Guild Wars 2

What about ascended gear being taken down from the amount of sets we have, to a smaller amount of sets that have selectable stats?

For example, Berserker, Rampager, and Knight’s gear would be put into a single item set, and you can choose between those three stat sets similar to legendary weapon stat selection.

Giving each set only three different archetypes would still have people crafting different pieces, if their build called for a stat set that wasn’t available on their current set of three, but it would greatly reduce the acquisition period, as you would have alternatives available at any given time. It would also set apart ascended from legendary, as ascended would not have all stat types available at any time, but only 3.

Good morning everyone,

Reading the summaries and some common discussion points, as well as previous threads (primarily from the crafting sub-forum), I think one of the major disconnects in ascended gear is the crafting requirement itself, not necessarily the gating – the only gating issue is the additional time constraints on light armor sets, but that’s not a terrible burden. Personally, I think the gating is a good way to introduce ascended materials into the marketplace rather than having every aspect of it account bound – if the final crafting refinements (Damask, Deldrimor Steel, etc) were also account bound, then I think the gating would be a problem.

One problem that does exist however, is the fact that you kind of have to go out of your way to vertically progress – let’s face it, crafting isn’t the most popular activity in Guild Wars 2. I would wager that a lot of players avoid it altogether. There’s a discrepancy between playing the game doing what you love to do, and actually acquiring the gear. Vertical progression in other games that actually require increasing gear caps is doing it correctly because there will always be that next tier of content. Guild Wars is vertically progressing on a horizontal content plateau, if that makes any sense(?).

Vertical progression through skill acquisition and build diversity is something that Guild Wars 1 handled extremely well. There were (relatively) constant new additions to the skill bars through out the game’s lifespan. Coupled with the ability that professions had to wield any weapon that fit their build, GW1 was an unstoppable force of creation and build diversity, aside from flavor of the month that you can’t really avoid. It was by far my favorite system of personal progression in any game I’ve ever played. There are a few things in GW2, technically, mechanically, and by design, that stifle that creativity. At the risk of going off topic, I’ll save that for the class balance CDI

Horizontal progression has always been my preferred style of character progression. The peace of mind that comes with not having to race against a statistical tier of gear to achieve the look and feel that I want for my character is amazing. In other games I always felt like I was playing just to throw away my prior achievements. GW has always been a “jump in and play how you want” kind of game and that is what kept me with the franchise for the past 7 years or so. It is also extremely friendly towards new players and returning players, and makes it a lot easy for veterans to help new people, and include them in activities.

One trend that has been unimpressive lately with horizontal progression is that all new armor skins have been coming through the gem store, with the exception of a few back items (that by now are probably piling up in banks across Tyria). I understand the requirements of keeping a free to play game running, and like you mentioned it’s very expensive to create all of these armor sets, and I truly appreciate the cash shop’s effort to avoid pay to win (although I disagree with adding the collection expansions to the gem shop). We have had the same exotic armor in the game since launch, and it gets kind of frustrating to see so much going through the gem store.

One last note that might be more appropriate for another CDI topic, is the fact that not all builds are progressing equally through ascended armor – there is a serious chasm of difference that certain armor types have over others ( for example, the stat difference that ascended berserker gear gives when upgrading from exotic over the small difference say, Rabid gear gives when upgrading). I think if a push for vertical progression is going to be made, it should be made equally instead of further promoting the lack of build diversity through next to useless, expensive gear upgrades. But again, I think this topic would better suit build diversity discussions.

Well let’s see it!

Mystic Forge is a very important click sink. There are far too many clicks in the game and this system is perfection in terms of sinking those clicks from the population.

<3

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Honestly, I’m convinced Scarlet was meant to be a throw-away plot that would just fill up the time for ArenaNet to get situated with a new form of making content. Think about it: All the concept art we’ve seen seems to have been done by 1-3 artists, we know that there’s only 4 writers on the Living Story teams with Bobby “supervising” them, and the rest of the teams of designers and programmers don’t seem that big. But on the other hand… where’s Jeff and Ree? Where are all those other artists, designers, and programmers? There’s over 200 folks working at ArenaNet and while they aren’t all working hands on directly, there’s far more folks working at ArenaNet than there seems to be working on the living story content at the moment.

This. There is a lot of talent in the writing staff that we haven’t heard from in quite some time. I just hope that they tie the knot on Scarlet elegantly. For as much criticism as she has received, she is certainly a character that deserves an epic end just for the mark she’s left on the players and the environment. I also hope that she dies – I’d be very unimpressed if she were “taken in to custody”

I think she would need a bigger blindfold

NOW you expect them to give a kitten about light classes?

My baby

Should have voted Evon

I think I’m most interested in hearing the lore behind The Dreamer. The loading screen for Bell Choir shares some resemblance with the weapon, so I’m wondering if it has something to do with Wintersday/Tixx.

To me it’s not what the class itself but the interactions between classes that made GW1 a better game. They tried to to take that concept and strip it down into a spam fest of field and finisher. Maybe it was the dual profession, maybe it wasn’t.

In GW1 we had abilities that played off of one another that the current combo system couldn’t dream of. Splinter ranger? Echo SS? 55/SS? Amazing examples of interdependent skills creating something fun, noticeable, and game changing. Blasting fire fields is not fun. The beauty of GW1 is that each class had a role beyond DPS, Heal, and Tank, but did so in a way that personalized the classes to an unimaginable degree.

Whatever profession I brought, I had a very individual and specific duty, and most importantly, I could see my output. I could measures effectiveness. I knew why I was there and what my group expected of me that couldn’t be provided by any other profession.

What we have now is a failed attempt at encouraging diversity through allowing any build to be trivial. No. Create content that makes me want to depend on others because they bring something different to the table.

That is how you encourage build diversity. Sorry if I went off topic.

Exactly. Every time a post like this pops up, it’s always someone saying that their favorite style of play is not the play style that gets them what they want, so it should be changed. It’s unreasonable. A system was set in place to achieve a reward. If you don’t want to participate in the system, you don’t get the reward.

This is my stance as well – for PvE necromancer’s problems aren’t in their skills, but the fact that the content works directly against our abilities.

I’m not sure if “play how you want” is worse for using it as an excuse to demand free stuff or using it as an excuse to be a bearbow.

With the way the Necromancer has been going, most recently the fiasco with the new heal, do you think we will soon see a time when Necromancer will be what we as the community know it has the potential to be?

I think a lot of our problem is the fact that with a small tip of the scale we can be very strong, and the devs are afraid of that path.

We have heard a lot of ideas from the community about what will make the Necromancer reach its potential. One thing about this community, is that most of the time those ideas are balanced and puts the Necromancer on par rather than overpowering our favorite profession.

What do you think it will take to bring Necromancer onto more viable platforms in all areas of the game?

The usefulness of 500 crafting is entirely dependent on your playstyle. If you don’t go too far into fractals like you mentioned I wouldn’t even put much thought into it. Do you do a lot of serious WvW where the few points may help?

I’m interested in it for fractals and because I don’t want to be behind the curve. If you’re like me, and don’t want to fall behind the curve, go for it.

I’m considering saving 80 laurels to buy my alt trinkets, but would it be a waste? How soon do you guys think 500 Jeweler will be here?

Thanks!

Good Necromancers will agree on their uselessness in most groups.

Good evening,

I’m writing in regards to request #144136. Thank you!

Oh look it was moved from sPvP to the garbage Necromancer Forum.

Sepreh.5924:

Gaiyeerishima Cat.1082:

You guys are ignoring the fact that it is a healing skill which provides damage.

We don’t need more damage. We need sustainability. We have been saying this since before the dhuumfire incident of 2013

This all day

Just the fact that the devs clearly know it’s garbage is discouraging enough

Do you use a signet cooldown trait?

Going for Frostfang. I have Gift of Mastery, Gift of Metal, Clovers, 80+ of each T6, all of my Glacial lodes, and 1/3 of the Corrupted. Not looking forward to getting Precursor.

I love how stressed out your dude looks

Signet of Spite, Epidemic, Signet of the Locust usually. I haven’t had this problem underwater, though.

Also, back clipping and the skull portion not filling out the hood enough. Baaaaaaaaah I was excited for this one too

WHen I get home I will provide a screenshot of the splitter giving me back a rare quality Desert Rose Skin

Thanks! I think I’m going to go for the Lodestones and use the rest for Runestones, just to finish another Gift.

It’s the ICDs that are ruining it, imo

Given the huge backlash against the new healing signet from the Necromancer community, has there been any last minute discussion about changes that may come shortly after release?

They keep giving us stupid skills/traits.

Just open up DS6 with a heal and call it a day.

Welcome! I am also located on Sorrow’s and my guild would be happy to take you in, if you haven’t found one yet. Add me

Anything that can yield exotics can yield Precursors

Runes should give xp until what, 450? Or does it go higher? This will be awfully convenient.

This is interesting, my splitter did the exact opposite. I transmuted my Fractal capacitor with Berserker stats over my Rabid back with rose skin, and splitting gave me the rose and the berserker without the other rabid stat piece. Mine is also being looked into.

Good luck

Dear Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046,

Releasing a mediocre skill, probably with an incorrect tooltip, and then after months of outrage about the quality of the skill, correcting said tooltip.

Eff you in retrospect.

“Look that Necro wasted a healing slot”

I have 125g atm to put into crafting my Legendary. I have a bunch of materials as well as most of my lodestones, and my gifts of mastery, metal, and clovers. Should I buy T6? Lodes? Save for Precursor? Runestones??

Bandits riding Centaurs operating Golems

swiftpaw.6397:

>>———When sarcasm flies by —-——————->

Whoosh.

indeed;)

I should mention I play PvE 90% of the time.

Lately I have had the experience on my Necromancer of newly swapped in utility schools acquiring the current cool down timer of my signets that are cooling at the time. For example:

In combat
Utility bar: Consume Conditions, Blood is Power, Epidemic, Signet of Undeath, Plague

Use Signet of Undeath in combat. Signet goes on cooldown (~120s)

Out of Combat
Switch Blood is Power for Well of Suffering. Well of suffering inherets the cooldown timer of the Signet of Undeath currently cooling down. Someone suggested in another thread regarding Guardian consecrations having a cooldown issue, that the problem may be due to the trait reducing signet cooldowns.

This does not happen in every case of skill swapping, and I have noticed no particular pattern for the behavior.

Thanks

This happens with Necromancer signets as well. If you change skills while a signet is on cd, the newly added utility will automatically go on cooldown, starting at the same interval as the cooling signet (even if that signet cooldown is much longer than the new utility’s cooldown).

Although that one seems more like a bug.

Zelyhn.8069:

This is a breach to the play-the-way-you-want phylosophy, therefore its necessity is bad.

Ah, I see this group is very selectively hypocritical about “the play-the-way-you-want phylosophy”

I’ve been doing fractals to work on my legendary, but after I’m finished I plan on achievement hunting. I was going through the list of achievements available and there is a ton of stuff I haven’t gotten into yet, playing since the first time we were able to set foot in Tyria.

I started feeling burnt out recently but I realized it’s because I chose to run dungeons/fractals all day, do my daily, and log off. I would imagine that a lot of people who are jaded may be in the same boat as me.

Another part of the problem may be that ArenaNet keeps adding great items to the gem store without adding great items to the game itself. Players see a lot of things they may want but getting them is more unrealistic than just playing the game.

Between that, massive game mode balance discrepancies, and content that herds players through, I get unmotivated quickly. But after I get the last thing I want (legendary) I’ll be taking my time and trying to enjoy all of the game.

Not sure if this helps. Good luck finding what you enjoy.

Give underwater weapons land use (and a new land kit) across the board and bam, new weapons (for every class) and some of the best legendaries desirable

Currently I’m using Nemesis’ hybrid build with 3 Ruby and 3 Coral orbs. Are Divinity Runes really better (and worth it)?

If development is going to continue pushing siphoning with no sign of making it considerable in competitive play modes, can we at least open it up for play in PvE by increasing the values?

The push for more useful supportive builds is appreciated but with these numbers it is nowhere near a reality.