Guild Wars 2

Hi, Arenanet.

You showed us some of the changes that you’ll be bringing, and as always, the community is in an uproar over unfortunate nerfs to their class. Some buffs are ridiculous and must be corrected before they’re unleashed to the masses, and here are some tweaks to balance it out a bit, even though we’re still going to have a lot of angry players.

Necro:

• Putrid Curse: Corrupt a boon EVERY 3rd attack? That’s one boon every 1.5s. Too OP.
  Put this trait into the Curses GM Trait ‘Lingering Curse’, and add a 2s ICD, so as to trigger every other 3rd auto-attack (Or longer? Maybe not). Let players trait for this instead of making this trait so easily accessible.

Ele:

• Diamond Skin: Condition removal on a 1s ICD? Most classes can apply huge stacks of a damaging condition that’ll take the Ele below 75% quite easily, making this change very ineffective. We….um….this….is hard. Really hard to balance considering the way it is. Wow…um…maybe…Grant them 3s of resistance when their health falls below the 75% threshold with an ICD of 15s? (This….is really hard to balance out)

Mesmer:

• Well of Precognition: Okay, this is a VERY bad change. 3s of invulnerability with kitten CD is not as OP as it looks. Nobody will pick this up if it grants Aegis ONCE every 3s. ONCE, which means 1 Auto-attack COMPLETELY NULLIFIES this kitten recharge skill. Either leave it alone, or reduce the interval of applying Aegis to once every second for 3s.

Revenant:

• Facet of Light: PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T give this a long cast time. Increase the duration to 3s if you’re planning to make the cast time 1s, otherwise 0.5s would be okay.

Thief:

• Basilisk Venom: While the change is good, the CD needs to be increased by 10s to reduce easy access to such a powerful skill. With that, maybe an ICD between each strike (5s), since this doesn’t stack.
  ….
  ….Or is that too OP, since blind becomes less useful?

So far, these traits are the traits that seem to be the most widely discussed. Who knows what other changes will follow by the 26th, but hopefully some reworks around these traits could be implemented before they go live they way they currently are.

Looking to hear your feedback, dearest GW2 community.

I feel like Anet is actually forcing us to buy the Deluxe/Ultimate editions and mostly charging us for the free items, whilst giving us the expansion at a low price. That would explain why they’re charging what they’re charging, with the standard edition giving jack squat—

Hmm…was this the idea from the start? Maybe they never intended people to buy the basic package…

Arenanet’s sudden move with the preorder was uncalled for. It was rash, and the majority did not take it well. What made it worse is they’ve claimed that NO FUTURE CHANGES WILL BE COMING regarding the expansion. They’ve brought a coffin and nailed it at the same time.

Why, Arenanet? Why do something so impulsively and shutdown any hope of changes in the future at the same time? If this was a test to see how the playerbase would respond, then fine, but why tell us this will never change in the future, and that this is here to stay as it is?

Did…did we do something wrong to Anet? Or is this NCSoft’s idea?
Oh God…I’m having a City of Heroes flashback…

Menadena.7482:

Allow doing something like transfer my characters (and anything account-bound) to the new core game and I would be fine. Then I would have another core to play with. While it would be nice to transfer it to someone else to get them hooked I would not mind 5 more slots to play with.

Sadly, they won’t do that, and if they did, all that’d end up doing is have everyone who already has an account get one without the expansion, and if they give that away to a friend, said friend would still have to buy the expansion, assuming the package is the same. It’s a vicious cycle.

Bloodyhell.8760:

Guys but, is this an expansion or a game development with some extra content?
the thing is, without hot, will you have access to next living story? So aren’t we paying for expansion and coming content hots dedicated?

The thing is the details for this expansion have been very vague, at best. If they’re charging this much for the expansion to justify giving us access to future content, that means they’re not just making us pay for the expansion, but for future content as well (a.k.a Living Story), which was free to begin with (Exception of Season 2 for some). This makes it even more disappointing, as it means they’re charging us for something that used to be free. I do hope that’s the case, I just don’t understand their choice of prices.

To me, HoT doesn’t look or feel like it should cost that much, given what they’ve shown us so far, and how they’ve been so secretive about it. This sudden pre-release drop makes it even worse.

Agyaggalamb.4796:

I totally agree with the OP, however I’d like to add a different perspective.

Many of us assume (based on the information we have so far) that there will be far less content compared to the base game, yet it costs the same amount as the base game. To be honest, this is still a good deal if you’re a new player. Only problem is most of us who are not happy about this have been since release/headstart.

That said, let’s look at what the Ultimate Package has to offer. 4000 gems + char slot (800 gems) + 4 additional ingame stuff. Let’s consider them 400 gems each, that gives us 1600. 4000 + 1600 + 800 = 6400 That equals 80EUR. There you go 19,99EUR for the expansion (which is the exact amount of the assumed value).

Looking it this way, it’s a bit better. I know many can’t spend 100EUR on a game all at once. I’m still waiting for the release date and a non digital Collector’s edition (as the proud owner of one for the original GW2).

If we apply that idea to the other packaged deals, what the hell are we paying 50$ for? One of the first things they hyped about HoT was the new class, and they don’t even offer us a character slot to use? For 50$?! They have a forum here for big announcements, and they didn’t utilize it for this event. They just suddenly decided to throw it in without warning.

Don’t you feel a bit worried that they’ve spent more time planning the Pre-order packages and seemingly less time on the actual release date? They’ve mentioned before that when they have a release date, they’ll let us know of the pricing, but where the hell is that release date? All the big announcements for changes regarding game mechanics and traits being released NEXT WEEK before the expansion ever comes (it was part of it), and this one just slides in quietly.

It’s just not right. It really isn’t at all.

It’s sad to see a game as good as this take a turn for the worst. Keeping this a secret from the players for so long without attempting to get some good feedback and then springing this plan out of the blue…I just hope they don’t do anything drastic like declaring that we’ll only be able to play PvE if we buy the expansion. I’m not saying it will happen, but with the sneaky changes they made in the FAQs regarding the expansion, it’s looking possible now.

Entenkommando.5208:

Thatsecret.3206:

Ok! If I understand carefully what you guys are saying, the cost is too much and the content not enough. Care to remind you guys that the game is a non subscribe game. And one expansion on 3 years for 50$ and you guy are freaking out? As I recall, most of the game now that are either paid to play or on consoles requires you to buy multiple expansion for 30$ on one year only. But hey one xpac for 50$ over 3 years is way more worth then you think boyz. Unhappy, quit whinning like baby and delete the game!

Exactly. People always forget about all the FREE content they recieved besides the 50$ core game.
So let’s say the expansion is worth 25$.
You pay another 25$ for having the living story and newcomers pay another 25$ for the core game.
Looks fair to me.

So you’re saying that it’s fair for Anet to charge that much for the expansion as we’ll be paying them back for LS Season 1 that new players won’t have access to? That having them give us content over the years is something we should compensate them for at that packaged price, even though they we’ve already been supporting it through the Gem Store?

I’m…not following you here.

linlin.9321:

everything would be fine if anet made the standard version expansion pre-order with +1 free character slot. thats all, no whining and qq around.

The problem here is that Gaile stated these prices and packages are final, shutting down any future hope of changes. Otherwise, this wouldn’t be as bad as it is at the moment.

I honestly feel the sudden addition of preordering an unfinished expansion so soon when they’ve been so quiet about it for so long was a bad move from the start. It was impulsive, and ended up creating bigger issues than fixing them. Anet has no choice now but to announce HoT’s release date soon, seeing as the hype will die very fast if not done, which is no good seeing as all specializations (And content) aren’t revealed yet. We may, sadly, end up getting an unfinished expansion at release, which will end up disappointing alot of people.

particlepinata.9865:

Ooh its a classic Forcing his opinion with a large wall of text nobody will read :-p Relax and resprect the opinion of others please.

I’m not stating anything that hasn’t already been stated in the last few hours. I had alot to say, and thus, the wall was made. I’m not force-feeding my opinion to anyone, I’m simply trying to see reason in the choice Anet made. Either you tear down my wall and help me understand the situation and why it’s justified, or ignore the wall.

At the moment, Anet is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They can’t offer refunds, and they probably won’t make additions to satisfy the veteran playerbase without kittening lots of people off.

Everyone who bought the pre-order is either telling everyone else to stop whining and leave, or telling everyone that nothing is wrong. You cannot compare GW2 to other games to defend your argument, because THEY ARE NOT SIMILAR GAMES WITH SIMILAR BUSINESS MODELS. Just because we don’t pay subscription doesn’t mean that it’s okay for them to decide what they want. Comparing this game with WoW solves and explains nothing; all you end up saying is ‘At least we don’t have it as bad as they do’.

I’m even skeptical with the amount of content released at the unknown due date with all the combat changes and trait systems (originally part of HoT expansion) being released next week. I just have this feeling with this action today, they’ve no choice but to announce a release date end of this month to prevent the hype from dying, and end up giving content that we’ve seen in Beta on release date with the rest being added as Living Story content in the future.

I’m very worried about the game’s current direction now.

Crise.9401:

We don’t owe ArenaNet, but they don’t owe us either they are free to decide on the price of their goods (or in this case them and NCSoft most likely) just as much as we are free to either buy them or not.

I get that they are free to settle the prices as they see fit in order to keep up with the competition, but they are offering players who’ve invested thousands of hours into this game in the past 3 years absolutely nothing with those packages. No amount of extra goodies and early accesses can justify the prices they’re demanding for something with no set date.

serenke.4806:

You’re right about everything, you don’t need to be cleared up. But you draw the wrong conclusions.

Could you please clarify?

warbignime.4610:

Dear SirDrygan.1823
Us and Anet do not care. Stop making thread like these, it’s pointless.

I care, and for a player to post his opinion on a forum regarding such a change is not pointless.

With all the topics created since the HoT pre-order release came out, I don’t see how some of you are still trying to make light of this. Let’s revise the problems with this pre-release on HoT:

• Newcomers get the game AND the expansion for 50$. That’s 50$ for the expansion and the core game for free. That’s 5 slots to try out the Revenant, and for 25-50$ more, they get ANOTHER slot plus a few extras. Existing players attempting to buy the standard package do NOT get the opportunity to even use the new class, even though they’ve mentioned considering it back then.

• 50$ for an expansion. Now here is where we have lines drawn: on one side, you have people stating the price is reasonable, and on the other, you have people claiming that it’s too much for what it offers. Now, I will say 50$ for an expansion is fine, but as the base price? That’s close to the price of the original game, with far less content! Where’s the logic in that?

• Heart of Thorns isn’t even finished. Let me repeat that.
  Heart. Of. Thorns. Isn’t. Even. Finished.
  They’ve just gotten you to pre-order an expansion that, first of all, isn’t even complete, and secondly, doesn’t even have a release date. For all you know, you could’ve simply paid for nothing but the extra items they included in the package.

To those of you that have money and bought it, good for you. You have access to the Beta of an unfinished, uncertain expansion that is essentially the original game with less content, but no worries. I’m sure those extra toys you’ve gotten along will keep your mind away from that thought.

Please don’t defend this action with ‘Be grateful we don’t pay subscription fees for all the content they’ve handed to us’. We don’t owe Arenanet for that. We paid for the game, and we support its business model by using real money to buy things in the Gem Store. We’re glad they’ve given us free content over the years, but that doesn’t justify the price they’re asking for on an expansion with far less content. You can’t giveaway free things and then suddenly decide to charge for new content at a much higher price so you can get compensation for all that you’ve previously offered.

I honestly don’t know whose idea this was, and Paul’s little comment made it far worse than it should’ve been. All I know that this will not end well either way for Arenanet. Making changes now to benefit the veteran players will cause those who’ve pre-ordered the expansion at the current price to demand some sort of refund or compensation, and not making any changes will cause a loss of many veteran players who feel that they’ve been tricked.

Love the game, but not at all satisfied with this situation.

TL;DR I’m not buying the expansion as it is now, and there’s nothing I can do but wait. If no changes happen, and they continue down the road like this, I’m out. One whiny player out of their way will benefit the entire community, right? And no, you cannot have my things.

Thanks for reading. If I’m wrong, I’d love for it to be cleared up.

I don’t get how some players are trying to justify the price here. It doesn’t matter if the game isn’t subscription-based, or have given us in-game content over the years…

…because we don’t owe Arenanet for that.

All of a sudden…without any warning or announcement, they just decide to put up the price for a game included with an expansion that isn’t even complete with no release date?! New players will not care, but this is just downright unfair to players who’ve been here for the last 3 years. You’re forcing us to buy an entire game again for 50$ just to gain access to a few extra features and maps?! Why?!

My Asuran that underwent a sex change. Had to wear that chestpiece to cover up the ridiculously creepy slender neck. Still love her for Silverwastes!

My Sylvari Ele. Was luck that I scrambled this outfit up.

A Norn Guardian that underwent a sex change and never looked back.
Norn women are just so kitten pretty.

Had to make my Necro green. I couldn’t help it!
FORGIVE ME, SENSEI!

Had a human warrior, but deleted cause the Asura GS animations looked awesome to me. Wanted to make him look very tech-savy, but this was the best I could do.

My teefy teef teef. First and favorite character.

My Ranger. So pretty to me.

No Jackets, no trenchcoats, no armor with a bunch of flaps. I want fitting armor, wraps around my character perfectly to make him look sleek.

You’ll want 30 in Critical Strikes always, but I’d invest in the Acrobatics tree and the Trickery Tree for leveling. Avoid Deadly Arts till you hit 80, and Shadow Arts isn’t that good in my opinion. 15 in Trickery and the rest in Acrobatics should be good. Just grab Sword/Pistol and Shortbow, can’t go wrong.

Xyonon.3987:

Oh boy … don’t act like they did it on purpose…

I’m not, but crying a bit is mandatory whenever something goes wrong to a very useful skill.

The reason I believe why DPS builds are the way to go is because most classes have all the damage mitigation they need: That dodge button. Guardians get it easier with the extras from Virtues and all those access to boons, so there’s no need to support your group when they should be dodging telegraphed attacks in the first place. Having the boss live longer than they’re supposed to means a higher chance of someone getting downed and a greater chance of a group wipe. There’s no need to tank for your team in dungeons, players should know their class and all their ways of damage mitigation to take care of themselves.

DPS build for all classes in PvE, 100%. Unless they change the boss mechanics to favor survivability skills more.

I’d just like to say a big ‘Thank You’ to all these guys who say a DPS Guardian is the right direction. I switched from a 0/0/30/30/10 to a 10/25/0/10/25 and was worried I’d be dropping dead all the time, but thank god that wasn’t the case! Blinds, condition removals, utilities and excellent DPS….Man…

Thank you.

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Synesence.7546:

Shadowstep idea for Dagger: Have Dancing Dagger just hit one enemy, and if it succeeds, it teleports the thief to it’s target. 600 range.

You mean like this skill, which already exists but has a 900 range and blinds?

[/quote]

Yes, but for those utilizing D/D—actually, this would make P/D OP with skill 3 to shadowstep away and skill 4 to shadowstep back. Nevermind this idea.

The gripe I have with thieves is that we’re the most complained about class in the game for OP stealth, which will disappear come December 10th. We still lack condition removal, getting S/X’s evasion nerfed, and with the initiative nerf with Oppertunist, I honestly don’t know what Arenanet is planning to do with the thief. It’s as if they want to bring the class down to a bare minimum before they decide to make proper balances to it.

Stealth was the problem, and now it’s gone. Evasion never was and never will be a problem, and they’re taking that down as well. No idea what the thief class is going to end up at…

I posted some changes to it a while back: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Proposed-Changes-To-Thief-Changes-Next-Month/first#post3154297

Don’t think there’s anything to do for the thief for now, we’ll just have to wait and see. Most have already moved onto other classes, so my thief is just going to retire in the Shadows until….they stop with the Warrior-love.

The most useful Phantasm utility-wise, and it just HAD to be broken.

Why?!?!?!

I want SR to not pulsate, just have it drop, be visible for a second, and just grant 10 seconds of stealth and 5 seconds of regen for everyone in it.

The biggest problem I have with thieves is with condition removal. Sure, you could Shadowstep and return to have it removed, but what about when it’s on a cooldown? Pop SR and Necros will force you to run for it.

Now that permastealth is gone (Which is fine, never did use stealth that much anyways), it’s time thieves start getting more condition removal. I don’t need blocks (Maybe a skill for OH-sword if they ever give us that option), I need freaking condition removal for when running here and there won’t save me from those ticks of death.

Edit: Shadowstep idea for Dagger: Have Dancing Dagger just hit one enemy, and if it succeeds, it teleports the thief to it’s target. 600 range.

• Warriors who just run in blind and think they can kill everything, only to get downed within 3 seconds…Had two PuG warriors today trying to do that in CM. So many deaths…

• The Guardian outlook is something I find hilarious: either people in groups see a guardian and expect him/her to tank everything, or rolling a Guardian and trying to tank everything for the team.

• Guardians in groups are sometimes the only reason most people don’t give a crap about dodging. I don’t care if I’m with a group of Guardians, if I see Subject Alpha’s AoEs, I’m itching to hit that dodge button, aegis/protection or not.

• Signet builds, in my opinion, are only acceptable if you use them to ensure you pump out consistent DPS (Signet thieves), but otherwise, using team-oriented utilities is more favorable. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I just don’t see the point in signet builds for warriors (Asked a PuG to switch to banners once and was called an ‘elitist’.) XD

• The LFG Requirements: 80’s only for storymode, Warriors/Guardians only, Heavies only, Ping gear….What the kitten?!

Hello, I’m looking to join an all-round guild to join in on the fun. I’ve got a Thief, Necromancer, Mesmer, Guardian, and Engineer, all at level 80 and geared. (Still not satisfied with how some of them look though…XD) I’m currently in China, and my playing times are random, but I’m active daily.

The thing is that I created my own guild a while ago, but it didn’t pan out so now I use it only as a place of storage, but there are times where I forget to switch guilds and represent, as most guilds require. I can represent with all my characters if it’s mandatory, just that now and then I’ll swap over to my own 1-man guild for storage purposes only.

I’m mostly looking into doing Arah dungeons (I need the kitten armor!) and do events and activities with friendly adults (18+), so if you’ve got a spot open, please let me know. No requirements from my end, other than being active and friendly.

Thank you.

They need to just add a countdown timer of 30 seconds before anyone is allowed to leave the instance after defeating the Final Boss. This’ll give people enough time to gather the treasures they might have missed out on or sort some stuff out.

This whole ‘Leave immediately after finishing dungeon’ should be removed, it’s just not cool.

Sword for mainhand always, it’s really not an option.

As for offhand, I mostly go with Focus and Pistol. When I need to range a boss, I make sure all 3 Phantasmal Duelists are up, then just use GS auto-attack. When I’m stacking with a group, 3 Phantasmal Wardens deal incredible damage. If you trait Warden’s Feedback, that’s a total of 3 reflects if you include the Feedback utility.

I run a 0/20/0/25/25 build, all zerker gear. Compounding power is excellent, especially with the reduced cooldowns on Phantasms. I melee only when I’ve got consistent DPS from 3 phantasms, so the damage is quite consistent, and also cause I still suck at dodging. XD

I can handle getting kicked. I just want the chat log to stay so I can increase my Blocked List.

Buying your way to 80? For 400 gems?

Make it to around 6000 and they MIGHT start considering it.

Buying your way to 80…L to the azy on this one. XD

PvE? There are other options that make your life easier, but it’s still good in PvE.
PvP/WwW? Yeah, don’t do it.

Spot selling is a no-no, that’s true. Should just be allowed to keep the chat logs to see who kicked and report them for it. They get a warning the first time, a temporary suspension the second time, and long-term ban from using the LFG tool the third time.

Kicked because you die a lot and refuse to follow the team? Deserved it.
Kicked because you don’t talk and just do your own thing in the dungeon? Deserved it.
Kicked because someone wanted to sell your spot on Arah? Report the player that kicked and have them marked so that next time, you’ll know who not to join.

I don’t think that players, even when they’re doing bad, should be kicked unless the whole team decides on it. Especially if they’ve managed to go halfway through the dungeon. I’d love a way to be able to mark players that kick me for selling spots so I can avoid them like the plague. Put a boot icon or something next to their names so I know who to avoid teaming with.

Then again, we have to ask the question…is spot selling something that should be allowed?

I got kicked as a Mesmer for not using GS on the Dredge Carrier on Path 3 of Sorrow’s Embrace. Apparently, 3 wardens doing the damage for you whilst you sit there watching because you didn’t have a GS isn’t enough, EVEN if it got you all the way there in the first place. XD

I never get kicked as a thief. EVER.
The whole team just ragequits on me. XD

I do agree that this system should be implemented, something like this:

• The seller would put a price on the item that’s being sold, and once established, the item would be temporarily stored by a third-party (An NPC from the BLTP). When the buyer pays the exact amount asked by the seller(Monitored by said third-party), the money is transferred temporarily to the third-party. Both buyer and seller would be given a chance to finalize the trade, and should both parties agree, the trade shall occur immediately. If both parties do not agree, the trade shall be canceled and both parties shall receive their items back.

Listing fee shall follow accordingly as on the BLTP, so it wouldn’t be exploited or abused.

runeblade.7514:

I don’t think that will make dungeons more interesting.

It’ll make dungeons more tedious. The people who do dungeons are there for quick rewards.

The thing is, I don’t believe dungeons were meant to be created for just quick rewards. Plus, this would be optional, allowing teams that wish to avoid it to do so without any penalties. This option would be for players willing to take the challenge to have a chance to earn better rewards, or fail and have no severe consequences on the rest of the dungeon. Plus, this’ll give players an incentive to better learn their professions and play better, rather than go through the cycle of Stand-Attack-Heal continuously whilst relying on others to get them up when they go down. This gives skilled players a fun challenge whilst encourages newbies to learn their profession better.

It’d be interesting to have the team teleported to an area and watch their teammate go at the challenge. Would feel awesome to have spectators watch you play for a small bit.

Dungeons do need a revamp to make them more challenging, fun, rewarding, and worth completing, I agree. My suggestion simply a place to begin with to make it more fun.

Lily Miranda.5407:

I wish there was a way to turn off viewing other people’s back items. I can’t stand seeing wings and pink backpacks.

The whole reason I haven’t added any backpack skins on my Engineer. I’d love to see the addition of auras as backpack skins as well, would look nice for those of us who don’t want wings or gadgets for certain characters.

Berformet.2981:

it’d work on any human type enemies nicely. (as in bandits, char, nightmare court, savnir) but enemies such as world bosses, golems and an animal type like wolves and such wouldnt suit well. it’s a very fine line between what could technically be stomped or not imo. not sure if the centaurs, krait or risen would suit being stomped or not…. but the rest would be pretty awesome.

I think it’d be nice if it worked on enemies of the 5 races only.

For humans, Centaurs and other humans (Separatists/Bandits/Pirates).

For Charr, Ascalonians (Yes, ghosts) and…Charrs. (Flame Legion)

For Sylvari, Nightmare Court.

For Asura, Inquest.

For Norn, Sons of Svanir.

Maybe a few other ones, like:
Krait
Troll
Risen (No grubs)

…could also be added. (I’d love to stomp a Risen Giant)

But like I said, this’d only be limited to veterans and maybe champions, normal enemies would still die without a downed state. This may encourage those who PvE only to play PvP a bit, or still get a taste of PvP if they’d prefer to avoid it completely. Stomping is one of the most satisfying things in this game, and I’d hate to see it not open to all three modes.

Flanar.5981:

I love the suggestion but I would like to put some thoughts:

• I think dungeons is about how a party work together. Individual skills should not be tested, team skill should be.
• I do dungeons regularly and I know how most people (90%) population running dungeon react if someone do not know how to go through a part of that dungeon. If an individual fails, he will be frowned upon, kicked out of anger or people will simply ragequit.
• After a point, this will get just boring and repetitive. If there is a “pool” of such random events, where you can face any random challenge, it’d be great. Similar to fractal, where you can never guess what’s coming next. Makes it exciting for most of us.

I think it’d be cool if the challenges would revolve around 3 events for each individual profession, something like:

Thief

• Avoid damage for a set amount of time.
• Infiltrate the area without being detected.
• Assassinate target within set amount of time.

Warrior

• Defeat Mini-Boss.
• Defeat X waves of enemies.
• Kill all enemies within set amount of time.

Guardian

• Protect NPC for a set amount of time.
• Survive waves of enemies for a set amount of time.
• Prevent area from being overtaken.

Mesmer

• Fight a clone of yourself.
• Distract Boss for a set amount of time.
• Stop target from reaching door in time.

Engineer

• Solve memory mini-game without making mistake.
• Deliver item to NPC without dying.
• Activate switches in sequence as fast as you can.

Ranger

• Pick enemies off without sounding the alarm.
• Disarm traps within the time limit.
• Keep pet above X health for a set amount of time.

Elementalist

• Defeat Boss using specific elements. (Boss changes elemental resistance periodically)
• Complete series of tasks using specific elements.
• Get to point X within the time limit.

Necromancer

• Stop target from reaching point X.
• Defeat Boss (Vulnerable to conditions only, changes periodically)
• Kill X number of enemies within the time limit.

So not only would it be random in picking which profession is tested, but the test itself would be random as well. There would be a reward for the tested player if he succeeds (Only once per character/account) and a temporary buff for the entire team. The buff remains on the team so long as the player stays in the team. If the player fails, he gets a disability and the team gets a minor debuff. The debuff will stay even if the tested player is kicked off the team.

At any point, there would also be a small chance where more than one profession is tested, so we’d have more players put to the test. If both players succeed, team gets two buffs, but if only one does, then the team shall receive no buff.

Nowadays, it seems like all dungeons revolve around Guardians, Warriors, and Mesmers, with an Ele now and then. I suggest that all dungeon paths, with the presence of certain professions present in the team, give the group an alternative method of completing certain segments of the dungeon. There are rules to this though:

*This is limited to Explorable mode only.
*It is more a test of skill rather than stats.

• It will only occur once per dungeon path.
• The targeted profession wouldn’t be specific for any dungeon. (Thieves aren’t limited to AC, Mesmers won’t be limited to CM)
• The choice would be one-time and optional for the group, if they choose to complete the normal way, they can, but the option would not appear again.
• The targeted profession would have 1/2 attempts to complete it, and if they do, the team is given a bonus chest and a small buff for 5 minutes.
• If they fail, the team must survive an onslaught. If they succeed, they may continue the dungeon normally, but if the group wipes, they will be transported to the nearest WP and continue the dungeon as normal, but gain a small debuff for 5 minutes. The targeted profession would also gain a temporary disability (5 minutes) to their profession specific utilities.
• If the team contains more than 1 of the targeted profession, the group is able to decide which player would do the event.
• If the targeted profession isn’t available, the choice would not be given, and the group would continue as normal. Switching characters will not change this.

My ideas (Just a rough draft):

If A Mesmer is present: Mesmer must distract the boss for a set duration and survive whilst the team and NPC unlock a shorter path. If he fails, he is unable to summon more than 2 illusions for 5 minutes.

If A Guardian is present: Guardian must protect an NPC from an time-limited boss or enemies. If he fails, he is unable to use Virtues for 5 minutes.

If A Warrior is present: The team is constantly poisoned and have their health slowly whittled down, and the Warrior must kill a certain boss by himself within the time limit to save the team. If he fails, he will gain no adrenaline for the next 5 minutes.

If A Thief is present: The thief must navigate his way through a series of enemies and traps using stealth and timing. If he fails, he will be unable to use Steal for 5 minutes.

If A Ranger is present: The ranger must kill off certain enemies from a distance without setting off an alarm. If he fails, he is unable to summon his pet for 5 minutes.

If An Engineer is present: The Engineer must complete a series of tasks that revolve around a series of mini-memory games. If he fails, he will be unable to use his kits for 5 minutes.

If An Elementalist is present: The elementalist must complete a series of tasks using his elements (Like using water to put out fires, Earth to close borrows, air to activate statues in sequence, and fire to destroy statues.) If they fail, they’ll have a random elemental attunement disabled for 5 minutes. (Or increased recharge rate of all attunements for 5 minutes)

If A Necromancer is present: The necromancer must kill an enemy or series of enemies that is only vulnerable to condition damage/certain conditions. If he fails, he will be unable to enter Death Shroud for 5 minutes.

This is to make the game more interesting for those who want the option of continuing with a little more excitement, and make all professions welcome in all dungeons.

Just an idea, feel free for any suggestions you might have.

I was doing Path 3 of Sorrow’s Embrace with a team as a mesmer, and at the carrier fight, where everyone runs to a point and ranges the thing to death, I summon 3 Phantasmal Wardens to do the damage for me, since I forgot to bring along a GS. So I just sat there and watched my Wardens do damage for me consistently.

Guess who got kicked right after the thing was completed? XD

The Tower of Nightmares gave us the opportunity to use our finishers in PvE on some of the Nightmare Knights, and I have to say…That was fun as hell!

I suggest implementing the usage of finishers on veterans in PvE instead of just restricting it to PvP only. Having enemies in a downed state and being able to use a finisher to kill them off is way more satisfying than just emptying their life bar. Maybe not all veterans, but most of them. Plus, it’d give those who PvE only more reason to buy some finishers (Because most of them look freaking awesome). AND…it’d make the a game a bit more challenging and fun…and satisfying!

Please consider this. Thank you.

Shadow Return on Sword. Renamed to Infiltrator’s return. No cast time should be added, it’s fine the way it is. Reduce the distance or the timer, but if we’re going to all play different builds, each build should have a way to break stuns consistently.

Critical Strikes 15 – Opportunist. Honestly, if you’re going to want us to stick in the fight, we’re going to need plenty of initiative. I’d rather get a 25% chance of gaining 1 initiative with a 1 second cooldown than a 50% every 5 seconds. CS is the essence of all thieves, please leave it as it is.

Critical Strikes VIII – Signet Use. Leave as it currently is, the CDs are long enough already, there’s no need to reduce the initiative gain for them any further. It’ll barely be noticeable when you’re gaining 1 initiative/sec.

Acrobatics III – Vigorous Recovery. Just leave it at 8s, honestly. I don’t see how we shouldn’t evade if we’re hated for stealthing.

Acrobatics IX – Quick Recovery. Fine, reduce the initiative, but give us something worthwhile, like removing a condition when you dodge with a CD of 10 seconds.

Trickery VII – Bountiful Theft. Reduced vigor duration from 15s to 10s. Remove a condition.

Signet Of Agility. Increase the conditions cured when activated by 1. This already has a 30-second cooldown, plus it’ll make us more useful in teams.

Steal. Please, for the love of god, make this a stun-breaker. It’s already on around 30-40 seconds, and we need it since Daggerstorm is made completely useless by Necromancers.

Shadow Assault. Reduce initiative use from 7 to 6. No skill should use more than 6 initiative, reduce the animation to two attacks if you have to.

Pistol Whip. Increase stun duration to .75s. It’s like Warrior’s Hundred Blades, but more risky and less damaging.

Double Shot. This replaces Vital Shot as the auto-attack when a pistol is equipped MH & OH, and allow both pistols to fire in succession per cast. I have two pistols, I should be able to utilize them both.

Stealth. I really think this needs a re-work. Stealthing in and out during battle doesn’t seem to be doing well, why not just put stealth on a 60-second cooldown during battle? It’ll be something that has to be planned carefully to use. If you want us to stop using stealth, give us a bit more condition-clearing and stun-breaking during battle, please. Just a weebit.