Guild Wars 2

Even if it’s an expansion, what will you be paying for? Another opportunity to repeat the cycle? Will the expansion just be more things, races, and places? Will anything that needs to get fixed ever get fixed? Or will every last bit of the mechanics be the same? And if they’ve got fixes for the mechanics, why aren’t they deploying them now?

DeceiverX.8361:

The tankblinder is a P/P/Sb build that runs similarly to ninja nurse, but utilizes poison fields in the middle of a blob for heal cuts and blasting them, as well as constantly applying smoke fields for blinds via the pistol and whirling those blinds with Dagger storm or a stolen warrior’s whirling axe. It can also tank by whirling a Shadow Refuge for the leeching bolts. It’s meant for trying to disrupt major bombs and take damage in wake of others due to the thief being associated with glassy periphery.

I’d like to see this build. I haven’t seen any thief, ever survive in the middle of a blob. I’d also like know what you mean by “blob.” In T1, blobs are huge on all sides and I don’t think there’s much in the way of thief tank that could survive it. Finally, I’d like to see how you actually run it, because everything you say sounds good on the surface, but working from the inside of fields for offensive purposes doesn’t work well when the zerg is in constant motion. But I’m a pretty awful player, so I’m willing to learn.

MightyMicah.7451:

Black Frog.9274:

It consists of dying. Lots and lots of dying.

<hands depressed thief a dire P/D build>

Let me guess, another PvP player. I do WvW. If I wanted to solo roam, maybe. Run with the zerg using P/D? Probably not. But see above, teach me how it’s done.

SilverWF.4789:

8k backstabs, 6k+ HSs – yeah, so underpowered class, buff them Anet please! Thieves needs in 20k backstabs and 15k heartseekers!

Spoken like someone who went from post 1 straight to the comment field.

nGumball.1283:

Their speculation isn’t the same ours, no. Invesment companies tend to have connections in the industry to be able to promote reliable predictions.

That’s patently illegal. If they had those connections, they sure as hell wouldn’t announce something on that basis. That’s how SEC investigations start.

It consists of dying. Lots and lots of dying.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Black Frog.9274:

Maugetarr.6823:

Keyboardwarrior.8021:

This is a typical rapid fire vs backstab…..
One: push a button 1200 away…. single action… and the channel follows the target even when it’s in stealth….
The other: needs stealth, get into melee range, position right….

Sayirra really just busted me down 1200 away in 3 sec…

Interrupt the channel with headshot or steal. Equip daggerstorm and reflect it. You’d be surprised how many rangers keep firing into a daggerstorm. Stop putting points in defensive lines if you think your burst is too low.

Pistol range is 900. LB range is 1200. Steal teleport must be targeted. So you’d need either SB or SS to get closer. Daggerstorm can only be used once so often. In the P/P thread, I mentioned that one of the things that would make me most happy would be longer range pistol. Too much on thief relies on close ranges that either put you in the middle of someone’s strike range or put you outside your own strike range.

It’s actually 1500 when traited and mostly do trait for 1500 if they prefer Longbow.

Typically when a Ranger snipes you at 1200-1500, as a Thief you suppose to dodge backwards. Then when they try to get in range by moving forward, you meet them by using Heartseeker forward. By then you’re well inside the 900 range for Headshot.

However, a seasoned Ranger would have anticipated this and swapped to Sw/D to take you out.

This assumes you’ve got dagger main hand. Even then, I’m not sure how the math works out. At 1500, if you dodge backwards with any boosts, you’re in the 200 plus range (min 120, right?). Heartseeker range is 450, maybe 600 if you’re boosted. So unless the ranger moves forward in a straight line, quickly, you’ll still end up out of melee range. I think it probably also assumes PvP not WvW. If I had only one target to worry about, I could do more and be “better.” In WvW, this more commonly works out to something like: 4 rangers pepper the entire area around you so that it doesn’t matter where you dodge, with cripple, combat slow down, and the like, your best bet is to just run. And good luck with that if any of those rangers has managed to get you revealed.

I would honestly trade all thief stealth abilities for almost anything else in the GW2 skill bag.

Maugetarr.6823:

Keyboardwarrior.8021:

This is a typical rapid fire vs backstab…..
One: push a button 1200 away…. single action… and the channel follows the target even when it’s in stealth….
The other: needs stealth, get into melee range, position right….

Sayirra really just busted me down 1200 away in 3 sec…

Interrupt the channel with headshot or steal. Equip daggerstorm and reflect it. You’d be surprised how many rangers keep firing into a daggerstorm. Stop putting points in defensive lines if you think your burst is too low.

Pistol range is 900. LB range is 1200. Steal teleport must be targeted. So you’d need either SB or SS to get closer. Daggerstorm can only be used once so often. In the P/P thread, I mentioned that one of the things that would make me most happy would be longer range pistol. Too much on thief relies on close ranges that either put you in the middle of someone’s strike range or put you outside your own strike range.

Goose.8195:

Thank you for assuming that I don’t know what a spear is, and the short history lesson.

Would you not just step in close on a norn wielding a highly realistic 7 foot hammer as well? (I don’t believe gigantic hammers relative to character size have much combat functionality in a realistic sense period) Fields, 2 handed knockback, lunges, maybe slamming the spear into the ground as a thief and doing some physical move off of it.

I spin with a greatsword on a guardian and it flings out immobilization that can pull enemies back in towards me. Does that also relate to a time in history?

The greatsword has an edge and the hammer has a large, weighted and balanced head. The spear is a thrusting weapon. Again, angular momentum. But for this discussion, the issue is related to game mechanics. Both of those weapons already fill the 2H weapon niche and the magic stick with field generating properties is filled by the staff. So what is that a spear is going to be doing that won’t put everything else about every class back on the balancing drawing board?

Realism or historical accuracy isn’t the issue. It’s, what is this for? Creatively it’s lots of fun to talk about, but it doesn’t add much of anything. The magic stick spear would give warriors some of the guardian’s niche. The throwing spear overlaps the throwing axe. Why do we need this spear!?

If we’re going to just brainstorm, forget spears, I want a chain weapon for my thief and I want unarmed combat. If we’re going down the rabbit hole, let’s go deep.

Knighthonor.4061:

To me, I want both.
But if we get a 1hander Spear,
I would like it to be a Melee weapon instead of pure throwing weapon.
I have a similar weapon in Archeage. I like the look of a Melee spear with shield in off hand on my guardian /warrior.

:-)
:-)

I envision a hoplite skin set with lots of polished metal

Goose.8195:

Go hit someone with a 6 foot long magical pole and ask them how it feels, since RP seems to be the main basis of argument here. Maybe a 4 or 5 skill could be a spin move that creates a fire field, 2 skill could be a rapid attack in succession like the underwater attack, 3 could be a midrange lunge or gap closer. All you have to do is use your imagination. Why would you be screwed at close range? Try using a giant hammer at close range on someone, you’d never get an attack off before being struck or countered in some way, yet in game it works just fine.

You don’t always have to hold a spear at the very end.

Edit: as far as 1h goes I would envision them as being more of a javelin/midrange attack weapon.

I’ll just leave this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear

The reason you’d be screwed at close range is angular momentum. You can’t build up enough with a long weapon at close range. In the case of a spear or staff, the weapon has no edge in any event. If the person I was swinging a 6 foot stick at had any sense, they’d step close to me and wouldn’t be hit by the stick with enough force to do anything but inconvenience them. There’s a reason all polearm and spear carrying troops after the bronze age also carried a short sword. Spear at distance and vs horsemen, drop the spear when foot soldiers close in, and draw your sword. When soldiers carried the spear as the only weapon, they were shorter, thrusting weapons that were wielded along with a shield (which is why I think it totally makes sense to have 1H spear).

Nothing in this game has to mirror reality, but the game does a pretty good job of being logically consistent with itself.

If they were to add a 2H spear, I’d say some of what you say makes sense, field creation and that sort of thing. But if it gets additional range, then it needs to be balanced with close range penalties. If doesn’t get range, then the question becomes why add it as a new weapon at all? What niche does it fill that isn’t already being filled by another weapon?

Goose.8195:

Black Frog.9274:

2h spear really doesn’t have a place in GW2 land combat (or water, really). It’s a non-projectile ranged weapon that is utterly useless inside of 5 or 6 feet. It really isn’t useful against non-mounted opponents either.

As a projectile weapon the 1H doesn’t make a lot of sense either, since it’s one use.

But a 1H thrusting weapon with greater than normal melee range and some blocking could be interesting.

In a world where we have aquabreathers functioning as gills, magical staves shooting firebolts, greatswords with ranged attacks, arrows conjured from thin air, etc. etc., there is no place for a spear? Ok.

A 1H spear, sure. 2H no. And none of your examples deals with range mechanics, which is ultimately the issue here. You’ll note that there actually is a comparable weapon, the Staff (spear with no point), and it’s used as a ranged, magical weapon. Perhaps you can come up with some close range skills for a 6 to 8 foot long weapon with a point but no blade? Or maybe you’re suggesting that a 2H spear be used entirely at range and you’d be screwed at close range?

Narkodx.1472:

Yeah I am rank 500+ in WvW mostly solo roaming on my Thief I am well aware of the issues in WvW

Guess what? There is no balance disconnect – the game is PURPOSELY balanced with PvP in mind. WvW with food, ascended, stacks, blah blah never going to be balanced. When my Necromancer can put on Dire/Perplexity/40% Condi Food do you actually think that game mode is balanced or will ever be? The answer is no. The devs barely care about WvW.

No actually a Thief NEEDS weapons – S/D provides evades and ports that ignore LOS the shortbow provides probably the best port in the game – that is called UNRIVALED mobility which is what keeps the Thief relevant in this game

Thief actually can kill people – The enemy Thief/Mesmer/Necro/Engi are primary targets for a Thief – The role of the Thief is to not waste time against a Bunker Guard/Warr/Ele in a 1v1 – instead you should be hunting the squishy classes – helping your team burst down targets in out numbered fights – and most importantly abuse your mobility to decap the enemy nodes that are left empty

Any other questions? I am honestly happy to help

What I do not like is people who have been playing the game for a few weeks/months use garbage builds in PvP and claim that the class is broken and unplayable

I’m glad to see that you decided to participate in the conversation.

I don’t agree that balance can’t be achieved in both PvP and WvW. PvP limits the inclusion of many variables in buffs, etc. but that doesn’t mean that buffs and how they work with the build can’t also be balanced. And if they’re going to provide a venue in which groups are significantly larger than in PvP, then they need to provide build options for that environment. That’s precisely the point of the thread.

The bigger issue, at least for the thief, is that because the thief’s role is viewed like you view it (which is obviously because that is how it is generally used in PvP), it is pigeon-holed into a role in a way that no other class is. Everyone else simply has more options for the ways that they can play. Thieves, as you yourself point out, are relegated to tweaking people’s noses and fighting only the “weakest” possible classes. Something the other “weak” classes don’t appear to be limited to (at least in WvW).

2h spear really doesn’t have a place in GW2 land combat (or water, really). It’s a non-projectile ranged weapon that is utterly useless inside of 5 or 6 feet. It really isn’t useful against non-mounted opponents either.

As a projectile weapon the 1H doesn’t make a lot of sense either, since it’s one use.

But a 1H thrusting weapon with greater than normal melee range and some blocking could be interesting.

time to put in a ticket!

you can only harvest it once every 24hrs. It disappears from your map until then. If you go to Asura home, it is just to your left at the edge of the ledge. Make sure your map is zoomed in. And if you are a little laggy (like me), it takes a little while to render.

edit: also, if you bought it from gemstore, go to your mail to claim it, then your inventory to consume it.

Every time I see “throw me a bone” in print, I always hear it in Dr. Evil’s voice.

How many people criticizing loot drops have maxed out their MF? We have all had some temp max MF, but that’s very short-lived from the perspective of forming an impression about drops in general. I’ve been told (I don’t know how true it is), that MF has a major impact on your drops. And, you’ll note that ANET has been making it increasingly easy to get Luck and bump up your MF %. I suspect that’s because so many people complain about the drops without taking concrete steps to get their numbers up past 200.

Narkodx.1472:

You’re obviously a troll man give it up already

I am the idiot and I am the one who is stupid when your ability to type just ONE coherent sentence is lacking

http://www.gw2score.com/PvP

You do not even PvP LOL

You do realize that there’s a whole area of the game called WvW? And that group size isn’t limited by numbers on a tidy little map?

The disconnect here and in most thief threads is that balancing tends to focus on PvP without regard to WvW. It’s different in many ways.

As to your comments about thieves in PvP, if your only options are dodging because you can’t actually kill anything, that’s a problem. It sounds to me like the thieves you’re describing could fill their role without weapons at all. Several people have already mentioned it, but you don’t seem to want to discuss anything. If you really want to talk about something, please explain to we morons how that’s a good thing. Then take some time to break down thieves in WvW. If you’re a master thief and pvp’er, I’m more than willing to listen to any advice you’ve got to offer.

In T1, you get a good choice of both zerg style, solo, roam, and havoc. I’m on Blackgate. Just have to know who to roll with once you’re on. When I want small gang, I run with SG or HMNG commanders. When I want zerg, I roll with the zerg commanders (log in for a couple of hours in your prime time and it will be obvious who they are). Some groups run without tags, so you just have to know who they are (assuming they don’t leave you in the dust). HB, GoF, SG tend to field the most commanders on Blackgate (at least in my limited experience). There’s also a difference between running on the borderland maps and the EB map. Very different look and feel to things between the two.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Who wants nachos? Spicy, extra jalapenos! Comes with choice of guacamole, sour cream, or cream cheese!

Cream cheese? What kind of sicko are you?

And guacamole OR sour cream? Both, of course!

Wanze.8410:

snip

You managed to miss the point. Whether you used existing stock or not is irrelevant. The point is, you bought stuff up and relisted it. You made a profit. So what? There were a limited number of things to buy, you bought them, you marked them up, there was no or little further incoming stock, so of course you made a profit relisting them. Again, so what?

I’m not making the point that it’s not possible to manipulate core commodities. It’s TOTALLY possible, provided you have the capital necessary to do it. I’m making the point that if you want to post threads about market manipulation, choose a worthy target! Move the Iron market or move the Linen market. THAT would be impressive. It’s not clear what your initial premise was. Was it that you could make money by trading? Was it that this particular product was difficult to make a profit from? What? What was it that you were out to prove? What are we supposed to take away from this thread?

TaCktiX.6729:

Black Frog.9274:

This is sort of a pointless argument. TP/auction houses promote gem to gold conversion, which goes straight to the company’s bottom line. If you don’t want to pay subscription fees, the company has to keep a steady income stream through some other means.

With the wealth of purchases available in the gemstore, I don’t think that is necessarily true. There is plenty to spend money on that isn’t just gem to gold conversion. Sure, gems to gold is pretty universal because of the Gold Standard, but that hasn’t stopped the popularity of items that are inherently decoupled from it. Or the plethora of armor skins and outfits that you see people sporting all over the game.

The majority of items in the gem store fall into a couple of basic categories: permanent items (like skins), permanent upgrades (like bag slots), and consumables (which includes both boosters and things like salvage kits). The first two categories have limited sales. Once you’ve got a skin, you don’t need another. People are more likely to buy several upgrades, but there is a natural limit for most people (except for those crazy people with 25 character slots :P). Consumables are the most likely to represent a continuous revenue stream, but only people with gems to burn are likely to buy them in significant quantities, so even that stream is limited in the long run.

The current trend in games is to provide an ingame counter to illicit RMT/gold selling. The only way to do that is with sanctioned RMT. Thus gems to gold (G2G), which pads the bottom line while simultaneously weakening the black market. The reason for G2G isn’t the gold standard, it’s people who don’t want to grind gold or items. Since those people are going to do RMT no matter what, G2G exists. (It’s also worth noting that G2G significantly reduces the overhead necessary to fight gold selling.)

When ANET doesn’t want something to be linked to G2G, they make it account/soul bound. Those items tend to be easily obtainable or free. There is almost nothing that can’t be bought for gold. Since GW2 is free to play after the initial purchase, the only way to keep the revenue coming in is to ensure that there is a place to spend gems constantly. It’s roughly analagous to the F2P facebook games that make everything a PITA to do, unless you pay a little money. If you don’t want to grind, you’re going to have to pony up some dough.

There is literally no incentive for them to go any other way with it unless they move to subscription, and even then the incentive is very low. Games like EVE Online are subscription based, but you can pay for the subscription by buying PLEX, which is basically G2G in another format. WoW just went with that model, so you can bet that it’s about to become industry standard.

This is sort of a pointless argument. TP/auction houses promote gem to gold conversion, which goes straight to the company’s bottom line. If you don’t want to pay subscription fees, the company has to keep a steady income stream through some other means.

None of the build editor sites that I know if is current atm. Most current was last updated in September.

I had a weird experience today. Usually, to get the bell choir daily you need just one correct note. I did a bunch, but didn’t get the daily. It was really weird.

I never block them, just report. I like to see how long it takes before they are silenced. It doesn’t take long btw. I rarely get more than 2 and only a few times 3 or 4 (probably because those were low population times, so fewer people reporting). They also seem to stick to home cities. I’ve seen fewer over time once LA got destroyed.

The day they institute GvG is the day they end WvW. Casual players who aren’t interested in hyper-competitive play would be left out in the cold. I suspect that’s the reason they haven’t done it yet.

What an underwhelming thread. Big deal. You leveraged your gold and existing stock to move prices upward on an item with a limited supply. Was it ever in doubt that this could be done? If you want to prove something, prove you can move the market for a core commodity.

Forum moderation in return for free stuff. I’m sure this will all totally work out and there won’t be any problems.

It boils down to which moderator you get. I’ve posted two comments in the last month that were very, very similar. One was infracted, the other wasn’t. The default reason given could EASILY have been applied to both, though I would have (obviously) argued against the conclusion in both cases. I suspect that a lot depends on whether some lame-o decides to report it or not. If it gets reported and the mod thinks there’s a rule that COULD be applied, maybe, then they go ahead and apply it. Long story short, if the thread’s OP is overly sensitive, your chances of being modded are much higher than normal.

didn’t we just do this exact thread 2 weeks ago?

points per kill seems to have forgotten the boosts from ruins holding. holding ruins now nearly worthless

add me to the list of dialogue skippers

(strangely, my first time posting to this thread has disappeared.)

Maybe there is a way to tweak things without too much drama.

Turn Head Shot into a melee range skill, keep the daze, and add an evade and retreat move onto the end. That gives the P/P thief a much-needed tool for breaking melee contact and evading. Up the init cost to 5 to give you 2 per 10 instead of 3 per 12.

Give pistols a base range of 1000, make Ricochet add 200. While that adds range even to D/P and P/D shots, all of the sets are down one ranged shot from the Head Shot change and the 1000 range is outside of normal steal range. The thief can maintain distance but he gives up a gap closer to do it or he spends a trait for Long Range Steal to keep the option open. That also fits with the Trickery line since both Ricochet and LRS are in that line.

I’m not much of build master or anything, but I think this avoids some potential other problems with existing sets, but maybe there’s something I’m not seeing. I also considered making the new head shot a leap finisher, to combo with the BP and give P/P some stealth, but unless HS was changed from Leap to something else or nothing at all, that’s a bit too much spammable stealth. Maybe a blast finisher for head shot?

P/P has issues, but after playing it so long, I think it has a “secret” but powerful strength. With a crit build, even builds that don’t include some sort of 100% crit chance, Unload is virtually guaranteed to proc every crit-based ability you possess. There are lots of interesting ways to use that fact, not least of which is Opportunist for a constant resupply of initiative. Throw in SoM and Invigorating Precision you get some serious HP restoration. Even when you’re being eaten alive with condis, you can stay up for a long time. Add in lifesteal on crit food (for both the healing and bonus damage vs armored targets) and fury (thrill of the crime), and you’ve got a real engine going for as long as you can keep Unload going.

nGumball.1283:

Black Frog.9274:

nGumball.1283:

One of the most interesting things that I read in GW2 forums constantly is that people believe it is totally normal to have 300 people working on so little.

300 developers? Or 300 employees? If it’s the latter, that’s actually a small company (it would include everyone from management to drones and all departments, including things like customer service)

Considering the fact that the company is working on a single title, it is not so small. 30 people work on feature patches? 30 for Living Story? 40 on normal patches and revamps? We have 200 people then taking caring of managment, marketing and costumer service.

While I do understand that a big portion of the employees don’t develope. It is unreasonable to beleive that 270 employees are just taking care of supporting an already released game. Also, Anet is owned by Ncsoft, which means that GW2 isn’t only managed by Anet. Important decisions and planning should include Ncsoft managment too.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that you next to nothing about business at the corporate level.

The Small Business Association (SBA) defines a small business in this particular market sector as 500 employees or less. I don’t know where you got the 300 number, but if it’s correct, then the company falls well under the cap and is, in fact, a small business.

They’ll have HR people, Legal, Payroll, Accounting, Business Support (everything from secretaries and internal IT support to security and facilities maintenance), Customer Service, Sales and Advertising, Management, Quality Assurance, External IT (server runners and the like), Developers, and “the Creatives.” And that’s just typical business stuff. They may have any other number of positions for things that are unique to their company (e.g., we have an internal communications team that writes newsletters and all that corporate email spam).

nGumball.1283:

One of the most interesting things that I read in GW2 forums constantly is that people believe it is totally normal to have 300 people working on so little.

300 developers? Or 300 employees? If it’s the latter, that’s actually a small company (it would include everyone from management to drones and all departments, including things like customer service)

Kartel.2561:

But GW2 is laughably behind when it comes to “expansion-like content”. To pretend it’s been delivering SO MUCH in that regard, especially vs its own predecessor …is simply not credible. Are you seriously comparing 3 small zones in 2yrs to multiple continents? Maybe you’re new to the GW franchise, but even with a smaller team Anet used to be capable of so much more.

One thing absent from this conversation is total population. Opening up new continents, starting areas, etc. creates an issue with achieving critical mass of players in key areas. If the population is low (whatever qualifies as low for their purposes), opening new areas drains old areas and cripples many of the group events or the “social” interaction aspect of the game. If there is a constant addition of new areas, the process repeats itself until you reach a gas-like state of dispersion. Since they started the mega server thing, it’s clear that total population was an issue for some servers and may, in the bigger scheme of things, be a “problem” they’re factoring into their plans.

I think it’s more likely that they will move in a new sort of direction. The point of no return will turn out to be the point at which you “transfer” to a new server with the new content. The LS will take you up to that point and after some critical mass is achieved (so that there are enough people on the new server to run group content) you’ll move over as part of some event. Once there, you can’t go back. This will put your starting story line with Zhaitan and the followups with the original LS content in its own “chapter”/“server”/“zone” (whatever the correct terminology is). Then they can introduce new items and such without wrecking balance and the economy on the old server.

That’s my crazy prediction. Dream on guildwarians!

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Can we at least wait and see before airing negative, and sarcastic, comments?

Blind faith, best faith.

CobOfCorn.6352:

Malice is fine the way it is. A thief can get better healing per second using AoE’s with Malice than Signet of Restoration and Healing Signet combined- you only factored in autoattacks. Use Dagger Storm in a zerg fight sometime- it’s a full health heal. Very few people use Signet of Malice as a sustained heal anyway. Malice’s true potential is with Signets of Power and Signet Use, which gives you a free 5 might, initiative and heal every 12s. Pair that with Shadow’s Rejuvenation and you probably won’t die very often. Cruuk (a semi top tier thief) made that build popular in PvP for at least a year and a half. Malice is perfectly fine in PvE too- it’s in the current thief meta build (66002).

180 per attack wouldn’t be too bad imo- a buff is a buff, but I really don’t think it needs changing.

If you actually use the signet to heal, the passive effect goes away. If you use it every 12 seconds, you’re burning both your emergency heal (active) and passive heal in one go and you get 5 might, 1 init, and ~3500 heal (that is to say, nothing useful now that you’ve burned all of your healing and the condis are piling up). The main passive effects of the other 3 signets aren’t much worth burning up for the might either, except for the power one. If you’ve got the trait but you’re not going active with the signets, you’re wasting a trait. The main problem with signet of malice is that it has no condi clear and the second you run out of initiative you’re living on borrowed time.

That said, with P/P unload and initiative, its free HP all the way.

Grimwolf.7163:

I put a lot of thought into it, and I think I’ve thought of a solid solution.
The main problems are that it lacks defense, sustainability and utility.
The reasons for this being that it depends too much on Unload as the sole source of offense, and Unload is too much of a resource hog for this role.
If they buff non-Unload abilities enough to be viable alternatives, it makes D/P and/or P/D overpowered.
If they buff Unload enough to make the set viable single-handedly, it exacerbates the existing problem and makes it a ridiculous one-trick pony spam-fest.

So here’s my idea.
First increase the cast time on Unload, then add a secondary activation to it (a la Shadow Return and such). The increased duration of Unload is important for several reasons.
It will weaken it enough to help balance the addition of the secondary activation.
Draw out activations of Unload, both to reduce down-time spent on condition-based auto-attacks, and reduce the reliance on Initiative traits without making them overpowered.
And finally, to prevent it from allowing too much burst potential with the secondary, and make it that much easier to trigger the secondary (since it would be available while Unload is active).

The secondary could be called something like Reload. It stops the Unload mid-cast, triggers a small evade window during the early portion of the cast, and restores a couple Initiative.
The cast time of Reload would be sizable, and only give back the Initiative when it completes. Something like a 1 second cast with a 1/2 second evade at the start.
This would give a bit of much needed defense (particularly while using Unload, which currently jams up defense and utility further by locking out other abilities), and gives back some Initiative to help with stringing in non-Unload attacks more frequently.
It would also make Unload spamming for offense significantly less boring and more involved.

The benefit isn’t worth the nerf. In any event, they just shortened the time (thank god!).

I don’t have issues with Init hogging when spamming Unload. My issues revolve around staying alive long enough to be useful and keeping moving targets within strike range. Increased range would go a long way to making me happy with P/P. I’d settle for an adjustment to pistol #2 or #4 that mimicked sigil of purity or maybe did a swap condi for boon ability.

So much of what makes P/P builds even mildly useful involves having to fill the design holes with sigils, runes, upgrades, and utility slots. Other builds usually benefit from synergies between various bits and pieces of the build, but P/P has little to no synergy for interesting effects. You end up nerfing the build to make it viable or running as a glass, underwhelming, one trick pony.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

However… High Mithril ranks through Diamond are always zerglings.. It doesn’t mean they’re definitely bad players but.. You can bet they haven’t done a lot of solo roaming.

Laurels and badges can be turned in for Taste of Liquid World Experience (5,000, which is one level). Roamers can get there too.

I don’t understand why they use public channels either. I don’t care what they’re doing or why and I hope they’re enjoying the game. However, do we all have to listen to some laborious conversation in map chat?

I use P/P almost exclusively (i’m an idiot and a horrible thief, I admit it). I mostly spam 3 and use builds with lots of init access. I’d like to see the range increased, reduce init amount on black powder, change either 2 or 4 to an AoE (call it “spray and pray”), change either 2 or 4 to a poison or torment based attack. Move ricochet out of trickery (4 in trickery just to get the one trait sucks. Nothing else in the line is related to pistols with the exception of increased init with trickery 3). Add a trait that grants speed or some other mobility to pistol users.

P/P has lots of issues. But, I find it works well when I use it in WvW for breaking up mass attacks or turning a retreat into a rout. Defending or attacking in closed spaces (e.g. along the wall tops or in passages) it is especially powerful. I firmly believe that if you put together a guardian, a warrior, and 3 p/p thieves, you’d have a hardcore assault team that could absolutely slaughter zergs. Make one of the thieves venomshare and the other two high power/crit with crit based sigils, all with ricochet, and go to town.

I’m one of those people who has a lot of trouble with the bell choir. I know how it works, but the timing rarely works out right. It would be nice if there was a practice event/place/something so that we could work on getting it right without having to wait forever between attempts. It’s just a time waster to me.

NewTrain.7549:

See my answer above. Hand cannons are not pistols.

This is just a silly quibble. Handguns (the correct terminology for what we’re talking about) can require the use of two hands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handgun (first sentence). If you have any doubts, trying firing http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category4_750001_750051_775664_-1_775655_757896_image with one hand.

I agree with OP. My dream is to wield dual .45’s or something that resembles a .45. The legendary skin Quip has got to be the dumbest legendary out there. It is a literal joke with pop gun sounds and confetti. It looks like a ray pistol from a 1950s sci fi flick. Right now I’m using the Citrine skin, which looks like a Colt Peacemaker. It’s better than most, but still isn’t as comparably “cool” as most of the greatsword skins.

edit: also, this game is anything but “medieval.” It also doesn’t take place on this planet or in this time line or in this universe. Let’s not forget all of the robots running around while we’re busy arguing about 18th century pistol skins vs 20th century pistol skins.

I’ve seen a variety of strategies used to good effect. If you can get into the groove in the first 3 to 5 minutes, it’s just a matter of staying ahead with building as your siege is destroyed/damaged.

The main strategies boil down to active defense vs. bunker defense. I’ve had several people insist (one quite rudely) that you should always build walls and never snowmen. However, after one particular match of watching some guys use the active defense, I now only build walls to close off the maze and use it as a catapult fortress.

Basically, you want to get up the ring of catas on the hub so that they work together to bring down mobs once they get inside to the yaks. It’s actually good to let the mobs in so that everyone can keep building instead of killing. Once the ring is up and you’ve started to put down snowmen a little further out, most mobs take forever to get into the center and are nice and squishy for the cata ring to take down.

The next phase is going to the hill tops and to the maze to put down a group of five or six cata and 4 or 5 snowmen. I try to wall off the maze as well. The mobs bunch up on the walls to take it down and the catas mow them down. Then each guy moves clockwise (or counter clock), never grouping up, to set up your “side” perimeter batteries. After that, it’s all about upgrade and resieging areas that get beaten down by Toxx. You know you’ve set your batteries up correctly when they can take down Toxx without player intervention My two main batteries end up as all mega catas, a mega ballista, and mega snowmen. They form a pretty tough hard point that can resist destruction long enough to put down some serious hurt. The battery on the hilltop is supported by two side batteries and a field of snowmen spaced out across the area.

In the early game its also best to just setup snowmen where you find snow. It’s like a little minefield that the mobs get stuck in. By that time your teammates have cata up and the mobs get killed from range while they try to take down the snowmen. It also helps as you’re out getting supplies and the mobs spawn close by. Just kite the mob into the snowmen, they aggro the snowmen, and then get taken down.

I think you’ve muddied the definitions a bit. Metagaming (in the original D&D sense and still the sense in games like EVE) means things that take place outside of the game itself.

In the old days, that would be something like knowing details about the stats of a monster from your Monster Manual and then having your character act on that knowledge, even though the character has no way of gaining such knowledge.

In the present, metagaming generally means doing things that can’t be done in the game but that affect the outcome. This could be something as simple as using teamspeak (the game doesn’t provide voice communication and it’s a distinct advantage). Or it could be something extreme, like SWATting someone so they lose a match.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming pretty good definition.

If i didn’t have to go into the choir instance to get a daily, I’d never inconvenience you with my death again.

But I DO, so deal with it. Or complain to anet (good luck with that).

pretty freaking cool

(i lol’d that the decorations on your desk take up more room than your actual computer/tools)

I don’t think there are ascended earrings anywhere yet, so that would be one definite thing for Jewelry 500 to do.

For food, I imagine either 3rd minor buffs per food, unusual or coveted stat combinations (similar to the toxic utilities), or extended durations (similar to the Potent Master Maintenance Oil).