Showing Posts For DiogoSilva.7089:

Setting Boundaries in Custom Arenas

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Ya, I believe the idea is to have custom arenas for casual hotjoin and training, while tpvp will remain as the competitive/ ranked mode. But I’m not very sure of that.

Also, another suggestion for CA: option to disable respawning, for a last team standing wins deathmatch.

Setting Boundaries in Custom Arenas

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Yup, we’ve talked about having the ability to turn off capture points.

This would give us the option to turn Spirit Watch into a pure CTF game.

Future story content NEEDs to be replayed

in Flame and Frost

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Seriously,

It’s like reading a book, and then coming back to it or wanting to show it to a friend months later, and discovering that the story written in the book has been completely changed.

In GW1’s Beyond content, I have completed it a long time ago, but it has been fun to replay it whenever I feel. Besides, I’ve just helped my girlfriend finish Hearts of the North story over there, and we’ve had a chance to discuss it and all. How fun would that be if that content had disappeared completely one month after it was out?

Now that it’s known that the SAB developers have been moved to the living story (if I’m not wrong?), and there’s been serious hints that the living story will only become more relevant from now on, I’m hoping there’s the option to replay it, at the very least once per character, like the personal story.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

All Who Hate Retaliation

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

My problem with retaliation, is that I can’t see it! When I take damage from retaliation, I don’t know where that damage is coming from, because of the lack of a visual clue. When the opponent has retaliation, I don’t know if they have it, unless I interrupt myself from the battle and watch the very tiny set of boon icons one by one until I spot retaliation.

In comparison, confusion is much easier to spot, both because the way the damage is shown, and because the condition icon itself is also easy to spot.

Better visual clues would help tremendously a lot of players, and make retaliation less mindless. Especially in crowded areas.

As a side note,
Maybe it’s time to nerf Guardian’s beloved Stand Your Ground’s cooldown. :P I don’t seriously understand why they have an party-wide retaliation + stability skill for 30s, while other professions have a self-targetted (protection/ lifeforce) + stability skill for 90s. That shout would be stronger than both armors even if they all shared the same cooldown, but it somehow costs 3 times less. I can understand devs wanting some professions to be naturally stronger at some things than others, but even so, I wouldn’t give it less than 70s cooldown, which would still be a significant advantage over “similar” skills.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

Concerns about SOTG & Moving forward

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

You’re telling me a professional in a career path can’t formulate sentences about the very game they design and balance?

Game design and Communication are two distinct career paths. So yes, it’s perfectly possible that a game designer might have trouble at communicating during a livestream at first. You’ve never had to talk to your class at school? For some, it can be done naturally; for others, it’s surprisingly hard at first to generate a natural speech flow.

I’m even surprised that this isn’t common knowledge in the contemporary world, especially in the internet, which is mostly driven by these kind of people. :P

Queues not popping. \!/

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Hotfix incoming. It’s so hawt and lava-infused. It’s like molten sun magma is dripping into an ocean of flames. And then put it in the microwave on popcorn setting, but then push the “add 30 second” button like 400 times. And there are lit candles around.

It’s that hawt.

Did you hotfix eles too? Throwing them into the sun would be a great hotfix.

They’d just Ride the Lightning out of it.


You would have to wait until that skill was on cooldown.

They’d just Lightning Flash out of it.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

d/d trait variations

in Elementalist

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

30 in water and 20 in water didnt make a diifference in condition removal imo.

It removes a condition for each cantrip, one when using the healing glyph in water, and one when switching to water attunement if you have the arcana’s trait that gives boons on attunement. That’s five condition removals, one of them that works the exact same way as the other water’s condition removal trait. And if we add this last trait, and with OH Dagger’s 5th water skill, and with Evasive Arcane’s dodge rolling on water, you’ll get 8 means to remove conditions, 5 of which come from that grandmaster trait alone. You don’t even need to use the cantrip that removes conditions, but if you do, you can scrap the adept water one for the cantrip cooldown reduction, or something.

Of course, using ether renewal over the healing glyph, and having the lost swiftness be gotten from the auras with zephyr’s boon is also an alternative option for D/D, although not as good for other weapon sets due to the lack of auras.

Aura sharing is strong in crowded hotjoin or in well-coordenated tourneys. Stun aura + protection (optional) + swiftness + fury on 2 or 3 party members is a pretty big deal. :P It pretty much makes your glass cannon allies burst harder and have higher protection against burst. It can turn the tide of battles.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

d/d trait variations

in Elementalist

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Are we talking about DD bunkers?

0/10/0/30/30 is usually the best. With 3 auras available, zephyr’s boon will offer you a good damage boost, plus 2 boons (one that is hard to get for an elementalist) to boost water’s 25. You’ll want 30 in water either for powerful auras, to give those auras to your allies, or for excellent condition removal, but you can scrap it if using ether renewal. 30 in arcane is a must for many reasons.

If you decide to go for a bunker build without MH dagger, 10 earth for the armor of earth cantrip trait is pretty good. Well, it also is for MH dagger, it just happens that scepter or staff can’t make take much advantage of zephyr’s boon. You might even go for shaman’s amulet instead of cleric’s here. Another alternative is 10 in fire for 3 stacks of might per cantrip, a +20% might-stacking rune, with S/D, for some good might-stacking, especially now that the healing glyph offers 3 might too.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

SAB: Ok what kind of game is this?

in Super Adventure Box

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Although I agree that Tyria’s world feels very… inconsistent (I mean, someone who wants to role-play as a medieval knight should play a different game, because in GW2, they will get a slap in the face the moment they leave Kryta and enter Asura’s or Charr’s territory), this new mini-game’s “technology” is perfectly possible with the estabilished Asura’s lore.

It’s clear that GW2’s direction is going into a “westernized” anime-ish/ japanese rpg-ish technologically hybrid fantasy world, than a dry-and-brown or a Tolkienesque fantasy setting.

EDIT: A medieval setting does not automatically mean it’s fantasy, and a futuristic setting does not automatically mean it’s science fiction. This is pretty much “science fantasy”.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

State of the Patch (March 2013)

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

I don’t think the damage traits in water line are a problem. They allow for an interesting defensive/ offensive hybrid build, and last I know, those haven’t been overpowered. The bunker builds don’t use them. Well, with the exception of the +2% damage/ boon, which is a minor trait.

What is overpowered with bunker eles, in my opinion, is not even the healing, but how strong boons are in this game (mostly because they lack counters, which will be addressed in the future) and how strong cantrips are. Cantrips also have great traits, and although those have been toned down and are fine by themselves now, they still remain “too” strong in a game that has limited boon-hate.

First, as an elementalist, I think it’s completely unfair that all ele’s stunbreakers are cantrips. Our stunbreakers should be evenly divided among our utilities. Maybe one arcane stunbreaker (arcane shield?), maybe one conjure stunbreaker (an instant-cast conjure shield?), etc. But it might be a bit too late to change that. 3 of the 4 cantrips, the air blink skill, the armor of earth and the mist form, due to their effects, are naturally fitting to be stunbreakers. Only the condition removal one isn’t begging to be a stunbreaker. Second, I wouldn’t mind to see an “intelligent” nerf to Mist Form. Maybe make it work more like Vapor Form: lower duration but increased speed? I think those two tweaks would be an extra step to tone down eles’ cantrips and make them less dependent on cantrips as well.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

Quickness Discussion [merged]

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

It was clearly overpowered. This can be proven by the fact that it was enough to single-handely break some builds. There have also been, in the past, builds that were nerfed due to how strong they were because of quickness. And finally, there are new builds coming out now, now that quickness is weaker.

This shows how impactful it is. Quickness contributed as much to the existence of bunkers as the conquest game mode did. Quickness punished players for bringing in glass cannon builds that did not have quickeness, or that did not have extreme defenses. That’s why you mostly saw Mesmers and Thieves bursting, because of their quick bursts + stealth/ clones, and Warriors as a secondary option. Most other classes did not have the means to burst as quick and/ or protect themselves as much as thieves/ mesmers. For example, it is now more viable to play a glass cannon elementalist, while it was not before, because a glass cannon elementalist must rely on a lot of different skills to protect themselves, which means they require time to survive, and quickened bursts did not give them that precious time. I’m sure there are other glass cannon builds from other professions that might also have more room to breath now.

100% increased speed is also inherently broken in a multiplayer game due to the existence of lag, latency, etc. The GW2’s devs have designed GW2’s combat around this, thus why interupting skills is no longer a main strategy, as it was in GW1. The existence of quickness contradicted their original intention, but it no longer does that.

Finally, new or “normal” pvp players want to have fun first hand, and only then will they have the motivation to try tyo be good/ hardcore. Although this does not apply to everyone, it’s no difficult math to understand that, if a game isn’t fun, players will play another game instead. And GW2’s combat promises fun with its skills, its weapon switching, its dodging and movement mechanics, etc. It’s not a first person shooter where the fun is around aiming fast, have an excellent precision, and headshot somebody before they headshot you. In GW2, if players aren’t using or do not have the time to use skills, because they got bursted in 2 or 3 seconds out of nowhere, they won’t have fun. Especially if half the damage came from a stealthed character who can just cheapily spam heartseeker, or from anybody who jsut randomly bursted you down at the middle of a crowded combat.

And before anyone replies saying “but heartseeker/ quickness can just be countered by pro players like me”, many players also think of something else: they are also aware that some builds are far easier to play for more reward ends, than others. And thus, they still feel it is unfair to them to get beaten by cheap skills. This trivializes pvp a lot, which further contributes to decrease botht he fun factor and the tactical factor behind the pvp system.

I hope this post makes it clear about how bad quikness was to the game.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

Eles are considered OP and not Mesmers?

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Blurred Frenzy is a cool skill as it is. If you don’t like its defensive power, step aside, wait, and then do your burst.

The big problem with the mesmers, in my opinion, is Mind Wrack. Not exactly how strong it is, damage-wise, which it is, but the instant speed. It’s pretty much a “quickness” burst without quickness. And worse than that, it’s only instant against melee builds, which makes shattering (and especially MW) discriminate builds for, what it seems to be, no intended, logical reason.

I think Mind Wrack should get the same treatment as Hundred Blades and the like: have a longer animation (and it doesn’t even needs to be as long as HB). Maybe have clones get destroyed one by one, and not all at the same time. You know, something that allows a melee player to dodge it, step aside – to simply react to it.

An alternative solution, is to make clone generating a more precious resource. Destroying clones was supposed to be the big “counter” to shatters, but Mesmers can spam clones left and right. With a lot of vigor from criticals for a lot of dodging, they’re already spamming clones this way, not taking into consideration their 4+ illusion skills from their weapons, their lower cooldowns due to their shattering traits, and whatever illusion-generating utility they might bring, if they do so.

Both solutions would also make it more friendly to new players, and in crowded battles.

Any updates from ANet on the bolded part?

in WvW

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

We are still investigating performance improvements as there are ways in which we think we can get better performance out of the game. I can’t go into specifics because there aren’t really specifics to go into yet, but we are definitely looking at what can be done.

Would those changes apply to wvw alone, or to the whole game?

Remove laurels from pvp

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

@Archaon, I think you’re missing my point. I’m just stating that a player who is rank 7 is almost always a new pvp player. Let’s do the math:

150 tourney wins for the champion title gives 30.000 points of rank from the final award alone.

Rank 7 = 5.000 points required to get there, which is about 25 tourney matches won with 0 points, or around 15-25 tourneys won when taking into consideration mid-match points. Even lower when taking into account all losed matches, and even less when taking into account all hotjoin matches.

So yes, it’s easy to assume that a rank 7 player is a new player, even if they have never touched hotjoin.

Heartseeker

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

People should properly read what was said in the first post instead of jumping in with some unrespectful remarks.

Quickness Discussion [merged]

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Yeah, in theory, 50% would still be too much. But considering that quickness skills have drawbacks (well, most of them anyways), and those drawbacks were only extended further 1 second for some of them, it kinda balances it out.

Remove laurels from pvp

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Someone who have, say, a champion pvp title, won’t merely be at rank 6 or rank 7. Rank might mean nothing most of the time, but in this specific case, when it’s low enough, it’s easy to determine that a person has not had enough experience at pvp yet. So if players with extremely low and quick to obtain ranks can play well, it supprts his point that new players can be good at pvp.

Quickness Discussion [merged]

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Quickness is fine as it is. GW1 had “quickness” at 33% speed for melee fighters, and that effect was always top tier. Granted, I’m comparing different games here, but GW1’s 33% increased attack speed effect was enough to make good players far more deadly, while still not making the game unfun to your average player.

Buffing it to 75% would be a mistake, because it would bring back its problems, even if at a lesser degree. A lesser problem is still a problem.

As it is now, quickness is still a strong effect, it’s no longer mindless by those who use it, and it’s no longer frustrating for those who eat it. It’s no longer a cheap mechanic.

Remove laurels from pvp

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Points show the time spent playing pvp. Not very accurately, but they do. New pvp players will have very low points naturally. That’s enough to support his argument.

It’s a bit sad, however, that there is some baseless elitism around here.

I can actually play with my glass cannon now

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

The idea of bunker eles getting more damage without losing much survivability is worthy of concern, but I was truly talking about builds that want to stay far from bunker. Granted, I still need to use some defensive traits and defensive utilities because other options are worse, but playing with a glass cannon ele is far more satisfying now.

Please, update us on this topic:

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

When is the next map rotation?

I can actually play with my glass cannon now

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Well, to be honest, I don’t think ele glass cannons are that strong. In fact, their bursts are very unreliable, it just so happens that builds with berzerker amulet have now more room to breath and do their stuff.

I don’t see what is the problem of a profession having two viable builds instead of one. Is that some kind of luxury? I know some professions have been or are at a worse state, but there are also professions that have 2-3 viable pvp builds. This is, what, the first time that players who want an offensive elemental spellcaster in pvp have the chance to use one without being wasting a party’s slot?

Idea to make sPvP bigger.

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Receiving 1.x silver per 2-team tourney match won seems good to me. Currently, that’s about what you get for each pve event, and it’s pretty easy to participate in events. The time you “spend” looking for events or losing matches shouldn’t be that much of a big difference. Of course, in pve, you still get karma, experience and loot, but the current award chests are enough for that, I guess.

That being said, it takes a long time for a normal player to get, say, 200 tourney wins, and that would only be worth 2 gold. Which seems to be rather poor, in comparison to what can be gotten in pve. Maybe 2 silver per tourney instead?

I don’t think it would affect the economy at all. If anything, it would give pvp players the gold to buy gems.

make it harder

in Flame and Frost

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

I’ve just finished both instances, and I’ve got to say that the difficulty is perfect as it is for storyline content. It’s challenging in the sense that demands you to play decently well, but acessible to any player and without breaking the storytelling flow.

I like challenging content to not make content a snoore fest, but there are many different degrees of challenge, and for storylling, this one is perfect: not too easy to be boring, not too hard to be hardcore.

Of course, I wouldn’t mind if the finale’s content increased a little bit in difficulty, expecially if it ends up with a big boss or something (which it’ll probably will, as it’s typical of gaming), but I’m satisfied as it is.

Remove laurels from pvp

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

YAY!!!!!

Lets attract PVE players to PVP so they can do monthly tournies and then leave!!

Thats essentially what pve players are doing. They join, they get the monthly done, then they leave.

And is that a bad thing?

Regardless, like I’ve said, this update does not attracts only (some of) the pure pve players.

I can actually play with my glass cannon now

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

You honestly thing burst is gone? Outside of warrior every other proffession has alternatives to quickness.

:/ really. How naive.

And many of those alternatives were not viable, because they were easily countered by quickness builds. That’s the point. Now that quickness was nerfed, several glass cannon builds that were not viable before have a chance to become viable now. First, because they were competing against extreme bursting, which no longer exists at the state it did. Second, because they were countered by that very same extreme burst building.

Glass cannon elementalists are the example that I can give, of a build that was not optimal due to how quickly it was decimated by extreme bursts, but now has room to breath to do its stuff, in addition to its weaker burst competition.

Remove laurels from pvp

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

That is essentially the problem. PvP monthly gives laurels……..for pve.

It’s not a problem, it’s an incomplete solution. A first step. Keep in mind that there are many players that enjoy to play both pve and pvp. And out of those players, there are also those that don’t have much time to play each day, and used to give priority to pve for the superior dailies.

This won’t create much incentive for pure pvp players, but it should attract a lot of pve/ pvp hybrid players, and even some pve-oriented players who might want to take this opportunity to experiment new game modes.

EDIT: On second thought, this also offers means to make (some) gold out of pvp.

I can actually play with my glass cannon now

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

TL:DR: Ele’s who were already on top tier got a buff and he’s happy.

Please, you should first read the thread before making false accusations, and second, understand the difference between a build and an entire profession.

Remove laurels from pvp

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Laurels for pvp was an excellent, excellent change. Now, just put in a laurels vendor in HotM, and pvp-only items, please. Not that I would spend them for pvp stuff (I’ll need the ascended stats for pve), but I know other people would.

I can actually play with my glass cannon now

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Hello, everyone. With this month’s changes to quickness and even steath, some burst classes, like the warrior and the thief, and certainly the mesmer too, have gotten a hit at their activation speed. Although I can understand it was unfair to fellow warriors, this thread is not about it.

Before this patch, I was having a hard time playing with untypical glass cannon squishies. There were a few reasons for those:
1. Alternative glass cannons were easily destroyed by quickned bursts from meta glass cannons, without the means to burst back or defend back at equal efficiency.
(1. 2. As a side note, that made those builds very unfun too).
2. Thieves and mesmers have stealth and clones, which are very strong defensive mechanics, although the later more so in crowds. This put them at advantage for zerker builds and the like.

I’m an elementalist player, and although I’ve used boon-bunker builds frequently (and recognize that they were strong, and even more so now), I personally prefer to be an offensive-oriented mage. I did pick the elementalist because, afterall, it was advertised as the class of elemental “destruction” and epic effects. And so it’s common for me to attempt to create offensive ele builds every once and then, and try to make them as competitive as possible. I don’t know about other alternative glass cannon builds for other professions, but damage eles have a few new slice of problems in addition to the general problems I’ve mentioned above, some of those which were only made worse by the old burst speed. In my opinion, they are:
1. Poor selection of fire (and air) traits for bursting/ damage. Even for condition damage, fire + earth is lacking efficient traits. However, this can be offset by taking most of the “bunker” traits (note: that does not makes them a bunker without cleric’s amulet), which are pretty much their “good” traits, some exceptions aside, and go with an offensive amulet (and I’m even talking about Berserker). It works fine for itself, but:
2. Twice the skills, twice the time spent to protect themselves. This is fine for bunkers, who can survive in time to use all their defensive skills (and thus further strengthen their defense), but as a glass cannon, it was just nearly impossible (for me at least) to use, say, 10 skills to survive against a burst that only requires 5 skills (arbitrary numbers).

However, these last few days, this glass cannon build has become far more enjoyable to me. A sudden backstab, a sudden hundred blades, a sudden time warp, they all make combat more challenging, but I actually feel I can react to them, counter them, dance agaisnt those classes. Battles between burst vs burst have been lasting longer to me, feeling less like a random “predict I’m going to burst you in one second or die lol” rock-paper-scissors game, and more like actual, engaging combat. I’ve been losing and winning against thieves, warriors, etc, but I actually feel my losses were deserved (well, outside of heartseeking me to death. I still hate that skill due to how easy it is to use :P).

Has anyone gotten a similar impression since last patch, or am I the only one? Can alternative glass cannon builds have room to breath now – now that they can no longer be easily countered by quickness glass cannons?

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

I actually prefer the meta after the patch

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Necromancer’s Spectral Armor: 6s protection + life force + breaks stun; 90s cooldown.
Elementalist’s Armor of Earth: 6s protection + 6s stability + breaks stun; 90s cooldown.

I’m not sure how relevant life force is, but both skills seem to be in a similar position in theory. So let’s not compare apples to oranges (6s protection skills under 90s cooldown, with invulnerability).

Regarding Endure Pain, it allows you to to burst or do other weapon skills, unlike Mist Form. But although I don’t play a warrior, and I’m not aware of how good that skill is, Mist Form is perfectly fine at its current cooldown, IMO. Eles just happen to use it so often, because they desesperately need that kind of self-protection, due to their low natural defense, and there’s no worthwhile alternative. Plus, their cantrip traits are some of their best.

Thoughts on the March 26th Patch

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Warriors were pretty much nerfed to oblivion in pvp with this patch due to the quickness nerf. Rangers relied on quickness too, but they got meaningful buffs to compensate.

haste and burst damage

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Burst classes in this game are too extreme. They were one (of the several) factors that were contributing for casuals to quit pvp. Bunker builds are also a problem, but at least they don’t pop out of nowhere and instant-kill new players who are still trying to understand the game.

Generally, players should still require fast reactions. 50% faster is still plenty. It’s just no longer exaggerated.

Battles that are decided in 2 or 3 seconds, in a game designed to be fun around using plenty of skills, weapon swapping, etc, was just not working.

"Boonhate" is a terrible concept

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

First, as you now know, “boonhate” is only supposed to be traited/ built for specific builds. Not every class nor every build will have it.

Second, the boon hate that the devs have mentioned, was not about countering a single boon every once in a while, like the current boon stripping effects already do, but about countering professions that can refresh their boons every few seconds for infinite times or build high stacks of many different boons and become extremely strong. The devs gave the example of scalable effects, like +x% damage per boon on the opponent, which should be almost irrelevant agaisnt characters that only have one boon every once and then, but strong at bursting characters who can “spam” boons on themselves.

Adding a few more boon stripping skills to class who don’t have them wouldn’t be a solution, because it wouldn’t counter professions who can spam lots of boons. Besides, it would take away some of the uniqueness of the mesmer/ necromancer. Making huge buffs to boon stripping wouldn’t be a solution neither, because it would be overpowered against builds with fewer boons/ not boon-reliant.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

Did devs know about haste nerf at the SotG?

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

But that’s silly reasoning… Staff is used because moar damage does not always = stronger build, even with shatter burst.

I’m not saying which build is better. I’m just saying that Mesmers are currently using burst builds without even using what is supposed to be one of their best damage-oriented weapons. Why? How? Because Mind Wrack is that strong.

Someday, GS should be as viable as Staff, and unless they add more utility into it, chances are, its the damage that will get buffed. And then, because Mesmer’s damage is already strong enough noawadays without the GS, their damage might become OP after a buffed GS. If that ever happens, what do you think it’s the best to do, nerf back GS and make it forever underpowered in pvp, or nerf Mind Wrack but keep GS as a (newly) viable option?

Yes, if Mind Wrack ever gets nerfed someday, Sword+Staff bursts might be substituted with Sword+GS bursts. But that’s only natural, because the Staff is about support and control. Its meant for builds with support and control, and even in burst builds, it’s meant to take away some of the damage to gain more utility.

If Mind Wrack ever gets nerfed, that will only become a real problem to the glass cannon builds that greatly rely on it for a quick, deadly burst to survive. And those builds would have a buffed GS to compensate.

This, of course, are only possibilities. A strong GS + Mind Wrack might not even end up being overpowered at all, who knows.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

Did devs know about haste nerf at the SotG?

in PvP

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

I still don’t understand at all the reasoning behind potentially nerfing shatters to compensate for the GS. What if the player isn’t using a greatsword? So he just has to deal with some random nerf?

I believe they were specifically talking about shatter’s damage (aka, Mind Wrack).

See it this way: Mind Wrack is a burst damage skill. GS is a weapon based on damage, but hasn’t been used much in pvp due to not being strong enough. If Mesmers suddenly start using GS, and if GS builds proved to have too much damage, shatters would need to be toned down, especially if GS wasn’t considered to be OP.

“Buit what if the player wants to use another weapon”? Well, each weapon should have a unique role, or else there would be no diversity. If GS ever becomes king for damage builds one day, it would make sense for Staffs or other weapons to be used for different kind of builds/ roles.

The fact that Mind Wrack burst builds use Staff as one of the weaponsets and not the Greatsword, shows that something is still not perfectly balanced, IMO, because the Greatsword is supposed to be more about damage, while Staff more about support (even though it still has excellent damage potential). The fact that even with Staff, mersmers are excellent at bursting, it shows how strong Mind Wrack is. Because Staff isn’t exactly overpowered as it is, I think. So if a stronger GS made mesmer’s burst too high, Mind Wrack would be to blame.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

Haste reduction with no compensation?

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

With the removal of 100% haste, pvp should be much funnier now.

Yes, pvp warriors and bunkers will need more fixing than ever now, but it was a change for the better.

Patch Notes - 3/26/13

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

It certainly wasn’t a patch focused on elementalists, but glad to see some fixes to inconvenient/ annoying bugs.

Thank you Jonathan x 2 and Karl

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Outside of the repercussions of the quickness nerf (it was certainly unfair for warriors and maybe rangers), pvp should actually be funnier with this patch.

Pvp gear with elo rank

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

In my opinion, new gear, especially future ascended skins and even pvp legendary skins, should all be obtainable through ranking only.

Liking the third F & F update!

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Some people are resisting the optimism side of the force!

Can you start giving node guarding points?

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Guarding nodes should give points, yes, but only while in combat.

March 26 update - Pre patch notes

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

There was also a rumour that mesmer greatsword is getting a buff by making the autoattack AoE of some kind. There was supposedly a link in reddit two days ago with a lot of the upcoming changes.

Can anyone confirm/deny this?

It isn’t a rumor, it was stated by the devs themselves on this month’s State of the Game pvp streaming video. Beam attacks will pierce targets, so everyone who is caught inbetween will take damage. This includes GS’ auto-attack, scepter’s confusion beam, elementalist’s air scepter auto-attack, and Guardian’s downed state attack (lol).

March 26 update - Pre patch notes

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Alur, maybe you should change the topic title to use the words “teaser”/ “preview” instead of “pre patch notes”. :P People are getting the wrong idea of what you were trying to say, it seems.

I was also expecting the previews to be up by now. They were shown very early for the last patch. My guess is that Anet is having some trouble in trying to keep their schedule, and are unsure if they should hype some stuff or not.

Anyways, what we’ll probably get:
- Living Story finally kicking up;
- Removal of culling;
- WvW update;
- Balance changes;
(- Leaderboard soon after the patch);

GW2 pvp survey. Thanks for your time.

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Cool stuff, but it’s clearly biased towards the most popular forum opinions. An in-game survey would probably lead to very different results. I doubt that, in-game, so many people perceive the elementalists to be the best, especially compared to the likes of shatter mesmers, thieves and even warriors, to whom many still think they are OP.

State of the Game Feedback Thread [Merged]

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Remember the 20+ stacks of might on mesmer shatter in early january? I guess the testers figured that was a good idea…

That felt more like a mistake to me. At that patch, they have buffed an elementalist’s might trait to last (1 stack of) 10s instead of 5s, and buffed that mesmer’s might trait to give 3 stacks (!!!) of 10s instead of (1 stack of) 5s. When they nerfed it back, they removed the stacks, making it similar to the elementalist’s buffed trait.

It made no sense why they would buff a trait to be two times stronger, and then buff another similar trait to be SIX times stronger.

My guess is that they were experimenting with different versions, increasing stacks or increasing duration, and due to an oversight, the mesmer’s trait ended up being unintionally buffed both ways.

Can we have a pvp-only inventory?

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

This is more of a convenience thing, but it kinda, indirectly, makes experimentation with pve characters a more clunky experience.

Everytime I swap my traits/ builds/ equipment, I always clean up my previous pvp equipment out of the inventory, so it does not clutters the thing. This is important because while exploring in pve, it’s common to end up having my inventory filled with stuff.

So everytime I want to get back to a previous pvp build/ equipment setup, I have to go to the vendors to get back all the runes/ amulets/ etc, and then clean up all the current stuff, which takes unnecessary time. Sometimes I don’t feel even bothering. :P

Sure, it’s not a big deal, but it would be nice to get it streamlined. I would enjoy a lot more having a bag or something exclusively for pvp items (without taking space for pve bags), where I could swap between equipment setups quickly, without having to worry about deleting them all to open up space for pve loot.

Anyone agree?

Mega Boss loot changes

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Mega bosses will still offer garanteed golds (once per day). And there are still several mega bosses to battle. In other words, players will still keep doing them, and the rewards will still be good.

Great fix.

EDIT: If each dungeon path offered one gold per day, it would also be pretty cool.

"Boon Hate" Discussion

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Scenarios like those can already happen in the current game. If a Necromancer wants to strip the foe’s boons to deal more damage, but his Mesmer ally strips the boons the moment before, the Necro will waste their skill. But that’s not a fault with the game. It’s a fault with team building and team coordination, which were lacking.

I doubt a boon hating mechanic would be so strong, that it would make boons useless. That would be overpowered. Regeneration, vigor and the like will probably be far more worth their positive effects, than a 3% damage boost to a single build from a single foe. and let’s not even talk about Protection: 33% damage reduction.

Priorities in sPVP, and Metagame.

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Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Balance won’t bring players back. So balance without ppl is worthless to achieve.

How do you know that? Many players are burned with pvp, and new viable builds are as good at refreshing the experience as new features would.

Custom arenas, spectator mode and leaderboards are all really cool, but if people are going to keep playing with the same ol meta builds over and over, the environment will barely change.