Guild Wars 2

The lack of population really puts a dent in whatever fun you can have; there is hardly a difference between the matchmaker of high gold and legendary on EU. Either you are kicking puppies or being kicked.

Was nerfing the rewards really necessary? From what I’ve heard, S5 had players on every skill level.

Why so many on swap sigils?

Some professions and specs, such as the current meta thief, use one set for combat and the other for utility. One might argue that it’s not a thief’s job to stand up and fight, but at the same time, these changes heavily favour professions and builds that involve actively swapping weapons in combat.

Impactful Disruption has to be addressed. Headshot used to be one of the best interrupts in the game that rewarded precise and careful use, but now it is far too rewarding not to spam. The reason powerful “on interrupt” traits worked so well on mesmer is that they couldn’t have any amount of interrupts on demand like thief does, initiative permitting.

You can’t control the balance in the game by injecting more damage to professions that are not on par with the overall DPS dished out by the others. This will only increase the power creep that has been in the game since June 2015 (awful patch, mind you), and which was further emphasized by the HoT launch.

In April 2014 you introduced the playerbase to Ferocity, which was to reduce the overall damage in the game when you deemed it was getting out of hand. I didn’t agree with the change back then, but it was a lot better than what we currently have. What the game is currently stuck on is the spiral of power creep: buffs, with the nerfs being either nominal, or linked to damage indirectly at best (like alacrity).

In PvE, just buffing damage will sort of work. The raidbosses won’t write angry messages on the forums about imbalance, but when you pit the power creeps against one another in PvP or WvW, the problems become much more prominent. The game was perfectly functional before the June 2015 specialization patch. It can be once more. So stop it.

The problem is Anet’s decision to inject more damage into thief, rather than scaling back the damage/sustain of everything else. I understand that by doing this Anet gets away with it with less work to themselves, but buffs like these are what causes even greater power creeps to erupt over time.

S/P is usually my set of choice, but staff tends to look better in pictures.

Just before the patch, I was just Karka Queen’s Magic away from completing this collection. Back then, the magic just wouldn’t drop off the Queen on death (I know it isn’t an item, just a thing in the collection). In this patch, the drop on it was fixed, however, there was one fatal flaw:

The Dwarven Spell Trap didn’t transform into Charged Dwarven Spell Trap, the item that you need for the collection to finish it. Soul Battery Fragment and Crystalline Phial transformed into their respective counterparts without an issue, but this bug just left me stuck.

Yeah, I enjoyed combining e.g. Sword #2, Infil Signet, and Steal together for a massive long range (and reckless) intercept and I loved it. It’s still possible for sure, but having to delay in between button presses instead of being allowed to seamlessly combo the shadowsteps is just a massive and needless handicap, especially since a lot of sword thief mains are already used to doing this (despite being also useful trick to know on dagger builds).

It has left me missing the 4s steal cooldown when using on a target from outside its range, because while it was annoying, it didn’t feel clunky like this. Don’t get me wrong, the current state is a whole lot better than the untargeted steal farce, but I still wish Anet would restore its fluidity to its former glory.

However, Anet themselves consider the steal issue resolved, so I doubt it’ll be fixed. Maybe they will restore the fluidity in the patch that will also bring +10% healing to Withdraw. Someday. Maybe.

+1
But democracy has no power here.

For people who think it’s JUST an out of combat quality of life nerf and a buff to steal in combat, I disagree.

Since the June “balance” patch that threw whatever balance the game had into a tailspin, I’ve been playing glass S/P, roaming in WvW. I liked to use twitch Sword #2 + Steals, or even longer range assaults with Infiltrator’s Signet + Steal. Can’t do that anymore. Steal doesn’t register to being in range fast enough with this nerf, and instead I get “out of range” and get stuck halfway to my target.

Anet, please restore steal to its former status. Popping a steal into thin air when you didn’t want that to happen is annoying, but very small price to pay considering what you’ve taken away from it in turn. It’s a surgical stealth nerf, seemingly so petty, but makes everything about the profession feel wrong.

-Pulmonary Impact shouldn’t reveal a stealthed thief;
-Impairing Daggers are broken as heck, needs to have its conditions adjusted or cooldown increased;
-Staff is too clunky to compliment evasive playstyle. The only thing in my opinion that is what it should be is the #3 on the staff skill bar;
-Channeled Vigor sucks.

Yeah, not very lengthy, but that’s it, really. The traits themselves are great and work for almost any previous thief weapon combo, which is much more than I was expecting. I can’t find things that are inherently wrong with it, save for a bit of tweaking and polishing, but beta is beta.

First off, I’d like to point out that this post contains my thoughts on the June 23rd patch that changed the way the game’s professions work in my eyes. The reason that I’m writing this nearly two months after is because I needed time to settle in and really make up my mind about this patch. Bear in mind that these thoughts are mainly from PvP and WvW standpoint, as I believe this isn’t as pressing matter in PvE.

Before I get started, however, I’d like to disclose my bias. I have been a solo WvW roamer for the past 2,5 years, playing a Shadow Arts D/P thief. Some forum balance crusaders might think that this disqualifies my opinion, but I’m prepared for that. This might also be a bit of a confusing rant, but please bear with me.

Let me start with a bit of a background about the balancing that Arenanet has done in the past. Back on December 10th, 2013, the game saw the first major balancing patch that I was skeptical about, but it turned out to be one of the best patches when it comes down to build diversity. Builds that had been terribly underpowered in the past received love and things that were a bit too broken got brought down a notch to better match the rest of the cast. Runes of Lyssa were still broken though. Generally any profession that used that or Perplexity was considered broken. But I digress.

This was later taken away in the feature pack of April 2014, the selling point of this pack being the introduction of ferocity. Ferocity made condition damage builds that were arguably subpar more potent and diverse than before, but direct damage builds actually took the polar opposite route – the build diversity was reduced to keep the same amount of damage. The professions that were hurt by this the most were the classes without access to extensive mightstacking (that was prominent in this so-called “might stacking” meta). Arenanet justified this patch by saying that berserker builds were dominant in PvE, which they were, but by reducing the damage didn’t fix the problem. On hindsight, how can one say that just shaving damage a little can possibly increase build diversity and popularity of tankier builds, I do not know.

Now, back to the June 23rd patch of 2015. What people were expecting was reduced damage overall, but instead the damage, both direct and condition, went through the roof and the build diversity as well as balance was trashed once more. The reason to this are the builds that I call “cookie cutters”, builds that are great at everything and bad at very little. You can see mesmers with Prismatic Understanding as well as thieves with Shadow Rejuvenation running around and instantly killing people. Guardians that can stack over 10 stacks of burning without much of an effort and once you’ve cleansed those stacks, they will just add more stacks of burning. The way I see it, the damage is way higher than what it was before the feature pack of April 2014. My question is, why did Arenanet go this far back? Build diversity in my eyes is forcing people to make compromises when they make a build. You could be a kill shot warrior that instantly kills people from afar, but not have much of a sustain. You could be a thief with Shadow Arts but not deal as much damage as your squishier bretheren. Or you could just be a jack of all trades – but master of none.

The way people don’t have to make these compromises is what is seriously harming the game. I don’t think that allowing people to max three trait lines was a very bright idea, but I do understand that it was a necessary procedure in preparation for the elite specializations.

Anyway, this might have been a rant from a biased point of view, but WvW roaming, my favourite “content” in the game, has been turned to crap.

I’d vastly prefer five stacks of stability upfront that last 8 seconds with no additional stability generation. The model of stability generating over time that seems to be dominant now simply does not work for Dagger Storm – an elite skill that forces you to stay in a locked animation, does very little damage and is only good as an extreme counter to projectiles. Or perhaps just for the stability.

Problem is, that if a single CC gets through Dagger Storm, the whole action is cancelled, ending the stability generation and the Dagger Storm itself. Things like Lich Form and Rampage As One don’t end when you get CC’d, but rather keep going and generating the stability stacks until the effect has ended or been cancelled. Now, let’s say in PvP you are facing a team with heavy projectiles, power necros and rangers and such, plus a thief. Dagger Storm should be a trivial counter to the projectiles, but as you cannot dodge without losing the whole effect, the thief, with dazesteal that ultimately steals your stability will just eat you alive. After that has happened, you are left with nothing but a 90s cooldown on an elite that you can’t even make the most of. If it gave more stability upfront, you could dodge out of the harm’s way and keep at least something in hand (stability) without losing everything.

This is why people still see Basilisk Venom as the best elite for PvP and arguably for WvW, and I’m inclined to agree.

mango.9267:

I have no idea how you guys can consider this change a nerf. It’s a substantial buff to be able to blind mid stomp or continue reviving as you stealth. There’s pretty much no downside to this.

This is exactly the problem – people like you think that it is merely a tool for stomping and reviving now. Shadow Refuge already has the role of being the supreme support skill, and even if you do want to use BP for these purposes you might as well use it BEFORE initiating the said action. For example, if you run pistol in offhand most of the time like I, you could lay down Black Powder prior to blasting it with your Blinding Powder for longer stealth and leaving behind a blinding field.

The added support capabilities are GOOD. I can’t deny that. But this took a massive toll on my favourite way of using it as a filler in the middle of a combo or a burst, essentially just removing that way of using it (and reducing the damage capabilities of this ability by a large margin in the process). Blinding Powder was way more versatile than it is now. It is not merely a tool for stomping. Even if it was, chances are that Shadowstep would be better at it, as well. A tool for reviving? The aforementioned Shadow Refuge would like to have a word with you.

Is it worth it to have just a generic stealth skill with a 40s cooldown, that can sometimes just go absolutely down the drain? Nah. Although CrimsonNeonite doesn’t seem to understand the value the ability had, in its current state I would agree with him – taking a low cooldown Signet might be more beneficial.

Alright, after testing the skill in roaming for a day now I can say that I definitely want the old Blinding Powder back. What you essentially did was turn it into Last Refuge 2.0. Please reverse the change.

I’ve used Blinding Powder in my WvW roaming D/P kit for almost two years now, and it has become my core ability for surprise backstabs in mid-auto attack rotation. Now, with the action interruption component of BP gone, what CAN happen (and already has, multiple times) is that you pre-cast one of your auto attacks in the middle of the rotation, and then use BP expecting to land a surprising backstab. But no, because the AA was pre-cast, it will hit instead, making you waste the whole cooldown on nothing but a mere auto attack you would have got off nonetheless.

On the other hand, being able to use BP in the middle of the stomp animation is great. However, I do think that the cons outweigh the pros here.

“We feel that removing the skill-canceling nature of this skill will improve the overall value of the skill and provide better potential for both damage and support. " -justification for this change in the balance preview of Jan 16th.

In terms of damage, I think the change was a failure. The interruption used to serve as a failsafe to prevent that kind of annoying little things like wasting it in the middle of the rotation from happening. In terms of support? An undeniable success. Stomps and revives were made easier.

I guess it’s just about getting used to and being more precise with it. I’d still rather have the old BP though. Now I kinda wish that I could have the best of both worlds, but I don’t think that that’s possible.

My input: Give me my old BP back. It’s already a niche skill and outshined by numerous other thief utilities, and this just made it even more worthless in terms of multi-purpose utilities.

Situation report from Desolation in Gandara borderlands. Our mighty and dominant Desoblob can be seen to the left, while Gandara’s, although heroic, heavily outnumbered defensive zerg can be seen on the right hand side. Watch out, AG, we’re coming to get that Stonemist off your hands.

To those who think that a guaranteed defeat against a certain server is discouraging, I agree. We’ve been there.
However, zerging and points aside, I’ve had great fun in this matchup so far. All of the servers have some great roamers to fight against, and everyone who dares to step out of zerg to wander alone has my respect.
But not my mercy.

I main a thief, and I do agree that thief should be brought down a notch, however…
From what I judge from those changes, Thief is on its way to become hilariously vulnerable to all kinds of conditions. I miss the time before the condition damage/cleanse meta, when these changes could have been made without any fuss.

As a very short tip, if being extremely annoying in WvW is what you desire as warrior, going for Dogged March, runes of Melandru and using Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup, you ignore up to 98% of the duration of immobilize, chill and cripple. Using GS and Sword/Shield generally ensures that you will walk out of a small skirmish despite everybody else by your side died.

The weapons of the mists (e.g. Vision of the Mists) look pretty amazing, but it’s a pity that the set lacks many popular weapon types. Staves and daggers, for example, are very popular among elementalists and necromancers. The bows also shine with their absence, which leaves rangers with nothing but axes and swords.
But in the end, the reason I suggest more of these weapons is because this game needs more good dagger and staff skins, at least in my opinion.

So, I’ve come to conclusion that sPvP is hardly any PvP at all. Instead, it is a test of nerves to the breaking point, when you just don’t want to play anymore. Tournament PvP is worse with this, having only one map at rotation at the time. Grinding for titles feels like a chore, but sure, getting the title you want feels extremely rewarding as you pat yourself on the shoulder and vow that you’ll never play sPvP ever again. A few reasons that I gathered up:

1. It’s conquest. Not just one map, but them all. Nobody likes to play conquest to the end of time.
2. Bunkers. Whenever I see enemy team with only guardians, elementalists and engineers, I know that I might just as well quit. Fighting them 1 on 1 will get you nowhere, and should you bring friends for it, somebody in the enemy team has already taken 2 other points on the map.
3. Too great rewards for building tankyness; too little for building damage (see above).
4. Leavers. No sanctions for leavers in tPvP, except that the match counts as a defeat. Well, sure, but that doesn’t prevent them from doing it again and annoying the teammates all over.
5. No point in teamfights. As it is conquest, getting into a teamfight only means that somebody in enemy team gets to cap your points.
6. Space for fights. When the mode is conquest, some professions won’t get to unleash their full power in a claustrophobic ring, whereas some others tend to just tear inferior professions to pieces.
7. Not much skill involved. Unlike advertised, Guild Wars 2 PvP doesn’t like up to expectations. The one who smashes self-heal buttons harder, wins.
8. Boons. People tend to complain about profession X being overpowered (particularly elementalists), but the real culprit is the source of boons. Engineers who are able to self-inflict 20+ stacks of might, making them a serious threat regardless of what damage type they want to use, Guardian preventing you from killing him with a sudden full set of boons, squishy Elementalist turning nearly unkillable, but the worst of all boons is…
9. Protection! You should build tankyness. Oh, somebody didn’t get the memo? Np, just get some boon duration from traits and put this bad boy on. Negates 33% of direct damage FLAT, which makes even the glass cannons extremely tanky, and regardless of who has it, a target with protection is an infuriating experience to fight.
10. Ranger traps. Short cooldowns, and the perimeter takes most of the conquest circle. Also, walking into these means that you will press your condition remove button, or take a huge chunk of damage.
11. Guardian walls/bubbles. Get knocked into one of these, and enjoy lying flat on the floor for the next 5 seconds. Try to blink out, and still get knocked down. Got lured into a bottleneck, and a mean guardian places one of these? Well, hope you have fun in captivity.
12. Mesmer portals. I can see the strategical value of these, but being able to transport whole team from points A to B in a blink of an eye is an unacceptable asset to have in the eyes of the enemy team.
13. Premades and matchmaking. Five random rank 1-20 squishies meet a hyper-organized bunker team with their fancy Teamspeak 3, Ransacker titles, and 40+ ranks. The result is a mess and a total stomp for the opposing team. Seperate premade and solo queue in order to at least half-live up to your “competitive PvP” dream.
14. HORRID TUTORIAL. It basically shows you how you will end up in your first matches (stomped, not stomping). Honestly, I think roaming in WvW works as a better, practical tutorial for PvP.
15. Crowd control skills of summoned NPCs. I don’t like the idea of being feared away from my conquest point by a Ranger pet, rammed by a Necromancer Flesh Golem, or just get my skull crushed by Hammer of Wisdom summoned by Guardian.
16. Underwater downs. No fast ways to kill a person underwater. Rangers are blatantly impossible to kill underwater because of this. Come on, sure you can give us a harpoon with which to impale downed targets below the surface?
17. No limit to crowd control. Knockdown, stun, daze, knockdown, launch, immobilize, start all over… From the spawn point.

So, those are the immediate things that come to mind after playing sPvP for countless of hours. Some people might think of this as a mere rant from a person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but some of these things just makes sPvP feel like chewing wood. I had big expectations for GW2’s PvP when it came out, but I’ve hardly found any leisure outside WvW. I never played GW1, so I cannot just go “why isn’t this PvP like the one in GW1”, but the fact remaing that GW2’s Pv kitten ubpar to that of many other MMOs.

One of the sometimes frustrating things in this game is how a rune is bound to an item until you salvage the item itself or replace the rune with other.

Either way, something valuable is always destroyed. For example, I have T3 cultural skins on my armor, and I certainly would not like to just see them destroyed. However, the runes I currently have in equipment are also fairly expensive. Of course, if I was forced to choose, I would get rid of the costly rune instead, but the fact that player is forced to choose between two evils when he/she is about to do as simple thing as changing upgrades in items is discouraging.

A device which would be able to extract upgrades from items without destroying either the item or the rune might be just what me and other players would gladly have to solve this problem.