Guild Wars 2

the warhorn sounds like a spicy toot tight out the kitten

Can we talk about how ugly the throw animation from Sunrise and Twilight crossed through one another is?

To be quite honest when I made my Eternity it was because I loved the effect of the blade, the glow, the waves in the air all it it, it was beautiful A++++++ job to the art department. Furthermore I made it for Mesmer which has a really nice particle effect already with mirror blade. So as is, the weapon was perfectly suited to my taste, it had everything.

Then some time ago with the legendary animation update it was “fixed” only to throw both blades in an X pattern. It’s ugly, like…. really ugly. It seemed like an out of frustration fix to members of the community saying over and over Twilight has a throw animation Sunrise has a throw animation why doesn’t Eternity…

Legendaries are supposed to be purely cosmetic right?? Well for myself and possibly others the reason we made the weapon has changed. Will there ever be anything done for those of us who wish to not see this animation as is??

Possibly something in the graphics or options settings that disables secondary particle effects. Let me explain, in Ranked PvP there is an option to see character models standardized, would it be beyond the realm of possibility for a similar toggle option to be put in place that would disable throw effects? In this way, the legendary weapons could maintain their glows/footfalls/skin/etc.

Just a thought, something I’d love to see

Just experienced a bug that would not allow me to select any new targets until I was dead, this effect lasted long after the taunt condition was removed.

Just a thought, there are a lot of individual weapon skins in the game and there are incomplete skin sets (all weapons themed set).

Mesmers really like the Mist set as it goes with the theme n well more purple. Any chance weapons like staff/torch could be given a mist look? Like the others, crafted from the mystic forge?

So long as it doesn’t require giant eyes like the shield (just made one for chrono) it’d be sick.

Fuel to the fire…

Mesmer trait lines, in a nut shell…
Domination
The minor traits highlight the use of vulnerability with application as well as a bonus effect. Dazing is the highest impact/application of vulnerability, because dazing can interrupt as well as applies vulnerability due to traits.
The major adept line offers: 1) damage line up 2) phantasm buff 3) vulnerability buff
The major master line offers: 1) traited signet/sustain 2) access to quickness 3) boon removal
The major grandmaster line offers: 1) traited gs/kite potential+might 2) damage buff to shatters 3) new damage source + new weakness application
Summary, Domination functions as a Mesmers strongest application of damage be it power/phantasm/condition (due to the new functionality of vulnerability). All the buffs/boons/conditions applied through this tree influence damage.

Dueling
The minor traits are sporadic giving survivability and two separate forms of damage increases. The most efficient use of the dueling tree would be a condition/hyrbid build because no minor traits would be unusable and the major traits would further strengthen the build.
The major adept line offers: 1) access to a free utility/survivability 2) traited pistol/condition application (bugged) 3) fury boon application to phantasms
The major master line offers: 1) access to blinds 2) access to reflect 3) traited sword/damage buff to sword
The grandmaster line offers: 1) access to clone generation 2) traited mantras/damage buff 3) additional access to condition damage
Summary, Dueling offers access to both survivability and damage and while hybrid or condition build offer the maximum efficiency the grand master trait deceptive evasion is a core mechanic to many power builds which all but forces the line be taken. The buffs/boons/conditions in this tree are separated between damage/sustain/conditions giving the tree no specific focus. This trait line is a poor example of the hybridization of power and condition options within the same line.

Chaos
The minor traits stress boons that offer sustain and have the added benefit of improving condition durations. Access to regen and protection are ideal of stacking up conditions which fit the trend of the minor traits.
The major adept line offers: 1) traited fall damage 2) damage reduction 3) traited manipulations skills/reflects
The major master line offers: 1) traited staff/protection 2) condition damage bonus 3) disable reflect
The major grandmaster line offers: 1) boon application+ stability 2) application of immobilize + offensive boon + random boon 3) stealth buff
Summary, this tree highlights sustain for both power and condition based builds if taken and highlights boon application as well as neutral conditions. When I say neutral conditions I am referring to the ability of the conditions applied through the tree itself to be used in either power or conditions builds, neither is favored. This is an example of an excellent hybridization of power and condition options within the same line, wasteful selections are removed from build paths.

Inspiration
The minor traits highlight strengthening your heal/support. Mantras make the best use of the minor adept trait because it provides access to condition removal on every cast.
The major adept line offers: 1) revive buff/access to a free utility 2) buff to survivability of phantasms 3) access to an additional heal on mantra cast
The major master line offers: 1) buff to phantasm survivability 2) access to condition removal and minor heal 3) traited focus/reflect
The major grand master line offers: 1) survivability buff to phantasms/boon spread 2) access to a free utility/phantasm on evade 3) traited glamour/access to resistance boon
Summary, this tree highlights phantasm buffs or condition removal/minor support. We will call this a minor support because it is in no way comparable to true support builds. This tree’s intent is to be a true support of phantasm line. However do to the synchronization of mantras and the access to condition removal otherwise hard to achieve with Mesmer the trait line has become a viable option for power based shatter builds.

Illusions
The minor traits highlight condition application. Reducing the recharge on illusion summoning is a direct buff to the amount of condition application available due to other lines.
The major adept line offers: 1) hybrid power/condition damage buff per illusion 2) access to phantasm recharge reduction 3) traited torch/minor condition removal
The major master line offers: 1) access to torment 2) buff to phantasm dps 3) access to might per shatter
The major grandmaster line offers: 1) conversion/condition application on blind or evade 2) traited scepter 3) buffs to all shatters
Summary, this tree is the broken remains of pre patch Mesmer which has devolved into a condition tree while having access to some nice power buffs. It was always wasteful for Mesmers to trait into Illusions to gain access to I.P. due to its influence in power builds despite the condition damage in the trees stat line. With I.P. becoming base line as well as the other dual ranged shatter selections the tree has some vague indications of what it once was in what is ideally a condition tree. This is a poor example of the hybridization of power and condition options within the same line.

Complete summary

Without continuing to discuss what’s wrong with Mesmer trait options let me discuss what is good and well. The most used trait line, and most balanced in terms of build selection is Domination.
Domination was given a new and very clear identity after the patch, vulnerability which translates into damage increases. Because vulnerability increases condition as well as power damage, and the tree offers access to phantasm damage it is clear and present that the focus is damage. All you need to do is decide what type of damage you want and go.

The Chaos tree is next on the A+ list because it is clearly a survivability through boon application tree which offers benefits to power or condition builds, all you need to decide is your direction and go. Because the condition applied through traits (immob) functions well with power and conditions.

The following three trait lines conflict in direction and identity but all the while have access to traits that are arguably mechanics at this point in the games development.

To add to the issue with the trait lines remaining, many of the available traits that function amazingly outside of the focus of the line only do so in combination to another.

Take for example traited mantras and the inspiration line. Dueling offers access to additional stacks while Inspiration offers condition removal and sustain through mantra stacks while having a fairly wasteful grand master trait options. What would be so game breaking to have access to traited mantras within Insperation? Combinations like this force Mesmer into trait lines, successful builds are made by selecting the 1-2 core mechanic traits needed, then selecting from what you have based on the core traits. The entire line of traits are almost irrelevant in most cases because no matter what you need as specific trait to make an entire build work. This theme has been continued again with Chronomancer making it a flawed design from the start.

Mesmers realistically have access to, power/conditions/phantasms/. With six trait line options to be made available with Chronomancer, why is it not possible to structure trait selections focused on one objective be it power, condition, survivability, phantasms, etc then allow the players to connect these in combination rather than broken combinations of the focuses listed?

@AlphatheWhite

Someone worth discussing with, lemme just enjoy this for a second. ok done

So yes you’ve hit the nail on the head just about from my eye with an exception. I’m not sure I agree with you that the elite spec is the bottom line strongest moving forward.

I think for Mesmer it is because to beat a dead horse our build designs keep being forced into 2 lines with the third making use of the traits withing the other two. Which imo is a design flaw, but maybe more will open up down the line based off of what others are playing. Elite specializations should be another flavor not the flavor, something that lets you flex other lines in a new way. For instance some trait A, weak by itself so never taken but when combined with a new trait B (from elite spec), A+B are strong and worthwhile.

Back to the functionality of Chrono I agree, alacrity while strong was already nerfed, so we’ll see how that functions on next beta.

The big issue is the mechanic of Continuum Shift. It requires illusions to use properly/maintain, and it’s impossible to maintain/generate enough illusions without IR and DE.

I love staff and wanted to find a way to play Chrono double ranged shatter and my first reaction was o cool a replacement for DE, but after playing Chrono it became obvious that the IR trait was the only way to maximize the specialization which is flaw in my opinion. Traits should fill a function of a specialization not make up for an ill design mechanic. Again, this is why DE is so popular.

People are so used to Mesmer having so little going for it they scream op at the sight of anything good. I still feel the only effective use of this trait is through continuum shifts especially after the alacrity nerf. If they feel this trait is too strong (for no good reason) then the actual mechanic of Continuum shift needs to be different, because in reality that is the only meaningful functionality of the trait aside from general usability of the shatters we have available.

LMFAO someone comes into my thread, and throws wild accusations about my experience with Mesmer, claims something is OP with no indication or thought as to why, and then I receive and infraction & post deletion for basically telling him he can get lost.

I’m so done with this organization do what ever you want with your failing game I’m over it

Keep catering to ignorance and it will thrive in your dead game

@phokus

Claims something is OP with no indication as to why they feel such a way. Welcome to the Mesmer witch hunt 2k15 I’m selling shirts. Want one?

@apharma

I saw that but to be honest that hurt to read even more because again it shows no understanding for the class what so ever.

The issue there being if the ICD is too high it’s even worst than it is at the moment because again… you wont be able to generate clones which you need to get long Continuum shifts.

If the ICD is what, 1 second, then what is the point in the first place because again just going f4>f3>f2>f1 isn’t a combo or in any way useful.

Lets not even go down the road of f5 being so short you are all but required to idle 3 clones to use it…

I wrote another post in general pvp I believe as to one of the causes of balance being so off in game. Take for example Mesmer pre-confounding suggestions patch. Mesmer has always had the ability to hit high damage spikes while running with utility. However, Mesmers have only have 1-2 (mirror blade – iZerker on a good day) skills you’d ever actually need to dodge without dying in regards to power shatter. If they don’t hit you get tickled by Mesmer. Come the June23rd patch Mesmers were given a way to line up the same damage they had before and everyone screams opopopopop. Point being the more situation you make something, the less effective it is in a pvp environment.

If anything the base duration of Continuum Shift needs to be raised and less emphasis needs to be placed on clone generation because this all but forces the hands of players who want to utilize the current mechanic.

Or, if clones are the mechanic that is kept why cram deceptive evasion upon us even more than it already has been.

And to continue the theme of Anet thanks for making this unique thing but please stop messing it up and look at the meta and understand the reasoning behind it. Look at the phantasm trait that was nerfed, which actually wasn’t even a nerf. This trait is INTENDED to function with possible phantasm builds but the argument is that just alone in any build the trait and the burst potential is too high at the moment possibly. Well Anet sorry but you missed the ball there too, the issue in regards to pvp is that you can force two dodge rolls at once with just something like iZerk>shatter>iZerk then you can burst with a Mind Wrack rotation. A possible way to fix this is with a charge function like on Lost Time, the new Chronophantasma could read, after the first time a phantasm is shattered a charge is stored. The stored charge is released after another phantasm is cast. And I know someone is gonna say it but just to amuse them, “but hey man that means that both phantasms will hit at the same time”. Yes they would and that’s why they are weaker than before because one dodge roll will save you from damage. This new mechanic would make their functionality more in line with a true phantasm spec and not just a worth while trait for any o’l build.

The largest issue and desirable quality with Mesmer is that they are unique. So unique that it seems Anet has build them around the idea of “cool” without taking the time to understand how their class has been utilized and it pains me because I enjoy despite it’s flaw this class. And every time Mesmer has something going for it, it’s legs get kicked out from under them and away they go.

The witch hunt surrounding Mesmers needs to stop and intelligent decisions should be made.

Also @apharma
Yeah I’m rude, don’t like it but I’ve been around for 3 years now and I’m just tired of the b.s. at this point, I’ve just lost the majority of my patience up to now and don’t know why I bother to white-knight what is actuality a floundering game that shows no real progress or future given how the last three years have gone by. My b

“Illusionary Reversion: Updated functionality. You must shatter at least 2 illusions in order to generate a clone from this trait. (You do not count as an illusion towards this total.)
Yeah I know this one probably stings but when we started looking at it it was pretty silly that this trait could let you get so much power out of just using all shatter skills back to back.”

Mesmer is a very very unique thing, and I’m astonished that the creators of such a unique class type still do not understand either it’s roll, functionality, or build order. A trait that along side deceptive evasion combine to be a requirement of “effective” chronoshifts, is being nerfed because developers thing just using all shatter skills back to back is too powerful.

To state the obvious using all shatter skills in conjunction with this trait is a joke. You’d get little to NO effectiveness out of such a wasteful combo if you can even stomach calling it one.

None of the professional skills mesmer has access to are good yet alone offer you “sooooooooooooooooo much power”. To even state such an argument is idiotic.

Take for instance a power build, most popularly shatter. If you use Diversion for no good reason, you lose the ability to stack concentrated amounts of vul at once as well as a reliable way to line up damage. If you use cry of Frustration for no good reason, you lose access to a possible blind(traited) or the ability to remove boons before a large damage rotation(traited). If you use Distortion for no good reason… you die, do you need any other reason? If you use Mind Wrack for no good reason, you lose out on capitalizing your highest source of damage.

So… without even getting into how this effects Chronomancers unique f5-Continuum shift, you tell me how on earth you get sooooooooo much power from wasting professional abilities. Even in a condition build these rules apply but the functionality of mindwrack and cry swap.

So clearly shattering doesn’t give power to the professional skills without the addition of other skills, with the exception of distortion since more invul duration is never a bad thing.

This trait is nothing more than a direct nerf to f5-Continuum shift which will become near impossible to achieve long duration shifts that maximize the skills potential.

The potential in pvp of a mesmer is and always will revolve around portal and your elite. Without them any other class in the game will serve your purpose on a team better, the only saving grace is the utility the class offers.

Therefore it goes without saying that if you give a class that revolves around portal and a second elite cast that the specialization surrounding it will be taken hands down. The biggest issue with this obviously is that in committing to a role builds will be forced into getting as much “worth” out of f5-Continuum shift.

So what does this mean for mesmer in pvp? You will NEED to accomplish long duration shifts in order to take advantage of the cool-down reset. Example, burst a target with moa > portal down > rotate out.

Effective rotations do not spam mesmer professional skills off cool down, however the original functionality of the trait Illusionary Reversion in conjunction with Deceptive evasion do allow for such plays. Which again is another issue with Chronmancer/Mesmer in general as the roll deceptive evasion plays becomes larger and larger as the game progresses. Eliminating the availability of condition removal as Mesmer due to obvious trait line choices.

It’s laughable that you put slow spaming on your watch-list while breaking the functionality of a specialization you created…

Thanks again for pigeon holing Mesmer into another deceptive evasion spec which all but requires the domination line to make proper use of the illusions we generate

@ Nier

If you read through the post which I understand is a bit long, I stated that this is a bandage on what is a bigger issue with class balance. I agree with you that there is a bigger issue at hand with balance.

Further more where in my post did I advocate “class stacking bans” in pool play such a lader. I said 5v5 structured Tournament play, in reference to WTS, ESL, AG, etc. I have 5-10min Q’s on my main already I can only imagine what that would be like with more limitations.

Perhaps this could implement a new Q system. A solo Q, a group Q, and a team Q. Team Q’s would copy Tournament rules since as a team you’re able to communicate and identify what everyone will play. Maybe then teams could battle for ranking points that would score them in Tourneys. For example, what if you start up a team with a group, do well and gain some points through the ladder, those points could translate to seeding points in tourneys?? Just a thought

But please, people are going past what I have said and assuming greater implications. This should only effect COMPETITIVE play. For people that just want to log on and play they should be able to do so. All that would need to happen is a separation of Leader-boards, like I stated.

@ Krysard

If you are referring to a ban of a class I did not say one would be good, in fact it’d be awful. Only a limitation to the number of a profession. With ALL builds available…

@Krysard

You did not understand the point of the post, I said specifically that I do not think you should be able to pick away anything.

The only reference to a moba was the draft phase, which is not included in any tournament as to date. Example in the most recent WTS, oRNG swapped a burn guard for a mesmer. What if the Abjured wanted another pick? Then what if oRNG wanted a different pick in response to the second Abjured pick? When would swapping stop?

Teams should be drafted at the start of a match. Any build should be available, one class per team, 8 classes per team 5 spots on each team.

You mean the same connection I’ve played the game with for three years just up and stopped working at the same time the June23rd patch came out? Huh, fun fact the world doesn’t run of fairy dust and hokus pokus. There is a thing called cause and effect. When people in the same boat as me, people that have played for years on the same connection develop issues right after a major patch, it’s common sense to point fingers at the change. Did all of our equipment break all at once? Maybe you are right and that it is between user equipment and ArenaNet. But if that is the case then something needs to be done to identify what this routing error is and why does it happen. It is NOT out of their control to deliver useful information related to these issues as well as attempt to identify the issue. Furthermore I have no clue if you’re right or not @Healix, but the ping issues are not always map specific, I was watching Caiths stream today, while he was playing Nos and he was the only one with issues besides and ele on his team.

Bottom line is something has changed, and we don’t live in a world where people and companies are unaccountable for their actions. You think your player base is gonna stick around if they have to struggle with ping spikes regularly?

Yes, I’ve given them my logs through support tickets, I was told, sorry it’s your ISP. Then asked if there was anything else they could do to help.

It’s in my nature to be really rude about issues that are seemingly obvious to go blindly ignored but I’m gonna to my best, pinky promise.

Lets start with your design philosophy of GW2, and the “destruction” of the holy trinity. It’s been stated numinous times that you all intend to design a game in which you can play what you like to complete fill a roll that is needed. This is a pretty idiotic claim in my opinion, here is why. Unless everyone has the exact same skill, on skill will be better than the its counterparts in a roll. From a PvP perspective, the more opportunities something has to work the better. Or in another way, lets say you have to classes/builds that fulfill the same role. X, has a skill that does 800damage and will hit your target every time. Y, has a skill that does 950 damage but requires help to set up from your team. Y deals more damage but it’s not significant considering it’s less applicable than X.

Here’s some proof. Lets look at the witch hunt surrounding Mesmers. Double range shatter was a Mesmer build played long before the June23rd patch, and despite the increased amulet stats available shatters were about in the range they were before because the ratio on shatter dps is low…anyways. Pre-patch Mesmer COULD do very good damage, but all of a shatter Mesmers damage is front loaded into one combo. And because all you had to do to basically ignore a Mesmer power build in the past was to dodge mirror blade. Phantasms are highly unreliable and die to unfocused aoe on point, and don’t even get started on iZerker, which hits for only one tick regularly. Now the June23rd patch comes around and with a combination of a trait confounding suggestions and daze mantra/daze shatter Mesmers were able to RELIABLY land their damage. So while Mesmers could land an 8k rotation before and after the patch with an almost identical build, it was never reliable before, it was like Y in the example. Now that Mesmer has become more self sufficient and the damage has shifted more towards X, now omg Mesmer is popular and has gathered fair-weathers from far and wide.

So back to the argument at hand, different skills =/= same roll, and how this ties in. Almost no build in PvP does one thing, therefore it is not pigeonholed into limited uses or scenarios. Example? Oh idk maybe the class/build that can do it all??? Ele D/D can: 1v1, teamfight, deal with condi builds, deal with power builds, escape outnumbered fights, move quickly on the map, etc. Gezz I wonder if anyone plays that class… Oh what’s that? People put two on almost every team? Huh, so a build that can do almost everything is strong enough to take the spot of a more focused class/build? Wonder why…

I’m not here to trash talk the balance team, but lord knows I’d love to. I’m here in hopes after three years of gameplay it can be admitted not all class skills are created equally. Infact their diversity should allow growth of different team comps because the differences allow you to combo in unique ways. But this will never happen if there are more “X’s” in the pool, in a way of saying.

Limit teams to one of every class in competitive play. This will force players/teams to utilize their class in different ways. Arguments against this, “well if you say that one class is better at something than the others wont everyone run the same thing?”. Answer, yes, until they are balanced teams will idle around picking the same class for a role, but as the classes are tweeked and new builds come into play. For instance what if you wanted to run a cele d/d, then you wouldn’t have access to a staff ele. But what if you wanted to combo your staff ele with something, then no d/d. This give and take would increase the viability of different builds and hopefully start us on the right track in attempts to provide a balanced pvp environment.

Examples of this working? How about the MobA community. Both Dota2 and League of Legends, even Smite do not allow for mirror matchups. If someone picks/bans something away a comp is changed in some way but not always the focus. Protect the AD carry is a popular team design in League of Legends which can be done with a variety of AD carries and a variety of team designs. I am NOT suggesting a ban phase but I think it would be another huge improvement to add a pick phase to competitive events. For example if people learn to multi-class (WHICH HASN’T BEEN NEEDED BECAUSE ONE THING ALWAYS DOES SOMETHING BETTER THAN SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT ABILITIES!!!) a draft could change depending on the team. In the current setting there’s nothing stopping teams from swaping classes over and over before a match. This does NOT mean one class per map, as in you can pick away a thief then the other team could not have one. Only that per team, one of each class.

So wall of text in one sentence.
1. Limit one of every class to 5v5 structured tournaments play
2. Consider the implementation of a “captains” mode draft style.

So I get it, if I complain about ping spikes post pictures of my ping hitting 1k,2k,4k, then I get told it’s my ISP. Look I get it I’m just a pleb right? So are all the other people that are posting about it.

But what about people that stream your game, do you like them enough to do something about it?

http://www.twitch.tv/chaithh

Check out Chaith’s past broadcast for today 8/18. Is he important enough to get at least an honest answer from ArenaNet, instead of them blaming everyone’s ISP?

let me also steal some of ROM’s fame, maybe you like him even more than Chaith? http://www.twitch.tv/romoncoke/v/10925662

ROM received a popular error in load screens that caused him to be unable to connect to your amazing servers until he restarted his computer. Why that fixed it I have no clue…

I apologize for just being a pleb that has enjoyed playing this game for years, I know if I popular you’d like me more. Do it for the famous ones, not the countless people attempting to address this issue since you broke servers #june23rd #neverforget

streaming this aids build now if anyone wants to see

http://www.twitch.tv/betterhappy

How to win Esports

Part 1
find a build that lets you afk on point to rack up sick conquest points

Part 2
get g00d at that build, aka dodge roll on point a lot

Part 3
if for any reason you mess up your sick dodge rolls, bring a condi clear or two so that you can truly get sick conquest points

Part 4
profit

sick build screen shot: http://i.imgur.com/EYV2CUl.jpg
youtube of some sick play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzU2nSb3hcA&feature=youtu.be

ps-i random dodge a lot cause i was watching Ti5 on second stream, deal with it :^)

pps-i would have recorded a second time because of the 4v5 but then i remember, 1 out of 3 games is a 4v5 most of the time anyways \o/ GW2 pvp Q’s \o/

Just wanted to ask, are there plans to update any possible changes to already previewed? Reason being there were a number of small changes to base specializations all the way up to the June 23rd patch and it has been quite some time since specializations like Chronomancer.

Account issue, I’m going to delete it.
Support questions, why wont Anet put any effort into fixing an issue they created.

That work for you?

Simply put, I’ve made post about it, the community has made post about it, there is a CLEAR issue with performance of the client in regards to connection that did not occur until the June 23’d patch. It has been roughly a month now and there has been no new as to you all doing something about it.

If the client connection issues are not fixed soon, or at least some indication of work being done to fix the issue I’ll be getting a refund of my pre-purchase and just deleting this game.

I’m so tired of supporting a company with such an awful business sense.

I’ve tried and enjoyed two similar games to GW2 during this month of constant lag spikes and while I don’t think they’re as good of a game, I enjoy them, and I can play them without lag. I’d take that over this client/company any day.

Hello, Mesmer players and hopefully Mes Dev team. I’d like to start by saying I’m a long time pvp Mesmer player and not simply a fair-weather here to shout more more more, we want more. This post is simply the opinion of a long time player with a great deal of experience.

So as the title suggest this post is only focusing on Harmonious Mantras which I feel is in the wrong trait line. Going off of Anets recent design philosophy comments while streaming, with the removal of stats players are able to choose how they want to trait for a build without losing stats that a dps/healing/utility/etc build would need. Which was a HUGE improvement; however while some traits were moved around to support this system it feels like developers did not understand the direction players would take the class/builds moving forward so some things were overlooked.

Without derailing, due to the removal of stats from traits, shatter players (the dominant power build) were given the ability to trait for much needed condi removal the class/build has lacked for years.

The inspiration line stacks this usefulness with mantras, so it’s understandable that it wouldn’t take long for players to attempt using the harmonious mantras trait in conjunction with inspiration shatter play.

While this is strong at condi removal and strong at assisting some shatter rotations due to the damage buff, the trait being taken over deceptive evasion puts a HUGE hurt on the playability of shatter. Deceptive evasion is used in so many different shatter rotations, it defines the build and basically the class to some extent.

It is my opinion that the more situational you make your damage the lower your dps output becomes. Forcing yourself into limited shatter rotations makes the damage easy to avoid.

In addition the inspiration line traits into mantras very well, while the GM trait Phantasmal defender doesn’t define any builds/rolls. It feels like it’s just there, you take it because why not. I suggest that harmonious mantras is placed into the inspiration GM line.

Perhaps the confusion on critical strikes that was a GM minor trait in Dueling could be reintroduced into the GM slot to give condition builds another choice.

I suppose if nothing else the long story short argument is this, shatter defines mesmer power, deceptive evasion defines shatter, the community has shown that we value condi removal in order to play shatter. Taking traited mantras should not have to be a choice over deceptive evasion. Inspiration trait line scales the best with mantras, a grandmaster trait regarding mantras makes sense.

Thoughts?

Shameless bump since I’d like to hopefully see more promotion/discussion about the topic because if anything was to change it would have to be now or on expansion, now is a great time for change.

I’d like to mention to the players discussing pve mechanics that I have no clue about anyting pve, I was looking at this from a pvp POV.

I’m not a programmer, I don’t understand why the pet AI is so terrible but it is, and this needs to if nothing more be admitted to on Anets behalf so that it becomes clear it needs to be improved.

Pets make Ranger very unique, yet they don’t even function well? Come on… Anet says here’s this thing that separates you from every other profession, then tells you oh by the way it only “kinda” works. Obviously if something so core to Ranger was to be updated, other things would need to be moved around as well.

I’d really like to play ranger more but I play to win, and I do not like to put myself at a disadvantage just to play what I want. Not to beat a dead horse but guys, it’s been over three years, same kitten without any dialogue to the community about changes either how to or future plans.

@Eurantien
I feel like player pet control isn’t the issue as much the pet AI is to blame. I’m all for additional skills, sounds fun, but I’m not sure that ranger needs more clunky skills rather for the skills they have to work.

Example being hills, a blade of grass, an ant mound, air>pet pathing. If the AI is so lackluster why bother improving it any further, it’s been three years why not move on to a better mechanic, one that puts the user in more control.

Additionally, I play with my pet like many other on passive so i can maintain control on the abilities and the f4 which pets do on activation. Even then the f4 is an issue, from a usability standpoint. When I chose a pet it is for the abilities, when I have that pet out it means I would like to use these abilities. Far too often I’ll see an opportunity for an immobilize (or something else), pet swap into pet active only to have my pet go… oh you wanted me to use the f4 then f2..ok gimme a second. It’s not as if pet abilities are so strong that they need to be kept from being activated in this way. Pet abilities feel far from rewarding, compared to other class professional skills they feel like a sigh of relief or an oh that’s nice it hit in many cases.

Furthermore, some weapon skills apply to pets as well, for example Longbow Hunter’s shot applies swiftness to the pet. I think skills like this offer a unique chance to implement empowered abilities. For example, Hunter’s shot, empowers next essence ability (f2), then all pet essence abilities would actually change. This change could be, removes an additional condition, deal additional damage, apply a condition, etc…

This is just an idea at this point but the game is changing at an alarming rate due to the trait changes so if ever there was an opportunity for change it would be now. The pet system is plagued by AI issues and clumsiness. This system would promote skilled use and fun play giving the user the control ranger players have always looked for.

The nature of what pet abilities are not would remain the same, these essence skills would fill the same roll however actually… ya know… work. Thoughts?

Also shouts would have to be changed, but that’s not worth discussing until later.

Ranger was the first profession I picked up starting GW2; however I moved on after an enormous amount of frustration in dealing with pet AI. I’m very aware of the minor changes to pet AI that have been introduced to help, every time I’ve gone back on my ranger only to be disappointed. I put something together, my ideas on improving ranger pets.

I think it would be an interesting and somewhat unique design to remove pets all together but retain pet abilities. Lets call them Beast Essence since spirits are already taken…

The idea behind them is to use pet abilities as spells thrown by the user ranger than abilities of the pet. The trait line associated with Beastmastery would instead buff Beast Essence casts.

These casts would function similar to Engineer profession abilities in a sense. Much like Engineer utilities give professional skills, Pet/Essence selection would provide Ranger profession skills.

As it stands Ranger profession abilities are Attack Move/Recall Move/Pet Ability/Swap Pet. In the new system, there would be an Attack Spell/Beast Essence Spell/Swap Essence Spell.

Having an Attack spell would prevent the need for changing ranger damage ratios since pets are taken into consideration for the total damage rangers can put out from a damage point of view.

Having a Beast Essence Spell would maintain the purpose for different pets and allow customization for builds/trait lines. Some abilities may be A.O.E and targeted by the user, while some abilities would be used on the target (much like Mesmer phantasms), and some would just be activated around the user.

The animation/essence would be something similar to a phantasm but instead of a clone of the user, an animation of the beast, I’d go with something golden like the eagle and bear on Ranger greatsword. They would appear instantly on the attacker/area and begin their casting animation. This would maintain a level of counter-play while vastly increasing the quality of life to users trying to use the skills.

If this was to do nothing more than replace the current (beastmaster) tree it could look something like this…

Minor:
-Pack Alpha: Your pet gains up to 150 power, precision, toughness and vitality and their skills recharge 20% faster.
—>NEW Essence abilities (f1,f2) deal “x%” more damage and recharge “x%” faster
-Loud Whistle: While your health is above 90% your pet deals 10% more damage. Your pet swap recharges 20% faster.
—>NEW While your health is above 90% your Essence abilities deal 10% more damage. Your Essance swap recharges 20% faster
-Pet’s Prowess: Pet’s Prowess: Your pets move 30 faster and gain up to 300 ferocity.
—>NEWYour Essence attacks gain up to 300 ferocity and grant swiftness on successful attack "x"seconds.

Adept:
-Go For The Eyes: Your pet gains up to 300 toughness. Your pet’s command [[f2]] ability causes 5s of blindness to foes around it.
—>NEW Your Essence ability (f2) causes 5s of blindness to foes around it, if successful attack gain 2 seconds of protection.
-Companion’s Might: Your critical hits grant 5s of might to your pet. Critical strikes from your pet’s basic attack cause 6s of bleeding.
—>NEW Critical strikes from your Essence attack (f1) cause 6s of bleeding, in addition critical strikes gives fierce stacks. At “x” fierce stacks your next essence ability deals increased damage “x” amount.
-Resounding Timbre: Your shouts apply 10s of Regeneration and 10s of Swiftness to nearby allies. You shouts recharge 20% faster.
—>NEW remains unchanged

Master:
Wilting Strike: Your pet inflicts 4s weakness when you activate its command [[f2]] ability.
—>NEW Your Essence ability inflicts 4s weakness when you activate its command [[f2]] ability.
Two-Handed Training: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 5% and those skills recharge 20% faster. Greatsword and spear hits have a 50% chance to gain 3s of fury. This trait has a 10 second internal cooldown.
—>NEW unchanged
Natural Regeneration: Your pet gains natural health recovery and their healing power is increased by up to 450.
—>NEW Critical hits reduce Essence ability (f2) cooldowns by "x"seconds.

Grandmaster: (this tree would remain unchanged however changed to reflect essence instead of pet use)
Beastly Warden: Your pet’s command [[f2]] ability causes 2s of taunt to foes around it. This trait has a 15 second internal cooldown.
Zephyr’s Speed: Combat Only. When you swap pets you and your pet gain 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds and 3 seconds of quickness.
Honed Axes: Gain up to 150 ferocity while wielding an axe in your main hand. Winter’s Bite is now inflicts its effects in an area at your target’s location.

update, hit over 4k ping today, can’t wait to uninstall n play minesweeper

http://i.imgur.com/AP42d5z.jpg

I’ve spoken with my ISP (COX Communications) numerous times and done everything I can on my end to make sure this is not an issue with my equipment. And while I’ve never been exactly satisfied with my ISP I can’t go any further in fixing this on my end without any further information.

Below are images of my speed test and in game screen captures of my ping in game during a spike and after to compare (the second has a high average ping because it is taken right after the spike).

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4479554483
high ping: http://imgur.com/sq5Wzp5
normal ping: http://imgur.com/Leje1ab

I have been with the same carrier for some time now and have not always have this issue. From what I recall this has been an issue only persisting after or around the most recent patch.

Has something in game caused this?

When traited for harmonious mantras as well as specialized into the inspiration tree, the additional charge will not activate the power cleanse minor trait. The result, the first two charges of mantra of recovery will give two stacks each of mantra strength, while the third charge will only give one stack. In addition it can be assumed that the power cleanse isn’t going off on the third charge, so you’d be lacking the condition removal of this as well.

Short and sweet request, I think it would be a huge improvement to add a function to map key-binds to characters or a default.

For example possibly a drop down menu with 3 or more profiles that players can swap between.

PvP Feedback… this game mode is basically a GW2 spin off of popular MobA game design. I get it, from a marketing pov you may increase the player base if people who enjoy MobA style come over… but GW2 isn’t the first to try and spin offs of MobA’s, heard of Smite???

Long story short this game mode might be fun to mess around in but I can’t stress enough I hope that you all are not investing into this game mode over conquest balance. If I wanted to play a MobA, I’d play DotA, if I wanna play MMO PvP, I’d play GW2. Hell I’d even go download Smite before getting into Stronghold. Anet has made the decision to combine the Stronghold/Courtyard/Conquest maps all together in the same Q system because otherwise you wouldn’t have the player base to support three separate game modes. Fun fact, if you spend company time/resources on one, and make the PvP excellent, the players will come. Then you’ll have the player base to throw in different style maps to give players something else to do.

I could only imagine how much more enjoyable conquest would be, if instead of wasting time and resources on Cortyard/Stronghold, bugs were fixed, perhaps even take a look at PvP runes.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this should be titled Stronghold PvE Feedback, and be moved to the proper sub forum. Then you all can focus on the actual PvP game modes

This thread has already severed it’s purpose, I have nothing to add. However I just wanted to poke fun (and say a ty) @Evan, not sure if our little Q&A hair pulling had anything to do with your direct answer to this thread but whatever the reason I’m happy to see a quick (also direct) answer to a players question. As always, thank you for providing feed back to the players, it’s greatly appreciated by your community.

@Ephemiel, learn to read, it’s a great tool. I literally said For example and stated what I dislike about the “new” Eternity animations on mirror blade. It’s impossible to be any more specific. Therefore I wanted to see if anyone else felt the same way.

I know it’s been a really long time since the legendary visual update but I wanted to see what others thought and possibly see some Dev feedback. Since legendary weapons are only cosmetic appearance is everything. For example, I made Eternity for the blade animations on mesmer, all of the swooping animations with the blur I thought looked very nice; furthermore I liked that you still threw the purple greatsword on mirror blade. I personally thing throwing the crossed or X blades on Eternity mirror blade looks awful and I wonder if it’s possible to implement a weapons effect toggle. And if so would it be difficult to implement. It’s a minor thing and that’s pretty much why I haven’t posted until now but it is something I’d like to see, I really enjoyed the old Eternity.

Nope, he used Entangle, I dodged, got teh 6th slot condi’s but not the root/bleed.

Playing in a pvp match today I fought a Condi Ranger running Krait, and I noticed while dodging his entangle I still received the 6th slot bleed/torment/poison. This is not listed as unblock-able. If this is intended can I ask why? It makes no sense to dodge an attack and still be punished. I was streaming while this happened but I don’t record while I stream but if anyone else has footage of this it would be useful.

Are players allowed to use WTFast to reduce ping without being banned?

Josh Davis.6015:

Hi all,

As a follow-up to my post from last Friday, I wanted to give you a run-down of the changes we’re looking to make to the engineer’s turrets:

• Engineer turrets will be able to be critically hit. (Edit for clarity: this change means the turrets can take critical hits against them, but they still cannot deal critical hits themselves.)
• Engineer turrets will be able to be affected by conditions.

Considering most minions/summoned pets are already susceptible to the aforementioned changes we feel that this is a fair way to bring turrets more inline with the rest of the game. These changes should only slightly affect the viability of turrets in PvE/WvW (low creature crit chance/condition application), while providing for more counterplay against turrets.

We’d love to hear your feedback on these changes. Feel free to respond below with your comments.

-Grouch

+1

Only thing I’d add is that if this is play tested Devs look into the health pool or turrets. Allowing turrets to be critically hit will probably already put them in a good place but it’s just something to consider.

Proposed Issue: possible need to overhaul matchmaking algorithm? possible need to implement requirement to Q ranked

With $10 accounts bringing new players in I’d like to say I love that new players are interested in trying out GW2 tPvP. However, they don’t belong in ranked matchmaking when they don’t even know their own class skills.

I wouldn’t imagine this would be a huge issue since matchmaking should fill in positions with players that belong in high ranking matches. The current match making system does not do this… I’m currently sitting at rank 85 on NA atm (not 85% rank 85), and I’ve had on multiple occasions people fresh out of character creation almost doing nothing but walking around.

Coming from Moba’s, in my previous experiences both DotA(lvl 13) and LoL (lvl 30) have a requirement before you are allowed to q into ranked.

New players messing up a ranked game are just the tip of an even larger issue; which is the overall quality of matchmaking.

I understand the pvp community is small, small enough that Anet has had to combine ranked teams and solo (lets not even get started on how messed up this is…), but I’d rather wait for better matches then have short Q’s into awful games. All too often I’ve Q’d as a DPS/roaming roll and had 3 to 4 other players on my team playing builds to the same end, often on the same class; while the other team will be full of on point brawlers. If there even was a chance to win the likelihood plummets when considering how hard zerker comps/positions are to utilize without voice coms.

All this, and a number of other well known issues together make matchmaking really awful at times. I don’t have all the answers, I can drop some magical lines of code that will fix matchmaking forever but as a player I feel they should be looked at. It’s important for players to enjoy playing the game in order to grow a player base, and aside from game balance there’s a lot of quality of life changes like this that could be made to grow the GW2 community.

@Evan Lesh

Ok, so my p.j. salt meter is pretty high right now I’m really amazed how a simple question could be answered so indirectly in so many ways.

I proposed the question openly to the forums looking for general information on season two but more specifically wanted information on character swapping. Perhaps I could have made it more clear that my entire reason for being here. I did not expect a Dev to chime in; however since you’ve been kind enough to try and help I’ve addressed all questions to you. Because what a Dev says is word of law, right? So unless someone can provide factual prof of claim, I’m not gonna bank on them being knowing what they’re talking about… Just look at this thread two completely contradictory opinions manysongsgw & Meri.

This thread feels like I asked you how to make a PB&J n you start telling me you can use crunchy peanut butter, then telling me what type of nuts are in the crunchy peanut butter.

By piecing together the different posts for what is a SIMPLE question… We’ve gotten to, Yes you can switch if you do so in the grace period provided. But again there’s a reference to something with no definition, never is the grace time mentioned by you, a Dev who is presumably in the know. You reference the community players who have answered but not even they can agree. How can you reference two different opinions in that way?

The DIRECT answer to my original question regarding swapping I would imagine look a little like this: Yes, you may swap classes before and/or during a match so long as the swap is completed within the grace period, which lasts for (“X”)seconds. After which… (blah blah blah all the other stuff that’s been posted here regarding the points/matchmaking). Notice how no new terms are introduced without an explanation of their meaning in GW2 sPvP… just my two cents, and yes I really am still curious and would like an answer if possible because it’s frustrating to wait upwards of 9 minutes only to have a somewhat meta comp on one side and a full roaming no point control comp on the other when you’re capable of switching given you’re allowed to.

@Evan Lesh

Evan… I.. common man… I want you to please hit control+f on the page you linked me, and then you tell me if the word disconnect is even used, it’s not. Even in the dishonor section which you’d assume might have something to do with disconnects there is no information on the effects of disconnects from matches.

And while we’re there, “Dishonor is one of the methods used to encourage good sportsmanship…Each stack represents a duration that decays over time”. Evan… The wiki doesn’t even explain how you get it; the wiki just describes the ways in which you’ll be kittened after receiving it and that it will continue to stack if your behavior does not reflect good sportsmanship.

Back to the actual question, after a direct query about if switching classes would effect points and/or the matchmaking system you explain to me how the game reads a disconnect when there is NO reference to the consequences of a disconnect. Come on…

My question again, are players allowed to change classes before and/or during ranked Q’s? Please…

@Evan Lesh

Thank you, however I’ve read through that already and still can’t find an answer to the question I want answered most.

Can we change classes before and/or during a match? -Can you answer this directly?

Because the system might try and minimize duplicate classes for those of us playing roaming dps classes the issue of having point holders is all too real when Q’ing. Side note, League of Legends implemented a team builder Q some time ago, and might be worth looking into.

I checked the pinned “start here” thread and have looked around briefly for an explanation of ranked q’s and the points system.

I was told that switching classes before and/or during a match will prevent point gains, and after seeing my points gains (or the lack there of, seems like some wins don’t even get a point, hard to keep track with the slow updates of leaderboard) with wins.

If there is a thread that has a run down of the season 2 points system, could anyone please link it, thank you

If Supcutie doesn’t win this one, we riot ?[???]?

Thanks so much: for spending developer time NOT fixing know bugs , for finding new ways to breaking working parts of the game with every patch, for ignoring community feedback, and THANK YOU so much for spending your obviously precious time wisely making my character model a plane.

I logged on today and thought “I wish I was a plane, I wish I was a plane more than anything, even more than balance patches, and I wish there was no way to turn it off”

Thank you Anet, you made my dreams come true

I don’t write code but I’m always impressed at the amount of new problems that can be written in to a patch. Here’s a video of one, targets are public…. yeah

#griffenhype

live, off night raid

At one point tonight there were over 20 people on stream, thanks to everyone who tuned in. I’ll be doing this again next raid, same as tonight.

Live!

Message Body length must at least be 15, blahblahlbah