Guild Wars 2

i’d like to see the following stat combos added to the game (at least in PvE), easily acquired, tradeable, without daily limitations on crafting the components for the insignias / inscriptions / jewels, and without over-the-top material requirements (ie recipes require maybe 5-10 of the raw material, not 150-500)

the first attribute listed is the primary attribute, bolded for emphasis

condition damage, power, healing power
toughness, power, condition damage
power, precision, vitality

it’s been awhile since the last Elite skill discussion thread, so here goes.

[REVISING EXISTING ELITE SKILLS]
first, let’s suggest some improvements to current / announced elite skills. after all Elite skills are supposed to be gamechangers. using one should feel epic, like you’ve just turned the tide of battle into your favor.

[Tornado]
problems
~ this elite feels like an “i lose” button, mainly because movement speed is so slow, that transforming into a tornado means you become a great big target that dies before accomplishing anything. the elite skill is to turn the tide of battle in YOUR favor, not the enemy’s.

suggestions
~ the very least, remove the movement speed penalty. tornado needs to move at normal player character movement speeds
~ this skill should also do more damage. a LOT more damage.
~ this skill should boost the elementalist’s health into the 30k-50k range AND / OR
~ this skill should offer 50% chance to evade every attack

[Glyph of Elementals]
problems
~ the elemental dies in 60 seconds no matter what.
~ the elemental feels exactly the same as the lesser elemental, except for one extra little feature
~ swapping attunements after the elemental is summoned has no effect

suggestions
~ the summoned elemental should last until it dies. (remove the 60 second lifespan)
~ the chain skill (skill that replaces the summoning glyph when the elemental lives) should change based on the current attunement

[Fiery Great Sword]
problems
~ damage feels lackluster because it does about the same damage as regular equipped weapons

suggestions
~ the stat increase for wielding the weapon should be an AoE stat increase to buff allies within 600 range (offers better group support)
~ wielding a FGS should also pulse AoE might for every charge used (offers better damage and group support)

[“Rebound!”]
problems
~ the name sounds like we’re playing basketball instead of fighting a war
~ the skill only reduces the cooldown of the next skill used by each ally affected.

suggestions
~ rename to “Raging Storm!”
~ apply 5 seconds of fury, quickness, and alacrity to all affected by the shout
~ apply light aura to all affected by shout

[NEW ELITE SKILLS]
second, i’d like to introduce my dream elite skills

[Storm of the Century]
~ channel for 3 -5 seconds (with a break bar)
~ during the channel, winds swirl around you (240 radius) pulsing damage every second up to 5 targets
~ when the channel completes, call down meteors (from meteor shower) that burn, ice comets (from ice bow 4) that chill, lightning (from glyph of storms) that applies vulnerability, and cyclones (from warhorn 5) that blind foes.
~ duration 10-15 seconds
~ 420 storm radius
~ 120 – 180 damage radius per impact
~ 3 targets per impact
~ 15-20 impacts per element type of impact (3-4 cyclones would move randomly around the storm radius pulsing blind and damage)
~ 150-180 second cooldown

[Signet of Elemental Wrath]
~ 60 second cooldown
~ Passive: grants power based on level, up to 250 power @ level 80
~ Active: cleanse all conditions, stun your target for 1s for each condition cleansed, plus damage your foe for 300 for each condition cleansed

[Arcane Advisory]
~ create a combo field (4-5 seconds) at target location based on attunement (fire, water, lightning, smoke), damaging foes for critical damage
~ pulse damage for 3 seconds
~ at the end of the 3 seconds, blast the target area for critical damage (combo finisher: blast)

in general in GW2:
IF lifesteal scales: (it doesn’t always. it depends on the skill, food effect, rune, sigil)
~the damage from lifesteal / siphon scales from power
~the healing from lifesteal / siphon scales from healing power

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Life_stealing

Damage

Each life steal deals a specific amount of damage ignoring armor. The damage they deal is also unaffected by % damage increases, such as the Sigil of Force or the Close to Death trait. Some scale off of power while others don’t.

Healing

Each life steal heals for a specific amount. Some life steals scale off of healing power while others don’t.

Forgotten Legend.9281:

My first impression is to agree on the following:

~Tempestuous Aria should ALSO reduce shout cooldowns by 20%
~Elemental Bastion should ALSO apply the heal to yourself
~Latent Stamina seems like it should be applied on any attunement swap with a 10 second cooldown. otherwise the endurance granted to allies needs to go up to at least 25
~“Wash Away the Pain!” should ALSO apply either 1) an initial heal to yourself, of say 2k or 2) 3s of group resistance (the group resistance fits the boon-share support aspect of the Tempest)
~“Eye of the Storm!” should ALSO apply shocking aura to yourself. (yes, i DO realize the super-synergy with Tempest Defense and Gale Song, and Lightning Rod. it would be fun!)
~“Rebound!” should ALSO apply 5 seconds of Alacrity to those affected by the shout. again, fitting the theme of boon-share party support

i also offer up the following suggestions:

~please [combine] Unstable Conduit and Harmonious Conduit into a single trait in the adept tier. keep the name Harmonious Conduit. (i feel this is justified due to the high risk of needing to complete the overload channel before the auras proc)

~please make a [new trait] in the master tier called Reinforced Singularity: When overloading an attunement, grant 1 stacks of stability for 3 seconds to yourself and allies (at the beginning of the overload channel) This also fits the boon-share party support of the Tempest, and offers another much needed access to stability. this also offers an interesting choice: grant might to allies with the shout trait, or grant stability to allies with the overload trait.

~Earthen Proxy could ALSO grant 3s retaliation when applying protection

~with all the access to swiftness that ele already has in the core spec, Speedy and Hardy Conduits feel like they should be combined.
~the new GM minor could be Arcane Singularity: completing an overload channel grants a blast finisher.

~it feels like there should be a damage modifier in there somewhere. like maybe Dissonant Aria: shouts do double damage to foes. (maybe the 20% shout cooldown could be added here?)

~come to think of it: Gale Song and Harmonious Aria could even be combined into one trait.

~“Rebound!” the name doesn’t feel elemental in nature at all, nor does it sound threatening on the battlefield. “Reload!” sounds better, and gives a better understanding of the skill’s functionality, in my opinion. (plus it would fit with the alacrity boon if that was implemented as well)

PS: as for elite skills go, I’m still waiting for a Storm of the Century type skill for the elite slot. where i call in a storm that makes meteor shower feel weak.

My first impression is to agree on the following:

~Overloads feel like they should do alot more damage
~Tempestuous Aria should ALSO reduce shout cooldowns by 20%
~Elemental Bastion should ALSO apply the heal to yourself
~Latent Stamina seems like it should be applied on any attunement swap with a 10 second cooldown. otherwise the endurance granted to allies needs to go up to at least 25
~“Wash Away the Pain!” should ALSO apply either 1) an initial heal to yourself, of say 2k or 2) 3s of group resistance (the group resistance fits the boon-share support aspect of the Tempest)
~“Eye of the Storm!” should ALSO apply shocking aura to yourself. (yes, i DO realize the super-synergy with Tempest Defense and Gale Song, and Lightning Rod. it would be fun!)
~“Rebound!” should ALSO apply 5 seconds of Alacrity to those affected by the shout. again, fitting the theme of boon-share party support rename “Rebound!” to “Raging Storm!” : apply 5 seconds of fury, quickness, and alacrity to all affected by the shout and apply light aura to all affected by shout

i also offer up the following suggestions:

~please [combine] Unstable Conduit and Harmonious Conduit into a single trait in the adept tier. keep the name Harmonious Conduit. (i feel this is justified due to the high risk of needing to complete the overload channel before the auras proc)

~please make a [new trait] in the master tier called Reinforced Singularity: When overloading an attunement, grant 1 stacks of stability for 3 seconds to yourself and allies (at the beginning of the overload channel) This also fits the boon-share party support of the Tempest, and offers another much needed access to stability. this also offers an interesting choice: grant might to allies with the shout trait, or grant stability to allies with the overload trait.

~Earthen Proxy could ALSO grant 3s retaliation when applying protection

~with all the access to swiftness that ele already has in the core spec, Speedy and Hardy Conduits feel like they should be combined.
~the new GM minor could be Arcane Singularity: completing an overload channel grants a blast finisher blasts the area for an additional 2k-4k damage

~it feels like there should be a damage modifier in there somewhere. like maybe Dissonant Aria: shouts do double damage to foes. (maybe the 20% shout cooldown could be added here?)

~come to think of it: Gale Song and Harmonious Aria could even be combined into one trait.

~“Rebound!” the name doesn’t feel elemental in nature at all, nor does it sound threatening on the battlefield. “Reload!” sounds better, and gives a better understanding of the skill’s functionality, in my opinion. (plus it would fit with the alacrity boon if that was implemented as well) (see above)

PS: as for elite skills go, I’m still waiting for a Storm of the Century type skill for the elite slot. where i call in a storm that makes meteor shower feel weak.

i hope you realize that Stormcaller, the actual large magical horn from GW1, is still in its place in GW2, in the Black Citadel. the Charr turned into a victory memorial after they retook the area. It has a dedicated Point of Interest located south of the big sphere, on it’s own private balcony overlooking the ruins of Rin.

obligatory “can i have your stuff?” is obligatory

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Invocation
There was an issue found in using instant skills after a skill completed, causing the next skill queued to cancel. That meant that whenever you had the invocation specialization line equipped, your skill queue would not work. We also lacked damage multipliers on the profession, so we’re taking this chance to remake the first two minor traits to help add more damage output options.

• Swirling Mists: This trait has been removed and replaced with Invoker’s Rage.
  • Invoker’s Rage: Gain 5 seconds of fury when you invoke a legend.
• Revitalizing Breath: This trait has been removed and replaced with Ferocious Aggression.
  • Ferocious Aggression: Gain 7% increased damage while under the effects of fury.
• Empty Vessel: Since invoking legends is now instant by default, this trait has been modified to make invoking a legend a stun breaker.

question / suggestion

1) now that half of Empty Vessel’s functionality has been made baseline, and
2) empty vessel is the GM minor trait in the class mechanic specialization line, and
3) all the core classes’s classs-mechanic spec improves the class mechanic (via cooldowns, etc)

please consider adding the following to the Empty Vessel trait:
~reduces cooldown of Legend Stance Swapping by 20%

in other words, please let us swap legends a couple seconds sooner if we spec into Invokations?

thanks for all the awesome changes! and for the shiro legend, and dual swords, and devestation spec! and thanks for considering our feedback!

Donari.5237:

eamax.1268:

Mojo Gris Gris.5941:

If it was indeed automatic, and you don’t intend to pre-purchase, you should file a support ticket to have your account re-enabled. Keep in mind, if you do that, you will most likely still have to pay full price for the expansion, if you decide to buy it. Best of luck, whatever you decide.

I’ve done this and the answer I got up there, they will not reactivate my account, they will only reactivate after I buy the game with the expansion.

To be able to continue playing you must need to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns expansion and registered the code to your account. GM Seawyrm

Um … “you must need to …?” That’s terrible grammar. They usually do better than that. Are you translating? Are you sure you received this from ANet?

yeah really… if i remember my old english correctly, the proper grammar would be “…you must needs pre-purchase…” ;-)

a note on Natural Healing… the trait also grants 450 healing power to the pet, which SHOULD increase the healing from 125 health per second to a higher number. 189 per 1s would be reasonable, as that is roughly the number i’ve heard about from before the changes. this indicates that the healing does in fact scale based on the pet’s healing attribute.

but, it still needs to proc every 1s, not every 3s, which is why we ask for the following:

and definitely, yes please, give us some combat log notation and green floaty numbers as proper indications that Natural Healing does in fact work.

the trouble i personally have: is that even when i type in the name of the personalized banker golem, the game says i didn’t type in the proper name (even when i copy it letter for letter, space for space) and refuses to delete the item…

Ellen Kiel does mention to Daptain Magnus that she’d like to see the progress on the Havoc’s Heir retrofit at the Lion’s Arch Aerodome. so i agree. the ship now seems to belong at the aerodome in Lion’s Arch. maybe that will be moved at HoT launch.

i would love to see an elite signet:

brainstorm 1:
Signet of Elemental Wrath, 60 second cooldown
~Passive: grants power based on level, up to 250 @ 80
~Active: cleanse all conditions, stun your target for 1s for each condition cleansed, plus damage your foe (same damage as on each of the other signets)

this synergies with Written in Stone, Lightning Rod, and Tempest Defense. it also offers an active condition clear for signet users. also gives a passive damage buff.

the theme is being angry, doing more damage. getting revenge for being targetted for conditions. basically, converting your conditions into a way to stun your target. it’s revenge 101, elementalist style. (we do have stuns and knockdowns among our weapon skills). it’s a control effect, which fits within the theme of some of our other signets (earth: immobilize, water: chill, air: blind). and there’s no reason why this elite couldn’t be used underwater.

as for the other signets. yes, i would love to see a trait granting them auras, or even to convert the active effects into 360 radius AoEs

as for conjures. i’d like to see the attribute buff (while wielding) to become AoE for allies within a 600 range.

as for glyphs, well, i haven’t really thought about what to do with them. my only thought was to make each attunement have it’s own independent cooldown. (for example: glyph of storms could cast sandstorm, then switch attunements to cast a different elemental storm, etc)

as for arcane skills, i’d actually like them to be combined into an Arcane attunement, and then press f5 to access them at any time, regardless of weapon set. the f5 attunement would contain those 5 skills only, and would never change with a differnt weapon equipped. f5 attunement would naturally be subject to the regular rules of attunement swapping, such as cooldown for entering that attunement. i suggest this because i actually think that arcane skills aren’t worth taking in utility slots. but maybe i’m just biased.

and then maybe, to replace the arcana skills in the utility section, a new category of utility skill called “wards.” they would essentially be wells, but would follow ideas from the GW1 wards, offering reduced damage to all allies within the ward. or in GW2 terms, they could be essentiall AoE auras. like ward of earth would reflect projectiles, ward of water would reduce damage to all allies within it by 10%, etc…

sorry, i didn’t mean to ramble on so much. Bacon Deficiency Disorder strikes again…

telling people to WP when dead isn’t toxic…. it’s what comes afterward… the toxic part is people start name calling after a failed attempt to kill a champ. ie “we failed because these idiots / scrubs / nubs refused to waypoint just so they could save 2 silver” accusations.

being yelled at because of a game feature that is not explained anywhere in game is toxic. being called an idiot, scrub, noob, etc is the very definition of verbal abuse. being blamed for causing a 100+ player event to fail is also verbal abuse.

i witnessed one commander in silverwastes start calling out specific players because it took them longer than 5 seconds to waypoint out after a champ wolf killed them.

that sort of verbal abuse wouldn’t happen if events downscaled after 10 seconds of inactivity. (no movement or skill usage, including death)

PS: i completely understand the logic and reasoning behind telling people to waypoint, and the same logic and reasoning behind wanting something to be done to fix the problem. the trouble is, the root problem is still the same, inactive characters still upscale the event. this causes map chat toxicity. this also causes people to make suggestions to punish players without explaining why they’re being punished, because the event scaling mechanics are never explained by Anet in game.

the issue can be summed up rather easily.

there are certain things, like personal story progress and level-up rewards, that are saved directly into your character’s save file.

in order to change race, profession, reset personal story, etc… information would have to be removed from your save file. this would create conflicts with code that would essentially break your character.

for example. the code sees that you tripped flag x, and since you tripped flag x, there is supposed to be certain info in your save file. since the info was removed from your save file, the code can’t find the info it’s looking for, and then it generates error code after error code after error code. eventually, using that same save file, you get stuck in an infinite load screen, because there are too many errors

it’s the same thing that happens when you mod skyrim, save your game, and then remove mods, and try using the same save game. it may not break your game right away, but inevitably, it will break it beyond repair. and your save faile is broken to the point of an infinite load screen, there is only one thing to do: delete the save file (and all character progress) and start over from character creation.

there is a PVP amulet with vitality, power and precision, called barbarian.

i really wish it would be introduced into PvE, without any daily crafting limits, AND without any “you-need-to gather-500-[insert material here]-per-piece-of-exotic-gear” nonsense, AND the crafted exotic piece of gear would be tradeable.

no exotic gear should ever be account bound, unless it’s one of those special rewards like glorious armor (from pvp reward track) or hero weapons (from wvw tournaments.) or dungeon gear, or karma gear (basically, if it’s acquired by alternate currencies it’s okay to be account bound, but if the exotic gear is crafted using a crafting station, it should be tradeable.)

this doesn’t solve the scaling problem.

the person is still AFK.
the character is still inside the range and still scales the fight up.

[suggestion]
a better solution is to add code to the scaling to check for actions taken by those within proximity of the fight. if no actions have been taken in over 10 seconds, (no keyboard or mouse input) then the character no longer scales the fight. (in other words, the character doesn’t count in scaling up the fight)

as soon as any action is taken (including movement, jumping, skill usage) within the range threshold of the event, then the character scales the fight accordingly.

[pros]
~ people can AFK without scaling the fight: no more griefing
~ since dead player-characters will de-scale the fight after 10 seconds of inactivity, they will not be able to grief the fight either.
~ map chat toxicity will go away. (no more “IF YOU’RE DEAD, THEN WAYPOINT [insert deragatory words here]”)
~ GMs will have to deal with fewer “verbal abuse” reports
~ this would this would make the game more friendly to newer players who don’t know about hidden mechanics like “proximity to an event scales the event up or down”

[cons]
~ players who get their jollies from griefing others this way will no longer be able to do so.
~ players who get their jollies from griefing others will try to find other ways to grief, since this way will have been removed from the game

Nero.6813:

Please, for the love of god don’t click your moves.

some of us right handers don’t have good coordination with our left hands. i can’t play a piano that well because my left hand just won’t cooperate. same reason i can’t play a guitar that well. that leaves me two choices: click my skills or don’t play at all. i chose to click my skills and still play. knowing when and where to engage and disengage fights is just as important, more important than whether i mouse-click my skills.

@ OP: thanks. i’m glad P/P thief isn’t total garbage. i still really miss ricochet in PvE, but at least the single target damage is still there…

i suppose i should also mention, that warrios shout build is pretty much the best healing they can do…

i didn’t add any of the healing that a guard can get from Honor line… which offers a heal on dodge roll (1500+ with cleric’s gear), and heal when aegis blocks an attack (1300 plus with cleric’s gear). now, you can add another 4500 healing every 30 seconds (2 dodges plus one aegis block in 30 seconds). to my cleric guard calculations above, if the guard traits honor, too.

before counting possible heals from weapon skills. (mace autoattack can grant another 650 group heal every 3 seconds if all attacks connect, and mace 2 can grant regen, shield 5 can give another 1600 group heal every 20 seconds, etc)

my calculations from the other post only showed healing from skills 6-0 using only one trait line per class.

if a PVP guardian takes meditations AND mace +shield, AND honor spec, guardian has more self heals than shout warrior

now, in PvE, you can take defender runes, which grant regen on block, aegis on healing skill (10s cd), and another 4k+ heal on block. (30s cd) this means that in PvE, a meditation honor guardian leaves warrior in the dust for self healing,

honestly… i think shout warriors tend to build for cleansing ire and take soldier’s runes for the condi cleanse on shout use (at least in PvP), so that makes up for the difference in condi clears. once a warrior takes weapon-swap condi clear, cleansing ire, and warhorn condi clear, warrior has plenty of condi removal. that’s from a “shoutbow” build, of course.

i think, that between both of our sets of calculations, using different healing skills and different amulets, we have discovered that warrior and guard healing is actually pretty close. maybe even closer than either of us would have thought before.

my first reaction to the warrior shout nerf was to cry. but now that i see the numbers, i’m okay with it.

okay, let’s compare shoutbow heals to medi guard heals:

celestial amulet + soldier’s runes
warrior shouts: 1560 heal up to 5 targets within 600 range, removes 1 condition
plus 390 hps from heal sig.
traited shout cooldowns, 20, 20, 24, 48(fear me) choose up to 3 of those 4 options

guardian meditations: 2184, heal yourself only. stacks with litany of wrath heal, and merciful intervention heal.
traited medi cooldowns: 16, 36, 48, 40(MI) and 24(LoW), 48 (elite skill)

cleric’s amulet + dwayna runes:
shouts heal for 2375, HS gives 422 hps
meditations heal for 2510 (LoW heals for 1984) (merciful intervention heals for 2785)

[59 seconds]
celestial shoutbow will get 390 hps from HS, and 1560 per shout. so let’s say 20,20,48 cds, so in 59 seconds you can get: (390×59) + (1560×3) 20s cd shout. + (1560 x3) 2nd 20s cd shout + 1560×2 (48s cd shout) = 35490 heal points in 59 seconds for warrior only, not for allies.

cleric’s meditation guard. in 59 seconds. LoW [(1984+2510+2510(from the smite condition when use heal , trait)) x2] + smite condition (2560 × 3) + judges intervention 2560 x2 + contemplation of purity (for extra condi removal and stun break) 2560 x2 = 30144 (or 32704 if you also use the elite) +virtue of resolve (209×59) = 45035

doing the math,.celestial shoutbow 34k vs cleric’s medi guard 45k, the guard has 2x the healing power. i’ll run some numbers for a 3 minute fight too. and edit.

[179 seconds]
celestial shoutbow:
HS 390×179 + SIO 1560×8 + FGJ 1560×8 + FM 1560×3 = 99,450 (add 6240 if you take the other shout instead of FM)

(cleric’s shoutbow 422×179 +2375x8 + 2375×8 + 2375×3 = 120,663)

cleric’s medi guard:
LoW 7144 x7 + SC 2510×11 + JI 2510×4 +CoP 2510×3 + RF 2510×2= 100,288 + VoR 209×179 =137699 (in this fight, smiter’s boon is worth 17920 healing) (merciful intervention would be worth about another 10k over CoP)

keep in mind that the shoutbow warrior can heal up to 5 allies as well with those shouts. the AoE heals would put the warrior in the lead with only one ally in range the whole time.

for the 3 minute calculation: cleric’s + dwayna runes on both builds shows that 5 medi guard outheals 3 shout warrior 138k to 120k (rounded) for self heals. that mean’s a 5 medi guard only gets 15% more self heals. take away smiter’s boon for focus mastery trait, and they heal equally: 120k vs 120k.

PS: i had to edit because i forgot virtue of resolve. i assumed letting VoR remain passive the whole fight. i compared celestial shoutbow due to prior metabuild status, and cleric’s medi guard for the highest healing power possible for the calculations. mainly because of the AoE nature of shouts. i also assumed 3 shouts, vs 5 meditations, i did not count the free SIO trait because condi timing is not guaranteed. i also used heal sig because it gives more healing over time than any other warrior heal.

ASP.8093:

Warlock.7136:

read other forum threads our mathimatician players out there did the math. there ARE less builds available to play, ALOT less.

There are fewer available combinations, in the rawest sense.

Most of the combinations we lost were, in all honesty, absolute trash. Do-nothing skills and do-nothing builds. There are very few exceptions to that… stuff like clone-death mesmers; and, enh, I really can’t say giving clone-death builds the axe hurt the game in any way.

to add to what ASP said: the main builds that went bye bye were mesmer clone-death, ricochet thief, and elementalist signet fire-aura builds. the minor builds were essentially the proverbial 3/3/3/3/2 type hybrid builds.

sigh… here we go again…

let’s compare build diversity in the old system to build diversity in the new system by comparing two builds…. Minon Master Necro, and longbow ranger.

MINION MASTER NECRO
~old system MM builds.: 4/0/6/4/0 or x/x/6/6/x
4/0/6/4/0 variant: 4 spite for extra minion damage, 6 death for all minion traits, 4 blood for minion lifesteal
x/x/6/6/x variant: 6 death for all minion traits, and 6 blood for minion lifesteal and condi transfer to minions from necro.

~new system MM build: death: all three MM traits. leaving you to choose the other 2 specializations however you want. you want to run a vampire MM? you can. you want to run a condition death – shroud MM? you can now.

LONGBOW RANGER
~old system longow: 6/4/x/x/x with 4 trait points available for build customization. required traits: marks, both the master and GM slot, for taking any 2 of the 3 traits. and skirmishing master trait.

~new system: marksmanship: Lead the Wind. leaving 2 traits for diversity within the one trait line, and 2 more full specializations to build however you want for whatever weapon or utility or general traits you want.

you want to run longbow greatsword? take marks and beastmastery to take both traits. you want to run a defensive longbow? take wilderness survival and nature magic along with marks. you want to run a boon longbow? marks, nature magic, beastmastery? you want to run a poison – trapper longbow? marks, skirmishing, nature magic.

CONCLUSION:
there are many more variants for builds now, compared to the old system. i didn’t even compare old/new shoutbow warriors, meditation guards, staff elementalists, reflect mesmers (that can now build manipulations – evade, or signet – distortion, or warden’s feedback – glamour.)

[SUGGESTION]
honestly? i’d like to see “to the limit” have it’s base heal increased to about 8000 (to make up for the loss of extra healing with more adrenaline, back when it was healing surge). that would make zerker shout warriors heal for about 9000 every 24 seconds.

heal sig zerker warriors still heal for 359 health per second, which equates to roughly 8600 passive healing every 24 seconds.

my suggested buff to “to the limit” would finally offer an alternative to heal sig.

on all my my twenty somethings…. i noticed that the auto-granted specialization was the defense-oriented one. my eles got earth, mesmers got chaos, thieves got shadow arts, etc, every single time.

for my 27 ranger that got wilderness survival, i rerolled her, used a birthday level 20 tome, and a 7 more tomes of knowledge to reacquire the same level, but then chose skirmishing spec, as that spec lined up with the traps, sword, and shortbow that she was built with. (i already have 2 level 80 rangers each with separate builds. so this one is different yet from the other 2)

i have been playing since pre-launch, so i have tomes saved up. but i understand that newer players, that may have only been playing a few months, may not even have a level 80 character yet.

since the auto-granted defensive specialization upset me, i presume it upsets the newer players even more, because they are stuck with it. they can’t do what i did. they don’t have 18 exotic-geared level 80s. they don’t have 40+ character slots. they might lose all their account progress to re-roll a character.

Litany of wrath heal, plus medi trait heal, plus smiter’s boon upon casting litany’s wrath, plus medi heal from smiter’s boon = litany of wrath is finally worth taking as a heal that also cleanses and damages foes. it’s the offense themed heal now. (like how arcane brilliance is the offense themed heal for elementalists.)

not to mention that with full exotic cleric’s gear, that’s almost a 8k heal. yes, my PvE cleric’s meditation right-hand-strength guard (using sword-shield mace-focus) also uses runes of the defender for the extra aegis, extra regen, and extra heal. there are plenty of blocks available to trigger that 4k heal from the runes (sword 3, shield 5, mace 3, focus 5, heal 6 procs aegis.). too bad defender runes aren’t available for PvP… but seeing how great they are in PvE, they might be OP in the conquest environment.

PS: Natural Healing trait gives no indication in the tooltip how often the heal is supposed to proc. is it every second? every 10 seconds? the tooltip doesn’t say. so how am i supposed to test it properly?

PS, further testing of the trait has yielded the same results for me as before: no floating green numbers, no combat log entries, and no increase of the number on my pet’s healthbar during combat.

Holland.9351:

Quick Draw doesn’t work for Whirling Defense.

More on it here:
http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/ranger/Whirling-Axes-QuickDraw-nogo/first#post5214091

actually it does, but with a trick.

the quick draw buff lasts 5 seconds.
whirling defense channels for 5 seconds.

BUT… the channel has to complete before the buff wears off, in order to proc the reduced cooldown.

i tested this by doing the following:
i let the channel complete: the cooldown of whirling defense ended up normal
i interrupted the channel early, either by moving, or casting another skill before the quick draw buff faded: whirling defenses had a much shorter cooldown.

tl;dr:

to get the reduced cooldown from quick draw, the skill must finish casting before the quick draw buff ends. you can interrupt the channel to get the reduced cooldown.

here’s some of my feedback:

battle of claw island: the new VO’s for trahearne are much better. no longer does he refer to the fortress as Clawr Island or Claw Righland.

i haven’t played all the new VO’d story instances, but i presume they’re of the same improved quality.

Defense of LA immediately after Battle of Claw Island: seeing the old, pre-Scarlet Lion’s Arch in the story is breathtaking. we’ve asked for this ever since the living world started changing LA. the slight sepia tone hints that this is definitely in the past. this is a very nice touch.

[suggestion] the slight sepia tone could be a toggle effect for all personal story instances, due to the fact that all personal instances take place in the past, according to the time line.

Victory or Death:
~ i luv that i can solo it now, for two reasons. 1) i don’t need to find a group. 2) my character is in all the cut scenes.
~ the first part of the instance still feels epic. collecting the parts for the airship launch, fighting alongside Destiny’s Edge is pretty cool.
~ once the airship takes off, it’s still feels epic due to the view while flying. it’s different enough from the typical ground combat to keep me interested in the instance. (this is nothing new of course, but i think is worth mentioning)
~ and then all of a sudden, we land at the cliffs to kill a champ, and i leave the airship by myself, Destiny’s Edge twiddling their thumbs on the airship while i do all the fighting.
~ i return to the airship and it takes flight again, and before i know it, it’s time to man the turret and shoot down some dragons…. by myself. Destiny’s Edge just stands on the command deck watching me do all the work. there’s no other NPCs on deck at all.
~ once we transfer to the Glory of Tyria, it’s the same thing. Destiny’s Edge and the other NPCs just stand around watching me do all the work.

basically, once i board the airship, the instance no longer feels epic, because the NPCs no longer do anything to help.

[suggestion]
~buff the boss on the cliff and send Destiny’s Edge with me to fight him to maintain the epic feel of the first part of the instance.
~throw a few more mobs on deck during the dragon – airship sequences, but again, make destiny’s edge help me by fighting the mobs while i’m on the cannon.

thank you for your time. and bacon to you for the mostly awesome personal story restoration

just killed Shatterer…. got zero crits the whole fight…

with all the condition / combat changes, a health increase on all players and combat NPCs seems to me, to be the best answer for balance. (because high condition damage stacks melt everything faster than power builds ever could, and even power builds got a big boost in damage output, too)

either that or make vitality reduce incoming condition damage the way toughness reduces incoming power damage. granted, the percentages would have to be tweaked differently, but it would make vitality a much more meaningful defensive stat, besides only giving more health.

i hope you realize that you get diminishing daily returns from TEQ, the more you fight him in a single day.

the first time you beat teq in a day, (based on daily reset) you get all 4 loot chests. the second time, you only get 3. the third time, you only get 2. after the fourth time, you only get the world chest, no bonus chests.

this of course assumes that each victory is played on a different character, since each character is limited to one set of bonus chests per world boss. this also assumes all characters are on the same account.

in other words: the damage type doesn’t effect how much loot you get.

in my opinion. if downscaled character’s gear is higher level than the area, then the character’s stats should be the highest they can possibly be for the downscaled level.

for example: a level 56 ranger wears level 51 gear, and enters a level 35 area. the character is downscaled to 35, and should automatically have max allowed level 35 stats.

the system should take into account the best-in-slot gear rarity of the downscaled level, and if the character is wearing equal rarity or higher, than the system should treat the character as a best-statted character for the downscaled level.

examples:

at level 27, the best-in-slot gear is masterwork. if a level 65 character enters a level 27 area, and is wearing level 40 rare gear, then the character would meet the gear check requirement to have best available stats for being in a level 27 area. (because the gear is better than the best-in-slot level 27 gear)

if that same level 65 character wearing level 40 rare gear enters a level 50 area, then the character would be downscaled to 50, but would be limited to the the level 40 stats on his/her rare gear.

if you’re standing in Fort Merriner, look south.

[SUGGESTION] based on how awesome the new LA is, i can’t help but fantasy (v. FANT-a-sigh, rhymes with pie) about how awesome an explorable interior would be for the Lion’s Arch Aerodome.

~please please please design an interior for the aerodome and let us inside.
~please let us walk up to the sides of airships in drydock getting repaired.
~please let us board other airships that are flight ready.
~please give us 4 or 5 airships docked in the dome.
~please give us drydocks / factory assembly area for helicopters, too
~please give us several offices, and barracks, and supply closets.
~please give us conference rooms and a break room (or bar) inside the facility
~please give us a training area where we can test canons on the airships (reminiscent of the canon hero challenge in Bloadtide coast)

playing devil’s advocate here:
what? on my zealout’s necro, plague’s self-bleed ticks 44 damage a second on me. out of a 50k health pool…

Plague applies 1 stack of bleed, for two seconds, and applies it every second. that means you have 2 stacks of bleeding on you for the duration. (keep in mind that’s default condi duration, and zero condi damage)

if you die while using Plague, it’s not from the self-bleed (unless the self-bleed scales really high with your high condi damage build…. i haven’t tested for this, since my necro doesn’t have condi gear) if the self bleed does scale very high in a condi build, then i can see the problem.

PS: i actually really like the idea of Plague transferring condis from you to the enemies in your cloud. at worst, that should be added to the corruption trait. at best, it should be baseline for the elite skill in the new system.

another Natural Healing report:

Forgotten Legend.9281:

i just did Arah story mode, and decided to trait Natural Healing with the Signet of the Wild to double up on pet regen. however, i noticed there was no natural healing in my combat log. i tested by removing the signet from my skill bar, and sure enough, the pet no longer regened any health while traited (obviously after losing health to the “champions” i fought in the story instance.

to summarize: no heals from Natural Healing when traited.

i filed in in-game bug report and sent an in-combat screenshot for the above.

afterward, i fought some mobs in the straights of devestation, by taking Nautral Healing, and no SIgnet of the Wild, and told my pet to attack one mob at a time, while i kept my ranger from attacking, and my pet received no healing during combat. i fought mobs that would apply bleeding, so that i could compare timing of healing ticks with timing of bleeding ticks. there were bleeding tick floating numbers (which were recorded in combat log) and NO healing ticks.

i rerolled my level 27 ranger because the algorithm decided that my shortbow, sword, trap build (which had three good traits in skirmishing) deserved to unlock wilderness survival (basically the defense line)

so it seems there is a common theme between the two of us. the algorithm chose the defense line as the first unlock.

i disagree with that automated choice. i wanted skirmishing, an offense oriented spec.

i just did Arah story mode, and decided to trait Natural Healing with the Signet of the Wild to double up on pet regen. however, i noticed there was no natural healing in my combat log. i tested by removing the signet from my skill bar, and sure enough, the pet no longer regened any health while traited (obviously after losing health to the “champions” i fought in the story instance.

to summarize: no heals from Natural Healing when traited.

1st party: arenanet
2nd party: you
3rd party: anyone else (like amazon or steam or game stop or best buy)

splitting the amulet into two pieces for stats would only make sense with a 50/50 split. give 600/450/450 on each piece, and allow mixing and matching of any stat combo available to PvP. and yes, even 280/each on cele halves.

with earth runes, it’s 4 seconds. so with 4 signets on 20 second cooldown each, that’s 4 × 4 = 16 seconds uptime of protection every 20. then all you need is to rotate into fire attunement once in a 20s period, and / or use one weapon skill aura in a 20 second period, and / or get a proc off of an air or water trait, and / or get a proc off your runes of earth, and / or leap a combo field. boom, 100% uptime of protection, (providing the boon doesn’t get stripped or converted into a condition)

easy maths. and i’m plenty sure anet did the easy maths, too…

let’s look at what we know about the map:

1) there are some 25+ zones currently.
2) they said at HoT announcement there will be fewer zones in HoT
3) they’ve preview 3 zones so far: Verdant Brink, and 2 guild hall maps

conclusion: there are at least 3 PvE zones, and less than 25 PvE zones shipping with HoT

if you want to wait until you know exactly how many zones there are in HoT, you’ll most likely have to wait until HoT launches to buy the expansion.

the information will come when it comes.

old system: 0/6/0/2/9= 300pre, 300fer, 100vit, 100heal PLUS zerker amulet= 932pow, 650prec, 331vit, 451fer PLUS 926pow, 926pre, 926 fer, 926 vit, 926 tough EQUALS 1858pow, 1876pre, 1677fer, 1357vit, 926tough, 100 heal

new system marauder amulet= 1050 pow, 1050pre, 560vit, 560 fer PLUS 1000 pow,1000pre, 1000fer, 1000vit, 1000tough EQUALS 2050pow, 2050pre, 1560fer, 1560 vit, 1000tough

this means +192pow, +174pre, -122fer, +203vit, +78tough, -100heal

the +192pow and +174pre together, overcome the -122fer.

(edit: for 06/0/4/4, it’s +103 vit and -200 heal)

sorry, but to me it looks like new marauder build > old zerker build

Forgotten Legend.9281:

something tells me that ANET thinks 100% uptime on protection is OP, even for the lowest health pool class in the game, even though it seems they balanced the class around 100% protection uptime.

sigh: here i go again, to explain what i thought was obvious in my statement.

1) anet balanced elementalist health around high protection/might uptime
2) anet removed fire’s embrace

this leads me to believe that anet thinks that fire’s embrace is OP, either because of the protection uptime, or the burning/ might uptime. BUT, elementalists can maintain burning, might, protection, fury, and swiftness just fine without fire’s embrace and the aura synergy. so the removal doesn’t make sense from a balance perspective. the class was balanced around the trait’s existence, so removing the trait un-balances the class.

now the other part i thought was obvious: I LIKE FIRE’s EMBRACE. the only reason i didn’t take the trait before is because it competed with my +damage traits in fire line. after they streamlined and combined traits, it became possible to take fire’s embrace PLUS all the damaging traits i took before.

brainstorming:
now we reach the real issue about HOW the trait COULD BE considered OP. it offers max offense and max defense at the same time. in the old system, i had to choose: offense or defense in the fire line. increase my damage output or increase my protection uptime through trait synergies.

now my rebuttal to the COULD BE OP part: i have to trait fire and earth in order to maintain the prot uptime from the fire auras granting prot. sure, now i don’t have to choose between fire’s embrace – pyromanceer’s training. BUT I LOSE +10% damage under 600 range, and i ALSO LOSE +10% while endurance is full traits from earth line. therefore, i GAINED damage by being able to choose offense and defense traits in the fire line at the same time, but i LOST the same amount OR MORE damage from the earth line, so fire’s embrace is still balanced.

conclusion: fire’s embrace is still balanced in the new trait system, and therefore did not need to be removed. in addition, it’s removal removes an alternative to the arcana – cantrip meta.

additional thoughts related to signets. why is it that fire’s embrace is the only reason people take signets? is it because signets themselves are really that weak? are they weak because they are single target skills for a predominately AoE based class? are they weak because they are control based rather than damage based? or are they weak because their utility is based on delaying the enemy instead of hurting the enemy? or are they weak because of everybody’s bias for cantrips?

edit: this leads me to one more question: if fire’s embrace truly is removed from the traits, does that mean it’s now going to be baseline? (and they just forgot to tell us? i doubt it) IF fire’s embrace becomes baseline, why not give each signet it’s own specific aura, since each signet is based on a specific attunement already?

i’d rather the amulets be split in half.

ie: amulet gets half of the stats, and accessory gets the other half. then you could mix and match, say a berserker amulet (600 power, 450 pre, 450 fer) + valkyrie accessory (600 power, 450 vit, 450 fer).

pros:
1) more customization
2) no more need for 4-stat amulets
3) it would simulate 50-50 splits in Pve (one stat on armour and weapons, a different stat on trinketts)

cons
1) there would be 1 more gear slot in PvP (11 instead of 10 slots)

edit: i sure wouldn’t mind seeing Barbarian, Marauder, and Crusader stats in PvE, either. my elementalist would love maruader gear…

would i suggest buffs for signet and conjure traits if their builds didn’t feel at least a little weak? or did everyone simply get too hung up on an offhanded reference to arcana, (my most hated trait line in the entire game) to notice anything in my post besides the alleged 6/6/6/6/6 foolery? (now that i’ve voiced my offense at everything i said being ignored except for the nitpickery, i’ll forgive, forget, and admit i did the same.)

i am sorely going to miss fire’s embrace, but i understand how powerful the trait synergizes with other traits. i was actually planning my post-update staff build around it for PvE.

i offered a suggestion to buff signets as a compensation. the suggestion has been made many times before on these very forums: to make the active effect into an AoE around the target.

and to be perfectly clear, i am all for alternatives to the boring arcana – cantrip playstyle that i hate so much that i refuse to even attempt to compete with my elementalist as long as d-d water-arcana cantrip ele is the only viable PvP build, (yes that’s an exaggeration)

i wouldn’t have minded fire’s embrace being rolled into Written in Stone with the other two signet traits.

as for protection, fury, and swiftness. when we count fire’s embrace plus the new sunspot, and 4 signets with 20 seconds cooldown (or better) each, and earth runes; a signet elementalist would be able to maintain 100% uptime on all three boons by rotating in and out of fire attunement and rotating use of signets at the proper times to refresh the boons. something tells me that ANET thinks 100% uptime on protection is OP, even for the lowest health pool class in the game, even though it seems they balanced the class around 100% protection uptime.

my response was made to the OP’s comments on the comparison of dhuumfire and burning precision. i was making no attempt to comment on the actual worth of either trait to either class.

burning precision is NOT more powerful than dhuumfire. elementalists did not steal dhuumfire, because elementalists had burning precision before dhuumfire was even a twinkle in ANET’s eye.

if you don’t like dhuumfire, then don’t trait it. saying that burning precision is stronger than dhuumfire is a flat out lie.

personally, i won’t take dhuumfire either, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s stronger (by itself) than burning precision. (by itself)

other trait synergies are another story, however. burning precision at least has synergies with blinding ashes (burning applies blind) and burning rage (+10% damage against burning target). dhuumfire’s only trait synergy (at first glance) is with “target the weak” for an extra 2% crit chance per condition on the target.

my point for mentioning 8.5 seconds with arcana was to show that you don’t need to take arcana to have better than 50% uptime of protection, fury, and swiftness. because there are more auras on weapons skills, and more auras on traits, too. 1.5 second difference in attunement recharge doesn’t hurt the maintenace of those boons.

no where did i ever imply more than 3 trait lines being taken at once. i never used the word “and” when referring to 8.5 seconds when you take arcana, and the arcana comment was parenthetical, which means it’s a side thought, not part of the actual argument i was making.

fire + earth + air gives you 50% uptime without considering tempest defense or any weapon skill auras. and without arcana.

air + earth + water will also grant you better than 50% uptime with a proper rotation on certain weapon sets. taking all 5 aura traits in those lines grants a lot of protection, fury, and swiftness.

if you take arcana, by itself, you can maintain 30% protection, 100% fury, just by stance dancing.

no matter which way you look at it, protection, fury, and swiftness is really easy to maintain without fire’s embrace.

Forgotten Legend.9281:

you know that burning precision has been around far longer than dhuumfire, right?

you also realize that dhuumfire procs 100% on hit on an autoattack, and burning precision only procs 33% chance on crit, right?

that means a dhuumfire necro needs zero precision to proc the burning. while the elementalist needs a decent crit rate for the trait to be worth taking.

these two traits are exactly in the tiers they deserve to be, because dhuumfire is much stronger than burning precision and always has been. (since dhuumfire’s inception that is)