Guild Wars 2

Hevoskuuri.3891:

“Ascended is absolutely not hard to get these days.”

It’s not insanely hard, but definitely not easy either.

Let me say it this way – it’s not easy to get it fast. Or rather, it’s not cheap, since you can power-level your crafting profession and craft the items.

But if you’re not in a hurry – and after all, why would you be? – it’s fairly easy. You can start of with trinkets, which are trivial to get from the new maps. Again, if you’re in a hurry it would feel like a lot of grind and quite a chore, but if you take it easy you don’t need to do anything more than dailies on your maps of choice. Not even that on Bitterfrost, though I can’t imagine a reason not to jump some trees for the unbound magic and tag an event for the daily torch in the ice.

Once you get the trinkets you can proceed with fractals, and while they certainly have much lower drop rate now, they still do drop ascended. Plus, you can buy ascended from vendor at a somewhat lower price. Or, if you don’t like fractals, there are other means across all game modes. Once again, as long as you’re not rushing it, it doesn’t feel hard or expensive.

Azel.4786:

Feanor.2358:

I find it unlikely, mostly because of traits. Giving the player an ability to render her active traits effectively useless seems like a pretty poor design. On top of that, it doesn’t really tie in with the lore or the class.

The other possible read – you get some effect based on your current and your previous attunement – seems way more sensible and interesting.

For sure that is more interesting but the power creep that would result is astonishing. Just a couple of point:

Imagine you use the arcane trait that gives you X condition on arcane skill, now you double the condi?

What about the traits “while attuned to X you gain Y stat”, now double the effect?

And again glyphs, would you trigger both attunements?

Or they might just give back the previous arcane minor trait that gave lingering elements and say it is “new and exciting”. That wouldn’t be surprising

Not necessarily. All existing effects can simply trigger for your most recent (let’s call it “primary”) attunement. The mechanic of the new spec would be the only thing referring to you previous attunement and affect/replace certain skills based on the combination of the two.

Azel.4786:

Yup, if we assume as true the “only 2 attunements” that means that the class will lose versatility in its play being reduced from 25 skills to 15 skills.

Not to mention, again, we lose a lot on other related traits and skills (glyphs, arcane traits, and the choice of having some traitlines).

I find it unlikely, mostly because of traits. Giving the player an ability to render her active traits effectively useless seems like a pretty poor design. On top of that, it doesn’t really tie in with the lore or the class.

The other possible read – you get some effect based on your current and your previous attunement – seems way more sensible and interesting.

demitel.1340:

Feanor.2358:

Is it? Doing dailies gives you 2g for 10-15 mins, if that much.
Doing a Silverwastes meta or one of the HoT map metas can take 1-2h and give you 30-50 champ bags. Take a conservative estimation of 15s per bag, that’s 4.5-7.5g.

Not to mention you could ride the champ trains in CS and FGS. Last night I went to FGS and spent ~1 hr there. I assure you, it doesn’t get any more casual than that. I ended up with 60+ chests and there’s also the map rewards (t6 mats, charged lodestones and giant eyes).

Not to mention you can go in Bitterfrost to harvest ~50 winterberries in ~20 mins. Every winterberry can be consumed for ~20 unbound magic, which can be converted to (conservative estimation) ~25c, meaning around ~5s per berry, ~2.5g in total.

I fully understand it is easier to complain, but it doesn’t make said complaints valid.

I would not call doing all that casual play, you must actually make an effort to do everything you said. And you must have at least one character who visited Bitterfrost.

You don’t need all of that. Doing 2-3 of these per day I’d call casual and it can fit in less than 2 hr. And it would get you 100g in ~10 days.

Having Bitterfrost accessible is as simple as having played the story in Ep3. Not exactly hardcore either.

dagrdagaz.4913:

“100g you earn in a few days of casual play.”
That is utter kitten.

Is it? Doing dailies gives you 2g for 10-15 mins, if that much.
Doing a Silverwastes meta or one of the HoT map metas can take 1-2h and give you 30-50 champ bags. Take a conservative estimation of 15s per bag, that’s 4.5-7.5g.

Not to mention you could ride the champ trains in CS and FGS. Last night I went to FGS and spent ~1 hr there. I assure you, it doesn’t get any more casual than that. I ended up with 60+ chests and there’s also the map rewards (t6 mats, charged lodestones and giant eyes).

Not to mention you can go in Bitterfrost to harvest ~50 winterberries in ~20 mins. Every winterberry can be consumed for ~20 unbound magic, which can be converted to (conservative estimation) ~25c, meaning around ~5s per berry, ~2.5g in total.

I fully understand it is easier to complain, but it doesn’t make said complaints valid.

The Greyhawk.9107:

Feanor.2358:

DarcShriek.5829:

Feanor.2358:

The Greyhawk.9107:

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

Well he is right. there is no honor in war. Believing there is honor in war is nothing more then a fabricated lie to justify slaughter. It’s no different then justice partly bieng a brushed up version of vengeance.

For balthazar to understand this makes me respect him as a character. He truly knows the essence of war. He truly deserves his title.

That’s rather subjective. Many believe that there is honor is fighting and dying to protect ones home and people against aggressors. War isn’t always about two equally malicious sides trying to destroy each other. War is never really a good thing, but sometimes it can be a just thing. “Evil prevails when good men do nothing” sort of thing.

“In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes”

So if someone tries to kill you, you won’t defend yourself?

That’s called a fight, not a war.

The only real difference is scale. If one’s homeland is being invaded by a highly aggressive force that’s attacking both soldiers and civilians, something very much not uncommon in human history, wouldn’t it be justified to at least try to fight back, to keep them from outright killing you and your loved ones?

Actually scale isn’t the only real difference. The real difference is motivation. Fights are fought for personal reasons, while wars are fought for abstract ideas like territory, ownership, property, religion and so forth. You’re giving an example of a personal motivation, a reason to go in a fight, not a war.

Ohoni.6057:

I don’t believe progressing the story should be particularly difficult. It should be an interesting fight, it should have mechanics you have to do to complete the encounter, but surviving the encounter should not be particularly difficult. Again, that’s the role for Challenge modes to play. Basically players should be able to beat the story version first try, regardless of build (aside from straw man builds). If players want a real challenge, one that requires multiple attempts and strategy, then that is why they have challenge motes.

What you overlook is “players” are different. You cannot possibly balance a fight so it is interesting for everyone without being challenging to someone. You’ll always end up either overtuning it for players of low skill, undertuning it for players of high skill or, most likely, both.

That someone found surviving the fight hard doesn’t mean the fight is too hard and needs to be rebalanced. I completed the encounters on my first try, being downed once and dying 0 times. On a build as glassy as you can get in the game. It doesn’t mean the fight is too easy either. You need to look at hard statistical data to be able to draw conclusions like that. Now, if statistic say a large percentage of the players die more than anticipated, that is a reason to rebalance. We, as players, don’t have access to this, however.

100g you earn in a few days of casual play. Are you saying they’re killing the game because they don’t hand you over immediately everything in the game, requiring zero effort from you?

DarcShriek.5829:

Feanor.2358:

The Greyhawk.9107:

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

Well he is right. there is no honor in war. Believing there is honor in war is nothing more then a fabricated lie to justify slaughter. It’s no different then justice partly bieng a brushed up version of vengeance.

For balthazar to understand this makes me respect him as a character. He truly knows the essence of war. He truly deserves his title.

That’s rather subjective. Many believe that there is honor is fighting and dying to protect ones home and people against aggressors. War isn’t always about two equally malicious sides trying to destroy each other. War is never really a good thing, but sometimes it can be a just thing. “Evil prevails when good men do nothing” sort of thing.

“In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes”

So if someone tries to kill you, you won’t defend yourself?

That’s called a fight, not a war.

Doesn’t change the fact it takes significant effort to beat a no-rotation build after that.

The quotation marks around the text are there for a reason. Namely, because it’s a quote.

OriOri.8724:

Meanwhile I’m over here thinking that the new candlestick is about 1,000 times better than Rogdort is

I’d go with Rodgort any time.

Ohoni.6057:

I think this update was great overall, I just wish that it were better balanced for glassy characters (in before “I play a Thief and I did fine, git gub”, not useful, thank you).

Sorry, but I disagree. I play full zerk ele, the fight was easy, git gud.

Now, for something “useful” consider the game and lore aspects of the fight. You’re facing the final boss in the episode. Which is (albeit weakened) a human god, no less. If it didn’t offer any challenge at all, it would feel utterly disappointing. “A moment, Commander, I heard you have a spare 5 minutes before lunch, do you mind if you kill a god for me”? “Yawn. Sure”. Get serious.

FJSAMA.2867:

If they choose bulky desing with the skirt, i rather have clipping than kinetic hovering objects.. (and it is also the case that skins can be used solo… so messing vests cause leggings…. sigh)

Frankly, I don’t understand why someone would pick such a bulky design in the first place. I can’t wrap my head around the idea someone, anyone, can find this attractive. It just looks silly. There are a lot of elegant skirts in this game. Did they choose an ugly design on purpose or what?

I’m not convinced on that. I picked a staff thief on purpose, having zero experience on the class and brought it to VG. I was only autoattacking and dodging, nothing more. I didn’t even use utilities. And I was doing 20k+.

OK, well, I’ve been raiding for months and I have some general knowledge of the mechanics. But just how bad can you screw an autoattack chain? You press ‘1’. Then you watch. If a red circle appears, you step out. I just don’t see much potential for being that bad at this.

No, the only source at the moment is the TP.

Samnang.1879:

The only good ones so far have been the initial 3 that were released soon after HoT release.

I swear, if the next legendary is a broomstick or something, I will die.

Eureka is pretty nice. Not Nevermore-level nice, but not that much behind either.

The Greyhawk.9107:

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

Well he is right. there is no honor in war. Believing there is honor in war is nothing more then a fabricated lie to justify slaughter. It’s no different then justice partly bieng a brushed up version of vengeance.

For balthazar to understand this makes me respect him as a character. He truly knows the essence of war. He truly deserves his title.

That’s rather subjective. Many believe that there is honor is fighting and dying to protect ones home and people against aggressors. War isn’t always about two equally malicious sides trying to destroy each other. War is never really a good thing, but sometimes it can be a just thing. “Evil prevails when good men do nothing” sort of thing.

“In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes”

lucadiro.4519:

Player that push out 9k DPS with full buff, are not average are Just bad players

They aren’t average on skill. They are what you get when pugging, on average.

I guess it shouldn’t even be surprising. Players who are invested enough to become good eventually end up in more or less static groups. There are exceptions to that, of course. Which is why you can sometimes “top-deck” a great pug ele.

For the love of god, please do something about the salvageable materials from Season 3 (Blood Rubies, Petrified Wood, Jade Shards). There’s a HUGE discrepancy in the way you get Unbound Magic from these and Winterberries. You can consume a whole stack of Winterberries at once. Easy and simple. For Rubies? Double-click your salvage tool. Click the rubies. Click “Yes”. Repeat 249 more times. It’s ridiculous, annoying and literally unusable.

Cyninja.2954:

I think the reason for the deception is there. Now I will agree, having some more hints and minor details spread out before the revelation might have been decent, but let’s be reasonable, any serious hints towards the 6 gods returning would have spoiled the suprise. A shift this big in magnitude is very hard to foreshadow.

Sometimes big reveals can work without a good foreshadowing. But in this case, it just felt quite “what the actual kitten is going on here”. So are we now to assume Lyssa is also hiding behind a mask, as she got name-dropped and is obviously involved? Jennah and Anise seem the most probable candidates for that, given Jennah’s power (S3E4) and Anise’s unknown age (S2E5).

But what irks me is there wasn’t any explanation for this at all. Some generic villain-ish line from Balthazar is all we got. The story should have offered at least a glimpse of a good motivation for all this, motivation not just to go after the power of the elder dragons, but to hide among us in the first place.

Hayden.2091:

Soo .. last episode of Living world Season 3 got me thinking.

Now we know Lazarus was an imposter – Balthazar who lost his divinity. It got me thinking… what if Queen Jennah is someone more powerful, what if she is Lyssa herself?

When you take in mind that she is very powerful mesmer, and she also can create enormous bubble arround whole human capital .. you whould think it’s beyond any humans power… but what if she is a god?!

It is certainly possible, we discussed it with a friend last night while playing the story. The pressing question I see is, what does it gain her? Same as Balthazar, really. Why go undercover instead of show up and get cheered and followed by the human population at large?

Cyninja.2954:

The buildup was there, maybe more subtle than expected. The gods were gone, no one knows where they went and/or what they actually were. It not having been tied in to the story episodes so far does not mean it wasn’t there.

The build-up was there, but it didn’t necessarily point toward Balthazar. Sure, there’s the fiery death of some White Mantles on his initial reveal. But
a) this could mean a whole lot of things, and
b) it doesn’t really make sense.

I mean, come on, why the masquerade? What does it gain him? Why not show up as a human god directly? It won’t hinder his agenda, whatever it is, because the humans wouldn’t question one of their own gods. It would get him more followers, in both numbers and power, than a part of an illegal paramilitary organization. The whole charade is pointless.

Huh. I keep my back hidden at all times so I haven’t noticed that. Perhaps I’ll try enabling my Ad Infinitum then. It might look better if it doesn’t clip with my staff all the time.

Nick.6972:

It gets better. Apparently, the fact that we barely took down a weakened human god in GW1 – Abaddon, doesn’t matter anymore. Screw that. Out heroes are capable of soloing Balthazar. Wonderful continuity.

It gets even better. Balthazar posing as Lazarus? Why? The White Mantle played no role at all in his stunt with Primordus and Jormag. So, again, why? Fine, they name-dropped Lyssa. Suppose Jennah is Lyssa undercover – it also explains her OP stuff – but these are the human gods for their own’s sake. Why would they even bother going undercover? It’s not as if they wouldn’t have followers if they simply showed up. Ep6 better give some solid answers, because this kitten just doesn’t make any sense.

/kneel

15charslimitation

I get disconnected pretty much everywhere after the patch. Tried restarting my router, tried changing zones – nope. I get randomly disconnected anywhere between few seconds and few minutes after I log in.

Mkay. Sounds interesting. Though I’m genuinely surprised they went to such lengths with a class that already has more skills than average.

Sounds way overcomplicated, so I won’t even say “nice try”.

Labjax.2465:

MMOs do have a learning curve a lot of the time. I get that kind of defense. But it isn’t a carte blanche excuse for complexity or confusing design. It’s possible to make something too complicated or too confusing.

So basically, never make any cool/exciting map design because you’ll confuse players at first? That’s a cowardly stance which I’m glad ANet didn’t take.

apharma.3741:

Ele has been falling out of favour in PvE except maybe KC since people realised 1) Most average people are terrible at ele pulling 9k DPS even when fully buffed and 2) since the last “balance” patch nerfing ele damage.

Well… at least it’s less likely to get our playstyles crippled because of wrong perception. Though I still find it insulting a thief can outdps mediocre eles by only autoattacking.

Spiritz Wamphryi.8316:

Lets throw some more names into the box – Dhuum ( just coz the 6 gods left centuries ago it doesnt mean that dhuum left , infact i wonder if hes still in underworld . Mhenzies , Abbadon ( now that would be quite funny if it were the case ) , the fortune teller who mis informed shiro , shiro himself err the lich from prophecies and nightfall . Im just praying its no way going to be Kormir – having to put up with her in nightfall was bad enough , then finding out she replaced abbadon as a god was almost like a massive nightmare .. will we ever be rid of her ??? Apart from those i have no idea an shall patiently wait the release to see

The problem with pretty much all of these is evident when you think of the presentation. “Hey folks, behold the unmasked Lazarus, who actually is <insert name here>. Now, for all our new players who didn’t play the original GW, let us explain who the kitten that is”. It would be quite lame.

Miellyn.6847:

Raiden.1375:

Miellyn.6847:

There is also no good reason to make this particular set available for everyone. Instead they should ask for another set in another game mode. New sets should take much shorter with the engine groundwork done.

Yeah I mentioned that I would support such a thing in that very quote, and I would think/hope you are right about it being easier to add new legendary armor sets in the future. The only potential problem with that suggestion is, will additional legendary armor sets for other game modes actually be something that gets implemented? Only Anet could answer that, and I don’t think they have said anything on the subject yet. If it’s not something they want to do, then that makes for a great reason to make this particular set more available to players.

I would fully support a WvW set and absolutly hate if a second set would be centered around open world. WvW is the only game mode now without legendary access and open world already has the monopol on legendary weapons.

Wait, what?

You are aware each and every legendary weapon in the game requires a Gift of Battle, only obtainable through WvW, right?

It certainly isn’t only true for me.

How do you think I played HoT story when the expansion first hit?

HazyDaisy.4107:

You seem like you spent more than 5 mins in SW figuring all these loopholes out, rather than coming to the boards asking for a nerf. Kudos!

There are loopholes in DS as well, but they require doing the meta atleast once and even then still won’t get 100%.

Actually a single DS meta is enough to make 100% map completion on it. I’ve done it recently, twice. It’s the easiest HoT map to get completion on.

Thao.3947:

Then i would prefer no legendary armor.

Raiders are a minority in GW2. And I think not all of them will go for these armor. So all this massiv work (read blogpost) for a part of a minority of the community … well done anet.

Raiders are a minority, but they are a minority of dedicated players who spend way more time in the game and, consecutively, they probably spend more money on it. Don’t forget this game is a business and aims to create profit. So targeting these players is actually pretty sound idea from business point of view, don’t you think?

Dashingsteel.3410:

In gw2, after exploring a map…. the map stays revealed and it is easy to see where you need to go….. However in HoT the minimap doesn’t support the multitiered maps… the minimap gives confusing directions on multitiered maps. Since the minimaps don’t work you have to memorize the maps

This is only true for a while. Then you learn the specifics of the map and the events and it’s no longer confusing.

Right, the mechanic of the spec is pretty much the best damage dealing skill we got, but it’s a tanky support. Tempest is a bit all over the place, that much is true. But to call it “tanky support” is to ignore a huge part of it.

Overloads won’t be nerfed anymore, because the class is not competitive in terms of damage, with higher skill requirements. Many players shifted to other damage dealers, so there’s zero reason to nerf ele’s dps output. Moreover, Tempest will not become a pure support line unless we have a different, damage oriented elite spec. For reasons I already cited. In other words, not before an xpac. Perhaps not even then. Only time will tell.

Jski.6180:

Stripping tempest dmg potential and giving it to the core ele would fix a lot of problems that ele has as a class. It would fix a lot of problems with the balancing of the game.

It would make Tempest pure garbage in PvE. It sucks when you can’t play your elite spec because it’s plain bad. Ask engi mains.

Jski.6180:

3 of the 2 that your applying? Get over your self ele not even close to the condi out put of a necro. And to ask for things to put on the same level is a reasonable request its called balancing not “well i like this class more then others so its allowed to be stronger” there is an give and take.

Condi necro under ideal circumstances does ~32k dps. Burn ele does ~34k without relying so heavily on whirling into specific (low-priority) fields.

By the way, about 6 months ago we briefly had a no-ICD proc on ele. You might recall the “shared ICD” on Glyph of Elemental Power. Basically eles could overwrite each other’s ICD on a specific enemy, effectively making the skill with no ICD as long as you had at least 2 eles around. It was so broken it prompted a hotfix. So yeah, keep dreaming.

Nikkinella.8254:

Dude, you’re talking about pve. I’m speaking from a purely wvw perspective.

That’s the problem with these topics and that’s why they should be tagged with the specific game mode the OP means. Because in PvE? None of the discussion is relevant or even valid.

Jski.6180:

It is power creep at its purest form. If they add in more combos like traibalzers or even 5 state combso or a super 1 combo you can for free and with out doing pve content get these effect right as they are added to the game.

1. The super 1 combo exists already, it’s called Celestial.
2. You can do exactly the same, by stat-swapping your gear. At a lower cost. Unless you’re looking at 10+ such introductions. I think it’s safe to say we won’t see this many in this game.

Blaeys.3102:

Feanor.2358:

The content doesn’t just have to be difficult, it has to feel rewarding as well.

That’s why I think we’re not going to see an alternative method of obtaining it, just like we’ll never see a PvE-obtainable Ascension or a non-fractal Ad Infinitum.

I care little about reward (and would rather see this conversation in another thread), but I thought it was worth pointing out the flaw in your logic. As long as any legendary armor set offered through WvW or other game mode had a different skin, the one offered through raids would remain a “unique” reward – and would be a symbol of your effort. Again, functionality and power levels are meant to be equalized in this game. It is the aesthetics that differentiate rewards.

Oh, I agree completely. Perhaps I didn’t phrase myself well. I meant I don’t think we’ll see an alternative way of obtaining this particular skin, not the functionality associated with it. I’m all for WvW getting their own set.

Jski.6180:

XenesisII.1540:

They haven’t even bothered to give wvw it’s own legendary back piece which is much simpler to do, why would they give wvw it’s own legendary armor set lol.

Still dose not make it right.

WvW was the selling point of GW2 not raids but there more work being put into raids. Anet realty lost there way.

And raids were a selling point for HoT. Your point being?

Jski.6180:

Yes because gw2 is a horizontal progression game the treadmill is the ability to get new combos. So as they add in more combos to gw2 you get them first as a legendary owner.

LOL

Stat-swapping exist, you know… You call the one-minute difference between selecting from a combo and using the MF “powercreep”? Yeah, we’d get our runes swapped for free. Or would we? We’re paying like 2500g for a set of armor. Do the math for me, please, and tell me – how many swaps do I have to make to get an actual advantage out of being a legendary owner?

Mate, you don’t know what you’re talking about. First, 3 extra stacks of burning would be a noticeable increase even in power build. But of course, you wouldn’t run power, you’d run condi. Second, a burn ele can outdps a condi necro as it is. Third, Burning Precision is taken in every meta build. Because it’s good enough even for power builds. Last, but not least (and I repeat myself), you’re comparing a minor to a grandmaster. You expect them to be on the same power level? That’d just be awful balance. You’re wrong on so many level it’s not even funny anymore.

Of course the elite specs are stronger. They’re supposed to be. That’s why they are called “elite” and that’s why you’re restricted to only picking one of them.

Stripping the damage potential from Tempest would cripple our dps and place ele firmly in trash tier btw. And nobody cares about support eles except in PvP.

If you think it’s messing up you’re sorely mistaken. Elite specs are more powerful on purpose.

Wrong. You get supplied with enough group buffs (Spotter, Banner of Discipline, etc.) to max your crit chance. Overload Air, Lightning Storm and Lightning Orb all do 4 attacks per second, which are guaranteed crits. Without an ICD you could easily get 2-3 stacks of burning from Burning Precision alone, and unlike DC it’s not a grandmaster, it’s a minor. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like that too, but it’s clearly OP. While DC is pretty much the only saving grace of the necros. Without it the class becomes pure garbage in PvE.

Luminator.2350:

Easy:

1. Rework tempest, dump overload mechanic.
2. Make attunement dancing viable again.

Done.

Taking Tempest isn’t mandatory, you know. Just play core ele.