Guild Wars 2

Knighthonor.4061:

Whats the f5 skill for Engineer racials?

Error message appears and the game crashes =D

Considering racial utility skills didn’t have a toolbelt skill. It’ll most likely be the same thing.

Here’s my feedback on some of the professions.

Thief:
S/D and P/P Thief got hit by these changes pretty hard. No Ricochet for P/P. No dodge to gain endurance/might for S/D. I don’t see the need to buff commonly used builds like D/P or P/D. Yet they still indirectly buffed because the other 2 has less impacting traits.

Mesmer:
Pretty satisfied with the Mesmer changes overall, though too binary. The traits are now clear cut in choice between a phantasm build or a shatter build. I can foresee a raise in condition Mesmers is very likely. Ironically many of the “changes” sounds like bug fixes than actual balancing.

Ranger:
Feels like these changes still encourages the dull ‘stand on a ledge and pew pew’ plays for power Ranger. Though it’s nice to see condi Ranger got some loving. I like that there’s some potential builds using non-bow weapons too.

Necromancer:
Condition builds got buffs in sustained damage. Siphoning through shroud is interesting and should please (some) necro players. No mention about the scaling of their auto attacks/procs, meaning power Necro will still 2-3shot people with Lich Form/Shroud…

Guardian/Warrior/Elementalist:
From the trait description, they ‘feel’ similar to their current counterparts in survivability. Not much to mention besides more burns.

Engineer:
The one class with most drastic changes. Nerf here and there, Buffs here and there. I guess can’t give an opinion on that until after some gameplay since I’m not as familiar with it compared to the others.

Raziel.4216:

quote

I would say it’s both a positive and negative at the same time. It is possible for some characters to gained more than the current system because that 86% is more than enough for their current setup. It also shouldn’t impact majority of main characters, if you haven’t gotten 65 done and it’s your main….well that’s another story.

On the other hand, it will most definitely affect some builds, chars and players. Though it’s a new set of traits and system, it’s a whole new paradigm and the previous meta builds would be less relevant.

Whether it is a grind or not is debatable. Do you believe that running your lv80 character thru low level maps a grind? (You’ll most likely 2-5 shot the hero challenge mobs). Do you desperately need the last 14% missing skill set that most certainly you never used anyways? (The current builds doesn’t use >70% of the traits/skills). Do you truly believe that a mmorpg doesn’t involve grind of any sort? (Masteries, Legendaries, skins, if it’s not gear grind, it’s grind in another aspect).

Clearing OP is blowing things out of proportion.

We all understand that 400/465 (86%) isn’t the max unlock to traits/skills. However when you look at the bigger picture, how many of your alt characters did they actually have EVERY SINGLE trait/skill unlocked? Currently leveling to 80 via tomes doesn’t even give enough skill points to unlock all the skills either, or the fact that you needed to pay gold to get traits.

Then comes the next question, when was the last time you used a particular skill set in PvE?

• Thief: Venom, Traps. Venom is used exclusively in PvP. I have yet to see a Thief to use traps, ever.
• Guardian: Spirit weapons. Besides the fun factor, they’re not exactly practical.
• Warrior: Physical skills.
• Ranger: The beastmastery tree. Niche build.
• Mesmer: Chaos tree. Only few build uses it and they’re conquest pvp builds.
• Necromancer: Corruption. Also is used exclusively in PvP only.
• All others: The newest ‘anti-toxin’ heal or racial skills.

From these exclusions alone, you have gathered yourself enough points to unlock everything else you need. While it does mean you’ll have to work for them for WvW, it’s not any different than now where you have to earn them in some form. Scrolls for skillpoints was just the easy way out.

Hutchy.5430:

Akikaze.1307:

Hutchy.5430:

To the people in this thread saying they are using ping reducers (battleping, reducethelag etc.) don’t. They are a scam! It only seems like ping is lower but it is a placebo effect.

I can disable reducethelag and open GW2 for you to show the client connecting at 500ms. That’s from the client’s feedback, not from a player input. With it turned on, it’ll say 250ms. Though ping reducers might not work for everyone, it’s certainly not a placebo effect.

Okay then I’d like to see some screensshots

As requested.

Hutchy.5430:

To the people in this thread saying they are using ping reducers (battleping, reducethelag etc.) don’t. They are a scam! It only seems like ping is lower but it is a placebo effect.

I can disable reducethelag and open GW2 for you to show the client connecting at 500ms. That’s from the client’s feedback, not from a player input. With it turned on, it’ll say 250ms. Though ping reducers might not work for everyone, it’s certainly not a placebo effect.

I’m also from Sydney, with 250-300ms. It might appear lower than the other Australians/Oceanic players in this thread because I’m using a ping reducer. It helps massively to cut the average down or least stabilise ping. Nevertheless, 300ms equals to 0.6sec delay, that’s a massive time gap between your dodges and actually evading the attack. Occasionally I still take nukes from players/bosses that I’m certain my character was in mid-dodge animation.

As much as we can hope for an Oceanic server, it just isn’t feasible anymore considering the age of the game itself and the population distribution. If there were Oceanic/SEA server, it would also cut itself off from interacting with the NA players (as in the case for EU servers). Unfortunately the best solution is simply adapting to the lag, this isn’t the first online game for us where lag was a problem. We have to play with foresight (anticipate an attack) to dodging.

“Life can be painful, but do not fear the trials you will face. Hard ground makes stronger roots.”

Judging from the quote alone, going to guess it’ll relate to the “challenging content” reveal. It could also relate to masteries as it’s a form of foundation ‘root’ building for the character. It surely suggests some build up against a challenge to be defeated/solved.

Tyreal.5230:

Thankfully dodging isn’t the only form of mitigation. Perhaps your problem is that your to focused on paper based stats and not actual functionality. Once again, why are you being hit in the first place? Wanna know a simple trick to dealing with a mesmer GS auto attack? Dodge the first hits then use your teleport, blocks, invulns, stealth or get out of range, then attack back. Promise you they’ll stop once you start attacking back. Simple psychological strategy. Anything that hits you that hard will prioritize not getting hit back, in other words they aren’t attacking. A skill that does damage can also be used as a defensive tool. You don’t have to just defend or just attack at any given time. A really good player learns how to do both at once. The game will never be balanced and if it ever were it certainly wouldn’t be because sigils were removed.

Basically you’re suggesting to blow you defensive capabilities on simple auto attacks? Who do you think will win the battle: The person who just auto attacked you, proc some free damage (and still have retreat/defenses). Or the person who needs to possibly use their stalls/heals/defenses. If you want to talk about functionality, if you’re forced to retreat from multiple damage sigil procs on you (not the actual player casted skill), something’s not right about the game.

More balanced, not ‘the game will be balanced’. The main reason why the Celestial builds are so strong is because they cover all 3 key factors in conquest: mobility, damage and defense. A lot of their damage factor comes from their sigils procs. Taking away sigils alone would mean none of the following: Intelligence for crits, Battle for more might, energy for dodge upkeep, or weapon swap poison/bleed.

Tyreal.5230:

Also, if you dodged attacks you wouldn’t be getting bursted down by anyone. It’s a shame people don’t think about ‘How do I not get hit by XXXX skill?’ versus, ‘How much HP and toughness do I need to survive XXXX?!’

Bust builds are called ‘Burst’ for a reason. Wouldn’t be burst if they didn’t do a lot of damage in a short time of space, but the good thing about that is… burst is predictable. If you learned the other classes and paid attention to the play style of your enemy you wouldn’t be getting hit by these procs all the time. Even if you did, and you were dodging all other attacks you certainly wouldn’t be at deaths door after getting hit by them.
Easiest way to keep enemies from attacking you is to attack them. However, that logic will only get you so far, especially when fighting an enemy that knows what they’re doing and can do both at the same time.
Not having Sigils such as the ones listed would only further encourage builds similar to the cele meta and other bunker builds and at that point you wouldn’t even have the DPS to ever kill them.
It would be ideas like this that would hammer the final nail into that coffin that is the pvp scene in GW2 atm.

Sure, if you dodge attacks you wouldn’t get hit by anything, everyone is aware of that. However that’s essentially the problem is the concept of dodging. You can’t dodge everything, you have to be selective to what needs to be dodged. Even if you dodge a backstab for example, the thief’s next auto attack could still proc the air/fire combo and basically deal the same damage as 1 backstab. Which brings us back to square one.

Secondly a burst build shouldn’t need to rely on external rng to their capabilities. It is in their setup/build to put out damage. The problem with sigils is that it turns some (non-burst) professions to do more damage than they should be capable. There is already considerable amounts of variables from gameplay alone, critical attacks, variable damage sources, timing, positioning. I’d say the game would be arguably more balanced without any sigils.

Darksteel.8412:

the rng of some rune and sigils are amazing…learn to think ahead in creating builds instead of have the game nerved to nothingness, sick of people crying dumbing the game down…srsly

It is literally amazing, so amazing that I got one-shotted from 80% hp from an necromancer pressing 1 today. Totally required skills, not dumb luck right?

If you want the chat link codes: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_hidden_skins
The bunny ears code link preview works perfectly fine ingame.

Lily.1935:

I personally found the Revenant’s defenses to be extremely good. Like, off the charts in how easy it was for me to avoid and prevent damage. But I also main a necromancer. That might have something to do with my perception of it. You also have to note that we don’t yet know the rotation of the revenant. You switched classes but that doesn’t really help us any because the profession you chose is probably one you know very well and are fully aware of their damage rotation. Which will skew your results pretty heavily.

I personally didn’t have a problem with their defenses or damage. I was able to take things out quick enough considering the armor choice.

I compared it to a S/D thief. I chose a typically lesser dps build on purpose to compare. Although I do know how to play a thief, it isn’t my main for pve, I mainly used for pvp/wvw.

Additionally, when I mentioned ‘tank’, it’s not to say the profession isn’t tanky. It’s more in reference that they don’t just soak up damage. Revenant have a direct purpose for taking damage to redirect damage. Compared to support Guardian or Shout Warriors, those 2 just take damage because they could simply heal/cleanse.

Sunshine.5014:

singinggecko.5736:

I agree with all the counter play posts. On top of that, if you’re so concerned about the condition, you can take stop drop and roll. No more chill for no attunement swap. Nifty eh?

“Stop, Drop and Roll” has a 10s cooldown, and it will go on cooldown for any random Burning tick you have. Getting perma burning in teamfight is pretty easy, especially with Necro/Engi. Mostlikely by the time you dodge, it will cleanse a burning, and become useless for 10s, during which you will get chilled. The chance that your dodge will cleanse the chill is pretty small.

Ele: Cleansing water + Soothing wave = 1 condi removed every 10seconds (critically hit).
Engi: Incendiary Powder = 1 burning every 10seconds (if critical strike)
Necro: Dhummfire = 1 burning every 10seconds.

They actually cancel each other out because the cooldown is shared for traits. Despite the abundance of burning in PvP, it’s still a valid option to take to cleanse chill. If there’s multiple conditions, then you can cleansing fire first.

Puck.1509:

Trigr.6481:

Puck.1509:

Liewec.2896:

Puck.1509:

Do you HONESTLY believe they do not care about their own game and the people who spend money to play it?

you’ll find a thread here if you dig deep enough of over 2000 of us letting Anet know how much we HATE skyhammer and want it out of the rotation…
ITS STILL IN THE UNRANKED ROTATION.

yes, i honestly think they don’t listen and don’t care.

Incorrect. It is in UNRANKED rotation. It is not in RANKED rotation where it matters most, so yes if it was in ranked rotation then it has been changed otherwise that was a rather stupid request in the first place to basically remove it entirely from the game..

This would imply that you’re suggesting that the leaderboards in its current state, means something.

Countless

How so? What has unranked got to do with the leaderboards?

He meant that the current leaderboards is a misrepresentation of the definition for a leaderboard. Thus ranked and unranked are pretty much similar aside from the map rotations.

Trevor Boyer.6524:

wall of text.

You say you completely disagree yet your highlights seem to agree to the points I mentioned. Need more frequent updates, up to Anet is worry about what’s good/bad feedback, players will always utilize the one sided power option.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Very situational? Try every meta engineer build.

You seem to be lacking basic maths skills or just very salty against engi.
Rifle 1: no condi
Traits: burning
Grenade kit: trait vuln
Tool kit: cripple vuln
That’s the meta build and that’s total to 3. Next you’re going to tell me a condi build is supposed to stack many conditions. BTW if you haven’t noticed I’m not saying ele needs condi cleanse lowered, they should be one of the least to worry about conditions.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Akikaze.1307:

Like most status effects in a mmorpg, they tend to hinder one class more than another, this is referred to as counterplay. Method to stop a pesky archer kiting you? Solution: you snare them. Method to stop a sorcerer nukng you? Solution: you silence them.

Chill is a counter to Elementalist with that comparison. Yes, it cripples Ele but you can still rotate through attunements due to the short debuff duration. Least it’s not a silence that nullifies all skills, Elementalists also have better condition cleanse than most professions for the chill to be quickly removed.

I can see reapers being a major obstacle for Ele but it isn’t the first time we have professions countering each other i.e. Thief > Mesmer.

You are confusing ‘counterplay’ with ‘countering.’
One is good, the other is not.

_

As for ele’s condition cleansing, remove the ability for some classes to proc 4-5 different conditions from their auto attack. THEN tone down the amount of cleansing.

Excuse my wording for the ‘countering’, it’s 3am as I type this.

As for the proc’ing 4-5 different conditions from auto attack alone is VERY situational. Only mesmers with staff have a chance of achieving that. Most condition applying auto attack focuses on stacking a particular condition. Even with sigil procs, 5 from spamming 1 alone is unlikely.

It isn’t everything but just a simple fact that there’s many things that are wrong and nothing is being done about it. People joke about NCsoft’s effect on Anet’s management but you would be surprised that I see less complaints (about gameplay) throughout their AION forums than I do in the GW2 forums.

At the end of the day, Anet is responsible for the game’s balance, gameplay, bugs and consistency. Players adapt to what they’re given, if a ridiculously strong aspect exists, players would complain about it or exploit it. That’s why Anet should pay attention to their game and pick out things without it degrading gameplay (look up Dota2 changelogs). A vocal minority or majority, if the complaint is valid, it’s up to Anet to communicate their intentions.

Just consider how slowly they pull out balance updates is a sign that they’re rather poor in getting things done, and the slower you are, the more impatient players become. Learning to play a class is a barrier but learning cannot be encouraged in a disjointed environment. Look at the mess of ‘practice’ and the unbalance of ‘unranked’. Both of which are supposed to be establishing grounds for PvP, breeds bad behaviour and/or lame setups (turret engi for 6months?).

Like most status effects in a mmorpg, they tend to hinder one class more than another, this is referred to as counterplay. Method to stop a pesky archer kiting you? Solution: you snare them. Method to stop a sorcerer nukng you? Solution: you silence them.

Chill is a counter to Elementalist with that comparison. Yes, it cripples Ele but you can still rotate through attunements due to the short debuff duration. Least it’s not a silence that nullifies all skills, Elementalists also have better condition cleanse than most professions for the chill to be quickly removed.

I can see reapers being a major obstacle for Ele but it isn’t the first time we have professions countering each other i.e. Thief > Mesmer.

Revenant’s Hammer can be compared to Mesmer’s greatsword. They share a unique ‘feature’ in which a supposed melee weapon is used as ranged. Both also have a weaker auto attack than most other classes. To top it all off, weapons on both classes contain flashy animations that may require the use of animation cancelling.

The majority of consensus is that Revenant is lacking in outputting major damage. No, neither gears or the legends is not the factor. Lets not forget that legends does not change the weapon skills. Utility is often only a minor part of a char’s dps tool. ALL professions in the beta used celestial gears, players (myself included) made existing professions to confirm the difference. It is possible the cause for lack of damage is because of the missing traits.

Revenant also isn’t your conventional “tank”. They might contain skills that enable them to survive longer but they’re not a meat-shield like warriors. Though they’re lacking in PvE, many of their skills can be quiet strong in PvP. From the 2 legends given in the beta, the word ‘redirect’ perfectly describes the class. It attracts enemy to hit them, Rev then can utilize the enemy’s focus to redirect the harm either by pulsing conditions back or retaliation.

Celtic Lady.3729:

The revenant is not a tank class. We only had 2 legends, neither of which was DPS based, so no one was doing optimal damage today. Put berserker gear and a couple of DPS legends on the rev and you’ll see a difference in damage.

I made a Thief, it also had celestial stats. I used a S/D cantrip build (22046), trying to mimic the slow attack power/condi hybrid to compare with the revenant setup. It is evident that the Thief had better damage overall.

The beta legends are understandable not intended for damage or tanking. Thus it’s hard to fit a role for them, if 2/5 legends are niche, it ain’t a good presentation (so far).

Lily.1935:

Akikaze.1307:

Here are some of my biased impressions.

• Revenant is pretty lackluster in PvE like others have stated. It has flashy animations that seem cool but fails to hold up after a while. Damage is moderate-low, even on the mace/axe combo. It’s basically giving us a lv11 Elementalist and telling us to go test things with only fire/water attunement.
• I don’t find the class particularly fun. It’s not the damage that worries me, it is lacking in impact overall. I started gw2 on mesmer and their dps was abysmal yet I had fun on mesmer. Reason could be the limited legends or maybe the limited weapons.

You do know that in the beta you’re running Celestial gear with runes of the Dolyak. You’re basically super defensive with moderate damage.. Its hardly a good example of how high the damage out put is. Because on full zerker with might and cons that hammer will hit seriously hard. Basically the armor set up is bad for both a condi and power build. Its designed for people to get used to the profession, not to show off its power.

I’m certain their lackluster damage isn’t solely because of gears. I’m going to make an existing profession in the next round to confirm it. Didn’t get time in the previous round.

Edit:
Also it doesn’t take that long to get used to a new profession. I got used to the 8 professions in a maxed-out setting (HotM) with an hour each just playing with traits/skills. Atm, it’s hard to pinpoint Revenant based on what we’re given, “fun” certainly isn’t word to describe it.

Laraley.7695:

Akikaze.1307:

Well there’s your problem, you’re playing hotjoin.
Lesson of the day: don’t play hotjoin.

I’m actually glad people go do their DAILIES in hotjoin, eventually uranked and don’t bring classes they have no clue about to ranked. I’m also glad that people who know that they have little experience do the same. Although unranked wouldn’t be that bad in that case.

I believe the OP is more frustrated about the outnumbered situation and toxic players behaviour than getting the dailies done. Daily should be a secondary thing that’ll get completed from playing normally anyways, especially now the class option is less limited.

Getting into unranked at an earliest start helps more than hinders their progression into PvP. Unranked creates a stable 5v5 environment, people still play to win, and less toxic than practice. Sometimes I still lash out to players not fighting around nodes/objectives, or losing a fight with more players, though this is often a learning experience for them. However I certainly don’t taunt/abuse people and I hardly see others trash talk in unranked.

New players turning to practice as a first impression will severely impact them from returning to PvP. It certainly doesn’t help when we have idiots purposely picking the winning side, abusing verbally and/or spawn camping.

Here are some of my biased impressions.

• Revenant is pretty lackluster in PvE like others have stated. It has flashy animations that seem cool but fails to hold up after a while. Damage is moderate-low, even on the mace/axe combo. It’s basically giving us a lv11 Elementalist and telling us to go test things with only fire/water attunement.
• I don’t find the class particularly fun. It’s not the damage that worries me, it is lacking in impact overall. I started gw2 on mesmer and their dps was abysmal yet I had fun on mesmer. Reason could be the limited legends or maybe the limited weapons.

Well there’s your problem, you’re playing hotjoin.
Lesson of the day: don’t play hotjoin.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

As for the East Coast of Australia, it’s something like this:

• 4:30am – 6:30am
• 8:30am – 10:30am
• 12:30pm – 2:30pm

^That.

It’s hilarious that people are complaining about time zones when EU and NA/SA actually got the fairer share of allocated time. If you’re in Australia (or Asia in general) and want to participate in the beta, it’s either no sleep or collide with work hours.

I can see why Anet purposely only put Necromancers twice a month in the old Daily rotations. 30seconds of Lich form, the new one trick pony.

Considering the fact that this game is almost 3years old and not a single player have reached 33k AP proves it is not a viable target. Not even 29k for the Pinnacle weapons as our highest recorded AP player is at 27.8k. Eventually given enough time, a player would obtain the chest/pants piece. Eventually people also begin to care less about the game and move onto other mmorpgs.

@OP, is that meant to be a joke? South American shares pretty much the same time zone as the entire North America. At least 5-7pm is still during the “day”.

What is awful is for the people on the other side of the globe, mainly Asia and Oceanic. We have the converted testing time as 2-5am, depending where you are from. That’s basically saying, don’t bother doing the beta testing if you’re from that side of the planet.

Chillingsworth.9802:

What worries me is that GW2 seems to be doing the exact same thing that every other MMO expansion is doing. I.E. taking away a free range of choices and customization and replacing them with a more neatly packaged, simpler set of prescribed choices. No mixing and matching allowed.

This is the same thing WoW and SWTOR have done. I don’t see this as an improvement.

It wouldn’t surprise me they got the idea from NCSoft themselves. Aion just did the exact same thing with one of their recent updates. The selection of personalised ‘stigma’ skills got reduced from 12 slots to 6+1 slots. However this was compensated by making a few of those skills as standard/baseline. GW2 essentially did this with the traits, less options are granted but compensated by combining those traits into baseline or existing traits.

I believe you’re simply misunderstanding the concept/logic of the skill.

Portals are created that allows you to enter from both “ends” of the “tunnel”. Essentially creating a duo entry/exit point. The mesmer can use their own portals after creation of the 2 points themselves to travel back and forth. It is noted that portals can only function within the ambiguous 5000 unit range (Refer to Ithilwen.1529’s response to learn how to calculate the range).

For jumping puzzles: The Mesmer player reach the end of the puzzle themselves first. Then they proceed to lay down a portal at the finish/end point. Within that 1 minute, they can proceed to travel back down to the jumping puzzle’s starting point to ferry people up. In majority of the jumping puzzles, it is simply easier and faster to travel downwards than upwards.

Edit: Best method is try making portals at a short distance to get a general idea of how it works before using it in broader scenarios.

Toxsa.2701:

Also no Ele run zerker in PVP. Nice try bro, way to show how new you are.
Now I can safely reply you: L2P.

Fresh Air.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

This couldn’t cost anymore than a handheld game system company shipping out games on a cartage plus I posted that this would cost more then the game cost if you were to download it and I asked how much would this convenience be worth to them and gave hypothetical amount of $20 over the download cost yes I agree this may not be practical but it could be a way for people with slow, capped Internet, or to get I to the game in a timely matter, and a better way to get a backup incase of a drive failure
I just think this is a better way to distribute the game or an expansion if they plan a boxed version of HoT instead of DVDs . Also making the flash drive shaped into an in game item would inhances sales.

The problem is that shipping out USB drives is not an established setup, hence it would cost more for Arena Net. If it was an already established production from the company, then it could be very feasible. Shipping CD/DVD was their previous channel, if they want to make game sold on USB, then they still need new suppliers, new packaging etc. After all CD distribution is the main source for many games, there’s hardly any companies using USB distribution. It’s not a bad idea, just giving the perspective from business standpoint, it would have to be profitable and manageable.

Also I fully understand the frustrations of capped internet, as Australians have been the victim of it for numerous years. Though this is more of an individual basis that it costs more for one player compared to the next person.

I remember back when Ragnarok Online launched an Oceanic server, they would send out a CD containing installation of the latest client installer to players (for free). Since Australia’s internet back then was very restrictive on bandwidth allowance, it was a very nice gesture to provide for their customers. These days, internet speeds have improved substantially and the same for bandwidth usage allowances, rendering it less important.

There’s also the extra unit costs involved, to break-even means an extra amount of USB shipped copies needed to be sold. It isn’t as simple as just putting games onto the USB. There is postage fees, packaging costs, USB sticker costs, USB drive product costs, extra labor costs.

For those who studied business, the Ford Pinto example is a popular study. Ford decided not to install a simple cheap $10 fix for their car to save production costs. The fix would stop the petrol tank exploding on crash impacts. However the total costs for the fix added up to be more than paying victim’s insurance, it’s simply better for profits. Same could be applied for the USB option. Extra costs are negated because no physical shipping of products is required.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Shieldbash.5304:

I just feel, if I am defending mid the node should give me maybe 5 points for every 15-20 seconds I am on it defending it.

I actually would like this.

It would encourage those scoreboard kitten to stand on a point and defend it instead of just capping and running away.

And then you’ll have those afking on nodes when the team fight is over on the other side of the map and/or another point is free to decap.

morrolan.9608:

CorrynnStarr.7942:

morrolan.9608:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I don’t particularly consider 65 skill challenges to be “a lot,” but that’s just difference of opinion.

65 skills challenges is probably around 11 hours to complete for 1 toon. Add in multiple toons and it is a lot of time to regain what we already have..

it is NOT 11 hours to do… you can pop from point to point and communing takes a few seconds. you can easily get 65 points in under 2 hours if you dedicate the time.

1 skill point every 1.8 seconds I dont think so.

2hr = 120mins. 120/65 = 1.8 minutes.
2hr is a bad estimate though.

Those 65 extra equates to ~14% (65/465) of missing points. Despite that being a setback in losing some skills/traits, there should be more than enough with 400 points alone. There’s usually 1 or 2 sets of skills/traits that is hardly used in existing PvE builds anyways. e.g. Thief traps, Engi Turrets, or Warrior Physical skills.

Therefore you’re not really losing anything as I can bet that 400 would be enough to get all the traits back, just simply missing a little to get all the last few skill types if allocated properly.

That’s one of the few reasons why I don’t like ranked pvp. It’s also flawed in some ways to how a player gets points to climb the ladder.

Player A is on 10W/15L and 10pts
Player B is on 15W/10L and 10pts
If player A wins the next 5 matches since they’re on 5 lose streak, then he gains +5points. Totaling to 15/15 and 15pts.
If player B loses the next 5 matches since they’re on 5 win streak, then he loses -5points. Totaling to 15/15 and 5pts.

Player A gained more as the system priorities stabilizing your win rate to 50%, as opposed to the player B on a previous winning streak.

Edit: And that cycle continues until one player has played more games, thus a potential to gaining more points. Therefore ranked is simply a farm game.

Mo Mo.1947:

Having some items never come back and others only come back randomly without clear notice probably makes people more likely to buy things right away, which is what they want for gem store profits.

They may even reference this thread as a good indication that the strategy is working. :P

How would they profit if the said item doesn’t come back (for past 2yrs)?

As for some of returning items, often a theme is associated with them, such as GW1 anniversary, elite spec previews (hence the gs/quiver), events etc.

Saiyan.1704:

They seriously need to remove the in-game point system. Or revise it in a way where people aren’t looking up to it as a way of measuring skill or game contribution.

It does show game contribution to an extent. If you’re 8mins into a match and you notice a teammate/enemy still display 0 next to their name, you know something is clearly wrong. Either they were unfortunate to disconnect mid-match or actively did not manage to score a decap/cap/assist/ress/kill….Excluding that, the overall score doesn’t matter whether they’re on 200 or 20.

Both Rox’s quiver and Belinda’s greatsword have appeared twice in the gem store before a single appearance of the Bunny Ears (or Aviator glasses for some) during my period of playing the game. It makes you curious if they will keep their promise and disappointed that they’re taking so long to bother.

Forums bugged again, as always.

6/7 of my chars are Human. I just don’t find the others (mainly Sylvari/Asura) that appealing.

Mem no Fushia.7604:

Dread Blader, Dread Scyther, Dread Caller, Dread Stepper, Dread Order, Dread Orderer, Dread Feedback, Dread Keeper, Dread Fellow, Dread Follower, Dread Cultist, Dread Necromancer, Dread Summoner, Dread … etc..

Dreadful Class? Druid Killer? Dreamweaver™? Dreamstalker? “Drink Me”?
(salad) Dressing? (back to the) Drawing Board!!

GW2’s ranked queue seem to be lacking the distinction between these 2:
Solo MMR vs Party MMR

I’m pretty sure they just use a singular mmr system. This means some players that often party queue would get elevated mmr when they solo queue and vice versa. For there to be a separate solo/team queue, we’ll need a proper MMR system first.

Time Catches Up + Mental Torment → NUCLEAR MISSILES LAUNCHED!!
Illusionary Reversion + Chronophantasma → EP2: Clone Wars
Time Matches On → I can finally use something else than traveller’s rune, yay =3
Danger Time + Lost Time → Perma slow from greatsword?

With the preview being necromancers, it can be deduced they’ll be getting “shouts” as their utility.

Interestingly the specialization post foreshadowed the upcoming previews. All we had to do was fill in the blanks which class would fit the skills.

“One specialization will have access to traps, while at least one profession’s elite specialization will be a full set of six shouts.”

Whatever they might be called, a banshee type archetype sounds appealing. Would also nice giving Necro a support option they lacked.

Orpheal.8263:

I hope the next is Druid or the Thief Spec with hopefully no boring lame game ruining rifles >.>

If ANet stays with the Lb for that stupid DH, then I hope they give the Thief Spec the Torch, which would be for them the most best shadow creating weapon , cause with a source of light with you, you always will have auso a source of shadows with you and it would be as like a mace the best weapon for a “Saboteur” kind of Elite spec together with Tools/Gadgets from the “Engineer” or perhaps "acid flasks/vials and molotov cocctails ect. that could work as Saboteur specific “elixiers” with an improved Initiative System that lets them sabotage all kinds of “minions”, turrets ect. to brainwash/reprogram thaem so that they work for you and not anymore for their original owner, so that the game woudl get finally a good hard counter spec against all thise A.I. helper builds

It’s Necromancer: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEvKOscUEAIg4_6.jpg:large

RabbitUp.8294:

Akikaze.1307:

3) Weapon concepts that are finalized. Druid? Elementalists? Necromancers?
The previous 2, chronomancer and dragonhunter, were concepts that were finalized early on during the HoT announcements. Players had spotted Mesmers with shields and Guardians with bows for months. Therefore it’s possible the next one be any of those 3 as their weapons have already been confirmed (or datamined).

4) Professions that are ‘not ready’ by elimination.
Engineer-X’s traits were shown to be only unfinished ideas. Last time Revenant was shown, the class was only half finished. Nothing is known about Thief or Warrior.
Mesmer/Guardian is done, that leaves Ranger, Elementalists and Necromancer as possible candidates.

Engineer belongs to (3). We saw the hammer in the trailer, and he even used skills.

Also, they didn’t reveal Chrono’s traits, so unfinished traits don’t seem to be an issue.

Yea, I forgot to include Engi into my reply after posting it. Also Chrono traits are done, just bad planning on A-net’s part using recorded footage rather than gameplay as demonstrations.

I hate the secrecy on revealing profession concepts, it frustrate more players than keep them curious.

Based on what we know, there are 4 possibilities for deducing the next reveal.

1) Alphabetical order. We know Chronomancer -> Dragonhunter -> Druid?
From this progression, Druid would be a fitting guess. We also know Elementalists specialisation is called Tempest. This means Ele might be one of the last reveal, makes sense considering elementalists also have some coverage from the trait revamp spoilers.

2) Armour type. Light -> Heavy -> Medium?
From the progression, Druid, Thief-X, or Engi-X would be the next one. Considering Engineers isn’t finalised, they’re likely to be excluded until later. Meaning Druid/Thief-X are possible.

3) Weapon concepts that are finalized. Druid? Elementalists? Necromancers?
The previous 2, chronomancer and dragonhunter, were concepts that were finalized early on during the HoT announcements. Players had spotted Mesmers with shields and Guardians with bows for months. Therefore it’s possible the next one be any of those 3 as their weapons have already been confirmed (or datamined).

4) Professions that are ‘not ready’ by elimination.
Engineer-X’s traits were shown to be only unfinished ideas. Last time Revenant was shown, the class was only half finished. Nothing is known about Thief or Warrior.
Mesmer/Guardian is done, that leaves Ranger, Elementalists and Necromancer as possible candidates.