Guild Wars 2

I know some people LOVE phantasms for their deeps. So for those of you with that preference, please hear me out before crapping all over the idea.

What if the Mirage spec REPLACED all of our phantasm skills to have an on-cast effect themed to the phantasm, and also summoned a clone(s)? The on-cast would then be balanced in light of the damage/condis/utility lost by the phantasm.

This would help to resolve the conflicting mechanic of wanting more clones for Ambush dps, and also give more opportunities for clone generation so that shatter can be used more often.

I’m interested in joining for fractals. I have difficulty keeping a specific schedule and can’t commit to raids at this time. My personal fractal level is 42 and can’t really find a group to progress. But I have enough AR (full ascended) to get to 70+ until I can infuse my rings anyway.

I don’t know if that’s 100% true. I mean, the largest gw2 pvp viewership can be attributed to tournament broadcasts.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

Vyce.2014:

People may leave. But I suspect many will start to realize the disadvantage they’re in by trying to solo-queue. Just look at Lord Helseth. He’s one of the best mesmers and so far is really struggling to exit emerald tier while other players on his level are working their way up the division without a problem. At least that was the case earlier today when he was stubbornly trying solo/duo-queue.

Not having soloqueue completely tanks the game’s streamability though. No one likes watching premades on steam, they’re mostly about single players, because then the player can interact with the stream instead of his 4 teammates on teamspeak.

I understand the challenges with that. But it’s possible to play your game with your team, then interact with viewers between games. It’s not perfect, but why would Anet focus their game development around such a specific niche?

Also, I don’t see Anet going out of their way to make their shiny new raid content viable for solo players joining 9 other randoms… Or guild hall upgrades? Or WvW stuff?

Pretty much everything they are doing is promoting organized groups.

People may leave. But I suspect many will start to realize the disadvantage they’re in by trying to solo-queue. Just look at Lord Helseth. He’s one of the best mesmers and so far is really struggling to exit emerald tier while other players on his level are working their way up the divisions without a problem. At least that was the case earlier today when he was stubbornly trying solo/duo-queue.

What’s the only difference? Skill? Or is it simply coordination?

So despite the community asking for a better solo-queue experience for a long time, anet adds a system that makes solo-queue even less fun and rewarding.

So what should we conclude? I think Anet doesn’t want us to solo-queue. I think they want us to organize into guilds that hop on voice comms and play together. And if we’re really wanting to try hard, we form a specific teams that really practice together.

It honestly makes the most sense with the game modes they provide. Solo-queue with no communication simply doesn’t make sense in this game, so they are not only not supporting it, I think they’re trying to kill it.

I promise I’m not salty or sarcastic. I feel enlightened.

Tldr: Anet isn’t supporting solo-queue on purpose. We need to adapt or go play a different game if we want solo-queue.

I’m also pretty sure someone figured out their value early on and is controlling the market. There’s no other explanation as to why 13 or so different weapon types all hover around the exact same price.

Correct, they extracted it using them gem purchased extractor.

I bought a stack of 100 ghost berries before HoT for this reason. With 100%crit, not only is it good sustain (an extra regen), it’s another ~300dps.

They are that expensive because you cannot make them. People are getting them by extracting the rune from account bound gear that you get from either sorry or spec unlock, I forget which

Pretty sure the herald runes are being extracted from non salvageable gear.

Rhovanion.8234:

This build looks pretty good, only thing that kinda bothers me is Invigorating Flow, have it proven to be useful with this build at all? Though I kinda see why you went for that and not the other ones.

Equilibrium may be a good choice on that tier. A little extra burst or heal couldn’t hurt when you get dragged into melee. So really it depends on how often you find yourself in that situation.

I was thinking the periodic heal will help mitigate retaliation damage or occasional stray ranged attacks. Having so few hitpoints to begin with, being topped off could mean the difference when that thief decides you’re public enemy #1

This game has a ton of armor and weapon skins. Some really cool ones for mere silver on the TP. Some cost a handful of gold. Then there’s the very small number of skins that require achievement and grind. If you want the prestige of those few, do the work and don’t complain about it because the difficulty in getting them is part of what makes them special and rare.

I’d argue that a glass thief with backstabs from stealth is a lot scarier than CoR. You can’t see them coming. To be clear, I’m not saying thieves are better than Revs. My point is there are ways to see and avoid CoR. Also, CoR has to be used on pretty flat ground, so conditions have to be just right for it even to work.

More specifically, consider investing a handful of dollars into either a keypad or a mouse with 12+ buttons. I bought each many years ago and now I’d never go back.

Indeed. Great point.

Here’s the Build…
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAS8sn3guNSuQ7JRboVlsP0rS4IaWJ4EdskFNFiNMppNtFIANwOgHshA-TJBBwAY3fAwFBocZgAPBAA

Key points…
- This is not a 1v1 build.
- This plays like a power ranger.
- You will have to run or die of you don’t have teammates to draw “aggro”

Amulet/Runes/Sigils…
- Berserker amulet.
- Scholar runes.
- Force+Accuracy sigils.

Weapons…
Hammer:
You will use this 90% of the time. Learn the Hammer, Love the Hammer, BE THE HAMMER.
- Snipe with auto (#1). Remember it pierces, so line up enemies when possible.
- CoR (#2) off cooldown (if you are on the same elevation), this means every 2x autos.
- PS (#3) is a damage/cast-time loss. Only use as an evade.
- FotM (#4) for anti-ranged or life-leech as needed.
- DTH (#5) Best saved for clutch CC.

Sword/Sword:
- You shouldn’t sit in S/S, only auto if you can’t get out of melee & swap is on CD.
- PS (#2) You shouldn’t use this often.
- UA (#3) Great damage, but you should only have to use this if you are stuck in melee and need the evade.
- DP (#4) Block while escaping melee.
- GS (#5) Try to step back into team, or use on a target with stability to strip & get distance (step happens regardless of pull).

Legends… (assume default position for legend skills)
Dragon/Glint:
Start the match by loading up your team with boons. Feel free to drain all of your energy. I usually F2a, #7a, #8a, #9a at the start. Pop #7b, #9b early and turn on #0a. Right before engagement pop F2b, and drop #8b on enemies and legend swap.
- Infuse Light (#6b) as needed. Can be used while stunned. Add FoC (#0a) after Infuse for protection.
- Gaze of Darkness (#7b) is a stun break AND an AoE reveal. Use as needed.

Assassin/Shiro:
I usually swap to this on initial engagement. I use daggers (#6) offensively. Impossible Odds (#9) only if you are being ignored. Otherwise, save enough energy to use RS (#7).
- Always keep an escape route behind you (don’t back up to walls).
- escape with the following chain. dodge/dodge/RS/dodge/RS/dodge/RUUUUN!

Final notes…
Usually about halfway through a match the enemy will have realized it’s actually you single-handedly destroying their team. You will be focused more the longer the match progresses. Just be ready with those escapes.

Firebird.8324:

Rym.1469:

Look, someone has lost 1v1.

I play reaper, I can beat them in 1v1s very easily, I’m pointing out a skill that is so braindead OP you use it every time it is off cold down.

If it’s that OP and you still have no problems beating them as a reaper… Sounds like you’re asking for a reaper nerf.

You heard it here folks. The OP is asking for Reaper nerfs.

So I decided to go with a small amount of RP in creating my Revenant. Like Rytlock, I wanted my Revenant to be a re-imagining of one of my other main characters, back from the mists/dead. See my attachment for the two characters.

(both are also wearing Mawdry, but it doesn’t show up on the character select screen)

The funny thing is, if you step back about 300 units, it would work fine. The charge/dash needs to complete before your character will teleport the rest of the way

I really like jalis as well. My only frustration with him are the high energy costs. You can forget ever casting right of the great dwarf.

Burtnik.5218:

bugs

That’s a really great comprehensive list. Thanks for posting.

Gah… seriously. I feel like going back to guardian or mesmer now. This sucks.

Vyce.2014:

Thank you for the post! I’m glad it’s being looked at. That said, PLEASE DON’T ADD THE PREEMPTIVE PATHING CHECK! This will break the skill in other ways for me.

Nevermind. The 5s cooldown that was just added pretty much removed this function from the skill. I’m sticking with glint swiftness now. You can put this one on the backburner.

tyler.2569:

Bummer
I had a feeling it would get nerfed, but dang did I like this without the cool down. It was the first thing about Rev. that wowed me.

This.

My favorite skill in the game. Now it’s something else.

Joel Helmich.7398:

This is a bug for sure, but unfortunately there isn’t a simple solution. For context, action camera intentionally does not auto select skill targets if they are out of range, which usually feels better for gameplay as most skills don’t work on out-of-range targets anyway. The exception cases were enemy-targeted shadowstep skills, such as Guardian sword 2, so I put in special logic to allow these skills to be used on a target when out of range, so long you aim at the target (though there is currently a bug with this when you have autotargeting off; see this post that I made over on the Thief forums). Specifically, the client knows whether or not to target the out-of-range enemy because the skill being used does preemptive path checking, where the skill is stopped early if no path to the target can be found.

The way Phase Traversal works is that it does a short dash and then a shadowstep toward the target, which is a pretty unusual thing. Because the majority of travel distance in the skill is from a shadowstep, it may make sense to flag this skill as needing a preemptive pathing check, so that you don’t waste it on unfavorable terrain; this would also immediately fix the described bug. However, at the same time, there is a non-zero component of travel that comes from the dash, so stopping the skill because of pathing might seem wrong in some cases. It is something that will have to be pondered.

Thank you for the post! I’m glad it’s being looked at. That said, PLEASE DON’T ADD THE PREEMPTIVE PATHING CHECK! This will break the skill in other ways for me.

Instead can you put in some logic that allows the right click target lock to be a true target regardless of range? Because right now it won’t work even with a manual right click to lock target either. This would fix it without changing the way the skill functions.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Lots of passionate feedback and discussion in here on either side, and a friendly reminder that constructive feedback helps us make better games (please do keep it constructive!) We don’t always get every detail perfect the first time, but I like to think one of our strengths is we’re always open to and listening to feedback from our community and making good decisions based on that feedback.

Ultimately, we’re thrilled with the parts of HoT everyone is enjoying. Your passion is awesome, and it’s part of why we all love creating this game. In particular, in game we’ve seen a really positive reaction to the game from folks who are busy playing, which has been really cool to see.

While we never like to rush and make snap decisions, in particular with a game that’s basically been out less than three days; I think there are some fair points in here for us to discuss. Much like other feedback about HoT, we’ll be discussing this as well!

Thanks again!

I really wish you have us some kind of quest chain or collection to unlock the elites, instead of mastery gated hero points. I’m fine with the idea of a long mastery grind, as long as it’s not blocking our elites. What about revenants that didn’t have 200 hps stored up?

The hero point/elite specs thing is my biggest complaint. Getting elite specs unlocked on my alts will be a huge pain. If they had created some kind of collection/quest chain to unlock them… that could have been interesting. I was really excited about trying all the new elites, but now feel like i’ll only focus on SPvP, since I can enjoy them without the really long grinds.

Please note: if you have balance concerns with phase traversal, this is not what the topic is about.

Phase Traversal has two different behaviors depending on whether or not you have Action Camera enabled.

Action cam off: You can target mobs farther than 1200 away. Used Phase Traversal, and teleport/shadow-step 1200 toward your target.

Action cam on: Regardless of how you target a mob, tab-target, right-click to lock, or just aim your crosshairs, you cannot use Phase Traversal at all unless the target is within 1200 range.

Sidenti.6035:

Vyce.2014:

I can’t seem to do these solo and really need some help finishing them off. I need the following…

Point of No Return Mastery:
- It’s all about Timing

Seeds of Truth Mastery
- Wicked Rodeo
- don’t tread on me
- dodgy crowd

i’ll pay for help… 2g per achievement.

I don’t see how buying help is going to assist you with at least two of those achievements (Don’t Tread on Me, Dodgy Crowd). But good luck, I guess. -Sid

Well, having at least one other person in the instance would allow me to play as a my main skillset, in this case, ranged attacks.

Edit: In case anyone runs across this, I’ve finished these. Help is no longer needed.

I can’t seem to do these solo and really need some help finishing them off. I need the following…

Point of No Return Mastery:
- It’s all about Timing [done]

Seeds of Truth Mastery
- Wicked Rodeo [done]
- don’t tread on me [done]
- dodgy crowd [done]

i’ll pay for help… 2g per achievement.

i missed it. anyone have a video link?

IIRC, this skill reduced damage by 50%. How does this work with the Protection boon?

- additive? (83% DR)
- multiplicative? (66% DR)
- or does it not stack? (50% DR even if protection is on)

Any ideas?

My question is how will trait/skill unlocks work after leveling this way? I haven’t done this sort of thing since they changed everything.

From Mesmer,

Clones
Pretending to be a clone in pvp
Stealth
Portal
My greatsword skin, Volcanus. I worked hard for that thing…

On the flip side, I now get to work toward Mjolnir.

This is a great thread. I second the baseline fast hands suggestion. I don’t have anything else to add other than that.

Chokolata.1870:

The main issue with berserker is that is very limited how core warrior is limited. For any sort of PvP play you need fast hands and thus you need discipline. Furthermore, PvP mandates defensive options, especially on a melee class thus you need Defense.

In the end you give up a lot of potential build options because you need to go into Discipline and Defense. All because of fast hands.

Fast hands need to be made baseline for berserker to have any chance of a condition build possible.

I agree. Or berserker could somehow also reduce swap CD. They’d just need to keep it from stacking with the other to prevent 0 CD swaps

brently.7946:

I’m so confused. Title reads fix meta. Then you say don’t fix meta. Then you say we should have more toughness and that it should be reworked for condi damage. And healing should be scaled better. Then you say toughness effecting condi is your only concern. Then you say you’re not saying if it should or should not effect condi. Then you start talking about turning knobs.

…. I’m so lost.

I didn’t say “fix meta” I said “fixing the meta”

The difference is that they are now doing something to change the meta. I’m simply making some suggestions on things to consider… Increasing incoming damage isn’t enough. The defensive stats should be more meaningful. Right now you trade too much damage for small defensive gains.

Misguided.5139:

Don’t forget that you can rearrange the utility skills if you like. I find that helpful on certain legends.

I had no idea… That’s awesome

I will say that the glint skill icons need some recolor work so that it’s a little easier to see what state they are in out of the corner of your eye. I do really love the ground overlay for that purpose though.

Kirschsahne.2081:

If you would have followed the last interviews you would know that they are looking into “Toughness” since a longer time.

It would be great to know what their plans are. I’m currently mapping out my next ascended set…

Kirschsahne.2081:

Vyce.2014:

EDIT: I’M NOT ASKING FOR THE ZERKER META TO BE FIXED. I’M FINE WITH IT! PLEASE READ MY POST.

TLDR: Defensive & Offensive stats don’t trade equally. Increase the effectiveness of defensive stats so a trade makes more sense. Dodging, Protection, and Condi cleanse make all the difference in survivability. Toughness/vitality/healing power have less influence.

If you would have followed the last interviews you would know that they are looking into “Toughness” since a longer time.
And they also stated that they will change toughness to make the difference.
They are going into the right direction bringing roles like healer or tank back.
The life like Zerker knew it will end very soon and it can’t come early enough.
Anything that bring in diversity is most welcome

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that.

My only concern with looking at toughness specifically is that it currently doesn’t reduce condition damage. I’m not saying it should or shouldn’t… Just that if they only increase the effect of toughness vs DD, then condis will be an even bigger potential problem. If they DID add condi damage reduction to toughness, they could simply increase condi damage across the board since everything has toughness and it should be an easy knob to turn.

Man, so much hate.

Let’s be clear here… I didn’t say they needed to fix the zerker meta. Of course a ton of people HAVE said that and complained about that in the past. And apparently Anet is making raids hard enough that the zerker meta won’t work or some such thing…

My point is simply that just increasing incoming damage won’t be enough. Instead, i’m simply suggesting that that the stat trade should feel significant. Again, trading huge outgoing damage for minor defensive increases doesn’t make a lot of sense. Having access to the protection boon, or condi cleansing has a FAR greater impact on survivability right now than even going full defensive stats. While on the other hand, if you do go full defensive stats, your damage is garbage.

EDIT: I’M NOT ASKING FOR THE ZERKER META TO BE FIXED. I’M JUST RAISING CONCERNS WITH THE TRADEOFF BETWEEN DAMAGE STATS AND DEFENSIVE STATS! PLEASE READ MY POST.

Since it was recently mentioned by a dev that the Zerker meta won’t work well in raids, I’ve tried some alternative options as well as looked at a lot of various feedback posts. One thing I’ve noticed and now remember since the last time I dove into theory crafting, is that one big reason why Zerker is a thing is because all defensive stats are so ineffective.

Why should I trade 30% of my damage for 1-2k more hp, or 5-10% dmg reduction, or 1000 more heal on my #6?

That trade doesn’t make since when the biggest factor in surviving is dodging, protection, condi cleanse and knowing enemy/encounter mechanics.

So if Arenanet wants to kill/reduce the Zerker meta, they need to make a few changes…

1) reduce all base defensive stats (toughness/vitality) on player characters, so that stat increases make a larger difference.
2) increase toughness/vitality conversions (more armor/hp per point).
3) increase healing power coefficients across the board, but reduce base healing numbers to compensate.

The biggest concern after making the above changes would likely be a rise of the pvp bunker meta. This can be solved in spvp by simply adjusting the amulet numbers. In wvw, I’m not sure.

TLDR: Defensive & Offensive stats don’t trade equally. Increase the effectiveness of defensive stats so a trade makes more sense. Dodging, Protection, and Condi cleanse make all the difference in survivability. Toughness/vitality/healing power have less influence.

Karl McLain.5604:

Hi all,
Let’s use this thread as the main place for feedback, if possible. Please keep it constructive! We’ll be able to make a few changes between now and Heart of Thorns launch, but they will likely be smaller. We’ve already got some in testing, but I’ll talk about those a bit later.
So, if you’ve got feedback, send it on in! Animations are in-progress, you’ll notice that we’ve got a few stubs in for the dodge abilities. note: This isn’t all of the animations we’re working on, but further feedback on animations at this point (we’ve been locked down for quite a while) won’t be very useful. We’ll be looking at making smaller adjustments as time fades, so feedback in that area is definitely easier to action.
Enjoy the BWE!
-Karl

As discussed in another thread, DD dodges should be on an F3 toggle. Not the dodge activation itself obviously… but hitting f3 should rotate to a different dodge (may need CD in combat). This will not only give the DD added utility, but it should make room for more trait ideas. Losing interesting trait options just to access a part of the spec mechanic is making thieves salty.

Ohoni.6057:

This is non-negotiable, we absolutely need a UI button to swap Daredevil Dodges. This can either be f3-f5 each picking one, or a single button that rotates between them, and they can put a cooldown on swapping or whatever they feel is necessary, but a button IS necessary.

I love Lotus, when I’m in combat, but I absolutely HATE how if I’m just roaming around and dodge, I suddenly agro everything around me. It’s not practical. I also would love to use Dash while roaming around, but it’s not the best for me in combat, so I need the ability to switch between them on the fly, even if this is restricted to out of combat only it would be an improvement.

As they stand, the dodges are more annoying to manage than they are a positive, we need confirmation that they are at least working on this, but so far they’ve remained complete silent.

This is a great idea. So far I’ve only thought about some sort of toggle/selector in order to give DD room for more trait options. But to easily allow out-of-combat (or in-combat with a cooldown) would be amazing.

I’m just curious if anyone has tried anything drastically different from the norm so far this BWE.

I have a new sPvP build I’m trying and I look forward to sharing it after a little more testing tonight. It’s a little gimmicky but a lot of fun.

Hint: the primary weapon set is P/P and there’s no crit-hit in the build.

What are you guys trying?

I could be wrong, but it seems like someone at Anet decided to encourage the raid team to post in this thread. Of course it’s possible that each individual is posting of their own accord. Regardless, the flood of employee tags in this thread is really great to see. I hope Anet recognizes the positive response I know they’ll receive for such simple communication. Furthermore, I really hope this encourages the leadership to mandate more community interactions. This kind of thing really is great for the health of the game and community.

cheers

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Hey all,

The Reflexive Hammers trait in retribution is going to be changed after BWE3, before launch. Right now since it uses projectiles that hover around you, they currently don’t work underwater and I think it no longer really fits the line as that is more about damage, plus it muddies the FXs around the character when the actual hammers are around you.

Soooooo…. I wanted to throw out an idea I had about a new GM trait for retribution to place it and see what you all think. The trait would be more dwarf stance focused since we don’t have a dwarf stance specific trait.

• It would give you some way to proc Rite of the Great Dwarf like at some percent health trigger or something and then make Rite of the Great Dwarf (both proc and the skill) have reduced condition damage taken as well while allies have the buff.

Let me know what you think.

Now that you mention it, the condi damage reduction really should be baseline. If the purpose of the skill is to give you and your party some burst tankiness, it’s worthless in situations where condition damage is the primary incoming source. Obviously this should be balanced with an overall smaller % reduction. And I still feel like the elite should act like the Mallyx elite in that it is a toggle/upkeep. You’d have to remove the cast time and stun break to make it an upkeep skill. But I think it would be worth it for the on-demand DR.

edit: Speaking of which… the wiki says it has a 1.25s cast time and breaks stun… how does that work? Does it only break allies that are stunned?