Guild Wars 2

The continuum shift ability will be fun with Mantras. Charge the Mantra, later use continuum shift, burn the mantras, second activation of continuum shift, burn the mantras again!

…I need to work on leveling my mesmer more

Also it looked like in the video there is a well that pulls enemies toward the center with each tick and then at expiration causes damage. Anyone else get that impression?

peterpat.8196:

smilko.4056:

and continuum sounds great if you’re having trouble with jumping puzzle use it, jump, fail, use it again and you’re back where you started

The changes sound amazing for wvw and pvp, but with the lack of phantasms, on x/shield setup, which are a major part of mesmer’s pve damage, I wonder if the wells and shield skills pack enough punch to compensate. Otherwise I dont see myself running Shield outside pvp or wvw.

But… But… Wouldnt you go back to before the jump, even if you succeeded?

When you use Continuum Split, you’ll sacrifice all your illusions and will split yourself off from the normal flow of time, based on the number of illusions you shattered. When this duration is over, or when the mesmer activates the follow-up skill Continuum Shift, they’ll revert back to the location where the skill was first activated.

Yep.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

That reminds me.. Signet of Illusions will likely be hella valuable when chronomancer drops.

But continuum shift is a two-part skill, so it won’t go on cooldown until after you activate signet of illusions. Unfortunately this means you can’t eternally reset F5.

You mean won’t go on cooldown until Continuum shift is activated a second time (either by time expiring or by choice). Effect is as you describe though, can’t eternally reset F5.

Kal Spiro.9745:

heartless.6803:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Hearte.6852:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Test.8734:

lordkrall.7241:

Of course not, but it might very well be up for a weekend or even a full week or two.

And do you know why all you can do is say what “might” be, instead of what will be?

Because this guy is right:

mulzi.8273:

i have no issue with the way they are controlling access to the beta. However, I wish they would provide full disclosure on what will be in the beta to everyone, even if its just a write up.

ArenaNet is (again) having horrible communication. They told people how to get access to the beta, but they haven’t announced when will the beta be, or what kind of content it will have, or any other relevant information.

What if someone spends a lot of time grinding for access (because that’s effectively the only way to get access, by grinding), and the beta happens to be in a day in which said someone is busy? Whose fault do you think that would be?

ArenaNet should at least have told us when is the beta going to be, and what content it will feature. But no, they didn’t manage to do even that.

What part of closed do you not understand. Closed beta means they don’t talk about it, that you don’t get know ahead of time unless you’re in it.

LoL, what? If this is your definition of “closed beta”, you’re sadly mistaken. It only means that the beta is limited to a certain number/group of players.

And unless you are one of those people it’s none of your business, so you don’t need to know. They will be informing those that get in, when it is and what it’s about, because that is what closed means.

There may or may not be an NDA attached to the close beta, but most likely there won’t be. Closed beta just means invite only. It has nothing to do with the level of secrecy involved with that. NDA’s will determine, if applicable, what you can and cannot talk about in closed betas. To be honest NDA’s are kinda a dying trend in gaming. They used to be great for generating hype but now that the market is so flooded with new games companies are more compelled to talk about things.

Yeah, that wasn’t really my point. I don’t think there will be an NDA, not considering the amount of information they’re released themselves. Once they let you play the game at the cons they generally drop the NDA.

What I’m getting at is, since it’s invite only they’re not announcing a time. It isn’t like an open beta where anyone can come in so you need to know when it is. In a closed beta then invite you and only those who are invited get told when it is and what’s going on. Since, technically, no one has actually been invited yet, since the contest is still on, there has been no reason for them to provide that information to anyone.

They’ve already confirmed no NDA.

BrooksP.4318:

Algreg.3629:

randomization is a working method to get valid empirical results. It is not that hard to understand really. Beta access is not something given out for funsies to the players, but, as the word beta test heavily implies, to test things. Another concept that isn´t really hard to understand.

While correct on the first part, the second part not really. Most public or open betas are usually about “funsies”, at least from a players standpoint. They are commonly just used as stress tests and not so much for actual beta or bug testing. Since by the point where they do public betas, most issues are known and are already under internal testing and fixing(or ignored).

Most likely this is a stress test on events in a SW/Drytop style PVE map for HoT. Hence the choice of RNG and that RNG being gained from those maps.

Not following your logic. If it was a stress test for the type of events like those of SW/Drytop, then they’d want a similar amount of players to the amount running them in the live environment now, not a subset of them who get the drop.

I don’t think this beta is a stress test. I think this beta is for testing new features for bugs. Particularly, I’m betting, the new specialization system/UI since they will be rolling that out before the rest of the expansion is ready. Of course that’s just my guess and pure speculation.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Tomoyo.3482:

i kinda hope we get to keep the stone looks nice. but i got super lucky getting it within an hour XD

I think accidentally sold one to a vendor. I wasn’t keen on what the icon looked liked and was only looking for something that specifically stated it was for beta. I sold a bunch of stuff to a vendor, junk, trophies etc, and moved on. Later I saw the icon in another post and thought, “Hey that looks familiar.” LOL.

Wouldn’t matter. Once you get portal your account is flagged. If you sell it or destroy it you still will have access to beta.

Parktou.4263:

First things first, GoEP becomes an Elite Signet with the same effects becoming the passive ability minus some of the trigger chance, while activating it could maybe grant the user all attunement bonuses simultaneously for a short duration.(15-30 seconds?) Showing some love for signets as well here. 60-90 second cooldown

Glyph of storms should have it’s CD reduced to 45 seconds and maybe update some of the storms to make them more effective(such as daze chance on air storm).

Glyph of Lesser Elementals is fine where it’s at, maybe change the Air/Earth elementals active abilities to something more useful.

Glyph of Elementals(the elite) is also good where it’s at but a slight reduction in the base CD would be appreciated(90 seconds?) Also, again change some of the active abilities. Water Ele should produce a water field, maybe Earth becomes a blast finisher, Air gets longer stun(2-3 seconds?), Fire is fine I think, maybe just more burning bolts and possibly ground targeting for some of these?

Glyph of Renewal is surprisingly good, except for that ridiculous cooldown, soo……..reduction? No worries, no one’s gonna take it anyways

Ether Renewal as is becomes a glyph, replacing Glyph of Elemental Harmony as the Glyph heal.

Glyph of Elemental Harmony than gets scrapped/repurposed into a utility. It would still give boons as it did before but now it will also give an aura based on the attunement you’re in such as,

Glyph of Elemental Nature
Fire-Fire Shield + 3 stacks of Might
Water-Frost Aura + Regeneration
Air-Shocking Aura + Swiftness
Earth-Magnetic Aura + Protection
All auras are given a 5 second duration and boons will be whatever duration they would have been on the heal.
60 second cooldown seems fair, maybe even 75.

Long live the Auramancers I suppose? Anyways, just my opinions, as long as ER doesn’t become a Cantrip I’ll be happy.

lol, I like how your first suggestion on how to fix glyphs is to turn one of them into a signet. Makes a telling statement about the state some glyphs are currently in.

lloydst.6985:

first off aside from the RNG aspect of this event i like the opportunity to be able to participate in the beta.

Now anet i understand that aside from this being a chance to let players be able to “work” for getting into the beta. it is also a way to get players back into the game.

there are a few problems doin it the way you have:
1. shure its fun with a couple of guildy’s but the map/farm gets dull after 1-2 hours
2. there are other gamemode’s people like playing more ( wvw and pvp)
3. the chances are bigger you burn out more players by doing a event like this in this way, then you will get back to playing the game.

now back to my 2nd point i myself primarily pvp (wvw on raid days), now i understand we had the stronghold gamemode for 24 hours but that doesn’t make up for the fact that the beta keys(for easy of speech) dont drop from pvp, everything else is obtainable through pvp why not this? instead you make people who usually either defend objectives in wvw or prefer to pvp, jump into the most toxic and mindnumbing game mode we have. FOR A CHANCE at playing the new content (i am more interested in the revenant)

The closed beta is not a chance for you to play the new content, it’s a chance for anet to have their new content TESTED. There is a difference. If a person burns out doing this activity they are probably not going to repeat the same activity multiple times in the beta to see if you can get the same random bug to happen.

Most likely, that type of person (who burns out) would hop onto the beta rush through whatever content they have available this build and then quit once they’ve done it all or hit a bug that prevents them from going further. That is not the kind of testers they need.

Zok.4956:

A few minutes ago some one in dry top linked the portal in chat and said, he got it from a event bonus chest.

So, they are dropping. But not so often as a lot of people hoped.

Judging that most people probably hoped they drop enough that they will get one on the first attempt (as first play period trying, not first enemy killed), I’d say that was an inevitable let down for them.

Algreg.3629:

I don´t know why you should pay for it, that is really a thing you have to decide for yourself. But you have to pay for it. Why? Because it is like that.

If you logged in week after week during the LS releases, anet let you have it for free because they figure you are probably spending money on gems for other things at one point or another (i.e. they are already getting money from you.) If you play in spurts, skipping several months at a time, you are probably not and thus charging a small amount of new content since your last login helps them still get revenue from you, which helps to fund future new content and keep the game up and running.

Smart business practice if you ask me. (and I fall in the later category, having paid to unlock probably about 75% of LS season 2)

SpyderBite.6274:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Cars or not we have nothing to do and expansion is not coming any time soon. So yeah. We need something.

I think you’re overestimating the “we”. I don’t think as many people as you think have actually completed 100% of the content. Maybe a handful.

I doubt anyone has. I DO believe that some people have completed everything they CARE to in the game, but that is a personal preference on their part and does not necessarily demand attention from anet (especially over efforts to finish expansion.)

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

I think there are clues, that we get more skills for core professions. The whole categorization of the skills shows me, that they try to balance the categories. And it would be cool and fair to have 6 skills of every category (at least 1 heal, 3 utility and 1 elite).

A Ranger categoization-example:
We’ve 5 categories
Signets: 4 utility
Shouts: 4 utility
Survival: 4 utility, 1 elite
Spirits: 4 ultility, 1 healing, 1 elite
Traps: 4 utility
4 uncategorized: Rampage As One, Heal As One, Healing Spring and Troll Unguent

So with the categoization their will be probably, nearly 6 skills of every category. 1 healing, 1 elite and 4 utilities.

Signets: 4 utility
Shouts: 4 utility + Rampage As One (Elite) + Heal As One (Heal)
Survival: 4 utility, 1 elite + Troll Unguent (Heal)
Spirits: 4 ultility, 1 healing, 1 elite
Traps: 4 utility + probably Healing Spring (Heal)

For five complete sets are just needed: 1 heal signet, 1 elite signet, 1 elite trap.

In beta times there was an trap called dust trap. which cause blindness (perfect for elite). And it would be easy to design 2 signets for ranger healing and elite (no new animations or kits or something like the engineer gets with his mortar).

So I don’t know what about the other classes, but is it possible, that there could be new skills for all core professions that every profession get 6 skills for each category?

You might eventually get six total skills for each category, but they won’t necessarily have all six in that skills reward track. The elite spec reward track will be used to unlock the new skills, even if it is another, let say, signet skill. I don’t see the reward tracks growing any larger than they are at HoT release (and it’s been confirmed that the new skills for each profession on HoT release are tied to the elite spec.)

Diovid.9506:

Doing something like this will eventually require all warriors to be norn, all spellcasters to be asura, all rangers to sylvari and so on, both in PvP and in dungeons/fractals. This is the exact reason why Anet only made races important for looks and story and why Anet made racial skills relatively weak.

Only for min-maxers and you could make the same argument for class. i.e. if you will be doing PvE dungeon you need to run X class, if you want to WvW need to be X class. Racial skills and traits could be done in a way the provide value, but still allow variety or choice. Not that getting to that point would be immediate, easy, or worth it. All I’m saying is it’s possible.

Nyx.7342:

TurtleofPower.5641:

Your drop rate should go up the more you’re in those areas… if they cared about doing it fairly. In reality you’re going to hear a lot of “my friend who never plays” stories because that’s what happens with RNG.

Or they should just let it drop in all game modes? so that people who enjoy things other than grindfests could get one….

But people who enjoy grindfests are the best bug testers. Repeating the same action over and over is the definition for both grinders and bug testers.

Jedge.3619:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Donari.5237:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Gobble D Goop.4081:

I dont think that PETA would approve of the vast extermination of all living creatures that is likely going on in the Maguuma Wastes as of about 2 hours ago (well maybe everything except the legendary sand giant). I wonder if Anet is keeping a tab of how many creatures are exterminated in these zones for however long this event lasts. That would be an interesting number to see.

That’s funny because they said the Sand Giant always drops one. People should get on that. I know I will once I get home from work.

I joined a Sand Giant kill when it was under 1/2 health. I don’t recall if I got silver or gold credit. I certainly didn’t get a portal.

You must have done it wrong, cause it is definitely a guaranteed drop.

Just did giant and didn’t get the beta invite

He was joking.

Artaz.3819:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

What would be the point of making the portals common enough that 100 people would get more than 1 during an hour of playtime?

Super stress test

Those are called OPEN betas.

I’m aware, but if you are talking about changing a trait for the entire class, then the effect needs to be looked at in terms of both PvE and PvP. If you’re just talking about what’s wrong with it, then sure you can ignore one side or the other.

When discussing change all traits actually need to be evaluated so that you can be sure you have a balance of traits that are useful for PvP and PvE (since it is not always possible to make a trait useful for both.) Of course that would be a nightmare to do on a forum thread and should be what the developers are doing in their own internal discussions.

Donari.5237:

After a full round of SW, with people topping up on MF food and MF bonfires, no one got one. I joined the last 15 minutes of a Dry Top Tier V, and the most I’ve seen in map chat is one person saying “someone in my guild got it.”

There’s rare, then there’s Preserved Queen Bee rare. This may be a small beta.

Or they may adjust to the drop rate later to bump their numbers. Seriously, how many hours has this been available before people are saying it’s hopeless. There is probably a large subset of people who haven’t even had a chance yet because they’ve been at work.

It’s understandable that the drop rate would at least start out on the low side until they had an idea of just how many players are ACTIVELY trying to get Beta keys. You can bet they have a max number range of testers in mind. So you start off with low drops and as time passes, if you are not getting enough testers you increase the drop rate. If you are getting too many you decrease it. No one said that the drop rate chance was going to stay the same for the ENTIRE event.

Probably depend on the trait options chosen from the elite spec trait line. There are bound to be some weapon dependent ones and if you picked them, they will go to waste if not using new weapon. That is true of weapon specific traits in the core spec lines as well though. There will probably be some traits from the elite spec though that could still benefit you outside of the new spec weapon. Otherwise taking an elite spec might as well just disable weapons switching.

silvermember.8941:

How about instead of giving them more terrible ideas to ruin the class we first give them suggestions to fix the other terrible traits? Yes diamond skin is passive and blah blah blah, but it seems Arena net doesn’t know what to do with the elementalist anything that gives them an advantage until the other issues in fire, air and arcane are fix is a win win.

Also as for the first suggestion about making it attunement based, how would you know what conditions are incoming to change to the proper attunement? The only class you could predict is the guardian or other ele making the trait worthless. Passive play is bad yes, but the game is full of it and if you want to get rid of it, you should start with classes that are currently too powerful not classes that have been nerfed to the ground.

While I don’t agree with the suggested trait change you are responding to, you could also predict conditions coming for PvE enemies (again wouldn’t want this trait to happen, but you were clearly only thinking of the PvP side of the trait.)

Raif.9507:

Elementalist as a class functions off boons that you generate, EAttunement generates said boons. Without them, you’re working at a lower efficiency compared to other classes who are not as boon reliant. Without EAttunement, the class feels as if it’s lacking something.

Then maybe in addition to making EAttunement a GM trait, they increase the base efficiency of the Elementalist to be less boon reliant, thus making the boons a bonus and not a requirement (although I have a feeling that the reason this isn’t being asked for by many is a lack of faith that anet can successfully implement that kind of change.)

TurtleofPower.5641:

Xehanort.4589:

This means that the playerbase will be divided in those who won’t be able to use specializations (aka those who didn’t purchase HoT) and those who can. My fear is that in the future, after the first set of specializations will be released, they will make the new ones a gem store purchase.

Firstly, I don’t think they’ll be quick to release new elite specializations outside of expansions. They have been extremely shy about adding skills and such to the game since GW2 came out. Heck half the existing elite skills and traits are still dog poop because they are so balance paranoid, and you’re worrying they’re going to rush out gem store elite character tracks? I wouldn’t worry. That stuff will be very rare, the way they have doing things, so rare that it probably will never have a chance to make it the gem store as a standalone.

If it did you would see a PVP community revolt… but like I said seems far-fetched that it would become a skin of the month thing… (they already did that for PVP with finishers)

The reason for the rework of the core traits is to make it easier for them to add new trait lines and skills in the future, something they felt was hard to do with the existing system (explaining why they hadn’t so far). I do agree that they will not be releasing them frequently. It will be a big deal when they do, although I could see them doing it outside of an expansion.

Jekkt.6045:

with the difference that thieves gan go into stealth every 4s and auras have 20-40s cooldowns.

With some of the aura traits it could trigger more often, but the proposed trait would basically be useless without those others slotted, i.e. would just be for auramancers.

Lihne.4760:

Remove conditions periodically when you have an aura on you.
Conditions removed : 1
Interval : 3 seconds

Just like the thief’s trait Shadow’s Embrace which is an adapt trait…

Could you make Windborn Dagger baseline too ?

Unlikely, since the have a signet that basically does the same thing with a much longer CD (Signet of Water). I’d rather have them make this what the signet does.

Hidori.3472:

lougar.3698:

Hidori.3472:

I think you’re wrong:

Elite Specialization Reward Tracks

Finally, these reward tracks unlock everything for an elite specialization: weapon, unique mechanics, skills, and traits. They’ll also reward items, including new runes and sigils, a fancy weapon skin for your new weapon type, and an armor skin for a single matching piece of armor (usually headgear or shoulders). As long as you’ve purchased Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, you’ll automatically unlock access to all elite specializations in PvP.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/

meaning, you have a reward track for that and if you have purchased HoT, you just get them unlocked right away.

Doesn’t it say that if you bought the expansion you unlock the elite specs in pvp. so you still have to buy the expack for the reward track

I don’t think so. HoT brings changes to the whole player base and one of those changes is that mentioned reward track. Now when you buy the expansion you just get them unlocked from the start. that’s all.

So you’re saying the releasing ALL expansion content for free if you work to unlock it and those who choose to pay will have it immediately? That make absolutely no financial sense. HoT bring SOME changes to the whole player base, but others will not be available (locked, permanently) until HoT is purchased. I believe this will be all masteries and the elite specs. The reward tracks for the core specialization, however, will be what is available to all, as that is more of a redesign of the existing content.

I believe HoT will allow you to pursue elite specialization, now and in the future.

i.e. If you don’t have HoT you won’t be able to get any elite specializations. If you do have HoT, when they come out with more elite specs, you will be able to pursue them. No paywall beside the expansion itself.

Solution: Equip a piece of gear with Healing Power. Problem solved.

Cherokeewill.7504:

Anet has stated that many of the new zones will have meta events like Dry Top and Silverwastes. I think this idea is brilliant even if I don’t luck into the drop. Consider the pool of players Anet targets with this scheme;

1. All members are level 80
2. All members have experience working meta events
3. All members are available for this timeslot to actively play
4. Many members are likely to have Commander Tags
5. All members are actively playing at the moment and not just waiting on a email
6. Some members may even be from coordinated guilds (i.e. Dry Top L6 guild)
7. I’m certain there are far more metrics involved that I missed.

Please be honest with yourself. This pool is far better to test/stress a meta heavy zone than a group of twice monthly loggers and World Boss farmers.

All members are willing to repeat the same activity over and over. A necessity when bug testing.

Your suggestions would make it more of an element swapping skill, which would make it more of and Arcane specialization trait than and Earth one.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

By definition ‘elite’ is something other than ‘core’. Once you make a specialization ‘elite’, it won’t be ‘core’ any more.

Some truth to this as the profession mechanic is being “altered” for elite professions.

My thoughts:

Glyph of Storms:
Fire - Increase burning duration. If burning stacks (which it looks like it might with HoT) this will become for useful.
Air - Probably good as is. Nice vuln burst.
Water - Add an effect for allies inside the aoe. Either regen or maybe a % chance on tick to cure condition.
Earth - Good as is.

Glyph of Elemental Power - this needs lots of work, but has potential if syncs better with traits.
Fire - should be good if burning starts to stack. will sync nice with burning ashes.
Water - should be vulnerability instead of chill to sync with piercing shards.
Air - should be some sort of disabling effect so it triggers lightning rod (would need to be very short in duration to prevent from being OP)
Earth - extra stacks of bleeding to help get high stacks of bleeding on target faster and sync with serrated stones.

Glyph of Renewal - this would be better as a personal revival that you burn before being downed (i.e. activate and for the next, lets say 10 seconds, if you are downed you instantly revive with effect based on attunement.) The nearly 3 minute CD already in place would prevent this from being abused.
Fire - aoe knockback (i.e. Explosive Rebirth!)
Water - same as now, full health revival
Air - aoe blind (Lightning Flash Revival!)
Earth - similar to as is now, revives you and nearby downed allies.

Glyph of Lesser Elementals - No real changes except making the non-earth elementals a little more survivable/survivable period (and improving our other Elites. Not much point in taking this if you’ve taken Glyph of Greater Elemental as your Elite)

Glyph of Greater Elementals - See notes on lesser.

Rin.1046:

It is an interesting idea on how to give access to the beta. However, while I’m not worried whether I get into beta, as I’m happy to wait for release, I have a feeling this idea may cause more frustration than happiness.

Firstly, is using the RNG a wise choice when many players are already sick to death of bad luck in this game? Secondly, is the number of beta access drops limited? Or is it potentially possible that everyone will get in? If it is limited those who are unable to get on early enough, due to work or whatever, are not going to be pleased with another time limited event, especially after the last time that idea failed.

My hope is that the drops are unlimited, with the only limit being one per player, and that there is a good enough chance of getting the drop that anyone playing for an hour or two will be pretty much guaranteed access.

Anything less than that will likely cause anger from many. I hope Anet has balanced this right.

I’m betting the “limit” is more a range than a hard number and that the drop rate will be dynamically adjusted (up AND down) to ensure that the number falls within that range. I doubt that portals will stop dropping before the allotted time period is up (they may seem like they are due to a decreased drop rate)

Test.8734:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Looks like Silverwastes and Dry Top will be humming with players!

ArenaNet: “We don’t want players to grind!”

ArenaNet: “Oh, and if you want early access to the expansion, just grind the grindiest map in the game over and over! If RNG favors you, you will get an invite!”

I guess we know what kind of content the expansion will have, if even the beta invites are hidden behind a grind wall.

You do realize that this isn’t “early access” to the expansion. It’s testing out bugs in it, specifically repeatable bugs. Which means they need people who are willing to do the same actions over and over to test out results.

Funny how the method to gain testers matches up so well with the type of testers they need, huh?

Now that’s dedication!

Conner.4702:

Nilix.2170:

Morfedel.4165:

Nilix.2170:

So you want the portal that takes you into the Heart of Thorns to drop in locations that are nowhere close or related to the Heart of Thorns?

How do you figure that? HoT is in maguuma. Drytop and Silverwastes are in Maguuma. So… ?

The question was more directed to the person suggesting that the portal drop would probably be better as a game-wide added thing. I mean, in terms of absolutely everything, the decision to do it this way looks to be more of a lore-choice than anything. It’s an object that appears to active players who are closest to the new content. If a “portal” drops in the middle of my Caudecus Manor run, sweet! That’s cool, I guess. It just… doesn’t make as much sense. Why is this portal item in my dungeon run?

Why it would be better to have them drop anywhere? Well because you don’t want a small subset of players to only do your testing, you want a wide variety of players. I Consider this move to be a bad business move to be honest.

Anet has this inane fear that not funneling players into specific content is bad, because that is eaxctly what they keep doing, funneling players into specific content.

The subset of players you want for a beta is completely dependent on what you want to test. For all we know this is the perfect way for anet to get the groups of testers they need for this test.

Also, it’s not like they didn’t announce it before hand. People who don’t normally play those areas have been alerted so they can temporarily change their routine for 2 days in hopes of getting an invite.

Everyone needs to remember that betas, especially closed betas, are meant to test a build for bugs or other issues. To do this successfully, during the short window of time that betas allow, you need a large base of players playing for a prolonged amount of time. By basically guaranteeing that the people who are free to spend a lot of time playing the game have a spot in the beta, they are improving their chances of finding gameplay and enjoyment impacting bugs before launch.

The OP said they have limited time to play, meaning they are not the best person to test this. I believe the OP and many who have made similar posts are simply wanting to use the closed beta to get a glimpse of the expansion before launch. We all would like that chance, but in my opinion that is what an OPEN beta is for (that and stress testing).

I will not have time to “grind out” an invite either, but I am glad they are conducting it this way as it will increase the likelihood that at launch the expansion is fairly bug free.

Morfedel.4165:

Nilix.2170:

So you want the portal that takes you into the Heart of Thorns to drop in locations that are nowhere close or related to the Heart of Thorns?

How do you figure that? HoT is in maguuma. Drytop and Silverwastes are in Maguuma. So… ?

I believe he was responding to the guy that said it should be across the entire map.

Satenia.9025:

lordkrall.7241:

What makes you so sure it will be a “grind-fest”? And how is it different from signing up on a list? At least this way they guarantee that the people that get selected actually plays the game.

Looking at how “rare” drops are being handled during festive events or in BLC’s leaves me with no other conclusion. Not sure what you are expecting other than trains of players all trying to tag the mobs for the few seconds they’ll be alive (if at all). Compared to that, signing up on a list is actually fun.

Lastly, farming two maps is a rather poor representation of “actually playing the game”. If these drops were world-wide, I’d agree with you, but like this it just favours players with a lot of spare time and/or luck.

Those to maps are level 80 and a closer representation of the type of content/gameplay that will be encountered in HoT, compared to like a starter zone. This helps ensure that those that play the beta will understand the base-mechanics of the game. They probably could have included a few more high level maps and accomplished the same results, but I get their reasoning behind it.

Also notice that they have this spanning two days. I forsee them looking at the total number of players who received a portal after the first day and either increasing the drop rate if they are not near the numbers they want yet or decreasing the drop rate if they are close.

I found out my EXACT build isn’t possible any more and I’m excited for these changes to be finalized and implemented so that I can put together something new and exciting for me.

The changes being made aren’t solely for the player base. Part of the reason for the overhaul is for the devs to be able to more easily add and balance new skill/trait content in the future. While that may eliminate certain options in the short term, it could open up more in the long term.

Kisai Hikaru.1052:

By the looks of it, a core feature of my build on my elementalist (elemental atunement + Evasive arcana ) is now gone. My build will be even more kittened when the stats and trait-lines get split and stats become solely armour-based. I do hope I can still be running around with my d/d and my current build when this drops and not having to conform to the staff-meta.

The trait and stat split shouldn’t affect build at all if people vary armor pieces more. Less pieces of one armor type (lets say Zerk) will give same bonus as full set now, letting you devote a couple pieces to fill the role your trait stat boost.

Devildoc.6721:

So with upcoming nerfs to Lightning Hammer and Ice Bow to bring them “in line” with Flame Axe and Earth Shield, that basically means they’re being smiter’s booned and taken out of play entirely, because nobody uses Flame axe or earth shield, so OBVIOUSLY the way to deal with ice bow and lightning hammer is to make them not be used too.

Not only does this hurt staff ele PVE (who uses ice bow), but it absolutely cripples Scepter might stacking ele PVE (who uses Lightning Hammer to make up for the terrible sustained damage of scepter)

Why couldn’t they bring Shield and Axe and Greatsword UP to Bow and Hammer’s usefulness, instead of reducing them all to the status of Fiery GS, which is now used for “mobility” great, an elite slot wasted for whirlwind attack and rush, 2 normal warrior weapon skills.

They want to bring Hammer and Bow down a bit, but they did mention how they want to add more to the other conjures to make them more desirable. So they are not necessarily dropping bow and hammer to the other conjures CURRENT level.

Blasting staff was confirmed (for now) on livestream to become default staff functionality.

vectorfox.6894:

The biggest problem with this new system is the fact that we have to be locked into 3 trait lines.

Seriously why is it even there? Moreover, surely you players who like the new system have to agree on this useless restriction.

Nope, don’t have to. I’m excited about the prospect and the tough, impactful choices it will force us to make.

It’s just a difference in how they are communicating their builds. Instead of saying:

I’m a [base profession, ex: ranger] with [elite spec] , [spec #2], and [spec #3]

they say,

I’m a [elite spec, ex: druid] with [spec #2] and [spec #3].

Same thing, they just want the elite spec to “feel” like a different profession altogether.

mrstealth.6701:

RabbitUp.8294:

Now I’m offering you these bundles, and you need to pick 1:

Abyss+Pink Ice+Citrus
Summer Grass+Lilac+Sunrise Breeze
Celestial+Sea Ice+Citrus

Now, you have more than 1 viable choice, even if the number of possible choices is greatly reduced.

There is only 1 viable choice there. The set that includes celestial, because its value is higher than all others combined. If you need/want celestial, you now have it. If you don’t need it, you can sell it, buy all the others and still have a considerable amount of gold left over.

It’s a flawed comparison because dyes have a point of absolute comparison, their value in gold. Traits have no direct comparison.

The truth is that we don’t know how things are being reworked or combined. A trait is still “lost” if it’s combined with a trait in another line that is not useful for a build. We have no reason to assume that traits will be changed in a manner that retain the current amount of viable options.

We know they won’t be combined in a way that will preserve ALL current viable options. To do that they would need to NOT change anything. They have said they are trying to preserve as many as possible (that is in the blog post.)

I’m a little confused by the "A trait is still “lost” if it’s combined with a trait in another line that is not useful for a build" remark.

Are you suggesting that, for example, a trait for the fire trait line will be merged with one for earth? We’ve seen now evidence that this will happen yet.

If you are saying a trait is lost if, for example, an adept is merged with a master and kept at the master level, then that is possible, but only if there is a more appealing Master option.

Finally if you are saying that you are losing a trait because you can’t sink the one or two points into a line to pick up a minor trait or an adept level trait only, then yes that is lost. But I believe that for many (but not all) of those builds, losing that trait would not be “build-breaking” and that the build can adapt to still exit with new functionality given by additional Master/Grandmaster trait choices (of course this is based on my own personal belief and not facts since we do not have enough details on the new trait system yet.)

It just depends on the individuals willingness to adapt to change (and if you are not willing to adapt to change why’d you choose to play an MMO that has a living story that changes the world?)

I’m excited by these changes, especially in light of the stats being disconnected from the trait lines. This could allow for damage heavy build that focus around staying in the water attunement, rather than lightning or fire.

There is no denying that certain options will no longer be available once the new system rolls out and that really sucks for people who have grown to love playing their characters a certain way. However new options will also be available as a result of these changes and you can’t say you won’t enjoy playing those build options as much or maybe even more until you understand the full extent of the trait changes.

In the end there will be some people burned by this, but I don’t think that it will be a grand and “game-ending” as some people are trying to make it out to be.

— Wow, this 6-2-2-2-2 staff ele build is great! So much power, but great utility and versatility! I love it!
Eeeehp! Say goodbye to being versatile. For one, the Vital Striking trait has been moved – sorry, merged! – from Adept to Master. And please remember you cannot trait into more than 3 lines anymore, yes. So if you want to get that damage trait, please fully take the healing line.

I think it short sighted to still view water as a healing line when stats are now separated from the trait lines. Choosing traits II, VI, and IX would all be damage boosters, combined with the right power/precision/ferocity boost gear would make water attunement now viable for dealing damage. Look at that…a new build option that wasn’t viable before the new system!