Guild Wars 2

Hi there.

For the TL;DR people who don’t want to waste their time – this talks about how Sigil of Torment/Earth can bypass the Incendiary Powder/Soothing Wave nullification

If you are unaware, when an Engi vs Ele using the Engi’s Incendiary Powder against the Ele’s Soothing Wave whilst having Cleansing Wave (6 into Water traitline), Soothing mist will completely nullify Incendiary Powder since they have the both internal cooldown as well as behaving critically.

I have tested a curve around this nullification and have figured out that Sigils that apply a condition on critical hit can work through these two traits:

Sigil of Torment/Earth – When applied, most of the time, Incendiary Powder will be nullified against Soothing Wave. An odd event that the sigil will crit before Incendiary Powder and will break the interval canceling between both traits. This will last a few intervals but will go back to the two traits nullifying eachother again. Note that these 2 specific traits are divisible by 10 seconds (soothing mist/incendiary powder ICD), meaning they are able to occur before or after the trait(as in the condition can be applied before or after burning) – that is why this is able to happen. Sigil of Blight will not work because it is not in the interval divisibility and will never apply when both traits proc.

Even though this is not 100% guaranteed, the meta sigils for the Celestial Rifle engi should still be considered since it does not perform the best overall but only specifically against eles whereas it doesn’t always bypass the two traits nullifying eachother.

Although, I would still consider this as an option because of possible scenarios of a 1v1(engi vs ele) on point, engi would have an upperhand against the ele if the sigil procs before the trait since a good meta cele ele against a good meta cele engi would be stalemate.

Thanks for reading.

Alright, I’ve read plenty of posts here that demand the nerf of the classes that abuse celestial amulet. While I completely agree that cele is out of hand, I’d rather point out my own thoughts as to why the meta needs to shift. No salt, or waterworks.

With all of the prior cash tournaments, and the future ones to come; we as a community, have to go off of the assumption that Arenanet would like to continue to push towards the dream, “Esports”. I would like to lay that as the ground work because this is 90% of my argument, and where I base my ideas off of. If that assumption is confirmed as false by Arenanet, then null and void any of the posts concerning “balances”. So, here’s my thoughts:

A game that is striving to become esports needs to be a spectator sport. Many streamers, and competitive players have said this time and time again. While everyone has their own thoughts as to how to make this better, I will make it simple. The game needs to be exciting to watch. Viewers WANT to see the “oh kitten” moments and the “heads up” plays. Celestial amulets and bruiser builds don’t cater to the exciting moments to be had in this game. More-so than most, this game demands mechanically well-rounded, and fast twitch game play. When one player/team beats another, it SHOULD be based off of them being better than the other player/team. Celestial amulet is so forgiving that it doesn’t truly matter if you dodge or mitigate damage, you can simply face tank it. For the past two major tournaments (WTS and All-Stars), I have fallen asleep while watching the stream due to general lack of captivation. Big plays, get big views. Honestly, golf has more exciting plays than Guild Wars 2 right now.

My goal here isn’t to flame anyone (despite popular belief), or belittle the community. But, let’s be real, players who were considered low to mid tier are now bathing in the light of e-fame due to celestial amulet alone. Reserve the cash tournaments for the players who dedicate endless hours to being better duelists, and team players. These are the type of players who spend hours attempting to be mechanically flawless on their zerk builds because one mistake, or mis-timed dodge, may be the end of them. These are the guys I want to watch, and these are the guys I want to root for. The groundwork for an amazingly competitive game has been laid, but it’s almost as if it’s being ignored so as to appeal to casual players. At the end of the day, I should want to strive to play like my favorite player, or team. I shouldn’t be able to pick up the controls and be playing at the same level as these “top tier” players within a matter of days, or even hours. Granted, some classes/builds have naturally lower skill floors than others, but what I’m asking is for Anet to raise the skill cap.

I’ve been very ambiguous in this thread, so I apologize for not coming with the “solutions” to the problem. Frankly, there’s a ridiculous number of ways this meta can shift into something more constructive for the e-sports scene. There are tons of more intelligent players than I that can dish out multiple approaches for change. If you wanted help, I’d give it. But for the past two and a half years it’s been less about listening to the community, and more about being too prideful to admit defeat. Put your hands up in the air, ask for help, and apply feedback.

TL;DR: Nerf Celestial Amulet.

I think most of the thieves out there were really bad players who didn’t know how to play this class and just played thief due to Sizer’s popularity and easy build he was using.
Now that it’s a tad harder to be effective as a thief, most of these players have rerolled to other professions.

You forgot to mention 5th place in ToL #1.

‘’No weapon swapping hurts competitive play’’ you could’ve said ‘’in my opinion this change…’‘, you don’t represent the competitive scene, you shouldn’t claim something so strongly, making people belive that all the top teams share this opinion.

For example us ’’SS’’ are welcoming this change, and apparently many other teams do aswell.
If could suggest something, i would propose a PvP only item, that you keep in the bag, and gives you 8 sec swiftness, 60 sec cd, only usable out of combat.