Guild Wars 2

Probably. Most projects are started while their predecessors are out or shortly after their release and take years to put together. Very few games really have no backlog years long that are terribly popular.

I ran my Engineer no problems. All ranges. All engagement types. All boons and conditions. Loads of defense and offense capabilities and builds.

And that was pre-scrapper.

You do not want all weapons to have incentives. This creates the already inherent favoritism you see now. Honestly the opposite is best; remove incentives for using specific weapons and instead offload them to choosing specific builds.

Sagramor.7395:

A build could be said to be “good” when it achieves the task assigned at the level of competence expected.

I like this idea.

I also like the idea of Xv1 measurements too. That’s a good metric to start using.

TexZero.7910:

DGraves.3720:

TexZero.7910:

Please no….Do not empower PU stealth mesmers again.

Last thing they need is more boons and condi uptime.

What’s the point of “player choice” if you’re going to avoid an entire set of stats just because of one class? I can think of at least 4 that benefit from the combination not including Mesmer.

Less choice is easier to balance. Given the existing balance track record with new stats…..im leaning heavily toward no. Additionally any class that could benefit from said stats would be grossly broken.

Well there are only two paths; either no diversity or a wider array of options. Players are going to “break” whatever they get their hands on.

Now not all fun-to-play builds are necessarily good builds so I’m wondering what criteria the players use to decide whether a build is good or not. I know for some it is pure damage but I imagine that isn’t the only metric that people are going by.

TexZero.7910:

Please no….Do not empower PU stealth mesmers again.

Last thing they need is more boons and condi uptime.

What’s the point of “player choice” if you’re going to avoid an entire set of stats just because of one class? I can think of at least 4 that benefit from the combination not including Mesmer.

There are no condition armors with boon duration/concentration. Please rectify this oversight. It makes no sense that there is an armor with both boon and condition duration that has power but no condition damage (toughness instead | Vigilant ).

Thank you.

Leaa.2943:

This is GW2 there is no tanks nor healers except for versions of it in raids, but not even there you find the tanks and healers as they are in other mmo’s.

There are only a few bosses in raids that are tankable. Any class with the highest toughness can tank them. BUT this does not mean you should collect toughness. You are still a dps/support if you will be one of them tanking a boss.
There are no tank specs in the way you probably thinking about this. So you can not taunt or do anything tanky that you might have done in other games.

So unless you do not plan to raid, tanks are not needed in this game. And even in raids, you should not be stuck with only one role. This will most likely keep you from getting in to raids. Make sure you can play your class in many different ways.

You’re absolutely right. I’m starting to see that running knights was unnecessary. I was afraid my reaction time would be too low but really i just needed to change gears and play support and bon management.

There really isn’t much need to attack toughness.

Burst: Thief

Long-Term: Druid.

MMOs are not one-player games.

Why not mix it up? You’ll get the materials you need from playing as content you like as well as be able to trade in for materials you want from the stuff you find to be junk. That’s how I did it. Twas enjoyable.

Ironically you lose DPS if you run perma-quickness perma-might Juggernaut on an Engineer.

The amount of ferocity lost just overshadows any speed gain. The damage spikes are just too low and your critical strike chance is just too low. What you would gain in Might doesn’t make up for what you lose in precision and ferocity.

Bummer.

But for this to work you would take HGH and use Elixer U, the cooldown on Elixir U becomes 36s and it lasts for 12 seconds so it works like this:

Elixir U: 4s
Applied Force: 6s
Elixir U: 4s
Applied Force: 6s
Elixir U: 4s
Applied Force: 6s

Presuming it is perfectly done that means you have 30s long quickness fits with a 6s cooldown. If you used (and proc’d) sigil of rage then it’s just icing on the cake as that covers the last 6s and has a CD of 30s meaning you would have permanent quickness.

Still it would lag in damage. Sigil of bloodlust would be terrible on this build because of it’s lack of ferocity so perhaps sigil of cruelty would be more of a good fit.

Skolops.2604:

DGraves.3720:

Skolops.2604:

LegACy.1296:

Anyway, you laid out the counter argument for your proposal in what you wrote:

The fact is that raids accomplished a great deal for the game that was truly needed. They introduced content that genuinely requires intelligent play and sticking to mechanics in a game in which, other than the two large world boss events, no mechanics really mattered and autoattacking was good enough to clear anything. They took the control and support roles, which had never actually had any value for the life of the game, and made them useful, rewarding, and heck, worth running. They introduced a reason to actually make use of some of the enormous variety of stat sets that have long been in the game but for just as long had no purpose beyond leveling crafting. They did a lot more, too.

You see, raid did all those great things exactly because they’re hard and there’s no easy mode. If it’s easy, why bother doing anything other than autoattacking? If it’s easy, why bother using cc or healer? If it’s easy, why bother thinking about stat sets like condi armor or healing armor?

It shouldn’t be that easy. I’m thinking something along the lines of Tequatl difficulty, but for 8 rather than 80. Autoattacking would be too little, and players would have to follow some basic mechanics.

So a slightly hyped dungeon?

Something more engaging than dungeons (autoattacking should not be good enough) but approachable by the average player.

The biggest keys that I’m really thinking about are twofold:

1) It means everyone gets to experience the content. There are a lot of people who are upset that they don’t get to experience the content/story of the raids. They are under no delusions that they are of the same skill as players who are actually playing the raids as currently constituted, but they feel like this is a part of the game that is totally shut off from them. No other part of the game does this. Even the worst players can still participate in a low level experience of dungeons, fractals, PvP, WvW, and open world content, but they can’t set foot inside a raid.

2) The kinds of resources needed to tone a difficult raid down to be more approachable by the average player is very, very minimal compared to producing new dungeons or fractals. 99% of the thing would be done with the standard mode. Easy modes in most cases mainly involve different ability tables, having a phase turned off, and things like that. If they made even only one “easy” mode for each raid, we’d actually SEE this stuff being pushed out with a similar frequency to what we have seen from raids.

This is what they said about fractals. But the players rose to the challenge. This is what they said about Triple Trouble and Teq and conditions and now the game is for babies. You do this stuff regularly.

At least wait a year before watering things down.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Toughness and armor are subject to diminishing returns. Eventually it’s going to get to a point where adding more vitality, as an example, is going to provide a higher buffer than what an equal amount of toughness would give (IE there’s a point that 50 vitality, 500 health iirc, is going to be BETTER than 50 extra toughness).

That’s not proof of diminishing returns so much as it is proof of value limits. Let’s say you could have enough toughness to reduce damage by 99%. At what point is vitality greater? There actually is an answer to this.

Vitality > Toughness when Your HP is less than 1% of incoming damage. It’s that simple. So 500 Vitality is better when whatever Damage Reduction is less than incoming damage. Basically they’re not actually “competing”. Their both just calculated proportionally to incoming damage.

100 damage incoming:

If you’ve 99% DR from 100 toughness you take 1 real damage.

If you’ve 100 vitality you proportionally take 10% damage ( 10 × 100 = 1,000, 100 / 1,000 = 10% ).

Which is best depends on more than just additional values. Armor class for instance greatly effects this as do base stats.

There’s no real “eventuality” or dedicated rule because they’re not competing stats. Same with power and precision or healing power in with vitality and toughness.

Conditions are different.

I just discovered something far more frightening thanks to this conversation. I owe you one. Thanks.

Skolops.2604:

LegACy.1296:

Anyway, you laid out the counter argument for your proposal in what you wrote:

The fact is that raids accomplished a great deal for the game that was truly needed. They introduced content that genuinely requires intelligent play and sticking to mechanics in a game in which, other than the two large world boss events, no mechanics really mattered and autoattacking was good enough to clear anything. They took the control and support roles, which had never actually had any value for the life of the game, and made them useful, rewarding, and heck, worth running. They introduced a reason to actually make use of some of the enormous variety of stat sets that have long been in the game but for just as long had no purpose beyond leveling crafting. They did a lot more, too.

You see, raid did all those great things exactly because they’re hard and there’s no easy mode. If it’s easy, why bother doing anything other than autoattacking? If it’s easy, why bother using cc or healer? If it’s easy, why bother thinking about stat sets like condi armor or healing armor?

It shouldn’t be that easy. I’m thinking something along the lines of Tequatl difficulty, but for 8 rather than 80. Autoattacking would be too little, and players would have to follow some basic mechanics.

So a slightly hyped dungeon?

Paulytnz.7619:

I can’t see them doing this, not saying it wouldn’t work or be a good idea but….

They changed it to this system because it was confusing for a lot of people and slightly harder to balance as people could mix runes. So they changed it to what we have now.

Tbh I’m surprised they haven’t gone the full way through and just changed it to how PvP works – you choose 1 rune and that’s it, it covers all your gear, no mixing at all, no spread stats/bonus here and there.

Actually I’m surprised abouts too. Going the PvP route makes a lot of sense now that you say that. I didn’t even consider it really. Especially since diversification is rare and the changes made made it even rarer.

But you’re right.

I disagree. Tiers are the problem to begin with. Players need to adapt to the game rather than constantly having the game adapt to them.

Rhyse.8179:

Aidan Savage.2078:

2g for dailies causes less inflation than a single run through t4 fractals. Quit being an alarmist.

Let’s assume a modest 10,000 people log in and complete their dailies every day. That’s 20,000g entering the economy every 24 hours.

This has been happening for 2.5 months, or roughly 70 days.

A little math, and that’s 1.4 million gold entering the economy since April. It will be appx 8 million after 1 year. That’s a LOT of inflation. And it’s also a large underestimate because I’m lazy.

That’s not a lot of inflation. If the average player earned 10g a day then that 2g has less impact than what would be a direct fraction (1/6th or 16.67%) due to above average players earning significantly more than this. A “lot” of money doesn’t mean a “lot” of inflation at all. The rate is probably closer to maybe a 3% change overall assuming no other greater factors come into play such as drop rate shifts or focused gameplay and player choice.

Lahmia.2193:

I just want them to remove the giant kitteny bomb that we hold when using Bomb kit. That thing made me stop playing Engi.

Agreed. It looks stupid.

I’m going to answer this question from two different views, Developer and Player.

1. Do you consider that WvW is a competitive game mode?

Developer: Yes. The game mode is working as intended as it is drag and drop. The score doesn’t represent anything too intensive and ultimately the goal is accomplished in which players have all the power.

Player: No. The game mode is working as intended but there’s not much control, too much power rests in the hands of players so people who are just being rude can screw things up. The rewards and score are not meaningful which dampens the point and leaves it open to a rotation schedule of who is up at 2 am and who isn’t.

2. Do you wish that WvW was a competitive game mode?

Developer: Yes. Developer controls, I.E. sPvP, tPvP, GvG, etc. are what makes a mode more competitive than others. For what it is the mode is competitive but it could definitely be more serious if there were rules that could genuinely be enforced.

Player: Yes. See what that guy said. ^

3. Do you think that WvW can be a competitive game mode?

Developer: “More” competitive? No. Because of player-side behavior being what it is adding new restrictions and restructuring and doing all we can on this side isn’t going to end up with a better game mode. Changing maps, changing mechanics, adding organization bonuses and whatnot all have an effect but ultimately the problem lies with the players.

Player: Yes. I wish it was more controlled, that we could get rid of the trolls, that people were more skilled, and that we could allow the serious people to be separated from the really casual buggers who don’t know what they are doing and keep coming with their Rifle Warrior in pure Zerk armor.

It has always been like this by the way. From day until day now. Other than GvG the best solution is probably map shrinkage actually; the simpler the map and the more “forced” the engagements and collisions the better it tends to be. You want more things like ravines and difficult terrain in a small space than you do an expansive set of fields with more objectives since one requires organization and tactical prowess and the other just requires line of sight. A mix, of course.

You actually proved the opposite.

A/AX represents the damage taken, not damage reduction.

Doubling Test:

Econ. Proof: Deadweight Loss

Basically it is easier to reduce damage in this game than it is to buffer it.

Simpler Proof:

[spoiler][spoiler][spoiler][spoiler]

insanemaniac.2456:

if you ignore the poison duration on thorns and just look at the extra damage you get from the stacks, its about the same as the damage you get from berserker runes. in (nearly) full viper, you can easily contort your gears stats to cap out burning and bleeding with the traits without overcapping. that leaves poison uncapped, and condi engi has some poison, so going thorn runes will cap out a 3rd condi and also give about the same damage on the other 2 condis that get capped regardless.

sooooo it kinda depends on the situation. you need to be getting hit and you need to be in a fairly long fight for thorn runes to match/surpass berserker runes. in short bursty fights or fights where you get 1 shot or fights where you dont get hit at all you wont be able to take advantage of thorns and berserker will be better. which situation more accurately describes your play?

Well he already owned the Berserker runes so there was no reason to swap out. The payoff would be way too low.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdMQFACU6TAaAGKA-TlBBQBGSHwIV+Rj9HGl6PNSJIAeAAAA-w

Purposefully “partial” CQC Valk/Ass. build.

20k HP.
Resting 52.8% Crit.
Active 82.8% Crit.
2186 Power.
75 Ferocity Loss.

Ashen.2907:

#1: Most people don’t bother with, and dont want to bother with, the most efficient way of playing.

All players take the most efficient routes to their ends. You can see this in Dailies where there are three categories but few players refuse not mix them because some tasks are just easier than others even if they take place in modes they normally never would visit.

Most people don’t want everything which is what creates the illusion that they aren’t interested in efficient methods but when a player wants something very, very rarely do they go the long and hard, I.E. crafting guides to get 500 quickest and cheapest, build guides instead of personal discovery and guilds that do specific missions to cut down wait time and bolster effectiveness in personal endeavors.

I disagree with # 2. There is no reason why you couldn’t have the current rewards as the top tier. The OP is asking for the ability to play the story, perhaps with some minimal rewards, at an easier level of difficulty for those not interested in the level of challenge currently present in the Raid.

Well, for one, if the current standard is the “best” performance then it’s just expected performance so that’s not a bonus or a boon to anyone which means that you’ve effectively nerfed the content by stating that you can get half rewards for less than a tenth of the effort. There’s no incentive to do better for the people who are terrible because they are adequately rewarded as far as they are concerned and there is no incentive for the players who are trying to continue to try because you now have slobs getting all the fun stuff without really worrying about the content and paying all that much attention.

This drags the general skill level down. So instead you have to incentivize with better rewards, not worse.

The, “good kids and the bad kids,” are not supposed to get equal rewards. This is built into game design, here and pretty much everywhere else. It is intended that those willing to put the most into the game, in terms of preparation, practice, thought, etc and those who are just naturally more gifted at certain specific types of play will be rewarded better than those less interested in putting in the effort or just less gifted.

“Good” does not refer to skill level, it refers to honesty, because being “Good” and being “Skilled” are very different things. There are some very shady, but very skilled, players. In context I am referring to the population of players who play with “integrity”? The ones who won’t buy runs, won’t cheese out halfway through a goal and find a circumvention, the ones who will use Fulgarite to actually craft things, etc. Those guys.

But on that front the reality is you get no more or less for being better or worse in this game. As a matter of fact how we measure more or less is really skewed anyway; if you want to talk PvP for instance just showing up and pressing 1 will net you points in matches. Won’t get you to diamond but for the most part most players don’t care. They aren’t losing any sleep over it.

GW2 is designed to keep the elite, if they can be called that, in check. They don’t really do any better or worse in the long-run. I know this because I’ve played with people more and less skilled than I and heck at the end of TT they got what I wanted and vice versa whether I pulled weight well or not.

People sell raid spots now. The number paying for this service will not go up if there is an easier way for those who want to experience the story to do so without having to face the full difficulty.

It’s not that population that is actually concerning. When you get lax with one segment if not done in a perfect fashion everyone will capitalize. It’s just how it goes. It makes sense to capitalize on lax laws. If there were a duplication bug and Anet said, “Oh, well, whatever you can duplicate that thing, but ONLY that thing.” someone would find a use for it rather quickly and monetize it.

There are people out there who just won’t pay others to play a game for them. For what its worth, I happen to be one of those people. If there is content I cannot beat, I keep trying until either I can, or until I decide that its not worth my time and move on to different content. I paid real money to be able to play this game, not to pay fake money for someone else to play it for me. Now there might very well be, are actually, people out there willing to pay for a raid run because the idea of missing story is completely abhorrent to them Give them the option to experience the story without paying for a run and the pool of raid run buyers has decreased.

I’m still for “Bouncy Castle Mode” and “Real Mode” where Bouncy Castle just gives no loot or definitely has different loot tables and the odds are crap and you get no Legendary Armor mats or something. I can understand people want a “Cinematic Mode” but you can’t combine that with a live run. Ever. If it’s cinematic everything should take two hits and fall over so it’s run in 5m and see exactly what you came to see, story, and nothing else. Should be soloable even.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just create a whitelist? Guilds would commune and whoever wasn’t on that whitelist couldn’t activate.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

LOL…Another anti-conditions thread.

Well, don’t laugh, not yet anyway. What he’s saying isn’t entirely false. Now that condition stack in intensity, esp. the heaviest of them all, and do more damage overall because of it while the PvE world is thankful and jovial the WvWvW world should be in total dire straights. It’s hard to shake incredibly effective and easily applied stacks of things like burning and because of easy application cleanses are reduced in effectiveness.

I mean the solution is simply to return the conditions to their previous forms but at the same time that’s not really allowable anymore. Huge groups applying 50+ stacks of bleed wouldn’t be impossible presuming enough AoEs from relevant classes and because they all now tick against you rather than just the “top damage” of the 25 stacks it’s pretty brutal.

But still, he hates Dire. lulz.

Ashen.2907:

No. Because what you’re looking at is the integrity of the system from an honest vantage point. Players aren’t honest though, take the “elite players”, throw in some gold for the run, give the lesser players the ability to get through the thing for “base” rewards, and voila you’ve got an overprofit problem on two ends.

That’s exactly how it works in almost every system where there is someone who can profit off of another person’s ineptitude and that person can profit off of their professionalism. Let’s say that we have a team of 8 players who are OP, they know their stuff, and they can easily earn mid-level rewards by themselves and then you have the two who pay to get in to get the mid-level reward and then you’ve got the raid itself.

The elites get mid-level rewards + gold (or whatever the currency they want) and the “less than useful” get more rewards than the honest casual team because of the set-up. I can guarantee that’ll be the outcome.

As opposed to people paying for a spot in a top end team’s raid group now?

At least the suggestion gives the “honest” lower end players the possibility of experiencing the story (the point of this thread) without gutting the raid for higher end players, or requiring extensive dev resources for complete rework of the raid.

No option is perfect. Your issue with the suggestion is a reality now. The suggestion doesnt add it, in fact it reduces the possibility by making access to the story easier for players disinclined to pay someone else to play for them if they can do it themselves.

There are two problems:

1. You will have the efficiency problem. The most efficient way for the players to play is to perform secret handshakes; paying a top tier guild for a run for instance is one such handshake. Anet in their wisdom realized they can’t combat this and simply turn a blind eye to it.

2. The rewards have to scale up from their current status. What this means is that what rewards you get now are what would become “low” in the new system. You couldn’t give lower rewards. The reason why is because people have become accustomed to this tier, even if the only one, which could be seen in the catastrophe that was the Dungeon changes and nerfs slowly over time before the major one that pretty much closed them up.

Combined this means that you now have a solid economic solution, take individuals who can earn the highest rewards, have them charge more than the highest reward to those who would earn the lowest reward, and everyone shoots for the middle reward. The elites get a break because they aren’t working so hard and the unskilled get a buffer.

And it is because it is a reality that this occurs already that the system would be detrimental. Neither of us are ignorant of it already happening so what the question becomes is whether we are willing to allow individuals to simply overprofit on purpose. That’s the hardest part of “game balance”; making sure the bad kids and the good kids get somewhat equal rewards.

Am I to understand that you just hate Dire armor? That’s been around since the beginning of the game.

Ashen.2907:

DGraves.3720:

Ashen.2907:

curtegg.5216:

Solution is way more simpler than what was proposed above. Simply remove the time-gates and add tier loot based upon the time the raid takes down the boss.

Simple. Elegant. I like it.

Doesn’t work because there’s no value to the “limit” placed unless you get absolutely nothing after a certain time and if that’s the case then you’re back at square one. So either the lazy gain rewards or the elite overprofit. This model hasn’t worked well in other games either.

Having a baseline reward for completing the raid at all, and improving rewards for improved time could work.

There is nothing, “lazy,” about less, “elite,” players spending hours grinding their way through content that other players can complete in a fraction of the time.

It is also not, “overprofit,” for a skilled team to earn greater rewards for performing better at the raid.

No. Because what you’re looking at is the integrity of the system from an honest vantage point. Players aren’t honest though, take the “elite players”, throw in some gold for the run, give the lesser players the ability to get through the thing for “base” rewards, and voila you’ve got an overprofit problem on two ends.

That’s exactly how it works in almost every system where there is someone who can profit off of another person’s ineptitude and that person can profit off of their professionalism. Let’s say that we have a team of 8 players who are OP, they know their stuff, and they can easily earn mid-level rewards by themselves and then you have the two who pay to get in to get the mid-level reward and then you’ve got the raid itself.

The elites get mid-level rewards + gold (or whatever the currency they want) and the “less than useful” get more rewards than the honest casual team because of the set-up. I can guarantee that’ll be the outcome.

Ashen.2907:

curtegg.5216:

Solution is way more simpler than what was proposed above. Simply remove the time-gates and add tier loot based upon the time the raid takes down the boss.

Simple. Elegant. I like it.

Doesn’t work because there’s no value to the “limit” placed unless you get absolutely nothing after a certain time and if that’s the case then you’re back at square one. So either the lazy gain rewards or the elite overprofit. This model hasn’t worked well in other games either.

DanAlcedo.3281:

When HoT was released it was possible to reduce all direct dmg to 0 . ( It got nerfed by now)
You just had to stack as much dmg reduktion as possible.
I think it was possible to get over 93% reduktion back then (without armor/toughness).

[URL=http://www.directupload.net/file/d/4405/6wxyhptf_png.htm][/URL]

When they nerfed it how did they change it? Is it no longer additive or something?

CMM.6712:

I could be totally wrong in my assumption, but not really sure what other reasons there would be for the time gating.

I’m pretty sure it was just to make it feel like a “journey”. You couldn’t do it in a day. Useful for the earlier days when people had 2.1 trillion gold and nothing to do with it; you could buy your way through the materials but not the time. It’s the same reason why some armors and weapons are not salable even though their recipes are. Now that’s changed to some degree but beyond needing the crafting skill level (which can again pretty much be purchased with gold) you still have to either buy the materials or do a legitimate set of cycles.

They just didn’t want you to build it in a day like you would with exotics and some Ascended backpacks (quivers) where you could just buy your way through it.

Ayrilana.1396:

The suggested change would essentially remove the profit margin. It’s the T7 mats which you craft that provide the profit. This has been common knowledge since 2013 so I don’t know why you had to bring up the insignias.

I don’t think the Anthology of Heroes existed until late 2014/early 2015 or so which means that you had to have the insignia you wanted. You could not change the stats on the armor after building it. The insignias were a lot more meaningful then but because of that change even though they maintain their value they actually are easy to subvert like the fulgurite thing.

“Armor skins”? I can’t really think that this is an issue. I was hoping to read about stats.

“Easy” and “Hard” Mode is all that is necessary. Easy would be difficulty akin to dungeons adjusted slightly for 10 people. Hard would be current difficulty. To compensate for difficulty lower the odds of acquisition of materials for the “Easy” players.

It’s a copy and nerf so there’s no change in mechanics for battles or anything, just lower enemy stats. “Quick” Implementation if it has to happen.

eduardo.1436:

DGraves.3720:

What is your stat layout? It depends entirely on that. If you’re running Viper’s for instance I would suggest you stick with berserker. If you’re intentionally limiting yourself to poison for some reason then Rune of Thorns (but that probably is not BiS) and if you’re running a cheaper high crit (Rampager? Sinister?) build then Krait where you can’t sustain high amounts of burning then Krait simply because bleed applications with the rotation are pretty simple to get and stacking high is very easy.

But it really depends on your condition duration without those runes. Keep in mind that poison, unlike bleeding and burning, gets no trait help so while you get +33% to both bleeding and burning by just taking a trait and actually just choosing the Firearms trait line automatically gives you the bleeding. If you’re choosing Thorns AND Viper’s you’re gimping yourself.

I have mostly the Morbach armor set which uses the Dire prefix (Condition damage, precision and toughness)

I thought Dire was Condition / Toughness / Vitality. I believe you just described Rabid. Doesn’t matter, it’s just a name, so setting that aside because you are not running Viper’s (expertise) your best bet would definitely be to take Rune of Thorns off the table. For long engagements rune of the Krait, if you are going the bleed route, would do you well. 4 Nightmare + 2 Trapper would do fine too as it will boost all of your condition durations. If you were taking shorter engagements, say open world, you should stick to what you currently have which is rune of the Berserker.

So to sum up don’t bother with Thorns, you can play with Krait if you want, and Berserker will help end things the fastest versus Krait which is best for longer engagements. Because of the cost though it’s not really feasible to switch between Krait and Berserker so I’d recommend you stick with Berserker since the 7% increase in condition damage works for all of your conditions giving you a stronger base to work from if you want to incorporate all of them into your rotation.

CMM.6712:

I think the time gating is to preserve a certain price threshold for the crafter, so that after crafting the ascended gear a player needs they can make a little profit from their craft.

I would want that to be left intact, so I don’t agree with the request. I put in the time to craft what I felt I needed and now (finally) am able to make a little bit of coin for my efforts.

But if the price deflate everyone wins because the price to craft ascended items and components decreases which decreases the overall cost of crafting and building crafting up to that point in general since the materials also decrease in price as a result. The fact that you can sell the insignias but also that there is a way to easy transmute any ascended item to another set of stats without creating an ascended insignia is where you would gripe if you wanted to make money since the most cost effective option is to buy or create the cheapest insignia and then for a fraction of the cost just buy the exotic version of what you truly want.

It’s already been subverted basically. I’m pretty sure monetarily you always lose if you’re crafting ascended items for money on purpose since it takes so long and so many materials. If you just so happen to have the stuff though it’s nice coin but nothing to write home about.

Armor is linear.

Proof:

I could give Necromancer a try. Never was good at it. Maybe my bum wrist needs some minions to keep it safe and relaxed.

I feel so lame for just buying Orichalcum tools and never having this problem. So, in order to make myself feel relevant, I want this change for the salvage machines too because I own one of those.

Thanks Anet!

Justine.6351:

Don’t get trapped in the MOAR armor line of thinking.

Armor/Toughness is great upto 2800.
After that, you are looking for -% dmg, the protection boon and weakness condition.
It is evades/blocking/blinds/invulnerability that do the real heavy lifting.

I had forgotten about the boon thing. I should see if I can create more protection for myself and use that as a supplement. My dodging and blocking will be a bit slower until my hand heals but that doesn’t mean I can’t use buffs.

thanks.

What is your stat layout? It depends entirely on that. If you’re running Viper’s for instance I would suggest you stick with berserker. If you’re intentionally limiting yourself to poison for some reason then Rune of Thorns (but that probably is not BiS) and if you’re running a cheaper high crit (Rampager? Sinister?) build then Krait where you can’t sustain high amounts of burning then Krait simply because bleed applications with the rotation are pretty simple to get and stacking high is very easy.

But it really depends on your condition duration without those runes. Keep in mind that poison, unlike bleeding and burning, gets no trait help so while you get +33% to both bleeding and burning by just taking a trait and actually just choosing the Firearms trait line automatically gives you the bleeding. If you’re choosing Thorns AND Viper’s you’re gimping yourself.

Justine.6351:

Nah,
If you cannot login for 5 min that is unfortunate not problematic.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. There are days when I can’t find the time to complete dailies and can just craft what I need. Park a character at the station, log in, do it, leave. If nothing else it’s not actually a loss since if you don’t log on for a day you’re not losing the day you didn’t play because you didn’t play that day.

Well, if there’s no easy answer then it’s probably not worth investing in; I can honestly say I’ve no idea how armor (toughness + defense) actually performs even if I understand it’s equation so without that it is worthless for me to use.

Bugger.

But thank you since if there is no one who actually uses the stat (and few do) it’s somewhat worthless to me without some kind of experience in it’s implementation and deployment.

Double bugger.

Engineers are hands down the best solo class. They can easily take care of themselves in way too many ways, all effective, each capable of meeting the playstyle needs of the player and many so seamless you can swiftly go from one to the other based on whim.

From experience there are many, many ways to work with them and experimentation is rarely met with disappointment.

Also, how much damage reduction is it and how effective is it at tanking? How many “additional hits” can a player take on top of the active defenses? I know it’s defense from class armor (heavy I guess now) and toughness.

It turns out I am horrible at timing things lately due to some injuries and need the buffer. :p

Thanks.

If runes are designed to be worked as “Added Effects” why not just make runic effects get stronger with one string (for instance, Rune of the Dolyak heals 15 HP/S per rune equipped or Rune of Balthazar increasing burning duration by 5% and odds to burn on hit by 5% for a flat amount of time with a flat ICD for each one equipped) effect and offload the stats to the trinket gems?

This makes the game not only simpler but reworks player choice in an engaging way while also allowing for “cleaning up” redundant or completely unused runes through consolidation or removal. Arguably because the 6th effect already exists for most runes the work is mostly done. Rune of the Ogre has the rockdog + damage bonus just staggered over 6 points, Scholar would be the same, solves the “useless” stat dilemma too.

Offloading to the trinkets is easy enough, not meaning ascended items, but just the additional little baubles offered like infusions and crystals etc. Basically making them all doubloons with more powerful and meaningful staggered effects. Just a numbers change.

I can’t think of any runes that this wouldn’t work with.

I am against this.

1. In PvP this leads to the AFK problem of turrets only massively worse; you lay tons of bombs around a point (that last forever?) and then detonate halfway across the map. Your only job is to lay a literal minefield with the highest coefficient skill in the game? No.

2. Laying the bombs and not having them explode is horrific for PvE since it’s a strong kiting weapon; there’s no point to kiting if they don’t explode. As a major user of the kit myself for both condition and power builds this would simply ruin them for PvE and make them completely unusable.

3. There’s a 1s delay ON TOP of the delay of laying the bomb(s) which in turn don’t detonate on their own. This makes bad worse.

I mean I’d like to hear these “hundreds of uses” if you wouldn’t mind. All I can think of is how absolutely tilted this becomes; it’s either a waiting game hold out in PvP, WvWvW or a total crapshoot in PvE since laying a bomb, detonating said bomb, and laying another bomb is just going to be cumbersome in general gameplay against regular mobs and not “tactically enriching” against champions or other enemies since it basically is just you pressing 1 or 2 for burning stacking said bombs and then blowing them up. :/

Obtena.7952:

The chance of burning I think is too high … not going to do the stats but you’re going to end up with significant amounts of burning stacks on every auto, I’m guessing 2-4.

That’s what the ICD is for, the odds are high so that it occurs at least once during a chain if you land two or three hits on another player but the ICD keeps it from applying too many burns and the duration of the burn is the same (1s) so the ICD is longer than the duration.

Sartharina.3542:

Mathematically speaking, pure DPS specs reduce your TTK slower than it reduces enemy TTK on you, is what he’s saying. So, speccing out of Berzerker would increase “Odds of Victory” – but those are hardcapped at 100% regardless of build (Unless you suck at the game. But the meta doesn’t care about people who suck at the game. It’s tuned to the best).

Is this true for all armor classes though? I’d have to scrutinize the math… I don’t think that it works like that since toughness is a linear flat percentage per point. But that’s another thread.

tolunart.2095:

DGraves.3720:

Why do armor classes exist in this game again?

Fantasy games have embraced the Dungeons & Dragons mentality for so long – mages wear cloth robes, thieves wear flexible leather, warriors wear sheets of hammered metal – that games without it are the exception, not the rule.

I thought GW2 was trying to be the exception. :p