Guild Wars 2

I hope they understand this forum, even while buggy and not userfriendly on portables like phone and tablets, was in the end layed out pretty well…

It was easiliy navigated, but lacked a decent search feature and a decent way to retain the posts if they failed due to traffic, bugs, lag , lost packets or otherwise.

I am very uncertain if I like the new forum better. I think theyu should have implemented the form’s engine but the looks are horrid.

This one wins in feel, view and readability,

Irasch.7183:

Hello,

As it is right now, dungeons are more or less useless and are in direct concurrence with Fractals, but I personally find it a waste of resources and a specially for new players it can be frustrating when they want to make something that should be Normal in MMORPGs.

I also know that Arenanet says that they don’t want to bother with them anymore and fix them, but what is about using what we have and redesigning them to a new unique game mode that would be beneficial for the World and the player base?
…..

I do not think dungeons are dead. They are not maintained much anymore.

With regard to dungeons it’s still easy and fast content giving decent rewards…
The 5 gold and 150 tokens after each 8 paths makes the actual value of dungeons not muich less then before. Actually the tokens do allow for more gear to be bought (and consequently salvaged for inscriptions/insignia’s and ecto’s.)

The content might not pay as much as t4 fractals, or be as extreme as raids, but it is a 5 man instance and it is still ok to run with speedclears, provided you have some moderately geared characters and ppl who play their proffesion(s) well and think out of the box.

It brings about 2-3 full inventories of drops for me from 8 paths (on avg I have 7*18 bags and a 20; so 146 slots/char) so it gives 400-480 drops per 8 paths for 50 to 60 items per path…

The main problems with dungeons are they are not build forcondi builds at all and they are very vulnerable to skips and ports… Objects cannot be damaged by conditions…. Some dungeons are very sensive to speedruns and subsequent trigger errors. Especially when the NPC dies and gets ported… some have annoying time sinks in leisurely walking NPC’s (COE) and pure timesinks (COF and AC).
Random hangs or bugs happen in 1 out of every 20-30 runs or so… Making paths fail through errors on runs in 3-5% of path run. Experienced groups have less issues with this.

I do not mind:

• explaining people things.
• helping ppl with content
• suggesting solutions
• sponsoring a small item to get someone on the right path
• answering simple questions in map / whisper
• helping a person to get into fractals or dungeons (so me doing a t1 run for a new guildie or person I met not long before)

I do mind:

• people boosting characters to 80 and having no clue and wandering about not knowing what to do, complaining and downtalking everything.
• people buying gear for raids and fractals and joining expereinced groups or t4 without any clue whatsoever.
• people forcing raid meta upon new players without considering their interests
• people not learning Failure to learn is a problem. there are polenty of guides and training guilds for a LOT of content
• peole not gearing (I have a guildie who played PvP and PvE and is in PvE garbage gear for the last 3 years. I refuse running her in t1 and t2 fractals cause in this time she got some rings and she has a mixed build not suited to PvE content, with 6 different runes and even though I gave her a complete armor once in the hope she’d improve she salvaged it for ecto’s, and is still in her junk gear.)
• people expecting carries, donations or long time tutoring
• people not listening to advice
• people not making an effort to improve
• people griefing, trolling, harrassing, or being impolite, discriminatory or aggressive
• people who always want something for nothing.

Having both a ranged and a melee soplution makes your character usable in a wider range of situations.

Considering Longbow on ranger does less dmg when closer a swap needs to be made to likely a melee weapon (S or GS) whcih will be inherently more powerfull from the base up further increasing damage.

Camping your ranged weapon cause you are afraid to take a hit is detrimental to the group in most content, not only due to less damage output but you force the hits on a smaller part of the group (raising pressure).

being outdamaged a lot makes you trivial to the content , unless you can boon a lot which also requires you to be in a certain range. Getting alacrity, quickness, might, fury, banners, empower allies, and much more will likely double your dmg output compared to being far away. Getting heals and regen in melee range can raise your sustain to a higher level compared to selfheal only, actually leaving your selfheal for buffs or damage.

Using your 1500 range is np when you have all the time in the world to kill boss X in map Y solo.

This said if your group wipes nothing is wrong with your pet ressing someone and you kiting the boss at 1000+ range

I’d like to say 2 major things

• 1) Condi burst and mitigation:

Most burst builds with condi’s are build on combo’s and finishers.
This sounds nice but the actual conditions are easily avoided (just dodge out and you’ll see the enemy loose out on a lot of stacks…)

Having cleanses (purity / skills/ traits), whirls and finishers, condi returns (generosity, necro staff or offhand dagger) resistance or something like it you should be fine against most condi builds…
Of course some classes still carry skills converting debuffs into buffs. This is never adressed, or considered.

Problem remains: ppl do not want to spec for cleansing, only for damage.

This makes the player directly the imbalanced part with regard to condi builds, not the condi build system.

• 2) Builds rotations and capability of selfsustain and solo DPS valuesas compared to group builds and composition for raids

And I still think you can get the power warrior up to 16-20k… provided you can swap in your build instead of locking yourself in GS.

Power warrior has a lot of things going for it to boost power and condidmg to idiotic heights … Power will still buff 1100 of power and 900 of condi dmg, and this coupled to 25 vulnerability stacks still allows for great dmg, vs condi builds who DO NOT have acces to vulnerability and thus are limited to less dmg UNLESS fighthing in a group providing this stat. Remove 25% of the condition buidls to get solo build values formost condi builds then check wich builds have self might stacking. If they haven’t got this remove it as well. the remove all banners and other stuff and see what a bare build does in PvE. A SOLO VALUE

Solo values are completely passed over by Quantify as it is not needed for their purpose. Solo values should incorporate the modified HP as well.. so a comparision can be made for condi and power survivability. Need for ceratin skills in certain encounters can heavily influence the DPS values attained, so this is as broad as the number of encounters ingame

The Quantify “Meta” builds assume you have:

• 25 might, (warrior(berzerker) / condi ele
• 100% fury uptime, condi ele, theif, warrior , revenant
• 25 vulnerability at all times power berserker, engineer, necro
• banners of discipline and strength: warrior
• alacrity and quickenss at 100% uptime : chronomancer
• stacks of GotL at all times: Druid
• spotter, ranger/druid
• empower allies: warrior
• assassin’s presence: revenant
• pinpointy distribution: engineer
• spirits (flame and frost): ranger

If you can provide all these buffs yourself you can see how interesting the build comparison is based upon QTFY DPS tables. It is only valiud for builds in a maximum buff setting for raids only. Cause sometimes the buffs cannot be stacked together in FACTAL BUILDS as you need -5 buffers- for all buffs (warrior/chrono/ranger/rev and engineer) so a thief/tempest/guardian/necro… cannot expect all these buffs in a 5 man group at all immediatly destroying QTFY’s benchmark list with respect to 5 man group content, AND with this the effect of the meta builds outside raids, so in open PvE, Dungeons, fractals and such.

This said I still believe these builds will perform remarkebly in content outside raids if you can survive the pressure sometimes encountered in the open world. They do have inherent flaws like lack of cleanse or sustain due to the fact these things are provided by other classes in raid situations.

This is not an attack on the validity of Quantify content and benchmarks just a reminder it is made with a goal in mind, which is forgotten in these discussions.

But it does show some things are pulled out of context. It also shows the inability of the present playerbase to distinguish the broadness of the -meta concept- Meta:
recognized:

• 10-man meta, (DPS/DOT/BOON max)(raids)
• 5- man meta, (DPS/DOT max)(dungeons or fractals (is not the same!: dungeons: power, fractals : mix)

Generally not thought about:

• solo meta, (BALANCED)(solo play for instances (solo dungfeons and fractals and solo story builds)
• farm meta (SPEED/SUSTAIN)(SW chest farms, mining meta, XP or karma, exploration)
• open world meta (SUSTAIN) (map-meta & LARGE group meta (min 10+ – 50+))
• healer/support meta (BOONING/HEALING)(Yes you also have tempest auramancer, ventari revenants, Guardian resolve builds, lifetransfer necro’s, boon chrono’s, shout heal builds and such, they are not perfected for DPS but they can be the best buff or heal option for the class. and be vaulable in situation when pure DPS is irrelevant and sustain is mandatory. This can be seen in much greater use in WvW where sustain is nearly allways more potent the pure DPS.

Others outside PvE
recognized:

• PvP meta (PvP)
• WvW Meta (SUSTAIN/Bunker)
• GvG Meta (DPS/sustain)

This is all meta… but a lot isn’t even focussed on DPS or DOT

power is still important for any content requiring an instant peak of dmg.

Power warriro can stack dmg pretty quick, even if it doesn’t hit the same cap as condi warrior in the end… On dungeon runs I still bring my PPS warrior due to the short fights not being ample time for my conditions to ramp up on my cPS, allowing me only to go to 25-50% of my maximum dmg I would get in a raid situation and this holds valid when prestacked…

Same for Power ele vs condi ele… Decent rotation on power ele is still unmatched by most other classes…

And again the power /precision/ ferocity vs condi dmg… You should know by now expertise is a very important part. This allows effectively to double stacks over time when at 100 condi duration compared to a 0 expertise build.
Then you also see you need the full running time of original conditions to see the actual DPS brought by the condi builds and 2 times this period when the condi user is running 100% condi duration… Some of my skills on warrior last 20(+) seconds onlkly when the 1st stacks are running on end I’ll have found my max potential , provided I hit everything and am sufficiently booned. 20 seconds… most dungeons fights last 3-15 seconds. this holds true for t1,t2 and even t3 fractals…
So the 3rd thing for condi builds is TIME (DOT: damage over TIME)

over time =/= spike!

For t4 fractals and raids however condi builds will greatly outshine power builds, with dmg still ticking if downed, and having benefit of might fury and other gimmicks whcih will work perfect when having acces to power and condition dmg….

If a power/ condi dmg /precision/ ferocity gets released you’ll notice… power builds will get a litlte buff from the small amount of condi dmg they’ll see, BUT things Like the #5 downed skill will improve greatly.

Also condi weapons scale bad with power
Also power weapons generally do not have much condi’s

Still my sword on thief can hit for 6k dmg… And I can be invulnerable for 6-8 seconds with pistol whip and evades… when fighting normal, vets elites I love my power build.

When fighting champions it turns and I tend to favor condi builds… so it depends on targets, duration of the fight and the circumstances am I alone or with 5 or 10 ppl or with 100 ppl?

Sifu.9745:

Depends on class: as condi Thief i need only two dps stats: condi and power, crit is irrelevant for me……

I have the same on powr necro: 0 precision cause you can get 100% crit without it.

Still precision is genrally needed on condi builds for added stacks through traits , or sigil of strength or other condi proccing sigils.

Well I have 24 lvl 80’s on my main account…

21 female, 3 male…

Interesting about the male characters: they are all build for WvW…

I’ll say this:

Damage…
DPS: Power, precision, Ferocity, and Opportunity
DOT: Condition dmg, precision, Expertise -AND TIME-

Power: being direct dmg based (power) on crits (precision) you get 1.5-2.3 times the dmg(ferocity), Toughness will mitigate all dmg (1-45% dmg reduction) and weakness will remove crits and cause fumbles (well ~75% of base dmg). invulnerability removes all dmg.

Condition dmg: being damage (condition dmg) over time (expertise) with added stacks place on crits (precision) Cleanses (cleanse skills, light and finisher, purity ,generosity) will remove all stacks of 1 or more conditions, resistance negates 100% of dmg for the duration of the boon

• On short fights power will still outdmg condi builds.
• 2 Ppl on 1 condi build to speed up a kill will leave a condi powerless to react.
• Condition build weapons have bad DPS on power.
• Both types of build will benefit from might (even though this is theoretically better for condi builds as it boosts both DPS and DOT values, then again having 350 or 475 dmg on a scepter attack doesn’t really matter)

• Time is an issue and often overlooked for simplicity….

TIME : Time is not a stat. But is essential for all condi builds.

If I can get 5 or 6 stacks of whatever condition on you and you cannot clean it: I have won, but only if you do not try to kill me instantly. Tim sis allways in a condi builds favor.

And this is where the balance comes from. Resistance = time, Cleanses = more time. Vitality, often scoffed on, is time as well. Healing and regen is time… All this works versus condi builds. power builds need time to kill the condi within a windows … outside this window the condi builds will be stronger, allways.

Remember conditions can and will be essential for power builds as well…. vulnerability, blinds and weakness are valuable… Poison can be usefull as well, even if it does no dmg… it destroys healing.

So even on a pure power build conditions can be used to great effect. without condi dmg and expertise. looking at power builds without considering the conditions makes the game way to simple.

Condi Bursts
And: Yes condi bursts exist. They consist mostly of whirls in fields, which are bound to a location. Really dangerous but wisest is just to move away from the combo field…. stacks will drop from 8-12 to 1 or 2… making it instantly survivable and less of a threat, unless out of dodges, evades and other movement options.

Even then some whirl combo’s are very nice to combat them (light and dark fields with whirls can give cleanses and lifesteal resepectively… Both will add to player’s stamina in fights vs condi users…..

Lahmia.2193:

Sunshine.5014:

I’d love to see Celestial get true all stats.

Would you mind if they reduced the other stats to make room for concentration and expertise?

-continued-

Ehm… I have 24 lvl 80’s and they all have acces to their OWN ascended gear… that’s in all but 3 characters full armor(S) , weapons, (foten with alternate sets) trinkets, backs…
That’s 25 ascneded armors, 33 ascended backitems, 135 ascneded weapons and 33 ascneded trinket SETS, not including all rings and stuff in my bank….
The pre’s I made to create my 7 legendaries and my legendary back have cost some serious mats as well…

I’d suggest: 1 Timegated production per 5 build up (lvl 80) slots, I am aware some gating must remain to keep some artifical scarcity: so I’d say mats could be gated based upon filled slots. This gate would allow ppl to produce a little faster on large accounts and I’ll be honest it would allow for a more market related economy more based on availability and demand then it would be on a fixed rule which is unfair to groups of players no matter how you look at it…
It also removes the threat of ppl getting their accounts to 60 or 70 toons (nice for A-Net if they buy 50 slots? And need to gear them) to make 60 to 70 of each t7 daily (whcih would cost ~300 gold for the steel, 300 gold for the wood, 400 gold for the cloth and 500 gold for the leather daily (1500 gold investment for the mats to make a mat with a removed timegate which no longer ads any networth) Yes, t7 would be 1-2 gold cheaper on avg.

So when the timegate would be (partially) lifted I could compete with others and keep my 25 l80 characters in the same shape in times the time as other players could do for their characters if I wanted to, instead of being artificially forced to take 25 times longer for my characters then a person with his single character. This has just 1 problem: I could produce stuff at launch at 5 times his speed but again: ONLY IF I COULD PROVIDE THE MATERIALS…

And trust me, if I’d get 1 extra craft opportunity per 5 characters I could make 5 t7 or charged quartz mats a day @ 25 characters IF I COULD PROVIDE THE MATERIALS… this still limits production!

It’s not: We lose the timegate now, so ppl can go completely idiotic. They might if they are extremne flippers and have an nearly infinite amount of cash, but even then economy would correct this behaviour with price spikes and a harsher reaction to bulk purchases and such.

I would mean some things could be done faster and the pressure would stress the market forcing an even more volatile Tradingpost SO this would correct all problems instantly : IF I COULD PROVIDE THE MATERIALS would be the balancing factor.

Compared to a guy having 1 main and no alts that’s a serious problem while dealing with the timegate!

Thats why ppl playing 1 main tend to have 10k+ gold and manipulate the TP
-and-
that’s why I never have cash cause I’m always trying to keep up with gearing my 25 characters.

SO:
I’d say:

• Make a timegate based upon the amount of characters
• I am however aware some gating must remain to keep some artifical scarcity so I’d say mats could be gated based upon filled slots. 1-5 1 timegated mat, 6-10 2 timegated mats, 20-25 5 timegated mats, 55-60 12 timegated mats per day for production purposes only. (In 2 years when everybody would have ascneded gear, ascendeds would drop in cost and in value to exotic levels if there was no real market left.)
  This modified gate would allow ppl to produce a little faster on large accounts and I’ll be honest it would allow for a market economy more based on availability and demand then it would be on a fixed rule whcih is unfair to groups of players no matter how you look at it…
• The TP will regulate the prices for mats; prizes would rise if some things could be produced a lot, ascneded gear would get cheaper and easier obtainable especially on accounts with more slots
• The ppl with multiple characters could build faster if they wanted to but will be balanced by prices and scarcity of materials. This is because you might have 25 characters but you can only play 1 at a time. Even if you could make 5 t7 mats daily just think of the costs! Do you produce 500 mithril ingots each day? or a multiple?
• It would allow ppl on more populatyed accounts a way to earn some added money, yes. But it will not last forever.
• I would be AGAINST an item to remove the timegate and consider it P2W
• I am against timegates as a whole and find the concept not following/ abiding the play how you want motto originally used to market this game.

(for me this discussion is mostly valid for the t7 and charged quartz, but not as much for the achievement timesgates which are a cheap way of lengthening content to begin with and are a lame way of developers to lengthen content, forcing players to come back, even if there is nothing new to experience anymore.)

Hyrai.8720:

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

If you have more character to equip it’s only fair to allow this to be happening. If content needs to be capped (so why should it be?), cap it based upon the amount of slots a person has/ uses so he can maintain a comparable gain on more characters. I doubt ppl with 60 alts will run all 60 alts through bitterfrost in a row.

my opinion on this:
it’s only “fair” to not allow this.

Your opinion. And I welcome discussion. I have not stated any means to show this should be implemented so fair or not fair is just a personal hunch at this time

How can it be considered fair that a player basically has the same progress on 60 chars at once that I have on a single char?

In no way this progression you fear could ever happen cause you’d only remove or modify the timegate, not the quantity of gear you need to collect with maximum 1 character at a time…. So the costs would rise 60 fold as well for the person with 60 alts.

Or on the other hand, why is it “unfair” that you have to put more or less the same amount of effort into every individual character?

If I have put in more time and effort to get my 25 or 60 characters, then why is it fair I need to be forced to wait (time gate is forced waiting) =25 times or 60 times longer IF I’d have acces to the materials and currencies to buy the things needed to progress…

by your example, someone with 60 alts wouldn’t have a “comparable” gain, but a 60x higher gain than someone with only 1 char.

No they would not. if ppl would have enough resources to BUY they stuff needed to craft the timegated mats. This would require 60 times longer gathering or 60 times as much cash….. I think the benefits would only hold true for the moments some things get to be released.

A theroretical thing: Celestial gets to be META for everything: If you want 1 character in celestial armor it takees you 30 days for the timegate, if you want 60 it will take you 5 years. Now think what would happen if you want to do all weapons as well…

Alts, Twinks, or whatever you want to call them, already profit from the resources gathered on the first/main char.

Also, people would “abuse” it and create Alts just to craft stuff for their main char.

Yes they could. At a cost.

So in other words: they don’t use it to gear 60 characters as fast as I do with 1, but gear 1 character 60x faster than me.

yes they would at a cost of minimally 60 times the cost of the needed mats, of mats whcih are likely to spike (spikes are already often 200-1000% of prices when new things release, calculating for this effect prizes would be 120-600 times the cost). In which case some ppl would instantly be done and nearly bankrupt and the economy would timegate the things for the rest of sane part of the community

I’m pretty sure the most important reason for ANet to implement this “timegating” was exactly that; creating a “wall of time” for players who would otherwise create tons of gear within a couple hours.

continues>>

Shirlias.8104:

What does “time gating” mean?

Time gating is the forced limitation of production and purchase of items:

Things timegated:

• Charged quartz ( <- pretty annoying) for an armor you need 30 and thios will take a full month to fuse. This can be done beforehand yes… but still…
• All the mats made with ecto refinement for T7 production (ascneded mats) to create artificial scarcity
• Several things bought at vendors for achievements,
  * the wayfarer’s henge backpack, due to the max amount of stuff able to be bought ina day… (druid stones)
  * the peach at lake doric (once a day, if you want to bring and alt and get the same bonus it needs to be a day later)
• all mats from LS3 maps with exception of bitterfrost frontier. (nodes dissapearing after a certain amount of strokes, creating artificial scarcity

Al these things create a forced period you will have to wait, This is the “Time-gate”

Creating this mechanic ingame to lengthen player interest is seen as an instigator forrepeditive content and unfair to altoholics (with more characters you can normally farm more.)
If you have more character to equip it’s only fair to allow this to be happening. If content needs to be capped (so why should it be?), cap it based upon the amount of slots a person has/ uses so he can maintain a comparable gain on more characters. I doubt ppl with 60 alts will run all 60 alts through bitterfrost in a row.

For PvP there might nlot be significant changes except elite specialisations.
(?) new stat combo’s
(?) sigils
(?) runes
(?) (-Meta-)

For WvW:

• new stat combo’s
• sigils
• runes
• food
• specialisations
• (masteries)
• (mechanics??)
• (-Meta-)

Remember WvW uses PvE stats, foods, runes, sigils and more, so it’s more connected to the patch then PvP will be. As such it is also close and far away from PvE….

STIHL.2489:

well in GW2, you have choices.

You can:

• Pointlessly Grind Legendary Weapons.
• Pointlessly Grind Raids.
• Pointlessly Grind Fractals.
• Pointlessly Grind PvP Rewards.
• Pointlessly Grind WvW Rewards.
• Pointlessly Grind Legendary Back Items.
• Pointlessly Grind legendary Armor.
• Screw around and not make any real in game progress.

You forget

• Pointlessly farm dyes
• Pointlessly farm skins
• Pointlessly Grind Legendary Trinket
• Pointlessly Grind Ascended Gear
• Pointlessly start new Alts
• Pointlessly farm new gear for new Alts, and after balance patches of course.
• Pointlessly farm Specialisations and Masteries on new alts
• Pointlessly do Collections
• Pointlessly do Collections hidden by former Collections
• Pointlessly cap a Guildhall
• Pointlessly fill your GuildHall and Personal instance with cats, nodes, and all kinds of other trivia
• Pointlessly grind AP

And some more stuff….

But remember:

It’s all pointless anyways that’s precise teh reason to be here, to pointlessly add time to the pointless timesink.

Pointless timesink = The reason for a Game to exist!

If it had a point it c-/would be playing for money, either by being a sport or gambling which are both simulated but not really here, so you know why it’s pointless.

IT IS GREAT FUN HOWEVER!

It’s not about the numbers… When talking about numbers:

Resistance is a FULL removal of -ALL- condi dmg during it’s uptime….
This means 0 dmg like invulnerability on a boon which can be shared…. and lengthened…..
You can say protection is the same. but no… it isn’t!
Protection still leaves opportunity to dmg.

Cleanses can remove stacks. So they do not remove a damaging condition but the full stack…. on some builds having only 1-2 conditions it means dmg capability is completely reset or in some cases fully compromized… Damage is prioritized!

The only things, ppl are really mad off, tend to be engineer, mesmer, ranger, revenant, thief and may be necro… the other classes have a limited set of conditions to their disposal.

In this list especially mesmer and revenant tend to be dangerous due to torment and confusion allowing shutdown. no movement and no skills …. poison destorys healing, but is less dangerous then other conditions.

Ele (fire/bleeds), warrior (mostly fire and bleeds (occasionally a little confusion or torment)), guardian (fire)…. are easily defeated or negated when using condi’s

And still necro can cleanse condi’s easily, use ‘m spread ’m…. it’s the only truly dangerous condi user in theory.

Other classes with light fields?
-chrono, mesmer
-GUARDIAN… if needed -permanently- on hammer
-revenant
-engineer
-ranger/druid
-necro

Oh and cleanses have been buffed recently; often doubling their effectiveness, or better….

To add to my former post:

You have:

• cleanses,
• resistance,
• vitality and heals, (increases window)
• sigils to remove conditions, (purity/generosity, cleansing)
• rune of the trooper
• finishers in light fields…
• you can have it cleansed by others,
• add duration reductions (Food / runes)

Well there is allways:

• blinds,
• aegis,
• dodges,
• terrain,
• blocks,

• reflects, and projectile negators vs quite some condi’s these will work vs any (ranged) attack..

• Then there is stuns/fears/slows/chills and other incapaciating options to lengthen your window of DPS vs the condi’s creator

• Use pets/summons and such to bodyblock.
• Use weakness to avoid conditions on crits
• Use spells to convert debuffs to boons….
• Send ’m back….

SO…. having a stat is easy mode…

you have cleanses, resistance, vitality and heals, sigils to remove conditions, rune of the trooper if needed, finishers in light fields… and probably some more… you can have it cleansed by others, amd duration reductions even if they have been nerfed as well

I have 20+ characters…. As for mains I have 6, maybe
well 7 classes I play regularly, but when looking purely to my most “build up character” is my CPS berserker… but it’s only 1 of 3 warriors/berserkers

I regularly play:
warriors/berserkers, 3500+ hours combined (3 chars)
elementalist/tempest 2200 hours combined. (4 chars, 1 new)
necro/reaper, 1900 hours combined (4 chars, 1 new)
ranger/ druid, 1550 hours combined (3 chars, 1 very new)
mesmer/chronomancer, 1000 hours combined (2 chars)
guardian/dragonhunter: 1100 hours combined (3 chars)
thief/daredevil, 650 hours combined (2 chars, 1 very new)

Mew and very new characters yest have to pass 1st birthdays, while my oldest 2 (a necro and ranger) are 5+ yrs old now

Housing is implemented: The HOME INSTANCE….

Problem: Never was any effort made to show what house or building is yours…
In some cases you are living on the streets, at the game start…. So no house I guess…

I must say my home instance has gotten some love, and I eventually capped a “Personal Guildhall”. (I can invite a decent amount of people and I use it to enjoy a personal instance with way more RP options and decorating and customisation options.)

Both the home instance and the Guild hall are extreme gold sinks….

But we have options. both can provide nodes, the guild hall being more expensive has PvP options and decorating options, the home instance has well…: nodes and cats…

I do not have interest in a 3rd personal housing… It feels unneccesary and awkward ppl cannot find a place in tyria at all… I have places in maps I like. and If you know some nooks and crannies there are great places to hang out and have fun.

Home instances feel more like RP material, and the normal home instance allows for it, and else a guild hall will provide a lot more options for RP. As for housing cause I need to feel improtant; home istances should be enough and a guildhall is already oiver the top.

So please drop the subject and explore your present options. A guidl hall is only 100 gold and some effort.

Wall of Reflection?

Meta is the way to play content the fastest and as such a remnant of speedruns.

In any content not governed by Time mechanics (e.g. Timers , smaller circles) meta only provides acces to builds able to faster completion of the content.

This is useful in farms where turnaround an completion equals cash. In some content speed allows kills before dmg mounts (Old dungeon DPS meta)

Meta exists for every part of gw2: Dungeons,fractals,raids,wvw,gvg,pvp and specific tasks, such as heal, dp’s, dot, bunkers, roamers, zergers, support, and more.

In general Meta seems to be used by the zelf proclaimed elite To be DPS/dot meta. And it shows limited knowledge and understanding. DPSMeta is a little risky due To increased chances of wipes, which remove the speed advantage.

Meta is nog inherently bad, neither is personal builds, but meta seems to draw soms elitism.

Due to the nature of dp’s meta, and the fact It’s calculated, dp’s meters can be used To see the Knowledgedge of the player with regard to rotations… In groups advertising meta any non meta build will likely underperform…. And elitists will kick especially when meta was advertised. Incase of not following the lfg It’s your own fault if you get kicked,in other cases bad player attitude.

As long as the engine needs to wait for all data packages of players your minimal fps will stay as low as is . Even of you would run 100 threads and 100 ultra high end gpu’s and co processor cards…. vram fixes soms things but generally it stays difficult

Still wondering what Will happen after timers are setup and 100 ppl come riding in….

1 no problem?
2 long distances to travel after death? Due to lack of WP’s
3 all patatoes and toasters smoking at 5 FPS ppl annoyed vowing to buy better rigs or leave
4 high end gamers kittened due to FPS drops down to and below the lower 20’s on 1000 + €/$ systems….
5 ppl mad due To being late at every boss due to travel time… WP’s missed…
6 ppl mad due to slow gain of masteries and slow unlock of new critters to sit on…
7 ppl mad due to all Hot masteries having 0 impact….

LESS IMMERSIVE TRAVEL IS NICE !!
UNTIL YOU NOTICE YOU’RE MISSING CONTENT WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN EASILY ACCESSIBLE FROM PREVIOUS EXP WHILE USING WP’S.

LET’S CROWDFUND ASURA WAYPOINTS IN POF!

8 OH and ppl leaving due to unexplained travel sickness while still behind the PC…

Perfect animations are nice… But of stuff get’s more complicated. PPL will be annoyed.

Still not convinced……

Well… I understand the need to complete the heart could be a problem… Then again with new bags which might be 25 slots….. I’d say we should consider if 125-200 slots/character slots are a problem if you have extended times away from heart vendors to do farming… And if any portable unit would be interesting with regard to this issue.

I hope each city will get a open appraiser for goods cor comparable costs.

I’ve been thinking about this problem and I wanted to add this:

I used to have nausea and headaches playing 1st person games (First person shooters, simulators, racing games an the like) a lot. This is also the reason I mostly play 3rdperson games nowadays (generally tactics, RTS, and RPG’s)…. Having This game in 1st person w or w/o action cam, instantly recreates the problem… Action Cam further aggravates the 1st person view, due to the unnaturally fast turns and fast and twitchy movements.

Visual motion sickness… I think this used to be an issue very early on in the game and a checkbox was added to reduce or remove screen shaking and comparable screen movement in dungeons and the PvE areas…

For me zooming out tends to help and some rest every now and then…

I hope mount movement will be placed under a seperate checkbox.

Due to minor complcations I have not yet been to The Bèta . But this is a ewmark I wanted to place.

The personal stuff can be the home instance… a.k.a. the location your character came from story wise.

SO you have the home instance. you can gather nodes, unlock about 2 dozen cats
and if you are not interested you can allways go extreme and get yourself a guild hall.

Aldath.1275:

Famine.3164:

Mil.3562:

Another grindfest expansion? Nice.

Another?? When did we get the first one??

Hmmm let’s see.

Mastery Point Grind via repeating Meta events and participating in boring minigames repeated times? Check. Maps with currencies related to meta events and resource farming in order to get skins? Check. Grinding said maps in order to progress the story? Check.

Can you stop pretending there was more to HoT content than grinding? And don’t come with the “Hurr Durr it’s MMO it must has grinden to b alyve!11!!!”… What this game needed was exciting content, a healthy flow of it, not locking players into farming metas.

So what do you want to do with your time ingame…
I doubt you’d be grinding dungeons or fractals, or raids.
I doubt you ever did the Multiloot, Silverwastes and Orr farms,
I doubt you ever completed the achievements requiring repetition.
I doubt you’ve grinded the WvW ranks and are now gold or mithril level
I doubt you ever grinded PvP matches so you are now bunny, dolyak or maybe wolf…

SO: What did you do?

I played over 12k hours, about 7.5k-8 in vanilla and 4.5-4 k in HoT

There are some things I rather avoid doing, but
I made legendary armor on my main,
I have half a dozen legendaries,
I have 25 or 26 ascneded armors on my 23 lvl 80s.
I am lvl 100 fractals have the omni potion and the fractal backpack.
I did some WvW leaving me at lvl ~900
I did some PvP and I’m Wolf rank…. I think I didi some dungeons 1000 times give or take a few.

Some things require repetition even if it’s only simple tasks….
I do agree the grind has become more abundant. and the developing people no longer look at the numbers. Which is a distantiation of the set of the ArenaNet’s self imposed principles which were outlined at the release of this game.

Everyone knows some drops are more rare then others… I do not know why “some recent idea’s” sprung to mind and were not “adjusted to droprate and rarity” (Blood rubies, A net?)

This said it’s way less grindy then I expected… STILL, but we are fast reaching a cap due to developers forgetting to check on their own set values and consquently pover drop rates.

I maybe have problems with the amount of materials…

But I condone the the account bound status fully. I am glad all non vanilla legendary stuff is no longer tradable.If I see myself using bolt, bolt, rodgort and kudzu I allways think someone can just buy all this.

Nevermore on the otherhand has to be farmed. legendary armor? Ad Infinitum?

It must be my doing, cause I could not have bought it.

ThePotatoSenpai.6938:

Heyho community!

I’m seeking for a new MMORPG.

I’ve spend many years of playing WoW.
Now I want to give GW2 a go – got HoT already.

But since there are just a few spells on most characters, except for Elementalist which can actually pull out a few -

I’m used to have a kittenload of spells, so this is fells kind of like a “lite” version of a PvP game to me.

Any opinions, suggestion or pointing out stuff that I’ve missed about PvP would be very, very welcome!
Please – try to be as unbiased as possible!

• Used to play either mainly as a Rogue/Warlock.
  Affliction Warlock – basically Dots (in GW2 language it’s conditions if I’m not mistaken)
  or Rogue – loved to strike from the shadows, play with people’s minds, make them think they can win, played a little with them, but eventually showing them who’s the real big boi here.

Many thanks in advance!

1.) isn’t the PvP not kind of too predictable?
1) The ‘lite’ version makes the choices matter. You will have moments where yuou change things due to past experiences and face another group and you’ll feel pretty unhappy due to the spell you needed now not being on your bar… and the replacement only having limited uses versus the new group you’re fighting.

2.) isn’t the PvP not becoming dull rather quickly?
2) I have no real clue I sometimes do PvP I tend to be more engaged in WvW so The PvP is only a side thing for me. WvW being a open PvP instance with 100’s of players from 3 groups fighting eachother. The 3 groups are server related.

3.) what makes the PvP challenging/competitive?
3) The fact there’s a myraid of build ranging from oneshotters with 20s CD’s to sustained pressure builds, supports, invulnarability setups and more. Ranges can matter a lot as well.. (1500 vs 1200 vs 900 vs melee range(180-240) The simple 3 point things tend to be the main balancing thing. Condi is pretty powerfull in a lot of cases, but I tend to be demolished by spike power builds on condi and on power builds the other way around. (shows my skill in PvP)

4.) How active is the community? How populated are the areas, bosses?
4) The community is active, you’ll notice more ppl playing during afternoon/evening/ weekends (more instances) But if I want to do raids/fractals/ world bosses in the middle of the night I will find groups of people as well.

5.) Is it actually worth it to play GW2 for mainly PvP?
5) Considering WvW as a PvP mode as well: I guess so.

6.) So – which classes would fit me? Mesmer for the mind games, or is it the Rogue?
What about conditions/dots? Which class would go hand in hand with it?
Condition builds: thief, trapper ranger, PU mesmer, Warrior can do okay condi’s, Elementalist, well most buyilds can , some have little variety in their conditions (Guradians are mostly fire) Some can excell like necro…

1. Besides that – Is it actually worth to play GW2 now? I heard so many cons of some people, like little to no players, laggy servers and so on..
   I’m from Austria, Europe – which server is well populated? Currently I’m on Abaddon’s Mouth.

This game will see a new influx soom with the second expansion hitting soon and the new builds which will appear from it. Servers do not matter you’ll fight all ppl in Europe in PvP, and select servers in WvW.

There are german servers and international servers. The language can make a difference…. Other then this I have been playing with a lot of nationalities on international servers, including ppl from Oceania, The Middle East, Aziatic states, Africa ,West and East Europe and more… It tends to be very interestingand language barriers are mostly absent. I have no clue about the present state of German servers….
I see a lot of people starting GW2 still and I think the community is alive, open and social. (PvP can be a bit salty and flamy now and then, but weed out the idiots and you will end up with a good game.)

I liked the ley line organs. The mechnics allow it to be the mastery.

The song system matery is weird and not intuitive, I do noty mind choosing a buff, but not having any say about the buff makes the buffunimportant and trivail as the needed bonusses are never available. It has no tie in with the game other then giving a buff which I consequently never use. It feels unimportant and trivial.

After lava chutes, grappling vines and more interesting masteries this feels useless. OR worse, completly overpowered. Dropping the balthazar buff between a group consisting of 2 PS condi’s 2 condi rangers and 2 condi ele’s with max stacks and banners we almost oneshotted a boss…

I just capped a guild hall for my personal use. It’s lvl 27 now.

It does well being my personal housing with my personal decorations.

DPS solutions: (mostly usable by all)

• Viper will work on all light classes…
  in PvE, maybe less for mesmer in high tier fractals, meta on Elementalist and Necro, niche on Mesmer
• Zerk will work on all classes as well
  in PvE, maybe less for necro in high tier fractals (Meta on Elementalist)

Support & Healing: (dedicated armors for dedicated roles)

• Commander will work on Mesmer and is meta in much of the content
• Zealot will work on Ele for healing and DPS hybrid for fractals
• Magi will work on Ele for dedicated healing only

Bunker options: (niche use with litlle usability options)

• Minstrel will work on Elementalist and Mesmer only in high tier fractals and raids
• Trailblazer can work on condition roaming necro in WVW it has little use in PvE, but will work in high level fractals.

Ashen.2907:

Crinn.7864:

Ashen.2907:

In a game with submachine guns, assault rifles, grenades, flamethrowers, etc…a bent stick with a string attached and a pointed stick projectile seem thematically off.

To be fair it wasn’t until the 1800s that guns actually got better than longbows.

The reason bows where dropped for guns is because wielding a longbow requires years of training to master, while a man can be trained to use a gun in a day.

It doesnt really matter when, in the real world, guns finally outstripped bows (it happened earlier than the 1800’s) if we are referencing a setting with assault rifles, machineguns, flamethrowers, grenades, tanks, helicopters, attack submarines, etc…

Some didn’t agree with you:

Warrior fought with Sword and Longbow in WW2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

Will I get a huge ladle GS (“I’ll cut your heart out with a spoon!”), a cooksknife sword and a patato peeler dagger?
I could use a huge Fryingpan as a hammer (I can see use for the sound effect.) a meatfork as a trident..
A cleaver as an axe? A dough roller as a mace.
I could use a set of measuring cups as focus and a choppingboard as shield…
We could get a scepter made froma saucepan and a staff from a reack with cooking utensils all dangling and swinging, clinging and banging like well utensils….

And last of all I could use the cooks outfit being reworked to an armor skin…
or at least the cooks hat. this would be nicew for lvl 500 cooking

Just because.

Oh and I’d like a lvl 500 boost for cooking

I’d also like a lvl 500 in jewelry for ascneded jewelry crafting and legendary rings/ amulet’s and triunkets

I agree, there is no best sigil

However Certain sigils will have more value for certain builds:

for healers
1 transference
2 water
3 renewal
(life)

for power builds
1 force
2 accuracy
(bloodlust)
(precepton)

For condi builds
1 malice
2 condition stacking sigils like earth and such and geomancy
3 duration sigils
4 bursting
(corruption)

For support builds:
1 concentration
2 Strength

Then there are some sigils which can be usefull for dmg like
1 Air
2 Fire (can AoE aggro enemies, whcih can be a problem with non cleaving weapons.)

Cleansing sigils:
1 generosity
2 purity
3 cleansing

Lifesteal sigild
1 draining
2 leaching

And there are a lot of sigils which are maybe non standard and less valuable in many eye’s like stacking sigils (mentioned in above lists in brackets) but they have significance in WvW and in PvP

This leaves a lot of sigils unmentioned

There are sigils to keep up endurance for more dodges
- energy
- stamina

There are sigils for farming
- speed

Well if a new scythe should be added it would have to be Dhuum’s soulreaper

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dhuum%27s_Soul_Reaper

But not as gem store.. This one needs to be linked to Dhuum, either in fractal or raid or a remake of underworld or any other worthwhile high levelcontent.

The scythe whcih killed 1000’s and all -banned- guild wars 2 players should remain special.

Xiosk.7534:

@Pax
Being that you have played almost everything there is to play.

Would you be so kind to direct me to a fun starting class, that you enjoyed the most on your starting adventures?

I know that is a selfish thing to ask, and everyone seems to get annoyed at the question.

But there has to be a class that most just absolutely love in this game.

I am a simple player.

I play Warrior main… But it is a simple proffession.

However I play 7 classes and almost all races.. I do not play revenant and engineer and I do not play Asura characters. Now having said this:"

• Revenant and Engineer are worth playing. I do not no like them, but they are both worthwhile.

As for a list of classes

Heavy:

• Warrior
  - Build to Buff allies with banners and might, with acces to powerfull CC
  - Good condition build with stadoff possibility
  - Both the power and the condition build have a fixed place in meta comps.
  - While it was the core of the Zerg melee train at one time it’s role in WVW gradually faded.
• Play: Mostly easy
• USE: DPS/ Condi
• PvE: 5/5
  *Instanced: ©PS is META
• WVW: 3/5
• PvP: 3/5

• Guardian
  - Build to buff allies with symbols and boons, acces to most boons ingame.
  - Supportive and defense oriented. Bit squishy if played incorrect
  - The mainstay of any WvW (melee) zerg
  - The abundant light fields tend to failcombo attempts, frustrating some other builds
  - OPnly acces to burninga s a condition, leaving it problematic to cover.
• Play: Moderate
• USE DPS/Support
• PvE: 4/5
• Instanced: It will function very well but will destroy DPS due to fields…
• WVW: 5/5
• PvP: 3/5 (gimmick build)

• Revenant
  - Build to assist allies with buffs and can swap between 2 roles in 1 click.
  - It has found it’s place in WvW as a conditions mitigator.
• Play: Moderate
• USE: support/bunker, no complete conditions solution
• PvE 3/5
• Instanced: 2/5 (after the nerf of their facet of nature , rev didn’t recover)
• WVW 4/5-5/5
• PvP ? (not sure about the PvP role)

Medium

• Ranger
  - A free character with incredible stamina and standoff capability,
  - In PvE instanced content often used as healer.
  - As druid an extremely powerful buffer as well
  - The condi build is Meta for instances and the heal build as well.
  - As condi build minimal role in roaming WvW parties.
  - Longbow has a 1500 range making it one of the most powerfull weapons for long distance fighting, and helps with farming and tagging.
  - A pet makes you’ll never run alone.
  - Pet is (far) more important to gmeplay then it initially seems
• Play: varies easy to critical
• Use: DPS, Condi, Heal, Pets…
• PvE 5/5
• Instanced: Druid heal META, cRanger META
• PvP 4/5
• WvW 2/5

• Thief
  - And extremely powerfull mostly single target DPS and Condi solution.
  - Extremely squishy.
  - Often frowned upon in PvE due to the many ppl who like it but cannot play it.
  - Powerfull in PvP, Powerfull in roaming WvW no role in zergs in WvW at all.
• Play: moderate-hard
• USE: DPS, Condi, stealthing…
• PvE 4/5
• Instanced: power META, condi: META
• PvP 5/5
• WVW 5/5 roaming & 1/5 zerg

• Engineer
  - A really versatile class,
  - Has acces to (almost) all combo fields ingame
  - Has acces to most conditions.
  - This class can be anything if you want.
  - It is HARD to master correctly.
  - It is the class with the longers skill chain for optimum DPS (used to be 40+ steps)
  - It is the 2nd (and last) class whcih has acces to a 1500 range weapon.
• Use DPS/ Condi/ Support, (stealthing)
• Play: Hard and Complex
• Viability? I have no real clue…

Light

• Elementalist
  - Master of Elements, friend of elementals.
  - You can be a Long range AoE Master or a support and heal specialist.
  - You can be both if you want to.
  - Acces to Condition DPS and support meta builds…
  - No weaponswap, but 4 attunements give 20 skills on your weaponset.
  - Squishy
• USE: power, condi, healing, bunker.
• Play: Complex
• Instanced: Power DPS, still META, Conditempest META, Auramancer is niche.
• PvE: 4/5
• PvP: 4/5
• WvW: 4/5

• Necro
  - Master of life and death, conditions and debuffs.
  - Can spread conditions on target to other targets
  - Can be extremely powerfull and extremely tough.
  - Minions can be a nice help in PvP and PvE,
  - Condition bunkers roam WVW
• USE: Conditions, dps, Condition manipulation, debuffer
• Play: Easy
• PvE: 3-4/5-
• Instanced: Niche builds…
• WvW: 4/5
• PvP: 4/5

• Mesmer:
  - Master of illusions and time.
  - Can be extremely powerfull though it is weak in personal damage.
  - The condiotion has been a thorn in people’s sides since the start of the game
  - Chronomancer dps/ support is mandatory in instanced meta
• USE: Providing quickness and alacrity, Kiting, bunker, condi, portalling, stealthing…
• Play: Complex.
• PvE: 4/5
• Instanced META as DPS, and Support or Bunker & Niche as Condi
• PVP: 4/5
• WVW: 3/5

Having made this list which is allways up to discussion I can olny say you should find something whcih connects to you

1st question should be
What Do I want to play PVE? instanced? PVP? WVW?
2nd question
What use?
3rd question easy medium or hard play?

I play Warrior, Elementalist, Ranger, Guardian, Necromancers, Mesmers and Thieves.

polarbear.2497:

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Legendary is only for fashion wars not so much for accomplishment and showing off.
At least in my opinion…

Well, “fashion wars” = showing off

You’re probably right there… Maybe I do not feel like it is boasting… After a little more then 1 year i felt genuinly proud of my 1st legendary…

I see most gen 1 legendaries nearly everywhere.

I now have 2 bolt’s, kudzu, nevermore, meterologicus, rodgort and I’m working on Howl 3 and have the pre for shooshadoo on my warrior… Armor wise I have heavy legendary and ad infinitum.

I see gear clones for my main running around regularly… Fashion wars isn’t fought on legendary basis.

Fashion Wars is the use of anything and all skins and dyes.. And I see beautiful combo’s really questioning myself why I never saw it…, tried it or why I ignored it…

Well push to endgame…

In guild wars 2 it’s just opening bigger area’s of the sandbox…

If you look at characters when started: level 2:
You can run around in your starter area, and other races starter areas… Maybe their main cities and the city hub, but it’s all… That’s 5 starter maps and 6 cities…

Until lvl 10 there is just running around and trying to comprehend the most basic things of your class.

Then at lvl 10 you start to get some interaction… Personal story

At level 15 you are ready for the second set of maps… there are a bit fewer maybe but you’ll build on , you might have seen some world bosses in lowest tier maps

at lvl 30 you can do the 1st instanced content in PvE… Story dungeons… You’ll be at the
3rd part of story.

at lvl 50 you should have some feel for your class… you can get to roughtly 50% of the maps

you’ll level on and get lvl 80…
Now you’ll be thinking about builds gear, and where to go now… but you can go anywhere.

If you want you can go back to starter area’s and complete maps you didn’t finish, or go forward and start HoT, get masteries, elite specialisations, do the meta events ,do instanced content like fractals, get endgame gear, and prepare for raids, explore, flip the TP, You think of it and do it and it is part of the game. There are teachers, Rp-ers, Speedrunners, Collectors, Completionists, fashionists, Group players, solo players, Alt-o-holics. Crafters, gatherers , farmers, min-maxers, healers, bunkers, casuals, elites, newbs, noobs, nutters and more…..

They all come together and make a universe come alive. You just need to find a place.
Both everything and nothing matters, unless maybe you play highest endgame and you’ll see some elitism, DPS meters and gear checks. Until then you’ll be free to do what you want, look how you want, play as you want, do the content you like. So it’s not about doing a quest , it’s a quest finding your personal desires, your wishes, wants , musts and dreams. And you are the only one who can make ’m come true. You can find friends, groups, guild(s) and just help the populace.

Becoming lvl 80 is just finding a place in gw2. Not being done or starting. you start at lvl 1… Being done…? Well I still find new things after 12k hours, with 23 lvl 80’s.

We’ll see…. The game has just begun…

Well regarding weapons and armor…

• Basic: White,
  relative: 100%
  available l1-80
  USE: Starter gear, PvP base gear, salvage

• Fine: Blue,
  * relative: 125%
  * available l1-80
  * USE: Starter gear, salvage

• Masterwork:Green,
  * relative 135%
  * available l14-80
  * USE: Starter gear, salvage

• Rare: Yellow,
  * relative: 145%
  * available l30-80
  * USE: Midlevel gear, ecto’s from lvl 63 and higher

• Exotic: Orange,
  * relative: 165%
  * available l62-80
  * Use -Basic- Affordable (2-25 gold) Endgame 80 gear. Usable for most Content, including low level fractals and raid training, not recomended for: high level fractals and regular raiding
  * Fixed stats , soulbound in most cases. Potentially unsalvageable

• Ascneded: Pink,
  * relative:175%
  * available l80
  * Use: Endgame gear. Expensive (~50-150 gold). Usable for any and all content.
  * Account bound.
  * Stat swappable for costs in ecto, inscription/insignia and spirit shards.
  * Salvageable if needed
  * Infusable

• Legendary: Purple,
  * relative: 175%
  * available l80
  * Use: Endgame gear. Money sink ( 400-2500 gold+) Fashion wars,
  * Stat selectable out of combat, Account bound,
  * Armor will refund runes.
  * Infusable

• There are nice endgame armors and armor skins with exotic and asnceded stats in most parts of content including PvP, WVW, PvE, Dungeons, Fractals, Raids, or just plain crafted…

• There are also nice skins in low level PvP from karma vendors and lower level armor skins. Some skins found at lower level vendors are more scarce then legendary and ascneded skins.

• Ascneded and Legendary have no difference in normal play. You will not swap your legendary armor form character to character and swap runes each time. You’ll likely use the old ascneded armor with the mosty usable stat on your alt. I noticed I kept my old armor and use it as a secondary armor so I can swap out the armor faster.
  The stats selection only tends to be usefull if the weapon/armor goes to another character with a completely other role…. Else I notice I rarely if at all swap out any stat.

Meta is meta, we do not have 2 or 3 nearly similar meta’s for characters… unless maybe zerk and commanders chrono or auramancers for PvE and WvW.

• Even if legendary stat swaps might seem nice: crafting 3, or more ascneded gear sets tends to be cheaper then making a comparable legendaries/legendary gear set anyways.

Legendary is only for fashion wars not so much for accomplishment and showing off.
At least in my opinion…

Zealopt recipe’s have been 150-250 gold/ piece for exotics…

They were added to the pact vendors

Well commander’s recipe’s might be expensive… but wait until you make your minstrel aor trailblazer armors

(yes, a very good reason to raid I agree)

If dervish and ritualist should rturn I expect it to be as an elite specialisation.

(STAT in caps is major, lower case stat is minor)

• Valkyrie is POWER, vitality, ferocity
• Cavalier is TOUGHNESS, power, ferocity

They are different. Bringing them on Par would mean you want a shift to “OP’s Desired stat”:

• POWER, toughness,ferocity

At present there is no 3- stat providing power as main and toughness as secondary…
The 4 stat Crusader stats combo would likely fit you needs, it’s a HoT stat providing

• POWER, TOUGHNESS, ferocity and healing

This has been requested a couple of dozen times, especially in the 1st year after the release of Guild Wars 2.

I would like it…

Arenanet provided:

• the guild backpacks,
  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Backpack_
• the elegant guild back banner,
  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elegant_Guild_Back_Banner
• the savage guild back banner
  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Savage_Guild_Back_Banner

But a cape would be nice.

I’m wondering how this page would look if -all- possible buys are listed… think of a week long sale of every possible item ingame…

Would it improve navigation when compared to the previous one or have the same problems?

For an idea what could be listed:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store
-and-
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store/storage

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

On the whole, I find it easier to navigate rather than chaotic or un-navigable. I wonder why the OP finds it worse.

I’d recommend that you give the new UI a few days or even a week or two. Then come back and offer some specifics. My first impression was that it was awkward. Then I realized I have the same tabs as before and a cool preview-via-mouse-over.

I posted this in Gaile’s thread… :

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

1. I find the navigation non intuitive, and chaotic.
2. The fact I can swap selected objects feeling like purchases just by hovering annoys me really bad.
3. The former point combined by the other changes give me an insecure and jumpy feeling. I want to feel sure and certain when I’m about ready to purchase.
4. The main advertising screen looks clamped and the fact I see (only) a part of the 2 adjacent screens irritates me , the fact it’s swapping on auto gives a very forced commercial like feeling, especially the speed of swaps is the main source of this nagative feeling and experience. I prefer to styay away from commercials in TV and I skip all that crap in youtube and other sites.
5. I like the preview window. (= only positive)

All in all the feeling of this new version of the gemstore is a feeling of:

• WHY did this need to happen?
• HOW did they make these chaotic design choices?
• WHAT has been the though processes leading to the decision to change a fully functional part of the game to a non intuitive mess?

I do not see any advantages above the old version.
3 things which are really clear:

• a BIGGER BUY GEMS button
• smaller prices in actual size, not value
• smaller icons

I conclude:

• I do find the preview window more intuitive and clear.
• I do not think the navigation butons add additional value.
• I do not think I feel more relaxed, more in control or more supported by the new interface.
• I do not think this was a needed update and I do not find the time and effort spend on it worth the money and man hours.
• I really hate the new "home"page most of all. All stuff I could see in a blink of an eye has vanished. And I get a bad commercial. It feels like the animated GIF’s on bad sites. I only miss: YOU WON AN OUTFIT!!!!, click the link here and fill in your blah blah…..

And yes:

• I would have liked some ETA on E6 instead.

That should sum up my main reasons.

1. I find the navigation non intuitive, and chaotic.
2. The fact I can swap selected objects feeling like purchases just by hovering annoys me really bad.
3. The former point combined by the other changes give me an insecure and jumpy feeling. I want to feel sure and certain when I’m about ready to purchase.
4. The main advertising screen looks clamped and the fact I see (only) a part of the 2 adjacent screens irritates me , the fact it’s swapping on auto gives a very forced commercial like feeling, especially the speed of swaps is the main source of this nagative feeling and experience. I prefer to styay away from commercials in TV and I skip all that crap in youtube and other sites.
5. I like the preview window. (= only positive)

All in all the feeling of this new version of the gemstore is a feeling of:

• WHY did this need to happen?
• HOW did they make these chaotic design choices?
• WHAT has been the though processes leading to the decision to change a fully functional part of the game to a non intuitive mess?

I do not see any advantages above the old version.
3 things which are really clear:

• a BIGGER BUY GEMS button
• smaller prices in actual size, not value
• smaller icons

I conclude:

• I do find the preview window more intuitive and clear.
• I do not think the navigation butons add additional value.
• I do not think I feel more relaxed, more in control or more supported by the new interface.
• I do not think this was a needed update and I do not find the time and effort spend on it worth the money and man hours.
• I really hate the new "home"page most of all. All stuff I could see in a blink of an eye has vanished. And I get a bad commercial. It feels like the animated GIF’s on bad sites. I only miss: YOU WON AN OUTFIT!!!!, click the link here and fill in your blah blah…..

And yes:

• I would have liked some ETA on E6 instead.

Copied from my other thread:

Please explain, what the -bleep- happened in the minds of the people who thought this was an improvement.

Can I get my old and obsolete tradingpost gemstore thing back? PLEASE?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/corr-Gem-Store-is-chaotic-and-innavigable/first#post6642702

edit:
Regarding E6: Thanks!
(https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/living-world-season-3-finale-arrives-july-25/?utm_source=launcher&utm_medium=news&utm_campaign=rss)