Guild Wars 2

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

We just need to delete charr first…

Or you add Tengu which have (iirc) a close backbone to make profit of the time spent on Charr

Holo, Scourge and Weaver are very cool in different domains. Mirage is somewhat hard to get how effective one can be. Firebrand and Renegade seem nice but I only tried in lobby.

As a general comment, while the animation team did a good job for every single effect, the overlay of tons of them makes the reading of the game a bit too difficult.

From the video, the attack rate of daggers could make them weapon of choice for reliable might generation in PS build.
And the boon strip/ increase damage against boonless foe could actually increase power damage a lot.

and now for more synergy : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thermal_Release_Valve

Carighan.6758:

Ranael.6423:

-For the sake of homogeneity, it is time to introduce a stat for outgoing healing (called benevolence or altruism maybe??) for which 10 points grant 1 % of additional healing to allies. Rev traits could also be reworked with this in mind and you could introduce new stat combos for dedicated healers.

This stat exists, it is called healing power, though it’s scaling is somewhat influenced by the specific skill in question.

Now all joking aside I get what you’re after, but it feels weird to me. If anything I’d say let heals critically hit. Because well what you say only hints at that we need scaling-percentages for heals reworked. Maybe even flattened (X% energy -> Y% scaling, basically healing-power-scaling-per-energy-spent).

No, not really (unless I missed your point). I really like the design of a “healing” stat + a “heal others” stat since it keeps character survivability in control without killing the healer character idea (like it was at release). The crit on heals would not work in that case because of RNG and the possibility that your personal heal (high heal, low scaling) would get way too strong.

It was just that since this is already how outgoing healing works (10% on food comparable to 100 stat points for power for example), having it as a real stat would open the possibility to get some of it on our gear.

leviathan.2148:

We’ve been asking for legendary effects on kits for 5 years with no change. They are implementing a mechanics similar in effects to the existing ones. You will barely see your armor skins in it. They didn’t update Necro Shroud with legendary effects, they didn’t introduce Celestial Avatar that would use legendary effects from the weapons.

Well at least we have a special “grenade barrage” with some legendaries. It is still something more than those filthy necros

Endless Soul.5178:

I think a lot of it has to do with mount trolling in other games. Standing on top of NPCs, blocking views, clutter everywhere, etc.

Well, already without mounts there is some NPC hiding made by huge Norns and Charrs… and JP “trolling” is also a thing. We survived 5 years without “anti-Norn” zones… we will survive without “anti-mounts” ones I guess.

Just small comments to the balance team:

-For the sake of homogeneity, it is time to introduce a stat for outgoing healing (called benevolence or altruism maybe??) for which 10 points grant 1 % of additional healing to allies. Rev traits could also be reworked with this in mind and you could introduce new stat combos for dedicated healers.

-Now with the food changes for condi (which are fair I think) the itemization of PvE characters will mostly involve 4 + 2 or 5 +1runes, meaning no more full sets of runes which imo is a bit counter-intuitive and does not provide an expected way of customizing our toons. I am afraid you will not be able to cope with these changes without re-thinking the rune sets (or even the rune system) on the long term. I am sure the new sets will go in this direction but then the old ones will have to be either deleted (since 80% of them are economically worthless anyway) or reworked.

So replacing 2 runes of berserker by 2 runes of trapper and one sigil by sigil of malice with the new food (furious crystals) still caps 100 % condi duration, right?

The loss from runes should translates in -200 condi damage and -5% of power damage contribution. I may be wrong in the math but the “restat” would not be a nightmare.

The map is in my top 3 of season though I would have prefered shrine cost being one pearl but restting every day. Mastery is nice.
Story is good but I think it would have been a better episode 5 because the end of actual episode 5 felt more epic.
Legendary trinkets is a good surprise.
In short : good episode but not worth being season finale.

Rauderi.8706:

VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618:

why should a charr, that worked with humans, fought side by side with humans against dragons, joined order that is at least partially composed of humans, have problems working with the shining blade?

At that part of character development, the charr char should either grown enough to see beyond the species – or should not be part of the story anymore.

Two reasons, one top-down, the other bottom-up:

1. As a Charr, he should still be loyal to the Legions. That’s not something you just “get over” when it’s been a tight bond of your social structure since childhood. GW2 never really addresses this, but it the sort of loss the character endures, more than once, should be devastating. Add in that Kryta is barely an ally (cease-fire, not a treaty), and the notion of forging a soul-binding agreement to a human (still a potential enemy) cult should be a non-starter.

2. As a former leader of the Pact, the character should be free of complicated entanglements and loyalties to a particular sovereignty. Theoretically, this would include his home nation, or he would be pressured to step down. None of the PC characters, regardless of race, should have made that choice, especially for a simple scrap of information.

I would disagree on this. Charr characters are beyond their loyalty to their legion. Have you ever reported your actions to the Black Citadel after you joined an order? The destiny of the PC is very singular in this aspect and he proved it on many occasions. Sure it is maybe easier for other races but in that sense I find the Charr perspective much more interesting.

Not being commander of the Pact is also a nice occasion for the PC to actually enter some secret societies, a thing he would never have done before, you are right. But now he’s free of this duty and able to take his own decision without taking care of the implications of such choices because he is “only” former commander.

On top of this, Anise is clear that being part of the inner circle does not imply too many duties in PC’s case, just do not fight against the sovereign of Kryta. She actually pushes the oath in PC’s favour so that he can get some intel she would literaly die for revealing. She said clearly she’s having an eye on the PC since years and it is clear she would have been less secretive to him if he would have been part of the Shining Blade since the beginning.

Is it certain that you need to craft the required token yourself? If you can purchase the token form the black lion you could still not craft while giving back some value to T6 mats.

maddoctor.2738:

Hesacon.8735:

What if it’s someone trolling all of us and everything said is fabricated?

If I remember correctly the devs said in the recent AMA that they can’t make skills affect 10 players, yet in the “leak” they say some skills will affect 10 players. IT will be weird if they make buffs affect 10 players after saying that there is a technical limitation for NOT doing it. Unless they solved the issue already

I think there is a different treatment between boons which have complicated mechanics like intensity and duration (see might or regen) and special buff which only works on duration (alacrity, EA or Grace for example). This could be the reason why they talked about technical limitations for boons while they could be minimal for buffs. That said they will not necessarily up all the buffs to affect 10 people.

While the idea seems good on long term (especially profession MMR) I think it is too soon to implement this feature since for such a system to work one would need, in my opinion:
-at least 2 different role per profession, not 2 different power or support builds
-a quick access to different builds like the presets introduced recently…but our own builds
-a rapid way to check team members’ builds, or at least amulets to know what is played and how to adapt

Of course this comment is only valid for soloQ. In a team queue environment, should it be re-implemented, it could totally make sense.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I agree with others: Canach is great. (I miss [that other Sylvari who shall not be named to avoid spoilers], though.

Did you mean Malyck ?

New map: overall great
Pro : nice environment for snow landscape. Return of enemies and allies long forgotten. Heart hidden through disguise. Mix of hearts and something like a Meta event. Jaguar cub. Water under the ice through cracks.
Con: no use of Counter magic, Koda’s flame not a nice mechanism for combat.

New episode: overall disappointing
Pro: liked first instance (and the return post story that feels like personal instance, too bad my nodes are not there). Bosses independent on the character build (more or less). Open world dialogue during which you can do other things after the first or second time. Liked the interaction with the Grawls.
Con: new directions but no resolving of other old plots. Somehow short. Too PC centric (no more friends). Caithe still sorry but does not really gives more insights of Sylvari/Dream/Pale Tree. Braham only back to leave (his anger, while a nice plot, is too sudden and is not rising up during the entire episode). Rox still a nice character that is not liked by writers. Taimi cannot be wrong (why does she even need us). Plant Vs death antagonism badly anchored to past story.

Rest: untouched
Haven’t had time to play Fractal but feedbacks in my guild are good.
Did not go to WvW but the change to war score feels good incentive to upgrade structures (but also to defend them).

About the cancelling of death by Plant:
I was also puzzled by this until I remembered The All. On the diagram, Zhaitan’s orb is on the opposite side of the one of Mordremoth. So while Plant Vs Death sounds weird (well not in Plant Vs Zombie xD), we actually saw during the vision that the fall of Zhaitan’s orb actually provoked a big a big plant animation. The question was before if the orbs were “working” along diagonals or mirror-like and Ep3 more or less confirmed that the mirror effect is the right one… hence there will be antagonism between S and Kralkatorik.

That said, if they “cancel” (actually the right term would be balance) each other it does not really explained how the opposite dragon can absorb magic from a dead one…. Maybe Zhaitan’s fall made Mordremoth stronger than he should have been (Imean grow bigger influence) but like a chak, the antagonism would have made him “filter” death magic out of the full spectrum.

Other than that I do agree that the story was not really good. I actually have too much issues with the episodic way of presenting things because it gives a lot of focus on the story of the map and put the Meta-arc on the side, or simplify it by side dialogue (Taimi, or this time Rox). While it was somehow bearable in Season2 because we had episodes more regularly, with a 2 months gap between episodes it starts to be annoying. It’s not like there are not enough open questions that should be answered before pointing to new directions.

It saddens me every time I do the champ Karka in Ember Bay that the encounter is a bit tougher and longer than the Karka Queen for which the real difficulty is to run fast enough so that she is still alive when I reach her…..

Amaimon.7823:

There’s already a new portal in the raid waiting lobby.
But it propably won’t come until quite some time..
No prob, for now the current raid wing is still keeping me busy. I’m still at sabetha
over 20 kills on both gorseval and VGuardian, but none on sabetha, she’s a hard skritt to crack

I actually always found this fight hypnotizing: long, moving in circle, the colours… I think I killed her twice only (every time someone died so no title for me ) and we moved on to next wing. Try to mix trials on Sloth in between those on Sabetha, it is relaxing to change a bit.

As for OP, yes there will be new raids. It was confirmed. The question is when. It would make sense to release it when the legendary armours will be finished (somewhere early next year) but I still hope for a 2016 release for one wing (we are one month away from Wintersday)… time will say.

Lahmia.2193:

savacli.8172:

Dragonfeu.4356:

completely unrelated, but i’d love to get longbow for our next elite spec.

But it has to be used as a melee weapon!!

(sorry for the derail, but I had to throw in my two copper there)

Lol I suggested this on a post requesting longbow.

1. stab your foe in the face with an arrow, range 130.

I’d much prefer an asura-shooting bow xD

Rezzet.3614:

Gyros like turrets have no armor thus even if they lasted forever they still wouldnt have a lifespan longer than 5 seconds except for bulwark.

even then most of gyro effects have a small radius

they need an overall adjustment

You mean in PvP /WvW environment right?
Because since the 95% damage negation from non targeted attacks in PvE all minions (even phantasms) are much more reliable.

About the stats inheritance, I fail to see any logic in Anet stance because companions among professions behave so differently, and sometimes with wrong tooltip that it is really difficult for players to really understand how such mechanisms work.

Turret : insensitive to power/prec (do not even crit) but copy Condi damage, boon and condi duration and healing power
Gyro: have their own stats, no player influence
Clones: have their own weak stats but copy condi stats from player
Phantasms: sensitive to player stats (but not damage modifiers) outside armor and vitality ofc
Pets: have their own preset stats + trait specific modifiers
minions: turret like
Spirit weapons : turret like
Elementals: turret like? not sure about condi and boon stats as well as healing…I think the tooltip is wrong

So much consistency…..no wonder they are barely used in the end (unless forced by class mechanics) because they are made to not be too powerful but never benefit of class boosts powercreep.

Rezzet.3614:

the problem is it still requires too much min maxing rather than actual player skill

Viper gear is mandatory , otherwise you might as well not even bother .

On the other side, power builds are depending on sigil of strength, scholar runes, seaweed salad, netting a 1,10*1,10*1,05= 27% damage increase through itemization only. So, yes gearing is somewhat quite important for raids. Too much ? It is open to debate but the discussion is worth to be held.

Coming back to OP, if you look at the qT benchmark and compile the power builds(for Ele, guard, Thief, Engi and Rev… which are now the 4 available slots in the mirror comp) for small hitbox (large hitbox is not the majority) for full buffs (cause it is the inly column with all numbers) you get an average DPS of 33,7 k DPS +/- 2,1. Basically the power builds right now are all around 6% of the average, which is a pretty small difference.
On the condi builds, the difference is much more pronounced but for now the power builds are quite OK and I think the only players who can realistically complain about the state of their profession are Necro players. But again testing the condi build on golem is not really reliable, and they have no melee condi build….

Hmm let’s see.
First I think it would not be a problem to have sneak gyro with a timer, like elite turret have. So no harm for this one.
Then for the on the ones, becoming permanent would be balanced by the loss of all “on activation” effects (stab on activation, regen on heal skill…), meaning no urgent heal for medic or the initial purge from purge.
As you said, the redirection of damages on bulwark wil in any case make it short living.
Blast is in any case not concerned.
Now, for shredder, I am not sure if this is the case for condi damage but gyro have their own stats and I am not sure they have condi damage nor condi duration. This means that in fire field it would add 2 stack of base burning (131 damage….so 262 DPS for fire field :/). On top of this, having a permanent whirl finisher in a battle field means it’s gonna be really hard for your party to control their combo effect or you could become crazy when your Ele do not place his lava font on top of the gyro…. and for moving target you will have to destroy it quite soon anyway.

So my conclusion is that this suggestion would not be necessarily OP in many aspects of the game (granted sneaky has a timer) but I do not think this would add so much to the specialization.

Actually I really think this is a good example of the fact that you do not need to be [KING],[qT] or [DnT], to name few, to finish raids.
In fact I am super jealous because while we regularly kill Gorseval in my guild, it always finishes during the last World eater beyond the enrage timer, with updrafts…
And people keep on talking about fine details about rotations… there is obviously something wrong with us when you see that not good rotations may lead to a kill.

Actually the Dream was also protecting Sylvari against Mordremoth. The Dream gives them free will and Mordremoth did not corrupt them in a traditional way. He had to find a way into the Dream and use it to call all of them…. but many did not answer the Call, showing how much of a protection it was. It worked against their own master, yet less effectively as against other dragons but still worked

Now it will be interesting to see if other dragons will be able to corrupt Sylvari in the future after the plant spectrum is now available to all the dragons. In PS Zhaitan corrupted plant material but no “plant people” (infused with plant magic) but I wonder if new dark ice generated by Jormag or his champion could now corrupt Sylvari.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Tornupto.2304:

Oh. My. God.
That tempest is hilarious. Did he really spam signet of fire, didn’t use lavafont and meteor off cd and even spammed ice bow #1?

I almost didn’t believe you until I watched the video myself. That Tempest is painfully bad.

#RaidsAreAccessible

Lilandrea.7109:

Rikimaru.7890:

It’s like going to a restaurant where everyone pays the same. But some people sit at a luxury table and are served exquisite food. While others sit at a ruined table and are served leftovers while they paid the same amount of money for it.
And the reason for that is because they are new clients while those at the luxury table are regulars.

Bad analogy.

The correct one would be : “It’s like going to a restaurant where everyone pays the same. There is a nice buffet close to the tables, and another buffet with exquisite food much further from the tables. But some people are too lazy to go to the furthest buffet and are therefore stuck with normal food, whereas other people go to some lengths to get the exquisite food”.

All players have access to raids. Those who refuse to train, read guides, and generally speaking, to “git gud”, won’t get very far in raids.

Do you think we raiders became good at it overnight ? We all worked for it !

For heaven’s sake, it took me a whole month to actually SEE the blue circles on VG ! First time I saw them I even went Oooooooooooooh !! so that’s what those are !! OO !

You CAN read guides and watch videos.
You CAN start training runs yourself, try, die, rinse and repeat until you get it.
You CAN do, basically, what we all did : Learn.

But it is soooo much easier to come on the forums and complain.

You want the shinies but you don’t want to work for it.

No pain, no gain.

+1 to the better analogy.

There are a lot of people who get dragged into raiding over time. Since we started raiding in our guild we recruited around 10 people that were attracted to the mode but needed a regular group to do so. Yet half of them left quite soon when they discovered how much effort they have to put in to perform well, how much they have to learn about the game itself before even fighting against advises.
And we are somehow a casual guild! I mean we have two or three guys who finished the collection in pug (well some got carried…) and the rest is for now 7/9 boss. I remember the first week when a guy who stopped playing since had ideas about plenty of hybrid builds that were bad in every aspects just because he did not have any clue of what scaling meant, how ferocity works, how boons work ….. When at some point I got annoyed and said he was not competent enough to teach us how to play he stopped coming with us because we were “Meta fanboys while the game is made to play how I want…”
Basically if there is any issue with raiding now (outside of the fact I find itemization to be too prevalent compared to player skill), it comes from people that are a bit too stubborn and repeat mantras without understanding them. I said many times that encounters in this game are like practice mode, you have different phases where you learn the boss mechanics. This is enough of training, as long as anyone wants to learn.

As for rewards, well all legendary weapons require PvE only activities (sans Gift of battle), one backpack requires PvP and another Fractals… so having an exclusive rewards for raids is nothing to be mad at.

Sock.2785:

When I said the seeds are immature I was referring to the fact that in this embryonal stage they have not yet developed a mind of their own (simple as it could be) and hence the dragon can’t yet subjugate it; and yes, in Tyria some plants (if not all) have minds (the trees coming from these seeds in particular are not common trees), even some fungi do.

Some plants have sentience, it’s true since Prophecies. But your starting point is to say the Pale Tree is the same than every other seeds in the cave, and that’s where I disagree. First because as you said Blighting Trees are not seen as having their own mind, and also if they would have, their connection to the Dream would then be somehow a protection against corruption through the gift of free will. I really think the Pale has a unique feature in its link to the Dream.

Sock.2785:

Sylvari make use of plant magic which coincidentally is the same magic Mordremoth uses. By your reasoning, Rangers (and Druids) are using “the jungle dragon’s power” when summoning plants and vines; they’re not, they’re using plant magic, a natural aspect of magic.

Rangers are able to tap in nature magic, not necessary only plant magic. The spectra of magic that were available for creatures of Tyria to learn are not necessarily the same as the dragon ones. Look at how magic was thought as being split in 4 schools coming form the Bloodstone (amusingly 4 races gave their magic in it..) and now dragon magic has somehow 6 different major components. Ranger magic is not Sylvari ability to “play” with plant material. Moreover rangers trained their abilities to channel magic while every Sylvari is able to use their power. It is more innate in their case. Hence why I see that as a gift from Mordremoth.

Sock.2785:

The Nightmare is separate from Mordremoth.

Never said it was not separate. I noted (as Amaxtli did) that Mordremoth vines looked very similar to nigthmarish ones. This points to the direction that the power may originate from the same source sans the corruption component.

Sock.2785:

But it is, The Pale Tree is really just a Tree, that’s her physical form. Thing is her mind is very powerful (yes, these trees have minds) and was able to connect to the Dream, hence she’s present both in the physical world (Tyria) and in the Mists (the Dream).
She’s described as being a custodian of the Dream.

She also says her branches extend in this world out in the Dream, yet living in both realm. I do not see why all those trees should have the same function, especially when we see the Dream as a protection against simple corruption. Actually the only way for Mordremoth to convert Sylvari was to hijack the Dream. If he could have used his trees for that, there would be no need of Trahearne as conduit.
Also coming back to corruption, it’s worth noting that Mordremoth sent the Shadow of Dragon to destroy the Tree, not corrupt it. It seems he wanted to at least weaken her protection against him and be able to perform his Call. If he cold have corrupt her, it would have been a much more powerful weapon in the war to come.

Sock.2785:

A whole thread could be opened on Malyck, but I think the best explanation is that sylvari’s genesis is disturbingly similar to Razah’s genesis (read the very first quote in Razah’s wiki page).
Thing is, if we define sylvari as beings coming strictly from the Pale Tree, than Malyck shouldn’t even be treated as one; given that all these trees come from the same seeds, and that the Mists mimic humans when generating sylvari, then Malyck is a sylvari.

Nobody does question that Malyck is a Sylvari. Taimi also said that the primary army of Mordremoth was meant to be the Sylvari. But so far nothing points to Malyck as being a Dreamer (global term that also accounts for Nightmare court and Soundless in that case). One could say that all trees create Sylvari as a factory but those Sylvari are empty vessels. While Mordremoth was sleeping, nothing put the dragon will in them and when he awoke, he could not reach the Sylvari of the Pale Tree because they were already “full” with the Dream will / Ventari tenets. Because NC or Soundless are all defined in comparison the Ventari’s teaching, either against or neutral.

NotASmurf.1725:

Literally the best way to win on stronghold is to do nothing but heal the first 5 doorbreakers, kill the guards, make it to the lord room and kill the lord, ignoring any form of PvP. Match is over in 3 minutes and you do nothing but heal and kill NPCs.

It’s not a moba nor GW1 GvG, it’s an abomination.

Wow… I played Stronghold when it got released and stopped because guildmates did not want to play with me… i would not have expected the mode to become as such. That’s why some serious monitoring is required before it becomes the new Heroes Battle.

NotASmurf.1725:

I’m all for variety but as you said, they should be adding more modes to PvP. Problem is Stronghold is PvE.

We need rewards that matter and make people care. Why should anyone in the world care about PvP titles as long as you can get them by grinding PvE on stronghold? It was a kittenty gamemode that had to go.

I do not understand why people use always the label PvE for Stronghold? Is that only coming from NPC? Then are MOBA’s consider PvE games as well? Was GvG in GW1 a PvE game mode because of how defending NPCs (attacking those of the other team) was an important part of the game?

I do not want to start a strong argument but I would like to understand the difference, if there is one.

What I find weird in your theory is that Mordremoth could corrupt a full-grown tree but not a seed.
In fact, even if it is somewhat weak, I think Sylvari hold some dragon power (if not corruption) solely based on the fact they are able to influence plant growth in order to make houses, clothing, or to change their body… which is made out of plant material. Those from the Nightmare actually grow plants that share some visual with Mordremoth creations (some NPC like Amoxtli noticed the resemblance). That goes in the direction that Sylvari are minions of Mordremoth…. but also children of the Dream.

When you say there is no blighting counterpart of the Pale Tree, I think this is only due to the fact that the Pale Tree itself is not only a Tree. She exists in two different planes : Tyria and the Dream. Actually I think that Ventari’s tablet, and further on (but not thanks to “power of love” … I know it will be transformed soon), the entire Pale Tree is an anchor point of the Dream in the realm of Tyria.

The Pale Tree says that Sylvari are creatures of the Dream during their sleep. Basically she gives them knowledge from this other realm, and as a side effect a free will, in a body meant to obey the dragon.

I know the next question will be about Mallyck but as said in another thread, he is somewhat an aberration to me because with no connection to the Dream he should not be able to talk, read or fight (which are the basics every Sylvari is sure to take form the Dream under the Pale Tree direction) but if he was a simple minion I do not get why he was not simply mindless. Maybe the explanation is a proximity one (far from a champion, guarding his Tree, and his master sleeping) but it would not explained where he took his knowledge from.

Mutaatti.2789:

NotASmurf.1725:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.

Took you long enough, but it’s a really good change.

I don’t understand how the stronghold affected your life? Jealous to people who got to legendary only playing stronghold?

We should encourage Anet to make more game modes to PvP, not removing them. If we had 3 game modes and upcoming solo/duo queue, we could get a vote system for gamemode and then game picked randomly the map. That should be the goal to get PvP better again. Enough with this “e-sports conquest” already. Those gamers should have a little changing on their gameplaying too if they would need to practice 3 game modes and new strategies/team compositions.

Problem is that Stronghold never became popular enough to get proper maintenance/balance. This means that climbing leagues with 2 modes out of which one is not “polished” means nothing in term of reflection of player skill. This last part is the purpose of the league system.
Now I think the game mode itself would be much more solo/duo friendly and could become popular if it had a proper advertisement. In fact I wish there would be a second league (separated from the conquest one) for stronghold only, open during conquest off-season. With proper rewards it would attract players and could then be appropriately monitored and receive the attention it deserves.

Ventari will never get buffed to the level you expect. From numbers, it is already a strong healer but lacks the damage buff that druid can provide. On the other hand it is able to stack boons on a party like no other healer (regen/protection/might/fury). But it is true that their offensive bonus is nothing compared to GotL.

If such a bonus should be given to Rev it would not be to Ventari but rather to a new Elite specialization for which we would build Salvation/Invocation/XX and slot Ventari/new guy. We’d use the tablet to heal a lot and proc legend change bonus while use the other mechanics to buff the party.

Maybe the next elite spec won’t be a healing oriented spec, but in that case I have hopes that the new set of tools and the loss of Glint will provide a good environment to be competitive in term of DPS.
For now the best is to hope that your friends will accept that you pull out enough DPS out of Rev because 24 k is not really that bad. If people would do the DPS they think they do after golem test, raid encounters would not last more than 2 minutes

Slowpokeking.8720:

Since the Inquest could control the Risen in Arah, now the remaining Mordrem should be able to controlled by the same method.

Who needs Mordrem when we have Sylvari? Basically they are dragon minions too but without any side effect of corruption spreading. We’ve hijacked dragon forces since a long time

Rezzet.3614:

Turrets’s first problem so far is they do not have scaling stats and most importantly have

Yep, I think this is the biggest issue and was mainly the cause of their huge nerf in PvP. They should have a behaviour comparative to the player’s stats. Berserker gear : hard hitting weak turret. Nomad gear : resilient noodle-eating turret. I can understand why, as passive skills, turrets build are not the best PvE build but currently the only time one choose to have a utility turret on his bar is in the case of SD builds.

Stat scaling could make them tools to complete different builds. I don’t know if devs ever tried that solution. In all honesty the suggestion was made so often that I cannot imagine they never tried. Since it never got implemented I wonder what the results of the tests were and why they decided not to follow that path and instead made them obsolete in PvP.

Shark Drake.9461:

Agreed with OP, a 2nd mesmer who can’t give quickness for whole fight will be a dead weight because mesmer’s personal DPS is lower than that of a Rev. Having a Rev is much more safer for dishing out constant DPS. People really underestimate Assassin’s Presence and Rev’s best cc breaking ability.

Yeah but it is almost saying that a good player is better than a bad one. It’s like Nike’s video saying condi Engi is now dead because it’s harder to have the good rotation on engi while DPS of Engi and Ranger are close. In that case one can answer Necro is better when the target moves a lot because there is no field and torment ticks for more.

When comparing two things, the goal is to not make every parameter change at will but only change the thing you want to test, in that case Chrono or Revenant. Both should be either good or bad but if you take a good Chrono and a bad Rev who is messing up his fury application or Facet of nature then Chrono is obviously the best choice.

I agree that you get better results with players playing things they master rather than forced meta composition they do not understand, but this cannot be made as a rule of “this is in any case better..”

zealex.9410:

my god you are triggering me xDDDDD
the prt’s reason of existance ina game is so that nerfs and changes that greaty affect meta or playstle of classes of raid fractal compotitions pvp builds can be tested freely by everyone before it actually goes live so plp dont lose their kitten when the patches are live.In ptr servers ppl talk give feedback streamers and youtubers present the changes to ppl that cant for reasons join the ptr so they can then suggest feedback saying that its only a tool to make guides is pure ignorance.

resuming my post to this sentence is pure laziness

Artemis Thuras.8795:

Ranael.6423:

One issue is that some traits are actually condition or weapon specific so one can not change stats as a whole in that case.
Other than that it’s true that it would be much simpler to normalize giver’s attribute, doubloons, food etc but would be a strong nerf to condi builds, which are naturally already, lower because reaching the cap would not be possible without reducing condition damage.
For boon duration the same nerf would be expected, maybe not so bad for itemization fo character but then they should find a way to work towards the cap without adding toughness…..

things that change durations on a specific weapon, afaik change the base durations, and so are not included in the current 100% cap.

see:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lingering_Curse

You are right, I know. I should not written weapon, I meant condi specific like

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Serrated_Steel

my apologies for the mistake.

One issue is that some traits are actually condition or weapon specific so one can not change stats as a whole in that case.
Other than that it’s true that it would be much simpler to normalize giver’s attribute, doubloons, food etc but would be a strong nerf to condi builds, which are naturally already, lower because reaching the cap would not be possible without reducing condition damage.
For boon duration the same nerf would be expected, maybe not so bad for itemization fo character but then they should find a way to work towards the cap without adding toughness…..

Amaimon.7823:

I can’t say much on the first subject, but yea, A PTR is a basic demand that anet hasn’t yet answered to. Maybe we can make a new topic for that

I do not see the point of a PTR if they do not have enough people to monitor it carefully (yet another thing to monitor!!!).
The so called need for a PTR only comes from a selfish feeling of “I am not the prime tester and want to be”. Most activities on PTR for other games is to provide a common platform for streamers and bloggers to have their article/guide ready for launch. Only a few of the testers are actually helpful for the real testing part. Anet chose to focus on those few players and select them beforehand.
Because it may sound surprising but balance patches are tested. And guess what, the testers are not more or less stupid than other players. They know the Meta in different activities, they have different level of gameplay etc etc
If something you don’t like goes live, it is not because it was not tested, most of the time it was intended. You may not like the shift in the paradigm but still there is a big chance that the devs knew what would happen.

Actually what is funny is that by the alacrity nerf they said they nerf the value instead the duration because the solution would have been to bring 2 chrono. By not nerfing the power but the duration of quickness they must have known the effect would be that players would bring 2 chronos. They just let it happened, contrary to the time they nerfed alacrity.
Why did they let that go through is the actual question, and I must say they failed to answer it with the two lines header in the patch notes.

adding to the list ( probably repeating):
milling basins
shimmering crystals
golden fractals relics
Custom arenas time token
doubloons
Teleport to a friend
blade shards
golden fractal relics
TP/ bank/ merchant express
repair kit
revive orb
black lion chest
chak eggs and reclaimed plates
vision crystals
aetherkey pieces
box’o’fun
mystery tonic

If anything, your “dug In” buff should be opposite, that is decreasing turret efficiency with time in order to provide an active and clever gameplay. I am quite sure the game does not need more passivity….
But having turrets with high summon burst and decreased DPS over time would be hellish to balance.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

As in, forcing all ten players to be in the same subgroup?

Yes that is exactly what I meant
I know it would be less controllable but it should then be accompanied by more micro management during the encounter. Just as an example, if you are not sure to be under quickness 100% of time, then traits like applied force or skill like impossible odds become more valuable and, if possible will need to be used when it is more profitable.

As said I am not sure if it would create a worse environment or a more diverse one. I am just wondering if it would not allow more profession to have their moment or encounter where they shine more than others, making more group composition viable.

My feeling for last update was that devs wanted support character to invest in different gear to become more potent while decreasing either their dps (swapping stats from berserker) or their support (facet of nature, celestial avatar, SOI) in DPS gear. In the end it kicked Rev out and mesmers are still suited in berserker gear but we need 2. Some druids have swapped their stats but I heard that a duo DPS druid is still more than viable. So yes the composition is a bit more rigid than before but I do not think it was the expected consequence.

That is why I was wondering if they would have made boon distribution less controllable, would it have the same effect or would the composition have shifted more dramatically?

Just wondering : how messy would it be to cancel subgroups in raid squads?

Things would be less controllable from player side so we should actually bring some covers around and the risk of redundancy would make the picking of support character a tougher choice right?

Not saying I want it, just philosophical speculations…

Fay.2357:

I’m curious as to what that ranger dps would be when they’ve got 2 mesmers farting ethereal fields everywhere instead of being able to reliably land fire/poison finishers.

Or when a boss gets out of the traps/bonfire. Actually that is valid for any builds and people mostly forget about it. Condi necro is lower but does not lose any thing (actually gains in intensity) when the boss moves because they are ranged and do not rely on pulsating fields.
One can also argue that Ele or thief are actually more prone to be under 90% health and hence lose scholar 6th bonus very often (VG dot ticking for example). When I look at video, even from renown guilds, I notice that scholar is not reached 100% time, nor are boons.
That is why the qT guild provides a benchmark in ideal condition (even with realistic buffs). From here one can decide to make it so the conditions will be met (making VG not moving or ignoring greens, no updraft Gorse….) or choose a lower DPS option that will be easier to reach its max DPS because he is not hindered by fight mechanics.

Jerus.4350:

Ranael.6423:

I do agree with you that perma quickness does not make sense since the boon was meant to be a extra boost and as you said it makes applied force, impossible odds or fatal frenzy totally obsolete. What is even “worse” is that the character giving perma quickness for AA also gives perma alacrity… and does so without investing that much in boon duration gear.
At least since last patch you need 2 chrono which should have meant a dps loss to compensate the perma bonus… but it turned out it was not because alacrity had a smaller uptime before.

But speaking about support builds : PSEA warriors grants to 5 people (could even be stretched to seven) 1070 power (from 2400 base power), 170 condi damage (around 1600 base depending on classes), 170 precision (8 % crit chance) 170 ferocity and 250 healing power. Ok they do lose dps in this configuration but given what they give they should be around what a chrono does if not lower…

Don’t forget Might gives Condi Damage as well as Power. So that’s 920 condi damage if you’re going to count full might stacks.

The list was so long that I lost track on some stats xD

Sarrs.4831:

My extremely lazy thoughts on raid diversity:

- Boon Duration is too easy to game. Items like Platinum Doubloon, Rune of Leadership are insanely overbudget; when converting to Concentration the extremely overbudgeted nature of the items are revealed.
- This generosity with Boon Duration results in overprevalence of specific boons; chiefly in PvE, Quickness (also an issue in WvW). Quickness 100% uptime should not happen without serious (and arguably overcompensatory) compromises in your composition.

100% Quickness uptime does not make any sense and drastically hinders multiple classes. Chiefly I want to speak about Revenant and Scrapper but there are other examples. Impossible Odds should be a massive DPS boost for a DPS rev but it does nothing. Applied Force should be a reasonable boost for a Scrapper but it does nothing.

There’s also a case to be made for +condition duration effects but those tend to be condition specific (which are more or less fine IMO) or not particularly prevalent.

There’s also a case to be made that a party should not be permanently at 25 might purely through the output of 1 supporter (PS), and that that also significantly reduces the amount of build diversity, but that’s not a battle that I really think needs to be fought at the moment.

I do agree with you that perma quickness does not make sense since the boon was meant to be a extra boost and as you said it makes applied force, impossible odds or fatal frenzy totally obsolete. What is even “worse” is that the character giving perma quickness for AA also gives perma alacrity… and does so without investing that much in boon duration gear.
At least since last patch you need 2 chrono which should have meant a dps loss to compensate the perma bonus… but it turned out it was not because alacrity had a smaller uptime before.

But speaking about support builds : PSEA warriors grants to 5 people (could even be stretched to seven) 1070 power (from 2400 base power), 170 condi damage (around 1600 base depending on classes), 170 precision (8 % crit chance) 170 ferocity and 250 healing power. Ok they do lose dps in this configuration but given what they give they should be around what a chrono does if not lower…

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

1 Chrono… Maybe worth it if SoI hits 5 other people still. Going to be domination, inspiration, chrono. Get 3 shield phantasms up and spam wells for high alacrity uptime on the group. Really try to hit 10 people with your shield 5. Don’t worry about overcapping quickness but make sure to move around a lot to split the quickness among your 10 people. Standing still makes it more likely for only 5 ppl to get overbuffed.

1 chrono with no boon duration… don’t bother. At least have them be 1 of 2 chronos and minimum 20% boon duration food.

2 Chronos. Still up the air but as in the other topic, I don’t think mimic will be needed.

A lot of this is still up in the air until the meta for other classes settles in too.

Do you have an estimate of how much a single mesmer could buff 7 to 8 people? I mean what would be the uptime of quickness and alacrity (which should depend on the build if I get it well).
In fact running 2 chronos in group of 5 is actually limiting the virtual DPS of the chrono itself to five people and depending on the uptime of buffs it could maybe more beneficial for the raid to only have one. Of course this is for 7-2-1 comp like (or 8-1-1) or could be applied to 10 man group (maybe???).

Nukkuu.6591:

Ranael.6423:

There was no control over it so you could share boons that you were not able to generate in better amount than their origin. Best example was fury. Mesmer do not generate fury but can share huge amount of it and in the end one revenant buffing 5 mates ends up as mesmer covering fury for 10 people.

Not quite how it worked.

The amount of fury given by SoI would be exactly the same as that given by the rev. It worked because the rev in a subsquad with only the chrono in gives guaranteed fury to the chronomancer but also because the subgroup is not full and only had two players in, one being the rev itself they would send out fury to 4 other squad members in the other subsquads.

SoI would then copy that fury to a further 5 members, though one would always be the rev itself again.

So together as a joint effort could they cover most of the squad in fury the rev giving to the chrono + 4 and the chrono sending it on further to 4 people + the rev. SoI would not generate more or longer fury as it was SoI used to be unaffected by boon duration. Chrono would not have been able to give fury to the whole squad, it’s only because the rev already covers half the squad itself, chrono can cover the other half.

Just read the context. My point is SOI allowed to generate some boons normally inaccessible to mesmers with the same duration than the main provider of such boon. That is why I was arguing the skill itself was not under control. You cannot balance the amount of boons you give to any class if there is a chance that at some point a mesmer arrives and copy everything with the same efficiency on people around.

Sure the nerf was too strong here because duration reduction on top of the number of stacks is double nerf but when the efficiency of a group has such a strong dependence on one single skill then it should be looked at for sure.

Everyone is now trying to regain perma quickness and hence have two chronos in their setup, but does it worth it?
I mean what counts in the end is raid dps but having 2 low dps instead of one (and here I don’t count druid nerf, assuming 2 druids setup are not enough to heal the entire raid) is maybe not the way to go. If we’d accept that 10 people cannot be covered by perma quickness and hence replace the second chrono by another dps, would it be a huge loss for the entire party ?