Guild Wars 2

Ben Phongluangtham.1065:

Thorniss.2301:

I don’t understand how the matchmaking would be more “accurate” if yes win; it will be just profession based instead of account based, or am I missing something?

The idea is that, just because you are a great mesmer, doesn’t mean you know how to play a revenant well. If the professions were locked we could place you into a match that reflects your skill with that class.

That’s true, but as someone already stated, this game is more than knowing how to play a specific profession: in order to win, you have to know how to position, when to move from a point to another, who to focus, when and what to dodge, when kill Svanir and when go for Tranquillity…

… if I’m a great mesmer, plat tier 3 or more, I for sure know very well all these things; now I move to my revenant for the first time, I end up playing with low skill people in bronze/silver: how do you think this will affect other players game experience? I suppose in a bad way, both for my teammates (lower impact on game outcome) and for my enemy team (wich must witness a just better player).

In the end, high end ladder will be filled with great players (how should be), their account alt (and that’s an already existing problem) and, now, their alt (a new problem).

If i’m misunderstanding something, please tell me.

I don’t understand how the matchmaking would be more “accurate” if yes win; it will be just profession based instead of account based, or am I missing something?

nightwulf.1986:

The issue right now is that you can already switch between melee and ranged shroud, but you have to drop reaper traits, utilities, etc. It sounds like you think the ranged/melee toggle would be balanced already or require minimal balancing, but I can almost guarantee you they would have to rebalance certain traits to account for known/unknown trait/skill interactions, effectiveness, etc. which is always more time than anyone thinks it will take. They’ve already spent months watching the Reaper trait line, how people use it, where they felt it was too strong, and toning things down. Throw in death shroud, now they have opened another can of worms pretty late into the balance cycle.

In terms of time/effort, they are probably already closer, in terms of dev time, to getting a new elite spec ready than working out switching between ranged and melee shroud. At that point, you’d probably have more data points to consider about whether this option makes sense at all. Maybe death shroud will be so buff this next elite spec that you will wonder why you ever played Reaper. I just think it’s hard to get a sense of the timetable for whether or not to make this sort of call, but I’m almost certain they wouldn’t consider this for several reasons. But if you want a buffed ranged shroud necro, you just might get that in the next expansion which they said they are already working on.

I see your point here, probably balancing issues would be more than it may seems to a rapid look.

nightwulf.1986:

I think there is an issue with your assumptions behind why elite specs exist. Elite specs were repeatedly described as horizontal, not vertical class progression. You are supposed to give up something in order to gain something. So, not just adding options and functionality but taking some away. On a basic level, that just means giving up a core trait line to access the elite trait line. And yes, that is supposed to be a tradeoff. 3 core trait lines are intended to be as desirable as 2 core, 1 elite and there is a lot that can be discussed about how/why that is/is not effective, what happens when we have more elite specs, but that is the idea.

For Necros, losing death shroud for reaper shroud is totally in line with that design ethos. I personally don’t think it’s a good idea to mix and match reaper trait line with death shroud as the traits weren’t designed with death shroud in mind. I think it would make more sense to tweak death shroud which could totally be done with a new elite spec. You might just be getting ahead of yourself.

Of course elite specs were described as horizontal progression, of course 3 core trait lines are intended to be desirable as 2 core and 1 elite, but do you really feel this is true, actually?
That is the idea, you told well, but we have to deal with what it is in game, not on the paper.

Muchacho.2390:

I dont know, isnt reaper shroud the most important reason to take the reaper line in the first place? I mean why would you want to run the reaper line but not take the reaper shroud.

Honestly i would rather run reaper shoud without the reaper traitline then the reaperline without reaper shroud.

Well, you have traits and utility skills that you may like or not, but Reaper Shroud is not the only reason for picking Reaper spec.

As for the choice between the 2 Shrouds, it comes down to personal preferences.

For example, in DS we have Life Blast, that compared to Life Rend chain has the pro of beeing ranged, but the con of not giving 1.5% life force every third attack. Here we have a classical choice between steady ranged and melee chain; nothing new, just a matter of taste.

Then we have 2 skills that apply chills -the signature condition of the Reaper- : in DS we have Dark Path: comparing it to Executioner’s Scythe we have some pros: it is ranged, it is unblockable, it has half the cooldown. On the other hand, the cons are: it doesn’t stun, it doesn’t leave an ice field. Here the pros are very nice and, in my opinion, not negligibles.

Last, we have 2 skills that apply fear (that again, apply chill in Reaper spec), Doom for DS and Terrify for RS; pros of Doom are: again long range, lower cooldown, instant cast; the only con is single target vs multi target.

The other Shrouds skills i didn’t mention do not apply chill directly, so they are just matter of personal preferences and play style.

As you can see, especially for the lower cooldown, 2 skills out of 5 for DS are very nice in synergy with the benefits that Reaper get from chilling enemies -just like 2 out of 5 for RS-.

Anyway, just remember that if you don’t like Death Shroud on Reaper, you would not be forced to use it with the change i hypothesized; you can always keep Reaper Shroud, as it is now.

What about choosing between Death or Reaper Shroud, within the Reaper spec?

It could be done simply by giving the option to switch “on” or “off” the Shroud Knight minor trait.

Probably some of you may argue “why?”. Well, if you think about it, all elite specs in the game adds something to the base mechanic of the related profession; actually, Reaper spec overwrites the old Death Shroud with the Reaper’s one. In my opinion this could open up some nice synergies and be interesting for build diversity – given that if you want to be competitive elite specs are actually mandatory – .
Obviously, the traits in the Reaper spec that work with Reaper Shroud, would work in Death Shorud too.

What do you think about it? Do you think this would be OP or hard to balance in some way?

I really like your idea, giving a rapid look just the master and grandmaster minor traits seems a bit OP to me, but the test may be ok with some little adjustment.

+1

MrFayth.3546:

Thorniss.2301:

What do you mean with “you will lose more RAM depending on the size of the RAM on your new graphics card.”?

Under 32bit windows the amount of Video Ram(vRAM) on your graphics card must be mapped to your system RAM. So if you have 4GB of RAM and a 1GB vRAM graphics card,you’re down to only 3GB of usable system RAM. Ontop of that, DX9.0c and earlier games the vRAM must also be duplicated onto System RAM.

You’re in for a world of hurt if you upgrade to a +1GB GPU with 32bit Windows.

Oh, this is a bad new i didn’t have idea of.
About win-32bit, i have this because when i bought my pc it came with original win 7 32 bit, and i never thought about an upgrade to win 64 bit.
So, if i well understood, i actually play GW2 with my GPU (9800 gt) using 1 GB and my processor having access to 2 GB (4 physically installed, -1 because of 32 bit, -1 because of GPU); if i upgrade to 64 bit and get a new GPU using 2 GB (for example, gtx 750), my processor will still have access to 2 GB (4 physically installed, -2 from new GPU, no penality from 64 bit system).
Is it right?

Thank you all again for your support guys, very appreciated!

EDIT: or maybe in a 64 bit environment the GPU doesn’t get away RAM from CPU?

Yes, i ment 4GB, not 4MB i’ll edit it, ty. What do you mean with “you will lose more RAM depending on the size of the RAM on your new graphics card.”?

Hello everybody! I was thinking about changing my graphic card because i’m experiencing crashes since GW2 came out in summer 2012; with graphic settings from mid to high, the game always resulted unplayable to me for the crashes frequency, but with graphic settings lowered to the ground crashes wasn’t so frequent, so i’ve been able to play GW2 for the last 3 years… until HoT came out and crashes turned to be so many more (even with the lowest settings) to re-make the game unplayable once again, like it is happening for many of us

So far, my specifics are:
i3 530, 2.9 MHz, dual core, 4 thread
nvidia 9800 gt
4 GB RAM (32 bit, win 7)
500W PSU (with one 6-pin connector)

Reading around the web, i realized that a gtx 960 would be too much for my CPU, bottlenecking it; so, do you think an Asus gtx 750 ti OC 2GB (requiring one 6-pin connector) would be a fair choice?
Most important… playing with middle settings with the 750 ti and my CPU, do you think i would still experience crashes?
Thank you all in advance for your feedback and suggestions!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/New-Mechanic-idea-Synergyc-Elements/first#post5188523

Mattmatt.4962:

One little thing tho:
I wouldnt require to press F5 one first time to “activate” it. The game should perma check the element combinaison. It allows you to react to some “surprise” if by chance you’re in the right combinaison to deal with it.

I see your point, and i like it very much! It all flips around on how much hard the use of this mechanic should be;

Anyway, i thought even to a variant: after activating Synergyc Elements the first time, when you select an attunement you do not switch to it, but instead you gain the new skill like described above, while the attunement you used to get the synergy goes on a cooldown for X seconds (something between 3 or 5); if that attunement is already on cooldown, it simply get extended.
This way you could get use of 3 different skills (by synergy) without switching your attunement, paying this with the impossibility to switch to the “used” attunement for a while.

Jaetara.4075:

Ah btw some of the skill ideas that you are describing remind me of a post I did some time ago about my thoughts on how Tempest could work. Check it if you like:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Tempest-What-do-you-expect-or-wish-for/first#post5127235

I took a look, very nice idea too, i missed it ^^

Switching from Air…

… to Fire: Fire Whirl: sends out a fire whirl traveling in a line, damaging and applying burning to enemies and granting swiftness to allies it passes through.
cast time: 0.5 seconds
travel range: 600
burning duration: 3 seconds (2 stacks)
swiftness duration: 8 seconds
number of targets: 5 enemies and 5 allies (including caster)

… to Water: Water Spout: sends out a water spout traveling in a line, damaging and applying vulnerability to enemies and granting vigor (or regeneration maybe) to allies it passes through.
cast time: 0.5 seconds
travel range: 600
vulnerability duration: 5 seconds (2 stacks)
vigor duration: 5 seconds
number of targets: 5 enemis and 5 allies (including caster)

… to Earth: Howling Rocks: sends out a resonating wave, damaging and dazing enemies around you (PBaoe).
cast time: 0.5 seconds
radious: 300
daze duration: 2 seconds
number of targets: 5

Switching from Water…

… to Fire: Overheating Steam: create a ground target area that explodes after 0.75 seconds, damaging, blowing up and burning enemies inside it.
cast time: 1 second
range: 900
radious: 300
burning duration: 3 seconds (1 stack)
number of targets: 5
combo finisher: blast

… to Air: Mist Conductor: create a mist link between you, enemy target and up to another enemy near it. After 2 seconds an electrical discharge passes through the link, damaging and stunning the linked targets.
cast time: 1.5 seconds
range: 450 (if target enemy gets farer than 600, the link is broken)
stun duration: 1.5 seconds

… to Earth: Quicksand: target area gets covered with quicksands, applying slow and cripple to enemies inside.
cast time: 1 second
range: 1200
radious: 300
slow and cripple duration: 2 seconds (apply on cast and every 2 seconds)
number of targets: 5
field duration: 6 seconds
combo field: dark (or ethereal maybe)

Switching from Earth…

… to Fire: Pyroclastic Flow: sends out a fast traveling debris wave, damaging, crippling and burning enemies it passes through.
cast time: 1 second
range: 1200
cripple duration: 5 seconds
burning duration: 5 seconds (1 stack)
number of targets: 5

… to Air: Fulgurite Dome: a lightning creates a fulgurite dome on target enemy, preventing it to move out. After 2 seconds the dome breaks, applying vulnerability and bleeding to the target.
cast time: 1 second
range: 900
vulnerability duration: 5 seconds (3 stacks)
bleeding duration: 8 seconds (3 stacks)

… to Water: Mud Flow: sends out a mud flow, damaging and applying slow and torment to enemies around you (PBaoe).
cast time: 1.5 seconds
radious: 450
slow duration: 4 seconds
torment duration: 5 seconds
number of targets: 5

Hello folks!

I’m an elementalist fan since this game came out, and even before this happened i used to think “wouldn’t be nice if the ele had the ability to involve more than one element in a single skill?”.
So, in the wake of the hype train leading us to HoT, watching the direction developers are taking with adding the core and elite spec system, with new mechanics here and there, i came up with an idea i wanted to share with the community.
I hope you guys from Anet find this interesting, or at least find it as a good starting point for a new elite spec (or, even better, a profession core) mechanic.

With no more hesitation, i introduce you my idea:

F5 skill: Synergyc Elements: when you use this skill, nothing happens in the first place. After this, the next time you switch attunement, Synergyc Elements becomes a new skill, depending on 2 factors:

1- the attunement you leave
2- the attunement you get in

After using one of the following skills, Synergyc Elements goes on cooldown for X seconds (it may be 20, or 25, or something similar, or it may depend on the skill you used).

Note: All the numbers, conditions and effects you are going to read are based on my personal feelings, i just wrote them down to give a better sense of what i ment with “mixing up elements”; the core message i wanted to share is the mechanic itslef.

Switching from Fire…

… to Air: Tree Basher: enemy target gets struck by a high damaging lightning that burns it.
cast time: 1 second
range: 1200
burning duration: 5 seconds (4 stacks)

… to Water: Sublimating Ice: target area gets covered in smoke, periodically blinding enemies inside.
cast time: 1 second
range: 900
radious: 300
blinding duration: 2 seconds (apply on cast and every 2 seconds)
number of targets: 5
field duration: 4 seconds
combo field: smoke

… to Earth: Molten Boulder: jump to your target, stunning it, damaging and burning enemies in the area.
cast time: 0.75 seconds
range: 600
radious: 300
stun duration: 1 second
burning duration: 3 seconds (2 stacks)
number of (burning) targets: 5
combo finisher: leap