As it is proposed and further rumored to be, a trait line largely themed on the mechanic of siphoning benefits a great deal through this trait. So much so, that placing this trait in the adept line could create an illusion of choice, as the other two choices: Ritual of Life (creates a Well of Blood when reviving an ally and reduce revive time by 10%) and Mark of Evasion (create a Mark of Blood on dodge), are less useful in comparison. Ritual of Life only becomes useful if you have a downed ally, so the opportunity of use is finite; while Mark of Evasion is only useful if within melee range and is underpowered. Conversely, not choosing Bloodthirst is a decision to make a line that seems more and more focused on siphoning to be 20% less effective. A better opportunity of choice needs to be made in the adept line.

Transfusion (Life Transfer and Soul Spiral heals you and your party) and Deathly Invigoration (heal in an area when going into Death Shroud) in light of the revelation that we’ll be allowed to heal in death shroud seem better than they were previously. However, also in light of developers bringing more support into Blood Magic line through somehow introducing the mechanic of a party wide Vampiric Aura, I have some suggestions…

I like the direction Vampiric Aura is going in, but I’m curious if giving a passive buff to the party is the best means of connecting the Necromancer to supporting the party. What I think would be a neat manner of supporting the party through life siphoning would be not to just copy the life siphoning mechanic over to other characters with a passive buff where their attacks cause life siphon, but rather tag party members with a buff that is connected to the necromancer and transfers a percentage of the necromancer’s life siphoning strikes to party members. Thereby making the Necromancer’s actions more closely tied to the support given to its party members. I’d like to call this idea “Doctor Death”.

Since I believe the current topic is being steered toward what we would like to see as meaningful encounters utilizing already existing mechanics in GW2… I thought of one such instance already that if tweaked could certainly be an interesting and challenging encounter.

I enjoy the Guild Puzzle Proxemics Lab. The final area is a maze where six randomly placed orbs spawn, and those orbs must be found and placed at the exit gate to open the final chest. Within the maze there are environmental traps as well as NPCs like Tom, a giant undying golem.

A tweaked version of this could make for a fine encounter within a raid.

It could break down like this…

• One part of the raid group breaks off to find/run the orbs. An added level of difficulty may be to have them ordered in such a way that you need to put these orbs in a particular order. You will need to dodge traps, cleanse conditions, and dps down barriers. Another member, if the particular order idea is added, would maybe also need to be at the exit to say which order of orbs is acceptable for the runners. Another level of difficulty may be to have the order change after each orb is added.
• Another part of the raid group would have to fight something similar to Tom, but with a few caveats…

1. “Tom” will guard the exit to the maze where the containers are kept.
2. You can’t put the orbs into the containers unless “Tom” is in active combat and pulled away from the exit.
3. You can’t obtain the orbs until “Tom” is in active combat and pulled away from the exit.
4. If Tom’s leash is broken, it will return to guarding the exit and reset the encounter (including any orbs left in containers)
5. Tom cannot die, otherwise the encounter resets, and Tom resurrects. Tom can die after the orbs are placed into the containers and his resurrection code has been commented out.

The encounter would exhibit good teamwork and organization in order to ensure success. It would also challenge the zerker meta as you couldn’t dps “Tom” down, but have to keep him active (slow dance tankier types to hold his attention), while also denying him from a certain area (crowd control and active combat).

So… something I’d like to see would have bundles, dodging (active defense), situations where other builds other than could have relevance with tanky slow dancers for “Tom” to enjoy (passive defense), situations where people have to work together in an organized manner to accomplish goals (under duress if you want to be a sadist and have a timer for the encounter), and puzzles.

Scale & Challenge:

Small Scale Raids: 10-15 person instances – Style of instances that are a fusion of Guild Challenge & Puzzle combined. No living story content currently has this feel, in my recollection. Examples: Guild Challenges & Puzzles, or one of the Battle of the Breachmaker’s three sides?

Large Scale Raids: 150 (or whatever the current map population cap is) person instances – Similar to open world boss encounters. Examples: Battle of Southsun (1st GW2 Living Story Event), Marionette, Battle of the Breachmaker.

Both should be organizationally difficult by forcefully splitting into smaller groups to accomplish complex tasks, or achieve goals in parallel / part of a decision tree structure.

Random encounters should be more commonplace. This would cause the raid group to react to, and be challenged, by the environment, rather than working through a linear environment. For example, if the troll encounter in Ascalonian Catacombs had a trade-off, either you encounter it to gain something (different path/reward), or avoid it to gain something else, instead of just going around it and missing a trivial champ bag. Or otherwise, the X factor could be unavoidable and an unexpected obstacle.
Diversity of boss strengths/nerfs should greater. To extend the suggestion of “unexpectedness” of instances to create greater challenge, the range of what to expect should be greater. One example, how about a memorable mob/boss that you have to use knockdown/stuns to damage or is immune to melee damage and favors melee combat. I’m a big fan of the Battle of the Breachmaker on this point, as it had some of this, so more Breachmaker please.

Accessibility & Functionality:

1. Fractals System – Much of these could believably be brought back through the Fractals system in some capacity. Instead of being added to the fractals rotation, each raid instance would be its own thing accessed through the Fractals hub.
2. LFG System – Each instance would be available to gather a raid party for through the LFG system. For large scale raids, players would be able to join a queue, when that queue reaches a certain critical mass an instance could be created for that group. Those large-scale raids would permanently be available to join, there would be no de-listing the raid unless the instance was full.
3. Guild Unlocks – Guilds can unlock the ability to create these raids much like open-world boss encounters currently are summoned. Guilds members would have preference when joining those instances, but the instance wouldn’t be immune to the same listing rules as those “naturally” generated.

Possible Problems:

Would being lumped with Fractals mean agony would be involved?

Re-logging as another character did no good, and changing to another map was out of the question due to the aforesaid and all my characters being in LA.

What fixed the crashing was ultimately restarting my computer. Commander tags are now available for me.

Did this as well. Commander tag did not get enabled. Restarted client and now GW2 crashes after character select.

I agree. When it comes to trait harmony, there are a few Thief traits that don’t fit under their current lines. For instance, why are Leeching Venoms and Venomous Aura shoehorned into the Toughness/Healing(Shadow Arts) line?

As there are a significant lack of changes good, bad, or otherwise for the Thief so far in Mr. Karl’s post, I thought I’d put my two cents in for what could be tweaked…

Shadowsteps should make the player appear behind the target. I am unsure if all shadowsteps should do this, but potentially some should. The Thief Class’s mechanic Steal would probably be the best candidate, as thematically, one usually should take advantage of their target’s “blindspots” when stealing to be 100% effective. Mechanically, this would also line up the Thief to utilize position specific damage modifiers. Although, in the current meta there is already enough incentive for Thief builds that utilize those modifiers, if Anet make good on their promise to change the meta, then this may be a neat addition for the class without providing much undue power creep.

Steal really should have the choice to “drop” the stolen item. In a given situation, a Stolen skill can be completely useless or detrimental to a fight. Allowing the Thief the choice to “drop” the item and start Steal’s cooldown in much the same way as using the Stolen skill would prove useful.

1. Necromancer
2. Engineer
3. Ranger

I agree with a lot of the discussion about reworking crowd control. It is a completely broken part of the combat system at the moment and hasn’t been seriously touched since launch. I feel that if Anet desires to seriously change the meta this is a great point in the system to tweak and enhance gameplay, as some points of it are simply anti-fun.

In PvP situations, as discussed, there is high potential for stun-locking, while in PvE due to the defiant buff existing on any mob stronger than a rat CC builds are non-existent. This is partly because the defiant buff severely penalizes CC builds by flat out negating crowd control mechanics without much room for counterplay(other than spamming CC to reduce defiant stacks), while also being in a metagame where damage rules, and many CC builds generate damage through having their target being CC’ed. In the context of knowing that mob AI is quite deficient at the moment and has been since launch, this was probably a last minute fix to the system, and kept PvE from experiencing stun-lock abuse.

However, in light of ANet expressing interest in changing the meta, this is my suggestion…

IF mob AI ever improves in PvE, THEN defiant as it currently exists should get a look at. Instead of a countdown mechanic, as it is now, it should be a count-up mechanic as earlier described, potentially granting diminishing returns, or a temporary (10-15 seconds) buff that grants CC immunity to the mob. The latter could raise the skill cap to some degree by putting more emphasis on good timing and situational awareness.

This change would also promote build diversity. For instance, I have a level 80 warrior, but never take him out of Lions Arch these days because I find the ‘zerker meta boring. I would much rather play Hammer Warrior in PvE, but because of how generously applied the defiant buff is in its current form, and how everything without it melts in the ’zerker meta, it’s just ineffective and anti-fun. Might as well change all warrior hammers to pool noodles, since none of the bonuses a hammer warrior could trait for and would see as desirable will ever be triggered in PvE.

Same. Constant loop.

Karl McLain.5604:

Warrior:
Our changes for warrior focus on providing telegraphs to stronger skills and to reduce the passive benefit gained from Healing Signet.

• Healing Signet: Reduced the passive heal by 8%.
  • We’re looking for ways to incentivize using Healing Signet’s active without increasing overall sustain. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Here is my suggestion for how you could incentivize using Healing Signet’s active without increasing overall sustain…

Instead of having a passive that incentivizes not using the active. Change the passive to trigger a heal if the player uses their Burst skill. The player could then choose to lose short-term damage by utilizing their class mechanic to deliver some damage and passive heal, or use the active heal to provide a larger heal and maintain that heightened level of damage, but lose out on that potential sustained heal for a short time.

This would reduce the passive benefit gained from Healing Signet by requiring more active play to receive the heal and making a trade off between passive healing and damage. While incentivizing the use of Healing Signet’s active element by not requiring the player to make that trade off, but still making the player choose between burst healing or sustained healing.

Karl McLain.5604:

Necromancer:
One of our goals with the past few balance updates has been to add counterplay to various skills that lacked telegraphs. With necromancer, we’re changing the way that Dhuumfire is activated – allowing players the opportunity to react. This will also allow the necromancer to carefully plan their burning application. We’ve also adjusted some values for Minion Master builds based on player feedback.

• Dhuumfire: This trait has been changed so that it will make Life Blast inflict 3 seconds of burning with a 10 second recharge.

With these changes to Dhuumfire, the trait seems more in line with other already existing Life Burst traits in the Adept tier. At best it could be a Master trait. Furthermore, it is lackluster in the limited real estate of Grandmaster traits for the Necromancer, as it seemed so-so to invest into it as it was. I suggest if you’re going to make good on this change, then move it down the trait line to maybe Master and give a buff to Spiteful Spirit as a replacement Grandmaster trait

Speaking from a largely PvE perspective, I have never had the impulse to “carefully plan” when to apply a fire condition in this game. From what I have heard about the current meta in PvP and WvW, neither would those players with the effectiveness of Soldier’s Runes and Pure of Voice, as conditions are already trivialized to such a degree. Mindful use of conditions requires reasonable opportunity of application. In PvE it is rife with opportunity, while in PvP and WvW there seems to be less then reasonable opportunity.

All this change ends up being is an indirect nerf to Necromancer dps through the narrowing of criteria for additional conditions to be applied to targets for one half of the game and veiled as an attempt to increase counterplay in another half.

May I also suggest some Necromancer improvements…

The Death Magic line is pigeonholed as the minion master line with the Reanimator and Protection of the Horde minor traits. The attractiveness of this line is diminished by it being focused on having the player be a minion master for the line to benefit him/her. I think it would greatly enhance the Death Magic line to move those minor traits to the majors of their tier, as it would allow players the freedom to choose to be a minion master or perhaps maybe more of a death knight archetype through the Death Magic trait line.

tl;dr

Changes to Dhuumfire are significant enough that it should be moved to Master tier, as it looks like a beefed up Adept tier Life Blast trait.

We should get Death Knights with 20 points in Bone Armor.

Had the misfortune of being swarmed by the hatchlings at the end like many others. Died, and tried to waypoint back to finish the event. Ended up watching the loading screen for an eternity.

Pretty disappointing finale to a 3 hour slog through the Krusty Krab.