Guild Wars 2

I am amazed we haven’t gotten flaming phoenix wings yet.

Really? Because as I remember it at launch we had a few revival traits and skills that worked well together. There was a “Medic Ranger” build that saw some use. Then two of our heal skills can also heal allies around us (Water Spirit and Healing Spring) and one of our elite skills is also a healbot (Spirit of Nature). For a while spirits were our meta build, and that was a heavy support build focused on giving allies boons and light heals through our spirits. We can also spec our shouts for regen.

Ranger has always had a lot of options to be support oriented emergency medic characters. It’s just that we weren’t as good at it as other options. Now we are.

The issue is GW2 isn’t a book. Giving her even a side story means dropping other elements of future storylines to make room for her. As I said before, Anet is already having a hard time fleshing out the world and characters they already have. They’ve already started cutting HUGE sections of content. Adding a new character with her own story means dropping some other story element to do so, as Anet has limited time and resources to play with.

There’s still a lot of lore and story elements buried in those dungeons, and the content can be pretty fun when you don’t farm them like it’s your job. Plus the tokens for the unique armor and weapon skins if you don’t do PVP, and even then you need to complete their story mode to unlock the reward track anyway.

It’s great that GW2 has a transgender NPC, but I wouldn’t want her to become the main character for a variety of reasons. Chief among them being that the story is already too big for the game to properly tell. HoT had a TON of content cut for time and pacing. Adding an entire sub-plot about a transgender person’s struggles in Tyria, a story 99% of the playerbase don’t care about because they play this game for a high fantasy adventure and not a drama, would mean giving up chunks of story that actually matter to the world of Tyria as a whole.

The other big reason is that doing this would turn her into a lightning rod for hate. Players HATE it when an NPC becomes the focus of the story over their own character. It’s why Kormir and Trahearne are both deeply hated characters despite there not being much to actually hate about them. Giving her the killing blow on an Elder Dragon? She’d be the most hated character in the franchise immediately.

Bonfaaz would be a good choice too. Honestly I might have preferred him over Burntsoul if not for the fact we kind of beat him up back when we were level 10.

The general theme of the legend would be the same either way. Lots of burns and an elite that brings down a Searing Crystal to obliterate the area.

The legends don’t HAVE to be from GW1, I just prefer them to be characters with a known personality and history. I’d accept a character from one of the novels or from GW2’s time as well, hence why I suggested Riannoc or Trahearne earlier. I want to channel characters I like that I have interacted with on some level before. Not characters that are known only for their deeds and nothing else. Snaff would make a good legend for asura because those who read the novels will be familiar with him on a deeper level than just having saw a reference to him in the game once.

Also keep in mind that Mallyx and Glint weren’t only active in that ten year span. Both are likely thousands of years old. A legend for Mad King Thorn would also be a character from ancient history that we’re all VERY familiar with. Or one of the Mursaat perhaps.

This is exactly the way to address the problem. It isn’t that elite specs are numerically superior necessarily, it’s that SOME elite specs just flat out got things added to it rather than having to give anything up. They weren’t side grades where your class mechanic changed, they were straight upgrades.

Your chronomancer fix is perfect. I thought it was strange that they just added another option instead of replacing an existing shatter with the new one.

Druid is by far the hardest to work with because they didn’t just get an addition to their class mechanic, they got a second class mechanic on top of it. On top of that ranger was in such a weak position before the expansion that it’s really hard to justify not using the vastly superior druid traitline in all my builds. Not because druid is OP compared to other professions but because core ranger traitlines are just so weak.

First suggestion to come to mind is to give rangers what we’ve been asking for since launch. The ability to control a second skill on our pets. This is both a small and large change and will give us much better usability from our pets. Just change F5 to petswap and jam the new skill into the F3 key, with F4 becoming Return.

But obviously this isn’t enough. I am going to hate myself for suggesting this, but it’s something I had assumed would happen when druid was announced and was surprised it didn’t.

Remove pet swap from the druid completely. Pet swap is the ranger’s class mechanic. Giving up the versatility of a second pet could offset the benefits of having access to Celestial Avatar. However the druid DOES still need to be able to keep their pet alive. How could they achieve this? Druid is a powerful healing spec. Making one of their minor traits provide a constant stream of additional heals to the druid pet in addition to the normal healing it gets could help keep it alive. Additionally make it so whenever the druid removes a condition from them self it also removes one from the pet.

The druid kills with their pet swap. Pet swap turns the smokescale into a tactical revenant that can be launched on command and the bristleback into a hidden machine gun. Forcing them to work with only one pet will cut into their potential damage a great deal, and make killing the pet a more viable counter to a druid who frontloaded all their damage into the pet in exchange for high sustain.

Then balance accordingly to make sure the druid can keep their pet topped off in group fights. Maybe make “Return” actually useful and teleport the pet back to the ranger/druid’s side so the druid can still pull their pet out of the fire when they need to. Or make Returned pets invulnerable until sent to attack again with a cooldown on returning the pet so the druid can semi-stow the pet during heavy AoE pressure.

I highly doubt they’d let us channel a god. They seem too powerful to make a reasonable Legend for mortals to wield, and it would cut into humanity’s ability to pray to their gods for favors if literally anyone could become the avatar of say, Balthazar. I feel there’s a good reason they gave us Mallyx and not Abaddon, and allowed us to channel Glint rather than something like Zhaitan.

Mallyx already covers the sort of flavor you’d get from Abaddon. For a Dhuum-like legend I could see us channeling a lich like Khilbron or even Mad King Thorn.

Kalla would be a good candidate for a greatsword, but if we get a charr legend I’d rather it be someone we actually met in GW1. Either Pyre Fierceshot or Heirophant Burntsoul. Both could be a mid to long range condi focused legend with Pyre having a shortbow and a host of bleeds and poisons while Burntsoul would have a scepter and a ton of AoE burns.

There’s also legendary figures who’s weapon is open to interpretation. I wouldn’t mind Kuunavang being represented by a greatsword to mimic his long body covered in sharp scales if it has an array of celestial themed magic attacks. Though we can’t call it Legendary Dragon Stance. Maybe Legendary Serpent?

Another possible greatsword legend could be Saint Viktor or Archemorus, though they are more obscure. I just remember them holding Shiro’s swords in a two handed grip.

Honestly the fate of the Modrem Guard is the one major plot thread that NEEDS to be resolved in Season 3. We can’t be running around Maguuma fighting Modrem Guard if the Modrem Guard are good guys now, and if they are still evil we need an explanation.

Personally I am hoping for a new Modrem Court. A Sylvari equivalent to the Sons of Svanir who now have fully embraced their destiny as Modremoth’s minions and are seeking a way to resurrect him. They don’t need to be the main threat ever again, but as a side threat like the Risen after Zhaitan’s fall would be wonderful.

At this point I honestly think Anet just needs to make them unkillable and turn them into fancy looking banners with an active effect that sacrifices them.

It’s pretty obvious Anet can’t properly balance them any other way.

A part of me kind of hopes at least one of the commanders returns to a normal state of mind, only to be told they can’t fix the physical changes Modremoth bestowed.

So then we’d have a 20 foot tall super Sylvari fighting for us.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ehecatl.9172:

Or Trahearne the second wielder of Caladbolg.

“I’m not a general…” – Heal Skill. Description: Become passive and contemplate the fallacies of life in order to heal out of combat.

“This won’t end well!” – Elite Skill. Description: This won’t end well… for you!

Let’s not forget another gem.

“A Stampede! Stand your ground.” – Lose stability and get knocked down by a bunch of charging deer.

Keep in mind that said perma resistance can be removed by killing the spirit, and spirits aren’t exactly known for being tanky. Anything the spirit can do can be easily countered, often on accident, by dropping an AoE on it.

Jora could work with a greatsword. She wielded it with one hand but it was as long as my character’s entire body. Aesgir Dragonrender could work as well, given Eir’s statue of him depicts him with a sword.

We could get a Sylvari legend in the form of Riannoc, the first Sylvari to die and the original wielder of Caladbolg. Or Trahearne the second wielder of Caladbolg.

We don’t know. Hopefully Anet will address this incredibly important loose thread in Season 3.

What I am really hoping for is a double dragon expansion. We’ve just killed Zhaitan and Modremoth. We are officially a MAJOR threat to the dragons. They’d have to be complete morons to keep ignoring us the way they have been. It makes sense that the dragons would start to get desperate and start working together.

Two combinations would work. Jormag and Primordus for a Fire and Ice theme or Jormag and Kraalkatorrik. I am going to focus on Jormag and Primordus.

Have eight maps, double what HoT gave us, with four dedicated to one dragon and four to the other.

Jormag’s maps would be the Nothern Shiverpeaks, which may require some underwater combat updates given it’s a massive inland sea now. However given that it is ice water they could easily make the water chill and damage us whenever we take a swim, so we use masteries to ride small boats or somesuch on the sea. It’d be pretty fun to ride Kodan sail boats around to navigate between the icebergs and mountain peaks.

Primordus’ maps would be subterranean tunnels that lead deep into Tyria’s depths and to the ancient Asuran ruins. Lots of asura and dwarf lore abound. Maybe we even get to meet a few remaining dwarves who are still fighting, or just learn about the last days of the dwarven war against the Destroyers. We could also use Primordus as an excuse to return to the Blood Legion homelands to involve the charr in it. The Flame legion could switch to worshiping Primordus the way they once worshiped Destroyers, thus opening a cavernous doorway that leads down into Primordus’ domain.

We’d get two sets of masteries, one for each set of maps, that help us navigate that region with a few masteries that overlap. Like a grappling hook that is functional to scale mountains in the Shiverpeaks or cross caverns in the depths. Have the glider be usable there of course, but keep it as a convenience rather than a necessity so that people don’t need to grind HoT to survive in the new regions. If we use the boat mastery idea maybe at a certain rank it can be used to surf across lava as well, thereby becoming invaluable in the Primordus zones.

That would be my ideal expansion. Two dragons. TONS of norn, charr, and asuran lore. Twice the threat. Really pull in the FULL military might of the Charr Legions as they try to fight the newly empowered Flame Legion. A crusader of Norn sent to reclaim their ancestral lands, all the while battling the Sons of Svanir, some of whom have become nornbears and icebrood. Ancient asuran ruins filled with arcane knowledge and forgotten history for the race.

It would be perfect.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Also do you not agree that him returning would be of no consequence to a none Sylvari player as they would have never meat him before. Kind of hard to add someone back in in a meaning full way when any character that’s not a tree has no reference fir him.

It isn’t so much meeting Malyck again that’s important. Even as a sylvari player I don’t really care that much about meeting him specifically.

However the storyline he’s connected to and what he represents in the narrative IS a big deal. He’s from another Pale Tree. One without the Dream. This is a pretty big event in the lore because it means there could be dozens of over Sylvari “nations” with their own trees and their own cultures that have never even heard of Ventari or his tablet.

Even if you have never played a Sylvari you have to admit that is a big deal. It’s similar to us finally returning to the Blood Legion homelands for charr or rediscovering Cantha for humanity.

I’d be content if we were told those trees were corrupted and turned into Blighting Trees, to be perfectly honest. Just so long as that plot line is fleshed out. If there ever was a time to bring them in Heart of Thorns was it. Season 3 is the follow up season to HoT, so it should at least try to fill in some of the hanging plot threads they left behind before we can fully move on to another dragon.

However in terms of importance, this is how I’d rate it as far as filling out the Sylvari lore threads:
1st. Status of the Mordrem Guard. They pretty much confirmed that without the dragon’s active presence the Sylvari regain their sanity. So what will happen to the Modrem Guard with the dragon dead? This isn’t like the Risen where they just become leaderless. The Modrem Guard are now free from the dragon’s influence and can make their own choices. We could get an entirely new faction out of this, or a very traumatic group of Sylvari who are trying to cope with what they did.
2nd. Status of the Pale Tree. She was badly injured in Season 2 and we never got word from her again. We really need to know if she’s dying or not before going forward.
3rd. Nature of the Dream. Why was Modremoth’s will repelled by it while at the same time being his doorway into the minds of Sylvari? How can the Pale Tree wield it the way she does? Where does it even come from?
4th. Status of the Nightmare Court now that Faolain is dead and they apparently aided us in bringing down Modremoth. (There was a SINGLE Nightmare Courtier at the final battle in Dragon’s Stand. We need more of an explanation for what happened. Are the Nightmare Court allies now?)
5th. The Sylvari’s place in the Pact. How do the other races feel about what happened? Do they distrust Sylvari now? Because at this point they have every right to.
6th. Malyck and the other trees.

I honestly don’t know why Malyck is the one everyone is focusing on so much. I find the lore concerning the Modrem Guard and Nightmare Court a lot more important.

Zephyria.6103:

polearms would be great…but my warrior hankers for a greataxe more.

A greataxe skin could very easily fit into the polearms category. Historically the line between an axe with a long shaft and a polearm is a bit fuzzy.

Poleaxes are a thing. Halberds too. Glaives are visually more like a spear but functionally more like an axe.

I find myself agreeing with all these changes. Ventari can be a very interesting playstyle if given just a little more love.

As for the tablet following us, I actually wouldn’t like that. It makes the tablet easier to control but it also dramatically cuts into the tablet’s versatility. One of the only things I like about Ventari Revenant over my druid is that if I see an ally about to go down I can basically throw the source of my projectile defense and healing across the field. It’s a very clutch move that can give your ally the breathing room he needs to recover and keep fighting. Usually it buys me enough time to then move myself over to peel enemies off my ally.

Even before elite specs every profession had at least one traitline that was considered mandatory if you wanted to be competitive. All that has changed is the mandatory traitline is now called elite and gives you a cool profession icon.

BrotherBelial.3094:

I’ve had enough of the Tree peoples story’s. The game has been about them for the last 3 years. Someone else should have the spotlight now.

It really hasn’t, though. The Personal Story was about the Orders coming together to fight Zhaitan. It had a Sylvari leader, but that does not make the story about the Sylvari race.

Season 1 was about several factions coming together to assault Lion’s Arch. It was lead by a Sylvari but it was not about Sylvari as a race.

Scarlet and Trahearne are individuals. We got fairly little Sylvari lore from those story arcs.

Season 2 started to give us Sylvari lore as it built up to Heart of Thorns, where the entire nature of Sylvari was revealed. Heart of Thorns was the main Sylvari story for the world and revolved heavily around Sylvari. However that story is NOT done yet.

There was an entire story arc concerning Malyck and the other Pale Trees out there we haven’t met and how they were dealing with Modremoth that was left out of HoT’s story for time constraints, as well as another arc focusing on the Nightmare Court and how they are dealing with it. These are two HUGE chunks of Sylvari lore that was flat out ignored in the Sylvari focused expansion.

Then in Season 2 we have the Pale Tree herself ATTACKED by one of Modremoth’s champions. She was weak, maybe even dying, when we saw her last but we’ve not gotten ANY news about how she’s doing since then. The Pale Tree potentially being grievously wounded is HUGE for the Sylvari as a race, and was completely ignored by HoT’s story.

And finally we have the very nature of the Dream itself. Where it comes from, what connects the Pale Tree to it, and why Modremoth can access it. If it’s a product of Modremoth why does it shield Sylvari from his control? What is Modremoth’s connection, if any, to the Nightmare?

And all of this is ignoring the BIGGEST mystery yet. What is going to happen to the Modrem? In the HoT story we meet a Modrem Guard who, after going far enough under ground to escape Modremoth’s range, was able to regain some form of his sanity. This is again HUGE. This means that without Modremoth’s influence the Modrem should regain their lost minds. Now that Mordremoth is dead what will happen to the now free Modrem Guard? Will they try to return to the Grove? Will they remain Modrem Guard and form their own faction? We need to know.

Switching to another race here would be insanely awkward and kitten off a lot of Sylvari players. The expansion’s story just wasn’t big enough to answer all our questions, and worse yet it actually raised MORE questions than it answered. There are a lot of incredibly important plot details left just floating there unresolved like the Pale Tree’s status and the future of the Modrem Guard. if season 3 doesn’t at least have a sub-plot that explains some of this it will be a tragedy of storytelling.

This is like if Anet was working on a charr story where Gaheron returns and achieves godhood, then launches a massive attack on Black Citadel, killing Smodur and taking the Claw of the Khan-Ur for himself, declaring his intention to be named Khan-Ur. Then just… Leaving the story there to focus on the norn.

Tried it with the tribal sword skin and it looks pretty nice. The weapon is modeled after a Macuahuitl, which is a club-sword with a serrated edge. The awkward little overhead twirl looks like he’s going in for a heavy bash attack with the weapon rather than an actual slash. The thrust I can justify as using the hook points at the end to try and tear a ligament.

Really doesn’t fit my other ranger’s rapier anymore, though.

Maybe that’s all you use them for as a human, but we charr also use our cows as battle companions and catapult ammunition!

Sylvari can be hard to design correctly due to several factors, but the end results you get can be incredible. I play charr and sylvari, and while I love my charr as well I can’t argue that my best looking characters are the sylvari. You can make a sylvari beautiful or disturbingly creepy, and I love that about them.

Um. There’s nothing political about this. The Sylvari have their own culture.

“All things have a right to grow”, doesn’t mean “Everyone is right”. It means what it says. Everything has a right to exist. From the mighty human gods to lowly insects. Being a pacifist this seems completely inline with Ventari’s teachings. As a result Sylvari do their best not to kill needlessly or discriminate against other beings.

The cycle you are born is in literally the same thing as your zodiac sign. It’s a belief the Sylvari have that your personality is partially dictated by what time of the day you’re born during. Looking around and listening to the NPC dialogue confirm this. Some of the NPCs do follow the stereotypes of their cycle, but others don’t. There is at least one NPC who assumed another is from a specific cycle based on it’s personality, but is corrected. So there are Sylvari who are atypical for their cycle.

Introducing spears to the surface world would be sufficient for me. All the skins are already in the game so it wouldn’t be any more work than designing the new skills.

Warrior: A melee weapon with a lot of bleeding and defensive skills. Used like a pike.
Ranger: A mix range weapon with melee and ranged attacks for skirmishing. Maybe some control effects.
Revenant: A mid-range condi weapon. Maybe summoning fields of Mist energy or Mist portals and throwing your spears through it to get different effects like chill or torment.
Necromancer: Melee bleed based build with a lot of control effects themed around impaling.

Saiyan.1704:

alain.1659:

What did people want? Guardians wanted a pew pew DH? Nope. Rangers wanted a healer? Nope. Warriors wanted the same thing with a different name? Nope.

Actually Guardians did want a Pew Pew weapon… it has been asked before countless times. What has also been asked for was a viable Burn build and Anet delivered that right before HoT release. Technically, Burn Guardian is where it is now because of Anet catering. If only HoT power creep didn’t kill core builds.

Not to mention that Anet (Karl) gave us the exact Shield changes that we asked for (albeit, took a while to deliver) and before HoT released we asked for a peel effect and they gave us F2 Wings of Resolve (that the community wished was better but for Guardian, it was a lot to ask for)

Can’t speak for your class, but they indeed gave us quite a few items.

As for the ranger part, a viable support option has been one of the most asked for things from the ranger community for years now. Spirits were only viable for a short time, and ever since then rangers had been struggling to find a place in the meta because we just didn’t have the support options to make an impact in team fights and thieves dominated the roamer role. We didn’t have a place.

Druid gave us top tier healing that made us incredibly relevant in team fights, increased our self sustain considerably to let us survive team fights longer, and gave us even more AoE control effects to help us hinder enemies in team fights. Druid made us excel in the one place we were lacking.

So while we didn’t specifically ask for heals we DID ask for everything the druid package gave us. Powerful support and a strong presence in team fights. Viability in high end PVP. Shoot, druid even improved our mobility to make us better roamers.

Just give your Sylvari an epithet the way I do.

Doran the Stool – A Sylvari ranger with a mushroom cap head. He got his name from humans who saw his head and started calling him “The Toadstool”, which eventually got shortened to Stool.

Orrin of Many Eyes – A blind Sylvari Revenant who channels heroes from the Mists to see and writes stories based on his experiences with them. He is called Many Eyes because though he cannot see himself, he sees through the eyes of the many men and women he channels through the Mists. Many eyes, many lifetimes, many experiences.

Treasach the Thorn – A Sylvari necromancer who serves as an assassin and executioner for the Pale Tree. His name refers to his dangerous nature and role as the Tree’s defense. The thorn that guards the flower from harm.

Cedric Ambidexter.9174:

The more responses of this kind I read, the more I am starting to feel that gw2 was built for the needy players in mind, who cannot handle the mechanics of a true MMO.

The more responses of this kind I read, the more I am convinced you’re just a troll. Which you are. No point in denying it.

Meanwhile I get to log into GW2, go to a low level area with my friend who just joined, and play with her without having to make an entirely new character to level with her. I’ve been having a blast the last few days fighting the Toxic Alliance and Foefire Ghosts all across Tyria with her, and never once did I get bored because the content was too trivial for me.

So regardless of what you say or what you believe constitutes a “true” MMO, I still win. You could win too. Just go to one of the MMOs that holds your hand with arbitrary numbers the way you like.

Honestly they should just stop creating new content for SPVP. The PVP community hasn’t approved of their offerings in years and constantly forces Anet to go back and re-do their maps. It’s a huge drain on resources.

Agemnon.4608:

Their claws and weapons didn’t magically become less lethal.

They do if you become sufficiently durable. In Dragon Ball for example Goku becomes stronger by the season. If Super Saiyan Blue Goku went back to the first episode Raditz would be so far outclassed that he’d endanger himself by hitting him.

Levels in RPGs are the equivalent of DBZ power levels. Sure you don’t gain enough stats to become a moon buster but a base toughness of 5 may correlate to an average person whereas a base toughness of 20 means you’re bulletproof to regular bullets, but still as fragile as a wet paper bag compared to endgame level dragons.

But how to justify levels from a lore standpoint in Guild Wars 2? Maybe we can justify it as we’re back in time and each level represents a different place in our timeline whereas level 80 represents us in the present at our strongest. The polar bears of low level zones are no longer dangerous to our present selves, but they’re dangerous to our past level 10 selves and whenever we visit that map we’re effectively going back in time canonically.

Yaaaah. No. Power level bullkitten has no place in a traditional fantasy setting. I only tolerate it in games like WoW because it’s purely a game mechanic and not part of the lore.

Nothing in the lore states that your character’s skin got harder because you leveled up. It doesn’t happen in the world.

Levels in GW2 simply represent us gaining experience that is used to unlock new traits and skills. Learning new tricks to overcome our opponents and becoming stronger without becoming flat out superhuman.

Who would’a thought that experience points can actually represent experience in a game.

Cedric Ambidexter.9174:

Ehecatl.9172:

As a great Namekian once said.

Why. Didn’t. You. DOOOOOOODGE?!

I shouldn’t have to.

Actually you definitely should have to. Do you know what happens to the mighty, powerful barbarian who has won a thousand battles if a small child with a knife stabs him and he actively chooses not to avoid it?

He dies.

I like a bit of realism in my games, and this system greatly encourages that and allows me to further immerse myself in the world. Being able to stand perfectly still, naked, and punch out an entire army of heavily armed thugs with swords breaks that immersion for me. Just because I’ve progressed beyond a zone doesn’t mean I couldn’t be in any danger if I return. These are fighters and monsters we’re dealing with. Their claws and weapons didn’t magically become less lethal.

And I still feel a strong sense of progression. With my better gear it is a LOT easier for me to plow through the old content than it was when I was of the appropriate level. I am still much stronger. I hit harder, can take more punishment, and have a huge array of skills and a fully functioning trait layout that all go toward making my character more powerful. And on top of all that I am a much better player than I was back then, so mechanics that once felt difficult or even unfair are now a casual cakewalk for me to dance around and defeat.

But for all my character’s improved stats, superior versatility in skills, and fully functioning build I can’t completely zone out and win a fight. The enemies still demand my attention. If I make a crucial mistake I can still lose. But playing to the best of my ability, or really even half that, there is nothing in the old world zones short of world bosses that I can’t take down.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBLhdywA05A24AY4AwhJWKAM3T7qd2GMA2kBghdQNYIC-TJRHABCcCAA4BAUx+D1XGAA

I’ve started using this. Still in the testing phase but I find it sufficiently tanky and has good burn and bleed application. I basically bounce between fire and earth attunements. In earth with Stone Heart power builds usually can’t do much to me.

1,600 condition damage in SPVP. If you use Runes of the Undead you can get up to 1,700.

mistsim.2748:

^u can use rabid for your ranger, it’s quite good. but honestly i think it would be far better to just fix the mesmer.

Might work for my ranger, but my elementalist? I can surive with minimal defense on my ranger if I really have to, but the elementalist’s base stats are just too low to work with any amulet not sporting a good amount of vitality and toughness. And because of how elementalists work they really can’t go full condi because it’d make half their attunements unable to do damage, so it has to be a hybrid amulet.

This constant removal of all the defensive hybrid amulets is killing my elementalist builds. This time my ele isn’t even the target of the change and will still get it’s build trashed.

For me it isn’t the micromanagement that is a problem. I actually LIKE having a lot of things to worry about. I enjoy micromanaging my ranger pet and I enjoy the more intricate stance dancing of my elementalist. On my necro I enjoy managing my minion skills to chain control people.

The tablet isn’t any harder to work with than these once you get use to it. The problem is the reward for mastering this level of complexity isn’t nearly as high as it is for the others. You do more work to get less reward.

They just need to make the tablet have a bigger impact on the battle to make it worth using.

Interesting. My core ranger bleed build is a LOT squishier than yours, using Vipers amulet and Beastmastery in place of Nature Magic. Then using Companion’s Might and Sharpened Edges to turn my pet into a bleed machine. Then Mad King Runes to work with Entangle.

I’ve not had any trouble surviving, but that can very easily be attributed to my opponents just not thinking to focus me down in team fights because they assume I’m a druid or something. I do win most of my 1v1s, and if I don’t my opponent usually goes down right after the stomp.

Been using a spider for the immob and poison field and bristleback for bleed application, but I’ve been considering the use of birds for Taunt spam.

As a great Namekian once said.

Why. Didn’t. You. DOOOOOOODGE?!

Nighthawk.4687:

It’s not that its practical, it’s that certain classes are benefiting way to hard from it i.e Necro and Condi Mesmer.

Then how about nerfing those two professions in sustain rather than removing an amulet that I need for my condi ranger and condi ele builds?

Taking out entire amulets hurts EVERYONE that uses them. Including the builds that are fun and can’t function without that specific stat layout.

Honestly the journeys sound really fun. I have a guildmate doing the new shortbow and his adventures sound exciting.

Unfortunately I don’t have the funds to do them. I just don’t farm hard enough to ever be that rich.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

of course you dont need it, but at an equal skill level the person with the better (HoT) build is gonna win 9 times out of 10

Not necessarily. It depends on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the builds you’re both using. Honestly a perfectly even fight between two equally skilled fighters was extremely rare in this game even before HoT. Builds counter other builds.

In fact even the most powerful builds in PVP can often times be countered by builds not even in the meta. And the only reason the non-meta counter build isn’t a part of the meta is because there’s another build that is, and it hard counters it.

Basically this game’s PVP is a mix of rock paper scissors and straight skill, so the idea that two equally skilled players will always have equal odds of winning a fight has never been true during the course of the game’s existence, save in very rare circumstance.

I played around with Ventari a bit last night. I did decently well, but I definitely felt like I was working way harder than my opponents to get half the results.

I agree with Rym’s assessment. I don’t even use Salvation in my Ventari build because the self sustain is more important to me than outgoing healing to other people. You can’t heal anyone if you’re dead, and since having Ventari active dramatically lowers your defensive options you need every little bit of self sustain you can get.

Ventari needs something to keep enemies off you. An idea I think would be fitting is if moving the tablet with Protective Solace active had a knockback effect if it passes through an enemy. Being able to shove enemies around with a giant energy barrier would go a long way to stopping pain trains from focusing you while still not being entirely spammable because of the high cost of maintaining Protective Solace and the natural cooldown on moving the tablet.

Thanks to both of you, that cleared things up. I suppose it doesn’t HURT given the point of the combo is to root the enemy so they take more hits from Whirling Defense. I’ll definitely try the smokefield combo though, since I am already using the smokescale for damage and stealth.

mistsim.2748:

i just like to double tap #4 for PoS. u can also animation cancel a little bit.

my impressions so far – Whirling Defense is a respectable ability now. it’s low CD, it applies a ton of blindness whirling on smoke field, and damage is decent. even more interesting with quickness. there are lots of projectiles around, so it’s not as situational as before.

If you lead with Glyph of Equality and use Whirling Defense it also activates Ancient Seeds on everyone in the radius. Pretty handy to make sure they are stuck in it for the full duration. With traited Glyphs the two skills almost have the same cooldown too, and it will create a light field whirl finisher.

I don’t know if the light whirl finisher is worth much though. How does it work? Do the projectiles have to hit something to cure conditions? If so it might be a waste of a whirl finisher.

As far as Path of Scars go, you have to remember that you’re not always fighting multiple opponents. Path of Scars being thrown at a shorter than maximum distance means the return hit has a MUCH higher chance to hit as it returns faster, meaning you can hit the enemy with both axe hits more reliably. At the same time you still have the option to throw it at maximum range if hitting multiple opponents is your goal.

The change made it more versatile at the expense of making it harder to use properly. Seems like a fair trade off honestly.

Very uninspired animation. It isn’t as fun to watch as the old one.

I don’t see why they couldn’t keep the roundhouse kick animation if we can do twirls with the greatsword while moving.

I wish it at least had some sort of range indicator so I knew if it will work or not. In the thick of battle it can be hard to judge your exact distance to the target of your ability, and this is one of the rare skills that can be activated even if it won’t effect anyone at all. Nothing sucks more than blowing a lengthy cooldown only to find you’re 601 range units from your target instead of 600.

This is ultimately the main downside to the way Anet delivers us the story. They gave too much importance to the PC by making us the commander of the Pact and making us a central figure in the story of both Destiny’s Edge and the new guild.

Now we can’t really make our OWN story. We are a very specific character in the world, and because of that we are limited in what sort of roles our character can experience in the world. We can’t even make impactful choices that change the direction of our story.

It would have been better if the PC were just a mercenary/adventuring hero that aligned with the Pact. That way our character wouldn’t have obligations and could work with multiple groups and organizations and experience a wider variety of stories.

It would also make the development of lore outside the game MUCH easier. If they tried to put out a novel or comic series about GW2 as it is now they’d have to tip-toe around the most important figure in the world, never mentioning it by name, gender, or even race. It’s just awkward.

Linthenius.3704:

In an MMO. A system like this would be physically IMPOSSIBLE to balance.

This is much more suited to single player games where balance doesn’t really mean much.

This is another important point.

Even with thousands of POSSIBLE spells you can craft, every player would ultimately just end up using the three or four spells that massively out-perform all their competition. There would be no creativity involved. You’d just copy the successful spells other players have made that are the most efficient at what they do.

Basically meta spells instead of meta builds.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Ehecatl.9172:

I’d be content just to get the old attack speed or range back. Longbow’s base range was increased, so shortbow doesn’t need to be a 900 range weapon to be different from it anymore.

And it’s kind of dumb that I can throw an axe the same distance I can fire an arrow.

Axe can bounce much further. 900 is the initial range when thinking this way. Just saying.

That’s true. So that’s even WORSE!

Granted I also have issues with the fact we have an infinite number of huge axes in our pockets apparently. But that isn’t any worse than the fact we literally THROW our greatsword and just… Pull out another….

Rangers have some really weird weapon skills.

I don’t think custom spells fits with the Guild Wars franchise. Each school of magic is very distinct and very set in stone as to what it does. A good spellcrafting system would need a more flexible style of magic like Elder Scrolls where there are no set archetypes for mages. A wizard is a wizard, and the only real variance between them is on an individual basis.

In a class heavy setting custom spells just don’t seem like they are worth the trouble.