Guild Wars 2

Some with pugs, some with guildies. Mind you the guildy route was way more enjoyable since people knew I was doing the achieves and went out of their way to help. Definately pugable though.

That said, as far as I remember (since it’s now quite a way back) the biggest bottleneck are the fractal research pages required during each step.

Stick to heart quests early on. Do the personaly story steps every 10 levels. Use tomes from loging in daily to level up. Use cooking to level up.

Early on it can be hard to tag due to lack of skills and things dying very fast to higher level players. This remedies itsself as you progress further on.

Oh and what others said, definately don’t grind mobs. That’s not how the game was designed level wise.

There is no best sigil.

Sigils are directly connected to your build and which game mode you are playing in.

If there is maybe a close to must use sigil it might be Superior Sigil of Force on most pve builds.

Price of Sigils is not only dictated by demand but also supply. Some of the very expensive sigils on the TP just have a very low supply, thus they are very expensive even though they are not that useful.

As far as overall pve open world, it doesn’t matter what you use. I’d probably place Superior Sigil of Energey quite high simply because it’s 1 extra dodge every 10 seconds thus making survival a tad easier. It’s certainly not must use though.

Are you using condition damage? Which class are you playing? Torment isn’t usually a first pick as far as sigils go unless you have a coockie cutter build for it.

Stacking sigils provide a higher than average stat advantage. This is compensated via other drawbacks.

I do agree that they are a type of leftover remnant from way back (originally you could stack the buff up, replace the weapon and get the benefit of max stack sigil buff without having the sigil equiped) and feel lackluster in todays meta.

Making them stack faster might be a solution but would be a problem for sPvP. Having them stack slower leaves them balanced in sPvP but leaves them weak in PvE.

Azoqu.8917:

How does this translate to Mesmer? Well I’m fairly certain no one rolled Mesmer pre-expansion to play support, so Mesmer mains probably don’t want to be shoved into the support role but they are forced to, so they probably swapped to a DPS class because swapping from a DPS to support mentality is way harder than swapping from support to DPS mentality.

While I agree with everything else you said, I have to disagree with this. Mesmer always has been a support class even during vanilla GW2. They were portal and quickness bots for 90% of the entire time of vanille and remained so even after the big pre HoT skill/trait rework. Originally quickness was not a boon, and it was mesmer only.

Whoopmeister.7493:

which idiot thought of the idea to only allow so many into the map just before an event , i dont always go but when you are on the map and waiting to do the run through it , and your with others , and then you die and come back to the map and your not in the same instance !!!

Join a squad, problem solved. If you are solo and d/c you will lose your spot. If you are in a squad your spot is saved for 2 minutes. Unless we are talking the 2 hour fixed reset (or the reset 15 minutes after killing Mordi). That’s intended and small hint since I see this all the time:"one mordremoth dies and the 15 minute treasure time begins you can/t reenter the map once you leave no matter if it has spots or not to prevent loot sharing.

Whoopmeister.7493:

its bloody annoying if your trying to do quests and achievements and then suddenly you cant because the maps suddenly empty !!

True, getting all the achievements done can take a few runs. Absolute minimum 3, for each lane 1, more realistically 9-10.

Whoopmeister.7493:

also considering there are really hardly any runs in the day , you have to wait until one has become available its frustrating !!!

I can only speak for EU, but the map still runs almost every 2 hours unless maybe right during the middle of the night. Be sure to check the lfg close to times when the fixed 2 hour reset is. You won’t find maps inbetween those times since everyone who wants to complete the map usually joins at the fixed restart time.

While I find it admirable that people read up on classes and such, honestly if you are just starting out (and haven’t set your goal to power through to raids immediately with help of already existing players) I wouldn’t worry about raids.

Truth be told. By the time your first character hits 80 and you have a general understanding of the game (sufficient enough to raid) you’ll have either the tomes or the gold or both to instant level a new character to 80.

There is no point in making grand plans and running out of steam midway through (and even less plans around an expansion that is not even officially announced yet). Play whatever is fun to you because chances are if you don’t, you won’t stick long enough around to even get to raiding.

Game of Bones.8975:

Are you telling me ANET can’t come up with challenging material for people to do in regular PvE maps to call a weapon ‘legendary’?

I’m sure they could, unfotunately that wouldn’t help. Legendary items are designed as ressource drains and have thus a place in the GW2 economy.

If arenanet added some challenges they would still add a gold and ressource cost component as to not destabilize the GW2 economy. It’s that simple.

Warrior is probably the go to class and very similar to most warrior classes in other MMOs. Very straightforward and easy to play.

Ranger also works very well, the pet provides a nice addition to survival and damage in open world pve.

Thief rounds up the end with it’s high movement. Pistol 5 provides very high aoe blind for open world pve. Bit squishy otherwise until you get a grip on dodging attacks of enemys. Then again better learn sooner than later.

EDIT:
Classes to probably avoid: Mesmer, Elementalist, Engineer

Most important though, makes sure you are enjoying your class. if you are unhappy, switch and try out another. The classes all play quite differently and there is no point in sticking with one you don’t enjoy.

Leo G.4501:

Cyninja.2954:

and some feature does not make the cut. Then we have to assume that even a big majority from the playerbase wanted a feature, it must have not made the cost/benefit analysis.

But that isn’t for us to decide. To put it in perspective for you: it was specifically stated new races were not taken off the table.

You are taking this awfully personal. My guess is the fraction of people who are actually opposed to no new race is infantile small.

Now the fraction of players who take realistic expectations as to not get disapointed, those are certainly quite a few higher.

I never said I was against any new race (on the contrary). I merely pointed out that if they do not add a new race it was not doable in the ressources arenanet was willing to commit. No one has stated anything different so far in this thread except you missunderstanding people.

Leo G.4501:

Do enough players request such a feature and they are capable of planning for such a change to be made? If so, then by all means. To estimate the worth by assumed required resources is a lot of assuming from a perspective that has little knowledge of the allocation of their resources or the resources themselves. Nothing wrong with that, but its the leap of logic that “it’s taking away resources from X” that isn’t right.

You have that backward.

People who say Tengu are unlikely are not assuming out of thin air, but based on past notification of arenanet what content is very ressource heavy and how much of different content we see released. Especially new ingame armors are seldom and far inbetween and this has been confirmed by arenanet that it’s a very ressource heavy aspect since they have to custom make each armor set for 5 different races currently.

Ressources are a limited good no matter if material or immaterial. If something takes up a huge chunck of developement ressource it’s a logical assumption that these work hours are not available for different content.

Finaly if we assume that arenanet divides their workforce as good they can between:
- most $/hour benefit for the company
- effort to please as many of the communities wishes as they can
- advance the game in every are to keep it up to date
- introduce as much inovation as they see fit/possible

and some feature does not make the cut. Then we have to assume that even a big majority from the playerbase wanted a feature, it must have not made the cost/benefit analysis.

Thornwolf.9721:

So with mounts looming on the inevitable Horizon I Felt its time to make a thread about Races and why specifically the Tengu are the best candidate, and why they should be implemented.

I think you are vastly overexpecting what this mount announcement means.

No worries, in aproximately 4-5 weeks we will have clarity on how arenanet exactly intends to add mounts into the game. Suffice to say, I highly doubt it will be mounts everywhere and at all times.

Most data suggests mounts in the next expansion will work like masteries from HoT meaning they will be added movement abilities with limited use and only at select points.

As far as a new race. What most people said holds true and while I’m sure everyone would love to see a new race get added. The customisation required especially in the armor department makes this a highly unlikely addition to the game, ever.

I recommend people read:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ministry

and

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Queen_Jennah

Key segments of note:

Her Royal Majesty Jennah, Queen of Kryta and Regent of Ascalon is a descendant of King Doric and the last known member of the Salmaic dynasty, the ruling family of Kryta. Her coronation was in 1316 AE, after the death of her father. Her egalitarian rule makes her a very popular monarch in the eyes of her people, but this also causes much friction with the nobility.

and

When Jennah’s father died, the Ministry ruled Divinity’s Reach in her stead, as she was too young to ascend the throne immediately. Because of this, some Ministers have become accustomed to ruling Kryta and are reluctant to relinquish their former control, causing friction between the Ministry and the crown. Other sources of friction include the truce between the humans and charr, which some ministers consider to be an affront to the sacrifices made by the Ebon Vanguard, and the bandit and centaur attacks that continue to wear Kryta down. There are even quiet whispers that perhaps Jennah may not be fit to rule. More recently, the ministry have been the subject of several disturbing scandals, such as the revelation that Minister Julius Zamon was in fact in charge of one of the bandit factions harassing the city, the fact that the Ministry Guard lead by Commander Serentine was involved in a plot to discredit the Seraph by helping bandits, mainly Big Nose Ted, burn down both the Queen’s Heart Orphanage and the Vanguard Hospital, or Marjory Delaqua’s claim that a minister was spotted practising dark, occultic magic on a kidnapped woman. Despite these, the ministry remains popular among the citizenry of Kryta, largely due to the efforts of their Legate Minister.

Kryta is NOT a democracy. It’s a monarchy based on nobility and ruling family with a democratic element to appease the masses. This is not Great Britain where the monarchy has only symbolic value. Queen Jenna IS the main kitten and if she suspects the Ministry to be out of order (which has been the case all over the place lately) rest assured she will crush any opposition to her rule and has every right to do so.

Considering those aspects, I personally find Jenna to have been very lax and lenient in her approach and judgement. Her first priority is to keep her people safe and root out corruption and dissent which might endanger her subjects. The Ministry, or part of it, has been in direct violation to these goals and thus has forced Queen Jennas hand.

The attack which Jenna had prepared for is only the culmination of a powerstruggle which luckily Jenna has decided for herself.

Belenus.9132:

I argue that its a pointless animation and frankly serves no practical purpose. Any chance of having it discontinued so we can get down to the serious business of fighting and where necessary retreating without being crippled by it?

It serves exactly the purpose you mentioned, getting put in combat reduces your movement speed forcing you to deal with the threat at hand or escape at a reduced speed. Sheeting your weapons has nothing to do with this. In fact you can run at maximum speed out of combat with weapons drawn.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_Speed

Forward movement speed is 100% or 294 units per second out of combat (210 units per second in combat).

All bonuses get applied to this base value thus when you are put in combat you are automatically slowed by aproximately 28-29%. Working as intended.

Aris.4231:

(btw is there a new player server like in WoW?)

Not that I’m aware of, it would also make no sense since GW2 is running a megaserver system for most/all of its pve maps and you can enter all instances of the same reagion no matter which server you are on (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/).

The only area of the game where server still matters is wvw and which side of a pairing you play on. For pve it’s mostly moot.

Np, gl and hf.

First off, don’t worry about those dps numbers you keep reading about. Those are full ascended, fully raid buffed damage numbers on a target golem (and occasionally close to raid boss numbers) and thus not comparable to solo dps. Though with 5k you do have some room for better gear/traits/utilities.

If you absolutely need to compare, go to the training golem in the raid area (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Special_Forces_Training_Area) and give it a go.

I’ll assume you are level 80 since you did not mention your level. Normal dungeons are easily doable in rare gear and above. The biggest issue here will be that most people run skips or shortcuts which can be quite confusing to a new player. Best is to make a new group or join a group where people know you have no experience and go at it.

Fractals are a difficulty increasing dungeon type which in general are shorter than normal dungeons, but get increasingly harder (scale from 1-100). You can easily join a group here and start at fractal level 1. Most people on that level will be beginners, it wouldn’t hurt to tell people that you are inexperienced though.

Finally there is raids. The endgame 10 man content. You definately want to be all exotic geared to enter here. I wouldn’t worry to much about raids yet, or if you absolutely wont to give them a try, join a guild that does casual raids and enter with them (once you are geared out).

If you need some pointers or advice, check metabattle or better yet quantify (http://qtfy.eu/builds/) what endgame builds are run in the current meta.

If your mesmer isn’t:

- distorting greens on VG (and slams on gorse, aoes on Deimos for greens)
- provides portals during events (thus has to constantly change skills and traits while the group runs on)
- provides 90%+ alacrity and quickness
- switches between Moa and TW as needed while cc bar breaking apropriately to allow dps to have more damage uptime
- provides pulls and reflects as needed (adds on gorse and sab, sloth, matthias, orbs on KC, human add on Sama)

all the while one of both tanks where needed. We have a very different understanding of what a mesmer should bring to the table.

Now if your mesmer:

- provides sub 90% alacrity and quickness uptime
- doesn’t distort
- doesn’t focus pull
- doesn’t provide portals and utility to speed up the run

yes then he has a way easier time.

Then again in this case you are comparing a mediocre mesmer to a mediocre dps (one that pulls around 70% of what is required).

In that case I’d still argue that a dps has a way easier time to hit 70% of top dps compared to a mediocre mesmer, but yes, then the class can be considered easy.

The problem with mesmer is, since we don’t bring damage and people rarely bother to check on boon uptime (or actually use mesmer to the full extent which it can bring to the table) the comparison can be quite off.

A dps who brings subpar damage is easily spotted, when was the last time you actually looked up your mesmers boon uptime?

You are welcome. :*

OriOri.8724:

Cyninja.2954:

Personally I think arenanet might take a step back from pet classes with all the afk farming getting out of hand lately.

If they think AFK farming is a serious problem (and it seems like they do) then they need to look at why so many players feel compelled to afk farm in the first place, and why it picked up so heavily after leather was handled in such an atrocious manner with HoT, and then address the root of the issue instead of just addressing the symptoms

Afk farming didn’t pick up with leather farming.

Afk farming has always been present in the game, but was taking place in not as active player areas.

The reason it’s now so visible is due to how the new maps reward players (yes the leather farm is part of that, but personally I’m way more concerned with afk in bitterfrost and other visible areas).

As to why, that’s easily answered. Everytime people think they can get away with gaining something without effort, some will take that route. Just as most businesses (refering to gold farmers since those are companies making money off of those actions) will do the same to increase their illegal goods ingame.

Solution:
- harsher anti afk approach (though this will be the least effective approach)
- change of how contribution for rewards is calculated ingame (though this would hurt pet classes)
- change of how rewards are distributed ingame (probably least intrusive way to get rid of obvious afk farmers. remove all karma gain from the new maps via kills)

Saunby.5306:

One can dream can’t they! I just really miss my GW1 Ritualist Although I would happily settle with the new elite specialisations! Hopefully they will release some more news on the specialisations soon.

Nothing wrong with hoping one of the elite specialisations fills that role. Personally I think arenanet might take a step back from pet classes with all the afk farming getting out of hand lately.

Then again these kind of decisions and what type elite specialisation gets added was likely made over 1 year ago.

If I had to estimate a timeline on the next few months, it would look something like this:

- coming tuesday trailer for Season 3 finale (kinda given since it was anounced)
- tuesday after that (25.7.) Season 3 finale with a couple of bug fix patches the following days/week
- let the season finale settle in for a good 3-4 weeks
- final balance patch pre expansion in september
- announce next expansion at PAX early september
- expansion hitting live game end of the year around end of november, early december. Not much later this year as to avoid the christmas release of new games and sales
- if it doesn’t come out this year, expect end of january as next release slot

Then again, who knows how far along they are with the expansion and if timelines are met.

Nope, no new class with the expansion. Stop getting your hopes up on things that are so unlikely to happen, you’ll just end up dissapointed.

9 new elite specialistions though.

Braham – not sure why people make this a big deal out of him. It’s not like he was the epitome of powerful or more than a decent sidekick so far (besides the latest tempertantrum). Also I would love to see how the Norn alone take down a, given currently sleeping, elder dragon and all his minions when for the past 2 it required the cooperation of all the races of Tyria. Remeber, icy dragon now hold the power of 2 elder dragons on top of his own too.

Orr makes perfect sense as final destination. The current biggest danger to Tyria comes from the reapeared gods themselve (both in direct danger and indirect danger in form of deterioration of racial relations between humans and the other 4). We have had obvious and less obvious hints about the humans difficulty to cope with the return of Balthasar. The obvious one being Kasmeer, the less obvious ones the npc dialoges in Draconis Mon.

If I’d have to make an estimate on how the last season finale plays out:
- we go to Orr to find out more about the human gods
- we find out “stuff” about the human gods
- more “stuff” happens concerning the human gods which requires us to take action similar to what people did 250 years ago thus retracing some steps which were part of the Prophecies campaign.

I’m not even sure the elder dragons will play that big a role in the next expansion.

Hovo.7625:

I’m surprised to see that nothing has been done to remedy this in the time that I spent away from the game.

There was a reaction to the uproar.

Veteran players received an extra character slot for a limited time during HoTs release window.

Sorry to say, but coming back after almost 2 years after the expansion was released and asking for stuff is futile. Your benefit is that HoT has since droped in price drastically.

If you so concerned about value, wait until the next expansion gets announced. You might get a free upgrade to HoT for you base account with the next release (which is scheduled for end of this year if everything works out).

zealex.9410:

Idk calling ppls arguement silly while saying guard rotation os just aa. Meanwhile mes rotation is press all the buttoms ones aa and use blurred frenzy when nececary. Then swap back to shield proc sigil and repeat.

Every single classes rotation is based on pressing all the buttons, rinse and repeat. The difficulty comes from how complex pressing these buttons is. So I’m unsure what pressing you skill has to do with difficulty.

In case of guardian (and absolutely hammer guardian) this requires the button press of aproximately 5-6 skills.

zealex.9410:

There are many tells to notify you when an attack happens and you can expect when to “skillfully” press signet or sword or shield phantasm. If it was purely reaction based i would give you that bit its not. Its a powerfully skill good players abuse to trivialise the content.

Wait so now we need good player skills to trivialise content? Wasn’t your argument just now that mesmer is super easy to play?

zealex.9410:

Also, stating that mesmer wont get a dps spec in the future is also clueless. Mesmer has an already good dos spec for xertain boses and its bound to get 1 more from elite spec. No i dont believe mesmer should get any buff for nerfing the distort since its just a so broken bonus added on top of a really good class to begin with.

I dare you, show me where I stated mesmer will never receive a dps spec? Please do so.

Ah dps spec which excells at 2 bosses and is barely on par with more popular dps builds I’d barely call a viable dps spec.

On that note, please also show me where I’ve stated that other classes will not receive unique benefits with future elite specialisations?

ArthurDent.9538:

Mesmer is probably my most played class in raids. I consider it much easier to play than most classes other than perhaps magi druid.

The availability and bottleneck of mesmers and especially chronotanks begs to differ.

I’ve said my peace. I’m fine with people arguing balance, but draw a line when one of the only classes with a semi involved rotation gets called easy to play as long as stuff like guardian or 123456 dps builds are in game.

I find the arguments for and against distortion funny, especially the ones from clearly non-mesmers hearing from others how easy the class is.

Newsflash, no class in GW2 is hard to play. The only semi interesting roles that require attention are any type of special job during raid boss fights, usually done by tanks and kiters. I’m sorry but playing dps which make up about 7-8 of the raid spots is not hard.

To argue that mesmer is easy though is silly. Easy compared to what? Any of the other classes ingame? Don’t make me laugh. Most classes have such idiotically easy rotations that a blind man with 1 finger could play them. Any that require even a tad of attention (hello engis) are either shuned or not meta because they can get outperformed by braindead afk classes.

So yes, mesmers are easy to play, in a game where everything else is baby mode.

I have no problem in arenanet rebalancing distortion or even making chrono tank unviable. In that case I would like for them to address some of the other issues the mesmer class has as well. Maybe give them some dps or any other role to fill. Since I doubt that is going to happen, I’m fine with chrono tanks remaining where they are: glorified support bots that fullfill their role well.

Azoqu.8917:

(since I Guardian main, and man do I want to be able to play support like this class should).

Have you checked guardian dps rotation for raids? It is literally autoattack until boss is dead. Let mesmers have some of that and we can talk. Meanwhile mesmers are at the bottom of the damage chart, by a mile.

Ithilwen.1529:

It looks nearly identical to some of the stuff I wear in Star Trek Online ( STO .) I really don’t like the idea of STO in Tyria.

Star Trek Online?

I could have sworn arenanet copy pasted some of the sith Star Wars: ToR armor into the game.

That being said, combine the armor with plasma weapons and you are 90% on your way to be a fullblow sith lord (at least my mesmer is).

Maybe the next outfit will be some jedi like robes with lots of particle effects?

There is a total of 614 hero points in game.

214 in vanilla Tyria (some of which are in the wvw maps)
400 in HoT zones

Required are 250 hero points for maxing an elite specialisation.

A lot of the HoT hero points are easily soloable and require only some channeling or defeating an easy veteran mob.

On top of that you can play wvw and unlock hero points via the heroic notary if you are having to hard of a time or are to lazy to run around a bit.

There is regular hero point trains lead by commanders where literally all you have to do is follow around.

I’m sorry but if you are so casual (and/or unsocial or player averse) that with all these possibilities you are not able to over time finish your elite specialisation, I’d have to ask why you are playing a MMO in the first place?

Panda.1967:

You’re approach here is what is often referred to as “Bad balance”. If a DPS spec requires it’s related weapon to be overpowered (especially when compared to other weapons in the same slot) in order to be on par with other classes DPS specs, then that elite spec was balanced poorly.

Oh I agree about the balance argument. Unfortunately I am looking at how arenanet has been balancing so far instead of this “should be” situation.

Once we arrive in should be land, I’ll gladly see other types of balance arguments be valid.

Panda.1967:

Example: If Sword was the strongest Power DPS weapon for a class, and Axe provided a hybrid Power DPS + Defense but as a result did 10% less DPS than the sword. The two would be balanced as long as the defensive benefit of the axe was of equivalent value to 10% of the sword’s DPS.

True, and I have clearly stated that I don’t believe arenanet will make weapons from elite specialisations equal to normal accessible weapons.

Thus the entire argument that weapons need to be equal to each other is moot.

This still does not address the fact that balancing an ever growing weapon pool is inherintly more difficult by numbers alone.

Balancing from a clean slate of core builds with a fixed number of weapons is easier than having to accomodate each new weapon added. That does not even address the issue of them being more flexible with designing new elite weapons more interesting without having to worry about wierd class mechanic interactions.

To sum up, I get what people want to say with “but permanent access would free things up and balance has to get done anyway”.

I simply do not agree that this would be in any way easier, on the same level or only slightly harder work wise.

It goes against any type of systematic and logical approach to assume that more variables would magically make things easier or keep effort required the same. Unless impact of the item gets reduced (like racial skills) to an extent where it doesn’t matter if you had access to it or not.

As stated above, I doubt though that elite weapons will be so underpowered in that this would be a valid approach.

zealex.9410:

cough cough ventari cough cough. Your expectation for the reality also may differ. Unlocking weapons might be so big of an issue since the biggest gain in power comes for the utility skills and the traits.

Not sure I follow, what does ventari have to do with anything?

Again, the argument that:“Well the main power difference comes from xyz, thus we can ignore balance concerning abc.” is not a very good one.

Panda.1967:

At the current stage it adds only one additional variable… sure it adds more down the road, but each expansion already adds more to the list of what they have to balance for anyways.

Again, and I have stated this above, your approach to how balance works confuses me.

Saying:“It’s only a bit more difficult to balance since they have all this other stuff to balance anyway.” is no argument. Any bit more balance makes things more complex and harder.

Panda.1967:

Currently we have shield, the next elite spec is suspected to give axe. Currently they have to insure that the Axe be it either mainhand or offhand isn’t definitively better than the Shield, so to insure that the shield still see’s reasonable amount of use and that everyone doesn’t just flock to the new elite spec for an overpowered axe. That requires they to be balanced against each other.

No it doesn’t. The shield and new elite specialisation weapon do not have to be balanced against each other. They have to be balanced against other elite specialisations and weapon. If the axe and next elite specialisation is a dps one (for example) it only needs to be balanced against top dps of other classes which might require a high dps mainhand skillset for axe. That in turn makes chronomancer way more powerful if it got access to a high damage mainhand weapon.

Panda.1967:

In short:

Current System – new elite weapon must be balanced against existing same slot weapons and pre-existing elite weapons regardless of slot.

Perma Unlock – new elite weapon must only be balanced against existing same slot weapons.

A new elite weapon being definitively better or worse than an old one is a non-issue when they are different slot weapons and you can just take both as long as it’s not definitively better or worse than any other same slot weapon.

A. nope. elite weapons do not have to be balanced against each other. One elite weapon can be easily be more powerful than another if say the specialisation compensates for this.

B.) balancing an continually greater number of variables against each other is hardly:only be balanced against existing slot. You are leaving out the interactions the elite weapons might have with each other.

Panda.1967:

Cyninja.2954:

Astralporing.1957:

Cyninja.2954:

Having to balance all weapons against each other all the time is far harder and will become more difficult as time and amount of elite specs passes/increase.

They will have to do that anyway. And besides, even unlocked, the weapons will still be strongly tied to their specs, because all the traits that enhance them are in that single traitline. That means that without that spec, the weapons will be weaker, not stronger.

No they don’t.

The new mesmer spec for example does not have to be balanced around chrono shield (as 1 example) because the way the system currently works it is impossible to have both chrono shield and the new elite spec available.

I would LOVE to have Tides of Time and an alacrity providing phantasm in every build I run. That is overpowered though or would require extra balancing.

Not all weapons are that closely tied to the elite spec in that they become trash tier without it, not in the current iteration of the game. Especially when most elite spec weapons get unique toys to entice players to get the expansion/elite spec.

Some weapons of mention that are quite powerful:

- Mesmer chrono shield (maybe one of the most powerful)
- Thief Daredevil staff
- Ranger Druid staff
- necromancer reaper greatsword

and that’s just off the top of my head. The other current elite specialisation weapons are quite powerful too. That’s without considering future elite specialisation weapon releases which I doubt will be less powerful.

You seem to be completely misunderstanding everything.

If they don’t balance new elite weapons against old ones then there will inevitably be a gap in power between them. You said yourself you doubt they will be less powerful. Well how do you expect them to insure they aren’t less powerful? If they arn’t balancing them against the old, then they are going to either be weaker or stronger… Are you expecting them to be more powerful?

The only way to insure that new elite spec weapons are on par with current ones IS to balance them against each other. So, yes, they do already have to balance them against each other anyways. There is no reason to not just let us use them separate from the elite spec. Leave them as unlocks, but once unlocked they are available period.

I’m not missunderstanding, but you are using the word balance and the process involved way to lenient with concern to this issue.

Yes, new specs and weapons will have to be balanced against other specs and weapons

BUT

there is a difference if I continue to have access to other powerful (currently elite only) weapons plus the new weapon I am adding as developer or not. How can this be so hard to understand?

The mesmer shield is a perfect example. It’s a very powerful offhand weapon which is balanced around the chronospecialisation and the fact that it’s only an offhand. When they designed the skills they knew that the shield will be used ONLY with sword or scepter mainhands weapons.

Now let’s assume the axe is added as new weapon with the next expansion (with mainhand capability). There is a balance difference if I have to consider the new axe skills getting used with or without the shield from chrono.

Both situations (perma weapons and not perma weapons) require balance, one requires more balance though than the other (permanent weapons being more complex). I don’t understand how I can explain this point clearer.

zealex.9410:

But the mesmer shield is not a dps weapon its a utility support one. I highly dought mesmer will see more support elite specs in the future due to the extreme focus on support the class already has so if its either a power weapon a healing weapon or ancondi weapon they can all co exist. The alacrity phantasm would also take a huge hit from the lack of improved alacrity in traits.

What you expect and what might come to pass are 2 different things. Also I was using the mesmer shield as example. Daredevil staff, druid staff and reaper greatsword would be excelent weapons to be run with a different elite specialisation.

Tides of Time is still a wave interupt with no target limit which provides quickness (to be comboed with signet) and the shield phantasm, while less powerful without improved alacrity, still provides an elite specialisation unique buff.

Go back up and read what I wrote:

Cyninja.2954:

Personally I would love to have access to all the weapons all the time (it will be harder to outshine chrono shield with the next elite spec) but realise that it would become a balancing nightmare, especially in keeping powercreep in check or keeping elite specs balanced against each other. Also value in choise is something not to be underestimated as far as gameplay fun and creativety is concerned.

So far, no one has addressed the issue of permanent new weapons creating more balance difficulty besides saying: no it aint so, when I have explicitly explained how balance is affected and how this becomes more complex with more weapons.

It’s simple: more variables makes it harder to balance. More weapons means more variables. Period.

Astralporing.1957:

Cyninja.2954:

Having to balance all weapons against each other all the time is far harder and will become more difficult as time and amount of elite specs passes/increase.

They will have to do that anyway. And besides, even unlocked, the weapons will still be strongly tied to their specs, because all the traits that enhance them are in that single traitline. That means that without that spec, the weapons will be weaker, not stronger.

No they don’t.

The new mesmer spec for example does not have to be balanced around chrono shield (as 1 example) because the way the system currently works it is impossible to have both chrono shield and the new elite spec available.

I would LOVE to have Tides of Time and an alacrity providing phantasm in every build I run. That is overpowered though or would require extra balancing.

Not all weapons are that closely tied to the elite spec in that they become trash tier without it, not in the current iteration of the game. Especially when most elite spec weapons get unique toys to entice players to get the expansion/elite spec.

Some weapons of mention that are quite powerful:

- Mesmer chrono shield (maybe one of the most powerful)
- Thief Daredevil staff
- Ranger Druid staff
- necromancer reaper greatsword

and that’s just off the top of my head. The other current elite specialisation weapons are quite powerful too. That’s without considering future elite specialisation weapon releases which I doubt will be less powerful.

Yes you could use SoC instead of buff food, but here’s the downside:

- SoC is not up all the time meaning you need to be better at your rotation

- the boon duration buff food is one of the most valuable foods from a stat bonus perspective. 30% boon duration is worth a ton of itemisation (if you run 20% from food and 10% from crystal)

- use the character builder at the top, if you are fully ascended minstrel on all slots with leadership runes, you will overcap boon duration by 2.x% when adding 30% bd from food

In the end, it’s up to you. Personally I would run a different sigil instead of not using food, but that’s your choice. You could run extra healing I guess.

First off, let me congratulate you on your first VG kill and good luck on future raid boss kills. Honestly once you have the coordination down for VG, most other bosses fall into place.

Zok.4956:

So, my conclusion: raids by themselves are fun, but the best and worst experiences are related to the people you play with.

True and a sentiment most raiders have been repeating on the forums.

That’s also one of the reasons a major recommendation is and always has been:

if you want to raid, find a group of likeminded individuals (aka a guild) and run with them.

Now to the best and worst experiences:

- can’t recall to many worst since I in general enjoy raiding (even those 2 hour wipe evenings without killing a single boss, which I too have had in the beginning)

- the best has to be those chilled nights where everything goes smooth and everybody is in a good mood. When I started raiding wing 1 had just been released and after a couple of days of tries we managed to kill VG as a guild group. That was epic. Every other raid boss after was always cool, but the first one remains the best.

EnchantixAqua.5327:

Sorry I should have clarified, the exotic minstrel trinkets that can only be crafted with freshwater pearls? I’m using the minstrel build that Teapot uses in his youtube video if that makes sense? Sorry for not being clear with my post.

I was operating under the assumption that commander’s gear wouldn’t be viable with a minstrel’s gear? I assumed that the commander’s gear is more fitted for Dom/Illusionary build while minstrel’s gear is more for the minstrel’s build?

I’ll be honest, that’s exactly what I was expecting. I’ll not be quite as harsh as Fay since I have a full minstrel mesmer according to Teapots build too (the benefit of having multiple mesmers). The build is performance wise on budget mesmer level. In your case, definately don’t use the build since you already have the 2 difficult things to aquire (leadership runes and minstrel gear).

Exotic minstrel gear is an absolute no go at current prices. Get the LS3 trinkets (the ascended ones give 3% boon duration total which is close to 4% from a plat doublon) and run traditional mesmer domi+illu. It might take a couple of days of farming (more if you get the bloodstone stuff) but will be worth it in the longrun.

Minstrel and Commander gear both work for both types of builds (though it doesn’t make sense running Teapots build with commanders) because they both have boon duration and toughness (toughness being the smaller necessity because that can always be gained via some knithgs splash in).

I’m not sure I follow, what does your build have to do with your gear?

In order to reach 100% boon duration you have to:

- use minstrel/commander gear
- use platinum doublons
- use Sigil of Concentration
- use Leadership runes
- use Chaos trait line with Chaotic Persistance

combine enough of those points to reach 100% boon duration.

You already bring minstrel gear and leadership runes to the table, meaning with all minstrel (or commander) combined with buff food and leadership runes you’ll hit 100% boon duration without SoC. Using Domi/Illu in this case should be a given.

I also don’t get what you mean about LS3 trinkets, those are ascended and do not require freshwater perls since you buy them from the merchants for the LS3 map currencies.

Maybe you’ve mixed some stuff up?

EDIT: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8NWUNq6kdarWyAYEKOTA-TRx/gAgK/eVCCp+jw+DA6HIFwXTtA-e full minstrel ascended with leadership runes. If you don’t feel like using minstrel weapons, use berserker and slap a SoC on them. Once you have leadership runes+minstrel/commander there is absolutely no reason not to use domi+illu

Panda.1967:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think the idea is that elite specs are a major feature of expansions so tying the weapon choice to the spec is important. Also, every available weapon skill has to be balanced against every other; the more new weapons, the harder it gets to balance.

I can see why people want more options for the base class (or even the base class with new elite specs unlocked). That doesn’t mean it’s good for the game’s long-term health.

It might make things only slightly harder to balance, but the end result would actually be far better balance. Besides, if they are doing things correctly when they release the next expansion with it’s new elite specs, the new and the old elite specs will be equal in power, which means they already have to include the current elite spec weapons in their balance efforts to ensure that the new elite spec doesn’t outshine the old. Quite frankly, it’d be far easier to ensure both Elite specs are on par with each other if the weapons are interchangeable.

Slightly harder balance can mean a lot, especially in an MMO (and even more so competative) enviroment where people flock to fotm classes and builds.

Also you are incorrect about the next expansion, at least your argument that the effort would remain the same. With the current system arenanet has to make sure the new elite spec and weapon skills are balanced against other elite specs (core classes aside since I doubt they will remain viable at all with 2 elite specs available). Having to balance all weapons against each other all the time is far harder and will become more difficult as time and amount of elite specs passes/increase.

Personally I would love to have access to all the weapons all the time (it will be harder to outshine chrono shield with the next elite spec) but realise that it would become a balancing nightmare, especially in keeping powercreep in check or keeping elite specs balanced against each other. Also value in choise is something not to be underestimated as far as gameplay fun and creativety is concerned.

Evolseed.9104:

The free account is really to get friends and family to join because as soon as they discover how much fun GW2 is to play of course they will buy the expansion Heart of Maguuma and gain instant access to all the cool stuff and instant level their first toon to 80!

That’s it’s purpose and as you have mentioned, it does that very well.

Evolseed.9104:

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

Both of those terms have connotations which confer far more restraints than the free account has.

I doubt people trying out GW2 on a free account expect the full game experience for free (even though they are getting almost all of it). Story wise and some MMO specific stuff not considered, the free account allows someone to play the entire base game without ever spending 1$. That’s free.

I’ll try to sumerize some of the things for TC since if you are new to the game it might be hard to understand what people are talking about.

The current situation as is (without all the arenanet said, didn’t say, talked, didn’t talk, dreamt or didn’t dream):

The gear tiers are as follows (with total stats in %):
junk – gray
white – basic (100%)
fine – blue (125% of white)
masterwork – green (135% of white)
rare – yellow (145% of white)
exotic – orange (165% of white)
ascended – pink (175% of white)
legendary – purple (175% of white)
- https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Template:Rarity

This has been the case for the last 4 years. The last 2 tiers (ascended and legendary) have the same amount of total stats on the items thus they are equal as far as power goes. Legendarys allow for free stat changes though making them more versatile.

As far as introduction of new gear tiers, there have been none in the last 4 years and the amount of ways of aquiring ascended and exotic items has been increased tremendously. The game gets balanced around exotic items and below (in lower tier zones).

HoT and new ascended stat combinations

With the HoT expansion 4 stat combinations were added with more total stats than 3 stat combinations. This is a form of powercreep for some builds. It can be considered a minor issue though since for top tier gear (ascended and legendary) free stat changes (for legendary) and cheap stat changes (for ascended armor and weapons – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing) is available.

Trinkets have been sufficiently easy to aquire in ascended form to not be of major note farm or aquisition wise (compared to traditional MMOs before some people start complaining here).

Current state of vertical progression

As far as the community knows, there are no plans to add new gear tiers or vertical gear progression. What might get added is more beneficial stat combinations on current ascended gear tier.

Current character progression is based around more skills, mastery lines for account wide skills and elite specialisations.

Gear and structured pvp

sPvp has no gear requirement at all. You chose the stats your character should have and can change them via a menu at any time outside of games.

World vs World

The massive sort of pvp stuff. Uses pve gear and thus can be unbalanced gear wise for opponents. Gets balanced more on a population and massiv scale versus class vs class.

tl;dr: If you are burnt out of constant gear progression from traditional MMOs GW2 is absoultely the game you should give a try. It has no gear progression like other MMOs.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

1. The main advertising screen looks clamped and the fact I see (only) a part of the 2 adjacent screens irritates me , the fact it’s swapping on auto gives a very forced commercial like feeling, especially the speed of swaps is the main source of this nagative feeling and experience. I prefer to styay away from commercials in TV and I skip all that crap in youtube and other sites.

This.

Somehow I really dislike the feel of this aspect of the gem store now.

Also the bigger size, while clearer and sharper, makes it seem as though I was zoomed in to the maximum. Something which is super anoying for people who like zomming out as much as possible to get an overview (like myself).

Everything else is just a matter of getting used to I guess.

Not sure I like the “in your face” buy gems button. I think people who enjoy or do buy gems found the old button without problem (like myself). Then again, I have no design research and data on this. If it does make people buy more gems, go for it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Use-for-HoT-ascended-crafting-materials/first#post6635819

Same idea, 10 days old, some recommendations and arguments in that thread in case people don’t feel like reposting the same stuff over and over.

CptAurellian.9537:

And now please wake up and realise that the vast majority of the playerbase won’t “git gud” in the way you demand.

This.

Also I mentioned that heal druid gets taken along for convenience, not necessity.

It holds true for a big part of the pug fractal community.

You now have 2 avenues of approach Draco:

a.) tell every one to “get good” and not play with them
b.) accept that people will take the path of least effort/resistance and realise that’s why suboptimal builds speed wise are used.

Balance, even a “non weapon” set needs balancing (and not only due to it being free).

What you are essentially asking is for them to add weapon skills for no weapon present, which requires balancing around those skills. Might as well let the class use a new type of weapon and have those skills perform in the way an empty hand would.

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s anet, they release slowly and slower with every episode. I assume nothing different. Wait til August and then some. Also the expansion will take time, too. At least an additional 3-4 months.

Well to be honest, it is:

- the season finale
- they are working on the expansion
- they are working on episode 1 of season 4 (and very likely on the story for Season 4)

That’s also the reason why arenanet officially said the release will be closer to 3-4 months than 2-3.

Game of Bones.8975:

How do people learn fractals/raids when then the learning curve is life or death?

Well as mentioned by others, low level fractals are not as life and death as some make them out to be. Most veteran fractal players went in blind and had to figure all the stuff out on their own. This has become a lot easier since there is guides and tips for every fractal out there (and many frustrating and buggy encounters were redesigned and/or fixed).

I’d say up to fractal level 20 you could just wing it, maybe warn people you are inexperienced but most won’t care since they’ll be just as inexperienced most of the time.

Fractal level 21-40 can prbably be done without any guides (all fractals can be done without guides, I’m talking from a pure trial and error frustration perspective) if you are a decent player who notices mechanics and memorizes well. Otherwise I’d check some guides for fractals which trouble you.

50+ you are getting in an area where the amount of fractals run should provide you with a good knowledge foundation and it becomes more about improving gameplay.

75+ requires full ascended armor in general for the AR. Chances are very likely you’ll have the playerskill and knowledge to complete these fractals once you get this far.

Raids is a different matter, but there is sufficient guides and trial runs for new players to get started.

Game of Bones.8975:

I’m trying to get into fractals and raids, but when each person has a specific person role to play and a single person isn’t doing their part (aka me) … the team fails. I feel intimidated to get into that part of the game because I don’t know what to do.

No reason to be intimidated. The scaling is not to bad. See my recommendations for how to approachs different fractal level/tiers.

Game of Bones.8975:

I’m also finding that in certain cases these are becoming a cookie-cutter approach; your team has to use a Mesmer, Druid, two warriors, and a Guardian or it will fail. There doesn’t seem to be room for the random necro or elementalist.

There are team compositions that work better than others due to good synergy. This has improved a lot ever since vanilla fractals where you absolutely wanted a guardian in each group. Druid healer is probably the only constant which most people want to take along now, not because it’s required, but because it allows people to make more mistakes (and gives a party wide damage buff).

Current meta parties usually look like this:
- druid healer
- warrior PS
- mesmer
- 2 dps

Takashiro.8701:

Now, we most likely only have 1 class patch left before the expac, maybe another one with the launch.

The launch of the expansion will likely be a major rework to many trees with the new elite specialisation in mind as well. As long as we don’t have access to the expansion details, it is wasted effort to design around existing class balance.

Takashiro.8701:

After being left out of the last patch, I figured that instead of complaining about being left out, we might as well give some ideas as to what they could improve with the expac launch or class patches before it.

Who was complaining? I think most mesmer were overjoyed not to get improve-worsend.

Fay.2357:

Something something wasted effort something something

Pretty much this.

The permanent contracts on the TP are offered by players to players. It’s supply and demand. All arenanet has done is make them very rare but they have not directly set the price.

BLKeys are a means to gamble away a lot of gems. Any person with half a brain knows this. There have been countless threads on how high and/or low drop chances are on the contents. Most of the very expensive items in GW2 are pure convenience or flashy effect, I’d take that over powercreep content in other games.

If Black Lion Merchant contracts offend you, don’t take a look at the Chak Egg Sac (https://www.gw2tp.com/item/72021-chak-egg-sac). That one is far more valuable and seldom than any permanent contract.

That being said, you make a LOT of assumptions about other players which are either:

a.) offensive
b.) pure speculation
c.) cliche
d.) outlandish

suffice to say, your world view is not all defining. Maybe take a deep breath, drink some tee, and stop attacking people for how they decide to play the game and spend their gold/money.

If you did some basic research on how much real life money gets spent on digital goods from MMOs you’d realise how off base you are and not in touch with reality.

Short answer:
it really doesn’t matter what you run in open world pve or low level fractals. Go with what you enjoy and play away.

Long answer:
Mesmer in its current state is a support and utility class. The weapons that compliment this best are shield and focus while mainhand sword provides the necessary survivability and damage.

The meta builds are generally designed for 5 or 10 mamn group content with designated builds. Greatsword and staff are just not that useful in pve content and reduce our already pathetic damage even further.

Expect instant group kicks in higher level fractals if people see you running either (gs or staff) especially tier 3 and beyond.

You really don’t need a specific build for open world stuff in pve. If you are having issues, splice in some knights or soldier gear and take some more support utilities.

Finally if you want a change of pace, try some condition damage builds for open world pve.

Nope.

23 characters, 22 of which are 80. I really needed that shared inventory slot.

For veterans though this is a minor issue since we have our scrolls and tomes for instant level 80. The full exotic gear and not having to click through 79 level ups though is nice.