Guild Wars 2

Got one of these too. Don’t know why the chest appeared on regular character and not a beta. Don’t see how this can be classified as an “exploit.”

Not sure if this belongs here or in the bug section I got a chest with a reward on a non-Beta character that had just “???,” “Coming Soon,” “Trophy,” and “Account Bound” on it.

So, these are a bit silly really. Unnecessarily so, actually, given that they would be reasonably dangerous with their abilities toned down so that they didn’t have defenses and attacks most players would kill for. Specific issues:

Smokefield: This is some kind of uber blind field that most players would KILL to have access to. It appears to lasts a good deal of time (10+ seconds). Allows the Smokeskale to evade (i.e. invulnerable) while within it no effort on their part – in other words no dodging with endurance no mesmer like very short term blur effect on one weapon attack. No this ability feels like a good 10+ seconds of invuln vs. EVERYTHING. It would be less egregious if you could at least hit it with AOEs. Kiting it out of the field works a little bit (esp. against the normals) but the Veterans delay leaving the invulnerability field (I watched it happen – gotta love that improved AI . . . most of the time). Oh and the “good” news (for the Smokescale) – it seems to have pretty short cool down (seems about 30 seconds, but maybe more like 40 – 45?). Even more good news (again, for the Smokescale) – the kitten ed field seems to last after it has left the field and and you have left the field. In other words you lose several attacks after its out of the field and you are out of the field. Of course the Smokescale has no problem hitting you. If that’s not lag on my end . . .its just BS on your end ANet. Seriously, their “mistfield” is nothing more than a glorified blind field – if my thief with offhand pistol isn’t invulnerable to all hand to hand and all ranged attacks why are they? I’m trying to think of a single ability that a player has access to that would be the equivalent of what you’ve given to these trash mobs (feels like about 33% invulnerability up time). I’m suggest one of two things – treat this ability like a pulsing blind field (hell make it twice per second if that will make you feel good) that would make hand to hand combatants miss so long as the were in it but not make them immune to ranged or AOE attacks OR leave the field as is but make them vulnerable to AOE while in the field.

Assault: The Shiro Sword Three Burst attack is ok on the normals, except that it does not seem to be dodgeable – that is you get one miss and the Smokeskale is immediately teleporting to you and hitting again. It is blockable but that doesn’t mean much usually when the chain is 5 or 6 (or 7?) attacks. Assault might be interruptable (?) – but the best/quickest to use interrupt I can think of is thief pistol offhand 4 and you have to be facing it while its teleporting around you. Usually the PCs are outnumbered so while Shiro’s Sword 3 Revenant attack can flit around uncontrollably to multiple targets often times the Smokeskale just focuses down one target. So, on Veterans . . . well that can get a bit messy. My Zerk+PVT trinket Guardian was taking pretty significant damage (4225 damage even with Focus 5 absorbing three of the attacks). Hate to see what that would be like on an Elite. Hate to see what it would be like on a real squishy (thief or ele). Not much fun being one-shot by level 80 non-champs.

So, before the “NO DON’T NERF ANYTHING!!!” crowd gets ahold of this post and runs it down, let me say this: Most of the HOT mobs haven’t been too horrendous – they are tough but defeatable solo. Normals in pairs or triples, some Veterans handled readily enough but many are real challenge and I don’t mind it. Even the Mordrem snipers are acceptable once you understand what’s going on with them. I expect that we will get better, the community will learn how to deal with them one after another . . . but I’m not seeing how that going to work with Smokescales.

So, just to (hopefully) annoy Obtena . . .

Advice 1:
Three Words: Map Closure Volunteer. You can hit lucrative spots such as the area around places like Terra Carorunda Waypoint (from the Brand to the Wall) multiple times in a short amount of time if you arrive a few minutes before a world boss event and harvest the area and then stick around after a world boss event ends. Maps will begin to close afterwards and typically you can get at least two jumps into the same map/area. Tonight for the heck of it I hit the area around Terra Carorunda three times – the haul was about 70 seasoned wood logs, 200 iron ore (shocking amount of iron ore actually), and a fair amount of kale (for Garlic Kale Sautee – goes for about 1 gold each on the TP), zucchini and herbs (mostly mint but at least 2 chili peppers). I would say at least 5 gold worth of materials collected in a fairly short time at a relatively relaxed and unhurried pace. Unfortunately, Ascalon lacks world bosses on a regular schedule so the Shatterer map is really the only one you can do this on to get chili peppers. I farm the area around that Waypoint but it may be that there are other herb patches that consistently show in certain locations on the map and you might be able to hit all of those in a short period of time to increase your chances of gathering chili peppers.

Advice 2:
This may or may not apply to chili peppers, but it is a general trend I’ve noticed. What herbs you get tend to be consistent on a map/in an area at a given point in time – that is what you harvest from herb nodes tends to be “streaky.” For example hitting the area around Terra Carorunda tonight I got mint pretty consistently. Sometimes hitting the herb patch south of the dungeon in Mt. Maelstrom will yield one herb pretty consistently such as cloves one day, vanilla beans the next. Same with the harvesting run on the east side of the Straits of Devastation – you know you may be your day if within the first three herb nodes you hit you get lemongrass.

Good luck – hope you crash the market on chili peppers and ruin Obtena’s day.

Vox Hollow.2736:

I also find Agony a bit of a barrier to Fractals.

I can rationalize it on a gameplay level all day long, but there’s something about it that just seems so…..(sigh)…

If I describe it out loud; it never ends up sounding like a feature – it just sounds like a treadmill made transparent. Like it’s some embittered reaction to ‘the whole game is endgame’ not quite panning out in practice, playing out as a mean-spirited parody of what other games do.

It doesn’t make me excited to play them, it just makes me feel like a fool.

I never realized how much value there was in tying a ribbon on the skinner box, until Fractals came along.

Agreed. I also find it difficult to explain why I dislike AR but this is the closest I’ve seen to crystalizing my thoughts/attitude on the subject. Its as if ANet said "hey little hamsters jump on this wheel and run really really fast. If you run fast enough you run on a slightly bigger wheel wont that be great! Then if your run fast enough on that wheel you can get a slightly bigger when to run slightly faster on . . . " AR is one of the most transparent gear checks/gear grinds I’ve seen in either GW game.

Personally I think it is foolish to get on the hamster wheel in the first place when you ask yourself “What’s the point?” or “What do I get again for putting up with this crap?” and can’t think of a good enough answer to convince yourself. In the case of fractals greed can’t justify jumping on the hamster wheel since (from what I’ve read on the forums is reasonably accurate), fractals are generally unrewarding in comparison to many other in-game activities. Maybe the upcoming changes will change the “math” enough for me to care to give them another try but I wont hold my breath.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Arrow.4619:

Actually, you are all trivializing this a bit much. Its not a critical problem but it is an increasingly annoying one IF you want your name have some relevance or meaning to the character or to just simply look like an actual NAME as opposed to gibberish. The maximum combos numbers people are throwing around are silly: “uomnyuogo” is not a name most people would chose but its probably one of the combos in that total. If you want your name to be quasi-reasonable/sane/recognizable as an actual NAME you’ll find yourself spending an ridiculous amount of time trying variation upon variation upon variation of the name you want without much luck. Been there, done that. Annoying as hell.

It’s really not all that hard to find a good combo that both fits a system of lore and is available. And if you have trouble, there are the following sites:

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/human_gw_names.php
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/asura_names.php
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/sylvari_names.php
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/norn_names.php
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/charr_names.php

Thank you for this, its better than starting from scratch perhaps but seriously its not great help if my first use is any indication:

Tancredi Angelico
Clinio Bevacqua
Theodosios Cicchini
Shen Yeh
Nichiren Yao
Lando Sale
Tilmann Deeken
Humfrey Hilgendorf
Asil Yetis
Nadeem Akpinar

Seriously, I think I see one that I would consider for a permanent character – or at least a variation on one. Still . . . better than starting from scratch.

Actually, you are all trivializing this a bit much. Its not a critical problem but it is an increasingly annoying one IF you want your name have some relevance or meaning to the character or to just simply look like an actual NAME as opposed to gibberish. The maximum combos numbers people are throwing around are silly: “uomnyuogo” is not a name most people would chose but its probably one of the combos in that total. If you want your name to be quasi-reasonable/sane/recognizable as an actual NAME you’ll find yourself spending an ridiculous amount of time trying variation upon variation upon variation of the name you want without much luck. Been there, done that. Annoying as hell.

In before the names don’t matter crowd: If it doesn’t matter to you do us all a favor the next time you make up a permanent character you want to play . . . roll your face across the keyboard and take that name. The rest of us will take the pronounceable ones that actually look like names.

Broken forums are broken.

Still broken just tried to 2-character it and we ran into the issue of being unable to use the cannons to reflect the giants attacks. Totally stymied us – our mesmer reflects seemed to work on giants attacks but they fell short quite often. Running full reflects on two mesmers it would probably still take forever.

The high node in the first section of Dry Top has been consistently dead over my past several attempts to use it. Those attempts were made over several days and I’m certain its not simply not yet reset since I know its been over a day or two several times and node is still dead.

Probably been reported somewhere in the previous 11 pages but just in case . . .

Personal story voice over dialogue for the mentors and some other characters in the Vigil and Priory stories and does not play – the problem appears to be intermittent with voiced dialogue followed by silence. I’ve played both stories before and I am certain there was voice over for the dialogue that is missing.

At one point in time before the GW2 was released, you could in fact distribute stat points separate from traits (WP has a video that shows it I believe). IMO ANet erred when they combined the stat points with the traits and they should have kept them separate from the very start. There were lots of trait lines with mediocre to outright crappy synergy between the stats and the traits. HOWEVER, choosing to throw some of the lost stat points into the base character stats and rest into gear was not an ideal or even a good solution – it was just an easy/lazy one. We all lost character customization and many players gained a significant gold/laurel/guild commendation sink by needing to either restat ascended gear and/or buy new ascended trinkets. The trait changes were “generally” for the better, but the stat changes are the fuzzy end of the lollypop.

I think the OP shouldn’t be concerned about whether or not by some measure a down-leveled 80 is weaker than a nearby non-down-leveled characters. Its too much of an apples to oranges type comparison with too many nuances to account for (traits, skill, experience, equipment, etc.). That does not mean that ANet has not screwed up the downleveling/downscaling however.

I propose the “Killing Risen Brutes” test (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Risen_Brute) if you are concerned about how well ANet has handled the downscaling. The hypothesis being that no Risen Brute should be harder/take longer to kill for a down-leveled level-80 character than non-down-leveled 80 character killing a level 80 Risen Brute, I suggest the Brutes because 1) they are normal mob hit point walls and even the biggest kitten level 80 has to hit one more than once to kill it solo (no Warriors with full adrenaline at the start of the fight!); and 2) they are found 3 level ranges 3-26, 50-67 and 76-80.

Just a suggestion – personally I don’t care that much . . .

penelopehannibal.8947:

Arrow.4619:

Just curious – everyone is assuming this is the art for the elite specialization. There were two pictures that are not currently in use for the thief:

http://i.imgur.com/xA8qvVk.png
AND
http://i.imgur.com/rNAy4Jb.png

One would be for the new trait line and the other the accompanying new skill type. I’m not certain which is which because we’re missing important context.

I hope that ANet does not introduce a new class with a melee staff AND add staff as the specialization weapon to two other existing classes although its quite possible they will.

The second image is currently being used by Thief. It’s the Deadly Arts specialisation line.

I recognized and found the others on my thief but just missed that one.

Kits could be a very cool specialization for the thief.

MattyP.6954:

Arrow.4619:

Just curious – everyone is assuming this is the art for the elite specialization. There were two pictures that are not currently in use for the thief:

http://i.imgur.com/xA8qvVk.png
AND
http://i.imgur.com/rNAy4Jb.png

One would be for the new trait line and the other the accompanying new skill type. I’m not certain which is which because we’re missing important context.

I hope that ANet does not introduce a new class with a melee staff AND add staff as the specialization weapon to two other existing classes although its quite possible they will.

I always figured that that second picture was a couple of Rangers. Seems like a scouty-trackery type sort of thing.

The images shaman presented are alphabetical by class, and those two images are the last thief images. The two standing don’t look like Rangers to me – no pets, now bows, but lots of knives and swords.

In the case of the Personal Story there really is no reason that you could not have both. The personal story is instanced content. So the start of each instance you could be presented with the choice of either a “Normal” PS instance or a “Hard” PS instance. The “Hard” version could have a tweaked up AI and give the mobs more health, etc. – whatever is appropriate.

Just curious – everyone is assuming this is the art for the elite specialization. There were two pictures that are not currently in use for the thief:

http://i.imgur.com/xA8qvVk.png
AND
http://i.imgur.com/rNAy4Jb.png

One would be for the new trait line and the other the accompanying new skill type. I’m not certain which is which because we’re missing important context.

I hope that ANet does not introduce a new class with a melee staff AND add staff as the specialization weapon to two other existing classes although its quite possible they will.

Cyninja.2954:

Sirendor.1394:

Cyninja.2954:

Sirendor.1394:

Heh!

If I run a thief with Deadly Arts, Trickery and Acrobatics… I would be a DATA thief. And yeah… those trait lines are seriously overpowered xD

DA:
- Sepent’s Touch: stealing inflicts 2 stacks of poison, attacks in downed apply 2 seconds of poison
+ Mug: Deal damage and gain life when stealing.
- Lotus Poison: Weaken targets for 4 seconds when poison.
+ Panic Strike: Striking a foe below health threshold: 2,5 immobilize
-Exposed Weakness: 10% more damage if target poisoned
+ Improvisation: When you steal one skill category is recharged, can use stolen items twice.

T:
- Kleptomaniac: Steal gives 2 initiative
+ Thrill of the Crime: Steal gives fury, might and swiftness (10s)
- Preparedness: 3 extra initiative
+ Trickster: Reduced recharge on tricks, remove condi on trick
- Lead attacks: 1% more damage per initiative, 15% faster steal recharge
+ Bewildering Ambush: Steal applies 5 stacks of confusion

A:
- Expeditious Dodger: 2s swiftness on dodge
+ Pain Response: 10s regen and remove conditions when struck below 75% health
- Feline Grace: 2s vigor when successful evade
+ Swindler’s Equilibrium: Succesfully evading with sword reduce steal recharge with 1s
- Endless Stamina: Effects of vigor 50% better
+Don’t Stop: Effects of cripple and chill reduced by 50%

DATA might well become the new thief meta.

Overpowered until people learn to dodge steal. Then the spec loses quit a lot of it’s significance.

What’s this dodge steal you speak of? Does it also give you fury, might, swiftness, recharge utilities, give you two fast attacks, drops 5 stacks of confusion on foe, deals damage, heals you, poisons foe, weakens foe (oh and I forgot it also converts and steals boons from enemies if you take another trait instead of trickster)?

Face it… Data thief OP.

No, but it might prevent the enemy thief of getting any of those if the requirement was to actually connect with the skill.

I don’t know how it’s coded, just saying IF it requires you to hit the enemy to grant most of those benefits, it’s far from overpowered.

If you take all of the Steal traits at each level of Trickery (including the Grandmaster that Dazes) then you can use it approximately every 20 seconds (if my math is correct). Functionally, what that likely means is 2 times per minute. Steal has to hit for anything to happen. If you miss or its blocked, or you don’t have a path it goes into CD. So, while its arguably nice, remember that the boon durations have not been published yet and at this point it doesn’t seem OP to me at all. Not given the expenditure of traits that would be required to make it as good as the poster thinks. Something that you can use 2-3 per minute by heavily traiting into it vs. traits that are more useful moment to moment isn’t such a good trade off. Also, Acrobatics has been taken out, shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave at this point – it was good for a little might on dodge and Cat’s Grace – and they’ve nerfed it so hard you wont be able to dodge as well as an Honor Guardian or a Wilderness Survival Ranger. Dodging wise you’re better off using food to help you there.

babazhook.6805:

On allies does not mean it precludes the thief that cast it. There a number of traits that say “on allies” including the current shadow protector and the person casting gains the boon as well.

True. But I’ve noticed that most of those actually specifically note that they affect “the character and nearby allies” or something similar. Of course, ANet doesn’t excel at providing clear descriptions/tool tips.

Seabreeze.8437:

Volrath.1473:

I’m copy/pasting a post of mine from another thead.

“Ricochet probably got movednto the new trate line that we know nothing about yet. One more reason to believe the new weapon will be a rifle and that the new trait line will be about ranged dps (pistols, short bow and rifle)”

At this point, Volrath… I really hope you’re right.

Same thoughts occured to me when I saw they had disappeared. I think he probably is correct and we’re getting the “Gunslinger” specialization after all. I honestly thought ANet wouldn’t give the Thief a rifle (or any 1200 range on anything EVER) because of their precious PvP balance/Esports . . . looking like I was wrong.

I agree with Arkitech. Unless I’m misreading it Shadow Protector is pretty kittenty actually – 3 seconds of regeneration ON ALLIES (which has value in very limited circumstances). If it affected the thief might be worth taking. Leeching venoms is only worthwhile if you run venom (so pretty much useless to me). So its Hidden Thief by default for my D/D thief.

I like the 5 seconds AOE blind from Cloaked in Shadows. I just play PvE and since I tend to play very aggressively spending more than 3 seconds in stealth is rare so I usually have 2-3 seconds of the blind left as a benefit. I might swap to Shadow’s Rejuvenation IF I get 1 initiative when I enter Stealth then 1 initiative every 3 seconds (functioning like the Shadows Embrace does for conditions) which would really only mean my C&D’s cost 5 initiative. The regen doesn’t impress – less than 300/sec if I remember correctly. Attaching a lot of benefits to being in stealth just promotes a passive play style (“excuse me I need to wait around in stealth for a 3-4 count”) that I find kind of annoying.

BTW – Am I wrong or did the thief trait lines received the least significant changes out of all the classes? I look at what’s the new system has and many of the traits seem to be exactly the same as the old traits with less than a handful of real “improvements” and couple of unnecessary nerfs. Stuff’s moved around a bit but its all relatively uninspiring.

Stompy.1387:

Anything about Dagger Training trait for Thieves becoming baseline like it was said to be?

I fear they gave us a crappy version of Dagger Training instead since they conspicuously didn’t mention it. Do the math on that skill and you’ll see how bad it sucks compared to a plus 5% baseline. The poison -33% heal uptime isn’t even much given Lotus Strike is now 6 seconds of poison.

Edited cause I found some more stuff that just kittenes me off.

Lets compare:

Contextual note of importance: Oh and btw, Vigor is receiving a completely unnecessary nerf from plus 100% endurance regeneration rate to plus 50% (if I understand that correctly). The new Thief Master Minor Acrobatics Trait Feline Grace: Gain 2 seconds of vigor upon successfully evading an attack. This effect has a a 1 second internal cooldown. Coupled that trait with the new Minor Grandmaster Acrobatics Trait Endless Stamina: The effects of vigor are enhanced by 50%. Not sure if that means +50% (i.e., plus 100%) or x1.5 (plus 75%) – either way it really doesn’t matter since 2 seconds of either only accessible on a successful evade blows hard.

vs.

Guardian Honor Minor Adept trait of Vigorus Precision: Gain 5 seconds of vigor when you deliver a critical hit. This effect has a 10 second internal cooldown. Plus the Guardian Honor Minor Grandmaster Trait Purity of Body: Your virtue of resolve passive effect also regenerates endurance by 15%.

OR

The old and new Ranger Minor Adept Trait "Natural Vigor: Increases your endurance regeneration by 20%.

So basically, a Guardian with the Honor Line or the Long/Bearbow Ranger with 1 adept minor trait can dodge as, if not more, often than a thief. And, apparently “rewarding skilled play” only means “rewarding skilled thief play.”

Any chance I could exchange the two fairly crappy Acrobatics master and grandmaster minor thief traits for the relatively decent Guardian Honor or Ranger adept minor traits? Serious question.

I paid the $100 twice for two accounts. Yes I have money, but I am not by any means rich. I look at it this way – if the expansion comes out at the three year anniversary then I will have paid $150 over three years for my account. I have not bought gems with my own money in a loooong time. But lets assume before I stopped using cash and starting using gold I spent another $150. So, $300 over three years for thousands of hours of game play. Still not a bad deal. I am sympathetic to those on tight budgets and I generally in agreement with the idea that the new class warrants the inclusion of a character slot in the base version. But otherwise, I would say pony up the $50 or don’t get the expansion.

Aesthetics: Timberline Falls, Lornar’s Pass (like the feel and look of most of the Shiverpeaks Maps) then Maguma areas with Ascalon areas (except Southsun) and Kryta tied for last.

Gameplay: Silverwastes, Dry Top, Mt. Maelstrom (a surprisingly “busy” map with 2 world bosses, a dungeon with an event chain to open it, 2 JPs and a Guild Challenge – plus some good farming for hard wood and platinum), Southsun, Orr and then kinda everything else.

@ Rich Fuel and DresdenAllblack

I’m willing to bet you are W.R.O.N.G. As a PVE thief main I would love it. Its unlikely though for the same reason we’re limited to 900 range now unless with trait for it (then we get to the big 1050 range with ricocheting, not piercing, bullets): PvP balance. I sincerely doubt the they want a 1200 range combatant that can disengage and reset fights with excellent movement capabilities in their esports. With the high crit chance manyt thieves run as a matter of course, even a low damage attack with poor coefficients could be a real problem. Unless of course the limit the rifle to 900 range. At which point most of the thief community will be like “Jezzus Anet why are you trolling like this.” And those would be the polite responses.

No, we probably will get one of these: axe or mace (main hand – maybe main and off), focus or torch (off hand). Probably getting torch since its an obvious explorer/tomb raider type weapon.

Sure . . . so long as I “backstab” with my GS! lol

On a more serious note inappropriate for the general tone of this thread;) -

As far as I know the idea that thief will get a rifle came from one brief picture in a very early scene of devs playing that may or may not have actually shown a thief with a rifle. Or has there been more than that? Honestly, I’m not certain that thief will be getting a Rifle. The reason is the same as its always been: PvP. PvP is why the thief short bow range got nerfed and why the most range a thief can get (other than shortbow 2 I think?) is 1050 via pistol plus a trait. The fact that this limitation makes certain basic face-tank easy PvE content either worthless to bother with^ or simply just annoyingly disadvantaged^^ to complete as thief probably doesn’t matter enough for ANet to ignore their balance PvP first and PvE never credo.

I hope I’m wrong about the above but I doubt I am.

Probably thief will get one of these: axe (main and/or off hand), mace (main and/or off hand), torch (off hand) or focus (off hand). I would not be surprised if it was a torch off hand. Goes with the idea of a Explorer/Tomb Raider type – which is pretty much what Dougal Keane was. Dougal was sort of an Indiana Jones type protagonist and the “first” GW2 thief introduced in “Ghosts of Ascalon.”

=

^Megadestroyer – here take your pistol little thief, stand in the lava that will defeat you in less than a handful of seconds and ping the big bad destroyer or just stand on the tip of one of the rock outcroppings with 20 other characters and get downed by its big attack you cant dodge even if you could see it coming through the particle effect ‘cause your on the tip of a rock out over lava and you don’t want to dodge into the lava (see first option).

^^Golem Mark II – go ahead and melee or pew pew it with a pistol at 900 range just don’t lag you know cause insta-down static electric fields are no fun.

Log in for reward and dailies (and the 10 AP).

Map completion on all characters (only 1 lvl 80 out of 7 left at this point).

Building a gold and resources stockpile (I may have to cut loose of my 650 unidentified dyes soon if they get much more expensive.

Completing some misc. achievements for AP (ex. Weapon Master) while trying to resist the urge to complete those that are obviously little more than gold sinks.

Play the forum game.

Trying new games – most recently Pillars of Eternity.

Doing other non-GW2 life stuff.

Your strategy of opening the masterwork gear bags on a level 55 is probably best in the long run . . . but the last precursor I got I got from one of those green gear bags so . . . I’d just open them on my 80s even if I had a mid-level characer.

In the proposed revised trait system I think there are three particular types of traits that might be more well served being treated as basic (as opposed to HOT) masteries instead:

Falling Damage Mitigation Traits -> Falling Grace Mastery: These traits are really useful and only used in very limited circumstances (in jumping puzzles or very occasionally in PvE exploration, and in jumping off cliffs in WvW) but otherwise aren’t used. Personally I think this is mostly an exploration-type trait/skill more like the hang gliding and jumping pads masteries will be in HOT. Maximizing (mastering?) this mastery should get the character the same effects that the proposed revised traits would do now with maybe a few steps (at 25-50-75%) of lesser effects to ramp up to it.

Reviving Others Traits -> Field Medic Mastery: Again, these are very situation traits – almost never taken in PvE (but possibly more popular in WvW or PvP?). The traits clearly support cooperative game play but most players would rather take any other trait that helps keep them on their feet than take one of these traits. The theory being (of course) that you can spend all the time in the world rezzing others once all the bad guys are dead. Turning these traits into masteries will actually make it more likely players will take the time in the midst of an event to rally or rez others. A positive side effect of this would be fewer event “death spirals” where players start falling like dominoes because either some of them are downed or defeated trying to rez others or from a relentless implosion because to fewer and fewer players are trying to complete the event. As with the above suggested trait->mastery conversion, this one should also have steps leading to the top tier which would be the equivalent of the current trait.

Downed State Traits -> “Tis but a scratch” Mastery (ok maybe call it something else like “It’s just a flesh wound” Mastery: These are traits that people just don’t take because the point of traits is keep your character from being downed. Nearly any other trait is an inherently superior choice. Its worth noting that in some of the newer content like Silverwastes, being downed is often just a quick prelude to being defeated since the mob AI seems to have been improved to focus on a downed character and finish them off, so it can be serious challenge to rally once downed. If this is prelude to HOT content this might me a popular mastery than might be expected. If there are PvP balance concerns here this might only be a PvE/WvW mastery(?). As with the others there would be steps up prior to full mastery, and full mastery which would equal the current trait.

Grandfathering accounts might or might not be necessary. If its felt that it would be necessary ANet could easily use achievements and or account stats to provide for a certain amount account-wide progress in each mastery depending on what account and/or character data is available:
Falling Damage Data: Jumping Puzzle completions, diving achievements, number of deaths due to falling damage.
Reviving Characters: Amount healed on self or others, old reviver daily points, number of others revived.
Downed State: Number of deaths, number of successful rallies.

OP I have a sincere suggestion: STOP. Stop posting on this issue. On this thread and the “Hero Points and old characters: breach of trust” thread you’ve managed to be the worst spokesperson for this issue. You make it very hard to agree with you.

And I do happen to agree with you to this extent – I think everyone should be able to play their chosen style (PvE, WvW or PvP) and not have core functionality/aspects of the game gated behind another game style they don’t like. Prior to the recent update that removed WvW from map completion I manged to make it through about 18000 AP without having world completion because I don’t like WvW (tried it did not like it I consider nothing more than PvP or ZergvZerg with PvE window dressing). ANet should figure out some method to hold the WvW-only crowd whole – I think is a reasonable request to have some increase in access to hero points (or whatever they will be called) through WvW activities.

. . . and since I cannot resist after two plus years of “delicious PvE tears” and “c’mon try WvW ya wimp” posts from the WvW crowd I have another suggestion: If youze scared of PvE get together with about 40+ other uber-skilz WvW-only players, form a zerg and run from skill point to skill point in the starter zones – it’ll feel just like WvW!

In the same position as the OP re. my Thief. I went pretty much full Zerk on equipment, mitigated a little by some trinkets – but mostly by the stats from the trait lines. I’ll lose +300 precision, +300 ferocity, +200 toughness, +200 healing power, +200 vitality (2000 health!), +20% boon duration. So given my equipment and the increased base I’ll probably get the first back plus some, but I suspect I’ll lose 50-100 toughness, healing power, and vitality + 100% of the boon duration boost. If its closer to 50 I can deal but if its closer to 100 in each, that’s a lot of sustain to lose on a glassy class.

Pretty much reposting this verbatim from Guhracies’ recent thread on the same subject:

==

When fractals first were introduced I ran a series of three fractals with a group of guildies. Most of us had no idea what we were doing but we were reasonably competent players. We ran into a particular fractal that I think is the “Swamp Fractal” (maybe not though – I never look at that section of the achievement panel). What I remember most was the boss who had the “Anet-given” ability to go invisible for however long was necessary before he could one shot “backstab” you. So champion health + one shot mechanics + invisibility = not much fun. Honestly, it took us several hours to make it through those three fractals. All of that might not have been enough for me to stop doing fractals but then I got the reward: Some tokens I could not even really use to buy anything. I distinctly remember feeling like ANet had physically spat on me (I’m not exaggerating – I was actually offended by the reward). I was already really iffy on the idea of the “agony merry-go-round” (the “do something for a reward that can use buy something that you have to have so you can do more of the same for the same reward so you can buy more of the thing you have to have so you can do more of the same”) but if you’re going to throw wall-o-hit-point bosses with crappy, cheesy mechanics at me at least reward me for the effort of putting up with that kind of kitten.

I vowed not to do fractals again and I haven’t. Not once since then. I do remember finding a forum post on the rewards someone had tracked from hundreds of fractal runs they had done and that just reinforced the decision. I don’t need more ascended rings and a less than 1% chance of getting a a fractal weapon skin doesn’t impress (that post was yet another example of why ANet’s fawning love affair with RNG rewards just has to end for gods sake).

In spite of the above I haven’t really complained about the double-fractal daily before in part because I still get more AP under the new system than the old and I don’t have high expectations of ANet on this kind of thing. ANet seems to believe its important to strong-arm players into portions of the game they don’t necessarily enjoy. I’m sure they view it as “enticing” players but it often comes across unnecessary, annoying and sometimes downright obnoxious (I mean really come on two fractals in the daily . . . but never two world bosses or two node harvests or two vista viewers and why the hell isn’t there a dungeon daily?). I just view it as part of my “job” as a player to say “No” to content I don’t like. So when there is double fractals and no WvW Big Spender I just don’t get the daily 10 AP. Oh well I somehow survive.

When fractals first were introduced I ran a series of three fractals with a group of guildies. Most of us had no idea what we were doing but we were reasonably competent players. We ran into a particular fractal that I think is the “Swamp Fractal.” What I remember most was the boss who had the “Anet-given” ability to go invisible for however long was necessary before he could one shot “backstab” you. So champion health + one shot mechanics + invisibility = not much fun. Honestly, it took us several hours to make it through those three fractals. All of that might not have been enough for me to stop doing fractals but then I got the reward: Some tokens I could not even really use to buy anything. I distinctly remember feeling like ANet had physically spat on me (I’m not exaggerating – I was actually offended by the reward). I was already really iffy on the idea of the “agony merry-go-round” (the “do something for a reward that can use buy something that you have to have so you can do more of the same for the same reward so you can but more of the thing you have to have so you can do more of the same”) but if you’re going to throw wall-o-hit-point bosses with crappy, cheesy mechanics at me at least reward me for the effort of putting up with that kind of kitten.

I vowed not to do fractals again and I haven’t. Not once since then. I do remember finding a forum post on the rewards someone had tracked from hundreds of fractal runs they had done and that just reinforced the decision. I don’t need more ascended rings and a less than 1% chance of getting a a fractal weapon skin doesn’t impress (that post was yet another example of why ANet’s fawning love affair with RNG rewards just has to end for gods sake).

In spite of the above I haven’t really complained about the double-fractal daily before in part because I still get more AP under the new system than the old and I don’t have high expectations of ANet on this kind of thing. ANet seems to believe its important to strong-arm players into portions of the game they don’t necessarily enjoy. I’m sure they view it as “enticing” players but it often comes across unnecessary, annoying and sometimes downright obnoxious (I mean really come on two fractals in the daily . . . but never two world bosses or two node harvests or two vista viewers?). I just view it as part of my “job” as a player to say “No” to content I don’t like. So when there is double fractals and no WvW Big Spender I just don’t get the daily 10 AP. Oh well I somehow survive.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I found several possibilities for a statue. The first is of him going through the portal, two are of him at work and the last one is of him relaxing at home. Any one of these will do nicely.

I vote for the one of him going through the portal.

In my opinion – the game is a kitten ed good value. It has a lot to recommend it. At this point anyone (including me) who plays the game currently and has played since day 1 (again, including me) can’t really disagree with that (otherwise why would they still be playing?.

On the other hand I would say that counter to what you’ve read above much of the criticism of ANet and GW2 is justified at least to some extent and sometimes what you see is a very tempered version of the criticism they’ve earned. ANet has a bad habit of making bad choices about direction and important aspects of the game. Some examples – temporary content in season 1 of the living story, the April 2014 trait system and the follow-up “New Character Experience”) which they then have to go back and either in part or whole undo, repair what they broke, refine or revamp what they did, or just tweak until its twerked (is that even a word?). Its great to experiment but sometimes not so great to be experimented on.

They also have perhaps one of the most abysmal communication policies of any business I’ve ever dealt with. Recent case in point – the beta key that was supposed to drop from mobs in Silverwastes and Dry Top ended . . . maybe . . . according to GW2 twitter (or was it some other social media?) but nothing official has been posted on the forums say like on the “News and Announcements” page where something like that should be . . . so who knows. Treating your customers like mushrooms (being kept in the dark and fed kitten) is never a good idea.

Bottom Line: You’ll get your money’s worth but you may occasionally want to scream at your screen.

Same problem. Just logged off after several hours of play – no item description throughout the session.

On the west coast (PST) and the lag spikes are over 1000 with a ping average of 175+ atm in Frostgorge. Whatever the problem is its not fixed yet.

If you mean the boons and conditions are being given greater durations as baseline then I would say only in certain cases (at least at the moment).

I know ANet mentioned something about nerfing the Celestial Amulet for PVP. However, now that it appears both boon and condition duration are going away as trait stats, I would like to suggest ANet add boon and condition duration boosts to the Celestial gear. Give a flat 2% boost to all pieces except chest, make that +3% and the total for going full Celestial would be +25% duration total (6 armor +13% + 6 trinkets etc. +12%). Might bring back Celestial as a more viable option for some builds and actually makes some sense in that Celestial gear would boost all primary AND secondary attributes (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute). Cap the boon and boost durations at +100%.

I would like to ANet add boon and condition duration boosts to the Celestial gear. Give a flat 2% boost to all pieces except chest, make that +3% and the total for going full Celestial would be +25% total (6 armor +13% + 6 trinkets etc. +12%). Might bring back Celestial as a more viable option for some builds and actually makes some sense in that Celestial gear would boost all primary AND secondary attributes (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute).

phys.7689:

Arrow.4619:

Ok. You can’t take Berserk+Axe Mastery. So the tradeoff of that for 2 additional Minor traits (1 from Master and Grandmaster) and an additional Master and Grandmaster Trait is apparently so awful every Axe Warrior is automatically being screwed over? Take a look at those additional traits you can get and if you cannot figure out a way that those traits can make your characters either more powerful, more effective or more interesting to play then that’s a failure of imagination on your part.

http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-arms-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-defense-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-tactics-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-discipline-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-defense-specialization.jpg

uhh its not about tradeoff versus what used to be, its about what is going on now.
.
Essentially there is no reason to take the axe trait, its a slightly less powerful/versatile version of the same thing.

so basically the axe trait has no real value in competition with the burst trait.
so its a false choice.

That actually makes no sense to me phys. It is about the entire system as proposed. If you think that Axe Mastery synergizes well with other choices in other lines you might well take it even if you think its slightly inferior to Berserker Strength. Dual Wielding, Leg Specialist and Burst Mastery come to mind but it might synergize well with other one hand weapon skills like Blade Master, Sundering Mace.

Also not 100% certain I agree with your assertion that Axe Mastery is inherently the lesser trait. If you can burst and miss the target and still get the damage boost then yes/maybe assuming you can burst every 10 seconds or so. If it only procs on successfully using the Burst then its absolutely not. One attack every so often that can miss, be blocked, dodged, etc. (an you lose the 10 second damage boost) verses a continuous passive boost to axe cool downs, crit damage (general btw from what I can tell – so axe main or offhand give the ferocity with all attacks regardless of main or off hand) plus extra adrenaline and therefore more burst attacks plus potentially lots of fury up-time (through axe #4 if its your off hand). Combine Axe Mastery + Burst Mastery and you have strong regular attacks with a high crit chance and lots of burst (1-2-3-burst-1-2-3-burst and repeat.

If the issue is its having to make a choice, well I would say: Tough, join the club, choice is likely going to be something for every player and every class.

Ok. You can’t take Berserk+Axe Mastery. So the tradeoff of that for 2 additional Minor traits (1 from Master and Grandmaster) and an additional Master and Grandmaster Trait is apparently so awful every Axe Warrior is automatically being screwed over? Take a look at those additional traits you can get and if you cannot figure out a way that those traits can make your characters either more powerful, more effective or more interesting to play then that’s a failure of imagination on your part.

http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-arms-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-defense-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-tactics-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-discipline-specialization.jpg
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gw2-warrior-defense-specialization.jpg

To me this is clearly a departure for ANet – they are asking for feedback not just on broader ideas, but some specifics as well, several months before they will likely release it. All you have to do is compare this behavior to their behavior in the last trait revamp or the NPE feature pack. Do you remember the last time several ANets deves took four and a half hours to explain something to us and ask for our feedback? I don’t because I suspect it has never happened before.

The traits revamp will happen before the release of HOT (they were definite about that and it makes sense to me that they want it released prior to HOT). So, I would guess that you should back up one month prior to the release of HOT before we see this go live – if it is an anniversary release then maybe we see this in early July.

I disagree. The new trait does not work the way the old trait did. The new version is a boost to burst damage, not a static +10% to +20% depending on your adrenal level so long as you don’t use a burst skill (allowing you to keep up higher damage with a three condition removal in your back pocket). Not the same thing at all. You are trading off +20% damage on most bursts vs. +2 adrenaline from axe skill plus 20% cooldown reduction on axe skills plus +150 (1 axe) or +300 (2 axes) ferocity. Not sure that you’re making the better choice by taking Berserker’s Power (more damage on bursts) over Axe Mastery (more attacks due to lower CD, quicker adrenaline building, plus extra damage on crits from all types of attacks so long as your are wielding an axe).

Copied from a post I made in the Traits thread:

Disconnecting increasing dual primary and secondary attribute stats from the trait lines is good. Doing away with assignable primary stats is not good. The problem as I see it is that swapping armor for loss of stats in certain areas is relatively impractical and/or becomes a nightmare when you consider ascended armor and gear. I run a fair number of hybrid builds where I use the stat boost from a trait line(s) to balance my gear choice. I have four characters with fully ascended gear and simply swapping out weapons and armor to adjust for the loss of say 300 power, precision, vitality or toughness isn’t really a viable option. I would suggest you give every character some assignable points (say 600) that must be assigned to at least two of the primary attributes – in other words go back to a system similar to the pre-launch system you had for assigning traits and attribute stats separately. I recognize this might not be a practical option, and if it is impractical or you dislike the idea for other reasons, then I recommend a flat boost to stats be available at the choice of a grandmaster level for each of the 4 main attributes. You might scale the boost for vitality and toughness based on the base health and armor of the class. as well (so for example, a Guard would still have the +300 vitality trait but the +toughness trait would only add +100 toughness). Adjust the stat boosts you plan to give to equipment down to compensate.

I use the falling damage reduction traits in JPs but otherwise not. I think in all cases the falling damage trait needs to be in the adept tier not the master tier. Like now, I think its fine to have it only available through a certain trait line, but just not as a master level trait.

Just finished all four+ hours of the stream and I have to say up front:

THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING US INFORMATION ON THE NEW TRAIT AND SPECIALIZATION SYSTEM!!!! IMO this warrants an all caps shout because it strikes me as a sharp break from what you have done in the past and deserves to be acknowledged as a significant positive change. Positive behavior needs to be reinforced. Also, I believe (as presented) this is positive step for the game.

Thoughts on some of the main changes:
1. Three full trait lines is good.
2. Classifying all the skills and providing synergy between them and traits is good.
3. Fewer traits is good. I know some are going to disagree with this but I believe the reality has been for several years now that there are a lot of “junk” traits in the system and they needed to be culled and/or consolidated. Properly done you will no longer need the option to slot (for example) two adept traits (one in the adept, the other in the master) or two master traits (one in the master slot the other in a grandmaster slot) or choose a basic trait over a GM trait (which I’ve actually done at least once).
4. Proposed thief changes. I think having traits positively impact a fundamental class mechanic like initiative is important. And I don’t consider steal to be the only class mechanic the thief has, yes initiative only “replaces” cool downs – but frankly the glorified gap closer you see as the thief class mechanic is nothing special. Initiative boosting traits are the thief equivalent of the 20% cool down reduction other classes have available. I like playing the thief in a very mobile and aggressive way and every time in the past you’ve limited the ability to actively boost initiative regeneration or limited activate boosts to endurance regeneration it deadens the play a bit. I suspect the proposed change to the dodging and endurance regen traits will do the same again. In theory at least the dodge/endurance regen the change your are proposing does what you intend (rewards skilled play) but it will also take away a good part of what makes the thief fun for me personally (dynamic in combat movement and the ability to quickly disengage and re-engage). Maybe a change to the initiative regen rate will be enough to assuage my possible issues with not having initiative boosting traits, but I’m much less sanguine about changes to Expeditious Dodger and Feline Grace. BTW – Dam you for figuring out the blind on stealth trait is grandmaster. That trait plus condition removal on stealth are pretty invaluable for me at least.
5. You should take the opportunity this change is giving you to reinforce the DPS-Control-Support “trinity.” I’m not saying make it a religion but it should factor into at least some of the choices you have in each tier (at the very least for certain lines).
6. Fall damage reduction traits should all be Adept traits – there shouldn’t be any of them that are Master-level.
7. Disconnecting increasing dual primary and secondary attribute stats from the trait lines is good.
8. Doing away with assignable primary stats is not good. The problem as I see it is that swapping armor for loss of stats in certain areas is relatively impractical and/or becomes a nightmare when you consider ascended armor and gear. I run a fair number of hybrid builds where I use the stat boost from a trait line(s) to balance my gear choice. I have four characters with fully ascended gear and simply swapping out weapons and armor to adjust for the loss of say 300 power, precision, vitality or toughness isn’t really a viable option. I would suggest you give every character some assignable points (say 600) that must be assigned to at least two of the primary attributes – in other words go back to a system similar to the pre-launch system you had for assigning traits and attribute stats separately. I recognize this might not be a practical option, and if it is impractical or you dislike the idea for other reasons, then I recommend a flat boost to stats be available at the choice of a grandmaster level for each of the 4 main attributes. You might scale the boost for vitality and toughness based on the base health and armor of the class. as well (so for example, a Guard would still have the +300 vitality trait but the +toughness trait would only add +100 toughness). Adjust the stat boosts you plan to give to equipment down to compensate.
9. Not my thing but . . . I think you should add some means of keeping the WvW-only player base whole through this change. Perhaps allow badges of honor to be swapped for hero points? Or have certain WvW achievements (the reachable ones provide a one time boost in hero points to any character someone chooses to claim them for.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Long_Way_Around

Tried that trait hunt with my wife recently. That particular puzzle/trait point made me what to throw something at my screen. It used to be that you could swim through kitten in the upper left area and get the chest. So “the long way around” was the simplest way to go. Some less than fully intellectually evolved person decided that wasn’t good enough for the trait unlock so they blocked that method of getting past the force field wall and turned the entire thing into a ridiculous exercise for “two blues, a green and trait.” I sincerely doubt more than 1 in 10 people who get that trait actually get it completing the puzzle – and those that do, certainly don’t do it solo. That trait hunt one is truly an epic fail on ANe’t part.

Glad to see this thread. I was going to post a topic with a link to it until I noticed it. Very good, thoughtful blog post and summarizes I suspect a good portion of the player base attitude toward ANet’s “non-communication” policy.

@EoNenmacil: No you cant. ANet’s communication policy prohibits that.